label
stringlengths 5
984
| text
stringlengths 76
235k
|
|---|---|
Jersey's new police station will be smaller than originally planned after neighbours raised concerns, a minister has said. | The Home Affairs department plans to build a new police headquarters on the Green Street car park site.
The building will have four storeys instead of five with cells on the ground floor.
Assistant Treasury Minister Deputy Eddie Noel said the changes complied with UK Home Office guidelines.
The construction of the police station will mean the number of available parking spaces drops by 91 to 517.
The design is due to go before planners this summer.
|
For the first time in at least 100 years, the US Cabinet has a bible study group. What do they learn? What does Donald Trump make of it? And why aren't women allowed to teach? | By Owen AmosBBC News, Washington DC
Every Wednesday, some of the world's most powerful people meet in a conference room in Washington DC to learn about God.
The location can't be revealed - the Secret Service won't allow it - but the members can.
Vice-President Mike Pence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The list goes on.
In total, 10 cabinet members are "sponsors" of the group. Not everyone attends every meeting - they are busy people - but they go if they can.
Meetings last between 60 and 90 minutes, and members are free to contact the teacher after-hours. So who is the man leading the United States' most-influential bible study?
Step forward Ralph Drollinger, a seven-foot tall basketball pro turned pastor. Or, as the 63-year-old describes himself: "Just a jock with some bad knees."
Drollinger grew up in La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego, California. As a child, he rarely went to church - "Probably half a dozen times," he says - and didn't get far with the Bible.
"I always promised myself I'd read it," he says. "But every time I tried, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me."
In his last year of high school, after a basketball game, some cheerleaders invited him to bible study. He went, and his world changed.
"It was the first time I really heard the gospel," he says. "So I went home, read through the whole gospel of Matthew that night, and asked Jesus into my heart."
In 1972, Drollinger went to the University of California in Los Angeles on a basketball scholarship. He attended a bible-teaching church and, over the next four years, "fell in love with the scriptures".
After college, he could have played pro basketball - he was picked in the NBA draft three times - but, each time, turned it down.
"I sensed such a passion for ministry that everything paled in comparison," he says.
Instead, he signed for a Christian team called Athletes in Action. They played basketball around the world - 35 countries, he reckons - and preached the gospel at half-time.
"That was kind of perfect for me," he says. "Because I really didn't like basketball - but I liked to preach."
Drollinger did eventually turn pro, signing for the Dallas Mavericks in 1980, but only because he wanted to attend the seminary there. He played six games in the NBA and left after one season.
After retiring from basketball he worked in sports ministries, before turning to politics in 1996. The road to the White House started with failing Christians in California.
In 1996, Drollinger's wife, Danielle, was executive director of a political action committee in California. It tried - in her words - to unseat liberals from the state legislature and get Christians elected.
"But she was frustrated," says Mr Dollinger. "They would send guys to California's capitol - and she was great at getting them elected - but they would soon lose their Christian moorings."
So they took over the existing ministry in Sacramento, changed the name, and offered weekly bible studies, support, prayer, and one-on-one ministry.
It proved "wildly successful", so they expanded. Capitol Ministries is now in 43 US state capitols, and more than 20 legislatures abroad.
Each class is led by a local pastor, but none is led by a woman. Why not?
"There's no [Biblical] prohibition of female leadership in commerce, there's no prohibition of female leadership in the state, and there's no prohibition of female leadership over children," says Drollinger.
"But there is a prohibition of female leadership in marriage, and female leadership in the church. And those are clear in scripture… it doesn't mean, in an egalitarian sense, that a woman is of lesser importance. It's just that they have different roles."
In 2010, Capitol Ministries arrived in Washington. There was already a ministry called The Fellowship, which runs the National Prayer Breakfast, but Drollinger felt it had "lost its marbles, Biblically".
It was, he says, candy floss Christianity - big, sweet, unsubstantial. By contrast, he wants to offer a "high-protein diet", teaching the bible book-by-book, one verse at a time. In Drollinger's studies, it can take a year to finish one book.
"If you don't have a spiritual coach that's really driving you in the word of God - and driving you toward holiness rather than your own sinful, latent nature, and your own depravity - then you're not going to grow into Christ's likeness," he says.
The Fellowship, he says, believes legislators can do bible study among themselves.
"I say no, technical foul. 'How will they hear without a preacher?' Romans 10:15."
Capitol Ministries began a bible study for representatives in 2010, which now has almost 50 members.
When four of the group were elected to the Senate, they asked for a senators' class, which began in 2015. Last March - two months after Donald Trump took office - the same process led to a group for cabinet members.
"Trump started appointing to his cabinet all the guys that were in our House and Senate bible study," says Drollinger, a trend he attributes to Vice-President Mike Pence, who "knew who those strong believers were".
"Unlike our secular media," Drollinger says, he and others saw the appointees had something in common - they "were strong in Christ".
"So Jeff Sessions, [former health secretary] Tom Price, others, said let's start a ministry, a Cabinet bible study."
Capitol Ministries believes it is the first Cabinet-level bible study for "at least 100 years". There was a group during George W Bush's presidency, but it was for lower-ranking staff members.
President Trump is not a member of Drollinger's group - but he is a Christian, and does get Drollinger's eight-page print-outs most weeks.
"He writes me back notes on my bible studies," says Drollinger.
"He's got this leaky Sharpie felt-tip pen that he writes all capital letters with. 'Way to go Ralph, really like this study, keep it up.' Stuff like that."
Drollinger's weekly bible studies are not private, or secret. Anyone can read them online.
On same-sex marriage, he writes: "Homosexuality and same-sex ceremonies are illegitimate in God's eyes. His word is repetitive, perspicuous [clearly expressed], and staid on the subject."
On capitalism, he writes: "The right to personal property, also known as free enterprise or capitalism, is the governmental economic system supported by scripture. Scripture does not support communism."
And on debt, he writes: "It is bad stewardship and downright foolishness for an individual, family, or country to borrow in order to cover expenses that far, far exceed income!"
So if politicians should learn from the Bible, should - for example - gay people be put to death? No, says Drollinger - some civil laws from the Old Testament should not apply.
"I think that was for [ancient] Israel, but it's not for the church," he says, adding he doesn't import "the whole kit and caboodle of Old Testament law" like "the clumsy theonomist would".
Drollinger likens himself to a waiter in a restaurant. These lessons aren't his - he is merely serving the word of God, as revealed in the Bible, to self-professed Christians.
"If God is the chef, then I'm just the servant, and I hope the guys like the meal," he says. "But on the way out of the kitchen, I'm not going to alter what's on the plate. So my job is just to be a servant."
And if people don't like the message - or, to put it his way, the meal?
"You have to go talk to the chef [God]. Unless I've altered what's on the plate - which, hopefully in my discipline, I don't."
Drollinger believes the Bible teaches the separation of church and state.
"We have to differentiate," he says. "And unfortunately, a lot of our evangelical religious right advocates have not made this differentiation."
In January, when a New York Times opinion piece described Drollinger and others as "Christian nationalists", he wrote a 1400-word letter to complain. What was his objection?
"It has the idea of tyranny when you take it to its extreme," he says.
"It means that I'm meeting with the Cabinet members clandestinely in order to overthrow the government - in the form that we presently have - for a theocracy. I mean, at the end of the day, that's the accusation, and I have to be strong on that."
But is a bible study for Cabinet members, with political themes, not a merging of church and state?
"I believe in institutional separation, but not influential separation," he says
"No matter what the institution is - the family, commerce, education - it needs the bulwark precepts of the word of God in order to function correctly…
"But the minute I start to amalgamate the church and the state institutionally, then I'm into theocracy."
Drollinger never tells his members how to vote, or which policies to pursue. But he hopes it becomes obvious by teaching them the Bible.
"I will put the blueprint on the engineer's seat on the train," he says. "And it will show you the right tracks to the station.
"But I'm not going to tell you what tracks to take. But you've got to be pretty stupid not to follow the blueprint, because it's there."
Do his students ever disappoint him?
"Oh yeah, I get disappointed a lot when I see immaturity," he says. "I was just talking to one member... his wife hates him. He's been overspending his capital in his marriage by working 14 hours a day on politics.
"That's disappointed me, because if he is divorced, then what kind of credibility does he really have long-term in the House [of Representatives] to make moral judgments?"
And what about their policies?
"When a person obviously knows the Biblical thing to do and votes against what he or she knows what's Biblical."
One Democrat, struggling with her party's support for same-sex marriage, contacted Drollinger for advice. He explained the Bible's teaching, as he saw it.
"The next bible study, she said 'that was really good'. Now she can't necessarily stand publicly on what I just taught her, but it's going on in her heart."
He says he won't tell her how to vote on the issue - voicing opposition to marriage might cost her an election.
"But at the same time, she's going to have to think, what's different between that and a prostitute? A prostitute sells her soul to maintain a salary. Are you as a Christian legislator, growing in Christ, selling your convictions in order to stay making a salary, or have influence?
"I'll never say it that graphically to a member. But you get my idea."
You may also like
Drollinger describes himself as "Republican, conservative - I don't think there's any mystery about that".
He rails against "environmentalist wackos" (but wants good stewardship of the environment), thinks the welfare state begins with the family, followed by the church (though doesn't rule out state intervention), and has supported Donald Trump since he was a long-shot in the primaries.
"Of all the Bible studies I've written on policy, Trump's enacting everything I've written."
Drollinger doesn't necessarily think Trump is "working off of my blueprint".
"But he's coming from the same place I am, in terms of Biblical understating of the issues."
Drollinger lives in California, and flies into Washington for his classes, which usually take place from Monday to Wednesday. Capitol Ministries is a non-profit organisation, funded by donations. He and Danielle are paid salaries, but say they do not take the full amount.
So how does it feel, on a Wednesday morning, to teach the Bible to some of the world's most-powerful people?
"One of the emotions is, who am I to be here?" he says. "You know, kind of like Moses. 'Lord, I can't even speak...'
"I'm just a jock with some bad knees, and here I am. Only you [God] could have done this - why me? So that goes through my mind a lot, and I think that's healthy.
"But then there's the other standpoint - where I sense that I've got 21 years of expositing the word of God, specifically to apply to the life of a public servant.
"So in that sense, I feel like I'm the most qualified guy in the world."
|
New appointments have been made to an arts group post vacated by a councillor in a row about a giant see-saw-like art installation proposed for Inverness. | Councillor Ken Gowans quit as chairman of Inverness City Arts Working Group saying he did not believe The Gathering Place to be a viable concept.
About 200 people have opposed it in a public consultation.
Councillors Thomas Prag and Helen Carmichael have been appointed to jointly hold the position.
The arts group continues to review the project, as well as other arts schemes, proposed for on or near the River Ness where it runs through Inverness.
|
Most newspapers lead on the inquiry into whether Scotland Yard responded properly to an allegation of indecent exposure involving the Metropolitan Police officer being held on suspicion of the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard. The Sun asks "Did cops fail to act?" | By BBC NewsStaff
For the Times, the revelation places renewed pressure on the Met Police over its handling of the case.
The disappearance of Ms Everard - and the discovery of human remains in woodland in Kent - has brought the issue of violence against women and girls to the fore.
More than 200 women have signed an open letter to the i calling on the government and the police to take more action on the issue. They include MPs, campaigners, charity workers, and council and parliamentary staff.
The Guardian has pictures of some of the 118 women killed by men in the UK in the last year - and named by the Labour MP, Jess Phillips, in the House of Commons yesterday. It is, the paper says, a horrifying toll.
Prince William's declaration that the royals are "very much not a racist family", is the main story for several papers.
The Daily Mail says his reaction laid bare his clear hurt over the claims made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in their TV interview.
The Daily Express says he defended the Royal Family's honour. "Haunted by race slur, William strikes back", is the headline.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to make clear that he won't grant a second Scottish independence referendum, even if the SNP wins a majority in the Holyrood elections in May.
According to the paper, he will tell the Scottish Conservatives at their conference on Sunday that another vote, during the pandemic, would be reckless.
The Times has been told that nurses could be offered a rise of more than 2% under plans being considered by ministers to try to defuse the NHS pay row.
A government source is quoted as saying it's a matter of "when, not if" the current 1% offer is increased.
The source says ministers are considering a rise of more than the 2.1% proposed in 2019 by the government - and suggests somewhere between 2% and 3% would be "realistic".
Finally, in the annual league table of biggest garden pests, the i reports that slugs and snails crawled to first place in the rankings for last year.
It says the troublesome gastropods dethroned the box tree caterpillar to reclaim their status for the first time since 2017.
Vine weevils came second in the rankings - compiled by the Royal Horticultural Society - and box tree caterpillars slid into third place.
The Times reports that the caterpillars - who have munched their way through gardens in the south of the country - may have reached their northerly UK limits... because of the colder weather.
Sign up for a morning briefing direct to your inbox
|
A man has been remanded in custody after he was found in "a purpose-built hide" behind a sofa in a house in County Down. | The man was discovered hiding in the property in Saintfield on Friday afternoon.
Police also discovered a sizeable quantity of suspected class A drugs during the search.
The man and a woman, who was also at the house, were arrested for drug offences.
The PSNI said officers had attended the property following reports of suspicious activity.
They said they believed the man had breached bail and was using the hide to avoid being detained.
|
A 16-year-old boy has been reprimanded for shining a laser pen at a police helicopter to distract the pilot.
| The teenager was arrested in Crabtree Place, Cheltenham, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Sgt Mark Stephens said shining lasers at aircraft or vehicles was dangerous and could have serious consequences.
"This person now has a criminal record but more importantly understands the potentially serious consequences of his actions," he said.
|
Image messaging firm Snapchat, founded by Evan Spiegel, 23, rebuffed a $3bn (£1.9bn) acquisition offer from Facebook, according to the Wall Street Journal . | If Snapchat had accepted, it would have been Facebook's biggest purchase.
Citing sources close to the matter, the Journal reported Snapchat was being pursued by others, including Chinese e-commerce company Tencent.
Popular with teenagers, Snapchat has doubled its usage recently.
According to the firm, more than 350 million images, or "snaps" are sent daily between mobile devices. Once received by users, they are erased after a few seconds.
Created in 2011, Snapchat raised more then $60m from investors last June, which valued the company at more than $800m.
However, the company has recently come under fire for claims that sent images delete themselves after being viewed.
Several hacks have been created that allow users to save snaps, posing potential privacy issues.
|
At the age of 13, Susan Pollack - now a retired grandmother living in north London - was taken from her home in rural Hungary, loaded into a cattle truck and transported by rail through German-occupied Poland. | By Allan LittleBBC News, Auschwitz
She and her family were told they were going to be resettled. The journey took six days and some in the truck died on the way.
"There was some straw on the floor," she told me. "It was dark, it was cold, it was so hostile. And hardly any space for sitting down. There was a lot of crying, lots of children. And we were trapped. Doors were shut, we knew this was not going to be any resettlement but we had no imagination of course of what was to come."
The doors opened at Auschwitz.
There, on the railway platform, Nazi officers separated those chosen to live and work from those sent immediately to die.
Susan lied about her age. A prisoner on the platform whispered to her that she should say she was 15. It saved her life, but her mother was sent immediately to the gas chamber.
"There were no hugs, no kisses, no embrace. My mum was just pushed away with the other women and children. The dehumanisation began immediately. I didn't cry, it was as though I'd lost all my emotions."
Active collaboration
Soviet forces entered Auschwitz on 27 January, 1945.
The Nazis had abandoned the camp days earlier, leaving much of it intact. More than a million people, mostly Jews - but Poles, Roma and political prisoners as well - had been murdered there.
Those railway lines - which can be still seen at Auschwitz-Birkenau today - extended to almost every corner of Europe.
The Holocaust was not a solely German enterprise. It required the active collaboration of Norwegian civil servants, French police and Ukrainian paramilitaries. Every occupied country in Europe had its enthusiastic participants.
More on Holocaust Memorial Day:
MPs mark Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day: What can we learn?
Antiques Roadshow sheds new light on ring belonging to Jane Haining
iWonder: Why did ordinary people commit atrocities in the Holocaust?
After 1945, a great silence fell across the continent.
The Jews who survived found that the world beyond the perimeter wire of the camps did not much want to know their story.
It was only in the 1960s that popular consciousness began to catch up with the crime perpetrated against an entire people.
Holocaust denial persists. The internet is full of claims that the destruction of the Jews never happened.
"Sometimes they want to call themselves revisionist historians," says Pawel Sawicki, who works at the Auschwitz site, which now attracts two million visitors a year. "But they are not. They hate others. This is anti-Semitism."
Judicial legacy
At the Nuremberg trials after the war, leading Nazis were held accountable for the state-sponsored crimes that had been committed in Germany and German-occupied territories. For the first time, two new terms entered the grim lexicon of wartime atrocity - crimes against humanity and genocide.
This is the Nazis' judicial legacy - that from 1945, sovereign states no longer had legal carte blanche to treat their own citizens as they pleased.
"That's the amazing, revolutionary, remarkable change that happened in 1945," says Philippe Sands, an international human rights lawyer who has worked extensively on war crimes prosecutions.
"Before 1945, if a state wished to kill half its population, or torture or maim or disappear, there was no rule of international law that said you couldn't do that. The change that occurred in 1945 - as we know very sadly - has not prevented horrors from taking place.
"But it does mean that when horrors occur, there is now at least an objective standard that says to governments, to individual states, that as a matter of international law: 'you cannot do what you are doing'."
Near the blockhouses where Auschwitz prisoners were housed, there is a large open trench about the size and shape of a swimming pool.
During the war it was filled with water. Why? It was required by the camp's fire insurance policy.
There is something grotesquely chilling about this - that a camp whose purpose was mass extermination would, at the same time, concern itself with sensible precaution and compliance with insurance law. And the company that insured the camp is still trading. There is a warning in this to posterity - to us, here today.
As the UK marks Holocaust Memorial Day, Mrs Pollack issues a stark warning about the importance of learning the lessons from history.
"We're not talking about barbarians," says Mrs Pollack. "We're not talking about primitive society.
"The Germans were well-advanced, educated, progressive. Maybe civilization is just veneer-thin. We all need to be very careful about any hate-propaganda.
"This is very important. It starts as a small stream, but then it has the potential to erupt - and when it does, it's too late to stop it."
Correction 28 January 2017: This article has been amended to remove a reference to Polish train drivers being among those who collaborated with Germany. They were in fact conscripted back into work by force after the German occupation.
|
A 55-year-old man from Monmouthshire has died after getting into difficulties while diving in deep water at a converted quarry. | The man from Abergavenny, who has not yet been named, was at the National Diving and Activity Centre in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
He was with another diver when they got into difficulties.
He was taken to Frenchay Hospital near Bristol by ambulance but was declared dead on arrival.
When paramedics arrived they found both men lying on a jetty after they had been rescued from the water at the converted quarry at Tidenham near Lydney.
The other man was treated by the centre's own doctor and then in a decompression chamber.
Police say there were no suspicious circumstances and they are preparing a report for the Gloucestershire coroner.
|
Desert locusts in their millions are devouring their body weight in vegetation every day in Kenya. As spring breeding draws to a close it is now a race against time to kill their eggs before they hatch. | By Georgina SmithJournalist
Tracking the insects is an art in itself, with daily surveillance operations across the country scrambling to confirm the latest coordinates of swarms before deploying spray planes to destroy them with pesticide.
Every morning, Ambrose Ng'etich (left) from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) boards a helicopter with Captain Iltasayon Neepe to locate the locust swarms in northern-central Kenya.
The migratory pests, which carried on the wind can cover 150km (95 miles) a day, have devastated crops, pasture for livestock and livelihoods in recent months.
Mr Ng'etich's job is to manage desert locust control efforts over the vast plains of Samburu, Isiolo, Laikipia and Meru. The sandy soils in this area are ideal for desert locusts to lay their eggs.
"When the sun is warm enough, then you will know the quantity you are dealing with, they are spread all over. You can even have swarms covering up to 100km," says the FAO official.
Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, it estimated that locust invasions would push more than 25 million people across East Africa into food insecurity.
Last month, emergency financing to the tune of $43m (£34m) was approved by the World Bank for Kenya's desert locust response.
On their daily rounds, Captain Neepe and Mr Ng'etich land the helicopter and talk to community members, gathering information about the locusts' possible whereabouts.
"We have already trained a number of scouts that are going to help the community understand," says Mr Ng'etich.
Residents are to identify the size of swarms and relay this information back to FAO surveillance teams.
The next step in "recovery efforts and building resilience" will include cash transfer schemes when families are expected to be worst hit by food shortages.
Pastoralists are being worst affected.
Standing outside his empty goat pen in Samburu County, a three-hour drive north-east of Isiolo town, 32-year-old Tiampati Leletit explains that he lost 80 of his goats after the locusts came.
He gave his four remaining goats to a neighbour, so they could be part of a herd.
Mr Leletit had planted some maize, beans and other crops to feed his family in the meantime, but the locusts ate them too.
"They cleared everything," he says. He has planted yet more crops, and hopes the locusts will not come back.
But now the fear is that a new wave could hit this month, when crops are ready for harvest.
"With the desert locust situation developing as it is, we are anticipating higher levels of food insecurity in the coming months," says Lane Bunkers, of Catholic Relief Services, working on acute malnutrition with mostly pastoralist communities in northern Kenya.
Erupe Lobun, a 40-year-old Turkana herder and father of 13, says the recent wave of desert locusts has decimated the amount of food available for his herd of 60 goats.
He believes pesticides have also affected his animals, but with Covid-19 restricting people's movements, he cannot summon the vet.
Underfed mother goats are being kept apart from their young because they don't have enough milk to suckle them.
"It means we have nothing to eat," Mr Lobun says. "Livestock are our strength."
Grazing land is also under strain.
"This is my first time to see the locusts. My father used to tell me stories about the locusts a long time ago," says Moses Lomooria, 34.
"What we are used to is drought," he says, which has reduced his herd of cattle from 60 to 24.
"We are worried," he says, adding that if herders on the other side of the mountain also run out of food, they will start coming for their pasture.
"Resource-based conflict will increase," warns Josephine Ekiru, a peace-building co-ordinator for the Northern Rangelands Trust and herself a member of northern Kenya's Turkana pastoralist community.
"Our people - we only depend on livestock," she says. "When there is no pasture, there is conflict."
Her advice is that that everyone should be prepared.
You may also be interested in:
All pictures subject to copyright
|
We've heard it all before - for decades in fact. After every big corporate failure, fraud or scandal, up goes the cry: where were the auditors? The latest angst - of course - concerns the collapse of Carillion . | Helen ThomasNewsnight business editor@helentbbcon Twitter
MPs last week lambasted auditor KPMG and, more broadly, slammed the audit market as a "cosy club incapable of providing the degree of independent challenge needed".
Policymakers want the competition watchdog to look again at whether the Big Four firms - KPMG, EY, PWC and Deloitte, which audit 99% of the FTSE 100 and 96% of the 250 index - should be broken up.
And to consider whether arms doing audit work should be separated from those carrying out other consultancy or professional services.
What's interesting about this latest round of soul-searching is that the audit firms appear to be active participants.
So much so, in fact, that Newsnight has been told that the industry is on the hunt for a big name to lead an independent review of the market.
The brief, though, wouldn't be to look at how the market should be structured, or how firms should manage conflicts of interest.
Instead, the sector is chewing over a more fundamental question: what should audit actually be?
This shift is important. In the world of audit, it's radical stuff.
Pyrrhic victories
Traditionally, auditors saw themselves as offering assurance, predominantly to shareholders, that the accounts presented a "true and fair" view of the company's position.
But that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing to the profession as it does to the public, politicians, employees and customers who end up judging the results in a case like Carillion.
For many years, criticism of the audit industry was met with two arguments. First, that those berating the sector just didn't understand audit. And second, that any proposed changes risked imperilling audit quality with unspecified but terrible consequences.
These were rolled out to counter reforms proposed by the last competition inquiry into the sector in 2013 - and against European Union audit reforms, which included mandatory rotation of audit firm for public companies and limits on non-audit work.
Past victories in resisting change perhaps feel rather pyrrhic, given where the sector now finds itself.
If audit is seen as the last line of defence against fraud or as an important arbiter on a company's likely long-term health, it is time to tackle those expectations head on.
Fix and break up?
It's clear that previous attempts to shake up the market simply haven't worked.
The Big Four have become even more dominant in the business of auditing large, listed companies.
Hopes that other firms would break into that elite club have proved unfounded.
Grant Thornton - which ranks fifth by fee income and with more than 4,500 people in the UK is hardly a minnow - this year it said it would stop bidding for new audit contracts.
And while the growth in non-audit fees from audit clients has slowed (and some in the industry would be happy with an outright ban on this work), the importance of lucrative non-audit work to the firms as a whole has only grown.
It is natural to seize on the idea of break-ups of the biggest firms as a remedy: it's a concrete solution that satisfies the clamouring that something must be done.
The trouble is it isn't clear it would work - at least not on its own.
Would a smaller firm, with more competitors, really be more minded to challenge a big client on questionable numbers or assumptions?
Would smaller, audit-only UK firms mean higher-quality vetting of the big, multinational companies that make up the FTSE 100?
And would changing the market's structure make it less likely that the public, investors and politicians end up feeling short-changed come the next corporate car crash?
Other measures - like requiring joint audits, implementing market share caps, rethinking fees, looking at more regular tendering, or incentivising new entrants - would also be worth considering.
Largely dismissed in the past, industry sources say that now everything is on the table.
Opening up the audit process is also certainly merited: Despite some progress, shareholders often get little decent insight into a process that is supposedly done for their benefit.
What is audit again?
But none of this helps if auditors' view of what their job entails doesn't match the public perception of what they're meant to be doing.
Hence the industry's desire for a credible big hitter to look at just that.
This is part overdue evolution and part self-preservation. And it comes as technology opens up the scope of what an audit can feasibly check and investigate.
After years of telling its critics they don't understand audit, the profession appears to be having second thoughts: perhaps, after all, they were the ones that misunderstood.
|
More people in Scotland are dying from drugs than ever before and the deaths are hitting every part of the country. | By Chris ClementsSocial affairs correspondent, BBC Scotland
An investigation by BBC Scotland's The Nine studied the record rise in one rural area - Dumfries and Galloway.
Could the increase in drug-related deaths in south-west Scotland be down to a burgeoning black market trade in pills bought through social media?
'I heard that she'd bought the tablets online'
Marianne hadn't heard from her daughter in three days. Her calls went unanswered.
She visited Kym's flat in the small eastern Galloway town of Castle Douglas and twice peered through the letterbox.
Increasingly concerned, Marianne issued an appeal to her Facebook friends. Had anyone seen her daughter? Did they know where she was? Did they know anything at all?
No-one could help.
"I think by the Friday night, I sort of knew," says Marianne.
"I thought to myself, 'I think she's just lying in that flat'."
The following afternoon a lone police officer arrived at Marianne's cottage in the hamlet of Glenlochar.
Marianne says that it used to be the case that two officers would visit to tell someone of a death.
"I just saw a police woman coming by herself and I said, 'Well, she's obviously okay then because there are not two of you'."
The officer said: "I'm really sorry."
"I burst out crying and shouting," Marianne says.
"I was angry, devastated. I had just been talking to her a couple of days before and she kissed me and said, 'I love you, mum'.
"I told her we were here, just a mile away, always at the end of the phone.
"That was the last time we spoke."
Kym was 31.
She'd been an Army child, moving around, struggling to make lasting friendships.
When she arrived in Dumfries and Galloway, says Marianne, she was overweight and self-conscious.
She fell in with the wrong crowd.
In her late teens, she became addicted to heroin.
Kym's first partner - the father of her first child - died of an overdose in 2007.
Jail became a frequent occurrence, her addiction struggle became lifelong.
Kym's post-mortem examination found three types of drugs in her system:
"Hearing from her friends in the background, I heard that she'd bought these tablets online," says Marianne.
"China. Or somewhere. It was a certain group that had taken them and had died with them."
Kym - a mother of two - was one of 12 confirmed drug deaths in Dumfries and Galloway in 2018.
Another five deaths are likely to be added to the final tally - equalling the region's second highest drug death total.
In 2017, a record 22 deaths were drug-related in this largely rural region, stretching more than 80 miles across the Solway Coast.
The largest towns are Dumfries and Stranraer but the drugs deaths were also spread across smaller villages and hamlets.
Many neighbourhoods in Dumfries and Galloway have been affected
Source: National Records of Scotland and BBC research. Map built with Carto
Pills online delivered by post
There are an estimated 1,100 to 1,600 "problem drug users" among Dumfries and Galloway's 148,000 residents.
A recent report by the local NHS drug and alcohol group cited a greater number of people accessing their services, contributing to strain on the pharmacy budget.
On commercial radio, an advert warns locals about the signs of a drug overdose.
The Dumfries Courier newspaper features poignant testimony from a father "burying his son" after a lethal cocktail of heroin and tablets.
Outreach workers says there was a 30% drop in the number of needles handed out to addicts last year, pointing to fewer people injecting heroin.
In part this is thanks to "enforcement activities" which have disrupted the illicit drug supply network across the region.
The NHS also report notes "a significant increase of drugs being obtained via the internet, namely Valium and Xanax which are in pill form and tend not to be injected".
Justin Murray, leader of the drug and alcohol service in Dumfries and Galloway, said social media had been a "game-changer" for drug buying habits.
"People are accessing drugs differently now," he says.
"They're accessing a wider variety of drugs and they have different quantities. That is the biggest change we've seen in the last four to five years."
Mr Murray says users have told him they would rather buy five Xanax tablets than a bag of heroin.
He says: "They'll go for the Xanax tablets because they have a greater effect and a longer effect."
'It's not the heroin. It's the tablets'
Vanessa, a 39-year-old recovering heroin addict in Dumfries, agrees that her former drug of choice is "nothing" now.
She told BBC Scotland that in 2017 two people died in her presence.
Vanessa woke up next to her partner dead in bed. He had died in his sleep.
Five months later, she found her friend dead in the living room. She had also died in her sleep.
"I've been off heroin for about a year and a half now," she says.
"But I was taking a few street tablets like pregabalin."
Vanessa says she does not take as much now as death rates from pills have "gone through the roof".
She says: "You see, that's more the era now. It's not the heroin. It's the tablets."
'This Xanax business, that's really quite new'
Heroin and other opiates are still the major killer of addicts in Dumfries and Galloway.
However, studies show an increasing number of deaths involve other drugs.
BBC Scotland's The Nine and Disclosure studied 70 death certificates of people in south west Scotland where controlled substances were cited as a cause between 2012 and 2017.
Over five years, heroin, methadone and other opiates were involved for 51 deaths.
Yet other substances have shown an increasing impact in recent years, mainly benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax), and the neuropathic painkillers pregabalin and gabapentin.
Etizolam - known as fake Valium and linked to 299 deaths across Scotland in 2017 - also crops up.
By the time of Dumfries and Galloway's record drug death total in 2017, two-thirds of the deaths studied by BBC Scotland included other substances in the mix.
Mark Blount, a pharmacist in Kirkcudbright, told BBC Scotland that this mixture of opiates and painkillers was often a lethal combination.
He says it could cause an addicts breathing to get shallower and then "they would just stop breathing".
Every three months a review group - comprising NHS doctors, support workers, police and prison services - meets to discuss recent suspected drug deaths in the region.
Of the seven deaths discussed during December's meeting in a Dumfries police office, all were listed as drug-related.
A number of them included alprazolam (or Xanax).
Andrew Carnon - a consultant in public health medicine and chair of the group - spoke to the BBC as he left the meeting.
He said: "This Xanax business. That's really quite new. We haven't seen that in Dumfries and Galloway before.
"I think I can remember maybe one or two deaths involving Xanax, whereas today, we really saw a lot."
Xanax - an anti-anxiety medication available only on private prescription in the UK - is a wave just breaking on the area.
'It's too simple now'
Former drug addict Iain Campbell says he used to roam the streets for hours to find the drugs he was looking for.
"Now, go on to Facebook, go on to Whats App, two minutes, sorted," he says.
"And maybe only 20 minutes later it's delivered. It's too simple now."
Iain got clean in 2012 after a family member died from an overdose of heroin and he is now a volunteer at First Base charity in Dumfries.
He says Dumfries and Galloway is a big rural area and phone apps have made it much easier for drug users to get what they want.
According to Iain, 90% of the pills are coming in from abroad in foil packages sent through the mail or courier companies.
Pills like diazepam are drugs "of price, not of choice", says Mark Frankland, the founder of First Base.
'Vendors on the dream market'
Some of those who died here knew one another.
Vanessa donated the bed where her partner died to a friend.
That friend's daughter - her name was Becky - later passed away on the same mattress four months later, an overdose of heroin and gabapentin.
Two other young friends died on the same day in different flats in Annan.
When one 27-year-old man died in early 2018 his Facebook friends list contained no fewer than seven other young people who had passed away in the past four years, all from drugs.
One of them was Becky's ex-partner.
Those friends, in turn, knew others.
Social media networks such as Facebook show the connection between the people who have died.
But when speaking with some users in Dumfries and the surrounding area, we became aware of another connection.
There are dealer accounts set up on Facebook and operated in plain sight on the platform with the sole intention of selling drugs.
In line with what Iain Campbell told us, some explained that they used such accounts from time to time to buy pills.
The sellers go by names like Benzo King, Connor Benzo and - imaginatively - Valium Benzo.
They describe themselves as "vendors on the dream market", offering UK-to-UK delivery, tester kits and a variety of payment methods.
On offer, we find pregabalin, diazepam and etizolam. Xanax is also a big favourite.
We found more than 200 such profiles offering drugs for sale.
In his bio, one dealer named Diaz Aman promises: "All I like doing is giving people what they want."
To test how easy such a sale would be, we set up an account and started befriending some of the accounts openly dealing tablets.
Some were already trying to do business within minutes of connection.
One dealer from Brighton sent us a menu.
It contained cocaine, diazepam, etizolam and cannabis.
He offered viagra and pepper spray, as well as VIP tickets to Wembley. We opted for a small amount of Xanax.
When we asked the price, he replied: "Send what ya like and I'll send accordingly."
A day and a half later, we received a package in the post, recorded delivery.
In the package were 100 bars of what looked to be Xanax.
Back online, vendors tag potential customers in photo and video posts of the latest batch.
They display a cheerful nihilism - in one doctored photo, Pope Francis holds aloft a giant bar of Xanax as if in worship.
Buyers are lining up from Falkirk, Glasgow, Stirling, Ayr, Irvine, Inverness and Dalkeith.
And they are lining up in Dumfries.
In the world of the "dream market", our own vendor was "100 per cent legit".
The same can't be said for his pills, however.
We had his batch tested by Glasgow University's forensic toxicology lab - which deals with a large number of drug-related deaths each year.
Instead of sending us alprazolam (Xanax), our vendor had sent us etizolam, a substance first marketed and prescribed in Japan and linked to three times as many deaths as Xanax in 2017.
'A significant challenge'
Most families of people who died from drugs declined to take part in the programme.
However, many expressed a similar sentiment - someone should do something.
Facebook says its "adversaries" are "constantly evolving their tactics and terminology to avoid detection".
The social media site blocks and filters terms associated with drug sale and employs more than 30,000 people in safety and security on the site.
In a statement, it said: "When we become aware of content on Facebook that is facilitating drug sales we remove it, and fan out to look for associated profiles, pages, groups, hashtags and accounts involved in similar activity."
The statement added: "After a thorough review, we identified and removed 11 accounts related to content the BBC brought to our attention, and fanned out to remove an additional 16 accounts associated with these profiles involved in similar activity."
'Like plugging holes in a dam'
With drug dealing on social media sites so visible, what are the officers in Police Scotland's smallest division doing to combat the problem?
Det Ch Insp Colin Birnie said: "In recent months we've probably taken out several thousand tablets which we suspect are Xanax.
"We've got intelligence that they were getting delivered in the postal system. We instigated the appropriate protocols and we took them out of the postal system."
He said it would be "naïve" not to think social media would increase the availability of drugs.
Det Ch Insp Birnie said it gave dealers a "bigger platform".
This month, a two week-long operation targeted pill dealers across the region.
At one raid on a flat in Stranraer, officers searched the occupants - the owner took a while to be roused - and produced bags of what detectives told the BBC were fake diazepam tablets, as well as tubs of Xanax, complete with the branding.
Two men arrived at the flat during the search. One was taken away after he was found with drugs.
Police saw the operation as having a good result.
Across 11 addresses, officers seized the usual substances - heroin, cocaine, cannabis - and eight people were arrested for dealing.
In among the seizures, they found about 1,000 tablets believed to be counterfeit diazepam and Xanax.
Privately, with pills coming through the post, one police source said stopping the problem is like plugging holes in a dam.
'A ripple effect'
In 2017, a record 934 people died as a result of drugs in Scotland.
In the first half of 2018, more than 500 died - about 100 more than the same period a year earlier.
It's not just confined to the cities of Glasgow and Dundee - areas such as Ayrshire and Forth Valley have seen steep rises.
This story is probably happening in your town.
Dumfries and Galloway reflects larger trends.
Drug users are getting older.
If you're an addict in here, your chances are good - 98% wait less than three weeks for access to services.
Only 0.8 per cent of users die here - the lowest rate in the country. However, your chances were better five years ago.
"It is extraordinary that that we've lost so many people and yet it's kind of almost gone unnoticed," says Mark Frankland at First Base.
Justin Murray says many people think 'who really cares if a drug user dies?' but each one is a son or a daughter and often a father or a mother.
He says there is a "big ripple effect" when a drug death happens that affects many people.
According to Marianne, who lost her daughter Kym to drugs: "No happy ending ever comes from a drug story.
"It always ends up sad. And just going through it is just your worst nightmare.
"For a mother, a father, sister, brother, grandparents. It's just your worst nightmare. And it's waste. A waste of life."
It is not just confined to the larger towns of Stranraer and Dumfries.
They are dying in the villages like Sanquhar and Thornhill.
They are dying in Kirkcudbright, Dalbeattie, Lockerbie. They are dying in Annan.
We are more connected than ever before - send a request for what you like and they will supply accordingly.
Even in these most rural of communities, Scotland's highest drug death levels are causing a ripple effect.
Kym was dying in Castle Douglas.
Disclosure: These pills may kill you is on BBC One Scotland at 20:30 on Monday 25 February and on the iplayer.
|
About 800 athletes are expected to take part in the victory parade for Olympic and Paralympic competitors. They will be carried along a three-mile-route, from the City of London to the finish in The Mall, by a series of 21 floats. Find out more about the route and who will be appearing on which float below.
| Trafalgar Sq
Strand
Fleet Street
Palace
Trafalgar Square
Rows of games makers sat on the steps in Trafalgar Square, where they were joined by thousands of other spectators.
Strand
Gold-medal-winner Jessica Ennis waved to the crowds outside the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand. Four-times gold medal winner, Paralympic athlete David Weir was travelling with her on the second of three floats carrying the athletics teams.
Fleet Street
Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the route of the three-mile victory parade. Gold medallist Mo Farah was on the first of 21 floats carrying the athletes through the city.
Buckingham Palace
The Red Arrows concluded a flypast over Buckingham Palace, which was led by the British Airways plane that brought the Olympic flame to the UK.
Who is travelling on which float?
The floats carrying the athletes will be travelling in alphabetical order, so athletics will occupy the first floats, with waterpolo bringing up the rear.
|
At the very heart of the debate about same-sex marriage is the definition of the word "marriage". To some people, it changes to meet social and economic needs, to others it remains firmly fixed. So what has the institution meant down the years? | By Lauren EverittBBC News Magazine
Much of the recent debate has focused on the notion of who "owns" marriage - the Church or the State. Both, however, have played key roles at different times in the history of the institution.
1. Strategic alliances
For the Anglo-Saxons and Britain's early tribal groups, marriage was all about relationships - just not in the modern sense. The Anglo-Saxons saw marriage as a strategic tool to establish diplomatic and trade ties, says Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. "You established peaceful relationships, trading relationships, mutual obligations with others by marrying them," Coontz says.
This all changed with the differentiation of wealth. Parents were no longer content to marry their children off to just "anyone in a neighbouring group". They wanted to marry them to somebody as least as wealthy and powerful as themselves, Coontz says. "That's the period when marriage shifts and becomes a centre for intrigue and betrayal."
2. Consent
During the 11th Century, marriage was about securing an economic or political advantage. The wishes of the married couple - much less their consent - were of little importance. The bride, particularly, was assumed to bow to her father's wishes and the marriage arrangements made on her behalf.
However, for the Benedictine monk Gratian the consent of the couple mattered more than their family's approval. Gratian brought consent into the fold of formalised marriage in 1140 with his canon law textbook, Decretum Gratiani.
The Decretum required couples to give their verbal consent and consummate the marriage to forge a marital bond. No longer was a bride or groom's presence at a ceremony enough to signify their assent.
The book formed the foundation for the Church's marriage policies in the 12th Century and "set out the rules for marriage and sexuality in a changing social environment", says historian Joanne Bailey of Oxford Brookes University.
3. The sacrament of marriage
As early as the 12th Century, Roman Catholic theologians and writers referred to marriage as a sacrament, a sacred ceremony tied to experiencing God's presence. However, it wasn't until the Council of Trent in 1563 that marriage was officially deemed one of the seven sacraments, says Elizabeth Davies, of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
Following the development of Protestant theology, which did not recognise marriage as a sacrament, the Council felt a need to "clarify" marriage's place. "There was an underlying assumption that marriage was a sacrament, but it was clearly defined in 1563 because of the need to challenge teaching that suggested it wasn't," Davies says.
4. Wedding vows
Marriage vows, as couples recite them today, date back to Thomas Cranmer, the architect of English Protestantism. Cranmer laid out the purpose for marriage and scripted modern wedding vows nearly 500 years ago in hisBook of Common Prayer, says the Reverend Duncan Dormor of St John's College at the University of Cambridge.
Although the book was revised in 1552 and 1662, "the guts of the marriage service are there in 1549," he says. "All the things that you think of, 'to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer', all of that stuff comes from that point." The marriage service has had "remarkable continuity" compared with most other services, he says.
But much of it was "pilfered from Catholic medieval rites", such as the Sarum marriage liturgy, which was all in Latin except the actual vows. "What makes the 1549 service significant is that it is the introduction of a Protestant service in English, and it's basically the words that we all know with a couple of small tweaks," Dormor says.
5. Divorce
Before 1858, divorce was rare. In 1670, Parliament passed an act allowing John Manners, Lord Roos, to divorce his wife, Lady Anne Pierpon. This created a precedent for parliamentary divorces on the grounds of the wife's adultery, according to theNational Archives.
This marked "the start of modern 'divorce'," says Rebecca Probert of the University of Warwick School of Law.
It also set the precedent for more than 300 cases between the late 17th and mid-19th Centuries - each requiring an act of Parliament. It was only in 1858 that divorce could be carried out via legal process. Even then divorce was too expensive for most people, and there was the added challenge for wives of proving "aggravated" adultery - that their husbands had been guilty of cruelty, desertion, bigamy, incest, sodomy or bestiality, Probert says.
The gates for divorce opened with the Divorce Reform Act of 1969. Instead of pointing the finger, couples could cite marital breakdown as the reason for the split.
"Prior to 1969, the script was that marriage was for life" says Bren Neale, a University of Leeds sociologist. "The divorce law meant that people trapped in bad marriages need not stay in them forever." The emphasis on marriage shifted from a long-term commitment at all costs to a personal relationship where individual fulfilment is important, she says.
6. State control
The Clandestine Marriage Act of 1753, popularly known as Lord Hardwicke's Act, marked the beginning of state involvement in marriage, says sociologist Carol Smart of the University of Manchester. "You've got these parallel strands going on of the secular and the religious sides, and that clearly hasn't gone away," Smart adds.
The act required couples to get married in a church or chapel by a minister, otherwise the union was void. Couples also had to issue a formal marriage announcement, called banns, or obtain a licence.
Most prospective newlyweds were already following these directives, which were enshrined in canon law. But with the act, "the penalty for not complying became much, much harsher," Probert says.
"You can see it as the state increasing its control - this is almost too important just to leave to canon law, this needs a statute scheme and specific penalties if you don't comply," she says. "[It] put the formalities required for a valid marriage on a statutory footing for the first time."
7. Civil marriages
The Marriage Act of 1836 allowed for non-religious civil marriages to be held in register offices. These were set up in towns and cities across England and Wales. The act also meant nonconformists and Catholic couples could marry in their own places of worship, according to their own rites. Apart from a brief period during the 17th Century, marriages had been overseen by the Church of England - even if the couples weren't members.
"If you were Baptist, you might not want to get married in the Church of England but that was what you had to do," Probert says. "There's no point in going through a ceremony that didn't give you the status of a married couple."
The state also started keeping national statistics for marriage around this time. Non-Anglican couples were required to have a civil official present to document their marriages. "They're not actually trusted, in a sense, to record marriages themselves," Probert says.
8. Love enshrined
Roaming bards sang of love during medieval times and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet acted it out on stage, but it wasn't until the Victorian era that it became accepted as a foundation for marriage. "The Victorians were really, really invested in the idea of love - that marriage should actually be based on love or companionship," says Jennifer Phegley, author of Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England.
The growing importance of the middle class and new money blurred the traditional social boundaries for marriage. With more social mobility, there was a growing "distaste" among the middle classes for thinking of marriage as "a family-arranged event for exchanging a daughter into a family for gain", Phegley says.
