It looks like Europe is heading into recession, multiple economists say. Germany and Italy may already be in "technical recession." The tragedy is that the contraction is being helped along by a deliberate political choice made by Europe's own governments: Their effort to rein in deficit spending, to cut fiscal stimulus, and to balance their budgets in the 10-year aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. "Austerity," as it's known, has shrunk the potential size of th...

Apple needs its next big thing—fast. With its shares down nearly a third in the past three months and the financial guidance bombshell earlier this year, the burning question turns to what Apple (ticker: AAPL) can do to spark a turnaround. On Jan. 2, the smartphone maker lowered its December-quarter revenue guidance 8% below the Wall Street consensus. The announcement confirmed the market’s worst fears that a negative growth year for the iPhone was ahead.

Neanderthal dental plaque is a precious commodity, so it’s a little embarrassing when you’re trying to dislodge a piece and it goes flying across the room. “We just stood still, and everyone’s like: Where is it? Where is it?” recalls Laura Weyrich from the University of Adelaide. “Usually, we try to wrap the skull in foil and work underneath it, but that time, the foil didn’t happen to cover a small area.”

If you’re in the US and it feels like you’ve been seeing more drug ads recently, it’s because you have. According to a study published Tuesday (Jan. 8) by researchers at Dartmouth College, total spending on marketing for condition awareness, health services, lab testing, and drugs ballooned from $17.7 billion annually in 1997 to almost $30 billion in 2016. The vast majority was spent by pharmaceutical companies on marketing prescription drugs—and the investment worked.

Revenues for Apple's wearable products, particularly the Apple Watch and AirPods wireless headphones, have exceeded the iPod's revenues when the music player was "at its peak," Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday. "On a trailing basis, ... the revenue for wearables is already 50 percent more than iPod was at its peak," Cook told CNBC in an interview with "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer.

The world’s hottest pepper is currently the Carolina Reaper, clocking in at an average of 1.6 million Scoville Heat Units. The world’s hottest tomato? That’s still to be determined. The current hottest tomato in the world is, of course, none of them, because tomatoes don’t make capsaicin, the chemical compound that gives hot peppers their kick. But, a group of researchers say that the bland red fruits (yes, they are technically fruits) could conceivably be genetically engineered to begin...

Last night’s 76th Golden Globe Awards saw big surprises like Bohemian Rhapsody’s big win for Best Motion Picture — Drama, a big send-off for FX’s The Americans, flu shots, a trio of victories for Green Book, some history made by co-host Sandra Oh, and a Saturday Night Live alum mock marriage proposal. Clocking in at around 3 hours and 20 minutes and coming right after a NFL Wild Card playoff game that threatened to run long, the ceremony fronted by Oh and Andy Samberg...

When Ronald Reagan took office, affluent Americans paid a 70 percent tax rate on all income above $216,000. In the decades since, our country’s highest earners have seen their annual pay skyrocket, while the median household’s has barely budged. As a result, America’s 160,000 richest families now lay claim to 90 percent of its wealth. Studies suggest that this kind of inequality erodes social trust, abets plutocracy, and depresses economic growth. Politicians from both major parties routin...

Scientists have genetically engineered plants so they grow up to 40 per cent larger by tweaking the process they use to turn sunlight into food. Photosynthesis allows plants to harvest the sun’s energy and produces vital oxygen as a by-product, fuelling the rich array of life on Earth. However, this mechanism is hampered by an energy intensive process called photorespiration, which plants have evolved to work around an inefficiency present in regular photosynthesis.

Starting at midnight on January 1, tens of thousands of books (as well as movies, songs, and cartoons) entered the public domain, meaning that people can download, share, or repurpose these works for free and without retribution under US copyright law. Per the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, “corporate” creations (like Mickey Mouse) can be restricted under copyright law for 120 years. But per an amendment to the act, works published between 1923 and 1977 can enter the public...

North Korea's acting ambassador to Italy has disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome, according to South Korea's spy agency. NPR's Seoul Correspondent Anthony Kuhn reports the South Korean National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers in a closed-door hearing Thursday. Ambassador Jo Song Gil and his wife disappeared from the diplomatic compound in Rome in November, before his term was set to end later that month, Kuhn reports.

Czechs are increasingly concerned about threats related to climate change, suggests a freshly published survey. According to the study by the Median agency, they are mostly worried about drinking water becoming scarce and the impact of drought on the food harvest. On the other hand, Czechs are less afraid of terrorism than in the past, the poll indicates.

For two years, they formed a community of experts, about 1,000 in all, including 300 leading climate scientists inside and outside 13 federal agencies. For two years, they volunteered their time and expertise to produce the Fourth National Climate Assessment. There is no parallel process to tackle the questions I study; there is no ongoing national racial assessment mandated by a law summarizing the impact of racism on the United States, now and in the future. Still, I can relate to these climat...

Big companies struggled but small ones moved forward.

People living in approximately 200,000 households in Denmark can’t afford enough food, according to the new study. The work uses measurement methods used in the United States, where public authorities regularly monitor the prevalence of food insecurity.

In the waning hours of 2017, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the 2015 Open Internet Order, ending net neutrality protections for the millions of Americans who support them. The fallout of that decision continued all throughout 2018, with attempts to reverse the FCC in Congress, new state laws and governor executive orders written to secure state-level protections, court cases, and ever-increasing evidence that a world without the Open Internet Order is simply a worse one.

The partial US government shutdown is expected to run on past Christmas Day as a protracted standoff over Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding continues. After White House negotiations with the Democrats faltered yet again on Saturday, even a temporary measure to keep the federal government running appeared unlikely until the Senate returns for a full session on 26 December. The first day of the shutdown saw thousands of government offices closed across the nation.

The American middle-class ideal was forged in the decades after World War II, when economic growth and wage increases climbed in lockstep for nearly 30 years. That pairing dissolved abruptly in the 1970s. Between 1973 and 2017, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the productivity of the economy grew 77%—but average compensation rose only 12.4%, adjusted for inflation.

Sea World has been forced to cancel two of its performing dolphin shows in a dramatic day on the Gold Coast, where protesters invaded the pools as part of a co-ordinated sting, leading to several arrests. Two groups of activists from the Justice for Captives organisation targeted Saturday morning's dolphin show on the Gold Coast, unfurling banners saying "Animals are not entertainment," "Google Blackfish", "Dolphins belong in the ocean", and "Captivity is ...

Drawn in by Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin’s most recent photos of Port of LA Falcon 9 recovery operations SpaceX is in the midst of, CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on December 8th to discuss titanium grid fins and – more importantly – answer a miscellaneous handful of questions about the status of BFR’s development.