All posts tagged: worries

Trump’s IVF executive order worries abortion foes

Trump’s IVF executive order worries abortion foes

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Americans are polarized on almost every issue in public life, from what books kids should be allowed to read in school to how to reform the nation’s immigration system. One thing most do agree on, regardless of party affiliation, is in-vitro fertilization — more commonly known as IVF — 70% of Americans told Pew Research they believe access to IVF is a good thing, while only 8% said it was bad, according to a 2024 survey. Members of the nation’s largest faith groups also see IVF access as a positive, including Black Protestants (69%), Catholics (65%), and the evangelical (63%) and non-evangelical (78%) varieties of white Protestants, as do the unaffiliated (78%). That’s likely one reason why Donald Trump recently issued an executive order Tuesday (Feb. 18), promising to reduce the cost of IVF. “Therefore, to support American families, it is the policy of my Administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable,” Trump wrote. While people in …

23andMe’s future prompts more worries, as genomic data analysis improves

23andMe’s future prompts more worries, as genomic data analysis improves

Published by skeptic

Customers of genetic data outfit 23andMe may be at greater risk than they realize, suggests a New York Times story that argues the company’s woes could be short-lived compared to the longer-term threats facing those roughly 15 million people if 23andMe can’t continue as a going concern. Certainly, the hope of founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki to turn around 23andMe seems increasingly unreachable. Following a major breach and resignation en mass of its independent directors, the company, once valued at $6 billion, is now valued at $150 million. It’s poised to be delisted next month. Press stories aren’t helping. (Would you buy one of its DNA kits?) The company says it remains committed to “follow laws that regulate the data we collect,” but if at some point soon it can’t, that’s worrisome, says a Yale biomedical professor to the Times. He notes that hacked credit cards can be replaced, while a genome cannot. Meanwhile, he adds, the tech that analyzes genomes is advancing. Chances are it will become more revealing, too. Source link

Teacher Worries School Refusal Is Becoming A Problem In Young Students

Teacher Worries School Refusal Is Becoming A Problem In Young Students

Published by skeptic

These days, teachers are becoming increasingly concerned about the behavior of their students, whether it’s their inability to follow rules or unwillingness to put their phones away. One teacher on Reddit is drawing attention to another issue — “school refusal.” A Montessori teacher said that many young students are refusing to come to school. The teacher at a Montessori school posted on Reddit seeking advice after noticing a disturbing trend among her students. RELATED: Teacher Says Kids Today Act Like They’ve ‘Never Heard The Word No Before’ “Occasionally, we will get parents who want to transfer their public school child in halfway through the year,” she wrote. “It’s often due to the fact that their child has special needs in some way, and they are looking for other environments in which they may have a better chance to flourish.” “In the last four months, I have seen three transfer requests for fourth graders who are all boys, who have severe anxiety, who refuse to go to school [and] who have been absent eight plus days …

Assaults on German Politicians Raise Election-Year Worries

Assaults on German Politicians Raise Election-Year Worries

Published by Sam

A spate of attacks on German officials and politicians has brought fresh worries over political violence and a breakdown of civility ahead of several critical elections this year, including in three states where the far-right Alternative for Germany party could make significant gains. In the latest attack, on Friday evening, four people assaulted a prominent Social Democratic politician who was hanging campaign posters in Dresden, leaving him with a broken cheekbone and eye socket that required emergency surgery. The official, Matthias Ecke, is running for re-election to the European Parliament. That evening a Green Party campaigner, whose name has not been released, was attacked in the same residential neighborhood, by what the police believe was the same group of people. A day earlier, on Thursday, Rolf Fliss, the deputy mayor of the city of Essen, 300 miles west, was punched in the face by a group of men with whom he had been having what he initially characterized as a “friendly exchange.” The violent attack on Mr. Ecke drew a sharp response from Chancellor Olaf …

Can a sound bath wash away your worries? Are there health benefits to listening to gongs?

Can a sound bath wash away your worries? Are there health benefits to listening to gongs?

Published by skeptic

SHOULD YOU TRY A SOUND BATH? Some practitioners make broad health promises about sound baths, claiming they can aid depression, lower blood pressure and, more fancifully, even repair DNA. These benefits can’t be proven without scientific trials, said Dr David Silbersweig, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. And it’s difficult to know whether the effects people do report come from the sounds themselves or the relaxing environment in which they’re played, he added. Some instructors are careful not to oversell their work. Bechtold, a sound bath teacher and gong player of 20 years, said she saw sound baths as a part of an overall wellness routine. They can give participants time and space to process emotions, Bechtold said, “and at the same time learn to more deeply relax the body.” Perhaps that’s one key to their appeal. Alejandra Davila, 29, who attended the beach sound bath in Santa Monica, said she was drawn in by posts on Instagram. “I kept wanting to try yoga,” Davila said, “and this just kind of seemed more …

ITV newsreader Rageh Omaar ‘receiving medical care’ after on-screen behaviour worries fans | Ents & Arts News

ITV newsreader Rageh Omaar ‘receiving medical care’ after on-screen behaviour worries fans | Ents & Arts News

