Scientists receive mysterious signals from space: Israel's Uri Geller says aliens

By AARON REICH - Yesterday 

Are alien civilizations reaching out to us on Earth, sending perplexing seemingly gibberish messages in order to establish contact with humanity

According to Israeli mystic Uri Geller, that is exactly the case.

The famous spoon-bender was specifically referring to the curious case of Voyager 1, a space probe launched by NASA in 1977. Since then, it has continued to operate nearly 45 years later, having actually exited the solar system and traveled into interstellar space.

But recently, the signals NASA has been receiving from this probe are strange, seemingly confused about its location.

As far as NASA is concerned, this isn’t a cause for alarm.

“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement on May 18. “The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space – a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there’s a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it.”

Geller, however, has a different idea. To him, it’s no glitch. It’s a targeted message from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, albeit one NASA is evidently struggling to decipher.

“That’s what I believe,” he explained. “I truly believe they are so advanced that they can easily create these glitches and send messages that are difficult for NASA to decipher.”

While Geller may be the first to propose that the Voyager 1 signals are alien communication, the idea that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are trying to communicate with us on Earth isn’t new, with researchers like those in the Breakthrough Listen project founded by Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner, who specialize in comprehensive search efforts for alien transmission.

In fact, the idea of aliens trying to communicate with Earth via signals is something that has been part of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) efforts for decades.
Wow! And mysterious malicious civilizations

While there have been many different efforts to track down alien signals, there is none more famous than the Wow! Signal.

The signal itself is a strong narrowband radio signal and was recorded on August 15, 1977, at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. However, the signal, or any other like it, has yet to be detected again.

Consequently, it is seen as the strongest candidate for a genuine extraterrestrial transmission.
But where did it come from?

Well, a recent peer-reviewed academic study by a PhD student in Spain named Alberto Caballero managed to supposedly pinpoint from which star it originated.

But Caballero hasn’t just been trying to track down the Wow! Signal. In recent days, the PhD student has also authored another academic article. This one, published on the pre-print website arXiv and which has not been peer-reviewed, is titled “Estimating the Prevalence of Malicious Extraterrestrial Civilizations” and proposes that there are maybe four advanced alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy that are hostile and could pose a danger to Earth.

This article relied on many assumptions, of which it freely admits, and thus it functions more as a thought experiment rather than a genuine piece of empirical evidence. But it does still propose an interesting point: Efforts to try and contact aliens, should such a thing be possible, is dangerous as they could possibly even provoke them.

But Geller has a different approach. Rather than fearing the dangers of these possible hostile civilizations, he thinks that the ones that are trying to contact us through Voyager 1, the ones that are closest to us, are friendly. As such, contacting them isn’t risky. In fact, according to him, it might just be for the best.

“Climate change is melting the ice caps,” he explained. “There might be a huge comet or asteroid coming to Earth. And sure, we have a lot of nuclear bombs, but we don’t have a way to stop global warming or cure cancer or AIDS or even COVID-19. We only live around 85 years. We think we’re so advanced but in the grand scheme of things, we’re really backward. I have a feeling they’ll land here one day because they know we need their help.”

Of course, many people claim to have had close encounters with the third kind already, and Geller is no exception. He claims to have had an alien encounter when he was a child in Tel Aviv, and later to have touched a fragment of a UFO while on a trip to NASA to meet with Dr. Werner von Braun in the 1970s.

“Climate change is melting the ice caps. There might be a huge comet or asteroid coming to Earth. And sure, we have a lot of nuclear bombs, but we don’t have a way to stop global warming or cure cancer or AIDS or even COVID-19."Uri Geller

And he is far from the only person to think so.

The truth is out there!

A Pew Research Center survey from June 2021 found that a majority of Americans believe that alien life exists in the universe. Further, an overwhelming majority of these Americans also thought that alien UFOs were either a minor threat or no threat at all.

Indeed, as ridiculous as the idea of aliens may seem, there is one thing that empirical evidence doesn’t deny: That the idea of aliens has a captivating hold on the general public. It isn’t just some fringe conspiracy idea, but rather it is something we as a society are becoming increasingly interested in.

This is why people who have played pivotal roles in getting humanity to space, such as von Braun or NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, claimed that they believed in aliens, Geller claimed.

