We all have cause to take climate change personally. Not only do higher temperatures lead to such mega-events as droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and floods, they also affect human health—exacerbating asthma, allergies, cardiovascular disease, the spread of water-borne pathogens, and more. Now, it appears that a warming world affects us in one other, potentially life-threatening way. That's according to a new, yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper presented May 18 at the 2025 gathering of the American Thoracic Society in San Francisco. Researchers found that as the heat increases, so too does the incidence and severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), increasing the risk of hypertension, heart attack, stroke, and death. “We were surprised at the magnitude of the association between ambient temperature and OSA severity,” said Bastien Lechat, the lead author of the paper and a senior research fellow at South Australia’s Flinders Health and Medicine Research Institute, in a statement that accompanied the recent presentation. “This study really highlights the societal burden associated with the increase in OSA prevalence due to rising temperatures.” In order to conduct their work, Lechat and his team collected data from 125,295 users of an under-mattress apnea sensor, in 41 countries, gathering readings recorded from January 2020 to September 2023. The sensor consists of an inflatable mat positioned beneath the point of the mattress that is at chest level with the sleeper. Changes in the air pressure within the mat record bodily, respiratory, and even cardiac motion. “By analyzing these signals with proprietary machine learning … the device can estimate a range of metrics, including sleep duration, sleep stages, awakenings, and periods of breathing cessation,” Lechat said in an email to TIME. Those cessations in breathing are what constitutes apnea. The researchers collected a median of 509 nights of readings from each individual, and then correlated the results with 24-hour ambient temperature models. The results were striking, showing a significant association between apnea and temperature in 29 of the countries studied, or well more than half. In those places, rising heat was associated with a 45% increase in the likelihood of an individual having at least one apnea episode on a given night. That does not come cheap. Crunching their numbers, the researchers estimated that across the sample group, the increase in apnea incidence resulted in a loss of more than 785,000 healthy life years—or years without disability or death—in 2023 alone. Loss of healthy life years has an economic cost too, with an estimated $32 billion reduction in workplace productivity in 2023. The connection between rising temperatures and OSA is not new. Climate change brings with it more extreme heat, including while we sleep. Nighttime temperatures often bring a cool relief, but in many places around the world these drops in temperature aren’t falling as low as they once did. The researchers estimate that the health and economic hit from growing heat-related apnea has increased 50% to 100% since 2000. Going forward, a rise in average global temperature of 2°C over pre-industrial levels can be expected to lead to a 1.5- to 3-fold OSA increase by 2100. Already the world surpassed 1.5°C of warming in 2024. “Our economic estimates in the paper suggest that increased OSA prevalence driven by higher ambient temperatures could lead to a multi-trillion-dollar global societal cost, along with poorer human health and well-being,” says Lechat. For now, the mechanism linking temperature and the cessation of breathing is not clear. Lechat and his colleagues speculate that heat may lead to lighter sleep—which is the stage of sleep during which apnea tends to be more severe. Behavioral factors may be at play too: when temperatures are higher, individuals may be less likely to wear their continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) masks, which are prescribed to reduce or prevent apnea. Whatever the cause, we may all feel the effect. “Sleep is the third pillar of health, alongside nutrition and exercise,” says Lechat, “[It] is essential for both physical and mental well-being.”

Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. hopes for bigger success in his second NFL season and he’ll bring a bigger body with him in pursuit of that goal. Harrison had a press conference at the team’s facility on Monday and one of the first questions concerned the 2024 first-round pick having a bulkier build than he had during his first NFL season. Harrison confirmed that there’s more of him this spring, which “just happened naturally” as a result of eating the right foods and the wideout said he’ll spend the rest of the offseason figuring out the best weight for him during the season. “I definitely put on some pounds,” Harrison said. “I think I added some muscle to my body a little bit. Still just trying to see how my body feels throughout OTAs . . . Kind of get that specific weight to settle in for training camp and go from there.” Harrison, who was the fourth overall pick last year, said “contested catch situations, run off the catch” when discussing areas he thinks that the added muscles could help him with in 2025. He had 62 catches for 885 yards and eight touchdowns to kick off his NFL career.

