Wednesday, August 31, 2022

BRING ON THE MIDTERMS
Three in Five Americans and Independents are Pro-Choice Following the Recent Referendum in Kansas

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

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Welcome to NAVIGATOR – a project designed to better understand the American public’s views on issues of the day and help advocates, elected officials, and other interested parties understand the language, imagery, and messaging needed to make and win key policy arguments.

Key takeaways

Majorities of Americans identify as pro-choice and support abortion being legal in all or most cases.
Almost half of Americans are hearing about the Kansas vote on abortion, and three in five say they support the results to keep abortion rights in the Kansas state constitution.
Majorities say they would vote to protect abortion rights if their state had a referendum similar to Kansas’, including overwhelming majorities of Democrats and independent women.

Three in Five Are Pro-Choice and Say Abortion Should Be Legal in All or Most Cases

Majorities of Democrats (82%) and independents (61%) describe themselves as pro-choice.

More than Half of Americans Continue to Disapprove of the Supreme Court Eliminating Federal Protections for Abortion

Republicans remain the only group supportive of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade – other partisan, racial, and ethnic groups disapprove of the decision by double-digit margins.

Nearly Half Have Heard About the Kansas Vote on Abortion, and a Majority Support the Outcome Protecting Abortion Rights

The results of the Kansas referendum on abortion rights – to keep abortion protections in place in the state constitution – are widely supported, with independents supporting the decision to keep abortion rights in place in the state by 36 points.

Nearly Two in Three Americans Say They Would Vote to Protect Abortion Rights on a Referendum Like Kansas’s

Overwhelming majorities of Democrats (including 87% of Democratic men and 85% of Democratic women) and independent women (75%) would vote to protect abortion. Republican women are split (40% would vote to protect, 46% would vote to ban).

Views of the Supreme Court Continue to Be Underwater in the Aftermath of Overturning Roe

Democrats (68%), Hispanic Americans (59%), and Black Americans (48%) are most likely to be unfavorable to the Supreme Court.

About The Study

Global Strategy Group conducted public opinion surveys among a sample of 1,000 registered voters from August 11-August 14, 2022. 106 additional interviews were conducted among Hispanic voters. 78 additional interviews were conducted among Asian American and Pacific Islander voters. 102 additional interviews were conducted among African American voters. 101 additional interviews were conducted among independent voters.

Oklahoma’s Upcoming Execution Spree

Sister Helen Prejean is imploring both church and state to be “pro-life” even for the guilty.

The impact of the Covid vaccine on periods, from increased cramps to pattern disturbances

In the UK nearly 40,000 people had reported a change to their menstrual cycle to the Yellow Card surveillance scheme

Has the vaccine had an impacted on menstrual cycles? Studies are beginning to report data (Photo: Getty Images)

By Marisa Bate

August 22, 2022

The UK has become the first country to approve a dual vaccine, which will tackle both the Omicron variant and the original Covid-19 virus, for use in the autumn.

Described as “a sharpened tool in our armoury as the virus continues to evolve” by Dr June Raine, chief executive of the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the jab will be offered to the over-50s, health workers, carers over 16, those at clinical risk from the age of five upwards, and those who live with someone with a low immune system.

Currently, there has been no announcement of when or if the dual roll-out will be expanded, but if it were, would everyone take another jab?

Although we know immunity wanes over time, after 33 million people have had three vaccinations, and millions already had a likely Covid infection (there have been a recorded total of 19 million positive tests), should we anticipate greater apathy, or even hesitancy for those who experienced short-term side effects and think they can avoid them?

The NHS says side effects can include a sore arm, feeling tired, headaches, feeling achy, feeling or being sick. You may also get a high temperature. Although these do not impact everyone, and should not last longer than a week. There have also been reports of changes to women’s menstrual cycles: heavy bleeding, increased cramps and disturbance to patterns.

In the UK, by May of this year, nearly 40,000 people had reported a change to their menstrual cycle to the Yellow Card surveillance scheme, the medical regulator scheme, to which healthcare professionals and members of the public can report suspected vaccine side effects. And now, several studies have been published which back up these observations.

An American survey published in the Science Advances journal earlier in August involving 39,000 participants aged 18-80, is the largest study so far. It found that 43 per cent of those with regular cycles noticed heavier bleeding after a vaccination (the majority of the sample received Pfizer and Moderna vaccines). This was reflective of two of the authors’ own experiences.

