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It's been nearly two years since Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik murdered 77 people, most of them teenagers. Nearly a quarter of Norwegians knew someone directly affected. But as the country began to grieve together, it also embarked on a unique process of healing. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Stephanie HegartyBBC World Service "It's hard to understand what happened. We read about it. We've seen the movies. But I don't think you can fully understand what happened out there," says Trond Henry Blattman, who lost his son Torjus on Utoeya island on 22 July 2011. "It was the most secure place to be in Norway that day." Mr Blattman is now leader of the 7/22 National Support Group for bereaved families, who have gathered for a weekend every six months since the attacks to share their experience of grieving. It is part of a series of initiatives that offer intensive, targeted, psychological support to survivors of the massacre and the bereaved. "It is a kind of support to feel that the other families had the same kind of thoughts that you had. How did it happen? Did he suffer a lot?" he says. "You get support from that, to feel that everybody is in the same kind of position." Collective therapy on a national scale like this had never been attempted before. The group met for the fourth and final time in February and though many families would have liked them to continue, Mr Blattman says they have done their job. "The most important thing after the fourth gathering is that people can move on. Of course we lost our child, life will never be the same. It will be different, but hopefully it will be good." These meetings are part of a co-ordinated effort by the Norwegian authorities to bring help to everyone affected by the attacks. "Faced with this very large terrorist attack we realised we had to do something special in order to co-ordinate all the groups and organisations," says Dr Bjorn Guldvog, Norway's chief medical officer. Just two days after the massacre, a group of government agencies and voluntary groups met to form a plan to deal with those affected by trauma. They set up a proactive system of support. Survivors and the bereaved would not have to go find help, it would come to them. Those affected by the bombing in Oslo, most of whom worked for the government, would get help through their workplace. The survivors and bereaved from Utoeya Island, who had come from all over the country, would be looked after within their local municipalities. Local health authorities would be responsible for knocking on doors and making phone calls to them. If help was refused the first time, the idea was they should return later. However, not everyone necessarily wanted or needed help. Research shows that there is a natural healing process which, over time, means most people recover from trauma. Statistics range widely and it is thought that anything from five to 35 per cent of people will experience an adverse psychological reaction in the immediate aftermath of trauma. Without psychological intervention a smaller number will go on to develop serious psychological problems such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Figures released this year in Norway reveal that around half of all Utoeya survivors are experiencing psychological difficulties. Dr Alte Dyregrov, head of the centre for Crisis Psychology in Bergen, says there are many reasons why this is higher than average. The age of the victims and the nature of the attack and where it happened had a profound effect. The young people were somewhere that should have been a very safe place but instead they found themselves being hunted down. "They struggle with the brutality of the assault, the intrusive images," Dr Dyregrov says. "This was an hour of fighting for their life. It was a different kind of experience for civilians, they are not military personnel." Norway learned from previous disasters. After the tsunami in Thailand in 2004 - in which many Norwegians were caught up - they found that bringing people back to the scene of the disaster helped them to deal with trauma and loss. "It is important for people who have lost their loved ones to be able to go back to the place where that person spent their last minutes and their last seconds, to get a feeling of connection," says Dr Guldvog. Only a month after the attacks, survivors and the bereaved were taken back to Utoeya island. With the help of the police they were able to give the exact position where each young person had died and relatives could lay a flower or hold some sort of ceremony on the site. "Everyone has a lot of imagination in these kind of situations and it is important for them to have as real a picture of what happened as possible. It helps them with coping later," says Dr Guldvog. "Controlled re-exposure" like this was not new. After a maritime disaster in 1999 in which 69 people survived and 16 died, survivors and the bereaved were taken back to the scene together. "We had some saying, 'This is how I survived,' while there were others there who had lost their loved ones. That was not a good way of doing it, " says Atle Dyregrov. "We learned from that not to do it again." Survivors of Utoeya were taken back to the island but on a different day. Supporting Utoeya victims was made more complex because so many of them were teenagers. The killing spree happened during the summer holidays and four weeks later young survivors had to start a new school year. Schools and universities across Norway had to find a way of supporting them as well as those who had lost friends and classmates. Ronja Breisnes, 18, survived the killing spree on Utoeya by hiding in a toilet for three hours with seven other young people. She texted her mother throughout the ordeal, all the time well aware that her friends had already been killed. "I experienced a lot of flashbacks and nightmares. I still have them sometimes, repeating themselves," she says. Often she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep. When she returned to school, she was regularly late or absent from class. She found it hard to study and struggled with what to tell her classmates. Her head teacher Hans Vibe had formulated his own plan to deal with the tragedy - he relaxed rules on attendance and performance, usually very strict in Norway. He also assigned sensitive teachers to teach the classes he knew would be worst affected. He acted on his own initiative but the same advice from the Education Directorate was then rolled out across Norway. Though what happened on the 22 July 2011 will haunt Norway for many years to come, the way it dealt with its collective trauma offers a blueprint for communities dealing with a national tragedy. Of course, it helps that Norway is a small and wealthy country but it was the collective, unified response that made the recovery effort possible. For some like Trond Henry Blattman the act of bringing people together was as much a part of the healing process as the treatment received. "I think if I had asked Torjus then he would have said, 'This is very important work Dad, I think you need to (do it). This is something you can focus on because you can help a lot of people.'" says Mr Blattman. "He's an inspiration for me." Healing Norway will be broadcast on BBC World Service as part of The Truth About Mental Health season. |
Detectives investigating the theft of two cash machines in County Antrim have charged a 28-year-old man with conspiracy to steal. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A digger was used to steal the machines from Tesco Extra in Antrim at about 03:00 GMT on Friday 6 December. The machines were recovered a few miles away from the supermarket about 30 minutes later. The man, who was also charged with possession of a class B drug, is due to appear in court on Tuesday. On Monday, a 26-year-old man appeared in court accused of conspiracy to steal in relation to the same incident. |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to five Central Asian countries has reinvigorated India's traditional ties with the region. BBC Monitoring's Vikas Pandey analyses the PM's whirlwind tour and India's interests in the region. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"We see an important place for Central Asia in India's future," Mr Modi said in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek. The statement shows his government's stress on increasing Delhi's footprints in the region. Dr Athar Zafar, Central Asia analyst at Indian Council of World Affairs, says India's academic, business and diplomatic community always wanted Delhi's ties with the five nations to go beyond cultural exchanges. Has Mr Modi achieved that? He says the PM has certainly been successful in signalling India's interest in playing a bigger role in the region. During Mr Modi's visit, India signed several deals in energy, trade, culture and security sectors with the five nations. Energy The five Central Asian countries became independent in 1990s and have made steady economic progress in the past two decades. The region is known for its resources like hydrocarbon, mineral deposits, hydroelectric power potential and gold. India signed a fresh deal with Kazakhstan to secure 5,000 tonnes of uranium supply over the next four years. Kazakhstan is the world's largest producer of uranium and the deal has ensured a steady supply of fuel for India's 21 operating nuclear reactors. India's state-run oil firm ONGC Videsh Limited has a minor stake in Kazakhstan's Satpayev oil blocks. Mr Modi wanted additional blocks for India's investments, but no specific announcement was made by the two sides on this front. The Indian PM, however, said, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev "responded positively to my request to consider additional mature blocks". In Turkmenistan, the long-awaited TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline was discussed and Mr Modi termed the project as a "key pillar" of economic engagement between the two countries. The pipeline plan may face hurdles because of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. But the two countries have showed their sincerity in realising the project that would bring gas from Central Asia to South Asia. Trade The economic development of Central Asia, specially in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, has sparked a construction boom and development of sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals and tourism. India has expertise in these sectors and deeper cooperation will give a fresh impetus to trade relations with these countries. India's trade ties with Central Asia have been performing well below their true potential. "India's struggle to reform its economy, reconstruct relations with major powers after the Cold War and reconstitute ties with neighbours meant Central Asia was never high on Delhi's foreign policy agenda," writes C Raja Mohan in the Indian Express. Poor connectivity has also contributed to the below-par trade between India and Central Asia. But Dr Zafar says India has found a way to solve the problem. Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan recently inaugurated a railway line connecting the two countries with Iran. "India has invested in Iran's Chabahar port and that will allow Indian products to reach Iran and then to Central Asia through the rail link," he explains The successful nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers will also make it easier for Delhi to do business with Tehran. Central Asian countries have shown their keen interest in allowing India to play a bigger role in the region. Russia has been a dominant force in the region and China has also made inroads into the region in recent years. But the five capitals want to diversify their foreign relations and believe that India's presence will help them achieve their aim. And Mr Modi seems to have leveraged Central Asia's quest for diversification to India's advantage. Security Tajikistan, Turkestan and Uzbekistan share borders with Afghanistan and fear that any instability in the neighbourhood will affect them. India's has traditionally stayed away from playing any military role in Afghanistan. But experts say Mr Modi may have to find a middle path to play "military diplomacy" in the region. "Mr Modi also needs to end India's traditional reluctance to embark upon an expansive military diplomacy in the region. Overcoming India's inertia will certainly take a while. But Modi is well positioned to make a fresh start in Central Asia," writes Mr Mohan. Central Asian countries are also "nervous" about the growing influence of Islamic State militant group in the region. The PM has convinced the leaders of the five nations that India stands united in their fight against the jihadist group. Culture India and Central Asia have a rich history of cultural exchanges. Mr Modi emphasised in all the five capitals that India is interested in promoting more cultural activities. He also signed deals to promote tourism between India and the region. Indian filmmakers can use the stunning landscapes of Central Asian countries at a relatively low cost. As one analyst said, the appearance of Central Asia in Bollywood films will be an indication that Mr Modi's tour has been successful. 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. |
Legal segregation in the US may have ended more than 50 years ago. But in many parts of the country, Americans of different races aren't neighbours - they don't go to the same schools, they don't shop at the same stores, and they don't always have access to the same services. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News In 2016 the issue of race will remain high on the agenda in the United States. The police killings of unarmed black men and women over the past few years reignited a debate over race relations in America, and the reverberations will be felt in the upcoming presidential election and beyond. Ferguson, Baltimore and Chicago are three cities synonymous with racial tensions - but all three have another common denominator. They, like many other American cities, are still very segregated. In my reporting across the United States I've seen this first hand - from Louisiana to Kansas, Alabama to Wisconsin, Georgia to Nebraska. In so many of these places people of other races simply don't mix, not through choice but circumstance. And if there's no interaction between races, it's harder for conversations on how to solve race problems to even begin. Newly released census data, analysed by the Brookings Institution, shows black-white segregation is modestly declining in large cities, but it remains high. If zero is a measure for perfect integration and 100 is complete segregation, analysis from Brookings showed most of the country's largest metropolitan areas have segregation levels of between 50 to 70. According to the Brookings report, "more than half of blacks would need to move to achieve complete integration". Some have pointed out that the wording of this part of the report itself highlights the challenges in these issues - why can't this be measured in the number of whites who would have to move? America in Black and White, a four-part radio documentary, will air next on BBC World Service on 14 January 2016. Listen to the first episode. Racial and socioeconomic segregation are closely linked - if you're a black person in America, you're more likely than a white person to live in an area of concentrated poverty. This isn't simply a matter of choice, or chance. Some of it is by design - and down to decades-old housing policies which actively prevented African Americans from living in certain areas. Kansas City, Missouri, is one of the country's most segregated cities. Drive around the west of Troost Avenue and there are large houses, their vast porches overlooking equally vast driveways. Properties are anything from $356,000 (£243,000) to $1.2m. But you only have to go east to see a very different picture. Abandoned houses and unkempt lawns greet you at most corners. One building I pass is completely boarded up, with piles of rubbish outside, and the words "Stay Out" in spray paint. The housing on either side of Troost is very much split down race lines. The US government had a hand in creating this segregation due to practices it instituted back in the 1930s, which prevented many blacks from getting on the property ladder in certain areas. When the federal government began underwriting home loans for Americans to help boost the economy as part of the New Deal, strict guidelines were drawn up regarding where mortgages could be issued. Areas where minorities lived were seen as risky investments and black families were routinely denied mortgages, locking them out of the housing market. The practice was known as redlining because red ink marked out the minority areas. As Kansas City-based historian Bill Worley explained to me, these policies continued right into the 1960s, and excluded African Americans from one of the greatest motors of wealth in the 20th Century - home ownership. Redlining is now theoretically outlawed in the United States, and has been since the 1970s, but it's still happening to this day. "Banks continue to build and structure their lending operations in a way that avoids or fails to meaningfully serve communities of colour, based on assumptions about the financial risk," Vanita Gupta, the justice department's top civil rights lawyer, said last September, as she pledged more action to stop discriminatory lending. Another factor which made access to housing prohibitive were the restrictive racial covenants written into housing contracts. Until 1948, it was perfectly legal for a black person to be prevented from buying or living in a house. Bill Worley showed me an example of a restrictive racial covenant drawn up in Kansas City by the city's best known property developer during that time, JC Nichols. "None of the said lots shall be conveyed to, used, owned nor occupied by Negroes as owner or tenants," it read. Other groups, including Jews, were also written into these kind of contracts. The covenants created affluent white suburbs for middle- and upper-income families. By World War One, Nichols met developers in other cities who were also doing this. Huge new all-white suburbs sprang up across the country and the migration of white families to the suburbs became known as white flight. Between redlining, racial covenants, and another practice known as blockbusting - where estate agents specialised in transitioning areas from white to black - segregation continued in the United States Residential segregation in America peaked in 1970. More black families are moving into the suburbs and back to Southern cities they left after slavery ended, explains economic historian Leah Boustan. "It may seem odd because we have stereotypes of the South, but residential segregation levels are lowest in Southern cities such as Atlanta, Houston and Dallas," she says. But even though Atlanta is one of the least segregated cities in the United States, challenges persist. On a visit to the city I met Nicole and Lewis Anderson, two African Americans who work in corporate jobs. They told me they'd been profiled by estate agents, who've only shown them homes in certain "black" areas. "When we started out we had a few whites in our area, but within a few years they all moved out," said Lewis Anderson. "For us African Americans when we see a group of white people move to the neighbourhood we think that's good, we're cool with that. But for many white families that's not the case - they start to get discouraged, they start to worry about the property value and leave." There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Lewis and Nicole aren't alone in being encouraged to live in so-called "black" areas. Research from the US government shows that minorities looking for housing are shown fewer properties than their white counterparts. The Fair Housing Act was passed more than 40 years ago to end discrimination in housing, but it's not been properly enforced. Last year President Obama pledged to toughen up this law, with new rules. Now government money can only be given for new housing projects if they're shown to further integration in neighbourhoods, and there'll be penalties for those who don't adhere to this. But it only applies to public housing. Private developers can continue to build without such conditions. "The Fair Housing Act commanded that communities that received government money do what they can to affirmatively further fair housing," Housing Secretary Julian Castro told me in an interview. "The problem was that for many years that requirement was never adequately defined or enforced." Mr Castro, who sits in the president's cabinet, said one way his department will ensure areas of poverty aren't ignored is by giving towns and cities access to demographic data, so they can plan housing better. The key challenge remains - decades on from the civil rights movement, many black and white Americans simply don't mix. And as the US contends with race problems, getting to know each other better is one step in understanding and fixing some of those problems. Follow Rajini on Twitter - @BBCRajiniv Radio production and photography by Giles Edwards |
While historians say the decline of the carpet industry in Kidderminster was inevitable, those still in the business argue they are making a success of the trade in the face of "challenging" economic times. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Julia LeonardBBC News Cloth weaving began in the Worcestershire town in the Middle Ages, according to Melvyn Thompson, a former factory worker and carpet historian. He is one of 20 volunteers preparing to open a museum commemorating the town's carpet industry, which at its height, boasted 25 factories and employed about 15,000 people. Mr Thompson said: "Kidderminster used to be wall to wall carpets, if you lost your job at one factory you could walk down the road and get one in another. "The boom time was post-war in the 50s, 60s and 70s when exports opened up - they couldn't make enough carpets. "It was one of the top towns for income per family because work was plentiful and the whole family could get work - it was good money." Today, the industrial landscape looks very different. Many of the old carpet factory buildings have been demolished and replaced by supermarkets and car parks. Mr Thompson, who started work as an apprentice in 1953, said it began in the 1980s when the economic situation changed. He said: "Laminated flooring came in, the price of raw materials has gone up, technology has changed and more carpets are being imported. "Now we reckon there could be as few as 500 people working in carpets, only five factories are still going.." He believes the decline was "inevitable" as traditional skills have been quietly dying out. "This is why the Museum of Carpets is vital, we're preserving machinery but also preserving the skills. "We're training people up to do demonstrations on two working hand looms," he said. Flexible workforce The Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce is unable to put a figure on how much carpet production was, and is, worth to the town but described it as "very important" in the past. Mike Ashton, the chambers' chief executive, said: "The companies still based in Kidderminster are world class and this heritage has created some great opportunities in other manufacturing sectors." However Charles Annable, the managing director of Brockways Ltd, dismissed any so-called "decline". "We don't like to think of it in that way because we're still very active and keep on going. "Of course you have to adapt and change but the last redundancies we made were 15 years ago when we had to lose 40 people - now we're down to 100." Mr Annable said the secret to the firm's survival, with an annual turnover of £15m, was down to the skill of the workforce. He said: "They're great experts because carpet has been in the blood of Kidderminster for so many years. "We have generations of families who have worked for us and that in itself is incredibly helpful. "They're also very flexible as we've had to adapt and evolve using new machinery." But Mr Annable, whose father Roy is the company's chairman, also admitted the market was "incredibly challenging". He said: "The market is down 15-20% from this time last year and my father said it's the most difficult period he can recall in 48 years with the firm. "We rely heavily on the housing market so if that isn't moving then sales aren't moving. "But being a family business, we can ring in the changes quite quickly." Hong Kong airport Other firms like Brintons, with 1,700 staff globally, have also had to adapt and lost 70 of its 700 UK-based staff last year. It was recently bought out by the Carlyle Group in a £40m deal, taking it out of the hands of the Brinton family after more than 200 years. But Mr Thompson said reputation was invaluable. "Brintons have a name that will sell a carpet anywhere, any time - like the word 'Hoover'. They also do well from contract work, he said. "A lot of their woven carpet still goes into cruise liners and casinos and they had the exclusive deal on Hong Kong Airport many years ago," he said. Maria Flint worked as a setter at Carpets of Worth for 19 years and said the shrinking of the industry has had a domino effect on the town. She said: "It's such a shame, Kiddy used to be packed with people but even on a Saturday it's quiet. "When I worked in the factory I used to be able to go down to browse the shops in my lunch hour and buy something if I fancied it - not any more. "People have to stop and think about what they're spending, there's unemployment all over the place." |
Did Facebook go easy on hate speech by an Indian lawmaker belonging to the governing BJP to protect its interests in its biggest market? A Wall Street Journal report, based on interviews with current and former Facebook employees, suggests so, and it prompted immediate calls for an investigation. Soutik Biswas reports on the aftermath. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Soutik BiswasIndia correspondent In its report, the WSJ said Facebook deleted some hateful anti-Muslim posts by T Raja Singh, a lawmaker from India's southern Telangana state only after the paper asked about them. The paper reported that Facebook employees had decided in March that Mr Singh's post violated the company's hate speech rules and qualified as dangerous. But the firm's top public policy executive in India, Ankhi Das, opposed applying "hate speech rules to Mr Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in the violence". Ms Das, the paper said, told employees that "punishing violations by politicians from Mr Modi's party would damage the company's business prospects in the country". The WSJ report has sparked calls by opposition MPs for investigations into Facebook's conduct in India. The leader of the main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, led the charge. He alleged that the BJP, and its ideological fountainhead, RSS, were "controlling" Facebook in India. India's information technology minister Ravi Shankar promptly responded. He alluded to his previous remarks in 2018 about "numerous reports" of Congress involvement with Cambridge Analytica and asking Mr Gandhi to "explain" the company's role in his social media outreach. (That year India had taken down the local website of Cambridge Analytica following allegations the company used personal data of 50 million Facebook members to influence the US presidential elections.) With more than 340 million users, India is Facebook's biggest market. In April Facebook announced it was investing $5.7bn (£4.6bn) in cut-price Indian mobile internet company Reliance Jio, owned by the country's richest person Mukesh Ambani. This would give Facebook a major foothold in India, where its WhatsApp chat service has 400m users and is about to launch a payments service. I reached out to Facebook with a list of detailed questions. I asked why Facebook had not taken down Mr Singh's posts earlier, what it did with the lawmaker's account, and how many pages had been taken down and accounts suspended in India for hate speech. "We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position or party affiliation. While we know there is more to do, we're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," a Facebook spokesperson replied in an email response. The firm did not provide any more details. Separately, Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman, acknowledged to WSJ that Ankhi Das had "raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Mr Singh a dangerous individual, but said her opposition wasn't the sole factor in the company's decision to let Mr Singh on the platform". Mr Stone told me he had nothing more to add. The BJP lawmaker T Raja Singh said his official page on Facebook with 300,000 followers was "hacked and deleted" in 2018 and he had complained about it to the local cyber crime detectives. "I don't know whether it was misused," he told me. He said Facebook might have recently taken down pages floated by his followers and containing inflammatory content. He said his followers might have "uploaded hate speech" on these pages. "Sometimes I go to public meetings and talk in style. My followers might have uploaded those videos", Mr Singh, the sole BJP legislator in the 119-member elected Telangana state assembly said. Mr Stone told WSJ that Facebook is still considering whether it will ban the legislator. When I asked him why he would post such incendiary content Mr Singh said: "There are a lot of anti-socials in my area. I counter them in their language, sometimes it is communal". He said his Instagram account, which was still active, was not being operated by him. This is not the first time allegations have been raised that Facebook is favouring the governing party. A series of articles by journalists Cyril Sam and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in 2018, wrote about the social media platform's "dominant position in India with more than a little help from friends of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP", among other things. (The articles also looked at the Congress party's own "relations with Facebook".) The Congress party's chief of data analytics, Praveen Chakravarty, says he met senior Facebook officials in the US and India in 2018 and "discussed the issue of bias and partisanship of their India leadership team" and denying to accept party advertisements relating to a controversial fighter jet deal by the government. "I was told that it will be looked into but nothing happened," he says. Last year, Derek O'Brien, a lawmaker belonging to the opposition Trinamul Congress party, raised the issue in the parliament. "Facebook censors anti-BJP news. Its algorithm censors anti-BJP news," Mr O'Brien said in a short speech. When I reached out to him at the weekend, Mr O'Brien said: "There are other important issues to raise in the parliament, but this will not go unnoticed." Shashi Tharoor, a prominent Congress MP who heads a parliamentary committee on information technology, says he believes the "recent revelations raise questions that require explanation". "The subject is serious because of Facebook's extensive reach in India and the potential for hate speech to incite violence and other unlawful behaviour. How worrying this is to be determined after a hearing process is concluded, not on the basis of media reports," he told me. Chinmayi Arun, a fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, says it is difficult to assess Facebook's record without access to the company's data in India. "There are contexts in which they have reacted swiftly or improved their policies based on feedback. But the system for implementation is opaque and one is unlikely to hear about the sort of incident that the WSJ reported unless insiders share information only available to Facebook," Ms Arun told me. In its latest biannual Community Standards Enforcement Report, Facebook said it had taken action against more than 20 million pieces of hate speech content that had violated its community standards between January and March. But in its biggest market, many say the social media behemoth needs to do more. |
Councillors in Denbighshire have voted to continue with the controversial closure of a rural primary school. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Ysgol Llanbedr will close on 31 August, with 22 existing full-time and seven part-time pupils transferring to Ysgol Borthyn in Ruthin. There have been objections from staff, parents and local politicians saying the school has had 15 applications for September and is oversubscribed for nursery places. The closure is part of a local review. |
India has entered full election mode: voting began on 11 April, and the final ballot will be cast more than five weeks later on 19 May. Every day, the BBC will be bringing you all the latest updates on the twists and turns of the world's largest democracy. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
On Friday, a row erupted over a veterans' letter warning of campaign rhetoric What happened? A row erupted over a letter from retired Indian military officers urging President Ram Nath Kovind to ensure that political parties do not use the armed forces to "further their political agendas". The letter, which is signed by eight former service chiefs and more than 100 veterans, is addressed to the president. It was sent to various Indian publications on Thursday night - the first day of voting in the Indian election. "We appeal to to you to ensure that the secular and a-political character of the Armed Forces is preserved," the letter said. It referred to the "unusual and completely unacceptable practice of political leaders taking credit for military operations like cross-border air strikes, and even going so far as to claim the Armed Forces to be 'Modiji ka sena' [Modi's army]". But on Friday the president's office denied that it received such a letter - and some some of the veterans, including former service chiefs, distanced themselves from it, saying they had not signed it. "I don't agree with whatever has been written in that letter. We have been misquoted," retired air marshal NC Suri told ANI news agency that he didn't sign the letter. "I wrote that armed forces are apolitical and support the politically elected government. And no, my consent has not been taken for any such letter," he said. But other signatories appeared to stand by the letter. Kapil Kak, a retired air vice-marshal, told The Hindu newspaper that he agrees with everything in the letter, adding that "the letter was sent by email and endorsement was also given over email". Why does this matter? It's an interesting development, especially since the letter appeared on the first day of voting in an election that is largely being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It also specifically refers to Mr Modi and the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which have drawn flak for including India's recent strikes in Pakistani territory in their election campaign. At a rally earlier in the week, Mr Modi asked first-time voters to vote for "those who carried out the air strike". Local media reported that India's election body had asked its officials to investigate the remarks. And Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and a close ally of Mr Modi, landed in trouble for calling the Indian army "Modi's army". Some analysts believe that Mr Modi and his party may get a boost ahead of voting because of the narrative they have adopted over the attack. How do you vote in the election? Here's a video explaining everything that happens inside a polling station - and what happens to your vote after that: Three dead amid violence in the first polling phase What happened? At least three people died on Thursday, as tens of millions of Indians flocked to the polls to vote in the first phase of the general election. Two men died amid clashes at polling booths in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh while one person died in Indian-administered Kashmir as protests broke out in Kupwara district after polling, according to local media. Long queues dominated the first phase of polling, as voters turned up in high numbers across 18 states and two union territories. The election commission said that turnout on Thursday was more or less on par with polling during the first phase the 2014 polls. The hilly north-eastern state of Tripura recorded the highest voter turnout at 81.8% while the eastern state of Bihar saw the lowest at 50%. In the 2014 election, overall voter turnout was about 66%. On Thursday, it was ready, set, vote! Tens of millions of Indians voted on the first day of a general election that is being seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indians in 20 states and union territories cast their ballots in 91 constituencies. The seven-phase vote to elect a new lower house of parliament will continue until 19 May. Counting day is 23 May. Hundreds of voters began to queue up outside polling centres early Thursday morning for the first of seven days of voting over six weeks. Their concerns ranged from jobs and unemployment to India's role in the world and national security. The states and union territories that went to the polls were: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar islands and Lakshadweep. Polling in some states, such as Andhra Pradesh and Nagaland, concluded in one day. But other states, such as Uttar Pradesh, will hold polls in several phases. On Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination What happened? India's main opposition party president Rahul Gandhi has filed his nomination in his family stronghold Amethi, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. He travelled to the district office in a 3km procession where he was cheered by thousands of party supporters. He has been the MP of the constituency for 15 years and is campaigning for a fourth term. Why does this matter? Rahul Gandhi's performance in Amethi - a seat he has already won three times - will be closely watched. In 2014, he won by a majority of a little over 100,000 votes - which was seen as being too close given that the constituency is seen as a family stronghold. He is up against his same rival from then - BJP MP Smriti Irani who led a spirited campaign against him. Ms Irani has wasted no time attacking Mr Gandhi. His decision to also contest from Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala has been called an "insult" by Ms Irani. Some of his critics have said that the second nomination showed that he was afraid that he would lose in Amethi, although the party says it is actually to allow the party to build a base in the south. Be that as it may, losing Amethi is just not an option for Mr Gandhi. There is way too much at his stake - most of all his reputation and credibility as a leader. His supporters are confident though. One of them told the BBC's Geeta Pandey who is at the rally, that this time Mr Gandhi would win by 500,000 votes and no-one would vote for Ms Irani. NaMo TV tests limits of Election Commission What is happening? NaMo TV - a television channel dedicated to streaming speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi - has continued doing so despite a 48 hour "blackout" that news organisations are expected to adhere to before voting. This means that no speeches by politicians, advertisements or other content that could "sway voters" can be broadcast during this period. But with voting due to begin in less than 24 hours, the channel is broadcasting speeches by Mr Modi non-stop. Why does it matter? Firstly, this looks to be a direct violation of the Election Commission's guidelines, although the government has said that NaMo TV is a "platform service" offered by cable operators as a "special service". Some cable operators had initially listed it as a "Hindi news channel" but this was quickly withdrawn. As a "special platform service", the government says the channel does not require license or permission to broadcast content. Yet as the Indian Express newspaper points out, the decision to continue broadcasting Mr Modi's speeches may contravene a section in the guidelines that prohibits display of "any election matter by means of cinematography, television or other similar apparatus" in the 48-hour period before polling concludes in an area. "The legal and definitional confusion about NaMo TV has arisen only because no one so far has exploited this loophole in existing broadcast regulation on such a massive scale," writes MK Venu in the Wire website. The channel has, in fact, been mired in controversy since it quietly launched on all India's major satellite service providers 10 days ago. Despite it being unveiled on Twitter on the official account of Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Modi himself told a local news station that "I am told some people have launched a channel though I have not had time to see it myself". There is no information on who owns the channel or even from where they are sourcing their content. On Tuesday... Rahul Gandhi faced an unusual battle What happened? India's main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, is up against candidates who have the same name as him - well, almost. He will be running against a 30-year-old local politician named Raghul Gandhi in Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala. But there is a third candidate named Rahul Gandhi who has also thrown his hat in to the ring. Why does this matter? Rival parties are known to put up candidates with similar or same names to confuse voters, says BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi, adding that this happens frequently in other constituencies as well. But Raghul Gandhi told the BBC that he was not in the race because his name was uncannily similar to that of his rival. Both filed their nomination papers on 4 April. "He is a national leader and I am a small state-level leader. I am a serious candidate," he said. The BBC was unable to contact the third candidate. Wayanad is considered a Congress party stronghold - so it may not be unusual to find people named after party leaders. Raghul Gandhi's father was a member of the party and his sister is named Indira, after the former prime minister. Does Raghul Gandhi think he will win? "I expect to get my money back. For that, I should get one third of the votes of the winning candidate. That will be victory for me," he said. Former finance minister: 'India can afford minimum income scheme' What is happening? In an interview with BBC Tamil, India's former finance minister P Chidambaram has defended his opposition Congress party's pledge to create "the world's largest minimum income scheme". The scheme, which is called Nyay (Justice), guarantees a basic income of 72,000 rupees ($1,035; £791) yearly to 50 million of India's poorest families. At an estimated cost of $52bn, it's Congress' biggest offering to voters so far. "We now have the capacity to implement a scheme of this nature," Mr Chidambaram said, adding that it was possible given India's GDP, its projected growth over the next five years and the total expenditure by central and state governments. "We could not have done this 20 years ago. We could not have done it even 10 years ago. But today we believe India has the capacity to directly address the issue of poverty among the bottom 20% of Indian people," he said. Why is this important? Since the Congress party released details about the scheme last month in its manifesto, opponents have questioned how the party plans to fund such a mammoth scheme. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley slammed the party over its pledge, calling it a "bluff announcement". "A party with such a terrible track record of poverty alleviation has no right to make lofty assurances," Mr Jaitley told reporters on 24 March. At a rally in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, PM Narendra Modi also attacked the scheme - referring to it as a a "big scam". Others in the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have said that India's poor are already receiving more support under existing schemes. But given the scale of the Congress' scheme, it is likely to capture the imagination of voters - and the BJP could see that as a threat. India votes 2019 On Monday, the BJP released its election manifesto What happened? The governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its election manifesto, which promised a slew of welfare schemes to India's farmers - a key vote bank in a country where nearly half the population is engaged in agriculture. It promises to expand a farmers' income scheme that targeted only small farmers (those who owned up to two hectares of land) to include all farmers in the country - they would each receive 6,000 rupees ($86; £66) yearly. The manifesto pledges to provide a pension for small farmers and traders; and the party has renewed its earlier promise of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022. National security is a major part of the manifesto - India's home minister Rajnath Singh repeatedly referred to India's "zero tolerance against terror" while speaking after the manifesto was released. The document includes other welfare measures, from permanent housing for the poor to piped water in every household to water management and recycling. Why does this matter? It isn't surprising that the BJP manifesto targets farmers because Indian agriculture, blighted by a depleting water table and declining productivity, is in crisis. And protests by farmers have regularly made headlines in the past five years. Like the Congress, the BJP has also promised to reserve 33% of seats in the parliament and state legislatures for women. Both parties had committed to this ahead of past elections as well. Some have said the manifesto makes no major promises or announcements that will be hard to deliver. The BJP's manifesto also underlines some of the party's core pledges, which are popular with its right-wing supporters. These include cancelling the "special status" granted to Kashmir by the Constitution; and building a Hindu temple at a disputed site where a mosque once stood but was demolished by Hindu mobs in the early 1990s. Coverage from previous weeks: Ask a question |
The new Nimrod MRA4 will be arriving at RAF Kinloss in Moray within weeks rather than months, the Ministry of Defence has said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A delay until October was announced last week by the MoD in a parliamentary answer to local MP and SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson. However the MOD has told the BBC that the replacement Nimrods are still scheduled to arrive this summer. The aircraft is due to replace the 30-year-old MR2, grounded in March. Dozens of jobs have already been lost at RAF Kinloss due to the withdrawal of the MR2, which was taken out of service a year early. |
Six people have been arrested following a police investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation of girls and young women in the Yeovil area. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Officers raided two business premises and three residential properties on Wednesday and five men and a woman were arrested. A police spokesman said the arrests were made on suspicion of rape, trafficking and drugs offences. It follows an investigation that started in August. Four of the suspects continue to be questioned by officers and two have been bailed until January. |
