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uk-scotland-scotland-business-52307977

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-52307977

Economic cost of coronavirus lockdown keeps on rising

Holes are being plugged in business and job support schemes, but it's taking several efforts to get them right, and a long time for them to start paying out. The scale of effort internationally is staggering - so far totalling $7.8 trillion - and as the lockdown continues and spreads the costs will rise further.

Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland The easy thing to do might be a basic income for everyone. Abolish the starting rate for income tax, ensure everyone has a minimum, and work from there. Easy in one sense, but in another sense, difficult to achieve without destroying work incentives. And very expensive. The Reform Scotland think tank recently published a retread of an idea it backed some years back, gaining a nod of approval from the first minister. It's a bumper time to be thinking radically. There has been a pilot running in Scotland, which was due to lead to a report by the end of March, but BBC Scotland now learns it's been delayed by more pressure concerns. So until such a system can be figured out, ministers in Westminster and Holyrood are still trying to plug the gaps in the business and income support schemes of their own devising. Scottish government changes to the Small Business Grant scheme were to plug a gaping hole where chains of outlets had been left a long way short of both what many need and what they'd get in England. The changes were cautiously welcomed by business, as a sign at least that they've been listened to. A full grant for the first property and 75% for each of the next ones could be a life-saver for chains of pubs, restaurants, grocers and bakers. That 75% is an improvement on zero. But some won't be satisfied until it gets to the 100% grant for each property, as in England. Others are waiting for the small print, or just waiting. The speed at which grants come through is putting strains on those without much cash in hand. While that is costed at £120m, another £100m has been found in the magic money forest for those who have fallen through the cracks in other schemes. At the front of that queue are people who are self-employed, but haven't been in that position long enough to have a track record of filing tax returns. It should be a safety net for others who have felt left out: those who run businesses without any buildings - hence, no rateable value - such as those running marine tourism ventures, or those who operate out of something classified as a yard. This is being disbursed through councils and enterprise agencies, and is sufficiently vague and free of conditions that it ought to avoid too many holes for future plugging. The choice of the council channel could be a principled move to attune and adapt the scheme to local needs. It could be recognition that central government isn't geared up to run a small grants scheme. It could also be cover for the Scottish government when people come calling, saying they haven't got the grant they think they need or deserve. What's worth noting here is that the finance secretary, Kate Forbes, said before Wednesday that choices had been made not to give anything to any properties in chains of outlets, beyond the first one. Instead of England's system, she said she had opted to find special funds for aviation, seafood processing and sea fishing. But it's a tough job being a finance minister these days, when the usual discipline of finite amounts of money keeps being undermined by more money being found. She added a pleading note which is either naive or in tune with more altruistic times: please don't tap this fund if you don't really need it, as if companies seek funds the way shoppers seek out toilet roll. That plea would work for individuals - I'm interested to find out how it works for companies. But it seems all fiscal discipline has gone, in this country and many others. The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said direct fiscal costs have reached $3.3 trillion globally. Public sector loans, including injections of equity into companies, are so far at $1.8 trillion. Loan guarantees and other contingent liabilities, which is the biggest part of the UK approach, stretches to $2.7 trillion. Total: $7,800,000,000,000. As the lockdown of much of the economy stretches into May, we're looking at an expensive extension of these UK and Scottish schemes, initially designed to end by the start of June. Through these weeks, more and more companies are going to be reaching the end of their cash reserves. Rishi Sunak has also been taking a walk in the magic money woods, with an extension of the Job Retention Scheme. That's the furloughing scheme, that puts employees on 80% of pay up to £2,500 per month. That was due to include those on the payroll, and registered with HMRC, by 28 February. But it left out those whose seasonal employment, such as those in tourism, were not employed so early in the year. The tourism sector said Is true of about one in 20 of its workers. Back comes the Chancellor with bags more cash, to say that the cut-off deadline will be 19 March, the day before he announced the scheme. The Treasury calculates that should bring 200,000 people into the scheme. This is his first effort to get the scheme right, each revision plugging holes. One of his concerns - and it's an understandable one - is to avoid fraud, and not to pay out for those who might try to jump on the furlough bandwagon after it set off. However, even 19 March is unlikely to catch everyone in the Scottish tourism industry, for whom Easter is often the starting point for employment. Those people may be applying for those grants from their council or enterprise agency. We've yet to see the Jobs Retention Scheme in action. Estimates of the demand for funds from it are far higher than the government first imagined. It should be possible to make claims from next week. With the bureaucratic apparatus involved, set up at pace, what could possibly go wrong!? What's clearly not going right is the effort to push loans out to businesses, which is the main plank of support to those above the rateable value threshold for grants. Today, we got approval figures for loan applications, and it's not looking good. Six thousand approvals, averaging £185,000. The British Council of Chambers reckon only 2% of firms have been successful in getting backing from the government loan schemes. In those circumstances, it doesn't much matter that it's worth up to £330 billion. The obstacles are many. One condition of the government-backed loans is that the Treasury will only back 80%. The other 20% is to ensure banks aren't too reckless. Yet they seem to be behaving as if they were on the hook for all that money. The paperwork continues to take a lot of time. Banks continue to score applications with a heavy pen. The support for jobs and small business may be getting there at last. But sustaining the finances of middle-sized companies, by relying on loans, is a bigger challenge to sustain employment in the medium to long term.

uk-england-birmingham-42379220

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-42379220

Twelve charged over Birmingham and Solihull 'ride out'

Twelve men have been charged with causing public nuisance in connection with a "ride out" event in the West Midlands.

The men are accused of taking part in an illegal rally through Solihull and Birmingham on 26 June 2016. The men, aged between 18 and 39, are due to appear before magistrates in Birmingham on 18 January. Six other men and a teenager have already appeared in court on the same charge.

newsbeat-55704182

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-55704182

Covid in sport: Joe Jacobson's wife on living with a footballer in a pandemic

Headlines about footballers and Covid have been hard to miss lately - with questions about dressing room distancing, off-pitch partying and all those post-goal hugs. But what's football in lockdown actually like for players and their families? BBC Newsbeat investigates.

By Manish Pandey and Betty GloverNewsbeat reporters "Be safe, be careful." That's what Wycombe Wanderers footballer Joe Jacobson hears every time he leaves the house. His wife Louise says she had safety concerns about Joe interacting with people when football restarted. "I was nervous, probably over-cleaning in the house and asking him to shower when he came home," she says. Joe says he's doing "everything he can" to make sure he doesn't take the virus home and feels comfortable with the strict protocols in place around the game. There are questionnaires to fill in, regular Covid testing, social distancing and, of course, masks. Players are even banned from eating breakfast at the training ground. There are far more precautions than Louise anticipated but she admits she still has a bit of a sneaky clean when he comes home. "He'll go up and shower straight away. And I'm probably, without him knowing, wiping down some of the light switches that he's touched when he's walked in," she says. Joe says players are frequently reminded by the doctors, physios and the club's manager Gareth Ainsworth to follow the rules. "He said something the other day, that there's the health issue side of things, but also you don't let your team-mates down by missing a game which could cost us," Joe says. But even with precautions, outbreaks can still happen, with Joe's club having their game against QPR last Saturday cancelled because of an outbreak of Covid in the squad. And their upcoming match away to Sheffield Wednesday is also off amid an outbreak in the home side's team. There's been lots of controversy around goal celebrations, with players being told not to hug one another. "You don't know sometimes how to react," Joe says. "Celebrations are a lot more muted than they have been just because they haven't got quite a crowd to bounce off. "It's so difficult to do because the elation is so high that all you want to do is go and hug someone." Louise says it's important to trust the players to make sensible decisions. "You've got to give people the independence to manage it themselves," she says. "If those players know that they've interacted with somebody, they need to be cautious when they're meeting somebody else outside." One of the downsides of empty stadiums, Joe admits, is not being able to use crowd noise as an excuse for ignoring the manager. "If you've done something wrong, now you can hear the manager and everyone can hear him having a go at you. So there's no hiding place," Joe says. But while there may be no fans the ground, Joe is determined to continue playing for those following at home. "It helps them look forward to something on the weekend. If they haven't got much to do, they can spend a few hours listening or watching to games when they're available." He adds: "Whenever I'm feeling like I'm down I think I'm in a very fortunate position to still live a relatively normal life." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

uk-wales-46290529

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-46290529

Organ donation: 'Thanks for your loved one's liver'

Ellie Lacey was just hours from death, desperately needing an urgent liver transplant. Two years on, the 32-year-old from Cardiff is a new mum and has written to her organ donor's family to express her joy at life while acknowledging their terrible loss.

It was seven long months after finding out I was pregnant, that I finally mustered the courage to sit down and write. I had been putting it off, not because I didn't want to write, but because I didn't know how. I was so happy about my news, I knew how blessed and fortunate I'd been, but as I began to scratch out the words, an enormous wave of emotion and sadness hit me. Regardless, I began… To my dear donor's family… It has been nearly two years since my liver transplant and I have something to tell you… But then I stopped, my pen down, my head in my hands. For as much as I wanted to let them know that their loved one's liver had not only allowed me to live, but had allowed me to bring new life into the world, I also knew hearing from me must be so bittersweet. The brutal truth of the situation was that I was only alive because their loved one had died. Yet how could I not keep thanking them, and letting them know how much they are in my hearts? It wasn't the first letter I had written to them. Just after my operation, when I was on a massive high at having cheated death, I wrote, gushing with excitement. I had hoped my joy might be a silver lining to their sadness. I never got a reply and I'm not surprised. I was so insensitive and blind to their loss. I wrote again last Christmas, a very short letter to say I never stopped thinking about them - and now this. Of course, like every young person, I never expected to be in the position where I would need a donor organ in my body. I had been very fit and healthy, newly married and looking forward to life. I worked in marketing and spent weekends competing around the UK in wild, windy fell races. Then, out of nowhere and for no discernible reason, in January 2017, my liver failed and I needed a transplant. I began to get very ill, turning yellow and ending up in intensive care. Over a matter of days, my body had collapsed. Eventually, I was in and out of consciousness, connected to machines and wires with a team of doctors rushing around me. My family members weren't compatible donors, so I was put at the very top of the worldwide donor list for my blood type O. Doctors told my family that a liver would likely be found for me that night. In the end, it took three days, coming in at the point I had just hours to live. During that time, I had said goodbye to the world. Yes, I wanted to live - to have more time with my loved ones and one day start a family, but I was also at peace. I knew I had loved and been loved, and I knew - after setting up a marathon in Uganda - that I had also made a difference in the world. Then, amazingly, an organ was found. It came in late at night to a hospital in the Midlands. It was transported down, then I was operated on the following day. When I woke up, although I was incredibly weak, to the point I couldn't walk, I was also euphoric. How many other terminally ill people get a chance to live again? Of course, the euphoria was eventually replaced by a huge low as I came to terms with everything. But as I struggled to get back to normal, there was barely a moment I didn't think about my donor. I was told she was a woman in her sixties who had died from a stroke. And I was told I was allowed to write to her family, via the hospital, if I didn't reveal my full name. I can't explain how much I wanted to write to thank them. It was down to them that I was able to live. I also wanted to tell them about the pregnancy and how much it meant to me. You see, trying for a baby had not been an easy decision to make. Because of my transplant, I was high risk. There was a 10% chance my body might reject the liver. There was also a bigger risk of pre-eclampsia - a condition caused by high blood pressure - and having a premature baby. First and foremost, I did not want to be a burden on the NHS again - or to need a new organ. But I had also vowed to myself, after coming so close to death, that I would live life to the full, not just for me but for my donor too - so that's what I and my husband Paul, who's 33, decided to do. Thankfully, all went smoothly. And my beautiful boy, Otto Lacey, was born on 21 December 2018, weighing 7lb 8oz (3,5kg) and becoming our best Christmas present ever. He really is perfect in every way. Eventually, I did finish and send my letter to the family, explaining that while nothing will bring their loved one back to them, she has left a lifelong legacy within our family and that she's our hero. Whether they reply or not, I will have to wait and see. Either way, my boy will now grow up knowing about this lady who saved my life. He will know there are good people in the world who think of others. And he will know what it means to be kind and selfless.

entertainment-arts-54871424

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54871424

What A Carve Up!: How an all-star lockdown hit is redefining theatre

Before the pandemic, theatres in Huddersfield, Ipswich or Cirencester would not have dreamed of casting stars like Stephen Fry or Sir Derek Jacobi, or getting glowing reviews in the New York Times.

By Ian YoungsEntertainment & arts reporter But streaming has levelled the playing field and changed what a theatre show can be. The day Huddersfield's Lawrence Batley Theatre (LBT) closed for the first lockdown in March, the venue's management held a crisis meeting. They had enough money to pay salaries for one more month. They decided they "weren't going to stop creating work", though. "If we were going to go down, we were going to go down in a blaze of creative glory," says artistic director and chief executive Henry Filloux-Bennett. In truth his 450-seat venue, in a former Methodist chapel, has always been mainly a stop-off for mid-scale touring productions, rather than a hothouse for home-grown shows. But like many theatres, when the pandemic began, it decided to shift its focus to streaming. Eight months on, it has been more successful than most and recently released an innovative, star-studded and lucrative online production that was made on a shoestring budget. The adaptation of Jonathan Coe's 1994 novel What A Carve Up! features Fry, Jacobi, Alfred Enoch, Rebecca Front, Celia Imrie and Griff Rhys Jones. It's a cast Filloux-Bennett could never have assembled for a real-life run in West Yorkshire. Yet they were up for an online version - which, for most, involved recording their lines at home. Before that, Filloux-Bennett's adaption of cookery writer Nigel Slater's memoir Toast was streamed. So was his version of David Nicholls' novel The Understudy, which starred Fry, Mina Anwar, Emily Atack and Russell Tovey. Those two were essentially radio plays with animations adding "a nice backdrop to every scene". The Understudy raised funds for three theatre charities and will be performed live in the West End with a cast including Fry and James Norton for two nights in December, assuming the English lockdown isn't extended. Fry was the last to come on board for the online original, after Filloux-Bennett decided to pitch it to his agent days before they were due to announce the line-up. "We'd had such success with the rest of the casting. I just Googled who Stephen Fry's agent was," he says. Within two hours, the actor had signed up. "He has just been the most extraordinarily generous person with his time," says Filloux-Bennett. Fry then returned to provide the voice of publisher Patrick Mills in What A Carve Up!. "We assumed we'd have one bite of the Fry cherry," Filloux-Bennett says. "But I sent it over to him and he came back again almost immediately and said, 'Of course.' He's been amazing." What A Carve Up! goes a step further with the visuals - Harry Potter and How to Get Away with Murder actor Enoch is seen on screen. So is Tamzin Outhwaite, playing an Emily Maitlis-style interviewer grilling a Paris Hilton-meets-Katie Hopkins character played by Fiona Button. The other actors' voiceovers are overlaid with a collage of animations, graphics and archive footage, cleverly coming together to relay Coe's combination of murder mystery and scathing social satire. It's a co-production between the LBT, the Barn in Cirencester and the New Wolsey in Ipswich and is directed by Tamara Harvey of Theatr Clwyd in Mold, north Wales. The result is "murderously enjoyable" according to the Daily Telegraph's five-star review, "ingenious and gripping" according to the Guardian, and "a dizzying, inventive adaptation" according to the i newspaper. The New York Times headline declared it "wonderful" before adding: "But Is It Theatre?" The newspaper's critic, Alexis Soloski, said the show was "more like a true-crime podcast made fictional and visual through a series of tricky, starry YouTube videos with impressive literary pedigree". Other reviewers also asked if the show should be described as theatre. "Maybe not," wrote Quentin Letts in the Sunday Times. But the three collaborating venues "haven't half shown up many bigger houses" with their "nimble, witty" efforts, he went on. With live performances either difficult or impossible since March, many other agile theatre-makers have also been experimenting with recorded audio and video works that blur the traditional boundaries. And now the "bigger houses" are catching up. 'Breaking new ground' The National Theatre is turning one of its stages into a film set for a screen version of Romeo and Juliet starring Jessie Buckley and Josh O'Connor. Artistic director Rufus Norris told the Guardian it was "very much a new form that we're discovering by the day" and that it was "great to be breaking a bit of new ground". The question of whether such projects qualify as theatre bemuses Filloux-Bennett. "We're baffled by that need to pigeonhole stuff quite that much," he says. "The way I see it, our job is to tell stories. That's what you do in theatre. And we're just telling a story in a different medium because that's the only medium available to us at the moment. Is it theatre? Not probably in the definition of most people's understanding. But we didn't say it was." What A Carve Up! is "definitely not a film" either, he adds. "It's more like its own thing, and that's what we've been really excited about - creating something which is slightly not theatre, slightly not film, slightly not a radio play, slightly not really anything." With a budget just over £15,000 and a two-month turnaround from starting the script to finishing the edit, it's certainly much cheaper and quicker than film or TV. "That's what this situation has shown," says Filloux-Bennett. "When you collaborate with amazing people, and you don't have much time or money, you can still create a pretty decent thing." Standard tickets cost £12 and the show earned more than £40,000 in its first week, giving the LBT and its two sister theatres a welcome financial fillip. With funding from Arts Council England and Kirklees Council plus almost £250,000 from the government's Culture Recovery Fund, Filloux-Bennett says his venue has avoided having to lay off any of its 35 staff, has continued paying its 60 to 70 casual employees, and can stay afloat "easily through to the next financial year". In the future, Filloux-Bennett believes streaming and real-life shows can go hand-in-hand. "We've managed to make as much as we can of a really terrible situation, and that has been to the benefit of our reputation as a theatre," he says. The past eight months have also made him rethink the role of a regional theatre. The schedule of touring productions may not return until 2022 or 2023, he thinks, so his venue will make more shows - live and online - with and for the local community. "We're just going to have to be responsive and be quite scrappy and ambitious in terms of creating our own work," he says. Smaller theatres have shown themselves to be more adaptable in a crisis than major venues, he says. "The thing that lockdown has shown is that the bigger you are, the slower you are able to respond to stuff, and I think that is a really valuable lesson for a lot of places. "Because we can be a bit more fleet of foot, we're the ones who have shown what we can do." What A Carve Up! is available to stream until 29 November. The Understudy is due to be performed in a semi-staged rehearsed reading at the Palace Theatre in London on 7 and 8 December. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

world-us-canada-27982421

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27982421

US football fans joyous then deflated

The heartbreak was etched on the faces of USA football fans as a last-gasp equaliser by Portugal denied them a place in the last 16 of the World Cup.

The game finished 2-2 as Portugal's Silvestre Varela scored in the final seconds of the game. "It was a thriller," said US coach Jurgen Klinsmann. "Everybody who had a chance to be today in Manaus will talk about this game for a long time." The US now need at least a draw against Germany in Recife on Thursday to be guaranteed of progression to the knock-out stages, but could even lose and still qualify if the Ghana-Portugal result favours them.

uk-wales-mid-wales-33087047

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-33087047

RSPB agrees long-term deal for 12,000-acre Ty-Llwyd Farm

RSPB Cymru has signed a deal for a 12,000-acre farm in Powys.

It signed the agreement with owner Severn Trent Water for Ty-Llwyd Farm, which includes land within the Lake Vyrnwy estate. The charity can now work with Natural Resources Wales to develop sustainable grazing and farming methods. RSPB Cymru director Katie-jo Luxton said the charity will "ensure this beautiful landscape remains looked after for wildlife to live and thrive".

world-asia-31588821

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31588821

'Harassment' drives Afghan refugees from Pakistan

A campaign of arbitrary arrests and harassment is driving Afghan refugees out of Pakistan, according to testimony gathered by the BBC. Families who have lived in Pakistan for decades say the intimidation started soon after the deadly Taliban attack on an army school in Peshawar in December.

Abdul Samad recently got married, but for him and his wife there is no honeymoon. Together with five other relatives, they have crossed the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan with just a few household utensils, clothes and mattresses. They are among several thousand Afghan refugees who have been passing through the busy Torkham border crossing on the Khyber pass every day since the start of the year. And like many others, Abdul Samad's family say they did not leave of their own free will. "I was asleep at home with my wife; my brother and mother were also sleeping in their rooms," he says. "That night the police came. They jumped over the wall of our house and came in asking how many of us were in the house." Abdul says the police asked for identity cards and when it turned out he was Afghan, he was taken away. "They beat me a lot that night. The next evening, we paid 35,000 Pakistani rupees for my release," Abdul recalls. "When bomb blasts happen in Peshawar, Karachi or any other place in the country, they would accuse Afghans, saying all of them are Taliban." Once he was out of custody, Abdul and his family decided to leave. 'We've suffered' The BBC heard similar claims from other refugees at Torkham, most arriving in overloaded pick-up trucks and buses. They described a pattern where male members of a family were being detained and sometimes mistreated in order to encourage them to leave the country. One man, Ghulam Nabi, said he had been held for over a week: "I was imprisoned for eight days. Afterwards I went back for my family and belongings and passed through the border." Another Afghan, Ghulam Sakhi, said constant harassment made him want to leave. "We're either arrested in the bazaar or they came for us at home," he said. "We've suffered. We haven't gone out to work for more than a month. We hope the government will help us in Kabul, give us a tent and some food as we have nothing. We've only got enough money for the bus fare to Kabul." Afghan officials told the BBC that between 150 and 300 families have been returning to Afghanistan every day since the Peshawar attack, in which Taliban gunmen killed more than 150 people, most of them children. Before that the number of returnees stood at around 15 families a day. Precise figures are hard to come by, but aid agencies working in the region have seen the same trend. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported more than 33,000 Afghans returning since January, one-and-a half times more than during all of 2014. The IOM said it was currently only able to assist about 10% of the most needy. "Some of the returnees have cited harassment, arrests, detentions and evictions as the reasons for their return during interviews with UNHCR staff," UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said. 'Militant hideouts' The Pakistani government denies there is any campaign to systematically expel Afghan refugees. But following the 16 December attack on the army-run school in Peshawar, police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province have been conducting special "strike and search" operations, trying to flush out militants, but also arresting many people they say are illegal refugees. The government of the province which has traditionally hosted most of the refugees, called for unregistered Afghans to be repatriated. A spokeswoman for the Pakistan foreign ministry, Tasnim Aslam has said the authorities needed to take action because militants were hiding among unregistered refugees, knowing that those staying illegally would not go to the police. "There are indications that wherever they are concentrated, those places are being used as terrorist hideouts, and we have to take action on that," Tasnim Aslam said, according to Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, the Afghan authorities have declared themselves overwhelmed. Minister for refugees and repatriation Said Hussain Alimi Balkhi is due to visit Pakistan on 1 March. He told the BBC he would to ask for more time so shelter and aid can be prepared. "The expulsion of Afghan refugees by our Pakistani brothers is an unfair and a very rapid decision," Mr Balkhi said. "We don't have any preparations in place, but we welcome our refugees." Many of those returning have lived in Pakistan for decades; many were born there. Pakistan hosts more than 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees, the largest refugee population in the world, according to the UN. Many more reside in the country illegally. But those having to leave with little warning face the loss of livelihoods, with some having to sell up just to cover the transport fare. Some of the families told the BBC they were hoping to live with family members in Afghanistan. Others said they had no place to go to. One woman, her face covered, said she had no idea what was ahead: "I am very worried, I don't know whether we will have any work. We have very young children. That's why I'm unhappy about our earnings and the children and whether we will find a solution to our problems." Reporting by Harun Najafizada and Hafizullah Maroof

world-us-canada-38663825

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38663825

Trump and Obama: Two characters in search of a legacy

So the pendulum swings again. They are polar opposites, inversions, thesis and antithesis, from the skinny kid with the funny name to the old guy with the funny hair, chalk to his cheese. It says a lot about the Disunited States of America that two such different brands are its best-selling political products.

Mark MardellPresenter, The World This Weekend@BBCMarkMardellon Twitter In his final week, President Barack Obama's many admirers are determined to behave with the brittle exaggerated optimism of mourners at a wake, determined to celebrate the achievements of a dear friend, rather than wail over his absence. They may even convince you it is hope that makes their eyes glisten so brightly. Their love - not too strong a word - for this man they mourn begs the question: "What achievements, what legacy?" And in what way did he fail? For Democrats can blame turnout, blame Twitter, blame Hillary Clinton, blame fake news, but surely the failure of his party to get a third term in the White House was in some sense Mr Obama's responsibility? As he said, his name wasn't on the ballot, but his achievements were. This goes to the heart of a question about character: his, Donald Trump's, most importantly their country's sense of self. From the moment of his first victory in 2008, President Obama was pinned in place by America's horrible history. Even extraordinary actions would struggle to escape the orbit of the mundane, buried under the weight of that primary achievement. The first line in the encyclopaedias would always be: "The USA's first black president." So it has come to pass. But few, eight years ago, expected him to be followed into the White House by someone who is in every respect his opposite. You could argue President Obama has no legacy, the achievements of eight years already lie shredded by the election of Donald Trump. Mr Trump has indeed promised to undo Obamacare, the Iran deal, the Paris climate change deal, new environmental rules and regulations and much else that he has derided as "horrible". But we can't really judge Mr Obama's legacy until we know how profoundly it will be undone. This will be important. How history sees Barack Obama depends on Mr Trump, in more ways than one. Because this is about character, charisma and storytelling. For a masterful writer, for a man who quite literally wrote his own tale long before others could define him, it is sobering the way Mr Obama lost control of the narrative in the White House. What were seen as positive qualities, a relief and a reaction after George W Bush, looked less favourable to some as time went on. Thoughtfulness seemed like dithering, eloquence became loquaciousness, "no drama Obama" wasn't the soap opera some in the American public craved. Mind you, there was no massive switch thrown where most of America changed its mind. The votes involved were comparatively few: this is still the old story of two Americas, as different as Donald Trump and Barack Obama. Mr Obama is cool, Mr Trump is hot. Indeed, Mr Obama is cool when Mr Trump is not. He's deliberative, Mr Trump is instinctive. Mr Trump is angry where Mr Obama is preternaturally calm. One suspects Mr Obama walking alone in the Rose Garden conducts several inner monologues at once, we know Mr Trump blasts out his first thoughts in 140 characters on Twitter. Mr Trump would eat crocodiles and drink vinegar while Obama soliloquises on maybes and might-have-beens. If US politics was a Western, Mr Obama would be the magical preacher, mystically advocating collective action, Mr Trump would be charismatic snake oil salesman, shouting from the side of the wagon, captivating, infuriating and embodying a certain sort of frustration. We don't know whether, when the black hats ride into town, he'll surprise us all with heroic feats, or be discovered cowering under the saloon counter. But Mr Trump is already much closer than Mr Obama to an American archetype - the boaster -bumptious, self-confident, quick to anger, but with a confidence and optimism in his own abilities, which respect no horizons. What is attention-grabbing is when the horizons have to buckle and broaden and widen in the face of that force of will. Mr Trump is the embodiment of the sort of America who shocks Europeans: brash and vulgar and unsophisticated. Many in the US, particularly on the coasts and in the cities, share that horror. But the truth is this is a deeply divided country. Mr Trump speaks for those other Americans who felt Mr Obama never did. When Mr Obama says: "The great American hero - Lincoln - could see the fundamental contradictions of the American experiment clearly," they can't. They didn't want nuance. They didn't want empathy towards other cultures and religions. They didn't want, in the end, cool. They want righteous fury and clear promises to do something dramatic to make it stop hurting - whatever "it" is. Two Americas face each other, watching their new president. Most are nervous, expecting a rollercoaster ride. Many are hopeful. These are an optimistic people, and he is, after all, not a passing politician but their head of state, the person who embodies their country. Even those who want him to fail, want their country to succeed. In mining country, in West Virginia, I was struck by those who had hope for a new future under a new president. Not faith, not trust, but hope, some what shop-soiled and held together with gaffer tape, but hope nonetheless. That, at least, is similar to 2008. But what the first line of Mr Trump's biography says is not defined from the first day.

uk-scotland-32891762

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-32891762

Herald owner Newsquest expands portfolio with acquisition

Herald and Evening Times owner Newsquest has gained about 30 new titles after buying local newspaper publisher Romanes Media Group for an undisclosed sum.

The portfolio includes about 20 newspapers in Scotland. They include the Greenock Telegraph, the Dunfermline Press, the East Lothian Courier, the Alloa Advertiser and the Border Telegraph. It also has some titles in south-east England and one in Northern Ireland. Romanes originated with the Dunfermline Press, which was founded by the Romanes family in 1859. Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker said: "Newsquest is focused on building one of the leading local multi-media publishing businesses in the UK, and I am delighted to welcome Romanes Media Group to the company. "We operate in separate markets but this portfolio of good quality weekly titles provides a strong fit with plenty of opportunity."

disability-52559778

https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-52559778

Transcript: 'Suddenly you get this text'

This is a full transcript of 'Suddenly you get this text' as first broadcast on 27 March 2020 as part of the Isolation Diaries strand presented by Kate Monaghan.

KATE -Hello, my Cabin Fever friends, it's me Kate Monaghan, and this is my sometimes brutally honest Isolation Diaries; my safe space to offload how I really am feeling in this challenging, to put it lightly, time of life with the coronavirus outbreak. I've got EDS, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which is a chronic pain condition which affects all my joints, so I use a wheelchair when out and about, which is obviously very little at the moment. And I've been in isolation for at least two weeks now with my wife, Holly. My EDS doesn't mean we have to be in isolation, but my wife Holly has had a kidney transplant and she is taking immune-suppressants, which means she has no immune system so she is at a very high risk. So, yeah we're here in our house together with our three year old daughter. About two weeks ago we went into quite a strict isolation period; we've barely left our house at all since then. So, we're kind of a few weeks ahead of the rest of you guys in the UK dealing with surviving what feels like being under house arrest. And my recording stuff hasn't left my side this past week because I've experienced probably the most, well one of the biggest emotional roller-coasters of my life, and it's actually become a bit of a comfort to know that even at my most challenging moments I do get to share it all with you guys. So, here it is: the highs and lows of my past week. [Music] [Singing to music of Saturday Night's All Right] Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday! Yeah, feeling good, it's Saturday. Maybe there's something - sorry, I'm just, it's probably super unprofessional, but I'm emptying the dishwasher as I speak to you; that's how unexciting my life is - I feel better today. Maybe it's because it's the weekend and there's not the pressure to have to do work, or maybe it's because this is more like how life would be anyway on a Saturday that makes me feel a bit better. I feel good. We've pretty much done a whole week of isolation now so that's a week done, obviously delighted about. So, one week down, 11 weeks to go. I know it's not an exact science but hopefully that's one of 12, so a twelfth has been completed. And yeah, we've chilled this morning. We're much more relaxed about Scout being allowed to come downstairs in pyjamas, which we haven't done before, and that kind of stuff. And also, this might sound a bit mean and I apologise if it does, but normally if I am out and not able to do anything, like having to stay home and stuff on a weekend, then the weekends are like the worst time because I'm always a bit miserable; everyone's out having fun, everyone's doing stuff. No, no, not this time my friends; this time everyone's in the same boat. Everyone's, not miserable together, that would be unfair, but everyone's doing the same thing: everyone is around us, just kind of hanging out and not really doing anything; there's not loads of pictures on social media of people having fun, so that's great. Instead everyone's the same spirit of oh, we're all going to stay in and not do very much. So, yeah I'm feeling all right. I'm feeling relaxed and positive, and long may this continue. [Music] We have quite an eclectic mix of people who live on our road, and one of the dads of one of Scout's best friends is called Jude, and he lives almost opposite us, and his dad decided that on Sunday afternoon would be a good time to have a sing-along. So, we were just sitting in our garden and we suddenly heard some singing, and Scout immediately wanted to go and find out what was going on, so we took her to find out. [Music] Right, I can… SCOUT -Are lots of people watching him? KATE -Maybe, let's go and see. We can hear some music. Let's go to the end of the road and see what's happening. SCOUT -I'm mechanical. KATE -You're mechanical, yeah, because you've got your screwdriver. SCOUT -I'm mechanical, aren't I? KATE -You are. SCOUT -That's what I've got. KATE -Hi, we've come to see where the music's coming from. GROUP -[Singing: Everything's Going to be All Right] Thank you! [Clapping] KATE -[Music] I find it so much easier to talk about my physical disabilities than my mental health ones. But I was thinking about it today because I have been in therapy for, like, ten years, or I was in therapy for ten years, and I'd finally graduated last summer. Do you ever graduate from therapy? I don't know. I finished with my therapist that I'd seen for ten years in the summer, and it felt like a huge achievement. But it was like every week I would try to think of an excuse not to go to therapy, and I would be trying not to go, even though I needed it and even though deep down I really enjoyed it, I still didn't actually want to have to go. So, I used to spend so much of my time to try to come up with excuses as to why I couldn't go to therapy. And honestly if I was still having therapy I would be so happy right now because I'd be like, "So sorry, I'm in isolation, can't do therapy for the next 12 weeks" and I'd have been delighted with that fact. It's so funny. I don't know if any of you guys if you have therapy if you kind of want to go and don't want to go at the same time. Because she wouldn't have been able to challenge me on it; she'd have been like, "Oh yeah, you definitely can't come to therapy". That's interesting. Anyway I went to therapy because I have a diagnosis of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which has affected me for a really long time obviously, hence the 12 years in therapy. And it manifests itself in me in mainly anxiety and my responses to stuff really. And yeah, that's why my mental health does suffer a bit when stuff like this is going on. And it's why I need to try and find a way to exercise, because I find exercise helps my mental health, even though normally I can only do a small amount of it. But also one thing I find I really need for my mental health is space and quiet, and normally I find that by going and sitting in a coffee shop with a book or a laptop or just something, with a nice cup of coffee and being away and out of my house for a bit. And that is now not possible either. So, the question is: how do I recreate that in my home? It's so difficult because even trying to find five minutes to record by myself when my daughter isn't yelling at me to go and get her something, or my wife isn't telling me to go and do a job for her, or something isn't going on, is impossible. So, to try and get an hour to myself that's never going to happen, so it's really tricky. And obviously with the extra pressure that's being put on me now is quite hard because the anxiety around Holly and her health is sometimes overwhelming. I don't know, every time I leave the house now, which is very infrequent, but I need to try and get out of the house just to take Scout out for a five minute walk or something, I feel awful about coming back in because I just think, all I can think for myself is like, I'm bringing bugs back into the house, I'm going to infect Holly, and am I doing the right thing and all of this kind of stuff, and it's just so anxiety provoking. I really am trying to be wary of looking after my head as well as looking after my body. Maybe that will involve more chocolate. There's quite a theme to this podcast which is generally about me eating a lot of sugary stuff, which I probably shouldn't, but what are you going to do. When you're isolated in your house there's really only one thing to do and that's eat a lot. I don't drink so eating is my main vice. I'm going to come out of this the size of a house and I'm okay with that. [Music] It's Sunday and it's Mother's Day and normally we would be seeing one of our parents, one of our mothers this weekend. Holly's mum was supposed to be up with us, and that's now obviously not happened. You can't really properly celebrate anything, can you? It's just such a shame. And I know my mum she likes Mother's Day, she likes some of us to be around her on Mother's Day, it means a lot to her, so not being able to do that is really difficult. It's just really hard; this whole thing is really hard. The worst thing though about today is I'm starting to hear rumours on Facebook, people are posting, obviously we have a lot of friends in the transplant community because we know a lot of people who have had various transplants, kidneys and lungs and all sorts, and they're all starting to post that the government are going to tell us from tomorrow that anyone who has had a transplant will be told to stay indoors for 12 weeks, and that we're going to get that text or letter or something soon. And so loads of people have been posting about it on Facebook - sorry, that's me drinking my cup of tea; you can probably hear the clink. SCOUT -Mum! KATE -Yes, my love? SCOUT -Can I have it? KATE -Can you have Weetabix? SCOUT -Yeah. KATE -Okay, give me two seconds and I'll come down. Oh, the joys of being a mother. Honestly, the child wants Weetabix and half four in the afternoon, it's crackers. Anyway so yeah, we're starting to get wind that something is going on, that people who were already identified as vulnerable are going to be put on some kind of high-risk list and be told to isolate for 12 weeks, which is what we're doing but we, oh god, it's like we're setting the clock back again. We'd already done a week and now, what, it's going to be another 12 weeks. We were feeling good about doing a week. Ah. I really hope this isn't quite true, but I just guess that it is going to be true. Nightmare. [Music] Right, Holly's just text me from, she's upstairs, I'm downstairs, and she's said she's got the text. She's just with my daughter, our daughter, and I'm just going to ask her what the text says. SCOUT -I want water. KATE -You've got loads of water in the bath. SCOUT -I'll mix it in. KATE -All right, you mix it in. Okay, that's enough now. Okay, tell me what the text says. HOLLY -It says we have identified that you're someone at risk of severe illness if you catch coronavirus. Please remain at home for a minimum of 12 weeks. Home is the safest place for you. Staying in helps you stay well and it will help the NHS too. You can open a window but do not leave your home, and stay three steps away from others indoors. Wash your hands more often for at least 20 seconds. And then it's got a link to other things: what do we mean by extremely vulnerable, number one: organ transplant recipients. Yeah, it's quite weird. KATE -How do you feel? HOLLY -I feel a bit down about it to be honest, because when I'm in the bubble of my house, had quite a nice day, being out in the garden, looking after Scout, that kind of thing, and I've been feeling good. And then suddenly you get this text that reminds you that you're in pretty much the… KATE -I think we should be careful because Scout's here; she can pick up on this. Because she will listen to all of this, won't she? HOLLY -Yeah, so maybe we should record it later. KATE -Don't you think? We can talk a little bit. HOLLY -But I can't talk very candidly then. KATE -No, I know. HOLLY -But obviously you read it and you remember that you're very, very vulnerable, and it literally could kill you. And that's… KATE -Yeah, pretty scary. Are we supposed to be staying away right now, because I'm sort of leaning in to you? HOLLY -Yeah, according to this text you should be three metres away. KATE -Does it say three metres or three feet? HOLLY -Oh, three steps. KATE -Oh okay, three steps. Still, how are you going to keep Scout three steps away from you? HOLLY -What, without breaking her heart? KATE -Yeah, going out, doing anything so we can stay close to you. HOLLY -Yeah. It says you can open a window, and that kind of infers that you shouldn't be in your garden. KATE -You're not allowed? Surely you can be in the garden, surely? HOLLY -I don't know. KATE -[Music] Okay, so hopefully the child is now asleep or on her way to sleep anyway. Sorry, for cutting you short earlier, Holly, I just realised we were getting - sorry, I'm climbing into bed to sit next to my wife - I just realised we were getting a bit deep and that Scout's three and a half, not too far off four now, and she'll hear everything, won't she? HOLLY -Yeah, picks up on everything. KATE -Yeah, so it might be best us not talking about our fears about you dying when she can hear us, because otherwise that is going to increase her anxiety, at an already anxious time for her. So, yeah, go on, how are you feeling? HOLLY -Well, as we were saying, I've just got the text saying I've been identified as someone at risk of severe illness. And I don't know, it kind of caught me off guard, because I've had quite a nice day. Obviously I haven't left the house, but I've been in the garden, it's been really sunny, and I've been enjoying doing a bit of home schooling with Scout and playing outside and stuff. KATE -But why did it catch you off guard? Because we knew last night after… HOLLY -Yeah, I just hadn't been thinking of it because I hadn't, as I said… KATE -Well, we listened to Boris talking last night. We heard rumours. HOLLY -I don't know, it's just you get this text and it just gave me a shock because it's like: oh hi, you might die, so don't go outside, you can open a window. And I was a bit like, oh god, there it is in black and white, there it is in writing. And obviously day to day life I don't think of myself as a very vulnerable person at all; I lead a pretty normal life. So, to be put in this category that I feel like in normal day-to-day life I don't belong to just feels really weird and quite scary. It's made me feel a bit more anxious. And although I haven't left the house, I've been in the garden, I don't know if that's okay anymore. I hope it is. KATE -Surely a garden's okay, surely? HOLLY -And I've been having conversations with neighbours from, I don't know, literally five metres away. But now I think is that too…should I just be sitting inside indoors? And it also states that I should be three steps away from everyone in my house. That would be impossible with Scout. KATE -Yes, we should be sleeping apart, we should be using different bathrooms, we shouldn't be cooking at the same time, preparing food at the same time. I mean, that's just not… HOLLY -It's not really feasible, is it? KATE -No. HOLLY -We're doing our very best. Yeah, so apparently Boris is doing an announcement in about 20 minutes' time; we're expecting it to be full lockdown. KATE -Well, at least everyone's in the same boat then, I guess. HOLLY -Yeah, I guess so. I've no idea how they're going to enforce it. We've already done a week of this so a lot of people today have been, oh it's day one, and stuff. And we're like it's day nine. And actually I think it's going okay. I think if we can keep in the garden, we're lucky enough to have quite a decent garden, then that… KATE -It's not huge though; it's just fine. HOLLY -No, it's not huge at all, but some people have no gardens. KATE -Yeah, I know. HOLLY -We lived for years without a garden, didn't we, and it's still quite a novelty to me. KATE -Yeah, because when we were in London we had no garden. Can you imagine living in that flat in London? HOLLY -Yeah, but that's what millions of people are doing. KATE -Yeah. I really feel for anyone, like my best friend, she lives at the top of a 14-floor building, and they've got the tiniest bit of outside space, and it's not safe because it's a balcony that's too windy. If it does get into lockdown they're going to be stuck in that flat for days, weeks, with two children. So, yeah in the grand scheme of things we're lucky to have what we've got. [Music] Okay, it's two o'clock in the morning and oh man, I've just come downstairs because I cannot sleep. I'm feeling pretty stressed. I need to stress eat basically I think. Yeah, so today Hol's got the text saying she's one of the most vulnerable people and then we decided to watch Boris telling us that nobody should go outside. [Coughing] Oh god that's a cough. Panic! I'm going to need to eat more chocolate. Anyway, oh jeez, that's just a normal cough, isn't it, just a regular cough, totally fine. Not stressing about that cough at all. That is just a regular cough. Anyway yeah, so we decided to listen to Boris and I decided that because of my anxiety I would take a fully prescribed diazepam in order to help deal with the anxiety that was more than likely going to come from said announcement from Boris. So, I did that, and that helped a bit, and then it must have weared off, worn off, wornered, wordeded [sic] off… Because I cannot sleep. And that's just me closing the chocolate donut box by the way that somebody brought round to us the other day, like I said, very kindly. So, yeah now I can't sleep and I've come downstairs. And I have this terrible habit of stress eating. And I'm just about to do more of it. Such a bad idea but I'm just going to do it because it's the only thing that I can think of to help me feel a bit better right now. But don't tell Holly because she gets really annoyed when I get up in the night and stress eat. So, yeah this is just between us. Oh, and pro tip for you, by the way: if you've got a donut that's a bit old, you've had it a few days, [beeping] don't throw it away thinking that that's no good - ow - put it in the microwave because once you warm it up that donut is good to go. SCOUT -[Background chattering] KATE -Nobody slept well last night. Scout was up until about ten. Obviously I was up until really late. So, everyone is feeling grumpy and tired and a bit miserable today, so great. But the sun is shining and we have a garden, so maybe if we get outside a bit this morning. No, actually I've got loads of work to do and so has Holly, so we can maybe get Scout outside, but the mood she's in unlikely. But we will try. [Music] So, I think we can safely say it's been quite a testing week. And I've still got at least, well I thought, like, ten weeks left, but then Holly got the text this week so that's another 12 weeks. So, is it 11 weeks? I have no idea. Do you know what, I don't even know how long left in isolation. If it's even 12 weeks, part of me thinks it's going to be longer than 12 weeks anyway, so we've still got a long time left in isolation. So, if you want to reach out to me or the team please email my producer Amy Elizabeth, amy.elizabeth@bbc.co.uk. If you're feeling particularly lonely or frustrated or you've got something that's grating on you please do share, because it's probably grating on me too, and it would be great to hear other people in the same boat. Or if you've just got advice on how to navigate this really tricky time, or how to keep a very energetic three year old entertained also get in touch, because I will thank you forever if you can even give us five minutes of peace. Just pop it in an email. At least the one thing we've got more now of is time, hey. The pressure is certainly ramping up and I'll be keeping my recording stuff right next to me every step of the way to let you know exactly how I'm feeling. Have I been too honest? Probably, but I feel like it's probably just going to get even more brutally real. So, I look forward to speaking to you more for Episode 3.

magazine-20311170

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20311170

Hillary Clinton: A long journey

Over the decades, Hillary Clinton has gone from student activist to globetrotting stateswoman. On her last day as US secretary of state, has her journey ended or is there more to come?

