4 h. ago Who’s a clever boy: the average dog has a mental age of about two. But what are they really thinking?

They can learn hundreds of words, count to five and read humans like a book, so why do we struggle to understand them? Scientists reveal the truth about our pets – and whether they ever feel guilty for eating our slippersThe thing that made me think my dog may be a genius was the word monkey. We’d developed a game where I’d hide her monkey toy – a sad, lifeless being, long lobotomised by my golden retriever puppy – and, when I asked her to find it, I realised she could differentiate the word monkey from other objects. A woman in the park had a similar story. On holiday in an unfamiliar cottage, she had misplaced the car keys. After hunting for them for over an hour, her dog, a border collie, overheard her and her husband talking about it, recognised the word “keys” and immediately went and found them.So maybe my dog, Rhubarb, isn’t a genius after all. Dogs, says Vanessa Woods, director of the Puppy Kindergarten project at Duke University in North Carolina, US, and writer of sev...

Politics

64 h. ago NFL draft suits give prospects another way to cash in on their fame, flash their style on red carpet

Drake Maye planned to wear a custom suit for the NFL draft last year in Detroit

Politics

68 h. ago A surprising number of Americans want climate action. But why aren’t there more?

Support for climate action is growing in the US, but partisan divides and fossil fuel interests hold swayOver the last 12 months, the United States has endured a rash of disasters worsened by the climate crisis: devastating wildfires in southern California, a catastrophic hurricane in western North Carolina, and deadly heatwaves across the country.Americans increasingly believe global heating is a serious threat that will affect them personally – and 74% want to see more climate action. Yet while that sounds high, it is still lower than most other countries around the world. What explains this disparity? Continue reading...

Politics

68 h. ago ‘An outlier’: why does the US rank low on demands for climate action?

Support for climate action is growing in the US, but partisan divides and fossil fuel interests hold swayOver the last 12 months, the United States has endured a rash of disasters worsened by the climate crisis: devastating wildfires in southern California, a catastrophic hurricane in western North Carolina, and deadly heatwaves across the country.Americans increasingly believe global heating is a serious threat that will affect them personally – and 74% want to see more climate action. Yet while that sounds high, it is still lower than most other countries around the world. What explains this disparity? Continue reading...

Politics

2 d. ago I was diagnosed with cancer after strange things began happening to my hands

A simple ChatGPT search has helped a mother-of-two discover the mysterious reason why she was unable to bend her fingers.

Science

3 d. ago NASCAR's Katherine Legge says she has been receiving death threats after Xfinity crash at Rockingham

NASCAR driver Katherine Legge said she has been receiving “hate mail” and “death threats” from auto racing fans after a crash last weekend at Rockingham

Events

4 d. ago I never stepped foot in a gym until age 62... but now people are stunned by my physique

While former dancer Ginny MacColl, now 73, from Southport, North Carolina, has 'always' been active, for the first 62 years of her life, she had no interest in weight training or working out.

Politics

6 d. ago ‘I just ask God that he’s OK’: family of Venezuelan musician sent to El Salvador prison agonizes over his fate

Arturo Suárez Trejo was caught up in Trump’s immigration crackdown in North Carolina and sent to a notorious Salvadorian prisonIn a recording studio in downtown Santiago, where the dad she has never met once sung, a four-month-old baby girl snuggles in her mother’s arms, noise-cancelling earmuffs shielding her tiny ears from the sound.Nahiara Rubí Suárez Sánchez is equally oblivious to the plight of her father, a Venezuelan musician who is thought to be languishing in a maximum-security prison thousands of miles away in El Salvador after being swept up in Donald Trump’s anti-migrant crusade. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Wildfires grow to hundreds of acres after North Carolina lifts burn ban

Wildfires in the Carolinas have been fueled by dry and warm weather and leftover hurricane debris

Events

9 d. ago Slave descendants fight to protect their threatened island community at Georgia's highest court

Georgia’s highest court is weighing in on a fight over special protections for one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities of Black people descended from slaves

Events

1 week ago Is Bill Belichick’s girlfriend on his coaching staff at UNC? Fans fume over her involvement

Belichick is the new head football coach for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Sport

1 week ago I can’t go everywhere my daughter goes – a wheelchair only works in accessible spaces

For disabled parents, the built environment can be inaccessible – but we are showing that there are countless ways to have bodies and mindsWe met K when she was a week old. We were foster parents and not expecting a call about a newborn. Despite becoming her mom with just 12 hours’ notice – we adopted her the next year – my early months with her felt so natural.I had been disabled for six years. While on a hike, I developed dysautonomia, which is secondary to a genetic connective tissue disorder called hEDS [hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome]. I experience a great deal of daily pain and can’t stand for more than a minute or sit upright unsupported for more than five.Her kindergarten classroom. In fact, the entirety of the school she attended for two years.Countless hikes.Multiple preschool tours – so many schools in California, North Carolina and Ontario are up or down stairs.Field trips.Nearly every shop and restaurant in Montreal while on a family vacation.Birthday and holiday pa...

