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Noise, drugs and rioting fans: Inside the mayhem of Nick Cave’s early days with explosive rockers The Birthday Party
These days, Cave is one of rock’s elder statesmen. But decades ago, he started out in a band who caused chaos wherever they went, as new film Mutiny in Heaven recounts, writes Daniel Dylan Wray. On his upcoming US tour, the Bad Seeds frontman Nick Cave – who for the last 40 years has been…
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What we can learn from California’s surfing sea otter
The infamous surfboard-stealing sea otter of Monterey Bay is still on the run – but her strange behaviour is drawing attention to the many challenges this species faces. At first it looks like she is up to her usual tricks again. A southern sea otter, with her thick, dark fur glistening with water – as…
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The gold jewellery made from old phones
E-waste is mounting. Now the UK Royal Mint has found a new way to extract the precious metals hidden in laptops and phones to reduce our reliance on raw materials. Through security, equipped with a pair of safety glasses and a white lab coat, I’m taken behind the scenes at the Royal Mint near Cardiff,…
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Voice referendum: Lies fuel racism ahead of Australia’s Indigenous vote
By Hannah Ritchie BBC News, Sydney “People have been let off the leash,” Thomas Mayo says quietly, swiping through screenshots. Racist memes depicting First Nations Australians as “grifters”, “wife beaters” and “primitives” flash across his phone. Then, personal threats appear – accusing him of “providing cover for evil”. Mr Mayo is one of the public…
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Sand dredging devastating ocean floor, UN warns
By George Wright BBC News Around six billion tonnes of sand is dredged from the world’s oceans every year, endangering marine life and coastal communities, the UN says. Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water and is used to produce concrete and glass. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said some…
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Emmentaler: Switzerland’s king of cheeses
Switzerland is a nation of cheese. With a population of just under nine million, it produces 207,000 tons a year – and of the more than 450 kinds of cheese produced, there’s one that’s known as the “king of cheese”, a food so famous it has become synonymous with the country itself. That cheese, of…
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Ken Paxton: Why Republicans are impeaching a Trump ally in Texas
By Anthony Zurcher BBC News The impeachment trial for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton began on Tuesday, setting the stage for a political and legal drama that exposes deep divides within the Republican Party. The fate of the state’s top lawyer, an ally of former President Donald Trump, is in the hands of the Republican-controlled…
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Wagner to be declared a terrorist organisation by UK
Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, is set to be proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK government – meaning it will be illegal to be a member or support the organisation. A draft order to be laid in Parliament will allow its assets to be categorised as terrorist property and seized. The home secretary…
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Kumbh Mela: Antibiotics and the world’s biggest gathering in India
By Soutik Biswas India correspondent What does the biggest gathering of humanity on Earth have to do with antibiotics? Quite a bit, evidently. Researchers from US-based institutes, supported by Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University and Unicef, have found that clinics at India’s Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival and the world’s…
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Is this the toughest mountain race in the world?
Hundreds of runners from 28 countries have begun running in what’s claimed to be the world’s toughest mountain race. A total of 298 athletes begun hot-footing it between Conwy and Cardiff castles on Monday in the hope of winning the Dragon’s Back. They will cover 236 miles (380 km) over six days over a route…