By Kim GhattasBBC state department correspondent She's been on the world stage since Bill Clinton became the "comeback kid" and she became first lady in 1992. Americans have named her the most admired woman in the world 17 times in a Gallup poll. After travelling almost a million miles around the globe, she leaves her job as secretary of state with close to 70% approval ratings - higher than any outgoing secretary of state measured since 1948, with the exception of Colin Powell. President Barack Obama has described her as one of the country's finest secretaries of state. Although many have always admired her, she has had many detractors and her approval ratings have occasionally plummeted over the course of her career. Clinton, the first lady, was seen by her conservative opponents as uncompromising, confrontational and deeply polarising. They hated her and everything she stood for, and she hated them back, calling them a vast right-wing conspiracy. "As first lady she was unapologetically political," says Jason Horowitz, a Washington Post reporter who covered Clinton's 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination. She was the first wife of an American president since Eleanor Roosevelt who played a prominent role in policy-making. She had her own office in the West Wing, a degree and a career, and critics accused her of trying to be co-president. Her efforts at healthcare reform faced a groundswell of opposition and failed. When she decided to run for president, "a lot of people thought she did not stand for what America was supposed to stand for", says Horowitz. "But I don't think there was one underlying thing all those people felt about her. There are these empty vessels that people pour into. She's one of those people that people project on to." Clinton also had a difficult relationship with the media during her White House years, which continued on the campaign trail. Horowitz recalls a particularly low time in 2008. Hoping to ease the tension, Clinton came into the press bus to pass around doughnuts. But no-one responded to her peace offering and the doughnuts were left untouched. But the first lady-turned-senator also had legions of fans. Liberals loved her, women's rights advocates in the US and abroad saw her as a trailblazer. So by the time she began her own run at the presidency in 2008, she was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Her strategists still agonised over how to present her to the public. They decided to make her look tough. "She was the first woman with a real clear shot at becoming president of the US and there was a feeling in her campaign by some of her advisers that she always had to project strength," says Horowitz. Clinton's advisers didn't want her to seem overly motherly or warm. But in the end, the strategy worked against her. She often came across as too harsh and cold and, according to some, disingenuous. She contrasted with the rising star of the race. With his life story, his oratorical skills and charisma, Senator Barack Obama fired up the crowds. The fight for the nomination, bruising and nasty, went on for months. Clinton's main charge was that Obama was not ready to be commander-in-chief. Obama said that Clinton's only foreign policy experience was sipping tea with world leaders. Asked during a debate why she was having trouble getting voters to like her, while they seemed to like her rival, Clinton laughed and said that while she liked Obama, she didn't think she was that bad. Standing next to her, Obama retorted dryly: "You're likeable enough, Hillary." It was just one of the many moments that laid bare the tension between the candidates. When Obama ultimately, and narrowly, won the nomination, the rivals made peace. Clinton even campaigned for Obama, bringing the 18 million votes she had won in the primaries along with her. Clinton had done well not just with women but also working-class voters and the elderly. But President Obama surprised everybody - including Clinton - when he picked her as secretary of state. Clinton needed some convincing but she eventually said yes. In public she always said she felt one couldn't say no to the president if he asked you to serve. She also wondered how she would have felt if she had won and he had rejected her request to serve. But was there any bitterness in private? "Never. Never once. I think she's a professional," says Lissa Muscatine, a friend who has worked with her at the White House and at the state department. "She's been in this business a long time, she's had ups and downs and I think she is one of these people who is forward thinking: 'OK, what's next? I'm going to start working on what's next because that's a positive thing I can do. I'm not going to dwell on the past.' Others might have crawled into bed and pulled the covers over them." If this sounds unemotional, Muscatine says Clinton is simply very pragmatic, a trait that allowed her to work with people in the Senate who had sought to impeach her husband. As a first lady, Clinton had travelled overseas extensively, becoming a world figure and building ties with presidents, prime ministers and monarchs. So in her first few weeks at the state department, foreign leaders flocked to Washington, eager to shake hands with America's new ambassador to the world. "Madame Secretary, on a personal note, I hope you know the admiration and respect with which you are held in the United Kingdom," said David Miliband, the then British Foreign Secretary, as he met Clinton during her first week at work. His words exemplified how many around the world saw Hillary Clinton. "For many years," Miliband continued, "you have not just been an ambassador of America - you've been an ambassador for America and everything good that it stands for in the world." Four years on, Miliband still remembers Clinton's debut at an international event. "I will never forget the first Nato meeting that she arrived at in Brussels. I'd arrived an hour before her and there were a few people in the entryway. Suddenly there were thousands of people craning to get a view of her and that's where my understanding that she was a rock star came through very, very strongly." But when Obama picked Clinton for his team, he knew he was getting much more than a performer with star status. "Now we all take for granted that it was a good idea," says Philippe Reines, one of Clinton's top aides. "But go back to 2008 and it was shocking to all - to her, to everybody but one person. "President Obama chose her for lots of reasons, but also because he knew what he was inheriting as president. The previous eight years were not a golden age of diplomacy. He knew that she was the best person to restore America's standing." There was indeed much restoring to be done. After the Bush years, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with rendition and waterboarding, America's reputation around the world had taken a battering and its standing as the world's sole superpower was in doubt. The Obama administration wanted to change the substance and tone of American foreign policy. So Clinton embarked on a new campaign, for the US itself. She wanted to reach out directly to people, in all the countries she visited, to repair her own country's image. Easy to do with adoring crowds in Europe, but a much more daring move in places where the US is widely despised, such as Pakistan. Clinton had been there as first lady and returned in October 2009 as secretary of state. "Going into the trip she said: 'I don't want to resign myself to giving up on trying to change people's minds,'" says Reines. "We said: 'It's not going to be pretty.' And she said: 'I want you to load it up and I want you to make me a punching bag.' Because once you let people express their frustrations, they also realise it's an opportunity to express their desires and their own goals for their nation and how the United States plays a part in that." I was on the trip as Clinton sat through endless media interviews, town hall gatherings with students and meetings with tribal leaders. The tone was acerbic and angry. I could see her staff shrinking in their chairs while their boss got pounded but remained calm, responding with warmth, empathy but also firmness. Even though no single trip or charm offensive can erase decades of distrust, it was obvious that by the time she left three days later, the media coverage had softened. But better PR, of course, is not enough on its own, especially when the use of US drones in Pakistan - and the raid to kill Osama Bin Laden - pushed relations to the limit. "Pakistan-US relations went through the worst time during Clinton's tenure as secretary of state," says Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. "When you come out of the worst times, I must give her a lot of credit for the wisdom she showed." When Pakistani soldiers were killed by mistake in a Nato strike in November 2011, the relationship broke down - Pakistan refused to help the US with anything until it got an apology. Clinton quietly pressed the White House. In the spring, Washington finally offered a carefully worded apology. "If the US was a country that was not willing to say sorry for the loss of 24 lives, no matter what the circumstances, that's not the image the US wants and she completely understood that," says Khar. No-one could handle "the long-term repercussions of allowing ourselves to drift further away. She came to the job with a lot of history, a lot of understanding as first lady and senator." Clinton also gets praise from Republicans, such as former presidential candidate and Senator John McCain, who came to respect her during their time in the US Senate together. "I think she has established relationships with leaders of well over 100 nations, so she can pick up the phone at any time," he says. It's a rapport that helped defuse many crises, he adds. One critic of the administration says Clinton's ability to press the flesh made her the perfect foil to the more aloof Obama. "He doesn't seem to have enjoyed cuddling up to foreign leaders. Some presidents do and some don't. He doesn't seem to like it. He has therefore left the care and feeding of foreign leaders to her," says Elliot Abrams, who was deputy national security adviser during the Bush administration. "Meeting after meeting, trip after trip, hour after hour she's done. Someone's got to do it because these personal relationships are important and that's been a great service to the administration and to the country." Over four years, Clinton travelled close to a million air miles - that's almost 40 times around the globe. Her predecessor Condoleezza Rice did reach the million-mile mark but Clinton visited more countries than any other secretary of state, trying to bring American diplomacy to places such as the Cook Islands, seemingly inconsequential but playing its own part in the US's Asia policy. Clinton's energy was endless on the road - she could plough through a dozen or more events during the day, barely stopping to eat, while her staff fell asleep in meetings or events. As a member of the press corps that travels around the world with Clinton, I found her energy frustrating as I tried to keep up, following her for 300,000 miles to 40 countries - and I'm roughly half her age. But her goal as secretary of state was much more ambitious than making friends - she and Obama wanted to redefine the exercise of US power and leadership. From day one on the job, Clinton spoke of the need to apply the concept of so-called smart power, using "the full range of tools at our disposal - diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural - picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation", as she put it. Clinton made women's rights a priority, appointing a permanent ambassador for women's issues, and she focused on development issues such as global food security, climate change and entrepreneurship programmes. But she also broke down traditional barriers and mistrust between the state department and the Pentagon, working closely with Defence Secretary Bob Gates and his successor Leon Panetta. One of the many whirlwind trips with Clinton took us from Pakistan to Afghanistan, Vietnam and South Korea, where she visited the demilitarised zone along with the border with North Korea in the company of Gates for a display of soft and hard power. Asia is one area where the smart power approach has paid off - a delicate balance between diplomacy, military ties with allies and support for reforms and reformers such as Burma's Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Clinton, a long-time advocate of human and women's rights and once a student activist, was excoriated at the start of her tenure for not focusing more on human rights in the relationship with China, but she rejected the criticism. In her view, the US couldn't talk only about human rights with its banker. The relationship had to be more comprehensive. The test came when Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng sought refuge in the US embassy in Beijing in the spring of 2012. The diplomatic crisis erupted just as Clinton was heading to Beijing for strategic and economic cabinet-level talks. The talks continued uninterrupted while tense negotiations about Chen's fate took place. Clinton eventually negotiated his departure to the US. "We wanted to manage the entire episode in a way that showed the pragmatism and maturity of the China-US relationship," says Jake Sullivan, Clinton's deputy chief of staff. "How can we on the one hand make sure we are doing right by who we are, and on the other hand build a stronger partnership and relationship with an emerging power? But there were certainly some harrowing moments along the way." But repositioning the US for the 21st Century is a work in progress, and events always overtake plans and strategies. In January 2011, years of pent-up anger and frustration erupted across North Africa and the Middle East. Clinton had just warned Arab leaders that the region was sinking in the sand, but she didn't expect months of revolution and war. On 25 January, just as the revolution was getting under way, Clinton said that "our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people". But within three weeks, President Hosni Mubarak was gone, after 30 years in power. Egypt's modern pharaoh turned out not to be so stable. To this day, Egypt's revolutionaries, as well as proponents of forceful US action in Washington, have not forgotten that statement. "I think the administration was slow on Mubarak and she was slow to realise that [Syrian president] Bashar al-Assad was just a butcher," says Eliot Abrams, who believes Clinton has had no impact as secretary of state. "I think in Libya we were slow and then we went in and then we pulled out some aircraft, leaving the French and the British there. So I don't think she's going to come out too well on that." The uprising in Bahrain is another black spot on the administration's record in the Middle East, one of the situations where - unlike in the Chen Guangcheng affair - the US found it hard to balance its interests and values. Bahrainis demonstrating against the monarchy also feel bitter about the lack of support they received from Washington as they faced a brutal crackdown by the authorities. Bahrain is home to the US 5th Fleet, and Washington sees the small kingdom as a part of its efforts to push back against Iran in the region - interests trumped values here. In Syria, the US did call for Assad to step down in the summer of 2012, but months later, he is still in power and the violence is tearing the country apart. Critics say this is a time for the superpower to be more decisive and get more involved, even militarily. "I think it's the president's decision and the national security adviser much more than it is Secretary Clinton's, and it's a shameful chapter in American history," says McCain. "We have let 60,000 people now be slaughtered, raped, murdered and tortured. Arms flow in from Russia and Iran [to Assad] and we sit by and watch. It's shameful. "I think she influences the president on a great variety of issues. On this issue there have been others such as his national security adviser [Tom] Donilon who have played a much greater role." Occasionally one senses frustration at the state department with the White House's reluctance to get involved in Syria in any decisive way - first because 2012 was an election year and now because there are no good, clear options. But Washington's allies in the region say US inaction is making things worse. The US may have over-learned the lessons from the Iraq war. President Obama is keen to wind down wars, not start new ones, and he has adopted a cautious foreign policy. But despite frustration, these allies still believe that multilateral diplomacy remains the tool of choice for this administration. "Being the secretary of state of a global power sometimes seems to be easy because you are representing a global power, but it has its own difficulties," says Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. "If you give an impression that you are imposing something on others - sometimes on your ally or others - it might be counterproductive. But what I observed and I admired in Secretary Clinton was acting together with other countries and using multilateralism as the instrument of resolving issues." But for all the reaching out, does Clinton - does the US - have anything tangible to show for her four years as secretary of state? Critics say the "reset" with Russia has malfunctioned while Iran is getting closer to a nuclear bomb. Clinton clearly decided not to risk her reputation trying to bang heads together in the thankless task of Middle East peacemaking. But Clinton and her aides say you need to look at the big picture. "The single biggest thing she's leaving behind is having restored American leadership, America's capacity to sit at the centre of coalitions - of countries and other actors - that can solve the big problems of our time," says Jake Sullivan. "I think that that is the kind of legacy that endures beyond a single agreement or a single diplomatic moment. It's about a much bigger enterprise that is American foreign policy." Although the administration's critics say US power has waned under Obama, its allies argue that influence is measured differently in the 21st Century. "I think that what Hillary Clinton's secretary of stateship has done is lay the foundations, set out the tramlines for a modern role for the world's superpower in a world where there are other veto powers," says Miliband, referring to rising powers such as Brazil and Turkey, who have or want more of a say in how the world is run. "This is a different world order from the one her husband confronted in the 1990s." While she pursued her campaign for America, Clinton's own image improved and her ratings soared. As she let her hair down, shimmying on the dance floor in South Africa, swigging a beer in Cartagena or becoming the focus of an internet meme - a Tumblr imagining her text messages - she seemed to attain a status of cool that had always eluded her. Clinton the stateswoman seemed more comfortable in her own skin than Clinton the presidential candidate, more mellow, and people like Jason Horowitz from the Washington Post say the world finally got to see the real Hillary. Her friends disagree. "I don't think she's changed at all except from becoming an older, wiser person and a more mature politician and public servant," says Lissa Muscatine. "I think she's appreciated now for what she's been all along. She has become more comfortable with her own public persona, she has less to prove." For people like me, who did not follow Clinton closely before she became secretary of state, the truth seems to be somewhere in between. She came across as very guarded and careful during her first encounters with the state department press corps, but relaxed gradually as she emerged from the pressure of domestic politics and focused on world affairs, finding her feet in her new role and within the administration. By the end of 2009, we were seeing her funny, mischievous side, as she told jokes or gossiped about the love lives of movie stars. During our travels, she was often surprisingly open (off the record) about conversations she'd had in her meetings with world leaders, briefing us on the plane as we travelled to our next destination. During her years as secretary of state, Clinton also emerged fully from her husband's shadow, no longer Clinton number two, but Hillary Rodham Clinton. The change in perception was perhaps best exemplified after Bill Clinton made a surprise appearance at the Golden Globe awards last month, and host Amy Poehler exclaimed: "Wow, what an exciting special guest. That was Hillary Clinton's husband." The job of US ambassador to the world also transformed Hillary Clinton from politician to stateswoman. She remained above the political fray for four years, and it has paid off. "She's done this incredible thing, moving from being the most divisive person in American politics to someone that Republicans like. That's an amazing feat," says Horowitz. But if she decides to return to politics, the partisan attacks would resume. Clinton's last few months as secretary of state were overshadowed by tragedy and a bout of illness. In September, the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, with three other Americans, was killed in an attack against the US mission in Benghazi. The episode became embroiled in the partisan politics of election season. When Clinton finally testified in front of Congress, in her last weeks as secretary of state, the criticism and the fawning was split along clear partisan lines. Republican Senator Rand Paul said that if he had been president, he would have fired her because of the security failure. The session was a reminder of Clinton's strength - and passion for the fight - and she seemed to emerge from the grilling mostly unscathed. A stomach virus, concussion and a blood clot recently just put her out of action for a month - a reminder of her age, and possible frailty, although Clinton says her doctors have assured her there will be no lingering consequences. Four years before the next election, everyone is already asking - will she run? "In some ways I would like to see her run," says McCain. "She would be extremely formidable. If I had to wager today, I think it's very likely that she'll give it serious consideration and she will be urged to." From across the pond, Miliband urges Clinton not to rush the decision. "If she decides to go for it she'd be fantastic and she'll get a huge amount of support." Her friends are also hoping for another presidential run. "I really care about her so I want her to rest first, but I would not be unhappy if she ran," says Muscatine, who believes Bill Clinton wants her to run. Clinton herself insists she is done with the high wire of politics, but she has not firmly closed the door on the idea. She says her life has been serendipitous - she remains flexible and open to opportunities that present themselves to her and she doesn't shut the door to anything unless it's necessary. So it's likely that she simply has not made up her mind. She will not have to announce a decision for at least two years, but she'll do nothing to undermine her chances in the meantime. But first there will beaches and speeches, and Clinton's friends hope it'll be mostly beaches. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

world-europe-guernsey-12039666

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-12039666

Family resigned over land for Guernsey runway extension

The family which owns the land needed to extend Guernsey Airport's runway has said it is resigned to losing it.

Nick Le Messurier, speaking on behalf of his two brothers, said he had played in the two fields as a child, which have been in the family for decades. He said there was little hope of the States deciding against the compulsory purchase of the land. Mr Le Messurier said: "The States might not go with this but... let's be realistic that's not very likely." He added: "We're just really getting used to the idea that the fields will be compulsorily purchased."

uk-england-kent-53623262

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-53623262

Maidstone: Two arrested following man's death

A murder investigation is under way after a man in his 50s suffered fatal injuries.

Two men in their 30s have been arrested in connection with the incident on Friday at about 18:40 BST in Bower Place, Maidstone in Kent. The victim was flown to a London hospital where he died from his injuries. Police were called out to reports of an assault. The two men, arrested the same evening, remain in police custody.

uk-wales-south-west-wales-31803520

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-31803520

£5m A40 link road given the go ahead in Carmarthenshire

A £5m link road in Carmarthenshire has been given the go ahead and will be paid for by the council.

The route from the A40 will connect more than 1,000 new homes and the new headquarters for Welsh language channel S4C. Carmarthenshire council will have the money paid back by the developers. It is hoped the road will be completed by 2018 and will link the A40 at Travellers Rest with College Road.

science-environment-37913750

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37913750

Bloodhound Diary: Super-track for supercar

A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle will first mount an assault on the world land speed record (763mph; 1,228km/h). Bloodhound should start running on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2017.

By Andy GreenWorld Land Speed Record Holder With just one year - 365 days - to go until we'll be running Bloodhound SSC on the desert in South Africa, work continues to get the Car ready. This seemed like a perfect time to inspect our desert track in South Africa, and to take a moment to celebrate the amazing achievement of the team which has prepared the best straight-line race track ever. To build the excitement a little, we got them to spell out "365" on the desert, as a message to the world that Bloodhound is coming. When I first saw the surface of Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, over seven years ago, two things were immediately obvious. The first was that the hard, smooth clay pan surface could be the best land speed record track ever. The second was that it would take a truly huge effort to clear the layer of stones that covered most of the 20 million sq m that we would need. The Northern Cape Provincial Government very bravely agreed to take this immense task on and, seven years later, the results are just astonishing. With work now all but complete, we went from one end to the other, over 12 miles (20km) away. As we raced along, all we could see was a perfectly smooth and stone-free surface, as far as the eye could see. The track team of over 300 people has worked away for the past seven years, clearing an area equivalent to a wide road from London to Moscow. They have prised around 16,000 tonnes of stones (over 50 tonnes per person!) out of the surface to leave the most incredible track surface behind, ready for Bloodhound to arrive next year. The track team has hand-cleared the largest area on earth ever prepared for a motorsport event. We felt this should be formally recognised, so we contacted the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). I was thrilled by the response: while the FIA President Jean Todt was unable to join us personally for the celebration, he sent the track team a very warm video message of congratulations. His message highlighted the essential contribution that the Northern Cape team has made to Bloodhound, and he told the workers that "the credit will be shared with you" for everything that Bloodhound achieves. Absolutely right. In addition, the President of the FIA's Land Speed Record Commission, Dennis Dean, flew half way round the world to represent the FIA and to thank the track team personally. Dennis presented every member of the team with a certificate of recognition from the FIA, and Bloodhound gave each person a medal to thank them for their unique achievement. We were also joined by the Premier of the Provincial Government, along with several of her cabinet, and the whole event was covered live on national TV in South Africa. A great day out for a great bunch of people. Being back in South Africa also gave me a chance to meet up with Dirk Coetzee. Dirk is the young South African who won our design competition to paint one of the Arai helmets that I will be wearing when I drive Bloodhound SSC. He proudly presented me with the finished article, resplendent in its Northern Cape sunrise orange, with the twin flags of South Africa and the UK, and (very aptly) an outline of the fastest local antelope, the Gemsbock. It's a real work of art. Meanwhile, work in Bristol carries on, getting the car ready for record-breaking speeds next year. The car has been stripped down, separating the 3,500-odd bespoke parts that make up Bloodhound SSC. Each one is being carefully inspected, before being prepared for reassembly - the final build before running the car. Each component and system will also be tested to check that it works as advertised. One of the first bits to undergo an end-to-end test will be the fuel system, which is being installed in the rear lower-chassis. The fuel system has a main tank (400 litres of Jet-A), which provides more than enough fuel for a full-power run. However, we also need to allow extra fuel for jet engine warm-up and cool down, plus a reserve in case there is a delay before a run. The main fuel tank already fills the space available for it, so we've added another two 100-litre auxiliary tanks, in the narrow spaces behind the main tank, just in case. The three tanks will be connected together, with pumps to feed the fuel to the main tank and then into the EJ200 jet engine. We'll take the whole system down to our UK test facility at Newquay Aerohub at the end of this year, for leak and function testing. After that, the fuel system's next job will be to feed a live and screaming jet engine, when the car fires up for the first time next Summer. Can't wait. There was clear evidence the other day that we're now into final assembly, when a tank of liquid nitrogen turned up at the Bloodhound Technical Centre in Bristol. The tolerances for some of the components, such as the wheel bearing carriers for the suspension uprights, is so small that they can only be assembled when they are extremely cold (in this case, liquid nitrogen is below minus 195C). Once each carrier goes into its upright and warms up again, it won't be coming out again. This really is the final build. The cockpit monocoque has been hoisted up into the air, so that the titanium floor can be fitted to the underside and trimmed to its final size. When the car travels across Hakskeen Pan at supersonic speeds, the shockwaves around the wheels will rip up the surface, creating a supersonic dust storm immediately behind the wheel. Over the course of several weeks of testing, this supersonic "sand blasting" would start to wear away the underside of the car, just as it did on Thrust SSC, back in 1997. The titanium floor panel is hard enough to survive this extreme environment, so that's one less thing to worry about. One thing we haven't started work on yet is refining the cockpit displays and controls. We are still looking to recruit a couple of key people for the team, including a software engineer to look after the cockpit. If you know anyone with the right skills who might like to join us for this unique once-in-a-lifetime Engineering Adventure, please do get in touch. Bloodhound continues to draw young people in to the fascinating world of science and technology. In advance of the car's arrival at Newquay next Summer, the Royal Cornwall Museum ran a Bloodhound experience over the past few of months. To the museum's surprise and delight, the "Bloodhound Effect" has doubled the number of schools visiting the museum, compared with this time last year. I went down there a few weeks ago, to talk about next year's testing and record-breaking plans, and saw a very excited group of youngsters building their own rocket cars. Talking of rocket cars, if you haven't put your name down for a free rocket car kit for next year's competition (first prize - the chance to see Bloodhound SSC run in South Africa), then you have until the end of November. Book now to avoid disappointment!

uk-wales-56052607

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-56052607

M4 crash: Road reopens after pedestrian dies near Bridgend

The M4 has reopened after being closed for several hours following the death of a pedestrian.

The motorway was shut in both directions between junctions 35 at Pencoed and 33 at Cardiff West, after several vehicles hit the man at about 05:45 GMT. South Wales Police said the 34-year-old's family was being supported by specialist officers. The road reopened shortly before 16:00, about 10 hours after it was closed. Related Internet Links South Wales Police

sinhala.090125_nuwan_odi

https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/news/story/2009/01/090125_nuwan_odi

Best ever ranking for Kulasekara

Sri Lanka’s young pace man Nuwan Kulasekara has claimed best ever rating of his cricketing career as he was ranked as the second best bowler in the shorten form of the game by the world governing body.

Kulasekara, 26, has achieved the rank after his impressive match figures of 3-17 off seven overs in the third one day international (ODI) against Pakistan in Lahore. Jumping four places from his last ODI rankings, he has also taken over Sri Lanka’s veteran bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, currently ranked at fourth place. “It’s a fine achievement for Kulasekara who has enjoyed a remarkable few months with Sri Lanka,” a statement issued by the ICC said. Sri Lanka’s new talent, Ajantha Mendis is ranked 13 and veteran pace man Chaminda Vaas is ranked 18 in ICC rankings for the ODIs.

world-europe-37894042

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37894042

Why did some French women walk out of work early?

It seems an insignificant time: 16:34 on Monday 7 November.

And yet, for women across France, it has huge importance: it is the moment they effectively stop being paid for 2016, thanks to the gender pay gap. And this year, many were determined not to let it go unnoticed. On Monday, French women were urged to quietly pack their bags and walk out of their offices at the appointed time to unite in their call for equal pay. In France, the gap between men and women's average hourly wage was 15.1% in 2010, which, feminist group Les Glorieuses calculated, means a woman will work 38.2 days more than a man for the same salary. And that, they say, is not on. Rebecca Amsellem, founder of Les Glorieuses, which launched the campaign, told the BBC: "To be really honest, I knew there was a huge difference between the pay - but I thought the difference would maybe be 10 working days, not a month-and-a-half." 52-year wait Ms Amsellem had been inspired to do the maths after reading how Iceland, a country considered a world leader in gender equality, still has a pay gap of 14%. For the last 11 years, women in Iceland have been walking out on 24 October at the time they should leave every day if they were to be paid the same hourly-rate as their male counterparts. In that period in the Nordic country, the time has moved from 14:08 to 14:38. If the pace continues, it will only take another 52 years for them to be able to leave at the same time as men - an unacceptable length of time, according to Gylfi Arnbjörnsson, president of the Icelandic Confederation of Labour. He told Iceland's national broadcaster: "No-one puts up with waiting 50 years to reach a goal. It doesn't matter whether it's a gender pay gap or any other pay gap. "It's just unacceptable to say we'll correct this in 50 years. That's a lifetime." 'In 2016, we still need to fight' In France, it appears a parallel sense of injustice has inspired activists to adopt the symbolism of Iceland's precisely timed protests. More than 10,000 women have indicated their interest in joining the movement on Facebook, and the hashtag "7novembre1634" has been trending in France, with hundreds sharing cartoons and memes highlighting the issue. Others write just one word: "Egalite." The movement even has the backing of two government ministers, and has landed on the front page of a French national newspaper, Liberation. "Support for the #7novembre16h34 movement: the struggle for equal pay must be by the whole of society," tweeted education minister Najat Belkacem. "Do not wait for 2186!" But France is far from the worst offender in Europe when it comes to the gender pay gap. In neighbouring Germany the gap was 22.3% in 2014, while in the UK it stood at 20.9%, according to Eurostat. The average pay gap across Europe was 16.7%, with the largest in Estonia, where it was measured at 28.8%. Whether Iceland and now France will inspire more movements remains to be seen. Ms Amsellem is just happy it has provoked a discussion in her home country. "What I am happy about is that feminist issues are still burning issues in people's minds," she said. "But it is crazy to think that in 2016, we still need to fight for these things."

uk-england-london-54573751

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-54573751

Tamara Ecclestone burglary: Man in court

A man has appeared in court accused of being involved in several burglaries, including a £50m jewellery and cash raid on heiress Tamara Ecclestone's west London home.

Italian Alessandro Maltese appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court charged with conspiracy to commit burglary between 30 November and 1 February. He was held in Italy under a European Arrest Warrant earlier this month. Mr Maltese will next appear at Isleworth Crown Court on 13 November. Diamond earrings The 44-year-old was flown from Italy to Heathrow Airport where he was charged with burgling the homes, including Ms Ecclestone's home near Kensington Palace on 13 December. A £300,000 pair of diamond earrings and a Louis Vuitton bag were among the items stolen, which had a total estimated worth of £50m. The burglary occurred after Ms Ecclestone, the daughter of former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, left the country for a Christmas holiday with her husband Jay Rutland and their daughter Sophia. Mr Maltese, who was assisted during the hearing by an interpreter, spoke only to give his name and nationality as Italian.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17459234

War-time explosives at Nairn's East Beach made safe

Two mortar bombs found on a Highland beach used to train troops for the D-Day landings in World War II have been safely disposed of.

The devices found by a member of the public at about 09:45 were thought to have been exposed by shifting sand at Nairn's East Beach. Edinburgh-based bomb disposal experts made the weapons safe, police said. Nairn's beaches were used to prepare soldiers and sailors for the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944. Military personnel were based at nearby Fort George at the time. The remains of tanks used in the rehearsals have previously been found further east along the coast from Nairn. A Valentine tank was lost by the Royal Hussars at Culbin Forest and two others in Burghead Bay. Northern Constabulary had put in place a 100m (328ft) cordon at East Beach.

health-21801411

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-21801411

From counting to characterising exoplanets

` We've come a long way since 1995 when Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz claimed the first official detection of an exoplanet orbiting a distant star - the somewhat prosaically named 51 Pegasi b, orbiting a sun-like star some 51 light-years from earth in the constellation Pegasus.

Tom FeildenScience correspondent, Today According to Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that figure now stands at 932, with a further 2,717 planet candidates waiting to be confirmed. Much of the heavy lifting when it comes to spotting these new worlds has been done by the Kepler Space Telescope. Trailing in the earth's wake as it orbits the sun, Kepler has been staring, unblinking, at a narrow patch of the Milky Way between Cygnus and Lyra for the last three-and-a-half years - waiting for the telltale dimming of a distant star's light as an orbiting planet passes in from of it. Kepler's share of the planet-spotting booty, according to the latest tranche of data released at the American Astronomical Society in January, is 2,740 including 114 confirmed planets. It's an astonishing achievement by any standards, but Kepler's enduring legacy may be much more profound that its contribution to a simple head count of exoplanets. According to David Latham at the Harvard Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, a better measure of the project's success would be to acknowledge that it has shifted the goalposts of scientific debate. The question now is not are there planets orbiting distant stars, or even how many, but what do these planets look like and, crucially, could any support life? "There are planets out there, but that's not the same as saying there's life on them. How often the Universe has planets truly like the earth - true earth twins, planets the size of the earth, rocky planets with a surface that supports liquid water - well, we don't have that number yet, but I'm optimistic we'll figure it out." Some measure of how far the scientific debate has shifted can be gauged from the extensive list of sub-clauses in the title of a two-day Royal Society discussion meeting on exoplanets earlier this week. It reads "Characterising Exoplanets: detection, formation, interiors, atmospheres and habitability." One of the key presentations at the conference was given by Dr Giovanna Tinetti who's leading the Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory, or EChO, mission recently selected for further development by the European Space Agency. EChO will use spectroscopy to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, hoping to spot the tell-tale chemical signature of life. "EChO won't search for exoplanets directly." Dr Tinetti says "Instead we will observe planets we already know exist. We will study their composition to see if they're really similar to earth, and we'll look at the light of the star filtered through the atmosphere of the planet to tell us about the molecules present in those atmospheres and habitability". And the EChO project is not alone. One of five European Space Agency missions being considered for launch in the early 2020's, Nasa also has a series of exoplanet projects at various stages of development, and both the James Webb Space Telescope and ground based observatories are getting in on the act. And because what we're finding - planets that are bigger than Jupiter or smaller than Mercury, denser than iron or lighter than styrofoam - Bill Borucki, the Kepler Mission's principal investigator, believes the next ten or 15 years is going to be even more exciting than the last. "Everything we're finding is different from what was predicted by the theorists. We didn't expect to find planets bigger than Jupiter. We certainly didn't expect to find small planets which are almost entirely gas. So lots of surprises in every way."

business-38317186

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38317186

The hidden strengths of unloved concrete

Nearly 20 years ago, poor families in Coahuila state in Mexico were offered an unusual handout from a social programme called Piso Firme. It was not a place at school, a vaccination, food, or even money. It was $150 (£118) worth of ready-mixed concrete.

