Author: BBC

Huw Edwards has arrived at court for his first hearing after being charged with three counts of making indecent images of children.Mr Edwards, 62, is appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Wednesday morning.As he arrived, he was flanked by several police officers and surrounded by photographers. He was wearing a black suit, blue tie and sunglasses.The former BBC News presenter was arrested last November and charged last month.The offences are alleged to have taken place between 2020 and 2022 and relate to 37 images that were shared on a WhatsApp chat, according to the Metropolitan Police.Mr Edwards is…

MK SiddiquiAfnan (right) with his father MK SiddiquiThe father of an Indian teenager, who is among a handful of people to survive a rare brain-eating amoeba, has credited a public awareness campaign on social media for his son’s recovery.Afnan Jasim, 14, is thought to have become infected in June after he went for a swim in a local pond in the southern state of Kerala.His doctor said that the amoeba – called Naegleria fowleri – likely entered his body from the water that had been contaminated by it.Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), the disease caused by the amoeba, has a mortality…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended her decision to scrap winter fuel payments for around 10 million pensioners.She told the BBC she had found a “black hole” in the public finances and “had to act” to “fix the mess”.Ms Reeves accused the previous government and former chancellor Jeremy Hunt of hiding a massive shortfall in public money.But Mr Hunt said the numbers had been available to Labour, and that he was “angry” about the “political exercise” the government was engaged in.A row between Labour and the Conservatives has broken out after the government said it had uncovered a £22bn hole in…

Major video game makers – like Activision, Warner Bros and Walt Disney – are facing a strike by Hollywood performers over the use of artificial intelligence (AI).It follows a year and half of talks over a new a contract between the companies and a union representing more than 2,500 video game performers.The two sides say they have agreed on several key issues, such as wages and job safety, but protections related to the use of AI technology remain a major hurdle.The industrial action was called by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra), which last year…

PAChancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to scrap planned changes to the care system in England has been described as a “tragedy” by Sir Andrew Dilnot, the man who authored the proposals in 2011.Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Sir Andrew said; “We’ve failed another generation of families.”He said it was another example of social care “being given too little attention, being ignored, being tossed aside”.Ms Reeves said: “There are a lot of things this new Labour government would like to do but unless you can say where the money is going to come from you can’t do them.”On Monday, the chancellor…

US model Bella Hadid has spoken out after starring in an Adidas campaign which was criticised for what the brand called “unintentional” connections to the 1972 Munich Olympics.Hadid, who is half Palestinian, said: “I am shocked, I am upset, and I am disappointed in the lack of sensitivity that went into this campaign.”The advertising campaign for the retro trainers – the SL72s – referenced the 1972 Munich Olympics, which saw 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer killed in the attack by a Palestinian group called Black September.Adidas subsequently apologised and said it would “revise” its campaign, confirming to…

President Nicolás Maduro has won Venezuela’s presidential election, according to partial results announced by the electoral council.The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso – who is a close ally of Mr Maduro – said that with 80% of ballots counted, President Maduro had 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for his main rival.The Venezuelan opposition dismissed the CNE’s announcement as fraudulent and promised to challenge the result.It said its candidate, Edmundo González, had won with 70% of the votes and insisted he was the rightful president-elect.The opposition said vote tallies it had received, as well as…

Getty ImagesRachel Reeves claims the Tories masked the true state of UK public finances then “ran away”The chancellor is set to announce immediate cuts worth billions of pounds, aimed at plugging a “black hole” in the public finances, when she addresses Parliament on Monday.Rachel Reeves’ plans are expected to include the cancellation of some road and rail projects, a reduction in spending on external consultants and a drive to cut public sector waste.She will accuse the previous government of “covering up” shortfalls in departmental budgets and then “running away”.However, the Conservative Party said the chancellor’s message was designed to “con…

Blood testing partnership Synnovis has warned that its hacked blood transfusion services may not be fully functioning again until the autumn.Its systems fell victim to ransomware hackers and the pathology partnership says it has rebuilt many of the 60 which were affected.The hackers made systems unusable unless a payment was received and caused significant disruption, with hundreds of operations and thousands of appointments cancelled.Synnovis said the blood transfusion services would “continue to be stabilised over the summer”.The situation is also part of the reason the NHS made an urgent appeal for blood donors after warning stocks had dropped to “unprecedently…

FamilyCharlotte described the 20 minute attack on her son as “horrifying”The mother of a young boy with complex needs has called for all special schools to have CCTV after her son was attacked by a teaching assistant.Her 13-year-old son Tobie, from Wolverhampton, is autistic and non-speaking.He was kicked, pushed and had his head held down in the 20 minute assault, and his mother Charlotte said a security camera had picked up the full extent of the attack.”To see that man attack him in a place he thought was safe – it was just horrendous,” Charlotte said.Tobie’s attacker, William Kevin Clifford,…