The world's largest democratic exercise begins today. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Szu Ping ChanBusiness reporter Nine hundred million Indians are registered to vote in general elections taking place over the next five weeks. Much is at stake. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to make India the world's third largest economy by 2030. Meanwhile, the opposition Congress Party has put job creation at the heart of its manifesto. India's trade policy has also come under scrutiny. With some of the highest tariffs in the world, some fear the country is slipping back into its old protectionist ways. A history of protectionism After independence in 1947, India spent decades trying to survive without international trade. The country ditched its model of local production for local consumption following a currency crisis in the early 1990s that forced policymakers to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help. The IMF cash came with conditions: India had to open up to foreign investment, cut red tape and remove trade barriers. Many saw this as the start of India's reintegration into the global economy, and over the last 20 years liberalisation has connected its young, vibrant workforce with firms around the world. Today, it is one of the world's top outsourcing destinations, with many of its workers powering back-end IT systems, call centres and software development. This has also helped India to run a trade surplus - whereby it sells more than it buys - in goods and services with the US. The Modi era When Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he promised to boost India's already impressive growth through further economic liberalisation. And the new government took big steps to make doing business easier, says Rick Rossow, former deputy director at the US-India business council. For example, it combined more than a dozen levies into one national sales tax that helped goods to move seamlessly across state borders. Mr Modi's warmth with global leaders and chief executives - and his oft-lampooned fondness for hugging them - also marked a big shift from past prime ministers. Yet when it comes to its trade, there has been no such progress, with some even accusing the country of travelling backwards. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Indian duties on Harley Davidson motorcycles and American whiskey, despite trade between the two countries having boomed in recent years. In its latest report on global trade barriers, the US trade department singles out India as having the highest tariffs "of any major world economy" - averaging 13.8%. It describes Indian trade policy as opaque, unpredictable, and says it often leaves US firms drowning in paperwork. Global Trade More from the BBC's series taking an international perspective on trade: Mr Rossow says India's strategy has always been "pro-investment and anti-trade". Flagship government policies such as Make in India have aggressively courted foreign direct investment while seeking to boost domestic manufacturing. To achieve this, India has erected trade barriers against competitors. In the past, western multinationals were the target. Today, China is seen as a rising threat. The BJP used its budget last year to raise import duties on goods including sunglasses, cigarette lighters and fruit juice to discourage Chinese imports. 'WTO troublemaker' Mr Modi's government has also spent the last four years defending India's multibillion-dollar food-security programme, which many developed countries see as unfair. Under the programme, the government heavily subsidises local farmers so they can provide low cost food for the poor. But, the US and others argue it breaks World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules around subsidy limits. Dmitry Grozoubinski, a former Australian negotiator at the WTO, thinks they may have a point. "India is justifying its agricultural subsidies by claiming their poorest citizens can't afford food, but they're maintaining massive tariff walls that effectively prevent the imports that could bring prices down." Blocking progress? He believes Mr Modi is just grandstanding to show support for the millions of farmers in India - a key voting constituency. This also may explain why India has become such a troublemaker at the WTO over the issue, Mr Grozoubinski adds. Indian trade representatives regularly use obscure legal precedents to stop the Geneva-based body from doing its job, he says, even trying to block rulings on entirely unrelated matters. "Domestically it plays well for them to say we're standing up for poor farmers and not letting western countries bully us," he adds. Trade flows and trade talks As the fastest growing major economy in the world, India is unlikely to worry too much about such criticism. It's managed to bring millions of people out of poverty since the millennium, although challenges remain. There is, however, a risk that its protectionism could backfire. Take the way that, last December, the government banned foreign retailers such as Amazon from striking exclusive deals with local goods sellers. The move was viewed as a bid by Mr Modi to placate small traders, also a key voter base. But it irked the US and last month the Trump administration said it planned to end a scheme which allows some goods to enter the US duty-free after India refused to remove price caps on some medical devices. India, which was also angered by Washington's refusal to exempt India from steel and aluminium tariffs last year, vowed to retaliate. But it has so far delayed implementing tit-for-tat tariffs. "My guess is that they see picking a direct fight with the US as a losing battle and a real danger," Mr Rossow says. Will the election change anything? Trade is unlikely to play a major role in this year's election. Voters are more likely to be concerned about jobs and growth, says Shumita Deveshwar, director of India research at TS Lombard. Others compare Indian protectionism to the "slippery slope" in President Trump's America, where strong growth is overshadowed by a fear of China and a lack of good jobs. Analysts say the risk is that further protectionist measures could reverse the economic gains enjoyed by the country since liberalisation. Ms Deveshwar says India will need to reform on trade if it wants to secure long-term prosperity. "India hasn't been able to tap into some of the trade opportunities that have opened up because of the tensions between the US and China, and you've seen other countries such as Vietnam come and take that market share." If the Congress party gains power in May, it is unclear whether it will seek to change India's trade policy, and Mr Rossow believes a second term for Mr Modi will just mean more of the same. "This government is all about trying to encourage investment and if it continues [in power], you're going to see another big run at that." The Indian government did not respond to requests for comment on the issues raised in this article. |
Shops in Guernsey face being banned from displaying tobacco, if a proposal from health officials gets the backing of the States. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Health and Social Services Department also wants stricter rules surrounding tobacco vending machines. Deputies are being asked to agree to ban the display of tobacco at the point of sale and restrict vending machines to adult-only establishments. The proposals will go before the States in June. In 1996, the States became the first government in the British Isles to ban tobacco advertising. The proposals also include making tobacco vending machines token operated and ensuring all products imported into the island include pictorial warnings. |
A goose and a duck have been taken from Hailsham pond, possibly after having been shot, Sussex Police say. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The attack was one of a number of incidents in the last few weeks in which a picnic table and chairs were set alight, property damaged and an ornamental tree destroyed. A police spokesman said the birds had been "deliberately targeted". Anyone who witnessed the incidents in the Station Road area of the town is asked to contact police. The spokesman said the attack on the birds had been reported to officers while they investigated the burning and removal of the picnic table and chairs from the area surrounding the pond. |
"Let him go!", "Russia will be free!", "Lyosha, we are with you!" chanted hundreds of Alexei Navalny's supporters, who turned up outside a Moscow police station on Monday, despite the -20C cold. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Anastasia Golubeva & Sergei GoryashkoBBC Russian They were mostly students, young professionals and NGO activists. "Lyosha" is the familiar short form of Alexei. The Khimki police station, on the northwestern edge of Moscow, was hastily converted into a courtroom to receive Russia's best-known opposition activist. A judge ordered that he stay in custody for at least 30 days. Mr Navalny - survivor of a near-fatal nerve agent attack last August - was detained soon after his plane landed in Moscow on Sunday. Despite the risk, he insisted on returning to Moscow from Berlin, to continue his anti-corruption campaign against President Vladimir Putin. There were chaotic scenes when his plane was diverted from Vnukovo - the airport where his supporters had gathered - to Sheremetyevo, which is near Khimki. His supporters believe his detention shows how worried the authorities are about his potential to change the balance of power in Russia. His anti-corruption network targets a mainly young audience on social media, with videos on YouTube and Instagram watched by tens of millions, rivalling Russian state TV. The protesters in Khimki included local councillor Antonina Stetsenko, holding a poster demanding freedom for Mr Navalny, in a solo picket outside the gates. Solo pickets have become a common form of protest, as the penalties for staging mass protests have got tougher in Russia. Other protesters showing solidarity with Mr Navalny in Khimki on Monday were more dispersed, so better able to flee the police if necessary. Mr Navalny is accused of violating the terms of a suspended sentence he received for embezzlement - a case he rejects as fabricated in order to silence him. The protesters included Tatiana Usmanova from the NGO Open Russia, a pro-democracy group set up by ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who famously fell out with President Putin more than a decade ago. She described how local people came out to ask about Mr Navalny and brought hot tea and sandwiches for those outside in the freezing cold. "Khimki is our new Minsk!" she wrote on Facebook, referring to the months of mass protests in the capital of Belarus. Those protests have not removed President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally, but have brought international condemnation down on him. "It is -20C outside, so it's hard to stay out for more than 20 minutes at a time. Local people are letting us warm up inside their blocks of flats!" Usmanova wrote. Poisoning 'the last straw' On Sunday a prominent film director - Vitaly Mansky, whose Putin's Witnesses was shown at the London Film Festival in 2018 - turned up at Vnukovo to greet Mr Navalny on his return. He said the heavy police presence at the airport showed the authorities' concern about Mr Navalny's popularity. "They can detain him or arrest him, or take him away, but this movement cannot be slowed down or broken. I am here to witness historic moments. The fact that the authorities are so terrified of him is great, I am glad. Their fear is bringing their end closer," he told BBC Russian. Many who support Mr Navalny complain of a lack of respect for the rule of law. His poisoning and the Bellingcat investigation, which pinned the blame on FSB state security agents, proved a turning point for many. "I'm not all that political, but this was the last straw." BBC journalists heard that comment from many people, who said that seeing proof that a Russian citizen could be attacked on Russian soil had forced them to change their opinion. President Putin has dismissed Mr Navalny as an "unimportant blogger" and the Kremlin denies involvement, and rejects the Western conclusion that Novichok - an extremely toxic Russian nerve agent - was used in the attack last August. Pop songs A large crowd of Navalny supporters gathered at Vnukovo to greet him on Sunday, before his plane was diverted. The authorities were taking no chances: about 10 large police vans parked close to the terminal and the international arrivals zone was cordoned off from the rest of the airport. Many people who came to meet friends and relatives were left outside, waiting in the freezing cold. One man had come to meet his girlfriend arriving from Turkey. "This is fascism!" he shouted. Inside, a different crowd appeared - young people who said they were fans of Russian Instagram star and pop singer Olga Buzova. But it was not clear why her fans - singing some of her hits - were there at the same time as Mr Navalny's supporters. According to Buzova's social media, she was spending the day in St Petersburg and had no plans to return to Moscow that evening. About 60 people were reportedly detained at Vnukovo and some complained of rough treatment by the police. By the time his plane had landed at Sheremetyevo about 50 supporters had got there to greet him. But his wife Yulia only managed to snatch a kiss before police led him away. She told the people around her: "Thank you for coming here and earlier to Vnukovo. "They are so afraid of Alexei that they have paralysed all flights into Moscow this evening, inconvenienced so many people. He is just a man who came back home. The most important thing Alexei said this evening is that he is not afraid. And I am not afraid. And I call on you not to be afraid." The BBC's Kateryna Khinkulova contributed to this piece. |
A diver has been airlifted to a decompression chamber after surfacing from a 300ft (91m) deep pool at a disused quarry in Snowdonia. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The 24-year-old man was at the the flooded Dorothea Quarry in the Nantlle Valley, a popular diving site. He was taken by an RAF Sea King helicopter to a private Wirral hospital which has a decompression chamber. It is understood the diver is suffering from decompression sickness, also known as the bends. |
The election for the Greater London Authority takes place on Thursday 6 May - a chance for London's 6.2 million voters to elect the mayor of London and a new London Assembly. But how does the day actually work? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Are you a voter? The deadline for registering to vote in this election is 19 April. If you are on the electoral register, you should have received a polling card. This contains your polling number and polling station address. Unlike in the general election, EU citizens living in London with a right to work or stay in the UK can vote. How do I find my polling station? Polling stations are usually in public buildings like community centres, churches and schools. If you have not received a polling card, or have lost it, you can find your nearest polling station on the London Elects website. Can I vote without my polling card? Yes. The polling card is for your information, although taking it with you can speed things up. When you arrive, staff will take your details and cross your name off their checklist. How do I vote? You will be given three ballot papers when you arrive, one for mayor of London and two picks for members of the London Assembly. In total you will be asked to mark down four votes. Take the ballot papers to a screened booth, where you will find a pencil to mark your vote with, although you can use your own pen if you'd prefer. Read what's there carefully and then vote for your chosen candidate by putting an "X" in the box next to their name. The pink ballot paper will be for your choice for mayor of London. You will be asked to pick your first and second choice for mayor. Each vote must be for a different candidate. Choose who you want to represent your local area on the London Assembly, voting on the yellow ballot paper. You then choose a second candidate for the London Assembly using the orange ballot paper, which is used to choose a member to represent the whole of the capital on the London Assembly. The London-wide seats are worked out in a way that benefits parties that did not win constituency seats. You must vote at the polling station to which you have been assigned any time between 07:00 and 22:00 BST on election day. If you are in a queue when the polls shut, you are guaranteed the opportunity to vote. If you make a mistake, you can get another ballot paper - as long as you have not put the first one in the ballot box. Votes made with a tick or even a smiley face may be counted if the voter's choice is clear, but will be disqualified otherwise. Will the polling station be Covid-19 safe? Polling stations might look a little different this year compared to the last time you voted. There will be extra staff on hand, as well as screens and sanitising stations to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Voters are asked to wear a face-covering to the polling station, where social distancing will be enforced. Can I spoil my ballot paper? Yes. Some people spoil their votes as a protest vote. While these do not count towards any candidate, the votes are recorded. Only 0.2% of votes were rejected for being invalid at the 2017 general election. Can I vote without going to the polling station? Yes, as long as you have met the deadline to register to vote by post or to appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf. The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 17:00 on 20 April. For proxy votes the deadline is a week later, at 17:00 on 27 April. Postal votes must be received by the time the polls close. You must say why you are unable to vote in person on the proxy application form. I have a disability - can I get help with voting? Yes. You can ask the presiding officer to mark the paper for you, or bring a close family member who is over 18, or someone else who is eligible to vote, like a support worker, with you. If you have a visual impairment, you can ask for a device that allows you to mark your own ballot paper. A large print version should also be available. Polling stations are selected so that wheelchair ramps and disabled parking spaces are available. If a voter cannot enter the polling station because of a physical disability, the presiding officer may take the ballot paper to the elector. For help, call the Electoral Commission on 0333 103 1928. A dedicated helpline for anyone with a learning disability, their families and carers, and polling station staff has also been set up by Mencap, a partner of the Electoral Commission. The number is 020 7696 6009. Is voting compulsory? No. It is entirely up to you whether or not you vote. Voter turnout in 2016 was 46%. Who runs the polling stations and how are the votes counted? Staff are recruited to work at polling stations via the electoral services department in local councils. Jobs available include being the presiding officer, conducting the ballot, counting the votes and processing the postal votes. When will we know who won the election? The votes will start to be counted from 07.00 on Friday 7 May. The process is expected to take a little longer than usual due extra precautions being taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Results for the mayor of London race and London Assembly elections are expected to be announced on Saturday afternoon at the earliest. |
South Africa has one of the world's highest HIV rates but for many years was accused of ignoring the problem. Two years ago, President Jacob Zuma introduced some radical changes to the country's Aids policy. To marks World Aids Day, the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg asks what has changed. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Pumza FihlaniBBC News, Johannesburg Moses Sechedi lives in Soweto, one of South Africa's biggest townships. Outside the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital - the largest hospital in Africa - Mr Sechedi, 62, tells me that he has seen the benefits of the new policy. "A few months ago, my younger sister became gravely ill and we rushed her to hospital. After a number of tests the doctor told us she had Aids," he says. The family was devastated. His 39-year-old sister suffers from mental illness and had been raped when she was younger by a local traditional healer who had promised the family he could cure her. The healer recently died of Aids-related complications but Mr Sechedi's family had not thought to have her tested until she became sick. Mr Sechedi says his sister would have died were it not for the Aids drugs she receives. "Those pills are the reason she is alive today. She is getting stronger by the day - it is like looking at a miracle daily," he says. 'Doing the right thing' Under President Zuma's new policy, the number of HIV-positive people like Mr Sechedi's sister receiving live-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs has more than doubled from 678,500 to 1.5 million. The government of former President Thabo Mbeki, who denied the link between HIV and Aids, said it could not afford to roll out this treatment to all the South Africans who needed it. More than five million people are HIV-positive - about 10% of the total population. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told the BBC that his department plans to provide Aids drugs to the remaining one million patients who need them by 2014. Not everyone who is HIV-positive needs the drugs. The most common way of checking is to measure the CD4 cells, which help the body to fight diseases. Under the previous administration, only those with a CD4 count of 200 were given treatment - by which time they were already sick - but this has now been raised to 350, meaning the drugs are provided in time to keep people healthy and active. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) led a vigorous campaign against Mr Mbeki's government - even taking the authorities to court to secure the right to ARVs. It says the government is "finally doing the right thing". "We have moved from an era of denialism to realism," the group's Marcus Low says. It seems there is now the "political will to fight the disease", he says. The government has also added medical male circumcision to its Aids plans. State health facilities now provide free circumcisions, which health officials say reduces the risk of transmission by 60%. Experts also say new infections have decreased over the past couple of years, which could indicate that young people are changing their sexual behaviour. Saving the children Another key plank of the government's new Aids policy is to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Until 2009, pregnant HIV patients needed to be at least 28 weeks pregnant to access drugs - that has now been reduced to 14 weeks. According to a recent UNAids report, 95% of infected pregnant women are now getting ARVs to prevent their babies from getting HIV. This is a 30% increase from 2007. At the Harriet Shezi Children's Clinic in Soweto, more than 3,000 children currently receive Aids treatment. The clinic treats advanced cases of HIV in children. "In the past, most admissions would be of children under a year old - those would be fast progressors who had not been put on PMTCT or failed the limited treatment available," says the clinic's Nosisa Sipambo. Cost of life Following the changes, South Africa now runs the world's largest anti-retroviral programme but some have expressed concerns about how much these drugs are costing the country. Mr Motsoaledi says his department has managed to halve spending on ARVs. Instead of paying out 8.8bn rand ($104.5m; £67.2m) on the drugs over the next two years, South Africa will now spend just 4.2bn - less than 4% of the 2011 health budget of 112.6bn rand. But despite the progress, Aids remains South Africa's leading cause of death. Last year it killed more than 260,000 people - almost half of all those who died in the country. The TAC says it will monitor the government to makes sure that it builds on its progress. "We need to make sure that the government stays committed to this programme," says Mr Low. |
Damon Albarn never intended to make a solo album. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Mark SavageBBC News entertainment reporter He was perfectly happy with Blur and Gorillaz, or composing operas based on the Chinese pentatonic scale, until XL Records boss Richard Russell intervened. "He turned round and said, 'I would like to produce you,'" says Albarn, recalling a conversation that took place after the pair co-produced Bobby Womack's 2012 comeback The Bravest Man in the Universe. "It was a slightly strange thing to say, considering that our relationship was based on us both being producers together. So there was a moment of, 'Really? Well, blimey. That means I've got to…' "But I didn't really know what that was going to entail or involve, you know?" To begin with, Albarn handed over more than 60 songs to Russell - demos and musical fragments he had collected over the years. "But the funny thing is, we hardly used any of them," he says. Instead, the singer jumped on the Central Line, went back to his childhood home in Leytonstone, east London, and hit on a rich seam of inspiration. If you watched BBC Two's Culture Show in February, you may have seen Albarn visiting those same old haunts, going misty-eyed over sweet shops, dustbins and church halls. He also stopped by Hollow Ponds at the top of the Lea Valley, where, as a child, he swam in the open air during the 1976 heatwave. The scene turned into a song, also called Hollow Ponds. It samples the Central Line and contains snapshots of that "eight year old in swimming trunks" through his school days to pop stardom and adulthood. It also set the tone for the album, Everyday Robots, a wistful series of reflections from a family man in his 40s. But whatever you do, do not call it nostalgic. "I don't know if it was nostalgia," Albarn protests. "It was a journey I chose to re-trace, really, and see if I could learn something about myself. "I found that, not surprisingly, there was an awful lot of stuff. "The tricky thing was distilling enough of it into song, as opposed to autobiography - which is a very different way of doing the same thing." "I thought of it as, how do you take big events and put them into verse?" The result is his most intimate and revealing album to date. Low-key and textured, it is peppered with domestic detail and a recurring theme of alienation. "I had a dream you were leaving," he sings repeatedly on The Selfish Giant, a sad but familiar story of partners who have lost their spark. "It's hard to be a lover when the TV's on and there's nothing in your eyes." By his own admission, the latter lyric was especially hard to record. "It's quite a strong line," he says. "At the very moment when I was getting ready to do my thing as a singer, I was like, 'Oh, I'm not sure about that.'" Yet every time he threatened to put up his defences, Russell would coax him into opening up. "There were moments where I'd go, 'I think that's a bit too close to the knuckle', and that's when Richard would step in and say, 'No, that's a really good line, you've got to keep that.'" 'A gentle form of sedation' It makes you wonder what discussions they had over You and Me, a song that briefly touches on Albarn's Britpop-era heroin addiction. "Tinfoil and a lighter," he sings. "Five days on, two days off." The lyrics prompted a media storm after Albarn, speaking to Q Magazine, described heroin as "incredibly productive for me". The singer has since stressed that addiction was "brutal experience" and "nothing that I would recommend". Clean now for more than a decade, the narcotic that concerns him most on Everyday Robots is technology. The title track documents commuters "stricken in a state of sleep" by their phones, while Lonely Press Play frets that the infinite distractions in the palms of our hands allow us to suppress our emotions. "It's a form of gentle sedation," Albarn says. "I've always opted to have a very old-fashioned phone. There's no internet on my phone. You can't put lots of smiley faces on my phone. It's a very boring, monochrome Nokia. "But I do have an iPad, which is a very different beast entirely," says the singer - who composed parts of the last Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, using the tablet device. "I love it because I can be creative with it," he says. "That's the key." "When we're doing something creative, technology seems benign. But when we're doing nothing with it - and it seems to be doing a lot more with us - that's when it starts to become terrifying." Appropriately, electronics are kept to a minimum on Everyday Robots. The record is largely piano-led, pushing Albarn's voice to the foreground, and coloured with ambient sounds, trickling beats and exotic string arrangements. The only time the record sheds its air of melancholy is on the jaunty Mr Tembo, written for an orphaned elephant Albarn met in Mkomazi, Tanzania. (The elephant responded by defecating, he says.) It is the only song to survive from the original 60 demos he gave to Richard Russell, with an ebullient melody brought to life by The Pentecostal City Mission Church Choir, from Albarn's childhood church in Leytonstone. "I love gospel music," the singer says. "I've loved it all my life. Whether it was listening to my parents' Mahalia Jackson albums or standing outside the London City Mission Church on a Sunday. "I love all forms of religious music. It's the music I choose to listen to if I'm listening privately to music. Anything from Georgian orthodox choir music to Moroccan Sufi trance music to South Korean shamanistic music. "You name it - if it is fit for the purpose of a spiritual connection, I love it." Spirituality is exactly what Albarn hopes to achieve with Everyday Robots. His desire is that listeners will feel a personal connection to the lyrics, in a way they never could with the "Oi!" of Parklife. "That's what can happen if you do something that is completely of yourself," he reckons. "People find things in that because, at the end of the day, our experiences aren't really that different, are they?" Everyday Robots is out now on Parlophone/XL Records. |
Ukraine is suffering from one of Europe's worst Aids epidemics but most people with HIV have no access to the drugs that would enable them to lead normal lives - a fact which one teenager, among others, is keen to point out. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Lucy AshBBC News As we sit drinking tea in the kitchen, Liza Yaroshenko lays out her pills in neat piles. Some are white, some are yellow and some are in a transparent box marked NIGHT. Liza, aged 14, carries the HIV virus that causes Aids so her life depends on these anti-retroviral drugs. They have to be taken at exactly the same time, three times a day. I wonder how she remembers - does she have an alarm on her phone to remind her? "Oh yes," replies her adoptive mother Oksana Aligeva, "an alarm on two legs - me!" Liza does a classic teenage roll of the eyes, but she knows she can't afford to get the timing wrong. "The virus can mutate and the pills could stop working," she explains. Liza also knows she is lucky to have the medicine. The World Health Organization has said Ukraine suffers from one of the worst Aids epidemics in Europe and not enough is being done to fight it. Only a third of the officially registered 120,000 people living with HIV receive the drugs, which usually allow them to lead normal lives. But the Aids Alliance - the biggest independent organisation tackling the disease in Ukraine - estimates that the infected population is at least twice that size. That suggests that just one in six people actually get treatment - one of the lowest levels in the world. By contrast, some sub-Saharan African countries, such as Botswana and Rwanda, manage to supply 80% of their HIV-infected populations with the life-saving drugs. Last autumn President Viktor Yanukovych declared that tackling infectious diseases was a priority but the government allocated no funds in 2013 to fighting hepatitis and only 40% of the sum the president proposed for Aids and tuberculosis. That's when Liza decided to speak out. Backed by a patients' lobby group, she went into Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, and stood in front of a microphone. In a faltering yet determined voice, she urged members to block the draft budget. "Without treatment many parents and children will die from this illness," she said. "I am begging you not to vote for this budget so that what happened to me will not happen to other children." Liza was six years old when she lost her mother to Aids. Like tens of thousands of Ukrainians, Liza's mother contracted HIV while injecting a cheap heroin substitute made of liquid poppy straw. The virus often spreads when users share needles. But the opiate solution, known as shirka, can also be contaminated by dirty equipment used by the dealers, or even the use of blood as a mixer. Liza says her mother spoke fluent English and worked for a while as a translator but then she met a man who introduced her to drugs. "All of my father's relatives were dealers - it was the family business," Liza says. She remembers queues of addicts waiting in the courtyard outside the flat for their fix. Liza's mother was eventually sent to prison for possession and served a three-year sentence. "After her release, Mum tried to give up but dad soon got her hooked again and then she fell ill," Liza says. "I don't think she knew about anti-retrovirals. It was like a myth - we'd heard there were such medicines but they cost so much that ordinary people didn't even think of trying to get hold of them." In 2005, on the same day her 27-year-old mother died of Aids, Liza found out about her own status. "We were in the hospital and my grandmother was called into the administrator's office. When she came out she burst into tears and I thought what terrible thing did they say to her to upset her like that?" Liza was kept in hospital for eight months following her diagnosis because she ran abnormally high temperatures. One of the first patients in Ukraine to receive anti-retroviral drugs, she has since been fit and well. She has no contact with her father and when her grandmother became too infirm to look after her, the authorities were preparing to send her to a children's home. But then Oksana and her husband, who had no children of their own, adopted her. Although Oksana had imagined adopting a much younger child, she and her husband, Eldar, were touched by Liza's story and felt they could provide a good home for her. The authorities blame lack of funds for the shortage of drugs but many say mismanagement and corruption also play a part. Andrei Klepikov of the Aids Alliance in Kiev says that in 2004, the government bought anti-retroviral drugs at 27 times more than the market rate. As a result the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, backed by the former Microsoft boss Bill Gates, cut its grant to the Health Ministry and rechanneled the money through non-state organisations like the Alliance instead. "It's like buying a piece of bread for £100! It's impossible but somehow the Ukrainian government managed to do this. So of course Global Fund was shocked, literally shocked, and this was the first ever grant given to a country that had to be suspended," says Klepikov. The Health Ministry denies corruption and argues that major buyers such as the Global Fund can get a lower rate because they buy in larger quantities. It also claims to have cut drug costs over the past several years. But demand for the drugs still vastly outstrips the supply. "The numbers of HIV-positive people are growing all the time but not the quantities of medicine to treat them", says Oksana. "And it's terrible that lots of people who have found out about their status can't get treatment." Oksana says she and Liza were disappointed that deputies in parliament ignored Liza's appeal. However, three weeks later the President Yanukovych signed a decree instructing ministers to come up with a new budget providing medical care for people living with HIV and Aids. This amended budget will be submitted to parliament next month. But there is a new source of worry for people with HIV - a law that came into force last month, requiring importers of foreign medicines to obtain additional licences to operate in the Ukrainian market. The government argues the licensing procedure will assist quality control and boost domestic production. But virtually all anti-retroviral drugs come from abroad at present and many people with HIV fear they'll be left without the life-saving medication. Dmytro Sherembey, the HIV-positive head of the patients' pressure group which helped organise Liza's appeal in parliament, the Ukrainian Community Advisory Board, predicts licences will be issued to those who pay bribes. "It will bring a profit to the officials and will give them the chance to control Ukraine's pharmaceutical market. They can give licences to those they want to give them to, and refuse it to others… "People in Ukraine will die from this law." Although the state has stepped up spending on anti-retroviral drugs it does little to bring down the number of new infections. "Do you know how much the government spends on HIV prevention?", asks Andrei Klepikov of the Aids Alliance. "Zero… literally zero." Work on the front line of the epidemic among the high risk groups such as addicts and prostitutes is left to organisations like the Alliance, he says. The group offers free HIV tests, condoms and crucially - clean syringes. In 2012, for the first time, there was a slight drop in the number of newly registered cases of HIV in Ukraine. But the Aids epidemic, originally fuelled by drug use, now appears to be spreading to Ukraine's general population through sexual contact. The stigma associated with the disease is so strong that many are discouraged from even approaching a doctor. I ask how Liza's classmates reacted when they saw her addressing the MPs on television. "Most of my friends already know about my status," she says. "On the whole people reacted very well and some friendships actually got stronger than they were before." Oksana proudly adds that pupils voted Liza president of the school - a position similar to head prefect - after her speech in parliament. But some of the teachers were less supportive. One told pupils the HIV virus can be spread through sneezing and holding hands. "I told her that was rubbish", says Liza, "and then I was called into the head teacher's office for a ticking off. But I hate it when people spread false information - I can't keep quiet." Hear the full report on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents on Thursday, 11 April at 11:00. You can listen via the Radio 4 website or via the Crossing Continents podcast. |
Eleven people died in the Shoreham air crash when a vintage jet crashed on to traffic on 22 August. Footballers, cyclists, air show enthusiasts and motorists were among the victims. This is what we know about them. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Matthew Grimstone Parents Sue and Phil and brothers David and Paul paid an emotional tribute to the footballer, who played for Worthing United. They said: "The family are in total shock at losing our dearest son Matthew so tragically at 23 years old. "He was the kindest person you could ever meet, with a great wit. "In his 23 years, we can honestly say he never lost his temper." The family went on to say that football was his passion in life and he loved working at Brighton & Hove Albion as well as playing for Worthing United. He had also been a referee. "Matt has been taken from us at just 23 and we still think he is going to walk through the front door any minute now." Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club say he was on his way to play for Worthing United against Loxwood in the Southern Combination Premier Division at Lyons Way at the time of the air crash, along with his Mavericks teammate Jacob Schilt. Mr Grimstone, 23, worked at the club for the past seven years - starting with the Albion as part of the match day event team at Withdean. Chief executive Paul Barber said: "Matt's been a very popular member of our ground staff team and has proved to be an absolute credit to the club and his boss Steve Winterburn." Worthing United FC released a statement, saying: "Grimbles was our first team goalkeeper, 23 years of age and a huge talent, quiet and reserved but a brilliant player with a huge potential to go further in the game." Jacob Schilt Seagulls supporter Mr Schilt was travelling with his Mavericks teammate Matthew Grimstone when their vehicle was hit by the aircraft. Alongside Mr Grimstone, Mr Schilt was part of Worthing United's Sussex County League Division Two championship-winning side last season, and also played for an Albion supporters' team in this year's Robert Eaton Memorial Fund (REMF) match against Crystal Palace at Lewes in April. Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club paid tribute to him, with chairman Tony Bloom saying: "The thoughts and prayers of everybody at the club are with Matt and Jacob's family and friends at this shocking time. Our thoughts are also with all the people who have lost loved ones in this horrendous accident." Chief executive Paul Barber added: "I got to know Jacob as one of the REMF squad, during the coaching sessions we held leading up to this year's charity match against Crystal Palace. As well as being a very good footballer, Jacob is a popular and impressive young man." Worthing United FC released a statement, saying: "Jacob, who was 23 years of age, small in stature and a tenacious midfielder, was very skilful with an eye for goal." "At this point we don't know how or if we will cope with this. Worthing Utd is a family, part of the football family, we have been moved by the number of tributes to them that we have received form our fellow clubs and from the public." Mr Schilt and Mr Grimstone attended the same secondary school, Varndean, leaving in 2008. The school said in a statement: "It is with great sadness that we remember former students Matt Grimstone and Jacob Schilt who died tragically at the weekend in the Shoreham Airshow crash. "Jacob's father, Bob Schilt, was a teacher at the school from 1989 to 2009 and is remembered affectionately by staff who knew him." Matt Jones Matt Jones, 24, a personal trainer, was named on Facebook by his sister Becky Jones as one of the dead. She wrote: "Thank you to everyone who has messaged me. We are devastated to say Matt Jones was one of the fatalities." Maurice Abrahams Chauffeur Maurice Abrahams, 76, from Brighton, was driving his "beloved Daimler" when the plane crashed. It has been widely reported that he was on his way to pick up a bride for her wedding. His family issued a statement through Sussex Police: "Maurice is a well-respected and loved father and husband. He enjoyed his work chauffeuring his beloved Daimler car and he enjoyed gardening. "He was proud to have served in the Grenadier Guards and the Parachute Regiment. He served in Cyprus and Bahrain with the UN. In his 30s he served as a police officer with Hampshire Police." Mark Reeves The family of Mark Reeves, 53, said he died while combining two of his favourite hobbies, riding his cherished Honda motorbike to photograph planes at an air show. He was a computer-aided design technician in west London who fundraised for cancer charities by parachuting and abseiling. His family said in a statement: "Mark Reeves - motorbiker, golfer, photographer, fund-raiser - but above all else, son, brother, husband, father and grandfather. "As many times before, he had travelled to an air show and parked up on the outskirts to grab the best photos, but he had never been to the Shoreham air show before. 'Family man' "We will remember him as a gentle, loving, incredibly giving family man, husband to Wendy, father to Luke, granddad to three beautiful grand-daughters, brother to Denise and loving son of Ann and Kenneth. "With his family he moved to Seaford nine years ago, drawn by our love of the sea and for Mark in particular, love of the sun. "He was a sun worshipper and an enthusiastic holidaymaker, travelling to Fuerteventura and Madeira in recent years and would often be seen relaxing with a cocktail in hand. "We thank everyone who has sent their love, condolences and prayers and while we appreciate that many others will be experiencing similar unspeakable grief in such tragic and public circumstances, that we now be allowed to grieve ourselves in private and in peace." Tony Brightwell The family of Tony Brightwell, 53, from Hove, said he was enjoying his passion of watching planes and cycling before he died. Outside of being a health care manager for Sussex Partnership NHS and Brighton and Hove City Council, he was an aircraft enthusiast and had learnt to fly at Shoreham airfield. With his pilot's licence, he had attended the airfield many times and was hoping to fly again one day. His fiancee Lara said she is heartbroken that their "plans to spend their lives in the sun will now never happen". "I watched him cycle off into the sun on his treasured ridgeback bike to watch the air show at Shoreham for a couple of hours, but he never came home," she said. Daniele Polito Daniele Polito was in the same car as Matt Jones, when the Hawker Hunter plane crashed and exploded on the A27 in West Sussex. Posting on Facebook, his sister Marina said: "I miss you loads already little (big) bro! Keep making people smile." Ms Polito said that many people loved her brother and would "miss him loads". "I would just like to say a massive thank you to every one who has supported my family over the last few painful days. "I am overwhelmed by the kindness you have all shown. I know many people loved him and will miss him loads, "As long as we keep him in our hearts and memories, he will never really leave us." Mark Trussler Window cleaner and builder Mark Trussler is thought to have been riding his motorbike on the A27 when the plane crashed on Saturday. His fiancee Giovanna Chirico posted a message on Facebook saying that her worst fears had been confirmed. She wrote: "Yesterday my worst fears were confirmed and I lost not just my fiance but my best friend, soul mate and sidekick. "No words can describe how much all ur family and friends r going to miss u. "So glad I got to spend the last 12 years of my life with u an love u always and eternally." Dylan Archer Dylan Archer was on a cycle ride with his friend Richard Smith when he died in the crash. Mr Archer, an IT company director, was raised in the Midlands and came to live in Brighton in 1991. He leaves a partner, Alice, and their two sons aged 15 and 12. The family said in a statement: "Dylan was a kind and loving father, partner, brother, grandson and friend. His dry humour and generous nature will be greatly missed by all who knew him. "The family are very touched by all the tributes, and thank everyone for their kindness and generosity." Richard Smith Richard Smith, 26, from Hove, was brought up in Buckinghamshire before going to university in Birmingham. His family moved to Hampshire in 2008 and he worked in a cycle shop in Cosham. He moved to Hove two years ago where he worked in marketing and web development. His family said: "Richard's passions in life were for his family, friends and his beloved bikes. His boundless enthusiasm was infectious. He was a truly wonderful, caring and loving person. He will be so sorely missed by all who knew him." He leaves a partner Victoria, parents Julie and Jonathan, and brothers William and Edward. Graham Mallinson Retired engineer, Graham Mallinson, 72, had been hoping to capture shots of the Vulcan bomber which was making one of its last appearances at Shoreham Airshow when he was killed. The keen photographer from Newick, East Sussex, was described as being "at the right place at the wrong time, doing what he loved best on a beautiful summer's day," when the jet crashed. In a statement, his family said: "He was the kindest and most generous man, who regularly gave his time to help others. Always loyal and reliable, he was a private and loving family man with a great sense of humour. "A very caring husband and father who was dearly loved, he will be very sorely missed by all his family and the wide circle of friends who had the good fortune to know him." |
The two men named as suspects in the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the UK - Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov - gave a surprise interview to RT, Russia's state-run international broadcaster. They claimed they were merely tourists visiting the English town of Salisbury at the time the poisoning happened. Here are some key excerpts from their interview. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
On what they were doing in Salisbury "Our friends had been suggesting for a long time that we visit this wonderful town [Salisbury]," Mr Petrov said. "It's a tourist town - there's a famous cathedral there. Salisbury cathedral," Mr Boshirov said. "It's famous for its 123-metre spire, it's famous for its clock - the first clock to be invented in the world, and it's still going." Asked if they had gone to Salisbury to look at the clock Mr Petrov said: "No, no - our plan from the outset was to arrive in London and chill out, basically. It wasn't a business trip. We planned to spend some time in London and travel to Salisbury - of course that was only intended to be a day-trip." "We arrived in England on 2 March, then went to the railway station to see the timetable, to see where we could go," Mr Petrov said. The pair planned to spend just a day in Salisbury, he said, because "that's enough - there's no more to do there after one day". "We arrived in Salisbury on 3 March and tried to walk through the town, but as it was blocked up with snow we could only spend half an hour there," Mr Petrov said. "Of course, we went there to see Stonehenge, Old Sarum, but we couldn't do it because there was muddy slush everywhere. The town was covered with this slush. We got soaked, went back to the station and took the next train back [to London]." "We drank hot coffee because we were just soaked. The longest we spent there on the 3rd was one hour," Mr Boshirov added. Mr Petrov said "we had the aim of visiting Old Sarum [an Iron Age settlement] and the cathedral and decided to finish all that on the 4th". When asked if they saw those sights he said, "on the 4th, yes. We saw them, but again at lunchtime it started snowing heavily, so we left earlier than planned". On whether they went to Sergei Skripal's house "Maybe we did [approach] Skripal's house, but we don't know where is it located," Mr Boshirov said. When the interviewer asked them whether they had Novichok or any poison with them, the men emphatically said no. She then asked whether they had the Nina Ricci perfume bottle which UK investigators say contained the substance. "For normal blokes, to be carrying women's perfume with us, isn't that silly? The customs are checking everything, they would have questions as to why men have women's perfume in their luggage. We didn't have it," Mr Boshirov said. On why they shared a hotel room The interviewer asked them why they went everywhere together and shared a hotel room. "It's normal to arrive somewhere and share a twin-bed room. You save money. It's more fun to be together, simpler," Mr Boshirov said. Both men sounded distressed as they spoke about how their lives had changed since they were named in the UK as Russian intelligence agents who attempted to poison the Skripals. "When your life [is] turned upside down, you don't know what to do and where to go. We're afraid to go out, we fear for ourselves, for our lives and the lives of our loved ones," Mr Boshirov said. "We just want to be left alone, we're tired," he said. Asked whether they had recently been to any European state, the two said they had. "Sure… In Switzerland, we were there a couple of times… We spent New Year in Switzerland." On their alleged work activities The pair said they had been in Europe to do business related to sports nutrition. "We examine the market, see if there is something new - some biologically active additives, amino acids, vitamins, microelements. We pick up the most necessary things, come here and decide how to bring the new products from that market here." |
