Ontario paramedics see number of patients rushed to hospital related to opioid use quadruple in decade: study

Story by Samantha Beattie • CBC


A new study reveals the mounting toll the opioid crisis is having on emergency departments and paramedic services in Ontario, and should serve as a "wake up call" to policymakers, says the report's author.

Patients going to emergency departments due to opioid use more than doubled between 2009 and 2019, said McMaster University PhD candidate Ryan Strum, the lead researcher.

But it was paramedics who experienced the largest increase in demand for service, Strum found. The number of patients they transported to hospitals because of opioid use quadrupled across that decade.

"This research really underscores the need to increase our support and resources for these patients who are struggling," Strum said.

The Hamilton, Niagara, Haldimand and Brant region was one of the "major hubs" that experienced a staggering surge in people needing help due to opioid use, he said.

Paramedic transports increased seven-fold, from 217 to over 1,600 and emergency department visits quadrupled from 500 to over 2,200.



Emergency departments have also seen a surge in patients needing help dealing with not only overdoses, but also withdrawal symptoms and opioid-related mental health disorders. (Rafferty Baker/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

It's unknown why exactly these municipalities saw more demand, but it could be that there's more people using opioids like fentanyl and the even more potent carfentanil compared to other areas, Strum said. For example, Hamilton had the third highest opioid-related mortality rate in Ontario and the highest rate in southern Ontario, according to city data from 2018.

The McMaster study is the first of its kind in Canada that looks at not only people accessing the health-care system for opioid overdoses and deaths, but also for withdrawal and dependence symptoms, and related mental health disorders such as psychosis, said Strum.

The peer-reviewed study was published Sept. 8 with the Public Library of Science journal, Plos One.

Related video: Ontario's long-term care inspection system wasn't ready for first COVID-19 wave, ombudsman says (cbc.ca)  Duration 1:09  View on Watch

The study also shows that the majority of patients who went to emergency departments weren't admitted to hospital, but rather discharged. That indicates they could receive effective treatment and help through community programs, which, with more funding, could ease the burden on emergency services, Strum said.

In the coming months, he will be publishing the same data for more recent years, with every indication the results will be even more striking as the opioid crisis has only worsened, he said. He's calling for action from policymakers "sooner rather than later."

"We've known about the opioid crisis for almost two decades now," he said.

"So we've got a surplus of data. We've got a lot of experts in the field that are specializing in how to treat and manage these patients. I think we just really need to put all these resources together and come up with tangible solutions."
Minister announces funding for Hamilton supports

According to recent city data, Hamilton has seen a rise in opioid-related overdoses and deaths since 2018, prompting it to declare a state of emergency earlier this year.

On Monday, the federal government announced $1.8 million for local substance use projects at St. Joseph's mental health campus.The money is not new but rather was pledged in the 2022 federal budget.

Minister Ya'ara Saks, who oversees mental health and addictions, said the funding will be divided between the city for more harm reduction outreach and peer support workers, the AIDS Network to bolster its existing safer supply program, and St. Joseph's to improve patient treatment, diagnosis and care.


Ya'ara Saks is the federal minister of mental health and addictions and associate minister of health. 

(Sarah Law/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

"We know people who use substances need a fuller range of services and supports," Saks said at a news conference. "Whether it's from prevention to harm reduction to treatment and recovery, we all need to show up for them."

These types of announcements do little to actually help the city tackle the many crises it's facing including opioids, homelessness, mental health and affordable housing, said Hamilton Coun. Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2), whose downtown ward is home to a major hospital emergency department and safer use spaces.

Hamilton needs "massive amounts of funding" from the provincial and federal governments to take "bold serious action today," he said.

"Upper levels of government spend far too much time thinking about re-election cycles than they do about dealing with issues," Kroetsch said.

"Meanwhile every single day we get further and further and further behind."

Guatemala President-elect suspends transition after agents raid election facilities, open vote boxes



GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo said Tuesday he was temporarily suspending the transition process and called for the resignation of the attorney general following raids on electoral facilities during which government agents opened boxes of votes and photographed their contents in what experts called an unprecedented violation of the law.

Arévalo said he had notified outgoing President Alejandro Giammattei, who just a day earlier had promised a smooth handover of power, and would only return to the process when the necessary conditions were met.

It was not immediately clear if it could affect the constitutionally-mandated transfer of power Jan. 14.

Agents from Guatemala's Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday again raided facilities of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, but this time raising the stakes in Guatemala's democratic transition by opening dozens of boxes of votes.

