Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by JS

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 18h

EPA officials directed scientists to assess whether the government could develop methods for detecting abortion pills in wastewater — a practice sought by the anti-abortion movement. The request appears to have originated from a letter sent from GOP members to Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator.

Under Trump, E.P.A. Explored if Abortion Pills Could Be Detected in Wastewater

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency found that they could develop methods to identify traces of the medication if necessary — a practice long sought by the anti-abortion movement.

nyti.ms

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 1d

Big international child health funder pulling all funding from US NGOs: ciff.org/news/update-...

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 1d

My take: the Cornyn-Paxton delta was high among high-info sane R voters & has narrowed as general discontent rises. Would expect it to matter less & less as Cornyn both continues to both maga pivot + his age issues worsen. Talarico also has very good-weird reach with a certain type of low-info voter

Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting poll of Texas finds the GOP with a low-to-mid single-digit lead in any of the 12 configurations of the 2026 Senate race that were tested. And the conventional wisdom of a large difference in how Cornyn and Paxton would perform in November isn't showing up here. www.uh.edu/hobby/txtren...

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting poll of Texas finds the GOP with a low-to-mid single-digit lead in any of the 12 configurations of the 2026 Senate race that were tested. And the conventional wisdom of a large difference in how Cornyn and Paxton would perform in November isn't showing up here. www.uh.edu/hobby/txtren...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

i desperately want everyone involved in the destruction of USAID to have to, st the very least, answer to the american people for the suffering and misery they have caused apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

I recently told some significantly older friends of mine that Paul Biya had been in power longer than they had been alive and wouldn't you know it, that was true

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 3d

this is a good article about the politics of a country you probably don't know anything about but also this photo of the 93-year-old president and his wife is mildly insane. his daughter has also just condemned him and renounced her family wealth on social media.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/07/b...

Cameroon’s Predictable Election Will Produce Unpredictable Chaos

At nearly 93, Paul Biya is all but guaranteed a victory—but has no successor.

foreignpolicy.com

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 3d

Aside from shattering core state sovereignty, it's saying one state's Guard (TX) is somehow more loyal to the national authority than another's (IL). It's treating the latter as something bordering on hostile, or at least alien. One part of the country and its soldiers are more America than another.

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

They're so good. Here are two as babies being mad at me after I went to the completely unnecessary trouble of making them my problem

Black and orange kitten in separate cages on their way to get their Equipment Removed. Neither wants to be there. Orange giving a mean stinkeye.

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

If you wanna keep Austin weird you gotta be the weird in Austin, is all I'm saying

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

For a few months in 2023 I made spaying/neutering the cats at a local dive bar my entire personality. Now they are ON A SHIRT.

VERY cool shirt with an orange cat spinning a record, a black cat mixing drinks, and a gray cat getting wasted

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

I've got a plane ticket out of Austin the morning after ACL weekend 2 - historically the biggest air traffic day annually - before the House will even reconvene on the 14th. Do I premptively give up and just drive to Phoneix or what

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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 3d

an ICE agent rammed a car and shot the woman inside five times for no reason. she only survived because she escaped

Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 3d

This is not going to end well. Sooner or later an American citizen is going to get killed.

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San Antonio Current @sacurrent.bsky.social · 3d

‘Only someone as stupid as Ken Paxton can announce to the world that they are doing something undercover,’ one person tweeted.

Texas AG Ken Paxton roasted on social media for bragging about 'undercover operation' against ANTIFA - San Antonio Current

'Only someone as stupid as Ken Paxton can announce to the world that they are doing something undercover,' one person tweeted. In the press release post on social media platform X, Paxton said he was ...

www.sacurrent.com

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

For Austin I guess all the California expats moving here, but that's only because outsiders and national media still don't realize *they're* the ones who are boring republicans

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 4d

since portland’s business is apparently everyone’s business, what’s something about *your* city that you can make fun of but outsiders can’t?