A new acting chief executive has been drafted in to help transform services run by Powys council. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
One of the key areas Dr Mohammed Mehmet will have to tackle is children's services following a damning report by Care Inspectorate Wales last October. The authority has made improvements in that area but the Welsh Government said more needed to be done. Dr Mehmet recently left his role as chief executive of Denbighshire council where he spent 10 years. |
Three years of civil war in South Sudan have driven thousands of families into the marshes of the Nile to hide from the fighting. A famine has been declared some parts. The BBC's Alastair Leithead has been to the rebel-held town Thonyor in Leer County, where people have been told to gather to get help. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Alastair LeitheadBBC News, Leer County, South Sudan They emerged from the marshlands of the Nile in their thousands, as word spread that help had come. Forced by fighting to live on the isolated islands of the Sudd swamps, they have been surviving for months on wild plants. Now they sat on the dry, cracked earth in long lines under a brutal sun - mostly women and children - waiting to register for the food aid which would be air-dropped in a few days time. "We are only surviving by eating wild honey and water lilies from the river," said Nyambind Chan Kuar as she sat with 16 of her children and grandchildren. "The fighting has been disastrous - children have been killed, they are taking our things, our cattle, our goats, taking everything, even though we have nothing to do with this war." Each person is given a card that entitles them to 30 days of food rations when supplies arrive. Their finger is then stained with ink to avoid duplication. "People are dying because of this hunger," said Mary Nyayain. "That's why we are here queuing for these tokens." The town of Thonyor in Leer County was chosen as the central point for distributing aid after long negotiations with both sides in the civil war. It's one of the four counties in Unity State suffering pockets of famine, which the latest hunger assessment says is affecting 100,000 people. Leer is the birthplace of the former vice-president turned rebel leader Riek Machar which is perhaps why it has been the centre of so much fighting. Thonyor is controlled by the rebels or the "IO" as they're known - forces "In Opposition" - but the government troops are just 20 minutes up the road. "The war has been so difficult for us," said another woman waiting in line for a cholera vaccination. "Especially for the old women who are not able to run to the river to survive in the islands. Our cows and goats were taken so that's why we are only able to survive through the food agency." Under each tree is a different medical post - with health checks for the children. The worst cases of malnutrition are treated straight away. "You may think this child is actually very healthy - he's fat, he's looking OK," said James Bwirani from the Food and Agriculture Organisation. "But this is just water accumulating in the body and he has not been consuming adequate food for some time." The child has a distended belly and his face and limbs are swollen. "If left untreated for between a week to two weeks, this child is going to be dead," Mr Bwirani said. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is coordinating this emergency response, expecting about 36,000 people to come in from the swamps for help. But there are many thousands more who are too far away, cut off by rivers or in areas where the government and the rebels have not agreed to provide access. "For many, many months humanitarian agencies have not been able to make it into this area. This is first time we're doing so," said George Fominyen from the WFP. "Without safety, without assurance of security for the people that are in need and the aid workers, we'll be having a catastrophic situation down the line." The UN describes this as "a man-made famine" - created by the civil war which has divided the army and the country largely along ethnic lines. A political row between President Salva Kiir and Mr Machar led to killings in the capital and fighting which has spread across the country. The war has displaced millions of people, many into neighbouring countries, and 40% of the population now depends on international aid. Mr Machar fled South Sudan in July when a fragile peace deal collapsed. He is currently in South Africa, unable to return but apparently still commanding his troops by phone. Leer county commissioner Brig Gen Nhial Phan said there won't be peace until Mr Machar is allowed back to take part in a proposed national dialogue. He believes President Kiir wants to drive people out of his county. "The government kills people - their militia is raiding, taking cows, killing and burning the church and the houses, forcing people into the islands," he said. There are scorch marks where the market used to be and the remains of a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic, destroyed when the government forces took the town for two days last November. By getting help in fast, aid agencies hope to pull this region back from famine and stop the famine from spreading - if they are allowed to access to the worst affected areas. |
It has led people to jump off buildings, bite others and run into people's homes. Now police say it is only a matter of time before someone dies as the result of "monkey dust" - a synthetic drug rising in popularity in the West Midlands. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"At night time I won't go out, because that's when the people on drugs tend to come out," Molly Lawton, a 19-year-old chef from Stoke, tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "You see someone who's on monkey dust swinging their arms around, shouting and screaming. [At night] that would frighten me to death." Monkey dust is a class B drug that has been in circulation for several years. But now emergency services within Stoke are worried it is becoming an epidemic. The drug can stop users feeling pain, and causes them to experience hallucinations - making them highly unpredictable. What sets it apart, however, is that its effects can last for days. Police have been called to cases where individuals have run into traffic and jumped off buildings. No-one so far has died. But there is concern it is just a matter of time. Selling for £2 a bag, monkey dust is said to be used among many within the city's homeless community. One man, who gave his name as Smithy, has been using it over the last year. Aged 31, he has been sleeping rough for 10 years, and says it is one of the most potent drugs he has ever tried. "I hate the fact that I like it. I hate it every time I have it, but I still have it," he says, wishing he was not addicted. "It's everywhere. There's that many people on it." 'The worst we've seen' Chief Supt Jeff Moore from Staffordshire Police says the force has dealt with 950 calls related to the drug in the past three months. "Frequently we see the paranoia - instances of people jumping into traffic, jumping onto bridges and high buildings, running into people's houses," he says. "From a drug perspective this is the worst we've seen. It's a consequence of not just taking the drug, but people risking others' safety too." He said it was difficult for officers to deal with, as those on the drug are so unpredictable, and called for a wider look into the social and public health issues that contribute to its use. "It's not just about a group of people who are homeless and in town," he added, saying people of different backgrounds and ages were using it too." 'People hiding weapons' Darren Murinas, a reformed drug-dealer working with the group Expert Citizens, says he previously lived with three people using the drug. "These guys had been using crack and heroin, but no longer did because of the price," he says. On one occasion, he explains, one housemate "thought there was someone under the floorboards after him, and wouldn't sleep for days. "I've seen it induce a psychosis - people hiding weapons because they were scared," he adds. Mr Murinas says he knows one person who is "constantly in hospital" having been addicted to the drug, and another with serious brain trauma. "We need to start recording this issue so we can get the data," he says. "And we need to look at it with a mental health lens, not just with police." The Home Office said its drug strategy "sets out a balanced approach which brings together police, health, community and global partners to tackle the illicit drug trade, protect the most vulnerable and help those with a drug dependency to recover and turn their lives around". Among those in Stoke city centre, many have seen the visible effects of the drug. One security guard, Ari, says it is causing problems for businesses in the area. Charlie, an 18-year-old student who has tried the drug a few times and whose surname we are not using, says he would never take it again. "I felt weird," he says, remembering its effects. "I felt like when I first took it I was walking like a zombie. It's not clever." He says there have been efforts to educate students about the dangers of the drug at his college, as the city becomes more aware of its effects. For Molly, the worry is that the situation will become worse before it can get better. "There's a lot of it, because the drug dealers are selling it for just £2 a bag," she says. "With it being so cheap, there's going to be a lot more [taking it] around Stoke too." Watch the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 BST on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel in the UK and on iPlayer afterwards. |
Belarusians are groping to find an explanation for the massive explosion that ripped through a metro station in Minsk, killing 12 people and injuring more than 200, earlier this week, reports the BBC's David Stern in the city. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Belarus is on high alert after what officials now believe was a terrorist attack. They say a bomb went off at close to 1800 local time, at the height of rush hour, in the Oktyabrskaya station - one of Minsk's busiest. The explosive device, which was packed with nails and ball-bearings, and was equivalent to 5kg of TNT, was placed under a bench on the platform, they add. It may have been detonated by remote control. The Interior Minister, Anatoly Kuleshov, said the aim of the assailants was to "kill as many people as possible". Memorial On Tuesday, mourners gathered by the entrances to the metro station, where a spontaneous memorial had sprung up. Every few moments someone would step forward to lay a flower on one of the numerous rapidly rising piles, or to light a votive candle. In a recess off the street, there was a more formal shrine - six white boards with the names of those killed simply printed on them. In front was a low, red platform where an even bigger pile of flowers was growing. The crowd, which sometimes grew to a couple hundred, was for the most part silent. People stood as if rooted to the ground, facing the makeshift monument, their faces etched with disbelief. "I am in shock," said Lidiya Vintskevich, a journalism student who works at a local radio station. "I can't believe that something like this could happen in our town, we are so small." The Belarusian security services, which are still known by their Soviet-era acronym, the KGB, said a composite photo of the possible perpetrator was now being circulated. "The man is of non-Slavic appearance, up to 27 years old, and well-built. He was dressed in a brown coat and a woollen hat," KGB chairman Vadim Zaitsev said, adding that the suspect could have been hired to place the bomb. The country's deputy state prosecutor also said that several people had been detained, but did not provide any further details. 'No sense' Belarus has come under increasing political and economic pressure in past months. The United States and European Union slapped harsh sanctions on the Belarusian government, after it clamped down on the country's opposition following presidential elections last year. President Alexander Lukashenko and other top officials were forbidden from travelling to the West. Meanwhile the country's central bank is running out of hard currency, and many analysts are predicting a steep devaluation of the currency, the ruble. President Lukashenko already governs what is considered Europe's strictest authoritarian state. Many Belarusians do support him, however, in part in gratitude for the stability and law and order that he provides. Mr Lukashenko has promised to turn Belarus "inside out" to find those responsible. In comments just after the blast, he also said that it could have been an attempt to destabilise the country, and was possibly a "present from abroad". Many Belarusians are nevertheless at a loss to imagine who would benefit from such an attack. "I can't imagine why anyone would do this," said Stepan, a local businessman who asked not to use his last name. "I can't imagine what they would gain or what they hoped to achieve. It makes absolutely no sense." |
In the early hours of 8 January, Iran launched attacks on Iraqi bases housing US forces in retaliation for a US drone strike in Baghdad last Friday that killed a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
But despite furious warnings from Tehran that the US would pay a significant price for that killing - no-one was hurt by the retaliatory attack, according to US President Donald Trump. So did Iran intentionally avoid causing casualties? What did Iran and the US say? A statement from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said "tens of surface-to-surface missiles" were launched early on Wednesday "to crush the occupied air base of terrorist and aggressor army of the US in Al Asad", the hub for American military operations in western Iraq. Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is close to the IRGC, reported that Fateh-313 and Qiam missiles were used in the attack , and that US forces failed to intercept them because they were equipped with cluster warheads. The warheads also caused "tens of explosions" at Al Asad, it said. The US defence department said Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles that targeted at least two Iraqi military bases - Al Asad and Irbil, in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region. Mr Trump said US forces suffered no casualties as a result of the Iranian missile attacks, and that the bases sustained "only minimal damage". In a televised statement, he credited "the precautions taken, the dispersal of forces, and an early warning system that worked very well", and declared: "Iran appears to be standing down." However, the US's top military officer, Army General Mark Milley, said he believed the attack was meant to be deadly. He said his "personal assessment" was that Iran "intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft, and to kill personnel". What did the missiles actually hit? Iraq's military, which also reported no casualties, said the country was hit by 22 missiles between 01:45 and 02:15 on Wednesday (22:45-23:15 GMT on Tuesday). It said 17 missiles were fired towards Al Asad air base. Satellite photographs taken by the commercial company Planet Labs for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies showed what appeared to be at least five destroyed structures at Al Asad. David Schmerler, an analyst at the Middlebury Institute, told NPR: "Some of the locations struck look like the missiles hit dead centre." But it was clear that some of the weapons did not hit the bases. Two of the missiles aimed at Al Asad fell in the Hitan area, west of the town of Hit, and did not explode, according to the Iraqi military. Photos of the remnants of one of those missiles, including three large parts of its fuselage, subsequently emerged on social media. The Iraqi military said Iran fired five missiles towards Irbil air base, in the northern Kurdistan region. It did not say how many hit the base, but state TV reported that two missiles landed in the village of Sidan, 16km (10 miles) north-west of the city of Irbil, and that a third missile came down in the Bardah Rashsh area, about 47km north-west of Irbil. Journalists meanwhile photographed security forces retrieving debris from what they believed was the crater caused by the missile that hit Bardah Rashsh. Did Iran try to avoid US casualties? US and European government sources told Reuters news agency that they believed the Iranians had deliberately sought to minimise casualties and avoid hitting US facilities in order to prevent the crisis escalating out of control while still signalling their resolve. CNN journalist Jake Tapper quoted a Pentagon official as saying that Iran "deliberately chose targets that would not result in loss of life". The Washington Post reported that US officials said they knew by Tuesday afternoon that Iran intended to attack American targets in Iraq, although it was unclear which ones. An early warning came from intelligence sources as well as communications from Iraq that conveyed Iran's intentions to launch the strike, the paper said. David Martin, Pentagon correspondent for the BBC's US partner CBS, said a defence official told him the US was warned of the attack "multiple hours" before, giving plenty of time for troops to take shelter in bunkers. The source said this warning came from a combination of satellites and signals and communications intercepts - the same systems that watch for North Korean tests. But Mr Martin said he had not found anybody, including one very senior officer, who knew anything about a heads-up from the Iraqi prime minister. This official did not agree with speculation that Iran was aiming to miss. "Our movements saved American lives," the official told him. BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus said: "Whether this was by design, or just due to shortcomings with the manufacture and accuracy of their missiles, as yet remains unclear. However, launching long range missiles against US bases is a risky way of making a point." He added: "Looking at the initial civilian satellite pictures of the impacts of the Iranian missiles at Al Asad air base, they appear to have destroyed several structures, so the lack of casualties could be as much by luck rather than design." |
"India will not fear terror," we hear the flag-waving strongman say, as he leads followers and soldiers in the snowy terrain of Kashmir before they come under a hail of bullets from militants. "Terror will fear India." | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Kevin PonniahBBC News, Delhi The man portrayed is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the scene is the most memorable of a two-and-a-half minute film trailer that has caused a political storm in the country ahead of the forthcoming election. The slick biopic, titled PM Narendra Modi, is due for release on 5 April, days before India's weeks-long voting period begins. It has elicited a furious reaction from the opposition Congress party, which sees it as a nakedly political move with links to the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party is not involved, but lead actor Vivek Oberoi is a noted Modi supporter. At the launch of a trailer earlier this month, he repeated a BJP election slogan - "Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai (Modi makes it possible)" - in response to a question. Senior BJP politicians have also been involved in events promoting the film, but PM Narendra Modi's producers have told India's Election Commission, which is examining if any election rules have been broken, that only their personal funds were used for its production. Producer and writer Sandip Singh said in an interview that he wanted to tell the story of a "great human being" to "inspire the people" of India. "I have nothing to do with politics or politicians or any party," he told the BBC, adding: "If [opposition politicians] are so scared of a film, aren't they confident of their work which they have done for their country and their respective states?" Even though only the trailer has been released, the film has already been derided by some critics as unsubtle propaganda. "The timing is incredibly suspect. It started shooting in January and in April it's coming out… Releasing it before the election smacks of desperation to cash in on the image [of Modi] and whatever image this film can [convey]," Raja Sen, a film critic for the Hindustan Times newspaper, told the BBC. PM Narendra Modi chronicles the prime minister's journey from selling tea on local trains as a child through his time in the right-wing Hindu RSS organisation and nearly 13 years as chief minister of western Gujarat state. Much of the BJP's popularity stems from Mr Modi's personal appeal and image as a tough, Hindu nationalist leader. For many critics, the most galling moment in the trailer is where Mr Modi is seen looking disturbed and upset during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. The riots occurred under Mr Modi's watch and he has been accused of doing little to stop them. He was once treated as a pariah in the West and denied US visas over what happened. The 68-year-old prime minister has always denied wrongdoing. "This is a fictionalised tale of Mr Modi's life," said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist and the author of a 2013 biography, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times. "On the contrary, he's been accused that the chief minister's office did not respond to distress calls [during the riots]." He said the dramatic scene set in Kashmir, where Mr Modi and the soldiers come under fierce attack on a bridge while he waves a gigantic Indian flag, was an attempt to fit elements of the leader's past into his party's contemporary political narrative. In 1992, as a BJP party worker, Mr Modi joined then party president MM Joshi on a protest march that traversed India from south to north, ending with the hoisting of an Indian flag in the Kashmir valley. Mr Mukhopadhyay said the convoy did come under fire - but from Sikh militants in Punjab state, not militants in Kashmir, which is contested by India and Pakistan. Anti-Pakistan sentiment and a tough Kashmir policy are at the forefront of Mr Modi and the BJP's election campaign, and so showing the prime minister on the frontline of the battle against terrorism in the disputed region would play well with much of the country, he said. "His past is being distorted to suit the present." Mr Ssingh admits that elements of the film, while based on real events, are "a little bit fictionalised". "We have to make sure that the audience like the situation and the scene and the film and the character," he said. Congress and other parties have argued that the film should not be released during the election period. If the Election Commission decides in their favour, the ruling could affect a separate web series based on Mr Modi's life. The 10-episode Modi: Journey of a Common Man is due for an April release on streaming platform Eros Now. Both the web series and the film PM Narendra Modi are just two of several overtly political features that have been released in the lead-up to the vote. The Accidental Prime Minister - a biopic of Mr Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh - was released in January and largely panned by critics, some of whom saw it as an attempt to attack a Congress icon. Another film - Uri: The Surgical Strike - dramatised India's 2016 covert military action in Pakistani-administered Kashmir after a militant attack on an army base. The patriotic war film has bolstered Mr Modi's nationalist reputation. Six weeks after its January release, India carried out air strikes in Pakistan following another mass-casualty attack on Indian troops in Kashmir. The phrase "surgical strike" is now a slogan among BJP supporters. At his first rally of the campaign season, on Thursday, the prime minister said that only he had "the courage to conduct surgical strikes on land, in air, as well as in space". But filmmakers are not only fawning over the incumbent government. My Name is RaGa, a film about the life of Mr Modi's main competitor, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has been promoted by its director as an inspiring "comeback story". There have been a clutch of other films this year about powerful regional politicians. For decades India's film industry was tightly controlled by the censorship board and explicitly political films used to be rare. The flurry of releases in recent months is "absolutely unprecedented", said Mr Sen. The problem, in his view, with films like PM Narendra Modi is that while they might be mocked by urban elites and panned by the media, "the Twitter liberal echo chamber aren't the only people voting". "But the point is that [outside the cities] and in less-educated parts of the country, they might be somewhat swayed by the vision of this megalomania that is presented to them directly. "The perception is that they can't show it in a movie unless it's true." |
What usually happens on social media after a terrorist attack? A hashtag circulates beginning with "Pray for..." or "I am...". Users share images of the carnage, and people express an equal measure of sadness and defiance. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rozina SiniBBC UGC and Social News But after deadly attacks on Saturday in Mogadishu, which claimed at least 281 lives, some social media users have been asking where the solidarity for Somalia is, and why there are no trending hashtags like those which have emerged after attacks in the US and Europe. Saturday's truck bomb was the deadliest terror attack in Somalia since the Islamist al-Shabab group launched its insurgency in 2007. Some bodies were burnt beyond recognition. Of those who were identified, one of the victims was Maryam Abdullahi, a medical student who was due to graduate the next day. Her father had flown to Mogadishu to attend her graduation but instead witnessed her burial. Heartbreaking stories like this are not dissimilar to those shared after violent attacks and natural disasters around the world when people lose their lives. Khaled Beydoun a professor of Law in Detroit, criticised the depth of media coverage in a social media post which has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook and more than 6,000 times on Twitter. "I hate comparing human tragedies, but the mainstream media makes you do it," he posted on Facebook. "There are no slogans claiming 'we are Mogadishu' and no catchy images floating around social media demonstrating solidarity." He is not alone in having this view. Between Saturday, when the attack took place, and the early hours of Monday morning the hashtag #IAmMogadishu had generated little over 200 tweets, but by Tuesday there were more than 13,000 tweets as social media users expressed their frustration over the lack of media attention the attacks were given. A number of vigils have been organised by Somali communities across the UK and US, including one on Tuesday organised by Kings College London's Somali society and assisted by UCL's Somali Society. Abdulkadir Elmi the President of the UCL Somali society said: "The main purpose of tonight is to show unity among young British Somalis. "Due to the lack of global solidarity we just want to show that there are people who do stand with Somalia." Despite the perceived lack of Western solidarity with Mogadishu on social platforms, Somalis themselves have been using the power of social media to mobilize support for charity efforts. Gurmad252 - it's name is a reference to "support" or "back up" - is a website established with the backing of the Somali authorities by volunteers, and the families of the victims to track and identify the missing on social media. A GoFundMe page was also set up by a Swedish Somali for funds to pay for a free ambulance service to help the affected. It has already reached its initial target of 100,000 Swedish krona (£9,351, $12,334). Many have also used the hashtags #weareone and #gurmadqaran to share details of charitable efforts, but the task of raising awareness on the internet is not easy in a country which was one of the last in the world to go online and where internet usage is still relatively low. |
In the 1990s many second-generation British Asians were coming of age and breaking free - they had grown up in a different country from their parents and were forging their own path. For Farah Sayeed, it meant making a difficult phone call which left her mother, Runi, heart-broken. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Kavita PuriBBC News In 1988 Farah Sayeed left her family home in London to study Biology and Psychology in Liverpool. But it wasn't just the lectures she was looking forward to. "University was my legitimate ticket to finally getting the freedom that everybody else seemed to be enjoying except me," she says. Farah's parents are Bengali Muslims who came to Britain in the late 1960s. She had a happy upbringing, although she sometimes felt stifled. Her parents were more liberal than their Bengali contemporaries, "but that's not the comparison I was making. I was merely comparing them to my English friends' parents." Her mother, Runi, acknowledges that she was an anxious and clingy parent, which she puts down to losing her own mother at a young age. However, she never interfered with where Farah was going to study. Farah loved being away from home, and felt liberated from the weight of her parents' expectations. But as her time at university was coming to an end, she worried that if she returned home she would be treated like a child again, and might even be pressured into an arranged marriage. So she found a one-bedroom flat in the city centre, and got jobs working in a bar and at a women's refuge. She then plucked up the courage to call her mother and tell her she wasn't coming back to London. Runi was so shocked by the news, she immediately hung up on her daughter. The conversation had lasted barely a few minutes. Farah didn't even get the chance to explain why she wanted to stay, and reacted with defiance. "That's fine by me," she thought. "They've cut me off, they've cut me out of their life. I've done nothing wrong." But the call left Runi heartbroken. She ran out of the house and went straight to an English friend's house, because she felt her Bengali friends would not understand. Runi needed to take in what she had heard, so they decided to drive to Botany Bay in Kent, to be by the sea. Runi cried all the way there in the car. Dressed in her sari, tears still flowing, she sat on a cliff top looking out to sea. But seeing the water was no balm, in fact it only made her feel worse. It reminded her of the Buriganga river that she had grown up with in Dhaka, where she would fish and play, and where she had been so happy. All she could feel was a sense of loss, not just for her daughter but for her country too. After the phone call, mother and daughter did not speak for nine months. During this estrangement, Farah met a group of people who would change her life. One night, a friend came into the bar where she was working and mentioned he was starting an Asian Writers Collective. He asked Farah to join. Days later, she walked into Toxteth library and found a group of British South Asians sitting around a table. "It was a revelation," says Farah. They had so many shared experiences of what it was like to grow up as a second-generation Asian and then come to university and be surrounded by predominantly white contemporaries. The Asian Writers Collective became a space for Farah to talk honestly about the ups and downs of her life. She could talk about the racism she had experienced and open up to like-minded people in a way she had never done before. Her parents' formative experiences had been in Bangladesh, so she felt she was not really like them - but she also felt very different from her English friends. Farah admits that before joining the group she had felt a bit lost at times, as though she existed in a no-man's land - and that could feel lonely. They quickly became her alternative family. After nine months of silence, Farah and Runi began tentatively to talk to one another again. But Runi was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened. She had always expected Farah to come home from university and be part of her life again. "Even now I feel weepy and full of hurt," she says, her voice breaking, 30 years later. That phone call with Farah was Runi's first realisation that her children, who had been brought up in Britain, had a different world view from hers. "Their understanding of the world and mine started to clash very seriously and I found that difficult to cope with," she says. It felt like a rejection, and was not something she had anticipated when she chose to bring up a family here. Runi had come to Britain as a young bride in 1968 to be with her husband, Muhammad, who was training to be a barrister. She had never met him before. They were married over the phone, while she was in Dhaka and he was in London. Afterwards they exchanged many letters, declaring their love for one another. Yet when Runi arrived at Heathrow airport and her new husband came to collect her, she had no idea who he was in the crowd. A graduate, Runi had been head teacher at a kindergarten outside Dhaka, but she started off doing menial jobs in London, as that was all that was available to her then. In time she became a teacher and later trained as a psychologist. She brought up three children, and it was hard. When you raise children in your own society, she says, talking of Bangladesh, "you have a kind of scaffold around you: your family, your friends, your society." Here, she and her husband were on their own. She worried that if her children went astray, it would be their fault. And then there was the racism they regularly encountered. Yet none of that was as hard as her eldest daughter telling her she had decided to stay away from home. Runi describes it as the most intense pain of her adult life. There are always differences between parents and children, but for first-generation immigrants whose children are brought up in their adopted country, those differences are more pronounced. Farah is now in her early 50s, and lives near her parents in London. She's a social worker and has three children of her own. She says she gets her strong-mindedness and independence from her mother, who she clearly admires and respects. Mother and daughter didn't discuss the difficult phone conversation with each other for many years. Since then both have changed their outlook. For Farah, not returning home had felt like "a decision that my very survival was based upon". But she now realises how angry and heart-broken her parents were. And Runi and her husband no longer worry about Farah making her own life decisions. "Now I know that life is different when you live in another country," she says. Runi denies planning an arranged marriage, although she admits she and her husband were concerned Farah might never marry. Then, in 1997, Farah brought someone home from the Asian Writers Collective - her future husband. "He's a British Pakistani Irish Muslim, and I think that definitely ticked enough boxes for them to have been overjoyed," Farah says. So it wasn't the end of the world that he wasn't Bengali. The battles for acceptance and equality by ethnic minority communities may be documented in the history books, but these smaller struggles are also part of the story. Delicate conversations like this one between Runi and Farah reveal that what represents personal progress for the second generation can feel, for the first, like a further untethering from the homeland they left. Runi wants her descendants to keep a connection to their culture, and now teaches Farah's children and her other grandchildren Bengali. She is mindful that for those coming to a new country, "the first thing you lose is language, then you lose your traditional clothes, then the last thing is food." Before lockdown, every Sunday the children would have lessons, then the three generations would eat together as a family. For the generation who came here, there is a wrench, a pull to another land, that never goes away. Runi never regrets coming to Britain, but there is a "longing for the place I left behind". It's a feeling that can be evoked at any time. While getting ready, on the day we met, Runi heard a Bengali song which took her back to her childhood in Bangladesh. "The lyrics made me feel so emotional," she says. That first generation also find themselves in a no-man's land - their history, culture and roots are still in their homeland, even though they have lived here for so long. Decisions like the one Farah made are a reminder to those pioneers that for their children there is a further pull away from one place, and a deeper anchoring in another. Runi left Dhaka aged 24. She has lived here for 53 years but, she says, "still I don't feel I'm totally embedded in England. I'm staying here for my children and for my grandchildren. Not for myself." You can hear the next episode of Three Pounds in My Pocket at 11:00 on Friday 22 January on BBC Radio 4 - or catch up later online You may also be interested in: One evening in 1993, Mits Sahni was standing in a queue in Leicester Square in central London. He was trying to get into a nightclub, but when he got to the front of the line he was turned away by the bouncer. It wasn't the first time this had happened. So he started his own club nights. Bombay Jungle: How British Asians broke into London's club scene |
Tall ships taking part in Bristol's annual Harbour Festival have started to arrive in the city. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Kathleen and May - believed to be the only three-masted schooner of her type left in the world - sailed in from Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. The Harbour Festival attracts over 200,000 people and is one of the biggest free events in the UK. It starts on 30 July and has this year expanded from the harbourside in the city centre out to Castle Park. |
A Canadian was appointed to run the Bank of England. A woman, Janet Yellen, will be appointed to run the more powerful US Federal Reserve, if President Obama's wish isn't blocked by Congress. Diversity rules in central banking? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Robert PestonEconomics editor About time you might say. Central banking has been more dominated by white men in suits than any other occupation I can think of. The hegemony of the Y chromosome in monetary policy is greater even than its hold on big business or big politics. For years I have struggled to understand why this is. What is it about the arcana of the money transmission mechanism that repel women just as they approach the secret chamber where they would have the power to expand or shrink the supply of money? The men of the Bank of England, showing less than magnificent imagination, always put it down to women going off to have babies just when they're beginning to learn the game, and - a bit of useful self insight here - the Bank being lousy at helping them to reintegrate when they're ready to return. For what it's worth, the Bank seems to be mending its ways a bit. It invented the post of chief operating office, and appointed Charlotte Hogg as first incumbent. And Jenny Scott, late of the BBC where she was in charge of comms, is back as an executive director and adviser to the governor on a part-time basis, now that her children are a bit older. So that is two women out of 16 at the Bank of England's executive top table, which is a 100% increase on recent history and an increase of infinity over tradition (and I am not counting the vacant post of human resources director). "Well done chaps," you might say. But you might not say "carry on" if you note that the glamorous jobs of governor, deputy governor for monetary policy, deputy governor for financial stability and deputy governor for prudential regulation - the policy making jobs - are all still filled by blokes. But what on earth could be more glamorous than being chairman of the Federal Reserve. I don't want to be accused of overstating it, but the appointment of Janet Yellen feels like quite a big deal. It is not quite like having a woman in charge of the Vatican, but it's not far off. So we've talked about the apparent lack of equal opportunities in the stewardship of our money. What about ideological and intellectual diversity? Well, for the next year or so at least, Yellen would represent continuity in a policy sense. She was an architect and supporter of the plan to create $85bn of new money a month to keep interest rates as low as possible in the hope of bringing down unemployment. So there'll be no charge back to tight-money, anti-inflationary zeal on her watch - or at least not until the risks of self-reinforcing price rises are impossible to ignore. And here is where you have to worry that she's being lined up as the "fall gal" (I don't think that's a sexist descriptor, but I am counting on you to put me right). Because phasing out the extraordinary, exceptional attempts to reduce the cost of money - the hallmark of the central banks of the major rich economies since the crash of 2008 - is fraught with dangers. Just the hint that the Federal Reserve would reduce that $85bn a month of money creation via bond purchases has pushed up important US and overseas interest rates and caused turmoil on currency markets. If that is the impact of just the possibility of a slight turning down of the money faucet, what kind of market reaction is likely as and when the valve is tightened? Maybe with investors' expectations ahead of events, it will be a non-event. But the current Fed chair Ben Bernanke and his colleagues, bar one (who wasn't Ms Yellen), haven't been ready to bet on that. They worry that interest rates will overshoot in an upward direction, and choke off America's fledgling recovery. And another thing. Ms Yellen would be picking up the pieces of the current inability of Congress to agree a new budget. With no end in sight to the partial shutdown of the US Federal government, and fears rising of that most momentous of accidents, a default by the United States (see Onset of the storm), at best she'll inherit an economy weaker than she would have hoped just a couple of weeks ago. At worst she'll be cleaning up a financial crisis not too different from the 2008 debacle. Which means, as minimum, extraordinary money manufacturing would persist for longer. Just to state the most basic challenge for her, the longer the US and global economy is hooked on massive money creation by the Fed, the harder will be the cold turkey, as and when it comes. And, to repeat the bloomin' obvious, because of the budget impasse, it looks like US addiction to cheap money will be fed for some time yet. Or to put it another way, if Congress ratifies her appointment, Ms Yellen will have to make history in a bigger sense than simply being the first woman to be seen as the most powerful financial player in the world. She'll also have to navigate all of us (and I mean all of us) through some of the most treacherous economic rocks we're ever likely to encounter. |
Despite little evidence that it's a widespread problem, rumours of "plastic" rice being sold in Africa and elsewhere persist on social media - driven in particular by viral videos which show bouncing rice balls. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Anisa SubedarBBC Trending The rumours spread over the last few weeks in Senegal, The Gambia and Ghana - and reached such a pitch that the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority decided to carry out an investigation. They invited consumers and traders to submit samples of any rice brands they suspected of being made of plastic - and eventually concluded that there was no plastic rice being sold on the Ghanaian market. Originating in China, rumours on social media have circulated since about 2010 of plastic rice being manufactured and mixed in with the real rice supply in order to trick consumers. The rumours were originally prompted by "fake rice" scandals, although they didn't involve food made entirely out of plastic. In one case, companies were passing off ordinary but edible rice as premium "Wuchang" grains. Then in 2011, reports emerged that rice was being produced with potatoes and an industrial sticky resin. The rumours were further compounded when a Chinese restaurant association official warned that eating three bowls of "plastic rice" was the equivalent of eating one plastic bag. At no point, however, were there confirmed cases of large amounts of plastic chips being passed off as rice. "Plastic rice" is manufactured for use in shipping boxes, but it's likely that in most cases the cost of the chips would actually be more expensive than real rice. The story had reached social media in Africa by 2016 when Nigerian customs authorities confiscated 2.5 tonnes of rice. Customs officials initially claimed that the rice was plastic - and were later forced to backtrack when the country's health minister said there was no evidence for the claims. Tests showed that the rice did however contain a high level of bacteria, Nigeria's National Agency For Food and Drugs said. Bouncy rice But rumours have persisted that plastic is being sold as rice, fuelled by videos which show people bouncing rice balls. Some also purport to show how the rice is made in factories. Alexander Waugh, director of the Rice Association, a UK-based industry group, says the videos may be authentic - but not because the grains are plastic. Rice - when prepared in the right way - can actually bounce, Waugh told BBC Trending radio. "The natural characteristics of rice are carbohydrates and proteins and you can do something like that with rice," Waugh says. It could be that protectionism and a distrust of foreign imports is behind the persistence of the rumours, according to journalist Alexandre Capron of France 24's, The Observers. More from Trending Capron has worked extensively to debunk the myths around plastic rice and says some people are deliberately sharing fake videos to encourage consumers to buy more locally grown rice. "The rumour is more popular in countries which are dependent on imported rice like Ivory Coast or Senegal," he says. "The rumour is so huge that governments are compelled to make statements... as to why there is no plastic rice." Hassan Arouni, editor of the BBC's Focus on Africa, has looked into the "fake rice" rumours and says he's not sure whether people in West African countries are deliberately targeting food exporting countries such as China. But he does think food safety authorities in West Africa are doing the right thing by addressing the rumours head-on. "I think that's the way to go and demonstrate to the public this [rumour] is not true," he says. "I think it will reassure people that this is fake news and probably somebody being naughty on the internet." Blog by Anisa Subedar You can find BBC Trending on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @BBCtrending. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending. |
Plans to regenerate Swindon town centre have moved a step closer after the council granted outline permission for the first phase of a £330m development. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Union Square scheme will include residential apartments, a multi-storey car park, a bus station, medical centre, shops and restaurants. The project is to be situated between Swindon railway station and The Parade. Chris Hitchings of regeneration company Forward Swindon said the planning permission was "a very important step". A planning application for the first phase of development on the former police station site off Fleming Way will now be submitted to Swindon Borough Council. Developers Muse want to begin building work in April 2012. |
Jersey's Freedom of Information law should be in force by 2015 after politicians formally voted it in. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The new law, which gives access to information held by States departments, was passed on Wednesday. Deputy Rob Duhamel called for the law to be referred to scrutiny but he was defeated with only his own vote in favour. The States have asked the Chief Minister to make sure the new law comes into force in 2015. Deputy Roy le Herissier said he was concerned the law could be lost altogether amid concerns it could cost too much and be too complicated to introduce. |
Former glamour model and TV star Katie Price has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Loose Women panellist, 40, was held after police came across a damaged car stopped at the roadside on Shooters Hill Road, Woolwich, at about 02:00 BST. Scotland Yard said a woman inside the vehicle was arrested. Ms Price was taken to a south London police station but has since been released under investigation. |
