World News Hub

Gamescom: Germany is Europe’s largest video game market

Gamescom in Cologne is the world's biggest fair for computer and video games. In 2026, it set a record for exhibitors and was visited by the German president and leading politicians.

Gamescom: Germany is Europe’s largest video game market

Gamescom in Cologne is the world's biggest fair for computer and video games. In 2026, it set a record for exhibitors and was visited by the German president and leading politicians.

Deaths mount, search ramps up for hundreds missing in Nepal flash floods

Hundreds of people, including Americans, are still missing along the Nepal-China border after deadly floods and mud flows thought to have been triggered by a glacial collapse.

'The Toilet Kid': 9-year-old Washington boy tests toilet flushes, builds backyard station

Zhipu AI shares jump as viral Ox Alpha model revealed as GLM-5.3-Flash on Chinese chips

China’s Zhipu AI has launched its latest open-weight model, GLM-5.3-Flash – previously code-named Ox Alpha – saying that the system ran entirely on a cluster of 100,000 domestically produced chips during a high-profile stealth trial. The announcement followed a week of heavy traffic on artificial intelligence model marketplace OpenRouter and agent platform OpenCode, where the model processed 62 tr...

How Shenzhen can win the ‘AI for science’ race

The next big competition in artificial intelligence is over science. The question is shifting from who has the largest model to who can use AI to shorten the discovery cycle: forming a hypothesis, running simulations, designing an experiment, operating equipment, collecting results and learning from them. The United States made that shift explicit. The Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission aims t...

Apollo 15’s Genesis Rock, found in 1971, revealed a piece of the Moon’s 4-billion-year-old crust

Apollo 15 astronauts discovered an unusually bright rock near Spur Crater on the Moon. This sample, known as the Genesis Rock, is an anorthosite and about four billion years old. Scientists believe it represents a piece of the Moon's primordial crust. Its mineral composition offers valuable clues about early lunar geological history. This ancient sample continues to aid understanding of the Mo...

Polka dots, infinity rooms and phallic sculptures: Yayoi Kusama’s art in pictures

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul.” Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died aged 97.

Australian platypuses rescued during drought quickly rebuilt their home ranges after returning to the wild

Following a five-month recovery from severe drought conditions, platypuses were reintroduced to their original habitats. In an eighteen-month study, researchers tracked their activities as they reintegrated into the wild. The animals displayed quick adaptation, rediscovering their typical movement patterns and preferred foraging spots, thereby emphasizing the importance of effective conservation e...

Norway's King Harald in 'extremely serious' condition, palace confirms

The 89-year-old monarch has been in hospital in Oslo since 17 August with a blood disorder as senior royals cancel their engagements.

Montana landowner bought 2 mute swans, decades later flock of 120 threatened Yellowstone

France heatwave: 10 Nile crocodiles hatch on their own for the first time

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama dies aged 97

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, known for her polka dot art, has died aged 97.

Albanese vows refugee intake won’t be slashed after earlier reports of Coalition-level cut

Prime minister intervenes after reports Tony Burke was planning to cut intake of 20,000 arrivals by a thirdFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese has guaranteed Australia’s annual refugee intake will not be cut next financial year, shutting down plans for the arrivals quota to drop by one-third to Coalition-...

Why did Elon Musk get Ukraine’s Order of Freedom honour?

Elon Musk has been awarded Ukraine's Order of Freedom for his exceptional contributions through Starlink. This prestigious recognition underscores his significant impact on safeguarding human rights and liberty. Following the invasion, Starlink emerged as a vital communication link for Ukraine. However, Musk's decisions have also stirred political tensions, as he limited Starlink's accessibility f...

UK urged to help free British-Egyptian ‘arrested in Cairo over sister’s activism’

Lawyers claim Eman el-Shazly, from Birmingham, was detained in effort to silence her sister, a critic of Sisi regimeThe UK Foreign Office has been asked to intervene to secure the release of a British-Egyptian woman who it is claimed has been arrested in Cairo because of her sister’s political activism.Eman el-Shazly, a 45-year-old based in Birmingham, was arrested on 16 August while visiting Egyp...

Ukraine’s drone attacks have left Russia desperately scrambling for oil imports

The once world-leading producer of crude oil has plunged into an energy crisis as Kyiv targets its refineriesA sanctioned shadow fleet tanker carries oil from Nato member Turkey to a Russian Baltic port. A deal is signed for Russian oil to be processed in Kazakhstan. Fuel cargoes arrive from India via Egypt. The Kremlin pressures allies to sell it badly needed fuel.The data points may be diverse, ...

Lightning bolt strikes Mecca’s clock tower

Lightning bolt strikes Mecca’s clock tower

What China can do to secure trade routes in its coming high-seas struggle with US

China should forge a national consensus on “regaining mastery of the oceans” and direct overseas investment returns into defence spending to brace for sea-power competition with the US, according to a prominent Chinese academic. Di Dongsheng, associate dean of Renmin University’s school of international studies in Beijing, warned on Tuesday that as economic ties between the United States, the domi...

World-first: AI guides live brain surgery in the UK to save patient's sight

A British man has become the first patient in the world to undergo brain surgery guided live by artificial intelligence, in an operation that saved his sight.

Yayoi Kusama, Japan’s ‘queen of polka dots’, dies at 97

Kusama turned her hallucinations into works that ranged from polka dot paintings to 'Infinity Mirror Rooms'.

‘If you harm my project, I’ll harm you’: former NSW official tells Icac about fugitive developer’s call

Former building commissioner David Chandler told inquiry of clashes with ‘loud and overbearing’ developer Jean NassifGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA fugitive Sydney developer allegedly warned the then-New South Wales building commissioner that he would “harm” him if he got in the way of his projects which were being inspected for defects, the corruption watchdog has he...

Collapsed glacier likely caused devastating Nepal-Tibet floods, scientists say

Preliminary investigations by scientists have pointed to a collapsed glacier as the cause, highlighting the issue of rapidly melting Himalayan ice.

Ben Shapiro’s anti-Muslim film is nothing new

Shapiro’s film recycles decades-old anti-Muslim tropes to portray critics of Israel’s genocide in Gaza as extremists.

What we know about deadly Nepal-Tibet floods

Hundreds have died in flooding and landslides on the border of Nepal and Tibet.