Climate Change
- Efforts to fight climate change had a tough election day. There were mixed results for renewable energy, the carbon fee wasn't passed, and we lost Congress' most vocal Republican proponent of climate change. I'm disappointed, but even having such initiatives voted on is a step in the right direction.
- Recent research suggests that forest protection and restoration, together with other "natural climate solutions", can provide over one-third of the climate mitigation needed between now and 2030
- Only 5% of the UK's biggest corporate pension funds have a policy on climate change. This is why we need standardized disclosure requirements.
- The recent IPCC report actually had a lot of different scenarios and positive outcomes included, but you wouldn't know that reading the news. Apocalyptic climate reporting completely misses the point of this report and many other reports, and if you're concerned about climate change, we highly recommend reading this article in The Nation.
- The children's climate change lawsuit, as its come to be known, won't be blocked by the Supreme Court.
Education
- The Washington Post published an interesting article on why it matters who governs our public schools.
- Education wasn't a top issue in general during the midterms, but it was the No. 2 issue for governor races. Some $2.6 billion in funding (combined) was on the ballots in a twelve states, while other states considered new sources of education revenue by taxing marijuana and casinos.
Elderly & Aging
- An active ingredient in marijuana reduced Alzheimer's-like effects in mice, but don't go smuggling a joint into your grandpa's care facility just yet.
- Tools such as chatbots can make some aspects of RA treatment easier, but there’s still some skepticism from people with the condition.
- Health and aging issues were big during the midterms. Click here to read a recap and see how these issues will be affected.
- A recent study has shown that AI technology correctly predicted Alzheimer's disease 6 years before diagnosis.
Human Rights
- Saudia Arabia is facing a "torrent of condemnation" over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights violations. China's record will also be examined.
- Foreign Policy warns why we should no longer accept minimal progress regarding human rights as if it was true change. Examples can be seen in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
- Hearing a lot about a migrant caravan, but aren't exactly sure what it is? BBC explains what it is and why it matters. Despite Trump's threats, the U.S. has not cut off aid to Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador.
- The new Malaysian government campaigned on human rights, yet LGBT raids are occurring and hate crimes against the LGBT community are rising.
Mental Illness
- Scientists have trained an AI model to recognize depression through analyzing how people speak. The sample size was small, but given that a diagnosis of depression is based completely on a clinician's evaluation, any tool we can have that is proven to work would be helpful.
- MIT neuroscientists have identified a pattern of brain activity correlated with the development of schizophrenia, which they say could be used as a marker to diagnose the disease earlier