Ariana Grande says she's not abandoning music for film

1 hour ago Share Save Srosh Khan & Jasmine Sandhar BBC Newsbeat Share Save

Getty Images Ariana Grande bagged three Grammy nominations for her last studio album Eternal Sunshine

Ariana Grande says she has no plans to abandon her music career after announcing she was working on another film project. After starring alongside Cynthia Erivo in Wicked, the Positions singer confirmed on Wednesday she'd been cast in the film adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You'll Go! But posting on socials, Ariana reassured fans that more acting roles doesn't mean an end to her music career, insisting there's room for both. Singing and music "is and has always been my lifeline", she says. "There will need to be room made for all of it."

The US singer released her latest album, Eternal Sunshine, in 2024 but fans haven't had the opportunity to see her perform it live yet. She hasn't toured since her Sweetener World Tour in 2019, but also teased she may have plans to be back on the road soon. "I'm working on a plan to sing for you all next year," she posted. "Even if it's just for a little."

Getty Images Ariana's last world tour was in 2019

Ariana also has a make-up business and says balancing her other projects means her music career "may not look exactly like it did before but I much prefer how it looks in my head". "I feel grateful and excited and inspired. Finding a balance between many projects and endeavours I love and doing it my own way." Super fan Michael Rodrigues De Jesus says he "internally screamed really loudly" when he saw the post and the hint of a tour. But he thinks if Ariana does go on the road, it would be "a mini tour" and "a lot of fans might be upset". "I've seen different discourses online where people are really upset that she's doing movies," the 23-year-old from Luton says. Michael also thinks the fandom is split with some disappointed music isn't the star's sole focus. "I did feel a bit of that same sentiment," he says. "Like are we ever going to get another tour? Has she found a home in acting that she wants to stay in forever? What's my personality going to be if not an Ariana music lover?" But overall, Michael says he "doesn't think anyone's missed out". "As a fan it's exciting to see an artist you like doing a lot of things. You get to experience their talent in a lot more ways."

First broadcast in 1997, this documentary gives the band's account of their previous year. Featuring exclusive performances and detailed interviews with the Gallaghers.

Based on a true story, the journey of a family whose unwavering resolve and unconditional belief ultimately deliver two of the world's greatest sports legends, Venus and Serena Williams. More

Hugo Ekitike is the latest success story of Eintracht Frankfurt's recruitment.

The Frenchman was not unknown when he first joined Frankfurt on loan in early 2024 but had fallen in a bit of a hole. The striker had attracted the interest of other clubs, including Newcastle United, when he was coming through at Reims.

He opted for joining Paris St-Germain but he couldn't quite break through amid the club's embarrassment of riches in the attacking department.

Frankfurt picked him up and signed him on a permanent deal a year ago. He served as both a lone striker and in a partnership under Frankfurt manager Dino Toppmoller.

During the first half of last season, Ekitike and Omar Marmoush formed a fearsome pairing but this was broken up when Manchester City signed Marmoush for £63m in January.

Subsequently, Frankfurt did not acquire a replacement for Marmoush and instead changed the tactical set-up. During the second half of their 2024-25 campaign, Ekitike played up front, with two attacking midfielders behind him.

As for Ekitike's playing style, he is versatile and is not a striker who only feels at home inside the box. When he played alongside Marmoush, both swapped positions constantly. Ekitike might not be the most dynamic player, but he can get by defenders with smart moves.

His tactical understanding is one of his great strengths not just in possession, but also when it comes to applying a high or midfield press.

Jaguar Land Rover to cut up to 500 jobs

53 minutes ago Share Save Tom Espiner Business reporter, BBC News Share Save

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Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to cut up to 500 management jobs, as the carmaker faces pressure on sales and profits from US trade tariffs. JLR said it would launch a voluntary redundancy scheme, and that the cuts were not expected to exceed 1.5% of its British workforce. The firm described the move as "normal business practice". Last week, the carmaker revealed a drop in sales in the three months to June caused partly by it pausing exports to the US because of tariffs and also due to the planned wind-down of older Jaguar models. The company warned last month that US President Donald Trump's decision to impose a 10% tariff on British cars exported to the US would hit its profits.

