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But behind the scenes, a small army of rarely-seen people are central to bringing a production to life. Birmingham photographer Fraser McGee spent two months at the city's Rep theatre capturing their efforts, gathering more than 1,000 images in the process. Of those, he picked 100 black and white photographs for a new exhibition which opens this week. Production - Behind the Scenes at Birmingham Repertory Theatre runs from 27 June to 5 August 2019 at Medicine Bakery and Gallery, in New Street, Birmingham. | عندما تنطفئ الأضواء وتُرفع الستارة، تتجه أعين جمهور المسرح نحو الممثلين وهم يدوسون الألواح. | صور ممثل برمنغهام تسلط الضوء على عالم ما وراء الكواليس | {
"summary": " عندما تنطفئ الأضواء وتُرفع الستارة، تتجه أعين جمهور المسرح نحو الممثلين وهم يدوسون الألواح.",
"title": " صور ممثل برمنغهام تسلط الضوء على عالم ما وراء الكواليس"
} |
Rio Bell, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, died on 15 February after he was hit on King Street during the annual Mart fair. The petition has now received more than 5,000 signatures. Campaigner Paul Macey, who sat in the road with Rio after he was hit, said the petition would hopefully ensure "another child doesn't lose his life". He said roads around the fair, based on the town's Tuesday Market Place, should be fully closed on Saturdays and on other days at about 17:30 GMT - the time when Rio was struck. The figure of 5,000 names means the petition will now need to be debated at a full council meeting. Norfolk Police's serious collision investigation team is appealing for witnesses to the crash. The two-week Mart finished at the end of February. Rio's funeral was held earlier at St Peter and St John's Church in Kirkley, near Lowestoft. | سيتم تسليم عريضة تطالب بإغلاق الطرق في كينغز لين خلال معرض، بعد مقتل طفل يبلغ من العمر ثلاث سنوات بحادث سيارة، إلى مجلس المدينة. | تم تسليم التماس King's Lynn Mart بعد وفاة الطفل | {
"summary": " سيتم تسليم عريضة تطالب بإغلاق الطرق في كينغز لين خلال معرض، بعد مقتل طفل يبلغ من العمر ثلاث سنوات بحادث سيارة، إلى مجلس المدينة.",
"title": " تم تسليم التماس King's Lynn Mart بعد وفاة الطفل"
} |
By Shivaani KohokInnovators, BBC World Service A group of 10 volunteers are gathering; putting into place a plan to solve a water crisis in Ladakh, the northern most region of India, in the high Himalayas. They are building manmade ice structures, more than 30m tall, that they hope will melt early in the spring and give villagers and their farms the water they need. The ice structures are the brainchild of engineer Sonam Wangchuk. Born in Ladakh, he has worked for several years to find innovative solutions to everyday problems facing the local communities. "We tend to get the solutions created in New York or New Delhi, but they don't work for us here in the mountains. I believe mountain people have to find solutions for themselves," he says. Villagers in Ladakh face harsh living conditions. Road blockages in the winter months mean they are cut off from the rest of the country for most of winter. Mr Wangchuk says the effects of climate change are adding to the problem. He says there are signs that global warming is damaging the delicate climatic water balance in the Hindu Kush Himalayan range. "We can see that the glaciers are receding, to higher altitudes. There is less water in spring, but in the summer months we have experienced dangerous flooding. The water flow in the valley has become erratic," he explains. Mr Wangchuk was inspired by a fellow engineer working in the region, Chewang Norphel. Mr Norphel had created flat artificial glaciers at heights of 4,000m (13,123ft) and above. But the villagers were reluctant to climb up to those levels. Mr Wangchuk says he was crossing a bridge when the idea for his ice structures crystallised. "I saw that there was ice under the bridge, which at 3,000m (9,842ft) was the warmest and lowest altitude in the whole area," he recalls. "And this was in May. So I thought - direct sunlight makes the ice melt, but if we protect it from the sun, we can store ice right here." Ladakh And so, in 2013, he and his students from the Secmol Alternative School began to create prototypes of the ice structures near the village of Phyang. They call the structures "stupas" because they bear resemblance to Tibetan religious stupas - elegant hemispherical or conical structures with pointed tops that contain relics, such as the remains of Buddhist monks. The technology behind the ice structures is simple. Pipes are initially buried under the ground, below the frost line, before the final section of the pipe then rises vertically. Due to the difference in height, temperature, and the gravitational force, pressure builds up in the pipe. The stream water eventually flows up and out from the pipe's raised tip like a fountain. The sub-zero air freezes the water to gradually form a pyramid like structure. "We are freezing water that goes unused in winter and, because of the geometric shape it doesn't melt till late spring," says Mr Wangchuk. In late spring the artificial glacier starts to melt and water can be used for drip-irrigation of crops. The BBC's Innovators series reveals innovative solutions to major challenges across South Asia. Ever heard of the concept of "jugaad"? It's a Hindi term meaning cheap innovation. If you have created a life hack or innovation that you are proud of, or spotted one while out and about on your travels, then share your picture with us by emailing [email protected], use the hashtags #Jugaad and #BBCInnovators and share your picture with @BBCWorldService, or upload your submission here. Learn more about BBC Innovators. As the ice structures look like the familiar religious stupas, Mr Wangchuk believes that this leads to a better sense of ownership amongst the locals. After some initial success with one ice structures in 2014 the nearby Phyang Monastery got involved. The Buddhist monks asked the team to build 20 ice stupas. A successful crowd funding campaign raised $125,200 (£96,500). This money funded a 2.3km (1.43 mile) pipeline which brought water down to Phyang. Mr Wangchuk claims this pipeline can support at least 50 ice stupas. Mr Wangchuk is also now helping to build ice stupas near the winter sports resort town of St Moritz in Switzerland. After an initial prototype is built and tested, the Swiss want to expand the project to counter the phenomenon of fast-melting glaciers in the upper reaches of the Swiss mountains. "In exchange for the ice stupa technology, the Swiss will share their expertise and experience in sustainable tourism development with the people of Phyang, to revive the dying economy of the village," says Mr Wangchuk. But he feels positive about the future. "We want to train enthusiastic youth through our university, and eventually we are hoping to create a whole generation of ice or glacier entrepreneurs.'' | إنه منتصف الليل على ارتفاع 3500 متر (11000 قدم) فوق مستوى سطح البحر، وهو أبرد وقت في اليوم، في واحدة من أبرد الأماكن على هذا الكوكب. في منتصف الشتاء، تنخفض درجات الحرارة هنا إلى -30 درجة مئوية (-22 فهرنهايت). | هل تستطيع الهياكل الجليدية حل أزمة المياه في جبال الهيمالايا؟ | {
"summary": "إنه منتصف الليل على ارتفاع 3500 متر (11000 قدم) فوق مستوى سطح البحر، وهو أبرد وقت في اليوم، في واحدة من أبرد الأماكن على هذا الكوكب. في منتصف الشتاء، تنخفض درجات الحرارة هنا إلى -30 درجة مئوية (-22 فهرنهايت).",
"title": " هل تستطيع الهياكل الجليدية حل أزمة المياه في جبال الهيمالايا؟"
} |
By James RobbinsBBC diplomatic correspondent Taken in isolation, most of Britain's security, defence and diplomatic community readily accept that an increased terror threat inside the UK follows after any military intervention in a predominantly Muslim country. We don't need to look far for the evidence of that. On the eve of Tony Blair's invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the government's Joint Intelligence Committee was blunt in its assessment of possible consequences of war with Iraq: an assessment which was then marked Top Secret but was declassified to allow its publication as part of the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry. "The threat from al-Qaeda will increase at the onset of any military action against Iraq. They will target Coalition forces and other Western interests in the Middle East. Attacks against Western interests elsewhere are also likely, especially in the US and UK, for maximum impact," it stated. "The worldwide threat from other Islamist terrorist groups and individuals will increase significantly. Al-Qaeda associates and sympathisers may well attempt chemical or biological terrorist attacks in the Gulf, including against UK civilian targets there, in the event of war with Iraq. While individual attacks are likely to be small-scale they may be numerous. Individual attacks might inflict relatively few casualties, but will cause significant alarm." In fact, the largest single terror attack in Britain took place on 7/7, in July 2005, of course. Few dispute that Britain's decision to join the invasion of Iraq was used by the 7/7 attackers and those who had radicalised them as part of their excuse for killing civilians in Britain. It is also true that subsequent British military action overseas - including in Libya - has been used by extremists to justify further massacre of innocents in the UK. But Jeremy Corbyn's critics say none of this necessarily means that Britain's military actions overseas were wrong, merely that they definitely had consequences. Separately, many of them argue that Mr Corbyn, even if he didn't intend it, has been "crass" and "insensitive" in his timing, and seems to be providing some sort of excuse for the Manchester bombing, however careful he was to deny that. So if the link between British military intervention and an increased risk of terror attacks in Britain is not seriously disputed, where did that history of intervention originate? Largely in the foreign policy pursued by Tony Blair, as prime minister, intervening first in Sierra Leone, then in Kosovo, with a large measure of public support, to protect civilian populations, including the Muslim majority in Kosovo, from mass murder. It was the same sort of motive, the responsibility to protect civilians at imminent risk, which was put forward by David Cameron and the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, to explain their intervention against the regime of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. The British public was divided over that, and even more so over the invasion of Iraq. The prime minister herself, of course, came close to repudiating the Blair doctrine of British military intervention and, by implication, David Cameron's action in Libya, in her United States speech last January. "This cannot mean a return to the failed policies of the past. The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over. But nor can we afford to stand idly by when the threat is real and when it is in our own interests to intervene. "We must be strong, smart and hard-headed. And we must demonstrate the resolve necessary to stand up for our interests." Mrs May was not absolutely ruling out future British military action overseas, but she was recognising there had been failures. All of this said, extremism in the name of Islam, or in the name of an extremist interpretation of Islam, long predates any of Britain's modern military interventions in countries with Muslim majorities, particularly in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Libya. Al-Qaeda has been actively killing civilians since the mid-1990s, achieving global notoriety by killing hundreds of civilians in the 1998 bomb attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. And you can trace a history of grievance in the Middle East against the major imperial powers, including Britain, far further back than that. Equally, not taking a frontline part in foreign wars is also no protection against Islamist terror. Neither Belgium nor Germany played any substantial fighting role in Afghanistan, Iraq, and still less Libya. Germany has been heavily criticised by some other EU countries for being too generous to migrants, the majority of them Muslims. That hasn't kept those countries safe. Both have suffered mass-casualty civilian attacks, just as Britain, France and others have done. The arguments provoked by Jeremy Corbyn are complex. He is accused of being selective and simplistic in his analysis. His critics fault his timing. At an acutely sensitive time, the speech has reopened debate about some of the most difficult issues of foreign policy which touch all of our lives - above all, perhaps, the question: how do we protect tolerance against the intolerant? | بالمعنى الضيق، فإن تأكيد جيريمي كوربين على أن التدخلات العسكرية البريطانية الأخيرة أدت إلى زيادة خطر وقوع هجمات إرهابية في المملكة المتحدة مقبول على نطاق واسع. قد يقول الكثيرون إنه بيان واضح تمامًا. | هل التدخل العسكري يزيد من التهديد الإرهابي؟ | {
"summary": " بالمعنى الضيق، فإن تأكيد جيريمي كوربين على أن التدخلات العسكرية البريطانية الأخيرة أدت إلى زيادة خطر وقوع هجمات إرهابية في المملكة المتحدة مقبول على نطاق واسع. قد يقول الكثيرون إنه بيان واضح تمامًا.",
"title": " هل التدخل العسكري يزيد من التهديد الإرهابي؟"
} |
The gathering, outside the cathedral in St Philip's Square, included speeches from leaders of different faiths. The Right Reverend David Urquhart said it was for "people of all faiths and none to join together in solidarity and reflection". A minute's silence was also held as part of the ceremony. The bishop said: "At times like this, the different faiths in Birmingham are able to show that we are united in our condemnation of these attacks and in our determination not to let events like this damage the good relations we have here in Birmingham." Landmarks across the UK, including the Library of Birmingham, were illuminated in the colours of the French flag on Saturday night as a gesture of solidarity with those affected. | شارك المئات من الأشخاص في وقفة احتجاجية على ضوء الشموع بقيادة أسقف برمنغهام تعاطفا مع المتضررين من هجمات باريس. | أسقف برمنغهام يقيم وقفة احتجاجية على ضوء الشموع في باريس | {
"summary": " شارك المئات من الأشخاص في وقفة احتجاجية على ضوء الشموع بقيادة أسقف برمنغهام تعاطفا مع المتضررين من هجمات باريس.",
"title": " أسقف برمنغهام يقيم وقفة احتجاجية على ضوء الشموع في باريس"
} |
Over the next four weeks, thousands of motorists face being stopped at various locations and times across Wales. The campaign, involving all four police forces in Wales, includes advertising, social media and, in some cases, the naming and shaming of drivers. Led by Dyfed-Powys Police, the All Wales Winter Anti Drink and Drug Driving campaign runs until 1 January. | أطلقت قوات الشرطة في جميع أنحاء ويلز حملة لمكافحة القيادة تحت تأثير الكحول في الفترة التي تسبق فترة عيد الميلاد. | إطلاق حملة عيد الميلاد لمكافحة سائقي المشروبات الكحولية والمخدرات | {
"summary": " أطلقت قوات الشرطة في جميع أنحاء ويلز حملة لمكافحة القيادة تحت تأثير الكحول في الفترة التي تسبق فترة عيد الميلاد.",
"title": " إطلاق حملة عيد الميلاد لمكافحة سائقي المشروبات الكحولية والمخدرات"
} |
By Jason PalmerScience and technology reporter, BBC News Oetzi's full genome has now beenreported in Nature Communications. It reveals that he had brown eyes, "O" blood type, was lactose intolerant, and was predisposed to heart disease. They also show him to be the first documented case of infection by a Lyme disease bacterium. Analysis of series of anomalies in the Iceman's DNA also revealed him to be more closely related to modern inhabitants of Corsica and Sardinia than to populations in the Alps, where he was unearthed. 'Really exciting' The study reveals the fuller genetic picture as laid out in the nuclei of Oetzi's cells. This nuclear DNA is both rarer and typically less well-preserved than the DNA within mitochondria, the cell's "power plants", which also contain DNA. Oetzi's mitochondrial DNA had already revealed some hints of his origins when it was fully sequenced in 2008. Albert Zink, from the Eurac Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, said the nuclear DNA study was a great leap forward in one of the most widely studied specimens in science. "We've been studying the Iceman for 20 years. We know so many things about him - where he lived, how he died - but very little was known about his genetics, the genetic information he was carrying around," he told BBC News. He was carrying around a "haplotype" that showed his ancestors most likely migrated from the Middle East as the practice of formal agriculture became more widespread. It is probably this period of transition to an agrarian society that explains Oetzi's lactose intolerance. Prof Zink said that next-generation "whole-genome" sequencing techniques made the analysis possible. "Whole-genome sequencing allows you to sequence the whole DNA out of one sample; that wasn't possible before in the same way. "This was really exciting and I think it's just the start for a longer study on this level. We still would like to learn more from this data - we've only just started to analyse it." | ظهرت أدلة جديدة فيما يمكن وصفها بأنها أقدم قضية قتل في العالم: قضية أويتزي "رجل الثلج"، الذي تم اكتشاف جثته البالغة من العمر 5300 عام مجمدة في جبال الألب الإيطالية في عام 1991. | يقدم الجينوم النووي لرجل الثلج Oetzi رؤى جديدة | {
"summary": "ظهرت أدلة جديدة فيما يمكن وصفها بأنها أقدم قضية قتل في العالم: قضية أويتزي \"رجل الثلج\"، الذي تم اكتشاف جثته البالغة من العمر 5300 عام مجمدة في جبال الألب الإيطالية في عام 1991.",
"title": " يقدم الجينوم النووي لرجل الثلج Oetzi رؤى جديدة"
} |
By Vincent DowdArts correspondent, BBC World Service Sheldon Harnick is 90 and in a long career he's seen a lot change in New York theatre. "Back in the Sixties," he recalls, "if you were producing a show you did backers' auditions to raise the money." "I remember one audition for Fiddler. As people left I heard someone say dismissively 'Oh once they run out of Hadassah benefits there'll be absolutely no audience for it'. At the time I feared maybe they were right." In America Hadassah is the main Jewish women's organisation. Fiddler on the Roof was the fifth show written by lyricist Harnick and composer Jerry Bock. The others had been flops or had modest financial success. The show's script was by Joseph Stein. Bock and Stein both died in 2010. "Years before, a friend sent me a novel called Wandering Star about a travelling Yiddish theatre group in eastern Europe. I loved it so I asked Joe Stein would it work as a musical. "Joe said it was too big and had too many characters but we dug out other pieces by the same author, Shalom Aleichem. We found a book of short stories called Teyve's Daughters: that's where Fiddler came from." Fiddler on the Roof opened at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit on July 27th 1964. On Broadway it would be the first musical to exceed 3,000 performances and in 1972 it became the longest running Broadway musical to date. (Several shows have overtaken it since.) Sheldon Harnick says ultimately he decided the play's setting was secondary. "People thought it was the great Jewish musical which obviously is thrilling. But I've been watching audiences react now for 50 years and at heart the story is about family. It's the most universal story there is." Every songwriting duo writes in a different way: Bock and Harnick's method was to be in different rooms. "Jerry would put the music onto tape as piano pieces. I'd get a reel of tape delivered which sometimes contained eight or ten pieces for my consideration. "I would listen and maybe in a couple of numbers something caught my attention and I'd get to work on a lyric. It could be a wonderful waltz or I might pick up on a little march theme. That was how a show came together. "People told us we were brave to be doing a very specifically Jewish show. I used to tell them I spent three years in World War II in the army fighting Hitler. Maybe that was brave: this was just Broadway." Fifty years ago it was the norm to open a musical well away from New York to give a chance to sort out problems. Harnick remembers the experience vividly. "Detroit was in the middle of a newspaper strike which meant we got no publicity. It was a five-week run and Harold Prince, the producer, told me we had no bookings after the third week and disaster loomed. "But you just get on with fixing the show. I remember the director Jerome Robbins telling the cast we would fix one thing a day with the script or the staging and that way we'd get to New York in good shape." When finally Fiddler on the Roof reached Broadway the critics were full of praise for the star Zero Mostel, who played the dairyman Tevye. The New York Times said his performance was "one of the most glowing creations in the history of the musical theatre". "Zero Mostel was a comedic genius," says Harnick. "He was extraordinarily inventive but unfortunately that inventiveness meant he wasn't suited to giving the same performance six times a week plus matinees. He got bored and a bored star can be problematic. "Zero would ad lib lines. Or he stood where he wasn't supposed to stand and destroyed other actors' cues. "He would create bits of stage business to delight the audience and stop the show. But that was the problem: he stopped the show. He had a real talent but he was also impossible." After nine months the central role of Tevye was recast. "I told Zero I was sorry to see him go. But he said you're just sorry to see the box-office grosses fall. Actually when he left the box-office didn't fall, which broke Zero's heart." In London, the role of Tevye was taken by Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who went on to star in the 1971 film. Harnick liked his performance but says the best Tevye ever was an actor little known outside America called Herschel Bernardi. Reaching the age of 40, Harnick found himself with the biggest hit on Broadway. Songs such as If I Were A Rich Man, Sunrise Sunset and Matchmaker were heard everywhere. "The early shows I did with Jerry more or less persuaded me I could have a career as a writer, though there were days when I doubted even that. "My first show had been a five-week flop and She Loves Me (1963) was what people politely term a 'succes d'estime' - meaning it got good reviews but didn't pay off the investors. So I think you could call Fiddler's success comforting for everyone concerned. I became financially secure and I was sought after as a lyricist." In 1970, Bock and Harnick returned to Broadway with The Rothschilds. But tensions arose and the writing team hailed as the new Rodgers and Hammerstein split up. Harnick later worked with composers including Michel Legrand. Today he's often asked to give advice to young would-be composers and lyricists. "My first advice to anyone who wants to write lyrics is simple - read widely. "You never know what your assignment is going to be. It's important to feel comfortable in most genres and different styles. So even in this online age, I tell everyone read, read, read. "A lyricist is a kind of playwright. You need to be able to write for character and situation. What would these characters speak like? How were they educated? Those are the questions you need answers to." At 90, Harnick still goes to almost every new musical on Broadway. "For one thing I'm a Tony voter so I'm required to see them and at today's prices that saves me thousands of dollars. But I'm not someone who complains about the state of musical theatre: there's real talent out there. A new staging of Fiddler on the Roof is due on Broadway next year. In the meantime Harnick still takes an interest in productions around the world. "I've been with my wife Margery to see it in Holland and Finland and Japan and many other places. I always listen for where the laughs come. There's sentiment in Fiddler, sure, and maybe a kind of nostalgia. But to hear an audience laugh at a show you wrote all those years ago - that's a thrill." | لقد مر نصف قرن بالضبط منذ العرض الأول لمسرحية "عازف الكمان على السطح" - وهي من بين المسرحيات الغنائية الأكثر نجاحًا التي تم كتابتها حتى الآن. في عام 1964، شعر شيلدون هارنيك وزملاؤه بالقلق من أن المكان، وهو بلدة يهودية صغيرة في أوروبا الشرقية في أوائل القرن العشرين، قد يحد من جاذبية العرض. لكن، كما يقول هارنيك، الموضوع الحقيقي للمسلسل هو موضوع عالمي: الأسرة. | عازف الكمان على السطح 50 عامًا من النجاح الموسيقي | {
"summary": " لقد مر نصف قرن بالضبط منذ العرض الأول لمسرحية \"عازف الكمان على السطح\" - وهي من بين المسرحيات الغنائية الأكثر نجاحًا التي تم كتابتها حتى الآن. في عام 1964، شعر شيلدون هارنيك وزملاؤه بالقلق من أن المكان، وهو بلدة يهودية صغيرة في أوروبا الشرقية في أوائل القرن العشرين، قد يحد من جاذبية العرض. لكن، كما يقول هارنيك، الموضوع الحقيقي للمسلسل هو موضوع عالمي: الأسرة.",
"title": " عازف الكمان على السطح 50 عامًا من النجاح الموسيقي"
} |
By Daniel De SimoneBBC News UPDATE 18 December 2018: Thomas and Patatas have been sentenced to six-and-a-half years and five years in prison respectively, and Bogunovic to six years and four months. Three other men who pleaded guilty earlier in the case were also jailed. Here is the story of National Action and the threat posed by its members. It appeared to be a normal home. The property, in a quiet part of an Oxfordshire town, was occupied by a couple who had just welcomed their first child into the world. Neighbours sometimes saw the pair taking their baby out in a pram. The male, who often dressed in combat trousers, worked as a security guard. The woman - a part-time wedding photographer - had, until recently, worked in a clothes shop. But inside their house Adam Thomas and his Portuguese partner Claudia Patatas had created a disturbing world. Their bedroom was strewn with weapons - machetes, crossbows, an axe under the bed, a Nazi-style dagger. In the hallway were pendants bearing a black sun - a symbol associated with the SS and the occult - and the insignia of the Ku Klux Klan. Cushions emblazoned with swastikas decorated the lounge. In the kitchen, there was a swastika-shaped pastry cutter. The fridge was adorned with a poster by the banned neo-Nazi group National Action, declaring 'Britain is ours - the rest must go'. A memory card hidden beneath a floorboard under the dining table contained several startling photographs of the couple. In one, Thomas holds the flag of Nazi Germany while Patatas cradles their baby. In another, mother and baby are with a different man, Darren Fletcher, who performs a Nazi salute while both adults hold the flag. Other images found on a mobile phone show Thomas dressed in the distinctive white costume of the KKK, looking down at his son through the eyeholes of a white, peaked hood. The baby, a little over a month old at the time, had been given the middle name Adolf by his parents - in tribute to the leader of Nazi Germany. The pictures were found by counter terrorism detectives who arrived at the property early in the morning of 3 January this year to arrest Thomas and Patatas for membership of National Action - a group that had been banned under terrorism legislation in December 2016. National Action was founded in 2013 by Ben Raymond, now 29, and Alex Davies, now 24. At the time, Raymond, a recent politics graduate from the University of Essex and avowed neo-Nazi, was living in Bognor Regis. After university, he had drifted into a job as a double-glazing salesman and would go on to work at a job centre, assisting claimants. Much of his free time was spent online immersed in disturbing extreme right-wing content. He designed memes, edited videos, and wrote long diatribes, including for the obscure Integralist Party, which was seeking a "nationwide fascist army" for its "racial religion that inspires and demands fanaticism". It was that online activity that first attracted Davies, a University of Warwick student from Carmarthen and member of the British National Party. By then, the party was in steep decline from its best ever performance in European elections four years earlier. The pair believed that, in recent years, British far-right organisations had diluted their message by seeking to appeal beyond their core support. National Action's founders determined that, in contrast, the group would be unashamedly racist and overtly neo-Nazi. It had all the characteristics of post-war neo-Nazism - hatred of non-white and Jewish people, a worldview entirely based on racism, veneration of white "Aryans", and lionisation of the Nazi era and its worst war criminals. Davies was eventually forced out of Warwick university for his far-right political activities and moved back to Wales, where he eventually found work as an insurance salesman. The pair believed young people across the UK would eagerly embrace the group's toxic blend of Hitler worship, Holocaust denial, and malicious conspiracy theories. In reality, it would never exceed 100 members and those it did attract were a disparate set of fanatics united by various deviancies and irrational hatreds. No attempt was made at engaging in democratic politics, with the organisation instead regarding itself as a youth-based street movement. Its logo was strikingly similar to the paramilitary arm of the Nazi party - the Sturmabteilung, or SA Recruitment focused on those in their teens and 20s, although some of those targeted were children of secondary school age. The group's strategy initially involved leafleting university campuses. But it soon turned to organising aggressive publicity stunts and city-centre demonstrations, with activities chronicled on the group's website and social media channels. As it grew, National Action developed into a clandestine network of small, regional networks, with senior figures in each cooperating at a national level. Members, who dressed in black during demonstrations, promoted the idea that the UK was on the brink of a "race war" and that a predatory elite was deliberately encouraging immigration in an attempt to destroy the native white population. The group claimed to be patriotic, but was hostile to all domestic institutions, the rule of law, the democratic process, and everyone who did not share its worldview. Politicians and other public servants were a particular focus of hatred. During one speech, senior National Action member Matthew Hankinson said they would ensure that "traitors" ended up "hanging from lampposts". "We must be ruthless - and if innocent people are cut down in the process, then so be it," he said. The organisation was openly genocidal and said that all Jewish and non-white people would have to go. In one document it declared: "It is with glee that we will enact the final solution across Europe." But National Action did not restrict itself to admiration for the Nazis. Its members also took inspiration from the Khmer Rouge, the brutal regime that ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s under the Marxist leader Pol Pot; the radical right-wing Norwegian terrorist and mass murderer Anders Breivik; and even the Islamic State group. Online, the group announced: "We are the white jihad" and "Our motto is 'Long Live Death!' because only those who are willing to die for their beliefs are truly alive." The logic of such ideas ends in violence - and violence, both planned and executed, is what they generated. In 2015, Zack Davies, a 25-year-old member from Mold, North Wales, used a hammer and machete to attack a Sikh dentist in a Tesco store because of his skin colour. Davies shouted, "White power" during the assault, for which he was later convicted of attempted murder. He had earlier posed for a selfie in front of a National Action flag while holding a blade. The following year Jack Coulson, a then 17-year-old member from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was arrested by counter terrorism police after posting images of a homemade pipe-bomb on Snapchat, along with threats against Muslims. Coulson, who would be convicted of making explosives, had joined National Action months earlier and was associating with older members both in person and online. On the day in June 2016 that Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by the white supremacist Thomas Mair, the teenager took to social media to say: "There's one less race traitor in Britain thanks to this man." "He's a hero, we need more people like him to butcher the race traitors," Coulson continued. An official National Action Twitter account also celebrated the murder, stating: "Don't let this man's sacrifice go in vain," and "Only 649 MPs to go #WhiteJihad." By 2016, Christopher Lythgoe, a former regional leader for the North West, was heading up the whole group. Raymond and Davies remained influential figures, but it was Lythgoe, now 32, who sought to enforce structure and rigour on the entire organisation. He lived with his parents in Warrington, worked infrequently in warehouses, and spent much of his time trying to turn National Action into a paramilitary-style organisation. He drew up detailed manuals, explaining things like how to carry flags correctly, and sent hectoring emails to other members. In one, he wrote: "Just a reminder guys that National Action now operates what I like to call a No-Deadweight Policy. That means everyone trains in case we need it. We don't carry anyone. No exceptions." He added: "Imagine what it will be like when we have 20, 30, 50 or more guys who can ALL punch unconscious an 18-stone adversary. AND we will fight as one disciplined body. That's what I would call formidable unit. So like I said, We all train." Training included boxing, martial arts, and a series of outdoor training camps. One such camp - where participants were expected to "drink mead and live like Vikings" - ended in farce when one neo-Nazi ended up sleeping in a phone box to escape rain and snow. But one need not consider the group's paramilitary fantasies realistic to find them troubling and dangerous. The threat National Action posed came from the hatred it encouraged, which generated a very real threat to the general public and anyone chosen as a target by those it radicalised. A government assessment in late 2016 concluded the group was "concerned in terrorism", and described it as "virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic". It became the first far-right group to be proscribed in this country since World War Two. The move, which made membership of National Action a criminal offence, was specifically linked to its glorification of terrorism and extreme violence. Ahead of the ban, the group's leadership came together via a secure conference call, including Lythgoe, founders Raymond and Davies, and regional organisers. Lythgoe insisted the group carry on as usual - just without the name or more obvious public trappings. In the days before the ban, he sent his followers a series of emails. "Long term we'll keep moving forward just as we have been," stated one. Another, sent to the regional leaders, said: "Make sure you maintain contact with ALL your members. Reassure them that they will be personally ok as long as they don't promote NA from Friday on. Make sure that they understand that the SUBSTANCE of NA is the people, our talents, the bonds between us, our ideas, and our sustained force of will. All of that will continue into the future. We're just shedding one skin for another. All genuinely revolutionary movements in the past have needed to exist partly underground. These are exciting times." One of those on Lythgoe's mailing list was Alex Deakin, leader for the Midlands. Less than two hours after getting the email, Deakin used the encrypted messaging app Telegram to create a chat group that became his main regional organising tool for National Action after the ban. He called it the Triple KKK Mafia, a reference to the Ku Klux Klan. Over time, the chat group would have as many as 21 people in it. He created another one - called Inner - which contained a select band of seven from the larger chat group. Deakin, now 24, from Birmingham, was a university student who had been radicalised on the internet. In September 2016, after spending two years studying in Aberystwyth, he dropped out and transferred to a history course at the University of Coventry. He told one contact his path to National Action involved "getting redpilled by forums, spending years arguing online, and then finally deciding to take action when this group impressed me". Deakin regularly reported back to Lythgoe and co-founder Raymond, telling them about his efforts to recruit new members, organise existing ones, and spread National Action propaganda. Messages in the year before the ban show the extent of his delusional ambitions. In an exchange about targeting working class cities, he wrote: "We should move to radicalise these areas, turning them into NI [Northern Irish] style sectarian ghettoes would be the first target to fermenting race war." In correspondence with Lythgoe, Deakin stated: "Like the IRA and Viet Cong we'd need to have embedded local support among the communities we'd fight in; streets and cul-de-sacs would function as barracks as supportive locals would shelter us, and it would be necessary to fade into the background at moment's notice." The nature of such conversations only intensified once the group had been proscribed. In the Midlands, the organisation ceased overt campaigning, but members continued to communicate, meet up, seek new recruits, and encourage one another's worst tendencies. There were explicit references to the the fact that National Action still existed. In one message, Deakin said: "Anyway the Midlands group continues under the name Triple K Mafia." In another, Adam Thomas wrote: "So since NA has been destroyed, the leadership generally of NA agreed it's to be disbanded. No attempt at revival. But the Midlands branch of NA, which is just 17-20 of us, have decided to ignore this... Midlands will continue the fight alone." Messages in the Telegram group, numbering in the thousands, show members using violent racist language, discussing their desire for a "race war", and fantasising about the murder of those they hated. Deakin wrote that all Jewish people should be "burned", and that Chinese and black people should be turned into "biofuel". A member from Wolverhampton, Darren Fletcher, 28, referred to Thomas Mair, the killer of Jo Cox, when he asked: "Why aren't there more Mairs out there? We need a good few hundred of them to sort out these anti-white MPs." Fletcher, a truck driver and old friend of Adam Thomas, had once been jailed after posting videos on YouTube of himself on stage at an extremist music event dressed in a KKK outfit, hanging a life-sized golliwog doll from a noose. When Fletcher wrote that people in government should be killed, he received support from Thomas, who said: "I agree bump them off but there's 600MPs unless you take them all down in one go they will just replace each other." Claudia Patatas, who studied to postgraduate level in Portugal before moving to the UK over a decade ago, had spent years as a marketing professional. In public she provided bland quotes to corporate journals, while in private she wrote messages exclaiming: "All Jews must be put to death" and "bring back those concentration camps." She told members of the group that "Adolf is life" and was enthusiastic about holding a celebration for Hitler's birthday, recalling one she had attended in Lisbon years earlier. "We had a cake with the fuhrer face," she described, before adding, "I did struggle to slice his face". Perhaps the most dangerous member of the group was a serving lance corporal in the British Army. Mikko Vehvilainen, now 34, joined the Army in 2012, having earlier spent time in the navy in Finland, the homeland of his father. In an email to one friend, he wrote: "I'm only in to learn useful combat skills." The married father of young children, an adherent of a white supremacist interpretation of Christianity called Christian Identity, was a senior National Action member obsessed with ideas about the collapse of civilisation and racial war. In a diary entry last year, beneath the heading "key points for leadership meeting", he referred to "later stages terrorism, civil disorder, destruction of infrastructure and power grid". In another document, he said there a was a need to be "prepared to fight and die for your race in a possible last stand for our survival". "Every part of me wants war. There is no other way," he wrote in one message on Telegram. His personal weapons collection, stockpiled for what he appeared to regard as imminent conflicts, included legally held firearms, as well as knives, machetes, knuckle dusters, a crossbow, a bow and arrow, pepper spray, handcuffs, and a so-called war hammer bearing the Biblical inscription: "There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked." The solider, latterly based at the Army's Welsh headquarters in Powys, actively sought recruits from those serving under him in the Royal Anglian Regiment. Three men holding the rank of private were invited into the main Telegram group after Vehvilainen told Deakin they were "committed" Nazis. One of them, Mark Barrett, wrote racist messages in the chat group, and had Vehvilainen, another of the soldiers, and a National Action member called Nathan Pryke, over to his Army property where they spent an evening firing arrows at a burning cross in the back garden. Vehvilainen, who served in Afghanistan, was also keen that civilian neo-Nazis join him in the forces, telling them: "If we get enough of us into the Army, we'll be in the right place when things start to collapse." He wrote in the Inner chat group that National Action members should focus on gaining "military and key civil positions". Four National Action members in his circle had been, or were, attempting to join the Army: Alex Deakin, Adam Thomas, Nathan Pryke, a 27-year-old a van driver from Cambridgeshire, and Joel Wilmore, 24, originally from Lincolnshire, who had served in the Territorial Army before entering a sensitive job as an information security expert. This involved acting as an "ethical hacker" in order to test the strength of organisational IT systems. Vehvilainen advised Thomas and offered to act as a referee of good character. Thomas, in turn, asked if he could buy a gun from Vehvilainen and whether anybody would notice if assault rifles were stolen from his base. But, before anything more could happen, the group was disrupted. For several months, detectives from West Midlands Police had been investigating an incident in July 2016 during which several men had pasted National Action stickers at the Aston University campus in Birmingham. In spring 2017, some of the suspects were arrested, including Alex Deakin. Incriminating chat groups were found on his phone, and that of another man who cannot be named for legal reasons. After being released under investigation, Deakin sent a panicked email to several National Action contacts. "My seized phone is full of texts that will mark me as an organizer," he wrote. "I understand if you despise me for this sloppiness (it really couldn't have been worse if I tried)." Deakin's "sloppiness" led to three trials at Birmingham Crown Court this year, many details of which can only be reported now that the final one has concluded. The first, which ended in April, saw Deakin himself, Vehvilainen and soldier Mark Barrett stand trial accused of National Action membership. Barrett was acquitted, but his co-defendants were convicted and received eight-year prison sentences. The three had been arrested in September 2017, along with the other two soldiers in the chat group, both of whom were released without charge. Only Barrett elected to give evidence, telling the court that he had not joined National Action despite being in the Telegram chat group and that he regretted his racist postings. Deakin was also convicted of two counts of possessing documents useful to someone preparing an act of terrorism - including bomb-making manuals and an instructional book for white extremists - which were found on his laptop. He was further convicted of distributing a terrorist publication, for sending a document called Ethnic Cleansing Operations to the National Action co-founder Ben Raymond and two other contacts. Vehvilainen was cleared of stirring up racial hatred for using a Christian Identity online forum to write racist posts. Among other things, he wrote: "I have vowed to fight the Jew forever in any way possible," and used the word "beasts" to refer to black people. Referring to his position in the Army, he had written: "There are ways around everything and I've simply learned to avoid beasts." He added: "The sooner they're eliminated the better." It is understood that both Vehvilainen and Barrett have since been discharged from the Army. The other two arrested soldiers were disciplined but not discharged, although one has since left voluntarily. Lt Col Jackie Fletcher, from the Army personnel branch, described them as "exceptional cases". "These are very rare in the Army," she said. "The Army's value and standards are very clear for soldiers and any individual found to breach those value and standards will have action taken against them." The second trial, which ended in May, saw Deakin and three other men convicted of stirring up racial hatred in relation to the sticker campaign at Aston University - Daniel Bogunovic, 27, a warehouse worker and beekeeper from Leicester, Chad Wiliams-Allen, 27, a pre-ban National Action member and welder from West Bromwich, as well as a man in his early 20s who cannot be identified for legal reasons. In the third case, that of Thomas, Patatas and Bogunovic, three other defendants pleaded guilty to membership of National Action in pre-trial hearings. They were Darren Fletcher, Nathan Pryke, and Joel Wilmore. Wilmore also admitted to possessing terrorist information, namely a document called Homemade Molotov Cocktails. Thomas, who was also convicted of possessing a bomb-making manual, was the only one to give evidence. The former Amazon security guard admitted being a racist and told jurors he had been exposed to such beliefs from a young age, adding that his stepfather was in a "white power band" and had started shaving Thomas's head at the age of five. He also described telling a female Holocaust survivor, whom he visited with a government de-radicalisation mentor, that he "couldn't see" how she could have endured the WW2 Nazi death camps. Thomas told jurors that, aged 18, he went to Israel and considered converting to Judaism because it would have allowed him to join the Israeli military The BBC has spoken to people who knew Thomas in Israel. David Simpkins, who shared a room with him at the Machon Meir yeshiva in Jerusalem, said his roommate used the name Avi Ben Abraham. Simpkins said Thomas had described a "horrible childhood which he characterised as a situation of constantly being bullied, growing up with far-right British extremists who were also neo-Nazis". Thomas disclosed that he first "started learning about Judaism to discover why he was supposed to hate them," Simpkins recalled. He described Thomas as "extremely intelligent" but said he had "an extreme approach to Judaism" and wanted to join a small fringe group which regards most Jewish people as heretics. "The rabbis decided that Adam needed to deal with his childhood professionally and return to convert with a clear head," he said. "He was making the common mistake many who desire conversion make, which is to replace one psychological extreme with another." Avishai Grosser, who works with converts, told the BBC that Thomas, who "knew big proportions of the Torah by heart", dropped out of several conversion programmes and eventually ended up on the streets before returning to the UK. It is understood that, after he returned, he told people in far-right circles that his time in Israel related to an involvement with the white supremacist Christian Identity movement. It was around this time that he got to know Patatas through National Action chat groups. They met for the first time at a pub social in December 2016 and soon moved in together. Before proscription, National Action may have been "perceived as just one of those groups who incited racial hatred and were racist", says Det Chief Supt Matt Ward from the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. He explains how his team's understanding of the threat posed by National Action has "changed considerably" during their investigations. Events after it was banned, he says, show "a really dangerous, well-structured organisation at the heart of a neo-Nazi ideology that seeks to divide communities, is preparing to instigate and wage a race war within the United Kingdom and has spent years acquiring skills, tactics, weapons, recruiting and training people to be able to do that." As in the Midlands, National Action had continued operating covertly in the North West, but had continued more overtly in several other English regions and Scotland using the aliases NS131 and Scottish Dawn. There are ongoing inquiries into people associated with the group, and several trials have already taken place elsewhere in the UK. At the Old Bailey in July, Christopher Lythgoe and Matthew Hankinson, both from the North West, were convicted of membership offences in a trial that saw another man plead guilty to threatening to kill a female police officer, and preparing an act of terrorism by buying a machete in order to kill Labour MP Rosie Cooper. Mr Justice Jay, sentencing Lythgoe and Hankinson to eight and six years in prison respectively, said their "truly evil and dystopian vision" could never "have been achieved through the activities of National Action, a very small group operating at the very periphery of far-right wing extremism". But he said, "The real risk to society inheres instead in the carrying out of isolated acts of terror," inspired by what he described as the group's "perverted ideology". What of the National Action founders who inspired such hatred? We found Ben Raymond and Alex Davies living at separate addresses in Swansea. Both were arrested in September 2017 on suspicion of membership of National Action but have been told they will not be charged. Raymond was also arrested on suspicion of possessing terrorist material and remains under investigation for that. The police enquiries relate to their involvement with the far-right group NS131, which had been created after National Action had been banned. Last year, it was also proscribed. The men have continued to make public pronouncements. Earlier this year, Davies used an online neo-Nazi radio station to call for far-right activists to engage in a campaign of "direct action" against the Labour MP who succeeded Jo Cox as the MP for Batley and Spen. Raymond used the same radio station to discuss the trial of Lythgoe and Hankinson while it was ongoing and declare the defendants "innocent men". The BBC asked both Raymond and Davies for an interview, but they declined. We wanted to ask whether they accept any responsibility for all that has happened and about their relationship with National Action members since proscription. For example, a private gym in Warrington set up by group leader Lythgoe for violent training sessions was made possible by £1,500 given to him by Davies - who then visited it along with members of the group after the ban. Raymond continued communicating with members of National Action, post-proscription, via encrypted emails and applications. He was an active member of both the Midlands Telegram groups - musing on racial theory, engaging in anti-Semitism, discussing his correspondence with neo-Nazis abroad, and lecturing the others on the threat from infiltrators. On the day National Action was banned, Raymond had emailed several contacts, including Deakin and Lythgoe, to say he was "super excited about working on all the new projects". Later chat messages show Deakin saying Raymond was responsible for designing propaganda material after proscription. A hidden webpage containing Raymond's designs over several years, which includes propaganda drawings depicting sexual violence, suggests he created logos for several proposed groups in the period after the National Action ban. Deakin also kept on reporting back to Raymond - in the same way he had done before proscription - sending him messages about, for example, building dossiers on "problematic" individuals and a sinister idea about creating fake "rabidly anti-white propaganda" and "rabidly pro-Jewish propaganda to push people over the edge". When the BBC returned to Swansea with a television camera and approached Raymond in the street outside his bedsit, he swore at us and fled inside, refusing to answer questions. What will happen to the National Action network in the longer term is unclear. Already proscribed under two aliases - NS131 and Scottish Dawn - it may yet be banned under others, too. The Islamist group al-Muhajiroun, based around the notorious British radical preacher Anjem Choudary, has been proscribed under nine other names, but the network of individuals has persisted and been involved in many acts of terrorism. National Action is not the first violent neo-Nazi group in this country since WW2. In the 1960s, members of several organisations attacked synagogues and engaged in paramilitary-style training. The far-right group Combat 18 was later involved in multiple acts of violence and intimidation. In the late 1990s, the London nail bomber David Copeland was an activist in the now defunct National Socialist Movement. The neo-Nazi threat in this country, while persistent, is not large. But it is potent in that those radicalised by its ideas have given themselves to such a violent and hateful creed that some terrorist activity will inevitably follow. The lies espoused by the extreme right - of Aryan supremacy and global Jewish conspiracies - are out there, old ideas spread by modern means, their promoters emboldened in and by the fractious political climate. The danger also appears to be growing, with police reporting an increase in the number of foiled far-right terror plots - five since March 2017 - and the murder of Jo Cox and the Finsbury Park vehicle attack clear evidence of what radicalised individuals can do. Last month, the UK's most senior counter terrorism officer, Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, told MPs that around 80% of the 700 live terror investigations were focused on Islamist Jihadists, with around 20% now focused on others, including a "significant number of right-wing ideological threats". In the wake of the terrorist attacks in the UK last year, an official review recommended an increased role for MI5 in tackling extreme right-wing terrorism, with the aim being to ensure equivalence in how terrorism is dealt with, irrespective of the ideology that inspires it. Implementation of the recommendation has started, with the security service beginning to take the lead for an area that has previously been the preserve of the police. All images subject to copyright | أدين ثلاثة أشخاص بالانتماء إلى جماعة "العمل الوطني" النازية الجديدة المحظورة. وأُدين آدم توماس، 22 عاماً، وشريكته كلوديا باتاتاس، 38 عاماً، مع دانييل بوجونوفيتش، 27 عاماً، بكونهما أعضاء في الجماعة اليمينية المتطرفة - التي كانت محظورة بموجب قوانين مكافحة الإرهاب بعد أن احتفلت بمقتل النائبة العمالية جو كوكس. . | العمل الوطني: الآباء الجدد والتهديد الإرهابي النازيين الجدد | {
