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The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science

With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!

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Jun 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • iai.tv
Scientists are cracking the code of interspecies communication. Is that a good thing?

Bioacousticians are finding animal communication patterns once thought unique to humans — discoveries that challenge ideas about what makes human language special.

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Jun 3 • 6:00 AM EDT • Science • cnn.com
Maryland sheriffs should not be handcuffed by reckless sanctuary politics

Seventeen Maryland sheriffs challenge the state's Community Trust Act in a federal lawsuit filed by FAIR, calling the sanctuary law unconstitutional.

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Jun 2 • 6:54 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Gallup Study on Business Ownership Offers Valuable Insights - Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

by Raymond J. Keating – A new study from Gallup study drives home the central points that business ownership comes with tremendous potential benefits, as well as daunting challenges. It also provides insights in other areas, such as small business and artificial intelligence (AI). As noted in the report’s opening: “Business owners describe an increasingly […]

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Jun 2 • 3:30 PM EDT • Business • sbecouncil.org
Atlanta takes steps to reduce number of arrests linked to mental health challenges

The number of people experiencing homelessness increased ahead of the FIFA World Cup’s arrival in Atlanta.

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Jun 2 • 2:03 PM EDT • Health • wsbtv.com
Why a Neo Geo port of Doom is functionally impossible

Sprite-based graphics architecture makes first-person 3D a challenge.

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Jun 2 • 12:19 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com
Google Challenges AI Rivals With Its Financial Muscle | AI & Business for June 2

Plus, Anthropic gets the IPO ball rolling and Nvidia makes a play for the PC market.

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Jun 2 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • wsj.com
The work you can't always see: Beer is political, part 2

