Author: BBC

The first Democratic senator has publicly questioned President Joe Biden’s election chances, after seven congressman broke cover and urged the 81-year-old to step aside.Senator Michael Bennet told CNN he expected the president to lose to Donald Trump by a “landslide”, but stopped short of telling him to end his candidacy.Questions have been raised about Mr Biden’s fitness for office after a stumbling presidential debate performance against Trump late last month.The president insists he can beat his adversary, and continues to hold support among key allies after congressional Democrats met to debate his leadership on Tuesday. The US president is in…

3 hours agoBy Huw Thomas, Business Correspondent, BBC WalesPA MediaJonathan Reynolds, who visited Port Talbot with First Minister Vaughan Gething during the election campaign, said a “better deal” was availableNew negotiations with Tata Steel over its restructure will be “difficult”, the business secretary has said.But Jonathan Reynolds said the UK government has “got to try” to change plans which will cost 2,800 jobs.The company will close the second of its Port Talbot blast furnaces in September, citing losses of £1m a day.Mr Reynolds is meeting unions on Wednesday to discuss efforts to reach a “better deal” with the company.The previous government had…

1 hour agoBy Bonnie McLaren, Culture reporter BBCDyer also spoke about going to rehab in 2016Danny Dyer has spoken about having a “major panic attack” after forgetting his lines on stage following a night taking drugs.The former EastEnders actor played a waiter in Harold Pinter’s Celebration, which transferred from London to New York’s Lincoln Center in 2001.Speaking on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast, Dyer said he was “very excited” because he had never been to New York, and “took a lot of drugs out there”.”I’d heard about people that had dried on stage because it’s a massive thing, and it never…

A Deputy US Marshal shot a would-be carjacker while he was guarding Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s home in Washington DC, authorities said.The man was shot after approaching the car the officer was sitting in and tapping the window with a gun. The deputy fired several times, hitting the suspect in the mouth. A second deputy also opened fire, but did not hit the man, police said.Justice Sotomayor’s home is not believed to have been a deliberately targeted.The suspected carjacker, named in charging documents as Kentrell Flowers, 18, is being treated in hospital and faces carjacking and firearms charges. The…

Hundreds of British workers will be given greater choice over their hours as part of a new pilot by the official four-day week campaign.The three-month project will build on the original 2022 trial, with employers also trying flexible start and finish times, a nine-day fortnight, and compressed hours.Two businesses have already signed up and the campaign’s director told the BBC it is hoping to target around 3,000 employees and 50 companies.The UK’s biggest union Unison and several big firms support the experiment, but other companies have abandoned the four-day week after trying it.The campaign’s director Joe Ryle said “hundreds of…

Microsoft has announced big price rises for Game Pass, its Netflix-style subscription service for games.The gaming giant, which purchased studio Activision Blizzard for a record $69bn (then £56bn) in 2023, says monthly charges for PC Game Pass will rise by £2 to £9.99, while its premium service, Ultimate, will go up by £2 to £14.99 per month.It is also replacing its standard subscription tier on Xbox consoles in September, meaning Xbox gamers will now have to subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate if they want access to new games on the day they are released.It comes after Microsoft announced in May…

A national youth orchestra has become the latest performing arts organisation to announce plans to relocate from London to Sheffield.Orchestras for All (OFA) has said it will move from its headquarters in the capital to South Yorkshire and follow in the footsteps of the English Touring Opera.OFA will be based at Canada House, a Grade II-listed building in the city centre which has been vacant since 2011.Councillor Martin Smith from Sheffield City Council said the newcomers would “make brilliant additions to an already thriving cultural scene”.A council spokesperson said OFA’s decision to relocate to the city came after a “rigorous…

3 hours agoBy Hannah Ritchie, BBC News, Sydney BBCFilicide – when a parent intentionally kills their child – is the second most common form of domestic homicide in AustraliaThe night comes back in fragments: the sound of exploding glass, the frantic call made to police, the tiny shivering bodies emerging from the flames.Eve’s hand shakes as she pieces it together. She is sitting in her living room in Western Sydney, the burnt-out blackened shell of her neighbour’s house – now a crime scene splashed across Australia’s national news – visible through the blinds.What happened on this quiet street in the early hours…

Shrek’s long-awaited return has been confirmed, with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz all set to return for the lovable green ogre’s first film for 16 years.A plotline for the movie is yet to be revealed, but Myers will play the title character, Diaz will voice Shrek’s wife Princess Fiona and Murphy will return as sidekick Donkey.Announcing the news, DreamWorks Animation said on X: “Not too Far, Far Away… Shrek 5 is coming to theatres on July 1 2026 with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz.”The first film was released back in 2001, and won the first Oscar…

In 2007, a young Lionel Messi posed for photos with a baby in the dressing room of the Camp Nou in Barcelona for a charity calendar photoshoot.Messi, who was 20, was already making a name for himself and would go on the become arguably the greatest of all time.But little did the photographer know that the baby would also make waves in international football less than 17 years later.Messi was bathing Lamine Yamal – the 16-year-old who is taking the European Championships by storm. His goal against France in the semi-final on Tuesday is one that will be talked about…