Aspiring lovebirds needed only look to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert for inspiration - the couple was upheld as the icon of the loving marriage. Their union may have been based on bloodlines, but Victoria frequently referred to it as a "love match". "If you read her letters and her diaries, she's very effusive about how in love with him she was, and this sort of filtered down into society," Phegley says.
9. More than baby-making
Catholic and Anglican doctrine have historically elevated procreation as one of the primary reasons for marriage. But in the late 19th Century, a "silent revolution" began taking place, Dormor says. With more children surviving and family sizes ballooning, couples started using rudimentary methods of birth control to limit pregnancies. "It begins the process of decoupling procreation from marriage, at some level," Dormor says.
"Before, if you're married, you have a sexual relationship, and you have kids. The idea that you would do something to stop yourself from having kids within a marriage doesn't seem to be part of the mental landscape, but in the last few decades [of the 19th Century] it's quite clear that things are changing."
The Anglican Church cautiously accepted artificial contraception in the 1930s at a conference of bishops, but only where there was a "clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood". Today, the Church of England does not regard contraception as a sin or going against God's purpose.
For the Catholic Church "the procreation of children" remains "one of the essential things that marriage is about", says Father Ashley Beck at St Mary's University College, London. When a couple is preparing to marry, the subject of children is often discussed with a priest. "If they were going to rule out having children, then we wouldn't marry them," he says.
10. Civil partnerships
The first ceremonies under the Civil Partnerships Act took place in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales in December 2005. At the time, campaigners said the law ended inequalities for same-sex couples. Meg Munn, minister for equality, said: "It accords people in same-sex relationships the same sort of rights and responsibilities that are available to married couples."
Smart calls the event a "milestone" that "is marriage by any other name, essentially".
She adds: "Legally speaking, there's only a tiny difference.
"The actual allowing of same-sex couples to enter into a state-recognised, basically marriage, with all the same obligations, the same safeguards and so on is really, really significant."
To many Christians, however, while a civil partnership confers all the legal rights of marriage, a church wedding is seen as a mystical event, the making of promises before God in a sacred setting, endowing the relationship with a special "blessed" quality.
|
A puncture-proof bike tyre, light-up indicator gloves, a healthy energy drink and an app to find lost bikes - these were the winning designs in the Great British Make Off competition for 11- to 14-year olds. | By Judith BurnsEducation reporter, BBC News
The brief was to come up with innovations to improve cyclists' lives and develop them with sketches, models and prototypes.
Richard Green, chief executive of the Design and Technology Association, which represents the subject's teachers, said the competition aimed to boost D&T in schools "because it's the only place in the curriculum where practical problem-solving takes place".
Still one of the most popular GCSEs, it was being marginalised by government changes and, without intervention from ministers, may even cease to exist within five years, he added.
Potential profit
There were 150 entries, and the four winners got to perfect their products with the help of top innovators in the field.
Some students definitely developed an eye for potential profit.
"I am not signing anything until I know what my share of the money will be," said Airann, not entirely joking.
Together with team-mates Shana and Paige, from St Benedict Catholic Voluntary Academy, in Derby, Airann developed the Spa Dew sports drink "in a cycling-friendly container".
Top chef Steve Walpole who helped them refine their range of drinks during a "very messy" day in his kitchen, described their idea as "bang on trend".
"If you are looking at it as part of a range from an entrepreneurial point of view, you would get some serious interest," he added.
Design element
D&T became part of the national curriculum in 1989, compulsory for five- to 16-year-olds.
The design element was what made it different from the craft skills previously taught in schools, Mr Green said.
"It is not woodwork, not metalwork, not needlework, and it is not cookery," he said in his speech congratulating the winners.
Pupils worked with the latest materials and technologies - with computer-aided design and manufacturing techniques such as 3D printers, laser cutters and robotics available in some schools, he said.
Ramneek, from Beal High School, in Essex, chose to embed a GPS chip into bike handlebars and design a computer app to track it in case it was lost or stolen.
Her teacher, Lucy Joseph, said Ramneek had really understood the design brief and thought about it carefully.
"It is really important to have the maths and science knowledge but also the creativity as well in order to be able to deliver the actual product for people to use," she said.
"This country is trying to bring back design and manufacturing here instead of doing it elsewhere, so I guess it's our job as teachers to bring on those designers and technologists."
Mr Green said the emphasis on D&T in schools since 1989 had contributed in no small part to the UK's international success in design, a sector employing some two million people and contributing more than £70bn a year to the UK economy.
'Challenges'
The competition's purpose was to bring out "the inventiveness and creativity" of teenagers in their D&T lessons but also "to highlight the challenges the subject faces", he said.
D&T is not included in the government's English Baccalaureate (EBacc) school-performance measure of good grades in a set of key subjects.
These subjects are maths, English, the sciences and a language, plus history or geography.
D&T had been retained in the new national curriculum but only just, Mr Green said.
At one point there had been fears it might be left out entirely. And now, instead of being compulsory from five to 16, as it had been in the old curriculum, it was mandatory only until the age of 14, he said.
Understandably teachers had been put off specialising in the subject in their initial training, so there was now a shortfall in their numbers of about 1,200, Mr Green said.
Some head teachers still misunderstood the subject, he added, confusing it with the old-fashioned craft subjects it had replaced and had reacted to teacher shortages by cutting teaching time.
The upshot is numbers taking D&T GCSE have dropped from about 450,000 10 years ago to just over 230,000 now.
This is despite skills education being singled out by ministers as vital to our economic future.
Mr Green urged them to "talk the subject up" and make it clear it was among the vital science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects pupils were encouraged to take.
He said D&T was a useful third A-level for would-be engineering students at top universities, alongside maths and physics.
Computing should not be the only subject regarded as technology, he said.
Mr Green wants the government to ensure it trains enough D&T teachers and gives them enough continuous professional development to keep across new trends.
He said he had recently returned from China, where the cities of Shanghai and Nanjing had invited him to share his expertise.
"They have realised they are not good at developing risk taking, creativity and innovation in students, despite being good at building knowledge," he said.
"They are looking to introduce D&T while it is being marginalised and gradually eroded here. That thought is really quite scary."
Curriculum 'transformed'
Responding, the government said its plan was for schools to teach children "all the skills they need to succeed in modern Britain, including the next generation of successful British designers and engineers".
"We have transformed the design and technology curriculum so children are kept up to speed with the fast-changing technology industry and innovations like 3D printers, laser cutters and robotics," said a Department for Education spokeswoman.
"Pupils will analyse the work of leading designers from the past and present as well as how to make and design products.
"For example, by learning how to incorporate and programme micro-processor chips into products they have made."
More rigorous GCSEs and A-levels in D&T from 2016 could count towards a new performance measure, Progress 8, alongside other academic, arts and some vocational qualifications as well as the Ebacc subjects, said the spokeswoman.
"This will ensure schools helping to produce the designers and engineers of tomorrow are recognised for that success."
|
A new £40m underwater power cable should give Jersey a more reliable electricity supply, according to the island's only electricity company.
| Jersey Electricity said the £40m cable was due to be in service by 2015.
The company said the contract with Prysmian Group was the next step in a 10-year project for a cheaper, more secure power supply from France.
The 35KM cable will connect Jersey to what Jersey Electricity called a more resilient part of the French grid.
In 2012, the island's original supply cable failed, forcing the company to generate extra power at La Collette power station, which led to a 9.5% increase in electricity prices.
In September, the island lost power when a submarine supply cable to France was broken. It was the third island-wide power cut in six years.
|
A £5,000 reward is being offered by police seeking the body of a missing Polish man in Nottingham. | Bogdan Nawrocki, 22, has not been seen since 5 January in the Radford area of the city.
Detectives said evidence led them to open a murder inquiry in April and they had searched several properties including an abandoned factory in Radford.
A 27-year-old man from Sneinton has been charged with murder.
Four other men arrested in connection with the case have been released on bail.
Officers appealed for the public to come forward with information, saying Mr Nawrocki's family deserved justice.
|
A little over a year after its stock market debut, Facebook has joined the S&P 500 index of some of the world's largest firms, replacing test equipment maker Teradyne. | Companies in the S&P 500 can be listed on either the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange.
The S&P 500 is considered the best representation of the US stock market and a bellwether for the US economy.
Facebook shares jumped 4% after hours on the news.
After a botched public offering in May 2012, Facebook shares slid to less than half of their initial $38 (£23; 28 euro) price, before recovering during the summer of 2013.
The company has been pleasing investors recently, notching better than expected earnings and strong mobile advertising sales, a crucial metric watched by analysts.
It is now worth a little over $122bn (£74bn).
Other firms added to the S&P 500 are Alliance Data Systems and flooring company Mohawk Industries.
They replace retailer Abercrombie & Fitch and JDS Uniphase, a maker of optical technology.
|
A pilot has died after the light aircraft he was flying crashed shortly after take-off police have confirmed. | The aircraft crashed shortly after take-off from Spanhoe Airfield, near Corby at about 12:45GMT on Sunday.
Northamptonshire Police said a passenger on board sustained serious but not life-threatening injuries and is in hospital.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the police are investigating the cause of the crash.
|
A preliminary deal between Iran and world powers, which will see international sanctions lifted in return for Iranian curbs on its nuclear programme, has boosted the appetite for doing business in Iran at the earliest opportunity. | By Amir PaivarBBC Persian
The first time he answered his phone, Xanyar Kamangar was in the passport queue at Tehran airport, the day after Iran and world powers agreed on the framework for a nuclear deal.
The second time was a couple of days later, well past midnight Tehran time, while Mr Kamangar was working on closing a deal of his own. He barely had time for a telephone interview.
The 39-year old Iranian-born banker left his well-paid job at Deutsche Bank in London late last year to co-found Griffon Capital, a corporate finance advisory and asset management firm "betting on Iran opening up."
"It's a generational opportunity and a chance to make a difference," said Mr Kamangar, a graduate of the London Business School.
"If you think Russia was big, Iran is going to be even bigger, because Iran has the [financial] framework and regulations, but Russia was the Wild West when it opened up!"
Mr Kamangar's firm has already valued, raised and closed significant investment from mostly European firms for DigiKala, a fast-growing online retail operation, valuing it close to $150m (£100m).
Although modest by global comparison, this is the largest investment yet in a technology start-up in Iran. European investors had to apply for exemptions from sanctions from their respective governments.
Starting gun
Sanctions by the United States and the European Union on Iran's financial, energy and trade sectors have held back the country once described as "the biggest untapped market before Mars and the Moon" by Martin Sorrel of advertising giant WPP.
Some anticipate a "gold rush" once Iran's 77-million-strong, highly educated, consumption-savvy market opens up.
When asked how quickly economic sanctions could be removed, US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters it depended on how fast Iran could deliver its side of the bargain by limiting its nuclear activities.
Mr Kerry estimated the amount of work Iran had to do was "in the vicinity of four months to a year" from the date of the final deal, now aimed at 30 June.
Since the Geneva interim nuclear deal with Iran in November 2013, many European and even American conglomerates have already drawn up plans to enter the market.
They have found partners and agents and negotiated contracts. Some have even provisionally recruited staff, while others have been looking at properties to live or work in - all waiting for the "starting gun".
More than Iranian expats, a nuclear deal and sanctions relief could benefit those living inside the country: from cancer patients who struggled to find their prized imported medicine, to the country's aviation industry crippled by lack of spare parts.
But most of all, Iran's middle class is geared up for a resurgence.
Risk factor
Not all is that rosy when it comes to doing business in Iran. The economy is predominantly run by powerful entities close to the country's Supreme Leader, the security forces and the military, some of whom are hardly accountable to anyone, let alone the judiciary.
In 2004, the powerful Revolutionary Guards kicked out a Turkish airport services company from a contract for Tehran's then-new airport, citing security concerns. The Turkish company was replaced by a local consortium.
This happened under the watch of reformist President Mohammad Khatami but instigated by institutions over which his government had no control.
His successor Hassan Rouhani could find himself in the same situation.
"Did any of these stop multi-billion companies from rushing to China? Were they put off by shaky rule of law, violence or the military government in Egypt?" asks Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a US-based think tank that advocated increased sanctions against Iran.
"No, for those companies, it is just another risk to factor in, but won't stop them from going in."
Foreign investors flock to any forum that sheds light on the sometimes murky business mechanisms of the Iranian market.
"Rather than speculating from the sidelines about the Iran 'gold rush', we need business leaders to think like stakeholders who will constructively shape Iran's future," says Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, who helped organise an investment conference on Iran in London last November.
He is already planning the second Europe-Iran Forum, this time focusing on Iran's banking and financial sectors, in Geneva in September.
"Such forums allow us to encourage transparent conversations between Iranian and foreign firms on this common goal," says Mr Batmanghelidj.
The Iranian Ministry of Petroleum is also planning a major conference in London in September, where new oil contracts will be showcased for global energy giants.
Road ahead
But not all is final. The road ahead for nuclear negotiators is tough.
If putting out what is in effect a press statement could take the two sides four months of day-long talks and over-nighters, what could hammering out the details entail?
Opposition to the deal is strong, especially from Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and there is a chance it may not see the light of day on 1 July.
"I see that as a very remote possibility," says Mr Kamangar. "If the deal does indeed fall through, we are a very patient bunch and believe in the unique long-term potential of the country."
|
A new devolution package for Wales was prepared in a "rushed, incoherent and unsatisfactory" way, First Minister Carwyn Jones has told AMs. | Mr Jones said the deal, announced by UK ministers on Friday, was "no more than a staging post" to a better system.
The prime minister has argued the plan removes the "remaining barriers" to a referendum on tax powers.
But, on Tuesday, Mr Jones said the proposals were a "missed opportunity" on issues such as funding.
He has already rejected David Cameron's referendum call, saying a minimum funding offer for the Welsh government was merely a "vague promise".
|
Fire consumed a large part of Eastbourne's pier on Wednesday, destroying a significant section of the historic Victorian structure.
| The pier has been a major attraction in Eastbourne since its official opening in 1870.
Before, during and after
During its lifetime the pier has featured, among other things, docking facilities for paddle steamers, a ballroom, a theatre, a music pavilion and a camera obscura.
It was damaged by a mine during World War II, suffered a fire in 1970, and also received storm damage during the hurricane of October 1987.
The pier has also appeared in a number of films and TV programmes, often standing in for Brighton.
|
National Museum Wales has made a "significantly enhanced offer" to staff taking part in strike action because of proposed changes to weekend payments. | By Huw ThomasBBC Wales arts and media correspondent
The Welsh Government's leader of the house and chief whip confirmed that NMW made the offer to the PCS union at the weekend.
Jane Hutt told AMs that the museum and the PCS were meeting on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the offer.
About 300 of the museum's staff receive the payments and 220 are PCS members.
The union has been holding strikes at NMW sites, while industrial action has been going on for more than two years.
Staff have already been offered a lump sum equivalent to two years' worth of premium payments as part of the deal to end extra payments for working weekends and bank holidays.
|
A Japanese man has learnt to scuba dive so he can search the freezing waters of the Pacific Ocean looking for his wife, who has been missing since the catastrophic Japanese tsunami of 2011, it's been reported. | News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring
Last week, Yasuo Takamatsu, 57, got the higher-level diving licence he needs for underwater searches and clearing debris. He decided to start training right away instead of waiting for warmer weather after the authorities made three unsuccessful searches in the last year for his wife Yuko's body, the Mainichi Daily News reports.
"I want to start looking for Yuko as soon as I can, tomorrow even," he said. "I'll keep diving as many times as it takes. I'll get better, a little at a time."
Takamatsu says Yuko was at work at a bank when she felt tremors on 11 March. Fearing a tsunami, employees went up to the roof of the 13m (42ft) building - but the wave was reportedly 20m high when it hit the town of Onagawa - one of the worst affected areas.
Four bank workers were confirmed dead and eight others, including Yuko, were declared missing. The town of 11,000 lost around 1,000 people after the catastrophe.
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
|
Only five days after it began, Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial has concluded. As was widely predicted, the final verdict was that the former president was not guilty of inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol last month. | Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter
There have now been four presidential impeachment trials in US history, and this one was by far the shortest.
What it lacked in duration, however, it will make up in consequence. A precedent - a former president standing trial - was set. Reputations were burnished and tarnished. And a tumultuous stage was set for political battles to come.
Here's a look at some of the key players, and how they emerged from this moment in US history.
Donald Trump
New trial, same outcome.
Trump once again avoided conviction by the US Senate because his fellow Republicans, by and large, stuck by his side. The final tally was 57-43, which left the prosecution 10 short of the two-thirds majority required.
That, at its most basic level, is a win for the former president. He is still eligible to run for president again in 2024, if he so chooses. His base, by all indications, is still largely intact. Both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, most Republican officeholders opposed the impeachment proceedings - and those who broke ranks are already facing ferocious criticism and, in some cases, formal reprimands from their Republican constituents.
In a press statement, the former president celebrated his acquittal, condemned Democrats and said that his political movement was just beginning.
Trump - and his movement - did not emerge from this impeachment trial unscathed, however. One of the most memorable portions of the prosecution case by House managers were the new videos of Trump's supporters, wearing Make America Great Again hats and waving Trump flags, ransacking the Capitol.
Those images will forever be associated with the Trump brand. Every rally he holds from here on will evoke memories of that riot. It may not cost him among the Republican rank and file, but independent voters - and moderates - are unlikely to forget.
Senate Republicans
A year ago, only one Republican senator - Mitt Romney of Utah - voted to convict Trump. This time, he was joined by six others.
It's no coincidence, however, that of those who broke ranks, three of them - Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Bill Cassidy - were just re-elected and don't have to face voters for six years. Two - Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina - are retiring.
That highlights the challenge facing many of the Republican senators in the chamber. A vote to convict would have attracted the ire of primary voters, many of whom would view the turn against Trump as a betrayal. For those in safe Republican states, a challenge from a fellow conservative is a much more pressing concern than whichever Democrat faces off against them in November.
Republican senators up for re-election next year in swing states - in places like Florida, Wisconsin and Iowa - may have to worry about their vote to acquit being used against them by their Democratic opponents in a general election. One can already envision the attack adverts, accompanied by video of the violence on Capitol Hill.
A lot could depend on what Trump does next. Does he launch himself fully into US politics again, reminding his supporters - and his critics - of these impeachment battles as the next election day approaches? Or does he stick to seclusion of his private clubs and golf course?
I think we all know which is more likely.
Mitch McConnell
If every Senate Republican had their own political calculation to make before casting their vote - weighing whether to risk the ire of their party or the judgement of general election voters - one particular senator's drama was on particularly stark display.
Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, leader of his party in the Senate, had been outspoken for weeks in his criticism of Donald Trump's conduct on 6 January. For a while, his final vote in the trial was in doubt. On Saturday morning, however, he informed his fellow senators he would support acquittal.
After the Senate rendered its final verdict, he explained why. He condemned Trump's behaviour and said he engaged in a "disgraceful dereliction of duty."
"There's no question that president Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day," McConnell said
His not guilty vote, he said, was because former presidents were not eligible for impeachment trials. If such a precedent were followed, he said, any private citizen - regardless of status - could be impeached and ruled ineligible for public office by the Congress.
McConnell's critics will view that as a cop-out, not a principled stand. And it is noteworthy that his procedural objection allows him to avoid being out of step with the majority of Senate Republicans, which is a risky place for a congressional leader to be.
It's a fine line for McConnell to walk, and time will tell if his fellow Republicans are satisfied by his vote, if not his words.
House Democrats
For most of their careers, members of the House of Representatives languish in relative obscurity. Few in the 435-member chamber, save for the Speaker, ever get the kind of national spotlight that was cast upon the impeachment managers prosecuting the case against Trump in his Senate trial this week.
The nine-member team put together a slick presentation over the course of the five-day trial, complete with packaged videos of the 6 January riot accompanied by maps of the Capitol showing how close the mob came to US politicians, including the Vice-President Mike Pence.
Lead manager Jamie Raskin will probably best be remembered for his emotional opening remarks, where his voice caught as he recalled a conversation with his 24-year-old daughter after they were evacuated by the Capitol building. Throughout the rest of the week, he presided over the prosecution with a more cerebral detachment that hinted at his background as a constitutional law professor at American University.
Second-term Congressman Joe Neguse has been considered a rising star in Democratic politics, and his turn in front of the cameras did little to dispel that notion. The biggest surprise from the team, however, was probably Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands. As a non-voting delegate from a US territory, she has little influence in Congress - but she gave some of the most impassioned, memorable monologues of the entire trial. Democrats might start rallying for Virgin Islands statehood after her performance.
If there was one mark against the managers, it was their on-again, off-again attempt to call witnesses. Starting down that road, and then aborting, will be seen by some on the left as an unforced error, leaving a bitter taste in their mouths.
Joe Biden
The current president's strategy for handling the former president's impeachment trial was to keep the whole ordeal at arm's length.
He wasn't closely following the proceedings, White House officials said. During the trial he kept a busy schedule of events related to the coronavirus pandemic. When Biden did comment, it was only to remark about the new videos of the Capitol violence - images that had been played repeatedly on television news.
The Biden administration's calculation is that his long-term political fortunes rest on his success in dealing with the pandemic, the economy and the American public's other concerns, and not with the outcome of Trump's impeachment trial.
In the end, the trial had little practical impact on his progress toward enacting his legislative agenda. The Senate lost only three days of business. The chamber won't be able to take up Biden's Covid relief bill until the House passes the version, which it has spent the week working on.
With the trial concluded, the Senate also will resume confirming Biden's administration appointments, including attorney general nominee Merrick Garland, after it returns from a week recess.
All of this should please Biden and his team. If the Democratic base decides, however, that the price of moving forward with Biden's political agenda was the failure to hold Trump fully accountable - for instance, by conducting a speedy trial without witnesses - he may pay a political price nevertheless.
In the political battles ahead, Biden needs a united Democratic Party. If there is second-guessing after this impeachment trial, cracks might start to emerge.
Donald Trump's lawyers
Bruce Castor, the supposed lead lawyer on Donald Trump's legal team, may put that old saying that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" to the test. He opened the defence of the former president with a long, rambling discourse that may have pushed one senator, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, into siding with the Democrats.
After that - and amid reports that Trump himself was displeased - Castor receded into the background, replaced primarily by Michael van der Veen, a fellow Philadelphian who primary law practice involves personal injury and liability law cases.
Van der Veen did a much better job translating the former president's pugnacious attitude toward his political opposition into his legal presentations. He would frequently scrunch his nose into a wide sneer when referring to the House impeachment managers.
At one point, he prompted jeers from Democrats when he derided a question presented by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. And he flashed anger when Democrats laughed at his threat to hold hundreds of depositions at his office in Pennsylvania if the Senate chose to call witnesses in the trial.
In the end, he was able to navigate his way out of the prospect of an extended trial, however, and bring the proceedings to a speedy, satisfactory conclusion.
Lawyers are ultimately judged by their wins and losses, and van der Veen, Castor and fellow lawyer David Schoen got their client off the hook.
|
Funding for free swimming for under-16s in Wales is to be targeted at lessons for youngsters in poorer areas. | The scheme, launched in 2003, first ran in the school holidays but was later amended to include weekend sessions.
The budget is being cut from £3.4m in 2014-15 to £3m in 2015-16, but no county will lose all its funding.
Deputy Sport Minister Ken Skates said: "We know that those from a deprived background are less likely to be able to swim."
|
Police have praised revellers at the Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum after making only six arrests. | Officers said despite more than 20,000 people making the trip to Beauly for the two day event, the crime rate was very low.
The six arrests were in relation to assaults, disorder and the supply of drugs.
One person is expected to appear at Inverness Sheriff Court on Monday.
|
It is an iconic image, encapsulating the horror of the Troubles . Father Alec Reid kneels in a Belfast car park as he administers the last rites over the bloodied, near naked body of a British soldier. | By Peter CrutchleyBBC Knowledge & Learning
Two British Army corporals had just been tortured and shot in broad daylight after driving into an IRA funeral.
The violence in Northern Ireland seemed to have spiralled completely out of control.
Yet the contents of a blood soaked envelope Fr Reid was carrying that day would set in motion a chain of events that led to an IRA ceasefire, and ultimately a lasting peace.
Twenty years on from the IRA's ceasefire on 31 August 1994, veteran BBC journalist and author Peter Taylor has been reflecting on the part Fr Reid played in stopping the violence.
"The role Fr Reid played in bringing about the peace process was absolutely critical. He was one of the real non-combatant, non-politician peacemakers. He was a remarkable man, who played a really important role historically," he said.
Just how did a priest come to play such a crucial part in the peace process?
Early days
Father Reid was ordained as a priest of the Redemptorist Order of the Catholic Church in 1957.
He moved to Clonard monastery in Belfast in 1961, where he would work for the next 40 years.
Clonard is situated on one of Belfast's many sectarian fault lines and was right on the coalface when the violence began in Northern Ireland in 1969, with riots and shootings commonplace in the area.
Engaging in dialogue
While the violence intensified in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 80s, Fr Reid was among those looking for a way to bring peace.
In an interview for the BBC documentary 14 Days he explained what motivated him:
"I used to say that I don't belong to any political party, but I represent the next person who is going to be killed in the troubles. The church has a moral obligation to get stuck in when people are suffering and to try and stop it."
He felt it was imperative to bring nationalist and republican parties together and to get the IRA to renounce violence in favour of negotiation.
It was a high risk strategy. It required John Hume, the leader of the nationalist SDLP, and a vocal proponent of non-violence, to engage with the republican party Sinn Féin, regarded as political pariahs at the time due to their links with the IRA.
Peter Taylor believes the importance of Father Reid's role at this time cannot be over-estimated.
"I think Fr Reid's role was enormous in liaising with John Hume and Gerry Adams to encourage the IRA to make the momentous steps that it eventually did," he said.
"Fr Reid had to be trusted by all parties on the nationalist/republican side of the conflict."
Fr Reid persuaded Hume to engage in secret talks with Adams, which initially took place at Clonard, with the priest acting as mediator. The two parties eventually began formal dialogue in January 1988. But the beginning of talks did not mean an end to the violence.
14 dark days
In fact some of the worst days of the Troubles were still to come. During 14 days in March 1988, a sequence of traumatic events left Northern Ireland teetering on the edge of a dangerous precipice.
The spiral of violence began on 6 March when three members of an IRA unit were shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. As their funerals were taking place in Belfast's Milltown cemetery 10 days later, loyalist gunman Michael Stone launched a gun and grenade attack on mourners, killing three and wounding more than 50.
Among Stone's victims was IRA member Kevin Brady. At his funeral three days later, two British Army corporals in civilian clothing, David Howes and Derek Wood, drove into the funeral cortege. Their car was immediately surrounded by a mob and the soldiers were overpowered.
They were dragged away, stripped, beaten and taken to nearby waste ground where they were shot dead by the IRA.
In attendance at the funeral, Fr Reid witnessed the fracas and attempted to intervene, even getting between the men after they had been forced to the ground and pleading with their attackers not to kill them. But the priest was warned that he could be shot and was himself dragged away.
In the 14 Days documentary he described the scene and how he was deeply affected by their death:
"I walked up to this area of waste ground. There was nobody else there, just the two bodies. I went up to the one nearest to me, and he seemed still to be breathing, so I tried to give him the kiss of life. I felt I had done my best to save them, but I had failed. I was very shocked. It was a tragedy."
Blood soaked envelope
Cameraman David Cairns captured Father Reid, with blood on his cheek. kneeling beside the corporal's body. This moment of compassion amidst the brutality was shown around the world.
It wasn't until years later that people would learn that beneath his coat that day the priest was carrying an envelope which would bring hope in the midst of the despair.
John Hume had suggested that both sides put their political solution for settling the conflict on paper and Fr Reid had collected Sinn Féin's position from Gerry Adams. He was still carrying it with him at the funeral.
"I had held onto the letter but I had to change the envelope, as the blood of one of the soldiers was on it. I went to see John Hume in Derry that afternoon and gave him this paper from Gerry Adams."
The letter helped enable the crucial first steps of the peace process and this period of violence intensified the resolve of Fr Reid and other church, community and political figures to achieve peace.
Talks continued and Fr Reid would act as a go-between with the Irish government for the next decade. The British government also re-opened secret contacts with the IRA leadership that were first established in 1972.
IRA ceasefire
On 31 August 1994 the IRA declared a "complete cessation of military operations". This was the culmination of Fr Reid's hopes for the years of talks he had facilitated.
This was a hugely important moment as it allowed Sinn Féin to be involved in all-party talks, which would pave the way for the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought nationalists and unionists in government together, in a power-sharing assembly.
This agreement was eventually amended by the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, which saw former enemies Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness becoming Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers in 2007.
Pilloried and praised
During his later years, Fr Reid was also involved in peace efforts in the Basque region in Spain. In January 2003, he was awarded the Sabino Arana 2002 World Mirror prize in Bilbao, in recognition of his efforts at promoting peace and reconciliation.
He was also one of the witnesses who confirmed the decommissioning of IRA weapons in 2005, which was a critical hurdle that needed to be overcome to keep Northern Ireland's fragile peace alive.
His career was not without controversy. He angered unionists at a public meeting in 2005 when he likened the unionist treatment of Catholics in Northern Ireland in the past to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews. Fr Reid later apologised saying his remarks were made in the heat of the moment.
On 22 November 2013 Fr Reid died in a Dublin hospital, with tributes flowing in from across the world, with the British Ministry of Defence acknowledging his efforts, saying: "Fr Alec Reid's intervention to administer last rites epitomised his faith and strength of conviction. His comfort was given amidst the enormous fears and tension on that terrible day in March 1988."
Father Reid's legacy
For Peter Taylor, there is a lingering regret regarding the priest.
"Sadly he was one of the few people involved in making peace that I never got to know. At the time I was making the Provos series, he didn't want to talk and I respected that. I was very sorry that I couldn't persuade him," he said.
While many people were involved in the lengthy process of bringing peace to Northern Ireland, journalist Brian Rowan assessed Fr Reid's legacy in the 14 Days documentary:
"I think when the historians look back on 30 years of conflict here, and on the journey of war to peace, the story will not be told without the name of Alec Reid right in the middle of it all."
Watch BBC Northern Ireland's documentary Ceasefire
Around the BBC
The IRA's journey to peace
BBC History: The Troubles
The Good Friday Agreement
Watch: Ceasefire
Related Internet Links
On This Day: IRA ceasefire
|
The Call the Midwife Christmas special is already being dubbed a perennial favourite in the TV listings - up there with EastEnders and Doctor Who - so it may be surprising to find this will be only its second festive outing. | By Keily SmithBBC News entertainment reporter
Based on Jennifer Worth's memoirs of her time as a nurse in 1950s London, the show - which is about to head into its third series - centres on life at the Nonnatus House order and the nuns and midwives who work side-by-side.
Having already exhausted all of the late author's original stories, the drama is now being penned by series creator Heidi Thomas.
The Christmas episode promises to be a tearful affair but avoids the shock value of last year's Downton Abbey Christmas special, which saw the death of one of its main characters, and led to accusations of sensationalism.
"It's just a beautifully crafted story," says Helen George, who plays the glamorous yet feisty Trixie.
"There is the emphasis on birth and birthing, but it is about relationships of the families and the community as well, which is so touching and emotive in its own essence there's no need to shove a death in for shock value."
'Wiped out'
While the series has moved into the tail-end of the 1950s, the drama is played out to the backdrop of a country still recovering from World War Two, particularly in the Christmas episode.
Jessica Raine, who plays lead character Jenny, says: "I think it is necessary as people tend to forget how long it took to get over the war, especially in the East End, because a lot of it was wiped out. It had such an effect on everyone's lives still."
George adds: "Going into the next series, there are a few reflections of the war still so it still feels like a community and a world repairing itself, which we haven't really covered before. It's always spoken about but the emotional depth of it isn't really explored, but in the new series it is."
Pam Ferris, who plays the no-nonsense Sister Evangelina, agrees the war still had a profound effect long after it ended.
"For those of us naive of us to think the war ended in 1945, it's a lesson for all historians and people who don't know the war - its repercussions go on and fade slowly."
The after-effects of war are also felt in other, more dramatic ways in the Christmas special, as the East End midwives come face-to-face with an unexploded World War Two bomb.
The episode also tackles how the experience of women and birth began to change.
"The fashion surrounding birth has already changed in the series. At first we were still saying things like 'Get into the correct position for birthing', now even men are creeping into the room," says Ferris, who played the matriarch in the early '90s comedy drama Darling Buds of May.
"Of course I can imagine Sister Evangelina is going to fight a heavy rearguard action over that!"
'Absolutely filthy'
Jenny Agutter, probably best known for her role in The Railway Children and who plays Sister Julienne, the sister in charge at Nonnatus House, says: "In the Christmas one you see the change in attitudes towards men coming in.
"When we are filming I'm so fascinated when we talk about childbirth experiences - the men in the crew always want to talk about it more because they are there and present and part of it. What we are still showing is men not being part of this intimate women's world."
And Ferris feels the show has a message the younger generation should take note of.
"I hope the younger fans appreciate how things have moved on for women - that within living memory things were tougher, and to not throw away that liberty and freedom the vanguard of feminism and change have brought them," she says.
Despite its gentle pace, the birthing scenes can be quite realistic.
"We end up absolutely filthy. We use sticky blood that smells like Marmite," George says.
Raine adds: "They use a condom filled with blood so whenever you see a gush of water coming out of the woman you have a real midwife standing above with a condom and she just releases it, so there are a lot of condoms lying around the set!"
Miranda-factor
Call the Midwife often has that feel-good Sunday evening tone to it, drawing in mums and dads, along with grans and granddads.
But George insists they have a lot of younger fans.
"It's usually 14-year-old girls that come up to us. I think the Miranda [Hart] fan base has spilled over into Call the Midwife."
And like ITV's hugely successful period drama Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife is hugely popular in the US.
"The last time we were in New York we had a Q&A with lots of fans of the show who were just crazy midwife fans. We felt like One Direction," says George.
The cast know they will all be watching on Christmas Day, as their extended families will insist on it.
"This is the first show I've been in [that] my husband has told me not to tell him what happens," says Ferris.
Call The Midwife is on Christmas Day at 18:15 GMT.
|
A Scottish pilot could be the first captain to fly tourists into space. David Mackay is the chief pilot for Virgin Galactic, which hopes to take commercial airline flights outside Earth's atmosphere within the next two years. | By Steven BrocklehurstBBC Scotland news website
"I hope to be in space next year," says David Mackay.
The 55-year-old has held a "lofty ambition" to be a spaceman since he was a child in the far north of Scotland in the 1960s.
As a seven-year-old with a love of space and an interest in flying, influenced by fast jets which daily practised their low-flying manoeuvres over his home on the Sutherland coast, he noticed that most astronauts were former military test pilots.
The young Mackay settled on this as a career path for fulfilling his dream.
"Not long after I got my test pilot qualification I realised there was no manned space flight programme in the UK, and there was unlikely to be one," says Mackay.
The Scot took a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Glasgow University.
He then joined the RAF and served for 16 years but by his late 30s his chances of space flight seemed very slim.
Mackay moved into the world of commercial airliners with Virgin Atlantic in 1995.
"Soon after I joined I drove into Heathrow and there was a model of the Space Shuttle in Virgin Atlantic colours and it said something typically Virgin like 'Today the Atlantic, Tomorrow the Moon'," he jokes.
"I guess there was always a chance that something exciting might happen but obviously I did not believe we would be doing commercial space flight."
Now, Mackay is the chief pilot for Virgin Galactic and if it successfully completes its tests, conducted in the Mojave Desert in the US, he could be the first pilot to fly tourists into space.
Virgin announced at Farnborough Air Show in July it had taken deposits from 529 people who want to fly in space.
These are people who will have to part with $200,000 (£128,000) before they board SpaceShipTwo.
Mackay likens it to Charles Lindberg's first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927.
"That was a demonstration of what was possible," he says.
"Shortly after that other people developed it and now it is possible for anybody to fly across the Atlantic.
"This could be something similar. That first important step."
So what will be involved?
"The flight experience will be - to use the American term - 'truly awesome'," says Mackay.
"There will be a three-day training course for the passengers because it will be so amazing that if you were to go in cold it could be mind-blowing."
One major difference from the traditional image of space travel is that it will not be a vertical rocket launch.
The spaceship will be taken to 47,000ft (14km) attached to a "mothership" which supplies pressurisation, air conditioning and electrical power to the spaceship until launch height.
The climb to launch altitude takes about an hour and then the countdown begins.
When the spaceship separates the passengers could get a "lightness in the stomach" as it falls away and then the rocket motor kicks in.
The force of the rocket is about 3.5g - equivalent to the most powerful drag car racer - and it will last for a full minute.
"We are launched horizontally, but immediately the motor starts burning so we pull up into the vertical," says Mackay.
"You will see the sky go from blue to dark blue to black."
When the motor shuts off the spaceship goes from a massive thrust into weightlessness.
The passengers can then unstrap and float about in zero gravity.
"Everybody I have seen do it so far ends up with a huge cheesy grin on their face," says Mackay.
With the motor thrust off, the spaceship continues to go up into space where passengers will be able to see the curvature of the earth and the thin band of atmosphere above.
When the spaceship reaches its "apogee", at about 360,000ft (110km), it starts to come back down.
The re-entry force is even greater than leaving earth's atmosphere but the seats are in recline to help the passengers withstand forces up to 5g.
When it gets back down to 70,000ft, the spaceship changes from the feather-shape it has adopted for the drop, back into a glider to make the landing.
It sounds like an exhilarating flight. But is it safe?
Successful landing
Mackay says: "I am not going to pretend that flying a spaceship will be as safe as getting in a 747 with four engines for a flight across the Atlantic."
But he says that as a test pilot he has to take tiny steps to make sure every risk is understood and reduced as much as possible.
He says the fact that the spaceship is a glider means that it has a good chance of making a successful landing if the rocket boosters were to fail.
According to Mackay, the mothership has flown more than 100 times and is "pretty much ironed out".
The spaceship has flown 22 glide flights to ensure it can be landed successfully every time and the rocket motor has had about 30 firings.
The next stage is to put the rocket on to the spaceship and start pointing it towards space.
"We should do our first rocket powered flight early in 2013 - then we start to gradually build up, increasing the boost until we go higher and higher and eventually end up in space."
Mackay says it has taken a long to time to get this close but the "lofty ambitions" of his seven-year-old self could be fulfilled.
"I would say if you do have ambitions don't just wait around. Go out and make yourself as well-qualified as possible so you can take that rare opportunity when it comes along."
|
It's déjà vu all over again in the Commons, as MPs prepare for another round of debate on whether or not they should move out of their Victorian home, to make way for a multi-billion pound restoration project. | Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent
Simple souls may have thought a firm decision had been made, but no.
Concerns about the visible deterioration of Parliament's buildings war with political concerns about the cost of putting them right - and a debate on Thursday could pave the way for a policy reversal, or confirm that there is no practical alternative (see below).
There could also be some entertainment around the long-delayed establishment of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee - which should lead to the even longer-delayed publication of their report into Russian interference in UK politics.
Meanwhile there's a lot of hard legislating as MPs enter the glide path to their summer break, with money bills being processed and loose ends tied up. Over in the Lords, there's a bit of a lull, but there are lots of second readings coming up in their Lordships' final fortnight before the summer break including bills on immigration, medicines, and constituency boundaries.
Here's my rundown of the week ahead.
Monday 13 July
The Commons meets (14:30) for Home Office Questions, after which, expect the usual crop of post-weekend statements and urgent questions.
The main business is the Supply and Estimates Bill, which enacts the government's spending plans - followed by the rushing through of the bill to bring in the temporary cut in stamp duty announced by the chancellor in his Summer Statement.
The adjournment debate, led by the Conservative, Bob Seely, is on the pressures on independent pharmacies.
Watch out, too, for the government's long-awaited motion setting the membership of Intelligence and Security Committee to allow it to start work after the longest hiatus in its history.
The motion can be debated for up to 90 minutes, which will provide plenty of opportunities to press for the publication of the long-awaited report on Russia.
There may also be some discussion of the government decision to name the former Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling, as the new chair, succeeding the now-departed Dominic Grieve.
The other members from the Commons will be Sir John Hayes (C) , Stewart Hosie (SNP) , Dame Diana Johnson (Lab), Kevan Jones (Lab), Dr Julian Lewis (C), Mark Pritchard (C) and Theresa Villiers (C). A parallel motion in the Lords will appoint their one member on Tuesday.
On the Committee Corridor, Public Accounts Committee (14:30) takes evidence on Immigration Enforcement from the top civil servant at the Home Office, Matthew Rycroft and his No 2 Shona Dunn plus Tyson Hepple, the Director General of Immigration Enforcement.
The first two witnesses endured a bruising encounter with the Home Affairs Committee, a week ago, when they were quizzed about the Windrush scandal.
In the Lords, (13:00) peers question ministers on assistance to performing arts companies and venues, the situation in Libya and preventing an increase in homelessness once the pandemic ban on evictions is lifted (that one is from the Big Issue founder, Lord Bird) and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and desert locusts on food security in East Africa.
The main legislative action is the Committee Stage consideration of the Business and Planning Bill, which is being rushed through to help the economy recover from the pandemic.
It will allow pubs and restaurants to apply for licenses to sell alcohol for off-premises consumption and most of the amendments focus on tightening the system for licensing sales - for example by saying sales must stop at 11pm.
An interesting player in these debates may be the Lib Dem Baroness Thornhill, a former Mayor of Watford, who devoted considerable effort to coping with the impact of nightlife on local residents. Serious attempts to change the bill may well follow at Report Stage a week later.
Aficionados of the Lords committee work should keep an eye on the Lords Liaison Committee (10:45) which will be hearing bids from a series of peers for subjects for the next set of special inquiry committees.
Tuesday 14 July
MPs begin their day (11:30) with Justice Questions.
The Ten Minute Rule Bill from Labour MP Liz Twist calls for a review of the Disabled Facilities Grants system - which offers a means-tested grant of up to £30,000 for people with a permanent disability to make changes to their home - a walk-in shower or a stair lift, for example - to help them to continue living there.
Then MPs polish off the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill - which now does not reduce their numbers to 600, but which does bring in a strict population quota to equalise the number of voters in constituencies.
The Conservatives will say it irons out a serious unfairness in the electoral system, while Labour will argue that more needs to be done to register voters, particularly in the inner cities.
The adjournment debate, led by Labour MP Rushanara Ali, is on funding for the removal of flammable cladding,
My committee pick is the Defence Committee hearing (14.30) on the UK and Defence's preparations for pandemics, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and government's adaptations of plans in response to Covid-19, the Armed Forces and MoD's contribution, as well as what lessons should be learned.
They will hear from three expert witnesses: Professor David Alexander, professor of risk and disaster reduction at University College London, Dr Jennifer Cole, research fellow in antimicrobial resistance at Royal Holloway, and Bruce Mann, who was director of the civil contingencies secretariat in the Cabinet Office.
Elsewhere, the Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union (10:00) has an evidence session on the progress of the negotiations on the UK's Future Relationship with the EU - and on another Brexit-related matter, watch out for the publication of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report, Unfettered Access: Northern Ireland and customs arrangements after Brexit - and any follow-up to that in the chamber.
In the Lords (12:00) questions range across recognising Taiwan as an independent sovereign state, ensuring that a COVID-19 vaccine is available affordable and clauses protecting human rights and maintaining environmental standards in post-Brexit trade agreements.
Then peers continue grinding through the detail of the Agriculture Bill, with day three of Committee Stage consideration.
This is going rather slowly - originally it had been scheduled for four days in committee, but two extra days have now been added to the calendar, which, in turn, will probably mean an extra day of Report Stage consideration.
There is also a motion to appoint the former Home Office Minister and security advisor to Gordon Brown, Lord West of Spithead, as a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee.
Wednesday 15 July
The Commons kicks off (11:30) with half an hour of International Development Questions - which might be rather a mournful occasion as it will probably be the last such question time, with the Department for International Development (DfID) due to be absorbed into the Foreign Office in September.
So the demeanour of Secretary of State Anne-Marie Trevelyan will be worth watching. And then it's Prime Minister's Question Time
The day's Ten Minute Rule Bill is on Tree-Lined Streets - with the Conservative, Chris Clarkson, seeking to place a requirement on major new developments to ensure streets are lined with trees. On the argument that greenery in the urban environment has a positive impact on mental and our physical health, and that street trees are associated with cleaner air, more physical activity and improved health and well-being.
The main debate will be on an Opposition Day motion from the SNP - at the time of writing they're being coy about the subject.
On the committee corridor, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will field questions from the Treasury Committee about his Summer Statement (14:30).
Elsewhere, Northern Ireland Affairs takes evidence on the Legacy of Northern Ireland's past: The UK Government's New Proposals (09:30); Work and Pensions quiz the Welfare Delivery Minister, Will Quince on the wait for a first Universal Credit payment (09:30); Transport (09:30) continues its look at the issues around e-scooters with technology companies and Transport minister Rachel MacLean; International Trade Committee (14:30) takes evidence on UK Freeports and Women and Equalities (14:30) have a panel of ministers before them in their inquiry, Unequal impact? Coronavirus and BAME people - Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, Public Health minister Jo Churchill, and Housing Minister Chris Pincher round off the evidence-taking.