The fan who filed what appears to be a frivolous lawsuit against the NFL over the draft-day free fall of Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders is committed to the bit. Via Ayrton Ostly of USA Today, the fan who inexplicably sued under the John Doe pseudonym has filed an emergency motion for early and targeted discovery. The plaintiff, citing “the urgency, public interest, and volume of evidence likely to be in the exclusive possession of the NFL,” seeks: (1) emails and text messages between and among a broad range of team and league officials regarding Sanders from April 1, 2025 through May 1, 2025; (2) scouting reports, internal assessments, draft boards, and interview notes used by NFL teams when evaluating quarterbacks during the 2025 draft; (3) avoid and video recordings of team meetings, draft room communications, or NFL Scouting Combine sessions involving Sanders; (4) communications with third-party media outlets regarding the public portrayal and narrative regarding Sanders before the draft; (5) all documents regarding the NFL’s investigation regarding the prank call placed to Sanders; (6) results or report of the inquiry into why Sanders’s personal phone number was provided to NFL teams via the waiver wire; and (7) the 61-page arbitration report that found evidence of collusion against Black quarterbacks. We’ll give John Doe credit. Even though the lawsuit seems to be destined for dismissal for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted, he seems to be knowledgeable regarding the areas of factual inquiry that proving a case like this would entail. And we’re on #TeamJohnDoe, if it means getting a look at the arbitration ruling from earlier this year that, for whatever reason, neither the NFL nor the NFL Players Association will discuss. (We’ve heard that the arbitrator found reason to believe that collusion happened as to the refusal to give guaranteed contracts to certain veteran quarterbacks including Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson, but that the NFLPA failed to prove financial damages.) Still, the motion for early and targeted discovery undoubtedly will be denied. There’s nothing pressing or compelling about the case that would require the NFL to open its files before having a chance to prove why the case should be thrown out of court, with prejudice. Complicating the case is the fact that the plaintiff is proceeding without a lawyer. In such situations, the presiding judge usually shows extra lenience to the non-lawyer who is attempting to pursue justice. Still, based on the complaint that was filed immediately after the draft, there seems to be no basis for finding that the plaintiff’s rights were violated.

CHICAGO — There is a new landmark at the home of the Chicago White Sox — Section 140, Row 19, Seat 2. That’s where Father Bob — the future Pope Leo XIV — sat for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. The White Sox unveiled a graphic installation Monday that pays tribute to the new pontiff and that moment during their last championship run. The pillar artwork features a waving Pope Leo XIV, along with a picture from the TV broadcast of the future pope sitting with good friend Ed Schmit and his grandson, Eddie. The team also is planning to do something to commemorate the Rate Field seat the pope occupied during the 2005 World Series opener. “When people come into the ballpark, it’s an interesting piece of our history and they’re going to want to see it,” said Brooks Boyer, the chief executive and marketing officer for the White Sox. “So we’re going to be able to put something on that seat.” Robert Prevost became the first pope from the U.S. in the history of the Catholic Church when he was elected on May 8. The Chicago-born missionary, who took the name Leo XIV, is a White Sox fan, according to his friends and family. Prevost attended the World Series opener with Schmit, a longtime season-ticket holder who died in 2020. The White Sox beat the Houston Astros 5-3 on their way to a four-game sweep for the title. Eddie Schmit, 25, who works in the family’s day-care business, described the future pope as a great guy and kindhearted. “A lot of this is about the White Sox. It should be more about what kind of guy the pope is,” Schmit said. “You look at some of the things he’s done with his missions, I mean it’s incredible. He’s been in places that are so poor, just trying to help other people.” Prevost and Schmit knew each other through their work at a Catholic high school on Chicago’s South Side, and Schmit’s son, Nick, remains the account holder for the pope’s World Series seat. Ed Schmit used to tell Father Bob he was going to be the next pope, Schmit’s daughter, Heidi Skokal, said. “Right around when my dad was passing, Father Bob made sure, he couldn’t be there, but made sure he spoke with him and everything,” an emotional Skokal said. “And he said, ‘Father Bob, Father Bob, I know you’re going to be the next pope. I may not be here to see it.’ And he goes, ‘But I’ll be definitely looking down.’ And I’m sure he is today.” The White Sox, who have struggled on the field in recent years, and their fans have embraced their connection to the new pope since he was elected. The team said it sent a jersey and a hat to the Vatican after the announcement. Some fans have been dressing as the pope for White Sox games, and there are several different T-shirts that celebrate the team’s most famous fan. “The pope absolutely has an open invite to come back,” Boyer said. “To come sit in Section 140, to throw out a first pitch. Heck, maybe we’ll let him get an at-bat.”

