Sadiq Khan calls on Andy Burnham to commit to climate action as pressure grows over North Sea oil

Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.

iOS 26.6.1 iPhone Update Coming Soon As Apple Speeds Up Late-Cycle Bug Fixes

Apple Unveils New Products At Its HQ In Cupertino

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Getty Images

Apple is about to release a new update for the iPhone, according to two new reports. If you’re thinking that the last update was pretty recent, you’d be right — iOS 26.6 landed on Monday, July 27. Here’s what is likely to be in the next release, iOS 26.6.1, and what the speed of updates means.

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope To Launch This Month — Nine Months Ahead Of Schedule

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, will launch this month.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, will launch this month.

South Korea FA apologises over ‘sexual services’ allegations

South Korea football association apologises over allegations relating to qualifiers for World Cup 2014 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

South Korea’s national ‌football association has apologised after a media report alleged ⁠it had provided “sexual ⁠services” to foreign referees when they were in the country for international matches more than a decade ago.

‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ Review: An Affecting Trans Relationship Drama Brings Fresh Perspective to the War in Ukraine

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has prompted a wealth of urgent nonfiction filmmaking documenting the harsh realities of life under siege, but comparatively little dramatic storytelling — a space that the new German-Ukrainian production “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” occupies with bold formal imagination and a commitment to illuminating lives neglected in wider views of the conflict. A timely collaboration between German director Isabelle Stever and her wife, Ukrainian screenwriter Anna Melikova, the film is an intimate, bracingly intersectional relationship drama centered on a queer Kyiv couple whose attempts to flee to safety are complicated by local prejudice: a reminder that selective discrimination can still endure within a collectively persecuted population.

US accused of meddling in British politics with $500,000 grant for ‘public education’ courses

The US embassy in London is offering grants of up to half a million dollars for new “public education” programmes in what has been criticised as interference in British domestic politics.

Spanish mountain village braces for astrotourists lured by total solar eclipse

Little stirs in the mountains above Somosierra beyond the wind that lashes the flat peaks, the cows that graze on parched grass and the sun that beats down on the abandoned aerodrome where generations of glider pilots learned to ride air currents alongside squadrons of vultures and red kites.

How Artificial Curiosity Changed The Question Humans Need To Ask

How Artificial Curiosity Changed The Question Humans Need To Ask

How Artificial Curiosity Changed The Question Humans Need To Ask

getty

Years ago, I had the opportunity to interview some of the world's leading artificial intelligence researchers about artificial curiosity. At the time, many people wanted to know whether machines could become curious. I remember thinking it was one of the most interesting questions in AI. A lot has changed since then. AI has become remarkably good at exploring, testing, predicting, and learning from errors, while answers have become available almost instantly to anyone with an internet connection. Looking back, I can see the questions changing right along with the technology. In 2018, the conversation centered on whether AI could become curious. By 2020, business leaders wanted to know how to apply it. Today, I find myself asking something completely different. As answers become easier to get, are people becoming less willing to wonder, investigate, and stay with uncertainty long enough to discover something new? That may be the curiosity question worth paying attention to now.

Farage and Tice sue NCA over alleged leaks of financial information

Richard Tice has said he and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are suing the National Crime Agency (NCA) over the alleged leaking of confidential financial information.

The Boston and Skegness MP and Reform deputy leader told Talk TV they believed the NCA had committed "multiple criminal offences" and said they would be seeking an apology and damages.

Vintage childhood toys passion inspires Newport dolls' house museum

The 101-year-old who created a dolls' house museum with her childhood toys

Figure caption,

Finding a doll's house lost in WWII

ByLucy Owen

BBC Wales

Updated 8 August 2026

Val Ripley may be 101 but she still enjoys playing with dolls' houses.