In the Lords (12.00) question time ranges across the number of children living in poverty in working households , the announcement of the chair, timings and terms of reference of the Royal Commission on criminal justice and racism within the Metropolitan Police.
Then peers rattle through a series of legislative chores, starting with the Third Reading Pension Schemes Bill, which should be a brief rubber-stamping.
Next comes the Enterprise Act 2002 (Specification of Additional Section 58 Consideration) Order which aims to ensure that critical UK public health and crisis mitigation capabilities, are not lost in takeovers and mergers with foreign companies and that will be debated together with the Enterprise Act 2002 (Share of Supply) (Amendment) Order 2020 which increases the government's powers to scrutinise mergers in sensitive sectors of the economy artificial intelligence, cryptographic authentication technology and advanced materials.
Peers will also scrutinise the Competition Appeal Tribunal (Coronavirus) (Recording and Broadcasting) Order 2020 - which will allow Competition Appeal Tribunal hearings to be broadcast by video.
And, finally they will approve a motion to seek Royal Assent for a Church of England measure transferring Episcopal oversight of Channel Islands to the see of Salisbury.
Formerly in Winchester, temporarily in Canterbury, Salisbury is intended to be their long-term harbour. The move was agreed by the General Synod in February.
Thursday 16 July
MPs begin their day (09:30) with questions to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office (aka Michael Gove), followed by the weekly Commons business statement from the Leader of the House.
Unusually for a Thursday, but probably briefly, there's a Second Reading debate on the Non-domestic Rating (Public Lavatories) Bill, a technical tidying-up measure that probably won't detain MPs for long.
But then they more to a general debate on the multi-billion pound plan to revamp the Victorian home of Parliament, known in Westminster as "Restoration and Renewal," or R&R for short.
As things stand, MPs have agreed that they will move out of their Victorian-gothic part of the parliamentary estate for several years, while essential work is completed and have set up a delivery authority set up to oversee the project.
The reasoning is that it is impossible to complete the necessary comprehensive work to replace crumbling stonework, out of date wiring and failing services with MPs and Lords still in residence - not least because of the dangers posed by asbestos.
The plan is based on the view that the building cannot practically be renovated in sections, so MPs will be relocated to a new temporary chamber and offices located on the site of Richmond House, the former home of the Department of Health, which would mostly be demolished and rebuilt.
But a number of MPs have never been reconciled to this decision - the Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg is a sceptic - and this debate looks like their fightback.
Leading the charge, the ex-minister Sir Edward Leigh, who argues that the Chamber of the Lords could be kept going, thus eliminating the need for a temporary chamber, and the whole exercise could then be accomplished at a much lower cost.
What the debate will illustrate is the difficulty of routing an intricate multi-billion pound restoration of a world heritage building through the Byzantine internal structures of Parliament.
Theoretically this is a "house matter," concerning the running of the Commons and Lords, but given the several billion pounds involved, the government has a stake as well, and there are suggestions that Downing Street is jittery about the cost.
A possible final bill of £4bn is often quoted, but this is a ballpark estimate made several years ago; no-one can really be sure.
Two past Leaders of the House, Andrea Leadsom and Chris Grayling are backing the original scheme - and its supporters point to the current need to maintain a 24-hour seven-day-a-week fire patrol, recent incidents where chunks of masonry have fallen off the building, mercifully without hitting anyone, and the malodorous miasma emanating from the Victorian lavatories.
They, and other key figures like Meg Hillier, the Labour ex-minister who now chairs the Public Accounts Committee, argue that it would be more costly and outright dangerous to attempt the restoration work with the parliamentarians in situ.
It is an interesting question who would be liable if someone was hurt in any future masonry fall. The general debate will demonstrate whether or not there is any momentum behind a change in policy.
On the Committee Corridor, Environmental Audit (14:30) focuses on electronic Waste and the Circular Economy - and are lining up witnesses from Samsung, Fairphone, Beko, Amazon, DixonsCarphone and TechBuyer and International Development (14:30) hear from expert witnesses about sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector
In the Lords (12:00) ministers face questions on the impact of digital platforms on the functioning of democracy, the recommendations of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody on prisoners' experience under COVID-19' and the impact of the pandemic on human trafficking. Then it's back to the detail of the Agriculture Bill, with day four of Committee Stage.
Friday 17 July
The Commons is not sitting, but the Lords is planning to sit on Fridays more frequently, and meets (11:00) to dispose of the Finance Bill - because this is a money bill, where the Commons reigns supreme, peers are not allowed to interfere.
Therefore they will take the Second Reading, Committee, Report and Third Reading stages in a single gulp but perhaps with a few interesting thoughts from the phalanx of ex-Chancellors and other experts on the red benches (Lord Lamont is already listed to speak). There may be further business scheduled as well
The Lords Science and Technology Committee (15:00) will be quizzing the government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and the Chief Medical Officer for England Professor Chris Whitty on the science of COVID-19.
|
Police in Slovenia have accused a woman of cutting off her hand with a circular saw - with the help of her family - to make a fraudulent insurance claim. | The 21-year-old and a relative have been detained and face up to eight years in prison if convicted.
The suspects recently took out injury insurance, police say.
The woman allegedly stood to gain about €400,000 (£340,000; $450,000) in compensation and monthly payments of about €3,000 from the policy.
Four members of the family were initially detained earlier this year, but two were later released.
Police say the group deliberately cut the woman's hand above the wrist at their home in the capital Ljubljana.
Relatives took her to hospital, saying she had injured herself while sawing branches.
Officials say the group left the severed hand behind rather than bring it to hospital, to ensure the disability was permanent. But the authorities recovered it in time to sew it back on.
|
There's a newly released batch of photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on a series of site visits. The dozens of photos all have one curious detail in common - the leader is surrounded by officials and generals making notes in identical notepads, writes Kathryn Westcott. | Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts
In the photographs - from the country's official Central News Agency (KCNA) - Kim Jong-un observes a unit of women conducting a multiple-rocket launching drill. He strides around a fishery station. He gives a pilot on flight training a pep talk. He enjoys the facilities at a renovated youth camp.
But who are those men meticulously taking notes? They're not journalists, but soldiers, party members or government officials, says Prof James Grayson, Korea expert at the University of Sheffield. What is happening is a demonstration of the leader's supposed power, knowledge, wisdom and concern, says Grayson. It's "on-the-spot guidance", something instigated by his grandfather Kim Il-sung in the 1950s. "It's part of the image of the great leader offering benevolent guidance," says Grayson.
What might that guidance be? Well, if Kim's anything like his grandfather it could be practical advice. Very specific practical advice. After Kim Il-sung visited a fishery in 1976, KCNA published this: "Watching a truck at work, the president said that its bucket seemed to be small in comparison with its horsepower. He said the problem of carriage would be solved if the bucket was enlarged. Afterwards the truck's bucket capacity increased to two tons from 800 kg. As a result, 20 trucks were capable of carrying the load to be done by 50 trucks."
Despite the fact that tablets are available in the country, paper notebooks remain the favoured medium. "These are pictures that will be broadcast on television and shown in the state media, so those who are there want to be seen recording Kim Jong-un's every word," says Grayson. "It's about presenting him as having broad knowledge - however, it's ridiculous, he can't possibly know about all of these different things. It's important, however, that the apparatchiks that surround him are seen to be hanging on his every word."
According to Prof Steve Tsang, chair the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham, the note-takers will be writing extremely carefully. "They wouldn't want to write down anything that was, say, politically inaccurate, or it might come back to bite them." The notes are not usually published or available for the public to view, says Tsang. "If anything comes out of them, it would be via the propaganda department. Whether it was what was actually said, or is different to the guidance given at the time, doesn't matter. No-one will ever question it. If you were at the factory and the advice that was released wasn't quite what you had in your notebook - what are you going to do about it?"
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
|
MGMT's Ben Goldwasser has appeared alongside Norah Jones and a member of Yeasayer in a new feature film due out this autumn. | Goldwasser, keyboardist in the Brooklyn band, appears in Wah Do Dem a movie by directors Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace released on dvd on 26 October.
Yeasayer bass player Ira Tuton Wolf has a part in the film, they also appear on the film's soundtrack alongside Santigold, MGMT, Bones and Suckers.
The movie follows the story of a recently dumped Brooklyn skateboarder who travels on a cruise to Jamaica.
|
How easy it would be to bash out a righteous-sounding blog, slamming Italy's "far-right, anti-immigration, populist" deputy prime minister for bringing Europe's migration policy to its knees by cynically closing Italy's ports to the migrant rescue ship, Aquarius. | Katya AdlerEurope editor@BBCkatyaadleron Twitter
But, like most easy-sounding explanations for complex situations, the description above is facile; the truth far more grey than black-and-white.
Firstly, Europe's migration regulations have long been unfit for purpose.
Think back to the height of the migrant crisis three years ago, when EU countries couldn't slam the door on their neighbours fast enough in order to avoid the influx of asylum seekers.
And European solidarity hasn't progressed much since.
The number of migrant arrivals is down on previous years - especially for Greece, now that there is a questionable agreement in place with Turkey to crack down on people smugglers, who largely focused on Syrians trying to escape their bloody conflict.
But mass irregular migration to Europe is far from over.
Italy has continued to receive boatloads of people for years, ever since its neighbour across the Mediterranean, Libya, was thrown into lawlessness following Muammar Gaddafi's demise in the wake of the British- and French-led Nato military intervention.
Since then hundreds of thousands of people have arrived in Italy, the majority from African countries not at war.
Under normal circumstances, most would be classed as economic migrants rather than refugees and eligible therefore for deportation, but the asylum process is lengthy and the terrible treatment suffered by migrants at the hands of Libyan gangs en route renders many cases more complex.
Italy has overflowing migrant centres and those who manage to slip away from them have sought refuge in abandoned houses.
Why Italy's Salvini has changed Europe's debate
Many migrants don't want to be in Italy at all.
Their goal is the richer north of Europe but France and Austria have blocked their path by keeping their borders with Italy firmly shut. While elsewhere along the Mediterranean coastline, France, Spain and Malta have purposefully looked the other way.
That, claims Italy's powerful new interior minister, is how his country has ended up as the "refugee camp of Europe".
And before you dismiss Matteo Salvini as an alt-right, anti-EU troublemaker and admirer-in-chief of President Donald Trump's brash and brutal style of politics (all allegations with quite some truth to them) consider this:
It was the centre-left government of normally mild-mannered former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni that first threatened to close Italy's ports to migrant rescue vessels not licensed by the Italian authorities.
Mr Gentiloni implored other EU countries to open their doors, to share some of the burden of housing and processing irregular migrant arrivals, integrating migrants with successful asylum claims and arranging the return home of those not eligible to stay in Europe.
No-one listened then. But they're certainly paying attention now.
European leaders scoring points on migration
Mr Salvini's social media crowing of "Victory!" as a result may be crass but his popularity at home, the huge success of his "Italians First!" slogan is far from a bolt from the blue.
You saw this week the reaction of many Italian mayors wanting to help the migrants on board the Aquarius despite their government's antics.
Most Italians don't want to turn their back on the destitute but their frustration has reached breaking point at being "abandoned by the EU" as they see it, to deal with what is in fact a pan-European problem.
Matteo Salvini is a canny politician. A populist in the true sense of the word. He is always out and about in town squares and village festivals, listening carefully to Italians' concerns.
"He knows that to get crowds of voters on your side, you need to identify a common enemy," Nicoletta Maggi told me. She's a political assistant who has known Mr Salvini since he was a teenager, when he was studying politics on paper and observing rallies in the street.
"Salvini has changed the identity of this enemy over the years, as he moved from regional to national politics. Right now he's identified immigration and the EU as the winning focus. He knows how fed-up and angry Italians are."
Italy's interior minister is far from the only European government figure scrambling to make political capital out of this latest chapter in the migrant crisis.
Spain's new prime minister rushed to earn his stripes in Brussels by stepping into the painful stand-off between Italy and Malta over the Aquarius this week with a decision to open up the port at Valencia to the migrants instead.
I expect Pedro Sánchez to want to cash in those political points at some later stage.
But Spain cuts a lonely figure in a sea of EU countries besieged by anti-immigration sentiment:
EU's struggle for united policy
The bottom line, as Italy knows too well, is that there is a screaming absence in EU policy when it comes to a coherent, united and functioning plan to deal with irregular migration in the short and medium term.
There is the underfunded and much derided long-term EU strategy for Africa - aimed at making life better over there so fewer people are tempted to make the risky journey over here.
But as millions poured over EU borders back in 2015, the action that truly stemmed the flow was arguably nothing co-ordinated in Brussels, not even the shaky deal with Turkey.
What really made the difference was a unilateral decision by Austria's audacious foreign minister Sebastian Kurz - now prime minister - to orchestrate the closure of the migrants' route through Europe to their target countries in the richer north.
Fast forward three years and - once again without Brussels and outside the EU framework - the interior ministers of Austria (the country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency), Germany and Italy have announced they're forming their own "axis" of co-operation on security and migration.
Meanwhile the Austrian and Danish prime ministers have been discussing their preferred plan to set up camps for processing asylum seekers outside the EU.
The idea of external processing camps is not new of course. President Macron has spoken in favour of them in the past.
Similar models, much criticised by NGOs and human rights campaigners, are employed by the US and Australia.
Has the EU given Italy the nod on migrants?
But as a result of Italy's antics this week, European leaders are being spurred into action, or are at least considering it far more seriously.
As a decision-making bloc, the EU is famous for only ever making dramatic moves when proverbial backs are well and truly against the wall.
That, for example, is why EU leaders, despite all their promises and handwringing during the height of the euro crisis are now - with the currency currently in a much happier state - dragging their feet over reforms.
And so it is with irregular migration.
EU leaders were happy to forget the crisis post the 2015 flood, leaving the frontline Mediterranean countries to mop up the rest of the mess.
Call me cynical if you will, but I've noticed a fair few politically expedient elements colliding this week.
The current European Commission team, headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, is coming to the end of its mandate and considering its legacy.
The migrant crisis has made a mockery of EU unity these past years and fuelled the popularity of anti-EU, nationalist sentiment in many corners of the continent, not least in Italy - a founding EU country and not long ago one of the bloc's most enthusiastic members.
I'm reminded of a conversation I had with a high-level European contact the night before Italy's new populist government was formed.
He told me Brussels was preparing to work with the Eurosceptic politicians, helping them with issues like migration, he said, as long as they refrained from confronting EU institutions by messing with eurozone regulations, as they had previously threatened.
Watching this week's posturing by the Italian government, using the lives of migrants as political footballs yet escaping censure from the powers that be in Brussels, I'm wondering if they received a nod, however imperceptible, to take this action.
In order perhaps to alert the rest of Europe to the crisis - for the ostriches to take their heads out of the sand, as Spain's prime minister has put it - and finally co-ordinate coherent, responsibility-taking pan-European migration policies.
That would suit Brussels as well as Italy, would it not?
It would suit EU-linchpin Germany too.
Angela Merkel has been at loggerheads with her tough-on-migration interior minister, Horst Seehofer, this week. She more than most EU leaders has been politically burnt by Europe's asymmetrical attitudes to irregular migration.
After the Aquarius debacle, migration is assured a front-and-centre spot at a summit of EU leaders at the end of this month.
If, even now, no common European solution is found, Angela Merkel has warned, the foundation of the European Union will be called into question.
|
Five stories from Oxfordshire which have been attracting attention this week.
| 1. Oxford neurosurgeon helps thousands overcome tremors
A neurosurgeon has helped 2,000 patients control their tremors after implanting electrodes in their brains.
Professor Tipu Aziz works at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and introduced the technique to Britain in the 1990s.
He works with patients who have conditions such as Parkinson's, who can control their movements when the electrodes are turned on.
2. Martin Scorsese and Mary Beard receive Oxford degrees
The Hollywood film maker Martin Scorsese and classics historian Mary Beard received honorary degrees from the University of Oxford.
The pair were among seven recipients celebrated as part of the university's annual Encaenia ceremony.
After the ceremony, Scorsese gave a talk to students about his six-decade long career in the film industry.
And singer Katy Perry was also spotted attending the ceremony by the university's zoology department.
3. 'I'm a head teacher...and champion weightlifter'
Paula Phillips is a primary school head teacher - and a champion weightlifter.
She hasn't looked back since taking up the sport about 18 months ago.
And her pupils think "it's quite cool," she says.
4. Oxford University centre promoted by Dubai government 'doesn't exist'
The Oxford University Mohammed bin Rashid centre does not exist, the university has said.
The Dubai government published a press release with a photo about the opening of the 'Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Future Research' at Oxford University.
The photo included Dubai's minister of cabinet affairs and the future and minister for artificial intelligence.
"We can confirm that there is no centre with this name at Oxford University," a university spokesman said.
A spokesman for the The Dubai Future Foundation later said the announcement had been in good faith.
5. Britain's leading female flat horse racing trainer wins at Ascot
Eve Johnson Houghton is Britain's leading female flat racehorse trainer.
The Oxfordshire-based trainer had three horses running at this year's Royal Ascot.
She ended up celebrating her first Royal Ascot win thanks to Accidental Agent.
|
The Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, was an object of curiosity and ridicule throughout his life - studied, prodded and examined by the Victorian medical establishment. Now, 123 years after his death, scientists believe his bones contain secrets about his condition which could benefit medical science today. | By Andrew BomfordBBC Radio 4's PM programme
Joseph Merrick began to develop abnormally from an early age, eventually being gawped at by Victorian circusgoers and examined by inquisitive doctors. The cause of his malformed head, curved spine, "lumpy" skin and overgrown right arm and hand has never been definitively explained.
Ironically, it is the medical preservation of Merrick's skeleton that is now causing the greatest problems in unlocking his body's secrets.
"The skeleton, which is well over a hundred years old now, is actually very clean," says Prof Richard Trembath, vice-principal for health at Queen Mary University of London, and the custodian of Merrick's body.
"This represents a significant problem. On a number of occasions over the years the skeleton has been bleached during the preservation process. Bleach is not a good chemical to expose DNA to. It gives us an added problem in trying to extract sufficient quantities of DNA in order to undertake sequencing."
The hope is, though, that DNA can be extracted which will determine once and for all exactly what genetic condition he suffered from.
There have been several theories. For many years it was thought he had neurofibromatosis type 1, but in more recent years doctors have come to believe he had a condition known as Proteus Syndrome, or possibly a combination of both.
A team of geneticists from Queen Mary University of London, King's College London, and the Natural History Museum are currently working on techniques to extract DNA from similar age bones which have also been bleached before beginning work on Merrick's skeleton. They are anxious to keep any further damage to the bones to a minimum.
Bleach is sometimes used in labs to remove traces of DNA, so in many ways it is the worst possible thing to do to bones if the hope is to extract genetic information.
The genetic condition of Richard III's remains - buried for hundreds of years below a car park in Leicester - is actually better than those of Merrick.
His extreme deformity is obvious from his skeleton, but confined to parts of his body. His skull has large growths of bone at the front of his temple and on the right side.
His right arm and hand is far bigger than his left, which appears normal, and his right femur (upper leg bone) is much bigger and thicker than the left. His spine is also badly curved, causing the whole body to be hunched.
"When Merrick was being formed in his mother's womb it is highly likely that a genetic alteration occurred, but not until after the sperm and the egg had come together - probably at a stage when there were a number of cells, only some of which have gone on to contribute to his problems," says Trembath.
The skeleton is kept under lock and key in a small museum in the medical school at the Royal London Hospital, and is not normally on public display. It is the same hospital where Merrick spent his later years as a friend and patient of the prominent Victorian surgeon Frederick Treves, and the place where he died at the age of 27 in April 1890.
According to Treves, Merrick died from a dislocated neck when he lay down to sleep, due to the huge weight of his head.
The team of geneticists extracting the DNA is being led by Dr Michael Simpson from King's College London. In his lab he has been working on segments of bone to develop new techniques for obtaining genetic information from badly bleached fragments.
The team has been successful in obtaining DNA, but is still working on methods of "cleaning" the badly damaged DNA sufficiently to obtain a complete genetic sequence.
This is important in order to see exactly where in Merrick's genetic code the mutations appear. To complicate matters further, Simpson believes the bones have also been waxed, which might also affect the DNA.
"There will be some challenges," admits Simpson, in something of an understatement, "But with some further optimisation I am confident that we will be successful. We should have a good chance of sequencing his genome."
The technique involves drilling out a small quantity of bone powder, treating it with detergents and enzymes to extract the protein, and then removing the DNA.
When work starts on Merrick's skeleton, the intention is to make comparisons between the DNA in distorted bone areas and the DNA in normal bone. Two main areas have been identified for drilling - the inside of his skull and the root of one of his teeth.
Apart from scientific curiosity in his medical condition, Trembath believes the results could help modern medical science and its knowledge of cell division.
"This is very significant overgrowth of tissue," he says while examining the growths on the skull. "The understanding of the regulation of cell growth is one of the most fundamental things that we need to understand. It sits behind the development of tumours and we need to understand more about how tumours develop."
He points out that Merrick himself was keen to help the Victorian doctors with their scientific investigation. More than a century on, the work continues.
"I have a sense that he is an ever willing partner in trying to help us get there. This is one of the most extreme forms of overgrowth that has ever been seen, and so there is a unique opportunity to gain some fundamental insights into human biology, and Merrick knew he was sitting on that kind of information."
Listen to Andrew Bomford's report on Radio 4's PM programme at 17:00 BST on 29 August
You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook
|
International law regulates the use of military force by states and the conduct of hostilities. | By Guglielmo VerdirameDepartment of War Studies, King’s College London
As in virtually every modern conflict, there is intense debate on the legality of the actions of the two main sides involved here - Israel and Hamas.
Self-defence
As in previous operations in Gaza, Israel is likely to argue that its actions are justified under the right of self-defence.
Enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, the right of self-defence is a fundamental principle of international law. While aspects of this principle are disputed, it is universally agreed that a state can defend itself against an armed attack.
There is some debate as to the intensity that an armed attack should reach before a state can lawfully resort to self-defence. Most international lawyers would agree that rockets launched against civilians that disrupt the social life of part of a country constitute an armed attack for the purposes of Article 51.
However, the facts underlying self-defence are often in dispute. Parties to a conflict seldom agree on who is the attacker and who is the defender - and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are no exception. In this case, critics of the Israeli position also advance two legal arguments.
First, they argue that the right of self-defence is available only against another state, but not against a non-state entity like Gaza. State practice, especially since the attacks of 11 September 2001, militates against this interpretation of self-defence, but the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice has not settled this question.
Secondly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, among others, considers Gaza is still subject to Israeli occupation because of the degree to which Israel exerts control over and around that territory. Israel maintains that it has not occupied Gaza since its withdrawal in 2005 and that a territory cannot be occupied without "boots on the ground".
The right of self-defence is no blank cheque. International law allows states to defend themselves in the right circumstances, but only with force that is necessary and proportionate.
A common misperception is that proportionality in self-defence means an eye for an eye, a rocket for a rocket, or a casualty for a casualty. This is not so: there is no place in international law for using force in revenge.
In some cases, a necessary and proportionate response will entail the use of greater military force than was involved in the original attack; in other cases, it will be possible for a country to defend itself effectively with less force.
The law of armed conflict
The principle of self-defence belongs to the body of international law that regulates resort to force or "going to war" (often referred to by the Latin term jus ad bellum, that is, "law to war").
A separate category of international law regulates the conduct of hostilities once the conflict has started. It is known as the law of armed conflict (or the jus in bello that is "law in war"). The law of armed conflict applies only to situations that can be classified as armed conflicts, with different sets of rules governing international or non-international armed conflicts.
The law of armed conflict applies regardless of the reasons that prompted a party to resort to force.
Starting a war off on the "right" side of the law does not give a state more rights in the conduct of hostilities than its enemies. It is possible for a state that resorted to force lawfully to commit unlawful acts in the course of an armed conflict - and vice versa.
The law of armed conflict includes detailed rules on different aspects of the conduct of hostilities (protection of civilians, treatments of prisoners of war, occupied territory, etc). All of these rules rest on the balancing of four key principles: humanity and military necessity, and distinction and proportionality.
Humanity and military necessity
The principle of humanity requires belligerents to avoid unnecessary suffering and cruelty. The counterweight to it is military necessity.
The legal manual used by the British armed forces says that military necessity allows a state to use force, unless otherwise prohibited, which is "required in order to achieve the legitimate purpose of the conflict, namely the complete or partial submission of the enemy at the earliest possible moment and with the minimum expenditure of life and resources". The argument that the Israeli bombardments on Gaza are ineffective because they have always failed to stop rocket attacks may, in one sense, evidence the futility of the use of force in this context. But, from a military necessity angle, it may justify the use of greater force as is necessary to achieve the objective of averting the attacks.
Of course, the fact that the law permits a certain action does not make it wise in a political, moral or strategic sense.
In any event, military necessity cannot justify actions that are prohibited under specific rules (e.g. those applying to the protection of civilians and the choice of permissible targets) or that, more generally, result "in the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge" (in the words of the Lieber Code, one of the first codifications of the rules of armed conflict enacted by President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War).
Distinction and proportionality
A cornerstone in the law of armed conflict is the principle of distinction: parties to a conflict must distinguish between combatants and civilians at all times.
Various specific rules flesh out the content of this principle. Attacks on civilians and civilian objects are always banned. Attacks may be conducted against combatants or non-combatants who directly participate in hostilities, and against military objectives.
The principle of distinction also prohibits acts or threats of violence aimed at spreading terror among civilians, as well as attacks carried out with means which, by their nature, cannot target a specific military objective. The launching of missiles against southern Israel, for example, is said to breach distinction because of its inherently indiscriminate nature.
But when does an object become a legitimate military target?
International law defines military objectives as "objects which... make an effective contribution to military action... and whose total or partial destruction... offers a definite military advantage".
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks or Hamas rocket launchers are in this category. Problems arise with so-called dual-use targets, such as the Serbian TV station bombed by Nato during the 1999 Kosovo War.
But the most difficult issues arise when a permissible military objective, such as a rocket launcher or an ammunition depot, lies in the proximity of civilians or civilian objects. Virtually every targeting decision in a densely populated area as Gaza will involve such situations.
This is where the principle of proportionality also comes into play. While proportionality is an important concept in other areas of law, including human rights law, it has a distinctive meaning in the law of armed conflict. Whenever there is a risk of loss of civilian life or damage to civilian property, belligerents are required to balance the anticipated military advantage with the risks posed to civilians and their property.
In some cases, this will mean - as the former president of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, wrote in a judgment - that "even a legitimate target may not be attacked if the collateral civilian casualties would be disproportionate to the specific military gain from the attack".
An attacker is also under a duty to call off an attack immediately if, in the course of it, it realises that civilians would face excessive risk.
Any attacker targeting military objectives in densely populated areas will have to do everything feasible to verify the nature of the targets and avoid errors.
The practice of dropping leaflets or calling residents before a bombing is presented by Israel as evidence of its efforts to comply with these rules, although critics reply that these methods are not always effective at preventing loss of life and that, even when they are, they cannot avoid the destruction of civilian property as well as the infliction of suffering and distress on civilians.
Conversely, a frequent accusation levelled against Hamas is that it deliberately endangers its own civilians by placing military objectives in their midst.
If true, this would doubtless be a serious breach of the laws of armed conflict, but it does not mitigate Israel's obligation to continue to take all necessary precautions to minimise loss of civilian life.
All modern armed forces, including the Israel Defense Forces, have specialists on the law of armed conflict who are involved in the approval of targets.
The legality of a particular targeting decision will often depend on the facts. Was there a genuine military objective? Was it possible in the circumstances to hit that target while avoiding any loss of civilian life? What did the attacker know or should have known?
Establishing these facts during an armed conflict, or in its aftermath, is no easy feat.
However, when the attacker deliberately targets civilians or civilian objects, there is no version of the facts capable of justifying his actions under the laws of armed conflict.
Human Rights
The International Court of Justice has repeatedly ruled that the application of human rights law does not cease in times of war, while also maintaining that the law of armed conflict is the special law that governs this area as it was developed specifically to address the unique challenges of war. What this means in practice is not always clear, particularly as regards targeting decisions.
When it comes to the clashes in Arab villages in Israel, there is, however, no concurrent application of the law of armed conflict: whether the response of Israel's law enforcement and security forces is consistent with international law in those cases will depend exclusively on the application of human rights law.
East Jerusalem is a more complex situation because, while Israel annexed it to its territory, it is still considered part of the occupied Palestinian territory by virtually everyone else, including the International Court of Justice which gave an Advisory Opinion in 2004 on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in Occupied Palestinian Territory .
Last, but certainly not least, it must be remembered that the law of armed conflict can only mitigate the horrors of war. A war fought with a scrupulous observance of all the rules in the book - if there ever was one - would still be a scourge.
Guglielmo Verdirame QC is a professor of International Law at the Department of War Studies and Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London
|
Chen Jian's spanners and air pump spill out onto the street. | By Martin PatienceBBC News, Beijing
The repairman makes his living from fixing Beijing's bikes.
His small roadside business is just one of thousands dotted throughout the capital.
"It's harder to make money now because of inflation," he says, while fitting spokes on a wheel.
"Things will improve and I believe the economy will continue to grow quickly."
But China's leaders are not so confident.
During the country's annual parliamentary session, which finishes on Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao lowered China's growth target this year to 7.5%, although most economists think it will be closer to 8%.
It was not a huge surprise. As the world's largest exporter, China is being buffeted by a downturn in demand from its markets in Europe and elsewhere.
But the figure of 7.5% was also a clear sign that China's leaders want officials to focus on more sustainable economic growth.
Many economists are stressing that China needs to undertake fundamental reforms if it is to avoid serious economic problems in the future.
'Turning point'
More than 30 years ago, China's leader Deng Xiaopeng carried out a series of reforms that opened up the country's economy, transforming it into the workshop of the world.
But a World Bank Report says that China has reached "another turning point.... when a second strategic, and no less fundamental shift, is called for".
Released ahead of the annual parliamentary session, the report was co-authored with a wide-range of senior Chinese officials.
So what are China's leaders hoping to achieve? Well, at the moment, China's double-digit growth for the most of the last decade seems remarkable from the outside.
But much of the recent growth has been created by an investment binge by the authorities which was a response to the global financial crisis that began in 2008.
The country built new airports, roads, apartment and office blocks, which have transformed the cities and kept growth figures buoyant.
But many economists question the worth of these projects.
"You reach the point where you investments are no longer economically viable - you're actually throwing money away," says Michael Pettis, international finance professor at Peking University in Beijing.
"Every single country that has followed this model has ended up with a serious debt problem."
So China's leaders say they want to move away from this model. They want to see less reliance on investment and exports to drive growth - and more domestic consumption, which means Chinese consumers spending more.
At the moment, China's household spending is small compared with other developing nations - and almost half that of the West.
Social security
But how do you boost spending?
Well there are several ways. One way is to give higher wages to workers - if labourers have more money in their pockets, than they are likely to spend more.
The Chinese authorities also realise that they need to improve social security. That means providing better healthcare and old-age provisions for workers.
One of the problems in terms of domestic consumption is that the Chinese save large chunks of their salaries. Many save in case they need to pay a large medical bill, others for their retirement.
With improved social security, the Chinese would feel more confident to spend more money.
But none of this would come cheap. It will also require a fundamental shift in China's economic priorities.
At the moment, savers in China actually subsidise corporations and investment-led projects because interest rates are low, making for cheap loans.
The World Bank report recommends that China should reform its financial sector, making interest rates commercial.
That would make loans to state-owned enterprises and other corporations more expensive, but it would give savers more money because of higher interest rates.
The World Bank also recommends that state-owned enterprises should pay out bigger dividends to the government, which in turn could spend the money on social security.
But the fear is that many of these companies have become so used to cheap loans they would struggle to cope if they had to pay more.
Many could go bankrupt, leading to higher unemployment and potentially serious social unrest.
So, when are we likely to see any major changes?
With the forthcoming leadership change starting later this year, China's leaders are prioritising stability over anything else at the moment.
"If you compare this government with others that came before, it's not very adventurous," says Dr Qian Liu of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
"Any major reforms will only start in 2014 once the new generation of leaders are firmly in power."
|
The cost of a review into the way Guernsey's Utility Regulation system operates has been estimated to be £55,000, the States has announced.
| The review is already under way and is being carried out by the UK's Regulatory Policy Institute.
Deputy Dave Jones led the calls for the review after concerns about competition in the electricity and postal sectors.
The report on the appropriateness and effectiveness of the regulator is expected to be completed by November.
|
Power has been restored to more than 1,000 homes in Berkshire after high winds damaged two wire connections.
| Engineers managed to reconnect 1,150 properties in Pangbourne by about 21:00 GMT on Sunday after supplies were lost just after 11:00.
Southern Electric said an earlier report that a falling tree had brought down a power line proved incorrect.
An amber weather warning has been issued for southern England with hurricane-force winds expected.
|
The largest avalanche recorded by the Sportscotland Avalanche Information Service so far this season has been discovered in the Southern Cairngorms.
| A member of staff at Glenshee Ski Centre alerted SAIS to the slide on Glas Tulaichean, a 3,448ft (1,051m) Munro.
SAIS Southern Cairngorms said the full depth avalanche was filled with mud, rocks and large blocks of snow.
Another large slide was recorded at Creag Meagaidh in February.
The Sportscotland Avalanche Information Service (SAIS) provides avalanche hazard information reports for walkers, climbers and skiers from December to early April.
The service covers hills and mountains in Lochaber, Glencoe, Creag Meagaidh, Southern Cairngorms, Northern Cairngorms and Torridon.
|
A third person has been charged with murder in connection with a teenager who was stabbed to death. | Lyrico Steede, 17, was chased and attacked in Stock Well, Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, on 13 February and died six days later.
Kasharn Campbell, 19, from Bobbers Mill, is due to appear at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on Saturday.
Two 17-year-old boys charged with murder on Thursday have been remanded in custody.
A 17-year-old girl has also been charged with assisting an offender.
|
Lee Krasner was in Paris when she received the call. | Will GompertzArts editor@WillGompertzBBCon Twitter
It was sometime around midday on Sunday 12 August 1956. The American artist had never been to the French capital before, although she'd been inspired by others who had, namely Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh.
She was not impressed by the Louvre, the scale of which she found overwhelming and the art "unbelievably bad". The news she was about to receive would be much, much worse.
There had been an accident back home, she was told. Her husband, who had stayed at their East Hampton house on Long Island, New York state, while she went on her European adventure, had crashed his convertible car at 10pm the night before.
There were two female passengers in the overturned vehicle. One had been killed, the other, Ruth Kligman, was OK.
And then this: the driver, the man she had married 11 years earlier, the painter she had supported through all his artistic difficulties and battles with alcoholism, the one person on Earth with whom she truly connected, had not survived.
Jackson Pollock was dead.
When they first met, in the early 1940s, Krasner was considered the more accomplished artist. But ever since Mural (1943), Pollock's huge, ground-breaking, abstract painting, it had been her husband's work that garnered all the attention. The shadow his fame had cast over her own career as a significant player in post-war American Expressionism looked as if it would only grow longer with his death.
And so it did. Jackson Pollock became a mythical figure: immortalised in Hans Namuth's photographs, romanticised as a troubled genius, and fought over by billionaires and institutions desperate for a signature piece. (It's amazing what dying will do for an artist's career.)
Meanwhile, Lee Krasner went about her business as an artist, while also taking on the additional burden of looking after her deceased husband's estate. Legal tussles, legacy issues and authentication meant this was no easy task
True, she was exhibited, but there tended to be a Jackson shaped elephant in the room. Either her work was seen in the context of his, or he wasn't mentioned at all. Neither approach was satisfactory. She remained in his shadow even after her death in 1984.
That was 35 years ago. Now, at last, there is a confident, intelligent exhibition, presenting Lee Krasner in her rightful position as one of the most important painters of the 20th Century.
There is no need for Jackson denial or comparison. His presence in her life is evident. It can be seen in material form in her collage Bald Eagle (1955), which contains paint splattered fragments of a Pollock picture. It can be felt, too…
There is a small, dark room in this exhibition, in which hangs a series of four large paintings, inspired by Picasso's famous Les Demoiselles Avignon (1907). The first is ominously called Prophecy (1956). Krasner painted it in the summer of 1956 before her trip to Europe, when her husband's drinking was as bad as the state of their marriage. It is a bulbous, fleshy, awkward image: both anxious and hopeful, menacing and heavy. She said it "disturbed me enormously".
A few weeks later, Pollock was dead. Krasner returned and immediately continued with the series, saying: "Painting is not separate from life. It is one. Do I want to live? My answer is yes - and I paint."
The three subsequent works - Birth (1956), Embrace (1956), and Three in Two (1956) - are deeper, angrier, magnificent paintings. If you want to know what raw pain and loss feel like, spend a few minutes in this room. They are technically accomplished, complicated pictures, delivering an emotional charge that you won't quickly forget.
Three in Two is like a Tarantino movie but without the humour. It is full of blood, gore and anger; a reflection on Pollock's fatal car crash perhaps, and the fact that there was a third person in their marriage - his lover, the sole survivor of the accident, Ruth Kligman.
This room is the pivotal point of the exhibition. It is the apogee of Krasner's investigation into Cubist techniques and ideas, which started with her Nude Study from Life (1938), produced while she was a student of the German modernist Hans Hofmann. One glance at the wall on which this group of early drawings are exhibited and you will know why Hofmann said she was one of his finest students.
She quickly moved into abstraction, producing a series of "Little Images" in the mid-1940s, including the excellent, Miro-like Abstract No. 2 (1946-48) and the blood red Untitled (c. 1948-49).
There are misses among the hits, as you would expect from an artist who refused to settle on a single style, announcing rather grandly: "I am not to be trusted around my old work for any length of time."
Her mid-1950s collages are a mixed bag. Burning Candles (1955) fails to settle as a composition and is strangely irritating to look at, while Blue Level (1955) is admirable for its bravado and risk-taking, but didn't do it for me. Unlike Bird Talk (1955) and the aforementioned Bald Eagle, both of which would be very welcome on one of my walls.
As would any one of her giant abstract expressionist paintings from the mid-'60s. Unfortunately I don't live in a mansion or own a museum, or anywhere with the sort of wall space they'd need. But London's Barbican Art Gallery does, and they fill its central galleries, which, for once I am pleased to say, are pepped up with a little natural light.
Here we see Krasner on an operatic scale, painting huge canvasses with looping strokes and a conductor's sense of rhythm. There is not a dud among them: painting after painting sings out from the walls in harmonious tones of red (Another Storm), orange (Courtship), green (Siren), or pink (Combat).
Krasner said she liked jazz. You can not only see that in these paintings, you can hear it. Imagine seeing them alongside Kandinsky's series of Compositions - you'd need earmuffs!
They are a wonderful way to end a wonderful show. Lee Krasner was full of colour and ideas and life, as is this exhibition. Do go and see it if you can.
Recent reviews by Will Gompertz
Follow Will Gompertz on Twitter
|
Motorists were advised to "find alternative routes" following a two vehicle collision on the northbound A483 Wrexham Road on Friday morning. | One lane was closed leading to long queues following the crash at about 06:35 BST close to Pulford.
The incident was between the B5102 at Rossett, Wrexham and the A55 Posthouse roundabout in Chester.
Police used social media to appeal to drivers to "use alternative routes this morning if possible".
Both vehicles have now been recovered and the road has fully reopened.
Traffic monitors reported the route was back to normal by 09:00.
|
The closure of an arts centre, 115 job losses and scrapping of transport for faith schools are among a series of cuts agreed by Darlington councillors. | As part of the £11m cuts, there will also changes to library opening hours.
The Labour-led authority is to close Darlington Arts Centre in July and put the building up for sale.
However, after concerns were raised during a public consultation exercise, a proposed volunteer scheme for school crossing patrols has been dropped.
Darlington Arts Centre is currently used by youth groups, comedy clubs, craft classes and dance groups.
Darlington for Culture, which has campaigned against its closure, said it was "gutted" it would be going ahead.
However, Darlington Council said that so long as the building remained in council ownership there would be an annual cost of about £40,000 for insurance, security and maintenance.
|
As so-called Islamic State (IS) militants are driven out of Mosul, Paul Moss reports on the continuing plight of the Yazidis, the Iraqi religious group who the United Nations says has suffered more destruction than any other at IS hands. | By Paul MossThe World Tonight, Irbil
First one of the Yazidi women started crying, then one of her friends. And then one of the visitors could be heard stifling a sob.
We were listening as a group of Yazidis recounted the now horribly familiar story of how IS came to their homeland on Mount Sinjar in 2014, killing thousands and driving many thousands more into exile.
"Some of our neighbours were running away, but before reaching the mountains, Islamic State gangs captured them and took them," one of the women said.
"The men were killed, and the women and children taken.
"So many died."
The long road ahead
None of these women wanted to give their name.
The experience of two years ago has apparently left them with a deeply ingrained sense of fear - of other people, and of the future:
"They might be able to drive Islamic State out of our area, but it would be very difficult for us to return to where we came from, because we're scared something might happen," one of the women said.
"They might come back."
The possibility of returning is on the minds of many Iraqis, as IS comes under sustained attack in Mosul and is defeated outright elsewhere.
But even Yazidis not scared to go home would find it extremely difficult because the city of Sinjar and the villages that surround it have been so thoroughly destroyed.
"From houses to roads to bridges, the area is razed to the ground," says Dara Yara, a minister in the Iraqi government, with responsibility for housing and construction.
He makes no bones about the long time it will take before they can even start proper rebuilding in the Yazidi areas.
"This kind of situation needs peace, stability. This is a long process," he says.
No return
For now, many Yazidis languish in refugee camps, contemplating another winter under canvas.
Others have given up on the idea of returning home, and have sought asylum in Europe and North America.
It is a trend that worries Luqman Suleiman, a teacher, who also takes people round the Yazidis' most holy temple, in the town of Lalish.
"They want to go to Germany, to France, to Australia," he says.
"There is no future for the Yazidis in Kurdistan."
As far as Mr Suleiman is concerned, the problem is not a matter of houses and roads.
What will ultimately dissuade Yazidis from returning to their homes and lives on Mount Sinjar, he says, is the fact their own neighbours helped IS.
He is one of many Yazidis who insist that Sunni Muslims already living in Sinjar told IS who was Yazidi and who was not.
"The people in the villages helped Islamic State kill the men, kill all the men, and take away the girls," he says.
"How can people live again together?"
The future
No-one is sure how many Yazidi girls were taken away by IS, but a United Nations report suggested it was between 5,000 and 7,000, and that some, perhaps many, were being held as sexual slaves across the border in Syria, but also in Mosul.
It is another thought that occupies the minds of Yazidis, as they watch Iraqi army tanks make their way through Mosul's streets.
"They are there. Recently, one member escaped, but the others - we don't know," another Yazidi woman says, another who does not want to give her name, lest there be reprisals against members of her family still inside IS-held territory.
She was speaking at a rehabilitation centre in Qadia refugee camp, run on behalf of a British charity, The Lotus Flower.
Here, Yazidi women are taught various skills, including how to sew.
The hope is that this may one day provide them with a source of income, but the manager running the project acknowledges that the main purpose is therapeutic.
"We have to help them to be busy with something," says Vian Ahmed, "rather than thinking a lot about what happened to them, about what horrible memories they have."
"Islamic State survivors tend to want to be alone.
"We are helping them to get out, which will be a benefit to them, psychologically and socially."
Of course, what would really benefit the Yazidis would be if they could get out of the refugee camps in which so many of them are living, and for those who want to, to have a chance to see again the villages in which they have lived for so many generations.
But that remains a very distant prospect, if not an impossible one.
|
A trial date has been set for a man accused of murdering a pensioner who was stabbed to death after a car crash. | Don Lock, 79, was fatally stabbed on the A24 in Findon in West Sussex after his car collided with another vehicle on 16 July.
Matthew Daley, 34, of St Elmo Road, Worthing, appeared via video-link at the Old Bailey in central London.
He is due in court again in October. A provisional trial date has been set for 16 November at Lewes Crown Court.
Mr Daley is also accused of possessing a knife in a public place.
Cycling enthusiast Mr Lock had recently celebrated his 55th wedding anniversary with his wife Maureen and had also been given the all-clear from cancer.
|
England's first national park was created in 1951. Since then the list has grown to 10 areas which are protected because of their countryside, wildlife and cultural heritage.
| Nearly 70 years on, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced he is launching a review to consider whether to expand England's network of parks as well as areas of outstanding natural beauty.
So where are the country's 10 current national parks?
England also has 34 areas of outstanding natural beauty - including the Chilterns, the Cotswolds and the Isle of Wight.
|
Lying flat in the middle of the road doesn't usually inspire a eureka moment. But for one man, having a potentially serious bike accident got him thinking about a new future for helmet design. | By Anna LaceyBBC Health Check
"I was riding my bike down a hill, wearing a helmet and a guy opened his car door," says Anirudha Surabhi, who lives in London.
"I hit the door, did a couple of somersaults and fell straight on my head. My helmet was completely cracked, completely unusable."
Luckily for him, Anirudha was able to walk away from the accident with whiplash and mild concussion.
But the sight of his mangled helmet got the then design student thinking about new ways of protecting cyclists.
His unusual solution was to substitute the standard polystyrene design with intricately engineered paper - a decision that's already proving to be a hit with bike-lovers.
But how can paper be safer? And what else can it offer to the future of head protection?
