Sunny Saturday News

Editor OGN Daily
Aug 30
3 min read

A collection of upbeat news nuggets to get the weekend off to a bright start.

Lion carefully investigating a cobra — Credit: Gabriella Comi | Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025

Wake-up Call

The finalists in Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 competition have been revealed and the winning images will be announced on 14 October, followed by an exhibition at London's Natural History Museum, showcasing 100 standout photographs from the 60,000 submissions from around the world. The image pictured was snapped in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, by Gabriella Comi after she spotted a cobra moving towards two napping lions in the scorching midday sun. The eldest lion rose to investigate the slithering threat. The exhibition will run from 17 October 2025 to 12 July 2026.

Boris Johnson with his daughter Romy — Credit: Carrie Johnson

Guess Who

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to have a new look as he sports a beard and remarkably kempt (for him) hair on his family holiday to Greece. His wife, Carrie, shared a carousel of photographs from the family’s “favourite place” as they enjoyed their summer getaway. In this picture, the former prime minister can be seen smiling as he plays with his daughter Romy, who was born in 2021. Mr and Mrs Johnson had their first child, Wilfred, in April 2020 and Boris, 61, also shares four children with his ex-wife, lawyer Marina Wheeler, and a child, born in 2009, as a result of an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre.

Has China Peaked?

China's carbon dioxide emissions fell by one percent during the first half of 2025 and continues the downward trend that began in March 2024, according to Carbon Brief. The declining trend opens the possibility that China's emissions may already have reached their peak, years before the "before 2030" target. As the world's largest emitter of CO2, this is very good news.

Roman mosaic of a pair of flip-flops — Credit: Parco Archeologico di Morgantina e Villa Romana del Casale

Flip-Flop Mosaic

A Roman mosaic at the bottom of a bathing pool in Sicily has come to light after 1,600 years, and seems to show that the modern “flip-flop” sandal has an ancient origin story. It seems they were long-established as standard bathhouse footwear during the late imperial period. In a statement by the Villa Romana del Casale archaeological park and museum, recent excavation activity has brought back to light a rich mosaic in one of the villa’s bathing rooms that “enriches the already vast patrimony of the site.” Adding: “The mosaic reminds one of the modern infradito,” or ‘between toe,’ the Italian word for flip-flop. “It wasn’t treated like simple decoration, but as a refined work of art from a master mosaic artist.”

New design for UK post boxes featuring solar panels — New design for UK post boxes | Royal Mail

New Look

Royal Mail is introducing 3,500 solar-powered postboxes across the UK, altering the iconic look of the red pillar boxes that have punctuated Britain's streets for nearly two centuries. In the new design, solar panels on the top of the postboxes power a digitally-activated drawer, allowing customers to deposit small parcels. Items as large as a shoebox can be posted in the pillar boxes, in what Royal Mail says is the "biggest redesign in its 175-year history". It also features a barcode scanner, which opens a drop-down drawer that is big enough to accommodate parcels that do not fit in the traditional postbox slot.

the Copper Charlie induction stove — Credit: Copper Home

US Induction Stove

Want an induction stove that plugs into a standard 120-V power socket? After a gradual rollout this spring, the Copper Charlie is now available across the US. The technology is now widespread in Europe, but take up has been slower in the United States - but that could be about to change. The founders of Copper had greenhouse gas reduction at the top of their minds when they set up the company and saw their stove as a way to help shift energy consumption away from fossil fuels.

“Sometimes you lie in bed at night and you don’t have a single thing to worry about. That always worries me!” Charlie Brown

On This Day

30 August 1983: U.S. astronaut Guion S. Bluford, Jr., became the first African American to travel into space, serving as a mission specialist aboard the shuttle orbiter Challenger, and later flew on three other missions.