Datasets:

faisaltareque

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consum_v8

like 0

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-38773818

Badminton player killed in Thailand moped crash

An England team badminton player was killed in Thailand when her friend drove their moped into the path of a truck, an inquest heard.

Rebecca Shaw, 32, from Huddersfield, was on her way to swim with elephants when the crash happened in Phuket in December 2015. Her friend, Julie Robinson, escaped with minor injuries. Bradford Coroner's Court heard the exact details of the crash were unclear due to conflicting witness accounts. Coroner Martin Fleming said the driver of the Toyota pick-up truck, Natthaphon Klomkhan, told police he was driving at approximately 60kph (37.5mph) when the moped drove from a side road, across a four-lane carriageway, and directly in front of his vehicle. Mr Klomkhan said he braked, sounded his horn and flashed his lights but was unable to avoid hitting the bike. Ms Robinson, who did not attend the inquest, said she checked before driving across the road, and claimed the truck was being driven at excessive speeds, and had failed to take evasive action. In an email sent by Ms Robinson to the coroner in July, she said: "He just drove straight into the back of the scooter, sending both of us flying through the air at some height." Describing the aftermath of the crash, Ms Robinson described blood pouring out of her friend's mouth when her head hit a metal barrier. She was twice resuscitated at the scene but died later in hospital, the inquest heard. Mr Fleming said photographs of the scene showed Ms Robinson's view would have been obscured and that crossing the carriageway would have left little margin for error. He said it was unclear whether the truck driver was going too fast. The inquest also heard police in Thailand had considered charging Ms Robinson in connection with the incident. The coroner ruled Ms Shaw, who was wearing a helmet, died as a result of head injuries sustained in a road traffic collision. She played for the England national team 10 times and was described by her family as a "real-life angel".

['Huddersfield']

[{"entity": "England", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Thailand", "label": "LOC"}]

England ||| Thailand

["Huddersfield"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-28784100

In pictures: India's coal miners

India is the world's third largest coal producing nation and coal supplies 60% of the country's energy needs, but the coal industry is poorly regulated. Arindam Mukherjee photographs some coal miners going about their work in eastern India.

The coal-rich region in India includes huge swathes of eastern states like Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and pockets in the central and southern parts of the country. Most miners spend their days tunnelling, digging and extracting coal from the mines. Here, a group of miners are at work in a mine in West Bengal state's Raniganj district. Each group is led by a sardar (chief) who is responsible for the work of his group. More than half of India's commercial energy needs are met by coal. It is the main fuel for generating power and making steel and cement. But mining is also a major factor in environment pollution, emitting smoke and noxious gases. Many of the miners also suffer from lung diseases caused due to inhaling coal dust throughout the day. Coal mining can be a very hazardous activity and hundreds of miners have died over the years in accidents in mines. Poor maintenance of the mines is a major factor behind frequent accidents. Once underground, the only way a miner can communicate with the outside world is by using an intercom. Sunita Devi's husband Santraj Prasad was killed along with 25 others in February 2001 when the Bagdigi colliery in Jharkhand was flooded. She now works as a guard at a mine officer's bungalow in the nearby town of Jharia. Here, she sits at her home with her late husband's photograph and one of her children. Miner Salim Ansari was the lone survivor of the Bagdigi disaster in which 26 of his colleagues died. He was trapped in an underground air pocket for seven days until rescue workers found him and brought him out. Lakhan Tanti works as a loader at the government-owned Coal India Limited mine in Ranigunj in West Bengal. He says the company is now hiring contractual labourers instead of salaried employees to cut costs. Coal mines, like this one in the state of Jharkhand, have multiple floors where excavation takes place and often operate 24 hours a day. Here, a group of miners are going deep inside an underground mine to begin work. Female labourers are hired to clean and collect coal near the railway line in Bailbandh colliery in Ranigunj. The women are mostly dependents of deceased miners and are employed on humanitarian grounds after the death of their husbands. The coal-rich region in India includes huge swathes of eastern states like Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, and pockets in the central and southern parts of the country. Most miners spend their days tunnelling, digging and extracting coal from the mines. Here, a group of miners are at work in a mine in West Bengal state's Raniganj district. Each group is led by a sardar (chief) who is responsible for the work of his group. More than half of India's commercial energy needs are met by coal. It is the main fuel for generating power and making steel and cement. But mining is also a major factor in environment pollution, emitting smoke and noxious gases. Many of the miners also suffer from lung diseases caused due to inhaling coal dust throughout the day. Coal mining can be a very hazardous activity and hundreds of miners have died over the years in accidents in mines. Poor maintenance of the mines is a major factor behind frequent accidents. Once underground, the only way a miner can communicate with the outside world is by using an intercom. Sunita Devi's husband Santraj Prasad was killed along with 25 others in February 2001 when the Bagdigi colliery in Jharkhand was flooded. She now works as a guard at a mine officer's bungalow in the nearby town of Jharia. Here, she sits at her home with her late husband's photograph and one of her children. Miner Salim Ansari was the lone survivor of the Bagdigi disaster in which 26 of his colleagues died. He was trapped in an underground air pocket for seven days until rescue workers found him and brought him out. Lakhan Tanti works as a loader at the government-owned Coal India Limited mine in Ranigunj in West Bengal. He says the company is now hiring contractual labourers instead of salaried employees to cut costs. Coal mines, like this one in the state of Jharkhand, have multiple floors where excavation takes place and often operate 24 hours a day. Here, a group of miners are going deep inside an underground mine to begin work. Female labourers are hired to clean and collect coal near the railway line in Bailbandh colliery in Ranigunj. The women are mostly dependents of deceased miners and are employed on humanitarian grounds after the death of their husbands.

['Energy industry', 'Environment', 'India']

[{"entity": "India", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Arindam Mukherjee", "label": "PER"}, {"entity": "India", "label": "LOC"}]

India ||| India

["Energy industry", "Environment", "India"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47468741

Gulnara Karimova: Uzbekistan ex-leader's daughter jailed

The daughter of Uzbekistan's late president Islam Karimov has been sent to prison for allegedly violating the terms of her five-year house arrest.

Gulnara Karimova repeatedly used the internet and left her flat, which she was banned from doing, prosecutors say. In 2017 Ms Karimova was sentenced to 10 years in jail for fraud and money laundering but that was commuted last year to house arrest. She was once a diplomat and pop singer who was tipped to succeed her father. Ms Karimova lived at her daughter's flat in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. Her Swiss lawyer, Grégoire Mangeat, said on Twitter that the 46-year-old had been "forcibly removed" from the flat on Tuesday afternoon and taken to an unknown location. "We, her defence counsels, denounce these totally arbitrary methods," said Mr Mangeat. "For several months now, we have been unsuccessfully asking the Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland to commit an expert to establish the absence of the rule of law in Uzbekistan." Images posted on Instagram Stories by Ms Karimova's daughter Iman showed a woman in a short blue robe and pink slippers being dragged out of an apartment by two men. Mr Mangeat also posted the picture online, saying she had been taken to an unknown place. On Tuesday, a Tashkent court ruled that Ms Karimova must serve the remainder of her term in prison, prosecutors said in a statement. They allege that she used forbidden communications methods, including the internet; left the flat; and failed to pay the state compensation. Ms Karimova was once a prominent figure in Uzbek politics who held the posts of ambassador to Spain and permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and was tipped to succeed her father, Islam Karimov, as president. She also had her own jewellery line, ran an entertainment television channel and released pop singles under the name Googoosha. But she reportedly fell out with her father and family in 2014 and shortly after she was detained by security forces. She was not seen in public for years and when her father, an authoritarian leader who ran Uzbekistan for 27 years, died in September 2016, she did not attend the funeral. Prosecutors accused her of being part of a criminal group that controlled assets of more than $1bn (£760m) in 12 countries, including the UK, Russia and United Arab Emirates. Then-prime minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president after the death of Islam Karimov in 2016. Read more

['Uzbekistan']

[{"entity": "Uzbekistan", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Islam Karimov", "label": "PER"}]

Uzbekistan ||| Islam Karimov

["Uzbekistan"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38661590

Mexico violence: Four killed in Cancun gunfight

An attack on the government offices in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun has left four people dead, officials say.

Police intervened after gunmen opened fire at the Quintana Roo state attorneys' office. TV showed footage in which intense gunfire could be heard. One policeman and three suspected attackers died, governor Carlos Joaquin said. Five suspects were arrested. Mr Joaquin described the attack as a reaction by gangsters to his crackdown on organised crime. It happened one day after a gunman killed five people in a club in the nearby resort city of Playa del Carmen. In that incident, Mr Joaquim said the attacker and one of the victims, a man from Veracruz, had a "personal conflict". A Canadian, an Italian and a US citizen were among the dead. It was not clear if the two attacks were related, officials said. Gunfire erupted during the attack in Cancun on Tuesday, causing panic on the streets, witnesses said. A shopping centre was evacuated by security forces after people described hearing gunfire inside. But officials later said it was a false alarm. Security checkpoints were set up near Cancun's hotel area, some 7km (4 miles) from where the attack happened, local media reported. The US consulate in Merida urged Americans to follow local authorities' warnings and consult with their hotels before leaving the premises. Federal forces would be sent to help the local authorities, the governor said, without giving details of how many gunmen were involved in the attack. Speaking on television in the evening, Mr Joaquin added: "The state is under control and in order...People from Cancun and our visitors can go about their lives as normal." Quintana Roo, an area popular with foreign tourists, has long been spared from the drug-related violence that afflicts other parts of Mexico.

['Gun crime', 'Mexico']

[{"entity": "Cancun", "label": "LOC"}]

Cancun

["Gun crime", "Mexico"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56284155

Covid-19: Another new variant added to UK watch list

Scientists have identified 16 cases of another new variant of coronavirus in the UK.

Public Health England has designated it as a 'variant under investigation' (VUI), meaning it is on their watch list, but not one they are immediately concerned about. It has a mutation in common with the South Africa and Brazil variants. That change, E484K, may help the virus evade some immunity from vaccination or prior infection, experts believe. The cases were first identified on 15 February by the UK's variant surveillance system. Experts suspect it originated in the UK. All 16 individuals who tested positive, and their contacts, have been traced and advised to isolate. PHE said the cases were geographically spread across the UK. And it confirmed that surge or mass testing would not be necessary - this is only done for variants of concern (VOC), such as the Brazil one. The UK now has 8 variants on its watch list - 4 VUIs and 4 VOCs. Most recently, officials had been trying to track down a person in England known to have been infected with the Brazil VOC. The search was narrowed to 379 households in the south of England, and the case was traced to Croydon. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said incidents like this are rare and only occur in around 0.1% of tests. It's not unexpected that variants are appearing or that the virus will continue to change. All viruses mutate as they make new copies of themselves to spread and thrive. But some changes may affect how well current vaccines work. Scientists are looking at tweaking coronavirus vaccines to keep pace with the new, emerging variants to ensure that they continue to offer high protection against the disease as the virus mutates. The UK's drug regulator the MHRA has said new vaccines can be fast-tracked through the approval system without "lengthy" clinical studies.

['South Africa', 'Coronavirus pandemic']

[{"entity": "UK", "label": "LOC"}]

UK

["South Africa", "Coronavirus pandemic"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-48745293

Jaclyn Hill promises lipstick refunds to fans after 'contamination'

Beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill has promised to refund everyone who bought one of her lipsticks, after some appeared contaminated.

She said on Instagram on Sunday that everyone would receive a full refund, even if they hadn't complained. Since she launched them at the end of May, social media has been flooded with complaints about their quality. Some reported they opened the $18 (£14) lipsticks to find hairs, holes and plastic balls embedded in the formula. This includes YouTuber Alexandra, who says hers contained shards of metal. She runs the channel Pretty Pastel Please and the video of her unboxing the lipsticks has been viewed nearly a million times. "I purchased the lipsticks the moment they launched online, feeling really excited to receive them," she tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. "I loved the look of the packaging and purchased the entire collection so that I could swatch and review it on my YouTube channel, and paid $315 (£250) in total including shipping." Alexandra says it took 20 days for the lipsticks to arrive and by that time she'd already seen loads of videos online of people saying the lipsticks were contaminated. "I didn't want to believe it but, sure enough when I received mine the very first lipstick that I unboxed had a hair sticking right out the top," she says. "One by one I opened the lipsticks and, of the 19 that I opened, only four didn't show visible signs of contaminants. Alexandra says that when she swiped the lipsticks on paper - not feeling comfortable to use them on her lips - she found "a cocktail of contaminants including hair, plastic, gritty balls and even three shards of metal in the shade Sophia". Jaclyn addressed the issues Alexandra mentions, and other concerns about how old the lipsticks were, in a YouTube video two weeks after the launch. She reassured customers that the lipsticks were not hazardous to use and didn't contain anything that could cause infections. She then promised to send new products to everyone affected and offered refunds to people who were unhappy. Alexandra received a refund after emailing the company with pictures of her lipsticks, but says that's not the problem - she thinks the products need recalling for safety reasons and has sent them off to a lab to get them tested. "I'm extremely upset that Jaclyn Hill has not recalled her lipsticks," she says. "I found three very sharp shards of metal, and I have also seen other posts online showing that other people have found metal as well, and it leads me to believe that the products are extremely dangerous. "Had I used the shade Sophia without inspecting it first, I would have sliced my lip open. "Given the fact that I also found dark black hairs in the same lipstick, the contaminated product could have easily carried bacteria, which could lead to an infection." Jaclyn Hill says she is now getting the products tested in a lab to see where the contamination has come from. Newsbeat has contacted her company for comment. Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

['YouTubers', 'YouTube', 'Social media influencers']

[{"entity": "Jaclyn Hill", "label": "PER"}]

Jaclyn Hill

["YouTubers", "YouTube", "Social media influencers"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48619156

Grenfell survivors project messages on 'unsafe' tower blocks

Campaigners have projected messages on to high-rises across England saying they are unsafe, ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Survivors group Grenfell United put the messages on buildings in Salford, Newcastle and London. One projection says: "2 years after Grenfell and this building is still covered in dangerous cladding." The government said it had made £600m of funding available to replace combustible cladding on high-rises. It expected the work - on both private and social housing homes - to be completed "as soon as possible", it said. In Newcastle, the projection on to Cruddas Park House, which is a 25 storey block for people over 50, says: "2 years after Grenfell and the fire doors in this building still don't work". Newcastle City Council said it had invested over £9m in fire safety measures across the borough and that "the safety of customers is our number one priority". The projection on to the NV building in Salford, which has 246 flats, says it is "still covered in dangerous cladding" which is not covered by the government's cladding removal fund. The developer of the building told the BBC "an urgent investigation is ongoing". And the projection in London appears on Frinstead House, a 20-storey block a stone's throw away from Grenfell Tower. It says the block has no sprinklers. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, which took over management of the high-rise in March last year, said its staff had met residents to talk about sprinklers and other fire safety measures. It said there was a fire safety programme under way across its borough and it was "seeking clear guidance and recommendations from central government on fire safety systems". Grenfell United said it is calling for tower blocks across the UK to be "made safe, and for residents to be listened to and treated with respect". It says they want to see safe fire doors, sprinklers in blocks to keep fire escapes clear, and for all dangerous cladding to be removed. Natasha Elcock, chairman of Grenfell United and a survivor from the tower, said: "It's been two years since Grenfell and people are still going to bed at night worried that a fire like Grenfell could happen to them." The campaigners are calling for the government to introduce a new separate housing regulator to put "residents concerns over profits of housing associations". Karim Mussilhy, vice-chairman of Grenfell United, and who lost his uncle in the fire, said although their message is simple they "needed the biggest possible platform to make them [the government] listen". Mr Mussilhy said residents were raising concerns, but being ignored. "That's what happened to residents in Grenfell before the fire. We have to change the culture in social housing so people are treated with respect." he continued. He has also urged the next prime minister to be "on the right side of history" and to prioritise dealing with the tragedy when they take office. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said in a statement: "The Government has banned combustible materials in the external walls of new high-rise homes and guidance requires that sprinklers must be installed in new buildings above 30 metres. "Building owners are ultimately responsible for the safety of the building and it is for them to decide whether to retro-fit sprinklers."

['Grenfell Tower fire', 'Salford', 'Newcastle upon Tyne']

[{"entity": "England", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Grenfell Tower", "label": "LOC"}]

Grenfell Tower

["Grenfell Tower fire", "Salford", "Newcastle upon Tyne"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32432725

Gallipoli centenary: Prince Charles meets veterans' relatives

The Prince of Wales has paid tribute to the "heroism and humanity" of those who fought in Gallipoli, one of World War One's bloodiest campaigns, at a centenary ceremony in Turkey.

