Author: James Martin
Princess Eugenie has revealed how becoming a mother has changed her – including fuelling her passion to tackle climate change and giving her a fear of flying. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Eugenie, 32, discussed how she is changing her behaviour at home (for example, not using plastic) to educate her son, August, on the importance of protecting the environment. The Duke of York’s daughter shared that becoming a mother has made her more concerned for communities vulnerable to climate change in a discussion with Reuters IMPACT and Arctic Humanity at Risk Basecamp, a non-profit organisation to highlight the impact that…
Comment on this storyCommentAccording to news reports, the six-year-old accused of shooting a teacher at a Newport News, Virginia, elementary school is unlikely to be charged with a crime. That decision highlights something that’s long been true: We just don’t know what to do about violence by small children.The existence of violence by children, though rare, inverts the simplest fact of life: We adults are here to protect children. We are not supposed to have to protect people from children. Every act of violence committed by a small child is part tragedy, part horror. And looking at other incidents involving…
CNN — The rate of people dying from cancer in the United States has continuously declined over the past three decades, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society. The US cancer death rate has fallen 33% since 1991, which corresponds to an estimated 3.8 million deaths averted, according to the report, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The rate of lives lost to cancer continued to shrink in the most recent year for which data is available, between 2019 and 2020, by 1.5%. The 33% decline in cancer mortality is “truly formidable,” said Karen…
Comment on this storyCommentIf Vladimir Putin intended to paralyze Europe’s energy system by slashing exports of Russian gas to the continent, it hasn’t worked for now. The doomsday scenario of rolling blackouts failed to materialize thanks to an unusually mild winter, power rationing and a shift to other energy sources. Yet the region’s economies aren’t out of the woods: The crisis left households and businesses grappling with record-high electricity prices that sparked runaway inflation and higher interest rates. And as war rumbles on in Ukraine and Russian gas supplies slow to a trickle, Europe’s energy security appears more vulnerable than…
CNN — Mineka Furtch wasn’t bothered by the idea of morning sickness after going through a miscarriage and the roller coaster of fertility medication before she finally became pregnant with her son. But when the 29-year-old from suburban Atlanta was five weeks pregnant in 2020, she started throwing up and couldn’t stop. Some days she kept down an orange; other days, nothing. Furtch used up her paid time off at work with sick days, eventually having to rely on unpaid medical leave. She remembered her doctor telling her it was just morning sickness and things would get better. By the…
Comment on this storyCommentPeru, a country that’s used to political turmoil, has seen its worst outbreak of violence in years following the ouster and arrest of leftist President Pedro Castillo. Over the next five weeks, 40 of the protesters seeking his reinstatement were killed and one policeman burned to death. Behind the crisis lie both a deep urban-rural divide and a fragmented political system in which a string of presidents have faced impeachment, jail time for corruption or both. Many of the indigenous groups now blocking roads and seeking to take over airports saw Castillo as a rare voice speaking…
Comment on this storyCommentElectric carmaker Tesla has slashed the price of some of its high-priced models, making the vehicles eligible for $7,500 tax incentives as traditional auto companies begin to claw away EV market share.The company, headed by technology mogul Elon Musk, reduced the price of its baseline Model Y SUV to $52,990, a 20 percent reduction, excluding certain fees. It also dropped the cost of an upper-tier edition of its Model 3 sedan to $53,990, a 14 percent price cut.Both of those models now qualify for tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark climate change, tax policy…
CNN — A new Covid-19 variant, XBB.1.5, is spreading rapidly throughout the United States. In December 2022, the proportion of new Covid-19 infections due to this Omicron offshoot have increased from 4% to 18%, according to a January 6 release from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is projected to rise further still. In some parts of the country, it constitutes more than half of all new infections. According to the World Health Organization, XBB.1.5 is the most transmissible form of Omicron yet. What should people know about XBB.1.5? Do vaccines and treatments work against it? Can…
Comment on this storyCommentThe very phrase “debt ceiling” sounds austere and restrictive, as if it’s a lid on government spending. In fact, the US federal debt limit was first conceived more than a century ago to make it easier, not harder, for the government to borrow money. But it morphed into an explosive political tool with the potential to roil financial markets, since a failure to raise the debt ceiling could eventually result in a first-ever default on some of the government’s obligations.1. Why is there a debt ceiling?Its creation, in 1917, made it easier to finance World War I…
Editor’s Note: Award-winning behavioral scientist Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, author of “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be,” cofounder of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and the host of Charles Schwab’s “Choiceology” podcast. CNN — It’s that time of year again. You’ve set a New Year’s resolution and haven’t stuck to it. It’s Quitters Day, the second Friday in January, which is dedicated to re-starting those resolutions. While some people love the tradition of setting a…