Neonicotinoids linked to recent fall in farmland bird numbers

Research demonstrates for the first time the knock-on effects to other species of class of insecticides known to harm bees A barn swallow hunting over a flowering oilseed rape field, Spain. Photograph: Alamy New research has identified the world’s most widely used insecticides as the key factor in the recent reduction in numbers of farmland birds. […]

Reading Hobby Lobby in Context

To grasp the full implications of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, it helps to read it not in isolation but alongside the court’s other major religion case of the term, Town of Greece v. Galloway. Issued eight weeks before Hobby Lobby and decided by the same 5 to 4 division, Town of Greece rejected a challenge to […]

Gymkhana: the best restaurant in Britain?

Gymkhana, a London restaurant based on the Anglo-Indian joints in Delhi and Mumbai, has been voted the best in Britain. Owner Karam Sethi explains how it took the city by storm Gymkhana recipes: chicken butter masala, dorset brown crab with garlic and pepper, suckling pig vindaloo and flutterby lass Eastern promise … Gymkhana’s Karam, Sunaina and Jyotin Sethi Seven years […]

Sizing Up Black Markets and Red-Light Districts for G.D.P.

PARIS — As the spokesman for the National Association of Sex Clubs in Spain, José Roca has fielded all sorts of offbeat inquiries. But rarely has he been more flummoxed than when he received a call late last year from the government statistics agency. In earnest tones, a statistician asked him if he knew the […]

Yorkshire Sculpture Park named UK museum of the year

YSP near Wakefield takes £100,000 Art Fund prize with judges praising it as ‘truly outstanding museum with bold artistic vision’ Yorkshire Sculpture Park achieved a record number of visitors in the past year with exhibitions by Ursula von Rydingsvard, above, Yinka Shonibare, below. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian Yorkshire Sculpture Park wason Wednesday named UK […]

Space Probe Might Lack Nitrogen to Push It Home

A do-it-yourself team of engineers trying to lasso an aged but operational NASA space probe may have run into an insurmountable obstacle: Tanks on the spacecraft that were once full of nitrogen gas, needed to fire the thrusters, appear to be empty. Without thrusters, there is no way to push the 36-year-old spacecraft, the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, […]

The tide is turning against the scam that is privatisation

The international revival of public ownership is anathema to our City-led elite. But it’s vital to genuine economic recovery The Neurath-based power station of German firm RWE. ‘Control of essential services has not only passed to giants based overseas, but those companies are themselves often state-owned.’ Photograph: Ina Fassbender/Reuters Privatisation isn’t working. We were promised […]

Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers

WASHINGTON — Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials. They appeared to be targeting the files on tens of thousands of employees who have applied for top-secret security clearances. The hackers gained access […]