Prince Charles and Prince Harry also met relatives of Gallipoli veterans. They joined leaders from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey - which all lost thousands of troops - at memorials. About 131,000 - made up of 45,000 Allied forces and 86,000 from Turkey - died in the campaign. The fatalities included about 25,000 British military personnel, 10,000 from France and 10,000 from Australia and New Zealand. The series of events in Turkey - to mark the 100th anniversary of the landings on the peninsula of Gallipoli - included an international ceremony and a Commonwealth and Irish commemoration. A separate service also marked France's participation. Prince Charles and Prince Harry met 15 relatives of Gallipoli veterans on board HMS Bulwark, the Royal Navy's flagship. At the international ceremony, Prince Charles said everyone had a "shared duty" to overcome intolerance and fight prejudice "so we can truly say we have honoured the sacrifice of all those who have fought and died here on the battlefield at Gallipoli and elsewhere." At the Commonwealth and Ireland service at Cape Helles, Prince Charles read an extract from John Masefield's book Gallipoli. Wreaths were laid by representatives including Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. The President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, also attended. What was Gallipoli? Why Gallipoli is still commemorated in Australia and New Zealand on Anzac Day World War One's forgotten Anzacs: The Indigenous Army Ben Goddard, 37, travelled to Turkey to honour his great-grandfather Pte Alfred William Goddard, of 2nd Hampshire Regiment, who landed on V Beach on 25 April 1915. He was hit on the elbow by shrapnel 11 days later, but survived the fighting. Mr Goddard, from Ropley in Hampshire, said: "So many men fought and did not come back. That should be remembered, whether the campaign was a disaster or not." Hugh Gillespie, 72, from North Yorkshire, made the journey in memory of his grandfather, Lt Col Franklin Gillespie, who was killed by a sniper while leading a raid. "Our soldiers behaved so exceptionally and fought extremely well in difficult conditions. I think it is an object lesson in making sure the strategy is right in the first place," he said. The events are commemorating the World War One campaign when Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in modern-day western Turkey - then part of the Ottoman Empire - in April 1915. However, the invasion failed, with the Allied forces unable to advance more than a few miles inland. A bloody stalemate ensued which lasted until Allied troops evacuated the peninsula in January 1916. With the sun glinting off the water and lush forests dotting the peninsula, it's hard to imagine the horror that engulfed Gallipoli a century ago. Over nine months, the beaches became bloodbaths as Allied forces attempted their failed invasion. The anniversary is being marked by several ceremonies to remember the thousands of victims. We were on board HMS Bulwark as Prince Charles and Prince Harry met descendants of the soldiers, hearing of heroism and the intense fighting in 1915, when troops were gunned down even before their boats landed on the beaches. Joining the royals at the ceremonies are the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand, for whose countries Gallipoli marked the birth of their national consciousness - fighting in major warfare for the first time as independent nations. Leading the ceremonies: the president of Turkey, which emerged from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire under Ataturk, a brilliant Gallipoli commander. It's a campaign remembered for different reasons by all sides. Events will continue in Turkey on Saturday with services for Anzac Day, which is widely marked in Australia and New Zealand. In London, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh - who is patron of the Gallipoli Association - and Prince William will be joined by senior government and military figures to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that 35,000 British military personnel had died in the Gallipoli campaign, rather than 25,000. Why do Australians and New Zealanders mark Anzac Day? Presenter and chef John Torode explores what there is to celebrate on Anzac Day Australia commemorations risk loving Gallipoli to death Did you know someone who took part? Will you be attending any of the memorial events taking place to mark the occasion? You can share your family memories by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include a telephone number if you are willing to be contacted by a BBC journalist. Email your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, upload them here, tweet them to @BBC_HaveYourSay or text 61124. If you are outside the UK, send them to the international number +44 7624 800 100. Or WhatsApp us on +44 7525 900971 Read our terms and conditions.

['Turkey', 'World War One', 'Australia']

[{"entity": "Gallipoli", "label": "EVE"}, {"entity": "World War One", "label": "EVE"}, {"entity": "Turkey", "label": "LOC"}]

Gallipoli ||| World War One ||| Turkey

["Turkey", "World War One", "Australia"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41461032

Catalan referendum: 'Hundreds hurt' as police try to stop voters

Catalan emergency officials say 761 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.

The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court. Police officers prevented some people from voting, and seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations. In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests. Speaking soon after the polls closed at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT), Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote. The Spanish interior ministry said 12 police officers had been hurt and three people arrested. It added that 92 polling stations had been closed. The national police and Guardia Civil - a paramilitary force charged with police duties - were sent into Catalonia in large numbers to prevent the vote from taking place. While Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau condemned police actions against what she called the region's "defenceless" population, Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said police had "acted with professionalism and in a proportionate way". One voter, Júlia Graell, told the BBC that "police started to kick people, young and old", adding: "Today, I have seen the worst actions that a government can do to the people of its own country." In Girona, riot police smashed their way into a polling station where Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont was due to vote, and forcibly removed those looking to place their ballots. Mr Puigdemont was able to vote at another polling station. The BBC's Tom Burridge, in Barcelona, witnessed police being chased away from one polling booth after they had raided it. Since Friday, thousands of people have occupied schools and other buildings designated as polling stations in order to keep them open. Many of those inside were parents and their children, who remained in the buildings after the end of lessons on Friday and bedded down in sleeping bags on gym mats. In some areas, farmers positioned tractors on roads and in front of polling station doors, and school gates were taken away to make it harder for the authorities to seal buildings off. Firefighters acted as human shields between police and demonstrators. Referendum organisers had called for peaceful resistance to any police action. Meanwhile, FC Barcelona's match against Las Palmas was played behind closed doors, after Barcelona said the football league refused to suspend the game. Catalonia, a wealthy region of 7.5 million people in north-eastern Spain, has its own language and culture. It also has a high degree of autonomy, but is not recognised as a separate nation under the Spanish constitution. Pressure for a vote on self-determination has grown over the past five years. But Spanish unionists argue Catalonia already enjoys broad autonomy within Spain, along with other regions like the Basque Country and Galicia. Mr Rajoy says the vote goes against the constitution, which refers to "the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards". Central government spokesman Iñigo Mendez de Vigo accused the Catalan government of being inflexible and one-sided, but it is a charge that Catalan nationalists have thrown back at Madrid itself. The Spanish government put policing in Catalonia under central control and ordered the regional force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to help enforce the ban on the illegal referendum. Before the poll, Spanish authorities seized voting materials, imposed fines on top Catalan officials and temporarily detained dozens of politicians. Police have also occupied the regional government's telecommunications centre. Spain says a number of factors ensure the poll does not adhere to international standards: the Spanish interior minister said the computer system preventing people from voting twice was not working from Sunday morning. On top of that, any result would not be legally binding, as the poll had been blocked by the Constitutional Court. By Tom Burridge, BBC News, Barcelona The Spanish government has always said that it's the Spanish courts ordering the Spanish police to act. But their strategy of physically preventing people from voting has the potential to backfire hugely. Had you asked me 24 hours ago whether or not I thought it realistic that Catalonia's regional government would declare independence from Spain in the next few days I would have said probably not. But after the very ugly scenes we've seen across this city and this region today I think it is a very real possibility. If that happens then we're into the unknown.

['Catalonia', 'Spain', 'Barcelona', 'Catalonia independence protests']

[{"entity": "Catalonia", "label": "LOC"}]

Catalonia

["Catalonia", "Spain", "Barcelona", "Catalonia independence protests"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51169705

SpaceX completes emergency crew escape manoeuvre

SpaceX has conducted a test of the abort manoeuvre it would use if one of its crew-carrying rockets ever developed a problem during flight.

The rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center saw a Falcon-9 vehicle's ascent into the sky deliberately terminated just 80 seconds after lift-off. The Dragon astronaut capsule on top fired its escape engines to carry itself clear of the "faulty" booster. Parachutes brought the vessel to a safe splashdown some 30km off Florida. No humans were involved in the practice abort; the only occupants of the Dragon ship were a couple of Anthropomorphic Test Devices, or "dummies". This was considered to be the last major milestone for California's SpaceX company before the US space agency (Nasa) certifies the firm to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year. Nasa has contracted both SpaceX and the aerospace giant Boeing to take over routine transportation of astronauts to low-Earth orbit. Not since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011 have American crews been able to launch from American soil. The apparently flawless in-flight abort demonstrated on Sunday should bring this long hiatus to close, perhaps by early summer. SpaceX had promised the escape manoeuvre would be spectacular, and so it proved. As the Dragon capsule fired its escape engines, the Falcon booster underneath lost aerodynamic stability, broke apart and exploded in a huge ball of flame. But by then, the crew capsule was well away, continuing to climb skyward thanks to its powerful superDraco thrusters. Onboard video showed the Dragon drop its service-module segment, or "trunk", before releasing two drogue parachutes. Four main chutes then emerged. These 35m-wide envelopes lowered Dragon into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean a little over nine minutes after the Falcon's lift-off. Teams from SpaceX and the US Air Force were stationed offshore to begin the recovery of the capsule and bring it back to land. Company CEO Elon Musk lauded everyone involved in the test and marvelled at some of the day's statistics: "The peak velocity of Dragon during abort was more than double the speed of sound, Mach 2.2, and achieved an altitude of 40km, 131,000ft. These are exciting specs, for [Dragon] to have gone to three times the altitude of a typical airliner," he told reporters. The importance of having an effective abort capability was underlined by the 2018 experience of Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and Nasa flight engineer Nick Hague. They were on a routine journey to the ISS when their Soyuz rocket damaged itself two minutes into the ascent. The men only escaped death because their capsule also had an emergency system to pull the vessel to safety. It will be recalled also that the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 had no such escape capability and all seven crew members died when the orbiter began to break up 72 seconds into its mission. Nick Hague tweeted after watching Sunday's demonstration: "Trust me... surviving a rocket failure by way of a successful abort system made today's test personal. Thank you @SpaceX & @usairforce Guardian Angels!" Both SpaceX and Boeing were supposed to make their "astronaut taxi services" available in 2017, but the companies have had to grapple with - and overcome - some tricky technical challenges. SpaceX, for example, saw one of its capsules explode on a testbed in April last year. And Boeing, which calls its crew capsule Starliner, hit trouble on an uncrewed dummy run to the space station last month. The Starliner experienced an anomaly immediately after launch that led it to waste fuel reserves, leaving it short of the propellant necessary to reach the orbiting outpost. All that said, it seems likely both SpaceX and Boeing will get to debut crewed flights in the coming months. Nasa has selected shuttle veterans Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to make the first Dragon crewed flight. Mr Musk said their capsule would be at Kennedy shortly and could be ready to fly before July. But Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the "go for launch" for Hurley and Behnken might depend on how long the agency wanted the men to stay on the space station. "Do we want that first crew to be a short duration (mission)? Or do we want it to be a longer duration? If it's going to be a longer duration, then we have to have some additional training for our astronauts to actually be prepared to do things on the International Space Station that we weren't planning to have that initial test crew necessarily do." Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40690144

Linkin Park cancel North American tour after Chester Bennington death

Linkin Park have cancelled their North American tour following the death of singer Chester Bennington.

Promoters Live Nation said refunds would be made available to all ticket-holders for the tour, which was due to begin next Thursday. A spokesman for the company added: "We are incredibly saddened to hear about the passing of Chester Bennington." The Los Angeles County Coroner said the singer, 41, and a father of six, hanged himself on Thursday. His body was found at a private home in the county at 09:00 local time (17:00 GMT). He had previously struggled with addiction and had spoken to BBC Newsbeat about depression and suicide. Formed in 1996, Linkin Park have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide and won two Grammy Awards. 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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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-43045898

Commonwealth Games: Birmingham to build 2022 Games Village

A village accommodating up to 6,500 athletes and officials is to be built for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

In December, Birmingham was named host city for the £750m showpiece - the most expensive sports event to be held in Britain since the London Olympics. The Games Village in Perry Barr will include about 1,000 homes, dining areas, transport and services. Birmingham City Council said it would be a "catalyst" for projects bringing up to 3,000 homes to the area. Midlands Live: Birmingham's flights to Tunisia resume; West Brom sack chairman and chief exec After the Games, the accommodation - a mix of apartments and town houses - is due to be converted to homes for sale and rent, including social and affordable housing. Ian Ward, leader of the Labour-run council, said the village's development would help rejuvenate the north west of the city, creating a "meaningful and lasting legacy" for residents. "We have a desperate need for high-quality housing in the city and it would have been much trickier to meet that demand if we had not been successful in our bid to host the Games," he said. 2022 host city in 60 seconds What could Birmingham offer 2022 visitors? Shooting dropped from the Games Seven reasons city's Olympic bid failed Perry Barr councillor Jon Hunt said it was "crucial" people in the area, which has faced housing, employment and deprivation problems, felt the Games were delivering something for them. "It is important we work together with the organisers to secure the legacy we deserve at a grassroots level," he said. A public meeting about the event will be held at Alexander Stadium at 19:00 GMT on Thursday. Mr Hunt added: "Perry Barr will be hosting thousands of people from all over the world for the Games. We want it to be a warm Brummie welcome."

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25455992

Fake vodka 'can kill you' warning to Christmas shoppers

Christmas shoppers trying to save money are being warned to look out for counterfeit alcohol, which can seriously damage health.

Trading standards say it may contain chemicals such as chloroform or industrial alcohol, which can affect eyesight, or in extreme cases, kill. Seizures of counterfeit vodka in some areas doubled over the last year. Typically it is sold in corner shops where unscrupulous owners sell it from underneath the counter. It has also been found on sale in nightclubs. "I was silly enough to buy some stuff from under the counter, which was clearly not a proper manufactured product," admits Alex Kohnert, a student at Sheffield University. "I have friends who've suffered from temporary blindness, in one case, but also quite bad stomach pains," he told the BBC. Trading Standards staff in Sheffield have been particularly aggressive in trying to tackle the problem. Since April this year they have found 2,300 bottles of illicit alcohol, mostly vodka. That is double the amount they found last year, which in turn was double what they found in 2011. Usually it contains alcohols used in cleaning fluids or antifreeze. As a result, such bottles can contain up to 57% alcohol. "It's not tested. There's no quality control," says Ian Ashmore of Trading Standards. "These are often criminals that are manufacturing this. They're not concerned about the consumer's health. So it can contain virtually anything," he says. In once recent case, a shopkeeper in the Richmond area of Sheffield was fined £582, including costs, for keeping 674 bottles of counterfeit vodka under the counter. The council called the fine derisory. The problem is now becoming apparent elsewhere across the country too. In August, a nightclub in Leeds was fined for stocking vodka containing chloroform, an anaesthetic which can make you feel dizzy, and even cause a drinker to lose consciousness. In September, HMRC seized 13,000 litres of counterfeit vodka in Scotland, one of the largest such seizures ever. It was being transported from Belfast and the lorry was intercepted as it left the ferry at Cairnryan. In December 2013, the owner of a nightclub in Chelmsford was fined after selling fake Smirnoff which he had bought from a van just outside the club. Doctors warn that any fake alcohol which contains methanol can be particularly dangerous. Dr Sarah Jarvis, who advises the organisation Drinkaware, says it can cause nerve damage, giving the victim symptoms of Parkinson's disease. "You can lose your eyesight; you can lose your ability to walk like a normal person; you can lose your life," she told the BBC. Spotting a fake is not always easy. Most illegal manufacturers try and imitate the UK duty paid stamp, although often it is the wrong size. One bottle of vodka we saw claimed to come from an area called "Russia-Berlin", which ought to ring alarm bells. Others had spelling mistakes, wonky labels, and even sediment in the bottle. But some bottles looked exactly like their genuine counterparts, such as Smirnoff or Selekt. Some had an extremely pungent aroma. Price is another good indicator. The duty and VAT alone on a legitimate 70cl bottle of vodka total £8.89. "So if you see a bottle on sale for any less than £9.50, I would be inspecting it," said Ken Webb, an enforcement officer with Trading Standards. Becca Barnes, a welfare officer at Sheffield University, is particularly concerned about students who tank themselves up early in the evening. "We've had students who've started drinking before a night out," she says. "Our advice is to look carefully at the prices as you shop." Drinkware advises shoppers to think of four 'Ps':

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english

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53338139

Coronavirus: Dementia patients 'deteriorating' without family visits

Relatives of care home residents with dementia should be treated as key workers, leading charities say.

