BBC presenter's 'perfect hug' goes wrong

The US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics was not about lecturing China but about “standing up for human rights”, the US climate envoy has said. John Kerry told Stephen Sackur, of BBC News’s Hardtalk programme, that addressing climate change was so important, it should be kept separate from other areas where there is…

Rebel Wilson made a name for herself as one of Hollywood’s top comedy actresses after appearing in the 2011 box-office hit Bridesmaids and the successful Pitch Perfect franchise. Now a producer and director, she’s been named one of the BBC’s 100 Women of 2021. In an exclusive BBC interview, Rebel reflects on her decision to…

The current situation which has seen increasing violence in Gaza and Israel was entirely started by Israel, the foreign affairs adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said. It was not about telling militants to stop firing rockets, but in the beginning “stopping Israeli aggression,” Dr Nabil Shaath told BBC World News on Thursday. Weeks…

Afghan singer Aryana Sayeed fled the country on a US army plane after the Taliban took control of the country’s capital Kabul. She told BBC World News: “It’s very sad, very unfortunate that Afghanistan is all the way back to 20 years ago when life was so miserable for a lot of women in Afghanistan.”…

Reports of a build-up of Russian troops on its shared border with Ukraine is “significant” and could lead to open conflict, Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations has said. He told BBC World News: “It’s clearly a deliberate decision by the Kremlin to escalate the conflict. Where this will lead us…

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says hopes of developing nations adapting to climate change remain low, as pledges made during the Paris climate talks six years ago remain unfulfilled. On Monday, he urged countries to end carbon emissions and called for an increase in climate financing.