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RPGCast – Episode 405: “Evolve a Fetus”

Chris tries to cope with a reality where Windjammers is actually resurrected. Kelley tries to finish Pokémon. Alice tries to resist buying FFXV. Alex tries...




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RPGCast – Episode 505: “We’ll Just Postpone It Every Week”

Anna Marie loses her mind as well as control of her mouth. Chris investigates the impacts of bringing Diet Coke into Mementos. Peter buys more games. Nathan finishes Final Fanatasy VIII just in time to start playing Final Fantasy VIII. And Kelley just tries to survive Bloodstained's framerate on the Switch.




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RPGCast – Episode 507: “Are You Even A Gamer?”

Chris got kicked off his own show this week to make room for a panel full to bursting with #JRPGJuly updates! Some are playing new games, some are playing old games, but let’s face it - everyone will be playing Fire Emblem next week.



  • News
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  • Braveland Trilogy
  • Dragon Quest Builders 2
  • Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
  • Guild Wars 2
  • Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
  • Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3: the Black Order
  • Ni no Kuni II
  • Phantasy Star
  • Super Neptunia RPG
  • The Witcher 3
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Coronavirus in Scotland: Testing strategy to be reviewed amid care worker reports

THE SCOTTISH Government is reviewing its Covid-19 testing strategy after the Deputy First Minster has been left “frustrated” by reports home care workers have been told to travel to the other side of Scotland for tests.





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'Terrible twos' not inevitable: With engaged parenting, happy babies can become happy toddlers

Parents should not feel pressured to make their young children undertake structured learning or achieve specific tasks, particularly during lockdown. A new study of children under the age of two has found that parents who take a more flexible approach to their child's learning can - for children who were easy babies - minimize behavioral problems during toddlerhood.




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Tiny devices promise new horizon for security screening and medical imaging

Miniature devices that could be developed into safe, high-resolution imaging technology, with uses such as helping doctors identify potentially deadly cancers and treat them early, have been created.




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Unique 3D-images reveal the architecture of nerve fibers

Researchers have used synchrotron light to study what happens to the nerves in diabetes. The technique shows the 3D-structure of nerve fibers in very high resolution.




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First-in-kind study reveals genetic markers of type 2 diabetes in East Asians

This research shows how different populations of people share most of the genetic susceptibilities to developing type 2 diabetes but do have some different genetic variations that can make them more or less susceptible to developing the condition.




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Focused ultrasound opening brain to previously impossible treatments

Focused ultrasound, the researchers hope, could revolutionize treatment for conditions from Alzheimer's to epilepsy to brain tumors -- and even help repair the devastating damage caused by stroke.




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Most critically ill patients with COVID-19 survive with standard treatment, study reveals

Clinicians from two hospitals in Boston report that the majority of even the sickest patients with COVID-19 -- those who require ventilators in intensive care units -- get better when they receive existing guideline-supported treatment for respiratory failure.




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Sleep difficulties linked to altered brain development in infants who later develop autism

New research finds that sleep problems in a baby's first 12 months may not only precede an autism diagnosis, but also may be associated with altered growth trajectory in a key part of the brain, the hippocampus.




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China to reform disease prevention system




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Seven killed in protests over food distribution in Afghanistan, local MP says




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Quaranstream: Free events and services to watch online while self-quarantining

As novel coronavirus spreads throughout the United States, millions of Americans are spending more time at home.MORE: Here's everything coming to Disney+ in AprilBut whether you're doing so because of a job loss, working from home situation or otherwise taking part in the mass effort to stay safe, chances are you've been bored once or twice while living under quarantine.Thankfully, some very talented people have been creating extra-special performances and experiences that you can enjoy to help you cope with the new normal and that don't break any social distancing rules. ...





