Mifepristone should not only remain in use, but it should be easier to get

Mifepristone should not only remain in use, but it should be easier to get

Elizabeth Janiak writes: Even before [U.S. District Court Judge Matthew] Kacsmaryk’s decision, existing federal regulations on mifepristone also reinforced abortion stigma. The drug, which works by blocking a hormone needed to sustain pregnancy, held promise of improving access to abortion care when it was introduced over 20 years ago. Before mifepristone’s approval, most pregnancy terminations in the U.S. used vacuum aspiration, a brief and safe procedure with high patient satisfaction, but one that requires specific clinical training many clinicians do…

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Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn

Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn

The Washington Post reports: Some of the workers received booster shots to prevent infection by common rabies, and none of them reported illness, according to their supervisor. But the incidents raised disturbing questions about the research: What if they encountered an unknown virus that killed humans? What if it spread to their colleagues? What if it infected their families and neighbors? As if to underscore the risks, in 2018 another lab on the same Bangkok campus — a workspace built…

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Unearthing the origins of agriculture

Unearthing the origins of agriculture

John Carey writes: Archaeobiology involves gathering and analyzing the remains of humans and plants to discern how people were living and what they were eating and doing. It started first with bioarchaeology, a term coined in the 1970s for the study of human bones and teeth, explains Clark Larsen, an anthropologist at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Researchers can use clues in bone structure and advanced technologies to determine whether our ancestors walked or ran a lot, measure isotopes…

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Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party?

Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party?

Robert Reich writes: I hate to say this, but America no longer has two parties devoted to a democratic system of self-government. We have a Democratic Party, which — notwithstanding a few glaring counter-examples such as what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie in 2016 — is still largely committed to democracy. And we have a Republican Party, which is careening at high-velocity toward authoritarianism. Okay, fascism. What occurred in Nashville last week is a frightening reminder of the…

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GOP embraces a new foreign policy: Bomb Mexico to stop fentanyl

GOP embraces a new foreign policy: Bomb Mexico to stop fentanyl

Politico reports: A growing number of prominent Republicans are rallying around the idea that to solve the fentanyl crisis, America must bomb it away. In recent weeks, Donald Trump has discussed sending “special forces” and using “cyber warfare” to target cartel leaders if he’s reelected president and, per Rolling Stone, asked for “battle plans” to strike Mexico. Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to “put us at…

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U.S. deems WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich ‘wrongfully detained’ by Russia

U.S. deems WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich ‘wrongfully detained’ by Russia

The Wall Street Journal reports: The State Department on Monday designated Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested by Russian security services last month, as ”wrongfully detained,” launching a broad U.S. government effort to exert pressure on Russia to free him. Mr. Gershkovich is held on an accusation of espionage that the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. His case now shifts to a State Department section known as the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy…

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The U.S. Army increasingly lets soldiers charged with violent crimes leave the military rather than face trial

The U.S. Army increasingly lets soldiers charged with violent crimes leave the military rather than face trial

ProPublica reports: Stationed at Army posts thousands of miles apart, two soldiers faced a flurry of criminal charges after they allegedly assaulted women within days of each other in early 2017. One soldier was accused of physically assaulting his wife and firing a gun as she tried to flee their home near Fort Hood in Texas. Police later found a bullet hole in a window screen. The other told investigators in Alaska that he’d had sex with a fellow soldier…

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China sentences leading human rights activists to 14 and 12 years in prison

China sentences leading human rights activists to 14 and 12 years in prison

The New York Times reports: Two of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers were sentenced on Monday to 14 years and 12 years in prison, some of the lengthiest such sentences in recent years and an indication of how the space for expression has evaporated under China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The lawyers, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, had been charged with subversion for promoting what they called a “New Citizens Movement,” which encouraged ordinary Chinese to exercise the rights such…

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How plants react to climate change could make floods a whole lot worse

How plants react to climate change could make floods a whole lot worse

Chad Small writes: Tree-planting is a cornerstone of numerous environmental and climate campaigns, and for seemingly good and logical reasons: When plants photosynthesize, they exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The reality of planting trees to combat climate change is a bit more complicated. Planting the wrong trees in the wrong places can do more environmental harm than good. There is an ongoing debate as to whether reforestation will compete too much with necessary agriculture, or if trees—which can take a…

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AI will soon become impossible for humans to comprehend – the story of neural networks tells us why

AI will soon become impossible for humans to comprehend – the story of neural networks tells us why

Shutterstock/Valentyn640 By David Beer, University of York In 1956, during a year-long trip to London and in his early 20s, the mathematician and theoretical biologist Jack D. Cowan visited Wilfred Taylor and his strange new “learning machine”. On his arrival he was baffled by the “huge bank of apparatus” that confronted him. Cowan could only stand by and watch “the machine doing its thing”. The thing it appeared to be doing was performing an “associative memory scheme” – it seemed…

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‘A whole appeasement psychology’: How America let Putin off the hook after Crimea

‘A whole appeasement psychology’: How America let Putin off the hook after Crimea

Politico reports: Jack Hanick spent years openly helping a Russian mogul who had been under U.S. sanctions since 2014 set up a pro-Kremlin TV empire, raising suspicions about whether the American was violating U.S. law. And yet, for most of the past decade, the Justice Department didn’t appear to consider the ex-Fox News staffer too important a target, at least not enough to indict him. But Hanick’s luck — and that of numerous other people suspected for years of violating U.S….

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Ukraine gives Russia two options: Leave Crimea peacefully or be ready for battle

Ukraine gives Russia two options: Leave Crimea peacefully or be ready for battle

Politico reports: Ukraine has not changed its plans for the return of territory occupied by Russia, including Crimea. “Ukraine will choose the way to bring Crimea back, using political and military means,” Tamila Tasheva, the Ukrainian president’s envoy on Crimea, told POLITICO. “To minimize Ukrainian military losses, minimize threats to civilians who live in occupied territories, as well as the destruction of civilian infrastructure, Ukraine plans to give Russia a choice on how to leave Crimea. If they don’t agree…

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How abortion changes election maps

How abortion changes election maps

NBC News reports: A Wisconsin election set the stage last week for Democrats to act on a variety of issues in the state, from gerrymandering to election access — but the biggest driving force behind the result was abortion. Abortion has been illegal in Wisconsin since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June with its Dobbs decision. And Janet Protasiewicz, whose victory in the state Supreme Court race gave liberals a 4-3 majority, made it the fulcrum…

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The hideous resurrection of the Comstock Act

The hideous resurrection of the Comstock Act

Michelle Goldberg writes: Anthony Comstock, the mutton-chopped anti-vice crusader for whom the Comstock Act is named, is back from the dead. Comstock died in 1915, and the Comstock Act, the notorious anti-obscenity law used to indict the Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, ban books by D.H. Lawrence and arrest people by the thousands, turned 150 last month. Had this anniversary fallen five or 10 years ago, it barely would have been worth noting, except perhaps to marvel at how far…

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