Happy Friday, muggles. Despite all things 2020, holiday sales are expected to rise this year, which means companies are still looking to hire seasonal staff. Target said it’s hiring 130,000 temp workers for the holidays this year, but instead of in-store employees, these workers will support more of their e-commerce business. If you’re looking for a permanent gig, about 40% of holiday hires stay at Target past the season. Here are some stories we wanted to keep around a little longer, too.  

Young activists demand reforms in monarchy and patriarchy in Thailand

Thu Sep 24

Thousands of people, including many students and women, have been protesting in Bangkok, demanding the shake up of the country’s political power.

Why are people protesting?

A series of protests have been ongoing for years.

• In 2014, tensions grew in the country when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha led a coup and rewrote the country’s constitution 
• In 2016, women’s issues came to the forefront after the prime minister subscribed to traditional gender norms, dismissed gender parity, and said women only had power over the home
• Last year, the prime minister stayed in power after a disputed election, and since then, increasingly restrictive rules have been imposed on the Thai people, especially students, provoking consideration of the Thailand's patriarchal power structures as a whole 

What are the protesters’ demands?

 The pro-democracy movement is calling for a variety of reforms that address things like:

• Limiting the king’s power and budget
• Dissolution of parliament
• Resignation of the prime minister
• The military’s ties to the monarchy 
• Buddhist monkhood
• Abortion
• Taxes on menstrual products
• Outdated school rules for girls
• Gender parity

SOURCES: The New York Times, CNBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera

Study finds the FDA approved new prescription opioids with too little information

Mon Sep 28

A new study is calling out the Food and Drug Administration for its lax approval process for new opioid drugs and new formulas of existing treatments.   

The study says from 1997 to 2018, the FDA routinely approved drugs with:

• Limited evidence from clinical trials, with studies lasting less than 12 weeks and weeding out people who didn’t initially respond well to the drugs
• Little information on potential safety risks, including a failure to collect data on how drugs were being used for nonmedical reasons

Last year, about 71,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, which often involved an opioid. The FDA has been criticized for its part in the overdose crisis and critics say the agency is still not doing enough. The study’s author hopes the FDA improves its regulation as a result of the findings.

SOURCES: Gizmodo, WebMD, HCP Live

California says it’s cracking down on oil spills, but companies are making millions from illegal leaks

Thu Sep 24

California created regulations to stop oil spills last year, but they don’t seem to be working too well. ProPublica and The Desert Sun discovered that more than two dozen “surface expression” oil spills have occurred since the new rules, three are still running, and petroleum companies are actually profiting off the illegal spills. 

What’s a surface expression?

Instead of the oil spills we’re used to hearing about where ships run aground and leak oil, inland surface expressions usually happen during fracking when something breaks or spills in the process of bringing the oil to the surface and it leaks out onto the ground. 

How much oil has been spilling?

The oil has been flowing for years and has spilled more than a million gallons.

How are the oil companies making money off the spills?

The companies were having trucks vacuum up the oil (from a safe distance) and then refining and selling it. 

What is California doing now?

• Put a moratorium on cyclic steam fracking (this doesn’t affect existing permits)
• Hired federal scientists to study steam fracking and whether it can be done safely
• Studying how to transition off of oil extraction, with workers and drivers in mind
• Promised increased enforcement for inland oil spills

SOURCES: ProPublica, KPBS, The Desert Sun