Author: BBC

Danielle CoddBusiness reporterBBCTom says he worries constantly about how he’s going to pay to make his building safeFlat owners are being hit with huge bills for fire safety work because their blocks are not tall enough to qualify for funding announced after the Grenfell Tower fire.The previous government launched the Building Safety Act after the 2017 fire which killed 72 people. But the rules do not apply to buildings under 11m (36ft) or five storeys high. Some lawyers claim the new law was “rushed” but the government says it covers the majority of leaseholders and it will continue to review…

Messaging service WhatsApp went down briefly on Friday afternoon, thousands of users reported.Downdetector, a site which monitors platform outages, received more than 50,000 reports from users shortly after 15:30 GMT, which began to decline soon after.WhatsApp said the issues, largely impacting users’ ability to send messages, had now been resolved.”We know some people briefly had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp,” a spokesperson told the BBC. “We’ve fixed the issue.”Some users reported problems affecting Facebook and Facebook Messenger, but in much fewer numbers than WhatsApp.The end to end encrypted messaging app, acquired by Meta in 2014, has nearly three billion users…

TV chef and restauranteur Heston Blumenthal said he was back in the kitchen and “thinking more clearly” as he takes on an ambassadorial role with a charity following his bipolar disorder diagnosis.The 58-year-old said since he spoke publicly he had received thousands of messages from others living with the condition.Blumenthal runs a number of award-winning restaurants, including the three Michelin starred The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire.He has become an official ambassador for Bipolar UK, having been diagnosed with the condition in 2023.According to Bipolar UK, the mental health condition is an episodic disorder characterised by sometimes extreme changes in…

Patients will be able to book more appointments online and request to see their usual doctor under a new contract agreed with England’s GPs, the government has said.The deal gives an extra £889m a year to general practices, as well as a reduction in red tape and targets that ministers hope will mean doctors are freed up to see more patients.The Labour government made manifesto promises to bring back “family” doctors and end the early morning phone “scramble” for appointments. The doctors’ union, the BMA, says the deal is an important first step in restoring general practices.However, doctors also want…

Lucy Acheson and Thomas CopelandBBC NewsAnn-Marie KinsmanReece Kinsman says he relies on physical cash to remain independent and buy things for himselfLeading disability charities have called on the government to ensure that people will continue to be able to use physical cash in shops.It comes after a government minister said that shops will not be forced to accept cash, despite concerns that millions of vulnerable people rely on it.Disability Rights UK (DRUK) and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) are warning that making card payments the default creates “more barriers” for disabled people.The BBC has heard from disabled…

Padraig BeltonTechnology ReporterMaterThe Mater hospital in Dublin – home to Ireland’s busiest emergency departmentFor a country famous as Big Tech’s European address, Ireland’s hospitals often lag far behind in technology.They lack shared computerised patient records, or unique identifiers to track people when they move between clinics.In July 2024, a computer system failure made Dublin’s Mater hospital push back surgeries and beg people not to come to its A&E.Three years before, Russian ransomware attackers shut down the Irish health system’s entire computer network, and published 520 people’s medical records online.But Ireland now has ambitious goals to modernise its healthcare.That includes a…

Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Riz Ahmed and Miriam Margolyes are among more than 500 media figures who have criticised the BBC’s decision to pull a documentary about children’s lives in Gaza.The BBC has said it removed Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer while it carried out “further due diligence” after discovering its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.The open letter, published by Artists for Palestine UK, criticised what the signatories said was a “racist” and “dehumanising” campaign targeting the documentary. It called on the BBC to “reject attempts to have the documentary permanently removed…

Ken BanksBBC Scotland, AberdeenUniversity of AberdeenDr Lionel Broche said it was hoped the scanner could ultimately improve treatmentA scanner developed in Aberdeen could be potentially “extraordinary” for diagnosing and treating breast cancer, it has been claimed.Scientists from the University of Aberdeen used a prototype version of the new Field Cycling Imager (FCI) scanner to examine the breast tissue of patients newly-diagnosed with cancer.They said they found that the FCI scanner could distinguish tumour material from healthy tissue with more accuracy than current Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods.While similar to MRI – which was also developed in Aberdeen – the FCI…

The public, environment groups and investors are being asked for their views about how the water sector can be changed by a body set up by the UK government.The head of a new independent commission will invite ideas on how to fix England and Wales’ troubled water industry. Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, will launch his call for evidence in Manchester on Thursday morning.There has been growing public anger about water company performance amid massive sewage leaks and soaring bills, and the commission is looking for views on reform.Environment Secretary Steve Reed has…

Instagram is reportedly considering launching its short-form video feature, Reels, as a separate app as the future of Chinese-owned TikTok remains uncertain in the US.The social media platform’s boss Adam Mosseri told staff about the potential move this week, according to technology industry–focused business publication The Information, which cited a person who heard the remarks.Instagram’s parent company Meta did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.In January, US President Donald Trump granted TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law signed by then-President Joe Biden that requires a sale or ban of the platform.At the time, he…