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‘Every stone will be uncovered’: how Georgia officials failed the Ahmaud Arbery case

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.Arbery, 25, was jogging through the neighborhood just outside Brunswick, Georgia, on 23 February when he was shot dead by two white men. Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, were charged with murder and aggravated assault on Thursday evening, after graphic video footage of the killing was released publicly and sparked national outrage.Lawyers for Arbery’s family have called the killing a “modern lynching” and decried the lack of action in the case prior to the release of the video, pointing to racial inequalities in the criminal justice system.In the police report, Gregory McMichael claimed Arbery “violently attacked” his son, who shot Arbery in self defense.Jackie Johnson, the Glynn county district attorney, refused to allow police officers who responded to arrest the two men, Glynn county commissioner Peter Murphy told the Guardian in a phone call on Friday.The police department was put in touch with one of Johnson’s assistant district attorneys after the shooting, but Johnson made the decision not to charge the father and son, the former having worked in her office for more than 20 years, Murphy said.“The police at the scene went to her, saying they were ready to arrest both of them,” Allen Booker, the Glynn county district 5 commissioner, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday. “These were the police at the scene who had done the investigation. She shut them down to protect her friend McMichael.”Days later, Johnson recused herself. Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. By 27 February, George Barnhill, the Waycross judicial district attorney, and the second of three DAs on the case, took over. Less than 24 hours after seeing the video and evidence compiled by the police, Murphy said, Barnhill decided to not charge the McMichaels.“And so within 24 hours the Glynn county police had been told by two separate DA offices not to make any arrests,” Murphy said. “And obviously, they want to assume no responsibility for their actions.”On 2 April, Barnhill sent an email to law enforcement authorities saying the 25-year-old Arbery had an “apparent aggressive nature” and that his family were “not strangers to the local criminal justice system”.“Arbery’s mental health records & prior convictions help explain his apparent aggressive nature and his possible thought pattern to attack an armed man,” Barnhill said in the email, which was first reported by the New York Times.“What it appears is he was purposely trying to assault the character of the victim and there’s just no reason why,” said Chris Stewart, one of the lawyers representing Arbery’s family.The family have pointed to the McMichaels’ connection to local law enforcement both at the district attorney’s office and police department as evidence of systemic flaws and roadblocks in their search for justice. It was only after the video of Arbery’s death was released this week that the third DA’s office requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) get involved.On Friday, GBI director Vic Reynolds told reporters he could not “answer what another agency did or didn’t see” in the first two months of the investigation.“But I can tell you that based on our involvement in this case and considering the fact we hit the ground running Wednesday morning and within 36 hours we had secured warrants for two individuals for felony murder, I think that speaks volumes for itself.”In a 7 April email sent to the office of Georgia attorney general Chris Carr, Barnhill recused himself because his son worked on a case involving Arbery while working in Johnson’s office.Lee Merritt, one of the lawyers who represents Arbery’s family, said Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, found the connection between Barnhill’s son and her own on Facebook and brought it to the attention of his office.“She followed the links. That’s exactly how it happened,” he said to the Guardian on Friday by phone.According to a police report filed 23 February, Gregory and Travis McMichael grabbed their weapons, a .357 Magnum revolver and a shotgun, jumped into a truck and followed Arbery as he ran.In the email to Carr from early April, Barnhill references a “decent cell phone video of the entire shooting incident”, an apparent reference to the one leaked this week.Reynolds said on Friday that the investigation into the shooting, the video and the person who filmed it, would continue.“Every stone will be uncovered,” Reynolds said.





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More than 1,000 queue for food in rich Geneva amid virus shutdown




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Mangoes off the menu for lonely primates, as Kiev zoo struggles in lockdown




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Can Taika Waititi revive the cosmic sweep of classic Star Wars?

Excellent film-maker that he is, Watiti seems to fit the Marvel blueprint far more easily than he does Star Wars’ more venerable, old-school template

When entertainment reporters play Hollywood roulette, the practice of attaching directors and stars to forthcoming movies based on little more than rumour, their little white balls nearly always seem to land on Taika Waititi’s number. If you’ve been keeping a close eye on this column over the past year, you’ve probably spotted the white-hot Kiwi director being touted for a remake of Flash Gordon and the next Deadpool movie among other projects, neither of which have yet come to fruition.

