News Lens

A humanoid robot dresses in Chinese traditional clothing

Chinese robot makers ready for Lunar New Year spotlight

In China, humanoid robots are serving as Lunar New Year entertainment, with their manufacturers pitching their song-and-dance skills to the general public as well as potential customers, investors and government officials.

News Lens • 3 hrs

UK zoo says tiny snail 'back from brink' of extinction

A minuscule snail once thought to have disappeared has been saved from the edge of extinction, a British zoo has said.

News Lens • 07 Feb

Undated handout photo issued by Macmillan of the front cover of Gruffalo Granny by Julia Donaldson

'Gruffalo Granny' coming for a visit in September

The Gruffalo family will expand in the long-awaited third book about the beloved monster - titled Gruffalo Granny.

News Lens • 06 Feb

Men dressed like soldiers outside a hotel

Macau hotel rips up trademark gold bricks

The Grand Emperor Hotel in Macau said it had ripped up the real gold bricks from its distinctive lobby floor and sold them for around $13 million (€11m), cashing in on the metal's market surge.

News Lens • 06 Feb

A woman leans over three young children as they work on a laptop

Robotics build path from rural Kenya to world stage

Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished secondary school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore.

News Lens • 06 Feb

Chinese tourists pose for photographs in front of Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji cherry blossom event hit by overtourism

A cherry blossom festival boasting a highly Instagrammable view of Japan's Mount Fuji has been cancelled after residents complained of overtourism fuelled by the weak yen.

News Lens • 05 Feb

Watch: US house collapses into ocean amid high tides

A house on the North Carolina coast collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean waters on Monday amid high tides.

News Lens • 04 Feb

Undated handout photo issued by Cambridge Archaeological Unit of students and Cambridge Archaeological Unit working in a burial pit

Cambridge students unearth possible execution pit

A group of Cambridge University students on a training dig have helped discover a burial pit containing the remains of at least 10 people, possibly Vikings or Saxons.

News Lens • 04 Feb

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

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

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

Ballesteros statue found cut up in Spanish lock-up

A statue of the late golfer Seve Ballesteros, which had vanished from his hometown of Pedreña in northern Spain's ⁠Cantabria region, was found chopped into pieces as the alleged thief prepared to sell it for its bronze.

Golf • 30 Jan

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

photo issued by Mattel of the new look Thomas The Tank Engine as he returns to 3D following 2D series Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go. The recognisable blue locomotive, who has entertained children for more than 80 years, will star in a new series of T

Thomas The Tank Engine has new look as he returns to 3D

Thomas The Tank Engine has been given a new look as he returns to 3D following the 2D series Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go.

Television • 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

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

How to assess microplastics in our bodies?

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

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

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

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

newslens

Chinese robot makers ready for Lunar New Year spotlight

UK zoo says tiny snail 'back from brink' of extinction

'Gruffalo Granny' coming for a visit in September

Macau hotel rips up trademark gold bricks

Robotics build path from rural Kenya to world stage

Mount Fuji cherry blossom event hit by overtourism

Watch: US house collapses into ocean amid high tides

Cambridge students unearth possible execution pit

NASA delays Artemis 2 moon mission to March

Rome to charge tourists €2 to visit Trevi Fountain

Major cleaning begins of Michelangelo's Last Judgement

Ballesteros statue found cut up in Spanish lock-up

Svalbard polar bears getting fatter despite ice loss

Moscow records heaviest snowfall in over 200 years

Last newspaper hawker in Paris knighted by Macron

Thomas The Tank Engine has new look as he returns to 3D

Brazil declares superfood acai berry a national fruit

Remains found in search for Belgian missing since 2023

How to assess microplastics in our bodies?

Chilean company ages wines in underwater cellars

Sleeping without pillow may help glaucoma patients

89 people injured in lightning strike at Bolsonaro rally

Fans bid farewell to Japan's only pandas

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

Summer school mandatory for some children in Austria