Steve Hubbard/BBCAnglian Water apologised to customers in Witchford and the surrounding areas who had low water pressure or no waterEngineers have been repairing a burst water main "as fast as they can" after villagers said they woke up to no running water.
Witchford Village College and The Rackham Church of England Primary School in Witchford near Ely, Cambridgeshire, have been closed as a result of the issue.
Anglian Water apologised to customers in the village and the surrounding areas who had low water pressure or no water. It added that engineers were working to fix the water main.
The company said large tankers were also being used to top up the network and reroute water from other areas.
An Anglian Water spokesperson said: "We know this is especially inconvenient when you’re getting ready for the day, so thanks for bearing with us while we get things back to normal as fast as we can."
It added technicians would also be checking the water pressures at both of the closed schools.
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Adopting as a single mum in my 40s changed my life
JoJo decided to adopt in her 40s as a single womanA woman who feared she would never have children after two rounds of failed IVF in her 40s has said adopting a child has changed her life.
Jo, from south Wales, registered to adopt as a single woman and welcomed her "cheeky, handsome boy" home 18 months later.
She wants others to follow suit after figures showed the number of people registering to adopt dropped in Wales.
The National Adoption Service (NAS) said between 150 and 170 adopters were being approved a year since the Covid pandemic, compared with 250 to 300 before.
North East PDP Backs Governors’ Stand on Party’s Leadership Struggle, Knocks APC
*Says 16 years of PDP rule best in democratic dispensation
Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi
The Zonal Working Committee and states chairmen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Northeast Zone, have declared support for the recent decision taken by the party’s governors’ forum on the leadership crisis rocking its National Working Committee (NWC).
The zone also observed that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC)-led federal administration has brought untold hardship to the generality of Nigerians, while no proactive measures were being taken to remedy the situation.
The Zonal PDP at the end of its meeting held in Bauchi, stressed that the meeting was necessitated by the current happening at the national level of the party.
The meeting reflected on the 16 years of the PDP at the helms of affairs as a ruling party and how it lost out to the APC in 2015 declaring that, “The PDP years were indeed a blessing to the Nation.”
The meeting agreed that it was the only party that couldprovide the needed solution to the current challenges facing the nation, thus making it the last hope of Nigerians as the ‘messiah’ for salvation.
The well-attended meeting deliberated extensively on moving the party forward, made resolutions and issued a communique signed by the Zonal Secretary, Kabiru Bappa Jauro, on behalf of the Zonal Chairman, Rev Emmanuel Bovoa and read by the Adamawa State Chairman, Tahir Shehu.
The meeting stated that since the inception of democratic rule in 1999, the PDP had been dominant in the North East sub-region, producing a former Vice President, former/Serving Governors, former/serving National Chairmen, former/serving National Assembly and State Assembly Members making the Party to have tremendously contributed to the socio economic development of the Zone, and Nigeria at large.
“As regards to the National Chairmanship tussle, the meeting wishes to align itself in-toto with the position of the governors, the BOT, National Assembly Caucus and all the Major critical stakeholders in the Zone. This, we believe shall bring decorum and sanity that will lead the party to lofty heights.”
2024 National Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship held in Chongqing
On October 19, the opening ceremony of the Chongqing Three Gorges Bank Cup 2024 National Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships and the 2024 National Youth Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships took place in Chongqing. Elite rhythmic gymnasts from across the country gathered in the Shapingba District for what can be described as a “ballet on the mat.”
This event marks the first top-tier rhythmic gymnastics competition in the country following the Paris Olympics. The championships kicked off on October 18 and will run through October 23, featuring approximately 350 athletes from 26 teams nationwide, including those from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Competitors will showcase their skills in a variety of events, including senior individual performances with hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon, as well as senior group routines with five hoops and three ribbons with two balls. Youth athletes will participate in individual events involving body movement and apparatus, alongside group routines with ropes and balls, all celebrating the excitement and honor of rhythmic gymnastics.
Notably, this year’s event is unique as it combines both the 2024 National Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships and the 2024 National Youth Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. This dual-format competition serves not only as a comprehensive review of the abilities of the country’s top rhythmic gymnasts but also acts as a vital platform for identifying promising newcomers and injecting fresh talent into the sport.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a stunning blend of strength and beauty, highlighting the intersection of technique and creativity, making it highly engaging for spectators. The competition structure includes qualification rounds and finals, promising six days packed with each breathtaking display of “strength and beauty.”