Dr Katy Clancy of University of Illinois, a biological anthropologist who specialises in reproductive health, shared on Twitter in February 2021: “I’m a week and a half out from dose 1 of Moderna, got my period maybe a day or so early, and am gushing like I’m in my 20s again”. Dr Clancy’s graduate student, Katherine Lee said she had “the worst cramps of my life”.

The survey also revealed that those who didn’t expect to bleed – for various reasons, including being postmenopausal – starting bleeding, known as “breakthrough bleeding”.

“Among respondents who typically do not menstruate, 71 per cent of people on long-acting reversible contraceptives, 39 per cent of people on gender-affirming hormones, and 66 per cent of postmenopausal people reported breakthrough bleeding”, the authors wrote. However, 44 per cent of the nearly 40,000 participants reported no change to their periods at all showing that like other side effects, this does not affect everyone.

In Norway, a study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health also found that heavy bleeding occurred after vaccination – but in just over 13 per cent. This, Ms Lee explained may be due to the immune responses caused by the vaccine, specifically inflammation. And any side effects experienced are believed to be temporary.

The dual vaccine has been approved for use in the autumn (Photo: Hollie Adams/Getty)

As well as looking at changes to bleeding, other studies have looked at impact on period timings. A smaller US study into the relationship between periods and vaccines, using data from period-tracking app Natural Cycles, found that periods were only a day late, and remained roughly the same length. This study, published in Obstetrics and Gynaecology journal, looked at 2,400 vaccinated individuals and compared their data to 1,500 unvaccinated people.

Last month, Dr Victoria Male, a lecturer in reproductive immunology at Imperial College London published a smaller study. Unlike the US or Norway, the UK government hasn’t provided any funding for research in this area, and instead, Male’s research has been done on a “shoestring”, she wrote in The Guardian.

Regardless, she found a similar pattern; there may be a disturbance to periods, including delays, but it is slight and reversible. Her work also pointed to a potential link between regular periods after vaccination for those on the combined pill.

Dr Male pointed to similar historic examples: “Writing in 1549, the Chinese doctor Wan Chhüan casually mentions that inoculation against smallpox (an early procedure similar to vaccination) was liable to bring on menstruation unexpectedly.

“A report from 1913 noted that when a New York hospital started vaccinating its nurses against typhoid, a number of them noticed post-vaccination differences in their [periods].”

Amy, 28, noticed much heavier bleeding and painful cramps after her Covid jabs. At first, she put it down to the stress of the ongoing pandemic. She went on to have the second vaccine, and booster and noticed a similar shift. But would this change her approach to another vaccination, if it were offered?

“I’d rather not have Covid than a bad period”, she tells i. “If more jabs are coming, it would just be nice if we’d be given a bit more of a heads-up about potential impact instead of worrying [that] something has gone wrong.”

Chantell, 36, experienced a late period and, when it did arrive, it lasted longer than normal. She is more reluctant than Amy, although concedes she would take another vaccine. Chantell has had Covid-19 twice, and each time it was mild. “I’m more annoyed by the inconvenience of it, than worried about how ill I’d be” she says. “Women have always had to endure bad periods, it’s just been part of the course”.

Lily, 24, had a far heavier period post-vaccine than normal but said taking the vaccination is the “responsible thing to do” if she wants to see her grandparents. The women say their periods have subsequently returned to normal.

Dr Clancy, Dr Male, and Ms Lee have all stressed that the surveys and studies are as much an awareness raising exercise as important data collection. Just as many were warned about short-term flu-like symptoms as a vaccine reaction, warning people that periods may be irregular, heavier or more painful prevents unnecessary worry and panic. It can also help take oxygen out of any false and unfounded infertility rumours.

Women are well used to issues around their health being underfunded, under researched and misunderstood. We only need to look at discussions about the risk of blood clotting caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine which meant under 30s were offered an alternative jab, but many women pointed out that the contraceptive pill has much higher risks of thrombosis yet has never received such outcry. That was because, many said, only women took the drug.

Throughout the numerous WhatsApp groups of women I posed the question to, spanning women in their 20s to their 40s, the response was fairly resounding – a difficult period wouldn’t stop them from getting another Covid vaccine, particularly as there was no evidence that the disruption had any link to infertility or long-term problems, one woman pointed out.

