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Until recently, home schooling in the US was mostly practised by white families, but a growing number in the black community are now also turning their back on the public school system and educating their children at home. Why? | By Brian WheelerBBC News, Washington
"There were lots of fights and people getting shot," says Sonya Barbee.
"It was just too much. To me, it's not a good environment for a kid and even though I work full time, so it's really hard for me, I still feel like it's the right decision."
Sonya has not made life easy for herself. A single mother, who works for the US government, she now has the added burden of being a teacher to her 11-year-old son, Copeland.
It was not the violence, or even the fact that he was being bullied, that finally led to the decision to remove Copeland from his public school in what she describes as a "really bad area" of Washington DC, but the fact that he was "losing his love of learning".
Now, with the help of her mother, who looks after Copeland two days a week while he works online, and a home schooling co-operative, she is hoping to "rekindle the fire". She herself teaches him after work and in the holidays.
Her only regret so far is that Copeland is not more enthusiastic, saying he misses the "madness" of the classroom - although, she stresses, it is early days.
Until recently, Sonya's story would have been highly unusual in the United States.
About two million, or 4%, of American children are home-schooled, according to the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) - a rough estimate, as families do not have to register with the authorities in some states.
But home-schooling has traditionally been dominated by white Christian families in the rural south, who object to what they see as the public schools' liberal agenda on sex education and Darwinism.
The number of inner-city parents choosing to educate their children at home, for educational rather than religious reasons, has been growing for a while, but until recently few black families were thought to be among them, according to NHERI director Dr Brian Ray.
"For the African-American community there was a huge amount of pressure against it, because in America, the grandparents of today's home-schooled children fought for desegregation of schools. They thought, 'The public schools are going to save us,'" he says.
But Dr Ray, who regularly interviews black home-schoolers as part of his research, says attitudes are changing fast - and it's also a lot easier today for black families to try it than it was 20 years ago, he points out.
Joyce Burges, co-founder of National Black Home Educators, who home-schooled all five of her children, aged 16 to 35, says the practice is growing "exponentially" in the African American community.
"The failings of public schools have caused all of us, whether we are white or black, to come up with creative ideas about how we can educate children.
"That explains the rise of the co-ops and African Americans seeing that this is not just a white thing any more."
Despite the desegregation of schools, the attainment gap between African-American and white students in American schools has barely changed since the 1960s. The problem is particularly acute among black boys.
According to a 2008 study by the Schott Foundation: "Over the last 25 years, the social, educational and economic outcomes for black males have been more systematically devastating than the outcomes for any other racial or ethnic group or gender."
Monica Utsey, who runs a home schooling co-operative for African American children in Washington DC, says: "African-American mothers, especially those who have boys, have a lot of trouble in the school system. The way the classroom is designed is more conducive for girls."
For her, though, the main motivation was cultural - she wanted her sons to learn about their African roots and not "to believe that their history begins with slavery".
Home-schoolers are scathing about the way public schools teach to the test, at the expense of providing what they see as a rounded education.
Another common complaint is that teachers are too ready to blame behavioural problems on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and encourage them to medicate their children with drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall.
"The teachers are always telling the parents they have to drug their kids, like they have some kind of problem. It's just crazy." says Sonya Barbee. "You don't want your kid to be a zombie."
Home-schooling co-operatives, where lessons are held in mixed age groups by parents, have sprung up in cities across America in recent years, helping to break the social isolation critics of home schooling often warn about.
But even its most ardent advocates concede that home schooling is not for everyone.
Only the most committed parents, who want to be involved in every aspect of their child's development and enjoy spending time with them, can make it work.
Not all parents can keep up with the demands of the curriculum, particularly if they want their offspring to go to college. Many children who are home-schooled in their early years return to the class room when they reach secondary school age.
It is also does nothing to address standards in public schools which, some experts say, will fall still further if highly-motivated and engaged parents start taking their children out of them, harming the African-American community as a whole.
Joyce Burges believes the day could soon be approaching when the local home-schooling co-operative, run by a group of committed parents, could be a real alternative to the public school, for children of all ages and ethnicities.
The demand certainly appears to be there.
"I get emails and phone calls from people all the time who want to know if there is someone that can home-school their child," says Monica Utsey. "I tell them that it doesn't work like that. It's really the parents' responsibility."
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Two teenagers have been charged with murdering an 18-year-old man who died following a "disturbance" outside a Royal British Legion club. | Eddie O'Rourke, from The Clough, Runcorn, died in hospital after being found with a "serious injury" in Halton Village at about 20:30 BST on Friday.
Two boys, aged 17 and 15, have been remanded in custody and are due to appear at Warrington Combined Court.
A 16-year-old boy who was also arrested on suspicion of murder has been bailed.
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A Grade II*-listed lido has been vandalised just three weeks after it reopened to the public following a seven-year £3m restoration project. | Stones were thrown at toughened glass panels surrounding the outdoor swimming pool in Saltdean on Sunday night, causing one to shatter.
The intruders are also thought to have gone for a swim during the break-in.
Sussex Police said three teenage boys were arrested on suspicion of committing criminal damage.
A spokeswoman said about £1,225 worth of damage was caused.
In a statement, Saltdean Lido said the vandalism was "incredibly sad" for the volunteers and supporters who had worked hard to "bring the pool back from the brink so that generations of young people can experience what it is like to swim in a historic pool".
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A man, arrested on suspicion of causing a bomb hoax at a shopping centre, has been released on bail. | Shops and restaurants at the Centre:MK in Milton Keynes were closed for five hours on Monday after two "suspicious packages" were found.
The shopping centre said the packages were unattended bags which "contained clothes", but Thames Valley Police asked the public to "remain vigilant".
The man, 33, was also arrested on suspicion of possession of a knife.
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A 75-year-old man has been charged with murder nearly 26 years after a man died in a stabbing. | Jason Comerford, 21, was stabbed in the neck on 25 February 1994 in George Leigh Street, near Great Ancoats Street, in Manchester.
Police investigated but no suspect was identified and the case remained open.
Geoffrey Strike, formerly of Manchester, was charged with murder and will appear at Manchester City Magistrates' Court later.
Related Internet Links
Greater Manchester Police
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"Night night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite…" It's long been a favourite rhyme to send children off to sleep. But with experts warning of a worldwide bedbug pandemic, will any of us be able to sleep once we've turned out the light, asks Tom de Castella. | Vampire fiction may be all the rage. But the true bloodsuckers after twilight are not charismatic updates of Dracula but tiny insects living in our mattresses, headboards and pillows. Yes, bedbugs are back and pest controllers are warning of a global pandemic.
A recent survey of a thousand pest control firms around the world by the University of Kentucky and the United States' National Pest Management Association, appears to show that the bedbug problem is increasing everywhere.
"The results of the global study suggest that we are on the threshold of a bedbug pandemic, not just in the United States, but around the world," said Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for NPMA.
A study led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine last year found the number of complaints about bedbugs in the capital grew annually by an average of 28.5% between 2000-2006. And there's no sign of the problem abating with Rentokil reporting the number of bedbug call outs has gone up by 24% in the first half of the year.
Some British hotels have even taken to employing the services of a sniffer dog in a bid to root out infestations of the tiny insects (see box, right).
The problem is already big news in America. The nation's Environmental Protection Agency last month warned of an "alarming resurgence" of bedbugs, a creature the EPA says causes painful itching, allergic reactions, not to mention mental health problems and negative economic consequences. New York is the worst affected city with office buildings, cinemas and shops - including a branch of expensive lingerie chain Victoria's Secret - having to close.
Pop singer Lauren Hildebrandt detailed her trauma in a press release this week after being bitten by the insects while staying at an "upscale" New York retreat. "I couldn't sleep at night, because I kept thinking they were in my bed. I was unable to wear a bathing suit or even a tank top during this hot summer!"
Politicians have been forced to act. In the past week New York's state government has passed laws requiring landlords to tell prospective tenants of any bedbug infestation within the past year, and ordering schools to inform parents of any outbreak.
Experts have known about the resurgence in bedbug populations for the last decade but it's only now wider society has woken up to the problem, says Mike Potter, professor of entomology at the University of Kentucky. Part of that is because bedbugs are not disease carriers like mosquitoes or rats. And then there's the fact that they are seen as a bit of joke.
"For years people have belittled the problem of bedbugs but now they're beginning to understand this is serious," he says. "Sleepless nights, constant anxiety, the expense of extermination and then not knowing if you've got rid of them, all creates a huge amount of emotional stress that shouldn't be pooh-poohed."
Even the term bedbug is misleading now with the creatures popping up in laundries, shops, children's nurseries, schools and hospitals. Bedbugs may not be able to fly or jump but they have a natural ability to stow away in luggage, beds or sofas and come out to feed when they find themselves close to someone sleeping.
Prof Potter fears for the future unless urgent action is taken.
"There's absolutely no reason to think that this bedbug problem is going to subside on its own. When you look at where we'll be in two years' time and the rate of increase it's going to be very serious. This is the most challenging pest problem for the developed world in a generation."
But why are their numbers on the march again? Clive Boase, a British entomologist who runs a pest management consultancy, says we grew complacent after tackling the last great outbreak before World War II.
In the 1930s there were large swaths of London where every house was infested. It took an investigation by the Ministry of Health and the Public Health Act of 1936 to force councils to take action.
"Then from the late 30s their numbers declined. The introduction of DDT in 1946 is the reason normally given for wiping out bedbugs but by then the problem had been more or less treated. DDT was just the final nail in the coffin for bedbugs."
The 60s, 70s and 80s were the "golden years" in Britain with bedbugs beaten back.
Climate change and growing international travel, have been cited as reasons for the bedbug's comeback. But Mr Boase rejects both explanations.
It is far more likely that bedbugs have become resistant to commonly used insecticides in the West, he argues. Interestingly the global survey showed pest control firms in Latin America and Asia where stronger, organophosphate chemicals are permitted, found it easier to control bedbugs, he says.
Mr Boase says there is an urgent need to develop new, more effective bedbug-killing insecticides which are also environmentally acceptable.
"We can still get rid of bedbugs from premises here even with the problems we've got with resistance to insecticides. But we just need to work harder."
In the meantime householders need to be more vigilant in reporting the problem early.
Richard Mosely, technical manager at the British Pest Control Association, says the apparent harmlessness of the insect is another reason for their return. Because bedbugs are not lethal like the hospital infections policymakers feel there's no need to act.
"You may not get the emphasis you would with MRSA. That is a killer. This bug draws blood but doesn't spread disease."
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One startling feature of the latest race to become the next president of the US - which begins in earnest with next week's Iowa caucuses - is the runaway success in the opinion polls of the outspoken billionaire, Donald Trump. But this should not be so surprising, says Michael Goldfarb, as Trump is just the latest example of a tendency in American politics that goes back a very long way. | Fear.
The simple four-letter word that works if you want to get elected. Political professionals know that playing on people's fears - going negative - is the way to win.
Paranoia.
A somewhat fancier word that is used to describe excessive, irrational fear and distrust. It, too, works from time to time - in American politics, at least.
This current presidential season is one of those times. Donald Trump has surged to the front of the pack competing for the Republican Presidential nomination by giving voice to outsized fears many in America have - of illegal immigrants, of Islamic terrorists, of free trade agreements shipping American jobs to China.
Trump promises to make America Great Again - as if the US somehow was no longer the most powerful country in the world - by simple solutions: deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants, banning Muslims from entering the US, and forcing the Chinese government to back down through tough talk.
The phrase "paranoid style in American politics" was coined by the late historian Richard Hofstadter. He defined the Paranoid Style, "an old and recurrent phenomenon in our public life which has been frequently linked with movements of suspicious discontent."
In a country that at its best radiates an infectious optimism, it is interesting how often fear has stalked the American landscape.
Richard Parker, who lectures on religion in the early days of America at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government, traces paranoia in American public life back to the Salem Witch Trials in the late 17th Century and even before that, to the religious politics of the Mother Country.
It's easy to forget how closely tied the first colonies were to England, particularly in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims were dissenting Protestants who sided closely with Cromwell in the English Civil War. When the Commonwealth was overthrown and the Stuarts restored to the British throne, there was renewed struggle with Catholicism - and the religious suspicions surrounding the court of James II were magnified out of all proportion on the other side of the Atlantic.
Add in the daily struggles with nature, fighting with native Americans, and millennial religious practice that thought the end times were approaching and you have, Parker points out, "a community primed to be fearful".
And so in the town of Salem, people turned on their more free-thinking neighbours, and accused them of being witches. At this time, the idea of witchcraft was not something from fiction. People really did believe, in Parker's words, "dark spirits could inhabit souls and bodies. It was the basis for primitive psychology and physiology."
He adds that it's no surprise that in 1953, playwright Arthur Miller set his classic drama, The Crucible, in Salem during the witch trials.
The early 1950s was a time of another outbreak of fear in America, this time of communists in high places everywhere including the entertainment industry. There were blacklists of suspected communists and former communists in Hollywood. The House Un-American Activities Committee summoned the famous to Washington to testify against artistic colleagues. Careers were ruined. Miller, summoned by the committee in 1957, refused to name names and had his passport revoked.
Another source of fear that recurs in American history is of the secret society in league with foreign powers. Many of America's first presidents were Freemasons and masonry was closely associated with the French Revolution. Later on the concern was cabals of foreign bankers trying to destroy the American working man's livelihood.
But religion is the playing field for most of these fears.
In the early days of the Republic, Roman Catholics were suspected of being the vanguard of a Papist plot to take over the country. The fact that in the first census, of four million citizens only 25,000 were Catholic didn't matter. In the late 1840s, a huge wave of Catholics fleeing the famine in Ireland only inflamed suspicions.
A new political party was formed, called the Know Nothing party. It grew out of a secret society, whose main creed was anti-Irish immigration. Its members were told to say, if asked about it, "I know nothing." Hence the name.
The next group to be suspect was the Jews, whose great immigration wave came at the turn of the 20th Century. The entire Jewish immigrant population, some of whom were socialists, many of whom came from Russia, became conflated with the Russian Revolution.
By the 1930s, in his weekly radio broadcast, a Catholic priest, Father Charles Coughlin, an Irish Catholic, was whipping up fear about Jews and their "communising the factories and the fields and the mines".
Following World War Two the fear shifted to the Soviet Union. Leaders of the far-right vied with each other to see who could turn up the most Communists. This led Robert Welch, the founder of the ultra-right John Birch Society, to claim that President Dwight D Eisenhower was "a tool of the communists".
Welch was disowned by American conservatives for that assertion, yet his organisation became the foundation of a grassroots political movement that has dominated American politics for the last four decades. In her book, Suburban Warriors, Harvard history professor Lisa McGirr charts the rise of "movement conservatism" in the new suburbs of Orange County California, just south of Los Angeles.
Find out more
Listen to Michael Goldfarb's radio documentary, Trump and the Politics of Paranoia, on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Monday 25 January, or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer.
Many of these conservatives had no problem with the Birch Society's extreme fear-mongering about an imminent Communist takeover of the US. It was observing the growth of this new movement that led Richard Hofstadter to write his seminal 1964 essay, The Paranoid Style. But McGirr disputes the idea that their "apocalyptic strands of thought" were a form of paranoia.
"Hofstadter makes a mistake in presenting an overly psychological, clinical portrait, which has the tendency to lead to a dismissive characterisation of their ideology," she says.
"I think it is linked to religiosity: evangelicalism and fundamentalism which have deep strands in American life," she adds, echoing Richard Parker.
"Hofstadter wanted to write them off but they cannot be written off, they are an important strand of American life which survives to this day."
Writing off Donald Trump was the default setting of most pundits and political professionals in the first months of the campaign. It isn't any more. Trump understood more than they did that a significant chunk of American society is fearful. He plays to those fears - whether they are rational or not. He doesn't speak in what he calls "politically correct" terms.
In South Carolina, recently, I met a gentleman named Robert Sandifer. In his 70s, well-educated and well-off, he had retired to a lovely island just south of Charleston, one of the nicest cities in America.
"Trump has instilled hope in people," Sandifer told me.
"Hope? Sounds to me like desperation," I told him.
Sandifer politely disagreed. "If he does what he says he's gonna do, we would be less fearful." He added, for emphasis: "We fear the federal government very much."
More from the Magazine
Donald Trump is the frontrunner in the Republican race to be the presidential nominee for next year's election. What are his policies and beliefs?
22 things Donald Trump believes (Dec 2015)
Michael Goldfarb is the author of Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto led to Revolution and Renaissance.
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After the Charlie Hebdo attack, a Paris imam went to the scene and condemned the murders. "These victims are martyrs, and I shall pray for them with all my heart," said Hassen Chalghoumi (above). He was also quoted as saying that 95% of victims of terrorism are Muslim. How accurate is this statistic? | By Ruth Alexander and Hannah MooreBBC News
The claim is similar to one in a 2011 report by the US government's National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC), which said: "In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97% of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years."
However, the report did not say in what proportion of cases it had been possible to determine the victims' religious affiliation - or whether these cases were representative of the others. The answers are not easy to obtain, because the report is no longer produced.
Another US-based team, the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) at the University of Maryland, does still compile terrorism statistics - but it doesn't attempt to determine the religion of people killed or injured. To do so would be "very difficult" says the GTD's Erin Miller.
The reason is that most of the raw data comes from news reports, and these often don't mention the religion of the victims. In about 50% of cases the GTD doesn't even know who carried out the attack.
Miller does point out, though, that between 2004 and 2013 about half of all terrorist attacks, and 60% of fatalities due to terrorist attacks, took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan - all of which have a mostly Muslim population.
So while she doubts that 95% of terrorism victims are Muslim, she thinks the truth might not be far off.
"It's not out of the realm of possibility, given the extreme concentration of attacks in majority-Muslim countries," Miller says.
Defining 'terrorism'
The GTD defines a terrorist attack as the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non‐state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.
Global Terrorism Database 2014 Codebook (p8)
When people in the West think of terrorist attacks, they may think of Charlie Hebdo, or the 7/7 London tube and bus bombs, the Madrid train bombs and of course 9/11 - and although some Muslims did die in these attacks, most of the victims wouldn't have been Muslim.
The overall number of deadly terrorist attacks in France, the UK, Spain and the US, however, is very low by international standards.
Between 2004-2013, the UK suffered 400 terrorist attacks, mostly in Northern Ireland, and almost all of them were non-lethal. The US suffered 131 attacks, fewer than 20 of which were lethal. France suffered 47 attacks. But in Iraq, there were 12,000 attacks and 8,000 of them were lethal.
Erin Miller says there is another reason why she would advise against focusing on the religious affiliation of victims, quite apart from the fact that reliable data is hard to find.
"It's tempting for many people to try and turn it into almost a scorecard, trying to figure out which religious groups are more violent than others, and boil it down to this grossly oversimplified keeping of score, like it's a football game," she says.
This is a mistake, she argues. Most terrorist attacks are rooted in geopolitics, she says. "Religion is certainly a part of them, but it is not the only part."
Listen to More or Less on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, or download the free podcast
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Lucie was 10 when she was first sexually abused. | By Imran Rahman-JonesNewsbeat reporter
She was groomed online before she ever met her abuser in person.
"The conversation might slightly change one day to talk about sexual things, and then it might be talking about sending sexual photos," she tells Newsbeat.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse wants more people like Lucie - not her real name - to come forward with their stories.
It wants to hear from younger survivors of child sexual abuse to be able to give the most up to date recommendations to the government.
If you are affected by any of the issues in this article, click here for advice.
The inquiry, which was set up by the government but is not run by it, started after hundreds of people had come forward to say that Jimmy Savile had abused them as children.
It's trying to find out how victims and survivors of child sexual abuse were treated by authorities including the police or care homes.
For Lucie, 21, it was a failure of the law to convict her abuser. Laws which covered sexual messages didn't exist at the time.
Her abuser still walks free now. Although the abuse became physical in Lucie's case, a conflicting witness statement meant prosecutors felt there wasn't enough evidence to continue the case.
Lucie says that online grooming can be hard to spot when it's happening - after all, chatting to your friends online is pretty normal.
"It's very slow manipulation that people might not recognise," she says.
"But they have to remember that if there's anything that they're uncomfortable with, then it's OK to to block that person and move on."
For her, the grooming "was over two or three years, until we met in person and it became physical sexual abuse.
"I didn't ever tell anybody," says Lucie. "When I was 14, my mum found photos on my phone."
That's when the police got involved.
"At that time, the evidence they gathered from my phone and his phone - they weren't able to prosecute because the law didn't exist."
"He had told me that if I went to the police they wouldn't do anything, I had gone to the police and they didn't do anything.
"Everything that he'd threatened me with had just come true. So it then continued, despite the police being aware."
The abuse went until Lucie was 16. Now 21, she still has flashbacks and night terrors.
"I have a diagnosis of complex PTSD. I am now on medication for that, and I probably will be for the rest of my life.
"It's damaged me in a way that is irreparable I think."
But Lucie now works with organisations including the NSPCC and the Truth Project to share her story and speak to other victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.
"It can help to come forward and it can help people in different ways. For me, sharing my story in the media is how it's helpful to me.
"I just wanted to give young people the confidence that actually you can come forward," says Lucie.
"Online grooming and texting and sexual abuse in that way is a very new thing, and it's important that we share our stories because the abuse that's happening now is very different."
The Truth Project is the part of the inquiry that confidentially listens to victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.
It's not part of the main investigation, which means "the people who come forward get to own what happened to them," says Michael May, who leads its work with young people.
"I hope that people hold on to that idea - the idea that when they come to us, they can be agents of change."
"We have to be really clear that online grooming in itself is a form of sexual abuse," he says.
"The signs are that something happened that made you feel really uncomfortable, that left you in a place where you questioned its appropriateness."
The Truth Project is going into universities to try and reach younger people.
Michael says that there are some questions people should ask themselves before they come forward: "Have you thought about why you want to come? Have you thought about what it might feel like? Have you thought about where you have support already and what support might be necessary to make you feel safe in doing it?"
If you are affected by any of the issues in this article, click here for advice.
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Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 every weekday on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra - if you miss us you can listen back here.
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A display by the French aerobatic display team at the Royal International Air Tattoo was stopped after a technical emergency.
| It is after one of the Dassault-Dornier Alpha jets flown by the Patrouille de France team had technical problems.
A technical emergency was declared and fire engines were deployed when the aircraft landed. No action was needed.
The team was due to fly to Paris afterwards, to perform a flyover at the end of the Tour-de-France.
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Thousands of students protesting a hostel fee hike have brought one of India's most prestigious universities to a standstill for almost a month. BBC Hindi's Vineet Khare spent a day at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), to find out more. | "I told the policeman I was a blind student. I asked him to stop hitting me as I couldn't even run away. But he said why did you join the protest if you were blind?"
Shashibhushan Samad is lying on the bed at his JNU dorm room, recounting a protest rally on Monday where thousands of students clashed with police. Many received injuries and had to be taken to hospital.
In a video that has since gone viral, Mr Samad can be seen removing his glasses to show policemen that he cannot see, but he is still pulled away.
"I was crushed under their feet. Someone hit me on my knees and stomach. They stomped on my back," he says, baring his torso to show me the marks.
For almost four weeks now, students have been protesting against an increase in accommodation fees at the top university.
Under the new proposed fees, students will have to pay between 1,800 rupees ($25; £20) and 3,600 rupees ($50; £40) every year for housing on campus. They were previously paying between 120 rupees ($1.60) and 240 rupees ($3).
They will also have to pay for other services - such as electricity and sanitation - which they say they have never had to do before.
Many say that the new structure is prohibitive, particularly for students from poorer backgrounds, and will affect its standing as an inclusive institution.
A renowned centre for teaching and research that provides education at a fraction of the cost charged by its private counterparts, the government-run JNU is a highly coveted university.
Its alumni hold sway in the bureaucracy, journalism, the police and a host of other public and private sector jobs.
Private education in India is still unaffordable for the majority of the country's population and jobs in government institutions are limited. JNU, its supporters say, plays an important role in remedying that.
"The democratisation of the elite has long-term consequences for the healthy development of Indian society. So we need a lot more institutions like JNU," said former vice chancellor Dr YK Alagh.
Ali Javed, a student, has surveyed 463 students on campus and his findings are doing the rounds among the protesters. The survey claims that a "significant percentage (42%) of students fall below the annual household income of 144,000 rupees ($2,000)".
"There are students who go hungry, walk miles instead of hiring a taxi and wear damaged shoes to save money. Some work shifts to pay back family debts. Can we not have an institution where students from the marginalised communities can study?" Mr Javed said.
The JNU administration says a revision of fees had been due for years and that dorm room rent had not been "revised in the last three decades".
Nearly 8,000 students study at the university, of which about 60% live on campus, say students.
At an earlier protest, students gathered outside an auditorium to attract the attention of a federal minister who was inside but they were forced away by security forces who used water cannons to disperse them.
Things went south at the latest stand-off on Monday, where police used barricades and a large force to scuttle a planned student march to the parliament. The police response led to scores of injuries among students.
MS Randhawa, a senior police officer in Delhi, said that police "exercised maximum restraint" and "students may have been injured as they tried to break down barricades".
But the university, seen as a bastion of the political left by many, has long been in the thick of controversy. Students at JNU have been reviled by critics - most of whom are from the upper-middle classes - for being "freeloaders", "parasites" and a burden on taxpayers.
These narratives have resurfaced following the latest student protest.
The present chaotic situation at JNU has meant that many students are left uncertain about their future.
For Jyoti Kumar, who is pursuing a masters degree in Russian, the hike in fees may force her to drop out. Her father is a farmer, who earns between 70,000 and 90,000 rupees ($975 and $1,253) every year.
"My father hasn't been able to process the fee hike," she said. "My younger sister and brother also want to study at JNU, but how can they study here with this fee hike?"
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With the world's biggest bike race starting in Leeds on 5 July, BBC Yorkshire's Tour de France correspondent Matt Slater rounds up the best of the gossip, opinion and stories, on and off the bike, and also tries to explain some of cycling's unique lingo.
TOP STORIES | Did you know that it was the 25th anniversary of the release of Kevin Costner's best film last Friday? No, not Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, or Waterworld, I'm talking about, Field of Dreams. If you cannot remember the movie - shame on you - you probably recall the line, "If you build it, he will come", or any of the "build the field and they will come" variations that have entered the common phrasebook. This certainly seems to be the best way to describe what is happening in Yorkshire on 5-6 July, as it has been confirmed that the region has scored a young royals hat-trick with Harry, Kate and Wills all coming to see Le Tour. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have previous with cycling, they witnessed Britain's gold rush at the Olympic Velodrome, while Harry just loves sport.
Full story: Everybody, but I am going to give The Times of India its Grand Depart diary debut.
Follow that, I hear you say. OK, how does a hops-based joint venture between Ilkley firms Wharfedale Brewery and Fat Lad At The Back grab you? The brewery, which owns the tremendous Flying Duck pub on Church Street, is rebranding its Wharfedale Blonde as "King o't Mountains Blonde" in honour of the big bike race. New cycling clothing brand Fat Lad At The Back, or FLAB, is "partnering" the brewery in this rebranding, which sounds like a euphemism for drinking it. The FLAB USP is that it makes stylish cycling gear for the riders who struggle to fit into it more typical offerings. Riders who drink too much "King o't Mountains Blonde" perhaps.
Full story: Ilkley Gazette
Continuing with the joint-venture theme, good friends of the diary Leeds Gallery Munro House and Café 164 deserve a quick plug for "#CYCLISM", an exhibition "of all things pedal-powered on two wheels". The launch night is on Friday, 27 June.
Full story: The Leeds Gallery
CYCLING ROUND-UP
Another day, another twist in the Team Sky selection saga… or in this case, more of a stick, than twist. As mentioned previously, Sir Bradley Wiggins is riding in this week's Tour of Switzerland, when he really wanted to be at last week's Criterium du Dauphine with all the other Tour de France cool kids. That is not to say that the Swiss race lacks cool kids - it doesn't - it is just that his team sent their cool kids to the other race, the background to this being that Wiggo is very unlikely to be selected for Sky's Tour team.
There was, perhaps, a tiny opening for him if he had a blinder in Switzerland. Sadly, Monday's display ended any prospect of a blinder, as he trailed in two and a half minutes behind the race's coolest kid, Slovakian star Peter Sagan.
Wiggins' demeanour as he crossed the line was one of cool indifference. It was as if he was saying 'I told you they were setting me up to fail here', as he has already let it be known that he has spent the last couple of weeks training for the very different demands of track cycling. All he can do now is knuckle down and support his teammates in Switzerland, and hope for better legs in Friday's time trial.
TWEET OF THE DAY
"Busy day ahead. Going to check out the Tourmalet & Hautacam. Been up there before in 2008 but that feels like a lifetime ago now!"
While Wiggo endures his Swiss exile, Team Sky colleague @chrisfroome continues his preparations for the Tour de France with some Pyrenean reconnaissance.
TODAY'S TOUR TRIVIA
In honour of Eddy Merckx's 69th birthday today, the diary wants to take you back to the 1969 Tour de France, the Belgian's first. Merckx utterly dominated this race, winning six stages and every jersey - not bad for his debut. But looking back at this race now, it is the sheer quantity of racing that stands out. The riders did 23 consecutive days of racing - no rest days - which included three split stages, days when they rode A and B stages. They also went 300 miles further than the 2014 field will. Merckx was the toughest of a tough bunch.
THE COUNTDOWN - 18 DAYS TO GO
With highly-fancied Belgium making their World Cup 2014 bow on Tuesday, it is only fitting that the diary mentions the country's proud record in their other favourite sports event, Le Tour. Belgian cyclists have won 18 Tours between them, to put the country second on the all-time list behind France, and for a period either side of WWI, Belgium dominated. The wins have dried up of late, though, with Lucien van Impe's 1976 victory being the last.
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The Conservatives have kept control of Norfolk County Council. | The party needed 43 for a majority and won 58, three up on the last local elections in 2017.
Seats were gained in Holt, Wells-next-the-Sea, King's Lynn North & Central and Yarmouth North & Central, although one was lost to an independent in Gayton and Nar Valley.
Council leader Andrew Proctor held on to his Blofield and Brundall seat, his share 1% down on his last victory.
The Green Party gained three seats from Labour in the Norwich area: Mancroft, Nelson and Thorpe Hamlet.
Norfolk's police and crime commissioner (PCC) result is expected to come in on Saturday evening.
The county elected Conservative PCC Lorne Green in 2016, but he is not standing this time.
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Enter your postcode, or the name of your English council or Scottish or Welsh constituency to find out. Eg 'W1A 1AA' or 'Westminster'
The declaration by Norwich City Council is not expected before Sunday afternoon.
The city council is Labour-run, and 13 of its 39 seats up for election on Thursday.
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There is almost universal condemnation in the press worldwide of the two-year sentences imposed on members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot. In Russia itself, many mention the Dark Ages and one commentator calls the verdict "Bolshevist".
A French editorial calls the trial "a travesty of justice" and the Washington Post says the sentence is excessive.
But a newspaper in Belarus argues that the authorities have done Pussy Riot a favour by making them more popular. | Russia
Igor Maltsev on Izvestiya daily's website:
The next step would be to burn anyone who says that the earth is round. That would be nice. After smashing justice up with a god's hammer, after mixing paganism, communism, commissars and papacy together, what we suddenly received is another Afghanistan-1980.
Stanislav Minin on the website of centrist daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta:
Two years in jail is probably not too harsh, as 'things are tougher in some countries'. Of course they are. In some countries people get pelted with stones and in others, I think, they still get eaten. But there is little honour in looking more humane than a man-eater.
Mikhail Rostovskiy on the website of Moskovskiy Komsomolets tabloid:
The Pussy Riot verdict - two years - is a totally Bolshevist outcome of a thoroughly Bolshevist trial caused by a 100% Bolshevist act by the defendants... The Pussy Riot case is a huge moral and political defeat suffered by the Russian authorities and society alike.
Aleksandr Grishin in Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda:
Who would have thought six months ago that the verdict for three fools tried for hooliganism would almost become the main political event in a huge country. Liberal social activists, people of non-traditional sexual orientation, arts intelligentsia and circles close to it threw themselves to defend members of the infamous Pussy Riot band.
Belarus
Editor-in-chief Pavel Yakubovich on the website of Belarusian official newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya:
They are quite ordinary young ladies trying to kill time and attract some attention... By convicting Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich and Alekhina, the authorities did them a huge image favour. I won't be surprised if they are declared 'prisoners of conscience' and the Mandelas of our time, while grey-haired Scandinavian dignitaries nominate [Pussy Riot member] Tolokonnikova for the Nobel prize.
France
Editorial in Liberation, headlined 'Gulag':
This case is indicative of the power system under Putin and his puppet Medvedev. A travesty of justice and democracy. Russia is not a country of the rule of law, it has nothing to do alongside the G8 democracies.
Spain
Editorial in El Pais:
Perpetrators of a similar act would have also been punished in another country, but not by two years in prison. But Russia is a country that is more than dubious as far as freedoms go. Putin's regime... mistook the punks' challenge for a threat, and by acting like it did has turned these girls into global icons of the challenge to his authority.
Germany
Peter Storm in German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
From the beginning, the trial has been used to show the opposition that even harder times are about to begin... The political climate in Russia is approaching freezing point. How long can Putin preserve his system?
Julian Hans in centre-left daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung:
The process was a bizarre spectacle, the conviction fits Putin's calculations: By convicting the three Pussy Riot activists to two years in prison, Russia shows the world that it has abandoned its path to the rule of law and democracy.
Commentary by Uwe Klussmann on Spiegel Online International edition website:
With the harsh verdict on the harmless artists, Russian President Vladimir Putin has committed a serious mistake: He is provoking the opposition to more aggression towards the state... By turning basically harmless artists into criminals, the regime has transformed the trial against Pussy Riot into a political time bomb.
Poland
Commentary by Dorota Jarecka on Gazeta Wyborcza website:
By handing down a two-year sentence the authorities are showing their power. The sentence means: public opinion and truth are of no importance. And also: those wanting to criticize the authorities must think twice. Because it may be considered a blasphemy.
Italy
Anna Zafesova in La Stampa:
Usually, in similar situations - like the case of Khodorkovsky - Putin has so far always taken a hard line. This time, the reduction of the sentence by one year compared to what was sought by the prosecution, after the president said he hoped for a sentence that is 'not too severe', suggests a sudden sensitivity to criticism.
Riccardo Noury in Corriere della Sera:
[The verdict] today does not only represent an attempt, unfortunately successful, to silence three young voices of dissent. It is also a warning to all the others: here is what will happen to you if you dare to challenge the power.
USA
Editorial in Washington Post
The trial of Pussy Riot was a farce in which the defendants were locked in a glass cage and the judge repeatedly refused to let the defence call witnesses... Whatever one thinks of the band's deed, the sentence is over the top... It would have been sufficient to sentence them to time served and let them go free. What really has occurred in this case is that Pussy Riot was singled out to discourage others from challenging the establishment.
Steve Chapman in Chicago Tribune:
Vladimir Putin is a famously tough guy - a former KGB agent who knows karate, plays hockey and gets photographed shirtless on horseback. But the Russian strongman is not really so strong. Evidently he's scared to death of three women who play in a punk rock band with the unforgettable name of Pussy Riot... Only corrupt dictatorial leaders have grounds to fear the complaints of their citizens. Putin is the archetypal strongman - shielded by security forces and afraid of people armed with nothing but guitars and truth.
Canada
Editorial in the Globe and Mail:
"Sentencing the three young women in a Russian punk band to two years in jail, for singing a protest song in a church, is a disproportionate punishment by any standards... The trial's outcome will only serve to further polarize Russian society, and cement Mr Putin's international reputation as an anti-modernist autocrat, in spite of his pledge to free his country from Communism's legacy.
BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here
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A survey of English councils has revealed that some are continuing to make huge cash surpluses from parking charges.
| The study for the RAC foundation is based on annual returns to the Department for Communities and Local Government, and includes revenue from on-street parking permits, off-street charges and parking penalties for 2012-2013.
These are offset against the cost of running parking operations, leaving some councils with a deficit.
Not all councils made a large surplus, but only 15% reported a deficit.
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It's the weekly news quiz - have you been paying attention to what's been going on in the world during the past seven days?
| If you cannot see the quiz, click here.
To try last week's quiz click here.
Why not test yourself on our 2018 Quiz of the Year?
2018 Quiz of the Year 1: Jan - Mar
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2018 Quiz of the Year 3: Jul - Sep
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Picture credits: Getty Images, PA
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Two major reports this new year have painted a bleak picture of children and young people's mental health. A study by the Prince's Trust suggested as many as three quarters of a million young people in the UK felt they had nothing to live for and ChildLine said it had seen a large increase in concerns about online bullying and self-harming. | So is life tougher for today's youth or are children's views just better heard these days?
Andrew Webb, President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services
The idea that "children should be seen and not heard" is thankfully, consigned to history. These days the thoughts, feelings and wishes of young people have become increasingly important and increasingly sought by professionals.
The introduction of a children's commissioner to promote the views and best interests of children was a milestone in the journey of listening to the child's voice. Local authorities have developed many innovative ways to ensure that the views and needs of children of all ages are taken into account when designing and delivering services to meet their needs.
We have learned our lessons from not listening to the experiences of the youngest in society.
We have learned that we must not only listen, but we must also hear what a child tells us, and act on their experiences to ensure we meet their individual needs.
Providing children with access to support when they need it is something local authorities must continue to work on, but children's wellbeing and happiness is not just the business of statutory services.
As a society we need to continue to encourage the development of responses in ways which are relevant to children and young people, and that provide positive messages and support.
Times have changed and childhood is not the same as it was, but rather than hanker for times past, we must help our children adapt to being children in modern times. We must instil in them a sense of confidence and adventure, of trust and independence while addressing issues surrounding the increased early sexualisation of youngsters, the pervasive nature of modern technology and the challenges that both online and offline bullying bring.
Only if we get the balance right will we begin to see the happiness and wellbeing of our children improve.
Christian Guy, Director of the Centre for Social Justice
The majority of people look back on their childhoods with fondness.
But there is little doubt that children and young people live under some intense pressures today. Whether it is a rampant culture of materialism, exams, bullying or the internet, many feel vulnerable under the strain.
Some of these have been challenges for generations, while others - such as texting and online access - are in their infancy.
And another pressure, often hidden behind Britain's front doors, has been the explosion of family breakdown.
This can have a detrimental impact on children - they tend to do worse at school and are more likely to live in poverty as a result of instability at home.
Supporting families and the professionals around them is the best place to start in the quest for better childhoods.
Getting it right for parents and children builds resilience and protects against the inevitable rollercoaster that is our early years.
Philip Treleven, Operations Director at The Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Following their education, young people should be able to readily establish themselves as young adults and lay the foundations for a productive and satisfying life; namely, through gaining employment and engaging in activities that give a sense of achievement, fulfilment and enjoyment.
Unemployment undermines this and, while there are a large number advancing down their chosen career and life paths, young people excluded from reaching their potential can experience a negative impact on their physical and mental well-being.
The statistics appear to tell us that youth unemployment has increased. However, instead of debating whether things are better or worse, the focus should be on the fact that youth unemployment exists and is a tragedy for the individuals affected.
Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers
Life has improved tremendously for young people in the UK since World War One. They have better nutrition, better health, they are all entitled to free education to the age of 18, they are listened to and have far greater opportunities and options in life.
However, today's young people are under a great deal of pressure from parents and schools to do well and achieve high exam results. Many worry about getting the grades to go to university, and/or finding a job which is proving difficult even for graduates.
Many fear they will be saddled with student debt for life and will never be able to buy their own home. Many children lead constrained lives, ferried everywhere and not allowed out on their own by parents worried about drugs, alcohol, gangs, and traffic. And many children are worried about fitting in and being accepted by their peers - with pressure from social media causing problems.
Parents can help by allowing children more freedom, with support when they need it. Government can and should do more by recognising that all children are different, encouraging a better balance between vocational and academic subjects, and ending the excessive emphasis on testing.
It should also provide more support for disadvantaged families so they can better support their children, and help children to stay in education past 16. It should reverse cuts to funding for education for those over 16, provide better careers guidance and do more to promote good quality apprenticeships.
Enver Soloman, Director of Evidence and Impact at the National Children's Bureau
The latest data on well-being from Unicef, which compares a number of different countries, suggests children and young people in this country say their well-being is not too bad - but that pre-dates the onset of the recession.
For children generally, there are greater pressures to growing up today that are different than in previous times - whether it is issues related to social media and the dynamics of bullying, for example, which have changed.
It used to take place in the school environment, now it can take place anywhere if the child has a mobile phone or tablet.
For children experiencing poverty, the expectation is that the number will rise from 3.5 million in 2013 to 4.1 million in 2015. By 2020 it will have risen to over 4.7 million by 2020.
So we know that over the next six years the number of children in poverty will increase by over one million. Inevitably this will mean hardship for a large number of children.
We know from research that when children are living in homes where there is a financial shock - someone leaving their job or the impact of separation - it does have an impact on what children say about how they feel about life.
And issues of mental illness, particularly among teenage boys, are greater than 10 to 15 years ago. But if we look at all children as a whole I don't think we can say life is worse for all of them.
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This table, produced by BBC Wales, ranks all secondary schools in Wales by the total score they were given by the Welsh government.
| It is an assessment of a school's performance in the academic year 2011-12, where the lowest scores represent the best performance.
The scores were derived by assessing school performance within categories including GCSE results and attendance.
Within each category, a school's score is modified to take into account the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals.
Most of the categories also take into account progress over time, to reward schools that are making improvements in performance.
The scores are used by the Welsh government to rank the schools into five bands.
School banding information is also available from the Welsh government website.
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Union leaders are holding further talks with bosses at an Anglesey factory where hundreds of jobs are under threat. | The 2 Sisters chicken processing factory in Llangefni ends its staff consultation on Wednesday amid plans to cut a whole shift, affecting 300 jobs.
Unite union officials put proposals to factory managers on Tuesday and they are due to meet again on Thursday.
Around 800 people work at the site, including a number of agency workers.
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The Dutch army is cleared to help hospitals, intensive care units borrow beds from other wards, patients are sent to Germany for treatment, routine operations are postponed, a nationwide lockdown is in place - and still no vaccinations. | By Anna HolliganBBC News, The Hague
In a proudly well-organised country, with a well-funded health service, the first Dutch nationals will receive their coronavirus jabs on Wednesday - ten days after their European neighbours and nearly a month after the UK.
The Dutch government has come in for stinging criticism. One former public health director, Roel Coutinho, warned the country's "shameful" vaccination strategy was "going to cost lives".
During an emergency debate in parliament, opposition politicians called the approach "chaotic and confusing".
"Striking mismanagement by government," was the assessment of Tim, a doctor in general practice here. "We've almost had a year to plan ahead, arrange logistics and update software. But it's all coming down to the last moment."
"Embarrassing," lamented Arjen Joosse, a Dutch oncologist. "Too slow in preparation and wrong choices."
One of the main delays was caused by an IT system which needed to be upgraded to allow local health authorities to track appointments and check which vaccine each patient has received.
The systemic delays since the start of the pandemic are symptomatic of the Netherlands' bureaucratic health service, set up for efficiency but with many disparate elements making it inflexible.
Covid-19 has exposed it as sluggish when required to respond to rapidly shifting realities.
Tim, the Dutch GP (he declined to give his full name), told me: "We're lacking a crisis commander in what is essentially a war-like situation".
Alan Wouda, a 23-year old student, said the Dutch were "blinded by our nuchterheid (sobriety) - too stubborn to acknowledge we made mistakes".
Another student, Joelle Hibbel, asked "is it possible to be baffled and raging with anger at the same time?"
"That's how I feel about how the Dutch government is handling the pandemic in general and the vaccination process in particular."
What else went wrong?
The embattled health minister, Hugo de Jonge, said the Dutch were "prioritising safety", and suggested some countries like the UK had cut corners to start vaccinating sooner.
