Author: BBC

8 hours agoCraig Williams,BBC Scotland NewsGetty ImagesClimate activists boycotted the the 2023 Edinburgh book festival.The Edinburgh International Book Festival has ended its 20-year funding partnership with sponsors Baillie Gifford after pressure from climate change protesters.The move follows a similar decision by the Hay festival in Wales last week.The investment company, which is based in Edinburgh, has been a major sponsor of UK arts events but has come under scrutiny for its investments in fossil fuels.Book festival chairman Allan Little said they could nor deliver a safe and sustainable festival in August with the constant threat of disruption from activists. The…

57 minutes agoWill Grant,Mexico and Central America correspondentReutersOpinion polls have given Xóchitl Gálvez and Claudia Sheinbaum a wide lead over their rivalsAs Claudia Sheinbaum, the front-runner in Mexico’s presidential election, arrives for a rally in a packed park in the colonial city of Orizaba, the crowd starts to chant “Presidenta!” Those attending are convinced that is what she is about to become: Mexico’s first ever woman president.The polls suggest they may well be right.With her closest rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, also a woman, and the only man in the presidential race a distant third, Mexico is almost certain to set to…

The first head-to-head general election debate will be hosted by ITV next week, the broadcaster has confirmed.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will face each other on Tuesday, 4 June, at 21:00 BST. The hour-long programme – titled Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate – will be moderated by presenter Julie Etchingham, who also hosted debates in 2015, 2017 and 2019.ITV said it also planned to broadcast an interview programme with other party leaders and a multi-party debate.The head-to-head debate between Mr Sunak and Sir Keir will take place in front of a live audience.Michael Jermey,…

4 hours agoRajan Datar,Presenter, The Tourist Trap, @rajandatarGetty ImagesThe message was scrawled on a makeshift wooden placard with black marker pen and was in block capitals. It read: “Everywhere you look everyone is foreign.”Police said there were 10,000 marchers on the streets of Palma in Majorca on the last weekend of May at the start of the summer holiday season. Their message was that tourism was making life in Palma unliveable for locals.But why does there suddenly seem to be such a strong sense of grievance in places where for decades large numbers of tourists have been the norm?The answer,…

WeWork is set to emerge from bankruptcy, hoping that less debt and fewer offices will give it a new lease of life. The company which rents out shared office workspaces, founded in 2010 and once hailed as the future of the office, racked up losses during an aggressive global expansion. It filed for bankruptcy last year, reeling from the sharp drop in demand for office space sparked by the pandemic.The company has since used court protection to renegotiate the terms of its rental leases and work with its lenders.WeWork has said it plans to operate 337 shared office spaces globally…

2 days agoEleanor Lawson,Sarah JulianBBCA video of Nat Sweeney dancing before the concert has been retweeted by Nicki MinajA dance teacher has gone viral on social media after entertaining the crowd before a Nicki Minaj concert in Birmingham.Nat Sweeney from Moseley was waiting for the gig to start at Resorts World Arena on Sunday when he decided to launch into a series of acrobatic flips and splits.His improvisation quickly garnered the attention of the crowd and a video of Mr Sweeney, which has racked up thousands of views, has even been retweeted by Nicki Minaj herself.The 21-year-old, who is a…

The former president has been convicted on all counts in historic criminal trial. Source link

Labour would kickstart the creation of green energy projects across the country within months if elected, the party has said.The party plans to create a publicly owned company, Great British Energy.Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said investing in the production of domestic clean energy would cut bills.But the SNP said the project would “destroy Scottish jobs and investment”.Labour said Great British Energy would “turn the page on the cost of living crisis” by lowering energy bills.”The pain and misery of the cost of living crisis was directly caused by the Tories’ failure to make Britain resilient, leaving us at the…

Words of warning about facial recognition, biometrics and artificial intelligence. Source link

20 hours agoRachael McMenemy & Andy Collins,BBC News, HertfordshireChannel 4Mark O’Sullivan says the process of making the shows has been “life changing”A comedian who wrote a sitcom about his experiences of sexual abuse said the process was “cathartic” and “life changing”. Mark O’Sullivan, from Hitchin, wrote My Sexual Abuse: The Sitcom and said the process was better than any therapy he had ever had. A documentary on Channel 4, with the same title, chronicles O’Sullivan’s work writing, directing and filming the 80s-style family sitcom.”If anyone watching it feels a bit more able to talk or less alone in what’s happened…