Tues - If You Ban It, They Will Order Pills

Nobody Puts Bibi in a Corner

Israelis are heading to the ballot box for an unprecedented fifth time in four years on Tuesday, as Israel holds yet another national election aimed at ending the country’s ongoing political deadlock.

For the first time in 13 years, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not running as the incumbent. Bibi, as he is universally known in Israel, is hoping to return to power as the head of a hard-right coalition, while centrist caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid is hoping the mantle of the acting premiership will help keep him in place.

He'll Probably Be Broke By the Time They Get a Judgement, But This Should Be Fun.

After months of racist harassment and death threats, two Black Georgia election workers got a big win Monday. A federal judge agreed to allow their defamation suit against former President Donald Trump’s election lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to move forward, Law & Crime reports.

Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, filed the suit in December 2021, a little more than a year after Giuliani relentlessly smeared them with allegations of altering the vote count in Georgia. Freeman and Moss offered powerful testimony in June 2022 before the Jan. 6 committee during a live hearing.

The Fulton County election workers said they were driven from their homes, threatened on social media, and left feeling afraid to go out into public. Even Moss’ grandmother was caught up in the fray, menaced by Trump supporters and the web of lies created by Trump and Giuliani.

Giuliani’s attorneys attempted to dismiss the suit from Moss and Freeman, of course. But in his 25-page opinion denying Giuliani’s proposed dismissal, District of Columbia Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell wrote, “Defendant Rudolph Giuliani—a current media personality and former politician once dubbed “America’s mayor”—propagated and pushed that false narrative. Caught in the crossfire of Giuliani’s campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 election were plaintiffs Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye (‘Shaye’) Moss.” He added, “As election workers across the state worked long hours carefully ensuring the accuracy of the election, the Trump Campaign and its allies, including Giuliani, engaged in a media offensive that at best questioned, and at worse condemned, their work.”

Giuliani attempted to scrap the case based on his First Amendment-protected right to free speech. Howell slammed him, writing, “Giuliani’s alleged statements accuse plaintiffs of criminal activity—which can be proven to be true or false in court—and, consequently, he cannot seek refuge under the opinion doctrine. […] Even if Giuliani made clear that his statements were his own subjective views, those statements still included accusations of election fraud that can be verified as true or false.”

Who Owns Twitter?

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday raised concerns about the “potential influence” the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would have on Twitter’s operations after the Saudis and Qatar contributed financing to help Elon Musk complete his purchase of the social media company.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal agreed to roll over $1.9 billion worth of Twitter shares through his Kingdom Holding Company to Musk’s new private company, making him the second largest investor in Twitter. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, owns nearly 17% of Kingdom Holding, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Qatar contributed $375 million for the financing of Musk’s Twitter purchase.

This Smells of Racism

New research is shedding light on just how much higher proportions of dangerous toxins people in minority communities are breathing in.

Populations in racially segregated communities in the U.S. may be more likely to be exposed to a form of air pollution, according to a study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday.

Researchers combined air pollution monitoring and American Community Survey data from 2014 to 2019 to assess air pollution exposure across the U.S. and found that communities with a high degree of racial residential segregation are exposed to concentrations of total fine particulate matter that are two times higher. Concentrations of metals from anthropogenic sources are over 10 times higher when compared to communities with a low degree of racial residential segregation, John Kodros, who authored the study as a research scientist at Colorado State University, told ABC News.

The Antibodies of the Mother ....

New research shows vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall.

The preliminary results buoy hope that after decades of failure and frustration, vaccines against RSV may finally be getting close.

Pfizer announced Tuesday that a large international study found vaccinating moms-to-be was nearly 82% effective at preventing severe cases of RSV in their babies’ most vulnerable first 90 days of life. At age 6 months, the vaccine still was proving 69% effective against serious illness — and there were no signs of safety problems in mothers or babies.

“Moms are always giving their antibodies to their baby,” said virologist Kena Swanson, Pfizer’s vice president of viral vaccines. “The vaccine just puts them in that much better position” to form and pass on RSV-fighting antibodies.

The vaccine quest isn’t just to protect infants. RSV is dangerous for older adults, too, and both Pfizer and rival GSK recently announced that their competing shots also proved protective for seniors.

None of the findings will help this year when an early RSV surge already is crowding children’s hospitals. But they raise the prospect that one or more vaccines might become available before next fall’s RSV season.

How do twitter HR matters impact the purchase of an electric car?