Ceara Thacker's parents believe she "fell through the cracks" between various mental health services while at university. Speaking after a coroner ruled their daughter killed herself, they say they hope lessons can be learned from her death. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By George BowdenBBC News The end of Ceara Thacker's first year at the University of Liverpool was just weeks away. She seemed upbeat and happy when she returned home for the Easter break, her father Iain recalled. The 19-year-old was excited about a big family party and to see her boyfriend Sam - and his dog - who still lived in Yorkshire. Things appeared to have been going well for Ceara. The philosophy student had always been a voracious reader and a deep thinker and the course seemed like a good fit for her. She had loved the atmosphere of Liverpool when she visited on an open day, and had made good friends. Yet just a few weeks after she returned to Liverpool after that Easter break at home, Ceara was found dead in her halls room. A coroner ruled she died by suicide. It is the stunned silence Iain Thacker remembers most about the moment he and Ceara's mother Lorraine were told, just hours after their daughter had died, that she had previously attempted suicide. "Straight away we looked aghast at each other and thought, 'How can we not know this?' 'How can we not be told this?'" he said. Ceara had struggled with her mental health since she was 13 and first showed her mother a self-inflicted cut on her hand. Throughout her early teenage years, Ceara was helped by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, commonly known as CAMHS, and had always been fairly open about her mental health with her parents. She also seemed able to seek professional help when she felt she needed it, Iain said. Ceara declared her mental health problems on both her university application, and it was followed up by the University of Liverpool. "I remember she couldn't wait for us to leave," Iain said of the day he dropped her off at the halls of residence. Yet over the next eight months, unknown to her parents, Ceara would seek help for mental health problems several times before she died, the inquest heard. Just a few weeks after her arrival in Liverpool, Ceara attended A&E and told a mental health nurse she was struggling. She later attended a GP appointment and was prescribed anti-depressants. Into the new year, Ceara continued to struggle. On 21 February 2018, the coroner heard she had texted a friend to say she had taken a number of tablets. The friend took Ceara to the reception in the halls of residence and told the staff member there. They ordered her a taxi to get to A&E but nobody escalated the incident to other parts of the university, including its mental health team. After being treated for the overdose at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Ceara was assessed by two mental health nurses. The inquest was told how records of that assessment were incomplete and not sent to Ceara's GP. One of the nurses, Lindsay Cleary, told the inquest she was sorry for the error, which came after a busy shift. The day after, Ceara sent an email of her own accord to the university's mental health team requesting an appointment. She did not receive a response for almost two months due to what the university said were "exceptional circumstances" - including a strike by staff at its mental health advice service. Ceara was eventually offered an appointment, her first with the campus mental health team, but none of the plan put together to help her at the meeting was acted upon. She died two weeks later on 11 May 2018. The University of Liverpool said it had since "conducted a thorough review of the support Ceara was offered" and had also recruited more staff at its mental health advice service. After her death, a letter from Ceara's GP practice was found in her room, asking her to get in touch. A handwritten note on the page urged "do it!!" underlined and in capital letters. "We don't know why Ceara didn't feel able to tell us what was going on. However, we feel very strongly that someone in a position of responsibility needed to ask her if she wanted us to be told," Iain said. "If we had been told what was happening with Ceara we would have made a difference." 'Progress being made' Rosie Tressler, the chief executive of mental health charity Student Minds, told the BBC she was optimistic about the progress being made by the higher education sector with innovative schemes being tried and tested by institutions. At Bristol University, where about a dozen students died through suspected suicide in a short period, all students are asked to "opt-in" to a policy which automatically informs a parent or guardian if there are concerns for their wellbeing in the future. "We can't rest on our laurels. With so many challenges, we can't stop working on student mental health. It will require partnership between universities, NHS services and the student voice," Ms Tressler added. What did the coroner say? Liverpool area coroner Anita Bhardwaj concluded that Ceara died by suicide. She said Ceara experienced an "unacceptable delay" in accessing the university's mental health service and there were several missed opportunities to refer her for mental health support. Mrs Bhardwaj said there was no record of discussions between medical professionals and Ceara about contacting her family. She added: "It is difficult and unclear whether Ceara would have had a different outcome had she had additional mental health appointments, been given an urgent appointment, and had family involvement." What did the University of Liverpool say? Gavin Brown, of the University of Liverpool, said it had "instigated a number of improvements to mental health support services" with a £500,000 investment and new guidance on asking students about sharing information. He said some students might not want to inform family and that in those cases staff would work with students to "identify alternative support networks". The university has chosen not to adopt a campus-wide "opt-in" policy to automatically inform parents of concerns for a student's wellbeing. Information and advice If you or someone you know is struggling with issues raised by this story, find support through BBC Action Line. |
The UK's official tally of coronavirus-related deaths has passed 20,000 - a figure the chief scientist once said would represent a "good outcome". It's a huge number and hard to visualise. How can we grasp the scale of this loss? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Jon KellyBBC Stories On the afternoon of 17 March 2020, in a Westminster committee room, Sir Patrick Vallance leaned forward in his chair. Back then, the number of people confirmed to have died in the UK after contracting Covid-19 stood at 71. Stricter measures had just been introduced to tackle the virus. Sir Patrick, the government's chief scientific adviser, was asked if the final tally of British deaths could be limited to 20,000 or below. That would, he told MPs, be "a good outcome". Eleven days later, with the official death tally now at 1,091, Stephen Powis, NHS England's medical director, repeated Sir Patrick's benchmark. "If we can keep deaths below 20,000," he told the daily Downing Street media briefing, "we will have done very well." Already - less than six weeks after Sir Patrick's statement, and a month on from Stephen Powis's - the 20,000 figure has been surpassed. No-one can predict what the final number of deaths will be when the pandemic is over, or what will ultimately be considered the benchmark for a "good" outcome. Nonetheless, the 20,000 figure serves as a landmark and passing it has grim resonance. Of course, the government is only recording hospital cases where a person dies with the coronavirus infection in their body. Other estimates have been much higher. "The daily official tally gives a very limited picture of the impact of the virus - if we take into account reporting delays and deaths outside hospital, we probably passed 20,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19 a week ago," says Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge. "There are also many thousands of extra deaths in the community that have not been attributed to Covid-19, either through caution in putting it on the death certificate, or reluctance to send people to hospital." And even though a ceiling of 20,000 fatalities was considered a hopeful scenario, it was only ever so in the most the limited sense. A tally on that scale would still be "horrible", Sir Patrick told the Commons Health Select Committee back on 17 March. It would mean an enormous number of deaths. "Having spent 20 years as an NHS consultant as well as an academic," he said, "I know exactly what that looks and feels like." How many excess deaths? By Robert Cuffe, BBC News head of statistics In the three weeks up to Easter, just under 17,000 more deaths were registered than we would normally see at this time of year, a record spike, most of which can be attributed to the epidemic. But more than half of the coronavirus deaths announced daily have been reported since Easter, so by now the true picture is likely to be far higher. Registered deaths capture all deaths in the community or care homes and deaths caused indirectly by the virus: people not seeking or getting treatment because our health service is under pressure, or people suffering in the lockdown. So that gives a better picture of what is really going on. But it takes up to 10 days for deaths to be registered and analysed. Could most people say they, too, had a sense of the scale of 20,000 lives lost? That is roughly the population of Newquay in Cornwall and Bellshill in North Lanarkshire. It's the capacity of the Liberty Stadium in Swansea or Fratton Park in Portsmouth. You could visualise those places, if you've seen them. But while there have been clusters of cases, this comparison obscures the breadth of the virus's impact. Unlike residents of a town or spectators at a sporting ground, the lives lost haven't been concentrated in one particular location. They've been all around. And if you were to attempt to visualise them, they would not look like a randomly selected cross-section of the population, either. People over 70 are at higher risk. So too are those with underlying health conditions. Data suggest men may be affected more than women, and that there has been a disproportionately large impact on people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Your perception of the death toll may also differ depending on where you are. If you live near a main road in London, the UK's coronavirus epicentre, the sound of sirens might have brought home to you the scale of the emergency response. When you look up at the clear spring skies, all but empty of the usual passenger aircraft, your view of the air ambulances carrying patients to hospitals will be unimpeded. If you live on the Western Isles of Scotland, where the rate of infections has been dramatically lower, the same sensory cues won't be there for you, though you may notice the lack of vapour trails. The very fact of social distancing makes it harder to commemorate even those you lose who are closest to you. Saying goodbye is often impossible. Numbers at funeral gatherings are strictly limited. You mourn the deaths of loved ones on social media, Zoom and Skype rather than at wakes. You could compare 20,000 with other death tolls. It's nearly seven times more than the number who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks and five-and-a-half times more than the number who died as a result of Northern Ireland's Troubles. But compared with most conflicts and natural disasters, the impact is far more dispersed and hidden. There will be no war cemeteries like those that show the scale of the loss of life in the great conflicts of the 20th Century - though the largest of those, the World War One Tyne Cot Cemetery in Flanders, with its 11,965 graves, would be too small for 20,000 Covid-19 casualties. Previous pandemics might offer a better, if more ominous yardstick. So far, the toll stands at less than 1/10th of the number of British deaths attributed to Spanish flu after WW1. But relevant too are the illnesses that kill equivalent numbers each year with minimal attention. "Twenty thousand deaths represents a huge amount of illness, human pain and personal loss," says Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter. "But it's also important to remember that, although Covid-19 is a far more serious illness than seasonal flu, in each of the winters of 2014-5 and 2017-18 there were over 26,000 deaths associated with flu, which did not receive much attention." But the most glaring gap in our understanding of the pandemic is the emotional impact of its spread. Each time a Covid-19 statistic is recorded, how many other people are affected besides? Is it possible to calculate, let alone envisage, the scale of tragedy visited on loved ones, neighbours and friends? Let alone 20,000 times over. When 82-year-old Ruth Burke became the fourth person in Northern Ireland to die with Covid-19, her daughter Brenda Doherty insisted that Mrs Burke was more than just a number. "I don't want my mum being another statistic," Ms Doherty told BBC Radio Ulster. "She was a loving mother. She was a strong person." Picture editor: Emma Lynch |
A man with multiple sclerosis (MS) who requires almost 24-hour care has said he "can't exist" without the help of care assistants and has called for them to be given more reward for their work. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Martin Harney said he was finding it increasingly difficult to find carers as those who do the job are leaving the profession due to low pay. He said carers' 15-minute home calls were putting pressure on them and him. Independent care providers have warned that they are struggling to cope. Rising costs, including the recently introduced National Living Wage, means some companies are struggling to stay afloat, the Independent Health and Care Providers has said. Respect Northern Ireland's health trusts pay the care provider companies an average of £12 an hour. From that, the providers pay carers' wages and other costs, such as national insurance, pension contributions and petrol allowance. But Mr Harney said he did not believe a value could be put on the care he receives. "It's my life. I can't exist without it. I need people with me all the time," he said. "At the minute I'm finding it very hard to find carers because those who wanted to do the job were not getting the respect and pay the needed. "The carer people don't get the satisfaction or the reward that they deserve." Tough He receives 15-minute visits from his carers, and during that time they have to wash, dress and feed him, as well as give him medication. He said that is not enough time those tasks to be carried out. Charlene McCoy, who is Mr Harney's care assistant, said that while she loves her job it can be "extremely tough". "The fact you have to try and squeeze so many duties to be able to give the right level of care at all times to that client within 15 minutes is extremely difficult," Ms McCoy said. "I'm committed to my clients, I like to speak to them on a personal, human level rather than rush in and out of calls." Commitments She said that she wants to remain in the job but the level of pay she receives leaves her in a difficult position. "Unfortunately, the minimum wage attachment to this just does not place the value that I have personally to the role," she said. "I have personal financial commitments to keep up. "If we don't raise the wage for this, the likes of myself will be forced to look elsewhere. "People have to leave a career that they are so passionate about just so they can continue to look after themselves." |
Politicians, public bodies and the business community have been reacting to the news that Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has resigned in protest at the handling of a botched heating scheme that is likely to cost the taxpayer £490m. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Here is a selection of their comments: Outgoing First Minister Arlene Foster "I am disappointed that Martin McGuinness has chosen to take the position he has today. "His actions have meant that, at precisely the time we need our government to be active, we will have no government and no way to resolve the RHI problems. "It is clear that Sinn Féin's actions are not principled, they are political. "Let me make it clear, the DUP will always defend unionism and stand up for what is best for Northern Ireland and it appears from the deputy first minister's resignation letter that is what annoys Sinn Féin the most." Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire "The UK government has a primary role to provide political stability in Northern Ireland and we'll be doing all we can over the coming days to work with the parties to find a solution to the current situation. "The position is very clear. If Sinn Féin does not nominate a replacement to the role of deputy first minister, then I'm obliged to call and election of the assembly within a reasonable period. "I would urge the leaders of the political parties to come together and work together to find a solution to current situation and we'll be doing all that we can with the political parties and the Irish government to that end." Justice Minister Claire Sugden "A reasonable resolution could have been achieved which leads me to believe that this crisis goes beyond RHI and points to a more intractable situation. "The DUP and Sinn Féin's inability to work together is a fundamental flaw not envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement and will continue to burden the people of Northern Ireland as long as their best interests come second to entrenched party politics. "Today is a dark day for Northern Ireland. I am truly fearful for our future." Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt "If this was just about RHI, Sinn Féin would hang in, they would hold the DUP and the first minister to account, they'd take steps to introduce cost controls and they'd support a public inquiry into what went wrong. "But this is not about RHI - it's about Sinn Féin. We've now had 10 years characterised by disappointment, debacles and scandals. "They are incapable of governing this country. They cannot see the greater good. The Ulster Unionists fought hard in 1998 to get these institutions up and running. We saw devolution as being for the benefit of the people. "I don't know what Sinn Féin and the DUP have in mind [following the resignation], but it's very clear they'll do what's good for the parties, not what's good for the electorate." SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood "It looks like we're heading towards an election and that's happening because of Arele Foster's arrogance. "But if people want an election, let's have it, because people need to hear that we still have no programme for government and now we have costs spiralling out of control with RHI. "We also now won't have a public inquiry into all of this. We agree with Martin McGuinness when he tells us the DUP have disrespected the nationalist community. But some people wanted to stand side by side with the DUP, holding their hand. "If DUP and Féin aren't prepared to hold people accountable for the RHI scandal, lets have the electorate hold them to account." Alliance Party Leader Naomi Long "This changes nothing. [It] really is a case of 'any lengths' to avoid doing the job of running the country, setting a budget, preparing for Brexit." TUV Leader Jim Allister "I've long said mandatory coalition would implode. Today it has. It's time to move on. "The people of Northern Ireland deserve good government. "There's no point trying to glue back together something that will never work." Green Party Leader Stephen Agnew "I'm disappointed at the inability of the two parties to deliver stability to Northern Ireland. "We've nothing to fear from an election. As one of the parties that highlighted concerns about RHI from the beginning, I believe people will realise the constructive role we have played. "But I believe and election is not what the people of Northern Ireland want. Today can only be a bad news day for Northern Ireland. "I hope in a a week's time, we're hearing a better story and that the other parties step up and deliver what's required." People Before Profit MLA Foyle Eamonn McCann "I think it was an inevitable thing to do and when things become inevitable in politics then it is right for them to happen. "It was clear to us that there was no mechanism for dealing with the RHI scandal within the machinery of Stormont as it stood. "I believe that we cannot live any longer with the petition of concern and a number of the other aspects of the machinery of Stormont and we also can't go on without putting right at the centre issues to do with the economy and society which have been marginalised. "Everybody seems to assume that the DUP is coming back to Stormont with the same strength and numbers, we shall see whether that happens." Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams "Martin McGuinness has led from the front in the Executive for the last 10 years, defending the integrity of the political institutions and realising the potential of the Good Friday Agreement. "In spite of the provocation, disrespect and arrogance from the DUP, and the failures of the British government to fulfil its responsibilities over that time, Martin McGuinness has always put the people and the political process first. "This is in contrast to the DUP who have been acting to undermine equality and partnership. "The money squandered in the RHI project belonged to unionists as well as other taxpayers. "It is money which should have been used to end poverty and disadvantage or to build public services. No minister responsible for such bad governance in any other administration would be still in office." Former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers "Arlene Foster took a reasonable approach. I don't think it was necessary to have an election to make sure this was all properly investigated. I believe the fundamentals of the devolved settlement are strong." Nick Coburn, President, Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce "Having remained as positive as we can for as long as we can, there is presently a very deep sense of frustration at the instability which now characterises our political institutions. "The hope and optimism which greeted the Fresh Start Agreement has dissipated. Business confidence stalled because of the uncertainty regarding Brexit and the change of the US Administration. "The current political situation adds to this uncertainty and will have a negative impact on economic and social development. "Meanwhile, the global economy is growing, so too are the economies in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, where they are working on ambitious economic growth plans. "The sad reality is that Northern Ireland is falling behind, and we need political stability to deliver the ambitious plans set out in the new Programme for Government and Export Matters Action Plan to grow trade." Angela McGowan, Director, CBI Northern Ireland "The business community is not seeking to comment on the specifics that have given rise to today's events, other than to underline that there has seldom been a more important time for all our citizens to have a strong well-functioning Executive. "Ahead of the triggering of Article 50, expected in March, Northern Ireland urgently requires strong leadership and representation as the UK negotiates its future relationship with the EU. "It is vital that our collective voice is heard during this crucial period to achieve the best possible outcome for all of our citizens. Margaret McGuckin, Historical institutional abuse campaigner "We have waited for years. The launch of the HIA report is scheduled for 20 January...and now it will gather dust. "I started this campaign, nine years I am doing this, and now the government collapses on us again. I am angry and hurting for everybody." Alison Suttie, Liberal Democrats, Shadow NI Secretary "The stability of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland is more important now than ever, given the challenges presented by Brexit. This needs cool heads and calm leadership. "A peaceful society, politically stable institutions and a strong economy are intricately bound together. "The people of Northern Ireland must have confidence that there is a coherent, cohesive and collective government that is open, accountable and working in the best interests of the whole of Northern Ireland." |
For decades, India has recruited Tibetan refugees to a covert unit dedicated to high-altitude combat. But the recent death of a soldier in the force has put the spotlight on this unit, reports the BBC's Aamir Peerzada. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A photograph of Nyima Tenzin was kept in the corner of his house, surrounded by warm light spilling from oil lamps. The hum of prayers continued in the next room, where family members, relatives and Buddhist monks were chanting. Days earlier, the 51-year-old soldier had died in a landmine blast near Pangong Tso Lake in the Himalayan region of Ladakh, where Indian and Chinese troops have been facing off in recent months. Sources in the Indian army told the BBC that he was killed by an old mine left from the 1962 war the two countries fought. "On 30 August, around 10:30 in the night, I got a call, saying he was injured," Tenzin's brother, Namdakh, recalled. "They did not tell me that he had died. A friend confirmed the news to me later." Tenzin, his family told the BBC, had been a member of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), a covert military unit largely comprising Tibetan refugees. It reportedly has about 3,500 soldiers. Tenzin was a refugee too and he had served in the force for more than 30 years, his family said. Little is known about the SFF, whose existence has never been officially acknowledged by Indian officials. But it's also a well-known secret, familiar to military and foreign policy experts as well as journalists who cover the region. Yet, Tenzin's death - in the last weekend of August amid rising tensions between India and China - prompted the first public acknowledgement of Tibetans' role in the Indian military. The people of Leh, the capital of Ladakh where Tenzin lived, and the Tibetan community came together to bid him farewell in a grand funeral, complete with military honours, including a 21-gun salute. Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav attended the funeral and placed a wreath on Tenzin's coffin, which was draped in the flags of India and Tibet and was carried to his home in an army truck. Mr Madhav even tweeted, describing Tenzin as a member of the SFF and "a Tibetan who laid down his life protecting" India's borders in Ladakh. He later deleted the tweet in which he also referred to an Indo-Tibet border rather than an Indo-China border. Although the government and the army made no official statement, the funeral was widely reported in national media, which interpreted it as a "sharp signal" and a "strong message" to Beijing. "Till now this [the SFF] was a secret, but it has been acknowledged now and I am very happy," said Namdakh Tenzin. "Anyone who serves should be named and supported. "We fought in 1971, which was kept a secret, then in 1999 we fought Pakistan in Kargil, that was also kept a secret. But now for the first time it has been acknowledged. This makes me so happy." The SFF, experts say, was created after the 1962 war between India and China. "The aim was to recruit Tibetans who had fled to India, and had high altitude guerrilla warfare experience, or were part of Chushi Gandruk, a guerrilla Tibetan force, which fought China till the early 1960s," said Kalsang Rinchen, a Tibetan journalist and filmmaker, whose documentary Phantoms of Chittagong is based on extensive interviews with former SFF troops. In 1959, after a failed anti-Chinese uprising, the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and set up a government in exile in India, where he continues to live. Tens of thousands of Tibetans followed him into exile and sought asylum in India. India's support f the Dalai Lama, and the refugees who came with him, quickly became a source of friction between the two countries. India's humiliating defeat in 1962 added to the tension. BN Mullik, the then chief of Indian intelligence, is reported to have set up the SFF with the help of the CIA. The extent of Washington's role is disputed - while some sources say it was a purely Indian initiative with "full endorsement" from the US, others say that some 12,000 Tibetans were trained by US special forces and partly funded by the US. "Most of the training was given by Americans," Jampa, a Tibetan refugee, who joined the SFF in 1962, told the BBC. "There was one guy from the CIA who spoke in broken Hindi - he trained four of our men who understood Hindi as most of us didn't know Hindi. Then those four men trained others." The force only recruited Tibetans initially but later expanded to include non-Tibetans. Throughout, experts say, the force has reported directly to the federal cabinet and is always headed by a high-ranking official from the army. "The primary motive was to fight China covertly and gather intelligence," Mr Rinchen said. The Chinese deny any knowledge of the SFF. "I'm not aware of Tibetans in exile in the Indian armed forces. You may ask the Indian side for this," Chinese spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a recent press conference. "China's position is very clear. We firmly oppose any country providing convenience in any form for Tibet independence forces' separatist activities," she added. Beijing still governs Tibet as an autonomous region of China. And its relations with India have worsened since June when border clashes between the two sides left 20 Indian soldiers dead. India said Chinese soldiers also died in the clash but Beijing has not commented on this. The cause of the decades-long tension is the poorly demarcated border between the two countries - it cuts through miles of inhospitable terrain. "It's an odd situation for India," says professor Dibyesh Anand, head of the School of Social Science at the University of Westminster. "India has essentially indicated to China that it will use Tibetans against them, but officially they will not say that." "We did everything the Indian army does, but we never got the usual military honours or acknowledgement - it still makes me sad," Mr Jampa, the former SFF fighter, said. It's hard to say what impact India's recent subtle acknowledgement of the SFF will have on its relations with China. But the tensions between the neighbours certainly worry more than 90,000 Tibetans in India, many of whom still hope to return to Tibet some day. But India feels like home too. "We all feel proud that Tenzin gave his life for two of our countries - India and Tibet," said his brother-in-law, Tudup Tashi. You may also be interested in: |
Shelves all over the world are empty, there's slim pickings online and the few suppliers that are selling are pricing at way over the odds. We're being told to wash our hands and use hand sanitiser - but a lot of people are struggling to find any. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Stephanie HegartyPopulation correspondent If everyone in the world had one small bottle of sanitiser we would need 385 million litres of the stuff. But that's not a lot compared to what healthcare professionals will get through during the coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) expects them to need 2.9 billion litres of sanitiser per month. That's about 35 billion litres per year. Before coronavirus, the world produced just under three billion litres per year, according market analysts Arizton Advisory and Intelligence. And that perhaps explains why there is now a problem getting hold of it. On Amazon, if you try buying alcohol-based sanitiser - the type recommended by the WHO - you'll find all of the usual brands are sold out. Here in the UK, just a few days ago only one seller seemed to have any in stock. A 500ml bottle was priced at £30 ($35) - at least 10 times what it would have been in February. It's since been reduced to £20, but that is still about seven times pre-pandemic prices. It's easy to accuse sellers like these of price-gouging and many reviews underneath the listing did just that. But the company selling it, Herts Tools, says it's not that simple. "We've been getting an unfair bashing really," said the friendly man who answered the phone, Paul Stephenson. "There are people out there saying we're taking the mickey but I can assure you we're not. "We're in a position where we're making enough profit margin on the hand sanitiser just to keep ourselves afloat." The company usually sells and rents tools to the construction industry and it only started selling sanitiser because customers were requesting it. But it has struggled to get hold of supplies and the cost is rising every day. "I can't even guarantee what I paid today I'm going to pay tomorrow," says Stephenson. And that's because the price of the key ingredient - alcohol - has increased dramatically. The sanitiser Herts Tools has been selling is made by a UK-based skincare products company called Zidac Laboratories. Its director, Jurica Weissbarth, has been fielding a lot of calls lately. Zidac can make 150,000 bottles of hand sanitiser a day, but for the past two weeks the production line has been down. It hasn't been able to get ethanol, the alcohol it puts in its sanitiser, and which has to make up at least 60% for it to kill viruses (and bacteria) effectively. Weissbarth used to pay around £700 ($800) for a tonne of ethanol - enough for 32,000 bottles of hand gel. Last week a new supplier offered him a tonne for £10,000 - more than 10 times the ordinary price. He politely declined. But this week he was in celebratory mood after buying a batch on Tuesday for only three or four times more than usual. The BBC called several distributors of industrial alcohol. One woman who answered the phone was close to tears; the company she worked for was closing down due to lack of stock. Others were so busy that staff were overwhelmed and couldn't talk. One website said requests for orders had gone from 300 a day to more than 6,000. None were taking new orders. If sanitisers aren't made from ethanol, they're made from isopropyl alcohol, also called IPA. There are a limited number of companies that produce these types of alcohol on an industrial scale. The biggest producers are in China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. In France the government has ordered all IPA made in the country to stay there. Other countries could easily follow suit. "That is pretty extreme in Europe, where we are supposed to be all as one," says Steven Willekes from chemical supplier DutCH2 in the Netherlands. He thinks any country that doesn't have its own supply of these alcohols could run out of sanitiser very soon. And that explains why drinks companies such as Pernod Ricard, which makes Absolut Vodka, and Diageo, which makes Johnnie Walker whisky - and other smaller companies from London to New York, to Manila in the Philippines - are now providing alcohol to be used for making sanitiser, or are planning to make it themselves. The Indian government has expressly asked the alcoholic drinks industry and the sugarcane industry to provide ethanol to hand sanitiser companies. Chad Friese of the Chippawa Valley Ethanol Company in the US says there is enough alcohol out there to make an awful lot of sanitiser, it's just being used in different industries. His factory is running at full capacity and is sending as much as possible to the sanitiser industry, but it has other commitments too. "I think there's plenty of production it's just not going into the right channels right now. Somebody that's producing alcohol for Diageo or somebody like that, they have a commitment to send it to them and not to someone who is making hand sanitiser," he says. "It's just about getting the supply to the right people." So when Britain's third-richest man promised to build hand sanitiser production plants in the UK, Germany and France within days, and to supply hospitals free of charge, it would have been logical to wonder where he would get the alcohol to fill his production lines. Well, he shouldn't have too much of a problem. Sir Jim Ratcliffe owns Ineos, one of Europe's biggest manufacturers of both ethanol and IPA. Update 4 April 2020: The original version of this story gave an incorrect figure for the quantity of hand sanitiser produced annually, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, as a result of a mistake in the report by Arizton Advisory and Intelligence. You may also be interested in: The coronavirus crisis is throwing many pregnant women's birth plans up in the air - and leading some health trusts to increase home births. Birth in a pandemic: 'You are stronger than you think' |
Two men have pleaded guilty to affray in connection with the death of a man from Teesside whose body was recovered from the River Tees. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Luke Jobson, 22, went missing following a night out in Yarm in January, 2019. Edwin Taha, 20, of Lavender Way, Norton, and Ali Abdulmajieed, 19, of Corvus Drive, Stockton, pleaded guilty earlier ahead of their trial. Taha and Abdulmajieed are due to be sentenced next month at Teesside Crown Court. Charges of affray against Ryan Alpay, 19, of Duneside, Elm Tree, Stockton, and Hammad Asif, 18, of Osborne Road, Stockton, were ordered to remain on file. Mr Jobson's body was recovered from the river on 28 January 2019. |
Fifty years ago Singapore became an independent state, after leaving the short-lived Malaysian Federation. With no natural resources, just how did this tiny country go from swamp to one of the region's leading economies? On the strength of its human resources - immigrants like my grandfather. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sharanjit LeylBBC, Singapore At the age of 17, with only the shirt on his back, Fauja Singh left his parents in a small Punjabi village and made the long and dusty journey on foot and by train to Kolkata (Calcutta), where he caught a ship to his new home. It was the early 1930s. He arrived in a melting pot of cultures and chaos on an island at the mouth of a river, which bustled with trade - Singapore. Once a swamp-filled jungle, when the British arrived in 1819, under the leadership of Sir Stamford Raffles, the makings of modern Singapore began. Lying at the mid-point of the shipping route between India and China, it became a thriving trading port, and with this trade came a huge influx of immigrants from all over Asia. Life was not easy for the new arrivals. Many from China worked as labourers and lived in squalid and cramped conditions. Fauja worked in jobs ranging from night watchman to milk vendor and moneylender. When he had made enough money he went home to fetch his brother, sister and young bride from Amritsar. Fauja and his wife Swaran Kaur had eight children. His eldest son Kernail excelled academically and made it to the country's most prestigious school, Raffles Institution. He went on to win scholarships at university and after graduating he joined the government of a young and newly independent nation. Fauja Singh was my grandfather, and Kernail my father. They paved the way for me to be educated and well-off. It's a story that echoes that of many Singaporeans, and also of the nation itself. Singaporeans are among the world's wealthiest populations - Ferraris and Rolls Royces are a common sight on the clean streets. It's a far cry from the island's humble beginnings, when more than a million Singaporeans lived in "squatters" - makeshift wooden houses in villages known by the Malay term "kampongs". My father and his siblings grew up on a large plot of land that sits in current-day Bukit Merah, an area in central Singapore whose name means "Red Hill". My grandfather claimed the land by planting a perimeter of banana trees which formed dense foliage and kept others out. Then he built a house so large, he would later rent out its back rooms to lodgers. But the house, like many at the time, was rudimentary. My aunt, Manjit Kaur, was born there in pre-independence Singapore. "It was a hard life. There was no water, no healthy water," she says. "We lived a simple life, our neighbours were simple. We looked after each other and we had the same goal - to survive." In 1959, Britain took the first steps toward granting independence by allowing Singapore to govern itself. The charismatic Lee Kuan Yew of the People's Action Party won a landslide victory in the first fully elected parliament. Manjit remembers the family attended a political rally, despite not speaking the language. "We didn't understand a word but I think whatever he was saying must have been quite important because everyone was paying attention. They clapped every time he would say something. When they clapped, we clapped," she says. This was a revelation to me - I had no idea my grandfather had had any interest in politics. In August 1963, Singapore joined the Federation of Malaysia. It was made up of four countries and territories - Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore. Manjit remembers celebrating the union at school. "We started learning a song called something like Let's Get Together, Sing a Happy Song, Malaysia Forever." But it wasn't forever. The members of the federation disagreed on fundamental issues like who should control the finances of Singapore. Racial tensions led to riots between Singaporean Chinese and Malay groups. In 1965, Singapore was forced to leave the Malaysian Federation. Manjit remembers seeing the prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, cry during an interview. "We'd go to our neighbours' house and watch TV and we saw him crying and we didn't know why." It was a traumatic beginning to independence. Many believed Singapore could not survive on its own. But with huge hopes for the future, Singapore began to build the infrastructure that would transform the city. My grandfather sold his plot of land to the government in the 1960s and moved into a HDB or Housing Development Board home, thousands of which were sprouting up all over the island. It was an affordable way for Singaporeans to buy property and raise their standard of living. "We had a huge task when we first started in 1960. At that time our population size was 1.6 million, out of that, 1.3 million lived in squatters - not to count thousands of others living in slum areas and old buildings," says Liu Thai Ker, who was known as Singapore's "master planner" in the 70s and 80s. The new HDB towns that Liu oversaw came with their own schools, shops and clinics. The high-rise buildings introduced many Singaporeans to the miracles of flushing toilets and clean water at the turn of a tap. By 1985, in just one generation, Liu says, the HDB was so successful in its rehousing policy that Singapore could claim to have "no homeless, no squatters, no poverty ghettos and no ethnic enclaves". But the housing policy was not just about bricks and mortar - it was also about nation building. Each HDB flat would have a quota system that encouraged a mix of different races. "The whole idea was to have the Chinese not thinking that they were Chinese, or the Malays thinking they're Malay, or Indians thinking they're Indian. We want them to think as one Singaporean," says Liu. Nation building also took the form of campaigns to instil more courtesy, prevent spitting in public or stop creating "killer litter" - rubbish thrown out of high-rise flats that could kill people below. These campaigns dominated the airwaves, schools and billboards of the nation. The government sought to regulate the behaviour of its people and I was not immune. As a child attending a Singaporean primary school I won the title of most courteous student in class several times. My reward was a Singha the Lion eraser or ruler. He was the country's courtesy mascot for years. Some of the campaigns were arguably too successful, such as the "Stop at two" campaign, aimed at limiting population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. When it became evident that Singapore's population wasn't being replaced in the 1980s, it was too late. Singapore now has one of the lowest birth rates in Asia, which the government is seeking to offset through immigration. For a population to remain stable each family needs to have 2.1 children - in Singapore the average is 1.3 or below. Such campaigns were more than just slogans - they had policies to back them up. Third children were penalised with fewer subsidies and limited school choices. By the 1980s, many of Singapore's early problems had been solved. Unemployment was no longer a worry, crime rates were low, and the population compliant. But at what price? The measures the government took to maintain the status quo are seen by many as controlling and restrictive. The penal system is tough, and the death penalty is enforced, mostly for drug offences. It is estimated that abound 400 people have been hanged since 1991. Singapore has been described as "Disneyland with the death penalty." Goh Chok Tong, who was Singapore's prime minister from 1990 to 2004 and now holds the title emeritus senior minister, takes issue with that description. "First of all, Singapore is not Disneyland, it's a very serious place. Then the death penalty, because of the proximity to the drug triangle, if we're too lax in the control of drug trafficking, Singaporeans are going to suffer. So it's a difficult decision, but we have to defend our position on that," he says. Singapore's media environment is highly controlled. The nation currently ranks in the bottom 15% of 180 countries in an index assessing press freedoms compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Singaporeans with an alternative view on political matters have now turned to the internet - Ariffin Sha, a 17-year-old blogger says the internet is the "game changer", dispelling the fears Singaporeans used to harbour over speaking out. "I believe there was a climate of fear in Singapore, and I don't blame them. Dissent was clearly not tolerated. Times have changed now. With the internet it's hard to control," says Sha. At Speaker's Corner, the only officially sanctioned area of protest, 500 people might hear him speak - whereas on YouTube he has an audience of thousands. The arts battle censorship too - playwrights have to submit scripts to Singapore's Media Development Authority who may insist on changing lines or put an advisory on the play. "When we first started working in the 80s we had to submit scripts to the police," says Haresh Sharma, a prominent name in Singapore's theatre community. "Now it's a bit more sophisticated. They might give you a rating but then people are free to choose." Goh says there are certain areas in the media where control will continue to be exercised. "Religions, race… if you touch on sensitive issues there will be violent reactions so those are no-nos. The government has to make sure people don't infringe on these." After years of rapid growth and ranked the most expensive city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Singapore faces new challenges. The gap between rich and poor is amongst the widest in the developed world. Estimates from social researchers suggest that about 10% to 15% of the population live in the low income bracket - less than US$1,100 (£700) a month. If my grandfather arrived today, with only the shirt on his back, how would he fare? He might not be as welcome. Foreigners now make up 40% of the population and the huge rise in their numbers in the last decade has sparked fears that the Singaporean identity is being diluted. Jim Rogers is a businessman who moved to Singapore at a time when it was eager to attract well-qualified foreigners. He's aware of the backlash. "You'll hear people talking about the foreigners, and I say: 'Wait a minute you're second generation - your parents came here.' And they'll say: 'Yeah, but it was different. My parents were different to these new immigrants who are coming here now.'" The government has responded with stricter rules limiting the influx of immigrants, but Rogers hopes they remember Singapore's success was built on them. At the same time, people are leaving - the high cost of living and the search for a better work-life balance has led many to move away. In a 2012 survey, 56% of the 2000-odd Singaporeans surveyed said they would migrate if given a choice. This too is reflected in my own family. My two brothers and their children now live in the US and my mother joined them there after my father passed away. The majority of my grandfather's huge family, captured in a photograph in 1970, no longer live in Singapore. Only three of his 15 grandchildren still do. I chose to return after many years away in the US, Canada and Japan. What made me come back? The same reasons my grandfather came - opportunity. Where our leafy family home once stood there is now a big grey industrial complex. But growing up in a country where things are constantly changing, you don't expect things to last. There is always a steadfast march towards progress. Watch A Richer World: Singapore at 50 on BBC World News on Sat 28 Feb at 09:10 GMT and 20:10 GMT, or Sun 1 Mar at 02:10 GMT and 15:10 GMT. For more on the BBC's A Richer World, go to www.bbc.com/richerworld - or join the discussion on Twitter #BBCRicherWorld Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
