SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " bloc " 2,209 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Louisville police say officers fatally shot woman in 'mental health crisis' who charged at them with sharp object
It happened at 7:45 p.m. Friday in the 9800 block of Vieux Carre Drive, off Shelbyville Road and South Hurstbourne Parkway.
The voting bloc that could swing Maine's Senate race: From the Politics Desk
Plus, the Iran war hits the one-month mark.
Studying human-robot interaction, CWRU researcher explores tech-enabled mental health support | CWRU Newsroom | Case Western Reserve University
Editor’s note: Jasmine Vo, the author of this story, is a student employee in the University Marketing and Communications department. She is a fourt...
Judge temporarily blocks the Pentagon's action against Anthropic
Anthropic has said it could lose billions if a federal judge didn't step in to block the Trump administration.
Kennedy’s Vaccine Agenda Hits Roadblocks, Diminishing His Clout
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism is posing challenges for the Trump administration. Top health jobs are unfilled, and a court has blocked his vaccine schedule changes.
3 shot in Central Business District Thursday afternoon, police say
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Three people were shot in the 1400 block of Tulane Avenue in the Central Business District, and police detained one person on the scene, according to police.
Schumer, Democrats say they support voter ID — then block GOP amendment to require it
Senate Democrats blocked a photo voter ID amendment to the SAVE America Act, despite Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying Democrats support voter ID.
Why politics, money, and construction capacity will limit any European turn toward nuclear power generation
The EU wants to reestablish the nuclear power supply it once had, when nuclear provided about a third of the bloc’s electricity supply. But Europe's industrial capacity, financial challenges, and politics are major obstacles to a European nuclear renaissance.
Cuban Patients Are Dying Because of U.S. Blockade, Doctors Say
Cuban health care was once the pride of the island. Now the U.S. oil blockade is upending even basic medical care.
Trump’s Threats to Europe Put Its Leaders in a Double Bind Over Iran
European politicians risk angering their voters if they join America’s war. Yet they could also face domestic upheaval if they take no action to reopen shipping routes that Iran has blocked and ease an energy crisis.
Wembanyama dominates inside as Spurs trounce Grizzlies 123-98
Victor Wembanyama had 19 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks as the San Antonio Spurs built an early lead and coasted to a 123-98 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. Devin Vassell matched Wembanyama's 19 points, while Stephon Castle and Keldon Johnson finished with 15 points each, as seven Spurs finished in double figures. With its seventh straight victory, San Antonio moved within two games of Oklahoma City for the top spot in the Western Conference as the Boston Celtics stopped the Thunder's 12-game winning streak with a 119-109 victory on Wednesday night.
Apple blocks App Store updates for Mac app replacing Launchpad
Apple is blocking App Store updates to AppGrid for resembling Launchpad, a feature the company recently discontinued. Here are the details.
Lightning Round: Sell Penn Entertainment
'Mad Money' host Jim Cramer weighs in on stocks including: Qnity Electronics, Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Penn Entertainment, Applied Digital, and more.
Generac CEO: We want to be 50/50 as a residential and commercial business
Aaron Jagdfeld, Generac chairman, president, and CEO joins 'Mad Money' host Jim Cramer to talk the state of the energy market.
Democratic lawmaker asks judge to take Trump's name off Kennedy Center
A Democratic lawmaker is asking a federal judge to force the Kennedy Center to block and reverse efforts to attach President Donald Trump’s name to the historic performing arts venue.
Arsenal exploring blockbuster summer move for PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Arsenal are exploring a blockbuster summer move for PSG winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (25), according to The Independent’s Miguel Delaney. The winger has proved an immediate hit for Les Parisiens o...
Green Leader Polanski Says the UK Shouldn’t ‘Strangle’ Business
The leader of the UK’s insurgent Green Party said government shouldn’t be “strangling” business, as he tempered his left-wing bloc’s economic message ahead of nationwide local elections in May.
Green Leader Polanski Says the UK Shouldn’t ‘Strangle’ Business
The leader of the UK’s insurgent Green Party said government shouldn’t be “strangling” business, as he tempered his left-wing bloc’s economic message ahead of nationwide local elections in May.
Glyphosate: A story of science, risk, and nuance
In the summer of 2014, a California groundskeeper named Dewayne Johnson started noticing patches of raw, weeping skin spreading across his body. He had spent years applying Roundup, Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide, for a school district, sometimes drenched in it when equipment malfunctioned. By 2014, he had a diagnosis: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2018, a jury awarded him $289 million in damages, later reduced on appeal. Tens of thousands of lawsuits followed. The story hasn’t quieted down. It’s all over the internet, swinging between “this will kill you, buy organic” and “relax, you’re fear-mongering.” Some of that recent chatter stems from an Executive Order protecting glyphosate and its production, which set off intense infighting within the MAHA movement. Some of it reflects a deeper truth: Americans genuinely care about harmful chemicals in their environment (see poll below). And the conversation isn’t going anywhere, with a Supreme Court case involving Monsanto set for this April. Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. But does glyphosate cause cancer? And how much exposure is actually risky? With so much mistrust in institutions and corporations (and some genuine conflicts of interest), making sense of the actual scientific evidence is genuinely hard. Here is a translation of what the scientific evidence actually says. Does glyphosate cause harm? Glyphosate is an herbicide that kills most plants it contacts rather than targeting specific species. It works by blocking an enzyme pathway (EPSPS) that plants and many microorganisms need to produce essential amino acids. Without those amino acids, the plant can’t grow and dies. Glyphosate was first developed by Monsanto in the 1970s and became ubiquitous after the company introduced “Roundup Ready” crops in the 1990s. In 2024, Bayer removed glyphosate from residential Roundup-branded products due to litigation pressure. But today it is still the most widely used herbicide in the world. Farmers also discovered they could spray it directly on crops like oats, lentils, beans, and peas just before harvest to dry them out faster and make harvesting easier. Because of its widespread use, it’s obviously really important to understand if it’s harmful to humans. The key principle: The dose makes the poison The most important concept in toxicology is that “the dose makes the poison.” Sixteenth-century physician Paracelsus articulated what remains the foundational principle of toxicology: sola dosis facit venenum. Water will kill you if you drink enough of it. Aspirin saves lives at 81 milligrams and causes internal bleeding at higher chronic doses. So, at what dose is glyphosate poisonous? The LD50 in rats (the dose that kills half the test animals) is around 5,600 mg/kg body weight. Table salt is roughly 3,000 