And they aren’t alone either.

The spoon-bender recounted a recent story of a group of scientists from a leading Israeli university who visited the Uri Geller Museum in Jaffa. There, he showed them his videos and presentations on aliens, UFOs and his own first- and second-hand accounts of them. And according to Geller, these scientists were watching with rapt attention.

“It’s a fascinating subject,” Geller explained, “because in the back of their minds, they know there’s something real there, and they don’t yet know what.”

And that is emblematic of the classic phrase that has embodied the search for UFOs and SETI for years: The truth is out there.

Jerusalem celebrates Pride under heavy security

Agence France-Presse 

Jerusalem, Undefined: Thousands paraded through the streets of Jerusalem waving rainbow flags on Thursday (Friday in Manila), taking part in colorful celebrations for the Pride March against a backdrop of heavy security.

Mickey Levy, the speaker of the Israeli parliament, said he would join the march for the first time because it was necessary "to support the fight of LGBTQ people for equal rights".

Jerusalem has held an annual celebration of LGBTQ+ rights since 2002, often contending against protests from ultra-Orthodox Jews and far-right extremists.

"No one should live in a closet", read one sign, carried during the parade.

"No one is free until everyone is free", read another.

Thousands of police were mobilized "to ensure the safety of the participants and to ensure public order", the force said.

Three people were arrested, one for making social media threats against a march organizer, and two others near the parade route when found in possession of tear gas in their vehicle, police said.

On July 30, 2015, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed to death teenager Shira Banki during the parade and wounded six others, since when the annual event has been heavily protected.

The attacker had been released from prison a few weeks before the murder, having served a sentence for wounding three people during the Pride March in 2005. He was sentenced to life in prison for the 2015 attack.

Israel is considered a pioneer in the Middle East in terms of gay rights.

But in Jerusalem, a holy city for Jews, Muslims and Christians, the gay community faces far greater challenges in acceptance than the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

Several dozen protesters against the march gathered along the route.

Netflix’s Heartstopper Shows The Beauty Of Gay-Straight Bromances

Chichi Offor - Friday

By now, you’re probably aware of Netflix’s Heartstopper, an incredibly heartwarming coming-of-age television show about queer romance. Yes, the budding relationship and growing romantic feelings between the leads Charlie and Nick send even the most stoic individual through a whirlwind of emotions one could describe as cuteness overload. However, the show’s depiction of friendship – particularly that between Charlie and Tao – is challenging the idea of what platonic love can look like.

Platonic love between men aka a bromance isn’t new. Jon Snow and Sam Tarley in Game of Thrones, Seth and Ryan in The O.C., and Scott and Stiles in Teen Wolf are a few of my personal favorite depictions of bromantic love. But more recently, we’re seeing gay and straight men, like Charlie and Tao, and Eric and Otis in Sex Education, form platonic relationships together that are built on deep emotional connection in the same way women and queer people converse and relate to one another.

When I think of my close friendships, there’s a deep level of intimacy, vulnerability, and understanding. This isn’t built overnight. The continuous emotional investment and the trusted exchange of a secret or two lay the foundation for each of us to be seen and heard and to feel like we have support through life’s turbulent challenges. While talking about feelings comes naturally when women and queer folks converse among themselves, men – particularly straight men – haven’t always experienced this same level of ease when emotionally connecting with each other. There has long been a fear of being perceived as emotional (in other words, feminine)in male friendships, which society has traditionally emphasized isn’t the ideal a man should strive for.

A 2006 study on gay and straight men’s friendships found the fear of feelingshame from a platonic relationship that may be perceived as a gay romantic relationship impacted the level of intimacy and closeness in gay and straight participants’ friendships. It also found that many straight men subscribed to a limiting view of masculinity: that male friendships are formed over shared activities, like sports, video games, and drinking, rather than intimate discussion of the deep inner workings of their minds and emotions. Not only does this support the notion that straight men can be afraid of becoming emotionally close to one another, but it also speaks to deep-seated internalized homophobia.

