When the vice president of India's Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, started his election campaign in northern Uttar Pradesh state, it made headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.

Mr Gandhi's speech, which focused on the plight of farmers, drew applause from the gathered crowd.
But it was the fact that his audience then made off with hundreds of traditional village khaats (cots) that had been brought in for the crowds to sit on, that drew national media attention.
Most outlets chose to focus on the dramatic scenes that showed Mr Gandhi's audiences running away with the seating, with one newspaper calling the ensuing chaos A Game of Khaats, punning on the popular television series Game of Thrones and House of Cards.
More than 2,000 cots were "stolen" from the venue in Deoria district, reports said.
But Mr Gandhi is no stranger to unfortunate media attention. Here are a few other instances where the heir to India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty has found himself on the wrong side of the headlines.
Mr Gandhi said in 2013 that politics "was everywhere, in your shirt, in your pants", during a speech urging the country's youth to join politics to make India better.
Mr Gandhi's intention was to tell young people that there was no way of escaping politics because it touches every aspect of life in India.
But social and mainstream media immediately pounced on the statement as being "dumb" and "stupid" and many still quote it out of context to prove his unsuitability as a serious politician.
Mr Gandhi received more criticism in 2013 when he compared India to a "beehive".
"The beehive is a good analogy, you are masters of complexity, this buzzing sound you don't like, these newspaper stories which drive me nuts, this is your training, developing you to deal with complexity. This is what's going to give you the competitive advantage like nobody has ever had before," he said.
Again however, his use of the phrase was construed as being bizarre and the rest of his speech was forgotten in the rush to create "India is a beehive" memes.
When Indian boxer Vijender Singh took on Australia's Kerry Hope in a high-octane bout for the global Super Middleweight title in Delhi in July, Mr Gandhi was among the many VIP attendees.
Given the high profile nature of the event, it made perfect sense for Mr Gandhi to use the occasion to try to connect with Indians.
But again, things did not go as planned.
When the camera panned on Mr Gandhi, the crowds began a chant of "Modi! Modi!" leaving him embarrassed in front of TV cameras.


Members of the train drivers' union Aslef have voted overwhelmingly to strike in a dispute over driver-only operated trains.

The union is accusing Southern railway of wanting to impose changes rather than reach an agreement.
The dispute is separate to a long-running row between Southern and the RMT union over changes to the role of conductors.
Aslef said Southern had "dug its heels in" over the changes.
Southern's drivers who are members of Aslef voted for walkouts by 87%.
The union has announced its drivers will strike on 13-14 December, again on 16 December, and between 9-14 January.
Mick Whelan, Aslef's general secretary, said: "Our trade dispute with the company is that there should be no introduction and/or extension of new driver-only operated routes on Southern without the agreement of Aslef.
"We have genuinely sought to reach a compromise with Southern. We have always been prepared to talk to the company and we have always been of the view that it should be possible to do a deal, but it takes two to tango and the company has not been prepared to negotiate," he said.
"They have dug in their heels and forced us to ballot our members."
This ups the ante in an already vitriolic dispute.
Up until now, Southern had managed to run about 60% of its trains on RMT strike days. Still incredibly annoying for customers but they could normally find a way of getting to work.
Now that just under 1,000 Aslef drivers are joining the fray, albeit on different days, it's hard to see how Southern will be able to run any kind of functioning train service when they walk out.
They're also stopping overtime, which is often vital to running the trains every day.
This dispute has become the defining battle for one of the most contentious issues on our railways, the increasing introduction of what's known as "driver-only-operation" or DOO, where the driver, rather than the guard, takes control of closing the doors.
The unions say it's a safety risk and an excuse to cut jobs in the long run, all to save money. The rail firms and the government argue that it's about modernising the railways, freeing up on-board staff to deal with customers. They also point out that the safety regulator, the ORR, says it's safe and that DOO is already commonplace on many lines.
What happens on Southern is likely to determine what happens on other rail franchises in the future.
Charles Horton, the chief executive of Southern's parent company Govia Thameslink, said: "Passengers will be rightly furious that these wholly unnecessary and unjustified strikes have been called in the run up to Christmas and in the New Year.
"It's perfectly safe for the driver to have sole responsibility for the operation of a modern train and that's how a third of the trains up and down the country - with the full agreement and support of Aslef - already operate today."
The RMT has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Southern over changes to the role of conductors.
More stoppages are planned in the coming weeks, in the run-up to Christmas and over the new year.
Southern wants drivers, rather than conductors, to operate carriage doors at certain times.
London Underground drivers are to stage a 24-hour strike on 6 and 7 December, coinciding with a walkout by Southern rail guards.


ITV has told Newsbeat it's dropping the controversial comedian Dapper Laughs.

The Vine star - real name Daniel O'Reilly - was recently seen in the ITV2 series Dapper Laughs: On The Pull.
He has provoked outrage with jokes about rape and homeless people.
An ITV spokesman told Newsbeat: "We have given careful thought to the recent criticism of the character Dapper Laughs, which has focused on his activities outside of the ITV2 programme.
"We have taken the decision that we will not be considering this show for a second series."
An online petition has been calling on ITV to scrap the show.
The man behind the campaign told Newsbeat the show wasn't risquÃ© comedy and described it as "dangerous".
Tom Zephyr - who asked us not to use his real name - said: "We need a civilised fightback against this 'laddish' culture".
His campaign said the Dapper Laughs show used "misogynistic views, all under the guise of harmless comedy" and argued that the comedian's work frequently depicted "real-life harassment of women".
"While I am glad that there will be no more Dapper Laughs on our screens, I cannot regard the petition a success until ITV recognise their errors. People are worried about lad culture in general, not just Dapper Laughs, and ITV haven't yet admitted that they failed their duty of responsibility towards their viewers."
ITV's decision comes as a video was posted online showing Dapper Laughs saying to an audience member that she was "gagging for a rape".
We've asked Daniel O'Reilly for an interview and are still waiting for a response.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube


A passenger airliner has skidded off the runway at LaGuardia airport in New York City, as a major winter storm bears down on a large part of the US.

Emergency officials helped 127 passengers and five crew off the plane just after 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT), but no one was seriously injured.
Snow and freezing rain has been falling from Texas to New England over the past several hours.
Schools, businesses, and the US government have closed as a result.
Pictures from LaGuardia airport show the plane, a Delta MD-88, resting on an embankment having pushed through a fence.
"That runway had been ploughed literally minutes before, and other pilots had reported good braking action," New York and New Jersey Port Authority Director Patrick Foye told reporters.
The flight, Delta 1086, was attempting to land at LaGuardia after flying from Atlanta. It veered to the left shortly after making contact with the runway, but avoided crashing into nearby Flushing Bay.
Two passengers were transported to a hospital, but no serious injuries have been reported.
At one point the plane was leaking fuel, but emergency responders were able to stop the leak.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been dispatched to the scene, Mr Foye said.
The airport has been closed, and is expected to reopen at 19:00 local time, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says. Planes en route to the LaGuardia have been diverted to nearby airports.
LaGuardia is one of the most difficult airports to land at in the US owing to its close proximity to three other busy airports.
Elsewhere:
The snow is expected to largely skip Boston, which needs just two more inches of snow to break a record set during the 1995-1996 season.


The US economy added 160,000 jobs in April - undershooting expectations and well below the 208,000 created in March, official figures show.

March's figure was revised down from 215,000 and February's was also revised from 242,000 down to 233,000.
The jobless rate remained at 5% and average hourly earnings rose 2.5%.
April's report is being closely watched, as it could influence an upcoming interest rate decision by the US Federal Reserve.
Fed policy makers hold a two-day meeting starting on 14 June and some thought they might decide to raise interest rates.
But some think the latest jobs report has diminished that prospect.
Aberdeen Asset Management, investment manager Luke Bartholomew, said: "Anyone wanting a June hike should probably look away now. The headline number is disappointing, while the household survey looks particularly ugly.
"If there's a bright spot then it's wages which were a bit better than expected. That's important. The lack of any meaningful increase in wages has caused much head scratching at the Fed. But there's probably not enough here to keep a June hike a clear and present danger."
However, Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics, thinks that a rate increase is still possible.
"Overall, there is nothing here to swing the Fed's June rate decision very far in either direction. We still think the Fed will hike next month, but it's shaping up to be a close call," he said.
Mr Ashworth said the increases in average weekly hours worked and average hourly earnings were "reassuring".
In December, the Fed raised rates for the first time in ten years. That rise was seen as the first of a number of moves upwards and Fed officials have forecast two more rate rises for this year.
But since then the economic news has been mixed.
In April, official figures showed that US growth slowed to an annual pace of 0.5% during the first quarter of the year.
This is a rather disappointing report.
Slower growth in jobs - compared with what was expected and compared with previous months.
There was also a marked increase in the number of people not in the labour force. That means people are not looking for work, which can sometimes mean they don't expect to find any.
The good news was the slightly faster rise in average earnings. This has been a weak feature of the recovery after the financial crisis, so the acceleration, modest though it is, can be seen as encouraging.
Still, this was just one month's worth of data. That can give some clues about the underlying state of the labour market, but it's no basis for drawing firm conclusions.
Today's report showed the strongest jobs growth was in business services and healthcare.
Professional and business services added 65,000 jobs in April and healthcare recorded a 44,000 increase.
The number of  those employed in mining fell back as the energy sector continues to suffer weak profits thanks to the low oil price.
The share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, fell 0.2% to 62.8%.


Lee Johnston will make his return from injury at the Ulster Grand Prix.