Waititi’s next film, according to reports this week, will be a Star Wars episode. Will he end up making it to the first day of production on this one? The chances seem better, as Disney has officially confirmed the appointment via the space saga’s official website, with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns helping deliver a script. But this is Star Wars we are talking about – Colin Trevorrow, Josh Trank, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, David Benioff and DB Weiss are among the numerous film-makers who have cheerily signed up to try to bring back the glory days of the long-running series in recent times, only to ultimately fall foul of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s merciless Force choke.

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The Assistant review – eloquent sexual harassment drama

Julia Garner excels as a junior assistant to a predatory media mogul boss in Kitty Green’s powerfully understated #MeToo drama

A performance of few words but immense physical eloquence by Julia Garner anchors this impressively chilling #MeToo-era drama about workplace harassment and abuse. Following a day in the life of a young woman with dreams of making her mark in the film and television industry, it’s a sobering portrait of a dirty little secret that was brought into the news spotlight by the Harvey Weinstein scandal. All the more powerful for its understated tone, this low-key piece packs a hefty punch as it exposes the web of silence that enabled a very modern horror story.

Garner (who won an Emmy for her work on TV’s Ozark) is Jane, a high-achieving college graduate who finds herself on the bottom rung of the ladder as a junior assistant to an unnamed entertainment mogul in New York. The appointment may hold promises of great opportunities ahead, but for now it’s fairly soul destroying. An opening sequence, played out to the lonely strains of Tamar-kali’s sparse score, finds Jane being driven to the office before dawn, turning on the lights above her colleagues’ desks – first in, last out. Her tasks are menial yet weirdly demanding: making coffee, changing the paper in the photocopier, ordering lunch, and arranging travel and accommodation for an ever-changing roster of offhand executives and needy clients.

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Sergio review – fact-based Netflix UN drama opts for old school romance

Wagner Moura and Ana de Armas give strong performances in a mostly effective retelling of the life and tragic death of a celebrated Brazilian diplomat

There’s an old school charm to Sergio, documentarian Greg Barker’s narrative portrait of UN diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a dramatic retelling of a life he already brought to the screen in a 2009 documentary of the same name. Barker’s knowledge of Sérgio’s life and accomplishments is backgrounded by a clear respect for who he was and so while the film is factually detailed, as one would expect, it’s also rooted in a desire to showcase his humanity, both in and out of work, with Barker deciding to lean into full-tilt romantic tragedy, perhaps also as a way of differentiating his two Sergios.

Related: Love Wedding Repeat review – laboured Netflix romcom farce

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Selah and the Spades review – teen cliques drama balances satire and surrealism

This uncanny story of preppy drug dealers has a touch of Heathers and a bit of Bret Easton Ellis, and an intriguing take on what high school is really like

Tayarisha Poe, like her partial namesake, has a gift for the uncanny. She is the photographer and film-maker behind this feature debut, which began as an online multimedia project and was developed as a conventional movie through the Sundance screenwriters and directors labs. What has emerged is an intriguing, opaque, tonally elusive story that seems weirdly unfinished. It is set in a privileged high school – a world of ivy-covered stone buildings and shady quadrangles where rich kids are separated into malign and mutually hostile cliques. It has a touch of Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis, a hint of Heathers and a bit of the elegant, disdainful satire of Dear White People.

Somehow, though, it is odder, more stylised and contrived, always holding out the possibility that it is set in the future, or in an alternative present on some other planet, or inside the head of one of its characters who is having a disturbing dream – the kind that ends just as it is about to give up its meaning. Right until the closing credits, I half-expected the face of each person on screen to flip upwards, revealing a Stepford-like set of dials.

