Scientists have discovered a defect in the engines of Russia’s new flagship heavy lift space rocket that could destroy it in flight, an apparent setback to a project President Vladimir Putin has said is vital for national security. The Angara A5, which was test-launched in 2014, is being developed to replace the Proton M as Russia’s heavy lift rocket, capable of carrying payloads bigger than 20 tonnes into orbit. A launch pad for the new rocket is due to open in 2021.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is skipping this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Scientists and engineers have urged a re-evaluation of nuclear power as a source of energy, and have suggested that this area may help us to reduce the impact of climate change in the future. Numerous voices in the technological and political community are re-asserting that nuclear power can be a positive and beneficial energy source, and that its low environmental impact is a strong justification for investment and maintenance of this area.

President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday signed a decree making it easier for many Brazilians to own firearms, the first of many expected changes by the nascent administration to overhaul gun laws in the nation that leads the world in total homicides. Bolsonaro signed the decree in a televised...

It’s not Brexit, terrorism, or even climate change that keeps CEOs awake at night. Instead, recession is the primary concern for 1,400 global business leaders surveyed about their biggest fears for 2019. It’s not clear they have grounds to worry. The Conference Board, the think tank behind the survey, noted that, outside of the UK, “our economic indicators do not point to imminent recession risks.” Instead, the fear seems to be that “traditional levers of power—public policy and political institutions” simply wouldn’t have the mettle or stability to handle an economic crisis if it hurtled toward them.

Canada's caught in a rhetorical crossfire in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. One of the Kremlin's most prominent propagandists has aired a segment with the incredible claiming that Nazi-loving Ukrainians are running Canada's government and shaping anti-Russian policies.

"Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior" is such an anodyne way of describing weaponizing information to poison attitudes and democracies. That's the euphemism that Facebook is employing to talk about its latest purge of accounts and pages that may be part of a Russian disinformation campaign. More than 500 pages and accounts have recently been removed, according to a report by Facebook's cybersecurity policy chief.

Silvio Berlusconi is back. Again.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has announced a major change to the way it assigns ratings to films featuring scenes of rape and other forms of sexual violence. According to The Guardian, films with scenes of sexual violence will no longer be assigned a rating less than 15s, which means only films suitable for moviegoers 15 years and older will contain rape scenes. The BBFC said the change was a result of a shift in public opinion over the last five years.

Choose the right communication app

The North Korean leader is said to have met with Xi Jinping.

Prime minister addresses Commons after huge defeat for her Brexit deal.

Cern has published its ideas for a £20bn successor to the Large Hadron Collider, given the working name of Future Circular Collider (FCC). The Geneva based particle physics research centre is proposing an accelerator that is almost four times longer and ten times more powerful. The aim is to have the FCC hunting for new sub-atomic particles by 2050. Critics say that the money could be better spent on other research areas such as combating climate change.

The Russian republic of Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on gays in which at least two people have died and about 40 people have been detained, LGBT activists in Russia charged Monday. The new allegations come after reports in 2017 of more than 100 gay men arrested and subjected to torture, and some of them killed, in the predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia.

Climate change could be kept in check if a phaseout of all fossil fuel infrastructure were to begin immediately, according to research. It shows that meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting the goal.

The British pound shrugged off a dramatic vote in the UK parliament that left the government's Brexit plans in tatters. Parliament on Tuesday struck down the divorce deal that Prime Minister Theresa May had negotiated with the rest of the European Union by a record margin. The defeat was expected, but the size of the loss — 432 votes to 202 — was a surprise.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a deadly explosion that killed US service members in the Syrian city of Manbij on Wednesday.

As legal tensions between Canada and China escalate over the arrest of Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou, alarming stories of possible legal retaliation are surfacing, including a death sentence handed down to a Canadian accused of attempting to smuggle drugs out of China. At the same time, Huawei has distanced itself from an executive arrested in Poland last week and accused of spying, saying it fired the employee.

It's accused of meddling with Beyoncé and Kanye West's play counts.

Today we removed multiple Pages, groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.

No need to work with separate systems

Oxford has ended its women-only fellowship after the university’s administrators said it breached equality law.

The city council says money from the fountain, traditionally given to the poor, must boost city coffers.

Prime Minister Pakistan ordered to start an investigation on cryptocurrency mining and crackdown its operations. Read from The Cyber Forum.

Scientists were set to release a new World Magnetic Model after accelerating changes in earth's magnetic field, but the US government shutdown stopped them from for now. Navigation as we know it could be in jeopardy.

Buried deep inside a mountain on a remote Norwegian island, agricultural institutions from around the globe are collaborating to safeguard important crops in the event of global catastrophe. That includes marijuana. Currently, there are over 29,500 marijuana seeds – including 31 strains of marijuana and 8 strains of hemp being held in the vault. That is more seeds than there are asparagus, blueberry or raspberry seeds stored at the facility.

Paweł Adamowicz was attacked at a charity event on Sunday.

Lexus shocked the automotive world in Detroit three years ago with the debut of the LC coupe. It was a testament to the brand’s new sense of creative ambition, but it was only just the beginning. Since then, the Lexus design team has been exploring the brand’s evolution and the latest result of those explorations will make its debut at the 2019 North American International Auto Show with the world premiere of the Lexus LC Convertible Concept.

It looks like Europe is heading into recession, multiple economists say. Germany and Italy may already be in "technical recession." The tragedy is that the contraction is being helped along by a deliberate political choice made by Europe's own governments: Their effort to rein in deficit spending, to cut fiscal stimulus, and to balance their budgets in the 10-year aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. "Austerity," as it's known, has shrunk the potential size of the European economy and retarded its ability to grow again.

Often aided and inspired by social media, an increasing number of young Saudi women are taking enormous gambles to escape the country, rights groups say.

Three years ago, a group of German libraries, universities, and research institutes teamed up to force the three largest scientific publishers to offer an entirely new type of contract. In exchange for an annual lump sum, they wanted a nationwide agreement making papers by German authors free to read around the world, while giving researchers in Germany access to all of the publishers’ online content.

An 18-year-old Saudi woman who said she is fleeing abuse from her family has been granted asylum in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed Friday. Thailand’s immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said Rahaf al-Qunun has left Thailand for Canada on board a Korean Air flight.

Polish national is also being held, risking further tension between China and the west

Diplomatic officials may have been targeted with an unknown weapon in Havana. But a recording of one “sonic attack” actually is the singing of a very loud cricket, a new analysis concludes.

A team of Chinese and U.S. scientists estimated that the world’s oceans are warming by up to 40% faster than previously thought. The oceans are warming faster than previously estimated, setting a new temperature record in 2018 in a trend that is causing major damage to marine life, a Science article published Thursday warns. "How fast are the oceans warming?" was the main question addressed by a team of Chinese and U.S. scientists in a research which demonstrates that "global warming is here and has major consequences already. There is no doubt, none!"