And another day of mulling health emergencies, doctors fleeing punitive states, French women pushing to cement abortion, cancer patients forgoing life-saving medications, water out West, and US cruise ships using Canada as a ‘toilet bowl’ comes to a close:
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” — Benjamin Franklin
“All those saying the ‘vote, vote, vote’ message is old and tired undermine the power of the ballot box. Elections are fulcrums that pivot the course of history. There's abundant evidence of this simple fact. Is voting enough? No. Is it a potent tool for change? Absolutely.” -- Dan Rather
“I don’t fear god because there are plenty of things that actually exist to fear: like the people who claim to fear god who insist on imposing their religious beliefs on millions of others in his name.” -- Andrew Wortman
Deaths
US: 1,045,792
World: 6,373,065
Cases
US: 90,338,657
World: 560,691,767
Steve Bannon says he's willing to testify before January 6 committee after Trump waives claims of executive privilege. Steve Bannon -- who defied a congressional subpoena and is set to go to trial on criminal contempt charges -- told the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection on Saturday that he is now willing to testify, ideally at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN. — Be wary. Banning is not trustworthy.
Biden says he’s mulling health emergency for abortion access. President Joe Biden said Sunday he is considering declaring a public health emergency to free up federal resources to promote abortion access even though the White House has said it doesn’t seem like “a great option.” He also offered a message to people enraged by the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that ended a constitutional right to abortion and who have been demonstrating across the country: “Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important.”
Pregnant women face increasingly dangerous risks as doctors flee punitive US states. With doctors facing threats of criminal penalties for abortion, many states will become ‘maternity care deserts’ where there is no hospital, birthing center or obstetrician.
Abortion in Illinois imperilled if GOP takes control of the state Supreme Court in November. Right now, Democrats hold a slim 4-3 majority on the court. But if the Republican judicial candidates win in the two suburban districts that only lean Democratic, the GOP will take control of the court for the first time in decades. And that could spell trouble for the legions of Midwesterners now flocking to Illinois for abortions from neighboring states where the procedure has been banned, advocates say..."If we lose this election, there is absolutely no guarantee that abortion will be legal past 2023."
French women push to cement abortion rights after US ruling. The right to abortion in France hardly seems under threat — it’s been inscribed in law for 47 years and enjoys broad support across the political spectrum. But more and more French women are asking: Could what happened in the U.S. happen here one day?
Sri Lanka president, PM to resign after tumultuous protests. Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s severe economic crisis.
Some cancer patients forgo life-saving medications because of high cost. About one in three Americans on Medicare who don't qualify for low-income subsidies don't fill prescriptions for their cancer drugs, according to a recent study in the journal Health Affairs. Low income is defined as around $15,000 a year for an individual or about $30,000 a year for a married couple, according to the Social Security Administration. The out-of-pocket expense for the drugs is too high, said Stacie Dusetzina, the study's lead author and a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. In some cases, patients would need to shell out nearly half their gross income to be able to afford their medications, she said. -- Healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Property owners and officials find ways around century-old laws as the West runs out of water.
With a megadrought draining water reserves in the West, states are looking for alternatives to handle water rights, many of which were set more than 100 years ago when water supplies were far more abundant. Back then, just posting a sign next to a water diversion was enough to be considered a right, one which could still be honored now. But the climate crisis is now straining those rights. There just isn’t enough water in California to satisfy what’s been allotted on paper.
Tribal elders recall painful boarding school memories. Native American tribal elders who were once students at government-backed Indian boarding schools testified Saturday about the hardships they endured, including beatings, whippings, sexual assaults, forced haircuts and painful nicknames. They came from different states and different tribes, but they shared the common experience of having attended the schools that were designed to strip Indigenous people of their cultural identities.
US cruise ships using Canada as a ‘toilet bowl’ for polluted waste. More than 31bn litres (8.5bn US gallons) a year of pollution is estimated to be discharged off the west coast of Canada by cruise ships on their way to and from Alaska, according to a report by the environmental organisations Stand.earth and West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL)…Across Canada’s 151,019 mile (243,042km) coastline, ships generate 147bn litres of harmful waste each year, equivalent to 59,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to a March 2022 report by WWF-Canada. Based on data from more than 5,000 vessels, the report found cruise ships were the largest polluters, despite making up only 2% of the marine traffic analysed. Cruise ship pollution includes large volumes of toxic sewage from toilets, greywater from sinks, showers and laundries, and bilge water – the oily liquid that collects at the lowest part of a ship. By far the largest source of pollution identified in the WWF report was from so-called scrubbers – devices installed to remove exhaust gases such as sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide, as well as particulates, from the heavy bunker oil used as marine fuel. The scrubbers create an acidic wastewater containing a cocktail of chemicals. On a one-week trip to Alaska and back along the Canadian coast, a cruise ship will generate nearly 200m litres of waste from scrubbers, according to the Stand.earth and WCEL report. While ships can decide whether to discharge at sea or within a port, most waste from scrubbers is dumped as it is generated.
The Las Vegas Raiders welcomed Sandra Douglass Morgan, the first Black woman ever to serve as team president in NFL history.
Adding salt to food at table can cut years off your life, study finds. Researchers found that always adding salt to food knocks more than two years off life expectancy for men and one-and-a-half years for women. This does not include seasoning during the cooking process. The study did not definitively rule out other factors, such as salt consumption being a proxy for a generally less healthy lifestyle, but the team behind the work said the evidence was compelling enough that people should consider avoiding seasoning their meals.
NASA to showcase Webb space telescope's first full-color images. The first batch of photos, which have taken weeks to process from raw telescope data, are expected to offer a compelling glimpse at what Webb will capture on the science missions that lie ahead. -- Looking forward to seeing those pics!
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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