Recently I published a piece about beer, politics, and the question of who speaks up and who doesn’t. I meant every word of it. I still do. And then my inbox opened up. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe I’ve been writing about beer since 2014. For most of that time, I kept things deliberately light — taproom profiles, new releases, the people behind the pints. Gradually, over years of building this thing, you gave me something I didn’t expect: permission. Permission to go deeper. To say what I actually saw in this industry and what I actually believed about it. That trust isn’t something I take lightly. It’s why that piece existed at all, and it’s why this one does too. I’m not walking anything back. But I want to go further. In that piece, I wrote that beer has never existed outside the system. That immigration policy affects who staffs breweries and harvests ingredients. That labor policy affects taproom workers. That civil rights policy affects who feels safe walking into a taproom. That “beer does not exist in a vacuum. The idea that it does is comforting. It is also false.” I believe that as much now as I did when I wrote it. But one idea came back at me, in different forms, over and over (from reader emails, comments, and conversations): that beer itself isn’t political — that it only becomes political when someone decides to make it that way. That what we’re really seeing is a choice by individuals to inject division into something that doesn’t inherently require it. It’s a comforting idea. It’s also wrong — and I think it’s worth being precise about why. That framing assumes that breweries operate outside the conditions shaping everything else. That politics is something you choose to bring into a room that was, until then, clean and neutral. That if you stay quiet, you stay clear of it. But the room was never neutral. It was never clean. Politics is already in the room. It’s in who walks through the door comfortably and who hesitates. It’s in whether a space can be used for organizing without fear. It’s in whether helping someone quietly might carry consequences you have to think carefully about in advance. It’s in who staffed the brewery, who harvested the grain, who can afford to be a regular. The idea that you opt out of all that by staying quiet is an illusion. You only change how visible your response to it is. This is, I realize, a hard thing to hear if you came to a beer newsletter for something lighter. I wrote recently that “beer, for me, has always felt like a refuge — a third place in an increasingly fractured world.” I meant that. I still do. But a refuge is not an escape from reality. It’s a place to gather strength to face it. Here’s what I actually missed — and what I want to correct. Multiple people in the industry reached out to me. I’m not naming them and I’m not identifying their businesses, because that’s not my call. If and when they want to be loud about what they’re doing, that agency belongs to them. What I can share is the substance of what they said, because it complicated something I presented too cleanly. The overall message: *You don’t know what we all are doing.* And they’re right. I don’t. One example involved a collaboration brewed quietly to support another business facing serious challenges in a whole different region, with proceeds directed toward solidarity, community, and keeping operations afloat. No announcement. It could have been broadcast widely. The point was never publicity. Another example involved logistical support for community efforts: organizing safe transportation, providing space for meetings on otherwise closed days, facilitating gatherings under difficult conditions. All of it happening while balancing real financial pressure and genuine concern for personal safety. None of what they described is a brewer “deciding to make beer political.” It’s people responding to the conditions around them — conditions that are already shaping who feels safe, who has access, who can gather, who needs help, and who has the capacity to offer it. Politics, again, already in the room. Already shaping choices. Whether anyone announced it or not. I’ve spent decades in taprooms, at barrel releases, at festivals, in back offices and brewing floors, talking to the people who built this industry from nothing. I know how much happens that never makes it onto social media. I know the owner who quietly comp’d a tab for someone having a crisis. The brewer who drove an hour to pick up a stranger who needed a safe ride. The taproom that stayed dark on a Tuesday so a community group could use the space without it becoming A Whole Thing. None of that gets a post. Most of it never will. So when I wrote recently about silence — when I said that “silence right now doesn’t feel neutral, it feels like complicity” — I was writing about what I could see. And I was right about what I saw. The public silence of breweries that have the platform, the stability, and frankly the safety to say something and choose not to? That still troubles me. I’m not softening that. But some of what I read as silence is actually something else entirely. It’s people doing the work with their hands instead of their phones. It’s people who are genuinely afraid — not of being canceled, but of real consequences for their families, their employees, their ability to keep the doors open at all. That deserves more than a footnote. It deserves to be named clearly. Here’s the tension I want to sit with honestly: public statements matter. They matter because people can’t rally around something they can’t see. Visibility creates awareness and solidarity. It helps people find each other. It tells someone standing outside your taproom door, uncertain whether they’ll be welcomed inside, something they need to know — or whether it’s even safe for them to be in public at all. That’s not performative. I wrote recently that the craft beer movement “was built on collective defiance. It was built on rejecting consolidation. On pushing back against homogeneity.” I believe that too. And I’ll extend it: breweries should be at least as loud about their values as they are when they drop a new seasonal. Your hazy IPA gets a full rollout — the label art, the tap handle photo, the countdown post. Human dignity deserves the same energy. Be as loud about human rights as you are about your beer. There is no reason those two things should require different levels of courage from you. But visibility isn’t the only form of courage. And not everyone can be visible right now without real consequences — financial, personal, sometimes physical. There are people in this industry doing hard, unglamorous, sometimes risky work in the background, and announcing it would compromise it or paint a target on someone who’s already stretched thin. That’s not silence as complicity. That’s operational discipline under pressure. What I want to push back on — clearly, not gently — is the idea that behind-the-scenes action and public visibility are in competition with each other. The person organizing quietly in the back room and the person posting a statement of solidarity on a Tuesday morning are both doing something real. We need both. We need the quiet infrastructure and we need the visible signal. We need people to know that this industry — at its best, at its most independent, and human — gives a fuck. I closed that piece with a question: “Reactive and fearful? Or clear and values-driven?” That question still stands. But having heard from you, I’d add a corollary: the values-driven path isn’t always the loudest one. Sometimes it’s a phone call and a recipe. Sometimes it’s a room made available on a closed Tuesday. Sometimes it’s a drive across town for someone who needed a safe ride home. All of it is political. All of it was always political. You don’t get to opt out of that — you only get to decide what you do with it. I’ve spent more than a decade writing about this industry because I believe it can be exactly that. I’ve been lucky enough to build an audience that lets me say so plainly. That’s a privilege I intend to use. The work is happening. Some of it you’ll see. Some of it you won’t. Support it either way. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication covering beer and brewing across New York state. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Jun 2 • 10:13 AM EDT • Politics • clevelandprost.substack.com
Moved my family to 2 different countries; difficult parts surprised me

Our family moved abroad twice to different countries. We were surprised the biggest challenges involved housing and healthcare, not making friends.

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Jun 2 • 10:04 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Cindy Stuart enters Hillsborough Commission race to challenge Joshua Wostal; Aileen Rodriguez vows to fight on

Stuart's entrance into the race sets up a competitive Democratic Primary as the party looks for a flip.

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Jun 2 • 9:22 AM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
The Biggest Threat to JD Vance Is Spencer Pratt

Washington loves Rubio. A brash bully from outside conventional politics is the bigger potential challenge.

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Jun 2 • 5:55 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Goldman and Lander trade barbs in primary debate

Rep. Dan Goldman and his challenger, Brad Lander, each accused the other of political expediency.

