For the past three years, virtually nothing has hatched at Antarctica’s second biggest breeding grounds for emperor penguins and the start of this year is looking just as bleak, a new study found. Usually 15,000 to 24,000 breeding pairs of emperor penguins flock yearly to a breeding site at Halley Bay , considered a safe place that should stay cold this century despite global warming. But almost none have been there since 2016, according to a study in Wednesday’s Antarctic Science. More »

The National Security Agency has recommended that the White House abandon a U.S. surveillance program that collects information about Americans’ phone calls and text messages, saying the logistical and legal burdens of keeping it outweigh its intelligence benefits. More »

The longest strike in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 128-year history is barreling on with no end in sight, as stalled negotiations with the orchestra's controlling board have extended the impasse into its 7th straight week. The musicians began striking on March 10 after management proposed changing the orchestra's pension structure. More »

Japan’s government has issued an apology and awarded compensation to thousands of people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilized under a now defunct eugenics law. Surviving victims will each receive ¥3.2m (£22,000) to compensate for their suffering, as well as an apology from the state. About 16,500 people, mostly women with disabilities, were targeted between 1948 and 1996 under a law that aimed to “prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants”. More »

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded 37 Saudi citizens, most of them minority Shiites, in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes. It also publicly pinned the executed body and severed head of a convicted Sunni extremist to a pole as a warning to others. More »