Author: BBC

Chinese car maker Zeekr says its new electric vehicle (EV) batteries charge faster than any of its rivals, including industry leaders Tesla and BYD.The firm claims its upgraded batteries can be charged from 10% to 80% capacity in 10 and a half minutes using its ultra-fast charging stations.In comparison, Elon Musk’s Tesla says a 15 minute charge allows its Model 3 to cover 175 miles (282km), a little under half the car’s full range.Zeekr’s 2025 007 sedan, which will be available from next week, will be its first vehicle to have the new battery.The battery performs well even in cold…

Matt McBriarMatt McBriar said the surgery had gone wellMatt McBriar, one half of dance music duo Bicep, has announced he is receiving treatment for a “large and pretty rare” brain tumour.The Belfast-born producer posted about his condition on his Instagram account.He said a non-cancerous tumour had been found on his pituitary gland in his brain.He said he had surgery on 9 August, that it had gone well and he was recovering in hospital.Getty ImagesMcBriar with the other half of Bicep, Andrew Ferguson, at the 2021 Brit Awards”Towards the end of 2023, I got some intense localised headaches matched with a…

Mpox, the high infectious disease that used to be called monkeypox, has been declared a public health emergency in Africa by the continent’s top health body.Scientists from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) say they are alarmed by the speed at which a new strand of mpox has been spreading.Since the beginning of the year, more than 13,700 cases and 450 deaths have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo.The virus, which can cause lesions across the whole body, has spread to other African countries, including Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR) Kenya and Rwanda.The…

ReutersSinger Sabrina Carpenter, pictured in June, has six nominations at the VMAsMTV has delayed its annual Video Music Awards (VMAs) by a day to avoid clashing with the US presidential debate. Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris agreed last week to face each other in a televised debate on 10 September.The VMAs had already been scheduled for that date, but broadcaster MTV has announced the ceremony will now take place the following night.If both events had gone ahead on the same evening, it would almost certainly have damaged viewing figures for both events, but particularly the VMAs.Interest…

Getty ImagesThe UK’s unemployment rate has fallen slightly, official figures suggest. Unemployment was 4.2% in the three months to the end of June, down from 4.4% over the previous quarter.Meanwhile, wage growth continued to slow, rising at an annual rate of 5.4% – the weakest for around two years, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested.Its director of economic statistics, Liz McKeown told the BBC’s Today programme despite the positive news that unemployment had fallen, there were signs that the jobs market was “cooling” due to high numbers of vacancies, redundancies and those not actively seeking work.’More to…

Phool dev ShahniPhool dev Shahni makes a living harvesting makhana or lotus seedsLike his father and grandfather before him, Phool dev Shahni once made a living by diving to the bottom of 8ft-deep (2.4m), muddy ponds.”I used to dive in 7 to 8ft of water for hours a day – coming to the surface to breathe after 8 to ten minutes,” explains Mr Shahni.While down in those murky depths he was harvesting the seeds of a type of water lily called euryale ferox.Known as makhanas, fox nuts or lotus seeds, they are prized for their nutritional value, being high in…

Family handoutIan Coates, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were stabbed to death by Valdo CalocaneThe families of the victims of the Nottingham attacks say those responsible for failings in Valdo Calocane’s care have “blood on their hands”.Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both 19, and 65-year-old Ian Coates were killed by Calocane, who was psychotic and suffering from paranoid delusions, on 13 June 2023.A review published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on Tuesday found “a series of errors, omissions and misjudgements” by mental health services.In a statement, the victims’ families said the organisations involved “must bear a heavy burden of…

Social mediaA source said a bullet fired by police had “severely damaged” Arezoo Badri’s spinal cordA mother of two has been left paraplegic after being shot by Iranian police over an alleged violation of the country’s strict hijab rules, a source with knowledge of the case has told the BBC.”She is paralysed from the waist down, and doctors have said it will take months to determine whether she will be permanently paraplegic or not.”Arezoo Badri, 31, was driving home with her sister in the northern city of Noor on 22 July when police attempted to pull her over to confiscate…

Chloe Ayling has spoken to BBC Breakfast about a new six-part BBC series that will dramatise her kidnapping. The model, who came to international attention in 2017 when she was abducted after being lured to a fake photo shoot in Milan, has faced years of doubts about her ordeal. People have accused the model of faking her own kidnapping as part of a publicity stunt. Her story will now be told in the new six-part BBC series, Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, dramatising her abduction and the media storm that followed.

Water companies that fail to meet basic standards will have to pay customers more in compensation, the government is proposing.New rules for what could trigger these payments, including failing to carry out meter readings or installations as promised, will also be introduced.Some payments could amount to customers claiming at least a quarter of their annual water and sewerage bill.The minimum payment for most failings would double to £40, the government is proposing.These new proposals follow the Water (Special Measures) Bill announced in the King’s speech last month, promised to improve water quality.Environment Secretary Steve Reed said households and businesses had…