"summary": "أدين ثلاثة أشخاص بالانتماء إلى جماعة \"العمل الوطني\" النازية الجديدة المحظورة. وأُدين آدم توماس، 22 عاماً، وشريكته كلوديا باتاتاس، 38 عاماً، مع دانييل بوجونوفيتش، 27 عاماً، بكونهما أعضاء في الجماعة اليمينية المتطرفة - التي كانت محظورة بموجب قوانين مكافحة الإرهاب بعد أن احتفلت بمقتل النائبة العمالية جو كوكس. .",
"title": " العمل الوطني: الآباء الجدد والتهديد الإرهابي النازيين الجدد"
} |
By Daniel GarrettBBC News The Wiltshire town is marking the 175th anniversary of the decision to open a railway works - the catalyst that transformed it into a bustling industrial centre. But according to legend, the decision to build the works was inspired by a half-finished lunch. Brunel's Great Western Railway (GWR) needed a central repair works at the halfway point between London and Bristol. "He and his superintendent Daniel Gooch were driving along looking for this space to build the locomotive repair works," said GWR historian Felicity Jones. "They knew they needed somewhere along the London to Bristol line, but couldn't make a decision. "So, eating their lunch while they were on the move, Brunel apparently stood up with half a ham sandwich in his hand threw it out of the carriage and said: 'Wherever this sandwich lands we'll build our locomotive repair facility.' And it landed at Swindon." The origins of the story are lost and there appears no way to confirm - or disprove - its accuracy. Felicity said there were "sound reasons" for locating the works in Swindon, such as the availability of land and steep gradients that meant that locomotives on the Swindon to London line had to stop to load up on coal and water. But whether or not a half-finished lunch was involved, Brunel's decision resulted in a remarkable transformation. Swindon was surrounded by open farmland at the time and was home to a population of just 2,500. Within years of the railway works opening, it was employing more than 40,000 workers. Authorisation for the works was given on 25 February 1841. Construction began almost immediately and the 300-acre site became operational on 2 January 1843. Brunel also built a village of terraced stone houses near the works to accommodate his influx of workers. The Railway Village still stands today as a legacy of the great engineer's impact on the town. Swindon Heritage magazine's Graham Carter said: "Old Swindon which is the area we now call Old Town existed for centuries as an insignificant market town. "But when GWR arrived in 1841 and began building the Railway Village below the hill, they were literally creating a new town. This quickly became known as New Swindon. "Most of its inhabitants were skilled men who were 'imported' to work in the railway maintenance and servicing facility created by Gooch and Brunel. "The two Swindons were largely independent of each other until amalgamation in 1900. By then a sleepy Wiltshire rural community had transformed into a major industrial centre." Brunel's GWR Works transformed Swindon from a tiny hilltop settlement with a population of just 2,500 to a leading centre of industry. Graham said: "The population of New Swindon grew from zero in 1841 to around 2,500 in 1851- thus equalling Old Swindon in just 10 years. "By the time Old Town and New Swindon amalgamated as a new borough in 1900, the population was around 45,000, although Old Town had barely changed during this time. Swindon has been growing almost non-stop since 1841." Railway town - how Swindon developed The site thrived for more than 140 years as the national hub of engine building in the UK. As well as providing a world-class repair facility, it was also responsible for the construction of much-loved steam locomotives such as The Evening Star and the King George V. The works finally closed in 1986, shortly after the announcement that 1,500 jobs at British Rail Engineering Ltd would be cut. The First Great Western train operator rebranded itself as Great Western Railway (GWR) in September. GWR's Paul Gentleman said the original company's legacy to Swindon is "the growth of the railway since 1841 as it sits in the heart of our network on the main line serving London, Bristol and south Wales". The land occupied by GWR has long since been redeveloped, with the former workshops and buildings transformed into the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Village, Botellino's Italian Restaurant and the STEAM Museum. The town now boasts a population of more than 200,000 and is home to major companies such as Intel, WHSmith PLC and Honda. | كانت سويندون ملكية زراعية صغيرة قبل وصول المهندس الفيكتوري إيسامبارد كينغدوم برونيل وسكك الحديد الخاصة به. ولكن هل تدين المدينة بوجودها إلى مسار شطيرة لحم الخنزير المهملة؟ | هل تسببت شطيرة لحم الخنزير في أن تصبح سويندون مدينة مزدهرة؟ | {
"summary": " كانت سويندون ملكية زراعية صغيرة قبل وصول المهندس الفيكتوري إيسامبارد كينغدوم برونيل وسكك الحديد الخاصة به. ولكن هل تدين المدينة بوجودها إلى مسار شطيرة لحم الخنزير المهملة؟",
"title": " هل تسببت شطيرة لحم الخنزير في أن تصبح سويندون مدينة مزدهرة؟"
} |
In the middle of a new camp for the scared and the desperate, made up of hundreds of makeshift shelters clustered around a road, I saw a familiar face. When I first interviewed David in 2011, he was in Khartoum. A southern Sudanese, he had fled the fighting in his home area, and was living in what was then still the capital of the united Sudan. At the time he was planning to go back home, to celebrate South Sudan's upcoming independence. A few months later, we met again in Juba. Life was hard, he said. There were not many jobs. But the euphoria of independence still glowed strong, whatever the challenges. Now David is displaced in his own country, one of tens of thousands seeking shelter at a UN base to escape the fighting which is devastating South Sudan. Military impulse The implosion has happened incredibly quickly. The clashes began on 15 December in the capital Juba, and within days spread to several other places around the country. The problems have deep roots. Some of them can be found in David's own story. At independence, South Sudan was extremely fragile. The new country had suffered through decades of conflict with Khartoum. South Sudan's leaders are all former rebels, and the step from a political problem to a military response is one that is made far too easily here. Those former rebels had also often fought each other, most notably after Riek Machar and others split away from the main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), in 1991. Ethnic nepotism The war also deepened ethnic tensions, in part because Khartoum armed some ethnic groups against others. At separation, South Sudan was one of the least developed places on Earth, the result of decades of neglect and the long war years. Millions like David had fled their homes. Any government would have struggled to overcome these sort of challenges. However, South Sudan's political class has failed the people. Corruption is widespread, as is regional and ethnic nepotism. This is what David, and many others, were complaining about after independence. In addition, a political rift within the SPLM grew wider. President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Mr Machar, who had been on opposite sides of the 1991 split, grew more and more antagonistic. In time, other influential figures, including ministers and SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum also began to criticise the president. He was accused of sacking state governors unconstitutionally, quashing dissent in the party and not allowing a democratic challenge to his rule. "You can't ignore the ethnic dimension in all this," one then-minister told me, suggesting that Mr Machar's fellow ethnic Nuers wanted power at the expense of Salva Kiir's Dinka community. Ethnic tensions were only part of the picture: this was a political squabble first and foremost, and many of President Kiir's critics were from his own ethnic group. That said, in South Sudan, politicians' political bases are often ethnic ones. In July, President Kiir sacked all his cabinet - and Mr Machar. Then came the events of 15 December, which will be debated for years. President Kiir says he warded off a coup - his critics say he simply tried to crush them. Outside the country, at least, President Kiir has not been able to convince that many people that this was, indeed, an attempted coup. Move to war Whatever the trigger, this quickly became a war, with Mr Machar leading rebel forces that have taken key towns like Bor and Bentiu, as well as oilfields. A political squabble has become a conflict - and one with nasty ethnic undertones. Both sides have been accused, by the UN and human rights groups, of ethnically motivated killings. David is convinced he and many other Nuer were targeted in Juba, while Dinkas have said the same in areas attacked by the mainly Nuer rebels. Already existing ethnic tensions have been exacerbated dramatically by this fighting. However, prominent Nuers like the army chief James Hoth Mai and the Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial have not joined the largely Nuer rebels, while Mabior Garang - a Dinka, and the son of South Sudan hero John Garang - is part of Mr Machar's team at the peace talks in Addis Ababa. The negotiations are a welcome positive step, but this crisis will not be resolved easily. The first step will be getting a cessation of hostilities that holds. Then comes a more difficult task still: resolving the political fractures that triggered the conflict. President Kiir has already told the BBC he will not contemplate power sharing, while Mr Machar wants the president to resign. Ultimately it may be possible to come to some sort of political deal, informed by whichever way the military pendulum swings. Yet even if that eventually happens, it would not resolve South Sudan's underlying problems. The political class will need to govern for the people, and not for their own self-interest. South Sudan must be weaned away from its reliance on destructive military solutions to political problems. Above all, a comprehensive national reconciliation programme will be needed. If all South Sudan's many ethnicities and interest groups do not manage to forge a genuine national identity, which puts the national interest first, the country's future looks bleak. David, and millions of others, deserve better. | على الرغم من الدعوات لوقف إطلاق النار ومحادثات السلام، لا يزال القتال مستمراً في جنوب السودان، أحدث دولة في العالم. ومن العاصمة جوبا، يتحدث مراسل بي بي سي جيمس كوبنال عن خلفية الصراع. | تحليل: الانقسام المرير في جنوب السودان | {
"summary": " على الرغم من الدعوات لوقف إطلاق النار ومحادثات السلام، لا يزال القتال مستمراً في جنوب السودان، أحدث دولة في العالم. ومن العاصمة جوبا، يتحدث مراسل بي بي سي جيمس كوبنال عن خلفية الصراع.",
"title": " تحليل: الانقسام المرير في جنوب السودان"
} |
By Hiromi Tanoue and Vibeke VenemaBBC World Service Underneath the glittering waters of Onagawa Bay, in Japan's north-eastern Miyagi Prefecture, fridges, TVs, cars, trucks and fishing gear lie scattered on the sea floor, under a layer of mud. "Imagine a big city, put it in a grinder and throw it all into the ocean," is how one oceanographer described the effect of the Japanese tsunami. Under water, things are still mostly where they were left by the violence of the waves. In the sunlight up above, on the other hand, everything has changed. Fishing boats are again going about their business - the Japanese diet is built around seafood and it's a key part of the local economy. The wreckage of a thriving port has been cleaned away. In its place there is now a vast expanse of concrete - empty except for, in one corner, a modest shrine made up of some laminated pages of A4, a pink plastic chrysanthemum, and, rather incongruously, a Christmas tree. This is where the Onagawa branch of the Shichijushichi (77) Bank used to stand and the shrine is there to commemorate it. When the tsunami warning sounded at 14:50 on the afternoon of 11 March 2011, the bank's employees were busy tidying up the damage caused by the earthquake that had shaken the building a few minutes earlier. Their manager was out seeing clients. Driving back along the coast he could see the sea sharply withdrawing - a sure sign of an imminent tsunami. As soon as he walked in he told everyone to stop and to climb on to the roof of the two-storey building as quickly as possible. Sure enough, as soon as they got there, they heard the siren and the municipal broadcast warning people to evacuate to high ground - just a few hundred metres away were the steep slopes of Mount Horikiri, where some people were already seeking shelter. One employee asked if she could go home because she was worried about her children. The manager said he couldn't stop her, so she ran to her car, which was parked 300m away, and drove home. The manager told those remaining to watch the sea, just 100m away in normal conditions, and to listen out for further news. The radio warned that a 6m-high tsunami would hit at 15:10. Among the 13 bank employees up on the roof that day was 47-year-old Yuko Takamatsu. Her husband Yasuo had dropped her off by car that morning, though they only lived a few minutes' drive away. During the short journey they had talked about what to have for dinner. "Don't say: 'Anything is fine!'" she had said. Find out more With Yuko on the roof was her colleague, 26-year-old Emi Narita, from the neighbouring town of Ishinomaki, where her father Masaaki ran a fish-processing plant. She had seen him just the night before, when she went over to pick up her dinner - her grandmother still liked to cook for her. As the workers stood nervously on the roof they debated whether there was time to flee to the nearby hospital - a much taller and stronger building, but they decided to stay. After all, a 6m-high tsunami would only reach the first floor. Some went down to get their coats - it was cold, there was still snow on the ground. Yuko sent her husband a text message: "Are you safe? I want to go home." The tsunami swept into Onagawa moments later. Footage filmed by a survivor shows how the dark water moved swiftly and relentlessly into town, pushing over everything in its path. Buildings gave way and cars and trucks were picked up like toys, and acted like floating battering rams adding to the wave's destructive power. Within minutes the sea had engulfed areas that were once considered safe. The bank flooded quickly - it took just five minutes for the water to fill half the building. The workers decided to climb up even higher on top of an electrical room standing on the roof of the two-storey building. As they climbed the 3m vertical ladder the strong wind almost blew them off. Many people witnessed their desperate bid to escape to safety. A Facebook post reads: "We get a lump in a throat every time we think about the female bankers who, wearing skirts, had to climb the ladder with unimaginable fear, and male bankers who threw off their coats at the last minute regardless of the cold weather, their fear, despair and regret." The tsunami turned out to be far, far bigger than anyone expected. The town's defences had largely been based on the worst tsunami in living memory - a 6m-high tsunami in Chile in 1960. But this one reached more than three times higher. As a consequence many designated shelters were inundated - even the hospital was flooded, killing four people in the building itself and an estimated 16 in the car park. "Onagawa was one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami," says Tsutomu Yamanaka, a relief co-ordinator who arrived a week after the disaster for the aid organisation Japan Platform. The coastline of the region is a series of submerged river valleys shaped "like the teeth of a saw", he says, and tsunamis reach great heights as the water funnels into the crevices. A town has little chance in this battle between ocean and mountain. Satellite pictures show how the sea reached in and clawed the town away. More than 5,000 buildings were washed away or damaged beyond repair. "Buildings had been torn from their foundations," says Yanamaka, describing the scene he witnessed when he arrived in Onagawa. "A train had been swept to the hill far from the station." The morning after the tsunami Yasuo Takamatsu made his way to the municipal hospital to find Yuko. He soon had to abandon the car and push a path through the wreckage. He was stunned to find she wasn't there. "There were lots of people taking refuge there, but I was told she'd been taken away by the tsunami," he says. "After that I just couldn't stand up. I'd lost all my strength like it had been washed away." It took Emi Narita's father, Masaaki, longer to find out about his daughter's fate in the chaotic days after the disaster. He himself had only just driven to safety with his mother-in-law, the tsunami "coming over a few cars behind us". For four days he was unable to contact his wife, who was working as a nurse away from home. It was she who told him Emi was missing. "I couldn't believe it. I can't believe it even now," he says. "Until that moment, I had no doubt that she would be safe." Local authorities were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, the staff reeling from their own personal losses, on top of massive practical and logistical problems. Almost one in 10 of the town's residents was dead or missing. The majority of survivors were staying in special accommodation for evacuees. They spent their days searching for loved ones, picking through the chaos and walking for miles along the breakwaters on the shoreline. Takamatsu was there too, looking for his wife, Yuko. "I searched everywhere for her, but she was nowhere to be found," he says. The only thing that was eventually recovered was Yuko's mobile phone, found in the parking lot behind the 77 Bank building. At first, Takamatsu thought it wouldn't work because it had been soaked with water, but months later, he took the phone out and tried it. Miraculously, it came to life. Then he saw she'd tried to send another message that never reached him. It said: "The tsunami is disastrous." Of the 13 people on the roof, one, amazingly, survived - he held on to floating debris and was swept out to sea, almost losing consciousness in the icy water before he was rescued by a fishing boat hours later. The bodies of four bank staff were found, but eight are still missing, Emi and Yuko among them. The worker who left the building by car survived. "I couldn't understand why they escaped to the rooftop," says Narita. "There's no more escape there. If they had escaped to the mountain, they could have climbed to a higher place. I thought evacuation to the mountain was a matter of course." The 77 Bank was cleared away along with all the other buildings in the port area, bar one, which was left as a memorial. Although the town began to rebuild, for the bereaved families it was hard to move on. "We are still stuck in 2011," says Narita. Takamatsu is haunted by the message Yuko sent. "I have this feeling that she still wants to come home," he says. "I wish I had gone to pick her up at the bank after the earthquake struck, but I'm still not sure what would have been the right decision. The tsunami warning told us to stay away from the shoreline, and if I'd gone down to pick her up, chances are I would have been taken out by the tsunami as well. "But at the same time, I wish I'd gone and saved her." Two years ago, when he saw divers from the Japanese Coast Guard out searching for the remains of the missing, it gave him an idea: he could do the same, and perhaps bring Yuko home. "So I learned to dive. I felt like I could meet her one day as long as I kept diving," he says. Takamatsu needed to qualify for a diving licence, and he began taking lessons at a diving school. When he talked to Narita about it, and offered to look for Emi too, Narita decided to join him. Learning to dive was a challenge for these men, both in their mid-50s. Takamatsu was terrified by the thought of his oxygen failing, and having to come up for air. "At 5m below, I could swim up without much trouble, but at 20m deep it gets dangerous - thinking about those things always scared me," he says. Narita had other problems. "I didn't get scared, but I couldn't control my body under the sea at all," he says. He found it hard even to regulate his breathing. "I never considered quitting, but I struggled." After months of training, the two men qualified last summer, and have since completed more than 80 dives. The search has given them purpose and lifted their spirits. "I couldn't do anything before I started diving, but after I decided to find my daughter by myself, I could become positive about it - a bit. I get encouraged by searching for her," says Narita. "It was depressing not doing anything," says Takamatsu. "At first I just wanted to find my wife, but now I hope I can find others too." It's hard work. The bay is very deep and most objects are buried under a thick layer of mud, which, when disturbed, also makes it hard to see. They have good days. On one they found a child's calligraphy box with his name on it, and a wedding album. Anything with a name goes back to the owners. Wallets, bank books, and stamps are handed to the police. Photographs can often be restored. An estimated five million tonnes of debris was dragged into the sea by the tsunami. Two-thirds sank just off the coast, covering the sea floor and damaging the marine environment. About a third floated away, in giant patches that could be tracked on satellite images. Boats, buoys, propane tanks and refrigerator doors are still washing up on the shores of North America and Hawaii. But much of the tsunami debris has joined the "plastic smog" that collects in oceanic gyres. Marcus Eriksen, from the 5 Gyres Institute, led an expedition to the debris field in June 2012 - 3,800 km east of Tokyo they spotted buckets, laundry detergent bottles, half a boat, and a still-inflated truck tyre. "One day a shoe drifted by," says Eriksen. "What was eerie was that the laces were still laced at the top - it left us thinking." The bodies of more than 2,000 people, of the 16,000 estimated to have died, have never been recovered. So what about those missing from Onagawa - how far could they have travelled? Not far, says Hiroshi Kitazato from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. "I think they sank immediately in the bay. I talked to fishermen in Onagawa town, they said that in the past couple of years they've found no bodies in their fishing nets. This means that in the first two or three years they dredged up dead bodies." Kitazato points out that, coming from a small community, those fishermen would probably have known who they had fished up. "They would have felt very bad," he says. Four years on, this is less likely to happen - organic matter will have mostly "returned to nature", says Kitazato. "Now, we seldom find bodies or their belongings during research activities." Kitazato's work is aimed at helping ecosystems recover, but after the tsunami many people "felt awful about the sea" he says, and part of his remit is to explain to them how the ocean works. His team goes into schools to show its positive side - "how ocean organisms are beautiful and how the oceanic system is useful for human life." Many of Onagawa's citizens moved away to escape their memories of the disaster - and to find work. Takamatsu stayed, and, through diving, has a new-found appreciation of the sea. "I found creatures which I had never seen, beautiful fish such as lumpfish," he says. "You cannot see such worlds usually." Despite the seeming hopelessness of their task, Takamatsu and Narita have no intention of giving up. "I still have a hope we can find something - maybe a human body, regardless of whether it's my daughter's or not," says Narita. His only memento of Emi is a painting he commissioned after her death, which has pride of place in the living room - all of his own photographs were lost, along with the family home. "I want to search for my daughter as long as my body allows me to. If I just give up, there's zero chance. If I keep searching, I might have a chance at least." Takamatsu feels the same way. "I want to continue my search as long as my strength lasts, even though the chances of finding her are slim. I know that she has already passed away, but I don't want her to be left alone under the sea. "Honestly, I still want to find her and bring her home." Yasuo Takamatsu appeared on Outlook on the BBC World Service. Listen again to the interview on iPlayer or get the Outlook podcast. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | يرتدي رجلان يابانيان معدات الغوص ويذهبان للغوص مرتين في الشهر. أحدهما يبحث عن زوجته، والآخر عن ابنته، وكلاهما جرفهما التسونامي المدمر الذي ضرب اليابان قبل أربع سنوات. إنهم يعلمون أنهم لم يعودوا على قيد الحياة، لكن الأمل في العثور على شيء ما - أي شيء - يمنحهم إحساسًا بالهدف الذي هم في أمس الحاجة إليه. | الغوص في عالم الموتى | {
"summary": "يرتدي رجلان يابانيان معدات الغوص ويذهبان للغوص مرتين في الشهر. أحدهما يبحث عن زوجته، والآخر عن ابنته، وكلاهما جرفهما التسونامي المدمر الذي ضرب اليابان قبل أربع سنوات. إنهم يعلمون أنهم لم يعودوا على قيد الحياة، لكن الأمل في العثور على شيء ما - أي شيء - يمنحهم إحساسًا بالهدف الذي هم في أمس الحاجة إليه.",
"title": " الغوص في عالم الموتى"
} |
Officers were called to the South Wolds Academy and Sixth Form college in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, at about 14:30 BST. Two boys, aged 11 and 14, were later arrested and remain in police custody. A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said inquiries were ongoing. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. Related Internet Links Nottinghamshire Police - | ألقي القبض على صبيين بعد استدعاء الشرطة المسلحة إلى المدرسة بعد ورود بلاغات عن تهديد ضد تلميذ. | القبض على الأولاد بعد "التهديد" ضد تلميذ كيوورث | {
"summary": " ألقي القبض على صبيين بعد استدعاء الشرطة المسلحة إلى المدرسة بعد ورود بلاغات عن تهديد ضد تلميذ.",
"title": " القبض على الأولاد بعد \"التهديد\" ضد تلميذ كيوورث"
} |
The health department already hoped to move patients from Giffard Ward, which has suffered from structural problems and leaks, into a temporary ward. Now it hopes to also move the patients from the De Saumarez Ward, if planners approve of the temporary building. A decision on future of the wards is due before the end of the year. The updated plans for the Princess Elizabeth Hospital site involve building a second storey on the temporary structure. | يمكن استبدال جناحين جراحيين في المستشفى الرئيسي في غيرنسي بهيكل مؤقت على الأقل خلال العامين المقبلين. | مستشفى غيرنسي يستخدم أجنحة جراحية مؤقتة | {
"summary": " يمكن استبدال جناحين جراحيين في المستشفى الرئيسي في غيرنسي بهيكل مؤقت على الأقل خلال العامين المقبلين.",
"title": " مستشفى غيرنسي يستخدم أجنحة جراحية مؤقتة"
} |
By Rebecca WoodsBBC News Lynette Parkes' pregnancy had been plain sailing. The customary scans at 12 and 20 weeks had shown a healthy baby boy. The home she shared with her husband Matt in Hagley, Worcestershire, was prepared for the child's arrival. The nursery was decorated, the crib ready and waiting for its first little occupant. But at seven months, Lynette went to hospital after spotting a "pinprick" of blood. Warning: This story contains a picture some people might find distressing The couple expected to be told all was well and sent home again. But instead of the sonographer quickly picking up a heartbeat, there was silence. A scan confirmed their worst fears; their baby had died. "It completely floored us," said Lynette. "There was no indication there was anything wrong." Distraught, the couple briefly went home to gather some belongings and returned to Birmingham Women's Hospital delivery unit. The following day, Lynette gave birth to their boy, who they named James. The feeling of loss was incalculable. But Lynette and Matt were not prepared for what came next - having to cope with the sounds of babies being born around them in neighbouring rooms. "When we were holding him, he looked so perfect that we didn't believe it," said Lynette. "It was like he was about to breathe, he could just open his eyes and start crying. "And so when you're looking at your child's face like that and you hear the babies crying, it's like an echo of what should have been. "It's like the cruellest joke you've ever heard. [I was thinking] open your eyes - you can do this as well, they've got to be wrong. It's harrowing." As the first, overwhelming waves of grief came, they could not escape the cries of joy reverberating around the hospital. "If you left that room you're then surrounded by the sound of live babies, of families coming and going about to have their baby, leaving with their child," said Lynette. "The pictures on the walls are of happy families, smiling babies - it's a constant reminder of what you're not going to get. "Walk through the corridors, pass all the families, pass neonatal - where you you know that, yes, those babies are very sick but they're alive." After leaving James for the final time, Lynette and Matt left by a back entrance. "We felt like we were scurrying away, we were ashamed of what we weren't taking home; ashamed of what we've been through. I felt like such a failure." Every day in the UK, women endure stillbirths in the same wards as those welcoming their healthy newborns into the world. One in every 238 births in 2017 was a stillbirth, figures from the Office of National Statistics show. In the same year, three in every 1,000 neonatal babies - those born after 24 weeks' gestation - died. More than one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage, about a quarter of a million in the UK each year, according to the Miscarriage Association. Among them are those that have to take place on hospital delivery suites. Jo Tidman had excitedly told family friends about her second pregnancy when she passed the 12-week stage. But at a scan three weeks later, after experiencing some spotting, she received the news she dreaded. "We were quickly moved into a quiet room - passing expectant mothers waiting for scans - a toddler chatting to her mum about the baby in her tummy," she said. "I felt sick. I always think of that quiet room as the 'death room' - where they take you to deliver bad news - a sterile area with a wipe-clean sofa and leaflets about miscarriage on the walls." Jo, a BBC journalist in the West Midlands, had to take tablets to end the pregnancy. She was taken to a hospital in the Midlands when she miscarried her baby at home. "When I got there the maternity unit was full, so I was left on a trolley and pushed into a medical supplies cupboard," she said. "My dead baby was put in a plastic bag and left at the end of my bed. I was bleeding heavily but they were busy and so my husband and I were left alone for hours. "We could hear the cries of newborn babies from the medical cupboard we were in and it felt like torture." The bleak situation faced by these women has prompted Birmingham Women's Hospital to take action. It has begun fundraising for a standalone centre for families enduring the loss of their babies. Woodland House would be built on the hospital's grounds, to help the 2,000 women and their families they see every year who have suffered miscarriage, failed IVF, stillbirth or neonatal death. "Many of the places where we break the most awful news to families are not good enough and don't honour the horrible experience that our families are going through," Nicki Fitzmaurice, head of corporate nursing, said. "We talk to families that are heartbroken in tiny rooms where not even the mum and dad can sit down because there's such little space. There might not even be a window. "Outside you can hear the sound of babies crying and happy families, people have balloons, cards and there's lots of cheerfulness, and all you want to do is die a little bit inside. "We want to change that." A crowdfunding mission aims to raise £3.5m for Woodland House, which, if successful, will feature counselling rooms, a private garden, communal lounge for support groups and a family room. It will also have a "sensitive mortuary" which the hospital says will allow "families the opportunity to spend time with their loved ones in comfort and serenity". "Woodland is going to be about honouring loss," said Ms Fitzmaurice. "It's going to be a safe haven, here at the hospital where when terrible things have happened to you - you've had a miscarriage, you've had a stillbirth baby or you've just lost your newborn baby - we're going to build a beautiful place where you can spend time." For Lynette and Matt, holding fundraising events for the new centre is a way of remembering their first little boy. They plan to start by holding a ball. "I think every parent wants their child to have an impact in this world," said Lynette. "By me doing this, I think that's how I'm doing it in his name - it's James having a positive impact in this world." If you have been affected by issues raised in this story, the following organisations are on hand to help: Sands - Stillbirth and neonatal death charity: 0808 164 3332 or [email protected] Tommy's - miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth: 0800 014 7800 or [email protected] Miscarriage Association: 01924 200799 or [email protected] The Lullaby Trust - Sudden infant death syndrome charity: 0808 802 6868 or [email protected] | إن فقدان طفل هو أمر مدمر بما فيه الكفاية، دون الاضطرار إلى خوض هذه التجربة على بعد أقدام قليلة من الأشخاص الذين يلدون. يأمل أحد المستشفيات في منطقة ميدلاندز الآن في اتخاذ الإجراءات اللازمة من خلال بناء ملاذ آمن للعائلات التي تعاني من فقدان أطفالها. | فقدان الطفل: المستشفى يساعد الأسر الثكلى | {
"summary": " إن فقدان طفل هو أمر مدمر بما فيه الكفاية، دون الاضطرار إلى خوض هذه التجربة على بعد أقدام قليلة من الأشخاص الذين يلدون. يأمل أحد المستشفيات في منطقة ميدلاندز الآن في اتخاذ الإجراءات اللازمة من خلال بناء ملاذ آمن للعائلات التي تعاني من فقدان أطفالها.",
"title": "فقدان الطفل: المستشفى يساعد الأسر الثكلى"
} |
By Stewart WhittinghamBBC News Allan Wensley's farm at Little Plumpton does not just border the Cuadrilla site - the facility sits within it. However, since he decided to lease his field to the energy firm, his farmhouse home has been besieged by protesters and he and his family have had abuse shouted at them. "I've had lots of abuse screamed at me and a few abusive letters calling me 'money-grabbing' and a few names," the 56-year-old said. "The police have had to guard my home and my family have been subjected to unpleasant things on the internet. "However, despite it all, I don't regret a thing. I'm convinced fracking will be a good thing." In 2016 Mr Wensley took his own action when the actor Emma Thompson joined a Greenpeace anti-fracking demonstration on his land. Encouraged by his wife, he drove his tractor in circles around the double Oscar winner and Love Actually star, literally spraying her with manure. The protests have continued, but Mr Wensley believes people in the area are split 50-50 over fracking. "It will supply lots of jobs in the area and I believe it will bring a cleaner, green energy for the country," he said. "A lot of people here want it to supply jobs and money for the area." The roots of Geza Tarjanyi's determined opposition to fracking lie in the 2.3 quake that hit the Blackpool area in 2011, and which a report later said was probably caused by exploratory fracking in the area. The next day the children's entertainer found a 2ft crack in his wall and damage to his roof. It was a turning point and he started a long protest campaign which has resulted in many court appearances, a hunger strike and a 15-day walk to Downing Street. He even changed his surname to Frackman by deed poll and is now a full-time campaigner. "Fracking is just not safe and most local people are against," he insists. "The opposition to this has cost me everything but it's worth it. "I've had serious threats of violence - people threatening to break my legs - but I'll carry on." Rodney Knight runs a kennels just yards from the drilling site on Preston New Road - and the semi-permanent protest camp outside. "I didn't want fracking here - I don't think anyone around here does," he said. "But I believe that if it does take off then it will be good for the area, providing jobs and bringing money. "I hope what they say is true and it will provide a source of energy that is green and good for the environment - this country certainly needs that." He says his business has been adversely affected by the campaigners and calls the protest camp a "disgrace". A £2,000 payment given to him out of Cuadrilla's community fund has been spent on security cameras and a gate after he says he found protesters intruding on his property. "It's not the local protesters that I object to but the professional ones who just wander round the country and then move on," he added. Cuadrilla has donated £100,000 to local projects and given another £100,000 to the community, which voted to share it among those affected. People living within 0.6 miles of the site received £2,000 while those living further away received £150. Tom Stanley, a 73-year-old grandfather, said he was unimpressed by the offer. "I thought it was just a sweetener to keep us quiet," he said. "But it certainly didn't have that effect on me," as he then joked: "I think I took it down the pub a few times." As he walked near Mr Wensley's farm adjoining the fracking site, Mr Stanley added: "I'm not in favour of fracking. "I don't think it will bring the benefits they say and I'm convinced it will be bad for the environment. "There's been earthquakes and it seems to bring up toxic water." Barbara Cookson, 67, has lived at the protest camp for the past two years and only goes home to Liverpool at the weekend. "A lot of the locals used to shout abuse at us as they drove past. "But many have changed their tune since the latest earthquakes and apologised to us." Five miles away in Blackpool, shoppers did not express much optimism that fracking would provide a jobs bonanza or investment in the town, which is one of the most deprived in England. "I can't see any money comes here if there is any," said Eliza Bradley, 19, a shop assistant. "I don't think we'll see any benefits anyway - it will just go in someone's pockets. "I don't agree with it anyway - I think it's bad for the environment and won't really work anyway." | وفي أول منشأة للتكسير الهيدروليكي في المملكة المتحدة بالقرب من بلاكبول، بدأ الغاز الصخري بالتدفق. ومع ذلك، استمرت سلسلة من الزلازل الصغيرة في تعطيل الإنتاج، ولا تظهر احتجاجات دعاة حماية البيئة أي علامة على التراجع. كيف يبدو العيش في البيت المجاور؟ | العيش بجوار موقع التكسير الهيدروليكي | {
"summary": " وفي أول منشأة للتكسير الهيدروليكي في المملكة المتحدة بالقرب من بلاكبول، بدأ الغاز الصخري بالتدفق. ومع ذلك، استمرت سلسلة من الزلازل الصغيرة في تعطيل الإنتاج، ولا تظهر احتجاجات دعاة حماية البيئة أي علامة على التراجع. كيف يبدو العيش في البيت المجاور؟",
"title": " العيش بجوار موقع التكسير الهيدروليكي"
} |
By Steven McKenzieBBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter NHS Western Isles is the first health board in Scotland to try out Giraff. The 1.5m (4ft 11in) tall, wheeled robots have a TV screen instead of a head. A relative or carer can call up the Giraff with a computer from any location. Their face will appear on the screen allowing them to chat to the other person. The operator can also drive the robot around the house to check that medication is being taken and that food is being eaten. Size and appearance of robots has been a matter of some debate among designers and engineers, as reported in BBC online's Magazine in March. It told how in 1970, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori speculated that the more lifelike robots become, the more human beings feel familiarity and empathy with them - but that a robot too similar to a human provokes feelings of revulsion. Mori called this sudden dip in human beings' comfort levels the "uncanny valley". Child-sized robots are also thought to be less threatening than a large machine. Magazine also told how an EU-wide survey last year found that although most Europeans have a positive view of robots, they feel they should know their place. Eighty-eight per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that robots are "necessary as they can do jobs that are too hard or dangerous for people", such as space exploration, warfare and manufacturing. But 60% thought that robots had no place in the care of children, elderly people and those with disabilities. However, companies in Japan and South Korea are developing childcare robots. Korea has also trialled robot prison guards. Healthcare has emerged as a key area for the use of robots in Scotland. Three years ago, the new £300m Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Stirlingshire, became the first in the UK to use a fleet of robots to carry out day-to-day tasks. The robots carry clinical waste, deliver food, clean the operating theatre and dispense drugs. The machines have their own dedicated network of corridors underneath the hospital. Doctors and nurses training at the same hospital use robot patients to hone their skills. A family of seven special mannequins include Stan, who can respond to anaesthetic gases. Another robot simulator, Reg, has a heartbeat, can give blood and describe his symptoms. There is also a baby, two children and a pregnant woman robot. Dounreay, an experimental nuclear power plant in Caithness, has also been at the forefront in the use of robotics. The machines are being designed for, or have already been deployed in, sites too dangerous for humans to work in. A remotely-operated pipe crawler, a device described by its operators as a hi-tech worm, was used to probe the condition of a pipeline once used to discharge radioactive effluent from the site. The £100,000 machine beamed back images from inside the underground pipeline to the sea which was in use from 1957 to 1992. In 2009 it spent five days in the system, sending back video images and radioactivity readings. An underwater robot has recovered hundreds of radioactive particles from the seabed off Dounreay. Other proposed machines include the 75-tonne Reactorsaurus. It was put into development in 2009 to tear out the insides of the Prototype Fast Reactor with 16m-long arms fitted with diamond wire and disks, hydraulic shears, oxy/propane and plasma cutting gear. Designers added six radiation-tolerant cameras relay images and sound back to the control room. Meanwhile, a robotic crane is to be used to remove radioactive waste from a 65.4m pit dubbed the Shaft. | سيتم وضع الروبوتات في منازل الأشخاص المصابين بالخرف كجزء من تجربة تجريبية في الجزر الغربية، ولكنها مجرد واحدة من العديد من الاستخدامات التي يتم استخدام الآلات بها في اسكتلندا وسط جدل أوسع حول الروبوتات. | نعم، روبوت: صعود الآلات في اسكتلندا | {
"summary": " سيتم وضع الروبوتات في منازل الأشخاص المصابين بالخرف كجزء من تجربة تجريبية في الجزر الغربية، ولكنها مجرد واحدة من العديد من الاستخدامات التي يتم استخدام الآلات بها في اسكتلندا وسط جدل أوسع حول الروبوتات.",
"title": " نعم، روبوت: صعود الآلات في اسكتلندا"
} |
It is hard to comprehend now but in the 1970s Slade openly ran a helpline for child sex abusers from his parents' home in suburban Bristol. As he was sentenced at the end of his recent trial, the judge said Slade had "boasted of his involvement" with PIE. The group campaigned for "children's sexuality", calling on the government to axe or lower the age of consent so that adults could have sex with children without breaking the law. It existed for more than 10 years and received invitations from student unions, won sympathetic media coverage and found academics who supported its campaign. It was even affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties - now Liberty. Joining PIE was easy; according to a Times report in February 1977 just an application and a cheque for £4 was needed. By October 1976 it was reported that the group had 200 members. But behind this questionable veneer of respectability, Slade was a "manipulative and dangerous man," who helped members of PIE groom vulnerable children; passing victims between themselves for sex. Det Sgt Paul Melton, from Avon and Somerset Police, spent years building a case against Slade. He said Slade "was one of the main instigators" of the group, seemingly impervious to the law, who were running a "helpline" for paedophiles, passing on advice to other members about how to groom and abuse children. "They took advantage of the trends of the time," said Gabrielle Shaw, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood. "In the mid-70s it was all about the fight for civil liberties and the trend towards sexual freedom... what it was really about was to normalise sex with children." Victim's story Robert - not his real name - met Slade in 1980 when he was 15 years old. He was repeatedly raped and offered to other men during visits to Slade's Bristol home. "I was in a desperate situation at home," he recalls, "I was looking for somewhere that would be a refuge for me." But instead of a sanctuary, Robert unwittingly found himself at the centre of an organised network of paedophiles who systematically raped and abused him. It was a combination of mistrust and conflicting emotions that prevented Robert reporting his abuser: "Slade showed me what I thought was affection and, because of my home life, it was something I was desperate for... he treated me very kindly. "He groomed me so I was malleable and would be used for the sexual gratification of him and other men." Slade's sexual abuse of boys was exposed in 1975 when a Sunday newspaper described him as one of "the vilest men in Britain". They named him and two other men, linking them to PIE, but, despite the headlines, Slade continued abusing children and the group carried on campaigning. A series of explosive investigations in the 1980s finally triggered the group's demise. In 1983, Scotland Yard was handed a dossier about PIE by a headmaster, Charles Oxley. He said he had infiltrated the group, which he claimed had about 1,000 members. Finally the authorities acted and PIE's chairman Tom O'Carroll was jailed for two years. By 1984 the group had disbanded. However, Slade himself managed to evade prosecution and in 1985 moved to the Philippines. He boasted he could pay off anyone who became suspicious of him. Avon and Somerset Police would later fight a six-year battle to have him deported, and he was finally arrested by Filipino immigration authorities. In 2015, he arrived back in the UK to face eight charges of sexual abuse. During police interviews, Det Sgt Melton said Slade "possessed a certain arrogance" and was in "complete denial" about his actions. "He's an extremely manipulative man... he's a dangerous man." For the victims of the PIE paedophiles, the conviction of Slade provides some form of closure. "They are sexually driven and have no compassion, not for me or the many, many children they have abused," said Robert. "I don't believe they have any thoughts for what they have done; they don't believe they have done anything wrong - for them it's perfectly natural." | بينما يُسجن دوجلاس سليد، البالغ من العمر 75 عامًا، بتهمة إساءة معاملة الأطفال واغتصابهم، تحقق هيئة الإذاعة البريطانية (بي بي سي) في صلاته بمجموعة سيئة السمعة من سبعينيات القرن العشرين تسمى "تبادل المعلومات عن الاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال" (PIE)، والتي قامت بحملة لتشريع ممارسة الجنس مع الأطفال. | دوغلاس سليد وتبادل المعلومات عن الاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال | {
"summary": " بينما يُسجن دوجلاس سليد، البالغ من العمر 75 عامًا، بتهمة إساءة معاملة الأطفال واغتصابهم، تحقق هيئة الإذاعة البريطانية (بي بي سي) في صلاته بمجموعة سيئة السمعة من سبعينيات القرن العشرين تسمى \"تبادل المعلومات عن الاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال\" (PIE)، والتي قامت بحملة لتشريع ممارسة الجنس مع الأطفال.",
"title": " دوغلاس سليد وتبادل المعلومات عن الاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال"
} |
When I was growing up, one of the subjects I learnt in both primary and secondary school was history - not only of Nigeria but also of Europe. The bare facts of the growth of nationalities might not have been interesting to my young mind but I grew up with the conviction that hardly anything could be more exciting than the study of the exploits of men and women who later became heroes - or villains - among their people as they shaped the course of history either in their local areas or in the world at large. A long ago, I read in history books of the conquest of the Ilorin people in the central Kwara State, by Fulani forces from Sokoto under Shehu Alimi following the betrayal of the Alafin of Oyo by his former warlord, Afonja. So now I understand clearly the never-ending undercurrent of ethnic restiveness between the Yoruba and the Fulani peoples in the Kwara state capital. Many other ethnic crises across the Nigerian nation are similarly rooted in historical events and they may be resolved only after excavating the root, but who has the tools? Conquered chauvinism Queen Amina of Zaria in the north, Moremi of Ife and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Abeokuta in the west were historical figures whose lives I studied in school. They were women who conquered the chauvinism of their times to lead their communities in war and in political emancipation. Their history is a study in equality of the sexes, each given the same opportunities. A government has to be retrogressive to discourage the studying of the lives of these great human beings by removing history as a subject from our school curricula. Sola Odunfa: "A person who does not know the history of his own family compound surely cannot seek to settle scores among other families in the clan" It was during the military rule of General Ibrahim Babangida in the 1980s and early 1990s that the studying of history began to disappear from our schools and, in recent years, it has not been taught at all. The reason given then was that history did not add to the market value of students after graduation. Experience showed that the only employment open to history graduates was teaching, a vocation which had been degraded by the popular saying that the reward of teachers was in heaven rather than in good pay here on earth. No-one wanted to take a gamble of waiting to get to heaven before enjoying the good life. Many universities cleverly changed their Department of History to Department of History and International Relations and they awarded degrees in the latter subject. The Senate's vote to reintroduce history was prompted by Senator Shehu Sani, who had presented a motion calling for pan-Africanism to be taught in schools. A well-known activist, he appeared to have ignored the saying that charity begins at home. What the majority of lawmakers in the Senate have told him is that a person who does not know the history of his own family compound surely cannot seek to settle scores among other families in the clan. More from Sola Odunfa: | في سلسلة رسائلنا من الصحفيين الأفارقة، يبحث سولا أودونفا في الأسباب التي تجعل من إعادة تقديم التاريخ كمادة مدرسية فكرة جيدة لنيجيريا - وهي الخطوة التي دعمها مجلس الشيوخ في البلاد مؤخرًا. | رسالة من أفريقيا: لماذا يحتاج النيجيريون إلى تعلم تاريخهم | {