mg/kg. By that classic measure, glyphosate is less acutely toxic than salt. But some people are exposed to a lot of glyphosate through their work. And among the general public, there are many questions about low-dose, cumulative exposure from multiple sources over long periods. Does glyphosate cause health problems? Cancer Correlation maps are striking, with one analysis finding that 60% of counties that spray the most glyphosate have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma rates above the national average. But correlation alone doesn’t establish cause, which is why animal and human studies matter. In animals: Rat studies are typically what most fear is rooted in, but most people don’t know the study details on the dosage given to rats. A pooled analysis of the 13 most rigorous rat studies found evidence that very high doses, around 55,000 times greater than typical food residue exposure, can cause certain cancers. In humans: One of the strongest studies followed 55,000 herbicide users over 20 years and found no overall increased cancer risk. There was one signal: among those with the highest use, rates of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appeared elevated. A broader meta-analysis of 18 human studies also found no overall cancer risk, though a separate meta-analysis focused specifically on non-Hodgkin lymphoma found that people with high cumulative glyphosate exposure faced a 41% higher relative risk compared to those with low or no exposure. These human studies are observational studies (randomized controlled trials would be unethical), and meta-analyses are only as reliable as the studies they pool. But the story seems consistent: at very high exposure levels, there may be some cancer risk. But that’s about as far as the science currently takes us. Emerging research: gut and reproductive health Gut: Because glyphosate targets a pathway that exists in some gut bacteria, scientists have questioned whether it could affect the microbiome. In mice, a 2023 University of Iowa study found that glyphosate altered gut bacterial composition and raised markers of intestinal inflammation. A 2024 systematic review found similar patterns: disrupted gut bacteria and problems with the mucus layer that protects the intestinal wall in mice. Whether this translates to humans is an open question. The human gut is highly variable and resistant, and we don't yet have strong studies confirming the same effects in people. Reproductive health: Animal studies have found that glyphosate-based herbicides can interfere with reproductive hormones, including disrupting egg cell development in mice and reducing the number of eggs available in sheep’s ovaries. However, the doses used in these experiments were high, so it’s not yet clear whether the same effects would occur in humans. On the human side, a 2021 pilot study led by Mount Sinai researchers tested urine samples from pregnant women across the U.S. and found glyphosate in 95% of them. The study also found a possible connection between higher glyphosate exposure during pregnancy and a subtle physical difference measured in female newborns. That said, some connections weren’t statistically reliable and this was a small study. The researchers themselves said more and larger studies are needed before drawing firm conclusions. What do regulators say about glyphosate safety? In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2A). The classification is worth taking seriously. But, there’s an important distinction: IARC classifies hazard, meaning the potential to cause harm under some conditions. It does not assess risk, which accounts for actual exposure levels and the real-world probability of harm. The U.S. EPA, the European Food Safety Authority, Health Canada, and regulatory agencies in Australia and Japan have all concluded that glyphosate is “unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans” at realistic exposure levels. They’re asking a different question: given how much of this people actually encounter, what is the probability of harm? Your actual exposure is what determines your actual risk. What does glyphosate mean for your daily life? At the grocery store: Food residues are small. The EPA’s acceptable daily intake is 1.75 mg/kg of body weight per day. To hit that threshold from oatmeal alone, a 150-pound adult would need to eat roughly 50 pounds of oats every day. But this calculation addresses only one pathway (food), and we don’t yet have robust tools to measure people’s actual total exposure. If reducing exposure matters to you, organic certification prohibits synthetic herbicides, and organic oat products generally test at lower or undetectable levels. Either way, a diet rich in whole grains, conventional or organic, is far better for your health than one that omits them out of fear of residues. On the farm: Occupational exposure is orders of magnitude higher than consumer exposure. Farmers and farm workers who mix, load, and apply glyphosate-based herbicides, especially without protective equipment, face meaningfully different risk profiles. Proper PPE isn’t optional. Integrated weed management strategies that rotate chemical modes of action are also worth taking seriously, both for health and for long-term effectiveness. If you live near a farm: Spray drift is real. Concentrations near field edges can spike during and after application, particularly on windy days. This is an area where I think public health could really step up and empower rural communities with buffer zones, rather than placing the onus on individuals. But for now, knowing your local agricultural calendar and keeping windows closed during application are the first steps. Bottom line Dewayne Johnson was exposed to glyphosate at levels most people will never encounter, and a jury decided he deserved compensation. That outcome is not evidence that the oatmeal in your pantry is dangerous. But it is a reminder that the dose, the context, and the person doing the exposing all matter enormously. Glyphosate is a chemical tool with benefits, trade-offs, and genuine open scientific questions. Learning to hold that complexity without collapsing into panic or dismissal is, honestly, one of the most useful and hardest things to do in navigating modern health science. Love, YLE Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) is founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, wife, and mom of two little girls. Hannah Totte, MPH, is an epidemiologist and YLE Community Manager. YLE reaches more than 425,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “Translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe
Political donations in cryptocurrency could be blocked in blow to Reform UK
Government review also recommends political funding from Britons living abroad be capped at about £300,000 a year
Stephen Colbert to write next ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie after leaving late night
Stephen Colbert already has a new job lined up for when he ends his 11-year run as host of “The Late Show” in May – the comedian and well-known J.R.R. Tolkien superfan announced he will co-write and develop a new film in the blockbuster “Lord of the Rings” franchise.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro specifications leaked well before official announcement
Leak reveals Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips with 2nm process, dual variants, LPDDR6 support, and upgraded GPUs. Read more about expected specifications here
The real roadblock to government formation in Iraq isn’t Maliki—it’s Kurdish power politics
A dispute between Kurdish factions presents a significant structural obstacle to Iraq’s government formation regardless of who is nominated for prime minister.
We disagreed on politics. We agreed on wine. That was enough.