The UK gave emergency approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, but the EU's European Medicines Agency took longer to issue a conditional marketing authorisation.
Mr De Jonge initially defended the late start and dismissed criticism by saying "it's not a competition".
Mass vaccinations will be available in all 25 Dutch local health authority locations by 18 January.
The Netherlands assumed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine would be ready for use first. Unlike the Pfizer one, it does not need to be stored at extremely low temperatures and so can be administered more easily by local medics.
But that meant the logistics were not in place to distribute the Pfizer/BioNTech drug when it arrived in the Netherlands on 27 December.
Mr De Jonge eventually conceded this week that he could have acted faster.
"We have proven insufficiently agile to be able to accommodate the changes," he said. "I could have asked the health boards earlier to prepare... because of their knowledge and expertise with large-scale vaccination campaigns."
Anti-vax pressure
With parliamentary elections on 17 March, some parties are keen to appeal to voters anxious about the rapid development of these vaccines.
Rival hashtags like #ikwildieprikniet (I don't want the jab) and #ikwildieprik (I want the jab) have been routinely trending on Twitter.
Neighbours in The Hague have received calling cards stamped with QR codes through their letterboxes, with a link to anti-vaccination propaganda.
Activist groups like "Virus Truth" have staged regular protests outside parliament.
The leader of the populist Forum for Democracy Party, Thierry Baudet, is among the most staunch and influential sceptics.
He continues to claim in tweets that Covid is hardly worse than the flu. But Covid is five to 25 times more deadly than a seasonal flu infection, despite the ongoing myths.
A recent Ipsos survey of 1,000 people in the Netherlands found initial reluctance to receive the vaccine subsiding, with approximately 75% now willing to be immunised.
Read more on the Dutch coronavirus crisis:
'Time will tell'
The Netherlands brought in a relatively relaxed, so-called "intelligent" lockdown during the first Covid wave.
But it is now facing record high infection rates and has been forced to introduce stricter measures, some of which it had initially ruled out. Face masks only became mandatory inside public places last month.
"Judge us in six months time" was among the responses to my report last April that the Dutch were gambling with a high-risk strategy.
As the vaccines roll out, once again the request is: don't judge us yet.
The first Dutch person to be inoculated will be Sanna Elkadiri, a 39-year-old care home nurse.
Seventeen of the 124 residents in her institution reportedly died within a month.
Ms Elkadiri will receive the jab in Veghel, one of three locations where vaccination will start on Wednesday.
The Dutch health ministry has made an initial 30,000 vaccines available for a select group of healthcare workers.
When asked about the delay, the ministry told the BBC it had been busy upgrading IT systems and training call-centre staff on the scripts to use with people booking their vaccinations.
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The death of Knut, the world's most famous polar bear, has reopened the debate on the ethical minefield of man's relationship with wild animals. So should polar bears be kept in zoos, asks Tom de Castella. | Knut was born in Berlin Zoo in December 2006. Rejected by his mother, he was put in an incubator and brought up by humans.
His abandonment, cute looks and close relationship with the charismatic zookeeper Thomas Doerflein, turned him into a huge star. He became an environmental symbol, acting as a mascot for the German government's campaign against climate change and being superimposed into a photograph with Leonardo DiCaprio for Vanity Fair's Green Issue in May 2007.
But news of his premature death at the weekend has spurred on those who question both the way Knut was treated and the very fact polar bears are in zoos at all.
While polar bears can live to 30 years old, Knut was only four years and three months when he died. A post-mortem examination suggested the cause of death was brain damage, but already there have been accusations from animal rights groups.
From the word go, Knut's life was controversial. Shortly after his birth, the German media reported that an animal rights campaigner was calling for him to be put down rather than brought up by humans. It prompted a huge groundswell of sympathy for the bear, which never went away.
For Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, it is a tragic tale from start to finish.
"Frankly, it would have been better for Knut not to have existed at all than live such a miserable life."
Those who questioned the implications of Knut's hand-rearing have suggested he suffered inevitable behavioural problems as a result both of his treatment and the crowds at the zoo.
But Linzey, author of Why Animal Suffering Matters, believes the issue is not whether the zoo was right to hand rear Knut. Once the cub was born, the management had a duty to hand rear him because a zoo is an artificial, "controlled environment".
The fundamental problem is wild animals being kept in captivity at all, he argues. "Zoos impose unnatural lives on most of their captives. People just see a cuddly bear and they want to gawk at him, but what they should see is an animal deprived of its natural life, exhibited for entertainment and profit."
And profit became a big part of Knut's short life. In 2007 alone Berlin Zoo made an estimated five million euros through increased ticket and merchandising sales. Hundreds of fluffy white toys were sold every day across the city, newspapers offered Knut figurines for 148 Euros and in 2008 a movie, Knut and His Friends, opened in cinemas across Germany.
Knut's life was about celebrity rather than natural history, says Ian Redmond, a consultant to the Born Free Foundation's polar bear project in Canada.
"It does seem to highlight the dichotomy of people who love this one polar bear in particular and those who care about polar bears right across the species."
He sees little point in keeping large powerful animals in captivity. Not only do they lead "unfulfilled lives", but bears bred in zoos cannot be reintroduced to the wild as they lose the skills necessary to survive.
And those creatures bred in zoos become less and less like the wild animals we admire from natural history programmes, majestically leaping from ice floe to ice floe.
"As you breed in zoos down the generations you're getting further and further away from polar bear behaviour in the wild," argues Redmond. "You might be breeding out the traits that allow it to survive in the wild. What's the point? If you want cute cuddly bears for merchandising then that's a commodity."
In Knut's case critics suggested he had developed odd behavioural traits and had come to find the presence of the crowds necessary.
In recent years all but one British zoo has stopped keeping polar bears, a decision Redmond urges Berlin to follow.
But at the Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore, Britain's only zoo to have polar bears, they are going in the opposite direction. The park has an elderly female and a young male, and when the former dies there are plans to bring in a young female so that mating can begin.
Douglas Richardson, the zoo's animal collection manager, says they have learnt lessons from the past. In the 1980s polar bears became "the poster child" for anti-zoo movement after being kept in cramped concrete pits whose only attempt at recreating the bear's eco-system was white paint.
"I came up with a design that gives the animals between five and six acres of fenced off rolling landscape in the middle of the Highlands."
Richardson said that that much of the criticism of Berlin Zoo - such as over their merchandising policy - was unjustified.
"The European Zoo community pumps the money it earns from merchandise back into conservation in the field. I guarantee that when we have cubs the giftshop here will be full of fluffy polar bear toys and that money will be going to conservation. You have to take advantage of the situation. The money is not going to line someone's pockets."
The wildlife broadcaster Chris Packham acknowledges that a polar bear in captivity loses the ability to relate to bears in the wild. And he believes that if wild polar bears die out there is no point keeping some alive in zoos.
But he argues that zoos have a crucial advocacy role for animals in the wild. And if a zoo is treating the bear well - as he believes Berlin Zoo was with Knut - then keeping some in captivity is a price worth paying.
"We don't need many polar bears in captivity. But sacrificing those animals is justified as they become ambassadors for their species, striking awe into the hearts of humans. We don't want bears and tigers to go extinct."
The immediacy of zoo animals will always wow children and adults in a way that television documentaries cannot, he says.
"I can still remember aged 12 going to the zoo and seeing a tiger for the first time. I could barely speak I was so in awe of the animal."
That has benefits not just for raising awareness about wild polar bears but for dramatising the issue of climate change. Many people might find it hard to visualise abstract notions such as a two degree temperature rise in 50 years' time. But the polar bear losing the ice it relies on for hunting seals, is a story that we can all understand, he says.
"The long-term prognosis is tough for polar bears. So I'd argue that if Knut attracted a million people to see him and they were impressed by what they saw that is the most important role that a zoo can play."
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Former Army Commander General, Sarath Fonseka, has said he will run for the country's presidency in elections set for January.
| General Fonseka addressing National Lawyers Association in Colombo said that he will contest the upcoming Presidential election
as a common opposition candidate and will work towards abolishing the Executive Presidency.
"I would definitely defeat the incumbent President Rajapaske", responding to a question he said.
His announcement sets the scene for a stand-off with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who's called the election two years ahead
of schedule.
General Fonseka is reported to be at odds with the government over who should take credit for Sri Lanka's final victory over
a decades-long Tamil Tiger insurgency.
Two main opposition parties have said they will support the former military chief.
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Donald Trump took his place in the White House exactly one year ago. Since then he has repeatedly claimed to be behind a new rise in the American economy. Here, six charts explore his relationship with US growth, the labour market and trade.
| By Daniele Palumbo Data journalist
1. The American economy is growing
Donald Trump has spoken of his desire to turbo-charge the US economy to a growth rate of as high as 6%.
The latest figures, released by the US Department of Commerce in December, show that it grew at an annual rate of 3.2% in the third quarter of 2017.
However, after the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates for the third time in 2017 in December, it is possible growth will slow in the coming months.
2. US stocks have had a record run
The Dow Jones Industrial Average - which follows the shares of 30 major US companies - has risen to record highs throughout the past year in a run that stretches back to August 2016, just before Mr Trump's election.
Other US stock markets, including the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Nasdaq index, have also reached historical highs.
Mr Trump's supporters argue that his corporation tax cuts, passed shortly before Christmas, helped to boost US shares, along with his US-centric policies, his clampdown on bureaucracy and his promises of infrastructure investment.
3. Unemployment is falling
US unemployment is falling - down to 4.1% in December - and is close to its lowest-ever recorded level of 3.9% in 2001.
It is less than half the 10% peak of 2010, reached after the global financial crisis.
However, this downward trend began during President Barack Obama's time in office. When Mr Obama left the White House, unemployment was 4.8%.
4. Wages remain relatively flat
Despite other positive economic indicators, US wage levels have flattened since Mr Trump took office.
Wage growth has stayed between 2.5% and 2.9% without showing any meaningful rise in the last 12 months.
Economists are, in fact, struggling to understand why low unemployment hasn't led to an increase in wages.
However, the general forecast for 2018 is that wages will rise if unemployment continues to fall.
5. Workers yet to return to the jobs market
One possible explanation for stagnant wages is that the number of workers who left the US workforce following the 2007-2009 recession was higher than first thought.
The labour force participation rate refers to the number of people who are either employed or are actively looking for work.
Following the global economic crash, the labour force participation rate in the US fell dramatically and now stands at 63%. It has remained stable since Mr Trump was elected.
6. The trade deficit is rising
President Trump has made improving US trade a priority of his administration.
However, the country's trade deficit - when imports are higher than exports - has actually risen to a level not seen since 2008.
Part of the explanation for the deficit could be that the continued growth of the US economy, and an increase in consumer confidence, have led to an increase in the goods bought by US shoppers from overseas.
However, the negative trade balance could put increasing pressure on the Trump administration, with the country now out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and amid renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
Produced and written by Daniele Palumbo.
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A man his 40s has died after being pulled out of the sea in Cornwall. | Emergency services were called at Pedn Vounder beach, near Porthcurno, at about 12:40 BST on Saturday to reports of a man in the water needing help.
An HM coastguard helicopter and lifeguards took part in the rescue but they were unable to revive him. His next of kin has been informed.
In June a man in his 30s died at Porthcurno after getting into difficulty at sea.
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CCTV cameras are due be installed in Swindon's Railway Village to help catch fly-tippers.
| The borough council says it has to clear waste including mattresses, ironing boards and bags of rubbish from the streets every week.
The Household Waste Recycling Centre in Cheney Manor industrial estate is less than two miles from the site.
The authority says it will write to every resident in the area to ask them to report any fly-tipping.
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A new £18m rollercoaster ride at Alton Towers has been closed for the second time in the past fortnight. | The 14-loop Smiler was shut for four days from 21 July after a piece fell off the track and 48 people had to be rescued.
The amusement park said the ride was closed again on Tuesday due to a "technical issue".
The ride, which opened in in May and includes a drop of 30m (98ft), reopened on Sunday morning.
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Suggestions that a piece of cloth stained with the blood of Pope John Paul II might have been stolen to coincide with "Satanic New Year" made the headlines this week. But is there really such a thing, asks Kathryn Westcott. | Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts
The cloth has been recovered and it is now thought the theft has nothing to do with Satanism. But the idea that devil-worshipers might mark New Year's Eve on the night of 1 February remains.
Italian religious studies teacher Giovanni Panunzio had been quoted earlier in the week as saying that the date of the theft coincided with a date in the Satanic calendar when "blood and crosses are symbolic objects to desecrate." So where does the notion that Satanists celebrate particular "holidays" come from?
A so-called Satanic calendar containing dozens of dates does exist. Its origins, however, are unclear. Versions of it can be found largely on websites belonging to Christian groups or TV stations. In a interview with the Christian Watchman Fellowship a few years ago, Dr Bill Ellis, an expert on folklore and the occult in contemporary culture, suggested the calendar first appeared in 1987 in a magazine article. "As critics later pointed out, the dates were borrowed uncritically from a wide range of sources, including the 15th Century witch-hunters' manual, the Malleus Malificarum," Ellis was quoted as saying.
The so-called calendar lists 2 February as the date on which Satanic sexual and blood rituals are carried out. The same date in the Christian calendar is Candlemas, which commemorates the purification of Mary after giving birth. Pagans, however, will be celebrating Imbolc - the awakening of the land and the growing power of the Sun.
"The connection between Satanists and 1 February is purely imaginary," says Jesper Aagaard Petersen, associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who has a PhD in religious studies. He said many cultures have had light festivals in the late winter, some still do, and older traditions coexist with more recent ones in many parts of the world, including Britain, central Europe and Scandinavia. "In addition, neo-pagans and heathens have revived and elaborated on old Norse and celtic festivals, something surely noticed by evangelicals and conservative Catholics. In this sense, Satanists and witches have traditionally been conflated and still are," says Petersen. "Regarding Satanists, they are few and far between and have no doctrinal calendar to unite them."
According to Dr David Bromley, professor, religious studies and sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, there are a number of actual Satanic groups, such as the Church of Satan, Temple of Set and Order of Nine Angels as well as "many lesser known groups". "Some of these groups have their own calendars, as many religious traditions do. The allegations of a massive underground network of Satanists has now been discredited, but there are still small groups attempting to keep this narrative alive. One part of this is constructing beliefs, practices, dates, shadowy figures, victims to hold the story together."
So, fear not the stranger clad in black on Saturday night. He or she is more likely to be a harmless teenage goth, than a disciple of Lucifer intent on invoking the Forces of Darkness.
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Emergency legislation is being brought in after a landmark UK Supreme Court ruling that Scots police can no longer question suspects without allowing access to a lawyer.
Here are answers to some of the main questions on what the decision means for Scottish law.
Q: What has been decided?
| By Andrew BlackPolitical reporter, BBC Scotland
The UK Supreme Court has made a ruling that Scottish police can no longer question suspects without their lawyer.
The decision was made after judges in London upheld an appeal by teenager Peter Cadder, whose assault conviction was based on evidence gained before he spoke to his lawyer. His lawyers argued this was a breach of his human rights.
In 2009, he was convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court of two assaults and a breach of the peace following an incident in the city in May 2007.
Even though the High Court is the highest court of criminal appeal in Scotland, it was overruled by the Supreme Court on a constitutional issue, because the need to consider European human rights legislation was written into the Scotland Act - the piece of Westminster legislation which established devolution.
Q: What does this mean for Scots law?
Until now, suspects could be questioned for six hours without a lawyer present, but judges ruled this violated human rights to a fair trial.
They ruled it contravened a decision by the European Court of Human Rights in 2008 that suspects having access to a lawyer was fundamental to them receiving a fair trial.
The judgement goes against a unanimous decision last October by seven judges at the Scottish Appeal Court.
Almost immediately after Tuesday's decision, ministers announced plans to change Scots law with emergency legislation.
Q: How many cases does it affect? Could there be a flood of appeals?
Ministers say there are 3,471 cases which may relate to the Cadder ruling, although it is up to the Crown to decide whether they are relevant - as Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill put it, they are not "sure-fire winners".
The ruling is not retrospective, but it does apply to live appeals and cases which are pending and on-going.
Q: What form will the emergency legislation take?
Essentially, ministers need to make Scots law comply with European legislation, and emergency legislation brought forward by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will comprise a number of strands.
Firstly, ministers will seek to enshrine in statute, the right of access to a lawyer for anyone who is detained.
The period of detention without charge will also rise from six hours to 12 hours - with the potential to increase that to 24 hours on "cause shown" by a senior officer.
This is a practical measure to ensure that if, for example, a lawyer has to travel from Inverness to Skye to deal with a detained person, they have time to get there.
Lawyers representing multiple accused also need time to interview them individually.
There will also be a special duty placed on the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, so it considers the status of any cases on the basis of whether they have been "finally determined".
Ministers also have to make changes to the legal aid system.
And they will seek to set an appeal limit of 21 days on relation to bills of advocation or suspension - but Mr MacAskill says this applies only to a limited number of summary cases and has given assurances that it will not result in a flood of appeals on many cases.
Q: When will the emergency legislation be passed?
Ministers will bring forward the emergency legislation to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday.
They have been in discussion with opposition parties to ensure it can be passed and arrangements made to clear parliamentary business so it can happen.
The normal three stages of scrutiny for Holyrood legislation will be taken in one day, and it is hoped the legislation will become law on Friday, by gaining Royal Assent more quickly than normal.
Q: Does this situation result in any increased costs?
Yes. Kenny MacAskill - who spent 20 years as a legal aid lawyer in his past life - put extra costs at between £1m-£4m.
He warned the legal aid budget was "finite", but added: "We cannot expect lawyers to go out to police stations and not get paid."
Q: Will it affect any other areas of Scots law?
Potentially, yes.
In Scotland, no inference can be drawn from an accused exercising their right to silence. But that is not the case south of the Border and Kenny MacAskill is concerned this may now change.
He says there are also implications for the rule of "corroboration", under which two sources of evidence are required to support each fact in a prosecution, which is seen as a mainstay of Scots law.
The senior Scottish Judge Lord Carloway has been asked to look into these and other issues and will report to the government within months.
However, it is not thought any changes in these areas would be made until after next May's Scottish election.
Q: What have Scottish prosecutors said about the decision?
The decision has overturned what has been the position in Scotland for decades.
Despite not knowing the nature of today's ruling, the Crown has seen this coming since last year and has, for example, not relied on comments made during interviews not attended by lawyers unless absolutely necessary.
Q: What about the Cadder case itself?
This is one for the High Court in Scotland, as the the case has been referred back from the Supreme Court.
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And they're off. At 00:01 on Wednesday, the UK Parliament was dissolved. Hours later, the Conservative leader and Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the short visit to Buckingham Palace to inform Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the election was now on. | By Rob WatsonUK political correspondent, BBC World Affairs Unit
As the conversations between the monarch and prime minister are private, we don't know whether Her Majesty might have been somewhat fed up, given that it was just weeks ago that she opened a new parliamentary session with all its usual pageantry. On that occasion the Queen had supposedly set out the plans of Mr Johnson's, in retrospect, decidedly short-lived government.
If you are wondering why an election is even being held after the Queen went to all that trouble of opening parliament, and another election would otherwise have been due in the summer of 2022, here's why.
The official reason given by Mr Johnson is a fear that the last parliament simply would never have passed the Brexit deal he had agreed with the European Union.
It's also clear, though, that Mr Johnson thought it unlikely the Conservative party would ever be lucky enough again to be up against an opponent as unpopular as the current leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. Recent polls suggest the Labour leader has the lowest satisfaction rating for an opposition leader since the 1970s.
Why did the opposition parties agree to an election?
In truth, the Labour party had little choice, once smaller parties like the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) decided to try their luck - possibly believing that their stance as out-and-out anti-Brexit parties was likely to play well with a large chunk of voters.
Now the battle is commenced, it's not hard to see the shape of the battlefield.
Just consider the campaign slogans from the main parties, which are hardly subtle - are campaign slogans ever?
But it hasn't exactly been the smoothest of starts for any of the main parties as General Election 2019 (#GE2019) gets under way.
What's gone wrong so far?
Even before Mr Johnson's first rally in front of the party faithful on Wednesday, he had lost a government minister - the first minister to be forced to resign during a campaign in over 40 years.
Meanwhile, another minister - the famously posh-sounding and wealthy Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg - had to apologise after suggesting that many of the mainly poor victims of the Grenfell Tower fire had lacked common sense when following the fire service's advice to stay in their apartments.
And, as if all that wasn't bad enough, Conservative Party headquarters created fake news by editing an interview with a Labour politician in a misleading way before posting it on social media.
Perhaps less reported on, but most seriously of all, the week brought further retirements and resignations of "moderate" Conservative MPs unhappy at what they saw as the party's undoubted shift to the right and emergence as an out-and-out pro-Brexit party.
Labour's campaign start was similarly disastrous, with the deputy leader stepping down and two former party figures accusing Mr Corbyn of being unfit to lead the country, citing what they said was his total failure to tackle the party's anti-Semitism problem and his far left anti-Western world view.
Economists have also been fairly scathing about the promise of a vast increase in public spending at the heart of the Labour offer of a genuinely "real change" socialist alternative following nine years of Tory austerity.
What have we learned so far?
The early stage of campaigning has effectively highlighted how both the main parties have moved off to the ideological right and left and away from being the largely centrist broad coalitions they had been for so many years.
How much any of this registers with the voters is hard to say. The parties no doubt hope that voters just pick up on, or "cut through" as it's known, their core message, whether that's Brexit or something else.
But if the campaigns so far have failed to really take off, there's one thing perhaps all the politicians can agree on, namely that this is surely one of the most important elections in this country since 1945.
At stake is not just Britain's future relationship with the EU, but its very standing in the world, the nature of its economic model and the very unity of the United Kingdom, given possible developments in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The stakes don't come higher than this.
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One of the world's biggest telecoms firms and its top executive are facing almost two dozen criminal charges filed by US authorities. The US is also seeking the extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wangzou from Canada, where she was arrested 1 December at the behest of American officials. | The impact of the case could be complex and wide ranging: it comes at a sensitive time in the China-US relationship and amid Huawei's rapid growth.
It has also raised diplomatic tensions between China and the US and Canada.
We've summarised the key points of this story. You can choose to read the short, medium or long version below, either by themselves or one after the other.
Why is the US targeting Huawei, one of the world's largest smartphone makers, and executive Meng Wanzhou?
Authorities claim they misled the US government about the company's business in Iran, which is under US economic sanctions.
The US is also pursuing Huawei and Ms Meng in criminal charges including bank fraud and theft of technology. Both reject the claims.
US officials want Ms Meng extradited from Canada to face the charges.
Her arrest caused a diplomatic dispute between China and the US and Canada.
The case against Huawei also comes as Western nations grow increasingly concerned about a possible spying risk related to the widespread adoption of the company's technology.
The arrest of the high-profile Huawei executive at the request of US authorities infuriated China.
Canada says it's only following the rule of law in Ms Meng's extradition case, but that has not appeased Chinese officials.
They have accused Ottawa of being part of a US-led "witch-hunt" against Huawei.
The dispute has caused a significant rift between the two countries.
Many observers believe that two Canadians have been detained in China in retaliation for Ms Meng's arrest.
Canada has also accused China of "acting arbitrarily" by imposing the death sentence on a third Canadian national in its custody.
Canada was acting under its extradition treaty obligations to the US, which wants Ms Meng and Huawei to face fraud charges relating to the alleged breaking of its sanctions on Iran.
The US Department of Justice also filed a host of additional criminal charges in January against the firm, including allegations it stole trade secrets.
The charges are the most serious Huawei has ever faced and they come as international pressure on the tech giant - which made over $92bn (£69bn) in total revenue in 2017 - grows.
More and more Western nations are reviewing doing business with the firm over spying concerns.
Huawei has always maintained it acts independently.
Still, Germany considered blocking it from its next generation 5G mobile network, which uses new technology to boost network speeds and improve connectivity.
The technology is being rolled out in many countries before 2020.
Canada is reviewing Huawei's role in the mobile network and the US and Australia have already closed the door on the firm's involvement.
Further complicating matters is the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China, the world's two major economic powers.
In December, Donald Trump created controversy when said he could intervene in Ms Meng's case if it helps to avoid a further decline in US relations with China.
While the US says the charges against Huawei are not about the trade tensions, it is unlikely the Chinese will see it the same way.
The two nations are engaged in a trade war that has seen both impose duties of billions of dollars on one another's goods, though they are currently in talks in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
Lawyers for Ms Meng have said she should "not be a pawn or a hostage" in the trade dispute.
To understand the significance of Meng Wanzhou's arrest, it helps to know that Huawei is one of the largest telecommunications equipment and services providers in the world - as well as a symbol of China's ambition and innovation.
As this article explains, Huawei has become the poster child for China's dynamic tech sector, and recently overtook Apple in the number of handsets it was shipping worldwide.
So when a top executive - who also happens to be the daughter of the firm's founder - was arrested in Vancouver it sparked an immediate response.
Canada says it has been acting in accordance with its extradition treaty obligations and the rule of law.
What has been the reaction?
When news broke that Ms Meng had been detained, China's embassy in Canada was quick to protest the arrest and demand her release.
Chinese officials have called her arrest a "serious mistake" and accused Canada of double standards and "Western egotism and white supremacy".
There were threats of "grave consequences" if Ms Meng was not released.
Not long after her arrest, two Canadians - former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor - were detained in China on allegations of endangering Chinese national security.
A third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, is facing the death penalty in China.
Schellenberg was initially given a 15-year jail term in November for drug smuggling, but a court increased his sentence in January following a brief retrial, saying the original sentence was too lenient.
The Canadian government has called both the detentions and sentencing "arbitrary".
It has asked for Mr Spavor and Mr Kovrig's immediate release and for clemency for Schellenberg.
Canada has worked to rally international support from Western leaders for the two detained men and Schellenberg.
There has also been economic pressure placed on Canada. China has halted Canadian canola imports and suspended the permits of two major pork producers amid the dispute.
What are the US charges?
The indictment alleges Huawei misled the US and a global bank about its relationship with two subsidiaries, Huawei Device USA and Skycom Tech, to conduct business with Iran.
Donald Trump last year reinstated all the US sanctions on Iran that had been removed under a 2015 nuclear deal.
A second indictment alleges Huawei stole technology from phone company T-Mobile used to test smartphone durability, as well as obstructed justice and committed wire fraud, which Huawei says was settled in a civil case filed in 2014.
The allegations by the US Department of Justice go to the heart of the current trade war between China and the US.
Chinese officials have called it a US attempt to "smear and suppress certain Chinese companies".
And Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told the BBC in February that he believed the arrest of his daughter was politically motivated.
Why is Huawei a concern to the West?
Critics question how free Huawei can be from Beijing's influence.
Mr Zhengfei was a former engineer in the country's army and joined the Communist Party in 1978, a track which has worried governments already distrustful of China's political leaders.
Huawei says it has an excellent record with clients and no links to the Chinese government. It insists it is an independent company, one that has grown in recent years to become a tech industry leader.
The privately held firm does much of its business overseas and is a market leader in many countries across Europe, Asia and Africa.
US intelligence agencies have been warning that Huawei poses a potential security risk for years, and the US government has taken a series of steps to block the firm from the domestic market.
Other Western countries have begun reviewing their relationship with Huawei, specifically with regards to its technology being used in new "fifth generation 5G" mobile internet networks.
In the UK, a 2019 report from the Royal United Services Institute, a defence and security think tank, said it would be "naive" and "irresponsible" to allow Huawei to access the country's telecommunications system.
What happens next?
Ms Meng is currently out on bail and under house arrest in Vancouver, where she owns property.
In March, Canada's Department of Justice authorised Ms Meng's extradition process to begin, though that decision was an early step in the process.
If a judge is satisfied with the evidence presented during the extradition hearing, he or she will authorise the individual be committed for extradition. The justice minister then decides whether to surrender the person to the US.
Ms Meng does have avenues to appeal throughout the process. She could also voluntarily waive extradition.
She is next due in court on 6 March, when her hearing date will be scheduled.
Concerns have also been raised about whether comments US president Donald Trump has made could have an impact on the extradition case.
He has twice suggested he would intervene in the US Justice Department's case against Ms Meng if it would serve national security interests or help achieve a trade deal with China.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said since said the charges are "wholly separate" from the trade negotiations.
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A new TV series based on Picasso's life begins on Monday, starring Antonio Banderas as the artist and Poppy Delevingne as Marie-Therese Walter. But, the actress says, the woman she plays was more than just a muse. | By Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporter
"There's no-one in the world that doesn't know that name, Picasso," Delevingne tells BBC News.
"He is, without a doubt, one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century. There's something about him, something electric, he was passionate, relentless... he's just such a universal figure."
Audience appetite for all things Picasso seems to know no bounds - with a recent exhibition of his work opening at the Tate Modern and now this new TV adaptation of the artist's life.
Delevingne's role in the National Geographic series sees her playing perhaps Picasso's most famous muse - Marie-Therese Walter.
"Sometimes people are like, 'Oh Marie-Therese, she was such a doormat', and you're like, 'No no no, she wasn't, just because she was easy-going and kind and gentle and probably a little more subservient than all the other women in his life, it didn't make her a doormat'," the 31-year-old says.
"He was more inspired by her than most of the other women in his life, and for that to happen there must have been something quite sort of magical and incredible about her. And I hope that in the show that we gave her some kick."
Delevingne's co-star, Samantha Colley - who plays Dora Maar, another of the Picasso's lovers - agrees.
"I think there is a danger in sometimes looking at Picasso perhaps as a bit of a monster," says Colley.
"Dora Maar was a very engaged woman, she knew what she was doing. She herself was in surrealist circles and engaging in bohemian activities, and a particular lifestyle, and she herself devoured a lot of men and muses and broke a lot of hearts."
She adds: "My character is often known as the weeping woman, because he painted her as such. And I think unfairly, Dora Maar is looked on as this sort of victim who was chewed up and spat out by him, and I sometimes think that's a bit of a simplistic way to view it."
'Modelling stigma'
Delevingne is well-known for her successful modelling career, but is a relative newcomer to acting.
"I've been modelling for a very long time, since I was 17, and the acting thing was always something I wanted to pursue, but it always got put on the back burner because the modelling took up a lot of time," she says.
"But when I was 28 I was like, enough is enough, this is not what makes me happy, and so I started pursuing the acting thing, and I didn't get a job for quite a while. And then really it was around 29, 30 stuff started happening."
Delevingne's acting credits now include appearances in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Her acting career may have recently picked up some momentum, but Delevingne says many directors have negative perceptions of models turned actors.
"I think there's a huge stigma. I think a lot of people think they go hand-in-hand, they go 'Oh you're a model, you can just slip into the acting thing', and you're like, 'it doesn't really work like that'.
"Directors, casting directors, producers, you've got to really prove yourself to them.
"For me, acting has always been my passion, it just somehow got waylaid, but now it's been reignited, it's been like starting a whole new job at 30, which is very weird - it feels like the first day at school whenever I'm doing anything."
Her drive to impress as an actress meant she regularly asked for advice on how she could improve during shoots.
She says: "Being on the set was so terrifying, you're acting with people like Antonio Banderas - who I've grown up with, obsessed with, he's an icon - and Samantha Colley... all these incredible actors and they could not all have been more charming, more wonderful, more welcoming.
"All the cast and crew made it so much easier, I learned so much.
"I was like a sponge, I was just sponging off everyone, I was always asking questions like 'How do I do that better?', which they were all more than happy to answer - they never made me feel like I was small and didn't belong."
'MeToo prism'
There's little doubt that Picasso's affairs and relationships with young women would have been viewed rather differently were he an artist living and working today.
"The main thing I keep getting asked is viewing him through the MeToo prism," Colley acknowledges.
Delevingne adds: "My character, Marie-Therese, met him when she was 17, he was 45. That now?" (She makes a face which says 'eeek'.) "But then, it was very different, it was regarded in a very different way.
"And this is a story about a genius, no-one's calling him a saint. By telling this story, it's not glorifying him in any way, his relationships, his behaviours, we're just focusing on the man and what he was about, what he achieved. But yes I know some people feel that at this time, in this current climate..."
"But all these women in his life - Francoise Gilot, she was a fantastic painter, Dora Maar was an incredible photographer - they were all strong, unique women in their own right. Throughout the series you see all these women and how they come into play, and how they inspire and impact him. They all do have their own voices."
Colley says the series is "an all-encompassing look on his whole life", but adds: "I also think it's important to differentiate the art from the artist.
"What we're trying to focus on is the element of genius and what it means to be or be with a genius.
"The thing about genius is it doesn't necessarily lend itself to being a good partner in any type of relationship, be it platonic or romantic.
"I think one could say sometimes he wasn't that good a boss, sometimes a bit of a selfish friend perhaps, but that goes into the other spectrum where he could be completely loving and amazing.
"It's hard to look back at something through a particular prism, and I think it can be a bit sort of dangerous to do so."
Picasso is the second figure to have been the subject of the Genius series - the last being Albert Einstein.
Asked who the third series should be about, Colley says: "I'd love it to be a woman. Fingers crossed maybe they're hoping to try and do that."
It turns out her instinct was spot on - days after this interview, National Geographic announced that Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley was to be the subject of the third instalment.
Genius: Picasso starts on Monday 23 April at 20:00 BST on National Geographic.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's view, expressed to the BBC Spotlight programme, that he "wouldn't like us to get to the point whereby we are changing the constitutional position here in Northern Ireland on a 50% plus one basis" has caused a backlash from northern nationalists. | Mark DevenportPolitical editor, Northern Ireland@markdevenporton Twitter
Sinn Fein's senior negotiator Conor Murphy has insisted that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is "absolutely clear" that "if a simple majority vote in favour of reunification, both governments are then obliged to legislate for it".
Mr Murphy has argued that there's "an onus on the Irish government to plan for unity, to become a persuader for unity, to build the maximum agreement and to secure and win a referendum on unity.
"As a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement", the Sinn Fein politician continued, "the taoiseach should be seeking to defend the agreement in all its parts, not seeking to undermine it."
The former SDLP leader and deputy first minister Mark Durkan, who was a key negotiator on the agreement nearly two decades ago, has been equally exercised.
In a series of tweets, Mr Durkan said Mr Varadkar needs to know that when the SDLP and the other parties negotiated the 1998 deal the "principle of consent was to apply equally" to two legitimate aspirations, namely support for remaining in the UK or moving to a united Ireland.
Mr Durkan made it clear that - in his view - "any other understanding would not have been agreed then. Nor should one be dubiously or dangerously inferred now".
His tweets pointed out that any future border poll would also be a choice between being in or out of the European Union and that there shouldn't be one rule for the Brexit referendum and another for a border poll.
By contrast former DUP MLA Nelson McCausland told BBC Radio Ulster's Talk Back that he sees the taoiseach's comments as "a recognition that the main political parties in the Irish Republic have no real interest in Irish unity".
Mr McCausland said a future border poll would be not just a divorce from the UK but also a re-marriage with the Republic of Ireland, so argued the exercise would not exactly be the same as the simple majorities required in the Brexit referendum or a future Scottish independence vote
The taoiseach may counter that he was simply trying to focus the Stormont politicians' minds on making the deal they now have work.
He told Spotlight: "One of the the best things about the Good Friday Agreement is that it did get very strong cross border support - that's why there was a 70% vote for it."
He added: "I don't think that there would be a 70% vote for a united Ireland in the morning, for example, or anything remotely to that. And I really think we should focus on making the agreement that we have work."
The debate about a threshold for a border poll may appear rather academic right now, but it's clear northern nationalists won't buy the notion that such a border poll should be subjected to any kind of weighted majority.
However there is also another stipulation of the Good Friday Agreement to bear in mind - it recognises that it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone "to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, north and south, to bring about a united Ireland".
The deal amended Article 3 of the Irish constitution to read that "it is the firm will of the Irish nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions".
But Article 3 acknowledges "that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island."
This means any future 51% knife edge vote for a united Ireland by people north of the border would also require the consent of a majority of people in the south.
Can that be taken for granted?
It would certainly be easier to guarantee if any border poll takes place in an atmosphere in which Northern Ireland appears stable and prosperous - in short a "good prospect" for a future marriage.
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Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK every year. With coronavirus lockdowns closing restaurants, cafes and pubs, there is even more food potentially going to waste. But charities and apps are stepping in. | By Howard MustoeBusiness reporter
When wholesaler Philip de Ternant had thousands of pounds worth of food going to waste, charities and buyers queued up to take it off him.
Six thousand pounds worth of milk was among the items at Creed Foodservice that would have to be dumped if a customer couldn't be found for it after schools suddenly closed.
Fortunately, an appeal from footballer Marcus Rashford helped publicise the potential waste, and a home was found for the milk.
"We were just pleased to move it through and not have to dispose of it," Mr de Ternant says.
UK households produce around 70% of the UK's 9.5 million tonnes of food waste every year, according to the charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), which is this week launching its campaign Food Waste Action Week to help tackle climate change.
Households are followed by manufacturers, hospitality and foodservice companies. If it isn't eaten, food waste ends up as pet food, compost, fuel for energy production, or in landfill.
The problem has also been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns, with wholesalers being affected by the closure of hospitality businesses.
"Sixty-five per cent of business has disappeared. Pubs, restaurants, hotels. All we have left is care homes and schools feeding the vulnerable," says Mr de Ternant.
But progress is being made as firms with excess produce publicise what they have and a network of volunteers search out those in need.
When Simon Scott, general manager at DGM Growers in Kent, had three lorry loads of the root vegetable celeriac spare, he knew he could send them to charity Fareshare, which aims to connect potentially wasted food with 11,000 charities and community groups around the UK.
His company mainly supplies vegetables like celeriac, chicory and fennel to supermarkets, and a move to home cooking has helped his business.
But the lockdown meant he was left with large celeriac usually reserved for restaurants and caterers as they were closed down. He has donated 86 tonnes since October.
"It's provided a significant amount of meals for those in need at this really difficult time. And I think that's really the focus for us, to turn this problem into a positive solution," he says.
Food firms from farms to shops are keen to reduce waste, since waste means lost money, says Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of Fareshare.
But waste can arise when mistakes are made in ordering or packaging, through glut, or when a big buyer backs out of a purchase.
Before the pandemic, Fareshare was supplying about 900,000 meals per week to food banks, homeless shelters, school breakfast clubs and community cafes.
Lockdown waste meant they could supply a peak of 3.6 million meals in one week, although the average is back to about 2.2 million.
But despite these huge numbers, demand for food has always outstripped supply, says Mr Boswell, particularly as more people are out of work.
Fareshare gets about a third of its food from shops and supermarkets - food that is coming to the end of its shelf life.
The rest comes from farms, wholesalers and manufacturers.
"If you're a grower and you've had a fantastic growing season for tomatoes or beans or courgettes or something, you can see how your orders with the supermarkets are shaping up [and if a glut is on the horizon]," says Joanna Dyson, head of food at Fareshare.
Bounties have included 1,000 tonnes of baking potatoes - enough to fill 50 lorries - which were destined for the hospitality sector; and one million litres of long-life milk, where semi-skimmed milk had been mistakenly packaged in skimmed milk cartons.
Such gigantic donations are often made in stages.
Fareshare has a fund called Surplus with Purpose, which can pay when a farmer or manufacturer has food to donate, but not the resources to deliver it, or where there's a storage obstacle to overcome. About 30% of its food is funded by this scheme.
"So when we had lots of raspberries and blueberries last summer, we were able to send them for freezing. And we've sent apples for juicing," she says.
There are also apps designed to help make sure surplus food does not go to waste, such as Olio, which last year worked with supermarket Tesco.
Another app, Too Good To Go, allows shops, cafes and restaurants to sell off surplus meals and groceries at a discount.
At Creed Foodservice, wholesaler Mr de Ternant had 2.5kg packages of pigs in blankets on his hands, leftover from Christmas and worth about £15. Shoppers were able to snap them up for £5 via the Too Good To Go app.
Or they could bag £30 of brie, tonic water, pasta sauce and cheese for £10.
Paschalis Loucaides, managing director at Too Good To Go, says: "Since the pandemic began we have looked for ways to ensure that all food, no matter where it is in the supply chain, is eaten and enjoyed instead of wasted.
"When we heard that Creed Foodservice had thousands of pounds of food sitting idle, we knew that we could help."
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Whether it's capturing a picturesque view, a cute pet or a perfect-looking plate of food, many photographs on Instagram give the impression that life is beautiful. But according to new research images posted on the social network may actually reveal if someone is struggling with depression. | By Emma AtkinsonBBC News
Posting photos that are blue, grey or dark in colour and using the "Inkwell" filter, which converts colour photos to black and white are all clues according to the Harvard study.
The researchers believe the photo-sharing app could be a new form of early detection for mental illness, but is the culture for over-sharing and bragging on social media also to blame for making us feel down in the first place?
A previous study by two German universities showed that "passive following" on Facebook triggers feelings of envy and resentment in many users, with holiday snaps being the worst offenders.
But according to author and journalist Jessica Winter, "Facebook is actually not the greatest underminer at the social-media cocktail party... That title goes to Instagram," she says, where the trend for beautiful, filtered selfies and picture-perfect lifestyles reaches a whole other level.
Comedian Juliette Burton, who has struggled with body dysmorphia, depression and anxiety, agrees that social media can be unhelpful.
"They say a picture is worth a thousand words but it's never the full story," she says. "You don't know what else is going on behind this collage of pictures. Being on social media is this whole new expression of our personality, messaging about who we are, but we're still learning what it all means.
"In my experience social media is a hindrance when it all feels very fake and competitive. It's very rare to see people posting about dark stuff. When they do it's a massive cry for help.
"When you're in the middle of a difficult time and you can't get out of bed, these aren't the moments that I'm reaching for my camera phone."
When the going gets tough it's natural to frantically search for answers online, wishing you were as positive as those #instagood moments.
But Bryony Gordon, journalist and author of the book Mad Girl, says there is some solace among the selfies.
She set up the group Mental Health Mates through social media after battling with OCD, depression and bulimia.
"I felt completely alone, just like everyone else who suffers from mental illness - because mental illness lies to you by making you feel like a freak.
"Only through writing about it have I realised that actually, it's completely normal to feel weird."
After putting a message on Twitter about meeting up with others who struggle with mental health issues, Bryony said 20 people turned up for a walk. Now many gatherings later there are a whole network of people meeting up, with groups even starting up in the US.
So can social media have health benefits?
Bryony says: "Through the power of social media I've met so many new people and it's a great support. It shouldn't be your only point of help but it's that jumping off point to help you realise you are not alone. "
Juliette thinks so too. "It's interesting to hear about the Instagram study because we need to work out how we can use this technology to its full potential," she says.
"At the same time people are wanting to talk about mental health much more now. Even if you don't suffer yourself just knowing how to bring it up with someone and learning about the right and wrong things to say is a really positive step."
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A pair of armed robbers got more than they bargained for when their heist at a takeaway coffee shop was interrupted by police parked in the drive-thru. | Northamptonshire Police Armed Response Vehicle tweeted that the raid happened at a Starbucks in St James Retail Park, Northampton at about 05:00 BST.
Two men threatened staff with weapons and took cash, but "didn't account" for police buying coffee at the same time.
A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and is in custody.
No information was given about the second man said to be involved.
Starbucks said in a statement: "We will continue to help the police with their investigation and our priority remains supporting our store team."
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A series of SNP and pro-independence campaigners have suggested setting up a new party ahead of the Holyrood elections in 2021. Why are they doing this, and are they more likely to split the nationalist vote or secure a mandate for a new referendum? | By Philip SimBBC Scotland political reporter
What is this all about?
The SNP continues to enjoy a dominant position in Scottish politics, with polls suggesting the party will continue its electoral winning streak in 2021.
So it might seem odd to many outside the political bubble that supporters of the party - including one of its own MPs - are advocating voting for someone else at that election.
The answer lies in the Holyrood electoral system, which makes it hard for one party to win an outright majority of seats.
