Science

More than 400 criminals, including senior “kingpins” in organised crime, have been jailed for a total of 3,722 years after a Metropolitan Police operation targeted the EncroChat encrypted messaging platform. Commander Paul Brogden, head of specialist crime at the Met, said it was “the most significant operation targeting organised crime figures in the Met’s history”.

Elon Musk’s $44bn (£36bn) takeover of Twitter is under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and he could be compelled to testify. According to court filings on Thursday, the case centres around concerns the world’s richest man broke federal security laws in 2022, when he bought Twitter stock. The investigation is also

From climate scientists, the September temperature data has prompted a string of superlatives: “gobsmackingly bananas”, “unprecedented”, “staggering,” “unnerving”. A look at the data they’re reacting to – and it helps explain why. September 2023 hasn’t just broken the record for the warmest September on record, it obliterated it. It was half a degree warmer than

All Onewheel self-balancing electric skateboards have been recalled worldwide after at least four deaths and several injuries were reported among people riding them. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has recalled 300,000 skateboards sold in America, warning they can stop balancing a rider if the boards’ limits are exceeded, risking serious crashes. Future Motion,

Scientists say they have discovered planet-like objects in a distant nebula unconnected to any star to orbit – and floating in pairs. Images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) show the Orion Nebula in the clearest detail yet, and researchers say closer investigations throw up a surprising phenomenon. Around 40 gassy “planets” have been

Apple is blaming a software bug and issues tied to apps like Instagram and Uber for causing its recently released iPhone 15 models to get too hot. The company said over the weekend that it is working on an update to the iOS17 system that powers the iPhone 15 line-up to prevent the devices from

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved a low-cost, readily available vaccine for malaria that promises to help ease one of the greatest disease burdens on the developing world. The R21 vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, the Serum Institute of India and drug maker Novavax, could help reduce the 500,000 malaria-associated deaths that

Elon Musk has announced his social media company X, formally known as Twitter, has removed the team monitoring election misinformation. The tool to report misinformation has been taken away – except for in the European Union – prompting concern from thinktank Reset Australia ahead of the country’s aboriginal rights referendum next month. In a post

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has pledged to work with the US to tackle the “sickening” rise of child sexual abuse images generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Investigations by an online safety group have found “astoundingly realistic” AI-made images of children, including babies and toddlers, being abused. The Internet Watch Foundation has also discovered an online

Spotify Technology is testing an artificial intelligence (AI) powered feature that will translate podcasts into other languages. Powered by Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s newly released voice generation technology, translated versions of podcasts will mimic the original speaker’s style and will be more natural than traditional dubbing, Spotify said. Podcasts such as Armchair Expert from actor Dax Shepard,

It will make the most incredible unboxing video. In the coming days, NASA scientists will open the capsule containing dust from the asteroid Bennu and delve into the secrets of our solar system. There are just 250g or so of material inside the heavily protected shell that plunged through the atmosphere before parachuting gently into

The future of FIFA’s interactive World Cup appears in disarray, after failing to deliver its promised new video game amid a bitter end to its three-decade partnership with EA Sports. EA has not only this week launched a rebranded game – FC 24 rather than FIFA 24 in the previous naming system – but also

A third of long COVID patients sustained damage to multiple organs five months after infection, a study has found. Scans of patients who were treated in hospital for COVID-19 showed higher rates of damage to the lungs, brain and kidneys compared with the non-COVID control group. Lung injuries were almost 14 times higher among long

A study into the formation of early galaxies has upended long-held theories about the evolution of the universe. Using NASA‘s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of international researchers looked back at some which formed 10 billion years ago or more. It was a time when astronomers had believed our own Milky Way

Microsoft’s revised effort to get the £55bn takeover of Activision Blizzard past UK regulators appears to be on track for clearance. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had been a sole thorn in the side of the acquisition, rejecting the original terms on the grounds it had a duty to protect innovation and choice in

Scientists have observed how a merciless parasitic plant convinces its host to grow into its own flesh. The mushroom-like balanophoraceae may look like fungi, but are actually a cluster of flowers called inflorescences. And unlike other parasites that attach themselves to a host to steal nutrients directly, these devious plants convince their hosts to work