When does life stop? A new way of harvesting organs divides doctors.
A new method for retrieving hearts from organ donors has ignited a debate over the surprisingly blurry line between life and death in a hospital — and whether there is any possibility that donors might still experience some trace of consciousness or pain as their organs are harvested. The new method has divided major hospitals. It has been championed by NYU Langone Health in Manhattan. But NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, which has the city’s largest organ transplant program, has rejected the technique after an ethics committee there examined the issue. If adopted more widely, the method will significantly increase the number of hearts available for transplantation, saving lives.
For election workers, fentanyl-laced letters signal a challenging year
For the people who run elections at thousands of offices nationwide, 2024 was never going to be an easy year. But the recent anonymous mailing of powder-filled envelopes to election offices in Washington state, Oregon, Nevada, California and Georgia offers new hints of how hard it could be. The letters are under investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI. Several appear to have been laced with fentanyl; at least two contained a vague message calling to “end elections now.” The letters are a public indicator of what some election officials say is a fresh rise in threats to their safety and the functioning of the election system.
Senate candidate in Michigan says he was offered $20 million to challenge Tlaib
Hill Harper, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, said he was offered $20 million by Michigan businessperson Linden Nelson to drop out of the race and take on a primary challenge against Rashida Tlaib, the Palestinian American representative who was censured this month for her statements about the Israel-Hamas war. Nelson made the campaign funding offer to Harper last month, according to a spokesperson for Harper’s campaign. Nelson also donated $13,000 to Concerned Citizens of Michigan, a group that supported a 2020 primary challenge against Tlaib. “I’m not going to run against the only Palestinian-American in Congress just because some special interests don’t like her,” Harper posted on social media.
After rain and snow in the eastern U.S., weather clears for Thanksgiving
The weather across much of the country will be calm through the weekend, according to forecasters, even as a surge of travelers are expected to fly and drive for the Thanksgiving holiday this year. About 55.4 million travelers are anticipated to travel 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday period, among the highest totals since 2000, according to AAA. The Transportation Security Administration expects about 2.9 million passengers will pass through airport security checkpoints nationwide Sunday, which would make it the busiest day ever recorded by the agency.
U.S. gas prices plunging as holiday travelers hit the road
U.S. gasoline prices are plunging just in time for Thanksgiving, and with the OPEC+ oil cartel in apparent disarray, they could be heading lower for Christmas. Lower prices at the pump have helped ease inflation most of this year. But this week, they fell to levels not seen at this time of year since 2021, according to the AAA motor club, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices higher. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline Wednesday was $3.28, about 6 cents less than a week earlier, 27 cents less than a month ago and 36 cents less than at the same time last year.
Xi-Biden meeting might help clear air for Boeing in China
Boeing’s commercial aircraft sales to China have slowed to a trickle as U.S.-Chinese relations have soured. But there are prospects for the company to regain traction. A recent meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping did not yield public progress toward resuming plane sales, but it may ease tensions between the two countries, boding well for Boeing. Six years have passed since Boeing’s last large airplane order in China, and for several years, the company’s customers and government officials in China have refused to allow delivery of previously ordered 737 Max jets. Before the pandemic, about one-third of Boeing’s 737s were being delivered to the country.
Ukraine’s power grid has become even more fragile
As winter cold sets in across Ukraine, concerns are growing that Russia will soon resume large-scale attacks on the power grid, repeating a tactic it used last year to try to break the will of Ukrainians by plunging them into cold and darkness. Those fears are compounded by what Ukrainian experts and current and former officials say is an energy system that is more fragile than it was a year ago. In interviews, they described power plants still hobbled by Russian attacks last winter, unfinished repairs to substations and shortages of critical equipment like transformers. And snow has already begun to fall.
Putin bristles as other leaders criticize Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
In his first address to officials from the Group of 20 leading economies since his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday rebuffed criticism that the war’s aggression was “shocking” and accused Western nations of a double standard because of their response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. For Putin, appearing at a virtual meeting of the G20, it was the first time he had to listen to direct, public criticism of the invasion at an international event. Once he had a chance to respond, Putin could not hide his irritation.
Canadian official found guilty of providing secrets to criminals
In his lawyer’s telling, the stakes were high when Cameron Ortis took on a secret mission while he was working at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, where he was the civilian director of an elite intelligence unit. But prosecutors and witnesses at Ortis’ trial said there was no such mission and instead he provided sensitive intelligence to people under criminal investigation without authorization or the knowledge of the police force. On Wednesday, Ortis was convicted of four counts of providing confidential operational information to four men who were targets of police investigations. Ortis, who will be sentenced in January, faces up to 15 years in prison.
By wire sources
