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‘I froze,’ the woman said, thinking back on the day she was raped during a military exercise a few summers ago. It had been a long, hot day of training — marching into the hills, carrying heavy packs, eating M.R.E.s. Her group had been honing their navigation skills, figuring out how to get from one place to another as quickly as possible with only a compass and points, all while avoiding ambushes and snakes. (Percy, 8/22)

Their former colleagues and collaborators have turned on them; they are hounded by lobbyists and campaigners; and in some cases, the accusations have led them to question whether their work is helping or harming people. That’s been the reality faced by scientists, public health experts, and doctors working on e-cigarette research. Experts have described being ridiculed publicly, bullied by colleagues, and accused of being in the pocket of industry in their quest to investigate the benefits and harms of e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, it’s a boon for industry lobbyists, who can co-opt supportive messages from independent researchers and dismiss negative ones as relying on bad science. (Furlong, 8/21)

In Newburgh, New York, an ambulance had raced Maurice “Mo” Miller to the hospital after he collapsed, a mass in his brain. He never woke up from the biopsy, brain-dead at just 57. Next steps were up to his sister, his closest relative. Mary Miller-Duffy asked about donating his organs but he didn’t qualify. That biopsy had found cancer. Only then did the organ agency broach whole-body donation. Miller-Duffy wasn’t familiar with that, but the goal of improving kidney transplants, “that kind of struck a chord.” Another brother had died of kidney disease as a toddler. Other relatives have kidney-damaging illnesses or even died on dialysis. (Neergaard and Lum, 8/19)

The conversation surrounding parenting and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) often focuses on how parents can teach their kids to avoid getting one. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, STI rates are especially high among people between the ages of 15 and 24. What happens when a teen does get an STI, and how can parents proceed? Ahead, moms who have gone through it share how they handled the news, and what they wish they'd done differently. (Sylvester, 8/23)

For many trans people, clothes are their first step in transitioning. But shopping in traditional stores is often intimidating and disappointing. If they’re just starting to transition, they may not know what clothes they’re looking for. During the biweekly Trans Thrive events — Folk and Swagger for trans men and She Boutique for trans women; both events are also open to gender-nonconforming people — clients browse new clothes donated by manufacturers or stores with extra inventory, plus accessories like shoes, purses, chest binders and bras. Staff stand to the side, ready to offer advice or encouragement. (Allday, 8/20)

Dawson Broad had been the starting quarterback for his suburban Buffalo high school, but he hadn’t played any sports since 2021, when, on his 23rd birthday, he had dived into an aboveground swimming pool and damaged his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed. Then, last October, one of Broad’s physical therapists urged him to attend a local wheelchair football game. Broad was skeptical. He had spent long months of grueling rehabilitation regaining use of his left arm so that he could push a wheelchair. He wondered, What would touch football on wheels look like anyway? (Higgins, 8/22)

Theme parks, airlines and other businesses are stepping up efforts to weed out abuse by opportunists pretending to be disabled to save money or cut long lines. Companies looking to stem the abuse increasingly are turning to nonprofits or credentialing agencies to determine who qualifies for exemptions. ... Disabled travelers say they create additional burdens when they travel. (Passy, 8/23)

It was June 2016, and almost a year had passed since Stephen Brearey, the lead doctor at a neonatal unit in northwest England, first became concerned about a spate of troubling and unexpected deaths on his ward. Five babies had died, and at least six others had experienced unusual complications. The neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital cared for premature and vulnerable babies, but the number of deaths was far above average for the unit. Something was desperately wrong. (Specia, 8/23)

The U.N. is spending over 20 times more money than usual on fuel for generators to keep millions of vaccines in Niger from spoiling due to incessant power cuts. The outages are the result of severe economic and travel sanctions imposed by regional countries after mutinous soldiers toppled the country’s president last month. Country representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Niger, Stefano Savi, told The Associated Press on Monday that it has spent $200,000 powering generators to keep vaccines, including for polio and rotavirus, across the country cold during the first three weeks of August. That’s up from approximately $10,000 a month previously and might soon run out of money, he said. (Mednick, 8/21)