Staging your first show at London Fashion Week is a big deal. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Hannah MooreNewsbeat reporter at London Fashion Week For new designers, it means getting their clothes seen by the world's press and buyers, alongside established brands like Burberry and Versace. "You study fashion, and that's what you dream of doing. To be actually doing it is really surreal," says designer Supriya Lele. Newsbeat finds out how she and other emerging British designers have managed it. Matty Bovan Despite graduating from art school Central Saint Martins two years ago, Matty has become one of the most talked about designers at fashion week. This is a photo of Matty from his Instagram account. "I was always really focused, and I really wanted to do it, which I find kind of weird, looking back," says the 27-year-old. "My parents never went to uni, so it was quite a rare thing for me to go, but I think if you work hard, it does pay off." The Yorkshire-based designer showed his collection as part of Fashion East. The not-for-profit organisation supports new designers by giving them bursaries and mentoring. "I think it's very important that people realise designers can work outside London. Everything's made in York. "I was lucky I got bursaries at Saint Martins, and we do get a bursary from Fashion East, but I live with my parents. "It's super hard to make a living, make it work and pay the bills. A show is incredibly expensive. The set, the lights, everything. "There's a huge, huge team of people. We have probably 100 just for me, because you have a short space of time to do make-up and hair. It's a lot. A video showing all his designs was put on Instagram. "My biggest piece of advice would be, 'Just stick to your own style, and never let people change you.' It's totally possible to do this." Supriya Lele "That was my first runway, so it was completely exhilarating," Supriya tells Newsbeat backstage. She's also been supported by Fashion East, creating a collection inspired by her Indian heritage. "Being part of London Fashion Week is mad," explains the 30-year-old, who graduated from the Royal College of Art last year. "In terms of the high glamour of it all, it's not really like that. "It's a lot of hard, hard work, for months and months, for five minutes." She says any would-be designer should "believe in yourself, and push yourself. It will happen". Molly Goddard Rihanna and Fearne Cotton are among the fans of Molly Goddard's pastel princess dresses. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan even came backstage to congratulate the 28-year-old after her show. "It was fun. It's three years since the first [fashion event] we ever did, and that feels mad, going from working in my mum's tiny, tiny spare bedroom to having a studio, and employing people," she says. The London-born designer is supported by NewGen, a British Fashion Council scheme that helped launch the careers of Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane, among others. And her signature oversized designs have been imitated by almost every high street shop. "When I got NewGen support, that catapulted [my career]. "But the main thing is getting help from my friends and my family. It's very much a family business now," says Molly, who employs her sister Alice as a stylist on her shows. She says it's important not to give up if you don't make it as a designer. "It's not all about being like me. There are millions of other jobs in fashion. Molly uploaded a photo from London Fashion Week to Instagram. "Like if you're interested in numbers, it's very useful. People who are good at spreadsheets, at colour... there are lots of relevant roles that are just as interesting as what I do." Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat |
So let's cut straight to it. I've been reading the book, and watched the interview. I also spent hours listening to James Comey giving testimony to Congress before he was fired and afterwards. And my views about him have coalesced. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Jon SopelNorth America editor@bbcjonsopelon Twitter I think he is vain, arrogant, pious, slightly pompous, supercilious, faux-naïve over the Hillary Clinton emails and the role he played in determining the outcome of the election, and sly in the personal comments he makes about Donald Trump - orange face, white half-moon eyes and (not unusually small) hands. A little juvenile, no? And most of all I think it is the lowest of political smears to give credence to the Moscow hotel peeing prostitutes story on the basis of salacious and unsubstantiated claims. "I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don't know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013," Comey said in an interview with ABC News. Well if you don't know, then don't say it. If the long serving prosecutor (as he was in his younger days) had said that in court, the defence would have risen and said "Objection your honour, conjecture". And the judge would have sustained that objection. So why is Comey doing that in a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" way in his interview with George Stephanopoulos? It makes him look like a small, bitter man who lost his mind and lost his judgement at roughly the same time. There were a couple of other asides about the Trump's marriage that seemed to me to fit into the "unworthy" category. But there is one other judgement I would make about Comey. I don't think he's a liar. And on the stuff that really matters, that is the key. If it ever comes to an impeachment process against President Trump (something interestingly Comey says he hopes doesn't happen - his argument that it was the American people who elected him; it should therefore be the American people who boot him from office), then his testimony could prove vital. In the interview, he asserts there is "certainly some evidence" that Donald Trump obstructed justice in asking the former FBI chief to see a way of dropping the case against Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor (Flynn has since pleaded guilty to one charge of lying to the FBI). Comey thought it so unusual that he was having one-to-one meetings with the president, without the attorney general or chief of staff present, that he took a contemporaneous (ugly word, I know) note of the meeting - either in the form of an aide-mémoire to himself, or in a memorandum to colleagues. Why this matters is that in a court case, an FBI officer's contemporaneous note is admissible as evidence. Just like a recording of the conversation. Are we to believe that the serving head of the FBI deliberately fabricated these notes because he knew sooner rather than later he was going to be fired, and these could then be used to help bring an obstruction of justice case against the sitting president? Comey is an ambitious, proud and status-conscious kind of guy. He wanted to do everything to keep his job - self immolation was never part of his plan. In the interview he talks about flying back from the West Coast immediately after he'd been unceremoniously fired. You could see the memory of that still caused him pain. But proving he is a liar is a key element to Republican strategy at the moment. That is the way you draw his sting. The rest is just playground insults. The argument from the White House is that Comey is "known to be a leaker and a liar" - a phrase used by the president; a phrase used by his press secretary, Sarah Sanders. The evidence, as they see it, is his changing explanation for re-opening the Hillary Clinton email investigation. And giving testimony initially to Congress that the president had not sought to interfere over the treatment of Flynn. They also accuse Comey of leaking classified emails. The president tweeted that he will go down in history as the worst ever director of the FBI. Well, let's see. He will certainly go down as one of the most controversial - yes, even running J Edgar Hoover close. His behaviour over the Hillary Clinton emails is unbelievable - for both Republicans and Democrats alike - although for different reasons. And they show the worst of Comey. He announces she's not going to be prosecuted for her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State, but then added a stern rebuke to her behaviour, saying she'd been extremely careless. FBI directors normally don't say anything. That was grandstanding. Then two weeks before polling day - two weeks! - he announced he was reopening the investigation because of the discovery of a new hoard of emails. It totally transformed the closing stages of the campaign, and led to a massive reverse in the polls. But he made that announcement before looking at what those emails were. And then just days before polling, he exonerated candidate Clinton. So what the hell was that all about? I thought what he said was hogwash and the reasoning flawed. But I don't doubt his sincerity when he says he felt he had no other course of action open to him. In the interview Comey gets nowhere near to giving an adequate explanation of why he did what he did. He looks like he was trying to be too clever by half. He told Congress a few months back that it left him feeling mildly nauseous to think that he could have affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Only mildly? He is deeply flawed. But ultimately it will come down to a question of who do you believe: the president or his former FBI director? One has a bit of a track record of, how can one put this, making assertions that don't bear close scrutiny (for example, the false claims that Obama wasn't born in the US, therefore was illegitimate as president, that Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the twin towers came down in 2001, that the crowds for his inauguration were bigger than Obama's, that three million people voted illegally and that his was the biggest electoral college victory since Reagan - I could go on). His former communications director, Hope Hicks told a congressional hearing that one of her jobs was to tell "white lies" for the president. The other does not. The president has called Comey a slimeball. Quite possibly. But to neutralise him fully, Donald Trump has to undermine his credibility, and prove he's a liar. That hasn't happened yet, so for the moment the 6ft 8in former FBI director can still walk tall. And that makes him dangerous. |
Eat your heart out, Jeremy Paxman. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
David CornockParliamentary correspondent, Wales The Newsnight presenter once hit the headlines for asking the same question 14 times to then Home Secretary Michael Howard. Today, in the house of commons, Montgomeryshire Tory MP Glyn Davies asked coalition ministers the same question four times. Mr Davies's question was sparked by the announcement that planning guidance in England will be changed to give local opportunities more powers to block onshore wind farms. So what does that mean in Wales, where planning guidance is the responsibility of the Welsh government, but approval of large-scale wind energy projects is not? That's the gist of Mr Davies's question. This is how he put it to Energy Minister Michael Fallon: "Since power to decide large onshore wind farms—those over 50 MW—is not devolved to the Welsh Government, will my right hon. Friend reassure me that the changes to planning policy that will be announced this morning will apply to the wind farms that the mid-Wales connection is being built to accommodate? Mr Fallon (a Conservative) replied: "I am sure my hon. friend will understand that I cannot comment on any specific wind farm proposal that is subject to the local planning authority and potentially to the Planning Inspectorate and Ministers, but as he will shortly hear in more detail from the unstarred question which I think you have allowed, Mr Speaker, the planning guidance is to be clarified to ensure that the visual impact of turbines, the cumulative impact of turbines and local factors are taken more clearly into account before consent is given." So a question clearly about Wales got an ambiguous answer. A short time later, Mr Davies tried again - this time with Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Ed Davey. Glyn Davies: "I congratulate my right hon. friend on today's announcement that local opinion will no longer be trumped at the planning stage by national policy. However, everyone in my constituency wants to know whether that applies to the six large wind farm applications, over which planning power is not devolved, and which are currently being heard at the UK's largest ever public inquiry, which started yesterday. Everybody in my constituency is desperate to know whether those applications are subject to the new policy." Ed Davey: "My hon. Friend will know that the public inquiry has started, and that it would be inappropriate for a Minister to comment on it. I am sorry, but I cannot give him the answer he looks for." That didn't satisfy Mr Davies, so a short time later he tried again, this time with English Housing Minister Mark Prisk: "I would like some clarity if possible from the Minister about the position as it affects Wales. Applications for large wind farms over 50 MW are not devolved to the Welsh government. It seems logical that the new provisions should apply to those applications, so can he reassure me that that is the case? Mr Prisk: "As I think you will know, Mr Speaker, the process relates to England only. There is a sensitive legal issue, to which my hon. friend refers, but I understand that the secretary of state for Wales is attuned to that and is in contact with the Welsh government." Things were becoming clearer, but Mr Davies tried again - with Commons leader Andrew Lansley: "This morning the government issued an important statement about the public voice in relation to onshore wind farms. "Three times this morning you have called me, Mr Speaker, and I have asked a similar question about how the statement will affect Wales. I have not received a satisfactory answer. I have been left in a position of deep frustration, and I am sure the people of Wales feel the same. Will my right hon. friend ensure that we have an early statement clarifying the position, so that people in Wales will know that applications for developments over 50 MW, which are not devolved, will be subject to today's new guidelines? Mr Lansley: "I completely understand my hon. Friend's concern about this, and his desire to secure proper answers. If I may, I will talk to my right hon. friend the secretary of state for Wales to see how we might expedite a response." As if by magic, David Jones has been in touch to point out that the new guidance in England will affect only those projects that generate less than 50 MW. Mr Jones will be writing to Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones to suggest that unless there is a similarity between planning policy in the two countries Wales could "lose out" by having a disproportionate amount of wind farms. David Jones said: "I would urge the Welsh government urgently to review TAN 8. Given that, as from today, communities in England will be more empowered as to whether wind farm developments proceed in their areas, it is only right that comparable measures should be adopted in Wales. "English communities affected by wind farm development will also now be receiving significantly more generous community benefit payments from developers than before. For a 50 megawatt wind farm, this could be as much as £100,000. "I would also urge the Welsh wind power industry body, R-UK Cymru, to confirm that the community benefits on offer to Welsh residents will match those of residents in England, so as to restore equality of treatment on both sides of the border." |
The BBC has obtained exclusive footage of the aftermath of Pakistani air strikes against the Taliban in North Waziristan - but some say it's still protecting certain militants it has supported in the past. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Andrew NorthSouth Asia correspondent@NorthAndrewon Twitter Major General Asim Bajwa painted a clear picture. "We are going after terrorists of all hue and colour," he told journalists at a briefing on the Pakistani army's operation against militant havens in North Waziristan. Conjuring visions of the Stalingrad "kettle" in World War Two, he said Pakistani troops now had the whole area surrounded: "They cannot escape." But many reports, as well as footage obtained by the BBC, suggest some militants at least got away and some shades of "terrorist" may still be safe. 'Militant warehouse' This is the operation many inside and outside Pakistan say should have begun long ago, as North Waziristan was allowed to become a veritable warehouse for all brands of Islamic militancy. It's from there that the Pakistani Taliban have been mounting their deadly suicide offensive for the past seven years, killing thousands of people across Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban are the chief target of Operation Zarb-e-Azb - named after the sword of the Prophet Muhammad. But also thought to be in the army's crosshairs are al-Qaeda, and Uzbek militants who claimed to have carried out last month's deadly attack on Karachi airport. As those devastating images flashed around the world, the operation in North Waziristan finally got the go-ahead after years of stalling. The delay has done severe damage to Pakistan "both internally and internationally", says former army spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas. Hundreds of thousands of people have now been displaced from North Waziristan by the army offensive. But there are also widespread reports many militants escaped, or were alerted beforehand - including members of the Haqqani network, blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan. Rare access It's almost impossible to find out what is happening inside the tribal area now. Difficult for outsiders to enter at any time, the army has barred all access. But the BBC has obtained footage from a professional cameraman who got into North Waziristan with help from the Taliban, as the campaign began. He spent a week travelling there, filming the aftermath of several Pakistani strikes - although he admits he was not allowed to record everything he saw. We can't identify him for his own security. At one point, he met a local Taliban commander who was escaping across the border to Afghanistan in his pick-up, just a short drive down the road. But underlining fears of a potential backlash, the commander vowed to take revenge on Pakistan "until doomsday". Militants were killed in some strikes, people in the border village of Gorbaz told the cameraman, but claimed civilians had perished too. Uzbek militants had reportedly been using the same border area as a base. Staying loyal The Pakistani army says it is only targeting "terrorist sanctuaries" and in his briefing Maj-Gen Bajwa said they had killed 376 "terrorists" so far. He also released pictures of suspected bomb-making factories found by ground troops - which were churning out explosive devices for suicide attacks. But pressed on the identities of those killed, he was less forthcoming. And what about "the Haqqanis", journalists asked. Were they classified as "terrorists" too? Many say the carnage of the past few years is the inevitable consequence of Pakistan co-opting militant groups to pursue its strategic goals. It's the military's powerful intelligence agency, the ISI, who have overseen this policy - and the Haqqani network based in North Waziristan is widely seen as one of their best clients. But unlike many other groups, it has stayed loyal. Haqqani fighters are thought to be behind a string of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan on US and Indian targets - allegedly carried out with Pakistani backing. And it was clear none of the officials at the briefing wanted to disavow them. But "we don't want any terrorist, Haqqani or not Haqqani, on Pakistani soil", said Abdul Qadir Baloch, the minister responsible for the tribal areas. So the message from North Waziristan seems to be that the hand that has been bitten is now biting back. But not all militants will feel the same pain. |
It's a tense moment for families when exam results arrive. Emotions are running high. It's not just the students who are under pressure. How should parents avoid saying the wrong thing? 1. Not realising whatever you say is going to be wrong. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Sean CoughlanBBC News education correspondent Always being in the wrong is part of the job description of being a teenager's parent. But when the envelope is opened you need to show the right expression to match the results. Otherwise you face a terrible, emergency, gear-crunching change of direction. Just when you've put on your best sympathy-at-a-funeral face, you realise that you're meant to be celebrating. Those results are... absolutely. We're proud of you. Never doubted you for a second. Punch the air. 2. Not really meaning it. This is a tough one to get around. You've delivered what you thought was a little gem of supportive parenting. It was so sincere that it more or less came with its own orchestra. It's so empathetic that parts of your head have dissolved into soft focus. But you hit the crash barriers at speed, because you're told: "You don't really mean it. You're just saying it. If you think it's a disaster, just say it." 3. Changing your Facebook status to "gutted". You know the dangerous territory we're entering. A Facebook mother armed with an iPad and something chilled, makes a stray comment about exam results not going entirely to plan. There's a throwaway remark about the Titanic. It's only intended to be a bit ironic, a little joke between parents. Teenagers might laugh a lot but don't mistake this for a sense of humour. Not about these exams, no way. If you want to destroy my life just tell me to my face. 4. "Why would I be disappointed? This is fantastic news, isn't it?" Keep that smile more frozen than fish fingers in a polar bear's deep freeze. You have to show you're happy. Those grades look impressive, but don't make the error of expecting unbridled joy. For today's high-pressure teenagers, anything that isn't perfect is a disaster. They may as well scrap their career plans right now. The world has ended. Look at all those blonde triplets jumping on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. They've got an A* in everything. Why haven't I? Keep smiling. 5. "Almost as good as your cousin." Don't even think about it. The most inflammatory parental response is a comparison to the perfect cousin or sibling, so clever that their results illuminate the entire extended family like a constellation of grade A*s shining in the night sky. This has been winding everyone up since nursery school. Also to be avoided are such morale-boosters as: "Congratulations, you've nearly done as well as that eight-year-old in Hong Kong." 6. "Of course these days they more or less give away A-levels." You might secretly think this, but keep such careless talk to yourself. This generation can only take the exams put in front of them and they've worked harder than we ever did. Mind you, come to mention it, until 1987, there was a limit on the amount of top grades, so in fact... Stop, there's no going back. 7. "If you were really pleased you would pay for my festival ticket." Difficult one. Of course, we're pleased about the results. Not so much about the blackmail. And have you seen the price of tickets? I know we said that if you revised really hard and got good results we'd be really pleased. But let's not get carried away. There's always room for improvement, look at your cousin... 8. "We still love you anyway. It isn't that bad, considering." There are some well-intentioned phrases that are about as supportive as a trap door. File them away with "Not the end of the world", "It could have been worse" and "To be honest, I wasn't really ever sure about that university, even though you've already bought the sweatshirt." You may as well start hand-stitching them a banner with "Loser" written on it. 9. Richard Branson didn't go to university. Folksy optimism works in animated movies about puppies with special powers, not in a world where teenagers' bad news spreads like a plague from text to Tweet to social networking. Avoid life-affirming success-from-failure stories, especially when someone has just unexpectedly found themselves in a failure-from-success story. 10. Looking slightly wistful when you're meant to sound delighted. You know it's really good news. Everything has gone well. All the hard work has been worthwhile. But you can't help but feel that twinge of parental nostalgia. And the "twinge" is a lump in the throat the size of a supertanker in a canal. Five minutes ago they were bringing home drawings from primary school and now they're getting exam results at the very end of all their school years. Raise a glass and say nothing. |
India is reeling under a severe second wave of Covid-19 and many states are struggling to cope with the rising numbers. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, is among the worst affected in the country and its people are suffering even as authorities insist the situation is under control, reports the BBC's Geeta Pandey. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Kanwal Jeet Singh's 58-year-old father Niranjan Pal Singh died on Friday in an ambulance while being ferried from one hospital to another. They had been turned away by four hospitals for a lack of beds. "It was a heart-wrenching day for me," he told me on the phone from his home in Kanpur city. "I believe if he had received treatment on time, he would have lived. But no-one helped us, the police, the health authorities or the government." With a total of 851,620 infections and 9,830 deaths since the pandemic began last year, Uttar Pradesh had not done too badly during the first wave that ravaged many other states. But the second wave has brought it to the brink. Authorities say the situation is under control. But disturbing images of overcrowded testing centres, hospitals turning away patients and funeral pyres burning round the clock at cremation grounds in the state capital, Lucknow, and other major cities such as Varanasi, Kanpur and Allahabad have made national headlines. With 240 million people, Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state. Home to every sixth Indian, if it was a separate country, it would be the fifth largest by population in the world, just behind China, India, US and Indonesia - and bigger than Pakistan and Brazil. The state is also politically India's most important - it sends the largest number of MPs - 80 - to parliament, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, although from another state, contests from here. However, this political influence has brought it little development. The state has 191,000 active cases at the moment and thousands of new infections are being reported daily - though numbers are believed to be much higher - and this has put the state's creaky health infrastructure firmly in the spotlight. Among the sick are the state's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, several of his cabinet colleagues, dozens of government officials and hundreds of doctors, nurses and other health workers. Over the past few days, I have spoken to dozens of people from across the state, and heard grim stories. Videos shared by a local journalist in Kanpur show a sick man lying on the ground in the parking lot of the government-run Lala Lajpat Rai hospital. A little distance away, an elderly man sits on a bench. They are both positive for Covid, but the hospital has no beds to accommodate them. Outside the government-run Kanshiram hospital, a young woman wept as she said that two hospitals had refused to admit her sick mother. "They're saying they have run out of beds. If you don't have a bed, put her on the floor, but at least give her some treatment. There are lots of patients like her. I've seen several people like me being turned away. "The chief minister says there are adequate beds, please show me where they are. Please treat my mother," she said, sobbing inconsolably. 'No-one came' The situation in the capital, Lucknow, is equally dire. Sushil Kumar Srivastava was photographed sitting in his car, strapped to an oxygen cylinder while his desperate family drove him from one hospital to another. By the time they found a bed for him, it was too late. When I called his son Ashish, he said he was too devastated to talk. "You know what's happened. I'm in no condition to talk," he said, his voice breaking. Retired judge Ramesh Chandra's handwritten note in Hindi, requesting help after the authorities failed to remove his wife's body from their home, was shared by hundreds of people on social media. "My wife and I are both corona positive. Since yesterday morning, I called the government helpline numbers at least 50 times, but no-one came to deliver any medicines or take us to hospital. "Because of the administration's laxity," he wrote, "my wife died this morning." Personally, it's come as no surprise to me that the state is struggling to deal with the coronavirus pandemic as it wreaks havoc on its people. For years, I have despaired at the poor medical facilities in the state - it's where my ancestral village is located and I know the struggles of finding a doctor or an ambulance even in normal times. With a raging pandemic, the struggles have become harder. In the holy city of Varanasi, which is also PM Modi's constituency, long-time resident Vimal Kapoor, whose 70-year-old mother Nirmala Kapoor died from Covid in a hospital last Thursday, described the situation as "bhayavah" - frightening. "I have seen too many people dying in ambulances. Hospitals are turning away patients because there are no beds, chemists have run out of essential Covid drugs, and oxygen is in short supply." Mr Kapoor said when he took his mother's body to the cremation ground, he encountered a "lashon ka dher" - a pile of bodies. The cost of wood for the pyre has gone up three times and the wait for a spot for cremation has risen from 15-20 minutes to five-six hours. "I have never seen anything like that before. Wherever you look, you see ambulances and bodies," he said. Stories of deaths and families devastated by Covid-19 abound as infections continue to gallop - on Sunday, the state recorded 30,596 new cases, it's highest-ever single-day tally. Even that, activists and opposition politicians say, does not give a true picture of the infection's spread. They accuse the state of keeping its case and death count low by not testing enough and not including data from private laboratories. And there seems merit in their claim. Many people I spoke to said either they had failed to get tested or their positive results had not been uploaded on the state government site. From Lucknow, 62-year-old Ajay Singh sent me his wife's positive test report which finds no mention in the state records. And neither Mr Singh who died in Kanpur, nor Mrs Kapoor's mother who perished in Varanasi, were included in the state's tally of pandemic casualties - their death certificates did not mention coronavirus as the cause of death. Indian media has also questioned the government data - with reports of a mismatch between the official number of deaths and the bodies at crematoriums in Lucknow and Varanasi. Anshuman Rai, director of Heritage Hospitals - a private group that runs medical collages and hospitals in the state - describes the situation as "extraordinary". "The reason why services are cracking is because too many health workers, including doctors, nurses, ward boys and lab technicians are falling sick. "At a time when we should be working 200%, we are not even able to do 100% because the health sector is totally manpower dependent." Critics, however, blame the state and the federal government for failing to anticipate the second wave. They say there was a lull between September and February when the health services and infrastructure could have been augmented, the state could have created oxygen banks and stocked up on medicines, but they squandered the opportunity. And with the virus spreading rapidly, things are unlikely to get better anytime soon. Charts and data analysis by Shadab Nazmi |
An estimated 200,000 people watched this year's Wales National Airshow over Swansea Bay, according to the council. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The two-day annual event, which concluded on Sunday, included a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and a Russian-built Cold War MiG aircraft. Swansea councillor Robert Francis-Davies said: "We're certain it was a record-breaking weekend. "The vast numbers who came along for the two days will have been a valuable boost to city centre businesses." |
December marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the international peace treaty known as the Dayton Agreement, which brought an end to nearly four years of conflict in former Yugoslavia. Since then Scottish photographer Chris Leslie has been visiting the Balkans and capturing how its people and places have changed. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Between 1992 and 1995, the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina claimed more than 100,000 lives and made around two million people homeless. To bring an end to the bloodshed, the Dayton Peace Agreement was officially signed by the presidents of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia in Paris on 14 December 1995. The agreement came after 21 days of negotiation at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and was driven by US President Bill Clinton and his team. "No-one outside can guarantee that Muslims, Croats and Serbs in Bosnia can come together and stay together as free citizens in a united country sharing a common destiny," President Clinton said at the time. "Only the Bosnian people can do that." The former Yugoslavia was a Socialist state created after German occupation in World War II and a bitter civil war. The federation of six republics brought together Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Albanians, Slovenes and others under a comparatively relaxed communist regime. The leadership of President Josip Broz Tito successfully suppressed tensions until his death in 1980. Without Tito, there emerged calls for more autonomy within Yugoslavia by nationalist groups, leading to declarations of independence in Croatia and Slovenia in 1991. The Serb-dominated Yugoslav army lashed out, first in Slovenia and then in Croatia. Thousands were killed in the conflict in Croatia which was paused in 1992 under a UN-monitored ceasefire. Bosnia was next to try for independence. Bosnia's Serbs resisted and war ensued with over a million Bosnian Muslims and Croats driven from their homes in ethnic cleansing. The capital Sarajevo was besieged and shelled. After Nato bombed the Bosnian Serbs, Muslim and Croat forces made gains on the ground and ended the war. The Dayton Peace Agreement divided Bosnia into two self-governing entities, a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation lightly bound by a central government. The Dayton Agreement may have brought peace to the Balkans, but huge numbers of people were displaced and unemployed. Bafta-winning photojournalist and filmmaker Chris Leslie, from Scotland, has been visiting the Balkan region for nearly 25 years, documenting the war-ravaged towns and cities of former Yugoslavia. In a new photographic book, A Balkan Journey, Leslie reflects on how the landscapes and people of post-war Balkans changed since the Dayton Agreement. In 1996, Leslie volunteered with an NGO to work in the war-torn town of Pakrac in Croatia, to help run a project that taught children black and white photography. "Pakrac itself was in ruins - estimated to be 85% destroyed during the war with tension and divisions still high," he says. "A sense of menace and a low-lying level of stress permeated life in the town. "Sporadic explosions could still be heard as animals set off landmines in the surrounding fields, a handy reminder not to venture off the pathways or beaten track." During his visit, Leslie spent time with Ljuba Gajic (below), an 80-year-old Serb woman who lived alone in a small, partially destroyed house. Unlike her family and friends who were fearful of living in a newly-independent Croatian state, Ljuba had chosen to stay in Pakrac with her six chickens, three cats and dog called Jonny. When Leslie came to leave Pakrac in November 1996, he shared a tearful goodbye with Ljuba. "Ljuba poured us all one final plum brandy and with tears rolling down her cheeks, she clasped my face towards her and said I was like a son to her. "Then in the same breath she swore at the then Croatian president for ruining her life and shook her fists in the air." Inspired by the work he had done in Pakrac, Leslie travelled to Sarajevo in 1997 to set up his own photo project for children: the Sarajevo Camera Kids. Using donated equipment from Scotland, he set up a darkroom in the basement of an orphanage. He was soon overwhelmed with interest. "Children ran freely around their playgrounds and streets and photographed anything and everything that interested them. "[It was] a creative outlet for these kids who had dealt with a near lifetime of war and siege." Leslie worked on the project for three consecutive summers. In 1998 he met Una Mesic, 24 (below). "Can we talk about justice?" she asked him. "It's hard to talk about justice for all those families who lost their loved ones, their friends. "There are a lot of mothers in Bosnia still searching for the bones of their children. "There is no point talking about buildings, infrastructure, the economy - these are all possible to rebuild, but it's impossible to bring back those we lost." In 2004, Leslie visited Kosovo after the 1999 Kosovo war. "I saw a landscape in ruins. "A third of its housing stock - 120,000 homes - had been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. "Homes in the former Yugoslavia did not just suffer damage as a result of war - they were intentionally destroyed, dynamited, and sometimes booby-trapped so no-one could ever return." Leslie visited Sarajevo again in 2015 to document the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Agreement. He spoke to student Kerim Rozajac, 20 at the Underground Nightclub in downtown Sarajevo. Kerim told Leslie: "A lot of people in Bosnia are considering peace as something unusual and special, thus accepting every kind of injustice from the government." On the same expedition, Leslie met Bozo Jevric, 62, who served as a Bosnian Serb soldier. "The best thing about Dayton was that I could give up my gun," said Bozo. "War is in the past and our future is working together. "It's the only way our village will survive." Leslie's most recent trip to Sarajevo was in 2018. "The city now puts on a brave, bold, cosmopolitan face, a modern European tourist destination like any other," he says. A Balkan Journey is funded by Creative Scotland. |
Israel and Bahrain have formally established diplomatic relations. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The deal - brokered by the US - was signed in the Bahrain capital, Manama, on Sunday. For decades, most Arab states have boycotted Israel, insisting they would only establish ties after the Palestinian dispute was settled. Bahrain is now the fourth Arab country in the MIddle East - after the UAE, Egypt and Jordan - to recognise Israel since its founding in 1948. Palestinians have condemned the diplomatic moves as a "stab in the back". At a ceremony in Manama on Sunday evening, Bahraini and Israeli officials signed a "joint communiqué" establishing full diplomatic relations. The two countries are now expected to open embassies. Israeli media report that the document did not include any references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Following the signing, Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani said in a speech that he hoped for "fruitful bilateral co-operation in every field" between the two nations. He also called for peace in the region, including a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict. The Israeli team flew on El Al flight 973 - in reference to Bahrain's international dialling code - and passed over Saudi Arabia with special permission from the kingdom. Saudi leaders have so far resisted calls to normalise relations Israel. Regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has played a role in this diplomacy - a decades-old feud exacerbated by religious differences, with Iran a largely Shia Muslim power and Saudi Arabia seeing itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power. The UAE and Bahrain - both allies of Saudi Arabia - have shared with Israel worries over Iran, leading to unofficial contacts in the past. US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin accompanied the Israeli delegates. He will also accompany Israel's first delegation to the UAE on Tuesday. The Israeli agreement with the UAE came after Israel agreed to suspend controversial plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Palestinian leaders were reportedly taken by surprise by that announcement. They have condemned the UAE deal and the later Bahrain agreement. The Palestinian foreign ministry recalled its ambassador to Bahrain after the deal was announced last month, and a statement from the Palestinian leadership spoke of the "great harm it causes to the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people and joint Arab action". |
When the BBC launched the Loneliness Experiment on Valentine's Day 2018 a staggering 55,000 people from around the world completed the survey, making it the largest study of loneliness yet. Claudia Hammond, who instigated the project, looks at the findings and spoke to three people about their experiences of loneliness. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
"It's like a void, a feeling of emptiness. If you have a good piece of news or a bad piece of news, it's not having that person to tell about it. Lacking those people in your life can be really hard." Michelle Lloyd is 33 and lives in London. She is friendly and chatty and enjoys her job - she seems to have everything going for her, but she feels lonely. She has lived in a few different cities so her friends are spread around the country and tend to be busy with their children at weekends. She does go for drinks with colleagues after work, but tells me it's the deeper relationships she misses. "I'm very good at being chatty, I can talk to anyone, but that doesn't mean I'm able to have those lasting relationships with people," says Michelle. "You can be in a group and it can be intimidating because you're conscious of not letting people get to know the 'real you'. "I would say I've always had an element of feeling lonely. Ever since I was a teenager, I've always felt a little bit different and separate from large groups of friends, but in the last five years it's crept in more." Michelle has experienced anxiety and depression which she finds can amplify her loneliness because she finds it hard to articulate negative emotions. "If I'm in a group I often find myself saying 'I'm great' when people ask how I am. It's almost like an out-of-body experience because I can hear myself saying these positive things, when I'm thinking about how I struggled to get out bed yesterday. It's the loneliness of knowing how you feel in your own head and never being able to tell people." There is a common stereotype that loneliness mainly strikes older, isolated people - and of course it can, and does. But the BBC survey found even higher levels of loneliness among younger people, and this pattern was the same in every country. The survey was conducted online, which might have deterred some older people, or attracted people who feel lonely. But this is not the first study to see high rates of loneliness reported by young people: research conducted earlier in 2018 by the Office for National Statistics on paper as well as online with a smaller, but more representative sample also found more loneliness among the young. It's tempting to conclude that something about modern life is putting young people at a higher risk of loneliness, but when we asked older people in our survey about the loneliest times in their lives, they also said it was when they were young. There are several reasons why younger people might feel lonelier. The years between 16 and 24 are often a time of transition where people move home, build their identities and try to find new friends. Meanwhile, they've not had the chance to experience loneliness as something temporary, useful even, prompting us to find new friends or rekindle old friendships - 41% of people believe that loneliness can sometimes be a positive experience. Michelle has been open about her loneliness and her mental health, even blogging about them. This is not something everyone feels they can do. The survey suggested that younger people felt more able to tell others about their loneliness than older people, but still many young people who feel lonely told us they felt ashamed about it. Were older people afraid to tell us how they really felt or had they found a way of coping? The BBC loneliness experiment In February 2018 The BBC Loneliness Experiment was launched on BBC Radio 4 in collaboration with Wellcome Collection. The online survey was created by three leading academics in the field of loneliness research. But what the results do suggest is that loneliness matters at all ages. When loneliness becomes chronic it can have a serious impact on both health and well-being. To try to pin down why some feel so lonely, we looked at the differences between people. Those who told us they always or often felt lonely had lower levels of trust in others. The survey was a snapshot in time, so we can't tell where this lack of trust in others came from, but there is some evidence from previous research that if people feel chronically lonely they can become more sensitive to rejection. Imagine you start a conversation with someone in a shop and they don't respond - if you're feeling desperately lonely, then you might feel rejected and wonder if it's something about you. Michelle recognises some of this in herself. "You become quite closed off. You are dealing with so many things alone that when people do take an interest you can be quite defensive sometimes. It can be incredibly debilitating being lonely." The relationship between loneliness and spending time alone is complex - 83% of people in our study said they like being on their own. A third did say that being alone makes them feel lonely and in some cases isolation is clearly at the root of their loneliness. Jack King is 96 and lives alone in Eastbourne, on the south coast of England, after losing his wife in 2010. On his windowsill sits the tennis-ball-sized rock that hit him, leaving a hole in his forehead, when he spent more than three years as a Japanese POW during World War Two. Today, he says, the days feel very long, but to distract himself from his loneliness he fills his time writing novels and poetry, playing music and painting. "I like to keep busy. I'm creative, it's a curse," he says. It was his creativity which kept him going when he was held captive all those decades ago. He would write comic plays and perform them for the other prisoners, fashioning stage curtains out of rice sacks. After the war he was on a train which was just pulling out of the station when a young woman on the platform shouted to him that he could take her to the pictures if he liked. At first he thought she didn't mean it, but he did notice her beautiful head of hair. They did go on a date and married the same year. After 65 years of happy marriage she had a stroke, followed by another, developed dementia and eventually died. This is when his feelings of loneliness began. "Loneliness feels like a deep, deep ache," he says. "It's strange when you find the house empty - you really don't know what to do. We took delight in the simple things in life, like walks. We used to go time after time to watch the cloud shadows on the sea at Seven Sisters. And that's what I miss - that type of companionship that is so close and so intense." Jack has found some solace in his computer. Now that he's too frail to leave the house very often, he says it's opened up the world. When we examined the use of social media in the survey, we found that people who feel lonely use Facebook differently, using it more for entertainment and to connect with people. They have fewer friends who overlap with real life, and more online-only friends. Social media might heighten feelings of loneliness, but it can also help connect people. Michelle has found it both helps and hinders. "Through blogging, people have been in touch and that's great - but when I am at my lowest, going on Instagram and seeing people having these amazing lives and enjoying themselves does make you feel, 'Why can't I have that?' "I think it's really important to remember that people only put up the fun stuff," she adds. "I think we should be more honest on social media. Celebrities are trying to be a bit more honest about the less glamorous sides of their lives, but there's a long way to go." The survey also found that people who feel discriminated against for any reason - like their sexuality or a disability - were more likely to feel lonely. Megan Paul is 26. Like Jack and Michelle, she's very sociable and lively. She is blind and looks back now on a very lonely time at school, set apart by her disability and even more so by others' reactions to it. "I went to a mainstream, all-girls secondary school," says Megan. "It was OK for the first couple of years and then when girls hit their teenage years they become interested in makeup, magazines and how boys look - all quite visual things. I loved my books and animals, so I didn't have the same interests. I