Among the renowned teams participating are traditional powerhouses such as those from Shanghai, Sichuan, and Zhejiang. Notably, Wang Zilu, an athlete who competed in the Paris Olympics, is set to take part in the senior individual competition as well.
The host team, Chongqing, has put forth 18 gymnasts, aiming to deliver standout performances, especially in the senior group and youth individual events, as they contend for top honors.
This is not the first time Shapingba District has hosted a national-level rhythmic gymnastics event. In recent years, the district has leveraged sports to elevate its profile, using high-quality events as a means to promote urban development and enhance the influence of its “City of Youth” brand. Sports have become a crucial avenue for Shapingba to showcase its city image and bolster its brand recognition on a broader stage.
Tom Petty- Heartbreakers Beach Party review – 80s solid-rock nostalgia fest is a trip
Fans of the singer’s hits, fluffy mullets (and young Cameron Crowe) are well-served by unseen and remastered footage as this sweet look back ticks all the relevant rock doc boxes
Leslie FelperinWed 16 Oct 2024 08.00 EDTShareA king of AM radio in the US and stalwart of the Spotify playlists of anyone with a taste for solid, four-square old-school rock, Tom Petty died seven years ago this month – but his estate must surely be earning royalties every minute of every day from hits such as American Girl, Refugee and I Won’t Back Down. It’s perhaps strange that for all his musical success he has less of an afterlife as a physical entity, but this sweet documentary may alleviate that a little.
It was shot in 1982-83 around the time Petty and his band the Heartbreakers had just finished their album Long After Dark and were starting to tour again. A prismatic collage of archive clips, interview snippets and goofing off, the package was directed by Doug Dowdle, Phil Savenick and Cameron Crowe. The last was then an ace reporter for Rolling Stone who appears on camera here interviewing Petty well before he would transition into becoming a director of features including Say Anything, Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky. Somehow the 16mm reels of this film were lost somewhere along the way and have recently been discovered, remastered and supplemented by unseen extra footage that was never shown when the film was originally shown on MTV in the 80s. So there’s a lot to get nostalgic about here for Petty, Heartbreakers and even Crowe fans, as well as anyone who grooves to vintage LA 80s fashion. Petty’s skinny-jeans-tucked-into-cowboy-boots look is certainly a trip, as are the fluffy mullets on the band.
Of course, the music is the main attraction and that’s served well, with long chunks of performance footage that aren’t sliced and diced as much as they would be in a contemporary rock doc. There’s also a juicy clip of Petty almost getting mauled at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco by over-enthusiastic fans who pull him off the stage, which just goes to underscore how much tighter security is these days. Ah, the good old days.
Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party is in cinemas on 17 October and 20 October.
China International University Student Innovation Competition (2024) concluded in Shanghai
On the evening of October 15, the grand finale of the 2024 China International College Students Innovation Competition took place at the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. During the championship round, six competing teams from various domestic and international universities showcased their projects, with Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s “Nezha—The World’s First ‘Aerial and Underwater Integrated’ Cross-Domain Navigation Platform” taking the championship, while Tsinghua University’s “Virtual Machine Room—Grid Style Computing Power Dispatch Network” secured the runner-up spot.
This prestigious competition, held as the highest-level and largest-scale youth innovation event following the National Education Conference, attracted an impressive 5.14 million project submissions from 5,406 universities across 153 countries and regions. Participants demonstrated initiatives focused on cutting-edge technologies, economic priorities, national demands, and public health.
The champion team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University introduced “Nezha,” a platform capable of flying, swimming, and diving. Team member Jin Yufei explained that their series of aerial and underwater unmanned vehicles can continuously traverse air, surface water, and underwater environments, allowing for airborne deployment and retrieval with functionalities including aerial flight control, positioning, as well as underwater navigation and return.
“This is ‘Nezha IV,’ which can carry up to 7 kilograms, equivalent to about 3.5 kilograms of rice. It can take off directly from the water surface and reach an altitude of 1,000 meters, with a designed diving depth of 100 meters. Meanwhile, ‘Nezha–Sea Arrow,’ although smaller in payload, can launch from the seabed and fly at a height of up to 3,000 meters with a speed of 200 kilometers per hour,” Jin elaborated.
