Author: BBC

Getty ImagesHair twiddling can be distressing to watch if you have misokinesia”If I see someone tapping their fingers on a desk, my immediate thought is to chop their fingers off with a knife,” an anonymous patient confides to a researcher.Another shares: “When I see someone making really small repetitive movements, such as my husband bending his toes, I feel physically ill. I hold it back but I want to vomit.”Sound familiar? If so, perhaps you too have a condition called misokinesia – a diagnosible hatred of fidgeting. Scientists are striving to understand more about the phenomenon that has no known…

Getty ImagesPlanned strike action by Avanti West Coast train managers over the Christmas period has been suspended, the RMT rail union has said.The walkouts had been planned for 22, 23, and 29 December, but the union said a new offer had been made that will now be put to train managers.It includes higher rest day working payments and other changes to working arrangements.The RMT said train managers will vote on the offer in a referendum that finishes on 17 December.

A federal court in St Louis has indicted 14 North Koreans for allegedly being part of a long-running conspiracy aimed at extorting funds from US companies and funneling money to Pyongyang’s weapons programmes.The wider scheme allegedly involves thousands of North Korean IT workers who use false, stolen, and borrowed identities from people in the US and other countries to get hired and work remotely for US firms.The indictement says the defendants and others working with them generated at least $88m (£51.5m) for the North Korean regime over a six-year period.North Korea’s mission to the UN did not immediately reply to…

YouTuber Yung Filly is facing new charges of reckless driving, according to reports in Australia, where he is accused of raping a woman. The 29-year-old, whose real name is Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, is accused by police of driving past a speed camera at 158km/h (98mph) on a Perth highway last month. It is alleged to have occurred whilst Barrientos was on bail over an alleged attack on a woman in a Perth hotel in September. The BBC has contacted Barrientos’s representatives and the police for comment. Police say the speeding incident happened on 17 November, in the High Wycombe…

SWNSThomas Plimmer was struck off after having sex with multiple women at his GP surgeryWarning: This article contains text of a sexual natureA woman says a GP who was struck off for having sex with multiple women at his surgery attempted to choke her during sex.The woman, who does not want to be named, met Thomas Plimmer on a dating app in 2017.She claimed that when they were having sex at her home on a second date, he “started squeezing my throat” without her consent. Mr Plimmer said that under legal advice he was unable to comment due to his…

Getty ImagesEnergy firms will be forced to offer customers tariffs with no standing charges, under a proposed shake-up of bills by regulator Ofgem.All households pay the fixed daily charges covering the costs of connecting to a supply, but there have been widespread calls for these fees to be scrapped.Ofgem is proposing suppliers offer one price-capped tariff that includes the standing charge, and another that loads these costs on energy usage charges instead. Customers could choose which suits them best.The planned overhaul, for next winter, also raises the possibility of some unpaid bills that built up during a recent high-price crisis…

Australia’s government says it will create new rules to force big tech companies to pay local publishers for news. The long-awaited decision sets out a successor to a world-first law that Australia passed in 2021, which was designed to make giants like Meta and Google pay for hosting news on their platforms.Earlier this year Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – announced it would not renew payment deals it had in place with Australian news organisations, setting up a standoff with lawmakers.The new rules, announced on Thursday, will require firms that earn more than A$250m ($160m; £125m) in annual…

Getty ImagesChalamet sings all the songs in the film himself, rather than lip-syncing to the original Dylan recordingsTimothée Chalamet has been praised by critics for his portrayal of Bob Dylan, in a new film biopic of the US singer-songwriter.A Complete Unknown has already scored three Golden Globe nominations and is likely to be in the Oscars race in the new year. The Guardian said Chalamet showed “amazing bravado” in his performance, while Empire said the actor is “superb” and his “musical talent is unimpeachable”.But the Independent said the biopic itself “plays too safe” and Screen Rant described the “serviceable” film…

Outstanding debt from Carer’s Allowance overpayments rose to more than £250m last year, according to the government’s spending watchdog.The National Audit Office (NAO) said the figure had increased by £100m since 2018/19.Charity Carers UK said the report was “further evidence of a broken system that is failing unpaid carers”. The government launched an independent review of overpayments in October, after some carers were forced to pay back thousands of pounds leaving many in financial hardship.The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) paid £3.7bn in Carer’s Allowance to more than 900,000 claimants last year, according to the NAO report.If someone spends…

Getty ImagesRenting a newly let property is on average £270 per month more expensive than at the end of the coronavirus pandemic, according to figures from Zoopla.Rent began to soar in 2021 because of high demand from tenants after lockdowns were lifted and limited numbers of available properties.The annual cost of renting has gone up by 27% – £3,240 in total – in those three years, compared with a 19% rise in average earnings over the same period.However, the rate at which rents are rising is now the slowest for three years, the property portal has said, as potential tenants…