At the Virginia Governor’s Cup Gala in Richmond earlier this month, a very dapper gentleman approached me and introduced himself. In his light-colored suit and bowtie, he looked very Southern in a classical sense, the sort of Virginia Gentleman you used to see south of the Rappahannock as recently as my college days. “I’m a longtime reader and fan of your writing, if not your politics,” he said. His comment was the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, simultaneously conveying praise and disapproval while establishing boundaries. Man, I wish we still discoursed like this instead of shouting bromides and insults to try and “own” our opponents with a funny meme and a furrowed brow. Subscribe “Well, we’ll always have wine to share together,” I said, and thanked him for his kind words. We clinked glasses, exchanged pleasantries about the delicious gold medal-winning wines being poured that evening, and went our separate ways. Our exchange reminded me that more unites us than divides us. Wine brings people together to share a meal and a few hours of joy despite our differences.1 That’s why I refer to the wine community — including readers and consumers — rather than the wine industry. Together, we are so much more than production, distribution and sales statistics. A few minutes later the evening’s awards ceremony began. Applause grew as the 12 winemakers who made the top-scoring wines for the Governor’s Case took the stage, including a loud cheer for Jonathan Wheeler of Trump Winery and his 2018 Blanc de Noir sparkling wine. All the winemakers on stage had reason to be proud, Wheeler perhaps more so. Trump Winery was the only winery to win six gold medals in the competition this year. (Wineries are limited to six entries.) Two of Wheeler’s ciders also won gold medals in a separate competition. When you cover the labels and take the sour taste of politics off your palate, the wines are pretty darn good.2 Then Gov. Abigail Spanberger, newly elected Democrat and Virginia’s first female governor, was introduced to great applause to announce which of the 12 wines had won the Governor’s Cup. She spoke for a few minutes about the importance of wine to Virginia’s economy and tourism and the international acclaim Virginia wine has received. Just two weeks earlier, she gave the Democrats’ response to Trump’s State of the Union speech, but this night wasn’t about politics. That didn’t stop several people in the crowd from speculating on the irony should she have to present the trophy to Trump Winery. In the end, Valley Road Vineyards was displayed on the screen behind Spanberger as the winning winery. Blue Bee Cidery in Richmond took top honors for that category. The crowd cheered a female governor presenting the state’s highest trophy to a female winemaker and then resumed the evening’s festivities, united by their mutual love of wine. A whiff of politics couldn’t dim the cheer of celebration and a community united by its love of wine. In Memoriam: Michel Rolland The global wine community lost a giant March 20, with the passing of Michel Rolland. He was 78. Rolland was the original “flying winemaker,” a globe-trotting consultant who helped Bordeaux regain its mojo in the 1970s and then shaped the rise of Napa Valley cult Cabernet as consultant to Simi, Harlan, Newton, Screaming Eagle, Araujo, Dalle Valle and other wineries. He was instrumental in Argentina’s rise to prominence and even had his own winery, Clos de los Siete, in a partnership with other wine families. Rolland’s career arc paralleled that of Robert Parker, the world’s most influential critic. Parker championed many of the wines Rolland consulted on, helping build his reputation and demand for his services. It also made him a target for Parker’s critics. As W. Blake Gray wrote on Wine-Searcher in his excellent tribute to Rolland: Rolland created the type of wines Parker loved: rich body, plenty of fruit, soft tannins. He sometimes faced the accusation of creating a generic international style of red wine, where the great wines he made in Argentina were indistinguishable from the great wines he made in France. Rolland chafed at that critique, as did many of his fans. He was credited with championing green harvesting and leaf pulling, as well as careful selection of grapes in the winery, practices we nearly universally think of today for high-quality winemaking. “Michel was an incredible innovator who changed how wine was made and how grapes were grown,” Napa Valley winemaker Aaron Pott wrote on Facebook. “His work has transformed the wine trade. He created new ways of looking at wine, tasting wine, evaluating ripeness and quality. … This was not just a man with a ‘style’ that he imposed on vineyards but a man that understood how to make great wine from great sites.” Rolland started his consulting company in 1973 in Libourne, in Bordeaux, with his wife, Dany. Both had graduated the year before from Bordeaux’s Institute d’Oenologie. The couple sold their majority share in the business in 2020, according to Wine Spectator. Over his career, Rolland reportedly worked with more than 100 wineries in 20 countries. He even made it to Virginia, where he consulted for Kluge Estate in the mid-2000s. (Kluge Estate is now Trump Winery.) Reader feedback, please! Last week, I did my first WineLine Live! with Dr. Laura Catena of Catena Zapata winery in Argentina. We enjoyed a fascinating discussion about her efforts to preserve the genetic heritage of old vineyards in Mendoza. I conceived of WineLine Live! for paid subscribers, as a thank you for your financial support. And while only a few people joined live, the video now has more views than I have paid subscribers, so I guess that’s pretty good. Even so, I’m considering opening future installments to anyone on Substack to reach a broader audience. So my questions to you: Should these be public? And what format do you prefer? Live gives a chat feature with the potential for viewers to interact with me and the guest, while a video post would just be that. Another alternative is a podcast, which would just be audio, without video of my chins. Please let me know in the comments. Leave a comment In the Glass A few wines I’ve enjoyed recently: Bonny Doon Vineyard Take Me to Your Liter, Le Cigare Volant, Red Wine of the Earth. 2023, Central Coast, CA. Blend of Grenache, Syrah Cinsaut and Petite Sirah. Delightful wine with expressive red fruit flavors, casual drinking. Doon lovers of a certain age will remember Randall Grahm’s Big House Red; this is more in that style than his original Le Cigare Volant, modeled after Chateauneuf du Pape. The liter bottle makes it an even better value. I see this online at about $15. Great value. Albert Bichot Bourgogne Pinot Noir Origines 2023. 13% - Textbook pinot noir and an excellent, affordable entry (regional) Burgundy. Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Wines of 2025. $24 at Total Wine & More. Loma Larga Pinot Noir 2021 “Coastal Cool Climate Wine”, Valle de Casablanca, Chile. An older sample, showing beautifully. Spicy and fruit forward. I’m seeing widely varied pricing online, from $18-$32. At the lower end, it’s a terrific value. 13.5% Dr. Loosen Riesling Dry 2016, Mosel, Germany. Found this “in the stack.” And it stacked up well, shedding some of its youthful acidity for opulent Riesling character, including a hint of the mineral oil older Riesling often features. A great value, as I’m seeing it as low as $14 online. 12% abv. Red Tail Ridge Blau Franc Blend 2024, Sans Oak, Finger Lakes. 13.4% abv. The name is a neat portmanteau of Blaufrankisch and Cabernet Franc, thus Blau Franc. The blend is 50-50, no oak involved. The Blau dominates on the palate, with the spicy caraway seed (think New York deli rye bread). The Franc adds body. The result is juicy, energetic and joyful. Sokol Blosser Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir 2025, Dundee Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon. This first rosé of 2025 was a welcome respite to our cold, snowy winter here in the Mid-Atlantic. Oh man, I needed this! Bright and energetic, exuberant even, it perks up the mood and goes down fast. 13%. Certified B Corp. Ingredient and nutrition labeling, and in a modest way that doesn’t occupy a lot of label space. (Since it’s not required, presumably there are no minimum font size requirements.) More wineries should follow this example. Dave McIntyre's WineLine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Thanks for reading Dave McIntyre's WineLine! This post is public so feel free to share it. Share 1 Some restraint may be required. 2 Especially the bubblies.
Demand for GLP-1 pills and shots surges, and not just for weight loss
Use of blockbuster anti-obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound is growing, with about 1 in 8 adults in the U.S. saying they currently take the medications.
The Monday Outlook: Project Hail Mary and the Science Behind Blockbuster Sci-Fi
Project Hail Mary is the latest sci-fi blockbuster to stretch the bounds of audience imagination and stir the curiosity of real scientists. But the science driving films like Project Hail Mary, Interstellar and The Martian isn’t all fictional: at UChicago, researchers exploring the cosmos and decoding the origins of life are making discoveries that would feel right at home on the big screen. This week's Monday Outlook features scientists from UChicago and Argonne National Laborat
Science Through Shadows: How Astronomical Alignments Reveal the Universe
When one celestial object passes in front of another, it can cast a shadow that travels across space – and sometimes across Earth. These moments of alignment, known as eclipses, occultations, and transits, allow scientists to study distant objects in remarkable ways. By observing how light changes when an object briefly blocks another, astronomers can measure sizes and shapes, detect atmospheres, and refine the orbits of asteroids and planets.
