Author: BBC

Strictly’s Tasha Ghouri opens up about online trollingTasha Ghouri was in tears on Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night as she opened up about the negative reaction she has experienced online due to her disability.The former Love Island star, 26, and dancer partner Aljaz Skorjanec impressed the judges and got a joint series high score of 39 as they performed to What About Us by Pink.But before the dance, Ghouri, who was born deaf and uses a cochlear implant, became visibly emotional as she told viewers about online trolls who made videos about the way she speaks. She revealed that…

Getty ImagesThree years ago, the DNA-testing firm 23andMe was a massive success, with a share price higher than Apple’s.But, from those heady days of millions of people rushing to send it saliva samples in return for detailed reports about their ancestry, family connections and genetic make-up, it now finds itself fighting for its survival.Its share price has plummeted and this week it narrowly avoided being delisted from the stock market.And of course this is a company that holds the most sensitive data imaginable about its customers, raising troubling questions about what might happen to its huge – and extremely valuable…

HANDOUTEllie Lambert has frozen her eggs in the hope of meeting someone or “being in a financial situation where I can go it alone”The number of babies born in England and Wales is now the lowest since the 1970s, official statistics show.The fertility rate – which measures how many children are born per woman during her child-bearing years – is the lowest on record at 1.44. Scotland’s is even lower at 1.3.Britain is not unique – most countries are experiencing declining fertility and some are even going to great lengths to create a baby boom.So what’s causing the fall-off in…

BBCStephen Mollah is latest person to claim to be the mysterious inventor of BitcoinBitcoin underpins a two trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry, is now traded by the world’s biggest investment houses and is even an official currency in one country.But despite its meteoric rise, a deep mystery remains at its heart: what is the true identity of its founder, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto?Many have tried to answer that question, but so far all have failed. In October, a high-profile HBO documentary suggested that a Canadian bitcoin expert called Peter Todd was he. The only problem: he said he was not, and the…

The US and Israel “will definitely receive a crushing response”, Iran’s supreme leader has said, following an Israeli attack on Iran a week ago.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comments while speaking to students on Saturday ahead of the 45th anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.The threat comes as Iran assesses whether and how to respond to Israel’s attack last month, that Iran said killed four soldiers, which was in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack against Israel earlier in October.The Iranian attack came in response to the killings of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas…

EPAActor Bill Nighy said he stole the complete works of William Shakespeare from a library to prepare for his drama school audition.The Oscar-nominated star said he applied for the Guildford School of Acting to impress a girl but had to prepare two pieces for the audition – one from a modern playwright and the other from Shakespeare.Along with his older friend, they “stole the complete works of Shakespeare, and we stole the complete works of George Bernard Shaw which we thought was sort of modern,” Nighy told BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life.”We could have borrowed it like everybody else,…

Lawyers hired by MrBeast to investigate claims that his former co-host groomed a teenager have concluded that the allegations were “without basis”, the star YouTuber has said. Ava Kris Tyson stopped working with MrBeast in July after other YouTubers accused her of sending inappropriate messages to a minor, reportedly then 13, when she was 20.At the time, Tyson apologised for her “past actions”, but said her behaviour never “extended beyond bad edgy jokes” and denied ever grooming anyone. The alleged victim – who was named online – also defended her, saying the claims were “massive lies” and that they had…

GPs are calling on the government to protect them from tax rises for employers announced at the Budget, warning it could hit services for patients.The NHS and rest of the public sector are due to be shielded from a hike in National Insurance (NI) contributions from April next year.But GP practices, which deliver NHS services but are mostly run as small businesses, are currently due to be hit by the rise.The government has suggested that the extra cost of higher national insurance contributions paid by GP practices will be taken into consideration when GP contracts are renegotiated later this year.Private…

Two former police officers have been jailed for the murder of Marielle Franco, a prominent left wing politician killed in a drive-by shooting in 2018.Anderson Gomes, Franco’s driver, was also killed in the attack but her press officer Fernanda Chaves, who was in the car, survived. Ronnie Lessa confessed to firing the shots and was sentenced to 78 years and nine months, while Élcio de Queiroz received 59 years and eight months for being behind the wheel.Franco, a gay Black woman, was an emerging light in Brazil’s socialist party, with her death at the age of 38 sparking nationwide protests.…

It is Halloween once again and two things are inevitable – running out of sweets before young crowds of trick or treaters have knocked on your door, and social media feeds being inundated with celebrities in costumes.So to save you some aimless scrolling, here are some of the best celebrity Halloween costumes we’ve seen this year.GettyHeidi Klum and husband Tom Kaulitz dressed as E.T. at Klum’s annual Halloween partyHeidi Klum is famous for both her annual Halloween party and the incredible costumes she wears to them. This year, for the 23rd instalment of the event, Klum and husband, German guitarist,…