label
stringlengths 5
984
| text
stringlengths 76
235k
|
|---|---|
The vice-chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University has resigned with immediate effect.
|
Professor Robin Baker took over the role at the Kent university in September 2010.
The university offered no reasons for his departure.
Peter Hermitage, who is chairman of the governing body, said Andrew Ironside, strategic director for resources, has been appointed as acting vice-chancellor.
Prior to his appointment Professor Baker was vice-chancellor at the University of Chichester and was pro vice-chancellor at the University of Kent between 2005 and 2007.
|
A man has been charged with murder in connection with the disappearance of his wife in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.
|
Zobaidah Salangy, 28, was last seen at her home address in Charford on 29 March, West Mercia Police said.
Nezam Salangy, 42, from Austin Road, Bromsgrove, is due to appear at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court.
On Thursday, West Mercia Police urged anyone with information on Ms Salangy's disappearance to contact officers or Crimestoppers.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone
|
Fifty years ago, the supertanker SS Torrey Canyon hit rocks off the coast of Cornwall, spilling more than 100,000 tonnes of crude oil into the English Channel. Beaches were left knee-deep in sludge and thousands of sea birds were killed in what remains the UK's worst environmental accident.
|
By Bethan Bell & Mario Cacciottolo BBC News
It was the first major oil spill in British and European waters, causing enormous damage to marine life and the livelihoods of local people. It also led to changes in the way people viewed the environment.
Brittany, in northern France, bore the brunt of the thickest part of the slick, and it became known there as the marée noire, or "black tide".
More than 15,000 sea birds were killed. Clogged up with thick viscous oil, they were washed up both dead and alive on the shores. Future populations of some species took decades to recover.
You might also like to read:
Heathrow's death sentence for villages
Street art: Crime, grime or sublime?
Why do people holiday in Scarborough?
This destruction of the birds had a direct impact on sanitation. Many were scavengers, eating rubbish which washed up on shore. That rubbish was instead left to rot on the beaches.
The deaths of birds and marine mammals in the first days after the spill were only a fraction of the final toll. The effects went on for years, working on organisms from the bottom of the food chain - the plankton and small invertebrates that live in sediments, through mussels and clams on up to fish, birds and mammals.
And the British clean-up effort, which involved the excessive and indiscriminate use of powerful chemicals, made a bad situation much worse.
At the time, the Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries determined that the holiday industry - and clean beaches - were more important than the "very small" amount of damage it anticipated to wildlife.
So more than two million gallons of a chemical called BP 1002 was sprayed on to the affected waters. Hoses were squirted over beaches, volunteers used watering cans, fishermen pumped the chemical into the sea from their boats. The Army even punctured holes into barrels of it and rolled them off cliffs.
The plan was for the chemical to break down the oil and allow it to disperse and be removed by natural bacteria. But instead it killed any kind of marine life it came into contact with, from seaweed to limpets to fish.
It pooled on beaches for hours before being washed away by the tide, making the poisonous effects even worse. A Marine Biological Association (MBA) report in 1968 said the UK's use of detergents resulted "in the death of a large number of shore organisms of many kinds".
It took 13-15 years for the treated areas to recover, about five times longer than those areas where the oil was dispersed naturally by wind and waves.
Professor Martin Attrill, director of the Marine Institute in Plymouth, said the British response to the crisis illustrates how different attitudes to the environment were then.
"At the time the Torrey Canyon went down we were still considering the sea as the main place to put all our waste," he said.
"We've had a change in mindset. At the time it was 'the environment can deal with this' and the main concern was for the ship and whether it could be salvaged.
"Then people started to wake up - not just to the environment, but to the fact it reduced tourism. People didn't want to visit areas where there'd been an oil spill, there was an inability to sell goods, the brand was tarnished. Now we know about the benefits of clean seas."
On the affected section of the Breton coast, breeding pairs had returned from their migration to nest when the disaster happened. The Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux calculated that there were 450 pairs of razorbills before the spill but only 50 after. For guillemots the number of pairs fell from 270 to 50.
About 85% of puffins on the French coast were also killed, the RSPB estimated. Because of their low reproductive rate, it took several decades for the population to recover.
Julian May was an 11-year-old boy on holiday in Cornwall when the disaster struck. He remembers the surf being like "brown, frothy coffee".
"On the beach itself there were thick clags of oil, great lumps of it," he said. "It was spreading all over the place.
"More than anything, I remember the smell - the strange smell - of this oil."
Dr Gerald Boalch was a senior scientist aboard an MBA ship which took samples shortly after the spill.
"On British beaches where the detergents were used, many animals and plants were killed," he said. "Spraying the detergents was definitely the wrong thing to do.
"It broke up the oil, which helped the tourism industry for the affected places, but the oil sank from the top of the waves to the bottom, breaking into smaller parts and being ingested by marine life."
In Cornwall, former biology teacher Richard Pearce from Treburrick has studied Porth Mear beach three times a year since the Torrey Canyon's murky load came ashore.
He said it took about five years for the environment to even "stabilise". Before that, he said, the beach was "barren".
So how had this disaster happened?
The Torrey Canyon had been en route from Kuwait to Milford Haven, in Pembrokeshire, on the morning of 18 March 1967 when its captain took a shortcut and hit Pollard's Rock - a reef between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly.
Every drop of the crude oil borne by the ship seeped into the Atlantic.
By evening an eight-mile slick had seeped from her ripped hull. The following day it was 20 miles long. It eventually bled into a 270 sq m (700 km2) foul-smelling smear.
After failed attempts to shift the tanker off the rocks, the crew were rescued by lifeboats.
Then the British government ordered the marooned tanker be bombed, both to burn off the remaining oil and to scuttle the vessel.
Over two days, 62,000 lbs of explosives were dropped on the stricken craft and surrounding waters, along with 5,200 gallons of petrol, 11 high-powered rockets and napalm.
Of the 42 bombs aimed at the target, about a quarter missed. Others did not explode. And while some of the oil burned, waves kept extinguishing the flames.
John Eatwell, who took part in the bombing missions, said his abiding memory was of the "overpowering smell of oil, which penetrated the cockpit even at several thousand feet above the slick".
"The column of smoke from the burning oil went up to about 20,000 ft. To continue bombing we had to dive into smoke and flame," he said.
The Torrey Canyon broke in two and finally sank 12 days after it ran aground.
The approach in France was perhaps less scientific, but much kinder to nature.
The French let the oil come ashore and then scooped it up. On their rocky beaches, the oil that remained gradually weathered and the marine life was not as badly affected.
Meanwhile on Guernsey, the oil hit the shore seven days after the Torrey Canyon finally sank.
The island was heavily dependent on tourism and officials were keen to clear the beaches as quickly as possible. The chosen solution was to suck the oil into sewage tankers, transport it to a disused quarry and dump it there.
Years later, micro-organisms were introduced in the hope they would convert the oil over time into water and carbon dioxide. However, this had limited success.
"I don't think they'd have ever imagined that 50 years later the oil would still be there," said Rob Roussel, who oversees the quarry for the Guernsey government.
"At the time there was no awareness about how to deal with it, and the over-riding concern was the economy, so it was all about clearing the beaches as quickly as possible.
"We would have expected that the oil would have all been released by now but it continues to appear."
The Torrey Canyon disaster did have some positive consequences, including the creation of maritime regulations on pollution.
A young David Bellamy, at the time an environmental consultant, was asked to comment on the disaster - and his unique style led to a career in television.
Speaking 50 years later, he said: "The Torrey Canyon Disaster was a milestone in the environmental world.
"It was a tragedy that [it] had to happen before the public became focussed on potential loss of natural life, in this case marine.
"The media images of pollution and the attendant wildlife disasters made people begin to become involved in this new ethical conservation.
"It also became apparent that life is more resilient than anybody thought. In general if an oil spill is contained, the marine flora and flora will eventually return."
The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) was set up in direct response to the Torrey Canyon disaster. It now provides emergency responses to spills across the world.
Single hull oil tankers - where one hole could lead to a catastrophic leak - were phased out and replaced with double hulls, which offered more protection.
The American owners of the Torrey Canyon eventually paid £3m compensation to the British government. The accident remains the worst - and most expensive - in UK waters.
As for the Torrey Canyon herself, she still rests at the bottom of the ocean. The tanker which destroyed so much is now - somewhat ironically - a haven for marine life.
Additional reporting by Chris Quevatre
|
When rumours of a planned TV series featuring the cult comic book superhero Captain Britain were recently confirmed, fans of the Lycra-clad righter of wrongs were thrilled. But how should a character whose first battles were in the pages of Marvel's comics in the 1970s be rebooted for a 21st Century audience?
|
Nic RigbyBBC News
After a motorcycle accident as he fled an armed raid at the Darkmoor nuclear research facility in northern England, the mild-mannered scientist Brian Braddock was revived by the mystical Merlyn and imbued with superhuman powers. Captain Britain was born.
The Captain's earliest adventures in a decade of punk rock, wide lapels and the Three Day Week were very much a product of those turbulent times.
Perhaps his most celebrated feat was to rescue the prime minister of the day, James Callaghan, who had been kidnapped by the Red Skull gang.
Captain Britain, created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, first appeared in Marvel's comics in 1976, as a European response to Captain America. (Comic book legend Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, would take charge of the title in the early 1980s and give the character a grittier edge.)
Rumours of the Captain's 21st Century reinvention for the small screen emerged via a tweeted sketch of his new look and were soon confirmed by US-based television producer Chris Lark.
Prolific US author Matt Forbeck, who is behind the Marvel Encyclopedia among many other works, sees the successful reboot of Captain America as providing a template for the new Captain Britain.
"He went from being a cheesy superhero type to a much more nuanced character, more suited for the modern age," said Forbeck.
"I loved him [Captain Britain] in the 1980s, he was such a colourful character, and it would be fun to see him redefined for the new millennium."
Captain Britain
Chris Claremont, who co-created Captain Britain for Marvel on the instruction of Stan Lee almost 40 years ago, said the character was an interesting prospect for TV as he always "tries to represent the ideal of Britain and its island heritage, like Robin Hood, but he must never lose sight of his humanity".
"He wants to do the right thing."
He sees the Captain as "not just defending Britain but defending the world from pan-dimensional surprises", in a way similar to the example of the latest reboot of Doctor Who, which has played around with time and parallel universes.
"You can go in any direction with that," added Claremont. "If they do it well, it could be a lot of fun."
Claremont, who also created a host of X-Men characters, said if he had been considering actors to play the Captain in the 1970s or 1980s he might have looked at someone like Harrison Ford, but now he thinks Tom Hiddleston - tipped to be the next James Bond - "would be someone who could bring something subtle to the part".
He said Hiddleston could offer a physicality to the part yet pull off the human side of the role.
"I was looking at Britain from the perspective of someone growing up in the 50s," Claremont added. "Now it is 2016 and Britain has seen extraordinary changes.
"Who is to say Captain Britain would have to be white? We could have Idris Elba as Captain Britain."
Television producers Chris Lark and Eleni Larchanidou said it was too early to predict who might land the role.
"We have a small list of possible actors, but we are in the very early stages. We are working on a script and working on a budget, and looking to put the idea to Marvel early in 2017," said Lark.
He added that with the recent success of superhero-based TV series such as Daredevil and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., there is an appetite for more of the same.
Lark is a long-standing Captain Britain enthusiast and has a genuine passion for the character he is trying to help redefine for television.
"I was first a fan of a fan of the X-Men comics and I read Excalibur magazine that all my friends were reading and it featured Captain Britain," he said. "And I wanted to find out more and more about Captain Britain and bought his solo series of comics.
"He was not just a traditional hero like Captain America who runs around with his shield, he's much more interesting.
"I think he is a fascinating character that would be a really good focus for a series," Lark added.
"He was a scientist that had these magical powers that he could not explain as a scientist.
"Like a lot of Marvel heroes, he is not all sunshine and happiness."
|
A man has been jailed for a minimum term of 15 years for murdering a woman in Leeds.
|
Sarah Henshaw, 40, was found dead at her flat in the Redcourt apartments building in Athlone Grove, Armley, on 11 February.
Kileo Mbega, 32, of Athlone Grove, admitted murder, when he appeared before Leeds Crown Court.
A fraud charge, which he denied, will remain on file.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
A map marked with crude chinagraph-pencil in the second decade of the 20th Century shows the ambition - and folly - of the 100-year old British-French plan that helped create the modern-day Middle East.
|
By Tarek Osman (@TarekmOsman)Presenter: The Making of the Modern Arab World
Straight lines make uncomplicated borders. Most probably that was the reason why most of the lines that Mark Sykes, representing the British government, and Francois Georges-Picot, from the French government, agreed upon in 1916 were straight ones.
Sykes and Picot were quintessential "empire men". Both were aristocrats, seasoned in colonial administration, and crucially believers in the notion that the people of the region would be better off under the European empires.
Both men also had intimate knowledge of the Middle East.
The key tenets of the agreement they had negotiated in relative haste amidst the turmoil of the World War One continue to influence the region to this day. But while Sykes-Picot's straight lines had proved significantly helpful to Britain and France in the first half of the twentieth century, their impact on the region's peoples was quite different.
The map that the two men drew divided the land that had been under Ottoman rule since the early 16th Century into new countries - and relegated these political entities to two spheres of influence:
The two men were not mandated to redraw the borders of the Arab countries in North Africa, but the division of influence existed there as well, with Egypt under British rule, and France controlling the Maghreb.
A secret deal
But there were three problems with the geo-political order that emerged from the Sykes-Picot agreement.
First, it was secret without any Arabic knowledge, and it negated the main promise that Britain had made to the Arabs in the 1910s - that if they rebelled against the Ottomans, the fall of that empire would bring them independence.
When that independence did not materialise after World War One, and as these colonial powers, in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, continued to exert immense influence over the Arab world, the thrust of Arab politics - in North Africa and in the eastern Mediterranean - gradually but decisively shifted from building liberal constitutional governance systems (as Egypt, Syria, and Iraq had witnessed in the early decades of the 20th Century) to assertive nationalism whose main objective was getting rid of the colonialists and the ruling systems that worked with them.
This was a key factor behind the rise of the militarist regimes that had come to dominate many Arab countries from the 1950s until the 2011 Arab uprisings.
Tribal lines
The second problem lay in the tendency to draw straight lines.
Sykes-Picot intended to divide the Levant on a sectarian basis:
Geography helped.
For the period from the end of the Crusades up until the arrival of the European powers in the 19th Century, and despite the region's vibrant trading culture, the different sects effectively lived separately from each other.
But the thinking behind Sykes-Picot did not translate into practice. That meant the newly created borders did not correspond to the actual sectarian, tribal, or ethnic distinctions on the ground.
These differences were buried, first under the Arabs' struggle to eject the European powers, and later by the sweeping wave of Arab nationalism.
Brutality
In the period from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, and especially during the heydays of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser (from the Suez Crisis in 1956 to the end of the 1960s) Arab nationalism gave immense momentum to the idea that a united Arab world would dilute the socio-demographic differences between its populations.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Arab world's strong men - for example, Hafez Assad and Saddam Hussein in the Levant and Col Muammar Gaddafi in North Africa - suppressed the differences, often using immense brutality.
But the tensions and aspirations that these differences gave rise to neither disappeared nor were diluted. When cracks started to appear in these countries - first by the gradual disappearance of these strong men, later by several Arab republics gradually becoming hereditary fiefdoms controlled by small groups of economic interests, and most recently after the 2011 uprisings - the old frictions, frustrations, and hopes that had been concealed for decades, came to the fore.
Identity struggle
The third problem was that the state system that was created after the World War One has exacerbated the Arabs' failure to address the crucial dilemma they have faced over the past century and half - the identity struggle between, on one hand nationalism and secularism, and on the other, Islamism (and in some cases Christianism).
The founders of the Arab liberal age - from the late 19th Century to the 1940s - created state institutions (for example a secular constitution in Tunisia in 1861 and the beginnings of a liberal democracy in Egypt in the inter-war period), and put forward a narrative that many social groups (especially in the middle classes) supported - but failed to weave the piousness, conservatism, and religious frame of reference of their societies into the ambitious social modernisation they had led.
And despite major advancements in industrialisation, the dramatic inequity between the upper middle classes and the vast majority of the populations continued. The strong men of Arab nationalism championed - with immense popular support - a different (socialist, and at times militarist) narrative, but at the expense of civil and political freedoms.
And for the past four decades, the Arab world has lacked any national project or serious attempt at confronting the contradictions in its social fabric.
The new generation
That state structure was poised for explosion, and the changing demographics proved to be the trigger. Over the past four decades, the Arab world has doubled its population, to over 330 million people, two-thirds of them are under 35 years old.
This is a generation that has inherited acute socio-economic and political problems that it did not contribute to, and yet has been living its consequences - from education quality, job availability, economic prospects, to the perception of the future.
At core, the wave of Arab uprisings that commenced in 2011 is this generation's attempt at changing the consequences of the state order that began in the aftermath of World War One.
This currently unfolding transformation entails the promise of a new generation searching for a better future, and the peril of a wave of chaos that could engulf the region for several years.
The Making of the Arab World, presented by Tarek Osman, can be found on the BBC Radio 4 website
The writer is the author of Egypt on the Brink.
|
Seven-year-old Leia Armitage lived in total silence for the first two years of her life, but thanks to pioneering brain surgery and years of therapy she has found her voice and can finally tell her parents she loves them.
|
"We were told you could put a bomb behind her and she wouldn't hear it at all if it went off," said Leia's father, Bob, as he recalled finding out their baby daughter had a rare form of profound deafness.
Leia, from Dagenham in east London, had no inner ear or hearing nerve, meaning that even standard hearing aids or cochlear implants wouldn't help her.
As a result, she was never expected to speak - but despite the risks, her parents fought for her to be one of the first children in the UK to be given an auditory brainstem implant, requiring complex brain surgery when she was two years old.
NHS England calls the surgery "truly life-changing" and has said it will fund the implant for other deaf children in a similar position.
It is estimated that about 15 children a year will be assessed for the procedure and nine will go on to have surgery.
Hear cars beeping
Bob says opting for this type of brain surgery was a huge decision for them, but "we wanted to give Leia the best opportunity in life".
He and his wife Alison hoped that after the surgery at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust she would be able to hear things like cars beeping their horns as she crossed the road - to make her safer in the world.
However, in the five years since the surgery, her progress has been much greater than they ever expected.
It started slowly, with Leia turning her head at the sound of train doors closing shortly after the operation.
Gradually, she started to understand the concept of sound while her parents continually repeated words, asking her to mimic the sound.
Now, after lots of regular speech and language therapy, she can put full sentences together, attempt to sing along to music and hear voices on the phone.
"We can call her upstairs when we're downstairs and she will hear us," Bob explains.
'I love you'
But it's at mainstream school, in a classroom with hearing children, where Leia is really flying, thanks to assistants using sign language and giving her plenty of one-to-one time.
"She is picking up more and more and she's not far behind others of her age in most things," Bob says.
At home, using her voice is what pleases her parents most.
"'I love you Daddy' is probably the best thing I've heard her say," Bob says.
"When I'm putting her to bed she now says 'good night Mummy', which is something I never expected to hear," Alison says.
The cutting-edge surgery involves inserting a device directly into the brain to stimulate the hearing pathways in children born with no cochlea or auditory nerves.
A microphone and sound processor unit worn on the side of the head then transmits sound to the implant.
This electrical stimulation can provide auditory sensations, but it cannot promise to restore normal hearing.
However, Prof Dan Jiang, consultant otologist and clinical director of the Hearing Implant Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said some children can develop a degree of speech.
"The outcomes are variable. Some will do better than others," he said.
"They have to adapt to it and younger children do better so we like to insert the implant early if possible."
Children under five are best placed to learn new concepts of sound and respond to intensive therapy, he said.
Susan Daniels, chief executive of the National Deaf Children's Society, said: "Every deaf child is different and for some, technology like auditory brainstem implants can be the right option and can make a huge difference to their lives.
"With the right support, deaf children can achieve just as well as their hearing peers and this investment is another important step towards a society where no deaf child is left behind."
|
Thai military leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has named a cabinet featuring serving or former generals in more than one-third of positions.
|
The military veterans will run key ministries including defence, justice, foreign affairs and commerce.
On Monday Gen Prayuth was officially appointed prime minister following endorsement by the king.
Gen Prayuth led a coup against an elected government in May, saying it was necessary to preserve stability.
He was nominated for the post of prime minister earlier this month by a legislature hand-picked by the junta. He was the only candidate.
He is meant to be an interim prime minister as the military plans to hold a general election in late 2015.
But concerns have mounted that the military is seeking to strengthen its hold on the country.
Prayuth Chan-ocha
Prayuth Chan-ocha: Full profile
|
A man has been arrested after an ambulance was stolen in Aberdeenshire before being stopped more than 30 miles (48km) away.
|
Police said the Scottish Ambulance Service vehicle had been on a call at Kemnay when it was stolen at about 06:20.
Following a pursuit, it was stopped near Dufftown, in Moray.
Police Scotland said a 39-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident.
The Scottish Ambulance Service said stealing an ambulance was a "deplorable act".
The patient in Aberdeenshire was transferred to hospital by another ambulance.
|
Quite often management books look to the symphony orchestra for examples of leadership in action: the conductor on the podium, conjuring wonderful music from a group of performers who would be rudderless without the man or woman with the stick.
|
Peter DayGlobal business correspondent
I've always been suspicious of this sort of metaphor, which is compelling mainly because it is so grandiose... it makes bosses feel good about themselves, and puffs them up with the idea that leadership is an art you can master with the right input.
But the other evening at the Barbican Concert Hall in the City of London, I had a chance to review my instinctive feelings, during an extraordinary performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam.
They were playing music I don't know and (to be frank) don't really want to know: the huge, long, Symphony Number Seven by Anton Bruckner. But the performance was amazing.
We were sitting in expensive seats set to the side, because we bought too late to put us in the middle of the hall.
So instead of the traditional back view of the conductor, Mariss Jansons, we could see one side of his face, all the time. And it was utterly compelling.
Man among equals
Mr Jansons is 72, and born in Latvia. He has been Concertgebouw chief conductor for 10 years, and there is a deep regard for him among the musicians. Seeing him (and them) in action, I am not surprised.
With restrained gestures and the subtlest of facial expressions, he drew from the orchestra the most glorious performance.
This was not a leader in charge of a production; it was a man among equals, enabling the ensemble to flower, joining their efforts to his to evoke the spirit of the music.
It was one of three Bruckner symphonies performed on successive nights in London. They had had no full scale run-through of this huge work beforehand, no dress rehearsal. Some of the performers were new to Bruckner altogether.
The rehearsals concentrated on the difficult bits, in particular the transitions of mood or speed.
Mr Jansons knew he could trust the musicianship of his superb players. What he had to do was to realise the possibilities of the ensemble.
No wonder the impact of it was so tremendous. Watching him sideways, I realised that what was happening was that effectively we were in on the creation of the music, so listening was almost as if it were being invented in front of our ears.
There was a revealing moment in the pause after the first movement. The conductor gave the tiniest of acknowledgements of satisfaction - so far - to the different orchestra sections; not a wink, but little movement of hands and eyes to indicate that what was supposed to be created was happening.
And it was so fresh, so of the moment, that we in the audience were part of the performance as well. Listening again later to the Radio 3 live transmission was not the same experience, even if my speakers had been up to the vast sonorities of Bruckner.
This was musical leadership of a very high order indeed, huge music conducted with abundant humanity.
And in Mr Jansons' enabling rather than autocratic style of leadership there were some real lessons for business people who look to conducting to show them how to run an organisation.
Tough application process
Afterwards, talking to a member of the orchestra, I got a few insights into the democratic structure of the orchestra, which may explain the balance of power between conductor and players.
The 120 players are members of the orchestra association, which has three seats on the orchestra's board.
Becoming a tenured Concertgebouw member is difficult. Prized vacancies on the band may attract as many as 250 applications from all over the world.
These are whittled down, and then a nerve-wracking selection process takes place.
Applicants audition behind a curtain, listened to be a committee of the players with whom a successful musician will eventually play: about 16 members of the orchestra, including all the players of the section for which the applicant will eventually join. Peer group judgment.
This elimination round happens twice... and then there's a play-off with the curtain raised, so the selectors at last see who is playing for them.
But even after the choice is decided, there is still uncertainty: successful entrants to the orchestra face a probationary year, and their services may be dispensed with during that time. Not just a possibility: this happens.
No wonder the orchestra's standard is so high. No wonder a public performance can be realised on the spot in that miraculous way I heard (and saw) in London the other month.
A huge mutual trust between players and conductor, all working on top form to create an experience for themselves and the listener, realised by the musicianship of a very great conductor indeed, and the band's respect for him.
How much the bosses and managers of other organisations and companies could learn from that community of purpose.
'Natural process'
On the Royal Concertgebouw website there's confirmation of what orchestra members have told me about the experience of working with Mariss Jansons.
The site itself asks: What is Mariss Jansons' secret? How does he consistently manage to take his orchestras to a higher level and garner international recognition?
In answer it quotes from an interview in the Gramophone the conductor gave six years ago.
"It's my job," he told the magazine, "to find out the orchestra's special qualities and preserve them. Then, if through a natural process, my own individuality adds something - and theirs to me - then it will be fine."
A superbly modest summing up of what leadership can be. A natural process.
It has to be said that this sort of relationship is not a given, even at the Royal Concertgebouw.
One famous previous chief conductor (for 25 years), Bernard Haitink, is embroiled in a continuing row with the orchestra over what he says is his lack of involvement in its 125th anniversary celebrations last year.
Mr Haitink has vowed he will never again conduct the band. The feeling may well be mutual, though I haven't asked.
Sadly, however, the wonderful relationship between the orchestra and Mariss Jansons will soon be coming to an end. His health has been problematic for some years, and he has just announced that he will be giving up his chief conductorship next year.
So there is not much time left to hear a consummate musician utterly in tune with consummate players. And to witness a remarkable example of leadership in action, with the result of it blooming before your very ears.
Peter Day will be playing and talking about music that has influenced him (not Bruckner) on Saturday Classics on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday June 7 at 14:00.
|
Work on the latest stage of the redevelopment of a Swansea hospital is expected to start this summer at a cost of almost £19m.
|
A planning application for the four-storey building at Morriston Hospital has been submitted.
It will house the diabetes centre and occupational health department, as well as clinical support staff.
Some 500 staff will transfer from what has been described as outdated and cramped accommodation.
Contractors are also close to finishing a separate £60m complex that will provide a new hospital main entrance and a variety of patient services.
It is expected that the new entrance will be open in the autumn, with the building fully in use by the end of January.
|
Are children getting the treatments they need?
In this week's Scrubbing Up, Professor Neena Modi, vice president for science and research, at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health argues that not carrying out more research on children is hampering treatment options.
|
VIEWPOINTBy Professor Neena Modi, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Children and young people are being denied the right to benefit from clinical research.
There is a mistaken and outdated notion that they need to be protected from clinical research, but the reality is that children are being harmed by not being included.
The importance of children taking part in clinical research cannot be underestimated.
Children are not small adults; the medicines and treatments children receive need to be trialled and shown to be effective in them, and not simply assumed to be from the results of research in adults.
Better treatments needed
Without properly conducted studies many children will continue to be given inferior treatments.
There are many instances where an established treatment has been shown to be ineffective or harmful when subjected to rigorous and objective evaluation.
For example, it was only after many years of painstaking research that the routine use of oxygen to resuscitate babies at birth was found to be harmful.
Understandably parents may be concerned about involving their sick child in research and want to protect them from 'rogue' researchers. But protection should not mean prevention. Children need high quality research, not "no research".
Parents who have the process of clinical research explained to them usually want their children to have the opportunity to participate, but unfortunately this does not always happen.
Attitudes to children's research, even among regulatory bodies can be illogical and therefore confusing to parents.
A clinical trial aims to demonstrate that one treatment is superior to another, therefore there will be a group that benefits and one that will not.
This is not unethical because if the research was not conducted, many patients would continue to receive the inferior treatment. For example, babies would still be receiving the formerly accepted 'best' treatment of routine oxygen for resuscitation at birth and many would die or suffer as a result.
An honest dialogue should explain clinical uncertainty and that, although the possibility of risk cannot be totally eliminated, it is minimised through research regulation.
This means that there are extensive measures in place to ensure that studies are well designed, that any possible risk is minimised, and that there are processes to identify harm.
Children deserve the right to participate in research designed to improve outcomes and reduce uncertainty about treatments.
Promoting research
Health professionals and government need to do more to promote research to benefit children. The number of doctors who are educated in research methods has shrunk as the way in which universities are funded and doctors are trained has changed.
There are over 3,000 paediatric consultants in the UK but only 165 are research leaders. Not all doctors need to be research leaders but all health professionals should be trained in research methods.
Less than one in 10 NHS paediatric consultants has identified time for research, in contrast to one in four adult physicians.
What needs to change?
Parents must insist on the right of their children to participate in clinical research. Patient demand was instrumental in improving outcomes for adults with HIV and breast cancer.
New generations of doctors and nurses must be equipped with research skills.
Health services managers and regulators must ensure a supportive NHS research environment.
Research must be portrayed honestly and responsibly by the media and they must be well informed in order to reliably educate the public.
The responsibility to enable more children to benefit from research rests with all of us - parents, health professionals, managers and the media.
|
In our series of Letters from Africa, journalist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani speaks to one of the first African students at the UK's prestige Eton college about his experience of racism in the 1960s and 70s, and about his views on the current debate about apologising for slavery and colonial-era statues.
Warning: This article contains racial slurs
|
Three years after obtaining his school-leaving certificate from Eton College in the UK in 1969, Dillibe Onyeama received an official letter informing him that he was banned from visiting the prestigious school.
He had written a book which caused a furore in the UK and offence to the school that has educated generations of British royalty and statesmen.
Published in 1972 when he was 21, the book detailed Onyeama's experiences of racism during his four years at the boarding school for boys.
"As far as the school saw it, I was indicting them as a racist institution," Onyeama told me.
"People come to Africa and write all sorts of indicting and shaming experiences and publish it in books and nobody says anything," he added.
Onyeama was taunted on a daily basis at Eton by fellow students: "Why are you black?" "How many maggots are there in your hair?" "Does your mother wear a bone in her nose?"
He usually responded with his fist and once broke his hand punching another boy's jaw.
"I gained a reputation for violence," he said.
When Onyeama performed poorly in academics or excelled in sports, the students attributed it to his race.
When he obtained seven O-level passes, the entire school was confounded.
"'Tell me Onyeama, how did you do it?' I am asked time and time again," he wrote in the book. "'You cheated, didn't you?'"
Contacted by the BBC for comment, Eton headmaster Simon Henderson said: "I am appalled by the racism Mr Onyeama experienced at Eton. Racism has no place in civilised society, then or now."
He added that he would be "inviting Mr Onyeama to meet so as to apologise to him in person, on behalf of the school, and to make clear that he will always be welcome at Eton".
A long journey to Eton
Onyeama was registered to attend Eton on the day he was born in January 1951.
His father, Charles Dadi Umeha Onyeama, studied at Oxford University, worked as a magistrate in British-ruled Nigeria, and mixed well with the top of British society, eventually becoming a judge at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
With the man's connections, his second son was at birth the first black boy to be registered in the elite school.
But when the time came, Onyeama failed the entrance exams. Another Nigerian boy, Tokunbo Akintola, thus became the first black student in Eton, attracting global media attention.
Onyeama eventually enrolled two terms after Akintola.
But the 14-year-olds, who came from different ethnic groups, did not get along.
"The very person who should have been my best friend, given my predicament, turns out to be more of an enemy," Onyeama wrote.
Akintola left Eton after about two years and so Onyeama became the first black person to complete his education at the prestigious school.
Only one other African was enrolled while he was there - Ethiopian Prince Zera Yacob, who arrived in Onyeama's final year.
King Henry VI founded it in 1440 to provide free education to 70 poor boys
Now charges annual fee of more than £40,000 ($50,000)
Enrolmentstands at 1,320
Aidoffered to some; 90 paid no fees at all in 2018/19
Black pupilstotal about 7%, Asians 8% and those of mixed ethnicity 5%
Alumniinclude royals, celebrities and politicians
Onyeama began writing about his experiences at Eton while he was still a student.
"I watched a movie in those days called Tom Brown's School Days, where the hero was ragged very badly and roasted over a fire," he said.
"That was the motivation to sort of put pen to paper and start recording some of my own experiences when I was about 17 years old."
Onyeama's book is still in print in Nigeria. He would retain the original title, Nigger at Eton, if it were republished in the UK, he insists.
"It is symbolic. I am a black author. I am using it," he said.
"This was a word flung at me."
Eton 'means nothing' in Nigeria
After Eton, Onyeama got a diploma from the Premier School of Journalism. He returned to Nigeria In 1981 to set up his own publishing company, Delta Publications.
"In England, I got jobs because of Eton," he said. "It was a passport to any employment at all. But not here in Nigeria. It means nothing at all. Whatever benefits you accrued, like English refinement and etiquette and decorum, it isn't very important here."
Onyeama last visited the UK in the 1990s, and felt that the racial situation had got "much, much better" since his schooling days in Eton.
"They've applied good sense. They've said: 'Look, if you want to have peace, for God's sake, make a more conducive atmosphere for all races and offer them a sense of belonging', and to a large extent that has been happening in Britain," he added.
What about slavery and statues?
He has written 28 books, including The Story of an African God, a biography of his late grandfather, Onyeama the Okuru Oha of Agbaja, a powerful and influential slave trader who became an ally of the British colonialists.
"The slave trade was terrible but it is a historical reality," Onyeama said.
He sees no need for his family to apologise for the actions of his grandfather, who became an "apprentice" slave trader after his mother died when he was still a child.
"My grandfather had no rudiments of any form of education at all and he knew nothing beyond the 'kill or be killed' way of life in those days," Onyeama said.
"It wasn't done as a means of oppression. It was a means of livelihood and a demonstration of power and might. It was the way of life in the old Africa before the white man brought civilisation, so to speak," he added.
He describes as both unfortunate and good the call by protesters in the UK to pull down monuments of those who are regarded as racists or white supremacists.
"It is unfortunate because those monuments represent history - reminding people, educating people," he said.
But he believes that the British should have known better about the slave trade, while Africans who collaborated with them were merely ignorant.
"You can't compare people who were not learned and people who were educated," he said.
"The British claimed to have been the most exposed in the world so they have no excuse for ignorance. They can't eulogise people who did terrible things to others just because they happened to be black," he added.
Onyeama's ban from Eton was finally lifted about 10 years ago, after he received an invitation to a reunion. He was too busy to attend.
He is in touch with some of his former schoolmates on Facebook but they do not talk about the racial abuse he experienced.
"That's all in the past," Onyeama said.
More Letters from Africa:
Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
|
The red poppy many of us pin to our coats in November was originally created to help us remember those who have fought in war.
|
What it means, however, some of us still fight over.
From minor squabbles about how and when to wear it, to more serious discussions about how it affects our thinking about war, the red remembrance poppy is much more than a flower.
Here's our short guide to poppies.
The red poppy
What it means: We wear a red poppy over any other flower because it grows wild in many fields in northern France and Belgium. This is where some of the deadliest battles of World War One took place and many men died. Poppies are tough flowers, and can grow anywhere, but are also delicate. It is thought they are a fitting emblem to remember those who died.
The Royal British Legion is one of the main charities associated with Remembrance Sunday. It explains that the red poppy is an emblem of remembrance and hope. It stresses it is not "blood" red or a sign of support for war and death. Neither should it be seen as a symbol of religion or politics, the charity states on its website.
When to wear it: Poppy etiquette prompts complaints every year. Some say you should wear your poppy from 31 October. Others say you should wear it in the 11 days leading up to Remembrance Day. Some believe you shouldn't wear one until after bonfire night. The Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal was launched on Thursday 23 October this year.
How to wear it: Many say on the left, symbolising that you keep those who died close to your heart. It's also where military medals are worn. Others say men should wear it on the left and women on the right, like you would a badge or brooch. The Queen however wears hers on the left.