By Tim Harford50 Things That Made the Modern Economy, BBC World Service Workers would drive concrete mixers through poor neighbourhoods, stop outside a home, and pour the porridge-like mixture through the door, right into the living room. They showed the occupants how to spread and smooth the gloop, and made sure they knew how long to leave it to dry. Then they drove off to the next house. Piso Firme means "firm floor", and when economists studied the programme, they found that the ready-mixed concrete dramatically improved children's education. Find out more 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that have helped create the economic world we live in. It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast. Previously, the floors were made of dirt, which let parasitic worms thrive, spreading diseases that stunted kids' growth and made them miss school. Concrete floors are much easier to keep clean. So the kids were healthier, and their test scores improved. Economists also found that parents in the programme's households became happier, less stressed and less prone to depression. That seems to be $150 well spent. Beyond the poor neighbourhoods of Coahuila state, concrete often has a less wonderful reputation. Soulless structures It has become a byword for ecological carelessness: concrete is made of sand, water and cement, and cement takes a lot of energy to produce. The production process also releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. That might not be such a problem in itself - after all, steel production needs a lot more energy - except that the world consumes absolutely vast quantities of concrete: five tonnes, per person, per year. As a result, the cement industry emits as much greenhouse gas as aviation. Architecturally, concrete implies lazy, soulless structures: ugly office blocks for provincial bureaucrats, multi-storey car parks with stairwells that smell of urine. Yet it can also be shaped into forms that many people find beautiful - think of the Sydney Opera House or Oscar Niemeyer's Brasilia cathedral. Perhaps it is no surprise that concrete can evoke such confusing emotions. The very nature of the stuff feels hard to pin down. "Is it stone? Yes and no," opined the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1927. "Is it plaster? Yes and no. Is it brick or tile? Yes and no. Is it cast iron? Yes and no." However, the fact that it is a great building material has been recognised for millennia - perhaps even since the dawn of human civilization. There is a theory that the very first settlements, the first time that humans gathered together outside their kinship groups - nearly 12,000 years ago at Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey - was because someone had figured out how to make cement, and therefore concrete. It was certainly being used over 8,000 years ago by desert traders to make secret underground cisterns, some of which still exist in modern day Jordan and Syria. The Mycenaeans used it over 3,000 years ago to make tombs you can see in the Peloponnese in Greece. Shockingly modern The Romans were also serious about the stuff. Using a naturally occurring cement from volcanic ash deposits at Puteoli, near Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, they built their aqueducts and their bathhouses with concrete. Walk into the Pantheon in Rome, a building that will soon celebrate its 1,900th birthday. Gaze up at what was the largest dome on the planet for centuries, arguably until 1881. You're looking at concrete. It is shockingly modern. Many Roman brick buildings are long gone - but not because the bricks themselves have decayed. They've been taken apart, cannibalised for parts. Roman bricks can be used to make modern buildings. But the concrete Pantheon? One of the reasons it has survived for so long is because the solid concrete structure is absolutely useless for any other purpose. Bricks can be reused, concrete cannot. It can only be reduced to rubble. And the chances of it becoming rubble depend on how well it is made. Bad concrete - too much sand, too little cement - is a death-trap in an earthquake. But well-made concrete is waterproof, storm proof, fireproof, strong and cheap. More from Tim Harford How Rudolph Diesel's engine changed the world The iPhone at 10: How the smartphone became so smart How fertiliser helped feed the world That is the fundamental contradiction of concrete: incredibly flexible during construction, utterly inflexible afterwards. In the hands of an architect or a structural engineer, concrete is a remarkable material. You can pour it into a mould, set it to be slim and stiff and strong in almost any shape you like. It can be dyed, or grey, it can be rough or polished smooth like marble. But the moment the building is finished, the flexibility ends: cured concrete is a stubborn, unyielding material. 'Fatal' flaw Perhaps that is why the material has become so associated with arrogant architects and autocratic clients - people who believe that their visions are eternal, rather than likely to need deconstructing and reconstructing as circumstances change. In a million years, when our steel has rusted and our wood has rotted, concrete will remain. But many of the concrete structures we're building today will be useless within decades. That's because, over a century ago, there was a revolutionary improvement in concrete - but it's an improvement with a fatal flaw. In 1867, a French gardener, Joseph Monier, was unhappy with the available range of flower pots, and devised concrete pots, reinforced with a steel mesh. Less than 20 years later, the elegant idea of pre-stressing the steel was patented. This allowed engineers to use much less of it, and less concrete too. Reinforced concrete is much stronger and more practical than the unreinforced stuff. It can span larger gaps, allowing concrete to soar in the form of bridges and skyscrapers. But if cheaply made, it can rot from the inside as water gradually seeps in through tiny cracks, and rusts the steel. This process is currently destroying infrastructure across the United States. In 20 or 30 years' time, China will be next. China poured more concrete in the three years after 2008 than the United States poured during the entire 20th Century, and nobody thinks that it was all made to exacting standards. Environmental rewards There are many schemes to make concrete last longer, including special treatments to prevent water getting through to the steel. There is "self-healing" concrete, full of bacteria that secrete limestone, which re-seals any cracks. And "self-cleaning" concrete, infused with titanium dioxide, breaks down smog, keeping the concrete sparkling white. Improved versions of the technology may even give us street surfaces that can clean up cars' exhaust fumes. Researchers are trying to make concrete with less energy use and fewer carbon emissions. The environmental rewards for success will be high. Yet ultimately, there are many more things we could be doing with the simple, trusted technology we already have. Hundreds of millions of people around the world live in dirt-floor houses. Their lives could be improved with a programme like Piso Firme. Other studies have shown large gains from laying concrete roads in rural Bangladesh - improving school attendance, agricultural productivity and boosting farm workers' wages. Perhaps concrete serves us best when we use it simply. Tim Harford writes the Financial Times's Undercover Economist column. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.

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Baby 'dragons' hatch at Caerphilly Castle

Two 6ft (1.83m) animatronic models of baby dragons have "hatched" from giant eggs outside Caerphilly Castle.

The twins are the latest addition to Cadw's family of dragons along with proud parents, Dewi and Dwynwen. They have been brought to life by Cardiff-based prop designers Wild Creations. The twins and Dewi and Dwynwen, which weigh two tonnes each, were sculpted and moulded before being cast and built out of fibreglass. They are expected to spread their wings and drop in to other castles across Wales this summer.

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RNLI lifeguards take to Dorset beaches

Lifeguard cover has begun on beaches across Dorset as the peak season for RNLI lifeguards gets under way.

The patrols on 21 beaches include Lyme Regis, West Bay, Poole Bay and Christchurch. Barry Heathfield, RNLI divisional lifeguard manager for Dorset, said thousands of people were expected whatever the weather. The charity has also launched a beach finder mobile app which can locate the nearest "safe" beach. Ross Macleod, RNLI coastal safety programmes manager, said: "It makes finding a lifeguarded beach extremely easy and convenient." RNLI lifeguards attended 2,150 incidents and assisted 2,246 people in Dorset in 2011.

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Why is Spam a luxury food in South Korea?

Asia is celebrating the annual lunar thanksgiving holiday this week. In South Korea, where it's known as Chuseok, the holiday is celebrated by visiting family, paying respects to ancestors... and the giving and receiving of packaged cans of Spam.

By Lucy WilliamsonBBC News, Seoul The pre-cooked tins of pork meat are the stuff of jokes, lunch boxes, wartime memories and, here in South Korea, a low-key, national love affair. Spam has become a staple of South Korean life, and the country is now the biggest consumer of it outside the US. Since Spam was first launched in the US before World War II, more than seven billion of these chunky little cans have rolled off production lines - like the ones at Spam's South Korean factory in Chuncheong Province. Here you can find Classic Spam, Mild Spam, Bacon Spam, Garlic Spam…. "If you've got Spam" the slogan on the can proclaims, "you've got it all!" So, not for South Korean cans, a dusty shelf at the back of the supermarket. Humble origins Spam, and its home-grown competitors, are prime gifts for the lunar thanksgiving holiday, and they are displayed with verve, in lavish gift-boxes, sometimes topped with ribbon. The premium Black Label hamper will set you back around $75 (£50). "It has Andalucia Olive Oil, and nine tins of Spam," the company's brand manager, Shin Hyo Eun, explains. "Spam has a premium image in Korea. It's probably the most desirable gift one could receive, and to help create the high-class image, we use famous actors in our commercials. "Anyone who gets a Spam gift-set also gets a warm feeling in their heart." Spam does have a different image here, compared with the West. Where else would television commercials show a young couple ditching their romantic dinner to head home for a plate of Spam? But its origins here are much more humble. Smuggled spam Spam was introduced to Korea by the US army during the Korean War, when food was scarce - and meat even scarcer. Back then, people used whatever they could find to make a meal. But the appeal of Spam lasted through the years of plenty and it's now so much a part of South Korean food culture, that it's the staple ingredient in one of the country's favourite dishes: budae jigae or army stew. There are lots of restaurants specialising in it, but the most famous line one particular street, just around the corner from a US military base. One of the restaurants there is run by Ho Gi-suk. She claims to have invented Army Stew back in 1954, when someone brought her smuggled spam, sausages and bacon from the local army base. Mrs Ho made them into a spicy soup, and the rest is history. "Back then," she tells me, "there wasn't a lot to eat. But I acquired some ham and sausages… the only way to get meat in those days was to smuggle it from the army base. "We had to make do with whatever the soldiers had left over; sometimes it was turkey, sometimes Spam. We'd make a stew with whatever came out, and my recipe was copied and spread throughout Korea." Army Stew is now well-established as part of South Korea's culinary landscape - as traditional here as Spam gift-sets for thanksgiving. "It's salty, and greasy, and goes very well with the spices," one customer told me. "Korean soup and American ham - it's the perfect fusion food."

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Your pictures on the theme of 'garden creatures'

We asked our readers to send in their pictures on the theme of "garden creatures". Here are some of the pictures sent to us from around the world.

The next theme is "My summer" and the deadline for entries is 1 September 2020. Send pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or follow the link below to "Upload your pictures here". Further details and terms can be found by following the link to "We set the theme, you take the picture" at the bottom of the page. All photographs subject to copyright.

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Slough Tesco car park murder: Man arrested in Birmingham

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man who was stabbed to death in a Tesco underground car park.

Nadeem Uddin Hameed Mohammed, 24, from Southall in west London, was found injured near the store in Wellington Street, Slough, on Wednesday afternoon and died later in hospital. A post-mortem examination found he died from a stab wound to the chest. Police arrested a 26-year-old man from Slough in Birmingham on Thursday evening. He remains in custody. Det Supt Ian Hunter said he was still appealing for anyone with information to come forward. He added that the victim's family had been informed of the arrest. Related Internet Links Thames Valley Police

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DUP adviser 'said fill our boots' over RHI, inquiry hears

A former DUP adviser allegedly said "we could fill our boots" with money from NI's flawed green energy scheme because he believed it was coming from the Treasury, an inquiry has heard.

By Jayne McCormackBBC News NI Political Reporter The claim was made by senior civil servant Andrew McCormick. He was appearing on the final day of evidence at the RHI inquiry. The scheme was set up in 2012 to boost uptake of eco-friendly heat systems, but huge subsidies led to a £490m bill for Northern Ireland taxpayers. Friday marks day 111 of oral evidence heard by the panel, which is being chaired by Sir Patrick Coghlin. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) inquiry was set up in January 2017 and began its hearings last November. 'Relaxed and smiling' On Friday, Mr McCormick made his claim about Andrew Crawford, who was DUP leader Arlene Foster's special adviser when she was in charge of the RHI scheme as enterprise minister. Mr McCormick, who is a former permanent secretary in the enterprise department, said Mr Crawford had made the comment to him at a dinner in October 2016. He described it as a direct conversation with Mr Crawford, who was "very relaxed and smiling". Mr McCormick said that led him to believe Mr Crawford had misunderstood how the scheme was funded, but he said evidence uncovered by the inquiry pointed to the view that Mr Crawford was aware of the potential for the abuse of the scheme and the financial impact it could have. Even after it had emerged in 2015 that there were problems with the scheme's budget, some officials were of the belief that any overspend would be paid for by the Treasury. Ultimately, that was wrong and the overspend was left for Stormont to deal with. The inquiry has already heard claims that Mr Crawford was involved in a decision to delay cost controls to the scheme in summer 2015, claims he has repeatedly denied. The four-week delay to introduce cost controls allowed a spike in about 800 applications to the scheme before the lucrative subsidy levels fell, which did the most damage to the public purse. 'Reality at Stormont' In January 2017, Mr McCormick named Andrew Crawford as the adviser who exerted influence to keep the scheme open - the DUP adviser resigned as a DUP ministerial adviser shortly after that but denied the claim. On Friday, Mr McCormick said he was told by another DUP adviser, Timothy Cairns, that "others in the party" didn't want cost controls and the "inference" was that it was Mr Crawford. He also told the inquiry that before devolution collapsed in January 2017, it had become "a reality at Stormont" that special advisers in the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers (OFMDFM) were in charge. Much of the inquiry's work has focused on the relationship between ministers and unelected special advisers, and how much power they wielded in terms of taking policy decisions. Speaking to the inquiry, Mr McCormick said he felt "ashamed" by the whole RHI debacle, as did many of his colleagues. Appearing emotional and tearful at the end of his testimony, he said he remained passionate about making Stormont's institutions work - but that everyone involved needed to find a way to "build trust". He told the inquiry he only learned in December 2016 that Department of Enterprise civil servants were communicating with industry officials about introducing cost controls in summer 2015. He received emails containing the contact - leaked anonymously to him at the time - but the inquiry has since learned that a DUP adviser leaked them to Mr McCormick and the media. It was done with the knowledge of then DUP enterprise minister, Simon Hamilton, whose permanent secretary at the time was Mr McCormick. On Tuesday, Mr Hamilton said it was not his "proudest moment", but that it had been done in a bid to shift the media pressure from the DUP onto officials. 'Disclosure was wrong' At the time, several DUP advisers had been accused of working to keep the scheme open at the behest of ex-enterprise minister Jonathan Bell, who had made a series of allegations in a BBC interview. Mr McCormick later passed the emails onto PriceWaterhouseCooper, which was carrying out an investigation into the RHI scheme for the civil service. He told the inquiry he had not authorised his officials to liaise with people in the renewable energy industry about the incoming changes. "I did not know at all - the degree of contact and disclosure was just wrong and is recognised as wrong," he said. Inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin put it to him: "We know from the code there is a basis upon which officials can get in contact with potential or real stakeholders. Are you saying this contact overstepped that line?" "Yes," replied Mr McCormick. He said the first time it was drawn to his attention was when he received the envelope containing copies of the emails. He admitted officials in the department had made a number of mistakes in relation to its handling of the scheme, and that there were too many people who knew early on of red flags, but "didn't tell", including DUP advisers. Mr McCormack also told the inquiry of the "anxiety" he felt after he learned he had been secretly recorded talking to Mr Bell about the RHI scheme. He was secretly taped in conversation by the former DUP minister in late 2016. The men met as Mr Bell had requested access to departmental documents. He had lost his job as enterprise minister in May that year. A week after the meeting at which Mr McCormick was recorded, Mr Bell went public with claims he had been forced to keep the scheme open by DUP advisers. Anxiety and fear The long-standing civil servant said he was "shocked" when he received an email from Mr Bell, who told him he was going to put the tapes in the public domain. He said he had not been concentrating on what he had said, and worried he might have said something "outrageous or derogatory in an unguarded moment", given the political tensions at the time. During the discussion, Mr McCormick expressed surprise at a suggestion that the senior DUP adviser Timothy Johnston had been the instigator of the delay in adding cost controls to the scheme the previous year, although he later said Mr Johnston had been involved. On Friday, he told the inquiry he never had any knowledge of a personal role in the RHI in summer 2015 by Mr Johnston. He told the inquiry his level of anxiety and fear went up several notches when he learned of the tape. Mr McCormick said he had been told that "visibility and prominence" were not to be sought by civil servants, and he felt news of secret recordings would put him in the spotlight in "the most embarrassing way". Mr Bell has told the inquiry he made the recordings because he wanted to have a "valid record of what my concerns were". He said he regarded Mr McCormick as a "person of integrity", but that as in late 2016, he was no longer enterprise minister he wanted to have his own account of events, as he could not access information as easily from the enterprise department by that stage. 'Shoulder to cry on' Meanwhile, DUP MP Ian Paisley has described Mr Bell as "Walter Mitty in the flesh" over his version of events around the RHI scandal. A written statement by Mr Paisley to the public inquiry has been published. In March, the MP for North Antrim was accused of being involved in an "intimidating" lobbying phone call on behalf of an RHI applicant. He told the Commons the inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin had been "putting words in the mouth" of a witness. His written statement said Mr Bell came to his home in December 2016, before appearing on BBC's Nolan Show where he gave an explosive interview claiming DUP advisers had stopped him from closing the flawed scheme. Mr Paisley said Mr Bell did not tell him he was going to go on the Nolan Show. He also said it appeared the former minister wanted a "shoulder to cry on" over the scandal. "Frankly, I listened out of interest and, at times, amusement as he outpoured his incredible view of his place in government," he added. "I was aware I had just met Walter Mitty in the flesh and I believe Jonathan Bell believed he had just met someone who would support his assertions. Only one of us was correct." On Friday, the inquiry chair Sir Patrick Coghlin set out the timescale for what happens next at the inquiry. Sir Patrick said in light of evidence, it was necessary to adjust the timescales. He said more time will be allowed to allow witnesses to submit written statements. The additional hearings will be held on 12, 13, and 14 December as necessary, he added. 'Objective and accurate' The inquiry was due to return for a couple of days in December to hear closing statements from some of the core participants - that will be extended to a third day. Sir Patrick said the inquiry had prided itself on being "dynamic and flexible" and described the extension as a "modest adjustment". Last month, Sir Patrick had warned the media not to "sensationalise" some of the evidence that had been heard. However. on Friday, he said he accepted the media coverage had been "clear, objective and accurate". He was grateful for that and need not have issued a "degree of caution", he added.

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Saudis seek virtual freedoms denied in real life

When it comes to freedoms, human rights organisations will tell you Saudi Arabia doesn't have the best track record. And perhaps because compared to elsewhere there is limited personal freedom, defiance across the region has gone digital.

BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why In this part of the BBC's special series "Saudis on social" we tell the stories of three anonymous accounts on Twitter which all tell of searching for virtual freedom in Saudi Arabia. But what impact does this secret life have on those who live this way? "Hussein" tells of what life is like for a religious minority in the kingdom. 20-year-old "Youssef" tells of the perils of being a transsexual in Saudi Arabia. "Mazen" lost his eyesight when he was seven. Here he tells how online tools for the blind changed his world and gave him freedom of faith. To follow and join the conversation about life in Saudi Arabia, search for the hashtag #SaudisOnSocial. Produced by Mai Noman Animations by Ashley Choukeir and illustrations by Hanane Kai

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Totnes: The way forward for the UK's ailing High Streets?

Beneath a chorus of church bells and seagulls, the steep hill of Totnes High Street is coming to life. This small Devon town is famous for being passionate about its local economy; it even has its own currency. And Totnes hit the headlines this year when it said a resounding "No" to High Street giant Costa Coffee.

By Rebecca WearnBusiness reporter, BBC News, Totnes Could this be the secret to a thriving High Street? Totnes has a shop vacancy rate of just 6% - less than half the national average. Eight out of 10 businesses there are independent. Compare that to the national average, where around 68% of retailers are independent, and Totnes is definitely different. But the big question remains: is having so many small shops sustainable? Could this even work far away from the idyll? Would going independent save more British High Streets? No. Not according to Arnold Wilcox-Wood. The manager of The Rock, a shopping and entertainment centre in Bury, Lancashire, says that the big names are the big draws. "We would never even build a shopping centre without our anchor tenants - they bring in the volume," he explained. The Rock does have a number of smaller, independent stores, "but they feed off the volume of people coming to visit Debenhams or, M&S," he said. Competitive edge And there's certainly evidence of the UK's love affair with spending in the big stores. On Tuesday, British Retail Consortium figures confirmed that sales in December were pretty flat across the UK. But this week Debenhams, Next and John Lewis have all reported bumper results. It suggests that if we're willing to part with our cash anywhere, it's with brands like these. The big companies do of course have a competitive edge - they have the buying power to secure the cheapest deals, and the capacity to support a loss when discounting. It's much harder if you're a one-man operation, but not impossible. "There's a bit of a perception problem, but actually independents are very competitively priced," said Michael Weedon, from the British Independent Retailers Association. "They're more value-sensitive than other shops, and often group together to improve buying power." And let's not forget that chain retails are vulnerable too. In just the last year Game Group, Peacocks, Past Times and Clinton Cards have all fallen into administration. Perhaps just as small shops need help from the big boys for footfall, the chains need independents in order to keep a High Street vibrant, lively and different. No one likes shopping in a clone town. This is certainly true in Totnes. Lisa Hosking, who runs two independents on the High Street, Wild Fig Deli and Aromatika, a beauty products firm, thinks independents make Totnes a destination. "People travel here from all over; it makes people want to shop here." Friendly Darren Thorne and his partner Lucy Hornsey, from Seeds2Bakery, agree: "It's bringing people into town, but what's best is that all the retailers here are working together instead of trying to compete with each other." Throughout the morning in Totnes there was evidence of this: the greengrocers were taking boxes of produce to the cafes, the bakeries preparing quiches for the delis. Everyone knew each other and were interested in one another's business plans. It is this incredible amicability that sets Totnes apart. But it's much tougher in the real world of business. Despite everyone claiming to love independents, most of us are hooked on supermarkets and chains - if only for convenience and value. Smaller retailers are a treat to be savoured, but not the saviours of our High Streets. BBC Breakfast is visiting a number of High Streets across the UK this week to ask what kinds of shops ensure retail success. Coming up: could leisure trump shopping in our town centres, and what empty shops can become once the clearance sales are over.

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Brexit: Theresa May being urged to 'take back control'

How tough is Theresa May? She has a death stare which makes Gordon Brown look, by comparison, like the kind of prime minister who'd be dead-legged by a nine-year-old in a school playground.

John PienaarDeputy political editor@JPonpoliticson Twitter But is she as tough as she looks? Or is Mrs May merely stubborn? And cautious? And rather indecisive? For a prime minister who has - or at least, once had - a reputation for strength, Theresa May's now spending a surprising amount of time being urged behind closed doors in Downing Street to stand up, and face down, the hard-line Brexiteers in her own party. A stream of Tory MPs have been urging Mrs May to defy the hard-line Brexiteers for the sake of striking compromises to achieve what they're calling a sensible Brexit. Three former Cabinet ministers were the latest through the door. Amber Rudd, Justine Greening and her former deputy Damian Green. Green told me, in an interview for BBC Radio 4's World at One: "There's a danger of assuming that those who shout the loudest represent the most and I think there is a silent majority within the parliamentary party that wants Brexit, that accepts that Brexit is going to happen, but wants it to be a pragmatic and sensible Brexit that means, above all, there's no disruption if we can achieve that." What, then, about the whispered threat among Brexiteers that Mrs May might face a vote of no confidence, if she strays too far from the Brexit straight and narrow? Was he sure she'd win? "Certainly that, but I think even before that, the vast majority of my colleagues, even those who have been very strongly campaigning for Brexit, recognise that this is absolutely not the time to do that sort of thing." So what might a so-called sensible Brexit look like? While Cabinet ministers search for agreement on Britain's future customs relationship with the EU - a search which, I'm hearing, is getting nowhere fast - attention's focussing on getting Brussels to agree to the fall-back plan of extending a customs deal until new trade deals are struck, and ensuring British borders have the staff and high-tech equipment to cope. Meanwhile, at Westminster, there is more talk among Tory MPs than many people suppose about perhaps extending some form of single market relationship at the same time. The former head of Theresa May's Policy Board, ex-minister George Freeman, certainly thinks so. And look closely for a phrase which seems to have become fashionable. "The silent majority of the Conservative parliamentary party want the prime minister, and support the prime minister in negotiating a deal where we have as frictionless and as cost-free access to the European market as we can negotiate, and the freedom to do our own deals with the emerging economies," he told me. "The mood in the parliamentary party is that the balance of probability falls in terms of staying with our existing market, and the burden of proof falls with those emerging trade deals. If we see them and begin to see what they could be worth then the mood shifts. But right now the vast majority of Conservative MPs want to deliver a prosperity Brexit." Maybe so, but getting even broad agreement among MPs would be tough. Getting agreement in Brussels, maybe tougher still. And there's a view among senior Tories that it would take a parliamentary defeat at the hands of Tory rebels and Labour opponents to force Theresa May's hand. Or untie them, depending on your point of view. The Tory rebels' unofficial chief whip in the Commons is Stephen Hammond. Were the rebels who are threatening to vote to stay in the EU Customs Union holding firm? Ready to defeat the Government? The answer was "yes... if forced". "But we're a long way away from that. I am trying to work with the government, as a number of others are, to make sure that we can get what the prime minister wants, which is frictionless trade. We need to start concentrating on the interests of British industry. And therefore if in the short term, we need a longer period in the customs union to sort out our new customs arrangements, that's what the government should do," he said. Ask me Share this bot. Committed, convinced, Brexiteers insist enough compromises have already been made. Peter Bone doesn't shout. He's quite softly spoken. But still manages to make himself clear. "There have been lots and lots of compromises by people who believe in Brexit to keep everyone together," he said. "But there are certain things that we've compromised enough on to get agreement and we really can't go any further on those. We shouldn't be listening to people who shout the loudest, we should be talking to everyone and trying to create an agreement that everyone can support. But that has to be based on what the British people voted for." To state the obvious, Brexit's a struggle. With Brussels. In the Tory party. And remember the wrangling in the Labour Party will be every bit as crucial to the outcome - whatever that may be. But just now, the silent majority in the Tory party, if that's what they are, are keen to give a new meaning to the Brexiteer's favourite slogan. The one about "Taking back control".

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Sir Henry Segrave: The legacy of the 200 mph record breaker

With his racing goggles and determined expression, Sir Henry Segrave epitomised a derring-do British hero from another age. But although he was the first racing driver to break the 200 mph barrier, he is not a household name. Why?

By Helen CarterBBC News Online In the aftermath of World War One in the 1920s, when vehicles were becoming more reliable and crucially, faster, Sir Henry Segrave was at the top of his game. A star British driver. Motor racing was in its infancy and many British roads were little more than dirt tracks littered with debris that threatened to scupper any record attempt, with disastrous consequences for both driver and car. So on 16 March 1926, Sir Henry pulled on a pair of white overalls and took his four-litre British-made Sunbeam on to the sands of Ainsdale Beach in Southport. Watched by a large group of spectators, his car roared along the smooth, flat surface and reached a speed of more than 152 mph, seizing the world land speed record from his great rival, Malcolm Campbell (father of Donald Campbell). His star was rising. Henry O'Neil de Hane Segrave was born in Baltimore in 1896 to an Irish father and American mother. A British national, he spent his childhood in Ireland and went to Eton. He served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Flying Corps in World War One and became fascinated by racing cars once he left the forces through injury in 1919. But although every flight during the war was potentially fatal, Sir Henry took a more measured approach to risk in his racing exploits. The beach had been selected as the perfect venue for the record attempt as it was free of obstacles that could have lethal consequences - the slightest camber could have upended his car. According to motor racing expert Ben Cussons, this was because at the time roads were in poor condition and there were "still horse-drawn vehicles being used". Many carriageways were "little more than dirt tracks with nails and other debris", he adds. Sir Henry was unique in that he held both the land and water speed records at the same time, and tragically it was his pursuit of the latter that led to his death. He sustained fatal injuries on Windermere at the age of 33, when he struck a log shortly after breaking the water speed record in 1930. His wife, Lady Doris, was determined to carry on his legacy and established an honour called The Segrave Trophy, awarded by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in his name to motor racing champions from 1930 onwards. Previous recipients include Stirling Moss, Amy Johnson, Barry Sheene and Damon Hill. Ben Cussons, who is on the trophy's committee, says Segrave was "multi-talented and very good at what he did", as well as being a self-made man. Sir Henry was motivated by a desire "to be the best" at what he did, he says. "He earned his peers' respect because he funded his endeavours and found the funds and did not rely on family money." "Segrave was not too bad an aviator, then he went into motor racing before land speed records, then water. He was always looking for the next new technology, which is what inspired him," he adds. The fact a wider legacy eludes his name is more down to timing than talent, Mr Cussons believes. He was simply not as well known as Malcolm Campbell because Campbell was Britain's first professional sportsman, backed by sponsorship (luxury watch brand Rolex) and with a strong identifiable brand in the Bluebird, says Mr Cussons. Nevertheless, Sir Henry - who was wounded twice in the war - was a "truly remarkable man" who achieved "an incredible amount in a relatively short life", according to historian and racing enthusiast Peter Cowley. "He was a gifted racing driver and won many races, including five Grand Prix. Prior to Segrave's victory in the 1923 French Grand Prix, no British [team] had won a Grand Prix." Sir Henry roared to success in a British car - Sunbeam. The next Briton to win in a British car was many years later, in 1955, when Tony Brooks raced to success. More than 80 years have passed since his untimely death and now an independent documentary, called One Five Two at Ninety, is being made to bring his achievements to a wider audience. What is known is that he had a fierce yet "gentleman-like" rivalry with Malcolm Campbell. Sir Henry liked to tell people he was the first man to travel more than 200 mph (320km/h) and he was clearly fascinated by speed. Sir Henry's record was surpassed just over a month later by JC Parry-Thomas, in a car called Babs. Undeterred, Sir Henry snatched the record back in March 1927 in Daytona, taking the Sunbeam to 203mph - sealing his crown as the first man to exceed 200 mph. Mr Cowley says that when Sir Henry died he was mourned by King George and Queen Mary, who described him as "one whose intrepid adventures on land and water were the admiration of the entire world". Not only was he a speed king, he was a "highly accomplished" engineer who designed the Hillman Straight 8 Segrave Coupe and the Blackburn Segrave Meteor aircraft, Mr Cowley says. Carol Spragg, editor of Historic Motor Racing News, says: "Sir Henry was a great pioneer of motoring and was a vast contributor to the progress of the motor car and the prestige of the British motoring heritage." She believes the fact he died "so young" contributed to the fact he was not as well known as the Campbells, who had a very high profile and "playboy lifestyle". "Segrave came from more of an engineering background and seemed to be more cerebral in his achievements," she adds. The Segrave Trophy is awarded on merit and the next ceremony takes place in London later in March. It is a fitting tribute on the 90th anniversary of his land speed record achievement. The Sunbeam was being driven down Ainsdale beach again on 16 March as part of a commemorative event to mark the anniversary of Sir Henry's record.

uk-england-dorset-35004035

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-35004035

Bournemouth A338 roadworks night closures start

A stretch of Bournemouth's Spur Road will shut later for the first of five night closures as part of ongoing roadworks.

The A338 will close each night between the A31 Ashley Heath Roundabout and the A3060, Cooper Dean Roundabout from 20:00 to 06:00 GMT. A 5.5-mile (8km) stretch of the 40-year-old road is being rebuilt as its foundations are crumbling. The £22m project, which started in September, is due to finish in May. The works are due to be suspended over the Christmas period. The second phase, which will see the southbound carriageway rebuilt, will start on 4 January with drivers being advised to allow extra time for their journeys.

uk-wales-south-east-wales-37104814

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-37104814

Admiral reports 4% pre-tax profits rise but shares fall

Wales' only FTSE 100 company has announced a 4% rise in pre-tax profits - despite a drop in its shares.

Admiral Insurance - which has offices in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea - said profits rose to £193m for the six months to June 30 - its highest ever interim results. But its shares fell 7.4%, after it said the UK referendum vote had affected the business. It also warned of extra Brexit risks, including exchange-rate volatility.

uk-england-london-48053152

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-48053152

G4S driver admits stealing £970k in cash from van

A G4S driver has admitted stealing almost £1m in cash from one of the firm's vans.

Joel March, 36, fled with deposit boxes from the vehicle after parking it in Larkhall Rise in Clapham, south-west London on Tuesday. The charge states he stole £970,000 from G4S. March, of Rectory Grove, Clapham, admitted theft by employee at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court. He will be sentenced at a later date. The Met said a quantity of cash has been recovered. A spokeswoman for G4S, a major government contractor, said such incidents were "extremely rare".

entertainment-arts-45811759

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45811759

Sondheim's Company is a gender-swap hit

When Stephen Sondheim's musical Company opened on Broadway in 1970 it was a departure from tradition - there was no real plot and little sentiment. Forty-eight years on, director Marianne Elliott wanted to revive it in London - but knew parts of the show needed an update.

By Vincent DowdArts reporter, BBC News Elliott had the right credentials to steer a hit show. In quick succession she had created three stunning successes at the National Theatre in London: Angels in America, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and (directed jointly with Tom Morris) War Horse. She'd shown she could handle both the epic and the intimate. Last year she opened a production company with business partner Chris Harper. One aim was to find plays with a female slant and identify female protagonists in new plays and revivals. So it might appear odd to bring back an old show by 88 year-old Sondheim about a commitment-shy man in New York. But Harper had an idea: why not gender-swap the lead male character Robert into female Bobbie and see where it gets us? It's made Company one of the most talked-about theatre events of the year. Elliott thinks the story feels more convincing now it has a female lead character. "That character was always attractive, sexually active, had a great career and a great apartment in Manhattan. We met Robert on his 35th birthday and he was still unmarried. But I think audiences now would think what does it matter if Robert doesn't settle down with someone else - what's the big deal? "But if that character becomes a woman there are different issues. If a woman hasn't settled into some sort of relationship by the age of 35 she may be thinking the clock is ticking if she wants children. Clearly that's not for all women but Chris and I thought in 2018 it's a more dramatic situation. Audiences will care more because there's more at stake." In 2013 in New York, Sondheim allowed the Roundabout Theatre Company to workshop a version in which the characters and relationships were gay. Ultimately he decided it didn't work and the concept went no further. So had Sondheim needed much persuasion to accept Elliott's new vision? "A couple of years ago we videotaped a simple version of it in London. We already had Rosalie Craig as Bobbie but other things hadn't yet all fallen into place. But Stephen watched it in New York and I was thrilled when he said go ahead," says Elliott. The changes aren't limited to making Bobbie female. Elliott says the original script, by George Furth, cleverly used short scenes to introduce us to an array of characters in Manhattan. "But some of the social attitudes definitely felt old-fashioned: the women stayed at home and the men were the breadwinners. In two of the relationships we've swapped lines and the women now feel less subordinate." Five years ago Craig appeared in a production of Company in Sheffield. She played Marta, who has now re-emerged as male character PJ. "I was one of the three girlfriends who of course now are my character's boyfriends. Robert had a one-night stand with a very attractive but dim flight attendant called April; she's now the very attractive but dim Andy (played by Richard Fleeshman). As soon as you make that male-female switch the whole dynamic alters. "But overall we were amazed how easily the switch worked. In the lyrics there was the need to change a few pronouns of course. But Stephen Sondheim had to rewrite fewer lines than I think we expected." What did the critics say? Critics published their reviews of Company after the press night on Wednesday evening. "A gender change can work wonders," wrote Michael Billington in The Guardian. "While a male Robert can sometimes seem a cold fish, Craig invests Bobbie with a palpable warmth, curiosity and hunger for life." Writing in The Stage, Tim Bano said: "Every modification makes sense. "Pronouns are changed, as are a few lyrics, but these are small shifts. They have profound results, though: the show has become fundamentally different. "It feels like it could have been written yesterday, rather than 48 years ago, and is contemporary right down to the Starbucks keep-cups that characters drink from." The Evening Standard described it as "glorious" in its five-star review, while The Independent singled out Patti LuPone for her "stand-out performance". But, Quentin Letts said in The Daily Mail, some moments were "perilously slow", adding it was "a show to admire rather than love". Two years ago Broadchurch actor Jonathan Bailey also appeared in Elliott's workshop. But more recently Elliott began to question why Bobbie, living in New York, seemed to have no gay friends. So Bailey was offered a different role: diffident bride Amy became gay Jamie, freaking out just before his wedding to Paul. It's a highlight of the show. With Alex Gaumond as his fiancé, Bailey squeezes every bit of show-stopping potential from his big song Not Getting Married. "It would be ludicrous if in 2018 there was no gay couple in Company. "It's only three years since same-sex marriage was legalised everywhere in America so Jamie and Paul are struggling with identity just like everyone else in the show. These are two men who know they're meant for one another but they can't quite say it. "And obviously with Company now set in 2018, not back in 1970, you're going to explore the wealth of identity in today's queer culture, which is still developing. It's a really exciting time for me and Alex to perform this." Gaumond thinks almost any of the couples in the play could have been made gay. "But the arrival of same-sex marriage means Jonny and I can play a real situation from contemporary life. So the change of sexuality isn't just a stunt - it really means something dramatically." Bailey thinks the show works brilliantly as entertainment. But in its re-worked form he says it's become more meaningful. Number of men increased "Obviously what I want is that in 50 years' time people will still talk about our production and say, 'Oh my God why was it so significant?' And people will say it's from when gay marriage had just been legalised. And kids will say, 'You're kidding dad, you mean men couldn't marry men? That's ludicrous and I can't imagine that world.' That's what I hope." It's a paradox that Elliott's careful changes have actually increased the number of men in the play. Of the cast of 14 there used to be eight women - now there are only five. "But that's not the important thing," she says. "It's a female story with a female protagonist and it's absolutely totally through a female lens." Company is on at London's Gielgud Theatre. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

uk-northern-ireland-32113355

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Northern Ireland councils prepare for the biggest change in over 40 years

Some council functions don't ever change.

By Chris PageBBC News NI Political Correspondent In 1955, British Pathé cameras captured one particularly impressive ceremony at which the cities of Belfast and Londonderry jointly awarded freedoms to Winston Churchill. The proceedings were in some ways very similar to the way the honour would be awarded today - a gala dinner, speeches, and lord mayors in all their regalia. But otherwise, the local authorities of years gone by worked very differently to those we have known recently. For most of the last century, councils in Northern Ireland ran most local services. They had education powers and even ran parts of the NHS. There were 73 local authorities, which tended to be dominated by unionists. Consensus grew in the late 1970s that the system was too complicated The BBC interviewed the then Stormont Prime Minister Brian Faulkner. In remarks that mirror those of our present politicians, he proclaimed his local government reforms were the most significant in decades. The number of councils was cut to 26. Many of their powers were transferred to Stormont. Councils were left cleaning the streets, emptying the bins, and looking after cemeteries. But of course politics was going through a much bigger change. 'Dust-ups' When Stormont was suspended in 1972, the newly redesigned councils became the only forum in Northern Ireland in which politicians debated with each other. Those debates often turned to dust-ups. On a search through the archives, I found a report from Magherafelt council in 1985. Police reinforcements had to be called in after a fight broke out in the chamber, after the SDLP and Sinn Féin voted in an SDLP chair and a republican vice-chair. One councillor explained it really didn't bother him, as he had been "hospitalised out of the chamber" before, and spent two nights in hospital recovering from the political punch-up. Unionists were angry that the Sinn Féin vice-chair had raised his fist and said "victory to the IRA". The DUP said they "wouldn't take any threats from skunks like that". The vice-chair told the BBC reporter he had no apology to make: "I have been elected to represent the republican people." Back in the capital, journalists nicknamed Belfast City Hall "the dome of delight" - where discussions were rarely dull. Sit-ins, walk-outs and fisticuffs were far from unusual. Ulster Unionist Chris McGimpsey was elected in 1993. "It was very fraught," he says. "There was a joke which did the rounds: 'I went to a fight last night, and halfway through a council meeting broke out.'" 'Escape valve' But politicians and reporters agree that in spite of all the strains, councils did play a valuable role. Sunday World northern editor Jim McDowell covered City Hall for many years. "Beneath all the bluster, there was a sense of civic responsibility here," he says. "Murders could be condemned, bombings could be condemned. City Hall was an escape valve - and I think that was a good thing." While high-profile disputes still happen, council politics these days is a comparatively benign affair. And with the onset of a new type of politics has come new ideas about how councils should be run. This week, local government is getting some of its powers back. On Wednesday, 11 new "super-councils" are taking over. The 26 local authorities will be no more. They were brought into being at the height of the Troubles, and their politics reflected the fraught times. But over the course of the councils' existence, Northern Ireland changed profoundly. Many of the retiring councillors played a role in bringing society into a more peaceful era. Now it will be down to a new generation of local politicians to take on extra powers - and make the most of the biggest change in local democracy in more than 40 years.

world-latin-america-16529531

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-16529531

Raul Castro's Cuban reform 'without haste'

Cuba's President, Raul Castro, has said that a series of unprecedented economic reforms on the Communist-run island are being implemented "as they should be", and would be completed "without haste" in an effort to avoid mistakes.

By Sarah RainsfordBBC News, Havana He was speaking during a brief - and rare - encounter with journalists at the end of a visit by Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But Mr Castro also cautioned against expecting too much more from the first-ever Communist Party conference in Cuba, to be held at the end of this month. "This is an internal matter of the party, to improve it," he said. "It needs a lot of improving in many senses, to adapt to the times we live in." Raul Castro is also first secretary of the Communist Party, the only political party on the island. Over the past year Cuba has opened up more of its largely state-controlled economy, expanding self-employment in sectors such as hairdressing and watch repairs. More than 357,000 people now have licences to trade, helping boost their income considerably beyond the average state salary of just $20 (£13) a month. Larger, privately run restaurants have also been permitted as Cuba attempts to slim-down the state payroll, and cut costs. The goal is to transfer up to 40% of the workforce into the private sector by 2015, where they'll pay taxes for the first time. Many moves - such as a decision to allow Cubans to buy and sell property - were approved during a rare Communist Party congress last April. That congress, Raul Castro said, was the "defining event". It endorsed what's referred to here as the "updating" or "modernisation" of Cuba's economy, described as critical to securing the long-term future of the socialist revolution. "It is proceeding without haste, so that we don't make new mistakes," the president said of that process, pointing out that each legal change required "hundreds of hours of study". "How long it takes will depend on many factors… but little by little, it's being implemented." Raul Castro formally took over as president in 2008 from his elder brother, Fidel. Now 85, the iconic leader of Cuba's revolution appears in public very rarely - though Fidel Castro continues to write regular "reflections", most recently on the environment and American politics. On Wednesday he met Iran's president, in a show of support for an old ally at a time when America and Europe are tightening sanctions on Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme. The encounter was held away from the cameras but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later described Fidel Castro as "fit and well", and still an avid follower of current affairs. "They spent two hours talking," Raul Castro confirmed, just a couple of weeks after the latest internet rumour that Fidel had died. "I asked who spoke most and [Mr Ahmadinejad] told me Fidel," he laughed. "It's a sign that he's well. Really very well."

world-middle-east-31986652

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31986652

UAE strives to engage the young, gifted but bored

Young people in the United Arab Emirates are among the most privileged in the world. Pampered from cradle to grave, they have good schools, excellent healthcare and access to well-paid jobs. But, as Bill Law reports, not everyone feels they lead a meaningful life.