Luis Gerardo Ramírez, spokesman for the tribunal, said the body had not given permission to open the boxes and said the raid was being carried out by the Attorney General’s Office with the order of a judge.

The Attorney General’s Office had asked to review at least 160 boxes of votes from various parts of the country, Ramírez said. Guatemalan law permits only personnel of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the teams that count the votes at polling places on election day to handle the secret ballots.

“This is unprecedented, the law does not establish a process for this,” said Gloria López, electoral director of the tribunal. She said only the receiving authority at each polling place on the day of the election is supposed to review the marked ballots.

López said that votes in the opened boxes do not have a digital backup. She said by handling them, the Attorney General’s Office was breaking the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s chain of custody.

Related video: Progressive outsider wins presidency in Guatemala (The Associated Press)


“We would no longer be able to ensure what exactly are the votes that are inside the electoral boxes and what is the number of signatures and fingerprints on the (polling place tally sheets) that are going in the boxes,” she said.

Brian Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, condemned Guatemala Attorney General’s Office actions Tuesday via X.

“This unprecedented action undermines the democratic transition and the will of the Guatemalan people,” he wrote.

The Organization of American States electoral observation mission to Guatemala expressed deep concern at the actions.

“The opening of the electoral packers by people and institutions other than those identified by law represents a frontal attack on the integrity of the vote and an affront to the popular will,” the mission said in a statement. It said it was further evidence of the Attorney General’s Office attempting to intimidate electoral authorities and question the electoral process.

The mission had already reported that prosecutors’ accusations against the electoral process lack any foundation.

Ovidio Orellana, former president of Guatemala’s bar association, said that there is no legal basis giving power to a judge or prosecutors to touch the electoral boxes or votes. “It is an arbitrary act,” he said.

The raid was apparently part of some of the various ongoing investigations related to the national elections that culminated last month with the election of Arévalo.

Anti-corruption prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who has been investigating Arévalo’s Seed Movement party, was leading the operation. Curruchiche has been sanctioned by the United States government for allegedly obstructing the fight against corruption.

The Attorney General’s Office confirmed Tuesday's raid, but declined to say to which case it was related. Judge Fredy Orellana issued the order to carry it out. He has also been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

Under Giammattei and the attorney general he appointed, Consuelo Porras, the government has targeted criminal investigations not against corruption but against those who investigated and punished it.

Sonia Pérez D., The Associated Press

Biden’s ambitious efforts to strengthen the social safety net are fraying

By Tami Luhby, CNN
Tue September 12, 2023

US President Joe Biden signs the American Rescue Plan on March 11, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
CNN —

For a few fleeting months in 2021, it looked like President Joe Biden was making great strides in his promise to even the playing field for more Americans.

Even before his inauguration, he laid out a $1.9 trillion vision that called for bigger stimulus checks, more aid for the unemployed, the hungry and small businesses. As part of his American Rescue Plan proposal, Biden wanted to increase the child tax credit and make it available to more lower-income families, as well as help make child care more affordable. And he called for greatly expanding subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans and reinstating pandemic paid sick and family leave benefits.

With the Democrats in control of both chambers and the White House, Biden felt he could push for big steps he said were needed to address immediate needs. But it also would put in place – if even temporarily – many unprecedented social supports that party leaders had been trying to institute for years and might, they hoped, be hard to unravel.

In mid-March of that year, Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that mirrored much of what he had proposed with a few notable changes, including leaving out the paid sick and family leave provision and an increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

“This plan is historic,” he said that month. “Taken altogether, this plan is going to make it possible to cut child poverty in half. Let me say that again – it’s significant, historic. It will cut child poverty in half.”

And it did – for a year.

On Tuesday, the Census Bureau reported that the child poverty rate skyrocketed from a record low 5.2% in 2021, when families were receiving the enhanced child tax credit and third round of stimulus checks, to 12.4% last year. What’s more, the share of children in poverty is roughly back to where it was prior to the pandemic in 2019, based on a broader alternative measure developed by the Census Bureau. It was the largest jump in child poverty since the Supplemental Poverty Measure began in 2009.

Overall, the supplemental poverty rate was 12.4% last year, up from 7.8% last year and higher than it was prior to the pandemic. It’s the first increase in the rate since 2010.
Temporary measures and internal resistance

Although the federal government spent a record amount of money in 2020 and 2021 to help the nation contend with the Covid-19 pandemic, there were limits. The hefty price tag of the Democrats’ ambitions forced them to make many of their measures temporary – notably the enhancement to the child tax credit, which boosted payments to as much as $3,600 per kid and made more low-income parents eligible.