But the idea of masculinity is fluid and can evolve. “In the time that has passed since the 1980s, where a cultural zeitgeist of hegemonic masculinity existed, young men have rapidly come to esteem a more advanced and complex level of emotionality in their same-sex friendships,” a 2017 study on bromances says. That’s why seeing Tao’s approach to friendship with Charlie is lovely to witness. There are various moments where Tao, who is a cis-gender heterosexual man, expresses highly emotional feelings in regard to his group of best friends. After Tao fights with school bully Harry, Tao is incredibly distraught and taken over by emotion when speaking to Charlie because he feels deeply hurt and forgotten in their friendship. So much has changed for the friend group: Elle switches schools, and Charlie has less free time after joining the rugby team and hanging with Nick. Tao feels like the friend group that he holds dear is slipping away.

Although he can sometimes seem a bit jealous and a little overbearing, Tao makes it clear that he’s emotionally invested and deeply loves and cares about Charlie and his well-being. So it’s natural for Tao to have pause when so much of Charlie’s time is spent with Nick, who is friends with the type of boys that bullied Charlie in the past. Even Nick shows us a thing or two about showing up as a good friend by providing space for Charlie to dispel his former relationship issues before any strong romantic feelings have developed or been confessed.

Obviously, anyone can be friends with whoever they want to be, but there’s a deeper conversation here about who or what society tells us our non-romantic relationships can look like. If you asked me even a year ago what this relationship between two cis-gender men has anything to do with the relationships I have with my girlfriends,I’d probably wonder the same thing. However, these limiting society ideals of what relationships between men look like impact us too. Alok Menon-Vaied, a non-binary activist, artist, and scholar, says on their personal blog that, “all of us — regardless of how we identify & navigate the world — have a stake in ending the gender binary.” This is because this binary not only holds up a limited idea of what genders exist but also how you can exist within gender. They go on to say, “[I] want a world where gender is respected as a story, not just a word. One where we understand that it means a fundamentally different thing for one person to be a woman than another, where we recognize that there is no one way to be a man.”

Queerness has always challenged what we hold as the status quo, and, in this case, traditional constructions of what a bromance looks like. For Heartstopper’s Charlie and Tao, it does exactly that. Perhaps Charlie’s queerness and Tao’s rejection of hegemonic masculinity allow them both the space to express themselves and connect and truly love each other beyond solely shared hobbies. Although, Tao would agree that a little movie night never hurt anybody.

 R29

Sara Ramírez Pitched for Their Grey's Anatomy Character Dr. Callie Torres to Be Bisexual

Christina Dugan Ramirez - Yesterday 

© Provided by PeopleTheo Wargo/Getty

Sara Ramírez is reflecting on their game-changing character on Grey's Anatomy.

On Wednesday, Ramírez, 46, opened up about their experience playing Dr. Callie Torres, a bisexual woman and orthopedic surgeon, in 239 episodes of the ABC medical drama — making Callie the longest-running LGBTQ character in TV history.

In a recent interview with Variety, Ramírez, who came out as non-binary in 2020 and uses the pronouns they/them, recalled the moment they approached creator Shonda Rhimes with the fresh idea of introducing Callie as bisexual.

"I wanted to pursue a storyline where Callie would discover that she was attracted to women, as well as men," Ramírez told the publication.

Rhimes was quick to jump on board with the idea. "She knew I was bi," Ramírez recalled.

And so, Callie came out as bisexual on the series in 2009. At the time, Ramírez says they knew they were bisexual themselves, but weren't ready to come out publicly.

"I was really afraid it would hurt my career if I came out as bisexual," Ramírez told PEOPLE in December. "I was very aware of the bi[sexual] antagonism that exists. But I'm really proud of what we put out in the world. It was definitely disrupting a narrative."


© Provided by PeopleDanny Feld/ABC

RELATED: Sara Ramírez Joins the Cast of HBO Max's Sex and the City Revival as a Non-Binary Podcast Host


After a brief marriage to Dr. George O'Malley, Callie went on to marry Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) on the show. The relationship proved to be extremely impactful.

During an interview with Out Magazine last year, Ramírez said the role not only had an impact on the LBGTQ community as a whole, but also their own self-understanding.

"Prior to Callie Torres, I'd never seen myself represented on television," Ramírez told the outlet. "There was so much I didn't know that I didn't know. So, I've caught up with myself in a lot of ways."