Feel the force
"The danger with falling off your bike is that you subject your head to a dramatic change of speed in just a fraction of a second," says Jolyon Carroll, a safety researcher at the UK's Transport Research Laboratory.
"When you hit the pavement your hard skull will stop or decelerate quickly. However, being a relatively soft organ, your brain tends to keep going. If you imagine dropping a blancmange onto a plate then you can see how bits at the back start compressing and piling up against other bits of brain at the front," he told the BBC.
"It's this action that puts you at risk of injury - from breaking blood vessels to damaging brain tissue."
The basic idea behind cycle helmets is to create a mini crumple zone - a bit like you'd find in a car - that absorbs some of the energy and gives your skull and brain more time to slow down before coming to a stop.
Those extra few milliseconds can reduce the amount of compression in the brain and potentially make the difference between brain damage and a mild case of concussion.
At the moment, the material used to protect us in a crash is polystyrene.
But Anirudha Surabhi isn't convinced that it's the best choice for the job.
Instead, he decided to look to the natural world for inspiration.
"The animal that stood out was the woodpecker. It pecks at about ten times per second and every time it pecks it sustains the same amount of force as us crashing at 50 miles per hour," says Surabhi.
"It's the only bird in the world where the skull and the beak are completely disjointed, and there's a soft corrugated cartilage in the middle that absorbs all the impact and stops it from getting a headache."
Paper power
In order to mimic the woodpecker's crumple zone, Anirudha turned to a cheap and easily accessible source - paper.
He engineered it into a double-layer of honeycomb that could then be cut and constructed into a functioning helmet.
"What you end up with is with tiny little airbags throughout the helmet," he says.
"So when you have a crash, what these airbags do is they go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop - and they go all the way to the bottom, without the helmet cracking. That's what absorbs the energy. "
The paper design has been tested to European standards, and when compared to a standard polystyrene helmet, the results are impressive.
"If you crash at 15 miles per hour in a normal helmet, your head will be subjected to around 220G [G-force], whereas the new design absorbs more of the impact and means you experience around 70G instead," says Surabhi.
To put that into context, international safety standards recognise that to avoid serious brain damage, a person must not be exposed to impact forces above 300G.
This means that while a polystyrene helmet helps you to avoid fatal or serious head injury, the paper helmet will give your head more time to slow down and potentially lower the risk of even less serious injuries like concussion.
A no-brainer?
Anirudha's paper helmet is already in the shops and joins a growing range of innovative alternatives to the polystyrene model.
He also has new ideas in the pipeline for his honeycomb design, including a flat-pack version suitable for cyclists using city bike hire schemes.
Of course, debate still rages over whether helmets really help protect cyclists at all - with arguments ranging from the ineffectiveness of polystyrene to the mere act of wearing a helmet encouraging cyclists to take more risks and drivers to be less cautious.
But an independent review by the Transport Research Laboratory in 2009 found that assuming they are worn correctly, cycle helmets should be effective at reducing the risk of head injury.
As wearing cycle helmets is not compulsory in the UK, then the choice is down to the individual rider.
But will that choice really stretch to paper helmets?
"I think the public will accept it because if you think about it, stuntmen have been jumping onto cardboard boxes for decades, which are all made out of paper," says Anirudha Surabhi.
"They risk their lives from five-storey buildings purely because they know that paper actually works."
|
For six years, Albania has been home to one of Iran's main opposition groups, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or MEK. But hundreds of members have walked out - some complaining about the organisation's rigid rules enforcing celibacy, and control over contact with family. Now, dozens languish in the Albanian capital, Tirana, unable to return to Iran or get on with their lives. | By Linda Pressly and Albana KasapiBBC News, Tirana
"I didn't speak to my wife and son for over 37 years - they thought I'd died. But I told them, 'No, I'm alive, I'm living in Albania…' They cried."
That first contact by phone with his family after so many years was difficult for Gholam Mirzai, too. He is 60, and absconded two years ago from the MEK's military-style encampment outside Tirana.
Now he scrapes by in the city, full of regrets and accused by his former Mujahideen comrades of spying for their sworn enemy, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The MEK has a turbulent and bloody history. As Islamist-Marxist radicals, its members backed the 1979 Iranian revolution that toppled the Shah. But relations with a triumphant Ayatollah Khomeini soon soured. When the government cracked down hard, the Mujahideen had to run for their lives.
Neighbouring Iraq offered sanctuary, and from their desert citadel during the Iran/Iraq war (1980-1988), the MEK fought on the side of Saddam Hussein against their homeland.
Gholam Mirzai was serving in the Iranian military when he was captured by Saddam Hussein's forces at the start of that conflict. He spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Iraq. But in time, Iranian prisoners like Mirzai were encouraged to join forces with their compatriots. And that is what he did.
Mirzai is now a "disassociate" - one of hundreds of former MEK members who have left the organisation since they moved to Albania. With the help of funds from family, some have paid people smugglers to take them elsewhere in Europe, and perhaps two have made it back to Iran. But dozens remain in Tirana, stateless and officially unable to work.
Find out more
So how did the battle-hardened members of the MEK - formerly a proscribed terrorist organisation in the United States and Europe - find their way to this corner of Europe?
In 2003, the allied invasion of Iraq made life perilous for the MEK. The organisation's protector, Saddam Hussein, was suddenly gone, and the Mujahideen were repeatedly attacked - hundreds were killed and injured. Fearing an even worse humanitarian disaster, the Americans approached the Albanian government in 2013 and persuaded it to receive some 3,000 MEK members in Tirana.
"We offered them shelter from attacks and abuse, and the possibility to lead a normal life in a country where they are not harassed, attacked or brutalised," says Lulzim Basha, leader of the Democratic Party, which was in government at the time, and is now in opposition.
In Albania, politics are deeply polarised - everything is contested. But, almost uniquely, the presence of the MEK isn't - publicly, both governing and opposition parties support their Iranian guests.
For the MEK, Albania was a completely new environment. Gholam Mirzai was astonished that even children had mobile phones. And because some of the Mujahideen were initially accommodated in apartment buildings on the edge of the capital, the organisation's grip on its members was looser than it had been previously. In Iraq, it had controlled every aspect of their lives, but here, temporarily, there was a chance to exercise a degree of freedom.
"There was some rough ground behind the flats where the commanders told us we should take daily exercise," remembers Hassan Heyrany, another "disassociate".
Heyrany and his colleagues used the cover of trees and bushes to sneak around to the internet cafe close by and make contact with their families.
"When we were in Iraq, if you wanted to phone home, the MEK called you weak - we had no relationship with our families," he says. "But when we came to Tirana, we found the internet for personal use."
Towards the end of 2017, though, the MEK moved out to new headquarters. The camp is built on a gently sloping hill in the Albanian countryside, about 30km (19 miles) from the capital. Behind the imposing, iron gates, there is an impressive marble arch topped with golden lions. A tree-lined boulevard runs up to a memorial dedicated to the thousands of people who have lost their lives in the MEK's struggle against the Iranian government.
Uninvited journalists are not welcome here. But in July this year, thousands attended the MEK's Free Iran event at the camp. Politicians from around the globe, influential Albanians and people from the nearby village of Manze, joined thousands of MEK members and their leader, Maryam Rajavi, in the glitzy auditorium. US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, addressed the crowd.
"These are people who are dedicated to freedom," he said, referring to the uniformly dressed and gender-segregated MEK members present in the hall.
"And if you think that's a cult, then there's something wrong with you," he added, bringing the house down.
Powerful politicians like Giuliani support the MEK's goal of regime change in Iran. The movement's manifesto includes a commitment to human rights, gender equality and participatory democracy for Iran.
But Hassan Heyrany does not buy it any more. Last year he left the MEK, rejecting what he saw as the leadership's oppressive control of his private life. Heyrany had joined the Mujahideen in his 20s, attracted by its commitment to political pluralism.
"It was very attractive. But if you believe in democracy, you cannot suppress the soul of your members," he says.
The nadir of Heyrany's life with the MEK was an evening meeting he was obliged to attend.
"We had a little notebook, and if we had any sexual moments we should write them down. For example, 'Today, in the morning, I had an erection.'"
Romantic relationships and marriage are prohibited by the MEK. It was not always like that - parents and their children used to join the Mujahideen. But after the bloody defeat of one MEK offensive by the Iranians, the leadership argued it had happened because the Mujahideen were distracted by personal relationships. Mass divorce followed. Children were sent away - often to foster homes in Europe - and single MEK members pledged to stay that way.
In that notebook, Heyrany says they also had to write any personal daydreams.
"For example, 'When I saw a baby on television, I had a feeling that I wished to have a child or a family of my own.'"
And the Mujahideen had to read from their notebooks in front of their commander and comrades at the daily meeting.
"That's very hard for a person," Heyrany says.
Now he likens the MEK camp in Manze to Animal Farm, George Orwell's critique of the Stalinist era in the USSR. "It's a cult," he says simply.
A diplomatic source in Tirana described the MEK as "a unique cultural group - not a cult, but cult-like."
The BBC was not able to put any of this to the MEK, because the organisation refused to be interviewed. But in Albania, a nation that endured a punishing, closed, Communist regime for decades there is some sympathy for the MEK leadership's position - at least on the prohibition of personal relationships.
"In extreme situations, you make extreme choices," says Diana Culi, a writer, women's activist and former MP for the governing Socialist Party.
"They have vowed to fight all their lives for the liberation of their country from a totalitarian regime. Sometimes we have difficulty accepting strong belief in a cause. This is personal sacrifice, and it's a mentality I understand."
Even so, some Albanians worry that the MEK's presence threatens national security.
Two Iranian diplomats were expelled following allegations about violent plots against the Mujahideen, and the European Union has accused Tehran of being behind conspiracies to assassinate regime opponents, including MEK members, on Dutch, Danish and French soil. (The Iranian Embassy in Tirana declined the BBC's request for an interview.)
A highly-placed source in the Socialist Party is also concerned that the intelligence services lack the capacity to monitor more than 2,500 MEK members with military training.
"No-one with a brain would've accepted them here," he says.
A diplomat says some of the "disassociates" are certainly working for Iran. Gholam Mirzai and Hassan Heyrany have themselves been accused by the MEK of being agents for Tehran. It is a charge they deny.
Now both men are focused on the future. With help from family in Iran, Heyrany is opening a coffee shop, and he is dating an Albanian. At 40, he is younger than most of his fellow cadres and he remains optimistic.
Gholam Mirzai's situation is more precarious. His health is not good - he walks with a limp after being caught in one of the bombardments of the MEK camp in Iraq - and he is short of money.
He is tormented by the mistakes he has made in his life - and something he found out when he first got in touch with his family.
When Mirzai left to go to war against Iraq in 1980, he had a one-month-old son. After the Iran/Iraq war ended, his wife and other members of his family came to the MEK camp in Iraq to look for Mirzai. But the MEK sent them away, and told him nothing about their visit.
This 60-year-old man never knew he was a much-missed father and husband until he made that first call home after 37 years.
"They didn't tell me that my family came searching for me in Iraq. They didn't tell me anything about my wife and son," he says.
"All of these years I thought about my wife and son. Maybe they died in the war… I just didn't know."
The son he has not seen in the flesh since he was a tiny baby is nearly 40 now. And Mirzai proudly displays a picture of this grown-up man on his WhatsApp id. But renewed contact has been painful too.
"I was responsible for this situation - the separation. I can't sleep too much at night because I think about them. I'm always nervous, angry. I am ashamed of myself," Mirzai says.
Shame is not easy to live with. And he has only one desire now.
"I want to go back to Iran, to live with my wife and son. That is my wish."
Gholam Mirzai has visited the Iranian Embassy in Tirana to ask for help, and his family have lobbied the authorities in Tehran. He has heard nothing. So he waits - without citizenship, without a passport, and dreaming of home.
You may also be interested in:
Few people give much thought to where what they wear beneath their clothes really comes from, and so it was for Elizabeth Gowing, until a visit to an underwear factory run by women in northern Albania.
The mountain girls making bras for Europe's chests
|
The first granite slabs have been laid as part of a £7m project which will transform a square in Coventry ahead of the 2012 Olympics. | The plans are for Broadgate to have more trees, a traffic-free zone and subways to be altered.
Rising bollards will be provided at each end of Broadgate to ensure the safety of pedestrians while allowing access for emergency vehicles.
The project has been expected to be completed by spring next year.
The new square was being part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the city council said.
Councillor Linda Bigham, cabinet member for city development, said: "An event space in the centre of the city has been lacking and is just what we need.
"We will now be able to offer the events and entertainment that the people of Coventry have been wanting."
|
The detail is buried in many pages of dense text. So for now, in the early moments of relief at getting to a Brexit deal, it's the tone that counts for more than the line-by-line analysis. | Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland
Christmas Eve is the only night of the year when newspapers aren't published, leaving more space for political leaders and others to shape the narrative according to taste.
From Boris Johnson, this was about triumph, with big claims of delivering on Brexiteers' expectations. He was unprepared for an obvious question - the first one asked - about what had been conceded. And he blundered into a plainly false claim that there will be no tariff barriers.
After the experience of his capitulation last year on the trading relations with Northern Ireland - which he then flatly denied, and later set out to revoke, illegally - his mastery of the detail, or of uncomfortable realities, remains as suspect as ever.
However, this was was also about friendship, and a new, positive relationship, speaking of the European project as a noble endeavour.
From Brussels' point of view, Michel Barnier staked his claim for the defining soundbite to sum up the day's events: "The clock is no longer ticking".
There, too, there's a reset, and a new start. No triumphalism, but regret - at the UK leaving, and regret at the elements of the deal that the British government was not willing to sign up to. That includes the Erasmus student exchange scheme - a symbol of Europe's notion of freedom, in contrast with Boris Johnson's, and one that probably plays better with young British people than it does with the Brexiteers.
The message was also like the one at the end of a game show: "Let's see what you might have won", or: "Look at what the British have lost by leaving".
The materials published immediately after the announcements included 25 advantages of being inside the European Union, about citizens' rights and travel, security, economic protections and co-operation.
It showed in graphic terms that Britain retains only two of them - tariff free trade and visa-free travel, but only for 90 days at a time.
As we knew all along, the outcome of this had to suit the Brexiteers, who have got a pretty hard version of Brexit, though not as hard as some might like. And it had to work for the Europeans, in making sure they stayed united, the benefits of being inside the club were clear, and the costs of leaving are also laid out clearly.
From Emmanuel Macron in Paris, there was a different tone from the one at podiums in Brussels and London. He is heading into French presidential election season. "The unity and strength of Europe paid off," he said. "The agreement with the United Kingdom is essential to protect our citizens, our fishermen, our producers. We will make sure that this is the case".
That final sentence carries a warning. The deal starts with no tariffs or quotas on goods. But it doesn't guarantee things stay that way.
We only know fragments of the agreement for now, but it seems that both sides have opportunities to take infringements of the level playing field to arbitration, and to ask for the right to take retaliatory action.
Boris Johnson illustrated this with the example of farm animal welfare. If Britain makes it more expensive to farm pigs, it can stop inbound pork from undercutting British farmers.
But it's somewhat more likely that a deregulatory Conservative government is going to find the pressures and tensions are in the other direction, as the European Union raises its regulation of business, and meets a British refusal to align.
That's where we get back into the possibility of tariffs or quotas.
More negotiations
And as ever, a deal on fish has not made that prospect go away. The two sides travelled a long way to get to a rise from around half of the UK waters' catch going to EU registered vessels, to a position in five years where the UK gets two-thirds.
While the EU gave up more on the timescale it wanted, the UK gave up more on percentages of catch.
It's long way from the expectations of Brexiteers, though some point out that any trade deal was bound to have a transition period, and the UK fleet doesn't yet have the capacity to take up new-found quota. Some £100m has been found to help it prepare for that.
But after five years, "theoretically, anything is possible," said the prime minister. As a sovereign, independent coastal state, it seems the UK can force EU countries to negotiate access to UK waters.
But theoretically, it's also possible that the EU can bring back the prospect of tariffs or quotas to reduce access to its markets. They are vital to British fishing effort already.
And if UK vessels are to pick up all the quota of herring, whiting, sandeels, spratts, saithe, anglers and roughead grenadier that it can only sell in the European Union, it faces a consequent weakening of its negotiating position.
In other words, the end of negotiations on Brexit look like the start of lots more negotiations, on lots more issues. As Switzerland finds, from outside the EU while ringed by it, the talks never end.
|
Drive around the streets of Kuwait and you won't see these women. They are behind closed doors, deprived of their basic rights, unable to leave and at risk of being sold to the highest bidder. | By Owen Pinnell & Jess KellyBBC News Arabic
But pick up a smartphone and you can scroll through thousands of their pictures, categorised by race, and available to buy for a few thousand dollars.
An undercover investigation by BBC News Arabic has found that domestic workers are being illegally bought and sold online in a booming black market.
Some of the trade has been carried out on Facebook-owned Instagram, where posts have been promoted via algorithm-boosted hashtags, and sales negotiated via private messages.
Other listings have been promoted in apps approved and provided by Google Play and Apple's App Store, as well as the e-commerce platforms' own websites.
"What they are doing is promoting an online slave market," said Urmila Bhoola, the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.
"If Google, Apple, Facebook or any other companies are hosting apps like these, they have to be held accountable."
After being alerted to the issue, Facebook said it had banned one of the hashtags involved.
Google and Apple said they were working with app developers to prevent illegal activity.
The illegal sales are a clear breach of the US tech firms' rules for app developers and users.
However, the BBC has found there are many related listings still active on Instagram, and other apps available via Apple and Google.
Slave market
Nine out of 10 Kuwaiti homes have a domestic worker - they come from some of the poorest parts of the world to the Gulf, aiming to make enough money to support their family at home.
Posing as a couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale.
The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women's passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone.
The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category.
"African worker, clean and smiley," said one listing. Another: "Nepalese who dares to ask for a day off."
When speaking to the sellers, the undercover team frequently heard racist language. "Indians are the dirtiest," said one, describing a woman being advertised.
Human rights violated
The team were urged by app users, who acted as if they were the "owners" of these women, to deny them other basic human rights, such as giving them a "day or a minute or a second" off.
One man, a policeman, looking to offload his worker said: "Trust me she's very nice, she laughs and has a smiley face. Even if you keep her up till 5am she won't complain."
He told the BBC team how domestic workers were used as a commodity.
"You will find someone buying a maid for 600 KD ($2,000), and selling her on for 1,000 KD ($3,300)," he said.
He suggested how the BBC team should treat her: "The passport, don't give it to her. You're her sponsor. Why would you give her her passport?"
In one case, the BBC team was offered a 16-year-old girl. It has called her Fatou to protect her real name.
Fatou had been trafficked from Guinea in West Africa and had been employed as a domestic worker in Kuwait for six months, when the BBC discovered her. Kuwait's laws say that domestic workers must be over 21.
Her seller's sales pitch included the facts that she had given Fatou no time off, her passport and phone had been taken away, and she had not allowed her to leave the house alone - all of which are illegal in Kuwait.
Sponsor's permission
"This is the quintessential example of modern slavery," said Ms Bhoola. "Here we see a child being sold and traded like chattel, like a piece of property."
In most places in the Gulf, domestic workers are brought into the country by agencies and then officially registered with the government.
Potential employers pay the agencies a fee and become the official sponsor of the domestic worker.
Under what is known as the Kafala system, a domestic worker cannot change or quit her job, nor leave the country without her sponsor's permission.
In 2015, Kuwait introduced some of the most wide-ranging laws to help protect domestic workers. But the law was not popular with everyone.
Apps including 4Sale and Instagram enable employers to sell the sponsorship of their domestic workers to other employers, for a profit. This bypasses the agencies, and creates an unregulated black market which leaves women more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
This online slave market is not just happening in Kuwait.
In Saudi Arabia, the investigation found hundreds of women being sold on Haraj, another popular commodity app. There were hundreds more on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
'Real hell'
The BBC team travelled to Guinea to try to contact the family of Fatou, the child they had discovered being offered for sale in Kuwait.
Every year hundreds of women are trafficked from here to the Gulf as domestic workers.
"Kuwait is really a hell," said one former maid, who recalled being made to sleep in the same place as cows by the woman who employed her. "Kuwaiti houses are very bad," said another. "No sleep, no food, nothing."
Fatou was found by the Kuwaiti authorities and taken to the government-run shelter for domestic workers. Two days later she was deported back to Guinea for being a minor.
She told the BBC about her experience working in three households during her nine months in Kuwait: "They used to shout at me and call me an animal. It hurt, it made me sad, but there was nothing I could do."
Now she is back at school in Conakry, where the BBC visited her.
"I am so happy," she said.
"Even now, talking about it, I'm still happy. My life is better now. I feel like I'm coming back from slavery."
Hashtag removed
The Kuwaiti government says it is "at war with this kind of behaviour" and insisted the apps would be "heavily scrutinised".
To date, no significant action has been taken against the platforms. And there has not been any legal action against the woman who tried to sell Fatou. The seller has not responded to the BBC's request for comment.
Since the BBC team contacted the apps and tech companies about their findings, 4Sale has removed the domestic worker section of its platform.
Facebook said it had banned the Arabic hashtag "خادمات للتنازل#" - which translates as "#maidsfortransfer".
"We will continue to work with law enforcement, expert organisations and industry to prevent this behaviour on our platforms," added a Facebook spokesman.
There was no comment from the Saudi commodity app, Haraj.
Google said it was "deeply troubled by the allegations".
"We have asked BBC to share additional details so we can conduct a more in-depth investigation," it added. "We are working to ensure that the app developers put in place the necessary safeguards to prevent individuals from conducting this activity on their online marketplaces."
Apple said it "strictly prohibited" the promotion of human trafficking and child exploitation in apps made available on its marketplace.
"App developers are responsible for policing the user-generated content on their platforms," it said.
"We work with developers to take immediate corrective actions whenever we find any issues and, in extreme cases, we will remove the app from the Store.
"We also work with developers to report any illegalities to local law enforcement authorities."
The firms continue to distribute the 4Sale and Haraj apps, however, on the basis that their primary purpose is to sell legitimate goods and services.
4Sale may have tackled the problem, but at the time of publication, hundreds of domestic workers were still being traded on Haraj, Instagram and other apps which the BBC has seen.
|
"Does it really matter which university you study at?" | By Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent
This is the question that's been chosen by the BBC News audience - and it is a very immediate concern for hundreds of thousands of families wrestling with university application forms.
Of course, on the idealistic side of things, what really matters is that someone is following a course that they really like and in a place that suits their needs.
But there are thornier worries about the cost of university and how much degrees are worth after graduation.
The evidence suggests that going to university remains a good investment. Organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have tracked whether the rising number of students will erode the benefits in the jobs market.
So far it seems that the graduates have kept their advantage. A changing jobs market has generated more opportunities for graduates and people who went to university are likely to be earning more and are less likely to be unemployed.
Why Sean wrote this:
We asked readers to send in their questions about university education.
The favourite which you selected was this question from Kirsty: "Does it really matter which university you study at?"
Kirsty has three daughters, one currently at university, another planning to go and a third looking to university in the future, so as she says "It's a question we're currently trying to answer.
"Some universities are going to charge higher fees, does this mean we can compare by price? But then will a degree in mathematics from a more expensive university be different in any way? Will future opportunities really depend on the university we choose?
"It seems the more we've tried to answer this question the more questions arise."
Take a look at some of the other questions you've wanted us to answer
Women in particular are likely to benefit economically from being graduates, with a big advantage in earnings compared with women without degrees.
But the next question is whether all universities will deliver similar rewards.
There are all kinds of social rewards and intellectual pleasures of university life, which cannot be chopped up and counted.
But the financial rewards can be measured and they vary significantly between different universities.
Earning power
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Cambridge University, Harvard University and the Institute of Education, UCL published research on graduate earnings in England earlier this year.
It analysed the incomes of 260,000 graduates and showed a very wide spectrum of likely earnings. At the top was a cluster of universities, headed by the London School of Economics, Oxford and Cambridge.
In these three institutions, 10% of their male graduates had earnings above £100,000 a decade after leaving university. The LSE was the only place where 10% of female graduates were also in this top earning bracket.
There is an earnings pecking order - with about another 30 or so universities, not identified by name, where 10% of graduates are earning above £60,000.
And at the bottom, there are some more awkward figures. There are 23 universities where male graduates are likely to end up earning less than non-graduates - and there are nine universities where that is also the case for women.
But there is another important factor cutting across this - the differences between subjects.
Healthy income
Students taking courses such as medicine, economics, law and maths are likely to be earning much more than the average graduate.
And artists are really going to be struggling in their garrets, as graduates from creative arts courses are likely to be earning less than the average non-graduate.
The combination of these two factors is going to decide the likely financial benefits - the university and choice of subject.
But researchers highlight some other questions muddying the waters.
Students do not enter university unshaped by what went before.
How much of higher earnings in later life might be linked to coming from high-income parents, rather than anything to do with higher education?
A key finding of the income research was that graduates from wealthy families ended up earning more than than those from poorer families, even if they studied the same course at the same university.
But there is no escaping the growing sense of stratification in the university sector and differences in status.
Status symbols
Belonging to the Russell Group has become a kind of self-conferred status symbol for its membership.
Although this might sound venerable, it has only existed since the mid-1990s and began life as a group of heads of universities with medical schools, who met at London's Russell Hotel.
But it has sharpened a sense of difference.
University rankings have also become very influential, further encouraging the idea of a hierarchy of quality.
Even if academics are sceptical about the reliability of such rankings, they will be scrutinised by students applying to university and it becomes almost self-fulfilling.
The appetite for such rankings also reflects the growing numbers of students going to university - and the need to distinguish between different types of degree.
University-blind admissions
Young people are now more likely to get a degree than they were to get five good O-levels in the early 1980s.
And where once it would have been a success to get into any university, it is now increasingly a question of which university.
But if this sounds like a growing polarisation, with top earnings and status clustering around a few elite institutions, there is something of a backlash from employers.
A succession of big graduate employers have moved towards hiring students in a way that masks which university and school they attended.
This might be presented as advancing the cause of social mobility - but it is also about the self-interest of companies.
Speaking privately, employers will say if they're fighting for business in diverse, inner-city communities, they do not want to send in a line-up of Oxbridge clones.
But for teenagers struggling with application forms for university, how are they meant to choose between similar sounding institutions?
They might say that all degrees are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook
|
Tony Nicklinson was left paralysed and with locked-in syndrome by a stroke seven years ago.
The 58-year-old wants a doctor to be able to lawfully end his life. A four-day hearing into his case is being heard at the High Court.
Here Mr Nicklinson, from Wiltshire, explains why he wants to change the current law on murder and euthanasia. | By Caroline Le MarechalBBC News, Bristol
I have locked-in syndrome and it makes my life a living nightmare.
I cannot speak and I am also paralysed below the neck, which means I need someone to do everything for me.
For example, 90% of itches have to be endured because by the time someone comes to scratch it and I have laboriously explained where it is, the itch has gone. Now I just put up with them.
Or there is the screaming frustration of wanting to make a point but knowing that the only way I can express my opinion, by the board or computer, are useless in normal conversation.
Another example is having your teeth cleaned by someone else. It is a horrible experience and I doubt you would want it done more than once a day. I could go on.
'Murder law'
However, all these things are physical and arguably one can learn to live with them. What I find impossible to live with is the knowledge that, unlike you, I have no way out - suicide - when this life gets too much to bear.
I do not say these things to get your sympathy but to get justice.
It cannot be acceptable in 21st Century Britain that I am denied the right to take my own life just because I am physically handicapped.
Assisted dying is a controversial issue which aims to help people to die who are physically unable to take their own life or who can take their own life but want help to do so.
I must declare an interest because I am unable to take my own life. I require amendment to the murder law to make it lawful in certain circumstances for one person to take another's life (euthanasia) and [this] is the substance of my imminent court hearing.
Despite moments of gloom at the enormity of my task, I am kept going by the fundamental injustice of my circumstances and the need for change so that others won't have to endure such indignities if they don't want to.
We are all individuals and each person deserves an individual solution to his particular circumstances. A one-size-fits-all solution of better care and more of it, such as opponents advocate, is clearly not the answer. The option of assisted dying should be available.
It is astonishing that in 1969 we could put a man on the Moon yet in 2012 we still cannot devise adequate rules governing assisted dying.
'Apocalyptic future'
Many opponents of assisted dying object because they think it is wrong to take your own or another's life. Recently I asked such people if there was anything I could say to make them change their mind. They both replied there wasn't.
I even suggested to one some safeguards for his approval or otherwise. He totally ignored the question. Clearly any discussion with them is a complete waste of time.
Much has been said about the part care plays in assisted dying and the argument is essentially that better care and more of it will expunge all thoughts of taking one's own life.
This was said of me on a prestigious national radio programme back in February. I invited the speaker to visit so that she could tell me to my face what I am missing. So far all she has come up with is a number of excuses not to visit. Draw your own conclusions.
The only argument used by the opponents that I can see is to paint an apocalyptic picture of the future if assisted dying is legalised.
They often use Holland as the way it would be in the UK, with 10 and 12-year-olds asking for and getting help to die and old people being killed without them asking for it. All this and more is apparently done with the blessing of the population and with the authorities turning a blind eye to this orgy of unlawful killing.
Curiously these opponents fail to explain why we should adopt a flawed system instead of learning from their mistakes.
One aspect of the opponents' argument that makes my blood boil is the twisting of facts in order to scare ordinary people. This is illustrated by the following story.
'Mobile euthanasia vans'
Last week an opponent told me in a dark, conspiratorial voice that in Holland they even had mobile euthanasia vans supposedly touring neighbourhoods looking to drum up business like an ice cream van.
The truth is that the Dutch do indeed have such vans. They are mobile offices and are necessary because there are only so many doctors licensed to conduct assisted dying, so they go where requested to save elderly patients from having to travel to a clinic. Not quite the sinister purpose opponents would have you believe.
In short, don't take anything an opponent might say at face value - they can't be trusted.
For most people the debate is often remote from ordinary lives but for me, the debate on assisted dying is truly a matter of (an unhappy) life and (a pain-free) death. The next stroke could affect you or a loved one; would you be happy to end up like me?
|
In 2012 an Indian student was violently raped on a moving bus in Delhi and died of horrific internal injuries. Leslee Udwin spoke to one of the rapists on death row while spending two years making a film about the case. She came away shocked by India's treatment of women - but inspired by those seeking change. | The horrifying details of the rape had led me to expect deranged monsters. Psychopaths. The truth was far more chilling. These were ordinary, apparently normal and certainly unremarkable men.
On 16 December 2012, the 23-year-old woman had been to see a film, the Life of Pi, with a male friend. At 8.30pm they boarded an off-duty bus, with six men on board, five adults and a juvenile. The men beat the friend and each raped the woman in turn, before assaulting her viciously with an iron instrument.
Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus, described to me every detail of what happened during and after the incident. While prosecutors say the men took turns to drive the bus, and all took part in the rape, Singh says he stayed at the wheel throughout.
Along with three of the other attackers, Singh is now appealing against his death sentence. In 16 hours of interviews, Singh showed no remorse and kept expressing bewilderment that such a fuss was being made about this rape, when everyone was at it.
"A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy," he said.
"Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good."
People "had a right to teach them a lesson" he suggested - and he said the woman should have put up with it.
"When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy," he said.
Chillingly, he went on: "The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death."
I had the long and shocking list of injuries the young woman had sustained, read out to him. I tried, really hard, to search for a glimmer of regret. There was none.
It would be easier to process this heinous crime if the perpetrators were monsters, and just the rotten apples in the barrel, aberrant in nature. Perhaps then, those of us who believe that capital punishment serves a purpose, and I am not among them, could wring their hands in relief when they hang.
For me the truth couldn't be further from this - and perhaps their hanging will even mask the real problem, which is that these men are not the disease, they are the symptoms.
My encounter with Singh and four other rapists left me feeling like my soul had been dipped in tar, and there were no cleaning agents in the world that could remove the indelible stain.
One of the men I interviewed, Gaurav, had raped a five-year-old girl. I spent three hours filming his interview as he recounted in explicit detail how he had muffled her screams with his big hand.
He was sitting throughout the interview and had a half-smile playing on his lips throughout - his nervousness in the presence of a camera, perhaps. At one point I asked him to tell me how tall she was. He stood up, and with his eerie half-smile indicated a height around his knees.
When I asked him how he could cross the line from imagining what he wanted to do, to actually doing it - given her height, her eyes, her screams - he looked at me as though I was crazy for even asking the question and said: "She was beggar girl. Her life was of no value."
These offences against women and girls are a part of the story, but the full story starts with a girl not being as welcome as a boy, from birth. When sweets are distributed at the birth of a boy, not of a girl. When the boy child is nourished more than the girl, when a girl's movements are restricted and her freedoms and choices are curtailed, when she is sent as a domestic slave to her husband's home… If a girl is accorded no value, if a girl is worth less than a boy, then it stands to reason there will be men who believe they can do what they like with them.
I spoke to two lawyers who had defended the murderers of the 23-year-old student at their trial, and what they said was extremely revealing.
"In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7:30 or 8:30 in the evening with any unknown person," said one of the lawyers, ML Sharma.
"You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn't have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman."
The other lawyer, AP Singh, had said in a previous televised interview: "If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight."
He did not disown that comment when I put it to him. "This is my stand," he said. "I still today stand on that reply."
Gender-inequality is the primary tumour and rape, trafficking, child marriage, female foeticide, honour killings and so on, are the metastases. And in India the problem is not lack of laws - after all, India is a democracy and a civilised, rapidly developing country. The problem is implementation of them.
Article 14 of the Indian Constitution confers absolute equal rights on women. The giving of dowry is a legal offence, but many families maintain the custom nonetheless. Until and unless the mindset changes, the cancer will thrive and continue to spread.
But what compelled me to leave my family and go to Delhi to make this film was not the rape itself, nor the horror of it. It was what followed.
Starting on the day after the rape, and for over a month, ordinary men and women came out on to the streets of India's cities in unprecedented numbers to protest. They braved a freezing December and a ferocious government crackdown of water cannons, baton charges, and teargas shells. Their courage and determination to be heard was extraordinarily inspiring.
There was something momentous about their presence and perseverance - reminiscent to me of the crowds that had thronged Tahrir Square in Cairo - a gathering of civil society that demanded a conversation that was long overdue.
It occurred to me that, for all its appalling record of violence against women and relentless rapes, here was India leading the world by example. I couldn't recall another country, in my lifetime, standing up with such tenacity for women, for me. And I knew at once that I simply had to use whatever talents and skills I had, to amplify their cries of "enough is enough!" which were reverberating across the whole world.
As is often the case with extremely challenging endeavours where the human stakes are high, the main struggle for me was the emotional and psychological toll the work imposed.
When you look into the blackest recesses of the human heart, you cannot but be depressed and deeply disappointed. I woke one morning on the shoot, wet from head to toe, bathed in sweat and fear and my heart knocking against my ribcage. This was a panic attack. I phoned home thinking my husband would answer, but my 13-year-old daughter, Maya, did.
She immediately sensed I was in trouble. And when I told her, in tears, that I was coming home because this was too big for me, the mountain was just too high to scale, she said: "Mummy, you can't come home because I and my generation of girls is relying on you."
What carried me through, apart from Maya, was what had inspired me in the first place: the new-thinkers, especially among the youth, in India who want change and are clamouring for it. And I am absolutely optimistic that we are now on the cusp of change.
India's Daughter will be broadcast on Storyville on BBC Four on Sunday 8 March at 22:00 GMT.
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
|
It is two years since the start of the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen in support of the government ousted by Houthi rebels. In that time, thousands of civilians have been killed, parts of the country devastated and Yemen left teetering on the brink of famine.
Here the BBC's Yemen-born Mai Noman, who has returned to her homeland to film short documentaries, reflects on what has become of her country. | It's been over two years since I was last here. The only place I call home.
A lot has happened and much has changed. It's hard to keep my feelings in check.
Beside the physical destruction, memories of what once was are buried under the heavy weight of emotional rubble.
As a Yemeni journalist working in international news, I have had to monitor every twist and turn of the civil war in my country, even when I wanted to look away.
Truthfully, the thought of coming face-to-face with the new reality shaped by the furious conflict in Yemen has terrified me.
But living through the war from outside Yemen was isolating.
As we make our way to the capital, Sanaa, on a rugged 10-hour car journey from Aden, I think back to the number of times I quietly broke down after hearing news coming out of Yemen. Working in a newsroom, this happened often.
This trip takes me from the south to the north - two parts of a country divided by more than mere miles.
In simple terms, the south is under government control, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the north is controlled by the Houthi rebels. But the reality is more complicated.
Same city
I've imagined arriving back home hundreds of times in the last few years. But on the day I was totally unprepared for what I found.
Unlike the southern city of Aden, where life seems to be at a standstill, waiting in fearful anticipation of more fighting, Sanaa - apart from the obvious damage - appears the same as ever.
I can feel the rain approaching. After London that should make me shudder, but it somehow feels welcoming.
The jagged mountains which encompass the city slowly fill with clouds transforming the sky into a splendid portrait of misted rocky peaks. All at once telling me I'm home.
There are more restaurants in town than I recall, and many are over-flowing with people.
For a moment I forget there's a war raging across the country. But then Sanaa can be deceptive.
I feel exhausted by the time we arrive at my cousin Mona's house.
I knock on the door in a typical Yemeni manner - very determinedly. Mona's youngest child, Abdullah, opens the door to greet me.
It's quite quiet here. A minute later I hear Mona making her way down the narrow stairs at the back of the house.
We embrace with joy. She holds my face to see what's changed.
"You're still you," she says. A lot kinder than comments I receive later about how my hair is too short or the few extra pounds I've gained.
No answers
Mona is just as beautiful but her voice has changed, she's gone through a lot in the last few years.
Three years ago she lost her father suddenly. She had been very close to him and facing life without him, amid ongoing uncertainty, is hard.
"He was the biggest support I had," she tells me, breaking down in tears.
Life hasn't been kind to her and the war has now brought with it seemingly endless questions.
Would her family be able to leave if it had to? Is it better to be stuck inside surrounded by conflict, or outside separated from relatives and friends? Are Mona's children safe at school or sleeping in their beds? How many more funerals will she have to attend?
I have no answers.
Even with the most difficult issues I face in my own life, the choices are never so bleak.
Our lives have become more different than ever.
Over the course of three weeks in Yemen, I reconnect with old acquaintances and hear stories of separation, loss and incredible examples of the tight bonds that keep a community together.
But something else weighs heavily on my heart. There is one place I wasn't able to visit.
Ruined lives
It's the place where I was born and where a more utopian notion of Yemen was engraved in my mind.
My grandmother's house in Taiz.
But sadly my grandmother is no longer with us and Taiz today is unrecognisable, sitting as it does on the frontline of the conflict. I wonder if I'd even know the house.
The fighting on the ground is brutal, the bombardment by the Saudi-led coalition is relentless and the siege on the city by the Houthis continues.
It's painful trying to accept the way things have become, one where precious memories have no place among the hardship of this grinding conflict.
To me, Taiz is where the heart of home is, and there's nothing harder than losing one's home.
When I set off for Yemen it was with a mixture of dread and trepidation at what I might find after years of bombardment and fighting.
On arriving I fell into a false sense of relief that the people were still here; home was, in some form, still here.
In the days which followed though, it became clear that war damage isn't just the craters and the bombed out buildings.
It is the suffering of a population watching helplessly as their lives are being torn apart.
Thinking of the time I spent fearing what I'd find when I returned home, I know that regardless of the pain of seeing my country at war, the sense of longing to be part of Yemen, for good or bad, will always draw me back.
|
A driver is being questioned over the death of a pedestrian who was knocked down.
| The woman, who has not been named, was struck by the vehicle in Torquay, Devon, at about 23:15 on Friday.
She was taken to Torbay Hospital, but was pronounced dead just after midnight.
Devon and Cornwall Police, who have appealed for witnesses to the accident on Torbay Road, said the driver of the vehicle involved is being questioned.
|
We all know what a wonderful aid the internet can be to communication and debate. Sadly, we are becoming aware of how often spiteful anonymous comments can poison the well of web conversations. But now there's something of a fightback - and the social networks where many of these conversations happen will be under growing pressure to do more to protect vulnerable users. | Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter
On Monday's Today programme, Nicola Brooke described in moving detail how she had been bullied on Facebook - and had fought back by getting a court order forcing the social network to identify the anonymous people who had mounted a vicious campaign of abuse.
What struck me was that Facebook and other social networks had once appeared to offer the promise of a more civilised online communication precisely because they were places where people were who they said they were.
Unlike web forums where bilious commenters express themselves in ways they would never dream of doing without the shield of anonymity, social networks like Facebook and Twitter should be more polite because you have to be who you say you are.
But that no longer appears to be the case. Facebook now has 900 million active users but it seems quite a large proportion of them are not "real" people. (In its IPO document, the company says false or duplicate accounts probably make up 5-6% of its users, although it admits that this is a very rough estimate and may not be accurate.)
When you sign up to join the social network, you are taken to a "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" which includes this: "Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way."
It goes on to say that you must:
But what is clear is that all of these rules - which appear essential to maintaining the network's reputation as a safe and civilised place - are being flouted with regularity. Anyone who has children will know the pressure to allow them to join Facebook before they are 13 - "everybody on school is on it already!"
And a good number of adults are setting up accounts for newborn babies - and are inevitably being less than frank about their own dates of birth.
So what is Facebook doing about this? The company says it does not actively police its users to make sure they are not breaking the rules - that would be impossible given the scale of the network - but relies on others reporting abuse. On each user's timeline you are able to go to a reporting screen where you can either block them or report that "This timeline is pretending to be someone or is fake."
When the network receives complaints, it says it is reasonably evident when an account is breaking the rules on anonymity. Obvious clues include a user who has started several accounts using the same email address, or who has had lots of friend requests rejected.
But Facebook won't reveal how many accounts it has suspended over the past year, so it is difficult to know exactly how well the system is working. Perhaps we all need to be more active in reporting abuse on networks like this. And maybe networks like Facebook need to be more active in policing their own rules.
But here's another thought.
Unless you're living in an oppressive state, or have reason to fear for your own safety if your identity is revealed, is there any real justification in hiding behind a false name online?
In all sorts of online communities - from YouTube to political blogs to technology forums - you can find angry people saying outrageous things. Wouldn't it be healthier if we all started ignoring those who aren't prepared to say what they think in their own names?
|
A body found on a shoreline last Tuesday has been confirmed as that of 25-year-old Caithness man Stefan Sutherland. | The discovery was made by a member of the public on the shoreline near Occumster.
Police, members of a mountain rescue team and search dogs had been involved in a search for Mr Sutherland.
He had been reported missing from Lybster on 6 September.
|
More than 200 people have attended a meeting against plans to take away sixth form provision in Pembrokeshire. | Proposals as part of secondary school reorganisation include replacing post-16 education with a new sixth form centre at Pembrokeshire College.
Pembrokeshire council are to consult on the plans but parents and students fear a lack of continuity could be harmful to the prospects of some pupils.
The meeting was held on Monday in Sir Thomas Picton School, Haverfordwest.
In January, about 300 protesters gathered at an extraordinary meeting at county hall where plans to close five schools in Pembrokeshire were discussed.
|
The keenly contested Ugandan election that saw the country's long-standing leader defeat a former pop star was not without drama but has it heralded any change? The BBC's Patience Atuhaire reports from the capital, Kampala. | It was billed by some as an election like no other - a 38-year-old musician raised in a Kampala slum was challenging a man who first became president 35 years ago.
When Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, first launched his presidential bid, some in President Yoweri Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) dismissed the threat.
They said he was only popular in the capital, but then he kept drawing crowds even in far-flung corners of the country. Then, as a government minister commented, it was claimed that the excitement around him was simply because he was a celebrity.
But it felt like more than that.
Tech savvy and accessible, Bobi Wine used social media to call on young Ugandans - the majority of the population - to work with him towards "a new Uganda". And they lapped it up.
Or so it seemed.
Social media is not votes
The authorities certainly appeared rattled. As the campaigning reached a crescendo, the tear gas, live bullets and arrests meted out to Bobi Wine and his supporters made it clear that the powers that be were leaving nothing to chance.
The NRM relied on incumbency and the full force of the state.
Bobi Wine the performer, not Robert Kyagulanyi the politician, was the person on the campaign trail.
He worked the crowds - who gathered despite coronavirus concerns - into a frenzy with the "people power, our power" chant, complete with the arm-waving.
But what he wanted to do with that power was rarely fleshed out at the rallies. Even on the few occasions when the security forces took a break from harassing him, he hardly ever spoke about the issues in his manifesto.
In fact, covering this election was reduced to reporting the violence the opposition were subjected to, rather than the agenda the candidates were presenting to the electorate.
But the "people power" fire that Bobi Wine had lit among Ugandans seemed to burn all the way to the ballot box and then fizzle out.
Official figures, which the opposition alleged had been tampered with, would later show that the large rallies and social media popularity did not necessarily translate into a majority of votes.
Bobi Wine got a respectable 35%, but this was nearly the same percentage won by the top losing candidate, Kizza Besigye, in 2016. And then, like Dr Besigye, Bobi Wine was confined to his home by security forces.
The aftermath of the election had a familiar feel to it.
Before this, the morning of the vote - when opposition optimists still dreamed of another future - was misty and chilly, quite uncharacteristic for a Kampala January.