The Fermanagh rider crashed at the Isle of Man TT in June during Supersport practice suffering back, tailbone and finger fractures.
Despite little practice time since his crash, Johnston is targeting at least one win at Dundrod in two weeks time.
"You're wasting petrol and fuel and tyres if you're not going with winning in mind, you have to at least set that goal," Johnston said.
"If you turn up thinking you're only going to get top five then you're definitely not going to win."
Johnston will be riding the East Coast Racing Team Superstock and Superbike machinery and will join Bruce Anstey and Conor Cummins on the Padgett's Motorcycles team for the Supersport class.
"The good thing is I'm riding bikes that I know well which helps massively and I wouldn't be going at all if I didn't think I was going to be competitive.
"I might be a little bit rusty for the first couple of races until we get going again but the good thing about that is we have the Thursday racing to get back in the swing of it and then I'll be hopefully be ready for the Saturday."


Morocco coach Herve Renard will face Ivory Coast, who he led to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations title, in qualification for the 2018 World Cup.

The Frenchman's Atlas Lions side were placed in Group C in the draw, which was held in Cairo on Friday.
There are five groups of four teams with only the winners of each group making it to the tournament in Russia.
It is the final round of qualifying, which follows two previous knockout rounds, and will kick off in October.
Matches continue in November and there will be a further four rounds during 2017 between August and November.
Four big names were drawn together in Group B, with Cameroon, Nigeria and Algeria - who have all been at the past two World Cup finals - placed alongside 2012 Africa Cup of Nations winners Zambia.
Cameroon have appeared at the tournament seven times - more than any other African country - but have suffered in recent years and could struggle in what looks to the toughest of all the groups.
The Indomitable Lions' last two appearances at the World Cup were a disaster. They lost all three of their group games in South Africa in 2010 and in Brazil four years later.
Algeria, the highest ranked side on the continent, were among the top seeds for the draw, with Nigeria included in the second seeds.
Renard will come up against the side he helped to make African champions last year as he tries to steer his Morocco team past the Elephants, Gabon and Mali.
Meanwhile, neighbours Libya and Tunisia were paired in Group A. Libya's last international match - against Morocco in June - was hosted by Tunisia because of ongoing security issues in the north African country.
Group E could shape up to be a fight between heavyweights Ghana and Egypt.
The Black Stars have appeared at the last three finals but Egypt have not qualified since 1990.
African qualifying for the 2018 World Cup:
Group A
Tunisia, Libya, DR Congo, Guinea
Group B
Zambia, Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria
Group C
Gabon, Mali, Ivory Coast, Morocco
Group D
Senegal, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde
Group E
Ghana, Egypt, Congo, Uganda


Missouri governor Jay Nixon has criticised police for releasing CCTV footage which apparently shows shooting victim Michael Brown stealing.

He said the release of the footage nearly a week after a policeman shot Mr Brown in Ferguson, St Louis, "appeared to cast aspersions" on the dead man.
"It made emotions raw," Mr Nixon told US broadcaster ABC on Sunday.
US Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a federal post-mortem on the black teenager's body.
Riot police used tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse protesters overnight as they defied a curfew in Ferguson. The curfew is being extended for a second day, beginning at midnight (05:00 GMT Monday) and running for five hours.
The killing of Mr Brown by a white policeman in a street on 9 August has inflamed racial tensions in the largely black suburb.
It caused dismay across the US, with peaceful nationwide vigils held on Thursday night, while images of riot police deployed in an American city suburb have made headlines worldwide.
The video "appeared to cast aspersions on a young man that was gunned down in the street", said Governor Nixon.
On Saturday, he declared the curfew after looters targeted stores in Ferguson overnight.
Seven arrests were made as police used smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse a crowd of about 150 in Ferguson, after being called to the scene of a disturbance at a restaurant after the curfew started.
A police car reportedly came under fire and a person was hurt in an apparently unrelated shooting in the same area.
As police were nearing the restaurant, a man with a handgun went into the street but ran away, AP news agency reports.
Someone also shot at a police car but it was not clear if it had been hit.
In the same area, a person was shot and critically wounded and police were searching for the attacker.
Demonstrators complained that the curfew would make matters worse.
Jayson Ross, who was leading the protesters toward the police before tear gas was fired, was quoted as saying by AP: "They got guns. We got guns. We are ready."
Local politician Antonio French, who was with the protesters, tweeted to say: "Too many young men talking about they're ready to die tonight."
The US justice department is investigating the shooting of Mr Brown, with 40 FBI agents dispatched to Ferguson to gather information.
The justice department said on Sunday that Mr Holder had ordered a federal post-mortem examination at the request of Mr Brown's family, in addition to a Missouri state autopsy.
A preliminary autopsy by the St Louis County Medical Examiner's office on the day after Mr Brown's death found he had been shot, police said, without disclosing how many times.
Earlier, the lawyer for the dead teenager's family, Anthony Gray, announced that it had hired one of America's most famous forensic pathologists, Michael Baden, to conduct an independent examination.
Mr Baden, 80, has worked on investigations into the deaths of such public figures as President John F Kennedy, the punk star Sid Vicious and the family of the last Russian emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, according to a profile on Fox News, where he works as a TV host.
Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson revealed on Friday that the officer who shot Mr Brown was Darren Wilson, a six-year police veteran with no previous complaints against him.
Mr Wilson has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
The policeman had reportedly stopped the teenager for walking in the street, disrupting traffic.


Two more former members of staff at a Bradford free school face charges over alleged financial irregularities at the establishment.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Daud Khan and Shabana Hussain from the Kings Science Academy had been issued with summons.
Last week, Sajid Raza, 42, the school's former principal, was charged with a number of counts of fraud.
The CPS said all three would shortly appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court.
Mr Khan, 43, the school's former head of finance, will be charged with two offences of fraud by abuse of position and three of false accounting.
Ms Hussain, 38, a former head of department, will be charged with one offence of fraud by abuse of position and one offence of acquiring criminal property.
Mr Raza of Spring Gardens Road, Bradford is accused of fraud by abuse of position, false accounting, obtaining money transfers by deception and fraud by false representation.
The academy, one of England's first free schools, opened in September 2011.  It has since become part of the Dixons academy group.


A new consultation on proposed changes to education in Pembrokeshire has been given the go-ahead.

Councillors backed a fresh consultation at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday.
The public will be able to have their say on the plans, which include changes to secondary schools in Fishguard and St Davids and the development of a new Welsh medium school, from 16 September.
The consultation will close on 28 October.
During that time, two public information sessions will take place - at Fishguard Town Hall on 24 September and Ysgol Dewi Sant, St Davids, on 29 September.


Jordan Hugill's last-minute goal ensured Preston and Leeds shared the spoils at the end of their Championship seasons.

Home goalkeeper Chris Kirkland expertly denied Wood's looping header as the visitors started brightly.
With ten minutes remaining, Kirkland clumsily brought down Luke Murphy and Chris Wood happily smashed home the resulting penalty.
Deep into stoppage time Hugill slotted home as the game ended in a draw.
With neither side having anything to play for except pride, this game struggled to ignite with few clear-cut chances being created in a somewhat drab first half.
Despite this, the 18,000 fans in attendance saw the game burst into life in a frantic final 10 minutes as Wood put Leeds ahead before Hugill stole a last-gasp point for the home side.
Preston, who were one of the favourites to go down at the start of the season having come up from League One, performed admirably to finish in 11th place.
This season has been chaotic off the field for Leeds, who finish in 13th position, and it still remains to be seen if manager Steve Evans will be in charge next year.
Preston manager Simon Grayson: "I think we deserved at least a point. We played well, the performance epitomised what we are this season, Leeds didn't really look like scoring.
"We showed that character again to get the late goal. A lot of teams would have accepted that they're going to lose the last game of the season 1-0 but not my players.
"We know our strengths and we know our weaknesses but to finish where we have, above lots of more experienced teams, speaks volumes for the players."
Leeds head coach Steve Evans: "I had tears in my eyes because the supporters were fantastic. I thought I knew my future but I don't. It's just the feeling you get.
"I hope it's not the end, I really hope it's not. But if the decision is made for the benefit of the football club then I will endorse it.
"If they've got (Jose) Mourinho parked in the corner then I'd be the first to applaud him onto the pitch.
"I'm going to go home and wait to see what the president decides. I would've loved to have been in on Monday planning pre-season and maybe that will still happen, but who knows?"


Barcelona broke a 27-year old Spanish record by going 35 games unbeaten in all competitions this season after thrashing nine-man Rayo Vallecano.

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick as the hosts fell apart after Ivan Rakitic's opener, a result of a goalkeeper error.
Diego Llorente was sent off in between two Messi goals before Manucho replied.
Manuel Iturra then saw red but Luis Suarez had the resulting penalty saved as Messi wrapped up a 35th Barca treble before Arda Turan completed the rout.
It was the Turkish midfielder's first Barcelona goal since his move from Atletico Madrid last summer, but in an action-packed game, it was relegated to a mere footnote.
Luis Enrique's team now sit eight points clear of second-placed Atletico and they could have easily made it even more convincing against Rayo, who are now separated from the relegation zone by goal difference.
Barcelona twice hit the woodwork with Neymar's free-kick against the bar falling to Sergio Busquets, who was brought down for Rayo's second red card and a penalty.
Rayo goalkeeper Juan Carlos Martin Corral made up for his earlier mistake by saving Suarez's spot-kick with Barcelona now having missed half of their 18 penalties this season. That also includes the one taken by Messi when he passed to Suarez.
The hosts will argue that Llorente's dismissal was harsh as he took the ball despite a high tackle on Rakitic, but they were outclassed as Messi drew level with Real Madrid's Spanish record-holder Cristiano Ronaldo on 35 hat-tricks.
The Argentine also took his season's tally to 33 goals.


People with temporary injuries or illness which restrict mobility will be eligible for a blue disability parking badge from Saturday.

