In last week’s midterm elections, Democratic and progressive political candidates flipped red House districts, key state legislative bodies, governors’ offices, and even Senate seats in Nevada and Arizona. We’ve elected one of the most diverse Congressional classes in history, with historic numbers of women and LGBTQ representatives, including the first Muslim and Native American women […]

I struggle with this stuff!

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Pagan healthcare providers discuss how they are coping with the stresses of the pandemic and how the power of their spiritual practices sustains them.

Continue reading Healthcare providers share how their Pagan practices nurture them through the pandemic at The Wild Hunt.

It’s true: I’ve dragged my feet over writing a guide to what I keep in my “pantry” (I don’t have a pantry) and fridge for 14 years now. I have my reasons, primarily that I’m not sure I know what your kitchen needs. I mean, shouldn’t you stock the stuff you need for what you’ll want to cook and not some arbitrary list from a lady who loves Triscuits? Maybe you don’t love Triscuits! (Sorry you’re so wrong.) The idea of buying a kitchen full of someone else’s groceries is very much against the way I think anyone should shop. I know your kitchen will grow organically, and accurately reflect what you need if you buy things for what you want to cook as you want to cook them. Second, due to the nature of my work here I have an absolutely unusual amount of stuff in my kitchen cabinets and fridge. It’s totally justified for me, while making little sense for others. On the flip side, I live in NYC and have grocery stores and Greenmarkets quite close, but also as a small kitchen with very few cabinets, meaning that not only can I not stock very much at a time, I don’t need to — I can always dash out for vinegar or dried pasta. This is not the way most people shop.

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We’d like to hear from people about how you’re remembering the anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe

Friday 8 May will mark 75 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe. Before the coronavirus crisis, plans were made for street parties and parades, and even the first May bank holiday was moved for the occasion.

But with the UK still in lockdown, we’d like to hear how you will now be remembering the anniversary of VE day.

We can lend a shaky hand to the struggling salon sector as we file and paint during lockdown

Sales of nail polish are up 24% since lockdown began, mostly because no one can visit salons for the long-lasting UV-cured lacquers that dominate the modern industry but also, I’m convinced, because we suddenly have way more time and inclination to bother.

It may be one minuscule piece of good fortune in this crisis, but we can also lend a shaky hand to the struggling salon sector as we file and paint.

An essential part of the recruitment process for any new teacher is meeting the pupils: but how do you do that under lockdown regulations?

If you are a teacher looking to move between schools during the coronavirus lockdown, how can you make the most of the online education experience with your new class? This is interesting new territory for many teachers. But there are thousands and thousands of teachers and pupils already learning remotely, in virtual schools – can they offer insights?

At a virtual school, lessons are delivered in line with each person’s personalised curriculum. Exactly as you would expect in a physical school space, pupils are taught how to interact with teachers, their peers and lesson content using whiteboard technology, quizzes, voice and video as well as receiving and sending assignment tasks. How should you introduce yourself to a new class, if you are meeting them online for the first time? If we consider how teachers deliver excellent classroom teaching practice in a physical space, how they prepare should not be approached any differently in an online environment.

The wildly popular game gives players a place to socialize with others or simply escape while on lockdown for coronavirus

As shelter in place orders around the world have left many people trapped at home indefinitely, some have found a new place to meet up: inside the digital world of wildly popular Nintendo game Animal Crossing.

Released in late March, Animal Crossing: New Horizons quickly became the top game in the US. In it, users explore a carefree pastel environment, growing fruits and flowers, catching bugs or fish to sell, and making friends with other characters in an open-ended simulation.

The spread of Covid-19 in India has been catastrophic for millions of its poorest and marginalised residents who are bearing the brunt of the world's biggest shutdown. Hannah Ellis-Peterson tells us how coronavirus and the lockdown is further dividing the country along class and religious lines

• In the most vulnerable countries, poverty could be as deadly as the coronavirus crisis
• Destitute migrant workers in India forced to pay train fares home

• This video was amended on 7 May 2020 to clarify that there are millions of migrant workers in India, but not 480 million as an earlier version suggested.
  

Despite a decade-old financial crisis that has crippled its hospitals, Greece appears to be keeping its coronavirus outbreak under control, with a far lower death toll than many other European nations. Dr Yota Lourida, Infectious Diseases specialist at Sotiria hospital in Athens, explains how it dealt with the crisis, and the steps taken by the country to mitigate against potentially catastrophic outcomes

Systemic flaws within Glynn county’s district attorney offices led to a lack of action against the men involved in this ‘modern lynching’

In the days and weeks after Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed, multiple Glynn county law enforcement officials failed to thoroughly investigate his death and, in one case, refused to allow police officers to make arrests, the Guardian has learned.

