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'Spaceship Earth' is a radical ride through science, quarantine and so much more

The new documentary "Spaceship Earth" breaks the mystery of the Biosphere 2 experiment wide open, revealing the facts in a story that feels more like science fiction than reality.




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Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates

Among the top coronavirus news out today are: The FDA has given approval to biotech company Moderna to begin the next phase of testing on its coronavirus vaccine and Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary tests positive for the coronavirus.




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Amazing images: The best science photos of the week

Here are the stories behind the most amazing images in the world of science this week. A recap of the coolest photos featured on Live Science.




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Is it safe to visit your mom on Mother's Day? A doctor offers this checklist.

Mothers love to be with their children on Mother's Day, but this year, things might be different. A physician walks you through some questions to consider as you decide whether such a visit is safe.




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Toronto Star | NEWS | POLITICS_BLOG




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Canada's trade deficit widens to $1.4B in March as exports and imports fall to lowest levels in years

Canada's trade deficit widened to more than $1.4 billion in March, as the COVID-19 pandemic dragged down both imports and exports to their lowest levels in years.




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Can the cruise industry stay afloat after COVID-19? Norwegian and Carnival plot uncertain course post-pandemic

The world's third-largest cruise ship operator cast doubt on its ability to stay afloat as a company for much longer, even as one of its biggest rivals said it is taking its first tentative steps toward reopening after COVID-19.




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Anxious about COVID-19 and returning to work? Here's what you need to know

With more businesses reopening, some employees are anxious about going back to work, worried their health could be at risk and wondering if they have any rights not to return. Here's what you need to know about your employment obligations if you are called back to work and any recourse you may have.




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Shopify surges past Royal Bank for title of most valuable company in Canada

Shares in Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify Inc. surged on Wednesday after the company said more and more businesses are signing up for the its online selling platform during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Bombardier starts gradual resumption of manufacturing, reports Q1 loss

Bombardier Inc. said it has started the gradual resumption of manufacturing operations at both its aircraft and rail operations that had been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it reported a loss of $200 million US in its first quarter.




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Like giant ice cream trucks, supermarkets on wheels get ready to roll into the neighbourhood

Shoppers tired of waiting in line outside a supermarket, or trying to secure a slot with one of the overbooked grocery delivery apps, have new options to bring groceries home. Startups and established companies alike are eager to offer Canadians fresh alternatives during the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond.




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General Motors to restart production in St. Catharines next week

General Motors says it plans to restart some production at its engine plant in St. Catharines, Ont. next week ahead of a wider restart of North American operations the week of May 18.



  • News/Canada/Hamilton

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Another 3 million Americans filed for jobless benefits last week

Some 3.1 million Americans filed for government jobless benefits in the week ended May 2, bringing the total number of newly unemployed people since the pandemic began to more than 33 million.




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Greyhound Canada shuts down all routes due to COVID-19

Greyhound Canada will halt all of its bus routes in Canada starting May 13 because of the coronavirus.




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CPP-owned retailer Neiman Marcus files for bankruptcy

Neiman Marcus, the 112-year-old storied luxury department store chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the first department store chain to be toppled by the coronavirus pandemic.




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Canadian shoe chain Aldo seeks creditor protection, citing pandemic pressure

Montreal-based shoe chain Aldo Group is seeking protection from its creditors in Canada, the United States and Europe because of disruptions caused by COVID-19.




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U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April

The U.S. economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression and the starkest sign yet of how the coronavirus pandemic is battering the world's biggest economy.




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Housing starts up in some parts of Canada despite COVID-19

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says construction of multi-unit housing projects remained strong in some provinces last month despite the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Federal COVID-19 Indigenous business relief still leaves 'critical gaps,' says financial organization

A First Nations financial organization in the Atlantic region is voicing concern over the exclusion of band-owned, non-taxable businesses in federal financial relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Postmedia seeks at least $20.3M in coronavirus-related emergency wage subsidies

Postmedia Network Canada Corp. expects to qualify for at least $20.3 million in COVID-related emergency wage subsidies from the federal government, the owner of Canada's largest newspaper chain said Friday.




