First Asian women elected as Blackburn councillors
BBC Saima Afzal and Maryam Batan celebrate their election victories Blackburn voters have elected the town’s first Asian women councillors. Labour’s Saima Afzal – who first stood as a candidate in 1999 – and Maryam Batan have been toasting victory. The Lancashire town has one of England’s largest Asian populations but the absence of Asian […]
‘People had to get to know me eventually’
Getty Images Stefflon Don says she’d struggled to be vulnerable enough to release an album until now Stefflon Don’s taken 10 years to release her debut album. But it’s not because the rapper – real name Stephanie Victoria Allen – hasn’t been working. With multiple awards under her belt, including a MOBO for Best Female […]
My party doesn’t care enough and I want to change that
BBC The Conservative Party has stopped caring about serious policies and is only interested in chasing “easy votes”, a former minister has said. Phillip Lee, who quit the government to campaign for another EU referendum, said the party was “distracted” by Brexit – a “single issue”. And it was time to reclaim the “centre ground” […]
One Scottish man’s idea to fix the broken world of online debate
BBC Kal Turnbull hopes his new website Change A View will result in better online debate An idea by a Highlands teenager has garnered worldwide attention and is now, six years later, the basis for a fledgling start-up. At its heart is a simple question: how do you fix the often ugly world of online […]
The film which beat Barbie at the box office in Italy
Fremantle The domestic abuse experienced by the film’s heroine, Delia, has resonated across Italy Greta Gerwig’s Barbie may be the most financially successful movie ever to be directed by a female filmmaker, and the highest-grossing film of 2023. But it was beaten at the box office in Italy by another film, also made by a […]
Should we be worried about older politicians?
Getty Images As Joe Biden and Donald Trump compete to win the 2024 US presidential election, the advancing age of both candidates is in the spotlight again. Science says there are both pros and cons to having older leaders. The US has become a hotspot for debates about whether people in the political sphere can […]
Wicked plus-size dancer from Watford hopes to inspire others
Tegan Browne-Winter Tegan Browne-Winter said she was discouraged from a career in dance for not looking “a certain way” A plus-size dancer in the new Wicked film hopes she can inspire others to follow their ambitions. Raised in Watford, Hertfordshire, Tegan Browne-Winter said she was discouraged from pursuing a career in the arts and was […]
Businesses warn over ‘UK workers first’ proposal
Reuters Firms that rely on EU workers have warned of the “catastrophic” impact of proposals to slash unskilled migration on the day Britain leaves the EU. They could face a skills tax to boost training of UK workers if they still chose to employ unskilled EU staff. But business groups say a “sudden” cut could […]
Virginia’s first lady in cotton-picking race row
Getty Images Pam Northam, wife of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, has apologised for upsetting the family Virginia’s first lady has apologised after being accused of handing African-American children cotton during a historic tour of the governor’s home. A government worker claimed Pam Northam asked the young students to imagine they were picking the cotton as […]
‘I used to think tech jobs were for nerdy men’
Growing up Zoe Thomas never thought she could work in computing. The 29-year-old from Caerphilly had thought coding was a job for men who were good at maths. Even now women make up just 31% of staff in tech. But she decided to try something new while working in customer service for a not-for-profit in […]