The cost and concerns about swiftly rising inflation ultimately cratered the party’s attempt in the fall of 2021 to push through Congress a sweeping $3.5 trillion package that would have massively broadened the nation’s safety net as envisioned in Biden’s jobs and families proposals. It would have established a universal Pre-K program, further boost support for child care, make community college tuition-free for two years, create the first federal paid and medical leave benefit and extend the expansion of the child tax credit and other credits.

The Democrats wanted to pay for it by hiking taxes on the companies and well-off Americans, but the plans were scuttled by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a key moderate who worried about the legislation’s impact on inflation, and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who later left the party to become an independent.

A whittled down version of the proposal passed in August 2022, which extended a key Affordable Care Act subsidy enhancement through 2025, provided for a record investment in the climate and made major changes to Medicare, including allowing it to negotiate the prices of certain drugs for the first time.

More blows in 2023

More supports that helped Americans get by during the pandemic are expiring this year.

Already more than 6.4 million people, including at least 1.3 million children, have lost their Medicaid coverage since April, when states were once again allowed to start trimming their rolls of residents they deem ineligible, according to KFF. At least 15 million enrollees are expected have their coverage terminated by the end of the process next spring – undermining Biden’s pronouncements that more Americans have gained health insurance under his watch.

Also, a pandemic boost to food stamps ended nationwide this spring, and work requirements for certain recipients will kick in this fall. The expiration of the emergency allotments, along with the hike in grocery prices, has sent more Americans to food banks in an effort to feed themselves and their families.

And $24 billion in child care stabilization grants expires on September 30. More than 70,000 programs could close and about 3.2 million kids could lose their spots, according to The Century Foundation.

What’s more, in October, as the pandemic-related pause on federal student loan payments expires, borrowers will be required to pay their monthly bills for the first time in more than three years. Biden extended the payment pause six times since coming into office, but Congress has prohibited him from pushing back the date another time.

Though Biden’s administration has canceled more student loan debt than any other, the president’s signature effort to forgive up to $20,000 for millions of low- and middle-income borrowers got blocked by the Supreme Court this summer.
Selling Bidenomics

The steep rise in poverty – coupled with a drop in median household income – will make the president’s 2024 campaign message that his policies are helping Americans a tougher sell.

Already many people are not buying his “Bidenomics” pitch. They have a dour view of the economy in part because of the toll high inflation has taken on people’s finances, though the pace of price increases has slowed.

Some 51% of the public say they think the economy is still in a downturn and getting worse, according to a CNN poll released last month.

What’s more, only 24% of US adults said Biden’s policies have improved economic conditions, according to another CNN poll released last week, while 58% said his policies have worsened economic conditions.

Biden and some congressional Democrats are still trying to build support for restoring the enhanced child tax credit, a task made much tougher by Republican control of the House.

The president responded to Tuesday’s grim poverty report by blaming the GOP.

“The rise reported today in child poverty is no accident – it is the result of a deliberate policy choice congressional Republicans made to block help for families with children while advancing massive tax cuts for the wealthiest and largest corporations,” he said.

CNN’s Katie Lobosco contributed to this report.

New York City’s pension funds and state of Oregon sue Fox Corporation over 2020 election lies

Story by By Oliver Darcy and Liam Reilly, CNN •


New York City’s pension funds and the state of Oregon took legal action on Tuesday against Fox Corporation, alleging in a lawsuit that the Fox News parent company failed shareholders by allowing the right-wing channel to recklessly spread lies about the 2020 election that opened it up to a pair of historic defamation cases.

The lawsuit, which was filed under seal in the Delaware Court of Chancery and named Fox Corporation board members and its executives as defendants, accused the media company of having chosen to “invite robust defamation claims, with potentially huge financial liability and potentially larger business repercussions, rather than disappoint viewers of Fox News,” according to an excerpt of the complaint provided by the state of Oregon.

The lawsuit represents the most serious shareholder legal action taken against Fox since it settled a historic defamation lawsuit brought by election technology company Dominion Voting Systems earlier this year for a record $787.5 million. Fox, which has maintained it is proud of its dishonest 2020 election coverage, still faces an even larger, $2.7 billion lawsuit from election technology company Smartmatic.

“Fox’s board of directors has blatantly disregarded the need for journalistic standards and failed to put safeguards in place despite having a business model that invites defamation litigation,” Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, said in a statement on Tuesday. “A lack of journalistic standards and a proper strategy to mitigate defamation has clearly harmed Fox’s reputation and threatens their bottom line and long-term profitability.”