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Jun 1 • 10:58 PM EDT • Politics • ny1.com
Towards a responsive health system and equitable access to quality RMNCAH services

Indonesia’s vast geography and sociocultural diversity shape the delivery of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services in ways that are both enabling and challenging. Across provinces, significant variation has been observed in how services are planned, resourced, and delivered. These variations in service standards and quality are felt daily in the lives of women, newborns and adolescents. Despite these challenges, progress is visible. National estimates show a drop in maternal mortality ratio, from 331 to 140 per 100 000 live births since 2000, signaling improvements in care quality and access. Fertility has stabilised and contraceptive use has grown, yet unmet reproductive health needs persist, and adolescent pregnancies continue to reflect early marriage and limited access to youth-friendly services.To better understand how Indonesia’s health system has evolved under decentralisation, the Ministry of Health, supported by World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), IPAS and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), conducted a joint external review of RMNCAH programmes. This review draws on multiple sources of evidence, including existing literature, policy documents, national health system data, as well as field visits to six selected provinces to represent Indonesia’s geographic and administrative diversity. During the field visits, review teams observed service delivery in health facilities, spoke with health workers and local leaders and met mothers and families to understand how RMNCAH policies are operationalised. One of the challenges identified was the management of low birthweight (LBW) infants, a major contributor to neonatal deaths, under resource constraints. One midwife described a severe case of extremely LBW twins, one stillborn and the other died after three days of care. She recalled how the surviving infant struggled to swallow and may not have received breast milk, while simultaneous emergencies required the team’s attention, affecting the care provided to the infant.A subsequent review of the case by the district health office revealed insufficient antenatal care, fragmented maternal medical history due to population mobility, referral delays, limited provider capacity in neonatal intravenous access and a heavy workload that constrained proper newborn monitoring. These insights informed recommendations to strengthen both system-wide and service-level responses. Since the early 2000s, Indonesia’s decentralisation initiative has given much of the responsibility for funding, staffing and managing health services to regional governments. While the Ministry of Health sets national clinical standards, daily management of public health facilities falls under regional authorities through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. While this arrangement allows services to be tailored to local needs, it also depends heavily on local capacity for planning, budgeting and management. Health facilities and district health offices are better positioned to translate national priorities into local action when they have access to consistent technical support, helping health workers manage resource constraints and infrastructure gaps.The complexity of Indonesia’s health system governance is no easy feat to navigate. Understanding these dynamics is essential to strengthening policy, improving coordination and ensuring more equitable access to services across Indonesia. Under the leadership of Ministry of Health, recommendations from this exercise will be key in guiding the nation’s roadmap to an equitable and quality health system for RMNCAH.Written by Edit Oktavia Manuama, National Professional Officer (Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health), and Jessie Yunus, National Professional Officer (Gender, Rights, Equity, and Disability Inclusion)

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Jun 1 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int
Trump faces a new inflation warning from the bond market, adding to his midterm challenges

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government.

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Jun 1 • 6:36 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
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'Toughest quarter yet:' Eagleville shop reflects challenges facing small businesses

Bank of America data shows small business profits hit a two-year low in April. Eagleville shop owners share how community support is key.

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Jun 1 • 6:27 PM EDT • Business • newschannel5.com
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Roundup: US retail industry / Anthropic / Business opportunity

Facing challenges: The retail industry emerged from a choppy first quarter relatively unscathed, but higher-than-usual tax refunds likely helped to buoy spending. The second quarter could offer a clearer view on consumer health and just how much gas price increases and persistent inflation have disrupted the economy and put more pressure on household budgets. The […]

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Jun 1 • 3:48 PM EDT • Business • businessreport.com
U.S. Representative Erin Houchin Completes NFIB Small Business Challenge

Rep. Houchin visited a Greendale small business to learn more about daily operations.

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Jun 1 • 3:26 PM EDT • Business • nfib.com
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James Uthmeier files civil lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI

The legal challenge against the artificial intelligence company comes as Uthmeier is also pursing criminal charges.

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Jun 1 • 2:10 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
Maitland Mayor John Lowndes is seeking to challenge Jason Brodeur in SD 10

It's a race to represent Seminole County and the city of Winter Park.

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Jun 1 • 2:00 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
Join the Scientific American Summer Reading Challenge

Fill your bingo card with fascinating science stories, discoveries and ideas all summer long for a chance to win prizes

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Jun 1 • 11:30 AM EDT • Science • scientificamerican.com
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Opinion: Amherst’s Politics of Endless Outrage

By Rizwana Khan The first meeting of the new four-part series, Community Wellness and Resiliency Conversations, felt like a group project in which everyone had done the reading and mastered the vocabulary — systemic oppression, community accountability, and the rest — with graduate seminar precision. The challenge was figuring out what to do with it all.