In a letter to the health secretary, they write that the care given by family members is "essential" to residents' mental and physical health. They argue the current limits on visitors have had "damaging consequences". They want visits to resume safely, with relatives given the same access to care homes and coronavirus testing as staff. Signed by the bosses of leading charities including Dementia UK and the Alzheimer's Society, the letter calls on the government to "urgently" address what it calls the "hidden catastrophe" happening in care homes. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has told the BBC it will be setting out further details "shortly" on how it can "carefully and safely" allow visiting in care homes. In April, the DHSC said in a document that all "family and friends should be advised not to visit care homes, except next of kin in exceptional situations such as end of life". The charities say that this "enforced separation" has caused a "deterioration" in residents' mental and physical health, particularly for those living with dementia - who make up more than 70% of the population of care homes. They argue that family carers remain "essential members of the residents' care and support network", in providing practical services as well as being their "advocates, voice and memory", and "keeping them connected to the world". They are calling on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to publish detailed guidance on care home visits, and grant certain relatives and friends the same "key worker" status as members of staff - which would allow them the same access to care homes and coronavirus testing. During the pandemic, there have been 5,404 excess deaths - an increase of 52.2% compared with the five-year average - of people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease in England and Wales, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Rosie's mother has severe dementia and lives in a care home. For months she couldn't visit, but when she did, two weeks ago, Rosie was shocked. Her mother was "quite slumped over in her wheelchair". It took her a long time to respond. Rosie could see she'd changed a lot. Worse still, in the last fortnight her mother has stopped eating, refusing to open her mouth when care home workers try to feed her. Rosie is now worried that she might refuse liquids too, and die. Rosie is relieved that the health secretary is promising guidance to allow visits - but also concerned that it may limit how these can happen. Before coronavirus hit, Rosie's mother had visits every day from family or friends. They would sit with her for at least an hour, talking to her. Rosie would sing Motown songs which her mother loves. "Her face would light up, she'd try to sing along" she said. Sometimes she brought food, or would take her out of the home. She liked going to the pub. Now that her mother is so much worse, Rosie would like to be treated in the same way as a paid care worker, to be allowed into the home and sit with her mother. She would be tested for Covid-19, and wear personal protective equipment (PPE). This is something leading dementia charities are saying must made possible under new guidance. "I'm her voice, her advocate" Rosie says. "I should be with her. I've only got one mother. I'm not prepared to let her die without me there". In the letter, the charities say the "inconsistency" of the visiting guidance across the UK nations is causing "additional confusion and stress" for providers and family members. In Scotland, care homes that are virus-free for 28 days were able to accept visitors from 3 July. In Northern Ireland, as of Monday, care homes that are free from the virus can allow one person to visit at a time, with a second person accommodated "where possible". In Wales, visits have been allowed to care homes and their residents since 1 June, provided they take place outside and 2m social distancing rules and hygiene procedures are followed. Care England, which represents most of the independent providers, says new guidance in England is essential - and it is "not right to keep people with care and support needs locked down indefinitely". Nicci Gerrard is the co-founder of John's Campaign and has also signed the group letter. The campaign was set up after her father, Dr John Gerrard - who had Alzheimer's disease - died in November 2014, following a stay in hospital without people he knew to closely care for him. She describes the effect of the lockdown as a "slow-motion catastrophe" that hasn't been fully recognised yet. Ms Gerrard says: "We have received hundreds of messages from family carers who used to go in regularly and who are desperate about what is happening." She says for many residents, family members are "their link to the outside world; they're their voice, and their memory". 'One Dementia Voice', the UK's leading dementia organisations led by John's Campaign and the Alzheimer's Society said it welcomed Mr Hancock's response to the group's letter, but added it needed to see the "detail", including whether designated family carers would be given key worker status. A spokeswoman said it was vital family carers get the same "safe, regular and repeated testing that key workers do, so they can get back in to care homes safely and give the care for their loved ones with dementia that no one else can". Despite the lack of guidance, many homes in England have been allowing visits from relatives, but usually only once a week per person and for very limited amounts of time. They check visitors' temperatures, question them and insist that meetings take place outside, with at least a 2m distance between residents and visitors.

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dementia

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english

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36269734

Russia says US missile system breaches nuclear INF treaty

Russia's foreign ministry says US activation of a European missile defence shield in Romania, scheduled for Thursday, violates a treaty on nuclear forces.

A ministry statement quoted by Interfax news agency said it was a breach of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed in 1987. The US says the Aegis system is a shield to protect Nato from long-range missiles and is no threat to Russia. Romania is hosting part of the system. A ceremony will be held at a Nato airfield in Deveselu, southern Romania, on Thursday to mark the start of Aegis operations there. "This decision is harmful and mistaken, because it is capable of upsetting strategic stability," said Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the Russian foreign ministry's department for proliferation and arms control issues. Nato and US officials say the system has been developed to track and intercept missiles fired from a "rogue" state. In the past Iran was mentioned in that context, but the US has also had North Korea in mind. For years the US has been testing the Aegis system on warships too. An incoming missile would be destroyed in space, before it could re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. On Friday another phase of the project will be launched in Poland, with a groundbreaking ceremony at Redzikowo, near the Baltic Sea. Aegis missiles are to become operational there in 2018. Mr Ulyanov said Russia's interests "are being affected in a direct way by this". He said the Americans' MK-41 launch system could also be used to fire cruise missiles, not just air defence missiles. "From our viewpoint this is a violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty," he said.

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Russia ||| Romania

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35061369

Smartphone consultations with GPs in digital health plan

Patients will be able to consult with their GP using a smartphone and monitor their conditions via mobile apps, as part of a Welsh government strategy.

There will be more opportunity to book appointments online while people will be able to access their health records over the internet. NHS staff will also be expected to use mobile devices to access, collect and transmit data quickly. Plaid Cymru welcomed the plan, but warned it would take time to introduce. Ministers want to put digital technology "at the heart" of NHS care. Under the five-year strategy, people in Wales can expect to: Free Wi-Fi will also be made available at all NHS Wales hospital sites for patients, visitors and staff to use. Launching the new strategy, Health Minister Mark Drakeford said digital technology was now "an important part of our everyday lives". "Our vision is for more interactive, personalised health and social services, allowing people to access services wherever and whenever it's convenient to them." He said patients are often the experts in their own conditions and giving them more control over their care and access to their records could help improve their health. Tony Rucinski, chief executive of the Board of Community Health Councils, which look after the interests of patients, called the strategy's aspirations "really exciting", but said getting "an awful lot of different organisations" to work together on it would be a "challenge". "We've got dense population bases, we've got rural communities, we've got challenges where people find it difficult to access healthcare, there are ideas and technologies out there that could transform that, free up resources and get the whole thing working so much better, that's got to be a good thing," he said. Plaid Cymru AM Llyr Gruffydd urged ministers to make clear it would take a "long, long time" to make such changes, although he added they would ultimately mean a "more effective service" for patients. Conservative Shadow Health Minister Darren Millar said: "Anything that improves access to GPs and other medical services is desperately needed in Wales but outcomes will only improve if the services are there in the first place." Do you like this story? If so, head over to our Facebook page and join today's debate.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-33239356

What it means to be female in Nigeria

What does it mean to be female in Nigeria? Women in Nigeria are using a hashtag on Twitter to share their experiences of everyday gender discrimination.

It started with a small book club meeting in the capital of Abuja on Sunday. Its members were discussing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminists", based on the writer's popular talk. "We started describing our own experiences and challenges and thought we should bring the discussion to a larger group," says the book club's Florence Warmate. The area sales manager began to tweet her thoughts with the hashtag #BeingFemaleinNigeria, and soon the timeline flooded with other women sharing the unique situations they face because of their gender. The hashtag, which has been mentioned more than 80,000 times on Twitter, has been used by both women and men to debate gender identity and describe how women face sexism in their workplace, public places and even in their homes. "#BeingfemaleinNigeria is being told countless times that I will never find a husband because I am 'too ambitious' and outspoken," said one tweet. Several tweets explained how they had to deal with gender stereotypes at work or being judged even based on the kind of vehicle they drove. "I learnt that if you graciously cook food & take to work for male colleagues, you must clear their dirty plates too," said one woman. "If you own an SUV, it's your sugar daddy/ married lover that bought it for you," tweeted another user. "You can't go to club on your own to have a solo drink, you're a prostitute," read a tweet about the problems faced while going out. "Having to bear the trauma of your rape alone because your rapist is a highly respected family member," said another. Another post referenced #BringBackOurGirls, the global online campaign which called for the release of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram fighters: "You get kidnapped and killed because you are being educated." Warmate says she does not expect society to change overnight. "But this can enlighten people and change perceptions about women. When women work hard, respect that." Nigeria is currently ranked 118th out of 142 countries in the Gender Gap Index 2014 of the World Economic Forum. In a new survey the 'Global Women Entrepreneur Leadership Scorecard', Nigeria scored the highest when it came to women who thought they have the skills to become entrepreneurs, but scored the least among 31 countries for 'business environment'. While several men have also actively encouraged the stories coming out of #BeingFemaleinNigeria, some responded with another hashtag: #BeingMaleinNigeria. "You must pay for lunch/dinner/movies/etc because masculinity = money," tweeted one man, while another said, "You are responsible, hardworking, morally upright. But stereotype of Nigerian men by women will overshadow your efforts." Warmate clarifies her trend is not meant to put men down. "This is about gender equality. It's about how if a man did the same thing we did, no-one would ask him anything," she tells Trending. "It's not male bashing. It's not feminism." When asked why she thinks the trend is not linked to feminism, she explained that feminism is a broad subject with different definitions for different people, and it can be associated with a 'negative agenda'. The conversation that started in Nigeria has resonated with women across the world and has sprouted posts about what it means to be women in other African countries like Ghana, and also Bangladesh. "Hashtags #BeingFemaleInGhana #beingfemaleinZimbabwe #BeingFemaleInNigeria just show that it's tough being a woman. Simple. But we're strong!," summarised one user. Blog by Samiha Nettikkara Next story: Bree Newsome: Flag activist becomes online folk hero Bree Newsome scaled a flagpole on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol and took down the Confederate flag. By the time she climbed down, she was a hero to many online. READ MORE You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

['Social media', 'Nigeria', 'Feminism']

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Nigeria ||| Nigeria ||| Twitter

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40307918

German reunification architect Helmut Kohl dies at 87

Helmut Kohl, Germany's ex-chancellor and architect of reunification in 1990, has died at 87.

Kohl led Germany for 16 years (from 1982 to 1998). He is credited with bringing East and West Germany together after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Together with his French ally President Francois Mitterrand, he was responsible for the introduction of the euro. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has ordered flags at EU institutions to be flown at half-mast. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Kohl's former protegee who later called for his resignation over a political funding scandal, said his death filled her with deep sadness. "Helmut Kohl's efforts brought about the two greatest achievements in German politics of recent decades - German reunification and European unity," she said. "Helmut Kohl understood that the two things were inseparable." For his part, Mr Juncker said in a tweet: "Helmut's death hurts me deeply." "My mentor, my friend, the very essence of Europe, he will be greatly, greatly missed," he added. Former US President George HW Bush paid tribute to the man he knew while in office from 1989 to 1993 as a "true friend of freedom" and "one of the greatest leaders in post-war Europe". Kohl suffered a bad fall in 2008 and had been using a wheelchair. He died at his house in Ludwigshafen, in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Bild newspaper reports. Kohl, who led the centre-right Christian Democrats, was the longest-serving chancellor of the 20th Century. A passionate believer in European integration, he persuaded Germans to give up their cherished deutschmark in favour of the European single currency. In the UK, he is remembered for his differences over the EU with the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In France, he is the German leader who held hands with Mitterrand at a service at the Verdun war memorial in 1984 to mark the 70th anniversary of World War One. But for Germans he is above all the man who reunified a country divided by the allied powers after World War Two, promising the people of the ex-communist East "flourishing landscapes", in unity with the richer West. Helmut Josef Michael Kohl was born on 3 April 1930 into a conservative, Catholic family. His political outlook was shaped by his experiences in his hometown of Ludwigshafen in the Rhineland during World War Two. Because of its huge chemical works, the town was heavily bombed and, at the age of 12, the young Helmut found himself helping to recover the charred bodies of his neighbours from the rubble. What he once described as "the blessing of a late birth" freed him from any taints of Nazism. READ ON Kohl fell from grace when a funding scandal under his leadership of the Christian Democrats came to light after he left office in 1998. Chancellor Merkel first entered government under Kohl's rule in 1991. But she publicly denounced him and called for his resignation when it was revealed the party had received millions of dollars worth of illegal donations using secret bank accounts. In 2011, in a series of interviews and statements, he spoke out against Mrs Merkel's policy of strict austerity to deal with the European debt crisis. Kohl's later life was also marked by personal tragedy. His wife, Hannelore, killed herself in July 2001 after suffering from a rare skin condition and depression.

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Helmut Kohl ||| Germany

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49830755

UEFA to plant 50,000 trees in Republic of Ireland

The governing body of European football says it's going to plant 50,000 trees in the Republic of Ireland to offset emissions from people travelling to Euro 2020 matches.

The move is part of an UEFA climate action project. The body will plant 600,000 trees across the 12 host countries of the tournament. Euro 2020 will be spread across a dozen venues in Europe, including the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Other venues include Hampden Park in Glasgow and the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Aleksander Čeferin, president of UEFA, said that there are many benefits of the tournaments, but that increased travel comes with a cost. "UEFA takes its responsibilities on this seriously and it is right that we offset the carbon emissions that causes," he said.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43733751

Burned Silicon Valley home's $800,000 price tag raises eyebrows

A Silicon Valley real estate agent is defending the price of a fire-ravaged home that is listed on the market for $800,000 (£565,000).

The San Jose house, which sits on a 5,800 sq ft lot in California's San Francisco Bay Area, was the site of a major fire two years ago. The listing, announced on the agent's Facebook page, quickly drew criticism. San Francisco housing prices have risen dramatically in recent years due to proximity to nearby technology firms. "Unchecked free market capitalism," one commenter complained. "Posting a dumpster with a roof in Facebook for 800,000 is begging to get trolled," another social media user wrote. But Willow Glen Charm real estate agent Holly Barr said the land is what makes the property so valuable, as well as its proximity to nearby technology companies such as Facebook and Google. "If you are in the market you know real estate you know that this is what it's worth and the buyers set the price," Ms Barr told KTVU-TV. She added that she has already received several offers, and predicts that a bidding war may break out soon. Rick Smith of Santa Clara County Association of Realtors told the station: "I'm not surprised at all." The median price for a single-family home in the area is $1.4 million, he noted. According to NBC News, houses in San Jose gain nearly $571 in value every day due to rising costs and fewer homes for sale in the area. Over a year, that equals over $200,000 in new equity, the news outlet reports. Sacred Heart Community Services spokesman Darren Seaton told the network that he fears that the high cost will hurt more than just homeowners' wallets. "A home looks like it makes more than a schoolteacher here in San Jose," Mr Seaton told NBC. "As housing continues to skyrocket, it's going to make it more difficult to survive in Silicon Valley." Where house prices rose fastest in 2017 Where can I afford to live?

['San Francisco', 'United States']

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-44520613

Selfie mistakes: Sorry, but that is not a celebrity

Clean Bandit are Grace Chatto, Jack and Luke Patterson - but perhaps not everybody knows that or would recognise them if they met them.

That was definitely the case for MP Barry Gardiner when he "met" the band at a recent political event. He posed with who he thought were band members at this weekend's Labour Live. But rather than meeting members of the chart-topping band, he posed with some of their touring musicians instead. Twitter users were quick to point out that he had in fact met violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason and vocalist Yasmin Green. Braimah and Yasmi perform with Clean Bandit at their live shows, so it's understandable that Barry thought they were part of the band. Barry was trolled for his mistake with photos of the real members and other photos which definitely did not contain Clean Bandit. It's an easy mistake to make, and Barry isn't the first and definitely won't be the last to make it. Emma marked the anniversary of when her friend Rebecca thought she bumped into one of the world's biggest pop stars. Spoiler: She didn't. But at least it seems like Rebecca was able to laugh at her mistake. It's one thing to think you've bumped into Maisie Williams. It's quite another when she's the one to point out your mistake. And this man blamed alcohol for why he thought he'd been hanging out with Chris Pratt. Tina Fey is one of America's best comedy writers and actors. This lady is someone else. 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.

