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South Africa fire: What are Johannesburg’s hijacked buildings?
By Lucy Fleming BBC News Many buildings in the centre of the South African city of Johannesburg, where a horrific fire has killed more than 70 people, are deemed unfit to live in. Yet these old blocks, abandoned by their owners or the city authorities, are full of families often paying rent to criminal gangs…
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James Webb: Telescope reveals new detail in famous supernova
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent It’s like a celestial pearl necklace. This is an image of a supernova – an exploded star – taken by the new super space telescope James Webb (JWST). SN1987A, as it’s known, is one of the most famous and studied objects in the southern hemisphere sky. When the star went…
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School buildings in England to shut over concrete safety fears
By Hazel Shearing & Sam Hancock BBC News More than 100 schools in England are scrambling to make arrangements after being told to shut buildings with a type of concrete prone to collapse. The government gave the order just days before the start of the autumn term. Some pupils have already been told they will…
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Watch: Police pull over car with bull riding shotgun
Police in Norfolk, Nebraska pulled over a car for having a huge bull standing in its passenger seat. The car had half of it’s roof cut off in order to fit the animal. The man driving the car was given a warning by police, and was ordered to take the bull back home. No one…
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The inevitable rise of #worktok
When work is life, and life is social media, it only makes sense that workplace discourse is thriving alongside make-up routines and viral dance videos. Viral challenges and dance routines; career advice and workplace venting. Just another day on TikTok. The hashtag #worktok is soaring – 1.8 billion views as of this writing – turning…
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China tells India to ‘stay calm’ in border map row
China has told India to “stay calm” over a new Chinese map that Delhi says lays claim to its territory. India protested after Beijing released the map showing north-eastern Arunachal Pradesh state and the disputed Aksai Chin plateau as China’s territory. Beijing responded by saying its neighbours should refrain from “over-interpreting” the issue. Meanwhile, media…
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Alex Murdaugh loses phone privileges in prison after media call
By Gareth Evans BBC News Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina lawyer serving a life sentence for murder, has lost his phone privileges in prison after speaking to the media without permission. The 55-year-old’s lawyer recorded him reading his diary entries during a call in June, prison officials said. The audio was then allegedly given…
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Australia mushroom deaths: Memorial for couple draws hundreds
A memorial service in Australia for the couple who died after eating a mushroom beef Wellington cooked by their former daughter-in-law has drawn hundreds. Gail and Don Patterson were two of three guests who died after the lunch last month at Erin Patterson’s home – an affair that has gripped the nation. Police believe the…
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Anonymous Sudan hacks X to put pressure on Elon Musk over Starlink
By Joe Tidy Cyber correspondent A hacking group called Anonymous Sudan took X, formerly known as Twitter, offline in more than a dozen countries on Tuesday morning in an attempt to pressurise Elon Musk into launching his Starlink service in their country. X was down for more than two hours, with thousands of users affected.…
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Eight startling images of life under the Mafia
As a group photography show about life in Palermo is staged, three of the Sicilian capital’s natives – including a newspaper photographer – tell Harvey Day what it was like to record the Mafia’s terror. If you were a newspaper photographer working in Palermo at the height of the Sicilian Mafia’s power, you had to…