The "additional member system" features 73 constituency seats, elected on a traditional first past the post (FPTP) basis, and 56 "list" seats scattered across eight regions.
The way the system actually works is complex, but the goal is simple - proportional representation. In short, the more constituency seats you win, the harder it is to win list seats.
To take 2016's election as a case study, half a million people voted for Labour in constituency contests, but thanks to the all-or-nothing nature of FPTP this yielded only three MSPs. So 22% of the vote won 4% of the seats.
However, the party's 435,000 votes on the list ballot saw them pick up a further 21 seats - meaning that overall, they got roughly a fifth of the votes in the country, and roughly a fifth of the seats at Holyrood.
At the other end of the spectrum, in the constituency contest the SNP won 46.5% of the vote, and 80% of the seats (59 of them). This meant that on the list, almost a million votes only produced four regional MSPs.
The additional member system balanced things out as it is designed to do - with just under half of the vote, the SNP got just under half the seats on offer overall.
To come to the point, some supporters of independence conclude that it would be much easier to win a Holyrood majority if there was a list-only party which could sweep up the regional seats which the SNP may struggle to reach.
What is the proposal?
The argument is that if the million people who voted SNP on the list in 2016 had backed another party, in theory they could have returned dozens of pro-independence MSPs instead of four.
If this party were to stand only on the list, they would not have any constituency seats to hold them back as far as the formulas are concerned.
The SNP could take the constituency vote, the new party would clean up on the list and the two would add up to an overwhelming mandate for indyref2 - or so the theory goes.
But what is this "new party"? A number of different vehicles have been suggested, from the "Independence for Scotland Party" to one led by Wings Over Scotland blogger Stuart Campbell - who has in turn suggested former SNP leader Alex Salmond could set up his own group.
The latest is the "Alliance for Independence" proposed by former SNP MSP Dave Thompson, which he envisions as an umbrella group uniting smaller pro-independence campaigns.
Proponents believe this would be more productive than the "both votes SNP" approach of previous years, which Mr Thompson - a 55-year veteran of the party - says "will achieve nothing".
This approach has been endorsed by figures including sitting SNP MP Kenny Macaskill, who said: "With success on the constituency basis resulting in limited progress on the list, 'both votes SNP' just doesn't work."
What is the SNP's position?
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a political party, the SNP is loathe to urge people to vote for anyone else.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he "can't understand the logic" of a list-only party, citing the precedent of the SNP majority in 2011 successfully triggering a referendum.
The last thing the party's leaders want to be is complacent. They cannot simply assume they will walk away with the lion's share of constituency contests - indeed, taking elections for granted is a very good way to lose them.
So if the party were to lose a constituency seat, say in Glasgow, they would want to give themselves the best chance possible of picking it up again on the regional ballot by stacking up as many list votes as possible.
They will be decidedly wary about splitting the vote. One advantage the SNP have long had over their unionist opponents is that in a country divided pretty evenly down the middle on the constitutional question, they have a near monopoly over one half of the vote - while the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems have to scrap over the other half.
Another issue for them is messaging. "Vote SNP" is an easy slogan to paint on the side of a bus. "Vote SNP on one bit of paper and a pro-independence alternative of your choosing on the other" is slightly less pithy.
Is this a new idea?
The Scottish Greens would point out that they are quite a prominent pro-independence party that chiefly does well on the regional list.
But other smaller outfits have also come forward at previous elections - and failed to make any impact at all.
In 2016, RISE contested the regional lists, with a former SNP MSP on their ticket, but ultimately polled fewer votes than the Scottish Christian Party.
Solidarity - Tommy Sheridan's breakaway from the Scottish Socialist Party - did a little better, but still only managed 0.6% of the vote and zero seats.
There is an argument that a figurehead like Alex Salmond (who, to be clear, has said nothing at all on the subject) and a platform focused solely on independence could see a new party make a bigger impact - but if the SNP actively oppose the idea, that impact could be in splitting the vote.
The pro-independence side are not alone in debating whether they should try to game the list system, incidentally - George Galloway is attempting to set up an "Alliance for Unity" that sounds a lot like a unionist version of Mr Thompson's umbrella project.
Would it work?
This is the million-dollar question, and the hardest one to answer.
The majority of 2011 will be much cited in this debate, but it is actually something of an outlier. In that election, the SNP broke the system - they took 53% of the seats at Holyrood despite "only" winning 45.4% of the constituency vote and 44% of the regional one.
It happened essentially by fluke - the stars aligned for the party in just the right way, with the placing of the 53 constituencies won around the country somehow still allowing the party to pick up 16 list MSPs.
There isn't really a way to strategise for that to happen again in the same way - it is by no means a blueprint for victory in 2021. The only way to be sure of a majority at Holyrood is to literally win a majority of the votes cast in Scotland.
That is a tall order for one party alone. The SNP's landslide in the 2015 Westminster election saw them hit 50% of the vote, but in December they were back at 45% - a familiar figure to any Yes voter.
The paradox is that, if it had the open support of the SNP, a list-only party could provide a theoretical route to producing a larger cohort of pro-independence MSPs. But at the same time, it is difficult for the SNP to support it without risking their own position.
It would be a move fraught with complexity and danger, and Nicola Sturgeon is not exactly known as a gambler.
And when it came to the campaign, would any new party really exist harmoniously alongside the SNP, which has become an electoral juggernaut partly by dint of its unity of purpose?
Imagine Mr Salmond did end up fronting a new party - would a Salmond vs Sturgeon debate really be beneficial to the cause both politicians champion, or would it exacerbate tensions about the current first minister's cautious approach to indyref2?
There are also wider questions over whether a pro-independence majority spread across several parties has the same impact as it does when a single party wins a thumping mandate.
After all there is currently a pro-independence majority at Holyrood, with the Greens backing the SNP - which has conspicuously failed to produce a referendum, despite MSPs voting in favour of one several times.
The debate underlines one thing - despite coronavirus continuing to dominate the agenda, Scotland is less than a year away from an election. More and more, party politics is coming out of lockdown.
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During a television interview this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US did not give a "green light" for Turkey to launch strikes against Kurdish forces in northern Syria. The mixed messages from President Donald Trump over the course of this week, however, tell a different story. | Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter
The latest crisis in war-torn Syria began on Sunday night, with a statement from the White House press secretary - after the president had a phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - that effectively treated a Turkish military incursion as a done deal.
"Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria," the statement read.
"The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and the United States forces, having defeated the Isis territorial 'Caliphate,' will no longer be in the immediate area."
The statement, which contained no mention of the US-backed Kurds or hints of objection to the Turkish operation, quickly set off howls of anger among the US foreign policy establishment and members of Congress on the left and right.
"This decision to abandon our Kurdish allies and turn Syria over to Russia, Iran, & Turkey will put every radical Islamist on steroids," South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted the following morning. "Shot in the arm to the bad guys. Devastating for the good guys."
The ferocity of the criticism grew as it became clear that US forces had indeed withdrawn from northern Syria and the Turkish military was launching its assault.
What followed was a series of sometimes contradictory statements and tweets from the president - a hodgepodge of calls for disengagement, warnings of dire consequences, and suggestions of peaceful resolution.
"We will fight where it is to our benefit, and only fight to win," Mr Trump tweeted on Monday, after saying that he held off a Turkey-Kurdish conflict for three years, but that it was time for the US to get out of "endless wars".
By later in the day, however, the president was cautioning Turkey that if it did anything that he considered "off limits" he would "destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey".
On Tuesday, he was praising Turkey for being a US trading partner and assuring the Syrian Kurds (who were already by this time under Turkish assault) that the US had not abandoned them.
The next day, he said he hoped the Turkish operation would be conducted "in as humane a way as possible" - and, if not, Turkey would pay a "very big economic price".
By Thursday, he was once again distancing himself from the Kurds, telling reporters that while he "liked" them, they were only fighting for "their land" and did not, for instance, help the US invade Germany in the Second World War. (It should be noted that Kurds did fight against Iraqi forces sympathetic to the Nazis.)
Mr Trump concluded Thursday by tweeting that the US "did our job perfectly" in Syria and now had three choices in dealing with the crisis: send thousands of troops to secure the area; impose economic sanctions on Turkey; or "mediate a deal" between the Turks and the Kurds.
He told reporters he preferred the third option.
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials were left scrambling to realise the frequently conflicting objectives of vocalising their objections to a Turkish operation they had long sought to avoid, while defending the president's decision - which, according to Politico and others, was made without consulting foreign allies, Congress or even some members of his own administration.
On Monday, Defence Secretary Mark Esper sent - and then deleted - a tweet saying the Turkish move into northern Syria would have "destabilising consequences... to Turkey, the region, & beyond".
The White House on Wednesday released a "statement" by the president saying the Turkish invasion was a "bad idea" that the US did not "endorse". On Friday, Mr Esper called it a "tough situation" and said Turkey's action was damaging US-Turkey relations.
"This was a very big mistake and this has very big implications for all of our security," a senior State Department official told CNN on Friday. "I don't know of anybody who isn't upset with it."
All told, the US moved between 50 to 100 troops out of northern Syria this week, as Turkish forces prepared their assault.
Despite withering criticism, Mr Trump has framed it as fulfilling a campaign promise to extricate the US from a Middle East quagmire it should never have been involved in to begin with.
Indeed, on Thursday night at a rally in Minnesota, he falsely said: "We don't have any soldiers there because we've left. We won. We left. Take a victory, United States."
Yet, hours later, the Defence Department announced that 3,000 US soldiers - including two fighter squadrons - were being dispatched to Saudi Arabia "to ensure and enhance the defence" of that nation.
Since May, a Pentagon spokesperson noted, US troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan "Central Command" region increased by approximately 14,000.
The endless wars, it seems, may not be coming to an end quite yet.
Follow Anthony on Twitter
Timeline of US statements
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Councillors have voted narrowly in favour of plans to build a £1m slipway at the West Pier in Stranraer.
| It will replace an existing slipway about four miles out of the town at Wig Bay.
Planning committee councillors agreed by a single vote to the West Pier plan.
Officials see it as a key part of regeneration proposals for the town but there have been concerns about the cost and the business case for choosing that particular location.
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As Delhi explores its options to respond to the attack in Uri, which killed 19 soldiers in one of the worst terror attacks in Kashmir in recent years, the Modi government seems to be making a strong case for strategic restraint. | By Harsh V PantKing's College, London
Amidst growing demands, especially from his ruling BJP party's rank-and-file, for strong action against Pakistan - who India blames for the attack - the Indian prime minister managed to turn attention from incessant warmongering towards long-term challenges facing the region.
Pakistan has strongly denied involvement in the Uri attack.
In his speech to his party cadres, Mr Modi challenged ordinary Pakistani's to a race on development as opposed to one on military engagement.
"I want to tell the people of Pakistan, India is ready to fight you. If you have the strength, come forward to fight against poverty. Let's see who wins. Let's see who is able to defeat poverty and illiteracy first, Pakistan or India," he said.
What's behind Kashmir's deadliest militant raid in years?
Why India needs cool heads after Kashmir attack
Indian army’s anger over Kashmir killings
Days after India lampooned Pakistan as the "Ivy League" of training centres for terrorists, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj used her speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday night to deliver a stinging rebuttal to Pakistani President Nawaz Sharif.
"Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so. My firm advice to Pakistan is stop dreaming about Kashmir," Ms Swaraj said.
Nawaz Sharif, in his earlier address, had paid tribute to Burhan Wani, the separatist militant whose killing triggered the current wave of violence in Kashmir.
Rights counter-narrative
Mr Sharif had talked of the excessive use of force by Indian security forces after protests linked to the death of Wani, only to be reminded by Ms Swaraj that "Pakistan would do well to introspect and see what egregious abuses they are perpetrating in their own country".
She was referring to the Pakistani province Balochistan, where Pakistani security forces have suppressed local dissent.
It is possibly the first time India has raised the Baloch issue at the UN forum, underscoring the Modi government's game-plan of going on the offensive to shape counter-narratives about human rights.
It is a terrain India had long ceded to Pakistan but Delhi is now signalling that it won't be playing by the old rules.
Taking India's campaign to internationally isolate Pakistan even further, Sushma Swaraj said that "in our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it. To shelter terrorists has become their calling card. We must identify these nations and hold them to account."
She linked Pakistan's activities in Kashmir with the latest bombing in New York, whose perpetrator is reported to have "studied" at a Pakistani Islamic school, or madrassa.
But very much like Mr Modi, she also was statesmanlike in her articulation, suggesting that India has "tried to talk to Pakistan as friends to resolve issues" and has "extended hands of friendship in the last two years" only to be rewarded with terrorism in return.
Referring to repeated attempts by India to reach out to Pakistan, Ms Swaraj said India had attempted a paradigm of friendship without any precedent.
With these speeches, the Modi government is reaching out to multiple audiences.
In India to those who are baying for blood and Indian policy-makers cautioning that direct military confrontation may not resolve underlying problems. In Pakistan, to ordinary Pakistanis, to do some soul-searching as to why India has managed to move so far ahead while their country seems stuck in a time-warp.
To the outside world, Delhi's message is categorical that India has a leadership which is capable of looking at the larger strategic picture and managing Pakistan's capacity for nuisance on its own terms.
Like its predecessors, the Modi government may have recognised that there are few good military options against Pakistan.
But it is different in terms of its success in altering the terms of engagement with Pakistan. As Nawaz Sharif's failed UN outreach exemplifies, Pakistan's global isolation on Kashmir is almost complete.
Moreover, with his UN diatribe Mr Sharif has come across as a weak leader who can be effectively handled by a junior Indian diplomat at the UN.
Focus on the future
Mr Modi is nothing if not a risk-taker. He took risks in reaching out to Nawaz Sharif early on in his term and now he seems to be taking a risk in bringing some costs to bear on Pakistan for its misadventures in Kashmir.
Mr Modi's own speech last week and Ms Swaraj's response to Nawaz Sharif at the UN reflects a sound understanding of not only the challenges facing India's Pakistan policy but also the opportunities that have emerged in recent years as a result of India's rising global stature.
Pakistan will clearly continue to be a nuisance in the near future but Mr Modi's India is gearing up for a larger stage and bigger stakes.
Harsh V Pant is a Distinguished Fellow and Head of Strategic Studies at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, and Professor of International Relations at King's College London.
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It has been a dramatic week for the Saudi economy: the country has slashed public spending, and rowed back from its 18-month policy of pumping out oil at near maximum levels by reducing daily production by 350,000 barrels. | By Michael StephensRoyal United Services Institute (Rusi), Doha
Oil prices jumped 5% at the news, a market overreaction to be sure, but nevertheless a welcome development for producer states. They need to see a turnaround in their government revenues which have been depressed for the last 18 months.
But the kingdom's shift in policy indicates that not all is well financially. Indeed the Saudi attempt to maintain market share through maximising output and artificially keeping oil prices low appears to have backfired.
Unable to absorb low prices for an extended period, the kingdom has lost some $180bn (£140bn) of currency reserves, as it has had to dig deep into its pockets to cover enormous government spending deficits.
In fairness, Saudi Arabia's leadership, under the guidance of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been remarkably open about the extent of the problems.
In an interview with Bloomberg magazine in April, the grim reality was laid bare by Prince Mohammed's senior financial adviser: the state was wasting up to $100bn a year in inefficient spending, backhanders and opaque business deals, he said, and would have gone broke "by early 2017" unless something radical was done to change course.
Grand plan
And so for the nation to remain solvent there was always going to have to be some financial pain - pain which would filter into the real economy and down to the vast body of Saudi nationals employed in government sectors.
Government spending would need to be scaled down, and subsidies on everyday goods and services such as power, water and fuel would need to be lifted.
Last but not least expenditure on salaries would need to be reduced, which means either people lost their jobs, or they lost their perks.
Given that Saudi society builds and cements social relationships around the provision of government jobs, firing people is extremely difficult without causing offence.
This meant that public salaries had to be cut, and in June the Saudi government set a target to reduce salary expenditure by 24bn riyals ($6.4bn; £4.9bn) a year by 2020.
It is no surprise then that on Monday evening a series of royal decrees cut salaries by as much as 20%, shrunk holiday pay and leave allowances and cut bonuses.
These cuts all fall broadly within the vision set out by Prince Mohammed earlier in the year.
Vision 2030 is the grand plan for restructuring the Saudi economy, diversifying away from hydrocarbon exports by encouraging Saudis to join the private sector, and privatising sections of Aramco, the oil producing behemoth that still drives Saudi income and domestic revenue.
But for all its lofty goals, it is unlikely that the vision can ever be fully implemented, and it is sensible to assume that Vision 2030 was never designed to be the panacea for Saudi Arabia's myriad financial woes.
Even some leading Saudis have been open about the vision's expected level of success, insisting that it is more about changing the national Zeitgeist than radically overhauling the economy in such a short space of time.
Social impact
If this can be achieved, and the ruling house is able to persuade its citizens to accept that the good times are over, then all should be well for the time being.
The al-Saud family enjoy widespread popular support in the Kingdom, and the young prince and his team have expended great energy warning that austerity is coming.
But it is one thing to warn about austerity, and quite another to then implement it.
As increasing austerity measures are introduced, Saudi Arabia's middle class looks set to join the "squeezed middle".
It is an overused Western term, but make no mistake it will be Saudi's middle earners who will struggle in the months and years ahead.
Reductions in subsidies and salary cuts will affect this middle bracket the most - in other words the people who possess just enough money to run a household and send children to school.
So the addition of higher bills and less income at the end of the month will put a huge amount of pressure on this important sector of the Saudi economy.
Observing from the outside, cutting bloated public expenditure seems the right thing to do and is long overdue, but it will have social impacts that no-one can foresee at present.
Saudi Arabia is moving into a difficult period in which its society will have to get used to leaner times, and still keep their faith that the royal family is steering the country in the right direction.
Michael Stephens is Research Fellow for Middle East studies and Head of Rusi Qatar. Follow him on Twitter
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A woman has died in a road traffic incident on the A1 between Banbridge and Dromore. | Police said the 75-year old was driving a red Citroën C1 and the incident happened at 12.45 GMT on Sunday.
The PSNI wants people who were travelling on the major route at the time and witnessed the incident or have dash cam footage to get in touch.
The A1 carriageway was closed for a number of hours in the southbound direction but has since reopened.
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Emerging markets' currencies tumbling to near record lows. Millions of dollars worth of foreign funds pulled out of stock markets in the region. And some investors around the world fearing a major financial meltdown. | By Karishma VaswaniAsia Business Correspondent
It certainly feels like we've been here before.
Many in Asia's financial circles are calling this a re-run of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
I remember that crisis well. I was a university student interning for the BBC in the summer of 1997 in Jakarta, and I witnessed the full brunt of the Asian financial crisis on some of the most vulnerable in society.
The Indonesian rupiah lost more than 80% of its value - going from 2,500 rupiah against the US dollar to 16,000 at its lowest point. The stock market wasn't spared - it fell by more than 50% by December 1997 and businessmen lost tens of thousands of dollars in a single trading session.
There was panic everywhere. People thought banks had run out of money (and some had), so they formed long lines outside branches, trying to withdraw all their savings. Factories shut down, and workers lost their jobs. The price of basic foods like cooking oil and baby milk soared.
An economist friend of mine in Indonesia once told me that you know you're dealing with a crisis when the "ibu-ibus" (Indonesian for housewives) are affected. Housewives in South East Asia's biggest economy saw the price of imported formula milk for their babies triple, leading to protests outside supermarkets across the country. One Newsweek article described how cooking oil was rationed and sold at police stations. "If they didn't, people would kill each other," the article said.
The meltdown in Asia was set off when Thailand floated the baht in 1997, setting off a domino effect in the region where one by one, currencies fell against the US dollar.
Today, many are worried that China's recent devaluation could set off a similar trend.
Bad news by the day
Some analysts are even warning the impact will be far bigger than 1997 because China's economy is far more important and integrated into the world economy than Thailand ever was.
China's devaluation has already led to the tumbling of currencies around the region.
And it seems like every day we get bad news about the world's second largest economy.
On Friday, data showed that China's factory activity shrank at its fastest pace in more than six years.
All of this adding to increased concerns that China's economy is slowing down - which it is - and how much of an impact the slowdown will have on the rest of the world.
Even the US Fed has raised concerns about the Chinese economy's outlook in its latest minutes.
The thinking goes that if China keeps slowing down, then it won't buy as much "stuff" from Asia as it has in the past, and that will mean Asian economies that have grown thanks to the commodity boom and Chinese demand will slow down too. We're already seeing evidence of this across the region.
Since China and Asia together make up more than half of global growth, a slowdown here is bound to have an effect on the health of the overall world economy.
So if at this point you are starting to feel a little unsettled about the future, I wouldn't blame you.
Indian engine
But, when in doubt, reach for the hard facts and take a deep breath - and here's what Julian Evans-Pritchard, China Economist at Capital Economics, says:
"Sentiment [on China] is currently overly downbeat," he wrote on Friday. "The downside risks to short-run growth are now overstated.
"Credit growth has begun to accelerate on the back of recent policy easing, which should feed through into stronger activity, albeit with a lag. The fiscal stance is also set to loosen in coming months as local governments accelerate spending to hit annual budget targets. "
So if that's true - and credit growth in China is starting to pick up, those effects are typically often seen in the real economy within three to six months.
Emerging markets are also in a far stronger position than they were back in 1997-98. They have stronger current account balances, higher foreign exchange reserves and mostly floating as opposed to fixed exchange rates - which means they don't have to be defended from speculative attacks.
The other factor to consider is India's economy - it now claims higher growth than China's (although many analysts have questioned how those figures have been calculated) and its stock exchange - the Sensex - has seen record inflows in the last six months, attracting investors who have fled from the volatility in Chinese shares.
So it could provide an alternative engine for global growth, if the government's figures are to be believed. I'll be in Mumbai, India's financial capital next week, to see first-hand how much of that growth is actually being felt on the ground.
So that's all good news - and should have investors and policy-makers breathing a sigh of relief.
Daily stock market fluctuations in a highly connected and globalised world are to be expected, but they shouldn't necessarily be seen as the beginning of the end of the world.
What we should be paying more attention to, perhaps, is whether there are long lines outside of our banks and supermarkets. Now that's what you call a crisis.
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When the government of the day introduced the "short, sharp, shock" regime to youth detention centres, the then Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw said this: "These will be no holiday camps and I sincerely hope those that attend them will not ever want to go back there." | Chris JacksonPresenter, Inside Out, North East & Cumbria
He could not have known how true that would be, but for very different reasons.
On Inside Out (BBC One HD, Monday 27 January 2014 at 19:30 GMT) we hear from men who as teenagers were either raped or sexually abused by two of their warders at Medomsley in County Durham.
Others claim they were physically abused from the moment they entered to the day they left.
They told us they couldn't report what was being done as they felt no-one at the institution would believe them.
Worse still, we heard from one former inmate who says on the day of his release he went to the police who told him to go away or he'd be rearrested and end up back in Medomsley.
No wonder it's taken three decades for allegations of systematic abuse to come to light.
Neville Husband who ran the kitchens was jailed for 10 years in 2003 for raping young men - police believe dozens of boys were victims over a 20 year period.
A store man, Leslie Johnson was given the same sentence for similar offences. Both have since died.
Now more than 140 men have come forward with claims they suffered at the hands of staff in Medomsley.
Half relate to sexual abuse and half to regular physical abuse meted out at Medomsley.
This time the police have a very different approach to those who have found the courage to break their decades of silence.
It's hard to underestimate how the trauma they endured has been compounded by bottling it up for so long.
Durham Constabulary has 70 detectives working on the case and the details of what the victims have been telling them is, in the words of Detective Superintendent Paul Goundry, "horrific".
He is determined that by coming forward the police will have dealt with them in such a sensitive way that "the place they find themselves in afterwards is better".
With more people coming forward all the time, a decision will be made later in the year about whether any criminal charges will be brought.
Inside Out approached one of the governors who was in charge of the centre when Neville Husband was carrying out his sex attacks within the prison walls.
In a statement Tim Newall said:
"During my time at Medomsley the regime became more focussed on the educational and resettlement needs of the young in custody, whilst retaining the core elements of work and physical education. We worked towards strengthening future opportunities for them when they left the centre.
"It came as a shock to me to learn many years later of the crimes of Neville Husband. I greatly regret that young men under punishment by the courts were subjected to serious abuse by my staff.
"We had measures in place to try to provide a safe place for trainees. We had a complaints and application system explained to trainees in their first week by me.
"I used to see them in their last week as well to check on their experience during their sentence and their future prospects. Senior staff and I visited all parts of the centre usually twice a day and in the evening and would regularly talk with trainees about their experience.
"I took daily applications from trainees. We had a very active Board of Visitors who also visited every part of the establishment at least weekly to make themselves accessible to trainees.
"All these measures were to provide opportunities to monitor the atmosphere and to enable trainees to ask questions and comment on their treatment.
"All such visits by me, senior staff and Board of Visitors would include going into the kitchen to check with staff on progress. The meal was always sampled in front of trainees by a senior member of staff.
"If I had had any suspicions about sexual abuse, or abuse of any kind, I would have taken action straight away. I dealt with much lesser staff disciplinary matters through the disciplinary code of the Prison Service and my staff knew I would not tolerate misbehaviour.
"Neville Husband was an outstanding catering officer - he was recognised nationally as the editor of the Catering News, he had innovated systems of publishing the menu a week in advance for trainees and developed a system of choice for them (the first catering officer to do so), and we never had complaints about the food (unusual in a custodial setting).
"Because of this I commented as I did in his annual reports about his performance as a cook and the team's delivery of good quality meals.
"I did not have a particularly close relationship with Neville Husband outside the centre. He was an award winning director of amateur dramatics and I took part in three plays in my three years at Medomsley.
"The plays took place in the premises of the church that I attended in Shotley Bridge. Throughout my service I have tried to be involved in community activities with my family.
"If staff knew about the abuse taking place in the centre I am very concerned that they let the abuse continue.
"All it would have taken was a word to one of the four other senior staff at the centre, members of the same union as the officers, for the matter to have been investigated by the police following a suspension of the officer concerned.
"I am very sad about the pain brought about by my staff during my time at Medomsley. If I had had any hint of what was happening I would have stopped it, suspending the staff involved and setting up a police investigation."
Inside Out can be seen on BBC One HD on Monday, 27 January 2014 at 19:30 GMT and for seven days on the BBC iPlayer.
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Traffic wardens could be given the power to hand out fines to owners who do not clear up dog mess.
| Mally Boatman, an East Riding of Yorkshire councillor, said the measure would help tackle the problem.
He said he regularly receives complaints about dog fouling and felt something had to be done.
Councillors are set to view the proposal at a committee stage.
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Applicants for tickets to the London 2012 Paralympic Games have now all been told which events they will be going to, as the ballot process completed on Friday. | By Helen BushbyBBC News
Earlier this week it was announced that remaining tickets for the Paralympics would go on sale on a first come, first served basis on 2 December.
Here, some of those who applied in the first round reveal which events they have secured seats for, and their plans so far for travelling to the Games.
Sarah Ellacott
Sarah, 28, is a homemaker from Croydon with four children aged seven, five, four and 18 months. She home-schools her son Matthew, nearly six, who is autistic, while she waits for a suitable place at a local school to become available. She is also doing an Open University course in Politics and Sociology.
"We were really, massively excited when we got our tickets - we got everything we applied for - athletics and swimming. I thought we'd be lucky to get one set, so when but we got both, it was 'Yay, we're going to the Paralympics!'.
Our oldest daughter, who's seven, loves sport so she can't wait to go. Our youngest is only one so he doesn't really understand it yet, but our three-year-old will enjoy it when he sees it all. He can get excited at the thought of going to Legoland because he knows what it is, but he doesn't really understand the Paralympics yet.
Matthew, who's five, isn't fully aware of what he'll be going to. But when we get there next year he'll start asking questions.
All the people there will have disabilities like him but they're more physical than his. But we can tell him that just as he faces challenges, they do too, and they've managed to get to the top of their field. He'll see that he could do it too.
We haven't spoken about the Paralympics since we got the confirmation we're going. Because Matthew's autistic, he lives life on a day-to-day basis. Today his obsession is trams and he says he wants to be a tram driver - it changes all the time. But he'll be very happy that we're going to the Olympics on public transport.
Because we live in Croydon it will be easy to use trains to get to Stratford. I'm not going to make a decision on exactly what transport we're using until nearer the day. I'm hoping they lay on extra trains for everyone.
And it's great news that he's just got into the school we applied for. He starts next week so I can stop home-schooling him. The school has already got Olympic and Paralympic posters up so I think it the staff are taking a big interest in it all, which we're delighted about.
We don't know yet exactly what sport we'll be seeing but it's going to be early in the morning, so the kids will enjoy it before they get too tired. It's going to be a bit of a shock having to get up really early to get there, as you have to arrive an hour before it starts to get through security.
Any extra things we do when we get there will be dependent on the kids and how they are on the day. We'll definitely have a proper look around the Olympic site though. And me and my husband are going to the Olympic handball, football and hockey so we'll have a good look round then too.
It's going to be great."
Kath Vickery
Kath, 28, lives in Somerset and was registered blind in 2006, having been registered as visually impaired from childhood. Kath is currently unemployed and looking for a job, having previously done administrative work. She takes part in swimming competitions at a recreational level and has already got Olympic synchronised swimming tickets for London 2012.
"I applied for eight swimming sessions and the closing ceremony and I got everything I applied for except one swimming session. I was really pleased - it's like a dream that I'll get to see the athletes achieve at the highest level.
It was the swimming I was looking forward to most at first, but now I think the closing ceremony will sum the whole event up.
I'm not having much luck in finding places to stay in London yet, prices seem to have been hiked up for the Games.
I don't want to be changing on the tube so I need to work out the tube route, so even if I stay five or six stops away I can still get to the stadium. I need to work backwards and work out the route before I can book anywhere. I haven't had any help with it all, I'm trying to do it myself.
I'm a bit confused by the ticket share scheme as I couldn't find all the information I wanted online [which allows disabled ticket holders to apply for an extra ticket if they require a carer to come with them]. But with the accommodation being so expensive it would make it difficult anyway.
I'll be in London for about six days so I'll be hoping to do a bit of sightseeing while I'm down. But I still don't know if I'm going to have a guide dog by next year's Games - I still haven't got one so I'll just have to keep waiting."
Ruth Faulkner
Ruth, 21, is a student at Queen Mary, University of London, studying journalism and contemporary history. She has set up an Olympic-inspired student-led volunteering project at the university called QMSU Aspire. It aims to increase understanding and recognition of the Paralympics and parasport in her local community of Tower Hamlets, an Olympic borough.
"I've been having problems accessing the Paralympic tickets website, but the money for them went out of my bank account, so that hopefully means I'll be seeing wheelchair basketball, goalball, boccia and sitting volleyball.
I think it's great that I'm going, I was determined to get there, one way or another.
I'm hoping to
volunteer as a Games Maker
as I really want to be involved. I've volunteered at a lot of sports events before, where you soak up the atmosphere but unfortunately don't get to see the competitors. This time I'll definitely see the sport as well.
It'll be nice to see the stadium up close, I've already done one of the pre-tours and enjoyed it, it was really interesting. I liked learning about the environmental side of it all.
It's going to be very easy for me to get to the Games because Stratford's only about 10 minutes away from where I live. So I had to go as it's so close, although I may try to stay off public transport.
Paul Dunn
Paul, 49, works for British Airways' HR Information Systems and lives in Wokingham. He and his family applied for Paralympic tickets after an unsuccessful attempt to buy Olympic tickets. He has also applied to be a Games Maker volunteer at the Olympic Games next year.
"We got both sets of tickets I applied for - athletics. When I found out we'd got them there was a second of relief, and then it was "Yes! We've got some dates for the diary!". We'd been through the process before when we went for the Olympic tickets, and there was all the disappointment of not getting them. But this time we've got something and we're on our way.
We went for these tickets partly because my wife and I enjoy watching any sort of athletics, but it's also about going to the main arena and that whole experience of being in the centre of everything. It's not just about the size and the design of the stadium, it's what it stands for and what's going to be happening there that adds to the whole thing.
We haven't made any plans yet on getting to the Paralympics. We don't live that far away, and both tickets are for morning sessions, so it's going to be an early train for us up to London. That will leave us the afternoons free - either to mooch about the Olympic site and soak up the atmosphere, or we can go into town before coming home.
If we do go into London, we'll probably walk along the South Bank by the Thames. There will be so many other people there and it will have a totally different feel to it, a different buzz which will only come from hosting the Olympics.
I haven't heard yet if I'm going to be a Games Maker volunteer. But I've been thinking about it all. It's potentially 10-hour shifts each day so I'd have to get up early, do the shift and then get home. I live a good two hours away so that's a lot of travelling each day. I also put in to be a volunteer for Dorney Lake [the venue for the rowing and kayak events] so it would be easier if I got that as it's nearer to my home.
What would be really handy is if they have some parks in London where you can camp, because I'm a happy camper as long as it doesn't rain. I haven't heard if you can do this, but it really would make sense for the Games Makers. If you can stick them all in a park somewhere, everyone will be happy to fend for themselves."
Sarah Price
Sarah, 26, works for School Sport Partnerships in County Durham, helping provide sport for 40 schools in the area, including disabled children. She has a passion for sport and also works with disabled people to encourage them to participate in sport.
"I got tickets for everything but the opening ceremony. So I'm going to two sessions of athletics and a swimming session plus I've got an Olympic Park Day Pass.
I was a bit disappointed not to get the ceremony because I think that'll be fantastic but I don't know if it's completely sold out yet. If there are any more tickets available when they come out in December at a higher price I'll try for them.
I'm really excited. I've got the hotel booked - we're doing four nights over three days of events - I've have stayed longer if I didn't have to be back for work. I'm staying within walking distance of the stadium, we didn't fancy the tube. I'm coming down with my partner. We've got time free during the days and try to get into some other events, maybe cycling.
While we're in London I'd like to do the duck tour on the river and go on the London Eye - there's plenty of time to book and it will be my main holiday for 2012.
I'd have been really disappointed if I didn't get the events I wanted - I picked the athletes I wanted to see. I know the classifications of the athletes so I had to pick what I thought they'd compete in. I've got tickets for one of the categories Oscar Pistorius may compete in - if he's running the 400m. There'll be quite a lot of finals on the Sunday night that we're there. We'll travel down by train or plane depending on the cost."
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Type "Erdogan slams…" into Google and the list is endless - the UN, the EU, Israel, French intellectuals, the Netherlands, Germany. The last two were labelled "Nazis" and "fascists" by Turkey's president a year ago. | By Mark LowenBBC Turkey correspondent, Istanbul
Now compare it with Mr Erdogan's words towards Saudi Arabia, which has admitted the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its consulate in Istanbul. "I have no reason to doubt King Salman's honesty," he said.
His spokesman called it "a friendly and brotherly country".
And yet, there has been a steady drip feed of incriminating and often macabre leaks through the pro-government Turkish media just to tighten the screws on Riyadh, amid suspicion that the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had knowledge of, or ordered, the murder.
So what is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's game?
I'm told his markedly restrained tone aims to show that this is not about Turkey versus Saudi Arabia; that relationship is too important, although already strained, to blow apart at this stage. He wants to urge King Salman to act, without directly targeting him.
"If Erdogan were to tell the king to sack Mohammed bin Salman, that would be the best way to get him not to sack the Crown Prince," opined a source close to the president.
Mr Erdogan didn't even mention Mohammed bin Salman by name in his address to parliament: a deliberate omission so as not to put the crown prince on his level.
The aim in Ankara is to drive a wedge between the king and his son. But the key to achieving it lies not in Riyadh, but in Washington.
If Donald Trump - the crown prince's staunch ally - can be persuaded to cast aside MBS, as he's known, that could be the tipping point for King Salman.
Key rivals in regional power play
That said, the 82-year-old king, for now at least, shows no sign of dislodging his son.
One of his responses to the murder has been to announce a restructuring of the Saudi intelligence services, under the aegis of, yes, the crown prince.
Feeding into all this is a regional power play.
Turkey respects Saudi Arabia as the guardian of Islam's holiest sites - something that is felt keenly by Mr Erdogan's Islamist government.
But they compete for influence as leaders of the Muslim world, and the crown prince has become a key rival to Mr Erdogan. He masterminded and pushed through the blockade of Qatar, Turkey's closest ally in the Middle East. He has pursued the clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, which is tied to Mr Erdogan's governing AK Party.
And his rapprochement with Israel, Mr Erdogan's bête noire, and hard line towards Iran, with whom Turkey has reconciled, has put Riyadh and Ankara at opposite ends of regional politics.
Erdogan's risky strategy
Mr Erdogan sees a rare moment when the Saudis are on the back foot and is seizing an opportunity to diminish a man labelled by a pro-government columnist here "an enemy of Turkey".
The fact that the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have also rushed to Riyadh's defence has only hardened Mr Erdogan's resolve. Ankara has fallen out badly with both.
The Emiratis are widely suspected by the Turkish government of supporting the failed coup here in 2016 - Mr Erdogan recently called them "miserable people" - and the president will never forgive Abdul Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt for ousting the Muslim Brotherhood there.
And the fact that the planes of the Saudi alleged hit squad refuelled in Cairo and Dubai en route to Riyadh will fuel suspicions of complicity.
Mr Erdogan's strategy is, however, risky. Alienating the still-powerful MBS could leave Saudi Arabia ruled by a man with a deep grudge against Turkey for years to come.
The staged photo opportunity of the crown prince shaking the hand of Jamal Khashoggi's son, who's banned from leaving Saudi Arabia, revealed the power he still wields ruthlessly. The message: we've reconciled, so get over it.
And for now, the White House is sticking by the crown prince. "We're getting facts in from multiple places," said Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser. "Once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe."
The implication is clear: form a narrative and sell it to the support base.
Rarely has a story combined so much: a gruesome murder, a botched cover-up, regional relations turned upside down, geopolitics between Washington and the Middle East, and the fact that a powerful oil producer and military power risks being stained indelibly.
If the Saudis thought a quick operation in Istanbul could be swept under the carpet, they made a colossal miscalculation.
To read more on this story:
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Harvey Weinstein is about to go on trial - and 12 men and women in New York will be responsible for determining whether he is guilty. | By Helier CheungBBC News, Washington DC
Jury selection is currently under way, with the former Hollywood producer accused of five charges, including rape and predatory sexual assault relating to two alleged victims.
But finding impartial juries for such a high-profile case - one that galvanised the #MeToo movement across the world - could be difficult.
The court has summoned 2,000 potential jurors for the case - about five times more than normal - just to find 12 suitable regular jurors and six alternate jurors.
And on the very first day of jury selection, a third of the potential jurors present were dismissed outright, after telling the judge they did not think they could be impartial.
"The first few days of jury selection has already underscored just how challenging it's going to be," Valerie Hans, a law professor and jury expert at Cornell University says.
"When you have large numbers of people saying they can't be impartial, it's a wakeup call - because most people think of themselves as generally fair."
Why is juror selection particularly difficult this time?
Jury selection often takes no more than a few hours, or a day or two.
But the process can be much more drawn out, particularly in high-profile trials. In the O.J. Simpson murder trial, it took almost 11 weeks for a jury to be selected.
The judge in the Harvey Weinstein trial has allocated two weeks for jury selection, while the entire trial is expected to last up to two months - which means many potential jurors will be put off by the amount of time required.
And in this case, "claims have been made against Weinstein by very high profile, high visibility people" - there has been "extensive publicity" and a high number of claims against him, which could make jury selection even more difficult, Prof Hans said.
Xorje Olivares, who attended the court on 8 January as a prospective juror, was one of the dozens of people who ruled themselves out.
He told the BBC his support for the #MeToo movement, and the fact he knew several people who were sexual assault survivors, meant he felt he could not be impartial.
"I personally felt nothing but disgust... even being in the same room as him, I just felt very icky," Mr Olivares, who hosts a radio show, said. "I knew that I had these biased views, and I would bring them to the case."
On the other hand, supermodel Gigi Hadid - who had also reported for jury duty - told the court she could remain impartial, despite having met Weinstein and actress Salma Hayek, one of the trial's potential witnesses.
Hadid, who lives in Manhattan and studied criminal psychology, told the judge she would "keep an open mind on the facts" if selected - but she was dismissed on Thursday, 16 January, as the jury pool was whittled down.
How is the jury being selected - and what sort of jurors will Weinstein's lawyers want?
Although it's known as jury selection, it's actually a process of elimination.
Many prospective jurors are being dismissed from the outset - either because they say they cannot be impartial, or because they have scheduling conflicts.
Those remaining are asked to complete a questionnaire, where they are asked about their education, prior jury service, whether they know people working in the entertainment industry, and whether they have been a victim of physical or sexual abuse.
Then, lawyers for both sides can question them in court, and get potential jurors dismissed if the judge agrees that they are not impartial - this is known as a challenge for cause.
In the US, lawyers are also allowed to remove a number of potential jurors without giving a reason (known as a peremptory challenge), as long as it isn't on the basis of ethnicity or gender.
Peremptory challenges are controversial to some - the UK abolished them in 1988 - because critics believe that lawyers can try to skew juries in a particular way and a randomly selected jury is fairer.
However, in the US, they're considered an important part of the constitutional right to trial by an impartial jury.
In Mr Weinstein's trial, lawyers on each side are allowed to dismiss up to 20 potential regular jurors, says Prof Hans. Lawyers from both sides will try to establish a jury that they believe will be more favourable to their side.
The prosecution will want jurors who can relate to the alleged victims, while the defence will want jurors who "see themselves as the defendant", says Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a law professor at the University of Dayton.
He believes the prosecution may want to select younger jurors, due to their understanding of the #MeToo movement.
He adds that Mr Weinstein is "in a unique position" that "a lot of people will have difficulty relating to".
"You really would need a jury of CEOs, or people who have been in position of power."
What sorts of strategies could the lawyers use?
Mr Weinstein's team has employed a jury consultant - an expert who will assist the lawyers with jury selection, including through community surveys and developing profiles of favourable and unfavourable jurors.
They are also likely to search public social media postings from all prospective jurors to see whether they have commented on the #MeToo movement - although they are not allowed to "friend" jurors.
"Each side will have an ideal juror they're looking for," says Alan Tuerkheimer, a jury consultant. However, they cannot be too obvious about who they want - because if it's clear they want a potential juror, the other side would "probably strike them out".
Instead, he likens it to a "chess game" - where each side tries to guess which jurors are good for their opposition, and then dismiss them.
"The defence are going to want jurors who believe women sometimes make things up to get powerful men in trouble... the prosecution will want people who think that any questioning of the account of victims is off limits."
Prof Hans says the questionnaire results, and online research, can often help lawyers "identify in advance people who will be close minded to their case".
This is particularly useful if it lets them ask the potential jurors questions that demonstrate to the judge that they are not impartial - because then they can be dismissed by a "challenge for cause", without the lawyers using up one of their peremptory challenges.
Finally, with any high-profile trial, there is also the risk of "stealth jurors" - potential jurors with an agenda, or who hope to write a tell-all book afterwards.
"If someone seems too eager to get on a jury, all parties should be careful," Mr Tuerkheimer says, adding that this has led to retrials in the past.
What is it like serving on a high-profile trial?
In the US, the names of jurors are often publicly available - and former jurors have faced intense media attention, or fallen out with family and friends who disagree with their verdict.
James Matsumoto, who was jury foreman in the first corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, remembered that the court room was packed with journalists when he was questioned as a potential juror.
"There must have been several hundred people on the courtroom at the time. It was a little unnerving, because you don't have anyone there with you in the jury box - you're alone and handed a microphone so that everyone in the court room can hear what you have to say."
He believes that the high-profile nature of the trial helped focus the minds on the jury, because it made them aware of how important the case was.
One unexpected consequence was the fact that "most people gained weight" during the trial, which lasted nearly two months.
