40 h. ago Human rights laws need 'tightening,' says Cabinet minister amid Tory move to quit ECHR to cut immigration

Environment Secretary Steve Reed’s comments came as the head of the Council of Europe, whose role includes promoting human rights, argued the ECHR needed to be ‘adapted’ for the modern world

Politics

1 week ago Bedbug numbers soared when humans left caves and moved to cities, scientists find

Scientists believe the bedbugs were humanity’s first pests

Politics

1 week ago Bedbugs became the 'first urban pest' as humans moved out of caves

Bedbug numbers exploded as humans moved out of caves and into settlements, scientists have found

Politics

1 week ago Humans moving to ancient cities sent bedbug numbers soaring, say scientists

The insects had been in decline until people started cramming together in the first large settlementsThey survived the catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs, but bedbugs were in decline until the invention of the city, which sent their numbers soaring, researchers say.Genetic analysis of a group of bedbugs showed their history was entwined with the human story, with the blood-sucking parasites spreading and thriving as humans crammed together in large settlements. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago What the last Trump presidency can teach us about fighting back | Kenneth Roth

History shows that if western governments mount a defense, the human rights movement will survive this rough patchAs Donald Trump abandons any pretense of promoting human rights abroad, he has sparked concern about the future of the human rights movement. The US government has never been a consistent promoter of human rights, but when it applied itself, it was certainly the most powerful. Yet this is not the first time that the human rights movement has faced a hostile administration in Washington. A collective defense by other governments has been the key to survival in the past. That remains true today.Trump no doubt poses a serious threat. He is enamored of autocrats who rule without the checks and balances on executive power that he would shirk. He has stopped participating in the UN human rights council and censored the US state department’s annual human rights report. He has summarily sent immigrants to El Salvador’s nightmarish mega-prison, proposed the mass ethnic cleansing ...

Politics

3 w. ago Mexican fury at MrBeast as government demands YouTuber pays out for 'exploiting nation's ancient Mayan pyramids' for cash

The video 'I Explored 2000 Year Old Ancient Temples' shows the influencer and his team exploring the ancient Mayan cities with a permit.

Politics

3 w. ago ‘Migration is not always a story of suffering’: the Dutch museum telling the full story of global diaspora

Set to become a major cultural destination, Fenix Rotterdam shows the harsh realities of the migrant experience alongside esoteric art – giving a necessary and nuanced view of the subject’s fraught politicsWhat does a boat seized from the Italian island of Lampedusa, a piece of the Berlin Wall, two giant bright blue slippers and a New York City bus made of fabric have in common with paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger and Willem de Kooning? They all vie for space in a new museum, opening this week in Rotterdam, which focuses entirely on migration, the movement of peoples that defines each century of humanity and which in recent years has acquired a new political toxicity.Situated over two floors in what was one of the largest warehouses in the world, it is the centrepiece of a regeneration project in Katendrecht, the city’s southern docks and former red-light district that is redolent with history. Across the water, now a hotel, stood the headquarters of the Holland America Line, ...

Politics