Surfers are due to catch the first waves of the Paris Olympics in nine months in Tahiti, some 15,000 kilometres (9,300 miles) from the French capital, but a plan to build a giant tower...

Businesses in China received almost one third of World Bank-funded international contracts, in dollar terms, over the past

Gabriel Jesus has admitted that William Saliba's injury hindered Arsenal's title challenge a the tail-end of the 2022/23 season.

TikTok does not want to compete with the BBC at Eurovision but instead “complement” and drive viewers towards its grand final coverage, a manager has said. The social media platform has partnered with contest organiser the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC for the event in Liverpool, with busker pop-ups around the city, special coverage and gigs. James Stafford, TikTok’s general manager of marketing and operations for the UK, Ireland and Nordics, told the PA news agency the firm was doing “a lot of work” to promote the live TV broadcast. He said: “The hour before the live show on Saturday the BBC will be doing an exclusive live stream on TikTok that is designed to capture as much attention and audience from TikTok as possible, and direct them to go and tune in and watch the live broadcast. We would much prefer that we are a complement to those broadcasters and we can help them discover the next generation of fans who are going to tune in and watch Eurovision live on the BBC James Stafford “Now our goal here is not to compete with broadcasters for the live show. “We would much prefer that we are a complement to those broadcasters and we can help them discover the next generation of fans who are going to tune in and watch Eurovision live on the BBC.” Mr Stafford also sought to allay security concerns over TikTok’s involvement in the contest. TikTok is owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance, which argues that it does not share data with China’s government, but Beijing’s intelligence legislation requires firms to help the Communist Party when requested. Mr Stafford said: “The governments in Europe, including the UK, that have advised their employees not to use TikTok among other social apps on corporate devices is a purely precautionary measure, and it’s not the advice to ban the app in any of the markets. “We engage with all of our partners – the EBU, the governments that we partner with – to try and understand what their specific concerns are and share all of the information and be as transparent as possible about their concerns, so that we can move on from them.” Mr Stafford added that TikTok had had discussions with the EBU about the concerns. “Any one of our partners who has concerns, we are more than happy to be open and transparent with them about what they are,” he said. It came after Martin Osterdahl, the EBU’s executive supervisor for Eurovision, said the organisation plans to review its official partnership with TikTok – now in its second year – when the current contract ends. He told a press conference on Wednesday: “We review all our sponsorship agreements regularly and when they expire. We will do the same with TikTok. We will see what the situation is when that contract expires.” This year’s contest features a number of musicians with large followings on TikTok, including Norway’s Alessandra and Denmark’s Reiley. UK entrant Mae Muller, meanwhile, had chart success with her 2021 song Better Days after it went viral on the platform. Mr Stafford said that aside from last year’s UK entrant Sam Ryder being “incredibly talented” and “the most likeable person on Earth”, he also went into the 2022 contest with millions of TikTok fans. “I think a lot of other artists and delegations looked at that and saw the huge advantage there was to connect with fans and potential voters months before coming here,” he added. “So you will see that being a huge trend for the way various countries have selected their artists this year. “Of the 37 artists this year all of them are on TikTok and are really active and building their fan bases.” Darina Connolly, TikTok’s head of label and artist partnerships, said performers such as Israeli pop diva Noa Kirel, who has gone viral with a hand gesture dance move inspired by her song Unicorn, did not design their routines with TikTok in mind but such moments naturally translate to the app. She told PA: “I think all contestants are super focused on delivering the best performance that they can and I think easily a lot of that does translate to TikTok because we are an entertainment platform first and foremost, and people come to the platform to be entertained. “I wouldn’t say that the artists have done it specifically with TikTok in mind, but they have done it with entertainment in mind, which fits hand in hand with what we do as well.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Eurovision’s preparations for potential Russia cyberthreat ‘in good place’ UK-based tech company claims quantum computing ‘breakthrough’ Concert drone show organiser describes ‘nerve-wracking but exciting’ evening

