News | Latest Breaking News Stories & Headlines

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft, integrated for the Artemis II mission, are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center

NASA delays Artemis 2 moon mission to March

NASA said it was targeting a March window to launch its Artemis 2 mission to send ⁠four astronauts around the moon after a delay in this week's departure, caused by a leak of liquid hydrogen during a key "wet dress rehearsal".

News Lens • 03 Feb

The Sistine Chapel prepared for the conclave in which the new Pope will be elected in May 2025

Major cleaning begins of Michelangelo's Last Judgement

Three decades after its last restoration, a deep cleaning has begun of Michelangelo's 'The Last Judgement', the Italian master's spectacular fresco in the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican has said.

News Lens • 03 Feb

Tourists walk around the Trevi fountain in central Rome

Rome to charge tourists €2 to visit Trevi Fountain

Italy's Trevi Fountain has launched a new ticketing system making the famous Rome landmark the latest tourist site to charge entry in a bid to raise funds and battle overcrowding.

News Lens • 03 Feb

Svalbard polar bears getting fatter despite ice loss

Adult polar bears around Norway's Svalbard archipelago have become fatter on average over the past two decades even as Arctic sea ice has shrunk, according to a new study.

News Lens • 30 Jan

A pedestrian crosses a street used for temporary snow storage in central Moscow on January 29, 2026

Moscow records heaviest snowfall in over 200 years

Russia's capital Moscow has this month seen the largest snowfall in more than 200 years, Moscow State University meteorologists said today.

News Lens • 29 Jan

Last newspaper hawker in Paris knighted by Macron

President of France Emmanuel Macron has made Ali Akbar Akbar, believed to be the last newspaper hawker in Paris, a knight in the national order of merit in recognition of his service to France.

News Lens • 29 Jan

a police car parked on a road in the middle of a forest

Remains found in search for Belgian missing since 2023

A bushwalker found human remains while searching for Belgian national Celine Cremer, who went missing in 2023 in the Australian island state of Tasmania, police said.

News Lens • 28 Jan

Brazil declares superfood acai berry a national fruit

Brazil has declared the acai berry a national fruit, a move to stamp its ownership on the popular "superfood" as concerns grow about foreign companies staking claims to the Amazon's biological riches.

News Lens • 28 Jan

How to assess microplastics in our bodies?

How many tiny pieces of plastic are currently inside your body?

News Lens • 27 Jan

Sleeping without pillow may help glaucoma patients

Sleeping without a pillow may be better for people with a common eye condition, a study suggests.

News Lens • 27 Jan

Chilean company ages wines in underwater cellars

In metal cages installed on the sea floor around the small island of Locos in northern Chile, ⁠divers stock bottles of wine as part of a new underwater storage programme.

News Lens • 27 Jan

Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro during a march in Brasilia on Saturday

89 people injured in lightning strike at Bolsonaro rally

Lightning struck near a rally of supporters of Brazil's former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro in Brasilia yesterday, injuring 89 people, according to the fire department.

News Lens • 26 Jan

Giant panda Lei Lei eats in its enclosure

Fans bid farewell to Japan's only pandas

Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.

News Lens • 25 Jan

Dozens of cars are seen parked beside a wall as a man on a bicycle cycles down the street away from the camera

Bologna, Italy, clashes with govt over 30km speed limit

The northern Italian city of Bologna is at the centre of a tussle to keep its 30 kilometre per hour city centre speed limit, despite a court ruling against it ⁠and hostility to the measure from Giorgia Meloni's national government.

News Lens • 22 Jan

Summer school mandatory for some children in Austria

Austria's parliament has approved making two weeks of summer schooling mandatory for children with low German levels in a bid to further integration.

News Lens • 22 Jan

The faint image of a hand stencil, a negative outline of a human hand created by placing a hand against a rock wall surface and spraying pigment paint around it, that has been dated to 67,800 years ago, in a limestone cave called Liang Metanduno on Muna,

World's oldest cave art discovered in Indonesia

A red stencil of a hand pressed against the wall of an Indonesian cave is the oldest rock art ever discovered, scientists said Wednesday, and sheds light on how humans first migrated to Australia.

News Lens • 21 Jan

Astronaut Suni Williams discusses her return from the International Space Station

NASA astronaut stuck in space for nine months retires

A NASA astronaut who was stuck in space for nine months because of problems with her spacecraft has retired after 27 years of service, the space agency has said.

News Lens • 21 Jan

A general view of Royal Mint Court, London, the site of the proposed new Chinese embassy

UK approves plan for new China embassy despite spy fears

British government ministers have approved a new Chinese embassy in London despite intelligence agencies saying they cannot eliminate the risks to national security.

UK • 21 Jan

Gentoo penguins make appearance at Songshutang Ski Resort in China

Study: Penguins move breeding season forward amid warming

Penguins are bringing forward their breeding season at record rates as Antarctica rapidly warms due to climate change, according to research published by a global team of scientists.

World • 20 Jan

a thick cylinder of glowing gas and dust around a doomed star.

Astronomers spot mysterious 'iron bar' in Ring Nebula

Researchers have spotted a large cloud of iron atoms in the shape of a bar stretching about 6 trillion kilometres long across the face of the Ring Nebula.

News Lens • 19 Jan

People kneel in prayer in a buddhist temple

China's Buddha artisans carve out living from dying trade

In a dimly lit workshop in eastern China, craftsman Zhang measured and shaped a block of wood into a foot as dozens of half-completed life-sized Buddha statues looked on silently.

News Lens • 19 Jan

French Police officers seal off the entrance to the Louvre Museum after a Jewllery Heist on October 19, 2025 in Paris, France. France's Culture Minister, Rachida Dati, announced the closure of the world-famous art museum on X due to the robbery taking pla

Louvre robbery probe still aims to 'recover jewellery'

French investigators remain determined to find the imperial jewels stolen from the Louvre in October, a prosecutor has said.

News Lens • 19 Jan

Two elderly women stand beside each other with snow on the ground

'Hobbit houses' that might just save a Moldovan village

They call Rogojeni the "hobbit village", and its little half-buried houses, built to resist Moldova's cold winters and hot summers, do look like something from "The Lord of the Rings".

News Lens • 16 Jan

Study finds T-rex did not reach full size until age 40

There is no question that Tyrannosaurus rex got big. In fact, it may have been Earth's most massive land predator of all time. But the question of how quickly T-rex achieved its maximum size has been a matter of debate.

News Lens • 15 Jan

An ice core sample lies on a table exposed to the sun and preventing the formation of new ice. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Ice archive guards secrets of melting glaciers

Scientists sealed ancient chunks of glacial ice in a first-of-its-kind sanctuary in Antarctica in the hope of preserving these fast-disappearing records of Earth's past climate for centuries to come.

News Lens • 14 Jan