couldn't talk about whether boys were cute, so there was that natural growing apart." In lessons pupils would often work in pairs. When the teacher asked the whole class who wanted to work with Megan, there would be an awkward silence until eventually the teacher paired up with her. Sometimes she felt the staff set a bad example. "I would put my hand up needing help from the teacher and the teacher would ignore me or make inappropriate comments about me. Pupils learn a lot from adult role models at that age and they saw that the teachers didn't know what to do with me," Megan says. "I felt awful. My mental health was the worst it's ever been. I wanted to die rather than be at school. Then in Year 11 they agreed that I could do a lot of my work at home. I found that was much better than being stressed out at school and it taught me great study skills." Now Megan is studying for a master's degree and life has become easier, but she says that there are still aspects of her disability which can make her feel lonely. "As a blind person we can't make eye contact or use body language. If someone who can see comes into a room they will gravitate towards someone who smiles at them. I'm not smiling until I know that they are there, so they don't get any feedback from me. "The frustration is that I am confident enough to go up to people and chat, but I have to wait for people to come to me. It does mean the friends I have are really special though, because they're the kind of people who persevered. I appreciate the friends I have so much more because I don't have many of them." When Megan first got an assistance dog, knowing how many people love dogs, she wondered whether the dog might draw people in to talk to her, but she's found that's not always the case. "Being an assistance dog owner brings its own type of loneliness - a lonely-in-a-crowd scenario," she says. "If people start stroking the dog I'll use that to start a conversation, but quite a lot of people just walk off. Sometimes I feel I'm overshadowed by my dog. I know I'm not cute and furry but I do have something to offer." I asked Megan whether she has tried joining any clubs or schemes designed to alleviate loneliness. She would like to, but finds access can be a problem. "Meetups are awkward because people don't know how to approach me. I recently tried to join a walking group with my dog, but they wrote back and said I needed to find a group that walks slowly. I'm a fast walker. They should decide how fast we walk together. If I do go to a group, I'm in the corner and everyone swirls around me. But the more groups I could join, the better." As time goes on Megan has found that one solution is to turn to her phone. "As you grow, you develop coping strategies. If I feel really bad, now I drop people a message. I don't tell them I'm feeling bad, I'm just making connections and reaching out, so I can work through that feeling." With the high levels of loneliness among young people, a blog Megan wrote might be particularly useful for those with disabilities at school today. She includes tips, such as holding the door open for people in order to start a conversation. "I was so bored at school. A lot of people walked through without noticing, but even if you got a 'Thank you' or a 'Hello' at least it was an interaction. I wasn't able to go up to people and say 'Hi' because I didn't know where they were. So it's one way of getting noticed. It's nice to be seen as helpful rather than 'Here's the weird blind girl again.'" Another of Megan's tips is to talk to teachers as if they're real people, and not just your teachers. "Even as a teenager, if you're that lonely you don't care who you talk to. I remember talking to a teacher who told me her cat had had kittens. Afterwards I thought, 'That's one less break time spent alone.'" Megan says she believes not being able to see has made her kinder to others. "People with vision judge people on appearances and I don't, because I can't." It's possible that loneliness has made her kinder too. We found that people who say they often feel lonely score higher on average for social empathy. They are better at spotting when someone else is feeling rejected or excluded, probably because they have experienced it themselves. But when it comes to trust, the findings are very different. Although they may be more understanding of other people's emotional pain, on average people who say they often feel lonely had lower levels of trust in others and higher levels of anxiety, both of which can make it harder to make friends. Michelle can relate to this. "I sometimes feel that people are just being pitying by wanting to spend time with me. I do have trust issues and I think they stem from my anxiety. I think when you become lonely you do start to look inward and question people's motives. You find yourself wondering whether people spend time with me because they want to, or because they feel guilty." Sometimes it's suggested that people experiencing loneliness need to learn the social skills that would help them to make friends, but we found that people who felt lonely had social skills that were just as high as everyone else's. So instead, perhaps what's needed are strategies to help deal with the anxiety of meeting new people. Loneliness around the world Both Jack and Michelle find weekends the hardest. Michelle would like to go out for brunch, but has no-one to go with. "You can do these things on your own, but it's not as fun, because you can't try the other person's food," she says. "Nice weather makes it worse. You see people sitting outside laughing and joking and I think how I want to be part of that. "If I stay in all weekend cabin fever will set in, so I take myself off to Oxford Street and spend money I don't necessarily have. It's not the most healthy or practical way of dealing with loneliness, but it's about being around people and it's great because you can lose yourself in the crowd." So what might help? We asked people which solutions to loneliness they had found helpful. At number one was distracting yourself by dedicating time to work, study or hobbies. Next was joining a social club, but this also appeared in the list of the top three unhelpful things that other people suggest. If you feel isolated then joining a club might help, but if you find it hard to trust people, you might still feel lonely in a crowd. Number three was trying to change your thinking to make it more positive. This is easier said than done, but there are cognitive behavioural strategies which could help people to trust others. For example, if someone snubs you, you might assume it's because they don't like you, but if you ask yourself honestly what evidence you have for that, you might find there isn't any. Instead you can learn to put forward alternative explanations - that they were tired or busy or preoccupied. The next most common suggestions were to start a conversation with anyone, talk to friends and family about your feelings and to look for the good in every person you meet. People told us the most unhelpful suggestion that other people make is to go on dates. Michelle says she does feel lonelier now she's not in relationship, but knows that that meeting someone new wouldn't solve everything. "It's important to remember you can be lonely even when you're in a relationship," she says. Jack still misses his late wife desperately. I asked him whether he would consider sharing a house so that he had company, but he says he's too set in his ways. He wouldn't want to move to a residential home with other older people because then he'd lack the space to paint and write. So, too frail to leave the house, he called the charity The Silver Line, who arranged for a volunteer to phone him every Sunday for a long chat. His three children live a couple of hours away, but they all phone frequently and he has someone who comes in for two hours on weekdays to help out. All of this makes a difference, he says, but he finds it still doesn't give him the companionship he had previously. "The weekend is a dismal time," says Jack. "The time can drag. I don't have any friends because all my friends are dead. All the ladies I loved are dead. At this age nearly everybody is dead - except me. I'm still here at 96-and-a-half." I asked Jack what he thinks the solutions are. "Do what you can do. If you're mobile you can join a class or, if not, do something creative on your own. When you're painting simple watercolours you are so intent on what you're doing that you can't think about anything else." How to feel less lonely Another of the solutions suggested in the survey was to start conversations with everyone you meet. Jack does that. "It's a polite thing to do," he says. "If you can find an interest that the other person has got, it's a good way to start a conversation." Several organisations run projects to alleviate loneliness, but Michelle hasn't yet found anywhere she would be comfortable attending. "Where do you go to find friends if you're 33?" she asks. "People say, 'Get a dog.' I would love it, but it's not fair on the dog at this time in my life. Maybe exercise would be good - joining a yoga class maybe - or volunteering. I know how powerful that can be." But after blogging about her loneliness she might be finding her own solution, tailored to her interest in music. Lots of people have been getting in touch with her about going to gigs and she's thinking about whether she could start some kind of social club in London for other young people who feel lonely and like music. Michelle has also noticed that the small, kind things people do can help, and she tries to do the same herself. "On the way to work, someone smiling at you on the tube can make such a difference, especially if you've woken up feeling like the world is on your shoulders. I go and get coffee in the building where I work and the lady there is so lovely. That's my first interaction of the day. "It's just being mindful that everyone is dealing with their own stuff, so be kind. Do tiny acts of kindness." Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. |
MSPs have given their initial backing to the Scottish government's new hate crime laws after ministers promised to make changes to the controversial plans. What will the bill do to protect victims of hate crime, and why has it proved contentious? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
What is hate crime? A hate crime is a criminal offence that is based on prejudice against a specific group of people - for example attacking someone because of their religion or the colour of their skin. Scotland already has various laws in place that offer additional protection to people from crimes based on their disability, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. It means that crimes can be treated more seriously by the courts if the offender has shown "malice and ill-will" towards the victim based on their membership - or association with - one of the protected groups. What does the Scottish government want to do? The government asked a senior judge, Lord Bracadale, to examine all of the country's existing hate crime legislation to make sure it was still fit for purpose in the 21st Century. It then introduced the Hate Crime and Public Order bill to the Scottish Parliament in response to his recommendations. The bill adds hate crime based on a person's age to the list of protected groups, with hatred based on someone's sex potentially to be added in the future. It aims to simplify and clarify the law by bringing together the various existing hate crime laws into a single piece of legislation. And it creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" against the protected groups - which is defined as "behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, or communicating threatening or abusive material to another person". The bill originally said that this could be "with the intention" of stirring up hatred against someone from a protected group, or "where it is a likely consequence that hatred will be stirred up against such a group". However, the Scottish government has now said that the bill will be amended to ensure that only people who intended to stir up hatred will be prosecuted. The bill also formally abolishes the offence of blasphemy - which has not been prosecuted in Scotland for more than 175 years. The government says the bill "makes it clear to victims, perpetrators, and communities and to wider society that offences motivated by prejudice will be treated more seriously and will not be tolerated by society". Why are some people not happy? Serious concerns have been raised about the potential impact on freedom of speech, with opponents arguing that the full implications of the proposed law have not been thought through. While supporting the principle of protecting people from prejudice, they argue that the definition of "stirring up hatred" is too vague and open to interpretation. There have been suggestions, for example, that the bill could lead to author JK Rowling facing a seven-year prison sentence for expressing her concerns about the impact of trans rights on women. And opponents say comedians could potentially be prosecuted for making a joke about a "Scotsman, and Englishman and an Irishman" walking into a bar. There have also been claims from the Catholic Church that the new law could make it illegal for people to oppose same-sex marriage or increased transgender rights on religious grounds. And there were even concerns that proposed laws on possessing "inflammatory material" could potentially lead to libraries and bookshops being prosecuted for stocking books that are deemed to be offensive. This section of the bill would have covered people who "have in their possession threatening, abusive or insulting material with a view to communicating the material to another person". However, the government has bowed to pressure and agreed to remove this section entirely. Many opponents have drawn parallels with the highly-controversial Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, which was eventually repealed by the Scottish Parliament. And the Scottish Police Federation has warned that the proposals would force officers to "police what people think or feel" which it says would "devastate the legitimacy of the police in the eyes of the public". How has the government responded? The Scottish government announced on 23 September that it would change the bill in a bid to ease some of the concerns about its impact on freedom of speech. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf told the Scottish Parliament that the legislation would now only cover offences where the stirring up of hatred was intentional. He said: "I want people across this chamber and across Scotland to come together so we can ensure hate crime law can deal with the problem of stirring up hatred in an effective and appropriate way. "That is why I think it is important to put the concerns over the question of the operation of the new offences beyond doubt." But some, including the Scottish Conservatives, have said the changes do not go far enough - and have called on Mr Yousaf to rip up the legislation and start again. How big a problem is hate crime anyway? Figures released in June showed that the number of people charged with hate crimes in Scotland has increased over the past year. Racial offences remain the most commonly reported hate crime, with a total of 3,038 charges last year - an increase of 4% on the previous year, but still the second lowest since comparable records began in 2003/04 and 33% lower than the peak recorded in 2011/12. The figures also showed that: The increase in charges may suggest that victims have more confidence in coming forward - but many incidents still go unreported. What happens next? Members of Holyrood's justice committee were tasked with scrutinising the near 2,000 written views which were sent during a recent consultation period. They penned a stage one report on the bill which said it should proceed through parliament - but only if further changes were made. The government agreed to make additional alterations to the legislation, accepting the "overwhelming majority" of the committee's recommendations. MSPs have now backed the "general principles" of the bill, meaning it has passed its first parliamentary hurdle - but many warned they would want to see further amendments made if it is to continue through Holyrood and become law. The Hate Crime Bill will now return to the committee for even more amendments to be considered, before going back before MSPs for a final vote next year. |
Uzbekistan is a country that has long been in the shadows, but this week the once repressive and secretive Central Asian state invited the media in for an international summit on the peace process in Afghanistan. It was a chance for BBC Uzbek's Ibrat Safo to return home for the first time in more than 10 years. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Spring always comes suddenly in Tashkent. One day it's cold and grey; the next, the city's almond and apricot trees burst into blossom. This year the streets are also festooned with fairy lights to celebrate Navruz, the tradition spring festival. Even in the pouring rain there's a new sense of hope and anticipation in the air. After the death President Islam Karimov in 2016, Uzbekistan has started to open up. And this week's Afghan peace conference, with delegates and journalists flying in from all over the world, was the highest-profile indication yet of a new willingness to re-engage with the world. Returning home For me it was a chance to return home to work for the first time since the BBC had to leave Uzbekistan in the aftermath of the unrest and violence in the town of Andijan in 2005. And I wasn't the only one. As I walked into the grand white marble conference media centre I met many familiar faces from the old Tashkent press corps, also returning for the first time in many years. The peace conference was headline news on all the local TV news programmes and everyone seemed to know about it. "You here for the Afghan summit?" a taxi driver surprised me by asking on the first day. Like many people here, he saw the conference as yet another sign that the new President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is trying do things differently. A peace summit makes sense for people here because neighbouring Afghanistan is not just a security nightmare right on their doorstep, it's also a potentially huge market for Uzbek goods and services. In this country of 31 million people where the economy has been stagnating for decades, everyone is hoping for some better news. "I work in a factory assembling washing machines," my taxi driver told me. "Our products are more expensive now because Mirziyoyev slapped tariffs on Chinese spare parts." "So that's bad for you, then? I asked. "Oh no," he replied. "We need to start making our own spare parts. I think the president is totally doing the right thing." It was first of many similar conversations, in the brief few days I was reporting in Tashkent, which gave me a sense that things really are beginning to change. A more open media Chatting to local reporters as we waited for the latest news from the conference floor, I heard many stories about the way the media is opening up. State television news, once famous for ignoring 9/11 and headlining bulletins with stories about cement factories, has suddenly become lively and interesting. Journalists are competitive, covering real stories that matter to ordinary people - life in a village with no electricity, a teacher killed sweeping the roads for the local council. Of course there are still limits to this new freedom. One reporter told me she was made to take down an online article after she criticised a monopoly business owned by a local official. And while people are keen to praise the new president, there's still a reluctance to say anything too critical about his predecessor, whose rule over more than two decades was marred by allegations of corruption and human rights abuses. In a brief break between sessions, I went to visit a relative in hospital. On the wall there were framed portraits of both the old and new presidents. "They're still not ready to put that one in the bin," one patient muttered darkly, gesturing at Mr Karimov. At the peace conference, the new and more open Uzbekistan was very much in evidence. The presidents of both Uzbekistan and Afghanistan attended the session, as did the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and senior officials from the United Nations and the 23 countries taking part, including the US and the UK. Sodyk Safoyev, a former foreign minister and now deputy head of the Uzbek Senate, told the BBC the conference was happening because of what he called Uzbekistan's "renewed foreign policy" over the past year and a half. "A completely new political atmosphere has been created in Central Asia," he said. "There's mutual trust, and mutual readiness to resolve the most sensitive issues in the region." No-one was expecting the peace conference to deliver any breakthroughs. But that was never the point. This was a chance for Uzbekistan to reclaim its place on the international stage and to show solidarity for a peace process that matters not just for Afghanistan, but for all of Central Asia. It ended with a declaration supporting efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, and underlining that Afghans must lead the peace process themselves. As the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's convoy swept through the streets on his way back to the airport, like me he will have seen the wide avenues, shiny shopping centres and grand apartment buildings of a new and very different Tashkent. Spring has come to Uzbekistan, and I left hoping the new beginnings in my country might one day be echoed in a new day for peace in Afghanistan. |
"People all over the world are really suffering." | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Powerful words from Prince Harry. And there's no doubt Ed Sheeran agrees. In a video released on the Duke of Sussex's Instagram, arguably the two most famous redheads on the planet discuss a globally important issue. Well that's what Prince Harry thinks is happening. But he quickly becomes confused by Ed's train of thought. "People don't understand what it's like for people like us," says Ed, adding he's trying to write a song about the problem. "The jokes, the snide comments, it's time we stood up and said: "We're not going to take this any more.'" Ed's rallying call? "We are ginger and we're going to fight." Cue some nicely scripted awkwardness as Prince Harry reveals he thought the two were teaming up to raise awareness for World Mental Health Day. Ed then hastily starts deleting his "Gingers Unite" headline from his laptop - where we also get a glimpse of his mission statement. "HRH Prince Harry and the king of ging Ed Sheeran get together to change the perception of people with Moroccan sunset hair." Confusion over - the two then finish the video with a genuine message: "This World Mental Health Day, reach out, make sure that you're friends, strangers, look out for anyone that might be suffering in silence. We're all in this together." In just over four hours the video had more than 1.2m views. Ed's also shared the video on his own Instagram, saying: "Myself and Prince Harry, want to ensure that not just today but every day, you look after yourself, your friends and those around you. There's no need to suffer in silence - share how you're feeling, ask how someone is doing and listen for the answer, be willing to ask for help when you need it, and know that we are all in this together." You can get more information on mental health support by clicking on the BBC Advice pages. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here. |
For more than 50 years, young Europeans have been crossing the sea to Britain to become au pairs. But with the UK's imminent departure from the European Union and impending changes to immigration laws, there are fears the system is under threat. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Kate ScotterBBC News Au pairing originated in Europe with an agreement between European nations signed in 1969 regulating placements. The reciprocal arrangement allowed au pairs to work short stays of between three and 12 months, often attending a language school, with their board and lodgings covered by the host family. They perform childcare duties and do light household tasks but are not allowed to work more than 30 hours a week, for which they are paid an average of about £90 a week to cover personal expenses. More than 44,000 British families rely on having an au pair every year, according to the British Au Pair Agencies Association (BAPAA). But, as it stands, the government has no dedicated visa route for au pairs and after Britain leaves the EU, the freedom of movement European au pairs currently enjoy from will be lost. How will it affect those who rely on the programme? 'It's a practical solution to a big problem' The Barnes family from Ipswich have relied on the au pair system since 2014. Dennis and Lilli work shifts and they have no family nearby, so the programme gives them the flexibility they need for childcare arrangements for their 11-year-old daughter Melody. They are currently hosting their eleventh au pair - Pauline Bremont from Blois in France, who has been with them since September. Mr Barnes, a train driver, says the system enabled his wife to train as a nurse, which she has now been for four years. With the EU Settlement Scheme, available to those from Europe already in the UK, they know they can continue to host Pauline until August. But beyond that, they fear Mrs Barnes may have to reduce her hours or even give up her job. Mr Barnes says: "We always need nurses so we don't like the thought of withdrawing services in an important profession because of childcare. "You've got somebody at home when your shifts are extended, so, without that, key workers like ourselves - we're stuffed. "Au pairing is a practical solution to a big problem." Mr Barnes says over the years they have had a "great time" with their au pairs, and have been invited to previous ones' weddings or over to their homes in France. "Melody has had a big sister in the house, she is an only child so that's been nice, it's been good all round," he adds. Melody said: "She cooks really well - pancakes and chocolate cakes. And she's funny." 'It's a very good experience' Living with the Barnes family is Pauline, a 22-year-old Strasbourg university project design student and it is her first placement as an au pair. "It's a good experience to discover all of the traditions and to improve my English," she says. "It will help with my CV and it's a good experience for meeting people." Pauline says English is "very important" for her to work in graphic design because "we need to talk with many people to make a project, in another country, for example". She says it will be "very bad" if others like her do not get the same opportunity. 'We are flummoxed by it all' BAPAA has been lobbying the government for visa rights for au pairs since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. And while the Home Office says "there are a number of ways in which au pairs can work in the UK", BAPAA argues they are not enough. The Home Office says those from Europe who are already here can join "the millions who have secured their rights through the EU Settlement Scheme". It says in addition to the new points-based immigration system, for those from around the world wishing to come to the UK, "the generous Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) welcomes approximately 20,000 migrants a year, with capacity within existing quotas for approximately 15,000 more migrants". It says the UK currently has YMS arrangements with Australia, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Korea, San Marino and Taiwan. But according to BAPAA, the large majority of au pairs come from Europe. Furthermore, under YMS, those entering the UK have to prove they have £2,530 in savings and they are not limited to au pairing. BAPAA chairwoman Jamie Shackell says tens of thousands of British families will struggle without support for the au pair system between Europe and the UK. "Families have said they might have to give up work and claim benefits because they cannot afford to have a nanny, and breakfast and afternoon clubs don't work if you work shifts," she says. "We are flummoxed by it all. It's a mutually-beneficially cultural exchange programme. "They are not a financial strain on the UK state - we don't understand why the government won't put forward an au pair visa." There is a petition calling to "save au pairs" that has been signed by almost 28,000 people. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk |
People here waited anxiously for weeks and months, first, as the trial unfolded, and then during the final, nerve-wracking hours, while the jury deliberated. The stakes of the trial were extraordinarily high, and people are relieved, and also trying to process the tumultuous events. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Tara McKelveyBBC News, Minneapolis It is a landmark case for police violence against black people, and the verdict marks a significant victory for the activists who have pushed for policing reform: Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. The jury's decision means police will now be under increased scrutiny, say legal experts, and are more likely to be prosecuted, and convicted, for wrongdoing. The verdict could usher in a kind of policing, say analysts, with more accountability for officers, as well as new policies for the use of force. And for many, the trial was a sign that the system works. "It shows that police officers are not above the law," says Jack Rice, a lawyer in the twin cities, Minneapolis and St Paul. "It will impact future cases that come before the court. What is even more important, however, is that it will impact the behaviour of officers when they are performing on the street. It's beyond the criminal case - it's about what the officers do on a daily basis." News of the monumental verdict travelled fast. Activist Rosa Gomez, 19, was in her college dorm, and Erika Atson, 20, also an activist, was at home, when it was announced. Says Atson: "I'm happy. Just super happy." Gomez agrees: "A huge relief." The reaction of Rich Stanek, a former sheriff of Hennepin County, the place where the trial was convened, and his colleagues was different. He was at a conference of law enforcement officials in Idaho, and was not surprised by the verdict. Among he and his friends, though, there was no celebrating: "People were sombre." Activists were elated, others reserved. But for all, it was the end of a journey, the conclusion of a trial that had riveted them, and people around the world, and held them in its grip. Floyd's death outside of a store, Cup Foods, in May 2020 had set off massive protests and looting. Then, the sensational trial convened, and became the most closely watched one in decades. Of the dozens of people whom I spoke with here in town, during the weeks the trial unfolded, nearly all agreed that their city had been transformed by the experience. They differed greatly, though, in their views of what the change meant, and whether it was good or bad. The police chief of Minneapolis and other officers testified against Chauvin. Yet many people who have worked in law enforcement sympathised with him. Ordinary people cannot understand what it is like to make an arrest, they told me, when things can spin out of control. Others saw Chauvin, and the issues surrounding policing, in a different light. They told me that officers here are rarely held accountable. When these activists and their friends heard the verdict, they were stunned. "He's going to jail," called out one woman in a black sweatshirt, in a sing-song voice, as she jumped up and down outside the building where the verdict was read. It was a moment of jubilation, as people slammed on horns, jumped on roofs of their cars, and waved hats in the air, a "celebratory protest", says one. The activists were happy about the verdict, but also demanded justice in other cases. "You know, we don't stop here. We have to do the same for all the cops who are murdering people," says activist Erika Atson. "This is a good win, but we're not done winning." She and other protesters felt vindicated. Ordinary people were just relieved the trial was over. Yet they all wondered what would happen next. The city was like a village in a snow globe that had been shaken, with snow swirling, and then, finally, it looks peaceful. On Tuesday, the snow settled, for the moment. Rich Stanek walked the streets of Minneapolis as an officer, and as county sheriff. Yet after Floyd's death, and the protests that followed, Stanek did not recognise his city. He recalls driving down Lake Street, and seeing rubble. Hundreds of buildings around town had been wrecked, $350m (£250m) in losses, according to officials. Protesters such as Erika Atson and Rosa Gomez also felt disoriented. The place they, too, had known their whole lives was suddenly a battle zone, with activists and police facing off. I first saw Gomez, with a 35mm camera slung around her neck, outside the building where the trial was taking place. Later, she told me about her hometown, Minneapolis, a city known for its liberalism, lakes and northern climate. A place with chilly weather and personal warmth, a study in contrasts. People associate racism with southern US cities, says Gomez, and their history of slavery, not northern cities such as Minneapolis. The trial laid bare the bigotry here, she says, some of which she has experienced. Her father, a custodian, immigrated from Honduras, and she describes herself as a person of colour, as well as queer and non-binary. She followed the trial and listened sceptically as defence lawyer Eric Nelson described Chauvin's actions, arguing they were justified. On that day of the trial, Jerry Obieglo, who works in veterans' services, was also watching, picking up bits at the office, and catching up at home. As it happened, he had been Chauvin's boss back in the 1990s in the military. "A quiet guy," he remembers. Obieglo was shocked to recognise him in the video, pinning Floyd to the ground. Obieglo followed the trial on YouTube, and tried to avoid cable news, saying they were biased. Fox focused on the defence, while CNN gave air time to the prosecutors. Obieglo says Fox's coverage of the trial was better than the liberal-leaning outlets, explaining: "Fox wasn't blowing Floyd up to be an angel." Obieglo says Chauvin used poor judgement. Still, Obieglo thinks the jurors went too far, finding him guilty on all three counts, rather than just on manslaughter. He blames the sensationalised coverage, and the protests, for the decision. He believes the jurors felt pressured, and acted out of fear: "I guess they want to make sure their houses don't get burned down tonight." 'We have to destroy' The building where the trial convened was turned into a fortress, with military Humvees outside, another sign of the way the trial changed the city. By Monday, the day the jury began their deliberations, 3,000 National Guard troops were on duty. "It looks like a forward operating base in a foreign country," says Rich Stanek, the former sheriff. But for all the physical changes in the city, some aspects remained, distressingly, unchanged. During the trial a black man, Daunte Wright, was killed in a suburb. A white officer, Kimberly Potter, had apparently mistaken her Taser for a handgun, and was charged with manslaughter. It was a reminder of the violence. More than 50 black people have died in the state during interactions with police officers since 2000, according to the Star Tribune. In the midst of the trial, Erika Atson was sitting at a cafe, a place where she used to go with her Sunday school friends, and watched a live stream of testimony. Atson was raised by her mother, a hotel maid, in south Minneapolis, and hung out at Cup Foods, snacking on Takis, a spicy chip. After Floyd's death outside the store, she went to protests and watched flames pour from buildings. The air, she says, smelled of burning tires: "I remember seeing ATMs being pushed back and forth, and people hitting them with sticks, like they were hitting a piñata." She was frightened. But, she says, she felt the violence was justified. "I've always known that violence is not the answer, but how much longer do we have to be peaceful?" she says. "Here I am, now, thinking we have to use violence. We have to destroy government buildings. I felt bad when I was there, but I was also like - it has to be done." During the trial, Maren Beard, 35, watched from her farm hundreds of miles away in the US state of Iowa. She was disturbed by the notorious video, and frustrated by her lack of awareness about police brutality. She says: "These things happen all the time. I hadn't thought about it as much as I should, so I think it was kind of a wake-up call." A wake-up call for some. For others, a chance to upend the city. Student Rosa Gomez says the protests last year were electrifying, "an overwhelming sense of support". At one, demonstrators gave out sparklers, and she began choking on all the smoke. Still, she loved seeing the popping lights: "It was just kind of fun." That day, she recalls walking past a billboard that said: "We're not trying to start a race war. We're trying to end one." For her and many other protesters, the verdict on Tuesday was a step in that direction. |
A woman charged with murdering a 55-year-old who was stabbed to death is due to stand trial. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Simone Hancock was found with fatal stab wounds in Ravenscroft Place, Richmond in Sheffield, on Saturday night. Ms Hancock was taken to hospital where she later died. Kerry Taylor, 41, of Ravenscroft Place, did not enter a plea at Sheffield Crown Court. She was remanded in custody for a trial on 11 January 2021. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here. |
It is hard to overstate the symbolism and significance of the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's chief financial officer and daughter of its founder. Huawei is the crown jewel of Chinese tech and Ms Meng is effectively its princess. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Karishma VaswaniAsia business correspondent@BBCKarishmaon Twitter On December 1, the same day as President Trump and President Xi sat down at the G20 over grilled sirloin and caramel pancakes, to work on easing the trade war, Ms Meng was arrested in Canada and is now facing extradition to the US. Although it's still not clear what the charges against her are - we know that the US has been investigating Huawei for possible violations of US sanctions on Iran - this is not simply a case about the arrest of one woman, or just one company. This arrest could materially damage the relationship between the US and China at possibly one of the most sensitive times between the two countries in their long and torrid history. "It could not come at a worse time and it is probably going to put a cloud over any upcoming negotiations," Vinesh Motwani of Silk Road Research told me. "The market had already turned more sceptical over the G20 agreement in recent days. This is only going to make the market more sceptical any deal can be reached. " Rapprochement averted Tensions have been rising between Washington and Beijing, not just on trade. But at that G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, it looked like the two sides had at least decided to talk, and thrash things out over a 90-day period. Amongst those issues are technology concerns, which are front and centre of this trade war. Even if it wasn't clear how united China and the US may have been on the objectives, the very fact that discussions were taking place were seen as a semi-positive for the global economy. 'Hostage taking' But this arrest is likely to be seen by China as an attack and "hostage taking", says Elliott Zaagman, who has covered the Chinese firm for the better part of the last two decades. "China has a reputation for making agreements and not keeping them, not following through," he told me on the phone from Boston. "There's a theory that this could be a way for the US to hold Beijing to its word on the trade war." If so, it is a move the Chinese media has not taken well. "The US is trying to find a way to attack Huawei," says Hu Xijin, editor in chief of the Chinese and English editions of the Global Times - a publication often seen as a mouthpiece of the Chinese government. "It is trying to keep Huawei down. That's why it has pressured its allies not to use Huawei's products. It is trying to destroy Huawei's reputation." What Mr Hu is referring to is the recent rejection of Huawei's services by a number of US allies, including Australia, New Zealand and most recently the UK's BT which says it won't be using Huawei equipment in the heart of its 5G mobile network when it is rolled out in the UK (although it does still plan to use Huawei's mast antennas and other products). There's no evidence of Huawei having ever been engaged in any spying or handing over of data to the Chinese government. In fact, whenever I talk to Huawei executives privately they tell me how frustrated they are because of how the US government and Western media unfairly paints them as a Chinese state-owned company that does Beijing's bidding. Company sources tell me that Huawei should be seen as the modern, dynamic and law-abiding global firm that it is, and that the US's narrative is flawed and unfounded. Still, Huawei's founder, the father of Ms Meng, is Ren Zhengfei - a former military officer in the Chinese army. And the fact remains, as Mr Zaagman points out in a recent piece for The Lowy Institute, "the firm's relationship with the Chinese People's Liberation Army remains an issue of concern and opacity". Which is why the US says countries must be wary of Chinese companies like Huawei. Under China's laws, private companies and individuals may be obliged to hand over information or data to the government if they are indeed asked. It's that possibility, government sources say, that is scaring them off doing business with Huawei. Huawei has told me this is completely untrue, and other Chinese academics and business people have also rejected this notion. Mr Hu of the Global Times agrees: "The Chinese government would not do this. China would not hurt its own enterprises. If it hurts its own companies, how would it benefit the country? Even if a middling or low-level official were to ask it, Huawei will have the power to refuse any kind of government request." Many in China will see this as yet another attempt to contain the country's rise, by limiting its most global firms' access to international markets. "This could further endanger Huawei's 5G aspirations outside of emerging markets," says Tony Nash of Complete Intelligence, on the line from the US. "If Huawei is being investigated it could put both Huawei and ZTE on the back foot as other equipment makers gain a lead in North America, and potentially other developed markets." Other countries It's not just developed markets where Huawei may be losing ground. The scrutiny is building in emerging markets too. Industry sources tell me that the US has been putting pressure on Asian allies to stop them from using Huawei's equipment. The Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea were the latest recipients of this pressure, and India is thought to be next. So what does this mean? The gloves are off. You should be under no illusion what this latest move by the US means for the relationship between the world's two largest economies: things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. |
A Durham shopping centre which had been in administration has been bought for £11.85m by a London-based company. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Gates Shopping Centre in Durham city, which includes retail units, residential properties and parking, has been bought by Clearbell Capital LLP. The new owners hope to build a cinema, new restaurants and student accommodation at the site, as well as managing the existing complex. The company said it hoped it would "improve the offering" to the area. |
Former National Heritage minister, Anura Bandaranaike, has met President Mahinda Rajapaksa in an attempt to reconcile after the latest developments. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The meeting was arranged by Western Province Governor, Alavi Moulana, a senior leader of ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Bandaranaike and two other ministers were sacked by the President Rajapaksa on Friday. The former minister strongly criticised the Rajapaksa government after he was sacked. He was happy not to be a part of 'hellish' government led by Rajapaksa, Bandaranaike told BBC Sandeshaya. Rajapaksa told a special SLFP Ex-co meeting that a group of dissidents conspired to assassinate him. |
Winds could reach gale force in Wales with stormy weather set to hit the whole of the country this week. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for wind covering Wales and England, starting from 21:00 GMT on Wednesday evening. Travel and power are both likely to be disrupted, with the warning to remain in place until 15:00 on Thursday. Gusts of 55mph (88kmh) are likely and could hit up to 70mph on coasts and hills, with heavy and blustery showers. |
Christopher Nolan's World War Two thriller Dunkirk hits the screens in the US and the UK this month, dramatising the daring rescue of 300,000 Allied troops from the approaching German army. But as they escaped across the English Channel, thousands of civilians were left to fend for themselves. This is the story of one family. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Nadia RagozhinaBBC News It was May 1940 and Eva Zusman, her husband Stanislas and four-year-old daughter Anita had arrived in the Belgian beach resort of De Panne from their home in Antwerp. They were joined by Stanislas's father and close family. It was a holiday arranged at the last minute to celebrate Eva's return from her hometown of Geneva, where she was visiting her family. German advance De Panne was ideal for a family summer holiday. White sandy beaches stretched as far as the eye could see. But the day after their arrival on 10 May, Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. For Anita - who is now 80 and living in Geneva - the news came from a local police warden carrying a drum. Belgium's resistance did not last long. Thousands of Nazi troops were marching across the Low Countries towards northern France and the coast. Eva and Stanislas hesitated, aware that as Jews they would be among the first to be targeted in occupied Belgium. After several days they joined others making their way on foot towards France. The pace was slow. Born with a deformed hip, Eva limped heavily while her father-in-law, Abraham, needed a wheelchair. Anita and her cousins, at first terrified of what was happening, were soon distracted by views of the sea and ran ahead. Stanislas bought a car and hired a young local man to drive the Zusman family towards the border. Once in France, they stopped at a guesthouse to rest. They left their suitcases in the car and paid for their driver to spend the night at the guesthouse with them. In the morning they were to continue their journey south. Eva would not be separated from the fur coat that she had bought in Geneva the previous winter. It was to accompany her every step of her journey. In the morning both car and driver had disappeared. Their only means of transport and their belongings had gone. Dunkirk under siege By 15 May the Netherlands had surrendered to Germany and the Zusman family were on their way to Dunkirk. When they arrived days later, the city felt unnaturally quiet. Bomb explosions could be heard in the distance and smoke was visible to the north. Eva searched for provisions and a place to stay, and found both in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city. What happened in Dunkirk was to haunt Eva for many years after the war and she wrote down her memories in her diary. "We didn't know that the entire British army was back in Dunkirk as they were trying to escape back by the sea. We spent a terrible night under bombardment in Dunkirk, we didn't know what awaited the soldiers on the beach. Stanis thought we should board one of the boats heading to England too." By 21 May, British, French and Belgian troops were in effect trapped along the French coast. A French division had held the Germans near Lille and given the Allies time to gather in Dunkirk, but time was running out. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had called for small private boats and ships to gather along the coast to take part in the evacuation. Escape from Dunkirk Stanis and his family joined other civilians fleeing the bombardment. They headed south-east, hoping for a train to take them away from the fighting. Bikes, carts, horse-drawn carriages, trucks, prams, young and old, women and children fled south in whatever way they could. Nobody knew how long the journey would last or where they would spend the night. More than 20,000 civilians were to lose their lives in France in May and June 1940. Anita still remembers the warmth of her mother's fur coat. She slept on it and covered herself with it when it was cold at night. It became more of a treasure than Eva could have ever imagined. Then came the separation. Stanis decided to buy a motorcycle with a sidecar. A young man was found to drive it and Eva was to go in the sidecar with her daughter, while Stanis would follow with his father and his brother's family. Their aim was to head south to Lyon, from where they thought they would take a train. The journey was slow because of the crowds of refugees. Eventually the petrol ran out and mother and daughter continued on foot. Even now Anita remembers the hunger. They went for days with little or nothing to eat, sometimes buying bread and vegetables from locals. Eva wrote in her diary: "I will never forget a farmer who gave me an egg for Anita and a lady who wanted to snatch it from me to give it to her elderly husband. I kept it for Anita, I was able to boil it, she ate it very happily and she vomited it straight away." Under attack Most people on the roads slept under trees and in the bushes, but Eva hoped for a safer place. One night she knocked on the door of a farm, asking for food and a place to sleep. But the farmer was overwhelmed by the number of refugees on his doorstep. Turned away, they sheltered in nearby fields and awoke to the siren of an approaching German Stuka dive-bomber. Stuka bombers terrified the local population at this time, their sirens a warning of imminent attack. Eva watched the plane dive as it approached its target, its machine-gun spraying bullets everywhere. Then it dropped a bomb and the farm went up in flames. Eva and Anita ran as far as they could, to escape the heat of the flames, and the danger that the fire would spread to the dry fields nearby. Eva threw herself on the ground, trying to cover Anita with her own body. What would happen to her child if she died, she thought. It would be better if they died together. The German checkpoint was barely visible, as so many people were attempting to get through. Face to face with the invaders Long lines of trucks, carriages and those on foot had found their journey brought to an unexpected stop. Eva had heard rumours that the Germans were coming. But no-one realised that the occupying army was already everywhere. At the checkpoint Eva came face to face with the first Nazi soldier she had ever seen. Unsure how to address him, she decided on German, to do everything in her power to get herself and her daughter out of the French fields and back to the Belgian capital, Brussels. While Eva had been talking, Anita had been picking daisies and came to her mother's rescue. She handed him the bunch of flowers she had picked and remembers the scene to this day. "He took me in his arms with the flowers, and told my mother that he had a daughter my age at home. He asked us where we came from and what he could do to help. When my mother said Switzerland, he laughed." There were no open roads into neutral Switzerland, but he did help get them to Brussels. As the rest of the queue looked on in envy, Eva and Anita got into a chauffeur-driven German Volkswagen and were taken to Brussels. After six weeks on the road they were finally reunited with Stanis. The Zusmans returned to their lives in Belgium, but as anti-Semitic laws intensified in Brussels, Anita was put on a Red Cross train to Switzerland, and was followed by her mother. Stanis tried to join them but was caught and eventually murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in February 1943. Nadia Ragozhina is a distant cousin of Eva Zusman and is working on a book on her family's past through the 20th Century. |
