Wednesday, May 14, 2025

BIG Wrap

U.S. Supreme Court preserves abortion drug access

(BBC News) The US Supreme Court has preserved access to a commonly used abortion pill, ruling the drug can remain available while a legal case continues. In a split decision, it also rejected restrictions on mifepristone implemented by a lower court, essentially maintaining the status quo. The future of the drug was called into question after a Texas judge sought to invalidate its long-standing approval. The case could have wide-ranging implications for abortion access. It comes after the...

Ramadan charity event crush in Yemen leaves at least 78 dead

(Al Jazeera Media Network) At least 78 people have been killed in a crush at a school in Yemen’s capital Sanaa just days before the Eid al-Fitr festival, according to Houthi officials and media. The crush happened late on Wednesday as hundreds of people crowded into a school in the Bab al-Yemen district of Sanaa in the hope of getting a charitable donation of about $10 that was being handed out by merchants to mark...

Huge SpaceX rocket explodes on test flight

(BBC News) Elon Musk's SpaceX company's mammoth new rocket Starship has exploded on its maiden flight. No one was hurt in the uncrewed test that lifted off from Texas's east coast on Thursday morning local time. Around three minutes into the flight, the rocket – the largest ever developed – started to tumble out of control and was destroyed, probably by onboard charges. Musk has said his company will try another launch in a couple of months. SpaceX...

Musk mocks CBC by changing Twitter label to ‘69% government funded’

(Toronto Sun) Elon Musk – the world’s richest man – is having fun goofing on the CBC after the broadcaster announced it will be pausing its Twitter presence on Monday. “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way,” CBC spokesman Leon Mar said in a statement announcing the break. “Consequently, we will...

FBI makes arrests over alleged Chinese ‘police stations’ in New York City

(BBC News) U.S. prosecutors have arrested two men in New York for allegedly operating a Chinese "secret police station" in Manhattan's Chinatown neighbourhood. Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, both New York City residents, face charges of conspiring to act as agents for China, and obstruction of justice. They are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn. China has previously denied operating the stations, calling them "service centres" for nationals overseas. Lu of the Bronx and...

Sudan army orders dissolution of RSF

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Sudan’s army has declared its rival paramilitary organization, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rebel group and has ordered its dissolution, as fighting between the two raged  for a third day. The Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese army and the de facto head of state, had declared the RSF a rebel entity that was fighting the state and ordered its dissolution. This...

Dozens reported dead including three UN staff as Sudanese army and RSF battle over key sites

(BBC News) A power struggle between Sudan's army and a notorious paramilitary force has rocked the country, with 27 reported dead and hundreds injured. Residents dodged gunfire in the capital, Khartoum, as rival forces battled over the presidential palace, state TV, and army headquarters. Among the dead were three UN workers, who were shot after the two sides exchanged gunfire at a military base. The clashes erupted after tensions over a proposed transition to civilian rule. Both the...

TESS discovers Venus-sized exoplanet orbiting nearby star

(Phys.org) Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a team of astronomers from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and elsewhere has detected a new exoplanet. Designated LHS 475 b, it is about the size of Venus and orbits a nearby M-dwarf star. TESS is conducting a survey of about 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. So far, it has identified nearly 6,400 candidate...

U.S. targets El Chapo sons, Chinese chemical firm workers in drug action

(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States authorities have targeted four sons of the notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo – known as the “Chapitos” – as well as individuals connected to Chinese chemical firms in a sweeping action meant to address fentanyl trafficking. On Friday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the drug enterprise run by the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel the “largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.” Deputy Attorney General...

Accounting practices can help identify cheating scientists, says new study

(University of St. Andrews) Auditing practices from the finance industry can be adapted to identify academic fraud, according to new research by the University of St. Andrews. In a paper published in the journal Research Integrity and Peer Review, the authors show how effective statistical tools can be employed by those who review scientific studies to help detect and investigate suspect data. When scientists publish their latest discoveries in journals, sometimes the papers are retracted after being...