Jurors were sequestered during the day, and had to eat lunch together in court, which meant "you're not getting very much exercise, and it's all fast food because you need something quick and near the court house".
He was surprised to find that journalists were even interested in finding out where the jury ordered lunch - considering it a "coup" when they were able to publish their lunch choices.
But the media attention became "really intense" once the trial ended - with the jury finding Blagojevich guilty on one count, but unable to reach an unanimous verdict on 23 other charges.
On his way home, he noticed "a whole bunch of people standing in front of my house".
He said a reporter approached him, asking if he was James Matsumoto - and he tried to divert him by saying "no, I think he lives down the block" - but ultimately he was still recognised.
"That night the phone kept ringing and the answering machine became full. My wife wasn't expecting anything like that, so she was very upset with all the attention," he said.
Other jury members had journalists knocking at their doors - while one found a helicopter hovering over their home.
The trial made a lasting impression on Mr Matsumoto. To this day, he says it bothers him that his jury was not able to reach a consensus on the charges. (At a retrial a year later, Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 charges, and sentenced to 14 years in jail.)
Despite this, Mr Matsumoto says if asked to be a juror again, he would. "For me it was a good experience - I learned more about human nature than I did before, and the nature of truth."
"Most Americans don't want to serve on trials - but I think it's our duty as citizens to be jurors."
His advice to jurors in the Harvey Weinstein trial is simple: "Do everything the judge instructs, just pay attention, and deliberate with honesty."
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In December 2010, Christopher Jefferies was arrested for the murder of landscape architect Jo Yeates and vilified by the press. Here, in his most personal and emotional account to date, he writes about the far-reaching impact of the episode, even after he was cleared. | The moments between sleeping and waking hover between dream and consciousness, the mind uncertain as to what is fantasy and what is reality.
It was in that state that the knocks on the door announcing my arrest brutally inverted fact and fiction, truth and falsehood, nightmare and the world of familiar reassurance.
I was taken to the police station, unable to think beyond the moment, aware only of what was being done to me by forces I was powerless to influence.
It seemed I was the only one who saw the person instinct told me still existed. Everyone else saw not Chris Jefferies, but the murderer of Jo Yeates.
An individual living out the complex narrative of his own existence was suddenly transformed into a villain.
During the next three days in custody, and then during the three months that followed, everything that seemed stable suddenly became precarious.
As I had to hand over the clothes I was wearing and the possessions I had on me, it was as if the process of stripping me of my identity had begun.
The clothes I was given to wear, the DNA samples, the fingerprints and the photographs that were taken all seemed like attempts to impose an alien persona.
When the doctor examined me, who did she see?
The bare 19th Century cell reflected back at me nothing that I recognised. The distant sounds beyond the sightless windows were the only reminders of a world with which I seemed to have lost contact.
With no watch and with little natural light, time had no shape or structure and events seemed random and haphazard.
As I think about the experience now, I'm acutely conscious of how very different the outcome could have been without friends.
Even as I was starting to think that I needed urgently to arrange legal representation, I was allowed a call from a friend and former pupil who had seen to it that a solicitor was on his way.
That moment of re-connection with life outside a police cell was as if a source of energy had been switched back on.
So too, the calm determination of the solicitor, incredulous at the flimsiness of the case against me, suddenly re-focused my own perspective.
His strength, my anger at what I was being subjected to and the knowledge that I had absolutely nothing to hide gave me back some feeling of control.
I was writing the script, not the police.
From the moment I was released on police bail, I was determined that the wrong that had been done would be put right.
But the following weeks became very much more painful, before I started to feel any real sense of restored identity.
Almost as great as the shock of arrest was the announcement that every item of clothing I possessed had been removed from my flat for forensic examination, and the flat itself would remain in police hands.
I had nothing to wear but the clothes I had been given at the police station and, to add to the feeling of disconnection, even my watch and mobile phone remained confiscated.
I was fortunate to be on my way to stay with the same friend who had made the legal arrangements, but as I was driven away by the solicitor there was the sharp realisation of how unbearably isolated and vulnerable I would still be if I had nowhere to go but a bail hostel.
As it was, for three months I moved between four sets of friends whose lives provided the psychological security without which it would have been almost impossible to cope.
Almost immediately I was made to realise something of the enormity of what had been appearing in the press, and the Dorian Gray-like portrait which was all that existed as far as the world was aware.
But, wisely, I was advised by my friends not to look at the reports.
The process of gradually restoring the identity vandalised by the media was reinforced when, in mid-January, police charged Vincent Tabak, the man who was subsequently convicted of Jo's murder.
But countering that positive and restorative process, and at times overwhelming it, were the stresses and tensions of the fugitive life I had to lead.
I was unable for a time to go out, except occasionally after dark, because the press were desperate for the scoop of discovering where I was. More generally, there was the effect on me of nine weeks of waiting to be cleared of suspicion.
At the time it felt as if the police were deliberately playing a game - promising the ordeal would soon be over and then finding it necessary to prolong the wait.
It was a form of psychological torture.
At such times the mind plays tricks, and one starts to believe that perhaps one is a criminal without knowing it and that, as in some Kafkaesque nightmare, guilt has been pre-ordained and the sentence is inescapable.
When finally, in early March, I was publicly cleared of involvement in the murder, my possessions were returned and I was able to return to my flat.
The slow process of re-ordering every room which, as in a burglary, had been turned upside down during the police investigation, came to seem a metaphor for the emotional and psychological restoration that was still taking place.
But it was a process made enormously easier by the extraordinarily supportive reaction from neighbours, the local community and beyond.
Somewhat hesitantly and apprehensively, I started to re-connect with my former life.
In fact, I need not have worried since, despite wondering whether I would ever be able to feel at ease in the flat again, the speed with which a sense of normality reasserted itself both surprised and pleased me.
Within another three months, the events of the start of the year seemed a distant nightmare.
It was some 10 months after Jo's murder that I finally learned more of what had been written of me, through Brian Cathcart's analysis of the press coverage in the Financial Times Weekend Magazine.
The piece set out some of the coverage that I had avoided - The Sun's use of "the strange Mr Jefferies", "Jo suspect is Peeping Tom" in the Daily Mirror and "Angry 'weirdo' had foul temper" in the Daily Star were all among the many false claims levelled.
The impact was so intense as to be almost physical in its effect.
As the libel action was prepared, I focused only on what the lawyers needed me to read.
Successful actions against eight key newspapers followed, which coincided with contempt of court proceedings brought by the attorney general.
Later I was able to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry.
It was, I felt, a chance to show something of the reality behind the grotesquely distorting mirror of the press.
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A stranded car had to be towed off a beach minutes before a rising tide threatened to sweep it away. | Two people in the vehicle called 999 to say they had driven on to wet sand and got stuck in Shoeburyness, near Southend Coastguard Station, on Sunday.
HM Coastguard said the driver was given details of vehicle recovery firms while it went to keep a watch on the situation and help if needed.
It said the car was moved "15 minutes prior to the tide reaching" it.
It added that while HM Coastguard was the fourth emergency service, "contrary to popular belief that does not include vehicle recovery and breakdown service".
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Nearly half of Scotland's 4,193 coronavirus deaths have been linked to care homes. So what do we know about these men and women who succumbed to a disease that has ravaged the world? Surprisingly, the answer is very little. | By Marc EllisonData journalist, BBC Scotland
The first Alan Wightman knew about virus-related deaths in his mother's care home came from an unexpected phone call.
"Have you seen The Courier?" the home's deputy manager asked.
The local newspaper was reporting that an outbreak at Scoonie House in Fife had resulted in 16 positive cases, and two deaths.
"If that article had not been published, they'd never have phoned me," says Alan. "Their hand was forced."
That phone call came on 1 May and five days later Alan's 88-year-old mother Helen became another coronavirus fatality.
According to the Care Inspectorate - Scotland's regulatory body for the sector - care providers are under "no statutory obligation" to notify residents, or their families, of an outbreak in their homes.
Caring Homes - the private company that runs Scoonie House - said its residents were an "absolute priority", and everything had been done to keep them well. It had "proactively" sourced the right protective equipment for staff, engaged in routine testing and stopped new admissions.
The company added: "We have sought to be transparent with relatives and they have received regular communications from our home manager and senior leadership team." The one thing it didn't say was how many deaths linked to Covid-19 had happened.
Alan doesn't dispute his mother's care and he was thankful for the regular updates he was given.
What he does question is how coronavirus still managed to take hold, despite the measures employed. He also questions why Caring Homes won't make public its death numbers. Alan's view is that care homes are "hiding, where they can, behind confidentiality".
Caring Homes is not the only provider reluctant to reveal how many fatalities could be attributed to the pandemic.
So, what do we know about deaths? Officially, there have been suspected cases in two-thirds of homes. And we know coronavirus has claimed slightly more lives in care homes (1,950) than in hospitals (1,945).
Data also reveals that since mid-March there have been 2,365 "excess deaths" in Scottish care homes as measured against the five-year average.
Weekly figures published by National Records of Scotland - which include confirmed and suspected coronavirus deaths - show what the situation is at health board level. But is it possible to map every single care home death by address and provider?
Over many weeks I sent hundreds of emails to the 1,080 public and private homes looking after Scotland's elderly.
But most declined to say how many virus-related deaths they had reported to the Care Inspectorate. The regulatory body - as well as the Scottish government - also refused to release a breakdown.
The Care Inspectorate also declined to disclose the data via a freedom of information request, pointing out that infections and death numbers "may not necessarily be related to a service's quality of care, hygiene standards, and use of PPE".
The watchdog added: "To release information, even at provider level, could have significant impact on the ability of the provider, and consequently their services, to function commercially in already challenging economic circumstances.
"Releasing information at this level would also likely impact on their ability to engage new staff and/or attract new residents."
The government said data needed to be accurate and published in a way that protected people's right to confidentiality.
Faced with very little official figures, I searched online news articles, obituaries, and death notices and contacted social media groups set up by those who had lost loved ones in care homes.
But despite casting a wide net, I could find only 93 care homes in which 588 residents had died - that's 30% of all the 1,950 confirmed and suspected elderly deaths.
Of these, 78% were reported at privately-run homes. For context, 63% of the sector is private, with the remainder being non-profit (24%), council (12%), and health board (1%).
But many providers would not even confirm figures that had appeared in the media. For example, Advinia Care Homes Limited declined to reveal numbers despite freedom of information requests and news stories reporting at least 66 deaths in five of its homes.
It simply said it would not release such data "out of respect to the families who have lost someone".
Helen Wightman's son Alan says he is dismayed at the lack of openness, adding "they [the care homes] are not providing answers".
As well as private homes failing to release death figures - half a dozen local authorities have also declined to publish numbers.
The media reported 15 deaths at council-run Crosslet House, but West Dunbartonshire said patient confidentiality meant it was "unable to confirm" fatalities.
Robert Kilgour - executive chairman of Renaissance Care - told BBC Scotland councils should provide figures for deaths.
He said: "If they have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear. There are no data protection issues at all. This is a smokescreen for them to hide behind."
What about deaths by council area?
While weekly figures published by National Records of Scotland use local authority areas they don't reveal which specific homes have reported deaths.
Through the crowdsourced data I had found, I built maps highlighting possible virus hot spots.
Some show evenly-spread points across councils like Glasgow, whereas we see clusters of care home deaths in the east of Renfrewshire, and eastern Edinburgh.
The limited data set also allows us to calculate what percentage of deaths in a council area can be attributed to a single care home.
How does Scotland compare to other countries?
Analysis of global figures by academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) suggests care home residents were more likely to die of Covid-19 in the UK than in any of the other major European countries, apart from Spain.
The proportion of residents dying in UK homes was a third higher than in Ireland or Italy, about double that in France and Sweden, and 13 times higher than in Germany.
If we look at Scotland as an individual nation and use the LSE's analysis, the country's care homes would see 5% of deaths attributed to the pandemic.
However, the report notes that "international comparisons are difficult" due to differences in testing; how deaths are recorded, and variations in the definition of "care home".
A Scottish government spokesman said "the calculation uses a snapshot day and therefore doesn't account for the flow (in and out) of care home residents across the year. In our view, it provides at best a rough proxy measure".
One of the report's authors, Dr David Henderson from Edinburgh Napier University, said nobody knows how many people in Scotland are in care homes at any given time and so "an accurate denominator is beyond us".
He added that the "data gap" had been "cruelly exposed by the pandemic".
The Scottish government has pledged to review social care in the wake of coronavirus which had "shone a light" on areas that needed to be improved.
That review has been welcomed by Alan Wightman who is still trying to piece together how his mother Helen contracted coronavirus.
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Former Sri Lankan cricketing great Muttiah Muralitharan says a planned film about his life will be released, despite a massive backlash in south India which caused the lead actor to quit. The BBC's Nalini Sivathasan speaks to him and explains the controversy around the film. | "I've been in so many controversies, not just cricketing. I have got through hurdles. This is just one of the many challenges I've faced," says the 48-year-old of the uproar around the film.
A member of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, Muralitharan defied the odds to make it on to the national team during a long civil war between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-majority security forces.
Then, he battled controversy over his bowling action - he was famously no-balled for "chucking" in Australia - to become one of the most formidable bowlers the cricketing world has ever seen.
However the biopic of his life - entitled 800, a reference to his record-breaking 800 Test match wickets - may be his biggest obstacle yet.
Shooting has yet to start, but when a film poster featuring popular south Indian actor Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role was released there was a massive outpouring of anger
The hashtag #ShameOnVijaySethupathi started trending across the state of Tamil Nadu, with many demanding that he turn down the role.
The film's producers have called it a "sports biography", intended to inspire young people, but critics fear a hagiography, an attempt to glorify someone who has become a controversial political issue.
Much of the outrage stems from Muralitharan's comments at a presidential election event last year, at which he celebrated the end of the war in 2009 and supported the candidacy of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Mr Rajapaksa was the defence secretary when government forces crushed Tamil Tiger separatists in a brutal campaign that also left tens of thousands of civilians dead.
He said the "happiest day of my life" was in 2009 as the country could now "go on without fear".
An estimated 40,000 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians are believed to have died in the last stages of the war, and it has been an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu, where the same language and ethnic identity are shared.
"Even though Muralitharan is a Tamil, he does not behave as a Tamil, and we don't want him to enter Tamil Nadu in any form - whether in person or on film," said V Prabha, a youth activist based in Chennai (formerly Madras).
"Muralitharan did many wrongs during the Sri Lankan civil war, we don't want him to be a hero in the Tamil community."
Read more about Sri Lanka's civil war
But Muralitharan says his words have been repeatedly "twisted" and taken out of context.
"I meant that after 2009, we had peace in this country. For me when the war finished, it was the happiest day of my life because peace came - not because Tamil civilians were killed," he said, speaking from Dubai, where he is a bowling coach for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team at the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament being held there.
"I did not take any sides over the war - Rajapaksa side or the other side. I was in the middle. People in India don't know what's happening in Sri Lanka."
Muralitharan has close links with India, especially Tamil Nadu. His wife is from the state and he represented Chennai when he played for Chennai Super Kings from 2008 to 2010, becoming one of the team's most most popular players.
So why is the film so contentious?
"In 2010, people in Tamil Nadu knew what had happened to Tamils in the Sri Lankan civil war, but they didn't connect Muralitharan to it," said Mr Prabha.
"We then started a campaign showing how he supported the Sri Lankan state, and by 2013, we were able to ban him and other Sri Lankan players here."
In 2013, the Tamil Nadu government banned IPL games with Sri Lankan players from being played in the state, due to alleged human rights violations of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Kavitha Muralidharan, a freelance journalist in Chennai, says the furore over Muralitharan's biopic has been so intense because of its lead actor, 42-year-old Vijay Sethupathi.
"Sethupathi is seen as a progressive actor, he speaks out on a lot of social issues, so for many people it was troubling to see him choosing to play the role of Muttiah Muralitharan," she said.
"People in Tamil Nadu take cinema very seriously. A movie is not just a movie there - Tamil cinema and politics are inter-related."
Tamil nationalism is often infused into Kollywood, as the Tamil cinema industry is known. A number of the state's chief ministers were actors before they took to politics.
The pressure on Sethupathi to quit came from both film stars and politicians.
But it was Muralitharan's surprise intervention - he asked the actor to withdraw - that decided the issue.
"Why does Sethupathi have to have unnecessary problems with this movie? Why do I want to put these problems on him?" the cricketer asks.
"This is my battle, not his battle, so I will take on the battle."
The response in Sri Lanka - where he is widely regarded as a sporting hero - has been mixed.
"I would have loved to see a film about him, not glorifying him, but something which brings all aspects of his complex identity to the screen," said Andrew Fidel Fernando, a cricket writer in Colombo, who has written extensively about Muralitharan's cricketing reign.
"The immediate backlash to the film seems ludicrous - we don't know what the film would have been like."
Families of Tamils who went missing during the Sri Lankan civil war are more critical, with some calling for the film to be scrapped completely.
"Muralitharan's words - when he said 2009 was the happiest time of his life - have affected Tamil people all over the world, worse than this coronavirus pandemic," Gopalakrishnan Rajkumar, who represents families of the disappeared, told BBC Tamil.
"Because he was Tamil, he became popular, but he hasn't done anything for Tamil people here."
The film's producers, Dar Motion Pictures (which made the Bollywood films The Lunchbox and Ugly) and Movie Train Motion Pictures had hoped to begin shooting 800 in early 2021. Without a lead actor, that now seems unlikely.
But Muralitharan is confident that his story will be told on screen.
"It will be made. The film's not just for Tamil Nadu. The producers are from Mumbai, they want it in all languages, in Tamil, Sinhala, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam and with English subtitles," he says.
"It's a sports movie, how can it be controversial?"
Yet the furore around 800 suggests it will be difficult to separate the cricketing legend from his politics.
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A house fire in which a six-year-old boy died is not thought to have been started deliberately, the fire service said. | The boy died in hospital after being pulled from the blaze, in Shaw Street West, Ilkeston, at about 22:40 BST on Friday.
Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was "not being treated as deliberate or malicious".
The name of the boy who died has not yet been released.
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At the beginning of March 2020, I asked a senior member of the government: "Do you feel worried?" They replied: "Personally? No." But just weeks later, Downing Street was scrambling to manage the biggest crisis since World War Two. | By Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor
Since then, monumental decisions have had to be taken. And there have been many accusations of failings - the desperate shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), Covid ripping through unprepared care homes, hundreds of billions borrowed and spent to keep the economy going, to name a few.
I have asked 20 of the most senior politicians, officials and former officials, who either witnessed or were involved in the big decisions, to pick five pivotal moments from the past 12 months.
What they say tells us so much about what really happened, what our leaders were thinking, and, strikingly, how little they knew. The contributors are not being named, so they could speak freely.
The virus on our doorstep
On 31 January, it was reported that coronavirus had arrived in the UK, as two people were admitted to hospital. Meanwhile, more than 80 Britons evacuated from China were quarantined at a facility in the north-west of England. But for the government, Brexit had sucked up all the political energy - it was the day the country officially left the EU.
The prime minister and his team were exhausted but elated. It felt like Boris Johnson had "just really started to take flight", one member of the team tells me.
Ministers and officials had already been meeting to discuss the virus in China - but it felt thousands of miles away. There was a "lack of concern and energy," one source tells me. "The general view was it is just hysteria. It was just like a flu."
The prime minister was even heard to say: "The best thing would be to ignore it." And he repeatedly warned, several sources tell me, that an overreaction could do more harm than good.
A small group in Downing Street had started daily meetings, after, according to one of those who attended, "it became clear that there was no proper, 'Emergency break-the-glass' plan."
But for many of those I've spoken to, the game-changer was at the end of February, when the virus took hold in northern Italy - it was closer to home, and England's chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, had, one minister told me, warned that if it got out of China, it would become global, and be on its way to the UK.
"The biggest moment for me was when I saw those pictures of northern Italy," one senior minister says. "I thought that will be us if we don't move."
Reports of the chaos there catapulted the virus, one senior minister says, "from not on the radar, to people on the floor of hospitals in Lombardy." They say that was the moment "we knew that it was inevitable".
Ministers and officials became locked in arguments over how to respond. The prime minister and many cabinet ministers were reluctant to consider anything as draconian as a lockdown. To many people, the very idea would have seemed fanciful.
Even stopping shaking hands seemed a step too far for the prime minister.
Before the first major coronavirus briefing on 3 March, he had, I am told, been prepared by aides to say, if asked by journalists, people should stop shaking hands with each other - as per government scientific advice.
But he said the exact opposite. "I've shaken hands with everybody," he said, about visiting a hospital with Covid patients.
And it was not just a slip, one of those present at the briefing says. It demonstrated "the whole conflict for him - and his lack of understanding of the severity of what was coming".
A Downing Street spokesperson told the BBC: "The prime minister was very clear at the time he was taking a number of precautionary steps, including frequently washing his hands. Once the social distancing advice changed, the prime minister's approach changed."
By this point, Mr Johnson was attending emergency committee Cobra meetings with officials and leaders from Holyrood, Belfast and Cardiff - although he had missed the first few.
But one senior politician who attended at the same time says: "The early meetings with the prime minister were dreadful." And inside Downing Street, senior staff's concerns about the government's ability to cope grew.
There were huge logistical considerations about equipment, facilities and how fast the disease might move in the UK, and questions about how effective the actions taken in China to suppress the virus would be here. It was not well understood, for example, that people without symptoms could still pass it on, nor that Britons returning from half-term holidays in northern Europe were bringing the virus back home in large numbers.
"There was a genuine argument in government, which everyone has subsequently denied," one senior figure tells me, about whether there should be a hard lockdown or a plan to protect only the most vulnerable, and even encourage what was described to me at that time as "some degree of herd immunity".
There was even talk of "chicken pox parties", where healthy people might be encouraged to gather to spread the disease. And while that was not considered a policy proposal, real consideration was given to whether suppressing Covid entirely could be counter productive.
On 3 March, when the prime minister set out the government's plan, the focus was on detecting early cases and preventing the spread.
But on 12 March, with journalists crammed into the state dining room at No 10, he told the public that the country was facing its worst health crisis in a generation. Anyone with symptoms was told to stay at home for a week.
Advisers seemed confident it was not yet time to close schools or stop large crowds gathering. And the government's scientists felt they had time to slow everything down - the peak was not expected for another 10-14 weeks.
That same week, though, nervousness was rising among others in government that the virus was outpacing everyone's expectations, and the plans in place to smooth out the outbreak would not work.
One source tells me it felt like the "government machine was breaking in our hands", things were "imploding", and within 48 hours the approach outlined on the 12th would feel out of date.
There has been no shortage of controversy over whether the government was too slow to close the doors on 23 March - but many of the conversations I have had, pinpoint the moment it became urgent in No 10.
On 13 March, the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee concluded the virus was spreading faster than thought.
But it was Downing Street "modellers in the building", according to one current official, who pored again over the numbers, and realised the timetable that had only just been announced was likely to result in disaster.
The next morning, a small group of key staff got together. Simple graphs were drawn on a whiteboard and the prime minister was confronted with the stark prediction that the plan he had just announced would result in the NHS collapsing under the sheer number of cases.
Several of those present tell me that was the moment Mr Johnson realised the urgency - that the official assumptions about the speed of the spread of this new disease had been wrong.
To prevent the NHS "falling over", he was warned, the government would have to impose measures as infections rose. And while they could be relaxed as cases fell, this pattern might recur across "multiple waves for 18 months".
Several sources recall vividly the "snake like graph" they were shown that day.
Then, one official says, everything started to move at "lightning speed". And behind closed doors - before the terrifying projections of Imperial College became public, a couple of days later - plans were accelerated.
On 16 March, the public were told to stop all unnecessary social contact and to work at home if possible.
New cabinet committees were formed. And the machine moved into a different phase, with the prime minister and the "quad" - Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Dominic Raab and Rishi Sunak - the new decision-making form. It was, I am told, "high tension - [with] a lot of testosterone in the room".
For many inside government, the pace of change that week was staggering - but others remain frustrated the government machine, in their view, had failed to move quickly enough.
There was tension between those who wanted to ensure systems were as ready as they could be first, and others who argued vociferously that moving fast against the virus was more important than anything else.
But those I spoke to now agree on one thing - how much they did not know about the disease.
"You can kick yourself about the things that you wish you knew," one minister says, "but we just didn't have anything in place."
Another cabinet minister says: "It's easy to say we should have locked down longer, gone harder, but there are more complex debates about where the national interests really lie."
And it was all so strange.
One minister who made some of the public announcements when lockdown came says: "I remember when I wrote it into the script, I just couldn't believe that I was saying this."
And one official, struck by how huge it all felt, says he googled: "Did they shut the schools during the War?"
Another, meanwhile, admits, "We were more blind than we told the public," and suggests that is still the case one year on.
Boris Johnson out of action
On 18 March, we reported that a small number of members of staff in No 10 had fallen ill. One insider says: "People were dropping like flies."
The prime minister, however, was acting as though he was impervious to the risk. He had developed a habit of banging his own chest, telling staff he was "strong as a bull". Soon, though, this chest-banging turned into "extreme coughing fits". Tests, in short supply everywhere, were requested for him from 25 March. And two days later, he tested positive.
He switched to the chancellor's bigger suite of offices so that he could keep working, screened off from the rest of the building. Insiders recall how much he hated this and, in a second spell of isolation in the autumn, chairs had to be placed across the door "like a puppy gate", so he could still communicate with the tiny number of staff allowed into the same part of the building.
Then, at the end of March, the prime minister became increasingly ill - each video call he made to reassure the public required more takes.
On 6 April, he agreed to go to St Thomas' Hospital and, struggling for breath on a phone call, I have been told, confirmed he wanted Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to stand in for him.
Initially, Downing Street tried to give the impression that all was well. Journalists were even told that Mr Johnson was working on his red boxes. That message has been put down to a mix up, and we now know this was far from the truth.
The moment of genuine crisis came when he was moved into intensive care. No-one knew if the prime minister would make it through the night - or what the plan was if he did not.
By this point, with so many in No 10 and in government already sick, there were, I have been told, about "half a dozen people running things".
Fears that he might need to be intubated were shared by a tiny group inside Number 10. They discussed the possibility that ministers would have to gather in the cabinet room, with the doors closed, until they chose a successor - but there was no fixed protocol, and no conclusion was reached. The Tory Party, I have been told, even started to consider how to transfer the leadership without a contest, fearing that such a competition could be seen as "venal" after the prime minister's death.
Then cabinet ministers were summoned urgently for a conference call. "All of a sudden we were asked to join this call - not knowing if he was alive," one tells me. Then No 10 prepared to make the news public.
The Downing Street voice on the other end of the phone cracked with fear as I was asked to get to the Foreign Office as soon possible with a camera to talk to Mr Raab, who was being sent out to try to reassure the country. We reported the news that Mr Johnson was in intensive care from the back of a taxi.
A former official tells me: "We thought we really could lose him - we had to plan for a full transition." That night was "long and shocking", one source says.
The Barnard Castle misadventure
By the end of May, the number of coronavirus cases was falling, the prime minister was back at work full time, and the public had surprised the government by overwhelmingly sticking to the rules.
Furthermore, despite some embarrassing and prominent lockdown breaches - in April, for example, Scotland's chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, had to quit over her visits to her holiday home - there had been what one senior minister describes as "tremendous goodwill".
But then came the Mirror and the Guardian's scoop - in March, the prime minister's chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, had travelled hundreds of miles to County Durham, after his wife fell ill with Covid. He, too, succumbed to the virus and his stay on his family's farm to recover, before returning to London, had been kept secret - apart from among a tiny number of Downing Street staff.
And Mr Cummings was determined not to quit. After considering sacking him, the prime minister stuck by him - but first, there was what has been described to me as tense "mediation between a couple deciding whether to divorce".
Before making that decision, he had summoned Mr Cummings to go through his version of events. Together, they planned for him to give this version publicly - despite others' protestations. The result was the surreal press conference in the Downing Street rose garden.
Many of those I have talked to describe this episode as a terrible turning-point.
"Even for us, this is mad," a member of the Downing Street team tells me.
Senior ministers say: "The handling was a fiasco". "It was ridiculous", and, at a time of national emergency, "broke the political consensus".
Perhaps, after two months of lockdown, the public was ready to be angry with someone.
MPs' inboxes were swamped with irate emails - mine too. "The early pandemic washed away all the bitterness of Brexit," one senior minister tells me. "That all came flooding back, all that bile, all that pent up frustration."
Some ministers tweeted their support for Mr Cummings. One of those who refused says: "He should have resigned straight away. You lead by example. I was busy chopping logs with my chainsaw to get the frustration out."
Some polling suggests the Barnard Castle episode really did dent the public's trust in the government. "It gave people who wanted to break the rules an excuse," one source says.
But inside government, there was a belief that an extraordinary period of unity had already started to fade, and the public had started to tire of the rules once the government had moved towards its plans to lift them.
There is no question, though, the whole misadventure made the politics of the pandemic more scratchy and less consensual.
Mr Cummings was not the only one to be caught up. In June, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, provoked anger by attending a huge Republican funeral.
But it was after Barnard Castle that it felt like the mood in the country had changed.
"People wanted to portray the PM as a clown," one minister tells me, "or not up to the level of events."
Summer optimism, missed September
Britain in the summer did not feel like a country still gripped by a pandemic.
"There was loads of over optimistic messaging," one politician says.
For example, the time when a Labour MP asked for advice at the end of June for his constituency, which was home to a popular beach and he was worried about huge numbers heading for the sea. "Show some guts," the prime minister told him.
In July, a grinning chancellor delivered plates of Japanese curry to unsuspecting customers at a London restaurant, to promote his "eat out to help out" scheme. Then the prime minister started to encourage people back to the office.
But behind closed doors, there were significant doubts about the wisdom of this new mood. "We knew there was going to be a second wave," one cabinet minister tells me, "and there was a row about whether people should work from home or not - it was totally ridiculous."
The summer optimism and opening was "the biggest mistake - a rush of blood to the head, another senior figure says. "The PM has to carry the can".
The prime minister believed that another lockdown would be a disaster and wanted to avoid it at all costs - but for many of those involved in making the decisions, his hostility to tightening the rules again was frustrating, dangerous and political.
"The policy objective in the summer and the autumn was - do the minimum possible," one tells me.
But by the end of August, with Britons packing beaches, the warnings of what might come were already flickering in Number 10.
Some days, sources suggest, the prime minister would express concern about the virus coming back. Others, he would be in "let-it-rip mode". And senior officials expressed deep concern about what seemed to be changes of heart on a daily basis.
The disease would not be contained by indecision, and by the start of September, with schools and universities having returned, "you could clearly see a steady increase," a senior figure says.
The testing system had not been able to keep pace with demand, and too few people were willing to, or could afford, to self-isolate if they tested positive. "The idea that you could liberalise in the summer was based on the idea that you could whackamole with test and trace," the source says. "But if you didn't whack the right moles then it doesn't work."
By the middle of September, "the data was already screaming out", one insider says. On the 17th, I was told by one source: "If you do nothing now, by the end of October you will get something worse than the first wave."
The possibility of a short "circuit breaker" lockdown was already being discussed in Downing Street that week. Prof Whitty, the UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, and Mr Cummings and others were arguing hard for action to be taken - but the prime minister was unpersuaded.
Others wanted to push again - one current official recalls a "concerted effort" - and on Sunday 20th, the No 10 team gathered a range of scientists. But the prime minister remained reluctant.
Another current official describes his attitude as, "if there is a way not to act, why do it?".
Over the next 36 hours, I have been told, a small group inside Downing Street repeatedly tried to change Mr Johnson's mind - but by then, he was operating in a very different atmosphere.
"A swampiness had risen because of ideological pressure on this government at every turn to do less - and to do it more slowly," a senior figure says. And it is understood Mr Johnson had privately assured groups of MPs there would be no more restrictions.
The Treasury was pointing out the damage any further restrictions would do to the economy, many of the traditional Tory-backing newspapers were hungry for restrictions to be relaxed, the party was restless, and I remember cabinet ministers who had hardly any cases of the virus in their constituencies at that point, suggesting they saw no evidence for further action.
So when Mr Johnson made changes to the coronavirus restrictions on 22 September, they were tweaks, rather than a real tightening up. I remember talking to Tory backbenchers that day who felt they had won.
The importance of the missed September moment is cited by many senior figures - and some now concede it was a mistake.
"We strained at the leash to get things going," one cabinet minister admits. "I was aggressively for that - but I have learned that it is better to go slow."
Another senior minister, one of those who pushed for more radical action at the time, now says: "We should have locked down more severely, earlier in the autumn - the whole point was, the earlier you act the more you buy yourself time for a strategy that can get out."
You can still hear the frustration in the voices of those who lost the argument.
"The PM was saying the Tory Party won't swallow it," one tells me. "Everyone else felt, we know we are going to have to do a lockdown."
And there is no question that the tier system that was introduced over the autumn, which portioned England into different levels of restrictions, was soon tied up in confusion and regional spats.
"It was completely unintelligible to any normal human being," one senior official says. "It was too slow, and too Byzantine, and that resulted in more cases."
Another says now: "We ended up tying ourselves into ever tighter knots," as the system became more and more particular to each part of the country.
It is impossible to know what would have happened if the brakes had been slammed on in September - but some ministers pin the terrible scale of the second wave, at least in part, on the apparent reluctance to act.
The circuit-breaker that was imposed later in Wales did not make the problem go away, however. Case numbers weren't the only concern - the economy had been shuttered, and shattered. Political demands had changed.
In defence of Mr Johnson, one senior minister says: "He's not to blame if he was trying to reflect the aspiration for the country back in the summer". Another tells me the plans, and the billions spent on "test-and-trace and tiering meant it was reasonable to do the unlock".
They reject the idea that a circuit breaker was the obvious option - "There wasn't a slam dunk recommendation."
Regarding the potential introduction of national restrictions in September, Downing Street referred us back to comments made by the prime minister to parliament in early November.
"No-one wants to impose measures unless absolutely essential," Mr Johnson told the Commons. "So it made sense to focus initially on the areas where the disease was surging and not to shut businesses, pubs and restaurants in parts of the country where incidence was low."
But while there is no question mistakes were made in the first phase of the pandemic, when so much about the virus was a mystery, those involved in the decisions are already less forgiving of their own mistakes the second time around.
The big vaccine gamble
"A miracle," is how one minister describes the vaccine gamble to me. A government so often lambasted by critics for busting convention did it again - but this time, so far, with a stunning outcome.
Vaccines had been discussed in January, as the government machine began to contemplate, slowly, what might be ahead. Early on the chancellor, holding the cheque book, indicated a willingness to spend at speed, without asking for guarantees.
No 10 decided to "chuck everything at it", at a meeting in April. With Sir Patrick's crucial experience and deputy chief medical officer for England Prof Jonathan Van-Tam's emphasis on the practicalities of delivering the vaccine, politicians were persuaded to take what was then a huge risk.
There was an early decision to "pay high, pay early, and ensure it works," one senior official tells me.
And it seems their decision was informed by everything that had gone wrong with trying to secure PPE - the collapse of the NHS's normal procurement process, with Foreign Office officials even trying to hunt down missing consignments on the ground in far-flung places.
The UK decided early not to participate in the EU's joint plan to buy vaccines. While publicly this decision may have been politically controversial, behind closed doors it was "easy" and "straightforward", ministers and officials say. "No-one wanted any of the Brexit baggage anywhere near it." And, more importantly, the EU had made it clear any participating country would be unable to make its own deals with manufacturers the EU had an agreement with - or control its own supply.
The vaccines team had warned ministers at the start of May that nothing was certain - and developing a vaccine as quickly as the prime minister, who "wanted it yesterday", required would be an uphill struggle. But, as one minister says, it was "the one thing we would wish that we had done in a year's time".
Another, a senior minister, says: "The PM strategically saw immediately that the combination of testing, drugs and vaccine was the way out." And when it came to vaccines, the UK was ready to take an expensive gamble.
The Treasury was spending speculatively in ways it had not since the War - and vaccine spending has already reached nearly £13.5bn. "Imagine if it hadn't come off and we had spent all of that taxpayers' money," one senior official says to me.
There was intense secrecy, throughout, with the various vaccines given secret code names to ensure commercial confidentiality. All were named after submarines - the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine "Ambush", I can now reveal, and the Oxford-AstraZeneca "Triumph".
After 12 months of grappling with endless calculations about balancing risks to life, wider health and how the country makes a living, decision-makers are exhausted. They have to accept it is perfectly possible to be wrong, one senior minister tells me. And those who made the decisions are all too aware mistakes they made in these past 12 months may have had such a terrible cost.
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English is the language of business, right? Er... not really. | By Daniel ThomasBusiness reporter
If the oft-heard maxim were universally true, the outsourced translation market wouldn't be worth a chunky $37bn (£23bn) or be growing at about 6% a year.
While content in English still dominates the web, "billions of people don't read English at all or well enough to make buying decisions," concludes a survey by Common Sense Advisory, a business research consultancy.
In reality, businesses must translate and localise products into a host of different languages, and that requires linguists.
And with competition among translation firms fierce, many are turning to technology to steal a march on their rivals.
Found in translation
Take Thebigword, a Leeds-based firm employing about 12,000 linguists in 73 countries covering 500 languages. Its previous clients include Ricoh, Electrolux and DHL.
The firm says it can connect you with an interpreter in just 30 seconds by phone, localise your market messages or translate your documents.
However, it believes the real weapon in its technological arsenal is its new "translation management system" (TMS), which claims to deliver projects four times faster than the industry standard by automating project workflow and using computer-assisted translation tools.
Imagine you are a technology business launching a new phone in multiple countries on the same day.
"Translation for a job like that goes through a huge amount of different processes - it's not just one page sent, translate it and send it back," says chief executive Larry Gould.
"It may have diagrams on it or illustrations, or need to be presented a certain way, localised, edited and double-proofed. And of course you've got to do it all to tight deadlines."
Mr Gould can use up to 200 linguists on a single project like this, spread across 33 countries. But the TMS helps co-ordinate the process, allocating the workload across time zones to speed things up and cut costs.
Language barrier?
Such firms still rely heavily on human linguists but are increasingly complementing them with lower-cost automated "machine translation" tools, known as MT in the business.
Ben Sargent, a senior analyst at Common Sense, says such technology has its drawbacks, but can work well for low-stakes, high-volume work, particularly online.
"We estimate that less than half of 1% of all the digital content that could and should be translated, actually is.
"No-one has the budget to do all that. So in low-value content applications, like user-generated content and consumer-to-consumer interactions, automated translation gets a lot more traction."
For example, when eBay realised that more than 20% of its sales involved cross-border trade - and that its international business was growing faster than its domestic business - it acquired AppTek's machine translation technology to help meet the demand for local language listings.
Currently eBay only translates listings in countries such as Brazil and Russia, but eventually wants to help sellers list their goods in multiple languages, and chat to buyers via instant messaging that translates in real time.
But Ryan Frankel, chief executive of VerbalizeIt, a translation firm that uses only human translators, is not convinced by MT.
He believes that it "is light years away" from delivering anything beyond a "get the gist" solution.
"Businesses rightly value accuracy but also brand, industry and cultural-specific terminology and nuances that require an experienced and trained community of translation professionals."
Even advocates of the technology admit that an accuracy rate of about 70% is considered excellent, but that this can only usually be achieved for technical documents using highly consistent terminology.
Once the slang phrases, idioms and metaphors of normal human conversation are thrown into the mix, accuracy can plummet to 30%.
Beam me up Scotty
"Speech-to-speech" technology, which translates the human voice in near real time into text or words spoken by your computer, offers some exciting possibilities.
Although it is certainly in its early stages - Microsoft's pre-beta Skype Translator tool, unveiled in May, was clunky and slow in demonstration to say the least - speech-to-speech is evolving fast.
According to analyst Gartner the market is likely to mature in the next five to 10 years.
SpeechTrans, a frontrunner in the space, claims its users can have a conversation in more than 40 languages over fixed-line or internet phone, and that the technology can even recognise different accents and dialects.
"In four years we have been able to accomplish more than was ever thought possible in this area of technology," says Mark Coviello, director of sales.
"At this rate we foresee the ability for any human being to communicate with any other human being without error [using speech-to-speech]."
Hewlett-Packard has already integrated SpeechTrans into MyRoom, its web conferencing platform, enabling business professionals "anywhere in the world to collaborate in 30 different languages, in the same conversation, at the same time".
The technology giant won't tell the BBC how many users it has, but says "adoption is increasing", along with the application's accuracy and speed.
'Dubious results'
Still, Mr Sargent says such platforms have a long way to go before they really take off.
"Progress can be slow, and the utility of these systems today is limited.
"Don't expect to see courtroom or hospital interpreters being replaced anytime soon, except for emergency situations, where dubious results may still be better than nothing."
As with MT, some also doubt whether speech-to-speech will ever really grasp the nuances of language the way a human can. Still, Mr Coviello claims taking humans out of the equation has its benefits, too.
"We find that there may not always be a person available for translation when needed the most, or that due to certain ideologies or conditions the person translating may mistranslate what is being said."
While businesses will surely explore automated translation technology for its cost-saving potential, it seems that demand for high-quality human translation will continue to grow as multilingual content proliferates.
"We believe new technology has to be embraced because there is just so much communication required out there," says Thebigword's Mr Gould.
"It's brilliant for our industry - [technology] will enhance our business, not take away from it."
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A Neolithic Orkney burial cairn is to stay open to the public thanks to a shuttle bus service aimed at addressing road safety concerns. | Concerns had been raised over the car park at Maeshowe.
Historic Environment Scotland said a shuttle bus service was being introduced from Thursday from the visitor centre at Skara Brae, allowing three tours a day.
The agency said work to find a long-term solution was ongoing.
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Despite male circumcision being relatively common, it's not something people usually talk openly about. But when a grieving mother explained how her son killed himself after being circumcised, it prompted many men to share their own experiences. | By Caroline LowbridgeBBC News
"I read your story this morning and have been crying for hours."
"The same thing happened to me... I don't know why I'm writing this. I'm sorry."
"The article made me feel a bizarre mix of sadness, frustration and relief."
"Finally I can start to make some sense out of my own experience."
These were among the responses to a story about the death of 23-year-old Alex Hardy, who was circumcised after secretly suffering from a tight foreskin - a condition known as phimosis - for many years. He felt the circumcision left him in a lot of pain, both physically and mentally, and killed himself two years later.
Some readers who got in touch said they had never spoken about their problems before - even to their partners.
Here are some of their experiences. Some names have been changed.
'I've never been able to have sex'
Curtis, 21, from Worcestershire, developed post-traumatic stress disorder due to the severe pain he experienced when the wound from his partial circumcision became infected.
He can't have sex or masturbate manually as he is, in his own words, "scared of my own dick".
"When I had the operation I got an infection, so instead of taking a week to heal, mine took about six weeks," said Curtis, who was seven and a half years old when he had the operation.
"Because of the infection I got it had to be sterilised, so I had to be put in salt baths in my house which was absolute agony, because you are putting a wound in salt.
"I couldn't sleep properly, I couldn't walk, because every time it touched either leg the pain was so bad I would just stop walking. So I had to be carried a lot of the time to and from rooms."
Sleeping was a problem because Curtis's T-shirt kept getting stuck to the wound.
"Every morning I would have to tear that T-shirt off, which was obviously very painful as well," he said.
Curtis has been having sex therapy for two years and hopes to be able to have sex one day.
"I did have a girlfriend at one point, and when it started to go towards that sort of thing my heart rate would pick up and I would start to sweat and I just couldn't cope," he said.
"So as far as I'm concerned, if I can barely go near it, how on earth can I expect somebody else to do it?"
He has already made progress and is a lot more comfortable when he touches his penis to wash it.
"For several years every time I washed it I would just be sick, because I just couldn't cope with it," he said.
"That doesn't happen now. It's small steps and small victories but they are victories I wasn't having before. So I can see it getting better."
'Circumcision gave me unwanted erections'
John, who is now in his early 50s, was circumcised as a child and started getting unwanted erections soon after.
