Zoe Slater leaves EastEnders as the Hawkins family adds Meghan
Michelle Ryan's Zoe Slater is leaving EastEnders later in 2026, as the soap casts a new member of the Hawkins family named Meghan.
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A dual-flush toilet saves water with one valve, not two
A dual-flush toilet releases four litres or six through a single drop valve rather than two tanks, and that valve is also where leaks begin.
The classic smiley face cost $45, and no trademark came with it
Harvey Ball drew the best-known smiley face in ten minutes for $45 in 1963. He never trademarked it, and the Spain brothers later claimed it.
Congress counts the votes that name the next US president
Every four years Congress opens the sealed electoral votes, counts them in one joint session, and reads out who won. Here is how that day works.
Goldbach's 1742 claim about primes still has no proof
In 1742, Christian Goldbach told Euler that every even number over 2 is the sum of two primes. Nobody has proved it since.
Chile's flat school voucher sorted pupils by family income
Under Pinochet, Chile paid every school one flat voucher per pupil. Researchers found it rewarded schools for enrolling wealthier families.
Argentine adults can change legal gender with no doctor or judge
Argentina's 2012 Gender Identity Law lets adults change the gender and name on official papers by their own declaration, and puts treatment on health plans.
A.S. Neill let his pupils choose whether to go to lessons at all
At Summerhill School in Leiston, lessons have been optional since 1921. Ofsted called the approach a failure, but inspectors in 1949 praised it.
Apple v the FBI: the US fight that one iPhone started
In 2016 a US judge told Apple to help the FBI into a gunman's iPhone. Apple refused, calling it a backdoor, and the case ended when a hired firm broke in.
Rivals gave Emily Atack the role she spent years chasing
Emily Atack spent years known as Charlotte in The Inbetweeners. She calls Rivals the best job of her life, playing a woman Jilly Cooper never condemns.
Some skyscrapers wear their frame on the outside
A diagrid carries a tower's load on diagonals on its skin. In London it let Newfoundland stand light over an Underground tunnel, and 30 per cent taller.
Forty-eight teams, one trophy: how the World Cup runs
The men's World Cup takes 48 teams through 12 groups. The top two in each, plus the eight best third-placed sides, enter single-elimination knockout rounds.
Bindi Irwin marks 20 years since Steve Irwin's death
Twenty years after the Crocodile Hunter died, his daughter Bindi said his legacy was love, not only conservation. His show reached more than 100 countries.
A ventriloquist never throws a voice, the audience's eyes do
The sound comes from the performer's own mouth. The audience's eyes pin it on the dummy's moving mouth, and performers are using that trick again.
Macadamias are Australian, but the world grows Hawaiian ones
Macadamia is native to Queensland, but Hawaii turned it into a crop. Genetic studies trace most orchard trees to one small wild population near Gympie.
No Child Left Behind tied some US school funding to test scores
Congress passed No Child Left Behind by 384 to 45 in the House and 91 to 8 in the Senate. Schools that kept missing targets faced closure.
The 1903 Chicago theatre fire that killed over 500 people
The Iroquois Theatre fire of December 30, 1903 killed hundreds behind locked gates and inward doors. The outrage pushed US cities to rewrite fire codes.
You dream for about two hours a night, and nobody knows why
Science has no single answer to why we dream. Threat rehearsal, emotional repair, memory sorting and creative search each have evidence behind them.
Why AI's water use is so hard to pin down
AI uses water mostly to cool data centre chips, but how much depends on the site, the season and the cooling design. Nobody yet agrees how to count it.
Every UN member but the US signed the children's rights treaty
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out what every under-18 is owed, from a name to contact with both parents. Scotland made it law in 2024.
At Grasshopper Pueblo, teeth showed who came from elsewhere
Strontium locked into tooth enamel records the rocks under a person's childhood home. Archaeologists compare it with bone to track ancient migrants.
Foil is fine in an air fryer. The heating element is the risk
Aluminium foil can go in an air fryer if food weighs it down, it stays clear of the element and fan, and it leaves room for the hot air to move.
Four under-40 mathematicians took the 2026 Fields Medals
Yu Deng, John Pardon, Jacob Tsimerman and Hong Wang won the 2026 Fields Medals, a prize for work done and for the promise of more.
Maeslantkering: the Dutch barrier that shuts in half an hour
The Maeslantkering swings two doors across a 360-metre channel into Rotterdam, part of the Delta Works the Dutch built after the 1953 North Sea flood.