“The board of Fox Corporation took a massive risk in pursuing profits by perpetuating and peddling known falsehoods,” Ellen Rosenblum, attorney general of Oregon, said in a separate statement. “The directors’ choices exposed themselves and the company to liability and exposed their shareholders to significant risks. That is the crux of our lawsuit, and we look forward to making our case in court.”

A spokesperson for Fox Corporation declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit did not specify a damages figure. A spokesperson for the New York City Comptroller’s office said the pension funds held 857,000 shares of Fox Corporation stock valued at $28.10 million. The state of Oregon held 226,315 shares of Fox stock valued at $5.2 million.

Legal and corporate governance experts have long warned that Fox Corporation would be subject to shareholder lawsuits for irresponsible management decisions that left the company vulnerable to legal action.

Fox Corporation, led by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, has kept the current Fox News leadership team that oversaw the network’s lie-filled 2020 coverage in place. But last month, the company abruptly announced that Viet Dinh, its chief legal officer who oversaw the company’s legal strategy combatting the election lawsuits, would exit his role at the end of the year.

In addition to the two lawsuits brought by Dominion and Smartmatic, Fox News has also been slapped with a cascade of defamation lawsuits from others taking action against the network.

Ray Epps, an Arizona man that conspiracy theorists falsely claim led an FBI plot to orchestrate the January 6 insurrection, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News in July.

Earlier this year, Fox News settled a defamation case with a Venezuelan businessman who had filed a lawsuit against the company over its 2020 election coverage. And Fox settled a lawsuit brought by former producer Abby Grossberg, who accused the network of fostering a toxic workplace environment, for $12 million.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Balzan Prizes recognize achievements in study of human evolution, black holes with $840,000 awards

MILAN (AP) — An American literary historian, a French paleoanthropologist, a Danish evolutionary geneticist and a German-Dutch astrophysicist have been named the winners of this year’s Balzan Prize. Their work in the humanities and natural sciences advances the study of comparative literature, human evolution and black holes.

David Damrosch, chair of Harvard University's comparative literature department, was recognized for “his creative approach to world literature as a translational circulation of works that remain alive because they are embraced and changed,’’ the Balzan Foundation said in its citation.

Frenchman Jean-Jacques Hublin of the Max-Planck-Institute for evolutionary anthropology in Leipzig was cited for his discoveries of the oldest Homo sapiens in Africa, contributing to the study of human evolution. The citation also praised his ability to synthesize data, organize scientific teams and his qualities as a teacher “and popularizer.”

Also awarded for contributions to the study of human evolution, Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark was cited for studies of human DNA, focusing on population migrations to “transform our understanding of human history.” The citation said he used ancient DNA from teeth to identify human pathogens and retrieved DNA from environmental samples “opening a new scientific field.”

The final individual award went to Heino Falcke, an astrophysicist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, for his role in producing high-resolution images of what surrounds black holes as leader of the Event Horizon Telescope. The work validated “Einstein’s General Relativity in situations where gravity is so strong that spacetime is significantly curved,’’ the judges said.

The Balzan Foundation awards prizes in the sciences and humanities each year, rotating specialties to highlight new or emerging areas of research and sustain fields that might be overlooked elsewhere. Recipients receive 750,000 Swiss francs ($840,000), half of which must be used for research, preferably by young scholars or scientists.

This year, a special prize for humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples was made to the Francesca Rava Foundation, an Italian organization that helps responds to humanitarian and natural disasters in Italy and Latin America. The prize, also worth 750,000 Swiss francs, is give out at intervals of at least three years.

The prizes will be awarded in Bern, Switzerland on Nov. 17.

The Associated Press

Environmental activists killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022 – report

Colombia was the deadliest country and a fifth of the 177 recorded killings took place in the Amazon rainforest, says Global Witness

An environmental protest in Brasilia, Brazil, April 2022. Almost 90% of all killings were recorded in Latin America. Photograph: Andressa Anholete/Getty Images


Patrick Greenfield
@pgreenfielduk
Wed 13 Sep 2023 


At least 177 people were killed last year for defending the environment, according to new figures, with a fifth of killings taking place in the Amazon rainforest.

Murdered by organised crime groups and land invaders, environmental defenders were killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022, figures from the NGO Global Witness show. Colombia was the most deadly country, recording 60 murders.

Indigenous communities were disproportionately represented in the figures, making up 34% of all murders, despite representing about 5% of the world’s population. The new figures mean that at least 1,910 environmental defenders have been killed between 2012 and 2022, according to Global Witness, with most of the murders going unpunished.

Brazil, Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines were the most deadly countries in 2022 after Colombia. Nearly 88% of all lethal attacks were recorded in Latin America, including the killings of the Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira and the journalist Dom Phillips in July.