['Selfies', 'Maisie Williams', 'Ed Sheeran']

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en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-45624619

Thomas Jones: Second murder arrest over missing student

A second man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with a missing university student.

Thomas Jones, 18, from Bromsgrove has not been heard from since the early hours of Wednesday morning. A 20-year-old from Worcester is in police custody along with another man, also aged 20. Prior to the second arrest West Mercia Police shared CCTV images, of two men they wanted to speak to, recorded at the city's Velvet nightclub. Both men were arrested on Sunday. The force said it believed Mr Jones had crossed the Sabrina footbridge, which crosses the River Severn near to Worcester Racecourse, and then walked on to the footpath that runs along the top of the flood defences on Hylton Road in the direction of Hallow, just before 03:50 BST. Supt Damian Pettit said: "We are continuing the investigation with a number of lines of inquiry and will keep the community updated with developments in our continued investigation. "Thomas' family has been made aware of the updates and they are being supported by specially trained officers." As searches are ongoing, police have asked people to "kindly stay away" from the area to allow officers and divers to work "without distraction". They said there had been an "unprecedented response" to the case, with hundreds of volunteers supporting the investigation. Mr Jones was embarking on a primary teaching course at the University of Worcester and had only moved to the city on 16 September. His aunt, Jackie Rogers, said a "small army" was carrying out house-to-house inquiries in and around Hylton Road and was determined to "find our boy". Mrs Rogers said the teenager sent a Facebook message to a friend at 03:46, but no-one had heard from him since. Mr Jones was believed to have been wearing pale-coloured jeans, a navy blue, woollen zip-up Lacoste top and green shoes at the time of his disappearance. Appeals for information have also been made by West Bromwich Albion Football Club, where Mr Jones was a season ticket holder. Aston Villa FC have also publicised the search for him.

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[]

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["Bromsgrove", "Worcester"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-34449987

Big Wes namesake attends first Nottingham Forest match

An American man who became a Nottingham Forest fan after he was mistaken for a player online said it was "a dream come true" to attend his first game.

Wesley Hall, from Atlanta, and former Forest defender Wes Morgan, 31, are both known as Big Wes. Mr Hall's Twitter handle is @bigwes, and Forest fans mistakenly tweeted him four years ago to congratulate him on Morgan's 400th appearance for the club. He knew nothing about football at the time, but is now a diehard Reds fan. He watches and listens to games from across "the pond", but this was his first time seeing Forest in the flesh. "I said I wanted to be an honorary Forest fan," he told BBC Radio Nottingham. "When I said that, that's when the whole thing went absolutely wild and it's been like a rocket ship ever since." Mr Hall, who describes himself as a "digital analytics striker" on Twitter, was treated like a celebrity at the City Ground, with Forest fans eager to have photographs taken with him. "I shed a couple of tears walking in," he said. "It was overwhelming because ever since this whole thing started it's been really my desire to get here, to be amongst the people that I've grown to love, and now being here is actually a dream come true." Unfortunately he did not get a chance to meet the other Big Wes, as Wes Morgan now plays for Leicester City. However, Mr Hall was given the opportunity to take penalties at half-time during Forest's 1-0 defeat by Hull City on Saturday. He also had time to visit the statue of Forest's legendary manager Brian Clough during his trip to Nottingham. "It's been amazing seeing everybody that I've been corresponding to online," he said. "It's been absolute madness, non-stop. I've had a blast since I've been here."

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NoPresentEntity

["Nottingham"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25713019

The ballad of the Romanian shepherd

Shepherds have a special place in Romania's history and in its culture, and their lifestyle has not changed much in centuries - until now. Social media has turned at least one of them into a celebrity, writes Caroline Juler.

On a dank Monday evening some weeks ago, a Romanian shepherd called Ghita left home with his sheep. He wasn't in a lorry but on foot, accompanied by several angajati, or hired men, some shaggy dogs, and seven donkeys loaded with gear. Ghita was off on his autumn transhumance, heading north for his winter pastures. It would take him six weeks. For a country whose defining myth revolves around shepherds, Romania isn't all that keen on its pastoralists. The Ballad of the Little Sheep (Miorita) tells of a herdsman who lets himself be murdered by two rival shepherds even though one of his lambs, who has miraculously acquired the power of speech, warns him in advance. Miorita is sometimes taken as a metaphor for Christianity, another way of showing Christ's courage in turning the other cheek. It's also said to mirror the experience of the Romanian people who have endured numerous invasions, occupations and humiliations without, it is claimed, ever losing their identity. When Romanians were agitating for independence in the 19th Century, Transylvanian shepherds were seen as the rugged pioneers of the nationalist movement. Long before then, they had established shortcuts over the Carpathian Mountains to seasonal grazing in what is now Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, the Caucasus, southern Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and the Czech Republic. Having crossed from Hungarian and Habsburg lands into Ottoman Turkey and Russia, they returned home to their more isolated communities with information, ideas and ambitions fired by the world outside. A shepherd's CV has to offer some crucial USPs: caringness, self-reliance and dedication. He - and it's almost always a he, although in real life women did the same job - is synonymous with the kindly ideals of Christianity and for that matter Islam - but for all that, he is a humble, often solitary, sometimes rootless figure. During Communism, certain Romanian sheep farmers did rather well. People still talk about Mr B from Poiana Sibiului who asked Ceausescu's permission to buy a helicopter. Mr B's flocks were hefted over several mountains, and he argued that being able to fly would let him keep track of them more easily. His request was refused, but Poiana is famous for other reasons - many of its shepherds built luxurious mansions at a time when most people had to stand in queues to buy food and lit their homes with 40 watt bulbs. Inaccessible to big machinery, many mountain farms escaped collectivisation, and the men and women who commuted there from the less exclusive plains, spoke of "going to America". Like farmers worldwide, Romanian flock masters enjoy a good grumble. But things have got tough for them since 1989. Once guaranteed, prices for wool have plummeted. Although there is an international market for Romanian lamb, and sheep's cheese sells well, "slow food" has not made enough of a difference to the shepherds who find it healthier - and cheaper - to walk their sheep to far away winter pastures rather than keep their animals inside. With its origins in the Bronze Age, if not earlier, transhumance is a form of semi-nomadism. It sounds romantic but in the past, Romanian shepherds occasionally resorted to transporting their animals by train, something they could never afford to do now. Romanian shepherds still look archaic. They wear a long sheepskin cloak called a cojoc or sarica. With the shaggy fleece on the outside, it's also their bed, so when shepherds call the cloak their house, they aren't joking. When they sleep at all, it's outside, in all weathers. The hired men earn between 200 or 300 euros a month. They also receive daily meals, work clothing, and a cigarette allowance. Romanians are generally learning more about their shepherds thanks to television. In August this year, a well-known phone company began an advertising campaign that highlighted real people doing real jobs. One of them was Ghita. Dressed in his cojoc and rimless pot hat (another must-have piece of shepherding rig), sitting by a campfire and dancing with sheep, Ghita Ciobanul, or Ghita the Shepherd, has taken Romania by storm. Ten days after the phone company put him on Facebook, his page had clocked more than 200,000 likes. A month later, they had doubled. In the past, Ghita has had to move his sheep illegally, during the night. Given the hazards of crossing Romania's rapidly urbanising, motorised countryside, it's the only way. Accidents and shootings have cost him scores of sheep and many dogs. Maybe this year, thanks to his new-found celebrity, Ghita will be luckier. From Our Own Correspondent: Listen online or download the podcast. BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 and some Thursdays at 11:00 BBC World Service: Short editions Monday-Friday - see World Service programme schedule. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

['Romania']

[{"entity": "Romania", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Caroline Juler", "label": "PER"}]

Romania

["Romania"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42652245

Rail strikes hit Northern, Greater Anglia, South Western and Merseyrail

Fresh strikes are causing more disruption for rail passengers in the latest 24-hour walkout over safety.

RMT union members at Northern, South Western Railway, Merseyrail and Great Anglia are taking action for the third time in less than a week. The union says scrapping guards and introducing driver-only operated trains risks passenger safety. But the rail companies have insisted the move is safe and already widely used. Picket lines have appeared at some railway stations affected by the strike, and passengers are facing delays, cancellations and replacement buses in some parts of the country. All four operators said some services would still be running: RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "It is frankly ludicrous that we have been able to negotiate long-term arrangements in Scotland and Wales that protect the guards and passenger safety, but we are being denied the same opportunities with rail companies in England. "This suspension of normal industrial relations by the employers has to end if we are to make progress towards a solution that guarantees safe rail travel for all. "RMT stands ready for talks in each of these separate disputes." A Department for Transport spokesman said: "This is a dispute between a private company and the RMT. "However, the transport secretary recognises the disruption caused to passengers and has met with union leaders on several occasions, including as recently as December, to help bring an end to the strikes. "Nobody is losing their job as a result of driver-controlled operation trains, employees have been guaranteed jobs and salaries for several years."

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[]

NoPresentEntity

["Merseyrail", "South Western Railway", "RMT", "Greater Anglia", "Northern"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37136536

Syrian war: US scrambles jets to Hassakeh

American fighter planes have been scrambled to the Syrian city of Hassakeh to protect US special forces on the ground from Syrian government aerial attacks, the US military says.

The Pentagon said the Syrian planes were leaving as its jets arrived. People in the north-eastern Syrian city say government warplanes have hit Kurdish districts there for the past two days. Thousands are reported to have fled their homes. Hassakeh is mainly under the control of a Kurdish militia, the YPG. What is left of Syria after five years of war? Syrian Kurds declare federal system Syrian government's warplanes bombed Kurdish areas of Hassakeh for the second day running on Friday. On Thursday, the US "scrambled" - quickly launched - fighter jets to defend some special forces soldiers that were in the area, but did not have to engage in combat because the Syrian planes turned and left as they arrived. Much of Hassakeh is controlled a Kurdish militia, the YPG. Special forces are elite soldiers with specialist skills, who often work undercover. There are 300 US special forces troops in Syria. Most of them were sent there in the past few months. They support local militias, including the YPG, in the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS). No weapons were fired between the US and Syria, but the incident was enough of a threat against US personnel on the ground for the coalition's military apparatus to swing into action. It is thought to be the first time this has happened. Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said that as far as he was aware, Thursday's mission was the first time that coalition aircraft had been scrambled to respond to an incident involving Syrian government aerial bombardment. The US had no radio contact with the Syrian planes. Capt Davis told journalists that the US had warned Syria via its communication channel with Russia that it would defend coalition troops. He said the strikes "did not directly impact our forces" but they were "close enough that it gives us great pause". US President Barack Obama has authorised the deployment of special forces troops in Syria to support local militias in the fight against IS, but he has repeatedly ruled out sending ground forces to the conflict. In a statement on Syrian state TV on Friday evening, the general command of the Syrian army accused Kurdish forces of "attacking state institutions, stealing oil and cotton, obstructing exams, kidnapping unarmed civilians and spreading chaos and instability". These actions required an appropriate response from the army, the statement said. A Kurdish journalist who is in Hassakeh, Heybar Othman, told the BBC that it was the first time the Syrian government had used air power against the city. "Right now in the city you don't have electricity, you don't have bread," he said. "We don't have [a] specific number of casualties but approximately 12 civilian people [were] killed and more than 33 injured." The YPG has emerged as a major fighting force in northern Syria in the past two years, becoming a key ally of the US-led coalition against IS. Kurds made up between 7% and 10% of Syria's population of 24.5 million before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began five years ago. Although they were denied basic rights and suffered decades of political suppression by the Arab-led state, most Kurds avoided taking sides when a wave of protests swept the country. When government forces withdrew from Kurdish areas to concentrate on fighting rebels elsewhere in mid-2012, Kurdish militias led by the YPG swiftly took control.

['Syrian civil war', 'Kurds', 'Syria']

[{"entity": "Syrian", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Hassakeh", "label": "LOC"}]

Syrian ||| Hassakeh

["Syrian civil war", "Kurds", "Syria"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38729120

Rolf Harris indecent assault jury 'got it wrong'

The jury that in 2014 convicted Rolf Harris of a series of indecent assaults "got it wrong", his lawyer has told a second trial on further allegations.

Stephen Vullo QC told Southwark Crown Court that his client had been wrongly found guilty of assaults on four women. Mr Harris will not give evidence at this trial, Mr Vullo said. The former entertainer, 86, denies seven charges of indecent assault and one of sexual assault on victims aged between 12 and 42, from 1971 to 2004. He is following proceedings via a video-link from prison. Mr Vullo said: "What do we say about trial one? In short, we say that the jury got it wrong." He said the defence team had "enormous faith" in the jury system but "no system is infallible". The jury heard evidence about Mr Harris's conviction for assaulting an eight-year-old girl at a community centre in 1969. His then personal assistant described it as "highly unlikely" Mr Harris would have been at the centre, in Portsmouth, because of his high level of fame. Bruna Zanelli said: "He was a major star... a household name. We were a management that was highly esteemed. And we wouldn't have sent any client to work at a community centre. It just wouldn't have happened." Mr Harris maintains his innocence and has pleaded not guilty to assaulting seven girls and women in a series of "brazen" attacks spanning 30 years, the most recent in 2004, the court has heard. Mr Vullo told the jury that part of the evidence would relate to Harris's first trial, but that they should focus on the latest allegations. The jury was also told about an answerphone message left for one of the victims in the first case. In the 2013 message the victim, who was aged 15 when Harris assaulted her in a London pub while she was on a visit from Australia, is accused by her ex-partner of lying about her allegation against the entertainer. In an email sent to British police the following year, the victim's ex-partner said the woman made up the allegations after hearing of Mr Harris's arrest in the UK. The man, who the court heard had been physically abusive during the relationship, told police he felt obliged to support her at the time. In his email he said: "To my knowledge Mr Harris is innocent of (her) claims." On Mr Harris not giving evidence, Mr Vullo pointed out some of the alleged offences in the current trial went back four decades, and said calling the entertainer would not help a great deal. "If the defendant can say no more to you than 'I cannot remember being there', the evidential importance of giving evidence is actually quite weak," he said. The case continues.

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NoPresentEntity

["Rolf Harris"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-28102670

Chennai building collapse toll rises to 24

The death toll in a building collapse in the southern Indian city of Chennai has risen to 24, reports say.

Some 24 survivors have so far been pulled from the rubble, and 20 others are feared trapped in the debris. More than 70 workers were in the 11-storey building which was under construction when it toppled in heavy rain late on Saturday. India has seen frequent building collapses, many blamed on lax safety and substandard materials. At least six people, including construction company officials, have been arrested in connection with the collapse in Chennai (Madras), the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Dr K Kulandaisamy, a senior health official of Tamil Nadu, told the NDTV news channel that 15 of the dead had been identified. The dead were mainly construction workers from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state and were in the building to collect their wages, reports say. On Monday, two workers, including a woman, were pulled alive from rubble by rescue workers, reports say. The woman is being treated for a head injury at the hospital, a hospital spokesperson told Press Trust of India news agency. Hundreds of rescue workers, including personnel from India's National Disaster Response Force, are working with cutters, shovels and other equipment to search for survivors. "The building has come down like a stack of cards," Karuna Sagar, a senior police officer, told AFP news agency. While the cause of the latest collapse is still under investigation, a lack of construction codes, leading to lax safety, is one reason for frequent collapses of buildings and other infrastructure projects in India. There is also a high demand for housing, pushing up costs and forcing less affluent people to risk their lives in decrepit or badly constructed buildings. Earlier on Saturday, a four-storey building came down in the capital Delhi, killing 10 people, including five children. In January, at least 14 people died when a building under construction came crashing down in the western state of Goa. At least 42 people died after a four-storey building collapsed in Mumbai last September.

['New Buildings', 'Chennai', 'India']

[{"entity": "Indian", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Chennai", "label": "LOC"}]

Chennai

["New Buildings", "Chennai", "India"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40990947

Barcelona attacks: What could they mean for Catalan independence?

