Author: BBC

24 minutes agoKatya Adler,BBC Europe EditorMarianne BaisneeSurviving D-Day veterans, including Steve Melnikoff, have been the star attraction in Normandy this weekIt’s impossible not to be swept away by the warmth and energy in the stone-clad villages up and down the Normandy coastline this 80th anniversary of D-Day.British, US and Canadian flags flutter from garden gates and lampposts as far as the eye can see. Music from the 1940s drifts through village squares, while country lanes roar with column-upon-column of World War Two-era military jeeps.Driving them are laughing, waving men and women from all over Europe. Germans, Dutch, Belgians and Brits…

60 minutes agoMariko Oi,Business reporterGetty ImagesNommunication has traditionally played an important role in Japanese businessesFor thousands of years, alcohol has been used as a social lubricant. In Japan, it is known as nommunication – a combination of the Japanese word for drink, nomu, and communication.The idea is that drinking alcohol creates a more relaxed environment.Businesses have even tackled difficult issues in pubs, rather than conference rooms.The late former chairman of then-bankrupt Japan Airlines, Kazuo Inamori, explained in 2012 how he used beer to get his employees to open up.But there is now a whole new generation that chooses not to…

Ros DoweyMurray Dowey took his own life aged 16The mother of a teenager who ended his life after becoming the victim of a sextortion gang on Instagram says Meta has failed to hand over vital data which could assist the investigation into his death.Murray Dowey, from Dunblane, was 16 when he died last December.Murray’s mother, Ros Dowey, told BBC News that Meta, which owns Instagram, had not yet provided the information from Murray’s account despite a request from Police Scotland and a court order. Meta said its thoughts were with the family and that it was co-operating with the relevant…

Kanye West says he will counter-sue his former assistant, after she filed court documents accusing him of sexual harassment and breach of contract.In her lawsuit, Lauren Pisciotta alleged the star sent her vulgar texts and performed sex acts while on the phone with her.West’s legal representative has now called those accusations “baseless” and accused Pisciotta of engaging in “blackmail and extortion” after the star rejected her sexual advances.”In response to these baseless allegations, Ye will be filing a lawsuit against Ms. Pisciotta,” they added, using the rapper’s current preferred name.Pisciotta is believed to have worked for West from 2021 to…

Three weeks after Robert Fico was gunned down in central Slovakia, he’s made a full-throated return to political life – on the eve of the European elections.In a Facebook video apparently recorded at home in Bratislava, the Slovak prime minister laid the blame for the attack on Slovakia’s liberal opposition, the “anti-government media” and foreign-funded NGOs for creating a climate of hatred and intolerance that made the shooting possible.Mr Fico, who was critically injured on 15 May after being shot multiple times in the abdomen, said he forgave his attacker – identified by prosecutors as 71-year-old Juraj C – and…

7 hours agoMatt McGrath,Mark PoyntingGettyThe world’s fossil fuel industries should be banned from advertising to help save the world from climate change, the head of the United Nations said on Wednesday.UN Secretary General António Guterres called coal, oil and gas corporations the “godfathers of climate chaos” who had distorted the truth and deceived the public for decades. Just as tobacco advertising was banned because of the threat to health, the same should now apply to fossil fuels, he said.His remarks were his most damning condemnation yet of the industries responsible for the bulk of global warming. They came as new…

14 hours agoNoor Nanji,Culture reporter, @NoorNanjiBBCCillian Murphy won fans for his portrayal of a gang leader in Peaky BlindersA Peaky Blinders film is coming to Netflix, with Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy set to reprise his role as gangster Tommy Shelby.The streaming giant confirmed the news in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday night alongside a photograph of the script.”This is one for the fans,” said Irish actor Murphy, who will also co-produce the film.The hit BBC drama, which ran for six series from 2013 to 2022, followed the lives of Birmingham gangsters in the early 20th Century.Murphy played the…

Tens of thousands of Israelis, many from nationalist groups, have taken part in the annual Jerusalem Day flag march to mark the capture of the east of the city in the 1967 war.Crowds waving Israeli flags and shouting anti-Arab slogans gathered outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate before marching to the Western Wall through the Muslim Quarter – an act seen by Palestinians as a provocation.Palestinian shops along the procession route closed, amid a heavy Israeli police presence, with 3,000 officers deployed.Police later said that 18 people were arrested, including five for attacking journalists.Israel’s Haaretz newspaper – whose journalist Nir…

Nvidia’s market value has surged past $3tn (£2.3tn), lifting the chipmaker ahead of Apple to become the second most valuable publicly listed company in the world.The firm’s share price rose more than 5% on Wednesday, to more than $1,224. It extended a breathtakingly rapid climb that started last year, powered by bets that the firm is positioned to be a major winner from a wave of investment in artificial intelligence (AI).Its market value now sits just behind Microsoft, another key player in the industry thanks to its investments in Chat GPT-maker OpenAI.Valued at “just” $2tn as recently as February, Nvidia…

10 hours agoChris Andrews,BBC News NICBS Photo ArchiveTom Hanks joined the film’s other stars in a boot camp pre-filming”Most of the explosive charges on that beach were real, so when they went off the beach shook.”In 1997, the usually peaceful Curracloe Beach in County Wexford was transformed into a scene of bloodshed and horror as Steven Spielberg recreated D-Day in Ireland.Saving Private Ryan was released to critical and veterans’ acclaim for how it depicted the American assault on Omaha Beach.The story followed the mission of Cpt John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, who was tasked with locating James Francis Ryan,…