In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Terrorism; death] Fucking hell: "Two [redacted] car bombs claimed by ISIS killed at least 32 people and wounded 75 others in the center of the southern Iraqi city of Samawa on Sunday, police and medics said. The first blast was near a local government building and the second one about 65 yards away at a bus station, police sources said. The death toll was expected to keep rising. ...Meanwhile, two police officers were killed and 23 people wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on police headquarters in the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the governor and police sources said, in one of two attacks on security forces on Sunday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but security sources said police raided the home of a suspected ISIS militant believed to have carried out the attack and detained his father for DNA tests and questioning." I am just so deeply sad and angry about the death and injury and terror and destruction wreaked by IS. And horrified by how little coverage this weekend's terrorist attacks in Iraq and Turkey have gotten in Western media.

[CN: Financial insecurity] "Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced that Puerto Rico's government will not make nearly $370m in bond payments due Monday after a failure to restructure or find a political solution to the US territory's spiralling public debt crisis. Garcia said Sunday that he had issued an executive order suspending payments on debt owed by the island's Government Development Bank, a default that will likely prompt lawsuits from creditors and could be a prelude to a deadline to a much larger payment due 1 July. The governor said Puerto Rico can't pay the bonds without cutting essential services." If you haven't already seen [CN: video autoplays] John Oliver's terrific segment on Puerto Rico, I highly recommend it.

[CN: Anti-choice terrorism] Jessica Mason Pieklo has another great piece on Robert Dear: "After a full day of testimony, which included an investigator's account that Dear had stopped at a crisis pregnancy center (CPC) before moving on to the Planned Parenthood, it was clear that neither the prosecution nor the defense wanted to talk about the central issue of Robert Lewis Dear Jr.'s case: anti-choice rhetoric and violence."

[CN: Breast cancer] This sounds encouraging: "Scientists say they now have a near-perfect picture of the genetic events that cause breast cancer. The study, published in Nature, has been described as a 'milestone' moment that could help unlock new ways of treating and preventing the disease. The largest study of its kind unpicked practically all the errors that cause healthy breast tissue to go rogue. Cancer Research UK said the findings were an important stepping-stone to new drugs for treating cancer. To understand the causes of the disease, scientists have to understand what goes wrong in our DNA that makes healthy tissue turn cancerous. The international team looked at all 3 billion letters of people's genetic code—their entire blueprint of life—in 560 breast cancers. They uncovered 93 sets of instructions, or genes, that if mutated, can cause tumours. Some have been discovered before, but scientists expect this to be the definitive list, barring a few rare mutations."

At Think Progress, Ian Millhiser details "Four Major Decisions to Expect from the Supreme Court Soon," on Affirmative Action (Fisher v. University of Texas), Birth Control (Zubik v. Burwell), Abortion (Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt), and Immigration (United States v. Texas).

[CN: Child abuse] Ted Cruz continues to be comprehensively awful: "A youthful protester who interrupted his rally late Sunday evening should get a spanking, Ted Cruz suggested to his audience in La Porte, Indiana. Such a punishment, he added, would have gone a long way in changing the behavior of Donald Trump. 'All right, apparently there's a young man who's having some problems,' Cruz said, as the young heckler shouted, 'You suck!' Cruz responded, 'Thank you, son.' 'Children should actually speak with respect,' he continued. 'Imagine what a different world it would be if someone told Donald Trump that years ago.'" This gross comment comes right on the heels of new research that finds " spanking is associated with troubling outcomes—like increased aggression, increased anti-social behavior, and mental health problems later in life."

[CN: Fat hatred; weight loss talk; disordered eating] I don't even know where to fucking begin with this article in the New York Times about "Biggest Loser" contestants gaining back weight. On the one hand, it's great that here is more evidence of what fat people have been saying about our own lived experiences. On the other hand, the abysmal language peppered throughout the piece! Like "what obesity research has consistently shown is that dieters are at the mercy of their own bodies" and "that shouldn't be interpreted to mean we are doomed to battle our biology or remain fat." As but two examples. I don't feel like I'm "at the mercy" of my body (as if I am somehow a separate thing from my body!) and I certainly don't feel "doomed to remain fat." For fuck's sake.

In better news, this is very neat: "The comet known as C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) has a lot going for it. For starters, it's the first comet ever detected without a tail—a trail of dust and ice that sublimates into space as the sun heats the frozen artifacts. It's also thought to have formed in the same time and place as Earth, meaning that the strange comet may contain the same building blocks that formed our planet, kept chilled and pristine and waiting for scientists to study them."

Cool! "Newfound Jellyfish Looks Like an Alien Spacecraft." I love jellyfish. As is probably obvious given that I have one tattooed on my body, lol!

And finally! "Why Rescued Is My Favorite Dog Breed." Love. ♥