Exclusive: Kalshi to block athletes and politicians from trading on their markets
Prediction market Kalshi plans to block athletes, coaches and officials from betting on their sports and to block political candidates from trading on their campaigns, Axios has learned.
Trump’s Political Risk Insurance Plan for Ships in the Gulf Could Benefit China, Says Democratic Senator
President Trump’s $20 billion plan to provide political risk insurance for ships aimed at unblocking the Strait of Hormuz could end up ultimately
Trump sued by historic preservation groups to block Kennedy Center changes
A coalition of preservation groups is suing to stop major physical changes at the Kennedy Center under President Donald Trump’s renovation plans. On Monday, the groups filed a lawsuit against
A promising fatty liver treatment may raise cancer risk
A surprising new study reveals that blocking a supposedly protective enzyme, Caspase-2, could actually backfire—raising the risk of chronic liver damage and cancer over time. Researchers found that without this enzyme, liver cells grow abnormally large and accumulate genetic damage, leading to inflammation, scarring, and eventually tumors, especially with age. While inhibiting Caspase-2 may offer short-term benefits, such as reducing fatty liver disease, the long-term consequences appear dangerous.
Slovenia liberals take narrow election lead over conservatives: exit poll
Exits polls suggest Prime Minister Robert Golob has blocked a fourth term for right-winger Janez Janša
Your Thymus and Your Healthspan
Our thymus gland plays a central role in the development or our immune system, specifically for supporting T cell development (how these cells got their name, maturation and differentiation in the thymus) and discriminating between self and foreign, non-self antigen proteins with production of dendritic cells. As we age, our thymus gland shrinks—the process known as involution—with progressive change from spongy to fatty tissue, with loss of functionality. But this process, with respect to timeline and extent, markedly varies from one person to the next. And to make things even more complicated, our thymus gland anatomy and precise location in the chest also is highly variable. So the famous Frank Netter diagrams from the 1960s (such as at left below) don’t capture the remarkable heterogeneity that a random set of 12 chest CT scans (below at right). What I consider as 2 landmark papers in Nature this week (here and here) used AI to quantify health of the thymus in 2 large cohorts, and then correlate the metric to a broad array of health outcomes. In this edition of Ground Truths, I’m going to cover three questions: (1) How was thymus health determined by AI?; (2) How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? and (3) Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? Subscribe 1. How was thymus health determined by AI? This was accomplished by extensive work developing and validating an AI pipeline for 2 stages, the first for localization and segmentation of the thymus bed, and the second to quantify a digital marker, termed the thymic health score. There’s a lot to this algorithmic development, so I won’t go into all the details, but just provide a rudimentary outline of what was done. The 1st stage used supervised learning with 2 radiologists reviewing 2,461 chest CT scans. That work trained a 3D U-Net model to automatically identify the thymic bed’s 3D cropped region using center of mass coordinates, which reached 99.8% accuracy. The 2nd stage used a foundation model that was pre-trained with SwAV (which stands for Swapping Assignment between multiple Views), a self-supervised model, that generated a high-dimensional thymus representation of 4,096 features. That compares to the radiology reductionist and subjective scoring of 0 to 3 where 0 means the thymus is fully degenerated and fatty, and 3 is considered dense, intact glandular soft tissue. Notably, the self-supervised learning (SSL) performance was superior to supervised (AUC ~0.75 vs 0.55, respectively) reflecting the shallowness of the 0-3 classifier vs SSL’s holistic, self-taught AI. The thymic health score ranged from 0 to 100, with the highest number indexed to fully preserved thymic health. The algorithmic work extended to explainability with both Shapely value distribution, meaning the model was holistic not relying on any “magic” pixel, and occlusion sensitivity, demonstrating the model’s performance was not affected by ribs, sternum, lung tissue, but rather focused on the thymic bed directly. Below are a few saliency maps from the occlusion sensitivity that indicate the thymic bed focus, not affected by neighboring structures, using the jet color scale. Now the AI was ready for processing ~25,000 CT scans, each over 30 MB files, from the 2 large participant cohorts to provide a thymic health score, it did so in less than 14 hours, which is less than 2 seconds per scan! Share 2. How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? The two cohorts were the National Lung Screening Trial, NLST (N=25,031) and the Framingham Heart Study, FHS (N=2,581) each with baseline demographics and long term follow up of >12 years for health outcomes. From the NSLT, you can see below that increased age and body-mass index were correlated to reduced thymic health. And, overall, men had reduced thymic health scores compared with women. There are a lot of graphs in the paper for outcomes, for both the NLST and FHS cohorts. To simplify the major outcomes, below is a composite Figure with striking reduction of all-cause mortality and for the different causes of death. The results were consistent between the 2 cohorts. For example, the cardiovascular mortality hazard ratio average was 0.57 in NLST and 0.38 in FHS (weighted to be 0.53 for the aggregate). The reduction of mortality also extended to digestive diseases and pulmonary disease (data not shown below). Lung cancer incidence was reduced by 36% for high vs low thymic health (Figure below, with a panel -incidence and b panel-mortality, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking status). Notably, there was a smoker’s paradox: lower incidence and improved survival for lung cancer in smokers who had a high thymus health score. Smoking was associated with lower thymic scores whereas alcohol was not. Higher thymic health was linked to higher HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, lower fasting blood glucose, and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Inflammation biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were elevated in the people with lower thymic health scores. In their second paper, the same team looked at the relationship between thymic score and outcomes for 3,476 patients receiving cancer immunotherapy. The non-small cell lung cancer progression-free survival was reduced in patients with low thymic health score. A parallel relationship for survival was seen for other types of cancer including melanoma, breast, and kidney with a 44% lower risk among high thymic scores (Figure). A similar pattern was seen with different immune checkpoint inhibitors. The thymus health score outperformed programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1)and tumor mutation burden (TMB) assay of the tumor and was an independent prognostic marker of progression-free survival. In this dataset, a direct connect with thymus score and adaptive immune function was noted with a correlation before cancer treatment for both T-cell diversity and thymus T-cell production (a metric known as T cell receptor excision circles). Thymus Removal Study There is a highly relevant citation about thymus function before moving onto ways to rejuvenate it. In 2023, a very important study of thymus removal during cardiothoracic surgery was published, with 1146 patients undergoing thymus removal vs 1146 matched controls (mean age 55 years). The adverse outcomes for thymus removal were striking, with a 2.9 higher risk of all-cause mortality and doubling of cancer incidence, 1.5 fold increase in cancer mortality, and 1.5-fold increase in autoimmune diseases. The immune function showed marked compromise after thymus removal, as reflected by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (Figure below) Share Ground Truths 3. Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? In recent months we’ve learned a lot about the process of thymus involution and the pathways by which this may be modulated. Thymus involution is primarily due to loss to thymus epithelial cells (TECs) and there are 2 subtypes with different functions: the cortical, responsible for positive selection of T cells, and the medullary, for negative selection. When adipose tissue infiltrates the thymus, thymic adipocytes are pro-inflammatory, knocking out T-cell output. Likewise, systemic inflammation, or “inflammaging,” from smoking, obesity, and chronic stress promote thymic adipocytes. Now, from preclinical studies, we know about key pathways that account for these processes. Historically, back in 2014, FOXN1 was recognized as a single master transcription factor essential for TEC function, with studies in mice with forced FOXN1 upregulation leading to thymus regeneration. That laid the foundation for potential regrowth of quiescent thymus cells. It took awhile to find pathways to accomplish this goal and to even refute its role as the master regulator. The Liver-Thymus Axis Feng Zhang and his team recently showed that injection of an mRNA vaccine to the liver encoding DLL1, IL-7 and FLT3-L in combination, factors known to support thymopoiesis (Figure), successfully enhanced immune function in aged mice. However, the effect was transient. The FGF21 Story Two reports in 2025 addressed the thymus gland’s production of FGF21, a growth factor (fibroblast growth factor 21) and its control of thymus involution. This growth factor is also produced by the liver, but it doesn’t have impact on the thymus in aged rodent models. In contrast, The liver’s hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has been shown to reverse senescent TEC structural changes. Growth hormone stimulates production of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the liver and the thymus. Two small studies in human participants (TRIIM, for Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation) of 6 and 50 people, respectively, treated with combined human growth hormone, metformin and DHEA, suggested the potential of slowing epigenetic aging and improving thymus mass and function. But the combination of drugs, small sample, and lack of controls make conclusions murky. Increased thymus FGF21 led to increased CD8 T cells in old mice and extended healthspan and improved physical performance. Building on the previous FOXN1 data, ablation of β-klotho, the obligatory co-receptor for FOXN1, accelerated thymic aging. The benefit to FGF21 was confirmed in a companion paper using an FGF21 knock-in mouse model showing thymus enlargement and increased TECs throughout the lifespan. (schematic Figure below). The accompanying editorial for these 2 papers speculated: “The proposed link between age-associated thymus involution and organismal aging is intriguing, and suggests we might seek to achieve systemic rejuvenation by counteracting thymic involution.” Other Factors Lessons from the Axolotl (Mexican Salamander) In an elegant set of experiments of the axolotl (Figure), known for its complete thymus regeneration after total surgical removal, mediators were identified. Surprisingly FOXN1 was dispensable. But midkine, a growth factor, appeared to be the driver, the initiator of thymus cell growth, survival, and repair. Other components that contributed were Postn+ (periostin-expressing mesenchymal niches) and Ccl19, a chemokine protein from the bloodstream. RANK and RANKL RANK (receptor activator of nuclear factor κB its ligand (RANKL) have been considered key regulators of medullary TECs. In a study of both aged mice and human thymus cell cultures, their key role was confirmed, with multiple benefits of resorting TEC function, recruitment of progenitor cells, and T cell development. Subscribe Summing Up This body of work strongly supports the health of the thymus gland as a critical regulator of human healthspan, not just a correlate or link. The new landmark studies are reinforced by the regenerative biology experimental models that have shown, via an array of mediators, that healthspan of aged mice is at least in part dependent on thymus gland function and its critical role for maintaining adaptive immunity. It sure seems that we’d be better off having an immune reservoir of naive T cells instead of a profile in older adults of exhausted, low quality, memory T cells, with a senescent phenotype. It is striking that we ignored the importance of the thymus gland for many decades. A wake-up call was the results of the thymectomy matched control study reviewed here, with the opposite of high thymic health score improved health outcomes. The convergence of AI and healthspan here is notable. The exceptional and laborious work for developing and validating (no less explaining) the AI to quantify thymus health set the foundation for probing the connect the major health outcomes in two cohorts with extensive follow-up. We’ve never had a way to meaningfully quantify the thymus gland before, so this represents important leverage of supervised, self-supervised, and transformer models. The study wouldn’t have been possible without AI. And it begs the question as to whether there are ways we can maintain our thymus at a high health score. But it’s not so simple to rejuvenate our thymus. There are multiple risks including the induction of autoimmunity, increasing the risk of cancer, and inducing a pro-inflammatory state. For example, factors that increase TEC proliferation could compromise the medulllary negative selection process and leak out auto-reactive (self-attacking) T cells. Thymic cells could be induced to proliferate, but we know, for example, that growth hormone and IGF-1 are associated with an increase risk of cancer. If thymus rejuvenation doesn’t clear out the accumulated senescent cells in older adults, then inflammation within the gland could block the production of TECs. Keeping these risks in mind, we now have identified many ways to keep our thymus healthy as we age that undoubtedly will be tested in clinical trials going forward. Ultimately, the benefit-to-risk tradeoffs will be defined. In the meantime, we have desperately needed an immunome. As I’ve stressed in multiple prior Ground Truths, we have no test in the clinic to assess a patient’s immune status! It was very encouraging for me to get an email from Hugo Aerts, the senior author of the landmark papers in the days after they were published: “I also wanted to say that your Substack on “Why We Need an Immunome” was inspiring for this work. We found it a very compelling perspective and greatly enjoyed reading it.” Just having an assessment of a person’s immune status via a chest CT scan, with millions of these performed per year, might help in guiding the right immunotherapy for cancer (e.g. more intensive, combinations for those with low thymic health scores) and help define people who are increased risk for age-related diseases of cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative. The main theme of Super Agers is that we now have many layers of data (genetics, proteins, biomarkers, organ clocks that can be integrated via multimodal AI) for us to define a person’s specific risk decades before one of these age-related diseases leads to symptoms, enabling prevention. From the new studies this week, we can add thymus health score as yet another way to understand a person’s risk, a window into their adaptive immune system and healthspan. And perhaps someday we will be able to safely rejuvenate the thymus, or maintain its health through one’s life, and use the thymus health score to monitor. NB: I wrote this post (No A.I.) A Quick Poll Loading... ********************************************************************* Thanks to Ground Truths subscribers (now > 200,000) from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. Please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don’t hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered. Leave a comment Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support 47 summer interns in 2025! We aim to accept even more of the several thousand who will apply for summer 2026.
‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Bases His Blockbusters in Science
The bestselling writer and self-described “dork” explains how he crafts upbeat space-set thrillers from dire scenarios only expertise can solve.
Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics
DeSantis signed a bill seeking to block a Manatee cruise port, while another Republican group is in hot water.
Senate blocks amendment on transgender athletes during weekend session
The amendment that was blocked by a 49-41 vote would create potential penalties for educational institutions that receive federal funding
Democrats block SAVE America Act amendment to bar transgender athletes in women’s sports
Senate Democrats voted Saturday to defeat a Republican-sponsored amendment to the SAVE America Act that would prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls’ or women’s sports, an …
DNA building blocks on asteroid Ryugu, bacteria that eat plastic waste, and more science news
Catch up on some of the most interesting science stories from this week.
Here's How You Can Watch Sports With a VPN
A VPN can enhance your sports streaming by unblocking regional matches, circumventing geographical limitations or bypassing throttling restrictions.
