The number of furloughed federal working seeking unemployment benefits doubled between the first and second weeks of the government shutdown, but Americans at large say the impasse hasn't had much of an effect on them.
Some 4,800 workers filed unemployment claims during the week of Dec. 29, a number that jumped to about 10,500 during the week of Jan. 5, according to numbers released Thursday by the Labor Department. By comparison, just over 1,000 workers sought unemployment aid during the same period last year.
Read more at BBC News.
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US President Donald Trump has attacked Democrats for rejecting his proposals to end the longest government shutdown in US history.
He said his plans had been dismissed before he had even presented them.
Read more at BBC News.
A thousand people attended the funeral service at the Bushey New Cemetery, Hertfordshire, including survivors, relatives of those murdered in the Holocaust and the UK's Chief Rabbi.
The remains of five adults and one child were part of an anonymous donation made to the museum in 1997.
Read more at BBC News.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says its operation is against the Quds Force - elite units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
It provided no details. But there are reports of strikes around the Syrian capital Damascus early on Monday.
Read more at BBC News.
For years, dentists have told us to floss as well as brush our teeth. And it seems to make sense: less gunk between our teeth should lead to less decay. Yet surprisingly, there’s little evidence it’s true, as it’s never been put to the test in a large clinical trial.
Some small studies have found that flossing helps combat gum disease, but there’s no compelling evidence that it also stops tooth decay. So does that mean it’s pointless? Not at all. First, gum disease is a major cause of tooth loss.
Read more at Science Focus.
What are the most addictive drugs? This question seems simple, but the answer depends on whom you ask.
From the points of view of different researchers, the potential for a drug to be addictive can be judged in terms of the harm it causes, the street value of the drug, the extent to which the drug activates the brain's dopamine system, how pleasurable people report the drug to be, the degree to which the drug causes withdrawal symptoms, and how easily a person trying the drug will become hooked.
Read more at Science Alert.
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX will reduce its workforce by about 10 percent of the company’s more than 6,000 employees, it said on Friday.
Read more at Reuters.
If a quiet, crowd-free beach in the Caribbean sounds like the perfect getaway, our luxury travel experts have come up with some inspirational suggestions for the ultimate blissful Caribbean escape.
Read more at Luxury Travel Diary.
Jaqi Wright and her mother couldn’t get enough of her sister’s cheesecake.
The two of them, relaxing on New Year’s Day, savored two slices each while sipping coffee. “‘You really can sell these,'” Wright recalls her mother saying.
Read more at Time.
“Right now, I need seed and diesel fuel; I do not need a damn wall. That does not help me in my farming operation.”
From lacking seed money to needing access to crop reports for spring planting, American farmers are taking another hit from the federal government as the partial shutdown puts a freeze on assistance for an already struggling sector of the U.S. economy.
Read more at The Intellectualist.
