Author: BBC

12 hours agoEmma Woollacott,Technology ReporterGetty ImagesBuilding is still largely manual workIf you took a worker from a 1920s construction site and transported them to a present day project, they would not be that surprised by what they saw, according to Sam O’Gorman.”Overall, across Europe and the US, stuff is still built in a pretty manual fashion – not very different to the way it would have been built 100 years ago,” says Mr Gorman, an associate partner in the property practice of consultancy firm McKinsey.Back in 2017, the McKinsey Global Institute concluded that the construction industry could improve productivity by…

Professor Katie Urch, Chief Medical Officer at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our surgery staff are committed to delivering the best, safest care to our patients, often in challenging situations. “Surgeons do not work as individuals, they work collaboratively in teams. Those teams are highly skilled, performing complex surgery that is never without some risk. “Their outcomes are continuously and closely monitored – both internally and externally – and whenever our care falls short of our high standards, we take immediate action to learn and improve.” The BBC has been investigating patient safety concerns at University Hospitals Sussex…

Just nowIan Youngs,Entertainment & arts reporterMarc BrennerTom Holland plays Romeo, with Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as JulietThe “unprecedented” excitement among fans outside the London theatre where Spider-Man star Tom Holland is appearing in Romeo in Juliet hasn’t quite been matched by the response from the critics inside.The most glowing review – a five-star write-up in the Telegraph – said Holland “ravishes” and “mesmerises” as Romeo.But at the other end of the scale, the Daily Express’s one-star critique called it “absolute drivel” and described Holland as “a charisma free zone”.Time Out said the actor “certainly doesn’t disgrace himself”, whle the Guardian said it…

19 minutes agoSofia Ferreira Santos,Guy HedgecoeEPAA desperate search for survivors is under way after a two-storey restaurant collapsed on the Spanish island of Majorca, killing four people and injuring 16, local emergency services say.Several people are believed to be trapped under rubble at the site of the Medusa Beach Club, a beachside restaurant in one of the busiest areas of the regional capital, Palma de Majorca.Police said the victims are a Spanish man, two German women and a Senegalese man, reported to be Abdoulaye Diop, who made national headlines in 2017 for rescuing a man who was struggling in waters…

17 minutes agoKevin Peachey,Cost of living correspondentBBCA typical household’s energy bill will fall by £122 a year from July under the new price cap.The latest quarterly cap for England, Wales and Scotland means a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will pay £1,568 a year.It means that bills will be the lowest for two years.The cap, set by the regulator Ofgem, limits the maximum price that can be charged for each unit of gas and electricity – not the total bill.If you use more energy, you will pay more. It affects the gas and electricity bills of…

Tesla boss Elon Musk says he opposes US tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), just days after President Joe Biden quadrupled levies on EVs imported from China.”Neither Tesla nor I asked for these tariffs”, the multi-billionaire told a technology conference in Paris via video link.Mr Musk’s comments are at odds with a warning he made in January that Chinese car makers would “demolish” competitors from other countries if there were no trade barriers.Last week, the White House said new measures, including a 100% tariff on EVs from China, were a response to unfair policies and intended to protect US jobs.”In…

BBCOnly a genetic test will tell Carys if she has inherited the Brca1 gene fault from her mother, RachaelA 17-year-old has been rejected by the Army, despite passing all the selection tests, because two members of her family have had breast cancer.Carys Holmes, from Derbyshire, has a 50-50 chance of inheriting a gene fault from her mother but has not been tested for it yet.A lawyer says the Army’s actions could be discriminatory and a serious own goal.The Army said it was reviewing Carys’s case.Carys trained hard for the tough three-day selection process at Whittington Barracks, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire,…

The latest film from Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle is in production and filming across the north east of England.28 Years Later is the long-anticipated, post-apocalyptic sequel to the 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later films and is slated for release next year.Film crews have been seen in Newcastle, Kielder Forest and, most prominently, on Holy Island for the past three weeks.Hundreds of people from the local area responded to a call for extras to play a hoard of rage-filled ‘zombies’ in crowd scenes on the island.”I always think it’s good when they use local areas for stuff, also it…

A massive landslide is feared to have killed many after it struck six remote villages in Papua New Guinea, local officials and aid agencies said.The landslide buried more than 100 homes after it struck at around 03:00 local time Friday (17:00 GMT Thursday) in the highlands of Enga, north of the island nation in the south-west Pacific.It was not immediately clear how many people were trapped in the rubble and no casualties have been officially confirmed.Enga governor Peter Ipatas told AFP news agency it was an “unprecedented natural disaster”.Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said his government has sent…

One of the hundreds of sub-postmasters set to have their convictions from the Post Office scandal quashed has spoken of his “absolute joy” at the move.Lee Williamson, a former sub-postmaster in Northern Ireland, told the BBC that he was “overjoyed and very grateful”.A law quashing convictions from the Horizon IT scandal was approved by Parliament on Thursday.It was one of the final bills to pass before MPs break up ahead of the general election in July.The law applies to England, Wales and Northern Ireland – the Scottish parliament is to pass its own bill to quash convictions.The case is seen…