Author: BBC

24 minutes agoBy Elaine Chong and Ed Main, BBC TrendingBBCHelen Young was targeted by scammers who posed as Chinese police officersChinese people around the world are being targeted by an elaborate scam in which criminals pretend to be Chinese police. A British-Chinese woman has told the BBC that she handed over her life savings to con men who wore uniforms in video calls and gave her a virtual tour of what appeared to be a police station.Helen Young still has nightmares about the fortnight that she was made to believe she was on China’s most wanted list.Scammers posing as Chinese police manipulated…

26 minutes agoBy Penny Dale, JournalistMario Di BariFemale figures are at the forefront of Gabriella Ghermandi’s latest albumGabriella Ghermandi recalls with laughter the annoyance she felt about the so-called Ethiopian Spice Girls – charity-backed pop group Yegna that hoped to change narratives and empower girls and women through music.The all-female group sparked controversy in the UK because it was partly funded by British aid and some say it was a waste of taxpayers’ money. But for Ghermandi, assumptions that Ethiopian women had to be taught by outsiders was the issue.“I was like, what?” Ghermandi tells the BBC. “They want to teach us…

15 minutes agoBy Phelan Chatterjee, BBC NewsAlamySwedish human rights activist Anna Ardin is glad Julian Assange is free.But the claims she has made about him suggest she would have every reason not to wish him well.She is one of two women who accused the WikiLeaks founder of sexual assault 14 years ago.The allegations – which Assange has always denied – were explosive, and made headlines across the world. They set off a chain of events which saw him trying to avoid extradition to Sweden by seeking asylum in a London embassy for seven years.In 2019 the Swedish authorities ended their investigation into…

About 1,000 people in South Korea are suffering from food poisoning linked to kimchi contaminated with norovirus.Officials in Namwon City, in the south-west of the country, announced on Friday morning that there had been 996 confirmed cases – although local media reports say that number had climbed to 1,024 by early Saturday afternoon.Authorities said the popular fermented cabbage dish had been distributed to those now sick through school meals in the city.They added that students and staff from 24 schools were among the patients with vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pains.Norovirus is very contagious and can be caught through touching contaminated…

9 minutes agoBy Rushdi Aboualouf and Tom McArthur, BBC NewsShock and horror at scene of Gaza blastAt least 16 people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials have said.Dozens more have been injured in the attack on the building which was sheltering thousands of displaced people at Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.Video from the scene shows adults and children screaming in a smoke-filled street covered in dust and rubble, as they run to help the wounded.The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said it struck several “terrorists…

35 minutes agoBy Paul Kirby, BBC News in ParisCHANTAL BRIAND/AFPVoting has already been taking place in France’s overseas territoriesFrance votes in one of its most significant elections in years on Sunday, with the far right hoping for a historic victory, but political stalemate the more likely result.This is the first time the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella has had a realistic chance of running the government and taking outright control of the National Assembly.But after the RN’s first-round victory in snap parliamentary elections last Sunday, hundreds of rival candidates dropped out to give others a better…

President Joe Biden’s Friday night TV interview does not seem to have quelled an uprising within his own party to end his campaign after a halting debate performance against Donald Trump. A fifth House Democrat, Angie Craig of Minnesota, joined her colleagues on Saturday in calling for the president to step aside, as reports indicate more could follow soon.In his rare primetime ABC News interview, Mr Biden dismissed his debate performance as just a “bad episode” and said only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to end his bid for re-election.Mr Biden, 81, is spending Saturday at his family home…

A Russian attack on a power facility in Ukraine has left 100,000 people without power in the north-western region of Sumy.Work is under way to restore power, National grid operator Ukrenergo said, following the strikes, which caused emergency shut-offs for consumers in the city and region of Sumy, which borders Russia.There were no reports of casualties or damage apart from the energy facility, Reuters reports.Russia continues to pummel energy facilities across Ukraine, often plunging the country into extended blackouts with people enduring sweltering summer conditions without running water, air conditioning, or life-saving medical equipment.Over the past three months alone, Ukraine…

25 minutes agoBy Michael Sheils McNamee, BBC NewsEurosportFrench cyclist Julien Bernard has given a light-hearted apology after being fined for kissing his wife during a Tour de France time trial. The Lidl-Trek rider was made to pay 200 Swiss francs ($223; £174) by the International Cycling Union (ICU) for stopping briefly during stage seven of the race.The governing body said the fine was for “unseemly or inappropriate behaviour during the race and damage to the image of the sport”. Writing on social media, Bernard apologised to the UCI for “having damaged the image of sport” but said he was willing to pay…

A relatively moderate member of the Iranian parliament, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been declared the next president of Iran after beating his hardline conservative rival by a decisive margin in Friday’s run-off presidential elections. The 69-year-old will replace Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month.Dr Pezeshkian’s mostly young supporters took to the streets of the capital, Tehran, and other cities to celebrate – even before the final results were declared, singing, dancing and waving his campaign’s signature green flags.He has given some of the nation’s younger generation hope at a time when many were despondent about their future.…