There are also many people who say that the leaf should point to 11 o'clock. The Royal British Legion told Newsbeat: "There is no right or wrong way to wear a poppy. It is a matter of personal choice whether an individual chooses to wear a poppy and also how they choose to wear it. The best way to wear a poppy is to wear it with pride."
Controversy: Some people feel that the red poppy has become political, and that MPs use the compassion of those wearing a poppy to justify war. News presenter Jon Snow famously refused to wear a poppy on air, saying viewer demands for him to wear a poppy were a kind of "poppy fascism". He said he would wear a poppy "not on the telly... but on Remembrance Sunday in concert with others".
RAF veteran and activist Harry Leslie Smith is 91. He tweeted earlier this week that he wouldn't be wearing a poppy. You might have seen his face before because he spoke about the NHS at the Labour party conference.
Harry says he doesn't now wear a poppy.
Barbara Windsor swore live on Sky News as she described how she felt about people who didn't wear the poppy earlier this month. She later apologised for her outburst.
The Scottish poppy
What it means: While still a symbol of remembrance that helps raise money for veterans, poppies sold in Scotland have four petals and no leaf.
Why? They are produced by different organisations. While the Royal British Legion produces poppies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Poppyscotland produces poppies for Scotland. All poppies in Scotland are made by veterans with disabilities in a factory in Edinburgh.
Historically these two organisations have always been independent. When poppies were first produced in London, they were so popular that there were not many left for the Scottish population. The wife of General Haig, the British commander on the Western Front for most of World War One, set up a poppy factory exclusively for Scottish people. Poppyscotland merged with The Royal British Legion group of charities in 2011, but operates independently.
On the lack of leaf: Poppyscotland says on its website: "Apart from being botanically incorrect it would cost £15,000 to make leaves for all poppies - money we feel is better spent on veterans. We might be slightly biased but we think the Scottish poppy looks nicer too!"
"For historical reasons, there are two poppy appeals north and south of the border and the Scottish poppy and the poppy distributed in the rest of the UK are different," the Royal British Legion and Poppyscotland told Newsbeat.
The poppy in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
Irish soldiers fought and died in the world wars. The Royal British Legion holds a Poppy Appeal both in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However recent history means the Poppy is a lot more controversial in these countries.
A period known as The Troubles began in the late 1960s and lasted for nearly 30 years. It involved fighting between those who wanted to break away from the UK and those who wanted to stay loyal to the Queen.
During The Troubles more than 3000 people died. British troops deployed to Northern Ireland soon became involved in running street battles and fierce fighting with anti-British paramilitary groups. People on both sides were killed by bombs and bullets.
One of the blackest days in the Troubles saw the pro-Irish militant group, the IRA, bombing a Remembrance Day ceremony in Enniskillen, when 11 people were killed and more than 60 injured.
What it means: The Poppy is a symbol of remembrance for those who have died in conflict. However all funds from selling poppies go to The Royal British Legion, which helps members of the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, Reservists, veterans and their families. It's been associated with Britishness in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This association is divisive.
The Royal British Legion told Newsbeat: "The red poppy is a universal symbol of Remembrance and hope, including hope for a positive future and peaceful world, it is inclusive of all who wish to wear it, is non-political and does not depict support for war.
"We take the view that the poppy represents sacrifices made in the defence of freedom; and so the decision to wear it must be a matter of personal choice and we would never insist upon it."
Controversy: Footballer James McClean, who is from Derry in Northern Ireland, said he will not wear a poppy on his West Brom shirt to commemorate Remembrance Day. He's received death threats for refusing to wear it in the past.
In an interview with the official West Brom match day programme, he said: "If the poppy was simply about World War One and Two victims alone, I'd wear it without a problem.
"I would wear it every day of the year if that was the thing but it doesn't, it stands for all the conflicts that Britain has been involved in. Because of the history where I come from in Derry, I cannot wear something that represents that."
Meanwhile, MMA fighter Conor McGregor, from Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, came under fire for wearing a poppy pin.
He wrote on Facebook: "I know where my allegiance lies and what I do for my country. I don't need a stupid little flower with a 100 different meanings to tell me if I do or do not represent my country. Check the facts of its original meaning. ALL soldiers. ALL wars."
The red poppy hijab
What it means: Student Tabinda-Kauser Ishaq, 24, designed the poppy hijab to appeal to the many British Muslims who mark Remembrance Sunday. She also wanted to raise awareness of the 400,000 Muslim soldiers and 1.2 million Indian soldiers who fought alongside British troops in World War One. Sughra Ahmed, president of the Islamic Society of Britain. said that the poppy hijab was a way "for ordinary Muslim citizens to take some attention away from extremists who seem to grab the headlines."
How to wear it: Models were pictured wearing these styles in pictures promoting the poppy hijab. The Islamic Society of Britain and integration think tank British Future, are selling the scarf for £22 with all proceeds to the Poppy Appeal.
Controversy: It's been accused of perpetuating Islamophobia, suggesting Muslim women need to "prove" their allegiance to Britain. However Sughra Ahmed, president of the Islamic Society of Britain, said: "I think one principle should be clear: everybody should make their own choice. There are no loyalty tests here. But I do find it a shame that many people are surprised to hear that many British Muslims take part in Remembrance today."
The white poppy
What it means: Like the red poppy, it is designed to help remember those who have died in conflict, while emphasising a lasting commitment to peace. It was first introduced by the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1933 and is now sold by the Peace Pledge Union. Their motto is: "War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determined not to support any kind of war. I am also determined to work for the removal of all causes of war."
Jenny Jones: Am wearing both poppies. Remember the dead, but don't repeat the mistakes that killed them.
How to wear it: Either on its own or alongside a red poppy. Jenny Jones, the former deputy mayor of London, tweeted a picture of her wearing a red and white poppy. She is currently a London Assembly member.
Controversy: In the 1930s, some women lost their jobs for wearing a white poppy, on the basis that their campaign undermined those who had died in service.
Controversy over the white poppy began again in the 1980s after Margaret Thatcher criticised it.
However, the Royal British Legion says on its website: "We have no objection to white poppies, or any group expressing their views. We see no conflict in wearing the red poppy alongside the white poppy. We do ask that the items are not offered alongside each other however as this would confuse the public. "
The purple poppy
What it means: This poppy was created in 2006 to remember the animal victims of war. All donations go to the charity Animal Aid, who say of their appeal: "During human conflicts, animals have been used as messengers, for detection, scouting and rescue, as beasts of burden and on the frontline.
"Please wear a purple poppy and help us to raise awareness of these forgotten victims."
A spokesperson for Animal Aid told Newsbeat: "Animals are not heroes, they are victims. They do not give their lives, they are taken."
How to wear it: Alongside your purple, white and/or red poppy.
The controversy: This is a relatively new poppy, first conceived in 2006.
The Royal British Legion says of the purple poppy: "While organisations use Remembrance to draw attention to their causes through poppies of many colours, the Legion is the only organisation which acts as the national custodian of Remembrance. We are also the welfare and campaigning organisation representing all men and women who are in service, who have served, and their families.
"We see no conflict in wearing the red poppy next to the purple or white poppy. Many animal rights supporters also support our work. We do ask that the items are not offered alongside each other however as this would confuse the public."
For more stories like this one you can now download the BBC Newsbeat app straight to your device. For iOS go here. For Android go here.
|
The Isle of Man is to take part in an international survey to establish the levels of drinking and drug taking in Manx teenagers.
|
The project, which is called European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), is led by Sweden.
It aims to identify teenage drinking patterns, levels of alcohol-related problems and illicit drug use.
In 2009 it was found that 61% of island teenagers were drinking to excess, one of the highest figures in Europe.
The survey takes information from many European cities including Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Switzerland.
Home Affairs Department Member Bill Malarkey said: "Pupils should be encouraged to participate and to give honest answers as it is important we get accurate statistics."
|
Agreeing a price for any drug is a tricky business.
In the UK, the NHS is the main buyer and prices are set through a voluntary scheme between manufacturers and the government, trying to strike the right balance of serving patients and generating money to keep the drug pipeline going. Profits are capped to stop prices creeping too high.
|
By Michelle RobertsHealth editor, BBC News online
In the US, the buyers are private insurance companies as well as the government through the Medicare and Medicaid system. It's a market and prices can go up and down, depending on what people are willing to pay.
In recent years, pharmaceutical research and development has slowed and companies have to think carefully about what they invest in. Blockbusters such as Viagra pull in money, but drugs for rare diseases can be less attractive. Not many patients use them, and so turning a profit may be difficult.
Turing Pharmaceuticals says that is why it has hiked the price of Daraprim - a drug used for treating a rare but sometimes deadly infection called toxoplasmosis.
Greater good?
Turing's controversial founder and chief executive, former hedge-fund manager Martin Shkreli, who was fired from his last biotech venture, says he isn't doing this out of greed, but for justifiable business reasons.
He says he has put systems in place to give the drug away free to those who really can't afford it and that some of the profit made will be ploughed into the research and development of new and better drugs.
He hopes that by creating a market, other drug companies will join in on this innovation to find new treatments for rarer diseases.
For those who must buy it, the price tag is reported to be $750 (£485) a tablet, compared with $13.50 before the increase. It's thought to cost about $1 to produce, but Mr Shkreli says that does not include other costs such as distribution.
In the UK, the same drug is currently sold by GSK at a cost of £13 for 30 tablets.
Critics say the decision to allow such a massive price jump in the US is outrageous and is more about lining pockets than driving innovation.
The scrutiny of US drug prices is increasing.
In the past few weeks, there was a similar outcry over a recent price increase of a drug for tuberculosis in the US. That company, Rodelis Therapeutics, quickly agreed to return the drug to its former owner, a non-profit organisation affiliated with a university.
On Wall Street, biotech shares fell sharply on Monday after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Turing Pharmaceuticals of "price gouging" and pledged to take action against companies hiking prices for specialty drugs.
If money talks, hurting the profits of pharmaceutical companies would send a clear and loud message, but at what cost? Hopefully not drug innovation.
|
Firefighters are tackling a blaze at the former Swansea Boys' Club overlooking the city.
|
Mid and West Wales fire service said it was called to the site, in the Mayhill area, at 20:15 GMT.
Smoke could be seen pouring from the derelict building as flames lit the night.
About 19 firefighters were on the scene with three fire engines and a water bowser. It is not yet known how the fire started.
Developers had proposed to transform the empty building into 23 new modern residential flats that would have given panoramic views across the city.
|
When faced with having to move their disabled child to a different school or college, families face difficult decisions. Now, reality TV star and ex-model, Katie Price, is on that journey with her eldest son, Harvey, who is about to make that transition.
|
By Beth RoseBBC Ouch
It was a quiet 18th birthday for Harvey. There were balloons in the garden and presents were opened, including a frog lunchbox and an iPad. For a treat, Katie took him to one of his favourite places - the local train station.
"This is the best train ever. I love it," Harvey says, taking photographs.
His birthday marks another milestone. It is time to leave school and find a college, a process the family has filmed for BBC One documentary, Katie Price: Harvey and Me.
"It's pretty predictable to know what will happen with the other kids," Katie says, who has four other children. "But with Harvey it's not predictable because he's got complex needs."
She says searching for a specialist college has been a "new journey" for her. "It's not easy and it's terrifying."
Harvey was born in 2002. He was diagnosed with Septo-optic Dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder affecting his eyesight, as well as autism and Prader-Willi syndrome which can cause learning difficulties and behavioural problems.
He is unable to control his weight and requires 24-hour care.
"It's not straightforward, where you can just choose a college," Katie says. "They have to have the right nursing team and know how to deal with his challenging behaviour."
In the UK, children with long-term health conditions are cared for by child health and social care services until they turn 18 and transfer to adult services.
It can be a precarious moment and often involves a lot of upheaval including meeting new teams and specialists.
Like many families, the Prices have been warned the most suitable college may be a long way from their Essex home, because there are few of them and they are widely dispersed.
For Harvey, the most appropriate include those in Camden, Wales, Sunderland and Somerset.
The distance, and Harvey's age, means he will become a full-time residential student, including weekends.
To make sure they find the perfect home, Katie and Harvey have visited as many as possible. It was a process made difficult by Covid-19 and Katie having broken the bones in both her heels in a water park accident.
'Crisis point'
"He needs to have his independence and I think he'll enjoy it - make friends," Katie says. "I want him to be in a room with his mates while he plays the keyboard and sings his songs."
At Harvey's current school he is a weekly boarder. Making the decision for him to board was difficult and prompted by the distress he felt at the daily travel from home to school, and the impact on the family.
"I was at crisis point," Katie says. "It was affecting the other kids, it was the danger-zone for him, smashing the house up.
"I hated him going to residential. I cried. But I saw he was happy there."
As the documentary reveals, there are holes in the walls of the Price house where Harvey has punched them.
His autism can lead to meltdowns when he becomes overwhelmed or distressed by a situation. For Harvey, loud noises like slamming doors can trigger this and lead him to hit his head or punch a wall - common coping mechanisms.
It is a situation Katie had to consider when they looked at colleges - would Harvey be safe? Could the staff handle him?
During a visit to The Orpheus Centre, a college in Surrey which provides therapy to disabled young adults through the performing arts, a loud and unexpected noise distressed Harvey and he threw his head repeatedly against a door.
Katie told him to count to 10 to control the stress but another noise sounded and he kicked out. The staff encouraged him outside where it was quieter, but it signalled the end of the visit.
Katie will often touch Harvey or speak with him to maintain his calmness. The duo banter constantly and have scripted phrases they say to each other - when Harvey says "Hip, hip," Katie replies, "Hooray".
The scripting is sometimes considered similar to stimming (self-stimulatory behaviours) that many autistic people like to use to relieve anxiety or show happiness.
When they visited National Star college in Cheltenham, Harvey was distressed and worried he would have to stay overnight.
He didn't want to get out of the car and whimpered. Again, Katie reassured him and encouraged him to wear his ear defenders. Because this isn't a regular day for Harvey, the teacher, Alice, showed him a "social story" with pictures of what he could expect from the hours ahead.
She decided to begin at the end with "goodbye" - so Harvey knew he would go home.
It was a difficult start, but when he visited the flats the students live in - with their own bathrooms and kitchens - and got to watch frogs and trains on a big screen in a sensory room, he was won over.
He described the college as "wicked" and excitedly said "yes Mum" when asked if he would be happy there.
Katie says: "The reason I want him to go full-time residential is because some weekends they might have disco nights or bowling and he might want to go and do that and not just come home to me. It gives him a choice."
But it is far from a done deal. It relies on much administration and the local authority agreeing to finance it.
Lynette Barrett, chief operations officer at the college, tells Katie: "We would put in a funding application to your local authority and that application would detail everything that we are going to provide for Harvey.
"For someone that is a part-time day student that may be £15,000 to £20,000 a year. For a student that is full time, all-year round residential with really high health care needs, that could be up to £300,000 to £350,000 a year."
It will be the Prices' local authority which makes the decision on whether to fund it or it may decide somewhere local is suitable.
The approval depends on Harvey's needs. Katie must ensure his Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) - a legally binding document in England detailing the support he must receive - is up to date.
"Everything about Harvey is in that plan," she says. "It's so time-consuming and you feel like you're alone, but you've just got to get on with it."
Katie must detail Harvey's education attainments, health problems and the medication he requires, as well as the tasks he can complete - whether he can cook for himself, dress, make the bed and wash.
The thought of Harvey leaving home is daunting for Katie, but a move she wants to pursue.
"As much as you smother your kids and you want them with you all the time, sometimes you have to let them go, just give them that bit of space to go and explore."
This year has been challenging for the family. Harvey is classed as extremely clinically vulnerable and has been shielding during the pandemic. He also spent some time in intensive care and his health is a constant concern.
"With Harvey the future is unpredictable, but I'll make sure that he's in a place where he thrives on happiness, excitement, joy and he looks forward to waking up."
Katie and Harvey have applied to National Star. They will find out in March if they have been successful.
UK viewers can watch Katie Price: Harvey and Me on Monday 25 January at at 20.30 GMT on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
For more disability news, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to the weekly podcast on BBC Sounds.
Around the BBC
Katie Price: Harvey and Me
Related Internet Links
National Star
|
Farmers in Pembrokeshire are being offered gorse and heather as a form of animal bedding after the price of straw soared following the heatwave.
|
It is being cut back in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park to control the fire risk on heathland.
And it is now being made available to farmers who can collect it for free.
Reduced gorse on the heathland is also expected to improve biodiversity, according to the park's farm conservation officer, Geraint Jones.
It is the first time the national park has offered the material to local farmers, although similar schemes have been used on the Llyn Peninsula and Anglesey.
The National Trust also uses gorse and heather on its farms.
Mr Jones said: "Feedback from users has been very, very positive.
"There are multiple benefits - an alternative to straw which is very expensive, decreasing the fuel load of these heathlands, and, structurally, we're improving the heathland."
|
A driver crashed her car through the doors and into a petrol station's shop.
|
The Renault Clio ended up among the goods on sale at the Yarl service station on Bishops Rise, Hatfield, at lunchtime on Friday.
Hertfordshire Police said the driver was not believed to be injured and no petrol pump was involved.
BCH Road Policing said on Twitter: "These drive-thru petrol stations will never take off..."
The garage has been closed for structural damage assessment.
|
It tells of a city where empires, cultures and religions collided. A building that bears mosaics of Jesus and the Virgin Mary beside calligraphy reading "Allah" and "the Prophet Mohamed". There is no greater symbol of the clash of civilisations here than Hagia Sophia.
|
By Mark LowenBBC News, Istanbul
For almost 1,000 years it stood as the most important Orthodox cathedral in the world, the religious heart of the largely Christian Byzantine empire whose capital was then called Constantinople.
But in 1453 the city fell to the Ottomans, Hagia Sophia became a mosque and Christianity began its slow demise here.
As Turkey grew out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, that decline accelerated. When Pope Francis arrives here this week, he will visit a country whose population has fallen from 20% Christian 100 years ago to around 0.2% today.
'Huge brain drain'
"No country in the region - including Iran - is as homogenous in terms of Islam as Turkey," says writer Cengiz Aktar. "It's a mono-colour country - it's a Muslim country."
After the Turkish Republic was born in 1923, it carried out a "population exchange" with Greece to create more ethnic and religious consistency. More than a million Greeks were forced out of Turkey to Greece while around 300,000 Muslims from Greece were relocated here.
The Greeks of Istanbul were initially saved but after a crippling wealth tax, anti-Greek pogroms in 1955 and mass expulsions in 1964, the Greek community was left in tatters. And so was the Orthodox Christianity they practised.
"The ethnic cleansing of these non-Muslim minorities was a huge brain drain," says Mr Aktar, who has created a new exhibition on the loss of the Greeks here.
"It also meant the disappearance of the bourgeoisie because not only were they wealthy but they were artisans. Istanbul lost its entire Christian and Jewish heritage."
Hidden crosses
It was not just the exodus of the Greeks that hit Christianity here.
Armenians were the other large Christian community. Hundreds of thousands were deported in 1915. They were either killed or died from starvation and disease. The label "genocide" is rejected by the Turkish state. From a population of two million Armenians, around 50,000 remain today.
Robert Koptas shows me around the office of his Armenian weekly newspaper, Agos. In 2007, the editor, Hrant Dink, was murdered outside by Turkish nationalists. Seven years on, Mr Koptas says the small Armenian community feels intimidated.
"Armenians fear expressing their religious identity here," he says.
"Most of the believers hide their cross inside their shirt. They can't open it and walk freely on the street because they could prompt a reaction. I don't want to say all the Turkish population is against Christianity but nationalism is so high that people are afraid to express themselves."
That is now the worry among the Christian minority here: that Turkish Muslim nationalism has grown under the Islamist-rooted government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister for 11 years before being elected president last August.
Dead missionaries
Mr Erdogan has made moves to support the Christians, such as passing a law to return confiscated state property to them and allowing Christian religious classes in schools. But he constantly stresses his Islamic identity, his support base is conservative Muslim and he whips up the nationalists here, the mood hardening against Christians.
Catholics, the smallest Christian minority in Turkey, have felt the impact.
A spate of murders of Catholic missionaries and priests a few years ago left the community in shock. At the Catholic basilica in Istanbul, there is Mass for the few.
"To be a Turk now means you have to be Muslim," says Father Iulian Pista, who serves here.
"In the past, being a pious Muslim was looked down upon. Now Friday prayers are encouraged. Society here is becoming Islamised. Recently, I've seen youngsters defecate and urinate in my church. They shout 'Allahu akbar' [English: God is great]. I also believe God is great but the way they say it is threatening."
Islam was sidelined from the constitutionally secular Turkish republic founded in 1923. But as a nation state was formed here, the religion became part of Turkish national identity, something that has sharply accelerated under Mr Erdogan's leadership.
Old fears
New mosques are flourishing, while the world-famous Halki Orthodox theological school near Istanbul has remained closed since 1971 under Turkish nationalist pressure. One of the remaining Greeks of Turkey, Fotis Benlisoy, says the community feels squeezed: "The threatening feeling for non-Muslim minorities here is coming again.
"There are many reasons: language and policies of the government, the president and prime minister using more conservative references to Sunni identity, pejorative words for non-Muslim communities coming from members of the cabinet, so much circulating about Turkey's relations with Isis [the Islamic State militant group based in Syria and Iraq] - all of this is making us think we might need an escape strategy."
At the magnificent Panaghia Greek Orthodox Church in Istanbul, the morning liturgy is led by Bartholomew I, "ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople", a position still based here.
It is a reminder of this country's heritage - and of a Christian faithful that is small but defiant. As modern Turkey builds its identity, the question still remains: can it embrace true religious freedom - or will nationalism stand in the way?
|
Authorities have shut down newspapers in Indian-administered Kashmir seeking to end violent protests sparked by the killing of a prominent separatist militant. Shujaat Bukhari, editor of the Rising Kashmir, writes on why the news blackout does not surprise him.
|
A friend called me on Saturday morning and was anxious to know whether all was well with our newspaper.
"Has your printing press also been raided?" he asked.
I told him I would have to check. He said other newspapers were updating their websites saying their presses had been raided.
I thought hard about whether we had published anything "inflammatory" after the protests began, but could think of nothing.
Not shocking
But when I called the office, one of our employees confirmed that that our printing press had been raided, staff held and printed copies of the newspaper seized.
I was not surprised.
Authorities had forced us to suspend publication during the protests against Indian rule in 2008 and 2010 as well.
When Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri separatist convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament attack was hanged in 2013, copies of newspapers were seized from the press and the stands. I remember my newspaper ceased publication for four days. During the 2010 agitation, we were forced to stop publishing for 10 days.
This time more than 40 people have already been killed in violence after the killing of a prominent militant, Burhan Wani. More than 1,800 others have been injured. A curfew remains in place - along with curbs on mobile and internet access.
Imposing an information blockade had been part of the state "strategy" in 2010 as well and the scene is rewinding this time.
Mobile phone services - including data - except that of a government owned service provider have been barred, cable TV is the off the air and some 70 newspapers - in English, Urdu and Kashmiri languages - have officially been asked to stop publication for a few days.
Only a handful of broadband connections are helping us keep in touch with the rest of the world.
Not new
For us these restrictions are not new.
Since the outbreak of armed rebellion in Kashmir in early 1990, media in the region has had to work on a razor's edge in what is effectively the world's most heavily militarised zone.
Thirteen journalists have been killed during the conflict since 1990. Threats to life, intimidation, assault, arrest and censorship have been part of the life of a typical local journalist.
Journalists have been targeted by security forces and militants alike. Publications have been denied federal government adverts -a key source of revenue for smaller newspapers.
If a local journalist reports an atrocity by the security forces, he risks being dubbed "anti-national". Highlighting any wrong doing by the militants or separatists could easily mean that he is "anti-tehreek" (anti-movement) or a "collaborator".
Kashmir's Education Minister Naeem Akhtar has said the media ban was "reluctant decision".
"It is a temporary measure to address an extraordinary situation… In our opinion, there is an emotional lot, very young, out in the field, who get surcharged due to certain projections in the media, which results in multiplication of tragedies," he told The Indian Express newspaper.
By banning newspapers, a government that is desperately grappling to normalise the situation, has opened up space for rumour mills to flourish that could aggravate the already surcharged atmosphere.
Media should not be seen as an enemy in a democratic set up. Stifling the media does not help to strengthen the democracy that has been under threat in Kashmir for such a long time.
|
I've been to see some Brexit lambs in Redditch this week. Born in March they will be ready for slaughter at the end of October, almost exactly when we are due to leave the European Union. And how we leave, with or without a deal, will have a drastic impact on the price the farmer gets for them. Or indeed if they will at all.
|
David Gregory-KumarScience, Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent
About a third of our lambs go for export and they usually go to European countries. But in parts of the Midlands, some farmers have flocks that are entirely for export and we also have companies like Farmers Fresh in Kenilworth that have built up a strong business by supplying meat for the export trade.
Brexit is already having a big impact on sheep farmers. Across the UK the number of breeding ewes has dropped by about 20% as farmers scale back production, unsure exactly what is going to happen at the end of October. And what really worries them is a no-deal Brexit.
Frightening
Sheep farmer Sam Jones voted leave but he told me a no-deal Brexit would be "frightening" for his business.
If we leave without a deal then automatically all our exports are covered by World Trade Organisation rules. These introduce tariffs, or taxes, on lots of things we export. There's a lot of complex history behind the levels of the various tariffs and what they apply to, but farmers in particular get it in the neck.
For sheep going for export, the tariff is technically 12% of the value of the lamb plus a fixed number of Euros, but in reality it works out at about 40% of the price of the carcass. And that's why sheep farmers like Sam are so worried. If we leave with no deal then on 31 October, a French customer can buy his lamb for £100, and 24 hours later, on 1 November, it will cost them £140.
The tariff is collected by the EU and paid by the customers buying the lamb from our farmers. But an increase of £40 instantly makes our lamb uncompetitive.
Consequences
Sam's profit margin on a lamb is just under a pound, same for Farmers Fresh, so they can't hope to swallow up the price difference. Any lambs they sell will sell at a loss so instead exporters will try to sell at home and that will lead to a glut of lamb here in the UK. That will likely mean a price crash so even farmers who only supply the UK lamb market will be affected.
Despite the drastic impact no deal would have on his business, Sam Jones says he only really became aware of the issue a few weeks ago.
It may be a political bargaining tactic but when politicians talk of "walking away without a deal", it's an idea that will have very real consequences for farmers across the Midlands.
|
"Where now? What are we going to do after today?"
|
By Jayne McCormackBBC News NI Political Reporter
That's the question many have been asking since the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee was held.
Anyone watching the service will have heard the words of Father Martin Magill, as he addressed those gathered in St Anne's Cathedral.
He asked: "Why in God's name does it take the death of a 29-year-old woman, with her whole life in front of her, to get to this point?"
He knew exactly where he was directing his criticism - right at the Stormont politicians sitting in front of him, who have been at odds over how to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
He welcomed the symbolism of the DUP and Sinn Féin leaders standing together in the Creggan last week - but pointed out how rare it is to see in these strained political times.
There are some who now feel Lyra McKee's death could be the turning point, a wake-up call for the political parties to resolve their differences.
Many hope it will be.
But sometimes optimism needs to be supported with a dose of realism.
The Reverend Harold Good, who played a key role in the peace process, knows this better than most.
He told the Stephen Nolan Show there had been other moments - including the aftermath of the Omagh bombing in 1998 - where "our hopes were that this would bring some kind of a turning of the tide".
He said Fr Magill's comments were a "moment of opportunity to challenge" the political leaders.
But have they taken on board what he was saying?
Already, DUP MP Sammy Wilson has said he's not convinced that Ms McKee's murder is the beginning of real change.
His party leader Arlene Foster insists the DUP is ready to go back into government immediately - and wants the issues holding things up to be addressed alongside a return to power-sharing in a parallel talks process.
But that isn't a new idea and Sinn Féin rejected it when the DUP first suggested it in 2017.
Their view is that a deal was firmly on the table in February 2018, which the DUP walked away from.
The DUP has always said it was merely a draft proposal, and that they were not close to signing anything on the dotted line.
And so we return to much of what has already been heard over the past two years, with neither party budging on its respective positions.
Mrs Foster summed up the DUP view on Good Morning Ulster.
"It's not a balanced discussion if Sinn Féin get everything they want and my community is left with nothing, it can't be a five-nil situation," she said.
Sinn Féin negotiator Conor Murphy followed that by saying that restoration of the assembly could not be a "quick fix" and that "certain conditions" must be met first before his party will go back into government with the DUP.
The other parties at Stormont have been making their own attempts to push for all-party talks.
But ultimately every party, and the British and Irish governments, need to buy back into the process.
Rebuilding trust
The problems at Stormont are not merely about resolving matters of culture and language. It is also about two parties rebuilding the trust that's needed to share power.
That point was raised by victims' campaigner Alan McBride on BBC radio on Thursday morning.
He said that, having listened to the politicians' latest remarks, he believes "the whole concept of being a good neighbour in this society is gone".
The parties will be aware that public opinion could swiftly turn against them if they do not take some kind of action.
But, for the moment, there are elections to fight in Northern Ireland - and in fierce campaign battles, there are not too many moments of compromise.
Politicians have been told to stop blaming each other and sort it out now.
But with the assembly now down for two years and counting, that challenge may be easier said than done.
|
The killing of an American national by members of an endangered tribe in the Andaman islands off India's east coast has renewed concerns over the surreptitious practice of "tribal tourism" in the archipelago, Omkar Khandekar writes.
|
The indigenous islanders of North Sentinel, among the last of the "uncontacted" tribes in the world, killed 27-year-old John Allen Chau with arrows when he went to their island last week.
Police said that Chau had paid 25,000 rupees ($354; £275) to six local fishermen to take him to North Sentinel. Media reports suggested he wanted to introduce the islanders to Christianity.
Andaman is home to five "particularly vulnerable" tribes. They are the Jarawas, North Sentinelese, Great Andamanese, Onge and Shompen. The Jarawas and the North Sentinelese haven't integrated with the mainstream population yet. This makes them a source of intrigue for many of the 500,000 tourists who visit the islands every year.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs passed a notification exempting foreign nationals from having to acquire restricted area permits (RAP) to visit 29 islands in the archipelago.
The list includes nine islands in Nicobar and two in Andaman, occupied by tribal and indigenous communities considered "particularly vulnerable". Among them was also North Sentinel island.
But authorities insist tourists will still have to obtain permission from the district authority and the forest department to do so.
The Jarawas live in a 1,028km forest reserve between the south and middle Andamans.
To see them, many tourists take a two-hour bus ride from Andaman's capital Port Blair to Baratang which is home to limestone caves and mud volcanoes. To do so, they travel on the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR) which cuts through the Jarawa reserves.
In 2013, the Supreme Court banned tourists from taking the ATR after a video shot by a journalist showed policemen forcing six Jarawa women to dance for tourists. The court reversed the decision after the state administration submitted a notification promising that no tourist or commercial establishment in the area would be permitted.
"The administration has long prioritised the livelihood of the locals," says Manish Chandi from the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team, who has been studying the islands for the past 18 years.
"After the court's ruling, it set up a ferry to Baratang island from Port Blair. It was a clever move. If questioned, they could always say it has made an alternative to the road available and the choice now rests on the tourists. But invariably, tourists 'choose' the road."
There is no direct connection to the North Sentinel islands, which are located 50km west of the capital Port Blair. There is also frequent patrolling by the coastguard to keep intrepid travellers at bay. And yet, says Mr Chandi, people keep attempting to see the North Sentinelese - often by bribing local fishermen.
"In 2013-14, a Mumbai-based businessman on a sports fishing boat was caught by the coastguard looking at the North Sentinelese," says Mr Chandi.
"Often, yachts carrying foreign tourists pass by the islands. But most are deterred by the coastguard patrol and make sure they don't lurk around."
Officials from the Department of Forest and Wildlife didn't respond to phone calls by the BBC. But Govind Ram, director of the Department of Tribal Welfare in the islands, indicates he is aware of the instances of tribal tourism.
"It's true that people have a fascination to see the tribal community," he says. "We have made all arrangements to restrict this from happening. There's regular patrolling by the police and officials from the tribal welfare department."
But given the size of the areas meant to be patrolled, he adds, "there is a chance that miscreants can enter".
And despite official insistence that foreigners will still need to obtain permission from the district authority and the forest department to visit Jarawa reserves and North Sentinel, conservationists say the scrapping of restricted area permits for these islands sends a signal that they will eventually be opened for tourism.
"The decision was taken unilaterally, without any consultation with local stakeholders," said Denis Giles, editor of the local newspaper Andaman Chronicles. "Instead of taking measures that might lead to tribal tourism, the government needs to continue with the 'hands off, eyes on' policy it has practised so far."
Earlier this month, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes said the relaxation needed to be "reconsidered".
Despite its widespread practice and extensive documentation by groups like Survival International, which works for tribal peoples' rights, two major tour operators the BBC spoke to denied any instance of tribal tourism in the islands.
"I have never had anyone inquire about tribal tourism," said M Vinod, the president of the Andaman Association of Tour Operators, which represents 102 of 176 registered tourism firms in the islands.
"Police security is high and movements are strictly regulated while passing through tribal reserves."
The killing of the US national, he adds, was only a case of a "security lapse".
"The relaxation of RAPs is a good move for tourism," he says. And his stand on including islands like North Sentinel?
"It's up to the government to decide which islands it wants to promote."
|
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers.
|
The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.
Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already lodged an appeal.
In recent months, scores of women have driven vehicles in Saudi cities in an effort to put pressure on the monarchy to change the law.
The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015.
Two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges, correspondents say.
|
Emergency services have been dealing with a serious double-decker bus fire in Aberdeenshire.
|
The alarm was raised in Crimond, near Peterhead, at about 14:25.
Stagecoach Bluebird said it involved the number 69 service.
The company said in a statement: "We are currently assisting the emergency services. Our driver is safe and well, as are the few passengers who were on board. We will carry out our own investigation into the cause."
|
Bangladesh's workers who sew clothes for Western consumers are amongst the lowest paid in the industry anywhere in the world. This week, hundreds died as a result of an accident that campaigners say could have been avoided.
|
By Emily YoungBBC News
A building that housed suppliers of clothes to European and American retailers collapsed on Wednesday. According to one union leader, garment industry workers had been told to ignore the cracks in the walls and continue with work as normal.
"The deaths as a result of the collapsed building in Bangladesh were a tragedy but not an accident," says Murray Worthy from the charity War on Want. He argues that the level of neglect and lack of regulation in the industry led to the disaster at the factory.
It happened just five months after a fire at the Bangladeshi firm Tazreen Fashions in which more than 100 people were killed.
Campaigners say that the rapid expansion of the industry over the past few years played a large role in this incident.
It is a common occurrence for buildings to see illegal floors added, according to Sam Mahers from Labour Behind the Label. In this case, one minister alleged that the whole building was illegally constructed.
"Many of these buildings are a death trap, often with no proper escape routes. So while this incident is shocking it is not surprising," Ms Mahers says.
Labour Behind the Label is part of a campaign pushing for retailers to sign up to the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement.
It argues for action that includes independent building inspections, training in workers' rights and "a long-overdue review of safety standards". So far, Germany's Tchibo and America's PVH Corp (owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have signed it.
Employees in Bangladeshi factories are mainly women and conditions can be harsh, unions say. Although they are contracted to work eight hours a day, if an important order comes in workers are often forced to work up to 18 hours in a day, or on their day off, to finish the job.
Supervisors monitor them closely, even down to the length of their toilet breaks, the BBC's Bangladesh correspondent Anbarasan Ethirajan explains.
Competing on price
The textile industry is an important one for the country, accounting for 17% of its gross domestic product (GDP) and more than three-quarters of total exports - most of which head to Europe and the US.
The amount of exports has increased dramatically over the past 30 years. In 1985 they were worth less than $1bn, but by 2012 the figure was nearly $20bn. That is mainly thanks to the country's cheap labour. Bangladeshi textile employees are among the lowest-paid of their kind in the world.
Sourcing Journal, a trade magazine for the textile manufacturing industry, points out that being cheap is the country's main way of remaining competitive against countries like China and Vietnam.
Companies are increasingly looking for cheaper alternatives and that is Bangladesh's only advantage as wages rise in China, says its editor Edward Hertzmann.
