What's Happening

Reproductive Health 

A Texas Committee Won't Look Into Some Maternal Deaths — The Change Is Raising Alarms

What's going on: Texas’s maternal mortality review committee has decided to skip analyzing cases from 2022 and 2023. That means officials won’t examine data from the first two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, or the first full year after the state’s near-total abortion ban took effect. The reason? Well, committee leaders said they’ve been backlogged, and the change may allow them to review maternal deaths closer to when they occur. The committee also said the decision was not an attempt to cover up deaths related to the abortion bans, noting they had skipped years in the past. However, they’ll be leaving a Texas-sized gap in the data on maternal death at a key time for the state. One maternal health expert called the decision to skip the two years “bewildering.” The committee’s move comes as ProPublica has discovered three cases of inadequate pregnancy care in Texas that led to death.

What it means: Many hoped maternal mortality committees in the US would offer a clearer, data-driven picture of how abortion bans impact maternal deaths. They can also shed light on how bans may limit doctors’ ability to provide life-saving care during miscarriages or other complications for fear of legal repercussions. Since these committees often operate on a two-year delay, data from the post-Roe era was just beginning to trickle out. Now, some of it may never come to light, likely affecting future nationwide data as well. Meanwhile, last week Georgia temporarily dissolved its version of the committee. The move affects a state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the US and where Black women die from pregnancy complications at three times the rate of white women nationally.

Related: This Mother Died After Inadequate Miscarriage Treatment Under Texas’s Abortion Ban (ProPublica) 

International

The Ceasefire Between Israel and Hezbollah Is in Effect

What's going on: A two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, went into effect at 4 am local time. The ceasefire halts more than a year of fighting between both sides, with one of the most aggressive bombing campaigns near Beirut taking place yesterday. Under the deal, which the US and France brokered, Hezbollah will withdraw from a large area of southern Lebanon, and Israeli troops will return to their side of the border. Thousands of Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers will monitor the terms of the deal, under the oversight of a US-led international panel. The war, which began after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, has claimed over 3,000 lives in Lebanon and displaced a million people, according to Lebanese officials. At least 60,000 Israelis have also fled from their homes, with countless civilians killed, according to Israel’s military and government.

What it means: The ceasefire, if it holds, could mark a turning point in the Middle East. For over a year, Hezbollah said it wouldn’t stop the fighting until Israel ended its war with Hamas in Gaza. Even though this ceasefire does not affect the Israel-Hamas war, many world leaders hope the deal can help deescalate the region’s rising tensions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the ceasefire as critical for allowing Israel to shift its focus to Iran, rebuild its military stockpiles, and isolate Hamas. Lebanon’s prime minister called the deal a crucial step toward stability in the region. Still, the ceasefire faces significant challenges. Lebanese officials must navigate Hezbollah’s autonomy as a powerful militia outside government control. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden acknowledged Israel’s right to resume operations if Hezbollah breaks the truce.

Related: Can Biden Stabilize the Middle East Before He Leaves Office? (WaPo Gift Link) 

Technology

Phone Scammers Hate to See This 'Grandma' Coming

What's going on: Daisy Harris is like most sweet grandmas. She spends her free time knitting, enjoys a good cup of tea with biscuits, and loves to talk about her cat, Fluffy. But there’s one thing that makes Daisy a little different: She’s not real. According to The New York Times, Daisy is an AI-generated bot developed by a British phone company to fight scammers. (The hero we all need to answer our calls.) If a phone scammer has the unfortunate luck of dialing Daisy’s many phone numbers, they’ll be greeted with the voice of an eager elderly woman who is more than happy to chat. The ultimate goal is to keep the scammers distracted for hours by thinking they’ve baited a potential victim — preventing them from reaching others. To help make Daisy as realistic as possible, her developers used their own grandmothers for inspiration. She might even look like them.

What it means: Daisy is doing what she can for the British public, but it’s not enough to convince scammers it’s time to find a real job. Phone fraud is on a meteoric rise worldwide, with tens of millions of scam calls recorded daily last year. These calls are costing people too. The surge in phone scams is largely due to the internet making it easier for fraudsters to access people’s personal information. Those over the age of 75 are the most vulnerable, accounting for more than 75% of people receiving scam calls monthly, if not daily, according to one British study. Meanwhile, just how is Daisy doing at her job? Since her debut earlier this month, she’s logged 1,000 conversations with scammers. However, don’t follow in Daisy’s footsteps and become a vigilante. One expert told the NYT that the best thing to do “is to not engage, to hang up, and report it.” 

Related: This Is the One Thing You Can Do to Deter Phone Scammers (WaPo Gift Link)