PA Media By Steven McKenzie BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter A husband and wife are on the verge of opening a spaceport on a tiny island. Frank and Debbie Strang bought a former RAF radar station on Unst in Shetland about 15 years ago with an idea to turn it into an eco-tourism attraction.…

Arun Chandrabose By Ashraf Padanna Reporter, Trivandrum, Kerala In June, 11 women sanitation workers from the southern Indian state of Kerala pooled money to buy a lottery ticket. Last week, they were overjoyed to find out they had hit the jackpot of 100m rupees ($1.2m; £946,685). The women are part of a group that collects…

Getty Images By Annabelle Liang & Nick Marsh BBC News China is due to start restricting exports of two materials key to the semiconductor industry, as the chip war with the US heats up. Under the new controls, special licences will be needed to export gallium and germanium from the world’s second largest economy. The…

Anadolu Agency By Chris Vallance Technology reporter, BBC News The owners of Twitter have been accused of trying to “bully” anti-hate campaigners into silence with letters threatening legal action. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said X Corp accused it of making “troubling and baseless claims” in its reports about the platform. Elon Musk…

July 2023 was the hottest month on record – and likely Earth’s hottest in 120,000 years, according to the European Union and the World Meteorological Organization. Unrelenting storms and heatwaves, combined with off-the-charts ocean temperatures engulfed the United States.

Reuters By Sofia Bettiza BBC News, Rome Venice should be added to a list of world heritage sites in danger, the UN’s cultural agency has said. The iconic Italian city is at risk of “irreversible” damage from overwhelming tourism, overdevelopment and rising sea levels due to climate change, according to a report from Unesco. The…

So long Twitter, hello X. The change hasn’t sat right with many of its devoted users, and there may be reasons why. Many users logging onto Twitter on 23 July found a black X in the corner of their browser tab, in place of the little blue bird they were used to seeing. Elon Musk,…

Getty Images By Max Matza BBC News US actor Paul Reubens, who rose to fame in the 1980s as the character Pee-wee Herman, died at 70 on Sunday after a private struggle with cancer. “Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit,” said a statement released by his estate…