"It doesn't have a shorter lead-time nor does it produce any of the raw materials. The only way it can compete is on price. In some cases you get fabrics made in China and sent to Bangladesh to be stitched."
So far it is not clear which Western retailers the factory in question supplies. The British retailer Primark has acknowledged that it had a contract, as well as Canada's Loblaw and Denmark's PWT Group.
In a statement, Primark expressed concern for the families involved and said it "has been engaged for several years with NGOs and other retailers to review the Bangladeshi industry's approach to factory standards. Primark will push for this review to also include building integrity".
US supermarket giant Wal-Mart says it is "investigating across our global supply chain to see if a factory in this building was currently producing for Wal-Mart".
After the fire in Tazreen Fashions, which made clothes for the American company, the retailer terminated the contract with the supplier. Wal-Mart says it had subcontracted the work to the Tazreen factory without authorisation.
Buying power
Mr Hertzmann says that companies are starting to look more closely at their suppliers thanks to the number of campaigns on the issue and attention from the media.
"It won't change overnight, but more and more companies are sending people to factories to inspect them first-hand. But subcontracting out the work is often the problem and makes policing very difficult."
But what about the Western consumers who buy T-shirts for a few pounds or dollars?
Improving protection for workers in Bangladesh could lead to a small increase in prices, says Mr Worthy from War on Want.
"Our work suggests that most people in the UK would rather pay that [additional] cost than see this sort of human cost of cheap clothes," he argues.
But, he adds that while consumers should make their voices heard, the burden is on companies to change the way they operate, not on consumers to shop around.
|
The Jarl Squad from Shetland's famous annual Up Helly Aa fire festival this year is to head to America next month to take part in the Tartan Day parade.
|
Up Helly Aa is a spectacular event that celebrates Shetland's Viking heritage and culminates with the dramatic burning of a replica Viking galley.
It features a band of latter-day Viking warriors known as the Jarl Squad.
They will march down 6th Avenue in New York, in full Viking regalia, on 6 April.
|
Gabby has a nasty habit. She offers babies to couples who want to adopt… but it's a hoax, and the couples' hopes are suddenly dashed. Now people are putting pressure on her to stop and she is hoping, perhaps in vain, to get medical help.
|
By Naomi PallasBBC Stories
In the US it's increasingly common for couples who want to adopt a baby to advertise themselves on social media, in the hope of connecting with a pregnant woman preparing to place a child for adoption. Last summer I spoke to several couples who had done this successfully - or so it seemed. All had received Instagram messages from a young woman in Georgia, offering them exactly what they wanted.
Unfortunately, the images on the woman's Instagram accounts were stolen and behind each avatar lay Gabby, now 24, who was promising a child that didn't exist. Each of the accounts contained a followers' list full of distressed families.
I wrote a story about what I had discovered, and hoped that it might prompt Gabby to stop deceiving people.
I pictured her at home, reading the stories of grief-stricken couples who were already fragile from their infertility struggles. She'd realise the harm she'd done. She would feel ashamed. Perhaps she'd even apologise.
After the article was published, Good Morning America invited one of Gabby's victims, Samantha Stewart, to repeat on their morning news show the story she'd told me.
But four days after Samantha had blinked back tears in front of four million viewers, Gabby struck again. The Larter family in Iowa received her messages - and replied by sending her the article, which had been widely circulated among the adoption community.
It seemed that nothing would stop her. But people are now trying. They range from total strangers, to close family and a television psychologist.
Four years ago Gabby's brother, Paul, received some worrying Facebook messages about his youngest sister. A woman wrote that she had met Gabby a number of times over the summer, believing she was going to adopt Gabby's unborn child - she had even halted her fertility treatment to concentrate on this adoption. She claimed to have brought a crib and taken Gabby, then a high school student, shopping for baby clothes.
But eventually she realised she had been tricked.
Find out more
Read the original article: The fake baby Instagram adoption scam
Since then the same scenario has been repeated many times. In fact, Gabby says she started when she was 16, and by one estimate she has deceived hundreds of couples.
Paul hasn't seen Gabby for about two years, but he and his other sister still get Facebook messages from her victims. So in October last year, they decided to take action, in the only way they could think of.
Three days before Halloween, as other families across the US were stockpiling sweets and planning their costumes, they started a blog and made a single post: Beware of the Adoption Scam.
"We, Gabby's family, don't know why she's doing these things. We've talked to her, begged her to stop, tried to tell her how much she is hurting people (including her own family). But she simply won't listen," reads the blog post.
"We don't think there's any financial gain. She simply enjoys hurting people."
Amy Senior and Kylie Zavadil know Gabby's avatars well, through their work with adoptive parents. They run an adoption website, and began collecting the names of clients she had tricked, with the initial aim of bringing a lawsuit against her.
They were among the many people who searched for Gabby's family on social media. But instead of contacting her siblings, Kylie came across Gabby's father, Gene.
What Gene told them made them wonder whether a lawsuit was the best solution to the problem.
He explained that Gabby had problems with her physical and mental health. She had had surgery on her heart, he said, which made him reluctant to take her phone away in case she needed help, and he didn't earn enough, working at Walmart, to pay for the psychotherapy she clearly needed.
When I speak to Gene he tells me that Gabby's heart problems mean that she cannot get pregnant, and that she may die young.
"She has continually fooled me," he sighs. "Or maybe she did really believe she was going to stop every time she told me that she did. There've been periods when she hasn't done it, but something in her brain tells her that she needs to be pregnant, and she can't be.... That overwhelms her."
He also says that he has now taken Gabby's data away, meaning she should be unable to get on the internet to contact people looking to adopt.
As they talked to Gene, Amy and Kylie reasoned that it couldn't hurt to call Gabby, and ask her to stop. She wasn't the usual adoption scammer: she wasn't asking for money. Attention seemed to be what she was after.
The women took turns to call her. Slowly, she began to open up and they began to speak regularly.
Amy then put Gabby in touch with a producer from the Dr Phil TV show, who offered Gabby therapy if she took part. Dr Phil McGraw is a household name in America for his long-running talk show which gets people to face up to their problems in front of a live audience.
Amy spoke to me in December, the weekend before she flew to California with Gabby and her father to film the episode. She saw it as a last resort for the family - the only way to get the healthcare Gabby needs.
"I think she needs some substantial help, some real help," Gene agrees. "I'm not asking for handouts, I'm willing to do anything, work any hours, or relocate to get her the help she needs. I think she probably has a limited lifespan, and I want her to blossom as a person within that lifespan. I think she deserves that."
The two-part show, titled The Adoption Imposter, aired this week.
"I've done a lot of shows about lies, scams and deception over the years," Dr Phil opens. "But I've never done one quite like this."
Gabby is reluctant to walk on to the set. She is uncommunicative and the show's producer says he cannot remember the last time he had such a volatile guest. Gene seems exhausted.
The people promised fake babies, and the woman whose photos were stolen to enable this, wait for Gabby on-stage. She comes out, but she doesn't stay in her seat for long. She provides few answers.
Despite this, Gabby is treated with sympathy by one deceived woman, Lauren, who was promised non-existent twins. "I have a huge heart for mental health and for special needs, and it breaks my heart that she is in this invisible prison," she tells the audience . "I don't want her to feel in prison in her own mind. It's sad."
Gabby found the experience of being on Dr Phil exhausting. "It was worth it because I don't have to see him again, thank God, and I'm going to get the help I want," she says.
In a series of phone calls, she tells me about her life, her attitude varying from petulant to reserved. But she always seems less mature than her 24 years.
I ask the question many of those targeted by her schemes want to know. Why did she do it - why did she pretend to be pregnant?
"I was in a dark spot and I wanted attention and someone to talk to," she says. She is unable to have children because of her heart condition, she continues, and she wanted to speak to women in a similar position.
"It just gives me someone to talk to. I just sit at home all day. I don't have friends, so… I wouldn't say it's something to do - it's someone to talk to."
I thought of Samantha Stewart, Gabby's victim who struggled to speak about their conversations without breaking down in tears.
But despite telling me she can feel the pain of childless women, Gabby struggles to find any sympathy for those she tricked. When I ask if she would like to apologise, she immediately shuts the conversation down.
Clips of Gabby's Dr Phil episodes uploaded to YouTube have also generated little sympathy for her. The comments posted underneath are overwhelmingly vicious, perhaps unfairly so given the problems she has faced in her life.
I ask Gabby if she has pretended to be pregnant since filming the show last December.
Eventually, she admits that she has.
Sustained, long-term mental health care is what Gabby and her father both believe she needs, not the brief period of residential care she is set to receive from her appearance on Dr Phil. It seems she has little prospect of getting it.
Follow Naomi Pallas on Twitter @naomi_pallas
You may also be interested in:
Last year Rose Kalemba wrote a blog post explaining how hard it had been - when she was raped as a 14-year-old girl - to get a video of the attack removed from a popular porn website. Dozens of people then contacted her to say that they were facing the same problem today.
'I was raped at 14 - the video ended up on a porn site'
|
Sixto Rodriguez has been called "the greatest 1970's music icon that never was". Now with the release of an award-winning documentary about his incredible story, could it finally be time for the 70-year-old singer-songwriter to make it big?
|
By Sarah Jane GriffithsEntertainment reporter, BBC News
When producers stumbled upon Rodriguez performing in a Detroit bar in the late 1960s, they thought they had found the next Bob Dylan. Sadly, the US public didn't agree.
The Mexican-American singer's widely-praised debut album Cold Fact, and its follow-up Coming to Reality, were commercial flops. So, Rodriguez disappeared amid rumours he had dramatically killed himself on stage.
However, a bootleg copy of Cold Fact made its way to South Africa where it became not only a must-have record, but the unofficial soundtrack to youth protests against apartheid.
But it was not until two Rodriguez super-fans, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholemew, turned detective in the mid-1990s that they discovered their musical hero was alive and well and living in Detroit, having returned to a life of obscurity and construction work.
Just a few years later Rodriguez was performing sold-out shows in South Africa's biggest arenas, to thousands of fans he did not know he had.
"In South Africa he is as famous as the Rolling Stones - or Bob Dylan. He's on that level," says Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, who has turned the unique story into the documentary Searching for Sugar Man.
"There, he is in the pantheon of rock gods," adds Bendjelloul. "And I think that's where he belongs."
Emotional audiences
It seems perhaps the rest of the world might finally be starting to agree. Sugar Man has already won two prizes at Sundance Film Festival, including the Audience award, and opens in cinemas across the UK on 26 July.
"It's so beautiful to see the reactions," says Bendjelloul. "People stand up screaming and crying and it's so, so overwhelming. It's hard to find words actually."
Rodriguez himself was initially sceptical his story was interesting enough for a film, but finds the reaction "amazing".
At 70 he still looks every inch the rock star, with black shoulder-length hair, requisite dark shades and a black suit jacket - although he does admit to being "dressed up" by one of his three daughters.
He is also philosophical about why he failed to make it first time round.
"I was ready for the world but I don't think the world was ready for me," he suggests.
"My lyrics are a little bit less boy and girl theme, and more socially conscious expressions."
With tracks such as The Establishment Blues he describes himself as "musical political", citing Dylan as a big influence, although he is keen to play down comparisons.
"Well I've only written 30 songs," explained Rodriguez. "Bob Dylan has written over 500. So he's the Shakespeare of rock and roll and certainly deserves that title."
But his own lyrics have received their fair share of praise, especially signature track Sugar Man, which DJ and producer David Holmes remixed for his 2003 album Come Get It I Got It:
"Sugar Man, won't you hurry/'Cos I'm tired of these scenes/For a blue coin won't you bring back/All those colours to my dreams".
Drug references in the lyrics saw it banned by the South African government in the 1970s, with records scratched so they could not be given radio airplay. However that only served to fuel Rodriguez's cult status.
'Cinderella story'
Bendjelloul says he sometimes doubted the film would ever get made, remembering a "really dark moment" about a year ago when a lack of funding meant he "should have given up".
But after the intervention of British producers Simon Chinn (Man on Wire) and John Battsek (Project Nim), "now everything's changed".
The film has recently been championed by the likes of Fahrenheit 9/11 director Michael Moore and 30 Rock actor Alec Baldwin.
Scottish singer Paolo Nutini is also a big Rodriguez fan, and the pair became friends after meeting at a festival in Byron Bay, Australia.
When Rodriguez played an intimate show in a London basement bar earlier this month, Nutini joined him on a tiny stage for an impromptu duet of I Wonder, calling him "his hero".
Rodriguez says he would like to keep performing, with a US tour planned and a London show to follow in November.
"I'm very conscious that I'm ancient!" he laughs. "But the people I work with make it very comfortable. My entry level has always been pretty high in the music business."
That covers starting out with renowned producers such as Steve Rowland and achieving Elvis-level fame in South Africa. But Rodriguez has maintained a simple life in Detroit throughout, staying true to his values and construction work.
"There's nothing to be ashamed about hard work," he said. "You know I enjoy that and I get just as much satisfaction as anything I'm involved with from A to Z."
However he does admit to recently enjoying such "trappings" as a fancy hotel and his first ride in a Jaguar.
For director Bendjelloul, who has worked with Prince, Madonna and Kraftwerk, the film's release also marks the end of years of hard graft.
"It is the best story I have ever heard in my life, and I think I ever will hear," he said, explaining why he spent around five years on the project, instead of his usual four weeks.
"I realised this is never going to happen again in the history of the world," he continued. "It's a true Cinderella story. It's better than Cinderella because Cinderella didn't have as good a soundtrack."
|
I've been spending time this week off my usual beat with one of West Ham United's summer signings. Even diehard fans of the Premier League club may however be unfamiliar with Sean Allen. That's because Sean - also known as Dragonn - has made his name not as the new striker the Hammers need but as a champion player of the Fifa video game.
|
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter
In May, West Ham became the first Premier League club to sign an e-sports player, followed in July by Manchester City who signed up Kieran "Kez" Brown. Both clubs believe that e-sports are about to take off in a big way and this kind of move will show their fans and the gaming community that they are serious about getting involved.
I met Sean Allen at West Ham's training ground where he watched the first team train, sat in on a press conference given by manager Slaven Bilic, then played a game of Fifa with a star player Cheikhou Kouyate. He won 5-0 by the way…
24-year-old Sean's career path on the way to becoming an e-sports star has not been smooth. He started playing in tournaments when he was 16 and won £500 in the first event he entered. But two years ago, he was on the verge of giving it up: "I decided I was too old at 22, I sold my Xbox," he tells me.
But he kept on plugging away and then this year got a big break, qualifying for the Fifa Interactive World Cup, an event he'd been trying to get into for years. He went to New York for the tournament and ended up in the final, losing narrowly to the Danish champion and coming away with $5000.
That's when West Ham came calling, Having signed for the club, Sean can now devote himself to playing the game full time. I'd assumed he spent all his waking hours in front of his console at his home in Taunton - but he says that isn't always the case.
When a new version comes out each September he does immerse himself in it - "at the start you've got to put in a lot of hours and learn the game inside out, Then I play an unhealthy amount - maybe 10 hours a day." But once he's learnt all the tricks of the new version he says he only plays on tournament days, three or four days a week. Now he's gearing up for Fifa 17, which arrives in September.
West Ham now expects him to represent the club when he plays competitively, and to engage with their own fans who play Fifa. The club has just moved into the Olympic Stadium - now renamed the London Stadium - and its head of digital marketing Karim Virani says it was on the lookout for ways of boosting the West Ham brand: "We are looking at options to engage and interact with our fanbase in new and inventive ways. E-sports is growing crazily - over 250 million people follow it globally."
Looking around the magnificent stadium he tells me he can foresee a day when it is filled with spectators for a video game. In fact that already happens in South Korea, where the final of a League of Legends tournament packed out a stadium in Seoul.
But I'm not quite convinced that football teams looking to cash in on e-sports are backing the right game with Fifa because the real money is being made elsewhere.
Even star players like Sean Allen are only making a relatively modest living from tournament prizes. The winner of the Fifa World Cup, the biggest contest in that game, earned $20,000 but the prize pool for the Dota 2 tournament this year amounted to $20m (£15m).
And while star players of games like Dota 2 and League of Legends attract subscribers in their millions on Twitch, the streaming video service, only a few hundred sign up to follow star Fifa players.
Still, both West Ham and Manchester City have seen a future where e-sports could pack out the Etihad or the London Stadium. Don't be surprised if transfer news in the future includes players whose skills are centred on their thumbs, not their feet.
You can listen to Tech Tent on the BBC World Service at 16:00 BST - or catch the podcast.
|
Remember: the oil price can go up as well as down. Falling through $50 per barrel is being given the sense of a historic low. Yet only seven years ago, Brent crude peaked above $145, and sank below $40 in one tumultuous year.
|
Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland
So we've been here before. We should know by now that the oil price is notoriously volatile. And the pressures that bring it down can create the conditions to make it rise again.
You can hear more about why it's been falling recently.
You can read here how it's feeding through - or not - to prices.
We're told the UK Treasury is watching to see the big energy utilities drop their charges as wholesale energy costs fall. They may not get the candid answer that they're holding them up in case Ed Miliband becomes prime minister, with a pledge to impose a price freeze.
You can also read here about who gains and who loses internationally. In short, the ones with most to fear use their oil revenue to fund very large chunks of their government spending. Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria are among the most vulnerable on that score.
Others with a lot to fear have the environment in mind. Cheaper oil means more of it will be burned. For that reason, this could be a good time to introduce carbon trading, and to re-introduce an accelerator on petrol tax. But don't hold your breath for that.
The ones with most to gain have to foot big foreign exchange bills to import their energy, including India, Turkey and Japan. Cheaper energy should give them a growth boost.
And as more of the world depends on imported oil than depends on producing and exporting it, the net impact should be a boost to global growth of, very roughly, 0.1% of output for every $10 drop in the price.
But what price instability? Stock markets don't like the impact on oil companies and their supply chains. A destabilised Russia, Iran or Arab exporters could bring positive political results, but that's far from guaranteed.
And what about an economy that uses a lot of oil, but also produces it. Britain's, for instance? And Scotland's?
Gainers and loser
There are probably more gainers than losers in Britain. But many of the potential losers from the falling oil price are heavily concentrated in the north-east of Scotland.
According to Professor Brian Ashcroft, an economist at Strathclyde University, it's hard to say what the net effect will be on the Scottish economy, but that Scotland's position relative to the rest of the UK will deteriorate.
He also suggests the renewable energy sector will suffer in the short to medium term, as its costs, relative to fossil fuels, will become higher. Again, Scotland has a bigger footprint in that industry, so can be expected to suffer a bigger impact.
Tax from offshore production will fall, but growth in the oil-consuming part of the economy could offset that. And worldwide, such growth could raise demand for oil, and therefore its price could bounce back.
Vulnerable
In and around Aberdeen, even though the industry has done well to diversify into exports of oilfield services and subsea specialisms, those export markets are in trouble too, as it's the offshore drilling that tends to be most expensive worldwide, and hence more likely to pull back on spending while the price is low.
The North Sea itself looks particularly vulnerable in this downturn. It has weathered sharp changes before. But the industry is now at a turning point. Mature fields are depleting and the remaining oil and gas is getting more expensive to extract.
New fields offer new and expensive challenges - in deep water, or requiring new technologies to handle difficult geology, high pressure and high temperatures.
And while Britain is still among the world's top 30 producers, it's now seen as one of the more expensive places to operate, given a black mark by the industry for three unexpected tax hikes in the past 15 years.
With a sharp decline in exploratory drilling, higher costs and poor recent results when it's tried, the replacement rate of reserves also looks downbeat.
Volatile costs
To put some numbers to those trends, the most recent assessment by industry body Oil and Gas UK showed:
- UK production has more than halved since 2004.
- While the rate of decline fell to 8% in 2013, the total cost of production rose 15% to £8.9bn, and was expected to reach £9.5bn last year.
- The cost of producing the average barrel of oil in UK waters rose by 62% between 2011 and last year.
- While 50 fields in 2013 produced oil (these figures include the gas equivalent) for less than £10 per barrel, 19 fields had operating costs above £30 per barrel - very close to the dollar price now reached.
Now, one of the reasons costs have gone up is because the industry suffers from volatile costs as well as prices.
The price of hiring a drilling rig is very volatile, and has recently fallen. Offshore workers' pay can go up fast, particularly where there's a skill shortage, just as contractors are now having pay cut.
So the cost per barrel may be coming down. But that will be true also of other oil basins, where they haven't been rising so fast. And with scarce investment resources, oil companies can be expected to go where returns are most attractive.
Use it or lose it
There's another reason UK costs have been rising. Those mature fields have old equipment. It's more difficult and costly to maintain, meaning production has been halted more often than expected.
If it becomes uneconomic to use, the temptation will be for operators to plug and abandon oil fields earlier than previously planned. This is not equipment that can be easily mothballed, or the taps turned off, as in the Arabian desert. Offshore drillers use it or lose it to corrosion.
That's where the UK's new strategy for 'maximising economic recovery', written for the government by industry grandee Sir Ian Wood, faces much bigger challenges than Sir Ian thought when he published last summer.
He said the oil companies had to co-operate more, on sharing facilities and equipment; that a tougher regulator should force companies to keep producing in marginal fields, or risk losing their licences; and that the Treasury had to revamp the tax regime to create the incentives to maintain UK waters as an attractive place to invest.
The regulator is being set up. Its boss has just started work, though Scots lawyers, at the Faculty of Advocates, have this week warned that it carries significant risk of conflicts of interest as it's currently envisaged.
In last month's Autumn Statement, George Osborne set out on a course to big tax changes, but with only small steps. Now the oil price has declined sharply, the pressure is now much more intense to get those incentives in place quickly.
There's only so much delay can be expected in business investment decisions, as well as field closure decisions, while the Treasury cogitates.
Frackers
So yes, after this fall, the oil price may well go up again. Once the Saudis have squeezed enough higher-cost American shale frackers out of business, the OPEC exporters cartel - led from Riyadh - can take back some control and constrain supply, to push the price up again.
But if it doesn't happen soon, it could have done irreparable damage to mature parts of the North Sea industry.
Apart from tax changes, what can be done? As we'll probably hear from MSPs in a debate about this today, Holyrood has a lot of power over the north east's infrastructure and skills.
From the business perspective, Aberdeen's ring road is long overdue. It's now under construction. Rail connections could be improved.
Recent wage inflation for oil and gas industry workers was becoming a concern, pointing to a need to raise the number of Scots with the necessary technical know-how.
A downturn now will take that pressure off, and may help some other Scottish industries which compete for workers with those skills. But don't be surprised if an upturn brings back skill shortages. These people are wanted around the world.
In an election year, what response have we seen so far? Asked about it earlier this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pinned her hopes on the price rising again.
And asked about the impact on the spending plans if Scotland had been independent, she observed that she wouldn't wish to start from where we are, but with a large Norwegian-style trust fund.
The new Labour leader, Jim Murphy, was in Aberdeen to call for a rainy day fund to handle industry downturns. That could be a bit like the fund which Labour and Conservative governments didn't set up with oil revenues in the boom years.
According to oil experts, the adjustment all politicians may have to make is to lower their expectations of what the industry can provide in tax.
As Colin Pearson colourfully put it to the BBC this week, it's been seen as a cash cow, but he thinks that bubble has burst.
|
Being kawaii - or cute - is a huge part of being a good Japanese girl, but what happens when you finally grow up? For decades Hello Kitty was Japan's ambassador of cute, but now an angry red panda is channelling the frustrations of ordinary working women.
|
By Mariko OiBBC News
In Japan, girls are taught etiquette from a young age and often much more strictly than boys. It's not just about your appearance, but also how you behave.
The Japanese firm most closely associated with kawaii products, Sanrio, understands this all too well.
It can take credit for the global phenomenon that is Hello Kitty, the well-mannered kitten which Sanrio claims is actually a British schoolgirl, despite being seen as perhaps the most quintessentially Japanese thing ever. She even appears in educational videos to teach children about manners.
But recently the company has introduced a character with a somewhat different approach to life.
Aggressive Retsuko - or Aggretsuko - is a 25-year-old red panda who works a mundane office job.
Her appearance is cute, but when she gets angry at her boss or colleagues her face transforms until it becomes a made-up mask somewhat reminiscent of American glam metal band Kiss.
"I'll quit one day anyway!!! This is not my fate!!!" she screams inside, as her boss piles up more paperwork on her desk.
After work, she goes to karaoke alone and sings metal songs with lyrics complaining about her day.
"She reminds me of myself when I was 25," said Reika Kataoka who is now a stay-at-home mother. "I used to spew venom like that at work."
"Japanese girls suffer from a social structure where we are supposed to act properly," a cross-dressing singer who goes by the stage name Charlie Shikazaki and works as a researcher by day, told the BBC.
"But many of us have two sides. They might look cute on the outside but can be aggressive inside. Sanrio shows this kind of girls quite well with Aggretsuko," she explained.
In a society which puts a lot of value on politeness, you don't often see people expressing raw emotions in public and the Japanese language doesn't have equivalents to the everyday profanities you might hear muttered at work in English.
'Heartfelt screams' of office workers
So how was Aggretsuko created? It was in fact through a popular vote of characters submitted by Sanrio staff and others. The theme was "salaryman" or office workers. It clearly struck a chord.
Sanrio says the designer, who goes by the name of Yeti, wants to remain anonymous. But through the company's corporate communications department, the designer said: "I observed office workers who are at the centre of Japan's corporate culture and I could hear their heartfelt screams."
"Japan's working environment often becomes an issue and I think there are many people who are enduring a lot of stress," Yeti added.
It is a subject being debated in Japan at the moment as just last month, the chairman of Japan's top advertising agency Dentsu resigned to take responsibility for the death of a 24-year-old employee. Matsuri Takahashi who took her own life on Christmas Day in 2015, after complaining about excessive working hours.
Her death is part of a phenomenon known as karoshi, or "death from overwork", which was first recognised 30 years ago.
When we asked Japanese women what their Aggretsuko moment is, their most uncute habits, they were certainly forthcoming.
Ms Shikazaki said it was the pressure to look cute and behave appropriately that drove her to start singing in a band dressed as a man one year ago. It was "to express my feelings and emotions".
"Because I used to teach at universities, the reaction from my former students has been overwhelming - like 'what on earth happened?'," she said.
"I sing in both London and Tokyo but I find that people in London accept me without any hesitation."
"But in Japan, I don't really expect them to understand so I haven't told many people who I used to work with," she added.
For communications specialist Momo Ohmura, it is about what she eats and drinks. "People say what I order at restaurants isn't cute," she said. "I like things like dried fish and inner organs like chicken liver. I also love Japanese sake - even more than champagne!"
Kawaii ladies are allowed to drink in Japanese society, but being able to drink more than men is not something you'd show off to your boyfriend.
Many Aggretsuko fans were surprised to find out that she was created by Sanrio.
But she is not their first unconventional character.
Gudetama or "lazy egg" was born in 2013 and suffers from crippling depression, spewing cold one-liners that reflect the dark realities of life.
The character was seen as reflective of the younger generation's diminishing self-esteem and growing unhappiness.
"I always thought Sanrio's target audience was children but I wonder if they are targeting millennial or older people," said Ms Kataoka.
Ahead of Valentine's Day, Aggretsuko appears to have fallen in love. In her weekly programme on broadcaster TBS, for once, she didn't get angry for an entire episode.
While it is adorable to watch her being just cute, her many fans hope she will continue to vent her darker feelings even after finding the love of her life.
This appears to be what more working women in Japan want licence to do.
|
Twelve students at Swansea University have tested positive for coronavirus.
|
Students have been arriving at the university over the past week for the new term.
Officials have not disclosed details about the nature of how they came to be tested or if the cases were linked.
In a statement, the university said it understood there would be "anxiety about this development" but insisted safety was the "top priority".
"Our immediate concerns are for the affected students and their family along with the health and wellbeing of our wider university community," it added.
"We are working closely with the NHS and PHW who are taking the lead on the response to this development and are following the track, trace protect strategy."
The university previously said plans to keep students safe included "bubbles" among flatmates, which means a ban on parties or having people over to stay.
Those plans are understood to be broadly in line with most other Welsh universities.
|
A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of a police marksman who shot and killed a suspected armed robber 10 years ago.
|
Azelle Rodney, 24, was killed in Mill Hill, north London, in April 2005, the Old Bailey heard.
Anthony Long opened fire on Mr Rodney after his police car pulled up in an operation to foil an attempted robbery.
Mr Long, who says he believed his colleagues were in "imminent" danger, denies murder.
|
"When you're on top of the water, and you just see the fin, I think it's more scary because it's the unknown. But when you are underwater and you see the shark it is much less scary. When I saw him for the first time, he was bigger than expected and so much more colourful."
|
By Soutik BiswasBBC News
This is what a 26-year-old woman, a tourist from England, told researchers after going down in an aluminium cage into the choppy waters off the coast of Bluff, a southern seaport town in New Zealand, to watch the great white shark, the largest predatory fish in the world.
Working in what they call one of the five great white shark "hotspots" in the world, two researchers, India-based Raj Aich and his British associate, Soosie Lucas, are studying how cage diving impacts human interaction with the great white shark.
Over the past year, the two have interviewed 150 cage divers - the youngest was 12 years old, and the oldest was 70 - from some 20 countries. "Our research shows divers participating in the study return with a positive attitude towards the sharks after a cage dive," Dr Aich says.
"This helps them demystify the great white shark."
The great white shark has suffered from a crippling image problem ever since the release more than 40 years ago of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, a horror blockbuster about a shark that repeatedly attacks beachgoers in a resort town in the US.
"It is as if God created the Devil and gave him jaws," a voice drones in the trailer about the film's subject, the most maligned of the 500-odd species of sharks. It is, the narrator says coldly, a "mindless eating machine" which "lives to kill".
Since then generations have grown up with the image of a "man-eater" which glides from the sea floor to the surface, searching for human prey to catch and tear apart with its serrated teeth. Decades after Jaws, scary images and stereotypes about the shark are again being perpetuated in rating-thirsty TV shows. Two years ago, a video of a diver escaping an encounter with a great white that smashed through the bars of a diving cage off the coast of Mexico went viral and provoked scary headlines.
So much so that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list has put the great white on its 'vulnerable' list because of this "typically exaggerated threat to human safety and almost legendary 'Big Fish' status". The species, according to IUCN, is targeted as a source of sports-fishing, hunting (for jaws, teeth and even entire specimens preserved), sporadic human consumption or merely as the piscine whipping-boy of individuals pandering to shark attack paranoia".
In real life, the great white shark - the fish can weigh up to two tonnes, grow to lengths of 20ft (6m), reach speeds of 40mph in water and live reasonably long - prefers seals, sea lions, tuna, salmon and small toothed whales as prey. "They are inquisitive, sharp and sentient beings," Dr Aich says. "Sometimes I go down in the water after baits have been thrown, and the shark doesn't come to the boat. Or she will come for a few seconds and go away. The shark's will to encounter humans is pivotal."
The great white shark, according to shark specialist Craig Ferreira, is also "capable of explosive violence, but is absolutely not a blood thirsty and aggressive animal, and its behaviour is centred on not becoming involved in conflict and combat, with combat being the last resort."
Shark attacks have gone down over the years: there were 84 cases of unprovoked attacks on humans in 2016, according to the International Shark Attack File. Between 2011-2016, there were 82 such attacks annually. More than half of the unprovoked attacks took place in the Continental north American waters.
Only 13 fatalities have been attributed to great white sharks in Western Australia since 1870, according to Leah Gibbs, a senior lecturer in geography at Australia's University of Wollongong.
Every day, between December and June, two boats ferry hundreds of tourists who pay NZ$500 ($363;£262) each to climb into cages yoked to boats for a view of the undisputed 'king of the ocean' in 12-degree sea water. Attracted by tuna bait, the sharks swim to the turquoise blue waters where the Tasman Sea and the Southern Ocean meet.
When the researchers spoke to cage divers near Bluff, many of them reported a "great white epiphany".
'Calm and peaceful'
They found the shark "calm, peaceful and beautiful" to look at. Others found it "inquisitive and curious". "It comes and looks at the cage just to see what is going on," said one tourist.
Watching the great white, according to a 60-year-old Canadian man, was a "moving experience, and there was no fear at all".
"People say all scary things about sharks, and as a child you are moulded into certain beliefs. But I felt totally at peace with those animals," he said. "It's a completely different experience for me than that I've seen on TV," a honeymooning American couple told the researchers, "It seems they are much more docile".
The jury is out on whether cage diving is a good way to improve interaction between humans and sharks. Ladling tuna bait in the water to attract the fish creates an "unnatural situation, leading to unnatural behaviour by the sharks,", George H Burgess, shark expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told me.
In New Zealand's Stewart Island, the country's third-largest island and another popular shark diving destination, local fishermen have complained about sharks following and attacking boats.
In Jaws, Matt Hooper, a character who plays an oceanographer and shark expert, tells the the chief of police investigating the beach deaths, "There's nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That's their instinct. But this fish doesn't run from anything. He doesn't fear."
Not quite, as shark divers around the world are beginning to discover.
Pictures by Getty Images and Raj Aich
|
A motorist has been arrested after a cyclist was killed in a crash with a car in York.
|
The cyclist, a 29-year-old local man, died at the scene of the crash at 01:00 BST on Stockton Lane near Heworth, said North Yorkshire Police.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by driving without due care and attention, said the force.
Police are asking for witnesses to the collision involving a black Toyota to get in touch.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
|
A trial closure of of a slip road on the M4 at Port Talbot has been extended.
|
The closure of the junction 41 westbound on-slip during peak hours was due to end on 31 March.
But it will now continue until May, when a decision on whether to have a public consultation on a permanent closure will be made.
Traders attended a public meeting last month, complaining the eight-month trial affected footfall in the town.
|
Speaking truth to power has always been a high-risk strategy in China. Its rulers tend to prefer flattery, and writers who forget this do so at their peril. China's "grand historian" - 2,000 years ago - was one of many who have paid a terrible price.
|
By Carrie GracieBBC News, Beijing
"Among defilements, none is so great as castration. Any man who continues to live having suffered such a punishment is accounted as a nothing."
The man who wrote those words is by no means a nothing today. In a nation obsessed by its history, Sima Qian was the first and some say the greatest historian.
Wind back two millennia. It is 99 BC. On China's northern frontier, imperial forces have surrendered to barbarians. At court, the news is greeted with shock. The emperor is raging.
But an upstart official defies court etiquette by speaking up for the defeated general.
"He is a man with many famous victories to his credit, a man far above the ordinary, while these courtiers - whose sole concern has been preserving themselves and their families - seize on one mistake. I felt sick at heart to see it," writes Sima Qian in a letter to a friend afterwards.
The general had committed treason by surrendering. And Sima Qian had committed treason by defending him.
"None of my friends came to my aid, none of my colleagues spoke a word on my behalf," he writes.
There is an interrogation. Sima Qian tells his friend his body is not made of wood or stone. "I was alone with my inquisitors, shut in the darkness of my cell."
At the end he is offered an unenviable choice - death or castration. To his contemporaries, death was the only honourable option but Sima Qian had a bigger audience in mind than the Chinese court of the 1st Century BC. He was writing a history of humanity for posterity.
Sima Qian's father had been court historian before him and had started the project. On his sickbed, with both of them in tears, the father extracted from the son a promise to complete the epic work.
So he chose castration.
"If I had followed custom and submitted to execution, how would it have made a difference greater than the loss of a strand of hair from a herd of oxen or the life of a solitary ant?" he wrote.
"A man has only one death. That death may be as weighty as Mount Tai or it may be as light as a goose feather. It all depends on the way he uses it."
But neither in the letter nor in his autobiography can Sima Qian bring himself to describe the horror of castration. He talks instead of going down to the "silkworm chamber".
It was already well known that a castrated man could easily die from blood loss or infection so after mutilation the victims were kept like silkworms in a warm, draught-free room.
Sima Qian never recovered from the humiliation.
"I look at myself now, mutilated in body and living in vile disgrace. Every time I think of this shame I find myself drenched in sweat."
But he also wrote that if, as a result of his sacrifice, his work ended up being handed down to men who would appreciate it, reaching villages and great cities, then he would have no regrets even after suffering 1,000 mutilations.
If only he could have seen the future as well as he saw the past.