Related: Ahmaud Arbery is dead because Americans think black men are criminals | Benjamin Dixon

Six weeks into Britain's Covid-19 crisis, Anywhere but Westminster asks how a city keeps going when everything has ground to a halt. The team virtually visits Plymouth, population 250,000, to see how the services that are vital to a city and its inhabitants are scrabbling to stay afloat. The fishing industry is in meltdown, temporary housing is oversubscribed and nurses facilitate goodbyes over Zoom. Most of all, people are asking: what on earth happens after this?

• Watch our previous Anywhere but Westminster videos 

• Music: Lament by Simon Dobson: www.simon-dobson.co.uk
  

Inaccuracies in the testing, such as false negatives and false positives, are potentially harmful

During this crazy time many of us have been confined to our homes and for some that means to be home 24/7 with our best friends. Our pets. However, because of this, many pets have become accustomed to having us home with them. 

But then the question is... will they be okay once bans are lifted and people are able to slowly go back to their daily routines?

Will they be able to handle their best friends not being by their side 24/7?

It is expected that many dogs (even cats!) can suffer from separation anxiety, and pet experts are saying that it's a good idea to get your pet ready and used to post-quarantine separation now, to minimize their stress later. 

Here are some useful tips for both dog and cat owners.

More videos on Cheezburger's Youtube Channel 

Convention considers online replacement of September event

Coronavirus will overshadow Earth Day's golden anniversary, but the movement's successes are worth celebrating, says Gary Paul Nabhan

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, often spoken of as the birth of the green movement. Denis Hayes helped coordinate the first event, and speaks to New Scientist about its impact

Looking at how many more people are dying than usual gives an idea of the coronavirus pandemic’s true effect – and suggests a far higher death toll in many countries

The UK government has refused to say how many covid-19 contact tracers it has employed, with less than three weeks to go until its target of recruiting 18,000 of them by mid-May

Lockdown measures and pandemic-related anxiety may be making you have more vivid dreams. Evidence suggests talking about them can help

The UK government will begin trials of its coronavirus contact-tracing app this week, but what impact it will have on slowing the spread of covid-19 is unclear

Once the coronavirus pandemic is over, we must work out how to stop the spread of poor information that has helped make a bad situation that much worse

Amid the global coronavirus outbreak, a second epidemic of preliminary, unverified and misinterpreted research has broken out. Can it be fixed?

With social media, newspapers and politicians all espousing unverified covid-19 findings, use these seven signs to tell if a study should be treated with caution

The leading hypothesis for how the moon formed involves a collision between a Mars-sized object and Earth that would have boiled away elements like carbon, making its discovery on the moon a mystery

Two big thick circles with a narrow slab in between are all it takes to make a stunning polymer vase like this one from Baltimore’s Linda Loew. The periwinkle and purple colors are lush, the edges are smoothed and there’s a freeform design in the circles’ centers. Why not show off some of spring’s bounty […] Read more

From the moment COVID-19 started spreading in the U.S., you probably heard recommendations to wash your hands after contact with what are called high-touch surfaces: elevator buttons, public fauc...

Despite President Trump's statements that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory in Wuhan, scientist say the evidence points to a natural origin.

"It was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on (Reade), and that she is still sensitive and effected (sic) by it today," Dronen wrote.

Recovery from Covid-19 can be a lengthy process, depending on how seriously people get the virus.

Will life return to how it was once lockdown restrictions are eased, or will some things change for ever?

Coronavirus means people are marking the 75th anniversary of VE Day from their own homes.

The government says domestic helpers can now resume work, but why are some Indians worried?

Fan clubs, players from all over the world and a former Spain international in charge, Atletico Madrid's Canadian venture is currently on pause.

The band's influence can be heard in everything from art-rock and hip-hop to trance and house.

How are the communities that rely so heavily on the US airbases coping under lockdown?

Face masks, fresh air and porridge - how people tried to curb a deadly flu pandemic in 1918.

Millions in the UK will soon be asked to download an app that helps to limit coronavirus spreading.

If pupils are allowed to return to school after the lockdown, how would they keep 2m apart?

Weeks, months, even a year - we look at the factors that can affect the time taken to get better.

Park rangers in Africa say the closure of safari tourism is leading to an increase in poaching.

The Red Square parade was cancelled because of the pandemic, but in neighbouring Belarus the parade went ahead as planned.

More than 1,500 people claim asylum in the UK each year, claiming that they are persecuted for being gay. But it's not an easy thing to prove.