Ten years ago this month, a foreign news event occurred that ultimately had a major impact on relations between Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

The credit crunch, which began when French bank BNP Paribas froze funds over US subprime mortgage sector fears, eventually plunged Spain into recession. Old grievances among Catalans were revived, as secessionists argued that their wealthy region was being milked by incompetent governments in Madrid. Now a very different kind of outside factor, jihadist violence, has returned to Spain, which last saw such carnage in the Madrid train bombings of 2004. This time Catalonia was attacked, less than two months before its unrecognised referendum on independence. While there is no suggestion Barcelona was targeted for any reason other than being Barcelona, could the attack become the wild card that gives the sovereignty game back to Madrid? Because they clapped the king of Spain on Plaça de Catalunya? Probably not. When King Felipe and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy joined Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau at a rally on the city's central square, they were simply there to mourn. "How could the king and the prime minister not travel to Barcelona?" says Manuel Arias-Maldonado, political science professor at Málaga University. "They had to go." For Adrià Alsina Leal, professor of journalism and communications at the Central University of Catalonia and a Catalan independence activist, "solidarity is welcome from wherever it comes". "It's only normal that they came," he says, noting the sense of "correctness and politeness" at the event. "I wouldn't attach any other significance to that." "It could even be argued that circumstances have forced Puigdemont and Rajoy to show, albeit reluctantly, some unity of purpose," Prof Arias-Maldonado suggests. "There are, of course, minor details: Puigdemont's references to the 'Catalan character' in his speech, Rajoy's call to co-operate and leave behind what separates in the face of greater challenges." The tacit truce between Madrid and the secessionists may rapidly unravel after Sunday, when Catalonia's three days of official mourning end. Activists have suspended campaigning for that period, and I saw no sign of campaigning along Las Ramblas, beyond the occasional estelada (the unofficial lone-star flag of independence) in some of the shops. But secessionists are indignant at how some of Spain's biggest newspapers have used the attack against their cause. For instance, an editorial in El País essentially argued that an attack of this magnitude should act as a reality check for Catalans and persuade them to set aside thoughts of independence. "Using an editorial to sort of shame Catalan independence supporters like that was probably a bit over the top," says Prof Leal. However, the real battle for hearts and minds may be fought on social media. Some secessionists, Prof Arias-Maldonado points out, are already praising the response of Catalan "state-like structures" as confirmation that Catalonia is ready for independence. "Some are even advancing the idea that these things would not happen in a free Catalonia," he says. Prof Leal insists that he and fellow members of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a non-party grassroots movement advocating the referendum and a Yes vote, are showing dignified restraint during the period of mourning. However, when the campaign restarts, it will be visibly in tune with its democratic values. On the other hand, he says: "We definitely need to go in a very micro-targeted way to all those people who might still be wondering whether to vote Yes or No or whether to vote at all." Among the most extraordinary sights of the past few days was the outpouring of real love for Catalonia's police. People applauded the Mossos in the street for their work in securing the region and tracking down the jihadists. In a blistering polemic entitled Seven Hours Of Independence, Catalan writer Bernat Dedéu argues that the first response of Catalonia's police and emergency services proved the region had "acted as an authentic power". He also makes the point that Spain has denied Catalan police direct access to European police databases, while granting it to police in the Basque region (however, change was already on the cards last month). Nonetheless, the Catalan authorities' handling of security before the attack is not above criticism. Barcelona's town hall rejected installing vehicle barriers at Las Ramblas, despite a recommendation from the Spanish interior ministry after the Berlin Christmas market attack, Prof Arias-Maldonado points out. He also notes that the explosion at a house in Alcanar just before the attack was "misinterpreted as a drug-dealing event". "It is unclear why this happened and why this event was not followed by a tightening of the security," he says. "Still, perception is king and if public perception says that the Catalan police handled it well, it might help the secessionist case." "It is hard to say," says the political scientist from Málaga University. "According to polls, secessionists are now around 41% of Catalans - numbers have been going down for some time. Around 49% are against it. "These data come from the Catalan public polling body. How will the terrorist attack affect this situation? Who knows? But my bet is - not very much and if it does, it will reinforce the unionist side. "Ultimately I don't think the essence of the independence debate is going to change, because the underlying situation has not changed," says Prof Leal. When I put it to him that support for the cause of independence appears to be ebbing, he is sceptical about the polls and argues that the base is still strong. "I don't know anybody who was a supporter of independence who has stopped being a supporter of independence," he says. He speaks with the same passion I remember in November 2014, when we met during the heady week of Catalonia's referendum dry run. Nearly two million people voted, defying Madrid's attempts to ban it, and 80% chose independence (according to Catalan figures). But one thing has definitely changed since then: Spain's economy is recovering. That, for Prime Minister Rajoy, master of the long game, may yet be his best card. For more on Barcelona after the attack, follow Patrick at @patrickgjackson

['Catalonia', 'Spain', 'Barcelona', 'Catalonia independence protests']

[{"entity": "Catalonia", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Spain", "label": "LOC"}]

Catalonia ||| Spain

["Catalonia", "Spain", "Barcelona", "Catalonia independence protests"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40098658

Russia inquiry expands to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen

President Donald Trump's lawyer has received requests for information from two congressional panels investigating alleged Russian political meddling.

Michael Cohen confirmed to US media that he had been asked to "provide information and testimony" about any contacts he had with the Kremlin. Mr Cohen said he turned down the request because it was "overly broad" and "not capable of being answered". Last week Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was named in the Russia probe. Mr Cohen is the latest Trump associate to rebuff the House and Senate investigations into the matter. White House communications chief quits "I declined the invitation to participate, as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered," he told ABC News. He later told CNN that lawmakers "have yet to produce one single piece of credible evidence that would corroborate the Russia narrative". The widening inquiry into Russia's alleged interference in the US election and whether Trump campaign officials colluded with the Kremlin is threatening to engulf his fledgling presidency. His son-in-law is said to be under scrutiny as part of the FBI inquiry. According to US media, Mr Kushner, a top White House aide, discussed setting up a back channel line of communication with Moscow's envoy to Washington during a December meeting. In Tuesday's daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer refused to be drawn on whether Mr Kushner had tried to set up such a secretive mode of contact. Mr Spicer said the claims were based on reports "not substantiated by anything but anonymous sources". White House rallies to Kushner's defence How Trump's Russia trouble unfolded The press secretary added, however, that "in general terms, back channels are an appropriate part of diplomacy". Meanwhile, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is to submit documents to the Senate intelligence committee as part of its investigation, government sources tell US media. Last week, Mr Flynn initially said through his lawyer that he would refuse to hand over files relating to his contacts with Russians dating back to June 2015. Similar congressional request for information have been sent to other former Trump aides, including Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Carter Page. Mr Manafort and Mr Stone have complied, but Mr Page is not thought to have responded yet.

['Mueller Trump-Russia inquiry', 'Donald Trump', 'United States']

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NoPresentEntity

["Mueller Trump-Russia inquiry", "Donald Trump", "United States"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35489514

Council cuts 'threat' to rural bus services

Many rural bus services in England and Wales face being wiped out by council budget cuts, campaigners have warned.

Research by the Campaign for Better Transport says subsidies to routes have been reduced by £78m since 2010, with another £27m under threat this year. It likens the situation to the cuts to about a third of the rail network made on the back of a report by Dr Beeching in the 1960s. Councils say "difficult decisions" are being made amid government cuts. The Campaign for Better Transport says reductions in local authority funding had already resulted in thousands of bus services being reduced or cancelled in recent years. According to its research, people in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Somerset, Dorset, West Berkshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, North Yorkshire and Lancashire will be among the worst affected. Oxfordshire County Council says it is looking to save nearly £4m by cutting subsidies to more than 100 routes. It told the BBC it had been left with no choice but to include buses in the services it was cutting, because of an overall reduction in government funding to councils. Martin Abrams, from the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Up and down the country utterly devastating cuts are now being inflicted on our vital bus services on a par with the swingeing and misguided cuts the government and Dr Beeching made to our rail network which decimated services back in the 1960s." Buses are overseen by the Department for Transport in England and the Welsh Assembly in Wales, but decisions on funding for services are made by local authorities. Transport minister Andrew Jones said: "The government protected around £250m of funding for bus services in England, provided through the Bus Service Operators Grant, as part of last year's spending review." He said ministers had also provided £7.6m in support for 37 local transport schemes in rural areas, while more than 300 charities and community groups across England would benefit from new minibuses through a £25m fund. He added: "We are also developing measures in the upcoming Buses Bill so local authorities can deliver improved bus services." The Welsh government, meanwhile, said last month it was committed to improving the quality and accessibility of local bus services. Labour's shadow transport minister Daniel Zeichner said: "David Cameron promised to keep the free bus pass but he cut the buses instead. Labour would make sure that local communities have the power to make bus operators provide the services local people need." Peter Box, the Local Government Association's transport spokesman, called for the concessionary fares under which councils provide free off-peak travel for elderly and disabled residents to be fully funded by the government. He added: "Councils know how important buses are for their communities and local economies and are desperate to protect them. Instead, many across the country are reluctantly taking difficult decisions to scale back services and review subsidised routes as a result."

['Transport', 'Local Government Association']

[{"entity": "England", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Wales", "label": "LOC"}]

England ||| Wales

["Transport", "Local Government Association"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29462103

Parents forced to cut back to pay university costs

Hundreds of thousands of parents are cutting down on their "basic outgoings" to pay for their children's university costs, says a financial data company.

Experian has published research claiming that about one in five parents of students have faced financial pressures to support their children. This includes paying for accommodation, travel and utility bills. "University can be an extremely expensive time for parents and students alike," said Experian's Julie Doleman. The costs are particularly tough if a family has more than one child in higher education at the same time, said Ms Doleman. Experian has published research claiming that about one in five parents of students have faced financial pressures to support their children. This includes paying for accommodation, travel and utility bills. "University can be an extremely expensive time for parents and students alike," said Experian's Julie Doleman. The costs are particularly tough if a family has more than one child in higher education at the same time, said Ms Doleman. There are about 1.6 million UK undergraduates, which would mean more than 300,000 families are cutting back on spending to support their student children. About 10% of students' parents reported borrowing or using credit cards to cover the expense, according to Experian's analysis of a representative sample of more than a thousand UK families. The data firm, which provides information for credit references, says too many parents underestimate how much their children's university costs will affect them. Even though university students are adults who have left home, the amount they can borrow in student loans and receive in grants is still dependent on their parents' income. The full student grant and loan, with a combined value of about £7,000 a year, is available to students from families with a combined household income of £25,000 or less. The more the parental joint income goes above this, the lower the grant and the amount that students can borrow, to a minimum of about £3,600 per year. Parents are expected to cover the shortfall - and Experian suggests that this is putting many families under pressure. About half of parents reported having to pay more than £5,000 towards their child's university costs. This included anticipated items such as rent, food and books, but parents also reported having to lend children money at short notice, "bailing them out in an emergency". Parents could also have to help with rising accommodation costs - universities in central London advise students that basic living expenses are more than £1,200 per month. Experian's study claims that almost two in five parents "went without, to help fund their child's education" - and that about one in five faced even more hardship and were having to cut down on basic spending. But a large majority of parents say they are willing to make the sacrifice to support their children. "As young people start university, there are often unexpected costs that can be passed on to parents," said Ms Doleman. These loans and parental support for living costs are separate from the £9,000 tuition fees, which are paid back by students when they start working and earn more than £21,000. Record numbers of students are entering universities this autumn, and the removal of a limit on numbers next year is expected to lead to a 20% increase in undergraduate numbers. There are about 1.6 million UK undergraduates, which would mean more than 300,000 families are cutting back on spending to support their student children. About 10% of students' parents reported borrowing or using credit cards to cover the expense, according to Experian's analysis of a representative sample of more than a thousand UK families. The data firm, which provides information for credit references, says too many parents underestimate how much their children's university costs will affect them. Even though university students are adults who have left home, the amount they can borrow in student loans and receive in grants is still dependent on their parents' income. The full student grant and loan, with a combined value of about £7,000 a year, is available to students from families with a combined household income of £25,000 or less. The more the parental joint income goes above this, the lower the grant and the amount that students can borrow, to a minimum of about £3,600 per year. Parents are expected to cover the shortfall - and Experian suggests that this is putting many families under pressure. About half of parents reported having to pay more than £5,000 towards their child's university costs. This included anticipated items such as rent, food and books, but parents also reported having to lend children money at short notice, "bailing them out in an emergency". Parents could also have to help with rising accommodation costs - universities in central London advise students that basic living expenses are more than £1,200 per month. Experian's study claims that almost two in five parents "went without, to help fund their child's education" - and that about one in five faced even more hardship and were having to cut down on basic spending. But a large majority of parents say they are willing to make the sacrifice to support their children. "As young people start university, there are often unexpected costs that can be passed on to parents," said Ms Doleman. These loans and parental support for living costs are separate from the £9,000 tuition fees, which are paid back by students when they start working and earn more than £21,000. Record numbers of students are entering universities this autumn, and the removal of a limit on numbers next year is expected to lead to a 20% increase in undergraduate numbers.

['Personal finance', 'Students', 'Tuition fees']

[]

NoPresentEntity

["Personal finance", "Students", "Tuition fees"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38371975

Ireland reveals hand in Apple tax row

It's worth remembering that the European's Commission case that Apple should pay €13bn (£11bn) in back taxes against is primarily a case against Ireland - not the global technology giant.

Apple is obviously involved in a pretty major way and is also allowed to appeal as an affected third party but the argument is that Ireland used its tax system to give two Apple subsidiaries illegal state aid. Some of the arguments are complicated but there are some pretty simple thoughts at the heart of this issue. Where does the stuff that make Apple's products so successful actually happen. Is it A - in Ireland? B in your local electrical retailer? or C - in California? Apple is obviously involved in a pretty major way and is also allowed to appeal as an affected third party but the argument is that Ireland used its tax system to give two Apple subsidiaries illegal state aid. Some of the arguments are complicated but there are some pretty simple thoughts at the heart of this issue. Where does the stuff that make Apple's products so successful actually happen. Is it A - in Ireland? B in your local electrical retailer? or C - in California? If your answer to that question is C then you agree with the Irish government (and Apple). The huge profits Apple generates are down to great US design and innovation, should be taxed in the US and one day they will be - just as soon as someone lowers US taxes (step forward Donald Trump?). Until then, profits on Apple's non-US sales will continue to pile up in Ireland. The Irish government today published the reasons it thinks that is not a very good reason for it to be the tax collector for the rest of the world. Only a tiny fraction of Apple's $200bn+ Irish cash pile was actually earned in Ireland, why should Irish tax authorities be the ones to hit them with a worldwide bill. If your answer to that question is C then you agree with the Irish government (and Apple). The huge profits Apple generates are down to great US design and innovation, should be taxed in the US and one day they will be - just as soon as someone lowers US taxes (step forward Donald Trump?). Until then, profits on Apple's non-US sales will continue to pile up in Ireland. The Irish government today published the reasons it thinks that is not a very good reason for it to be the tax collector for the rest of the world. Only a tiny fraction of Apple's $200bn+ Irish cash pile was actually earned in Ireland, why should Irish tax authorities be the ones to hit them with a worldwide bill. This point is one that the Commission seems to tacitly accept by recently suggesting that once the money is collected, other countries might want to make a claim on the pot. It also accepts that if billions in taxable income was repatriated to the US, Ireland would collect less. So we have Apple as pinata, everyone having a whack until some money falls out. Finally, says the Irish government, tax and spending decisions are a matter for sovereign governments - not the Commission - and you certainly can't retrospectively legislate. The principles behind the commissions argument come out a 2010 OECD document that is not law in Ireland and even if it was, couldn't be applied to the two Irish tax rulings at issue which were taken back in 1991 and 2007. This point is one that the Commission seems to tacitly accept by recently suggesting that once the money is collected, other countries might want to make a claim on the pot. It also accepts that if billions in taxable income was repatriated to the US, Ireland would collect less. So we have Apple as pinata, everyone having a whack until some money falls out. Finally, says the Irish government, tax and spending decisions are a matter for sovereign governments - not the Commission - and you certainly can't retrospectively legislate. The principles behind the commissions argument come out a 2010 OECD document that is not law in Ireland and even if it was, couldn't be applied to the two Irish tax rulings at issue which were taken back in 1991 and 2007. Although it will be years before this case is settled, the tax landscape is already changing. The Commission may end up losing this particular battle but there is progress in the international war against tax avoidance. The notoriously complex "double Irish" tax structure is being phased out, the OECD's work on preventing profit shifting to low tax areas is being fairly widely adopted and companies are even moving their headquarters to places where they have a real physical business (Mcdonalds from Luxembourg to the UK for example). And, if Donald Trump does cut US taxes from 35% to 15% as he hinted during his campaign, the sea of US corporate cash lapping around the shores of Ireland and Luxembourg may start flooding back home. Although it will be years before this case is settled, the tax landscape is already changing. The Commission may end up losing this particular battle but there is progress in the international war against tax avoidance. The notoriously complex "double Irish" tax structure is being phased out, the OECD's work on preventing profit shifting to low tax areas is being fairly widely adopted and companies are even moving their headquarters to places where they have a real physical business (Mcdonalds from Luxembourg to the UK for example). And, if Donald Trump does cut US taxes from 35% to 15% as he hinted during his campaign, the sea of US corporate cash lapping around the shores of Ireland and Luxembourg may start flooding back home.

