Czechoslovakia’s spy agency targeted Donald Trump in 1980s through wife Ivana’s father, archive files reveal

Czechoslovakia’s former spy agency targeted Donald Trump in the 1980s as part of a mission to gain information about the US government, archive files have revealed. The country’s intelligence service, Státní bezpečnost (StB), began their operation to spy on Mr Trump in 1977, when he married his first wife, Ivana Zelníčková.  The operation was based…

Nintendo Switch system update 5.0 doesn’t live up to its big new version number

Big new version numbers typically mean big new changes – but this isn’t the case for Nintendo’s fancy-sounding Switch update 5.0. Install the update and you’ll be able to add Facebook and Twitter contacts to your Switch friends list – a useful feature. Digital software bought online will start downloading faster with 5.0 installed –…

German contenders to replace Merkel face gruelling hustings process

The candidates vying to succeed Angela Merkel as leader of Germany’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) will face a gruelling schedule of eight regional hustings in as little as two weeks, it was announced Monday. At the end lies the prize of leading Germany’s most powerful political party — and possibly the chancellorship. Mrs Merkel told…

UK pledges to expand trade relations with Iran despite dire US warnings over sanctions

The UK has said it will expand trade relations with Iran in the face of US warnings that European firms face "painful" consequences if they continue to do business in the country.  Speaking hours after sweeping new sanctions went into force, Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, warned businesses not to use a special…

France’s relationship with the English language? C’est compliqué

As many British visitors to France have learned to their discomfort, if you ask a local, “Parlez-vous anglais?”, the answer is often “Non”. Such a response, perhaps accompanied by a dismissive Gallic shrug, may prompt the appearance on the traveller’s face of what the novelist P.G. Wodehouse described as “the shifty hangdog look which announces…

Drake and Ninja playing Fortnite smashes Twitch world record

Overnight and this morning, Canadian rapper Drake played Fortnite with streamer Ninja and helped smash Twitch’s concurrent viewers record. Drake, playing on a PlayStation 4, joined forces with hugely popular Fortnite Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who was playing on a PC, and after some technical issues managed to play the Battle Royale portion of…

Boko Haram kills Red Cross staff member in Nigeria after kidnapping three aid workers

Isil-allied Boko Haram jihadists have killed another kidnapped female aid worker in northeast Nigeria, the government said, a month after one of her colleagues was murdered. Three female health workers were kidnapped during a Boko Haram raid on the remote town of Rann, in Borno state, on March 1 that killed three other aid workers and eight Nigerian soldiers….

Below re-emerges with the promise of a 2018 release – and it looks like it’ll be worth the wait

Below has finally re-emerged after an indefinite delay – and developer Capybara Games says it’ll be out at some point in 2018. I’ve had my eye on Below ever since its eye-catching announcement during Microsoft’s E3 2013 press event. Its reveal trailer teased a mysterious, menacing action-adventure game viewed from a top-down perspective, with the…

Theresa May expected to reject Seoul’s request to relax sanctions on North Korea

Theresa May is expected to rebuff a request from Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, for Britain to relax sanctions on Pyongyang when the two leaders hold talks at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Belgium on Friday. Mr Moon is on a nine-day tour of European capitals and has already held talks with Emmanuel Macron, the…

Sonic the Hedgehog was almost designed to look like arch nemesis Eggman

How Sonic the Hedgehog was conceived to help Sega compete against Nintendo in the early 90s was discussed during a postmortem for the original game at this year’s Game Developer Conference. Most of the talk was about Sonic’s appearance came to be. Though the decision to make Sonic a hedgehog was seemingly a straightforward one…