Author: BBC

Tom RichardsonBBC NewsbeatEPASabrina Carpenter will be the first international act to receive the Brits global success prizeSabrina Carpenter will perform at this year’s Brit Awards, organisers have announced.The Espresso singer has also been named winner of the ceremony’s Global Success award recognising “phenomenal” worldwide music sales.It is the first time an international artist has been given the honour after Brits bosses changed the rules to make overseas artists eligible. Previous winners have included One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Adele and Sam Smith.Sabrina is also nominated in the international artist of the year and international song of the year categories.Organisers said 2024…

Oil giant BP has said it will “fundamentally reset” its strategy as profits dropped sharply last year.It is widely expected to say later this month that it will scale back renewable projects and increase oil and gas production following similar moves from rivals including Shell and Equinor.BP’s net income fell to $8.9bn (£7.2bn) in 2024, down from $13.8bn the previous year.It said lower oil and gas prices, plus lower profits from its refineries, had dented how much money it had made.Five years ago BP set a target of 50GW of renewables generation capacity by 2030.That is expected to be abandoned…

A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk offered $97.4bn to take over OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.The billionaire’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, confirmed he submitted the bid for “all assets” of the tech company to its board on Monday.The offer is the latest twist in a longstanding battle between Musk, the world’s richest man and right hand to US President Donald Trump, and Open AI chief executive Sam Altman over the future of the start-up at the centre of the AI boom.In response to the bid, Altman posted on Musk’s social media platform X: “no thank you but we will…

Tom RichardsonBBC NewsbeatWarhorse StudiosLuke Dale (left) and Tom McKay have spent the last nine years working on the Kingdom Come: Deliverance gamesYou’ll often hear about actors and the role of a lifetime, but for Tom McKay and Luke Dale it’s especially relevant.For the past nine years they’ve dedicated most of their working lives to two video games – Kingdom Come: Deliverance (KCD) and its sequel.Added together, the scripts for the role-playing epics set in 15th Century Bohemia run to more than three million pages and thousands of lines.It’s thought that KCD 2, which came out last week, could be the…

Adam Eley and Alison Holt, social affairs editorBBC NewsBBCJessie, her face blurred for privacy, in the hospital bed where she lived for 18 months”I feel very angry, upset, worthless, and like my mental health and my life does not matter,” says Jessie, propped up in a hospital bed.She is recording this in a video diary. Blue NHS curtains are drawn around the bed and all her possessions are stacked up in the tiny chaotic space this creates.Among the piles of boxes and bags sit the dolls she holds to keep her calm.Thirty-five-year-old Jessie spent 550 days in Northampton General Hospital.…

João da SilvaBusiness reporterReutersPresident Donald Trump has said he will announce a 25% import tax on all steel and aluminium entering the US, a move that will have the biggest impact in Canada.Trump also said that there would be an announcement later in the week about reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tax imports from the US, but he did not specify which nations would be targeted, or if there would be any exemptions.”If they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said.The move marks another escalation in Trump’s trade policy, which has already sparked retaliation from China.Canada and Mexico are…

Getty ImagesFu Ying also expressed regret about the negative impact of tensions between the US and China on the progress of AI safetyA former Chinese official poked fun at a major international AI safety report led by “AI Godfather” professor Yoshua Bengio and co-authored by 96 global experts – in front of him.Fu Ying, former vice minister of foreign affairs and once China’s UK ambassador, is now an academic at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The pair were speaking at a panel discussion ahead of a two-day global AI summit starting in Paris on Monday.The aim of the summit is to…

Shutterstock/ReutersAcrobatic catches and thumping hits are why American football fans watch the Super Bowl but for others the non-sporting spectacle is much more interesting.We’ve selected a few things to look out for during the contest between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, which kicks off at 23:30 GMT (18:30 EST) on Sunday, 9 February at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Kendrick Lamar will be the star turn during the half-time show and the unlikely ties binding David Beckham and Matt Damon will be revealed – oh, and Taylor Swift might be showing off a new ring too.Will…

Emma Lynch/BBCBraving the 3.9C water on a winter morning at the west reservoir in LondonIt is a cold morning in the depths of winter.And I feel like I’ve left my sanity as well as my warm clothes in the changing room as I stride out to the edge of a reservoir in my swim shorts.A brightly-coloured chalk sign informs me that the water temperature today is a chilly 3.9C, as one of the regulars tells me this is not cold water swimming, it’s “ice” water swimming.How did I end up here?Well, I’ve become enthralled by the idea of enhancing or…

Getty ImagesDrax failed to report the burning of wood from primary forests in Canada, BBC News foundA UK power station that has received billions of pounds in government subsidies has failed more than once to report it burned wood from primary forests, BBC News has found.Drax Power Station, which burns wood pellets, is required to report where it sources its wood and whether it is from natural, previously untouched forests.The company paid a £25m penalty last year for misreporting this data following an investigation by the energy regulator Ofgem and now the BBC has discovered a further year of misreporting…