The space agency announces the companies that will work on landers to return astronauts to the Moon.

A video interview with Canada’s AI secretary general on crisis and opportunity. 

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We’re interacting less with the outside world – and the societal pressures that come with it. Are some women still wearing makeup every day?

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The shutdown feels like a good opportunity to examine an age-old feminist question: when women put makeup on, can they ever truly be doing it for themselves?

We will probably never have an answer. The pressure imposed on women to look good is such a part of our existence that we might never get rid of it – even “dressing up for oneself” can be traced back to self-hatred fueled by a beauty-obsessed culture.

We can expect psychological difficulties to follow as we come out of lockdown. But we have an opportunity to remake our relationship with our bodies, and the social body we belong to. By Susie Orbach

When lockdown started, I was confused by bodies on television. Why weren’t they socially distancing? Didn’t they know not to be so close? The injunction to be separate was unfamiliar and irregular, and for me, self-isolating alone, following this government directive was peculiar. It made watching dramas and programmes produced under normal filming conditions feel jarring.

Seven weeks in, the disjuncture has passed. I, like all of us, am accommodating to multiple corporeal realities: bodies alone, bodies distant, bodies in the park to be avoided, bodies of disobedient youths hanging out in groups, bodies in lines outside shops, bodies and voices flattened on screens and above all, bodies of dead health workers and carers. Black bodies, brown bodies. Working-class bodies. Bodies not normally praised, now being celebrated.

A key piece of the human family tree is still missing, waiting to be found.

The Guardian’s data journalists in the UK, US and Australia explain how they have shone a light on the statistical narrative behind the pandemic, and what they have helped to reveal

The European Space Agency said Friday that human urine could one day become a useful ingredient in making concrete to build on the moon.

For the first in our new series of letters capturing tales and thoughts during lockdown, Amira Hashish finds comfort in her neighbour's act of kindness...

If only everyone was kinder we would all reap rewards

The novel coronavirus is making plain each day just how vulnerable we humans are to a brand new infectious disease. But humanity has an ally in robots.

The Monte Conca cave system in Sicily is showing signs of being altered by pollution from above.

New research describes a new model for how the brain interprets patterns in complex networks. They found that the ability to detect patterns stems in part from the brain's desire to represent things in the simplest way possible and that the brain is constantly weighing the pressures of complexity and simplicity when making decisions.

COVIDCon will explore how "tyranny sparked and is exploiting the novel coronavirus pandemic to crack down on civil liberties."

A new report has ranked disdain for scientific knowledge as one of humanity's biggest threats, alongside climate change, nuclear war, and artificial intelligence.

Events with extreme temperatures and humidity are occurring twice as often now as they were 40 years ago

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Big drugs companies have long favoured outsourcing clinical trials to poor countries with lax regulations to cut costs and maximise profit

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Last week, in Oxford, the first volunteers in the first European human trial were injected with a potential coronavirus vaccine. At the same time, Pakistan’s National Institute of Health received an offer from the Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm International Corp to take part in a trial of another potential coronavirus vaccine.

Related: Africa's Covid-19 research must be tailored to its realities – by its own scientists | Monique Wasunna

In India, many poor people were recruited to HIV trials without knowing that they were taking part in experiments

Raul Cortes-Meza, 21, aka “Oscar”, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to sex trafficking of a minor from Mexico.

Maximino Mondragon, 57, was sentenced today for his role in a scheme to smuggle Central American women and girls into the United States and to hold them in a condition of forced labor in the Houston area.

Twelve defendants, including eight Uzbekistan nationals, have been charged in a 45-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on May 6, 2009, on RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges related to labor racketeering, forced labor trafficking and immigration and other violations in 14 states.

Juan Cortes-Meza, a Mexican National, pleaded guilty in federal district court in Atlanta to sex trafficking offenses involving young Mexican women and girls. Otto Jaime Larios Perez, a Guatemalan National, also pleaded guilty today to making a false statement to law enforcement and, thereby, obstructing a human trafficking investigation.