Souad al-Hosani, a restless 26-year-old businesswoman, is a bundle of hyperactive energy, one of a new breed who are coming into their own in the oil-rich Gulf state. "We do everything from A to Z for expat firms. I'm 24/7, I never stop," she says, adding that, with the exception of one brief holiday, she has not taken a break since setting up shop five years ago. Her firm, Nexus Business Services, provides financial advice, contacts in the private and public sectors, and guidance on the cultural and social mores of doing business in the UAE. She stands out against the stereotype of the region's rich, bored and work-shy, and she is not alone. Life is good Mohammed Baharoon, a Dubai-based analyst and policy consultant, tells me that the young people he is now hiring are more dynamic than ever. "They are more active, more engaged. They don't want to sit at a desk. They want to jump right into projects," he says. Mr Baharoon credits an improving education system that places greater emphasis on presentation and writing skills, and demands more from its students. That, he says, has made young Emiratis capable of taking on big challenges. But it is the young women who stand out. Of all the women who graduate from high school, 95% go on to university - compared with just three-quarters of men. Mr Baharoon, who hires young graduates as researchers, says that women are "hard workers and graduate with higher grades than the boys". When asked why the men do not share that reputation, he replies with a laugh: "They don't go hunting, camping and fishing as much as the boys do." Nor do the women spend their weekends racing souped-up cars in the desert or the weekdays hanging out at coffee shops, feeling more than a little bored and unmotivated. Wages are high but so is unemployment Boredom aside, though, life is good for young Emiratis. They trust their government to look after them and seem untroubled by the well-documented and frequent allegations of human rights abuses by the authorities against dissidents that make their way into Western media but go virtually unmentioned in the Emirati press. "They take these stories with a grain of salt or they are indifferent," says Mr Baharoon. "They don't see them as real allegations." I ask Ms al-Hosani if anything troubles her. She pauses ever so slightly and then replies: "Nothing is perfect in life, nothing is ever completed, but we have amazing resources and amazing leadership. We have a happy life." Journalist Abbas al-Lawati, himself an expatriate from Oman, observes that young Emiratis have a sense of entitlement that comes from being an affluent minority in a comfortable and heavily state-subsidised society. Many find work in the bloated public sector where even a lowly secretarial job pays 15,000 dirhams (US$4,100; £2,800) a month and wages are routinely, and very generously, boosted. The last big increase came in 2013 when government salaries were raised between 30% and 100%. "There is that sense that citizens can't be fired from a job, either in the state or private sector. It is a taboo. You cannot fire an Emirati," Mr al-Lawati says. Mr al-Lawati notes that government quotas to get more UAE citizens into the private sector have led to companies hiring young Emiratis for "fluff jobs to follow government regulations". A do-little-or-nothing job in government, or a private sector job where the employer says, "Here's a desk, do what you want", frustrates and demotivates those who really do want to work - and enables and rewards those who do not. Yet despite this generous arrangement, youth unemployment is high. Lost in their own country Over several decades, the UAE, like the other Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, has encouraged a tidal wave of expat workers - mostly poorly paid migrants but also professionals - to transform what were once Bedouin tribal communities into modern countries punctuated by futuristic megacities. As a result, in a country with a population of 9.3 million, only about a sixth are Emirati citizens. Some feel alienated from a society that has changed so quickly, and among the young many are out of work. Young Emiratis risk "feeling lost in their own country", says Hassan Hakimian, director of the London Middle East Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. The GCC has the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. In the UAE, Mr Hakimian says, one in five men between 15 and 24, and more than half of young women, are unemployed. The overall unemployment figure for young Emiratis is 28%. But that is just for those looking for work. There are no figures for those who have given up or never bothered. Government programmes and policies to encourage the young into work and reduce the reliance on migrant workers are "of limited value", says Mr Hakimian. "In reality, the government is continuing down the same road," he says. This is having a profound effect on the character of the country and its native population. Everything - from tradition to dress sense and the use of English in business and in government circles - is linked to the expat influx. "Emiratis are a shrinking minority," says Mr al-Lawati. National identity is being diluted and the young are reasserting their nationality. "They wear it on their sleeves, with their clothing," he adds. 'Know your barriers' While young Emiratis are among the most avid users of social media in the world and they devour Western music, movies and other cultural influences, men continue to wear the traditional thobe, a long robe, and women the abaya, a flowing cloak. As Ms al-Hosani puts it: "You need to know your barriers. I started in suits and went back to the abaya." The government, hoping to reinforce a sense of national identity and address perceptions of feckless and spoilt youth, has introduced compulsory military service for men. Those who have finished secondary school will serve nine months, while those who have not will be in the forces for two years. "It is a way of making people do menial jobs like cleaning toilets, cooking meals, making beds - all the things that maids do in the family homes. It is a way of bringing discipline into the lap of luxury," Mr Baharoon says. And while you might be excused for thinking young Emiratis would recoil in horror, the opposite is the case. "It is an amazing idea," says Ms al-Hosani, who is exempted from military service. "Everyone is doing it. It's a way of giving something back to the country."

stories-50986683

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-50986683

Confessions of a slaughterhouse worker

About 100 million animals are killed for meat in the UK every month - but very little is heard about the people doing the killing. Here, one former abattoir worker describes her job, and the effect it had on her mental health.

Warning: Some readers may find this story disturbing When I was a child I dreamed of becoming a vet. I imagined myself playing with mischievous puppies, calming down frightened kittens, and - as I was a countryside kid - performing check-ups on the local farm animals if they felt under the weather. It was a pretty idyllic life that I dreamt up for myself - but it's not quite how things worked out. Instead, I ended up working in a slaughterhouse. I was there for six years and, far from spending my days making poorly cows feel better, I was in charge of ensuring about 250 of them were killed every day. Whether they eat meat or not, most people in the UK have never been inside an abattoir - and for good reason. They are filthy, dirty places. There's animal faeces on the floor, you see and smell the guts, and the walls are covered in blood. And the smell... It hits you like a wall when you first enter, and then hangs thick in the air around you. The odour of dying animals surrounds you like a vapour. Why would anybody choose to visit, let alone work in a place like this? For me, it was because I'd already spent a couple of decades working in the food industry - in ready-meal factories and the like. So when I got an offer from an abattoir to be a quality control manager, working directly with the slaughtermen, it felt like a fairly innocuous job move. I was in my 40s at the time. On my first day, they gave me a tour of the premises, explained how everything worked and, most importantly, asked me pointedly and repeatedly if I was OK. It was quite common for people to faint during the tour, they explained, and the physical safety of visitors and new starters was very important to them. I was OK, I think. I felt sick, but I thought I'd get used to it. Soon, though, I realised there was no point pretending that it was just another job. I'm sure not all abattoirs are the same but mine was a brutal, dangerous place to work. There were countless occasions when, despite following all of the procedures for stunning, slaughterers would get kicked by a massive, spasming cow as they hoisted it up to the machine for slaughter. Similarly, cows being brought in would get scared and panic, which was pretty terrifying for all of us too. You'll know if you've ever stood next to one that they are huge animals. Personally, I didn't suffer physical injuries, but the place affected my mind. As I spent day after day in that large, windowless box, my chest felt increasingly heavy and a grey fog descended over me. At night, my mind would taunt me with nightmares, replaying some of the horrors I'd witnessed throughout the day. One skill that you master while working at an abattoir is disassociation. You learn to become numb to death and to suffering. Instead of thinking about cows as entire beings, you separate them into their saleable, edible body parts. It doesn't just make the job easier - it's necessary for survival. There are things, though, that have the power to shatter the numbness. For me, it was the heads. At the end of the slaughter line there was a huge skip, and it was filled with hundreds of cows' heads. Each one of them had been flayed, with all of the saleable flesh removed. But one thing was still attached - their eyeballs. Whenever I walked past that skip, I couldn't help but feel like I had hundreds of pairs of eyes watching me. Some of them were accusing, knowing that I'd participated in their deaths. Others seemed to be pleading, as if there were some way I could go back in time and save them. It was disgusting, terrifying and heart-breaking, all at the same time. It made me feel guilty. The first time I saw those heads, it took all of my strength not to vomit. I know things like this bothered the other workers, too. I'll never forget the day, after I'd been at the abattoir for a few months, when one of the lads cut into a freshly killed cow to gut her - and out fell the foetus of a calf. She was pregnant. He immediately started shouting and throwing his arms about. I took him into a meeting room to calm him down - and all he could say was, "It's just not right, it's not right," over and over again. These were hard men, and they rarely showed any emotion. But I could see tears prickling his eyes. Even worse than pregnant cows, though, were the young calves we sometimes had to kill. A physically demanding role On its website, the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) says the UK meat industry has some of the highest standards of hygiene and welfare in the world. Many of its members, it says, "are at the forefront of abattoir design with facilities designed to house the animals and help them move around the site with ease and without any pain, distress or suffering". Meat processing in the UK employs about 75,000 people of whom approximately 69% are from other European Union member states, the BMPA notes. "The barrier to British people taking up roles in meat processing is an unwillingness to work in what is perceived to be a challenging environment," it says. "Most people, while they eat meat, find it difficult to work in its production partly because of the obvious aversion to the slaughter process but also because it is a physically demanding role." At the height of the BSE and bovine tuberculosis crises in the 1990s, large groups of animals had to be slaughtered. I worked at the slaughterhouse after 2010, so well after the BSE crisis, but if an animal tested positive for TB they would still bring whole families in to be culled - bulls, heifers and calves. I remember one day in particular, when I'd been there for about a year or so, when we had to slaughter five calves at the same time. We tried to keep them within the rails of the pens, but they were so small and bony that they could easily skip out and trot around, slightly wobbly on their newly born legs. They sniffed us, like puppies, because they were young and curious. Some of the boys and I stroked them, and they suckled our fingers. When the time came to kill them, it was tough, both emotionally and physically. Slaughterhouses are designed for slaughtering really large animals, so the stun boxes are normally just about the right size to hold a cow that weighs about a tonne. When we put the first calf in, it only came about a quarter of a way up the box, if that. We put all five calves in at once. Then we killed them. Afterwards, looking at the dead animals on the ground, the slaughterers were visibly upset. I rarely saw them so vulnerable. Emotions in the abattoir tended to be bottled up. Nobody talked about their feelings; there was an overwhelming sense that you weren't allowed to show weakness. Plus, there were a lot of workers who wouldn't have been able to talk about their feelings to the rest of us even if they'd wanted to. Many were migrant workers, predominantly from Eastern Europe, whose English wasn't good enough for them to seek help if they were struggling. A lot of the men I was working with were also moonlighting elsewhere - they'd finish their 10 or 11 hours at the abattoir before going on to another job - and exhaustion often took its toll. Some developed alcohol problems, often coming into work smelling strongly of drink. Others became addicted to energy drinks, and more than one had a heart attack. These drinks were then removed from the abattoir vending machines, but people would still bring them in from home and drink them secretly in their cars. 'I'm an animal lover' A slaughterman at Tideford abattoir, described his approach to his work, for The Food Chain on the BBC World Service: "Basically, I'm an animal lover. I don't take any pleasure in what we're doing, but if I can do it as quietly and professionally as possible, then I think we've achieved something. Just be professional, do it, then switch off - and then, when we've finished work, go home and be a normal person. It's not for everybody. I know a couple of butchers that would not walk inside this abattoir; the thought of taking something's life, they find that difficult to accept, or witness." Listen to The Food Chain: Inside the AbbattoirAbattoir Abattoir work has been linked to multiple mental health problems - one researcher uses the term "Perpetrator-Induced Traumatic Syndrome" to refer to symptoms of PTSD suffered by slaughterhouse workers. I personally suffered from depression, a condition exacerbated by the long hours, the relentless work, and being surrounded by death. After a while, I started feeling suicidal. It's unclear whether slaughterhouse work causes these problems, or whether the job attracts people with pre-existing conditions. But either way, it's an incredibly isolating job, and it's hard to seek help. When I'd tell people what I did for work, I'd either be met with absolute revulsion, or a curious, jokey fascination. Either way, I could never open up to people about the effect it was having on me. Instead I sometimes joked along with them, telling gory tales about skinning a cow or handling its innards. But mostly I just kept quiet. A few years into my time at the abattoir, a colleague started making flippant comments about "not being here in six months". Everyone would laugh it off. He was a bit of a joker, so people assumed he was taking the mick, saying he'd have a new job or something. But it made me feel really uneasy. I took him into a side room and asked him what he meant, and he broke down. He admitted that he was plagued by suicidal thoughts, that he didn't feel like he could cope any more, and that he needed help - but he begged me not to tell our bosses. I was able to help him get treatment from his GP - and in helping him, I realised I needed to help myself too. I felt like the horrific things I was seeing had clouded my thinking, and I was in a full-blown state of depression. It felt like a big step, but I needed to get out of there. After I left my job at the abattoir, things started looking brighter. I changed tack completely and began working with mental health charities, encouraging people to open up about their feelings and seek professional help - even if they don't think they need it, or feel like they don't deserve it. A few months after leaving, I heard from one of my former colleagues. He told me that a man who'd worked with us, whose job was to flay the carcasses, had killed himself. Sometimes I recall my days at the slaughterhouse. I think about my former colleagues working relentlessly, as though they were treading water in a vast ocean, with dry land completely out of sight. I remember my colleagues who didn't survive. And at night, when I close my eyes and try to sleep, I still sometimes see hundreds of pairs of eyeballs staring back at me. As told to Ashitha Nagesh Illustrations by Katie Horwich You may also be interested in: Twenty million chickens are killed each week to feed consumers in the UK. But how do they get to our plates? Chicken lover Hezron Springer gets some rare access as he follows the journey from farm to deep fat fryer.

world-48521730

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In pictures: Muslims around the world celebrate Eid

People around the world have been celebrating Eid al-Fitr, one of Islam's two major holidays.

The "festival of the breaking of the fast" begins when the moon rises on the final day of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting. The timing varies from country to country, with some following the moonrise in Mecca and others using local sightings. After a sighting of the first crescent of the new moon, a three-day festival is held in celebration. All images copyright.

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Myanmar coup: The young rebels risking their lives for the future

Myanmar has been gripped by mass protests demanding an end to military rule, and at least 55 protesters - many of them young activists - have been killed. BBC Burmese's Nyein Chan Aye has been reporting from the frontlines in Yangon - and this is what he saw.

It's been more than a month since the military coup in Myanmar. People have endured internet blackouts, night-time raids, unlawful arrests, being chased down or beaten up in the streets, being shot at point-blank range, or being targeted by head or chest shots from long range. Several dozen protesters have been killed in less than a week. A teenage girl, wearing a shirt that read "Everything will be OK", died after being shot in the head. If you happen to be in a neighbourhood in Yangon in broad daylight these days, the smell of smoke is likely to hit you first more than anything. Small children taste tear gas or smoke bombs in their own homes. And there is not much else mothers can do but curse. Live rounds, rubber bullets, stun grenades, tear gas, water cannon, smoke bombs. You name it. Myanmar has seen all these already in less than a month. And yet new waves of protests take place every day. People have been boiling with rage over the junta's atrocities - but still the protesters are largely peaceful. Creative forms of defiance - including sarongs Students, monks, women, civil servants and even some police officers are joining in the movement against the regime. Some police taking part in the civil disobedience movement have been openly speaking out, saying they will no longer serve the military rulers and would rather serve the people. So far the opposition is organised and determined. You see different kinds of defiance from dawn to dusk. Simply clapping or singing a song - or even hanging out sarongs (called htamein in Burmese) in front of high-rise buildings - have become nothing short of opposition to military rule. Why sarongs? People believe that soldiers are superstitious and afraid of sarongs, which may weaken their strength and spiritual power. As the demonstrations on the main roads were easily crushed by the security forces, protesters have started creating their own spaces in their neighbourhoods. Little fortresses made up of sand bags, rubbish bins filled with water or makeshift barricades can be seen almost everywhere in the city. People in the neighbourhoods are also extremely supportive of each other. Many can be seen distributing food or protective gear for free. A common wish has been to uproot the military dictatorship for the sake of future generations. At the same time, people are reminding each other to stay alive and well, and to continue the fight against the regime. Night-time banging of pots and pans, which people traditionally believe can drive evil out, has now been supplemented by home protests. People chant pro-democracy slogans at night from their balconies or sitting rooms to keep the fighting spirit alive amid all the deadly crackdowns. In many places the air resonates with the sounds of protest songs from previous uprisings against the military dictatorship, like "We won't forget until the end of the world" (Kabar Ma Kyay Bu in Burmese) or "Blood Oath" (Thway Thitsar). Or newly created songs by the younger generation like "Reject (the coup)" (Ah Lo Ma Shi) which vows: "We will fight to the end." Being out on the streets has become dangerous, so home is the only place for some people to vent their spleens. Some light candles and pray for those who died during demonstrations, affectionately called "Fallen Heroes". 'Dictatorship must end' In the late evening, you may also see groups of young people run through the streets making the revolutionary three-fingered salute - a symbol of the rebellion against the military takeover. Street murals, cleverly created by young people, are also inevitable these days not just in Yangon but also in major cities across the country. Police loyal to the regime are kept busy late into the night trying to remove painted texts like "Reject the Military Coup" or "We Want Democracy". The next day, young people are sure to go somewhere else and paint on the streets again. At the same time, people are outraged at the brutality from the military and are calling for a stronger international response. They are now becoming more frustrated than ever because the UN or South-East Asian regional body Asean cannot prevent the regime's barbaric acts. Bold declarations or statements, or even targeted sanctions by Western countries, do not seem to be enough for the people. Nor for the generals, who behave with arrogance towards the international community. In recent demonstrations, many placards I have seen read: "How many dead bodies are needed for the UN to take action?" But many people believe the best chance for the country's future may depend on young people and the momentum of the two wings of the ongoing anti-coup movements - street protest, and the civil disobedience campaign. On one occasion, a protester with a youthful face with deep marks caused by regular use of gas masks during demonstrations removed his goggles and told me: "The military dictatorship must end in our era." He had written his blood type and a contact number for his next of kin on his helmet. Generation Z, who are playing a leading role in this movement, know that blood is a heavy price to pay, even though their generation has only just come up against this bitter experience of military rule. The nightmare of violence and terror may not go away easily, as Myanmar never completely got rid of its military junta legacy. However, the younger generation has shown its sheer grit and determination to take down the regime. Another young protester simply repeated the words: "The military dictatorship must end in our era."

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Prisoner found hanged in his cell at HMP Hewell

A remand prisoner has been found hanged in his cell at a jail in Worcestershire.

The Prison Service said David Boylan, 47, was found at HMP Hewell in Redditch, early on Sunday. Mr Boylan, who was on remand, had been accused of causing grievous bodily harm. A spokesman said he was taken to hospital but pronounced dead at 0935 BST. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will carry out an inquiry.

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Early-onset Alzheimer's strikes families fast and ferociously

Alzheimer's is thought of as a disease of the elderly. But the early-onset form of the disease can wreak havoc for young people and their families.

By Céleste Owen-JonesNew York City On a fall day in Westbury, New York state, Brandon Henley, 18, hastily opens the front door of his small house. The nurse his mother has been calling all day has finally arrived to deliver urgently needed anti-seizure medicine. Behind him, she notices on a recliner a frail man, eyes closed, under many blankets. "Is that your grandfather?" she asks. "No, it's my father," says Henley. Mike Henley is 47. What hair he has left is white. He no longer has teeth and is so thin and pale that it seems he could vanish at any moment. He cannot speak, he cannot walk and no-one knows if he can understand what is going on around him. Mike Henley has Alzheimer's disease. 'What about the kids?' When he was diagnosed at 36, doctors said he would die within five to seven years. More than a decade later he survives. "Younger people's bodies are stronger," says his wife, Karen. But young-onset Alzheimer's also progresses faster than the disease in older people. Mike was diagnosed in 2001. By 2004 he was unable to speak and by 2006 he was unable to walk. An estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer's. Early-onset Alzheimer's disease, commonly known as young-onset Alzheimer's disease, afflicts people under 65 and accounts for less than 10% of cases of the disease. In the UK, the Alzheimer's Society provides statistics on all forms of dementia, noting that Alzheimer's accounts for the majority of these cases. They count 800,000 people with dementia in the UK, including more than 17,000 younger people. It is a small proportion, but an extremely aggressive form of the disease. The impact on patients and families is typically severe. Once diagnosed with Alzheimer's, younger people have scant time to organise their future. They face a lot of legal work: coping with insurers, arranging for Social Security and power of attorney. Mike's first question, when he learned he had Alzheimer's, was "What are we going to do about the kids?" At the time, Courtney was nine years old and Brandon eight. At first Mike and Karen decided not to tell them anything, "but they were already questioning why he wasn't working anymore", recalls Karen. "I remember asking if mom and dad were going to get a divorce," says Courtney. "I kind of picked up on a difference to how things normally were going. That was the only thing that I knew could be wrong." With the help of a child psychologist, Karen started to explain to her children that their father had an illness affecting his brain. She said that he might say or do things that he wouldn't have before. "It was one of the toughest days we ever had, one of the toughest things we ever talked about," Karen says, quietly. Her son started to sob. "He asked if his dad was going to die. He was only seven." "How is it going, Daddy-o?" asks Courtney Henley. An aide is feeding her father his dinner. He gives no reply, no reaction. She continues speaking to him nonetheless. "I don't like when people talk to him like a baby, because he's not a baby and if he can understand, it's not going to help his self-confidence, it's going to make him feel worse," she says. Courtney, a college student with a joie de vivre that defies her grim situation, sounds a lot more positive about her dad's abilities than his vegetative state would suggest. "He definitely knows if it's me, my mom and my brother, or one of his regular aides as opposed to a complete stranger," says Henley. "He doesn't eat well, or as well, with people he doesn't know." All the Henleys have become caregivers for Mike, bolstered by the aides who come to their house every day since he entered hospice care. "He's incontinent so he has a diaper on, so that has to be changed," says Courtney. "The aide does that in the morning. We do that at night." This winter evening, Courtney is preparing to go to a friend's birthday party. But instead of primping and trying on outfits, she has to help her mother and brother put her dad to bed - a complicated manoeuvre. Mike has become very fragile and has developed painful bedsores on his back and hips. With the help of two large bands of fabric placed under Mike's back and legs, Brandon and Courtney struggle to lift him from his chair. Then Karen starts Mike's night-time treatments: she changes his clothes, massages his emaciated hands with cream, installs his nasal breathing tubes. When all that is finished, she settles Scruffy, Mike's protective teddy dog, over his blankets. Throughout, Brandon lies next to his dad playing games on his new iPhone. Role reversal To most adults, let alone children, the situations the Henleys face every day would be hard to bear. That it often affects families with young children is just one of the distinguishing factors of young-onset Alzheimer's. Little is known about the needs of children in early-onset families. But these children are going through a profound role reversal, which can lead to confusion and fear. "It makes them feel that it's something they're doing, that it's their fault," says Caroline Rosenthal Gelman, associate professor at Hunter College in New York. These children have to deal with both the disease and the anxiety and distress it causes their other parent. "It's a loss of both parents, in a way," she says. Not everyone seems to cope as well as Courtney and Brandon Henley. Leo Dzwil, diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer's four years ago at 51 is the father of two teenagers. At the time, son Michael "pretended that everything was the same", says Leo's wife Corrine, but had uncharacteristic behavioural problems. Eventually Michael recovered, though his dad didn't. Today, Leo Dzwil lives in a nursing home on Long Island. He no longer walks and barely talks. He sits in a chair all day, with his eyes almost always closed. "It's very, very hard to see," Corrine says quietly. "My son, he went in July and said 'I'm not doing this anymore.' And he hasn't." Corrine's daughter, Lauren, now 23, went in November and decided that was the last time. "It's not that I don't care," says Lauren, "I just care too much." Children who witness a parent struggling with Alzheimer's also have to confront the daunting fact that they too may be stricken at an early age. The young-onset forms of Alzheimer's disease have hereditary factors in 15-20% of the cases, says neurologist Yves Agid. Mike Henley's case is one of those: his mother died of young-onset Alzheimer's. So did one of his brothers. The other brother is fine, so far. Because Mike has a the genetic mutation that leads to young-onset Alzheimer's, there is a 50-50 chance that Mike's children could have it too. "I don't really think about it too much," says Courtney, calmly stroking her father's hand. She has declined to be tested. If her mother had known Mike carried the familial gene when they married, they wouldn't have had children. That's also why Courtney doesn't want to know. "I don't want to have it impact my life decisions." Sleepwalking brain By the time he'd turned 51, Leo Dzwil could no longer figure out how to close a side table, something he had been doing for 20 years. His wife knew something was wrong. Doctors diagnosed the problem as stress. "I was told that I should have nice warm dinners for him when he came home," his wife says. It took another year and a different doctor to finally diagnose Leo with young-onset Alzheimer's disease. Leo's brain was shrinking very fast: his brain activity when he was wide-awake was equivalent of that of a normal person asleep. "Young people with Alzheimer's have a tremendously hard time getting a diagnosis," says Lauren Tiede, the early stages co-ordinator for the New York City chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. "It takes probably a second, third, fourth opinion." Many of her young clients were at first diagnosed with chronic stress, overwork, depression, even schizophrenia, Tiede says. Failure to get the right diagnosis, beyond emotional difficulty for young-onset families, also brings great financial distress. Medicare, the US federal health insurance programme for people over 65 and some younger ones with disabilities, only takes effect a year after a person has been declared disabled. Leo Dzwil enrolled in Medicare and received his first reimbursement only in December, though he'd lost all self-care ability more than a year earlier. Even when diagnosed, young-onset patients can still be denied Social Security disability income, which requires a diagnosis proving they are incapable of working. Administrators have a hard time believing that someone so young, with no apparent physical disability, can't even find a manual job, says Lauren Tiede of the Alzheimer's Association. Young-onset Alzheimer's disease was only added in February 2011 to the Compassionate Allowance programme's list of medical conditions that always qualify for financial benefits. Yet financial support is essential for the survival of families affected. There is "no pension to fall back on. There's no retirement fund. There is no saved-up money," says Courtney Henley. "Just imagine when you are 36," says Karen Henley. "You know, you really are just starting your life out, you are really just starting everything." The Henleys went from living on two salaries to one. Karen still works as a legal assistant for a real estate attorney, but her income declined as the housing market fell. Around the same time, Courtney and Brandon were looking for colleges. "That was pretty much how I determined where I was going to go: it was the place that was going to give me the most money," says Courtney, now majoring in film at Hofstra University, close to home. 'A giant toddler' Corrine Dzwil's daughter, Lauren, wants to go to nursing school because of what's happened to her father. But Corrine can't help her pay tuition. "I feel like a criminal!" Corrine says, indignant about having to explain all her expenses to Medicaid, the US federal and state insurance programme for people with low incomes. "If I save anything for my daughter, they want to know why I'm gifting money." It was Leo who was the major breadwinner as a successful district manager at a grocery store. Today, all the money he receives from his early pension, Social Security and disability pays for his nursing home. Corrine receives no compensation for the loss of the family's main income. "I don't know how I'm going to retire," she says. "I don't want to be a burden to my kids down the line. The money they are taking was the money we were planning on retiring with." While most young-onset families face extreme financial distress, states struggle to cope with a growing number of older patients. As life expectancy increases, so do the number of people with neurological disorders: today, about one in eight Americans aged 65 and over has Alzheimer's, and nearly half of the people aged 85 and older. Alzheimer's costs the US an annual $183bn (£117bn) and poses a critical challenge to Medicare. Few states feel able to give patients and their families the financial help they need. At the beginning of 2011, as Leo Dzwil's condition deteriorated rapidly, he became aggressive at times and incapable of taking care of himself or being alone at home. In his wife Corrine's words, he had become "a giant toddler". Corrine, who had to continue working, made the decision to move him to managed care. Despite the high costs, it can be difficult to find quality care. At first she was paying $5,000 a month. "I'd go and he'd be filthy. Filthy. Not just a little dirty," remembers Corrine, tears filling her eyes. After a few months she withdrew her husband and placed him in the nursing home where he lives today. Nursing homes tend to cost around $6,500 per month, and sometimes much more. She feels guilty about placing her husband in a home. "I couldn't stand looking at how awful my husband looked after a while," says Corrine quietly. "I was depressed and I needed to just get away from it." Lives forever changed The Henleys decided otherwise. With Mike moved into the communal rooms, his family had to constantly live with Alzheimer's disease. They also have to accept the healthcare worker who comes every day. "It was almost like we had some strange guest over all the time and we had to be very nice," says Courtney. "Before Mike's illness, and even with two young children, I always kept a neat home," Karen wrote in an email. "Now, I don't have the time or money to put into keeping it neat. I am a proud person and I do get embarrassed about the way my home looks." Piles of laundry engulfed the kitchen; boxes and clothes blocked the stairs. The tiny playroom became Mike and Karen's bedroom, and a hospital bed where Mike took his afternoon naps occupied the living room. Objects once stored in these rooms migrated to the dining room. But after years of adjusting, the family now must confront yet another massive change: in February, Mike passed away, 11 years after his diagnosis. "Caring for Mike had been our life... and half the kids' life," says Karen in an email. "Now that he's gone, there is a huge void and it will be quite some time before we find a new normal." Mike's brain was given to Alzheimer's research, just as he had requested. At a nursing home in Long Island, Corrine Dzwil knows where to find her husband. She walks past old people sitting in the corridor, looking lost. Leo is sitting in a chair in front of a television, with three other patients, including one moaning incessantly. None of them are paying attention to the screen. "Hello Leo," says Corrine affectionately. His eyes are closed and his head bowed, but he seems awake. Corrine starts gently stroking his neatly combed white hair, silently, looking at him tenderly. Though he's now lost a lot of weight, has swollen hands and looks much older than his 55 years, you can still see a glimpse of the charismatic man Corinne remembers fondly. Twenty minutes after arriving at the nursing home, Corrine says goodbye to her husband. No reaction. Tears start filling her eyes. "It's like that every time," she says with sad resignation. "There's no point." Still, she comes back every week. Celeste Owen-Jones is a French-British journalist who lives in NewYork. She can bereached at celesteoj@gmail.com and on Twitter at @CelesteOJ.

business-52449498

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52449498

Coronavirus: Can live-streaming save China's economy?

"I'm a bit nervous," confessed Li Qiang, the deputy mayor of Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus was first reported late last year, as he awaited the start of his first-ever live-streaming event.

By Vincent Ni and Yitsing WangBBC World Service It is not the kind of tone one often hears from a senior Communist party official. But in an effort to revive China's economy after the devastating epidemic, Mr Li was determined. He spoke fondly of his long appreciation of Wuhan's local delicacy, hot and dry noodles, and urged locals to frequent his favourite shop. The two-month-long nationwide lockdown has taken a heavy toll on the economy. It shrank 6.8% in the first three months of 2020 - the first time the country's economy has contracted since the death of Chairman Mao in 1976. But unlike then, Chinese politicians are more pragmatic these days, particularly as the once fast-growing economy is entering uncharted waters. In a provincial-wide campaign to revive the economy, senior officials in Hubei province - home to 60 million Chinese - are turning themselves into online streaming celebrities. Mr Li and his colleagues are endorsing local brands and paying close attention to sales figures. And the result? Chinese media reports say that on the first day of the campaign - 8 April - these live-streaming sales across the province garnered 17.9m yuan ($2.5m; £2m). They sold nearly 300,000 items in nine hours - including 44,000 portions of Mr Li's favourite hot and dry noodles. Hubei is not the only province taking advantage of China's booming live-streaming industry. Many local officials in Hunan, Shandong and Guangxi provinces have also turned themselves into sales gurus since social distancing became a rule in China. They endorse local products to help revive the economy - while showing a different side of Communist party politicians to their constituents. Sales through live-streaming during the epidemic "definitely provided hope and a new outlet for companies to start investing in marketing, which supports the service industry and other industries as well," says Andrea Fenn, CEO of Fireworks, a Shanghai-based marketing consultancy. 'Lipstick Brother No 1' Yet this business model is not just a top-down effort. Even before party officials began appearing on live-streaming services, savvy business owners were turning to live-streaming platforms such as Douyin (the equivalent of TikTok in China) and Kuaishou, as well as e-commerce giant Alibaba's Taobao, to promote and sell their products in real time. One of them is 27-year-old Li Jiaqi, whose maverick sales technique has won him the nickname "Lipstick Brother No 1". Once an unassuming shop assistant earning a modest salary in Nanchang in south-east China, he now has more than 40 million followers on Douyin. In one of his live-streaming sales sessions he sold 15,000 lipsticks within five minutes. Unlike many beauty bloggers he always demonstrates the lipsticks he's selling on his lips, rather than his arms. It seems to be paying off, as he now reportedly has a net worth of up to $5m (£4m). There is also 33-year-old Wei Ya, whose 1 April sale of a $6m rocket launch on Taobao amazed the nation and attracted international publicity. So much so that Taobao had to issue a statement confirming the sale was real and not an April Fools' joke. Wei Ya has been a familiar face in China's live-streaming sales circle. Her followers call her "Queen of Goods". The official China Daily says this was "the world's first live broadcast of a rocket sale". More than 620,000 Weibo users have used the hashtag #WeiYaSellsARocket and more than two million online viewers tuned in to watch the sale. Can it save China's economy? Foreign brands too have been joining in. Luxury product maker Louis Vuitton hosted a live-streaming sale in March - the first time since the brand entered the Chinese market 30 years ago. At the height of China's Covid-19 epidemic, in February alone Taobao, the platform which sees the largest number of live-streaming sales, saw an increase of 719% in new sellers across the country. Not everyone will succeed, though. Marketing consultancy boss Andrea Fenn says that despite the recent frenzy, the market is getting increasingly crowded. "Early adopters were able to obtain results with [often quite amateurish] live-streaming activities because the phenomenon was quite new and fresh. "Now there are thousands of live-streamings out there and consumers are starting to wonder how come we have gone back to a communication activity that looks much like a 1990s telemarketing show. "I am seeing more and more companies failing in their ability to increase sales through live-streaming due to consumer fatigue." One of China's most successful online celebrities can probably attest to that. In April, 48-year-old former English teacher - and now internet celebrity - Luo Yonghao made the news with his inaugural live-streaming sales event. It attracted 50 million viewers across China and within three hours he had rung up a staggering sales figure of $15.5m. Over the next fortnight Mr Luo used live-streaming twice more to sell goods, but with much less success. Chinese media say the number of his viewers and sales figures plummeted - by 83% and 48% respectively. Andrea Fenn says, for him, all this confirms that "I don't think we are looking at something that alone can sustain an economic boom". Illustration by Davies Surya

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Elections 2021: Sign up for alerts on Scotland and Wales coverage

You can get extra news, analysis and in-depth reporting from the BBC's election teams direct to your smartphone by signing up below.

Tap here to receive alerts on the Scotland election. Tap here to receive alerts on the Wales election. This feature is only available to UK app users. You can download the latest versions of the BBC News app here on the Android Play Store or here on the iOS App Store.

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Breast cancer: Zimbabwe woman's struggle to avoid mastectomy

A 44-year-old woman in Zimbabwe, Tendayi Gwata, is battling to avoid a mastectomy after her breast cancer treatment abruptly ended when the only radiotherapy machine in the capital, Harare, stopped working.

Ms Gwata, a marketing consultant, had already lost all her hair during chemotherapy. Then she was told that because the machine had broken down, she may need her breast removed. Zimbabwe's health sector has largely collapsed amidst an economic crisis that has seen inflation soaring to 785%, and a severe shortage of cash. The crisis has been compounded by the coronavirus outbreak. Ms Gwata told the BBC's Clare Spencer about her ordeal: In July 2019 I had discomfort in my breast so I went to the doctor in Harare and had a scan and mammogram. A biopsy then confirmed I had stage-three breast cancer and the cancer had spread to my armpit. I flew to South Africa to go through the full cycles of chemotherapy and had surgery to remove the tumour. Then I started radiotherapy back in Harare to stop the tumour from recurring. When we were booking the radiotherapy, there was only one machine working in the whole of Harare and that was at the private facility, Oncocare. I'd got quite far in my treatment - 21 sessions of the 30 that I was supposed to do. Then I got the call. I was in my car on my way to my 22nd daily radiotherapy session when they phoned me to tell me to turn around because the machine had broken. That was on 21 April. A week went by. A month went by. And I still had no clue when the radiotherapy machine was going to get fixed. Youlie on a table Machinedirects beams of radiation at the cancer Youneed to stay as still as possible Treatment usually lasts for only a few minutes Itis completely painless Youcan usually go home soon after it has finished My oncologist said I would need to start thinking about having a mastectomy. I tried really hard to not cry. I've worked so hard to stay positive, to stay energised, to look to the future and say: "I'm going to survive this," to only get to this point where I'm now having to go through a new set of fully invasive procedures, in the hope that I have a better chance of survival all because someone won't fix the machine. I was really just wanting to burst into tears but my anger took over and I went to Twitter. I also started learning as much as I could about radiotherapy. The only research I could find on the impact of missing radiotherapy sessions is for up to two days. I couldn't find any research on the impact of missing it for two months, for three months. It's not even explored because it's so incomprehensible to the rest of the world that a machine can break and not be fixed. I talked on BBC Focus on Africa radio about my anger and frustration and after that interview I had loads of people phoning me asking: "What can I do? How can we help?" I explained to them that I was failing to get in touch with someone who could actually give me answers and who I could talk to for a way forward. So, one of my friends I went to high school with gave me the phone number of the head of the health services board, who in turn put me in touch with Ernest Manyawo, the chief executive officer of Harare's biggest public hospital, Parirenyatwa. It's not just me That's when I discovered the scale of the problem. He said that there are 500 people sitting at home right now waiting for radiotherapy because of broken machines. It's not just me. It's not just a handful of people but it's a lot of people and that's where my outrage comes from. Having had personal experience of the pain and agony that you go through, going through chemo, surgery, raising money for treatment, the overall impact on your family, just to then fall at the last hurdle because these facilities don't exist, that really struck a chord with me. Canceris in a large area of breast or has spread throughout Breast is full of pre-cancerous cells Usually requiresremoving most of breast tissue and skin, and nipple When I was first looking for radiotherapy, Parirenyatwa was not given as an option to me. It turned out they had three machines, which had all been broken and had been sitting idle since August 2019. You may also be interested in: Mr Manyawo told me they had received the spare parts for the machines in February. These machines cost anything between $1m (£795,000) and $3m. So, there's an agreement with the company that sold the machines that only their engineers can come and fix them. But those engineers are in South Africa. I haven't slept well Mr Manyawo didn't say why it had taken six months to get those parts, nor why the engineers didn't come as soon as the spare parts arrived. Then, on 23 March, before any engineers had visited, Zimbabwe shut its borders to try and restrict the spread of coronavirus. This case got lost in a whirlwind of red tape. Now, I've been told that the engineers' flight has been booked and all that is pending is a clearance from the Ministry of Health to allow them into the country. So we're in that limbo period. I'm anxious. I haven't slept well. I keep waking up in the middle of the night. But I'm trying to keep a lid on it because the one thing that cancer has taught me is that you should really only worry about something when you get to it. Otherwise you'll just spend your entire life worrying and that's not good for your health. More about cancer treatment during the coronavirus pandemic:

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Scunthorpe toxic algae pond death 'not suspicious'

The death of a man whose body was found in a pond with a toxic algae outbreak is "not being treated as suspicious", police say.