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Jun 1 • 11:19 AM EDT • Politics • amherstindy.org
Is Mina the Hollower too hard? The debate is on, as players discuss the challenge of Yacht Club's smash hit

The action adventure has proven mighty popular, though some have questioned the challenge of this retro-inspired hit.

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Jun 1 • 10:27 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
The Latest: Trump faces new inflation warning from bond market, adding to midterm challenges

The energy price spike triggered by the Iran war has seeped into the price of bonds that help fund the U.S. government, causing interest rates to climb in ways that are worsening affordability pressures, hampering economic growth and creating a new risk for Republicans in November’s midterm elections

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Jun 1 • 8:25 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
The small business making big investments to deliver advanced defense technologies

Employee-owned Physical Sciences Inc. has been scaling small business government R&D awards to solve some of the thorniest national security challenges.

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Jun 1 • 8:25 AM EDT • Business • breakingdefense.com
Governor Morrisey Announces $3.4M Rural Local Health Challenge Funding Opportunity

Governor Patrick Morrisey announced a $3.4 million for a statewide local health challenge funding opportunity to advance prevention-focused, community-based health initiatives through West Virginia’s continued participation in the federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP).

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Jun 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • governor.wv.gov
What’s Behind Tilman Fertitta’s $18 Billion Bet On Caesars Entertainment

Despite challenges from prediction markets, Ozempic and rising costs, the restaurateur owner of the Houston Rockets seeks to add 50 locations, and a mountain of debt, to his existing empire.

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Jun 1 • 6:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • forbes.com
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World Cup 2026: England boss Thomas Tuchel has 'full belief' his side can mount serious challenge to win tournament
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Jun 1 • 4:00 AM EDT • Sports • skysports.com
Science Group And 2 Other Undiscovered Gems in the United Kingdom

As the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indices face headwinds from weak global cues and faltering trade data from China, investors are increasingly seeking opportunities in less prominent areas of the market. In this environment, discovering small-cap stocks with strong fundamentals and potential for growth can be a rewarding strategy, as these companies often operate under the radar yet possess unique attributes that may offer resilience amid broader market challenges.

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Jun 1 • 2:33 AM EDT • Science • finance.yahoo.com
Russell Henley's clubs: What's in his Charles Schwab-winning bag

Russell Henley won the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday for his sixth PGA Tour win.

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Jun 1 • 2:21 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Trump is facing a new inflation warning from the bond market, adding to his midterm challenges

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government

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Jun 1 • 12:10 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Trump is facing a new inflation warning from the bond market, adding to his midterm challenges

The world is getting more uptight about lending money to President Donald Trump’s government.

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Jun 1 • 12:01 AM EDT • Politics • wsls.com
2026 Charles Schwab Challenge: Here's how much every player made

Check out our list of how much money each player in the field came away with at the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial CC.

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May 31 • 11:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
New therapy program targets senior mental health in Dyersville

Seniors struggling with depression, anxiety or other mental health challenges have a new center to get help in Dyersville.

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May 31 • 8:40 PM EDT • Health • kcrg.com
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Ministry of Public Health, WHO Thailand and the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Thailand launch initiative to strengthen Thailand’s public health workforce

28 May 2026 | Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in ThailandA skilled and coordinated public health workforce is essential for protecting population health and responding to public health emergencies. Strengthening these capacities was the focus of a meeting held on 28 May 2026 at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Thailand.Dr Ailan Li, WHO Representative to Thailand, together with Dr Watcharanan Tinnaitorn, Deputy Director of the Division of Public Health Emergency Management, Ministry of Public Health, and officials from WHO and the Ministry of Public Health, met with Counselor Zhang Xiaoxiao from the Economic & Commercial Counsellor's Office, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Thailand to mark the launch of collaboration under the WHO Roadmap to strengthen the public health workforce.The initiative supports Thailand in strengthening its public health workforce across both health and non-health sectors. Public health emergencies require coordinated action across a wide range of professions and institutions, including health workers, border control officers, water safety specialists, communication professionals and local government authorities. Through the project, partners will work together to assess workforce capacities, strengthen competencies and promote coordination across sectors to support preparedness and response efforts.The discussion highlighted opportunities to enhance cross-country collaboration through knowledge exchange, communication activities and engagement at key project milestones, supporting workforce development and emergency preparedness efforts.Beyond its immediate objectives, the initiative also reflects Thailand’s contributions to public health at regional and global levels. The exchange highlighted the importance of sharing experiences, lessons learned and good practices through international cooperation to strengthen public health capacity and preparedness.WHO expressed appreciation to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Thailand for supporting the project and recognizing the importance of investing in public health workforce development, preparedness and health security through partnership and multilateral cooperation. WHO also commended Thailand’s continued leadership and commitment to strengthening public health systems and emergency preparedness, including through cross-sector collaboration and workforce development.WHO remains committed to supporting Thailand and partners in advancing resilient and people-centred public health systems and strengthening preparedness for future health challengesAbout the EPHF Roadmap ProjectThailand is one of four countries selected in 2026 to initiate implementation of the Essential Public Health Functions (EPHF) Roadmap, alongside Maldives, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. The initiative is funded by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA). The project is led by Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health, with WHO Thailand serving as a co-implementing partner. Other partners include the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), the Global Network for Academic Public Health/Public Health Interprofessional Leadership Alliance (GNAPH/PHILA) and the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA).

