Author: BBC

The sale of Royal Mail to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group is close to being finalised and could be confirmed in the next two weeks, according to sources close to the deal.Kretinsky has agreed to make extra concessions in order to clinch the takeover, the BBC understands.Unions have been meeting with Kretinsky’s advisors this week, and while some sources say they remain “wary” of him, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said meetings with the EP Group have been “constructive”.The deal will still have to be approved under the National Security and Investment Act although officials carried out a similar…

DisneyMoana 2 comes eight years after the originalThe sequel to animated Disney musical Moana has been broadly described by film critics as good – but not as good as the 2016 original.The Telegraph awarded four stars to the follow-up, which it called a “giddily animated triumph”.Empire gave the same rating, saying the new film is “a touch less fresh than the original”, but is “still bursting with energy, emotion, warmth and imagination”.However, the Guardian awarded two stars to Moana 2, saying “this frictionless sequel lacks genuine passion”.The newspaper’s critic Peter Bradshaw described it as “a vacuum-packed slice of digital IP…

Getty ImagesCareer-networking site LinkedIn has told Australian lawmakers it is too dull for kids to warrant its inclusion in a proposed ban on social media for under 16 year olds. “LinkedIn simply does not have content interesting and appealing to minors,” the Microsoft-owned company said in a submission to an Australian senate committee.The Australian government has said it will introduce “world-leading” legislation to stop children accessing social media platforms.But companies behind some of the most popular platforms with young people – Meta, Google, Snapchat-owner Snap Inc and TikTok – have all challenged the planned law in submissions made to lawmakers.Prime…

US President-elect Donald Trump has picked a leading Covid lockdown sceptic Jay Bhattacharya to be the next director of a key US public health agency.Trump said he had selected the Stanford University-trained physician and economist to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s biggest government-funded biomedical research entity.Bhattacharya became the face during the pandemic of a fiercely disputed open letter – known as the Great Barrington Declaration – that opposed widespread lockdowns.Tuesday’s nomination rounds out Trump’s top public health team. He has already unveiled all 15 posts for his cabinet as he prepares to take office on 20…

Getty ImagesMrBeast is the most popular YouTuber in the world with more than 300m subscribersMrBeast has claimed he has footage showing that allegations his upcoming reality game show “shamelessly exploited” contestants were “blown out of proportion”.The YouTuber, real name Jimmy Donaldson, released a teaser for Beast Games on Monday and announced it would be released next month.In September, Amazon and MrBeast were named in a lawsuit which made a number of claims about how participants were treated on set. The Amazon series promised to be the biggest live game show in the world with 1,000 people competing in a series…

Getty ImagesPrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to get more people into work with reforms to overhaul job centres and more mental health funding.Sir Keir said the government had inherited a country that “isn’t working”, and the changes would tackle the biggest drivers of unemployment and inactivity.But many details of what the reforms will mean in practice have not been confirmed, and a review of sickness benefits will not begin until next year.The Conservatives said the proposals showed Labour was “not prepared to take the tough but necessary choices to bring down the benefits bill”.The goverment’s proposals come as…

Wikipedia/MakeworldpediaJay Graber, the chief executive of Bluesky, said there were no plans to introduce advertisingThe chief executive of the social media network Bluesky – which has exploded in popularity in recent weeks – was unable to give the correct age limit for users on the platform in an interview with the BBC.While speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast programme, Jay Graber wrongly said you needed to be 18 to use Bluesky, when the actual age limit is 13.The issue of whether young people should be able to use social media is a hot topic globally, with Australia proposing a ban for…

The family of a woman who suffered a severe brain injury while on holiday say they were faced with having to accept her return to the UK against medical advice or her travel insurance policy would be cancelled.Jane Rubens, 73, from Edinburgh, was involved in a car accident in the United States earlier this month and remains in a coma.Her insurance company, AXA Partners, initially told the family Mrs Rubens would need to be repatriated on Monday despite several medics advising against the move, her family told the BBC.Following a social media outcry, the insurers backed down, saying: “The welfare…

Getty ImagesBarbara Taylor Bradford wrote 40 novels over more than 40 yearsAuthor Barbara Taylor Bradford, known for best-selling novels including A Woman of Substance, has died at the age of 91.Published in 1979, A Woman of Substance sold 30 million copies and spawned seven sequels and a TV adaptation, which is still the most-watched programme in Channel 4’s history.It was the first of 40 novels by Taylor Bradford; others includ the Ravenscar, Cavendon and the House of Falconer series.Paying tribute, her publisher and editor Lynne Drew said: “Dominating the bestseller lists, she broke new ground with her sweeping epic novels…

Tax rises in the Budget have made it more difficult for firms to “take a chance” on hiring people, according to one of Britain’s most prominent business groups.In a speech at its annual conference on Monday, the boss of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will say the changes are undermining investment.Rain Newton-Smith will suggest businesses across many sectors are “being hit by a tough trading environment that just got tougher” due to changes in National Insurance contributions (NICs) and inheritance tax.The government said “difficult choices” had been made in a bid to “repair the public finances”, but that it…