Experience: I’ve walked across three countries in a straight line

I didn’t train for my first attempt and got stuck on a mountain with no signal, darkness falling and hypothermia setting in

Growing up, I loved the outdoors. I gallivanted through the Staffordshire countryside with my stepbrother, Greg. We used to pick a point in the distance and create “missions” to walk towards it. It was a mischievous challenge that saw us hopping fences, wading through rivers and sneaking around farmers.

I was also obsessed with maps, and even read the Birmingham A-Z for fun. When Google Earth came out in 2005, I spent hours studying satellite images.

Published: June 20, 2025, 4:00 am

I lost weight and now people treat me better. How do I reconcile this? | Leading questions

It’s easy to resent being treated better because of how you look, advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith writes. Try to notice who has treated you the same all along

• Read more Leading questions

I am a woman who has been fat since I was about eight; I am now in my early 50s. I have been on Ozempic for almost two years. I have lost almost 50 kilos and can now do a whole lot of things that I wasn’t physically able to do before, which is great. But people treat me differently now. I had my work review and I am doing less but got feedback about how much more I am doing. I have been asked if I am looking to date, and even if I am thinking of having a child, both questions I never was asked when I was bigger. I didn’t think people treated me badly before, and still don’t, but now I am seeing that there is a difference. It is not comfortable for me. I am not at risk of putting the weight back on but how do I navigate the difference in how people are treating me?

Eleanor says: A lot of people notice this after losing lots of weight. You get spoken to in a different key. People turn on a switch you didn’t know they had. For some people this feels great. For others it’s unnerving: to feel so newly visible and yet somehow so unseen.

Published: June 19, 2025, 2:51 pm

Climate misinformation turning crisis into catastrophe – major report

False claims obstructing climate action, say researchers, amid calls for climate lies to be criminalised

Rampant climate misinformation is turning the crisis into a catastrophe, according to the authors of a new report.

It found climate action was being obstructed and delayed by false and misleading information stemming from fossil fuel companies, rightwing politicians and some nation states. The report, from the International Panel on the Information Environment (Ipie), systematically reviewed 300 studies.

Published: June 19, 2025, 11:00 am

The moment Elon Musk's SpaceX’s Starship 36 explodes – video

One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets exploded during a routine test in Texas. The Starship 36 suffered 'catastrophic failure and exploded' at the Starbase launch facility according to the Cameron County authorities. Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, is central to Musk’s long-term vision of colonising Mars. This is the latest setback, with SpaceX betting that its 'fail fast, learn fast' ethos will eventually pay off

Published: June 19, 2025, 11:50 am

SpaceX rocket explodes in new setback to Elon Musk’s Mars project

Starship 36 was preparing for 10th test flight from Texas when it underwent ‘catastrophic failure’ while on stand

One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starships has exploded during a routine test in Texas, authorities said, in the latest setback to the billionaire’s dream of turning humanity into an interplanetary species.

The Starship 36 underwent “catastrophic failure and exploded” at the Starbase launch facility shortly after 11pm on Wednesday (0400 GMT Thursday), a Facebook post by the Cameron County authorities said.

Published: June 19, 2025, 10:24 am

Expedition to ‘real home of the pirates of the Caribbean’ hopes to unearth ships and treasure

Exploration of Bahamas seabed will be first time notorious New Providence hideout has been searched

Pirates of the Caribbean is a $4.5bn swashbuckling film franchise and Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham are among marauding buccaneers who have captured imaginations over the centuries.

But almost nothing is known about the life and times of actual pirates.

Published: June 19, 2025, 10:21 am

Do medicinal mushroom products actually work? – podcast

More of us are turning to products containing mushroom extracts, with the medicinal fungi market now worth billions of pounds. Promises of benefits to mental and physical health have seen its popularity spill over from wellness influencers to the shelves of Marks & Spencer – but is there any scientific evidence behind these claims?

Ian Sample chats to Madeleine Finlay about the appeal of mushroom drinks and supplements, and hears from the mycologist Prof Nik Money on what we really know about how fungi can affect our minds and bodies

Published: June 19, 2025, 4:00 am

How the earth shook for nine days and nobody knew why – video

An unprecedented planetary-scale seismic event caused the earth to vibrate for nine days straight back in 2023, but the reason why was unclear. Scientists initially had more questions than answers, labelling the event an unidentified seismic object and undertook a mammoth scientific collaboration across multiple countries and institutions to get to the bottom of what really happened. Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks into the mystery at the heart of this scientific investigation 

• Entire Earth vibrated for nine days

• The original study conducted by Svennevig et al. (2024) and published in Science

Published: June 19, 2025, 3:48 pm