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…
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…
Augustus Caesar (Image: Wikipedia) Rome’s first emperor spent decades holding more power than almost anyone in the ancient world, and on his deathbed, he did not ask to be remembered as a conqueror. Augustus asked his assembled friends whether he had played his part well in the comedy of life, then recited a closing line…
Turkey’s Cappadocia region is famous for its fairy chimneys and hot air balloons, but another attraction has quietly become a symbol of the region. Every afternoon, local cowboys gather free-roaming Yılkı horses and lead them through Cappadocia’s valleys for guided photography experiences, drawing visitors from around the world. What began as a way to showcase…
The International Space Station is about to welcome a new crew as Nasa astronaut Anil Menon prepares for his first journey into orbit. The mission is scheduled to lift off today, that is, 14 July 2026, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, carrying Menon alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov…
A seismic wave generated by Japan’s devastating 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake travelled nearly 2,900 kilometres to the boundary of Earth’s core, reflected back about 13 minutes later and shifted the entire country eastward by roughly six millimetres, according to a study published in the journal Science. The movement was far too small for anyone…