The figures are a drop from the 200 killings recorded in 2021 but remain high, prompting Global Witness to call for special protections for environmental defenders of climate-critical ecosystems.

The report highlights the scramble for resources in Latin America, Asia and Africa as a driver of the violence, including the extraction of rare earth minerals used in the production of electric cars and wind turbines.

“For too long, those responsible for lethal attacks against defenders have been getting away with murder,” said Shruti Suresh, the co-director of campaigns at Global Witness.

“Despite being threatened by irresponsible corporate and government actions, this global movement of people, united by determination and a commitment to defending their homes and communities, are standing firm – and they cannot and will not be silenced.”

The report has been produced annually for the past 11 years by Global Witness, which is urging governments to enforce existing laws to create a safe environment for people trying to protect their lands and ecosystems. It called for businesses to ensure their supply chains and activities are not involved in driving the violence.

Underreporting of attacks around the world means that the figures are likely an underestimate, especially for Africa and Asia. Non-lethal attacks to silence environmental defenders were probably far higher, but hard to record, Global Witness said.


Honduran environmental defenders shot dead in broad daylight

Laura Furones, a forest governance expert who advised on the report, highlighted attacks against Indigenous communities as a particular cause for concern.

“Research has shown again and again that Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of the forests and therefore play a fundamental role in mitigating the climate crisis,” she said. “Yet they are under siege in countries like Brazil, Peru and Venezuela for doing precisely that.

“If we are to keep the forests standing, we must recognise that this relies upon the protection of those who call the forest home.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

Descendants of enslaved people fight against ‘erasure’ of their historical land

Community of Gullah-Geechee people in Georgia protest vote for lifting protective laws, threatening a 230-year-old heritage

Edwin Rios
THE GUARDIAN

Wed 13 Sep 2023 

For more than 230 years, a small community of Gullah-Geechee people have called Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia home. Hogg Hammock, the area on the island where these descendants of enslaved people live, is a 427-acre coastal community of 40 residents and has been designated as a historic site since 1996. That means that the construction of houses more than 1,400 sq ft and any road paving or demolition of property are strictly prohibited to preserve the island community.

On Tuesday, McIntosh county commissioners, who preside over Sapelo, voted to remove zoning restrictions in Hogg Hammock. Gullah-Geechee residents fear that wealthy transplants who want to develop larger homes and who could force a rise of property taxes there will displace them and upend their livelihoods.

The county, which is 65% white, has voted to remove official language that acknowledges Hogg Hammock as an area with “unique needs in regard to its historic resources”. It will also strike language that states it should prevent “land value increases which could force removal of the indigenous population”.

The vote represents the latest dispute between county officials and the small historic Black community. Back in 2012, Hogg Hammock residents protested against the county’s raising of property taxes – which the county then rolled back. And in 2015, the community sued the county in federal court alleging that it had racially discriminated against residents by failing to provide them with adequate services. The island’s residents had paid county taxes for schools, police and fire departments, and trash collection services – none of which extended to Sapelo Island. The county settled the lawsuit last year, agreeing to give emergency and road services and freeze property taxes for some residents.

Descendant homes on Sapelo Island. Teh community is fighting to protect against developers swooping in on their land. Photograph: Rita Harper/The Guardian

Last Thursday, dozens of residents gave hours of testimony to the county’s zoning board arguing against the proposed changes, warning that the county had hastily made changes without community consideration. Reginal Hall, a landowner whose family had roots in Hogg Hummock, told the Associated Press the county’s approval would amount to “the erasure of a historical culture that’s still intact after 230 years”.

Residents and state lawmakers called for the county to delay their vote and to reflect on proposed changes for 90 days. “We will not allow our cultural history to be erased or bought at the price of land developers,” the state representative Kim Schofield, who represents Atlanta, told reporters. “This is our history and our heritage, and we will fight to protect it.”

Hall warned the county’s vote to remove development limits would give Gullah -Geechee residents in Hogg Hammock just “two to three years at most” to survive in the county before they scatter elsewhere, as 200,000 Gullah-Geechee people have already done across the south-eastern corridor of the United States. “If you talk about the descendants of the enslaved,” she said, “90% of us will be gone.”

‘Authoritarian regimes ban books’: Democrats raise alarm at Senate hearing

Story by Mary Yang •  The Guardian

Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA© Provided by The Guardian

ASenate hearing on book bans and censorship on Tuesday spotlighted the growing phenomenon in America and highlighted a partisan split on the issue, with Democrats decrying censorship as Republican and rightwing activists push for many works to be taken out of schools and libraries, claiming it should be parents’ rights to do so.