The Packers have officially renewed their assault on the tush push. In advance of Tuesday’s ownership meeting, the Packers have submitted a revised proposal that turns the clock back to 2005, when both pulling and pushing of the ball carrier was prohibited. The move addresses the root cause of the tush push. Some 16 years after the league allowed pushing in part because the officials never throw a flag when it happens, the Eagles seized on the loophole and engineered it into their playbook. By making a general attack on all pushing of the runner, it no longer seems to be a direct assault on the Eagles’ signature play. Even though anyone with a functioning brain knows that’s what’s happening. The proposal requires 24 votes. The league reportedly was split, 16-16, on the Packers’ flawed proposal that prohibited immediate pushing of the player who receives the snap. If that had passed, it would have invited confusion and inconsistency among crews, along with a fresh avenue for claiming the fix is in if/when a subjective decision that a push was “immediate” turns a key touchdown or first down into a 10-yard penalty. The given reason for the proposal is player safety and pace of play. There is no data to prove that pushing the runner will create a safety issue — and no one has ever suggested that the tush push impacts the “pace of play” (except when a defense pinned against its goal line decides to keep jumping offside in the hopes of perfectly timing the move in order to stop the play). Here’s what will happen if this passes. First, although there may be an early effort to police downfield pushing early in the 2025 season at the direction of 345 Park Avenue, officials will go back to not calling a foul for assisting the runner. (It last happened in the 1991 playoffs, with a flag thrown against Tim Grunhard in a game between the Chiefs and Bills.) Second, the Eagles will still run a largely unstoppable quarterback sneak without the pushing of the tush. But, hey, the powers-that-be (possibly starting with the guys whose autograph is on every football) don’t like the tush push. It doesn’t look like football. It poses a safety risk, despite all evidence to the contrary. So it will be gone. It will create a horrible precedent. The league is coming up with phony reasons for banning a play that someone doesn’t like. And it raises an obvious question: What’s next? The lesson to all teams is simple. Keep on innovating. But beware. If you come up with something so good that it can’t be copied, they’ll find a way to stop you from doing it.

Political leaders from across parties in the U.S. extended their sympathies to Democratic former President Joe Biden, 82, after his office announced Sunday that he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer. Biden, who served as Vice President from 2009 to 2017 and President from 2021 to January, and his family are reviewing treatment options, according to the announcement. His Administrations had made addressing cancer a priority, launching the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to try to make it such that “a diagnosis isn’t a death sentence.” Biden lost his son Beau in 2015 to brain cancer. Advertisement Read More: What Does a Gleason Score of 9 Mean? Understanding Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Here are some of the messages of support for Biden that have come in since his diagnosis was made public: Donald Trump President Donald Trump, who has constantly attacked Biden’s health and cognitive ability from the 2024 campaign trail to the present, sent well-wishes to Biden in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump said, referencing the First Lady. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

The Lions aren’t taking probably not for an answer. Detroit has resubmitted a proposal that strips the automatic home game for division champions and seeds all seven playoff participants based on record. The proposal, revised to make it read a little more cleanly, would take the seven playoff participants (division winners and three wild cards) and seed them based on record. Although the proposal came from the Lions and not from the Competition Committee, Detroit president Rod Wood admitted last month that the proposal was made at the behest of the league office. We thereafter reported that the Commissioner wants this change, in the hopes of making late-season games more compelling. By not putting the issue to a vote in March, the Commissioner didn’t take the L. Since then, he’s had time to twist arms and/or do deals in an effort to get to 24 votes. Under the current system, division winners often lock into a specific seed with a week or two left in the season. With no fear of losing their spot on the playoff tree, they can rest starters in Week 17 and/or 18. It’s all about ensuring that as many games as possible are interesting and compelling, so that the various and ever-expanding standalone windows will include games worth watching. The rule, if passed, also would eliminate the potential inequity of requiring a wild-card team with a superior record to travel to face a division winner with a lesser record. Still, it’s not about competitive fairness in the playoffs; it’s about trying to ensure that more games will be more interesting in the final weeks of the regular season.

