With great biological havoc comes great opportunity. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. About 445 million years ago, our planet completely changed. Massive glaciers formed over the supercontinent Gondwana, sucking up sea water like an icy sponge. Now called the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME), Earth's first major mass extinction wiped out about 85 percent of all marine species as the ocean chemistry radically changed and Earth's climate turned bitter cold. However, with great biological havoc also comes opportunity.

Travel chaos warning as hazardous'radiation fog' alert is issued in three states Real reason Bill Hader and Ali Wong's two-year relationship ended: Insiders reveal open secret about him in Hollywood... his cruel nickname... and his month from hell after Reiner murders horror It's madness NOT to annex Greenland: SCOTT JENNINGS spells out, as only he can, why America must act... before its enemies strike Kendall Jenner finally breaks silence on the rumors she's secretly a lesbian Real reason ICE refused to let medics rush to aid of Renee Nicole Good after she was shot dead in her car... as shocking video spread like wildfire The foods that actually block the body from gaining weight... even in people who eat high-fat diets Shocking study linking covid jabs and cancer'censored' by mysterious cyberattack Peppers will help protect you from the'super flu'... but which color you eat matters I gave up a middle-class family life at 40 to become an escort. Years later I discovered a common condition that affects so many women was to blame. Painful cause of death revealed for adorable child, 4, found dead in the woods two miles from dad's home Insiders reveal how the Reiner family decided to ax'despicable' Nick's legal fund: 'He's on his own' No nonsense uncle humiliates rude women for singing and talking during Broadway performance of Mamma Mia! - then has them thrown out of theater The REAL Princess Catherine: On her birthday, an intimate portrait of her marriage, how she finally solved the Meghan problem, her brave cancer fight... and a thrilling new rumor about her in America'Best medical drama ever' rockets up the Netflix charts as'broken' fans left sobbing by'perfect' ending after binge-watching every episode Inside NASA's high-stakes plan to evacuate astronauts from the ISS after medical emergency NASA is preparing to conduct its first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station (ISS), activating a contingency plan to return a crew to Earth months ahead of schedule. The plan, developed decades ago for medical emergencies in space, has never before been implemented during an ISS mission, agency officials said Thursday. Under the program, the returning astronauts will seal themselves inside the capsule, undock from the ISS, perform a controlled departure and reenter Earth's atmosphere for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

The tiny blooms of Dendrobium eruciforme, known as the caterpillar orchid due to its creeping habit and small size. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. It's easy to forget how much we still don't know about our planet's ecosystems . Every year, researchers identify thousands of plant and fungi species that were previously unknown to science. While it can be tough to highlight the most striking examples, an international team of scientists led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) in London, have offered their personal picks for 2025.

A day of national mourning is being held in Switzerland on Friday, following a fire which killed 40 young people, mostly teenagers, in a bar in the Crans-Montana ski resort on New Year's Eve. Church bells rang across the country for five minutes, and people stood for a minute's silence in their memory. Firefighters in the resort were applauded as they joined an audience watching the tribute ceremony, which was live-streamed to Crans-Montana from the Swiss city of Martigny. The ceremony saw the leaders of neighbouring countries, including France's Emmanuel Macron, join an audience while speakers, including the Valais canton's president, paid tribute to those who died. The annual food fight festival ''Els Enfarinats'' has left the Spanish town of Ibi covered in flour and egg shells.

Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has limited image generation on the social media platform X amid growing backlash over its use to create sexualised deepfakes of women and children. Grok told X users on Friday that image generation and editing features were now available only to paying subscribers. The move comes after Musk was threatened with fines and several countries pushed back publicly against the tool that allowed users to alter online images to remove the subjects' clothes. The European Commission said on Monday that such images circulating on X were unlawful and appalling. The United Kingdom's data regulator also said it had asked the platform to explain how it was complying with data protection laws following concerns that Grok was generating sexually abusive images of women.

Welcome back to In the Loop, new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? In the past few weeks, many tech leaders have made bold predictions about what AI will achieve in 2026, from mastering the field of biology to surpassing human intelligence outright . But in 2026's first week, the most visible use of AI has been X users employing Grok to digitally disrobe women. Elon Musk's platform X has been flooded with nonconsensual AI-created images, requested by users, of unclothed or scantily-clad women, men and children, sometimes in sexual positions.

As we look back on 2025, the world experienced a year of both remarkable achievement and profound challenge in global health. Multilateralism, science and solidarity were tested as never before, underscoring a fundamental truth: International cooperation is not optional. It is essential if we are to protect and promote health for everyone, everywhere in 2026 and beyond. Perhaps the most significant milestone was the adoption by WHO Member States of the Pandemic Agreement, a landmark step towards making the world safer from future pandemics. Alongside this, amendments to the International Health Regulations came into force, including a new "pandemic emergency" alert level designed to trigger stronger global cooperation.

Trump's grand plan to reshape the world order leaves Europe with a difficult choice to make For 80 years, what bound the United States to Europe was a shared commitment to defence and a common set of values: a commitment to defend democracy, human rights and the rule of law. That era was inaugurated in March 1947 in an 18-minute speech by President Harry Truman, in which he pledged US support to defend Europe against further expansion by the Soviet Union. America led the creation of Nato, the World Bank, the IMF and the United Nations. And it bound itself into what became known as the rules-based international order, in which nation states committed to a series of mutual obligations and shared burdens, designed to defend the democratic world against hostile authoritarian powers. Now, the new US National Security Strategy (NSS), published in December, signals that, for the White House, that shared endeavour has ended; that much of what the world has taken for granted about America's role is over.

Elon Musk's Grok AI image editing limited to paid X users after deepfakes Elon Musk's platform X has limited image editing with its AI tool Grok to paying users, after it came under fire for allowing people to make sexualised deepfakes. There has been a significant backlash after the chatbot honoured requests from users to digitally alter images of other people by undressing them without their consent. But Grok is now telling people asking it to make such material that only paid subscribers would be able to do so - meaning their name and payment information must be on file. The BBC has approached X for comment. Those who do not subscribe can still use Grok to edit images on its separate app and website.

Russia has used the Oreshnik ballistic missile as part of a massive overnight strike on Ukraine. Four people were killed and 25 others injured in Kyiv on Thursday night, where loud booms could be heard for several hours, setting the sky alight with explosions. It only the second time that Moscow has used the Oreshnik, which was first deployed to hit the central city of Dnipro in November 2024. Russia's defence ministry said the strike was a response to a Ukrainian drone attack on Vladimir Putin's residence in late December, which Kyiv denies carrying out . While the ministry did not specify what had been the Oreshnik's target, shortly before midnight (22:00 GMT) videos began circulating on social media showing numerous explosions on the outskirts of the western city of Lviv.