Author: BBC

13 hours agoNoor Nanji,Culture reporter, @NoorNanjiGettyRiz Ahmed stars in Dammi, a short film which will be shown at the festivalA new film festival in the UK celebrating Muslim cinema will “showcase stories we don’t usually see”, its director has said.Sajid Varda has told BBC News that too often there is a “negative portrayal” of Muslims in the mainstream media, “so this festival is largely to reclaim the words Muslim and Islam”.The festival includes films featuring Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed and Informer’s Nabhaan Rizwan.It runs from 30 May to 2 June.GettyNabhaan Rizwan plays a struggling actor in In CameraThe festival will…

About 670 people are estimated to be buried under a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea, a UN official says.The head of the International Organization for Migration in Papua New Guinea, Serhan Aktoprak, said the impact of Friday’s landslide in the country’s isolated Enga province was greater than initially thought.”There are an estimated 150-plus houses now buried,” Mr Aktoprak said.The affected areas are in the highlands of Enga, in the north of the island nation in the south-west Pacific.Mr Aktoprak said rescuers were at risk because “the land still sliding”.”The water is running and this is creating a massive risk…

Royal Mail is being investigated by Ofcom after the service failed to deliver less than three quarters of first-class post on time in the last year.In its yearly financial results on Friday, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS) said only 74.5% of first-class mail was delivered within one working day.Regulator Ofcom’s rules state 93% of first-class mail must be delivered within the timeframe, excluding Christmas.Ofcom said: “If it does not provide a satisfactory explanation and we determine Royal Mail has failed to comply with its obligations, we will consider whether to impose a financial penalty.”Last year, Ofcom fined…

Sara OtiungDr Otung has been working with Michael Sheen since JanuaryA doctor who has taken a break from her day job to star in a play alongside Michael Sheen says the experience has given her hope for the future of the NHS.As a junior doctor in acute medicine, Dr Sara Otung is more accustomed to dealing with patients with infections or having suspected heart attacks.But since January, she has been a member of the ensemble and an understudy in the play Nye, which sees Sheen portray Welsh politician and architect of the NHS Aneurin Bevan.She said the play, which has…

Getty ImagesAuthorities in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have confirmed 54 cases of the waterborne leptospirosis disease after the region experienced unprecedented floods in the months of April and May.Four others have died after contracting the illness, which is transmitted through water contaminated with infected animals’ urine, like rats.As many as 800 suspected cases are currently being investigated, the state’s health department said in a statement.More than 165 people were killed in the floods and many others are still missing.More than 2.3 million Brazilians from 469 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul have been affected by what…

Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch, has filmed the police on numerous facial-recognition deployments. She was there the night Shaun Thompson was picked up by police. “My experience, observing live facial recognition for many years, [is that] most members of the public don’t really know what live facial recognition is,” she says.She says that anyone’s face who is scanned is effectively part of a digital police line-up. “If they trigger a match alert, then the police will come in, possibly detain them and question them and ask them to prove their innocence.”The use of facial recognition by the police…

4 hours agoCalum Leslie,Riyah CollinsKaylee GoldingKaylee’s grandad was infected with hepatitis in the 1970s during treatment for his haemophilia1Xtra DJ Kaylee Golding has revealed that her grandad was among the victims of the infected blood scandal.A public inquiry published on Monday found decades of failure and denial meant thousands of patients had been affected after being given contaminated blood.Among them was Graham, who died from illnesses linked to these treatments when Kaylee was 17.”To have some kind of apology, some kind of closure, is what people have been waiting such a long time for,” she tells BBC Newsbeat.”It’s taken way…

The Day After might sound like the title of a film or a novel. But for diplomats and policymakers, the phrase has only one meaning and that is what happens ‘the day after’ the fighting stops in Gaza.Given the intensity of the conflict and the absence of hope, such thinking might seem surprising, even wishful.Yet there is an increasing focus on what could and should happen if and when the guns fall silent in Gaza.EU foreign ministers will discuss exactly this in Brussels on Monday when they hold talks with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE,…

Composer Richard M Sherman, who wrote songs for Disney film classics such as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has died aged 95 in Beverly Hills.Sherman partnered with his late brother Robert, and the pair won two Oscars in 1965 for their work on Mary Poppins.Some of the brothers’ best-known scores include the Jungle Book’s Trust in Me and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Truly Scrumptious.His death was announced in a statement by Disney, which said Sherman passed away “due to age-related illness” at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Sherman brothers were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of…

REUTERS/Ana BeltranItaly’s Giorgia Meloni wants to repeat her domestic success on a European scaleFar-right parties are on the rise in much of Europe, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni senses a big moment.“We are on the eve of a decisive election,” the Brothers of Italy leader tells a packed hall in Madrid by video link. Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally is in the front row, alongside Santiago Abascal, who heads Spain’s Vox party. “We are the engine of our continent’s renaissance,” the Italian prime minister declares, before rousing her audience to a standing ovation.The far right has won…