"summary": "في سلسلة رسائلنا من الصحفيين الأفارقة، يبحث سولا أودونفا في الأسباب التي تجعل من إعادة تقديم التاريخ كمادة مدرسية فكرة جيدة لنيجيريا - وهي الخطوة التي دعمها مجلس الشيوخ في البلاد مؤخرًا.",
"title": " رسالة من أفريقيا: لماذا يحتاج النيجيريون إلى تعلم تاريخهم"
} |
Raymond Ward, 51, was found dead in the building in Cliff Gardens in Scunthorpe on Tuesday. Dion Hendry, 24, of no fixed address, appeared at Grimsby and Cleethorpes Magistrates' Court. He will next appear at Hull Crown Court on 18 July. Another man, aged 36, has been released on bail over the death and a 47-year-old man is still being questioned. A fourth man, aged 37, was also arrested but has been released with no further action, Humberside Police said. | مثل رجل أمام المحكمة بتهمة القتل بعد العثور على جثة في مبنى مهجور. | رجل يمثل أمام المحكمة بسبب وفاة سكونثورب | {
"summary": " مثل رجل أمام المحكمة بتهمة القتل بعد العثور على جثة في مبنى مهجور.",
"title": " رجل يمثل أمام المحكمة بسبب وفاة سكونثورب"
} |
By Sue PazBBC News, Dorset The main square of the £100m Brewery Square development in Dorchester, which is set to include hotels, restaurants and a cinema, was supposed to open this month but has been delayed until next spring due to the wet and windy weather of the summer, which meant cranes were unable to operate. New council buildings, a library and adult learning centre are being built in Charles Street in the town in the first phase of its regeneration. However, there are concerns that the £60m plans for phase two, which were approved in 2010 and had been due to include a hotel and an underground public car park, are "not financially viable". The council's executive committee has now agreed a recommendation to fund up to £2m of preparatory work for phase two, including the relocation of a church from Acland Road to Trinity Street. This move prompted West Dorset Lib Dem councillor, Ros Kayes, to call for Robert Gould, leader of West Dorset District Council, to resign. She said there had been "great disquiet" over decisions made about phase two of the revamp. Mr Gould said the scheme was backed by all three political parties, a claim which Ms Kayes disputed. Ross Cumber, manager of Taste cafe bistro on Trinity Street, said both developments would "draw business away from the central and north areas of the town centre" and added the existing shopping area should have been redeveloped instead. Mr Gould said the current development sites offered a "great future" for Dorchester as they would enable it to "continue to grow and evolve". "At the moment people are going elsewhere to do their shopping," he said, "so if we don't have an attractive retail offer no-one will come here." Residents in Queen's Avenue and Cromwell Road have voiced concerns about parking in the town centre. One 66-year-old resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said Queen's Avenue had become "somewhere to park your car within convenient distance of work, the market, town or station", which had been exacerbated by recent parking restrictions in neighbouring streets. She added an "already bad situation" had been made worse by the closure of 72 short-stay car parking spaces at the Charles Street site. Jane Cowlishaw, 55, described parking in Dorchester as "pretty evil particularly on a Wednesday when it's market day". "No matter how attractive the promise of extra shops in the new developments are, the lack of parking in the town means visitors could be deterred from visiting in the first place," she added. In a letter to Dorchester Town Council, mother-of-two Hayley Gould said trying to find a car parking space on Cromwell Road had become "a daily nightmare". She added her "biggest concern" was Brewery Square because she anticipated more people would use Cromwell Road to park their cars in the future. Ashley Newman, 30, who works in the town, said both schemes looked "good on paper" but added the parking pressures as well the increasing population in Poundbury - Dorchester's urban extension - meant "the reality is years of struggle until everything is completed". Shané Garner, 56, moved to Poundbury with her husband from Lincolnshire in the spring. She said they decided to "take the plunge" after being impressed with neighbouring Dorchester on previous holidays to Dorset, and welcomed the developments. "Where other towns are very much in decline, it seems to be on the up here," she said. Dorchester town crier, Alistair Chisholm, said retail and shopping was "only part of what Dorchester is about". He added: "A huge amount of the future of this town rests in making more of its extraordinarily long and varied past and its unique literary and legal association - such as Thomas Hardy and the Tolpuddle Martyrs." Recommendations have been made by the town council to Dorset County Council for parking restrictions in Queen's Avenue for two or four hour maximum stays. Cromwell Road could also see the introduction of parking restrictions on the bend by the railway station, as well as diagonal parking and a one-way system. The county council said it had allocated its budget for this financial year so no works could be undertaken until 2013-14. Mr Gould said the current park and ride facility in the town was "at full capacity" but added it was something the council hoped to develop in the future. The recommendations made by West Dorset District Council's executive committee for phase two of the Charles Street development are subject to a full council vote on Thursday 25 October. Although the main square at Brewery Square is delayed until March 2013, Waterhouse Resolution Property said the overall project was "on target", but could not give a completion date because it is a "rolling programme". | من المقرر أن يجذب مخططان رئيسيان للبيع بالتجزئة المزيد من الزوار إلى إحدى مدن دورست، ولكن مع وجود شكوك حول مستقبلهم ومحدودية مواقف السيارات في المنطقة، يشعر بعض السكان بالقلق من أنهم قد لا يقدمون ما وعدوا به. | مشاريع التجزئة دورشيستر في دائرة الضوء | {
"summary": " من المقرر أن يجذب مخططان رئيسيان للبيع بالتجزئة المزيد من الزوار إلى إحدى مدن دورست، ولكن مع وجود شكوك حول مستقبلهم ومحدودية مواقف السيارات في المنطقة، يشعر بعض السكان بالقلق من أنهم قد لا يقدمون ما وعدوا به.",
"title": " مشاريع التجزئة دورشيستر في دائرة الضوء"
} |
By Huw ThomasBBC Wales arts and media correspondent Several shops have closed in recent years, with the competition from online retailers and e-books forcing the remaining businesses to adapt in order to survive. For some it has meant diversifying their stock, for others it has involved embracing the internet to turn a profit. Richard Booth's Bookshop is the grandest and best-known of the bookshops that pepper the few small streets branching off from the town clock. But even this icon of well-thumbed novels and nearly-new autobiographies has had to introduce food and films to keep a healthy base of customers. Alongside thousands of books - not all of them second-hand - the shop also has a cinema and cafe, and offers workshops and events for visitors. Elizabeth Haycox, the American businesswoman who bought the bookshop from Richard Booth, said it would be pointless to attempt to undercut the online retailers. "I'm not trying to compete with the internet because you can't. The booksellers, who are no longer here, did. Piling them high and selling them cheap just doesn't work. "Richard [Booth's] vision was that Hay would become a town of booksellers, each experts in their own specific field." Selling books Mrs Haycox said the town was evolving thanks to the success of the festival. "Hay is a market town, and it's whatever the market will bear. At one time it was sheep, it was butter, it was cheese, it was books. And now maybe Hay is heading for the next thing, which could well be ideas. "The festival is what has made the change. We no longer have to be a town just about books, we can be a town about ideas." Anne Brichto, who runs Addyman's Books, said the festival period was like Christmas for her three shops in Hay - but selling her stock online had helped counter a fall in trade in the town for the rest of the year. "Not so many people actually come to the bookshops of Hay. Over festival time we are very busy but it's only ten days, and we have to spend the rest of the year selling books. "We're only closed Christmas day, Boxing day, and New Year's Day - the rest of the time we are selling books, and we would love to see people come in this quantity again, which they used to do." Mrs Brichto said the festival was "a mixed blessing" for Hay-on-Wye, with many visitors staying in the tented site on the edge of the town, rather than visiting the bookshops. But she said the event was still good for the town. "It still keeps Hay in the news, it is still a very interesting thing for a town that's the size of a large secondary school to have all these people come here. It's very exciting." Local author Jim Saunders has written about Hay-on-Wye and the other market towns dotted along the Welsh border. He said Hay remained the envy of many of the neighbouring towns. "I think if you took all the bookshops away tomorrow, Hay would still do quite well. It's in the Brecon Beacons National Park, it's got a reputation as an interesting place to go. It's got nice restaurants and pubs, so it's got a lot of things going for it apart from the bookshops." The Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts continues until 1 June. You can find more information, and watch some events live on the BBC Arts site. | يقام المهرجان السنوي للأدب والفنون في هاي أون واي هذا الأسبوع، لكن نجاح الحدث يخفي صراعا من أجل البقاء بين المكتبات المستعملة التي جعلت المدينة مشهورة لأول مرة. | هاي أون واي: مدينة الكتب أم المهرجانات؟ | {
"summary": " يقام المهرجان السنوي للأدب والفنون في هاي أون واي هذا الأسبوع، لكن نجاح الحدث يخفي صراعا من أجل البقاء بين المكتبات المستعملة التي جعلت المدينة مشهورة لأول مرة.",
"title": " هاي أون واي: مدينة الكتب أم المهرجانات؟"
} |
Natalie Hemming was reported missing from her home in Newton Leys, Milton Keynes, on Tuesday by a relative. Paul Hemming, 42, of Alderney Avenue, Newton Leys, will next appear at Luton Crown Court on Monday. Mother-of-three Ms Hemming was last seen on Sunday afternoon in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. | تم حبس رجل متهم بقتل امرأة تبلغ من العمر 31 عامًا كانت مفقودة لمدة أربعة أيام من قبل قضاة في ميلتون كينز. | ناتالي هيمنج: رجل محتجز بتهمة قتل امرأة مفقودة | {
"summary": "تم حبس رجل متهم بقتل امرأة تبلغ من العمر 31 عامًا كانت مفقودة لمدة أربعة أيام من قبل قضاة في ميلتون كينز.",
"title": " ناتالي هيمنج: رجل محتجز بتهمة قتل امرأة مفقودة"
} |
Her Majesty's Chief Inspectorate of Prisons in England and Wales, Nick Hardwick said: "This is the most dangerous prison I've been into throughout my time as Chief Inspector." The prison has faced criticism in a series of reports dating back to 2009: 31 July 2008 October 2008 9 January 2009 21 July 2009 August 2009 16 December 2009 1 February 2010 18 June 2010 8 December 2010 22 May 2011 25 June 2012 27 June 2012 15 October 2012 December 2012 17 December 2012 May 2013 10 April 2014 24 April 2015 5 November 2015 24 February 2016 September 2016 November 2016 August 2017 April 2018 | قال مفتشون يوم الخميس إن سجن ماغابيري شديد الحراسة في أيرلندا الشمالية "غير آمن وغير مستقر" بالنسبة للسجناء والموظفين. | سجن المغابري: الجدول الزمني للبلاغات والاستفسارات | {
"summary": " قال مفتشون يوم الخميس إن سجن ماغابيري شديد الحراسة في أيرلندا الشمالية \"غير آمن وغير مستقر\" بالنسبة للسجناء والموظفين.",
"title": " سجن المغابري: الجدول الزمني للبلاغات والاستفسارات"
} |
By Frank GardnerBBC News It says this year's Ramadan, which begins at the end of this week, will be "a very different experience for Muslims as we adapt to changing circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic". With lockdown continuing, there will be no congregational acts of worship outside the home, no Taraweeh prayers at the mosque and no iftars (usually a huge ritual meal marking the breaking of the fast after sundown) with friends and family to attend. Instead, the MCB is offering guidance on how to arrange virtual iftars online with loved ones and community members by using video chat. Plan your iftar menus in advance, it says, so as to avoid multiple shopping trips. It also suggests eating high-energy, slow-burning foods during the second meal of the night, the suhoor, which takes place just before dawn, to help maintain energy levels throughout the daylight fasting hours. The MCB advises Muslims to "honour your workplace duties with patience and good grace to those around you". But it also warns that a refusal by employers to allow flexibility in work timings for fasting employees without a legitimate business reason could amount to unlawful indirect discrimination. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is a special time for nearly two billion Muslims all over the world. In any normal year, it is a time of communal prayer, of daytime fasting, night-time feasting, extensive socialising and acts of profound generosity and charity as Muslims reaffirm their faith in God. For those living in the West, forsaking food and drink during daylight hours while the rest of the population is able to indulge publicly in cafes and restaurants has always been a testing time. But this year it will be very different. With lockdown continuing, most of those visible temptations on the streets will be absent as people stay at home. Yet individual isolation is completely counter-intuitive to most Muslims during the month of Ramadan. Usually, whole communities tend to pour onto the streets after dark to share and enjoy the communal experience with their relatives and neighbours. But Dr Emman El-Badawy, an expert on Islamic jurisprudence, believes the spirit of Ramadan will survive. "So much of the essence of Ramadan can be maintained during isolation. "The spiritual aspects may even be heightened for some of us, with less distractions than usual. "The communal practices will be missed under the restrictions, for sure, but there are already great initiatives being built to help with this." How will you be observing Ramadan where you are? Share your experiences by emailing [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | نشر المجلس الإسلامي البريطاني، وهو أكبر منظمة جامعة للمسلمين في بريطانيا، إرشادات عبر الإنترنت لمساعدة الملايين على التعامل مع قيود الإغلاق خلال شهر رمضان المقبل. | فيروس كورونا: صدرت نصيحة لقضاء شهر رمضان في الإغلاق | {
"summary": " نشر المجلس الإسلامي البريطاني، وهو أكبر منظمة جامعة للمسلمين في بريطانيا، إرشادات عبر الإنترنت لمساعدة الملايين على التعامل مع قيود الإغلاق خلال شهر رمضان المقبل.",
"title": " فيروس كورونا: صدرت نصيحة لقضاء شهر رمضان في الإغلاق"
} |
By Stuart NicolsonBBC News Scotland Ms Cafferkey, 39, spent several weeks in Royal Free Hospital in London in January 2015 after becoming the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the UK. She was later discharged after apparently making a full recovery - but later it was discovered that the virus is still present in her body. So what do we know about Ms Cafferkey? Pauline Cafferkey is said to have been inspired to join the NHS after watching the horror of the Ethiopian famine on television in the 1980s. So when an appeal was made for NHS staff who were willing to travel to west Africa to help tackle the Ebola outbreak, she felt compelled to volunteer. Ms Cafferkey - a nurse with 16 years of experience who was working at the Blantyre health centre in South Lanarkshire - was well aware of the risks she would face. But as she prepared to depart for Sierra Leone as part of a 30-strong NHS team in November 2014, she told BBC Scotland that she could not think of any reason not to go. She added: "I have experience in the past. I've done aid work, I've worked in Africa, so I didn't really think about it actually, I just did it." The NHS team - which included GPs, nurses, psychiatrists and emergency medicine consultants - had been specially selected from the 1,000 staff who volunteered to take part in the mercy mission to west Africa, where more than 7,000 people have been killed in the Ebola outbreak. They had undergone nine days of intensive training with the Ministry of Defence before being allowed to start work with patients at treatment centres across Sierra Leone. Colleagues who worked with her have spoken of Ms Cafferkey's dedication and enthusiasm for her role at the Ebola Treatment Centre in Kerry Town. And in extracts from her diary published by the Scotsman newspaper, she described how the work she was doing had quickly come to feel like a "normal part of life". She wrote: "My nice community nursing job in Blantyre is far removed from this but at the moment this seems a lot more real. The dreams that I do remember always seem to have an Ebola theme, it seems to be all consuming." During the third week of her diary, she described "an awful shift" during which she had to tell a young boy, whose father had died from Ebola, that the virus had also killed his mother and sister. "His mother had seen her daughter die in the bed across from her that morning and she died a few hours later," she wrote. "The sad thing is that this is a regular occurrence and we see and hear of whole families being wiped out by this awful disease." Ms Cafferkey returned to the UK on 28 December 2014 for a break as part of a rotation system. She was screened after arriving at Heathrow Airport, but no concerns were raised about her health. While waiting for a connecting flight to Glasgow, she complained about her temperature and had it checked a further six times, but was given the all clear. She arrived at Glasgow Airport at about 23:00 and took a taxi to her home in a block of flats in Cambuslang, on the south eastern outskirts of Glasgow. But a short time later she raised the alarm after feeling unwell, with neighbours waking to find a small fleet of ambulances and police cars sitting in the block's communal car park. She was taken to the specialist Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases on the Gartnavel Hospital campus in Glasgow, where she was put in isolation, before being flown on an RAF Hercules aircraft to the Royal Free Hospital in north London on 30 December. Medical staff who treated her there initially said she was "doing as well as can be expected". But on 3 January 2015, the hospital released a further statement saying her condition had "gradually deteriorated" over the previous two days, and her condition was "critical." Her condition was said to have stabilised by 5 January, and she was well enough to be discharged from hospital later that month, with doctors saying she had completely recovered and was not infectious in any way. But it was later discovered that the virus was still present in her body, and she was readmitted to the same hospital in October 2015. She again recovered, before being treated at the Royal Free for a third time in February of this year due to a further complication related to her initial Ebola infection. Ms Cafferkey, whose partner was said to have been among those tested for Ebola after coming into contact with her, had returned to work at the Blantyre health centre. In an interview with the BBC before her relapse, she described how Ebola was still affecting her health, but said she was hopeful of getting better. She said: "I do get joint pains - have done for two or three months now. To start with I had thyroid problems and then my hair fell out so it's taken me a good few months to recover from it. "And that's the thing you just don't know long-term-wise either. Hopefully this is it - that's the end of it." Ms Cafferkey won an award at the the Pride of Britain Awards in central London on 28 September 2015. The award was introduced by Prime Minister David Cameron and presented to her by comedian Lenny Henry. She met the Prime Minister's wife Samantha Cameron the following day at Downing Street, alongside other winners. The Daily Mirror awards recognise courage and achievement against the odds, with nominees voted by members of the public. | يجري التحقيق مع الممرضة الاسكتلندية بولين كافيركي، التي أصيبت بفيروس إيبولا أثناء عملها في سيراليون قبل عامين، بسبب مزاعم بأنها قدمت إجابات غير صادقة أثناء فحصها بحثًا عن المرض القاتل عندما عادت إلى مطار هيثرو. | الملف الشخصي: ممرضة الإيبولا بولين كافيركي | {
"summary": " يجري التحقيق مع الممرضة الاسكتلندية بولين كافيركي، التي أصيبت بفيروس إيبولا أثناء عملها في سيراليون قبل عامين، بسبب مزاعم بأنها قدمت إجابات غير صادقة أثناء فحصها بحثًا عن المرض القاتل عندما عادت إلى مطار هيثرو.",
"title": " الملف الشخصي: ممرضة الإيبولا بولين كافيركي"
} |
The relief in the room was palpable. As the former enemies walked in dressed in white, there were smiles and warm handshakes, even embraces ahead of the announcement that Colombians have spent decades waiting to hear: a final peace agreement between the Farc left-wing rebels and the Colombian government. First though, a symbolic moment of national unity. The entire room stood up and with one voice, leftist guerrillas and former generals, rebel commanders and career diplomats, all sang the Colombian national anthem. At one end of the main table, occupying a place he has filled for more than four years, was a slender, bald man with a well-groomed moustache. He listened respectfully to the anthem without singing along although by now he probably knows the words. But it is not his country's song. He is Dag Nylander, head of the Norwegian diplomatic team which - along with the hosts, Cuba - acted as guarantors for the Colombian peace process. For long-standing observers of Colombia's negotiations, Mr Nylander is a familiar sight. He has been a ubiquitous presence at every key moment over the past few years, reading out the details of the accords in his flawless but accented Spanish. At points of high tension or finger-pointing, he seemed to bring a calming presence to the proceedings, an external voice and a Norwegian sense of order to an entangled and bitter dispute. I caught up with him after the heady sense of elation of that night had subsided a little. "We did have a few Cuban cigars and some rum," he admits but more in "relief" at completing a job well done than with any sense of victory. Hardly surprising he and the other negotiators allowed themselves a little celebration. The peace talks are often said to have lasted around four years. In the case of Mr Nylander and other key participants, it was probably closer to six once the secret preparatory talks are included. "It's difficult to understand that this phase is really over," he tells me in a Havana hotel, not far from the one he has been based in for much of the past decade. "It has been very demanding, it has been the main occupation of my life. I've been spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round [on the peace process]. So it's been quite all-consuming." When formal talks in Havana started in November 2012, few would have predicted that they would take so long. In retrospect, did people underestimate the size of the task? "I remember one or even both parties having expectations that this would last months, not years," Mr Nylander recalls. "In hindsight, that was obviously not realistic. Could we have done it faster? Maybe. Did we get a solid, well thought-through peace agreement in the end? Absolutely. And I think that is the important thing." Reaching that point has not been plain sailing though, not by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed there were times when it looked like the entire process might collapse completely. "It was always external factors," says the Norwegian diplomat of the hardest moments. "The parties were negotiating during conflict. So the biggest crisis was when 11 government soldiers were killed in Colombia by the Farc. President Santos ordered aerial bombings to resume, resulting in a high number of Farc deaths, including people we knew who had been sitting at the negotiating table." Football and diplomacy Despite those challenges, it seems the two sides' shared concept of Colombia was ultimately stronger than their sharp differences. "These are Colombians, they have a joint history and a joint culture. Many of them had met before, both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table." There was even scope for the occasional light-hearted moment. "For example, at one of the first meetings one of the parties was watching a football game. Colombia versus Venezuela, if I'm not mistaken. And that was an important icebreaker." "Football always helps!" he jokes. He is fulsome in his praise of Cuba, too, for giving "huge support" to Colombia and hosting the talks with "the added value of having great credibility" with both the Colombian government and, especially, the Farc. As for Mr Nylander himself, he too had to adapt to Colombian idiosyncrasies. "If you ask my friends and family back in Norway, they'd say I have a couple of Colombian or Latin American elements in me now. Even to the point of turning up late for meetings which is permissible in Latin American culture but doesn't really work in Norway," he says, no longer wearing a watch on his wrist. "Still, if you ask the parties here, they'd probably say I'm a typical Norwegian!" | تم أخيرا التوقيع على اتفاق سلام لكولومبيا في هافانا، بعد أربع سنوات من المفاوضات برئاسة المضيفتين كوبا والنرويج. والتقى مراسل بي بي سي ويل غرانت في العاصمة الكوبية بالرجل النرويجي الذي لعب دورا مركزيا. | كولومبيا فارك: النرويجي الذي ساعد في التوسط في السلام | {
"summary": "تم أخيرا التوقيع على اتفاق سلام لكولومبيا في هافانا، بعد أربع سنوات من المفاوضات برئاسة المضيفتين كوبا والنرويج. والتقى مراسل بي بي سي ويل غرانت في العاصمة الكوبية بالرجل النرويجي الذي لعب دورا مركزيا.",
"title": " كولومبيا فارك: النرويجي الذي ساعد في التوسط في السلام"
} |
Despite being dubbed central China's largest such park by the Wuhan Evening News, the Communist Party-themed amusement park has attracted criticism. Less party-minded online critics have ridiculed the park's rather plain appearance - and what they see as its attempt to "brainwash" visitors. The Communist Party theme park's exhibits include a Young Pioneers flag and an illuminated sculpture with the core values of the Party inscribed on it. It is hoped the park will help visitors better understand concepts like "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and the "outstanding contributions" made by key figures in the history of the Party. But while so-called "red tourism" is undergoing a resurgence, not everyone liked the idea. Commenting on social media, weibo user Fengjiangdepanqujiu said: "I've always thought that if you corralled all 8 million Communist Party members into a special zone, the Communist ideals would immediately be realised." Netizen H_Helios was even less complimentary: "Not complete; they also need to set up a few statues of corrupt officials for citizens to spit on." More capitalist-friendly leisure consumers may perhaps prefer to save their yuan for a trip to Universal Studios' planned theme park in Beijing - reportedly due to open in 2019, but with more input from Steven Spielberg than Chairman Mao. There's also the much-delayed Shanghai Disney Resort, currently due to open in 2016. But for those who prefer their attractions a little more left-of-field, if not quite as left-wing as Wuhan's park, there is no shortage of quirky tourist destinations in China. 1. Roast duck museum Wandering around museums can be hungry work, which is probably a good thing for the Quanjude restaurant chain behind Beijing's roast duck museum. The exhibits include clay models showing you how to prepare roast duck and pictures of famous people, including actor Charlie Chaplin, eating Peking duck. While it may seem like an odd subject for a museum, it is part of a boom in museums of all kinds, that has seen hundreds of museums created every year. 2. Watermelon museum But if you prefer healthier fare, the Beijing area has that covered too, with a watermelon museum in nearby Daxing. This shrine to many people's favourite fruit is packed with facts about their cultivation and history. Its location is not accidental - the area just south of the capital is famous for melon production. 3. Guerrilla life China's official Xinhua news agency reported last year on a cultural theme park in northern Shanxi province that "lets tourists sample life as a guerrilla" through stage shows of war stories and tours around Wuxiang County, which was host to many of China's older revolutionary heroes at various times. 4. Raising the Titanic Given its somewhat unfortunate record on sea-worthiness you might think it would not be such a good idea to recreate the Titanic, which sank after hitting an iceberg in 1912. But the Seven Star Energy Investment Group is apparently determined to make it the main attraction at their planned theme park in Daying, Sichuan Province. Said by the Global Times to have an estimated cost of around one billion yuan ($157m; £103m), the manager of the shipyard responsible admitted to local media that the project was "challenging" as the ship had to meet modern shipbuilding standards. Given the Titanic's history, that is probably just as well. 5. Crime and punishment Chinese President Xi Jinping has used his time in office to crack down on corruption and encourage public patriotism. So it should come as no surprise that along with the growth in "revolutionary tourism", people are increasingly visiting museums dedicated to (the evils of) corruption and crime too. Beijing's Police Museum incorporates both, offering displays on particularly nasty misdemeanours on their patch, as well as their involvement in operations against the nationalist Kuomintang forces in the Chinese Civil War. And with officials falling like flies in the face of corruption allegations, visiting displays of what happens when the powerful get greedy has become not just an entertaining pastime but a preventative measure too. One eastern Chinese city, Shiyan, made dozens of local officials and their partners tour a prison, as a warning against the temptations of corruption, and anti-graft "education centres" can be found across China. At one such centre in Beijing's Haidian District, gloomy prison doors contrast with hi-tech interactive displays, to better visualise the fate that befalls the corrupt. | تم افتتاح متنزه ترفيهي على طراز الحزب الشيوعي في مدينة ووهان الصينية في الوقت المناسب لعطلة الأسبوع الذهبي، لكنه فشل في إثارة إعجاب الجميع. تلقي بي بي سي نظرة على المتنزه المصمم لغرس "القيم الاشتراكية" - وخمس مناطق جذب سياحي غير عادية أخرى في الصين. | متنزه الحزب الشيوعي الصيني - وغيرها من عوامل الجذب غير العادية | {
"summary": " تم افتتاح متنزه ترفيهي على طراز الحزب الشيوعي في مدينة ووهان الصينية في الوقت المناسب لعطلة الأسبوع الذهبي، لكنه فشل في إثارة إعجاب الجميع. تلقي بي بي سي نظرة على المتنزه المصمم لغرس \"القيم الاشتراكية\" - وخمس مناطق جذب سياحي غير عادية أخرى في الصين.",
"title": " متنزه الحزب الشيوعي الصيني - وغيرها من عوامل الجذب غير العادية"
} |
Kim Streets remembers the bad old days. The new chief executive of Museums Sheffield joined the organisation as a curator of social history during the last recession in the early 1990s. "I remember having to go to the then-director to ask for permission to get a colour laser copy for £1," she says. "It was tough times." Back in the '90s, the city's museums and galleries were hit hard as the city council was forced to slash its budget. "Our service clung on through that period, and we did some very exciting things with not very much," Streets recalls. Now the organisation is going through another tough time, with its budget down 43% in the last two years. Its annual grant from the city council is down 15% since last year to £2m, and the £800,000 a year it received from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has now ended. When the government abolished the MLA and transferred its grant-giving powers to the Arts Council, Museums Sheffield applied for £1.4m a year but was turned down. Regional museums across England applied for a total of £117m from the Arts Council - almost double the £60m available. Referring to the Sheffield bid, the Arts Council said the "museums offer in Yorkshire is particularly strong" - meaning "we couldn't fund them all". Derby, Nottingham and Leicester were among the other cities to lose out. But Sheffield kicked up the biggest stink, warning that the quality of its service would "decline significantly". Since then it has received short-term transitional funds from the Arts Council and city council and has also applied for another, lesser strand of regular Arts Council funding. This year 38 of the 108 jobs are being lost - including that of chief executive Nick Dodd, who was replaced by Streets. In recent years staff have taken pay cuts as debts built up. Despite the daunting circumstances, Streets is positive. "There's a feel-good factor about arts and museums and collections," she says. "It's that passion we want to be sharing and that carried us through that period of not having a great deal [in the early '90s]. "That's what will carry us through this period as well - having a strong sense of purpose and a strong sense of arts and museums being food for the soul. "That's what they are and that will drive us through it." So what will the cuts mean for visitors? The organisation, which runs the Graves art gallery, the Millennium Gallery and the Weston Park museum, will host fewer expensive touring exhibitions and instead make more use of works that are usually hidden in the vaults. That will be welcomed by some. On the other side of the Peak District, the Manchester Evening News ran a front page story last month about the "revelation" that Manchester's galleries owned thousands of art treasures that had been "locked away in storage for years". "We want to make sure we can do the best we can with what we have," Streets says. One element of the Manchester story concerned the question of selling some of those dusty artworks. In Sheffield, as in Manchester, that is not on the agenda. One idea that is being considered, though, is introducing entry fees. "I don't think we should be putting admission charges on our sites," Streets says. "Politically, I believe that people should have free access to what are their collections." Reluctantly, though, she adds: "I do think we should just look at it and analyse the financial implications. "At the moment we need to be finding ways to sustain the service in the longer term in this economic climate, and admission charges is an obvious thing to look at." Elsewhere, events will be cut and the education team is being chopped from 23 people to three. The phrase "quality over quantity" keeps cropping up in Streets' strategy. The Graves Gallery, which houses the city's visual arts collection, had been under threat. Its closure has now been ruled out, but its opening times have reduced to four days a week. Strangely, visitor numbers have gone up since the opening hours were cut - something Streets partly puts down to the allure of a current visiting exhibition of Andy Warhol self-portraits. So if the passionate staff can work wonders, and they can make the most of their collections, and visitor numbers have held up, does the organisation really need a higher level of funding after all? Streets' answer, unsurprisingly, is yes. The relatively generous amounts available during the heady days of the late 1990s and 2000s "made a massive difference to our sites", she insists. "We have a new Millennium Gallery, which opened in 2001, we have a refurbished Graves, we have Weston Park museum completely gutted and refurbished and reopened in 2006. "What we've done is develop a service which I think is very much of the moment, it's in tune and it's connecting with people." She points to one of her successors in the social history department who, thanks to pre-crash funding, has been able to work with young people and those with mental health problems. "It's not about just hiding in the store room and quietly curating the collection," Streets says. "Everything we do is for people. "That funding has made a difference in that way. It's expanded those horizons. But the harsh reality is that we are where we are. "It won't be the same level of service. If we had the funding, we would be more ambitious, we would be out there. It does make a difference." | عندما خسرت المنظمة التي تدير المعارض والمتاحف الرئيسية في شيفيلد 1.4 مليون جنيه إسترليني من التمويل السنوي لمجلس الفنون في وقت سابق من هذا العام، حذرت من عواقب "مدمرة". هل تستطيع المؤسسات الثقافية في مدينة كبيرة أن تتعامل مع تقطيعها حتى العظم؟ | متاحف شيفيلد: بعد التخفيضات | {
"summary": " عندما خسرت المنظمة التي تدير المعارض والمتاحف الرئيسية في شيفيلد 1.4 مليون جنيه إسترليني من التمويل السنوي لمجلس الفنون في وقت سابق من هذا العام، حذرت من عواقب \"مدمرة\". هل تستطيع المؤسسات الثقافية في مدينة كبيرة أن تتعامل مع تقطيعها حتى العظم؟",
"title": " متاحف شيفيلد: بعد التخفيضات"
} |
By Rob BroombyBritish Affairs Correspondent, BBC World Service He was addressing a concern that London's luxury new-build property market is becoming a repository for the wealth of the global super-rich. As such, many argue it is doing nothing to ease the city's acute housing crisis - especially if the new homes are left empty. Figures compiled by the global real estate consultancy Knight Frank show that for the two years to June 2013, 69% of new-build buyers in the prime central London market were not British. Almost half, 49%, were not resident in the UK - thus raising the fear that homes have been bought purely as an investment and may be left empty. Young buyers 'don't have a chance' In an earlier phase of the development of the Thames-side Battersea power station, half the apartments built in former power station's shell were sold outside the UK. The chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development Company, Rob Tincknell, is aware that empty properties create a perception problem. "If this place doesn't work and there's nobody living here, it just won't function properly," he says. "It is essential we do what we can to make sure our homes are occupied, and we're doing everything possible". "You can't stop investors buying, but even if they do they're going to rent these properties out because people will want to live here - they will be great investments." Walking beneath One St George Wharf, another luxury tower development along the river from the Battersea site, I meet a woman walking her dog. "There's no way normal Londoners can live here, no way," she says. She agrees rich foreign buyers are squeezing out local people though she accepts it is "not their intention - it is just they have the money and the wherewithal." "It's out of most people's range," says a man eating a sandwich as he enjoys the new riverside walkway. "Youngsters coming on the market don't have a chance." 'Investment properties' Across London I meet Westminster councillor David Boothroyd outside one of London's most controversial new-build properties. One Hyde Park is a luxury development with, as the name implies, views of Hyde Park itself. "It is the most luxurious block of flats you could ever imagine in London and they sell for about £70m each." "It turns out there's almost no one actually living here," he says. The flats themselves are mostly investment properties and it is easier for the owners to keep them empty than have the hassle of renting them out, he says. "It is not contributing anything to the community because it is empty." He surveyed his central London borough, Westminster, and found that even though the number of homes had increased, the number of voters and council tax payers had fallen because so many properties were unoccupied. However, Grainne Gilmore, head of residential research at estate agents Knight Frank, argues that those who leave properties empty are few and far between. "It is a very small slice of the market. As you move up the value chain you have billionaires - globally wealthy people - who own homes all around the world and they spend a fraction of their time in each. "They are different from the investors, they want to keep their homes for their use only, but it really is at the top end of the market and it is a small fragment of homes in the capital." Despite anecdotal evidence of foreign buyers stoking house price inflation by purchasing normal residential properties, research by Knight Frank suggests that away from the prime central London locations, foreign non-resident buyers - at least of new-build homes - are less active. More than 79% of all new homes, even in inner London, are bought by UK residents and in outer London the figure is more than 93%, according to Knight Frank. "We do not have enough supply of homes in the capital and that has driven up pricing. Houses are not being built full stop," says Grainne Gilmore. Much of the building that is taking place is aimed at the top end of the market. According to the property consultancy EC Harri, the next decade will see 20,000 prime residential units completed in London, with a sales value of £50bn. Prof Tony Travers, who is local government expert at the London School of Economics, agrees and says that London's rapid house price inflation is more to do with the lack of building than with foreign buyers. "The population of London is growing by about 100,000 each year, but we're only building about 18-20,000 new homes." Development criticism Back at Battersea Power Station the modest plans for affordable homes, just 15% of the total, have drawn stiff criticism. And only half of those are expected to be social housing, accepts Rob Tincknell. So the homes ordinary Londoners can afford are simply not being built. Battersea Power Station stopped generating electricity in 1983 and since then differing development proposals have come and gone - but this one, backed by Malaysian money, looks likely to succeed. A much-loved building will have been given a new lease of life, yet most of the 3,444 new homes will be beyond ordinary Londoners' reach. For most, London will have gained another neighbourhood to look at rather than live in. | عندما كشف المهندس المعماري الشهير فرانك جيري عن مساهمته في إعادة تطوير محطة كهرباء باترسي في لندن، شعر أنه من الضروري أن يقول: "أريد إنشاء مجموعة من المباني التي سيرغب الناس في العيش فيها"، كما لو كان هناك طموح بديل. | ويهيمن المشترون الأجانب على سوق الإسكان الفاخر في لندن | {
"summary": "عندما كشف المهندس المعماري الشهير فرانك جيري عن مساهمته في إعادة تطوير محطة كهرباء باترسي في لندن، شعر أنه من الضروري أن يقول: \"أريد إنشاء مجموعة من المباني التي سيرغب الناس في العيش فيها\"، كما لو كان هناك طموح بديل.",
"title": " ويهيمن المشترون الأجانب على سوق الإسكان الفاخر في لندن"
} |
Daniel Morgan, 37, of Monmouthshire, was found dead in March 1987 outside a pub in Sydenham, south-east London. James Cook, 55, of Tadworth, was formally found not guilty after prosecutors at the Old Bailey offered no evidence against him. Three other men remain accused of murder and are to go on trial in 2011. William Rees, 56, of Weybridge, Surrey, Glenn Vian, 52, of south Croydon, and Garry Vian, 50, of no fixed address, deny the charge. Mr Morgan, who was originally from the village of Llanfrechfa, jointly ran a security firm called Southern Investigations. | تمت تبرئة رجل من مقاطعة ساري متهم بقتل محقق خاص وجد ميتاً بفأس في رأسه بعد عدم تقديم أي دليل ضده. | تمت تبرئة رجل ساري من جريمة القتل بالفأس عام 1987 | {
"summary": " تمت تبرئة رجل من مقاطعة ساري متهم بقتل محقق خاص وجد ميتاً بفأس في رأسه بعد عدم تقديم أي دليل ضده.",
"title": " تمت تبرئة رجل ساري من جريمة القتل بالفأس عام 1987"
} |
By Sarah BellVictoria Derbyshire programme "I won't mention it, but if it comes up I will be honest. I'm not going to say, 'Guess what, I'm trans', but if someone mentions it I will say I am, because I am," says Jessica. The 10-year-old's friends do not really mention the fact she has transitioned from living as male to female, a fact she prefers. She just wants to be treated "like a normal girl". We first met "Jessica" and "Lily", who is now nine, in January 2015. We are not using their real names. Jessica's stepfather "Alex" - who transitioned from living as female to male - says he is "taken aback, but quite proud" that she plans to be open when she moves to her next school in just over a year's time. While it is not without problems, he says that approach avoids having to worry about whether someone will find out, which can be stressful for both the child and siblings who could accidentally "out" them. "It's a big secret to keep. It just puts so much pressure on them. And so if somebody does feel that they can sort of be open about it, I personally I think that's a better way," he says. Find out more Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. Our first piece about Lily and Jessica can be found here. Our second piece can be read here. Transgender is a term used to describe a person who does not identify as the gender that was assigned to them at birth - they may wish to be seen as a different gender or no gender at all. The UK's only centre specialising in gender issues in under-18s is the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which is based in London and has clinics across the UK. In the last two years, the number of children aged 10 or under who were referred to the NHS because they were unhappy with their biological gender has risen from 87 to 216, including 32 aged five or under over the last year. It is something psychologists at the trust admit surprised them. They say it is impossible to know for sure why so many more children are being referred, but that it is clear there is much greater awareness and acceptance in society for young people to be able to talk about questioning their gender. Lily's mum "Jen" says the search for the right secondary school began two years ago, before her older son started. She asked how it would support trans children, so she knew it could help both of her offspring. At the time, the school had not encountered any other transgender children, but said it was happy to build something into the curriculum to educate the other pupils. The school already has two children transitioning from male to female. "It's reassuring that they've got a bit of experience of it and getting their heads around it," she says. 'Old news really' Lily, who still has two years left at primary school, is "very happy and doing well", her mum says. "[She's] possibly more confident and just seems more relaxed in herself. At school it doesn't seem to be an issue any more, it's just a kind of old news really." But Lily says her fellow pupils are not always kind. "There was a person, they said, 'You won't be a very good woman, you should just be a man', and that really upset me." Jessica went through a more difficult period at the end of last year as hormones began to kick in, her parents said. "Occasionally she'll bring up, 'When I grow up I'm going to live alone, because no-one will want to live with me because I'm trans, I won't ever get a boyfriend'," says mum "Ella". "They should be children, they should just be allowed to get on with stuff. I just want everything to go smoothly and normal for her, as normal as life is," she adds. Jessica's parents say she felt much better after speaking to a consultant at the Tavistock clinic, who reassured her that the physical changes linked to puberty were some way off. Younger transgender children can receive treatment on the NHS, but at that age it takes the form of counselling and support sessions. Medical intervention is not considered until they approach puberty, when hormone blockers might be offered. Blockers pause the physical changes associated with puberty, giving the young person time to think for much longer about their gender identity. At around the age of 16, a patient can then take cross-sex hormones, which would mean they go through the puberty of the gender that they feel that they are. Ella says she worries about whether they will have the money to pay for private treatment if Jessica wants hormones earlier. "I've got friends whose children need it for their own mental health, their hormones earlier. So I am aware that Jessica may need them sooner." Jen adds: "It's hard being a teenager anyway, (let alone) to have to wait until you're 16 for your body to develop. It's upsetting to think all her peers are going to be talking about periods and developing breasts and wearing bras and things and she will be waiting - a really tough thing for her to go through." The most crucial thing for both sets of parents is to support their children as they grow up and ensure that they have the skills to handle the challenges ahead. "The research evidence shows that teenagers and young people who are trans who have had that support, had the treatment that they need, have the support from families and schools have got the same or better mental health than normal non-trans young people," says Jen. She says the families are fortunate that they are going through the experience now. "Even five years ago things were so different. There were no blockers, that must have been so hard for families going through what we're going through," she says. For more information and support: NHS page with general information. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust - provides the only NHS gender identity service for under-18s. The Gender Identity Development Service - the official website for the service, offering information and resources Mermaids gives support for children, young people and their families Gendered Intelligence gives support to young people Gender Identity Research & Education Centre | بالنسبة لمعظم الآباء، يعد انتقال أطفالهم إلى المدرسة الثانوية لحظة كبيرة تتطلب التخطيط، وخاصة بالنسبة لأولئك الذين لديهم أطفال متحولين جنسيًا. كان برنامج فيكتوريا ديربيشاير يتابع اثنين من أصغر الأطفال المتحولين جنسيًا في المملكة المتحدة على مدار العامين ونصف العام الماضيين. | الأطفال المتحولين جنسياً: الاستعداد للبلوغ | {
"summary": " بالنسبة لمعظم الآباء، يعد انتقال أطفالهم إلى المدرسة الثانوية لحظة كبيرة تتطلب التخطيط، وخاصة بالنسبة لأولئك الذين لديهم أطفال متحولين جنسيًا. كان برنامج فيكتوريا ديربيشاير يتابع اثنين من أصغر الأطفال المتحولين جنسيًا في المملكة المتحدة على مدار العامين ونصف العام الماضيين.",
"title": " الأطفال المتحولين جنسياً: الاستعداد للبلوغ"
} |
The man, from Lincoln, was arrested on suspicion of soliciting to murder by police investigating the so-called "Punish a Muslim Day" letters. He is also being held on suspicion of sending a hoax noxious substance and threatening letters. The anonymous letters called for a co-ordinated attack on Muslims. The man is in custody at a police station in West Yorkshire. In a statement, Counter Terrorism Policing North East said searches have taken place at a home in Lincoln and an office in the city centre. The letters, which proposed specific forms of attack, have been circulated online and received in communities across England - including West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Leicestershire and London. | ألقي القبض على رجل يبلغ من العمر 35 عامًا، كجزء من تحقيق الشرطة في رسائل تدعو إلى يوم من العنف ضد المسلمين في المملكة المتحدة. | رجل محتجز بسبب خطابات "معاقبة مسلم". | {
"summary": " ألقي القبض على رجل يبلغ من العمر 35 عامًا، كجزء من تحقيق الشرطة في رسائل تدعو إلى يوم من العنف ضد المسلمين في المملكة المتحدة.",
"title": "رجل محتجز بسبب خطابات \"معاقبة مسلم\"."
