‘One day fentanyl will come back — and there will be little anyone can do’

‘The real reason for the drop in fentanyl overdoses’

Charles Fain Lehman at The Atlantic

A paper “published earlier this month by a group of drug-policy scholars in the journal Science, presents a novel theory” on falling fentanyl overdoses, says Charles Fain Lehman. The “paper’s authors attribute the reversal not to any American or Canadian policy, but to a sudden fentanyl ‘drought,’ which they say may have its causes not in North America, but in China.” If “right, their conclusion implies a disheartening lesson amid the otherwise-welcome news.” America’s “drug problem might be in China’s hands.”

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‘Zeldin’s repeal of the endangerment finding must not stand’

Gina McCarthy and Christine Todd Whitman at Newsweek

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s “planned repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding” will “fail to follow science and the law and literally abandon EPA’s mission,” say Gina McCarthy and Christine Todd Whitman. The finding was the “most extensive and comprehensive analysis of the scientific record on the significant hazards to our health and the environment caused by greenhouse gases.” Repealing it “dismisses decades of scientific evidence, abandons the agency’s legal authority, and puts American lives at risk.”

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‘Why we are fighting for Ben & Jerry’s to be independent again’

Ben Cohen at Time

Last year, Ben & Jerry’s “became part of a new ice cream conglomerate, The Magnum Ice Cream Company,” and it “started limiting the power of Ben & Jerry’s independent board, which was created to protect our company’s social mission,” says cofounder Ben Cohen. The “impact goes to the heart of what Ben & Jerry’s is, and what it was built to be.” The brand “cannot be separated from its values.” The “most powerful tool a business has is its voice. When businesses speak, people listen.”

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‘South Korea can stand up to China’

Victor Cha at Foreign Affairs

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is “pulling out all the stops to improve ties with Beijing,” says Victor Cha. For Lee, “cozying up to Xi can stabilize the relationship with South Korea’s largest trade partner and open new channels of influence over rival North Korea, which depends on China economically.” Closer “ties with Lee can boost Beijing’s position in its strategic competition with Washington by helping pull South Korea away from Japan and the United States.”

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