Author: BBC

2 hours agoFarouk Chothia,BBC News, JohannesburgReutersSouth Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) is faced with a tricky dilemma which will determine the future of the country after it spectacularly lost its parliamentary majority in last week’s election. Having won only 40% of the vote, the ANC needs to find a coalition partner to secure a majority in parliament which will support its choice of president – unless it tries to go alone with a minority government.One option would be to strike a deal with the second biggest party, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA), which won 22% of the vote. However…

ReutersStandard Chartered Bank has its headquarters in the City of LondonA British bank that escaped prosecution for money laundering carried out billions of dollars of transactions for funders of terrorist groups, US court papers allege.Standard Chartered, one of the UK’s largest banks, avoided prosecution by the US Department of Justice after Lord Cameron’s government intervened on its behalf in 2012.New documents filed to a New York court claim thousands of transactions worth more than $100bn were carried out by the bank from 2008 to 2013 in breach of sanctions against Iran.An independent expert has identified $9.6bn of foreign exchange transactions…

38 minutes agoLeisha Chi-Santorelli,BBC News Culture, @BBCLeishaPenguin Random HouseJames Patterson is one of the world’s best-selling authorsJurassic Park author Michael Crichton died from cancer over 15 years ago – now, his unfinished “passion project”, about a humanity-threatening volcanic eruption, has been completed by fellow literary giant James Patterson and is already generating heated interest in Hollywood.Eruption takes readers on a thrilling journey through Hawaii’s biggest island, which, unbeknown to its residents, hides dangerous military secrets dating back decades.There has been no formal screen auction yet – but Sherri Crichton, who discovered her late husband’s unfinished manuscript over a decade ago…

55 minutes agoChristine Ro,Technology ReporterGetty ImagesMany holiday parks see hot tubs as a standard featureSome people give Severin Borenstein a hard time for having a hot tub.“Generally the criticism of owning a hot tub is it is a profligate use of energy,” he says.The main reason for such high energy usage is the heating, which generally runs even on days when the hot tub isn’t being used, to keep the water from overcooling.Because Prof Borenstein researches energy economics at the Haas School of Business, at the University of California, Berkeley, he was able to drill down into the numbers for…

The chief financial officer of The Epoch Times news outlet has been arrested over his alleged involvement in a massive money-laundering scheme. Federal prosecutors allege that Bill Guan, 61, participated in a global plot to launder at least $67m (£52m) of illegal cash to benefit himself and The Epoch Times.According to the indictment, Mr Guan led the outlet’s “Make Money Online” team, which used cryptocurrency to purchase tens of millions worth of crime proceeds. Mr Guan has not yet entered a plea. If convicted, he could spend more than 30 years in prison. The Epoch Times did not reply to…

27 minutes agoYasmin Rufo,BBC News , @YasminRufoChannel 4Dionne Brown plays Queenie, a 25-year-old journalist from south London going through a breakup Creating a Bridget Jones-esque character is nothing new.In hundreds of books, films and TV series you will find chaotic, boy-obsessed millennial women all in pursuit of the same goal: finding their one true love. But one of those characters that has managed to cut through is Queenie.Dubbed as “the black Bridget Jones” by the book’s author Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie is a 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman from Brixton, south London.As well as navigating the usual trials and tribulations of a single…

Floods caused by heavy rain in southern Germany have claimed at least four lives.The victims include three people found in flooded basements on Monday. On Sunday a firefighter died while trying to rescue trapped residents.Thousands of people in the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have fled their homes since torrential rains began on Friday.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who visited affected areas, said the flooding was a reminder of critical environmental challenges.”We cannot neglect the task of halting man-made climate change,” he said on Monday.In Schorndorf, east of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, the bodies of a man and a woman were found…

The number of visas available to migrants would be reduced each year under a new Conservative government, the prime minister has promised.For the first time, MPs would get a vote on annual government proposals aimed at regularly reducing numbers, which would be based on recommendations from the expert Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).Although no figures were suggested for a possible cap, Rishi Sunak said his was the only party willing to take “bold action to reduce immigration” if elected on July 4.Labour’s Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, pointed to net migration trebling and accused the Tories of “rehashing failed announcements”.Mr Sunak…

For the leaders of both Hamas and Israel, ending the war in Gaza has become a deadly game of survival.The terms on which the war finally ends could largely determine their political future and their grip on power. For Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even his physical survival.It’s partly why previous negotiations have failed. It’s also why the question of how to permanently end the fighting has been put off to the last stages of the plan outlined by US President Joe Biden on Friday.That transition between talks on a limited hostage-for-prisoner deal to discussions about a permanent ceasefire would, Mr…

Israel’s military says it has established the deaths of four more people abducted by Hamas on 7 October.It says the four were killed while together during an Israeli operation in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, adding that their bodies were still being held by the militants.The men were named as British-Israeli Nadav Popplewell, 51, Chaim Peri, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, and Amiram Cooper, 85.IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said intelligence gathered in recent weeks had led to the assessment.”We assess that the four of them were killed while together in the area of Khan Younis during our operation there…