He has been besieged by birds, had 120m crabs try to crawl up his trouser leg and stayed cool beside an erupting Icelandic volcano. As David Attenborough turns 100, we celebrate his most extraordinary adventures

Today, David Attenborough turns 100. He is, without question, Britain’s greatest national treasure; a man who has devoted his career to helping the public engage with the natural world. But his story is also the story of television. Attenborough joined the BBC just as television ownership hit its biggest period of growth, then went on to shape the medium, both on and off camera, over the next decades. He is as important a figure in television as you will ever find, and here are his wildest moments.

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From devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales to councils and mayoralties in England, find out what happened in your area

• Latest news updates and analysis from election night

Their microtonal rock has been a huge viral hit – but are they really 333-year-old aliens inspired by Borneo monkeys? The Quebecois duo tell all

Recently, Angine de Poitrine had to get new heads. The alien-looking rock duo were not in fact born with the monochrome polka-dotted complexions and extruded faces that millions of listeners have obsessed over since they went viral this spring. Guitarist Khn has a long, twangable nose and double-necked guitar/bass; drummer Klek’s dangly proboscis bounces along to his stone-cold playing. Both are apparently 333-year-old time travellers primarily inspired by a solemn musical quartet of monkeys from Borneo. Over months of hard gigging, their handmade papier-mache masks had gone soggy from the musicians’ laboured breathing. “When I looked at mine, I was like: Jesus Christ, did I really play that much with this?” says Klek. “It was falling apart. It was like putting a Christmas box outside when it’s raining.”

But when the masks disintegrated, it was important that their more robust replacements still looked lived-in. “People have fallen in love with the band as it’s always been,” says Khn. “So we’re not gonna change everything [because] we have a bigger budget now. We’re emotionally attached to our old beaten-up costumes that have been in car accidents and are full of snot. We think people love the fact that you can feel they have lived.”

Some people wear elaborate clothes and spin their sabers like in the movies, but if you fight theatrically you’ll lose

I grew up in the suburbs around Paris and started fencing when I was five. I kept it up until I was about 22, but then began looking for something else. I started running marathons instead. The good thing about running is that you can go whenever you want – but that also means you can put it off all the time. I wanted a sport that had more structure.

I considered options like the canne de combat, a martial art in which people fight each other with a wooden cane. But then I listened to a podcast that mentioned plans to create a fighting sport using lightsabers. I thought: I’m a geek. I like Star Wars. I’ve done fencing. Let’s try it.

Jogyesa temple in South Korea initiated Gabi, a humanoid robot into its order this week, as it combats falling participation and interest

Amid rows of colourful lanterns strung across the courtyard of Jogyesa temple in Seoul, an unusual ceremony unfolded this week: monks held a Buddhist initiation for a humanoid robot draped in saffron robe.

They placed a string of 108 prayer beads around the robot’s neck and affixed a lantern festival sticker to its mechanical arm in place of the traditional yeonbi ritual, in which burning incense is lightly pressed against the skin.

A booming tech sector has disrupted translation jobs in publishing – but they could be needed for a while longer yet

In February 2022, while he was plugging away at rendering the US writer Dana Spiotta’s novel Wayward into French, the literary translator Yoann Gentric decided he needed a bit of light relief. He would test whether AI could put him out of work.

Gentric had been grappling with a short non-verbal sentence that described the book’s protagonist’s feelings upon opening a window: “Bright, sharp night air, bracing.” He put the prompt into DeepL, a neural-network-powered machine translation engine that regularly outperforms Google Translate in accuracy assessments.

Local council results are being announced in England; Scottish and Welsh parliament results are due from midday

• 2026 election results: latest from local, Scottish and Welsh votes

We’re getting statements from some of the political parties now as we wait for results.

For the Conservatives, party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said:

We have run an energetic and positive campaign, showcasing that we have a clear plan to get Britain working again and that we have the team to deliver it... We know that so soon after a historic general election defeat and contesting wards won during the Party’s polling highs, that this will be a difficult set of elections for us. But we will continue to rebuild and to show the public that we have changed, to demonstrate that only this new Conservative party is a credible alternative.

People are deeply disappointed with a Labour government that has been too timid to fix the country, but they are also appalled by the rise of Reform and Nigel Farage’s Trump-style politics. While those on the extremes of the right and the left want to burn everything down, Liberal Democrats want to fix what’s broken. Every Liberal Democrat local champion elected today will fight tirelessly for the communities they serve.

I’ve travelled across England and Wales and I’m hearing the same everywhere I go – confidence that we will win more councillors than ever before. The news from the doorstep is that we will be taking seats from not just Labour but the Tories and Lib Dems too, from all across the country. Voters are responding to the fact that Greens are the only party taking the cost-of-living crisis seriously, with real plans to cut bills, reduce rents and provide genuinely affordable homes, as well as tackling the climate and nature crisis.

Throughout this election, we have heard a clear appetite for change. People want a government that will stand up for Wales and focus relentlessly on the key issues affecting their lives. People have told us they have been inspired by Rhun ap Iorwerth’s leadership and driven by a desire for a positive alternative to Reform UK’s chaos and division.

Reform runaway winners in north-east, likely pushing Labour into opposition in Hartlepool, with other losses for Starmer in Chorley, Wigan, Redditch and Tamworth

• Election 2026 live: latest news updates

• Full results from England, Scotland and Wales

The scale of the electoral challenge facing Labour has been laid bare as the party haemorrhages councillors at the local elections and Reform makes significant gains.

Keir Starmer’s party went into Thursday’s local elections expected to lose up to 1,850 councillors, with senior figures describing the contest as “tough”.

No 10 prepares for battle as party loses seats in heartlands and control of councils in Hartlepool, Tameside, Redditch and Tamworth

• Election 2026 live: latest news updates

• Full results from England, Scotland and Wales

Hartlepool once nearly triggered Keir Starmer’s resignation; local election results overnight mean it may yet do so in the coming days.

Five years ago, Labour crashed to a humiliating defeat in a byelection for the city’s Westminster seat, prompting Starmer to consider resigning as opposition leader.

Labour is resigned to losses but which party its voters switch to will be crucial in shaping new political landscape

Labour is braced for a brutal set of local, Scottish and Welsh election results that will define either the next phase of Keir Starmer’s prime ministership or bring about the end of it. Party strategists expect losses of close to 2,000 seats across England, Wales and Scotland but the damage could be a lot worse. The danger for the prime minister is not whether Labour loses heavily but where those losses come from and who those voters turn to.

Across England, Reform UK is hoping to turn public anger over immigration, living standards and distrust of Westminster into local power. In progressive cities, the Greens believe voters are ready to punish Labour from the left, while in parts of Blackburn, Birmingham and east London the independents are continuing to capitalise on anger over Gaza.