Many of the most commonly banned books include topics such as racism, sexuality and gender identity. Conservatives also argue that some books, many exploring queer identity and LGBTQ+ themes, include sexually explicit content inappropriate for students. School librarians opposing such book bans have been attacked and harassed.

Other books that have long been parts of school curriculums have also been challenged after complaints that they contained racist stereotypes, such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird, which also includes a depiction of rape.

Between July and December 2022, the nonprofit PEN America recorded nearly 1,500 instances of individual book bans, which it broadly defines as when books are deemed “off-limits” for students in school libraries or classrooms, or when books are removed during an investigation to determine if there should be any restrictions.

“Instead of inheriting a debate over what more can be done with and for our libraries, I was confronted with a book banning movement upon taking office,” testified Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois’ secretary of state since January who also serves as the state librarian, on Tuesday.

“Our libraries have become targets by a movement that disingenuously claims to pursue freedom, but is instead promoting authoritarianism. Authoritarian regimes ban books, not democracies,” Giannoulias said.

Democratic lawmakers and education experts raised alarm bells over the spike in banned books.

Related video: 'We will make no laws addressing this': Senators say book bans are state's responsibility (USA TODAY)  Duration 1:09   View on Watch

MSNBC'Velshi Banned Book Club' podcast: 'Hearing about yourself in a book can save lives'

7:54

\WTVF Nashville, TN   Lawmakers set to discuss ban of signs during special session as it violates right to free speech

1:44

“Let’s be clear, efforts to ban books are wrong, whether they come from the right or the left,” said Dick Durbin, the judiciary committee chair and Democratic Senator of Illinois. “In the name of protecting students, we’re instead denying these students an opportunity to learn about different people and difficult subjects.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have widely backed the growing number of conservative activists seeking more control over school curriculums, including books – but also policies such as transgender students’ eligibility to use bathrooms – in the name of “parents’ rights”.

“To all the parents out there who believe there’s a bunch of stuff in our schools being pushed on your children that go over the line, you’re absolutely right,” said Lindsey Graham, the committee’s top Republican.

Graham briefly derailed the hearing, diverting the conversation to border security and migration, saying that fixing “Biden’s Border crisis” should be the committee’s biggest priority.

“The book issue is a parental awareness issue. It is not partisan to assert that children do better when their families know what’s going on in their lives,” testified Nicole Neily, the president of the conservative nonprofit Parents Defending Education.

According to its website, the group opposes “activists” who have sought to “impose ideologically driven curriculum with a concerning and often divisive emphasis on students’ group identities: race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and gender”.

Arguing that parents and institutions should have the right to ban books containing sexually explicit content, Max Eden, a research fellow at the conservative thinktank American Enterprise Institute, read aloud a short passage recounting the author’s experience with child molestation from the book All Boys Aren’t Blue, a memoir about growing up Black and queer, and is one of the most banned books.

The 71-year-old Louisiana senator, John Kennedy, also read aloud explicit passages from two of the most-banned books, All Boys Aren’t Blue and Gender Queer, during the hearing.

“Is this OK for kids?” said Eden. “Judging by the thoughts made by the media, NGOs and some Democratic politicians, it seems there is a politically significant contingent that believes this is all actually very good for kids. But personally, I’m not at all troubled by the fact that some moms believe that this isn’t appropriate, and that some school boards agree.”

But Democratic lawmakers maintain that banning books restricts childrens’ ability to think for themselves, and information access researcher Emily Knox, an associate professor at the University of Illinois, testified that books can help change a reader’s attitude toward difference, adding that campaigns to censor books are unconstitutional.

“Of course there are books that are not age appropriate. But that’s what being a parent is all about – doing your best to keep an eye on what your children read and what they consume,” said Giannoulis.

“No one is advocating for sexually explicit content to be available in an elementary school library or in the children’s section of a library,” said Durbin. “But no parent should have the right to tell another parent’s child what they can and cannot read in school or at home. Every student deserves access to books that reflect their experiences and help them better understand who they are.”

A neuroscientist explains why MAGA supporters refuse to accept Trump's 91 felony charges | Opinion

Story by Bobby Azarian, Raw Story •

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump begin arriving at the Monument Arena on Sept. 8, 2023, in Rapid City, S.D. 

Scott Olson/Getty Images© provided by RawStory

When delving into the perplexing world of politics and the enigmatic figure of Donald Trump, we often encounter a peculiar phenomenon amongst his supporters: a staunch refusal to accept any criminal allegation or felony charge against him, no matter how compelling the evidence.

