Just 1% of asylum seekers in UK genuine, insider says TOI correspondent from London: “At best 1% of asylum seekers in the UK are genuine,” a home office whistleblower has said, adding that most claims are scripted and bogus but still get granted.The United Nations refugee agency has criticised the home office, too, over risks…

Nuclear fusion illustration Photo: Canva Inside a steel vault at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a superheated whirl of charged particles spins in near vacuum, held in place by invisible magnetic fields. This is a fusion plasma, the same kind of matter that powers the Sun, and it is notoriously difficult to control.In a recent…

Representative Image (AI-generated) Antarctica has been losing mass for years as glaciers shed ice into the ocean, contributing to rising sea levels. But between 2021 and 2023, the continent experienced an unusual and temporary reversal. Instead of continuing to lose mass at its recent rate, Antarctica gained about 695 billion tonnes over 22 months, marking…

Rachel Chen, 18, won $100,000 for her innovative quantum mathematics research. (Photo: Society for Science) At just 18, Rachel Chen has taken a decades-old mathematical idea and expanded it into a visual framework for understanding complex quantum systems, earning her a $100,000 award in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search.Chen, a student at Marlborough School…

Rep. Chellie Pingree urges Speaker Johnson to sue Trump administration over Washington arch/Image: X A senior House Democrat has urged Speaker Mike Johnson to sue the Trump administration over plans to begin work on a proposed triumphal arch in Washington, arguing that Congress has not approved funding or authorised the project.Representative Chellie Pingree, the top…

Deep in Maine’s Muscongus Bay, a 330-acre island covered in spruce trees has survived a threat of clear-cut logging and, 90 years later, continues to serve as an international training centre for environmentalists and bird researchers. Hog Island Audubon Camp, near the coastal community of Bremen, marked its 90th anniversary in late August 2026. According…

A biological control project started half a century ago to destroy a stubborn invasive weed accidentally set off an ecological chain reaction that increased human exposure to a deadly virus. In 1973, wildlife officials and agricultural scientists in Montana released two species of European gall flies, Urophora affinis and Urophora quadrifasciata, to control the spread…

Andrew Flintoff has listed his £6.75 million Cheshire mansion for sale. (Photo: Getty Images/Rightmove) England cricket legend Andrew Flintoff has put his lavish Cheshire mansion on the market for £6.75 million, offering a glimpse into the luxury property where the former England all-rounder has lived with his family.The 48-year-old, widely known as Freddie Flintoff, purchased…

Tibet hit by 5.3-magnitude earthquake (representative image) An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 struck Tibet on Tuesday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said, with the quake occurring at a depth of 35 km (21.75 miles).The earthquake comes days after another tremor struck the region. An earthquake of magnitude 5 was reported in Tibet on last week’s…