} |
By David WilleyBBC Vatican correspondent Newsreels of the event confirm my memory that it was raining cats and dogs on that March evening 60 years ago when the founding fathers of the six-nation European Economic Community (EEC) arrived at Michelangelo's great architectural masterpiece Palazzo dei Conservatori on Rome's Capitoline hill. They included the German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer; Paul-Henri Spaak, the Belgian mover and shaker of the new European federal post-war dream; and Walter Hallstein, the German diplomat soon to be elected as the first president of the new community. They were there to put their signatures to what was to become known as the Treaty of Rome. The document promised what they hoped would be "an ever closer union". The symbolism was almost overpowering. They were gathered at the very hub of the ancient world where, 2,500 years ago, six centuries before Christ, the foundations were laid of Rome's first major temple, dedicated to Jupiter, king of the gods. That massive edifice disappeared many centuries ago, the victim of fire or earthquake, but you can still see its excavated foundations, layer upon layer of carefully piled blocks of greyish tufa, the local building material, near the cavernous frescoed room half the length of a football field, where the treaty signing actually took place. The fathers of the new Europe were overlooked by two enormous statues of 16th Century popes raised on plinths at either end, one in bronze, the other in marble. The colourful frescoes depict tales of the legendary heroes and founders of ancient Rome. The ministers and their black-suited advisers sat at long trestle tables and the signatories all said a few inspiring words in Italian, French or German. No-one spoke in English: Britain had been invited to join but had slightly huffily declined. Only four years later Prime Minister Harold Macmillan would reverse British government policy and make a formal application to join the new European club. I had been assigned to cover the signing ceremony by the local Reuters news agency bureau where I was a junior trainee reporter. The English media had shown little interest in the story and that was the reason why I was sent along. I recently checked the report in the following day's Times. It got only a third of a column on page eight. "Historic Date" was the brief headline. The Vatican newspaper of record L'Osservatore Romano was much more upbeat. It lyrically described the event as "the most illustrious and significant international political event in the modern history of Rome". Most of Europe's leaders in the mid-50s were Catholics, so the following day the ministers all trooped off for a private audience across the river Tiber with Pope Pius XII, the wartime pope still reigning at the Vatican. His strong attachment to Germany had been honed by long years spent as nuncio, or papal ambassador, in Berlin. Pius turned out to be more cautious than his newspaper's editorial about the prospects for changing the already successful European Coal and Steel Community into a full-blown political and customs union. "At the present time," he said, "many people are of the opinion that it will be a long while before the initial enthusiasm for [European] unification is revived." What we did not know on that day was that only the first and last pages of the Rome Treaty had actually reached the signatories. The bulky documents on the trestle tables were mostly composed of blank pages. There had been a last-minute mix-up in sending the final text from the chateau in the Brussels suburbs where ministers had been closeted for months arguing and haggling endlessly about such arcane matters as the shape of bananas to be sold in West Germany. The Germans liked long fat ones; the French wanted to sell the smaller sweeter ones from their former African colonies. It was all a foretaste of troubles to come. | يجتمع أكثر من 20 رئيس دولة وحكومة أوروبية في نهاية هذا الأسبوع في العاصمة الإيطالية للاحتفال بالذكرى الستين لتوقيع معاهدة روما. كان حاضرا في ذلك اليوم ديفيد ويلي، الذي أصبح فيما بعد أحد المراسلين الأجانب الأطول خدمة في بي بي سي. وكان في ذلك الوقت مراسلًا متدربًا يتعلم أساسيات الصحافة. | قمة الاتحاد الأوروبي: دوري في التوقيع على معاهدة روما | {
"summary": " يجتمع أكثر من 20 رئيس دولة وحكومة أوروبية في نهاية هذا الأسبوع في العاصمة الإيطالية للاحتفال بالذكرى الستين لتوقيع معاهدة روما. كان حاضرا في ذلك اليوم ديفيد ويلي، الذي أصبح فيما بعد أحد المراسلين الأجانب الأطول خدمة في بي بي سي. وكان في ذلك الوقت مراسلًا متدربًا يتعلم أساسيات الصحافة.",
"title": " قمة الاتحاد الأوروبي: دوري في التوقيع على معاهدة روما"
} |
For me, it began about 18 months ago, one long, hot summer evening when two huge wanting eyes, accompanied by serenading mews appeared at the kitchen door. It didn't recoil when I approached it. In fact it appeared quite pleased when I began speaking in ridiculously high-pitched baby speak (imagine the word "choochy-face" being used). Nor did it flinch when I softly stroked behind its grey, fluffy ears. Instead it lay on its back and allowed me to feel the softness of its white belly fur and loudly purred in gratitude. In appreciation that my affections were returned, I opened a can of tuna which it hastily scoffed and left. I didn't think anything of it at the time other than that it was a cosy exchange. A summer memory made and I had performed a good deed. A few days later The Cat returned and we behaved like two long lost friends. There was mutual loving, petting and nuzzles. I gave it some more food, it noisily ate and we parted ways again. The meetings soon became a daily occurrence and something I found myself looking forward to. The Cat had taken to coming into the house, napping on the sofa and didn't mind being put out for the night when I went to bed. My evenings were now gloriously cosy. The stresses of the day instantly dissolved when The Cat and I would curl up together to watch television in the evenings. In retrospect, I should have stopped to think whether The Cat - though apparently in need of food and affection - lived with someone else. But I didn't. That only came later. After a couple of months I bought a pet bed for The Cat to relax in and dedicated bowls for food and water. I would go to work, discover cat hair on my clothes and smile in anticipation of being together in the evenings. Photos of The Cat would appear on my social media. Colleagues at work would notice my online activity and ask, "How's your cat?" I would answer as if The Cat was mine, in denial about my new status as a catnapper. Every time another new post would go up, a friend would regularly call me out in my comments: "IT'S NOT YOUR CAT." A quick internet search for the hashtag #notmycat revealed that I was part of a club. There were other people just like me - people enjoying the benefits of a cat but with none of the responsibilities of an owner. There are shiny, beautiful clandestine pictures and vlogs of humans and felines that don't officially belong together. So is it normal? "I do feel cats live on their own terms. I don't think they are deliberately deciding, 'I'm going to manipulate this human.' It's much more straightforward," says cat behaviour counsellor Celia Haddon. They find somewhere where they have food and warmth and a friendly human and try to stay there. "The one thing about cats is they're enormously persistent. If you can have an animal that can wait for hours outside a mouse-hole waiting for a mouse, then you've got an animal who can wait at a door, if it wants to move in, for hours too." Much later, I discovered there is a book about this. Originally published in 1990, Six Dinner Sid is a children's book that tells the story of a cat called Sid, who lives at number one Aristotle Street. But Sid also lives at all the other houses on the street and eats at all the homes, whose owners all believe Sid belongs to them. Unlike the real cats described by Celia Haddon, Sid knows very well what he is doing. But his manipulative plans unravel when he gets sick and the neighbours discover they're all being played. Author Inga Moore tells me it was based on a black cat she knew when she lived in north London. "I heard someone call him by a name which sounded like Sid," she says. (In fact his name was Ziggy.) "Sid used to come in through the cat flap and make himself at home at number four where I was living. I think his home was number six. Sid in the book was very much Sid in real life and he was the inspiration for the story, which is of course made up. "I have had many cat visitors over the years and I've always enjoyed their company. Apparently they have developed an ability to communicate with human beings in a way they don't with other cats. They know how to get what they need from us by wheedling and being charming. It makes us love them and makes them special." Joanna Lodge from the UK's largest feline welfare charity, Cats Protection, says scientists have speculated that it's cats' eyes, "reminiscent of the large eyes of a baby", that help them to win our hearts. This would explain a lot: my need to infantilise my speech and my instinct to feed The Cat, gush with love and provide shelter. My maternal instincts came pouring out - along with my dignity. But in the months that followed our first meeting, I became ever more aware of a growing sense of guilt. I would look on local websites for lost cats wondering whether I would find an appeal from The Cat's owner, but found nothing. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. Then my affair came to a sudden end. The Cat vanished. I waited days and nights and called into the sad abyss of my suburban garden. I felt bereft and abandoned and started scouring the internet again for news. Surely the only reason The Cat had stopped visiting was because it had been run over? It was probably lying in a ditch somewhere. But there was no news. I would look sadly at the empty bed where it had lain, the untouched food bowls and the strands of fur on my clothes that were now becoming scarce. Then, in the first weeks of the spring lockdown, I had a chance conversation with my neighbour over the garden fence. I casually (though very deliberately) mentioned The Cat and was told the owners had moved. So it did have owners! I probably shouldn't have been surprised. I was filled with feelings of relief followed by betrayal and confusion. How could they just take The Cat out of my life? I walked around the corner and looked longingly at the empty house that had once housed The Cat but was now devoid of life. I wasn't going to give up without a fight. It was unimaginable that The Cat, who was once so satisfied with me, would be as happy with its owner in a new home far away. I emailed the owner via the estate agent and explained how The Cat and I had spent a significant amount of time together and if it didn't settle in the new abode and they were perhaps looking to re-house The Cat then I would be more than happy to be a permanent alternative. It seemed to me that we belonged together, I wrote, and that our friendship had been forcibly terminated without our consent (or something like that). The Owner replied to my email. His name was David. He explained that he owned two cats, a brown tabby called Henry, and Eddie, a silver tabby who was "often away for days". They had moved 120 miles away, to Lincolnshire, he wrote. The cats, "love the semi-rural environment, are very happy here and enjoy us now being with them all day," he added. "Naturally we could not bear to part with them." He suggested that I should get my own cat. "They are pedigree cats of the British Shorthair breed. You should be able to find a breeder and they are as delightful as kittens as you would imagine." At the time, it was inconceivable to even think about any other cat. Eddie had chosen me. In a follow-up email to David, I confessed the full extent of my involvement in Eddie's disappearance. I was filled with remorse. David told me that Eddie's absences had been deeply distressing. "We did not know if he had been knocked down or stolen, was locked in somewhere or just on the prowl having adventures," he wrote. "We knew that Eddie would occasionally disappear for more than 24 hours. Usually this coincided with us spending a few days away. We would have a friend come in and feed the cats and make a fuss of them, but it became common that we would return to a house without Eddie. The truth is that each time it happens, you wonder if you will ever see him again. We got to the point that we would avoid going away." What to do if a cat persistently visits your garden Advice from Cats Protection I recognised the pain of a missing cat, half-wishing Eddie had never appeared in my life a year earlier. I deleted all the social media posts of The Cat. I felt terrible. I asked David if he was annoyed that I had contacted him to explain what had happened. He replied: "We recognised the pain that you and your family were feeling at having lost a cat that had become very precious to you and felt sympathy rather than annoyance. There was also some relief to finally understand what he had been doing and that he had not been suffering, cold and alone." Then he told me that it was one thing to make a fuss of a cat when it visits your garden, and another thing to feed it. He urged me to stop doing this. "We might have even reached an agreement whereby you could have fed them both at our house if we went away," he wrote. "But do not encourage a cat to stay away from his home. It is really distressing for the owners while it is happening and perhaps even more so for the adopted family if the owners move." "Some cats are clearly feral and wild and they won't let you near them but if they're quite friendly, that will be quite a big clue that they will have had an owner at some point - or that they do still have an owner," says Joanna Lodge. Her organisation, Cats Protection, provides paper collars that you can attach to a cat if you aren't sure whether it has a home. They have "Do I belong to you?" written on them, and this alerts the owner, if there is one, that someone is concerned. "There are different responsibilities," Joanna says. "I think one is for the owner to make sure their cat can be identified by microchip. And for anyone who has a cat in the garden, they should try to find out if it's got an owner, or contact us and we can make efforts to find owners." In the latter case, it's a legal responsibility, she says, as it would be if you came across some lost property - you can't just take it for yourself. As the days got shorter and this year started drawing to a close, David's words about getting a cat resonated hard. I hadn't realised how much I needed the comfort of something purry and furry on my lap to soothe me during a time of such uncertainty. So, in anticipation of a winter of discontent, a few weeks ago I picked up a 12-week-old British Shorthair. He's the colour of a latte and goes by the name of Horace. I really don't plan to share Horace with anyone but as I've learned, that might not be entirely my decision so if you see him around, you know what to do. Follow Horace The Cat on Instagram You may also be interested in: In Cuba's capital, armies of stray cats and dogs prowl the streets. The state does little to look after them, so responsibility lies with the public - as Will Grant found when he befriended a tomcat. Our cat in Havana | هناك مقولة شهيرة تقول: "أنت لا تختار قطة، بل القطة هي التي تختارك". إذن، تتساءل أنيسة سوبدار، ما الذي يجب عليك فعله عندما تقرر قطة مثابرة في الحي أن تتبناك؟ | هل كنت مخطئًا عندما وقعت في حب قطة خائنة؟ | {
"summary": " هناك مقولة شهيرة تقول: \"أنت لا تختار قطة، بل القطة هي التي تختارك\". إذن، تتساءل أنيسة سوبدار، ما الذي يجب عليك فعله عندما تقرر قطة مثابرة في الحي أن تتبناك؟",
"title": " هل كنت مخطئًا عندما وقعت في حب قطة خائنة؟"
} |
2 May 2020 The Thursday evening clap for carers gets louder and more joyous every week. It is a deeply moving tribute that captures the very essence of our communal spirit in these times of adversity. It is also the only time communities now come together and generates a rare feeling of release and togetherness, a faint memory of a previous era. But when people have gone out to clap we've seen interesting little peaks in accident rates that we weren't expecting. People might need to be a bit more cautious, especially if they've been sitting down all day and then get up to clap. It might be one of the only times older people come outside and so there is a risk of falling and I'd just remind people to take care. "The clap for carers has made us a little busier," says Richard Pilling, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Harrogate District Hospital. "It's very nice that everyone is very enthusiastic about showing support but it's escalated, so people are coming out banging pans and seeing who can clap the loudest, and therein accidents lie. "It's nice to walk on to your doorstep and show appreciation, it's a chance to see your neighbours, and it's lovely to see people sticking together during the lockdown. Just do it less vigorously - you don't have to be the loudest on the street." Clapping injury Ella Simkin, 23, went out with her parents to clap on Thursday at their house in south London, and decided to jump up on to a raised concrete flower bed to get a better view of all the neighbours. She missed her footing, and suddenly "there was this sharp pain," she says. "It sliced into my knee - I was wearing jeans and at first I didn't realise but it was bleeding a lot and we went to Accident and Emergency. "I was very embarrassed when we got there. When I went for the X-ray I was telling them I was out clapping when it happened. Everyone found it very funny and lots of people said my heart was in the right place." Richard points out that some people have been exercising more than usual during the lockdown, but others have stopped exercising, and problems can occur when they suddenly get up and clap. They may fall and break a bone, for example. Some people arrive at hospital immediately after the clap, others later in the evening, after trying and failing to get over their injury at home. "When you're trying to keep pressure off the NHS, it's adding to the workload at a time when we really want to avoid that happening," Richard says. "I think people need to be careful and just slow down a bit if they're going out into the street." Despite the precautions taken in our hospitals, health workers do sometimes catch Covid-19 - and even fit young people without previous health problems may find themselves needing hospital treatment. Palliative care nurse Kelly Ward, aged 35, had been looking after elderly Covid patients at a neighbouring Bradford hospital, when she began to feel out of breath at the end of a shift one day. By the time she got home she was feverish, and the following day she was brought into hospital by ambulance, hardly able to breathe. Front line diary Prof John Wright, a medical doctor and epidemiologist, is head of the Bradford Institute for Health Research, and a veteran of cholera, HIV and Ebola epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is writing this diary for BBC News and recording from the hospital wards for BBC Radio 4's The NHS Front Line She was put on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which has been our secret weapon in the treatment of Covid-19. It blows air into the lungs, keeping them inflated, but the feeling is unpleasant - and the mask needed for machine to work can make people feel claustrophobic. Some of our patients just cannot tolerate it. "At first I panicked, I'm not going to lie," Kelly told me when I visited her on the ward 10 days ago. "I've never had anything like that before and I tolerated it for maybe about an hour or two, and I was fine. And then I told the doctors overnight that I wasn't having it on any more, it was so claustrophobic. It felt like I had no control over what was going into my lungs, even though I know it was helping me. I felt like I couldn't breathe. "And one of the doctors gave me strict talking to and said, 'You know, if you don't have it on you are going to go downhill.' So I had it on again." She got on fine with it for the rest of that day, but the following morning - the day we met - she started panicking again and rejected it. Fortunately, by this stage, Dr Paul Whitaker, a consultant in respiratory medicine, felt she had turned a corner, and could already start to be weaned off oxygen. Kelly agreed. She confessed that there had been a moment during her first 48 hours in hospital when she'd thought she might die, but that moment had passed. However, I witnessed Dr Whitaker talking to another patient, a woman in her early 70s who had tried CPAP and couldn't face it again. He asked her whether she would use it if it was a case of life or death. "No," was the answer. "It's not what my family would want but it isn't their decision," she said. Then she added: "I know I'm not giving you much chance to help me." She died a few days later. Kelly continued to improve, however. It was her objective to be home in time for her son's first birthday on Sunday 3 May, and I'm glad to say she was well enough to be discharged on Friday. In our experience it's taking people a long time to recover from Covid-19. Kelly is still breathless and told me she had to crawl up the stairs on her hands and knees. Once at the top she had to stop and draw breath, before continuing to her bedroom. "I'm breathless, exhausted but really overjoyed to be home," she says. "It's been much harder than I expected. I didn't expect to feel as weak as I do. It's really taken it out of me, it really has. I've been downstairs once and have spent the rest of the time in bed." Kelly's son is so young he may not have realised she'd been away. Her eight-year-old daughter, however, shed tears of joy to see her mother again. "My daughter knows I've been poorly and I'm getting better. She knows it will be a while until I'm back to full force, but she's not frightened," Kelly says. "When this all started I was very open with her and told her I was looking after very poorly people, as was everyone in the NHS. It's been tough and she's done very, very well." "Next Thursday, when everyone in the city comes out to clap, they will be clapping for you, Kelly," I told her. "I'll be clapping for every single person in the NHS," she replied. "Everyone has been unbelievable. My life has been saved and I'm so, so grateful." Two more patients have been discharged. A week ago I wrote about Michael and Mary Blessington, a couple in their 60s who have been together from the age of 13, and who were together in hospital with Covid-19. Mary was finally able to leave hospital today. Their son, Craig, says Michael stood at the gate waiting for her, after she rang to say she was leaving. Then, when it proved impossible to get the fish and chips she had been waiting for for so long, Michael made her scrambled egg. Another Covid-19 patient who is very pleased to be home - and who at one point thought it might never happen. Follow @docjohnwright on Twitter | تسبب الاحتفال مساء الخميس بعمال هيئة الخدمات الصحية الوطنية في ارتفاع كبير في عدد الوافدين إلى A&E، كما كتب الدكتور جون رايت من مستشفى برادفورد الملكي في مذكراته المعتادة. ويروي أدناه قصة إحدى هؤلاء العمال، وهي ممرضة عانت بشدة من الفيروس لكنها خرجت من المستشفى في الوقت المناسب بمناسبة عيد ميلاد ابنها الأول. | مذكرات طبيب فيروس كورونا: انتبه عندما تصفق لمقدمي الرعاية | {
"summary": "تسبب الاحتفال مساء الخميس بعمال هيئة الخدمات الصحية الوطنية في ارتفاع كبير في عدد الوافدين إلى A&E، كما كتب الدكتور جون رايت من مستشفى برادفورد الملكي في مذكراته المعتادة. ويروي أدناه قصة إحدى هؤلاء العمال، وهي ممرضة عانت بشدة من الفيروس لكنها خرجت من المستشفى في الوقت المناسب بمناسبة عيد ميلاد ابنها الأول.",
"title": " مذكرات طبيب فيروس كورونا: انتبه عندما تصفق لمقدمي الرعاية"
} |
As soon as the lockdown was lifted, Birmingham club The Night Owl decided it would have to try and change the direction of its business. Gone are the times when club-goers would dance the night away on its sprung-wooden dance floor. Now, socially distanced tables are on the floor, food is served and there is no dancing - at least not much. The club's managers decided it made sense to expand its daytime attractions. It had previously hosted monthly food and music events but they have now become a weekly thing. Promoter and DJ Mazzy Snape said: "As well as a reggae cookout we have soul and funk, disco and Prince-themed brunches. "Our Britpop brunch is proving really popular." Customers can book a table at the venue from lunchtime up until closing time. Food and drink is ordered by app. "The whole ethos of the club before was so people could dance - so at first we had to keep reminding them they couldn't," she said. "Most people are understanding, and we do have a bit of chair dancing. "Throughout lockdown we supported people with live-streamed DJ sets, Northern Soul championships, and the like, to keep people occupied - and people appreciated it. "So when we reopened people were keen to support us. "People want us to be there in a year's time when hopefully we can dance again." The Jam House in Birmingham used to welcome more than 600 customers through its doors on a Saturday night - but now only has seating for 150. The live music venue would also regularly host big bands on its stage - but now, with social distancing, the most musicians it can hold is five. Before the curfew, there would be about three musical sets per evening. "But that's gone now," manager John Bunce said. "We've only got four hours to play with so there is some live action, a DJ working as a compere and a then a catalogue of previously recorded live shots from the Jam House of the past. "Then there is a live performance but then it's time to prepare to leave. "The curfew has been hard. We try to be as hospitable as we can but it's hard when given rules from an outside force." Like many other hospitality venues it has had to let staff go. "During lockdown we took advantage of the furlough system," Mr Bunce said "We had just under 50 (staff) in the roll call, unfortunately come this August we had to make a number of people redundant, staff roll about 30 now." Despite the challenges the venue wanted to continue hosting live music and try to continue to support musicians. "We didn't want to run as a pub and restaurant. "It's a big venue on several floors and we didn't think we could create the intimacy or a pub or a bar." Average takings were down to 20% when it reopened and then they suffered a further reduction to 14% when the curfew was introduced. And it could be more restrictions are on the way with pubs and clubs expected to close in some areas of England. "We can only really open Friday and Saturday nights - whereas previously we traded five nights a week." "We think we can hold on until past Christmas at the levels of loss we're experiencing," he added. But what are the changes like for the former nightclub-goers? Harriet Crossley, 19, from Dudley is a regular at Snobs nightclub in Birmingham. The second-year English student at Birmingham City University said since it reopened after lockdown she regularly goes with friends about twice a week. "No dancing is allowed, you have to be completely seated and can't really stand up," she said. "The bouncers are quite strict but also very understanding - everyone complies really well. "It does feel strange but it's like our local so to us it's still the same Snobs. "Everyone wants to support it and nobody wants it to close, so it's always full and there are never any spare tables. "It always used to be about music and dancing but now with the social distancing it's more about a club atmosphere with people your age, rather than going to a pub." | تبدو الليلة في الخارج مختلفة جدًا مقارنة بما كانت عليه قبل بضعة أشهر. إن حظر التجول في الساعة العاشرة و"قاعدة الستة" وحدود الصوت على الضوضاء والموسيقى وقاعدة عدم الرقص تجعل الأمر كله تجربة مختلفة. إذن، ما الذي تفعله النوادي الليلية للتكيف وكيف تشعر عند قضاء ليلة في الخارج؟ | من الضربات إلى الأكل: كيف تحاول النوادي الليلية البقاء على قيد الحياة | {
"summary": " تبدو الليلة في الخارج مختلفة جدًا مقارنة بما كانت عليه قبل بضعة أشهر. إن حظر التجول في الساعة العاشرة و\"قاعدة الستة\" وحدود الصوت على الضوضاء والموسيقى وقاعدة عدم الرقص تجعل الأمر كله تجربة مختلفة. إذن، ما الذي تفعله النوادي الليلية للتكيف وكيف تشعر عند قضاء ليلة في الخارج؟",
"title": " من الضربات إلى الأكل: كيف تحاول النوادي الليلية البقاء على قيد الحياة"
} |
There were small explosions in the fire, which broke out at the Strachan and Henshaw building in Foundry Lane in the Speedwell area, Avon Fire and Rescue Service said. Twelve crews from across the service area have been at the scene of the "large fire", it said. The service said crews had been "firefighting in difficult conditions". It urged people to avoid the area if possible. | يعمل أكثر من 40 من رجال الإطفاء على إخماد حريق اندلع في مبنى إداري في مدينة بريستول. | تم إرسال اثنا عشر طاقمًا إلى "حريق كبير" في بريستول | {
"summary": " يعمل أكثر من 40 من رجال الإطفاء على إخماد حريق اندلع في مبنى إداري في مدينة بريستول.",
"title": " تم إرسال اثنا عشر طاقمًا إلى \"حريق كبير\" في بريستول"
} |
Mark EastonHome editor@BBCMarkEastonon Twitter It is thought George Osborne is considering reductions of around 20% in the amount spent on the police in England and Wales. That, a leaked document from a senior officer argues, is more than double what the force could withstand if it is to offer a viable response to multiple simultaneous terrorist incidents such as we saw across Paris a week ago. How much credence will the home secretary and, more importantly, the chancellor give to these warnings? After all, the prime minister has already announced that the police's counter-terrorism budget will be protected. The leaked note, entitled "Implications of the Paris Attack for UK Preparedness", says further losses in officer numbers "will severely impact our surge capacity" in respect of a major terrorist incident. So what is "surge capacity"? The phrase is usually applied in a medical situation: it relates to the ability of health services to respond to a major emergency or disaster. The senior officer, however, is using it in the context of police response to a major terror incident, the first time I have seen the phrase employed in this way. Clearly, if you have multiple terror attacks in different locations over a very short period, it is going to require an extraordinary response from police and, potentially, the military. The suggestion, though, that thousands of bobbies with truncheons might be mobilised to respond to such an incident does not make sense. Surge capacity must mean armed police officers. The latest figures show there are 5,875 firearms officers in England and Wales, down more than 1,000 from 2009. The number has fallen as demand for their services has declined. Violent crime has fallen significantly and last year armed officers were only required to fire their weapons on two occasions. With less than 5% of police officers trained to confront tooled up terrorists, one might ask why chief constables don't train more, if that is what they really need. I heard former Home Secretary Lord Reid on BBC Radio 4 this morning pointing out that there were 115,000 police deployed in Paris last weekend - equal, he suggested, to what the entire force in England and Wales might be if the cuts go ahead. Policing traditions in France, however, are very different from Britain. The French have long had a penchant for men in uniform with guns. The Gendarmerie Nationale, numbering some 98,000 armed officers, is part of the armed forces and therefore under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defence - although it is now part of the Ministry of the Interior - and deals with serious crime on a national scale. The Police Nationale, with a further 144,000 officers routinely carrying pistols, operates in cities and large towns. And then there is the Compagnie Republicaine de la Sécurité (CRS), numbering around 13,000, who are used for riot control and the re-establishment of order. In addition to all of that, the French have Police Municipal - around 18,000 unarmed local officers in 3,500 communities. In the UK, the principles of Sir Robert Peel apply to policing - a focus on minimal use of force and the notion that officers are "only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen". There is little public support for officers to be routinely armed. Cuts to police numbers, however, have caused concern among police, some politicians and members of the public. People tend to equate the size of the force with its ability to protect us from harm - more cops, less crime. While there must be some truth in this idea, there is really very little correlation between the number of officers we have and the risk of being a crime victim. Broadly, crime rose in Britain in the 50 years after World War Two and has since fallen consistently. Police numbers rose as crime increased, but continued to rise as crime started to decline in the mid-90s - peaking at about 144,000 in England and Wales in 2009. Since then we have seen a reduction of about 20,000 police officers - the current figure for England and Wales is 124,264, not including police and community support officers. Northern Ireland has 6,780 officers and Scotland has 17,234. So would further reductions on police numbers put the country's safety in jeopardy? This week the Institute of Fiscal Studies looked at police budgets in a report called "Funding the Thin Blue Line". The report concluded that "cuts to police spending since 2010-11 have been large enough to reduce spending per person by 2014-15 roughly back to the level it was in 2002-03". But is that such a problem? After all, the amount of crime reported to police has fallen by more than a quarter since then. In 2002-03 they dealt with 5.9 million incidents. In the last year it was just 4.3 million. That aspect of their work has diminished greatly and I don't recall police complaining their budgets weren't big enough to keep us safe back then. The police argument is that while crime has fallen, other parts of their work have grown. As the service of last resort, they are increasingly expected to deal with people with mental health problems, anxieties over anti-social behaviour, domestic disputes and other non-criminal activity. A significant part of police time is now spent monitoring serious offenders in the community as well as protecting vulnerable individuals. Senior officers would also point to the changing risk from cyber-crime and, indeed, terrorism. These are legitimate points. The debate needs to be around the question of what the police are for. Theresa May famously told senior officers that their job was "nothing more, and nothing less, than to cut crime". But most police and crime commissioners would say that is simplistic. The public expect police to do much more than deal with crime. A lost child or a confused old gentleman, a burst water main, inconsiderate parking, noisy neighbours - are we really saying that the police should stop worrying about these unless they are demonstrated to "cut crime"? And then there is the risk from a Paris-style terrorist attack. Of course, we could reconfigure our police forces to be ready to respond to simultaneous shootings and bombings. We could train and arm tens of thousands more officers so there is "surge capacity" in every major town and city in the UK. But that would mark a revolution in Britain's attitude towards policing - a change for which there is little evidence of public support. | إن التحذير الموجه إلى وزير الداخلية من أن التخفيضات في ميزانيات الشرطة قد "تقلل بشكل كبير للغاية" من قدرة المملكة المتحدة على الرد على هجوم إرهابي على غرار باريس، ينظر إليه كبار الضباط على أنه ورقة رابحة في حملتهم لتغيير رأي المستشارة قبل إنفاق الأسبوع المقبل. مراجعة. | قطع الشرطة: هل القوة تغرق أم تلوح بالكفن؟ | {
"summary": "إن التحذير الموجه إلى وزير الداخلية من أن التخفيضات في ميزانيات الشرطة قد \"تقلل بشكل كبير للغاية\" من قدرة المملكة المتحدة على الرد على هجوم إرهابي على غرار باريس، ينظر إليه كبار الضباط على أنه ورقة رابحة في حملتهم لتغيير رأي المستشارة قبل إنفاق الأسبوع المقبل. مراجعة.",
"title": " قطع الشرطة: هل القوة تغرق أم تلوح بالكفن؟"
} |
The PC was breaking up a brawl on 31 August in Elgin Crescent when the youth lashed out with the drawn knife. At Wimbledon Youth Court, the teenager pleaded guilty to wounding and possession of a knife with intent to cause threats and violence. Police arrested a total of 67 people for having weapons at the carnival. The PC, from Catford Police Station, had to have stitches in the 1in (3cm) deep wound in his arm. Det Supt Raffaele D'Orsi, from Kensington and Chelsea Police, said the case showed the dangers police face. "I am thankful that his injury was not life-threatening," he said. | حُكم على صبي يبلغ من العمر 17 عامًا، بعد أن طعن ضابط شرطة بسكين قفل في كرنفال نوتنج هيل، بالسجن لمدة ستة أشهر وأمر تدريب. | اعتقال مراهق بتهمة طعن الشرطة في كرنفال نوتينغ هيل | {
"summary": " حُكم على صبي يبلغ من العمر 17 عامًا، بعد أن طعن ضابط شرطة بسكين قفل في كرنفال نوتنج هيل، بالسجن لمدة ستة أشهر وأمر تدريب.",
"title": " اعتقال مراهق بتهمة طعن الشرطة في كرنفال نوتينغ هيل"
} |
By Mark SavageBBC music reporter He was the first musician to enter the US album charts at number one. He has won a Brit award for outstanding achievement three times. And he owns six gold, 38 platinum and one diamond albums. None of this, however, impressed his father. Stanley Dwight, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, never attended one of Elton's shows, and never expressed pride in his son's success. Their relationship was strained until his death from heart disease in 1991. Writing in his new autobiography, Me, Elton admits he spent his whole career "trying to show my father what I'm made of". "It's crazy, but I just wanted his approval," the star tells the BBC, in the only print interview about his book. "I'm still trying to prove to him that what I do is fine - and he's been dead for almost 30 years." Strikingly, however, the star harbours no resentment, describing his father as a "product of his time" - uptight, emotionally stunted and trapped in an unhappy marriage. "Although he didn't really come to the shows or write me a letter to say, 'well done', I don't think he knew how to," he explains. Born Reginald Dwight and raised in Pinner, near Wembley in north-west London, Elton was frequently on the receiving end of his parents' frustration. He spent his formative years in "a state of high alert" amid arguments and "clobberings" from his mum. "My parents were oil and water. They should never have gotten married," he says. "As you get older, you can see much clearer what they went through, what they tried to do for me at the expense of their happiness." 'All hell broke loose' His salvation came in rock and roll. Both his parents were musically inclined - Stanley was a trumpet player with the Bob Miller band, while his mother, Sheila, would bring home new records every week on pay day. One day, she arrived home clutching Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel, a disc that turned Reggie's world upside down. "I grew up in the 1950s, which was a very conservative age - people peeking behind the curtains, being very judgmental," he says. "I knew nothing about sex, it was never even mentioned to me. If a girl got pregnant she was sent away and nobody talked about it. It was a very different place. "Then Elvis Presley arrived on the scene and revolutionised things musically and socially, and then the 60s happened and all hell broke loose". Initially, the teenager watched these developments as an outsider - in love with the music, but forbidden to participate. "I was very shy," he says. "I grew up not being able to wear what I wanted to. Winkle picker shoes? No, they were too disgusting. The mods wore chisel toe shoes and anoraks. I couldn't wear those either. "So when I changed my name and became Elton John, I just went off like an Exocet missile, and I had a great time. I lived my teenage years in my 20s, basically." The story has been told a thousand times: The miraculous meeting with lyricist Bernie Taupin, a blue-touch-paper appearance at LA's Troubador club, and an unbeatable run of hit albums. Between 1970 and 1975, there were 11 in all, an astonishingly productive purple patch that generated classic singles like Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Tiny Dancer and Rocket Man - the latter of which unexpectedly turned Elton into a sex symbol. "It was a surprising time," he laughs. "I mean, I wasn't David Bowie, I wasn't Marc Bolan, I was sitting at the piano. But I suddenly became, you know, the object of screaming girls. I don't know why." Emboldened by success, Elton's outfits became ever more outrageous: Satin capes and winged boots gave way to mohawk wigs, bejewelled top hats and peacock suits adorned with feathers and sequins - the sort of thing Liberace would have worn if he'd had the courage to be really flamboyant. His imperial phase culminated with two sold-out shows at LA's Dodger Stadium in October 1975. With a combined audience of 100,000 fans they were, at the time, the largest concerts ever staged by a single artist. "He was like Elvis at the height of his career," said photographer Terry O'Neill, who shot the gigs. "It is impossible to try to explain to people today what it was like." But Elton knew as he played those shows that he would never reach that peak again. "I was smart enough to know it couldn't last. It's impossible. You just have to accept that there's going to be someone bigger than you." It's a sense of perspective other artists lack, he says. "When Michael Jackson said, 'I want to sell more records than Thriller', I thought, 'Oh boy, you're in for a big fall'. Because Thriller was a classic record. It sold 40 million albums, which was huge. You can't have a record coming in at number one all the time." Sure enough, Elton would have to wait until 1990 before he returned to the top of the charts. The wilderness years, while hardly hit-free, saw him split temporarily with Bernie Taupin and record an ill-advised disco album, Victim Of Love. Behind the scenes, his drug and alcohol intake was spiralling out of control. In his memoir, he describes having seizures and witnessing his voice go "haywire" as his "unbelievable appetite" for cocaine grew stronger. The drug had initially given him a "jolt of confidence and euphoria," but as addiction took hold, he became erratic and violent. In 1983, after filming the video for I'm Still Standing, he woke up with his hands throbbing, unaware that the night before, he'd stripped naked, punched his manager John Reid and methodically demolished his hotel room. Although the recent biopic Rocketman depicts I'm Still Standing as Elton's hymn to sobriety, it actually took him another seven years to kick the habit. The turning point came when his then-boyfriend Hugh Williams checked into rehab, plunging Elton into a fortnight-long cocaine and whisky binge. Eventually, he dragged himself to the clinic, where Williams confronted him on his behaviour. "You're a drug addict, you're an alcoholic, you're a food addict and a bulimic," he said. "You're a sex addict. You're co-dependent". "Yes," said Elton, "yes, I am," and started to cry. So on 29 July, 1990, he entered rehab in Chicago to treat "three addictions at once". In his book, Elton reprints a poignant break-up letter he wrote to "the white lady" during his treatment. "I don't want you and I to share the same grave," it reads. He kept his word: The singer has now been clean for 29 years, during which time he's revitalised his career, married film producer David Furnish, written the hit soundtrack to the Lion King, launched the stage version of Billy Elliot and become father to two children, Zachary and Elijah. He says the autobiography was written for them: A document they could read after he's gone that would tell the unvarnished truth. "I want them to know that their dad was being honest, and he made something of his life after a few hiccups along the way", he says. It was Elton's sons that prompted him to give up touring, too. "My kids were only going to grow up once," he writes in the memoir. "Music was the most wonderful thing, but it still didn't sound as good as Zachary chatting about what had happened at football practice." With typical grandiosity, Elton's farewell tour is scheduled to run for three years, with the final show set for 17 December, 2020, at London's O2 Arena. But that is definitively not the end. Last week, Bernie Taupin posted a photo of himself at the writing desk, composing lyrics. Can Elton confirm they're intended for him? "Yes, they are," he says. "I said to Bernie, 'I'm going around the world for three years, why don't I write? "You know, I wrote the whole of the Captain Fantastic album on the SS France, sailing from Southampton to New York, and I didn't have a tape recorder. So I remembered everything I wrote in my head: The chord changes, the sequences, everything. "And I said, 'I'd like to go back and do that, instead of going into the studio and writing on the spot'. It may not be successful but I just want to try it." What's more, he's already cooking up plans to play concerts after the farewell tour. His "dream thing" is to put on a theatrical residency, in the style of Kate Bush's Before the Dawn extravaganza in 2014. Like her, Elton would delve deep into his back catalogue, prioritising lesser-played cuts like Amoreena, Come Down In Time and Original Sin over fan favourites like Your Song or Rocket Man. "I've sung these songs nearly 5,000 times, some of them, and although they're wonderful songs, and I'm very appreciative of them, I've sung them enough," he says. "If I do perform again, I would like to do songs that I think are just as good as the ones that have been popular for 50 years, but haven't had the chance to emerge." Elton John's autobiography, Me, is out now, You can hear excerpts, read by Taron Egerton, on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week and on BBC Sounds this week. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | ربما يكون قد بدأ الغناء على ألبومات مجمعة رخيصة الثمن، لكن إلتون جون أصبح خامس أكثر الفنانين تسجيلًا مبيعًا على الإطلاق. | إلتون جون: مازلت أريد موافقة والدي | {
"summary": " ربما يكون قد بدأ الغناء على ألبومات مجمعة رخيصة الثمن، لكن إلتون جون أصبح خامس أكثر الفنانين تسجيلًا مبيعًا على الإطلاق.",
"title": " إلتون جون: مازلت أريد موافقة والدي"
} |
Basil McCrea's statement casts further uncertainty over the University of Ulster's plans to expand its Magee campus in Londonderry. The plans were first proposed in 2008. He said it is difficult to see how Magee can grow given the current financial climate. "The higher education budget as it currently stands is going to be contracting rather than expanding," he said. "The pressure will be on the University of Ulster to maintain its three university campuses, never mind expanding. So this is something that is going to be quite difficult in the medium term." | حذر رئيس لجنة التوظيف والتعلم في ستورمونت من أن أي توسع في التعليم من المستوى الثالث غير مرجح بسبب العجز في ميزانية القسم. | خطة توسعة جامعة ماجي في جامعة أولستر "موضع شك" | {
"summary": " حذر رئيس لجنة التوظيف والتعلم في ستورمونت من أن أي توسع في التعليم من المستوى الثالث غير مرجح بسبب العجز في ميزانية القسم.",
"title": "خطة توسعة جامعة ماجي في جامعة أولستر \"موضع شك\""
} |
By Emma Jane KirbyBBC News, Lampedusa The mottled brown dog paws the heavy wire gates of the reception centre and whines to be let in, rubbing his mangy head on the mesh to try to attract the guard's attention. The young officer grins as he opens the door; "You just can't get enough of these guys can you?" he says fondly as the stray dog makes a beeline for the lunch queue and trots expectantly towards a group of migrants who are spooning pasta from plastic pots. The rest of Lampedusa, particularly those who are engaged in the tourist trade, don't share the dog's unconditional adoration of the migrants. At the island's port, Giorgio is turning over the engine of his small boat, Giorgio, a skipper, tells me he rarely gets the chance these days to take tourists out on the open sea - he's got no clients. It's hardly a selling point, he says, to boast that Lampedusa is a migrant hotspot - it doesn't exactly give off that festive holiday buzz. I protest that the island has some of the best beaches in the world, that its climate, even in these winter months is mild and comforting and that the surrounding cobalt-blue sea is full of dolphins, turtles and carnival coloured fish. He gives me a withering smile. "Yes mate," he agrees. "But so is Sardinia. That's why skippers there are happily fleecing tourists every day, while I sit idle here in the port." His girlfriend, Angela, hands him a cloth to wipe the salt off the boat's windows. "I used to work eight months of the year as a hotel receptionist," she complains. "Now I'm lucky to get three months work a year - the guests just aren't coming anymore, even in summer." In the main shopping street, a sparse handful of German tourists flick through glossy guide books and untidy piles of marked-down, turtle embossed T-shirts at the souvenir shop. A solitary birdwatcher, with a jumble of binoculars and cameras hanging from his neck, sits on the church steps mopping at a sticky trail of ice cream on his fleece as he gawps at the cafe opposite. But the cafe, far from being deserted, is stuffed with customers, each one clamouring loudly over the thumping pop music, for his mid-morning cappuccino. But it's not the frenetic activity that's caught our birdwatcher's eye - it's the fact that that every one of the customers in the cafe is in police uniform. On the other side of the island, looking out over a beautiful cove, Angela's old boss Andrea is chain-smoking cigarettes with an air of desperation. He's just put down the phone on a potential visitor who told him he'd like to book for next spring, but his wife is a bit concerned they might bump into a corpse when they go swimming. Andrea says that last year he was 50% down on bookings, but curiously he doesn't blame the migrants. He says it's the way they're managed. "Welcome to Lampedusa police state!" he says sarcastically as we hear a siren wail on the coastal road. "This whole island has become militarised - you can't go anywhere without seeing burly blokes in uniforms with truncheons, guns and bullet-proof vests. It's hardly a welcome is it?" There was a time, I remind him, when migrants outnumbered the islanders. They set up dirty, wild camps in the scrubland overlooking the port, and were constantly seen in bedraggled groups in the town in full view of the tourists - now they're kept inside the reception centre while they're processed and are quickly moved on to Sicily. "Isn't that better," I ask, "in terms of visitor appeal?" Andrea takes a long drag on his cigarette. "Those poor refugees are locked in as if they're in a concentration camp," he says quietly. "And what that says to tourists is, 'Welcome back to fascism'." Find out more I tell him that I've been chatting with Lampedusa's exhausted-looking mayor who's assured me that tourism on the island is undergoing a renaissance, welcoming a new kind of socially-aware visitor who feels solidarity with the migrant's plight. Andrea nods thoughtfully. "She's right," he says. "But unfortunately our new visitors are generally young and broke - they've no money for a nice hotel or dinner." He won't answer my question about what happens to his business if tourism doesn't pick up. Giorgio the skipper, though, is already talking about going to look for work further north, just like the migrants. Inside the reception centre, the brown dog chews contentedly on a sock he's stolen from an asylum seeker. He rolls onto his back in the dust. Tonight these migrants may all be shipped off, but tomorrow, or perhaps the day after, he knows there'll be more of them, so his future at least is certain. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. | جزيرة إيطالية مشمسة في البحر الأبيض المتوسط بشواطئها الجميلة وبحارها المتلألئة، لامبيدوزا تبدو وكأنها وجهة مثالية لقضاء العطلات - لكن السياح يبتعدون عنها. وأصبحت الشرطة حاضرة بشكل دائم، حيث يتم إرسالها للتعامل مع العدد الهائل من المهاجرين الذين يصلون إلى الجزيرة، وبالنسبة لبعض السكان المحليين، فإن الزي الرسمي يثير ذكريات غير مريحة. | لماذا يتجنب السياح جزيرة إيطالية جميلة؟ | {
"summary": " جزيرة إيطالية مشمسة في البحر الأبيض المتوسط بشواطئها الجميلة وبحارها المتلألئة، لامبيدوزا تبدو وكأنها وجهة مثالية لقضاء العطلات - لكن السياح يبتعدون عنها. وأصبحت الشرطة حاضرة بشكل دائم، حيث يتم إرسالها للتعامل مع العدد الهائل من المهاجرين الذين يصلون إلى الجزيرة، وبالنسبة لبعض السكان المحليين، فإن الزي الرسمي يثير ذكريات غير مريحة.",
"title": " لماذا يتجنب السياح جزيرة إيطالية جميلة؟"
} |
Katya AdlerEurope editor@BBCkatyaadleron Twitter News could come at any moment. The EU - infamously talented at the old goalpost-moving - has admitted that not only does the European Parliament not need to ratify an agreement for it to be provisionally applied as of 1 January, but that EU leaders don't even need to sign off on the treaty in person. An approved member of their government could do that instead, from the comfort of their own home. Could a deal come between Christmas and New Year, then, is the horrified question in EU capitals. Boris Johnson doesn't seem in a hurry to make up his mind, is the broad sentiment in Brussels. EU leaders don't view the prime minister as a details man. They don't think he's waiting to hear about the finer points of mackerel, herring or cod quotas before deciding what is politically more expedient for him. Declare a firm resolve and no deal and face the music from the opposition and many UK businesses? Or compromise to get a deal and be accused by ardent Brexit supporters of "betraying the Leave vote"? As always, the EU is only too happy to point out that there's no win-win here. The prime minister can't have his Brexit cake and eat it. Key issues remain the same For now, though, we're told there's little movement in talks, even though Belgium's prime minister noted the two sides "are in the last minutes of a football match". Michel Barnier the EU's chief negotiator, was reportedly in good spirits when he reported on the negotiations to representatives of the 27 EU countries on Wednesday morning. But he emphasised that the key outstanding issues remained very much the same: "This is the painful part," one EU diplomat told me, meaning that it's now time for difficult concessions. But frankly this has been the case for weeks. And as far as I and other observers can make out, both the EU and UK are still busy looking into the whites of each other's eyes, rather than holding their nose and jumping. EU diplomats insisted on Wednesday that the EU had gone pretty much as far as it could. "Michel Barnier didn't ask us today for more flexibility in his negotiating mandate," one source told me. "If he had, our answer would have been clear." No EU possibility to compromise at all any more, I asked. "Only millimetres," came the reply. Of course, the EU would say that. It wants the UK to make the big concessions. For a while now, EU countries - particularly those geographically closest to the UK, like France, Belgium and the Netherlands, have been nervous that Mr Barnier might concede "too much" in these negotiations. There's little appetite in the EU of wanting to do "whatever it takes" to get a deal. At five minutes to midnight, or otherwise. Angela Merkel noted that some EU countries were becoming impatient. France's Emmanuel Macron insisted on Tuesday that France would not sign up to anything that wasn't in its long-term interest. But, of course, the UK government says the same. Why leave the EU if only to tie yourself a few months later to Brussels' regulatory apron strings? Why break free from EU rules, with the dream of becoming a nimbler, more competitive sovereign economy, if you're then constrained by an EU trade deal in how much the government can invest in UK industries? And there, it seems, we are still stuck - provoking anxiety in businesses both sides of the Channel. The government and the European Commission insist companies were given plenty of warning. Whether a deal is agreed or not by the year's end, with the UK leaving the single market and customs union, big changes lie ahead. Yet the details of the deal are important for business. And a no-deal situation would probably further complicate and/or delay a decision on other impactful issues, separate from these negotiations. Like UK financial services' access to the Single Market after Brexit, or the flow of data between the EU and UK. As for people's holiday plans, there's pet travel permissions and EU and UK access to each other's healthcare systems still to sort out. EU countries are trying to pile pressure on a reluctant European Commission to be more open about contingency measures in case there's no deal - for example on transport, air traffic control and aviation safety. But Brussels doesn't want to give the UK the impression that it can benefit from a series of "mini deals" without signing up to a mutually agreed treaty. After months of these circular negotiations on the same sticking points, EU attention is now re-focusing on Brexit - with a sense of weary resignation and tension. "It's still feasible that we'll get a deal this month," one contact told me. "Or it could be next month. Or next year." If that's the case, both sides admit, the road will be bumpy and costly from 1 January, at least in the short to medium term. | إنها أيام مزعجة بالنسبة لأولئك منا الذين يراقبون، وينتظرون، وفي بعض الأحيان يقضمون أظافرهم، ويتصلون باستمرار بالمصادر، ويفحصون وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي بشكل دائم، بحثا عن تلميحات تشير إلى أن اتفاق الأمن التجاري بين الاتحاد الأوروبي والمملكة المتحدة أصبح قريبا - أو أنه خارج الطاولة تماما هذا العام. | خروج بريطانيا من الاتحاد الأوروبي: هل ينفد الطريق أمام الجانبين للتوصل إلى اتفاق؟ | {
