It has long been known that coral polyps harbour algal symbionts that make most of their food. Now it has been shown that corals can also harbour microbes that appear to be parasites but don’t seem to harm their hosts. “The fact that we could go out to a coral reef, which is probably the best studied marine environment, and specifically look at the coral, which is the best studied part of that environment, and find a parasite that infects virtually every species of coral we’ve looked at, that no one had ever really noticed, blows my mind,” says Patrick Keeling at the University…

Two decades after 9/11, the role of Saudi Arabia in the attack remains in dispute despite unrelenting efforts by the US and Saudi governments to neutralise it as a live political issue. The Saudi Arabia embassy in Washington this week issued a statement detailing its anti-terrorist activities and ongoing hostility to Al-Qaeda. This was briskly rejected by the lawyers for the families of the 9/11 victims who said that, “what Saudi Arabia desperately does not want to discuss is the substantial and credible evidence of the complicity [in the attack] of their employees, agents and sponsored agents”. Saudi Arabia claims that the 9/11 Commission Report, the official…

As President Lyndon Johnson and the best and brightest of the 1960s were broken on the wheel of Vietnam, the Biden presidency may well be broken on the wheel of the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan. Less than a week into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal at Hamid Karzai International Airport, a CBS poll found that Americans, while still approving of President Biden’s decision to get us out of this “forever war,” were stunned by how badly botched the withdrawal was being executed. By 75-25, Americans believe the withdrawal is going badly. And those who believe it has gone “very badly” outnumber by 9-1…

An unprecedented amount of public attention focused on Muslim Americans in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The U.S. Muslim population has grown in the two decades since, but it is still the case that many Americans know little about Islam or Muslims, and views toward Muslims have become increasingly polarized along political lines. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=202,300 202w, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=160,238 160w, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=272,405 272w, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=200,298 200w, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=260,387 260w, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=310,461 310w, https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.09.01_muslimsinamerica_02.png?resize=420,625 420w" sizes="(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px" style="box-sizing:inherit;border-style:none;height:auto;margin-bottom:0px;max-width:100%;border-radius:inherit"> There were about 2.35 million Muslim adults and children living in the United States in 2007 – accounting for 0.8% of the U.S. population – when…

In any discussion between Russia and the West, the positions of certain countries are known well in advance. Regardless of the issue at stake, Italy and Cyprus, for example, will almost certainly support any cooperation with Russia, while Poland and the Baltic states will be opposed. One recent example was the June 2021 proposal by France and Germany to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to a summit with EU leaders. Despite the clout of Paris and Berlin, the proposal failed—largely due to the refusal of Poland and the Baltic states to participate in such a meeting. It’s true that sometimes…