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Ricky Gervais has defended making jokes about "taboo subjects" after his new Netflix special drew criticism. In SuperNature, the stand-up comedian makes a string of what he describes as ironic and satirical jokes about trans people, female comedians and Aids.

The newfound flexibility many workers experienced amid the pandemic has made an indelible mark. The ability to better balance work and life as well as ditch the commute has been a hugely positive side effect of a chaotic time – and now, millions of employees refuse to go back.

On dry nights, the San hunter-gatherers of Namibia often sleep under the stars. They have no electric lights or new Netflix releases keeping them awake.

Researchers have just finished mapping the mouth of the underwater Tongan volcano that, on 15 January, produced Earth's biggest atmospheric explosion in over a century. The caldera of Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai is now 4km (2.5 miles) wide and drops to a base 850m below sea level.

Jackdaws use a "democratic" process to decide when to leave their roosts en masse, scientists have discovered. Thousands of jackdaws can suddenly take to the morning skies in winter, creating a whirling black cloud of creatures.

Norway's coastal road from the town of Stiklestad to the Arctic city of Bodø is a 670km journey between two very different worlds. It's also one of the most beautiful road trips on the planet.

The sudden collapse of two popular digital coins in early May shocked investors and wiped $400bn (£318bn) from the value of many other cryptocurrencies, including the biggest, Bitcoin. All over the world, people who lost their life savings are now appealing for help.

The war in Ukraine has upended Germany's energy policy. The nation currently buys around 25% of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia, contributing billions of euros a year to Moscow's finances.

Leaders of the world's largest Baptist denomination covered up sex abuse by clergy for years and vilified survivors, an internal report says. The seven-month investigation found that survivors had come forward over two decades about abusers within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

Environmental campaigner Liz O'Neill doesn't mince her words about gene drives - the next generation of genetic modification (GM) technology. The way gene drives work sounds like something from a science fiction novel, but they are already being used in laboratory tests.

Buy something in a supermarket and there's a good chance it will contain palm oil. Follow it back through the supply chain and eventually you'll find an oil palm tree, likely in Indonesia.

In their long white gowns, the inspectors of the Taliban's Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue look more like food safety inspectors than "moral police".

When David Spiegel was told his next patient was waiting for him, he didn't need to ask the room number. He could hear her wheezing from halfway down the hall.

Imagine you have to make a speech, but instead of looking down at your notes, the words scroll in front of your eyes, whichever direction you look in. That's just one of many features the makers of smart contact lenses promise will be available in the future.

In Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, mummies have been found that pre-date the Egyptians' by 2,000 years. So while the Egyptians may be the most famous culture to mummify their dead, it turns out they weren't the first to do so.

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.BBC NewsAn MI5 spy used his status to terrorise his partner before moving abroad to continue intelligence work while under investigation, the BBC has found.

Sri Lanka has defaulted on its debt for the first time in its history as the country struggles with its worst financial crisis in more than 70 years. The governor of the South Asian nation's central bank said the country was now in a "pre-emptive default".

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Start your Shopify free trial today: http://shopify.com/Kurzgesagt Sources & further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-jiggle-of-existence Look around you. Where are you? Where is this place you are occupying? Somewhere in a room, maybe in a city on a continent on a planet orbiting a

The seismometer on Nasa's InSight probe will keep listening for Marsquakes even as other systems on the mission have to shut down due to declining power levels. The spacecraft has just detected a Magnitude 5 tremor - the biggest event yet in its three years of operation on the Red Planet.

A US military investigation has found that troops did not violate the laws of war or deliberately cause civilian casualties in an air strike in Syria in 2019 that killed dozens of people.

The first public congressional hearing into UFO sightings in the US in over 50 years ended with few answers about the unexplained phenomenon. Two top military officials tasked with probing the sightings said that most can ultimately be identified.

Nasa's Perseverance rover has reached a big moment in its mission on Mars. Tuesday will see the six-wheeled robot begin the climb up an ancient delta feature in the crater where it landed.

When Hana found out she was pregnant, she knew she wanted to have an abortion - but her search for a clinic on Google led her to an anti-abortion centre, set on talking her out of her decision.