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Speaking with Variety, showrunner Krista Vernoff expressed similar sentiments about Callie.

"I don't think it can be overstated what the social impact of Callie's bisexuality was on the culture at large," Vernoff said. "Bisexuality was almost invisible on TV at that point. I personally have two kids who have come out as bisexual, and I don't think it's disconnected from Callie and Sara publicly coming out."



Though Ramírez exited Grey's Anatomy in 2016, and last appeared in the season 12 finale, they said they're open to a Grey's return in the future.

"It taught me so much, portraying a character that a lot of folks had not seen on TV including myself," Ramírez told PEOPLE in December. "I will always have a soft tender place in my heart for that work family and that role. It was the role of a lifetime."

"I wouldn't be who I am today without the experience I had on Grey's Anatomy and my heart is completely open to going back and checking in with Dr. Callie Torres," Ramírez added. "But that would only happen if the writers' room and the story really organically led them to need a character like Callie to come back. They all know that I support them from afar and that I'm rooting for them."

Grey's Anatomy is not the first time Ramírez has broken boundaries with their character. They also starred as Che Diaz, an outspoken, non-binary podcast host and stand-up comic on the Sex and the City revival series, And Just Like That..., who ends up being (spoiler alert!) Miranda Hobbes' love interest.

‘An Act of Defense’: Jaclyn Moore on Republicans Weaponizing Trans Panic and Why Representation Really Does Matter

Jaclyn Moore - Yesterday 


It’s Pride Month, which means three things: Corporate Twitter accounts will start talking like “Drag Race” contestants, the queer community will continue fighting our annual blood feud about kink’s place at Pride and there will be think pieces about LGBT representation in the media. If you’re like me, the thought of those three things is enough to make your eyes glaze over.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that conversations about representation aren’t important. Letting viewers see themselves depicted in art helps people feel less alone. It tells them they’re OK. It tells them that they are worthy of story and narrative and, yeah, maybe love. And it exposes people to folks who are different than they are and makes the case that those that we don’t understand are worthy of empathy and love. That’s all wildly important, but it’s also self-evident.
More from Variety

But as a trans woman, I’m sick of these conversations because it feels like we only get to have them in June. I’m sick of these conversations because I’m sick of feeling like representation alone is enough. I’m sick of these conversations because I’m sick of art that seems to simply argue on behalf of our community’s collective humanity. That humanity should be beyond debate. I want stories of complex queer and trans people. That was our goal when making Peacock’s “Queer as Folk.” To depict queer folks who were messy and made mistakes but were still ultimately worthy of love and narrative. I want that to be where we’re going. I want more than just “representation” for our community.

And yet, here I am, in June, writing an article about the continued need for more queer representation. Why?

I was recently driving from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Now, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the geography of the American Southwest, but that’s a drive that puts me in Texas by myself for something like 15 hours. Not ideal.

One night, a little before midnight, I was a couple hours outside of Austin when my dog Leo woke up and very clearly needed to go to the bathroom. I took the next exit and pulled into a mostly empty gas station plaza. I parked along the edge of the lot, hopped out, leashed up Leo for an impromptu walk and encouraged him to move quickly. Just then, across the parking lot, three guys left the convenience store part of the station and headed to a van. As they made the walk to their car, I felt like they were looking at me, but they were far away, and my nerves were on edge, so I tried to dismiss the thought and turn my attention back to my pup, who had finally found a rock worthy of his pee.

Only I couldn’t dismiss it. And as I looked back to the van, I felt my blood run cold. The van was driving across the parking lot toward me.

It parked about 10 or so feet away from me. Close enough that I could see the faces of the men inside looking at me and talking to each other, but not so close I could make out what they were saying. There was laughter, but the kind that feels coated in razor blades. A joyful noise paired with hostile eyes.

I turned back to Leo, grabbed him, and returned to our car. I pulled out of the parking lot only for the van to follow. I drove back to the highway entrance, with my heart in my throat, and my eyes fixated on my phone’s lack of service. As I stopped at a red light, a million scenarios played out in my head at once. All of them bad. The light finally turned green and I finally turned onto the entrance to the highway. Once I did, I saw the van pull a U-turn and drive off into the night.

