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Any parent will tell you how useful it can be to have family living nearby, giving a helping hand when raising your children. In humans, relatives and even non-relatives act as childminders. Such behaviour is widespread in other animals too, particularly birds.

Denmark’s foreign affairs minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen sounded surprised and emotional as he addressed a press conference on May 7. He announced he would call in the acting head of the US embassy in Copenhagen, Jennifer Hall Godfrey, over highly charged allegations that Washington has instructed its intelligence agencies to…

A new aggressive potato blight strain was detected in Wales and eastern Scotland earlier this year. The strain, identified as EU 46, can withstand certain fungicides, making it harder to control. It serves as a stark reminder that nearly 175 years after Ireland’s great famine, this destructive pathogen continues to…

Social media advertising is an increasingly important frontier in election campaigns.

An earthquake that struck south-east Asia in late March is thought to have killed more than 3,000 people in Myanmar, a country ruled by a military junta that has blocked humanitarian aid and continued waging war on quake-ravaged rebel territory.

Earth’s surface temperature has been 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial average for 21 of the last 22 months.

All participant names in this story are pseudonyms.

On a visit to the British Library in London to research this piece, I was preceded by a woman with a lilac-coloured tote featuring a mischievous-looking girl with a severe top knot and black dress. I instantly recognised the distinctive outline of Tove Jansson’s Little My, one of the many…

As global temperatures rise and climate-related disasters become more frequent, the need to adapt is rapidly increasing. That need for adaptation – from adjusting farming practices to diversifying livelihoods and strengthening infrastructure – is most acute in vulnerable low- and middle-income countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti and Vietnam.

Latin America is undergoing one of its most profound human rights crises in decades. The region’s civic space is shrinking rapidly, from mass surveillance and arbitrary arrests to political repression, enforced disappearances and impunity for state violence.

After a long drive to Godrevy lighthouse near St Ives in Cornwall, the wind is blowing and the waves are crashing. I’m here with BBC radio producer Jo Loosemore, on a roadtrip to meet some of the marine scientists researching how ocean health is vital to our future.