In today's China, Sima Qian's book, The Records of the Grand Historian, is regarded as the grandest history of them all. What Herodotus is to Europeans, so Sima Qian is to Chinese.
What is special about Sima Qian's history is that, even when he wrote about the court, it was not just flattery. Here is his verdict on an emperor from the Shang dynasty 1,000 years earlier:
"Emperor Zhou's disposition was sharp, his discernment was keen, and his physical strength excelled that of other people. He fought ferocious animals with his bare hands. He considered everyone beneath him. He was fond of wine, licentious in pleasure and doted on women…
"He then ordered his Music Master to compose new licentious music and depraved songs. By a pool filled with wine, through meat hanging like a forest, he made naked men and women chase one another and engage in drinking long into the night."
The emperor had critics turned into mincemeat, and nobles who were not up for the party roasted alive.
Zhou was a good illustration of a theory Sima Qian had about dynastic change, as Frances Wood, curator of the Chinese collection at the British Library, explains.
"He introduced the idea… that dynasties begin with the very virtuous and noble founder, and then they continue through a series of rulers until they come to a bad last ruler, and he is so morally depraved that he is overthrown."
No suprises - Zhou was the last of the Shang dynasty.
Sima Qian thought the purpose of history was to teach rulers how to govern well.
By contrast, China's current government - like every other Chinese government I can think of - sees it as a means of legitimising its rule.
"History is totally political in China, and I think it always has been," says Frances Wood.
Just look, she says, at the fate of historians in 20th Century China.
"Somebody who actually became deputy mayor of Peking, Wu Han, was a very important historian who had written about the first Ming emperor.
"The first Ming emperor… in 1368, he's often been compared with Mao Tse-Tung, because he was a charismatic bandit leader who, in his last years, went pretty crazy and paranoid. So you have Wu Han writing that history in the 1950s, which was a very dangerous thing to do, because Mao was already beginning to totter into paranoia."
For criticising the present by writing about the past, Wu Han was arrested. He died in prison in 1969.
Last year China re-opened its national museum, lauded as the world's biggest museum under one roof. It is hugely popular, but it illustrates just how much history is a pick-and-mix for China's rulers. They leave out the bits that do not do them credit and - masters of selective memory - they big up the moments they are proud of.
So instead of the tens of millions who died in Mao's Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution, you get China's first nuclear test in 1964, or a celebration of the reform era after Mao's death.
A panel as you exit the museum spells out the key message: "Since the founding of the Communist Party of China 90 years ago, under the strong leadership of the Party, our great nation has successively achieved many historic changes… Socialism is the only way to save China, and reform and opening up is the only way to develop China."
I am sure Sima Qian would hope someone like him is sitting unnoticed in a quiet corner writing a more nuanced history of this period, even if it can only be published when the powerful have passed on.
This, in fact, is how The Records of the Grand Historian saw the light of day.
After his death, his daughter risked her own safety to hide his secret history. And two emperors later, his grandson took another risk in revealing the book's existence. The rest, as they say, is history.
Translation of The Grand Scribe's Records by William Nienhauser. Letter to Ren An by Burton Watson.
|
Theresa May has not wanted for people telling her how she should have and could have done things better with regards to Brexit. But perhaps some of the most unwanted and unwelcome advice has come from the other half in the special relationship, Donald Trump.
|
Jon SopelNorth America editor@bbcjonsopelon Twitter
She has taken a whole lot of heat from him over her handling of Brexit.
You'll remember that when he was over in London last summer he gave an interview to the Sun newspaper in which he said that she hadn't taken his advice on how to deal with the EU (his advice was sue them), that a trade deal would be difficult to achieve with the US if Britain was still somehow joined at the hip to the EU - and for good measure added that he thought Boris Johnson would make a fine British prime minister.
Ouch.
And he was at it again last week telling the cameras that it could have been negotiated differently, but Theresa May had ignored him and that he hated to see how everything was being ripped apart.
Add to this sense of discomfort the president's national security advisor has joined in the tut-tutting, and even Don Junior has weighed in. He took to the Daily Telegraph to declare British democracy dead if Brexit didn't happen.
Trump Jr claimed that May "ignored advice from my father," resulting in a process that "should have taken only a few short months has become a years-long stalemate, leaving the British people in limbo."
She should have been tougher. She handled it all wrong. It's a mess. What the estimable son of the president doesn't tell us is how it could have all been neatly sorted in a "few short months". And how would he solve the Irish border problem? Again we are not enlightened.
But if Donald Trump had seen her address to the nation last night, I suspect he would have approved. Why? Because it was straight out of the Trump playbook.
Theresa had summoned her inner Donald. Her argument was that she was the voters' champion, trying tirelessly to execute the will of the people. And all that was stopping her were those awful, vain, game-playing lawmakers in Parliament with their procedural shenanigans and puffed up self-importance.
A risky pitch of Parliament versus public
Leave to one side that I thought an integral part of Brexit was to re-establish the sovereignty of parliament over the institutions of the EU. Listening to Theresa May's speech last night you could be forgiven for thinking that in her eyes Parliament was an unwelcome meddler in the absolute right of the executive to do as it wishes.
That is how Donald Trump plays it too. When Congress or the courts strike down one of his measures, he rounds on those who've thwarted him. Showing respect for the other co-equal branches of the US constitution (the legislature and the judiciary) is not how he rolls.
They are weak, or they are biased or they are part of the deep state trying to subvert the will of the people.
When he wanted to introduce a ban on transgender service personnel being able to remain in the US armed forces, the Pentagon pushed back. He sought to overturn Obama's health policies - the Congress voted it down. His ban on migrants from mainly Muslim countries was blocked by the "liberal" courts.
Funding for a border wall? Again lawmakers blocked it, so he declared a national emergency to secure the cash. To his base - to the people - it looks as though he is staying true to his word. I promised you I would build a wall, but those swamp creatures on Capitol Hill are blocking me. The Russia investigation is a total witch-hunt and there was no collusion. Donald Trump defines his own reality, and millions of his supporters believe what he says.
Wasn't that the force of Theresa May's appeal last night? Her reality is that Parliament is to blame for the worst mess and impasse that anyone can remember in British politics. The language she chose may be very different from Donald Trump's but her tactics look identical.
Trump's inspiration was a rough-house lawyer, Roy Cohn, who came to prominence when he worked for Senator Joe McCarthy in the communist witch-hunts of the 1950s and has been dead for thirty years. He became a mentor to the young New York property tycoon as he sought to make a name for himself in the shark infested waters of Manhattan.
Cohn was old school tough. And his tactics were uncompromising. You never apologise, you never compromise and you never give up. It is total war. Life is a zero sum game. There are no win/wins. There are only winners and losers.
How many times have you heard Donald Trump say "I really screwed up there"? Never. It's not part of his lexicon.
One other thing. Donald Trump doesn't always win. But what he has always understood instinctively is that if you are going to lose make sure there is someone else to blame. And Donald Trump does something more brilliantly that I have seen any politician do before. When he wins, he wins big. And he proclaims it loudly. But when he loses, he also manages to turn it into a win.
Although for Theresa May to win she does need the votes of these parliamentarians, and maybe slagging them off some might argue is an odd tactic.
From 3,000 miles away I wouldn't dream of guessing how the Brexit process is going to end. I have more chance of getting a perfect bracket in the March Madness basketball tournament, which kicked off today in the US (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, the chances of guessing the results of every game are gazillions to one), than I have of guessing how the Brexit denouement arrives. From Downing Street last night the blame game started.
And if Donald Trump had wandered last night out from the Oval Office to the adjoining West Wing dining room where he has installed a 60 inch flat screen TV along one wall, and watched the Theresa May speech he might have found himself giving a knowing nod of the head.
Maybe she had listened after all.
Follow Jon Sopel on Twitter
More from Jon
|
Fares on the new Elizabeth Line will be the same as those across Transport for London's (TfL) network, City Hall said.
|
The Elizabeth Line, due to open in December, will cover 60 miles from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.
Heathrow Airport is currently served by the Piccadilly Line on the TfL network, whereas Heathrow Connect services through west London is not.
TfL will also take control of Heathrow Connect services from 20 May.
The confirmation from City Hall means Oyster and contactless payments will be accepted on rail services between Heathrow Airport and Paddington.
|
A wind farm in Upper Nithsdale has been approved despite opposition from council planning officers.
|
They had recommended that councillors refuse Element Power's application to build nine turbines at Twentyshilling Hill, two miles south of Sanquhar.
Two local community councils had supported the scheme with the other offering no objection.
Approval was given by Dumfries and Galloway Council's planning committee, subject to conditions.
|
Homes have been evacuated in a Neath Port Talbot town after a World War One device was found.
|
South Wales Police cordoned off Herbert Street, Pontardawe, at about 19:30 GMT after the device was brought into the Pink Geranium pub before being taken outside.
The Army's explosive ordnance disposal team has been called to make the device safe.
The public has been asked to stay away from the area.
|
The co-founder of the company described as the jewel in the crown of British tech has said it would be disastrous for it to be sold to a US computing firm that is reportedly negotiating a takeover.
|
Rory Cellan-JonesTechnology correspondent@BBCRoryCJon Twitter
It's the second time in four years that the future of Cambridge-based chip-designer ARM Holdings has been uncertain.
In 2016, Softbank ended up buying it. But the Japanese firm is now reportedly in advanced talks to sell it to Nvidia.
Hermann Hauser told the BBC he thought the UK government should intervene.
The tech entrepreneur - who spun off ARM from Acorn Computers in 1990 - says ministers should help make it an independent UK business again.
'Unsuitable owner'
ARM creates computer chip designs that others then customise to their own ends. It also develops instruction sets, which define how software controls processors.
Just about every modern mobile phone and smart home gadget is powered by a chip that relies on one or both of these innovations.
When Softbank bought the firm for £24bn soon after the referendum to leave the EU in 2016, it was hailed by the government as a vote of confidence in a post-Brexit Britain.
But Dr Hauser said at the time it was a sad day for him and for UK technology.
Four years on, after a number of big bets went wrong for the Japanese firm - notably its investment in the shared office space business WeWork - SoftBank wants to dispose of ARM, either returning it to the stock market through a share sale or letting another organisation buy it outright.
In recent days, there have been a number of reports that Nvidia - which recently overtook Intel to become the world's most valuable chip-maker - is keen to buy it.
The last weekend in July, I contacted Dr Hauser who spends the UK's winters in New Zealand and remained there because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He told me that a sale of ARM to Nvidia would be a disaster, but thought it very unlikely to happen.
This past weekend he got back in touch to say the reports now looked very credible and his concern had deepened.
He explained that ARM's business model - in which all the big chip-makers license its technologies - made Nvidia an unsuitable owner.
"It's one of the fundamental assumptions of the ARM business model that it can sell to everybody," he explained.
"The one saving grace about Softbank was that it wasn't a chip company, and retained ARM's neutrality.
"If it becomes part of Nvidia, most of the licensees are competitors of Nvidia, and will of course then look for an alternative to ARM."
While Dr Hauser voted against the Softbank deal in 2016, he says the Japanese firm kept its promises to retain Cambridge as the main focus of ARM's research and to boost employment there.
He has little faith in that remaining the case if Nvidia takes over.
"It will become one of the Nvidia divisions, and all the decisions will be made in America, no longer in Cambridge."
But the Austrian-born venture capitalist hopes that can still be avoided.
"The great opportunity that the cash needs of Softbank presents is to bring ARM back home and take it public, with the support of the British government," he said.
'Not about the money'
Dr Hauser added that he would like to see it listed on both the London and New York Stock Exchanges.
He acknowledged that an already financially stretched government could not be expected to provide cash for the deal, but could still encourage it to happen.
"It's not about the money, it's the industrial strategy statements that the government can make," he said.
Dr Hauser thinks the government's recent move to invest $500m (£378m) in the satellite firm OneWeb may be a sign that it is prepared to intervene when the UK's technology future is at stake.
And he thinks the UK's wider microprocessor sector should be championed, pointing to the success of Bristol-based Graphcore in designing AI chips.
"[OneWeb was] a strong statement that the government is actually serious about industrial strategy," he said.
"And if ever there was a big strategic prize to be had, it would be to take the crown away from Intel as the number one microprocessor company in the world and make it part of the UK".
Both Softbank and Nvidia declined to comment.
|
Lighthouses dotted around the UK's coastline play an essential role in ensuring shipping lanes stay open and trade continues.
But the team of engineers and technicians who look after Scotland's lighthouses have had to adapt and adjust to ensure their important work continues during the lockdown.
|
By Angie BrownBBC Scotland News
Mechanical technician Ross Russell works for the Northern Lighthouse Board.
He is part of three-man team of specialists who have just returned from fixing an electrical fault on the Bell Rock lighthouse, 11 miles (18km) east of the Firth of Tay in the North Sea.
He told BBC Scotland he was proud to play his part in fixing and maintaining the lighthouses so mariners could remain safe at sea.
The 32-year-old, from Oban, said: "I feel great about the work I'm doing out there because of the importance of keeping our shipping lanes open."
The team has currently stopped doing any routine maintenance and upkeep work, such as painting, and is instead focusing on the essential work required to keep the lights operating.
"Our working practices have changed dramatically, said Ross. "It has been difficult working under the social distancing rules."
For the trip to Bell Rock, each member of the team had to drive to Dundee Airport separately before catching a 30-minute helicopter ride to one of the Northern Lighthouse Board's ships anchored out at sea, called the Pharos.
There are two ships that sail to each of the lighthouses carrying water and fuel for workers. The other ship is the Pole Star.
Ross spent the night on the Pharos before being dropped on the Bell Rock with his colleagues.
He said: "We normally mingle with the ship's crew of about 20 but this time we were kept away from them and given our own isolation deck."
The next day they were flown by helicopter wearing PPE kit and screened off from the pilot.
He said: "We can only land when the tide is low as the lighthouse is sea washed and therefore the helipad is only exposed when the reef is exposed.
"When the tide turns, the water comes to just below the door at entrance level so once you're on, you're on and that's you stuck there until the tide recedes again.
"There are two bedrooms with three bunk beds on the Bell Rock but because of the new social distancing rules we had to bring a blow up mattress. One of us slept in the kitchen on that and the other two had a bedroom each.
"We also brought all our food and bedding as well."
He said the group had to take it in turns to cook their own food in the narrow circular kitchen inside the lighthouse and they each had a different floor inside the 115ft tower.
He said: "Normally the trips fly by because there is so much banter between us but on this trip there was a serious air about it."
The lighthouses are fully automated but run from batteries powered by generators which use fuel.
The team will next make trips to lighthouses on Skerryvore, 12 miles (19km) south-west of the island of Tiree, and Dubh Artach, 18 miles (29 km) west of Colonsay, to refuel them.
Before the lighthouse was built on the Bell Rock there was a bell which would ring out to mariners in the wind.
Lighthouse keepers, who would stay for three months at a time, were no longer needed in the 1990s when they became automated.
Ross said: "There is a note in the Bell Rock lighthouse from the last lighthouse keeper who says 'I'm leaving this rock to it's rightful owners, the seals.'
"I was thinking how right he was when I could hear them barking all night there, they have no comprehension of any pandemic either."
|
New beach huts built to replace those lost in the St Valentine's Day storm on the Hampshire coast in 2014 have been handed to their owners.
|
Most of the privately-owned concrete huts at Milford-on-Sea were destroyed during the storm, with the rest later requiring demolition.
New Forest District Council said the huts had been set into the promenade "to reduce exposure to the elements".
The authority said the 119 huts, new promenade and sea wall had cost £2.36m.
It said owners had made a "substantial contribution" towards the replacement huts and the expenditure of the project would be recouped over time through licence fees.
|
The government published a Green Paper in March which proposes changes to the provision for children with special educational needs (SEN) in England. What are SEN and how are children with them currently supported?
What are special educational needs?
|
More than a fifth of children (21%) in England are said to have special educational needs (SEN) - about 1.7m children.
SEN refers to learning difficulties or disabilities which range from problems in thinking and understanding, to physical or sensory difficulties and/or difficulties with speech and language.
But they can also be social problems - how they relate to and behave with other people, or emotional and behavioural difficulties.
What types of SEN are most common?
The largest categories are "moderate learning difficulty" (24.2%), behaviour, emotional and social difficulties (22.7%) and speech, language and communications needs (16.3%). A much smaller proportion of pupils have physical disabilities (3.8%), visual or hearing impairments (3.4%), and autism spectrum disorders (8.1%).
What types of children have SEN?
Children from all backgrounds can have special educational needs, but they are more prevalent among some sections of society.
At secondary school, boys are three times more likely to have statements than girls. Black pupils are most likely to have SEN, while Chinese pupils are the least likely.
Pupils with SEN are much more likely to be eligible for free school meals - a measure of deprivation - than those without them.
How are special educational needs met?
It depends on the severity of the need. SEN are usually picked up when the school or the child's parents notice that a pupil is falling behind their classmates.
All state schools are required by law to ensure that special help is provided for children with SEN.
In most cases an assessment of the need and action plan will be drawn up by the individual school alone.
This is initially done under a programme called "school action", under which more than half of children with SEN are listed.
If more support is needed, the child is listed as "school action plus", which may involve the school bringing in specialist help from outside.
In more severe cases, local authorities will have to make a formal assessment of a pupil's needs based on specialist advice.
This is a statutory assessment, resulting in what is known as a statement of special educational needs.
It describes the child's need and defines the specialist help that they should get.
About 13% of children with SEN have statements, but the number of formal statements written by local authorities is falling, despite an increase in the proportion of children known to have learning difficulties.
Where do children get this extra help?
The Labour government had a policy of inclusion, under which the aim was to give any child with mild to moderate learning difficulties a place in a mainstream school.
The policy aimed to end the situation where children were effectively kept separate from their more able peers.
However, some children have learning difficulties or disabilities severe enough for them to be educated separately in special schools.
Some of these will be private schools specialising in certain kinds of special needs provision.
And local authorities are obliged to fund places for children who they have assessed as needing them.
Alternatively, parents unhappy with the school and the local authorities' response to their child's case may take the step of funding the place themselves - if they can afford it.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government says, in its coalition agreement, that it will "prevent the unnecessary closure of special schools, and remove the bias towards inclusion".
The number of state and private special schools in England has fallen from 1,197 in 2000 to 1,054 in 2010.
Does the system work well?
Parents have long complained that they had to battle hard to get statements of SEN for the children facing the most severe difficulties.
Special needs campaigners have said some local councils are unwilling to "statement" pupils because of the legal entitlement and possible extra costs that brings.
A Commons education committee report in 2006 found the system "not fit for purpose".
And despite attempts to improve matters, Ofsted in 2010 still concluded that the system is complex and widely perceived as "unfair", with parents who are able to make sense of it having quicker and greater access to resources and support.
At the other end of the spectrum, Ofsted said as many as half of the pupils listed on "school action" would not actually have required that designation if teaching in schools was better.
This was partly because schools were not picking up problems that could be solved through normal teaching methods early enough, and partly because they were inappropriately labelling pupils' problems, Ofsted said.
Is the government planning to make changes to the system?
The coalition government wants to change the way pupils with SEN in England are provided for. It published a Green Paper in March 2011, which set out a range of proposals.
Four months of consultation follows the publication of the paper and a period of testing proposals will run in local areas from September 2011.
Any changes that require new legislation to be implemented will not happen until May 2012 at the earliest.
What does the Green Paper propose?
The Green Paper proposes a new single category of SEN and a single assessment process. Children with SEN should be identified in both early-years settings and in schools.
By 2014, the government wants those identified with SEN to have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which will support them children from birth to the age of 25. This will replace the current statutory SEN assessment and statement and allow professionals from different social services areas to work together more closely.
The Green Paper proposes a personal budget, by 2014, for all families with children with a statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care Plan.
It also sets out to "remove the bias towards inclusion" and "prevent the unnecessary closure of special schools", giving parents the choice of a mainstream or special school for their child.
Do schools get extra money for pupils with SEN?
In some cases, schools can apply for extra funding. But for pupils on school action, the cases Ofsted flagged up as more likely to be over-diagnosed, schools are expected to provide support from their own resources.
Funding systems vary between local authorities, and in some areas, even if a school takes a child with a statement, it may have to provide some of the help for that child from its own budget.
Ofsted said that funding could be an "obvious motivation" for schools to inflate SEN figures, but said that in its study it did not find evidence that this was happening.
Inspectors said some local authorities had reformed their funding systems, partly driven by concerns that they were creating incentives for schools to identify pupils as having special needs.
Does having a large number of SEN children boost league table positions?
School league tables look at the attainment of pupils in national curriculum tests, know as Sats, and GCSEs. They also feature a measure called "contextual value added" (CVA), which aims to rate schools on how much progress their pupils make, taking into account factors about the school's intake, such as the number of pupils on free school meals.
The proportion of pupils with SEN is one of the measures used in this calculation.
Ofsted said some schools it visited believed increased numbers of SEN pupils would boost CVA scores, and this had led to over-identification of SEN, and contributed to lowering expectations for children.
But it said the problem was not system-wide.
Schools also point out that all their pupils' achievements are taken into account in attainment data, so taking pupils with severe special needs can make them appear less successful in the tables.
What happens elsewhere in the UK?
The systems in Wales are Northern Ireland is broadly similar to that in England, although they both have their own codes of practice.
In Scotland, the concept of special educational needs has been broadened to "additional support needs" and includes factors affecting a child's learning such as bullying, bereavement, family being in care or being a teenage parent.
Local authorities must provide for all such needs, and a plan must be produced if the child needs support from different agencies - such as health or social services.
|
A suburb in Leeds is the first place in the UK where it is permitted for women to sell sex between specified hours. The "managed approach" was introduced to try to control the trade. The Victoria Derbyshire programme spent a night there to find out how it is working.
|
By James Longman and Sarah HatchardBBC Victoria Derbyshire programme
Chelsea, whose name has been changed, 29, has been a sex worker for five years. She's addicted to crack cocaine and earns roughly £150 a night - which she spends on drugs and gifts for her children. They do not live with her and she would hate for them to know what she does.
In the evenings she puts on her make-up and gets the bus to Holbeck, a mainly industrial area to the south-east of Leeds city centre.
During the day it is bustling, but on a cold March night it is quiet with lots of small, dark areas for sex workers to operate.
Chelsea knows her work is dangerous. "You don't know what type of man you're getting next. They may look all right but they could be nasty. You take a gamble with yourself. It's life or death," she says.
Find out more:
Watch the film in full here
It is not actually illegal to sell sex in Britain, but it is illegal to solicit - offering sex in a public place.
But in this specified network of roads, street prostitutes can sell their services from 19.00 to 07.00 BST, without being stopped by police.
Traditionally, workers operated across the whole of Holbeck - this scheme has moved them from residential streets to places where businesses operate in the day but not at night.
What are the rules of the managed area?
Source: Safer Leeds Partnership
Chelsea points out a cul-de-sac where men pull up if they want business and the railway bridge that marks the end of the managed area. She says most of the people driving past are punters as they stare at her as she walks down the main road.
"I charge a lot. I tell them if they pay for steak they get steak, if they pay for mince they get mince," she says.
Around 40 women work here regularly - a mixture of migrant and British sex workers - who must be over 18.
Chelsea says street work has "changed a lot" since the area was introduced last October after a year-long pilot. Police check their welfare instead of arresting them.
"I used to get a lot of cautions. It's better like this. We are all in agreement. They're giving you a time, you have to stick to it. If you go over you've only got yourself to blame," she says.
But this approach is more than just a physical zone. The police, council and charities also support the sex workers and try to keep them safe.
Emily, a caseworker from the charity Basis, visits regularly to check if there is anything the women are concerned about and offers hot drinks and condoms.
"If we have a managed area, we know where people are. It's policed properly with marked vehicles and a liaison officer. There's extra street cleaning. It's a whole approach," she explains.
Woman killed
Chelsea was attacked two years ago on a nearby back street - badly beaten and raped while she was pregnant.
"What I suffered was bad, I was close to dying at one point. He was a vicious man. He's serving a 10-year prison sentence," she says.
But a woman has been killed since the zone was established. In December, Daria Pionko, 21, from Poland, was found injured and later died in hospital.
A 24-year-old man has been charged with her murder.
Emily admits it is not completely safe, but says it is safer, with the key being an improved relationship with the police.
The percentage of crime victims willing to report their incidents has increased from 26% to 51%, according to National Ugly Mugs - a sex worker support organisation which runs database sharing information on potentially dangerous clients.
"What happened as a result of the managed area - the trust now between girls and police - girls coming forward, punters coming forward," she said.
Safer Leeds - the police and council partnership - says the previous approach of police enforcement had not worked, so the zone was an attempt to reduce a long-standing nuisance. It says it has led to fewer complaints in residential areas and a significant increase in women accessing support services.
'Offensive debris'
But some people want it to close and it is under review this month.
Greg Adams, owner of an office supplies company, says while he cannot disagree with a scheme that supports the vulnerable, he feels the problem has been forced on to the businesses.
"It's just every time you drive to the end of the road you see street prostitutes plying for trade - it's very obvious - they eye you up.
"It's not that offensive, but what is offensive is the debris from nefarious activities. Used condoms, drugs paraphernalia. In the first month, two items of soiled undergarments on the street, in my yard used condoms. It's all shocking," he says.
At the end of her night's work we meet Chelsea again - she has earned £150 from three men in an hour: "Doesn't take me long to make money. Sexy girl like me. Who can resist?" she says.
The next morning it is clear it has been a busy night, they leave behind litter - beer cans, condom wrappers - you can see why people coming back to work are not happy.
It is a difficult balance - women like Chelsea would still be on these streets with or without the permission of the authorities. But the impact some feel the managed approach has had on this area's reputation may force its closure.
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel.
|
When Calvin Benton started his psychotherapy company Spill, he had the idea of paying everyone the same amount of money. He thought it would bring harmony to the team. Instead, he was forced to abandon the scheme within a year because of the rancour it created and pay people according to their seniority and expertise.
|
By Jeremy HowellBusiness reporter, BBC News
"We realised that we had to pay attention to market forces," says Calvin. "Sometimes, traditional practices are there for a reason."
Calvin set up Spill in Dalston, east London, to provide online counselling and therapy to companies' employees. It helps them with problems such as depression and work-related stress. Started two and a half years ago, the firm now has more than 100 UK companies on its books, 13 full-time staff and a number of part-time psychotherapists dotted around the country.
Over the last year, Spill's sales have grown by 40%. "We've seen an explosion in demand," says Calvin.
"This is partly because of the pressures that people have been feeling, working from home during the lockdowns. Many cannot set their work aside at the end of the day and suffer from burnout. Others struggle to get motivated to work when they're not in the office."
In addition to work-related issues, people also go to Spill to seek help for depression and bereavement.
"More and more firms are paying for their staff to get therapy for their problems because it's getting harder to get therapy on the NHS," Calvin explains.
Both of Calvin's parents are qualified psychotherapists. He specialised in computing. He put the two disciplines together to create a service where therapists treat their clients over apps such as Zoom.
One of the big decisions that Calvin made when he founded Spill was to pay himself and his colleagues an equal salary.
"There were five people, and everyone was pretty much contributing the same," he says. "So we tried this experiment where we paid each of us an equal amount of money - regardless of experience, regardless of role. We wanted to challenge the traditional model of pay. We decided on £36,000 a year for everyone. We calculated that was a decent living wage for London."
Initially, the measure worked well and fostered a lot of goodwill within the team.
"Let's say we were going out for drinks," says Calvin. "There wasn't a problem of who pays, or whether this person doesn't get paid as much as this person so maybe the manager has to pay. Everyone got paid the same, so it was much easier in those social situations."
As Spill took off, Calvin recruited new staff such as a software developer, a salesperson and clerical workers - and decided to offer them all the same £36,000 salary. This is when the problems started.
"Software developers are typically very in demand, and they usually take a higher salary than £36,000," says Calvin. "Salespeople are typically paid on commission. So it was not a model which particularly suited either of those two industries.
"We really struggled to attract senior talent for the software role. And it got to about three months in when the salesperson started asking to be paid according to sales targets they'd achieved, saying the fixed salary wasn't working for them."
At the same time, Calvin was getting overwhelmed with applications for the £36,000-a-year clerical jobs he was advertising.
"We were offering a lot more than other clerical jobs paid and a lot of people were applying to the roles because they really wanted this high salary, rather than wanting to work at Spill because they believed in the mission behind the company."
Among the newly expanded workforce, the equal pay system was starting to cause grumbling.
"When we grew the team, we started to have some people who contributed more than others. You had some people who worked longer hours than others. The question started to arise: should this person be paid the same amount as me?
"That caused a conflict in the team and a conversation in the team about whether this experiment was right to continue."
After a year, Calvin bowed to the pressure from his staff and scrapped the equal pay system, replacing it with a traditional structure of pay grades based on seniority in the company and technical expertise.
"I think it was a disappointment when the experiment failed. We wanted to do something which was democratic and egalitarian. But sometimes traditional practices are there for a reason. Sometimes you don't have to reinvent the mould on everything."
One good thing came out of Spill's equal pay experiment, however. After it was scrapped, Calvin decided to make everyone's salary level common knowledge to the rest of the staff.
"Since our salary policy is open," he says, "there are no rumours over who is being paid what. That has helped produce harmony in the office. And if you are in the therapy business, it's important to have harmony in your own workplace."
Read more CEO Secrets here.
|
Example has signed a record deal in the USA.
|
The British singer has signed with Mercury and Universal in a deal which will see him try to break the American music market.
Example said: "It was important to me to sign with someone who understands not only my ambitions but also the way I work.
"I want to do it on my own terms, I enjoy a good challenge and can't wait to get started."
David Massey, the president of Mercury Records U.S. said: "Everyone here is very excited to be working with Example, a world class songwriter and performer who is now a leading force in the live arena."
Massey described Example as "a true modern day rock star who is at the forefront of the new wave of exciting electronic music exploding here in the U.S."
Example, whose real name is Elliot Gleave, is currently signed to Ministry of Sound (MoS) in the UK.
David Dollimore, the managing director of MoS, said: "The US market is primed for an electronic artist like Example, he is the real deal, a rock star making hit songs and exciting, cutting edge dance music.
"He is the only artist making dance tunes with huge choruses, think a hybrid between Skrillex and Coldplay," Dollimore added.
Example is nominated for best British single for Changed The Way You Kiss Me at this year's BRIT Awards.
The 29-year-old topped the UK album chart last year with Playing In The Shadows.
Gleave is currently working on his fourth album and is headlining a UK arena tour in April.
|
"Milkshake Duck" is slang for someone who is briefly and universally cheered, but then swiftly turned upon because of their previous social media posts. The family of an 11-year-old boy is the latest example of the phenomenon.
|
By BBC TrendingIn-depth stories on social media
Keaton Jones just wanted the bullying to stop.
"It's not OK," he said. "People who are different, don't need to be criticised about it."
His heartfelt plea was videoed by his mother and instantly went viral after she posted it on Facebook. Celebrities including Lebron James and Justin Bieber pledged their support, and offers of help and money rolled in.
But the tone of the online conversation changed dramatically when photos surfaced allegedly showing the family posing with the Confederate flag.
The flag, flown by Southern troops during the US Civil War, is a highly controversial symbol. Although some see it as an emblem of heritage, many others view it as a symbol of racial hatred and the legacy of slavery.
You might also be interested in:
Facebook posts indicate that Keaton's father, Shawn White, could be a member of the Aryan Circle - a prison gang identified by the FBI as an "organised white supremacist group".
A photo also emerged allegedly showing his father alongside a man with a swastika tattoo. The two men are apparently making a white supremacist gang symbol.
Court documents show that his father had a criminal past. Over the last 20 years, Shawn White has been convicted of drug possession, reckless driving, theft, vandalism, and aggravated assault.
Keaton's mother went on US TV to defend the family, fend off accusations that she was using the incident for personal financial gain, and apologise for the flag photo. But the damage had already been done, and people online began to heap scorn on the family.
The incident was just the latest "Milkshake Duck" example - so called after a jokey tweet that went hugely viral:
One of the most well-known examples was Ken Bone, a man who became famous after asking a question at one of the US presidential debates in 2016.
Bone's ordinary-guy demeanour and uncool dress sense captured the internet's imagination, but after it emerged that he'd made several unsavoury Reddit posts, some of the love turned to hate.
"On one hand it's a fun meme - its a typical example of millennial humour, you have the complete randomness of this babbled nonsense phrase but then you put it together with this very bleak dystopian look at our society," explains Aja Romano, a web culture reporter for the website Vox. "You never know how the information you put on the internet is going to be used or used against you."
Romano wrote that Milkshake Duck is "about instant virality in the age of social media, as well as the growing polarization of publicly professed ideologies."
"Anyone can become a public figure overnight - but it also means an increased likelihood of discovering that a new favorite has a checkered past."
Romano also notes that the phenomenon is particularly pronounced amongst young people online.
"It becomes this quintessentially Millennial way of approaching internet culture that is light-hearted but also deeply cynical at the core," she told BBC Trending radio.
An 11-year-old boy and his family have found out just how fickle internet fame can be.
Do you have a story for BBC Trending? Email the editor.
More from Trending: Chinese visitors left furious by 'fake' butterfly exhibition
Visitors hoping to see an exhibition displaying thousands of "dancing butterflies" in China last weekend were left disappointed after realising they had bought tickets to see plastic butterflies attached to sticks instead. READ MORE
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
|
Streets in Stoke-on-Trent have been named after songs released by pop star and hometown hero Robbie Williams. While it is nothing new to name a street after a famous person or place, roads named after song titles are far less common. Here are a few members of the select canon.
|
The Robbie Effect
People in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, will be forever reminded of Robbie Williams as their addresses are synonymous with his chart-topping hits.
Angels Way, Candy Lane and Supreme Street were earlier named after the songs in a move the city council termed "a fitting tribute" to the singer's success.
It was the culmination of a string of celebrations to mark the former Take That star's 40th birthday, which also included granting the boy band breakout star Freedom of the City last year.
Though he did not attend the unveiling, he described honouring his roots as a "wonderful legacy".
Start Me Up
Dartford's most famous sons - The Rolling Stones - have a number of streets named after songs they penned.
The town where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards grew up now sports Sympathy Vale, Angie Mews and Silver Train Gardens, to name but a few, with Ruby Tuesday Drive and Stones Avenue still to be finished.
The Rolling Stones theme was suggested by the estate's developer in 2008 and two councillors came up with the road names.
A fans' anthem
For years Manchester City fans have shown their support by holding their scarves aloft and belting out the mournful words of the classic song, Blue Moon.
According to the club's website, supporters adopted the well-known tune as their own at the opening game of the 1989-90 season at Liverpool.
The street where City's Maine Road stadium used to be was given a new lease of life as Blue Moon Way in 2012, in tribute to the club's former Moss Side home.
The name was picked by youngsters from a nearby primary school.
|
A murder investigation has been launched after a 65-year-old woman's body was found in a Cardiff Bay flat.
|
Police were called to Century Wharf at about 14:15 GMT on Wednesday.
A 66-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held in custody.
South Wales Police said it was referring the matter voluntarily to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
|
The operators of a wind farm in the Moray Firth say it has generated the most electricity of any single renewable source in Scotland.
|
The Beatrice offshore wind farm achieved 587.9MW of electricity - enough to power 450,000 homes.
The scheme, which involves 84 turbines off the Caithness coast, reached the milestone earlier this week.
It came online after installing the last of its turbines earlier this month.
Beatrice is a joint venture led by SSE Renewables, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Red Rock Power Limited.
|
A new range of number plates could generate £12m for the Isle of Man government, according to the infrastructure minister.
|
The plates which feature the word MANX, will start from £5,000 with the more sought after numbers expected to raise about £100k.
David Cretney MHK said: "If they all sell for their target prices the range has the potential to raise £12m."
All the money raised from sales will go towards highway maintenance work.
Mr Cretney MHK added: "We believe they will be very successful.
"Certain plates such as MANX 007 and MANX 911 are expected to be highly sought after".
The number plates will be available to purchase from 3 December.
|
Nested in the snow-covered mountains of western Iceland, a maze of turbines and pipes belches thick billows of steam. This mammoth structure is responsible for providing power to a country where 100% of the electricity comes from renewable sources.
|
By Valeria PerassoBBC World Service
The Hellisheidi power station, 25km (15 miles) outside Reykjavik, is Iceland's main geothermal plant, and is one of the largest in the world.