The expanded scheme will now offer 12-month badges for those recovering from or waiting for treatment.
Severe leg injuries, stroke or head injuries, spinal trauma and cancer affecting movement are among the eligible conditions.
Infrastructure secretary Ken Skates said it would improve accessibility.
Mr Skates said extending eligibility ensured those in need had access to a blue badge, while limiting the criteria to people who had an impairment lasting 12 months or more would ensure the scheme is reserved for those with the greatest mobility needs.


Labour would use Ofsted inspections to put a greater emphasis on art in schools in England, says the party's leader Ed Miliband.

A future Labour government would widen access to the arts, says Mr Miliband.
Schools would not be graded as "outstanding" unless offering a wide range of arts subjects and "cultural opportunities", says Mr Miliband.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said that arts subjects have already been made more "rigorous".
Mr Miliband says he wants to put "policy for arts and culture and creativity at the heart of the next Labour government's mission".
The need for creative education would be prioritised for inspections.
"Schools will only be able to receive an 'outstanding' rating if they offer creative subjects and cultural opportunities within a broad and balanced curriculum," said Mr Miliband.
There would also be an expectation that creative industries and arts institutions would offer more apprenticeships, "in return for direct grants or major government contracts".
The arts had an important impact on individual lives and on the country's economy, the Labour leader said, in a speech to the Creative Industries Federation.
"The creative industries are our second biggest sector," Mr Miliband said.
But he warned there was insufficient access to the arts in school, pointing to evidence from last week's Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Values.
The report from Warwick University warned that creative subjects were at risk of being squeezed out of schools.
It found that between 2003 and 2013 there had been a 50% drop in GCSE entries for design and technology, 23% for drama and 25% for other craft-related subjects.
And it found that the number of arts teachers in schools had fallen by up to 11%.
The Department for Education had responded to the report by saying that arts subjects were already statutory in primary schools and up to the start of GCSEs.
A spokesman said that the number of pupils taking music and art and design GCSE had risen between 2013 to 2014.
"We are clear that arts education should be every bit as rigorous as the rest of the school curriculum, and we have strengthened the national curriculum in these subjects and reformed the music and art GCSEs and A-levels to make sure this is the case," said a Department for Education spokesman.
The Department for Education said it was providing Â£109m for 2014-15 to support music, art and cultural education projects - Â£17m more than the previous year.
Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan said: "Once again Ed Miliband's education policy is in chaos. He has fallen into the trap of drawing an arbitrary divide between arts and science subjects, when the modern world demands that the two should work hand-in-hand.
"That's why, as part of our plan for education, we have given every child the chance to learn subjects like coding that bring the two disciplines together.
"We have also reformed GCSEs in traditional arts subjects like music and art and design to make them more rigorous.
"As a result, thousands more young people are studying these subjects at GCSE and receiving the kind of high-quality arts and cultural education they simply weren't receiving under the last Labour government."


"Extremely rare" fossils from a swordfish-like creature which lived 100 million years ago have been discovered in the Australian outback.

Two families on holiday unearthed the prehistoric predator at a free fossil-finding site in north-west Queensland.
The remains are thought to be from the Australopachycormus hurleyi, a 3m-long ray-finned fish with a pointed snout.
"Part of what makes this specimen so special is that it is so complete," Dr Patrick Smith told the BBC.
The curator of Kronosaurus Korner says that the centre has assembled the ancient creature's skull, backbone and fins.
"We know that it was a high-tier carnivore and that it ate other large fast-moving fish, a bit like marlin do today," he said.
"Because it does fit that swordfish-like shape we know he probably lived in that same ecological niche."
Dr Smith said he wanted to encourage other amateur palaeontologists to make their way to the tiny outback township 1,700km (1,000 miles) from Brisbane.
"Come to Richmond, because there's an awful lot of material to be collected," he said.
Fossils have been turning up since the 1930s in the region of north-west Queensland, which is described as "Australia's Dinosaur Trail".


Boaty McBoatface is topping a poll to find the name of a new research boat.

The name has become the runaway favourite in an online poll to suggest names for the Royal Research ship.
The man who suggested it as a joke has now said sorry.
James Hand said that while he stands by Boaty McBoatface as a "brilliant name" for a boat, he has actually voted for RRS David Attenborough to be the new name.
Traditionally, ships are named after explorers, so Boaty McBoatface would be an unusual choice.
There's no guarantee that the ship would have the name though, as the poll is only a suggestion and a panel of experts will choose the name.
Other names in the running are RRS Pingu and RRS Usain Bolt.
The boat is currently being built and when it's completed it will study ice sheets, ocean currents and marine life in the Arctic.


Recent poor weather conditions may have caused some disruption to life in Northern Ireland but spare a thought for the residents of Rathlin Island, just off the County Antrim coast.

Ferry crossings between Ballycastle and the island have now been cancelled for two days because of windy conditions.
The winds over the next 36 hours are set to strengthen with a Met Office weather warning in places for particularly strong winds on Thursday, with gusts up to 80mph along the north coast.
As a result islanders will face at least another day of isolation.
Ferry cancellations because of poor weather are nothing new for the residents of Rathlin but it is at this time of year that their effects can be really felt.
"I'm worried that I will not be able to get stock for Christmas dinners next week," said Ksenia Zywczuk from the Manor House guest house.
"I have bookings for around 50 dinners next week, which includes the 'Tuesday Club' for older people, but I don't know if I'll be able to get to Ballycastle for supplies," said Ksenia.
Others have been left isolated on the mainland unable to travel to their homes or businesses on the island.
"Children didn't get home from boarding school last weekend because of bad weather, but we're hoping they'll get home this weekend,"  said Noel McCurdy from the island's community association.
"We keep an eye on the forecasts and try to plan ahead. We're used to the effects of the bad weather but sometimes we're still caught out, especially at this time of year," he added.
Despite poor weather, postal deliveries are still taken for granted across Northern Ireland but when the ferries are cancelled there is no post in, or out, of Rathlin.
"No post has been sent or received today and it may be the weekend, or even next week before deliveries resume," said Catriona Blaney, who owns the island's gift shop and recently took over the running of the post office.
"With only two-and-a-half weeks to Christmas, people on the island keep an eye on weather forecasts in the hope that a window of opportunity comes up to get over to the mainland for Christmas shopping," she added.
For the past two weekends a Christmas craft fair has been planned for the islanders at the ferry terminal in Ballycastle, but twice it has been cancelled because of poor weather.
It is hoped that, with winds easing from Friday, that the fair can take place this weekend.


Lee Kuan Yew - known almost universally as LKY - is considered the founding father of modern Singapore, and has been the point around which politics in the city-state has revolved for nearly five decades.

But Singapore's stability and growth have been achieved in part through its only cursory nod towards democracy, and a determined quashing of dissent and free speech.
As news emerges that "The Old Man" has died at the age of 91, the BBC looks back at some key images from his life.
Lee Kuan Yew was born on 16 September 1923 in Singapore, to third-generation migrants from China. He lived for a short period in this house on what is now Neil Road. Singapore was at that time under British imperial rule, meaning he was born a British citizen and grew up with English as his first language - he did not speak Chinese until he was in his 30s. He studied at an English school in Singapore, becoming the highest achieving student in his year in Singapore and Malaysia.
The outbreak of World War Two put Lee's plans to travel to England for further study on hold. In February 1942, the British colonial army surrendered to the invading Japanese, starting a "reign of terror". Lee narrowly escaped being rounded up and killed in the Sook Ching massacre, one of the most large-scale atrocities of the occupation years. He later said he believed between 50,000 and 100,000 people had died, and that the British failure to prevent the massacre was further proof that Singaporeans should be free to rule themselves.
During the war, he went on to work as a Japanese interpreter and ran his own black market glue business.
After the war, Lee belatedly began his university education, studying first at the prestigious London School of Economics and then at Cambridge. While in England he married Kwa Geok Choo (seen above in 1965), a brilliant Singaporean scholar and later lawyer, at a secret ceremony in Stratford-upon-Avon.
In 1949 he turned his back on a possible British legal career and returned to Singapore, where he practised law and became involved in the trade union movement.
In 1954, LKY became the founder and general secretary of the People's Action Party (PAP), a socialist alliance of Chinese and English-speaking movements which aimed to bring an end to British rule.
In December 1959, Lee - seen above campaigning for a 1958 by-election - was present as Britain granted autonomy to Singapore, though it kept control of foreign affairs and defence.
Two days later, Lee - then aged 36 - was sworn in as the first prime minister of self-governing Singapore, a position he would hold for the next three decades. He embarked on an ambitious five-year programme of slum clearing, building low-cost quality housing, industrialisation and tackling corruption. He spoke fiercely of the need for Singapore to be a multi-racial nation.
The PAP also began campaigning for Singapore to split entirely from the UK and merge into the Federation of Malaya, believing the island to be too small and lacking in resources to survive alone. On 16 September 1963, Lee announced the successful merger from the steps of City Hall, ending 144 years of British rule.
But racial tensions were growing between the Chinese majority in Singapore and Malays over what the ethnic character of the Federation of Malaysia should be. Despite Lee's appeals for calm, several large-scale riots left hundreds injured and more than 20 people dead.
On 9 August 1965, a weeping Lee announced he had agreed to Malaysia's request that Singapore leave the federation to stop the bloodshed from destabilising the union. It was, he said, "a moment of anguish" and went against "everything we stood for". Two days later, Lee declared tiny, isolated Singapore to be an independent nation.
Over the next 31 years, Lee's vision for Singapore turned it from an abandoned and vulnerable colonial outpost to one of the world's wealthiest nations. The country became pioneers in mass house building and nationalised healthcare, while Lee was adamant that education was essential, often saying Singapore's only natural resource was its people, and strongly encouraged well-educated people to marry and have children. Singapore opened up to foreign investment and expertise, recruiting migrant labour widely while enforcing strict racial quotas in housing.
Lee was unapologetic in the face of criticism that Singapore interfered too much in individuals' lives, telling the Straits Times in 1987 "had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think."
Reflecting on his time in power in a New York Times interview in 2010 he said: "I'm not saying that everything I did was right, but everything I did was for an honourable purpose. I had to do some nasty things, locking fellows up without trial."
Lee was critical of what he saw as the overly liberal approach of the US and the West in general, saying it had "come at the expense of orderly society.
"In the East the main object is to have a well-ordered society so that everybody can have maximum enjoyment of his freedoms. This freedom can only exist in an ordered state and not in a natural state of contention and anarchy," he said in an interview with Foreign Affairs in 1994. He made no secret of the fact that he wanted the PAP to hold onto power.
In 1981 Joshua Benjamin (known as JB) Jeyaretnam - leader of the Workers' Party - won the first ever opposition seat in Singapore. Furious with Jeyaretnam's criticisms of his handling of Singapore, Lee brought repeated defamation lawsuits against him and in 2001 he was declared bankrupt, meaning he could not hold office and was reduced to selling his book on the street to pay his debts. He died in 2008.
Lee was a source of advice for a parade of foreign leaders seeking to better understand Asia.
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore in 1978 to learn more about its model of development. UK Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher said Lee had a way of "penetrating the fog of propaganda and expressing with unique clarity the issues of our time and the way to tackle them", while US diplomat Henry Kissinger said no world leader had taught him more than Lee Kuan Yew.
When they met in 2009, US President Barack Obama described Lee as one of the "legendary figures of Asia in the 20th and 21st Centuries".
In her later years, Lee's wife Kwa Geok Choo suffered from ill health and dementia and was confined to bed. In the 2010 New York Times interview, he said the stress of caring for her was harder than anything he had faced in politics.
"She understands when I talk to her, which I do every night.  She keeps awake for me; I tell her about my day's work, read her favourite poems," he said. The agnostic Lee told the Times he had taken up Christian meditation to "keep the monkey mind from running off into all kinds of thoughts".
Kwa died in October 2010. Thousands lined the streets to pay tribute, or visited her body lying in state.
"Without her," Lee said at her funeral, "I would be a different man, with a different life".
Lee's political involvement continued almost until his death.  Though he stood down as prime minister in 1990 he remained a senior minister, his opinion sought on all matters. He represented the Tanjong Pagar constituency in central Singapore for almost his entire political life, campaigning for office here in 2011.
One of his last major public appearances was at the age of 90, when he attended celebrations for Singapore's National Day, marking 49 years since he signed the deal which had filled him with such dread. He died months before seeing the 50th anniversary.