Maciej Dymowski, 23, was found in the water at Ashby Ville in Scunthorpe on Monday. Last week, visitors were warned by North Lincolnshire Council of the dangers of swimming in the pond because of the blue green algae outbreak. Humberside Police said it had prepared a file for the coroner.

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Iranian hardliners threaten taxi app boycott in hijab row

Iranian social media users are threatening to boycott their country's popular taxi app Snapp after the company apologised to a woman who had been ordered out of one of their driver's cars for failing to wear the compulsory Islamic headscarf, or hijab.

By BBC Newsand BBC Monitoring The passenger posted a picture on Twitter of the driver who ordered her out of his cab. "This is the driver who dropped me off his car in the middle of a motorway [in the capital Tehran]," she wrote on 6 June. Snapp later apologised and promised to reprimand the driver, according to the woman. Conservatives responded angrily to Snapp's decision, criticising the company for submitting to people who disrespect "Islamic values". A Persian-language hashtag which translates as "boycott Snapp" has been used more than 66,000 times since Saturday. "If news that Snapp has apologised to the girl with derogatory behaviour and reprimanded Saeed Abed [the driver] is true," one user tweeted, "in addition to boycotting Snapp, the company manager who has actually encouraged indecency by his apology and reprimanded the driver, should be prosecuted based on... the Islamic Penal Code." Following the Islamic revolution in 1979, the Iranian authorities imposed a mandatory dress code requiring all women to wear the hijab. In an interview with Iranian state television channel IRTV3, Mr Abed said he could be fined if police identified female passengers not wearing hijabs in his car and that his actions were his "religious duty". The woman had "defied" him by reporting him to Snapp, he told the broadcaster. According to hardline website Jahannews, the Aerospace commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Brig-Gen Amir Ali Hajizadeh, met the Snapp driver and personally thanked him. In a statement on Saturday, Snapp said it had apologised to the driver. "We apologised to the driver whose particulars were published," the statement read. "He will continue to work at Snapp satisfactorily. "Moreover, customer-respect policy required us to empathise with the passenger because her journey was incomplete, as well as notifying her of Snapp's terms and conditions." You might also be interested in: On Monday, the woman deleted her earlier tweets and apologised. "I hereby apologise to the Snapp driver, Snapp company and all those who were hurt because of the recent story," she tweeted. "I declare I am bound to comply with my country's laws." Peaceful protests against the hijab law on the streets and on social media have sparked a crackdown by the authorities. Since January 2018, they have arrested at least 48 women's rights defenders, including four men, according to Amnesty International. The campaign group says some have been tortured and sentenced to prison terms or flogging after grossly unfair trials. Women who participate in public demonstrations against the hijab could face up to 10 years in prison, the police have warned.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-29059645

Coleg Cambria in bid for Groves school site in Wrexham

A landmark school building in Wrexham could be transformed into a new college campus after standing empty for over a decade.

Coleg Cambria has revealed plans for the former Groves High School site near its main town centre campus. Wrexham council has been trying to find new uses for the site which closed in 2003 following a shake-up of secondary school education in the town centre. The college said the plans will allow it to develop its curriculum. The plans are due to go on show at the college's Rendezvous Restaurant.

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Coronavirus: The tide was not turned - now what?

Nearly 10 million people's lives are under limits again.

Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter The number of coronavirus cases is rising fast. Concerned members of the public are stuck in frustrated queues for coronavirus tests in some parts of the country. The tide was not turned. Life is not back to normal. And even some Conservative MPs are asking, what on earth is going on? There is a realisation at the top of the government that mistakes were made at the start of the pandemic. Back then though, even with the prime minister on his sick bed, the political and public confidence in the government was high, and opinion polls - that elusive currency - suggested trust appeared to have made a comeback. 'Predictable problems' But as the leaves turn, and the country seems on the first rung of a second surge, the political season has shifted too. One senior former minister fumed that Number 10 keeps "crashing into predictable problems," storing up discontent over the exams algorithm, or the squeeze on testing. Another Conservative grandee said that people are simply "fed up" of life with Covid-19 and ministers' ever changing advice - calling instead for the government to pursue a clearer path based on common sense. There is a burgeoning sense around Westminster, as the patchwork of local restrictions builds, that a nationwide tightening, even if temporary, may not be that far off, despite the prime minister's protestations that he will do everything to avoid it happening. But whatever happens, Boris Johnson simply cannot be sure that the public, or indeed his own party, would be willing to acquiesce next time. Frustrated with No 10 Downing Street has tried to streamline government and the way the pandemic is being handled to take a firmer grip - one senior figure told me problems are now meant to be solved "in the room". Yet many Conservative MPs, advisers, and some ministers, are frustrated with what they see as aggression from a tiny group that makes the decisions in Number 10. Ruthless and effective is one thing. Brutal and incompetent quite another. With concerns about testing, the number of cases, schools, and the economy, it is far from clear right now which phrase best describes what is going on. These are, however, times that no one expected. One minister told me: "Covid has changed the rules of politics, because no one can be sure of the right thing to do."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-19464778

Windfarm developers 'welcome' Manx community to meeting

Developers are "looking forward" to hearing from the Manx community about proposals to extend an offshore windfarm near the Cumbrian coast.

A public event outlining the plans takes place in Douglas later. The 102-turbine farm, off Walney Island, was developed by Danish company Dong Energy and is thought to be one of the largest in the world. A company spokesman said: "The team are looking forward to welcoming the local community and hearing their views." It currently consists of more than 100 turbines and is situated 9.3 miles (15km) west of Barrow-in-Furness. The Manx government is currently in talks with both developers and UK regulators about the potential impact of the plans. Dong Energy will be hosting the public consultation at the Villa Marina on 5 September, between 1300 and 1900 BST.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-10375948

Lady Gaga: New album 'finished'

Lady Gaga has said that her forthcoming second album is "finished".

Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine she said the follow-up to her debut, 2009's The Fame, is already complete. The Poker Face singer said: "I've been working on it for months now, and I feel very strongly that it's finished right now. It came so quickly. "Some artists take years; I don't. I write music every day." A release date and title for the album have yet to be confirmed. The 24-year-old New Yorker released The Fame in January 2009 - it has now spent a total of 75 weeks in the UK charts. She released a re-packaged version of the album with eight new tracks, The Fame Monster, later in the year. Gaga is currently on tour throughout north America. She returns to continue her Monster Ball tour in Europe in October 2010.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-56229618

Teenagers arrested over attempted murder in Glasgow

Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with the attempted murder of a 15-year-old boy in Glasgow.

Police were called to an incident on Boydstone Road, near Thornliebank train station, at 23:10 on Friday. The 15-year-old boy was found injured at the scene. Two other boys, aged 15 and 16, have been charged and are due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Monday.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-35433089

St Clears' town police station set to close

A Carmarthenshire town's police station is to close, the Dyfed-Powys police and crime commissioner has confirmed.

Christopher Salmon said he hoped the St Clears building would be sold, as operations are moved six miles (10km) away to a re-opened station at Whitland. Mr Salmon insisted that policing levels in St Clears would remain the same. Some residents have criticised the move, saying it will open up the town to more crime.

uk-england-derbyshire-46635141

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derbyshire-46635141

Derbyshire villagers keep 19th Century Christmas tradition alive

Performing in masks, careering around pubs and homes with a horse's head and demanding a drink from the hosts. This Christmas tradition, dating back to at least the 19th Century, is still going strong in at least one part of the UK.

A group from a Derbyshire village has been keeping alive the tradition of guising, known as mumming in other places, by dressing up as characters including knights, an old woman and a horse based on a photograph from 1870. "People say things like, 'Christmas does not start until we see the guisers'," said organiser and Winster Guisers performer Allan Stone. With no rehearsals ahead of the show, the group of 11 entertain punters at pubs, houses and hotels across the White Peak villages in a number of shows during two weekends over Christmas. After their 10-minute performance, the group collects money for charity before moving on. Mr Stone, 63, has performed in every single show since the group reformed in 1979. The custom originally died out after the world wars. He said: "It is the continuation of the tradition, which we think is very important. "It is always very enjoyable too." Three other members of the group have been involved since 1979 but Mr Stone, who plays the quack doctor, is the only one to have performed in every show. "Three or four have been involved for 40 years, the majority for 25 years and one for about 10 years," he said. "It is like when you're in, you're in. It's your role for life." The story The "enterer-in" sets the stage for a conflict between St George, who is dressed in red and riding a hobby horse, and the Black Prince of Paradise. St George is victorious and the King of Egypt berates him for killing his son. An old woman then calls for a doctor and the quack doctor cures the prince by giving him a pint of beer from an audience member. The play diverts from this narrative and we meet characters Beelzebub and Little Johnny Jack. It then ends with a horse, which is a real horse's skull operated by a hidden guiser, careering around the room while a groom tells the animal's life story. Mr Stone said originally the guisers would dig up a dead horse and use its head in the performance. Now, they use a painted horse's skull, which they have had for years. Finally, they sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and demand a drink by singing "we want a jug of ale" as the second line. Mr Stone said the earliest record they had of guisers in Winster was in the diaries of Llewellyn Jewitt, an antiquarian who lived in Winster Hall for five years from the late 1860s. He added: "The tradition was people would go around big houses begging a small performance for a drink, food and perhaps some money. "This was not just confined to Winster. It was a common thing back in that era." The revival was initiated by a local man called Dave Bathe, who interviewed people old enough to remember the Winster Guisers and looked at written records, which he used to write the script. After Mr Bathe died in 1993, Mr Stone become the organiser. "We all feel proud we are keeping this alive," he said. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

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Rio base: Big mistake for England?

For what it's worth, I think the England football team may have made a pretty big mistake by choosing Rio de Janeiro as their World Cup base - more specifically the particular part of Rio where they're hoping to spend most of the next month.

Wyre DaviesRio de Janeiro correspondent Initially, you can see the sense behind the choice of what some locals here know as the "cidade maravilhosa" - the "marvellous city". Not wanting to be isolated in a plush resort, away from fans and "civilization", the England management listened to players' concerns about boredom and sought out a city centre location. It was a policy that, after all, suited the England team well in the 2012 European Championships when they chose the Polish city of Krakow as their base. But Rio is different. 'Luxury' hotel When in the city briefly last year for a friendly fixture against Brazil, England stayed in a hotel right on Copacabana beach, in the heart of the hotel zone, close to the big tourist attractions and the temptations of Rio's famous night life. But for the World Cup, that stretch of beach on Copacabana is exactly where Fifa's fan fest is belatedly being built - a huge cavernous beer tent and big screen where hundreds of thousands of football fans, without tickets for the stadiums, will watch the matches. You can see why England officials wanted to move away. But move away they have, to a beach area well to the south of the city, known as Sao Conrado. From a distance, it looks pleasant enough, and there are the facilities of the upmarket Gavea Golf Club to which the players will, presumably, have access. Apart from that, Sao Conrado has very little going for it. England's chosen hotel, the Royal Tulip, is nice enough and has been spruced up ahead of the team's arrival. Its billing as a "luxury" hotel is pushing things a bit. The rooms are pleasant but the decor and furnishings are rough around the edges and multi-million pound footballers will be used to a much classier standard of accommodation. Upsurge in violence The biggest problem is that, golf apart, there is absolutely nothing to do or see in the vicinity of the team hotel. The beach immediately in front is, arguably, the most polluted in the whole of Rio. It's not so much the rubbish that gets washed up on the sandy shore as the tonnes of untreated sewage that pour into the sea from the nearby Rocinha favela or shanty town. Rocinha is Rio's biggest favela and, like some of the city's other "pacified" shanty towns, has become something of a tourist attraction in recent years. Spread out along the hillside above Sao Conrado, Rocinha will be an unmissable sight as the England players relax on their bedroom balconies. But, apart from the odd choreographed goodwill visit, English players are very unlikely to be venturing into the favela. In recent weeks Rocinha - and several other favelas in Rio - have seen a worrying upsurge in violence between the resurgent drugs gangs and armed police. There has been clearly audible gunfire from inside the community and people have been killed, either deliberately or in the crossfire. Recently interviewed by the BBC, the police commander in Rocinha said that despite the troubles the England players had no need to worry because "what happens in Rocinha stays in Rocinha". Different reality If, as they wake up in the morning, England players stand on their balconies and their gaze wanders from the hillside to the street, they'll perhaps be mesmerised by the endless river of traffic that flows each morning in the direction of the city centre. Like many other big cities, Rio has a chronic traffic problem. Public transport is completely inadequate and there is a heavy reliance on cars. Commuters from Sao Conrado and Barra even further to the south can spend hours in the morning crawl to their jobs in central Rio. That's in the same direction as England's daily training camp. One assumes the team bus will be leaving each day after rush hour is over and returning before it begins. They'll also have a noisy, over-the-top police escort but the journey to the camp in the Rio suburb of Urca is unlikely to be traffic free. Once in Urca, though, team England will have few complaints. Underneath the imposing Sugar Loaf mountain, it is one of Rio's most attractive areas. They'll be training on a secure military base, away from the prying eyes of the public and press - something the England team management has always seen as a priority. The FA has paid great attention to detail to help upgrade facilities at the base, which also serves as an army physical training centre in Rio. The football pitch has been re-laid, gym facilities upgraded and there's even a (cleaner) private beach on which to unwind and to up the tans of those sun-starved English bodies. The training camp aside, England have been lured by Rio's beguiling reputation - but the reality will be rather different. Petty crime is rising alarmingly, so watches, expensive jewellery and designer clothing will have to be left behind in the hotel. If wives and girlfriends come along, Rio has surprisingly few high-end shopping attractions (compared, say, with the much more modern metropolis of Sao Paulo) and all the beaches are public. There is always the military base where the players are training, but that might be a distraction too far. How long team England stays in Rio depends entirely on how they fare in their group - and remember those group games will take them away from the delights of Sao Conrado from time to time. Other teams have chosen much more suitable and diverse places to be based from Iguacu to Salvador to Belo Horizonte. It would have been great had the England made the most of this huge country and realised there is so much more to it than Rio.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-54645325

Southwark police car crash: Man charged after four officers injured

A man has been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving after four police officers were injured in a crash in south London.

They were hurt when a police vehicle and another car crashed in Draycott Close, Southwark, on Tuesday. The female driver of the police car remains in hospital, while three male officers have since been discharged. Haydon Martin, 25, of Fenwick Road, Southwark, is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court later.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25126363

Dublin house prices rise 15% over the year

House prices in Dublin are now 15% higher than they were a year ago, according to the latest official figures.

The Residential Property Price Index showed prices in the city rose by 2.3% between September and October. Outside the city, the housing market is much flatter. House prices in the rest of the Republic of Ireland rose by 1.5% between September and October and are still 0.3% lower than a year ago. Earlier this week the Irish broadcaster, RTÉ, reported that a senior EU official had said the rapid rise in prices in Dublin over the past year was "not overly concerning". The official reportedly said that house prices need to recover from the property crash.

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A holiday camp for India's captive elephants

Once a year, some of India's captive elephants are whisked off to a "rejuvenation camp", where they are pampered and cared for by their caretakers. Omkar Khandekar visited one such retreat in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

After seven years of being a local celebrity, Akila the elephant knows how to pose for a selfie. She looks at the camera, raises her trunk and holds still when the flash goes off. It can get tiring, especially when there are hundreds of requests every day. Despite this, Akila, performs her daily duties diligently at the Jambukeswarar temple. These include blessing devotees, fetching water for rituals in which idols of the deity are bathed, and leading temple processions around the city, decked up in ceremonial finery. And, of course, the selfies. But every December, she gets to take a break. "When the truck rolls in, I don't even have to ask her to hop in," Akila's caretaker B Arjun said. "Soon, she will be with her friends." India is home to some 27,000 wild elephants. A further 2,500 elephants are held in captivity across the states of Assam, Kerala, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. The country is widely believed to be the "birthplace of taming elephants for use by humans". Elephants here have been held in captive by Indians for millennia. But 17 years ago, after protests by animal rights activists over instances of handlers abusing and starving captive elephants, the government stepped in to give the animals a bit of respite. As a result, Akila and numerous other elephants held in temples around India are now brought to a "rejuvenation camp" each year, their caretakers in tow. For several weeks, the animals unwind in a sprawling six-acre clearing in a forest at the foothills of Nilgiris, part of the country's Western Ghats. The camps were described as an animal welfare initiative and have become a popular annual event for the state's temple elephants. The one Akila and 27 other elephants are attending currently opened on 15 December last year, and will go on until 31 January, costing about $200,000 (£153,960) to run. Supporters argue it is money well spent. A break from the city for these elephants is therapeutic, explains S Selvaraj, a forest officer in the area. "Wild elephants live in herds of up to 35 members but there's only one elephant in a temple," he says. "For 48 days here, they get to be around their own kind and have a normal life." Akila, who is 16 years old, has been a regular at the camp since 2012, the year she was sold to the temple. Arjun, who has accompanied her every year, is a fourth-generation elephant caretaker. At the camp, he bathes Akila twice a day, feeds her a special mix of grains, fruits and vegetables mixed with vitamin supplements and takes her for a walk around the grounds. A team of vets are on hand to monitor the health of the camp's large guests, while at the same time tutoring their handlers in subjects like elephant diet and exercise regimes. Akila has even forged a friendship with Andal, an older elephant from another temple in the state, said Arjun. But despite the shady trees and quiet, the getaway is a far cry from an elephant's "normal life". The walled campus has eight watchtowers and a 1.5km (0.93 miles) electric fence around its perimeter. While the elephants appear well cared for, they spend most of their time in chains and are kept under the close eye of their caretakers. And one six-week rejuvenation camp a year does little to assuage the stress of temple elephants' everyday lives, activists say. "Elephants belong in jungles, not temples. A six-week 'rejuvenation camp' is like being let out on parole while being sentenced for life imprisonment," argues Sunish Subramanian, of the Plant and Animals Welfare Society in the western city of Mumbai. "Even at these camps, the animals are kept in chains and often in unhygienic conditions," he adds. "If you must continue with the tradition, temple elephants should be kept in the camps for most of the year - in much better conditions - and taken to the temples only during festivals." Even among the company of their own, the elephants - like Andal and Akila - aren't allowed to get too close. "I have to make sure the two keep their distance - otherwise, it'll be difficult to separate them when we go back," Arjun explains. It is not just the animal rights activists who have concerns, however. The camp has become a tourist spot in recent years, attracting a steady stream of visitors from neighbouring villages. Most watch, wide-eyed, from the barricades. But not everyone outside the camp is happy. In 2018, a farmers' union representing 23 villages nearby, petitioned a court to relocate the camp elsewhere. The petition claimed that the scent of the animals - all female, as is the norm among temple elephants - attracted male elephants from the wild. This has caused them to go on the rampage, often destroying crops that farmers depend on for their livelihood. The union says 16 people have died in such incidents. But the court rejected the petition. Instead, it asked why there were human settlements in what was identified as an elephant corridor. It also criticised the state government's tokenism of rejuvenation camps. "Some day," it said, "this court is going to ban the practice of keeping elephants in temples." But Arjun can't bear the thought of parting with Akila. "I love her like my mother," he says. "She feeds my family, just like my mother used to. Without her, I don't know what to do." But he also understands that his elephant can get lonely. "And that's why I work twice as hard to make sure she doesn't." You may also be interested in: All photographs by Omkar Khandekar

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Latvia hopes euro will bring stability

On the road from St Petersburg to Valmiera in northern Latvia, an ornate tower is all that remains of the tsarist-era manor house Valmiermuiza. Traditional Latvian beer was once brewed here for thirsty Russian aristocrats on their way to Western Europe.

By Damien McGuinnessBBC News, Latvia Now, as the eurozone prepares to take in Latvia on 1 January, it looks like Western Europe is heading this way instead. Today the manor is a romantic ruin. But in the grounds beer is being made here once again. The owner of Valmiermuiza brewery, Aigars Rungis, says the euro will give his business an extra boost. The malt, hops and specialist brewing equipment all come from Germany, so at the moment buying ingredients also means having to buy euros - and paying hefty bank charges. Once Latvia has the euro, the cost of currency exchanges will vanish. Aigars sees the single currency as the final step in Latvia's integration into Europe, away from domination by the former colonial master Russia, which occupied Latvia for much of the 20th Century. "I think being part of the euro will help us to feel more safe economically, less that we can be influenced by outside, by Russia," he says. Stability But the real argument for business owners is an economic one. "Over the last five years there is a lot of discussion: will Latvia devalue or not devalue?" says Aigars, "When we have the euro, I can be sure that the currency will not devalue, then I could really speak with banks and plan my business. And in general business will feel more stable in Latvia." According to polls, the majority of businesses in Latvia tend to agree with Aigars. They believe borrowing costs will go down and foreign investment will go up. When the European Commission announced in June that Latvia had met all the economic targets to switch to the euro, it was seen as an endorsement of Latvia's economic health. Rating agencies raised the country's credit rating by one notch. Latvia's government now predicts that once the country adopts the euro in 2014 its rating should go up still further, to an "A" category. This increased confidence should mean Latvia will be able to borrow more cheaply on international markets. And businesses hope this will bring down the high interest rates charged by banks for business loans. Inflation worries But not everyone is as enthusiastic about the euro as business owners. According to a survey of 1,000 people by pollster SKDS, 58% of Latvians oppose the currency switch, with just 20% in favour. Take the Latvian border town of Valka, for instance. Half of this town is in Estonia, which adopted the euro three years ago - so people here go in and out of the eurozone everyday, often shopping in the Latvian part where many goods are cheaper. Chatting to Latvians as they cross the invisible border, it is impossible to find anyone who is positive about the euro. "Prices shot up in Estonia when they got the euro. And it's already happening here in Latvia. There's a shop I go to once a week, and every time I go prices are little bit more expensive," says one elderly woman. "While we have our own currency, we are independent. But when we lose that, we'll lose our autonomy," says a middle-aged woman. 'Not a currency crisis' But the Latvian government says the situation was similar in Estonia before it adopted the euro, and that now the single currency there has widespread support. The driving force behind Latvia's desire to join the eurozone was Valdis Dombrovskis. Taking over as prime minister at the height of the crisis in 2009, he stood up against international pressure to devalue Latvia's currency, in order to stay on schedule with euro adoption in 2014. Instead he kept the peg with the single currency, which meant having to pursue a painful and controversial policy of severe cuts in wages and benefits, and turned around Latvia's economy, which is now the fastest growing economy in the European Union. Mr Dombrovskis astounded critics by not only surviving politically, but even being re-elected - twice. Earlier this year, I asked him why, despite the ongoing crises in the eurozone, Latvia's government still wanted to join. "This crisis is not a currency crisis. If you look at the euro as a currency it's doing just fine," he said. "What we are really seeing is a financial and economic crisis in certain eurozone countries. But we also see that this problem is being addressed through strengthened fiscal discipline and stricter economic governance." Last currency? But an unexpected tragedy will prevent Mr Dombrovksis from celebrating what was expected to be the crowning achievement of his premiership. In November the roof of a supermarket in Riga collapsed, killing at least 54 people. The nation is still reeling from the shock. A week later, Mr Dombrovskis resigned, accepting political responsibility for the tragedy. The move was unexpected but was seen as an unusually principled act. The prime minister's resignation also meant that the government was dismissed. So Latvia's parliament now has to form a new governing coalition. Analysts say that although losing a prime minister as credible at home and abroad as Mr Dombrovskis is a blow, a loss of investor confidence in Latvia's economic health is unlikely: the euro is seen by international investors as an anchor for the country's future economic policy. And the new government will look very similar to the outgoing one, says Latvia's Finance Minister Andris Vilks. "No-one is going to change, because society and business want to see stability and predictability of conditions. No one is going to change that." And when it comes to currency reform, Latvians have certainly had enough of change. Throughout a turbulent 20th Century of foreign occupation Latvia experienced six different currencies: from Hitler's reichsmark to Stalin's rouble. The euro will be the seventh. Yearning for stability and predictability, most Latvians hope this currency will also be the last.

world-asia-43582371

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43582371

Spring in Tashkent: Is Uzbekistan really opening up?

Uzbekistan is a country that has long been in the shadows, but this week the once repressive and secretive Central Asian state invited the media in for an international summit on the peace process in Afghanistan. It was a chance for BBC Uzbek's Ibrat Safo to return home for the first time in more than 10 years.

Spring always comes suddenly in Tashkent. One day it's cold and grey; the next, the city's almond and apricot trees burst into blossom. This year the streets are also festooned with fairy lights to celebrate Navruz, the tradition spring festival. Even in the pouring rain there's a new sense of hope and anticipation in the air. After the death President Islam Karimov in 2016, Uzbekistan has started to open up. And this week's Afghan peace conference, with delegates and journalists flying in from all over the world, was the highest-profile indication yet of a new willingness to re-engage with the world. Returning home For me it was a chance to return home to work for the first time since the BBC had to leave Uzbekistan in the aftermath of the unrest and violence in the town of Andijan in 2005. And I wasn't the only one. As I walked into the grand white marble conference media centre I met many familiar faces from the old Tashkent press corps, also returning for the first time in many years. The peace conference was headline news on all the local TV news programmes and everyone seemed to know about it. "You here for the Afghan summit?" a taxi driver surprised me by asking on the first day. Like many people here, he saw the conference as yet another sign that the new President Shavkat Mirziyoyev is trying do things differently. A peace summit makes sense for people here because neighbouring Afghanistan is not just a security nightmare right on their doorstep, it's also a potentially huge market for Uzbek goods and services. In this country of 31 million people where the economy has been stagnating for decades, everyone is hoping for some better news. "I work in a factory assembling washing machines," my taxi driver told me. "Our products are more expensive now because Mirziyoyev slapped tariffs on Chinese spare parts." "So that's bad for you, then? I asked. "Oh no," he replied. "We need to start making our own spare parts. I think the president is totally doing the right thing." It was first of many similar conversations, in the brief few days I was reporting in Tashkent, which gave me a sense that things really are beginning to change. A more open media Chatting to local reporters as we waited for the latest news from the conference floor, I heard many stories about the way the media is opening up. State television news, once famous for ignoring 9/11 and headlining bulletins with stories about cement factories, has suddenly become lively and interesting. Journalists are competitive, covering real stories that matter to ordinary people - life in a village with no electricity, a teacher killed sweeping the roads for the local council. Of course there are still limits to this new freedom. One reporter told me she was made to take down an online article after she criticised a monopoly business owned by a local official. And while people are keen to praise the new president, there's still a reluctance to say anything too critical about his predecessor, whose rule over more than two decades was marred by allegations of corruption and human rights abuses. In a brief break between sessions, I went to visit a relative in hospital. On the wall there were framed portraits of both the old and new presidents. "They're still not ready to put that one in the bin," one patient muttered darkly, gesturing at Mr Karimov. At the peace conference, the new and more open Uzbekistan was very much in evidence. The presidents of both Uzbekistan and Afghanistan attended the session, as did the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, and senior officials from the United Nations and the 23 countries taking part, including the US and the UK. Sodyk Safoyev, a former foreign minister and now deputy head of the Uzbek Senate, told the BBC the conference was happening because of what he called Uzbekistan's "renewed foreign policy" over the past year and a half. "A completely new political atmosphere has been created in Central Asia," he said. "There's mutual trust, and mutual readiness to resolve the most sensitive issues in the region." No-one was expecting the peace conference to deliver any breakthroughs. But that was never the point. This was a chance for Uzbekistan to reclaim its place on the international stage and to show solidarity for a peace process that matters not just for Afghanistan, but for all of Central Asia. It ended with a declaration supporting efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, and underlining that Afghans must lead the peace process themselves. As the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's convoy swept through the streets on his way back to the airport, like me he will have seen the wide avenues, shiny shopping centres and grand apartment buildings of a new and very different Tashkent. Spring has come to Uzbekistan, and I left hoping the new beginnings in my country might one day be echoed in a new day for peace in Afghanistan.

health-52152375

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52152375

Coronavirus: Coming 5,000 miles to die for the NHS

More than 4,300 people have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus. Among them are frontline medical staff. Sirin Kale tells the story of two of them.

The two men did not know each other, probably their paths never crossed, but in death they would find a strange symmetry. Dr Amged El-Hawrani and Dr Adil El Tayar - two British-Sudanese doctors - became the first working medics to die of coronavirus in the UK. Their families don't want them to be remembered in this way - but rather as family men, who loved medicine, helping their community, and their heritage. Like the many men and women who come from overseas to join the NHS, El-Hawrani, 55, and El Tayar, 64, left behind friends and relatives back home to dedicate their careers to the UK's health service. They married and had children - El-Hawrani settling in Burton-Upon-Trent; El Tayar in Isleworth, London. And they became pillars of their communities, while maintaining ties to the country of their birth, the Sudan that both men loved. Their stories are illustrative of the many foreign-born medics who even now are battling Covid-19. Adil El Tayar was born in Atbara in northeast Sudan in 1956, the second of 12 children. His father was a clerk in a government office; his mother had her hands full raising her brood. Atbara was a railway town, built by the British to serve the line between Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, and Wadi Halfa in the north. It is a close-knit community, where the first Sudanese labour movement started, in 1948. Everyone knows everyone. "He came from humble beginnings," says Adil's cousin, Dr Hisham El Khidir. "Whatever came into that household had to be divided amongst 12 kids. It's the reason he was so disciplined when he grew up." In Sudan in the 1950s and 1960s, bright young men became doctors or engineers - respected professions that would give their entire family a better life. And when you're one of 12 children - well, that's a lot of people to help look after. Adil knew this, which is why he was a diligent student, even from a young age. But he didn't mind, in Sudanese culture, looking after your family isn't seen as a burden. It's just what you do. "He was always so serious, so focused," Hisham remembers. "He wanted to do medicine early on, because it was a good career in a third-world country." He had a calm, caring disposition. "Never in the years I knew him, did I ever hear him raise his voice." Hisham looked up to Adil, who was eight years older than him, and later followed in his footsteps to become a doctor. The El-Hawrani family lived almost 350km (217 miles) away, down the single-track railroad that links Atbara to the capital Khartoum. It was there that Amged was born in 1964, the second of six boys. His father Salah was a doctor, and in 1975 the family moved to Taunton, Somerset, before settling in Bristol four years later. "Dad was one of the first waves of people coming over from Sudan in the 1970s," remembers Amged's younger brother, Amal. "We didn't know any other Sudanese families growing up in the UK. It was just us and English people. It felt like an adventure. Everything was new and different." Only a year apart in age, Amged and his older brother Ashraf were inseparable. "They both could have done anything," says Amal. "They were intelligent, they were all-rounders. They loved football and technology. They embraced everything - just drank it all in." Amged loved gadgets. "He'd always turn up with this bit of kit he'd just bought," Amal laughs, "saying, 'Look, I've just bought this projector that can fit in your pocket, let's watch a film!'" Amged and Ashraf both studied medicine, like their father. And then in 1992, tragedy struck - Ashraf died of an asthma attack, aged 29. It was Amged who discovered his body. "It had a huge emotional impact on him," Amal says. "But he became the rock of the family." He even named his son Ashraf, after his brother. Over the coming decades, Adil and Amged forged careers in the NHS. Adil become an organ transplant specialist, while Amged specialised in ear, nose, and throat surgery. The life of an NHS doctor isn't easy - it is high-stakes work, which often takes you away from your family. But Adil's children always felt that he had time for them. "No matter how tired he was, he would always get home from work and make sure he spent time with each of us," says his daughter Ula, 21. "He cared about family life so much." Adil loved to potter about in his garden, tending to his apple and pear trees, and planting flowers all around. "It was his happy place," says Ula. He also loved to collect new friends. "He'd have barbecues in summer, and there would often be some random person there you'd never met before," Adil's son Osman, 30, jokes. "You'd wonder where he'd picked them up from." Amged was intellectually curious, and a great conversationalist. "He was one of those people who had an encyclopedic knowledge of everything," says his brother Amal. He was also a Formula One fan - Ayrton Senna was his legend. "Amged was generous, and without guile," remembers his friend Dr Simba Oliver Matondo. They met when they took the same class at university, and spent their student years eating Pizza Hut food - a big treat back then - and watching Kung Fu films. The National Health is staffed by many foreign-born workers - 13.1% of NHS staff say their nationality is not British, and one-in-five come from minority backgrounds. As of 3 April, four British doctors, and two nurses, have died after testing positive for COVID-19. Five were from BAME [Black, Asian and minority ethnic] communities. In addition to Adil and Amged, there is Dr Alfa Sa'adu, born in Nigeria, Dr Habib Zaidi, born in Pakistan, and nurse Areema Nasreen, who had Pakistani heritage. "We mourn the passing of our colleagues in the fight against Covid-19," says Dr Salman Waqar of the British Islamic Medical Association. "They enriched our country. Without them, we would not have an NHS." 'NHS crown' Both Adil and Amged considered themselves British. "Amged was in this country for 40 years," says Amal. "He was as British as tea and crumpets." But they kept close ties with their native Sudan. "When someone emigrates to the UK, they don't just cut all their ties with their country," Adil's cousin Hisham explains. "They make a better life for themselves, but they maintain their roots." Adil returned to Khartoum in 2010, to set up an organ transplant unit. "He wanted to give something back to the less fortunate in Sudan," his son Osman explains. Since Adil's death, his family has received dozens of phone calls from people in Sudan, telling them about their father's charity work. They knew their dad spent a lot of time helping people back home in Sudan - they'd overhear his phone calls. But none of Adil's children realised just how many people he'd helped, until after he died. Amged was also charitable, climbing in the Himalayas in 2010 to raise money for a CT scanner for Queen's Hospital Burton, where he worked. Like Adil, he was connected to his heritage. "He'd always reminisce about growing up in Sudan," says his brother Amal. "He was very proud to be Sudanese." His friend Matondo was a frequent visitor at Amged's mum's house in Bristol, where they'd eat "ful medames", a traditional fava bean stew, and feta cheese with chillies. A supporter of Al Merrikh - the Manchester United of Sudan - Amged arranged for the Khartoum team's dilapidated pitch to be repainted, picking up the bill himself. Both doctors cared deeply about the NHS, an institution they had spent their lifetimes serving. "Adil really believed in this excellent system that provided free care at the point of delivery to everyone who needed it," says his cousin Dr Hisham El Khidir. His passion rubbed off on his children - Osman and his sister Abeer, 26, both followed in Adil's footsteps to become doctors. The day Osman was accepted as a surgical registrar - a prestigious, competitive post - Adil was emotional. "He was so happy," Osman remembers. "He just kept saying, 'Mashallah, mashallah.'" When both doctors got sick, they didn't think much of it, their families say. Amged was the first to fall ill. His mother had recently recovered from a nasty bout of pneumonia, and in late February, after finishing a long shift, he drove to Bristol to see her. Amged felt unwell in the car, but assumed he was probably just exhausted. By 4 March, he was admitted to Burton's Queen's Hospital. His colleagues put him on a ventilator. He was later transferred to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, where he was put on a more sophisticated ECMO machine, to breathe for him. Amged would stay on that machine, fighting for his life, for nearly three weeks. Meanwhile, Adil was working in the A&E department of Hereford County Hospital. On the 13 March, the first UK death from coronavirus was reported in Scotland. The very next day, Adil started feeling unwell. He came back to the family house in London, and self-isolated. Over the next few days, his condition deteriorated. On the 20 March, Abeer didn't like how her dad looked - he was breathless, and couldn't string a sentence together - and she called an ambulance. Doctors at West Middlesex University Hospital put Adil on a ventilator. But even then, alarm bells weren't ringing. "We thought, this is bad," says Osman. "But we had no idea it would be fatal." On 25 March, Adil's family received a call from the hospital. Things were very bad, and they should come now. They raced there to be with him. Adil's children watched their father die through a glass window. They weren't allowed in the room, because of the risk of contagion. "That was the most difficult thing," says Osman. "Having to watch him. I always knew that one day my father would die. But I thought I would be there, holding his hand. I never imagined I would be looking at him through a window, on a ventilator." Adil spent decades serving the NHS. But his family feels that the NHS didn't do enough for him in return, by giving him the protective gear that might have prevented him contracting coronavirus. "I think it's unbelievable in the UK in 2020 that we're battling a life-threatening disease, and our frontline staff are not being safely equipped with PPE to do their job," says Osman. "Bottom line is that it's wrong and it needs to be addressed immediately." Amid repeated claims of shortages in some parts of the NHS, the government has offered frequent bulletins on the volume of personal protective equipment being delivered. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he will "stop at nothing" to protect frontline health workers - describing the situation as "one of the biggest logistical challenges of peacetime". All the time Adil had been in hospital, Amged had clung onto life. But on the 28 March, doctors decided to take Amged off the ECMO machine. Dressed in protective gear, Amged's brother Akmal was allowed into his room, to hold his hand. Amal watched from behind a window. Amged will be buried in Bristol, beside his dad, and close enough for his mum to visit. At his own request, Adil will be buried in Sudan, besides his father and grandfather. Getting the repatriation paperwork sorted is proving difficult, given the coronavirus lockdown. "The last wishes of someone who died are very sacred in our culture," explains Osman. "We will make it happen." Adil's children won't be able to attend the funeral - although cargo planes are flying, there are currently no passenger flights to Sudan. But he won't be buried alone. The community of people Adil grew up with - his siblings, and their children, and the people he supported over the years, will bury him instead. In Sudanese tradition, every mourner digs their hand into the dust, and throws soil into the grave. "There are hundreds of people waiting to bury him," says Osman. "I've been on the phone with them all. They're waiting for him to arrive." Meanwhile, the garden Adil loved so much is overgrown. "It's a sad view," says Ula. "It's dishevelled now he's not around. He was always the one who kept it together." But the apple tree will be coming into blossom soon. Top image copyright: El Tayar family and University Hospitals Derby and Burton. All images subject to copyright.

uk-england-29110845

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-29110845

London Tubes: Unexpected locations of underground trains

London's underground Tube trains are one of the capital's best-known symbols. And yet, the flash-by streaks of red, white and blue can be found in unexpected places up and down England. BBC News Online finds why Tubes are in such high demand.