Published by Sam

ITV News presenter Rageh Omaar is “receiving medical care” after becoming “unwell” live on-air, the TV channel says. Omaar, 56, was presenting News At Ten on Friday when he appeared to be struggling to read the news bulletins, stumbling over words, prompting concern online. ITV pulled the show from its scheduled re-run on ITV+1, telling viewers that the channel was “temporarily unable to bring you our +1 service”. Afterwards, an ITV News spokesperson said: “We are aware that viewers are concerned about Rageh Omaar’s wellbeing. “Rageh became unwell while presenting News at Ten on Friday and is now receiving medical care. Image: Rageh Omaar in 2021. File pic: PA “He thanks everyone for their well wishes.” No further details were given and it is unclear what was happening to Omaar during the broadcast. Omaar covers major news stories as ITV’s international affairs editor, while also presenting the channel’s current affairs programme On Assignment. He was previously a senior foreign correspondent for the BBC, rising to prominence during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Source link

Worries remain of a Palestinian exodus into Egypt after Rafah invasion

Worries remain of a Palestinian exodus into Egypt after Rafah invasion

Published by Sam

You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter. Sign up to get the rest free, including news from around the globe and interesting ideas and opinions to know, sent to your inbox every weekday. Amid a somber Passover in the Holy Land, a chilling reality remains: Israel could soon trigger an exodus into Egypt. For weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled his intent to launch a full-scale offensive into Rafah, the southern Gazan city that’s now home to more than a million Palestinians seeking safe haven in their war-ravaged territory. Netanyahu and his allies want to wipe out militant group Hamas’s footprint in the city — no matter the skepticism of experts who reckon the Islamist organization is far from defeated or the concerns of foreign diplomats and aid workers who fear the calamities for civilians that would follow the Israeli onslaught. A major move would trigger the frantic flight of hundreds of thousands of Gazans, many of whom arrived in the city after their homes and neighborhoods elsewhere in Gaza were pulverized …

Relief in Ukraine as House approves military, economic aid — but worries linger

Relief in Ukraine as House approves military, economic aid — but worries linger

Published by skeptic

Ukrainian soldiers carry shells to fire at Russian positions on the front line, near the city of Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on March 25. The outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian troops have been struggling to halt Russian advances. Efrem Lukatsky/AP hide caption toggle caption Efrem Lukatsky/AP Ukrainian soldiers carry shells to fire at Russian positions on the front line, near the city of Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, on March 25. The outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian troops have been struggling to halt Russian advances. Efrem Lukatsky/AP KYIV, Ukraine — Lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova, who leads the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on arms, spent months urging holdouts in the U.S. Congress to stop blocking nearly $61 billion in military and economic aid to her country. She repeatedly warned them that Russian troops are advancing because Ukrainian soldiers are running low on ammunition and weapons. Ustinova despaired that no one was listening. Then, on Saturday, the House of Representatives finally approved the aid package. The bill provides nearly $61 billion in assistance, including nearly $14 billion to help Ukraine …

5 worries keeping Biden, Democrats up at night

5 worries keeping Biden, Democrats up at night

Published by skeptic

President Biden’s campaign is feeling good about where it is in its battle for reelection. The president had a successful week, it says, stumping in Pennsylvania and picking up a big endorsement from the Kennedy family. All the while, former President Trump was stuck in a courtroom and off the campaign trail for his hush money criminal case. “It was the best kind of split screen,” said one Biden ally, noting that Trump at times during the proceedings had to listen to potential jurors call him racist and sexist. There were also reports of Trump dozing off at times. “We were campaigning. He was not,” the ally added.  Still, the Biden campaign is not complacent, and there are lingering fears among Democrats and the larger Bidenworld about how a number of issues from inflation to the crisis in Gaza could hurt the president in the fall. Here’s what keeps the Biden campaign up at night:  Robert Kennedy Jr. Biden this week received one of the only endorsements that will matter this election — the backing of …

Climate Worries Are Non-Credible, Luxury Beliefs That Harm Civilization Itself

Climate Worries Are Non-Credible, Luxury Beliefs That Harm Civilization Itself

Published by skeptic

Authored by Joakim Book via The Mises Institute, I live in a small village at the edge of lands surrounded by very harsh nature. Those who occupied these valleys in ages past lived ruthlessly dangerous lives, where starvation was a constant worry, the sea just as often nurtured as it took away, and the winters were long and perilous. Nowadays, while I’m walking the desolate mountains or admiring the fierce storms from inside my nice, sheltered existence, echoing in my head is Thomas Hobbes’s descriptions of man’s precivilizational life: “Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” In the 2020s, we live fairly comfortable lives here, my fellow villagers and I. Our hearths are warm, our command over economic goods excellent. We live long, safe lives, where nobody starves and where almost nobody perishes in outbursts of nature’s wrath. We use machines—constructed far, far away using materials we don’t have, that run on fossil fuels that these lands don’t contain—to move away the snow that frequently and predictably lands on our doorsteps and otherwise would have made …