"Do you feel the vibrations beneath us?", says Edda Sif Aradottir, the plant's manager, splashing snow as she stomps her boot on the ground. "It's the steam coming into the turbines".
"This is a volcanic area. We harness the volcano's internal heat to generate electricity and provide hot water for the city's heating system, our swimming pools and showers. We Icelanders like our showers really hot!"
Hellisheidi is not just an accomplished provider of green energy. It is also the site for a scientific breakthrough; an experiment to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and turn it into stone - forever.
Thus keeping this greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere and putting a dent in global warming.
"Mankind has been burning fossil fuels since the industrial revolution and we have already reached the tipping point for CO2 levels", says Dr Aradottir. "This is one of the solutions that can be applied to reverse that".
Called CarbFix, the project is pioneered by an international consortium led by Reykjavík Energy, the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Iceland and Columbia University, with funding from the EU.
Since experiments began in 2014, it's been scaled up from a pilot project to a permanent solution, cleaning up a third of the plant's carbon emissions.
"More importantly, we are a testing ground for a method that can be applied elsewhere, be that a power plant, heavy industries or any other CO2 emitting source", says Dr Aradottir.
Making soda
With rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2, scientists have been testing "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) solutions since the 1970s.
CarbFix, however, stands out among CCS experiments because the capture of carbon is said to be permanent - and fast.
The process starts with the capture of waste CO2 from the steam, which is then dissolved into large volumes of water.
"We use a giant soda-machine", says Dr Aradottir as she points to the gas separation station, an industrial shed that stands behind the roaring turbines.
"Essentially, what happens here is similar to the process in your kitchen, when you are making yourself some sparkling water: we add fizz to the water".
The fizzy liquid is then piped to the injection site - otherworldly, geometric igloo-shaped structure 2km away. There it is pumped 1,000m (3,200ft) beneath the surface.
In a matter of months, chemical reactions will solidify the CO2 into rock - thus preventing it from escaping back into the atmosphere for millions of years.
In this seemingly magic feat, local geology plays a key part.
Porous rock
The breath-taking Icelandic landscape - with its hot springs, geysers and black beaches - is mainly made of basalt, a dark-grey porous rock formed from cooling of lava.
And basalt is "carbon's best friend", because it contains high amounts of calcium, magnesium and iron, which bind with the pumped CO2 to help it solidify into a mineral.
Sandra Snaebjornsdottir, a geologist working for CarbFix, has the evidence in her hands: a cylindrical sample drilled out from the site shows a smattering of chalky crystals encrusted in the basalt.
"These white bits are carbonates, or mineralised CO2", she says. "Fresh basalts are like sponges, with plenty of cavities that are filled with the CO2.
"Iceland is particularly favourable for this type of CCS simply because of the amount of basalt it's got".
Last year, 10,000 tonnes of CO2 were "digested" by CarbFix.
Yet this is tiny fraction - less than the yearly emissions of 650 Brits or 2,200 American cars.
And it becomes even more insignificant against the 30-40 gigatonnes of CO2 (a gigatonne is a billion tonnes) that modern humans pour into the atmosphere annually.
Despite its relatively small scale, experts anticipate CarbFix could be easy to repeat - thanks to the ubiquity of basalt around the world.
"Basalt is actually the most common rock type on Earth, it covers most of the oceanic floors and around 10% of the continents. Wherever there's basalt and water, this model would work", says Sandra Snaebjornsdottir.
Large basaltic areas are found in Siberia, Western India, Saudi Arabia and the Pacific Northwest.
And scientists are now looking at testing the model on the oceans to take advantage of the large areas of submarine basalt formations.
Potentially, basalt could solve all the world's CO2 problems says Sandra: "The storage capacity is such that, in theory, basalts could permanently hold the entire bulk of CO2 emissions derived from burning all fossil fuel on Earth."
Very thirsty
At the University of Iceland, research around CarbFix has been continuing since its pilot phase.
A desk-size replica of the pipes and pumps in Hellisheidi in a state-of-the-art lab allows Prof Sigurdur Gislason to scrutinize the process.
"Before the injection started in CarbFix, the consensus within the scientific community was that it would take decades to thousands of years for the injected CO2 to mineralise", says Prof Gislason explains.
"Then we found out that it was already mineralised after 400 days".
Reactions were a lot faster than anticipated partly because of the large amounts of water used to dissolve the CO2.
This however points to one of the project's Achilles heels - it is very water intensive.
"It needs over 25 tonnes of water per tonne of CO2," says Prof Gislason. "In Iceland we are blessed with lots of rain, but if you are doing this on the basaltic areas in India... their water is very precious".
Some critics warn high-tech fixes such as this one pose a bigger risk - that of distracting researchers and the public from the pressing need drastically to reduce greenhouse gases levels.
In a recent report, the European Academies Science Advisory Council warned that such technologies have "limited realistic potential" if emissions are not reduced.
"CarbFix is not a silver bullet. We have to cut emissions and develop renewable energies, and we have to do CCS too," says Prof Gislason.
We have to change the way we live, which has proved very hard for people to understand."
Part of our series Taking the Temperature, which focuses on the battle against climate change and the people and ideas making a difference.
This BBC series was produced with funding from the Skoll Foundation
Illustrations by Jilla Dastmalchi
|
The UK is about to have yet another general election and soon the internet and airwaves will be filled with talk of marginals, hustings and spin. But what do all these things really mean?
|
We're here to help. Use our translator tool to check the meaning of some of the words used around election time.
Election translator
What do all the terms mean?
Backbencher
Term for an MP who is not a minister. They sit behind the front benches in the House of commons.
Ballot
Another term for vote.
Ballot box
A sealed box with a slit in the lid. Voters place their ballot papers through the slit into the box. When polls close the boxes are opened and counting begins.
Ballot paper
Paper containing a list of all candidates standing in a constituency. Voters mark their choice with a cross.
By-election
An election held between general elections, usually because the sitting MP has died or resigned.
Candidate
Someone putting themselves up for election. Once Parliament has been dissolved, there are no MPs, only candidates.
Canvassing
During a campaign, active supporters of a party ask voters who they will vote for and try to drum up support for their own candidates.
Close of nominations
The deadline for candidates standing to send in the officials forms confirming their place in the election. This is usually __ days before polling day.
Coalition
When two or more parties govern together, when neither has an overall majority. After the 2010 election, the Conservatives and Lib Dems formed a coalition, which lasted for five years.
Confidence and supply
A agreement between two political parties where the smaller party agrees to support a larger one without enough MPs to have a majority in parliament.
Conservative
The Conservative party is
Constituency
The geographical unit which elects a single MP. There are 650 in the UK.
Dead cat
In politics, a 'dead cat' strategy is when a dramatic or sensational story is disclosed to divert attention away from something more damaging. The term comes from the concept of an imaginary dead cat being flung onto a dining table, causing the diners to become distracted by it.
Declaration
The announcement of the election result in each constituency.
Deposit
A sum of £500 paid by candidates or their parties to be allowed to stand. It is returned if the candidate wins 5% or more of the votes cast.
Devolution
The delegation of powers to other parliaments within the UK, specifically the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies.
Devolved parliament
The Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies are elected by voters in those nations of the UK. They make laws on policy areas controlled by those nations such as health, environment and education.
Dissolution of Parliament
The act of ending a Parliament before an election. When parliament is dissolved there are no MPs, but the prime minister and other senior ministers remain in their roles.
Electoral register / roll
A list of everyone in a constituency entitled to vote. Also known as electoral roll.
Exit poll
An exit poll is a poll of voters leaving a voting station. They are asked how they have voted, and the results are used to forecast what the overall result of the election may be.
First past the post
Term used to describe the UK's parliamentary election system. It means a candidate only needs to win the most votes in their constituency to win the seat.
Gain
When a party wins a constituency from another party, it is said to have "gained" it from the other.
General election
Election at which all seats in the House of Commons are contested.
Hung parliament
If after an election no party has an overall majority, then parliament is said to be "hung". The main parties will then try to form a coalition with one or more of the minor parties. Opinion polls have suggested that a hung parliament is a strong possibility after the 2015 general election.
Hustings
A meeting a which candidates address potential voters. The word comes from an old Norse word meaning "house of assembly".
Independent
A candidate who is not a member of any political party and is standing on their own personal platform. To qualify as an official political party, a party must be registered with the Electoral Commission, the organisation which administers elections in the UK.
Landslide
The name given to an election which one party wins by a very large margin. Famous landslides in UK elections include Labour's victory in 1945, the Conservative win in 1983 and the election which brought Tony Blair to power in 1997.
Left wing
A person or party with strong socialist policies or beliefs.
Liberal Democrat
The name of the party occupying the centre ground of British politics. They were formed from the former Liberal party and Social Democrats, a Labour splinter group, and combine support for traditional liberalism such as religious tolerance and individual freedom, with support for social justice.
Majority
A majority in Parliament means one side has at least one more vote than all the other parties combined and is therefore more likely to be able to push through any legislative plans.
Majority government
When one party wins more than half of the seats in the Commons, they can rule alone in a majority government
Mandate
Politicians say they have a mandate, or authority, to carry out a policy when they have the backing of the electorate.
Manifesto
A public declaration of a party's ideas and policies, usually printed during the campaign. Once in power, a government is often judged by how many of its manifesto promises it manages to deliver.
Marginal
Seats where the gap between the two or more leading parties is relatively small. Often regarded as less than a 10% margin or requiring a swing (see below) of 5% or less, though very dependent on prevailing political conditions.
Minority government
A minority government is one that does not have a majority of the seats in Parliament. It means the government is less likely to be able to push through any legislative programme. Boris Johnson has suffered a number of defeats in Parliament over a no-deal Brexit because he does not have a majority.
MP
Strictly this includes members of the House of Lords, but in practice means only members of the House of Commons. When an election is called Parliament is dissolved and there are no more MPs until it assembles again.
Nomination papers
A candidate must be nominated on these documents by 10 voters living in the constituency.
Opinion poll
A survey asking people's opinion on one or more issues. In an election campaign, the key question is usually about which party people will vote for.
Opposition
The largest party not in government is known as the official opposition. It receives extra parliamentary funding in recognition of its status.
Party Election Broadcast
Broadcasts made by the parties and transmitted on TV or radio. By agreement with the broadcasters, each party is allowed a certain number according to its election strength and number of candidates fielded.
Percentage swing
The swing shows how far voter support for a party has changed between elections. It is calculated by comparing the percentage of the vote won in a particular election to the figure obtained in the previous election.
Polling day
Election day
Polling station
Place where people go to cast their votes
Postal vote
People unable to get to a polling station are allowed to vote by post if they apply in advance.
Proportional representation (PR)
Any voting system where the share of seats represents the share of votes is described as proportional representation. The UK currently has a first past the post system.
Prorogation
Parliament is usually prorogued, or suspended, ahead of an election or Queen's Speech to allow for preparations. In September 2019 Boris Johnson attempted to prorogue Parliament for five weeks, but the Supreme Court later ruled the prorogation unlawful and MPs returned to Parliament.
Psephologist
A person who studies voting and voting patterns.
Purdah
This is the time between the announcement of an election and the final election results. During this period media organisations have to ensure any political reporting is balanced and is not likely to influence the outcome of the election.
Recount
If a result is close, any candidate may ask for a recount. The process can be repeated several times if necessary until the candidates are satisfied. The returning officer has the final say on whether a recount takes place.
Returning officer
The official in charge of elections in each of the constituencies. On election night they read out the results for each candidate in alphabetical order by surname.
Right wing
Someone who is right wing in politics usually supports tradition and authority, as well as capitalism. The Conservative party is regarded as the main centre-right party in the UK.
Safe seat
A safe seat is a constituency where an MP has a sufficiently large majority to be considered unwinnable by the opposition.
Spin room
The attempt to place a favourable interpretation on an event so that people or the media will interpret it in that way. Those performing this act are known as spin doctors.
Spoiled ballot
Any ballot paper that is not marked clearly, eg with more than one box ticked or with writing scrawled across it, is described as a spoiled ballot and does not count towards the result.
Tactical voting
This is when people vote not for the party they really support, but for another party in order to keep out a more disliked rival.
Target seat
In theory, any seat that a party contests and held by a rival is one of its targets. In practice, a target seat is one that a party believes it can win and puts a lot of effort into doing so.
Turnout
Turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot on polling day.
Vote of no confidence
It is usually the leader of the opposition, currently Jeremy Corby, who calls for a vote of no confidence, in an attempt to topple the government. If more MPs vote for the motion than against it, then the government has 14 days to try to win back the confidence of MPs through another vote – while the opposition parties try to form an alternative government. If nothing is resolved, then a general election is triggered.
Westminster
The UK Parliament is located in the Palace of Westminster in the centre of London and the term is often used as an alternative to Parliament.
Working majority
A working majority in Parliament is what a government needs to carry out its legislative programme without risk of defeat. It means the government can rely on at least one more vote than the opposition parties. However, in the current Parliament, the government no longer has a majority and MPs from a range of opposition parties have joined forces to form a parliamentary majority big enough to defeat the government over plans for a no-deal Brexit.
Election translator
What do all the terms mean?
Some key terms
Canvassing
Is when supporters of a party ask voters who they will vote for and try to drum up support for their own candidates. They do this by promoting the party's policies and their candidates' personal qualities.
Deposit
Each candidate must pay a £500 deposit to run for parliament. The money is paid by the parties or the candidate themselves, and they get it back if they win 5% or more of the votes cast.
Dissolution of Parliament
Parliament is broken up - or dissolved - 25 working days before election day. When parliament is dissolved there are no MPs, but the prime minister and ministers remain in their jobs.
Exit poll
A survey in which voters leaving a polling station are asked how they voted. The results are analysed and used to forecast the overall result of the election.
Hung parliament
An election where no one party wins a majority is said to end in a hung parliament. Usually the largest party then tries to form a partnership with another party as a coalition government.
Majority
A majority in Parliament means one party has at least one more seat than all the others put together. That means it is likely to win votes on its policies and plans in Parliament, which can then be implemented.
Opinion poll
Opinion polls ask people which party they will vote for in the election. The results are used to suggest how much of the vote each party could get across the whole country. But the vote share does not necessarily translate to who gets a majority of seats in Parliament. Polls are also used to find out opinions on a range of issues
Postal vote
Anyone registered to vote can apply for a postal vote ahead of the election. Postal votes are particularly useful for people who can't get to a polling station on election day. Information on how to apply for a postal vote is available online.
Tactical voting
An effort to get voters to back a party they don't really support in an effort to defeat another party. Parties with similar policies sometimes do deals so that one stands aside to give the other a better chance of winning but the practice can be controversial.
What are the parties promising you?
Use this concise guide to compare where the parties stand on key issues like Brexit, education and the NHS.
General election manifesto guide
|
A long-running border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia has flared into deadly clashes, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes. The BBC's Rachel Harvey looks at the human cost of the conflict.
|
As the early morning sun rose above the rooftops of the local government buildings, orderly queues were forming in the car park down below.
Villagers, evacuated from their homes when Thailand and Cambodia renewed their long-simmering border dispute with a new and deadly vengeance, lining up for a free hot meal.
Most had spent the last two nights sleeping on mats on the ground.
More than 16,000 people on the Thai side of the border have been moved to temporary shelters.
Pranee Wanchalerm's home is about 13km (8 miles) from the border - that was too close for comfort.
On Saturday night she sheltered in a bunker listening to the terrifying sound of shells falling around her.
"I saw the flashes in the sky and I was really afraid something was going to land on my house," she said.
Those fears were justified as a school a little closer to the disputed area took a direct hit - or more accurately several hits.
The main building now has a gaping hole in the roof. Three classrooms behind it have been completely wrecked. Desks and chairs lie covered in roofing tiles and other debris.
By some mercy the children were not in the classrooms. There was a special sports event that day, so they were outside.
The extent of the structural damage vividly demonstrates the power of the ordnance used. One can only imagine the potential human cost if the bombardment had been at any other time or on any other school day.
Determined to stay
A village a short distance away bears its own scars from the recent battles. In the dusty earth between the wooden and concrete buildings there is a crater more than 6m wide. Across the road, a house has been gutted by fire. Another has part of a wall missing.
Most people in the village have now moved to the evacuation camps. But not Mon Sida - he doesn't want to leave his property or his chickens.
Mon has lived in this particular village for more than 30 years and in the district all his life.
"I've never seen anything like this before. It's never been this heavy before," he told me.
"It wasn't just one," he adds, and then graphically imitates the sound of an incoming mortar followed by several explosive booms, just to make sure I'd understood.
A few other villagers arrived to collect some belongings and to take stock, taking advantage of a lull in the fighting. They loaded items on the back of a pick-up truck then headed back towards the main town.
Mon is clearly very frightened. He saw his neighbour killed during the shelling but he is determined to stay on his land.
As the truck drove off he was contemplating another night in his own private refuge - a drainage pipe running under the main road.
'Virtual observer'
Occasionally we were passed on the road by an army jeep or truck, but there was no sign of more artillery on the move. Presumably the weapons are now all in position and well dug in.
There is certainly no sign of either side backing down.
Thailand and Cambodia continue to blame one another for the initial hostilities and for each new outbreak since.
Cambodia has called on the United Nations Security Council to get involved. Thailand says there is no need for third-party intervention - bilateral channels are best to resolve the border tension.
The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, has visited both countries in the past two days offering to be what he called a "virtual observer", willing to listen to the complaints of both sides, though he was careful to avoid the word mediator.
Asked whether there was any sign of progress, Mr Natalegawa replied: "Well I'm less pessimistic than I was two days ago."
One day of calm doesn't amount to a formal ceasefire, let alone a sustainable peace.
There are still two armies, backed by an awful lot of military hardware, facing each other across a disputed and volatile border. But it's a welcome respite after the past few days.
|
The sludge of an open sewer snakes past a tin shack, and across a dirt track that meanders through Ficksburg - a small, fairly typical South African town, tucked between rugged hills on the border with Lesotho.
|
Andrew HardingAfrica correspondent@BBCAndrewHon Twitter
I have come here, en route for the grand weekend centenary celebrations of the governing African National Congress (ANC) in the nearby city of Bloemfontein, to see how the continent's oldest and most famous liberation movement is coping with the more nuanced challenges of local government, 18 years after it came to power.
The short answer is "very badly".
But as usual in South Africa, the bigger picture is more complicated - stained and warped by apartheid's legacy, poor education, inflated expectations, an entrenched culture of entitlement, the struggle to collect and allocate revenues, and sky-high unemployment.
Ficksburg retains the topographical scars of apartheid - still divided between a prim, well-built town centre, once reserved for whites, and a sprawling "township" filled with the stench of sewage and uncollected rubbish, but packed too with neatly manicured front gardens, kiosks, and small, brick-walled government-built houses.
Last year, public anger about the lack of basic services and enduring unemployment in the township triggered the sort of protests that have become increasingly common across South Africa.
A local man, Andries Tatane, was killed - his death caught by television cameras - when the police tried to confront the marchers.
Today, almost everyone I speak to voices disgust for what they see as the corrupt, incompetent local ANC-run council.
'Corruption'
But the community is also bitterly divided about the way ahead, with some tempted to turn their backs on the ruling party, but many more reluctant to abandon a deep, instinctive loyalty to the organisation of liberation giants like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo.
"I think the ANC has collapsed - it can't be fixed," says Vincent Mojase, a local councillor who abandoned the ruling party to join the struggling Congress of the People (Cope) opposition.
Cope and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have eight seats on the council, he says, but the ANC has 26.
"Corruption is very rife. We've had enough of them," he says.
"They can be beaten but the population must be taught to vote on merit, not on the history of a certain political party.
"We wish they will lose power peacefully because we don't want to be in a situation like Egypt or Tunisia or Libya. It can happen peacefully because South Africa is famous for its negotiations."
Justice, a gangly law student standing with friends at a busy intersection, is tempted to agree.
"There's still no jobs, still corruption at the municipality. Personally I'm falling out of love with [the ANC]. I might vote for someone else," he says.
But Anna Lewana, a 72 year old living in the tin shack I first saw beside the open sewer, was adamant.
"I will die voting for the ANC. Even though I have not been given a house, they gave us our freedom," she declared.
It is a widely held view.
'Woeful finances'
Several local ANC officials declined to speak to us. But Molefi Nonyane, an ANC member and local community organiser insisted that "the ANC can be very much part of the solution".
He blamed poor communication between different administrative structures, and urged people to be patient, saying the picture was complex, with local feuds often fuelling the protests.
There are not many white people left in Ficksburg.
"Perhaps 6,000 of us," says lawyer Ben Du Toit, who holds a seat on the council for the opposition DA.
The town's finances are, he claims, "in dire straits".
"There's no real money for infrastructure development or maintenance. There's a lot of… mismanagement of funds and corruption. 300 million rand ($37m; £24m) is still owed to the municipality and they're not doing anything to collect it," he says.
The main problem, he insists, is that the ANC hires people based on their loyalty rather than ability.
"They've appointed people totally unsuited for the job. I don't think things can get any worse.
"The ANC is very much about pomp and splendour - they spend lots of money on things that have nothing to do with service delivery," he says, referring to this weekend's centenary events.
"We need to get people thinking about politics. But it won't be quick - maybe not in my lifetime."
The road I took into Ficksburg was a sea of potholes. But driving south west towards Bloemfontein, I see workers busy widening and resurfacing the route.
The ANC has plenty of achievements it can point to in government. But close up, its failings are glaring.
|
Flood sirens have sounded as the "biggest ever" training exercise has been held in parts of West Yorkshire inundated by flooding in December 2015.
|
The exercise was carried out in Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Sowerby Bridge, Elland and Brighouse.
About 2,700 homes were flooded along with more than 4,400 businesses in the area in 2015, said Calderdale Council.
Scenarios played for the exercise included a mock rescue of casualties from a sinking canal boat.
Operation Calderdale16 was its biggest ever live training exercise, the council said.
The Environment Agency has eight flood sirens to warn the upper Calder valley when rivers are expected to flood.
The sirens sounded for about two minutes during the exercise.
The 2015 flood
Source: Eye on Calderdale
|
A teenager was airlifted to hospital with a suspected broken leg after jumping into the sea from cliffs in Swansea.
|
The 19-year-old was hurt while "tombstoning" at Limeslade Bay, Mumbles, say Swansea Coastguards.
A spokesman said the area was a popular place for jumping into the sea, but warned that many people were not aware of the dangers.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 2200 BST on Sunday.
"It's a dangerous activity, you don't know how much water there is underneath you," said the spokesman.
"If people want to jump from rocks then I would urge them to do it in a properly supervised way with a coasteering group."
|
A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts as part of a search for two teenagers from Dewsbury thought to be in Syria.
|
The North East Counter Terrorism Unit confirmed the Dewsbury teenager was questioned in April under section 5 of the Terrorism Act and later bailed.
Hassan Munshi and Talha Asmal, both 17, are feared to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State in March.
West Yorkshire Police and counter-terrorism officers are investigating.
Speaking at the time of their disappearance, the boys' families said they were praying for the safe return of the "ordinary Yorkshire lads".
Hassan's brother, Hammaad Munshi, was arrested in 2006 at the age of 16 after police found a guide to making napalm on his computer.
He became the youngest person to be convicted under the Terrorism Act.
|
Lewis Hardy was struggling in prison, feeling isolated from his young family and increasingly "cold". Then he was shown a way of doing something that many parents take for granted - reading to his children - and everything began to change.
|
By Dougal ShawBBC Stories
Lewis Hardy had just been released from prison and was getting a taxi home to see his two sons for the first time in nine months, when he got the call he dreaded.
"What are you up to?" a familiar voice enquired.
"I'm just in a taxi to see my boys."
"Don't worry about that," said his old friend. "See them tomorrow. Come to the pub with us lot."
But Lewis knew exactly what to say.
"I ain't ever going to the pub with 'you lot' ever again. My kids are more important."
Prisoners get a lot of time to think, Lewis says, and he'd figured out what was the right decision for him.
When he got home his sons, aged six and five, jumped up on him so fast he nearly fell over, he recalls.
He couldn't wait to do so many things with them after such a long time apart.
But top of the list was reading to them.
It took a period in prison to remind Lewis of the joys of reading.
Born and bred in Plymouth, he'd got into a fight while drunk in 2013, and been sentenced to two years in Dartmoor for grievous bodily harm.
It was not out of character for him at the time, he admits - from an early age he had struggled to deal with his aggression.
But from the moment he was sent to a remand centre, he realised just how tough his new environment would be.
Fights broke out the first time prisoners were let out into the yard, he says, and "someone was slashed".
Prisoners made knives by combining toothbrushes with razors and you might be slashed for something as petty as an argument over a cigarette paper.
"It was like masculinity to the maximum and so you were always on edge," he says.
In Dartmoor itself he says you could "cut the atmosphere with a knife".
"Every time the doors are unlocked it's only a matter of time before something happens, whether it's to you or to someone else."
Violent criminals and their friends were constantly trying to figure out if someone had a weakness to exploit, either physical or mental.
Lewis managed to avoid trouble, but it was stressful.
"You had to stand your ground and you were always trying to figure out how to distance yourself from those sorts of things."
So while going to prison is "never lucky", he says, he considers himself fortunate to have been signed up for a programme called Storybook Dads.
This gives prisoners with young children a chance to spend time in a studio recording bedtime stories, which are then sent to their families at home on CD or DVD.
"As soon as you walked in through the doors, it was just complete relaxation, you felt safe," remembers Lewis.
For his own family he was producing one per week. He would read stories like the Gruffalo series by Julia Donaldson. He would also sometimes read Marvel comics from the prison library, holding up the images in front of the video camera.
He even drew his own comics, and sent these to his children.
The first thing Lewis realised was that the stories were helpful at home, for his partner and two sons.
"My missus was having a bit of time settling them at night," says Lewis.
But she could play his recorded stories and this would help to soothe them.
They told him that after listening to his voice "it felt like I was in the room with them when they closed their eyes."
He was also pleased to hear that his sons would sometimes sit down together to listen to the stories, when they were missing their father.
Lewis had neglected to read much to his sons before he went to prison - they were six and four when he was sent down. But Storybook Dads was reconnecting him to something from his own childhood.
"It's funny, but reading had been a big part of my childhood," he says.
"My mum used to read to me a lot. And from the age of about nine, when I found out I was dyslexic, I got really into reading, until my misbehaving started in my teens. I loved a series called Animorphs and read the lot of them."
Learning about the impact of his stories at home spurred Lewis on to do more. And not only did the stories delight his children - they did something for the story-teller too.
"It's hard to explain the feelings you get in prison," says Lewis.
"You don't ever get a cuddle off anyone, you don't even get a shake of the hands, you miss that love from your kids in their eyes, you start to feel quite cold every day.
"If you have a visit and someone cuddles you, it's the warmest feeling you can ever imagine, it's like an electric blanket around you."
Reading stories for his children brought some of that warmth back into his life.
"It's massively important for someone who wants to be rehabilitated," Lewis says.
Sharon Berry, the founder of Storybook Dads, soon noticed inmates' need for these warm feelings when she started visiting prisons.
She had studied radio production as a mature student and dreamed of writing radio plays. As she worked towards that ambition, she took some work volunteering one day per week at Channing Wood prison, helping it to set up a radio station. She was surprised by what male prisoners would talk to her about when given the chance.
They opened up about the pain of missing their children, the guilt of missing milestones like birthdays, toddlers' first steps or first days at school.
She saw phone calls home that ended in tears as prisoners found out about the family life that was passing them by.
This was how the idea of Storybook Dads came to her: it would be a way for prisoners to maintain family ties, while gaining media production skills that might help them rebuild their lives once outside prison, reducing the risk that they would offend again.
She set up her charity in 2003 in Dartmoor prison. The first room they were allocated as a recording studio was an empty prison cell.
Sixteen years later, about 100 prisons work with the charity, generating between 5,000 and 6,000 stories a year. (The charity also works with some female prisons, under the name Storybook Mums.)
Behind their tough facades, many prisoners struggled to make their recordings, Sharon noticed.
"It's a macho environment on the wing, you can't show any weakness. By contrast, our studio space is nurturing and supportive - they get in touch with that dad side of themselves. Shedding that macho image for a brief period of time made them feel vulnerable."
She saw many prisoners break down as they tried to record short personal messages to introduce their stories.
Find out more
Listen to Lewis Hardy talking about his experience of reading children's books in prison in this report from Outlook on the BBC World Service
Download the Outlook podcast
But there was something else the prisoners seemed to struggle with.
Some prisoners would be sweating by the time they finished reading Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood, and Sharon thinks she knows why.
"It's daunting for these young men," she says. "Very often they weren't read to as children themselves, so this was new to them. They come in to the little studio to read Goldilocks and they're embarrassed, they don't know how to do it, and a big part of it is helping them to relax."
Lewis, who learned to edit the recordings made by other prisoners as well as recording his own, agrees that some prisoners struggle with the act of reading. Some may also have had very little contact with their children, he adds.
The only time he personally felt stressed came when he was filming DVDs, using children's puppets as props.
"You had the other prisoners watching you perform the story. You see, prison pulls you back to that old mentality from school. 'Will these people take the mickey out of me afterwards?' Men can be immature."
However, many prisoners find that the positive impact of their stories gives them the confidence to do more, Sharon says.
Prisoners would hear that their children were so proud of the stories that they took the recordings to school to show their friends. They couldn't wait for the sequel.
"It showed the children that they are loved and not abandoned," says Sharon.
More than five years after leaving prison, Lewis has not re-offended.
He has returned to his job as a fencer and branched out into property care services. Occasional periods of work with Storybook Dads have helped him through periods when work has been scarce.
He has given up drinking and welcomed a third son into the world last year.
He also took up boxing at an amateur gym to channel his aggression, though problems with his hip have pushed him into coaching instead.
Reading with his children remains one of his favourite activities.
With his elder son he is working his way through the Harry Potter collection. They haven't reached the sections about the prison of Azkaban yet, he says. But when they do, he plans to use it as a "shock tactic", a way to start conversations that will steer his son away from the life he was tempted to go down.
"I will tell him the truth about prison, how horrible it is," says Lewis.
And he will also tell him how it was the joy of reading that helped him to rewrite the plot of his life.
Follow Dougal Shaw on Twitter: @dougalshawbbc
BBC Crossing Divides
A season of stories about bringing people together in a fragmented world.
You may also be interested in:
Gaby Eirew suffered two big bereavements in the space of a month. The experience impelled her to find a way of prompting parents to record video messages for their children. It also helped her to heal a deep wound in her personal family history.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.
|
Shortly before he died in 1930, former cabinet minister and leading lawyer FE Smith, a friend of Winston Churchill and one of the more outspoken British politicians of his age, wrote a book containing predictions of how the world would look in 100 years' time. They covered science, lifestyles, politics and war. So what did he say?
|
By Justin ParkinsonBBC News Magazine
Health/lifespan
Smith, a former Lord Chancellor who became the Earl of Birkenhead in 1922, was writing in a period when tuberculosis was a major killer in the UK and around the world. He was optimistic enough to suggest the eradication of this and other epidemic diseases was "fairly certain" by 2030, as was "the discovery of cures for such scourges as cancer".
Death from old age could also be delayed, Smith thought. Scientists would create injections containing an unspecified substance bringing "rejuvenations", which would be used to prolong the average lifespan to as much as 150 years.
Smith acknowledged this would present "grave problems" from an "immense increase in population". He also foresaw extreme inter-generational inequality, wondering "how will youths of 20 be able to compete in the professions or business against vigorous men still in their prime at 120, with a century of experience on which to draw"?
Work and leisure
Mechanisation would mean a "gradual contraction" of hours worked, Smith believed. By 2030 it was likely the "average week of the factory hand will consist of 16 or perhaps 24 hours", which no worker could possibly "grudge". But, with factories largely automated, work would provide little scope for self-fulfilment, becoming "supremely easy and supremely dull", consisting largely of supervising machines. It didn't occur to Smith, in an age before widespread use of computers, that the machines might become self-monitoring.
The cut in hours hasn't happened yet. According to figures from the OECD group of industrialised nations, the lowest average weekly hours worked in a main job in 2013 were 30, in the Netherlands. The highest figure was 47.9, in Turkey. In the UK it was 36.5, with the US among the countries for which information was not provided.
Smith believed that, despite the shortening of hours, everyone would earn enough by 2030 to afford to play football, cricket or tennis in their spare time. But one of the big winners in this more leisure-rich world would be fox-hunting, one of his own hobbies. "As wealth increases, we shall all be able to ride to hounds," he said.
Men would free up even more time with changes to sartorial rules. By 2030 they would be expected to own only two outfits, one for leisure and the other for more formal occasions.
John Logie-Baird had demonstrated television in the late 1920s and Smith was excited by the idea. He said that by 2030 full "stereoscopic television in full natural colours" would be available in people's homes, with proper loudspeaker-quality sound. This meant exiled US citizens would be able to watch any baseball match and, in cricket, "the MCC selection committee, in conclave at Lord's, will be able to follow the fortunes of an English eleven through the days (or weeks) of an Australian Test match".
Air travel
Smith, who had grown up before cars were invented, predicted they would be largely obsolete for all but the shortest journeys by 2030, with aeroplane ownership common. The creation of engines weighing only one ounce (28g) per unit of horsepower would allow lightweight, vertical take-off craft, capable of speeds of up to 400mph.
"Thus... the man of 2030 will set off for the weekend, after his work, in a small, swift aeroplane, as reliable and cheap as the motor-car on which we depend today," he wrote. The idea of a weekend would be different in a world where people only worked two hours a day or two full-time days, and transport would enable more adventurous time off. "Ski-ing parties in Greenland will be made up in London clubs on Saturday mornings," wrote Smith, "and translated into action before the same evening."
The era of low-cost airlines has made air travel readily available, but there is some way to go before aeroplanes are widely owned. In its latest figures, for 2013, the US-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association said there were more than 360,000 general aviation craft, "ranging from two-seater training aircraft and utility helicopters to international business jets". The figures do not include normal commercial or military flights. As the world's population is currently thought to be around seven billion, there is one personally owned/used plane for every 19,500 or so people.
Smith also foresaw sub-three-hour transatlantic passenger flights becoming commonplace. Concorde, the supersonic plane co-developed by France and the UK, managed this but it has since been scrapped, meaning most passenger trips between New York and London or Paris take more than seven hours.
Smith thought that by 2030 the first preparations for a manned mission to Mars would be under way, but that the first "half a dozen" attempts could miss the planet entirely, leaving astronauts to die onboard as they drifted further from Earth.
Energy
Smith predicted the increased use of cheap, clean energy from utilising the Earth's water supply. He seemed to base his ideas on an interpretation of Einsteinian physics, which said there was an equivalence between mass and energy. He outlined an eccentric use by scientists who managed to turn atoms in water into a viable source. "By utilising some 50,000 tons of water, the amount displaced by a large liner, it would be possible to remove Ireland to the deeper portion of the Atlantic Ocean," Smith said.
The heat obtainable from same quantity of water could be used keep polar regions "at the temperature of the Sahara for a thousand years", he added, something most scientists would not want to happen today.
But Smith was more ambivalent about what we now call renewable sources of energy. Wind was useful and universal, but tidal power more unevenly distributed. There was another concern. "By utilising tidal energy to any large extent, we should diminish the speed of the earth's rotation," said Smith. If tidal energy was overused, a "48-hour day is a possibility in the far future", he added.
War
The tank had only been around since WW1 and Smith was full of excitement about possibilities for development. They could become "entirely unmanned" within a century, he said.
"The commanders of tank forces will be carried in the air above their commands," he said, "and thus will be able to watch the course of operations and control their progress by wireless telephony." Or this could happen in a "distant control room", possibly underground. Birkenhead said this would make war "more humane".
In April this year, Russia revealed the Taifun-M, an unmanned ground vehicle for defending missile sites. And despite the focus being on aerial vehicles, there are plenty of other plans for "land drones".
