The actor Walter Koenig, who played the spirited Russian crewman Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series, has died aged 90, his agent confirmed. The US actor was a mainstay on the show from season two in 1967 until it ended in 1969, later reprising his role as the eager and earnest Chekov, with his Monkees-style mop-top haircut, in the six original cast movies from 1979 through 1991. He also wrote an episode for the show's animated spin-off. In the mid-late 1990s, Koenig portrayed a very different character, the ruthless Psi Corps telepath Alfred Bester, in another sci-fi space series, Babylon 5. Born in Chicago and raised in Manhattan, Koenig was the son of Lithuanian immigrants and studied at the famous Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, alongside the likes of James Caan, Christopher Lloyd and Dabney Coleman. His big break came as the capable young Chekov, who would joke that everything was invented in Russia.

Healey's Budget needs to sustain the stronger economy through gathering clouds There have been almost no Budget leaks. The chancellor's aides are using intelligence-style security measures to guard its secrets: the Budget has been split into compartments with very few given access to all of them. The IT has been locked down and ministers viewing the plans have to sign a digital promise not to brief media. Such security is a response to the feeling that speculation around the last Budget, sometimes informed by insiders, was economically destabilising. As a recent former defence secretary, Chancellor John Healey has embraced such strict procedures, and has approached most of his public engagements and interviews with a sturdy refusal to break the Budget omertà, akin to his fellow Yorkshireman Geoffrey Boycott's at times ultra-defensive stance on a cricket pitch. The economic news has been good - growth has been better than expected and the International Monetary Fund has endorsed the UK for standing out among the G7 countries for at least planning to cut borrowing.

In his award-winning essay, young British science writer Adrian Dredge wrote about the potential pitfalls of AI and policing. The essay won the 2026 Young Science Writer Award, external, chosen each year by the Association of British Science Writers. Here is an edited version of the entry. The growing use of AI in policing risks increasing discrimination against minority groups, researchers have warned. Studies suggest that predictions of future crime hotspots may be based on biased data, which can magnify existing prejudice and create a dangerous feedback loop.

Image caption, One of 2026's biggest hits is Zara Larsson's Lush Life, originally released in 2015 More music is being created than at any other time in human history. Every day, more than 100,000 songs, external are being submitted to streaming services. And despite the deluge of AI music, external - Spotify says it has removed 75 million spammy tracks from its catalogue - real music still makes up most of our listening. The streaming service Deezer says AI accounts for just 0.5% of streams on its platform. The problem for all those artists creating new music is that our listening habits increasingly show a love for nostalgia.

Why is Ukraine so reliant on Starlink and can Europe plug the gap? Ukraine is in desperate need of a new satellite internet service, but a fast and reliable alternative to Elon Musk's Starlink network simply doesn't exist - yet. Last week's sudden slowdown of the service in Ukraine, which affected Kyiv's ability to defend itself from Russian attacks, has shown how vulnerable the country can be, and sharply increased Europe's urgency to have its own military-grade satellite network. There are a few alternatives, but they are all lagging behind Starlink, which is the world's largest satellite constellation. France's Eutelsat, with its OneWeb internet service, is the main alternative - but it only has about 600 active satellites, compared to Starlink's 10,000-plus.

Call of Duty promises a return to form - but can it compete with GTA? Call of Duty is back - and it's got a lot to prove. Last year was a low point for the video game juggernaut, with poor reviews for its single-player campaign mode and multiplayer fans defecting to rival titles. So for latest instalment, Modern Warfare 4, publisher Activision is pulling out all the stops to bring fans back on board. But with increasing competition for fans' time and attention, and the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 just weeks away, can Call of Duty still cut through?

Newborn twins fight for survival as conflict fuels Yemen's hunger crisis To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From the day they were born, just seven weeks ago, twins Raghad Hassan and her brother Raad have been battling for survival. They came into the world prematurely, as fighting surged in Yemen's long-running civil war between Houthi rebel fighters and government forces. When the Houthis reached their village in the Kahboub mountains in south-west Yemen, their family of seven was forced to flee amid bombs, missiles, and drone attacks - the twins protected only by blankets. What followed was three days on foot heading for the port city of Aden.

BioWare, the video game studio behind sci-fi epic Mass Effect and fantasy saga Dragon Age, has been closed down. The Canadian developer specialising in role-playing games was founded in 1995 and found millions of fans with its complex, branching narratives. Its last two releases, however, did not meet sales expectations, and parent company Electronic Arts (EA) announced it had decided to close the studio as it cut 400 jobs across the business. In its own statement, BioWare, which was working on a new Mass Effect game, thanked players for being the most important part of the story during its 31-year history. The developer's first big taste of success came in 1998 when it released role-playing game Baldur's Gate, based on Dungeons and Dragons rules.

Image caption, DeepMind is Google's AI company Google is facing a backlash from some staff members over the company's deployment of its AI technology for military use. The BBC has spoken to several tech workers who have either recently resigned from Google's AI company, Google DeepMind, or are in the process of leaving, over concerns with the tech firm's military contracts. Sofia Liguori, a London-based research engineer, is one of them. She resigned from Google DeepMind this week and spoke about her concerns exclusively with the BBC, despite her contract restricting her from doing so. Realising my company is pushing more and more for AI systems in military operations makes me feel ashamed to work at Google, Liguori said, speaking in a personal capacity. Image caption, Sofia Liguori resigned from Google, saying the company's push for more AI technology in the military made her feel ashamed to work there In response, a Google spokesperson told the BBC: We work with public sector organisations worldwide and follow a consistent process for reviewing and entering these contracts, including compliance with our acceptable use policies and AI principles.

Image caption, The spacecraft will head to Mars's larger moon, Phobos A space mission is set to launch on Monday that will attempt to grab a piece of Mars' moon Phobos and bring it back to Earth. If it is successful, this will become the first time a sample has been returned from Mars or its moons to be analysed in laboratories here on Earth. The spacecraft will blast off from Japan and arrive at Phobos in August 2027. It is hoped that the Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, which is led by the Japanese Space Agency, will solve the mystery of how Mars's moons formed. Prof Sara Russell, from the Natural History Museum, who is the MMX mission's deputy for sample analysis, said: There hasn't yet been a successful mission to go to Phobos and bring a bit back to Earth.