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Circus of Books review – tender doc about family life and gay porn

An affectionate and absorbing documentary from film-maker Rachel Mason about her devout parents, who ran a famous adult bookstore in early-80s LA

Here is a documentary with an absorbing and unexpectedly complicated story to tell, whose paradoxes and sadnesses are not entirely resolved by the end. Artist and film-maker Rachel Mason has created an affectionate portrait of her elderly parents, Karen and Barry, who in many ways are like one of the (fictional) old couples in When Harry Met Sally.

Karen is a former journalist, devoutly Jewish, and Barry is a former special visual effects engineer who worked on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 and invented a modification for kidney dialysis machines. But they found themselves in a tough financial spot in the early 1980s and took over Circus of Books, a gay porn bookstore in Los Angeles that also sold movies called things like Confessions of a Two Dick Slut and Don’t Drop the Soap, and was one of Larry Flynt’s first distribution points. Under their shrewd management, the store boomed, opened another branch and became a well-known meeting place for LGBT people, while all the time, the Masons were a conventional family who kept their three children well away from the business. Karen movingly – and honestly – recounts how upset she was to discover that one of her sons was gay: the business and family life were that separate.

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Beastie Boys Story review – Spike Jonze and the boys are back in town

Ad-Rock and Mike D host a convivial trip down memory lane in this filmed record of a live show staged in tribute to third member Adam Yauch

The release of this documentary coincides with #MeAt20, a heart-twisting craze on social media for posting pictures of yourself at 20 years old. Middle-aged people’s timelines are speckled with funny, sweet and sometimes unbearably sad images of themselves in unlined, unformed youth, doing goofy things in milky analogue pictures from back when you had 12 or 24 exposures on your roll-film camera and getting them developed at Boots was a pricey business. That’s what I thought of while watching this engaging, oddly moving film from Spike Jonze: a record of the live stage show he devised at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, in tribute to white hip-hop stars and tongue-in-cheek party-libertarian activists the Beastie Boys. It is presented by the two surviving members, Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond, in tribute to the third member, Adam Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012. Jonze is reuniting with the band after having directed a string of their music videos, including the crime-TV spoof for their single Sabotage in 1994.

Horovitz and Diamond amble on stage, apparently dressed head-to-toe in Gap, and appear for all the world to be about to unveil the iPhone 4S, although actually their jokey anecdotalism makes the show in some ways like the regional tours once presented by George Best and Rodney Marsh. With amiably rehearsed back-and-forth banter, they introduce the embarrassing photos and excruciating TV clips that are shown on a big screen. And the effect of seeing them juxtaposed with the plump-faced frizzy-haired imps of 1986 is startling and bizarre. In the present day, the advancing years seem to have boiled away the badass attitude, leaving behind the quirky humour.

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The Willoughbys review – imaginative animated Netflix adventure

A manic pre-summer caper skirts near dark territory but remains a mostly kid-friendly tale of an unusual family

A year after Sony’s wonderfully inventive Into the Spider-Verse became the first non-Pixar/Disney/Dreamworks film to win the best animated feature Oscar since 2011, the race was again populated by outliers. Frozen 2 was snubbed and instead Laika crept back into the spotlight with Missing Link (after winning the Golden Globe) and Netflix snuck in with two originals – Klaus and I Lost My Body – marking the streamer’s first time breaking into the pack. While Toy Story 4 might have ultimately won out, the lineup continued to reflect both a widening field and an embrace of more left-field choices, a much-needed jolt of energy in what used to be a two-horse race.