There are many neurological and psychological reasons for this irrational behavior. But today, we will focus on the mental phenomena I feel are most urgent to explore ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

First, a disclaimer: I am not a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist — I am a cognitive neuroscientist with a research focus in clinical psychology (in particular, anxiety’s effect on attention). In fact, much of my published work has appeared in psychology journals. As a science journalist, I have been covering the psychology of Trump and his supporters since he emerged on the political scene in 2015.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

Now that Trump is running for president again while facing 91 felony charges, I feel a moral responsibility to illuminate all the mental factors that are driving Americans to support a man who is a master manipulator, and incapable of telling the truth. Unfortunately, these are qualities that are too common among presidential candidates, but Trump is a particularly egregious example, and therefore we must be vigilant. This article is meant to inform but also to warn voters of what is to come.

Cognitive challenge of disbelief

In 2009, a study published in PLOS ONE challenged our understanding of belief systems.

Researchers placed participants into the confines of an fMRI scanner and presented them with a mixture of factual and abstract statements. The results were illuminating. Disbelief, it turns out, is cognitively demanding. It requires more mental effort than simply accepting a statement as true. From an evolutionary perspective, this preference for easy belief makes sense; a perpetually skeptical individual questioning every piece of information would struggle to adapt in a fast-paced world.

ALSO READ: How Trump could run his campaign – and the nation – from behind bars

What does all this have to do with Trump supporters? Well, it’s far less cognitively demanding for them to believe anything their leader tells them. Any challenge to what Trump tells them is true takes mental work. This means there is a psychological incentive for Trump loyalists to maintain their loyalty. (I wrote about this phenomenon in a slightly different context in the Daily Beast article "Religious Fundamentalism: A Side Effect of Lazy Brains?")

Molding of belief: neuroplasticity at play

Now, let's consider the unique predicament faced by individuals who staunchly support Trump and want him to again become president. From the moment Trump began his political career and his social engineering career, his supporters have been exposed to narratives — Trump doesn't lie, Democrats are communists, the media is an enemy of the people — that emphasize loyalty and trust in their political idol. These narratives often steer away from critical examination and instead encourage blind faith. When coupled with the brain's inherent tendency to accept rather than question, it creates an ideal environment for unwavering allegiance. No matter that Trump, time and again, has been revealed to be a serial liar, habitually misrepresenting matters of great consequence, from elections to economics to public health.

Related video: Former President Trump Warns Supporters: 'Fight Like Hell or Lose Your Freedom’ (Benzinga)   Duration 0:38  View on Watch

ALSO READ: Trump is embracing five ‘fake news’ outlets he supposedly hates

For example, in the Psychology Today article "Why Evangelicals are Wired to Believe Trump’s Falsehoods," I explain that the children of Christian fundamentalists typically begin to suppress critical thinking at an early age. This is required if one is to accept Biblical stories as literal truth, rather than metaphors for how to live life practically and with purpose. Attributing natural occurrences to mystical causes discourages youth from seeking evidence to back their beliefs.

Consequently, the brain structures that support critical thinking and logical reasoning don't fully mature. This paves the way for heightened vulnerability to deceit and manipulative narratives, especially from cunning political figures. Such increased suggestibility arises from a mix of the brain's propensity to accept unverified claims and intense indoctrination. Given the brain's neuroplastic nature, which allows it to shape according to experiences, some religious followers are more predisposed to accept improbable assertions.



In other words, our brains are remarkably adaptable and continuously evolving landscapes. For ardent Trump supporters, residing in an environment that prioritizes faith over empirical evidence can reshape the neural circuits within their brains.

Imagine these neural pathways as trails in a forest. The more one traverses the path of unquestioning belief, the clearer and more entrenched it becomes. The path of skepticism, however, grows over with doubts and becomes difficult to navigate. This cognitive reshaping primes individuals to accept, and even defend, far-fetched statements and suggestions presented by manipulative politicians.

The Dunning-Kruger effect

This cognitive bias occurs when individuals with low ability at a task overestimate their capability. Translated to the context of understanding complex legal matters, some Trumpists might believe they have a superior grasp of the former president’s predicament and dismiss expert opinions, thinking they're immune to being misled.

The Dunning-Kruger effect becomes especially concerning in the context of polarizing issues, such as climate change. A research study from the University of New Hampshire in 2017, for example, revealed that a mere 25 percent of those identifying as Trump supporters acknowledged the role of human actions in climate change. This is in stark contrast to the 97 percent consensus among climate scientists on the issue.

