Author: BBC

What is it like to have an AI boyfriend? The women in China who date chatbots. Source link

18 hours agoAurelia Foster,Health reporterGetty ImagesThe best way to avoid sexually transmitted infections was using a condom, the UK Health Security Agency saidA record number of people in England were diagnosed with gonorrhoea last year, annual UK Health Security Agency figures show.Diagnoses rose 7.5% – from 79,268 in 2022 to 85,223 in 2023.Syphilis, meanwhile, rose 9.4% – from 8,693 to 9,513, the highest number since 1948 – with more heterosexual men and women becoming infected.Both have more than doubled in the past decade.Overall, sexually transmitted infection diagnoses, including several different STIs, rose 4.7%.Some of the rise may be due to…

Getty ImagesRussell rose to fame playing Sir Lancelot in the 1965 series Adventures of Sir LancelotOne of Doctor Who’s four original cast members, William Russell, has died aged 99.His death was confirmed and announced on Tuesday by the Guardian newspaper.Russell played schoolteacher Ian Chesterton in the first two series of the BBC’s sci-fi show and was the Doctor’s first companion.He left the show in 1965, but in 2022 he reprised his role and made a cameo in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode, The Power of The Doctor.The actor broke a Guinness World Record for the longest gap between TV appearances. In…

Just nowBernd Debusmann Jr,BBC News, Washington Getty ImagesThe number of migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border has been steadily falling this year. President Joe Biden has issued a sweeping executive order aimed at curbing record migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border that have left him politically vulnerable in an election year.Under the order, which took effect at midnight, officials can quickly remove migrants entering the US illegally without processing their asylum requests.That will happen once a daily threshold is met and the border is “overwhelmed”, the White House said in a statement.Rival Republicans say Mr Biden has not gone far…

Rising global conflict means countries will spend the next 10 years restocking arms, the boss of one of the UK’s largest weapons manufacturers has said.Chemring, which describes itself as a key supplier to Nato, said countries are reacting to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine as well as “an increasingly assertive China”.The firm wants sales, which are already hovering around record levels, to quadruple to nearly £1bn by 2030.“The increase in geo-political tensions around the world is driving a fundamental rearmament upcycle which is expected to last for at least the next decade,” said Chemring chief executive Michael Ord.The company…

Australia has abandoned a legal battle to have graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney removed from Elon Musk’s social media platform X.Declared a terror incident by police, the attack on bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in April was livestreamed online and led to riots outside the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, an independent regulator, threatened X and other social media companies with hefty fines if they did not remove videos of the stabbing, concerned it could incite further violence. The case was seen as a test of Australia’s ability to enforce its online safety rules…

3 hours agoYasmin Rufo,BBC News, @YasminRufoPamela Raith Actress Bex Hinds, who plays Stella, says she is excited to bring a musical about northerners to the West End The theatre landscape is changing. A few decades ago, the West End was packed with classic musicals and Shakespeare adaptations, but now they’re making way for a new type of show. Enter Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, a musical about two true crime podcast-obsessed friends who find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery. “We’re two northerners singing about true crime, we really didn’t think it would make it to the…

More than 34 million Americans are preparing for extreme temperatures, as a heat dome descends on the western part of the US this week. Forecasters are warning residents in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona to prepare for temperatures to reach triple digits before Friday due to the weather phenomenon. Later in the week, extreme temperatures are expected to reach parts of the Pacific Northwest. Similar temperatures last year killed at least a dozen people in the American Southwest, and US Border Patrol in Texas has already issued a warning that four migrants attempting to enter the US died over the…

2 hours agoKevin Peachey,Cost of living correspondentBBCThe portrait is the only change to existing banknotesNew banknotes featuring the portrait of King Charles III have now entered circulation, but it may be some time before they are commonly seen in wallets and purses.The new Bank of England notes will gradually replace those which are damaged, or will be issued when demand increases.The King is only the second monarch to appear on these notes, with Queen Elizabeth II first featuring in 1960.Shoppers can still use current circulating £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes carrying the portrait of the late Queen.The reverse side…

TikTok says it is addressing a cyber-attack that targeted several brands and celebrities.The video-sharing app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, told the BBC that a “very limited” number of accounts had been compromised.It added that it was working with users to restore access to their accounts.TikTok did not share further details on the perpetrators of the cyber-attack, or how it was carried out.One of the compromised accounts belonged to news outlet CNN.”We have been collaborating closely with CNN to restore account access and implement enhanced security measures to safeguard their account moving forward,” a TikTok spokesperson said.”We are…