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UK government considers bee-killing pesticide approval, despite election promises

The UK government is facing growing pressure to honor its election promises to ban harmful bee-killing pesticides, as ministers consider granting another year of emergency use for neonicotinoids in 2025. Despite a pledge from Labour leader Keir Starmer to ban these chemicals, the government is leaning toward approving the use of thiamethoxam, a pesticide linked……

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How language barriers influence global climate literacy

Our planet is getting hotter at an alarming rate. Climate change is one of the most serious global issues today. Its consequences affect every single human being on Earth. So it seems perfectly logical that scientific publications about global warming are written in the global language: English. And yet, it is precisely because it is written in English, that climate……

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UK slides in corruption perception index after series of political scandals
EditorsJul 6, 2024

UK slides in corruption perception index after series of political scandals

The UK has fallen down Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index (CPI) after a year of high-profile government scandals. The CPI is not a measure of corruption itself but a measure of how much corruption is perceived to exist across a country’s public sector. For the UK government, already focusing very much on the next general election amid multiple scandals, perception matters.… Continue reading UK slides in corruption perception index after series of political scandals

Britain’s ‘broken’ water system: a history of death, denial and stomach aches

In the spring of 2024, residents of the south Devon harbour town of Brixham kept falling ill. Their symptoms – including “awful stomach complaints, bad diarrhoea and severe headaches” – went on for weeks. A retired GP who ventured to the pub after finally recovering from the illness recalled that, when someone asked those present to “raise……

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Wise women: six ancient female philosophers you should know about

When we conjure up ancient philosophers the image that springs to mind might be a bald Socrates discoursing with young men in the sun, or a scholarly Aristotle lecturing among cool columns. But what about Aspasia, the foreign mistress of the foremost politician in Athens who gave both political and erotic advice? Or Sosipatra, mystic, mother……

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US to reclassify cannabis as low-risk drug

US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, an official said Tuesday — a historic shift that would bring federal policy more in line with public opinion. The US attorney general sent a proposal to the White House on Tuesday to “reclassify marijuana,” Justice Department spokesperson Xochitl Hinojosa……

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