The Justice Department announced the indictment of Alec Souphone Sou and Mike Mankone Sou, owners of Aloun Farm in Hawaii, and Thai labor recruiter William Khoo late yesterday for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and visa fraud.

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted an Ellenwood, Ga., husband and wife, Juna Gwendolyn Babb, 54, and Michael J. Babb, 53, on charges of conspiracy, forced labor, document servitude, which is confiscating someone’s passport and visa, and harboring an alien for financial gain, the Justice Department announced.

The department’s motion for preliminary injunction aims to prevent the segregation of children with developmental disabilities in dangerous conditions and to address accusations of imminent and serious threats to the safety of the facility’s more than 500 current residents.

Today Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division announced the formation of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP), the first new section to be formed in the Criminal Division since 2008.

Francisco Cortes-Meza, 26, of Mexico, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story in the Northern District of Georgia for sex trafficking in an organization that targeted young Mexican women.

Juan Cortes-Meza, 33, of  Mexico; Raul Cortes-Meza, 22, of Mexico; Edison Wagner Rosa Tort, 71, of Cartersville, Ga.; and Otto Jaime Larios Perez, 27, of Guatemala were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story for participating in sex trafficking in an organization targeting young Mexican women.

"For today’s Justice Department, our work to pursue human trafficking investigations and prosecutions and to support those who serve and assist victims is not simply a top priority. It’s also a source of great pride," said Attorney General Holder.

An indictment unsealed today in Philadelphia charged Omelyan Botsvynyuk, Stepan Botsvynyuk, Mykhaylo Botsvynyuk, Dmytro Botsvynyuk, and Yaroslav Botsvynyuk, a/k/a Yaroslav Churuk, with extortion and conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for their alleged involvement in a human trafficking operation.

A federal grand jury in Honolulu indicted Mordechai Orian, an Israeli national; Pranee Tubchumpol, Shane Germann and Sam Wongsesanit of Global Horizons Manpower Inc., located in Los Angeles; and Thai labor recruiters Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai for engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and document servitude.

Today, Department of Justice Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Brooklyn, N.Y., where they participated in the third Regional Health Care Fraud Prevention Summit.

Morris B. Fahnbulleh, 40, and Joe O. Bondo, 39, both of Monrovia, Liberia, were each convicted on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, four counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and four false claims counts. Fahnbulleh was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

Fang Ping Ding was sentenced in federal court late yesterday to 37 months in prison for confiscating the passport, visa and other documents of a woman from the People’s Republic of China in order to maintain control over the victim and force her to work as an unpaid, live-in domestic servant.

Maria Terechina, a national of the Russian Federation, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, for her role in a human trafficking conspiracy involving guestworkers who worked in hotels as housekeepers and laundry workers.

"The Departments of Justice and HHS have a long history of working together in this fight against health care fraud. While we know that most health care dollars are spent on healing sick Americans and most companies and providers work hard to play by the rules, we also know that too much money is lost to fraud and abuse. So, we have been fighting back together, on behalf of American taxpayers and patients."

The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor announced today the launch of a nationwide Human Trafficking Enhanced Enforcement Initiative designed to streamline federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking offenses.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Detroit today to participate in the fifth regional health care fraud prevention summit.

"With each new wave of intolerance, our nation has responded – passing new civil rights laws, striking down old laws that sanctioned discrimination, and eventually recognizing the value of diverse communities and embracing those previously shunned," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

Two former humanitarian aid workers were each sentenced today to 142 months in prison for defrauding the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) of approximately $1.9 million that was intended to assist impoverished people and towns in Liberia.

Bruce Schwartz, 53, Sam Wongsesanit, 40, and Shane Germann, 42, have pleaded guilty to human trafficking violations involving the Los Angeles based recruiting company Global Horizons.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Philadelphia today where they participated in the sixth regional health care fraud prevention summit.