He said he could "relate immediately" when he read about how Alex found the touch of underwear overly stimulating.
"The extreme sensitivity articulated clearly the problems I faced but without understanding why," he said.
"I thought it was normal to be that sensitive."
John was circumcised when he was between six and eight years old, but he does not know why.
"I wasn't really consulted," he said.
"To me it was something the doctor and my mum agreed had to happen. I vaguely remember having difficulty passing water at the time."
He remembers experiencing pain after surgery and being more sensitive than before.
"I had erections straight after surgery," he said
"I don't know how normal it is for under 10 year olds to get erections but mine became frequent.
"I ejaculated whilst still in junior school and was scared because I didn't know what it was.
"There was no internet and no-one to ask. I didn't know what masturbating was but that's what I was doing. It was the only way to find some relief."
John believes the trauma of circumcision was an influencing factor when he later had a nervous breakdown.
"I think there are many aspects that people never consider, especially the mental side," he said.
"To be honest, I've never even talked to my wife about it.
"The psychological effect of permanent and over-stimulation of the penis over a long period of time is never discussed."
'I feel quite happy having phimosis'
Another reader, Pete, is not able to retract his foreskin but he doesn't see this as a problem requiring medical treatment.
"I'm gay and it's something that I only found out about through the sexual partners I've had over the last couple of years," said Pete, who is 25 and lives in Ealing.
"I only found out about phimosis even existing after a conversation with a partner, who said I was supposed to be able to expose my glans [head of the penis],"
"A little bit of googling and I realised the whole thing has a name and that people advise you get treated for it."
Pete was initially "very anxious" when he found out he might have phimosis.
"I read about how doctors try to encourage things to rectify it but, like with Alex, I think they would simply take a mild or fairly benign thing and make it a million times worse," he said.
Some of Pete's sexual partners have been "curious about why I'm not like most other guys".
"I don't feel like it's gotten in the way of things as much as it might for some," he said.
"It only gets in the way if a guy is very judgmental, and thinks I ought to be more like them."
Pete says it "feels a bit awkward to be made to feel slightly wrong somehow".
"I think the attitude people have about it is the bigger problem," he said.
"I feel quite happy as I am.
"I genuinely feel like circumcision is completely unnecessary in my case, and it would make things painful and I'd instantly regret it."
'Steroid cream quickly sorted my phimosis'
Marvin was successfully treated for phimosis as a child using steroid cream, and he is concerned some consultants might be advising circumcision unnecessarily.
This is because his own son was advised to have a circumcision, rather than use steroid cream.
"I had phimosis as a kid and nearing my teenage years I visited the local doctor, who then prescribed some steroid cream that quickly sorted the problem," said Marvin.
His son's foreskin did not retract as he got older, so Marvin took him to a doctor when he was 11. He was then referred to a consultant at a children's hospital.
"At the appointment with the consultant the options were effectively either leave alone to see if it sorts itself or surgery," he said.
"Two surgery options were given: either circumcision or making a cut in the skin to see if that then heals and provides the necessary stretching."
Marvin then mentioned his own experience using steroid cream.
"The consultant said this has almost no chance of working but was prepared to prescribe a steroid and give it a go. About eight weeks later, the problem was resolved.
"The outcome might have been very different if I had not had the same issue as a kid."
'Frenuloplasty cured my phimosis'
Barry Betts, 42, had phimosis like Alex but was treated with less invasive surgery, known as frenuloplasty. He said it was "a huge success" for him and wanted to make other men with phimosis aware of it.
"With me it was essentially a case of sex being painful as my foreskin was so tight that it hurt to retract it during an erection, which is what happens with penetrative sex; as you enter it forces your foreskin to retract," said Barry, who lives on the Wirral.
He was referred to an NHS urologist who told him the options were "nothing, stretching, circumcision or frenuloplasty".
"He advised the frenuloplasty due to how tight mine was and I agreed," said Barry, who was in his late 20s at the time.
The procedure involves surgically lengthening the frenulum, which is the band of tissue where the foreskin attaches to the under surface of the penis.
Barry dropped a stitch after his operation which led to some "scary bleeding" but this stopped on its own.
"Once I got past the initial nerves of - how can I put this delicately? - testing out the outcome, I discovered that everything was fine and working better than before, just as the urologist said it would.
"I haven't had any problems whatsoever in over a decade since it was done."
'Sex feels better after circumcision'
Robert Dawson, 51, from Nottingham, was circumcised as an adult after seeking medical help when his penis bled during sex. He initially regretted it, but says sex is now more enjoyable than before.
"It was excruciatingly painful," he said of the surgery.
"It took about 30 minutes. My girlfriend remained outside throughout this but heard my screams."
When Robert was younger he used to be able to pull his foreskin back, but as he got older it became tighter and he could no longer pull it back.
It bled during sex in 2017, so he went to see a urologist who advised him to get circumcised.
The urologist did not suggest any alternative treatments, but Robert did some research online and decided to go ahead with the circumcision.
He had the operation in Vietnam in June 2018, as that was where he was working at the time. Unlike Alex, his frenulum was left intact.
"I was so happy with the feeling I had during sex," he said.
"Now the glans [head of the penis] was exposed it was a beautiful, lovely feeling again that I had experienced in my teens and 20s."
Some of his skin has fused slightly higher than it should have done, so he is due to have further surgery in Nottingham to fix this.
"I so wish that I could have talked to the guy in your article before, during and after his procedure," said Robert.
"He should have come to England to get an opinion from an NHS urologist. They may have been able to fix his problem, but again, like me, he found a world not willing to talk about this."
Getting help
Psychotherapist Nick Turner, who specialises in relationships and sex therapy, is currently treating two young men who were traumatised by being circumcised as children.
"I've come across loads of grownups who've had circumcisions and not had a problem, but it's the fact that these two boys both experienced post-operative discomfort, bleeding, pain and infection," he said.
"We are talking about six-year-old boys here. What would a six-year-old boy know about how to deal with a situation where they are in intense pain following a surgery?
Claire Allen, a counsellor at sexual violence charity Savana, believes male circumcision is comparable with less severe forms of female genital mutilation.
"If we are removing the foreskin of the penis, the equivalent in a woman could be removing the prepuce or the hood that covers the clitoris," said Miss Allen.
"My personal opinion is that it doesn't matter how much flesh is removed, you are still going through that process, you are still experiencing the pain. It's hard to know what damage it can have on people's brains but there are lots of things that can come from the effects of trauma."
Mr Turner advised going to the College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists, or finding a sex therapist through Relate, the BACP or the UKCP.
The UK charity 15 Square, which tries to help men affected by circumcision, is also hoping to start support meetings.
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A pickpocket has been jailed for stealing a mobile phone from a police and crime commissioner (PCC). | Cleveland PCC Barry Coppinger was in a cafe in Middlesbrough when the phone was taken from his jacket.
He reported the matter to police and a man was arrested after CCTV footage was circulated to officers.
Anthony Rene, 32, from London, pleaded guilty to theft at Teesside Magistrates' Court and was sentenced to eight weeks in prison.
Mr Coppinger praised the security system in the cafe and said he was pleased the man had been brought to justice "swiftly".
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A Windows 10 update has stopped many popular webcams from working. | By Rhiannon WilliamsTechnology reporter
The update, released earlier this month, stops many cameras being used for Skype or to broadcast and stream footage.
The cause seems to be a change in the way Windows 10 handles video so it can be used by more than one program at a time.
Microsoft said it was working on a fix but has not given any date for when the patch will be available.
'Poor job'
Soon after Windows Update 1607 was distributed in early August, many people started reporting webcam problems to Microsoft via its support site. The trouble affected both webcams connected via USB cables or on the same network and meant either that footage could not be streamed, or that images froze after a while.
The problems even affected webcams working with Skype and Lync - both companies owned by Microsoft.
Comments on the support thread suggest millions of people have been inconvenienced by the bug. Some companies said customers who used webcams for internet banking had complained because they could no longer verify transactions.
Analysis put the blame on changes to the video encoding systems with which Windows 10 works. The update ends support for two widely used encoding systems so it became possible for more than one application to use video as it is being shot. Prior to the update Windows 10 only allowed one application access to a stream.
A Microsoft camera engineer who responded to complaints on the support thread said the company had done "a poor job" of letting people know about the change.
"We dropped the ball on that front, so I'd like to offer my apologies to you all," he said.
He added that Microsoft was working on a way to fix the problem and get webcams working again. The fix is likely to be released in September.
Microsoft has yet to officially comment on the problem.
Changes to the way Microsoft handles updates also seem to have made the problem harder to fix. Prior to update 1607, Windows 10 users could roll-back to a previous version within 30 days of it being installed. The update cut that to 10 days giving people little chance to switch back to the earlier version of Windows 10 under which their webcams worked.
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At Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, a clinical trial is taking place in which six patients who have had little or no sight for many years are having a cutting-edge "bionic eye" implanted in an attempt to give them some sight, and independence, back. | The first patient in this trial is 49-year-old Rhian Lewis, from Cardiff.
She explains: "I was a toddler when my parents noticed I would not cross a darkened room, even from one light room to another light room, and that I was really scared of the dark. So they took me back and forward to the optician and specialists and then they diagnosed me with retinitis pigmentosa."
This disorder destroys the light sensitive cells in the retina - but how much and how quickly varies from person to person. In Rhian's case, it eventually made her almost completely blind.
"I think I was about four or five. I've never had any vision at night or in dim light and then, as I went through school, I had the glasses and I sat at the front because I couldn't see the board.
"It was progressive and as I went to work in a shop, checking up deliveries, I had to use a magnifier increasingly to check the delivery notes and then I couldn't read the titles of the books properly, so then they put me on to different materials, like art and stationery, because there were different shapes and sizes so I could manage with that - I could do a lot from memory."
Her sight deteriorated and around 16 years ago she lost all vision in her right eye and most of the sight in her left eye.
"In my left eye, I sort of navigate around by light. If it's bright outside I'll sort of aim for the window or if it's dark and the lights are on I'll navigate by the light bulbs, like a moth."
The problem with having no sight, she says, is that you also lose your confidence because you lose your mobility.
"I don't go out and about on my own, ever. Then around the house, the kitchen, you rely on other people to find things for you - it's very frustrating. It's simple things like shopping...clothes shopping, you don't know what you look like. It's been, maybe eight years that I've had any sort of idea of what my children look like. And I've got friends now where I've got no idea what they look like. And I certainly don't know how I've aged."
In the summer, Rhian travelled to Oxford for an operation to implant a tiny 3x3mm chip into her right eye.
The device replaces the light-sensitive retinal cells in the eye, and is connected to a tiny computer that sits underneath the skin behind the ear.
When it is switched on using a magnetic coil applied to the skin, signals travel to the optic nerve and then to the brain.
Rhian still had an intact optic nerve and all the brain wiring needed for vision, but her mind needed time to adjust to the signals it was suddenly receiving after being dormant for so long.
She explains: "It was a bit nerve-wracking. I didn't know what to expect.
"They sort of put the magnet to the little receiver there on my head and switched the receiver on. They said I might not get any sensation… and then all of a sudden within seconds there was like this flashing in my eye, which has seen nothing for over 16 years, so it was like, 'Oh my God, wow!' It was just amazing to feel that something was happening in that eye, that there was some sort of signal."
One of the first tests the doctors did was to check if Rhian could now see flashing lights on a computer screen in a dark room - she could.
"What I was seeing was sort of a line at the top of my eye and at the bottom. But it was getting quite distracting because it was quite a slow flash really, so I asked them if they'd change the frequency. Now I've got more of a shimmer, rather than flashing lines, which is much less distracting and a little more accurate."
Next they checked if she could distinguish white objects on a black background - a white plate on a black tablecloth - which didn't go so well.
Rhian recalls: "I wasn't quite sure where the plate was. So I left that day with sort of mixed feelings, because the flashing was working but I couldn't see the plate on the table."
She returned the following day to repeat the failed test.
"They did the objects on the table and I could get them and I was so chuffed, I must have looked like a kid at Christmas! I was just locating a plate, a cup and a couple of shapes, but it was difficult because I didn't have any co-ordination. I haven't seen anything through that eye for so long, so I kept overshooting it a little bit - but we were getting there. I was just elated, really elated."
Next, it was time to go outside.
"I was absolutely terrified, because I didn't know what to expect at all. And I was thinking 'oh, I don't want to let anybody down, I don't want to let myself down…' But as it turned out, it was great.
"There was a car, a silver car and I couldn't believe it, because the signal was really strong and that was the sun shining on the silver car. And I was just, well, I was just so excited, I was quite teary!
"Being out in the real world, actually out in the street, you know, is far more useful, than locating flashes on a computer screen and doing the things in the lab. Just to walk under a tree and realising it'd gone dark was amazing, because I hadn't had that.
"Now, when I locate something, especially like a spoon or a fork on the table, it's pure elation, you know. I just get so excited that I've got something right. It's really just pure joy to get something right, because I've never done it before - well, not for the last 16 or 17 years anyway."
The surgical team at the Oxford Eye Hospital, John Radcliffe Hospital have been as delighted as Rhian with her progress.
Although the chip has the resolution power of less than 1% of one megapixel, which is not much compared to a standard phone camera, it has the advantage of being connected to the human brain, which has over 100 billion neurons of processing power.
Using dials on a small wireless power supply held in the hand, Rhian can adjust the sensitivity, contrast and frequency to obtain the best possible signal for different conditions as she continues to practise interpreting the signals and regaining her independence.
If the rest of the trial is successful, it's possible that this implant could be made available on the NHS. The team also hope that one day this technology can be applied to other eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.
You can watch her story on Trust Me, I'm a Doctor on BBC2 at 8pm on Wednesday 6 January.
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A woman who died following a crash near Alness in the Highlands has been named by police. | Karen McKeddie's Rav4 crashed on the C1016 between Alness and Achandunie, north of Millcraig Road.
The 56-year-old, who was from Alness, died at the scene.
Police have asked anyone who was on the road between 22:30 on Saturday and 00:40 on Sunday and who witnessed the crash or had dashcam footage from the area to come forward.
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Three women have been rescued by lifeboat after they became stranded on a small island in the Highlands. | The women were cut off by the tide after spending Saturday afternoon on the island off Arisaig.
Mallaig RNLI lifeboat rescued the women after they called for help at about 19:30.
A coastguard spokeswoman said: ""They had been enjoying their day on the island and then realised they were cut off by the tide."
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The headquarters for the Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust have been occupied by groups protesting against the NHS and Social Care Bill.
| Members of Oxfordshire Anti Cuts Alliance and Keep Our NHS Public accuse the bill of "dismantling the NHS".
Organiser Gawain Little said: "Profit not patients will be the central motivating force of the new system."
Defending the bill, health minister Lord Howe said: "Competition would only be used to benefit patients."
An NHS spokesman said: "There is a peaceful protest taking place in a conference room at our (NHS Oxfordshire) headquarters in Oxford.
"There are currently around 20 people inside the room. At present the protest is not causing any disruption for people working in the building."
Earlier police confirmed they were in attendance.
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Video game maker Valve is working on a PC that will allow users to play Steam games on their big-screen televisions. | The plan to produce a "very controlled" set-top box was revealed in an interview with gaming website Kotaku about the future of the PC.
The company, best known for Half Life and Left 4 Dead, has already developed a "big picture mode" for Steam.
Although Steam is run by Valve, the service gives gamers access to many developers and games studios' titles.
Valve boss Gabe Newell said demand for the big picture interface had been "stronger than expected".
Kotaku suggested the device might run the open-source operating system Linux.
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When 15-year-old Ethan Askew started to feel ill in a sports class, he went to tell his teacher and collapsed into his arms - he'd stopped breathing. And it was his Dad who used the school's newly installed defibrillator to help save his life. | By Frances CroninHealth reporter
At 15, Ethan was a fit and healthy teenager, who went hiking with his dog Treacle and worked towards Duke of Edinburgh awards.
There was no hint of any health problem before his collapse.
Ethan's dad Stuart works as premises manager at the Steiner Academy school which his son attends.
"I was just leaving a meeting when three girls ran up the stairs saying Ethan had collapsed.
"I'm a first-aider at school, and with the number of stubbed toes and things like that you get on a daily basis you don't really worry when somebody says something like that - but I ran down to the field.
"As I was sprinting across, I realised somebody was doing chest compressions on him and it kind of takes a couple of seconds to realise what that truly means.
"I knew how serious it was."
The school had applied to the British Heart Foundation for a community defibrillator for the village to be installed at the school, and it had recently been delivered.
"Literally two days before, I was sitting in the middle of the staff room putting the battery in it - and then the idea that the first person that it gets used on is actually my son... It's staggering," says Stuart.
"You know if I said, 'Pick anyone this could be used on', he would never have made the list. But it's not just the elderly or people with existing conditions, it could in theory just happen to anyone, so putting these community defibrillators in any location is just amazing."
There are tens of thousands of defibrillators now available in workplaces, train stations, leisure centres and other public places across the country.
But sometimes it is difficult to find out where they are.
NHS England and NHS Scotland are joining the British Heart Foundation and Microsoft over the next 12 months to create a database of defibrillators across the UK.
The move is in response to figures that show public-access defibrillators are used in less than 3% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, which the British Heart Foundation says is "significantly reducing the survival chances of tens of thousands of people every year".
Stuart says the device was "very easy" to use, which he acknowledges "is a very weird thing to say" considering the stressful circumstances.
"It was very scary, but as soon as I remembered we had a defibrillator I kind of didn't doubt it would have an OK ending. It was a terrible and frightening experience but I never really had any doubt that that was it."
An ambulance arrived within five minutes and Ethan was taken to hospital and put in an induced coma.
Tests revealed that one of his coronary arteries was too narrow - a random genetic condition - and because he'd exercised so much, not enough oxygen was getting to his heart.
Ethan had surgery during which they replaced his artery.
Now 16, he says he's fully recovered and "even better than before".
He says it feels like a bizarre dream. "I still can't believe it happened. Honestly I can't remember anything from that day. I can remember the day before and then I can't remember anything past that until I woke up from my induced coma and then after that it was a bit hazy."
And he wasn't fully aware of what his Dad had done for him.
"Everything was so overwhelming, I didn't really acknowledge it that much. I kind of just accepted everything that happened from then on.
"They only told me they put it in two days before after I came out of hospital, so that was quite a surprise."
But Stuart says things could have been very different.
"He was due to go on his Duke of Edinburgh silver expedition the week after, which means he'd have been in the middle of the Brecon Beacons. We're so fortunate that it happened within sight almost of a community defibrillator."
The first thing Stuart did when he went back to work was to register the defibrillator with the West Midlands Ambulance service.
He says people shouldn't be scared to use them in an emergency, even if they haven't had any first aid training.
"Have the confidence that the device is there to help. As soon as you unzip the pack there are only one or two buttons to press and the device tells you what to do.
"Don't be afraid and just know that you're doing some good - you have the potential to save someone's life by having the guts to go and get this device and it really is just having that confidence to grab it and be part of helping somebody."
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Archaeologists are aiming to remove and clean up to 500 coins a week for the next three years from a hoard found encased in mud, Jersey Heritage says. | The collection of coins and jewellery pieces was found by two metal detector enthusiasts in 2012.
For the past two years experts have been documenting the hoard that dates back about 2,000 years.
Those involved will finally begin pulling it apart, one coin at a time, from Friday, Jersey Heritage said.
The hoard, found in a Grouville field, is thought to be worth about £10m.
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Dirty it may be, but coal is cheap. | By Richard AndersonBusiness reporter, BBC News
For this simple reason, it remains the world's main source of power, providing a quarter of our primary energy and more than 40% of our electricity. And it will continue to do so for many years to come.
The challenge, then, is how to harness coal's energy more cleanly. While global attempts to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) have stalled, a number of countries are looking at different ways to exploit their abundant coal reserves.
Not all are motivated by environmental concerns, but are driven instead by economics and a desire for energy independence.
Old and new
The main technology being used is coal gasification - instead of burning the fossil fuel, it is chemically transformed into synthetic natural gas (SNG).
The process is decades old, but recent rises in the price of gas mean it is now more economically viable. The US has dabbled in the technique, but China is going all out in a bid to satisfy its soaring demand for power and reduce its dependency on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The country's National Energy Administration has laid out plans to produce 50 billion cubic metres of gas from coal by 2020, enough to satisfy more than 10% of China's total gas demand.
Not only does it make economic sense, but it allows China to exploit stranded coal deposits sitting thousands of kilometres from the country's main industrial centres. Transporting gas is, after all, a lot cheaper than transporting coal.
Coal gasification can also help address local pollution problems that have in recent months brought parts of the country to a virtual standstill.
But there are two big problems. First, coal gasification actually produces more CO2 than a traditional coal plant; so not only will China be using more coal, it will be doing so at a greater cost to the environment.
As Laszlo Varro, head of gas, coal and power markets at the International Energy Agency (IEA), says: "[Coal gasification] is attractive from an economic and energy security perspective.
"It can be a nice solution to local pollution, but its overall carbon intensity is worse [than coal mining], so it is not attractive at all from a climate change point of view".
Indeed a study by Duke University in the US suggests synthetic natural gas emits seven times more greenhouse gases than natural gas, and almost twice as much carbon as a coal plant.
The second problem is water use. Coal gasification is one of the more water-intensive forms of energy production, and large areas of China, particularly in the western parts of the country that would host new gasification plants, already suffer from water shortages.
Mr Varro says a recent IEA report concluded that coal and coal gasification plants would use "quite a substantial portion of the available water in China".
Abundant reserves
Other countries are looking at different ways to get gas from coal. One method, particularly popular in Australia, is coal-bed methane, a process allowing access to coal deposits that are too deep to mine. Water is sucked out of the seam and the methane attached to the surface of the coal is freed and then collected.
China, Indonesia and Mozambique are looking at coal-bed methane, while the US and Canada also have abundant reserves.
Very little CO2 is emitted, but the process is not without controversy. Opponents highlight concerns about water contamination, land subsidence and disposing of waste water safely, while the water intensive process sometimes involves fracking.
And yet coal-bed methane has "fundamentally changed the dynamics of the gas industry in Australia," according to Phil Hirschhorn, partner at the Boston Consulting Group's energy practice in Sydney.
He says there are 200 trillion cubic feet of coal-bed methane resources in the country, with projects under construction to liquify and export 25 million tonnes of gas every year - equivalent to 10% of the entire global LNG market.
Clean access
A very different way to produce gas from coal is known as underground coal gasification (UCG), a process that has been around since the 19th Century but which has yet to become commercially viable on a grand scale - there is currently one working facility in Uzbekistan and pilot projects in Australia and South Africa.
According to Julie Lauder, chief executive of the UCG Association, the process is a "new way of harnessing the energy of coal without the usual environmental impacts".
Technological developments and the rising price of gas mean UCG is now a feasible way of accessing the vast resources of coal that are too deep to mine, she says. Indeed, estimates suggest that as much as 85% of the world's coal resources cannot be accessed through traditional mining techniques.
Opening them up to exploitation has potentially disastrous implications for CO2 emissions and climate change, but the industry says these resources can be accessed cleanly.
The process involves pumping oxygen and steam through a small borehole into the coal seam to produce a small and controlled combustion. Unlike coal-bed methane, therefore, the actual coal is converted from a solid state into gas. The hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and CO2 are then siphoned off through a second borehole.
According to Dr Harry Bradbury, founder and chief executive of UK clean energy company Five Quarters, this process results in 20% of the CO2 produced from traditional coal mining.
But his company is developing a process that requires no burning of coal, and which combines what Dr Bradbury calls "solid state chemical engineering" with releasing gases that are trapped not just in the coal, but in the surrounding rocks as well. And all of this takes place offshore, relieving concerns about water contamination and subsidence, he argues.
But the real advantage lies in the ability to capture the CO2. "We need to get more radical - we need to get to zero carbon," Dr Bradbury says. "Full carbon capture and storage is absolutely crucial."
This can take place through re-injecting the CO2 back into the coal seams, or by converting the carbon into products such as plastics and graphene, he says.
The UK government has established a working party to investigate the merits of UCG, undoubtedly excited by the vast resources of coal sitting under the North Sea. Other governments are equally keen to exploit new technologies to access their hidden coal seams.
The problem, of course, is that the process depends entirely on wider efforts to develop CCS, efforts that have, so far, singularly failed to find a solution.
Until one is found, any attempts to gasify coal underground will either remain theoretical or will exacerbate the already grave problem of CO2 emissions. And if recent efforts are anything to go by, we could be waiting a long time.
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Donald Trump has described as "fake news" allegations published in some media that his election team colluded with Russia - and that Russia held compromising material about his private life. The BBC's Paul Wood saw the allegations before the election, and reports on the fallout now they have come to light. | By Paul WoodBBC News, Washington
The significance of these allegations is that, if true, the president-elect of the United States would be vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians.
I understand the CIA believes it is credible that the Kremlin has such kompromat - or compromising material - on the next US commander in chief. At the same time a joint taskforce, which includes the CIA and the FBI, has been investigating allegations that the Russians may have sent money to Mr Trump's organisation or his election campaign.
Claims about a Russian blackmail tape were made in one of a series of reports written by a former British intelligence agent, understood to be Christopher Steele.
As a member of MI6, he had been posted to the UK's embassy in Moscow and now runs a consultancy giving advice on doing business in Russia. He spoke to a number of his old contacts in the FSB, the successor to the KGB, paying some of them for information.
They told him that Mr Trump had been filmed with a group of prostitutes in the presidential suite of Moscow's Ritz-Carlton hotel. I know this because the Washington political research company that commissioned his report showed it to me during the final week of the election campaign.
The BBC decided not to use it then, for the very good reason that without seeing the tape - if it exists - we could not know if the claims were true. The detail of the allegations were certainly lurid. The entire series of reports has now been posted by BuzzFeed.
Mr Trump's supporters say this is a politically motivated attack.
The president-elect himself, outraged, tweeted this morning: "Are we living in Nazi Germany?"
Later, at his much-awaited news conference, he was unrestrained.
"A thing like that should have never been written," he said, "and certainly should never have been released."
He said the memo was written by "sick people [who] put that crap together".
The opposition research firm that commissioned the report had worked first for an anti-Trump superpac - political action committee - during the Republican primaries.
Then during the general election, it was funded by an anonymous Democratic Party supporter. But these are not political hacks - their usual line of work is country analysis and commercial risk assessment, similar to the former MI6 agent's consultancy. He, apparently, gave his dossier to the FBI against the firm's advice.
How did Trump 'compromise' claims come to light?
And the former MI6 agent is not the only source for the claim about Russian kompromat on the president-elect. Back in August, a retired spy told me he had been informed of its existence by "the head of an East European intelligence agency".
Later, I used an intermediary to pass some questions to active duty CIA officers dealing with the case file - they would not speak to me directly. I got a message back that there was "more than one tape", "audio and video", on "more than one date", in "more than one place" - in the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow and also in St Petersburg - and that the material was "of a sexual nature".
'Be very careful'
The claims of Russian kompromat on Mr Trump were "credible", the CIA believed. That is why - according to the New York Times and Washington Post - these claims ended up on President Barack Obama's desk last week, a briefing document also given to Congressional leaders and to Mr Trump himself.
Mr Trump did visit Moscow in November 2013, the date the main tape is supposed to have been made. There is TV footage of him at the Miss Universe contest. Any visitor to a grand hotel in Moscow would be wise to assume that their room comes equipped with hidden cameras and microphones as well as a mini-bar.
At his news conference, Mr Trump said he warned his staff when they travelled: "Be very careful, because in your hotel rooms and no matter where you go you're going to probably have cameras." So the Russian security services have made obtaining kompromat an art form.
Anthony Zurcher: Theatre of the absurd
One Russian specialist told me that Vladimir Putin himself sometimes says there is kompromat on him - though perhaps he is joking. The specialist went on to tell me that FSB officers are prone to boasting about having tapes on public figures, and to be careful of any statements they might make.
A former CIA officer told me he had spoken by phone to a serving FSB officer who talked about the tapes. He concluded: "It's hokey as hell."
Mr Trump and his supporters are right to point out that these are unsubstantiated allegations.
But it is not just sex, it is money too. The former MI6 agent's report detailed alleged attempts by the Kremlin to offer Mr Trump lucrative "sweetheart deals" in Russia that would buy his loyalty.
Mr Trump turned these down, and indeed has done little real business in Russia. But a joint intelligence and law enforcement taskforce has been looking at allegations that the Kremlin paid money to his campaign through his associates.
Legal applications
On 15 October, the US secret intelligence court issued a warrant to investigate two Russian banks. This news was given to me by several sources and corroborated by someone I will identify only as a senior member of the US intelligence community. He would never volunteer anything - giving up classified information would be illegal - but he would confirm or deny what I had heard from other sources.
10 things we learnt from Trump press event
Trump press conference: Full transcript
"I'm going to write a story that says…" I would say. "I don't have a problem with that," he would reply, if my information was accurate. He confirmed the sequence of events below.
Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was - allegedly - a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign.
It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created.
The taskforce included six agencies or departments of government. Dealing with the domestic, US, side of the inquiry, were the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Justice. For the foreign and intelligence aspects of the investigation, there were another three agencies: the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency, responsible for electronic spying.
Lawyers from the National Security Division in the Department of Justice then drew up an application. They took it to the secret US court that deals with intelligence, the Fisa court, named after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They wanted permission to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks.
Their first application, in June, was rejected outright by the judge. They returned with a more narrowly drawn order in July and were rejected again. Finally, before a new judge, the order was granted, on 15 October, three weeks before election day.
Full coverage: Trump takes office
Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are named in the Fisa order, which would only cover foreign citizens or foreign entities - in this case the Russian banks. But ultimately, the investigation is looking for transfers of money from Russia to the United States, each one, if proved, a felony offence.
A lawyer- outside the Department of Justice but familiar with the case - told me that three of Mr Trump's associates were the subject of the inquiry. "But it's clear this is about Trump," he said.
I spoke to all three of those identified by this source. All of them emphatically denied any wrongdoing. "Hogwash," said one. "Bullshit," said another. Of the two Russian banks, one denied any wrongdoing, while the other did not respond to a request for comment.
The investigation was active going into the election. During that period, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid, wrote to the director of the FBI, accusing him of holding back "explosive information" about Mr Trump.
Mr Reid sent his letter after getting an intelligence briefing, along with other senior figures in Congress. Only eight people were present: the chairs and ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, and the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress, the "gang of eight" as they are sometimes called. Normally, senior staff attend "gang of eight" intelligence briefings, but not this time. The Congressional leaders were not even allowed to take notes.
'Puppet'
In the letter to the FBI director, James Comey, Mr Reid said: "In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and co-ordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government - a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Mr Trump praises at every opportunity.
"The public has a right to know this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information."
The CIA, FBI, Justice and Treasury all refused to comment when I approached them after hearing about the Fisa warrant.
It is not clear what will happen to the inter-agency investigation under President Trump - or even if the taskforce is continuing its work now. The Russians have denied any attempt to influence the president-elect - with either money or a blackmail tape.
If a tape exists, the Russians would hardly give it up, though some hope to encourage a disloyal FSB officer who might want to make some serious money. Before the election, Larry Flynt, publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler, put up a million dollars for incriminating tape of Mr Trump. Penthouse has now followed with its own offer of a million dollars for the Ritz-Carlton tape (if it exists).
It is an extraordinary situation, 10 days before Mr Trump is sworn into office, but it was foreshadowed during the campaign.
During the final presidential debate, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump a "puppet" of Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin. "No puppet. No puppet," Mr Trump interjected, talking over Mrs Clinton. "You're the puppet. No, you're the puppet."
In a New York Times op-ed in August, the former director of the CIA, Michael Morell, wrote: "In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation."
Agent; puppet - both terms imply some measure of influence or control by Moscow.
Michael Hayden, former head of both the CIA and the NSA, simply called Mr Trump a "polezni durak" - a useful fool.
The background to those statements was information held - at the time - within the intelligence community. Now all Americans have heard the claims. Little more than a week before his inauguration, they will have to decide if their president-elect really was being blackmailed by Moscow.
Clarification: 11 January - This article was amended to make clear that the opposition research firm which commissioned the report had first worked for an anti-Trump political action committee.
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Two years ago the "Turing law" was passed to right a historic injustice by pardoning gay men convicted in the past because of their sexuality. But fewer than 200 living people have had their convictions wiped out so far. What's going wrong? | By Joseph LeeBBC News
Terry Stewart is 66 and the recipient of an award for his work advising the police on LGBT issues.
But as a young man in 1981 he was a target: spotted by a pair of police officers in a Charing Cross public toilet, he was arrested for "importuning" - an outdated offence which effectively criminalised gay men chatting each other up in public.
"They said I had approached several men in the toilets and told them I wanted to have sex. There was nobody there," he says.
An outspoken campaigner for gay rights who had challenged police in the past, Mr Stewart feels the arrest was typical of a prevailing "hostile atmosphere" against gay people at the time.
"It just confirmed all my fears about so-called British justice," he says. "The attitude was they were two upstanding police officers protecting society from people like me."
Mr Stewart was convicted on a majority verdict and fined £20, but a criminal record meant he could not pursue his chosen career in social work.
He is now one of thousands of gay men unable to obtain the pardons offered by the government since 2017, which were intended for people unjustly convicted because of their sexuality.
For Mr Stewart and many like him, it is because the offence they were convicted of - importuning - is not one of those eligible for a pardon, despite the government acknowledging it was used in a discriminatory way.
Others are put off from even applying by an intimidating, bureaucratic system, say campaigners.
As many as 15,000 gay men were said to be eligible when the law was passed, inspired by the posthumous pardon of World War Two code-breaker Alan Turing, who killed himself after being convicted of gross indecency.
The law meant the convictions of about 50,000 gay men who had died were automatically deleted, while those still alive could apply for statutory pardons.
Applications for pardons were tacked on to an existing Home Office scheme, where gay men could apply for some offences under laws which are now repealed to be "disregarded" or deleted.
But to date, only 189 of these applications have been approved. As a result, few pardons have been issued.
The convictions eligible for disregard and pardon are gross indecency and buggery under the 1956 Sexual Offences Act, equivalent military offences and similar offences under earlier legislation.
Mr Stewart says the government should live up to its promises and pardon all gay men with convictions for their sexuality.
"What I would like people to know is that there was a whole period of our history, within our lifetimes, which was absolutely horrendous. Our own government should be able to put its hand up and say, 'We treated these people appallingly,'" he says.
Katy Watts, a solicitor at the Public Law Project who has represented Mr Stewart, says the crime of importuning was repealed in 2003 and the Home Office has acknowledged it was used in a "discriminatory way".
She says: "People have lost livelihoods and careers because of an offence that should never have been a crime in the first place."
'Branded and ashamed'
Thousands of gay men are living with this conviction but the home secretary has the power to "put this right" by extending the system to more offences, Ms Watts says.
Campaigners working with people to overturn their convictions also say the "incredibly low numbers" applying for pardons are "inevitable" because of flaws in the scheme.
Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, a charity which works with people facing obstacles because of a criminal record, says forcing people to apply instead of proactively pardoning them is a "clear barrier to justice".
"It causes people understandable anguish when faced with a Home Office form which forces them to show why their application should be granted for something that they might have felt branded and ashamed of for much of their life," he says.
When people do apply, they are often rejected for not meeting the requirements: 71% of the 663 applications made up to April this year were turned down.
Home Office figures show the reason most applications were rejected was that they related to offences not connected with sexuality - such as possession of drugs.
Many people were also turned down because they were convicted of sex in a public lavatory, which remains an offence.
A handful were rejected because their offence was deemed non-consensual or involved someone under 16.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are proud of the government's record on improving equality. We made it possible for men with eligible historical convictions for decriminalised behaviours to apply to have their convictions disregarded. Those who have their convictions disregarded are also automatically pardoned for the offence."
He said there was "no scope" to disregard offences outside the official scheme.
When the issue of men convicted of importuning was raised in Parliament before the Turing law passed, former Home Office minister Sam Gyimah said they were not eligible.
The full offence in the 1956 Sexual Offences Act is "soliciting and importuning", and soliciting remains a crime, he said. Today, it only applies to people seeking the services of sex workers on the street, however.
'You feel guilty'
Some gay men say unfair criminal records still have the power to blight their lives, even in recent years. Richard - not his real name - was arrested in the mid-1990s for importuning, after a man briefly spoke to him as he left a West End gay club.
He unwittingly signed a caution thinking it was part of the paperwork needed to leave the police station.
"As a gay person you think you're in the wrong anyway," he said. "You have internal homophobia yourself and everything that goes with it - the shame, everything else. You feel guilty."
Later, Richard worked in education for several years. But when he tried to change jobs in 2014, he fell foul of more stringent criminal records checks, which had been tightened after a series of controversies and tragedies.
He found himself rejected for multiple jobs and unable to work in his profession for a year because of a criminal record he had previously been unaware of.
"It broke me," he said, plunging him into depression and isolation. It was "so twisted and painful" to find his pride in his professional life under attack because of his sexuality, he said.
Richard eventually persuaded the police force involved to expunge his caution, after it accepted it was unlawful. But he says it is "outrageous" that there is no clear way for many other gay men to achieve the same outcome.
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Corey Klein would like to believe Airbnb's recent promise that it will make a "positive contribution to society". But the 37-year-old lawyer, who lives directly below one of the platform's rentals, has his doubts. | By Natalie Sherman & Michelle FleuryBusiness reporters, New York
Last year, the tech giant spent more than $4m (£3.1m) in an effort to fend off new rules in the city where Mr Klein lives in New Jersey.
The bruising battle was eventually won by critics like Mr Klein, who said that Airbnb, if left unchecked, would drive up rents and turn his neighbourhood into a springboard for budget-conscious travellers bound for New York City, just across the river.
"I hadn't signed up to live in a hotel," says Mr Klein, who sits on the board of the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association in Jersey City.
"The problem is the scale of it." he says. "Both myself and my neighbours were sort of getting squeezed out."
'Positive impact'
Airbnb, whose website boasts listings in more than 220 countries, has faced similar fights around the world, from Barcelona to Berlin to Boston. Last month, it made its clearest case yet for why Mr Klein and others like him should not be so worried.
In a public letter on its website, it promised to do business with an eye towards "all stakeholders" - including local communities.
Among other steps, the firm said it would put $150m to safety measures, host a "stakeholder" day to hear from the public, and offer $100m to local initiatives over the next 10 years.
"Our commitment is to make sure that Airbnb does have a positive impact," co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk says.
Airbnb's promises place it at the centre of a broader debate in the American business world asking whether its longstanding focus on earning profits for shareholders has gone too far.
The discussion is partly a response to outside pressure from consumer boycotts, staff walkouts and social media shame campaigns.
Rising numbers of investors with social aims and attacks by Democratic presidential candidates - such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders - have added to the heat.
But while there have been plenty of calls for reform since the 2008 financial crisis, this time companies seem to have taken their critics to heart.
Corporate support
Last year, 181 firms signed onto a statement by the influential business lobby, the Business Roundtable, affirming that corporate responsibilities extend beyond shareholders.
It was a pointed rejection of a view of shareholder primacy that has served as an article of faith since economist Milton Friedman made it a rallying cry among the American business community in the 1970s.
The topic of "stakeholder capitalism" was the theme of this year's World Economic Forum in Davos and the subject has continued to percolate in public letters from investment giants, such as BlackRock's Larry Fink and Bridgewater's Ray Dalio.
"We're seeing support from corporations themselves in a way that is remarkable when even compared to a few years ago," says New York Law School professor Tamara Belinfanti.
There's plenty of evidence that the old priorities still rule. After the US cut corporate tax rates in 2017, companies used much of the extra cash to buy their own stock - delivering money to shareholders.
But as inequality grows and climate change worsens - without a meaningful political response - business leaders are increasingly "seeing the writing on the wall, that the usual way to approaching business has failed", says CB Bhattacharya, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business.
In recent years, firms such as Amazon, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs have announced a blitz of programmes aimed at improving their environmental footprint, bettering worker benefits, and boosting diversity among staff.
Prof Bhattacharya, the author of 'Small Actions, Big Difference', cautions that the actions promised by many companies don't necessarily live up to the talk.
"Unless we see more companies that are actually changing their business models and doing more on the sustainability front, this will only be paper promises," he says.
Gearing up to IPO
Mr Blecharczyk says Airbnb, which is gearing up to sell shares on the public market, is creating a framework that will help it resist pressure to focus on short-term profit.
For example, it will tie staff bonuses to safety metrics and hear from the public via the stakeholder meeting.
"We're not talking just abstractly about these important issues," he says. "We're actually saying, here's exactly how we hold ourselves accountable."
The development of metrics is important, says Sarah Kaplan, professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
But she notes that the firm has focused on matters - like guest safety - that are in its interest to address ahead of its sale of shares to the public.
"There is a very self-interested aspect of what they're doing," she says, pointing to recent killings at homes rented through the site. "If they're going to IPO, they have to manage the risk associated with their business."
Potential regulation, like that in Jersey City, represents a more than $10bn threat to Airbnb's growth, according to research firm Truvalue Labs, which tracks companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Airbnb's stakeholder pledge is a "good sign" but hasn't lessened that risk, says Andre Shepley, product manager for ESG Integration.
"Sustainability is about outcomes not intentions," he says. "Until we start seeing different outcomes, where there's observably less risk ... that's when I think the view in terms of investment thesis will change."
But Airbnb can't be too radical, cautions Prof Belinfanti.
Shareholders coming first took root, in part, because it offered a clear way to evaluate business performance.
And there is a limit to how much control public investors - whose share purchases would fund Airbnb - will be willing to cede, she says.
"I'm not sure how much the market can bear," she says.
Mr Blecharczyk says he knows that the steps the firm has outlined will not satisfy all of its critics.
"There's going to be issues and I guess our approach is, 'Let's confront those issues'," he says. "The worst thing you can do is to not try at all."
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There has been a record drop in the number of Eastern European workers in the UK, latest figures show. Here, two families, one from Poland and one from Romania, explain their reasons for leaving and staying in the UK. | By Dan WhitworthRadio 4 Money Box reporter
"This might sound crazy but even though I'm going to take a 50% pay cut back home in Poland that money will take me further."
After 12 years of living, working and raising a family in the UK, Waclaw Wiater and his wife have decided to move back to their home country.
"The British pound just doesn't take you as far any more," he says.
Waclaw, who works for an engineering company in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, says it's not just the weaker exchange rate that's hit his pocket.
"The cost of shopping, just for weekly essentials, the prices of everything have just absolutely rocketed.
"We don't go to Tesco or Sainsbury's, we stay away from those places, we go to Aldi or Lidl and for us it's £120 or £150 per week."
Lower prices and an improving economy in Poland are also pulling him home.
"The cost of petrol and diesel is much lower in Poland," he says.
"Not only do we pay about £1 per litre, you've also got your road tax included in that price.
"Also council tax, here [in the UK], it goes up and up every year. In comparison to back where we are going to live, we don't pay council tax at all."
Record numbers
Waclaw says he was shocked at how easy it was to get a similar job in Poland to the one he has in the UK and surprised at the amount of money he was offered as a salary.
"I fired off some CVs and the first two companies that I applied to for a job with were straight on to me."
After phone interviews he was flown over for face-to-face meetings and offered a job two days later.
This is not surprising perhaps when an IMF report last year said Poland's "economy is operating above potential, with the unemployment rate at a historical low".
Waclaw is just one of a record number of workers from the EU 8 (the countries, including Poland, Latvia and Estonia, that joined the EU in 2004) leaving the UK.
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show there was a record drop of 117,000, or 12%, in the number of migrants from those countries working in the UK between April and June 2018.
'Land of opportunity'
There is a flipside to this story though.
While the number of workers from the EU 8 countries is down, the number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK is at a record high.
ONS figures from the same period show there were 391,000 working here, up more than 50,000 from 2017.
Ioan Hoza came to the UK from Romania four years ago and works for a logistics company in Daventry.
