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Required Reading

This week: James Turrell in Denmark, a new album by Raven Chacon, a Black radical history of the Declaration of Independence, World Cup songs across time, and more.

How winter conditions shape future jellyfish blooms

Marine scientists at the University of Chester have discovered that environmental conditions experienced by jellyfish before winter can have lasting effects on the size and intensity of jellyfish blooms many months later. The study focused on the moon jellyfish, Aurelia aurita,

More gray seals counted in the Wadden Sea

This year's surveys of gray seals in the Wadden Sea and on Helgoland once again show an upward trend. During the 2025–2026 survey year, 3,385 pups and 12,497 gray seals were recorded during the molting period. The results have been published in the report "Grey Seal Numbers of

US death rate at record low: CDC data

The U.S. death rate fell to a record low in 2025, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released Thursday. According to the Vital Statistics Rapid Release report, the death rate in 2025 was 689.2 per 100,000 people,

Top Army commander in Europe, Africa relinquishes role

Army Gen. Christopher Donahue on Thursday relinquished command of U.S. Army Europe and Africa in Wiesbaden, Germany, after he was unexpectedly ousted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month. Donahue, 56, was widely seen as a rising star in the Army and spent decades in

How to stop a mouse plague

The scenes are biblical. Tens of thousands of rodents scattering across canola fields, behind sheds, into machinery. River fish with bellies full of mice. Carcasses littering the street, the sidewalk, outside your home. In supermarkets, the inescapable stench of dead and dying