Related: Trolls World Tour review – eyeball-frazzling sequel offers same again

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Extraction review – hokey, high-octane action thriller

Chris Hemsworth plays a super-tough mercenary on an all-guns-blazing mission to rescue a crime lord’s kidnapped son

Sadly, this has nothing to do with dentistry. Extraction is a made-for-Netflix action thriller from veterans of the Marvel Comic Universe – screenwriter Joe Russo, stunt-specialist-turned-director Sam Hargrave and star Chris Hemsworth. It’s based on the graphic novel Ciudad (which Russo co-authored), transferring the action from the Paraguayan city of Ciudad Del Este to Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Extraction is a little bit hokey and absurd, and the very end has an exasperating cop-out – but it has to be admitted that, in terms of pure action octane, Russo and Hargrave bring the noise, and there are quite a few long-distance “sniper” scenes in which people get taken out from miles away as the bullet travels through their skulls with a resonant thoonk.

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Blood Quantum review – grimy zombie horror offers intriguing twist

A visually distinctive, semi-effective Canadian thriller pits a First Nation community against a zombie invasion

Given how movies about the undead refuse to die, a tweak on what’s become a decaying formula is always a welcome surprise, especially if said tweak involves a little more than “what about zombies but strippers”. Back in the 60s, and at rare times since, the zombie subgenre has been used as a way of sneaking social commentary into horror, the set-up of an invading force destroying a community allowing for a range of sly metaphors.

Related: 'I'm indigenizing zombies': behind gory First Nation horror Blood Quantum

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A Secret Love review – moving portrait of two women's 60-year romance

This heartwarming documentary traces the lives of a baseball star and her partner, now in their 90s, who pretended to be ‘just good friends’ for decades

This documentary from Netflix is a real heart-soother. Directed with tremendous sensitivity and intimacy by Chris Bolan, it’s a love story about two women now in their 90s – Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, who have been together since the 1940s.

For decades they kept up the pretence of being “just good friends” to their families before finally coming out a few years ago. Talking to outsiders, they still describe each other as “cousins”. The legacy of shame and fear among older people in the gay community is explored in the film, but the overwhelming mood here is love.

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Dangerous Lies review – diverting yet dopey Netflix thriller

A ridiculously titled film about a couple who stumble upon a stash of money is absurd and cliched but mostly entertaining

One of the most surprising reveals of last October’s unprecedented Netflix data dump was the astounding popularity of cheap psycho-thriller Secret Obsession. While the streamer proudly touted new films from Alfonso Cuarón, Paul Greengrass and the Coens in the same period, it was a no-star, dim-plotted slab of schlock that netted more viewers, with an estimated 40m households eager to find out just how secret that obsession really was. Modelled after a Lifetime TV movie (with a Lifetime TV director at the helm), it was an important victory for Netflix because it revealed a substantial audience for tiny-budgeted thrillers with generic titles, a bracket they could easily fill at little expense.

Related: The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

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The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

A talented trio of young actors enliven a familiar yet engaging tale of a queer love triangle at high school

There’s a satisfying ease to Netflix high school comedy The Half of It, a charming twist on the Cyrano de Bergerac formula that deserves slightly more attention than most of the streamer’s other made-to-order sleepover pics. A teen market that had been underserved by studios has now been exhaustively cornered by the company but often without much care or inventiveness, a conveyor belt of content that prioritises quantity over quality. It’s refreshing then to see a film such as this emerge from the same production line, slickly ticking all the same boxes but with a noticeable uplift in enthusiasm, grafting its own identity on to the boilerplate format.

Related: Never Have I Ever review – Netflix teen series slowly finds its voice

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All Day and a Night review – stylish Netflix father-son crime drama

Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders gives a compelling lead performance as a young man trying to escape his father’s shadow

It’s an unusually stacked week for new films on Netflix (one they might regret when pre-pandemic content starts to dry up) with a teen comedy, a B-thriller and a romantic documentary all launching before the weekend, a feast for viewers at home but a glut that could overshadow one of their finer offerings quietly releasing alongside. All Day and a Night, a tough-minded drama from Black Panther co-writer Joe Robert Cole, might not be quite worthy enough for their awards slate (although it’s a damn sight more compelling than The Two Popes …) but it’s a step up from what one might expect of an unhyped May movie from the streamer. Think of it as a classier boutique release, deserving of a higher shelf placement.