One arrested, another cited in shoplifting incident at business on East Avenue in Chico
CHICO, Calif. - A Paradise man was arrested and a Forbestown woman was cited by Chico Police in connection to a shoplifting incident at a business in Chico.The Chico Police Department says that at around 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, a loss prevention employee observed two suspects stealing several items from a retail business on the 700 block of East Avenue in Chico.Upon exiting the building, the two suspects, a man and a woman, were contacted by the loss prevention employee regarding the stolen items. The employee was able to persuade both suspects to return to the store and hand over the items they had stolen.Authorities say the business expressed their desire to press charges against the suspects and contacted Chico Police to report the crime.Officers reviewed video surveillance that confirmed the employee's account of what happened. Officers then made arraignment for both suspects to turn themselves in the following day.When the suspects, identified as 51-year-old Jamie Leal of Forbestown and 62-year-old Melvin Royal of Paradise, arrived the next day to turn themselves in, authorities say both admitted to their involvement in the incident and elected to write handwritten apology letters to the business.Leal was cited by Chico Police on a misdemeanor charge of shoplifting.Royal was taken into custody and transported to the Butte County Jail, where he was booked on the following charges:Shoplifting with 2+ priors (felony)Shoplifting (misdemeanor) googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1514992'); });
Judge sides with New York Times in challenge to Pentagon policy limiting reporters’ access
A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from enforcing a policy limiting news reporters’ access to the Pentagon, agreeing with The New York Times that key portions of the new rules are unlawful.
Scoop: Weight management company Wondr on the block
Both employer health costs and demand for GLP-1s are rising.
Federal judge sides with Washington in case over transgender youth health care
A federal judge said Thursday he will rule in favor of Washington state and a coalition of 20 other states and the District of Columbia, blocking what they call
Family-focused venue The Block Jax opens in Deerwood with food vendors, live music, dog park & more
Whether you want to catch the big game or take the family out for a night, The Block Jax, Jacksonville’s first outdoor food hall, made its debut on Friday with a grand-opening celebration continuing through Sunday.
Trump aides tried to block appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to US, reports say
Senior figures said to have been skeptical over Keir Starmer’s appointment of ‘arrogant’ veteran politician, later sacked over connections to Jeffrey Epstein
Mets predicted to make blockbuster Tarik Skubal trade with Tigers
This would come as a change of pace after the offseason.
Judge Rules US Government Overreached With Transgender Health Care Declaration
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon. Judge Mustafa Kasubhai's ruling ...
Judge says he will bar RFK move aimed at cutting gender-affirming care for minors
A U.S. judge on Thursday said he would block an effort by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr that would have sharply restricted medical providers from providing gender affirming care to minors after a group of Democratic states challenged it.
New dispute emerges around Subnautica 2’s early access release
Lawyers for the ousted—and now partially reinstated—leadership team of Unknown Worlds, the studio behind Subnautica 2, are crying foul over news that the game will be released into early access in May. The release announcement earlier this week was made improperly, potentially “damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community,” the lawyers said in a letter sent on Tuesday to Vice Chancellor Lori Will of Delaware’s Court of Chancery. In their letter, the lawyers also floated the idea of asking Will to find Krafton in contempt of the court’s ruling. The letter was sent just one day after Will’s bombshell ruling that publisher Krafton had breached its contract with Unknown Worlds’ executive team, when it fired them last June. The new issue isn’t necessarily the May early access timeframe, but how the news was announced. The letter and Krafton’s response have not been previously reported. A quick recap of prior events: Subnautica 2 is an unreleased, underwater survival adventure and the most-wishlisted game on Steam. Last year, longtime Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill, along with studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, were fired by Krafton. They swiftly sued, saying the publisher had terminated them to avoid paying out up to $250 million in potential performance-based bonuses. The studio leaders had hoped to earn that with an early access release of the game, which Krafton had blocked. The publisher argued in court that Subnautica 2 wasn’t ready, which the ousted execs disputed. On Monday, Will ruled that Krafton had violated its contract, firing the execs to avoid the performance payouts, and that it had to reinstate Gill and give him full authority over any early access release for Subnautica 2. On Tuesday, IGN reported on a new memo issued that day to Unknown Worlds staff by Steve Papoutsis, the executive Krafton had put in charge of Unknown Worlds after the 2025 firings. In the note, Papoutsis said that Subnautica 2 had passed a key development milestone “last week” and that he and Krafton had determined the game “is ready for Early Access release in May.” This news appeared to catch the lawyers for Gill, Cleveland and McGuire by surprise. On Tuesday night, they sent a letter to Will expressing “serious concerns” about whether it would be possible to forge an agreement with Krafton consistent with the judge’s order. Papoutsis’ memo was a problem, they wrote. He didn’t have the authority to declare anything about Subnautica 2’s release. As of 9am ET on Monday, March 16, the effective date of Will’s order, Papoutsis wasn’t CEO of Unknown Worlds. Gill was. And, per Will’s order, only Gill could make Subnautica 2 release decisions. They continued: Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community—let alone this Court’s Opinion. Announcing the release of a game is momentous, and it is typically accompanied by significant marketing activity, fanfare, and community coordination. And most importantly, the announcement is carefully designed to maximize excitement for the game. That entire process was supposed to be driven by Mr. Gill. However, in defiance of the Court’s Opinion, Krafton has now taken that away, further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community. The lawyers speculated that Krafton had “intentionally leaked” Papoutsis’ memo and then issued an official statement to confirm the leak. Game File is a reader-supported publication. My reporting is only possible through support from readers like you. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe On Wednesday, lawyers for Krafton defended their client in their own letter to vice chancellor Will, saying nothing they did violated her order nor showed contempt: Papoutsis’s message was simply celebrating the UW employees’ efforts toward a past event: Krafton’s pre-Opinion determination that Subnautica 2 was ready for Early Access release. There was nothing improper about conveying the results of the milestone review or thanking the development team for their dedication and talent. They added that Gill could still make his own call about Subnautica 2’s release: In his role as CEO, Gill will be able to assess independently his views on the state of Subnautica 2 and the appropriate release schedule; nothing in Papoutsis’s message alters Gill’s authority or discretion. Vice chancellor Will has not responded to the letters and doesn’t necessarily have to. Both parties were previously ordered by Will to confer this week and submit a proposed judgment consistent with her ruling. The letter from Gill’s attorney’s this week doesn’t indicate whether he would or would not support a May release for Subnautica 2. But it could limit his options. And, if Gill’s lawyers are right, the lack of marketing fanfare around the leak of the May date could dull the launch of the game. Any harm to Subnautica 2’s launch is an extra sensitive issue given the context of the legal dispute: millions of dollars of payouts are on the line, tethered to the scale of the game’s initial performance. In her ruling on Monday, Will noted that there was obvious “bad blood” between Gill’s side and Krafton but that the two would need to work together: “They can—and must—act in good faith to navigate their remaining contractual relationship.” Item 2: A new kind of couch co-op game A highlight of GDC each year is the Alt.Ctrl showcase that features games played with extremely experimental controllers. Perusing this year’s offerings last Friday, I found a game controlled with giant scissors, another with big toothbrushes and one that amounted to dumpster diving. My favorite was Pivot, a co-op game about collectively maneuvering a couch. It was developed by students at the University of Utah’s masters of arts and engineering games program. Players lift and tilt the physical couch in order to control the position of a virtual one. That virtual one is moving through an obstacle course on-screen, while being pursued by a giant skull. Developer Nishant Verma told me at GDC that the couch is made of styrofoam (this became more evident as I watched!) and that the name was a riff on an episode of the sitcom Friends. Item 3: In brief… 🚫 Ubisoft is laying off more than 100 workers at its Red Storm studio, as the North Carolina location known for decades for its Tom Clancy games, ceases in-house game development, VGC reports. 👀 On Monday, Nvidia’s revealed its DLSS 5 AI-driven graphics technology that purports to improve game graphics… and it has been roasted about it by the media and the online gaming public for the remainder of the week. The tech changed the faces of characters in footage from Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy and EA Sports FC, drawing accusations of giving carefully art-directed games the generic look of AI “slop.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had said on Monday that “DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics—blending handcrafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.” By mid-week, Huang was telling Tom’s Hardware that the new tech’s critics were “completely wrong” because game-makers could still “fine-tune the generative AI” to suit their game’s aesthetics.