'What's the hold up?'
I arrived at a polling area in Nsambya, at the southern end of the city by 07:30, to find huddled groups of voters talking in muted tones.
The large sports field comprised five polling stations. The voting materials had arrived but the casting of ballots was yet to start.
As the queues grew longer, tempers rose with the warming temperatures. A young man shouted out what everyone must have been thinking: "We arrived here at 6am! What is holding us up?"
Several others grumbled, some hurling insults at the polling officials. Either his outspokenness paid off, or the officials just wanted to get rid of him. When voting finally begun, two hours late, he was moved to the front of the line.
I crossed the city to another large polling area in Nansana, on the northern side, where voting was delayed until 10:00. With queues as long as the eye could see, I could read the agitation on people's faces.
"I arrived here and was told this is not my rightful polling station. When I went the other side, I was sent back here. I'm waiting. My friend had a voter location slip, but her name is not in the register. She got discouraged and left," said Fatuma Namuleme.
I recalled similar queues here in 2016, rivulets of sweat running down the faces of voters standing in the mid-morning sun, waiting for materials to arrive. I remembered heavily armed soldiers disembarking from lorries to take charge of an increasingly tense situation.
On that day, the voting process in Kampala was so marred by the late delivery of materials that there were protests in some areas and voting had to be pushed to the next day.
But this time, there were only a couple of baton-wielding policemen ensuring the lines were orderly.
With an internet blackout and limited access to information from other parts of the capital and the countryside, voting day felt like an anti-climax.
As updates from the Electoral Commission streamed in, it became quite clear from early on where the poll result was headed - five more years for Mr Museveni.
Despite the long queues witnessed in Kampala, only 57% of over 18 million registered voters cast their ballots, 10 percentage points lower than the last election.
The president's winning percentage has also been steadily declining in the last three elections; from 68% in 2011, to 60.6% in 2016 and 58.6% this year.
And the opposition has kept a hold on Kampala and much of the central region.
Ministers lose their seats
Bobi Wine's newly formed National Unity Platform (NUP) party won most of the parliamentary seats in central region and will have a total of 56 MPs out of more than 500, making it the largest opposition party in parliament.
The NUP has become a home for younger, energetic politicians looking for fresh alliances who could shake things up.
The 2021 election left the same man at the top, but knocked several bricks out of the political house he has built over three decades.
Twenty-five members of cabinet, including Vice-President Edward Ssekandi, lost their parliamentary seats.
And if this election showed us anything, it is that Ugandans do not suffer turncoats. Among those who were voted out are opposition-turned-NRM members who quickly earned themselves ministerial posts upon switching sides.
In his victory speech, Mr Museveni nodded to the need to improve healthcare and education and promised to boost agriculture and manufacturing. He also lashed out at politicians who put their interests before those of the masses.
As for the NUP, its leaders are determined to go to court to challenge the result.
But that may be a struggle as Lina Zedriga, the party's vice-president for the northern region, said that its polling agents who had evidence of vote rigging have either been arrested or have gone missing.
'Not losing hope'
Nevertheless, she is patient.
"We will stay as long as we want change," she said.
"For as long as we want the true reflection of the will of the people of Uganda, we will remain resolved. We have waited for 30-something years. We are not losing hope at all."
The determination to hold on to hope will depend on whether the youth that Bobi Wine has fired up will be prepared to put themselves in harm's way.
Otherwise, the pattern of the last three decades will be repeated, with Mr Museveni and the NRM maintaining their stranglehold on power.
|
On Saturday, former US President George W Bush, who has said he is admittedly "not a great painter", opens a public exhibit of his works - more than 24 portraits of world leaders he met while president. The BBC's Nick Bryant has a preview of the gallery. | By Nick BryantBBC News, Dallas
For a president long criticised for seeing things only in black and white, the exhibition of George W Bush's art at his presidential library in Dallas comes as something of a revelation.
Delicate brushwork has replaced his famed swagger. He presents himself as a wholly different kind of Texas oilman. With each new brushstroke he seems also to be softening his public image.
George W Bush told his art teacher, whom he meets on a weekly basis, to unleash the ex-president's inner Rembrandt, and the results are now on public display: a deeply personal gallery of world leaders, focusing on the art of personal diplomacy.
His vantage point, of course, is unique: the cockpit of the presidency - or, at least, his recollection of those tumultuous White House years. So there is more to them than canvas, paints and brushes. Another key ingredient is personal chemistry.
His portrait of Tony Blair, which is bereft of the former British prime minister's trademark toothy smile, was intended to portray compassion, strength and reliability.
His Angela Merkel shows a more cheery side to the German chancellor than her sometimes grumpy public persona projects.
And maybe his Dalai Lama reveals more about the former president himself, as he enters a more contemplative and cloistered phase of his life. In art, he appears to locate an inner serenity.
But perhaps the most eagerly anticipated portrait is that of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
During their first meeting, in Slovenia in 2001, Mr Bush came close to claiming he could read the former KGB spymaster like a book.
"I looked the man in the eye," he famously said. "I was able to get a sense of his soul."
But here he is rendered as a poker-faced Putin, more enigmatic and unreadable.
There's a coldness to the portrait of a leader whom Mr Bush referred to privately as "Pootie Poot".
Mr Bush, or "43" as he signs each canvas, reckons this to be his finest work.
Perhaps the most unflattering portrait is that of the former Pakistan president, General Pervez Musharraf, a leader who liked to think of himself as a dashing former paratrooper rather than the tired and bloated figure represented here.
The extravagant bouffant, of which the general was justifiably proud, does not even make it into frame.
Maybe this is a form of artistic revenge. After all, when it came to fighting al-Qaeda and hunting down Osama Bin Laden, the Bush administration always suspected Islamabad of playing a double game: accepting American military aid but of not doing enough to flush out the mastermind of 9/11.
Nor is the outgoing Afghan president Hamid Karzai portrayed in a complimentary light. This, again, was a fraught relationship.
Making these kinds of extrapolations is part of the fun of this exhibition. Far from being declarative, it can be interpreted in so many different ways.
So is it possible to read into this work a subtle dig at the man who succeeded him as president?
George W Bush says his portraits would not have been possible had he not invested so much time in personal diplomacy.
He got to know the family details of international leaders - those useful conversation points. Many of them, like Tony Blair and the former Australian prime minister John Howard, were invited into the inner sanctum of his Texan ranch.
Barack Obama's approach is noticeably less chummy. He is often criticised as being more aloof and of not investing enough effort in working on the personal chemistry that can reap diplomatic dividends.
For those of us who covered the Bush presidency, from the golf rounds to the mountain-bike riding, from the brush clearing to that Top Gun moment in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, his newfound hobby is an improbable departure.
But he paints every day, gets a lesson every week and says his inspiration came from his great hero Sir Winston Churchill.
Those who interacted closely with Mr Bush during his White House years reckon he was unrecognisable from the two-dimensional figure who lent himself to such easy caricature.
Certainly, his artwork has added an extra and unexpected side.
|
A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a 69-year-old who was shot in the arm.
| The victim was wounded in Westfield Crescent in Thurnscoe, Barnsley, on Wednesday evening.
A 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder remains in custody, South Yorkshire Police said.
Det Ch Insp Paul Murphy said officers believed it was a "targeted attack", but patrols in the area would be stepped up.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
Amnesty International (AI) has described the appointment of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) leader Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan,
widely known as Karuna, to the Sri Lankan parliament as a travesty of justice. | Karuna who broke away from the Tamil Tigers in 2004 was sworn in as an MP on Tuesday after being appointed by President Mahinda
Rajapaksa's ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA).
The newly sworn MP has committed "war crimes and crimes against humanity including child recruitment," said AI in a statement
issued from London.
It called upon the Sri Lankan state to promptly investigate allegations including "torture committed after March 2004 when
Colonel Karuna is believed to have allied himself with the state armed forces".
AI researcher on Sri Lanka, Yolanda Foster told BBC Sandeshaya that opposition parties should publicly review his case and
seek judicial remedy against the appointment.
All major political parties, who boycotted the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday, have protested the appointment for various
reasons.
"Immoral"
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition against the appointment calling it "immoral".
It says that the UPFA has no right to appoint an MP to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of JVP MP Wasantha Samarasinghe.
The JVP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UPFA in the 2004 parliamentary election which saw the alliance
win a majority.
"According to the Memorandum, vacancies in the parliament should be filled by the party which the MP belongs to," JVP spokesman
Vijitha Herath told the BBC Sinhala service.
Opposition and United National Party (UNP) leader, Ranil Wickramasinghe told journalists in Colombo that Karuna is not qualified
to be a parliamentarian.
"Recruiting children"
Karuna has served a prison sentence in UK, the UNP leader said, and also accused of killing hundreds of policemen in the east
while being a senior leader of the LTTE.
The opposition leader was referring to 600 policemen allegedly killed on Karuna's orders in 1991.
The leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP -Mahajana Wing), Mangala Samaraweera, said that the opposition leader should
be applauded for creating a split within the LTTE during the peace talks.
TMVP is yet to hand over weapons and accused of recruiting children for combat, he added.
|
Conservationists in New Zealand have come up with a novel way of raising money for one of the country's lesser-known endangered bird species - by holding a race to see which male stitchbird, or hihi, has the fastest sperm. | By News from Elsewhere......as found by BBC Monitoring
The Great Hihi Sperm Race will pit samples from birds collected from four different hihi colonies, and donors can place a ten NZ dollar (US$7.30; £5.15) bet on which of the 128 samples swims the fastest, New Zealand Herald reports.
Correct guesses win prizes donated by sponsors, and monies raised will help fund conservation work supporting remaining hihi colonies.
It's the idea of Dr Helen Taylor and her colleagues at the University of Otago, who study inbreeding in small populations of bird species through the medium of sperm quality.
Endangered species such as the hihi experience lower genetic diversity and risk infertility altogether, she told Newstalk ZB radio.
"The numbers are reasonably low and we know that they've have these drastic reductions in population size which can lead to issues with their genetics, and can increase problems like inbreeding," she said.
Weird idea
Confessing that the sperm race is a "weird idea", she nonetheless thinks it ideal to raise awareness of the hihi, which relies on human intervention to help it thrive in unfamiliar habitats, including nest boxes and supplementary feeding.
If the appeal's form guide for the birds ("His head feathers resemble Trump's comb over, but don't let that put you off") is anything to go by, the organisers are playing this race for laughs, but, as Dr Taylor says, it's to raise much-need money for a species that is overlooked for funding.
"One minute you're planning out how you're going to secure a permanent position and a Prime Minister's Science Prize, the next you're encouraging people to bet on bird sperm races," she says.
Reporting by Alistair Coleman
Next story: Tajik ministry's book tells women how to dress
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.
|
Nelly Furtado is to release her first non-English language album. | By Greg CochraneNewsbeat music reporter
Mi Plan, the Canadian singer's fourth solo album, is sung entirely in Spanish and will be released on 14 September.
Released on the same day, the first single will be Manos Al Aire (Hands In The Air).
In a statement Furtado said: "After 10 years recording in English, I hit a wall. I felt this was the moment to make the dream."
Featured artists
The daughter of Portuguese parents, Furtado has also enlisted the help of notable artists for the 11-track release including Grammy Award winning artist Juan Luis Guerra, Alejandro Fernandez and Julieta Venegas.
Mi Plan is the follow up to Furtado's 2006 album Loose.
Furtado has sold over 15 million albums worldwide since releasing debut Whoa, Nelly! in 2000.
|
Plans to create a portable hotel to help meet demand for accommodation during TT week have been approved by the Isle of Man government. | The Snoozebox will be situated in Noble's Park in Douglas.
The temporary pod-like construction is already used at venues such as the Silverstone races.
A tourism spokesman said permission was for 260 rooms - potentially 520 beds. The island's registered accommodation is already full for the 2012 races.
The Isle of Man government is also appealing for more local residents to open their homes to TT fans in TT week.
In 2011, more than 700 homeowners on the island let rooms to TT tourists, with 2,858 beds being taken up during June's races.
|
The British steel industry is in crisis. Tata Steel yesterday became the third company to announce job losses in recent weeks and it seems that as many as one in six of the remaining 30,000 steel jobs could now go. A sector that weathered the global recession of 2008 and 2009 is struggling amid a weak global recovery. | Duncan WeldonNewsnight economics correspondent@Duncanweldonon Twitter
The steel industry's problems are global. Yesterday as Tata Steel announced its UK job cuts, South Korean giant Posco (the world's fifth largest steel producer) reported its biggest quarterly loss in five years.
And state-owned Chinese steel trader Sinosteel missed an interest payment due on its debts.
Global steel processing has halved since 2011 amid a general rout in the price of commodities. And its value has fallen by a third since the turn of the year, reaching a price last seen during the depths of the recession in early 2009.
The World Steel Association (WSA) now forecasts that global steel demand will contract by 1.7% this year, largely driven by a drop in Chinese demand.
China drove the industry
It's difficult to overstate the importance of China to steelmakers. China's rapid industrialisation has driven global metals demand for a generation. In 2013 it represented almost half of global steel usage.
According to the WSA global steel usage rose from 1,220 million tonnes in 2007 to 1,430 million tonnes in 2013. During that same period, Chinese steel use rose by 280 million tonnes.
In other words China was responsible for more than 100% of the global increase in steel demand in the last seven years. By comparison steel usage in Europe over the same time frame fell by about 30%.
Whether you believe the official figures or not, it is clear that China's economy has slowed. And it is also clear that the most steel-intense parts of that economy - things like construction and capital investment - have slowed more sharply.
China is left with a steel industry plagued by over-capacity and, rather than cutting production and jobs, state-owned companies are reacting by exporting that excess steel to international markets at prices which many firms simply can't match. Hence the charge of "dumping" - or selling at subsidised (and unfair prices) to, in effect, "steal" global demand.
When it comes to steel, China has effectively transformed from the industry's biggest customer to its deadliest competitor.
The WSA, in its most recent update, was in an understandably gloomy mood. The best days for steel - for the short- to medium-term at least - appear to be behind it. The chairman of the World Steel Economics Committee noted that "it is clear that the steel industry has, for the time being, reached the end of a major growth cycle which was based on the rapid economic development of China."
The ending of that growth cycle leaves the industry stuck with excess capacity and - short of a new major industrialisation cycle emerging somewhere in the world - for prices to return to a level consistent with a profitable steel industry, global capacity will have to fall.
That's the process playing out in the UK at the moment.
Is the UK powerless?
None of which though means that the UK steel industry has to bear the brunt of a global restructuring.
I was in Scunthorpe yesterday as Tata announced job losses. Both management and the trade unions were singing from the same hymn sheet, talking of the need for what they called "a level playing field", not so much with China as with their European peers.
Both point to high energy costs in the UK - driven by both green taxes and our energy mix (French nuclear power for example being much cheaper) and to UK business rates being higher than those on the continent.
It's worth noting that, while the UK does have a lower rate of corporation tax than much of Europe, corporation tax is paid only on profits and a lower tax on profits isn't much help to an industry that is making losses.
There's also a sense that European Union rules disallowing state aid (effectively subsiding national companies) are employed far more stringently in the UK than in, say, Germany or France.
If Tata's steelworks had been in Stuttgart or Strasbourg rather than Scunthorpe, they might have enjoyed more direct government support.
Whatever policy the UK government adopted, the steel industry would be suffering right now. Without strong Chinese demand the price of steel was always set to fall. The addition of Chinese competition for export markets is a further headache.
But the government isn't entirely powerless either. While the global steel industry is set to cut back production, the extent to which the UK carries its share of the burden is something policy can influence.
|
"There's no justifiable reason why in the future the gender of a person would come into the role of a firefighter," said Diane Dunlevey, the equality and diversity manager for Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS). | Of the 907 firefighters currently employed in Staffordshire, 56 are women, which equates to about 6.2%, above the national average of 4.1% for fire services, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Fourteen women joined the county's service in 2011. Twenty years earlier the fire service had two, then swelling the ranks to three.
And some women have moved up the career ladder at the service, with seven currently deployed as crew managers, one now a station manager and another an area manager.
The latter is Becci Bryant, who joined a different service after graduating from university, but later moved to Staffordshire.
Dispelling myths
She said as a young recuit in 1992 she had found it hard initially and that had been problems with attitudes from some male colleagues, as well as the public's perception.
She said many of her female peers "experienced bullying" but that things had changed over the years.
"We've become more enlightened as a sector and society," Ms Bryant said.
SFRS recently stepped up its recruitment of female firefighters by getting teenage girls aged between 14 and 16 in Cannock to write and record a promotional DVD that is being supported by the county council.
According to Ms Dunlevey, the aim was to dispel many of the myths.
She said: "The research told us that young people start to make their decisions about their future when they're around 14 or 15 years old.
"It was suggested that [girls] never thought about being a firefighter."
Like the percentage of women in the service, the numbers of ethnic minorities is also increasing on a national scale. Across England 50,943 people were employed as firefighters in 2011 of whom 3.2% were from ethnic minorities. In 2002 that figure was 1.5%.
Ms Bryant said she believed Staffordshire was quite "forward thinking" in trying to increase both sets of numbers.
"We've spent a lot of time recruiting ethnic minorities and have overcome hurdles in the realms of what a woman can do," the area manager said, adding that 20 years had been too long to increase the numbers of female firefighters in the county from three to 56.
However, a 50-50 split between men and women in the service is unlikely any time soon, Ms Dunlevey said.
"I don't see any reason why it couldn't be that way," she said.
"But I do still think that we've got a long way to go."
|
Trinity Mirror's chief executive recently questioned how compensation for phone hacking could come close to the amount awarded for deaths caused by wrongdoing. How can compensation for things as different as bereavement and lost privacy be calculated? | By Tom HeydenBBC News Magazine
Phone hacking victims Sadie Frost and Paul Gascoigne were recently awarded £260,250 and £188,250 respectively from Trinity Mirror. A number of other notable victims also received damages.
The newspaper group's chief executive Simon Fox compared the sums with the £350,000 each received by Neil Shepherd and Sharon Wood, whose two children died because of a faulty boiler on a Thomas Cook holiday in Corfu. Each parent effectively received £175,000 per child from the Greek hotel directly responsible.
"Is it right that for hacking infringements someone should get close to that?" Fox queried.
It is not the first time there's been controversy over the scale of compensation. Twenty years ago Elton John won £350,000 from the Sunday Mirror for a libellous story about his diet.
Upon reducing the payment to £75,000, a judge said: "It is, in our view, offensive to public opinion, and rightly so, that a defamation plaintiff should recover damages for injury to reputation greater… than if that same plaintiff had been rendered [disabled]."
One might expect a death - if the fault of someone else - to fetch the highest compensation of all.
But that's not the case.
Massive injury payouts make the news fairly regularly. In 2012, a 17-year-old victim of a serious car crash was awarded £23m. That same year a teaching assistant won more than £800,000 after tripping over a wheelchair.
But injury compensation can reach such big figures because of a combination of ongoing medical costs and the curtailing of a normal working life.
Death compensation can often be much lower. This week the family of a 79-year-old woman who died because of "inadequate" medical care were awarded £4,000 compensation.
If it's a case of negligence, insurers and lawyers are the ones who typically thrash out the final amount. With criminal violence it's the state that pays.
In England and Wales's compensation law, lawyers and judges refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG), which lists a range of suggested sums according to body part and severity.
It can be as low as £1,100-£2,255 if the victim suffers "immediate unconsciousness" - or at least shortly after injury - and dies within one week.
It rises the longer someone stays alive.
The suggested figure is £6,820 if that same person were to die within six weeks instead of one.
"From a health point of view it's obviously better to survive, of course it is," explains Carlos Lopez, director of clinical negligence at Vincents Solicitors. "But the law recognises that if you survive, your suffering goes on longer."
Compensation is fundamentally about reimbursing the losses of the living - whether physical, psychological or financial.
The Fatal Accidents Act 1976 establishes three main elements of death compensation - bereavement, funeral expenses and dependency.
Dependency covers money the family would have received from the victim had they survived.
Bereavement damages compensate families for their pain and suffering. English and Welsh law values that pain at a maximum of £12,980 - and it's only applicable to very few cases.
Partners of the deceased can claim. So can parents - but only if the child was an unmarried minor. If the child was "illegitimate", only the mother is legally bereaved.
Siblings or children are not usually entitled to bereavement damages at all, explains Lynsey Furley, a solicitor at Bridge McFarland Solicitors.
But often neither bereavement nor dependency applies. And it wouldn't matter how much at fault the guilty or negligent person had been, explains Lopez.
Gross negligence may lead to criminal proceedings, but it will not increase the compensation in civil claims, he says. Nor does it matter much whether it's the fault of an incompetent doctor, a reckless driver, or a useless architect - compensation calculations are largely the same.
"A lot of families do get frustrated because they've seen all these massive awards in the media for relatively minor injuries," says Furley, "and - compared to losing a loved one - they wonder why they don't get as much."
In Scottish law, under the Damages Act 2011, there is instead no statutory limit on bereavement damages - and more family members are entitled to claim.
Victims of violent crime - in England, Scotland or Wales - are also treated slightly differently in terms of eligibility and bereavement sums, as compensation is instead handled by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). There's an upper limit of £500,000.
But to get anywhere close to an award like that, the bereaved person needs to rely on a claim of lost income.
The starting point in the calculations is the victim's annual salary - for instance, £20,000. That £20,000 is then multiplied by a number reflecting many factors, explains Lopez, including the age at death, the profession, and the expected retirement age.
Social background and gender are also included because they affect both predicted income and life expectancy, Lopez says.
But had a victim survived, they would have spent a portion of their earnings on themselves. So a reduction is made to the amount.
Victims of non-fatal accidents undergo a similar analysis of their loss of future earnings.
A top concert pianist who loses a finger would receive far more than if a call centre worker was to suffer the same injury. Not only would the pianist's salary be higher to begin with but it's more likely to permanently impede their job. They would also receive damages for the emotional impact.
The JCG catalogues a cost for almost every injury imaginable. These are used in combination with precedents from earlier cases. A survivor may also need ongoing medical care, continued transport to hospital, or require adaptations to their houses - all of which are included.
Most cases - fatal or not - are settled rather than going to court, Lopez says. "It's about negotiation, there is no exact science."
Last year, £40,000 was the sum negotiated with the parents of nine-year-old Raychel Ferguson, who died in 2001 after an appendix operation.
Her mother branded the figure an "insult", but said her legal team had advised against going to trial because they risked receiving only bereavement damages.
In stark contrast, £40,000 was the amount awarded for one newspaper article written using hacked information.
But the phone hacking claims did go to trial.
The Mirror was looking to pay between £10,000 and £40,000 in compensation. The victims were asking for between £250,000 and about £1m.
Mr Justice Mann delivered the judgements. The previous record privacy payout had been £60,000 to Max Mosley in 2008, after a News of the World story on his sex life.
The phone hacking judgements are the first time in privacy law that a judge has sought to establish a comprehensive method for assessing the various damages of privacy invasion, says Steven Heffer, a partner at Collyer Bristow.
There are few precedents. "Privacy is a developing law that's really only taken off in the last 10-20 years."
Sadie Frost described her experience as "a living hell". Paul Gascoigne told the court how it had "ruined his life" and left him scared to use the phone for a decade.
But emotional "injury" was only part of the equation. Mr Justice Mann widened the compensation to include damages for the loss of privacy itself, as well as a sum for the "damage to dignity or standing".
Trinity Mirror has labelled the judge's decision as "fundamentally flawed because the basis used for calculating damages is incorrect".
The victims were further compensated for every article found to have been written using hacked information - with awards ranging from £750 to £40,000 for a single article.
One example reads: "This article represents a serious intrusion into Miss Frost's personal relationships and mental health, including a reference to self-harm… Some very private messages must have been listened to… It attracts compensation of £25,000."
Frost submitted 31 articles in her case.
The duration and extent of privacy invasion - in Frost's case four-and-a-half years - was another consideration, with a starting point of £10,000 for every year of "serious" hacking.
"What this decision reflects is the fact that it was repeated acts of infringement and the severity of what they did that led to such high rewards," says Jenny Afia, a specialist in privacy law at Schillings.
"The general point for both privacy and libel is it's an art, not a science. The distress [of phone hacking] is extreme paranoia - thinking that it's your closest friends and family who are selling stories to the papers about you."
Mr Justice Mann found the impact on Frost to be "severe", noting how she'd tried to extract confidentiality agreements from friends and family - such was the level of her distrust.
"But how do you quantify that?" Afia says. "Nobody has a very good answer."
More from the Magazine
The US and UK offer compensation to veterans for the loss of limbs and for other serious injuries during wartime. How are those rates determined?
Who determines a foot's worth? (May 2014)
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
|
These days politicians seem to rush for the exit when they lose power (or lose hope of power) rather than bouncing back Churchill-style to lead the country, or staying around to provide a wise word to their successors. So what could a cabinet look like now, made up entirely of those who stepped down voluntarily from the House of Commons?
| By Alex HuntBBC News
Here, just for fun, is one possible line-up - you can send us your suggestions via the postform at the bottom of the page.
Prime Minister: Sir John Major
Given that there are four ex-prime ministers in this cabinet of all the (past) talents, the most unifying figure to lead them is the man who was Conservative Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997. He's used to having a more glamorous deputy - Michael Heseltine - and he's shown himself more than willing to have his enemies in his cabinet.
Chancellor: Gordon Brown
He spent 10 years at the Treasury in Tony Blair's New Labour government, with the economy growing nicely. But the recession that followed means there'll be no fate-tempting talk of abolishing "boom and bust". He's used to being at odds with the man next door - few would bet against Major being prompted to resign and hold a "back me or sack me" vote.
Foreign Secretary: William Hague
The one-time teenage Conservative conference darling led the party to a second big defeat at the 2001 general election. But he bounced back under David Cameron's leadership, becoming a respected figure on the international stage under the coalition government. His campaigning with Angelina Jolie, warm words about Hillary Clinton - and backing of Remain in the EU referendum - suggests that his world view will sit well with Messrs Major and Brown.
Education: Tony Blair
He might take some persuading to take on such a role and it could ruffle a few feathers among the current Department for Education staff. But he won his two landslide Labour victories in 1997 and 2001 on his domestic programme, which most famously was vocalised as "education, education, education". It seems unlikely he'd back a new generation of grammar schools but his foundation has some links to free schools and he has never been one to oppose faith schools.
Health: Virginia Bottomley
A chance to return to the role she held during the early John Major years before she moved on to the culture brief (hence the BBC Children in Need photocall above). There's some tough competition from fellow former health secretaries in this cabinet. But with her post-politics career as a top City headhunter - and champion of women on boards - there should be decent recruitment of NHS executives.
Home Secretary: Michael Howard
This would be a second remarkable comeback for Lord Howard who 13 years ago came from the then wilderness to become Conservative leader. His 1990s spell as home secretary is still remembered for the "prison works" message that proved popular with the public. His cameo in the referendum campaign showed that on Brexit he was thinking what a majority of British voters were thinking.
Defence: John Reid
Seen as one of the core Blairites, this would be a return to the job of defence secretary which he held for a year from 2005 before moving to home secretary and standing down when Gordon Brown became prime minister a year later. There's scope for football-related puns thanks to his post-Commons role as Celtic FC chairman.
Deputy PM: David Cameron
Too soon for a swift return to No 10 but as deputy PM he could be back at the heart of power in a low-key manner, helping to steer this new Major government's agenda. As hardworking as he was as PM, he was never afraid of chillaxing and this looks like the perfect job to allow that combo of a high-status role and the chance to hit a few tennis balls each day or spend a long weekend surfside in Cornwall.
Work and Pensions Secretary: David Blunkett
It's a job he's done before and given his past belief in the abilities of big computer systems, could he be the man to wrestle with the introduction of Universal Credit? He'll need all his past Home Office experience in this role too as talk turns towards a possible work permit scheme for those from elsewhere in the EU coming to the UK. Expect scepticism if any academics project low (13,000?) demand for the permits.
Transport Secretary: Michael Portillo
This would've been a surprise suggestion back in the 1990s but the once thrusting Thatcherite appears to have spent much of the past few years - apart from his Thursday night appointment on the This Week sofa - travelling by train with a camera crew in tow. The danger is that only picturesque rail routes will be favoured but Heathrow will hope to persuade him of their third runway case. As someone once said, who dares wins.
International Development: Andrew Lansley
There was a case for the man who revamped the NHS in England after the 2010 election to go back to the role to finish off the job, but that would be unnecessarily controversial for a John Major appointment, so international development it is. A role in which of course there is still a huge health element.
Culture Secretary: Louise Mensch
The most difficult thing might be persuading the novelist-turned-politician to move back to London. But she certainly seems to have been keeping up with UK political developments and her pop culture knowledge and her new and old media contacts, plus interest in all things digital, makes her a decent choice. As long as she's allowed to continue tweeting without Whitehall restrictions.
Environment Secretary: Ann Widdecombe
Probably best known for a triumphant turn on Strictly Come Dancing and her time as a Home Office minister during the "prison works" years of the John Major government in the 1990s, she is a committed animal lover but also says she is "not a slave to science" when it comes to climate change - there could be some lively debates over the cabinet table.
Communities and Local Government: Hazel Blears
Back to the future for the Blairite ex-Salford MP. That Respect agenda - Asbos and zero tolerance - was a part of the New Labour era that governments before and since have more or less agreed with. There could be some lively arguments over the merits of identity cards too...
Business Secretary: Peter Mandelson
They say football managers should never go back to a job they've had before - but this isn't football and it'd probably be worth it to see how the former European Commissioner approaches the role in the wake of the Brexit vote.
What about the rest?
As this is a fantasy cabinet it does not include all the roles, such as chief whip and leader of the Commons. For the nations' portfolios how about a solidly New Labour line-up? Peter Hain resuming his role as Welsh Secretary while Alistair Darling, pictured above with the then SNP leader Alex Salmond in 2014, is asked by a slightly mischievous John Major to build bridges after his referendum role as Scotland Secretary. Meanwhile, ever aware of the threat of a challenge, the PM decides that Northern Ireland is the perfect place for the still-young-and-hungry David Miliband to get his feet back on the UK political ladder.
Here's a selection of your responses:
Prime Minister: Lord Carrington, DPM: John Major, Lord Chancellor: Louise Mensch, Chancellor: Peter Mandelson, Foreign Secretary: William Hague, Home Secretary: Alan Johnson, Health Secretary: Margaret Beckett, Defence Secretary: George Robertson, Business Secretary: Michael Heseltine, Education Secretary: William Hague, Culture Secretary: Estelle Morris, International Development: Peter Hain, Welsh Secretary: Neil Kinnock, Scottish Secretary: Malcolm Rifkind, Chief Whip: Norman Tebbit - Nathan
A cabinet of all the talents would need to be filled with experienced hands and irreverent wits not afraid to speak their minds. John Major as PM would pair well with Ken Clarke as Chancellor, along with Douglas Hurd at the Foreign Office. Michael Heseltine as Home Secretary would lead a sensible domestic policy, while Lord Carrington's wealth of experience in defence and NATO makes him ideal for the MoD. Gillian Shephard for Work & Pensions would complement the skill of Virginia Bottomley at Education. Lady Amos at DfID is a natural fit given her time at the UN, and Malcolm Rifkind can expertly navigate Scottish affairs. Tony Blair in Northern Ireland can crack on in the cozy confines of Hillsborough Castle, no less. Mandelson leading the Lords and Ian Lang running the Commons would provide the much needed charm and avuncular good looks getting on with organising government business - Anthony
Chris Patten embodied the cross-party modern liberal tradition that seems to run through your other selections, 90% of which I agree with, especially the choice of both PM and Chancellor - Andy
Lord Michael Heseltine. Ex Deputy-PM, longtime very senior cabinet minister, with decades experience with commercial business, as well as political business/defence briefs... exactly what is required now. Independently wealthy, therefore beholden to no-one, for favour/advancement - FM
Gordon Brown as chancellor, I should coco! He raided the pension funds, hence all the problems with them. I would suggest Tony Blair as a tea boy, he couldn't do a great deal of damage there - Mike
There has to be room for Ken Clarke. Liked by the public, good communicator, affable personality but very intelligent with a fierce legal brain. Probably as Justice Secretary although could do anything - Jonathan
I think that Kenneth Clarke was the best chancellor the country has had in the last 30 years or so. He was a pragmatist who sought to improve the country's financial position. Whereas Gordon Brown was merely a man driven by an out-dated socialist ideology - Malvern (editor's note, Ken Clark didn't qualify for our list as he is still active in the House of Commons)
Wrong question. It should be Are politicians starting too young. Portillo has mellowed and would now be an asset back in parliament - Richard
William Hague is a great loss to this country in many ways.... apart from Churchill I do not think we have anyone who I would want back - Betty
Prime Minister: Clement Attlee, Deputy Prime Minister: Alistair Darling, Foreign Secretary: Ernest Bevin, Home Secretary: Douglas Hurd, Chancellor of the Exchequer: Roy Jenkins, Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Norman Lamont, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry: Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Defence: Earl Alexander of Tunis, Secretary of State for Health: Mo Mowlem, Secretary of State for Justice: Bob Marshall-Andrews, Secretary of State for Education: RA Butler, Secretary of State for Transport: Michael Portillo, Secretary of State for Farming and Rural Development: Fred Peart, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Harold Macmillan, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government: Bessie Braddock - Chris
A cabinet of still living ex-MPs who during their careers lost their seats in general elections in cabinet/ shadow cabinet briefs they once held: PM: Michael Portillo, Chancellor: Ed Balls, Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Danny Alexander, Foreign Secretary: Douglas Alexander, Home Secretary: Jacqui Smith, Business Secretary: Vince Cable, Trade Secretary: Lord Ian Laing, Culture Secretary: David Mellor, Environment Secretary: Ed Davey, Defence Secretary: Jim Murphy, Education Secretary: Charles Clarke, Health secretary: Lord William Waldegrave, Scottish Secretary: Lord Michael Forsyth, Northern Ireland Secretary: David Trimble, Welsh Secretary: Lord Michael Ancram, Leader of the House: Baroness Ann Taylor Work and Pensions Secretary: Tony Newton, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Roger Freeman, International Development: Baroness Lynda Chalker, DPM (Chairman): Lord Chris Patten - David
Lembit Opik - Minister without Portfolio - Geoff
Follow Alex Hunt on Twitter @ialexhunt
BBC Politics News and Daily Politics are on Facebook
|
A teenager thought to have been the first victim of the Titanic has finally been given a headstone on his grave. | Samuel Scott, 15, fractured his skull whilst working on the ship in 1910. His body has since lain in an unmarked grave in Belfast City Cemetery.
However, a new headstone was unveiled there on Saturday as part of the Feile an Phobail festival.
A new children's book, Spirit Of The Titanic, used the teenager as its main character.
The book, published earlier this year, follows the boy's ghost as it haunts the decks of the ship during its voyage.
|
A woman has died and two people have been injured in a two-car crash. | The collision happened on the B3277 near Chiverton Cross in Cornwall at about 13:30 BST.
Police said the female driver of one of the cars died at the scene. The other driver sustained serious leg injuries and was taken to hospital with a passenger, who was not seriously hurt.
Officers have closed the road between Sevenmilestone and Chiverton Cross while they investigate.
|
Tory Senedd member Angela Burns has said she will step down from the Welsh Parliament at next May's election. | The member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire was first elected in 2007 and is her party's health spokeswoman in Cardiff Bay.
"All good things must come to an end and it's now time for a fresh challenge and new experiences," she said.
Conservative Senedd leader Paul Davies said she "made a highly significant contribution to Welsh political life".
This was "especially so" with her speaking for the party on health "during this pandemic", he said, "and she will carry on making very valuable contributions for the rest of her time as a member".
|
The widespread coverage and high drama of the Fifa Women's World Cup has sparked football fever across the UK, with a record-breaking 6.9 million people watching England's most recent clash.
There were still far more people watching men's World Cup matches, with 26.5 million viewers tuning in to see England knocked out last year.
But there are some ways women's football is hitting the back of the net - while the male strand of the sometimes-beautiful game bounces disappointingly off the crossbar. | By Alice EvansBBC News
1. Value for money
For the men's World Cup last summer, your pockets had to be bulging with Russian roubles if you wanted a chance to see football come home (or not) with your own eyes.
The best seats in the house for the France v Croatia men's final cost an eye-watering 66,000 roubles (£824.44).
But don't despair. If you don't have a spare 800 quid jangling around, it's still possible for you to go to a World Cup final.
The most expensive seats in the women's final at the Stade de Lyon on 7 July are more than 10 times cheaper than in the men's tournament at £75.12 (84EUR).
At the Women's World Cup in France this year, you can actually watch a game for as little as £8.05 (9EUR).
C'est magnifique, non?
This pricing imbalance manifests itself in merchandise, too.
Perhaps to Nike's credit, the official shirts of the men's and women's World Cups both cost £89.95.
However, while it is free to add the name of a Lioness to the women's shirt, it costs £13 to splash names such as Kane, Rashford or Vardy across your shoulders.
Nike hasn't responded to a request for clarification on why this is the case.
2. More goals
The stats speak for themselves on this one.
For a start, Brazilian women's forward Marta is the all-time World Cup top scorer for both men and women, with 17 goals to her name across 19 matches.
So far in this year's tournament the women have scored 2.69 goals per game - just edging out the men, who scored 2.64 goals per game in last year's World Cup.
The women are even further ahead in the top leagues. Over the last three seasons of the Women's Super League there were 3.05 goals per match, compared with a measly 2.76 goals in the men's top tournament, the Premier League.
3. Women stick to the rules
We're not saying women are angels on the pitch (in fact, Cameroon were described as quite the opposite when they played England on Sunday).
But they break the rules less often than men do.
Fifa didn't provide stats for bookings in World Cup games, but we did manage to pull some together from data provided by Opta Sports for the FA, which runs England's top league games.
It turns out, in the 2018-19 season, Premier League players (men) were three times more likely than players in the Women's Super League to be sent off in matches.
Men were also handed yellow cards twice as often.
Over the last three seasons, there were 3,777 yellow cards given to Premier League players - a rate of 3.3 per game - compared with 399 given to Women's Super League players (1.5 per game).
Janie Frampton, who has refereed both men's and women's international matches in her 30-year career, said the "streak of cheating" that so many top male players express is in part down to "far too much money and far too many big egos".
However, the data from the Football Association (FA) also suggests the amount of yellow cards given for fouls per women's match is creeping up.
It went from 1.3 per game in 2016-17 to 1.5 in the following year and 1.6 last season.
Frampton believes an increase in rule-breaking is inevitable as women's football becomes more popular.
"The women's game is becoming far more professional, and by that happening, the skill factor, the determination and challenge of the game is getting much higher," she said.
"Women's football has become far more important, and that's going to bring the more competitive edge, which is going to bring tougher challenges and more cards," she added.
So if the upward trend continues, it won't be long until the women are making Zinedine Zidane's head-butt look like an Eskimo kiss.
Only kidding. There's no way you can make that infamous moment look any less brutal.
4. Global competition
Men's World Cup winners have only ever come from eight countries across two continents - Europe and South America.
There have been four times as many men's World Cups as women's, but the women's tournament has already produced four countries as winners from North America, Europe and Asia.
The greater number of teams with a genuine chance to lift that treasured golden trophy arguably makes the women's game all the more exciting.
5. LGBT+ support
It's a widely accepted shame that there is not one openly gay footballer in the Premier League.
In 1990, former England Under-21 international Justin Fashanu was the first professional footballer in Britain to come out as gay.
The ex-Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who came out following his retirement in 2014, said there is a "long way to go" before men come out while playing in a top league.
By contrast, the women's game is considered far more inclusive.
When ex-England player Casey Stoney spoke out about being gay for the first time just months after Hitzlsperger, she said homosexuality was more accepted in the women's game.
And West Ham United women's captain Gilly Flaherty said last season: "Everyone has accepted me for who I am. Women's football is a sport where a player can be openly gay and no one acts any differently towards you because of it, which is a great thing."
The better levels of tolerance and acceptance in the women's game could be partly thanks to pioneer, Lily Parr.
The 6ft chain-smoker - whose wages from Dick, Kerr Ladies FC, were reputedly supplemented by packets of Woodbine cigarettes - was gay, although some dispute how open she was about this.
Parr paved the way for English women's footballing success and was the first woman to feature in the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame.
Are England women better than men?
In the last three Women's World Cups, England came third once and got into the final eight twice.
The men finished fourth in 2018, were knocked out of the group stages in 2014 and made the final 16 in 2010.
The stats behind these results show an almost identical track record.
In 2018 England men scored 12 goals in seven matches, while the women scored 10 in seven matches in the 2015 tournament. Both teams received a total of eight yellow cards. The men conceded eight goals while the women conceded seven.
It might be too tough to call which is the better team for now, but the women have everything to prove when they face Norway in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Watch this space - perhaps we'll be singing "three Lionesses on a shirt" and naming train stations after Phil Neville before the summer's over.
|
A 49-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a body was found in a flat. | Police went to a property in Heathcott Road, Leicester, on Tuesday after concerns were raised about the welfare of a 50-year-old man in the flat.
He was pronounced dead at the scene at about 17:25 BST, and a post-mortem examination has taken place.
Police remain at the scene and the suspect, who is in police custody, is being questioned by detectives.
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
Plans for a new engine testing facility at Norwich International Airport, which will help secure the future of 341 jobs, have been submitted.
| A planning application for a building on the eastern part of the airfield has been put forward by the airport.
It has been working with KLM UK Engineering, which has been based at the airport repairing and overhauling engines for 35 years.
The plans have been submitted to Norwich City Council.
Andrew Bell, chief executive of Norwich International Airport, said: "This application is the culmination of an enormous amount of work to identify the optimum location and technology to enable engine testing to continue to take place, whilst minimising as far as possible the impact of the activity itself on the surrounding community.
"The ability to test engines is critical to KLM UK Engineering's business at the airport."
|
A man has died and a second driver is critically ill following a car crash in East Yorkshire. | Harry Thomas, 23, was hurt in a collision on the A165 between Leven and Brandesburton, on Thursday morning, and has since died, said Humberside Police.
The second driver remains in a critical but stable condition, the force said.
Officers are asking anyone who saw the crash or has dashcam footage of the collision to contact police.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
Related Internet Links
Humberside Police
|
The tax bill owed by the company that used to control Rangers Football Club has been sharply reduced. There is a report that it could yet be cut by more. It does not affect current Ibrox operations. But it raised the question of what might have happened to Rangers if its debts in 2011 had appeared to be smaller than they did. | Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland
The question of what went wrong with the finances of Rangers Football Club is back in the Ibrox floodlights.
A claim has been published by the Times that the tax bill hanging over it was inflated by HMRC far beyond the amount that should have been charged.
It doesn't make any difference to activities at Ibrox now but it still matters to quite a lot of fans and foes of Rangers.
Could Rangers have avoided its collapse nearly eight years ago?
To remind you, if you need it, this involves the way Rangers players were being paid from 2001 to 2009, and the tax that was not being paid on that income.
Money was put into Employee Benefit Trusts (EBT), located in offshore tax havens. The trust, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the Ibrox payroll department, ensured that loans were forwarded from the trusts into players bank accounts, with no expectation they would ever be paid back.
Rangers was far from being the only company doing this. It looked like it might be ok - accountants elsewhere were filling their clients' boots with untaxed income via the Cayman Islands - but it wasn't.
HM Revenue and Customs came after them. It said this was avoidance and slapped a very large bill on Rangers to pay back tax.
With that bill hanging over the club, it struggled to find a buyer when Sir David Murray had to put it on the market. And in came Craig Whyte in May 2011.
He bought it for £1, refused to pay further tax bills, and recklessly drove it into financial collapse in less than a year.
BDO, the liquidators of the old company that controlled Ibrox, have continued to tussle with the tax authority about the total bill. That reached a maximum of £94m.
But it has emerged that HMRC has removed a penalty of £24m, after an appeal to the tax authority's Penalty Review Consistency Panel.
When I write 'emerged', I mean that it was made public in June, though it wasn't much publicised.
But there's more, and this is where it gets a lot less clear.
The Times newspaper is reporting that the bill could be further reduced, as negotiations and legal manoeuvres continue.
That report says that the further reduction could be as much as £30m.
That would take the EBT-related tax bill down to about £20m.
But before you get carried away, consider carefully the words "could be" and "as much as".
It could also be a lot less, and The Times is not saying how its accountancy sources have got to the figures being used.
BDO has responded to the report, saying negotiations with HMRC continue, and they hope for resolution next year.
HMRC says it won't comment on this specific case. But in a brief statement, it reminds us that even if you try to "disguise remuneration" through a trust, that remains taxable.
So, what difference does that make?
For the creditors of the old Rangers holding company, a little.
There is an additional £1m pot of money to be distributed as a result of the reduction in the tax bill. Such creditors, ranging from the Ibrox energy suppliers to a face painter at a children's event, have already received 3.9 pence for every pound claimed. They may now get another 3 pence.
Does it change things for activities at Ibrox? Not at all.
The stadium, the team, the brand and all the other assets are owned and controlled by a completely different corporate entity, Rangers International Football Club.
Does it make any difference to what might have been? Perhaps. That's for fans and their foes to fight over.
I'm not going to take sides, because among my various areas of non-expertise is the question of what might have been.
I would simply offer three observations.
Away from all the tussling over the Ibrox legacy and what might have been, a head of steam under this issue was building up at Westminster earlier this year.
