Author: BBC

Philippa RoxbyHealth reporterGetty ImagesParents are being prevented from vaccinating their children because of obstacles such as difficulty booking appointments and a lack of reminders on what jabs are needed and when, a report suggests.Child health experts say “practical or logistical reasons” are discouraging families more often than fears over the vaccines.Vaccine uptake in the UK has fallen over the last decade, leading to outbreaks of measles and whooping cough.UK health officials say they are committed to working with the NHS to improve vaccine uptake among children.’Easier access’Since 2022, no childhood vaccine in the UK has met the World Health Organisation…

The amount of time off and pay new parents can get after the birth of a child will be looked at in a “landmark” review, the government says.Ministers said they wanted to modernise the system across paternity, maternity and shared parental leave, which campaigners said had been “overlooked for years”.Campaign group The Dad Shift called the review the “best chance in a generation to improve the system and make sure it actually works for working families”.A committee of MPs recently called the UK’s parental leave system “one of the worst in the developed world” with “fundamental flaws”.Shadow business secretary Andrew…

Paul GlynnCulture reporterGetty ImagesBob Vylan describe themselves on social media as the “prettiest punk/rap/alt thing you’ll ever meet”Ipswich punk-rap duo Bob Vylan grabbed the headlines at Glastonbury Festival over the weekend, but for many readers, the name might be a new one.Organisers of the festival said they were “appalled” after frontman Bobby Vylan led a crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]”.The prime minister condemned them for using what he called “appalling hate speech”. And on Monday, Avon and Somerset Police said a criminal investigation has been launched over performances by the band and Irish…

President Donald Trump has said he has a buyer for TikTok, the video-sharing app that was banned in the US amid claims it posed a national security risk.In a Fox News interview, Trump said he had a group of “very wealthy people” willing to acquire the platform. “I’ll tell you in about two weeks,” he teased.A sale would need approval from the Chinese government, but Trump told Fox he thought President Xi Jinping “will probably do it”.This month Trump delayed for a third time the enforcement of a law mandating TikTok’s sale. The latest extension requires parent company ByteDance to…

Sophie van BrugenBBC NewsBBCPupils at Platt Primary school in Maidstone learn about sun protectionChildren as young as five are being taught how to check UV levels and apply sunscreen, as part of a new pilot aimed at reducing future skin cancer cases.The initiative, currently being trialled in primary schools across Kent, is planned to be introduced into Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) lessons nationwide from 2026.Melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, is linked to UV exposure – and experts say sunburn in childhood significantly increases the risk later in life.In 2021, around 18,300 people were diagnosed with…

Canada has scrapped a tax on big US technology firms, just hours before it was due to come into force, to allow trade talks between the two countries to restart.On Friday, US President Donald Trump called off negotiations over a trade deal, describing the tax as a “blatant attack”, and threatened higher tariffs on imports from Canada.In response, Canada has said it is removing the tax, which should have come into effect on Monday.The digital services tax (DST) would have meant US tech giants including Amazon, Meta, Google and Apple, facing a 3% charge on Canadian revenue above $20m.Canada’s finance…

Christal HayesBBC News, Los AngelesPeacock via Getty ImagesLove Island USA – a spinoff of the UK reality series – is having its most-watched season yet. But its newfound popularity has come with a dark side. Contestants have been relentlessly cyberbullied on social media, so much so that the show aired a statement during a recent episode with a plea for viewers to halt the harassment. Its host Ariana Madix echoed the sentiment, asking viewers to rethink their posts and how they could impact the cast. The show – which places everyday men and women in a villa in Fiji to…

Graham Fraser and Imran Rahman-JonesTechnology reportersGetty ImagesMeta says it is “fixing” a problem which has led to Facebook Groups being wrongly suspended – but denied there is a wider issue on its platforms.In online forums, Group administrators say they have received automated messages stating, incorrectly, that they had violated policies so their Groups had been deleted.Some Instagram users have complained of similar problems with their own accounts, with many blaming Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) systems.Meta has acknowledged a “technical error” with Facebook Groups, but says it has not seen evidence of a significant increase in incorrect enforcement of its rules…

Getty ImagesFood businesses must make it easier for customers to buy healthy food, under new government plans announced on Sunday. Supermarkets and food manufacturers in England will partner with the government to tackle obesity rates by encouraging people to make their weekly shop healthier.Ministers say it will be up to food retailers to decide how they do that, but it could involve offering promotions on healthy food, tweaking loyalty points to incentivise healthy options, or changing shop layouts.It may also involve changing products to make them healthier.It is hoped the plans will help to make healthy eating more accessible to…

Uber’s use of dynamic pricing has led to higher fares for passengers and lower earnings for drivers, whilst increasing the company’s share of revenue, a study has suggested.The University of Oxford study analysed data from 258 Uber drivers in the UK over more than 1.5 million trips between 2016 and 2024.It found there had been a “significant shift” when the company introduced a dynamic pricing algorithm in 2023, which it said meant “passengers now pay more per trip, but drivers’ earnings have declined”.Uber said some claims in the report were “totally false”, adding that all drivers were shown their potential…