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Breaking Down the News

Take a look behind the stories that made headlines this week.
What is a top secret document?
After the FBI’s unprecedented search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, we got to wondering: how are documents classified?
Are the political winds shifting on climate change?
The historic climate bill appears guaranteed to become law. Once considered dead, the legislation was saved, in part, because one senator reversed course.
Is Serena Williams the greatest ever?
With her upcoming retirement, many are assessing the tennis star’s career. Read about her accomplishments and decide for yourself where she ranks.
Who was the “King of Pleats”?
With the death of Issey Miyake, the fashion world lost one of its most innovative designers. However, his simple creation for a tech icon might be his best-known garment.

Why Is the Climate Bill Important?

The most sweeping legislation to address climate change has gone to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature. Congress passed the bill, which allocates about $370 billion to cut emissions that are rapidly warming the planet. The plan also includes incentives for electric vehicle purchases and energy-efficient systems in homes. Climate change has been linked with recent extreme weather events, including the severe flash floods in Kentucky; and a new report shows the Arctic has warmed nearly four times as much as the rest of the world since 1979.
How Does a Flash Flood Happen?
The Forum / Science
© Floyd County Sheriff's Department—ZUMA Press Wire Service/Alamy
What Role Does Carbon Play in Climate Change?
Spotlight / Science
© Shariff Che'Lah/Fotolia

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The American Revolution
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Women’s History: Famous Firsts
Women have accomplished some fantastic feats in the course of history. Test your knowledge of some famous firsts for women.
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U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States - born Feby. 12th 1809, died April 15th 1865. Lithograph, hand-colored, published by Chr. Kimmel & Forster.
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Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm speaking and thanking delegates at the Democratic National Convention (third session), Miami Beach, Florida, July 12, 1972.
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Families begin to board a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (a military transport aircraft) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 23, 2021.  U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with an orderly drawdown of designated personnel in Afghanistan. Afghanistan War
Exiting the Graveyard of Empires

The end of “America’s longest war” was a sometimes chaotic scramble to evacuate refugees as the Afghan government collapsed and the resurgent Taliban overran the country.

Postal ballot papers ahead of the June 23 referendum when voters will decide whether Britain will remain in the European Union.
The Effects of Brexit?

British holidaymakers on their way to continental Europe are facing massive lines at the port of Dover. Because the U.K. is no longer part of the European Union, French authorities have to subject British travelers to stricter border controls.

Encyclopedia Britannica ONE GOOD FACT

The first animal domesticated by humans was the dog, possibly as early as 30,000 years ago.

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Entertainment and leisure activities have been a part of culture in one form or another since the ancient times. Dance performances, live music, and storytelling have a long tradition throughout history, even as the styles and available methods of delivery have shifted dramatically.
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Geography & Travel Geography & Travel
Planet Earth contains some extraordinarily diverse environments, some of which are easily habitable and some not so much. In different areas of Earth, one might find sweltering deserts, dense tropical rainforests, or bone-chilling tundras. Each biome and habitat comes with its own selection of flora and fauna, and it may include physical features such as canyons, volcanoes, rivers, or caves. Human beings have built homes in many different environments, settling the area and organizing it into units such as cities, states, regions, and countries, each with its own points of interest. Shifting trends in human migration have resulted in a human geography that is profoundly different from that of centuries ago.
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It's easy enough to agree that human beings all around the world have certain basic requirements that must be fulfilled in order to ensure their individual and collective well-being. History has shown us, however, that it's not so easy to form societies or communities that fulfill these requirements for all members. The fight for human and civil rights has persisted for hundreds of years and remains alive today, both within the borders of nations and on an international scale. It has led to large-scale social movements and reforms concerning issues such as suffrage, slavery, women's rights, racism, environmentalism, gay rights, and much more.
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With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
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Humans have long pondered not only how we came to be but also why we came to be. The earliest Greek philosophers focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world; later philosophers have theorized about the nature of knowledge, truth, good and evil, love, friendship, and much more. Philosophy involves a methodical assessment of any and all aspects of human existence and experience. The realms of philosophy and religion have sometimes intersected in conducting such inquiries as these. As with philosophy, the study of religion underscores how humankind has long speculated about its origins. The possibility of a higher being (or beings) to which livings things owe their existence has long captived human thought. Many religions also offer their own views on the nature of good and evil, and they may prescribe guidelines and judgment on different kinds of human behavior.
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The world today is divided territorially into more than 190 countries, each of which possesses a national government that claims to exercise sovereignty and seeks to compel obedience to its will by its citizens. Governments can be classified in any number of ways. For example, they might be classified by the number of rulers, thus distinguishing government by one (as in a monarchy or a tyranny) from government by the few (in an aristocracy or oligarchy) and from government by the many (as in a democracy). Governments can also be classified by mode of succession; for example, ascension to governmental leadership may follow the rules of hereditary succession, or it may be determined through elections or by force. Governments also vary in terms of the laws and rules of conduct that each political entity follows.
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How can the sky be blue one day and stormy the next? Why do heavy objects tend to fall downwards when dropped? How are birds able to fly (and why can’t I do the same?)? Human beings have long been curious about the world in which we live, striving to identify connections among the phenomenons we witness and to understand how it all works. The field of science has developed over many centuries as a way of studying and understanding the world, beginning with the primitive stage of simply noting important regularities in nature and continuing through the rise of modern science. The modern-day sciences cover a vast range of fields, including biology, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, physics, and much more.
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Sports & Recreation Sports & Recreation
Physical contests and recreational games have long played a part in human society. In both team and solo sports, the human body has been pushed to its limits in the name of improving athletic performance and in order to break record upon record. The ancient Olympic Games are an early example of the contests in which humans have engaged to showcase physical prowess. In modern times, sports and games have evolved into a lucrative and competitive industry, while other leisure activities, such as card and video games, can be competitive or just serve as a way to unwind or socialize.
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Humankind has long striven to improve its living conditions through the development of tools, instruments, and transportation and communications systems, all with the goal of making our lives easier, more productive and—why not?—more fun, too. Thanks to human curiosity and technological research, many significant inventions have been made throughout history that in turn made a difference in our daily lives.
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These are the arts that meet the eye and evoke an emotion through an expression of skill and imagination. They include the most ancient forms, such as painting and drawing, and the arts that were born thanks to the development of technology, like sculpture, printmaking, photography, and installation art. Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder, different eras in art history have had their own principles to define beauty, from the richly ornamented taste of the Baroque to the simple utilitarian style of the Prairie School.
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Does history really repeat itself, or can we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us? History provides a chronological, statistical, and cultural record of the events, people, and movements that have made an impact on humankind and the world at large throughout the ages.
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