"summary": " إنها أيام مزعجة بالنسبة لأولئك منا الذين يراقبون، وينتظرون، وفي بعض الأحيان يقضمون أظافرهم، ويتصلون باستمرار بالمصادر، ويفحصون وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي بشكل دائم، بحثا عن تلميحات تشير إلى أن اتفاق الأمن التجاري بين الاتحاد الأوروبي والمملكة المتحدة أصبح قريبا - أو أنه خارج الطاولة تماما هذا العام.",
"title": " خروج بريطانيا من الاتحاد الأوروبي: هل ينفد الطريق أمام الجانبين للتوصل إلى اتفاق؟"
} |
Peter HenleyPolitical editor, South of England@BBCPeterHon Twitter The architect of the plan, Hampshire leader Roy Perry, was singled out to speak at the Conservative Party conference in September and the Secretary of State Greg Clark seemed keen. As deals were signed with the North East, then the South West, it seemed the Southern powerhouse was just around the corner. But now I am told it will be January at the earliest before the plan will be looked at again. After initial meetings Westminster enthusiasm appears to have cooled. And back on the south coast changes that were ordered aren't going down well, in particular the concentration on new housing, overriding local plans. At least two of those who originally signed the original document have now tempered their commitment. Glossy Prospectus The glossy prospectus picked out the South of England's role as a driver of the UK economy, representing the largest "county area" economy in the UK, promising to add £3bn if productivity was raised. An impressive 24 signatures backed the bid, Hampshire County Council, Isle of Wight Council, Portsmouth and Southampton city councils and 11 district councils. They were working together on the project along with the Solent and Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnerships, New Forest and South Downs National Park authorities, Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue and NHS England Wessex. But keeping the leaders of all those organisations marching in the same direction has proved difficult. When the Leader of Hampshire County Council Roy Perry got top billing at a debate on devolution at the Conservative conference the call for 100% retention of business rates looked more distinctive than now that the chancellor has announced that was what he planned anyway. One council leader, Ferris Cowper from East Hampshire then admitted he'd only signed the bid reluctantly saying: "If it proved possible to stay in the project for the time being, then we had a chance of influencing the outcome to be more in our favour. "To remove ourselves from the bid at this early stage, would deny us that opportunity." Hardly a ringing endorsement. Then the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership sent a letter expressing some of its own reservations. In November, Secretary of State Greg Clark cancelled a planned visit to the South, summoning representatives from the region to London instead. A leader who was there described it as "a cross between Dragon's Den and the Apprentice". So who got fired? The government still wants to see an elected mayor at the helm of a new authority, so far the southern bid is offering just a board of leaders. The bid puts accelerated housing delivery at the forefront of its offer in return for certainty over infra-structure funding. But now several of the Conservative-led district councils are backing away from agreeing to vote-losing concreting over southern green fields. Far from one streamlined new administration, it's looking increasingly like devolution may end in tears - or the same old tiers - of local government. | يبدو أن كل شيء يسير على ما يرام. كان يُنظر إلى محاولة هامبشاير وجزيرة وايت لنقل السلطة على أنها المرشح الجنوبي الأوفر حظًا. اقتصاد قريب من حجم عطاء ويلز للسيطرة على مصيره. | هل انتقال السلطة في هامبشاير محكوم عليه بالفشل؟ | {
"summary": " يبدو أن كل شيء يسير على ما يرام. كان يُنظر إلى محاولة هامبشاير وجزيرة وايت لنقل السلطة على أنها المرشح الجنوبي الأوفر حظًا. اقتصاد قريب من حجم عطاء ويلز للسيطرة على مصيره.",
"title": "هل انتقال السلطة في هامبشاير محكوم عليه بالفشل؟"
} |
Mr Browne, who was a former adviser to London mayor Boris Johnson, will replace the current BBA head, Angela Knight, in September. Ms Knight announced in April that she would be standing down after five years in the post. The BBA is the industry body that represents the UK's banks. Mr Browne is currently Morgan Stanley's head of government relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He was also previously a journalist, working at the Times, the Observer and the BBC. | أعلنت جمعية المصرفيين البريطانيين (BBA) أن أنتوني براون، الذي يعمل حاليًا لدى بنك مورجان ستانلي، سيكون رئيسها التنفيذي القادم. | BBA تعين أنتوني براون رئيسًا تنفيذيًا جديدًا لها | {
"summary": " أعلنت جمعية المصرفيين البريطانيين (BBA) أن أنتوني براون، الذي يعمل حاليًا لدى بنك مورجان ستانلي، سيكون رئيسها التنفيذي القادم.",
"title": " BBA تعين أنتوني براون رئيسًا تنفيذيًا جديدًا لها"
} |
Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent@BBCDomCon Twitter Let's start with the legals. Judges in England and Wales have the power to impose a whole-life tariff (WLT) on the most serious and dangerous of criminals. There are 49 such prisoners in the UK. They include the Moors Murderer Ian Brady, Rosemary West and the three men who took their cases to Europe - Bamber, Douglas Vinter and Peter Moore. The Strasbourg court has long accepted that if a state wants to lock someone up for life, then that is none of its business. So this judgement was not about the state's right to lock up dangerous killers. The question was whether an WLT inmate should have the chance, during their long years inside, to try to show they are reformed and capable of making good with what little of their life they have left. Back in January 2012, seven judges in the ECtHR's lower chamber ruled by four to three against the men, saying that their life sentence without the possibility of parole did not amount to inhumane treatment. The case went up to the final Grand Chamber of 17 judges, including one from the UK, for a final say. Those judges reversed the lower court's decision by a majority of 16 to one. The Grand Chamber said that a state can keep someone locked up for punishment, deterrence, public protection and rehabilitation. But it said it was wrong that someone locked up in England and Wales does not have the opportunity to argue that they are rehabilitated. England and Wales are in a minority when it comes to this lack of review - even within the UK. There is no provision for a WLT in Scotland. And in Northern Ireland prisoners given a whole-life sentence can already ask for a review. Going abroad, the court says that a large majority of European states either do not impose whole-life sentences or, where they do, they usually have a review after 25 years. So why did the court rule against the system in England and Wales? Well it all comes down to what the judges say is a lack of clarity in the law - and the fact that a review once existed. Until 2003, home secretaries had the power to review a prisoner's WLT after 25 years. But the then government abolished that power as part of an attempt to take sensitive decisions about prisoners out of the hands of politicians. The problem, says the ECtHR, is that if Westminster wanted to take politicians out of WLT reviews, why did it not give the power to a judicial body? During the case, the government argued that ministers have a discretionary power to release WLT inmates on compassionate grounds, such as when someone was terminally ill, and that was sufficient. But the judges said the discretionary power did not offer a prisoner the chance to prove they were reformed because release could only come in an inmate's final days. So where does that leave the system? The court has basically argued that the government should resurrect the old system, so that whole-lifers are told when they are jailed that they can hope - no more than that - to have a review hearing many years down the line. It said that states should offer the review - and no more than that - because the grounds for keeping someone inside can change, and the circumstances may need looking at again. The court added: "If such a prisoner is incarcerated without any prospect of release and without the possibility of having his life sentence reviewed, there is the risk that he can never atone for his offence. "Whatever the prisoner does in prison, however exceptional his progress towards rehabilitation, his punishment remains fixed and unreviewable. "If anything, the punishment becomes greater with time: the longer the prisoner lives, the longer his sentence." The underlying point, the court argued, is that the thrust of modern penal policy has been to focus on trying to rehabilitate people - and that's why the lack of a WLT review is so odd in England and Wales. The effect of the judgement is very similar to a recent judgement from our own Supreme Court. In 2010 the justices ruled that people on the sex offenders register should have the opportunity to prove they are safe to be removed. So what happens now? Well, in legal terms, Parliament could solve the problem relatively easily by creating a power for either ministers, or the Parole Board, to review WLTs. Whichever way, the government has six months to respond to the court. But the politics of this are massive. Prime Minister David Cameron said he "profoundly disagrees with the court's ruling", adding he is a "strong supporter of whole-life tariffs". As the court makes clear, it has no problem with the use of the sentence - but it knows that its relationship with the UK is at an extremely sensitive stage. Whether it likes it or not, the judgement puts the court on yet another head-to-head collision course with ministers - and this time the row is arguably even more serious than Abu Qatada or Votes for Prisoners. | إن القرار الذي اتخذته الغرفة الكبرى للمحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان بشأن الرسوم الجمركية مدى الحياة الممنوحة للقاتل جيريمي بامبر واثنين من القتلة الآخرين هو قرار مهم حقاً - سواء من الناحية القانونية أو السياسية. | التحليل: قد يؤدي حكم التعريفات الجمركية على مدى الحياة إلى إثارة خلاف كبير آخر | {
"summary": " إن القرار الذي اتخذته الغرفة الكبرى للمحكمة الأوروبية لحقوق الإنسان بشأن الرسوم الجمركية مدى الحياة الممنوحة للقاتل جيريمي بامبر واثنين من القتلة الآخرين هو قرار مهم حقاً - سواء من الناحية القانونية أو السياسية.",
"title": " التحليل: قد يؤدي حكم التعريفات الجمركية على مدى الحياة إلى إثارة خلاف كبير آخر"
} |
Damian GrammaticasChina correspondent Mr Xi was immediately more relaxed and at ease than the man he had just replaced as general secretary of China's Communist Party. Where Mr Hu often appeared stiff and wooden, Xi Jinping smiled and even apologised for keeping his audience waiting. If he was nervous or awed by the prospect of ruling over one-fifth of humanity, there was no sign of it. At one point, he even seemed to become a little emotional while he was delivering his speech. Perhaps it is Xi Jinping's pedigree as a Communist Party "princeling" - his father was a revolutionary hero alongside Mao Zedong and a powerful figure in the party - that means he seems more comfortable in his own skin. Certainly, Xi Jinping has worked all his life for this moment. Rising through the party, he's been groomed for the top. 'More personality' And when he spoke, Mr Xi seemed to signal a new tone, too. He was more direct, more plain-speaking, more blunt. There was still some of the jargon of old, that the party must "continue to liberate our way of thinking... further unleash and develop the productive forces... and steadfastly take the road of prosperity for all". The content was similar to Hu Jintao's outgoing speech last week. But it still sounded different when Xi Jinping warned "the problems among party members and cadres of corruption, taking bribes, being out of touch with the people, undue emphasis on formalities and bureaucracy must be addressed with great efforts". Mr Xi tried to show he understands the bread-and-butter issues that most people care about. "Our people... yearn for better education, stable jobs, more satisfactory income, greater social security, improved medical and healthcare," he said. Bo Zhiyue of the National University in Singapore says Xi Jinping will be a different type of leader. "He has more personality. He is a regular person. He can work with anyone he meets. He is a very down-to-earth person. He is easy to get along with." Political personality But, of course, substance and results will matter more than style. On that score there was no detail, no policy proposal, no idea how he will bring about the changes he talked of. But if Mr Xi is able to connect with China's people in a way Mr Hu couldn't, that will be important. It may give him more room to carve out a political personality of his own that would give him more authority as leader. What will matter, then, is what sort of vision he has for China: something we simply don't know. There is, of course, a temptation to read too much into tiny things. A change of power in China is rare, it happens only once a decade. Every time there are hopes the new leaders will bring change. A little more than a decade after the trauma of the Tiananmen massacre, when Hu Jintao came to power, he was seen as a possible reformer. Now, though, as his decade has drawn to a close, his time is widely seen as a missed opportunity and attention has turned to the new generation. 'Very smart' Xi Jinping has risen to the top by keeping a low profile, says Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College in California. "Very few people know about who China's new leader will be, what he thinks. It's very smart for any incoming leader not to show his cards, and he's very smart." And he says the fact that Mr Xi is the first among equals in a new Standing Committee of seven will also make this leadership inherently conservative. "The new leadership looks in all likelihood to be a carefully balanced coalition, and a carefully balanced coalition is not a structure that is conducive to very decisive policy making," he added. The reduction in the Standing Committee from nine to seven men may make it easier to reach consensus and so take some tougher decisions. The past decade is widely seen as one of paralysis. But on that score, we'll have to see. What we do know from the other six new leaders is that they seem to contain a balance - the product of months of secret negotiations and compromises. Some are from the supposed Jiang Zemin faction, some from the Hu Jintao faction, some may be conservative-minded and unwilling to pursue reforms, others are more reformist economic managers. There are "princelings" and those from more humble backgrounds. The message to take away from this is that compromise and consensus seem to be the order of the day. It is worth noting that the candidates said to be most in favour of reform, like Wang Yang and Li Yuanchao, did not make it into the final seven. Both are young enough that they could still be elevated to the Standing Committee in 2017. But it means the final line-up is being seen as relatively conservative, and less inclined towards change. However the five new members on the Standing Committee are all relatively old. They may all serve only one term and have to retire in five years' time. Xi Jinping and the new number two, Li Keqiang, will be around for 10 years. So the day in five years' time, when Xi Jinping leads out the members of the next Standing Committee from behind that closed door, may be the day when he really cements his authority as China's leader. | عندما خرج شي جين بينغ لتقديمه كزعيم جديد للصين، كان هناك شيء واحد واضح على الفور بالنسبة لنا جميعا الذين كانوا ينتظرون في قاعة الشعب الكبرى. وسوف يكون أسلوبه في القيادة مختلفاً عن أسلوب سلفه هيو جينتاو. | فهل سيكون الرئيس الصيني شي جين بينغ مختلفا؟ | {
"summary": " عندما خرج شي جين بينغ لتقديمه كزعيم جديد للصين، كان هناك شيء واحد واضح على الفور بالنسبة لنا جميعا الذين كانوا ينتظرون في قاعة الشعب الكبرى. وسوف يكون أسلوبه في القيادة مختلفاً عن أسلوب سلفه هيو جينتاو.",
"title": " فهل سيكون الرئيس الصيني شي جين بينغ مختلفا؟"
} |
Flintshire council closed sections of the trail after flood defences were breached in the winter storms. The final stretch at Panton Cop near Bagillt has now been repaired after the embankment was breached. Environment spokesman Councillor Bernie Attridge said: "It's great to see the path finally ready for the public to enjoy over the holiday weekend". The coastal path covers the whole of Wales over a distance of 870 miles and opened in May 2012. The Welsh government split £545,000 between 17 councils to repair damage to the path. | سيتم إعادة فتح الامتدادات المتضررة من الفيضانات على طريق ويلز الساحلي في فلينتشاير بعد ثمانية أشهر من العمل. | إعادة فتح المسار الساحلي الذي تضرر من الفيضانات في فلينتشاير | {
"summary": " سيتم إعادة فتح الامتدادات المتضررة من الفيضانات على طريق ويلز الساحلي في فلينتشاير بعد ثمانية أشهر من العمل.",
"title": " إعادة فتح المسار الساحلي الذي تضرر من الفيضانات في فلينتشاير"
} |
In total, 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians were on board the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said. There were also 11 victims - including nine crew members - from Ukraine, four Afghans, four Britons and three Germans. Iran's head of emergency operations said 147 of the victims were Iranian, which suggests many of the foreign nationals held dual nationality. A list of passengers was released by the airline, but the BBC is awaiting confirmation from people known to the victims. Canada 'shocked and saddened' The majority of the passengers on the flight were headed for Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed. Out of the 176 victims, 138 had listed Canada as their final destination. Of them, 57 of them carried a Canadian passport, but many others were foreign students, permanent residents or visitors. Initially, the number of Canadian victims was given as 63. A number of the passengers on board the plane were reportedly students and university staff from Canada returning at the end of the holidays. The tragedy was a national one, touching many communities across the country. British Columbia Ardalan Ebnoddin Hamidi, Niloofar Razzaghi and their teenage son Kamyar, a family of three from Vancouver were returning from Iran where they had taken a short vacation and were confirmed to have been on the flight. The University of British Columbia said it is mourning the loss of Mehran Abtahi, a postdoctoral research fellow, and sibling alumnus Zeynab Asadi Lari and Mohammad Asadi Lari. "She was full of dreams, and now they're gone," Elnaz Morshedi told the BBC of her friend Zeynab Asadi Lari, who was studying health sciences. Her brother Mohammmad was the co-founder of STEM fellowship, a youth-run charity that helps students in maths and sciences. Other victims from the west coast province include Delaram Dadashnejad, an international student studying nutrition at a college in Vancouver, and couple Naser Pourshaban Oshibi and Firouzeh Madani. Alberta The University of Alberta confirmed that 10 members of the institution's community were killed in the tragedy. Pedram Mousavi and Mojgan Daneshmand, a married couple who taught engineering at the University of Alberta, were killed in the crash, along with their two daughters, Daria, 14, and Dorina, 9. Arash Pourzarabi, 26,and Pouneh Gourji, 25, were graduate students in computer science at the university, and had gone to Iran for their wedding. Other students who died included Elnaz Nabiyi, Nasim Rahmanifar, and Amir Saeedinia, as well as alumnus Mohammad Mahdi Elyasi, who studied mechanical engineering and graduated in 2017. Obstetrician Shekoufeh Choupannejad, her daughter Saba Saadat, who was studying medicine at the university, and Sara, who had recently graduated, were also among those on the flight The "community is reeling from this loss," said university president David Turpin on Thursday. Also from the province of Alberta was Kasra Saati, an aircraft mechanic formerly with Viking Air, the CBC confirmed. Manitoba Victims from Winnipeg included Forough Khadem, described "as a promising scientist and a dear friend," by her colleague E Eftekharpour. Graduate student Amirhossein Ghassemi was studying biomedical engineering. "I can't use past tense. I think he's coming back. We play again. We talk again. It's too difficult to use past tense, too difficult. No one can believe it," his friend Amir Shirzadi told CTV News. Amirhossein Bahabadi Ghorbani, 21, was studying science at the University of Manitoba and hoped to become a doctor, his roommate told the CBC. CBC also confirmed that a family of three from that city - Mohammad Mahdi Sadeghi, his wife, Bahareh Hajesfandiari, and their daughter, Anisa Sadeghi, were travelling together on the flight. Farzaneh Naderi, a customer service manager at Walmart, and her 11-year-old son Noojan Sadr were also killed. Ontario Many of the victims were returning to their homes in Toronto and other nearby cities in the province of Ontario. They included Ghanimat Azhdari - a PhD student at the University of Guelph, Ontario. She specialised in promoting the rights of indigenous groups and her research group described her as "cherished and loved". Toronto resident Alina Tarbhai was also among the victims, her employer, the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation (OSSTF), told the BBC. Her mother Afifa Tarbhai was also on board. The University of Windsor, Ontario, confirmed five people from their school had died on the plane. PhD student Hamid Kokab Setareh and his wife Samira Bashiri, who was also a researcher at the school, were among those killed. Omid Arsalani told CBC that his sister Evin Arsalani, 30, had travelled to Iran to attend a wedding with her husband, Hiva Molani, 38, and their one-year-old daughter Kurdia. All three were killed in the crash. The University of Toronto confirmed the loss of students Mojtaba Abbasnezhad, Mohammad Amin Beiruti, and Mohammad Amin Jebelli, and Mohammad Salehe. Seyed Hossein Mortazavi, a childhood friend of Mohammad Salehe, said he was a bit reserved and shy but a brilliant computer programmer whose talent was widely recognised. McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario confirmed the loss of PhD students Iman Aghabali and Mehdi Eshaghian, as well as of former postdoctoral researcher Siavash Maghsoudlou Estarabadi. The CBC confirmed that Mahdieh Ghassemi and her two children Arsan Niazi and Arnica Niazi, were on the flight. Tirgan, an Iranian cultural charity, said "it is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell" to some volunteers with their organisation, including couple Parinaz and Iman Ghaderpanah. The organisation said it was joining in mourning with another volunteer, Hamed Esmaeilion, who lost his wife Parisa Eghbalian, and their daughter Reera Esmaeilion. Western University said it was mourning four international students: Ghazal Nourian, Milad Nahavandi, Hadis Hayatdavoudi, Sajedeh Saraeian. The University of Waterloo shared the news "with heavy hearts" that their community had lost two PhD students Marzieh (Mari) Foroutan and Mansour Esnaashary Esfahani. Quebec Engineer Siavash Ghafouri-Azar was returning home with his new wife, Sara Mamani, when the plane crashed. The couple had just bought their first home near the Canadian city of Montreal. His uncle, Reza Ghafouri-Azar, told the BBC "I cannot come up with words for my kind, dedicated nephew." "He has been a very positive and passionate from childhood until his soul's departure from his body. Rest in peace my dearest side by your beloved wife," he said. Mr Ghafouri-Azar is a professor of engineering in Toronto, and he introduced his nephew to Ali Dolatabadi, an engineering professor at Concordia University who would become Siavash's thesis supervisor. "It is a great loss," Mr Dolatabadi told the BBC. "He was very intelligent, a gentleman. He had a kind and a gentle soul." He said his wife Sarah Mamani was "very kind, very polite". The couple were looking forward to throwing a housewarming party in the New Year. Armin Morattab was worried when his twin Arvin Morattab, called him from the airport in Tehran, amid reports that Iran had fired missiles at US targets in Iraq. "He said he was coming back home soon," Mr Morattab told the Montreal Gazette. Arvin Morattab and his wife Aida Farzaneh were both killed. The Gazette also confirmed that Mohammad Moeini, from Quebec, was also killed. Nova Scotia Global News confirmed that five of the victims have ties to Nova Scotia, a province on Canada's east coast. Dalhousie University student Masoumeh Ghavi, her sister, Mandieh Ghavi, were both killed, as was local dentist Dr. Sharieh Faghihi, and two graduate students at St Mary's University, Maryam Malek and Fatemeh Mahmoodi. Ali Nafarieh, a professor at Dalhousie and president of the Iranian Cultural Association of Nova Scotia, employed Masoumeh Ghavi part-time at his IT company. He says she was one of the university's "top students". "I remember she has always a smile on her face. What she brought in our company in addition to skills and knowledge and experience was her energy. She changed the atmosphere over there. We'll miss her a lot," he told CTV News. Iran victims We have no information on the 82 Iranian nationals who died. Tributes to British victims Four British nationals were among the victims. Three have been named as Mohammed Reza Kadkhoda Zadeh, who owned a dry cleaners in West Sussex, BP engineer Sam Zokaei from Twickenham, and PhD student and engineer Saeed Tahmasebi, who lived in Dartford. Last year, Mr Tahmasebi married his Iranian partner, Niloufar Ebrahim, who was also on the plane. Mr Tahmasebi's colleagues at Imperial College London described him as "a brilliant engineer with a bright future", and said that his contributions to engineering "will benefit society for years to come". His friend and business partner, Nima Shoja, told the BBC that Mr Tahmasebi and his wife were planning to have a baby. "I talked with Saeed every other day," Mr Shoja said. "I also tried to call him the day before his flight. [It] was late in Tehran and I was not successful. "He sent me a message in the morning [saying], 'I will call you tomorrow' - the tomorrow that he did not have." Swedish children feared dead Ten Swedish nationals died in the crash. Many of them are believed to have also had Iranian citizenship. Swedish media report that several children were among the victims. Sweden's foreign ministry confirmed that Swedes were among those killed. It provided no further details. Ukrainian airline crew Nine of the 11 Ukrainian nationals killed were staff at Ukraine International Airlines (UIA). Valeriia Ovcharuk, 28, and Mariia Mykytiuk, 24, were among the flight attendants who died. On their social media accounts, which are now being filled with tributes, they frequently shared photographs from their travels. Valeria posted just two weeks ago from a hotel in Bangkok with the caption: "Work, I love you." Ihor Matkov, was flight PS752's chief attendant. The other three flight attendants were named by the airline as Kateryna Statnik, Yuliia Solohub and Denys Lykhno. Three pilots were on board at the time of the accident: Captain Volodymyr Gaponenko, First Officer Serhii Khomenko and instructor Oleksiy Naumkin. All three had between 7,600 and 12,000 hours experience flying a 737 aircraft, according to the airline. A former UIA pilot said he had flown together with each of the three pilots. Writing on Facebook, Yuri, who wanted to be known only by his first name, described them as "great pilots". | تحطمت طائرة أوكرانية من طراز بوينغ 737-800 بعد وقت قصير من إقلاعها في إيران يوم الأربعاء، مما أسفر عن مقتل جميع من كانوا على متنها وعددهم 176 شخصا. | تحطم طائرة إيرانية: ضحايا الرحلة الأوكرانية PS752 | {
"summary": "تحطمت طائرة أوكرانية من طراز بوينغ 737-800 بعد وقت قصير من إقلاعها في إيران يوم الأربعاء، مما أسفر عن مقتل جميع من كانوا على متنها وعددهم 176 شخصا.",
"title": " تحطم طائرة إيرانية: ضحايا الرحلة الأوكرانية PS752"
} |
The letter states the lack of progress over the planned bypass is a major concern and frustration. Those who have supported the letter to Stewart Stevenson include the chamber of commerce and harbour board. A Transport Scotland spokeswoman said they were fully committed to investing in the north east infrastructure. However she said a number of factors - including a legal challenge to the bypass - have meant significant delays to the timetable. The bypass is aimed at creating a fast link to the north, west and south of Aberdeen. | وقع قادة الأعمال في شمال شرق البلاد رسالة مفتوحة إلى وزير النقل الاسكتلندي بشأن مخاوف بشأن التأخير في المشاريع بما في ذلك ممر أبردين. | مخاوف تم بثها بشأن تأخير مشروع النقل في أبردين | {
"summary": " وقع قادة الأعمال في شمال شرق البلاد رسالة مفتوحة إلى وزير النقل الاسكتلندي بشأن مخاوف بشأن التأخير في المشاريع بما في ذلك ممر أبردين.",
"title": " مخاوف تم بثها بشأن تأخير مشروع النقل في أبردين"
} |
Customers will see a reduction of three pence per unit after the first payment from Alderney Renewable Energy. The company will pay the sum on 1 January 2011, as part of its licence agreement, signed in 2008. The same payment will be made on an annual basis until the project is up and running. When the project is operational revenue will be linked to production. Alderney Renewable Energy CEO, Paul Clark, said grid access had been secured for sending power to the UK and France. He said the next goal was to secure funds from incentive schemes. | ستنخفض أسعار الكهرباء في ألديرني بعد الإعلان عن دفع 200 ألف جنيه إسترليني لتغطية تكاليف الطاقة من قبل شركة طاقة المد والجزر. | سعر كهرباء ألدرني ينخفض بعد الدفع | {
"summary": " ستنخفض أسعار الكهرباء في ألديرني بعد الإعلان عن دفع 200 ألف جنيه إسترليني لتغطية تكاليف الطاقة من قبل شركة طاقة المد والجزر.",
"title": " سعر كهرباء ألدرني ينخفض بعد الدفع"
} |
PCCs are elected as representatives who work to ensure police forces in England and Wales are running effectively. They replaced police authorities in 2012 and were intended to bring a public voice to policing. Elections were postponed in 2020 due to coronavirus but look set to go ahead this year. These are the candidates (listed alphabetically): Roger Hirst, Conservatives Standing for re-election, and formerly a county councillor and Brentwood district councillor. Chris Vince, Labour A Harlow councillor who has previously stood in the general election for Labour in Chelmsford. Related Internet Links Police and crime commissioners | سيتوجه الناخبون إلى صناديق الاقتراع في 6 مايو لانتخاب مفوض الشرطة والإطفاء والجريمة (PFCC) في إسيكس. | انتخابات Essex PFCC: المرشحون الذين يقولون إنهم سيترشحون | {
"summary": " سيتوجه الناخبون إلى صناديق الاقتراع في 6 مايو لانتخاب مفوض الشرطة والإطفاء والجريمة (PFCC) في إسيكس.",
"title": " انتخابات Essex PFCC: المرشحون الذين يقولون إنهم سيترشحون"
} |
Robert PestonEconomics editor Because that's not going to happen. My sources at the Treasury tell me that they are happy with RBS's current proposals to mend itself, which involve shrinking its investment bank and floating a share of its US retail bank, Citizens, on the stock market. However within a matter of days, Sir Mervyn and his colleagues on the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, or FPC, will determine how much additional capital all Britain's banks have to find, to protect themselves against future losses on loans to business and to personal customers who are only just keeping their heads above water (and see one I prepared earlier). What the governor signalled is his concern that RBS remains too weak to provide the credit needed for economic recovery. So it seems highly plausible that he will instruct RBS to raise more capital than it is currently planning to do. Since George Osborne has set up the FPC with independent authority to minimise the risks in the financial system, he would not find it easy to over-rule or ignore it on the first occasion it makes a big decision. The words "back" and "rod" are probably on Mr Osborne's mind a good deal, in these Sir Mervyn's last weeks in the job. That said, the idea that taxpayers will end up putting more money into RBS is for the birds. Such would be a short cut to political ruin for Mr Osborne, since Tory MPs would not tolerate even an extra penny of our money going into RBS. The far more plausible alternative is that RBS will end up having to sell even more assets than it currently plans, including - perhaps - the Queen's bank, Coutts. | وقد صرح ميرفين كينغ بأنه يريد أن يرى أصول بنك إسكتلندا الملكي السامة ومنخفضة الجودة تتحول إلى ما يسمى بمسألة البنوك السيئة - ولكن ربما ليس بالطريقة التي تبدو أكثر وضوحاً. | هل سيبيع بنك اسكتلندا الملكي كوتس؟ | {
"summary": " وقد صرح ميرفين كينغ بأنه يريد أن يرى أصول بنك إسكتلندا الملكي السامة ومنخفضة الجودة تتحول إلى ما يسمى بمسألة البنوك السيئة - ولكن ربما ليس بالطريقة التي تبدو أكثر وضوحاً.",
"title": " هل سيبيع بنك اسكتلندا الملكي كوتس؟"
} |
By Jonathan HeadSouth East Asia correspondent His grandmother stares into space, covering her face with her hands. His wife Ha sits unspeaking, refusing the entreaties to eat something. His father Le Minh Tuan hugs his young grandson in desperation, and just weeps. Le Van Ha's story was, until the disastrous end of his journey, very typical of a young man from this poor and mainly agricultural part of Vietnam. He followed a path trodden by thousands of others, overseas in search of better-paid work, leaving for Europe three months ago, just before the birth of his second son. The family had borrowed to build their house, and the journey west - facilitated by human traffickers - required £20,000 ($25,000) - a huge sum for which Le Minh Tuan had to mortgage his two plots of land. Everything hung on Le Van Ha landing a good job, and saving to pay back the loan. His world has fallen apart. "He's left us with a huge debt," Le Minh Tuan said. "I don't know when we can ever pay it back. I'm an old man now, my health is poor, and I have to help bring up his children." Le Minh Tuan is convinced his son is dead. He received a Facebook message shortly before telling him he was about to leave for England. It is believed most of those who died in the container came from the same district, Yen Thanh, in Nghe An province. Neighbours are coming round to offer support, and they share in prayers before family altars, carrying photographs of the missing. There's a large, smiling picture of 19-year-old Bui Thi Nhung, now above the shrine in her house. Her family are praying that somehow she wasn't in that container. Her sister Bui Thi Loan says she had a quick exchange of messages on Facebook on 21 October, when she mentioned that she was "in storage". "No information has been verified yet," she says. "It's only on the internet and social media, so we still have some hope. "We do know that there were three different lorries going to England that time, so we still hope that there is magic, and she turns out to have been on a different lorry." She says Nhung was the smartest of the four siblings, and had a lot of friends who helped her raise the money for the journey. Her family did not have to mortgage or sell anything. Now they are hoping for good news, or in the worst case, for help to bring her body back to Vietnam. The newly-built houses you see in this district are evidence of the money to be made, and saved, by working overseas. Britain appears to be the preferred destination. Some have spent time in countries like Russia or Romania, where they say it is very difficult to find well-paid jobs. They describe facing constant harassment in France from the police over their illegal status. But in Britain there are strong existing Vietnamese communities and jobs to be had in nail bars, restaurants or agriculture. The brokers they deal with are part of a global network of underworld facilitators who charge huge sums for moving people illegally across borders. The amounts people pay vary, from around £10,000 to well over £30,000. The higher sum is supposed to be for a "VIP service". Many of them go out of Vietnam via China. But when they reach the English Channel the only reliable way across is by being smuggled inside containers, regardless of what fee is paid. In the aftermath of the tragedy in Essex, the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered an investigation into trafficking networks. But trafficking has long been a serious problem, often involving women and children. This year the country was downgraded in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons report. Whatever measures the government is taking, the huge sums of money made from trafficking make it a lucrative and tenacious business that still thrives in Vietnam. Do you have any information about the incident? Email [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | يسود اليأس الشديد داخل منزل Le Van Ha المتواضع، حيث تحاول عائلته التصالح مع احتمال وجوده داخل الحاوية المنكوبة في إسيكس حيث تم العثور على 39 شخصًا ميتًا. | وفاة شاحنة إسيكس: العذاب يتصاعد للعائلات الفيتنامية | {
"summary": "يسود اليأس الشديد داخل منزل Le Van Ha المتواضع، حيث تحاول عائلته التصالح مع احتمال وجوده داخل الحاوية المنكوبة في إسيكس حيث تم العثور على 39 شخصًا ميتًا.",
"title": " وفاة شاحنة إسيكس: العذاب يتصاعد للعائلات الفيتنامية"
} |
By Joseph LeeBBC News Texts and letters arrived this week telling more than a million people in the UK to endure an extreme form of isolation for at least 12 weeks to “shield” them from the worst of the coronavirus outbreak. These “extremely vulnerable groups” include organ transplant recipients, some cancer patients, people with severe lung conditions, people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women with heart conditions. Told to stay at home at all times and aim to remain two metres (6ft) away from anyone they live with, how are they managing? ‘Everything is a risk’ “I would die if I got it, I’ve got no immune system,” says Angela Steatham. Four years ago, she was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, which affects the white blood cells that fight infection. The 56-year-old didn’t let it stop her work as a psychologist and leadership coach, travelling around the world to work with major companies. But coronavirus changed all that, leaving her just a couple of rooms in her cottage in the village of Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys, where she can feel safe. “Now literally the whole word is dangerous to me. And I can’t control that. That’s what has been psychologically really scary. I know that apart from me staying in one or two rooms of my home everything is a risk,” she says. Her 23-year-old son, Charlie, has moved out to allow her to follow the stringent restrictions. Whenever her partner, Simon Corden, has contact with the outside world, he has chosen to then quarantine himself as a precaution within the house – but away from her – for two weeks before they can spend time in the same room. They communicate on walkie-talkies due to the weaker mobile phone signal and patchy wi-fi service in their rural location, letting each other know when they need to use the kitchen or bathroom and checking they have cleaned it afterwards. An extrovert with a busy online life and a shield emoji posted on her Twitter profile, Angela says she’s had lots of supportive messages. And she stays connected with older relatives on the phone, but is unable to see their faces as they do not have videophone facilities. “My auntie and uncle, we were crying on the phone at the weekend, because we realised that, actually, we might never see each other again,” she says. “If something happens to her or my uncle or me over this next three months, that’s it.” ‘I never want my family to see me on a ventilator again’ Severe asthma came on suddenly for Rachael Paget one morning in 2017. By the afternoon she was on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, where she spent the next nine days. The memory of how it affected her family is in her thoughts as the 35-year-old teacher stays shielded from the virus outbreak alone in her terraced house in Warrington. “They’ve seen me on a ventilator once before, and it was horrific for them. It was scary for me once I woke up and people told me what had happened, but for most of it I wasn’t conscious. They had to see it and I would never want them to have to go through that again,” she says. She’s continuing to work from home, giving lessons online to the teenagers in her classes (“they’re really compassionate”), and keeping in touch with fellow teachers on social media. A big network of family members is helping to bring her supplies, but some, like her dad, have to be persuaded not to try to stay for a chat. But she says the rules on some of the practicalities of life while being shielded can be confusing and hard to manage. “I live alone so ridiculous things like putting the bin out – I have to do that. But am I allowed to? Am I putting myself at risk?” ‘How can I show my son affection from 6ft away?' With a four-year-old son, shielding alone wasn’t an option for Michael Winehouse, a charity fundraiser who has cystic fibrosis. So young Oscar and Michael's wife Amy are joining him in isolation at their home in Epping, east London - none of them leaving the house at all, including for their usual walks together in the forest. “We have to do it this way. Our house isn’t big enough and a four-year-old needs attention from mum and dad, especially when we’ve both got to work,” says the 33-year-old. “I can’t be that far away from him all the time. How can I educate him, how can I show him affection from that distance? He wouldn’t understand why daddy won’t come near him.” Michael says his genetic condition - which means thick mucus clogs up the lungs and creates a risk of dangerous infections - has prepared him for the prospect of isolation at home or in hospital when he’s unwell. But asking his family to do the same was “the toughest part”. Life in a coronavirus outbreak resembles having cystic fibrosis in some ways, he says, with the fear of infections from people with colds and coughs, cancelled plans and protective masks. “This does give the rest of society a bit of insight into the daily lives of people with CF. There is a lot of fear,” Michael says. ‘I’m marking off the calendar’ The text message warning her to stay inside for 12 weeks was unexpected for Hilary Leigh. The 75-year-old hadn’t anticipated that her cancer treatment more than a year ago would have put her in the extremely vulnerable group. She says some of the guidelines are “almost impossible” to keep in practice, staying two metres apart from her husband, Richard, at their home in Harrow, London, and never letting her guard down. That morning her husband had answered the phone and handed it to her – technically it should have been sanitised in between, she says. Food shopping has been a challenge, with the first online delivery slot she was able to book being 15 April. Family members are helping, but some others have had to isolate themselves because someone in their home has symptoms. She is keeping in touch with loved ones through FaceTime and swapping photos of the flowers growing in their gardens with a friend. “When it came through and it said 12 weeks I actually marked them off on the calendar. I’m going to tear off each week as it goes,” Hilary says. “Things do pass. Perhaps because we’re older we know this.” | بينما يُطلب من الناس في المملكة المتحدة البقاء في منازلهم لإبطاء انتشار فيروس كورونا، يجب على أقلية كبيرة أن تذهب إلى أبعد من ذلك، وتجنب أي اتصال وثيق - حتى مع أحبائهم - لمدة 12 أسبوعًا. هم ما يسمى محمية. | فيروس كورونا: تعرف على "المحميين" الذين يتحملون 12 أسبوعًا من العزلة | {
"summary": " بينما يُطلب من الناس في المملكة المتحدة البقاء في منازلهم لإبطاء انتشار فيروس كورونا، يجب على أقلية كبيرة أن تذهب إلى أبعد من ذلك، وتجنب أي اتصال وثيق - حتى مع أحبائهم - لمدة 12 أسبوعًا. هم ما يسمى محمية.",
"title": " فيروس كورونا: تعرف على \"المحميين\" الذين يتحملون 12 أسبوعًا من العزلة"
} |
By Reality Check teamBBC News Sites are often disguised to make them appear legal, or are hidden on the dark web, which enables people to act anonymously and untraceably online. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found 78,589 individual web addresses worldwide showing images of child abuse in 2017. Of these, 274 were hosted in the UK. Each of these URLs could contain thousands of images or videos. The IWF employs a team of analysts who proactively search for this material. They are responsible for finding about half of these sites, with the other half being drawn to its attention by members of the public. Five countries were responsible for hosting 87% of this material: Worldwide, Europe hosted the most sites (65%), overtaking the US, which used to have the highest concentration of sites containing images of child sexual abuse hosted on its servers. There were almost 8.5 million reports of material showing child sex abuse from 45 countries around the world in 2016, according to the membership body of internet hotlines, Inhope. This includes reports made to the IWF, and doesn't represent 8.5 million individual sites. But it does not tell you anything about where this material was being produced or viewed. Offenders could be viewing material from the UK, hosted on a server in the Netherlands, showing images of children in South East Asia, for example. While fewer than 1% of these sites were actually run in the UK, a major concern is the number of people here accessing material, which is hosted overseas. The Home Office reports that there are 80,000 individuals in the UK known to law enforcement who may pose a threat to children online. That includes people who have been arrested, charged or convicted for offences involving indecent images of children. But it does not include anyone known to police who has not yet had action taken against them. Inhope says that the hosting of sites containing these images is only one part of the picture when it comes to the "creation, distribution, and consumption" of child sexual abuse material. "While hosting reports can tell us where the highest concentration of servers containing child sexual abuse material are located, this should not be conflated with the production and consumption...which can happen anywhere. "The absence of hosting information in a particular geographic region does not mean that abuse is not taking place, that digital abuse content is not being created, or that there are no victims in need." What do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Get in touch Read more from Reality Check Follow us on Twitter | من الصعب معرفة النطاق الكامل للاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال عبر الإنترنت. | الاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال: ما هو حجم الإساءة عبر الإنترنت؟ | {
"summary": " من الصعب معرفة النطاق الكامل للاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال عبر الإنترنت.",
"title": " الاستغلال الجنسي للأطفال: ما هو حجم الإساءة عبر الإنترنت؟"
} |
The officer was taken to hospital where his condition was described as "stable", a Merseyside Police spokesman said. He said the force was investigating an "assault of a member of staff at HMP Altcourse on Wednesday". The BBC understands the attack took place in a transfer area and the inmate was on remand facing serious charges. Director for HMP Altcourse Steve Williams said: "We continue to support the officer and his family." | علمت بي بي سي أن أحد ضباط السجن تعرض لجرح رقبته على يد أحد السجناء في أحد سجون ميرسيسايد. | HMP Altcourse: قطع رقبة ضابط السجن على يد السجين | {
"summary": " علمت بي بي سي أن أحد ضباط السجن تعرض لجرح رقبته على يد أحد السجناء في أحد سجون ميرسيسايد.",
"title": " HMP Altcourse: قطع رقبة ضابط السجن على يد السجين"
} |
Icy patches, with snow mainly on higher routes, may "cause tricky travel" it said. The yellow weather warning covers Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Powys and Wrexham. Snow is most likely above 200 metres, the Met Office said. The warning is in place between 21:00 GMT on Saturday and 11:00 on Sunday. | أصدر مكتب الأرصاد الجوية تحذيرًا بشأن الطقس من الثلوج والجليد في أجزاء كبيرة من شمال ووسط ويلز. | تحذير من الثلوج والجليد في بوويز وشمال ويلز | {
"summary": " أصدر مكتب الأرصاد الجوية تحذيرًا بشأن الطقس من الثلوج والجليد في أجزاء كبيرة من شمال ووسط ويلز.",
"title": "تحذير من الثلوج والجليد في بوويز وشمال ويلز"
} |
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter This morning we have learned the extraordinary lengths governments can go to in order to persuade a giant American company to do business in its territory. The European Commission has published a letter setting out the reasons for its investigation into a tax deal between Ireland and Apple. We hear how an arrangement was reached in 1990 which saw Apple channelling much of its international revenue through Ireland. The way in which Ireland's government then calculated Apple's Irish profits looks to anyone who isn't an accountant like a case of holding your finger up in the air. In a document submitted by the Irish government, a representative of Apple admits to the revenue that there is "no scientific basis" for one of the figures used in the calculations. "However," the document continues, "the figure was of such magnitude that he hoped it would be seen to be a bona-fide proposal." Ireland did sign up to that deal, and another in 2007, and the result has been that the technology firm appears to have paid minimal tax as its profits soared following the introduction of the iPhone. The Commission's letter suggests that in 2012, when Apple's international revenues amounted to $64bn (£39.5bn), the company paid under 10m euros (£7.7m) in tax in Ireland. The European Commission suspects that the tax deal amounts to state aid, which was not available to other companies and could, therefore, be illegal. The Irish government and Apple have strongly denied that there was any special arrangement. The investigation has quite some way to go but if the Commission finds against Ireland, Apple could have to pay back some tax. Mind you, one Irish economist says the story has been vastly overblown and the most Apple could have to pay is $30m - small change to a company with a cash pile of around $165bn. It is, however, worth questioning just how good a deal Ireland has got over the years from Apple. Yes, there are 5,000 jobs, but in more than 30 years in the country the company has never brought any research and development work there, and very little manufacturing - indeed all of its R&D is done in the United States. Other countries may be cheering on this investigation. There is growing resentment at the way technology firms are benefiting from a race to the bottom in corporate tax rates, diverting their huge revenues to places like Ireland or Luxembourg. Note the change in tone from the UK government, once so keen to hobnob with the likes of Google. On Monday, Chancellor George Osborne announced what is already being dubbed a Google tax - a plan to force technology companies to reveal what profits they make in Britain and pay tax on them here. Just how that will work, we will have to wait until the Autumn statement to find out. Apple, for instance, paid just £11.4m ($18.5m) in corporation tax in 2013 after declaring UK revenues of just £100m. Given the company has 37 UK stores, and the average Apple store took over £30m last year, you can see how much of that revenue is being diverted through Ireland. So, prepare for some testing times in the relationship between the Treasury and the tech giants. Meanwhile, though, the government still wants to roll out the welcome mat for fast-growing sectors. Another less noticed announcement out of the Conservative conference was a new inquiry into the so-called "sharing economy"- companies like AirBnB which enable people to share under-used resources like spare rooms and make money. The inquiry will look at the economic potential of this sector and "investigate the main regulatory and policy issues" - which will presumably include how these companies are taxed. So which independent figure is to chair this review? The chief executive of a sharing economy business. Like politicians everywhere, the UK government is torn between enthusing over new technology - and demanding a fair share of its profits. | وهنا حقيقتان لا جدال فيهما. تحب الحكومات التقرب من شركات التكنولوجيا. وشركات التكنولوجيا - مثلها مثل أي شركة أخرى - تكره دفع الضرائب. لذلك يمكن تلخيص العلاقة بين الاثنين كحالة فيسبوك - إنها معقدة. | الضرائب والتكنولوجيا | {
"summary": " وهنا حقيقتان لا جدال فيهما. تحب الحكومات التقرب من شركات التكنولوجيا. وشركات التكنولوجيا - مثلها مثل أي شركة أخرى - تكره دفع الضرائب. لذلك يمكن تلخيص العلاقة بين الاثنين كحالة فيسبوك - إنها معقدة.",
"title": " الضرائب والتكنولوجيا"
} |
Police were called to a home on Bardolf Road in Cantley, Doncaster at 16:20 GMT on Saturday. A 55-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder was later released under investigation, South Yorkshire Police said. A post-mortem examination carried out on Sunday proved inconclusive, with further tests due to take place. The woman was formally identified on Sunday and her family are being supported by specially trained officers, police added. Read more Yorkshire stories Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or send video here. Related Internet Links South Yorkshire Police | ألقي القبض على رجل للاشتباه في ارتكابه جريمة قتل بعد وفاة امرأة تبلغ من العمر 44 عامًا في منزل في جنوب يوركشاير. | دونكاستر: القبض على رجل بعد وفاة امرأة تبلغ من العمر 44 عامًا في كانتلي | {
"summary": " ألقي القبض على رجل للاشتباه في ارتكابه جريمة قتل بعد وفاة امرأة تبلغ من العمر 44 عامًا في منزل في جنوب يوركشاير.",
"title": " دونكاستر: القبض على رجل بعد وفاة امرأة تبلغ من العمر 44 عامًا في كانتلي"
} |
His silver Ford Fiesta came off the road on the B724 west of Clarencefield at about 16:40 on Tuesday. Police said he had been taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for treatment to serious injuries. Sgt Jonathan Edgar said inquiries were at an early stage and urged any witnesses to come forward. | يرقد رجل يبلغ من العمر 37 عامًا في حالة حرجة في المستشفى بعد تعرضه لحادث في دومفريز وجالواي. | تحطم كلارنسفيلد يترك الرجل في حالة حرجة | {
"summary": " يرقد رجل يبلغ من العمر 37 عامًا في حالة حرجة في المستشفى بعد تعرضه لحادث في دومفريز وجالواي.",
"title": " تحطم كلارنسفيلد يترك الرجل في حالة حرجة"
} |
By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent, Incheon, South Korea It is 'seriously alarming' but surprisingly hopeful There's no doubt that this dense, science-heavy, 33-page summary is the most significant warning about the impact of climate change in 20 years. "It is seriously alarming," Amjad Abdulla, a lead author on one of the chapters from the Maldives, told BBC News. "The small islands will be the first, but nobody can escape; it is quite clear." But while the warnings about the dangers of letting temperatures go beyond 1.5C are dire, the report says, surprisingly perhaps, that the world can keep below the limit. "We face a really large challenge but it is not impossible to limit warming to 1.5 degrees," said Dr Natalie Mahowald, an IPCC author "I wouldn't want to be too optimistic as it will require huge changes, but if we don't do it, that will also require huge changes." Every little helps The report goes to great lengths to point out the differences between allowing temperatures to rise towards 2 degrees C above pre-industrial times, or keeping them nearer to 1.5. A half a degree doesn't sound like much but whether it is coral reefs, crops, floods or the survival of species, everyone and everything is far better off in a world that keeps below 1.5C. "Every bit of extra warming makes a difference," said Dr Hans-Otto Pörtner of the IPCC. "By 2100, global mean sea level rise will be around 10cm lower for warming of 1.5 degrees compared with 2C. This could mean up to 10 million fewer people exposed to the risks of rising seas." Similarly, when it comes to heat waves, in a world that's warmed by up to 1.5C, about 14% of the population are exposed to a heat wave every five years. That increases to 37% of the population at 2C. It's not option A, B or C; it's option A+B+C The headlines about cutting emissions by 45% by 2030 and getting almost all of our electricity from renewables by the middle of the century, are all very well but a key point of this report is that successfully limiting climate change to 1.5C is not just down to cutting emissions or making lifestyle changes or planting trees - it is all of that and then some, acting in concert at the same time. "All options need to be exercised in order to achieve 1.5C," said Prof Jim Skea, an IPCC co-chair. "We can make choices about which options and trade off a bit between them, but the idea you can leave anything out is not possible." We don't need to re-invent the wheel to limit warming There is a lot of faith put in technology that it can solve many of our environmental problems, especially climate change. This report says that the world doesn't have to come up with some magic machines to curb climate change - we've already got all the tech we need. The report says that carbon will have to be sucked out of the air by machines and stored underground, and that these devices exist already. Billions of trees will have to be planted - and people may have to make hard choices between using land for food or using it for energy crops. But really wacky ideas, such as blocking out the Sun, or adding iron to the oceans have been dismissed by this IPCC report. It's (partly) down to you! Where this new study from the IPCC differs from previous approaches is that it clearly links lifestyle choices with warming. The report's authors say that rapid changes must take place in four key parts of society: Many people might think that they have little personal involvement with any of these - but the IPCC authors say that's not the case. "It's not about remote science; it's about where we live and work," said Dr Debra Roberts. "The energy we buy, we must be putting pressure on policymakers to make options available so that I can use renewable energy in my everyday life." Cutting energy demand by using less of it is a highly effective step. Similarly being aware of what you eat, where it comes from, thinking about how you travel, having a greater interest in all these things can impact energy use. This greater awareness, and the changes it might inspire, could even be good for you. "Frankly, the more we are prepared to make changes to behavioural patterns that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the less we would need to rely later on more difficult options that we don't yet fully understand like carbon dioxide removal," said Prof Jim Skea. "There are lots of reasons other than climate change for shifting diets. If we changed to fulfil health recommendations, we'd all live longer and bounce around much more and have nicer lives and we'd also reduce greenhouse gas emissions." | ويلخص مات ماكجراث، مراسل بي بي سي للبيئة، خمس نقاط رئيسية من أحد أهم التقارير حول ارتفاع درجات الحرارة الصادرة عن الهيئة الحكومية الدولية المعنية بتغير المناخ. وقد تم إطلاق دراستهم حول التأثيرات والطرق الممكنة للحفاظ على درجات الحرارة من الارتفاع بأكثر من 1.5 درجة مئوية، في كوريا الجنوبية. | خمسة أشياء تعلمناها من تقرير الهيئة الحكومية الدولية المعنية بتغير المناخ | {