Dr Male is keen for these studies not to put women off getting vaccinated: “Would I let these findings put me off getting vaccinated? Well, I got vaccinated while analysing these results, so no! The study results align with others, finding that post-vaccination changes to periods are small and quickly reverse.

“For anyone who is particularly worried about the findings, it is also worth remembering that catching Covid can affect periods, so the most important thing you can do is try to avoid getting Covid”.

Turkey signals new rules of engagement to Syrian Kurds, Damascus

Turkish strikes on Syrian government troops and overt Kurdish attacks on targets inside Turkey signal that both sides are changing the rules of the game as Ankara eyes normalization with Damascus.

A Turkey-backed fighter looks out from a military position in the Syrian area of Jibrin in Aleppo's eastern countryside toward the Kurdish-controlled area of Tal Rifaat on July 19, 2022. -

BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images

Fehim Tastekin
@fehimtastekin
August 22, 2022

Ankara’s reconciliation overtures to Damascus have been accompanied by growing Turkish attacks on Syrian Kurdish and government forces along the border — a sign of new engagement rules in a border strip extending 32 kilometers (20 miles) into northern Syria that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to see as a “safe zone.”

The attacks resonate as a message that Ankara will not tolerate Syrian army positions that amount to indirect cover or support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its main component, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey insists should be removed from the border strip. The SDF and YPG appear to have changed the rules of the game as well, mounting overt attacks on Turkish border posts and patrols, something they have hitherto avoided.

Erdogan’s talk of fence-mending with Damascus followed his Aug. 5 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi and Russian capital flows to Turkey. Back in 2016, he had said that Turkey’s military thrust into northern Syria aimed to end the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he described as a “tyrant wrecking state terror” on his people. Now, Erdogan says the issue for Ankara “is not about defeating or not defeating Assad.”

The issue, he argues, is about the threat of terrorism — a reference to the Syrian Kurdish forces, which Turkey equates with the Kurdistan Workers Party, the armed Kurdish outfit that has fought Ankara since 1984. In remarks to reporters on Aug. 19, Erdogan took a swipe at Washington’s collaboration with the SDF, charging that “the United States and coalition forces have been primarily nourishing terrorism in Syria.” He said he told Putin that Turkey and Russia should step up cooperation “to carry out a fight against terrorism,” and added, “We don’t want to prolong further the process here. We don’t have an eye on Syria’s territory. … The regime should comprehend that.”

Turkey, Erdogan stressed, “is in contact with Russia on every step it takes” in Syria. “We wished to work more efficiently with Iran as well, but this did not materialize,” he added.

Regarding Syria’s future, Erdogan voiced hope that a new “constitution will be drafted as soon as possible and steps will be taken to resolve the grievances of the people.” Recalling that Turkey hosts nearly 4 million Syrian refugees, he said, “The process might be much more auspicious from now on. … Political dialogue or diplomacy between states should never be discarded.” He called for “more advanced steps with Syria,” which, he said, would help “foil many ploys” against Muslim nations in the region.

In a further reflection of the U-turn in Ankara’s rhetoric, Numan Kurtulmus, deputy chair of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, said, “Presenting the issue as an issue between Turkey and the Syrian regime is extremely wrong. It’s an issue between the Syrian regime and its people.”

On the ground, however, Turkey has continued to send military reinforcements to Syria, and Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies have stepped up coordinated attacks on Kurdish forces along contact lines in Tal Rifaat, Manbij, Ain al-Issa, Kobani and Tal Tamer. The attacks appear to be Ankara’s reminder that the prospect of peace with Damascus is conditioned on jointly fighting the Kurds. They seem to also be a message that Turkey will continue to target Kurdish forces in the border strip and Damascus should accept that as of today.

Following the accords that put an end to Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria in 2019, Turkey had acquiesced to Syrian government forces moving north to the Turkish border as part of understandings with the SDF. But it seems it will no longer accept deployments that serve to camouflage the YPG or SDF presence near the border.

In a staggering sign to that effect, the Turkish military hit a base used by Syrian soldiers in an area west of the Kurdish-populated border town of Kobani on Aug. 16. Three soldiers were killed and six others injured in the strike, according to Syrian sources. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said the strike was a response to a deadly mortar attack on a Turkish border post. Yet, there was no information that the mortar was fired from the base of the Syrian soldiers. That the retaliation targeted the Syrian army rather than the SDF is thought provoking.

