Chris Fox looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week including: A legal challenge which could ban UK government ministers from using self-destructing WhatsApp or Signal text messages for official business is launched Wine experts discover whether a bottle of wine which has spent a year in space tastes any different
Month: April 2021
Getty Images Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte has narrowly survived a vote of no confidence over his conduct during talks to form a governing coalition. But he remains under pressure after parliament adopted a formal motion of disapproval which noted he had not “spoken the truth” during the talks. Mr Rutte is accused of
Getty Images Beauty YouTuber James Charles has admitted sending sexually explicit messages to two 16-year-old boys. “I fully understand my actions and how they are wrong,” the 21-year-old influencer said in a video posted to his YouTube channel on Thursday. Allegations against Charles first emerged on social media earlier this year. In February, the influencer
Reuters At least 34 people have died and 70 remain trapped after a train carrying around 350 passengers derailed inside a tunnel in Taiwan. Dozens more have been injured, with rescuers trying to access several badly damaged carriages inside the tunnel. Local media say the eight-carriage train hit a construction vehicle that had slipped onto
PA Media Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and senior Tory Iain Duncan Smith are among more than 70 MPs to launch a campaign opposing Covid passports in England. Any demand to prove vaccination status to access jobs, businesses or services would be “divisive and discriminatory”, the cross-party group said. It comes as the Daily Telegraph
As a young woman, Ieva Lesinska was faced with an agonising choice – betray her father, or leave her mother, friends and homeland of Latvia behind forever. A film has now been made about her experience, it’s called: ‘My Father, the Spy.’ Ieva tells her story as part of the Secrets and Lies series on
Nike has won its lawsuit against Brooklyn art collective MSCHF over their controversial ‘Satan Shoes’ that contain a drop of real human blood in the soles. The $1,018 (£740) trainers are modified Nike Air Max 97s that feature an inverted cross, a pentagram and the words “Luke 10:18”. MSCHF produced the shoes in collaboration with
Online retailer Boohoo is investigating why the same items of clothing were sold for higher prices across a number of its fashion labels. The BBC discovered that Dorothy Perkins and Coast, which are both owned by Boohoo, sold exactly the same coat but it cost £34 more at Coast. There are price disparities across a
An investigation by BBC Africa Eye has uncovered evidence that a massacre in northern Ethiopia was carried out by members of the Ethiopian military. It also reveals the precise location of the atrocity, in which at least 15 men were killed. In early March, a series of five video clips surfaced on social media showing
Reuters Officials have identified the gunman in a shooting inside an office building in southern California that left four people dead, including a nine-year-old boy. The child died while being embraced by another victim, police said. The Wednesday attack in Orange, 30 miles south of Los Angeles, ended when officers shot and wounded the suspect.
Reuters George Floyd’s girlfriend has given emotional testimony as the murder trial of former US police officer Derek Chauvin enters its fourth day. Courteney Ross told the court of their first kiss, and their struggle with opioid addiction. Meanwhile a paramedic said he had to indicate Mr Chauvin should move off Mr Floyd’s limp body
Each NCAA tournament, we see a few players rise up draft boards while playing on the biggest stage in college basketball. Players like Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver and Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter elevated their draft stock in 2019 after both teams made a Final Four run. Hunter was drafted No. 4 overall and now plays for
Sir Ian McKellen is set to play the role of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a role typically played by an actor around 50 years younger. Famous for his classical roles, as well as playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, McKellan is now set to star in a staging of the work that will be one
Samuel Kasumu Boris Johnson’s senior adviser on ethnic minorities is to stand down, amid a row over a government-commissioned report on race. Samuel Kasumu is known to have been unhappy with the government’s stance on racial issues. He has not commented on the report, which said the UK “no longer” had a system rigged against
PA Media A Met Police officer has been convicted of being a member of a banned neo-Nazi terrorist organisation. Benjamin Hannam, of Enfield, north London, was found guilty of membership of the banned right-wing extremist group National Action (NA). He was also convicted of lying on his Met Police application and having terror documents detailing
Getty Images At least 43 children have been killed by armed forces in Myanmar since February’s military coup, according to rights organisation Save the Children. The group said the South East Asian country was in a “nightmare situation”, with the youngest known victim just six years old. A local monitoring group puts the overall death