Maxx Crosby Trade Attempt Shows Ravens’ New Aggresive Strategy
The Baltimore Ravens rarely chase blockbuster trades, but their pursuit of Maxx Crosby suggested a different level of urgency. The trade suggested an “all in” motto from a franchise that is known for patience and draft-driven roster building. The deal ultimately fell apart before it could be finalized. Even so, the attempt revealed a willingness […] The post Maxx Crosby Trade Attempt Shows Ravens’ New Aggresive Strategy appeared first on The Lead.
Will mobile sports betting ever become legal in Mississippi?
Another legislative session is set to close without legal mobile sports betting for Mississippi. See why a Jackson senator blocked bills this year.
Stalled train blocks Brazos County business, homes for nearly a week
Union Pacific confirms mechanical issues caused the delay; train expected to move soon
Ozempic Is About to Go Generic in India, China and Canada
In India, China and several other nations, Novo Nordisk is on the verge of losing patent protection for its blockbuster weight loss drug, opening the door for cheaper competing versions.
Ozempic Linked to Lower Risk of Plunging Mental Health in Study
Swedish people with depression and anxiety who took Novo Nordisk A/S’s blockbuster shots Ozempic and Wegovy were less likely to see their mental health get worse, the latest data to suggest that popular diabetes and obesity drugs could also have a broader impact on well-being.
GOP blocks Booker-led push to curb Trump's military authority in Iran
Senate Democrats plan multiple war powers resolutions to challenge President Trump's Iran military operations in a bid to force public testimony from top administration officials.
European groups join aid convoy to Cuba amid crippling oil blockade
Millions have been plunged into darkness in Cuba as the US's total blockade has meant no fuel shipments in three months.
Birth control skepticism, teen fertility education center stage at Trump’s women’s health summit
Seeking to reach women at a moment when President Donald Trump’s support is slipping among a key voting bloc, the Make America Healthy Again movement, the administration-sponsored event elevated perspectives outside conventional standards of medical care and counter to many women’s health choices.
Oil prices hold steady even as Iraq resumes some exports via Turkey
Oil prices held steady Wednesday after Iraq clinched a deal to resume some crude exports via Turkey. It’s not a ton of oil, but it’s what amounts for good news these days as the Strait of Hormuz remains largely blocked.
Thunder's Alex Caruso receives technical foul for using shoe to block shot in win over Magic
Broncos land Jaylen Waddle in blockbuster trade: Examining Denver's Super Bowl window, rest of AFC West
The Broncos are Super Bowl or bust for the foreseeable future
Judge blocks Kennedy's changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
Kennedy had slashed the number of recommended vaccines from 17 to 11, sparking a backlash from health experts.
House leaders tie business tax benefits to income tax ballot question
House budget writers tucked a provision in a bill advancing this week that would potentially block benefits worth up to $400 million a year if the ballot question passes in November.
Celebrating Ten Seasons of Entertainment: Thanks to our Sponsors!
This year, the City of Mentor celebrates the tenth season of entertainment at the Mentor Civic Amphitheater. When the facility opened on July 4, 2017, the city made the commitment of providing performances that members of our community might not otherwise
Trump: ‘I do believe I’ll [be having] the honor of taking Cuba’
With the Trump administration’s oil blockade cutting off fuel to Cuba, the country’s electrical grid collapsed on March 16, causing an island-wide blackout. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, threatened again to topple the country’s communist government.
It’s Showtime for the SAVE America Act in the Senate | WSJ Politics Newsletter for March 17
Plus, a judge blocks RFK Jr’s MAHA vaccine recommendations
Judge blocks federal health officials from cutting childhood vaccines
Judge blocks US government from cutting vaccine recommendations for children
The judge said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee.
Federal judge extends order blocking Trump admin's cuts to Illinois public health funding
The loss in grant funding would have wiped out some HIV tracking programs, family planning initiatives and lead poisoning prevention.
Federal judge halts RFK Jr.'s changes to children's vaccine policies
In a rebuke, a federal district court judge blocked the administration's reduction in the number of immunizations recommended for kids and also changes to an influential vaccine committee.
Judge blocks RFK Jr. from scaling back childhood vaccine recommendations
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked federal health officials from cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every child, and said U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee.
Federal judge halts Trump administration’s health care funding cuts to Illinois, for now
A federal judge has blocked efforts by the Trump administration to withhold $600 million in health care grants from Illinois and three other states, while the states’ lawsuit over the cuts proceeds…
Federal judge puts RFK Jr.’s new vaccine schedule, advisers on ice
While the judge stayed the Health Secretary's appointments to a key advisory panel, he did not block its meeting this month.
Supreme Court will rule on Trump's plan to end temporary protection for Haitians, Syrians
Twice last year, the court's conservatives set aside judges' rulings that blocked Trump's orders.
Federal judge blocks RFK Jr.’s vaccine policy overhaul for now
The judge said the government has undermined its history of recognizing the importance of involving independent experts in setting the national public health agenda.
Federal judge blocks RFK Jr.'s changes to childhood vaccine schedule
The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by major medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Factbox-Lawsuits Against Trump Administration's Health Policy Changes
March 16 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday blocked key parts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including a move to reduce the number of shots routinely recommended for children. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston sided with medical ...
Dem senators call to fund DHS after voting to block it 4 times amid shutdown fight
Government shutdown continues over Department of Homeland Security funding as Democrats seek immigration enforcement reforms amid terror attacks.