"We got to the point in Romania where we couldn't afford to raise the children," he says.
"We didn't get paid regularly, we had issues with the bills, we couldn't deal with basic issues like feeding our children."
After making the decision to move to the UK, he started doing night shifts in the warehouse and has worked his way up to become an IT analyst on a major contract for his company.
"I said I would give myself 12 months to earn enough capital to be able to bring my family over to join me. If I didn't earn enough I would simply go back to Romania."
Those night shifts, along with hard work and securing several promotions meant Ioan had enough money to bring his wife and two children to the UK within six months.
"The beauty of how the system works here is you've got opportunities and it's up to you which path you are going to take."
Ioan's wife Dora works late shifts at the same logistics company while sons Liviu, 17, and 11-year-old Raul have both settled into school. After three-and-a-half years they both speak perfect English without any trace of an accent.
"So far we've managed to accomplish so many things in four years here in the UK that we could have only dreamed of in Romania," Ioan says.
It's not difficult to understand why. Despite strong growth of around 7%, Romania is one of the EU's poorest countries. The World Bank measured its GDP at $211bn (£162bn) last year with average monthly salaries of around $600 (£460).
Sitting in the house he has managed to buy in the suburbs of Daventry, Ioan says; "I'm still living the dream. I still have to pinch myself that I am actually living a dream.
"Maybe it sounds funny but sometimes I touch the walls of this house and say, 'You're mine.'
"That feeling, 'You are actually mine,' is unbelievable, how everything came together and how we are now where we are."
You can hear more on BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme on Saturday at 12:00 BST or listen again here
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A plan to build a new railway station near Inverness Airport has been approved by Highland councillors. | The single platform stop on the Inverness to Aberdeen line and parking spaces for 150 cars have been proposed for a site at Dalcross.
A station close to the airport has been a long standing aspiration of Hitrans, which promotes improvements to public transport in the Highlands.
It has been proposed to open the station next year.
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Walk down London's Oxford Street and Regent Street and you will see big advertising screens in the windows of many shops, flashing out advertisements. The firm responsible for installing a lot of these screens, and designing the ads on them, is called inurface - a multi-million pound company. | By Jeremy HowellBusiness reporter, BBC News
"They're electronic posters," says chief executive Josh Bunce. "But they can display a range of advertisements and messages in the same space."
The deals that inurface has landed with retail giants like Boots and The Body Shop has made it one of the leading lights in the UK's advertising industry.
It's a long way from the firm's beginnings in 2008 in Bristol.
To hit the big time in the capital, Josh knew he had to look like a prestigious advertising company to impress potential clients - and that meant having offices in the heart of London's West End. The problem was affording the rent. For that, he resorted to barter.
"We wanted to be in the heart of the retail land, which is obviously Regent Street, around Oxford Street," says Josh. "We didn't really have the budget at the time to afford the kind of office that we wanted and the space we wanted to bring our clients into, so we bartered with the landlord."
Josh worked out a deal with a central London office rental company. He offered to install video screens for free throughout their office space. In return, they agreed to let his company off paying six months' rent.
"What we managed to do was negotiate. Basically, putting AV equipment into their office space, from large touchscreens in the meeting rooms to video walls in the reception to enhance the whole space."
Taking that office space in one of London's most prestigious areas worked its magic. The company, which had started life installing video screens in coffee shops in the West Country, suddenly looked like a major player in the industry.
Inurface now turns over £32m a year, and other big name clients include Sports Direct, Chelsea football club and Delta Airlines.
"It was a bit of smoke and mirrors, this way of getting a prestigious office address," says Josh. "But in advertising, it's essential to look the part. And we wouldn't have been able to do it without making a barter deal with the landlord."
He recommends that other start-ups also try bartering their services with landlords or business suppliers if they are strapped for cash.
"Bartering goes back to the Stone Age, before money was invented," he says. "But there's no reason you shouldn't try it today. If you're a stationery company, you could have done a similar deal. If you were a telecoms company, you could have done a similar deal."
Many companies have sprung up that specialise in brokering such barter deals amongst companies and Josh is striking a deal with one of them to exchange his services with other business partners.
"It's always worth asking your landlord or suppliers if they will barter products or services," says Josh. "They can only say no, so why not try it? That would be my advice."
Read more CEO Secrets here.
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| By Victoria KingBBC News
UK testing in the spotlight
Criticism has been mounting in the UK over a lack of testing for frontline NHS staff. Up to a quarter of doctors and a fifth of nurses are off work because they are having to self-isolate - either because they are showing symptoms or a member of their household is. Many could return to work if tested and cleared of having the virus. The British Medical Association said the government had been promising a mass roll-out for more than two weeks but was yet to deliver.
Senior minister Michael Gove admitted on Tuesday the UK had to go "further, faster" to increase testing. Health Secretary Matt Hancock - who has coronavirus himself - is urging hospitals to do much more, using any spare laboratory space. Why can't the UK test as much as other countries like Germany? Read our explanation.
The UK death toll rose by 381 on Tuesday to 1,789, including a 13-year-old boy from south London. Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab's family said he had no underlying health conditions and they were "beyond devastated".
Elsewhere, research suggests nearly a fifth of all small and medium-sized businesses in the UK could run out of the cash they need to survive in the next four weeks, despite unprecedented government support (explained in detail here).
We've been hearing personal stories of those affected throughout this crisis. Here, meet the "minimum wage heroes" - the low paid on the frontline of the NHS, supermarkets and other workplaces. Meanwhile, the BBC's George Alagiah discusses the experience of living with cancer and coronavirus.
'Matter of life and death'
The outbreak is the biggest global challenge since World War Two, according to the Secretary General of the United Nations. António Guterres warned it could bring a recession "that probably has no parallel in the recent past".
US President Donald Trump has certainly shifted his language in line with that stark assessment. The BBC's Anthony Zurcher says at his most recent press conference, there was none of the sugar-coating of days gone by - just the cold, hard reality of the facts on the ground. Mr Trump said Americans must follow social distancing restrictions, calling it "a matter of life and death", but even with strict measures, the White House is projecting that between 100,000 and 240,000 citizens will die.
Elsewhere in the world, Spain, France and Italy each saw more than 800 deaths on Tuesday. In India, engineers are racing to build a low-cost ventilator to save Covid-19 patients. And in the Middle East, there are warnings that the outbreak is a ticking time-bomb for the unstable region.
Countries are setting up hospitals in ships, stadiums and parks, and introducing all sorts of measures to limit the spread of coronavirus. Here we look at some of the more unusual.
Follow the latest developments around the world via our live page.
Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning
Science and technology
The disease is driving forward innovation and research at a pace. Scientists in London think a loss of smell or taste may be a sign that you have it. Our online health editor Michelle Roberts looks more closely, while here's a reminder of the other, better-known symptoms to look out for. Labs around the world are also working to produce a vaccine for coronavirus. Find out how close one might be. In other developments, 3-D printers are being pressed into service to create face shields for the NHS, and an app is being considered to trace virus cases and ultimately allow lockdowns to be eased.
How the crisis is affecting young people's mental health
By Vibeke Venema, BBC Stories
Naomi, a final-year psychology student from Cardiff, says her anxiety has increased hugely due to the coronavirus. Her finals were cancelled, and although the lectures and exams have moved online, the loss of routine and uncertainty have affected her. The things she used to do to manage her anxiety, such as going out of the house to study in the library, are no longer an option, so she has had to develop new coping strategies. She finds that keeping a journal helps, using prompts like: What's making me feel this way? What am I grateful for today?
Read the full article
One thing not to miss today
How birth is changing in the age of coronavirus
Listen up
In the first in a series of special episodes of BBC Radio 5 Live's Fit and Fearless podcast, Tally, Zanna and Vic talk about keeping fit at home. And in the latest Coronavirus Newscast, the team discusses police powers and how Asian communities in the UK are responding to the crisis.
What the papers say
Anger over delays in virus testing make several front pages. "Fix testing fiasco now" is the Daily Mail's take on the issue. The paper says the "shambles" is the government's greatest misstep in its handling of the crisis. The Financial Times says Michael Gove blamed difficulty securing the chemicals needed to make sure the tests are reliable. According to the Times, Boris Johnson has now personally taken charge of efforts to source those reagents. Elsewhere, Britain's care homes are in danger of being "overwhelmed" by coronavirus, with staff warning they are at "breaking point", the Guardian says. The front page of the Sun issues a rallying cry, picturing soldiers helping to set up a makeshift hospital with 4,000 beds. The paper declares this to be a "war we can win". The Daily Express, too, tries to be upbeat, quoting a "top medic" on "green shoots" in the UK's situation.
From elsewhere
'I'm 27 and I was hospitalised with coronavirus' (Refinery 29)
Despair and pride in China's Wuhan as coronavirus lockdown eases (Reuters)
Yes we need experts. But let's not politicise expertise (Spectator)
If the season is cancelled because of Covid-19, these records will disappear (ESPN)
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Need something different?
Meet the man who designs the world's water parks - and find out how he made the leap from an auditing firm to a job of childhood dreams. Go behind the scenes of the BBC's surprise hit The Repair Shop. The 1980s is inspiring pop music once again - and influencing artists who weren't even born then. And finally, artist David Hockney shares some soothing images of spring exclusively with the BBC.
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A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman who was found dead in a back garden in south-east London.
| The woman, thought to be in her 50s, was discovered behind a house in Tunnel Avenue, Greenwich, at about 11:30 BST on Saturday.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said it appeared she had been stabbed and they were informing her next of kin.
The arrested man, aged in his 50s, is being questioned at a south London police station.
The Met said they believed the dead woman and the arrested man were known to each other, although they do not believe the incident is domestic.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be held on Sunday afternoon.
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Magnet fishing - where people hunt for metal submerged in canals and rivers - is increasing in popularity, with thousands uploading videos of their finds on YouTube. But there are stark warnings to be heard over this potentially dangerous hobby. | By Samantha FisherBBC News
"You do look at it afterwards and think, 'that could have gone off'," said Nigel Lamford.
When he discovered a suspected grenade in July, the road was closed for six hours while the police and bomb squad dealt with it.
This was not the first time one of his discoveries had shattered the peace of the canal-side with wailing sirens and flashing blue lights. Nor was the grenade his first - he has pulled out at least one other from Northamptonshire's waters, in addition to 100 bullets and 13 guns.
"When you pull something up like a grenade you get an adrenaline rush," he said. "I make sure people stand away."
Incidents like this are now a frequent consequence of magnet fishing, which involves dangling a magnet attached to a rope into water to locate metallic finds. It has found popularity on social media, in particular, YouTube, where there are more than 500,000 results relating to the hobby.
Enthusiasts point to two factors for its appeal. Firstly, unlike traditional angling, you rarely go home empty-handed. Secondly, there is the mystery of the unknown. Both of these appear to outweigh the dangers.
Grenades, like the one found in July in Lancashire for example, are regularly turned up. Some catches can be even more alarming - in March, magnet fishers in the River Itchen at Woodmill in Southampton found the body of a handcuffed man.
Yet more seriously, a father and son died while magnet fishing in 2018, prompting a warning from the coroner about the "inherent dangers" of the pastime. Martin Andrews, 43, and Jack, 19, were using a very strong magnet on a rope to "catch" pieces of metal in the Huddersfield Canal. Their inquest heard their bodies were found "vertically submerged" and their deaths declared as misadventure.
For many magnet fishers however, the thrill of the catch is too tempting to ignore.
"I enjoy the unknown. You just never know what's on the end of your rope - it could be junk, weapons, bikes or old tools," said Gareth Bryer, who has more than 61,000 subscribers to his magnet fishing YouTube channel, Drasticg.
His haul has included jewellery and watches from canals in the Greater Manchester area as well as guns, knifes, motorbikes [and] safes from robberies.
Steven Matts said he has handed in 21 knives to police since he started magnet fishing in Leicestershire's canals almost a year ago. He said he had also found a number of bags weighed down with bricks, containing clothes, hats and gloves.
"From the volume of knives and clearly stolen items we find I do believe the canal is used a dumping ground for... criminal activity," he said. "It is an easily accessible way for them to get rid of evidence."
Northamptonshire Police said that although there are no laws against magnet fishing, they would ask fishers to exercise "due care" when handling objects, such as unexploded World War Two bombs.
"[They] can be extremely dangerous, as well as resource-intensive for our response officers."
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Neither is it illegal to go magnet fishing on land where hobbyists have sought permission.
But the Canal & River Trust, which owns most of the UK's canals, has bylaws prohibiting people from removing material from the canal and rivers it owns.
While it rarely enforces these, it disapproves of magnet fishing, pointing to "rusty and sharp" metal discarded on the towpath and other dangers. It says it prefers people to arrange organised events.
"That way we know who's involved, can ensure there are proper safety measures in place to protect those taking part and can make sure that everything is properly cleaned up afterwards by the organisers," said Dan Whyment, from the trust.
Some argue, however, that magnet fishers are actually benefiting the environment - and there may be some truth in this.
"Any sport or activity that promotes removal of metal from waterbeds is a good thing," said Dr Andrew Pledger, an ecologist at the University of Loughborough.
"The metal may degrade over time. There may be paint that contains toxins and lead which may be leaking undesirable substances into the water.
"Obviously they need to be disposed of correctly."
He believes a code of practice could help make magnet fishing safe.
Currently the Environment Agency does not regulate magnet fishing, but given its increasing popularity, the authorities may well find themselves having to dip a toe into murky waters.
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
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Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the man known as "the crocodile" because of his political cunning, achieved a long-held ambition to succeed Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe's president in November last year. | He has now won a disputed presidential election to legitimise his rule, promising voters his efforts to woo foreign investors will bring back the economy from the brink of collapse.
Mr Mugabe resigned following a military takeover and mass demonstrations - all sparked by his sacking of Mr Mnangagwa as his vice-president.
"The crocodile", who lived up to his name and snapped back, may have unseated Zimbabwe's only ruler, but he is also associated with some of the worst atrocities committed under the ruling Zanu-PF party since independence in 1980.
One veteran of the liberation struggle, who worked with him for many years, once put it simply: "He's a very cruel man, very cruel."
But his children see him as a principled, if unemotional, man. His daughter, Farai Mlotshwa - a property developer and the eldest of his nine children by two wives - told BBC Radio 4 that he was a "softie".
As if to reinforce this softer image of the new leader, a cuddly crocodile soft toy was passed among the Zanu-PF supporters who welcomed him back to the country after Mr Mugabe's resignation.
And what he lacks in charisma and oratory prowess, he makes up for in pragmatism, says close friend and Zanu-PF politician Josiah Hungwe.
"Mnangagwa is a practical person. He is a person who recognises that politics is politics but people must eat," he told the BBC, adding that reforming Zimbabwe's disastrous economy will be the focus of his leadership.
Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa?
Find out more on BBC Radio 4's Profile.
The exact year of Mr Mnangagwa's birth is not known - but he is thought to be 75, which would make him nearly 20 years younger than his predecessor who left power aged 93.
Born in the central region of Zvishavane, he is a Karanga - the largest clan of Zimbabwe's majority Shona community.
Some Karangas felt it was their turn for power, following 37 years of domination by Mr Mugabe's Zezuru clan, though Mr Mnangagwa was accused of profiting while under Mr Mugabe.
According to a United Nations report in 2001, he was seen as "the architect of the commercial activities of Zanu-PF".
This largely related to the operations of the Zimbabwean army and businessmen in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zimbabwean troops intervened in the DR Congo conflict on the side of the government and, like those of other countries, were accused of using the conflict to loot some of its rich natural resources such as diamonds, gold and other minerals.
More recently military officials - many behind his rise to power - have been accused of benefiting from the rich Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, with reports of killings and human rights abuses there.
'Blood on his hands'
Despite his money-raising role, Mr Mnangagwa, a lawyer who grew up in Zambia, was not always well-loved by the rank and file of his own party.
A Zanu-PF official posed an interesting question when asked about Mr Mnangagwa's prospects: "You think Mugabe is bad, but have you thought that whoever comes after him could be even worse?"
The opposition candidate who defeated Mr Mnangagwa in the 2000 parliamentary campaign in Kwekwe Central, Blessing Chebundo, might agree.
During a bitter campaign, Mr Chebundo escaped death by a whisker when the Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with petrol were unable to light a match.
Mr Mnangagwa's fearsome reputation was made during the civil war which broke out in the 1980s between Mr Mugabe's Zanu party and the Zapu party of Joshua Nkomo.
As national security minister, he was in charge of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), which worked hand in glove with the army to suppress Zapu.
Thousands of civilians - mainly ethnic Ndebeles, seen as Zapu supporters - were killed in a campaign known as Gukurahundi, before the two parties merged to form Zanu-PF.
Among countless other atrocities carried out by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade of the army, villagers were forced at gunpoint to dance on the freshly dug graves of their relatives and chant pro-Mugabe slogans.
Mr Mnangagwa has denied any role in the massacres, but the wounds are still painful and many party officials, not to mention voters, in Matabeleland might find it hard to back Mr Mnangagwa.
He does enjoy the support of many of the war veterans who led the campaign of violence against the white farmers and the opposition from 2000.
They remember him as one of the men who, following his military training in China and Egypt, directed the fight for independence in the 1960s and 1970s.
He also attended the Beijing School of Ideology, run by the Chinese Communist Party.
'Torture scars'
Mr Mnangagwa's official profile says he was the victim of state violence after being arrested by the white-minority government in the former Rhodesia in 1965, when the "crocodile gang" he led helped blow up a train near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo).
"He was tortured, severely resulting in him losing his sense of hearing in one ear," the profile says.
"Part of the torture techniques involved being hanged with his feet on the ceiling and the head down. The severity of the torture made him unconscious for days."
As he said he was under 21 at the time, he was not executed but instead sentenced to 10 years in prison.
"He has scars from that period. He was young and brave," a close friend of Mr Mnangagwa once said, asking not to be named.
"Perhaps that explains why he is indifferent. Horrible things happened to him when he was young."
More on post-Mugabe Zimbabwe:
His ruthlessness, which it could be argued he learnt from his Rhodesian torturers, is said to have been seen again in 2008 when he reportedly masterminded Zanu-PF's response to Mr Mugabe losing the first round of the president election to long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai.
The military and state security organisations unleashed a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, leaving hundreds dead and forcing thousands from their homes.
Mr Tsvangirai then pulled out of the second round and Mr Mugabe was re-elected.
Mr Mnangagwa has not commented on allegations he was involved in planning the violence, but an insider in the party's security department later confirmed that he was the political link between the army, intelligence and Zanu-PF.
Ice cream plot
He was seen as Mr Mugabe's right-hand man - that is until the former first lady Grace Mugabe became politically ambitious and tried to edge him out.
Their rivalry took a bizarre turn when he fell ill in August 2017 at a political rally led by former President Mugabe and had to be airlifted to South Africa.
His supporters suggested that a rival group within Zanu-PF had poisoned him and appeared to blame ice cream from Mrs Mugabe's dairy firm.
In his first words to cheering supporters after Mr Mugabe's resignation, he spoke about this plot and another plan to "eliminate" him.
He has also blamed a group linked to the former first lady for an explosion in June at a Zanu-PF rally in Bulawayo in which two people died.
But in a BBC interview, he said the country was safe, told foreign investors not to worry and sought to dispel his ruthless reputation: "I am as soft as wool. I am a very soft person in life."
His youngest son, a Harare DJ known as St Emmo, blames his reticence for his fearsome reputation.
"He was a good father, very very strict. He doesn't say much and I think that's what frightens people - like: 'What is he thinking?'"
Nick Mangwana, Zanu-PF representative in the UK, accepts that the Zimbabwe's new leader is "not the most eloquent".
"He's not pally-pally but more of a do-er, more of a technocrat."
But in his six months in power he has fully embraced Twitter and Facebook - after the Bulawayo blast he posted a message reiterating the strength his Christian faith gives him.
Fixing the economy is what is paramount now. Zimbabweans are on average 15% poorer now than they were in the 1980s.
British journalist Martin Fletcher, who interviewed Mr Mnangagwa in 2016, does not see him a reborn democrat.
"He understands the need to rebuild the economy if only so that he can pay his security forces - and his survival depends on their loyalty," he said.
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Would you like to see my maps of the railways? | By Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter, BBC Scotland news website
As conversational opening gambits go, it is not the kind of statement likely to fire you to the top of the guest list for a dinner party.
Or, if you are already at a social gathering, it probably won't get you invited back.
And yet, the pictorial history they offer of the expansion, contraction, disappearance and planned revival of train travel in the Scottish Borders is - to my mind at least - an intriguing one.
The story of the Britain's railways is one which gathered pace in the early 19th Century.
In 1825, the Stockton and Darlington became the first railway in the world to operate a freight and passenger service with steam traction.
Five years later, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway became, according the the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the "first fully evolved railway to be built".
It signalled an explosion of rail construction, the start of which is captured in the recently republished Bradshaw's Railway Map of 1839.
The only link it shows between Scotland and England via the Borders is the Edinburgh to Berwick line, although it was not opened until 1846.
That was the beginning of the region's involvement with train travel.
It might never have expanded much further, as David Spaven, author of Mapping the Railways, points out.
He said a Royal Commission of the time reckoned that the only routes needed linking Scotland and England were the main east and west coast lines.
"Little did they realise that by building new rail lines it would generate new traffic," he said.
So, by 1849, the North British Railway Company had opened a stretch of its Waverley Line from Edinburgh to Hawick and later extended it to Carlisle.
Mr Spaven argues that the decision to take that southern section through less populated areas - rather than through Langholm - might ultimately have cost its very existence.
However, it initially opened up another slice of the Borders to rail traffic.
A series of maps published over time shows how the routes quickly expanded to criss-cross the region like veins in the human body.
By the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century the service had clearly reached its peak with branch lines sprouting.
It is easy to pick out stopping points at Hawick, Eyemouth, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Kelso, Coldstream, Duns, Galashiels, Melrose, Peebles, Lauder and more.
In other words, pretty much every major population centre in the Borders.
However, that "golden age" would not last.
By the 1950s, Mr Spaven says, people were "deserting the railways" and action was taken the following decade in the form of the Beeching Reports.
They came up with what the author describes as a "somewhat crude solution" to the problem - the closure of numerous lines and stations.
"People often make the comparison with chopping all the branches off a tree," Mr Spaven explained.
The axe did not fall everywhere with the same destructiveness.
A "vociferous campaign" saw many stations in the Highlands retained but the Borders lost all of its stopping points suffering what Mr Spaven calls a "great regional injustice".
By 1969, the last stations in the Borders had closed.
"Seventy-five thousand people or more were completely isolated from the rail network," said Mr Spaven.
It is now the only mainland region of Great Britain without a railway station.
It might not seem like such a deprivation and yet it is a thought worth mulling over.
I was born in the last year trains stopped in the Borders but, in contrast, I have never lived anywhere where I was far removed from a station.
In Dumfries, Edinburgh, Darlington and Borgo San Lorenzo near Florence, I have never been much more than a 20-minute walk from a spot where I could catch a train.
The service might not always have been run at the times I would have liked it or been as luxurious as I would have wished but, at least, it was there.
I suspect most of us have, at one time or another, grumbled about the trains or railway network but most of us have access somewhere near at hand.
But in the Scottish Borders the only way to catch a train is to leave the region.
They still pass through - on the East Coast Main Line - but you would have to jump aboard a moving vehicle if you hoped to catch one within the boundaries of the Borders.
It was this situation which meant that, by the 1990s, a campaign had begun to reopen the old rail route to the area and, slowly but surely, it gathered momentum.
Eventually, the bill was passed which would allow construction of track linking Edinburgh as far as Tweedbank.
It is hoped it will be completed and passengers making journeys by 2014 - some 45 years after they last did so.
Some people view that as putting right a long-standing wrong but others reckon that it will either never happen or - at a price estimated around £295m - that it does not represent value for money.
If nothing else, however, it's another topic for debate over dinner - after you have looked at those old railway maps, of course.
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A young mother and her baby have been found alive five days after their plane crashed in the jungle of western Colombia.
The survival of Maria Nelly Murillo and her one-year-old son has been described as "a miracle". The following is a selection of some of the most miraculous plane crash survival stories. | Juliane Koepcke - 1971
On Christmas Eve 1971, lightning struck Lansa Flight 508 over Peru, causing it to explode. Juliane Koepcke was the only survivor of the 92 people on board after falling two miles strapped in to her seat. Sat in the next seat, her mother's final words were "that is the end, it's all over".
Completely alone in the rainforest, the 17-year-old was covered in deep gashes, and had a broken collarbone and ruptured knee ligaments. However, she had been taught survival skills by her father whilst being raised at a remote jungle research station.
After walking for 10 days, fighting mosquitoes and hunger, she began to float down a large river where she was saved by a passing boat.
Once on board she realised a wound on her arm had become infested with maggots. Remembering her father's advice she poured petrol on it and picked more than 30 maggots out.
In 2000, the documentary maker Werner Herzog released a film about her story, entitled Wings of Hope. Herzog was inspired to make the film after a last-minute change caused him to miss Koepcke's doomed flight.
Vesna Vulovic - 1972
On 26 January 1972, a suspected terrorist bomb placed on board JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 357 detonated over Czechoslovakia, blowing the plane apart in mid-air.
Of the 28 people on board only Vesna Vulovic, a 22-year-old Serbian flight attendant, survived. Trapped by a food cart in the tail of the DC-9 aircraft, she was left in a coma with injuries including a fractured skull, three broken vertebrae and two broken legs.
She is the Guinness World Record holder for the highest fall without a parachute (33,333 feet) and despite this dubious achievement she still flies.
"To this day I enjoy travelling and have no fear of flying," she said years after the crash.
Andes flight disaster - 1972
This crash entered popular culture as one of the most famous stories of human survival. On 13 October 1972, a Uruguayan plane carrying 45 passengers crashed in the middle of the Andes mountain range.
More than a quarter of those on board died in the initial crash. Rescuers gave up after 10 days of searching, assuming that no-one could have survived.
Stranded in the mountains, with no food, the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism - eating the flesh of those who had died. Another eight were killed when an avalanche hit their shelter amongst the wreckage.
Realising they would die on the mountain, two Chilean passengers, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, set out to find help. They trekked for 10 days before reaching Chile. After they had alerted the authorities, the 14 remaining survivors were rescued from the crash site - 72 days after the plane went down.
Bahia Bakari - 2009
On 30 June 2009, a Yemenia Airways flight en route to the Comoros islands nosedived out of the sky and crashed into the Indian Ocean.
Bahia Bakari was the only one of 153 people on board to survive. Just 12-years-old, barely able to swim and with no life vest she clung to a piece of wreckage for hours until found by rescuers. She was flown to hospital in France to be treated for burns and broken bones.
After being picked up she had to be convinced that there had in fact been a plane crash. Still in a state of shock, she believed that she had fallen from the plane after pressing her forehead too hard against its windows.
Bahia was dubbed "the miracle girl" by the world's media. In 2010 she released her own book entitled "I'm Bahia, the miracle girl".
Ruben van Assouw - 2010
Nine-year-old Ruben van Assouw was the only survivor after an Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330 crashed just short of the runway of Libya's Tripoli airport. His father Patrick, mother Trudy and brother Enzo were among the 103 people who died.
Pulled unconscious from the wreckage, Reuben underwent surgery for fractured legs and has made a good recovery. He now lives with his aunt and uncle in the Netherlands. A planned return to Libya was reportedly cancelled because of the fighting that followed the country's revolution.
Are children more likely to survive plane crashes?
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A 47-year-old woman has been charged with murder after a man's body was found at a property in Derby. | The man's body was found by Derbyshire Police at the property in Manchester Street at 13:30 GMT on Saturday.
Magdalena Kissova, also of Manchester Street, will appear at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Two men, aged 24 and 33, have also been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
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East Belfast is hosting an Irish language festival this week. | It opened with a bi-lingual play at the Skainos Centre on the Newtownards Road on Friday evening.
At the centre on Saturday, there will be a series of Irish language classes to suit people of different abilities.
The organisers hope the event will help change perceptions about the Irish language.
Linda Ervine, Irish language development officer, said: "I think the language has been politicised. That shared heritage that we have with the Irish language has been lost to us.
"I am trying to help people reconnect with a language that has been lost."
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With 10 Bafta and seven Golden Globe nominations, 12 Years a Slave looks set to triumph this awards season. The film is based on a 150-year-old account of how Solomon Northup, born a free man, was kidnapped into slavery. But who was Northup and why, until recently, was he virtually forgotten? | By Vincent DowdWitness programme, BBC World Service
"I thought I knew a fair amount about American history," says John Ridley, "yet only a few years ago I hadn't even heard of Solomon Northup."
Ridley is a highly successful 48-year-old African-American writer, whose credits range from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air to the Iraq war satire Three Kings.
He's also the Bafta-nominated screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave.
"The fact that a well-educated guy like me didn't know Solomon's story says a lot about how ignorant America can be of parts of its past. I'm delighted to help return him to our nation's culture."
The book Twelve Years a Slave was published in 1853 by the American firm of Derby and Miller. It had been written very quickly, emerging only months after Solomon Northup escaped from a Louisiana plantation. Published in London at the same time, the book sold well at first - but by the end of the century was little read.
Ridley says the movie came about in part because he and director Steve McQueen share an agent.
"Steve and I sat down to talk one day and we quickly realised we were both keen to explore slavery as an idea. But it was Steve's wife Bianca (cultural critic Bianca Stigter) who gave him Solomon's book - otherwise I doubt we would have come across it.
"Steve loved the book and passed it to me. I thought it was a singular and evocative document. It's not long but I was overwhelmed by its scope and scale."
The narrative is straightforward: in 1841, Solomon Northup is living a settled and fairly prosperous life in Saratoga, near New York. He is a free man but is tricked into going to Washington DC, where he is drugged, kidnapped and sent south as a slave. Twelve years later, he gets word out to friends and is rescued.
Perhaps the real interest is the detail of slave life - both the harsh cruelty and the periods of domesticity. Relations with the owners who purchase Solomon along the way are crucial, especially with Edwin Epps (played in the film by Michael Fassbender).
The middle of the 19th Century saw the publication of many slave narratives in America, designed mainly to support the cause of abolition. The best-known (though much criticised since) was Uncle Tom's Cabin, which appeared in 1852.
That Twelve Years a Slave didn't slip into total obscurity was partly the work of Louisiana historian Sue Eakin. She died three years ago, aged 90, but her daughter Sara recalls years of helping with the research.
"When she was 11 or so, a neighbour gave Mom the book to read. She grew up near where Solomon had been a slave, so she was astonished and excited to find reference to plantations and even to families she knew well.
"Later, at college, Mom bought an old copy for 25 cents in Baton Rouge and the bookstore owner told her it was a worthless old potboiler and was probably all made up. That annoyed her so much she set out to discover more about Solomon and his life. I guess in those days no-one else was interested in him at all.
"Then, in 1968, she co-edited a new edition of the book. It was no bestseller but it was the beginning of it coming back into some sort of circulation. By then, it was more than a century old but Mom felt Solomon had written a fair account of how life in central Louisiana must have been. She felt it should be better known - though she'd be surprised to see that Solomon's suddenly world-famous."
There were always those who claimed Northup's tale was an exaggeration, or even a total fabrication written as anti-slavery propaganda. Sara is proud that her mother was one of the first to find detailed corroboration of his story.
"After he was freed, there is documentation of his attempt to secure legal redress against his kidnappers," she says. "It was a bitter experience for him because in the nation's capital, Washington DC, Solomon's colour meant he wasn't allowed to testify. So the court case got nowhere but the paperwork is now a big help to historians."
Professor Clifford Brown co-wrote a recent biography of Northup. He says that in the last 20 years, some of the detail of his life has become clearer.
"It's been a matter of looking carefully at census records and at maps of the time, or whatever. We have more detail now of how his father had been freed in 1798 and of the life Solomon and his wife Anne led in Saratoga before the kidnapping.
"The manifest of the ship which carried him to New Orleans exists in the US National Archives. That manifest contains names of people Solomon mentioned. There are also hospital records in New Orleans which feature his name.
"And, in January 1853, the New York Times had published a detailed account of Solomon's adventures which preceded the book and which tells the same basic story. So evidence of the book's accuracy is convincing."
A question long debated is the contribution of David Wilson, credited in 1853 as the book's editor. Some have claimed Wilson in effect wrote Twelve Years a Slave.
Professor Brown says it's clear the work was created by Solomon Northup relating his experiences to Wilson, who then knocked them into shape for publication.
"It's the equivalent today of a celebrity putting out a book 'as told to' a professional writer or journalist," he says. "Perhaps there are parts of the book where the tone is slightly more Wilson than Northup but that doesn't invalidate the tale he's telling."
Like Sue Eakin before him, Professor Brown has had to accept the fact that, a few years after his release in 1853, Solomon Northup simply disappears from the pages of history.
"It's a big frustration," he says. "We have no real idea where he spent his final years or what he was doing or where he died. Perhaps there's a gravestone somewhere with his name on it and we just haven't found it yet."
It has been suggested that after his escape from captivity, Solomon worked for the Underground Railroad which helped other slaves escape from the southern states, mainly to Canada, but as yet there is no conclusive evidence.
Professor Brown concedes that, even now, aspects of Solomon's life remain hard to pin down.
"For instance, the engraving of Solomon in the book's first edition I believe probably is a likeness of him, though no one can be sure. And it's even possible a photograph existed - photography was just starting in the 1850s. It's something we're actively trying to track down."
Perhaps if there were more visual evidence for Solomon's life, he wouldn't have disappeared into the shadows the way he did for most of the 20th Century.
Screenwriter John Ridley laments that currently we can't write the last act of Solomon Northup's extraordinary life-story. "He died invisibly and anonymously. That's kind of a sad irony: to disappear for 12 years, to be liberated and indeed become a bit of a celebrity… And then just vanish again.
"Hopefully with all the new interest in him, someone will be able to discover exactly what did happen to Solomon. That would be wonderful."
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Destiny's Child have performed together at Coachella. | Beyonce brought band mates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams on stage during her headline set at the festival in California last night.
The trio began their surprise performance with their 2004 hit Lose My Breath, followed by Say My Name and Soldier.
It's the first time they have appeared together since the Stellar Gospel Music Awards in 2015.
The 36-year-old singer's show took a military theme, beginning with a rendition of her 2003 hit Crazy In Love played by a marching band.
Dancers wore black berets and yellow hoodies decorated with military-style sashes, and leotards with epaulettes.
The nearly two-hour set included quotes from civil rights activist Malcolm X and feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as well as samples of Nina Simone.
It also featured a rendition of Lift Every Voice and Sing, a song often referred to as the "Black American National Anthem".
Beyonce's set closed the second day of the three-day festival in Indio, California, which will end tonight with Eminem.
The Texan singer had been due to play Coachella last year, but was forced to pull out after becoming pregnant with twins Rumi and Sir.
Rumours that Destiny's Child would reform for this year's festival have been circulating for months.
But band member Kelly Rowland had dismissed them, telling People magazine in December: "I have no idea about any of that."
Destiny's Child are one of the most successful female groups of all time. They had 14 UK Top 40 songs, and two UK Number 1s.
On Saturday night the trio rose to the stage on a platform, standing back to back in a Charlie's Angels-style formation, a nod to their 2001 hit Independent Women Pt. 1, which appeared on the film's soundtrack.
Their jewel-encrusted camouflage outfits echoed those worn in the iconic video for their song Survivor.
They performed energetic dance routines with lunges, high kicks and salutes, walking among the festival crowd on a raised walkway.
Beyonce's set took in the breadth of her 16-year solo career, including songs Baby Boy, 7/11 and Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).
Jay-Z also joined his wife on stage for a performance of their 2012 song Deja Vu, while Solange later came on stage to dance with her elder sister.
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Across Africa the news that a former colonial power, the UK, is to take a more strategic, political, hard-nosed approach to the way it spends its overseas aid budget, has been greeted with a mixture of frustration and cynicism. | By Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent, BBC News
In announcing a merger between the Foreign Office (FCO) and the Department of International Development (DfID), Prime Minister Boris Johnson argued that the UK should be directing more attention and money towards countering Russian influence in nearby eastern Europe, and, by implication, spending less money in distant former colonies like Zambia and Tanzania where "for too long British overseas aid has been treated as some giant cashpoint in the sky".
In Ghana, the head of the West African Civil Society Institute, Nana Afadzinu, criticised the British move as part of a broader trend of Western countries becoming "more myopic and inward-looking."
She said Covid-19 had exacerbated the trend, as had Brexit.
"Building international solidarity, supporting issues like human rights and an international development system - these are not going to be important [for foreign donors] any more," she said.
"The challenge for us, for African leaders, is to unite, to stand as one."
An old battleground
The link with Brexit, and Britain's search for a new global role outside the European Union, appears clear.
Supporting the merger of the FCO and DfID, the UK's former Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, spoke of the need for London to have a stronger voice on the African continent in order to counter Chinese influence.
"In Africa today, there is competition - intense competition - between countries such as China that do not promote democracy and human rights as part of their aid agenda, and countries such as Britain that do," he said.
"And if we are going to support those British values, we need to speak with one voice."
But the notion of Africa as a battleground for competing outside influences has a long and troubled history on the continent - from the 19th Century colonial "scramble for Africa", through the Cold War's proxy conflicts, to the US and China's growing rivalry, and even today's struggle to access Covid-19 medicine.
Many involved in the aid and development world argue that the UK, like other former colonial powers, still owes the continent a huge debt for the wealth it extracted - and continues to extract in the form of African doctors and nurses, for instance, who are encouraged to emigrate to the West.
Indeed, one insider angrily complained that it was Africa which was still treated like a "cashpoint" by the West, rather than the other way round.
'Rolls Royce v Vauxhall Astra'
In Kenya, Degan Ali, who runs the non-governmental organisation Adeso, said Britain's announcement simply revealed what had always been the case - that foreign aid has always been part of a Western-run global system that perpetuates patterns of inequality and poverty.
"I think in many ways aid policies have always been dictated by foreign policy, especially in former colonies," she said.
"I think the whole [British] merger is just a confirmation - making official what has been unofficial. This is all part of the same humanitarian and development architecture that perpetuates structures of inequality."
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But in recent years, DfID has earned a strong reputation across much of Africa as one of the best - if not the best - development agencies of its kind, and a loud and important voice in steering aid money away from corrupt or ineffectual governments and deals.
"Why would you take away a Rolls Royce and replace it with a Vauxhall Astra?" asked another regional expert with close knowledge of DfID, who asked not to be identified, but who shared the widespread concern that the changes might damage, rather than strengthen, the UK's global influence and reputation.
"By weakening [DfID's] voice in strategic discussions you'll see quicker decisions, but of poorer quality," the expert warned.
"It's a significant loss of [British] soft power and DfID will lose a lot of technical competence and transparency."
'Aid addiction'
A departmental reshuffle in far-away Britain in the middle of a global pandemic might seem like a relatively trivial event - and indeed there are plenty of people who argue that the merger may prove successful, and point to other Western nations like Canada which have already done something similar.
Others say that decades of Western development aid have proved spectacularly ineffective in addressing poverty and that what Africa really needs - and many point to tiny Rwanda as a leading example - is a determination to wean itself off all-too-addictive Western aid altogether.
"There's always been a scramble for Africa, an attempt to partition Africa, and now we have China playing a huge role too," says Ms Afadzinu in Ghana.
"And I don't think Africans are blind to it. We need to be bold enough to take a stance against Western power and influence.
"But unfortunately there's always a divide between francophone and anglophone Africa.
"There's always this insidious work being done to make sure those fault lines are deepened. We are pawns in the hands of these different global powers and our leaders have not risen up to the challenge."
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Rumours of child abducto rs spread through WhatsApp in a small town in Mexico. The rumours were fake, but a mob burned two men to death before anyone checked . | By Marcos MartínezBBC Monitoring
On August 29, a little after midday, Maura Cordero, the owner of an arts and crafts shop in the small town of Acatlán in the central Mexican state of Puebla, noticed an unusual number of people gathering outside the municipal police station next to her shop.
Cordero, 75, moved closer to the door and peered out. Dozens of people were outside the police station on Reforma Street, the town's main thoroughfare, and the crowd was swelling. Soon there would be more than a hundred people. Cordero could not remember seeing such a crowd in Acatlán outside of a holiday.
As she watched, a police car passed her shop bearing two men into the small jail house. The car was followed by more people and cries went up from the crowd accusing the two men who were taken into the jail house of being child abductors. From behind a narrow metal gate at the entrance to the station, police replied that the men were not child abductors but minor offenders. They were minor offenders, the officers said again and again, as the crowd grew in size.
Inside the station sat 21-year-old Ricardo Flores, who had grown up just outside Acatlán but moved to Xalapa, 250km to the north east, to study law, and his uncle Alberto Flores, a 43-year-old farmer who had lived for decades in a small community just outside Acatlán. Ricardo had recently returned to Acatlán to visit relatives, who said the two men went to the centre of town that day to buy construction supplies to finish work on a concrete block water well. Police said there was no evidence the men had committed any crime, and that they had been taken into the station for "disturbing the peace" after they were accosted by local residents.
But the mob outside the station on Reforma Street was in the grip of a different version of events, a story stirred up somewhere unknown and spread through the private messaging app WhatsApp.
"Please everyone be alert because a plague of child kidnappers has entered the country," said the message that pinged from phone to phone.
"It appears that these criminals are involved in organ trafficking... In the past few days, children aged four, eight and 14 have disappeared and some of these kids have been found dead with signs that their organs were removed. Their abdomens had been cut open and were empty."
Sighted near an elementary school in a nearby community called San Vicente Boqueron, Ricardo and Alberto became the child abductors conjured up by collective fear, and news of their arrest spread just as the rumours of the child abductors had.
The crowd that descended on the police station was whipped up in part by Francisco Martinez, a long-time resident of Acatlán known as "El Tecuanito". According to police, Martinez was among those who spread messages on Facebook and Whatsapp accusing Ricardo and Alberto. Outside the police station, he began to livestream events on Facebook via his phone.
"People of Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla, please come give your support, give your support," he said into the camera. "Believe me, the kidnappers are now here."
As Martinez attempted to rally the town, another man, identified by the police only as Manuel, climbed up onto the roof of the colonial-style town hall building next to the police station, and rang the bells of the government office to alert locals that the police were planning to release Ricardo and Alberto.
A third man, Petronilo Castelan — "El Paisa" — used a loudspeaker to call on the citizens to contribute money to buy petrol to set the two men on fire, and he walked through the crowd to collect it.
In her shop, Maura Cordero watched with fright, until she heard from someone outside that they should run because the crowd would set the men on fire. Dear God, she thought, this is not possible.
Moments later, the crowd coalesced into a mob with one goal. The narrow gate at the entrance to the police station was wrenched open and Ricardo and Alberto Flores were dragged out. As people held their phones aloft to film, the men were pushed to the floor at the base of four stone steps and savagely beaten. Then the petrol that was brought earlier was poured on them.
Eyewitnesses believe Ricardo was already dead from the beating, but his uncle Alberto was still alive when they set the two men on fire. Video footage shows his limbs moving slowly as the flames licked around them.
The blackened bodies remained on the ground for two hours after they were burned, while state prosecutors made their way from Puebla City to Acatlán, and the reek of the petrol remained in the air. Petra Elia Garcia, Ricardo's grandmother, was called to the scene to identify the men, and she said tears were still on Alberto's cheeks when she arrived. "Look what you did to them!" she shouted at the remnants of the mob, which had begun to disperse.
"It was one of the most horrific things that ever happened in Acatlán," said Carlos Fuentes, a driver who works from a taxi stand near the police station. "The columns of smoke could be seen from every point in the town."
The road that runs into Acatlán is lined on either side by maize and marigold fields. Mango, fig and walnut trees grow from vast plots of land owned by local farmers. The town is nestled in the heart of the Mixteca highlands and is known as the "Pearl of the Mixteca region" — a reference to the Mixtecs Mesoamerican indigenous groups that first settled in the region centuries ago.