['Companies', 'Apple']

[{"entity": "European's Commission", "label": "ORG"}, {"entity": "Apple", "label": "ORG"}, {"entity": "Ireland", "label": "LOC"}]

Apple ||| Ireland

["Companies", "Apple"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34148891

Migrant crisis: EU 'must accept 200,000 refugees', UN says

EU nations must accept up to 200,000 refugees as part of a "common strategy" to replace their "piecemeal" approach to the migrant crisis, the UN says.

Antonio Guterres, head of the UN refugee agency, said the EU must mobilise "full force" for the crisis, calling it a "defining moment". EU leaders, split over sharing the refugee burden, are scrambling to agree a response in meetings on Friday. In Hungary, hundreds of refugees are locked in a stalemate with authorities. Migrants hoping to reach the Austrian border have refused to disembark from a train surrounded by police in the Hungarian town of Bicske, 40km (25 miles) from Budapest. Live updates on the crisis Hungarian authorities want to move the migrants to a nearby refugee camp - but the migrants fear registering there will hamper their plans to seek asylum in Germany and other countries. In the Hungarian capital, Budapest, hundreds of stranded refugees have vowed to "walk to Vienna" because they have not been allowed to board trains onwards. Hungary has also shut its main border crossing with Serbia after some 300 migrants escaped from a camp in the town of Roszke, prompting a police search operation. Meanwhile, a Syrian Kurdish child who was drowned while attempting to reach Greece has been buried in his hometown of Kobane on Friday. The family of Alan Kurdi crossed the border from Turkey to Syria, carrying coffins bearing his body and those of family members who died with him. Images of the toddler's limp body, washed ashore on a Turkish beach, have been widely circulated, heightening outrage over the migrant crisis. As the crisis mounts, the EU is facing intense pressure to adopt a cohesive policy towards the migrant flows - the greatest seen globally since World War Two. Mr Guterres, of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), criticised the bloc's "unbalanced and dysfunctional" system that he said had only benefited people smugglers. He urged the EU to admit up to 200,000 refugees as part of "a mass relocation programme" that had the "mandatory participation" of all member states. In a statement, Mr Guterres said Europe needed to build "adequate reception capacities", especially in Greece, replacing a "piecemeal" approach with a "common strategy". In other developments: Ten powerful photos Hungary lays bare EU East-West split Will one image change our views? Migrant crisis in graphics Volunteers step up Hungarian MPs on Friday are also voting on creating new holding camps for migrants, and on whether the situation constitutes a state of emergency. Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday described the situation as a "German problem" as Germany was where those arriving in the EU "would like to go". However, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn - who is heading the EU meetings on the crisis - criticised Hungary's conservative leader on German television, saying: "One sometimes has to be ashamed for Viktor Orban." EU countries are under pressure as a surge of migrants from the Middle East and Africa seek to escape war and oppression. Italy, Greece and Hungary, on the EU's borders, are under particular pressure. Syrians make up the largest group by nationality, followed by Afghans and Eritreans. An uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011, and the country has since descended into a complex civil war. More than 240,000 people have been killed, and around half Syria's pre-war population have fled their homes. Why is EU struggling with migrants and asylum? European Council President Donald Tusk has said at least 100,000 refugees should be distributed across EU states - a sharp increase on a previous European Commission target of 40,000. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have said they will present plans for the redistribution of refugees within the EU. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a political leader who thrives on conflict. While he tolerates no dissent within his Fidesz party, he enjoys taking on his opponents. But in the refugee crisis now overwhelming Hungary, he is attacking not only the migrants themselves, but, increasingly, Germany. Mr Orban himself has described proposals for binding quotas of refugees to be accepted by all EU countries as "idiotic" - a personal insult to Chancellor Angela Merkel. His game now seems to be two-fold: to stir up xenophobia at home by appearing both patriotic and powerful and to reach out to anti-migrant opinion across Europe. Profile: Hungary PM Viktor Orban Germany seizes its chance to help How could EU solve the crisis? International services had been suspended at Budapest's Keleti railway station but hundreds crammed on to the first train on Thursday, hoping it would take them to the Austrian border. Many people continued to camp out at Keleti station, and elsewhere in Budapest, overnight. Images showed the migrants sleeping overnight on the train at Bicske. BBC Radio Four's Today programme has interviewed a Syrian teacher at a camp in Hungary, who said her family wanted asylum in Germany after having struggled to survive in Lebanon and Turkey. "All the governments make this war in Syria," the woman, identified as Hamza, said. "And now they... prevent us going to their countries." The word migrant is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "one who moves, either temporarily or permanently, from one place, area, or country of residence to another". A refugee is, according to the 1951 Refugee Convention, any person who "owing to a well-founded fear" of persecution is outside their country of nationality and "unable" or "unwilling" to seek the protection of that country. To gain the status, one has to go through the legal process of claiming asylum. The word migrant has traditionally been considered a neutral term, but some criticise the BBC and other media for using a word they say implies something voluntary, and should not be applied to people fleeing danger. Battle over words to describe migrants Are you in Hungary? Are you in Bicske on or near the train? Do you have friends and family who may be affected by this story? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences. If you are happy to speak to a BBC journalist, please include contact details.

['Refugees and asylum seekers', 'Viktor Orban', 'Europe migrant crisis', 'Hungary', 'Migration']

[{"entity": "EU", "label": "ORG"}, {"entity": "UN", "label": "ORG"}]

EU ||| UN

["Refugees and asylum seekers", "Viktor Orban", "Europe migrant crisis", "Hungary", "Migration"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-58348288

Benjamin Mendy: Manchester City footballer charged with rape

Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been charged with rape.

The 27-year-old defender has been charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, Cheshire Police said. The charges relate to three complainants over the age of 16 and are alleged to have taken place between October 2020 and August this year. Mr Mendy, of Prestbury, has been remanded in custody and will appear at Chester Magistrates' Court on Friday. The left-back has played for last season's Premier League champions since 2017, when he joined from Monaco for a reported £52m. A police spokesman said: "Cheshire Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service would like to remind everyone that criminal proceedings against Mendy are live and that he has a right to a fair trial." Manchester City said the defender, who also plays for the French national team, had been suspended pending an investigation. "The matter is subject to a legal process and the club is therefore unable to make further comment until that process is complete," the club added. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk

['Prestbury', 'Manchester']

[{"entity": "Manchester City", "label": "ORG"}, {"entity": "Benjamin Mendy", "label": "PER"}]

Manchester City

["Prestbury", "Manchester"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-35915728

Holyrood 2016: How could the SNP's tax plan raise an extra £2bn?

The Holyrood election campaign is under way and the policy announcements from Scotland's main political parties are starting to flow.

But do they make sense to you and where do the figures used come from? Here, I've looked at the SNP's claim that its tax plans would raise an extra £2bn over the next parliament. But do they make sense to you and where do the figures used come from? Here, I've looked at the SNP's claim that its tax plans would raise an extra £2bn over the next parliament. Most of the potential revenue is from a change to the threshold at which higher rate payers would start to pay tax, already rising to £43,000 with the start of the new financial year. The SNP said it would not implement the full increase being planned by George Osborne for the rest of the UK, but restricting the increase to inflation. The Chancellor has started raising that threshold faster than inflation, and the Conservative manifesto last year set out to raise it to £50,000. This is a tax cut, because each pound earned between the current and future threshold for 40% will be taxed at only half the rate (20%) if it falls into the basic rate band. So, where does Ms Sturgeon find £1.2bn extra as she claims, from a tax cut. It involves part of the Fiscal Framework agreed with the Treasury in London. In future, if Westminster policy means an impact on Scottish revenue, Westminster has to compensate Holyrood for that. By cutting tax for higher earners, but not doing so for Scotland, George Osborne is reckoned by Scottish government economists to owe £120m in 2016-17, rising to £350m in 2020-21. Add up the years, and you get £1.25bn. Most of the potential revenue is from a change to the threshold at which higher rate payers would start to pay tax, already rising to £43,000 with the start of the new financial year. The SNP said it would not implement the full increase being planned by George Osborne for the rest of the UK, but restricting the increase to inflation. The Chancellor has started raising that threshold faster than inflation, and the Conservative manifesto last year set out to raise it to £50,000. This is a tax cut, because each pound earned between the current and future threshold for 40% will be taxed at only half the rate (20%) if it falls into the basic rate band. So, where does Ms Sturgeon find £1.2bn extra as she claims, from a tax cut. It involves part of the Fiscal Framework agreed with the Treasury in London. In future, if Westminster policy means an impact on Scottish revenue, Westminster has to compensate Holyrood for that. By cutting tax for higher earners, but not doing so for Scotland, George Osborne is reckoned by Scottish government economists to owe £120m in 2016-17, rising to £350m in 2020-21. Add up the years, and you get £1.25bn. The party is proposing that councils should be allowed to increase Council Tax rates by 3%. If all 32 local authorities do so, that would bring in an extra £350m if you add up the figures over five years (the annual revenue is now just under £2bn, so the first year would bring in an extra £60m). In addition to that, a re-organisation of council tax bands is expected to draw another £500m from owners of more valuable homes - again, in tranches increasing over the five years, and totalling that half billion. And big business faces a tax hike of £650m from non-domestic rates. The total of that comes to £2.7bn. But as some of it depends on council decisions, and perhaps because the SNP doesn't want to sound too keen on high tax, it has been rounded down to "two billion". The party is proposing that councils should be allowed to increase Council Tax rates by 3%. If all 32 local authorities do so, that would bring in an extra £350m if you add up the figures over five years (the annual revenue is now just under £2bn, so the first year would bring in an extra £60m). In addition to that, a re-organisation of council tax bands is expected to draw another £500m from owners of more valuable homes - again, in tranches increasing over the five years, and totalling that half billion. And big business faces a tax hike of £650m from non-domestic rates. The total of that comes to £2.7bn. But as some of it depends on council decisions, and perhaps because the SNP doesn't want to sound too keen on high tax, it has been rounded down to "two billion". Unsurprisingly, opponents see things differently to the SNP. One aspect of the arithmetic highlighted by rivals of the SNP is that higher rate tax-payers will be paying more tax - up to £323 more - relative to people with the same taxable income in the rUK. So one interpretation of this is that Holyrood gains from compensation through an adjustment to its block grant from Westminster - though that calculation is open to dispute between parties in the campaign, and between governments from next year. The other way of looking at this is how much Scottish taxpayers have to fork out. And under SNP plans, higher earners would be handing more money to Holyrood, so you can choose to see this as a (relative) tax raid on higher earners. Unsurprisingly, opponents see things differently to the SNP. One aspect of the arithmetic highlighted by rivals of the SNP is that higher rate tax-payers will be paying more tax - up to £323 more - relative to people with the same taxable income in the rUK. So one interpretation of this is that Holyrood gains from compensation through an adjustment to its block grant from Westminster - though that calculation is open to dispute between parties in the campaign, and between governments from next year. The other way of looking at this is how much Scottish taxpayers have to fork out. And under SNP plans, higher earners would be handing more money to Holyrood, so you can choose to see this as a (relative) tax raid on higher earners.

['Nicola Sturgeon', 'UK taxes', 'Scottish Parliament', 'SNP (Scottish National Party)']

[{"entity": "Holyrood", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Scotland", "label": "LOC"}]

Holyrood ||| Scotland

["Nicola Sturgeon", "UK taxes", "Scottish Parliament", "SNP (Scottish National Party)"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40873478

Obama treasury secretary: Financial risks 'substantial'

Jack Lew, former US treasury secretary, has told the BBC the world remains at risk from financial threats.

He says loosening regulation would not be a good idea: "We should not disarm at a moment when we're out of the last financial crisis, but still in a world with substantial financial risks. But Mr Lew, an adviser to Barack Obama during the financial crisis in 2008, says no to tighter rules. "I don't personally believe we should do more than we need to." Looking back on the unfolding financial crisis, he told the BBC's Today Programme the bad news had kept on escalating. "I have never seen a situation where every single day the numbers were so much worse than the day before that you literally had to keep revisiting how much fiscal stimulus the economy would need in order to stimulate a recovery," he said. He said action taken then, both in supporting the financial system and tightening up regulation, had borne fruit: "What our reforms of Wall Street after the crisis did was, for the first time since Great Depression, give us the tools to safeguard the evolving financial system." The Dodd-Frank Act was the key piece of law-making designed to ensure there would never be another 2008-style meltdown. Its aim is to keep a closer eye on the institutions that are "too big to fail" and to limit the risks they take. President Donald Trump thinks regulation of the financial sector is now too onerous. One part of the Dodd-Frank act is the Volcker Rule, which is designed to prevent banks from using their own money to trade. Last week, that was officially opened up for review, after Trump appointee Keith Noreika announced he wanted views on how to define better which activities are prohibited by this rule. Mr Lew gave a warning on making significant changes to the rules: "There's been a big push back saying this has gone too far. "I fear that as the memory fades, some of the simple nostrums about clearing away regulation start to take on salience, as if the stakes weren't high enough in 2007-08." But although he thinks the level of regulation is currently sufficient, he says there are no guarantees that these existing rules will prevent a new major financial shock. "The risks in the future are unlikely to come from the places they've come from in the past," he said. "We all know crises will come in the future, what we don't know is when and how." Are we, the taxpayers, safe from having to bail out a bank ten years on from the credit crunch? The short answer is: safer than we were ten years ago. But not 100% safe. Reforms brought in since the global financial crisis are supposed to mean a bank could simply go under without causing a collapse of the financial system or requiring the government to bail them out. The idea is that banks should be like normal private companies which take their own risks; if executives screw up, shareholders and creditors might lose money - but taxpayers shouldn't. But buried in the Bank of England's recent financial stability report is an admission that that's not yet the case. We are merely "on course" to achieve that by 2022. The implication is that if a bank went under now, taxpayers would still probably have to intervene. Is that at all likely? For a bank to go under, its losses would have to exceed its capacity to absorb them. Post-crisis reforms have required banks to have more capital set aside to absorb losses. The Bank of England's highlighted the fact that they now have to hold "10 times" more capital in case things go wrong. Which sounds reassuring until you realise how little they had to hold before the crisis. Under the old regime (known as Basel II) there was no "leverage ratio" - no cap on the amount banks could lend for every £1 they had in loss-absorbing capital. Now there is a cap of 3.25% - so that, put simply, banks have to have £3.25 set aside in capital to absorb potential losses for every £100 they lend. Ten times hardly anything is still not a vast amount. Having said that, for banks to chalk up losses of £3.25 for every £100 they have lent would require an economic calamity on a scale to beat even the crisis of 2008. That risk seems comfortably remote - or at least, we had better hope it is.

['Economics', 'Financial crisis of 2007-08']

[{"entity": "Jack Lew", "label": "PER"}, {"entity": "US", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "BBC", "label": "ORG"}]

BBC

["Economics", "Financial crisis of 2007-08"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41195897

TIFF 2017: Borg/McEnroe opens Toronto film festival

This year's Toronto Film Festival has officially opened - with tennis drama Borg/McEnroe kicking off proceedings.