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May 31 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int
Dell unveils $699 XPS 13 laptop in challenge to Apple's MacBook Neo

Dell on Sunday unveiled its most affordable laptop, XPS 13, as ‌the PC maker aims to capture market share from Apple's MacBook Neo by attracting students and young professionals.

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May 31 • 6:53 PM EDT • Technology • reuters.com
2026 Charles Schwab Challenge purse: Payout breakdown, winner's share

Here's the payout breakdown and winner's share for the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Texas.

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May 31 • 4:01 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Flowers challenges PBSD leaders to handle ‘adult politics’

Mayor Vivian Flowers made a rare appearance at Thursday’s Pine Bluff School District board meeting, imploring the six board members and Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree to tackle the ongoing challenges within the district she says could threaten the city’s ability to attract new businesses and achieve growth in other ways. Flowers confirmed she alluded to the […]

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May 31 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • pbcommercial.com
Reality TV can be unserious and dramatic. It's also training political candidates

Reality shows are an escape with characters who can be larger than life. But some stars use the experience of fame as a stepping stone toward another challenge: running for political office.

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May 31 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • npr.org
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Where to watch IPL 2026 final free live stream, TV channel, start time for Gujarat Titans vs. Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Gujarat Titans vs. Royal Challengers Bengaluru live stream: How to watch the IPL final and start time of the showpiece cricket event.

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May 31 • 2:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Jones starting new chapter as Science Hill cross country coach

As Wes Jones enters his 30th year of coaching, he's ready to embrace a new challenge.

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May 30 • 9:41 PM EDT • Science • timesnews.net
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Cornucopian Convincing Winner Of Aristides

Cornucopian pressured early leader Mad House, put him away leaving the turn, and then withstood a challenge from five-time stakes winner Roll On Big Joe to win Saturday’s 38th running of the $263,500 Aristides (G3) by 1 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs. Off as the odds-on 3-5 ...

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May 30 • 9:06 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Jones starting new chapter as Science Hill cross country coach

As Wes Jones enters his 30th year of coaching, he's ready to embrace a new challenge.

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May 30 • 8:41 PM EDT • Science • johnsoncitypress.com
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Senator Dan Sullivan Has a New Challenger in Alaska: Dan Sullivan

Two candidates with the same name will be on the ballot seeking the same seat in the state’s primary. “It’s going to be confusing,” one Republican said.

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May 30 • 6:31 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Trump set to headline ‘Great American State Fair’ after artists drop out over ties

An upcoming celebration of America's 250th anniversary, called "The Great American State Fair," has faced challenges as several musical guests backed out due to its connections to President Donald Trump.

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May 30 • 3:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
Trump set to headline 'Great American State Fair' after artists drop out over ties

An upcoming celebration of America's 250th anniversary, called "The Great American State Fair," has faced challenges as several musical guests backed out due to its connections to President Donald Trump.

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May 30 • 3:55 PM EDT • Politics • news4jax.com
Hidden pain, open conversation: Jacksonville church takes on mental health crisis

For many people struggling with mental health challenges, the hardest step is simply speaking up. At a Jacksonville church, leaders are working to change that by bringing conversations about trauma, healing and emotional wellness out of the shadows and into the community.

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May 30 • 9:28 AM EDT • Health • news4jax.com
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Slot sacked

Liverpool's ownership has issued a joint statement confirming the decision to dismiss head coach Arne Slot. The contribution Arne has made to Liverpool FC in the time that he has been with us has been significant, meaningful and – most importantly of all to supporters and ourselves – successful. This was evident when he agreed to take over as head coach, when he guided us to the Premier League title and throughout the season just ended when he faced considerable challenges and burdens.

