Poll: Biden's favorability drops to new low in May as Americans lose patience with rising costs and inflation



President Joe Biden’s approval rating fell in May to its lowest point since he took office.

According to a poll published by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Research, only 39% of adults in the U.S. approve of Biden’s performance as president.

Overall, only about two in ten adults believe the U.S. is heading in the right direction or that the economy is in a good condition. Fox News reported that in April, about three in ten adults believed both. These drops in favorability were largely concentrated among Democratic voters with just 33% of the president’s own party believing that the country was headed in the right direction, down from 49% in April.

Among Democrats, Biden’s overall approval sits at 73% which indicates a drop from 82% in the same poll from last year. In 2021, Biden never dropped below 82% approval.

Last year, a similar poll conducted by the Associated Press showed Biden had an approval rating of 63% which is 24 points higher than his current approval rating.

Biden’s handling of the economy is one of the largest reasons for his dismal poll numbers as two-thirds of Americans are saying they disapprove of the way his administration has presided over the situation.

According to the poll, only 18% of Americans say that Biden’s policies have helped the economy more than they have hurt it, which is down from 24% in March. At the same time, 51% of Americans say that his economic policies have hurt the economy more than they have helped and 30% of respondents say that Biden’s policies have not made a difference on way or the other.

Biden’s performance in the polls has been slipping since January as several polls conducted across the political spectrum indicate Americans are increasingly frustrated with a wide range of issues stemming from record high gas prices and historic levels of inflation to a nationwide baby formula shortage.

Biden’s poll numbers have suffered hits from constituencies that have historically been reliable voting blocs for Democrats. A recent Quinnipiac poll suggested that Biden’s approval among Hispanics has fallen to 26%, but whether this will affect voting trends remains to be seen. The same Quinnipiac poll conducted a year ago had Hispanic support for Biden at 55%.

The plummeting approval numbers are not confined to Biden, however. Recent polls indicate that Americans are prepared to oust Democrats from Congress. 39% of respondents favored generic Democratic candidates with 46% of respondents favoring generic Republican candidates.

The first commercial brain-computer interface is starting human trials



The first clinical trials testing a human brain-computer interface will soon take place in the U.S.

The company developing the interface, Synchron Inc., is a competitor of Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. Synchron Inc. beginning clinicals puts the company on a path toward mainstreaming controversial technology that could have wider use in helping people overcome disabilities and paralysis.

Bloomberg reported that the company’s early feasibility study to determine whether the product is even practical is being funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study is supposed to determine how the device can be integrated with the human brain safely. If all goes according to plan, the clinical trial will be able to assess how people with disabilities or paralysis can control digital devices hands-free.

This trial represents a landmark in that it will be the first clinical trial conducted by a startup working on brain-machine interfaces; should the clinical trial be successful, Synchron will begin working to sell the product.

Synchron’s clinical puts the company ahead of Musk’s Neuralink. Last year Neuralink raised $205 million, while Synchron raised $70 million.

It is believed that brain-computer interfaces have the ability to empower millions of disabled people to more easily communicate with other people and engage in modern life. According to data gathered by the CDC, paralysis affects more than five million people in the U.S. Brain-computer interface technologies theoretically could alleviate some of the difficulties in these people’s lives.

Synchron’s device, once implanted, travels to the brain through the body’s vascular system, whereas Musk’s Neuralink is implanted directly into the receiver’s skull. Once Synchron’s device reaches the brain, parts of the device translate brain activity into signals that allow text messaging, emailing, online shopping, or other various activities using a paired external device.

In the past, brain-computer interfaces have received regulatory approval to treat patients on a temporary basis, but if Synchron’s trial is successful, the company would secure approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for long-term use. If the clinical trial is successful, this technology will take a giant step forward toward commercial availability.

The Synchron study will involve six American patients in New York City and Pittsburgh. The first patient was enrolled this week at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. The patient’s identity and demographic information are being kept private.

Should this clinical trial be successful, the next step forward for Snychron will be conducting a wider trial to test for efficacy.

Amazon will reimburse employees $4,000 if they cross state lines to get an abortion



Amazon is committing to financing the abortions of its employees.

On Monday, the second-largest private employer in the U.S. told its staff that it will pay up to $4,000 annually in travel expenses for “non-life-threatening medical treatments including abortions.”

Reuters reported that Amazon’s decision to subsidize its employees' abortions places the online mega-retailer on a growing list of large corporations with similar policies on the books. Citigroup Inc. and Yelp Inc. both announced that they would subsidize the abortion process for their employees in response to Republican-backed state laws limiting abortion access.

In a similar vein, the popular ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft previously vowed to cover the legal fees for drivers in Texas who encounter legal difficulties for driving women to abortion clinics, Fortune reported.

The company’s new benefit will have retroactive coverage and is available to both its U.S. employees and their covered dependents who are enrolled in either the Premera or Aetna health plans. The reimbursement benefits are available to employees at all levels of the company. Warehouse workers and executives alike can be reimbursed for expenses incurred in their pursuit of an abortion.

However, in order to qualify for the reimbursement, the individuals seeking to receive an abortion must travel more than 100 miles.

Amazon announced that it would start financing abortions the same day that it stopped offering U.S.-based employees paid time off when they get diagnosed with COVID-19.

On Monday, a draft decision indicating that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturnRoe v. Wade was leaked to the media.

The draft is of the court’s majority opinion and is written by Associate Justice Samuel Alito. It is believed that the opinion had already circulated inside the court prior to it being leaked.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito wrote.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division,” Alito continued.

The draft decision is related to an outstanding challenge against a piece of pro-life legislation out of Mississippi.

“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions,” Alito concludes. “On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of common law until 1973.”