Most families in Acatlán depend on remittances sent to them by relatives who have migrated to the United States. Like many other towns in Mexico, it has seen thousands of its citizens leave to head north in search of better opportunities.
Among those migrants in the early 2000s were Maria del Rosario Rodriguez and Jose Guadalupe Flores, who moved north in the hope of providing better living conditions for their two young sons left behind, Jose Guadalupe Jr and his younger brother Ricardo.
The two boys, aged seven and three, stayed behind with their grandmother, Petra Elia Garcia, in Xalapa in the state of Veracruz. Their parents, Maria and Jose Guadalupe, moved from city to city in the US before making their home in the east coast city of Baltimore. Maria became a domestic worker and Jose Guadalupe a construction worker, and they had a third child and called her Kimberley. Via Facebook and Facetime, they kept in constant communication with their two sons at home.
Then on 29 August, Maria received a string of Facebook messages which seemed at first like a bad dream. A close friend in Acatlán was telling her that her son Ricardo had been arrested and was suspected of child abductions. It was a mistake, she thought. Ricardo would never be involved with such a thing. But the messages kept coming. Then came a link to a livestream on Facebook, and when she clicked on it she saw a mob, then she saw her son and his brother in law being beaten by the mob.
In vain, she posted a comment on the livestream. "Please don't hurt them, don't kill them, they're not child kidnappers," she recalled writing. But her message had no effect and she watched in horror as the men were doused in petrol, and the same technology that allowed a man in Acatlán to summon a mob to kill her son allowed her to watch him die.
Later that day, Maria, Jose Guadalupe, and Kimberley returned to Acatlán for the first time in more than a decade. There they met Jazmin Sanchez, Alberto's widow, who had also watched the events unfold on Facebook. For decades Jazmin and Alberto had lived just 14km outside Acatlán, in Xayacatlan de Bravo. Every day, Alberto went to work in the Maize fields he had planted on the land he owned in nearby Tianguistengo. When he died he left behind a small, half-built house in Tianguistengo, as well as the wife and three daughters he was building it for.
"He was a good man, he didn't deserve to die the way he did," said Jazmin, clutching a cap, a belt, and a wallet that had belonged to her late husband.
Maria and Jose Guadalupe returned to another small house in Tianguistengo which they had left for their sons when they set out for the US. Standing at the back of the house, Maria recalled her son. He liked butterflies and running through the maize fields around the house. He left to study law because he wanted to defend people from injustices. "They took him from us and he didn't even leave a child behind for us to take care of," she said.
In Acatlán, the family was met with a wall of silence. With the exception of Maura Cordero, the shop owners on Reforma Street said they were out of town when the violence happened, or that they shut their shops and fled, or that they never opened in the first place that day, which was not a holiday.
"No one wants to talk about it," said Fuentes, the taxi driver. "And the people who were directly involved are already gone."
According to state authorities, five people have now been charged with instigating the crime and four more with carrying out the murder. Martinez, who broadcast the livestream, Castelan, who called for petrol, and the man identified as Manuel, who rang the bells, were among the five. But the remaining two alleged instigators, and the four suspects charged with the murder were on the run, police said.
The day after Ricardo and Alberto died, a funeral service was held in Acatlán. Maria believed there were eyewitnesses to the crime among the crowd who gathered at the service.
"Look how you killed them! You all have children! And I want justice for my loved ones!" she shouted as tears rolled down her cheeks and the cameras from the local and national TV stations filmed.
Now the family lives in fear in Acatlán, Maria said. They are afraid to go to the market. "I lost my grandson who was like my son," said Ricardo's grandmother. "They accused them of being criminals, with no proof."
Maria still cannot understand why the mob was swept up in the lie. "Why didn't they check? No children were kidnapped, no one filed a formal complaint. It was fake news," she said.
Ricardo and Alberto Flores's deaths in small-town Mexico were not isolated. Rumours and fake news stories on Facebook and WhatsApp have fomented fatal violence in India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, to name just three. In India, as in Mexico, the technology — WhatsApp is an encrypted private messaging app that lets people send messages to large groups — has upgraded time-old rumours about child abductors for the 21st Century, allowing them to spread faster and farther with less accountability.
WhatsApp, which was bought by Facebook for $19bn in 2014, has been linked to a wave of lynchings across India, often fuelled by fake stories of child abductors. In the state of Assam in June, in an incident frighteningly similar to that in Acatlán, Abhijit Nath and Nilotpal Das were beaten to death by a mob of 200.
Both WhatsApp and Facebook are widely used for news consumption in Mexico, according to a 2018 report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. According to the same report, 63% of internet users in Mexico say they are either very concerned or extremely concerned about the spread of fake news.
"The digital platforms serve as instantaneous vehicles to channel the best and the worst of us, including our fears and prejudices," said Manuel Guerrero, the director of the School of Communication at Mexico's Universidad Iberoamericana. "And that becomes more evident in the absence of effective authorities that can guarantee our safety," he said.
On 30 August, the day after Ricardo and Alberto died in Acatlán, residents of the town of San Martin Tilcajete in the southern state of Oaxaca attempted to lynch a group of seven men, a group of housepainters, who were falsely accused of being child kidnappers. That day, police officers were able to rescue the men.
But the same day, in Tula in central Hidalgo state, the grisly scene from Acatlán repeated itself when two innocent men were accused of being child abductors, beaten, and burned to death.
Beyond Mexico, in Ecuador, on 16 October, two men and a woman arrested for allegedly stealing 200 US dollars were killed by a mob after a message circulated on WhatsApp falsely accusing them of being child snatchers. And on 26 October, a mob in Colombia's capital Bogota killed a man who was falsely accused in WhatsApp messages of being linked to the kidnapping of a child.
Because of WhatsApp's ironclad end-to-end encryption, the origin of anything shared on the app is impossible to trace. The company resisted calls in July from the Indian government to break its encryption and allow authorities to track messages.
WhatsApp has taken steps to try and stem the tide, adding a label to messages that have been forwarded and limiting the number of groups messages can be forwarded to 20 worldwide and to five in India. "We believe the challenge of mob violence requires action from technology companies, civil society, and governments," the company told the BBC. "We've stepped up user education about misinformation and provided training for law enforcement on how to use WhatsApp as a resource in their community."
A spokesman for Facebook told the BBC the platform "did not want our services to be used to incite violence".
"Earlier this year we identified and removed videos showing mob violence in the Mexican state of Puebla, and we have updated our policies to remove content that could lead to real-world harm," the spokesman said. "We will continue to work with tech companies, civil society, and governments to fight the spread of content that has the potential to cause harm."
At least 10 state governments in Mexico, including Puebla's, have now launched information campaigns alerting citizens to the wave of fake social media messages about child abductions, and Mexico City's cyber police have created chat groups on Whatsapp to allow direct communication with residents of at least 300 neighbourhoods across the capital.
Citizens ask the police via the groups to verify stories and police use the groups in turn to gather evidence against those who spread fake news. Also on the team's remit: identity theft, extortion attempts, and human trafficking.
"We believe that of every 10 crimes, technology is used in nine," said Jose Gil the deputy minister for Information and Cyber Intelligence in Mexico City.
"Social media can really alter a community through the spread of false information that many of us perceive as truthful, because it's being sent by people we trust," he said. "Society really needs to evaluate what is true and what is false, and decide what is trustworthy and what is not."
A lack of effective law enforcement and culture of impunity in Mexico made rumours inciting violence "pure dynamite", said Tatiana Clouthier, a member of parliament in the country's Chamber of Deputies. The lynchings in Acatlán had weighed privacy and freedom of expression against a terrible cost, she said.
"But to what do we give priority? We have to give priority to freedom of expression, but where is the limit? And that's a topic that none of us want to get into because nobody wants to curtail freedom of expression, but we cannot allow disinformation. The situation we are facing is very dangerous."
On 24 October in the afternoon, a group of around 30 relatives of Ricardo and Alberto gathered under the sun at the Church of the Calvary in Acatlán for a memorial service. The priest prayed for both families and blessed two metallic crosses that they had brought. The service lasted for an hour, and then the families walked half a kilometre carrying the crosses to the place they had avoided for the past two months.
Ricardo's father, Jose Guadalupe, placed the crosses by the stone steps where Ricardo and Alberto died, and the group stood for a while in silence on a quiet afternoon on the main street in town.
"It was very painful to be in the same place that the bodies were left charred," Ricardo's mother Maria said later. "All of this happened because of rumours and because people were carried away by those rumours."
Those rumours still exist on Maria's phone - and perhaps on other phones all across the town and beyond — but she cannot bear to look at them now or show them to anyone else.
The day of the memorial, she made a pledge with Alberto's widow Jazmin to visit the site of the lynching once a week and replenish the votive candles they had left by the crosses.
"The crosses should remain there forever," she said, "so the people of Acatlán may see and remember what they did."
This story is part of a series by the BBC on disinformation and fake news - a global problem challenging the way we share information and perceive the world around us.
To see more stories and learn more about the series visit bbc.com/fakenews
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A major rail link between Gatwick Airport and London has reopened after a week of closures. | The Gatwick Express service, which links the West Sussex airport with London Victoria, closed on 26 December.
Maintenance on the line between Redhill in Surrey and Purley in south London was carried out during the shutdown.
Southern, First Capital Connect and First Great Western services to the airport were disrupted.
A new platform was also built at Gatwick Airport during the closure, with the associated changes to track and signalling. Platform seven is due to be open from February.
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A murder investigation has been launched following the death of an elderly man in Dorset. | Charles Taylor, aged 82, was treated in hospital for a serious head injury following reports of an assault in Phyldon Close, Poole, on 17 December.
Dorset Police said Mr Taylor died on Tuesday evening.
Matthew Locks, 26, from Poole, appeared in court on 19 December charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
His case was adjourned until 17 January at Bournemouth Crown Court.
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Dorset Police
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This is a transcript of What's the beef with McDonald's paper straws? as first broadcast on 26 April 2019. Presented by Beth Rose.
| BETH - It probably hasn't escaped your notice that climate change is one of 2019's hot topics. We've had pink ships anchored of Oxford Circus in London and Swedish teenage sensation, Greta Thunberg has been making headlines wherever she goes. But there is one story bucking the trend: a petition has been started to get McDonald's to stop its rollout of paper straws in the UK and Ireland. And guess what, reinstate plastic straws. What? Well, we thought we'd talk straws. A big issue or is it a little issue? A challenge for the environment but a necessity for a lot of disabled people to drink independently and comfortably with.
This is BBC Ouch. I'm Beth Rose and around the London table is Damon Rose.
DAMON- Hello.
BETH - We're definitely not related.
DAMON- No.
BETH - And Niamh Hughes who is both appearing on this podcast and doing all of the technical stuff. And in Scotland our Scotland bureau we have Emma Tracey.
EMMA - Hello.
BETH - Oh, and a very big disclaimer: this is one of our chatty podcasts; none of us have any scientific background at all. These are just ideas and thoughts so take them with a pinch of salt and get involved.
So, the big question, straws, what's the deal?
DAMON- It all stems back to a video of a sea turtle, we think, whereby we saw a straw being removed [laughs] - sorry, it's not funny - removed from its nose. It's awful in fact. It had embedded itself four inches in we think.
BETH - We should just say, so in this McD story, the fast food chain supplies 1.8 million straws to its UK outlets every single day. But in this paper straw rollout there have already been creates. So, the petition creator is a guy called Martin Reed. He says the paper straws dissolve as you drink them, and others have been saying you can't drink a McDonald's milkshake through a paper straw; which I do agree with because it is challenging.
EMMA - Why can't you?
DAMON- You can barely get them up a plastic straw, which is nice and rigid and supportive and helpful. And if you take the straw out, I've done this, and you take the lid off and try and drink the milkshake you tip it back, doesn't come out, you tip it back some more, it doesn't come out, you tip it back some more and then it avalanches onto your face. And that's why you need a straw.
BETH - So, the good thing with a plastic straw is the fact that they are bendy and flexible, you can reposition them, they are cheap, they are light and portable, you could buy them anywhere. So, they kind of seem to solve a lot of problems. And now here we are about to ban them.
On the line we have a straw user, Esther Webber. Hello Esther.
ESTHER - Hi, hello.
BETH- So, Esther is The Times' political reporter but you're also a straw user. You've got cerebral palsy?
ESTHER - Yes, that's right. Even though this condition is obviously making waves at the moment this issue has been running for a couple of years now I think since awareness has risen.
I would say that my experience in London is that a lot of bars and restaurants are phasing out plastic straws, and I use straws daily whenever I'm drinking tea or a drink in a bar, and it is a lot harder to come by plastic straws these days. When I tweeted about this, saying that there shouldn't be a stigma attached to using a plastic straw I had lots of people informing me that there were alternatives available, which of course I'm well aware of. Some of the alternatives don't work as well for me personally and I'm sure for others. So, I think we just need to be a bit nuanced, be wary of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
EMMA - Can you explain to us exactly why you need a straw?
ESTHER - For me personally it's because of my shaky hands and lack of fine motor control, so I actually wouldn't be able to raise the cup or glass to my mouth without spilling. In that situation a straw is a very important aid.
EMMA - Why are some of the alternatives not suitable to you?
ESTHER- With respect to the McDonald's situation a lot of the paper straws become soggy. And the other thing is some of the textures lighter, so there's a bamboo based I've tried, which is pretty good I would say. But the problem with that one is there's no bend in that straw, and I do find it useful to be able to position the drink the way I want it.
The other option is a metal straw and I think I find that the worst of all because it's just very rigid and it knocks against your teeth, and it's basically not a pleasant drinking experience.
DAMON- You mentioned back there, Esther, that you use a straw to drink hot drinks as well. When I was in hospital a few weeks ago somebody brought me a cup of coffee and they brought me it with a straw. I thought oh well, in for a penny in for a pound, and I tried it. The liquid went straight into the back of my throat and really burned very badly.
ESTHER - If you find it I would say [0:05:30?] so I know to leave it for a reasonable amount of time and also to take any hot drinks in gradually rather than attacking all at once. People always say to me, oh won't the hot drink melt the straw, or won't you get really drunk through drinking alcohol through it. And I have to say I've been doing this for a few years [laughs] so most of the time I know what I'm doing.
BETH - Can you still buy plastic straws?
ESTHER- It's very interesting, well maybe just to straw users, personally I feel like I try to do my bit because I wash and recycle plastic straws. So, because of that it's been ages since I've actually had to buy a whole new pack, and I couldn't find any when I went out. I think it tends to be smaller shops now that are still stocking them; but certainly the two big supermarkets near me didn't have them. I would say there is a real sea change going on in terms of the stigma now being so bad that most big chains and restaurants don't stock them.
BETH - Is that something that you're worried about?
ESTHER - Before I used to feel a bit relaxed about bringing straws out with me; I knew if I didn't have one then I could probably pick one up. But now I'm a lot more militant about making sure I have one with me at all times. But I think yeah, it is something we need to just be aware of and have a conversation about as big chains are making these decisions, and also government is trying to disincentives' the use of disposal plastic. So, yeah I think it's something that's going to become more of a concern.
BETH - Are you hoping that someone comes up with an ideal solution or have you got something on your mind that would be the perfect straw if you had the means to develop something?
ESTHER - It would be wonderful if someone developed a straw that really mimicked the behaviour of a plastic straw with a bend in it. That would be great. So, yeah, I'm open to all suggestions but I still haven't found the perfect reusable straw.
BETH - I feel like at this point it's a good time to say that the flexi-straw was actually first marketed in 1947 to hospitals. From making something accessible we're now making it inaccessible to a lot of people.
Thanks so much Esther.
ESTHER - Thank you.
BETH - Bye.
ESTHER - Bye.
DAMON- Isn't that interesting non-disabled people wanting the things that disabled people used to have, like accessible loos?
BETH - Tech firms often start off by trying to make things accessible, and then by default it actually becomes a better product for everyone. But when it comes to straws that seems a bit of a throwback. We've called Niamh over, and when we had our production chat, if you can call it that, you mentioned that actually straws is a really easy thing for people just to say, okay it's plastic, let's get rid of it. People understand it.
NIAMH - People know what straws are. They can sort of take or leave a plastic straw. They know that if - I'm talking about non-disabled people here by the way - if they have a cold or a hot drink they know that they can have it with a straw or they can have it without; it's not 100% necessary. So, it's quite easy to write off something like that.
DAMON - It's a little lovely luxury.
NIAMH - Yeah.
DAMON- Because when I was a kid - I mean, I'm significantly older than all of you lot, very significantly - in the 70s I swear we never had plastic straws; we had paper straws all the time. And of course what would happen… I don't even know, have you even used a paper straw you lot?
NIAMH - Yeah.
BETH - Yeah.
DAMON- You have, so you know that when you suck through it the top of it sort of gradually collapses in on itself.
BETH - And also it sticks to your upper lip.
NIAMH - Yeah.
DAMON - Yeah, and it means that it's hard for liquid to come through. In fact regularly back then you were given a couple of straws.
NIAMH - McDonald's obviously put out a response, or rather it was Mark Varney from Transcend Packaging, which is one of the paper straw makers, he said, there has to be a compromise when making a product that is due to last for 30 to 40 minutes for drinking compared to 150 years.
DAMON- I think 30 to 40 minutes do you spend that amount of time with a drink anyway?
NIAMH - No, maybe like ten.
BETH - People are getting quite militant though. We were looking at this globally. My favourite one is American Airlines have limited straws from in-flight beverages, instead they will give you a stir stick. I mean, what is even the point?
EMMA - It's for gin and tonic and stuff, they have realised that many people use the straw just to stir up their gin and tonic or whatever.
DAMON- Oh.
NIAMH - That is true!
BETH - But don't you just normally put your finger in, give the ice cubes a nudge?
EMMA - Well, a lot of people it would be like ugh. I have to say I don't understand why they can't just not give you a straw as standard. I used to find straws as standard really complicated because if you've got quite a wide-topped glass I often had a thing where I'd drink out of the glass and I'd get a straw up my nose or in my eye.
DAMON- Yeah.
EMMA - And actually last week I thought there was a straw in my drink, drank out of it, and it was the stalk of a lemon leaf.
DAMON- Oh my goodness me, Emma.
EMMA - I know!
DAMON- That is incredibly blind.
EMMA - That is incredibly ridiculous. So, yeah actually not being given a straw is helpful to me in some ways. So, why not just have the option? I just don't understand. Because there's a great video about disabled people and straws by Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, and in it she says that straws are 0.025% of plastic waste. When I was on a plane recently the amount of plastic lids, plastic cutlery, it's just incredible.
DAMON- France are banning that next year I believe. I believe they're the only country who are banning things like plastic plates and cutlery.
BETH - Well, one of my favourites was Seattle, the city in America, it has banned plastic straws but it's given disabled people a year-long exemption.
NIAMH - Oh, that's nice.
EMMA - It's interesting because people really don't understand why some of the reusables don't work. Esther talked about the inconvenience and not being a nice drinking solution and not being flexible enough; but there's also, as Jessica said in her video, allergy issues, like silicon you could be allergic to, all that kind of stuff. But there's also the issue where lots of people have someone with them or have someone who can help them clean the straw. Because you have loads of different drinks in a day, don't you? But a lot of people don't have that luxury so people who are being independent, don't have a PA with them or whatever, they can't have the dexterity to actually clean the straw to reuse it and it's going to get really manky, isn't it? But I think that's really hard for people to understand. And because there are so few of us and we don't have a huge voice it's really hard to get that across very clearly, isn't it?
NIAMH - There's a really good table I found online on Twitter via a disability activist based in Canada, her name's Sarah Smith, and she wrote this table. And down the left-hand side she's written metal, bamboo, glass, silicon, acrylic, paper, pasta, and finally single-use.
DAMON- Pasta.
NIAMH - And across the table it says, choking hazard, injury risk, not positionable, costly for consumer and not high temp safe. And the only material that has none of these is single-use plastic.
BETH - Do you think we're going to get a stage where it will be prescription only?
NIAMH - Probably.
EMMA - What do they call it, a special medical item? Penny Pepper was writing about this in The Guardian, and she was like, the last thing I want to be is even more special, this is going to special me even more. She also talked about interesting things around the environment, so she's a disability activist and she was involved in a lot of environment stuff in the 70s. She said, I have to use plastic straws and baby wipes every day, and the prohibitive cost of biodegradable wipes and other types of straws means that it's my only option and it's sometimes other people's always their only option. So, there are so many elements to this, isn't there?
DAMON- I'm imagining pharmacies selling packets of prescription medical straws with like cleaning implements with it and fluids and instructions and things like that - to the point where people are going to be really embarrassed to go over to that part of the pharmacy and pick one up.
BETH - If it became a medical thing people would be just like oh sure, whatever.
DAMON- Just look round the pub now, look, look, no one's using a straw now. Ooh there's someone using a straw.
EMMA - There's a lot of stigma about showing that you're disabled. I spoke to someone recently who said that they couldn't get help in a work situation unless they registered in work as having a disability. And even though they really needed the help they were really, really struggling to put that out there. And I think having a straw as a medical item, if you were going to have a cup of tea at work - like imagine Esther forgot to bring a straw; Esther is really organised - I would forget to bring a straw every day, I would be left without a way of drinking my tea every day.
DAMON- You wouldn't be able to drink, no.
EMMA - And me without tea you really don't want to be near.
NIAMH - You really don't.
BETH - It turns out that Damon, without knowing that we were going to do this podcast many years later, actually wrote a song about using straws.
NIAMH - That says a lot about you, Damon.
DAMON- I'm just really embarrassed. I said, please let's not even bring this up.
BETH - You were not embarrassed when you rolled into the quiet newsroom this morning and just started singing it with people sat around.
DAMON- It was just a line in a song called, Have You Ever Wondered Why, and it went [sings]: hm, have you ever wondered why kids like to drink through straws so much.
NIAMH - That's diabolical.
DAMON- Is it just novelty - it goes on.
BETH - Go on then.
DAMON- Have you ever wondered by McDonald's don't do a dial-a-burger thing or is it just me. I think I thought I was kind of Brett Anderson from Suede.
EMMA - They do a dial-a-burger now.
DAMON- Yeah, they do, don't they, with delivery and whatever.
EMMA - Yeah. So, actually you are a pioneer.
DAMON- So, it's a song of its age.
EMMA - Yeah.
BETH - It turns out there's loads to say about plastic straws and I'm sure you've got loads of things to tell us as well, or maybe you've come up with the best alternative yet. We would really love to hear from you. We are BBC Ouch on Facebook and Twitter, and we're still on email, it's [email protected]. Also if you want to keep up with Esther and her very funny commentary on the House of Lords, and you don't just need to be British to appreciate these, she is @estwebber on Twitter. And we'll speak to you soon. Bye.
JINGLE - The Ouch podcast.
EMMA - I absolutely loved when Damon said about the tea thing and Esther's like, oh for god's sake.
DAMON- Did she?
EMMA - Just drink it. No, she didn't in that so many words. Just cool it down and drink it slower.
DAMON- I thought I was being…I did think about this. I sucked it up and it went into that soft part of the top of the roof of your mouth, right at the back.
EMMA - Yeah, I can feel it now. I'm just like ugh.
DAMON- It burned for days. It was unpleasant.
EMMA - Well, I have to say that was silly.
JINGLE - BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
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In January 1967 plans for a new town were given the go-ahead and soon a quiet Buckinghamshire village became the vast development of Milton Keynes. Fifty years on, what do people living in one of the UK's best-known "new towns" think of it? | When then housing minister Anthony Greenwood granted permission to transform 8,850 hectares of villages and farmland into a town of 250,000 people, little did he know the part concrete cows would play in its story.
The vision for Milton Keynes was grand in scale - part of the third and final phase of the government's plans to relocate populations following World War Two.
Almost inevitably, a small art project created some 10 years later became the focal point for a sceptical national media.
But five decades on, Milton Keynes has become home to more than 10,000 businesses and is used as a model for new towns across the world.
Though sometimes mocked for those cows and its proliferation of roundabouts, Milton Keynes has "nothing to be ashamed of", according to its deputy mayor David Hopkins.
Mr Hopkins was one of the town's 40,000 original residents when he relocated from rural Buckinghamshire with his parents, who he admits were initially "horrified" at the concept of the new town.
What has MK done for us?
Like most other residents they came to love it because, Mr Hopkins says, Milton Keynes is "the place to be".
"We're the place where people want to come and live, and we're the place with an identity all of its own - it's much more than concrete cows and roundabouts," he says.
"We've moved from being a rural part of North Buckinghamshire to one of the most successful economies and one of the most successful cities in the UK over the last 50 years - it's never the same two days running so why would I want to live anywhere else?"
Mr Hopkins likens growing up in a new town to going on a cruise.
"You take your cabin with you but you go to a different destination every day, every week. Milton Keynes has been a bit like that because we're moving to different destinations through every decade in the last 50 years," he says.
Council leader Pete Marland has an even grander analogy. He believes the town's inhabitants were similar to US residents who first went over the Appalachian Mountains with entrepreneurial ambition.
"[They thought] 'I'll go to Milton Keynes and I'll have a better life for myself', and I think that's really transferred to the new generation of people," says Mr Marland.
While he does not believe another new town on the scale of Milton Keynes will ever be constructed in England again, Mr Marland hopes the next 50 years will see Milton Keynes transform from a "plan into a place".
"One of the greatest potentials that we have in Milton Keynes is that we have no undergraduate university, and that's a huge opportunity... in the centre of Milton Keynes," he adds.
The town is also hoping to become the European City of Culture in 2023, something deputy mayor Mr Hopkins is confident can be achieved.
MK at 50
In 2013 Milton Keynes had a population of 255,700 - 43,000 more than 12 years before, according to official statistics. The 20.2% growth was far higher than the average of 8.9% for England.
But the town slipped 40 places in a ranking of the best places to live in the country published by uSwitch in 2015.
It placed the town 97th out of 138 UK regions, praising its good employment rates and incomes, but noting that the cost of living was "very high".
Despite that, Jim Murray, 62, says he "wouldn't want to live anywhere else".
Mr Murray, an environmental health enforcement officer, says: "I love the landscape, the planning applications that have gone into it, the layout, the parks, the trees, everything really."
His passion for the town is shared by photographer Gill Prince, who has lived there for 25 years.
The 49-year-old has produced a photography art book to mark the town's anniversary - titled Unexpected:MK - featuring landscapes from around the city.
"I know how fantastic Milton Keynes is, I know how many beautiful places there are, but even people who live here don't always know about them," Ms Prince says.
"It's a fabulous place - all the lakes and the parks - there are just so many things to do and part of what I wanted to achieve as a photographer was to demonstrate those to other people so that they could see and maybe go there.
"I really don't want to live anywhere else. I love being here and I love everything its got."
Celebrations to mark the 50th birthday and demonstrate the town's plans for the future will kick off on 10 January with an exhibition that tells the story of Milton Keynes' development.
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Police are investigating after a 19-year-old driver died in a crash in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
| The man was declared dead after the crash, which involved no other vehicles, on the A465 northbound carriageway on Monday.
The road, between Glynneath and Hirwaun, was shut for six hours after the crash, at about 16:50 GMT.
South Wales Police said the victim's family was being supported by specialist officers.
Officers have issued an appeal for witnesses.
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Former childcare minister Mark McDonald's was the surprise winner of a seat to Holyrood in 2011. He was steadily climbing the ranks of government when his progress came to an abrupt halt following allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Mr McDonald has now quit the SNP although he remains the independent MSP for Aberdeen Donside. | By Philip SimBBC Scotland political reporter
The 37-year-old was born and raised in North East Scotland, hailing from Inverurie.
After studying politics and strategy at university in Dundee and Aberdeen, he entered politics in 2003, working as a parliamentary assistant to a group of North East MSPs.
He was elected to Aberdeen City Council four years later, and despite being just 26 at the time became deputy leader of the SNP group on the council.
After an unsuccessful bid to win election to Westminster in 2010, where he finished fourth in the Aberdeen South race, Mr McDonald was elected to Holyrood as a regional MSP in 2011.
His arrival at the Scottish Parliament was part of Alex Salmond's unprecedented landslide victory, which saw the SNP effectively break the system to secure a majority by capturing both constituency and regional top-up seats.
Mr McDonald's election was unexpected - with the SNP winning all ten constituency seats in the area, the additional member system should have made it impossible for them to pick up extras from the list, but for the sheer volume of votes.
The councillor was fifth on the list and actually turned up to the election count in Aberdeen wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but found himself elected after all of the list candidates ahead of him won constituency seats.
He wasn't a list MSP for long.
SNP colleague Brian Adam, who had served as an MSP since the inception of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, lost his battle with cancer in April 2013.
Mr McDonald was selected as the SNP candidate to fight the Aberdeen Donside by-election. He had to quit his list seat to do so, although the SNP were guaranteed to keep it in any case.
In the end they were also destined to keep the constituency seat, with Mr McDonald winning fairly comfortably - although the SNP majority in the area was cut from more than 7,000 to just over 2,000 on the night.
Other candidates in the ballot included Lib Dem Christine Jardine and Tory Ross Thomson, both of whom are now MPs, but it was longstanding Labour councillor Willie Young who came closest to an upset.
As a backbench MSP, Mr McDonald served on a number of committees, and was a parliamentary assistant both to Mr Salmond and Deputy First Minister John Swinney.
He frequently championed better support for people with autism, and also managed to pass a member's bill to tackle disputes over high hedges.
In the 2016 election, Mr McDonald held his seat with a majority of 11,630 votes - the biggest numerical margin in the country, and the eighth largest by percentage of the vote, making Aberdeen Donside one of the safest seats in Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon appointed him a junior minister following the election, working under Mr Swinney again as minister for childcare and early years.
During his time in this job, he was central to the rollout of the government's baby box scheme and Ms Sturgeon's flagship pledge to double the number of hours of free childcare available to Scottish parents.
In November 2017, the MSP quit his ministerial role after reports he had sent a text message to a woman containing a reference to a sex act - the latest entry in a growing furore about sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour in politics.
In a statement, he said: "It has been brought to my attention that some of my previous actions have been considered to be inappropriate - where I have believed myself to have been merely humorous or attempting to be friendly, my behaviour might have made others uncomfortable or led them to question my intentions."
Initially, he was backed by the government, and his party. A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon said it was right for Mr McDonald to apologise and recognise that "in his current role it would be inappropriate for him to remain in government".
However, they stressed that he would "continue to make a valuable contribution to parliament" as an MSP, saying it was "to Mark's credit" that he had taken responsibility for his behaviour.
Over a week later, Mr McDonald made a further statement on the matter, saying his actions had caused "considerable distress and upset", and said he had agreed to seek professional "support".
But days after this, the 37-year-old was suspended by the SNP after "new information" emerged about his conduct. He was axed from both the parliamentary group and the party itself, leaving him sitting as an independent MSP - although he was never seen at Holyrood again.
Even in his absence he managed to find himself at the centre of another outcry, after it emerged he was in line for a payoff for leaving his ministerial role.
The £7,270 "resettlement grant" was automatically triggered 90 days after his resignation under the Scottish Parliamentary Pensions Act 2009, but opposition members said it was "clearly wrong" that a payment should be made to Mr McDonald "considering the circumstances of his departure".
The SNP's probe into the matter dragged on for more than three months - with Transport Minister Humza Yousaf conceding in February that it was "perhaps taking more time than it should".
Mr McDonald himself said he was not informed of the allegations made against him for almost two months, and even as he resigned from the SNP said he had only been allowed to read the investigation report and was not given a copy.
He said that his "behaviour towards two individuals fell below the level of professionalism that they were entitled to expect".
However he said he would return to Holyrood as an independent member after taking some time with his family.
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Radical plans to cut councils in Wales from 22 to eight have been published. A big question remains over future changes in north Wales. Should the region be re-organised into two or three authorities? Tom Bodden takes a closer look at reaction and opinion north of Powys. | By Tom BoddenPolitical analyst
North Wales council chiefs are split over radical plans to carve the region up into two or three authorities, as unions warn of job cuts and privatisation.
Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews insisted the case was "compelling and widely accepted".
But opposition is widespread and varied, even within his own party.
Aaron Shotton, Labour leader of Flintshire, wants more devolved power to councils and major reform of the ailing financial structures.
"Mergers alone are not radical enough to cope with the financial pressures facing councils over the next three years alone," he said.
Flintshire deputy leader and Labour councillor Bernie Attridge called the plans "political suicide", adding Welsh Labour needed "urgent change at the top".
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Wrexham council's leader, independent councillor Mark Pritchard, said Welsh ministers had been "foolish and rushed" in their plans and were taking the people for granted ahead of next year's assembly election.
"Senior politicians are sitting in ivory towers in Cardiff and lack respect for local democracy.
"I would ask the people of Wales if you had £400m to spend where would you use it, on council reorganisation or in schools, swimming pools, and hospitals? I know which I would pick."
Anglesey council was placed under special measures by the Welsh government for two years in 2011, after years of political infighting, and the minister told AMs the island authority did not have an "elegant history".
But new independent leader of a reformed Anglesey Ieuan Williams claimed authorities covering populations of up to 300,000 would make local democracy remote.
"There is a lack of understanding among Cardiff Bay politicians, they think they can click their fingers and things happen but local government is far too complex for that," he said.
"The Welsh government needs to decide if it is for local democracy. We are in danger of becoming one of the most centralised countries in Europe."
Plaid stronghold
He questioned whether the proposed reforms would actually save money, and said the total costs could be around £300m, when authorities were struggling to achieve swingeing cuts in spending.
The future for the north is still uncertain with proposals suggesting either two super authorities comprising Gwynedd, Anglesey and Conwy in the north west, and Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire in the north east.
An alternative allows further consultation over three councils, with Denbighshire joining with Conwy instead.
Leading councillors suggested that the two authorities proposal could deliver a Plaid Cymru stronghold to the west and Labour to the east.
Others questioned whether Gwynedd's policy strongly promoting the Welsh language could be put at risk from a merger with authorities with a less strict approach.
'Greatest fear'
Geoff Edkins, Unison's regional organiser, said that estimates based on the Welsh Local Government Association's figures, warned of 15,000 workers in Wales facing redundancy in merged authorities, including around 4,000 in north Wales.
Wednesday's announcement has prolonged the uncertainty for the union's members in the north.
Financial pressures on council spending has already prompted some to look to close or to privatise services, he said, like libraries, leisure, welfare rights and home care.
"Whether the outcome is two or three authorities in north Wales is uncertain and will remain so till after the assembly elections and possibly up till 2020. Yet sticking as we are isn't tenable," he said.
"The greatest fear for our members is the loss of jobs and privatisation. They wonder just what services will be left to be merged."
'Glimmer of light'
Hugh Evans the independent leader of Denbighshire council said that merging the county into a new authority with Flintshire and Wrexham was his "worst fear realised".
Denbighshire and Conwy had reached a voluntary agreement for merger which was earlier rejected by Leighton Andrews.
But he is now suggesting that the arrangement could go out to consultation in a model of three new north Wales authorities.
Mr Evans said the scale of the two council models in the north would be a major concern and saw a "glimmer of light" in the further consultation.
"There are also the cultural and linguistic differences with the strong urban industrial areas against the rural areas, particularly in Denbighshire," he said.
"It should be about how best to deliver local services not about boundaries," he said, adding that the Williams Commission which drew up proposals for 10 or 11 authorities "seemed to be a complete waste of time and money".
No final decisions
"Two authorities would take communities further away from the decision makers. I would be really concerned. Haven't we learned the lessons of the Betsi Cadwaladr health board?
"This whole process is a distraction beyond 2020 when we should be concentrating on providing services."
But Dyfed Edwards, Plaid Cymru leader of Gwynedd council, said that reform of the map of local government was essential and needed political leadership in all parties.
He added: "Will someone please get on with it? If the status quo isn't sustainable, then tell us what is.
"I think personally one council for north west and one for north east Wales makes sense in terms of spatial planning.
"The big question is over health and social care, where we have a health board across the whole of north Wales."
Mr Andrews said no final decisions had been taken.
"The case in north Wales is finely balanced between two or three local authorities. We therefore feel that there is a case for a further debate and would welcome views," he said.
"I want to emphasise this is not a final decision. It is the next phase in our public debate."
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Marta Moreiras and the subjects of her portraits - fathers carrying babies on their backs - were surprised by the attention they attracted as she took their photographs on the streets of Senegal's capital Dakar. | "People were clapping - sometimes it was a bit hard to take the picture because we were having such a large audience," the Spanish photographer told the BBC.
"All the women were like: 'Hey, give me five, I'm going to call my husband - we don't see this every day."
And that is exactly why Moreiras started her project, which has been shortlisted for the portraiture category of this year's Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition.
The idea came to her when she was looking through her photo archive, which for Senegal goes back to 2008.
"I realised that I had tonnes of pictures of mummies with babies on their back, but I just wondered why I didn't have any of men."
When she began phoning up some of her male Senegalese friends who had babies, most said that they would carry children on their backs if they were at home - but never outside.
"There's a big division here between public spaces and private spaces… and it's very important what others think of you," says Moreiras.
Yet her research and interviews revealed that men do play a significant child-caring role, not least because Dakar is expensive and couples often both have to work.
"That will force them to start dividing tasks.
"And when I asked the men if they actually participated in the education of their children and if they helped at home they were like: 'Well, yes I'm forced to, my wife, she works as well - she can't just take on all the different tasks.'
"But whenever you see a picture of a baby you never see a dad with them or playing with them or taking them to school or washing them," she said.
This is how she first coaxed her interviewees into having their portraits taken.
"I'd say: 'All right, so to make it more visible - this role of the dad - I want to take a photo of you with your child.'"
When they agreed to that, she'd say she would like the baby to be on their backs instead of in their arms - this too they happily agreed to, hesitation only setting in when she asked them to move outside to give the portrait "a more interesting setting".
"We don't do that, we don't take children to the street on our backs," was the general response - but Moreiras's persistence paid off.
"The whole reaction on streets was very cool, so the guy I was photographing began to feel more comfortable about it."
The portraits she shot over a two- to three-month period were exhibited last May at Dak'Art, the African Contemporary Art Biennale, when the whole of Dakar becomes an art gallery.
And they certainly became a subject of debate - given the inspired decision to stage her exhibition at les parcours sportifs - a big open space on the main seafront thronged by those in pursuit of the body beautiful as it is full of gym equipment.
"Ninety-nine per cent of people who go there are men, showing their masculine, macho side," she said.
But they were also of an age when they were becoming fathers - the perfect target audience, says Moreiras.
One photo in particular had a great impact as it was of a popular rapper, Badou, known for his machismo.
"He has a public image, and everyone recognises him. It's important in this project that some recognisable people are included to be role models and open the debate to realise there is nothing wrong with it," the photographer said.
There were some public figures who turned her down when she approached them as they were concerned about public attitudes.
For Moreiras, who has eight of her portraits from the series in the World Photography Awards, it will be a "never-ending project".
"I'm still working on it - I'm happy to have as many daddies as possible because I believe that to destroy this stereotype of mums with babies, that we have seen forever, we need to do at least the same amount of images with men."
Pictures by Marta Moreiras.
Winners of the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition will be announced on 17 April 2019. All shortlisted series will be exhibited at Somerset House in London from 18 April until 6 May 2019.
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It's Valentine's day 1989. Margaret Thatcher is prime minister and Kylie, Yazz and Bros are making noise. Far away, Iran's supreme leader issues a fatwa demanding the death of British author Salman Rushdie - and the effect on young Muslims in the UK is huge. | By Mobeen AzharBBC News
Alyas Karmani was soaking up everything student life had to offer. He'd grown up in Tooting, south London, in a traditional Pakistani household, his father a bus driver and trade unionist. Religion was an important part of Alyas's upbringing but not something he was particularly interested in.
"We were obedient to our parents. We'd go to the mosque when it was required but we had a clandestine double-life existence," he says. "We were partying, smoking weed, going out with girls and doing everything we could possibly do."
So when it was time to choose a university, Alyas ran away from his Pakistani Muslim identity and headed 400 miles north to Glasgow. "I was running as fast as possible. I was a 'self-hating Paki'. I didn't want brown friends. All my friends were white liberal mainstream types. That was my crowd."
In Glasgow, Alyas would become an important fixture on the student scene. He ran club nights and loved music and dancing. "I had a wonderful time and then something really inconvenient happened in 1989."
That inconvenience was Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa - imposed on Salman Rushdie for his novel, the Satanic Verses, which was widely considered blasphemous in the Muslim world. While Alyas didn't think Rushdie should die, he also didn't think The Satanic Verses was OK. Now he found himself being blamed for a fatwa that had nothing to do with him.
"I thought these friends understood and accepted me but now they were pointing fingers. The conversations went like this: 'What's wrong with you people? Why are you doing this? Why have you put a death threat on Salman Rushdie? What side are you on? Are you with us or against us?' It was really as stark as that."
Alyas had felt uncomfortable going to mosques, which back in the 1980s were run almost exclusively by older South Asian men whose first language was not English. So Alyas went searching for Islamic guidance from younger, English-speaking Muslims and found it. Under their influence, he reconnected with the faith of his parent's generation, but took it in a much more radical direction - the focus was on global Muslim identity rather than personal morality or spirituality.
"It was a counterculture. It had a dress code and a language. I left my non-Muslim friends and when I left university, I completely devoted myself to the movement," he says.
"It all started with the publication of the Satanic Verses and how people pushed me away. That's why I always say I am one of Rushdie's children. I was radicalised by white liberals."
The Salafi school of thought Alyas became part of is more puritanical than traditional South Asian Islam, and has overt political leanings. Some of the people Alyas associated with ended up fighting in Bosnia, as members of the Bosnian army. He never made it to the battlefield, he says because his skills "were in promoting ideology".
Find out more
Listen to the 10-part series, Fatwa, from BBC Radio 4, or download the podcast
The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On will be broadcast on BBC Two at 21:00 on Wednesday 27 February
Today, Alyas has softened his approach. "Back then we only saw binary options: good or bad. With or against. Halal or haram. Now I prefer shades of grey," he says.
He remains a devout Muslim who champions "the middle way". He is an unconventional imam and psychologist. He offers his congregations in Huddersfield and Bradford advice on everything from sex and relationships to mental health.
Ed Husain was a few years younger than Alyas when The Satanic Verses was published. Still at school, he was excited when his father took him to Hyde Park to protest against the book.
The demonstration saw coachloads of Muslims travel from Glasgow, Bradford, Birmingham and elsewhere - altogether about 20,000 arrived. Communal prayers, which had mostly been reserved for within the mosque, were now taking place in London's public places. Effigies of Rushdie were burnt and placards threatening violence were common.
When Ed's father saw people burning The Satanic Verses in Hyde Park, he decided it was time to leave.
At home, Ed's father told him they weren't "that kind of Muslim" but the protest had piqued Ed's interest. He began to attend East London Mosque without his father and was inspired by English-speaking imams who were happy to talk politics.
'I came out as Muslim'
Salman Rushdie was a hero for Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, then a journalist on the New Statesman - not only for his writing but also because he had spoken publicly about racism in Britain. So she read the book.
"I wasn't offended. I'm not that kind of Muslim but I did wonder, 'Why are you doing this?' It read to me as deliberately provocative," she says.
When Muslims started burning the book, many of Yasmin's white friends were disgusted. "It very quickly became 'them and us'. At dinner parties, if I said anything about disagreeing with Rushdie, people would walk out! That's how difficult it became."
Yasmin describes what followed as "a moment of awakening". "I came out as a Muslim. I said: 'I'm a Muslim. My mother's Muslim. My family's Muslim. The white liberals I worked with were shocked. They'd never seen me that way. It was inconvenient for them."
"The fatwa gave prominence to the East London Mosque because they were the guys who were shouting loudest. They were the people who were protesting outside Downing Street. They had an ideology that made them relevant," he says.
