
Nigeria senate chamber be like "cult" - Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan
Nigerian Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan don allege say she experience sexual harassment involving di President of di Nigerian Senate, allegation wey e deny.
Speaking to BBC, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan - wey be one of only four women for di 109-member Senate - describe di chamber as "a cult" and say pipo no dey express contrary views for fear of retaliation.

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The National
25 minutes ago
- The National
BBC bosses draw up plans to win trust of Reform UK voters
Minutes from a meeting of the broadcaster's editorial guidelines and standards committee from March show that BBC News CEO Deborah Turness gave a presentation in which she discussed plans to alter "story selection" and "other types of output, such as drama" to win the trust of Reform voters. The minutes, which were reported by The Byline Times, also show the committee identified "the importance of local BBC teams" to their plan to win over supporters of Nigel Farage. There is reportedly a belief that the coporation's news and drama output is creating "low trust issues" with Farage backers. The minutes states: "The CEO, News and Current Affairs provided the Committee with a presentation on plans to address low trust issues with Reform voters. READ MORE: Richard Murphy: What to expect from Rachel Reeves's spending review "The committee discussed the presentation. Committee members recognised the importance of local BBC teams in the plan, given their closeness to audiences. "Directors discussed how story selection and other types of output, such as drama, also had a role to play. An update on progress would return to a future meeting." The committee includes former GB News executive Robbie Gibb, who is also a former director of communications at Number 10 and an outspoken Brexiteer. Gibb was appointed to the board by former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021. He was identified by former BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis in 2022 as an 'active agent of the Conservative party'. Farage has repeatedly used his own GB News platform to attack the BBC, calling it a 'political actor' and threatening to boycott the corporation. In language also used by the BBC Editorial Committee, the Reform leader suggested that BBC editors were using 'story selection' in order to target his party. In an incident last year, Farage refused to appear on the BBC until the broadcaster apologised for allowing members of the public to ask him questions during a special episode of Question Time. READ MORE: UK sends spy plane over Gaza as Madleen threatened by Israel Byline Times said BBC staffers it spoke to are concerned about the plan to win over Reform voters, due to the risk of increasing allegations of bias. The BBC has previously been criticised by some viewers for heavily featuring Reform UK politicians on its programmes, despite the party only having a handful of MPs. In July last year, sociology professor Tom Mills – author of The BBC: The Myth of a Public Service – claimed the BBC were giving such a platform to Farage because they are such a big part of a 'political establishment which has drifted to the right'. 'I think the simple answer to why they [the BBC] like Nigel Farage is they are much more comfortable with an anti-establishment figure on the right than the left. It's as simple as that," he said. 'He's on their political spectrum and the political spectrum for the BBC runs from the centrists out to Nigel Farage. 'They still see those guys [like Farage] as being rogue figures of the establishment, but they are just given legitimacy by the fact that there's lots of voices they [the BBC] see to be legitimate in these media organisations which speak from a similar sort of perspective.' The BBC has been approached for comment.


Belfast Telegraph
an hour ago
- Belfast Telegraph
The BBC got us through endless Northern nights, Gerry Adams
The BBC is 'The British Broadcasting Corporation', but nobody calls it that except Gerry Adams. Again and again, very deliberately, as he savours his triumph in the recent libel action against 'The British Broadcasting Corporation', he gives it the full official title — almost as if the 'British' part has connotations of inherent badness. He claims that his purpose in taking the action was to 'put manners' on this British Broadcasting Corporation. There were even suggestions — later denied — that the BBC would consider blocking the transmission of its programmes in this country, rather than risk further exposure to our atrocious libel laws.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Zia Yusuf issues humiliating apology for row over Reform MP's 'dumb' burka ban question that saw him quit Farage party - and backs outlawing head coverings
Former Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf made a humiliating on-air apology for his role in a public row over banning burkas today that resulted in him temporarily quitting the party. Mr Yusuf used a BBC interview to say he regretted a tweet in which he said Sarah Pochin had asked a 'dumb' question at Prime Minister's Questions last Wednesday. He insisted his tweet 'did not criticise her as dumb' directly, and he had in fact only been saying her question was dumb. And the son of Sri Lankan Muslim immigrants said that if he was an MP he 'would be in favour of banning face coverings in public', even though he is generally 'queasy about banning things'. Mr Yusuf, a former City banker, quit as chairman 24 hours after his criticism of Ms Pochin later, only to abruptly U-turn and return to the party ranks 48 hours later on Saturday, albeit in a different, lesser role leading its council cost-cutting unit. Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme he reiterated that 'exhaustion led to a poor decision' to quit and that Ms Pochin was 'a tremendous MP (and) a phenomenal asset to the party and the House of Commons.' Announcing his resignation on Thursday afternoon, Mr Yusuf said: 'I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.' Asked about the burka ban row he said at the time he 'certainly did not resign because I have any strong views about the burka itself' but felt blindsided by the question. Announcing his resignation on Thursday afternoon, Mr Yusuf said: 'I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time, and hereby resign the office.' Mr Yusuf told Today: 'If I was an MP I would think about it very deeply and I probably would be in favour of banning face coverings in public writ large, not just the burka – you know I have seen (masked) Antifa thugs threaten Nigel, threaten our employees and attack one of his security detail and knock a tooth out. 'It's a very threatening thing and we live in dangerous times.' 'The thing that frustrated me at the time was that I did think at that moment that the best thing to do was to ask a question about something that would be policy. 'I'm very queasy and uneasy about banning things that would be, for example, unconstitutional in the United States, as I think it would be, but we have a very particular situation here in the UK, I would think about it very deeply but I probably would be in favour of a ban.' The ex-chairman will also take part in policymaking, fundraising and media appearances in his role leading the so-called 'UK Doge', based on the US Department of Government Efficiency formerly led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. He will be working alongside another millionaire, the Brexit backer Arron Banks, in councils run by Reform to route out supposed waste. Mr Banks, who stood as a Reform candidate in the local elections in May, said yesterday that Mr Yusuf's return was 'an inspirational move' that played to the strengths of someone who was 'a brilliant communicator with the media and a genius on tech'. However, on Friday night, after Mr Yusuf resigned, he was less complimentary, tweeting: 'Zia worked very hard but struggled with relationships and people. The corks will be popping in party HQ this evening.. Reform will power on …' Party leader Nigel Farage, speaking to the Sunday Times newspaper alongside Mr Yusuf, said the former chairman will return and effectively be doing 'four jobs', though his title has not yet been decided. Yesterday it was put to deputy leader Richard Tice that that it does not look very professional for Reform's chairman to be in, out, then back in again. He told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: 'Zia Yusuf has done a brilliant job in growing the party, creating huge infrastructure, over 400 branches, but it's a massive job and as we were growing incredibly fast, essentially that job was too much for one person, so we're reorganising, and I'm delighted that Zia is staying with the party, and he's going to be focusing on our Doge unit. 'There is so much waste you've been talking about, how does the Government find more money? 'Well, the best thing is to stop wasting money. I'm afraid, what we're discovering as we look under the bonnet of the 10 councils that we are now in control of, is there's waste everywhere, and it's got to stop. 'That's what Zia is going to focus on, as well as fundraising. So it's great news he's with us.' Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Chris Philp called Reform UK a 'protest party' and said it is offering 'populist policies that are essentially Liz Truss on steroids'.