A woman trapped in an attic during a blaze at her Cardiff home was given "vital survival guidance" by the fire service control operator as crews travelled to rescue her.

The woman made the emergency call just after 03:30 BST on Saturday from the house in Llanishen.
Crews were faced with a well-developed fire on the first floor of the house, but located and rescued the woman.
One of her adult sons had escaped the blaze before crews arrived.
They were both treated at the scene by Wales Ambulance Service Trust and taken to hospital.
The woman had been unsure whether a second adult son was in the house as he had gone out the night before, but South Wales Police tracked him down.
The cause of the fire is still not known and is being investigated.
A spokesman for South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: "All of the emergency personnel at the incident worked well in partnership to bring this incident to a successful conclusion.
"However, had it not been for the calmness of the person making the emergency call and the advice and calmness of the fire control operator giving vital survival guidance this could easily have had a more devastating outcome."


Unions representing Tata Steel workers in Wales are expected to announce the results of a ballot for strike action.

Thousands of workers could strike in a dispute over proposed changes to pensions which could see workers retiring at 65 instead of 60.
Members of the Community, Ucatt and GMB unions have been voting on whether to protest at the plans.
Ballot results are expected on Friday, while Unite members will continue voting until next week.


Experts say north Wales is a "seismically active" part of the UK, which makes it prone to more earthquakes.

The largest earthquake ever recorded in the UK happened on the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd, in 1984.
It measured a moderate 5.4 on the Richter scale and caused damage across north Wales and tremors could be felt across the UK.
Wednesday's minor earthquake measured 3.8.
What made the 1984 earthquake so unusual was the fact that it began at a depth of over 20km (12 miles) and created a shock wave that could easily have caused major structural damage.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) said smaller quakes are not unusual in Wales.
Seventy measuring more than 3.5 happened between 1727 and 1984.
Putting Wednesday's earthquake into perspective, Brian Baptie, seismologist for the BGS, told BBC Radio Wales: "We get an earthquake of this size somewhere in the UK maybe once of twice every couple of years.
Less than 2.0 - a micro earthquake and not felt
2.0 - 3.9 - minor earthquake, sometimes felt, no damage
4.0 -4.9 - light earthquake, noticeable shaking, no damage
5.0 - 5.9 - moderate, minor damage
6.0 - 6.9 - strong, can be destructive
7.0 - 7.9 - major, serious damage over large areas
8.0 - 8.9 - great, serious damage over hundreds of miles
9.0 - 9.9 - great, devastating areas over thousands of miles
10.0+ - epic, never recorded
Source: US Geological survey
"We also know that north Wales is one of the more seismically active parts of the UK, it's got a long history of small earthquakes in the past few hundred years," he said.
The earliest recording of an earthquake in Wales was in 1247 in Pembrokeshire.
The tremors were so severe the edifice of St Davids Cathedral was damaged.
In Caernarfon in 1690, the first recorded earthquake happened and tremors were felt in London. Two months earlier, Carmarthen was also hit.
In 1852 Caernarfon was hit again but a quake in Swansea in 1906 measured 5.2 and is still regarded as one of the most significant of all British earthquakes. Certainly it caused major damage to property.
The only death from a UK earthquake happened on 12 December 1940 in north Wales. An elderly woman lost her balance and fell down the stairs of her home.
The last earthquake to hit Wales happened around Caernarfon in February 2013 and measured a minor 2.3 on the Richter scale.
The tremor was also felt in Anglesey, Porthmadog and Bangor. Reports said it caused houses to shake and was "like a lorry crashing into the house".


Seventeen people were rescued after a huge fire ripped through a hotel and block of flats in west London.

It took 72 firefighters five hours to extinguish the fire in Trebovir Road, Earl's Court, after being called at about 21:45 BST on Sunday.
They rescued 12 people from inside the building, three from one next door and two from the roof of a neighbouring property.
Nobody was hurt but 150 people were evacuated.
The whole of the second floor of the hotel was damaged by fire, three quarters of the third floor and all of the roof.
Station manager Winston Douglas said: "This was a serious fire and crews and worked very hard to stop the fire spreading."


Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that 755 staff must leave US diplomatic missions, in retaliation for new US sanctions against Moscow.

The decision to expel staff was made on Friday, but Mr Putin has now confirmed the number who must go by 1 September.
It brings staff levels to 455, the same as Russia's complement in Washington.
This is thought to be the largest expulsion of diplomats from any country in modern history, says the BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington.
The number includes Russian employees of the US diplomatic missions across Russia, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow adds.
Staff in the embassy in Moscow as well as the consulates in Ekaterinburg, Vladivostok and St Petersburg are affected, she says.
The US said the move was a "regrettable and uncalled for act".
"We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it," a state department official said.
Mr Putin did strike a conciliatory note, saying he did not want to impose more measures, but also said he could not see ties changing "anytime soon".
Mr Putin told Russian television: "More than 1,000 people were working and are still working" at the US embassy and consulates, and that "755 people must stop their activities in Russia."
Russia has also said it is seizing holiday properties and a warehouse used by US diplomats.
Mr Putin suggested he could consider more measures, but said: "I am against it as of today."
He also noted the creation of a de-escalation zone in southern Syria as an example of a concrete result of working together.
However, in terms of general relations, he added: "We have waited long enough, hoping that the situation would perhaps change for the better.
"But it seems that even if the situation is changing, it's not for anytime soon."
The new US sanctions were in retaliation both for Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Russian interference in the US election.
In December, the Obama administration ordered the seizure of two Russian diplomatic compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats in response to alleged hacking of the US Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The new US sanctions on Russia were overwhelmingly approved by both houses of Congress despite objections from the White House.
US intelligence agencies believe Russia tried to sway the election in favour of President Donald Trump and now there are several investigations looking into whether anyone from his campaign helped.
Russia has always denied interfering and Mr Trump insists there was no collusion.


An Assisted Dying Bill is again being discussed in parliament.

Labour peer Lord Falconer's bid to introduce legislation ran out of time before the general election, but now the Labour MP Rob Marris is making a fresh attempt to bring through "right-to-die" laws. It will be debated in the House of Commons on Friday.
If the Assisted Dying Bill was passed it would apply to terminally ill patients in England and Wales.
They would need to be an adult with less than six months to live, mentally competent, informed of the alternatives and making the choice through their own free will.
Doctors would then prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to the terminally ill patient, which they must administer themselves.
So the legislation would not apply to people with locked-in syndrome as they would not be able to take the drugs themselves.
Two independent doctors would be required to agree that the patient had made an informed decision.
And a High Court judge would review each case.
However, those opposed to the bill argue that legalising assisted dying could put vulnerable disabled elderly people under pressure to end their lives.
Euthanasia , which is considered as manslaughter or murder, is illegal under English law.
The Suicide Act 1961 makes it an offence to encourage or assist a suicide or a suicide attempt in England and Wales. Anyone doing so could face up to 14 years in prison.
The law is almost identical in Northern Ireland.
There is no specific law on assisted suicide in Scotland, creating some uncertainty, although in theory someone could be prosecuted under homicide legislation.
There have already been several attempts to legalise assisted dying, but these have been rejected.
The Commission on Assisted Dying, established and funded by campaigners who have been calling for a change in the law, concluded in 2012 that there was a "strong case" for allowing assisted suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill people.
But parts of the medical profession, some disability rights groups and religious leaders, among others, argue that the law should not be changed because it is there to protect the vulnerable in society.
A Lord Falconer bill was also debated in the Lords, but ran out of time before the end of the parliament.
Assisted dying is legalised and regulated in the US states of Oregon and Washington.
Belgium and the Netherlands have introduced legislation to allow voluntary euthanasia.
Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1942. Lethal drugs may be prescribed but the recipient must play an active part in administering them.
More than 1,000 people have died at Dignitas since it was set up in 1998.
The official position is that the Church of England is firmly opposed to assisted dying.
But Desmond Tutu and Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, have both argued in favour recently.
The medical profession is also split. The British Medical Association opposes all forms of assisted dying, while the Royal College of Nursing takes a neutral stance.
Based on a survey of its members last year, the Royal College of Physicians says it does not believe a change in the law is necessary.