This troublesome cognitive bias could be making it easier for Trump to deliver unchallenged falsehoods to his more uneducated followers. In some cases, not only are these individuals uninformed, they are unlikely to seek new information on their own. In their minds, they have nothing to learn because Trump and his acolytes have already told them what they need to know.

Reevaluating our cognitive reflexes

It is important to state that these phenomena are not exclusive to Trump supporters or any particular political group; this article serves as a broader reflection on the cognitive shortcuts that our brains favor.

If we aspire to build a society less susceptible to misinformation, we must embark on a paradigm shift. Our educational approach should pivot from passive acceptance of supposed “facts” to the exhilarating pursuit of questioning authority and healthy skepticism (as too much skepticism can also lead to irrational thinking). Recognizing that belief, in many ways, is the brain's default mode rather than a conscious choice, can serve as the first step in this cerebral revolution.

In conclusion, the unwavering belief in Trump, despite the felony charges against him, is not solely a political matter but, for some, a manifestation of our brain's intrinsic tendencies. Understanding this cognitive dynamic is pivotal in addressing the challenges posed by misinformation and fostering a more critical and discerning society.

Bobby Azarian is a cognitive neuroscientist and the author of the new book The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity. He is also a blogger for Psychology Today and the creator of the Substack Road to Omega. Follow him @BobbyAzarian.

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From chargers to children's data: how the EU reined in big tech

Issued on: 12/09/2023 -

Brussels (AFP) – When Apple unveils its latest iPhone on Tuesday, the European Union will have left its mark on the US giant's flagship product.

© Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

Now the iPhone 15 is expected to have a USB-C charger, instead of Apple's usual Lightning charger, after the EU ordered manufacturers to adopt a common connection.

Brussels said this would make customers' lives easier and reduce waste.

Apple vehemently opposed the 2022 law, arguing it would penalise innovation, but the EU's 27 countries form the world's largest single market and Brussels has big tech in its sights.

The common charger is not the only bruising battle against big tech the EU has won, and Brussels believes it will win on more fronts in the weeks and months to come.

Here are some of the ways the EU has forced digital titans to play by new rules in Europe and beyond:

'Digital rulebook'

The groundbreaking Digital Services Act (DSA) and its sister law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), are the biggest and most recent attempts to rein in tech companies.

The DSA demands firms crack down on harmful and illegal content online as well as assess the risks their platforms pose to society.

Any company in violation of the DSA risks a fine of up to six percent of annual global turnover.

Under the rules, 19 "very large" online platforms -- including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube -- had to comply with the DSA by late August.

All platforms will be forced to comply by February 2024.

The large platforms named have already made changes including a ban on targeted advertising to children as well as providing users with a non-personalised feed.

The changes are not limited to the European Union. Snapchat said it would restrict personalised advertising to minors in Britain as well.

"There's a process of gradual change in the way these platforms do things that is going to be started, but it's not going to be an overnight change," said Sally Broughton Micova of the Centre on Regulation in Europe think tank.

The DMA is another thorn in the tech firms' side, especially for Apple. The law seeks to dilute the dominance of certain players and aims to make the market fairer.

The EU named six "gatekeepers": Google's Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook owner Meta, Microsoft and ByteDance's TikTok. The rules apply from March 2024.

For Apple, it perhaps brings one of the biggest changes in its ecosystem, dominated by its App Store. The DMA will force Apple to allow third-party app stores.

"The DMA will really have an impact on how they design their structures," an EU official said.

Companies will also have to make it easier for users to send messages between apps.

But the changes come with a price. Meta's new Twitter-like platform Threads has not been rolled out in the EU yet because of the bloc's rules.
Data protection

The mammoth General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in 2018 and was the EU's toughest and most famous law on tech, ensuring citizens give consent to the ways in which their data is used.

There has been a wave of fines for violations.

In May, the Irish privacy watchdog handed the biggest ever individual fine of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) to Meta over its transfers of personal data between Europe and the United States.

The GDPR's impact has also been felt beyond Europe.

"Businesses hardly looked for EU-only solutions because if you are on the global market, you offer that immediately to all so consumers elsewhere can benefit from more privacy," the EU official said.
The future is AI

The EU's latest tech target is artificial intelligence after the chatbot ChatGPT showcased the technology's rapid developments last year.

Brussels hopes to green light an all-encompassing law on AI by the end of 2023.

"The AI act may be the even more daring thing to do," the EU official said, adding the challenge was even bigger for the EU than the DSA or DMA.

The official also pointed to the Data Act focused on sharing industrial data, which is expected to come into force in 2025.