ike a lot of Democrats these days, Chris Murphy has been doing some soul searching. For years, the Connecticut Senator, who took office shortly after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, was one of the nation’s most outspoken advocates for tighter gun laws. Gun safety was so important, he argued, that supporting an assault-weapons ban should be mandatory for Democratic leaders. Recently, Murphy has come to believe he was wrong. Not about tougher gun laws, but about trying to force all Democrats to adopt his position. “I bear some responsibility for where we are today,” he told me in a phone interview in April. “I spent a long time trying to make the issue of guns a litmus test for the Democratic Party. I think that all of the interest groups that ended up trying to apply a litmus test for their issue ended up making our coalition a lot smaller.” Advertisement Murphy’s shift in thinking is part of the reckoning that has gripped the party since President Donald Trump’s victory in November. Democrats could dismiss Trump’s first win as a fluke. His second, they know, was the product of catastrophic failure—a nationwide rejection of Democratic policies, Democratic messaging, and the Democrats themselves. The party got skunked in every battleground state and lost the popular vote for the first time in 20 years. They lost the House and the Senate. Their support sagged with almost every demographic cohort except Black women and college-educated voters. Only 35% of Democrats are optimistic about the future of the party, according to a May 14 AP poll, down from nearly 6 in 10 last July. Democrats have no mojo, no power, and no unifying leader to look to for a fresh start.Everyone knows how bad things are. “As weak as I’ve ever seen it,” says Representative Jared Golden of Maine, who represents a district Trump won. Trump’s second term is “worse than everyone imagined,” says Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen. The Democratic National Committee has offered few answers as it prepares to release a “postelection review” sometime this summer. “I don’t like to call it an ‘autopsy’ because our party’s not dead—we’re still alive and kicking,” explains Ken Martin, the new party chair. “Maybe barely, but we are.” You already know most of the reasons for the 2024 fiasco. Joe Biden was too old to be President, and just about everybody but Joe Biden knew it. His sheer oldness undermined all efforts to sell his policies effectively. Democrats lost touch with the working class, with men, with voters of color, with the young. Voters saw Democrats as henpecked by college-campus progressives, overly focused on “woke” issues like diversity and trans rights. They tried to convince people that the economy was good when it didn’t feel good; they tried to convince people that inflation and illegal immigration were imaginary problems. In an era when voters around the globe were in an anti-incumbent mood, Democrats were stuck defending the status quo. The pandemic election of 2020 and the post-Dobbs midterms in 2022 lulled top party officials into a dangerous complacen

Political leaders from across parties in the U.S. extended their sympathies to Democratic former President Joe Biden, 82, after his office announced Sunday that he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer. Biden, who served as Vice President from 2009 to 2017 and President from 2021 to January, and his family are reviewing treatment options, according to the announcement. His Administrations had made addressing cancer a priority, launching the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to try to make it such that “a diagnosis isn’t a death sentence.” Biden lost his son Beau in 2015 to brain cancer. Advertisement Read More: What Does a Gleason Score of 9 Mean? Understanding Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Here are some of the messages of support for Biden that have come in since his diagnosis was made public: Donald Trump President Donald Trump, who has constantly attacked Biden’s health and cognitive ability from the 2024 campaign trail to the present, sent well-wishes to Biden in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump said, referencing the First Lady. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2024 election after Biden pulled out of the race amid concerns about his fitness, posted on X: “Doug [Emhoff] and I are saddened to learn of President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis. We are keeping him, Dr. [Jill] Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time. Joe is a fighter—and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.” Doug Emhoff, the former Second Gentleman, replied with a brief message of his own to Biden: “Sending love and strength to my friend @JoeBiden.” Barack Obama Former President Barack Obama, whom Biden served with as Vice President for two terms, also wished Biden well in a post on X: “Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.” Bill and Hillary Clinton The Clintons also wished Biden well. Former President Bill Clinton, who was diagnosed with skin cancer at the end of his presidency in 2001, posted on X: “My friend Joe Biden’s always been a fighter. Hillary and I are rooting for him and are keeping him, Jill, and the entire family in our thoughts.” Meanwhile, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also posted a message for Biden and his family. “I’m thinking of the Bidens as they take on cancer, a disease they’ve done so much to try to spare other families from,” Clinton posted. “Wishing you a speedy, full recovery

Former President Joe Biden has publicly addressed his cancer diagnosis for the first time, following the announcement that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. “Cancer touches us all,” Biden wrote in a post on social media platform X on Monday morning. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.” It was announced on Sunday, May 18, that the 46th President was diagnosed with prostate cancer after doctors found a nodule on his prostate. Further tests confirmed that the cancer cells had metastasized to the bone. Advertisement “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.” Biden’s cancer has a Gleason score of 9. Prostate cancer is assigned a Gleason score grade based on how “abnormal” the cancer looks, according to the American Cancer Society. Higher grade levels indicate that the cancer may grow at a faster rate. Cancers with a Gleason score from 8 to 10 are considered high-grade. Biden’s office did not share what stage the former president’s stage of cancer is in. Advanced prostate cancer cannot be completely cured, according to experts. Dr. Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center told The Associated Press that patients can live up to four or five years with metastatic prostate cancer, however. “Most men in this situation would be treated with drugs and would not be advised to have either surgery or radiation therapy,” he added. Read More: What Does a Gleason Score of 9 Mean? Understanding Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Biden’s diagnosis has ignited an outpouring of support from friends, political allies, and others. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who took over as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after Biden stepped down, said she was “saddened” to hear about the diagnosis and called Biden a “fighter.” “I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery,” Harris said in a post on X. President Donald Trump said he and First Lady Melania Trump were saddened to hear about the news, in a message on Truth Social. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” Trump said.