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The Doctor Who New Year’s Day special was meant to give Jodie Whittaker’s ‘historic’ first series the grand finale worthy of its status. It did prove fairly fitting too, but for the wrong reasons, - epitomising what had gone with last year’s re-boot. Even when show-runner Chris Chibnall (belatedly) resorted to a story about the Daleks, it was merely a pale imitation.

<p>If you were adapting a story that has already been turned into a colossus of a stage musical and a triple-Oscar-winning Hollywood film, you might be expected to be slightly overawed by the task.</p> <p>The actors and producers of the latest iteration of Les Miserables – a six-part BBC take on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel – are suitably diplomatic about the stage show seen by 70 million people in 51 countries, giving verdicts that range from “perfectly good” to “brilliant”.</p>

Three years ago, BBC Culture ran its first major critics’ poll, to find the 100 greatest American films. Two further polls looked for the best films of the 21st Century and the greatest comedies ever made – and those also ended up with films from the US in the top spot. This year, we felt it was time to direct the spotlight away from Hollywood and celebrate the best cinema from around the world. We asked critics to vote for their favourite movies made primarily in a language other than English. The result is BBC Culture’s 100 greatest foreign-language films....

Fans have been speculating that Doctor's Who greatest nemesis will make a return to the show during its New Year special. And the BBC has finally confirmed during a teaser for the episode that the Daleks will be back with a vengeance, after show runner Chris Chibnall promised he wouldn't be using any 'old monsters'. In the new trailer which premiered on Christmas Day, Jodie Whittaker introduces the extraterrestrial race of mutants by saying 'this is the DNA of the most dangerous creature in the universe'.

For non-Chinese journalists, in Africa and elsewhere, working for Chinese state-run media offers generous remuneration and new opportunities. When CCTV launched its Washington headquarters in 2012, no fewer than five former or current BBC correspondents based in Latin America joined the broadcaster. One of them, Daniel Schweimler, who is now at al-Jazeera, said his experience there was fun and relatively trouble-free, though he didn’t think many people actually saw his stories. But foreign journalists working at Xinhua, the state-run news agency, see their stories reaching much larger audiences. Government subsidies cover around 40% of Xinhua’s costs, and it generates income...

s Trump won primary after primary in 2016, a rattled John Brennan started claiming to colleagues at the CIA that Estonia’s intelligence agency had alerted him to an intercepted phone call suggesting Putin was pouring money into the Trump campaign. The tip was bogus, but Brennan bit on it with opportunistic relish. Out of Brennan’s alarmist chatter about the bogus tip came an extraordinary leak to the BBC: that Brennan had used it, along with later half-baked tips from British intelligence, as the justification to form a multi-agency spy operation (given the Orwellian designation of an “inter-agency taskforce”) on the...

"Girls are better than boys," says 30-year-old Al-Munnahar. "Boys do not listen. They are arrogant. Girls are polite." Al-Munnahar, who lives in a small village on the east coast of Bangladesh, has three sons but wished for a girl. Once she thought she would have a daughter, but she miscarried the baby. She is among several women who have lost a baby in her village. While miscarriages are not out of the ordinary, scientists who follow the community have noticed an increase, particularly compared to other areas. The reason for this, they believe, is climate change. "Nothing grows here anymore,"...

John McCain’s widow will “never get over” President Trump attacking her late husband’s record as a war hero because he was “captured,” she said Wednesday. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it to be honest but I’m the wife — that’s my prerogative — I don’t have to,” Cindy McCain, 64, said in an interview with the BBC. While on the 2016 campaign trail, Trump said McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down over Vietnam, was only considered a hero because he got captured. “I like people...

Researchers say that the world has seriously underestimated the amount of heat soaked up by our oceans over the past 25 years. Their study suggests that the seas have absorbed 60% more than previously thought. They say it means the Earth is more sensitive to fossil fuel emissions than estimated. This could make it much more difficult to to keep global warming within safe levels this century. What have the researchers found?According to the last major assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's oceans have taken up over 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse...

Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is heading for a sweeping victory in Brazil's presidential election, according to exit polls. The polls suggest Mr Bolsonaro has 56% of the votes and his rival from the left-wing Workers Party, Fernando Haddad, has 44%. Mr Bolsonaro campaigned on a promise to eradicate corruption and to drive down Brazil's high crime levels. The election campaign has been deeply divisive.

