Author: BBC

The European Commission says Facebook owner Meta’s “pay or consent” advertising model is in breach of its laws.Under the tech giant’s new service in the EU, users must either consent to receiving personalised ads or pay €12.99 (£11) a month to remove them.The Commission has told Meta it has taken “the preliminary view” that the “binary” advertising choice presented to users fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).But Meta contends that its EU advertising model is compliant.“Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and complies with the DMA,” a Meta spokesperson said.…

Leading French filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon have been taken into police custody for questioning over accusations of historical sexual abuse, French media is reporting.Actor Judith Godrèche accused Benoît Jacquot of raping her as a child and Jacques Doillon of sexually assaulting her, also as a child.The two men arrived at the Regional Directorate of the Judicial Police (DRPJ) in Paris on Monday morning, the AFP news agency reports.The pair have denied the allegations and their lawyers have denounced their detainment.Jacques Doillon’s lawyer, Marie Dose, said no legal criteria could justify his being detained for questioning “36 years” after…

22 minutes agoBy Gordon Corera and Ido Vock, BBC NewsReutersAfter the crew and passengers had disembarked, the aircraft was destroyed on the runwayPassengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions. The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an…

53 minutes agoBy Annabel Rackham, Culture reporterBBCBombay Bicycle Club rocked The Other Stage on Friday eveningYou never forget your first Glastonbury.The artists you see there live in your memory forever, often providing nostalgic comfort in later life.So it feels like a full circle moment when the bands that were breaking through at your first trip to Worthy Farm find themselves back on the line-up.As a fresh faced teenager in 2014, I absolutely lapped up the plethora of indie music on offer at the festival.My choices for the weekend were curated by what was hot in NME – Royal Blood, Arcade Fire and…

Twelve months ago, Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon experience consisted of making hospitality appearances for her sponsors.The 21-year-old Briton missed her home Grand Slam after surgeries on both wrists and an ankle, but returns this year with a smile on her face on the back of some encouraging form.”It was really hard last year because you would walk through the player tunnel, see your peers going to practice, going to play their match,” said the 2021 US Open champion.”Being on the other side just really stung. It wasn’t nice and I didn’t really watch any of the tennis either.”For me to be…

The Unite union has called off a strike planned for 8 July so further talks can take place over the future of the UK’s largest steel works at Port Talbot in Wales, the BBC understands. Owners Tata had threatened to bring forward the planned closure of both remaining blast furnaces the day before the strike, citing safety fears due to a staff walkout.Unite’s strike action was called to the dismay of other unions who feared that it would accelerate the closure of blast furnace number four which was not due to be shut down until September.The Community and GMB Unions…

1 hour agoBy Mark Savage, Music Correspondent • Annabel Rackham, Entertainment reporterTo paraphrase the immortal words of Shania Twain, Man, I Feel Like A Sit Down.The 2024 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has drawn to a close, and everyone at Worthy Farm is feeling a curious mixture of deflation and elation.We saw epic sets from Dua Lipa and The Streets, danced with Peggy Gou, moshed with Kasabian and (I’m not making this up) saw Ros Atkins play drum and bass remix of the BBC News theme.But there’s so much going on that you can never catch everything. So here are some of the highlights…

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has unveiled a new coalition government, after his ruling African National Congress (ANC) party lost its parliamentary majority in May’s elections.He said “the government of national unity… is unprecedented in the history of our democracy”.The ANC will have 20 out of 32 cabinet posts, while the pro-market Democratic Alliance (DA) – until now the main opposition party – will hold six. Six other portfolios are shared amongst smaller parties.These appointments followed weeks of tense negotiations that threatened to scupper the agreement – at one point Mr Ramaphosa had accused the DA of trying to create…

10 hours agoBy Kevin Peachey, Cost of living correspondentGetty ImagesA drop in domestic gas and electricity prices has now taken effect, but costs are expected to rise again in October.Regulator Ofgem’s new price cap for England, Wales and Scotland came into force on Monday, meaning a typical household’s energy bill will fall by £122 a year.That brings down the bill for a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity to £1,568 a year, the lowest for two years.But forecasters expect it to rise again in the run-up to winter, more than reversing the latest drop.Leading consultancy Cornwall Insight predicts that…

8 minutes agoBy Dan Ayers at Glastonbury Festival, BBC News, SomersetThe clean up after Glastonbury Festival 2024 has begunVolunteer Rachel Aggitt said she finds the clean-up ‘quite therapeutic’Thousands of volunteers have begun cleaning-up the Glastonbury Festival site as the festival finishes for another year.It comes hours after US R&B star SZA closed the festival with a headlining set on the Pyramid Stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset.Thousands of revellers leaving the site on Monday have been urged to take all their belongings and tidy their campsite.People had been told the best time to leave to avoid queues was between midnight and 0700…