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A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane flew from Germany to Indianapolis on Sunday carrying not troops nor military equipment, but a load of European-made formula for infants and toddlers. It was a mercy mission to heal a self-inflicted wound. America is struggling to feed its babies. (5/26)

As contentious as the issue of abortion rights is at the moment, it would be easy to assume there's no overlap between those who believe women have a right to biological self-determination and those who believe that terminating a pregnancy at any stage is murder — an argument that some lawmakers in red-state America are already attempting to press into law. But there's actually one area where the two sides of this fraught debate should be able to agree: The ideal solution to the abortion conundrum is fewer unwanted pregnancies to begin with. If abortion-rights activists are serious about helping the women who are most vulnerable in this debate, and if anti-abortion activists are serious about reducing the number of abortions taking place, both should work together — maybe just this once — to make oral contraceptives available over the counter. (5/26)

California has long been a safe harbor for reproductive rights. Abortion was legal here even before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade made the right to have the procedure constitutionally protected in this country. In the intervening half-century, California has guaranteed the right to an abortion through the second trimester — and later if the life of the pregnant person is endangered — without constraints. While other states were passing multiple restrictions on abortion, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation in 2019 inviting women to come to the state to “exercise their reproductive rights.” (5/26)

About 10 years ago, a longtime state medical examiner in Texas and Mississippi told me something that has stuck with me ever since. He said there’s a type of prosecutor who believes that innocent babies just don’t die on their own. “They don’t believe in accidents,” he said, “especially when the parents are poor. Someone must be at fault. So someone has to pay.” (Radley Balko, 5/26)

There are days, now, when you can almost forget about the virus. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are still being infected with Covid-19 daily — an average of about 361 Americans died from it every day in the last week — but after more than two years and millions of lost lives, the pandemic has given way in headlines and breaking-news crawls to older and more familiar atrocities. (Farhad Manjoo, 5/26)

All remaining U.S. states with COVID-related public mask requirements have recently lifted them, and in mid-April, a district judge in Florida ended a federal mask mandate on trains, planes, buses or other public transport. For the first time in about two years, consumers can shop, exercise, travel, work and lounge in public spaces without wearing a mask, despite recent surges in COVID infections. (Isabella Bunosso, Grant E. Donnelly, Selin A. Malkoc, 5/27)