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Telco customer sees internet bill more than triple during pandemic — and she's not alone

Customers who rely on cellular connections to access the internet say they're being hit with unfair overage fees when many are required to work and study from home. They want better price breaks and say promises to beef up high-speed access outside major cities haven’t resulted in action.




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Gags ‘n’ goodies

A NEW creative outlet is hoping to grow Cairns’ comedy scene and help local charities at the same time.




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Girls prepare for Miss World finals

AUSTRALIAN critters have been a hot topic of conversation among Miss World contestants as they prepare for the final in the US on Monday.




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Go out with a bang

Say farewell to a tumultuous 2016 and welcome in a New Year by soaking up the festive and fun atmosphere around Cairns.




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Head to the beaches for NYE

THE weather bureau has a message for Far Northerners wanting the best chance at avoiding any rain this New Year’s Eve.




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The next superhero films you can’t miss

SUPERHERO films are here to stay and there’s bound to be plenty more shocks and surprises with the very full slate of super-titles down for 2017.




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Exciting stage of life

THE Cairns Choral Society has not let the demise of the Cairns Civic Theatre stop it from staging its annual musical.




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Big year to play host

AFTER a lull over the Christmas period, live entertainment ramps up in Cairns this month.




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Waifs celebrate 25 years with Cairns concert

LONG-RUNNING Australian outfit The Waifs are coming to Cairns as part of celebrations marking 25 years as a band.




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Eyes on world

NIGHT-LIFE in Cairns is set to reach new heights in 2017, with local nightclub Gilligan’s hoping to bring more international artists to its venue this year.




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Sounds exhilarating

AWARD-WINNING musician and singer Vince Jones is among the top-notch jazz talent set to entertain audiences at the Tanks Arts Centre this year.




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The gadget for the perfect coffee

IF you buy a large cappuccino you may find it is quite cold by the time you get to the bottom. Thankfully, there is now a solution to this.




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Towns ‘too hot to wear shorts’

SYDNEY and Brisbane are hot but there are two towns redefining the word “scorcher” and adopting bizarre solutions for dealing with the heat.




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Rare ‘Morning Glory’ cloud dazzles Virgin flyers

ONE of the world’s most spectacular clouds made a dramatic entrance for passengers on an Adelaide-bound jet.




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Apple’s biggest product since the iPhone

APPLE could be set to make its biggest new product announcement since the iPhone, with the company believed to be working on a game changer.




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Galaxies collide in stunning picture

A NEW image captured by NASA Hubble space telescope shows ‘doomed duo’ galaxies colliding and then trying to destroy one another.




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Airborne particle levels plummet in Northern India

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 22, 2020
On March 25, 2020, the Indian government placed its 1.3 billion citizens under a strict lockdown to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The country-wide mandate decreased activity at factories and severely reduced car, bus, truck, and airplane traffic. After just a week of reduced human activities, NASA satellite sensors observed aerosol levels at a 20-year low for this time of year i




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India develops unique model to hit enemy targets without positioning error

New Delhi (Sputnik) Apr 22, 2020
Due to the unavailability of a reliable model to predict the electron density of the ionosphere, navigation errors remain, creating technological hurdles. A new model developed by Indian researchers has potential applications in calculating these Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning errors. In a major development that could have a wider impact, ranging from accurate aiming




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No last goodbye for Gulf migrant workers lost to pandemic

Dubai UAE (AFP) Apr 24, 2020
The body of the Indian migrant who died from coronavirus far from home was kept inside the ambulance in front of the crematorium in case a friend came by for a last goodbye. But nearly an hour later no one had appeared, and the workers in protective suits had to carry out their grim task. In silence, the four men carefully moved the body, wrapped in a white plastic bag, to a furnace




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Large scale survey telescope to be built in northwest China

Xining, China (XNA) Apr 24, 2020
Chinese experts will build a survey telescope with wide field and high resolution in Lenghu (Cold Lake) Town, in northwest China's Qinghai Province, sources here said. On April 16, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) signed a cooperation agreement with the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Qinghai province. They plan to build the telescope on top of Sai




