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Health care is still on the ballot. Including reproductive care. Both the president and vice president campaigned in Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday (CNN): The Raleigh stop marked a rare joint appearance on the road by the president and vice president, highlighting the emphasis the duo will place on health care as they prepare to face off against former President Donald Trump. It came the same day the Supreme Court heard arguments on access to the abortion medication mifepristone, teeing up a summer decision that could have major implications for abortion rights. Biden’s advisers believed Tuesday’s visit would provide a stark contrast between the Democratic ticket’s vision for health care and reproductive rights and proposals put forth by Republicans. It’s taking place on the heels of a campaign push slamming Trump for threatening to repeal the Affordable Care Act if he’s elected to a second term. “Donald Trump and MAGA friends are nothing if not persistent. They’ve tried to repeal it 50 times, not a joke. Fifty times they’ve tried to repeal it.

If kicking the can down the road was an Olympic sport, the judges in the Assange case would be gold medalists.  The High Court this week had one job: to decide whether Julian Assange should be granted a full appeal hearing or whether he should be immediately extradited to the US to face trial. Given […]

Is the insurrectionist-in-chief melting? Good does not always triumph. Bad guys don’t always get their comeuppance. Despite all the stories we’ve heard since childhood. Ask a conservative. The world is not fair. Ask Donald Trump. Nobody knows more about unfairness than he does. Our bias toward expecting justice to be done, eventually, and the arc of the moral universe bending toward it, eventually, makes it hard for us to conceive that the former president may exit this life without receiving what he justly deserves. He might. Or his comeuppance might arrive outside the criminal justice system. Simon Rosenberg urges his Hopium readers to do more and worry less: “Donate to and join the Biden-Harris campaign” and “Make an early investment in North Carolina.” Biden has gained ground on Trump in six new polls. But the only polls that really count are the ones open on Election Day.

I was browsing the death literature the other day, and you know what they’re saying? It’s all about grip strength. It’s inversely correlated with mortality, meaning the stronger your grip, the longer you live. Yeah, you’ve been clenching all the wrong stuff.

This got me thinking about how, when I die, I want it to be in a nice, serene place like that bedroom in Goodnight Moon. I don’t want to die in the kind of place the literature says you’ll probably die, which is a chaotic, syphilis-infested nursing home owned by a private equity firm. I just want to die in peace.

In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Ronna McDaniel, 3 Body Problem, Night Court, X-Men '97, The Last of Us, AHS: Delicate, Doctor Who, and more!

In sex as elsewhere, consent is asked to do a lot. It is a kind of moral magic, legal theorist Heidi Hurd has suggested, that…

NHS doctor David Oliver explains why the results of a damning new survey should alarm patients and healthcare professionals

When Bauhaus came to West Africa – Tropical Modernist architecture as a response to the spirit of its people and its climate

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

While Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, Iran supports a web of groups that have targeted Israeli and U.S. forces across the Middle East.

The post Iran and U.S. Wage a Shadow War Behind Gaza Conflict appeared first on The Intercept.

This philosopher’s introduction to the nature of time could radically alter how you see your past and imagine your future

- by Graeme A Forbes

Read at Psyche

Fed economist Stephanie Aaronson gave examples of research that has helped inform monetary policy in a keynote speech at the 2023 Women in Economics Symposium.

Scratch the surface of just about any public service failure of recent years and outsourcing features as a key cause, writes Chris Grey

Alex Kontoghiorghes Do lower taxes lead to higher stock prices? Do companies consider tax rates when deciding on their dividend pay-outs and whether to issue new capital? If you’re thinking ‘yes’, you might be surprised to know that there was little real-world evidence (let alone UK-based evidence) which finds a strong link between personal investment … Continue reading Another reason to care about investment taxes →

Outside the European Union, the UK is becoming a dumping ground for toxic substances. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 18th March 2024 It’s a benefit of Brexit – but only if you’re a manufacturer or distributor of toxic chemicals. For the rest of us, it’s another load we have to carry on behalf […]

The West has sanctioned China repeatedly, most notably in chip production technologies, but not just in those.

It has backfired, with China quickly building its own chip manufacturing capacity, though they still have a ways to go to entirely catch up. Huawei has also created their own phone OS, cutting the Google/Apple duopoly, and Apple sales are crashing, while the government is telling all government departments not to use Intel or AMD chips.

But China has largely not replied with its own sanctions. The reason is obvious: as long as they don’t, the US remains dependent on China for a vast swathe of goods. The reason chips were sanctioned is that it was one of the only areas where the West was ahead of China (the others are biotech and arguably aviation, though given Boeing’s problems, that’s an arguably.)