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Mass migration into Britain began over 3,000 years ago

Mass migration into Britain began over 3,000 years ago

BBC News reports: Scientists have uncovered evidence for a large-scale, prehistoric migration into Britain that may be linked to the spread of Celtic languages. The mass-movement of people originated in continental Europe and occurred between 1,400 BC and 870 BC. The discovery helps to explain the genetic make-up of many present-day people in Britain. Around half the ancestry of later populations in England and Wales comes from these migrants. It’s unclear what caused the influx of people during the Middle…

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Uncounted: Inaccurate death certificates across the country hide the true toll of COVID-19

Uncounted: Inaccurate death certificates across the country hide the true toll of COVID-19

Missouri Independent reports: In Cape Girardeau County, the coroner hasn’t pronounced a single person dead of COVID-19 in 2021. Wavis Jordan, a Republican who was elected last year to serve as coroner of the 80,000-person county, says his office “doesn’t do COVID deaths.” He does not investigate deaths himself, and requires families to provide proof of a positive COVID-19 test before including it on a death certificate. Meanwhile, deaths at home attributed to conditions with symptoms that look a lot…

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Report shows the extent of Republican efforts to sabotage democracy

Report shows the extent of Republican efforts to sabotage democracy

The Guardian reports: The Republican assault on free and fair elections instigated by Donald Trump is gathering pace, with efforts to sabotage the normal workings of American democracy sweeping state legislatures across the US. A year that began with the violent insurrection at the US Capitol is ending with an unprecedented push to politicize, criminalize or in other ways subvert the nonpartisan administration of elections. A year-end report from pro-democracy groups identifies no fewer than 262 bills introduced in 41…

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Hopes grow that nuclear fusion is finally for real and could help address climate change

Hopes grow that nuclear fusion is finally for real and could help address climate change

The Boston Globe reports: It’s been compared to everything from a holy grail to fool’s gold: the ultimate solution to clean, readily available energy or an expensive delusion diverting scarce money and brainpower from the urgent needs of rapidly addressing climate change. For decades, scientists have been trying to harness the energy that powers stars, a complex, atomic-level process known as nuclear fusion, which requires heating a plasma fuel to more than 100 million degrees Celsius and finding a way…

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Myanmar’s military is committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, say legal experts

Myanmar’s military is committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, say legal experts

The Washington Post reports: Facing armed resistance after it seized power [in February], the military, known as the Tatmadaw, has escalated its use of force against civilians using tactics honed during past atrocities. A Washington Post analysis of more than 300 videos and photos, some not previously made public, as well as satellite imagery, eyewitness accounts and military planning documents, reveals a premeditated campaign of arson and killing targeting civilians in Chin state beginning in September. Military planning documents shared…

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How zinc helps you fight off infections

How zinc helps you fight off infections

Diana Kwon writes: Walk down the cold-remedy aisle of almost any pharmacy and you’ll see a shelf full of zinc supplements. Clearly, people must be worried that they’re not getting enough zinc, a nutrient often touted for its ability to quash the common cold and other respiratory illnesses. But do many of us really need more zinc? And if so, what good does it do? As researchers learn more about how our bodies use zinc, they’re finding that the element…

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Will Trump get away with inciting an insurrection?

Will Trump get away with inciting an insurrection?

Laurence H. Tribe, Donald Ayer and Dennis Aftergut write: In his nine months in office, Attorney General Merrick Garland has done a great deal to restore integrity and evenhanded enforcement of the law to an agency that was badly misused for political reasons under his predecessor. But his place in history will be assessed against the challenges that confronted him. And the overriding test that he and the rest of the government face is the threat to our democracy from…

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Trump finally decides to push back against Covid vaccine lies

Trump finally decides to push back against Covid vaccine lies

Eric Lutz writes: In a rare dalliance with the truth, Donald Trump championed COVID-19 vaccines in an interview published Wednesday, pushing back on an attempt by the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens to undermine the shots, calling them “very, very good.” The former president’s defense of the inoculations was, of course, as self-serving as anything he’s ever done, and by no means makes him some heroic defender of public health. But it is a welcome—albeit belated—gesture that one hopes will help…

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U.S. intel and satellite images show Saudis building ballistic missiles with help of China

U.S. intel and satellite images show Saudis building ballistic missiles with help of China

CNN reports: US intelligence agencies have assessed that Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, CNN has learned, a development that could have significant ripple effects across the Middle East and complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to restrain the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the Saudis’ top regional rival. Saudi Arabia is known to have purchased ballistic missiles from China in the past but has never been able to build its own —…

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America is now in fascism’s legal phase

America is now in fascism’s legal phase

Jason Stanley writes: “Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.” So began Toni Morrison’s 1995 address to Howard University, entitled Racism and Fascism, which delineated 10 step-by-step procedures to carry a society from first to last. Morrison’s interest was not in fascist demagogues or fascist regimes….

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2021’s climate disasters revealed an east-west weather divide

2021’s climate disasters revealed an east-west weather divide

Wildfires that swept through Sequoia National Forest in California in September 2021 were so severe they killed ancient trees that had adapted to survive fires. AP Photo/Noah Berger By Shuang-Ye Wu, University of Dayton Alongside a lingering global pandemic, the year 2021 was filled with climate disasters, some so intense they surprised even the scientists who study them. Extreme rainstorms turned to raging flash floods that swept through mountain towns in Europe, killing over 200 people. Across Asia, excessive rainfall…

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How will our warming climate stabilize? Scientists look to the distant past

How will our warming climate stabilize? Scientists look to the distant past

Ars Technica reports: Thanks to unbridled greenhouse gas emissions, our planet is stitching together a climate version of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. We still have ice from the warmer parts of the Pleistocene even as our temperature approaches the warmer Pliocene levels of 3 million years ago. Meanwhile, our CO2 level is between the Pliocene and the Miocene of 10 million years ago, and we risk an Eocene hothouse not seen in 40 million years. At some point, this unnatural fusion…

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Your sense of right and wrong is interwoven with your personality

Your sense of right and wrong is interwoven with your personality

Luke D Smillie and Milan Andrejević write: Although many moral views seem somewhat universal – most would agree that it’s generally wrong to end someone’s life – people often disagree on how to weight and prioritise different values. For instance, some would argue that ending a person’s life can be morally justifiable when other values are taken into consideration (such as in cases of voluntary assisted dying), while others would strongly disagree. Why do people routinely arrive at a different…

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