Early in September, international news was awash with the claim that 87 elephants had been “killed by poachers” in Botswana. The story originated from the NGO Elephants Without Borders, which received massive publicity – and presumably donations – as a result. Even the beleaguered UK Prime Minister tweeted the story, while a petition calling for wildlife guards to be re-armed surpassed 150,000 signatures. I know a little of Botswana. A few years ago, I was declared “public enemy number one”, threatened by a government spokesman on television, and banned from the country. This was because Survival International was instrumental in...

Not long ago Republican Phil Scott was one of the most popular governors in America, poised for a comfortable re-election in November. Then, after a possible school shooting was discovered by police in Vermont, he decided to support sweeping gun-control legislation - and has reaped a political whirlwind. The Vermont governor stands at a lectern in front of the state capitol building in Montpelier on a grey, blustery April day earlier this year. His wife and various politicians, officials and dignitaries stand behind him. Before him, a motley crowd. Some are cheering; others are angry - and loud. He's talking...

Doctor Who delighted fans last night after the episode tackled the topic of racism in America as the Time Lord came face to face with civil rights hero Rosa Parks. The episode began with the Doctor and her team landing in Montgomery, Alabama, where they experienced first-hand the brutal discrimination faced by the African American community during the 1950s. It was written by author and former Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman, who has written over 60 books for children and young adults, including the Noughts and Crosses series and Pig-Heart Boy - which was adapted by the BBC in 1999. It...

Doctor Who is about to do battle with a new deadly enemy...racism. Sunday’s episode centres around Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat in the “colored section” of an Alabama bus to a white passenger. The outcry over her 1955 arrest spark­­ed the start of the civil rights movement. In her latest adventure, Time Lord Jodie Whittaker lands in America’s Deep South as an evil alien tries to disrupt the historic confrontation. She and her team have to ensure the pivotal moment is not sabotaged. Sidekicks Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan face discrimination as they are refused entry...

Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants are stuck at the Mexico-Guatemala border hoping to make it to the US. President Trump has warned them that he will shut down the southern US border so they cannot enter. This is the second large-scale caravan of Central American migrants this year. Video by Angélica M Casas and Peter Murtaugh in Guatemala

Doctor Who failed to regenerate successfully enough to mark the start of its brave new world. In fact it still seemed to be having real problems moving with the times. Which is ironic, considering it’s about an immortal whose escapades have included travelling back to 13.75 billion BC (for the Big Bang) and 100 trillion years into the future (to the end of the universe).

Sir David Attenborough has said the BBC still needs “white men explaining things” in television programmes, after the editor of BBC Four said “the era of that has passed.” The Blue Planet presenter gently contradicted Cassian Harrison, who told the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August: “There’s a mode of programming that involves a presenter, usually white, middle-aged and male, standing on a hill and ‘telling you like it is.’ “We all recognise the era of that has passed.” Newsnight’s Evan Davis asked: "I don't know if you heard in August, Cassian Harrison, the editor of BBC Four, said the...

July 24, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Indications that our culture is on its last legs, rationally speaking, are in abundance these days. Earlier this month, for example, we’ve been exposed to the delightful new term “theybies”—which, if you’re wondering, is what you call a baby when you decide to raise the child “gender-neutral” so that they can choose their own gender at around four years old. In Ireland, which has been gleefully offloading its Christian heritage since they repealed the right to life for pre-born children in May, the social protection minister lauded a report on “Ireland’s gender identity laws…that recommended...

She's making history as the first female Time Lord on the popular BBC One series. And now the first full length Doctor Who trailer starring Jodie Whittaker has been unveiled to fans at the Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday. In the 30-second video, it sees the actress, 36, as the legendary Time Lord as she joins her new Tardis team for a series of adventures.

Senior BBC managers have to "carry the can", Sir Cliff Richard has said, after winning his privacy case over the coverage of a police raid on his home. A High Court judge said the BBC had infringed the singer's privacy rights in a "serious and sensationalist way". Sir Cliff was not arrested or charged over the historical child sex claim and told ITV News: "If heads roll then maybe it's because it was deserved." The BBC said its journalists acted in good faith and is considering an appeal. The judge, Mr. Justice Mann, awarded Sir Cliff an initial &210,000. He...