Undecided voters in the suddenly surprisingly tight Senate race between incumbent Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke were handed some potentially game-changing news earlier this week by the official Twitter account of the Republican party of Texas. In a series of what one can only assume were meant to be revelatory tweets, O’Rourke, the party pointed out, seems like a really cool dude.
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The flare-up follows O’Rourke’s most recent crossover into national news, after a video in which he passionately and eloquently explained why he supports NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

It’s a stance that has put him in stark contrast with Cruz and other Republicans, but as the tweets from the Texas GOP this week reminded us, there’s a lot of other things they don’t have in common.

Communications consultant and political observer Barry McLoughlin said the millions of dollars in advertising spent by the Conservatives to discredit Trudeau as "Just Not Ready" actually had a positive effect on the Liberal campaign.
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McLoughlin said Trudeau also benefited from confronting the "elephant in the room" — his relative lack of experience — by handling criticism in a mature manner and transforming it into a message of compassion and energy. He remained largely sunny and upbeat, delivering clippable and quotable lines and staging memorable photo ops.

"They created an energized, youthful-oriented campaign," McLoughlin said.

Students at schools, colleges and universities across Scotland will have access to free sanitary products as part of a £5.2m scheme to fight period poverty.

The Scottish government is the first in the world to make sanitary products available free to all of its 395,000 pupils and students to help “banish the scourge of period poverty” - when girls and women struggle to pay for basic sanitary products on a monthly basis, significantly affecting their hygiene, health and wellbeing.

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“Our £5.2m investment will mean these essential products will be available to those who need them in a sensitive and dignified way, which will make it easier for students to full focus on their studies.”

Councillor Alison Evison, the president of Cosla, said while the primary aim of the scheme was to ensure no young person missed out on their education through a lack of access to sanitary products, “it will also contribute to a more open conversation and reducing the unnecessary stigma associated with periods”.

Urban areas are reaching these killer temperatures faster than those that are less populated. Cities absorb, create and radiate heat. Asphalt, brick, concrete and dark roofs act like sponges for heat during the day and emit warmth at night. Air conditioning is a lifesaver for those who can afford it, but it makes the streets even hotter for those who can’t.

“Urban heat islands, combined with an ageing population and increased urbanisation, are projected to increase the vulnerability of urban populations, especially the poor, to heat-related health impacts in the future,” a US government assessment warned.

The World Health Organisation says that 60% of people will live in cities by 2030, and the more densely populated they become, the hotter they’ll get. Considering that recent predictions warn temperatures in South Asia will exceed the limits of human survival by the end of the century, every degree counts. Even this year, 65 people have perished from nearly 44C (111F) heat in Karachi, Pakistan – a city used to extreme heat.

But the impact is not evenly distributed. For example, there is a strong correlation between an area’s green spaces and its wealth; when shade from tree canopies can lower surfaces’ peak temperature by 11–25°C, “landscape is a predictor for morbidity in heatwaves”, says Tarik Benmarhnia, public health researcher at University of California San Diego. A review paper he recently co-authored found that people living in less vegetated areas had a 5% higher risk of death from heat-related causes.

In 2017, researchers at University of California, Berkeley were able to map racial divides in the US by proximity to trees. Black people were 52% more likely than white people to live in areas of unnatural “heat risk-related land cover”, while Asians were 32% more likely and Hispanics 21%.

The other remarkable thing about the big blue wave? The leading Democratic vote-getter in every race I’ve mentioned above, including all four Republican-held congressional district races, is a woman.

If the 2016 election was the year the white man roared, then the sound of Election 2018 is shaping up to be more like a chorus of women.

Maybe a full-on opera before this is done.

More women candidates than ever will contest US governorships and House seats in November's mid-term elections.
After Tuesday's primaries across four states, there are now 11 female nominees for governor and at least 185 for the House of Representatives.
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After polling closed in the four states holding primaries on Tuesday - Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington - it became clear women had broken records for gubernatorial and House nominations.

The United States Department of Agriculture is alerting consumers of the potential contamination of beef, pork and poultry salad and wrap products sold nationwide to stores including Trader Joe's, Kroger and Walgreen's.
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Caito Foods discovered the issue when their lettuce supplier, Fresh Express, sent notification that the chopped romaine used in some of their salads and wraps was being recalled, according to the FSIS. The affected items were distributed nationwide to stores including Trader Joe's, Kroger and Walgreen's.
The potentially affected items were produced between July 15-18, with a "best by," "enjoy by," "best if sold by" or "sell by" date ranging from July 18-23, according to the FSIS. The products will also include the establishment number “EST. 39985 or P-39985” near the USDA mark of inspection.