Scientists lucky enough to study ancient samples of human excrement have found that humans enjoyed beer and blue cheese two millennia ago. The analysis found that workers at a salt mine in Austria were enjoying both products up to 2,700 years back. Frank Maixner, a microbiologist at the Eurac Research Institute in Italy, said he was surprised to learn salt miners so far back were advanced enough to “use fermentation intentionally”.
Baker banned from using sprinkles
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Tallest woman in the world named
Guinness World Records has crowned a woman over seven foot tall as the tallest woman in the world. Rumeysa Gelgi, 24, lives in Karabük Province in Turkey and has a rare genetic condition named Weaver syndrome. She hopes to use the attention to increase public understanding of the lives of other people with rare conditions. “I like being different from everyone else,” she said. “It’s interesting and makes me feel special.”
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Political cartoons for January 31Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include congressional spin, Obamacare subsidies, and more
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Syria’s Kurds: abandoned by their US allyTalking Point Ahmed al-Sharaa’s lightning offensive against Syrian Kurdistan belies his promise to respect the country’s ethnic minorities
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The ‘mad king’: has Trump finally lost it?Talking Point Rambling speeches, wind turbine obsession, and an ‘unhinged’ letter to Norway’s prime minister have caused concern whether the rest of his term is ‘sustainable’
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Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
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China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
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Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
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Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
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Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
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US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
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How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
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Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