Fifa warned the Ugandan government against forcing the country's Football Association (Fufa) to register as a trustee, which Fifa says would be "considered as interference."

In a letter dated 17 June to both Fufa and the Ugandan government, Fifa warned of possible sanctions if the FA registers under the government's "Trustees Incorporation Act."
It comes after Uganda's government gave all Uganda's sporting Federations a deadline of June 30th to register.
But the Uganda FA has refused to abide by the order which came through Uganda's National Council of Sports (NCS), insisting that by doing so, it will go against Fifa rules.
Fifa have now responded with a warning to the government.
"Fifa points to the bold fact that any form of forced incorporation of Fufa under the Trustees Incorporation Act would be considered as interference in contravention to the Fifa Statutes" stated the letter which was signed by Fifa's Deputy Secretary General (Administration), Marco Villige.
The letter also highlighted the consequences of government interference in Fufa matters which it states "would consequently be brought to the attention of the relevant Fifa bodies to take appropriate measures against Fufa, including sanctions."
The Uganda FA President, Moses Magogo said although they remain a law abiding body in their country, they do not want to sign a document which will contravene with the statute of football's world body.
"Let the government accept to meet the Fifa people and discuss the way forward," Magogo told the BBC.
Any possible sanctions, which could involve a world ban, would hurt the Cranes who are on the brink of qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. A victory over Comoros in September will take them to the finals in Gabon.
They are also the only nation in the Cecafa region still involved in the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.


A spate of adder bites has been reported in north Wales, a health board has confirmed.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said there had been "several cases" in the last few weeks.
Adders are the only wild venomous snakes found in the UK.
Dr Linda Dykes, of Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd emergency department, advised people to keep children and dogs out of sand dunes, stay away from high-risk areas and avoid touching the snakes.
"They're very quick, I don't think people realise how fast they are, and their bites can be very unpleasant and dangerous," she said.
Source: Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board


Stellenbosch University's plan to drop Afrikaans as the language of instruction and teach in English has been warmly received, not only by students who are enrolled at the institution but by the rest of South Africa.

This is because it has always been accused of being one of the most untransformed academic institutions in post-apartheid South Africa, and for decades was regarded as the heart of Afrikanerdom.
The town itself is the second-oldest European settlement in the Western Cape and was named after Simon van der Stel, who was a governor of the Dutch Cape Colony.
White supremacists such as John Vorster, a former apartheid prime minister, studied at the university.
It was a little enclave protecting the interests of the architects of apartheid - and by extension the language of the oppressor, Afrikaans. It was exactly this use of the language which sparked the 1976 student uprisings in Soweto.
Dropping Afrikaans means that, psychologically and symbolically, the walls of apartheid are still crumbling 21 years after racial segregation was officially removed from the statute books.
Many black students felt unwelcomed at a university in their own country of birth.
The very word apartheid, which has now been internationalised and is in the Oxford Dictionary, is in fact an Afrikaans word.
The language is still spoken by millions but this move will make the many more millions who do not speak it feel welcomed in one of the best academic institutions on the African continent.
South Africa's top six mother-tongue languages:
Source: SA.info/Census 2011
This is a victory for this generation, says Sechaba Dan Montsisi, one of the leaders of the 1976 uprising and an MP for more than 20 years.
However, Mr Montsisi said they must not stop at language only.
"They must look at changing the curriculum and make sure that it is designed to help us as a developmental state, instead of bench-marking itself against European universities."
"We are not against Afrikaans. We accepted it as an indigenous language because it was formed from African languages combined with German, [French] and Dutch," he added.
The reinforcement of the institutionalisation of Afrikaans by the apartheid government when they came into power in 1948 was in part a continuation of the Anglo-Boer War.
The Afrikaners were expressing their desire to free themselves from the domination of British colonisation and therefore from being forced to speak English.
How ironic that 67 years later, the headquarters of Afrikaans drops it for English but this time for the greater good of all South Africa's people.
The pro-Afrikaner civil rights group AfriForum is not happy.
Its deputy head Alana Bailey described the move as discriminatory.
"It is clear the [University of Stellenbosch] management cannot even be trusted to maintain the partial presentation, but wants to make an effort to further marginalise Afrikaans and discriminating even more drastically against Afrikaans-speaking students," she said in a statement.
However, the final say lies with the university's council that will make a decision on 30 November.
It may face fierce opposition but is likely to be passed.


Argentina says it has achieved a debt swap that moves it a step closer to resolving the difficulties caused by its huge default eight years ago.

Creditors agreed to exchange two thirds of its outstanding bad debt for new bonds, in a deal worth around $12bn.
The deal means Argentina has now settled 92% of the bad debt left from its sovereign default in 2001.
The government hopes it will now be able to raise new international loans at better interest rates.
"This is a very important step that gets rid of what has been the most severe restriction on the Argentine economy in recent decades", President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said.
About $6bn in Argentine bonds are still held by "hold-out" creditors who rejected the swap and an earlier restructuring in 2005.
They are demanding full repayment, and analysts say lawsuits could still limit Argentina's ability to raise money on international markets.
The government has condemned the outstanding creditors as "vulture funds" - a term for investors that buy sovereign debt at a discount and sue to recover its full value.
Latin America's third-biggest economy has been trying to rebuild its reputation with international investors, which was shattered by the 2001 sovereign default.
Argentina defaulted on around $95bn of bonds, a record amount at the time, but its economy has since recovered.
President Cristina Fernandez's predecessor, her husband Nestor Kirchner, restructured most of the debt, and repaid money borrowed from the International Monetary Fund.


Championship leaders Brighton have agreed to sign midfielder Richie Towell from Irish side Dundalk.

The 24-year-old Dubliner has agreed a two-and-a-half-year contract and will formally complete his move when the transfer window reopens in January.
Towell previously had a two-year spell at Celtic, during which he made one first-team appearance for the Bhoys and was twice loaned to Hibernian.
He returned to Ireland in 2013 and has attracted interest from several clubs.
"He had a lot of good options available for his next move - here in England, in Scotland, in Ireland with Dundalk and in Europe - so we are delighted he has decided to join us," Brighton manager Chris Hughton told the club's website.
"I am certain he will be ready for us in January and will be an excellent addition to the squad."
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


A car thief has been jailed for 10 years after killing a man whilst evading police at speeds up to 110mph.

Connor McCaugherty killed Dil Bahadur Subedi during a hit-and-run crash in Birmingham on 26 March.
Mr Subedi died as he was crossing the road at the Belgrave Middleway when McCaugherty ran a red light.
He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and a string of other offences at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday.
See more stories from Birmingham and the Black Country here
McCaugherty, 22, of no fixed address, stole a Ford Mondeo from Bordesley Green on 17 March and was seen driving it through Erdington by police nine days later.
A chase ensued where McCaugherty reached speeds of up to 110mph.
Driving with the headlights off, he drove through red lights in the city centre and hit Mr Subedi at 90mph.
The 45-year-old chef and father of three died at the scene as McCaugherty sped away.
McCaugherty was on bail at the time for reckless driving in December 2016.
The Mondeo was found burnt out in Northfield the next day.
McCaugherty was arrested by police on 30 March when he was seen driving another stolen car.
Judge Mark Wall QC told McCaugherty: "You showed a total disregard for the safety of others who were in great danger because of your actions."
As he left court, a tearful McCaugherty shouted an apology to Mr Subedi's relatives in the public gallery.
He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, assault by beating, making off without payment, dangerous driving, possessing a controlled class B drug, perverting the course of justice and taking a conveyance without a property.


The Brazilian government wanted to react quickly in the wake of Sunday's protests involving a hotly disputed, but undeniably large number of demonstrators.

Noting that it was exactly 30 years since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship, the soothing official response was that the diversity of views was proof of the strength of the country's young democracy.
A tiny flaw in that argument was the presence of some demonstrators who were calling for the military to intervene again, but they were, in fact, a minority.
Nonetheless, faced with a poorly performing economy and tainted by a corruption crisis at the state-run oil company Petrobras, the government was harshly criticised at multiple protests across Brazil.
President Dilma Rousseff won a tight second-term election victory only last October, and among the protesters were undoubtedly political opponents for whom a Workers' Party government will always be unacceptable.
But such a large scale protest could not be left to hang in the air and two ministers were despatched to appear before the TV cameras.
The job of Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo was to deflect the anti-government critics, promising a "package of measures" to address corruption and impunity - key concerns among the protestors.
His ministerial colleague Miguel Rossetto was watching the government's flank, promising to listen to more traditional government supporters who oppose plans for austerity measures.
Brazilians of all political views have heard talk of a "package of measures" before, most notably following widespread street protests in 2013, only to see little actually change on the ground.
And the problem for the government in the months ahead is that it is not in complete control of events that may shift public opinion.
In Congress, President Rousseff, lacking the political skills of her predecessor, has struggled to control her governing base, with defiance from the speakers of both the lower and upper houses.
She has promised change and a more inclusive approach to governing.
The new Finance Minister, Joaquim Levy, is forging ahead with an austerity plan which traditional government supporters fear could jeopardise recent social advances.
The 2014 GDP figure is due to come out on 27 March and may at best suggest a year of stagnation in a country which had been growing at 7% in 2010.
The continuing scandal at Petrobras is having a corrosive effect on the whole economy, and has drawn in some of the biggest construction firms in the country.
The investigation itself is providing a daily litany of negative headlines of arrests and plea bargain statements, and many politicians from the governing coalition are facing investigation.
The government says a relentless and independent investigation is proof of their commitment to root out corruption, but the crisis has been damaging.
A water shortage in southern Brazilian states, while easing a little due to summer rains, still threatens rationing and even energy shortages.
Brazil's democracy is undoubtedly strong, and talk of military coups these days is seen as far-fetched, but the tone of political debate is acrimonious, not least on social media.
The combination of a weakened government, a struggling economy and a divided society is not the easiest backdrop for a president whose second term has got off to a shaky start.