Contractors, in all sorts of sectors, are the individuals who were paid through these "disguised remuneration" trusts, such as EBTs, as players and some others were being paid at Ibrox.
They got the money, without tax paid, and they've spent a lot of it. As one does. To claw it back from earnings going back to 1999, which HMRC is now doing, is threatening to ruin some people.
There's a campaign group - the Loan Charge Action Group - which got going 18 months ago. It has been lobbying MPs, and has support from across party lines, mostly Conservatives, claiming that retrospective tax is unjust, and that some of those facing the bills are in extreme distress.
Those on board for the campaign include "NHS workers, teachers, public sector agency staff, power, gas and oil industry contractors, as well as IT, digital and banking sector specialists".
In September, Chancellor Sajid Javid, bowed to pressure to review the law. He commissioned a report from Sir Amyas Morse, former head of the National Audit Office. That should have been published around now. But it has been delayed by the election. It won't be sent to the Treasury before mid-December.
It's not clear how a change in the retrospective nature of this would affect companies, and particularly one in liquidation. The campaign is mainly about individuals, so former Rangers players, who were hit by tax bills as a result of this, may yet find an end or a reduction to retrospective tax demands.
|
Record numbers of students are beginning university this term, making the big emotional step of a new independent life, with many living away from home for the first time. | By Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent
But there are warnings of rising numbers of students struggling to cope with life on campus, with sharp rises in the demand for counselling.
And there are questions about whether universities are providing enough support for emotional and mental health problems.
Ruth Caleb, chair of Universities UK's mental well-being working group, says counselling services are facing an annual rise in demand of about 10%.
She estimates the use of counselling usually ranges between 5% and 10% of students, depending on the university, which would suggest at least 115,000 students are seeking help.
Sir Anthony Seldon, vice chancellor of Buckingham University, says this is a "massive problem" and universities have been "negligent" in accepting their pastoral responsibilities.
"Universities are not always honest about admitting the extent of the problems they have. They need to change, they need to take their responsibilities to students far more carefully."
A report from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, using anonymised data, found a rapid increase in demand for counselling, with one institution seeing an annual increase of more than 50%.
This analysis, published before the new term, showed mental health problems on campus had "increased dramatically" in recent years, rising from about 8,000 to 18,000 in the four years to 2012-13.
The study also warned students want help with more serious problems. Instead of homesickness or relationships, they are increasingly suffering from "anxiety, depression or low mood. Additionally, increasing numbers of students are at high risk of harming themselves".
Anxiety culture
The University of Reading says there has been a 20% year-on-year increase in students wanting help from counsellors.
The university's head of well-being, Alicia Pena Bizama, says students feel under more pressure.
As well as perennial problems of loneliness and relationships, she says there are worries about the rising cost of studying, fear of failing to live up to expectations and uncertainties about job prospects.
"There is a cultural change in being a student," says Dr Caleb, who is head of counselling at Brunel University.
Instead of a stereotype of student life being about long lazy days, she says increasing numbers experience anxiety and stress, beyond the "transitional" problems of leaving home.
Student life is also affected by wider social changes. Dr Caleb says there is a pattern of parents splitting up when their child goes to university and sometimes selling the family home, which can leave young people feeling vulnerable and unsupported.
'It can save people's lives'
Universities are getting better at responding to mental health problems and making it easier to access counselling services. But Dr Caleb says there needs to be more consistency in the quality of services available.
She says that at her university, "we will knock on a door at night if there are concerns. It can save people's lives".
But what is so different now about young people's lives? Is there really such a culture of anxiety?
Meredith Leston, a student at St Anne's College, Oxford, suffered from anorexia and depression in her first year.
"People talk about 'snapping' and that is what happened to me. I just couldn't take the pressure and the whole new realm of expectations."
She says part of the problem is the ever-present role of social media, fuelling a culture of constant comparison and a sense of inadequacy.
"As well as being a first class student, you have to be a first class person, you have to be performing socially, academically. It's a nightmare. You're constantly on."
'Suffering in silence'
Ms Leston says she received help from her university, but she is worried about the patchy provision for some students.
"I do worry that a lot of students are suffering in silence at the moment."
"I think there is a very strong stigma still surrounding mental health issues, but even in the few years I've been at university, I've seen a slow change, people are beginning to talk about it."
Following her own experiences, she is supporting a mental health charity, Student Minds, and has founded her own campaign, Meeting of Minds.
Sir Anthony Seldon recently became a university head after working as a head teacher in the independent school sector.
And he says universities have much catching up to do on student well-being.
Sir Anthony warns some universities might see their status in terms of research and league tables, with the danger they view undergraduates as an "inconvenience".
But he says they cannot ignore the rising incidence of problems such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders.
"Universities, with some exceptions, haven't been fully owning up to the extent of the malaise among young people. Or understanding what can be done to ameliorate these problems."
"I don't think universities mean to be negligent. But if not deliberately, they are being negligent, they are not accepting their responsibility for these young people. And needless avoidable problems are occurring all the way up to suicide."
'Sink or swim'
The increase in tuition fees has also changed students' expectations.
Universities are now competing on the quality of their services as well as academic prowess. And students expect to have support for emotional problems.
Three student protests and occupations this year have called for better counselling services.
At the University of Reading student welfare has been made a priority, including a long-term project to monitor well-being.
Marina Della Giusta, responsible for the research, says students are "definitely feeling more stressed".
"The factors that really drive it are financial stress, university education has become more expensive. And job prospects are more uncertain, so they're not sure whether it's going to pay off."
The other constant thorn is the expectation to be seen to be having a good time, with social media turning social lives into a place of competition rather than relaxation.
But the increase in using counselling services also reflected a greater willingness to ask for help - and Dr Della Giusta says universities are moving away from a "sink or swim" attitude.
"There's no point turning out students who have a first if they are going to be unhappy and unable to function as human beings out there in the workplace or in their personal life."
Universities UK says it issued guidance this year to all universities on how to support students with mental health problems.
"Universities take student mental health very seriously. For some students, an unfamiliar higher education environment can be stressful, particularly for those who already have an underlying illness," says chief executive Nicola Dandridge.
"Some students are reluctant to disclose their difficulties, which can also present a challenge for universities seeking to support them. However, the development of policies and anti-stigma campaigns is now beginning to address both these issues."
Your comments:
There was a time (before instant messaging) when you used to sit down with your mates and have a good conversation, and together you'd work things out. It seems that a shrink is the only person you can talk to now! When it was just the academic elite that went to university, the studying was relatively easy for them. Now your average Jo(e) is expected to get a degree they have to work much harder and are under much more stress to achieve. David, Northampton
Thanks for this piece; I really appreciate it. I've just finished my degree at university and had to take a year out to deal with anxiety. I wrote about this experience on a short blog, https://henryegar.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/the-reasons-i-worried-part-i-2/. I'm currently writing a follow-up on the experience of positive change, learning to manage these feelings and becoming a much happier person. A team of us are also currently making a film about mental health issues at our university. Henry, London
Judging by the numbers of very stressed sixth form students I teach I am totally unsurprised by this statistic. Most students are terrified of failing, constantly reminded how important it is to get high grades. The culture of obsession with target grades in school leads to a tense atmosphere as both teachers and students are judged against them. Schools also struggle to get enough counsellors and support for their students. Quick referrals are only for the suicidal meaning many students have to wait 33 weeks to a year to get any real help. It is really time to rethink what an education is worth. EJ, Heswall
I was at medical school 1994-2000. We all felt stressed periodically, but it was most unusual (<2% of the whole year) for any of us to seek to postpone. Part of the increase is likely to be due to availability. In my time, the student counselling service was a door with a sign over it, and if you looked all over the union you might just find a few small cards with phone numbers. There has been a massive increase in posters, talks etc about student wellbeing. And asking for such help, even when unbeknownst to others, causes much less internal agitation nowadays. Plus, students are definitely expected to work more these days. "I'm a graduate" doesn't cut a lot of mustard in the milk-round if you got a 3rd. Medicine and dentistry students, I believe, had less stress because there was a cast-iron guarantee of a job. Max, Yarm
I actually think the figures of those using counselling display something else, much more positive for universities. Since graduating, I was diagnosed with depression and waited a month to be given 6-weeks free CBT therapy. Following this, there was waiting list for months for any free therapy given (for example through the charity MIND) and I was recommended to find my own private counsellor as the wait would be so long. This took time, and also costs money. Ranging from £25-£150 per session. To be struggling mentally and having to take on this task and financial burden shows a huge flaw in the mental health system in the UK.
However, at university, counselling is freely offered. I believe that the figures show what happens when counselling is freely available. At university you receive better care- counselling is made freely available to anyone, and there is a high degree of privacy around the counselling (they tended to be in rooms that I didn't even know existed before I received counselling), and there is no limit on the amount of sessions you can receive. Lydia, London
Oh dear all these do gooders protecting the little luvvies again and wrapping them in the cotton wool life that they have led until now. When we were young if we wanted to buy things we had pocket money and/or had to get a paper round, weekend job or both which gave us grounding before going to University but these kids get it all given to them on a plate and sulk if they don't get the latest IPhone etc. so it's a big shock when they have to learn to wipe their own backsides. David, High Roding
I first received counselling and a diagnosis of depression at university (ten years ago now) but I don't think that was to do with the stress of university per se. On the contrary, I was so much happier there than at school, and made friends for life. I wonder if some of this increase is because of the well-documented increase in poor mental and emotional health at school age. University is where it all comes to a head, where you have to face it - and where you are more likely to be taken seriously and get help than possibly anywhere else. Katherine, Grimsby
I was diagnosed a year or so before starting university, having been depressed for much longer, and developing quite bad social anxiety too. I struggled through first year before telling the university at the end of the year, when I was told I would be looked out for and checked up on. I got a few free counselling sessions and was referred to an external counsellor, which was all good. The university themselves gave basically no support. I met my personal tutor once, no one commented on my severe lack of attendance/missing of deadlines, and no one ever checked in to see if I was okay. They just handed the problem to an external source and forgot about it. I just felt completely isolated and abandoned. Sophie, Sunbury-on-Thames
I've sought counselling during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies for stress, anxiety and acute insomnia. However, in my experience, university counselling services are way over subscribed and under funded and are unable to cope with the rising numbers of students seeking help. Academia has just accepted that students will face mental health problems without addressing the root causes and exploring the reasons behind the challenges and it's high time that someone explored why so many university students, and staff, are struggling with their mental health. Clare, Leeds
As a private tutor with a long career in teaching, I think the stress starts long before students arrive at university. Many of my students are put under huge pressure even at primary school, by parents, school league tables, 11+ , common entrance, SATs, GCCEs, Bacs, A Levels and so on and so on. By the time students get into uni, stress has already been the default situation for years. Un fact, it you are not stressed, you are not keeping up with the competition and there is something wrong with you(!) Chris, Shepperton
I'm sure that financial pressure and worries about job prospects play a role. But could it be that today's generation is simply a lot less prepared for this transition - becoming independent ...? Sabine, London
I am horrified at the lack of support given to young people at university. My son started at a top London art college last year and probably only survived because he'd done 5 years at boarding school beforehand which gave him the resilience to cope. The halls were expensive but grotty, no decent communal area, five miserable bedsits per 'flat' with a bleak shared kitchen. Posters and pictures were forbidden on the walls. A spot check on my son's room which he had made friendly with flags and pictures incurred dire warning of fines and a demand for everything to be removed. I am not at all surprised at the high incidence of drop out by students from the lowest socio-economic groups. There is no support for them, the existence is lonely, the costs are enormous, the tutors are indifferent and there is the barest minimum of tuition. I was lucky enough to go to Cambridge 30 years ago. Many of the new universities are a complete scam. Caroline, Market Rasen
I went to university in the early 1960s. one of 113,000 that year. It was the London University agricultural faculty and therefore rurally based. We were a relatively small, close knit community, there were no drugs and no discernible mental hangups other than was normal for young people of this age and life was enjoyable and a wonderful experience. We worked hard and played hard. I think young people then were tougher mentally and physically, no pet descriptions were available to describe the odd blip and no havens existed to help those who simply found themselves in an environment in which they could not survive . They just got out and did something else. There were more opportunities for both graduates and people with other skills in those days but you still survived by your own endeavours and parental support almost always disappeared as you approached late teens. You simply became a survivor because there was no description for your perceived weakness, you simply had to tough it out. Bob, King's Lynn
Conscientious, intelligent, and empathic people (by no means a minority) are the most stressed by formal education because they understand and try to meet complex and contradictory expectations. Both meeting them and not meeting them are equally stressful.
The brightest young people I know, Oxbridge graduates some, are the worst learners; they assimilate and accommodate knowledge, understanding, and skills like out-of-control vacuum cleaners, but the process results in mental illness. Something that is a natural propensity is somehow constrained to take place in a context full of other people's needs and ambitions and the personal shame of relating to your friends and family through a series of self-evidently meaningless achievements. One cannot derive a secure sense of self from an education system (or a family system) that defines the child's success in terms of the institution's own survival needs - this is the very essence of a dysfunctional relationship.
The mental health of young people will continue to worsen as the relentless march of competitive marketisation and corporate managerialism drives both teachers and children to anxiety and depression. Everyone knows this, and everyone says it in private, in staffrooms, head's offices, dinner tables, and counselling centres. Our failure as educators is that we don't stop it. Nick, Birmingham
|
Colwinston near Cowbridge, Llanfihangel y Creuddyn on the outskirts of Aberystwyth, and Herbrandston - just a stone's throw from the port of Milford Haven - are all archetypal picture-postcard rural Welsh villages. | By Neil PriorBBC News
Yet keen-eyed visitors may spot that something is missing from all three - none have the obligatory memorial to the fallen of World War One.
The reason is that they are Wales' only "thankful villages".
Of more than 1,000 Welsh parishes who sent men to the front, only these three saw all of their sons return home safely.
Indeed, Herbrandston is doubly thankful, as it alone in Wales lost no men in either world war.
Across 16,000 parishes in England and Wales, just 53 are thankful villages, of whom only 14 are said to be doubly thankful.
There are none in Scotland or Ireland, and only one in the whole of France.
Last year Medwyn Parry and his hardy companions set about touring all 53 thankful villages by motorbike to raise money for the Royal British Legion.
Even though he now lives just a few miles from Ceredigion's thankful village of Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Mr Parry explained that his fascination began in another of those rarest of places.
"Decades ago I was doing some work in Colwinston. I can't remember whether I'd already noticed that they had no war memorial, but one day it started teeming down and we went into the porch of the local church to shelter," he said.
"I saw the plaque there listing the men who went to the Great War and giving thanks for the fact that they all came home alive.
"It struck me as incredibly unusual at the time, but it was only with the arrival of the internet that I started doing some research and realised just how unusual it was."
As part of the motorcycle tour, Mr Parry's group presented each village with a slate plaque to commemorate their good fortune and to mark a spot at which to remember those places which were not as lucky.
"I found around Llanfihangel that some people knew it was a thankful village but didn't really know what that meant, and that others had wondered why we went to the neighbouring village on Remembrance Sunday but hadn't thought any more about it than that," he said.
"But once people know the significance they're immensely proud of their history. So we thought we'd like each of the thankful villages to have a plaque which would act as a talking point.
"The fact that this handful of parishes lost no-one focuses your mind on the sheer scale of the carnage elsewhere."
Llanfihangel y Creuddyn welcomed home 12 men in 1918, Colwinston 23, and Herbrandston 32, as well as another 39 in World War Two.
All three had populations under 200, and had stood to lose the heart of a generation.
BBC Historian Dan Snow contends that their salvation is all the more miraculous given the system of battalions of "pals", which saw entire villages, factories and football teams patriotically sign up together, and often die together.
"It was a pattern repeated many times - and on each occasion, a town or village was deeply wounded, instantly," he said.
The pals' system was phased out in 1917, but not before it left an indelible mark on the British consciousness.
"They had to stop that practice because it was so unbelievably destructive," said Snow, whose great-grandfather Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow was a general at the Somme.
"When you let brothers serve together, it can be devastating for a whole community. It was a war that touched everybody in the British Isles. That's what total war means."
However Geoff Bates, chair of Colwinston Community Council, wonders whether this same destructive system could in a bizarre way be responsible for the thankful villages as well.
"Part of the work we're undertaking for our centenary commemorations is to try and learn more about these 23 men - who they were, what they did etc," he said.
"At the moment it's not clear if they served together in a pals' battalion and were extremely lucky to have been posted to a part of the line which saw comparatively light losses, or whether they were dotted all over and the fact that they all came home is just an incredible random chance.
"Depending on what we find, we're hoping to put on an exhibition of their lives on the anniversary in August."
Colwinston has also secured a grant from Vale of Glamorgan council for new road signs indicating their thankful village status.
But Colin Reynolds, a member of the church council of St Mary's in Herbrandston, says that when they realised there were no village losses after World War Two as well, the villagers were not entirely sure whether they should be advertising the fact.
"After the first war a local landowner, whose son was one of the 32 to come home safely, gave thanks by paying for the church to be re-pointed. He also donated the wonderful screen we have behind the altar," he said.
"When the same happened in the second war the local gentry bought the church a pipe organ. That drew a lot of attention because there weren't many churches around here with pipe organs, but by all accounts nobody in the village knew quite how they should feel.
"There were six churches on the local circuit and the other five all lost many, many men.
"So how could St Mary's celebrate all their sons returning safely, and show off their new organ, when everywhere else you looked people were mourning?"
|
Joe Cropp of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) recently visited Burma to work with the Myanmar [Burma] Red Cross helping ethnic Rakhine and Muslim communities affected by inter-communal violence. He returned last week, before the latest outbreak of violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims, mostly from the stateless Rohingya minority, which left dozens dead and thousands more displaced. | Where were you?
I travelled to Sittwe, which was the centre of the inter-communal violence in June, but has escaped the latest unrest further north. Myanmar Red Cross is well respected in Rakhine because of its neutral approach - this meant we were able to move freely among both affected communities.
What evidence of violence could you see?
The physical destruction is still evident in Sittwe township, where some 4,800 homes were damaged or destroyed.
In most parts of the town life continues as normal, on the surface at least. In other parts, entire streets are little more than a few blackened tree stumps and occasional burnt pieces of timber where a home once stood.
The starkest evidence of the destruction, however, is in the relief camps, where the displaced families who lost everything are now living.
How many have been displaced and where are they?
When I was there, an estimated 75,000 people were living in camps and other temporary locations in and around Sittwe.
The government has separated the communities, for how long it is unclear, with the larger displaced Muslim community - some 67,000 people - accommodated in nine camps outside Sittwe.
The displaced ethnic Rakhine are in camps inside the town. Their accommodation ranges from single-room bamboo shelters to canvas tents, each housing a family.
It is estimated that a further 28,000 people, predominantly Muslim families, have been displaced by the recent unrest further north and will be in urgent need of aid.
Who is in the camps and what are conditions like?
The people in the camps are typical families. I met teachers, shop owners, tri-shaw drivers, business people and carpenters. There is a sad irony in a carpenter living in a tarpaulin tent, surrounded by almost 200 other tarpaulin tents.
Their condition varies, depending on the level of relief that has arrived. The most in need are still in canvas tents, which become stiflingly hot during the day.
Water often needs to be trucked in and sanitation is a major issue - many of the camps are still short of suitable toilets.
The evidence of this can also be seen in the first aid clinics run by the Red Cross. Most cases are skin rashes and diarrhoea, the result of poor water and sanitation.
In each camp we visited, the visible needs were very similar - food, shelter, safe water and sanitation facilities.
The government, Red Cross, United Nations and a few other humanitarian organisations are working to provide this support, but more still needs to be done.
There are also hidden needs. People have endured trauma and live every day with uncertainty. There is a need for "psychosocial" support for these families, who lost everything during the violence.
This is not as obvious as the physical needs, but you can see it in people's faces and hear it on the edge of their voices as they talk about lost homes and lost lives.
One woman said to me: "When I think about it, I just want to cry." I think that sentiment rings true for thousands of others.
Did you get a sense of tensions on the ground?
The latest violence hit other areas of Rakhine state, north of Sittwe. The township remains extremely tense and polarised, with both communities on high alert. A night curfew remains in place.
In the camps themselves, there is a mood of sadness and loss, mixed with flashes of anger at the people who caused the waves of violence. Basically people want their lives back and they want to feel secure.
|
Mystery knitters and crochetters have been brightening up public spaces in the Orkney town of Kirkwall with a craze known as "yarn-bombing". | Trees, railings and street signs have been decorated with colourful works.
The pair behind it are keen to protect their anonymity, and go under the alias of Knitfish and Ripples the Crocheter.
Much of their work has appeared at the public area in front of Orkney Library and Archive. The craze is believed to have originated in Texas.
Young trees are sporting crocheted cardigans, while brightly-coloured knitted tubes have been fitted around railings.
Orkney's yarn-bombers have promised to continue - as long as public opinion remains on their side.
|
Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in London. | It still hasn't been confirmed what caused the singer's death.
Ambulance crews and police went to the singer's flat in Camden, north London, just before 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon (23 July) but paramedics were unable to save her life.
The singer has had a well documented battle with drink and drugs. She last performed one of her own shows at a festival in Serbia last month.
But despite remaining on stage for a full gig she appeared drunk and was booed off stage.
Following that show, the remainder of her European comeback tour was postponed.
Amy Winehouse was seen out on Wednesday night (20 July), showing support for her god-daughter Dionne Bromfield as the teenager performed as part of the iTunes festival in London.
It's believed Amy's father, Mitch Winehouse is flying back from New York to London.
Tributes
Amy Winehouse followed the critical success of her debut album Frank with a Mark Ronson-produced breakthrough second album Back To Black in 2006.
It won her five Grammy Awards and brought her worldwide stardom.
However, despite time in the studio, a follow-up was never released.
On Saturday evening, fans gathered near her London home.
Tributes are coming in from around the world.
On Twitter, Tinchy Stryder said: "My thoughts go out to her family and friends. RIP Amy Winehouse."
Katy B said: "So sad. Such an incredibly talented woman. R.I.P Amy such an inspiration, my heart hurts."
Jessie J said: "The way tears are streaming down my face - such a loss - RIP Amy."
Lily Allen, who rose to fame around the same time as Amy Winehouse said the death is "just beyond sad".
She added: "There's nothing else to say. She was such a lost soul, may she rest in peace."
Take a look back at Amy Winehouse's life from her debut in 2003 to her death in 2011
|
After the government was forced to apologise for declaring some of the so-called Windrush generation illegal immigrants, the Home Office is now reviewing the cases of asylum seekers affected by another aspect of its so-called "hostile environment" policy, who may have been inappropriately banned from studying. | By James Clayton & Phil KempBBC Newsnight
Ibrahim - not his real name - received a letter four weeks ago from the Home Office telling him he was banned from further study.
It arrived two weeks before he was due to sit his English language exams.
As a 19-year-old asylum seeker from North Africa living in a foreign country and speaking a new language, he says his English classes - he was studying English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) - had become a lifeline.
"Sometimes I cry. I even thought I would kill myself… this is one way I can make my life better but now they closed that one way", says Ibrahim, who came to England three years ago because he faced threats in his own country.
He is one of more than 50 asylum seekers Newsnight has been told about who may have had inappropriate study restrictions imposed upon them.
It is the result of rule changes introduced in January after the introduction of the government's "hostile environment" immigration policy.
"I've certainly heard of getting on for 100 cases," says Adam Hundt, a solicitor with Deighton Pierce Glynn. "I think it's quite clear that this will be affecting thousands of people."
Since the beginning of the year, asylum seekers who used to be classified as having been granted temporary admission have been placed on "immigration bail".
The change was introduced as part of the Immigration Act 2016 and it affects migrants lawfully in the UK but without leave to remain, like asylum seekers.
The government said it was only intended to be used on a case-by-case basis when proportionate - for example, when they want to know the whereabouts of an asylum seeker, they could specify a particular institution where they could study.
During the passage of the legislation, the government gave assurances that it did not intend to impose a blanket ban on asylum seekers accessing education.
But campaigners and immigration lawyers say that appears to have been what has happened.
"We see about 50 asylum seekers a week on average at our advice drop-in and everybody that has come with a bail form has the restriction on study," says Becky Hellewell, a case worker with the charity St Augustine's Centre in Halifax.
Home Office staff are not the only group to have interpreted the guidance in this way.
The University of Leicester wrote to asylum seekers on its roll to update them that they were not permitted to use immigration bail conditions to study there.
But that should only have been the case if there was a restriction to study on their bail form - they should not have been prevented because they were on immigration bail.
A statement from the university said: "All email communications on this matter are in accordance with government guidance provided to all universities.
"We change and update our communications in accordance with guidance from the government."
Government 'to correct' mistakes
The consequences for asylum seekers caught breaching these conditions can be severe.
They are liable to prosecution and could be subject to a fine and/or six months in prison.
Earlier this week, the Home Office minister Baroness Williams clarified in the House of Lords that the new immigration provisions were not designed to prevent asylum seekers from studying.
"The Home Office is proactively looking to identify cases where this has been applied inappropriately and will apply a new bail notice to the individual," she told peers.
This clarification came too late for Ibrahim.
He had to take the Home Office to court in order to have his study ban lifted just a day before his exams.
He has now been issued with a new bail notice removing his study restriction.
"I think what we've seen with the implementation of immigration bail provisions is that it's different depending on what area you are in," says Kamena Dorling of the charity Coram, which works with vulnerable children and young people.
"It's not being applied in accordance with the guidance, nor is it being applied consistently."
The guidance that immigration officials were using has now been updated to say "anyone who claims asylum should not have a study condition applied to them… If there is any doubt over whether study should be restricted, no study condition should be applied".
The Home Office told Newsnight the study restrictions on immigration bail are not part of its "compliant environment" policy - the phrase preferred by the new Home Secretary Sajid Javid instead of "hostile environment".
A Home Office spokesperson said: "Immigration bail is a valuable tool which enables individuals who are liable to be detained to remain in the community, subject to certain conditions.
"The provisions are not designed to be used to prevent asylum seekers studying and we are proactively looking to identify cases where this may have happened so that we can correct it.
"We have also updated our guidance for staff so that they are absolutely clear when to apply restrictions and we are putting in place new safeguards, so that when the restriction is applied, it has to be approved by a senior officer. These steps will make sure such an issue does not arise in the future."
|
"If shale gas fails to deliver on current expectations, then in 10 years or so, gas supplies could face serious constraints." | So says Paul Stevens, a senior fellow at the international affairs think tank, Chatham House.
He's penned a report that raises serious doubts about whether shale gas will indeed deliver.
So what is shale gas, why is it such a big deal, and what will happen if it turns out to be one big wild goose chase?
|
The discovery of a small community in the Dominican Republic, where some males are born looking like girls and only grow penises at puberty, has led to the development of a blockbuster drug that has helped millions of people, writes Michael Mosley. | Johnny lives in a small town in the Dominican Republic where he, and others like him, are known as "Guevedoces", which effectively translates as "penis at twelve".
We came across Johnny when we were filming for a new BBC Two series Countdown to Life, which looks at how we develop in the womb and how those changes, normal and abnormal, impact us later in life.
Like the other Guevedoces, Johnny was brought up as a girl because he had no visible testes or penis and what appeared to be a vagina. It is only when he approached puberty that his penis grew and testicles descended.
Johnny, once known as Felicita, remembers going to school in a little red dress, though he says he was never happy doing girl things.
Find out more
Watch the second episode of Countdown to Life: The Extraordinary Making of You, Against the Odds, on BBC Two at 21:00 on Monday 21 September, or catch up afterwards on iPlayer.
"I never liked to dress as a girl and when they bought me toys for girls I never bothered playing with them - when I saw a group of boys I would stop to play ball with them."
When he became obviously male he was taunted at school, and responded with his fists.
"They used to say I was a devil, nasty things, bad words and I had no choice but to fight them because they were crossing the line."
We also filmed with Carla, who at the age of seven is on the brink of changing into Carlos. His mother has seen the change coming for quite a while.
"When she turned five I noticed that whenever she saw one of her male friends she wanted to fight with him. Her muscles and chest began growing. You could see she was going to be a boy. I love her however she is. Girl or boy, it makes no difference."
So why does it happen? Well, one of the first people to study this unusual condition was Dr Julianne Imperato-McGinley, from Cornell Medical College in New York. In the 1970s she made her way to this remote part of the Dominican Republic, drawn by extraordinary reports of girls turning into boys.
When she got there she found the rumours were true. She did lots of studies on the Guevedoces (including what must have been rather painful biopsies of their testicles) before finally unravelling the mystery of what was going on.
When you are conceived you normally have a pair of X chromosomes if you are to become a girl and a set of XY chromosomes if you are destined to be male.
For the first weeks of life in womb you are neither, though in both sexes nipples start to grow.
Then, around eight weeks after conception, the sex hormones kick in. If you're genetically male the Y chromosome instructs your gonads to become testicles and sends testosterone to a structure called the tubercle, where it is converted into a more potent hormone called dihydro-testosterone This in turn transforms the tubercle into a penis. If you're female and you don't make dihydro-testosterone then your tubercle becomes a clitoris.
When Imperato-McGinley investigated the Guevedoces she discovered the reason they don't have male genitalia when they are born is because they are deficient in an enzyme called 5-alpha-reductase, which normally converts testosterone into dihydro-testosterone.
This deficiency seems to be a genetic condition, quite common in this part of the Dominican Republic, but vanishingly rare elsewhere. So the boys, despite having an XY chromosome, appear female when they are born. At puberty, like other boys, they get a second surge of testosterone. This time the body does respond and they sprout muscles, testes and a penis.
Imperato-McGinley's thorough medical investigations showed that in most cases their new, male equipment seems to work fine and that most Guevedoces live out their lives as men, though some go through an operation and remain female.
Another thing that Imperato-McGinley discovered, which would have profound implications for many men around the world, was that the Guevedoces tend to have small prostates.
This observation, made in 1974, was picked up by Roy Vagelos, head of research at the multinational pharmaceutical giant, Merck. He thought this was extremely interesting and set in progress research which led to the development of what has become a best-selling drug, finasteride, which blocks the action of 5-alpha-reductase, mimicking the lack of dihydro-testosterone seen in the Guevedoces.
My wife, who is a GP, routinely prescribes finasteride as it is an effective way to treat benign enlargement of the prostate, a real curse for many men as they get older. Finasteride is also used to treat male pattern baldness.
A final interesting observation that Imperato-McGinley made was that these boys, despite being brought up as girls, almost all showed strong heterosexual preferences. She concluded in her seminal paper that hormones in the womb matter more than rearing when it comes to your sexual orientation.
This is still a controversial topic and one I explore later in the film when I meet Mati, who decided from the earliest age that though "he" looked like a boy, Mati was really a girl.
As for Johnny, since he developed male genitalia he has had a number of short term girlfriends, but he is still looking for love. "I'd like to get married and have children, a partner who will stand by me through good and bad," he sighs wistfully.
More from the Magazine
The number of children aged 10 and under who have been referred to NHS support services to help deal with transgender feelings has more than quadrupled in the last six years, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned. Here is the story of two of the youngest transgender children in the UK - with permission from their parents and with the support of the children's schools.
The story of two transgender children
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
|
A father-of-two who nearly died from pneumonia, sepsis, respiratory failure and a stroke, caused by coronavirus, said he was "so grateful" to be alive to celebrate Christmas with his family. | By Charlie JonesBBC News
Omar Taylor, 31, spent six weeks in Colchester General Hospital earlier this year.
He was the youngest reported patient in the world to have a stroke due to Covid-19.
He said: "It feels like a miracle that I am even here."
Mr Taylor suffered the most severe stroke possible, with multiple microbleeds. Doctors said his brain was being attacked on both sides, in a "cytokine storm".
He spent 20 days on a ventilator in intensive care and his wife Kaitlyn, who is training to be a nurse at the same hospital, was told to prepare for the worst.
When he began to show signs of recovery, doctors said he would probably be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life but he managed to walk out of hospital in May.
Mr Taylor was left with mobility issues and minimal speech when he got home to Rowhedge, near Colchester.
But he learned to speak again and recently returned to work as a regional director of Care UK.
A fundraising page created by a friend raised nearly £19,000, which the family used to fund private therapy sessions.
"Looking back, it doesn't feel like it happened to me, it doesn't even feel real," Mr Taylor said.
Doctors recently discovered one of the valves in his heart did not close at birth, and he is due to have surgery to fix it.
Mrs Taylor said: "They never would have found out if it hadn't been for what has happened. We are so grateful to my colleagues at the hospital who have looked after him so well."
She said this year had been "horrendous" at times but it had ultimately brought them closer together as a family.
"Everything happens for a reason," she said. "It has changed our outlook on life. Omar is a lot calmer, more settled and we all appreciate everything more.
"It has changed our lives forever."
Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]
|
For an entire generation of gamers, this is where it all started. Spinning into life in 1991, Sega's spiky blue mascot took the gaming world by storm. But as he celebrates his 20th birthday, what's next for Sonic the Hedgehog? | By Dave LeeTechnology Reporter
At the start of the '90s, Sega had a problem - a big, fat, moustachioed Italian plumber problem.
Although it had just launched the well-received Megadrive console (Genesis in the US), the company was still no match for the might of Nintendo, with its NES games machine and rotund plumber hero, Mario.
During its first full year on sale, the Megadrive sold fewer units than the NES, despite Nintendo's console being over five years old.
The popularity of Mario had helped Nintendo claim 92% of the home video game market.
If Sega was to survive, something drastic had to be done.
The company's new boss, Tom Kalinske set about creating a megastar.
He tasked Sega's designers with inventing a mascot; a hero to take over from the moderately popular, but distinctly ordinary, Alex Kidd.
It took several goes - an armadillo, a rabbit and a dog were all considered - before the team settled on Sonic, a speedy blue hedgehog.
"The speed of Sonic was always a big part of the design," said David Corless, brand director for Sonic outside of Japan.
"It was born out of one of the original team members - Yuji Naka - the first programmer of Sonic.
"He had a love of all things fast, so Sonic was always going to be a quick character and that was also born out of looking at other platform games like Mario and wanting to create something that was much quicker."
Much to the annoyance of the Sonic Team, Mr Kalinske - who was a former head of toy company Mattel - toned down some rather bizarre additions to the character, most notably a human girlfriend named Madonna, and a pair of menacing fangs.
Even more controversially, Mr Kalinske decided to make Sonic the new 'pack-in' game - the title that came free in the box with every purchase of the Sega console, which itself was to be drastically lowered in price.
On 23 June, 1991, the first Sonic game hit the shelves.
As video game historian Steven L Kent recalls, it changed perceptions of Sega.
"Sonic comes out, he's got a lot of attitude. For example, if you don't keep playing, he'll stare into the camera and start tapping his foot.
"It communicated the whole attitude that Sega was not interested in being your little brother's video game console. They wanted to be the cool console."
It worked. Sonic the Hedgehog reportedly sold in excess of 15 million copies, swinging the games market 65% into Sega's favour.
Such was the character's popularity that, according to one study, he was more recognisable to US children than Mickey Mouse or Abraham Lincoln.
Naturally, a slew of sequels followed. Sonic 2 was released in November 1992, Sonic 3 in 1994.
Like Mario, he soon developed a cast of supporting characters, including a two-tailed fox companion named Tails and a love-interest called Amy.
Sonic's rise continued, with gaming spin-offs and TV shows - an approach that would eventually devalue the brand, according to Steven Kent.
"They totally diluted their message, and they diluted Sonic too. All of a sudden Sonic wasn't just running and attitude, pretty soon you had all these puzzle games and RPG games."
By 1996, Sonic had gone three dimensional. Sonic 3D Blast was released on both the Megadrive and Sega's newer machine, the Saturn. However, the game sold poorly, partly due to the dominance of the new console in town: the Sony PlayStation.
Meanwhile, old adversary Mario went from strength to strength. Mario 64, also released in 1996, was widely regarded as a milestone in gaming, and every bit as important as Sonic's debut in 1991.
Then in 1998, Sonic was propelled back into favour again with the arrival of Sega's latest console, the Dreamcast.
The first sixth-generation games machine, Dreamcast beat PlayStation 2, Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft's Xbox to market.
With it came Sonic Adventure, the best Sonic game of recent times, according to Steven L Kent.
"It's still at that incredible speed and with 3D graphics, and it was brilliant. It was a fabulous game," he said.
But despite the head start, Dreamcast lost the console war and its demise spelled the end of Sega as a hardware manufacturer. From now on, Sonic would only appear on other companies' machines - including Nintendo's.
The cold war truly came to an end in 2007 with the release of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.
The following years brought a few more Sonic titles, but the glory days had clearly passed.
To mark the 20th anniversary, Sega is releasing Sonic Generations, a combination of modern Sonic - with its 3D style - and classic Sonic.
Steven L Kent holds on to the hope that a single great Sonic game would be enough to make the character popular again.
"One more Sonic Adventure and Sonic could be back up on top, he really could. But he's not there right now.
"Right now, he's Kevin Costner."
|
"If I'd been almost anywhere else on the planet, I'd be dead. They would have flicked the switch after 30 days," says Stephen Cameron from his hospital bed. | By Oliver Barnes & Bui ThuBBC News
The 42-year-old Scottish pilot spent 68 days on a ventilator, thought to be a longer stretch of time than any patient in the UK. He did so not in a hospital in his hometown of Motherwell, but in Vietnam's sprawling and hectic Ho Chi Minh City, with no close friends or family for thousands of miles.
Cameron, the last Covid-19 patient in an intensive care unit in Vietnam, has been the sickest doctors have had to deal with during the outbreak.
The country, home to 95 million people, has seen only a few hundred confirmed cases, single-digit ICU admissions and not a single recorded death. So rare was a case of Cameron's severity in Vietnam, every minute detail of his recovery was reported in national newspapers and on TV news bulletins.
He's now known nationwide as Patient 91, the moniker given to him by public health officials when he fell ill in March.
"I'm very humbled by how I've been taken into the hearts of the Vietnamese people," says Cameron, speaking exclusively to the BBC. "And most of all I'm grateful for the bloody-mindedness of the doctors in not wanting me to die on their watch."
'10% chance of survival'
Dozens of Vietnam's intensive care specialists held regular conference calls to discuss Cameron's condition.
"The very small number of critical care patients meant anyone who was severely ill got the attention of all the country's top-level clinicians," explains Dr Kidong Park, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Vietnam.
For much of Cameron's two-and-a-half months in a medically induced coma, he depended on an Ecmo machine, a form of life support only used in the most extreme cases, to survive. The machines extract blood from a patient's body and infuse it with oxygen, before pumping it back in.
"I'm lucky that the only lasting effect seems to be that my legs aren't yet strong enough to hold me, but I'm doing physiotherapy twice a day," says Cameron. "At one point, my friend Craig was told by the Foreign Office I had a 10% chance of survival, so he planned for the worst - he gave up my apartment and started doing things somebody would do if I was coming home in a box."
Since he regained consciousness, he describes several tearful phone conversations with friends back home, who "didn't think [he'd] ever come back".
Doctors had to contend with multiple complications while Cameron was in a coma. His blood became extremely sticky leading to clots. His kidneys failed meaning they required dialysis and his lung capacity plummeted to 10%.
"When it came out in the press here that I needed a lung transplant, apparently loads of people offered their lungs, including a 70-year-old Vietnam war veteran," he smiles. "But it would have been a double lung transplant so that wouldn't have ended well for him."
Despite the outpouring of support from the Vietnamese people and the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on Stephen Cameron's care, the reaction when he first tested positive for the virus was less welcoming.
The Buddha bar cluster
Cameron became ill only a few weeks after arriving in Vietnam in early February. Like many Western pilots, he'd headed to Asia to ply his trade for higher pay in the booming regional air travel industry. Two nights before he was due to pilot his first flight for Vietnam Airlines, and the night before most bars and clubs were set to shut in Ho Chi Minh City to contain the virus, he headed to meet a friend in an expat bar in an upmarket district of the city.
At the time, Vietnam had had fewer than 50 confirmed cases but, according to Prof Guy Thwaites, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit based in Ho Chi Minh City and a government advisor on infectious diseases, the population "already had a healthy amount of respect for and fear of the virus".
It was the weekend before St Patrick's Day, so the Buddha Bar and Grill was packed with revellers wearing Irish fancy dress when Cameron arrived just after 22:00. "I don't drink, I largely kept myself to myself in the corner, played a few rounds of pool and went home at around 3.15am," he recalls.
However, when he developed a fever, the day after his maiden flight, and 12 others at the bar tested positive in the days following, sympathy for him among locals was in short supply. The Buddha bar cluster, as it became known in the local press, was the single biggest outbreak of coronavirus in south Vietnam, infecting nearly 20 people both indirectly and directly.
And for some on social media, Cameron, who had criss-crossed the city taking in the sights, was to blame.
Despite there being no proof he was the source of the outbreak, one prominent businessman, Luong Hoai Nam, labelled Patient 91 a "time bomb". He called for foreigners breaking the rules to be deported, earning plaudits from his followers on social media
"There seemed to be a desire to pin it on me coming from abroad, as I did a visa run to Bangkok a week earlier," says Cameron, who's convinced he too was infected at the Buddha bar, and was not the source of the outbreak.
"I was the first person to put my hands up and say: 'Look I don't feel well'. It was inevitable I would be blamed."
Rapid decline
On 18 March, Cameron was admitted to hospital after testing positive for the virus, and authorities moved swiftly to shut down the bar and quarantine everyone in his apartment building. In total, 4,000 people linked to the Buddha bar outbreak were tested.
"Patient 91's condition got worse very quickly," recalls Prof Luong Ngoc Khue, who serves on the Vietnamese health ministry's Covid-19 taskforce and advised on Cameron's treatment. "There was a worrying decrease in the function of not just his lungs, but his kidneys, liver and blood flow."
With his condition deteriorating, Cameron remembers taking the bold decision of asking to be ventilated. "I was exhausted as I couldn't sleep and I just thought: 'Oh, put me under and get it sorted'," he says. He was then comatose for weeks and weeks on end, as doctors agonised over his treatment. Meanwhile, the small number of other ICU patients in Vietnam recovered and went home.
All the while, his case gained prominence, with top politicians promising to put every effort into keeping him alive, as the hospital temporarily footed the bill for the spiralling costs of his care.
"There's a lot of political kudos that Vietnam can take from my recovery," he observes, "and it keeps their record, which is pretty phenomenal on Covid, very, very low."
Prof Khue insists everyone - foreign or Vietnamese - had access to good quality care. "We focused on treating sick people at the highest level, both in terms of facilities and human resources, regardless of whether they were Vietnamese or from abroad," he says.
But he gleefully reports that "49 out of 50 foreign patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital".
Waking up was a 'blur'
When Stephen Cameron was first ventilated in early April, there were just over a million cases of coronavirus around the world. When doctors woke him up, on 12 June, there were in excess of seven million. But Vietnam had avoided the worst of the virus. There has not been a recorded case of community transmission since 16 April.
"I never thought it would take as long as 10 weeks to wake me up. I remember being roused, I remember getting my tracheotomy, I remember being wheeled through hospital corridors - and then the next few days are a blur."
From his recovery bed in a private room in Cho Ray Hospital on the other side of Ho Chi Minh City, where he was transferred after being taken off a ventilator and testing negative for the virus, Cameron is feeling the fallout of several months being motionless and severely ill.
He's lost 20kg (3.1 stone) and his muscles are so wasted it's an effort to swing his leg up even a few inches. He's also suffered from severe fatigue and depressive lows since waking up, in addition to the nagging fear that post-traumatic stress could be just around the corner.
"I've been through a lot mentally. Right now, all I want to do is return home. It's the lack of noise and heat I miss the most. There's such a buzz here from all the scooters' horns and it's monsoon season. Fifteen degrees back home for me is just nice."
'I need to get back to Scotland'
In the past few weeks, he's been visited at his bedside by not just a procession of doctors and nurses, but also high-ranking diplomats, government officials and politicians. Most recently, his hospital room played host to the British consul general and the chairman of Ho Chi Minh City's People's Committee.
He recalls the mayor promising he'll "be back in England soon", before being swiftly corrected.
"I told him, if I get dumped in England, I won't be too happy," he jokes. "I need to get home to Scotland, it's 400 miles away."
There's also a practical side to Cameron's desire to return home as soon as possible. The twice-daily rehab sessions he receives are made more difficult by the language barrier as very few medical staff speak good English. Rehabilitation for the most severely ill patients after ICU is always a delicate dance. Progress and pitfalls are faced in equal measure, and it can be dragged out over several years.
The hospital, in which Cameron is a patient, dates back to Vietnam's French colonial era - it's one of the country's leading medical facilities
"I feel like I'm taking up a bed that somebody who is really ill could take."
Beating the odds
But his care hasn't come free. An Ecmo machine costs $5,000-10,000 (£4,000 - £8,000) a day to operate and he was reliant on one for eight-and-a-half weeks.
The ongoing wrangling over who will cover the costs are causing him stress and diverting attention away from his recovery. At first, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases paid out of its own pocket for his treatment. Then, it seemed the British embassy would intervene. His work insurance eventually covered the cost. But the funds for his stay in Cho Ray Hospital are still up in the air.
"It's become really, really frustrating. At the beginning, I'd send the insurance company an email and they would say: 'Yeh, we'll sort that'. Now, the response is 'We'll deal with this shortly' and nothing seems to happen."
