Genome study deepens mystery of what doomed Earth’s last mammoths
About 4,000 years ago, the last of Earth’s wooly mammoths died out on a lonely Arctic Ocean island off the coast of Siberia, a melancholy end to one of the world’s charismatic Ice Age animals. But what doomed this last…
List of threatened species grows by 1,000
More than 45,000 species are now threatened with extinction — 1,000 more than last year — according to an international conservation organization that blames pressures from climate change, invasive species and human activity such as illicit trade and infrastructural expansion….
Ice baths and ventilators: India’s hospitals adapt to killer heat
NEW DELHI — The Nigerian student only popped out to repair his phone, but he ended up in a New Delhi hospital, the latest victim of a brutal heat wave that has cost scores of lives, sent birds plummeting from…
New blood tests may help predict who is at risk of preeclampsia
When you’re expecting a baby, you hope nothing goes wrong. But at least one in 20 people who are pregnant develop a scary complication called preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that kills 70,000 women and 500,000 babies worldwide every…
Beryl strengthens into a hurricane, forecast to become major storm
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Beryl strengthened into a hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the southeast Caribbean, with forecasters warning it was expected to strengthen into a dangerous major hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday or early Monday. A…
Russian missile attack on Ukrainian town kills 7, officials say
Russian forces fired missiles Saturday at the town of Vilniansk, outside the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing seven people, including two children, and injuring 31 others, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his appeal to allies to provide…
Ukraine’s military schools prep new generation of fighters
Despite the war, schools across Ukraine are celebrating the end of the academic year. Some of them have a military air to them. About 7,000 Ukrainian teenagers are studying in more than 20 military academies around the country. Omelyan Oshchudlyak…
Haiti: Longing to live again, amid trauma of displacement
Displacements in this Caribbean country have reached record levels, with nearly 600,000 people forced to leave their homes this year – double the number from last year. This makes Haiti the country with the highest number of displacements due to…
Palestinians face summer heat surrounded by sewage, garbage
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — Children in sandals trudge through water contaminated with sewage and scale growing mounds of garbage in Gaza’s crowded tent camps for displaced families. People relieve themselves in burlap-covered pits, with nowhere nearby to wash their hands….
More African nations focus on HPV vaccination against cervical cancer
ABUJA, Nigeria — Yunusa Bawa spends a lot of time talking about the vaccine for the human papillomavirus that is responsible for nearly all cases of cervical cancer. But on most days, only two or three people allow their daughters…