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The 3,500-mile love story that started in an online horror game

BBC News

It is an online romance that has overcome a 3,500-mile distance, and also the Covid pandemic - which meant they had to get married virtually. Welsh cheesemaker Lewis Relfe struck up a relationship with Ameila Henderson, from Virginia, USA, while playing the Friday the 13th horror video game in 2017. She made a number of visits across the Atlantic, including one for six months, and he proposed on Aberystwyth Pier, dressed as the game's main character, Jason Voorhees. While they admit to seeing the humour in being the couple that met and married virtually, they now live together in Ceredigion, with daughter Evelyn. But because of parental responsibilities, they no longer get to enjoy the thing that brought them together.


UK to consider Australia-style ban on social media for children

Al Jazeera

The UK government has launched a consultation on implementing an Australian-style social media ban for children in the UK, as well as other measures to better protect minors online. The government said on Monday it would examine evidence from around the world on a wide range of suggested proposals, including looking at whether a social media ban for minors would be effective, and if one was introduced, how best to make it work. "The consultation will look at options including raising the digital age of consent, implementing phone curfews to avoid excessive use, and restricting potentially addictive design features such as'streaks' and'infinite scrolling'," the government said. The UK's announcement comes as governments and regulators worldwide grapple with the rapid explosion of AI-generated content, which was highlighted this month by an international outcry over reports of Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot generating non-consensual sexual images, including of children. The UK has already set out plans for an outright ban on artificial intelligence nudification tools, while working to stop children being able to take, share or view nude images on their devices, it said in Monday's statement.


Chris Pratt on new film Mercy: I asked to be locked into an executioner's chair

BBC News

Chris Pratt on new film Mercy: I asked to be locked into an executioner's chair Being locked barefoot in an executioner's chair sounds uncomfortable, but that is what Chris Pratt requested for his latest film, Mercy. More familiar as a wisecracking action hero in blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, this role is quite a departure for him. He plays homicide detective Chris Raven, who's fighting for his life after being accused of murdering his wife. Raven is an alcoholic who wakes in the chair after a drinking binge, with just 90 minutes to convince an AI judge he's innocent, or he'll be executed immediately. The film is set in real time, so we see Raven defend his case - while enduring a crashing hangover.


Greenland 'will stay Greenland', former Trump adviser declares

BBC News

Greenland'will stay Greenland', former Trump adviser declares Donald Trump will not be able to force Greenland to change ownership, a former top adviser to the US president has told the BBC. IBM's vice chairman Gary Cohn, who advised Trump on the economy in his first term, said Greenland will stay Greenland and linked the need for access to critical minerals to his former boss's plans for the territory. Cohn is one of America's top tech bosses, a leader in the race to develop AI and quantum computing, and served under Trump as director of the White House National Economic Council. In a sign of how seriously business leaders are taking the crisis, he warned invading an independent country that is part of Nato would be over the edge. He also suggested the president's recent comments about Greenland may be part of a negotiation.


The US economy seems strong after a year of Trump, but is it really?

Al Jazeera

What is the Insurrection Act? Why is the US Fed chair criminal probe causing alarm? Which 75 countries are on Trump's travel ban list? The US economy seems strong after a year of Trump, but is it really? Over the past year, United States President Donald Trump has unleashed a slew of policies that have upended businesses, supply chains and jobs.


Are DJI Drones Still Banned? (2026)

WIRED

Are DJI Drones Still Banned? Can you still buy a DJI drone in the US? (Yes.) Will you be able to buy future drones? Here are the current drone dos and don'ts. As of December 23, 2025, the US Federal Communications Commission barred Chinese-based drone maker DJI from importing any new drones into the United State.


Dumbphone Owners Have Lost Their Minds

WIRED

All my Gen Z friends want to ditch their smartphones. But there's more at stake than they think. My friend Lilah is the crunchiest person I know. She refuses to kill bugs and rats. She once made me try her homemade wine (disastrous). A few years ago, she quit her food-justice nonprofit job to live in a yurt, and after that she went to grad school and moved into an attic, where her roommates were squirrels. Against her will, she did own an iPhone for a time.


The Search for Alien Artifacts Is Coming Into Focus

WIRED

From surveys of the pre-Sputnik skies to analysis of interstellar visitors, scientists are rethinking how and where to look for physical traces of alien technology. Science fiction is awash in the material remnants of extraterrestrial civilizations, which surface in everything from the classic books of Arthur C. Clarke to game franchises like and . The discovery of the first interstellar objects in the solar system within the past decade has sparked speculation that they could be alien artifacts or spaceships, though the scientific consensus remains that all three of these visitors have natural explanations. That said, scientists have been anticipating the possibility of encountering alien artifacts since the dawn of the space age. "In the history of technosignatures, the possibility that there could be artifacts in the solar system has been around for a long time," says Adam Frank, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester.


Capturing the Moment a White Dwarf Exploded

WIRED

A research team has successfully imaged a nova in high resolution--and the images suggest that the nova was not a single, impulsive explosion. The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA Array) at Georgia State University has generated detailed images of the early stages of two nova explosions that were detected in 2021. Through near-infrared interferometry, a process that combines light from multiple telescopes, the CHARA Array was able to capture in high resolution the rapidly changing conditions of their early post-explosion phase. A nova is an astronomical phenomenon that occurs in a binary system when a white dwarf strips its companion star of hydrogen-rich gas, causing a thermonuclear runaway reaction on the white dwarf's surface. The name derives from the sudden brightening that makes it appear as though a new star has appeared in the night sky.


Viral protest video against Iran's supreme leader sparks copycat demonstrations worldwide

FOX News

Iranian refugee' viral video shows woman lighting cigarette with burning image of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparking global protests as Trump weighs military action.