Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Battered by Hurricane Maria, rattled by strong earthquakes, deprived of electricity for months on end.

You'd think that Puerto Rico would have been in terrible shape to handle a pandemic, but quite the opposite.

It's doing better than the rest of America.

And there have been a lot of theories as to how the Earth got all its water,

but none of them ever quite lined up with the data.

We look at new research that suggests a fascinating possibility.

The answer, my friends, may be blown in the solar wind.

First up, though.

North court!

There was a familiar scene outside America's Supreme Court yesterday, as dueling protesters camped out, chanted, and prayed.

I am not an incubator.

Hey, go-ho! This member has got to go!

Inside the court were the first hints that some constitutional bedrock of abortion rights might be about to crumble.

We will hear argument this morning in case 191392.

The justices heard arguments on a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks.

It flies in the face of current constitutional standards, first set in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling. But with a six to three

conservative supermajority on the bench, those standards, and with them nearly 50 years of abortion

rights, look increasingly fragile. The law that came before the Supreme Court on Wednesday

is the Gestational Age Act. It bans abortion at 15 weeks

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