After Colleen Ballinger posted a video in response to the grooming and predatory behaviour allegations made against her, Adam McIntyre one of the first to speak about his experience with Ballinger whilst she was an adult and he was a minor, uploaded his own video. McIntyre, who is now 22, had raised issues publicly about Ballinger back in 2020. At the time, the 36-year-old known for YouTube personality 'Miranda Sings', responded to his claims, admitting to sending him a bra when he was just a teenager. During that apology video, she had said: "I don't know what part of my brain was missing at the time. But I am not a monster, I am not a groomer, and I shouldn't kill myself." At the time, people had largely accepted her apology and many turned on McIntyre as a result. But this year, McIntyre posted another video, this time over an hour long, documenting his relationship with Ballinger. In the video, he shared screenshots of a group chat he was in with Ballinger and other fans of her's called "Colleeny's Weenies," where she had asked a teenage McIntyre what his "favourite position" was. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter McIntyre's allegations led to others coming out about how Ballinger had made them uncomfortable whilst they were minors. McIntyre has initially responded to the video on Twitter saying: "As much as Colleen discredited & made fun of me, I'm glad her video did ONE thing, show you all Exactly the type of evil woman she is". However, McIntyre has now posted a response of his own, with the same title and same 'style'. hi. www.youtube.com At the beginning of his video, McIntyre picks up a ukulele, starts strumming the strings randomly and says: "Hey. It seems this is the only way she'll listen." "What was not true?" McIntyre asks when she says that the claims going around "aren't quite true." Later on, he says "we're all ears" when Ballinger claims that people don't care about her side of the story. He says that Ballinger "harassed" him for "three years in group chats." He also argues that in her 2020 apology video she "edited evidence to make a 17-year-old look bad." As well as saying that she doesn't have any facts to disprove his claims. When Ballinger tries to explain she was just trying to be "besties with everybody", McIntyre says: "Besties with children? Don't really know if that's helping your case." However he agrees with her when she says her behaviour was "weird": "It was weird," he sings, before bluntly saying, "very, actually." He also disagrees with Ballinger's claim that she "changed her behaviours and took accountability." He simply asks, "where? Where did you do that?" "There's making a mistake and then there's what you've done, for years," McIntyre adds. When Ballinger says that her YouTube persona Miranda Sings has always been PG-13 and that she has "always relied on parents to decide if they're comfortable with their families watching my YouTube videos or coming to my live shows." "You cater towards children," McIntyre says, "let's not pretend that Miranda Sings has not been a character catered towards children." In her song, Ballinger minimises an ex-fan named Becky, who came forward saying that when she was about 16 she went to a Miranda Sings show and got called up on stage for the "yoga challenge". "I am laying down and Colleen is spreading my legs," explains Becky. "She spreads them so far that you can see the spandex I was wearing under my romper." "I was lying under Colleen and she was smirking down at me while thousands of people were laughing and I was terrified that my body wasn't covered enough by the spandex or the romper. I basically felt naked, so it felt incredibly sexually violating," Becky shares. "For her to use my body as entertainment on stage really set my confidence back quite a lot." Becky also said that afterwards she felt that many men were staring at her in "a very predatory way." Colleen then referred to this situation in her song as simply a "fart joke." McIntyre puts down his ukulele and says: "You didn't make a fart joke. You called a fan, who was a minor, up on stage and spread their legs and made their body a joke, so much so that they felt threatened leaving the venue." He adds, "how dare you diminish what Becky spoke up about." Many viewers enjoyed McIntyre's response, with one fan commenting "Adam had the chance to do the funniest thing possible and he did." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

If you name your company "Be Quiet," your PC cases had better be extra hushed-up.

Police in El Salvador have arrested 10 people accused of operating a migrant smuggling ring

Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL have agreed on the framework of a three-year contract extension that will keep him in place until 2027

A Texas militia member has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for attacking police officers at the U.S. Capitol, seriously injuring one of them during a mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021

Carlson slams mainstream media and said anyone who tries to tell the truth 'will be fired'

The Belarus African Foreign Trade Association has allocated 2 million carbon credits to initiate trade in the offsets

‘The Idol’ starring The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp touches on the subjects of crime, mystery, and family dynamics