'This recommendation is reasonable and in line with the evolution of medical consensus'

'Why a proposal to change the definition of obesity is so controversial'

Leana S. Wen at The Washington Post

BMI has a "flaw, because it doesn't account for all the factors that determine whether someone's weight is healthy, including their race or ethnicity," says Leana S. Wen. BMI is "not a useless metric," but "many medical professionals believe that adiposity, or the accumulation of body fat, is a more accurate way of capturing health than BMI." Obesity is "not only a risk factor for other diseases but a serious medical condition in its own right."

Read more

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'Failure is more than an option in rocket science — it's a necessity'

Mark R. Whittington at The Hill

"Rocket science is really hard," says Mark R. Whittington. NASA "attempts to execute projects that have to work the first time," and this approach "involves endless reviews and ground testing before anything is deployed in space." The "disadvantage of this method is that it is often time-consuming and costly." Commercial rockets "take a different approach," and "failure is definitely an option." Only "through failure does one learn the lessons that lead to success."

Read more

'Trump's USAID freeze must serve as a wake-up call for Africa'

Tafi Mhaka at Al Jazeera

President Donald Trump's foreign aid halt has had a "profound impact and generated widespread alarm worldwide, none more so than in Africa," says Tafi Mhaka. It "has caused considerable distress across Africa, as millions of people dependent on services supported by the U.S. government now face a daunting and uncertain future." But the "dependence on USAID funding is actually a symptom of a more critical problem within the healthcare system and the government as a whole" in African countries.

Read more

'Katie Porter has a shot at being California's next governor, but there's a big hitch'

George Skelton at the Los Angeles Times

Katie Porter is "joining an underwhelming field of Democratic candidates trying to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom," but Kamala Harris is the "joker card in the contest," says George Skelton. Porter "almost certainly would step out of the gubernatorial race if Harris entered." But Porter "may infuse some interest into the little-noticed race for governor of the nation's most populous state." We should "give Porter credit for not waiting on Harris to decide."

Read more