Azealia Banks' Twitter account suspended after Zayn Malik abuse

Rapper Azealia Banks has been suspended from Twitter.

The '212' star has been blocked from the social media platform, following a string of aggressive tweets directed at former One Direction singer, Zayn Malik.

She has been accused of racism and homophobia after referencing Zayn's heritage and using offensive terms.

Following her rant against Zayn, she was dropped from her headline slot at London's Born & Bred festival.

The Metro reported that the Home Office was considering banning Banks from entering the UK.

Buyout Titans Plot £10bn O2 Takeover Bids

Some of the world's biggest buyout firms are weighing a £10bn takeover approach to the owner of O2 after its plans to merge with rival mobile network operator Three were blocked by European regulators.

Sky News has learnt that Apax Partners, CVC Capital Partners and KKR are examining a possible offer to O2's parent, Telefonica.

Some of the potential private equity bidders have held preliminary talks with bankers about financing a deal.

City sources cautioned that there were several factors which could prevent a formal offer being made to the Spanish owner of O2, such as a bid from Liberty Global, which owns Virgin Media.

Mike Fries, Liberty Global chief executive, said this week it would be "strange" if his company did not evaluate a bid for O2.

Telefonica's hopes of combining O2 with Three to create the UK's biggest mobile phone group were dashed on Wednesday when the European Commission said the merger would damage consumers' interests.

Apax and KKR had previously worked together on a bid for EE prior to its takeover by BT Group.

Other private equity firms with significant experience of European telecoms deals are also expected to examine bids for O2 given the amount of capital available to private equity firms with large funds.

For Telefonica, a sale to Liberty or private equity groups would not involve the competition risk inherent in the Three transaction.

The collapse of the merger means that separate deal arranged by CK Hutchison to sell a minority stake in the combined entity to investors including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will not now proceed.

Explaining her decision to block the deal, Margrethe Vestager, the EC Competition Commissioner, said remedies proposed by CK Hutchison, including the sale of sufficient mobile spectrum to create a credible fourth player in the UK market, were inadequate.

“Allowing Hutchison to take over O2 at the terms they proposed would have been bad for UK consumers and bad for the UK mobile sector," she said.

Her verdict was backed by the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, and the Competition and Markets Authority, which had both lobbied against the merger.

Telefonica recently signalled that it would explore a sale or stock market listing of O2 if the Three deal was blocked.

A spokesman for the UK network said:

“The O2 business has continued to perform well in the market whilst the Commission process has taken place.

"Our customers are our priority and we will continue to differentiate, compete fiercely and remain successful, long into the future."

CK Hutchison has not ruled out legal action to try to overturn the EC decision.

Ofcom said:

“We believe this is the right outcome for mobile customers, who have always been our priority.

"Three and O2 are important and effective competitors in the UK, helping to deliver innovation, investment and competitive prices over many years.

"Competition must be sustainable, and regulation should support it.”

High heels row: Firm accused of sexism changes policy

A firm that sent home a temp without pay for refusing to wear high heels has changed its policy.

London receptionist Nicola Thorp, 27, says she was told to wear shoes with a "2in to 4in heel" when she arrived at finance company PwC in December.

When she refused and was sent home she set up a petition calling for the law on dress code to be changed.

Outsourcing firm Portico said "with immediate effect all our female colleagues can wear plain flat shoes".

The company initially said Ms Thorp, from Hackney, had signed its "appearance guidelines" but said it would review them.

'Negative backlash'

Ms Thorp said she would have struggled to work a full day in high heels.

"I was expected to do a nine-hour shift on my feet escorting clients to meeting rooms. I said 'I just won't be able to do that in heels'," she said.

When she asked if a man would be expected to do the same shift in heels, she said she was laughed at and told to go home without pay.

"I said 'if you can give me a reason as to why wearing flats would impair me to do my job today, then fair enough', but they couldn't," she told BBC Radio London.

Despite fearing what she said could be a "negative backlash", she set up a petition calling for the law to be changed so women cannot be forced to wear high heels to work.

