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This morning’s 3-by-3 travels across an endangered Vietnamese activist hiding in Thailand, an irresponsible power outage in Puerto Rico, a rare comedian event hosted by the Pope, and more. Let’s fly!

Politics

• Supreme Court unanimously preserves abortion pill

All nine justices of the Supreme Court ruled together in their first abortion decision since overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, this time preserving access to mifepristone (an abortion pill that was used in 60% of cases last year and that 66% of the American public oppose banning). The physician group Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine began their case against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a Texas court by attempting to outlaw the medication outright, but their most recent objectives were to reduce the 10-week window permitted for mifepristone-induced abortion and prevent mail delivery of the pill to a woman who had not first seen a clinician in-person. Justice Kavanaugh, notably a conservative voice on abortion, wrote the majority opinion stating the plaintiff had no legal grounds to sue for others’ reduced access to mifepristone when its own right to avoid the medication had not been infringed, given that federal law already protects a doctor’s conscientious objection to abortion services.

• Vietnamese activist seeks refuge in Thailand

The co-founder of Montagnards Stand for Justice, a coalition of Christian indigenous groups in Vietnam that advocates against religious persecution and economic discrimination, has been arrested in Thailand after fleeing his home country in fear 6 months ago — having been convicted of organizing violent anti-government riots, which he denies. The UN and Human Rights Watch both oppose his potential extradition given the certain danger he will face if returned and the international obligations of the Thai government to protect refugees and asylum-seekers after ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Human rights groups have long criticized Thailand for neglecting this duty by deporting dissidents from Vietnam, China, Cambodia, and Laos to endangered outcomes, raising serious questions of what will happen next for the activist leader and other members of his marginalized ethno-religious community.

• Colombia opens hospital to Palestinian children

Colombia will join Germany, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates in providing medical treatment to Palestinians wounded in the Israel-Hamas conflict, specifically welcoming injured children and their families to travel to Colombia and receive care from military doctors. Though historically a close ally of Israel, the country’s first leftist president Gustavo Petro recalled his ambassador to Israel in October and formally severed diplomatic ties last month after condemning Netanyahu’s “genocidal” government. The foreign ministry expects that its military doctors will be well-equipped due to their experience in Colombia’s 52-year internal armed conflict, but it is yet to announce how many Palestinian children will be taken in and for how long they will remain in South America.

Business

• Private companies blamed for Puerto Rican power outage 

Approximately 340,000 Puerto Ricans were left without power amid excessive heat conditions when two major plants shut down Wednesday night, affecting the capital of San Juan and neighboring municipalities. Luma Energy, the private company that handles transmission and distribution for PR’s power authority, has been condemned by the island’s governor and San Juan’s mayor alike — accusing the company of responding to the emergency without urgency and withholding critical information about the blackouts. Forty percent of Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents live in poverty and cannot afford generators or solar panels to mitigate this crisis, many of whom are now calling for Luma to be ousted from its government contract.

• Italy emphasizes African investment to decrease migration

The Group of 7 (an economic and political bloc of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, and Canada) has gathered for its annual three-day summit in the south of Italy, where the host country has been most vocal about reducing migration from Africa and discouraging people from the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean. With the presidents of Kenya, Algeria, and Tunisia in attendance, right-wing Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni garnered G7 support for her proposal to increase investment in the African continent, making it so citizens would have greater economic opportunities at home and less reason to migrate. Her so-called “Mattei Plan” has committed 5.5 billion euros to pilot projects across healthcare, education, water, and agriculture — notably aiming to help Africa become a major energy exporter to Europe.

• Myanmar’s economy suffers from civil war

Once an emerging Asian economy, Myanmar’s civil war between pro-democracy guerillas and the state military (which ousted the nation’s democratically elected leader in 2021) has yielded a nearly 33% poverty rate and a 13% decline in imports compared to last year. The conflict has displaced over 3 million people and disrupted consistent power access for a third of the nation’s factories, causing many global companies to exit their production facilities. The military is actively conscripting more young men to defend against the strengthening resistance forces, and many eligible are fleeing Myanmar to avoid service — weakening the workforce of an already struggling economy and further burying its standing in global trade.

Culture

• Pope Francis hosts A-list comedians at the Vatican

Pope Francis invited 100 comedians from 15 countries to the Vatican, commending them on the power of comedy to create a more “empathetic and supportive world” amid far-reaching global conflicts. Notable attendees included Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, and Stephen Colbert, all of whom reported being eager, if not surprised, to be in attendance. Francis, who reportedly prays for a sense of humor every morning, has been attempting to engage more with contemporary culture — having invited prominent artists and directors such as Martin Scorsese to the Vatican last year.

• Viral Buldak Noodles recalled in Denmark

Three types of Buldak noodles, viral on TikTok for spicy ramen challenges and produced by South Korean giant Samyang Foods, have been recalled in Denmark — claiming that the products contain an overly high amount of capsaicin (a chile pepper ingredient) and create a risk of “acute poisoning.” The Danish Food and Drug Administration has asked consumers to discard the noodles and demanded that shops remove the product, noting particular dangers for children and the elderly. Samyang has assured the public there are no product quality issues and suggested the noodles are just “too spicy” for the local market — given that Denmark is the first and only country to recall.

• East-meets-West architect Fumihiko Maki dies at 95

Renowned Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki has passed away, leaving an East-meets-West design legacy in Kyoto’s National Museum of Modern Art, New York’s 4 World Trade Center, and San Fransisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Born in 1928 in Tokyo, Maki was ultimately educated at the Havard Graduate School of Design — where he taught for several years while operating his own design firm. Awarded the Pritzker (known as the Nobel Prize of architecture), Maki is credited with pioneering Japanese modernism and effectively rebuilding postwar Japan.

Written by Outer Voice founders

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