There's a place for Cameron on a Vietnam Airlines flight back to the UK on 12 July. Meanwhile, planes continue to shuttle Vietnamese nationals back from Europe, and having been declared fit to fly a week ago, Cameron is confused why he can't return home sooner.
"As I'm such a well-known public figure here now, everything about my case is controlled by the government."
The politics of his return are a reminder that the miraculous recovery of Patient 91 is not just a story of a Scottish pilot who recovered from Covid-19 and overcame the odds. It is the story of how a developing Southeast Asian country with a turbulent recent history beat the odds too.
|
First, right-wing candidate Mauricio Macri won the presidential contest in Argentina . Then, in early December, the centre-right opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition swept to victory in elections for the National Assembly in Venezuela. | By Nick CaistorRegional analyst
Meanwhile, in Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff, of the left-wing Workers' Party (PT), faces possible impeachment. And even if this comes to nothing, local observers think it unlikely she will reach the end of her mandate in 2018.
In all three countries, left-leaning parties have been in power for more than a decade. These recent defeats suggest the "pink tide" of left-wing governments in Latin America since the start of the 21st Century is receding.
The 'pink tide' in Latin America
Polarisation
In Argentina, since 2003, Nestor Kirchner and subsequently his widow, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, led populist governments that owed much to the Peronist legacy.
This included strong social programmes to relieve poverty and resistance to international economic orthodoxy promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but also led to strained relations with the country's agricultural and business sector.
But the Peronist candidate in the 2015 contest, Daniel Scioli, was decisively beaten by Mr Macri in a run-off election at the end of November.
In Venezuela, the arrival to power of Hugo Chavez at the end of the 1990s and the attempts to create a "21st Century socialism" led to an even greater polarisation of society, with many middle-class professionals leaving the country.
But, for more than a decade, opposition voices in Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil proved unable to unite or convince a majority in their countries that they could offer a real political alternative.
At the same time, the parties in power in all three countries have been accused of financial scandals and corruption, and of manipulating state institutions for their own political ends.
Second generation
The left-wing presidents have also suffered because they are all "second-generation" leaders of populist movements who proved far less charismatic or capable politicians than those who first swept to power more than a decade ago.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won popular sympathy in Argentina following the death of her husband, Nestor, in 2010, but proved to be far less adept at governing the country than he was.
In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro faced the hard task of continuing to build on Hugo Chavez's populist Bolivarian revolution.
He too won the presidency thanks largely to a sympathy vote after Chavez's death in 2013, but has lacked both the charisma of his predecessor and the political nous to cope with increasing economic and social problems.
And in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff has failed to measure up to the inspiring PT leadership of her mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served two terms in office from 2003 to 2011. She now faces either being impeached, or leading a lame-duck government for the next two years.
Smooth handovers
The positive aspect of the recent elections has been the willingness of the ruling parties in both Argentina and Venezuela to accept defeat.
Despite Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's obvious animosity towards Mr Macri, there was a smooth handover of power in December 2015, something that has been rare in Argentine politics over the past 50 years.
And in Venezuela, President Maduro accepted what he termed "adverse results" in the elections.
Now his United Socialist Party will need to show it is not afraid of a large opposition majority in the Venezuelan National Assembly pushing for change, and does not resort to governing by decree.
In Argentina, the Peronists still enjoy a majority in both houses of Congress. They also control the main trade unions, and remain the most powerful party, and are likely to make life difficult for the incoming president.
President Macri leads a movement called Let's Change.
This desire for fresh political ideas and policies seems likely to sweep throughout Latin America in the coming months and years, threatening the hold on power of other populist leaders such as Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.
|
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after a woman died when the car she was in crashed into a wall. | Bethany Michelle Ovenden-Gumm, 18, was in a Ford Fiesta that left The Mead in Westbury, Wiltshire and hit a garden wall and a tree late on 5 February.
Three other occupants, a 19-year-old man, an 18-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl, were also injured.
A woman and man, both 19, were arrested and released under investigation.
A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said the arrests "relate to two other vehicles - a Vauxhall Astra and a Vauxhall Corsa" that officers believe were involved in the crash.
Related Internet Links
Wiltshire Police
|
Four candidates have applied to become the new Metropolitan Police commissioner following the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson.
Home Secretary Theresa May, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Kit Malthouse will select Britain's next top officer. So who is in the running?
| STEPHEN HOUSE: ASKED BY HOME OFFICE TO APPLY
Stephen House, the chief constable of Strathclyde Police, applied for the job after being contacted by Home Office officials.
Mr House, 54, was born in Glasgow and moved to London with his family in the 1960s.
He graduated from Aberdeen University before joining Sussex Police in 1981 where he helped police the Brighton Grand Hotel bombing aftermath.
He went on to serve in uniform and operational roles with the Northamptonshire and West Yorkshire forces.
Mr House joined the Met in 2001, where he set up the new territorial policing central operations group. He later headed the specialist crime directorate, with responsibility for areas including homicide, child abuse, the Flying Squad, undercover policing and gun crime.
He began his current role as head of Scotland's largest police force in 2007 and won praise early on for his initiative on gang violence in Glasgow.
In February, ahead of a conference on the future of policing, Mr House suggested a national Scottish police force would be better equipped to deal with major incidents.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said Mr House had emerged as one of the early front runners.
SIR HUGH ORDE: APPLIED FOR JOB
Sir Hugh Orde, who is thought to have applied, is one of the favourites for the job, according to our correspondent.
He narrowly missed out when Sir Paul got the job in 2009.
He is currently president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), a job which gives him a high profile, good contacts and an excellent insight into the issues facing the Met and other forces up and down the country.
Although he was born in Surrey, his biggest claim to fame is his stewardship of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
He was chief constable of the PSNI for seven years from 2002 and oversaw the challenge of reforming the force and winning the support of Catholics and Irish nationalists in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement.
Violence and sectarian tension fell massively in Northern Ireland during his time, although critics might argue this was due to political and social factors as much as to police tactics.
Sir Hugh began his career with the Met in 1977 and become a commander for crime in 1998, prior to taking the job in Northern Ireland.
Gifted with a dry sense of humour, he is popular with crime reporters and has endeared himself to ordinary police officers with his remarks about government pay reforms.
The question might be whether he is too outspoken to get the job of commissioner, which relies on discretion and a fair amount of "biting your lip".
His chances of securing the post are said to have diminished following comments made after the recent riots in England. The home secretary was reported to have been unhappy after Sir Hugh rejected suggestions that the restoration of calm was due to political intervention, although the officer later denied there was any rift with the government.
BERNARD HOGAN-HOWE: APPLIED FOR JOB
Former Merseyside head Bernard Hogan-Howe was drafted into the Metropolitan Police last month as deputy commissioner after Sir Paul quit.
He was chief constable of Merseyside police between 2004 and 2009. He was the man in charge when 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead as he walked home from football practice.
The killing horrified the nation and there were grumblings from some in the media when there was no immediate arrest.
But Mr Hogan-Howe got his man in December 2008 when Sean Mercer, 18, was jailed for life and several members of his gang were also locked up.
The Sheffield-born football enthusiast joined South Yorkshire Police in 1979, working his way up and gaining an MA in law from Oxford University and a diploma in applied criminology from Cambridge University along the way.
In 1997 he moved to Merseyside police and four years later joined the Met as an assistant commissioner, before returning to Liverpool in 2004.
In 2008 he accused some judges of being lenient on gun crime by overlooking mandatory five-year sentences for possession of a firearm.
TIM GODWIN: APPLIED FOR JOB
Tim Godwin has a much lower profile than Sir Hugh but is seen as a "safe pair of hands" and stepped in as acting commissioner when Sir Paul Stephenson quit last month.
He started out in the Merchant Navy but joined Sussex Police in 1981, rising through the ranks.
In 1999 he switched to the Met, becoming a commander in south London and was promoted to deputy assistant commissioner in 2001.
He has a background in territorial policing and led the safer streets initiative, which saw robbery cut by 30% over three years.
In December 2009 he became acting deputy commissioner, a job which was made permanent in July 2009.
Mr Godwin has confirmed he has put his name forward. However, his chances may have been harmed by the government's view that the Met got its tactics wrong during the initial disturbances in London.
|
BBC News NI takes a look at significant events involving dissident republicans since March 2009.
| September 2019
A bomb was found in the Creggan area of Londonderry after police searches in the area on Monday 9 September.
The device was found in a parked car and was described by detectives as in "an advanced state of readiness" and was made safe by Army technical officers.
It contained commercial explosives which could have been triggered by a command wire.
During the searches, police were attacked with stones and petrol bombs.
A mortar bomb was left near a police station in Church View, Strabane on Saturday 7 September. Local homes were evacuated and Army technical officers made the device safe.
Police said the device had been an attempt to target police officers but that it could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the vicinity.
A 33-year-old man was arrested under terrorism legislation but was released after questioning.
August 2019
A bomb explodes near Wattlebridge in County Fermanagh, on Monday 19 August.
Police say it was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths. Initially, a report received by police suggested that a device had been left on the Wattlebridge Road.
Police believe that a hoax device was used to lure police and soldiers into the area in order to catch them by surprise with a real bomb on the Cavan Road.
Chief Constable Simon Byrne later blames the Continuity IRA for the attack.
July 2019
Dissident republicans try to murder police officers during an attack in Craigavon, County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) says.
A long bang is heard on the Tullygally Road and a "viable device" is later found.
Police say they believe the attack was set up to target officers responding to a call from the public.
June 2019
The "New IRA" claims responsibility for a bomb under a police officer's car at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast.
The Irish News says it had issued a statement to the newspaper using a recognised codeword.
Police had said they believed "violent dissident republicans" were behind the attack.
April 2019
A journalist is shot dead while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Londonderry.
Lyra McKee's murder comes days before the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Police blame the 29-year-old's killing on dissident republicans.
The previous week a horizontal mortar tube and command wire were found in Castlewellan, County Down.
The PSNI say the tube contained no explosive device and it was likely to be collected for use elsewhere
March 2019
Five small explosive packages are found at locations across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
The letter bombs have been sent in the post to Waterloo Station, buildings near Heathrow and London City Airport and the University of Glasgow. A further device was found at a post depot in County Limerick.
The New IRA says it was behind the letter bombs, according to the Irish News. A recognised code word is used.
January 2019
A bomb placed inside a van explodes in the centre of Londonderry.
The blast happens on a Saturday night outside Bishop Street Courthouse.
The PSNI say the attack may have been carried out by the New IRA, adding that a pizza delivery man had a gun held to his head when his van was hijacked for the bombing.
November 2018
A stash of bullets and guns believed to belong to dissident republicans explodes after being left on top of a hot boiler at a house in west Belfast.
Responding to reports of a house fire in Rodney Drive, police and firefighters discover two AK-47s; two sawn-off shot guns; a high-powered rifle with a silencer and three pipe bombs.
Police blame the New IRA, and say the weapons are believed to have been used in previous attempts to murder police officers in Belfast in 2015 and 2017.
May 2018
Police say a "significant amount of dangerous weapons" were seized during a 12-day search operation in counties Armagh and Tyrone.
Thirteen searches took place on land and properties in Lurgan and Benburb from 29 April to 11 May.
The weapons including two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube.
Police believe the munitions belonged to two dissident republican paramilitary groups - Arm Na Poblachta. (Army of the Republic) and the Continuity IRA.
April 2018
Petrol bombs and stones are thrown at police vehicles during an illegal dissident republican parade in Londonderry on 2 April.
About 200 people attended the Easter Rising 1916 commemoration parade in the Creggan estate on Monday.
On 1 April, seven men are charged in connection with an illegal republican Easter parade in Lurgan in County Armagh.
Eight masked men wearing paramilitary-style uniforms were arrested on Levin Road on 31 March.
A ninth person was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and obstruction.
February 2018
Dissident republicans may have been behind the murder of a man in west Belfast, police say.
Raymond Johnston, 28, was shot dead in front of an 11-year-old girl and his partner at a house in Glenbawn Avenue on 13 February.
Police say the main line of inquiry was that Mr Johnson was murdered by dissidents.
January 2018
Dissident republican paramilitary group, Óglaigh na hÉireann (ONH), declares a ceasefire.
In a statement, it said that "at this time the environment is not conducive to armed conflict".
The group said it would "suspend all armed actions against the British state" with immediate effect.
It was responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the attempted murder of police officer Peadar Heffron and a bomb attack at Palace barracks in Holywood.
November 2017
The Catholic Bishop of Derry condemns a death threat from dissident republicans against a Protestant man who works in the city's Creggan estate.
The 64-year-old man who has been threatened works at an allotment in the Ballymagowan area.
August 2017
A gun is seized in west Belfast on 3 August as part of a police investigation into dissident republican activity.
Police said the gun and a number of other items, including money and a small quantity of suspected drugs, were taken for examination following searches in the Andersonstown area.
February 2017
Royal Marine Ciarán Maxwell pleads guilty to offences related to dissident republican terrorism, including bomb-making and storing stolen weapons.
The County Antrim man had compiled a library of terrorism documents, including instructions on how to make explosives and tactics used by terrorist organisations.
He also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack, and a stash of explosives in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.
His sentencing is currently taking place at the Old Bailey in London.
February 2017
A bomb explodes outside the home of a serving police officer in Londonderry on 22 February as Army experts try to defuse it.
The device, which police described as more intricate than a pipe bomb, was reportedly discovered under a car in Culmore in the city.
Children were in the area at the time, police said.
A gun attack on a 16-year-old boy in west Belfast on 16 February was "child abuse," a senior police officer said.
The attack followed a similar one the previous night, when a man was shot in the legs close to a benefits office on the Falls Road.
January 2017
A police officer is injured in a gun attack at a garage on north Belfast's Crumlin Road on 22 January.
Police said automatic gunfire was sprayed across the garage forecourt in a "crazy" attack.
A 36-year-old man is arrested and police say the main line of inquiry is "violent dissident republicans".
The number of paramilitary-style shootings in west Belfast doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to police figures.
The figures do not take into account three shootings in Belfast's Turf Lodge area since the start of January.
On 15 January, police say a bomb discovered during a security operation in Poleglass, west Belfast, was "designed to kill or seriously injure police officers".
A judge on 6 January revokes the bail of a County Tyrone man facing trial on charges linked to the murder of prison officer David Black.
Damien Joseph McLaughlin, 40, of Kilmascally Road near Ardboe, is due to stand trial in February.
The court is told Mr McLaughlin had not been seen by police since November.
December 2016
A 45-year-old mechanic caught at a bomb-making factory on a farm will spend 11 years behind bars.
Barry Petticrew was arrested in October 2014 after undercover police surveillance on farm buildings near Kinawley, County Fermanagh.
Police found pipes, timer units, ammunition and high grade explosives in the buildings.
On 6 December, a 25-year-old dissident republican is jailed in Dublin for five years.
Donal Ó Coisdealbha from Killester, north Dublin was arrested on explosive charges in the run-up to the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland in 2015.
He was arrested during a Garda operation when explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered.
November 2016
A man who admitted taking part in a paramilitary shooting in Belfast is sentenced to five years in jail and a further five years on licence.
Patrick Joseph O'Neill, of no fixed address, was one of three masked men who forced their way into the victim's home in Ardoyne in November 2010.
The man was shot several times in the legs and groin in front of his mother, who fought back with kitchen knives.
The dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann claimed responsibility for the shooting shortly after it took place.
October 2016
West Belfast man Joe Reilly, 43, is shot dead in his Glenwood Court, Poleglass home on 20 October.
It is understood a second man who was in the house was tied up by the gang. The shooting was the second in the small estate in less than a week - the other victim was shot in the leg.
Police later say they believe the the murder was carried out by a paramilitary organisation and there may have been a drugs link.
September 2016
Four men are charged on 26 September after police recovered an armour-piercing mortar during searches in Lurgan.
They were arrested on 21 September by police investigating dissident republican activity in the area.
Three men, aged 22, 24 and 46, are charged with targeting a former member of the security forces in the Craigavon area.
A fourth, aged 22, is charged with the attempted murder of police officers.
Dissident republicans form a new political party called Saoradh - the Irish word for liberation.
Several high-profile dissidents from both sides of the border were among about 150 people at its first conference in Newry.
Royal Marine Ciaran Maxwell appears in court in England charged with terrorism, fraud and drugs offences.
The charges include making explosives and storing them in hides in England and Northern Ireland.
He is also accused of possession of an adapted PSNI pass card and items of PSNI uniform. He denies the charges and is remanded in custody.
On 6 September, searches in County Antrim linked to the investigation of Mr Maxwell turn up a "significant amount of terrorist material", police say.
August 2016
On 24 August serving Royal Marine Ciaran Maxwell, who is originally from Larne, is arrested in Somerset.
His arrest is connected to the discovery of two arms dumps near Larne earlier in the year.
The 30-year-old is suspected of preparing for acts of terrorism.
A major arms haul believed to be connected to dissident republicans is uncovered in County Armagh on 5 August.
Firearms and munitions were found by police during a two-day search operation in the grounds of a former convent on the outskirts of Lurgan.
The weapons that were discovered are believed to belong to the group known to as the New IRA.
July 2016
Police say they are investigating if a bomb found in Lisburn on 31 July had fallen from a vehicle.
A controlled explosion was carried out on the object after it was found in Market Place.
It was made safe and removed for examination during a security alert which lasted several hours.
June 2016
Police believe that pipe bombs found in Londonderry on 17 June could be linked to "violent dissident republican terrorism".
The two devices were discovered in the Highmoor Road area of the city.
May 2016
The discovery of arms in a County Antrim forest on 17 May was one of the most significant in recent years, police say.
A "terrorist hide" was uncovered at Capanagh Forest near Larne after two members of the public found suspicious objects in the woods on Saturday.
Some of the items found included an armour-piercing improvised rocket and two anti-personnel mines.
The threat level from Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain is raised from moderate to substantial.
It means an attack in England, Scotland or Wales is "a strong possibility".
Home Secretary Theresa May says the level, set by security service MI5, "reflects the continuing threat from dissident republican activity".
Fifteen men are arrested in Strabane after paramilitary displays at the funeral of Dublin murder victim Michael Barr.
Barr, said to be a member of the New IRA, was shot dead in the Sunset House pub in Dublin on 25 April.
April 2016
A man dies after being shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place, north Belfast, on Friday 15 April.
Michael McGibbon, 33, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he later died.
Police have said Mr McGibbon had contacted them to say two masked men had arrived at his house on the evening of Thursday 14 April.
The men asked him to come out of the house but he refused and the men told him they would come back.
Mr McGibbon's murder has been referred to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
Police say his killing carried the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.
March 2016
A murder investigation begins into the death of murder of prison officer Adrian Ismay, 11 days after he was injured in a booby-trap bomb attack in east Belfast.
The device exploded under the 52-year-old officer's van as he drove over a speed ramp at Hillsborough Drive on 4 March.
Days later, a dissident republican group widely referred to as the new IRA said it carried out the attack.
In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, the Police Service of Northern Ireland say they are "deeply concerned" about the threat posed by dissident republicans ahead of the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising later in the month.
Mr Ismay was thought to have been making a good recovery from his injuries, but was rushed back to hospital on 15 March, where he died.
A post-mortem examination found his death was as a "direct result of the injuries" he sustained in the bomb.
February 2016
In a statement to the BBC, a man claiming to speak on behalf of the Continuity IRA (CIRA) claims its members were responsible for a fatal gun attack on a Dublin hotel during a weigh-in for a boxing match, but Irish police (Gardaí) say they believe the motive for the killing was a criminal feud.
The alleged CIRA spokesman claimed to the BBC that its members had shot dead 33-year-old David Byrne because he had been involved in the killing of Real IRA leader Alan Ryan in Dublin in 2012.
Days later, police fears of a criminal feud appear to be realised as taxi driver Eddie Hutch is shot dead in a suspected revenge attack in his flat in Dublin's north inner city.
In mid-February, The Sunday Times newspaper alleges that a CIRA paramilitary from Northern Ireland is believed to have been among the six gunmen involved in the hotel shooting at the boxing weigh-in.
On the last day of the month, Alan Ryan's brother, Vinnie Ryan, is shot dead in Finglas, north Dublin. Irish police say Vinnie Ryan was also a well-known dissident republican, but they say they are not linking his murder to the gangland feud that killed David Byrne and Eddie Hutch.
December 2015
Dissident republicans have been dealt "a significant blow" by a weapons and explosives find in the Republic of Ireland, the Irish police (Gardaí) say.
The weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, detonators and other bomb parts, were discovered in County Monaghan, close to the border with Rosslea in County Fermanagh, on 1 December.
Insp James O'Leary, of Monaghan police station, said the weapons would have posed "a very significant threat to security personnel on both sides of the border".
On 15 December, a further arms find, described as a "significant cache" by Irish state broadcaster RTÉ, is made in County Louth.
It has reported that the haul included AK47 assault rifles, mortars, explosive material, detonators, other bomb components and at least one revolver.
It follows police searches at a home and lands in Jenkinstown, close to the border with Northern Ireland.
November 2015
A gun attack on police officers in west Belfast on 26 November, in which up to eight shots were fired, is being treated attempted murder.
A number of shots struck the passenger side of a police car parked at Rossnareen Avenue.
Two officers who were in the car were not injured but were said to have been badly shaken.
Police describe it as a "mindless, reckless attempt to kill officers".
On 23 November, police seize bomb-making components and ammunition during searches at Broom Close in Twinbrook and Glenwood Walk, Poleglass, in west Belfast.
The haul includes 700 rounds of assorted ammunition, seven mercury tilt switches, detonator cord, firework powder and an assault rifle magazine.
October 2015
The threat to the lives of police officers from dissident republicans in the north west of Northern Ireland remains severe, a senior officer says on 6 October.
Supt Mark McEwan said that from September 2014 there had been 15 bomb incidents in the Derry City and Strabane District council area.
They included seven attacks on the police.
On 10 October, a bomb is found in the grounds of a Londonderry ahead of a police recruitment event.
The police recruitment event was cancelled. Two other police recruitment events in Belfast and Omagh went ahead despite bomb alerts at the planned venues.
On 15 October, police said they believe that a bomb found in north Belfast may have fallen from a car belonging to a man with connections to the armed forces.
The device was discovered at Linden Gardens, off the Cliftonville Road.
It is not clear if the intended target was passing through the area or visiting someone there.
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said a young boy had kicked the bomb while it lay on the street.
On 16 October police said a "military-style hand grenade" was thrown at a patrol in Belfast as officers responded to reports of anti-social behaviour.
Police say the device, which failed to explode, was thrown at officers near Pottingers Quay.
Dissident republicans were suspected of being responsible for the attack.
August 2015
Police say a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 1 August was an attempt to kill officers.
The device was positioned where it could be used to attack passing PSNI patrols, police said.
June 2015
A bomb is found under a police officer's car in Eglinton, near Londonderry, on 18 June.
Police said the attack was a "clear attempt to murder police officers".
PSNI District Commander Mark McEwan said the wife of the officer concerned was also a member of the PSNI.
May 2015
Two bombs found close to an Army Reserve centre in Londonderry were left about 20 metres from nearby homes.
The devices were left at the perimeter fence of the Caw Camp Army base and were discovered at 11:00 BST on 4 May.
The two bombs partially detonated.
About 15 homes in Caw Park and Rockport Park were evacuated during the security operation.
A device found in north Belfast on 1 May was a substantial bomb targeting police officers, the PSNI said.
A controlled explosion was carried out on the device at the Crumlin Road junction with Brompton Park.
The PSNI blamed dissident republicans for the bomb and said it could have caused "carnage".
Ch Supt Nigel Grimshaw said it was a "fairly substantial cylinder-type device" that was "designed to do one thing - kill".
April 2015
On 28 April, a bomb explodes outside a probation office in Crawford Square, Londonderry.
Police said they were given an "inadequate" warning before the device went off.
No-one was injured.
A prominent dissident republican activist is remanded in custody charged in connection with comments he allegedly made at an Easter Sunday republican commemoration.
Damien 'Dee' Fennell, 33, from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, is accused of encouraging people to commit acts of terrorism.
He is also accused of supporting a proscribed organisation.
It follows a speech he gave in Lurgan, County Armagh, earlier in the month.
March 2015
A Londonderry man beaten with iron bars by a masked gang blames dissident republicans for the attack.
Gerald Lavey, 30, said his children clung to him during the attack by up to six men at his home at Ballymagowan Avenue, Creggan, on 31 March.
He said the gang dragged him from his living room to the front garden where he was beaten with iron bars and nails.
Hours after the attack, a wheelie bin was set alight next to the house.
On 26 March Derry men, William McDonnell, 28, from Culfdaff Gardens in the Creggan area, and Thomas Ashe Mellon, 39, from Rathmore Gardens, plead guilty to having a handwritten note which was being smuggled into Maghaberry Prison for dissident republican prisoners.
It was a handwritten note for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.
A neighbour who went to help two men beaten with baseball bats in a paramilitary-style attack in Derry said they were left for dead.
The men were beaten with baseball bats and iron bars by a gang of six to eight masked men who broke into a flat at Ederowen Park in Galliagh on 15 March.
The victims suffered injuries to their heads, ribs and legs.
It is believed one of the masked gang had a gun.
February 2015
A bomb is found is found during a security alert in the Curryneiran estate in Londonderry on 17 February.
Police said they believe the bomb was intended to kill officers and that those who had left it showed a "callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers".
Some residents had to be moved out of their homes overnight. The alert started after phone calls claiming an explosive device had been left in a laneway.
At least 40 dissident republican prisoners are involved in an incident at Maghaberry Prison on 2 February.
Prison management withdrew staff from the landings in Roe House housing dissidents.
A protest, involving about 200 people, took place outside the prison in support of the republican prisoners.
January 2015
Two men are arrested by Irish police investigating dissident activity, in Dundalk, County Louth on 13 January.
A man in 40s was detained and a rifle recovered after a car was stopped and searched on the Point Road on Tuesday.
A man in his late 50s was later arrested during a follow-up search at a house also in Dundalk.
Police described the original stop and search of the car as a planned operation.
On 8 January, the head of MI5 says most dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland in 2014 were foiled.
Andrew Parker said of more than 20 such attacks, most were unsuccessful and that up to four times that amount had been prevented.
He made the remarks during a speech in which he gave a stark warning of the dangers UK is facing from terrorism.
He said it was "unrealistic to expect every attack plan to be stopped".
December 2014
On 17 December, an eighth person appears in court charged over an alleged Continuity IRA meeting in Newry.
Twelve people were arrested in Ardcarn Park in the city on 10 November.
There is a "strong possibility" that dissident republicans will carry out attacks in the run-up to Christmas, a senior police chief warns.
Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr said violence from such groups posed a "severe threat" in Northern Ireland.
"They are dangerous, they could do real harm and we will be working extremely hard over Christmas to tackle this threat," he said.
November 2014
On 22 November, a 29-year-old man is charged with having a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life.
He was arrested two days earlier on the Grosvenor Road in west Belfast on Thursday after police stopped a taxi and recovered an assault rifle and ammunition.
Dissidents are blamed for shooting a 29-year-old man at a house in Londonderry.
It happened at a house in Cecilia's Walk in the Creggan area at about 18:00 GMT 20 November.
A baby, a five-year-old child, and the man's partner were in the house when masked gunmen burst into the kitchen.
Dissident republicans are believed to have used a home-made rocket launcher in an attack on a police Land Rover at Twaddell Avenue in North Belfast on Sunday 16 November .
It struck the Land Rover and caused some damage, but no-one was injured.
Police described the attack as a "cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers".
Irish police describe the seizure of guns and bomb-making material during searches in Dublin on 15 November as a "major setback" for dissident republicans.
An AK47 rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and a number of semi-automatic pistols were found in searches in the Ballymun, East Wall and Cloughran areas of Dublin.
The Irish Army carried out a controlled explosion at one search location where bomb components were discovered.
Two men in their 50s were arrested.
Police investigating "violent dissident republican activity" charge seven men with terrorism offences.
On 14 November, Derry City Council holds a meeting over death threats against community safety wardens, believed to have been made by dissident republicans.
The men were arrested at a house in Ardcarne Park in Newry, County Down, on 10 November.
The men were aged 30, 43, 44, 58, 59, 73 and 75.
Five of them were charged with directing terrorism.
On 5 November, a Derry councillor and leading dissident republican is given a six-month prison sentence for causing criminal damage to the city's historic walls.
Gary Donnelly, 43, from Iniscairn Road in the Creggan area, was charged with painting political slogans on the city's walls in February.
Liam Brogan, 51, and Terry Porter, 56, both from Carnhill, also received six-month prison sentences.
A device that hit a police vehicle in Londonderry on 2 November is understood to have been a mortar, fired by command wire.
Dissident republicans were responsible for the attack, police have said.
The attack happened on Circular Road in the Creggan Heights area at about 20:40 GMT.
October 2014
Police foil an attempted bomb attack in Strabane's Ballycolman estate on 23 October.
Officers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.
The alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.
Explosives and other weapons found in County Fermanagh on 10 October represented "a threat to the community", Northern Ireland's justice minister says.
Police said a "significant" amount of explosives had been found and linked the weapons to dissident republicans.
Buildings, vehicles and fields were searched at a farm in Kinawley.
September 2014
Dissident republicans claim responsibility for a device that partially exploded outside an Orange hall in County Armagh on 29 September.
In a phone call to the Irish News, a group calling itself The Irish Volunteers admitted it placed the device at Carnagh Orange hall in Keady.
Three men and two woman are jailed for taking part in a dissident republican training camp.
Sean Kelly, 49, of Duneane Crescent, Toomebridge, was sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison, with an order to serve five more on licence.
Sharon Rafferty, 39, of Cabhan Aluinn, Pomeroy, was sentenced to four years in jail and four on licence.
Brothers Gavin Joseph Coney, 37, of Gorticashel Road, Omagh, and Terence Aiden Coney, 36, of Malabhui Road, Carrickmore, were jailed for five years and nine months.
June 2014
On 16 June, police investigating dissident republican activity say they have recovered two suspected pipe bombs in County Tyrone.
Three men and a woman admit charges over a dissident republican training camp in County Tyrone.
It was found at Fourmil Wood, on the outskirts of Omagh, County Tyrone, in March 2012.
Sharon Rafferty, 38, from Cabhan Aluinn, Pomeroy, Sean Kelly, 48, from Duneane Crescent, in Toomebridge and brothers Aidan Coney, 35, from Malabhui Road, Carrickmore and Gavin Joseph Coney, from Gorticashel Road, Omagh will be sentenced at a later date.
On 9 June, a man appears at Londonderry Magistrates Court on charges linked to dissident republican activity in the city.
Thomas Ashe Mellon, 38, of Rathmore Road, Derry, is charged with membership of a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA, and with directing the activities of the IRA.
May 2014
On the night of 29 May, a masked man threw what police have described as a "firebomb" into the reception area of the Everglades Hotel, in the Prehen area of Londonderry.
The hotel was evacuated and the device exploded a short time later when Army bomb experts were working to make it safe.
No-one was injured in the explosion but the reception was extensively damaged.
The man who took the bomb into the hotel said he was from the IRA.
Two men jailed for the dissident republican murder of policeman Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon lose an appeal against their convictions.
Brendan McConville, 42, of Glenholme Avenue in Craigavon, and 22-year-old John Paul Wootton, from Colindale in Lurgan, are serving life sentences.
On 25 March, five men are arrested after a suspected bomb was discovered by police in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland.
The device was found in Kilcurry, north of Dundalk, near the border with Northern Ireland, as part of an investigation into dissident republican activity.
32 County Sovereignty Movement member Gary Donnelly is elected to the new Derry and Strabane super council.
On 8 May, Dissident republican Seamus McLaughlin pleads guilty to charges connected to a foiled mortar bomb attack on a police station in March 2013.
He pleaded guilty to having four "ready to deploy" mortars and an improvised explosive incendiary device with intent to endanger life.
A substantial amount of explosives are found on 1 May by police investigating dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland.
The discovery was made during searches of a flat in the New Lodge area of north Belfast.
A 47-year-old man is arrested and later charged over the find.
April 2014
A prominent dissident republican is shot dead in west Belfast on 18 April.
Tommy Crossan was shot a number of times at a fuel depot off the Springfield Road.
Mr Crossan, 43, was once a senior figure in the Continuity IRA. It is believed he had been expelled from the group some years ago after falling out with other dissidents.
On 1 April, dissident republicans are blamed for leaving a viable pipe bomb at Townsend Street in Strabane.
March 2014
Police say that a bomb found at a County Tyrone golf course had the capability to kill or cause serious injury.
Bomb disposal experts made the device safe after it was discovered at Strabane Golf Club on 31 March.
The operation followed information received by police that a device had been left in the Ballycolman Road area.
An undercover surveillance operation is believed to have led to the seizure of an improvised mortar bomb in Belfast on 28 March.
Police believe the operation may have foiled an attack.
The bomb and a command wire were found in a holdall when police stopped a man at the junction of Shaw's Road and Glen Road in the west of the city.
A Belfast man with known dissident republican links died on 28 March a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.
Declan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede.
He was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.
Mr Smith was originally from west Belfast but had moved to live in north Dublin.
A bomb explodes inside a car parked at Carrickreagh Gardens in the Creggan area of Londonderry on 26 March.
The man who owns the car said he did not believe dissident republicans were responsible. However, SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey said the attack "bears the hallmarks of the dissident group formerly known as Republican Action Against Drugs".
On the night of 14 March, dissidents use a command wire to fire a mortar at a police Land Rover on the Falls Road in west Belfast.
The device hit the Land Rover, but police said it caused minimal damage.
No-one was injured in the attack, but as well as the police patrol, a car containing a Filipino family was caught up in the attack.
The dissident group calling itself the New IRA said it carried out the attack and claimed the mortar used contained the military explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.
They claim both were newly acquired - in other words, not from old supplies previously under the control of the Provisional IRA.
Earlier that day, an under-car bobby-trap bomb was made safe after being found on Blacks Road in west Belfast.
The road was closed and residents had to leave their homes while the device, which is believed to have fallen off a vehicle, was made safe by the Army.
Two letter bombs were found at postal sorting offices in Lisburn and Londonderry on 7 March.
Both were addressed to the Maghaberry Prison, the largest jail in Northern Ireland.
February 2014
Seven letter bombs delivered to army careers offices in England bear "the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism", Downing Street said.
The packages were sent to offices in Oxford, Slough, Kent, Brighton, Hampshire and Berkshire.
Three men are arrested and "a large sum" of counterfeit money seized on 3 February by police investigating dissident republican activity in Dublin.
January 2014
Four men who were in a car in a which a gun was found are jailed.
Mark McGuigan was sentenced to 12 years, Daniel John Turnbull to nine years, Martin McLoone to eight years and Darryn Patrick McCallion to seven years.
Each will serve half the term in custody and the rest on licence.
During follow-up searches police recovered a sub-machine gun, a hand gun and ammunition from a vehicle belonging to Daniel Turnbull.
Police said they believed the weapons were intended to be used in a dissident republican attack.
On 9 January, it is announced that more than 1,000 prison service staff in Northern Ireland are to receive special annual danger money payments because of the threat from dissident republicans.
An independent pay review body recommended that they should each be paid more than £1,300 a year on top of their normal salary.
On 7 January, Old Bailey bomber Marian McGlinchey is given a suspended sentence for aiding dissident republican terrorists.
McGlinchey, also known as Marian Price, admitted providing a mobile phone used to claim responsibility for the Real IRA murders of two soldiers at Massereene Army barracks in 2009.
She also admitted aiding and abetting the addressing of a meeting to encourage support for terrorism.
December 2013
Shots are reportedly fired at Lisnaskea police station in County Fermanagh on the night of 23 December. Dissident republicans are blamed for the attack.
Prominent republican Colin Duffy is one of three men who appear in court in Belfast on 17 December on dissident republican charges.
On 16 December a man apparently trying to plant a fire bomb in a golf store in Belfast city centre bursts into flames and runs from the shop with his clothes on fire.
On 13 December, a bomb in a sports bag explodes in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter.
About 1,000 people were affected by the alert, including people out for Christmas dinners, pub-goers and children out to watch Christmas pantos.
A telephone warning was made to a newspaper, but police said the bomb exploded about 150 metres away as the area was being cleared.
Dissident republican group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, said they were responsible.
On 5 December, two police vehicles are struck 10 times by gunfire from assault rifles while travelling along the Crumlin Road, near Brompton Park, in north Belfast.
One Kalashnikov-type weapon is recovered after the attack.
It is understood those behind the attack built a platform on Herbert Street, from where the shots were fired.
On the following night, two shots strike a PSNI Land Rover on patrol on the Suffolk Road between the Stewartstown and Glen Roads in west Belfast.
November 2013
A bomb, containing 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, partially explodes inside a car in Belfast city centre on 24 November.
A masked gang hijacked the car, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.
It exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.
No-one was injured.
Old Bailey bomber Marian McGlinchey pleads guilty to providing a mobile phone linked to a Real IRA attack in which two soldiers were murdered.
McGlinchey, also known as Marian Price, admitted providing property for the purposes of terrorism.
The charge was connected to the attack on Massereene Army barracks in 2009.
She also admitted aiding and abetting the addressing of a meeting to encourage support for terrorism.
On 21 November, a bus driver is ordered to drive to a police station in Londonderry with a bomb on board.
A masked man boarded the bus in Ballymagroarty estate Wednesday and ordered the driver to go to Strand Road police station.
The bus driver drove a short distance to Northland Road, got her passengers off the bus and called the police.
A former police officer is the target of an under-car booby-trap bomb off the King's Road in east Belfast.
The man spotted the device when he checked under his vehicle at Kingsway Park, near Tullycarnet estate on 8 November.
The man was about to take his 12-year-old daughter to school.
October 2013
Dissidents are blamed for a number of letter bomb attacks at the end of the month.
A package addressed to Secretary of State Theresa Villiers is made safe at Stormont Castle, two letter bombs addressed to senior police officers are intercepted at postal sorting offices, while, a similar device is sent to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Londonderry.
Five people with alleged links to dissident Irish republicanism appeared in court in Glasgow on 29 October charged with terror offences and conspiracy to murder.
On 18 October a "viable explosive device" is found during a security alert in Lurgan.
The alert in the Sloan Street area closed two schools, and caused widespread disruption in the County Armagh town. Police said they believe dissident republicans were responsible for planting the device.
Kevin Kearney, 46, is found dead in a lake in Alexandra Park, off the Antrim Road, north Belfast, on 9 October.
He had been shot dead the previous day. Dissident republicans said they killed Mr Kearney.
Four men have been arrested by police following a hoax bomb alert on the M1 motorway on 7 October.
The motorway was closed for a time between Belfast and Lisburn after a suspicious object was found on the Kennedy Way offslip.
An appeal court in Lithuania overturns the conviction of a man jailed for attempting to buy weapons for dissident republicans.
Michael Campbell was found guilty in October 2011 after an MI5 sting operation in 2008 recorded him attempting to buy explosives and guns.
He was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison. The appeal court judge found that prosecutors failed to prove his ties with the Real IRA.
September 2013
A 45-year-old man is charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances.
The charges are linked to an investigation into dissident republican terrorism in north Belfast.
Guns and ammunition are found in separate searches by police investigating dissident republican activity in Dublin and County Clare in the Republic of Ireland.
July 2013
Footage appears to show a dissident republican gunman firing at police during rioting in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast on 12 July.
It shows the gunman firing towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne.
After the last of 17 shots rings out, youths clap and cheer.
Irish police make what they say is their biggest ever find of dissident republican arms and explosives.
Guns, ammunition and 15kg of Semtex explosive are found on land at the Old Airport Road in Cloghran, north Dublin.
The arms include former Provisional IRA weapons, according to police.
Eight men appear before two special sittings of the Special Criminal Court in Dublin charged with offences linked to a police operation against dissident republicans in the city.
Seven arrested at a house in Tallaght on Wednesday were charged with membership of an unlawful organisation and have been remanded in custody.
At a separate sitting of the court a 45-year-old Dublin man was charged with IRA membership and possession of ammunition.
June 2013
On 27 June, a 70-year-old man from west Belfast is sentenced to six and a half years for firearms and explosives offences.
Thomas Maguire, of Suffolk Drive, was arrested in August 2011, when police stopped his car following a car chase.
Dissident republicans issue a death threat against a woman journalist in Northern Ireland, according to a union.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the PSNI had informed the journalist about the threat.
A gun and ammunition are found by police investigating dissident republican activity in Cookstown, County Tyrone on 10 June.
May 2013
Two police officers escape injury after two pipe bombs are thrown at them in north Belfast.
The officers were responding to an emergency 999 call in Ballysillan in the early hours of 28 May.
They had just got out of their vehicle on the Upper Crumlin Road when the devices were thrown. They took cover as the bombs exploded.
On 22 May police recover a gun during searches connected to dissident republican activity in the Short Strand area of east Belfast.
A bomb is removed from the Foxes Glen area of west Belfast on 17 May - the scene of a gun attack on police officers the previous day.
Up to six shots were fired as three officers got out of their vehicle in the area on Thursday afternoon. No-one was injured.
April 2013
Sinn Fein says police warn Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of a renewed threat from dissident republicans
Police investigating dissident republican activity seize contraband cigarettes worth £300,000 in south Armagh. A total of £50,000 in cash was also recovered.
Detectives investigating dissident terrorist activity uncover guns and ammunition in Craigavon.
The weapons and other items had been hidden on waste ground in the Pinebank area.
A 50-year-old woman who shot dead an innocent man in Dublin because she mistakenly believed he was involved in the murder of a Continuity IRA leader is sentenced to life in prison on 10 April.
Rose Lynch told police she "executed" David Darcy in November of 2011.
Lynch described herself as "an IRA volunteer".
On 7 April two men from Derriaghy, County Antrim, are charged with possession of a firearm in suspicious circumstances.
The weapon was recovered during a security alert on the Barnfield Road in Lisburn following a police investigation into dissident republican activity.
On 1 April, police vehicles have come under attack from youths throwing stones and other missiles at a dissident republican Easter commemoration in Londonderry.
Chief Constable Matt Baggott says dissident republican groups are trying to outdo each other.
Mr Baggott said the groups are in competition when it comes to the number of attacks they carry out.
He said that the "recklessness of their attacks is beyond measure".
March 2013
Police escape injury after a bomb in a bin exploded on the Levin Road in Lurgan on 30 March.
Officers were investigating reports of an illegal parade in when the device went off near a primary school.
Petrol bombs are thrown at police during follow-up searches in the Kilwilkie area.
Police say a bomb meant to kill or injure officers on the outskirts of Belfast on 9 March may have been detonated by mobile telephone.
Officers were responding to a call on Duncrue pathway near the M5 motorway when the bomb partially exploded.
On 4 March, four live mortar bombs which police said were "primed and ready to go" are intercepted in a van in Londonderry.
The van had its roof cut back to allow the mortars to be fired. Police say they believed the target was a police station.
Three men are arrested.
It is the first time dissidents have attempted this type of mortar attack.
On 2 March, police investigating dissident republican activity charged a 23-year-old man with possessing items likely to be of use to terrorists.
It was believed the arrest was linked to a security alert in Larne, County Antrim.
February 2013
On 26 February, the police and Army recover a rocket launcher and a warhead during a search of a house in Hawthorn Street, west Belfast.
A PSNI spokesman says the weapons systems were "clearly intended to kill" and the recovery had "saved lives".
On 25 February, two Cork men appear before Dublin's Special Criminal Court charged with firearms offences and membership of a paramilitary organisation.
Brian Walsh, 43, and Anthony Carroll, 30, were arrested in Togher two days earlier when police stopped a car and recovered two handguns.
On 8 February, Irish police find rocket launchers and explosives after they stopped two cars on the N24 in County Tipperary.
Garda detectives say they believe the weapons were ultimately destined for Northern Ireland.
Three men are arrested at the scene. Two are charged with membership of an unlawful paramilitary organisation while the third man is released without charge.
January 2013
At the end of the month, dissident republicans were blamed for two pipe bomb attacks in north Belfast within the space of 24 hours.
On 29 January, the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann, claimed responsibility for planting a pipe bomb at a community centre on the Shore Road in north Belfast.
The following night, a pipe bomb was thrown at a police vehicle at the junction of Oldpark Road and Rosapenna Street. No-one was injured in either incident.
On 18 January, postal staff at a Royal Mail sorting office in Strabane, County Tyrone intercepted a suspicious package addressed to a senior police officer.
The envelope, addressed to Chief Inspector Andy Lemon, was found to contain a small bomb.
During the first week of the new year, a number of media outlets in the Republic report that paramilitaries had publicly issued death threats against Irish people serving in the British Army.
The threats were allegedly read out in a statement on behalf of the Continuity IRA during a republican commemoration in Limerick city on 6 January. Irish police declined to comment.
December 2012
An off-duty policeman found a bomb attached to the underside of his car on the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast.
The officer found the device during a routine check of his family car on 30 December, as he prepared to take his wife and two children out to lunch.
Police said it was "clearly intended to kill the police officer".
An Irish newspaper reported that a paramilitary plot to murder a British soldier as he returned to the Irish Republic on home leave had been foiled by Irish police.
The Irish Independent said the Continuity IRA planned to shoot the soldier when he returned to County Limerick for his Christmas holidays.