Related: The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

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Abel Ferrara's lockdown choices: sexual deviance, wild sci-fi and Nazi propaganda

The director of King of New York, Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral recommends film and TV for a coronavirus age, in the hope that ‘the light becomes more evident in the darkness’

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

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'Fortnite' Party Royale Event With Steve Aoki & Deadmau5 - Tracklist & What Happened

"Fortnite" Party Royale had another big show on May 8. Here's everything you need to know about the Dillion Francis, Steve Aoki and deadmau5 concert that just took place.




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'ARK' Crystal Isles PC Release Date & 5th Anniversary Event Announced

"ARK: Survival Evolved" Crystal Isles is coming to PC soon, alongside a huge anniversary event on all platforms. Get the full details here.




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Jobs Report Reveals Racial Inequality in Unemployment at an Historic Low, Thanks to Pandemic

More than 20 million Americans lost their jobs in the last month, and unemployment among African-Americans has hit 16.7 percent.





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Early Devonian Fossil Provides Earliest Evidence for Advanced Reproductive Biology in Land Plants

A species of plant that grew about 400 million years ago (Early Devonian period) produced a spectrum of spore sizes, which is an essential innovation necessary for all advanced plant reproductive strategies, including seeds and flowers. The Devonian period is one of the most important time periods for the evolution of land plants. It witnessed [...]




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Jurassic Fossil Reveals Violent Squid Attack in Progress

An international team of paleontologists from the University of Plymouth, the University of Kansas and the Forge Fossils has found a specimen of the squid-like cephalopod Clarkeiteuthis montefiorei preserved with the herring-like fish Dorsetichthys bechei in its two arms; the bones in the head of the fish are broken in a manner that suggests a [...]




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Coronavirus outbreak: Eight flights from several countries to fly back stranded Indians today

New Dlehi, May 09: Several Indians, who are stranded in at least seven countries due to coronavirus outbreak, is all set to fly back to their home country on Saturday in special flights under Vande Bharat Mission. According to officials,





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Bilateral ties poised for even bigger take-off: Ruchi Ghanashyam




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After Coronavirus Delay, John Coates Says Tokyo Games Could Be 'Greatest Ever'

The Tokyo Olympics was postponed for a year to 2021 in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.





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We haven’t identified any new drugs for severe covid-19 cases yet

A number of potential drugs for treating the coronavirus are in trials. There are some promising candidates but it’s unclear if they’ll help those who need them most




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Experimental diabetes device works by killing gut cells with hot water

A device that carries hot water down a tube into the gut may help manage diabetes by killing overgrown gut cells that release hormones key to metabolising food




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Fever can help the immune system, so what should we do if we have one?

Fever is a pain, quite literally, but new evidence hints at its purpose. Here’s what you need to know




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Names of UK's coronavirus science advisers to be revealed

The membership of the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has so far been kept secret, but a list of names will soon be published, the UK's chief scientific adviser has said




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Electrical devices implanted in the brain may help treat anorexia

In a small trial, implanting electrodes into the brain helped women with severe anorexia gain weight and feel less anxious and depressed




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Coronavirus: What does evidence say about schools reopening?

Many studies suggest coronavirus has low transmission rates among children, but there are still risks to reopening schools that were closed due to social distancing policies




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Covid-19 shows why an infodemic of bad science must never happen again

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




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'The need to do more': Province unveils Saskatchewan suicide prevention plan

Pillars For Life: The Saskatchewan Suicide Prevention Plan, released Friday, "will guide activities specific to suicide prevention based on Saskatchewan’s context," Rural and Remote Health Minister Warren Kaeding said in a statement.




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Even if we get a COVID-19 vaccine, it could be less effective in people 50 and older

Scientists are working hard to understand how age changes the immune system so that they can better protect seniors against current and future infectious diseases