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Chinese authorities have seized 7.48 tons of smuggled ivory tusks, the biggest haul in recent years, as Beijing steps up a campaign against illegal wildlife trafficking. The seizures came during the last week operation against an international criminal gang “that has long been specializing in smuggling ivory,” the customs administration …

An outbreak of measles has killed more than 1,200 people on the island of Madagascar. The country is facing its largest measles outbreak in history, with the number of recorded cases growing beyond 115,000. Measles cases are rising in the US and elsewhere, with New York City battling to halt …

A California woman pleaded guilty and has been smacked with jail time for assaulting a McDonald’s manager because she did not receive enough ketchup with her order. On April 12, Mayra Berenice Gallo was sentenced to 18 days behind bars and 15 days of community service for the October 2018 …

The world’s largest aircraft took off over the Mojave Desert in California on Saturday. The carbon-composite plane was built by Stratolaunch Systems Corp. The white airplane called Roc, which has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage, took …

Social networks Facebook and Instagram, as well as messaging service WhatsApp, were unavailable on Sunday for more than three hours, users said. The website Down Detector reported that thousands of people globally had complained about the Facebook-owned trio being down from 11.30 BST onwards. Facebook users were presented with the …

A man appears convinced he has found a flightless species lurking on the Red Planet’s surface that bears a striking resemblance to one typically spotted at the South Pole. One amateur stargazer is certain he has found tangible proof that there really is life on the Red Planet, arguing that …

A detailed scientific and technological analysis of Da Vinci’s earliest-known drawing has revealed a hidden, previously unseen sketch, as well as a special skill. In addition to being an inventor, painter, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, amateur botanist, cartographer, and all-around polymath, Leonardo Da Vinci was also ambidextrous, new research into a …

A fertility doctor accused of illegally using his own sperm to inseminate patients has been found to be the father of at least 49 children. Jan Karbaat, who died two years ago, impregnated their mothers at his clinic near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. None of the women were aware he …

The Zimbabwe government has come under fire after it emerged that it spent thousands of dollars on importing legal wigs from the UK for local judges, with critics lambasting the purchase as a colonial hang-up and a waste of money. The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported that the country’s Judiciary Service …

That black hole you’ve seen everywhere now has a name. It’s been named Powehi — a Hawaiian phrase referring to an “embellished dark source of unending creation.” The groundbreaking, first-ever photograph of a black hole was published around the world when it was unveiled on Wednesday, captivating viewers and providing …

A Chinese researcher who sparked improved cognitive function in monkeys by implanting human genes into their brains has defended his experiment, which has divided the scientific community. The research, undertaken by multiple universities and led by the Kunming Institute of Zoology in southwestern China, was intended to shed more light …

Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft has crash-landed on the moon as the widely publicized event was being broadcast live. The spacecraft lost communication with ground control as it entered its final descent towards the moon on Thursday. The mission was declared a failure shortly after. “We definitely crashed on the surface of …

Australia has issued a new 50 cent coin celebrating some of the country’s indigenous languages, many of which are at risk of extinction. The new design incorporates 14 translations of the word “coin” from languages native to the Australian continent, developed in collaboration by the Royal Australian Mint and the …

The Swiss government wants to put an end to its emergency stockpile of coffee after declaring that it is “not essential” for human survival. Switzerland began storing emergency reserves of coffee between World War One and World War Two in preparation for potential shortages. It continued in subsequent decades to …

Cutting the cable cord just got a little more expensive. The price of a YouTube TV subscription is going up by $10 to $49.99 a month. The Google-owned company announced the price hike in a blog post-Wednesday. YouTube said it was raising prices to bring customers “the best service possible.” …

When Amazon customers speak to Alexa, the company’s AI-powered voice assistant, they may be heard by more people than they expect, according to a report. Amazon employees around the world regularly listen to recordings from the company’s smart speakers as part of the development process for new services, Bloomberg News …

An “exquisitely preserved” trace of dinosaur skin has been discovered in South Korea. Researchers found a set of tiny tracks from a blackbird-sized Minisauripus, the smallest known theropod. The footprints themselves, which measured only an inch long, also contained perfectly preserved skin traces. “These are the first tracks ever found …

A US domestic flight taking almost 12 hours has been launched – making it by far the world’s longest air route within a single country, and breaking the 5,000-mile barrier. Hawaiian Airlines flight 89 connects Boston with Honolulu, Hawaii, a distance of 5,095 miles. It is scheduled to take 11 …

Mount Everest may have shrunk as the result of a devastating earthquake – so a team of Nepalese surveyors is heading to the summit of the world’s tallest mountain to discover the truth. After two years of training, the four-strong group will try to work out whether the official height …

Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy. It measures 40 billion km across – three million times the size of the Earth – and has been described by scientists as “a monster”. The black hole is 500 million trillion …