Clean air: Coal burning ban and wet wood restrictions planned

A new clean air law could see burning house coal banned in Wales, and stricter rules on using wood fires.

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air-pollution wood welsh-government

After a record 22 billion-dollar disasters in 2020, it's time to overhaul US disaster policy – here's how

NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.

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climate-change policy construction floods hurricanes storms global-warming natural-disasters wildfires government disaster-risk fema building disaster-management land-use building-codes 2020

Law prof.: Mob attack at US Capitol was ‘insurrection’

"The takeover of the US Capitol... incited by the president of the United States and his agents, was terrorism, insurrection, and an attempted violent coup."

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politics united-states government society-and-culture terrorism us-constitution

After a record 22 billion-dollar disasters in 2020, it's time to make US disaster policy more effective and equitable – here's how

NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.

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policy construction floods hurricanes storms natural-disasters wildfires government disaster-risk fema building disaster-management land-use building-codes 2020

Whitehaven coal mine plans progress as government refuses to call it in

The government rejects holding an inquiry into plans for a coal mine, meaning it can progress.

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whitehaven cumbria-county-council ministry-of-housing-communities-local-government

International Statistic of the Year: Race for a COVID-19 vaccine

The coronavirus vaccine was developed faster than any vaccine in history. It took just 332 days from the first sequencing of the virus genome to the first vaccines given to the public.

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genome covid-19 coronavirus statistics fda vaccines sars-cov-2 cdc vaccine-development government-funding operation-warp-speed

Child services targets poor families for biased reasons

The child welfare system in the US often targets poor families for unnecessary investigations or child removals, the author of a new book argues.

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poverty parents trauma bias childrens-health abuse government families featured society-and-culture social-services

5 things to know about the FDA’s COVID-19 vaccine authorization

An expert explains the process the FDA used to issue emergency use authorization for the new COVID-19 vaccine and the impact of the EUA.

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covid-19 vaccines united-states government featured health-and-medicine

The ‘pink tax’ on gendered stuff extends to tariffs too

The "pink tax" means charging more for products aimed at women. Import tariffs are another form of this discrimination, research finds.

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gender discrimination money government taxes consumers society-and-culture

Can countries end overfishing and plastic pollution in just 10 years?

An international agreement has set an ambitious deadline for action on some of the biggest problems facing the world's oceans.

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overfishing oceans ocean-pollution marine-conservation nutrient-runoff ocean-governance