Earlier this year, semonstrators at the Hawaii Capitol to urge the state Senate to vote in favor of a bill to phase out the widely used agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos, which studies show can harm children’s brains.
Credit: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

In a “major victory for public health,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Thursday ruled the Trump administration illegally blocked a ban on chlorpyrifos—a pesticide linked to brain development delays in children and nervous systems issuesfor all people and animals exposed to it—and ordered that it be outlawed within 60 days.

“Allowing the use of this toxic chemical is not only irresponsible, it is a crime.”
—Hector Sanchez Barba, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement

“Children, farmworkers, rural families, and science are all huge winners today,” responded Kristin Schafer, executive director of Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America. “The court affirmed that EPA’s job is to protect public health, not industry profits.”

While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlawed household use of the chemical in 2000, citing concerns about children’s health, it has […]

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A fire hydrant sprays a child in Philadelphia, which along with Baltimore has the highest rate of deaths due to hot weather in the US.
Credit: The Washington Post

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – Heat now kills more Americans than floods, hurricanes or other natural disasters – but cities are facing it almost entirely alone. (emphasis added)

On yet another day of roasting heat in Phoenix, elderly and homeless people scurry between shards of shade in search of respite at the Marcos De Niza Senior Center. Along with several dozen other institutions in the city, it has been set up as a cooling centre: a free public refuge, with air conditioning, chilled bottled water, boardgames and books. Last summer a record 155 people died in Phoenix from excess heat, and the city is straining to avoid a repeat.

James Sanders, an 83-year-old who goes by King, has lived in the city for 60 years and considers himself acclimatised to the baking south Arizona sun. “It does seem hotter than it used to […]

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Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump shakes hands as he arrives at a campaign rally on Aug. 30, 2016, in Everett, Wash.
Credit: Evan Vucci/AP

Most of our assessments of the electorate in 2016 are dependent on estimates. Polling before the election that suggested where people were leaning; exit polling after the fact that gives us some sense of who actually turned out. When more than 137 million people vote, understanding exactly who they were and why they voted the way they did necessarily involves some guesswork.

On Thursday, though, Pew Research Center released an unusually robust survey of the 2016 electorate. In addition to having asked people how they voted, Pew’s team verified that they did, giving us a picture not only of the electorate but also of those who didn’t vote. There are a number of interesting details that emerge from that research, including a breakdown of President Trump’s support that confirms much of his base has backed him enthusiastically since the Republican primaries.

The data also makes another point very […]

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A woman sits beside a digital billboard giving updates on various currencies and the Turkish stock exchange in Istanbul.
Credit: Yasin Akgul/AFP

Turkey’s currency, the lira, fell to a record low on Monday as investors panicked over a perfect storm of internal and external factors casting doubt on that country’s economic stability. The lira has fallen 40 percent against the dollar since the start of the year, from 3.8 per dollar to around 7 to the dollar, as long-simmering problems with the Turkish economy have begun to boil over.

Turkey’s economy has been on a collision course with reality for years, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bought his popularity with low interest rates and cheap credit, which has fueled several years of rapid growth in the country’s real GDP. Unfortunately, it has also fueled high inflation and a massive current account deficit: All that growth was greased with easily available loans in foreign currencies, and with the collapse of the lira, that debt has suddenly become unmanageable.

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