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 3d

San Antonio as a black hole of ambition where the number one social question is "where did you go to high school" and the default assumption if you meet them anywhere outside of the city that it was in a wealthy enclave or private

(all true and drives me mad but the systemic poverty is real)

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 4d

since portland’s business is apparently everyone’s business, what’s something about *your* city that you can make fun of but outsiders can’t?

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

This letter exceeded my increasingly high "save image to phone for posterity" bar

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 4d

Pritzker is also furious: “Should National Governors Association leadership choose to remain silent, Illinois will have no choice but to withdraw from the organization.”

Gov. JB Pritzker’s letter to the National Governors Association

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

good lord I might be mad enough about this to post on l*nked*n

JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

Polio in Gaza is an *excellent* case study, by the way. UNRWA only switched from the oral to the inactivated injectable vaccine about a decade ago. Conflict/supply chain issues on the Gaza side combined with large pockets of non-adherence on the Israeli side is a great cross-border health study!

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 4d

"Along with the termination, Tulane altered the course’s syllabus, removing the article, a Harvard School of Public Health discussion about the resurgence of polio in Gaza."

My alma mater continues to embarrass. Public Health students learning public health?
oh no
lailluminator.com/2025/10/06/t...

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

The article she got fired for assigning is just a milquetoast set of anecdotes from outbreak responders. hsph.harvard.edu/news/polio-g...

Polio in Gaza: Experts explain the outbreak and the public health response | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

In August, a confirmed case of polio was reported in Gaza—the first in 25 years—which created significant concern for further spread. The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights convened a discu...

hsph.harvard.edu

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

(The vaccine switch was a question I got during my master's thesis defense, but had prepared a backup slide for, so the entire context from 2014-2016 is burned into my brain simply because of how satisfying that was)

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

Polio in Gaza is an *excellent* case study, by the way. UNRWA only switched from the oral to the inactivated injectable vaccine about a decade ago. Conflict/supply chain issues on the Gaza side combined with large pockets of non-adherence on the Israeli side is a great cross-border health study!

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 4d

"Along with the termination, Tulane altered the course’s syllabus, removing the article, a Harvard School of Public Health discussion about the resurgence of polio in Gaza."

My alma mater continues to embarrass. Public Health students learning public health?
oh no
lailluminator.com/2025/10/06/t...

Tulane changes syllabus, fires academic manager over Gaza article • Louisiana Illuminator

Some say that the incident is yet another glimpse of the tense climate experienced on local and national campuses by people who support Palestine.

lailluminator.com

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

☆ Constituent Services All-Timer ☆

Rep. Lloyd Doggett @doggett.house.gov · 4d

Those aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, like Austinite Greg Stoker, drew critical attention to Netanyahu’s endless war by starvation w/their attempt to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid.

After working to facilitate Greg’s release from Israeli custody, I look forward to welcoming him home to Austin.

Austin activist Greg Stoker released from Israeli prison

Stoker was among roughly 170 people held in an Israeli prison after attempting to sail to Gaza to deliver aid.

www.kut.org

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

It probably also would have helped me mentally during my 20s to confirm that the target weight I had in my head would have put me below the minimum viable body fat % for women lol

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 4d

Not to pile on, but I got a DEXA scan for the first time this year and wish I'd done it five years ago simply for tracking my muscle mass (at minimum so that I'd know how much it tanked during deep pandemic 🫠 but we're getting back there!)

essencesimmone.blacksky.app @essencesimmone.blacksky.app · 7d

Those who are 35+, what advice do you have for people just entering their 30s?

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GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 6d

one of the upsides to stephen miller being a relatively young man is that life imprisonment is a very long time in prison

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 6d

Miller has Fascist Hissy #3 today after another court ruling. This one from a judge appointed by radical left marxist Donald J Trump.

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JS @jsplaceholder.bsky.social · 6d

Regret to report from experience that she will never, good luck dude

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