Partisanship and science
I recently participated in a symposium of the Denver-based Institute for Science & Policy, during which I had a “fireside chat” with Tony Mills of the American Enterprise Institute. Mills has written extensively on the politicization of science, and the two of us had a very enjoyable hour-long conversation on the topic. You can watch it below. The main questions we dealt with are why there is such a vast partisan gap in trust of science, and to what extent this is a unique moment. Mills helpfully brings a good deal of data to the discussion, as he did in this useful piece at Issues in Science & Technology. Tusk depends on reader support. To support this work, please become a paid subscriber. Subscribe Note this graph, drawing on a range of survey data to demonstrate partisan attitudes toward science since 1970s. As it demonstrates, there’s been a very sharp partisan divergence in confidence in science during the Trump Era, starting prior to the Covid pandemic. At least in part, we can attribute this to a rise in populist anti-science rhetoric embraced by Trump, his appointees, and those in his media orbit. But as the graph also shows, the partisan divide has existed in the past, and it’s not always in the same direction. The largest divergence in party views toward science prior to 2016 was in the 1970s, when liberals equated scientific achievement with the military-industrial complex and thus trusted it less. That era of scientific mistrust is often overlooked. Indeed, as Mills notes, the Moon landings (1969-72), which today are considered one of the last great moments of national unity, were experienced nothing like that at the time. There was sharp debate back then over whether the Apollo missions were worth the vast expenditures when the country had so much else to deal with. It’s outside the dataset, and we don’t have the partisanship lens for it, but the 1950s was another deeply anti-science decade, with critics of intellectuals and college professors alleging their ties to communism and their lack of commitment to basic American moral beliefs. This was the subject of Richard Hofstadter’s 1962 book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, in which he quotes religious leaders like Franklin Graham: [In place of the Bible] we substituted reason, rationalism, mind culture, science worship, the working power of government, Freudianism, naturalism, humanism, behaviorism, positivism, materialism, and idealism. [This is the work of] so-called intellectuals. Thousands of these “intellectuals” have publicly stated that morality is relative—that there is no norm or absolute standard.… This fervor was heavily whipped up by Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), although it’s clear that not all his fellow Republicans were on board with his red-baiting. What ended that era? The simple answer is the 1957 launch of Sputnik. Americans became afraid that they were losing to Soviet scientists, and suddenly university researchers and government projects were awash with funding. In our conversation, I asked Mills about the possibility of us having a Sputnik moment again that would rally the American public in favor of science today. Mills argued that the COVID-19 pandemic was essentially a Sputnik moment — a terrifying threat to all Americans that required scientific advances to address. But thanks in part to political polarization and the populist and conspiratorial leanings of Donald Trump, we got the opposite of a unifying moment. Many Americans turned against science, despite science actually stepping up in that moment. As we discussed in the chat, it’s not clear what scientists could or should be doing in this moment to increase faith in their work. As Mills notes, one of the chief complaints against scientists and professors is that they’ve become too political; scholars becoming even more political might not help them achieve their goals. This (mainly Republican-driven) anti-science era will end, of course, but it’s not clear what event will bring that about. Share
This Week in Gaming (Week 12)
Welcome to week 12 and a jam cram packed week of rather big new releases. We kick off this week with a AAA release which is an open-world action-adventure that supposedly takes place in a desert, yet apparently not at all. This is followed by a very blocky looking RPG, several deadly sins, a cube of...
Comedians poke fun at Jeanine Pirro’s reaction to judge blocking subpoena against Powell
Boebert challenger Eileen Laubacher joins lawsuit aimed at blocking her from Democratic assembly
A Denver District Court judge on Thursday permitted Democratic congressional candidate Eileen Laubacher to join a lawsuit filed by one of her primary opponents seeking to prevent Laubacher from participating in the party’s assembly process in a bid to qualify for Colorado’s primary ballot. Laubacher is one of four Democrats running for the nomination to […]
Trump Knew the Risk of Iran Blocking the Strait of Hormuz. He Still Went to War.
The president told his White House team that Tehran would likely capitulate before closing the strait, the world’s most vital shipping lane.
Agent's Take: 10 contract-related thoughts and observations from early in the NFL offseason
Spending sprees, reunions and a nixed blockbuster trade headlined a wild week in free agency.
DAVID MARCUS: Craven politics is the only excuse left for Dems refusing to fund DHS
Congressional Democrats allegedly continue blocking DHS funding despite key concessions, raising concerns about airport security during tensions.
Rochester police fatally shoot man while responding to mental health crisis call, officials say
According to Rochester Police, officers were dispatched around 9:30 p.m. to the 1900 block of Ashland Drive Northwest. The call was domestic-related, police say.
2 arson suspects wanted for setting business on fire in Paramount
Two arson suspects are wanted for setting fire to a business in Paramount. The incident occurred on Feb. 24 as surveillance cameras captured the men targeting a business near the 7900 block of Alon…
Inside the NFL's reaction to Ravens backing out of blockbuster Maxx Crosby trade with Raiders
Baltimore backing out of the deal for Crosby with Las Vegas sends shockwaves around the NFL
Mississippi senator to face a prosecutor she blocked from the federal bench, CNN projects
Mississippi’s Senate primaries set up a general election showdown between an incumbent and a challenger she blocked from federal judgeship.
Eagles sign 2 tight ends
The Eagles have confidence in Grant Calcaterra’s receiving ability, and bring in Johnny Mundt to help with blocking.
Ravens cancel Maxx Crosby trade after failed physical: Analysis
The Ravens backed out of their blockbuster trade for Raiders star Maxx Crosby after he failed his physical, voiding the deal that would have cost Baltimore two first-round picks.
San Diego County sues ICE after it blocked health inspection at detention center
San Diego County is suing the Trump administration, alleging it illegally blocked officials from inspecting ICE detention centers.There have been ‘alarming reports’ about unsafe conditions inside the centers.
ICE is keeping tabs on American citizens
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been using a variety of tools to keep tabs on not just immigrants the agency intends to deport but also U.S. citizens who publicly oppose the agency’s tactics. We discuss what that surveillance looks like and what the impact is for people whose activity the agency has tracked. This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, reporter Kat Lonsdorf, and power and influence reporter Jude Joffe-Block.This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.
Iran's blockade of Strait of Hormuz sends oil prices soaring
Donald Trump says the Iran war may be over soon. But the US President also threatened to escalate attacks if Iran doesn't let tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Around the world, consumer fuel prices have soared.
The Morning After: The new iPad Air M4 is Apple's best overall tablet
The biggest news stories this morning: iPhone 17e review: The economical choice, Anthropic sues US government over supply chain risk designation, You can (sort of) block Grok from editing your uploaded photos.
Community chips in to help business damaged by building collapse
The building has sat empty since the 1980's, but over the weekend, part of the for 5 and 10 in Wellsville collapsed onto a neighboring business in the 400 block
K&C Sports & Entertainment Law Weekly Roundup
A Florida appellate panel on Friday blocked a lower court's temporary injunction giving an extra year of eligibility for a college basketball player, ruling in a split opinion that the order's...