By Jenny ScottBBC News Online From its iconic map to its crisp passenger announcements such as "mind the gap", the Tube train is indelibly associated with London. So, to find one rushing past grazing sheep and wooded hillsides in the heart of rural Leicestershire comes as something of a surprise. Especially because they are on the route of the old Midland Railway link between Nottingham and Kettering, which closed in the 1960s. But, a 2.8 mile (4.5 km) stretch of the line, near the village of Old Dalby, is now used as a test track for Network Rail, which leases it to London Underground. "We test the trains at Old Dalby because the Tube network is used 20 hours a day for passenger service, so we need to be able to test trains off site so that we're not disrupting passenger services," said a London Underground spokesman. The new S - or sub-surface - stock Tubes, which are manufactured by Bombardier, in Derby, undergo a minimum of 500km (310 miles) of testing before being delivered to the transport network. "The new trains will... serve the Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines and are being rolled out on the District," added Transport for London. In which other unusual locations can Tubes be found? On top of a building London itself can hardly be described as an unexpected place to spot a Tube. But four carriages sitting on top of a 10m (33ft) high Victorian warehouse is not something you come across every day. The venue, in Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, is run as a not-for-profit "cultural space" by Village Underground, an arts centre. "We basically run a venue which is located under the trains," said office manager Amelie Snyers. "We rent out the trains to various people - start ups, designers, freelancers etc." She said the venue's founder, Auro Foxcroft, came up with the idea of using the trains because he wanted to build "something as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible which is why he ended up upcycling old Tube carriages." On an island If you are used to dashing down a lengthy escalator to catch the next train to Marble Arch, you might be a little surprised to find London Tubes skimming around the more leisurely environs of the Isle of Wight. But holidaymakers are accustomed to catching the re-commissioned rail links from the pier at Ryde to the seaside resort of Shanklin. Andy Naylor, head of Island Line's customer experience, said 10 former Northern Line cars, dating from 1938, were bought after flooding in a tunnel meant the track-bed had to be raised. "The Tube cars were the only stock that would fit through the tunnel," he said. Today, Mr Naylor says the Tubes are the oldest non-heritage stock in Britain still in regular service. The carriages have been fitted with a standard wheel set, to enable them to operate away from the Underground network, but are painted in their original livery. "They are one of those quirky things people come to the island to see," Mr Naylor said. "But people also use them every day to get to work and school. About one million people a year travel on the service." The Isle of Wight link is not the only offshore network to employ ex-Tube stock. Former Tube trains can also be found on the channel island of Alderney. There, volunteers have restored a former quarry line to make a pleasure railway for tourists. "I think the Isle of Wight went for them because they were fairly easy to get across there, whereas we went for them because they are practical for us," said Tony Le Blanc, chairman of the Alderney Railway Society. "The Tubes are light and only need small platforms. We have a 1949 diesel locomotive called Elizabeth and she chugs up and down, pulling the cars behind her. "People are very much surprised to see them. They think it's really quirky. They can travel from the middle of the island down to the sea to explore the lighthouse. "We get a lot of French visitors and I tell them the Northern line doesn't end at Morden - it actually ends in Alderney. You get a few of them who believe me." As a film-set Tube trains make popular film sets. As Lindsay Collier, who founded the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum says: "It's very difficult to film in an Underground car on the Tube, so we get film-makers in all the time. "They come because it's quite reasonably priced and it's safe - you're not anywhere near live rails. The film-makers put up blue screens outside the windows so it appears as if the car is moving." The museum has a decommissioned 1968 model Victoria Line Underground railway carriage and Mr Collier hopes to build a replica Tube platform for it next year. The car also doubles as a part-time restaurant, being used by an organisation called Underground Basement Galley for a monthly supper club. Alex Cooper, managing director of the company, said people like eating and socialising in the Tube because it seems opposed to normal Tube etiquette. "Normally when you go on a Tube, eating is frowned upon and people don't really talk to each other," he said. "At our supper club, we encourage complete strangers to sit next to each other and engage with each other. As a result, we've had people start business deals and one couple even got married after meeting that way." The Vintage Carriages Trust, based at Ingrow, near Keighley, also has two Metropolitan line carriages from 1919 and 1924 that are frequently used in films and TV shows, including the Woman in Black and the BBC's North and South. "Our carriages aren't necessarily what may spring to mind for many people when they think of Tube trains," said Jackie Cope, the trust's treasurer. "The carriages are wooden and date from the days when the Underground was steam-hauled." On a farm There are three Tube carriages in the middle of a farm in rural Essex - but this is the home of the Mangapps Railway Museum. Managing partner John Jolly and his team look after the coaches, two from 1959 Northern stock and one a 1938 District line car. The coaches, currently non-operational, form part of an exhibition at the museum about London Tubes. "There aren't many places you can see old London underground trains," said Mr Jolly. "Railway preservation is usually centred around steam railways. "I think there are two main reasons why they are so popular. The first is that so many people have travelled on the Tube. It was the first and, for a long time, the largest urban rail transport network in the world. "The second is that it's one of those icons - like the London bus - that people associate with London."

uk-scotland-52850892

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-52850892

Coronavirus rules: Scotland's sedate stroll out of lockdown

People across Scotland have been heading out into the sunshine to take advantage of the relaxation of some the lockdown restrictions . And it seems that those gathering in parks and beaches have been keeping their distance and adopting a cautious approach to their new freedoms.

Aberdeen Aberdeen certainly felt like it had a more relaxed atmosphere on Friday afternoon as the city basked in warm sunshine under blue skies on the first day of lockdown easing, writes Ken Banks At Aberdeen beach, it was relatively quiet compared to the scenes that have been witnessed elsewhere around the country recently. There were some small groups of families and couples, with children playing happily in the sand, but they were well spaced apart from others. Among them were three-year-old Alessio Tancredi-Marshall and five-year-old sister Eloisa. Their mum Chiara, 35, welcomed the easing of lockdown as it offered "just a bit more freedom". She said: "They have been cooped up for so long, this is a massive difference. "We have stuck to the rules, they have just been going on their bikes round the block. Thankfully we have a garden." The story was much at same at Victoria Park in the Rosemount area - small groups on the grass, but keeping their distance. It certainly felt like there were more cars on the roads. And there were queues outside butchers and fishmongers, perhaps an indication of garden barbecues lying in store in the afternoon and evening. Dumfries If the early signs are anything to go by, Doonhamers are following the advice to act responsibly as lockdown is slowly eased, writes Giancarlo Rinaldi There was a bit more buzz on the banks of the River Nith, but no stampede as some might have feared. In Dock Park, the children's play areas remained shut and only a few picnickers were dotted around the place. Any walkers, joggers and cyclists appeared to be pretty rigorously observing the appropriate social distancing. Further into town, a handful of people had stopped to take the sun on the Whitesands and Greensands, but not in any numbers to cause concern. Signs are out to remind anyone about getting too close - but after so long in lockdown it appears people have understood the message to take things one step at a time. Despite the glorious sunshine there might still be a little anxiety, too, about heading to spots where there might be any significant gatherings. Whatever the reasons, it looked more of a sedate stroll out of lockdown than a serious sprint in the Queen of the South. Edinburgh Thousands of people flocked to Edinburgh's parks and beaches on the first day of the coronavirus lockdown being eased, writes Angie Brown. Sunbathers covered The Meadows and sat on park benches as temperatures reached 25C in the capital. People were seen playing matches on tennis courts and others walked in local beauty spots. Grannies were seen out walking with pushchairs at Blackford Pond after being reunited with their grandchildren. There was a noticeable increase in the volume of traffic and many cars had their roofs down while others were playing music. However, the Pentland Hills regional park was still closed to motorists. They reopen next week. Maddy Scaife, 24, and Dr Ben O Ceallaigh, 30, said they had bought a hammock especially for the reopening of parks. Maddy said: "We live in a flat in Bruntsfield and don't have a garden so the lockdown has been horrendous for us. "We are so enjoying being out today on Bruntsfield Links and seeing everyone enjoying the day. "It's lovely to see everyone out and it's such a nice atmosphere." Dundee In Dundee, some of those enjoying the Friday lunchtime sunshine were surprised that the city's parks were quieter than they had been over the past few days, writes Graeme Ogston. Traditional sunbathing hotspots like Magdalen Green and Dudhope Park saw a few dozen people walking dogs and having lunch on park benches, with only a solitary disposable barbecue in sight. Despite tennis being back on the the outdoor menu, only one pair of players were taking advantage of the game's return on the Baxter Park public tennis court. In nearby Broughty Ferry the crowds continued to flock to the beach, but Dundee city centre's main open space Slessor Gardens was relatively quiet with only about 50 people, mostly observing social distancing rules. Inverness On a day like today Inverness should be hoaching, writes Steven McKenzie The sun is shining and the temperature is in the mid-20s, but the city still feels quiet. Even though some lockdown restrictions have been eased from today, the Highland capital is missing its droves of tourists. At this time of year, they pour in from the cruise ships berthing at Invergordon and flock in from other parts of the UK. The visitors can usually be found gawking up at Inverness Castle, or wandering the city centre or the picturesque riverside. But for now the city is for Invernessians only. Yes, the roads and the supermarkets do feel busier. What is more noticeable is people enjoying the chance to meet up with another household. Families could be seen in grassy open spaces and gardens revelling in the chance, while social distancing, to catch up with neighbours, family and friends. Inverclyde At Pinewood Trout Fishery outside Kilmacolm, a pre-booking system was in force as anglers returned to the banks - and only family members from the same residence were able to book in groups, writes Calum Watson "Normally, apart from the fly fishing, people can sit where they want, but we've pegged out positions, like we do for competitions," explained Jim Hart in the booking office. "If they don't observe social distancing, we'll ask them to leave. It doesn't matter if they've paid." All the fishing slots were fully booked for Friday, and Saturday's slots were filling up fast. "Everyone is trying to make the most of it because they've not been out," he added. East Renfrewshire There were queues outside Rouken Glen Garden Centre in Giffnock as it opened its doors at 10:00 for the first time since the start of the lockdown, writes Deirdre Kelly Staff have been busy preparing the plants - and implementing a one-way system to keep shoppers safe. Screens have been fitted at the till area and the plant displays have been spread out - some them now occupying a space that was formerly the tea room.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37258156

Mother Teresa: The humble sophisticate

Mother Teresa, who died in Kolkata, India, 19 years ago, will be formally declared a Saint of the Catholic Church by Pope Francis at a Vatican ceremony on Sunday. David Willey, who has reported from Rome for the BBC during five decades, tells how he once spent an hour sitting and talking informally with the new saint in an unlikely setting, the arrivals hall at Rome's Fiumicino airport.

By David WilleyBBC Vatican correspondent I immediately understood that the woman already known as the "Saint of the Slums" of Kolkata was at the same time a very humble and simple caring person and a sophisticated international traveller. She constantly jetted around the world, visiting her Missionaries of Charity, the religious order she had founded in 1950, so I suppose it was appropriate that we should meet, not in her motherhouse near the Coliseum in Rome, or in one of her hospices for the dying in India, but amid the bustle of an airport. We sat together in the arrivals section and she quickly had me laughing as she proudly showed off her Air India travel pass, which entitled her to a lifetime of free worldwide air travel - a gift of the Indian government. I had been trying to arrange an interview with her for months, but the nuns at her Rome headquarters kept putting me off. Finally they rang me to say she would be arriving on such-and-such a flight from India and departing an hour-and-a-half later to Canada and I could meet her for a brief talk at the airport. She was a tiny figure and her face was already rather wizened. She was immediately recognisable as she emerged alone through the arrival doors clutching a small white cloth bag, dressed in the blue-trimmed white cotton Indian sari and veil which she had adopted as the uniform dress for members of her missionary order. "Do you have to pick up your suitcase as you are in transit?" I asked, feeling slightly foolish for suggesting that a living saint might misplace her baggage tag. "No," she replied. "I carry around all my worldly possessions with me in this little bag. My personal needs are very simple!" Before tackling more weighty metaphysical and theological matters and hearing how she devoted her life to the poorest of the poor, I decided to try to find out more about how a living saint organises her travels. I was intrigued by her Air India free travel pass. "How do you plan ahead?" I asked, in the pre-mobile phone era. "Well I usually ring up, from a coin box at the airport, the head of state or the prime minister or Pope John Paul at the Vatican if I am in Rome - and they send a car to the airport to meet me," she said. By the time I met her in the late 1980s, Mother Teresa's sisters and affiliated brothers and fathers had already grown to become an international family of 1,800 nuns and many thousands of lay workers. Today they number nearly 6,000 and are active in 139 countries. Her order knows practically no territorial boundaries and she was already setting up homes and hospices and recruiting in Eastern Europe long before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union. She opened two centres in Hong Kong as early as 1983, but China has so far resisted attempts by the order to minister to their poor. As the minutes ticked by, Mother Teresa went on to explain to me her single-minded devotion to her work of ministering to the sick, the dying and the disabled. In her own words: "Our mission was to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to society and are shunned by everyone." Pope John Paul II had visited Mother Teresa's hospice for the dying in Kolkata during his pilgrimage to India in 1986 and the two became close friends. Mother Teresa frequently appeared at Vatican ceremonies at the Pope's side until her death. Later, in record time, in 2003 she was herself created a Blessed of the Roman Catholic Church, marking her final step towards full sainthood. Her flight to Toronto was called and we walked together to the departures hall. She disappeared behind the automatic doors, still clutching her small cloth bag and passing unrecognised, it seemed to me, among the throngs of passengers criss-crossing the transit zone. I knew I had met a living saint; she had touched my heart, transmitted her sense of joy for life, and she had also made me laugh.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45543804

Australia's elder abuse scandal 'beyond belief'

On Sunday, Australia announced that it would hold a royal commission - its supreme form of inquiry - into the nation's scandal-hit aged care sector. Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned Australians to brace for "bruising" evidence of abuse and negligence.

By Phil MercerBBC News, Sydney A hidden camera captures the chilling moment when an Australian care worker appears to try to suffocate an 89-year-old man with dementia. The image, first publicised in local news in 2016, highlighted the terror, domination and deceit of elder abuse in a country with an ageing population. The mistreatment of Clarence Hausler in a nursing home in Adelaide in 2015 was uncovered by his daughter, who had been suspicious about her father's bruises. Video from a spy camera she secretly installed revealed that a care assistant, Corey Lyle Lucas, had apparently attempted to violently force-feed his bedridden patient who could not talk or walk, and pinned him down when he resisted. Lucas was convicted of aggravated assault. The care home apologised and said his actions were a "rogue act". 'Love is vanishing' In recent years especially, Australia has been confronted with the exploitation of its youngest and oldest citizens. The nation is still digesting the recommendations of a royal commission that spent almost five years investigating the depraved treatment of children in institutions. Now residential and in-home aged care will be scrutinised. In justifying the need for a royal commission, Mr Morrison said "our loved ones - some of them - have experienced some real mistreatment". "And I think that's going to be tough for us all to deal with," he added. "But you can't walk past it." Community leaders say the true scale of elder abuse is unknown but anecdotal evidence has suggested it is a dark and deep-rooted problem. "It is a scandal beyond belief," says Reverend Bill Crews from Australia's Uniting Church. "How we can behave to one another - when we are not watched by others - is beyond belief. It started with young people. It is now with old people. We are a society where love is vanishing and the inevitable outcome of that is a lot of pain." An Elder Abuse Helpline was set up in New South Wales (NSW) in 2013, and state lawmakers have conducted their own investigation into the mistreatment of senior citizens. "It is often psychological and emotional abuse but it can also be physical, financial and even sexual, which is extremely disturbing," Tanya Davies, NSW minister for ageing, women and mental health told the BBC. "As a nation we don't yet have a comprehensive idea as to the length and breadth of this." Harrowing stories Victims have also shared their stories with another inquiry in Western Australia. A frail elderly woman, identified only as Sylvia, was forced to move into a nursing home after her son took her money to buy himself a house. According to a legal submission, Sylvia was scared that if she didn't do as he asked, her son would assault her. The inquiry was told that her son had threatened to burn down her home if she "called the cops" on him. To make his point, the son allegedly set fire to his bag in her living room. Sylvia was too afraid to take legal action and she died nine months after going into residential care. Ian Henchske, chief advocate for independent lobby group National Seniors Australia, says a lot of elder abuse "takes place within the family". He told the BBC that less than 20% of elder abuse is reported to an authority, and that greed was mostly to blame. "The predominant form of abuse that is being reported is financial abuse," he says. "You have got a generation below the older generation looking at their parents and wondering when are they going to get out of that home because that is an important part of my inheritance." Ageism in society Campaigners say that rapacious relatives suffer from "inheritance impatience" and that disrespect and abuse is underpinned by ageism. "These sorts of things are similar to the attitudes and the discrimination that occurs around race and sexism," says Jenny Blakey, the manager at Seniors Rights Victoria. "We ignore the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that older people have at our peril. We need to harness the skill and recognise the value of older people and what they bring to our society." Many victims can't or won't fight back. But some do. In Perth, Mrs M, a frail but spirited woman in her late 80s, had been ripped off by her son, who had drained several thousand dollars from her account. She went to her bank to complain that she had not been told about payments made by her son on her credit card. In a loud voice, she berated staff for their incompetence - before being fully reimbursed. Tackling ageism, abuse and indifference won't be easy, but Mr Crews believes that respecting the elderly is a good place to start. "I was talking to an older man a week or so ago who was 97 and we sat in the back there and just talked, and the love just poured out of him," he says. "It was like sitting in the sunlight. All he needed was someone to love."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-15751549

Guernsey Airport to close for runway improvement work

Guernsey Airport will close for eight days in 2012 while runway improvement work is carried out, the States said.

All closures will be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in March, May, November and December. The runway work is scheduled to take two years to complete and is part of an £80m refurbishment of Guernsey Airport. The dates were confirmed after a consultation with businesses and the public. Work will see the runway and other areas extended. The airport will be closed on 20, 21 March, 8, 9 May, 27, 28 November and 4, 5 December 2012. Alternative arrangements will be made for mail planes, the States added.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-23428899

New Catholic archbishop to be named

A successor to the disgraced Cardinal Keith O'Brien as the archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh is due to be appointed.

Cardinal O'Brien resigned in February after he admitted that his sexual conduct had "fallen beneath the standards" expected of him. The Catholic Church will unveil the new archbishop elect in Edinburgh. It is the first of several new appointments expected this summer. Of the eight diocese in Scotland, four are currently without a bishop and a fifth is due to retire. Cardinal O'Brien was Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric until he resigned after three priests and a former priest alleged improper conduct in the 1980s. He has since left Scotland for "spiritual renewal, prayer and penance".

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47616416

Miscarriages: Joy for Cardiff mum who lost 10 babies

Two years ago, the BBC told the story of how Jen Bickel and her husband Andrew had spent a decade trying for a baby, instead enduring 10 miscarriages. Then, just when it seemed all hope was lost, their fortunes changed, as Jen, from Cardiff, explains.

There have been so many low points in my journey to becoming a mother, it's tricky to pick out the lowest. Perhaps it was after I had both my fallopian tubes removed, scuppering my chances of ever conceiving naturally. I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to go to work or see people. I felt like I had crashed and burned, and it was only the support of my husband Andrew and wider family that got me through. This was in April 2017, a decade after we first began trying. Of course, as newlyweds, we never dreamed that having a baby would prove so testing. Back then, we were both fit and healthy 29-year-olds. It was 2007, and at first, I fell pregnant quite quickly, miscarrying at six weeks before I actually even knew I was pregnant. I was upset but not too devastated; we had time on our sides after all. But it was 18 months before I fell pregnant again, and this time I miscarried at 11 weeks. Unsurprisingly, Andrew and I were devastated, especially when I was kept in hospital for medical management of the foetus, which involved hours of bleeding and pain. What is miscarriage? But worse, was the effect of this second miscarriage upon our mental health. Many of our friends were starting families, and although we were happy for them, it made our losses all the more acute. Personally, I couldn't help but blame myself. Why was my body failing me? What had I done? In April 2009, I miscarried again after an early scan showed my baby had no heartbeat. Then, in 2010, we decided to embark on IVF, hoping this would solve the problem, particularly as tests showed there was nothing specifically wrong with us. Little did we know how hard this process would be. In the first round, we created 10 embryos, yet none of them resulted in pregnancy. A few months later, we tried again, this time receiving a positive pregnancy test - but again a foetus with no heartbeat. On this occasion, I came home and waited for the embryo to come away naturally, but it was no less painful or upsetting than being in hospital. By this stage, we were desperate. Unsure of how to proceed, we paid out £2,000 for private tests, had acupuncture and bought supplements - yet nothing helped. Still, we could not give up, so we had no option but to steel our nerves and keep trying. In 2014, we had two embryos implanted at a private clinic, but, in the October, while out for my birthday, I felt a terrible pain in my side, which turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy. This was the end of the road of IVF. We had no frozen embryos left, and no more money for treatment. Amazingly, we were then thrown a lifeline when the IVF clinic gave us a free round, after nurses voted us the most deserving couple. We implanted two embryos which failed, but froze a further three. I then suffered two further ectopic pregnancies, resulting in both my fallopian tubes being removed. I was heartbroken, knowing I would never conceive naturally. In total, over the past decade, I had fallen pregnant 10 times - six times naturally and four times through IVF - and we couldn't take anymore. All we had were the frozen embryos - our last hope - and we were keeping everything crossed. It took months before the lining of my womb was considered thick enough to try. But once it was, we implanted one embryo, and after another agonising two-week wait, received a positive pregnancy test. We couldn't get our hopes up and during the scan, I lay on the bed holding Andrew's hand, filled with dread. But there was something different this time - a tiny heartbeat, something we had never seen before. We were ecstatic. Still, though, even when I went through morning sickness and learnt we were having a boy, Andrew found it hard to believe. He was incredibly supportive, but he refused to shop for baby things or decorate the nursery until the very last weeks before my due date. Due to my age - I was 40 - I was induced to make sure that the placenta didn't begin to fail. But, after hours of contractions, doctors realised the baby's heartbeat was dropping as the cord was wrapped around his neck. Everyone knew how high the stakes were - this could not go wrong - so I had a Caesarean, and in the early hours of 9 February, our miracle baby arrived weighing 6lb 8oz. Bobi William Bickel is now six weeks old, and I do not care if he cries all day or wants to feed all night; I have everything I ever wanted. Looking back, we still can't believe how lucky we are or why things finally worked. Was it because my tubes were removed? Was it down to the bit of weight I lost? Either way, we simply want to share our story as so many other couples are going through similar heartbreak. Struggling to conceive is incredibly hard - physically, mentally and emotionally. Andrew and I were always each other's rock, but we would advise people to seek support. As for us, we still have two embryos in the freezer and I'm sure at some point we will try and implant them. If they work, so be it. If not, we have our beautiful boy, and after more than a decade of heartbreak, we could not be more grateful. Help and advice: If you or someone you know has been affected by issues with pregnancy, try BBC Action Line for support

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https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-43398560

Stephen Hawking: Black holes, making science cool and being funny

Stephen Hawking has died peacefully at home aged 76.

The physicist made his name with theories on black holes and relativity, but he was many things to many people. Growing up some might have known him best from The Simpsons. Others might picture Eddie Redmayne when they think of Stephen Hawking, following the actor's Oscar-winning performance in The Theory of Everything. While to some he might be that genius with the robotic voice. Here's who he was, what he actually did, and what he was famous for. He was best known for 'Hawking radiation' Professor Hawking was most famous for his theories around black holes - arguing that they're not actually black at all. He came up with the idea that the dense objects which exist in space give off heat, and eventually will completely evaporate and explode. "Black holes are these incredibly dense objects that suck stuff into (them) through gravity, and it was thought that nothing can escape," explains particle physicist Harry Cliff. "By combining quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity, Hawking showed that they can actually evaporate, and could eventually even explode like a nuclear bomb." And the big bang theory The big bang theory wasn't just a show that Professor Hawking appeared in. "One of the first things Stephen Hawking worked on was the idea of the big bang," Dr Cliff says. "This is the point at the beginning of the universe, where the universe is infinitely small and infinitely dense. "Hawking showed that actually, at that very early moment there was something called a singularity where space and time break down. "From that tiny point the whole universe began and there's this rapid expansion of space and time." He helped popularise science Let's be honest - compared to the number of scientists out there, there aren't actually that many who are household names. It's not a profession people go into for the fame. But Professor Hawking managed to take complicated theoretical arguments and make them accessible and relevant to regular people. His book A Brief History of Time, which was published in 1988, has sold millions of copies. "Apart from his scientific work Hawking's biggest contribution was his popularisation of science," says Dr Cliff. He was also really funny There are so many examples of Stephen Hawking displaying his great sense of humour - including his many appearances on shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, and The Big Bang Theory. One of our favourites at Newsbeat was when he was interviewed by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. The TV host said: "You've stated that you believe there could be an infinite number of parallel universes. Does that mean that there is a universe out there where I am smarter than you?" Professor Hawking replied: "Yes. And also a universe where you're funny." Another example of him living by his famous quote "life would be tragic if it weren't funny", is the time he left a BBC Newsnight presenter terrified they'd unplugged Stephen Hawking. The physicist also helped soothe the broken hearts of One Direction fans in 2015, when Zayn Malik left the group. "My advice to any heartbroken young girl is to pay close attention to the study of theoretical physics," he said. "One day there may well be proof of multiple universes. "It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies another different universe. And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction." He added: "This girl may like to note that in another possible universe she and Zayn are happily married." Bringing science to the masses. He was a campaigner Professor Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at 22 and had to rely on the NHS multiple times throughout his life. He publicly backed Labour in the 2017 general election and strongly criticised Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt the same year. The Cambridge graduate said he was worried about the future of the health service, and with a group of campaigners was given permission to challenge a government health policy in the High Court. "The more profit is extracted from the system, the more private monopolies grow and the more expensive healthcare becomes. "The NHS must be preserved from commercial interests and protected from those who want to privatise it," he previously said. He's also spoken on mental health. In particular, Professor Hawking was praised for quotes interpreted by some as being about depression in a speech at the Royal Institution in London in 2016. "The message of this lecture is that black holes ain't as black as they are painted," he said. "They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. "Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up - there's a way out." Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.

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Tax avoidance clampdown warning from Jane Hutt

There will be a clampdown on tax avoidance and tax evasion once powers are devolved in 2018, Finance Minister Jane Hutt has warned.

The warning came at the launch of a consultation on how the landfill disposal tax will be managed. It is one of three taxes - including stamp duty tax and the aggregates levy - to come under the Welsh government's control in 2018. It is predicted the three taxes will raise £307m by 2018/19. Ms Hutt told BBC Wales she wants to see "a strong Welsh rule on tax avoidance and tax evasion" in order to "make sure that all of our Welsh taxes are paid as they help pay for public services".

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https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-54447441

Drag Race UK star Crystal suing Laurence Fox

Drag Race UK star Crystal is suing the actor Laurence Fox.

In a statement on Twitter, Crystal said she "will not stand for homophobic defamation". The Drag Race UK star claims Mr Fox made comments towards her on Twitter that amount to defamation, a legal term for damaging someone's reputation. The comments were in relation to a tweet from the supermarket Sainsbury's, which shared its support for Black History Month. On Sunday, Mr Fox tweeted that Sainsbury's marking Black History Month "promoted racial segregation and discrimination". He called for people to boycott the supermarket. Crystal criticised Mr Fox for the Sainsbury's tweet and says that he replied to her making accusations that damaged her reputation. She said she has now instructed a lawyer to sue him. Crystal said: "An accusation of paedophilia is one of the oldest homophobic tropes, and it was very shocking to have that levelled at me, not just by Mr Fox, but also his many followers who believed him. "I may have had to endure homophobic bullying as a child, but I will not tolerate it as an adult." Crystal is the second person to pursue legal action against the actor over comments on Twitter. Simon Blake, deputy chair of the LGBT charity Stonewall, says he was defamed by the actor after also challenging him over his Sainsbury's tweet. In a statement on Twitter Mr Blake said he "strongly disagreed" with Mr Fox's view. Mr Blake said he has also instructed a lawyer to sue for defamation. "I want to make it absolutely clear that I will always stand against racism and will do my best to be a strong white ally. "This is particularly important because we know the negative impact that racism and oppression has on the mental health and wellbeing of black people and people of colour." The BBC has contacted Laurence Fox for a response. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

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'We don't feel welcome' - why aspiring students are thinking twice about the UK

The numbers of Indians studying in the UK fell for the first time in the last year, many say due to changes in visa rules. As David Cameron prepares to visit India, how is the issue affecting Indians' perception of Britain?

By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News, Mumbai At an entrance to a five star hotel in a plush area of Mumbai, it is hard to move for the crowds. This beachside hotel is a regular haunt for Bollywood stars and celebrities, but the hundreds of young Indians are not desperate to catch a glimpse of an action hero, or a supermodel. They're here to get an education. A number of ballrooms have been taken over for an international education fair. British universities make up almost half of the hundred or so exhibitors at the event, organised by a private company, Edwise, which regularly hosts and facilitates foreign establishments in finding students. Representatives from universities including Durham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Lancaster and York are all seated behind tables, poised for their sales pitch. 'Opportunity to settle' The UK is a popular destination for Indian students, second only to the USA, but the appeal of a degree in Britain has lost some of its shine for many. "I know the educational standard of the UK is very renowned, so I would have preferred that, if the visa system hadn't been changed," says twenty-one year old Prachi Bhatt, who is weighed down by a pile of university prospectuses for Australia and Canada. "I want to study, work and maybe settle abroad, and that's why I went for the other countries, because of the issues," she adds. The issues he is referring to are the changes in visa rules for non-EU students, which restrict the ease with which a student can stay on in the UK, after their studies. In 2012 the post-study work visa was scrapped, which had earlier allowed students like Prachi to stay on for a further two years to find work. Now, non-EU students who wish to stay in the UK can switch to Tier 2 immigration status, which means they have to qualify for employment under the points based system, and find a job which pays a minimum of £20,000. A separate visa for entrepreneurs can also be applied for but only about 1,000 are issued a year. Cachet The coalition government announced the changes as part of its efforts to reduce net migration, and limit the numbers of bogus applications as well as those overstaying their visas, but many here believe it is deterring genuine, and talented students. "It does affect everybody's decision, because once you're done with your course you want to look for a job in the country and settle for a bit. It's a good opportunity for every student to do that," says 21-year old Sasha Miranda, a fashion design student, who hopes to study in the USA or Canada. "If you can't, it's like you're going for a course and just coming back." She says the new rules do "make you feel unwelcome - that's why I prefer the US". The numbers seem to suggest that the changes are making an impact. Figures from the Higher Education Standards Authority (HESA) from January 2013, show that the number of Indians studying in the UK has fallen in the past academic year, down by some 24% (while the numbers coming from China have risen by almost one fifth). A large number of educated and aspirational middle class Indian families still choose to send their children overseas for studies as the quality and standard of graduate and post graduate education (aside from engineering institutions) is still considered very limited in the country. Research from the International Institute of Education showed that Indians were the second most mobile students in the world, after China. 'Stupid decision' A 2012 report from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore suggested that the number of Indian students choosing to go abroad rose by 256% between 2000 and 2009 from 53,266 to 189,629. The cachet attached to studying overseas means many families spend years saving to be able to do so as the opportunity to work in their host country afterwards offers one way to recoup some of the fees. That was a calculation for 24-year old Jonathan Fernandes, who hopes to study computer gaming overseas. "The UK was never a proper option for me because everything is so expensive there and everything is going to be difficult for me later on because I am funding it through my parents, so I'd prefer Canada." He repeats a sentiment many students at the fair share, that it "doesn't make sense" to return to India immediately after studies, that part of the package when it comes to studying abroad is a person's ability to gain international work experience to add to their skillset. "It's a stupid decision, they should trust people a little more, not everyone is going to fool around, we go to build our lives and our career." 'Reassurance needed' The UK is still an attractive destination for many Indian students, and the reputation of its educational institutions still holds strong among visitors to the fair. Changing immigration trends may be a driver for the visa changes, but they are also one reason 24-year old Bhavin Chauah, still sees the UK as a top destination. "As an Indian I'll get the back-up and support from other Indians living in the UK," he says. "It makes you feel more homely." "Going to the UK has always been an agenda," says 22-year-old Rumela Basu, who hopes to pursue postgraduate journalism studies in Britain. "The visa system does weigh on your mind a little bit...but for me personally, it's also about an experience and an exposure, but we look forward to changes which will help us work there for a while," she says optimistically. Ajay Sukhwani, a director of Edwise, says the UK remains a popular destination but that interest has taken "a fair hit" because of the visa changes. "The government needs to take steps which reassures international students and give them a reasonable window to work or intern along with getting a degree," he says. David Cameron will be travelling with a delegation of university officials when he lands in India next week. The message to him from this career fair, at least, is to make changes which will allow more people to seek work in the UK - for many here, studying abroad is about far more than just collecting a degree certificate.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-16243450

Travel advice over Christmas and New Year in London

The London transport network will be running a reduced service over the nine-day Christmas and New Year period so here is a guide to what is running and when.

Transport for London (TfL) has produced a detailed leaflet outlining how its Tube, bus, tram and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) services will be running between 24 December and 2 January 2012. All times are GMT. Congestion Charge You do not have to pay the Congestion Charge from Saturday 24 December until Monday 2 January 2012 inclusive. Roads Red routes, yellow box junctions, bus lanes, banned turns and loading bays are enforced at all times, including the entire Christmas and New Year period. For live updates on how traffic is moving on the roads over the holiday period click here. Christmas Eve Tube Tube services will run a normal Saturday service on Christmas Eve until 1900 and then adopt a Sunday service. Some stations, however, will be closed. Buses A normal Saturday service will operate with the following exceptions: There will be no night buses. On 24-hour routes, buses will operate until just after midnight. DLR Buses will replace trains between Bank/Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. Other routes will operate a modified Saturday service with last trains at Sunday times. London Overground A Saturday service will operate with last trains departing at about 2130 (2030 on the Stratford-Richmond/Clapham Junction route). London Tramlink A Saturday service will operate, but from 2000, the frequency on line three will be reduced to every 20 minutes and the frequency on lines one and two will be reduced to every 25 minutes. River No services but there are some exceptions. Check here Christmas Day No services will be running on London Transport. 26 December (Boxing Day) Tube The ASLEF union has called a Tube strike which will lead to disruption across the network with reduced services and some stations will be closed. Check here for details. Buses From about 0830 a Sunday service will operate on all routes. Additionally, on routes 81, 90, 105, 111, 140, 203, 222, 285, 350, 423, 482, 490, A10, H25, H26, U3 and X26 a Sunday service will operate from about 0530 in order to serve Heathrow Airport. There will be no service on route 84. DLR Buses will replace trains between Bank/Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. On other routes, trains will run every 15 minutes between about 0830 and 2330. London Overground No service. London Tramlink A Sunday service will operate with the frequency increased between Wimbledon and East Croydon to every 7-8 minutes between 1000 and 1700. River No services except: Westminster - London Eye - Tower - Greenwich: normal service (Operator: City Cruises). National Rail No train service except Gatwick Express and Stansted Express. Buses will replace Heathrow Express. For full National Rail information click here. 27 December (Bank Holiday) Tube A Saturday service will operate on all lines except where there are station closures or engineering works. For detailed information click here. Buses A Sunday service will operate on day routes except on the following routes which will operate a Saturday service: 327, 346, 347, 352, 354, 359, 375, 377, 383, 385, 389, 398, 399, 404, 424, 434, 467, 470, 481, 485, 549, B12, H3, K4, K5, R2, R5, R7, R8, R10, S3, S4, U10, W10. A Tuesday night service will operate on all 24-hour and night bus routes. DLR Buses will replace trains between Bank/Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. Other routes will operate a modified Saturday service. London Overground A Saturday service will operate. London Tramlink A Sunday service will operate but with additional trams from 1000 until 1700 to provide a 7-8 minute frequency between Wimbledon and East Croydon. River Normal services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes between about 0920 and 2400. Hilton Docklands - Canary Wharf Ferry: no service. St. George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0920 and 2020. (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers) Putney - Blackfriars: no service. Woolwich Free Ferry: one boat service. (Operator: Serco Ltd.) National Rail For information about changes to services, visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas 28 December Tube A Saturday service on lines that are running. For station and line closures click here. Buses A Saturday service will operate with the following exceptions: Route X68 will operate a normal Monday to Friday service. On routes 507 and 521, a reduced Monday to Friday service will operate. There will be no service on route 603. Routes 941 and 953 will operate a normal Wednesday service. A Wednesday night service will operate on all 24 hour and night bus routes. DLR Buses will replace trains between Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. The bus service will not serve Bank. Other routes will operate a modified Monday to Friday service. London Overground A Saturday service will operate. London Tramlink A Saturday service will operate. River Normal services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes between about 0620 and 2400. St George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0700 and 2015. (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers). Woolwich Free Ferry: one boat service. (Operator: Serco Ltd). Putney - Blackfriars: no service. National Rail For information about changes to services, visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas 29 December Tube A Saturday service will operate on all lines with exceptions. For station and line closures click here. Buses A Saturday service will operate with the following exceptions: Route X68 will operate a normal Monday to Friday service. On routes 507 and 521, a reduced Monday to Friday service will operate. There will be no service on route 603. A Thursday night service will operate on 24-hour and night bus routes. DLR Buses will replace trains between Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. The bus service will not serve Bank. Other routes will operate a modified Monday to Friday service. London Overground A Saturday service will operate. London Tramlink A Saturday service will operate. River Normal services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes between about 0620 and 2400. St. George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0700 and 2015 (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers). Woolwich Free Ferry: one boat service (Operator: Serco Ltd). Putney - Blackfriars: no service. National Rail For information about changes to services, visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas 30 December Tube A Saturday service will operate but click here for station and line closures due to engineering works. Buses A Saturday service will operate with the following exceptions: Route X68 will operate a normal Monday to Friday service. On routes 507 and 521, a reduced Monday to Friday service will operate. There will be no service on route 603. Routes 931, 965 and 969 will operate a normal Friday service. A Friday night service will operate on 24 hour and night bus routes. DLR Buses will replace trains between Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. The bus service will not serve Bank. Other routes will operate a modified Monday to Friday service. London Overground A Saturday service will operate. London Tramlink A Saturday service will operate. River Normal services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes between about 0620 and 2400. St. George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0700 and 2015 (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers). Woolwich Free Ferry: one boat service (Operator: Serco Ltd). Putney - Blackfriars: no service. National Rail For information about changes to services, visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas New Year's Eve Tube, DLR, tram and selected National Rail services in Greater London will run all night on New Year's Eve. Night and 24 hour bus routes will run as normal, but there will be a reduction in bus services leaving central London from around 1700 to around 0300, because of road closures. There will be free travel on all journeys between 2345 and 0430 on the Tube, DLR, buses and trams. Free travel will apply on London Overground trains running after 2345 until last train times. Tube For Tube station closures due to engineering works click here. Buses A Saturday service for buses will operate but for specific route changes and disruptions on New Year's Eve click here. DLR Buses will replace trains between Bank/Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. A modified Saturday service will operate on other routes, reducing to every 15 minutes overnight after 0100. London Overground A Saturday service will operate finishing at normal last train times, except on the Highbury & Islington - West Croydon route where trains will run every 15 minutes until 0139 from West Croydon and 0220 from Highbury & Islington. Last trains to/from New Cross and Crystal Palace will be at normal Saturday times. London Tramlink A Saturday service will operate. River Normal services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes from about 0920. London Eye not served after 1500. Last boat from Embankment at 1920. St. George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0920 and 2020 (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers). Woolwich Free Ferry: one boat service (Operator: Serco Ltd). National Rail Services on most routes will operate to modified timetables. Some routes will have additional late night departures and a limited number of routes will operate until about 0500. Normal fares will apply on most routes so customers must have a valid ticket to travel. Check your last train times before you travel and visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas New Year's Day Tube A reduced service will operate between 0500 and 1100, every 15-20 minutes in the central area and every 30 minutes on the branches. For the rest of the day a reduced service will operate with last trains at Sunday times. For station and line closures click here. Buses A normal Sunday service will operate on day routes and a normal Sunday night service will operate on all 24-hour and night bus routes. DLR Buses will replace trains between Bank/Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. On other routes, trains will operate every 15 minutes until 1200 and then every 10 minutes until about 2330. London Overground A normal Sunday service will operate. At Clapham Junction, trains will run from platform 17 with a slight change to train times. London Tramlink A normal Sunday service will operate following on from the overnight service. River No services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes between about 0920 and 2400. Hilton Docklands - Canary Wharf Ferry: will run between 0900 and 2200. St. George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0920 and 2020 (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers) Westminster - London Eye - Tower - Greenwich: normal service (Operator: City Cruises). National Rail For information about changes to services, visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas 2 January (Bank Holiday) Tube A Saturday service will operate on all lines except the following: Circle and District lines: Blackfriars and Cannon Street will be closed. Waterloo & City line: no service. Buses A Sunday service will operate on day routes with the following exception: Route 965 will operate a normal Monday service. A Monday night service will operate on all 24-hour and night bus routes. DLR Buses will replace trains between Bank/Tower Gateway and Poplar/West India Quay. Other routes will operate a modified Saturday service. London Overground A Saturday service will operate. At Clapham Junction, trains will run from platform 17 with a slight change to train times. London Tramlink A Sunday service will operate. River Normal services except: Embankment/London Eye - Woolwich: every 30 minutes between about 0920 and 2400. Hilton Docklands - Canary Wharf Ferry: will run between 0900 and 2200. St. George Wharf (Vauxhall) - Bankside: every 60 minutes between about 0920 and 2020 (Operator: KPMG Thames Clippers) Putney - Blackfriars: no service National Rail For information about changes to services, visit www.nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas Cycle hire To find out which Barclays Cycle Hire docking stations will be in use over Christmas and New Year, view TfL's docking station status page.

newsbeat-12632495

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-12632495

Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes join Glastonbury line-up

Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes have been added to the line-up for this year's Glastonbury Festival.

