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Laughter, piano at vacant Sri Lanka presidential palace
AFP

Laughter, piano at vacant Sri Lanka presidential palace

World population to hit 8 billion this year: UN
AFP

World population to hit 8 billion this year: UN

Leaked Uber docs reveal bare-knuckle expansion tactics
AFP

Leaked Uber docs reveal bare-knuckle expansion tactics

When directing The Beatles is just one part of your long and winding career

When directing The Beatles is just one part of your long and winding career

Back from the dead, VHS tapes trigger a new collecting frenzy
AFP

Back from the dead, VHS tapes trigger a new collecting frenzy

  • 'Evolution gone crazy': What makes sea dragons so strange?

    'Evolution gone crazy': What makes sea dragons so strange?

    Bill Cresko at the University of Oregon studies sea dragon genetics to answer one fundamental question: He and his colleagues want to know "how the hell" these fish came to look the way they do

  • A pop star tried to reconcile Russia and Ukraine. War ruined that

    A pop star tried to reconcile Russia and Ukraine. War ruined that

    Ivan Dorn, a Ukrainian musician, had mostly finished his first album in five years by February. "Dorndom" was recorded in a village in northern Ukraine, and has songs in Russian, as he does on most of the hits that have propelled him to stardom in both Ukraine and Russia

  • Boris Johnson's lies worked for years, until they didn't

    Boris Johnson's lies worked for years, until they didn't

    After a lifetime of swaggering and dissembling his way through one scandal after another on the strength of his prodigious political skills, Boris Johnson has finally reached the end. It seems that the laws of gravity apply to him after all

  • Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, dead at 67
    AFP

    Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, dead at 67

    Abe was a sprightly 52 when he first became prime minister in 2006, the youngest person to occupy the job in the postwar era. He was seen as a symbol of change and youth, but also brought the pedigree of a third-generation politician groomed from birth by an elite, conservative family

  • Global effort to police 'greenwashing' begins to take shape
    AFP

    Global effort to police 'greenwashing' begins to take shape

    One in three of the world's 2,000 largest public corporations have now set goals to become carbon neutral or emissions-free by mid-century or sooner. But with such self-set deadlines and varying definitions of what going "net-zero" actually means for a company, greenwashing is on the rise

  • US abortion ruling threatens access to arthritis drug
    AFP

    US abortion ruling threatens access to arthritis drug

    An unforeseen consequence of overturning Roe v Wade is thwarting access to methotrexate, a drug which tempers inflammation and is commonly used against autoimmune conditions including inflammatory arthritis, psoriasis and lupus. It can also sometimes, thought not frequently, be used in medical abortions

  • Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe shot
    AFP

    Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe shot

    Local media including national broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo news agency said the former prime minister appeared to be in "cardiorespiratory arrest", a term often used in Japan before a feared death can be officially confirmed by a coroner

  • The jumbled dream of US chips

    The jumbled dream of US chips

    A global shortage of computer chips had stalled the manufacturing of cars, computers and even dog-washing machines. But there are now signs the shortage of chips—the teeny parts that function like the brain or memory in everything electronic—is ending

  • How TikTok became a bestseller machine

    How TikTok became a bestseller machine

    Now one of the commanding forces in adult fiction, #BookTok has helped authors sell 20 million printed books in 2021, and is not dominated by the usual power players in the book world such as authors and publishers but by regular readers, many of them young, who share recommendations and videos of themselves talking about the books they love, sometimes weeping or screaming or tossing a copy across the room

  • SpiceJet pulled up, may face legal action after run of air safety incidents
    AFP

    SpiceJet pulled up, may face legal action after run of air safety incidents

    More than half a dozen air safety incidents were reported in the airline in the past two months, and SpiceJet, which holds nearly 10 percent of India's domestic market, has "failed to establish a safe, efficient and reliable" service, the DGCA said

  • How melting glaciers are threatening Pakistan's north
    AFP

    How melting glaciers are threatening Pakistan's north

    Pakistan is home to more than 7,000 glaciers, more than anywhere else on Earth outside the poles. Rising global temperatures linked to climate change are causing the glaciers to rapidly melt, creating thousands of glacial lakes

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