A road has collapsed after a burst water main caused heavy flooding in part of Plymouth. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The burst, in the Melville Road area of the city, has seen the streets closed between Alexandra and Cambridge roads near the Ford Primary School. A "significant" amount of water was running downhill, Devon and Cornwall Police said. South West Water said it was "hoping to restore water supplies as soon as possible". |
Diagnosis: Depression, anxiety and distress intolerance | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Marie JacksonBBC News The stigma around mental health problems can have a devastating impact on people's lives, a survey has found, often leaving behind a trail of break-ups, severed friendships and lost jobs. To get people talking and help break the stigma, charities have launched Time to Talk Day on Thursday. Here, eight people share their experiences. Andrea Wade, 23, a retail supervisor from Blackpool I've suffered since I was a young girl and always prided myself on how well I could hide my illness. I would lie to my school friends telling them I was on holiday when I was actually an in-patient. If I was not bubbly and sociable, my friends would say I was in "death mode". It made me feel very isolated. They're no longer my friends - just acquaintances. It has caused lasting damage and meant I always try to pretend I'm OK now. People need to understand that there's a spectrum of emotions - it's OK to feel happy, and it's OK to feel sad. Beth Allan, 25, a film-maker from London Diagnosis: Borderline personality disorder At my worst, I was very erratic and hurtful. For my parents, it was like having an imposter in their home. My dad almost disowned me - he told me to snap out of it. Every time I had a bad day, he assumed I was suicidal or I was going to hurt someone. I think he was scared of the implications of having a child that would be ill for the rest of their life. It made me feel very unsupported, as though he did not accept me, so I moved out. It took three years to heal our relationship, and took for me to get worse and then better again for him to see that I could get better. I wish he had sat down with me and talked to me, rather than treat me like a burden. Lauren Quigley, 26, a college learning facilitator from Manchester Diagnosis: Depression and anxiety My partner - and first love - was working in France. I had been struggling with the distance and my mind had started whirring with negative thoughts. She knew my history but thought it was in my past. A week before I was due to fly out to see her, she broke up with me over Skype. I blamed myself entirely for the split, and started thinking maybe I could never have a relationship. My family and friends are very supportive so it was hard not to get the support from someone I loved. I've tried to explain my anxiety to her in a letter and emails, but she hasn't replied. I'm very lucky to have a new partner now. She finds it really hard to fully understand my problems but she's read up on anxiety. It's about being there to listen - not judge. Oli Regan, 26, actor from south-east London Diagnosis: Bipolar disorder I had a temper, I was uncontrollable but, for a long time, I just thought it was me. All my relationships in the past have broken down. It's been a nightmare. You get looked at in a different way from a "normal" person. Every argument is: "Are you taking your medicine?", "You're a nutter." It's very hard to explain what goes on in your mind. Some days can feel like your mind is a prison - you're trapped. My fiancee has experience of bipolar, and she's my rock. My advice to others in my position? Be open from the start. Some people won't be OK with it - you have to expect that. There's a lot of stigma in the world. Jenny Carter, 24, a charity worker in London Diagnosis: OCD previously, now depression and anxiety I chose not to tell my new employers about my mental health problems because I didn't want it to be a big deal. The job was stressful and I was signed off work. But when I returned and told them, no-one there knew what to do. At one point, my manager stopped talking to me, and an HR person said: "If it's so awful here, why haven't you left?" After six months, I was dismissed because my work was not up to standard, despite having told them I couldn't cope. But it was discrimination, and they got away with it. My new job has been a completely different experience. I told them, and even the senior bosses said their door was always open for a chat. It sounds silly but they've just been really nice about it. Clive Buckenham, 48, a civil servant from Andover, Hampshire Diagnosis: Depression and anxiety When the illness was at its worst, I would come home from work very stressed out. I would find it difficult to talk about it and that would create a lot of tension. My wife and I would end up having arguments about trivial things, like what salad to have for dinner. It would happen in a flash and I would be in tears for several hours, and end up physically drained. For her, it was like being caught in a violent storm, and all she could do was take cover, and try to reassure me. It's so hard to live with someone who is mentally ill. The person you married has disappeared. She had got the worst of me. All they can do is continue to be there, and stay in it for the long haul. Deian Lye-Vella, 43, a cleaner and football coach from Bath Diagnosis: Depression My wife and I divorced because of my mental health problems. After that, friends would assume I was down because of my divorce - and sometimes I was but it was also because of my mental health. I found it very hard to sit down and say all that to them. You would be exposing a part of yourself. When I opened up to one friend, she said: "What have you got to be depressed about?" I've told plenty of lies over the years to explain my absence - a stomach ache or my car's broken down. Recently I told a friend the truth - that I wasn't coming out because of my mental state. He texted back saying: "Thanks for telling me. I'll be there when you need me. Man hugs." Patience is good. More on this subject Jodie Goodacre, 21, a student from Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire Diagnosis: Bipolar type two and borderline personality disorder I kept it a secret for a long time because I was afraid how my friends would react. At 18, I opened up. Some were supportive. Others seemed to want to blame me, saying it was my fault and if only I tried harder then I would be fine. I was really upset because it had taken me so long to build up the courage. It's as though they threw it back in my face, and I closed up again. It was three years before I opened up again - and this time it's been very different. Maturity and education make the difference. It's important to realise that everyone's mental health is different. If you want to help, you need to ask that individual how you can help. Don't be scared to approach the subject. We're not after a therapist, we're after a friend. And if you're the one opening up, expect people to be upset or shocked. They react like that because they care. Mental health charities are calling it Time to Talk Day on Thursday, in a bid to get people across England talking about mental health problems and help break the stigma. To coincide with a big conversation in schools, universities, councils, government departments and on social media, it has released findings from a survey of 2,000 adults with a range of mental health problems. The poll found almost two fifths (38%) had been treated negatively because of their problems. Of those: Sue Baker, director of organisers Time to Change, said: "Progress is being made in improving attitudes and reducing discrimination in some key areas of life but too many of us are still being made to feel isolated, ashamed and worthless by other people's reactions. "The good news is that being open about mental health, and ready to listen, can make a positive difference and potentially change lives." |
Residents with doorbell cameras or CCTV at their homes are being urged to register them with the police. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
A database of private cameras across Swindon is being set up in a bid to speed up Wiltshire Police's search for footage of crimes and incidents. Swindon Borough councillor Rahul Tarar said: "This isn't about surveillance, this is about helping the police with information." It is thought it will be the first dedicated database in the UK. Related Internet Links Wiltshire and Swindon Community Messaging Swindon Borough Council |
Elbow are to headline the Thursday night of next year's Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Over 20 years, the Manchester band has won three Ivor Novellos, a Mercury Music Prize, and a BRIT award for Best British Band. Solo artists Tom Odell and Lewis Capaldi have also been confirmed for Bella, near Beauly. The festival will take place from 1-3 August and will have a science-fiction theme. |
A leisure centre in Wrexham has officially reopened after a £1.5m revamp. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Improvements at Waterworld include a new indoor cycling studio with virtual software. There is also a new reception area, while the gym, changing rooms and cafe have undergone refurbishments. Wrexham council has spent £2.7m in total on its leisure centres. |
The numbers of Indians studying in the UK fell for the first time in the last year, many say due to changes in visa rules. As David Cameron prepares to visit India, how is the issue affecting Indians' perception of Britain? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News, Mumbai At an entrance to a five star hotel in a plush area of Mumbai, it is hard to move for the crowds. This beachside hotel is a regular haunt for Bollywood stars and celebrities, but the hundreds of young Indians are not desperate to catch a glimpse of an action hero, or a supermodel. They're here to get an education. A number of ballrooms have been taken over for an international education fair. British universities make up almost half of the hundred or so exhibitors at the event, organised by a private company, Edwise, which regularly hosts and facilitates foreign establishments in finding students. Representatives from universities including Durham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Lancaster and York are all seated behind tables, poised for their sales pitch. 'Opportunity to settle' The UK is a popular destination for Indian students, second only to the USA, but the appeal of a degree in Britain has lost some of its shine for many. "I know the educational standard of the UK is very renowned, so I would have preferred that, if the visa system hadn't been changed," says twenty-one year old Prachi Bhatt, who is weighed down by a pile of university prospectuses for Australia and Canada. "I want to study, work and maybe settle abroad, and that's why I went for the other countries, because of the issues," she adds. The issues he is referring to are the changes in visa rules for non-EU students, which restrict the ease with which a student can stay on in the UK, after their studies. In 2012 the post-study work visa was scrapped, which had earlier allowed students like Prachi to stay on for a further two years to find work. Now, non-EU students who wish to stay in the UK can switch to Tier 2 immigration status, which means they have to qualify for employment under the points based system, and find a job which pays a minimum of £20,000. A separate visa for entrepreneurs can also be applied for but only about 1,000 are issued a year. Cachet The coalition government announced the changes as part of its efforts to reduce net migration, and limit the numbers of bogus applications as well as those overstaying their visas, but many here believe it is deterring genuine, and talented students. "It does affect everybody's decision, because once you're done with your course you want to look for a job in the country and settle for a bit. It's a good opportunity for every student to do that," says 21-year old Sasha Miranda, a fashion design student, who hopes to study in the USA or Canada. "If you can't, it's like you're going for a course and just coming back." She says the new rules do "make you feel unwelcome - that's why I prefer the US". The numbers seem to suggest that the changes are making an impact. Figures from the Higher Education Standards Authority (HESA) from January 2013, show that the number of Indians studying in the UK has fallen in the past academic year, down by some 24% (while the numbers coming from China have risen by almost one fifth). A large number of educated and aspirational middle class Indian families still choose to send their children overseas for studies as the quality and standard of graduate and post graduate education (aside from engineering institutions) is still considered very limited in the country. Research from the International Institute of Education showed that Indians were the second most mobile students in the world, after China. 'Stupid decision' A 2012 report from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore suggested that the number of Indian students choosing to go abroad rose by 256% between 2000 and 2009 from 53,266 to 189,629. The cachet attached to studying overseas means many families spend years saving to be able to do so as the opportunity to work in their host country afterwards offers one way to recoup some of the fees. That was a calculation for 24-year old Jonathan Fernandes, who hopes to study computer gaming overseas. "The UK was never a proper option for me because everything is so expensive there and everything is going to be difficult for me later on because I am funding it through my parents, so I'd prefer Canada." He repeats a sentiment many students at the fair share, that it "doesn't make sense" to return to India immediately after studies, that part of the package when it comes to studying abroad is a person's ability to gain international work experience to add to their skillset. "It's a stupid decision, they should trust people a little more, not everyone is going to fool around, we go to build our lives and our career." 'Reassurance needed' The UK is still an attractive destination for many Indian students, and the reputation of its educational institutions still holds strong among visitors to the fair. Changing immigration trends may be a driver for the visa changes, but they are also one reason 24-year old Bhavin Chauah, still sees the UK as a top destination. "As an Indian I'll get the back-up and support from other Indians living in the UK," he says. "It makes you feel more homely." "Going to the UK has always been an agenda," says 22-year-old Rumela Basu, who hopes to pursue postgraduate journalism studies in Britain. "The visa system does weigh on your mind a little bit...but for me personally, it's also about an experience and an exposure, but we look forward to changes which will help us work there for a while," she says optimistically. Ajay Sukhwani, a director of Edwise, says the UK remains a popular destination but that interest has taken "a fair hit" because of the visa changes. "The government needs to take steps which reassures international students and give them a reasonable window to work or intern along with getting a degree," he says. David Cameron will be travelling with a delegation of university officials when he lands in India next week. The message to him from this career fair, at least, is to make changes which will allow more people to seek work in the UK - for many here, studying abroad is about far more than just collecting a degree certificate. |
The latest salvo by former FBI Director James Comey in his feud with President Donald Trump included the charge that the president was morally unfit and may have obstructed justice. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
In a primetime television interview, which precedes his book publication on Tuesday, he also said the Russians may have compromising information on Mr Trump. The book likens Mr Trump to a mob boss and details his fixation on claims he consorted with prostitutes in Moscow. On Twitter, Mr Trump branded him "Slippery James Comey", and says he lied to Congress. Here is a selection of what Mr Comey said in the interview, with analysis from the BBC's Anthony Zurcher in Washington. 1. 'Morally unfit' ABC News has released a full 42,000-word transcript of the interview. Host presenter George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 20/20 programme interviewed Mr Comey on Sunday night. When asked if he considered Mr Trump fit to lead, the former FBI director said he did not believe claims about Mr Trump's mental health, but did see him as "morally unfit" to be president. "A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person's not fit to be president of the United States," he told Mr Stephanopoulos. Mr Comey was referring to President Trump's argument that "both sides" were at fault for white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year. Anthony's take: Mr Comey's book, separated from its newsworthy, tell-all portions, is really an extended rumination on the nature of moral leadership. While it may come across as preachy to some, and others will highlight his own (admitted) shortcomings in this regard, Mr Comey has strong views on the standards those who seek high office should meet. In the most dramatic, final portion of his interview, he is definitive in saying Mr Trump has failed. 2. Obstruction of justice Another portion of the interview handled the sacking of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in February 2017 for lying about contacts with the Russian ambassador in Washington. The former FBI head said Mr Trump had tried to pressure him into dropping any investigation into Mr Flynn. "I took it as a direction," he told Mr Stephanopoulos. "He's - his words were, though, 'I hope you can let it go'." Mr Comey says he let the comment pass, but concedes he should perhaps have suggested to the president that it would amount to obstruction of justice. "It's certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice. It would depend and - and I'm just a witness in this case, not the investigator or prosecutor, it would depend upon other things that reflected on his intent." Mr Trump strongly denies Mr Comey's account. Anthony's take:When told that the president disputes his version of events, Mr Comey almost shrugs. "Yeah, well, what am I going to do?" he asks. Both Mr Comey and Mr Trump, in very different language and tactics, are accusing the other of lying. The former director says he has contemporary memos that back up his claims. Mr Trump's defenders want to see those documents, and accuse him of perjury and leaking classified information. For those investigating obstruction of justice - and, ultimately, the America people - it comes down to credibility. Who has it - and who doesn't? 3. Impeachment? But despite all this, Mr Comey does not think the president should be impeached. "I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook," he told Mr Stephanopoulos. Instead, he believes the American people are "duty-bound" to remove Mr Trump "directly" at the ballot box. In the memoir itself, Mr Comey reportedly compares Mr Trump to a crime lord. He writes that interactions with the president gave him "flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the mob". The former FBI chief was a prosecutor earlier in his career, and helped break up the Gambino crime family. "The silent circle of assent," he continues. "The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. "The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organisation above morality and above the truth." Anthony's take:After laying out a stunning moral indictment of Mr Trump, Mr Comey essentially says this is a choice the American people made - and one they have to correct themselves. Barring some sort of damning evidence, he says ending the Trump presidency isn't a job for prosecutors or politicians. The toll of such a move on an already deeply divided American society would be too high. It's an interesting perspective for a former top-ranking law enforcement official to have - particularly one who earlier in the interview asserted that his 2016 investigations were done with no regard to the impact they would have on the "political fortunes" of those involved. 4. Clinton emails probe In the TV interview, Mr Comey said his belief that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 presidential elections was a factor in how he handled the investigation into the Democrat candidate's use of classified emails on a private server while she was the secretary of state. "I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump," Mr Comey said. "And so I'm sure that it - that it was a factor. "I don't remember spelling it out, but it had to have been. That - that she's going to be elected president, and if I hide this from the American people, she'll be illegitimate the moment she's elected, the moment this comes out." In July 2016, Mr Comey said Hillary Clinton had been "extremely careless" in her handling of the emails, but the FBI would not press charges. However, in October, days before the vote, he sent a letter to Congress telling them the FBI was reopening an investigation after finding more emails. The letter went public - and Mrs Clinton has said she would have won the election without it. On 6 November, the FBI said it had completed its review into the new trove of emails and there would, again, be no charges. Anthony's take: In an unaired portion of the Comey interview, the former director says that the emails discovered in October were from early in Mrs Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, before she started using her private server. If there were evidence of criminal misconduct, it would probably come from this time period. In the end, there was nothing revelatory - but Mr Comey cites this to explain why he made such a dramatic move. He decided to let a political bombshell go off just a week before the election, rather than try to defuse it in private and risk an even bigger explosion in the days after a presidential contest he believed Mrs Clinton would win. History will judge his choice. 5. 'Moscow prostitutes' The former FBI boss writes that on at least four occasions Mr Trump raised the matter of unverified claims that he watched prostitutes urinate in a hotel suite during a 2013 Moscow trip. The allegations surfaced in a raw intelligence dossier compiled by a former British spy who had been hired by Mr Trump's political enemies to dig up dirt on him. Mr Comey says Mr Trump angrily denied the claims and asked him to have the FBI disprove them because they were "terrible" for his wife, Melania Trump. He writes that he first broached the matter at a Trump Tower meeting in January 2017 shortly before the president's inauguration. Mr Comey said in the interview: "He interrupted very defensively and started talking about it, you know, 'Do I look like a guy who needs hookers?' "And I assumed he was asking that rhetorically, I didn't answer that, and I just moved on and explained, 'Sir, I'm not saying that we credit this, I'm not saying we believe it. We just thought it very important that you know.'" Mr Comey added: "I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don't know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013. It's possible, but I don't know." Anthony's take: There is a moment as Mr Comey is recalling his Trump Tower conversation with the president-elect about Russian prostitutes that he expresses amazement over what is taking place, describing it like an out-of-body experience. "I was floating above myself, looking down." It's a sentiment with which many Americans - particularly those who have Mr Comey's establishment sensibilities - can probably identify. Even a year on, they can't quite believe the Trump presidency is really happening - or that the man is governing, tweets and all, the way he campaigned. That aside, the December 2016 meeting was the first between the two men. Afterwards, it should have been clear that they were almost certainly heading on a collision course. 6. Trump's hair and hands Mr Comey, who is 6ft 8in (2.03m), says that when he first met the 6ft 3in president-elect, he appeared shorter than he did on TV. "His face appeared slightly orange," writes Mr Comey, "with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressively coifed, bright blond hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his. "As he extended his hand, I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so." Elaborating on this in the TV interview, he said: "His tie was too long as it always is... he looked slightly orange up close." Anthony's take:This interview should put to bed any question about whether Mr Comey has a natural talent for public relations. He sprinkles his comments throughout with the kind of little details and colour that keep an audience engaged. There's the tidbits about the president's personal appearance, his description of drinking wine out of a paper cup on flight home after being fired and his joke in the early days of the Clinton investigation that "nobody gets out alive". Mr Comey would probably make a good politician - if he hadn't spent the past two years, at different points, making almost everybody hate him. |
The longest railway tunnel in Wales could be dug out and re-opened to become a tourist attraction. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Blaencwm tunnel was buried during the Beeching cutbacks of the UK railway network in the 1960s which led to the closure of thousands of train stations. Volunteers are now drawing up plans to try to re-open the 3,300 yards (3017m) tunnel in Rhondda Cynon Taf. They hope to receive funding to excavate the tunnel to attract tourists and create a cycle trail. |
In a hunt that makes the proverbial needle in a haystack look like easy quarry, scientists have begun the search for remains of a suspected meteor which lit up the skies over the south-western US this week. How do they know where to start looking, and why do they bother? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Daniel NasawBBC News Magazine, Washington The meteor, which appeared as a dazzling streak of flame, was probably a chunk of space rock about the size of a football, scientists say. They believe tiny pieces of the meteor - meteorites - could have survived the fall to Earth, and they have begun gathering data to aid the search. The fireball flew eastward over southern California, was observed in Nevada and Arizona, and was last seen disintegrating in the sky over Phoenix, the Arizona state capital, according to media reports, eyewitnesses and astronomers. Many of those who saw the phenomenon telephoned the authorities after capturing it on mobile phone cameras. The footage spread across Twitter and the news media on Thursday. "It was closer than a shooting star, and you could see it breaking up into pieces," said Sgt Mark Clark of the Scottsdale, Arizona police department, who witnessed it. If found, those meteorites could yield further clues about the origins of our solar system and the chemistry and physical make-up of other celestial bodies. 'Building blocks' "Most meteorites are older than any of the rocks that are found on the earth," said Prof Peter Brown, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Western Ontario. "They are essentially the primordial building blocks of the solar system." The fireball was most likely caused by a piece of space rock travelling about up to 20 miles (32km) per second, about 30 miles high when it burned up, scientists said. "Fireballs happen somewhere on the Earth every day," said Paul Chodas, a research scientist with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This one was over a populated area, on a convenient time, in the early evening, and so it was widely seen and reported." It appeared at about 1945 local time on Wednesday (0245 GMT, Thursday). Scientific investigators are expected to consult a variety of sources as they try to get to the bottom of the fireball and attempt to narrow the meteorite search area. These include eyewitnesses and a range of records and instruments, including satellites, astronomical cameras, radar, amateur video, CCTV and even dashboard cameras on police cars. "Our colleagues will try to gather data and videos that they can use to triangulate the path and then they will be able to calculate where the meteorites are likely to be found," said Mr Chodas. "With just word of mouth descriptions, it's not enough." Crowdsourced search Meteorites that survive the fiery fall through the Earth's atmosphere continue travelling tens of kilometres before they finally hit the ground. To find them, searchers also take into account the direction and speed of winds high in the earth's atmosphere. Once a search area has been modelled, often scientists will in effect crowdsource the meteorite hunt, asking local residents about damaged roofs and cars and asking them to join the search. "The trouble is there are lots of rocks all over the world, and the vast majority of unusual rocks that people think might be a meteorite do not pan out," said Alan MacRobert, senior editor at Sky and Telescope Magazine. "If it attracts a magnet at all, if it has a thin, darkened, molten crust just a millimetre or two thick, that's a good sign." In 2000, researchers in Canada's Yukon territory recovered 1kg of meteorites from a 25 sq mile (64 sq km) area, after a local pilot discovered the first fragments while driving across a frozen lake. Jim Brook collected the samples without touching them, grabbing them in plastic bags and storing them in his freezer until he could provide them to the meteor scientists. Eight years later, a team of more than 40 searchers, including students and staff from the University of Khartoum, found 47 meteorites in the Nubian desert of northern Sudan. Astronomers had tracked the falling body through space from a telescope in Arizona, then predicted the broad area of its impact. Where to look Eyewitnesses in the town of Wadi Halfa and at a train station between there and Khartoum reported witnessing the fireball, and US government satellites also sensed it. "We just lined 45 people up and did a foot search," said Dr Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer with the Seti Institute in California, who helped lead the hunt. "We had everybody about 10-20 metres apart and started walking the desert." It took about two hours, "but that was because we knew where to look". Dr Brown of the University of Western Ontario, who is familiar with the Sudan meteorites, said the space rocks were found within 100m of their predicted target. With the Arizona fireball - should it have dropped meteorites - researchers will be aided by the fact it would have fallen over a more densely populated area relative to northern Canada and the Sudanese desert, scientists say. "We've populated our country so densely there's a chance something may have fallen into a building or a car," Dr Jenniskens said. "It would be a great help." |
In his review of the national curriculum, the Education Secretary Michael Gove has said schools should emphasise the learning of key facts, arming children with essential knowledge to aid their learning - but where has he got this idea from? | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Fran AbramsBBC Radio 4's Analysis BBC Radio 4's Analysis explores the roots of "cultural literacy" and how it is gaining traction in England's schools. The new intake at Pimlico Academy in London is learning a new kind of lesson. It is all based on a curriculum of hard facts, rather than of skills. "We want children to be critical thinkers, we want them to be literate, we want them to be numerate [but] what we're doing is thinking how we achieve those ends," says Annaliese Briggs, the woman appointed to run the academy's primary school, due to open next year. While she does not yet have a teaching qualification, we might be well advised to listen to what she has to say - because according to education secretary Michael Gove, this is the future. "The curriculum at the moment in primary schools is often referred to as a skills-based curriculum - but I think it's much better to refer to it as a content-lite curriculum," says Briggs. "We are developing a curriculum that specifies the knowledge that we think children need to know to develop these skills." This idea, which has really grabbed Michael Gove and other Tories, has its origins in the USA - specifically with an 84-year-old former English literature professor, E.D. Hirsch. Hirsch has two big ideas: First, that we all need something he calls "cultural literacy" - certain facts, ideas, literary works that he says people need to know in order to operate effectively as citizens of the country in which they live. And second, that children need to learn these facts in a highly organised, structured way - a sort of "back to basics" education. Cultural have-nots The story of cultural literacy started around 20 years ago when Hirsch was working as a college lecturer in Richmond, Virginia - close to where General Robert Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War. Hirsch was struck by something about his students - particularly those who came from poorer backgrounds. "The critical reason that I got into education reform was the strange inability of some community college students - most of them black - to be able to read simple passages about the American Civil War," Hirsch explains. "The black students could do very well when the topics were about 'Why I like my room mate' and 'Why I don't like traffic on Route 29,' and so on, but they did very badly when it came to 'Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House' - which was shaking to me because it took place in Richmond." "It wasn't that they lacked reading ability. It wasn't even that their vocabularies were excessively small - it was just basic factual information they lacked, which would enable them to understand what they read." What Hirsch had hit upon was a notion which is now pretty much universally accepted: While some people grow up in homes where all sorts of cultural knowledge is common currency - history, art, literature - others do not. When those who lack that cultural knowledge find themselves in the midst of a conversation about the American Civil War, or Rodin's sculptures, they feel lost. Hirsch set about defining the most important background knowledge needed so that the cultural "have-nots" could become "haves". His subsequent book Cultural Literacy became a US best-seller. The debate about what American children need to know - in order for social justice to be achieved - has been filtering across the Atlantic for a couple of decades, but is now starting to gain some real traction. A series of books based on Hirsch's thinking are now being published by Civitas, a right-leaning think tank. But Daisy Christodoulou, managing director of the Curriculum Centre, which is working to promote these ideas in schools across England, says these are not necessarily right-wing concepts. "I think that if you look back through the historical contours of this debate, that generally it's the left who realise that knowledge is power - that equal access and entitlement to knowledge is so important." Working class ideal She is working with the Pimlico Academy primary school and talks with great passion about the way in which, for her, Hirsch's work fits with a proud working class tradition. "Plenty of trade unionists and plenty of the early members of the Labour movement recognised this too," she says. Christodoulou references Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - an inspirational early labour movement text - and says it has some parallels with Hirsch's ideas. "I think you see very clearly the similar ideas that Hirsch is talking about, that there is a common heritage of knowledge and every pupil, every citizen in this country, has a right to share in that knowledge." Daisy Christodoulou's father was an immigrant from Cyprus: "He remembers going to school in the East End and very often not knowing what they were talking about," she says. "He didn't want me to have that experience at school. He wanted me to be able to go into school and to know what was going on." Christodoulou certainly embodies Hirsch's idea that factual knowledge is the route to educational success. In 2007 she was on the winning team on University Challenge - in fact she answered so many questions over the series that there were headlines in the papers asking "Is Daisy Britain's Brightest Student?" But not everyone agrees with her that Hirsch is the product of a long, proud, left-wing tradition. In fact, according to Hirsch himself, people on the left started to attack his ideas almost as soon as he had articulated them. In reality, modern-day followers of Hirsch are much more likely to be found on the right of the political spectrum than on the left. Among them is Conservative MP Nick Gibb, who was, until the recent reshuffle, schools minister in England. He sees Hirsch as a kind of antidote to the kind of left-wing romanticism he believes has really got a grip on the national curriculum. "If you just look at, for example, the history curriculum, it's all about sorts of skills... essentially constructing historical narratives, explanations," he says. "I've seen a history lesson where they had a portrait of Henry VII on the interactive white board and they had to intuit from that piece of evidence things about Henry VII. "Children were coming up with things like 'Henry VII must have been rich' and 'he was full of himself' and I don't think that's a very good use of time in a tight timetable at school. They really ought to be learning the actual knowledge - the story of the history." Mr Gibb agrees with Hirsch that all children should have the opportunity to learn the same set of core facts about their society. "The essence of what Hirsch is talking about is: It's not just any knowledge, it's only that knowledge which constitutes the shared intellectual currency of the society." More knowledge, less individuality Curriculum expert Prof Andrew Pollard disagrees. He does not accept the former minister's view that lessons in English schools are "content-lite". "I'm sure you can find examples of that sort, just as you can find examples of cramming of knowledge," he says. "It's a very wide-ranging system and I think there's no doubt that more emphasis on knowledge and facts and so forth is not necessarily a bad idea - but I don't think caricatures of practice help us greatly." The debate about Hirsch is a polarised one, but Sir Michael Barber, formerly Tony Blair's chief adviser on policy implementation and now chief education adviser at the educational publisher Pearson, says there is a third way. "The road to hell in education is paved with false dichotomies. If you think of knowledge as two aspects - knowing content, knowing information, and then also knowing how to do something. "Take Pythagoras' Theorem. Is that knowledge or skills? It's not really useful unless you can apply Pythagoras' Theorem when you need to with a mathematical problem - and that's knowing how. "Knowing what and knowing how - knowledge and skills - go together." But Education Secretary Michael Gove is certainly keen to inject more of Hirsch into English schools. He told MPs earlier this year that far from seeing these ideas as old-fashioned, he expected schools to embrace them. Mr Gove says he does not want to force schools to adopt Hirsch's ideas - but some members of the expert panel set up to provide advice on his curriculum review think that is just what he is doing. Prof Andrew Pollard was one of the panel's four members. It came up with a perfectly sensible conclusion: education is the product of interaction between knowledge and individual development. But Mr Gove and Mr Gibb did not entirely agree with that. They want more of the knowledge and less of the individual development. And they want it laid out as Hirsch recommends - in specific, year-by-year detail. And, according to Prof Pollard, the notion that teachers should have freedom to decide when children should learn what, and how, was rejected. "I think it's curious that despite this focus on knowledge, ministers so show such a cavalier disregard for research evidence from the UK and across the world," he says. "This research is largely consistent in saying that the key factor in high quality education, in raising standards, is the input of teachers and their capacity to deploy their expertise." Sir Michael Barber has just published a paper on schools around the world. He found that the people who think the curriculum is the answer, are asking the wrong question. "In Britain and the US there's a tendency to assume that a child is either born so-called 'clever' or not, and then the school system just discovers whether that's true or not, " he says - noting that it is different in Asia, home to some of the highest education standards in the world. "In Pacific-Asia they assume that every child can learn this content through hard work - with parental support and good teaching. "We see very passionate, committed teachers and parents who believe that their children can succeed regardless of their background. "That means that they get more children making more progress and they have less of an equity gap than we have in Britain or has traditionally been the case in the United States." However, Sir Michael does not completely dismiss Hirsch. "Cultural literacy is important too and if you don't know those key facts in the society you live in, you're permanently disadvantaged. I think that is a key fact." Listen to the full report on BBC Radio 4's Analysis. Listen again on the Radio 4 website or the Analysis podcast. |
For decades, the Duke of Edinburgh has joined the rest of the Royal Family in spending Christmas at Sandringham. But that was not his only connection with Norfolk and the East of England. As tributes are paid to the duke following his death aged 99 , the BBC looks back on his links with the area. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Walking down the path to St Mary Magdalene Church, the sight of Prince Philip waving, pointing and sometimes joking with well-wishers has been a familiar one. Along with the rest of the Royal Family, the short walk to the Christmas Day service gave the duke the chance to greet the crowds lined up on the Queen's Sandringham estate. It became an annual tradition that stretched back over decades. But her late husband's affiliation with Norfolk did not just centre around the festive season. Prince Philip would end up staying a few months throughout each year on the estate - both at the main house and the secluded Wood Farm in Wolferton. The 20,000-acre (8,000-ha) estate encompasses arable, livestock and fruit farms, as well as a country park. It enabled him to indulge his passions for country pursuits, such as shooting and carriage-driving. When he retired from public life in 2017, Prince Philip chose Wood Farm as his permanent home. The Royal couple already stayed there in preference to opening up Sandringham House when it was just the two of them. The duke retired from royal duties in May 2017 - a month before turning 96 - but had already stood down in 2011 as Cambridge University chancellor after a 35-year tenure. In 1987, his sense of fun was caught on TV cameras at the university when the fully-robed duke put himself at pains to point out a spectator's lens cap was still on their camera. At the time of his retirement, he was a patron, president or member of 780 organisations - and in East Anglia had links to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT), Norfolk Nelson Museum, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, Harwich Yacht Club and Grafham Water Sailing Trust among many others. In the 1976 annual report for NWT, the duke's wry sense of humour was noted when meeting the Otter Trust's co-founder - who had a bandaged hand. "An otter, I presume," the duke quipped, when inquiring about how the injury had been inflicted. He also competed in carriage driving at the Royal Norfolk Show and was patron of the Wherry Trust, which owns of the last of the traditional Norfolk Broads boats. In 1991, the duke gave an interview on farming to BBC Look East from the Sandringham estate - on the eve of Peterborough's former East of England agricultural show, of which he was president. In typical style, he said: "I get depressed by... this intensive breeding... some of the breeds have become grotesque." His loyalty to the show and dogged sense of duty were also illustrated when he kept his long-standing engagement in 1999, despite it being on the same day as Prince Edward's wedding to the Countess of Wessex in Windsor. In recent years, the duke's health declined and he has been treated in hospital for abdominal surgery, bladder infections and a blocked coronary artery - the latter of which caused him to miss the Christmas Day service at the estate's church in 2011. But he even managed to put in an appearance at the church after suffering a heavy cold, which kept the Queen away, in 2016. In January 2019, he gave up driving after being involved in a car crash near Sandringham, which left a passenger in another car with a broken wrist. Then in the December of that year, the duke spent four nights in hospital as a "precautionary measure", but was discharged on Christmas Eve, in time to be driven to Sandringham and spend Christmas with the Queen. But the coronavirus pandemic caused the Royal couple, who were vaccinated against the illness weeks later, to forgo the traditional Sandringham gathering, having spent the lockdown at Windsor Castle. It was thought to be the first time the couple had not spent Christmas at their Sandringham home since the mid-1980s. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk Around the BBC First Empire Address by King George V - History of the BBC Related Internet Links Sandringham Royal Residences |