Four days before Christmas, a 27-year-old man from County Monaghan man was jailed for three years for possession of a car bomb that was left outside Crossmaglen police station in County Armagh.
The device had been loaded into a stolen car and left outside the PSNI station on 3 April, 2010, where it failed to detonate.
November 2012
On the first day of the month, a prison officer was shot and killed on the M1 in County Armagh as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail.
David Black, 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.
The killing was widely condemned by all main political parties and police said they believed dissident republicans had carried out the attack.
On 12 November, a new paramilitary group calling itself "the IRA" claimed responsibility for the murder.
The organisation is believed to have been formed during the summer of 2012, from an amalgamation of previously disparate dissident republican organisations.
In a statement issued to the Belfast-based newspaper, the Irish News, the group said it had killed him "to protect and defend" republican prisoners.
The following day, a bomb was found close to a primary school in west Belfast.
Police said the device "could have been an under-car booby trap designed to kill and maim" and added they believed dissident republicans were responsible.
October 2012
Police investigate possible links to drugs and the involvement of dissident republican paramilitaries in the murder of Newtownabbey man, Danny McKay, who is shot dead at his home in the Longlands area on 25 October.
A mortar bomb is found at a house in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast on 4 October.
Thirty families are moved out of their homes for several hours after police discovered the device at the back of a house in Jamaica Street.
A 21-year-old man is later charged with preparing terrorist acts and having explosives with intent to endanger life.
On 24 October, the Home Office confirmed the threat level from dissident republicans to Great Britain had been downgraded from "substantial" to "moderate", meaning the authorities regarded an attack as possible, but not likely.
However, on the same day the Home Office said the threat level in Northern Ireland remained "severe" with an attack by dissident republicans still regarded as highly likely.
September 2012
On 27 September, police in Dublin investigating dissident republican activity arrested two men after surveillance equipment was found in a hotel room overlooking a police station.
It was believed the equipment was being used to record car registration plates and identify officers involved in operations against dissident activity.
Craigavon man Ciaran Martin Collins, 35, from Drumbeg, was charged with having a semi-automatic pistol in suspicious circumstances after being arrested in a car in Lurgan.
Two other men were released pending reports to the Public Prosecution Service.
Security forces were the target of two bombs left in Londonderry on 20 September.
A pipe bomb and booby trap bomb on a timer were both made safe by the Army.
The pipe bomb was left in a holdall at Derry City Council's office grounds and the booby trap attached to a bicycle chained to railings on a walkway at the back of the offices.
Dissident republicans were blamed for leaving the bombs.
On 12 September, a 52-year-old man appeared in court charged with having guns and ammunition.
Paul McDaid, of Sheridan Street, Belfast, was arrested after police stopped and searched a car on the A1 near Hillsborough.
Leading Real IRA man Alan Ryan, 32, was shot dead in the Clongriffin area of Dublin on 3 September.
In 2000, Ryan had been jailed over the discovery of a Real IRA training camp at Stamullen, County Meath.
The Dubliner was said to be "very well known in criminal and republican circles both north and south of the border".
Three men were subsequently charged over paramilitary displays at his funeral.
Eleven republicans, including prominent Lurgan dissident Colin Duffy, were convicted of wrecking their cells at Maghaberry Prison.
Each was given a 20-month suspended sentence for causing criminal damage in the jail's Roe House wing.
August 2012
On 31 August, two men appeared in court charged with firearms offences in relation to dissident republican activity in Newtownabbey.
At the start of the month, police searched the Glen Road in west Belfast after dissident republicans claimed they fired a mortar at a police vehicle.
The attack was claimed to have taken place at the same time as a gun attack on a police patrol on Friday 27 July.
Although the gun attack did take place, police found no trace of any mortar and declared their search over on 3 August.
July 2012
On 26 July, some dissident republican paramilitary groups issued a statement saying they were to come together under the banner of the IRA.
The Guardian newspaper said the Real IRA had been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and a coalition of independent armed republican groups and individuals.
However, police say the threat posed by dissident republicans has not been changed since the announcement was made.
A gunman fired towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne on 12 July.
After the last of 17 shots rings out, youths clapped and cheered. No-one was injured.
June 2012
Scuffles broke out after dissident republican protesters blocked the Olympic Torch's planned route near the Guildhall in Londonderry on 4 June.
It was forced to go a different way in order to reach the Peace Bridge.
Two men later appeared in court over the trouble.
Republican Action Against Drugs said it was behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Londonderry on 2 June.
The front of the jeep was badly damaged in what is understood to have been a pipe bomb attack in Creggan. The police described the attack as attempted murder.
May 2012
Four people appeared in court on 19 May on charges linked to an alleged terrorist training camp in County Tyrone.
They were Sharon Rafferty, from Cavana Linn in Pomeroy, Sean Kelly from Duneane Crescent in Toomebridge, Terence Aidan Coney, of Malabhui Road in Omagh and Gavin Coney from Gorticashel Road, also in Omagh.
The court was told that approximately 200 rounds were heard being fired at the Formil Wood site on Gorticashel Road on 30 March, 2012.
Bullet casings had also been recovered from the area.
On 19 May three relatives of prominent Lurgan dissident republican Colin Duffy appeared in court in Lisburn charged with terrorism offences.
They were Paul John Duffy, 47, from Ailsbury Gardens, Damien Duffy, 42, from Campbell Walk, and Shane Duffy, 41, from Kilwilkie Road.
The charges included collecting information likely to be of use to terrorists, conspiracy to murder, and conspiring to cause an explosion.
A number of guns found in north Belfast on 15 May were believed to be linked to dissident republicans, police said.
They were found at Etna Drive in the Ardoyne area. Police say the find "undoubtedly thwarted attempts of these criminals to inflict death, injury and misery on the community of north Belfast".
April 2012
On 30 April it emerged that five men had fled Londonderry over the course of a week after being threatened by the vigilante group, Republican Action Against Drugs.
A bomb was found under a parked car in a garage on the Ballygomartin Road in north Belfast on 28 April.
Police said "the finger of suspicion points towards dissident republican terrorists".
On 27 April police found a number of guns and ammunition during an operation at Ardglen Place in north Belfast
A pipe bomb was left under a car belonging to the elderly parents of a police officer in Londonderry on 15 April.
A number of homes were evacuated while Army bomb experts dealt with the device at Drumleck Drive in Shantallow.
The serving PSNI officer does not live in the house.
A fully primed 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line near Newry on 26 April and made safe the following day.
A senior police officer said those who left it had a "destructive, murderous intent".
Assistant Chief Constable Alastair Finlay said it was as "big a device as we have seen for a long time".
A paramilitary-style shooting in Londonderry was deliberately timed ahead of a rally against a dissident republican group, one of its organisers has claimed.
An 18-year-old man was shot in both legs at Rinmore Drive in Creggan shortly after 22:00 BST on 26 April.
March 2012
On 30 March two men were convicted of murdering police officer Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon in March 2009.
The 48-year-old officer was shot dead after he and colleagues responded to a 999 call.
Convicted of the murder were Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Collindale, Lurgan.
February 2012
Two men arrested after an Irish police raid on a suspected dissident republican bomb factory were found guilty of possessing explosive substances on 24 February.
Conan Murphy, 25, from Dundalk, and Philip McKevitt, 58, from Aghaboys, Louth, were arrested in Dundalk in May 2010..
On 16 February police in the Irish Republic recovered a handgun and three improvised explosive devices.
The items were found near Celbridge, County Kildare, on Thursday during ongoing investigations into the activities of dissident republicans.
Londonderry man Andrew Allen was shot dead in Buncrana, County Donegal, on 9 February.
The 24-year-old father of two was shot at a house in Links View Park, Lisfannon.
Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted it murdered Mr Allen who had been forced to leave his home city the previous year.
On 9 February a 43-year-old Londonderry man admitted a car bomb attack at the city's Strand Road PSNI Station.
No-one was injured in the August 2010 bombing, claimed by dissident republicans Oglaigh na hEireann, but several businesses were badly damaged.
Philip O'Donnell, of Baldrick Crescent, pleaded guilty to causing an explosion likely to endanger life. He also admitted hijacking the taxi containing the 200lb device and falsely imprisoning the taxi driver.
January 2012
Strabane man Martin Kelly was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 24 January for the murder of a man in County Donegal.
Andrew Burns, 27, from Strabane, was shot twice in the back in February 2008 in a church car park.
The murder was linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Kelly, from Barrack Steet, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of a firearm.
On 20 January, Brian Shivers was convicted of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.
His co-accused Colin Duffy was acquitted.
Police in Londonderry believed dissident republicans were responsible for two bomb attacks on 19 January.
The bombs exploded at the tourist centre on Foyle Street and on Strand Road, close to the DHSS office, within 10 minutes of each other.
Homes and businesses in the city were evacuated and no-one was injured.
A Scottish soldier found a bomb inside his car outside his girlfriend's house in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.
The soldier found the device while cleaning the car before going to pick up a child from school on 5 January.
It is understood the device contained a trip wire attached to the seat belt.
Police say if the bomb had gone off the soldier, and others in the vicinity, could have been killed. Dissidents admit they carried out the attack.
December 2011
A 59-year-old man was charged with possession of firearms and explosives in suspicious circumstances.
He was arrested in County Fermanagh on 19 December.
Republican protesters smeared excrement on the doors and windows of the Alliance Party headquarters in south Belfast.
Earlier in the year members of the Republican Network for Unity occupied the building in support of dissident prisoners at Maghaberry.
Northern Ireland Minister Hugo Swire warned about the possibility of dissident groups using upcoming centenaries for their own purposes.
He says Stormont must take the lead to ensure those who sought to undermine the political process were not able to do so.
November 2011
A masked gang tried to shoot a man at a house in north Belfast on 9 November.
Three men wearing balaclavas and armed with a handgun entered a property in Ardilea Street off the Oldpark Road.
They held a man down and attempted to shoot him, but the gun failed to go off.
Dissident republicans later said they carried out the attack.
October 2011
A bomb exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Londonderry on 12 October.
A warning with a recognised codeword is understood to have been given less than an hour before the explosion in Guildhall Square.
Security sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January.
The next day about 250 people took part in a rally in the city centre to protest against the attack.
September 2011
Three men were arrested after a car containing a bomb was stopped on the Buncrana Road in Londonderry on Monday 26 September.
The men were remanded in custody after appearing in court later that week.
The Real IRA was blamed for two bomb attacks near Claudy, County Londonderry on 14 September.
One of the bombs exploded outside the family home of a Catholic police officer. No-one was in the house at the time.
The other device was made safe at the home of a retired doctor who works for the police.
Londonderry man Thomas Christopher Nash was jailed for seven years for hiding guns and bullets for dissident republicans.
Nash, from Iveagh Park, Prehen, Londonderry admitted having a .22 calibre hunting rifle, ammunition and a silencer with intent on 9 August 2010.
He also admitted having an imitation AK47 assault rifle and an imitation handgun with intent to cause fear of violence, and a canister of CS spray.
August 2011
Paddy Dixon, a former car thief who gave information to Irish police about stolen vehicles used to transport Real IRA bombs, suffered minor injuries in a pipe bomb attack at his home in County Meath.
It is thought dissident republicans may have been behind the attack.
It is understood Mr Dixon spotted the device just before it exploded and was able to back away from the full force of the blast.
Mr Dixon had never entered the Witness Protection Programme.
He is believed to have been living quite openly in Navan.
July 2011
Five men are arrested, by police investigating the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr, during a series of raids, involving 200 officers across three counties on 26 July.
Clothing, mobile phones, computers and cars were taken away for forensic analysis following the searches in Coalisland, Toomebridge, Bellaghy and Ballyronan.
The men were later released.
Prominent republican Marian Price is charged on 22 July in connection with the murders of two soldiers in Antrim in March 2009.
She was charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism.
The charge related to the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene barracks.
A mortar bomb and a quantity of cigarettes were uncovered during an arrest and search operation in the Etna Drive-Jamaica Street area of Ardoyne in north Belfast.
Seventy families were moved from their homes during the security operation on 21 July.
June 2011
Irish police said they believed bomb components found in County Louth on 25 June were to be used for a device in Northern Ireland.
The Irish army carried out a controlled explosion at a site in Hackballscross.
Police described the find as significant and linked it to the dissident group Oglaigh na hEireann.
Police said they believed dissident republicans were responsible after a photographer was shot during violence on 21 June in east Belfast.
It happened during a second night of trouble at a sectarian flashpoint on the Lower Newtownards Road.
Police said the trouble was orchestrated by the loyalist paramilitary group, the UVF.
May 2011
A pipe bomb exploded after being thrown into a house in Muff, County Donegal.
A man who was inside was not injured. Dissident republicans are suspected of being involved.
Two masked men throw a holdall containing a bomb into a Santander bank branch in Londonderry's Diamond just after midday on Saturday 21 May.
Police cleared the area and the bomb exploded an hour later. No-one was injured.
However, significant damage was caused inside the building.
A grenade was thrown at police officers during a security alert at Southway in Londonderry on 9 May.
The device, which was described as "viable", failed to explode.
Two children were talking to the officers when the grenade was thrown.
The mother of one of them said he could have been killed and whoever threw the grenade must have seen the children.
April 2011
On 30 April, Michael Patrick Finbar Johnston, 28, from New Lodge Road, in north Belfast, is charged with having articles for the purpose of terrorism and of preparing for acts of terrorism.
He was arrested over the seizure of four bomb timers, a find that police linked to dissident republican activity.
Three men are charged on 25 April with possession of firearms, preparation for committing acts of terrorism and possession of articles likely to be of use to terrorists.
It follows the discovery of what police described as a "substantial amount" of machine guns and rifles in a vehicle in Keady, south Armagh.
More weapons were found in separate follow-up searches in south Armagh and east Tyrone.
Among them were Semtex explosives, a horizontal mortar, 25 kilos of homemade explosives, an automatic weapon, a silencer, ammunition, three timer power units, booster tubes and a detonator.
The dissident republican group, the Real IRA, threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to the Queen's first visit to the Irish Republic.
A statement was read out by a masked man at a rally organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Londonderry on Easter Monday, 25 April.
A 500lb bomb was left in a van at an underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin Road in Newry.
The alert began on the night of Thursday 7 April and was cleared on Saturday 9 April. Several motorists drove past the vehicle on the Friday.
Constable Ronan Kerr was killed after a bomb exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 2 April.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but dissident republicans were blamed.
The 25-year-old had joined the police in May 2010 and had been working in the community for five months.
Northern Ireland Chief Constable Matt Baggott described Constable Kerr as a "modern-day hero".
March 2011
The PSNI described a bomb left near Londonderry courthouse as a "substantial viable device".
District Commander, Stephen Martin, said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.
The alert started on the evening of Sunday 27 March.
Irish police investigated possible dissident republican involvement in the shooting of three people in a park in Blanchardstown, Dublin on Sunday 27 March.
Two of the injured men were shot in the body, the other in the head.
A number of shots were fired at police officers at Glen Road in Londonderry on the night of 2 March.
Police said it was an attempt to kill.
February 2011
On 18 February Sinn Fein condemned a threat they said had been made by dissident republicans against the brother of Pat Finucane as "beyond contempt".
Gerry Kelly said the threat against community worker Seamus Finucane came from the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH).
Irish police investigating the activities of dissident republicans discovered items they said could be used to make explosive devices.
They were found during a search of a house in Barnstown in County Wexford.
January 2011
On 30 January two men arrested in Galway after police found guns and explosives were charged at a court in Dublin.
They were charged with unlawful possession of an explosive substance, unlawful possession of a revolver and unlawful possession of ammunition.
The PSNI confirmed two bombs were found in a security alert that started on the Antrim Road in north Belfast on 23 January and lasted several days.
The second viable device was found behind a scout hall while the first found, an "anti-personnel device", was found outside a shop.
On 22 January, the leader of the Irish Republic's main opposition party, Enda Kenny of Fine Gael, told the Alliance Party conference, if he was the country's prime minister, he would do everything within his powers to combat the threat of dissident republicans.
Police in the Republic of Ireland questioned five men arrested in connection with the discovery of a "bomb factory" on a farm in County Kildare.
A 22-year-old man appeared in court on 12 January in connection with a dissident republican bomb attack on a police station in Londonderry.
December 2010
A policeman found an unexploded grenade outside his home in County Fermanagh.
The device was discovered at the property in Drumreer Road, Maguiresbridge, on 23 December.
A terrorism charge against 40-year-old dissident republican Gary Donnelly from Londonderry was withdrawn on 22 December.
In the Republic, three men from Northern Ireland were jailed for IRA membership on 15 December.
Gerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.
Desmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.
They were arrested in Letterkenny in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a 'tiger' kidnapping.
On 10 December, the Police Federation claimed the level of dissident republican terrorist activity in Northern Ireland was being played down by the police and government to make NI appear more normal than it actually is.
A 21-year-old woman was charged with having a gun and ammunition with intent to endanger life on 5 December.
The arrest followed a search in west Belfast by detectives investigating suspected dissident republican activity.
Four men were arrested after an explosive device was found in a car near Dundalk, County Louth on 1 December.
The device, described by police as a viable mortar, was made safe by bomb disposal experts.
November 2010
A meeting of the Derry DPP in the Guildhall on 25 November had to be abandoned after republican protesters blew horns and chanted slogans.
A military hand grenade was used to attack police officers called to a robbery at Shaw's Road in west Belfast on 5 November.
Three police officers were hurt and one of them suffered seri ous arm injuries when the grenade was thrown by a cyclist who then made off.
The dissident paramilitary group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it was responsible for the attack.
October 2010
Two men were shot in the legs in attacks in Londonderry in the space of 48 hours - the first on Sunday 17 October, the second on Tuesday 19 October.
A general purpose machine-gun and improvised mortar bomb were among the weapons found in a police search in a wooded area at Togher, Dunleer, County Louth on 11 October.
Ten people were arrested after Irish police found weapons and bomb making material in raids in Counties Louth, Wexford and Waterford on 8 October.
Two men later appeared in court while files were prepared for the DPP on the others.
A car bomb exploded close to the Ulster Bank, shops and a hotel on Londonderry's Culmore Road on 4 October.
The area had been cleared when the bomb exploded, but the blast was so strong that a police officer who was standing close to the cordon was knocked off his feet.
Masonry and glass from smashed windows were strewn across the Culmore Road.
Lurgan man Paul McCaugherty was jailed for 20 years for a dissident republican gun smuggling plot that was uncovered after an MI5 sting operation.
McCaugherty was found guilty of attempting to import weapons and explosives.
Dermot Declan Gregory from Crossmaglen, was found guilty of making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism. He was sentenced to four years.
September 2010
A 54-year-old Newry man was charged with seven offences including possession of firearms and ammunition with intent in the preparation of acts of terrorism after police discovered firearms including a "walking stick which could be turned into a gun" in the shed of a house.
On 24 September, Home Secretary Theresa May said an attack on Britain by "Irish-related" terrorists is a "strong possibility".
She was speaking as MI5 raised the country's threat level.
The British and Irish governments again insisted they are not holding talks with the dissidents.
The head of MI5 told a meeting of security professionals in London that the threat from dissident republicans is rising.
Jonathan Evans said MI5 could not rule out the possibility of dissidents extending their attacks to Great Britain.
August 2010
Three children suffer minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan's North Street on 14 August.
The bomb went off at a junction where police would have been expected to put up a cordon around the school. The explosion injured the children after it blew a hole in a metal fence.
Three other alerts in the town were declared elaborate hoaxes.
Chief Inspector Sam Cordner said the attack had "stark similarities" to the 1998 Omagh atrocity.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness told the BBC the British government has talked to dissident republicans in recent weeks,
He also said the Irish government had been meeting with dissidents for years.
A booby trap partially exploded under the car of a former policeman in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 10 August.
The man was unhurt in the attack, but it is the first time one of the latest series of booby-trap bombs detonates.
A bomb is found under the car of a Catholic policewoman in Kilkeel in County Down on 8 August.
It is believed the device fell off the car before being spotted by the officer.
Irish police investigating dissident republican activity arrest five men in County Louth on the same day.
Guns, ammunition and balaclavas are found in two cars during the operation.
On 4 August, booby trap bomb was found under a soldier's car in Bangor.
It was thought the device could have been planted by dissident republicans close to the base where he was stationed and he drove home without it being detected.
It then fell off and he discovered it as he was about to leave his home.
A car that exploded outside a police station in Londonderry contained 200lb of homemade explosives.
No-one was injured in the attack, which happened on 3 August, but several businesses were badly damaged in the blast.
July 2010
On 28 July, an 18-year-old man was abducted in west Belfast and driven two miles away to the Lenadoon estate where he was shot in both legs.
Police said a shooting at a house in Londonderry on 26 July could be linked to the vigilante group Republican Action Against Drugs.
Three men and a woman were in the property at Dunmore Gardens when four masked men forced their way in and fired two shots.
Four men and a teenage boy were arrested on the Falls Road in west Belfast following an attempted paramilitary shooting at a house in the St James' area.
The five were later charged with terrorism offences.
The remains of an exploded pipe bomb were found in the grounds of a west Belfast police station on 22 July.
The device was discovered at Woodbourne PSNI station on the Stewartstown Road.
A bomb exploded between Belleeks and Cullyhanna in south Armagh, blowing a crater in the road and damaging a stone bridge on 10 July.
Police viewed it as an attempt to lure them into the area in order to carry out a follow-up ambush.
Dissident republicans were blamed for organising two nights of sustained rioting in the Broadway and Bog Meadows areas of west Belfast on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.
Later rioting on 11, 12, 13 and 14 July in south and north Belfast, Lurgan and Londonderry is also believed to have involved dissidents.
Scores of police officers were injured during the violence, which featured gun attacks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown.
Five men were arrested after police stopped three cars near Omeath in County Louth on 10 July.
Irish police suspected they were trying to move explosives across the border.
One man was charged, while four others were released while a file was prepared for the DPP.
Shots are fired at Crossmaglen PSNI station on 2 July.
Dissident republicans said they were behind two similar attacks in December and January.
June 2010
On 30 June, two men were convicted of attempting to import weapons and explosives for use by dissident republicans.
Paul McCaugherty, 43, of Beech Court in Lurgan and Dermot Declan Gregory of Concession Road in Crossmaglen, were caught in an MI5 sting operation.
A Belfast court heard McCaugherty handled over bundles of euros in a specially adapted bag to an undercover agent, saying he needed "explosives, pistols, AK-47s, armour-piercing stuff, snipers, cords and detonators".
May 2010
A report by the Independent Monitoring Commission on 26 May said dissidents "remain highly active and dangerous".
It said the threat was "very serious" but they were not able to mount a campaign like the Provisional IRA.
Two men were charged with explosives offences after the discovery of an alleged dissident bomb-making factory near Dundalk on 22 May.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said the find foiled an attack in Northern Ireland.
April 2010
A car bomb exploded outside Newtownhamilton Police Station in County Armagh, injuring two people.
Local residents also reported hearing gunshots before the blast.
Police chiefs said the threat from dissident republicans was higher than at any time since the Omagh bomb almost 12 years previously.
Senior police officers believed rival factions in the Real IRA and Continuity IRA have increased co-operation and stepped up recruitment.
There were five pipe bomb attacks on houses in the west of Northern Ireland in a week - two of them claimed by a group calling itself Republican Action Against Drugs.
A car bomb was defused outside Newtownhamilton police station in south Armagh on Tuesday 13 April.
A bomb in a hijacked taxi exploded outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, on Monday 12 April - the day policing and justice powers were transferred to Northern Ireland.
One man suffers minor injuries.
A two-day protest by dissident republicans at Maghaberry Prison ended on Easter Tuesday. The prisoners had barricaded themselves into a dining room.
Police say a car bomb left outside Crossmaglen on Easter Saturday night could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the area. The bomb - made up of a number of flammable containers - was made safe by Army experts.
On 12 April, the Real IRA leaves a no-warning car bomb outside MI5's Northern Ireland headquarters at Palace Barracks in Holywood, County Down.
The blast is timed for the same day that policing and justice powers are devolved from Westminster to Stormont. An elderly man walking near the Army base at the time of the explosion is treated in hospital for minor injuries, but the bomb causes little damage.
March 2010
Dissidents were blamed for a series of alerts in Belfast, Londonderry and on the railway line in south Armagh, which caused major traffic disruption on 19 March.
Shots were fired at police as they investigated the railway alert, although no-one was injured.
February 2010
The naked and bound body of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty was found close to the Irish border near Derry on 24 February.
The Real IRA said it killed Mr Doherty who, it claimed, was one of its members.
Two days earlier a bomb damaged the gates of Newry courthouse in County Down.
Officers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off. Police said it was a miracle no-one was killed.
February had begun with Irish police stopping a suspected attack by dissident republicans in County Donegal.
A car was stopped at Cooladawson, near Stranorlar, and a man arrested but three other men who were in the vehicle ran off across fields.
In Belfast, 40 families were moved from their homes after a pipe bomb was thrown at a police station.
Dissidents were also suspected of being involved in organising rioting in Craigavon in County Armagh at the end of the month.
In Cork, cash, drugs and a number of suspected imitation guns were seized during a major operation targeting dissident republican paramilitaries.
The operation followed a claim from the Real IRA that it shot dead a convicted drug dealer in Cork on 20 January.
There was widespread condemnation in Londonderry over a campaign by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.
The group, regarded as the Real IRA's political wing, said it would picket shops that deal with the police in protest at stop and search tactics.
January 2010
A 33-year-old Catholic police officer was seriously injured in a dissident republican car bomb about a mile from his home in Randalstown in County Antrim.
A PSNI spokesman said it was too early to say which group was behind the attack.
The family of a Londonderry shopkeeper who sells smoking paraphernalia and "legal highs" said they believe he was shot and injured by dissident republicans on 27 January because of his business.
On the last day of the month the Real IRA opened fire on a police station in County Armagh.
No-one was injured in the attack in Bessbrook, but Ulster Unionist MLA Danny Kennedy said he condemned "this act of wanton intent and murder".
December 2009
Shots were fired at Crossmaglen Police Station on 30 December. No-one was injured.
November 2009
The body set up to monitor paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland said dissident republicans were more active than at any time in the past four-and-a-half years.
The Independent Monitoring Commission published its 20th report, which said dissidents were directing their efforts to kill PSNI officers.
Dissident republicans were also blamed for leaving a car containing a 400lb (181kg) bomb outside the Policing Board's headquarters in Belfast.
The car, which had been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off, burst into flames when the device partially exploded.
On the same night, shots were fired during an undercover police operation in the County Fermanagh village of Garrison, in what police described as an attempt to kill a trainee PSNI officer.
Five men were arrested by police on both sides of the border.
Two of the men, a former Irish army reservist and an unsuccessful council election candidate, were later charged with attempted murder.
One of Northern Ireland's highest profile judges moved out of his Belfast home over fears of a dissident republican threat against him.
Mr Justice Treacy's £650,000 house was bought under the Housing Executive's Special Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings (Sped) scheme.
October 2009
Four men dressed in paramilitary style uniform and black masks fired a volley of shots over the coffin of a dissident republican who died in a Londonderry police station.
It was believed that John Brady had taken his own life at Strand Road station days earlier.
The dissident republican vigilante group, Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) claimed responsibility for shooting and injuring a 27-year-old man in Londonderry.
One of the police officers who went to the scene of the gun attack was knocked unconscious after he was hit on the head with a lump of concrete.
The DUP's Ian Paisley Jr said police had warned him that dissident republicans were planning to murder him.
Mr Paisley, who was then a member of the Policing Board, said officers contacted him to inform him of the foiled attack.
A police officer's partner was injured when a bomb exploded under her car in east Belfast.
The 38-year-old was reversing the vehicle out of the driveway of a house when the device exploded.
In the same month a bomb exploded inside a Territorial Army base in north Belfast.
The police confirmed that "some blast damage" had occurred inside the base off the Antrim Road and shrapnel from the overnight explosion was found in neighbouring streets.
September 2009
The PSNI said a 600lb (272kg) bomb left near the Irish border in south Armagh was intended to kill its officers.
The bomb was defused by the Army near the village of Forkhill.
Days later the Real IRA claimed responsibility for placing two explosive devices near the homes of a policeman's relatives in Londonderry.
The first device exploded outside his parents' home while a second device, which was found outside his sister's home, was taken away for examination by the Army.
August 2009
A group of armed and masked men, believed to be from a faction of the Real IRA, set up a roadblock in the south Armagh village of Meigh.
They handed out leaflets warning people against co-operating with the security forces on either side of the border.
July 2009
Sinn Féin blamed the Real IRA for orchestrating rioting in north Belfast. At least one shot was fired at police and two blast bombs were thrown.
Dissident republican protesters disrupted a meeting of the District Policing Partnership in Londonderry.
June 2009
Conor Murphy, then a Sinn Féin MP and minister in Northern Ireland's devolved administration, blamed dissident republicans for an arson attack on his home in south Armagh.
May 2009
Dissident republicans were suspected of involvement in a petrol bomb attack on the Londonderry home of senior Sinn Féin member Mitchel McLaughlin.
April 2009
The Real IRA in Londonderry said it shot a convicted rapist in the legs, one of a series of such attacks in the city at the time.
Northern Ireland's then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said dissident republicans had threatened to kill him.
March 2009
Two young soldiers were shot dead as they collected pizzas outside Massereene Barracks in County Antrim.
Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were killed just hours before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.
The Real IRA is blamed for the attack.
Within 48 hours a policeman Stephen Carroll was shot dead in Craigavon, County Armagh, becoming the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.
|
Rocks, logs, rubble, discarded furniture, assorted rubbish and even an old armoured car: anything that can be used is being used to shut down the streets of San Cristobal, the Venezuelan city that gave birth to the current wave of protests against President Nicolas Maduro. | By Arturo WallaceBBC Mundo, San Cristobal
Here they have been at it for more than a month, after students of a local university took to the streets and clashed with the authorities, following the alleged attempted rape of one of their classmates.
And now large parts of the capital of the north-western state of Tachira look as if they are under siege, with barricades blocking avenues and the entrances to shopping districts, neighbourhoods and residential complexes.
"There are more than 100 barricades," the city's mayor, Daniel Ceballos, told the BBC.
"About 40% of San Cristobal is affected," he added.
The situation, however, feels much worse. Most of the city comes to an almost complete standstill every day after 15:00.
And, so far, every time the state governor, Jose Vielma Mora, has asked for a return to normalcy, the answer has been more barricades.
List of grievances
It is not surprising that every aspect of daily life has been badly affected.
Every morning, huge queues form in front of the few shops that are open, as people queue for hours to buy bread, milk or flour.
But San Cristobal is an opposition stronghold, and difficulties in buying basic goods have been part of daily life since long before the recent protests.
Insecurity and food shortages are only two items on a long list of grievances that seems to have united a significant part of the local population against Mr Maduro's government.
"This fight is no longer students-only. It's also a fight because even in normal times you cannot get milk or bread," said opposition activist Vianey Carvajal.
"I don't mind [the blockades]. I'd rather suffer them for another month than suffer this government for four more years," said America Ruiz, as she crossed a barricade to look for soap in one of the more badly affected neighbourhoods.
Among the San Cristobal protesters, nobody denies that the ultimate objective now is to force deep changes in the government, maybe even topple it.
But nobody seems to know how to achieve it, other than by "resisting".
'Creating chaos'
"We have to be patient. This won't be a struggle of days. The Venezuelan who believes we will get rid of Maduro with these protests is delusional," said Pedro Pablo Quitero, a 60-year old university teacher who sympathises with the protesters.
But others are saying the "gochos", as the inhabitants of this Andean region are called, should march into Venezuela's capital, Caracas, to set up a new government like they did in 1899.
Meanwhile, the government still disputes the idea that the majority of the inhabitants of San Cristobal support the protests.
And Jonathan Garcia, a local MP with the ruling United Socialist Party, told the BBC it was all part of a right-wing conspiracy aimed at creating chaos and violence to justify a foreign intervention.
"But we won't give them the excuse they're looking for by removing the protesters by force, like you would do in any other country in the world," said Mr Garcia.
"We know they have the cameras, the videos to try to convince the world that the unarmed people of Venezuela are being violently repressed by a tyrannical government in order to justify an US intervention," he added.
Armed groups
That might explain why, despite all the discontent, San Cristobal remains pretty calm during the day - and there have not been reports of large violent clashes lately.
However, after nightfall the situation changes.
The protesters have accused the government of employing armed groups of civilians that routinely harass or attack them under the cover of night, and they insist that is why they need the barricades.
But the authorities imply that the clashes are a result of disgruntled neighbours trying to set themselves free of the restrictions imposed by unwelcomed protesters.
It is difficult to tell how long the situation will go on, but there's one slogan common to almost all the barricades: "He who tires, loses."
The government has called for dialogue. And all of Venezuela's opposition will also be looking at what happens in San Cristobal very carefully.
|
An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman's body was found in Stoke-on-Trent. | Police were called to flats in Fletcher Road at 15:20 BST on Saturday.
A man from the Stoke area had been arrested in connection with the death and was in custody, the Staffordshire force said.
On Saturday night it said formal identification of the woman was yet to take place and specially trained officers were supporting her family.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone.
|
The Bethnal Green Tube Disaster of 1943 was the UK's largest single loss of civilian life during World War II. More than 170 people fleeing from an air raid were crushed to death when the entrance to the east London station became blocked. | Joan Martin had been qualified as a doctor for just one year when she led the team treating the casualties at Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children. Like many involved in the disaster, she was told to never speak of what happened that night as the British government, fearful of damaging public morale, attempted a cover up.
Forced to carry the burden for most of her life - she still suffers nightmares. Now, aged 100, she told PM her story.
"At 8.45pm, on the evening of the 3rd March 1943, we received a phone call telling us to expect 30 faints from a Tube shelter. 30 faints! Quickly, we began taking down children's' cots and putting up beds. I told the medical students I was working with that it must just be a test to see how quickly we could do it. That it was all an exercise.
"We had hardly finished changing the beds before the first wet, mauve, body was carried into the hospital.
"Wet, because apparently when they pulled the bodies from the shelter all they did was to dump them on the pavement and throw water on them. Mauve, because they were all asphyxiated. They continued to arrive until 11 o'clock that night. At least 30 bodies, mostly women and children. Almost all dead.
"We worked through the night, my two medical students and I. I kept waiting for a consultant to come, but no-one came. Presumably because they had heard that everybody was already dead. I had only been qualified for one year and yet here I was in charge of this desperately impossible situation.
"I've had nightmares ever since. And always in my nightmares people are trampled to death.
Bethnal Green Tube Disaster
The Tube station had regularly been used by up to 7,000 Londoners at a time to shelter from German bombing raids.
When the sirens began at 20:17 GMT on 3 March, 1,500 locals hurried to the shelter but, although the raids were anticipated, no-one was on duty and only one door was open.
Roars from new anti-aircraft guns in nearby Victoria Park were mistakenly thought to be enemy bombs and the crowd surged forward in panic.
One woman, clutching her young child, lost her footing and fell, pulling an elderly man down with her.
Bodies quickly piled up at base of the steps, whilst those at the top, unaware of what had happened continued to try and force their way down.
A seething mass of women and children, all wearing thick clothes and gasping for air quickly developed. Though some escaped, 173 people, overwhelmingly women and children were asphyxiated.
"The next morning, whilst the two students and I ate breakfast, an orderly instructed us to go off duty for 24 hours. Without any support at all - not even a thank you or a well done.
"My reaction was to walk all the way from Bethnal Green to Hammersmith where my mentor and dear friend Ursula Shelley lived. She took me in, gave me a bath, a hot meal and breakfast - and sent me back to the hospital in the morning. I told her what happened. 'They've told you not to tell anyone else about it, haven't they?' she said. 'I agree. Don't dare tell anyone. '
"I suppose the government didn't want to look as if things were out of hand. The newspapers said nothing. The two students I worked with were told not to come back to the hospital, not even to this part of London, and I never saw them again. So, I stayed quiet. I tried to totally black it out.
"Years later, I was looking after a disabled patient of mine, when he said he had heard of a terrible incident that happened during the war at Bethnal Green Tube station. After letting him carry on with the long story, I finally admitted that I had been there.
"Of course, he was deeply shocked. He told me that a memorial service had been established on the anniversary of the event and he thought I ought to go. 'Certainly not!' was my reaction. Having been silent for so long, I couldn't imagine owning up to actually being there.
"But, as things go, there I found myself at the service. I've been going for about 15 years now, though now it's mostly just filled with relatives of those involved.
"Talking about what happened has helped the nightmares a bit, but they still come. At one point, I would wake up every night suffocating, desperately trying to get back to air. It wasn't the only thing that happened to me during the war, but it was the worst."
|
One of the first ways a new president is able to exercise political power is through unilateral executive orders. | While legislative efforts take time, a swipe of the pen from the White House can often enact broad changes in government policy and practice.
President Donald Trump has wasted little time in taking advantage of this privilege.
Given his predecessor's reliance on executive orders to circumvent Congress in the later days of his presidency, he has a broad range of areas in which to flex his muscle.
What are executive orders?
Here's a look at some of what Mr Trump has done so far:
Climate change policy reversal
Mr Trump signed the order at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) undoing a key part of the Obama administration's efforts to tackle global warming.
The order reverses the Clean Power Plan, which had required states to regulate power plants, but had been on hold while being challenged in court.
Before signing the order, a White House official told the press that Mr Trump does believe in human-caused climate change, but that the order was necessary to ensure American energy independence and jobs.
Environmental groups warn that undoing those regulations will have serious consequences at home and abroad.
"I think it is a climate destruction plan in place of a climate action plan," the Natural Resources Defense Council's David Doniger told the BBC, adding that they will fight the president in court.
Immediate impact: A coalition of 17 states filed a legal challenge against the Trump administration's decision to roll back climate change regulations. The challenge, led by New York state, argued that the administration has a legal obligation to regulate emissions of the gases believed to cause global climate change. Mars Inc, Staples and The Gap are among US corporations who are also challenging Mr Trump's reversal on climate change policy.
Travel ban 2.0
After an angry weekend in Florida in which he accused former-president Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones at Trump Tower, Mr Trump returned to the White House to sign a revised version of his controversial travel ban.
The executive order titled "protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States" was signed out of the view of the White House press corps on 6 March.
The order's new language is intended to skirt the legal pitfalls that caused his first travel ban to be halted by the court system.
The updated ban:
Immediate impact: Soon after the order was signed, it was once again blocked by a federal judge, this time in Hawaii.
Trump signs new travel-ban directive
Undoing Obama-era waterway regulations
Surrounded by farmers and Republican lawmakers, Mr Trump signed an order on 28 February directing the EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers to reconsider a rule issued by President Obama.
The 2015 regulation - known as the Waters of the United States rule - gave authority to the federal government over small waterways, including wetlands, headwaters and small ponds.
The rule required Clean Water Act permits for any developer that wished to alter or damage these relatively small water resources, which the president described as "puddles" in his signing remarks.
Opponents of Mr Obama's rule, including industry leaders, condemned it as a massive power grab by Washington.
Scott Pruitt, Mr Trump's pick to lead the EPA, will now begin the task of rewriting the rule, and a new draft is not expected for several years.
Immediate impact: The EPA has been ordered to rewrite, or even repeal the rule, but first it must be reviewed. Water protection laws were passed by Congress long before Mr Obama's rule was announced, so it cannot simply be undone with the stroke of a pen. Instead the EPA must re-evaluate how to interpret the 1972 Clean Water Act.
Coal waste
A bill the president signed on 16 February put an end to an Obama-era regulation that aimed at protecting waterways from coal mining waste.
Senator Mitch McConnell had called the rule an "attack on coal miners".
The US Interior Department, which reportedly spent years drawing up the regulation before it was issued in December, had said it would protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests.
Business regulations
An attempt to cut down on the burden of small businesses.
Described as a "two-out, one-in" approach, the order asked government departments that request a new regulation to specify two other regulations they will drop.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will manage the regulations and is expected to be led by the Republican Mick Mulvaney.
Some categories of regulation will be exempt from the "two-out, one-in" clause - such as those dealing with the military and national security and "any other category of regulations exempted by the Director".
Immediate impact: Wait and see.
Trump moves to cut business regulation
Travel ban (first version)
Probably his most controversial action, so far, taken to keep the country safe from terrorists, the president said.
It included:
The effect was felt at airports in the US and around the world as people were stopped boarding US-bound flights or held when they landed in the US.
Immediate impact: Enacted pretty much straight away. But there are battles ahead. Federal judges brought a halt to deportations, and legal rulings appear to have put an end to the travel ban - much to the president's displeasure.
Trump border policy: Who's affected?
Border security
On Mr Trump's first day as a presidential candidate in June 2015, he made securing the border with Mexico a priority.
He pledged repeatedly at rallies to "build the wall" along the southern border, saying it would be "big, beautiful, and powerful".
Now he has signed a pair of executive orders designed to fulfil that campaign promise.
One order declares that the US will create "a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier".
The second order pledges to hire 10,000 more immigration officers, and to revoke federal grant money from so-called "sanctuary cities" which refuse to deport undocumented immigrants.
It remains to be seen how Mr Trump will pay for the wall, although he has repeatedly insisted that it will be fully paid for by the Mexican government, despite their leaders saying otherwise.
Immediate impact: The Department of Homeland Security has a "small" amount of money available (about $100m) to use immediately, but that won't get them very far. Construction of the wall will cost billions of dollars - money that Congress will need to approve. Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Republican-led Congress will need to come up with $12-$15bn more, and the funding fight - and any construction - will come up against issues with harsh terrain, private land owners and opposition from both Democrats and some Republicans.
The department will also need additional funds from Congress to hire more immigration officers, but the order will direct the head of the agency to start changing deportation priorities. Cities targeted by the threat to remove federal grants will likely build legal challenges, but without a court injunction, the money can be removed.
The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, along with Arizona Democrat Raul Graijalva, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
They argue the Department of Homeland Security is required to draft a new environmental review of the impacts of the wall and other border enforcement activities as it could damage public lands.
How exactly will Trump 'build the wall'?
Two orders, two pipelines
On his second full working day, the president signed two orders to advance construction of two controversial pipelines - the Keystone XL and Dakota Access.
Mr Trump told reporters the terms of both deals would be renegotiated, and using American steel was a requirement.
Keystone, a 1,179-mile (1,897km) pipeline running from Canada to US refineries in the Gulf Coast, was halted by President Barack Obama in 2015 due to concerns over the message it would send about climate change.
The second pipeline was halted last year as the Army looked at other routes, amid huge protests by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe at a North Dakota site.
Immediate impact: Mr Trump has granted a permit to TransCanada, the Keystone XL builder, to move forward with the controversial pipeline. As a result, TransCanada will drop an arbitration claim for $15bn in damages it filed under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Mr Trump made no mention of an American steel requirement. Construction will not start until the company obtains a permit from Nebraska's Public Service Commission.
The Dakota Access pipeline has since been filled with oil and the company is in the process of preparing to begin moving oil.
Keystone XL pipeline: Why is it so disputed?
Dakota Pipeline: What's behind the controversy?
Instructing federal agencies to weaken Obamacare
In one of his first actions as president, Mr Trump issued a multi-paragraph directive to the Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies involved in managing the nation's healthcare system.
The order states that agencies must "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" any portions of the Affordable Care Act that creates financial burden on states, individuals or healthcare providers.
Although the order technically does not authorise any powers the executive agencies do not already have, it's viewed as a clear signal that the Trump administration will be rolling back Obama-era healthcare regulations wherever possible.
Immediate impact: Republicans failed to secure an overhaul of the US healthcare system due to a lack of support for the legislation. That means Mr Trump's executive order is one of the only remaining efforts to undermine Obamacare.
Can Obamacare be repealed?
Re-instating a ban on international abortion counselling
What's called the Mexico City policy, first implemented in 1984 under Republican President Ronald Reagan, prevents foreign non-governmental organisations that receive any US cash from "providing counselling or referrals for abortion or advocating for access to abortion services in their country", even if they do so with other funding.
The ban, derided as a "global gag rule" by its critics, has been the subject of a political tug-of-war ever since its inception, with every Democratic president rescinding the measure, and every Republican bringing it back.
Anti-abortion activists expected Mr Trump to act quickly on this - and he didn't disappoint them.
Immediate impact: The policy will come into force as soon as the Secretaries of State and Heath write an implementation plan and apply to both renewals and new grants. The US State Department has notified the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that US funding for United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) would be withdrawn, arguing that it supports coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation. The agency has denied this, pointing to examples of its life-saving work in more than 150 countries and territories.
This policy will be much broader than the last time the rule was in place - the Guttmacher Institute, Kaiser Family Foundation and Population Action International believe the order, as written, will apply to all global health funding by the US, instead of only reproductive health or family planning.
Trump's order on abortion policy: What does it mean?
Withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, once viewed as the crown jewel of Barack Obama's international trade policy, was a regular punching bag for Mr Trump on the campaign trail (although he at times seemed uncertain about what nations were actually involved).
The deal was never approved by Congress so it had yet to go into effect in the US.
Therefore the formal "withdrawal" is more akin to a decision on the part of the US to end ongoing international negotiations and let the deal wither and die.
Immediate impact: Takes effect immediately. In the meantime, some experts are worried China will seek to replace itself in the deal or add TPP nations to its own free trade negotiations, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), excluding the US.
TPP: What is it and why does it matter?
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.