Droughts in the United States are becoming more intense and unpredictable, and the nation needs to develop a new drought assessment framework to better understand and address them, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

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Fighting along key transport routes pushes up food prices in areas far from the conflict itself, according to a new study. Researchers examined the price of maize and other staples during the war in Somalia between government forces and Al-Shabaab, an Islamist terrorist group. They found that although the fighting was concentrated in the southwest of the country, the impact of price rises was felt 900 kilometers (560 miles) away—equivalent to the length of the U.K.

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