JLR said it "regularly offers eligible employees voluntary redundancy" and said the current programme was based on "the business's current and future needs". It added that the UK-US trade deal on car imports gives it "confidence to invest £3.5bn" per year. Car industry expert Professor David Bailey of the Birmingham Business School said the tariffs "play a big role" in the job cuts. "It wasn't that long ago that JLR was reporting bumper profits - £2.5bn profit to the year ending in March - which was its best results in a decade," he told the BBC's Wake Up to Money programme. The firm has also been taking on workers in preparation for producing more electric cars so the tariffs "have definitely had an impact", he said. As part of a wave of tariff announcements made by Trump earlier this year, UK exports of UK cars and automotive parts faced an extra 25% tax, on top of an existing 2.5% levy. This led to JLR pausing shipments of its vehicles to the US. However, the UK-US deal saw the tariff cut to 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK cars, which matches the number of these vehicles that the UK exported last year. Despite this, Prof Bailey said the new rate is still "a big increase" from the previous tariff of 2.5%, adding that one of its best selling cars, the Defender, is made in Slovakia and that still faces a 27.5% tariff. Downing Street rejected "absolutely" any suggestion that JLR's job cuts were a personal embarrassment for Sir Keir Starmer, who visited the company in May and declared it was his intention to protect British jobs in the car industry. A spokesperson for the PM said the UK-US trade deal was "jobs saved, not job done", adding that JLR was "responding to challenging global conditions" in making the cuts.

Intense thundery downpours are set to bring a risk of flash flooding to parts of the UK Friday night and into Saturday.

The hardest hit communities could see well over a month's worth of rain falling in the space of a few hours leading to a significant risk of disruption.

Yellow thunderstorm warnings have been issued by the Met Office with torrential rain bringing around 20-30mm (about an inch) in an hour but as much as 60-90mm of rain in a few hours. This is well over a month's worth of rain falling in a few hours for the biggest storms.

Soils have been baked dry especially across England and east Wales after three successive summer heatwaves.

Heavy rains cannot easily be absorbed by dry soils, external with water tending to run off rapidly bringing a greater chance of seeing some areas of flash flooding.

Babies made using three people's DNA are born free of hereditary disease

16 hours ago Share Save James Gallagher • @JamesTGallagher Health and science correspondent Share Save

Watch the moment DNA from a mum and dad is injected into the egg of another woman - the critical step in the creation of a baby made from three people

Eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions, doctors say. The method, pioneered by UK scientists, combines the egg and sperm from a mum and dad with a second egg from a donor woman. The technique has been legal here for a decade but we now have the first proof it is leading to children born free of incurable mitochondrial disease. These conditions are normally passed from mother to child, starving the body of energy.

This can cause severe disability and some babies die within days of being born. Couples know they are at risk if previous children, family members or the mother has been affected. Children born through the three-person technique inherit most of their DNA, their genetic blueprint, from their parents, but also get a tiny amount, about 0.1%, from the second woman. This is a change that is passed down the generations. None of the families who have been through the process are speaking publicly to protect their privacy, but have issued anonymous statements through the Newcastle Fertility Centre where the procedures took place.

'Overwhelmed with gratitude'

"After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope - and then it gave us our baby," said the mother of a baby girl. "We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we're overwhelmed with gratitude."

The mother of a baby boy added: "Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete. "The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude."