This new zeal for political Islam culminated with Ed's father delivering an ultimatum - if Ed was going to live under his roof he had to give up Islamist politics. It was a stark choice between what Ed viewed as the mundane worldly comfort of his parent's home or the divine cause of serving the global Muslim community. Ed chose the latter. He ran away from home.
The adventure was short-lived as his father wanted him back under his roof, but in the following years Ed continued down the path of radicalisation.
"I moved to even more extremist organizations like Hizb ut-Tahrir who believed in a global caliphate," he says.
Ed's religious identity was shaped by notions of global injustice and suffering rather than spirituality.
"The parks in which we'd protested against Salman Rushdie were now being used to protest against UK foreign policy. We'd gone from opposing an author to opposing the British government. We'd been completely politicised."
While at college, Ed witnessed a deadly attack on a young boy who was believed to be Christian. He says it was the result of a "Muslim supremacist mindset".
The Satanic Verses
"The person who killed him had come on to campus and said, 'If you have any problem with kuffar (non-Muslims) call me.' A few weeks later I saw this kid stabbed, wounded lying on the street, convulsing."
It was a wake-up call. Ed realised he'd lost sight of everything he'd loved about his faith. He distanced himself from Hizb ut-Tahrir. Later he became an adviser to Tony Blair, and one of the founding members of the anti-extremist think tank, Quilliam.
Follow Mobeen Azhar on Twitter
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The number of daily deaths from Covid-19 in Scotland's second wave has begun to go down. Hospital admissions are also declining, as are infection rates in the worst affected areas. Has Scotland's second wave peaked, or is there still danger ahead? Here are five numbers to watch. | By Christopher SleightBBC Scotland news
1. Local infection rates
Across the whole of Scotland, the average number of new cases every day is no longer rising.
The figure appears to have peaked towards the end of October and has mainly been going down since then.
However, there are still significant areas of Scotland where cases are on the rise and this remains a concern for the Scottish government as it attempts to slow the spread of the virus.
On 20 November, the 11 local authorities with the highest infection rates were moved to level four, which has the toughest set of restrictions under Scotland's five-tier system.
The three worst-affected local authorities in level four at the end of last week were Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire.
The infection rate in North Lanarkshire has mainly been declining since mid-October. The rate also now appears to be going down in Glasgow after several weeks at "stubbornly high" levels - as ministers have repeatedly noted.
However, there's no such decline evident in Renfrewshire, which has seen fluctuating rates between 200 and 300 cases per 100,000 since early October.
It's worth nothing that South Lanarkshire, which reached almost 400 cases per 100,000 people in October, has shown a sustained decline in infections since then.
But it's not just the local authorities with the highest rates that cause concern.
Anywhere which shows a big increase in cases over a short period will catch the attention of public health officials, who want to stop the virus becoming seated in a new community.
Two weeks ago the focus was on Angus, Fife and Perth and Kinross, which all moved from level two to level three restrictions after a sharp rise in cases.
Despite a dip in the number of cases in Fife, it's too soon to tell if the rate will show a sustained decline here - and in Perth and Kinross the rate is still very much on the rise.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also highlighted significant rises in Stirling and Inverclyde.
The rate in Inverclyde is now declining, but it's still going up in Stirling - as it is in neighbouring Clackmannanshire, which up until October had seen some of the lowest infection rates across the central belt.
Infection rates are not the only indicator the Scottish government uses to review levels, but they are a key measure to watch.
2. The number being admitted to hospital across Scotland
The daily number of new confirmed cases of Covid-19 is an important statistic - but it is difficult to make a comparison between now and March using this figure as the number of people being tested has risen so significantly.
One number that is arguably a better gauge of where Scotland is in its second wave is hospital admissions.
The daily admissions for Covid-19 in Scotland hit a low in mid-July.
They then started a slow rise which gathered pace into the autumn, but for the last two weeks the average number of admissions has mainly been going down.
If this decline is sustained, the peak will have been significantly lower than in the spring.
3. How many patients end up in intensive care
The sickest Covid-19 patients are likely to end up in intensive care, where the mortality rate is high.
A report by Public Health Scotland published in July found that almost 40% of coronavirus patients died within 30 days of being admitted to intensive care.
The number of daily ICU admissions began to rise at the end of the summer - there were six Covid-19 patients in intensive care on 11 September and there were 111 on 8 November.
Numbers have been fluctuating in the last few weeks, but there doesn't yet appear to be the same decline in ICU admissions seen in hospital admissions.
4. The number of deaths from Covid-19
The Scottish government announces daily figures of deaths within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19.
Scotland went 40 days over the summer with no deaths recorded at all using this measure.
The average number of new Covid-19 deaths being registered each day rose steadily from mid-September, but has now begun to decline.
The National Records of Scotland counts all death certificates that mention Covid-19, even if the person has not been tested for the virus.
A similar pattern is evident with this measure, with the first decline in weekly deaths since the beginning of October recorded last week.
5. Who is getting infected?
It appears that daily hospital admissions have peaked at a much lower rate than they did in the spring, so why is that when the number of new cases has undoubtedly surged in the past two months?
One reason could be that fewer over-65s are being infected now than they were in the early stages of Scotland's pandemic in the spring.
Younger age groups are much less likely to end up in hospital, or die, from Covid-19.
This next chart shows that there were more infections among younger age groups at the start of Scotland's second wave, with that steep rise in mid-September driven by outbreaks in student accommodation.
Infection rates among older age groups began to rise in September and October, but now appear to have stabilised.
So has Scotland's second wave peaked?
The decline in both death rates and hospital admissions is encouraging, but there are significant risks ahead.
Local outbreaks are still occurring and health officials will be very aware that the relaxation of restrictions over Christmas will likely cause an increase in infections.
The Scottish government and NHS Scotland will be working to drive cases as low as possible before Christmas to avoid that increase turning into a new surge.
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When Alexander Bodin Saphir's Jewish grandfather was measuring a high-ranking Nazi for a suit in Copenhagen 75 years ago he got an important tip-off - the Jews were about to be rounded up and deported. It has often been described as a "miracle" that most of Denmark's Jews escaped the Holocaust. Now it seems that the country's Nazi rulers deliberately sabotaged their own operation. | It was a cold October night 75 years ago when my grandparents, Fanny and Raphael Bodin, stood on the dock of a harbour on the east coast of Denmark with their 15-month-old daughter, Lis, in their arms.
I imagine they peered into the darkness, nervously awaiting the fisherman who would take them across the water to the safety of neutral Sweden. Until that point the Jews of Denmark - unlike those in other parts of occupied Europe - had been free to go about their business. But now the order had been given to transport them to Germany "for processing".
So my grandparents and aunt fled. As they boarded the fishing boat they handed the fisherman a substantial sum of money for the hour-long boat trip across the Oresund - the narrow stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden. Then it started to rain and my aunt began to cry. The fisherman, fearing the Germans would hear her cries, ordered my grandparents either to leave their child on the dock or get off the boat. They chose the latter and watched as the boat cast off for Sweden with their money and perhaps their last chance of escape.
Fortunately, it wasn't their last chance. They succeeded in making the crossing the very next night - after giving their daughter a sleeping pill to ensure she remained silent - and lived out the rest of the war in Sweden.
Their story mirrors that of the vast majority of Danish Jews. According to Sofie Lene Bak, associate professor in history at Copenhagen University, 7,056 of them escaped to Sweden, with 472 captured and deported to Theresienstadt.
This became known as the "Miracle Rescue" but many Danish historians now believe it was less miraculous than it seems. And my grandparents' experience provides evidence for this theory.
My grandfather - usually known by his nickname, Folle - always claimed that the reason they managed to escape early in that month of miracles was because of a high-ranking German officer who came to his brother-in-law's tailor shop, N Golmanns, on Istedgade in the seedy red light district of Copenhagen.
After the war my grandfather would open his own shop, R Bodin on St Kongensgade, one of the most fashionable streets in Copenhagen, but in 1943 he was still learning his craft. Together with his brother-in-law, Nathan, they would take measurements of new customers and note them down with other relevant information on A5 cards. These cards were stored in a bureau in the shop. I suspect my grandfather's hands shook as he took the measurements and fitted the suit of this particular German officer, who must have been pleased with the finished article as he then offered my grandfather and brother-in-law a warning: "Get out, while you still can. There's a round-up coming."
My grandfather never named the high-ranking German officer, but years later Nathan made a startling declaration to my cousin, Margit. The source of the leak that saved my Danish family was none other than Dr Karl Rudolph Werner Best - the very man who, as Germany's plenipotentiary in Denmark (and, moreover, deputy head of the SS) was in charge of ensuring that Denmark's Jews were sent to their death.
So why would such a man - a member of Hitler's inner circle, known as the Butcher of Paris for his relentless pursuit of France's Jews a year before - be fraternising with Jewish tailors in the red light district of Copenhagen, much less warning them to escape? It's hard to believe.
When Margit heard the story, she immediately went to the bureau which still then held pride of place in the family tailor shop. She searched for the measurement cards from 1940-1943 and rifled through to the letter B. Her heart stopped as she pulled out the card of Dr Karl Rudolph Werner Best.
The measurement cards have since been lost, but the story has always fascinated me. A few years ago I started to turn it into a play, and learned then how historians have been rewriting the narrative of the miracle rescue.
Dr Werner Best was a doctor of law and had an uncanny ability to bend the law in his favour. After the war he not only convinced the Danish courts to commute his death sentence to a prison sentence, but years later - when he was accused of signing the death warrants of 8,000 Poles - he managed to convince the judge that he was too sick to stand trial. The case collapsed and he lived for a further 17 years as a free man before dying of natural causes.
A key priority for Best, as the Third Reich's plenipotentiary in Denmark, was to maintain the flow of agricultural goods from Denmark to Germany. Not for nothing was Denmark known as "Germany's pantry" and as the "whipped cream front" - by some estimates it supplied up to 15% of Germany's needs.
To ensure this continued, political stability was essential. But in the summer of 1943 the Danish Resistance had become emboldened, and the Danish government had resigned in protest at a new policy requiring convicted saboteurs to be sentenced to death.
Hitler's order to make Denmark "free of Jews" - Judenrein - therefore came at a bad time for Best.
"The summer of 1943 had been a blaze of sabotage, strikes and physical confrontations between Danes and Germans," says Sofie Lene Bak. "Best feared for an uprising and general strikes if the Jews were targeted."
So it seems Best set about organising the round-up of the Jews - while also simultaneously sabotaging it.
When the extent of the failure of the round-up became apparent, Hitler telegrammed Best ordering him to explain himself. He responded that he had done as he had been ordered - he had made Denmark Judenrein.
Credit for saving Denmark's Jews has often been handed to Georg F Duckwitz, a German naval attaché and Best's right-hand man, who leaked the date of the round-up to Hans Hedtoft of the Danish Social Democrat Party. Hedtoft in turn passed the information to the acting chief rabbi, Marcus Melchior, who told his congregation the next morning - the day before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - that there would be no service that day. Instead everybody was to go home, sort out their affairs and find any means of escape.
After the war Duckwitz became West Germany's Ambassador to Denmark (1955-58) and was declared "Righteous Amongst Nations" by Israel's Holocaust Memorial Center, Yad Vashem. But it's Werner Best who ultimately bears responsibility for the round-up's spectacular failure.
Soldiers charged with rounding up the Jews were ordered to knock on the doors and ring the door bells of Jewish homes, but under no circumstances were they to break them down or smash windows. At least one family simply slept through it all.
And when it became apparent that the primary escape route was across the Oresund, all German patrol boats on the water were ordered into harbour. They remained there for three weeks, when the bulk of the escapees were crossing to Sweden. The official explanation was that the boats needed a paint job. All of them - at the same time.
"The restraint of the Germans in Denmark is unique to the rest of occupied Europe," says Sofie Lene Bak. "Not only in terms of method on the night of the raid but in terms of the limited resources used to hunt for Jews after the raid."
None of this contradicts stories of the bravery of the Danish people, the Resistance or those who were fleeing. In 1943, Denmark's Jews and anyone helping them had a justified fear of execution. After all that's what happened in the rest of Europe, why would Denmark be any different?
My grandparents and aunt spent the rest of the war in Sweden, only returning home after it was over, in June 1945. Like many others, they were welcomed home with freshly cut flowers on their tables, placed there by their Danish neighbours.
A Bodin Saphir's play, Rosenbaum's Rescue, will be premiered at Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, in January 2019
You may also be interested in:
Margaret Nutley remembers her first meeting with a group of unfamiliar boys on the Ascot racecourse. It was autumn 1945, and they were playing football, wearing striped jackets from a concentration camp. Who were they and why were they there?
READ: The 'Belsen boys' who moved to Ascot
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Eight people were killed during the London Bridge terror attack on 3 June 2017. | Three men drove into pedestrians on the bridge and then stabbed people in nearby Borough Market. Here are the victims' stories.
Chrissy Archibald
Canadian Chrissy Archibald died in the arms of her fiance after being struck by the attackers' van on London Bridge.
Tyler Ferguson had proposed to Ms Archibald, 30, four months earlier after she moved to be with him in the Netherlands.
The couple were busy learning Dutch, making wedding plans and talking about starting a family.
Ms Archibald was a social worker, who had worked in a shelter for people with drug and drink addictions.
Her family had worried she was too gentle for such difficult and heart-wrenching work, but she proved them all wrong. She had found her calling, said her father, Greg Archibald.
On the weekend of the attacks, Ms Archibald decided to join Mr Ferguson, who was in London on a work trip.
The couple went out for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate a successful day for Mr Ferguson, but as they crossed London Bridge, Ms Archibald was hit by the van. She died from multiple injuries.
At the inquest, Mr Archibald said: "The world has many sunshine people in it. Their smiles warm us. They make life bright and cheerful.
"But Chrissy was not the sunshine. Chrissy was the moon.
"You might not notice the moon on a sunny day, but you need the moon when life is dark and it's hard to find your way.
"That was our Chrissy: quiet and silvery but lighting a path for you to follow and reaching out a hand to help."
Sebastien Belanger
French-born Sebastien Belanger was watching the Champions League final with friends at a pub in Borough Market before he was killed in the attack.
The 36-year-old, who had been in the UK for seven years, was working as a chef at the French restaurant Coq d'Argent, in central London. Several years earlier, he had been promoted to head chef.
"I am so very proud of him," his mother, Josiane Belanger, told the inquest. "He worked very hard but also liked partying with his friends."
On the night of the attack, Mr Belanger, originally from Angers, western France, and his friends heard a van crash into railings nearby and went to investigate.
But under a dark archway, he was cornered and stabbed by the three attackers.
Two police officers tried to save him but he died from stab wounds to the chest.
"I do not forgive what they did to him," said his mother. "They mutilated and killed him."
In a tribute, his brother, Julien Belanger, said his family would never forget Sebastien.
"To see you again we simply need to close our eyes, to remember your kindness, your smile, your mischievous look, your generosity, your love for your family."
Kirsty Boden
Kirsty Boden, an off-duty nurse, was having a meal out with two friends at Boro Bistro when she heard the sound of a crashing vehicle and ran to offer help.
The Australian-born 28-year-old was stabbed as she knelt over restaurant waiter Alexandre Pigeard as he lay dying. She ran through an alleyway but died there from a chest wound.
Her bravery earned her the name the "angel of London Bridge" and posthumous medals for bravery from the Queen and the Australian government.
Her partner, James Hodder, said her actions that night did not surprise anyone who knew her.
"She loved people and lived her life helping others. To Kirsty, her actions that night would have just been an extension of how she lived her life," he said.
Ms Boden, originally from Loxton in south Australia, had been working at Guy's Hospital and living in Hampstead in north London with Mr Hodder, whom she had first met in a flat-share.
"She completely floored me with her smile and kindness, and I very quickly fell in love with her," Mr Hodder told the inquest.
He said the two had enjoyed "geeky" first dates at the transport museum and a canal museum, before travelling together across much of Europe.
"Anyone who met Kirsty knew that she was different. Whether it was through her smile, the kind words she would always have, or the fact that she would always move heaven and earth to be there for you," said Mr Hodder.
"Kirsty just had the ability to leave a lasting impact on your life, and that's why there are so many people here and in Australia who miss her so much."
Ignacio Echeverria Miralles De Imperial
Ignacio Echeverria ran towards the attackers and tried to beat them with his skateboard when he saw one of them stabbing a woman. But they quickly turned their knives on him.
The 39-year-old Spaniard had been cycling with friends along Borough High Street after a day's skateboarding on the South Bank.
CCTV shows him get off his bike, run towards two police officers who were trying to stop the attackers and swing his skateboard at Rachid Redouane, who then knocked him to the ground.
He died from stab wounds to the back - and was the last person killed in the attack.
Mr Echeverria, a financial crime analyst at HSBC, had been living in London for a year-and-a-half, enjoying spending time with his sister and her young family and making skateboarding friends.
On the night he died, he postponed a visit to his sister's home as he was having such a good time skateboarding.
Mr Echeverria had been a hard-working, disciplined student who completed his law masters in French and Spanish, and also spoke English and German fluently.
As a Roman Catholic, he attended Mass every week and always defended his beliefs, his family told the inquest in a statement.
Through skateboarding, he befriended youngsters from different backgrounds, and saw an opportunity to influence and encourage them in their studies and work.
His bravery on the night posthumously earned him the George Medal, which the Queen presented to his parents last year.
The award committee said his actions had "undoubtedly prevented further loss of life" by giving others time to run away.
His father, Joaquin Echeverria Alonso, told the BBC his son said he would have intervened had he passed the Westminster Bridge attack that happened three months earlier.
"Later, during the attack at London Bridge, he demonstrated this through his actions," his father said.
James McMullan
James McMullan had nipped out of the Barrowboy and Banker pub for a cigarette after the football match had finished, when the attackers' van smashed into nearby railings.
Instead of running, he went to help up Australian au pair Sara Zelenak who appeared to have fallen over on the wet pavement in her high heels, the inquest heard.
Witnesses said Mr McMullan tried to pick her up but there was no time for either of them to get away.
The 32-year-old British-Filipino became one of the attackers' first victims. He died from a haemorrhage and stab wound to the chest.
That night, Mr McMullan had been out with friends celebrating getting financial backing for his own online education company.
The day before, he had called his mother, Mila, to excitedly tell her the last two years of sleepless nights were finally going to pay off.
He told her everything was going to be OK and he was going to be able to look after her, his sister, Melissa McMullan, told the inquest.
He was going to be able to help children who didn't have access to education, through his e-learning platform and make her proud, she said.
At the inquest, his father, Simon McMullan, told how James could talk the socks off anyone.
"James had more friends than most, and all of them will tell you that he was the life and soul of any gathering, that his lust for life was infectious."
He would also help others, no questions asked, said Mr McMullan.
"He would be there to see you through a personal crisis . He would give you the confidence to get that promotion. He would make sure you had a good night out. He would drive in the middle of the night to pick you up from 100 miles away."
Alexandre Pigeard
Alexandre Pigeard, a waiter at Boro Bistro, went outside to investigate when he heard the attackers' van crash - but came face to face with the attackers.
They stabbed him once, and then all three set upon him again after he collapsed. He died from a haemorrhage and neck and chest stab wounds.
The 26-year-old French national, who was living in south-east London, had been in the UK for less than a year.
He had settled into his new life, becoming a cheerful, efficient colleague in the restaurant who took full advantage of London's nightlife.
A music lover, he was nicknamed "King of the Night" by his friends.
"He was a big brother, a confidant, an accomplice whose joy of living was contagious," his family said in a tribute set to music that was played at the inquest.
He had plans to leave London in the autumn to open a restaurant in Nantes, western France, and produce his first techno EP with his father, the inquest heard.
In the hours before the attack, Mr Pigeard, the eldest of six, spoke to his father on his break, chatting about music and upcoming festivals.
"He tells me to kiss the kids. I kiss him and wish him 'bon courage, mon grand'," said Philippe Pigeard.
He told the inquest: "It's now 703 days since the events took place.
"703 days where I'm a ghost wandering in the night that took away Alexandre, a handful of minutes of horror, of barbarism, cruelty where the assassins jumped on him."
Xavier Thomas
Hand-in-hand, Xavier Thomas and his fiancee, Christine Delcros, were walking over London Bridge on their way to cocktails in the Shard, a skyscraper next to the bridge, when the attackers' van mounted the pavement and struck them both.
Mr Thomas was thrown over the bridge into the River Thames, and Ms Delcros was seriously injured.
For three days, a search team, including a helicopter, scoured the river for him. His body was eventually found almost two miles away, near Shadwell Basin. He had died from immersion.
Mr Thomas, 45, had lived in a town near Paris and was a business travel manager for American Express, where he had worked for 25 years.
He was a devoted father to his children, Noemie, 24, and Nicolas, 17, whom he had largely raised on his own.
At the inquest, Mr Thomas' parents, Philippe and Christiane Pesez, said his number one priority was to secure the best possible future for them.
"They were the apple of his eye. He looked after their education, their sports and other activities and ran the household, always in good spirits, without complaining about the problems he might have to face , and always managing to keep smiling."
Without him, the family felt lost, they said.
Both Noemie and Nicolas now have a tattoo to remember their father.
Ms Delcros, who had been with Mr Thomas for two years, told the inquest she was still "madly in love" with Mr Thomas and nothing could destroy that connection.
Sara Zelenak
Sara Zelenak, the youngest of the victims, was given Saturday night off work at the last minute and found herself in Borough Market just as the attackers' van crashed into railings.
The 21-year old Australian au pair slipped in her heels on a wet pavement as she tried to get away, witnesses say.
James McMullan attempted to help her to her feet but the attackers were too quick. Ms Zelenak was stabbed in the neck.
Ms Zelenak grew up in Queensland, loving sport, rarely missing an afternoon nap and getting excited about the little things in life like spaghetti Bolognese.
After finishing school, she worked in a pub and tried floristry but realised she could make more money if she joined her father operating a crane truck.
Her mother, Julie Wallace, said she had soon saved up more than all her friends put together and decided to go on a "trip of a lifetime".
She made a plan to tour Europe and meet her parents in Paris. The first three months were spent in the UK, where she started working as a live-in au pair in south-west London.
Julie Wallace told the inquest her daughter, who called her daily, loved the family and children and had already bonded with fellow au pairs.
"Sarz was the happiest she had ever been: working, travelling, meeting new people, doing all the things 21-year-olds should do," said Mrs Wallace.
But on the night of the attack, "every sliding door slid for Sara to be in harm's way", she said.
She was unexpectedly given the night off; she and a friend had not found a rooftop bar they had been looking for and then they switched plans to go out in Borough Market instead of Soho.
Last year, her parents launched a charity - Sarz Sanctuary - in her memory to help others overcome the loss of a loved one in traumatic circumstances.
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The Labour Party needs to appoint a new candidate to take on George Galloway in Bradford West, where a clan-based system is key to local politics. But what is the "biradari" and how important will it be in the forthcoming general election? | By Sabbiyah PervezBBC Look North
The surprise withdrawal of Labour's newly-selected candidate has brought fresh attention to the constituency where the party suffered a shock defeat to Mr Galloway three years ago.
Amina Ali, a councillor in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, quit the election campaign on Wednesday - just four days after she was selected - saying the campaign for a seat 200 miles away in Yorkshire would cause "massive disruption" to her children's lives.
Her decision was pounced on by Mr Galloway who said: "The real reason is the war inside Bradford West Labour Party and she's retreated from it, badly wounded."
It was Mr Galloway who inflicted wounds on Labour when the Respect Party founder romped to victory in March 2012 in a previously safe seat for Labour, in what he called "the Bradford Spring".
Many at the time were frustrated by Labour's candidate Imran Hussein who had been criticised for failing to attend the hustings at which Mr Galloway connected with the electorate.
But the Respect Party candidate's resounding win wasn't just to the credit of his silver tongue; there were many other factors in play.
He mobilised the apathetic youth and the disengaged women - two sections of the community who had long felt ostracised by the biradari, or "clan" based system, which has been in operation for many years.
For one to truly understand the dynamics of this system you have to know the history of the Pakistani community in Bradford.
Pakistani men began arriving in Bradford from the mid-1950s. They were mainly single men who were encouraged to travel to the UK to work in the mills and factories.
They relied on each other for support and basic survival. In the 1960s Britain witnessed a chain of migration from the sub-continent, a result of the existing migrants inviting other Pakistanis into the country through means of employment.
This was operated largely through family networks. The single men who had migrated to the UK were reunited with their families by the 1980s.
The fantasy of returning home soon dwindled as families settled and grew in the industrial towns and cities across the UK.
Many recognized they had better job opportunities here, their children would receive quality education and generally an improved quality of life. But they soon realised that they needed advice to fill out certain forms, or to gain planning permission for building a mosque or halal butchers.
Thus they sought out from among them, the adequately educated who were literate and had a basic understanding of the political system. These men then acted on their behalf and became their representatives, most commonly known as "community leaders".
It is important to note that women at that time played little or no role in any of the decision-making; many of them were new to the UK and were expected to care for the extended family and the children.
In addition, it was seen to be a man's job to make the decisions and a woman's voice was neither appreciated nor welcome. But also remember, this was the mood in politics in general at the time and it was not just a Pakistani phenomenon.
Politicians soon recognized the influence of the community leaders; they realized that these appointed men could effectively grant them a bloc vote akin to that of the unions.
The bloc vote was secured by heads of clans telling their families for whom to vote.
Fatima Patel, editor of the Asian Sunday newspaper, which is published in Bradford and London, points out: "If someone is offering you a number of votes, which politician wouldn't take it?"
The issue was highlighted in a report by the campaign group Democratic Audit, based at the London School of Economics.
It noted that both Labour and the Conservatives were implicit in the political history of the Bradford West seat being "marred by patronage, neglect, bad organisation and even electoral fraud".
Ratna Lachman, director of racial justice campaign group Just West Yorkshire, argues that while "in its initial genesis the biradari was set up so the Asian community got a fair deal, as time has gone on this positive context of the biradari has become corrupted and co-opted into politics".
Once the biradaris realised they held a degree of power, they decided it would be ideal for them to put up their own man, who could relate to them and effectively become a puppet. Deals and bargains were struck between rival clans to secure positions of power.
Many I have spoken to liken it to the Etonian or Bullingdon clubs for rich white men who support and promote each other into positions of power. The only difference with biradari is that the men aren't nearly as rich or educated.
Some of the women I have spoken to told me they had little interest in engaging with politics in Bradford; they said it was dirty, corrupt and they felt that even if they did participate, it wouldn't make any difference.
Other women argued against this notion, repeatedly using the example of George Galloway's win in 2012. They told me it was the mobilisation of women that helped secure his win.
He sent bilingual campaigners into the community so that even those who did not speak English could engage and articulate their concerns. They told me it was this that motivated and mobilised them, as candidates had previously never bothered with them.
Whether it was a strategic decision or not, Mr Galloway actively sought to involve them in his campaign.
But while he empowered women, some say he did little to encourage their new-found political enthusiasm.
Some were dismayed by his comments about the allegations facing Julian Assange, when Mr Galloway was criticised by anti-rape campaigners for suggesting the Wikileaks founder had been accused of nothing more than "bad sexual etiquette".
Salma Yaqoob resigned as the Respect Party leader following Mr Galloway's comments and later stated in an interview that "it's been deeply disappointing, because I do feel that those women have been let down. [Comments like that] open the door to women being treated in a certain way."
Mr Galloway responded by stressing that whatever his views on the Assange case he still believed: "No never means yes and non-consensual sex is rape."
Mr Galloway also mobilised the youth of Bradford in their masses. One young voter I met at Bradford College told me "there was a real buzz around Galloway". It appeared that the young people who were frustrated by clan politics, and their elders telling them where to place their vote, were rebelling.
As one young man wrote on Facebook: "2 fingers up at the 'Mirpuri village politics' imported to the UK, particularly Bradford... where voting is about who you know, financial and personal gain for the candidate... long live the youth that made this possible."
The young people I spoke to told me they want to elect their MPs based on their commitment to issues such as education, employment and equality.
They stressed that biradari politics would soon fizzle out as the young replace the old and move away from clan-based loyalties.
One individual commented: "There is no place for it here any more. I want to elect someone who will make society a better place for me and my kids and not someone who asks for my vote simply because he is related to me or of the same colour."
One businesswoman told me: "The politicians have let us down for so long, we need to pick this city up.
"There are some amazing people here doing amazing things, we need to provide them with more opportunities so it benefits the city as a whole."
A debate on the issue of biradari politics will be broadcast on Sunday Politics on BBC One at 11:00 on Sunday 1 March.
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Brazil, home to the world's biggest Roman Catholic population, will be closely watching developments as cardinals prepare to elect a new Pope next week. But the Catholic Church faces huge challenges in Brazil, as BBC Brasil's Julia Carneiro reports. | By Julia CarneiroBBC Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
Few places in Brazil are a greater reflection of the devotion of the country's Catholics than the town of Aparecida half way between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The town boasts the world's second largest basilica after St Peter's in Rome, built to honour Brazil's national saint, Our Lady of Aparecida.
This huge red brick structure is visible from miles around, and attracts 11 million pilgrims each year.
The parking spaces outside the building are packed with buses and cars that bring the faithful for religious services that begin every two hours.
Some of the worshippers approach the altar on their knees in an act of devotion.
There is no sign of crisis in Aparecida, but the Catholic Church in Brazil has seen a steady decline in the numbers professing the Catholic faith over the past 30 years.
As cardinals meet in Rome to select a new Pope, worshippers in Aparecida think a Brazilian pope would help to revitalise the Church both nationally and in neighbouring countries.
"We are rooting for a Brazilian Pope," said Cristina Soares, who came to attend Mass at Aparecida. "If he is not, may God do the best for us Brazilians."
Renewal
This hope has gained strength as Cardinal Odilo Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo, is increasingly mentioned as a strong contender for the papacy.
He would satisfy those who call for a Pope from the developing world, but within Brazil he is viewed as conservative for his stance against homosexuality and abortion.
After celebrating a last Sunday Mass before leaving for Rome to attend the conclave of cardinals, the Archbishop of Aparecida, Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis, reflected on the way forward.
"The Catholic Church is the strongest church in Brazil, but we have to update the message for the people of the present," he said.
"The Church in Latin America is constantly reaching out and renewing itself. Europe seems to have settled down and stagnated a bit."
Pope Benedict XVI visited Brazil, including Aparecida, but he did not attract the same crowds as his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
In the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro, older residents have fond memories of John Paul II's visit in 1980.
He is credited with saving the shantytown - perched on a hilltop overlooking the sea, with the Christ the Redeemer statue visible in the distance - from being demolished.
"I hope the next Pope follows in John Paul's style, the Pope who was closest to us and had the courage come to a favela," says Paulo Roberto Muniz.
He was 25 years old at the time and today helps take care of the small, tin-roofed chapel built for the Pope's visit.
"There is no use in saying that you are a man of the people. You have to come and get your feet dirty, like he did," he says.
No connection
But just a few houses away from the chapel, Maria Gerlaide shows little interest in the election of the next Pope.
Ms Gerlaide is one of the many lapsed Catholics in this community.
Here numerous simple buildings have popped up between homes to serve as places of worship.
Ms Gerlaide and her entire family now attends an evangelical Church.
"The pastors are much closer to the people," she said. "They talk to you, they are approachable, they spread the word, explain what we're reading. They show you things you don't see in the Catholic Church."
Evangelical churches are growing in strength in Brazil. The Victory in Christ Church, for instance, was founded 12 years ago, and today runs 120 ministries.
Its main place of worship is in Vila da Penha, a working class neighbourhood in the north of Rio de Janeiro.
At a recent late night Sunday service, the church was so full that an overflow room offered latecomers the option to watch along on television screens.
Silas Malafaia, a controversial pastor who presides over the congregation, believes the Catholic Church is losing ground for a combination of reasons, including what he describes as an antiquated preaching style and a weak connection to the faithful.
"There is a lack of commitment to the faith and no incentive to live the gospel outside the church," Mr Malafaia said.
Mr Malafaia, who preaches against homosexual marriage and abortion, estimates the evangelical population will surpass the number of Catholics within the next two decades.
Faith and laughter
But there is also a new generation of Brazilian Catholics intent on paving the way for a more promising future for their Church.
And they hope World Youth Day, scheduled to be held in Rio in July, will be a galvanising event as it will be one of the first foreign trips for the new Pope.
"We have always had strong youth groups, but now with this special moment coming up, the Catholic Church is even more focused on approaching the youth," says Fabio Alexandre Borges, who co-ordinates a youth group in Rio's Archdiocese.
Mr Borges and his friend Cristiano Martins developed a stand-up comedy routine to teach the stories of the Bible while making people laugh.
"Today the world offers us a wide array of information and we can't fall behind," says Mr Martins.
"People can be Catholic and still be listening to music, make jokes, have fun. We don't need to be so serious."
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The Eddy is an indie jazz club on the rundown outskirts of Paris, co-owned by Elliot (André Holland) and Farid (Tahar Rahim). They are good friends. Elliot used to be a famous American jazz pianist. Farid didn't, which is why he's in charge of the business side, while his cooler-than-thou colleague looks after the music. | Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter
They have a house band. It is on the cusp of a record deal with a prestigious label. But they're not quite at it. Particularly singer Maja (Joanna Kulig), who is struggling to get over an affair with Elliot, who in turn is struggling to get over his own personal issues, which are the cause for him stepping out of the limelight.
Farid doesn't have any such cares, he has two lovely children and a stocking-wearing wife, Amira (Leïla Bekhti). But he too has struggles.
That's how it is with jazz.
Money is his problem. The Eddy isn't going steady.
Nor is Elliot. He's broken up with Maja and split up with his wife, who stayed in America (we meet her, he was right to move continents). The last thing he needs is their bolshy 16-year-old daughter coming to stay and giving him a hard time. But when your lucks out…
Julie (Amandla Stenberg) duly arrives with a bad attitude and a big suitcase, which is a lot to squeeze onto a mis-firing Vespa. By the time they arrive at Elliot's apartment she's mouthed-off at some dodgy types driving a sedan, poked her nose into her dad's love-life, and demanded a cigarette with all the grace of President Trump at a press conference.
And this, we find out, is her good side.
It's not all woe, though.
We are thankful for the music, the songs Maja's singing, thankful for all the joy they're bringing.
Not to Elliot, obviously. He's too wrapped up in his own world, until he gets too wrapped up in Farid's, which he discovers is an uncouth underworld populated by gangsters who think The Bird is a girlfriend, not one of the greatest saxophonists of all time.
At least he's got the The Eddy, his gritty subterranean jazz joint, a million metaphorical miles from the grand mainstream arts institutions of the 1st arrondissement. Its edgy, multi-cultural clientele is there to escape from the grim realities of their daily life, which disappear from view the moment they see the band play. They've come to be taken away by them.
As you will be if you like jazz.
The musical numbers aren't so much allowed time to breathe, but to luxuriate in a warm bath of televisual love followed by a lengthy manicure.
I've seen spoilt children less indulged.
Large chunks of each of the eight one-hour-plus episodes are devoted to the house band performing, jamming, rehearsing, riffing. It is the source of energy around which all else revolves: imagine Roddy Doyle's The Commitments (sans comedy) meeting French police procedural Spiral, and you'll have a sense of the vibe.
This is not to suggest that The Eddy is a prog-rock length epic music promo, but to recognise jazz is not only the star of the show, but also its basis.
The concept for the series started with a meeting in 2013 between exec producer Alan Poul (Six Feet Under) and lyricist and record producer Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill), who had written a bunch of jazz songs and assembled a band to perform them (two members of which are in the tv series).
The narrative came second, which is rarely a good thing in a drama.
There is so much that is right with The Eddy: The Cinema Vérité handheld camerawork instigated by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land), who directed the first two episodes.
The excellent casting (there's a standout performance from Adil Dehbi as The Eddy's bar-hand with ambitions), the multilingual script, the honest depiction of contemporary life on the edgelands of Paris, the cinematography, the actors's performances, the musicians for goodness sake.
They're all great.
But the story isn't.
It is plodding at best: an all-too predictable sequence of events with as many twists and turns as a Roman road.
Quite how this came to be is difficult to fathom.
The series was written by the multi-award-winning Jack Thorne, a very talented man with a string of critical and commercial hits to his name (Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Skins, This is England, His Dark Materials).
There's nothing technically wrong with the script, which is refreshingly bold in the way it interweaves languages - sometimes mid speech. The problem is the plot, which would barely sustain a cheap-and-cheerless 1980's TV drama, let alone this oceanic-sized Netflix series which is becalmed on a sea of two-dimensional clichés: a heroin addicted bassist (called Jude leading to the immortal line "hey, Jude"), a stroppy daughter, a wrong'un brother, snobby in-laws, a bitchy ex-wife, a cash-strapped club.
The Eddy needs an eddy.
Maybe there's a grand plan afoot, and seasons two, three and four are already in the works, and the glacial speed of the story thus far will seem like the smartest set-up in the history of television. Maybe.
But even the most committed improv jazz player knows there comes a point when freestyling has to resolve into something more concrete otherwise everybody falls asleep. That won't happen in The Eddy if you like the music, but if you don't you might well find yourself nodding off to the sound of the double bass.
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"If I was a betting man", my father used to say when on holiday and eyeing up an incoming storm before taking us kids on a long hill walk, "I'd wager we'll be just fine". We never were. We always got soaked. It was the Lake District. If it looks like storming, it storms. The weather doesn't bluff in Cumbria. | Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) knew that.
The emigre artist moved to Ambleside via Norway in 1945 having fled Germany after Hitler included his Dadaist collages in the Nazis's Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) exhibitions. Schwitters called his assemblages made from magazine cuttings and assorted debris, "Merz", an invented word to describe his carefully arranged collection of bit-n-bobs.
Soon after he set up shop in the Lake District, he began the protracted process of transforming a humble stone barn into a Merzbau: a dwelling-cum-sculpture-cum-installation fabricated from twigs, string, wire, plaster and pretty much anything that came to hand.
But the Cumbrian climate undermined his efforts; rainwater poured through the construction. Schwitters was thwarted by the weather, and by his failing health.
He died mid-project, leaving behind a leaky barn and a lasting legacy for low-fi art made with "found" objects.
His influence is evident in Robert Rauschenberg's Combines and Monty Python's animations; in the aesthetics of punk and the pioneering pop art of Eduardo Paolozzi.
Amazing, really - that Schwitters, a somewhat eccentric artist from Hanover whose work was, on occasion, destroyed and ridiculed, who became destitute and sickly, should possess a vision so potent and vital that it continues to resonate right up to this very week.
If I was a betting man, I'd wager that you have heard of Kanye West - who released a new track called Wash Us In The Blood on Tuesday - but probably not Arthur Jafa who made the accompanying video, although he's been around much longer and was awarded the Golden Lion at last year's Venice Art Biennale.
Back in 1991, when Kanye was still in high school, Jafa won the cinematography award at the Sundance Film Festival for Daughters of the Dust. He then worked with Spike Lee and Stanley Kubrick way before West collaborated with Jay-Z on The Blueprint. But then Kanye stepped into the limelight in 2004 with his debut album College Dropout, while Arthur stayed behind the camera working mainly as a cinematographer on movies and pop promos.
Their stars aligned in 2016 when Jafa was busy piecing together a bunch of video clips and stills he'd harvested from the internet. In the spirit of Schwitters, they were fragments of stuff that had caught his eye, which he thought could be seen differently, or just seen, if structured into a coherent form from a dense mass of footage: carved out like a sculpture.
The images the Mississippi-born, architect-trained Jafa selected, coalesced into a melancholic meditation on the African American experience.
There's a clip of Barack Obama singing Amazing Grace at a service for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was murdered in Charleston in 2015. That lasts a few seconds. Then, a little boy slaps his mother's face and shouts, "Mummy, wake up!", Michael Jordan is on court, a young woman twerks, Martin Luther King smiles, the molten surface of the sun burns, The Notorious B.I.G raps; all of this and much more in a seven-minute-plus compilation regularly interspersed with shocking scenes of police and racists brutally assaulting black citizens.
Jafa had the video close to finished when he sat down one evening to watch Saturday Night Live, with Kanye West as the musical guest. The second number he performed, accompanied by a large choir, was the gospel-inflected Ultralight Beam. Jafa was astonished by it: a masterpiece, he thought - immediately adding it to his film. He was struck by how well it fitted, not only the mood, but also the selected images. Job done.
He called his completed work Love is the Message, The Message is Death and showed it to his friend Kahlil Joseph, who showed it at the Underground Museum in LA, and then at Art Basle in Switzerland, where the gallerist Gavin Brown saw it, and showed it in New York, at which point a video Jafa was originally going to simply upload to YouTube was re-contextualised as a museum-quality work of art and quickly became an icon of the age.
Maybe the same would have happened if Jafa had posted it online, but I wouldn't bet on it.
As with Kurt Schwitters, Arthur Jafa was sourcing seemingly random, buried or discarded entities that had unconsciously caught his eye, and bringing them to the surface where they could be seen. Unlike Schwitters, he was doing it with images that wouldn't have existed in the German's time or even a decade or so ago.
The smart-phone films of police brutality have only become possible because of 21st Century technology. Before the ever-present camera-phone existed, extreme and illegal acts of violence perpetrated by officers of the law were mostly unrecorded and therefore open to debate.
They're not any more.
Love is the Message, The Message is Death is an artwork crafted from this new medium, which presents a view of the world that has never, could never, have been seen before. Last weekend it was simultaneously shown by 13 museums across the globe on their websites.
On Tuesday Kanye West posted Wash Us In The Blood, a single from his forthcoming album God's Country, with a video by Jafa.
It could be read as Love is the Message: The Sequel, which is a damning indictment of the continued violence targeted at a community of people because of the colour of their skin.
There's a clip of Ahmaud Arbery jogging shortly before he was shot and killed after being confronted by Gregory McMichael and his son Travis. And one of Breonna Taylor laughing and dancing at some point prior to the incident that led to her death having been shot eight times by police. Both fatal confrontations happened this spring.
There are also Covid-19 references, two of which show footage of young black people struggling to breathe, a comment, perhaps, on the nature of the virus and how it affects different ethnicities and also, possibly, on the asphyxiation of George Floyd, a protest about which is where the film starts (in Fort Lauderdale after a policeman has gratuitously pushed over a kneeling black woman).
There are cars doing donuts and taking out a section of the crowd, chains on the ocean that take the shape of Peter Saville's Unknown Pleasures album cover for Joy Division, and video game sequences in a split-screen with Kanye, whose head is covered in a clear plastic visual effect that shatters as he sings about people not wanting him to be himself.
All of this imagery is secondary to Kanye's music and lyrics, which mixes polemic with prayer and biblical references:
Genocide what it does
Mass incarc' what it does
Shortly followed by:
Execution, thirty states
Thirty states still execute
Thou shall not kill, I shall not spill.
And then…
Wash us in the blood of Jesus.
The hectic, driving urgency of the film and track subside at the end as pictures of Kanye's Sunday Service Choir rehearsing are accompanied by the sound of gospel singing.
It is a good film.
But it is not as good as Love is the Message, The Message is Death, or The White Album - the video about casual racism for which Jafa won at Venice. Wash Us In The Blood is clearly part of his oeuvre, a way of making art that Arthur Jafa has been perfecting since he was a little boy putting together books of Kung-Fu movie adverts. But it lacks the rhythm and clarity of his best work. I suspect that is because the video is ultimately in service to the song, whereas the music is an afterthought in Love is the Message.
There is also an over-reliance on images and characters Jafa has used in previous pieces, perhaps because he thought a new mass audience might be unfamiliar with his earlier work. The trouble is, for those who are familiar with it, the sense of shock and discovery and sensory overload, on which his videos rely, is undermined.
So, this is not his finest work. But Arthur Jafa remains an exceptional artist - or "specialist", as he would say - whose star within the art world has risen late but shines brighter than most. He might not be as famous as Kanye right now, but he will be in 100 years' time when he will be considered one of the most important artists of the early 21st Century.
I'll take bets on it.
Recent reviews by Will Gompertz
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