Saharan sea
Given the improvements to transport, especially flight, the Sahara would become "a new playground for all Europe". A canal would be cut from the Mediterranean, ensuring "a new inland sea must surely be created. Its shores, now barren, would rival Florida for fertile charm".
Smith thought this would be popular from October to May, when temperatures would be at their most pleasant and a little less clement around the Mediterranean. The scheme was to be at least under way by 2030.
Politics
Television would make it feasible to revive the direct democracy of ancient Greek city-states, with the whole population, rather than elected representatives, able to vote on issues. Political leaders would make their case direct to the public. Communication speed would allow votes to be concluded within 20 minutes.
People would be better informed as advances in psychology, widely taught in schools, would leave them "immune from specious appeals to sentiment and illogical reasoning".
Smith thought it unlikely the party system would survive in this climate and felt that by 2030 people would be more content with the idea of "rule of experts".
But the British Empire would survive, with India staying part of it, although the capital might move from London to somewhere in Canada or Australia, Smith predicted.
Family/eugenics
Smith, in common with many theorists of the 19th Century and early 20th Century, predicted a greater use of eugenics - the practice of attempting to "improve" the human race through control of reproduction.
He claimed a clever young man would "consider his fiancee's hereditary complexion before proposing marriage". In return, "the young woman of that day will refuse him because he has inherited a gene from his father which will predispose their children to quarrelsomeness".
Smith questioned fears that eugenics might be used to create a "slave race" to carry out drudgery while others enjoyed more leisure, saying: "It is far more likely that men will work as machine-minders for one or two hours a day and be free to devote the rest of their energies to whatever form of activity they enjoy."
But the state would "certainly legislate to prohibit, or compulsorily to sterilise, such a marriage" as was likely to produce children "congenitally criminal and mentally repulsive". It would instead encourage good unions, as "prevention is better than Broadmoor". The state would also "render non-productive" unions between criminals.
Food and drugs
Synthetic food, produced in laboratories, would overtake conventional agriculture "in civilised lands" to feed the expanding population with ease, Smith said. "From one 'parent' steak of choice tenderness, it will be possible to grow as large and juicy a steak as can be desired." The prediction has echoes of the work currently being done on synthetic meat.
But farming the land would survive as a "rich man's hobby". Someone born in the 21st Century may, "in his wealthy rejuvenation, boast that the bread he eats is made from wheat which grows in his own fields".
Scientific creation of food would make cities no longer a "parasite" on the country but a "self-supporting unit". Smith predicted that town and country would become blurred in to one continuous, manicured landscape, where weeds had been eradicated.
Chemists would have devised new "physiologically pleasant substances" to go with tobacco, alcohol and caffeine. "Should chemistry in the next hundred years be able to discover new substances as pleasant and harmless as tobacco," he wrote, "yet each possessing a different effect on the consumer, it will have earned the thanks of every hard-worked man and woman in the world."
Smith himself died at the age of 58, his body worn out by years of excessive drinking and smoking.
Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox.
|
We arrive at Tanzanite One on a cool September morning.
|
By Lerato MbelePresenter, Africa Business Report
The drive from the nearest town, Arusha, was not too long, but the last stretch on a gravel road littered with ditches made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Once we got to the mine, we were given an induction and a quick briefing on the safety rules. After that we were off to the actual shaft, where we were allocated overalls, helmets and yellow plastic boots.
When I saw the contraption that would carry us 460 metres (yards) below ground, my excitement turned into fear.
Back-breaking work
The foreman referred to this square metal wagon as "the sink" partly because of the way it looks, but mostly because of the angular drop we would be making in it a few moments later.
Four of us could fit into it during a single trip down below.
We were the BBC crew together with the mine's chief geologist squashed underneath a steel bar, crouching as the wheels screeched into the dark pit.
A school bell tolled when we arrived on the site.
That was the signal the operators used for the pulley to either stop or go - quite basic.
By local standards Tanzanite One is said to be the most modern and mechanised mine in a region that exclusively holds vast reserves of tanzanite crystals, a mineral unique to Tanzania.
However inside the mine, we saw men working with shovels to load graphite into thick plastic bags. It is back-breaking work in hot and humid conditions.
The shortage of technological features makes it clear that Tanzanite One has limited capital investments.
A profitable operation?
The company was once listed on the London Stock Exchange, but today it is a privately owned company in a joint-venture with the State Mining Company of Tanzania.
Robert Grafen-Greany, affectionately called "GG" by the staff, is a British expatriate leading the prospecting and geology work being done on the mine.
He was showing us around the mine and then explained the simple economics of the tanzanite trade.
Even though this mine has the capacity to produce Tanzanite within a radius of 4km (2.5 miles), more exploration work is needed.
At present, it seems that potential investors need further convincing that this rare Tanzanian gem could lead to profitable investments in the future.
On the other hand, further exploration work cannot be done without more gemstones being sold, as that would boost the operating budget for the mine.
It's a catch-22 situation.
Nonetheless "GG" says that "historically it's been proven that it can be a profitable operation".
"Despite the difficulties. I think that's what's drawing in the investments."
The chief geologist also insists that irrespective of how sketchy things look on the surface, "in terms of regulation Tanzania has a solid mining code".
Instead, "the trickiest aspect of mining this deposit is the adherence to the code by other partners and stakeholders in surrounding mining towns".
This statement is a reference to the informal small-scale mines operating makeshift structures only a few hundred meters away from this big official mine.
Achilles heel
On the periphery of Tanzanite One is a network of small corrugated-iron huts, stone mounds and pits.
These are artisanal miners digging for tanzanite stones.
Most of them are individuals, both local and foreign, who have been granted mining licences.
Many are alleged to be smugglers.
It's a tricky situation, because small mines engender a culture of entrepreneurship and local ownership.
Mining reviews suggest that the informal network employs 10 times more workers than the big mining house, and provides work for the rural communities in the region.
The so-called smugglers however add a criminal element to a fledgling industry. They have been the Achilles heel along the tanzanite value chain.
Back in Arusha, brokers and gemstone dealers ply their trade openly on a main road.
They are noticeable by their resplendent red blankets typical of Maasai cultural costumes.
When we approach them for comment, they insist that they will only speak on condition of anonymity.
The man we meet looks to be in mid-30s, and says he's been "trading tanzanite for 10 years now".
"The major challenge we are facing here, is harassment from the government," he says.
It seems the government is trying to clamp down on the illegal trade in tanzanite stones.
Experts suggest that the black market has distorted the price.
It has also denied the government much needed royalties and sometimes led to violent crime in the sector.
Rarer than diamonds
Hasnain Sajan is the managing director of Tanzanite Experience. This is the retail arm of the mining industry.
They polish, design, sell and market tanzanite products mainly to customers abroad.
I ask him why it is that a gem which is claimed to be 1,000 times rarer than a diamond sells for lower prices and is less known.
Mr Sajan believes that with time, the tide will shift in favour of higher tanzanite prices due to increasing extraction costs.
"At the moment tanzanite is not found so deep under the earth but as it becomes exhausted we're having to go deeper," he says.
"Going deeper is more expensive, that means the prices will rise."
Currently global tanzanite sales amount to $50m (£33m) each year, whereas diamonds have been known to earn nearly $12bn in a single year.
That is clearly a concern.
'People don't know what it is'
However, what Mr Sajan finds more challenging is the lack of local awareness about tanzanite, despite Tanzania being home to this precious commodity.
He says "most people don't even know what tanzanite is".
In this regard, he urges the state to embark on a major marketing and publicity campaign.
His view is that the state should also be doing more to protect those who are legitimate miners of the stone.
"We need to have a fence in the area. We need to secure the area so that smugglers and criminals are kept away from the mines."
However, he concedes that perhaps the authorities are overwhelmed.
"The government is trying its best, but these are the small things they could do to make it better."
This is a sentiment shared across the industry from the range of people we met, be they mineworkers, brokers or retailers.
It may not be a simple fix but interventions in areas such as mine safety, security, formal brokering and better marketing of tanzanite, would ensure that Tanzania's most unique treasure is protected and sold for much more internationally.
|
A female osprey whose previous breeding seasons have been described as being akin to a soap opera has laid her first egg of the 2016 season.
|
The migratory bird of prey has returned to RSPB Scotland's Loch Garten reserve, near Grantown on Spey, for its 14th season.
Nicknamed EJ, her previous drama-filled visits have included having her eggs kicked out of the nest by rival males.
Reserve staff have compared her seasons to a TV soap.
|
A 17-year-old boy has been stabbed in a "ferocious" street attack as "children were out with their parents trick or treating", police have said.
|
The boy was found with stab wounds to his upper body and legs on Lingmoor Walk in Hulme, Manchester at about 19:20 GMT on Wednesday.
Det Insp Mark Astbury said he was "lucky to be alive" and the attack had left families in the area "shaken".
An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Det Insp Astbury said the attack was in an area "filled with families and elderly residents" which had "sadly... seen this type of violence before".
"Last night, children were out with their parents trick or treating [and] they have understandably have been left shaken by this," he said.
He added that the boy was in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Related Internet Links
Greater Manchester Police
|
Home Secretary Theresa May has said it is "inconceivable" that there will not be any changes on border arrangements with the Republic of Ireland, if the UK pulls out of the European Union.
|
She was speaking on a visit to Northern Ireland to campaign for a remain vote in Thursday's EU referendum.
She acknowledged that the British-Irish Common Travel Area pre-dated the EU.
But she said that if the UK pulled out of the EU, this would lead to tariffs requiring some form of controls.
Mrs May said peace in Northern Ireland is important and it would continue, whatever the result of Thursday's referendum.
However, she said there were good security reasons for remaining inside the EU, such as the access to European arrest warrants.
She had previously argued that the UK should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, which is not connected to the EU but a treaty linked to the separate Council of Europe.
Mrs May stood by her comments but made the point that the Human Rights Convention is not what people are being called on to vote about on Thursday.
|
News that two former Trump advisers are facing prison time may have provoked a media firestorm in the nation's capital. But to the president's core supporters it's just a distraction from the good work he's doing.
|
By Rajini VaidyanathanBBC News
"This is the sort of stuff that should be in People magazine," says James Montfort III, when I call him to ask what he makes of the legal turmoil surrounding Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
"It's more important to get North Korea to give up their nuclear arms, it's more important to make sure Mexico is playing fair on trade - than it is to worry about whether Donald Trump had consensual sex with someone years ago."
Whether or not President Trump directed Mr Cohen, his former personal lawyer, to pay porn star Stormy Daniels "hush money" is irrelevant to James from Virginia.
He is far more interested in talking up what he says are the president's huge achievements in office.
"This is not going to change my loyalty or dedication to him," he says, arguing that the national conversation should instead focus on issues such as low unemployment and a healthy economy.
I wasn't surprised by James' unerring loyalty. Ever since I met him in August 2016, just weeks after Mr Trump was officially nominated as the Republican candidate, his support has been unwavering.
James isn't an outlier. As I call a number of other Trump voters across different states, a pattern emerges in how they see the entire story. To them it's nothing more than a conspiracy against the man they elected.
"Everyone wants to talk about sex," says Cathy De Grazia, who I met as she campaigned for Mr Trump in the state of New Hampshire in 2016.
"I don't care if he paid off a porn star or a playboy bunny, that doesn't impact his policy making."
Cathy says she doesn't watch TV much these days, and listens instead to talk radio hosts such as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.
"Michael Cohen once publicly said he would always be loyal to 'Mr Trump'," writes O'Reilly in his latest blog to his audience.
"But now Cohen opines that his friend of many years is a danger to the country.
"Maybe Cohen is auditioning for the role of Brutus in the prison play."
The narrative in some conservative media circles has been to portray Mr Cohen as a fall guy, a sentiment Trump supporters sympathise with.
"He has been coerced and threatened," says Cathy, who believes both the Manafort and Cohen cases are the product of what she calls the "depth of corruption" in the FBI.
"I think there's been a tremendous misuse of power and authority," she adds.
Ever since Mr Trump took office he has railed against the FBI and intelligence services, and it seems that strength of feeling has filtered down to his base.
A phone call to June Savage, a real estate agent and Trump loyalist in Miami, Florida, confirms this sentiment.
"They went on a fishing expedition and they caught two big fish," argues June, who unsuccessfully ran to become mayor of Miami Beach last year.
"This is all smoke and mirrors to create a negative atmosphere. The FBI can make up stories once they find a target," she argues. "This target was the president."
In a throwback to conversations during the 2016 campaign, June believes the real target should be Hillary Clinton.
"They [the Clintons] are one hair away from being investigated about everything that's been going on in this country," she says.
"They wanted her to have a clean slate. They have double standards."
The FBI ultimately cleared Mrs Clinton of criminal wrongdoing over her use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state.
But that hasn't stopped Trump supporters citing the former Democratic presidential candidate's name as evidence of bias against their man.
Several also mentioned the tax affairs of Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and host on left-leaning MSNBC, arguing that if Manafort's past was examined, so should Sharpton's.
And to the Trump base, there's still no proof the president is guilty of a criminal act, or indeed collusion.
"I haven't seen anything that implicates Donald Trump in anything," Frank Ruppert, a retiree who lives on the Maryland-West Virginia border, tells me.
I phoned Frank - whom I first met after Mr Trump took office - while he was catching up on the day's headlines on Fox News.
"On some of the other networks they're talking about how Trump could be impeached for crimes he hasn't even committed, they've been saying that for two years," he adds.
Some have accused Fox News of not focusing enough on the plight of Manafort and Cohen, going big instead on the arrest of a Mexican immigrant who is accused of killing a young woman from Iowa, Mollie Tibbetts.
But for much of the Trump base, the agenda of some conservative news outlets merely reflects their own political outlook.
"I'd vote for Trump again, just like everyone would've voted for Bill Clinton again," says Frank.
"He's [Mr Trump] created jobs and economic growth, I can't see anything bad in what he's doing."
And as long as his supporters and media allies feel the same, perhaps the president has nothing to worry about.
Follow Rajini on Twitter @BBCRajiniV
|
There has been wide-ranging reaction from the US media after George Zimmerman, the Florida neighbourhood watchman who shot dead unarmed black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was found not guilty on all charges. Below is a selection of the reporting on the case.
|
The New York Times' Lizette Alvarez and Cara Buckley write that this was a case that "began in the small city of Sanford as a routine homicide but soon evolved into a civil rights cause examining racial profiling and its consequences - an issue barred from the courtroom - and setting off a broad discussion of race relations in America".
But after three weeks of testimony, what happened on the night Trayvon Martin was killed following a fight with Mr Zimmerman is still "a muddle", they conclude, with no clarity over "who had started it, who screamed for help, who threw the first punch and at what point Mr Zimmerman drew his gun".
The Times notes that the prosecution's witnesses did not always help their case, especially Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old who was talking to Mr Martin on his phone shortly before he was shot and who "might have damaged her credibility by acknowledging she had lied about her age and why she did not attend Mr Martin's wake".
"Prosecutors also were not helped by the police and crime scene technicians, who made some mistakes in the case," the paper notes, adding that while typically police testimony boosts the state's case, here "the chief police investigator... told jurors that he believed Mr Zimmerman, despite contradictions in his statements".
'It feels wrong'
Writing for Slate, under the headline, "Zimmerman's Not Guilty. But Florida Sure Is", Emily Bazelon says we should "blame [Florida's] bad laws for Trayvon Martin's death" - a reference to the wide latitude the state gives citizens to use deadly force if they fear death or bodily harm.
"It feels wrong, this verdict of not guilty for George Zimmerman. It feels wrong to say that Zimmerman is guilty of no crime. If he hadn't approached 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, if he hadn't pulled his gun, Martin would be alive. But that doesn't mean Zimmerman was guilty of murder, not in the state of Florida," Bazelon writes.
"The jury could have faulted Zimmerman for starting the altercation with Martin and still believed him not guilty of murder, or even of manslaughter, which in Florida is a killing that has no legal justification. If the jury believed that once the physical fight began, Zimmerman reasonably feared he would suffer a grave bodily injury, then he gets off for self-defence."
The Orlando Sentinel's Beth Kassab says that "like it or not, the jury got this one right".
"Nobody wants to see two parents who already lost their teenage son also lose out on what they saw as justice. As painful as it may be, though, acquitting George Zimmerman was the only verdict the jury could logically reach.
"The state simply didn't prove second-degree murder. Or manslaughter. As much as I don't like many of the choices Zimmerman made the night he killed Trayvon, the evidence presented at trial gave way to more than one reasonable doubt about Zimmerman's guilt."
'Trials can't answer wider questions'
For Andrew Cohen, writing in the Atlantic, the "startling" verdict is a "blunt reminder" of the limitations of the US justice system.
"Criminal trials are not searches for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They never have been. Our rules of evidence and the Bill of Rights preclude it. Our trials are instead tests of only that limited evidence a judge declares fit to be shared with jurors, who in turn are then admonished daily, hourly even, not to look beyond the corners of what they've seen or heard in court.
"Trials like the one we've all just witnessed in Florida can therefore never fully answer the larger societal questions they pose. They can never act as moral surrogates to resolve the national debates they trigger."
'White supremacy'
The Miami Herald report of the case notes that "the verdict is the last chapter in a saga that started with distraught parents mourning the death of their son and grew into a national movement, powered largely by social media and a chorus of civil rights leaders".
"Almost immediately, the case - and for some, the verdict - was viewed through the prickly lens of race: Zimmerman is a white Hispanic. Trayvon was African American."
Writing for The Nation, Aura Bogado argues that "White supremacy acquits George Zimmerman".
"Throughout the trial, the media repeatedly referred to an 'all-woman jury' in that Seminole County courtroom, adding that most of them were mothers. That is true - but so is that five of the six jurors were white, and that is profoundly significant for cases like this one," she writes.
Ms Bogado adds: "Media on the left, right and centre have been fanning the flames of fear-mongering, speculating that people - and black people especially - will take to the streets.
"That fear-mongering represents a deep white anxiety about black bodies on the streets, and echoes Zimmerman's fears: that black bodies on the street pose a public threat.
"But the real violence in those speculations, regardless of whether they prove to be true, is that it silences black anxiety."
'No winners'
For Erick Erickson on Fox News, "there is only tragedy" in the Zimmerman verdict.
"There are no sides but justice to root for, but a justice that will leave one side unsatisfied and still empty. Both sides made mistakes in this awful mess. George Zimmerman may not be guilty of either murder or manslaughter, but he killed Trayvon Martin.
"A 17-year-old is dead. A family has lost a son. And George Zimmerman must now now fear for his life because of hatred toward him stirred up by so many who politicized this mess.
"There are no winners here save for Zimmerman's not guilty verdict. He will have to live with this for the rest of his life and, sadly, Trayvon Martin will never get that chance. There is only tragedy here. There should not be politics here."
|
Crieff Hydro has joined the hotels shedding staff, as the hospitality industry looks ahead to limited revenue and rising furlough costs. The coming week brings the deadline for larger employers of deciding between paying towards furlough or redundancy. The Crieff Hydro group is well placed to pick up on leisure breaks when they're allowed again, but those positioned for corporate travel will find it tougher going.
|
By Douglas FraserBusiness and economy editor, Scotland
Coming out of hibernation is when animals can be vulnerable, with their reserves of strength and food depleted.
Nature provides a generous smorgasbord of goodies to greet them. Or at least, that's the idea. Not so with the current economy. Coming out of hibernation is going to be far riskier than staying in it.
The coming week is likely to reflect that. Already, we're seeing hotel groups shedding jobs.
They've looked at the terms of the second phase of furlough scheme. It's more generous than many expected, but it still forces questions and hard answers: will there be a market for these workers when we re-open, and if not, can I afford to take on the payroll costs until there is?
That's why several landmark hotels last week announced they're shedding some of their staff, to match costs with expected revenue when they reopen. They included the Blythswood in Glasgow, and the George in Edinburgh.
'Drastic and devastating'
This weekend, we've learned that Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels is doing the same - 241 jobs are "at risk". That means people could be out the door at the start of August.
With 950 staff, all but 50 of them furloughed, owner Stephen Leckie says he's already spending £500,000 per month on keeping buildings secure and insured.
The fifth generation of his family to run Crieff Hydro, he now operates 11 properties, including Peebles Hydro, and has borrowed to improve facilities and to expand his rural leisure-based product into Lochaber.
Seeing it as a business built on the quality of its people, personnel feels personal:
"When we closed our doors at the end of March, it was one of the darkest days in our 150 year history and this is another," says Leckie. "The impact coronavirus has had on our industry and business has been immediate and drastic.
"As a family-run business built on the strength of our people, discussing potential redundancies is the toughest step we've ever had to consider. I am personally devastated for every one of our team who could lose their job."
To help pay bills, he's taken on £6.5m of additional debt, most of that through the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
That will take perhaps a decade to bring down to comfortable levels, he tells me, meaning other investments will have to be put on hold. And so it is for businesses across the economy, let alone the many expected to default on their share of more than £30 billion in loans backed by the UK government.
Deadline looms
So as Crieff Hydro burns through cash, it was one of the businesses asking about the additional Estimated £30,000 per month of costs that would come with National Insurance Contributions, pensions and holiday accrual from the start of August.
Is there any point in paying that to keep people on the payroll, with little expectation there will be jobs for them come October?
In September, employers will have to pay 10% of the furlough pay bill. From October, it's 20%. As November starts, the scheme is due to be over.
And will the revenue be there for that? It doesn't look likely. At Crieff Hydro, they expect bookings to be down by 30 to 50%, and that revenue will be around 50%, or £17m down on last year.
So if the answer is "no - there's no point" in keeping people on for that reduced demand, then redundancy is likely at the start of August.
For a larger employer, with more than 100 people on the books, they have to give 45 days notice: for less than that, it's 30 days. So for the big companies, notice is going to be served in the next 10 days.
Ghost at the banquet
Don't expect Crieff Hydro to be the end of this, and particularly in hospitality.
For hotels, restaurants and bars, they are now missing out on peak earning season. Even when they are allowed to re-open, they can't expect customers to flood back. People will be cautious about travel, about infection, and about household finances.
However, Stephen Leckie, who is also chairman of the Scottish Tourism Alliance, points out that he's relatively lucky. More than 60% of his business is in the leisure trade, and half of UK leisure business is from Scotland. So he'll do OK out of staycations, and he was already well established for repeat business.
The rest of income is from conferences, meetings, events and big dinners. He doesn't expect to see much of that, if any, returning this year. The banqueting team won't have anything to do, except plan for next year.
So things look worse for those who don't have that balance, such as city hotels that rely on corporate travel, conferences, events and concerts.
The sector is pushing hard to get the Scottish government to reduce the two-metre distancing rule, to one or 1.5m, as in most of continental Europe. Without that, few restaurants or bars could be viable.
Air bridges
Boris Johnson is expected to say more about that this week. The prime minister is reported in the Sunday Times to have realised only last Tuesday the severity of the problems facing Britain's tourism and hospitality industry. It's claimed Downing Street is pivoting to much more concern about the economy than about viral infection.
The report goes on to outline changes to planning controls on outside dining and drinking in England, using the crisis to cut through bureaucratic delays. The creation of air bridges in and out of less infected countries are being prioritised, so that some Brits can avoid quarantine when they return from foreign holidays.
If the PM chooses to ease the two-metre rule, it will raise pressure for the Scottish government to back business with a similar relaxation of infection controls. To help tourism, there would have to be an easing of the five-mile advisory limit on travel.
The Scottish Tourism Alliance would like an extension of the school holiday in October.
And depending how much it is willing to borrow, government could go further: for instance, a temporary VAT cut, as Germany has just announced, or a voucher for staycations, as in France.
|
Batman Live, an elaborate arena show starring the caped crusader, has begun its world tour in Manchester.
Gotham City has been created on stage by set designer Es Devlin, who has also made live landscapes for Take That, Lady Gaga and the Royal Opera House, and is now working on the 2012 Olympics.
|
By Ian YoungsEntertainment reporter, BBC News
A city filled with 12ft skyscrapers, an Alice In Wonderland-style mansion and an eerie lunatic asylum are among the sets created by Devlin that, together with big screen graphics, are the backdrops for Batman's adventures.
"It's a bit like a big 3D film experience, only instead of putting on the 3D glasses you have people and props and objects popping out of the screen," she says.
While working on Batman Live, Devlin was also busy dreaming up sets for Take That's record-breaking Progress stadium tour, The Trojans for the Royal Opera House and the Olympic Games closing ceremony.
Meanwhile, her worlds have been put on stage in Bellini's opera, I Puritani, in Geneva and Mike Figgis' Lucrezia Borgia for the English National Opera this year.
And she has worked on Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour, major shows by Muse and Kanye West and dance productions at Sadler's Wells.
Few people straddle such a spectrum of cultural pursuits, spanning theatre, pop and opera, with brows both high and low.
A sense of imagination links all her creations, says Devlin. And with her work in demand, it is imagination to a deadline.
"I will lie in bed until I've had an idea," she says. "Sometimes I won't get up until I've had an idea. I will not leave that spot. Which, with two children, one of whom's only 18 months old, can be a bit of a challenge."
Speaking the day before the Batman premiere, she has just been e-mailing new stage designs to hip-hop star Kanye West, who has been e-mailing them back with scribbled amendments.
"I know that by the time New York wakes up I have to have drawn a picture of what Lenny Kravitz's set is going to look like," she adds. "The show has got to start being built tomorrow. I have to have an idea. And that's that."
Devlin started her career in theatre and broke into the world of pop in 2005 when Kanye West asked her to come up with a set for his tour just 10 days before the first date.
She designed Lady Gaga's first major tour, which began in 2009, and praises the singer's drive and cultural appetite.
"She was really well versed in theatre - her references are as wide as many of the opera directors and theatre directors that I work for," Devlin says. "She really knows her stuff."
The stage "looked stunning but to be honest didn't really work", she now admits.
"I think she felt a bit trapped in the box that I designed for her. It was a very sloping stage and her heels… there was one moment where she fell off it."
Devlin first worked with Take That on their Circus tour in 2009 - which included a giant mechanical elephant - and is on board again for their current Progress stadium tour, which played to 1.8 million people on its UK dates alone.
The centrepiece of the tour, which ends in Munich on 29 July, is a giant animatronic man who stands up and moves into the middle of the stadium as the show goes on. Or he is supposed to.
"So far there have been two occasions where it didn't stand up," Devlin says. "Every other night, although it might not have done exactly the hand movements we'd programmed on two or three nights, as an audience member you wouldn't have known."
Downsides to working with pop stars include their hectic schedules. "These people have barely time to go to the toilet, and if they phone you they often are going to the toilet because it's the only moment they've got," Devlin says.
"You therefore have to accept that you're going to get feedback whenever they can squeeze it in, and you're going to have them changing their minds and thinking of ideas very late in the day.
"Don't go into it if you're not prepared for them to walk in and say 'actually can I have something completely different?' And you just have to rock on. There's another good idea around the corner, let's sit down and have one before we need to feed the children."
With Take That's creative director Kim Gavin, Devlin has just presented the preliminary plans for the Olympics closing ceremony to Games organisers.
"We have the whole shape of it mapped out," she says. "I think it's going to be an extraordinary celebratory event."
The project has caused Devlin to think about Britain's "anxiety" about national identity and national pride, she says.
"I think it's an issue," she says. "I think it's an interesting area to explore. What do we think about the union jack? We feel uncomfortable about it."
As a result, the designer has been doing "immense research into the uses and abuses of that potent little collection of red, white and blue lines and triangles", she says.
The ceremony could be a chance to have "an impact on how we feel about that flag, and how we feel about national identity", she believes.
But whatever the ceremony involves, there is one overriding priority. It must work.
"You've got one moment. You can't have something that might not work."
Batman Live is at arenas across the UK and Ireland until October.
|
The former Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has ruled himself out from standing again for his party's leadership and revealed he has been dealing with a coronary condition.
|
By Mark DevenportBBC News NI Political Editor
Robin Swann has announced he will not stand again for re-election at the party's annual general meeting.
The meeting has been brought forward from February to 9 November.
Mr Swann said the decision had been made "after consultation with family and close colleagues".
South Antrim MLA Steve Aiken said he will put his name forward while Upper Bann MLA Doug Beattie is considering his options.
It is understood Mr Nesbitt, who led the Ulster Unionists for five years, was considering running for a second term.
However, the former UUP leader said he has been dealing with a coronary condition since 2015 and was recently advised by medical professionals to avoid extra stress.
The former broadcaster has ruled out a second run for the party leadership, although he will continue in his role as assembly member for Strangford.
|
Last week Venezuela announced it would withdraw its highest-denomination banknote from circulation. Long queues formed outside banks as people scrambled to change theirs before they became redundant. The withdrawal of the 100-bolivar note has now been delayed until the start of January, but ordinary people must still grapple with spiralling prices and increasingly worthless notes, as Gideon Long reports.
|
"Have you changed money yet?", my friends asked me on my first evening in Caracas. I hadn't.
"Well, don't," they said. "Not at the official rate. Give us your dollars and we'll change them for you."
So I handed over a single US $100 (£80) note. The next day, I received two huge stacks of bank notes in return - and I mean huge. A thousand notes in each stack, 200,000 bolivars in total. I felt like I'd won the lottery.
Except, of course, this is no lottery and there are very few winners.
The losers are ordinary Venezuelans, whose salaries are losing value by the minute, and who have to queue for hours to buy basic foodstuffs that they can scarcely afford.
All this in an oil-rich country whose citizens were once famous for their international shopping sprees. It doesn't add up. To understand the mathematics of the situation, you'll have to bear with me - it gets complicated.
There are in fact three exchange rates in Venezuela.
If you're importing essential goods like staple foods and medicine, and you happen to know the right people in government, you can buy a US dollar for the state-controlled price of just 10 bolivars - a bargain!
Everyone else is supposed to change at the second government-controlled rate, currently 670 bolivars. But there's also a real-world, black-market rate, which has gone through the roof in recent weeks.
In October, there were 1,500 bolivars to the dollar. By late November there were well over 4,000.
The Venezuelan currency has strengthened since then but, even so, it's lost half its value on the black market in just a couple of months. My two towering stacks of bank notes were worth $100 when I entered the country. When I left two weeks later they were worth $50.
The 100-bolivar note, the biggest in circulation, is worth just two US cents. So when heading out for a coffee or a bite to eat, you had to take a sack of cash with you.
The central bank is now issuing bigger denomination-notes and new coins to make life easier, but that's causing its own problems.
With bank notes so worthless, cash machines can't cope - they can only dispense a few dollars' worth of money at a time. I never saw an ATM in Venezuela without a line of people in front of it - unless, of course, it was out of order.
"I come here every day," said Ramiro, a young man in a white T-shirt and red baseball cap, as he waited to withdraw a wad of virtually worthless notes from an ATM. "We're all wasting hours of our lives looking for cash."
Even if you do have cash, you can't always buy what you want.
Some staple foods - rice, flour, cooking oil - are sold at government-controlled prices. That makes them relatively affordable, but supplies are extremely limited, and you can only buy them on certain days, determined by the number on your national ID card.
"Monday is my day," said my taxi driver Alexander, a big man with an uncanny resemblance to Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez. "I go to the supermarket every Monday. But even then, there's often nothing to buy."
Find out more
No one even knows what the true inflation rate is in Venezuela. The government doesn't publish the figures any more. Last year, it was 180%. This year, the IMF expects it to hit 500%, and for GDP to fall by 10%. It's difficult to see how any economy can survive that.
The government blames lower oil prices and a US-led conspiracy to undermine the economy. This week, President Nicolas Maduro blamed the mafia in neighbouring Colombia for fuelling Venezuelan inflation with big, cross-border money deals.
But the truth is that Venezuela is suffering from its own chronic mismanagement. Zimbabwe, Argentina, the Weimar Republic - history shows us that when countries start printing money to prop up their economies, it seldom ends well.
The festive lights are now on in Caracas. The reindeers, the snowmen, the sleds - all look very incongruous amid the city's luxuriant, tropical vegetation. But this will be a difficult Christmas for thousands of impoverished Venezuelan families, some of whom are now facing genuine hunger in what used to be one of the wealthiest countries in South America.
As I sat in Caracas airport waiting to leave, I opened a local newspaper and found a cartoon. It showed a puzzled Santa, reading through a long Christmas wish-list. "But this is all food!" Santa is saying to an elf. The elf - grim-faced - looks back at Santa. "It's the Venezuelan list," he says.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
|
For many people, the word squatter conjures up the image of a dreadlocked, middle-class, tree-hugging hippie eking out an alternative lifestyle in someone else's home. But with plans afoot to outlaw squatting, just who are today's squatters?
|
By Caroline McClatcheyBBC News Magazine
"I don't feel I am freeloading. I am using something that was going to waste."
Biz is a 24-year-old arts graduate who is squatting in a house in Bristol. She used to work in a bar but she could not get enough shifts to cover the rent. She is not claiming benefits and is earning a bit of cash by helping build furniture for a school's playground.
With the government consulting on a proposal to criminalise squatting, one of the big issues will be defining just who squatters like Biz are.
Many people's idea of squatters will be gleaned from media reports of young people occupying multi-million pound houses in the UK's most exclusive postcodes. Less frequently, there will be sensational stories about owners returning from holiday to find squatters in their house.
The predominant media image is one of posh, anti-establishment eco-warriors who spend their rent-money on parties and devote their energies to sustainable living. The counter-argument from squatters is that they often endear themselves to neighbours by fixing up derelict properties and establishing cafes, art galleries and workshops in their new homes.
But what is the reality?
Organisations and campaign groups such as Crisis, Squash and the Advisory Service for Squatters say a significant number of squatters are homeless individuals and families, many of whom have mental health and addiction problems in addition to not having a roof over their heads.
Opponents of the proposed criminalisation say it will hit the most vulnerable people in society at a time of government cuts and rising household bills.
They claim the beneficiaries will be people who own commercial premises and leave them empty for financial gain, such as tax avoidance or property speculation. They also say it will burden the police and justice system.
But there are other people who argue that squatters are rent refuseniks.
Mike Weatherley is the MP for Hove and Portslade, a squatting hotspot, and he says it is a "myth that homeless people and squatters are one in the same".
"For a lot of people squatting is a lifestyle. They move from property to property and are often anti-government, making some kind of protest statement. It is those people we have to stop."
He says the squatters are often well organised and well aware of their rights, and many engage in anti-social behaviour such as drug taking and fly-tipping.
There are no official figures for the number of squatters, let alone a breakdown of their age, location or educational background. While London stands out, by virtue of its sheer size, squatting is also an issue in many other cities including Bristol and Brighton.
The government estimates there are 20,000 squatters in the UK but squatting groups say the real total is more.
Squash, Squatters' Action for Secure Homes, points out that the number of people on local authority housing lists has nearly doubled since 1997 to five million and there are an estimated 650,000 empty properties in the UK.
Reuben Taylor, from Squash, says these places can provide for some of the most vulnerable people in society, such as homeless people, former prisoners and those with addiction or mental health problems.
"They are the majority of people who squat but they do so very quietly."
Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, carried out a study this year which suggested 39% of homeless people had squatted at some time.
Katharine Sacks-Jones, head of policy at the charity, says squatting is another form of homelessness, especially as some squats are in "horrendous" conditions.
"A lot of the debate is coloured by the so-called lifestyle squatters but this is very far from the reality for vulnerable homeless people who don't have another option."
The UK has a long history of squatting. In feudal times, if a house could be erected between sundown and sunrise the occupants could claim the right to tenure and could not be evicted.
Squatting was a big issue in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and again for the Diggers in the 17th Century. Founded by the anarchist Gerrard Winstanley, they were peasants who cultivated waste and common land, claiming it as their rightful due.
After World War II, squatting was a necessity for some and people slept in all sorts of buildings. The next wave came in the 60s and 70s and while the country was in the grip of another housing crisis, there was also a cultural move towards trying out a different style of living.
Professor Lorna Fox O'Mahony, an expert in property law, says there are three factors associated with spikes in urban squatting - rising house prices, a high proportion of empty homes and an increase in the homeless population.
"The rise in urban squatting in the 60s and 70s was largely focused around council properties. Houses were lying empty rather than being allocated."
She says a rise in the mid-2000s was also linked to rising house prices and a lack of affordable housing, particularly in the South East of England.
Prof O'Mahony says as more and more people became home owners, they became increasingly upset by squatters.
"People were paying mortgages and were horrified that people weren't paying their way."