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'Poor like us suffer': Nepal quake survivors struggle in crammed homes

Bhaktapur, Nepal (AFP) April 24, 2020
It has been five years since an earthquake devastated Nepal, but Krishna Maya Khadka is still struggling to come to terms with losing her husband and the home she lived in for generations. Like hundreds of thousands of Nepali quake victims, the 68-year-old now lives in a small one-bedroom hut with a blue corrugated iron-sheet roof - one of many that scar the picturesque villages turned to r




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Two bodies found in Nepal search for missing Koreans

Kathmandu (AFP) April 26, 2020
Two bodies believed to be of South Koreans missing after being hit by a Himalayan avalanche in January have been found, officials said Sunday, a day after discovering the corpse of their Nepali guide. A wall of snow hit a trekking trail at about 3,230 metres (10,600 feet) near the Annapurna base camp in Nepal on January 17, burying four South Koreans and three locals. Avalanches and more




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Airbus will support France and India to monitor climate change with TRISHNA

Paris (SPX) Apr 28, 2020
The French Space Agency (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, CNES) has recently signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the development and manufacture of the thermal infrared instrument for the TRISHNA satellite. TRISHNA (Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High resolution Natural resource Assessment) will be the latest satellite in the joint Franco-Indian satellite fleet d




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YouTube expands fact-check panels in move against misinformation

San Francisco (AFP) April 28, 2020
YouTube on Tuesday began adding fact-check panels to search results in the US for videos on hot-topic claims shown to be bogus. The Google-owned video streaming service said it is expanding to the US a fact-check information panel feature launched last year in Brazil and India. Fact-check information panels highlight credible findings by third-parties so YouTube viewers can make informed




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Air pollution drops in India following lockdown

Paris (ESA) Apr 28, 2020
Lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus have been recently linked with cleaner air quality over Europe and China. New images, from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, from the European Union Copernicus programme, now show some cities across India seeing levels drop by around 40-50% owing to its nationwide quarantine. On 25 March 2020, the Indian government placed its popu




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FN America, Colt's awarded $383.3M to make M16A4s for Iraq, others

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 29, 2020
FN America and Colt's Manufacturing received a $383.3 million, five-year contract to manufacture M16A4 rifles for Afghanistan, Grenada, Iraq, Lebanon and Nepal through the Pentagon's foreign military sales program. The M16A4 is the fourth generation of the M16 series of military rifles. The Marine Corps began phasing out the M16 in favor of the M4 carbine in 2015. In 2008 the Sta




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Search team finds bodies of all Koreans missing in Himalayan avalanche

Kathmandu (AFP) May 1, 2020
A search team on Friday recovered the last remaining two bodies missing after a Himalayan avalanche in January buried four South Korean trekkers and three locals. A wall of snow hit the trekkers at about 3,200 metres (10,500 feet) near the Annapurna base camp in Nepal on January 17, covering them under metres of snow. Avalanches and more snowfall since then made it too dangerous to lau




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Indian officials capture rare snow leopard, send it to zoo

Shimla, India (AFP) May 3, 2020
A rare snow leopard captured as it savaged livestock in a remote village in the Indian Himalaya will be sent to a zoo instead of being released, officials said Sunday, triggering outrage from activists. The endangered creature was found on Saturday after it became trapped inside a pen containing sheep and goats in Giu village near the Tibetan border in India's Himachal Pradesh state. "T




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India embarks on 'massive' coronavirus repatriation

New Delhi (AFP) May 5, 2020
India has embarked on a "massive" operation calling up passenger jets and naval ships to bring back some of the hundreds of thousands of its nationals stuck abroad due to coronavirus restrictions, the government said Tuesday. India banned all incoming international flights in late March as it imposed one of the world's strictest virus lockdowns, leaving vast numbers of workers and students s




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Climate change could reawaken Indian Ocean El Nino

Austin TX (SPX) May 07, 2020
Global warming is approaching a tipping point that during this century could reawaken an ancient climate pattern similar to El Nino in the Indian Ocean, new research led by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin has found. If it comes to pass, floods, storms and drought are likely to worsen and become more regular, disproportionately affecting populations most vulnerable to clim