A father and two sons have appeared in court charged with murder after two teenagers and a baby died in a fire.

Amy Smith, 17, her six-month-old daughter Ruby-Grace Gaunt and Ed Green, also 17, died in a flat in Langley Mill, Derbyshire, on Sunday.
Peter Eyre, 43, Anthony Eyre, 21, both of Sandiacre, and Simon Eyre, 24, from Long Eaton, were remanded in custody by magistrates in Chesterfield.
They are due to appear at Nottingham Crown Court on 10 July.
The three men spoke only to confirm their names, ages and addresses during the three-minute hearing.
The victims died from the effects of smoke inhalation, police said.
Two men, aged 18 and 17, who were also inside the premises, were rescued by neighbours and treated for smoke inhalation.
Police are yet to confirm what caused the fire.
A 17-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of murder has been released on bail.


The second stage of the Tour de France has finished in Sheffield with 2.5m people having lined the route around Yorkshire over two days.

The stage was won by Vincenzo Nibali after 124 miles (201km) of punishing roads and hill climbs.
British rider Mark Cavendish was out of the race after a fall on Saturday.
The crowds were so dense in some places that riders struggled to pass at some points while in some areas late-comers were turned away.
Sir Rodney Walker, chairman of the tour organisers TdFHUB2014 Ltd said: "Around 2.5 million spectators lined the route over two days and revelled in being part of history.
"The passion of the crowds in Yorkshire has really made this a weekend to remember.
"There has been a huge amount of planning and hard work from all the partners involved to ensure the first two stages were a success.
"We have once again showcased how the UK can deliver amazing events and a world-wide audience has seen the best of Yorkshire, and the best of the UK."
BBC reporter Dave Edwards, at the event's Police Silver Command in Wakefield, said officers had asked stewards to redirect people from Oxenhope, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd and High Bradfield because of the huge numbers of spectators already at those sites.
The police command centre later said there were 60,000 people at the Holme Moss site.
The 197 riders faced some of the UK's toughest climbs in Sunday's stage.
One of the focal points for spectators was Holme Moss on the Yorkshire/Derbyshire border - the highest point on the stage at 1,709ft (521m).
The route passed through Harrogate, Keighley, and Huddersfield before reaching Sheffield, taking in areas made famous by the Bronte sisters and TV series Last Of The Summer Wine.
More than a million people lined the route of stage one of the Tour between Leeds and Harrogate.
Along Sunday's route the riders tackled nine categorised climbs, which were given French prefixes, including Cote de Holme Moss and Cote de Jenkin Road, in Sheffield.
The route also pitted the competitors against Cragg Vale - the longest continuous ascent in England.
The first stage of the 2,277-mile (3,664km) race began in Leeds with riders processing to Harewood House, where the race was officially started by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
The peloton passed through towns and villages including Otley, Skipton, Ilkley, Hawes, Leyburn and Ripon before a sprint finish saw Germany's Marcel Kittel claim victory.
British rider Cavendish, who had hoped to win the stage in his mother's home town of Harrogate, crashed close to the finish.Fellow Briton and 2013 Tour winner Chris Froome finished sixth on Saturday.
On Monday the third stage will take the riders from Cambridge to London, before 18 more stages culminate in the French capital on 27 July.
It is the fourth time the Tour has crossed La Manche (The English Channel).
In 1974 and 1994 it included stages in Britain and in 2007 London hosted the start, known as the Grand Depart.


Wales have reached their highest-ever world ranking after climbing to 22nd in the latest standings released by world governing body Fifa.

Chris Coleman's side have risen 15 places thanks to their unbeaten start to their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
Scotland are up 10 places to 29th and England - the highest ranked of the home nations - are up three to 14th, with Northern Ireland up one to 42nd.
Wales' Euro 2016 qualification rivals Belgium are up to a best-ever third.
Wales topped Group B after beating Israel 3-0 in March but are now second on goal difference behind Belgium, who they face at home in June.
Wales' previous best ranking was 27th, when Terry Yorath's Wales side just failed to reach the 1994 World Cup, but in March 2011 they were as low as 116th.
"It's a fantastic achievement and if it's the highest ever then it shows we're doing something right," said Wales full-back Chris Gunter.
"Chris Coleman said last week that we've lost one game in 18 months so we probably deserve to be there and we're on a good run.
"But as high as we are in the rankings, we want to make sure that come next October we're where we want to be."


Crewe Alexandra have signed midfielder Brad Walker on a two-year contract from Hartlepool after agreeing an undisclosed compensation package.

The 21-year-old was out of contract at Pools, but was offered new terms following their relegation to the National League last term.
As he was under 24, the Alex have had to pay compensation for Walker, who made 123 appearances for Pools.
He has become Crewe boss David Artell's fifth summer signing.
Defender Eddie Nolan, midfielder Michael Raynes and forwards Jordan Bowery and Chris Porter have all moved to South Cheshire this summer.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


With just days to go before inauguration, Donald Trump is making life rather difficult for his party's leadership in Congress.

It could be by accident. It could be part of a plan to establish his independent credentials. Or it could simply be an early attempt at framing Republican policies in terms palatable to his working-class supporters.
Whatever the reason, Mr Trump has staked out positions that are not exactly in harmony with Republican orthodoxy or the policy direction in which the Republican-led Congress seems to be heading.
Over the weekend Mr Trump told the Washington Post that the goal of his healthcare reform plan, following repeal of the Affordable Care Act, is "insurance for everybody".
"There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can't pay for it, you don't get it," the president-elect said. "That's not going to happen with us."
Universal coverage is an objective President Barack Obama's healthcare reform sought, but never actually achieved. According to the federal government, even with full implementation of Obamacare and its insurance-coverage mandate, the US uninsured rate was 8.6% in 2016 - albeit a 50-year low.
"Insurance for everybody," outside a single-payer government-provided healthcare plan, is virtually unachievable.
This is why, when Republican congressional leaders describe their healthcare reform proposals, they generally use the term "universal access" not "universal coverage".
"Our goal here is to make sure that everybody can buy coverage or find coverage if they choose to," a Republican House of Representatives aide told reporters in December.
The yet-to-be announced plan congressional Republicans are currently formulating is more likely to be a blend of the measures floated by various conservatives in the past.
For instance Congressman Tom Price, Mr Trump's nominee to be health and human services secretary, suggested a system that leaned heavily on tax credits and an expansion of existing health-savings accounts, where individuals could put aside untaxed money to pay for future medical needs.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has proposed the creation of federally funded high-risk insurance pools that would enrol individuals who couldn't get insurances elsewhere because of pre-existing medical conditions or other complicating factors.
None of these would come close to approaching universal coverage or even Mr Obama's uninsured mark over the past few years, however.
As if that weren't enough, Mr Trump also advocated using the buying power of the federal Medicare prescription-drug programme for the elderly to drive down the cost of pharmaceuticals.
While this has long been a goal of Democrats, conservatives have opposed the idea for more than a decade. It's enough to make rank-and-file Republicans reach for their antacids.
Looming over this entire discussion is a Congressional Budget Office report released on Tuesday that predicts a straight-up repeal of Obamacare without any kind of a replacement would result in a doubling of premiums in the individual insurance market by 2026, at which point a total of 32 million Americans would have lost their coverage.
Mr Trump, in his comments this weekend, has essentially laid down a marker that repeal will be quickly followed by a replacement that will do a better job advancing Democratic goals of lower drug prices and more universal coverage than the Democrats' own best attempt.
It is, to put it bluntly, a high bar to reach.
If reshaping the US healthcare system turns out to be a challenge, at least tax reform was considered a low-hanging fruit for Mr Trump and his party. Even here, however, the president-elect has made comments that undermine Republican efforts to achieve legislative consensus.
A key part of the nascent congressional tax plan involved something called "border adjustments", which would tax corporations based on their final point of sale and not on where they are based. This would allow the US to give preference to businesses based in the US - one of Mr Trump's key goals during the campaign. It would also raise enough revenue to allow the overall US tax rate to be lowered from its current 35% mark.
Mr Trump, however, said the idea was "too complicated".
"Anytime I hear border adjustment, I don't love it," he said. "Because usually it means we're going to get adjusted into a bad deal."
Mr Trump appears to support a more direct border tariff, not the more complicated congressional work-around. On Monday he threatened European automakers with a 35% tax on foreign-made vehicles sold in the US.
The problem this presents for both the president-elect and congressional leaders is it runs directly against his party's long-standing free-trade positions - principles many in Congress have campaigned, and won, on for years. They might be able to dance around the issue with border adjustments and corporate tax reform, but Mr Trump seems more like a bull than a ballerina.
It's possible to imagine that Mr Trump's recent comments were just, to put it delicately, rhetorical missteps and that he, in fact, is actually on the same wavelength as his Republican colleagues in Congress.
Then again, when pressed by the Washington Post on how he could get his healthcare priorities advanced despite an apparent conflict with current Republican plans, Mr Trump dug in his heels.
"The Congress can't get cold feet because the people will not let that happen," Mr Trump said.
"I think we will get approval. I won't tell you how, but we will get approval. You see what's happened in the House in recent weeks."
That was an apparent reference to Mr Trump's Twitter-based effort to force House Republicans to back away from a plan to weaken an independent congressional ethics investigation office several weeks ago.
Whether he was directly responsible for causing the legislators to change course or simply reflecting popular outcry is open to debate, but the president-elect seems to be feeling his oats.
And if it's this way on tax law and healthcare reform - areas where Republicans and Mr Trump have a fair amount of ideological common ground - imagine what might happen when the president tries to advance his more controversial ideas on immigration or trade. Or pushes his childcare proposal, which met with significant opposition from his party "allies" pretty much from the moment he proposed them last October.
And what's in store if Mr Ryan goes through with his long-sought dream of entitlement reform - despite Mr Trump's campaign pledges not to touch Medicare or Social Security benefits?
Candidate Trump was a political wild-card, willing to buck conventional wisdom and his own party seemingly on whim.
Early indications are President Trump could do more of the same. As Republicans celebrate this weekend, storm clouds may be forming on the horizon.