"summary": " ويلخص مات ماكجراث، مراسل بي بي سي للبيئة، خمس نقاط رئيسية من أحد أهم التقارير حول ارتفاع درجات الحرارة الصادرة عن الهيئة الحكومية الدولية المعنية بتغير المناخ. وقد تم إطلاق دراستهم حول التأثيرات والطرق الممكنة للحفاظ على درجات الحرارة من الارتفاع بأكثر من 1.5 درجة مئوية، في كوريا الجنوبية.",
"title": "خمسة أشياء تعلمناها من تقرير الهيئة الحكومية الدولية المعنية بتغير المناخ"
} |
"Are you looking to make your money legal?" a young man says, approaching me as I walk to a bank in Noida, a suburban area of Delhi. "It's very easy and we can finish our transaction right here, now are you interested?" Mukesh Kumar, 28, is not standing in the long queue outside the doors to the bank. He is one among many of India's "money mules" who have found ways to benefit from the cash crunch. How will India destroy 20 billion banknotes? India rupee ban: Currency move is 'bad economics' Why India wiped out 86% of its cash India's 'desperate housewives' scramble to change secret savings How India's currency ban is hurting the poor India's cash crisis explained Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise announcement has left many people stuck with hoards of now illegal cash, known in India as "black money". Many are afraid to deposit all their money into the banks, because the government has said that unaccounted for money will attract a 200% tax penalty and an investigation into the source of income. But people like Mr Kumar are ready to help them. "The government has said no questions will be asked if my account balance is less than 250,000 rupees (£2,947; $3,664). I can deposit your 'black money' into my account. I will charge 10% and give you back the remaining amount after a few weeks," he tells me earnestly. Mr Kumar, a construction worker, says he doesn't mind people calling him "a money mule". "You can call me whatever you want as long as I can make some cash." 'Hire a queue man' Long queues have become a familiar sight in front of ATMs and banks as people struggle to withdraw money. Indians have been allowed to exchange a small sum of banned notes into legal tender until 24 November as long as they produce an ID. This amount was reduced from a total of 4,500 rupees to 2,000 rupees on 17 November. Anything above this needs to be credited to a bank account. I meet more workers in Noida, which has hundreds of construction sites. And they are all looking to cash in on the situation. Sandeep Sahu tells me he is happy to stand in queues to change banned notes for a commission of 200-300 rupees . "It's tiring to stand in queues for six to eight hours for somebody else, but then its better than doing backbreaking construction work," he says. Mr Sahu says "rich people don't have the patience to stand in lines" and that is why "they are happy to give us a commission". "My wife and my son are doing the same job, and together we have made a good amount," he says. 'Rent an account' At another bank, I meet Pinku Yadav, who says that he has found a "customer to rent his bank account". "I am going to deposit 200,000 rupees into my account for somebody else for a commission of 20%," he says. Pointing at his bag, Mr Yadav says that he had never seen such a large amount of money in his entire life. "I support Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi's decision. It's satisfying to see the troubled faces of rich people." Mr Sahu's statement is quickly met with loud cheers from others standing in the queue. I ask him if he knows that what he is doing is illegal. "Yes, I know and I don't care," he says. "The government is not going to go after poor people like me. I am just making a small amount, rich people are the ones who are crying because their money has become illegal." It's 12:30 [local time] in the afternoon and queues have only become longer. Some people are eating lunch from boxes they brought with them in the morning. Praveen Singh works as a production manager in a garment factory, and he is also waiting to deposit 250,000 rupees in his bank account. "Yes, it's not my money. I am doing this for my boss. He has always been nice to me, and has helped me financially on many occasions," he says. "I don't see this as a fight between rich and poor people. Given a choice, everybody wants to avoid paying taxes. That's what the government needs to change and encourage people to pay taxes." *All names have been changed | أدى القرار المفاجئ الذي اتخذته الحكومة الهندية بحظر الأوراق النقدية من فئتي 500 و1000 روبية في إطار حملة على الفساد إلى إخراج 86% من الأموال من التداول في الاقتصاد الذي يعتمد على النقد إلى حد كبير. لكن بعض الهنود المغامرين يرون فرصة وسط الأزمة النقدية، حسبما أفاد مراسل بي بي سي فيكاس باندي. | تعرف على "بغال المال" في الأزمة النقدية في الهند | {
"summary": " أدى القرار المفاجئ الذي اتخذته الحكومة الهندية بحظر الأوراق النقدية من فئتي 500 و1000 روبية في إطار حملة على الفساد إلى إخراج 86% من الأموال من التداول في الاقتصاد الذي يعتمد على النقد إلى حد كبير. لكن بعض الهنود المغامرين يرون فرصة وسط الأزمة النقدية، حسبما أفاد مراسل بي بي سي فيكاس باندي.",
"title": " تعرف على \"بغال المال\" في الأزمة النقدية في الهند"
} |
By Gerry HoltBBC News Last Wednesday, it emerged that the armed forces were on standby to provide an extra 3,500 troops to help with security at the London Games, amid fears that private contractor G4S would not be able to provide enough trained staff in time. Since then, government ministers have made emergency statements on the issue and the company's chief executive has appeared before MPs to say he regrets the firm taking on the Olympic security contract - an appearance during which he agreed the company's performance had been a "humiliating shambles". G4S has said some staff failed to turn up for work but prospective employees have accused the company of not providing them with enough information to do so. Some told the BBC they had completed training but had yet to be told where or when they would be needed to work. Others said a lack of communication on accommodation and transport meant they could not make their shifts. 'No uniform or passes' Geoff Munn, from Orpington, said he had yet to find out whether he would be working at the Olympics. "I've been given the run around. I have contacted G4S on many occasions, only to be passed from one person to the next. No one had any idea what was going on and couldn't even tell me if I was still on the books," he said. "I'm reticent now to work for G4S even if they do sort themselves out. I'm going to be looking into my rights and investigating whether they are in breach of contract for not honouring my employment." Jennie Kesall, from Manchester, was due to start working for G4S next week but said she was still waiting for her uniform and paperwork. "On 15 June I was offered a job in Glasgow to work in one of the venues there if I was interested, and I replied saying that I was," she said. "Since then I have not heard anything. Also, if I have got the job am I supposed to be going to Glasgow next Monday to start? I have no uniform, passes, contract or confirmation. I have tried contacting them asking for information but I have heard nothing." Benjamin West, from Colchester, said he received a call at midday on Monday asking why he had not turned up for a shift as a guard. He said a lack of communication on accommodation and transport meant there had been no way he could get to work for 06:30 BST. "Whenever I tried to contact G4S I could only get through to a call centre - there was no-one from the scheduling department, or accommodation apartment - and no direct contact with G4S themselves. It was very frustrating," he said. 'No idea what is going on' John McGann, from Newcastle, cancelled other work and a summer holiday so that he could work for G4S only to be told recently that there was not enough time to train him. He initially applied and was interviewed in January. "I made sure I was available at the drop of a hat but clearly I will be spending the summer doing nothing," he said. Marc Walton, from Huddersfield, said he was appalled at how G4S had treated him after he applied for a job with the firm. He said that he had two rounds of training and a uniform fitting but had heard nothing since. "In 2010 I worked at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The training was good, they held venue familiarisation training and constantly updated me on what stage I was at. The experience with G4S could not have been more different." Jamie, from Devon, applied for a position with G4S to earn some extra money during his summer break from university, but has not been given any indication of when he can start. He even travelled 80 miles to Weymouth at the company's request to be fitted for a uniform. "Throughout the process, there has been a lot of waiting around for information," he said. 'Frankly unacceptable' Staff have also taken to the company's page on Facebook, posting comments about their experiences in the build up to the Games. And more than 100 people have joined a group named Open letter of complaint to G4S over Olympic security. In a letter posted on the page, which the group's creators said they planned to send to G4S, the treatment of staff was described as "unprofessional and frankly unacceptable". It said G4S should apologise to staff and offer compensation in some cases. A spokesman for G4S said it could not comment on individual cases. "The large increase in numbers of staff requested by Locog - up from an original 2,000 in December 2010 to more than five times this number, six months ago - has been extremely challenging, and we have encountered some delays in progressing applicants through the final stages," the spokesman said. "We have been devoting more resources and working flat out to process these as swiftly as possible, and we are now in the position where we have over 4,000 people deployed now at 100 venues, and more than 9,000 going through the final stages of training, vetting and accreditation. "We are working around the clock to put matters straight and considerable progress has been made in the past few days." He said the company was providing food and uniforms, and covering transport costs, for Olympics employees. For those further away, accommodation and transport were being provided, he said. | تعرضت شركة الأمن G4S لانتقادات شديدة منذ أن تبين الأسبوع الماضي أنها لم تتمكن من توفير عدد كاف من الحراس لدورة الألعاب الأولمبية في لندن. واتصل بعض الذين سجلوا للعمل في الشركة خلال الألعاب بهيئة الإذاعة البريطانية ردًا على الانتقادات. | موظفو G4S ينتقدون "الفوضى" الأمنية في الألعاب الأولمبية | {
"summary": " تعرضت شركة الأمن G4S لانتقادات شديدة منذ أن تبين الأسبوع الماضي أنها لم تتمكن من توفير عدد كاف من الحراس لدورة الألعاب الأولمبية في لندن. واتصل بعض الذين سجلوا للعمل في الشركة خلال الألعاب بهيئة الإذاعة البريطانية ردًا على الانتقادات.",
"title": " موظفو G4S ينتقدون \"الفوضى\" الأمنية في الألعاب الأولمبية"
} |
He was pronounced dead at the scene after the aircraft "lost control and crashed" at St Edward's school in Cheltenham, on Wednesday at 13:20 BST. The other pilot in the two-seat glider suffered minor injuries and was treated at Bristol's Southmead Hospital. Gloucestershire Police said the Air Accidents Investigation Branch was investigating the crash. Cotswold Gliding Club said "our thoughts are with the pilots' families". | قالت الشرطة إن طيار الطائرة الشراعية الذي توفي في حادث تحطم في ملعب مدرسي كان في التسعينات من عمره. | كان طيار تحطم طائرة شراعية قاتلة في شلتنهام في التسعينات من عمره | {
"summary": " قالت الشرطة إن طيار الطائرة الشراعية الذي توفي في حادث تحطم في ملعب مدرسي كان في التسعينات من عمره.",
"title": " كان طيار تحطم طائرة شراعية قاتلة في شلتنهام في التسعينات من عمره"
} |
By Anna CollinsonNewsbeat reporter But why do some of us crave a slow-roasted lamb shank for Sunday lunch, and yet feel sick at the thought of any circumstance where we would have to eat dog? Compare that feeling to China, where it's thought around 10,000 dogs will be slaughtered as part of an annual dog meat festival in Yulin. You can legally eat dog meat in the UK and it's claimed to be a good source of protein, so why don't we? Put simply, experts have told Newsbeat that in the West there is some sort of "emotional, psychological barrier" which stops us. Here are some of the theories: Dogs are our pets To feel connected to other social beings is very important to humans, and in the West that role is often filled by cats and dogs. Chimps are our closest genetic relatives, but there are all sorts of things that chimps can't do that dogs can. Lecturer in Developmental Psychology at the Open University, Dr Thalia Gjersoe, says dogs are particularly good as pets because they have a lot of psychological skills which other animals don't. For example, dogs can read and react to human body language. As a result, humans keep dogs in their homes and form "strong social bonds" with them. However, in China, fewer people have dogs as pets, and instead use them as work animals. We think dogs are like humans Research suggests that the more we like a person or an animal, the more complicated we think their minds are. Humans can even become emotionally attached to certain objects, like a teddy bear, and as a result treat it as though it has thoughts and feelings. "We think of dogs as having very complex minds," Dr Gjerseo explains. "That's why the thought of eating them is disgusting, in the same way we would think eating one of our friends is disgusting." Westerners' disgust Our love of dogs isn't the only thing stopping us from eating them; it is claimed the feeling of "disgust" and fear of being judged by others influences our eating habits too. In an article for The Guardian, science writer Dr Kathleen Taylor says: "To most Westerners, eating your dog is an abomination, end of story. That's the rule our culture happens to follow. "Disgust is contagious. We catch it easily from others, and it tells us what's acceptable and what isn't. "Eating Fido violates the rule and risks your being made a social pariah for having broken the moral code. It makes you untrustworthy, likely to break other, more important rules. "Disgust, by contrast, keeps you clean and pure, up on the moral high ground. It protects you from being punished by your community, or worse, being seen as disgusting yourself." However, what Westerners deem "disgusting" can also vary; most British people are against eating horsemeat, however it's estimated that around 18,000 tonnes of it is eaten in France every year. Carnivores There is a very short list of animals that most Westerners will eat; they tend to be mainly herbivores, the occasional omnivore, but no carnivores. Dr Gjersoe says: "Westerners seem to be particularly sensitive when it comes to things that they eat. Eating carnivores is considered disgusting in a way that it isn't in China." Dogs in China The Chinese tradition of eating dog meat dates back around five hundred years and is believed to ward off the heat of summer. Adam Parascandola is from the Humane Society International and visited the festival in Yulin, which started in 2010. Speaking via Skype, he tells Newsbeat he saw dogs tied up, in cages and being killed. "We went to a slaughter house and a truck had just arrived with hundreds of dogs on. I witnessed a man just hitting and hitting dogs," he says. Nearly four million people have signed a petition calling for the festival to be banned, including many within China where attitudes appear to be changing, particularly among younger generations. National animal rights groups within the country are trying to stop the dog meat trade while authorities banned restaurants from selling dog meat during the Beijing Olympics. Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter, BBCNewsbeat on Instagram, Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube and you can now follow BBC_Newsbeat on Snapchat | خروف وجرو - كلاهما لطيفان، أليس كذلك؟ | لماذا لا تأكل المملكة المتحدة لحوم الكلاب، بينما يأكلها الناس في الصين؟ | {
"summary": " خروف وجرو - كلاهما لطيفان، أليس كذلك؟",
"title": " لماذا لا تأكل المملكة المتحدة لحوم الكلاب، بينما يأكلها الناس في الصين؟"
} |
By Harry LowBBC World Service "The work of art is on my back, I'm just the guy carrying it around," says the 40-year-old former tattoo parlour manager from Zurich. A decade ago, his then girlfriend met a Belgian artist called Wim Delvoye, who'd become well known for his controversial work tattooing pigs. Delvoye told her he was looking for someone to agree to be a human canvas for a new work and asked if she knew anyone who might be interested. "She called me on the phone, and I said spontaneously, 'I'd like to do that,'" Steiner says. Two years later, after 40 hours of tattooing, the image spread across his entire back - a Madonna crowned by a Mexican-style skull, with yellow rays emanating from her halo. There are swooping swallows, red and blue roses, and at the base of Steiner's back two Chinese-style koi fish, ridden by children, can be seen swimming past lotus flowers. The artist has signed the work on the right hand side. "It's the ultimate art form in my eyes," Steiner says. "Tattooers are incredible artists who've never really been accepted in the contemporary art world. Painting on canvas is one thing, painting on skin with needles is a whole other story." The work, entitled TIM, sold for 150,000 euros (£130,000) to German art collector Rik Reinking in 2008, with Steiner receiving one third of the sum. "My skin belongs to Rik Reinking now," he says. "My back is the canvas, I am the temporary frame." As part of the deal, when Steiner dies his back is to be skinned, and the skin framed permanently, taking up a place in Reinking's personal art collection. "Gruesome is relative," Steiner says to those who find the idea macabre. "It's an old concept - in Japanese tattoo history it's been done many, many times. If it's framed nicely and looks good, I think it's not such a bad idea." But this aspect of the work often sparks intense debate. "It becomes a huge discussion matter every time, and those confrontations with people have been very exciting and interesting," Steiner says. "People are either very into the idea, or say it's going too far - they're outraged or say it's against human rights. They come with ideas of slavery or prostitution." Find out more As part of his contract, Steiner must exhibit the tattoo by sitting topless in a gallery at least three times a year. His first exhibition took place in Zurich in June 2006 - when the tattoo was still a work-in-progress. When the 10th anniversary fell last year, he was in the middle of his longest-ever exhibition, a whole year at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart, Tasmania, working five hours a day, six days a week. That came to an end on Tuesday. "Sit on your desk, with your legs dangling off, straight backed and holding on to your knees for 15 minutes - it's tough," he says. "I did this for 1,500 hours. It was by far the most outrageously intense experience of my life. "All that changed throughout the days was my state of mind - sometimes heaven, sometimes hell, always totally alert." The only thing separating Steiner from visitors to the gallery is a line on the floor - a line that that in the past some have crossed. "I've been touched, blown on, screamed at, pushed and spat on, it's often been quite a circus," he says. "But I wasn't touched a single time on this trip, it's a miracle." When people try to speak to him he doesn't move or reply. He just sits still. "Many people think I'm a sculpture, and have quite a shock once they find out I'm actually alive," he says. But he rejects the idea that this is performance art. "If the name Wim Delvoye was not attached to this tattoo, it would have no artistic relevance," he insists. It is part of Delvoye's intention, though, to show the difference between a picture on the wall and a "living canvas" that changes over time. "I can get fat, scarred, burned, anything," Steiner says. "It's the process of living. I've had two lower back operations." One of the joys of working at Mona has been having the gallery to himself before opening time. "To be in there by myself, with my headphones in, roaming around and doing my stretches surrounded by stunning art in this mystical building was surreal," he says. And he will be back there in November, for a six-month stint, after appearances in Denmark and Switzerland. "This whole experience has convinced me that this is what I am here to do. Sit on boxes," he says. "And one day TIM will just hang there. Beautiful." Places Tim has been exhibited 2006: de Pury & Luxembourg gallery, Zurich 2008: Art Farm, Beijing; SH Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai 2008-9: ZKM, Karlsruhe 2009: Rathaus and Leuphana University, Luneburg 2010-11: Hochschule der Kunste, Berne 2011: Kunsthalle, Osnabruck; Robilant & Voena, London 2011-12: Mona, Hobart 2012: Zone Contemporaine, Berne; Louvre, Paris 2013: Gewerbemuseum, Winterthur; Sammlung Reinking, Hamburg 2014: Weserburg Museum, Bremen; Haus fur Kunst Uri, Altdorf 2015: Strada Fossaccio, Viterbo; Gewerbemuseum, Hamburg; Civita di Bagnoregio, Rome 2016: Mona, Hobart Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Follow Harry Low on Twitter: @HarryLow49 | تيم شتاينر لديه وشم متقن على ظهره صممه فنان مشهور وتم بيعه لجامع أعمال فنية ألماني. عندما يموت شتاينر، سيتم تأطير جلده - وحتى ذلك الحين يقضي حياته جالسًا في صالات العرض دون قميصه. | الرجل الذي باع ظهره لتاجر أعمال فنية | {
"summary": "تيم شتاينر لديه وشم متقن على ظهره صممه فنان مشهور وتم بيعه لجامع أعمال فنية ألماني. عندما يموت شتاينر، سيتم تأطير جلده - وحتى ذلك الحين يقضي حياته جالسًا في صالات العرض دون قميصه.",
"title": " الرجل الذي باع ظهره لتاجر أعمال فنية"
} |
By Julia BrysonBBC News 'I was at a crossroads' SJ Watson was an audiology specialist before penning the international bestseller Before I Go To Sleep, which was turned into a Hollywood film. While working with hearing-impaired children at St Thomas's Hospital in London, he tried to write fiction in the evenings but as his workload increased, his time got increasingly tight. Things peaked in 2008 when his head of department announced his intention to retire. "The next logical career step for me would have been to go for his job," said Mr Watson. "But I remember feeling very strongly that I just didn't want to do that. It would have meant the end of any writing ambitions. "I had a really clear sense that I was at a crossroads and I remembered that as a child my ambition had been to have a book published, not to be head of an NHS department." The 46-year-old left his job and managed to find a part-time post in a nearby hospital. "As soon as I got that job I I knew it was the right choice, as straight away all my excuses not to write disappeared. "I treated it as two jobs, I'd work in the NHS three days a week and then on my novel the other four... and in the evenings on my NHS days, too." The author felt leaving his steady job was a giant leap into the unknown, but one he knew he had to take. "I realised I couldn't live with myself if I got to the end of my life and realised I'd never really, seriously, tried to write a book," he said. "I knew I'd have to make sacrifices, but that seemed worth it. And as soon as I started, well before the book was even finished - let alone a success - I knew I'd made the right choice, because I was doing something for me." From courtroom to kitchen Nisha Katona is the brains behind the "twisted Indian" eatery Mowgli Street Food, which has four branches. The 47-year-old spent 20 years as a family and child protection barrister before opening her first restaurant on Bold Street, Liverpool, in 2014. She had spent years building her passion for food before quitting her day job. "I was working as a barrister and all the while I was teaching other lawyers and judges about cooking at my home and our local farm shop kitchen. "I started a YouTube channel as I am evangelical about how simple and healthy Indian food is and how different eating at home is to what we see in the curry houses." Mrs Katona said it became clear people were flocking to her cookery classes because they wanted to taste her food. She said the ultimate test was to open her own premises and "every brick" of Mowgli was designed by her. "I'd finish court and go and stand in the corner of restaurant kitchens in a suit and see what you needed... and what it is to have a commercial kitchen," she said. While researching the Liverpool branch, she said she used to park outside the premises and study how many people were going into neighbouring restaurants and what their demographic was. Fortunately for her, the hard work paid off. "This is my new life [and it] is full of excitement and joy," she added. A better work-life balance Former Army officer Paul Rawlinson, 33, spent five years in the forces before setting up a Scandinavian cafe in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The idea came after he decided his career would not fit in with the family life he and his wife wanted to create. "In the first five years I had lived in six different places, and I knew there would be at least three moves in the next three years if I stayed. "It was more of a personal decision with what we were planning to do together. We wanted to start a family, and the idea of hopping around from posting to posting did not fit with that." Baltzersen's, which uses locally-sourced ingredients to create Nordic-style food, has won rave reviews since it opened in 2012. It was inspired by the food Mr Rawlinson's Norwegian grandmother Liv Esther Baltzersen used to cook him when he was a child, such as traditional serinakaker biscuits and waffles. In 2014, the venue started offering an evening menu under the name Norse, and its success has seen it move to a new venue in its own right. Mr Rawlinson said: "I wouldn't say I have any regrets, I'd do some things differently but then who wouldn't - especially entering an industry with limited experience." 'I just thought, this is crazy' Karen Beddow felt she was sacrificing time with her young family while working 12-hour days as a property litigation lawyer. She now runs a family travel blog from her home in Wirral, Merseyside. "As well as being a lawyer I sat on two boards - one as a non-executive director of a housing company and as chairman of the trustee board at a care home," she said. "There was one particular day where I went to the office at 7.30am, spent my lunch hour on an hour-long phone call, and ran out the office at 7pm to get to a board meeting. "I got home at 9pm and was still making dinner at 9.30pm. I then sat down and wrote three blog posts, just because that's what I loved doing and how I switched off, odd as that sounds." At the time, she had three daughters under five, and Mrs Beddow, 39, felt changing her career would be the best thing for her home life. "I just thought, this is crazy, the kids aren't seeing us. Our eldest daughter had just started school and was wanting more from me. "She wanted to talk to me about her friendships and what she liked and didn't like at school. I wanted to be there." In September 2015, Mrs Beddow's blog, Mini Travellers, won several awards and she started wondering whether she could turn it into a career. Two years in, she said she has no regrets. "It is working out perfectly for us as a family. Our childcare costs have gone, I am not paying for a nanny or the after-school activities that we did before. "It was absolutely the right decision, no hesitation." Pinpointing a change Sarah Smith spent 10 years working in the NHS as a radiotherapist. Although she loved her job, she knew it was time for a change and decided to retrain in acupuncture, aged 30. "I reached a point where I wanted new challenges," she said. "I always enjoyed my job and knew I wanted to work with the public, but I felt unfulfilled at work. "They wanted me to stay and go up a level [but] I knew that wouldn't suit me. I thought, do I want to be doing this when I'm 60? And the answer was no." Ms Smith, from Ilkley in West Yorkshire, said the seed was sown when she overheard a midwife asking a patient if they had tried acupuncture for morning sickness. After doing some research, she enrolled on a three-year training course which ran at the weekends. She was able to continue working for the first year before going part-time for the final two. Now fully qualified and with her own clinic, Ms Smith is self-employed and said it allowed her to manage her childcare more easily. "I would say acupuncture enables me to take all the best bits of my NHS job to the clinic," she said. "I have time with people, I am trying to help them and make them feel better. That is very rewarding, and was worth the risk." | كان هناك وقت تركت فيه المدرسة وحصلت على وظيفة مدى الحياة. في هذه الأيام، يتنقل الكثير منا من وظيفة إلى أخرى في نفس الصناعة، بينما يغير الآخرون حياتهم المهنية تمامًا. خمسة أشخاص أخذوا زمام المبادرة وجربوا شيئًا جديدًا يشاركون قصصهم. | الأشخاص الذين غيروا حياتهم المهنية ولم ينظروا إلى الوراء أبدًا | {
"summary": " كان هناك وقت تركت فيه المدرسة وحصلت على وظيفة مدى الحياة. في هذه الأيام، يتنقل الكثير منا من وظيفة إلى أخرى في نفس الصناعة، بينما يغير الآخرون حياتهم المهنية تمامًا. خمسة أشخاص أخذوا زمام المبادرة وجربوا شيئًا جديدًا يشاركون قصصهم.",
"title": " الأشخاص الذين غيروا حياتهم المهنية ولم ينظروا إلى الوراء أبدًا"
} |
Police said a man had been arrested in Ipswich, Suffolk, on suspicion of serious sexual offences against a number of individuals. This is the first arrest under Operation Pallial, the independent investigation set up in November last year to examine the abuse allegations. The arrested man has been taken to a police station in north Wales. | تم القبض على رجل كجزء من التحقيق في إساءة معاملة الأطفال التاريخية في دور الأطفال في شمال ويلز. | إساءة معاملة منازل الأطفال في شمال ويلز: العملية الأولى للاعتقال | {
"summary": " تم القبض على رجل كجزء من التحقيق في إساءة معاملة الأطفال التاريخية في دور الأطفال في شمال ويلز.",
"title": " إساءة معاملة منازل الأطفال في شمال ويلز: العملية الأولى للاعتقال"
} |
The county council has helped to secure £43,000 to promote peatland sites near Brechfa and Llanfynydd. The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will allow Dyfed Archaeological Trust to work with schools exploring prehistoric round barrows on Mynydd Bach common. The public will be able to support further investigations on the sites. Other partners include Swansea University and the National Botanic Gardens of Wales. | سيتم استخدام اكتشافات العصر البرونزي في المستنقع لعرض الموائل التاريخية في كارمارثينشاير. | 43000 جنيه إسترليني للترويج لمواقع مستنقعات الخث في كارمارثينشاير | {
"summary": " سيتم استخدام اكتشافات العصر البرونزي في المستنقع لعرض الموائل التاريخية في كارمارثينشاير.",
"title": " 43000 جنيه إسترليني للترويج لمواقع مستنقعات الخث في كارمارثينشاير"
} |
Police said more than 45kg of MDMA was seized in the operation in the Rosemount area last week. Connor Holmes, 22, and Scott Roddie, 26, both of Aberdeen, appeared at the city's sheriff court to face Customs and Excise Management Act and Misuse of Drugs Act charges. Both men made no plea and were remanded in custody. | مثل رجلان أمام المحكمة بعد مصادرة عقار النشوة الذي تقدر قيمته السوقية بما لا يقل عن مليون جنيه إسترليني في أبردين. | اثنان في المحكمة بسبب ما يزيد عن مليون جنيه استرليني من النشوة في أبردين | {
"summary": "مثل رجلان أمام المحكمة بعد مصادرة عقار النشوة الذي تقدر قيمته السوقية بما لا يقل عن مليون جنيه إسترليني في أبردين.",
"title": " اثنان في المحكمة بسبب ما يزيد عن مليون جنيه استرليني من النشوة في أبردين"
} |
It follows Blue Islands' announcement that it will pull out of the island in May, leaving Aurigny the only carrier. Paul Arditti said: "Aurigny have always said that Blue Islands were in the way of better services and most importantly lower fares. "Well now the spotlight is on Aurigny to bring those fares down." He said his main concern was for the Blue Islands ground staff in Alderney, who were losing their jobs. | قال أحد أعضاء Alderney States إن شركة Aurigny بحاجة إلى أن تثبت لسكان الجزر أنها تستطيع تقديم رابط جوي تنافسي وموثوق. | دعوة Aurigny لإثبات نفسها في Alderney | {
"summary": " قال أحد أعضاء Alderney States إن شركة Aurigny بحاجة إلى أن تثبت لسكان الجزر أنها تستطيع تقديم رابط جوي تنافسي وموثوق.",
"title": " دعوة Aurigny لإثبات نفسها في Alderney"
} |
Since signing up to the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) in September, Saudi Arabia has been combating the extremist Sunni insurgent group in Syria with an uncharacteristically assertive military stance and PR campaign. Meanwhile, on its southern border - and much closer to home - its allies' control of Yemen has weakened in the face of forces friendly to Shia Iran, the kingdom's regional rival. Saudi fighter pilots are bombing IS while the normally cautious Saudi state machine is trumpeting it. However, this is not without risk. Some Saudis have used social media to declare war on those who kill Muslims, and one particular image of Saudi bomber pilots that has attracted abuse includes a son of the crown prince. Most Saudis welcome their country's pro-active role, even if alongside the non-Islamic US. However, the self-styled coalition's Western components are also actively bombing in Iraq where the casualties are not just blood-thirsty expansionist IS fighters, but ordinary Sunni Muslim civilians. Many Saudis, including some close to the government, do not think that bombing Sunni Arab areas in either Iraq or Syria advances the interests of a Sunni Arab kingdom. After all, they know that local Sunni Arab discontent allowed IS to incubate in Iraq. Some Saudis see their country (and the UAE, Jordan and Bahrain) as Iran's proxy air force, bombing opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies argue that their struggle is against President Assad and his inner circle. However, neither the Saudis nor their regional and Western allies are actually targeting the Syrian regime. Brewing tensions? Mr Assad is trumpeting his struggle against IS too, and what he considers their effective allies: the Gulf-backed Syrian rebels, the most able of which are Sunni Islamist, whether self-styled "Islamist-lite" or unapologetically hardline militants. The coalition's aerial targeting in Syria has included the local al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra Front, which in 2013 rejected a merger with IS. Al-Nusra has allegedly received support from both Qatar and Turkey, and has fought battles against IS and on occasion collaborated with the Western- and Gulf-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA). Gulf-aided Syrian Islamist rebels opposed to IS are against the air strikes. So, in joining the bombing raids, Saudi Arabia might be cutting off its nose to spite its face. Then there is the accusation that, as the supposed ultra-conservative "Wahhabi Central", Saudi Arabia is the ideological source of the IS demon seed. Those close to the Saudi government refute this, talking up the tradition of Saudi religious scholars deferring to a perceptibly legitimate "imam", the King. Rebellion, they assert, is more in the Shia tradition, as evidenced by the Iranian revolution and the violent past of Dawa, the Iraqi Shia Islamist party to which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor Nouri Maliki belong. In truth, quietism - or "rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's" - is well-established in both the Sunni and Shia tradition, and, with some notable exceptions, has held firm in Saudi Arabia. US President Barack Obama has criticised allies who profess to be fully on board but from whose country the extremists find succour. He also argues that individual rights - and the rule of law - are the best way to drain the ideological swamp. It is unlikely that he is holding his breath any more than the Saudis believe that the US and its European allies will remove Syria's president. The Saudis argue that Mr Assad has been soft on both IS and al-Nusra for instrumental reasons: they kill his FSA and Islamist enemies. Islamic State's continued existence and ideological objection to his "secular" state enables him to argue that he too is part of the coalition of the willing. Iraq is off-limits for Saudi air force bombers. In fact, Saudi Arabia hopes to encourage Iraq to return to the "Arab fold". However, Iranian-backed Shia militants in Iraq and in Syria are killing Sunni Arabs, whether IS supporters or not. As a former top Iraqi official argues, these militants will be the ones to destroy IS on the ground. Multiple issues Saudi Arabia is in a messy situation. By bombing US-approved Islamic State targets, it is probably acting in its national interest. The kingdom was created by erasing existing intra-Arabian boundaries, but soon became a status-quo power. An Iraq whose leadership it doesn't trust, and a Syria whose leadership it wants replaced, are though likely to reap the benefits of the coalition campaign, assuming that the alliance that dares not speak its name - Iran, the Western powers and Saudi Arabia - prevents IS from marching on Baghdad and/or Damascus. In Yemen, the Saudi-backed government is trying to strike a deal with Houthi rebels, whose branch of Shia Islam is distinct from that adhered to by Iranians and Iraqis but who are viewed through the prism of a sectarian regional contest. Saudi Arabia blames Iran for the Houthis' rise, but, as in Iraq and Syria, Riyadh's inability to focus on several issues at once is also at fault. Key positions in the Saudi kingdom are beholden to intense succession calculations and the related health of incumbents. Another debilitating factor is their outright rejection of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia's allies in Yemen are weakening an already feeble central government and the willingness of Sunni tribal allies to fight for it, while al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains a threat. However, the kingdom has cut a key ally more or less adrift - Islah, the Yemeni branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. This has further weakened the position of Islah among allied Sunni tribal fighters. Reaching accommodation Troubles abound for the Kingdom, but its strategic alliance with the US, however contradictory, has been affirmed by Islamic State's expansion, even as Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran is seen by the US as equally indispensable. In its Yemeni backyard, a Saudi accommodation with the Houthis may be inevitable. Deals with IS are off the agenda, but a Saudi accommodation in Iraq with what the US and Iranian-backed Iraqi government can countenance is unavoidable. In Syria, matters will be determined by what more powerful state actors than Saudi Arabia are prepared to concede to each other. Neil Partrick is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) and is currently completing a book for IB Tauris on contemporary Saudi foreign relations. Follow on Twitter @neilpartrick | تواجه المملكة العربية السعودية - التي كانت لسنوات أكبر مصدر للنفط في العالم، وموطن أسرة حاكمة منذ فترة طويلة وحليف رئيسي للغرب - تحديات متعددة على عتبة بابها وعليها التكيف، كما كتب المحلل الخليجي نيل باتريك. | تحليل: تواجه المملكة العربية السعودية تحديات إقليمية معقدة | {
"summary": " تواجه المملكة العربية السعودية - التي كانت لسنوات أكبر مصدر للنفط في العالم، وموطن أسرة حاكمة منذ فترة طويلة وحليف رئيسي للغرب - تحديات متعددة على عتبة بابها وعليها التكيف، كما كتب المحلل الخليجي نيل باتريك.",
"title": " تحليل: تواجه المملكة العربية السعودية تحديات إقليمية معقدة"
} |
The scheme enables victims of crime to meet offenders as part of their rehabilitation process. Hundreds of police officers will now be trained in the process, which has already been used in Cheltenham and the Cotswolds. A conference organised by Restorative Gloucestershire will take place later. The group is a partnership between Gloucestershire police, Victim Support and local councils. Insp Eric Shield said: "We've reviewed what we've done. We like what we see. "It works, it's a success. It works for victims." | من المقرر أن يتم تعميم استخدام العدالة التصالحية في الجرائم البسيطة في جميع أنحاء جلوسيسترشاير بعد محاكمة ناجحة. | سيتم نشر العدالة التصالحية في جلوسيسترشاير | {
"summary": " من المقرر أن يتم تعميم استخدام العدالة التصالحية في الجرائم البسيطة في جميع أنحاء جلوسيسترشاير بعد محاكمة ناجحة.",
"title": " سيتم نشر العدالة التصالحية في جلوسيسترشاير"
} |
Annette Booth was stood in Woodgate, Leicester, when the car hit her at 23:10 BST on 29 September 2018. The 57-year-old was pronounced dead in hospital in Nottingham. Edgar Grisulis, 27, of Saxby Street, Leicester, who has also been charged with dangerous driving, is due to appear before magistrates in the city on 1 November, police said. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. | اتُهم رجل بالتسبب في الوفاة بسبب القيادة الخطرة بعد أن صدمت سيارة امرأة في محطة للحافلات. | اتهام رجل بسبب حادث تحطم محطة حافلات ليستر | {
"summary": " اتُهم رجل بالتسبب في الوفاة بسبب القيادة الخطرة بعد أن صدمت سيارة امرأة في محطة للحافلات.",
"title": " اتهام رجل بسبب حادث تحطم محطة حافلات ليستر"
} |
By Martina PurdyBBC NI Political Correspondent It is 15 years since cheers filled Belfast's King's Hall when it was announced that 71% of people in Northern Ireland had voted yes to the Good Friday Agreement. While almost all nationalists and others were cheering, only about half the unionists were rejoicing. Indeed, they were sharply divided over the "yes" vote - and whether a majority of unionists had backed the deal. As the leader of the "no" campn Ian Paisley, left the count centre the loyalists from the pro-Agreement Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) shouted "cheerio, cheerio, cheerio". Fifteen years on, PUP leader Billy Hutchinson sees the irony in this - as the DUP is top dog at Stormont, sharing power with Sinn Fein, and loyalists are reduced to street protests over the union flag and other issues. Would he have voted yes, knowing what he does now? "Yes," Mr Hutchinson answered. He added: "I would never say that I would have voted no because I think that yes was the thing to do at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But a lot of the 'i's weren't dotted and the 't's weren't crossed." Given another chance, the PUP leader said he would insist on issues being nailed down. 'Told you so' Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), said those loose ends were deliberate, aimed at conning the loyalists into believing they had signed up to a settlement rather than a process. Mr Allister, like the UK Unionist party leader Robert McCartney, voted no 15 years ago. Mr McCartney, according to a spokesman, now describes himself, not in the no camp, but in the "I told you so" camp. Having split from the DUP over power-sharing, the TUV leader carries the mantle for those who still regard the agreement as a travesty, 15 years on. But isn't it a rather small no camp these days? "I'm not sure that it's a very small camp," Mr Allister said. "I think when you scratch the surface there are a lot of unionist people in particular - and not just unionist people - but people across the community who recognise it is absurd we have got a system where you can't change your government where you can't have an opposition. So I think it is a growing momentum in that regard." In 1998, the no camp argued that the Good Friday Agreement was Ulster's death warrant. 'Don't blame me' Fifteen years on, Mr Allister must recognise this was an exaggeration? He countered it is a "slow death warrant" in which Northern Ireland is being "fused" socially and economically to the Irish Republic, through all-island arrangements in healthcare and trade. He argued that opinion polls which show strong support for the union, among Catholics, is the result of the death of the Celtic Tiger, rather than the agreement. The DUP's Jonathan Bell is now a junior minister at Stormont in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister. In 1998 he was an Ulster Unionist who knocked doors urging a no vote. So was he wrong? "No, in fact I'm really proud of saying 'don't blame me, I voted no'." Fifteen years ago, Mr Bell had argued against prisoners getting out early. So how does he square this with sharing power with ex-prisoner and fellow junior minister, Jennifer McCann, and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness? Mr Bell said the difference came with the St Andrew's Agreement, which ensured that power-sharing followed republican support for the rule of law. He said the DUP had delivered stable power-sharing after three failed attempts. Disillusion While he boasts the union is safe, he gives no credit to his former UUP leader and insists this was down to St Andrew's. "Nonsense," says the current Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt who, like Jim Allister, insists the DUP is working to a template from the Good Friday Agreement. Mr Nesbitt now shares some of the disillusion of the PUP, and like the TUV leader, wants an opposition. The UUP leader claimed the DUP-Sinn Fein led "coalition" is not much better than what went before under direct rule, when ministers with little affinity for Northern Ireland would fly in two or three days a week and make unaccountable decisions. Fresh referendum "I think the criticism of the people at the heart of the current devolved government is they fail to make decisions," Mr Nesbitt said. "They fail to live up to the expectation that we would tackle the big ticket issues, issues like dealing with the past, reconciliation and building a truly shared future." The DUP and Sinn Fein point out they are dealing with issues, citing the recent announcement on a partial shared future deal and moves to set up an all-party working group to deal with outstanding matters. As for Mr Nesbitt, he now wants a fresh referendum - on creating an opposition. | قبل 15 عاماً بالضبط - 22 مايو 1998 - ذهب الناخبون إلى صناديق الاقتراع للتصويت بنعم أو لا لصالح اتفاقية الجمعة العظيمة. في الجزء الأول من سلسلة مكونة من جزأين، تقوم بي بي سي بتقييم الانقسامات التي لا تزال قائمة داخل النقابات حول التصويت بنعم وأين هي الآن. | استفتاء اتفاق الجمعة العظيمة: النقابيون يفكرون بعد 15 عامًا | {
"summary": "قبل 15 عاماً بالضبط - 22 مايو 1998 - ذهب الناخبون إلى صناديق الاقتراع للتصويت بنعم أو لا لصالح اتفاقية الجمعة العظيمة. في الجزء الأول من سلسلة مكونة من جزأين، تقوم بي بي سي بتقييم الانقسامات التي لا تزال قائمة داخل النقابات حول التصويت بنعم وأين هي الآن.",
"title": " استفتاء اتفاق الجمعة العظيمة: النقابيون يفكرون بعد 15 عامًا"
} |
So what more do we know about the man considered by many to be the greatest golfer of all time? He was a child prodigy As young as 10 months, Wood's eye for a ball and an impressive swing had been spotted by his father Earl, who fashioned him a set of clubs and was his earliest teacher. At two, his potential was already getting wider notice and he was invited onto a TV show alongside the legendary comedian Bob Hope to show off his skills. Just months later, he won a competition for children under 10 - and so began a dazzling ascent through the junior game that saw him win tournament after tournament, collecting accolades and breaking records as he went. By the time he turned professional in 1996, he had won six USGA national championships and an unprecedented three consecutive US amateur titles. The man with the Midas Touch In 1997, a year after he turned pro, Woods won his first professional major, the Masters. He was only 21 and had not only become the tournament's youngest winner and first person of colour crowned champion, but he had also become the youngest golfer to be ranked No 1 in the world. By 2008, he had won 14 major golfing titles, and he jointly holds the record for most PGA Tour wins at 82 with Sam Snead and is three behind Jack Nicklaus' mark of 18 major titles. Along with the championship wins came the sponsorship deals, and his deals with Nike and Titleist in the early days of his pro career were some of the most lucrative ever seen in golf at the time. Over the course of his career, Woods has earned $1.5bn (£1.05bn) from endorsements, appearances and course design fees, according to Forbes magazine. In 2004, his gilded life seemed complete when he married former model Elin Nordegren, the daughter of a Swedish politician and radio journalist, and had two children - Sam, a daughter, born in 2007, and son Charlie in 2009. A man of 'Cablinasian' heritage His father Earl Woods, a lieutenant colonel in the US army, was of African-American, Chinese and Native American descent. His mother, Kultida, is of Thai, Chinese and Dutch descent. The golfing champion told Oprah Winfrey in 1997 that it bothered him when people called him an African-American. "Growing up, I came up with this name: I'm a Cablinasian," he said, to describe his heritage mix of Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian. Woods' achievements in golf have been that much more impressive for a game that has traditionally been seen as the preserve of white, middle class Christians. In his 2017 book on winning the Masters for the first time, he said that, while he hoped his win "would open some doors for minorities", his biggest hope was "we could one day see one another as people and people alone. I want us to be colour blind. Twenty years later, that has yet to happen". Public fall from grace It began with a story, in November 2009, that Woods had been in his car when it sped out of his Florida driveway, collided with a fire hydrant and ploughed into a neighbour's tree. In the days and weeks that followed, the world learnt that he had been cheating on his wife and was in fact a serial philanderer. The proud champion that appeared to have everything was, in fact, a deeply flawed individual. He took a break from golf, checked into rehab for what was widely rumoured to be treatment for sex addiction. In February 2010, he gave a 14-minute televised statement in which he apologised for his "irresponsible and selfish behaviour". Tiger and Elin eventually divorced, and the golfer dated US skier Lindsey Vonn before settling into a long-term relationship with Erica Herman, general manager of his restaurant in Jupiter, Florida. Painful return to glory In 2019, Tiger Woods seemed to have put his troubled decade behind him when he won the Masters at Augusta - his 15th major title, and the first one for 11 years. His victory was watched by his two children, something he described as coming "full circle". "My dad was here in 1997 and now I'm the dad with two kids here," he said at the time. But he also described the win as "one of the hardest" because of his ongoing back problems, which, between 2013 and 2017 saw him start just 24 events. In 2017, he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence when he was found asleep at the wheel of his car, later pleading guilty to reckless driving. He had five prescription drugs in his system at the time of his arrest. He had been recovering from spinal fusion surgery that ultimately gave him the chance at a second golfing career. Woods earlier this week said he hoped to play in this year's Masters after having a fifth operation on his back in January. "I'm feeling fine - I'm a little stiff," Woods told CBS Television on Sunday. "I have one more MRI scheduled so we'll see then if I can start doing more activities." It remains to be seen whether the man who has bounced back from many obstacles in the past will be able to surmount the challenges facing him after this latest car crash. | يدخل تايجر وودز إلى المستشفى بعد تعرضه لإصابات متعددة في ساقه في حادث سيارة. يتمني الكثيرون من عالم الجولف وخارجه الشفاء العاجل والكامل، لكن البعض يخشى أن يكون هذا بمثابة نهاية لمسيرة اللاعب البالغ من العمر 45 عامًا المتألقة. | تايجر وودز: انتصارات ومتاعب نجم الجولف | {
"summary": " يدخل تايجر وودز إلى المستشفى بعد تعرضه لإصابات متعددة في ساقه في حادث سيارة. يتمني الكثيرون من عالم الجولف وخارجه الشفاء العاجل والكامل، لكن البعض يخشى أن يكون هذا بمثابة نهاية لمسيرة اللاعب البالغ من العمر 45 عامًا المتألقة.",
"title": " تايجر وودز: انتصارات ومتاعب نجم الجولف"
} |
Figures released on Wednesday show like-for-like sales up to 27 March were down 4.4%, partly due to the effect of stocking new stores. Iceland opened 28 new stores in the UK and Ireland during the year. Chief executive Malcolm Walker said: "This has been an exceptionally challenging year for the group." He added: "In the face of food price deflation, intense competition and significant change in consumers' shopping habits, Iceland has continued its long tradition of successful reinvention. "We have done this by developing a new store format, launching new product ranges, upgrading packaging, rethinking marketing and initiating a major productivity programme." Iceland employs 24,000 staff in 859 stores across the UK. | أعلنت سلسلة الأغذية في أيسلندا، ومقرها فلينتشاير، عن "عام مليء بالتحديات"، حيث انخفضت أرباحها إلى 150.2 مليون جنيه إسترليني مقارنة بـ 202.2 مليون جنيه إسترليني في العام السابق. | سلسلة الأغذية المجمدة في أيسلندا تعلن عن "عام مليء بالتحديات" | {
"summary": " أعلنت سلسلة الأغذية في أيسلندا، ومقرها فلينتشاير، عن \"عام مليء بالتحديات\"، حيث انخفضت أرباحها إلى 150.2 مليون جنيه إسترليني مقارنة بـ 202.2 مليون جنيه إسترليني في العام السابق.",
"title": " سلسلة الأغذية المجمدة في أيسلندا تعلن عن \"عام مليء بالتحديات\""
} |
People in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield can cast their ballot in the local council elections. Parish councillors and a poll for the Police and Crime Commissioner are also taking place across the county. Local authorities are funded by a variety of sources, including council tax, government grants and other income, like parking charges. Here is how £100 of your money get spent by these councils. Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council The council spends money on things such as education, road maintenance, social care and public libraries. Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, which serves a population of about 245,000, expects to spend £560m this year. Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council Like its neighbouring authority, voters will go to the polls on 6 May. As well as borough councillors, voters in Doncaster can also decide on a mayor and parish councillors. Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, which serves a population of about 311,000, expects to spend about £503.5m this year. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Voters in Rotherham are also set to go to the polls in May. As well as borough councillors, polls for parish councillors and the Dinnington St John's Neighbourhood Planning Referendum will also take place. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, which serves a population of about 265,000, expects to spend about £515m this year. Sheffield City Council In Sheffield, voters can cast their ballot for the city council. They will also get to vote on the structure of the council in a governance referendum. Sheffield City Council expects to spend about £1.4bn this year, serving a population of 585,000. People in South Yorkshire will also have the chance to vote for the region's Police and Crime Commissioner on 6 May. These are the candidates who are standing. Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. | ومن المقرر إجراء الانتخابات المحلية في جنوب يوركشاير يوم الخميس 6 مايو. | الانتخابات المحلية 2021: كيف تنفق مجالس جنوب يوركشاير أموالك؟ | {
"summary": " ومن المقرر إجراء الانتخابات المحلية في جنوب يوركشاير يوم الخميس 6 مايو.",
"title": " الانتخابات المحلية 2021: كيف تنفق مجالس جنوب يوركشاير أموالك؟"
} |