Notably, the competition aims not only to nurture innovative talent among young people who dare to explore and create but also to enhance cultural exchanges between Chinese and international youth in today’s context. A total of 1,993 overseas institutions, with 12,063 projects and 39,380 participants, were involved, featuring prestigious universities such as Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, MIT, and Cambridge among the top 152 global institutions.
Moritz Lohmann, a student from the Technische Universität Berlin, participated in the competition as a member of the “MTR Smart Servo and Morphing Robot” project team. He shared that the project is advised by renowned scholars like Jiang Sheng, a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the European Academy of Sciences, and aims to develop smart servos that meet diverse usage needs, as well as specialized robotic devices for various applications.
Lohmann expressed his strong appreciation for China’s research environment, stating, “China provides a conducive space for innovative talents of all ages, identities, and nationalities to exchange ideas, ensuring that valuable concepts have a chance to thrive.” He noted that the forward-thinking and inclusive approach to innovation and entrepreneurship education significantly influenced his decision to continue his research in China.
Additionally, the finals coincided with a showcase of student innovation achievements, aptly themed “Innovating for a Bright Future.” The exhibition highlighted outstanding projects across various categories, including higher education and international excellence.
This year’s competition was jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and 12 other departments in collaboration with the Shanghai Municipal Government, with the event co-hosted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Minhang District Government.
At least 73 killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza, local officials say
ReutersBeit Lahia has been hit by earlier strikes, pictured here in JuneIsraeli strikes have killed at least 73 people, including women and children, in the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, the strip's Hamas-run authorities say.
Dozens of others are injured and many are still trapped under the rubble after the bombing late on Saturday night, officials added.
Israel said it was checking reports of casualties but said the figures published by Hamas authorities were "exaggerated" and did not match information held by its military.
Fighting also continues to be reported in southern Lebanon as well as the south of Beirut on Sunday morning, where smoke was seen rising above the city.
Israel said its air force had attacked "about 175 terrorist targets" in Gaza and Lebanon over the past day.
The Hamas-run government media office said the bombing in Beit Lahia on Saturday night hit "crowded" residential areas, and that 73 people had been killed – a number also reported by Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency. The BBC cannot independently verify the figures.
According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, an entire residential complex was destroyed in the strikes.
Rescue efforts in Beit Lahia are currently hampered due to communications and internet services being severed in the region, Gaza health officials added.
The latest strikes come just hours after reports of heavy gunfire from Israeli troops at the Indonesian Hospital in the city.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC it had struck a "Hamas terror target" and was "doing everything possible to avoid causing harm to civilians".
It said the casualties given by the Hamas office were "exaggerated" and said such sources had "proven to be sorely unreliable in previous incidents."
Israel began a renewed military offensive in northern Gaza in early October, saying it is trying to prevent Hamas from regrouping in the area.
In particular, Israeli forces have surrounded and bombarded the densely-populated Jabalia area, which includes an urban refugee camp – with at least 33 people reported killed in a strike late on Friday.
Humanitarian groups have warned that virtually no aid has entered the area in the past few weeks. Israel's own statistics show that aid deliveries to Gaza as a whole have collapsed when compared with the same period in September.
The UN's top humanitarian official, Joyce Msuya, said on Saturday that Palestinians in northern Gaza are enduring "unspeakable horrors" and called for these "atrocities" to stop.
Israel has repeatedly denied it is preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza but the US has told it to boost access or risk having some American military assistance cut off.
Beit Lahia is near Jabalia, which has been the focus of Israel's military offensive in the past fortnightMeanwhile, Israel carried out at least a dozen air strikes on Beirut on Saturday, in the heaviest attack the Lebanese capital has witnessed in more than a week.
Damage and casualties were still being assessed, but at least one multi-storey building in the city's southern suburbs had been completely destroyed.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hezbollah's weapons storage facilities and its intelligence headquarters command centre in Dahieh.
Smoke was seen rising from southern Beirut in the early hours of Sunday after Israel's military ordered the immediate evacuation of two neighbourhoods in the area.
The IDF told civilians they were "located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, which the IDF will work against in the near future".