Furthermore, a Turkish drone targeted government forces at the Menagh military airport in the north of Aleppo province the following day, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, with no immediate information about casualties. On Aug. 18, two Syrian soldiers were reportedly wounded in Turkish attacks near Tal Tamer in Hasakah province, a region where Turkish shelling had left another pair of soldiers injured on Aug. 12. In Aleppo alone, the observatory tallies seven Turkish attacks on areas where government and Kurdish forces are both present since July.

As for Kurdish-held areas, the attacks have been akin to a war in recent months, short of only a ground offensive to complete the picture. According to an Aug. 18 report in the Syrian daily Al-Watan, Turkish drones have carried out 52 strikes in SDF-controlled areas this year, killing 53 people, including five civilians, and injuring at least 86.

On the evening of Aug. 18, four girls were killed and 11 others injured while playing volleyball at a UN education center in Hasakah in a drone attack that the de facto Kurdish-led autonomous administration in the region blamed on Turkey. The commander of the US-led coalition forces in Syria and Iraq condemned the attack without naming a perpetrator.

The escalation has seen the SDF extend its firing range toward the Turkish border. On Aug. 8, its media office claimed that 23 Turkish soldiers had been killed in three attacks along the border in the Turkish province of Mardin. There was no statement about casualties from the Turkish side, but it was the first time the SDF claimed responsibility for an attack despite previous exchanges of fire at the border.

In another statement on Aug. 18, the SDF said its forces had taken “a series of efficient actions against the occupying Turkish army in response to its attacks” and vowed to continue to do so. It claimed killing six soldiers near a border outpost in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa, targeting another border outpost in Gaziantep and killing a soldier in an attack on an armored vehicle at the border in Mardin.

On the Turkish side, officials said a soldier was killed and four others injured in the Aug. 16 attack on the border outpost in Sanliurfa. This was the attack to which Turkey responded by bombing the Syrian army base near Kobani. In the second attack claimed by the SDF, mortars landed on an empty field. A mortar attack on the same border outpost in Gaziantep had left a soldier dead and three others wounded on May 12. No casualties were reported in the Aug. 10 attacks at the border in Mardin.

A Kurdish source knowledgeable of the matter told Al-Monitor, “The SDF has for the first time claimed responsibility for retaliatory attacks. There have been exchanges of fire previously, but they would be stopped upon requests from Russia and the international coalition. The SDF has now changed the rules of engagement because the United States and Russia — the guarantors of the 2019 accords — have failed to prevent Turkey’s attacks. This has been the case for about a month.”

Back in 2019, months before Turkey seized control of the northeastern border strip between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain in Operation Peace Spring, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi had told a group of journalists in Hasakah, including this author, that a Turkish attack would spark a full-scale war along the entire border. The clashes ultimately remained contained to the targeted region, as had happened in Afrin in 2018. The Kurdish restraint stemmed from concerns over giving Turkey a pretext for an all-out occupation, also reflecting the United States’ breaking influence.

Neuroscience: Brain stimulation improves memory for at least one month

Nature Neuroscience

August 23, 2022

Electrical brain stimulation for 20 minutes on four consecutive days can improve two different types of memory in individuals 65 years and older for at least one month, according to a study published in Nature Neuroscience. This non-invasive method to enhance memory may help to improve daily activities as the global population rapidly ages.

Remembering something for a short period of time — such as a platform number when catching a train — requires working memory, whereas recalling where you left your car in the airport parking following a holiday is an example of long-term memory. Individuals vary greatly in their performance of these types of memory, with performance tending to decrease with age.

Robert Reinhart and colleagues aimed to improve both types of memory in 150 individuals aged between 65 and 88 years old. The authors delivered electrical currents through electrodes embedded in a cap worn by participants as they heard, and immediately recalled, five lists of 20 words. On the basis of previous research, the authors targeted two specific brain regions with two distinct stimulation frequencies. Targeting the inferior parietal lobule at a frequency of 4 Hz was found to improve recall of the words from the end of the list — indicative of storage in working memory — whereas targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at 60 Hz improved recall of words at the beginning — reflecting storage in long-term memory. Participants with the lowest cognitive performance at the start of the study benefited the most from brain stimulation.

Further research is needed to determine whether these effects can last beyond one month, and whether these specific methods can also enhance memory function in individuals with impaired cognition due to brain disorders and in those at risk for dementia.

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