By Rob CameronBBC News, Prague As I sat at my computer, poring over secret police files, I felt a sudden tug of nostalgia. The files were digital copies of reports written by StB officer Jan Sarkocy, sent to Britain in 1986 under diplomatic cover. When he met first Jeremy Corbyn, in November of that year, his business card read "Jan Dymic, Third Secretary to the Czechoslovak Embassy in London". They were fascinating documents, cryptic and - for me - strangely evocative. Especially the references to North London landmarks I knew well, such as Seven Sisters Road, where the Labour MP for Islington had an office. But my task was not to dredge up my own memories of Labour politics while the party was in opposition in the 1980s. Rather it was to examine the six documents in dossier number 12801/subsection 326, codename "COB", for traces of anything incriminating. And believe me, I couldn't find them. Nothing in Agent Dymic's descriptions of three meetings with the Labour MP - two in the House of Commons, one on Seven Sisters Road - suggest the StB ever regarded him as anything other than a potential source. A young leftist with good contacts in the peace movement. An internationalist with a Chilean wife who kept dogs and goldfish. The only document he appears to have passed on to Agent Dymic was a photocopy of an article in the Sunday People about a bungled MI5 raid on the East German Embassy. And each meticulous report ended with a little note of expenses incurred; parking, two pounds; underground ticket, one pound. Signed: Jan Dymic. For clarity I spent a morning with the woman who is now the custodian of millions of documents still marked "TOP SECRET": the Director of the Czech Security Services Archive. For research purposes these dossiers - once jealously guarded by the Communist-era secret police and intelligence services - are now freely available to anyone; all you have to do is ask for them. The director had also given me Dymic's own personnel file. But his Slovak was littered with arcane abbreviations and jargon, and I was having trouble understanding them. "COB" was Jeremy Corbyn's codename, that much was obvious. Nothing sinister in that, she told me; the StB used them for everyone, including people they were interested in cultivating. OK, but what were "GREENHOUSE I" and "GREENHOUSE II" - mentioned repeatedly in the files? The Czechoslovaks seemed obsessed with trying to penetrate these targets, and many of Dymic's approaches to British politicians - Jeremy Corbyn among them - were initiated with the aim of gaining access to them. "GREENHOUSE…" the director frowned, peering at the screen. "I'm sorry...." she admitted, after a few minutes. "I've really got no idea." Two days later, speeding down the motorway to Slovakia, I made a mental note to ask Agent Dymic - now just Jan Sarkocy - what this "GREENHOUSE" was. I had mixed feelings about this meeting, secured after many emails and texts. At home, the StB were the praetorian guard of Czechoslovak communism, responsible for hounding dissidents, torturing priests, and spying on a cowed population. Today, the epithet "estebak" - an StB officer - is still a term of abuse. They also had several high-profile successes abroad; recruiting two Labour MPs from the UK in the 1950s and 60s. Their rivals in military intelligence even recruited a Conservative one. After a huddle outside his house with Slovak reporters - where he made his explosive claims - Sarkocy had gone to ground, and was no longer talking. But finally, he relented, and so I now found myself outside his home in the village of Limbach, about half an hour north of Bratislava. A thick layer of snow lay on the ground as we waited for him to answer the door. Lines from John Le Carre novels filled my head. "It is cold in Limbach at this time of the year," I said in an exaggerated East European accent, to ease the tension. My Czech colleague - there to film the interview - laughed. In the end Jan Sarkocy was garrulous and friendly, still regarding his brief tenure in London with great affection. Most of what he told me, about an array of people and institutions, was so libellous - not to mention confusing - that I cannot even begin to repeat it here. But oddly not even he could remember what GREENHOUSE I and GREENHOUSE II were. The answer finally came from a BBC colleague. "I've made some calls," he wrote. "The main effort of the StB abroad, as directed by their Russian masters, was to penetrate the UK's intelligence agencies. So GREENHOUSE I was probably Century House, the former headquarters of the SIS, more commonly known as MI6." Ah. And GREENHOUSE II was, I suppose, the headquarters of MI5. The GREENHOUSE mystery solved, and the Corbyn frenzy dying down in London, I boarded a train back to Prague. As the 12:10 from Bratislava sped through the frozen fields, my head still spinning, I did what any journalist does at the end of a story: my expenses. Parking; two euros. Tram ticket: one. I suddenly had an image of Jan Sarkocy doing his in London 30 years ago. A different job. A different era. But some things, I suppose, never change. | كانت معظم الأخبار في المملكة المتحدة هذا الأسبوع مدفوعة بادعاءات جاسوس تشيكوسلوفاكي سابق بأن زعيم حزب العمال المعارض جيريمي كوربين كان مخبراً مدفوع الأجر للشرطة السرية في الحقبة الشيوعية في البلاد، StB. وينفي كوربين هذه المزاعم بشكل قاطع. في الواقع، تشير جميع الأدلة إلى أنه لم يكن أبدًا أكثر من مجرد شخص محل اهتمام بنك StB. ولكن كما أفاد روب كاميرون من براغ، فبينما انتهت الحرب الباردة، لا تزال بضع حزم من الورق الأصفر تتمتع بالقدرة على إلقاء حياة الناس في حالة من الاضطراب. | الجاسوس التشيكوسلوفاكي الذي التقى جيريمي كوربين | {
"summary": "كانت معظم الأخبار في المملكة المتحدة هذا الأسبوع مدفوعة بادعاءات جاسوس تشيكوسلوفاكي سابق بأن زعيم حزب العمال المعارض جيريمي كوربين كان مخبراً مدفوع الأجر للشرطة السرية في الحقبة الشيوعية في البلاد، StB. وينفي كوربين هذه المزاعم بشكل قاطع. في الواقع، تشير جميع الأدلة إلى أنه لم يكن أبدًا أكثر من مجرد شخص محل اهتمام بنك StB. ولكن كما أفاد روب كاميرون من براغ، فبينما انتهت الحرب الباردة، لا تزال بضع حزم من الورق الأصفر تتمتع بالقدرة على إلقاء حياة الناس في حالة من الاضطراب.",
"title": " الجاسوس التشيكوسلوفاكي الذي التقى جيريمي كوربين"
} |
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter On the Tech Tent podcast this week, we talk to two women who have been on the receiving end of that kind of behaviour and ask why the culture of Silicon Valley appears to be stuck in the last century. We also discuss a week that has seen the demise of the internal combustion engine come closer - as Volvo announced that all its cars will soon include an electric motor - and we meet the woman who has a powerful role in regulating Facebook and other tech giants in Europe. Tech's Problem With Women You might think that California was among the most liberal, even politically correct, places on Earth. But tell that to women in the technology industry. We knew how few women there were at senior levels in tech companies - and the situation is even worse at the venture capital firms that fund them. Now we are finding out just why they may find it difficult to thrive. This week has seen the latest in a series of scandals that have underlined something deeply wrong with the culture of Silicon Valley. Dave McClure, the co-founder of 500 Startups, an important and powerful figure in the funding of small tech firms, resigned after accusations that he had sexually harassed a female entrepreneur. Then another woman came forward with similar allegations. Malaysian tech entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh posted an account on her website of a brainstorming evening with Mr McClure and a group of other people in her apartment, which ended with him proposing that they should sleep together and pushing her against a wall to demand a kiss. On our programme, Ms Yeoh gives her first interview about her story, telling Zoe Kleinman she did not confront Mr McClure after the incident, afraid of what it might mean for her business and the deal she was trying to strike with him. "If I had told him how angry I was at the time, he might have pulled the deal off." We've contacted Mr McClure about the allegations but have not heard back from him so far. We also talk to one of the most prominent women in Silicon Valley, Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. She tells us of her own experience of sexual harassment, when a drunken entrepreneur groped her at a post-conference party. She says there was not the same power imbalance as in Ms Yeoh's case - she wasn't seeking funding from the entrepreneur - but she still thought long and hard about reporting the incident. "I've had the same type of concerns as other women - do I say something and risk hurting my company or do I shut up?" In recent weeks, more women have felt emboldened to tell their stories about sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination. Silicon Valley's cool liberal image is under threat - and the pressure is growing to do something about it. The Electric Future Will we look back one day and say this was the week when the electric car's time finally arrived? At a press conference in Sweden's capital Stockholm this week, Volvo Cars announced that from 2019 all its new models will be fully or partly electric-powered. On Friday, the first Tesla Model 3 - the electric car-maker's first mass-market model - rolls off the production line. And France has announced that by 2040, cars that use petrol or diesel will be banned from its roads. But reaching a time when the internal combustion engine can take its place in a museum rather than on the road may still prove a long and complex journey. For the mass of motorists, electric cars are still much too pricey a proposition. Of nearly 250,000 cars sold in the UK last year, fewer than 11,000 were electric or hybrid vehicles. Then there is the infrastructure needed to make electric cars a practical choice. For someone like me who lives in a terraced house, the idea of stretching an extension cable across the pavement to power my car does not appeal. Until there are charging points on every street and a network of fast-charging stations across the country, many motorists will say no to electric. Rachel Burgess from Autocar magazine tells the programme that Volvo's pledge may not be quite as dramatic as it appears - all carmakers have signed up to reducing the carbon emissions of their fleet and quite a lot of its cars will be what are called 48v mild hybrids, mostly powered by petrol or diesel rather than a small electric motor. Still, the electric car now has momentum, and we can expect to see further announcements from major carmakers who want to seem in tune with the future. Ireland's Data Overlord It's a small country geographically on the fringe of Europe, but Republic of Ireland wields great power when it comes to regulating America's tech giants. That is because many of them - and notably Facebook - have their European headquarters there, and that means that Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon can change the way they operate in the EU. She tells Tech Tent that American firms are learning they have to shape their policies to a European view of data privacy. One example: she has told Facebook that it can't use the facial recognition technology it applies in the United States in Europe. She also feels that European consumers are becoming less accepting of the bargain where we get free services from the American tech giants in return for being tracked. Ever noticed that a pair of trainers can seem to follow you around the internet if you've searched for them once? Ms Dixon tells us that this phenomenon is irritating more and more people: "They want to know why it is that you're serving me these ads." This week the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner, criticised an NHS hospital for the way it handed over patient data to Google's DeepMind division without many checks. Ms Dixon says these kind of deals that see public bodies collaborate with the tech giants will come in for closer scrutiny and regulators will ask some key questions: "What's the transparency to the public? Do they understand that the data is being shared and what are the purpose and benefits?" In May next year, Europe's new data protection law, the GDPR, comes into force. That will mean every organisation, large or small, has to be much more careful about how it shares data across borders - and it will make regulators like Ms Dixon even more powerful. | يواجه وادي السليكون وصناعة التكنولوجيا الأوسع مشكلة مع النساء. على الأقل، هذا ما قد تستنتجه بعد أسبوع شهد استقالة أحد كبار المستثمرين في مجال التكنولوجيا بعد اعترافه بتورطه في التحرش الجنسي. | خيمة التكنولوجيا: التمييز الجنسي في وادي السيليكون | {
"summary": " يواجه وادي السليكون وصناعة التكنولوجيا الأوسع مشكلة مع النساء. على الأقل، هذا ما قد تستنتجه بعد أسبوع شهد استقالة أحد كبار المستثمرين في مجال التكنولوجيا بعد اعترافه بتورطه في التحرش الجنسي.",
"title": " خيمة التكنولوجيا: التمييز الجنسي في وادي السيليكون"
} |
One of the strains circulating this year - H3N2 - has been dubbed Aussie flu because it is the same strain that recently caused big problems for Australia. Australia's 2017 flu season was the worst the country had experienced in nearly a decade. Experts are waiting to see if similar will happen in the UK, after a recent rise in cases. What is Aussie flu? Every winter there are a few strains circulating and Aussie flu or H3N2 is just one of them. It is an influenza A virus that appears to cause more severe infections in young children and the elderly. Most people will recover in about a week and won't need any specific treatment, apart from a bit of bed rest, some paracetamol or ibuprofen and drinking plenty of fluids. But for some - the very old, very young or people with pre-existing health conditions such as heart disease - flu can be deadly. Is Aussie flu worse than other types of flu? The UK is seeing a mix of flu types circulating including influenza B as well as the H3N2 strain. H3N2 is not new. It was around last winter too. Any strain of flu, including H3N2, can be dangerous for people who are vulnerable to it. Experience from last winter suggests the elderly are a high risk group for H3N2. Influenza viruses are given different names based on their type - A, B and C. A is usually the most serious while C is usually a milder infection. They can be further subdivided according to the proteins that they carry on their surface. These are called H and N antigens. The main strains circulating this winter are A(H3N2), A(H1N1) and B. How bad is the situation in the UK? Hospital admissions and GP visits for influenza have seen a sharp rise going into 2018, and although the figures are higher than last winter they are nowhere near as high as in 2009 when the swine flu pandemic hit the UK. Professor Paul Cosford, Medical Director, Public Health England said: "As we would expect at this time of year, flu levels have increased this week. Our data shows that more people are visiting GPs with flu symptoms and we are seeing more people admitted to hospitals with the flu. The vaccine is the best defence we have against the spread of flu and it isn't too late to get vaccinated." What about the flu jab? The vaccine is designed to protect against the type of flu circulating in any given season. Every year, the World Health Organization reviews the global situation and recommends which flu strains should go into the vaccine to be manufactured for the following season. This year's flu jab is designed to protect against H3N2 as well as some other strains. How effective is it? Vaccination is the best protection we have against flu. But flu is unpredictable. Flu viruses constantly mutate and change, so it is a moving target to fight. Public Health England says typical effectiveness of the flu vaccine is 40-60%, which means that for every 100 people vaccinated, between 40 and 60 will be protected. At risk people are advised to have annual flu jabs because flu strains can change from year to year, plus protection from the flu vaccine may wane after about six months. Adults aged over 65, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions are advised to get a free flu jab. A flu nasal spray is available free to young children, who are thought to be the main spreaders of flu. Why doesn't it stop all strains? In general, current flu vaccines tend to work better against influenza B and influenza A/H1N1 viruses than H3N2, according to US experts at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. And it's already known that flu vaccines may work less well in elderly people because they have weaker immune systems. Dr Richard Pebody, from Public Health England, said: "This season's flu vaccine should be providing reasonable protection, similar to last winter. Last year the vaccine did not give quite as good protection for the elderly for H3N2. "That's something that we are watching closely to see if it is an issue this winter." How the vaccines are made might also determine their effectiveness, according to research. Flu vaccines used in the UK and in many other parts of the world are currently grown in chicken eggs and this process can be tricky. Recent research in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found the H3N2 part of the flu vaccine did not grow simply during this process and developed mutations. When they tested the vaccine in animals and humans they found the H3N2 part did a partial job of protecting against this strain of flu. The vaccine had 20-30% effectiveness against H3N2. Experts stress this is still our best defence against the virus. And the jab provides excellent protection against other flu strains. A spokesman from Public Health England said: "Although we would like this to be higher, this is still a very valuable level of protection against what can be a nasty and sometimes deadly illness." Early indications suggest people vaccinated with a trivalent flu jab will not be protected against one of the circulating B viruses - B/Yamagata. The flu nasal spray immunisation given to children does protect against this strain, as does the quadrivalent flu jab, however. Trivalent vaccines will still offer better protection than having no vaccine in many cases, even if they may not protect against all of the circulating strains. Should I have a flu jab? Experts recommend that all those who are eligible for a free flu jab on the NHS should take up the offer. If you want to protect yourself against flu and you're not in one of the groups, you can buy the flu jab from high street pharmacies. People who can get it for free from the NHS include: A flu nasal spray is available to two and three-year-olds and some children at primary school. Front-line health and social care workers are also eligible to receive the flu vaccine. Is it flu? Flu symptoms come on very quickly and can include: Should I go to hospital? If you develop sudden chest pain, have difficulty breathing or start coughing up blood, call 999 or go to A&E. See your GP if: Help stop the spread Flu is very infectious and easily spread to other people. You're more likely to give it to others in the first five days. Flu is spread by germs from coughs and sneezes, which can live on hands and surfaces for 24 hours. To reduce the risk of spreading flu: | تستعد هيئة الخدمات الصحية الوطنية (NHS) لموسم إنفلونزا سيئ. | ما هي الأنفلونزا الأسترالية وهل يجب أن نقلق؟ | {
"summary": " تستعد هيئة الخدمات الصحية الوطنية (NHS) لموسم إنفلونزا سيئ.",
"title": " ما هي الأنفلونزا الأسترالية وهل يجب أن نقلق؟"
} |
Tom Jackson and Abby Parr's romance was featured on the first episode of Netflix's rebooted version of the show. The 58-year-old's heartwarming episode, "you can't fix ugly," ended in a tearful conclusion as he was re-united with Abby after his makeover transformation. The pair, who had remained friends for 12 years, eloped and were married in Gatlinburg, Tennessee on 27 March. Tom announced their engagement on Twitter a few weeks before. The "Fab Five"- Bobby Berk, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France and Karamo Brown- did not attend the small wedding, but Tom previously told Us Weekly that he had kept up many of his makeover routines. "I have my beard trimmed every two weeks and I use the beard conditioner and Jonathan told me two squirts of oil to keep my beard soft. I love the Fab 5!" The 52-year-old bride told the US weekly: "I was excited and happy! I was marrying the love of my life. Tom looked happy and excited as I walked down the aisle - I was looking at him looking at me and he was smiling as I walked down the aisle!" The new show takes place in the southern US and features five gay men who makeover ordinary, typically straight, men. And not just physically- they also offer advice about how they might change their attitude or general demeanour. 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' originally ran from 2003 to 2007 with a different cast and was remade by Netflix with a new cast debuting in 2018. | تزوج زوجان مفضلان من Queer Eye سرًا. | زوجان Queer Eye توم وآبي يتزوجان مرة أخرى | {
"summary": " تزوج زوجان مفضلان من Queer Eye سرًا.",
"title": "زوجان Queer Eye توم وآبي يتزوجان مرة أخرى"
} |
By Genevieve HassanEntertainment reporter, BBC News "I like being involved in all aspects of a movie or TV show - if I'm involved in a project I'm either involved 150% or I've passed it off to someone else 150%," says Seth MacFarlane. He's not lying - not only did he co-write, produce and direct his latest film A Million Ways to Die in the West, he also co-wrote a song for the comedy western and stars in it too. "It's hard for me to stay only halfway involved in something, so I do like to keep a hand in all facets," he says. Learn to juggle Not that the 40-year-old is power hungry - with fingers in so many different pies he's learned to juggle all the jobs, as well as trust his team to carry out his vision. "It's a combination of being invested in everything but also letting people do what they do because it takes a lot of the load off." Set in the Old West but with a contemporary twist, the film stars MacFarlane as cowardly sheep farmer Albert Stark who is fed up with life on the frontier, while desperately trying to avoid the numerous hazards claiming the lives of those around him. After challenging a love rival to a gun duel, he is helped by town newcomer Anna Barnes (Oscar winner Charlize Theron) to practise his shooting skills. Little does he know, she is the wife of a notorious outlaw (Liam Neeson). It's the comic's first turn as a live-action leading man, having spent most of his time behind the camera as the familiar voices of Family Guy characters including Peter Griffin and Brian the dog, as well as badly behaved bear Ted from his hit 2012 film. With such a recognisable voice, MacFarlane admits some people may have trouble seeing past his famous characters and viewing him instead as an actor. "That was a concern - it's always in the back of my head," he says. "Sometimes there is a disconnect when I see voice actors in person who did characters I've grown up with. "But since the Comedy Central roasts I've done and [hosting] the Oscars, I hope some of that has dissipated and people can separate me from the characters on Family Guy." 'Freak of Nature' Following on from the success of Ted - which is currently the highest-grossing R-rated original comedy ever - A Million Ways to Die in the West has a lot to live up to. "Ted was a freak of nature. It would be unrealistic to expect this movie to perform like Ted did," says MacFarlane, who insists he isn't feeling the pressure. "I'm happy with how this turned out. I don't generally operate in terms of pressuring myself with box office returns - I do projects that interest me and if I've done my job people will respond and go see the movie." Undoubtedly, box office receipts will be linked to whether audiences "get" the writer's brand of dark comedy and slapstick humour which has made Family Guy so successful, and whether it can translate to the big screen. MacFarlane is well known for the somewhat controversial material he includes in his animated series - a medium where he can arguably get away with more than in a live-action comedy. But with gags that touch on sexism, racism and even child abuse in the film, the writer believes the problem is not with his jokes, it's everyone else's sense of humour. "I think people are losing the ability to process context - not so much here [in the UK], but certainly in the States," he says. "Ironically the American entertainment press is losing it faster than the average American. "All in the Family was the greatest American sitcom, in my opinion, ever - it was on the early '70s and it was a huge hit. "The central character [Archie Bunker] was a total bigot, a total racist and his son-in-law who lived with him was a very progressive liberal who hated his racism. "The words that would come out of Archie's mouth - it was racist, it was sexist, it was homophobic - but that was his character and you were laughing at him for being ignorant. "Nowadays if that show was on, I think American people would get it, but the American press would not able to look past the words Archie is using. There would be no appreciation of context and that is a problem. "There is some stuff that is indefensible, but in order to separate you can't just say everything is offensive - which is what the American entertainment press has become. It's just become a lot of people screaming about things they are offended by." So does anything offend the comic? "There are things that offend me, like people committing horrific crimes or people harming animals - but I've never seen anything in a movie, TV show or fictitious production has ever really offended me. "I reserve that for real things." A Million Ways to Die in the West is on general release in the UK. | يشتهر Seth MacFarlane بإنشاء رسوم متحركة طويلة الأمد Family Guy وAmerican Dad، بالإضافة إلى التعبير عن العديد من شخصيات العرض. وتحدث لبي بي سي عن فيلمه الأخير، الذي يسيء للناس، وكيف أن الصحافة الأمريكية تفقد حس الفكاهة لديها. | سيث ماكفارلين: من Family Guy إلى رجل قيادي | {
"summary": " يشتهر Seth MacFarlane بإنشاء رسوم متحركة طويلة الأمد Family Guy وAmerican Dad، بالإضافة إلى التعبير عن العديد من شخصيات العرض. وتحدث لبي بي سي عن فيلمه الأخير، الذي يسيء للناس، وكيف أن الصحافة الأمريكية تفقد حس الفكاهة لديها.",
"title": " سيث ماكفارلين: من Family Guy إلى رجل قيادي"
} |
By Bill WilsonBusiness reporter, BBC News "Complaints having been made as to football being played by women, the [FA] council feel impelled to express their strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged. Complaints have also been made as to the conditions under which some of these matches have been arranged and played, and the appropriation of receipts to other than charitable objects." With these words in 1921, the FA decided to ban the playing of women's football in FA-member grounds, which strangled the game as a successful business as the stricture remained in place for 50 years. In other countries there were outright bans on women playing. Jean Williams, the University of Wolverhampton's professor of sport, takes us through items which show the business history and struggles of the women's game. 1. 1895 Sketch magazine print of Nettie Honeyball 'in her football costume' "In 1863 we get the formation of the Football Association and of the modern game. The first women's football games that we know about are in 1881, and they are professional games played to large audiences and they make money. It seems they are organised by local businessmen. The 1881-82 games are relatively short lived. "Nettie Honeyball is the secretary and captain of the first British Ladies Football Club, which was founded in 1894. She was a middle class woman, and they had a non-playing president Lady Florence Dixie, who was upper class. "In historic terms this was the first time women organised football for women. The first game was in Crouch End in 1895 before 10,000 people, which must have generated healthy receipts. Hundreds of games follow in the next few years and the women's game is played all over Britain." 2. Wheaties cereal box from the 1990s featuring US player Michelle Akers "In the 1991 women's world championship she was the winner of the golden boot. She was the first real international women's football star and was massive in the US. She paved the way for Mia Hamm and Hope Solo, but interestingly one of the things that constricted her potential success was that she suffered from chronic fatigue disorder. But for that, her international profile could have been much more. "The narrative of the Wheaties box is that she has had challenges to overcome but is still achieving and can't be held back. This is all referred to on the packaging of the cereal, which the manufacturers call 'The Breakfast of Champions'. "It is one of the first commercial endorsements of this type in the 1990s, at a time when Fifa finally decided they were going to actively oversee women's football, having taken over its stewardship in 1971 but not doing much to promote it in the intervening years." 3. Programmes from 1950s women's football matches "The crux of the FA's ban is that it does not ban women's football outright, but stops it being played on member clubs' grounds. Before the ban women's football is an entertainment spectacle, and if you play it in enclosed stadiums then you can charge people money to come in and watch. "Once the ban comes in women's football goes to other venues: to rugby league and cricket grounds, as well as other venues. These programmes show games being played at Belle Vue speedway stadium, Manchester, and at a general sports stadium on the Isle of Man. "But the FA puts pressure on other sports not to host women's games, which destroys the business model of the women's game. And that gives growth to the myth that women's football has never been an entertaining commercial spectacle. The game is still finding its way back from the ban." 4. Christie and Barbie football dolls "These dolls were released for sale before the 1999 Women's World Cup by toymaker Mattel. The goalkeeper of that team was Briana Scurry." [The first woman goalkeeper and first black woman to be elected to the US National Soccer Hall of Fame.] "But more generally, it reflects [the fact] that the American consumer market was sensitive and aware of questions of ethnicity and race. The marketing of the dolls was as diverse and inclusive as it could be. "There was obviously already an established business around the Barbie and Christie brands, but such was the growing marketing power of women's football that a major manufacturer thought it could cash in further around the 1999 World Cup." 5. Shirt from Eniola Aluko's debut, England v Netherlands, 2004 "The business significance is that major manufacturer Umbro produced the shirt. Historically, sporting brands have not created consumer markets in women's football replica wear in the same way that they have done in other sports, particularly the high-fashion ones of tennis and golf. "It is only relatively recently that that sporting brands have released football shirts cut for women, or boots specifically made for female feet. However, while these other aspects of women's football shirts have progressed, what is interesting is that often the shirt sponsors within the game are not of such 'high brand value' as the men's game. "There is a real opportunity out there for brands such as cosmetics firms to sponsor women's football teams, but you get brands like Nivea preferring to partner with the Liverpool men's football team." 6. A ticket from the 1991 Women's World Championship with sponsor "This ticket, being sponsored by M&Ms, shows that a major US confectionery brand was using women's football to try and crack the potential new business market of China. The tournament was played for the M&Ms Cup. Meanwhile, China wanted to establish a commercial relationship with the West. "There were seven sponsors of this first official women's global tournament in 1991, which Fifa interestingly, and tentatively, called a 'world championship' and not a World Cup. Fifa wanted to get into China and China wanted to join the world football family, so to test the waters this low-financial-risk event was drawn up. "The event was a sporting success and also a successful media product, it was sold to TV companies around the world, and it showed full stadia for the women's game." 7. Ball and boots of the type worn by 1920s/30s star Lily Parr "Lily Parr was the star of the Dick, Kerr Ladies football team of Preston. She began playing for the team at 14, and played for them for 20 years. There are various reports of Lily receiving 'broken time payments', that is, financial compensation for amateur players for time they had had to take off from their day jobs. These women players were nurses, munitions workers, and so on. "These payments, with her earnings from nursing, enabled her to become the first person in her family to own their own home. Obviously this all relates to the ban of 1921 as the FA decides too much of the charitable funds from women's matches are being used for player expenses. They were meant to be amateurs but the financial arrangements could be described as at best opaque. "The boots and ball are from her era. She was a left winger, then moved back into defence and ended her career in goal." 8. Poster for an unofficial Women's World Cup in 1970 "There were two unofficial Women's World Cups held in the early 1970s: one in Italy in 1970 and one in Mexico a year later, both backed by local business interests and played in major football stadiums. "In Mexico the event definitely looked to piggyback the men's World Cup held in the country the previous year. That would explain the commercialisation of the women's event there, which was considerable, with key rings, badges, programmes and other consumables produced, and a lot of coverage in the local press. The final was played in the Azteca Stadium in front of 110,000. "The Italian event was sponsored by Italian multinational drinks brand Martini & Rossi, and its final was held in the Turin's Stadio Communale in front of 40,000." [Denmark defeated the host nations in both finals]. 9. Postcard of Dick, Kerr Ladies FC (1920s) "Dick, Kerr wanted to be known as the best in the world, but also wanted to plug into the success of the local men's team and the civic notion of Proud Preston. They had a regular paying public who supported them financially at weekends but also at pioneering floodlit matches. "Most of the crowds at their games are local working-class men. When we think we are being progressive by following women's football, it was these men who were coming out to support the team week in, week out. "This commercially-produced postcard is evidence of 'ambient marketing', typical of how the team's fame spread beyond their home town to a much wider audience. Newsreel films and magazine articles will also have spread their name further afield." 10. Art deco statuette of a female footballer "Because women's football has always been topical, representing modernity, assertive female physicality, and - in its early days - played solely to raise large sums of money, its broader representation has always been culturally significant. "So artefacts, collectables, disposable items, ephemera, have been created around the game over the decades. This statuette is an example of a stylised female football player that someone would have had in their home. It is 1920s in appearance. "There were a lot of similar models made around women's boxing and athletics; beautified art deco creations." Professor Williams has organised Upfront and Onside: The Women's Football Conference, about the history and heritage of women's football to be held at the National Football Museum in Manchester on International Women's Day, 8 March, and the following day. | قبل مائة عام، كانت فرق النساء تلعب أمام حشود كبيرة وتجني أموالاً طائلة. ثم منعهم اتحاد الكرة من دخول أراضيه. إليكم قصة سقوط ونهوض كرة القدم النسائية، والتي يتم سردها من خلال 10 قطع قام المتحف الوطني لكرة القدم بجمعها. | قصة كرة القدم النسائية في 10 أشياء | {
"summary": " قبل مائة عام، كانت فرق النساء تلعب أمام حشود كبيرة وتجني أموالاً طائلة. ثم منعهم اتحاد الكرة من دخول أراضيه. إليكم قصة سقوط ونهوض كرة القدم النسائية، والتي يتم سردها من خلال 10 قطع قام المتحف الوطني لكرة القدم بجمعها.",
"title": " قصة كرة القدم النسائية في 10 أشياء"
} |
TNA parliamentarian Chandrakanthan Chandraneru told BBC Sandeshaya that Tamil people will not gain anything from government capturing territory from the LTTE. He was responding to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s announcement that government troops captured the former LTTE political headquarters, Kilinochchi. The security forces re-captured the eastern province from the LTTE in 2007. “Everybody says that the east is currently an open prison. People cannot freely walk around in the east. Tamil people fear that same will happen in the north,” the MP told BBC Sinhala service. Mr. Chandraneru stressed that the war will continue, unless a political solution is provided, despite Sri Lanka troops capturing key strongholds from the LTTE. | دعا التحالف الوطني التاميل (TNA) السلطات إلى التوصل إلى حل سياسي إذا كانت الحكومة صادقة في كسب قلوب وعقول التاميل السريلانكيين. | التوصل إلى حل سياسي – TNA | {
"summary": " دعا التحالف الوطني التاميل (TNA) السلطات إلى التوصل إلى حل سياسي إذا كانت الحكومة صادقة في كسب قلوب وعقول التاميل السريلانكيين.",
"title": " التوصل إلى حل سياسي – TNA"
} |
The USSR's answer to James Bond was a very different kind of spy. He had no time for women or gadgets. His life was devoted entirely to his work in Berlin in World War Two, where, under cover, he infiltrated the German high command. Stierlitz was the hero of a 12-part series, Seventeen Moments of Spring, screened on Soviet TV every year around 9 May - the date the USSR marked as the end of World War Two. The first broadcast, in 1973, was watched by an estimated 50 to 80 million people. "Every evening the streets were deserted and people rushed home from work to watch the latest episode and to find out what would happen next," says Eleonora Shashkova, one of the stars of the series. Apart from being a gripping drama, it has a perfect Cold War plotline, with Stierlitz disrupting secret peace negotiations between the Nazis and the Americans in 1945. But the film also had another hidden purpose. "The film showed the importance of secret agents, who are highly respected people in our country. It instilled patriotism in the post-war generation," says Shashkova. In fact, it was commissioned by Yuri Andropov - then head of the KGB, later the country's leader - as part of a PR campaign designed to attract young, educated recruits. Andropov personally approved the series before it went on air, shooting was overseen by his first deputy, and two KGB operatives employed as consultants appeared in the credits under aliases. Vladimir Putin has never said whether or not it was Stierlitz who inspired him to become a spy. But he was 21 when the film was first screened, and he joined the KGB two years later. In time, like Stierlitz himself, he was posted to Germany. If Bond was a pathologically heavy drinker, Stierlitz - like Putin - was quite the opposite. In the film he spends most of his time alone, smoking, drinking coffee and looking pensively out of windows. Find out more Listen to Dina Newman talking to Eleonora Shashkova for Witness, on the BBC World Service Download the Witness podcast In fact, Kim Philby, the British spy who defected to the USSR in 1963, commented that a spy who looked so thoughtful would not last long in his job. In 1991, when Putin had already left the KGB and was working for the mayor of St Petersburg, he admitted for the first time to his career as a spy in a TV documentary, which includes a re-enacted scene from Seventeen Moments of Spring. Instead of Stierlitz driving his car back to Berlin, Putin is seen at the wheel of a Russian Volga car, with the film's theme tune playing in the background. In the documentary, the future Russian president warns there is a risk that "for a period of time, our country will turn to totalitarianism". He goes on: "But the danger lies not in the law enforcement organs, nor in the state security services nor in the police - and not even in the army. The danger lies in our own mentality. We all think - and even I think it sometimes - that if we bring order with an iron fist, life will be easier, more comfortable and safer. But in reality, we won't be comfortable for long: the iron fist will soon strangle us all." Some years later, in the chaos of the late 1990s, many Russians did indeed begin to yearn for law and order, and some for the iron fist. Opinion polls indicated that voters were keen for the next president to be young, ethnically Russian, a former member of the security services and a non-drinker. "Having lost faith in liberals, the country was searching for its Stierlitz," writes Arkady Ostrovsky, Russia and Eastern Europe editor for the Economist, in his book, The Invention of Russia. In 1999, he notes, the Kommersant newspaper commissioned a poll asking which film character Russians would like as their next president. Stierlitz came second, after the wartime military commander Marshal Zhukov. The cover of the newspaper's weekly supplement carried a picture of Stierlitz with the caption, "President-2000". And in March 2000, after a period as acting president, Putin was duly elected to the post. More from the Magazine Anyone who wants to understand Vladimir Putin today needs to know the story of what happened to him on a dramatic night in East Germany a quarter of a century ago, writes Chris Bowlby (March 2015). Vladimir Putin's formative German years Eleonora Shashkova plays Stierlitz's wife in Seventeen Moments of Spring, but interestingly, the two characters never meet - except in one famous scene, where she is taken from Russia to Berlin, and visits a cafe with another man. Stierlitz is already sitting at another table in the cafe, and from time to time they manage to exchange furtive glances, full of longing. The viewer sees his eyes, then hers, then his eyes again. Ater a few minutes she gets up and slowly walks out. On her 70th birthday, in December 2007 - more than seven years into the Putin era - Shashkova received a special present, unprecedented in the history of Soviet cinema. It was a thank you gift from the Russian secret service, for her portrayal of the wife of a foreign agent. Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. | بينما كانت أجيال من الغربيين تترعرع على أفلام جيمس بوند، كان لدى المواطنين السوفييت جاسوسهم المفضل، وهو عميل في زمن الحرب كان يحمل اسم ماكس أوتو فون ستيرليتز. ومن الممكن أن يكون ستيرليتز هو الذي دفع فلاديمير بوتين للانضمام إلى الكي جي بي، كما كتبت دينا نيومان. | هل كان جيمس بوند السوفييتي قدوة لفلاديمير بوتين؟ | {
"summary": "بينما كانت أجيال من الغربيين تترعرع على أفلام جيمس بوند، كان لدى المواطنين السوفييت جاسوسهم المفضل، وهو عميل في زمن الحرب كان يحمل اسم ماكس أوتو فون ستيرليتز. ومن الممكن أن يكون ستيرليتز هو الذي دفع فلاديمير بوتين للانضمام إلى الكي جي بي، كما كتبت دينا نيومان.",
"title": " هل كان جيمس بوند السوفييتي قدوة لفلاديمير بوتين؟"
} |
By Matt Pickles . It's called 42 - the name taken from the answer to the meaning of life, from the science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The US college, a branch of an institution in France with the same name, will train about a thousand students a year in coding and software development by getting them to help each other with projects, then mark one another's work. This might seem like the blind leading the blind - and it's hard to imagine parents at an open day being impressed by a university offering zero contact hours. But since 42 started in Paris in 2013, applications have been hugely oversubscribed. No tuition fees Recent graduates are now working at companies including IBM, Amazon, and Tesla, as well as starting their own firms. 42 was founded by French technology billionaire Xavier Niel, whose backing means there are no tuition fees and accommodation is free. Mr Niel and his co-founders come from the world of technology and start-ups, and they are trying to do to education what Facebook did to communication and Airbnb to accommodation. They aim to do this by combining an extreme form of "peer-to-peer learning" with project-based learning. Both are popular methods among education researchers, but they usually involve the supervision of a teacher. Students at 42 are given a choice of projects that they might be set in a job as a software engineer - perhaps to design a website or a computer game. They complete a project using resources freely available on the internet and by seeking help from their fellow students, who work alongside them in a large open-plan room full of computers. Another student will then be randomly assigned to mark their work. Like in the computer games the students are asked to design, they go up a level by competing a project. They graduate when they reach level 21, which usually takes three to five years. And at the end there is a certificate but no formal degree. Self-starters The founders claim this method of learning makes up for shortcomings in the traditional education system, which they say encourages students to be passive recipients of knowledge. "The feedback we have had from employers is that our graduates are more apt to go off and find out information for themselves, rather than asking their supervisor what to do next," says Brittany Bir, chief operating officer of 42 in California and a graduate of its sister school in Paris. Learning from learners "Peer-to-peer learning develops students with the confidence to search for solutions by themselves, often in quite creative and ingenious ways." Ms Bir says 42's graduates will be better able to work with others and discuss and defend their ideas - an important skill in the "real world'" of work. More stories from the BBC's Global education series looking at education from an international perspective, and how to get in touch "This is particularly important in computer programming, where individuals are notorious for lacking certain human skills," she says. The idea of peer learning is not new and many universities and schools already use it, particularly in more collaborative subjects like engineering. In fact, Aristotle was said to have used "archons", or student leaders, to help teach his students. But more recent research has shown that peer learning can help students gain a deeper understanding of a subject. Education expert Professor Phil Race says difficult topics can be easier to understand when they are explained by someone who only recently learned the material themselves. Professor Dan Butin, founding dean of the school of education and social policy at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, argues that peer learning and project-based learning should be used even more widely in schools and universities. He says they are "much better learning tools" than lectures, which do not usually challenge the way students think. Value of teaching But he thinks 42 has gone too far by removing teachers altogether. His research suggests peer learning is most effective when students are under the supervision of an expert teacher. "The deep reason for a teacher is to guide students to grapple with exactly the complex, ambiguous, and tough issues that are usually outside of students' self-awareness or capabilities," he says. "Good teachers are able to guide students to what I call these "aha!" moments." Prof Butin says "the whole point of a university" is to challenge a student's prior knowledge and assumptions about the world. A university without teachers could allow students to simply "reinforce and regurgitate" their existing opinions. 42's model might offer an alternative to Moocs (massive open online courses, which let large numbers of students cheaply study a subject online. Like a Mooc, it provides a more affordable education than a traditional university. But it also gives students the social benefits of coming to a physical building and interacting with others every day. The opening of 42 also follows the rise of "coding academies" in the US, which offer short, intensive courses to thousands of students wanting to take advantage of the high demand for software developers. Self-motivated students But could 42's model of teacherless learning work in mainstream universities? Britanny Bir admits 42's methods do not suit all students. During the month-long selection period, some applicants fell out because of the stresses of working closely together. It is easy to imagine reacting badly to a poor mark if it was given by the student in the desk next to you. "It suits individuals who are very disciplined and self-motivated, and who are not scared by having the freedom to work at their own pace," she says. Nicolas Sadirac, director of 42 in Paris, says the model works particularly well for students who have been frustrated and left behind by mainstream education. "The education system in France fails a lot of passionate students, who feel frustrated by being told what to do and how to do it," he says. 42's selection process ignores previous academic qualifications, and 40% of students at 42 in Paris did not even complete secondary school. "42 has reminded them that learning can be fun if you follow what you are interested in, rather than being told by teachers to focus on one thing in particular," says Mr Sadirac. | تم افتتاح جامعة بدون أي مدرسين في كاليفورنيا هذا الشهر. | الجامعة تفتح بدون أي مدرسين | {
"summary": " تم افتتاح جامعة بدون أي مدرسين في كاليفورنيا هذا الشهر.",
"title": " الجامعة تفتح بدون أي مدرسين"
} |
Photographer Matilda Temperley, who is from a family of cider brandy makers in the Thorney area, used her camera to document some of the lives that were most affected. The result was more than 1,000 images. "After the event people expect to get back to normal but it takes a really long time. There's so many things that have to be redone. Some people are still working on their house, some people are still not moved in," she said. Penny Cotton One of those left devastated was a patient of Penny Cotton (pictured above right), who was awarded Volunteer Hero title at last year's Pride of Somerset Awards. "She'd lost her home, she'd lost her neighbours, she'd lost her friends, she'd lost her community and she'd lost all her belongings and I had to help some of these people," said Ms Cotton. John Leach John Leach, a potter in Muchelney since 1965, said: "Nobody believes. Once it's flooded, it's almost like it's always flooded." But he acknowledges that it is now in the past and everyone must look forward. "We're optimistic and we're trying to be positive because we want to go on living here." The Reverend Jane Haslam The Reverend Jane Haslam, vicar of St Peter and St John Church in Moorland, recalls villagers looking at her "in complete disbelief" as she knocked on doors telling people they had been advised to leave. She said the church remains "just a shell" but she is confident it will reopen again and she hopes people will "live with some relative peace and security, free from fear and a stronger community". Nick Frost Looking back, Nick Frost wishes he had rearranged the furniture in his Thorney home. "The table's probably worth more than the stuff which was stacked-up on top of it, so what I should have done is left all that rubbish on the floor and put the table on top of it," he said. Rebecca Horsington Many good relationships were formed during the flooding, according to Rebecca Horsington who helped to launch the Flooding on the Levels Action Group. "Suddenly people appreciate that when push comes to shove, everybody was there for everybody, as much as they could be," she said. "There are, though, a lot of people who are quite mentally scarred by this. Every time there is heavy rainfall you can see people worrying about the weather and worrying about what is going to happen." The Winslade family At its deepest, the flood water on James Winslade's beef farm at Moorland was 16ft (4.9m). "We sold a hundred cattle on the Saturday and 40 on the Monday. I was quite tearful there. It wasn't the selling of the cattle but the reaction afterwards. Everybody did a standing ovation and clapped. You could feel that everybody was supporting you. "Without the local community pulling together and the huge amount of volunteers coming to help, I don't know how we would have got back on our feet to be honest." Rod and Holly Baillie-Grohman Rod and Holly Baillie-Grohman, in Thorney, described the experience as having "to address every corner of your existence, in the year, and rebuild it". They described it as a "foul experience", saying: "You know, you live through the thing itself, the flood, and then it all goes away but then the disgustingness of having all the plaster off, all the floors up and everything, is just so disgusting." The Sadler family It is a similar memory for the Sadler family in Moorland, who said they now "class it as going through hell and back". "We spend every weekend going home not just trying to rebuild our lives but lives for our animals as well - did it really have to take this long to put us back together?" Julian Temperley It was a sight that Julian Temperley does not want to see again, with hopes raised as he watches some 400 lorries transporting 4,000 tonnes of clay to build a bund near his home. "It will, I should imagine, protect Thorney and the surrounding houses for a long time to come. It does mean that the flood authorities can store another three million cubic metres of water on West Moor without actually running into serious problems in the future." These pictures and stories feature in the exhibition, which is currently at Bridgwater Arts Centre. Mark McGuinness, from Bath Spa University, who helped co-ordinate it, said: "Our interest here is capturing a community voice. To give a sense of the impact this has had on individual families, and how the details of a flooded household can work through into family life , or businesses, or how people think abut their community." | معرض جديد يسلط الضوء على عدد من سكان سومرست الذين تغيرت حياتهم بسبب أشهر من الفيضانات قبل عام واحد. باستخدام الصور والمقابلات، تروي العائلات والأفراد تجاربهم مع الأحداث غير المسبوقة التي وقعت العام الماضي، حيث قضت أجزاء كبيرة من مستويات سومرست معظم فصل الشتاء تحت الماء. | فيضانات سومرست بعد عام واحد | {
"summary": " معرض جديد يسلط الضوء على عدد من سكان سومرست الذين تغيرت حياتهم بسبب أشهر من الفيضانات قبل عام واحد. باستخدام الصور والمقابلات، تروي العائلات والأفراد تجاربهم مع الأحداث غير المسبوقة التي وقعت العام الماضي، حيث قضت أجزاء كبيرة من مستويات سومرست معظم فصل الشتاء تحت الماء.",
"title": " فيضانات سومرست بعد عام واحد"
} |
By Ian YoungsEntertainment & arts reporter It's the 1883 FA Cup final, and Old Etonians captain Arthur Kinnaird wins the ball deep in his own half before running the length of the pitch, beating three opposition players and firing a screamer towards the top corner. He lets out a roar of celebration, followed by backslaps and handshakes with his team-mates. It's all captured in glorious high definition by a cameraman carrying a Steadicam, the hi-tech stabilised TV kit usually used to film the Premier League. A few minutes later, Kinnaird does exactly the same thing again. Tackle, run, score, roar. This time it's caught in all its glory by a drone camera buzzing overhead. The actual 1883 cup final wasn't televised, obviously. This is a re-enactment, and it's taking place in August 2019 on the set of The English Game, the new six-part drama about the birth of professional football. That match was a historic clash between the former Eton public schoolboys and the mill workers of Blackburn. It was also a pivotal moment because two Lancashire-based Scots had become the first to be paid for playing, at a time when the public schools wanted to keep the game strictly amateur. For their money, they ushered in new tactics, and set football on course to become the all-conquering spectacle we know today. The 1883 final was played at the Kennington Oval in south London. But Netflix has recreated it in a suburban Victorian park in Altrincham, near Manchester. Rather than the estimated 8,000-strong original attendance, there are just 60 extras cheering on the teams from a temporary wooden stand. Half are wearing top hats, the other half are in flat caps. More are due on set in the coming days, and they will be digitally reproduced to bulk out the crowd. The Eton players wear light blue, Blackburn claret. All are in authentic Victorian ankle boots and three-quarter-length trousers - all except Kinnaird, who apparently preferred long trousers. In their midst when the cameras aren't rolling is a man wearing modern football gear. Mike Delaney, a former professional player in Germany's third tier and an England Futsal international, has the official title of "football choreographer". His job is to co-ordinate the on-pitch action sequences - like Kinnaird's goal - to make sure they look realistic on screen. He has previously worked on TV adverts starring idols such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Here, he has the extra challenge of showing how football was played 137 years ago. "I've tried to make it as authentic as possible," he says. While football teams today might play a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 formation, Old Etonians played 1-1-8. "Which seems crazy to us nowadays," Delaney says. In the 19th century, public schools such as Eton, Harrow, Charterhouse and Rugby all played with different rules. They eventually came together to settle on a standard set of rules and form the Football Association - although some, like Rugby, preferred to keep playing with their own hands-on rules and funny-shaped balls. Even those who didn't pick up the ball, like Eton, played in a style that had similarities with rugby. According to Delaney, the eight players in the 1-1-8 formation would move together, passing the ball closely as they rushed as one towards the opposition goal. "The Eton players were bigger and stronger [than Blackburn] and had this thing about protecting the ball and moving a bit like a rugby scrum," he says. "And the other [public school] teams had a similar version of that. "But it was not until some of the Scottish players became more involved that they started to understand how they could find a way around this. They could pass the ball around this moving scrum. Because they couldn't match them for power or strength, they had to find another way." The man credited with bringing this revolution in football tactics was Fergus Suter, one of the Glaswegians who moved to Lancashire in the late 1870s. In the Netflix show, he's played by Kevin Guthrie, known for his roles in Sunshine on Leith, Dunkirk and Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. "Nowadays, what they play is a version of what I guess Suter introduced to the game," he says. "But with Kinnaird and the Old Etonians, visually it's something that we've never seen before, which is a hybrid of football and rugby. So it's a real revelation on both parts. We're playing two extremely different games. The difference is vast." As is the dramatist's prerogative, Julian Fellowes has taken some artistic licence. The 1883 FA Cup Final was contested between Old Etonians and Blackburn Olympic. But Suter never played for Blackburn Olympic. He actually played for local rivals Blackburn Rovers, who went on to lift the cup for the subsequent three years. For the purposes of the TV show, the two teams have been merged to make one club simply called Blackburn. But Fellowes is right in picking out that moment as a turning point. Public school teams dominated the early years of he FA Cup, but in the wake of the Blackburn clubs' new tactics, teams from the north and midlands went on to dominate. The Eton era was over and their style of play became extinct. Perhaps another bit of artistic licence is in the show's name - The English Game. Or maybe it's a small irony on Fellowes' part. "Hopefully it's a bit of a revelation that it's two Scots who come down and reinvent the game," says Guthrie, from East Renfrewshire, with a smile. "This [style] isn't new for Suter at all. This is how they play in Scotland, in Glasgow. Far be it for us to be famed for that nowadays, but passing football started in Scotland. That's certainly what I believe to be the case and that needs to be the story." But he adds that there is more to the TV show than the historical clash of tactics. It's also about the relationship between Suter and his upper-class nemesis Kinnaird, played by Kingsman star Edward Holcroft. "It's about two men," Guthrie explains. "It's about rivalry, it's about class and separation. It's about the fight. "But ultimately, it's about the similarities that they both share in extremely different worlds, and that I think is much more important than selling the idea of the game." The actors troop off the pitch, but will return tomorrow to film extra time. They already know how this game ends up. Not just the final score, but the supreme skill and multimillion pound wages of the modern players - some of whom are at home in their mansions just a couple of miles from Netflix's makeshift Victorian pitch. The English Game is on Netflix from Friday, 20 March. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | مع تعليق كرة القدم النخبة بسبب فيروس كورونا، لا يزال بإمكان المشجعين مشاهدة مبارياتهم على شاشة التلفزيون - في شكل مباريات تعود إلى ثمانينيات القرن التاسع عشر في دراما جديدة على Netflix من إبداع مؤسس مسلسل Downton Abbey، جوليان فيلوز، حول الرجال الذين زرعوا بذور اللعبة الجميلة. | اللعبة الإنجليزية: تعيد Netflix عرض ميلاد كرة القدم الحديثة | {
