Today’s Big Story

Supreme Court Maintains Access to Abortion Pill

After the ruling, the future of the pills now rests with Biden or Trump

The U.S. Supreme Court threw out its biggest abortion-related case since overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago, saying Thursday that doctors opposed to a commonly used abortion pill lacked legal standing. Rejecting the highly anticipated case preserves access to mifepristone, but allowed the court to skirt making a ruling on the merits of the case.

Medication abortion accounts for 63% of abortions in the U.S., per the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. Mifepristone is commonly used in tandem with a second FDA-approved drug, misoprostol, in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. Both pills have long safety and efficacy records. And the pills are increasingly prescribed online and mailed to patients after the FDA eliminated the requirement that they be picked up in person.

Thursday’s ruling was a muted victory to abortion rights groups. Even as they praised the decision for averting severe restrictions on the availability of the pill, they warned that the outcome could be short-lived. That’s because the decision could leave an opening for anti-abortion states or other opponents to keep up the fight.

According to the Associated Press, the opinion underscored the stakes of the 2024 election and the possibility that an FDA commissioner appointed by Republican Donald Trump, if he wins the White House, could consider tightening access to mifepristone, including prohibiting sending it through the mail.

As President Biden has repeatedly pledged to safeguard access to the pills, Trump has tried to distance himself from the issue. The former president, who appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, announced this spring that the issue should be left to the states. And his campaign sought to quickly move on from the ruling Thursday, arguing that the matter was settled by the courts.

Employers Are Watching You

When remote workers can have their boss over their proverbial shoulder

The promise of remote work is a more relaxed environment, right? But do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched while working at home? Maybe you feel guilty for taking a longer lunch break or watching YouTube in the afternoon. It’s entirely possible your activities are actually being tracked—from your web searches and social activity to what you type on the keyboard.

And with “worker surveillance” on the rise, a cottage industry has popped up, selling devices to fake keyboard and mouse movements in order to make it look like people are working, even when they’re not. But … your boss might catch on. Because last month, Wells Fargo terminated over a dozen bank employees following an investigation into claims of faking work activity on their computers.

Workplace surveillance represents an “interesting intersection point between employment law and privacy law”, says Peter Leonard, Professor of Practice at UNSW Business School. While there’s no foolproof way to know whether you’re being monitored, some techniques could provide insight, according to privacy and security experts. Obviously, you’re at a higher risk for spying if you’re using a company-issued device, which offers the least privacy and will ultimately be return to your employer, experts say. But you also could be exposed if you downloaded work software on your personal device or use their networks.

The Rise of Nanomachines

Nanotechnology can already puncture cancer cells and drug-resistant bacteria. What will it do next?

The secret to a long (and I mean, really long) life? Thinking small. According to Wired, nanobots—incredibly microscopic self-propelled machines—will be the key to living past 120 years old. They say in the same way pharmascueticals were able to help us overcome previous health challenges, we’ll use nanotechnology to overcome the limitations of our biological organs altogether.

These “molecular machines” can spin like minuscule drills and were roughly ten thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair—small enough to puncture and kill individual cells. This is why they’ve proven successful in cancer research, reports The New Yorker. A group of researchers at the University of Texas recently showed that their nanoparticles could break down the molecular defenses around tumors; they could also drop off a gene-editing system, which would then rewrite a gene that the cancer uses to evade the immune system. Other scientists are trying to develop machines that might one day harvest rare metals from seawater, or extract carbon from the atmosphere.

As one microbiologist put it: “We’re not inventing anything new … we’re taking inspiration from what already happens in nature. But now we’re getting more of a say in how the story plays out.” This is why these new nanotechnology experiments could be so much more successful than the usual medical research, which often fails when it departs radically from established scientific practice.

Facial Fitness Gum Is a Thing

And young guys are chewing it constantly to get their chiseled jaws

Are the kids going to be alright? I’m not sure. A new trend is spreading among teenage boys, and it involves chewing tough strips of gum in hopes of achieving a more masculine, chiseled jawline. And the more popular it gets, the more brands pop up to serve this growing market.

The Cut did a deep dive into several of the gum brands and spoke with doctors about whether these methods would even deliver the results these young guys are hoping to achieve. Spoiler alert: They likely will not. So, if the gum can’t actually reshape a jawline, are there downsides to chewing it? The obvious one is cost. The stuff isn’t cheap. A pack of Jawliner will cost you a little more than 30 bucks.

The other is buying into the wide range of “looksmaxxing” techniques and products being pitched on TikTok. Unfortunately for these kids, the medical experts agree that you just have to wait it out. “Younger people tend to have more natural fat volume in their face,” celebrity cosmetic dermatologist Paul Jarrod Frank, M.D. told The Cut. “For men that are thin and fit, as they age into their 20s and 30s they will naturally, likely, see more definition."

A Weekend Pairing

‘The Boys’ + a Irish Coffee Milkshake

It has been two years since the third season of The Boys ended. Fans have been excitedly waiting for Season 4, watching the behind-the-scenes filming teasers and fun social media posts leading up to the reveal. Well, the wait’s finally over as the fourth season just dropped on Prime Video.

The boys are definitely back in town for a darker turn as Homelander (played by Antony Starr) grows more dangerous than ever this season. Of course, other supes aren’t too easygoing either. This season will introduce new characters like Sister Sage (Susan Heyward), Firecracker (Valorie Curry) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a mystery role. Let’s just hope he won’t beat anyone with a baseball bat this time. And critics seem to agree, they’re calling it “bold and bloody,” and the “darkest season yet,” with plenty of its trademark humor.

Take some chances this weekend.