Politics

1 week ago I can’t go everywhere my daughter goes – and it’s heartbreaking

For disabled parents, the built environment can be inaccessible – but we are showing that there are countless ways to have bodies and mindsWe met K when she was a week old. We were foster parents and not expecting a call about a newborn. Despite becoming her mom with just 12 hours’ notice – we adopted her the next year – my early months with her felt so natural.I had been disabled for six years. While on a hike, I developed dysautonomia, which is secondary to a genetic connective tissue disorder called hEDS [hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome]. I experience a great deal of daily pain and can’t stand for more than a minute or sit upright unsupported for more than five.Her kindergarten classroom. In fact, the entirety of the school she attended for two years.Countless hikes.Multiple preschool tours – so many schools in California, North Carolina and Ontario are up or down stairs.Field trips.Nearly every shop and restaurant in Montreal while on a family vacation.Birthday and holiday pa...

Politics

1 week ago My dad fell for our beauty queen nanny. I knew she was evil but nothing prepared me for the horrors to come... now I'm haunted by my lies

Whenever Sarah Corbett Lynch hears the whirring sirens of a police car or ambulance, it triggers a crippling panic attack. For it takes her back to August 2, 2015, when she was eight years old.

Politics

1 week ago US paedophile who flew to Wales to ‘marry’ schoolgirl jailed

Jacob Ewing, 44, of North Carolina, groomed a Welsh schoolgirl online, before attempting to enter the UK to marry her.

Events

2 w. ago North Carolina judges order ballot checks in tight race won by Democrat

Supreme court says overseas voters must prove eligibility or votes will be discarded – which could affect election’s resultThe North Carolina supreme court paved the way to throw out thousands of ballots in a race for a seat on the court that was decided by just over 700 votes.The staggering decision is the latest development in a race in which Democrat Allison Riggs defeated her Republican opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin, by 734 votes. After multiple recounts confirmed Riggs’s win, Griffin challenged the eligibility of more than 60,000 votes and courts have blocked certification so far. Last week, the North Carolina court of appeals – the body Griffin sits on – gave the challenged voters 15 days to prove their eligibility. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Previous execution reveals how South Carolina will put 2nd inmate to death by firing squad

A few more details are known about South Carolina's firing squad as the state prepares to carry out its second execution by that method

Events

3 w. ago North Carolina judges back Republican colleague in bid to toss votes and overturn election

Appeals court sides with Jefferson Griffin, who lost supreme court election and wants thousands of ballots thrown outMore than 65,000 people in North Carolina who believed they were eligible to vote could have their ballots thrown out nearly five months after election day, flipping the results of a supreme court election, a state appeals court ruled on Friday.The 2-1 ruling from the North Carolina court of appeals came in response to Republicans’ months-long effort to overturn the results of the state supreme court election in November. The Democrat Allison Riggs, who currently sits on the court, defeated appellate judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican, by 734 votes. After the election, Griffin filed a protest seeking to get around 60,000 votes thrown out. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago I don’t want to die with a freezer full of seeds. It’s time to rethink biodiversity and preservation | Chris Smith

Hurricane Helene proved a hard truth: a freezer of seeds is the literal version of putting all your eggs in one basketAbout a month after Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina last fall, Roger Wynn and I met in an Asheville, North Carolina, supermarket parking lot. He’d driven two hours from Little Mountain, South Carolina, where the passing storm had also left its destructive mark.“When the power finally came back on,” Wynn said, “two of my freezers didn’t work.” Wynn was worried not about spoiled food inside, but his seed collection. On that autumn day, in an act of forced downsizing and seed philanthropy, Wynn handed over two boxes filled with seeds. He wanted me, as founder of the non-profit Utopian Seed Project, to share the seeds with farmers across the region. The boxes contained a trove of Appalachian varieties: speckled field peas, white mountain half-runner beans, purple-podded bush beans and lots of butterbeans. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Wisconsin supreme court race: Liberal Susan Crawford beats Musk

Liberal judge defeats Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election in US history, which cost a combined $80mSusan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin supreme court on Tuesday, a major win for Democrats who had framed the race as a referendum on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s popularity.Crawford, a liberal judge from Dane county, defeated Brad Schimel, a former Republican attorney general and conservative judge from Waukesha county, after Musk and groups associated with the tech billionaire spent millions to boost his candidacy in what became the most expensive judicial contest in American history. Continue reading...

Events