In some ways this is a story of something not happening. I’ve been assaulted for being trans before. I’ve been groped. I’ve had beer bottles thrown at me. Why this story and not those?

Because these men looked sure of their anger. They had the air of a group who felt like they had morality on their side. And why wouldn’t they? Right now, trans rights are under attack across this country. The Republican Party has spent the last two years explicitly running an election strategy to weaponize trans panic. On Fox News, trans people and those who support minors having access to gender-affirming care are being recategorized as “groomers.” On Netflix, famous straight comedians make jokes about trans women being dangerous in bathrooms, as well as worthy targets for their audience’s anger. All this leads to a simple but scary truth. When you start to say a group of people is dangerous, you empower your followers to become dangerous to them.

And it’s not stopping with trans people. “Don’t Say Gay” bills are becoming common in state legislatures across the country. And with Roe v. Wade likely to be overturned soon, Supreme Court protections that queer folks fought long and hard for are also seemingly back under threat. It’s not doom and gloom to say that things feel like they’re getting worse right now. It’s a realistic reading of the situation.

So, here I am, in June, saying that we need to make art that shows that queer and trans people are worthy of love and respect. Yes, I want to move beyond simple representation, and I hope our reimagining of “Queer as Folk” does that somewhat. But as much as I think that is where we should be going as an industry, I can’t sit here in the face of the political backslide we are experiencing and its very real-life consequences for actual queer and trans people (not to mention anyone with a uterus) and act like “representation matters” is trite. Telling our stories is an act of defense against the narratives being pushed that seek to harm us. Our humanity should be beyond debate, but unfortunately, we don’t live in a world where that’s true.

Jaclyn Moore is an executive producer and writer on Peacock’s “Queer as Folk.”

Variety

CULTURE WAR OVER MATH BOOK

Uproar in China over textbook images ‘not suitable for children’

Alyssa Chen and Dylan Duan and Livia Liu and Dawn Liu - Yesterday

HONG KONG — China’s education ministry has ordered a nationwide review of all primary, secondary and university textbooks after illustrations in widely used mathematics textbooks for primary school students were criticized online as ugly, sexually suggestive and anti-China.

The textbooks, published by the state-run People’s Education Press, have been in use for about a decade, according to Chinese news reports. But there has been an outcry on Chinese social media since last week, when illustrations from the books were posted on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.

Some Chinese internet users criticized what they said were racist depictions of people with small, wide-set eyes, while others objected to scenes that appear to show girls being groped or boys with bulging pants. An inaccurate rendering of the Chinese flag and a drawing of a boy wearing the U.S. flag colors of red, white and blue also drew accusations that the publisher was sending a pro-Western, anti-China message.

“This is not a problem of art, this is a problem of ideology. Do they really not know the seriousness of the problem of ideology infiltrating education?” one Weibo user commented.

The publisher has apologized and said it will revise the illustrations before the start of the next academic year in the fall. But that failed to stem the public uproar, and the Ministry of Education promised a wider review.


Math textbook

 (Sheldon Cooper / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“The problems found will be rectified immediately,” it said in a statement on Monday. “Those who violated the disciplines and regulations will be held accountable, and will be dealt with seriously in accordance with laws and regulations.”


Cristina Du, the mother of a fourth grader in Henan Province, said she had never looked closely at the illustrations until they were posted on social media.

“My daughter said she has always thought the illustrations are ugly since her first year in elementary school,” Du said. “She also told me there are illustrations that are not suitable for children.”

Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, there has been greater scrutiny of textbooks and similar materials as the government moves to center education around the ruling Communist Party and its ideology. Foreign textbooks have been banned in primary and middle schools.

Anger over the illustrations in the math textbooks has quickly spread to other Chinese materials designed for children and teenagers, leading other books to be pulled from the shelves.


Math textbook

 (Sheldon Cooper / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Others pushed back against the online furor. Wuheqilin, a prominent nationalist artist, argued that the low pay offered to illustrators resulted in poor-quality work.

One Weibo user criticized the textbook illustrations as ugly but said she was more concerned about greater censorship.

“If you look hard with a magnifying glass, you will find something wrong with everything,” she said.