The film tells the story of the famous Wimbledon men's final of 1980, and stars Shia LaBeouf and Sverrir Gudnason as McEnroe and Borg respectively. Welsh actor Scott Arthur, who plays McEnroe's tennis partner Peter Fleming in the film, described the pair's duel as the "perfect rivalry". "They were kind of the first rock star tennis players," he told BBC News. "They had a swagger about them. Borg was almost like a Beatle. Everywhere he went, people were obsessed with him. "Then you had McEnroe, who was more of a hot-headed fiery tennis player, didn't always play by the rules." Borg/McEnroe is one of several sports-based films attracting attention this year. I, Tonya - starring Margot Robbie as figure skater Tonya Harding - is hot property at the festival, alongside Battle of the Sexes, which sees Emma Stone portray former tennis world number one Billie Jean King. Scott said: "Tennis is a sport where there's so much that comes with the way that you go about your game." "Being respectful to your opponent, treating a loss the same as a victory… so to have Borg and McEnroe competing against each other, it was the perfect rivalry really. "What's amazing is that after their rivalry they became best friends. Borg was the best man at McEnroe's wedding." Here's what some of the stars said about the film: Scott said preparing for the role involved spending more time in the park and, unfortunately, less time in the pub. "About six weeks before we started filming, I got a call saying 'You need to make sure that you're training every day, going running and not drinking beer'," the 28-year-old explained. "Because if you're playing a tennis player you need to look as lean as possible, so that was probably the hardest part of everything, going running, not drinking beer and making sure I was watching my diet." Scott is no debutant, but described Borg/McEnroe as "the most high profile thing I've done, by far". "I did a film called Bridgend, based loosely on the Bridgend suicides [a spate of suicides involving young people in Wales]. "That got a bit of press, but it's nothing on the scale of Borg/McEnroe, so this is the first real big thing that I've done. "So to be walking on a red carpet is a childhood dream. I'm trying to just stay on my feet, not get too swept up by it all." The film, which is due to be released in the UK on 22 September, is certainly turning heads at Toronto, although its first reviews were mixed. The Guardian awarded it two stars, with Peter Bradshaw writing: "This tennis film feels like a two-hour baseline rally, and it's not just the rackets that are made of wood." Writing in IndieWire, David Ehrlich said: "If not for LaBeouf, Borg/McEnroe would have nothing to offer that you couldn't get from simply watching a broadcast of the 1980 Wimbledon Men's Final." But Scott said he hopes the film will help shed light on the lesser known aspects of the famous tennis rivalry. "I want audiences to come away having a bit of empathy for them both, to understand how much dedication and hard work it takes to become as brilliant as Borg and McEnroe are," he said. "I want people to leave thinking 'I didn't know about that'. You really see the relationships between Borg and his wife, or John and his Dad, and so you get all of that and I want people to understand how much time they're putting in and how lonely they are." Read more: Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

['Toronto', 'Toronto Film Festival', 'Film', 'Canada']

[{"entity": "Toronto Film Festival", "label": "EVE"}, {"entity": "Borg", "label": "PER"}, {"entity": "McEnroe", "label": "PER"}]

Borg ||| McEnroe

["Toronto", "Toronto Film Festival", "Film", "Canada"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-53416056

Paedophile Mark Sutherland loses human rights court challenge

A convicted paedophile has lost a Supreme Court challenge over using evidence in court gathered covertly by so-called paedophile hunters.

Judges unanimously dismissed an appeal which argued that evidence from vigilante groups breached a person's right to a private life. It was brought by Mark Sutherland, who was caught by Groom Resisters Scotland. Sutherland was subsequently convicted of attempting to communicate indecently with an older child. He was appealing his conviction on the grounds that the covert investigation - and the use of the resulting evidence by the authorities - breached his human right for his correspondence to be private. The UK's highest court ruled on Wednesday that the interests of children have priority over any interest a paedophile could have in being allowed to engage in criminal conduct. Lord Sales delivered the judgement via video link, stating that the panel of five justices found there was no interference with the accused's rights under Article 8. He said this was for two reasons - the first being that "the activity in question should be capable of respect", and that children also have rights. Lord Sales said the state had "a special responsibility to protect children against sexual exploitation by adults". "This indicates that there is no protection under Article 8 for the communications by the accused in this case." he said. "The interests of children have priority over any interest a paedophile could have in being allowed to engage in the criminal conduct in issue here.". The state must "deter offences against children" and so prosecutors were entitled to use the evidence gathered by Groom Resisters Scotland to secure a conviction. Secondly, he said, Sutherland had "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in the circumstances. "There was no prior relationship between the accused [Sutherland] and the decoy [from Groom Resisters Scotland] from which an expectation of privacy could be said to arise. "In addition, the accused believed he was communicating with a 13-year-old child, and it was foreseeable that a child of that age might share any worrying communications with an adult", Lord Sales said. He added that prosecutors had "no additional positive obligation" to protect Sutherland's interests in any way that would prevent the prosecutor making use of the evidence to prosecute the crimes. Mark Sutherland brought the case after being caught by a group of "paedophile hunters" called Groom Resisters Scotland. In 2018, Sutherland, 37, matched up on Grindr with someone who, when he communicated with them, claimed to be a 13-year-old boy. Sutherland sent explicit pictures and made arrangements to meet the "boy". It was in fact 48-year-old Paul Devine. When Sutherland turned up at Partick Bus Station in Glasgow, he found two members of Mr Devine's group. The group confronted Sutherland at the arranged meeting, and waited with him until police arrived. They broadcast the encounter on social media and handed the evidence to the authorities. Sutherland was convicted in August 2018 of attempting to communicate indecently with an older child, and related offences, and jailed for two years. He had previously been jailed for sending explicit pictures to a 12-year-old boy. At a hearing in June, Sutherland's lawyers argued in court that his right to a private life had been breached. This right is enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and states that everyone has the right to respect for his or her private life and correspondence. His lawyer, Gordon Jackson QC, argued: "The police are aware that there a number of hunter organisations operating in Scotland and the UK and evidence submitted from these organisations has led to a number of criminal investigations and convictions." There is "disquiet" about the work of such groups, and police and prosecutors give them "tacit encouragement", Mr Jackson said. He argued that "a huge number" of cases were prosecuted on the basis of information from these organisations. According to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), almost half of online grooming cases result from the activities of vigilante groups. The inspectorate said these groups are unregulated and untrained, and in its report in February 2020 said: "A more robust proactive capability on the part of Police Scotland would reduce the opportunities for these groups to operate."

['UK Supreme Court', 'Glasgow', 'Partick']

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["UK Supreme Court", "Glasgow", "Partick"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-48324984

In pictures: Eurovision 2019

Here are some of the stand-out images from this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

['Eurovision Song Contest', 'Music']

[{"entity": "Eurovision Song Contest", "label": "MEDIA"}, {"entity": "Tel Aviv", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Israel", "label": "LOC"}]

NoPresentEntity

["Eurovision Song Contest", "Music"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56489771

Holiday firm Tui to shut 48 more High Street shops

Travel firm Tui is set to shut 48 more High Street shops in the UK, affecting 273 jobs.

The UK's largest tour operator said it would offer to redeploy employees at risk of redundancy to other stores or to work from home. The move follows the closure of 166 Tui shops announced in July 2020 which affected up to 900 jobs. Both decisions were made after the pandemic sped up a shift to people making online holiday bookings. Tui will have 314 High Street retail stores remaining following the closures. The firm said in a statement: "The travel industry and the British High Street are both facing unprecedented pressure. "We can therefore confirm that we are proposing to close 48 retail stores. All colleagues at risk of redundancy will be offered roles in other stores where there are vacancies, or in the new homeworking retail and contact centre team." Tui said it was "imperative that we make these difficult cost decisions and do our best to look after our colleagues during such unprecedented uncertainty." It added that the Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened a change in shopping habits, "with people looking to buy online or wishing to speak with travel experts from the comfort of their own home." "We have world class travel advisors at Tui, so we hope many of them will become homeworkers and continue to offer the personalised service we know our customers value," the firm added. Tui declined to say which outlets were set to close, but said that it would be creating 290 roles. The holiday firm said in February that it expects to run 80% of its normal capacity for this summer, with 2.8 million customers already booked for its holidays. Income in the three months to the end of 2020 fell 87.8% year-on-year, from €3.86bn (£3.4bn) to €468.1m.

['Tourism', 'Companies', 'TUI Travel', 'Retailing', 'TUI Group', 'Travel & leisure industry', 'Coronavirus pandemic']

[{"entity": "Tui", "label": "ORG"}, {"entity": "High Street", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "UK", "label": "LOC"}]

Tui ||| High Street ||| UK

["Tourism", "Companies", "TUI Travel", "Retailing", "TUI Group", "Travel & leisure industry", "Coronavirus pandemic"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30838464

The team that has to cycle hundreds of miles to compete

When Burundi's cycling team took part in an international race in November, they had to rely on donations for their bikes and kits. And when it came to getting to the competition, held in another country, there was only one way they could afford to travel.

On a sunny Monday morning, I find five cyclists from Burundi - along with their support team of three - sitting in a dark hotel room. It's cramped with the nine of us in there. The team has just completed one of Africa's major cycling races, the eight-day Tour of Rwanda. But there's only one item on the agenda - how they are going to get home from Kigali to Bujumbura, Burundi's capital. They cycled all the way here for the race - are they really going to have to pedal almost 200 miles home after the event as well? The cyclists are all entirely amateur - in their resources at least, if not in their mindset. Their leading member, Didace, rides a bike delivering milk when he's at home. He tells me he travels 25 miles outside of Bujumbura to collect 150 litres of milk. Then he rides it all into the capital. Then, he tells me, he does it again - a tidy 100 miles in a day. His colleague Ismail rides a velo-taxi, carrying people around Bujumbura on his bicycle. Another team member is a businessman - although his teammates correct him with the distinction that he's less businessman, more trader. One rider divides his time between school and work in a restaurant. The fifth is a carpenter. In the hotel room, the team pores over my map, pointing out the route they cycled to get here - Bujumbura, Kayanza, Ngozi, Kirundo and then over the border into Rwanda. They spent an entire day waiting for clearance at the border, sitting on the side of the road until dark, when they were finally allowed through. When they got off their bikes at their Kigali hotel, it was after 10pm on a Friday night. Didace, Obedi, Tharcisse, Ezechiel and Ismail had covered almost 200 miles. They were to start eight days of racing on the Sunday morning. The bikes Burundi's team travelled - and raced - on were donated by the international cycling body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Without these machines, they tell me, they couldn't have come. But even with them, and with a spare bike donated by a French team, they still felt dreadfully under-equipped. Jerseys and energy drinks had been donated and their cycling federation essentially handed round a tin to get them to Rwanda. But the Burundi manager, Faustin, is an optimist. He's looking to yellow jerseys on the Africa Tour inside of three years and tells me that in the months to come they'll be racing on the Tour of Congo, at the African Championships and in Rwanda again. Their showing in Rwanda was very respectable this year, with three riders surviving the week and pulling back places in the peloton every day. It was a happy improvement on their 2010 effort, which saw them give up en masse after only two days. Burundi's cyclists tell me they're proud to wear their three-starred red and green national jersey, but are frustrated at not having the equipment or resources to prepare properly. They want to send a rider to the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland and another to a cycling centre in South Africa. Once again, though, they don't have the money to cover travel costs - and they can't just cycle to Switzerland. Back in the hotel room, a call has come through. A man has a small van that he might be able to drive to the Rwanda-Burundi border, to take the riders and bikes some of the way back. It sounds promising but I hear no more about it. A hotel worker asks them: "So, you're cycling home then are you?'' In front of the hotel, the five Burundi riders hand over their bags, fill up their water bottles, clip their shoes into their racing pedals and slowly freewheel down the hill, with just a nod to their manager. It's midday and it's warm. And they have a lot of road ahead of them. I'm travelling through the city centre a few minutes later when I see them again, threading their way softly through the traffic. Twenty-four hours earlier the roads were lined with screaming fans as the Tour of Rwanda concluded in noise and speed, with lap after lap round the city. Although the crowds are gone, the five men from Burundi think there's room for one more piece of cycling heroism, and they veer left off the main road, heading south for the border, and on home. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. On a sunny Monday morning, I find five cyclists from Burundi - along with their support team of three - sitting in a dark hotel room. It's cramped with the nine of us in there. The team has just completed one of Africa's major cycling races, the eight-day Tour of Rwanda. But there's only one item on the agenda - how they are going to get home from Kigali to Bujumbura, Burundi's capital. They cycled all the way here for the race - are they really going to have to pedal almost 200 miles home after the event as well? The cyclists are all entirely amateur - in their resources at least, if not in their mindset. Their leading member, Didace, rides a bike delivering milk when he's at home. He tells me he travels 25 miles outside of Bujumbura to collect 150 litres of milk. Then he rides it all into the capital. Then, he tells me, he does it again - a tidy 100 miles in a day. His colleague Ismail rides a velo-taxi, carrying people around Bujumbura on his bicycle. Another team member is a businessman - although his teammates correct him with the distinction that he's less businessman, more trader. One rider divides his time between school and work in a restaurant. The fifth is a carpenter. In the hotel room, the team pores over my map, pointing out the route they cycled to get here - Bujumbura, Kayanza, Ngozi, Kirundo and then over the border into Rwanda. They spent an entire day waiting for clearance at the border, sitting on the side of the road until dark, when they were finally allowed through. When they got off their bikes at their Kigali hotel, it was after 10pm on a Friday night. Didace, Obedi, Tharcisse, Ezechiel and Ismail had covered almost 200 miles. They were to start eight days of racing on the Sunday morning. The bikes Burundi's team travelled - and raced - on were donated by the international cycling body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Without these machines, they tell me, they couldn't have come. But even with them, and with a spare bike donated by a French team, they still felt dreadfully under-equipped. Jerseys and energy drinks had been donated and their cycling federation essentially handed round a tin to get them to Rwanda. But the Burundi manager, Faustin, is an optimist. He's looking to yellow jerseys on the Africa Tour inside of three years and tells me that in the months to come they'll be racing on the Tour of Congo, at the African Championships and in Rwanda again. Their showing in Rwanda was very respectable this year, with three riders surviving the week and pulling back places in the peloton every day. It was a happy improvement on their 2010 effort, which saw them give up en masse after only two days. Burundi's cyclists tell me they're proud to wear their three-starred red and green national jersey, but are frustrated at not having the equipment or resources to prepare properly. They want to send a rider to the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland and another to a cycling centre in South Africa. Once again, though, they don't have the money to cover travel costs - and they can't just cycle to Switzerland. Back in the hotel room, a call has come through. A man has a small van that he might be able to drive to the Rwanda-Burundi border, to take the riders and bikes some of the way back. It sounds promising but I hear no more about it. A hotel worker asks them: "So, you're cycling home then are you?'' In front of the hotel, the five Burundi riders hand over their bags, fill up their water bottles, clip their shoes into their racing pedals and slowly freewheel down the hill, with just a nod to their manager. It's midday and it's warm. And they have a lot of road ahead of them. I'm travelling through the city centre a few minutes later when I see them again, threading their way softly through the traffic. Twenty-four hours earlier the roads were lined with screaming fans as the Tour of Rwanda concluded in noise and speed, with lap after lap round the city. Although the crowds are gone, the five men from Burundi think there's room for one more piece of cycling heroism, and they veer left off the main road, heading south for the border, and on home. How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent: BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 Listen online or download the podcast. BBC World Service: At weekends - see World Service programme schedule. Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.

['Burundi', 'Cycling']

[{"entity": "Burundi", "label": "LOC"}]

Burundi

["Burundi", "Cycling"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37155043

French Muslims fear state aims to control their faith

Behind a wire-mesh fence embedded in weeds, in the northern Paris suburb of Gennevilliers, stand a cluster of terracotta-coloured buildings and a row of tents.