"summary": "مع تعليق كرة القدم النخبة بسبب فيروس كورونا، لا يزال بإمكان المشجعين مشاهدة مبارياتهم على شاشة التلفزيون - في شكل مباريات تعود إلى ثمانينيات القرن التاسع عشر في دراما جديدة على Netflix من إبداع مؤسس مسلسل Downton Abbey، جوليان فيلوز، حول الرجال الذين زرعوا بذور اللعبة الجميلة.",
"title": " اللعبة الإنجليزية: تعيد Netflix عرض ميلاد كرة القدم الحديثة"
} |
London Midland said the 17-year-old lost an arm after becoming trapped next to one of its services at Droitwich on Friday, which then pulled away. He remains in a serious but stable condition in a Birmingham hospital, British Transport Police said. London Midland is liaising with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch. More updates on this story Police and paramedics were called to the station at about 19:50 BST. The 18:48 train from Hereford to Birmingham New Street was delayed for more than an hour while emergency crews treated the boy. | قالت شرطة النقل إن مراهقًا سقط بين منصة وقطار أصيب "بإصابات غيرت حياته" ولا يزال مصابًا بجروح خطيرة في المستشفى. | قطار درويتويتش يسقط المراهق في حالة خطيرة | {
"summary": " قالت شرطة النقل إن مراهقًا سقط بين منصة وقطار أصيب \"بإصابات غيرت حياته\" ولا يزال مصابًا بجروح خطيرة في المستشفى.",
"title": " قطار درويتويتش يسقط المراهق في حالة خطيرة"
} |
By Tulip MazumdarGlobal health reporter Each day they have to take about 40 pills between them. Nonhlanhla is also having daily painful injections. A side-effect is the loss of hearing. She is now deaf. "Well, you can't exactly communicate with her because she can't hear," says Zethu. "Whatever I try [to speak to her] she just doesn't understand - even if I write it down, or speak to her in sign language. "I wish it was like in the past when she could hear." This is the new face of a very old disease. TB is becoming increasingly resistant to the drugs traditionally used to treat it. Every year about 8 million people become infected with the airborne disease and 1.3 million die. Normal TB is usually treated with a six-month course of antibiotics, but because of the misuse of these drugs, new strains have mutated into deadlier forms of the disease. They are harder and more expensive to treat. Patients have to endure toxic treatment, taking about 10,000 pills over the course of two years. Almost 500,000 people developed this type of drug-resistant TB in 2012, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but fewer than one in four was diagnosed. That means they were not on proper treatment and were walking around in their communities potentially spreading these deadlier strains of the disease. "It's very contagious," says Nonhlanhla. "I even infected my child. "She is in and out of hospitals and she is getting behind with her school work. I really don't see a bright future for her." One of the key problems is access to labs that are capable of diagnosing these new deadlier forms of the disease so people can start on treatment. "Earlier and faster diagnosis of all forms of TB is vital," says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO's director general. "It improves the chances of people getting the right treatment and being cured, and it helps stop spread of drug-resistant disease." The WHO says diagnostic facilities around the world are improving. In 2009 there were just 1,810 multidrug-resistant TB cases detected in 27 low and middle-income countries, according to the WHO. Last year that had risen to almost 72,000 cases, thanks largely to global health initiative called Expand Access to New Diagnostics for TB. New drugs needed The other key challenge facing the fight against these new strains of TB is the lack of new drugs to treat them. Last week the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called drug-resistant TB "one of the biggest global health threats we face today" and called for new and more effective drugs to be developed and trialled. It said, although two new drugs have been released recently, the first in 40 years, it will be many years before patients have access to the revolutionary new treatment they need. TB drugs have to be used in combination in order to be effective, but clinical trials combining the new drugs are not under way yet. "The DR-TB [drug-resistant forms of TB] crisis is everybody's problem and demands an immediate international response," says Dr Sidney Wong, MSF's medical director. "Each year we are diagnosing more patients with DR-TB, but the current treatments aren't good enough to make a dent in the epidemic. "It doesn't matter where you live; until new short and more effective treatment combinations are found, the odds of surviving this disease today are dismal." | زيتو البالغة من العمر تسع سنوات ووالدتها نونهلانهلا لوكيلي تجلسان لمشاهدة الرسوم المتحركة معًا في منزلهما في مبابان، سوازيلاند. أمامهما مزيج قوي وسام من الأدوية لعلاج نوع السل المقاوم للأدوية (TB) الذي أصابهما. | الأم وابنتها يحاربان مرض السل المقاوم للأدوية معًا | {
"summary": " زيتو البالغة من العمر تسع سنوات ووالدتها نونهلانهلا لوكيلي تجلسان لمشاهدة الرسوم المتحركة معًا في منزلهما في مبابان، سوازيلاند. أمامهما مزيج قوي وسام من الأدوية لعلاج نوع السل المقاوم للأدوية (TB) الذي أصابهما.",
"title": " الأم وابنتها يحاربان مرض السل المقاوم للأدوية معًا"
} |
By Chris BellBBC News But this is Buenos Aires. It is Wednesday, and the women involved are calling for abortion to be decriminalised in a country where complications arising from illegal abortion are a leading cause of maternal death. When they reach the Congress building in Argentina's capital, an activist reads a letter from Atwood herself, according to the Associated Press. "Nobody likes abortion, even when safe and legal," the Canadian author had written. "But nobody likes women bleeding to death on the bathroom floor from illegal abortions, either. What to do?" In many parts of the world, women's-rights campaigners - particularly those concerned with reproductive rights and abortion - have embraced the symbolism of The Handmaid's Tale. Language and iconography from the book and TV series are increasingly prevalent on marches, protests and social media. According to Amazon, Atwood's 1985 novel was the most read in the US in 2017. Kindle and Audible sales data indicates it topped the charts in 48 of 50 states. That resurgent popularity is no doubt driven in no small part by the success of the Hulu television adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss, but activists also point to concerns about women's rights following the inauguration of Donald Trump as president in January 2017. In the election campaign, footage emerged of the Republican making obscene remarks about women. Trump also alarmed many pro-choice advocates when he suggested there should be "some form of punishment" for women who have abortions, later clarifying he meant the doctor or practitioner should be punished, not the woman. Emboldened, anti-abortion activists hope Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court - which would ensure a conservative majority - could see a reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision which legalises abortion nationally. Pro-choice campaigners worry that bitterly fought victories on reproductive rights are at risk. Atwood's dystopia provides a stark, recognisable illustration of their fears; a visual shorthand for the oppression of women. The author highlights many of these protests on her own Twitter account. "Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, is an immediate threat to our hard-won fundamental rights and freedoms," say the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (Naral) Pro-Choice America group, which campaigns for women's reproductive rights and pro-choice legislation. From March 2017, Naral activists in Texas intermittently dressed as handmaids to stage protests against anti-abortion legislation in the Texas State Capitol building, in what appears to be one of the first contemporary examples of handmaid protests to win global attention. "This isn't the first time Pro-Choice Texas used costumes," Heather Busby, who was then executive director at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told The Verge last year. "Back in 2015, we had folks in hospital gowns to protest [against] another abortion restriction. We had an inkling that this kind of thing is effective, and the timing of the show coming out, and with the book experiencing a resurgence in popularity, it seemed like the perfect convergence of all those things." Facebook groups and Twitter accounts documenting similar demonstrations were created, as handmaid protests went global. In February 2018, Croatian women's-rights activists donned the familiar red cloaks to protest against their government's failure to ratify the Istanbul Convention, which aims to eradicate violence against women and domestic violence. Parliament voted to ratify the convention in April. In May, demonstrators dressed as handmaids were among the activists protesting against Northern Ireland's anti-abortion laws in Belfast. In Dublin, among those who successfully campaigned for the Republic of Ireland to overturn its abortion ban in a historic referendum vote were many women in red and white. In London, Chiara Capraro, a women's human-rights programme manager at Amnesty International, was among the crowds marching to voice their opposition to President Trump, who visited the UK earlier in July. She attended the protest with a friend, also dressed as a handmaid. Once there, they met other protesters in similar dress. Speaking in a personal capacity, she told the BBC: "I read the book a long time ago." "I think that it feels less and less dystopian. Immediately when I heard there was going to be a protest I knew I would go as a handmaid. "The symbolism is so powerful, reducing women to their reproductive functions. Women become just vehicles to produce children. It's a symbol to say we need to be vigilant, to be careful." Ms Capraro was born in Italy, though she lives in London. Abortion in the first 90 days of pregnancy has been legal in her home country since a 1978 referendum. But medical professionals in the predominantly Catholic country can refuse to carry out the procedures on the basis of their religious convictions. Some 70% of gynaecologists in Italy refuse to perform abortions - a figure that has grown significantly over the past two decades. "It's not just a thing that's happening in the US. It's happening all over the world," Ms Capraro said. "It's disheartening to have to take the same battles and fight attempts to oppress women. It's a reminder that rights are not won for ever. "People who are attacked under these agendas tend to be the most marginalised. "But the feminist movement is finding strength again, if you look at what is happening in Poland and Argentina." And so to Buenos Aires. In June, Argentina's lower house narrowly backed a bill which would legalise elective abortion in the Catholic nation during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. The bill still needs to pass through Argentina's senate, where it is expected to face an uphill battle. Several senators have expressed opposition. If successful, Argentina will become just the third Latin American nation - after Uruguay and Cuba - to legalise elective abortion. It is unlikely that activists will be putting away their cloaks and bonnets in the foreseeable future. | العشرات من النساء يسيرن في صمت عبر مناظر المدينة الممطرة. تبدو الرؤوس المنحنية، التي ترتدي عباءات حمراء وقلنسوات بيضاء، وكأنها مشهد من جلعاد، البطريركية الثيوقراطية التي ابتكرتها مارغريت أتوود في رواية "حكاية الخادمة" عام 1985. | كيف أصبحت الجارية رمزاً للاحتجاج العالمي؟ | {
"summary": "العشرات من النساء يسيرن في صمت عبر مناظر المدينة الممطرة. تبدو الرؤوس المنحنية، التي ترتدي عباءات حمراء وقلنسوات بيضاء، وكأنها مشهد من جلعاد، البطريركية الثيوقراطية التي ابتكرتها مارغريت أتوود في رواية \"حكاية الخادمة\" عام 1985.",
"title": " كيف أصبحت الجارية رمزاً للاحتجاج العالمي؟"
} |
By Michael CowanBBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme With curved walls designed to reduce the effects of humidity and digital controls for disabled people, this house could be an expensive realisation of an architect's vision. But having taken 54 hours to print - with four more months for contractors to add in things such as windows, doors and the roof - its cost of around £176,000 to build makes it 20% cheaper than an identical construction using more traditional solutions. The team now believe they could print the same house again in only 33 hours. The 95m (1022ft) square house - built for a family of five with four bedrooms and a big central space in Nantes - is a collaboration between the city council, a housing association and University of Nantes. Francky Trichet, the council's lead on technology and innovation, says the purpose of the project was to see whether this type of construction could become mainstream for housing, and whether its principles could be applied to other communal buildings, such as sports halls. He believes the process will disrupt the construction industry. "For 2,000 years there hasn't been a change in the paradigm of the construction process. We wanted to sweep this whole construction process away," he says. "That's why I'm saying that we're at the start of a story. We've just written, 'Once upon a time'." Now, he says, their work will "force" private companies to "take the pen" and continue the narrative. The house has been built in a deprived neighbourhood in the north of the town and was partly funded by the council. Nordine and Nouria Ramdani, along with their three children, were the lucky ones chosen to live there. "It's a big honour to be a part of this project," says Nordine. "We lived in a block of council flats from the 60s, so it's a big change for us. "It's really something amazing to be able to live in a place where there is a garden, and to have a detached house." How does it work? The house is designed in a studio by a team of architects and scientists, then programmed into a 3D printer. The printer is then brought to the site of the home. It works by printing in layers from the floor upwards. Each wall consists of two layers of the insulator polyurethane, with a space in-between which is filled with cement. This creates a thick, insulated, fully-durable wall. The windows, doors, and roof are then fitted. And, voila, you have a home. The house was the brainchild of Benoit Furet, who heads up the project at University of Nantes. He thinks that in five years they will reduce the cost of the construction of such houses by 25% while adhering to building regulations, and by 40% in 10 to 15 years. This is partly because of the technology becoming more refined and cheaper to develop and partly because of economies of scale as more houses are built. Printing, he adds, also allows architects to be far more creative with the shapes of the houses they are building. For example, the house in Nantes was built to curve around the 100-year-old protected trees on the plot. The curve also improves the home's air circulation, reducing potential humidity and improving thermal resistance. The building in Nantes was also designed for disabled people, with wheelchair access and the ability for everything to be controlled from a smartphone. It is also more environmentally-friendly than traditional construction, as there is no waste. Mr Furet's dream is now to create a suburban neighbourhood with the same building principles. He says he is currently working on a project in the north of Paris to print 18 houses. He is also working on a large commercial building which will measure 700 metres square, he adds. "Social housing is something that touches me personally," Mr Furet says. "I was born in a working-class town. "I lived in a little house. My parents - who are very old now - still live in the same house. "The street is a row of little houses, one next to the other, all identical. "And here I wanted to create a house that is social housing, but with much more modern architecture." Watch the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. | أصبحت عائلة في فرنسا أول عائلة في العالم تنتقل إلى منزل مطبوع ثلاثي الأبعاد. يعد العقار المكون من أربع غرف نوم نموذجًا أوليًا لمشاريع أكبر تهدف إلى جعل بناء المنازل أسرع وأرخص. هل يمكن أن يحدث تحولا في صناعة البناء؟ | أول عائلة في العالم تعيش في منزل مصنوع بتقنية الطباعة ثلاثية الأبعاد | {
"summary": " أصبحت عائلة في فرنسا أول عائلة في العالم تنتقل إلى منزل مطبوع ثلاثي الأبعاد. يعد العقار المكون من أربع غرف نوم نموذجًا أوليًا لمشاريع أكبر تهدف إلى جعل بناء المنازل أسرع وأرخص. هل يمكن أن يحدث تحولا في صناعة البناء؟",
"title": " أول عائلة في العالم تعيش في منزل مصنوع بتقنية الطباعة ثلاثية الأبعاد"
} |
By Tom SymondsHome Affairs correspondent The final judgement will be for the inquiry, and possibly the courts. But at the end of weeks of hearings which have examined the refurbishment of the tower and its role in the disaster, it is now possible to piece together an account, from the evidence presented, of what could have gone wrong. A lack of expertise The plan for Grenfell was to add insulation and cladding panels to the outside walls, creating a warmer, drier place to live. This was a strategy used on buildings all over the UK. But during these hearings it became very clear those involved with Grenfell didn't appear to quite have a grip on how to do it safely. This was one of the reasons highly flammable cladding and insulation were used, creating a huge fire risk. Studio E, the architects, saw cladding a building as "quite straightforward". Yet the firm's staff had to admit they lacked the experience to tackle a critical question - how to prove their design adhered to the fire safety building regulations. There was a specialist fire consultant on the job, Exova, an international company. In 2012, early in the project, Exova visited Grenfell Tower and attended a meeting at which the plans for cladding were discussed. The consultants produced a series of draft fire safety reports - later disclosed to the inquiry - which failed to mention cladding. They concluded the proposals would have "no adverse effect" when it came to spreading fire. But the reports also said the advice was based on what Exova knew at the time. Since the fire it has insisted it was kept out of the loop and was removed entirely from the project as it progressed. Rydon, a big construction firm, was signed up to build but also design the new-look tower, despite having no design team. Its business model involved contracting out the specialist work to companies like the architects Studio E and Exova. Except that by the time Rydon and its partners decided to change the cladding to a more flammable version, the fire consultants, Exova, were no longer on the job. What about Harley Facades, which had the contract to supply and fit the panels? After all, 70% of its refurbishment projects used the same type of panel which went up in flames at Grenfell. Harley sold itself as a specialist in cladding, but the inquiry heard that was based on experience and during the Grenfell construction it had no-one fully qualified in facade engineering. A technical manager, Daniel Anketell-Jones, was studying the subject at university and attended a "comprehensive presentation" on cladding fires in October 2014. He told the inquiry he didn't see it as part of his job, and "might not have been concentrating". These companies often appeared to assume the council's inspector would do final safety checks. Unfortunately, the inspector in question, John Hoban, from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's Building Control department, had never worked on a high rise cladding project, didn't know anything about the highly-combustible plastic within the panels, and didn't know a fire retardant version could have been used instead. Large construction projects are always carried out by a complex network of "specialists" and shared responsibilities are completely normal. But at the start of this phase of the inquiry, victims' lawyers predicted it would be a "merry-go-round of blame". That is exactly what happened. Cost was more important than safety The budget for the work was £9.2m and pressure was on from the start to stick to it. Rydon had badly wanted the contract. Its bid was too high, but according to internal emails at the time it had already been tipped off it would win the work, "subject to a small amount of value engineering". Value engineering means finding ways of doing the same job more cheaply. There was already pressure on Rydon to cut costs. It had accidentally entered a bid which was £212,000 higher than it intended. Part of the answer was to use cheaper cladding, the now notorious Reynobond PE made from aluminium composite material (ACM). The council and the tenant management organisation, which managed the tower, were happy with that. It would save £293,368. Harley Facades, the cladding firm, preferred the aluminium cladding too. Reynobond was "tried and tested", the company emailed the architects. "We are confident in the cost base." In fact, Harley said, using it would save more than £400,000. Rydon kept the difference for itself, without telling the council, according to the evidence of Rydon contracts manager Simon Lawrence. The focus on cost meant that by the time the work started, a cladding panel which drips molten plastic when exposed to flames had been chosen for a 24-floor building with only one staircase as an escape route in a fire. No-one realised how dangerous the materials were The Grenfell Tower inquiry has already concluded that the cladding panels were mostly to blame for spreading the fire. Many of those involved believed the panels did not pose a fire risk because they had a "class zero" rating, or "class O", as it's universally known in the construction world. Ray Bailey of Harley Facades said if you take the flame away "it won't continue to burn". His colleague, Daniel Anketell-Jones, said: "I just understood that class O meant it wouldn't catch fire." The problem was obvious the morning after the fire. A class zero panel clearly could burn, and horrifyingly quickly. Reynobond PE had a plastic middle section, the cheese in a cheese sandwich. And like cheese, it melts rapidly and burns when heated. The manufacturer of the cladding, Alcoa, now known as Arconic, had commissioned its own, more rigorous European tests. They had not gone well. As the BBC revealed in 2018, the panels were given worse - and in some cases much worse - classifications than previously made public. Arconic didn't publish these results in the UK and didn't tell the board responsible for issuing the product certificate relied on by the building industry. This was despite the company's sales manager, Deborah French, emailing a Grenfell Tower supplier that Arconic, "working closely" with its customers, "was able to follow what type of project is being designed/developed" and then offer the right specification. Arconic says it was for architects, building firms and cladding companies to ensure their designs were tested and safe. But it wasn't just the cladding. Celotex, which made the thick insulation boards used, said their product, when used with cement boards, would be "class zero throughout". Neil Crawford, associate at the architects Studio E, said in hindsight it was "masquerading horsemeat as beef lasagne". Why the manufacturers said what they did about their products is the subject of the next module in this inquiry. Corners were cut Months of evidence suggested that, during the refurbishment, emails were not followed up, records weren't kept, product specifications were skimmed over, questions raised were not answered, designs were rubber stamped without scrutiny, and the construction work wasn't closely checked. The companies involved each defended their own work, but also insisted they relied on the other partners in the project to do their jobs properly. The general level of workmanship at the tower has been strongly criticised. A key issue was that many of the barriers designed to prevent fire spreading were wrongly fitted. Seemingly most under pressure was the building inspector, John Hoban. His department had been cut and was facing competition from commercial inspectors. He said he was failing to cope with a workload of up to 130 projects. Despite being regarded as the final pair of eyes checking standards were kept, neither he nor his council department spotted the many fire safety risks at Grenfell Tower. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has admitted its failings and apologised. Another example stands out. In November 2014 Claire Williams from the Grenfell Tower management organisation sent an email to the construction company Rydon asking how fire retardant the cladding was. She described it as her "Lakanal moment", referring to the 2009 fire in which six people died, partly as a result of fire spreading through ACM cladding. The inquiry has no firm evidence the question was answered, though one witness suggested Rydon's response, at a meeting, was that cladding "would not burn at all". It was a question central to the safety of the Grenfell Tower project. If it had been carefully considered, perhaps the coming tragedy might have been prevented. | في الآونة الأخيرة، تم تعليق التحقيق في برج جرينفيل لفترة وجيزة حيث طالب المتظاهرون في الخارج بصوت عالٍ بمعرفة سبب مقتل 72 شخصًا في تلك الليلة في يونيو/حزيران 2017، ولماذا لم يحصلوا على العدالة. | تحقيق برج جرينفيل: أربعة أسباب محتملة للحريق | {
"summary": " في الآونة الأخيرة، تم تعليق التحقيق في برج جرينفيل لفترة وجيزة حيث طالب المتظاهرون في الخارج بصوت عالٍ بمعرفة سبب مقتل 72 شخصًا في تلك الليلة في يونيو/حزيران 2017، ولماذا لم يحصلوا على العدالة.",
"title": " تحقيق برج جرينفيل: أربعة أسباب محتملة للحريق"
} |
By Gordon CoreraSecurity correspondent The headquarters of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down is a sprawling campus. Stern warning signs and red flags make clear it is a sensitive facility as you approach. And beyond the security perimeter, there are buildings old and new, some with open-plan offices, others with labs. An urgent call came in here in the early hours of Monday 5 March. DSTL is used to being contacted in response to major incidents in the UK such as terrorist attacks. But this was different. This time the incident was only a few miles down the road in Salisbury. A man and a woman had been found on a park bench the previous day and it had become clear they were not suffering from an ordinary illness. A few hours after the call, one of the Specialist Response Teams, ready 24/7 for such calls, was deployed. Military grade The initial symptoms from the patients seemed consistent with a nerve agent. The team collected samples which were then analysed at the labs in Porton Down. We were shown one lab where one type of test can be undertaken on such samples, but officials will not go into details about the exact chemistry involved with the tests after Salisbury. However, the tests did confirm that a military-grade nerve agent had been deployed on the streets of Britain. A combination of this scientific analysis and other information would in turn lead to the government's conclusion that it was highly likely Russia was behind the attack. DSTL officials say that its role has been to use its scientific expertise to support the police investigation, including the need to keep material forensically secure so there is a proper evidential trail, as well as assist the medical teams involved in treatment and help with broader public health concerns. It has been helping check the police and emergency workers who have been to various locations to make sure that they have not been contaminated. This has all led to a far higher profile for the site than it has been used to. 'No way' chemicals escaped We were invited into the site but there were strict limits about what we were able to see. Armed police and dogs patrol the perimeter. Not all the attention has been welcome. Russian officials have made pointed reference to the proximity of Porton Down to Salisbury with the suggestion the nerve agent might even have come from here. That is something the chief executive of DSTL is firm in denying. "We've got the highest levels of controls of security around the work that we do here," Gary Aitkenhead told me. "We would not be allowed to operate if we had lack of control that could result in anything leaving the four walls of our facility here. "There's no way that agent would have left. We have complete confidence that nothing could have come from here out into the wider world." Asked if it was frustrating to hear such accusations, he said: "It is coincidence that it is down the road [and] that this has happened. It is frustrating to hear that and it is just not true. " Officials are keen to emphasise that the work here is defensive only. In one building, the size and shape of a bungalow, we are shown a sealed metal chamber. Inside a robot called "Porton Man" wears a military protection suit as live agents are pumped in. The aim is to see what defence the suit offers over time as the robot moves. Huge effort needs to then go into cleaning the chamber and disposing of the agents. The work here is also much broader then just dealing with chemical and biological weapons but also covers ballistics, explosives and cyber security amongst other fields. Officials say the defensive remit has increasingly moved to supporting homeland security as well as the military in recent years. A large building is being constructed in one corner of the campus. There have been claims from Russia that it might be some kind of chemical weapons factory. "That's just nonsense. This is a defensive organisation," Sir David Pepper, the chairman of DSTL, told the BBC, in response to those claims. Officials at DSTL say the planning application has long been available at the local council, explaining that it going to be a new facility for forensic analysis of explosives. DSTL has been involved in recent investigations including the attack at the Manchester Arena last year. New money to upgrade facilities was recently announced. International inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have arrived in the UK. They have been to the location in Salisbury and have also been given permission, following approval by a judge, to take a sample of the Skripals' blood. They are also present at Porton Down itself. The DSTL is an OPCW certified lab and the inspectors will be carrying out their own work here and at other labs around the world to independently verify the work done by DSTL. | كانت قاعدة الأبحاث العسكرية البريطانية في بورتون داون في قلب التحقيق في ما حدث للجاسوس الروسي السابق سيرجي سكريبال وابنته يوليا. مُنحت بي بي سي حق الوصول الحصري إلى مختبر ويلتشير. | جاسوس روسي: داخل مختبر بريطاني اكتشف غاز الأعصاب | {
"summary": "كانت قاعدة الأبحاث العسكرية البريطانية في بورتون داون في قلب التحقيق في ما حدث للجاسوس الروسي السابق سيرجي سكريبال وابنته يوليا. مُنحت بي بي سي حق الوصول الحصري إلى مختبر ويلتشير.",
"title": " جاسوس روسي: داخل مختبر بريطاني اكتشف غاز الأعصاب"
} |
The undercover investigation at the G4S-run Medway Secure Training Centre in Rochester resulted in allegations of abuse and mistreatment of youngsters. Several people were charged after the behind-the-scenes footage was aired. Medway Safeguarding Children Board said its review would look at how agencies linked to the centre worked together. It said the aim would be to identify where lessons could be learned. The training centre was being run by G4S at the time of the programme but is now run by the government's National Offender Management Service. | من المقرر إجراء مراجعة جدية للقضية في مركز المجرمين الشباب في كينت، والذي كان محور تحقيق بي بي سي بانوراما. | وحدة G4S Medway: بدء مراجعة الحالات الخطيرة | {
"summary": " من المقرر إجراء مراجعة جدية للقضية في مركز المجرمين الشباب في كينت، والذي كان محور تحقيق بي بي سي بانوراما.",
"title": " وحدة G4S Medway: بدء مراجعة الحالات الخطيرة"
} |
It has been said that no combination of the tributes paid to Asma Jahangir can adequately define her, but perhaps the one that best encapsulates what it was like to come up against her was "street fighter". Pakistan in 2018 is a place which still faces many of the problems she spent decades fighting. It is a deeply divided society, where invisible forces battle over the direction of the country, where people suddenly disappear, and where, rights groups say, abuses are still routine. She took on oppressive military regimes and fought relentlessly against abuses, she set up legal aid firms and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). She worked for the rich and the poor. But she was hated by those powerful interest groups who promulgate a conservative vision of religion and patriotism, thought to be backed by elements in the military. They would not tolerate her vision of Pakistan. But Ms Jahangir understood this polarised Pakistan and through it blazed a path that she believed could help the nation make the right choices. 'We can't live in her shadow forever' In the wake of her death, many have said that there are no fighters quite like her left. There is the HRCP she set up, legal firms manned by some strong characters, but without her towering personality that commanded global authority, activists have felt a vacuum. At her funeral, mourners wailed that with Ms Jahangir gone they were now orphans. But Ismat Shahjahan, a left-wing activist who's been on the scene since the 1980s, had this to say: "It may be true, but it reflects our own weakness. Whenever a challenge to our way of thinking arose, Asma was there to respond to it, and we didn't have to try much harder. "But now she's gone, and we have to realise that we can't live in her shadow forever; we have to pull our act together and start tackling those challenges ourselves. Mourning her death won't work, but emulating her life will." The essence of her success, friends have said, was her unique courage. She never minced her words. In one television interview, she called army generals "duffers", saying they only "play golf, have parties, grab plots of land," and are in the "habit of using our children as their human shields". "Sit in the barracks. You have your plots. Eat, drink, have a party, but leave us alone," she advised. She was equally harsh on religious lobbies. She said she was "against all religious extremism. I'm in fact a secular person. I consider all religions equal, and I don't have a religion of my own". This was a daring - some would say rash - admission to make in a country with harsh Islamic laws implemented not only by courts by also vigilante groups carrying out street justice. And there were consequences. In 2005, during a riot in Lahore, the police tried to disrobe her in public, reportedly on orders from the government which was headed by military ruler Pervez Musharraf. They were restrained by her supporters, but they did succeed in tearing off her shirt, baring her back. What was she doing at that point? She had been trying to hold a mixed gender marathon to highlight violence against women. A combative spirit In 2013, a leaked American intelligence report revealed that elements within Pakistan's security establishment had plotted to assassinate her, after she embarked on a legal campaign to recover missing political activists in the restive province of Balochistan, where the military had gone in to suppress an armed insurgency. Despite attempts on her life, she never left the country or even went into "hibernation", as advised by friends. Instead, she retaliated with a combative spirit. Perhaps she was protected by her global reputation. That same leaked US report warned of an "international and domestic backlash" should anything happen to her. This is a luxury afforded to few in Pakistan where there are many faceless campaigners who work just as hard but suffer for it too. But even her childhood and family was steeped in Pakistan's political division, quite literally. Pakistan's first general election held in 1970 was won by the Awami League, a party based in what was then called East Pakistan. West Pakistan, which dominated the country and controlled East Pakistan's resources, failed to transfer power in time, sparking a rebellion in East Pakistan which ended in it seceding from West Pakistan and emerging as an independent country, Bangladesh, after military intervention by Pakistan's arch rival India. Asma Jahangir's father Ghulam Jillani was involved with the Awami League and was jailed when he criticised military action against Awami League supporters in East Pakistan. The anger and frustration felt in Pakistan made people like Mr Jillani targets, painted as traitors, Hindus and agents of India. One of Asma Jahangir's acquaintances shared a story. One evening in 1973 she was at a neighbourhood party where some girls began telling others to beware as there was a traitor in the house. When she heard this, the young Jahangir commandeered the microphone and let them all have a piece of her mind. Then in frustration she stepped out onto the lawn alone and broke into tears. That's when Tahir Jahangir, the son of a businessman and a neighbour, came up from behind and comforted her. They were married in 1974. Setting a precedent Another example of triumphing over adversity proved to be historic and came on the legal front, long before she became a lawyer. When her father was arrested on charge of treason he sent the family a message asking them to file a petition for his release. Asma went to a lawyer who, believing she was a minor, asked her where her mother was. "My mother had at that time gotten very depressed and upset, and had taken sleeping pills and gone to sleep. "So I told him that you write down the petition and I'll drive home and get it signed by her. Then he looked at me and asked, 'how old are you?' I said 18. He said you need not (take it to your mother). You can just sign it yourself," she recounted in an interview once. This case, titled Asma Jillani versus the Federation of Pakistan, is one of the most widely quoted precedents in case law, and is the only case in Pakistan's history in which a military dictator was declared a usurper. Ismat Shahjahan is now putting together a women's democratic front, a reincarnation of the socialist campaigners that burst onto the scene in 1968 as a military dictatorship was about to be ousted and before the secession of East Pakistan. Perhaps her successor will be found among them. | في الشهر الماضي توفيت واحدة من أكثر نساء باكستان الحديثة استثنائية. ووصفت التكريمات أسماء جهانجير بأنها بطلة حقوق الإنسان والمدافعة عن المظلومين. ولكن من الصعب معرفة من سيتولى نزالاتها الآن، حسبما ذكر مراسل بي بي سي إلياس خان. | أسماء جهانجير: من سيخلف المرأة التي ناضلت من أجل روح باكستان؟ | {
"summary": " في الشهر الماضي توفيت واحدة من أكثر نساء باكستان الحديثة استثنائية. ووصفت التكريمات أسماء جهانجير بأنها بطلة حقوق الإنسان والمدافعة عن المظلومين. ولكن من الصعب معرفة من سيتولى نزالاتها الآن، حسبما ذكر مراسل بي بي سي إلياس خان.",
"title": " أسماء جهانجير: من سيخلف المرأة التي ناضلت من أجل روح باكستان؟"
} |
By Caroline LowbridgeBBC News Lesley Roberts was stunned as she read the devastating final email from her beloved son Alex Hardy. The email had been timed to arrive on 25 November 2017, 12 hours after he killed himself. Less than an hour before the email arrived, Lesley had opened her front door to find a police officer standing there, explaining her son was dead. Alex was an intelligent and popular 23-year-old with no history of mental illness. Lesley could not understand why he would have wanted to take his own life. His email explained how the foreskin of his penis had been surgically removed two years before. This is commonly known as circumcision, but Alex had come to believe it should be regarded as "male genital mutilation". He never mentioned this to his family or friends when he was alive. Lesley did not even know her son had been circumcised. In the following months, she tried to find out more about circumcision. Why had it affected Alex so badly, and why did he feel killing himself was his only option? Alex was the eldest of Lesley's three sons and had been very much longed for, having been conceived after fertility treatment. Lesley says her "dreams came true" when she became a mother in July 1994. "He was everything I could have wished for," she says. "Gorgeous, easygoing, and adoring of his younger brother Thomas who arrived following more treatment almost three years later." He also adored his baby brother James, who was born when Alex was 13. The walls and windowsills of Lesley's home in Cheshire are covered in photos of all of them. Alex sailed through his education and was particularly gifted at English, so much so that his old school established the Alex Hardy Creative Writing Award in his memory. "Alex was passionate about history but as his English teacher I saw in him a true talent for writing," says Jason Lowe, who is now head teacher at Tarporley High School. It was while on a school skiing trip to Canada, aged 14, that Alex fell in love with the country. He had enjoyed skiing as a child and the trip reignited his passion. So, when Alex reached 18, he decided to defer university and live in Canada for a year. "He fell in love completely with Canada and made so many friends and got a promotion at work," says Lesley. "After one year he rang me and said 'Mum, I'm deferring my place for university'. The same thing happened after year two." Two years turned into three, then four, and by the time of his death Alex had been living in Canada for five years and had obtained residency. "He was known as the 'super-smart Brit' with impeccable manners," says his mother. "The super-intelligent guy from the UK who helped people with their Canadian residency applications." Lesley visited her son several times, both alone and with his brothers and stepfather. They were a close family, but Alex did not tell any of them he was secretly suffering with a problem with his penis. "I had issues with a tight foreskin," he eventually wrote in his final email, "but from my late teens it created issues in the bedroom as it meant my foreskin would not retract over the glans as intended which caused some awkward moments." In 2015, still silently suffering, Alex consulted a doctor in Canada. He was given steroid cream to stretch his foreskin, but went back to the doctor after just a few weeks because he did not think the treatment was working. The medical name for Alex's problem is phimosis. It simply means his foreskin was too tight to pull back from the head of his penis, or the "glans" as Alex referred to it in his email. This is perfectly normal for boys in the early years of their life. As boys get older, their foreskin usually starts to separate from the head of the penis. Phimosis does not always cause problems, but if it does, problems can include difficulty urinating and pain during sex. In England, the NHS advises topical steroids and stretching techniques - and circumcision as a last resort. Over in Canada, where circumcision is more common, Alex was referred to a urologist. "He immediately suggested circumcision," Alex wrote. "I asked about stretching and he completely lied to my face and said it would not work for me. "I was mostly trusting as I felt he was the expert who knew best in this regard so with a pinch of salt I accepted it." Lesley has since read online reviews of this urologist which have made her question his competence. One patient said she had been unable to work since having surgery for kidney problems, and he had "destroyed" her quality of life. "I'm a mother of three young children who are scared every day I will die as they see me suffering in so much pain," she wrote. "I can see how he misdiagnosed others, botched surgeries, and ruined lives," said another review. "He's dangerously incompetent." Another review of Alex's urologist read: "They left a surgical instrument in my bladder but I only got notified three months later. Run away before you get hurt!" Lesley, who was "horrified" by these reviews, has asked for the urologist to be investigated. She has been told an inquiry is ongoing. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia told the BBC it "cannot disclose the existence of a complaint against a physician, and only may do so if the complaint leads to formal discipline". "I will wish with my last breath and with all of heart that my darling son had run away," says Lesley. Much to his regret, Alex was not able to research the urologist - or circumcision - properly at the time because his laptop was broken. He had tried researching the topic in a public computer space but felt uncomfortable, and also felt it was "too much of a taboo" to discuss with friends. So Alex booked what he believed was a minor procedure and had the surgery in 2015, at the age of 21. In the email to his mother, Alex explained, in great detail, the physical problems he had suffered afterwards. He described experiencing constant stimulation from the head of his penis, which was no longer protected by his foreskin. "These ever-present stimulated sensations from clothing friction are torture within themselves; they have not subsided/normalised from years of exposure," he wrote. "Imagine what would happen to an eyeball if the eyelid was amputated?" "He was in so much pain that it hurt to do normal physical activity," says Lesley. "He was a keen skier and snowboarder so you can imagine the pain he was in." Consultant urological surgeon Trevor Dorkin, who is a member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, advises his patients that the head of their penis will be more sensitive after circumcision. However, this sensitivity usually reduces. "I always say to guys 'it's going to feel more sensitive to start with' because all of a sudden you haven't got this protection over the head of the penis and it will feel different," says Mr Dorkin, who has carried out more than 1,000 circumcisions. "But in the vast majority of the cases the man adjusts to that, the brain adjusts to that, it adjusts to the signals that are coming back through the nerves from the head of the penis." You might also be interested in: Alex also wrote about experiencing erectile dysfunction, and burning and itching sensations, particularly from a scar which sat where his frenulum was removed. The frenulum is a band of tissue where the foreskin attaches to the under surface of the penis. Some men refer to it as their "banjo string". "It's one of the more erogenous zones so it's thought to be important in sexual function," says Mr Dorkin. "The foreskin, the head of the penis and the frenulum is a very, very sensitive area. "But again when you do circumcision sometimes the frenulum is not preserved and it doesn't necessarily have an effect on overall sexual function and enjoyment." But Alex felt his frenulum had been important. "Through its absence I can certainly verify it is the most erogenously sensitive area of the penis and male body overall," he wrote. "If someone were to amputate your clitoris you may begin to be able to understand how this feels." He wrote about experiencing cramps and contractions in his muscles and "uncomfortable" sensations which extended deep into his abdomen. Lesley does not know whether or not Alex had sex after his circumcision. "Where I once had a sexual organ I have now been left with a numb, botched stick," he wrote. "My sexuality has been left in tatters." He asked: "Nature knows best - how can chopping off a section of healthy tissue improve nature's evolved design?" Like many people, Lesley admits she knew very little about the foreskin or circumcision before her son died. "I didn't know anything apart from I believed it was a very routine surgery," she says. The foreskin is sometimes dismissed as a "useless flap of skin", but Mr Dorkin says it does have a purpose. "It covers the head of the penis," he says. "In terms of what's it for, it provides a bit of protection to the head of the penis. It's thought to have some sort of immunological function perhaps." Circumcision rates vary a lot depending on where you are in the world and which culture you grew up in. According to the World Health Organization, 95% of men are circumcised in Nigeria but only 8.5% of men in the UK are. Most of the men circumcised in the UK are either Muslim or Jewish, as circumcision is regarded as an important part of their religions. According to the 2011 census, Muslims accounted for 4.8% of the population in England and Wales, while 0.5% were Jewish. People who question circumcision are sometimes accused of being anti-Semitic or Islamophobic, but Lesley stresses her son was neither. "For me, this has nothing to do with religion at all. I respect all people of faith or indeed no faith, as Alex did," she says. In Canada, where Alex had moved to, an estimated 32% of men are circumcised. Alex felt male circumcision has been normalised to the extent that most people do not question it, while female circumcision has become known as female genital mutilation (FGM) and is now illegal in many countries. He felt male circumcision should be known as "male genital mutilation" - a view shared by a growing anti-circumcision movement. "If I were a female (in Western nations) this would have been illegal, the surgeon would be a criminal and this would never have been considered as an option by doctors," Alex wrote. "I do not believe in championing one gender over another but I feel strongly that gender equality should be achieved for all." Campaigners for "genital autonomy" believe it is wrong to circumcise a baby or child - whether they are male or female - because the patient cannot give consent, and these campaigners regard circumcision as a human rights issue. Having lived with an intact penis for 21 years, Alex believed men circumcised as babies or young children would "tragically never be able to fully comprehend what has been taken away". He estimated he had been stripped of 75% of the sensitivity of his penis. However, experiences of men circumcised as adults differ dramatically. Some men actually prefer sex afterwards because they no longer have the pain of a tight or inflamed foreskin. Some report a significant loss in sensitivity and greatly reduced sexual pleasure. Some report being less sensitive but say there is no change in their overall enjoyment of sex. Some are very happy with their decision to get circumcised. Some, like Alex, deeply regret having it done. Alex sought further medical help following the circumcision as well as psychological help, but never shared his problems with his family or friends. "I was with him during those two years and I think I would be lying if I said I didn't think something wasn't right," says Lesley. "I did say 'Is something bothering you? Are you OK?' and he would absolutely reassure me that he was." Lesley, who used to be a teacher, now hopes to go into schools and speak to young men about sharing their problems, even if they are very personal. "I think we all know that men don't particularly tend to talk about their problems in the same way that girls do but I think circumcision is very much a taboo subject," she says. "Alex was reserved. He certainly wouldn't have said 'I've got a tight foreskin and it really hurts'. And he didn't. And I didn't know." Only a week after Alex died, a friend opened up to Lesley about his own circumcision. "He told me he wouldn't normally have mentioned it but he had a circumcision as an older man, 10 years ago, and he was in constant daily pain," says Lesley. "It just seems it's more common than you think." Mr Dorkin says serious problems following a circumcision are rare, but not unheard of. "You do hear of horror stories where a circumcision has been done poorly and there's damage done to the head of the penis itself," he says. Sometimes too much skin is taken and this can result in what's known as "burying" or shortening of the penis, where it gets pulled back into the body. "Surgeons at the end of the day are human and there is potential for human error and technical error during any operation," he says. "One of my mentors told me every case is a tricky case, that's got to be your approach to surgery. You never take anything for granted in surgery." There have been cases of children and men dying after being circumcised. Four-week-old Goodluck Caubergs bled to death after a nurse circumcised him at his home in Manchester, while one-month-old Angelo Ofori-Mintah bled to death after being circumcised. Since 1995 at least 1,100 boys have died in South Africa after ritual circumcisions. Some penises fall off after becoming infected and rotten, while some have to be amputated. In Canada, where Alex was living, newborn baby Ryan Heydari bled to death after being circumcised by a doctor in Ontario. Recently there have been reports of two babies dying within weeks of each other after home circumcisions in Italy, and a two-year-old boy died after being circumcised at a migrant centre in Italy. "I'm not qualified to say that circumcision is always bad, because it isn't," says Lesley. "It certainly was in my son's case and I think we need more research. We need to look into the risks, what can really go wrong, and we need to be more aware of them." If a circumcision is necessary, Mr Dorkin says it is important to tell patients about potential complications. "Particularly when you are doing the operation in a guy who is in his late teenage years or early adulthood, it's a very sensitive area and sexual function is important, so you have to explain the risks to them," he says. "Alex said he was not made aware of all the risks," says Lesley. "If he had, I feel sure he would not have had the surgery. "Alex wasn't alone. I now know he wasn't the only one that this has happened to. And that can't be right." The UK charity 15 Square, which tries to educate people about circumcision, says Alex is not the only man to have killed himself after being circumcised. "It happens more frequently than people realise," says chairman David Smith. There are no statistics on men who have killed themselves after being circumcised. Alex died over a year ago but his story has not been told until now. An inquest into his death was held in the UK but it was not reported by the media. Lesley, who is normally private and reserved like her son, only agreed to share Alex's story because it was his dying wish. "If the following information can benefit anybody then it has served its purpose," he wrote. "I did not feel comfortable raising the issue when I had a choice, so if my story can raise awareness to break this taboo within society regarding men's health then I am happy for release of my words. "Alex said in his letter 'We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us'," says Lesley. "This is the last thing I'm doing for my precious son." For details of organisations which offer advice and support, go to BBC Action Line. | "سرعان ما أصبح واضحا أن ما حدث للتو كان كارثة.. لقد توفيت في عام 2015، وليس الآن". | "ابني قتل نفسه بعد الختان" | {
"summary": " \"سرعان ما أصبح واضحا أن ما حدث للتو كان كارثة.. لقد توفيت في عام 2015، وليس الآن\".",
"title": " \"ابني قتل نفسه بعد الختان\""
} |
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