Author: BBC

Former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg is to step down from his current job as president of global affairs at social media giant Meta.In a post on Meta’s Facebook on Thursday, Sir Nick, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was departing the company after nearly seven years.He will be replaced by his current deputy and Republican Joel Kaplan, who previously served as deputy chief of staff in the White House during President George W Bush’s administration, and is known for handling the company’s relations with Republicans. He added that he would spend “a few months handing…

Stormzy has been banned from driving for nine months after an off-duty police officer caught him using a mobile phone behind the wheel of a Rolls-Royce in London.The 31-year-old rapper, whose real name is Michael Ebenazer Owuo Junior, pleaded guilty via a letter to driving the Rolls-Royce Wraith while using a device on Addison Road, west Kensington, in March last year.District judge Andrew Sweet said Stormzy’s driving record was “not good” and criticised his “dangerous and irresponsible” actions. The court was told he already had six points on his licence for previous speeding offences.Stormzy’s solicitor told Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court his…

Getty ImagesThe proportion of patients diagnosed with cancer at an early stage has risen to its highest level on record, NHS figures in England show.Data for the 13 most common cancers show 58.7% of those diagnosed between September 2023 and August 2024 were identified at stages one and two, which increases the chances of survival.That is 2.7 percentage points up since before the pandemic – and the highest since records began more than 10 years ago.NHS England said a combination of public awareness campaigns and new screening approaches has made a big difference.But despite the progress England is still struggling…

Getty ImagesUK house prices ended 2024 some 4.7% higher than at the start of the year, according to the Nationwide.Property prices and housing market activity remained “remarkably resilient” despite affordability challenges facing buyers, the lender said.The average home in the UK cost £269,426 at the end of December, its figures show.Despite the latest rise, the average cost remains below the peak seen in the summer of 2022.The Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, said prices of terraced homes rose fastest during the year.Northern Ireland saw the fastest price growth, its mortgage data shows, with values also rising faster in northern…

Chinese car maker BYD saw its sales jump at the end of last year, as it competes with Tesla to be the world’s best-selling electric vehicle (EV) maker of 2024.The company says it sold 207,734 EVs in December, taking its annual total to 1.76 million, as subsidies and discounts helped attract customers.It comes as Tesla is due to announce its own quarterly sales figures later on Thursday.The US electric car maker maintained a slim lead in EV sales over BYD in the previous quarter but the Shenzhen-based firm has been narrowing the gap.BYD’s total vehicle sales jumped more than 41%…

Isla Dawn has gone from Langside College to becoming a tag team champion in the world’s biggest wrestling company.

Getty ImagesThe critical incident comes after new rules for patients and visitors to wear masks across several health boards amid flu concernsWelsh ambulance service chiefs have urged the public to “drink sensibly” at new year to help reduce demand on emergency services that suffered a 340-call backlog on Monday.Jason Killens, chief executive of Welsh Ambulance Service, made the plea after the service declared a critical incident.In addition, more than half of the trust’s ambulance vehicles were waiting to hand over patients outside hospitals.Mr Killens asked the public to use the service “wisely” and only call during a “genuine emergency”, and…

Russian gas has stopped flowing to EU states via Ukraine after a five-year deal expired, marking the end of a decades-long arrangement.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier that his country would not allow Russia to “earn additional billions on our blood” and had given the EU a year to prepare.The European Commission said the continent’s gas system was “resilient and flexible” and that it could cope with the change. Slovakia, however, was facing supply deficits and Moldova, which is not in the EU, is already suffering shortages.Russia can still send gas to Hungary, Turkey and Serbia through the TurkStream pipeline…

BBCThis fictional 2025 couple, along with the man’s ‘VR headset’, featured in the Tomorrow’s World episode in 1995.In 1995, the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme decided to predict what the world would look like 30 years later, in 2025.The show, which is no longer broadcast, featured one of the most famous scientists of the age, Prof Stephen Hawking, who predicted: “By 2025 we can expect big changes.”The programme team agreed, suggesting a raft of world-shaking innovations from hologram surgery to space junk gel.So, with the help of some experts – and the benefit of three decades of hindsight – let’s take…

BBCJohnnie Walker hosted his final show on Radio 2 in OctoberRadio presenter Johnnie Walker has died at the age of 79, two months after calling time on his 58-year career because of ill health.DJ Bob Harris, who took over BBC Radio 2’s Sounds of the 70s show after Walker’s retirement, announced his former colleague’s death live on the station on Tuesday.Harris described him as “an incredible, warm, superb broadcaster” who “went out on a limb many times to defend the music that he loved and he was passionate about radio”.Walker had pulmonary fibrosis, which is scarring of the lungs, a…