Groups such as Crisis and Squash are warning that squatting may become the only option for more and more people as cuts to housing benefits and other front-line services start to bite.
Biz in Bristol says she will be homeless if squatting is criminalised, as will her 12 squatmates, some of whom are students who cannot afford to rent and people who are looking for work.
She says she will continue to squat until she finds a job that she not only loves but which also pays the rent. Though she admits she will probably be evicted before that happens.
|
Thousands of people are expected to turn out and greet the Queen as she begins a two-day tour of Wales.
|
The visit, with the Duke of Edinburgh, marks her Diamond Jubilee.
After arriving on the Royal Train at Cardiff Central railway station, the royal party is to attend a service at Llandaff Cathedral.
The royal party will then travel to Margam and Merthyr, followed on Friday by Aberfan, Ebbw Vale and Glanusk Park, near Crickhowell.
The visit will include a meeting with Wales' Grand Slam-winning rugby squad.
|
France is switching off its groundbreaking Minitel service which brought online banking, travel reservations, and porn to millions of users in the 1980s. But then came the worldwide web. Minitel has been slowly dying and the plug will be pulled on Saturday.
|
By Hugh SchofieldBBC News, Paris
Many years ago, long before the birth of the web, there was a time when France was the happening-est place in the digital universe.
What the TGV was to train travel, the Pompidou Centre to art, and the Ariane project to rocketry, in the early 1980s the Minitel was to the world of telecommunications.
Thanks to this wondrous beige monitor attached to the telephone, while the rest of us were being put on hold by the bank manager or queueing for tickets at the station, the French were already shopping and travelling "online".
Other countries looked on in awe and admiration, and the French were proud.
As President Jacques Chirac boasted: "Today a baker in Aubervilliers knows perfectly how to check his bank account on the Minitel. Can the same be said of the baker in New York?"
Chirac was speaking in 1997, exactly half way through the life-cycle of France's greatest telecoms innovation.
At the time, he could be forgiven for thinking it would last forever. This was the high point, with nine million Minitel sets installed in households around the country, an estimated 25 million users, and 26,000 services on offer.
But of course, the story was already written. The internet was moving in.
Today bakers from Timbuktu to Tallahassee are not just consulting their bank statements online, but doing just about everything else as well.
And so on Saturday, exactly 30 years after it was launched, the Minitel is bowing out. After that, the little beige box will answer no more.
It was born in the white heat of President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's technological great leap forward of the late 1970s.
An expert report then concluded that with proper investment the nation's telephone network could be complemented by a visual information system, accessed through screen-keyboard terminals.
"As well as being a technological project, it was political," says Karin Lefevre of France Telecom. "The aim was to computerise French society and ensure France's technological independence."
Rolled out experimentally in Brittany, Minitel went national in 1982, offering the telephone directory and not much else.
Gradually the offer increased to a vast array of services - banking, stock prices, weather reports, travel reservations, exam results, university applications, as well as access points to various bits of the state administration.
All users had to do was dial up a number on the keyboard, then follow instructions that juddered out in black and white across the screen.
It may have been the ultimate in computer clunk, but it worked.
"Of course it looks terribly old-fashioned by today's standards," says Lefevre. "But it was simple to use. You pressed a button and it did something. Just like on a tablet today."
Apart from ease of use, two other factors ensured Minitel's success. First was that it was distributed free of charge by the then state-owned France Telecom (or its predecessor the PTT).
This meant that even the poorest of households contained a set, subsidised by the taxpayer.
The other reason was the variety of content, facilitated by a business model that was not exactly free-market but for a while proved highly effective.
From the start, there were commercial interests that were highly suspicious of Minitel - the newspaper industry, which feared the new creation would drain vital small ads revenue.
So France being France, the government intervened to save the press. It made a rule which said that the only institutions entitled to provide services on Minitel were registered newspapers.
Soon these were creating all kinds of new ideas, leaving to France Telecom the hassle of collecting and then passing on their monthly fees.
The most lucrative service turned out to be something no-one had envisaged - the so-called Minitel Rose.
With names like 3615-Cum (actually it's from the Latin for "with"), these were sexy chat-lines in which men paid to type out their fantasies to anonymous "dates", most of them sitting in the 1980s equivalent of call-centres.
Until very recently, billboards featuring lip-pouting lovelies advertising the delights of 3615-something were ubiquitous across the country.
Some people are said to have spent thousands of francs every month on the Minitel Rose, and a number of entrepreneurs certainly got rich.
It turned out to be quite easy to set up a newspaper. Once you were registered, you quietly let it die and got on with making money from Minitel.
Today, as switch-off approaches, debate rages in France about Minitel's legacy, and whether in retrospect it has proved more of an embarrassment than a mark of pride.
What once was shiny and new now looks like a shoddy bad investment - of interest to the retro market, but not to anyone else.
One thing that is very telling is that Minitel was a uniquely French institution. It never made it abroad (apart from Belgium).
Briefly in the early 1990s, France Telecom did set up a pilot project in Ireland. The idea was to test Minitel in a small Anglophone environment, with an eye on a bigger launch in the UK or the United States.
A few thousand terminals were sold, but it never took off.
"I remember when I joined in 1990, it all felt extremely funky. My friends were all very impressed that I was bringing in this new sexy piece of French kit," says Gary Jermyn, who was the joint operation's finance director.
"But there were so many problems. First of all, unlike in France, we were selling the terminals, not giving them away. That was a huge handicap. And then the internet was arriving, and that was the death knell.
"Minitel wasn't an open platform. It only provided Minitel services, which was quickly going out-of-date as a model. Also by the early 1990s the terminal itself was the clunkiest piece of desk manure you could imagine. It was embarrassing."
A decade later, Jermyn says all that remained in Ireland were a few disused Minitel sets gathering dust in a handful of remote B&Bs (a tourist booking service had been one of the key ideas).
For Benjamin Thierry, a Sorbonne university lecturer and co-author of the recent book on Minitel, France's Digital Childhood, Minitel's failure to penetrate foreign markets is a classic French experience.
"When the French try to sell overseas, they insist on selling a whole system lock, stock and barrel. They don't know how to adapt, to break it up into parts. That just puts people off," he says.
Indeed the whole Minitel adventure can be seen as a typical French experience.
Only in France could the public resources have been mobilised to give the project its initial boost. So for a few years, the country was the envy of the world.
But then, immobility and inertia - as the market simply passed by.
"The failure of Minitel was not one of technology," says Benjamin Bayart, head of France's oldest internet provider, French Data Network.
"It was the whole model that was doomed. Basically to set up a service on Minitel, you had to ask permission from France Telecom. You had to go to the old guys who ran the system, and who knew absolutely nothing about innovation.
"It meant that nothing new could ever happen. Basically, Minitel innovated from 1978 to 1982, and then it stopped," he says.
But others are less critical.
Valerie Schafer, Thierry's co-author, says "the way Minitel is now fobbed off as risible and old-fashioned" is unfair.
"People forget that many of the ideas that helped form the internet were first of all tried out on Minitel. Think of the payment system, not so different from the Apple app-store.
"Think of the forums, the user-generated content. Many of today's web entrepreneurs and thinkers cut their teeth on Minitel," she says.
"The world did not begin with the internet."
|
When it comes to Brexit, all negotiations are inter-linked: EU-UK trade talks, the process to implement their divorce deal, negotiations on fishing rights and Brussels' deliberation on UK financial service.
|
Katya AdlerEurope editor@BBCkatyaadleron Twitter
What happens in one area very much affects progress in the others. You cannot separate them entirely.
Which is why this week, as the war of words and wills between Brussels and Downing Street raged over the government's threat to throw a grenade at key parts of the divorce deal, everyone's thoughts turned immediately to the trade talks between the two sides.
Could they survive?
In fact, they limp on. Negotiations are set to resume in Brussels on Monday. This, despite the EU ending the week by threatening Downing Street with legal action unless it rowed back on its threats to the Withdrawal Agreement by the end of the month.
The government insists it will not budge. So it is significant that the EU stopped short of threatening to press the nuclear button - shutting down trade talks altogether.
Why is that, when we know the EU is furious?
First of all, Brussels still wants a deal with the UK, if at all possible, this autumn.
Secondly, the sense in Brussels is that the government is trying to provoke the EU into abandoning the trade negotiations.
"We're not going to give them that satisfaction," a high-level EU diplomat told me. "We refuse to be manipulated."
So, despite bitter arguments over legislation on the one hand, and a huge list of outstanding issues still to be ironed out in bilateral trade talks; despite time and trust running out on both sides; neither the EU nor the UK seem to want to be the first ones to walk out the door.
It is still possible, of course, that the government's bill is stopped in the House of Lords or even beforehand by rebel MPs.
It is possible for the EU and UK to iron out their differences over the divorce deal and in trade talks. Concessions can always be "dressed-up" to look like victories, after all.
It has been done before. Remember last autumn? Finding agreement on the divorce deal seemed nigh on impossible - until it was not and a deal was signed.
But, right now that feels like a long shot. The chatter on both sides of the Channel is that "no deal" is becoming more likely by the day.
|
A body found on a north Devon beach is a missing Carmarthen man, police have confirmed.
|
Dyfed-Powys Police carried out extensive searches for Gary Shepherd-Mason after he disappeared on 15 November.
The body found at Instow has been formally identified and officers are supporting Mr Shepherd-Mason's family.
Supt Gary Mills said: "It is with great sadness that we confirm the death of Gary Shepherd-Mason."
|
A government task force has been launched to reopen Hammersmith Bridge.
|
Cracks in the pedestals led to motor vehicles being prohibited from using the 133-year-old cast iron bridge in April 2019.
In August, a heat wave caused the faults to worsen so pedestrians were banned from crossing over it and vessels from sailing underneath.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said there had been "a lack of leadership" in the capital over the bridge.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which owns the bridge, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson stating the estimated cost to make it safe and "avoid a potential catastrophic failure" was £46m.
The letter said: "No local authority has that kind of money available. We therefore write to ask that the government funds this work as a matter of urgency."
Announcing the creation of the task force, Mr Shapps said: "There has been a lack of leadership in London on reopening this vital bridge.
"It's stopped Londoners moving about easily and caused huge inconvenience to everyone, adding extra time to their commute or journeys."
The task force, led by transport minister Baroness Vere, will initially work towards reopening the bridge for cyclists and pedestrians, before moving on to enabling the return of motor traffic.
The Department for Transport has commissioned its own engineering advice on the state of the bridge.
A spokesman for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "The Mayor and TfL (Transport for London) will continue working closely with the bridge owners Hammersmith and Fulham Council and the government to find an urgent solution, but it's time for ministers to put their money where their mouth is."
|
Superfast 5G mobile broadband sounds exciting, but there's a major drawback: we'll need to buy new phones. Will the extra expense be worth it and when will we be able to buy one?
|
By Padraig BeltonBusiness reporter
To benefit from superfast mobile, due for launch over the next couple of years, we'll all need to buy new phones.
And as we know with all new technologies, the first models won't come cheap.
The next generation of phones will need a much more complex antenna, a whole new chipset or brain, and a way of managing the extra energy richer 5G services will gobble up.
Much of the base engineering is solved, says Scott Petty, Vodafone UK's chief technology officer. Now engineers are working on miniaturisation and how to scale up manufacturing to keep costs down, he says.
But with 5G-compatible phones likely to start selling from "around $600-$700 (£458-£534)", according to David McQueen from ABI Research - Samsung, Apple and Huawei prices will be "much higher", he says - will we bother to fork out the extra cash?
This depends on how impressed we are with the new generation of services, says Mr Petty.
"We think 5G will kick off another wave of innovation that we haven't seen in the last three or four years," he says, something akin to the shift from clunky physical keyboard-based models to those with high-definition touchscreens.
"The smartphone will be acting as a communication hub for wearables," he predicts, with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) benefiting most from the faster streaming speeds and lower latency (delay).
This should reduce the feeling of nausea many people feel experiencing VR on slower phones, he says.
But while handset makers are racing to be first to market, they also don't want to launch 5G handsets before the new networks have been rolled out - a mistake they made with 4G much to consumers' annoyance.
US mobile maker Motorola is coming out with a 5G add-on for its modular Moto Z3 smartphone in early 2019.
"We wanted to be first to market, and we wanted to learn a little about 5G frequencies," says Doug Michau, Motorola's director of production operations in North America.
The challenge, he says, "has re-energised our engineering base here at Motorola".
But the 5G module is slightly bigger than the smartphone itself, housing a 5G-only modem, several antennae, and extra battery capacity to power them, says Ian Cutress, who writes for hardware review website AnandTech.
And it will be available only to customers of the Verizon network in the US, he adds.
"My guess for the first smartphone launch - after the Motorola add-on - would be from either OnePlus or Sony," says ABI Research's Mr McQueen.
And the largest vendors will take longest, he says.
Samsung, he suspects, will launch its first 5G smartphone "around August 2019 in its Note series", and Chinese manufacturer Huawei "sometime in mid-2019, possibly in its Mate rather than P series".
"[For Apple] we anticipate it will probably take another two generations, so probably 2020 earliest until 5G is seen in any of its iPhone devices," he says.
The researcher forecasts 5G smartphone sales will reach 15.8 million in 2019, rising to 77.5 million in 2020. While subscriptions "will ramp up quickly from 2020, reaching over 200 million by 2022".
But there's a potential fly in the ointment.
There will be two different frequencies, depending on location. Most of us will probably be offered services at sub-6GHz (gigahertz) to start with, as mobile operators simply enhance their existing 4G networks.
But there will also be more expensive high-frequency "millimetre wave" (mmWave) services designed for densely populated areas.
"Each one is essentially a new technology in its own right," says Mr Cutress. "And the world will be split into regions where mmWave is the technology, and regions where sub-6GHz is the technology," he says.
So you may not always be able to use your flash new smartphone's 5G powers when you travel.
The first 5G smartphones are likely to have two modems: a standalone 5G modem, and one that works on 4G and older networks "to fall back on when 5G isn't available", says Mr Cutress.
In time, though, smartphones will probably have one modem that can switch between 3G, 4G, and 5G when necessary.
More 5G stories and features
Ben Stanton, from market research firm Canalys, thinks 5G "will not lead to a long-term lift in prices" and that by 2020-21 mid-range and low-end handsets will be 5G-compatible.
Consumers will start off by using a blend of 4G and 5G as carriers roll out their new networks of specialised masts and antennae, says Mr Stanton, so mobile operators will need to have at least some 5G handsets available on the market beforehand.
So will it be worth spending even more money on yet another smartphone?
The industry will be hoping that technophile early-adopters blaze a trail and advertise the benefits of new 5G services so that we all feel compelled to jump on board.
But there's a lot to sort out before then.
|
It is an oasis of colour and prettiness in an otherwise drab part of Glasgow's Maryhill district. Carefully raked gravel surrounds a circle of memorial stones which are decorated by flower baskets, and in some cases hand-written cards.
|
By Reevel AldersonHome affairs correspondent, BBC Scotland
Each stone carries a plaque commemorating the name of one of the nine employees of a factory destroyed by a massive propane (LPG) explosion on May 11, 2004.
Fifty metres away a building bears the name Stockline Plastics - by which the disaster will always be known.
Relatives of those killed regularly visit the garden to remember their loved ones.
Marie Murray, whose husband Kenny, 45, was one of those killed, said his death was a loss she suffers every day, even after 10 years.
But she said the garden gave her solace.
"We come at different times during the year, and always come on the anniversary," she said.
"It is somewhere we can come, quite close to where it happened, and I think it is quite nice for everybody.
"The families can gather here whenever they want and it is a nice wee corner for the community as well. They look after it."
Pauline McKenzie, whose 34-year-old sister Anne French was a victim, said: "We do remember; it is something we will never forget.
"But it is nice for the community to remember in a nice place, a nice garden for them to come to."
Although it is recalled as the Stockline disaster, in fact the factory destroyed was owned and operated by a sister company, ICL Plastics.
The company and ICL Tech Limited were each fined £200,000 in August, 2007 after they admitted failing to maintain LPG pipes which had fractured, allowing a build-up of gas which ignited when a fluorescent light was switched on.
Families campaigned for a judge-led inquiry rather than a Fatal Accident Inquiry, and it began taking evidence in July, 2008.
At its conclusion the chairman, Lord Gill, asked the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to examine all LPG installations.
Ian Tasker, assistant secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), said this was something which sheriffs conducting an FAI could not have ordered.
"He (Lord Gill) instructed HSE to inspect industrial LPG installations of this type," Mr Tasker said.
"And a number of failures were identified and a number of enforcement notices and prohibition notices were actually put in place by the HSE preventing, potentially, another explosion."
Maryhill MSP Patricia Ferguson, who represents the area where the factory stood, has proposed a Bill in the Scottish Parliament to allow sheriffs to make similar binding recommendations after an FAI.
Relatives of those who died in 2004 say if that were to happen, it would be a positive legacy of the disaster.
|
Guernsey has already had its wettest February in 35 years, according to the Met Office.
|
Thursday saw 35.3mm of rain falling in 24 hours. The last time the island was waterlogged was in 1978.
Guernsey Police confirmed that up to 60 roads were under two to three feet of water.
The Fire Service has had about 100 calls and attended eight incidents, and bus services were cancelled as roads became impassable.
|
Swansea University is to re-introduce chemistry degrees from 2017, after a 12-year gap.
|
The move came after discussions with the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The university scrapped chemistry degrees in 2004 amid falling demand for scientific subjects.
Vice Chancellor Prof Richard B Davies described the latest move as "a sign of Swansea's progress, ambition and confidence".
Last September, Swansea was ranked 41st in the Sunday Times Good University Guide.
|
Some of New York City's most iconic boxing gyms have been forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic, and with no official guidance on how they can reopen, many gym owners fear the city will forever lose this sporting legacy, writes Ben Wyatt.
|
Former featherweight champion Heather 'The Heat' Hardy stands on a Brooklyn street corner dressed in workout gear.
She has boxing mitts in her hands and a pair of gloves around her neck. As masked pedestrians walk along the sidewalk she tries to persuade them to join an impromptu training session on the sunshine-baked tarmac.
Boxing has always been a tough career, but at the age of 38, and as a single mother of a 16-year-old daughter, the streets that forged Hardy are now proving her only refuge.
Like all journeyed fighters, she talks a good game: "In New York City we work paycheque to paycheque, you know.
"I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I always figure out a way. I'll get through this too."
But her optimism belies the fact that her neighbourhood gym of Gleason's - a cultural and pugilistic icon of the city that's also the source of Hardy's private training income, her big-fight coaching team and her closest friends - has been closed by the state since March with no pathway to reopening.
"You miss the jokes," she says of her fellow fighters, who before the pandemic trained and taught in the gym up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.
Other opportunities have been missed too. The two fights Hardy had booked for this year, one of which was a title shot, were cancelled as the outbreak gathered pace.
Without savings to spend or workout classes to supplement her income, Hardy's street hustle is her best hope.
It's a far cry from her last fight at Madison Square Garden, where she suffered the first defeat of a gutsy 23-fight career, losing to interim world champion and fellow Brooklynite Amanda Serrano in an internationally televised match.
Fights overseas are returning, but without access to her coaches or a ring she will be forced to consider bouts for which she'll be dangerously underprepared.
Hardy's story personifies the plight of pro boxing in the Empire City in 2020.
Madison Square Garden's position as the sport's first mecca made New York an epicentre for the sweet science in years gone by, but from a heyday-high in the 1920s there's been a steady decline with each passing decade.
Of the 25 professional gyms that existed across the five boroughs in the 1970s, only a handful remain.
These glitz-free, idiomatic churches of sweat and sparring - where age-old ring knowledge nurtured colossi such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Jake LaMotta and Riddick Bowe - were already on shaky legs prior to lockdown.
Their enforced closure, without an end in sight or mention in the state's phased reopening measures, means they are all now on the precipice.
Bruce Silverglade, the former president of amateur boxing in New York and owner of Gleason's for 37 years, argues that at a time of their greatest need, boxing is being discriminated against by politicians choosing to look the other way.
He's watched other professional sports franchises such at the NBA, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball receive government guidelines on how to train and eventually resume play, while boxing has been left in the dark.
In boxing, where individuals have no leagues, federations or expensive attorneys to speak on their behalf, Silverglade argues the fighters of the city should be allowed to resume behind-closed-doors training at the very least. It's a lifeline that could prevent the extinction of the culture and its gladiators.
"If the governor or the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] were to give me directions, I'd adhere to them," says Silverglade.
"I have no idea when I can reopen, why I'm closed, or when I can earn a living again. Gyms in other states are open. List your objections, so I can take care of them."
Originally based just one block from Madison Square Garden, Gleason's moved to Brooklyn in 1987, schooling local talent such as the young Mike Tyson in the process.
As the USA's oldest boxing gym, it's welcomed everyone from Muhammad Ali to Paul Malignaggi, and there were times in the 80s when all five of its rings would creak from the sparring of world champions.
The clientele slowly evolved, with hobbyists accounting for 85% of members by the turn of 2020. Up until March, this income flow supported 92 trainers and eight staff. Now, most of the coaches are surviving on unemployment benefits.
"Today, I made 40 bucks selling two t-shirts. Last week I made 120 bucks selling a pair of gloves," Silverglade says of his earnings from the last month.
"I've still got to pay rent and insurance and I've spent thousands on PPE equipment."
Worryingly, Gleason's is faring better than most in lockdown. The Fight Factory gym, located near the boardwalks of Coney Island and Brighton Beach, closed at the end of June after 11 years in business.
Former soldier Eugene Ryvkn built the gym with help from local pro Dmitry 'Star of David' Salita after moving to New York in 1997 from Belarus. Having notched up 60 amateur fights back home, Ryvkn fought on in the US until he was 45; sparring in his gym until its last day.
Ever mindful of his 165lb (75kg) fighting weight, the already slim Ryvkn, 50, has shed 15lbs since the closure.
"I didn't sleep well, in like three months, because everything in my head. The rent, the business, everything, everything. I built it from scratch myself. I invested a lot of money in this place," he says.
"I had three full size rings, wrestling mats, weights area. An area where parents could do homework with the kids after school. I tell you, there's no more American Dream here, no more dreaming."
He applied for loans but found that he was ineligible for emergency funding due to the part-time nature of his coaches.
After regularly housing pro boxing names such as Bakhtiyar Eyubov, Nikita Ababiy and Arnold Khegai along with 250 local children from the ages of six and up, the remnants of The Fight Factory is now functioning within a rent-free home in a local synagogue, contemplating how it might serve its largely Russian immigrant community in the future.
Across the East River, the story is similarly critical.
Marc Sprung, the owner of Church Street Boxing, initially moved his operations online, paying his coaches to host Zoom training sessions while relying on recurring subscriptions to weather the 80% drop in income.
But when there was no further guidance from the state on how or when they might reopen, Sprung stopped charging fees and - with his staff's blessing and on the advice of lawyers - sacked his team so they would be eligible to file for unemployment benefits.
"It was very emotional, I've known these guys for over 20 years. If nothing changes we'll be closed in a month," Sprung tells the BBC.
"We could be looking at wiping out the fight culture in New York City."
Sprung is part of group that has launched a lawsuit against the state government demanding the inclusion of small, independent gyms in the plans for phase four of reopening. More than 300 gyms and workout studios have joined the lawsuit.
A few blocks from Church Street in Manhattan's financial district is Trinity Boxing, owned by former Golden Gloves super heavyweight champion Martin Snow.
A heavy-hitting slugger in his fighting days; the garrulous coach stands at the front of his gym under an entrance bedecked with two signs. The first reads: "Fight the good fight", the second: "Sorry, we're closed".
"Why can they train in California but [we] can't do it in New York? Do they know something we don't know?" he says.
Without the greater resources of beginner-friendly boxing chains such as Rumble and Title, Snow feels the independent pro gyms - traditional havens for "the outcasts and the disenfranchised, the immigrants and the working class" - are particularly vulnerable. Even the city's sex clubs have been allowed to reopen before a road map for boxing facilities have been discussed, he adds.
"You can have socially-distanced orgies with hand sanitiser and masks, but you can't go into a boxing gym? That's f—king nuts. So I decided, I'm going to have boxing orgies: only with no sex, three minutes a time, fully clothed, wearing boxing gloves and head-guards."
You may also like:
It's not just income that's being lost in the crisis but leaders too. As one of the legion of immigrant boxing enthusiasts in the five boroughs, Mexican-American Francisco Mendez opened the Mendez Gym on East 32nd Street in 2004. It became one of the city's leading locations for novices and champions alike.
Sadly, Mendez died on 21 April because of Covid-19 related complication.
Ultimately, the gyms may take up opposing corners come fight night but are united in their time-of-crisis message.
"New York boxing is the forgotten sport," says Hardy. "Promoters are calling on New York fighters because they know we're not training. [Governor] Cuomo, don't let us be the underdogs, man."
Follow Ben Wyatt on Twitter @benwyatt78
|
Rioting prisoners took over four wings over of HMP Birmingham last week, setting fire to stairwells, destroying paper records and causing £2m in damage. It was the latest high-profile disturbance to break out in a jail, prompting Justice Secretary Liz Truss to warn that "long-standing" problems in the nation's prisons could take months to solve.
|
Amid claims that inmates in Birmingham were pushed to riot by poor conditions and a lack of staff, a former officer at the jail has spoken about conditions there. The officer, who has now left the service, spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
"I started work at the prison more than 10 years ago. It was my first prison job and I was a fresh recruit.
I still don't know what attracted me to it, but it was a good decision. It was only in my final few years that I felt there was a decline.
I felt safe at first. During the first few years I could count the amount of times I felt fearful for my own safety on one hand. Eventually it got to the point where I was fearful nearly every day.
There wasn't a specific incident which led to this. At first, if you were dealing with an incident you would have colleagues around you.
But gradually I realised they were taking more time to turn up, mainly because they may be coming in from other areas where there would be three to four officers for 100-odd prisoners.
It's a psychological process - you become more wary of challenging prisoners so prisoners become more confident and less respectful.
I am not sure how many officers worked there when I first started, but to say it was cut by 50% by the time I left is realistic.
G4S officially took over the prison in 2011 (the prison was the first in the UK to be transferred from the public to private sector).
They didn't radically reduce staff, but staff began to lose motivation and pride.
Young prisoners would come in and see a G4S uniform and it got less respect than a prison officer's uniform. They would equate us to security guards, they would say 'you are not a real screw'.
There began to be a reduction in staff visibility.
For the prisoners, there was a lack of opportunity to build a rapport with staff so you could have that mutual respect and a level of trust.
I felt like we regressed, like we went back to being "Victorian turnkeys".
Another consequence of having less staff is that you get moved around all the time, firefighting. I am sure that is happening all over the country. I felt deskilled and demotivated.
When I was recruited they wanted good communicators who could be compassionate and build a rapport. Over the years that has been sacrificed.
If you have a rapport you don't end up with six people on the netting (the safety netting between floors - which is what happened at HMP Birmingham). That is certainly going to bring the regime to a halt.
It is sad for the prisoners too - there is no stability and the continuity they need is not there.
I think this disturbance could have happened at any time in the last 18 months. It is probably down to the staff that it did not happen earlier.
I watched Liz Truss's speech to the House of Parliament. Recruiting 2,500 more staff is not enough. Even if you doubled that amount it does not make up for what the prison service is losing in experience.
This is the perfect opportunity to make the changes needed. It has to be seized.
One bit of light at the end of the tunnel is that Liz Truss said she was going to give staff more of a platform to get their views across. If that can happen, things can improve.
In the past you had staff with 25 years plus on the clock. When I joined it was a career for life, I didn't even think about changing professions.
Now the youngsters are paid peanuts and you cannot replace the experience which has been lost. I think it could take the best part of a decade to get the service back on an even keel."
'The whole (prison) estate is simmering'
A current HMP Birmingham prison officer with more than 20 years' experience feels the riot could have happened anywhere. Again, they spoke on the condition of anonymity
This could have happened anywhere - it's unfortunate it happened with us. It is not a G4S thing, or a public/private sector thing. It is a system wide thing.
It is because of the cuts. The government needs to look at the cuts it is making to all public services to be fair, but we feel like we are the forgotten public service.
Every prison, whether private or public sector, is in the same boat. Prisons tend to have high staff sickness which doesn't help.
I think the public sector prisons are worse off than we are where staffing is concerned.
It definitely has an effect on the prisoners. There's not enough staff to talk to if they have a problem or not.
The prisoners did react (when G4S took over) - they might see us as security guards, not prison officers. But the staff see themselves as prison officers. The uniform does not make a difference.
Things have become a little harder. But we are dealing with a different type of prisoner these days and nationally the government needs to realise that.
With this type of job you are always fearful for your safety - it's part and parcel of this type of job. But it is down to how you deal with it. You have to use your skills more.
I build up rapport with prisoners. If you show them respect then they will be able to respect you.
Recruiting 2,500 is not enough. By the time they are trained you might have lost 2,500 through natural wastage. We need a minimum of 8,000 throughout the whole prison estate, all trained properly.
Unfortunately things like this happen and this time it was Birmingham's time. And I don't think this incident will be the last. If they carry on with the cuts it will not be the last. The whole estate is simmering.
Twenty years ago you would have an older type of prisoner. Now, prisoners tend to be younger and they are a lot wilder.
There's trouble with phones and drones but all jails are having trouble with that. Prisoners will always find ways of doing things, it is the nature of it.
The prison service both public and private has to change. This could turn out to be a positive thing. But Birmingham will bounce back, that is what we do."
|
With her world renowned glamour and her willingness to get close to people through her charity work, Princess Diana fascinated the nation. Here people tell their stories of when they met the 'people's princess'.
|
A winning ballot ticket led to Susan Philcox from Oxford, becoming the only female server at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and the then Lady Diana Spencer.
In fact, the event at St Paul's Cathedral was a family affair as both her father and brother were ushers.
The day started early with the three being given a special pass to drive along the royal route.
"We were driving on the route at 5am waving to the crowds who were already up and cheering everything and everyone that went past," Mrs Philcox remembers.
Once inside the cathedral, the family carried out their respective duties.
"I saw Diana enter through the west door of the cathedral, having her dress adjusted and then beginning the slow walk up the aisle," Mrs Philcox says.
"She seemed nervous when she arrived - I smiled when she fluffed Prince Charles' names. Once the ceremony was over, you could hear the roar of the crowd as Charles and Diana stepped out of the cathedral."
Mrs Philcox recalls seeing the princess again at St Paul's at another event in 1982 marking the end of the Falklands war.
"We were standing by the clergy at the west end at the end of the service and she looked very pretty, if a little flushed, and she told the dean, chapter and the Archbishop how moving the service had been."
'She looked directly at you'
In 1983, Princess Diana became patron of the Red Cross Youth. In the mid-80s, Edith Conn, the British Red Cross president for Greater Manchester, met her at a youth orchestra performance in Manchester.
"I had quite a chat with Diana," Mrs Conn remembers. "We were introduced and she asked me what my role with the Red Cross was, how long I'd been involved and what brought me to the Red Cross.
"Then we just chatted about everyday things. The funny thing about it was I asked her: 'What happens when you go home, do you go to another engagement?' She said: 'Oh no I'm going home to have beans on toast and I'm going to watch EastEnders.' That has always stuck in my mind."
Mrs Conn says she felt the princess was "definitely a people person".
"What struck me was her natural beauty. When she spoke to you she looked directly at you, not over your shoulder. You felt as though she was really very interested in what you did and what you had to say. She was lovely.
"I think I am very lucky to have met her. It was a real privilege and this anniversary should be a time to celebrate her life."
A lasting memory
In 1989, Princess Diana represented the Queen for the passing out parade at Britannia Navel College in Dartmouth. Jennifer Warnock was a young naval officer and met the princess on board a ship.
"Diana knew what to ask and had obviously spent time researching what she would be chatting about.
"She came across as confident but shy. She was important yet down to earth - she told me she was wearing layers of thermals below her coat dress to keep her warm which was hard to believe when you see how trim she looked."
Mrs Warnock's lasting memory is of a woman who was different from the image portrayed of her by the media at the time.
"I remember excitedly phoning my parents afterwards. I was surprised at my own reaction.
"I've said to many that when people talk about "the X factor", Diana was the only person I've met who had it."
'A normal mum having fun'
Hamish Goddard, who now lives in Majorca, was working at the F1 Chelsea Raceway near Chelsea Harbour in the mid 90s when Princess Diana used to bring Princes William and Harry to take part in go-karting.
He says: "The boys were talented drivers and Prince William even became the track's outright lap record holder.
"His name and lap time was permanently displayed on the large electronic scoreboard above the start/finish line although it took some time before any journalist realised who William Wales was!"
He added that managers tried to ensure the family was able to enjoy privacy at the raceway, although this wasn't always possible.
"I remember a time when Harry was admiring and sitting on one of the staff's Ducati motorbikes in the private car park outside the clubroom," says Mr Goddard.
"He saw a row of several cameras along the top of the wall of the adjacent company's car park. No heads were clearly visible - just the cameras. Harry came inside quickly, evidently unhappy and unsurprised."
However, Mr Goddard's main memories are of an adoring mother with her "lovely and polite" sons.
"Diana used to chat to us as the boys raced around - drinking a coffee, happy and relaxed - a normal mum having fun, out and about with her children".
By Bernadette McCague, UGC and Social News team
|
When Nancy Pelosi is sworn in as Speaker of the House on Thursday, she becomes not just the third most powerful US politician but also the leader of the Trump opposition. Both loved and loathed, her comeback story is an extraordinary tale of political survival.
|
Anthony ZurcherNorth America reporter@awzurcheron Twitter
After eight years in the political wilderness, Nancy Pelosi is back on top.
In 2007, the California Democrat made history as the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives, but it was short-lived.
This time, she's at the helm of a resurgent party with responsibility for initiating new laws through the lower chamber of Congress, not to mention guiding a slew of new investigations into the president.
And she's done so despite being written off multiple times and labelled a pedestrian public speaker prone to the occasional gaffe, having high disapproval ratings and becoming a lightning rod for Republicans.
Tying her name to embattled Democratic candidates had been an effective weapon for conservatives in the past but in the 2018 mid-term elections, it lost its punch.
In Virginia, for example, Republican incumbent David Brat mentioned Nancy Pelosi and her "liberal agenda" 21 times in an hour and a half at a debate.
His Democratic opponent, Abigail Spanberger, finally shot back: "I question again whether Congressman Brat knows which Democrat in fact he's running against... My name is Abigail Spanberger."
She went on to win the district, one of 40 Democrats who captured Republican-held seats, giving the Democrats their largest surge in the House since the 1970s Watergate scandal.
Now, with her return to the speaker's chair, Ms Pelosi again becomes the most powerful woman in US politics.
It caps a remarkable journey for someone who grew up the youngest child in a family steeped in East Coast big-city politics, made a political name for herself in the most liberal corners of California and has dominated Democratic politics for nearly a decade and a half.
"People have gone wrong by under-estimating her for years," says journalist Elaine Povich, who wrote a 2008 biography about Ms Pelosi. "Never bet against her. She's consistently the hardest worker, the best organized and great vote counter."
These skills are going to be sorely tested in the days ahead, as the incoming speaker will have to balance the competing priorities of her Democratic caucus while facing incoming flames from the political Vesuvius that is Donald Trump.
The public had a taste of such confrontations in December, when the two argued in the Oval Office about border wall funding. She emerged from that duel with Democrats singing her praises but for many on the left such fireworks should only be the beginning.
They will be clamouring for aggressive oversight of the president while others want a legislative record that Democrats can run on.
It's a recipe for intra-party conflict and indicates the treacherous path ahead for her to navigate.
A political family
Although Republicans have typically painted Ms Pelosi as a "San Francisco liberal" enamoured with big government and far to the left on social issues, her roots are from a more practical style of politics on the other side of the continent.
She grew up in a political family, one of seven children in the gritty East Coast city of Baltimore, Maryland, where her father - Thomas "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro Jr - was mayor. She was the youngest and the only girl.
To be a politician in mid-century Baltimore meant succeeding at old-school Democratic machine politics. Keeping track of favours received and favours given. Knowing whom to help and whom to hurt - and how to do both. Ms Pelosi managed her family's political accounts, including answering the eight phone lines that connected to the house.