Amazon employees call on Amazon to stop selling books deemed as anti-trans

Mariella Moon - 

In 2021, a handful of Amazon employees quit the company over its decision to sell books that suggest kids who identify as transgender are mentally ill. Now, a group of employees is protesting its continued sale of those books by disrupting a Pride event at its headquarters in Seattle. According to The Washington Post, around 30 members of the organization No Hate at Amazon laid on the ground wrapped in trans flags to stop the company's annual Pride flag-raising tradition. An organizer said: "Amazon does have standing policies against hate speech in its content and technically they say we don't sell it." But in truth, those contentious books are still listed on its website.



Transgender flag in the LGTB Pride Parade in Valencia, Spain

In a petition the group previously circulated to get Amazon to stop selling anti-trans books, it specifically named two titles: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier and Johnny the Walrus by American conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. "By continuing to sell and promote anti-trans books and repeating the rhetoric of the anti-trans hate movement, Amazon upper management has allowed the store that we build and operate to be complicit in [the anti-trans] hate movement," the petition reads.

At least one employee who participated in the event quit the company this week. Senior software engineer Lina Jodoin explained that it's more than just about the sale of those books, but also about the response they've gotten from management when they tried to escalate their concerns. And based on the company's response to the protest, it will keep on selling those titles.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told The Post in a statement:

"As a company, we believe strongly in diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a bookseller, we’ve chosen to offer a very broad range of viewpoints, including books that conflict with our company values and corporate positions. We believe that it’s possible to do both – to offer a broad range of viewpoints in our bookstore, and support diversity, equity, and inclusion."

How Abortion Decisions Could Impact IVF, According To A Fertility Doctor Who’s Done It

Courtney Shea - Yesterday - R29

Welcome to Refinery29’s Fertility Diaries, where people chronicle their joyous, painful, and sometimes complicated paths to parenthood. Today, we hear from Roohi Jeelani, MD, FACOG, a 39-year-old reproductive endocrinologist in Chicago, IL.

Here, Dr. Jeelani shares her story of going through fertility treatments as a fertility doctor, and her thoughts on the leaked Supreme Court draft document that would overturn Roe v. Wade, and, in many states, criminalize the discarding of frozen embryos.

Working as a fertility specialist, babies are what I do. In my profession, we are always paying close attention to changes around reproductive healthcare: what states are anti-abortion, new regulations around birth control, and so on. Even still, I was stunned the day of the Supreme Court draft opinion leak. For the majority of my life, reproductive rights felt immutable, and now here we are. I want to say that I am still hopeful that this won’t happen — that the outrage will have an impact and Roe v. Wade will stand. But given the work I do, I have to prepare for a worst-case scenario. And that scenario is terrifying.

Within an hour of the leak, I was getting calls from patients asking what this means or could mean for their embryos. Should they consider pausing in vitro fertilization [IVF] treatments? If Roe v. Wade does get overturned, abortion would be outlawed in more than 20 states. Thirteen states currently have trigger laws in place, many of which include language that defines life as beginning at the moment of fertilization. Other states aren’t even waiting, using “vigilante laws” like S.B. 8 in Texas to get around the courts. In Oklahoma, for example, the governor just signed a bill into law that defines life as beginning at the moment of fertilization (“the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum”). This seems to give a frozen embryo in a lab the same “personhood” as a 30-week-old fetus. The state is circumventing what are still federally protected abortion rights by empowering private citizens to sue a doctor, or anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion, including someone driving a pregnant person to a clinic. The pregnant person can’t be sued, but, of course, that could change. [Editor’s note: The legislator who initially sponsored the Oklahoma bill that’s now law told Politico Nightly that they didn’t discuss the fertility treatment IVF in regards to the bill, and that Republicans in the state currently don’t have interest in limiting IVF. This may not be the case in other states in the future, though.]

Just to clarify, if it eventually becomes illegal to discard frozen embryos, so much of the amazing advancement we have made around in vitro fertilization goes out the window. Treatments are essentially a numbers game — a certain amount of superfluous material (i.e., frozen embryos that don’t get used) is part of the equation for success. When we do a round of IVF, we retrieve as many eggs as possible. Even if the person is just wanting to have one child, you never know how many quality eggs you will end up with, and then, how many viable frozen embryos (fertilized eggs) will come from that. Statistically, we say it takes three quality embryos to result in a live birth, but the reality is that every individual is different. Freezing extra embryos means that if a first — or second or third or eighth — attempt is not successful, we can try again without having to go through another round of IVF, which is physically and emotionally draining and may not even be an option depending on age. IVF is also incredibly expensive in states that don’t have coverage — at least $10,000 per round on the low end — and that is true whether you are creating a single embryo or 10.