More than 50,000 people have signed it which triggers the requirement for a government response.

PwC said the dress code issue involving Ms Thorp at its Embankment offices last December was "not a PwC policy".

Later on Wednesday, Portico managing director Simon Pratt said the firm was "committed to being an inclusive and equal opportunities employer" and actively embraced "diversity and inclusion within all our policies".

"We are therefore making it very clear that with immediate effect, all our female colleagues can wear plain flat shoes or plain court shoes as they prefer."

"I think dress codes should reflect society and nowadays women can be smart and formal and wear flat shoes," said Ms Thorp.

"Aside from the debilitating factor, it's the sexism issue. I think companies shouldn't be forcing that on their female employees."

Car Drops Into Sinkhole On London Road

Residents of a street in Greenwich woke up this morning to the sight of a people carrier disappearing into a sinkhole.

The car in Woodland Terrace would have reportedly disappeared completely if it were not for a pipe running under the road.

Cleo O'Kane, 25, who lives nearby, said police had told her some residents might have to be evacuated.

"I thought it was thunder - I heard a loud bang, but it was raining so much I thought it was thunder," she said.

"It must have been around 4am. I woke up and then just went back to sleep - my window was open - then woke up at six this morning, came outside and there was a car in a hole.

"I've been here for eight years and have never seen anything like this happen."

She added: "Police said they don't know what's going on. They said the car is stuck on a gas pipe or a water pipe. They might have to evacuate all the houses.

Greenwich Police posted a picture of the people carrier on Twitter.

They said the car was parked and no one was injured.

A spokesman said: "Officers are on the scene and there is a cordon in place. The local authority has been called and there are other agencies on scene."

A Royal Borough of Greenwich spokesman said: "We are urgently investigating the matter and will update residents the moment we have more information."

Festival Drops Azealia Banks Over Zayn Rant

A London music festival has cancelled an appearance by US rapper Azealia Banks after she used racist language in a series of tweets to former One Direction star Zayn Malik.

The controversial African-American artist accused Malik of copying her style on his latest music video in the messages which she has since deleted.

Banks used epithets directed at Muslims against the 23-year-old, who is partially of Pakistani origin and was brought up in Bradford.

"When your entire extended family has been obliterated by good ol the U.S of A will you still be trying to act like a white boy pretending to be black?" Banks said in one tweet.

The Rinse/Born & Bred Festival, which will take place next month in London, announced it had removed her from its lineup.

"Rinse/Born & Bred is a celebration of rave culture and has been created for EVERYONE. We celebrate inclusivity and equality," it said in a statement.

Malik kept a distance from Banks, telling her in Twitter lingo that he had seen her remarks and chosen not to take the bait.

"My @'s too good for you," he tweeted.

Some social media users called on Twitter to suspend Banks.

Malik, who has chosen to go solely by his first name as a solo artist, has taken on an R&B sound since leaving One Direction with his songs featuring lyrics about sex and relationships.

Banks, in a fresh tweet on Wednesday, reiterated her accusations about Zayn's music and cast her remarks about Muslims as a gesture of solidarity.

"He felt as if he was too good to acknowledge me yet not too good to copy my creativity," she wrote.

"I had to remind him that we're both in the same boat in this industry and people of colour."

Banks won wide acclaim for her single 212 but has become better known for her Twitter outbursts, with her pledge in March to quit the platform proving short-lived.

She notably engaged in a long-running feud with the Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, whom she accused of exploiting black culture.

Can Donald Trump win?

It was interesting because the reaction was universal. From Europe to the Middle East and in Africa, the world it seems is terrified of what it happening in the US. Namely they are terrified of what a Donald Trump presidency would look like.

You can understand why many are expressing concern. Latin America is worried that he will build a wall and steal the remittances from their families. He has also promised to round up 11 million undocumented workers from across the globe and send them back to their home countries.

You could understand why 1.6 billion Muslims would be concerned - after all he’s planned to ban them from coming to the country. He would likely let the roughly three million Muslims living in the US stay.