Mortgage costs ‘unlikely’ to return to low levels
Getty ImagesThe cost of borrowing money to buy a home is "unlikely" to return to the low levels seen over the past decade, the boss of the UK's largest mortgage lender has said.
Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds bank, said the bank expected mortgage rates to come down, but not to the near-zero rates they were during the 2010s.
The rate charged on new fixed mortgage deals has risen in recent years as a result of an increase in interest rates to try to slow soaring price rises, sparked by the Covid pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
And while they have fallen recently after a cut in interest rates, brokers have warned the trend could come to "an abrupt halt".
On Friday, the average two-year fixed mortgage rate was 5.36%, according to financial information company Moneyfacts. A five-year deal was 5.05%.
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme if "cheap" mortgage deals were ever going to come back, Mr Nunn said: "We do think they [mortgage rates] are going to continue to come down, but getting back to the level we saw in the last decade where interest rates were down at zero I think is unlikely."
Mr Nunn said the increase in borrowing costs had been "really challenging" for homeowners, but pointed out only about 40% of UK properties have a mortgage.
He added that the average income of a family with a mortgage was £75,000, and so "many of those families have been able to absorb" higher repayments.
"Mortgage arrears, people struggling with their mortgages, have actually been declining again since December," he told the BBC.
The Book of Abba by Jan Gradvall review – dark backstories and new revelations
From Himmler to herring, a Swedish music critic offers unexpected angles on the 70s supergroup
Alexis PetridisFri 11 Oct 2024 02.30 EDTShareIt comes as something of a surprise, 22 pages into The Book of ABBA, to find yourself reading about Heinrich Himmler. But there he is, in between a description of how Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus met and an explanation of the youth cult raggare, Sweden’s answer to rockers or greasers (the raggare’s 60s band of choice were the Hep Stars, featuring a pre-Abba Benny Andersson, surely the least likely musician in history to have once provided soundtrack for leather-clad, booze-fuelled gang warfare). There are details of Himmler’s “breeding policy”, lebensborn, and of its influence on both the plot of Hiroshima Mon Amour and a grim sub-genre of porny Nazi-centric pulp fiction that proliferated after the second world war.
There is, it should be noted, a link between all this and Abba – Anni-Frid Lyngstand’s mother was Norwegian and her father a member of the occupying German army – but, nevertheless, notice is served that Melancholy Undercover is not the book you might expect. A series of essays rather than a chronological history, it certainly covers all the bases, from Eurovision to the groundbreaking “virtual concert” Voyage, alongside global success on a scale even more staggering than you might have realised: Abba, it turns out, were huge in 70s Afghanistan, and so big in Vietnam that one journalist suggests their profoundly morose 1980 track Happy New Year is “probably the [country’s] most revered song … after the national anthem”.
But the book also finds room to delve into such unlikely areas as Swedish birdsong (Benny Andersson compiled an album of it in the 90s), an Australian brain surgeon who listens obsessively to Abba while performing impossibly risky operations, and the grim effect of alcohol on the band and their circle: both Andersson and Ulvaeus are recovering alcoholics, their bassist Rutger Gunnarsson was being treated for alcohol addiction before his sudden death, and their manager Stig Andersson was apparently drinking a bottle of a whisky a day when a heart attack killed him, aged 66.
Gradvall has got more out of them than most British journalists ever didOccasionally, these digressions feel a touch surplus to requirements – you do find yourself wondering if you need to know quite so much about the Swedish herring industry – but more often, they’re fascinating, not least the depiction of the Swedish pop culture from which Abba sprang.
Here is an intriguingly alien landscape of dansbands and schlager, with three different singles charts, only one of which was based on sales.Meanwhile, the pre-eminent musical force was progg, ferociously leftwing folk-rock, whose adherents hated Abba so virulently that the critical opprobrium they attracted in 70s Britain must have come as a relief: one jazz saxophonist was blacklisted from performing live because he’d done a couple of Abba studio sessions. Film buffs might recognise the world depicted in Lukas Moodysson’s film Together, where the children in a progg-loving Stockholm commune sneak out to covertly listen to the forbidden strains of SOS.
For all the confessions of marital discord blurted out in the lyrics of The Winner Takes It All and One of Us, Abba were always rather guarded interviewees, although it’s worth noting that Gradvall, a well-known Swedish critic, has got more out of them than most British journalists ever did, not least, one suspects, because he’s interviewed them in their native language.
