The Pandora Papers leak has once again cast a spotlight on the funding of UK political parties by wealthy donors. The Conservative Party are under scrutiny after files included in the Pandora Papers leak revealed how a prominent donor was involved in a corruption scandal. In the past, Labour and the Lib Dems have also
Month: October 2021
A prominent Tory donor who contributed to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign was involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals, a BBC investigation has discovered. Mohamed Amersi has given nearly £525,000 to the party since 2018. Leaked documents reveal how he worked on a series of controversial deals for a Swedish telecoms company that was
CBS A former Facebook whistleblower responsible for a series of bombshell leaks has revealed her identity. Frances Haugen, 37, who worked as a product manager on the vivid misinformation team at Facebook, was interviewed on Sunday by CBS. She said the documents she leaked proved that Facebook repeatedly prioritised “growth over safety”. Facebook said the
Fancy a job with great sea views? Meet the engineers who maintain 174 turbines that make up the world’s largest offshore wind farm, off the coast of Yorkshire. They live on a ship in the North Sea for 14 days at a time, working 12-hour shifts. Each turn of a turbine blade can provide enough
EPA A private plane has crashed into an empty office block in the northern Italian city of Milan, killing all eight people on board. The plane, which was bound for the island of Sardinia, came down after taking off from Milan’s Linate airport. The pilot was Romanian billionaire Dan Petrescu, 68. He died alongside his
Getty Images The family of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, that has dominated the country’s politics since independence, secretly owned a network of offshore companies for decades, according to a huge leak of financial papers. The Pandora Papers – 12 million files – is the biggest such leak in history. Mr Kenyatta and six members of
Tony and Cherie Blair did not have to pay £312,000 in stamp duty when buying a £6.45m London townhouse, leaked documents show. The ex-Labour prime minister and his barrister wife bought the property as an office for her business in 2017 by buying the offshore firm that owned it. Mrs Blair said the sellers had
The secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires has been exposed in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents. Some 35 current and former leaders and more than 300 public officials are featured in the files from offshore companies, dubbed the Pandora Papers. They reveal the King of Jordan secretly amassed
Getty Images Thousands of paedophiles have operated within the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of a panel investigating abuses by church members says. Jean-Marc Sauvé told French media that the commission had found evidence of 2,900 to 3,200 abusers – out of a total of 115,000 priests and other clerics. “That is a
Getty Images American supermodel Emily Ratajkowski has alleged she was sexually assaulted on the set of the music video for the hit song Blurred Lines. In her upcoming book, the 30-year-old accuses singer Robin Thicke of groping her without consent during filming of the 2013 video. Thicke, 44, has not yet responded to the BBC’s
Boris Johnson has refused to rule out raising taxes again, three weeks before the chancellor announces the Budget. Speaking on the first day of his party’s conference in Manchester, the prime minister said he was a “zealous opponent of unnecessary tax rises”. But he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the pandemic had hit the
Getty / Anadolu Agency The boss of United Airlines has told the BBC that firing staff who refuse to get a coronavirus vaccine is “just the right thing to do”. Around 300 of the airline’s 67,000 US based staff are yet to comply with the strict policy, after an initial deadline of 27 September. Vaccine
Getty Images A high-profile rape allegation at Chinese tech giant Alibaba has sparked a social media storm in recent weeks about the “toxic” work culture of pressuring employees to drink at work gatherings. As public scrutiny of corporate misbehaviour grows in China, can the age-old tradition of business drinking be dropped forever? Roughly every two
“Twelve hours on your feet, flying to Kyiv to Zanzibar and back. If you wear high heels, you are hardly able to walk afterwards,” says flight attendant Daria Solomennaya, 27. “That includes four hours of security checks and cleaning.” She works for SkyUp Airlines, one of the youngest low-cost airlines in Europe, but one of
EPA Boris Johnson has pledged the Conservatives will “change and improve” the economy after Covid, as the party opens its annual conference later. The PM said the country cannot “go back to how things were” before the pandemic. It comes after he accused the haulage industry of being too reliant on low-paid immigration, amid shortages
Reuters Thousands of people have taken to the streets in towns and cities across Brazil to protest against the country’s president Jair Bolsonaro. The protests were organised by opposition parties and trade unions and fall exactly one year ahead of the country’s elections. Mr Bolsonaro is currently falling behind in opinion polls. Many Brazilians are