You could probably see why anyone who is actually a part of the global economy might be concerned. He has vowed to tear up all existing trade deals which would likely lead to a trade war.

Then he promised to basically default on the debt. He explained it as asking people to sell back US Treasury bonds at a discount. That is actually a default by a different name. He went on to try and explain that the country couldn’t default because it prints its own money. He didn’t explain exactly what that meant and economists are at a loss to figure it out either.

Given all he has said that is so extreme my fellow panelists had one question for me. How is it possible that America is backing Trump? I explained the country hasn’t voted for Trump. He has won the support of the majority of Republicans who have voted in the primary. People who vote in primaries tend to be the most extreme members of their political parties.

Over 10 million people cast their ballots to give him the Republican nomination. That might sound like a lot but compare that to 129,085,410 people who voted in the last presidential election.

The next question of course is can he win? It seems likely that he will face former secretary of state, senator and first lady Hillary Clinton. I put in all of her past titles to give you a sense of what her problem is.

You might read that and think experience, but for many Americans it’s a reminder that she has been on the national stage for more than two decades and they are tired of her.

She's had her share of controversies and the majority of Americans say they don’t trust her, they don’t think she is honest. She’s still the subject of a federal inquiry into the fact that she set up her own private email server to use while secretary of state.

She says it was for convenience but many think it was an attempt to circumvent public disclosure rules. She literally could not have come up with a scandal that would do more to reinforce the negative narrative about her that she plays by her own rules. Her unfavorability rating is going to work against her. In polls just under 55 percent of people asked say they don’t really like her all that much.

The good news for her team is that a lot more people have an unfavourable opinion of Trump. His number is 65.4 percent. You would be hard pressed to find a more unpopular presidential candidate at any time in the nation’s history.

He has a much higher unfavourability number if you break it down into groups. The vast majority of African-Americans, Latinos, women and young voters say they don’t like him. That is a long list of critical groups. If he can’t change their minds, he can’t win the presidency.

You have heard many shell-shocked Republican politicians try to explain Trump's policy proposals by saying he is not a politician and he will need a little time to learn the issues. They promise he will be less extreme and act more "presidential".

They may want to check with their candidate who just explained he is going to continue to behave exactly the way he has in the primary. He basically says it’s worked so far so why change now?

Both of these candidates tend to bring out the passion of followers on the other side. Fervent Republicans will show up to vote if only to deny Clinton a victory. The most passionate Democrats will make sure they vote to keep Trump out of the White House.

The election will be determined by how those in the middle decide to vote; whether it is for a candidate or against one. And as we have seen in the past - in US elections fear is an excellent motivator.

Hyperloop In First Test Of Super-Fast Transport

A US firm says it has successfully conducted a first public test of its ultra-high speed transportation system.

Hyperloop One aims to whisk passengers through a low-pressure tube at speeds of up to 750mph (1,207 km/h).

In Wednesday's seconds-long test, the start-up accelerated a test vehicle known as a "sled" down a 1,500ft rail track in the desert near Las Vegas.

Hyperloop One says the sled neared 400mph, but it says the same motor could enable a more aerodynamic vehicle to top 700mph in a friction-less tube.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk was first to propose the futuristic idea, arguing it would be faster and more efficient than high-speed rail projects

He envisaged such a system would run between Los Angeles and San Francisco in as little as half an hour - it currently takes about eight hours by train.

But early applications for hyperloop could focus on ports, replacing the lorries and freight trains that transport cargo from ships to factories and stores.

Under the design, electromagnetic propulsion technology would levitate the pods on a small cushion of air in the fully autonomous, electric-powered system.

Hyperloop One has just announced it raised $80m (£55m) in funding from investors including France's state-owned railway company, SNCF.

The Los Angeles-based company is led by Brogan BamBrogan, venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar and ex-Cisco president Rob Lloyd.

Its crowdsourced rival, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, is also racing to be first to perfect the same system.

Last month, it signed a deal with the Slovakian government to build a hyperloop between Slovenia with Austria and Hungary.