‘It’s difficult to look upon yourself as an icon’: Abba’s Agnetha Fältskog on fame, family and her secret songsRead moreThat said, you are occasionally aware that this is an artist-approved work. There’s a lot about Abba’s notoriously painstaking process in the studio, but not a great deal of critical scrutiny aimed at their output, which in reality often swerved from the sublime to the ridiculous, albeit with far more of the former than the latter. A chapter on their lyrics approvingly quotes Ulvaeus’s belief that “the sound of the lyrics is very, very important”, but doesn’t explain 1975’s Bang-a-Boomerang, which has an entirely magical tune, but rhymes “dum-be-dum-dum / be-dum-be-dum-dum” with “love is a tune you hum-de-hum-hum”? Or, indeed, the following year’s Dum Dum Diddle, a song about a relationship torn asunder by the male party’s dedication to practising the violin, home to the immortal accusation “You are only smilin’ / when you play your violin”?
But these are minor criticisms, just as the lyrics of Dum Dum Diddle and Bang-a-Boomerang are small blots on a copybook stuffed with pop music of dizzying perfection. The context this book provides makes Abba’s success seem even more extraordinary. Moreover, it’s hard to imagine even the most obsessive fan leaving Melancholy Undercover without discovering something new, even if it is about Himmler or herring.
The Book of Abba: Melancholy Undercover by Jan Gradvall is published by Faber (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
Exhibition of Guangzhou’s Archaeological Discovery and Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization Achievements in the New Era opens
On October 18th, the “Paying Tribute to Cultural Relics” series of events launched with the exhibition titled “Continuing the Journey: Archaeological Discoveries and Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization Achievements in Contemporary Guangzhou” at the South Han Dynasty Mausoleum Museum in Guangzhou. This exhibition will run until December 1, 2024.
Guangzhou, one of the first national historical and cultural cities, boasts a rich history of human activity spanning five to six thousand years and over 2,200 years since its establishment. This city is a treasure trove of cultural relics.
The exhibition highlights a range of achievements in archaeological work within Guangzhou since the new era, divided into five main sections: “Legal Protection,” “Archaeological Discoveries,” “Cultural Relic Protection,” “Maritime Silk Road Heritage Application,” and “Transmission and Heritage.” It features 220 pieces (or sets) of artifacts unearthed during recent archaeological excavations, alongside a collection of valuable documents and audiovisual materials.
Since the beginning of the new era, Guangzhou has made significant strides in enhancing a “prehistoric archaeology” work mechanism, establishing special funds for cultural relic protection, reinforcing safety supervision for artifacts, and actively leading efforts to protect and apply for heritage status for the Maritime Silk Road. Numerous underground relics have been discovered, rescued, and protected through these initiatives.
The prehistoric archaeology findings in the Guangzhou area have been abundant, with significant discoveries at sites such as the Shixiang Ruins in Conghua, the Jinlan Temple site in Zengcheng, and others like Zhaoqing and Guangdong Guangya Middle School. These findings have greatly enriched the archaeological record from the prehistoric and pre-Qin periods in Guangzhou, providing critical physical evidence to understand the human society of 6,000 to 2,000 years ago and the evolution and integration of Lingnan culture within the broader Chinese cultural landscape.
Notable artifacts on display include a Han Dynasty ceramic owl-shaped five-section jar and a green-glazed chicken-head pot, both classified as first-class cultural relics, along with exquisite pieces such as a ceramic deer-shaped lamp and stamped inscription pottery. Visitors will gain insights into the burial customs, beliefs about life and death, and daily life of Guangzhou’s ancestors. Additionally, significant archaeological discoveries from projects like the Xiaoma Station and other sites document Guangzhou’s continuous development over the past 2,200 years since its city formation.
In recent times, Guangzhou has implemented various effective measures to enhance the protection and utilization of immovable cultural relics. The city is fostering urban archaeology and the preservation of archaeological heritage while improving the protection system for historical and cultural cities. This exhibition showcases the important achievements in protecting movable cultural relics, archaeological heritage, and historic buildings. Some artifacts from projects like the 2024 construction of the pangolin exhibit at the Guangzhou Zoo and the restoration of lacquerware unearthed from the Dongshan Grand Tomb will be displayed to the public for the first time.