The problem is, if new laws come into play and are implemented to criminalize IVF, they would punish anyone disposing of any “leftovers” (or even donating them to science, which is another option). Both the clinician who is performing the procedure and the patient who has their eggs frozen could someday face legal ramifications. That’s not a road most people would want to go down, but the only alternative — creating a single embryo per round of IVF — would make fertility treatments less effective, less safe (for mother and baby because the likelihood of miscarriage would become far greater, and due to laws’ potential implications on genetic testing), less affordable, and largely unviable for women who are fighting against the clock, which is something I know about first hand.

I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome when I was 14 years old. My mom was concerned because I wasn’t getting my period. We went to one specialist after another who said I probably had an eating disorder, that I just needed to gain weight, which was so frustrating because I knew that wasn’t the case. Finally, my uncle suggested that I should see a reproductive endocrinologist, which was a turning point for me in so many ways. I got my diagnosis, yes, but even before that, I remember sitting in the waiting room and feeling overwhelmed by the joy and intensity in the space. Even before the doctor asked me about my health, I asked her, What is this place? What do you do? I still remember her answer perfectly: “I’m a fertility doctor, I help to make babies.” From that moment on, I knew what I wanted to do. I went to med school and launched my private practice in 2016.

By that time, I had already dealt with my own reproductive challenges. My husband and I met at school and we were already trying to get pregnant when I was a resident. I did a round of IVF in 2010 and experienced recurrent miscarriages before finally giving birth to my son in 2013. Even though this is what I do, being on the other side of infertility was an emotional rollercoaster. I was just about to start a second round of IVF when we found out that I was pregnant with my daughter in 2015 — a shock, of course, and a joy. I banked embryos again in 2017 and was ready to start implantation in 2020. I had seven viable embryos and none of them worked, which meant another round of IVF and, finally, success. I am currently 32 weeks pregnant — hurray! — but it took an additional seven implantations to get here.

To say my journey to motherhood would not be possible if new laws take effect goes without saying. But I will say it to anyone who will listen because it is so important that we fight to preserve the progress we have made and to protect the bodily autonomy of people who require fertility assistance. I say this as a pregnant person and a doctor. I am lucky to practice in Illinois, but I know that in some of the more conservative parts of the country people are being advised to move their embryos now, just to be safe.

There is a bitter irony to watching this group of politicians argue for the “sanctity of life,” meanwhile these new laws could mean the exact opposite in my field. I’m a fertility doctor. I help to make babies. Babies for people who desperately want to be pregnant. What kind of backwards reality are we living in that would deny me the ability to do what I do?

As told to Courtney Shea.

This interview has been condensed for length and clarity.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
A GOP congressional candidate used Covid relief funds meant for his employees to pay for his car and political campaign

mloh@businessinsider.com (Matthew Loh) - Yesterday 


A GOP congressional candidate pleaded guilty to misusing Covid relief funds meant for his employees.
He told employees at his small business that they would get paid if they worked for his campaign.
The Idaho candidate also omitted the time his employees put into his campaign in an FEC report.

A GOP congressional candidate in Idaho pleaded guilty on Wednesday to taking COVID-19 relief funds meant for his employees and using them for personal expenses like his car payments and a 2020 political campaign.

According to the Department of Justice, Nicholas Jones, 36, also pleaded guilty to falsifying records to conceal the time and work his employees put into his campaign in a report to the Federal Elections Commission.

Insider understands that Jones' small business in Boise, Idaho, is a store selling puzzles and tabletop and board games.

Jones told employees who worked at his store that he would pay them if they worked on his congressional campaign, the DOJ wrote in a press release.

In 2020, he applied for and received $753,600 from Covid-related assistance packages such as the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

He certified that the money would be put into his business but instead used a "significant portion" to pay for his car, life insurance policies, and political ads for his campaign, per the DOJ.

