Author: BBC

Japan’s transport ministry raided the headquarters of motor giant Toyota on Tuesday, as a scandal over faulty safety data escalated. The world’s largest carmaker has apologised for providing incorrect or manipulated data for safety certification tests.The scandal has shaken up the Japanese car industry, with rivals Honda, Mazda and Suzuki also admitting to submitting faulty data.Toyota sold more than 11 million passenger vehicles in 2023.It has said the findings do not affect the safety of vehicles already on the road.The company has suspended the production of three car models – the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross.It has also…

Getty ImagesTaylor Swift will be playing three nights in EdinburghThousands of fans across Scotland will descend on Edinburgh’s Murrayfield stadium later this week to see Taylor Swift.Performing three sold out shows on 7, 8, and 9 June, the singer will undoubtedly bring in the crowds.With many people expected to travel via car, City of Edinburgh Council has announced a number of road closures in preparation for the event.The area around Scottish Gas Murrayfield will be particularly busy, so restrictions will be in place to ensure residents and concertgoers alike are safe.Getty ImagesAn estimated 220,000 fans will attend the concerts over…

China says its lunar probe has successfully taken off from the far side of the moon to begin its journey back to Earth carrying the first-ever samples collected from that region.State media says a module of the Chang’e-6 craft, named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, successfully lifted off about 07:38 on Tuesday (23:38 GMT Monday) to begin the journey back.The craft had landed on Sunday close to the moon’s south pole in a world-first feat celebrated by the international science community.China is the only country to have landed on the far side of the moon, having also done…

Meme stock favourite GameStop is rising again, after a social media post seemingly from the investor known as “Roaring Kitty” claimed a sizeable stake in the video game retailer.Shares in the firm opened for trade on Monday priced above $40 apiece, up more than 70% from Friday, before later retreating a bit. The surge followed a screenshot shared by the Reddit account tied to Keith Gill, claiming he owned 5 million GameStop shares – nearly 2% of the firm’s stock – a holding worth more than $100m (£78m). The post was one of a series in recent weeks that follow…

A company that breeds animals for medical testing has been fined a record $35m (£27m) after 4,000 beagles were rescued from its facility in Virginia in 2022. The fine against Envigo RMS LLC for animal cruelty is the largest fine ever issued under the Animal Welfare Act, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).“Envigo promoted a business culture that prioritized profit and convenience over following the law,” Christopher Kavanaugh, the US attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said in a statement.“This callous approach led to dire consequences: the inhumane treatment of animals and the contamination of our waterway,”…

4 hours agoEsyllt Carr,Business reporter, LondonPost Office lawyer Jane MacLeod quizzed on not attending inquiryThe Post Office’s most senior in-house lawyer when it fought the landmark case brought by Alan Bates and other sub-postmasters has been challenged by BBC News in Australia, after she refused to appear before the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal.A BBC team questioned Jane MacLeod, who was the Post Office’s General Counsel between 2015 and 2019, while she was walking her dog outside her home in Sydney.She replied with “no comment” when asked why she wasn’t attending. She had been due to give evidence this…

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…