The two bands join headliners U2, Coldplay and Beyonce at Worthy Farm between 24-26 June. An extra 12 bands have been announced for the three-day festival including The Chemical Brothers, Crystal Castles, Primal Scream and Friendly Fires. Tickets for this year's event sold out in around four hours after going on sale in October.

uk-52499577

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52499577

Coronavirus: 'I run lockdown marathons in the dead of night'

Lockdown guidance on exercising for people in England will loosen on Wednesday. But Colin Johnstone is among those runners who have not allowed their strict exercise regimes to slip, even if it means going out in the middle of the night.

By Alice EvansBBC News At 02:00, Colin's phone alarm clock rings out to mark the start of his day. The 46-year-old warehouse worker slips into a pair of shorts, a vest, and a bright orange beanie, and grabs his head torch from the dining room table. He wolfs down a slice of toast and a bowl of porridge, before sharing a Snickers bar with his twin Keith, who he lives with. The brothers pull on their trainers - and then run a marathon on the quiet, locked-down, streets of south Leeds. "Running in the middle of the night, it's not ideal," Colin says over the phone, after covering 26.2 miles (42.2km) at night for the fourth time in a month. But he agrees the coronavirus pandemic is "not ideal" either. He takes social distancing "really seriously" and night-time pavement-pounding during lockdown is, he says, "the easiest way to do it". Since 23 March, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced restrictions on our daily lives to tackle the virus, the brothers noticed how difficult it was to keep the proscribed 2m away from other people out for walks and runs. Colin's sessions started earlier and earlier as he tried to avoid the throngs of people exercising before starting work. For the past few weeks, he has been going to bed at 19:00 in order to go out running at about 03:00. "Most people think I'm crackers," says Colin, who covers more than 15 miles per run on average. But Keith, his regular training partner, agreed to the dramatic departure from their normal schedule. "Running sets me up on a morning - it's the perfect way to start the day," Keith says. The twins wear bright clothes and carry torches and mobile phones to help them stay safe - but some say their night-time outings are pushing the rules. The guidance on exercise, in England, is set to change on Wednesday, having done so already in Scotland and Wales. Until then, it remains that people should only leave their home for one form of exercise a day. How long can each session be? Shortly after lockdown began, cabinet member Michael Gove said a 30-minute run would be appropriate for most people, but that "it depends on each individual's fitness". What is acceptable? Gemma Lee, an associate at Gepp solicitors in Essex, says a "level of detail has been missing" in the guidance, thus far. But "anyone exercising for three or four hours is pushing it to the absolute maximum". She adds that the changes in guidance mean people like Colin and Keith can now run as much as they like. The twins are adamant that night-time running allows them to avoid social contact more successfully than if they ran shorter runs during the day. "I know that both me and Col are decent people and have done nothing wrong," Keith says. "I try to go somewhere quiet, I do a bit along the canal, a bit round the streets," Colin says after finishing his most recent three-and-a-half hour marathon. "But if I did that same route in the day, it would be absolutely rammed. So the way that I'm doing it, that's perfect." "If they changed the laws and they said you have to completely stop, it would break my heart but obviously I'd do it," he adds. 'I miss the banter' The daily time limits suggested by Mr Gove have been interpreted by some runners as allowing for longer runs. Martin from Brentwood, Essex, who is training for the London Marathon, which has been postponed until October, says: "I try to think of the week as a seven-hour total allowance and stay in on rest days to make sure that I stay within the government guidance." The 34-year-old director of an engineering company says he enjoys elements of running during lockdown. "You often get a nod, 'thank you' [or] 'hello' as each of you make adjustments to keep a distance. There is definitely a greater sense of community," he says. But he misses his local training group. While group members stay in touch via WhatsApp and the fitness tracker site, Strava, Martin says he does miss "the banter and competitive edge of training with others". Joseph Osakue from Newham, east London, ran a marathon on 4 April to coincide with the day he would have been taking part in the Paris Marathon, and has continued to run about 40 miles (64km) per week throughout lockdown. The 48-year-old London Underground driver says he has been "very lucky" as social distancing guidance has not impacted his training "at all". "I work around 9 to 5 every day. So I've always run at 6am and sometimes even 4am, depending on the distance," he says. Pavement pounding vs treadmill torment Alice Jeffries, 25, says a "very good" coincidence meant she and her boyfriend, Ryan Blackburn, had bought a treadmill for their home in Waterlooville, Hampshire, just days before the lockdown began. On the day she should have been running the London Marathon, Alice ran the 26.2 miles on her treadmill instead. Alice, who works for a construction company but has been furloughed due to the epidemic, says running a marathon on roads would have been easier. "The change of scenery keeps you going so, as hard as it is, you've got something new to look at. Whereas on the treadmill… it seems like forever," she says. While the treadmill feels softer on her joints, "mentally it's so much harder because you're just in the same place". Benefits 'outweigh risks' Dr Jess Harvey says people should take the opportunity to leave the house every day, even if they are able to exercise at home. The Shropshire GP, who has competed in international triathlon events, uses an indoor bike to keep fit at home but says: "I'll still go out for a walk or something even though I've had my exercise, because actually leaving your house is so important right now." For those who are using lockdown to increase fitness, Dr Harvey stresses the importance of nutrition to support the immune system and help the body to cope with the stress of exercise. She adds that people must make an "individual assessment of risk" when leaving the house, but adds: "Actually the benefits of going outside to exercise vastly outweigh the risks." Alice says she would not have considered running the marathon away from home, due to guidance to minimise time spent in public places. She adds she would not follow Colin and Keith's early morning schedule, either. "I wouldn't be able to get myself out of bed in the middle of the night to go and do that! But if you're not coming into contact with people then I don't think it's a problem." The twins say they will keep running at night despite the PM's relaxation of the rules. "It's still very important to distance ourselves from others," Colin says. "I'll just keep doing what I know is right... Some might say I'm a hypocrite, but this is nonsense. It's better to run a sensible 20 miles plus than a reckless short distance. I think times are really hard, they're hard enough as it is at the minute. So I'm just trying to get my run in."

uk-wales-55293993

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55293993

One dead and three injured in Powys crash

One person has died and three other people have been taken to hospital after a two-car crash in Powys.

The crash happened on the A44 at Walton near Presteigne at about 17:30 GMT on Saturday. Emergency services said one person was pronounced dead at the scene and three others were taken to Hereford County Hospital with injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening. The road was closed for several hours for accident investigation work.

uk-34238479

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34238479

Jeremy Corbyn: What the media say about Labour's new leader

The appointment of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour's new leader has generated plenty of headlines and column inches since he was elected to the job on Saturday.

By Mario CacciottoloBBC News Many journalists and commentators have been filling newspapers, magazines and web pages with their assessment of just what this means for the party. So here is a round-up of some of the media's reaction to the former backbencher's propulsion into the limelight. Two roads for Labour Janet Daley, writing in the Telegraph, says Mr Corbyn's election victory was "not a good result for the Left". "The best possible outcome for the Corbynistas would have been for their man to have been defeated by a small margin. Then he could have become the Great Lost Leader, the martyred saint who might have led his people to their true destination had he not been cheated by a cabal of…Well, you get the picture. "As it is, one of two things will happen. Either the Parliamentary Labour Party will go momentarily quiescent while it regroups, refusing co-operation and advice to the leadership clique. "Or else the Corbyn crew will be brought down within months by a Labour assassination squad. This will result in a decade of division within the party - but the hard Left will be particularly scarred by the viciousness of its fight to the death." 'Poorest and richest' The Observer says there is "much evidence to suggest voters will resoundingly reject Corbynism in its current form if he makes it to the next election". "History and common sense suggest that Labour only wins when voters feel they can trust the party to run the economy and to be a guardian of public spending. "New polling published by Lord Ashcroft last week reinforces what poll after poll has suggested since the May election: voters deserted Labour for the Conservatives in 2015 because they had serious doubts about Ed Miliband and they feared a Labour government would spend and borrow too much. "Labour has a message for the poorest, and the richest, but nothing to say to the rest of the country." Shaking up British politics The Independent says Jeremy Corbyn's win "shows there is an appetite for change in British politics". "He has interesting ideas for changing the way Parliament does its business. He has suggested that other members of the shadow cabinet should take turns asking questions of the prime minister in the House of Commons. "He is not the first to promise a "new politics" or to want to end the Punch and Judy of Prime Minister's Questions, but perhaps he will be the first to succeed. "It is not as if our political system is so perfect that it could not do with shaking up." Labour shaping Tory futures? James Forsyth, writing in the Spectator, says Mr Corbyn's victory will change the dynamics of the next Tory leadership election - which he claims can be expected in about three years. "Until recently, Boris Johnson's supporters argued that the Tories needed something extra for the party to win outright. Boris, who had won twice in a Labour city and had the appeal of a celebrity as well as a politician, appeared to be that something. "But with Corbyn as Labour leader it appears that anyone sensible can beat Labour. It is no coincidence that in the past few weeks, the odds on George Osborne's leadership chances have been shortening almost as fast as Corbyn's. "The chancellor is now, for the first time, the bookmakers' favourite." Global reaction The New York Times says Mr Corbyn's success "underlines the extent to which European political structures have been destabilized by the aftershocks of the financial crisis in 2008, with voters increasingly attracted away from the political center ground, either to the socialist left or the nationalist right". There's plenty of doom and gloom from the Sydney Morning Herald, which says: "British Labour has now selected the wrong leader twice. First, they chose Ed Miliband over his brother David in 2010. By choosing Ed the party lurched to the left and lost the 2015 election, which the more centrist David could well have won. Now they have responded to this awful result by electing Corbyn. Expect the result in the 2020 general election to be the same as last time, if not worse." The Hindu says that while Mr Corbyn did not detail any foreign policy during his campaign, "the newly elected leader of the Labour Party has, in his long career in politics, been associated with international movements for peace, against war and nuclear militarisation, and for human rights". And Andrew Hammond, writing in the Gulf News, says Mr Corbyn's win "represents a political earthquake in the Westminster establishment. The aftershocks will continue for weeks to come as he seeks to move the centre of gravity of UK politics in a leftward direction". Meanwhile, Andrew McFadyen delves into sporting history in his piece for Al Jazeera. "Jeremy Corbyn winning the Labour leadership is like Aberdeen beating Real Madrid in a European final. It really happened, but you have to pinch yourself to believe it is true," he says. 'Sticking to his principles' In the New Statesman, Laurie Penny says the argument that Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable is being made by "three candidates who can't even win an election against Jeremy Corbyn. "Their arguments are backed by two former prime ministers: Gordon Brown, whose main claim to fame is losing an election to the Tories in 2010, and Tony Blair, the Ghost of Bad Decisions Past. "Corbyn, however, has been re-elected by the people of Islington North consistently since 1983 and, like Bernie Sanders in the US, seems as surprised as anyone to suddenly be reaping the rewards of a lifetime of sticking to his principles - principles that once put Corbyn on the moderate left of Labour and now make him look, at least in the estimation of much of the press, like the nightmare offspring of Che Guevara and Emma Goldman dressed up in a Stalin costume. "And all for proposing a modest increase in the top rate of income tax." Corbyn's win 'changes Britain' Jeremy Corbyn's "triumph", says the Morning Star, is cause for celebration "for everyone who fights for a better world". "Corbyn's mandate to lead the Labour Party is unshakeable. "And the enthusiasm he inspires wherever he goes — packing out halls at rallies in every corner of Britain over the past few months — shows that he is far and away the most popular politician in Britain today. "His win is a tremendous step forward for the party and the movement. In itself, it changes Britain for the better. "It means the government will not be able to pursue its attacks on our public services, rights at work and living standards without encountering principled opposition on every front." Lessons from history Gordon Brown's former aide Damian McBride writes in the Mail on Sunday that Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, may be the "best thing since Clement Attlee". "The last Labour leader to represent an inner London seat, indeed the last leader of any major party to do so, was in his 60s by the time he became Prime Minister. He was unfashionable, disdainful of the media and he stood on a platform that promoted peace and investment in public services and housing, even with the country facing massive debts. "Clement Attlee went on to be Labour's greatest Prime Minister. And while few may believe that Jeremy Corbyn can follow in his footsteps as he slips into the leader's shoes today, one thing is for sure: He comes from the right place." Danger of Labour's 'slide into history' Labour grandee Peter Mandelson writes in the Sunday Times that there may not be an "immediate, dramatic collapse" of support following Mr Corbyn's appointment. "Many voters may even be attracted initially by Corbyn's populism and anti-Establishment pitch. But that is not the same as deciding he should be Britain's next prime minister. "The danger is that Labour simply decides to muddle through, resigning ourselves to our fate rather than doing anything big enough to alter it. Miliband's failed '35% strategy' would seem ambitious in comparison and we would quietly slide into history." Elementary role for Watson? Professor Charles Lees, who is professor of politics at the University of Bath, writes in the Huffington Post that the most intriguing aspect of the Labour leadership outcome is how the new deputy Tom Watson play his role. "Watson is a party insider insider and - many would argue - a bit of a political thug. He has the power to either make Corbyn's task harder than it needs to be or to bring the party machine behind him in the name of unity. "And if, in a few years time, it is clear that Corbyn is leading Labour to disaster, I wonder what role Watson will play as Corbyn's opponents try to remember where they buried the political hatchets?" New leader's ideas 'cartoonish' The Sun on Sunday's leader comment says Mr Corbyn's appointment is "hard to believe". "Yet his blunt Marxism appeals to Leftie voters sick of appealing to the 'centre'. His cartoonish policies seem new to the young and naive only because they weren't born the last time anyone was foolish enough to spout them. "His policies would be catastrophic: leaving Nato, printing money and causing rampant inflation, downgrading our forces to a home guard, re-opening mines and so on. "He began yesterday as he means to go on, with deranged attacks on the media, whom the Left always blame for their election defeats." 'Wow' factor reviving Labour Kevin Maguire has an enthusiastic piece in the Mirror, saying Mr Corbyn's win was "sensational, stunning, seismic, stupendous - pick any superlative you like". "Jez he Did. Easily. With a thumping majority on the first round. The result wasn't even close. Corbyn walked it. Wow! "Corbyn's message of hope and optimism energised and excited Labour, reviving the party by dragging it from its knees after a crushing election defeat. "Now its most Left-wing leader in recent times deserves his chance to succeed."

world-europe-34832512

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34832512

Paris attacks: Who were the attackers?

French officials investigating the deadly Paris attacks on 13 November have identified most of the people they believe to have carried out the assaults, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

The attacks are suspected to have been masterminded by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis, northern Paris, a few days later. Another key figure - Salah Abdeslam - was arrested on 18 March after going on the run. Mohamed Abrini, another suspect believed to have links to the Paris attack, was arrested in Brussels on 8 April. This is what we know about the suspects, and what the authorities have accused them of doing. Salah Abdeslam The 26-year-old French national, who was born in Brussels, was wounded and arrested during a police raid in the Molenbeek area of the city on 18 March. Police had been hunting him since the 13 November attacks, warning members of the public not to approach him. On 15 March, Abdeslam's fingerprints were found in a flat in the southern Brussels district of Forest. Belgian prosecutors told the BBC at the time that it was not clear when he had been there, because the fingerprints could not be dated. On 10 December police found one of his fingerprints, traces of TATP (acetone peroxide) explosives and three handmade belts - apparently for explosives - in an apartment in the city's Schaerbeek district. The apartment had been rented in a false name. It is thought that the Belgians among the suicide attackers picked up their belts there before going to Paris. Salah Abdeslam is thought to have returned immediately after the attacks. He is believed to have rented a VW Polo car in Belgium, which was later found near the Bataclan concert hall where 89 people were killed. But he also rented a Renault Clio and reserved two hotel rooms outside Paris before the attacks. His precise role in the attacks themselves is unclear, although his brother Brahim blew himself up. Investigators believe Salah Abdeslam may have driven the three bombers who attacked the Stade de France to their destination and may have been given the job of an attack a short distance south, in the 18th district. That attack never happened. Hours after the 13 November attacks, Salah Abdeslam was in a VW Golf with two other men near the Belgian border when they were stopped at least once by police. They were allowed to drive on after checks. It is unclear whether French authorities had matched Abdeslam's name to the car found at the Bataclan by the time he was stopped. As the search for Salah Abdeslam intensified in Belgium, Brussels went into lockdown and his brother, Mohamed, appealed for him to give himself up. Salah Abdeslam's past is littered with convictions for petty crime. Belgian prosecutors said they had questioned him and his brother Brahim earlier in 2015. Some reports have said he spent time in prison for robbery where he met suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud. He had earlier been sacked as a technician on the Brussels tram system, for missing work. Dutch police said they had detained Salah Abdeslam briefly in February, fining him €70 (£49) for possession of cannabis. On 27 April 2016, he was extradited to France, where he faces charges in connection with the Paris attacks - participation in terrorist murder and the activities of a terrorist organisation. He has also been charged in Belgium over a shoot-out in Brussels on 15 March 2016, in which four police were wounded. Paris attacks suspect's 'hideout found' Bar and restaurant attacks Brahim Abdeslam Salah Abdeslam's brother died after he set off his explosives-laden suicide belt near a Paris cafe on Boulevard Voltaire, investigators say. The 31-year-old had rented a Seat car which was found the day after the attacks at Montreuil, to the east of Paris. He had earlier appeared in several Belgian police files alongside Abdelhamid Abaaoud. The documents relate to criminal cases in 2010 and 2011. "Investigators see a link with Verviers," Belgium's De Standaard newspaper reported, referring to a Belgian town where police shot dead two militants in January and broke up a cell aiming to kill Belgian police officers, days after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. Earlier in 2015, Brahim Abdeslam had travelled to Turkey, intending to go on to Syria, but Turkish authorities deported him back to Brussels, Belgian judicial officials told Le Soir newspaper. The report said he had been questioned on his return to Belgium and then released. Both Brahim Abdeslam and Abaaoud lived in Molenbeek, a rundown district of Brussels with a substantial Muslim population, which is described by some Belgian officials as a "breeding ground for jihadists". Friends and neighbours who spoke to the BBC's Newsnight team said that in October 2014, Brahim Abdeslam saved five children from a burning building. "I'm grateful to Brahim for saving my children, but I can't understand what he did in Paris," the children's father said. Brahim owned a bar in Molenbeek which some reports say was managed by his brother Salah. People who knew them there have said both men drank alcohol and smoked drugs. "We're still in shock," said Youssef, a local man. "They were friends of ours, big smokers, big drinkers, but not radicals." "On Fridays, they would stay smoking on the terrace. I never saw them at the mosque," said Karim, 27, who lives in a flat above the bar. Another man, Jamal, said: "Their lives were the same as all young people: they liked football, going clubbing, coming back with girls." A police report obtained by AFP suggests the bar was shut down in early November because police believed customers were smoking marijuana there. Abdelhamid Abaaoud Who was Abdelhamid Abaaoud? Abaaoud, 28, is described as the suspected ringleader in the Paris attacks. He died in a long gun battle with police, who raided a flat in Saint-Denis on 18 November. Investigators believe he was involved in the bar and restaurant killings. His fingerprints were found on a Kalashnikov left in the Seat car abandoned in Montreuil. He grew up in the Brussels district of Molenbeek and was an associate of Salah Abdeslam. Implicated in four out of six foiled attacks this year, he was believed to have joined militant group IS in 2013. Belgian police believe he had been in Athens, directing a militant cell in Verviers in eastern Belgium when it was raided by security forces in mid-January 2015. Although Greek authorities were following him, he managed to evade a police raid, a BBC investigation has found. He had also been in contact with Mehdi Nemmouche, accused of shooting dead four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014. Abaaoud's father had become aware in the past month of his son's links to terrorism and believed he had become a psychopath, according to lawyer Nathalie Gallant. Chakib Akrouh Chakib Akrouh blew himself up using a suicide vest during the police raid on the flat in Saint-Denis. He is thought to have been the third man involved in the bar and restaurant attacks that left 39 people dead as his DNA was found in the Seat car in which the three killers were driven. Akrouh, 25, was born and raised in Belgium, of Belgian-Moroccan descent. He travelled to Syria in 2013 and was given a five-year jail sentence in absentia while he was there. He was killed in the Saint-Denis explosion and it took police eight weeks to identify his remains, by matching his mother's DNA. Bataclan concert hall attack Omar Ismail Mostefai The 29-year-old French national of Algerian descent blew himself up after the massacre at the Bataclan, eight days before his 30th birthday. He was identified from a fingertip, found in the concert hall where 89 people were killed. Born in the poor Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, he was known to police as a petty criminal - getting eight convictions between 2004 and 2010 but spending no time in jail. Between 2005 and 2012, he lived in Chartres, near Paris, where he reportedly worked as a baker and played football with fellow employees. He attended a mosque with his father. A local Islamic association leader said he showed no signs of being an extremist. Other residents said the family was "very nice". In 2010, however, he was identified by the French authorities as a suspected Islamic radical and his details were entered in a database. Since then Omar Mostefai appears to have been able to travel to Syria; he may have also spent time in Algeria. A senior Turkish official confirmed to the BBC that Omar Mostefai entered Turkey in 2013 and there was no record of him leaving the country. The official - who spoke on the condition of anonymity - said that in October 2014 Turkey had received an information request regarding four terror suspects from the French authorities. During the official investigation, he said, Turkish authorities identified a fifth individual - Mostefai - and notified their French counterparts twice, in December 2014 and June 2015. "We have, however, not heard back from France on the matter," the official said. He added that it was only after the Paris attacks that the Turkish authorities received an information request about Omar Ismail Mostefai from France. Samy Amimour The 28-year-old was another of the suicide bombers who blew himself up at the Bataclan. The Frenchman, who lived in the north-eastern Paris suburb of Drancy, had been known to French intelligence services. He was charged with terror offences in 2012 over claims he had planned to go to Yemen. He was placed under judicial supervision but then dropped off the radar, prompting the authorities to issue an international arrest warrant. In 2014, Le Monde newspaper published an account of the journey (in French) of a 67-year-old Parisian man to Syria, in the hope of persuading his son to leave IS and return to France. Pseudonyms were used in the article but it has since been updated to reveal that the son in question was Amimour. His son refused to leave and the father returned home without him. French media have pointed out that evidently he was able to slip back into France prior to the attacks, despite the arrest warrant. Three of Amimour's relatives were reportedly arrested after Friday's attacks. Foued Mohamed-Aggad It took more than three weeks for French authorities to identify the third Bataclan bomber. DNA from Foued Mohamed-Aggad's Moroccan-born mother in Strasbourg was used to confirm his role in the concert hall massacre. The 23-year-old was initially lured to Syria by one of France's most infamous jihadist recruiters Mourad Fares, French media report. He went with his older brother Karim at the end of 2013 and eight other young men from the Meinau district of Strasbourg. But seven of the group returned from Syria within months when two of them were killed. Only Foued Mohamed-Aggad remained, until he eventually came home to take part in the Paris attacks. 'Ahmad al-Mohammad' This man was the first of three to blow himself up at Stade de France stadium. At the scene a Syrian passport was found which bore this name, suggesting the man was a 25-year-old from the Syrian city of Idlib, but authorities believe this passport was a fake. A report in a Serbian newspaper, Blic, said a passport bearing the same name and data - but a different image - had been found on another migrant, suggesting both men bought fake documents from the same counterfeiter. The Paris prosecutor's office said fingerprints from the dead attacker matched those of a person who came to Europe with migrants via the Greek island of Leros. The man may have been posing as a Syrian refugee. Records from Leros suggested he arrived on 3 October and was fingerprinted and photographed. An official there remembers the man arriving, and told the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse that something did not feel right about him - he kept himself to himself. He said he would have highlighted his concerns to an intelligence officer, had one been there. Leros authorities say they simply do not have the resources to screen all the migrants effectively - or even check whether passports are genuine. Bilal Hadfi The 20-year-old has been named as one of the attackers who died at Stade de France. He had tried to get into the stadium while France were playing Germany but was denied entry and blew himself up in the nearby rue de la Cokerie. The French national had been living at Neder-over-Hembeek in Belgium. Belgian media say he was radicalised early in 2014. Belgian prosecutors have said they were aware he had gone to fight with IS in Syria but did not know he had returned. 'M al-Mahmod' The picture of the third suicide bomber at the Stade de France has been issued by French police. He has been named by the BBC as M al-Mahmod. He blew himself up in front of one of the entrances to the stadium, in rue Rimet. He entered the Greek island of Leros on 3 October, travelling with Ahmad al-Mohammed. French police have not yet named him, but the BBC's Ed Thomas matched the image released by the authorities with a photo on arrival papers at Leros. Our correspondent says the two men bought ferry tickets to leave Leros to continue their journey through Europe with Syrian refugees. Other suspects Saint-Denis Hasna Aitboulahcen, a cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, died with him in the gun battle at the Saint-Denis flat. The daughter of Moroccan immigrants, Aitboulahcen was tracked by police who tapped her phone after 13 November, and she was seen leading Abaaoud into the flat hours before the police raid. Read more: Who was Hasna Aitboulahcen? She had become radicalised only in recent months and was thought to have had a brief conversation with police before she died. A policeman shouted out "Where is your boyfriend?" to which she responded, "He's not my boyfriend". Initial reports indicated she had blown herself up, but police later said it was a man that had done so. He has not been identified but there are some suggestions that he may have taken part in the attacks on bars and restaurants in the 10th and 11th districts of Paris with Abaaoud and Brahim Abdeslam. Jawad Bendaoud Jawad Bendaoud, 29, was arrested during the Saint-Denis raid and is said to have rented the flat to Abaaoud and Hasna Aitboulahcen. He told French media before he was questioned by police that a friend had asked him to look after "two mates who were coming from Belgium". "I said there was no mattress but they told me it's not a big deal. They just wanted water and to pray," he said. A girlfriend, Hayet, who was with Jawad Bendaoud on the night of the 13 November attacks told French TV that he suddenly realised he was in trouble. What happened in the days before the raid is unclear but she believes her friend had seen the state of the flat and was "aware of what was going on". Mr Bendaoud has been in trouble with the police before and has served time in prison. Belgian connection Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attouh, who is 21, were arrested in Belgium and admitted picking up Salah Abdeslam in France and driving him back to Brussels immediately after the attacks. In the early hours of 14 November the pair received a phone call from Salah Abdeslam, who said his car had broken down. They insisted no mention was made of the attacks carried out in Paris a few hours earlier, although Hamza Attouh said he was wearing thick clothing and may have been preparing to blow himself up. They gave conflicting versions of where in Brussels they had dropped him off. Abraimi Lazez, 39, was arrested in the Belgian town of Laeken, in a car where two guns and traces of blood were found. He is also suspected of helping Salah Abdeslam flee France. A French national, named by police as Ali O, has been accused by Belgian authorities of taking part in the actions of a terrorist group and a terrorist attack. Police believe he may also have driven Salah at one point. Two days before the 13 November attacks took place, Salah was spotted in the Renault Clio used to drop off the Stade de France attackers with another suspect. Belgian police arrested Mohamed Abrini, 29, after the 22 March 2016 Brussels attacks. Belgian prosecutors say he admitted being "the man in the hat" seen with the bombers who attacked the airport. He was already wanted in connection with the Paris attacks after being spotted in a car with Salah Abdeslam when it stopped at a petrol station in Ressons, on the motorway to Paris. Meanwhile Ahmad Dahmani, a 26-year-old Belgian, is being held in Turkey, after flying to the resort of Antalya. He is suspected of involvement in preparations for the Paris attacks. Police in Morocco detained another Belgian in January. Gelel Attar is said to have lived in Molenbeek and had direct links with Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Chakib Akrouh. He was reported to have travelled to Syria with Akrouh in January 2013.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-20836780

Guernsey Gabriel's shops developer aims to revitalise area

The redevelopment of the former Gabriel's shops in St Peter Port will hopefully revitalise the area, one of the developers says.

The six shops in Fountain Street closed in 2007 and were unused until 2010 when work started to turn them into a mix of housing and shops. Mack Gallienne said the buildings' character was being kept. He said he hoped the mix of retail and housing will encourage people back into the area off the main high street.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-29674946

Cat gets stuck in car engine after Evesham vet trip

A cat ended up stuck in the engine compartment of a car when it escaped its owners after a trip to the vet.

The family were leaving De Montfort Veterinary Hospital in Evesham when the mog decided to flee, Hereford and Worcester fire service said. Crews had to dismantle part of a Vauxhall Vectra in the Merstow Green car park to free the cat, called Mousey, at about 10:30 BST. Watch commander Russell Broadbent said the cat was unharmed. "He had been for some injections and I think he managed to get out of the basket on the way to the car," he said. "He went under one car and got into the engine. "I think he was just a little bit agitated."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-39871206

Shed heaven: The workshops turning men's lives around

For some men, retirement is a long-awaited chance to travel the world, hit the golf course, or take up a new hobby. For others, after decades in work, it can be a time of loneliness and isolation.

But across Scotland, a new movement is helping growing numbers of men improve their health and their mood. Men's Sheds have been set up across the country to enable men to come together to pursue practical interests like wood-turning and metalwork. Age Scotland said it was in contact with 101 sheds, ranging from established projects to new initiatives and some linked to other organisations. A new report by the charity outlines the impact the initiative has had on the lives of those who use the sheds. In The Shed Effect, men describe why they first turned to their local shed and how it has changed their lives. Why do people choose to go to the Men's Sheds? Men are often referred to the shed by their wives, said Roy Garland of Carse of Gowrie & District Men's Shed. "They say 'My husband just sits at home all day. I was wondering if I could bring him along to the shed to let him see what you do?' "Needless to say, we always invite them along and it's surprising the amount of men that have been introduced to the shed by their wives." Jack Ferguson retired after undergoing major heart surgery about nine years ago. When he couldn't go back to work, he said he was "down for about a year". He admits he was probably depressed but he was helped by Hamilton Men's Shed. He said: "I don't know what the attraction was but, when I read about the men's shed I thought, 'I think it'd be good...just might be good', you know. "But fae day one I was, 'Yes! This is it. This is what I want'." Tam Dagg took early retirement from his job in Jedburgh after 38 years with the same company. "Then I was sitting around the house, semi-comatose…It was boring, you could say lonely if you can be lonely when you're married," he said. He learned about Hawick Men's Shed from his daughter and finally walked through the door last December. "I was living in Hawick but I had no friends in Hawick. I had been working in Jedburgh for 38 years. Now I'm in the shed nearly every day." What do they do in the Men's Sheds? Trevor Gallon, of The Jed Shed, in Jedburgh, said they share their skills and experience. He said: "Men in the workshop will stand side by side and they'll be taught by somebody next to them who'll go, 'How about trying it this way? I'll do that little bit for you. You do this bit'. "Quite often to be side by side with somebody, learning what it's all about or to be shown by somebody who's made one before and they're passing on a skill to you. "Then, to me, that makes you feel a lot better. It gives you confidence. It gives you abilities that you maybe never had before. You're pushing past your own barriers a little bit." Mike Fairweather, of Carse of Gowrie & District Men's Shed, said: "I think o' things and I lie in bed at night and think o' things. 'What'll I do tomorrow?' "So, I think o' things, and I come down and dae them...started a project maybe at the beginning of the year. I havenae finished it yet. "I cut oot this tree trunk, eight inches wide and I sawed it through by hand, and then I drilled five holes in it, by hand, and it's gonna be a wine rack once it's finished. I've got to keep on the move. "And I think that's the main thing for people my age, you know, or round about my age. If they've nothing to do, get yourself down here and keep movin'." And John Ross, of Gala Men's Shed, helps other men with joinery work. "I'm 73 now - so I've been working a long time, and it's always been with wood," he said. "My father had a joiner's business, and my grandfather had the business before that, so it just goes on and on. My brother was a joiner, and my two nephews, they're joiners. "I get a lot from helping the guys, just seeing them develop, you know, like when they're making something, all of a sudden there's a kinda look on their face and you can see they're enjoying this, and getting a lot from it." Why is it such a success? David Waterton said the informality of the project helps make The Jed Shed work. "You can come when you want to come, you know," he said. "There's no pressure on anybody to come all the time if you've got a day when you don't feel like it, or you've got something else on. "Making it more formal would take a lot away from it. I think the informal thing, a lot of the time, is what the guys like. "That older member is in most days. He just pops in for a cup of tea and a chat with some of the guys he knows and then just goes away again, or sometimes he'll pop upstairs and just hang about for an hour." And according to Geoff Allison, of Dalbeattie Men's Shed, the men all have one thing in common. "We're guys plootering about in a shed, but we're just doing it somewhere larger scale," he said. "That's what it's about. We're doing 'men things'. We all have CTAS - Compulsive Tool Acquisition Syndrome!" For some, it could even be a life-saver. Joe Scott was in the "doldrums" when he had to take early retirement after suffering a stroke. He felt like he was a "waste of time" and he would be "better off out of the road", but the Gala Men's Shed turned his life around, he said. "Aye it's probably saved my life, or at least my sanity," he said.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-43686644

Woman held after man stabbed in north London

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a man was stabbed outside a north London station.

The victim was found injured following reports of a stabbing outside Highbury and Islington station at about 22:25 BST on Saturday. The man was taken to hospital for treatment. Details of his condition are yet to be released. A women was arrested close the scene on suspicion of attempted murder, a Met Police spokesman said. An extra 300 officers are being deployed in areas of London over the weekend after a spate of violent crime. Six people have been killed in shootings and stabbings in London in the past seven days with the Met opening 55 murder investigations this year.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-22566271

Sark to appoint senior administrator after vote passed

Sark Chief Pleas has agreed to appoint a full-time civil servant in a reversal of an earlier decision.

The position, with an annual salary of between £35,000 and £40,000, was agreed by a vote of 21-4 on Thursday. At its Easter meeting the move to create the senior administrator role was defeated by a vote of 14-13. The second vote was held at a special meeting after a number of conseillers said they needed more information before supporting the proposal. At the same meeting two new members, Conseillers Hazel Fry and Robert Cottle, were voted onto the General Purposes and Advisory Committee, which was behind the proposal.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44576039

People mark 'Take Your Dog To Work Day' with pictures of busy pups

Frenchies in offices, staffies on building sites and labradors in campsites - these are just some of the sights you can expect to see on #TakeYourDogToWorkDay.

The hashtag has been used over 25,000 times at the time of writing, with people sharing pictures of their busy pooches on social media. The day was established in 1999 by Pet Sitters International to "promote dog adoptions and support local pet communities". Some might say these pups are getting a ruff deal, but you would have to be barking to think they aren't eager to spend more time with their human pals. You might also like: By Tom Gerken, BBC UGC & Social News

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-26279969

Man charged with Hollie Gazzard salon murder in Gloucester

A man from Cheltenham has been charged with the murder of Gloucester hairdresser Hollie Gazzard.

Asher Thomas Maslin, 22, of Gloucester Road in Cheltenham, will appear before magistrates in Cheltenham on Friday. Twenty-year-old Ms Gazzard was attacked at Fringe Benefits in Southgate Street - where she worked - at about 18:00 GMT on Tuesday. She later died at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Mr Maslin was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33275936

Is welfare reform working?

The "experts" are scratching their heads. Today was the day, we were told, when we'd see a sharp rise in poverty as official figures included the full impact of welfare cuts for the first time.

Mark EastonHome editor@BBCMarkEastonon Twitter But, instead, the numbers have remained broadly flat and the government is able to claim that "the proportion of individuals with low income is now at the lowest level since the mid-1980s". Lobbyists and economic forecasters have been hurriedly rewriting their press releases. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which checks the numbers for the government, had forecast a rise. Today they conceded the lack of an increase might "come as a surprise" and would be analysing the data. "It's good news for people on low incomes that the benefits freeze has not yet pushed more people into poverty," the Joseph Rowntree Foundation conceded, while arguing that "thirteen million people in poverty is still too many in the world's seventh richest country". The Child Poverty Action Group said the figures still made grim reading. "Make no mistake, we are facing a child poverty crisis in the years ahead," it said. But one cannot help but think their statement would have been rather different if the expected rise had come to pass. So what is going on? Is it time to ask if welfare reform is working? It would be foolish to claim any kind of success on the basis of one set of figures. There are still 2.3 million children in poverty in the UK and the government looks increasingly unlikely to meet its targets to get poverty down. The next set of numbers, of course, might tell a different story. But ministers claim that the welfare reforms, far from pushing people into poverty, are helping them escape it by encouraging them into work. The number of workless households is at a record low and the proportion of lone parents in work is at a record high of over 63%. It won't have been easy for many, but the offer of working tax credits if you are employed for more than 16 hours a week has encouraged tens of thousands of lone parents into jobs. That is what welfare-to-work policy is all about. "Work is the best route out of poverty," the Prime Minister has said. But David Cameron is not the first PM to make such a claim. Tony Blair used those exact same words in the late 90s as his government introduced the "New Deal" and promised to bring the "workless class back into society and into useful work". Indeed, New Labour described itself as the "welfare-to-work government", having taken its cue from Bill Clinton who introduced radical reform of the US benefits system. The American model, originally championed by Republicans, saw welfare switch from being an entitlement to a time-limited benefit that would disappear if the recipient didn't get a job. It was highly controversial - three members of the department of health and human services resigned. One said the legislation would destroy the welfare safety net, increase poverty and create widespread homelessness. Many predicted disaster for the most vulnerable in America. But disaster didn't come. US welfare and poverty rates fell during the late 1990s, leading many commentators to declare the approach a success. There are still arguments about the legacy of America's welfare-to-work policy, but the approach was enthusiastically embraced by both Labour and Conservative politicians in Britain worried about a rising benefits bill. The challenge for government is to make changes that encourage people off benefits and into jobs but without tipping them over into deprivation and hopelessness. It is a balancing act made more precarious if the economy is struggling. Clinton's reforms were introduced against a background of increasing prosperity rather than post-recession austerity. That's why today's poverty figures were seen as so important - they offer evidence on whether the benefit reforms, represented fully in the data for the first time, are encouraging people up or pushing them down. Politicians of all stripes will agree that child poverty rates in Britain remain too high. But today's statistics do not provide much ammunition to those who claim the welfare strategy is the problem rather than the solution.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-19317216

Guernsey Grande Bouet housing 'ready next year'

The first families are due to move into the second phase of Guernsey's Grand Bouet redevelopment early next year.

Work to replace the housing estate began in 2009 with the first phase of 55 properties completed last year. Phil Roussel, from the Guernsey Housing Association, said the foundations for 60 houses and 20 flats had also been laid. The development is being built on land given to the association by the Housing Department. Mr Roussel said the association had decided to name the new streets Jamouneau and Sarchet after families that had previously farmed the land.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56120191

Hymn: Will Gompertz reviews live-streamed play with Adrian Lester & Danny Sapani ★★★★☆

To be honest, the opening night of Hymn - Lolita Chakrabarti's new play at the Almeida Theatre - was the dullest I'd ever attended. There was no buzz, no booze, and no applause.

Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter What's more, my seat was uncomfortable and the noise from the nearby kitchen, palpable. Still, one should be thankful for small mercies, at least there wasn't an unfeasibly tall bloke with a large hat sitting in front of me obscuring the view, nor was there any coughing to distract one's attention. This was an opening night, Covid-style. At home, in front of a computer screen, in a tiny study (the kids had command of the TV in the living room) sitting on a wooden chair waiting for the countdown clock in the corner of my monitor to reach 00:00, which it did at 8pm precisely. There was no curtain to go up, just face masks to remove as the actors made their way onto the stage to be welcomed by an eerie silence, four cameras, and an invisible audience of 1400 online punters (along with any friends they'd invited along to watch the show) who had paid £15 a ticket or more, if they chose to add a voluntary donation. The cost to the Almeida of producing and live-streaming the 90-minute play was not cheap, but at least it didn't have a cast of thousands. Or hundreds. Or tens. Just two, in fact: Adrian Lester (Hustle) who plays Gil, and Danny Sapani (Killing Eve) as his soon-to-be new best buddy, Benny. The show opens with Benny upstage, railing against life while being comforted by a bottle of liquor. Gil is at the back sitting behind a piano. He plays the opening chords of Bill Withers' Lean On Me. He stops, comes forward, and delivers a eulogy at his father's funeral. Now it is Benny hanging around at the back. When the unseen mourners disperse the two 50-year-old men are left alone together. They have an awkward conversation in which the self-confident Gil is highly suspicious of the more introspective Benny's claim that they have a recently deceased father in common. "He's not even cold yet!", says Gil in response to what he suspects is a rank piece of opportunism by this unknown fella. And so begins Hymn, Lolita Chakrabarti's tale of an unlikely bromance between the gregarious Gil and the circumspect Benny. A classic case of opposites attracting, as each finds in the other an admirable quality they feel they lack in themselves. Gil is optimistic and adventurous. He has ambition. Benny is steady and cautious. He has 10 grand. He's spent years saving it up for a rainy day but Gil has other ideas for it… Chakrabarti (Red Velvet) said she wanted to write a play about a burgeoning love between two men which was not sexual but was deeply emotional. It is a subject that has fascinated her for some time having observed male friends, relatives and her husband (Adrian Lester) over the years. An intimate male relationship under the female gaze (the play is directed by Blanche McIntyre) is not something she recalls having seen on stage before. Hymn is the summation of what she has witnessed: a play in which Gil and Benny discover that together they strike a chord, or, in a story that that rings true from the first note to the last, sing from the same hymn sheet. Lester and Sapani bring a sweaty physicality to their increasingly intense relationship. They are constantly sparring with one another - either physically or verbally: cajoling, ingratiating and dreaming of a better life together. It is a good piece of work in all respects, although it might err on the dramatically predictable for some tastes. But the writing is crisp and witty, while the directing - both on stage and the live-mixing on camera - keeps the story moving along. The regular jumps in time and space are mostly successful, although once or twice the opportunity to flesh out the motivations behind the deepening relationship between Gil and Benny is missed in favour of cracking on to the next scene. Lester and Sapani are outstanding. Only at the very beginning do you get any sense that you are watching a play being filmed in an empty auditorium, not a bespoke piece of content designed for television. In the early exchanges the speech patterns and pauses actors use when on stage - as opposed to a more naturalistic style on telly - feel a little mannered (Lester said "the quality of silence changes" in a full auditorium, which, when absent, makes performing "nerve-wracking"). But you soon adjust, or they do, or both - after which you are immersed in a wonderful theatrical pas de deux that draws you in like a blazing fire on a freezing night. It is a joy to see live theatre back up and running, albeit in compromised circumstances. Rupert Goold, the Almeida's artistic director, deserves a lot of credit for making this excellent show available to the public. It was a bold pivot to go from a play programmed for a theatre audience to a highly convincing on-screen drama in the space of a few weeks. To do it under social distancing rules when the actors can't convey feeling with a hug or high five and rarely get within two metres of each other is an extraordinary achievement by all involved. And then there's the constant threat of Covid coming to spoil the party, which it very nearly did when Chakrabarti and Lester tested positive a few weeks ago. All in all, Hymn is a triumph of creativity over adversity and thoroughly deserves a standing ovation. Hymn at the Almeida Theatre is being streamed live on Saturday and Sunday and a recording of the show will be made available online in due course. Recent reviews by Will Gompertz: Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-11388034

Costs of dementia 'will double' in Guernsey

Guernsey will see the cost of dealing with dementia double in the next 10 or 20 years, the island's director of public health has said.

The global cost of dementia this year was almost £400bn and in the UK the number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to triple by 2050. Dr Stephen Bridgman said the increase in sufferers was partly linked to people living longer. He said plans were prepared for the increase across a range of services. Dr Bridgman said there was a lot of support for sufferers in the island. He said it included memory clinics for people with early dementia. He said it was important people, especially when nearing the end of their life, were treated "with dignity and the best care" they were able to give.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40217621

European media see bleak future for May

The hung parliament result of the British general election has surprised commentators in major European Union countries as much as at home. Many question whether Theresa May can hold on to the premiership, and speculate on whether the negotiations for Britain to leave the European Union will be derailed.

Germany's N24 news, like most TV channels, leads its coverage with the "question mark over Theresa May's future" as she faces "new battles in her own party". The London correspondent of France's centre-right Le Figaro, Florentin Collomp, asks the key question "should she stay or should she go?", given her "disastrous electoral performance" and calls from within her own party for her to resign. He concludes that sooner or later "the knives will come out for her". French CNews TV channel's Cassandre Mallay also sees Theresa May as "fatally weakened" as she tries to preside over a "a Disunited Kingdom". Wolfgang Hansson of the Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet says the result is a failure for Theresa May personally, and questions whether Britain has now been rendered "ungovernable". In Le Figaro, Arnaud de La Grange sees the result as a cautionary tale about the "inexact science" of gambling on early elections, and wonders whether Mrs May "really thought herself immune from Continental mishaps… given that her lead over Labour was shrivelling like an empty wineskin in the sun". 'Revenge' Aldo Cazzullo of Italy's Corriere della Sera says a "credible" Labour leadership might have won the election outright, as "many voters are tired of seven years of Conservative rule", and sees another election as a real possibility. Nonetheless, he praises party leader Jeremy Corbyn's success in "winning over the young, the excluded, and large numbers of urban voters with his social reform programme". He thinks the Labour leader's "ambiguity on Brexit" allowed him to attract votes from both pro-Europeans and Eurosceptics. The Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad's Geert Langendorff says voters "punished Theresa May for her arrogance". Philippe Bernard of France's centre-left Le Monde agrees that Jeremy Corbyn "managed to mobilise abstainers and young people disgusted at increasing inequality and poverty". 'Boomerang' Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, the foreign editor of Germany's centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, says the early election gamble "rebounded on Theresa May like a boomerang", and thinks the "cost for Britain will be high". He says she failed to make the election a "a second and decisive vote for Brexit" because the terror attacks in London and Manchester put security at the top of the agenda, exposing her to criticism over her cuts to police funding as home secretary. Maciej Czarnecki, of Poland's centre-left Gazeta Wyborcza, says Mrs May's "catastrophe is bad news for Britain and for its Brexit talks". He says that instead of preparing for the talks, "Britain will be preoccupied with horse-trading" over the formation of a new government". Christian Zaschke, of Munich's centre-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung, says Mrs May's tactics of "disappearing from view when the going gets tough" was evident during the Brexit campaign. "But it is not an option for a prime minister, especially in an election campaign, to simply disappear from public view once in a while," he says. Corriere della Sera's Aldo Cazzullo says Europe is "now resigned to losing London", and will want to press on with the talks to avoid "Byzantine negotiations full of uncertainties". 'Crash landing' Eva Lapido of Germany's daily Die Welt says that "once again British voters have defied expectations… and British politics is sinking in chaos". She says this uncertainty means a "massive, costly, almost negligent loss of time", as it could possibly be months before the British government is prepared for Brexit negotiations Spain's conservative ABC, ever wary of separatist tendencies at home, sees the election result in Scotland as a "crash landing" for the Scottish National Party, and an "implicit rejection of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's aim to call a second independence referendum". It attributes the SNP's setback to the strong showing of the Conservatives, who had "most firmly opposed the second referendum". BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.

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How Sweden is preparing for Russia to hack its election

Russia has been repeatedly accused of interfering in recent elections. But Sweden is determined it won't fall victim to any such meddling - with millions of leaflets being distributed and propaganda-spotting lessons for students.

By Erik Brattberg & Tim MaurerCarnegie Endowment for International Peace As campaigning intensified in the French election, the team of now President Emmanuel Macron said it was a target for "fake news" by Russian media and the victim of "hundreds if not thousands" of cyber-attacks from inside Russia. In Washington, sanctions were recently imposed on 19 Russians accused of interference in the 2016 US election and "destructive" cyber-attacks. While the Kremlin denies interfering in foreign elections - with Vladimir Putin saying there is "nothing to discuss" - concerns remain. With a new prime minister and parliament to be elected in September, Sweden is already working hard to make sure its polls are free from any meddling. If successful, its efforts could serve as a guide for other elections, including the US mid-terms in November. Sweden, a country of 10 million people, has good reason to take action. In 2014, it moved further from its historic position of neutrality to officially become an "enhanced partner" of Nato, which considers Russia's annexation of Crimea to be illegal. Officials have reported an increase in hacking and dissemination of fake news. The aim, they say, is to undermine the stability of Swedish society and spread falsehoods. A study by researchers at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs reported a "wide array" of Russian actions to influence public opinion. It suggested there had been misleading media reports and that fake news was being used to "frame Nato as an aggressor and military threat, the EU as in terminal decline, and Russia as under siege from hostile Western governments". And earlier this year Anders Thornberg, head of Sweden's security service, spoke to the BBC about its fears of foreign political interference, saying: "The biggest threat to our security in that perspective is Russia." Having seen elections elsewhere in the West targeted by cyber-attacks and disinformation, Swedish officials are taking the possibility of Russian meddling seriously. Protecting the democratic system has been placed at the heart of its national security objectives. Sweden's approach involves government working with the private sector, social media companies, broadcasters and newspapers. A "Facebook hotline" has been created to allow officials to quickly report fake Swedish government Facebook pages. Facebook itself has pledged to report suspicious behaviour around the election to Swedish authorities. A nationwide education programme has been launched to teach high school students about propaganda and a leaflet distributed to 4.7 million homes includes tips on spotting such misinformation. Some 7,000 government officials have received basic training in spotting "influence operations" and how they could put the elections at risk. Public awareness has been raised further by the willingness of Swedish officials at all levels of government to discuss openly the threat of interference. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has called attempts to meddle in the elections "completely unacceptable" and has pledged to expose them "without mercy". Cyber-security is being improved across government and work is under way to raise awareness of the risks of hacking and disinformation. It is not only Sweden that is taking action, with other countries drawing similar conclusions about the possibility of Russian interference. During Europe's "super election year" of 2017, the governments of the Netherlands, France and Germany all made significant efforts to protect themselves. Dutch officials decided to abandon electronic counting of ballots for fears over hacking, for example. The German and French governments are considering new laws to make social media and technology companies responsible for tackling fake news. It could be that such efforts are having an impact. Despite the hack of the German parliament in 2015, no significant attempts to interfere in the country's September 2017 elections were reported. Other countries have warned Russia against election meddling, with UK Prime Minister Theresa May arguing that it was trying to "undermine free societies" by "planting fake stories". Nevertheless, the possibility of Russian interference remains a serious challenge, both in Europe and the US, as well as other parts of the world such as Latin America. Dan Coats, the US director of national intelligence, has warned: "There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 US mid-term elections as a potential target." Countries might want to consider sharing best practices and lessons learned if they are to ensure their polls are free and fair. The possibility of Russian interference in elections is likely to remain a serious challenge for some time. The world will be watching to see whether Sweden's tactics work and what can be learned from them. About this piece This analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from experts working for an outside organisation. Erik Brattberg is director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, while Tim Maurer is co-director of its Cyber Policy Initiative. This article is based on their report "Russian Election Interference: Europe's Counter to Fake News and Cyber Attacks". More details about the work of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace can be found here. Edited by Duncan Walker

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Work on new Swindon brain injury hospital starts

Work has started on a hospital for people with brain injuries in Swindon that will cater for patients from the South and the South West of England.

The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust, which is behind the 20-bed facility, hopes it will create up to 70 jobs. The trust said it will serve patients with complex care needs caused by brain injuries, some of whom may be detained under the Mental Health Act. The hospital is due to be completed early next year.

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Are drones dangerous or harmless fun?

Footage posted online suggests people across the UK are frequently using drone cameras illegally - and incidents reported to police appear to be rising. So why have only three people been prosecuted? And are drones actually dangerous?

By Caroline LowbridgeBBC News YouTube vlogger Stefan Michalak bought a drone camera so he could take breathtaking shots for his videos - but he ended up being questioned by police and threatened with prosecution. "I was flying it in central London, I was getting crazy shots over the Thames, it was just incredible for a while," he says. But one day he was filming outside the Natural History Museum on his birthday when security guards spotted the drone. "I got a four-hour intense interview with the Metropolitan Police," says Mr Michalak, who makes video diaries about family life with his wife Hannah and their young son. "I had to show them our videos to show that I wasn't a terrorist." He said police were not sure about the law themselves, but eventually let him go. He decided to be more careful about where he filmed in future and avoid flying near public buildings. But eventually, he was contacted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which had seen his videos and warned him he could be prosecuted for breaching Air Navigation Order legislation. He is now training to use the drone safely and legally. "You finish the course and you walk away thinking 'Oh my god I was so irresponsible flying that bloody thing for so long'," he says. "I mean I had one just fall out of the sky once. If somebody was underneath that thing that would have been fatal." He believes someone will inevitably be killed or seriously injured as drones become more popular. "In the industry they call it 'The Incident', and it's an incident that everybody knows is going to happen one day," he says. "Everyone will be looking at the drone industry, saying 'why the hell weren't these regulated more?' There will be such a knee-jerk reaction to it. So people are kind of ready for this to happen." So far, the CAA has prosecuted two people for using drones - Robert Knowles, from Cumbria, who flew one over a nuclear submarine facility, and Mark Spencer, who flew one over Alton Towers. But the CAA is now concentrating on educating people about drones, recently launching its "Dronecode", and will only prosecute in cases when there is a threat to other aviation. Other cases will be dealt with by the police. "The most common sense way is that the police look after the protection of people and property on the ground," says Jonathan Nicholson from the CAA. "They're best placed to do that, they have the skills and the people in place to do that, and we look after the aviation education side and the regulation of commercial users who need a licence from us to actually use a drone for commercial use." Nigel Wilson from Nottinghamshire is the first drone pilot to be prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service following a police-led operation. The police had evidence of his flights - over football matches and near London landmarks - because he posted videos on YouTube, and he was fined £1,800 in September. But searches through YouTube or Vimeo bring up countless other videos that appear to be breaking the rules. The CAA posts warnings under some of the videos, such as one from 2012 that was filmed from a drone flying close to people and landmarks in London. Drones should not be flown in congested areas like London or within 50m of a person or building, but the drone manufacturer that made the video said its team of drone pilots have a "spotless safety record". Raphael Pirker, CEO of TBS Avionics, based in Hong Kong, told the BBC: "We firmly believe that it is not something dangerous beyond what we accept to be safe, such as driving a bicycle down the road, or driving our car to work every day. "We have never hurt anybody or put anybody in danger throughout our now almost 10 years of operation, with over 50 pilots having flown as part of our squad, in both a recreational and professional capacity." So are regulations needed? What could potentially go wrong? "We've had safety incidents already reported to us by pilots where they think drones have been flown too close to them for safety, and you've seen elsewhere in the world incidents of people being struck by drones and potentially injured," says Mr Nicholson from the CAA. "We don't want people to think they are some kind of menace when actually there's a lot of good that can come from drones, but the underlying message is that people who use them need to use their common sense and do it safely." The Dronecode The Civil Aviation Authority launched its Dronecode to simplify the rules regarding drones. Drones fitted with cameras must not be flown: Sales figures suggest the demand for drones is rising. Maplin alone sold more than 17,000 drones in the UK in the past 12 months - more than double the amount they sold in the previous 12 months. In a parliamentary answer, transport minister Robert Goodwill said the government was "in early discussions with international partners about a drone traffic management system", and is "talking to industry partners about the development of an online application to track and manage small drones". There will also be a public consultation on drones in spring 2016, he said, giving the public a chance to engage on issues regarding drones. Data gathered through Freedom of Information requests suggests the public are already contacting police more about drones as they become increasingly popular. Kent Law School associate lecturer Alan McKenna contacted forces across the UK asking how many calls had been logged relating to drones - and the 34 forces that provided data had logged a total of 441 calls over two years. Dr McKenna has since submitted further requests asking for more recent data, and so far, has discovered what he calls a "massive rise". For example, in Hampshire there were 27 calls between April and August 2015, compared to only two from the equivalent period in 2014. Not all of the incidents are necessarily offences, but many do appear to breach the regulations. The BBC contacted some of the police forces to ask what, if any, action had been taken in response. Hampshire Constabulary - which had reported incidents including a drone crashing into a member of the public and causing injury, a drone crashing in a residential area, and a drone that "crash landed" in a property - said it could not say whether any action had been taken as it does not keep these records. A force spokesperson said: "As part of the national policing framework, we are creating an action plan for drone-related incidents which will be introduced in the future and enable such recordkeeping." Incidents reported in Kent included a drone almost hitting a caller, a drone flying towards Gatwick Airport, a drone falling from the sky and hitting a caller's vehicle, and a drone flying near a school then crashing. "In most reports that Kent Police has received regarding unmanned crafts it has not been possible to identify who was flying them," the force said in a statement. "However, in two instances where the owners were identified advice was given. One related to a professional photographer who was working, and the other was dealt with privately and police involvement declined." Dr McKenna believes a lack of knowledge could also explain why there has only been one police-led prosecution so far. "Every day they receive a whole plethora of documentation covering all sorts of issues and to keep on top of it is impossible," he says. "I think the police are trying to train the officers more widely but it's going to be a difficult task." In fact, Merseyside Police was itself warned by the CAA that it was using a drone without an appropriate licence - and the £13,000 piece of equipment later crashed into the River Mersey during a routine training exercise. Limited resources could also make it difficult for police, according to Dr McKenna. "You've got to identify who's flying the thing," he said. "That's going to take resources and could it be argued they've got far more important things to do? Obviously with the cutbacks it's a difficult one." But prosecution is not necessarily the best way, according to Mr Nicholson from the CAA. "There's lots of things you can do prior to a prosecution," he says. "We've seen a lot of people who actually want to do it properly and actually as part of the condition for not proceeding with any action they've actually taken the steps to become an approved commercial drone operator. "That's going to make them much safer, they are going to know exactly what they are doing and they will be complying with the law. So a prosecution is not the only solution, it's the ultimate solution." Freelance filmmaker Nathaniel Durman and his brother used a drone to film The Shard in December 2014, and nobody questioned it. "No police came over to us or anything, and considering it's a terrorist target it's kind of worrying that we weren't caught in the act," he said. He said he didn't have "much of an understanding of the rules" before he did it, but is "very aware of the regulations now", after the CAA saw his video online and warned him he could prosecuted. However, he is concerned the regulations are "a bit too strict to promote any creativity with the drone". "I just think it's a really great technology that shouldn't be controlled too much," he says. Filmmakers like Mr Durman could go through training so they can fly a drone legally, but he believes the cost is prohibitive. "It's quite an expensive licence to obtain because it's £1,500 or something to go through the training course," he says. "I'll sort of see how it pans out. If it becomes any more stricter than it is I don't think there's much point in getting a licence and pursuing it as a career because you won't be able to do many interesting things with it." Meanwhile, Mr Michalak has completed most of his training and just needs to pass a flight test before he applies to the CAA for permission to use his drone again. "I get why the rules are in place, and I didn't before," he says. "I realise how irresponsible I was and now I'm so happy that I did the course. "As somebody who wants to collect beautiful footage, a drone just opens up so many opportunities to you, which is why I'm desperate to have this thing back."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44398673

Downward spiral: Nicaragua's worsening crisis

Hundreds of people have been killed in Nicaragua since 18 April in what has become a popular uprising against the Central American country's president, Daniel Ortega, and his government. BBC News takes a closer look at how the crisis unfolded.

How did it all start? The crisis started rather unexpectedly when pro-government groups violently crushed a small demonstration against reforms to Nicaragua's pension system announced on 18 April. These pro-government groups, popularly known as "grupos de choque" (shock forces) had in the past been used to repress anti-government protests and had discouraged many Nicaraguans disgruntled with President Ortega from taking to the streets. But this time footage of the repression, which was widely shared on social media, caused outrage and triggered more protests which in turn were met with further repression. Three people, among them a police officer, were killed on 19 April amid attempts by the security forces to suppress the demonstrations. What's happened since? Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured as the protests have grown and attempts to suppress them intensified. Anger at the government has kept on increasing with rising fatalities. The country is littered with roadblocks and barricades, which the security forces have been trying to clear. There are almost daily reports of clashes turning lethal. Protesters blame the security forces and paramilitary groups loyal to the government for the violence while the authorities have labelled the protesters as "terrorists". How many have been killed? The government has not released any official figures in recent weeks, saying that each and every death has to be investigated thoroughly before accurate numbers can be given. The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) said 264 people had been killed between the start of the protests and 11 July. Human rights groups inside Nicaragua say the figure is now up to more than 300. Why are the protest so deadly? Protesters allege that the security forces employ excessive force, using live bullets and sharpshooters against demonstrators. It is an allegation which has been echoed by a number of human rights groups. Amnesty International said last week that "state repression has reached deplorable levels" in Nicaragua. The United Nations Office for Human Rights has also warned of "the dangerous spiral of violence and impunity" it says Nicaragua is sliding into. The government denies the violence is one-sided and points to the use of home-made mortars by the protesters as evidence that the security forces come under attack. A number of police officers have been among those killed. The government has also pointed to instances in which government supporters have been attacked to back up their claim that the protesters are "terrorists". But most human rights groups agree that the paramilitary groups, or "grupos de choque", have played a particularly deadly role in the conflict. What do the protesters want? With hundreds of thousands taking to the streets, the demands have become much broader than the original protests against changes to the pension system, which were scrapped shortly after the protests began. University students are at the forefront of the protests but the movement prides itself on having the support of Nicaraguans from all walks of life and of all political affiliations. They have also been joined by many in the business sector, who in the past broadly supported President Ortega. They are united in their demand for justice for those killed during the demonstrations. They are also demanding deep democratic reforms, with many believing neither can be achieved if President Ortega - who is on his third consecutive term in office - remains in power. Many are therefore calling for Mr Ortega to step down or at least for early elections to take place, both of which the leader has ruled out arguing that it would go against the constitution. What does the government say? The government has blamed the situation on criminal groups and "opposition political groups with specific political agendas". It says the protesters are "inflicting suffering on Nicaraguan families" by severely disrupting everyday life. In a statement published on 9 July, the government accuses the protesters of killing, torturing and kidnapping hundreds of citizens and of looting and setting alight homes and businesses. The government says it has "the duty to defend the security and peace" of all Nicaraguans, including "the right of people, vehicles and goods to move freely throughout the territory". It has launched an operation dubbed "clean-up" which it says is aimed at restoring order, but protesters accuse the security forces deployed of dragging opposition activists from their homes and illegally detaining them. What might happen next? There has been widespread international condemnation of the Nicaraguan government and calls for the security forces to be reined in but so far to little effect. Businesses have been suffering, especially those in the tourism sector, and with protesters threatening to call further strikes an estimated 85,000 jobs could be lost this year. A "national dialogue" in which protesters sat down with members of the government with the mediation of the Catholic Church has so far achieved very little and stalled repeatedly. With talks stalled, President Ortega ruling out early elections and protesters saying that there is no going back, the crisis seems likely to further escalate.

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Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo, Google Home and more: We put 7 speakers to the test

For the last four weeks, I've been living in an Orwellian nightmare. One in which I have to watch every word I say because "they" are always listening. And by "they", I mean Alexa, Siri and Google.

By Mark SavageBBC Music reporter It seemed like a good idea - get seven smart speakers and test them in a real house to see how they affected our listening habits and daily routine. At times, they've been pretty helpful. If we're running low on biscuits, one of us can bark, "Hey Siri, add Hob Nobs to the shopping list" and a reminder appears on our phones. During Storm Emma, Google kept me up-to-date on train cancellations, while our kids amused themselves for hours by asking Alexa what noise a cat makes. Thankfully, none of the devices started spontaneously laughing in the middle of the night - but they were all prone to bouts of madness. I once asked Alexa "what's the weather in Yemen" and got the reply: "'Das wetter' is German for 'the weather'." And when I told Google to "play music in the kitchen", it responded by streaming Lee Brice's Songs In The Kitchen to a speaker in the dining room (congratulations, Lee, on your new royalty stream). To find out which smart assistant was the smartest, I put each of the speakers to the test - posing 50 random questions on music, sport and general knowledge. Like all good quiz show hosts, I only accepted their first answer. Alexa fared best, with 37 correct answers, followed by Google on 32, and Siri, which scored a lowly 27. Apple's assistant was hobbled by its lack of integration with other apps - meaning it couldn't read my calendar or look up recipes. When it came to music-related queries, however, Siri had more success. For instance, the HomePod was the only speaker that could parse the command "play the James Bond theme next". Its competitors all tried to find a song called "James Bond Theme Next", failed, and gave up. You can find the full list of questions, and how the speakers responded, here. None of them are perfect (never ask for music by Haim in a Northern Irish accent) but smart speakers look set to replace the smartphone as the tech giants' biggest growth products. Choosing the right one can be tricky. So here's our guide to the speakers, and how they might fit into your lifestyle. Apple HomePod (£319) Apple has arrived late to the smart speaker market, but not through laziness. The HomePod has been in development since 2012, and boasts an unconventional design - with seven tweeters (the speakers that produce treble) arranged in a circle to project music into every nook and cranny of your house. The bass is also punchy and well-balanced, even at low volumes. I found it worked better with acoustic, singer-songwriter material. Playing Regina Spektor's Samson, the HomePod championed the singer's vocals without losing the detail in her piano work. On a busier song like Stevie Wonder's Superstition, however, it struggled to pick out the star's intricate drumming. It's also an incredibly insistent speaker - demanding your attention with a very "forward" soundstage. We found that was great in the hustle and bustle of a family kitchen, but less attractive when listening to music in bed at night. One important note: You can't set up the HomePod unless you have an iPhone or an iPad. The speaker is then tethered to that device and certain functions, like updating your shopping list, only work when they can "see" each other. HomePod is also completely loyal to Apple Music. You can't ask Siri to stream from Spotify or Deezer - although you can access them on your phone and beam them to the speaker. That process can be fiddly, though, and connecting to the speakers via Apple's proprietary AirPlay technology is much slower than pairing your phone with a bluetooth device. Update - October 2018: A new software update means you can pair two HomePods and listen in stereo. The improvement in sound quality is noticeable and impressive, although the speakers I tested sometimes fell out of sync. Best for: Apple enthusiasts; audiophiles Amazon Echo Plus (£139) If you want a speaker that comes with a free light bulb, then Amazon's Echo Plus is your only choice. The speaker aims to be a "home hub", controlling all sorts of connected devices, from your lights to your kettle. I wasn't able to test those abilities, though, as the BBC budget didn't stretch to buying me remote control curtains. As a music player, the Echo Plus is competent but unspectacular - but it'd make an ideal replacement for a kitchen radio. Alexa will happily stream from Spotify and Deezer, as well as Amazon's own Music Unlimited service - which you get at a discount if you purchase an Echo device. It's particularly good at finding the music you want, even if you have a terrible memory. I managed to get Alexa to cue up Girls Aloud's Love Machine by asking, "What's the song that goes, 'Let's go, Eskimo?'" One word of warning: Amazon's streaming service doesn't have a parental filter, so you're stuck with the explicit versions of the songs in their catalogue. And now that Amazon has leased Alexa to other speaker manufacturers, there are better devices in a similar price range. Best for: Casual listening, smart assistant abilities Ultimate Ears Megablast (£199) The Megablast is a long, tall cylinder of fun, available in a range of colours (our review unit was a lurid yellow, which I became weirdly fond of). It gives out a bassy, fulsome sound; which goes up really, really loud without losing any finesse. You can use Alexa to play songs from Amazon Music Unlimited (but not Spotify yet), or simply use it as a bluetooth speaker to stream music directly from your phone. Best of all, you can unplug it and take it to a party, with a generous battery life that means you won't be left tuneless when the clock strikes midnight. And it's waterproof, so it won't go kaput if you spill your drink. On the downside, the microphone is poor at picking up your voice commands - especially when music is playing. And the charging port is awkwardly placed at the bottom of the speaker, meaning it has to be laid on its side when its plugged in, ruining the sound. (Ultimate Ears sells a separate charging dock, pictured above, for £35 if this is a deal-breaker). Best for: Portability, volume Sonos: One (£199) Sonos are masters of multi-room audio, but the One is their first foray into smart speaker territory. There's an intriguing set-up, where you're asked to wave your phone around the room while the unit emits a series of sci-fi bleeps and bloops. This helps the speaker adapt to its environment and, to be fair, it performed admirably in our cluttered bedroom, with a weighty, dynamic delivery that belied its tiny size. Superstition, which confounded Apple's HomePod, sounded bright and lively, with a deep, funky bass and plenty of breathing room for Stevie Wonder's vocals. Best of all, Sonos welcomes all music streaming services - with 49 currently available in the UK, including Apple Music (not all of them can be controlled by Alexa, though). You can also chain two Sonos speakers together to get stereo, while the Sonos app is the only one that allows you to tweak settings like treble and bass to tailor the music to your tastes. And if you buy multiple units, you can scare your family by playing ghost noises in the attic while you're in the kitchen. One small niggle: Sonos has programmed Alexa to speak over the start of your music, so you constantly miss the first five seconds of your favourite album. Best for: Stereo, choice of streaming services, multi-room audio Google Home (£129) It looks like an air freshener. An air freshener on the Starship Enterprise, but an air freshener nonetheless. Still, I was quite enamoured with the Home's sleek, matte white finish and the easygoing, friendly voice of its virtual assistant. It transpires that her dialogue was written by Emma Coats, a former Pixar employee who drew up the film studio's 22 rules of storytelling - which explains why Google feels more engaging than its competitors. There are a few neat touches to the AI, too. When you ask Google to "flip a coin", for example, you hear the sound of a coin being tossed before learning the result. Even better, the Google Home enables you to make voice calls to any UK landline or mobile number - for free. Sadly, though, the device isn't up to much as an actual speaker. It had the worst sound of all the units we tested, and was prone to distorted bass even at low volumes. Best for: Personality, design JBL Link 300 (£249) Luckily, fans of Google's voice assistant have some alternatives. Sonos are promising a Google-enabled speaker later this year and JBL will release their Link 300 in the next couple of weeks. It's a chunky little device that works best on pop and hip-hop, with an eloquent sound that emphasises the low end thanks to a circular resonator on the back that pumps out the bass. One neat feature is a wi-fi light that shows the strength of your internet connection (something I'd like to see on more devices, given the patchy wi-fi in our house). In the end, this became our go-to speaker in the living room and kitchen, despite an infuriating five-minute fight to make it play the Hamilton soundtrack. It turns out you had to say "OK Google, play 'Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast Recording'" - a command that's as intuitive as a lead wetsuit. Best for: Google smarts with better sound. Amazon Echo Show (£199) The Echo Show has a 7-inch screen, which displays song lyrics while you listen. It's a bit of a gimmick, but it was a big hit with our kids. The device also came in handy in the kitchen, where we used it to display recipes and set timers without having to touch the screen with our sticky fingers. All this functionality comes at the cost of sound quality, though. Don't expect anything beyond your average clock radio. Best for: Karaoke night Secret option eight: Don't buy any of them Here's the thing: With the possible exception of Sonos: One, you're not getting true hi-fi sound with any of these devices. If you've already got a good home stereo, it's much cheaper to buy an Amazon Echo Dot (currently £39) and hook it up to your existing set-up with a simple cable. Similarly, if you've got £300 to spend, you can get a decent hi-fi system and an Echo Dot with money to spare. That way, you get all the benefits of voice control and music streaming without breaking the bank. Best for: People who've already got speakers and have privacy concerns about this whole thing. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

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What happened at the Bataclan?

A black Volkswagen Polo pulled up outside the Bataclan concert hall at 21:40 (20:40 GMT) on Friday 13 November, and three heavily armed gunmen got out. Less than three hours later they were dead, having killed 90 people at the venue and critically injured many others. What happened in between?

"It looked like an abattoir," Michael O'Connor, a 30-year-old from South Shields in north-east England who survived the attack, told BBC Radio 5Live. "I was wading through blood. It was a centimetre deep in places. I had to clamber over dead bodies to get out." 21:40 Gunmen enter building The gunmen entered the building through the main entrance about 30-45 minutes after rock group the Eagles of Death Metal had begun their performance. Witnesses reported seeing bodies on the pavement near the doorway. Once in the building, they fired into the crowd. Their first move was to shoot everybody standing at the bar, witnesses Gregoire, Thomas and Nicolas told Liberation newspaper. The trio had been watching the concert from the balcony, and recalled seeing a movement in the crowd below "like a gust of wind through wheat" as people began to realise what was happening and scrambled away from the killers. Another spectator, Fahmi, was in the crowd on the lower level when he heard a noise he took to be firecrackers. "First of all I thought it was part of the show, but then I turned around and saw someone who had just taken a bullet in the eye," he told Liberation. Many people dropped to the ground, but there was little cover in the concert hall. The gunmen shot at random into the mass of people lying down. It seems that at least one of the gunmen climbed the stairs and killed more spectators on the balcony, possibly using this as a vantage point to take shots at others below. Amid the confusion and panic, a security guard shouted for everyone to follow him through an emergency exit to the left of the stage, according to Anthony, another survivor who spoke to Liberation. Many people made it out this way, some badly hurt, their traumatic exits recorded on mobile phone footage recorded from an upper window in an apartment on the opposite side of the street. Julien Pearce, a journalist with Europe 1, a French radio network, lay down on the ground near to the front of the stage for about 10 minutes while the attack continued. During a break in the shooting, as the gunmen reloaded their weapons, he encouraged a group of about 10 people around him to attempt an escape, jumping up onto the stage. "We took refuge in a little room to the right of the stage, but unfortunately it didn't lead anywhere. We were trapped." They waited for another break in the shooting and ran across the stage to the emergency exit on the other side, Mr Pearce lifting a badly injured woman onto his shoulders and carrying her out. According to Gregoire, Thomas and Nicolas, about 50 people found a way up onto the roof, staying there for more than two hours until the police operation had finished. Others hid in offices or locked themselves in toilets, waiting for help to arrive. But many concert-goers had no option but to stay put, amid the dead and injured. "I pulled my girlfriend underneath me and I lay on top of her," Mr O'Connor said. "There was someone on the bottom of my legs, there was someone lying on top of my girlfriend's head - it was a real squash. There were people who were unconscious or terribly injured - I think they were dead." Mr O'Connor feared the worst. "I told my girlfriend that I loved her - what else can you do in that situation?" Theresa Cede told the BBC: "One guy was badly hurt, and moaning, so we tried to say: 'Shh, be quiet, stay alive and don't move,' because every time there was movement somewhere, there were more gunshots." After what Ms Cede said felt like an eternity, the police arrived. A senior officer from the anti-crime branch and his driver were the first to arrive. They shot at one of the gunmen, who blew himself up. The officers then retreated. In the foyer they crossed paths with a team of heavily armed officers making their way to the concert hall. 22:15 Heavily armed police enter concert hall The team from the BRI (Brigades de Recherche et d'Intervention) unit, which specialises in hostage situations, made slow progress. "There were bodies, people hidden in every nook and cranny, phones vibrating, and blood, a lot of blood," one officer recalled, according to RTL. "We got out those we could." Michael O'Connor said: "I could see the entrance to the arena behind us. I saw the door slowly open. I didn't know what was coming through - then I saw torches, flashlights, and I thought: 'It's got to be the police.' "They were behind big bulletproof shields. They didn't say anything, they were motioning us to stay still. They formed a perimeter at the back of the hall and they pointed guns at the balcony, where the terrorists still were." 23:15 Hostage situation An hour after entering the concert hall, BRI officers reached a door on the first floor. A voice behind the door - a concert-goer being held hostage - told them there were two men holding them, each with an explosive vest. "You can thank President Hollande, because it's thanks to him you're going through this," the attackers had been telling the hostages, according to one of those held who spoke to L'Humanite. They were made to stand in front of the doors and windows, and act as go-betweens with the police. The police were passed a mobile number and spoke to the attackers several times before midnight. Negotiators concluded the men intended to massacre their hostages in front of the media, and the order was given to attack. 00:18 Assault Police union spokesman Nicolas Comte said officers entered and advanced behind a metal shield, which was hit by 27 bullets. "The officers realised they had to finish things quickly. They managed to shoot one and soon, as he saw that, the second one blew himself up." The siege was over, but the marathon task of saving the lives of those who had been critically injured was just beginning.

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Hungary puts Roma high up EU agenda

Hungary is getting an early lesson in Brussels politics as it seeks to calm a storm over its new media law and steady the EU ship for the next six months. But President Pal Schmitt is a veteran fighter - a former gold medallist fencer in Hungary's Olympic team in 1968 and 1978. The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest asked him about Hungary's approach to the EU presidency.

Pal Schmitt was a loyal player in the centre-right Fidesz team which won last April's elections overwhelmingly and swiftly set about changing Hungary's political landscape. The Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, calls it a revolution. Critics liken the process to a steamroller, or a bulldozer. Pal Schmitt was elected president in August, exchanging his velvet chair on the Pest side of the Danube for a leather throne in Buda. His predecessor, Laszlo Solyom, antagonised the former Socialist government by returning one law after another to parliament for reconsideration. President Schmitt has not returned a single one since August - but he doesn't completely rule it out. "If a bill is against the constitution, or if it does not serve the public good, or if it is against democracy in general... of course I would refer it back to parliament." Plans to help Roma One of the main themes of Hungary's EU presidency is the integration of the Roma (Gypsies). Following the fury over the French deportations to Romania last summer, Hungary feels a particular responsibility to set a good example. A framework EU convention on Roma integration is due to be presented by Hungary in May. Can he imagine a future Hungarian president of Roma origin - doing for the Roma what Barack Obama did for African Americans? He does not seem surprised by the question. "There are extremely talented people among the Roma. Yes, I can imagine that." Some demographers estimate that by 2050, over half the population of Hungary will be Roma, following current trends. But Mr Schmitt sees that as neither probable, nor as a precondition for a Roma president. "I don't think that more than 50% of the Hungarian population would be of Roma origin. It is not because I do not want that to happen, or that we discourage that... but rather because I believe that sooner or later Hungarians will also find their way back to the sanctity of the family, and there will be larger families, more children born to Hungarian families as well." "There are three key areas where we have to act... everywhere where we live with the Roma. Education needs to be provided... also social and family support are absolutely necessary, and work opportunities must be created for them. "There is is still a very high level of prejudice against the Roma people. And we have to fight that." Media controversy Like Mr Orban, the president is defensive but not unbending on Hungary's media law, which has been fiercely attacked by some European governments and media organisations. "The law is about the protection of various rights... the protection of human dignity, the rights of the youth, restoring public service media. It also takes action against hate speech... my heart was at peace when I signed it." On Friday, Hungary finally presented the law to the EU Media Commissioner, Neelie Kroes. Commission lawyers will now compare its provisions with the Directive on Audio Visual Services and other EU legislation. "If they find anything in it that would be against EU law or the directives, or the EU guidelines... I believe that it is only right if the prime minister reconsiders certain measures in the law," said President Schmitt. The legal examination is likely to take at least several weeks, according to a spokesman for Commissioner Kroes. The sun breaks through the thick cloud over the Danube for the first time in several weeks. We walk out onto the best balcony in Budapest. The city stretches away towards the flat plains of central Hungary, and the river flows towards Serbia, swollen by snow and rain - threatening natural but not political disasters.