Standing on the summit of Mount Everest feels like reaching the highest possible point on Earth. The mountain rises nearly nine kilometres above sea level, surrounded by ice, rock and thin air. Yet the rocks beneath a climber’s boots tell a very different story. They do not speak of towering peaks or glaciers. They speak…
For centuries, Ani has stood on a windswept plateau near Turkey’s border with Armenia, its ruined churches, fortifications and abandoned streets bearing witness to a city that once sat at the crossroads of trade, faith and political power. While the site is often associated with its medieval Armenian heritage, fresh archaeological work is shedding light…
House of Commons (PTI file photo) (Representative image) The UK government has started the process of changing a law that has so far prevented the deportation of convicted grooming gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed to Pakistan.Home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced in Parliament on Monday that the government will amend the Immigration Act 1971 to remove legal…
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday criticised US President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a 20 per cent charge on commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, mocking Washington as a “pirate” state.His remarks came after Trump announced that the US would reinstate what he called the “Iranian blockade” and begin charging…
Imagine two identical twins. One lives a modest life for about six weeks, while the other lives a luxurious life with high-stakes responsibility for several years. In the world of the honeybee, it is daily life. A queen honeybee can live for up to 8 years, while other worker bees often last less than two…
Pic courtesy: US Fish and Wildlife Service A Florida man’s attempt to turn a shelf ornament into quick cash on Facebook Marketplace has instead landed him a felony wildlife charge. The man’s listing of a ‘rare turtle shell’ for $2,700 turned into an investigation involving one of the most protected animals in Florida waters.The investigation…
The Netherlands has spent much of its history trying to keep rivers under control with higher dikes and stronger flood barriers. But repeated flooding in the 1990s revealed that simply building bigger walls was no longer enough. Rising river levels, heavier rainfall and the growing impacts of climate change continued to threaten towns, farmland and…
For decades, the summer of 1976 has occupied a special place in British weather history. It has been the season people return to whenever prolonged heat or dry conditions become part of the conversation. This year, however, the comparison has shifted. Reportedly, the figures recorded at the University of Reading suggest that 2026 has already…
Deep in Niger’s Ténéré Desert once stood what was widely regarded as the world’s loneliest tree, an umbrella thorn acacia that survived for around 300 years despite having no other tree within roughly 400 kilometres. Hidden beneath the scorching Sahara, its roots stretched more than 30 metres underground to reach precious groundwater, allowing it to…
Off the coast of Mauritius sit a string of small, mostly uninhabited islands that once told a very different story than they do today. For decades, animals brought there by ships, rats, cats, goats and rabbits among them, quietly wiped out native plants and drove seabird colonies to near collapse. Then, starting in the late…