A Pennsylvania man has been accused of attacking his bride after they fought over money only hours after their wedding ceremony.

John Delozier, of Johnston, is charged with assault, strangulation and harassment.
According to a police report, the 31-year-old suspect accused his wife of only caring about money just before the attack last Saturday.
The victim had suggested saving some of the money they were given as gifts.
Mr Delozier initially fled the scene, but was arrested and is awaiting trial at the Cambria County Prison.


Two US food and drink titans have posted sharply lower profits for the July-to-September quarter.

McDonald's saw earnings fall 30%, while Coca-Cola's fell 14%, with both citing lower US sales as key reasons.
The fast-food chain's profits of $1.07bn (Â£661m) were also hit by a food scandal in China, contributing to a 4.6% fall in revenues to $6.99bn.
Meanwhile, the world's largest drinks group made a $2.1bn profit on revenues that were broadly flat at $11.9bn.
McDonald's US sales have been under pressure as consumers switch to other chains, notably the fast-growing Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Sales also fell in Russia, Germany and especially in China, where McDonald's was hurt by a scandal over meat supplies.
Chief executive Don Thompson admitted that the trading performance was not good enough. "McDonald's third-quarter results reflect a significant decline versus a year ago," he said.
"By all measures, our performance fell short of our expectations."
Meanwhile, Coca Cola said that its US sales were down 1% during the quarter. Consumers are increasingly turning to alternatives to sweet, fizzy drinks. The company's profits also suffered because of currency fluctuations and strengthening of the dollar.
In August, Coke spent $2.15bn for a 16.7% stake in Monster Beverage energy drinks business.
As part of the deal, Coke transferred ownership of its own, less successful energy drinks, including brands NOS, Full Throttle and Burn, to Monster.
And it took over Monster's non-energy brands such as Hansen's Natural Sodas, Peace Tea and Hubert's Lemonade.


A care home is being investigated by police over the death of a vulnerable man who left the building unaccompanied and was hit by a lorry.

The man, 70, died after leaving the Nada Residential and Nursing Home in Cheetham Hill, Manchester in February.
Police are looking into safeguarding issues at the home as the victim was subject to a safeguarding order and should not have been unsupervised.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has since found the home to be "unsafe".
The victim was struck by a lorry less than 1,200ft (365m) from the home on Cheetham Hill Road.
A man was arrested at the time on suspicion of causing death by careless driving.
Greater Manchester Police said the care home was "fully co-operating" with inquiries into the man's death.
The privately-owned facility is registered to provide care for up to 28 people who may have a combination of mental health and personal care needs.
The CQC said the "serious safeguarding incident" raised concerns about the risk of residents leaving the home, particularly those who should not have been allowed out unaccompanied.
An unannounced inspection on 8 March rated the care home, which was already in special measures, inadequate and in breach of three health and social care regulations regarding safety, safeguarding and governance.
The CQC said there was a lack of guidance for staff in care plans, risk assessments and contingency plans if a person did not return home at the agreed time, as well as people not being shown the safest way to cross the road.
Nada manager Pierre Grenade said staff at the home were devastated by the man's death.
"We loved the man who died. I cried my eyes out," he said.
He added that measures were being taken to prevent a recurrence and staff were working "very closely" with the CQC to improve care.


(Close): Sports Direct shares dived 11% after the retailer's half-year results fell short of expectations.

Revenues of £1.43bn for the six months to 25 October and underlying earnings of £218.5m were below  analysts' forecasts, making the stock the worst performer in the FTSE 100.
The index closed down by 38.63 points at 6,088.05.
Shares in financial services group Old Mutual, which has interests in South Africa, sank more than 10%.
South African's President, Jacob Zuma, sacked Finance Minister Nhalnhla Nene late on Wednesday, and South Africa's currency fell close to a record low against the dollar in reaction.
Shares in mining giant Glencore jumped 7% after it announced plans to speed up the rate at which it cuts its debts.
The company now aims to cut its debts to $18bn-$19bn (£11.8bn-£12.5bn) by the end of 2016, down from a previous target of "low $20s billion".
British Gas owner Centrica rose 2.6% after the energy firm said it was on track to meet expectations for full-year earnings.
Investors welcomed full-year results from holiday group Tui, sending their shares up 4.6%. The company - which owns the Thomson and First Choice - reported a 23% jump in full-year underlying earnings to €1.07bn (£775m) and gave an upbeat outlook for the coming year.
On the currency markets, the pound slipped 0.06% against the dollar to $1.5172, but was up by nearly one cent, or 0.68%, against the euro at €1.3861.


An activist investor in Akzo Nobel has increased the pressure on the Dulux paint owner by calling for its chairman to be removed.

Elliot Investors' call to remove Antony Burgmans follows the Dutch firm's refusal to enter talks with US rival PPG Industries over a $24bn takeover.
Akzo has rejected two offers from PPG, but some shareholders - including Elliott - support the bid.
Mr Burgmans and chief executive Ton Buechner say the bid undervalues Akzo.
Elliott said it was one of a group of investors that meets the Dutch legal threshold of 10% support needed to call an extraordinary meeting to vote on a proposal to remove Mr Burgmans.
That process takes about two months.
An Akzo Nobel spokesman said the company strongly supported the chairman and would respond to the request within 14 days as required by Dutch law.
"The removal of Mr Burgmans would be irresponsible, disproportionate, damaging and not in the best interest of the company, its shareholders and other stakeholders," he said.
Meanwhile, the company has reported Elliot and PPG to Dutch regulators for possibly sharing potentially "sensitive" information with PPG regarding support for an extraordinary meeting.
It was not clear what rules, if any, the shareholder and PPG might have violated.
Elliott, which has a 3.25% stake in Akzo, said it would respond to the company's allegations soon.
PPG could not be reached for comment.
Elliott, which became an Akzo shareholder in December, is known for its aggressive moves.
Founded in 1977 by American activist investor Paul Singer, it made a name investing in national debt in countries such as Peru. The firm is most famous for its long legal battle over Argentine debt, which climaxed when the firm seized an Argentine naval ship docked in Ghana.
The hedge fund is also pushing mining giant BHP Billiton to reorganise and spin off its US oil unit.
The PPG offer that Akzo rejected on 22 March was worth more than 24bn euros. Akzo shares were flat at 79.12 euros in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
Mr Buchner has proposed selling Akzo's chemicals division and has embarked on a series of share repurchases.
The firm, which is scheduled to meet with investors later this month, has also drawn opposition from Dutch politicians concerned about potential job losses.


New data from Greenland ice cores suggest North America may have suffered a large cosmic impact about 12,900 years ago.

A layer of platinum is seen in ice of the same age as a known abrupt climate transition, US scientists report.
The climate flip has previously been linked to the demise of the North American "Clovis" people.
The data seem to back the idea that an impact tipped the climate into a colder phase, a point of current debate.
Rapid climate change occurred 12,900 years ago, and it is proposed that this is associated with the extinction of large mammals - such as the mammoth, widespread wildfires and rapid changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation.
All of these have previously been linked to a cosmic impact but the theory has been hotly disputed because there was a lack of clear evidence.
New platinum measurements were made on ice cores that allow conditions 13,000 years ago to be determined at a time resolution of better than five years, report Michail Petaev and colleagues from Harvard University. Their results are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A 100-fold spike in platinum concentration occurs in ice that is around 12,890 years old, at the same moment that rapid cooling of the climate is indicated from oxygen isotope measurements. This coincides with the start of a climatic period called the "Younger Dryas".
The Younger Dryas started and finished abruptly, and is one of a number of shorter periods of climate change that appear to have occurred since the last glacial maximum of 20,000 years ago.
Each end of the Younger Dryas period may have involved very rapid changes in temperature as the climate system reached a tipping point, with suggestions that dramatic changes in temperature occurred over as short as timescale as a decade or so.
The observations lend credence to earlier, disputed, reports that finds of microscopic grains of diamond and a mineral called lonsdaleite in lake sediments dated to the same time as a possible meteorite impact.
Those measurements resemble the most recent observations,  reported last month, of remnants of the Tunguska meteorite impact in Siberia.
Sphere-shaped particles have also been identified in other sites' sediments, which also have been dated to this event.
While the platinum data and the spherical particles add to evidence for an impact event, doubters have pointed out that - as yet - no impact site has been identified.
It has been suggested that debris thrown into the atmosphere as a result of an impact triggered global cooling at a rate as rapid as the climate changes recorded in the past century.
Such rapid climate change makes it difficult for ecologies and societies to adjust.
It is the fluctuation that has been cited as the cause of the extinction of massive mammals like the mammoth, and native cultures such as the Clovis people in North America.
The possible role of cosmic impacts in causing huge changes to life on Earth is receiving increased attention.
The mass extinction 66 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs is generally believed to be linked to a space strike in southern Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
Recently, a group of scientists led by Eric Tohver at the University of Western Australia reported that the biggest extinction of all, which occurred 252.3 million years ago at the end of the Permian period, could be explained by an asteroid impact in Brazil.
Nasa is now focusing resources towards detection of future Earth-threatening asteroids.
The US space agency received more than 400 responses to their recent request for ideas to feed into their Asteroid Grand Challenge, which includes plans to redirect a space rock and send humans to study it.


