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Phone bans sweep US schools despite skepticism
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Did Ukraine have to become a partisan US issue?
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Djokovic crashes out of Indian Wells opener
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Britain's King Charles calls for unity in 'uncertain times'
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Morikawa seizes lead at Arnold Palmer after birdie rally
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Alcaraz, Keys breeze into Indian Wells third round
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Record-setting Skotheim claims European indoor heptathlon title
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Inter survive Monza scare to extend Serie A lead
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Argentina port city 'destroyed' by massive rainstorm, 13 dead
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Townsend relishing 'toughest fixture' in France after Scotland's Six Nations win over Wales
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Colombian guerillas release hostage security forces: AFP
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Some 200 detained after Istanbul Women's Day march: organisers
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Draper sends Brazilian sensation Fonseca packing at Indian Wells
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Man with Palestinian flag scales London's Big Ben clock tower
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Protesters rally on International Women's Day, fearing far right
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Australian Open champion Keys cruises into Indian Wells 3rd round
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Barca Liga match postponed after club doctor dies
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Alldritt revels in 'historic' French performance to thrash Irish
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Watkins haunts Brentford to revive Aston Villa's top-four hopes
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Pulisic double rescues AC Milan at lowly Lecce
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Mirrors, marble and mud: Desert X returns to California
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'Grieving': US federal workers thrown into uncertain job market
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Slot blast fuelled Liverpool's comeback against Southampton
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Russell back in the groove as Scotland see off Wales in Six Nations
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Remains of murdered Indigenous woman found at Canada landfill
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French throng streets for International Women's Day rallies
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Security forces taken hostage by Colombian guerillas released: AFP
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Bosnia top envoy backs court ruling against separatist laws
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Bayern get away with shock loss as Leverkusen fall to defeat
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Guardiola urges troubled Man City to fight for Champions League place
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Majestic France destroy Irish Six Nations Grand Slam dreams
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Mitchell backs Dingwall to be England rugby's answer to Rodri
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Unfinished business for India in Champions Trophy final, says Gill
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Forest beat Man City in a top four showdown
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Former England star Pearce in hospital after plane health scare

Climate change, population threaten 'staggering' US flood losses by 2050
Climate change is on track to ramp up the annual cost of US flood damage more than 25 percent by 2050, according to new research Monday that warns disadvantaged communities will likely bear the brunt of the financial burden.
The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used new flood models to map out the present and future impact of sea level rise, tropical cyclones and changing weather patterns.
Losses include destruction projected to hit homes and businesses. Researchers warned that even more people are expected to move into areas at growing risk of inundation.
"Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger and the financial implications are staggering," said lead author Oliver Wing, of the University of Bath's Cabot Institute for the Environment.
Wing said the findings should be a "call to action" for both a reduction in emissions and efforts to adapt to accelerating climate risks "to reduce the devastating financial impact flooding wreaks on people's lives."
Researchers used nationwide property asset data, information on communities and flood projections to estimate flood risk across the US.
The study showed that poorer communities with a proportionally larger white population currently face the steepest losses.
But future growth in flood risk is expected to have a greater impact on African American communities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
"The mapping clearly indicates Black communities will be disproportionately affected in a warming world, in addition to the poorer White communities which predominantly bear the historical risk," said Wing.
"Both of these findings are of significant concern."
- 'Unacceptable' risks -
Average annual flood losses were forecast to increase by 26.4 percent, from $32 billion currently, to $40.6 billion in 2050, based on 2021 dollar values.
The researchers said these figures are "essentially locked in climatically", meaning that even if emissions fall dramatically they would still be the same.
They also warned that expanding populations in the US would also significantly increase the flood risk, eclipsing even the impact of climate change.
With inundations expected to intensify in areas where populations are also increasing, the researchers said average annual exposure of the US population to floods is expected to grow to more than seven million by 2050, a 97-percent increase from current levels.
It said increases in climate-enhanced exposure was particularly concentrated along the US East Coast, with existing Texas and Florida residents seeing a roughly 50-percent increase in flood exposure by 2050.
In terms of increased flood risk due to population growth, the researchers highlighted intensified development on existing floodplains, which they said was "relatively severe in the currently sparsely populated central Prairie States and the Deep South".
The study said even developments currently considered low risk may be in areas expected to see a heightened flood risk in the coming decades.
"Current flood risk in western society is already unacceptably high, yet climate and population change threaten to inflate these losses significantly," said co-author Paul Bates, a professor of hydrology at the Cabot Institute for the Environment.
"The relatively short timescales over which this increase will take place mean we cannot rely on decarbonisation to reduce the risk so we have to adapt better, both to the situation now and for the future."
H.Seidel--BTB