Technologies

For nearly a century, people around the globe have celebrated World Animal Day. Launched in 1925, the annual event on 4 October is designed to raise awareness of animal rights issues and help improve the treatment and wellbeing of wildlife. Today, the international effort includes more than 90 ambassadors in 70 countries, and in recent decades, travel has increasingly played a pivotal role in wildlife conservation.

The huge asteroid that hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was not alone, scientists have confirmed.

A second, smaller space rock smashed into the sea off the coast of West Africa creating a large crater during the same era.

It would have been a “catastrophic event”, the scientists say, causing a tsunami at least 800m high to tear across the Atlantic ocean.

Dr Uisdean Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University first found the Nadir crater in 2022, but a cloud of uncertainty hung over how it was really formed.

High-profile YouTube stars KSI and the Sidemen have been named alongside the creators of Candy Crush, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto as some of the richest gamers and creators in the UK.

Taking the top spot of the Sunday Times' inaugural top 30 Gaming Rich List are co-founders of Playrix, Igor and Dmitry Bukhman.

The brothers, with a combined fortune of £12.54bn, are behind titles like Township, Fishdom and Homescapes. KSI and the Sidemen are the highest placed gamers, coming in joint 21st with £50m.

Performers working in the games industry have spoken of their distress at being asked to work on explicit content without notice, including a scene featuring a sexual assault.

Sex scenes are common in modern games - and are often made by filming human actors who are then digitised into game characters.

But performers have told the BBC a culture of secrecy around projects - where scripts are often not shared until the last moment - means they frequently do not know in advance that scenes may involve intimate acts.

Fans of Civilization have been waiting almost a decade for the latest instalment of the cult video game series.

Now it has been revealed that theme of time passing is pretty appropriate: the inspiration at the heart of Civilization VII, to be released in February, is how the capital of the UK has changed from the Roman era to now.

And it all started with a map of Londinium - as London was known to the Romans.

It is an increasingly common message from websites: browse for free - if you allow us to track your data and target you with personalised ads - if you don't, hand over some cash.

The model is known as "consent or pay" and, while it may be becoming increasingly common, questions remain over whether it is ethical or even legal.

It certainly wasn't love at first sight. In fact, not so long ago they didn't like each other very much.

"I don't hate the man," Elon Musk tweeted in July 2022, "but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset."

The Tesla and Space X founder's comment was prompted by a profane Donald Trump insult - put simply, calling Mr Musk a liar. Trump accused Mr Musk of lying to him about who he voted for in the last presidential election.

"Elon is not going to buy Twitter," Trump crowed to a rally crowd in Alaska.