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Outdoor dining is a great way to enjoy the summer weather but pesky bugs can sometimes ruin the experience. So here are some easy and effective ways to keep bugs away when eating outdoors so you can enjoy your food in peace.

Nationwide, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened after COVID-forced closures. More than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school. All told, an estimated 6.5 million additional students were chronically absent. That's according to data compiled by Stanford University education professor Thomas Dee in partnership with The Associated Press. The analysis is based on the most recent data available, from 40 states and Washington, D.C. It provides the most comprehensive accounting of absenteeism nationwide. The absences come on top of time missed during school closures. They cost crucial time in classrooms as schools work to recover from massive learning setbacks.

Nearly two months after a dilapidated fishing trawler crammed with people heading from north Africa to Italy sank in the central Mediterranean, killing hundreds, relatives are still frantically searching for loved ones among the missing and dead. As many as 750 people are believed to have been on board. Only 104 survived and 82 bodies were recovered. By early August, around half the recovered bodies had been identified through a painstaking process combining DNA analysis, fingerprints and interviews with survivors and relatives. For some still searching for lost relatives, the lack of a body to bury means they still hold out hope, however improbable, that their loved one is alive.

About 49,500 people took their own lives last year in the U.S., the highest number ever. That's according to new government data posted Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet calculated a suicide rate for the year. But available data suggests suicides are more common in the U.S. than at any time since the dawn of World War II. Experts caution that suicide is complicated, and that recent increases might be driven by higher rates of depression or limited availability of mental health services. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says a main driver is the growing availability of guns.

COVID-19 has taken a toll on the nation's heart health but how profound is only starting to emerge. Heart attack deaths spiked early in the pandemic, erasing years of progress in battling cardiovascular disease. Then research showed that for up to a year after a bout of COVID-19, some people can develop problems ranging from blood clots to irregular heartbeats to a heart attack. It's not clear why and doctors still are grappling with how to help.

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