This is the site of the El Houda Association Mosque, raided and closed down less than a fortnight after the jihadist attacks on Paris last November, which triggered a state of emergency across France. The reason, according to the authorities, was its alleged links to militant Islamist groups. For Mohammed, a local resident who worshipped there, the mosque was unremarkable. "I'm a practising Muslim and I always come here and I've never seen anything strange. Closing spaces for the Muslim faith is not the right way," he says. El Houda was one of around 20 mosques closed down in the name of national security. That move has forced many of France's Muslims - a diverse community estimated to be close to five million - into a period of deep introspection. Full timeline of jihadist attacks 2012-2016 How France is wrestling with jihadist terror What drives individuals to commit mass killings? Many French Muslims resent the idea that violent acts of terrorism have been carried out in their name by jihadist groups such as so-called Islamic State. But they also object to the sense that they are having to justify themselves, in a country that prides itself on a strong secular tradition and the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), which acts as a bridge with the French government, is planning to create a foundation to oversee the vetting of imams and the funding of the mosques in which they preach. "The idea would be to examine the theological path that imams have taken," says its president, Anouar Kbibech, "to encourage them to study and sign a charter which promotes an open Islam, a tolerant Islam and an Islam that respects the values of the French Republic". A recent report by a Senate committee in France found that, out of 2,500 mosques, 120 were Salafist, preaching a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam. However, Marwan Muhammed, director of the Collective against Islamophobia, insists that does not equate to a jihadist threat. "The authorities need to stop chasing people for being Muslim, for having a beard or for being religiously involved. This is not a sign of risk. This is a sign of religiosity." The senators found that 20 mosques received foreign funding, mainly from Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia. The concern is not that overseas patrons are directly promoting violence, but that these mosques or prayer rooms create a highly politicised atmosphere, in which violence may be considered a tool for disseminating Islam. For that reason a new foundation to accredit imams and monitor finance is being considered. But some accuse the CFCM of pandering to the government's demands. "We have very strong legislation on financial transactions and money laundering. So the existing legislation allows for the authorities to look into any suspicious transaction," argues Marwan Muhammed. A Frenchman of Moroccan descent, he worries about what he sees as a rising tide of Islamophobia in France, exacerbated by the prospect of presidential elections next year. He, like others, is worried the French government may in effect hijack any attempts by the Muslim community to become more open about their internal affairs. But the head of the CFCM, Anouar Kbibech, strikes a more conciliatory tone, mindful of the climate created by the most recent jihadist attacks in Nice and Rouen. Those attacks triggered a wave of new restrictions, including a ban on the wearing of burkinis on some of France's beaches - a move that some argue smacks of Islamophobia. "We invite our fellow French citizens to avoid making links (with terrorism) and equally we invite our fellow Muslim citizens to pay attention to their activities and not exacerbate the issue and make things more complicated," says Mr Kbibech. More on this story: In addition to advancing the case for better training of imams (many of whom are volunteers from within the community) the CFCM is considering new forms of domestic funding for France's mosques. The senators' report suggested that 20 mosques which received €6m (£5.2m; $6.8m) in foreign funding could benefit from a financial system involving a new foundation. Among the novel ideas being considered by the CFCM is a more formalised system of funding via the halal meat industry. But when the BBC tried out the idea on half a dozen halal butchers in Paris, it was met with puzzled faces. The vast majority of France's mosques are funded by voluntary contributions from within the community, occasionally even from halal butchers. French senator Nathalie Goulet believes clamping down on mosques to deter extremists misses the point altogether. "Radicalisation happens outside mosques and more often in prison. The thing all young radicalised people have in common is their weak understanding of the religion," she argues. Muslims make up less than 10% of France's population and yet they make up some 60% of the prison population. The French authorities have sought to introduce de-radicalisation programmes. And yet, many Muslims believe France still needs to address problems of marginalisation, as well as the way Islam is portrayed in French media. Otherwise they fear France may continue to offer fertile ground for Islamist extremists.

['France', 'Islamist extremism', 'November 2015 Paris attacks']

[{"entity": "Paris", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Gennevilliers", "label": "LOC"}]

Paris

["France", "Islamist extremism", "November 2015 Paris attacks"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34388995

Lesbian love story Tipping the Velvet earns strong reviews

A stage adaptation of Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet, a Victorian lesbian coming-of-age story, has earned positive reviews from critics.

The play, at London's Hammersmith, charts Nancy 'Nan' Astley's voyage of emotional and sexual discovery. Broadwayworld.com called it "a shoo-in success" while the Guardian said it offered "a rousing tribute to feminist principles". The book was previously adapted for television by the BBC in 2002. The new play has been adapted by playwright Laura Wade, who has teamed up again with director Lyndsey Turner, who she worked with on her play Posh. "Wade ingeniously frames the story by presenting it through the eyes of a gavel-wielding Victorian music-hall chairman of the kind made familiar by TV's The Good Old Days. This pays off beautifully in the first half, which is a hymn to theatre," said the Guardian in its three-star review. At the opening night on Monday, Wade told the BBC: "There's so much theatre already in the book, it was about finding that and drawing it out and because of the Victorian age of this theatre, it just seemed like a perfect match." The Stage called the show "playful but frustrating". "It takes the history and traditions of music hall and mashes them together with something altogether more modern. Music, comedy, circus and illusion are all thrown into the mix," the review read. "Master of Ceremonies David Cardy narrates the story of Nancy, an oyster girl from Whitstable who falls hard and deep for Kitty, a male impersonator and music hall star, before taking to the boards and becoming a star herself. The songs they perform are not music hall numbers, but rather more recent: Prince and the Pet Shop Boys, a little bit of Miley Cyrus, a dash of Bonnie Tyler." Most publications lamented the show's near three-hour running time, which Broadwayworld.com said "would certainly benefit from a snip". The TV version, which starred Rachael Stirling as Nan and Spooks star Keeley Hawes as cross-dressing stage star Kitty, was famed for its steamy sex scenes. The stage adaptation instead represents the passionate sexual acts with astonishing aerial stunt work reminiscent of Cirque Du Soleil. "We wanted to create something on stage that showed how those sexual encounters really felt and the different emotional character of them, to convey that emotional pull to the audience," Wade explained. "Sex is always rather difficult to do on stage because you can't have close ups in the same way that you can on film so you have to find a different way of telling that story." The cast was led by newcomer Sally Messham, who plays Nan from shy oyster girl to stage star, to sex slave to political activist. It is the young actress's first role since graduating from RADA. "This is my first professional theatre job, straight in at the deep end," she admitted. "I picked up the book as soon as I got the role and I loved it, it's like a Dickensian novel, you get a lot of Victorian novels about gay men and very few about lesbians and what Laura and Sarah have done is to give them a rich history." It is still rare to see women's sexuality portrayed with such frankness on stage, something Waters herself has noted. "I do go to the theatre a lot but it's only when you see a stage with a lot of women on it, telling a young woman's story that you realise how rarely you do see that," she told the BBC on opening night. "So it has been really refreshing for me to see Laura's fantastic script. It's also lovely to know the book still has a currency, still appeals to people. Since I wrote it 20 years ago, a lot has changed since then." Tipping the Velvet will run at the Lyric Hammersmith until 24 October, before moving to the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, from 28 October - 14 November.

['Theatre', 'Television', 'Books', 'Feminism']

[{"entity": "Sarah Waters", "label": "PER"}, {"entity": "Tipping the Velvet", "label": "MEDIA"}]

Tipping the Velvet

["Theatre", "Television", "Books", "Feminism"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-35118791

The street children who run a newspaper in India

A group of street children are busy in an unusual editorial meeting in a house in the Indian capital, Delhi.

They are bound by a shared passion to bring out Balaknama (Voice of Children), an eight-page quarterly newspaper which focuses on children living and working on the streets. It proudly calls itself the "world's unique newspaper for and by street and working children". Eighteen-year-old Chandni, the newspaper's editor, joins the animated discussion over the content of the next edition of the paper whose circulation has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 copies since she took over a year ago. The reporters have either been street children or have worked as child labourers in Delhi and neighbouring states. They were rescued by Chetna, an NGO that works for the rehabilitation of street children. By one estimate, more than 10 million children live on the streets and are forced into work in India. They are bound by a shared passion to bring out Balaknama (Voice of Children), an eight-page quarterly newspaper which focuses on children living and working on the streets. It proudly calls itself the "world's unique newspaper for and by street and working children". Eighteen-year-old Chandni, the newspaper's editor, joins the animated discussion over the content of the next edition of the paper whose circulation has gone up from 4,000 to 5,500 copies since she took over a year ago. The reporters have either been street children or have worked as child labourers in Delhi and neighbouring states. They were rescued by Chetna, an NGO that works for the rehabilitation of street children. By one estimate, more than 10 million children live on the streets and are forced into work in India. From working as a street performer with her father to rag picking to support the family, Chandni's life has been a tale of grinding poverty. The NGO's outreach programme enthused her to join a school and also gave her a modest stipend to keep her from going back to rag picking. It also trained her as a reporter. "I am very proud of editing this paper because it's one of its kind in India. Children whose childhood have been robbed, have gone hungry, begged, been abused and forced to work write about other children who are going through similar tribulations," says Chandni. "It's not only cathartic but also gives each one of us a sense of purpose. We can only become better from here." She manages a bureau of 14 reporters who cover Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Most reporters narrate their copy to colleagues in the Delhi office on the phone because they often have no access to e-mail or fax. Chandni conducts two editorial meets every month to keep a sharp eye on the content. The broadsheet is priced at two rupees (three cents) and is financed and published by Chetna. But it has been struggling to find advertisers and has not received any funding from the government. From working as a street performer with her father to rag picking to support the family, Chandni's life has been a tale of grinding poverty. The NGO's outreach programme enthused her to join a school and also gave her a modest stipend to keep her from going back to rag picking. It also trained her as a reporter. "I am very proud of editing this paper because it's one of its kind in India. Children whose childhood have been robbed, have gone hungry, begged, been abused and forced to work write about other children who are going through similar tribulations," says Chandni. "It's not only cathartic but also gives each one of us a sense of purpose. We can only become better from here." She manages a bureau of 14 reporters who cover Delhi and neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Most reporters narrate their copy to colleagues in the Delhi office on the phone because they often have no access to e-mail or fax. Chandni conducts two editorial meets every month to keep a sharp eye on the content. The broadsheet is priced at two rupees (three cents) and is financed and published by Chetna. But it has been struggling to find advertisers and has not received any funding from the government. Shanno, 19, is a fifth-grade school dropout. Working long hours and putting up with a "drunk father" was Shanno's life story. Today she is studying for a degree in social work and hopes to have a career as a social activist. She also trains other reporters at the newspaper. "We did a sample survey of street and working children in Delhi in November and managed to track down 1,320 children living on the streets and working as labourers," she says. "We wanted to tell the police and the government that a proper count of street children was possible. If we can do it with limited resources, so can they when they have all the manpower and resources available to them." "There's been talk of a survey of street children to be conducted by the Delhi government and also the police but nothing has come of it so far," she adds. Shambhu, who also works at the newspaper, says he faced a lot of opposition and endured threats while doing the survey. "We had to face a lot of opposition and even threats when we went to talk to children working in restaurants and hotels because their employers were belligerent. But we firmly told them that we will call the child helpline number if they did not allow us talk to the children," he says. Reaching out to children stuck in private homes, restaurants and factories gave a sense of purpose to 15-year-old Chandni (junior). She echoes the pain and horror of many nameless children in the stories that she files for the paper. Chandni (junior) is slated to take over as the next editor of the newspaper. "I want to increase the reach of our newspaper and make it a profit making venture. It's the voice of all of us who have survived hardships on the streets, in other people's homes and sweat shops and can now speak for many others who continue to struggle. Their silence must be heard," she says. Shanno, 19, is a fifth-grade school dropout. Working long hours and putting up with a "drunk father" was Shanno's life story. Today she is studying for a degree in social work and hopes to have a career as a social activist. She also trains other reporters at the newspaper. "We did a sample survey of street and working children in Delhi in November and managed to track down 1,320 children living on the streets and working as labourers," she says. "We wanted to tell the police and the government that a proper count of street children was possible. If we can do it with limited resources, so can they when they have all the manpower and resources available to them." "There's been talk of a survey of street children to be conducted by the Delhi government and also the police but nothing has come of it so far," she adds. Shambhu, who also works at the newspaper, says he faced a lot of opposition and endured threats while doing the survey. "We had to face a lot of opposition and even threats when we went to talk to children working in restaurants and hotels because their employers were belligerent. But we firmly told them that we will call the child helpline number if they did not allow us talk to the children," he says. Reaching out to children stuck in private homes, restaurants and factories gave a sense of purpose to 15-year-old Chandni (junior). She echoes the pain and horror of many nameless children in the stories that she files for the paper. Chandni (junior) is slated to take over as the next editor of the newspaper. "I want to increase the reach of our newspaper and make it a profit making venture. It's the voice of all of us who have survived hardships on the streets, in other people's homes and sweat shops and can now speak for many others who continue to struggle. Their silence must be heard," she says.

['Media', 'Poverty', 'Children', 'Homelessness', 'India', 'New Delhi']

[{"entity": "Indian capital", "label": "LOC"}, {"entity": "Delhi", "label": "LOC"}]

Delhi

["Media", "Poverty", "Children", "Homelessness", "India", "New Delhi"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47653652

Oculus releases updated Rift VR headset

Oculus has released an updated version of its flagship VR headset that works with a PC to let people play in virtual worlds.

Called the Oculus Rift S, the virtual reality headset does away with the cameras needed on the original and which tracked users' movements. The headset has also has higher resolution displays and costs less than the original Rift released in 2016. Oculus said the headset would go on sale in the USA this spring. Instead of cameras, the Rift S has five built-in sensors that work out how a user is moving and adjust the scene they are seeing. The sensors also scan a user's surroundings to see how much room they have to move around virtual scenes. The headset still has to be tethered to a PC to work but Oculus said machines that worked with the original headset should also support the new device. Any game played on the original Rift should also work on the updated headset, it added. Oculus said the headset has two LCD displays with a resolution of 1280 x 1440 pixels per eye. This is less than the displays on the rival HTC Vive Pro and HP Reverb headsets. The Oculus headset is expected to cost about $399 (£303) when it goes on sale. The UK price is likely to be about £300 but no firm figure has yet been given. The original Rift was priced at $599 when it debuted. Last year Oculus previewed an updated stand-alone headset called the Quest that shares some of the technology found in the Rift S. The Quest is also expected to be released before the summer. Statistics suggest that Sony's VR headset has the dominant market share with about 43% of all headsets bought to work with the PlayStation 4 console. Oculus is in second place with a 19% share.

['Gaming', 'Facebook', 'Virtual reality']

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Oculus

["Gaming", "Facebook", "Virtual reality"]

english

en

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37309706

Border poll survey says 8/10 voters unchanged by Brexit

More than eight out of 10 people in Northern Ireland say the UK's decision to leave the European Union has not changed the way they would vote in a future border poll.

That is the finding of a survey carried out by the pollsters, Ipsos Mori, for BBC Northern Ireland's political programme, The View. In the wake of June's EU referendum result, Sinn Féin demanded that the secretary of state should call a border poll as provided for under the Good Friday Agreement. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin also reported a sharp rise in the number of people from Northern Ireland applying for Irish passports. However, this survey reveals that less than a fifth of the people interviewed by Ipsos Mori say the Brexit decision has influenced how they would vote in a referendum to decide whether Northern Ireland remains in the UK or joins the Irish Republic. More than 1,000 people were interviewed by the pollsters face to face at locations across Northern Ireland between mid-August and early September. A third of those interviewed (33%) want the government to call a border referendum. However, more than a half (52%) oppose such a move. Opposition was strongest among those with a Protestant background with 72% against holding a border poll. If such a poll is held, a clear majority of people, 63%, say they will vote for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK, while only 22% would support a United Ireland. Some 13% of those polled don't know how they would vote, whilst another 2% would not participate in a border poll. The same question was asked for the BBC by Ipsos Mori three years ago. A direct comparison with that survey shows a slight decrease in support for staying in the UK, estimated at 65% in 2013, two points higher than the latest figure - which is within the margin of error so not statistically significant. Ipsos Mori reported a 5 point increase in support for a United Ireland (22%), which was just 17% in the 2013 survey - an increase which is regarded as a significant change. The overwhelming majority of those with a Protestant background (88%) would vote to stay in the UK. More than third of those with a Catholic background (37%) would also opt to stay in the UK, similar to the 2013 figure of 38%. More than four out of 10 people with a Catholic background (43%) would back a United Ireland, up 8% on the 2013 figure of 35% - an increase which is regarded as statistically significant. People were asked whether the result of June's EU referendum had changed their views on Northern Ireland's constitutional future. Some 83% said the Brexit decision had not altered their position, while 17% indicated it had changed their thinking. Those whose views had been influenced by the EU result were slightly more likely to be female, from a Catholic background and drawn from the affluent AB social classes. In the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum, the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that a second Scottish independence vote was "highly likely". Earlier this month, Ms Sturgeon asked SNP activists to take the lead in what she described as a "new conversation" on independence. In the past, the Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has predicted that developments in Scotland could have "seismic implications" for politics in Ireland. In the Ipsos Mori survey, people were asked whether a future vote for independence in Scotland would change their view on a border poll. A majority (56%) reckoned a decision by Scotland to break from the UK would not alter the way they would cast their vote in such a border poll. Some 18% told Ipsos Mori that Scottish independence would make them more likely to vote for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK. But 15% believed Scottish independence would make them more likely to vote for a United Ireland. Under the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire is supposed to call a border poll if it appears "likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland". The Northern Ireland Office has previously ruled out calling such a poll. Although the Ipsos Mori survey suggests a slight increase in support for a united Ireland, given that less than a quarter of the people of Northern Ireland would vote for a change, it seems unlikely that the UK government will shift its position on calling a border poll in the near future. To view the full survey, click here.

['Sinn Féin', 'Brexit', 'Good Friday Agreement']

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Northern Ireland ||| UK

["Sinn F\u00e9in", "Brexit", "Good Friday Agreement"]