The latest victims of climate change could be Oreos, as drenched fields across the US make the wheat that’s a key ingredient a scarcer commodity. Winter-wheat plantings fell to their lowest levels in more than a century as the grain got harder to seed. Especially the soft red winter wheat, with sowings slumping 25%, a variety that forms the base for biscuits.

Extreme heat events such as those observed in Western Europe in 2003 and in Russia in 2010, which led to the death of nearly 1,000 people and multiple crop failures, are becoming more common in India, according to a study.

As the coronavirus infects more people around the world, Congo’s Virunga National Park, home to about a third of the world’s mountain gorillas, is barring visitors until June 1, citing “advice from scientific experts indicating that primates, including mountain gorillas, are likely susceptible to complications arising from the Covid-19 virus”.

Drone video footage released by the department of national parks shows a 30-strong herd of dugongs on Wednesday off Libong island in Trang province. They were feeding on sea grass and occasionally surfaced to breathe.

Britain should use economic stimulus measures to speed a shift away from fossil fuels and take advantage of low oil prices to raise revenues from carbon taxes without hurting consumers, state-appointed climate advisers said on Wednesday. Their proposals reinforce global pressure on governments to consider the environment as they pour money into their economies at levels unseen since World War Two to counter the impact of coronavirus lockdowns which threaten millions of jobs.

Chinese authorities are clamping down as grieving relatives, along with activists, press the ruling Communist Party for an accounting of what went wrong in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus killed thousands before spreading to the rest of China and the world. Lawyers have been warned not to file suit against the government.

North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un sent a personal message to Chinese President Xi Jinping praising what he described as China's success in getting its coronavirus epidemic under control. The report by North Korea's state media followed an assessment by South Korea's spy agency that the pandemic is hurting the North's economy.

Five prominent labour activists have returned to their homes more than a year after they were arrested in coordinated raids in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to people close to them and a Hong Kong-based rights group.

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Friday issued an unconditional apology to market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) for remarks made by its president and CEO Jennifer M Johnson that new regulatory guidelines led to shutting down of its six debt funds last month.

The deal will make Vista the largest shareholder of Jio after Facebook (9.99%) and parent RIL (86.54%). With this, RIL has raised a total of Rs 60,596 crore ($7.9 billion), boosting its efforts to pare debt.

The govt on Friday said it will borrow about Rs 12 lakh crore from the market in fiscal year 2020-21, an increase of Rs 4.2 lakh crore, or 54% jump over the Budget estimate of Rs 7.8 lakh crore. This, the economists said will push the fiscal deficit from 3.5% for 2020-21 to 5.5%. The decision for higher borrowing has also been prompted by severe loss of govt revenues.

The finance ministry on Friday announced relief to those who have been facing difficulty with the status of their residency in India under Income Tax Act, 1961 due to suspension of international flights owing to the Covid-19, as they were required to prolong their stay. Several people expressed concerns that they will have to file tax returns as Indian residents.

ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 26 per cent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 1,221 crore for the quarter ended March 2020. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 969 crore in the corresponding January-March period of 2018-19.

Anecdotally, it is often said that engineers tend to lean rightwards in their politics. In their new book, Engineers of Jihad, sociologist Diego Gambetta and political scientist Steffen Hertog back up that gut sense with data. They find that Islamist radicalism and other far-right movements are dominated by engineers, doctors and those with tech backgrounds, while left-wing movements draw people from the humanities and social sciences. They tell TOI why this may be the case

The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to take an appropriate decision on sharing the transport costs of migrant workers returning homes.

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has announced a two-day complete lockdown of the entire cantonment area, starting Saturday.

(This story originally appeared in PuneMirror on May 9, 2020)

Machhiwara police on Friday booked a woman and her alleged lover for abetment to suicide after her husband died in a road accident while going to commit suicide. The deceased was identified as Gurwinder Singh — a labourer in his thirties — from Indra Colony in Machhiwara.

NASA scientists have mapped the global wind circulation patterns in the upper atmosphere of Mars- 120 to 300 kilometers above the Red Planet's surface. The researchers reprogrammed probes aboard NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft to collect wind measurements on the Red Planet.

Researchers have discovered nine new genes linked to the most severe type of childhood speech disorder (CAS) -- apraxia, in which a child has difficulty making accurate movements when speaking.

Lack of sleep has long been considered a potential risk factor for mood disorders. According to a new study, older people with depression, who also experience persistent and worsening sleep disturbances, are at much higher risk of remaining depressed.

Scientists in the US say they are training dogs to identify COVID-19 in humans by sniffing out the disease in saliva and urine samples.