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Elders have the wisdom to shape the world as it can be at its best, not necessarily with new inventions or leading the way to Mars, but with our attitudes, our moral values and our votes. As elders we have a moral obligation to speak out against discrimination and an elemental responsibility to teach our grandkids what is right and what is morally reprehensible. Our views have weight. We are the sages, the teachers, the philosophers with the perspective that only comes with age. But we must speak out. We can’t sit around grumbling about ‘the good old days.” We must weigh in on the public debate on the preservation of the environment, the disparity of wealth, the continuing struggle against racism and the corrosive effects of imprecise scales of justice. We deal with forgetfulness an...

As the saying goes: Life finds a way. That’s the idea behind a team of researchers who recently recovered RNA from the extinct thylacine—also known as a Tasmanian tiger—in an effort to resurrect the species. Despite having died in Tasmania’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936, the creature’s genetic material was able to be extracted and sequenced by scientists from Colossal Bioscience, a biotech startup known for their “de-extinction” projects including efforts to bring back the wooly mammoth and the dodo bird.

Americans apparently agree on at least one thing: age matters. A recent CBS News poll shows that large, bipartisan majorities believe there should be maximum age limits for elected officials, with nearly half of those surveyed saying the cutoff should be 70 years old. That, of course, would eliminate the two presumptive candidates in next year’s presidential election. If Donald Trump, 77, manages to reclaim the White House in 2024, he would become the oldest person to ever win a presidential election. The same goes for Joe Biden, already the nation’s oldest-serving president at age 80. It’s not just presidential politics that’s graying. High profile health scares for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have brought increased attention to the...

Prices at the pump climbed to their highest level of the year on Monday as oil prices push past $92 a barrel. Normally, gas prices cool off after the summer driving season ends on Labor Day. But the opposite has happened this year as Saudi Arabia’s and Russia’s aggressive supply cuts lift oil prices. The national average for regular gas hit $3.88 a gallon on Monday, the highest price since October 2022, according to AAA. Gas prices have jumped by five cents a gallon in the past week alone. [More]

The main reason that birthrates are low is simple: People today want smaller families than people did in the past. That’s true in different cultures and economies around the world. It’s what both women and men report in surveys. Humanity is building a better, freer world with more opportunities for everyone, especially for women. That progress deserves everyone’s greatest celebration — and everyone’s continued efforts. That progress also means that, for many of us, the desire to build a family can clash with other important goals, including having a career, pursuing projects and maintaining relationships. No society has solved this yet. These tradeoffs bite deep for parents everywhere. For some parents, that means struggle. For others, that means smaller families than they hoped for. ...

Fernando Botero, the Colombian whose voluptuous pictures and sculptures of overstuffed generals, bishops, prostitutes, housewives and other products of his whimsical imagination made him one of the world’s best-known artists, died on Friday in Monaco. Mr. Botero was permanently associated with the florid, rounded figures that filled his pictures. He portrayed middle-class life and bordellos, clerics and peasants, bulging baskets of fruit and the grim effects of violence.

The death toll has continued to climb in the wake of the rare and powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Morocco Friday night. More than 2,900 people are confirmed dead. The quake, Morocco's strongest in more than a century, hit the country's High Atlas mountain range near Marrakech. [Full story]

US inflation accelerated in August for the second-straight month, pushed up by rising gas prices. However, core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, continued to slow, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday. The Consumer Price Index, a closely watched inflation gauge, rose 3.7% in August from a year earlier, up from July’s 3.2% rise. On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.6% in August, compared with a 0.2% gain in July. However, core inflation slowed to 4.3% from 4.7% for the 12 months ending in August, an indication that the Federal Reserve’s 11 rate hikes are working their way through the economy. Wednesday’s inflation report likely keeps the Fed on track for a pause in rate hikes next week when central bank officials meet ...

The fast food chain is eliminating its self-serve soda machines by 2032 at its US restaurants, the company said, explaining that the change will make the experience consistent for customers and crew across the chain. For decades, McDonald’s let customers fill (and refill) their own drinks at its dining rooms. However, consumer behavior has changed since the pandemic, and the chain has experienced a surge in business through its drive-thru and delivery services, with fewer people choosing to eat in its dining rooms, reducing the need for the machines. McDonald’s future includes restaurant designs with smaller or no dining rooms (and high-tech drive thrus) to reflect that new reality. Digital sales (i.e. orders made on its app or through its partners like Uber) now make up 40% of its to...

The US Food and Drug Administration gave the green light Monday to updated Covid-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech amid rising cases and hospitalizations. Both vaccine manufacturers have said testing shows that their vaccines are effective against EG.5, the currently dominant strain in the United States. Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated as soon as the shots are available. They’re debuting amid a late summer rise in Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States and growing concerns about the effects that the triple threat of respiratory viruses – coronavirus, flu and respiratory syncytial virus – may have this fall and winter season.