Author: BBC

Sudan’s military leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has survived an assassination attempt, the army spokesman has told the BBC.Nabil Abdallah blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which the army has been battling for the last 16 months for control of the country.He said two drones had struck an army graduation ceremony killing five people at a base in Jabait in the east – territory under the control of the military.But the RSF’s legal adviser told the Reuters news agency that the group, which has agreed to go to US-mediated talks next month, was not responsible.Speaking after being evacuated to…

The chancellor has said the government will likely raise some taxes in October’s Budget after months of speculation about Labour’s stance on tax.”I think we will have to increase taxes in the Budget,” Rachel Reeves told the News Agents podcast.She was responding to a question about raising money following her claim on Monday that the previous government left a £22bn “hole” in the public finances. Labour said repeatedly during the election campaign there would be no tax rises on “working people”, but the Conservatives had insisted Labour would increase them.Speaking on the podcast, the chancellor was pushed on which taxes…

Dozens of staff at the Singapore office of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, have been hospitalised in an apparent food poisoning outbreak.Health and food safety officials in the city state are investigating the incident, which left 60 people with symptoms of gastroenteritis on Tuesday. Fifty seven of them were treated in hospital.ByteDance has also said it is looking into what caused its employees to fall ill.The BBC understands that no food is prepared or cooked at the ByteDance offices and that it uses third party caterers to supply food.Seventeen ambulances were sent to the building in Singapore’s business district to treat…

ReutersTuesday has become the hottest day of the year so far as a heatwave continues to affect large parts of the UK.Met Office measuring stations in both Heathrow and Kew Gardens, south-west London, reached 32C (90F) earlier – exceeding the 31.9C recorded in the centre of the city on 19 July.London, southern England and south-eastern Wales are expected to meet the official criteria for a heatwave this week.But the hot weather may be short-lived – with a yellow alert for thunderstorms issued by the Met Office across large parts of both nations later in the week.A Yellow Heat Health Alert…

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…