Jones' employees would show up to work on behalf of his campaign and were paid thousands of dollars in wages through his small business, partially with the money he received from the Covid relief packages, the department wrote.

When he lost the primary election, Jones filed a campaign finance report with the FEC. However, he omitted the contributions of anyone who worked on his campaign other than him, including the thousands of dollars worth of time and work that his employees spent, according to the DOJ.

Jones pleaded guilty to wire fraud and falsification of records in the District Court of Idaho and will be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum total sentence of 40 years in prison.

Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Jones' case isn't the first time that fraud and politics have crossed paths this year. On May 18, the creator of a fake political action committee admitted in federal court that he scammed donors by pretending to support former President Donald Trump's reelection and be a part of his campaign, as Insider's Grace Panetta reported.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Biden's Education Department just wiped out $5.8 billion in student debt for all remaining borrowers defrauded by Corinthian Colleges

asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey) - Yesterday 

© Provided by Business InsiderPresident Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

The Education Department canceled $5.8 billion in student debt for 560,000 former Corinthian College students.

Corinthian shut down in 2015 following accusations of predatory behavior that misled students.

This is Biden's latest action providing relief for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden's Education Department announced all remaining student-loan borrowers who attended now-defunct, for-profit Corinthian Colleges are getting their debt balances wiped out.

The announcement approved $5.8 billion for a group student-loan forgiveness claim that covers 560,000 former Corinthian students.

Corinthian shut down in 2015 following a number of investigations that found the school engaged in predatory behavior that pushed students to take out loans when that was not the best option for them. Since then, the department has approved borrower defense to repayment claims — a type of loan relief for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools — for some groups of students who went to Corinthian.

Wednesday's announcement is the biggest group approval the department has acted on to date, and it will include borrowers who did not submit relief claims themselves.

"As of today, every student deceived, defrauded, and driven into debt by Corinthian Colleges can rest assured that the Biden-Harris Administration has their back and will discharge their federal student loans," Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. "For far too long, Corinthian engaged in the wholesale financial exploitation of students, misleading them into taking on more and more debt to pay for promises they would never keep."

According to the press release, the Education Department will begin notifying impacted students of this relief, and borrowers will not have to take any additional action on their own.


So far, Cardona has approved more than $2 billion in borrower defense claims for former for-profit students, including some from Corinthian, ITT Technical Institutes, and Marinello Schools of Beauty. But those actions have still left many borrowers who submitted claims waiting for relief.

In March, Insider reported that 16 Democratic lawmakers, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, urged Cardona to act on the remaining claims for Corinthian students, saying that the Education Department has processed those claims in "a complex and piecemeal fashion" that has "delayed relief for thousands of borrowers while seemingly denying thousands of others any relief at all."

"For the estimated 350,000 students defrauded by Corinthian, which closed its campuses in 2015, the wait for debt cancellation has spanned three presidential administrations," the lawmakers wrote.

Since Corinthian shut down following investigations of predatory behavior, like misleading students into taking out unaffordable debt, former students have been fighting for the relief themselves. A group of borrowers known as the Corinthian 15 met with the Debt Collective — the nation's first debtor's union — and prepared for a debt strike that has now turned into 200 students and counting fighting for their borrower defense claims to be approved.

"This has been a long time coming and it's something that we've wanted for ever," Nathan Hornes, one of the original 15 strikers, said during a Wednesday press call. "It's a powerful moment, and it's a moment that I don't take for granted," Hornes added. "But there's so much more work to be done. This it doesn't stop here. The buck does not stop with us."

During her time as attorney general in California, Vice President Kamala Harris also took action against Corinthian. In 2016, she secured a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian, providing restitution payments for former students defrauded by the for-profit chain.

Along with student-loan relief, some of Biden's top officials have vowed to ensure for-profit schools are held accountable for bad behavior. At the end of last year, Federal Student Aid head Richard Cordray said that "more needs to be done to prevent people from abusing these student aid programs, from cheating taxpayers, from cheating students."

Wednesday's widespread relief also comes as Biden is working toward making a decision on broad student-loan forgiveness for federal borrowers. While Biden himself has not confirmed a specific relief amount, recent reports have suggested he is looking at $10,000 in forgiveness for borrowers making under $150,000 a year.