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Mitochondria are tiny structures inside nearly every one of our cells. They are the reason we breathe as they use oxygen to convert food into the form of energy our bodies use as fuel. Defective mitochondria can leave the body with insufficient energy to keep the heart beating as well as causing brain damage, seizures, blindness, muscle weakness and organ failure. About one in 5,000 babies are born with mitochondrial disease. The team in Newcastle anticipate there is demand for 20 to 30 babies born through the three-person method each year. Some parents have faced the agony of having multiple children die from these diseases. Mitochondria are passed down only from mother to child. So this pioneering fertility technique uses both parents and a woman who donates her healthy mitochondria. The science was developed more than a decade ago at Newcastle University and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a specialist service opened within the NHS in 2017.

The eggs from both the mother and the donor are fertilised in the lab with the dad's sperm. The embryos develop until the DNA from the sperm and egg form a pair of structures called the pro-nuclei. These contain the blueprints for building the human body, such as hair colour and height. The pro-nuclei are removed from both embryos and the parents' DNA is put inside the embryo packed with healthy mitochondria. The resulting child is genetically related to their parents, but should be free from mitochondrial disease.

A pair of reports, in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed 22 families have gone through the process at the Newcastle Fertility Centre. It led to four boys and four girls, including one pair of twins, and one ongoing pregnancy. "To see the relief and joy in the faces of the parents of these babies after such a long wait and fear of consequences, it's brilliant to be able to see these babies alive, thriving and developing normally," Prof Bobby McFarland, the director of the NHS Highly Specialised Service for Rare Mitochondrial Disorders told the BBC. All of the babies were born free of mitochondrial disease and met their expected developmental milestones.

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There was a case of epilepsy, which cleared up by itself and one child has an abnormal heart rhythm which is being successfully treated. These are not thought to be connected to defective mitochondria. It is not known whether this is part of the known risks of IVF, something specific to the three-person method or something that has been detected only because the health of all babies born through this technique is monitored intensely. Another key question hanging over the approach has been whether defective mitochondria would be transferred into the healthy embryo and what the consequences could be. The results show that in five cases the diseased mitochondria were undetectable. In the other three, between 5% and 20% of mitochondria were defective in blood and urine samples. This is below the 80% level thought to cause disease. It will take further work to understand why this occurred and if it can be prevented.

Getty Images A picture of a mitochondrion taken with a microscope - there are up to half a million in a fertilised egg.

Prof Mary Herbert, from Newcastle University and Monash University, said: "The findings give grounds for optimism. However, research to better understand the limitations of mitochondrial donation technologies, will be essential to further improve treatment outcomes." The breakthrough gives hope to the Kitto family. Kat's youngest daughter Poppy, 14, has the disease. Her eldest Lily, 16, may pass it onto her children. Poppy is in a wheelchair, is non-verbal and is fed through a tube. "It's impacted a huge part of her life," says Kat, "we have a lovely time as she is, but there are the moments where you realize how devastating mitochondrial disease is".

BBC/Josh Elgin Kat Kitto (R) in black top with her daughter Lily and Monty the dog

Despite decades of work there is still no cure for mitochondrial disease, but the chance to prevent it being passed on gives hope to Lily. "It's the future generations like myself, or my children, or my cousins, who can have that outlook of a normal life," she says.

'Only the UK could do this'

The UK not only developed the science of three-person babies, but it also became the first country in the world to introduce laws to allow their creation after a vote in Parliament in 2015. There was controversy as mitochondria have DNA of their own, which controls how they function. It means the children have inherited DNA from their parents and around 0.1% from the donor woman. Any girls born through this technique would pass this onto their own children, so it is a permanent alteration of human genetic inheritance. This was a step too far for some when the technology was debated, raising fears it would open the doors to genetically-modified "designer" babies. Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University, told me: "I think this is the only place in the world this could have happened, there's been first class science to get us to where we are, there been legislation to allow it to move into clinical treatment, the NHS to help support it and now we've got eight children that seem to free of mitochondrial disease, what a wonderful result."

Liz Curtis, the founder of the Lily Foundation charity said: "After years of waiting, we now know that eight babies have been born using this technique, all showing no signs of mito. "For many affected families, it's the first real hope of breaking the cycle of this inherited condition."