Author: News Desk

Cornwall, UK: The Wildlife Trusts have declared 2025 ‘the year of the octopus’ in their annual review of Britain’s seas, following record-breaking sightings and catches of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates along England’s south coast. An unusually mild winter, followed by an exceptionally warm spring, created near-perfect breeding conditions for the common or Mediterranean octopus (Octopus vulgaris). As a result, unprecedented numbers of octopuses took up residence in coastal waters stretching from Penzance in Cornwall to south Devon. Matt Slater, Marine Conservation Officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said that the scale of the increase was extraordinary. Local fishers…

Copenhagen: PostNord, Denmark’s national postal service, will deliver its final letter on 30 December, closing a chapter that spans more than four centuries of letter delivery in the country. The move marks the end of a service that has existed since 1624, as Denmark completes its transition into one of the world’s most digitalised societies. PostNord, which was formed in 2009 through the merger of the Danish and Swedish postal services, announced earlier this year that it would stop delivering letters in Denmark. The decision will lead to the loss of 1,500 jobs and the removal of 1,500 red postboxes,…

Van Horn, Texas: German engineer Michaela Benthaus has made history by becoming the world’s first wheelchair user to travel to space, marking a significant milestone for inclusivity and accessibility in space exploration. Benthaus, who sustained a spinal cord injury in a mountain bike accident seven years ago, pursued her long-held dream of becoming an astronaut despite her disability. Unsure whether space travel was still possible for her, she reached out online to a retired space engineer to seek guidance. That engineer, Hans Koenigsmann, a former SpaceX manager, went on to help organise the historic mission in collaboration with Blue Origin,…

Hong Kong: Paul King, the director behind the global hit Paddington films and the Timothée Chalamet-led musical Wonka, is set to helm the upcoming Labubu feature film. In November, Sony Pictures, riding high on the global success of KPop Demon Hunters, announced it had acquired the screen rights to Labubu, the hugely popular Chinese plush toy brand. A feature film is already in early development, although it has yet to be confirmed whether the project will be live-action or animated. King began his screen career as an associate director on the British cult television comedy Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, before going…

Sydney: The Australian government has announced a nationwide gun buyback scheme following the Bondi Beach attack, the country’s deadliest mass shooting in decades. The move marks the largest firearms buyback since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, which killed 35 people and led to Australia introducing some of the world’s strictest gun control laws. The Bondi Beach Attack occurred on December 14 when two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish festival at Australia’s most iconic beach, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more. Authorities noted that, the attackers were motivated by Islamic State ideology, and police have formally declared the attack…

San Francisco: Apple has announced that it is allowing alternative app stores on iPhones in Japan, marking a significant shift in its App Store policies as it complies with new regulations designed to boost competition in the country’s smartphone market. Under the updated rules, Japanese developers will be permitted to launch their own app marketplaces on iPhones. Sales made through these alternative stores and their apps will attract commissions as low as 5 percent, substantially lower than Apple’s traditional fees. Developers will also be able to offer their own in-app payment systems for apps distributed via Apple’s App Store, although…

London: Children as young as 11 who display misogynistic behaviour will be taught how to distinguish between pornography and healthy real-life relationships under a multimillion-pound government initiative aimed at tackling misogyny in schools across England. The measures, designed to confront misogyny at an early age, will include teaching pupils the difference between pornography and healthy real-life relationships, as part of a wider strategy to challenge misogyny and reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG). The initiative comes on the eve of the government publishing its long-awaited strategy to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Foreign Secretary David…

Bengaluru, India: OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity have launched an aggressive push to expand their presence in India by rolling out free plans, triggering an unprecedented battle for artificial intelligence users in the world’s most populous nation. Analysts say the free plan strategy is designed not only to drive mass adoption but also to collect valuable multilingual data that can strengthen AI training models. India presents a uniquely attractive market for AI companies. It is the world’s second-largest smartphone market with around 730 million devices, while users consume an average of 21 gigabytes of data per month at just 9.2 cents…

London: The UK has recorded its sunniest year on record in 2025, despite December not yet being complete, according to provisional figures from the Met Office. By December 15, the country had already logged 1,622 hours of sunshine, surpassing the previous record set in 2003. This exceptional level of sunshine was largely driven by persistent high-pressure systems throughout the year, particularly during spring and summer. These weather patterns reduced cloud cover and delivered long stretches of clear, sunny days across much of the country. Met Office senior scientist Mike Kendon described spring 2025 as ‘exceptional,’ marked by prolonged periods of…

London: Some drivers in England have received incorrect speeding fines due to a technical issue affecting variable speed cameras, National Highways has confirmed. The government agency said that it is implementing a fix after identifying an anomaly in how some cameras interact with variable speed limit signs on certain motorways and major A-roads. National Highways explained that the issue caused a slight delay between changes displayed on speed limit signs and the enforcement carried out by cameras. As a result, a very small number of motorists were wrongly detected as exceeding the limit, leading to incorrect speeding fines being issued.…