UNITED STATES
Biden has polyp snipped
A polyp removed from President Joe Biden’s colon last week was a benign, slow-growing but potentially precancerous lesion that required no further action, his doctor said in a follow-up memo. The specimen, a tubular adenoma, was similar to one removed from Biden in 2008, Kevin O’Connor, physician to the president, wrote in a memo released on Wednesday by the White House. Routine surveillance was recommended, which normally calls for another colonoscopy in seven to 10 years, he wrote. The Mayo Clinic defines a colon polyp as a small clump of cells that forms on the lining of the colon. Most colon polyps are harmless, according to Mayo’s Web site, but some colon polyps can develop into colon cancer. “The best prevention for colon cancer is regular screening for and removal of polyps,” the clinic advises. Biden, who turned 79 last week and is the nation’s oldest president, remains “healthy” and “vigorous” and fit for duty, O’Connor said in his initial report after Biden’s first routine physical in office.
UNITED STATES
Mother, son shot days apart
A Chicago woman was shot to death on Wednesday, just steps away from a memorial to her 14-year-old son, who was fatally shot over the weekend. Delisa Tucker was shot in the chest on the same street where Kevin Tinker was killed on Sunday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Chicago police have not said if they believe the two shootings are connected and nobody has been arrested in either shooting. However, the death of the 31-year-old Tucker, who lost her son over the weekend and her brother to gun violence two years ago, left her community on the city’s South Side distraught about the shootings just days apart. “It’s just sad that this whole family, basically, to be killed over time,” said Pastor Donovan Price, who said he consoled Tucker at a vigil for her son on Sunday night. “I’m devastated,” he added. Police have not made any arrests. They said that when they responded to a ShotSpotter alert on Wednesday morning, they found Tucker lying on the sidewalk, but could not locate anyone on the block who said they saw the shooting. On Sunday, her son, an eighth grader, was on the same sidewalk when he was shot several times.
UNITED STATES
Prof ousted over pedophiles
A university professor in Virginia on Wednesday announced that they would resign after they published a book that includes interviews with more than 40 adults who are sexually attracted to minors. The book says that destigmatizing the attraction would allow more people to seek help, and ultimately prevent child sexual abuse. “That research was mischaracterized by some in the media and online, partly on the basis of my trans identity,” Old Dominion University professor Allyn Walker said in a statement. “As a result, multiple threats were made against me and the campus community generally,” added Walker, who uses the pronoun “they.” Walker is an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice. Earlier this month, their research caught the attention of some media outlets — and the professor received threats that law enforcement told administrators to take seriously, university officials said. An online petition calling for Walker’s removal received nearly 15,000 signatures. It referenced Walker’s use of the term, “minor attracted persons.” “Ideally, we would be able to debate even the most challenging issues without disruption or threats of violence, but that is not the world we live in today,” university president Brian Hemphill wrote.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
BACK TO BATTLE: North Korean soldiers have returned to the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region after earlier reports that Moscow had withdrawn them following heavy losses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals as part of a push to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s penchant for a deal. The US president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine’s war with Russia, on Monday said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskiy said, emphasizing Ukraine’s need for security guarantees