Author: BBC

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins accused the BMA of a “highly cynical tactic” by calling the strike during the election campaign.”I am in politics to help patients not trade unions. The Conservative government has taken tough decisions to keep public spending down to bear down on inflation, which is now back to normal.”Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “The next Labour government will negotiate with junior doctors to bring these strikes to an end.”Strike action by junior doctors has also been taking place in Northern Ireland with another walkout planned in early June. Walkouts in Wales are on hold as talks…

2 hours agoPaul Burnell,BBC News, SalfordGetty ImagesSeeger said she and MacColl performed the song together “for decades”A long-lost verse of one of folk music’s most famous songs is to be unveiled by the widow of its creator nearly 75 years after it was first sung.Dirty Old Town was written by Salford-born folk legend Ewan MacColl for Landscape With Chimneys, his 1949 play about his home city.Since then, the song has taken on a life of its own, being covered by everyone from rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Frank Black to country stars Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt and…

15 minutes agoThomas Mackintosh,Katy AustinWatch: How chaos onboard Singapore Airlines SQ321 unfoldedEarly investigations into severe turbulence that hit a Singapore Airlines flight last Tuesday reveal it dropped around 178ft (54m) over 4.6 seconds.One British passenger died and dozens more were injured when the London-Singapore flight encountered the turbulence over Myanmar and had to make an emergency landing in Thailand.Singaporean investigators have extracted data stored in the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft.Their preliminary report said rapid changes in gravitational force (G) caused the altitude drop which likely injured those who were not wearing seatbelts.Singapore Airlines said…

Mining giant BHP has urged its UK-based rival Anglo American to extend the looming deadline for a final offer on a proposed £39bn merger.In a statement this morning, the Australian BHP attempted to ease concerns about its plans for Anglo American’s business in South Africa, ahead of elections in the country on Thursday.It made commitments that included job security for employees there, but said it needed an extension on talks “to allow further engagement” on the plans.If the deal goes through, it would be one of the biggest ever for the mining sector and would create the world’s largest copper…

A union representing thousands of workers at Samsung Electronics has called the first strike at the South Korean technology giant since it was founded five and a half decades ago.The National Samsung Electronics Union says it will hold a one-day protest by asking all of its members to use their paid leave on 7 June and has not ruled out a full-scale strike in the future.The union says its has about 28,000 members, accounting for more than a fifth of the company’s total workforce.Samsung Electronics says it will continue to negotiate with the union.“We can’t stand persecution against labour unions…

5 hours agoHelen Bushby,Culture reporterThis article does not reveal the winner of Race Across the World, but does include details of some earlier moments from series four. BBC/Studio Lambert/Pete DaddsThe current series reached a record audience of more than seven million, including catch-upAs the final for Race Across the World approaches, some of the show’s intrepid contestants reveal why they think it is such a success, calling it relatable, inspiring and, not surprisingly, exhausting.For anyone who hasn’t seen the Bafta-winning BBC One Show, it offers a bird’s eye (or perhaps coach window) view of five duos, racing around the globe…

Donald Trump’s historic hush-money trial edged closer to its conclusion on Tuesday as the prosecution and defence made their closing arguments to the court.In the defence’s final pitch, Mr Trump’s lead lawyer attacked Michael Cohen – his former fixer and the prosecution’s star witness – as the “greatest liar of all time”.Prosecutors then launched into a lengthy rebuttal, portraying Cohen as a flawed “tour guide” to a “mountain” of evidence against Mr Trump.Twelve jurors will soon be asked to decide if the former president, and presumptive Republican nominee for November’s election, is guilty beyond reasonable doubt of falsifying business records.Over…

39 minutes agoZoe Conway,BBC News correspondentBBCSingle mum Zoe Godrich says “the life has just been sucked out of me”, trying to sort out the problems with the insulationEvery two weeks Zoe Godrich scrapes the black mould off the walls of her children’s bedrooms.She says her house now resembles a squat. ”It’s absolutely heartbreaking because I can’t provide for my children’s basic needs of a safe warm home.”The mould took over after she had her Swansea home fitted with cavity-wall insulation three years ago. She says that within weeks, water was constantly running down the walls ”like a little waterfall”.The BBC…

WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart has hit back at claims from Elon Musk that the messaging app “exports your user data every night.”Posting on X, Mr Cathcart said the allegation was simply “not correct”.He pointed to the fact WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they cannot be read by the company at all.Yann LeCun – artificial intelligence chief at parent company, Meta – has also weighed in, using more industrial language in his X post attacking Mr Musk’s claims.On another Meta platform, Threads, Mr LeCun also levelled further criticisms at Mr Musk, accusing him of making contradictory and unrealistic claims about…

A leading drill star has admitted two drugs charges following a police raid during an online performance.Digga D – real name Rhys Herbert – appeared at Lincoln Crown Court via video link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs, where he was remanded in custody.The 23-year-old, of Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill, pleaded guilty to the supply and importation of cannabis.He was arrested near Lincoln in the early hours of 21 February while broadcasting on Instagram Live.At the hearing on Tuesday, the prosecution did not accept the basis of his pleas, and Judge Simon Hirst adjourned the case until 8 July to decide if…