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Wildfire smoke kills tens of thousands of people a year. Here’s how it attacks the body
Smoke from wildfires — which are burning more of the Northern Hemisphere as Earth warms — attacks nearly every system in the human body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show. It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours, swamps emergency rooms in a […]
Threat of dangerous flooding continues in Texas while hard-hit areas launch cleanup efforts
UVALDE, Texas | Some parts of Texas remained under threat for dangerous flash flooding Friday as other areas saw water levels recede enough for cleanup efforts following days of punishing downpours blamed for the deaths of two people. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in the early morning for the city of […]
Stacks and stacks of wax packs, now obsolete, summon the joy of baseball-card childhoods
NEW YORK | The anticipation. The chase. The powdery, sugar-coated board of gum! For generations of baseball card fans, there was nothing like scrounging up some change and sprinting to the store to buy a wax pack. Some tore the slightly tacky paper wrapper open and flipped through the cards in an insatiable instant (hence […]
Movie Review: In Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ an ancient epic is reborn
Getting home, and turning back the clock, has long been at the root of Christopher Nolan’s films. The astronauts of “Interstellar” painstakingly lose 23 years in space travel, almost the same length of time Odysseus is away from home in “The Odyssey”: a decade fighting the Trojan War, a decade trying to return to Ithaca. […]
Ava DuVernay announces ’14th’ documentary on birthright amendment contested by Trump
NEW YORK | Ava DuVernay announced Thursday that she has made a documentary for Netflix on the 14th Amendment, which gave liberty and rights to formerly enslaved people following the Civil War, and which has come under legal attack from President Donald Trump. Netflix said Thursday that it will release “14th” later this year. The […]
Federal government replaces slavery exhibition at Washington’s home in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA | The Trump administration on Wednesday replaced an exhibit on slavery at the site of President George Washington’s home in Philadelphia with a version that historians say whitewashes the nation’s history. The new exhibit was installed in the same area where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. “Overnight, under the […]
DHS finds itself back in the headlines after 3 fatal ICE encounters, in a test for Secretary Mullin
WASHINGTON | When Markwayne Mullin took over as Homeland Security secretary from fired Kristi Noem, he pledged to get the department responsible for carrying out the Trump administration’s mass deportations policy out of the headlines. But just months into Mullin’s time in office, the department is squarely in the center of controversy again after three […]
3 islands help control access to the Strait of Hormuz. They’re in the crosshairs of the Iran war
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | The expanding U.S. military campaign against Iran has put three small islands that sit at the confluence of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in the crosshairs once again. The islands of Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb — which were seized in 1971 by Iran from […]
America already tried permanent daylight saving time. It lasted less than a year. Could it work now?
NEW YORK | It’s an idea whose time, as it were, may have come — again. The twice-yearly changing of the clocks in the United States could be a thing of the past if legislation currently in Congress that calls for permanent daylight time makes it through. But even as annoying as some find the […]
One Tech Tip: How to soothe thumb pain when texting and scrolling
NEW YORK | Do your hands hurt when you use your phone? All that texting and scrolling might be stressing out your fingers. The term texting thumb can describe a wide range of phone-related pains caused by tired-out tendons and achy joints — like general stiffness, throbbing near the knuckle and a clicking sensation when […]