Author: BBC

First Born FilmsNeil Harbisson, who sees in black and white, says his antenna lets him “hear” colourFor the past 20 years, self-declared “cyborg artist” Neil Harbisson has provoked debate with his “eyeborg” – a surgically attached antenna.Harbisson, who grew up in Barcelona, is colour blind, having been born with the rare condition achromatopsia, which affects one in 33,000 people. This means he sees in what he calls “greyscale” – only black, white and shades of grey.But he decided to have surgery in 2004 which changed his life – and his senses – attaching an antenna to the back of his…

ReutersMore than a thousand workers are participating in the strikeFor the past 11 days, about 1,500 workers of South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics have been striking work in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, leading to major disruptions in production.The plant in Chennai city, one of Samsung’s two factories in India, employs nearly 2,000 workers and produces home appliances, contributing about a third to the company’s annual $12bn (£9bn) revenue in India.The striking workers gather at a plot of land near the 17-year-old factory daily, demanding that Samsung recognise their newly-formed labour union – the Samsung India Labour…

Nintendo and its partner The Pokémon Company have filed a legal case against the maker of the hit survival adventure game Palworld over alleged patent infringement.Palworld quickly earned the nickname “Pokémon with guns” when its first trailer was unveiled in 2021.Just days after the game’s release in January this year, The Pokémon Company said it would investigate the copycat claims.Palworld’s developer, Pocketpair Inc, acknowledged the lawsuit in a statement on Thursday and apologised to fans for “any worry or discomfort” caused.Pocketpair’s boss previously said the game had passed legal checks.Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights”, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company said…

Next said a sharp rise in overseas sales has been helped by the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and TikTok “exposing” people to international fashion trends.The High Street retailer reported that overseas revenue jumped by 23% in the first half of its financial year compared to 1% growth in the UK.Next said it performed better in more affluent countries geographically closer to the UK, but said it was expanding further afield to India and targeting customers in Japan, China and Australia among others.”Global entertainment is exposing people to international fashion trends in a way they never have been before -…

Some X users in Brazil were once again able to access the social media platform on Wednesday despite a ban imposed by the nation’s judiciary last month.Brazilian users swarmed the site after X, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, updated how its servers within the country are accessed.The platform’s restoration in Brazil was unintended, an X spokesperson said in a statement late on Wednesday. “To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users.”“While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in…

Getty ImagesMany of the maternity failings at scandal-hit hospitals are becoming more widespread, England’s NHS regulator says.Investigations into units in Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent found poor care may have contributed to babies dying or having life-changing injuries.But the Care Quality Commission said these problems were also being seen elsewhere.Its review of 131 units across the NHS highlighted issues with staffing, buildings, equipment and the way safety was managed, warning preventable harm was at risk of becoming “normalised”.Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “These findings are cause for national shame. “Women deserve better – childbirth should not be something they…

Watch how the Hezbollah exploding pagers attack unfoldedAt least 12 people including two children were killed and thousands more injured, many seriously, after pagers used by the armed group Hezbollah to communicate dramatically exploded across the country on Tuesday.It is unclear how the highly sophisticated attack occurred, though Hezbollah has blamed its adversary Israel. Israeli officials have so far declined to comment. Analysis of fragments from the pagers suggested they were made by the Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo, but the CEO denied this and said they had been made under licence by a company in Hungary. BBC calls to the…

Getty ImagesSean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail by a New York judge on TuesdayLawyers for hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs will appear in court on Wednesday to challenge a judge’s ruling that denied Mr Combs bail after he pleaded not guilty in a sex-trafficking case.A New York federal judge remanded the musician in custody on Tuesday after prosecutors argued he was a “serious flight risk”. Mr Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday evening, accused of running a criminal enterprise from at least 2008 that relied on drugs and violence to force women to “fulfill his sexual desires”, according to prosecutors.A…

Getty ImagesInflation held steady at 2.2% in the year to August, despite a jump in the cost of flights.The rise in air fares was offset by lower fuel prices and prices in restaurants increasing more slowly, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.The latest figure means overall inflation remains slightly above the Bank of England’s target of 2%.But the rate is significantly lower than at the peak of the cost of living crisis in 2022.The latest figures come as the Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 5% when it meets on Thursday.Most economists think a…

Getty ImagesGoogle has won its challenge against a €1.49bn (£1.26bn) fine from the EU for blocking rival online search advertisers.The bloc accused Google of abusing its market dominance by restricting third-party rivals from displaying search ads between 2006 and 2016.While Europe’s second-top court upheld much of the European Commission’s findings, it chose to annul the fine. It comes a week after the EU’s highest court upheld a 2.42bn euro fine against Google over its shopping service.