She went to college in nearby Washington where she met and eventually married financier Paul Pelosi. They first moved to Manhattan, and then San Francisco, where Ms Pelosi started as a housewife. She had five children - four daughters and a son - in the space of six years.
In 1976 she became involved in politics, using her old family connections to help then-California Governor Jerry Brown, running for president, win the Maryland primary.
She then rose through the state's Democratic Party ranks, eventually becoming its chair. In 1988 - at the urging of the outgoing Democrat - she ran for a seat in Congress and won.
In the House she worked her way up again. Because she represented a portion of the city with a large gay community, she made increasing Aids research funding a priority. She fought a multi-year bureaucratic battle to have a shuttered military base in San Francisco turned into a national park.
In 2001, she ran against Maryland's Steny Hoyer - whom she once interned with back in Washington - for House minority whip, vote-counter and second in command of the caucus, and won a narrow victory. The next year she moved up to minority leader after Dick Gephardt of Missouri resigned.
She was one of the highest-profile, most outspoken opponents of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and in 2005 successfully helped block President George W Bush's call for partial privatisation of the government-run Social Security retirement programme.
When the Democrats won the majority in 2006 for the first time in 12 years, her legislative acumen had been established and her stand on the war - at least in the minds of Democrats - was vindicated. She became the clear choice for Speaker of the House and was elected by her party in a unanimous vote.
In January 2007 the Californian made history as the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives.
But four years later, Democrats lost control of the lower chamber of Congress.
Despite the setback Ms Pelosi kept her head above the turbulent political waters, riding out a series of electoral defeats and beating back challenges within her own ranks, to take the gavel once more.
The power of the gavel
Speaker of the House is the one congressional job detailed in the US Constitution. It is second in line for the presidency, behind only the vice-president, although such an ascent would require an unlikely set of circumstances in which both offices were vacated.
Its massive office, in the Capitol rotunda, reflects the prestige of the job, with its own balcony looking out toward the Washington Monument.
Unlike the Senate, the majority party in the House - led by the speaker - has virtually unfettered control over the legislative process.
The speaker and her deputies and committee chairs determine what bills are considered and voted on. They set the agenda and decide the rules governing debate. If a speaker can keep her majority in line - and Republicans over the last two years showed that is far from a certainty - the legislative process in the House can purr like a well-tuned machine.
That was the case the last time Ms Pelosi was speaker.
From 2009 to 2011, when Democrats had unified control of Congress and the White House, her chamber enacted an $840bn stimulus package in the aftermath of the 2008 economic collapse. She passed pro-union and cap-and-trade climate legislation (which never made it past the Senate and into law) and financial reform and a bill prohibiting gender discrimination in pay (which did).
She also pushed hard to get the Affordable Care Act, which became the defining battle of the Barack Obama presidency, through the House and on to the president's desk.
Donna Edwards, then a member of the House from Maryland, describes Ms Pelosi's performance during the 2009 healthcare battles.
"In those negotiations, I watched Pelosi, the tactician," she wrote in a Washington Post opinion article.
"She held scores of meetings, back-to-back, day into night. She juggled phone calls - House and Senate leaders, Cabinet secretaries, the president.
"All to get us to 'yes'. She paid the most attention to vulnerable members; Pelosi knew they would pay the highest price for doing the right thing, and they did.
"When all the men in the room wanted to give up - after the nose-dive in approval ratings, media vitriol and unrelenting protests - Pelosi started counting votes and doing the kind of bare-knuckles work that was needed."
Eight months after that final vote, Democrats lost 63 seats in the House and their majority - in part because of the conservative furore over healthcare reform, and Ms Pelosi's role in pushing it through.
She had grown so politically toxic that she couldn't campaign publicly for Democrats.
Republicans, smelling blood, aired more than 150,000 television spots that year that featured her - and she has become a favourite target ever since.
It's part of the reason why, as recently as 2015, journalists were giving her "practically zero chance" of ever becoming speaker again.
They were wrong.
The lady in red
There are times in politics where the image matches the moment. Such was the case on 11 December, when Ms Pelosi walked out of the White House in a bright red coat, slipped on her sunglasses and addressed the gathered reporters. Her future, which had seemed uncertain even months earlier, was once again bright.
She, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, had just finished a remarkable televised Oval Office sparring match with President Trump over border security and the impending government funding crisis.
When Mr Trump implied she was not popular in her party, she shot back.
"Mr President, please don't characterise the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats, who just won a big victory."
Mr Trump wasn't all that wrong to suggest that Ms Pelosi was feeling some heat from members of her own party.
During the mid-term elections, more than 60 Democratic candidates campaigned on a pledge to oppose her speakership bid. After their mid-term success, a group of 16 incoming House Democrats issued a letter calling on new party leadership. They suggested it was time for the 78-year-old Pelosi to hand over power to a new generation.
In the ensuing weeks, however, the California Democrat went about slowly dismantling the rebellion. She peeled off some of the letter's signatories and sympathisers with promises of plum committee seats or prioritising their issues.
Then came her White House showdown, which set Democrats buzzing and launched a thousand complimentary memes on social media.
A day later Ms Pelosi all but secured her speakership with her biggest concession - agreeing to eight-year term limits for members of the House Democratic leadership, applied retroactively.
"Over the summer, I made it clear that I see myself as a bridge to the next generation of leaders, a recognition of my continuing responsibility to mentor and advance new members into positions of power and responsibility in the House Democratic Caucus," she said.
Ms Pelosi is a woman in a party that has swept to power in large part due to the engagement and support of women. Fifty-eight percent of those who voted for Democrats in the House were women. There will be 89 women out of the 235 Democratic members of Congress.
That's a far cry from when Ms Pelosi first entered Congress in 1988, when she was one of only 24 women in the entire 435-seat chamber.
More on this female surge
More women than ever before won seats in Congress in the 2018 mid-terms.
What does it mean for Congress - and America?
Last woman standing
So the question, then, is why has Ms Pelosi been a political survivor? She's not a compelling public speaker. Her delivery is choppy and, at times, grating. Her jokes range from mildly funny to groan-inducing.
She can, however, count votes like few in Congress - a throwback to her days as the child of Baltimore city politics. She's exceedingly organised, in both her personal and professional life.
Not far off from her 80th birthday, she is also tireless. She is up at 5:30 every morning and works late into the night. She seldom takes holidays.
Perhaps because of these efforts, she's a fund-raising powerhouse. From 2002 to 2018, the period that marked her ascent to and occupation of the highest perch in her party's House leadership, she raised $680m for Democrats.
"Speaking was never her strong suit," Povich says. "Her strong suit was the insider game, the coalition game, the organiser game."
In the days ahead, Ms Pelosi will face a formidable set of challenges.
She must balance a restive base that yearns for confrontation with a more moderate Democratic establishment keen on keeping power, after eight years without.
When asked recently about how she viewed Robert Mueller's ongoing Russia collusion investigation, her answer was an exercise in the art of the political dodge.
"From our standpoint, what we're interested in is meeting the needs of America's working families," she said.
"To spend our time lowering health-care costs by reducing the cost of prescription drugs, increasing paycheques by building infrastructure of America. Both of those things are things that the president said he wanted to do during the campaign. So this is common ground."
Democrats these days appear to have little interest in finding common ground with Mr Trump.
It's much more probable that the coming two years will be defined by acrimony, conflict and partisan gridlock.
The part played by Ms Pelosi will be crucial.
The Californian fought for eight long years to get back the gavel. It's time to see what she does with it.
|
Russian police searching for illegal weapons in a St Petersburg house faced a scaly surprise in the basement: a two-metre (6.5ft) Nile crocodile.
|
Police said the reptile did not cause any injuries - but now they must find a new home for it. Russian media say the house is used by a nationalist group.
A stockpile of illegal arms was found in the raid, in the city's Peterhof suburb, RIA Novosti news reports.
It included explosive devices and copies of Kalashnikov assault rifles.
A 40-year-old man arrested in November is suspected of illegal possession of weapons.
The St Petersburg news website Fontanka says the property houses a "patriotic youth militia" called Red Star ("Krasnaya Zvezda" in Russian).
The crocodile was living in a pool that had been dug into the concrete floor.
Leningrad Zoo says it has no extra space to take it in.
You may also like to read:
|
An internet "troll" has been jailed for mocking dead teenagers on various websites. Public figures, including Stephen Fry and Miranda Hart, have also been victims of trolling. So what is it and why do people do it?
|
By Tom de Castella and Virginia BrownBBC News Magazine
For some the word derives from a fishing term for towing bait behind a boat, for others it comes from the Norse monsters. But today trolling is more likely to involve a keyboard and mouse than a trawler, and if not a monster, it is a very modern menace.
Opponents might characterise it as the internet equivalent of road rage, vandalising a grave, or kicking a man when he's down.
Trolling is a phenomenon that has swept across websites in recent years. Online forums, Facebook pages and newspaper comment forms are bombarded with insults, provocations or threats. Supporters argue it's about humour, mischief and freedom of speech. But for many the ferocity and personal nature of the abuse verges on hate speech.
In its most extreme form it is a criminal offence. On Tuesday Sean Duffy was jailed for 18 weeks after posting offensive messages and videos on tribute pages about young people who had died. One of those he targeted was 15-year-old Natasha MacBryde, who had been killed by a train. "I fell asleep on the track lolz" was one of the messages he left on a Facebook page set up by her family.
Duffy is the second person to be jailed for trolling in the UK. Last year Colm Coss was imprisoned for posting obscene messages on Facebook tribute sites, including that of Jade Goody.
Trolling appears to be part of an international phenomenon that includes cyberbullying. One of the first high-profile cases emerged in the US state of Missouri in 2006, when 13-year-old Megan Meier killed herself after being bullied online. The bully, Lori Drew, was a middle-aged neighbour who had set up a MySpace account to win - and later betray - her trust. Drew was acquitted of unauthorised computer use in 2009 due to concerns that a conviction would criminalise false online identities.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects free speech and makes it difficult to punish people who post offensive messages. But concern over internet vitriol is growing.
Facebook's former marketing director Randi Zuckerberg and Google head Eric Schmidt have both suggested anonymous posting should be phased out.
One of the difficulties is that trolling is a broad term, taking in everything from a cheeky provocation to violent threats. And why people do it continues to baffle the experts.
"Online people feel anonymous and disinhibited," says Prof Mark Griffiths, director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University. "They lower their emotional guard and in the heat of the moment may troll either reactively or proactively."
It is usually carried out by young adult males for amusement, boredom and revenge, he adds.
Arthur Cassidy, a social media psychologist, says young people's determination to create an online identity makes them vulnerable to trolling. Secrecy is jettisoned in favour of self-publicity on Facebook, opening the way for ridicule, jealousy and betrayal.
And the need to define themselves through their allegiance to certain celebrities creates a world in which the rich and famous become targets for personal abuse. As a result trolling is "virtually uncontrollable" until the government forces websites to clamp down, he says.
But it's not just young people. Scan any football, music or fan site and there are people of all ages taking part in the most vituperative attacks. But many of the theories that have been put forward as to why people do it don't stand up, says Tom Postnes, professor of social psychology at Groningen University in the Netherlands.
After researching "flaming" - the term for trolling in the early days of the internet - he rejects the idea that people "lose it" when online. If anything they become more attuned to social convention, albeit the specific conventions of the web. Provoking people appears to be the norm in some online communities, he says.
Most trolling is not criminal - it's about having a laugh, says Rob Manuel, co-founder of the website B3ta, which specialises in altering photographs for comic effect. "Trolling taps into people's desire to poke fun, make trouble and cause annoyance," he says.
He first became aware of the phenomenon in the 90s when a friend cross-posted on fan sites for Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, asking: "Who'd win in a fight - the Emperor or Gandalf?" Manuel says his friend sat back and laughed like some "mad scientist looking at insects in a jar" as hundreds of passionate posts followed.
'No guilt'
We're all capable of becoming a troll, says Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist in the US and author of You Are Not A Gadget. Lanier admits he has sometimes behaved badly online and believes the cloak of anonymity can encourage people to react in extreme ways.
"The temptation is there and we can get caught up in impulses. If someone reacts, it's emotional and it can be hard to get out of. We can all become trolls."
Twitter has given the public direct access to celebrities. And stars, including Stephen Fry and Miranda Hart, have temporarily left the website after coming under fire. Internet experts say the key is not to "feed the troll" by offering them a response. Comedian Dom Joly takes a different approach.
He describes himself as "troll slayer" and takes pleasure in tracking down the culprits and exposing them to public shame, especially from close family.
"There's something about a bully that really annoys me," he says. "They'll say something online that they'd never dare to say to your face."
The deviousness is "freaky". He discovered that one of those who'd threatened him was a 14-year-old girl with nine different online identities. They aren't always very intelligent about how they do it, he says.
"One guy tweeted from his work account that he hoped my kids die of cancer. I let the MD of the firm know and the guy was fired. I felt no guilt, he should have gone to prison."
Some think regulation is needed, but trolling is not the internet's fault, says Jeff Jarvis, author of Public Parts. "The internet does not create special threats. It's a public square where people will be saying all sorts of things, some of them offensive."
The answer is for newspaper websites and online forums to employ sufficient moderators to prevent the comments spiralling into petty vendettas, he says. To ban online anonymity in order to prevent trolling would be to remove the right of whistleblowers and dissidents to get their message across, he adds.
Manuel agrees. "People are saying nasty, stupid things. So deal with it. Shutting down free speech and stamping on people's civil liberties is not a price worth paying."
|
Two men have been fined for chanting homophobic abuse at a football match at Brighton's Amex stadium.
|
The 19-year-olds, from Stafford, were arrested at Saturday's Brighton and Hove Albion match against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Sussex Police said they both received public order fixed penalty notices.
Two other men, from Wolverhampton, were charged with failing to comply with a notice to leave a public area. More than 30,000 fans attended the match.
|
A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 11 and 18 December. Send your photos to [email protected]. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.
|
Please also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.
Conditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions..
Please ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).
In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.
However, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.
You can find more information here.
All photos are subject to copyright.
|
For those standing at the back of the crammed Casablanca Jazz Club in Brighton trying to catch a glimpse of one of the most hotly tipped teens in UK music, they are rewarded by the occasional glimpse of a bouncing head of hair above the sea of similarly nodding heads.
|
By Kev GeogheganArts and entertainment reporter
At just 16, Bedfordshire singer-songwriter Alfie Templeman, our latest Newbie Tuesday artist, has already notched up a few bucket list items of which an artist 10 years his senior would be proud.
Play an iconic London venue? Check. Play a session at the BBC's Maida Vale studios? Check.
"It's incredible, man," says the visibly buzzing and heavily perspiring young man after his show at the The Great Escape festival of new music on England's south coast.
"The atmosphere feels like it's insane. Basically, everyone has shown so much support, it was such a great gig."
A great gig it might have been for Alfie and the 200 or so people squeezed into a low-ceilinged, red-walled music venue. But Alfie's tender age has brought its own issues.
"Most people my age aren't even allowed in," says Templeman - whose first London show was at the Brixton Academy - so I'm lucky to be here and it's a great experience for everyone in my band who are all really young.
"I actually had some trouble getting in here in the first place.
"They let us sound check, and then the bouncer came over and said, 'Sorry, we're not actually allowed to let you in here. We're like, 'Wait, what?' So we had to go through a bit of trouble to get in.
"Got here eventually."
Along with requiring a responsible adult to accompany him to his own shows, it's also meant Templeman has had to fit in time to rehearse between schoolwork.
"I just finished, so it's a bit easier now, just got exams left," he explains. "There's been less focus at school because I'm so excited about the music and now I'm doing it full time but the teachers are happy about it as well.
"My parents are cool with it, they were a bit worried at first that I was doing it at such an early age but they grew to really support it."
Templeman has already picked up some high profile fans including Radio 1 indie show presenter Jack Saunders.
With more than a passing resemblance to a young Jeff Buckley, his video for Like An Animal - recorded when Templeman was just 15 - sees the young singer wander around a deserted town dressed in a bear suit.
While the promo for Yellow Flowers, shot in his own living room at home, sees him display his musicianship, picking up and playing instruments artfully scattered around the room.
There are nods to the likes of Tame Impala and indie hipster Mac Demarco as well as 60s revival bands like The La's and The Stone Roses.
"And Oasis," he agrees. "A lot of Oasis and a bit of The Smiths."
Raised in the small town of Carlton, Templeman, whose father is an avid guitar collector, learned to play the drums at age seven.
"My dad showed me the guitar but I always wanted to play drums. But he always didn't want that amount of noise, so he bought me a guitar instead. Eventually, he got to the point where he was like, 'Right, he makes enough noise and whacks stuff all the time. So he got me a drum kit."
The young Templeman matched his enthusiasm for music with an equal enthusiasm for poetry, though he admits his early lyrical efforts don't slip well into a modern indie pop live set.
"I think when I was about seven I wrote something about the war, World War One, about like, war sirens or something. I can't really remember but it rings a bell in my head."
Signed to Chess Club Records, home to artists like Mumford and Sons and MØ, Templeman says he still insists on writing alone.
"Just because I like being honest about myself," he says assuredly, "and not letting anyone else kind of put in their two cents. To give a slice of myself because at the end of the day, it is about Alfie Templeman."
With future plans for an EP, or his preferred "mini-album" of around seven or eight songs, Templeman says his next single is called Don't Go Wasting Time.
"It's just about not wasting time on things that were meant to be, basically. Just to ignore the things that didn't work out, silly mistakes and just move on.
Spoken like a 16-year-old music prodigy with a recording contract and a bright future.
And the hair. Mustn't forget the hair.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
First Minister Arlene Foster has said relatives of those murdered in the 1998 Omagh bomb deserve an apology over the length of time a court is taking to rule on a call for a public inquiry.
|
By Julian O'NeillBBC News NI Home Affairs Correspondent
The case began in 2013 and concluded almost two years ago, but there has been no judgement.
The lord chief justice's office has blamed the situation on the assessment of "sensitive" documents.
After meeting some of the families, Mrs Foster said the delay is "inordinate".
Twenty-nine people - including a woman pregnant with twins - were killed in the Real IRA bomb in August 1998.
It was the biggest single atrocity in the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The legal action, brought by Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was one of the victims, followed a decision by the government to reject the need for a public inquiry eight years ago.
It said there had been multiple investigations, including those involving the Police Ombudsman.
Central to Mr Gallagher's judicial review case are claims that intelligence from MI5 and the police could have been drawn together to prevent the Real IRA attack.
There were national security issues around the hearing of evidence, which delayed matters, but it concluded in July 2019.
In October, Mr Gallagher was told to expect movement before Christmas, but nothing happened.
"From day one this has been dragged out," Mr Gallagher said.
"We are getting no younger.
"We want to do other things in life but we cannot move on until we get answers."
He said the process could be "simplified" if the government granted an inquiry.
"We support the police.
"We support the intelligence service.
"We just want answers - why things did not happen in the way they should have happened in the lead up to the Omagh bomb."
He has raised the case with political parties and met the DUP leader within the past few days.
Mrs Foster said: "I do think that he, and all of the Omagh victims, deserve an apology.
"I think it is really sad that they find themselves in a situation where they have not been able to get answers."
In a statement, the lord chief justice's office said the judgement was "taking longer than initially anticipated".
It said the delay was due to the "sensitive nature of the material involved in the case".
It added: "The documents which the judge has to consider are stored in a secured area which can only be accessed during restricted hours and not at weekends.
"The judge's access to this material has to be scheduled around his workload in the High Court.
"He would like to reassure Mr Gallagher that he is reviewing this material thoroughly to ensure that he is taking into account all relevant evidence."
|
Almost three years after the end of the civil war, Sri Lanka is still dogged by allegations of human rights violations. Amid fresh moves in the UN's Human Rights Council to hold Sri Lanka to account, the BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo reports on a rise in sinister abductions by anonymous squads in white vans.
|
At a small shrine in her home, Shiromani lights a candle and rings a bell, offering prayers to the Hindu deities. She has few consolations now.
Her life has been a nightmare since her husband, Ramasamy Prabagaran, a Tamil businessman, was snatched by eight men outside their front door last month, in front of Shiromani and their three-year-old daughter, and taken away in a white van.
"He was screaming, calling for help, hanging on to the gate," Shiromani said tearfully.
"There were people and vehicles in the street but no-one came to help as they had T56 guns and pistols. They pushed me down. I pleaded: 'Sir, don't do anything'."
But the vehicle disappeared and she was unable to follow in her own car.
Mr Prabagaran was abducted shortly before his case accusing the police of torture was due to be heard. He had been held for two-and-a-half years by them and, he claimed, badly tortured before being released without charge.
Unidentified bodies
Human rights campaigners say there were 32 unexplained abductions between last October and this February, mostly in Colombo or northern Sri Lanka, the victims a mix of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim.
In addition, 10 mostly unidentified bodies were found in February alone. It's not clear how many of these, if any, are linked to the disappearances - but their discovery has added to a heightened sense of unease here.
Of the kidnappings that were witnessed, most were said to have taken place in white vans - which for years have been the vehicle of shadowy gangs behind enforced disappearances.
One victim was seized right outside the Colombo law courts - snatched from prison guards bringing him for a bail application. Five of the 32 escaped but seven bodies have been found, including a woman in her 60s. The other 20 have simply vanished.
The witnessed disappearances include the case of two young activists, Lalith Weeraraj - half Sinhala and half Tamil - and a Tamil, Kugan Muruganathan. They spent 2011 organising a number of demonstrations, bringing to Colombo people from the former war zone whose family members disappeared as the war ended - mostly, they claim, at the hands of the security forces.
In a sinister development in December, Lalith and Kugan themselves vanished in northern Sri Lanka, seemingly abducted as they prepared another demonstration.
Death squads?
All sorts of people are disappearing, but many of them appear to have been at loggerheads with the authorities.
As well as human rights workers and ordinary businessmen, those who have disappeared include some accused of being part of organised crime networks or the so-called "underworld".
Campaigners are privately pointing the finger at pro-government forces and security personnel. But the government and security forces deny being responsible for disappearances.
In fact the police spokesman, Superintendent Ajith Rohana, says special police teams have been deployed to investigate them.
"There are abductions. It happens. But generally we are conducting investigations into the matter," he told me.
I put it to him that, in effect, death squads are operating in Sri Lanka despite the end of the war.
"No. Not at all," he responded.
"We don't have them. We totally deny that allegation. We don't have any type of squads like that."
Meanwhile, the disappearances continue. At least one more person, a Colombo restaurateur, disappeared this week.
Mr Prabagaran was a successful businessman with an electronics business based in a well-known Colombo mall, Majestic City.
In 2009, he was picked up by police when his name was found in the phone of an army officer accused of links with the Tamil Tigers. He denies any links.
In a report by the Judicial Medical Officer in October 2009, Mr Prabagaran said he had been beaten with a pole all over his body, stripped naked, assaulted on his genitals, immersed up to his neck in a barrel, had his fingernails removed and more.
'Law of the jungle'
One of the few parliamentarians who regularly speaks out on human rights issues is Jayalath Jayawardana of the opposition United National Party.
"The human rights situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating day by day and there is no rule of law in this country," he told me at his office in Colombo.
"Jungle law is prevailing... Without the protection or blessings of the government in power or the security forces these type of things cannot take place," he said.
And recent days have seen some unexpectedly revealing remarks from within the government.
An unnamed senior police officer in Colombo told a Sinhala-language newspaper that, as a precaution against possible street protests, "we have arranged to bring tear gas, and we have plenty of white vans in Sri Lanka".
And a cabinet minister, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, told the same paper: "The government should answer for this [missing people]. They can't say we don't know about it."
He said the military was getting excessively involved in civil affairs, stopping the country from being democratic and inviting international criticism.
Unusually, last Saturday a man publicly said he had foiled an attempt to abduct him - just weeks after his own brother disappeared.
With the help of a crowd the intended victim, the mayor of a Colombo suburb, Ravindra Udayashantha, confronted the would-be abductors who were in a white van. They were soldiers.
The military denied plans to kidnap anyone.
Whatever the facts behind that incident, the rule of law is being flouted in Sri Lanka and disappearances are continuing.
|
Thousands of African migrants are stuck in the Nigerien town of Agadez - the gateway to the Sahara - as they battle to fulfil their dream of reaching Europe. The BBC's Thomas Fessy met some of them during a visit to the town.
|
This is nothing like what Vivienne expected.
"I thought I would find a job here," she says.
"I came here because of the conditions I found myself in Nigeria. I had just finished my secondary school but my Dad doesn't have money for me to study. I just want to continue north, make money and make my family proud."
Vivienne, who declined to give her surname, says she is 23. She looks younger but it is impossible to verify her age.
Last month, she took a bus ride of about 240km (150 miles) from Kano, the main city in northern Nigeria, to Zinder, Niger's second city, and from there another bus to Agadez, a town about 370km away.
Dusty alleyways
She arrived in Agadez with big dreams. Instead, desperate to reach Europe, she is now selling herself to men.
"I've searched. There is no job," she laments, rolling her mobile phone between her hands.
I have met her in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Agadez. She shares two dusty rooms with 10 other Nigerian young girls.
One of the rooms does not have a door. Nor does the other, but there is a curtain hanging, at least.
The place is littered with open condom packets, used ones were thrown onto a pile of trash that the women burn every now and then just a couple of metres away from their doorstep.
"I thought I could do the cleaning at somebody's house and that they would pay me. But there are no jobs here," Vivienne says.
"Then I met these Nigerian friends and they told me that this was how they coped here. So, I started to work for men."
"I am not happy with the job I am doing, but it's the only way I can survive."
The old part of town is a maze of narrow streets and dusty alleyways.
All houses have been built with mud-bricks, in a square or rectangular-like shape and they look as though they are just coming out of the earth.
Agadez is an obvious market place for communities surrounded by nothing else but the desert.
But it is a place of secrecy, the gateway to the Sahara and the home to all kinds of smugglers.
For African migrants, their dream - the promise of a better life - starts here.
Money is what they hope to find in Europe, but it is what they need now.
Just around the corner from the main market, a group of West African migrants is queuing outside a bank.
Meeting smugglers
There are more than 30 of them. None of them want to give their name.
"We are here to receive money for survival," one says.
"Some of us did some work back home and still have a bit of money in a bank account so it's time to withdraw it," he explains.
"Others hope that their family has sent something to help them."
He came from Senegal in the past two weeks but he does not know when he will be able to continue his journey north.
"I need the money first. So I might have to work for one, three or six months and then go."
On the other side of the roundabout, some of the migrants who were queuing at the bank earlier on are now buying jerry cans which they will fill with water to survive the desert ride.
Those who will drive them and smuggle them into Libya are traffickers from the region.
Either from Libya or Niger, they are from the Toubous ethnic group that enjoyed recognition in Libya under Col Muammar Gaddafi.
However, like sub-Saharan Africans, the Toubous say they are now discriminated against by the majority Arabs in Libya, where lawlessness prevails.
I met a group of smugglers, who accepted to talk on condition of anonymity.
In the migration business, people are just another commodity. The man, who speaks to me in Arabic, is smuggling up to 300 people a month.
Rocky desert
"We charge $500 (£295) for the ride all the way into Libya, but you need to count another $300 so we can bribe the police at all checkpoints," he says.
"We can give the migrants credit, if they need it, but that means they will end up paying double on arrival."
Migrants are usually crammed into the back of pick-up trucks, between 25 and 35 of them per vehicle.
Two brand-new Toyota Hilux, just washed, were parked outside the house, where I met the smugglers.
"We're now equipped with GPS and Thurayas [satellite phones], so it's easier than it used to be, in case we get stuck."
But such equipment does not prevent serious incidents from happening.
Hidden behind a black turban and sunglasses, cigarette in hand, the smuggler recalls a deadly ride from last year.
"One of the pick-ups tumbled down a sand dune, six died," he says.
"They were three Gambians, two Nigeriens and a Cameroonian."
Leaving Agadez opens the way to a rocky desert, where the long road through the Sahara begins.
Jailed
But the track will soon disappear under the heavy sand dunes for what is probably the most extreme journey that African migrants will ever undertake.
One either makes it or does not, but there is no going back.
The blazing sun is punishing, and reaching Libya will offer no respite.
Back in Agadez, another group of West African migrants are waiting to return home at the Red Cross transit centre.
Most of them are from The Gambia, but others are from Guinea-Bissau and Guinea.
A few dozen Senegalese had also arrived back from Libya the week before but the International Organization for Migration, an inter-governmental agency, had already arranged for them to be repatriated.
Their eyes dropping in despair, they tell brutal stories of being kidnapped by militiamen, sold to the police and thrown in jail for up to six months.
They were beaten and starved, and eventually deported. They have failed in their effort to migrate to Europe.
"After spending this amount of money to get to Libya, work there, they take all your belongings, even your clothes. We go back home with nothing. That's absolutely sad. More than the word sad, in fact," Lalo Jaiteh, a 44-year-old Gambian, says.
Mr Jaiteh's journey across the desert involved going without water or food for two days.
"Some were even lying, crying that they will not see their parents again. One was lying beside me telling me: 'my brother, that's the end of it, I'm sorry I won't see my mum again' - I said: 'No. Don't cry. God is so kind. Certainly we will make it'," he says.
A younger man, Ousmane, 26, was jailed in two different prisons while in Libya; three months each time.
He had tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea with others but the boat's engine broke down.
They drifted away until Italian coastguards rescued them and brought them back to Libya.
Mr Jaiteh says he did not believe such stories before he found himself "in the centre of it."
"When I am finally home, those who want to leave will not believe me either because they want to go so badly."
The risks involved in this grim journey north are no deterrent and thousands of African migrants, without jobs or prospects in their countries, will continue to transit in Agadez each year.
They include Vivienne. As her foot brushes the remains of a red condom packet covered in dust, she explains she cannot return home now because her family would not allow her back if they came to know what she was doing in Agadez.
I ask her where in Europe would she like to go.
"I want to go to Spain because my friend told me it was nice," she answers.
"I want to study to be a nurse. That's my dream."
Migration routes across the Sahara desert
|
Foot-and-mouth disease swept though the UK after it was confirmed at an abattoir in Essex in February 2001.
In Britain's first major outbreak of foot-and-mouth for 30 years, nearly 6.5 million sheep, cattle and pigs were slaughtered to control the disease and photos of burning pyres of animal carcasses shocked the country.
But what was the legacy of the crisis?
|
The farmer
Trevor Wilson, a farmer from Cark in Cartmel, Cumbria, watched the foot-and-mouth crisis unfold with horror.
And in May 2001 he noticed that several of his sheep looked ill.
"They were just lethargic and lying under the fence," he said. "When you looked inside their mouths there were lesions on their tongues."
He said the disease was never confirmed but his flock of 420 sheep had to be slaughtered because of suspicions they had contracted it.
"It was such a shock at first," he said. "You do the best you can to nurture livestock because that is your livelihood and what you have always known.
"So to see everything you've done and worked for destroyed is terrible."
He said the flock included lambs which were only a few days old, while most of the sheep were only 12 months old.
Mr Wilson's farm then covered 25 different sites and so he had about 3,100 sheep and 200 dairy cows which were unaffected.
He said the restrictions were also very difficult and made it a "terrible time" for farmers.
Many sheep and lambs died because they could not be brought inside and it made the lambing season particularly fraught, he added.
"There's nothing worse for a farmer than thinking a lamb is going to die of hypothermia and not being able to save it," he said.
He said farmers had to accept much lower prices for livestock from slaughter houses because they were unable to transport animals to markets and abattoirs.
Mr Wilson said there had been a lot of changes in British farming over the past 10 years.
But he said a marked fall in livestock numbers was the result of reduced profitability in the industry rather than the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
"I think farms adapted very quickly after the outbreak, but it shocked many farmers and quite a lot moved out of the industry," he said.
"A lot of farmers in Cumbria have diversified to help their business.
"They have gone into all sorts of areas. Some have gone into property and some have bought ice-cream vans."
Mr Wilson used compensation from the loss of his sheep to buy property which he now lets out as shops and homes.
He said farming had seen "10 years of recession" and was facing a real crisis because of increased exports from abroad and falling profitability.
He added with pressures to increase food production by 40% across the world to cope with the growing population, the government needed to seriously consider the way forward.
The animal welfare campaigner
Peter Stevenson, chief policy advisor for Compassion in World Farming, was working for the charity during the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001.
"I remember that period very vividly - it was horrific," he said.
Compassion was against the government policy which at one time recommended slaughtering livestock within 3km (1.9 miles) of infected farms.
"There was no discretion involved," he said. "It was that policy and its inflexibility which led to such large numbers of animals being slaughtered."
He said the charity argued there was insufficient scientific evidence for the policy and some scientists said in many cases the disease did not spread beyond a few hundred metres.
Mr Stevenson said the speed at which the animals were slaughtered and the fact it had to happen on farms raised concerns among animal welfare charities.
"There were many accounts of slaughters being carried out inhumanely, involving immense suffering to animals," he said.
He said ministers had been slow to bring in restrictions on moving animals and "inflexible" over the issue of vaccination, which Compassion believed was an "important part of the solution".
Mr Stevenson believes lessons have since been learnt.
"The public was distraught at seeing such large numbers of healthy animals being slaughtered and I don't think that could happen again," he said.
Mr Stevenson believes the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey four years ago was better handled with animal movements immediately restricted.
Economic demands
He said the charity did not link foot-and-mouth to "factory" farming, but had hoped the 2001 outbreak would lead to other methods.
"At the time we hoped the shock of foot-and-mouth would cause a rethink about the way we farm animals and as a society we would move away from the industrial approach to farming.
"But sadly that hasn't happened," he said.
He said most pigs and poultry in the UK and the rest of Europe were intensively farmed and this resulted in animals suffering.
"Other serious diseases can develop and spread in the highly overcrowded conditions of factory farming," he added.
"Although the foot-and-mouth crisis led to a rethink about how diseases should be tackled and a similar disaster avoided, I think as a society we have not improved animal welfare as a whole."
Mr Stevenson added that increasingly dairy cows were being intensively farmed as a result of economic demands.
"If people want to still see dairy cows out in the fields they have to be prepared to pay a little more for milk," he said.
Government chief vet and Defra
The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001 was handled by the then Labour government, which delayed an election because of the crisis.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was replaced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) within months of the crisis unfolding.
Nigel Gibbens, the current government's chief veterinary officer, said: "Foot-and-mouth was a devastating blow for British farmers and the country in 2001, and this anniversary is upsetting for many who lived through it.
"We have learnt many lessons on how to prevent and manage exotic animal disease outbreaks since then and we work closely with farmers and vets whose experience and knowledge is invaluable."
The government said the focus was on prevention and it provided a lot of information about the disease and encouraged farmers to report anything suspicious early.
Mr Gibbens added: "We are not complacent. We monitor disease outbreaks around the world assessing the risk, and regularly update and test our contingency plans, and policies for dealing with them."
Defra said many measures had been introduced, such as stricter hygiene rules for the transportation of animals and improved checks to find smuggled animal products.
A Defra spokesman said: "In any outbreak we would be prepared to vaccinate from the very start and contracts are in place to quickly mobilise this."
However, he stressed there were "crucial factors" to consider such as whether it was known where the outbreak had started.
He added that vaccination in the event of an outbreak would mean the UK would not regain disease-free status for at least three months - costing the farming industry "tens of millions of pounds".
|
A search operation has been launched after a six-year-old boy fell into a river in Kent.
|
Kent Fire and Rescue Service said the child fell into the River Stour close to Richborough Road and the A256 in Sandwich at about 13:30 BST.
A Coastguard helicopter, an inshore lifeboat, firefighters and police are hunting for the child.
Local people offering assistance were given briefings on how to help search for the boy safely.
Emergency services warned them not to place themselves at risk, especially as the light fades.
|
Olympic athletes from around the world are arriving at the University of Surrey to prepare for London 2012.
|
The Nigerian and Singaporean Olympic teams have started preparing for the Games at the Surrey Sports Park.
On Sunday swimmers from Estonia join their Filipino and Mauritian competitors at the Guildford venue.
Olympic and Paralympic athletes from Argentina, China, Dominica, Malta, Philippines, Spain, Sweden and the USA will also train at the centre.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.