"We're moving from a mobile first to an AI-first world." That was how Google's boss, Sundar Pichai, began a presentation on Tuesday, at which his company unveiled a range of new hardware products. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter He believes that the key attraction of both the new Pixel smartphones and the Google Home smart speaker is the company's expertise in artificial intelligence as demonstrated by the Google Assistant. The search company believes that the vast amount of data it has collected over the years, coupled with its expertise in machine learning, will give it a head start in the coming AI battle. The company hopes that Google Assistant, a conversational chatbot or virtual PA, will soon be a key feature on all sorts of Android devices, not just those it makes itself. If Mr Pichai has his way, we will soon be shouting: "OK Google," to get all sorts of information and services. But on Thursday came news that showed that the biggest player on Android may not be so keen on that idea. Samsung has announced that it is buying Viv, an artificial intelligence company started by the same people who created the virtual assistant Siri, and then sold it to Apple. Viv, according to Samsung, is "a unique, open artificial intelligence platform that gives third-party developers the power to use and build conversational assistants and integrate a natural language-based interface into renowned applications and services". That appears to be a pretty good description of what Google is doing with its AI. But it sounds as though Samsung may decide that Viv will be a key differentiator on its Galaxy phones - and vast range of household appliances - as it battles to retain its position at the top end of the Android market in competition with the Google Pixel. And other technology giants are flexing their own AI muscles. Apple of course has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana, and IBM's Watson has been around for a while and is beginning to make its presence felt in a number of commercial applications. We also learned on Thursday UK lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest would use chatbots based on Watson to answer simple customer queries. Then there is Alexa, the AI at the heart of Amazon's voice-controlled Echo speaker. Amazon has opened up the Alexa platform to outside developers, and there are already a few Alexa-powered devices out there in the market. The Echo is in only a few million homes so far, but talking to her (it?) is already proving a compelling example of the promise - and current limitations - of an AI conversational program. Alexa is pretty good at understanding what you are saying, but not so smart at dealing with follow-up questions. And this is where Google believes its AI has an edge, saying its Assistant has contextual awareness that allows it to carry on a conversation beyond an initial question. The company gives as an example the query: "Who is the current British prime minister?" Try this out with Google, Alexa and Apple's Siri, and all three will produce the answer: "Theresa May". But follow up with: "How old is she?" and Siri says: "I'm afraid I couldn't find anything on 'How old is she?'" while Alexa tells you she does not understand the question. But the Google Assistant knows you are referring to Mrs May and comes back with: "Theresa May is 60 years old." Of course, we are at the very early stages of this revolution, and much may change as each AI learns by doing. What is more, none of them has yet convinced a significant number of people that conversing with a smart device is something really useful rather than a bit of fun, which you try and then forget. Both Amazon and Google are betting that this moment comes when we walk through the front door and say: "OK Google, turn on the lights," or: "Alexa, turn up the heat in the hallway." Now we know that Samsung and perhaps IBM's Watson may also be competing to give us similarly compelling AI experiences. The mystery is what Apple is up to. Siri first came to the iPhone five years ago, providing the first experience of a virtual assistant for many. Since then, while the program has appeared on more Apple devices, and is now on its desktop Macs, it has failed to define this new category. Where is the Siri speaker or Siri car? You can be certain that hundreds, perhaps thousands of artificial intelligence experts are at work in Cupertino. But exactly what ambition Apple has to be a key player in the AI future remains unclear. |
Transport company Stagecoach has sold its "bus war" rival after being ordered to do so by the Competition Commission. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Perth-based transport group Stagecoach bought out its competitor Preston Bus Ltd in January 2009. In November 2009, the commission concluded the sale reduced competition and was not in passengers' interests. Stagecoach was instructed to sell Preston Bus "to a company capable of competing with it". Birmingham-based Rotala plc paid £3.2m for the company. At the time a Stagecoach spokesman described the decision as "a perverse and irrational contradiction of competition law and common sense." |
A man has admitted the attempted murder of a woman in an attack near Cardiff city centre. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Ahmed Ismail Ali, 34, of Butetown, admitted the attack which took place at Stafford Road, Grangetown, on 24 February. A 26-year-old woman, believed to be known to Ali, was taken to hospital, although her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. Ali will be sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on 30 May. |
Counting is under way after voters went to the polls to elect the first police and crime commissioners in the Cleveland and Durham force areas. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The Cleveland count started at 11:00 GMT at Thornaby Pavilion while ballot boxes were opened across Durham at 12:00 GMT. Results are expected later on Friday. The winning candidates in both elections will be responsible for appointing a new permanent chief constable. Cleveland Police is currently being led by temporary Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer after Sean Price was suspended and then dismissed from his position. Temporary Chief Constable Mike Barton is in charge of Durham Police following the retirement of Jon Stoddart. There were four names on the ballot paper in Durham. Voters in Cleveland also had four candidates to choose from. |
A Hampshire street has been named after the captain of the ship which sailed to the aid of the stricken RMS Titanic in 1912. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Captain Arthur H Rostron diverted the Carpathia to pick up survivors when Titanic sank in the north Atlantic. He spent his final years in West End, near Southampton, where Rostron Close was unveiled in a new housing development. A £15m museum dedicated to Titanic is due to open in Southampton next year. |
Jersey's new buses will feature the sails of racing boats and the names of parishes in the island's native language. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
It was the most popular of two designs put forward by new bus operator CT Plus in a public poll. The company that will run the bus service next year asked islanders to decide what they should look like. The sails design received about 80% of the public vote and will feature on all the new buses from January. The other design, which had arcs of blue and green and was said to be inspired by the island's sea and grass, took only 20% of all votes cast. Tony Scott Warren, from L'Office du Jerriais, welcomed the addition of the Jerriais words. He said it was great news that Jersey French was becoming more prominent. |
Plans for a £70m regeneration of Milford Haven dock which could create up to 600 jobs have moved a step closer. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Outline planning permission has been granted for a mixed development of retail, leisure and commercial units to complement the docks. Heritage facilities including trails and the museum will be improved. It is still the largest fishing port in Wales and along with facilities for the fishing industry will also be improved. |
Plans for a £280m race track near Ebbw Vale have been given the go ahead amid claims it will make Blaenau Gwent a "go to destination" for motorsport fans bringing in £50m a year to the economy. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Councillors gave the Circuit of Wales unanimous approval on Wednesday saying it would create "thousands of jobs" near Rassau Industrial estate. Developers want to make the track capable of hosting all motor racing championships - except Formula One. Government inspectors may yet step in. But today Blaenau Gwent councillors gave the plans their backing with council leader Hedley McCarthy saying the "benefits for us all are huge". "There will be the creation of thousands of jobs when the circuit comes into operation plus the development of engineering, science and technology businesses," he said. "For so long, the heads of the valleys have needed sustainable investment. "We are looking to the future and that future is bright." The plans also include an international kart track and motocross tracks as well as a technology park for research, development and support services in the automotive and motor sports sectors. Developers have revised up the estimated number of jobs created by the plans quoting 3,000 construction posts as well as 4,000-6,000 new full-time jobs when the track is due to completed in 2015/16. Michael Carrick, chief executive of developers the Heads of the Valleys Development Company, pledged to "deliver a truly innovative and sustainable business, helping to deliver long term economic and social benefits for the region". He said: "It is a hugely important development, not just for the regeneration of Blaenau Gwent but also for the UK economy, and will enable significant private capital to be mobilised. "This is a showcase for a new type of investment model, a partnership between private investment and government to deliver a transformational business to the region." A £2m loan from the Welsh government has been made and the developers are trying to secure more public money. The rest of the money is being borrowed from banks with the intention to raise £150m from institutional investors such as pension funds which would become part owners of the track. Despite some environmental concerns, the scheme occupying 335 hectares (830 acres) was recommended for approval by council officials before councillors gave it their approval. Gwent Wildlife Trust, Brecon Beacons National Park, and Natural Resources Wales objected to the plan. Meanwhile, the Association of Motor Racing Circuit Owners (AMRCO) said the track would harm motorsport. Jonathan Palmer, chairman of AMRCO which represents 17 UK race tracks, said: "The UK circuit industry welcomes innovation and investment, however history and experience suggest that an investment of this magnitude in a motor racing circuit will never produce a return for investors. "It is a real concern that this will turn into a white elephant at the expense of much needed public funds, and we hope this project will now be subject to careful scrutiny by Welsh government inspectors and the Wales Audit Office." In response, a spokesman for the Circuit of Wales said:"It's no surprise that we are seen as a competitive threat to many of the existing sites that we have in the UK. "Over the course of the last three years we have met with senior management of 11 of the 17 circuit owners, many of whom have input into our business plan and several operators who have expressed interest in providing services to the circuit." Welsh government inspectors are still considering whether to review the project. |
A man who absconded from a prison and was the third to go missing in a week has been found and taken into custody, Kent Police have said. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Paul Stone, 36, who comes from the Medway area, failed to return to HMP Standford Hill, in Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, on Monday. He was being sought by police after absconding from the prison between 08:00 and 12:15 GMT, officers said. The force said on Wednesday he had been found and taken into custody. Two other male prisoners who escaped from the jail last Wednesday are still at large, police said. |
As the nation celebrates the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of a third of a million Allied troops from Dunkirk, what is less well-known, even to the experts, was that several of those smaller boats and ships came from Welsh ports. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Neil PriorBBC Wales What Churchill called a "miracle of deliverance" began this week in 1940 after the German army's surprise attack through the Ardennes forest threatened to cut off the British Expeditionary Force. Between 27 May and 5 June, the Royal Navy worked flat out, while the army fought a valiant rearguard action to delay the German advance and allow as many British and French troops as possible to escape. The navy's efforts were supplemented famously by more than 1,000 civilian vessels, ranging from ocean-going ferries to little more than rowing boats. One was the P&A Campbell paddle steamer Glen Gower which operated in the Bristol Channel, and is featured in Pathe news descriptions of the evacuation. David Jenkins, maritime expert for the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, said the records about the smaller boats or for those from farther afield is often quite confused. He said: "The German advance through France only began on 10 May, so Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay had little more than a fortnight to put together operation Dynamo. "It was quite ordered at first, but as the pace needed to pick up, more and more vessels joined, and there wasn't always time to document them." "Often we find out about the role of Welsh ships and boats from the recollections of rescued servicemen rather than official records. "It seems incredible that boats left Welsh ports, and were able to get to Dunkirk in time to play a part in the evacuation." Yet it appears that many from Wales did answer the call, sailing hundreds of miles around Land's End to join the rescue. Among them were The Scotia, a ferry more accustomed to taking passengers from Holyhead to Anglesey, and the Glen Gower, which until the war had idled its way around the Bristol Channel, making pleasure excursions for the tourists of south Wales and north Devon. As a large, ocean-going ferry, The Scotia was requisitioned by the Royal Navy, and gained the prefix HMS Scotia. She rescued thousands of troops from the make-shift jetty in Dunkirk, surviving unscathed after being struck by German shells and torpedoes. Sitting target However her luck eventually ran out when she was sunk on 1 June 1940. She and her crew are remembered in a special free exhibition at Holyhead Maritime Museum over half-term week. "On her third run out of Dunkirk, and full of French, British, and Belgian troops, she was attacked by 12 enemy aircraft. "A bomb from a dive bomber fell down the funnel blowing out the keel, and she was sunk with great loss of life." John Cave, curator of Holyhead Maritime Museum, said: "Our Holyhead at War exhibition has displays and exhibits from the Scotia as well as for the other Holyhead ferries which served during the world wars of the last century. "The additional temporary exhibition shows images from the evacuation of Dunkirk and the later stationing of the Dutch navy in Holyhead." The paddle steamer Glen Gower fared better, despite her painfully slow progress and lack of manoeuvrability making her somewhat of a sitting target for Luftwaffe bombers. 'Abandoned' She wasn't able to reach Dunkirk until the latter, and most dangerous stage of the operation in the first days of June, when boats were unable to use the jetty and had to come into the beach under intense German artillery fire. Mike Mason, from Trellech, in Monmouthshire, a marine history enthusiast, said: "Despite having had her hull penetrated by an enemy shell, the Glen Gower managed to make it back to Harwich, having rescued hundreds of servicemen from the beaches at Dunkirk. "She returned after the war to operate excursions on the Bristol Channel until 1959 and was scrapped in 1960. "Three other P&A Campbell paddle steamers which had operated in the Bristol Channel, the Devonia, Brighton Queen and Brighton Belle, were not so lucky as they were all sunk at the time. "The Devonia, in particular, was left stranded and abandoned on the beach at Dunkirk." But the extraordinary evacuation was only made possible by the heroic efforts of the troops in northern France, who frustrated the German advance for long enough to allow their comrades to escape. When the battle reached the town of Dunkirk, the fighting was often conducted hand-to-hand, defending each street in an attempt to buy another few vital hours or minutes. Captain Bill Steer, whose family live in Williamstown, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was among the last to leave, and was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery. His son-in-law, Kenneth Martin, said that he thought he'd left it too late to evacuate, and that he'd either die fighting or be taken prisoner. "Bill was commanding a gun installation with the Royal Horse Artillery on the outskirts of Dunkirk. It was vital for them to keep firing to try and put off, for as long as possible, the German guns coming in range of the beach and massacring thousands of allied troops." 'Rowing' "After nearly everyone else had left, Bill was given the order to spike the guns in order to stop the Germans using them, then make a run for it. "Unfortunately his fellow officer ran off with their only motorbike, leaving Bill stranded, so he had to make a dash on foot for the beach, while the Germans poured into the town." "He and a handful of others were pretty much the last people to make it off the beach alive, rowing away in a metal lifeboat! "They were rescued by a Royal Navy destroyer half-way across the channel, and Bill wanted to go back to Dunkirk for more!" "He'd never really talk about it while he was alive, I learnt all this from the men he led there. "He never flinched at what he had to do, even though he'd seemingly given up realistic hope of getting out alive." |
We asked our readers to send in their pictures on the theme of "life in the water". Here are some of the pictures sent to us from around the world. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
The next theme is "urban living" and the deadline for entries is 27 October 2020. Send pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or follow the link below to "Upload your pictures here". Further details and terms can be found by following the link to "We set the theme, you take the picture", at the bottom of the page. All photographs subject to copyright. |
On 28 January 1986, the space shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch, claiming the lives of seven astronauts. On the 25th anniversary of the disaster, science reporter Paul Rincon looks back at the events which led up to the accident and its impact on human spaceflight. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
How did the accident unfold? The seven astronauts of the space shuttle Challenger were to have spent six-and-a-half days in Earth orbit, during which they would have deployed a satellite and carried out a number of experiments. One of the crew members, Christa McAuliffe, was to have been the first teacher in space - selected from more than 11,000 applicants under a programme announced by US President Ronald Reagan. After several launch delays, Challenger lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 1138 local time on 28 January. In the first few seconds after lift-off, cameras captured several puffs of dark smoke emerging from a joint in the shuttle's right booster rocket. About 37 seconds into the flight, Challenger began experiencing severe wind shear conditions - changes in the direction and speed of the wind - which exerted strong forces on the vehicle. The first flickers of flame from the rocket booster joint emerged 58 seconds into the launch. And these swiftly expanded into a well-defined orange plume. A few seconds later, the shape and colour of the plume changed as the flame pierced the shuttle's huge external tank and began mixing with the hydrogen fuel leaking out. Some 73 seconds into the 25th US shuttle flight, the external tank tore apart, forming a vast fireball 14km (46,000ft) up as hydrogen and oxygen fuel escaped into the atmosphere. The Challenger shuttle was ripped apart by aerodynamic forces as it was cut loose from the external tank. There were no survivors. What happened next? Millions of people following coverage of the launch watched in horror as the vehicle broke apart in mid-air. Within minutes of the disaster, ships and aircraft were despatched to begin the recovery effort in the Atlantic waters where debris fell. President Ronald Reagan had been due to give the annual State of the Union Address on the evening of the Challenger accident. Instead, he postponed this by a week and gave a televised address to the nation in which he paid tribute to the astronauts. The speech concludes with President Reagan quoting from the poem High Flight by John Gillespie Magee Jr: "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God'." President Reagan - who was said to have been personally affected by the disaster - set up an independent commission to probe the probable cause of the disaster. On 7 March 1986, a US Navy ship identified the remains of Challenger's crew compartment, sitting largely intact on the ocean floor. Divers were sent to recover the cabin, along with the remains of the crew members. Funeral ceremonies were held for the astronauts over April and May. Who were the Challenger astronauts? In 1984, Boston-born Christa McAuliffe was chosen to make the first flight under the Teacher In Space Project, turning her into a celebrity overnight. She was to have carried out two 15-minute lessons from space to be broadcast to schoolchildren. McAuliffe's presence on the shuttle had already raised the profile of this mission in the minds of the public and the media. The shuttle's commander Francis "Dick" Scobee was a former US Air Force pilot who had flown on Challenger once before. Challenger's pilot Mike Smith had flown attack aircraft during the Vietnam war, but this was his first shuttle flight. Judith Resnik - a "mission specialist" on Challenger - was an electrical engineer signed up to the astronaut corps in 1978 by Nichelle Nichols - the actress best known for playing Uhura in Star Trek - when Nichols had been working as a recruiter for Nasa. Ms Resnik's group of astronaut trainees was the first to include women. Mission specialist Ron McNair, from South Carolina, was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated physicist with a black belt in karate. He was one of the first African-Americans recruited into Nasa's astronaut corps and, like Dick Scobee, had flown on Challenger before. The third mission specialist, Ellison Onizuka, was previously an engineer with the US Air Force and had flown in space once before. Onizuka's background made him a natural choice to fly on the first classified military space shuttle flight in 1985. Ms McAuliffe was not the only civilian on Challenger. Payload specialist Gregory Jarvis worked for the Hughes Aircraft Corp in Los Angeles. Mr Jarvis was accepted into the astronaut programme under the Hughes company's sponsorship after competing against 600 other employees for the opportunity. What were the causes of the disaster? The independent commission set up to investigate the disaster was headed by the former Secretary of State William P Rogers. Among the members were Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon; Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; Chuck Yeager, the test pilot; and Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. The Rogers Commission released its report in June 1986, concluding that the destruction of Challenger had been caused by the failure of the joint in the two lower segments of the shuttle's right solid rocket booster. More specifically, the failure happened because of the destruction of the "O ring" seals intended to prevent hot gases leaking through the joint while the rocket propellant was burnt during flight. The commission found that a contributing factor had been the unusually cold temperatures at Cape Canaveral prior to the launch, which had caused the rubber O ring to become significantly less elastic. Richard Feynman memorably demonstrated this effect on television by dipping a sample of the material in ice water to show how it became less pliable. "I discovered that when you put some pressure on it and then undo it, it doesn't stretch back. It stays the same dimensions for a few seconds at least," Feynman said during one of the commission hearings. "There's no resilience in this particular material when it's at 32 degrees (F). I believe that has some significance for our problem." It emerged during the investigation that engineers at Nasa and the booster rocket contractor Morton Thiokol were well aware of flaws with the O ring seals. The report concluded that Nasa's organisational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors in the accident. Managers had failed to adequately communicate engineers' growing doubts about the seal to senior officials. What was the legacy of the accident? Among the recommendations made by the Rogers Commission were design changes to the rocket booster joints and seals. The investigation also urged Nasa to establish a strong and independent office to look after "safety, reliability and quality assurance". The investigation and the corrective actions undertaken by Nasa led to a 32-month hiatus in shuttle launches. After the shuttles resumed flying in 1988, the programme continued without a serious accident until 2003, when the Columbia shuttle broke up as it tried to re-enter the atmosphere from orbit. Nasa had made significant changes, both to its management structure and safety procedures, after the Challenger accident. Nevertheless, the accident investigation report for the Columbia disaster drew parallels with Challenger. "First, despite all the post-Challenger changes at Nasa and the agencyʼs notable achievements since, the causes of the institutional failure responsible for Challenger have not been fixed," the report said. As a result of the Columbia accident, the US space agency made many improvements to shuttle safety, including inspections for damage sustained on launch. |
At the age of 11, Tom Gregory became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel, driven on by an extraordinary coach. It's a little-heralded feat of endurance that won't be bettered. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Owen AmosBBC News It was 05:00 on 6 September 1988 and Tom Gregory stood on the tip of France. Behind him was his coach, John Bullet. In front of him was the vast, black, English Channel. Tom, in swimming trunks, faced the water. Out there, somewhere, was home. John went to his car. He took a block of grease from the footwell and, in the glow of the headlamps, rubbed it into Tom's skin. On the water, a light appeared in the dark. A small boat came to shore. Tom put on his cap and goggles, and walked into the Channel. He followed the boat, and, when it got too deep, he started to swim. He didn't stop for 12 hours. Tom was 11 years old. Tom Gregory moved to Eltham, in south-east London, when he was six. His cousins were in the local swimming club, so he and his older sister, Anna, joined as well. Most of the swimmers, says Tom, were from the council estates that surrounded the pool. "It was very earthy," he says. "Almost all the kids were older. I was terrified." The club was run by John Bullet, the manager of the local pool. He could be difficult - "old school, like Brian Clough", says Tom. But he changed people's lives. "He used to boast - and this was the 1980s, remember - that no-one who'd been through his club was unemployed," says Tom. "By any standard, he was a world-class coach, and he was operating out of a council pool in south-east London. He took kids from estates and helped them do amazing things." Eltham is less than 70 miles from Dover, and the club's forte was channel swimming. From 1972 to 1988, they completed 14 relays between England and France. In 1979, a 12-year-old from the club, Marcus Hooper, became the youngest person ever to swim the English Channel. John soon set his sights, well, lower. "In hindsight, I think John was looking for someone to break another world record," says Tom. "He saw this chubby, gregarious, slightly cheeky seven-year-old boy and thought - he looks like the sort of kid." Aged eight, Tom swam the one-mile width of Windermere in the Lake District, chosen because of its similarity to the Channel (deep, cold, and choppy). A year later, he did half a length (about 5.5 miles) and in the summer of 1987, he completed the full length, aged 10. By this time, says Tom, Eltham Training and Swimming Club was a "movement". "It was more than a club - it was everyone's lives. People say 'you must have had pushy parents' - but nothing could be further from the truth. They are lovely people. They just watched from the side with a mixture of fear and amazement." After swimming Windermere, Tom began preparing for the Channel. That meant months of sacrifice, both in and out of the pool. "People who die while swimming the Channel - and they do - tend to die of hypothermia," says Tom. "If you can handle the cold you're halfway there." Channel swimming achievements From Christmas 1987, Tom didn't touch hot water. All showers and baths were cold. From spring 1988, he slept under one sheet, with the window open. That summer, he swam a length and a half of Windermere. "After that, I knew it was on," says Tom. "John had got me to the point where I believed it was possible. It became a burning ambition to get across." On the evening of 5 September, he headed for Dover, fuelled by a "tray of mum's shepherd's pie". On the late-night ferry to France, he and John had a fry-up. "These were the days before sports nutrition," says Tom. They drove in the dark to Cap Gris Nez, the closest part of France to England. Tom entered the water and followed the small boat to a fishing trawler, which would guide him across the Channel. Although Cap Gris Nez is only 20 miles from Dover, Tom's route was 32 miles - Channel swimmers follow an "S" shape, because of the tides. "To begin, it's an unnerving feeling," he says. "It's dark, there's a swell. You have this real sense of '32 miles to go'. There's a real fear of failure." But he got off quickly. By the middle third, Tom says, he was "on it". "I knew I was swimming fast. We got well over halfway in under five hours, so we were on for a sub-10 hour swim. That year, I think that would have got me a Rolex for the fastest swim, never mind the youngest." Before long, Tom saw the White Cliffs of Dover. But they were almost a mirage. "I remember the narrow band of white on the horizon," he says. "And every time I looked up, it didn't get any closer. It's mental torture. I kept my head down, kept the gaps as long as possible, but they never got nearer. And that's when the pain kicks in." His shoulder blades, he says, felt like they were rubbing together across his back. His legs burnt. His body started shutting down. "You know that warm and cosy feeling before you fall asleep? It's like that. You start drifting off and then you're startled by something - a foghorn, or the thud of the engine, or the smell of diesel. At one point, I remember a hovercraft coming past, and it really made me jump. You lose all situational awareness." For most of the swim, Tom only saw John when he stopped for digestive biscuits and bottles of warm tomato soup. But in the final third, John made eye contact, and didn't let go. "He knew I was going through the pain barrier," says Tom. "He was encouraging me, but it was miserable. It feels like depression. At one point I was teary. But I was too scared to stop. Not scared of anybody - just scared of not completing it." Eventually, the White Cliffs became closer. As they approached the shore, the trawler stopped, and John jumped in the small boat to guide Tom home. "It's strange - I'd been so exhausted, but for the final five or 10 minutes, I powered to shore. It was like I was on autopilot. I remember John in the tender just shouting 'Go! Go! Go!'" Tom swam towards Shakespeare Cliff, a shingle beach to the west of Dover. About 20 people, including his parents, were watching. Eventually, Tom saw pebbles. For the first time since Cap Gris Nez, there was land beneath his feet. He put one foot down. Then another. He stopped swimming. He had made it from France to England in 11 hours and 54 minutes. He was 11 years and 336 days old. No one has done it younger, and no one ever will. In November 2000, the Channel Swimming Association banned under-16s from attempting the crossing. "When I reached the shore, I was a few notches off compos mentis," he says. "I was dazed, confused. I'd been in cold water for 12 hours, with a high rate of exertion. I'd been told you had to take three unaided steps after reaching land, otherwise you hadn't made it. But I couldn't stand up. I was on my knees. "Those steps became massively important. It was a Neil Armstrong moment. Eventually I did three steps, and I sat down. I remember being surrounded by people cuddling me." After warming up, Tom and John headed on the trawler to Folkestone harbour, where television crews were waiting (only the Evening Standard made it to Shakespeare Cliff). He appeared on ITN and Blue Peter, where he was given a gold badge ("awarded in exceptional circumstances for outstanding achievement"). He even made the New York Times. "But, once the fuss died down, I didn't really talk about it," says Tom. "John didn't want me to become a big head." Tom, now 39, went on to university and then Sandhurst, becoming an officer in the Royal Anglian Regiment. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now works for accountancy firm Deloitte, living in Surrey with his wife and daughter. After swimming the English Channel, John and Tom discussed swimming the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and south-west Scotland, as well as the Thames, and a relay of the Lakes, travelling between them on helicopter. There was also talk of Olympic training. And then, five months after Tom broke the record, John died. He was 50. "He was at the baths, five o'clock in the morning as usual, and he had a massive stroke," says Tom. "He never recovered. He went to hospital and there was a constant procession of people by his bed. Kids who he helped over the years - families whose lives he'd changed. People who loved him. "For me, it was like losing a father. It ruined me. I used to spend so much time with him. I remember being in school, singing a hymn, and bursting into tears." According to an Eltham newsletter, more than 300 people attended John's funeral, "despite the fact he had no family at all". "If John Bullet was alive today, he'd be getting Unsung Hero Award at the Sports Personality of the Year," says Tom. "He did countless relays of the Channel, and broke two world records, all with kids from a two-mile radius of Eltham Baths. It was incredible. But when John died, the club sort of died. It lived on thanks to some very selfless people, but my connection went. "This isn't false modesty, but the Channel swim wasn't about me. It was about the club. I was part of a movement, and I represented all of us. It only happened because of the courage and vision of John. I guess I was the lucky one who got the challenge." The crack-of-dawn starts, the hours in the pool, the weeks in Windermere, the cold showers, the open windows, the burn, the pain, the tears. Could any child enjoy that? "Oh yeah," Tom says, surprised at the question. "I loved it. That club changed people's lives." More from the Magazine In 1987, Lynne Cox, an American long distance swimmer, braved the frigid waters of the Bering Strait to swim between the US and the Soviet Union in a bid to promote peace between the Cold War enemies. The icy swim that warmed Cold War relations (July 2015) Get Inspired Swimming page Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. |
Plans for a £4.5m revamp of a Hull church in time for the city becoming UK City of Culture 2017 have been approved. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Holy Trinity Church is to have its interior restored and remodelled for large public events, alongside its role as a place of worship. The churchyard and Trinity Square will be combined to form a public space. It was given full consent by Hull City Council's planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday. Vicar Rev Canon Dr Neal Barnes said he was "delighted" the council had recognised the "substantial benefits [the plans] would bring to the church, to the wider community and to our great city". An appeal to raise funds for the multi-million pound project had reached "the half-way mark", he added. |
The value of sales in Jersey supermarkets and shops has seen the biggest drop since 2007, a fall of 6%. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
Latest figures from the States of Jersey Statistics Unit also showed in the first quarter of 2012, islanders bought on average 7% less food than the same time last year. Sales of clothing, household goods and other non-food items were down 11% during the same period. And there was a 9% drop in the total volume of retail sales in Jersey. |
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has been criticised for saying Muslim women wearing burkas "look like letter boxes" and for comparing them to "bank robbers" - prompting calls for him to apologise and be expelled from the Conservative Party . | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
But Mr Johnson's comments, which some believe will aggravate Islamophobic tensions in the UK, have also highlighted some confusion about what a burka is - as the veil revealing just the eyes is, in fact, known as a niqab. So what actually are the differences between the various types of Islamic dress for women and what governs their choices? The Koran, Islam's holy book, tells Muslims - men and women - to dress modestly. Male modesty has been interpreted to be covering the area from the navel to the knee. For women it is generally seen as covering everything except their face, hands and feet when in the presence of men they are not related or married to. However, there has been much debate within Islam as to whether this goes far enough. This has led to a distinction between the hijab (literally "covering up" in Arabic) and the niqab (meaning "full veil"). The hijab is typically a scarf that covers the hair and neck, whereas the niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear. It is worn with an accompanying headscarf or an abaya, a full-length robe, and sometimes with a separate transparent eye veil. The burka is the most concealing - covering the entire face and body, leaving just a mesh screen to see through. Is it a woman's choice to cover up? UK mother-of-seven Tahira Noor, who has been wearing a burka for 20 years, says it's "100% my choice" and Mr Johnson's comments show a "lack of knowledge". The "majority of the women who wear the burka" she says, are born and brought up in Britain. They are "educated in this country, they've been to colleges, universities, and have understood why they want to do what they're doing," she told BBC Radio 5 Live. "They're under no oppression, they're not doing it because their husbands want them to or their fathers want them to." Ms Noor has four daughters none of whom wear a burka. "I haven't forced my daughters into it because I don't have to," she said. "It's not a must. It's not an obligation. However... [it] gets you closer to God. It's a spiritual thing more than anything else." She is "not under an obligation" to cover her face but does so because it is "emulating" the Prophet Muhammad. So, how does she respond if asked to remove her covering for security reasons? "I'm happy to take my veil off," she said, citing the example of being asked to at a bank. "When I travel, and I do travel, sometimes I don't even wear [it] because I think it's a lot easier not to [for] security reasons. "To make comments that they (women who wear burkas) look like bank robbers, I don't think it's fair." Sahar Al-Faifi, from Cardiff, wears the niqab but told BBC News she sometimes gets verbal abuse from others for her choice of veil. "A week ago someone abused me and said 'you're an ugly terrorist' when I tried to park my car near where I live," she said. "Two years ago, when I was passing by one department to another at Heath Hospital, someone passed by and said 'don't cut off my head you're ISIS'. It's quite painful [to hear]." In 2014, BBC News' Shaimaa Khalil wrote about why she stopped wearing her headscarf, only to put it back on again when she became the Pakistan correspondent. Dr Qanta Ahmed, a British-American Muslim doctor who lives in New York, does not wear a face veil and supports a ban on them. She said the number of women wearing them in the West is increasing in part because girls begin to wear them before they reach puberty and many were not given a choice. What is the religious justification? Muslim scholars have long debated whether it is obligatory to wear the burka or niqab, or whether it is just recommended. There have also been more liberal interpretations which say any headscarf is unnecessary, as long as women maintain the sartorial modesty stipulated in the Koran. That holy text addresses "the faithful women" who are told to shield their private parts and not to display their adornment "except what is apparent of it". Scholarly disputes revolve around what this last phrase means. Does it refer to the outer surface of a woman's garments, necessitating that she cover every part of her body - ie don the full niqab? Or does it give an exemption referring to the face and the hands, as well as conventional female ornaments such as kohl, rings, bracelets and make-up? The latter interpretation has been adopted by some of the most prominent scholars from Islamic history who favour the hijab - headscarf - option. There are additional Koranic instructions - seen as ambiguous and therefore much debated - for women to draw the "khimar" (scarf) to cover the "jayb" (bosom/upper chest), and for "the wives and daughters of the Prophet and the women of the believers to draw their "jalabib" (cloaks) close round them". How many women wear the full-face veil in the UK? When contacted by BBC Reality Check, both the Women's Muslim Council and Faith Matters (an organisation which promotes integration) said accurate numbers weren't available for the UK. But there does seem to be consensus that the figure is likely to be low. Dr Omar Khan, director at the Runnymede Trust, a think tank that deals with race equality, said that it is likely to be "less than 1% [of the Muslim female population] - how much less is difficult to know". Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, acknowledged a lack of a "robust methodology", but said there was a "ballpark estimate in region of 3,000-5,000" with it "very unlikely to be as high as 1-2%" of the female Muslim population. These are both estimates by experts working in relevant fields, but until specific research is carried out, it will be difficult to know how prevalent the full-face veil is. What we do know is that in the 2011 census, Muslims represented 4.8% of the population of England and Wales. Using the most recent population estimates, this would mean there are roughly 1.43 million Muslim women living in the two nations. If the number of Muslim women wearing the niqab were to be as high as 1% - this would equate to just over 14,000 women - but, again, the 1% figure is just an estimate. In other European countries, the figure also appears to be low. In 2009, a French Interior Ministry report estimated that just 0.1% of French Muslim women wore full-face veils which, at the time, equated to 1,900 women. In Austria, a ban of full face veils in public spaces was said to affect just 0.03% of the Muslim population, according to Nilufar Ahmed, a senior lecturer in public health at Swansea University. In Belgium between 150 and 200 women wore the niqab before a ban came into force, says Michael Privot, director of the European Network Against Racism. Between 150 and 200 women in Demark - which banned face veils in public this month - wore a niqab or burqa on a daily basis. That's 0.1% of Muslim women in the country, according to the Guardian. What are the laws or customs regarding face veils in other countries? While Boris Johnson's comments about Islamic face veils have provoked consternation among some, his defenders have said they were made as part of an argument against banning such garments. Other countries though, have taken this step. France was the first European country to ban full-face veils - ie burkas and niqabs - in public places in April 2011, seven years after it introduced a law prohibiting conspicuous religious symbols in state schools. It was followed a few months later by Belgium, which banned the wearing of partial or total face veils in public on the grounds of security. Full or partial bans on full-face veils have since been in place in Austria, Bulgaria, the southern German state of Bavaria and, since 1 August, Denmark. There have been protests against Denmark's new law, which does not mention burkas and niqabs by name, but says "anyone who wears a garment that hides the face in public will be punished with a fine". Repeat offenders could be fined 10,000 ($1,500; £1,200) kroner. By contrast, in Iran the law requires women to wear modest "Islamic" clothing. In practice, this means women must wear a chador, a full-body cloak, or a headscarf and a manteau (overcoat) that covers their arms. There are posters in cities and towns comparing unveiled women to unwrapped candy and lollipops attracting unwanted attention from flies. Recently, some Iranian women have protested against this law by taking off their headscarf in public. One woman was jailed for two years in March for doing this. |
Marcus Rashford's plea to the government to reverse its decision not to continue funding free school meals over the long summer break , has struck a chord with parents who have been relying on food vouchers to feed their families during lockdown. | You are an expert at summarizing long articles. Proceed to summarize the following text:
By Judith BurnsEducation reporter On Monday, in response to the footballer's letter, the government confirmed that its voucher scheme in England would "not run during the summer holidays". But families have told the BBC it will prove very difficult for them when food vouchers, worth £15 per child per week, stop at the end of term. In Leicester, 15-year-old Dev says he and his 13-year-old brother would be eating poorer quality food without the vouchers. His parents would have to rely on "cheap, cheap meals - the type that make you full for about an hour", he says. "Unfortunately unhealthy food is the cheapest - food that you shouldn't really be feeding kids." Dev is a member of the Bite Back youth campaign for better nutrition for young people whose petition to extend free school meal vouchers over the summer has more than 250,000 signatures. He argues that if the UK wants to fight inequality and help his generation achieve their best for the country, all children - whether rich or poor - need access to nutritious food. In Brent, north London, Susan Bleau, is considering sending her 11-year-old daughter to stay with her ex-partner's family in Birmingham, if there are no free school meals vouchers over the summer. Her daughter's primary school has helped her access vouchers from the government scheme and the school has been delivering food parcels every Friday. Susan has just returned to her part-time job having been furloughed since March - but the knock-on effect of a 20% cut in income under furlough has left her finances stretched. If the food voucher scheme isn't extended over the summer, she says: "I would have to get some form of help". Fortunately she and her daughter get on well with their extended family, who can support them. "They're better off than me - but I need to check what their plans are for the summer," says Susan. In Pershore, Worcestershire, Jane Keen-Smith, a mother of four boys and a self-employed hairdresser has seen her livelihood collapse during the lockdown. Underlying health conditions in the family - one son is severely disabled - mean she will be unable to work even once hairdressers are allowed to return next month. She told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that having the vouchers continue over the summer would be "a huge help". Both women struggled at first to redeem the vouchers - but the scheme is currently working well, they say. 'Left with zero' "I get the £60 a week for them... It makes a massive difference," says Jane. Unless the government changes its plans, the prospect of not being able to work and not having the vouchers throughout the summer is daunting. "I'll have no income and we'll have no free school meal vouchers so it's going to make us stuck really because we're in a position that we've never been in before," says Jane. "And so then we're left with zero, so we don't know what we're going to do." She has had some help from friends and family during lockdown but teenage boys are "bottomless hunger pits" she says - so her budget is extremely tight. "We're basically struggling with everything." "We're stuck in this position and we don't know how long it's going to be for," Jane says. The continuation of the scheme over the Easter holiday and half term was an enormous help, she says, but is worried at the prospect of being without it over the six-week summer break. "It's going to be very difficult," she says. |
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