This legislation was brought forward to favor the military's proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party in the upcoming nationwide rigged election. It will likely be the last nail in the coffin of Myanmar's political parties, effectively dissolving the National League for Democracy and other existing ones.
This new law is necessary as it prevents political parties violating the constitution from being able to register. It also propels them to join forces to increase their representativeness as Myanmar prepares to hold a free and fair election this year.
These airstrikes show that Israel's defense establishment is prepared to take any action needed to ensure peace for its citizens. Though such a response to Thursday's Jenin raid was already anticipated, connecting events between Gaza and the West Bank is a dangerous precedent that threatens the very existence of the State of Israel.
Israeli occupation forces carried out a planned massacre against the Palestinian people this Thursday, cutting off electricity and barring medical workers from evacuating the wounded from the refugee camp, and now have attacked Gaza. Emboldened by international silence after killing more Palestinians last year than in any other calendar year since the Second Intifada, it is Israel that's becoming even more violent.
There's a 44% chance that Israel will recognize Palestine by 2070, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
As China's military and technological prowess grow exponentially, Western allies need agreements like this to protect against Chinese military-grade computer chip manufacturing. Though cutting companies off from China will take incredible domestic investment, it will be worth it when the US and its allies are safe from the prying eyes of the CCP.
Although Biden sees this as a victory, even ASML executives are warning this move could isolate western companies from the global market while China’s learning to manufacture semiconductors itself. This deal won’t do much to improve national security once the CCP figures out how to build military-grade computer chips on its own.
It is no secret that Ukraine's war effort would have collapsed long back without the West's support. Now that the month-long Western intervention threatens to escalate the Russia-Ukraine conflict into an all-out direct war between NATO and Russia, the West is arming Ukraine to provide political cover for politicians who fear the blame game when they lose the proxy war in Ukraine.
Russia's continuous offensive has forced Kyiv to seek as many weapons as the West can send to reclaim every inch of its territory from the invaders. As the next battle phase threatens to witness full-scale tank-and-trench warfare, sending arms to Ukraine is a critical step toward helping the country regain lost ground. Hopefully, the Ukrainian counteroffensive will push Russia to accept a negotiated settlement.
More weapons packages will make little difference in the outcome of the war. The US has been meddling in Ukraine since the end of the Cold War, and what we're witnessing is a geopolitical Ponzi scheme to benefit those aligned with the military-industrial complex. War is a lucrative racket.
There's a 2% chance that Russia will detonate a nuclear weapon in Ukraine before 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
This law is unconstitutional and the judge is right to block it. It violates Americans' right to freedom of speech and expression, and given there's no legal definition of "contemporary scientific consensus," it's unclear what exactly physicians can be penalized for. Doctors who give harmful advice to patients are already subject to malpractice lawsuits and discipline under existing state law; all Assembly Bill 2098 does is stifle important scientific debate around COVID.
Spreading COVID vaccine and treatment misinformation is medical malpractice and should be punished accordingly. Laws should exist to hold physicians accountable and make sure they don't spread COVID misinformation. Disinformation is a public health threat that existed long before this pandemic and will likely last long after. Unless these physicians are held accountable, the trust of the entire medical profession is in jeopardy.
Chevron has published record profits, yet is continuing to exacerbate the cost of living struggles for US consumers to reward shareholders. The company is swimming in cash and has a responsibility to its customers to make petroleum consumption — a basic necessity in the US — more affordable.
The investment Chevron executives are making in the company is not just about lining their own pockets — it's about future-proofing. Chevron's capital spending is still well below pre-COVID levels and, although oil prices have fallen from the highs of last summer, the reopening of China's economy will keep demand for crude oil high and maintain the pressure of global supplies.
There is a 50% chance that the real price of gas will be at least $3.59 per gallon in the US in April 2023, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
The US has been experiencing a labor shortage in all fields since the start of the COVID pandemic — particularly in the healthcare industry — and there’s no telling what it will take to get people back to work. Raising the minimum wage at these retail drug stores hasn’t worked, nor have other perks and bonuses, forcing businesses to make tough compromises, as seen by Walmart and CVS.
While the pandemic undoubtedly took a toll on the labor market, particularly in the healthcare industry, it also positively altered the structure of retail pharmacies, which have remained in high demand despite staffing shortages and new competition. Many drug stores were able to pivot to digital services, allowing their market scope to expand exponentially. As business processes evolve, it's no surprise that operations follow suit.
The fact that Mogadishu has turned to the US, of all countries, for assistance in combatting extremists is just another example of America's desire for regional dominance. It's certainly no coincidence that Washington decided in May to redeploy troops to Somalia under the guise of "fighting terrorism." In reality, Washington is primarily concerned with containing the growing influence of China, but also Russia, in this strategically important region.
After former Pres. Trump decided to withdraw US troops from Somalia, there was an uptick in terrorist violence. The fact that the Somali federal government is now making progress against terrorists is due to the return of US troops to the country and America's military cooperation with Mogadishu. Since al-Shabaab and IS also pose a direct threat to the US itself, defeating these terrorists is also a matter of national security.
The ICC is 100% correct to reopen its investigation into the brutal drug war. The Duterte and Marcos administrations failed to submit proof they were willing to genuinely investigate the killings. The ICC must take over this probe.
The ICC is overstepping its bounds and undermining the Philippines’ sovereignty. The ICC can only conduct proceedings in states without a functioning government, and the Philippines is not a country where the ICC can rightfully do so. The Philippines’ domestic investigative and judicial processes should take precedence in any probe.
It's thrilling that we are able to witness this revolution in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, as some one-quarter of clinical diagnoses are wrong, but blood-based biomarkers are not ready for widespread use yet. For them to be used as stand-alone tests in primary care, additional research is needed.
Though still costly and limited, blood tests for Alzheimer's disease are already a reality that can help to diagnose this devastating illness. Equally important, the development of these tests — which go hand-in-hand with finding a treatment — advance research and bring awareness. More data and research is always needed, but the future is bright, and hopefully, tests will soon be widely adopted.
There's a 99% chance that there will be a breakthrough in accurately predicting protein structure before 2031, according to the Metaculus prediction community.