Police in the eastern Indian state of Bihar say rats have consumed thousands of litres of confiscated alcohol.

The state banned the sale and consumption of alcohol last year. Since then police have seized more than 900,000 litres.
Patna city's top police official, Manu Maharaj, said he was told by police inspectors on Tuesday that much of that liquor had been lost to rats.
Police have now ordered an inquiry to examine these claims.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced the alcohol ban soon after taking office last year. It was seen as a way of reducing domestic violence, harassment and poverty.
Police subsequently launched search operations across the state to confiscate alcohol.  They also arrested more than 40,000 people for illegally keeping alcohol in their homes and shops.
The operation resulted in massive stocks of alcohol bottles kept in police stations as evidence. Some police stations even rented private storage facilities for the bottles.
More than 1,000 police stations in the state have now been ordered to routinely audit their stock of confiscated alcohol.
Mr Maharaj told The Hindu newspaper that officers would also be routinely checked for alcohol consumption.
"If they fail the test they could even lose their jobs, apart from being prosecuted under the new stringent excise and prohibition laws," he said.
The law states that anybody found drinking or selling alcohol can be jailed for 10 years.


The number of Americans who applied for citizenship in New Zealand has jumped 70% in the three months since President Donald Trump was elected.

There were 170 US applications during the first 12 weeks, compared with 100 a year earlier, say the Associated Press.
So the total figure remains relatively low.
But the deep divisions left by a bruising US election appear to make New Zealand - famous for its scenery - look more attractive than ever.
In the two days after Mr Trump's upset, New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs said the number of Americans visiting its website to learn about citizenship increased to 4,146 from 305 on the same two weekdays a month earlier.
Alanna Irving, a 33-year-old technology start-up entrepreneur from San Francisco moved to New Zealand six years ago.
"It's an extremely liveable place and you can see and palpably feel the difference in how society is organised, and what people prioritise," she said.
"New Zealand is a place that cares about equality, I think more. It's less individualistic, more community-minded."
It isn't just the mega-wealthy that are attracted to New Zealand. Sarah Coombes-Crome, an immigration consultant, said that traffic to her firm's website was up approximately 600% the day after Donald Trump won the election and has remained higher than average.
"They are from all over the United States and are educated, looking to either work in New Zealand or invest if they have a considerable amount of capital behind them."
Chris Whelan, the chief executive of the Wellington regional economic development agency, says the country offers plenty of career opportunities, but with a much better lifestyle that you would find elsewhere.
"I was talking to someone out of San Diego this morning and he's looking to invest potentially tens of millions of dollars in New Zealand.
"For him it's got excellent skills, excellent talent, and what was previous a boundary (distance)â€¦ with modern technology you're connected to the world all the time.
"It's a country with a similar land mass to Britain but with 4.4 million people."
Read more from Ben on the lure of NZ for jaded Americans
The South Pacific island nation boasts more sheep than its population of 4.8 million people by about six to one.
Its sweeping vistas and majestic coastlines are located more than 6,000 miles (10,000km) away from the mainland US.
Citizenship is a privilege reserved for people born in New Zealand, have parents who were born there or have lived in the country for five years.
Among Americans with a New Zealand parent, citizenship applications after 8 November rose to 203 from 183 a year earlier, according to the AP.
More recently, New Zealand attracted international attention after the New Yorker magazine ran a piece titled Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich.
It detailed a growing number of tech billionaires who are securing a foothold in New Zealand in an increasingly volatile world.
Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire who advises President Trump, is among those wealthy investors who have become a citizen.


Former United States captain Landon Donovan is to be part of the American investment group taking over Premier League club Swansea City.

Investors Steve Kaplin and Jason Levien, who run sports teams in the United States, are drafting in the former Everton striker as an adviser.
The £100m takeover was agreed subject to Kaplin and Levien passing a Premier League test for prospective owners.
But Donovan, now 34, will not take part in Swansea's day-to-day activities.
Current chairman Huw Jenkins and deputy Leigh Dineen will retain their roles when the Americans take control but Donovan is seen as ideal to have on the board with football and commercial expertise.
Levien, the managing general partner of Major League Soccer side DC United, and Kaplan, head of a capital investment fund and vice-chairman of NBA franchise Memphis Grizzlies, lead a consortium which has bought a controlling stake of 60% in the club.
Donovan, who was on loan at Premier League side Everton in 2010 and 2012, is his country's record goalscorer and the second most capped United States international.
The former LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes forward also had spells in the Germany Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich.


The subsidised air service between Cardiff and Anglesey is to continue long-term following a review, First Minister Carwyn Jones has said.

Launched in 2007, it carried 9,862 passengers in 2016-17, filling half the available seats, and receives around £1.2m annually in public funding.
The service had experienced problems with previous operators but was "vital to our economy", Mr Jones said.
But the Tories said the link should be scrapped as it was "wasting millions".
In March, Eastern Airways took over its running after Citywing was liquidated.
This was because Citywing's Czech operator Van Air had had its permission to fly suspended by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
In 2015, the CAA revoked the air operator's licence of Links Air for safety reasons leading the firm going out of business.
Opposition politicians have regularly called for the service - running twice a day on weekdays - to end with others arguing it needs better transport links and marketing.
Mr Jones said: "Following a thorough review in 2016, I'm pleased to announce the Intra Wales Air Service between Cardiff and Anglesey will continue.
"The review found that, while the service has faced difficulties in the past - not least in terms of former operators - it provides a quick and convenient way to travel between north and south Wales, which is vital for our economy."
Ministers were considering "how the scope of the route can be expanded over the next four years and beyond, to help boost the Welsh economy", after the review suggested the service should be given help to grow.
BBC Wales understands possible options might include adding a third airport to the service, additional investment in facilities at Cardiff and Anglesey, and more marketing.
Work to find a long-term operator, to take over from Eastern Airways, would begin in the next few months, the first minister said.
However Conservative Clwyd West AM Darren Millar said passenger numbers had been "falling dramatically" and said it was time to end the service in favour of other projects to help north Wales.
"Instead of wasting millions more on an air link for civil servants and politicians we'd be better off investing this money on addressing problems on the A55 and improving train services to the region," he said.


Barcelona defender Gerard Pique says his team are not "robots" after they followed up their Champions League heroics by losing 2-1 to Deportivo La Coruna in La Liga.

Barca beat PSG 6-1 on Wednesday to win 6-5 on aggregate, scoring three goals in the final seven minutes.
"After a huge effort like on Wednesday, with all the adrenaline and excitement, it's tougher to compete," said Pique.
"We weren't able to play our game the way we like."
Barcelona, who were knocked off top by Real Madrid's 2-1 win at Real Betis, were disappointing against struggling Deportivo.
Joselu gave Depor the lead, with Luis Suarez equalising before Alex Bergantinos' headed winner.
"It's tough to take because it was important to stay on the winning path, but it wasn't to be," said boss Luis Enrique.
"It wasn't hard to come back to reality. Us professionals know how hard it is to attain each victory.
"We thought it would be a tough game because of everything that's gone on. The last game can always play a role."


Pet the lamb was raised by collies in the Scottish Highlands - and now thinks she's a sheep dog!

Media playback is unsupported on your device
10 February 2015 Last updated at 13:07 GMT
Pet has become famous in Ullapool, Ross-shire, for her dog-like antics.
She was adopted by collies after being taken in when  she struggled to survive following her birth in April last year.
One of a set of twins, she was born with a problem with her back legs and was taken into the warmth of the croft house to be looked after.
Pet instantly bonded with her fellow housemates and was 'adopted' by a sheep dog called Dice.
Check out this clip of the 10-month-old running and playing with a pack of collies.


The Mexican security forces have arrested 11 alleged members of the country's most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa cartel.

They said those detained worked for Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, the most wanted man in Mexico.
They were arrested during a helicopter raid on a ranch in the north-western state of Durango on Friday.
During the raid, elite troops killed the regional leader of the gang, Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia.
The security forces said his death was a severe blow to the Sinaloa cartel's operations in Durango and Chihuahua.
Mr Cabrera Sarabia is accused of having controlled much of the drug trafficking in the two northern states.
Defence spokesman Gen Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said the security forces located the ranch where Mr Cabrera Sarabia was staying last week.
A special operations team moved in on Friday and were fired on, Gen Trevilla Trejo said.
He said that Mr Cabrera Sarabia managed to escape along with his bodyguard, hiding in a cave in a mountainous area near the ranch.
'Family business'
Mr Cabrera Sarabia was killed in a firefight as the special operations team moved in on the cave, the general said.
Three members of the security forces were injured in the operation.
At the ranch, soldiers found more than a dozen long-range weapons and more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as armoured cars and communication equipment.
Gen Trevilla Trejo said Mr Cabrera Sarabia had been personally chosen to head the Sinaloa cartel's operations in the region by its leader Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
He was appointed only last month, after the arrest of the previous regional leader, Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia's brother, Felipe.
The Sinaloa cartel controls much of the flow of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States via air, land and sea, and is believed to have links in as many as 50 countries.
Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman was jailed in 1993 but escaped his maximum-security prison in a laundry basket eight years later, embarrassing and eluding the authorities ever since.