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May 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Scientists Challenge a 70-Year-Old Theory of Language With a Surprising Discovery

Researchers have identified a previously overlooked structure underlying human language, revealing patterns that extend beyond traditional measures of emotion.

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May 30 • 7:07 AM EDT • Science • scitechdaily.com
Mamdani endorses Espaillat's primary challenger Avila Chevalier

Mamdani formally endorsed the fellow Democratic Socialists of America member on Thursday evening.

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May 29 • 9:17 PM EDT • Politics • ny1.com
Mamdani endorses Espaillat's primary challenger Avila Chevalier

Mamdani formally endorsed the fellow Democratic Socialists of America member on Thursday evening.

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May 29 • 9:17 PM EDT • Politics • nystateofpolitics.com
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Dan Sullivan vs. Dan Sullivan: GOP blasts clone candidate as lookalike enters Alaska Senate race

A Democratic strategist allegedly deployed a candidate named Dan Sullivan to challenge the incumbent Republican senator in Alaska's ranked choice system.

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May 29 • 8:24 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
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Diablo 4 Is Getting A Long-Awaited Solo Mode Next Season

Diablo 4 players looking for even more of a challenge will be able to create Solo-Self-Found characters starting in Season 14. Developer Blizzard revealed Diablo 4’s Solo-Self-Found (or SSF) mode as part of its Season 14 public test realm patch notes, offering the first details on all the new seasonal mechanics, item reworks, and balance...

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May 29 • 2:39 PM EDT • Technology • gamespot.com
Team develops open-source framework to accelerate health AI research

A research team led by Columbia University has developed an open-source framework designed to streamline and accelerate artificial intelligence research using health data, addressing longstanding challenges ...

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May 29 • 12:40 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com
Small business owner says AI is helping fill gaps as employers struggle to find workers

The Audio Garage owner Nick Paulson joins 'Varney & Co.' to discuss building a successful vehicle customization business in North Dakota and how AI is helping address workforce challenges.

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May 29 • 11:11 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
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Judge temporarily blocks payouts from Trump's $1.8B 'anti-weaponization' fund

Judge Leonie Brinkema also barred the government from moving forward with the fund's creation while litigation is pending to challenge it

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May 29 • 9:54 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Advocates talk youth mental health in south Snohomish County

Presenters discussed programs that are working, gaps in the system and focus areas to support youth who have behavioral health challenges.

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May 29 • 8:30 AM EDT • Health • heraldnet.com
Future of Personal Health—Mental Health Campaign

Media Planet recently spotlighted the mental health story of Special Olympics Minnesota athlete, Kayte Barton in a story titled, "Closing the Mental Health Gap for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities” as part of their Mental Health Awareness Month campaign. The story details how Kayte leveraged her own challenges accessing mental health care to help develop Special Olympics Strong Minds, the mental discipline of Special Olympics Healthy Athletes®.

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May 29 • 8:27 AM EDT • Health • specialolympics.org
WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel amended

WHO Member States adopted a resolution to amend the ‘WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel’ (the Code) and strengthen its implementation, following Member State-led consultations in the lead up to the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly. The resolution marks an important step towards the vision that everyone, everywhere can access competent and motivated health and care workers, as a foundation for both universal health coverage and global health security. Key additions to the Code focus on: inclusion of provisions on health personnel recruited internationally for employment as care workers; applicability of the Code recommendations during emergencies; and encouraging co-investment in health systems and health workforce to ensure international recruitment results in proportional benefits for source and destination countries.Since its adoption by the Sixty-third World Health Assembly in 2010, the Code has undergone three rounds of review of its relevance and effectiveness. “We welcome the resolution’s focus on sustainable and ethical mobility of health personnel,” explained Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General, Health Systems, Access and Data. “The Code’s adoption in 2010 was a landmark achievement. Following this update, we encourage all countries to enhance implementation, including by viewing co-investment as a win-win.” The additions were recommended by an Expert Advisory Group appointed by the WHO Director-General. The Expert Advisory Group’s final report noted the progress in health workforce data availability, provision of migrant health worker rights and the embedding of ethical recruitment principles in national policies. It also highlighted areas of possible improvement in the Code implementation, including support for the strengthening of health systems in source countries.The adoption of the resolution follows extensive consultations led by Member States, underscoring the continued relevance of the Code in a context of increasing international mobility of health workers and growing pressure on health systems resulting from global health emergencies and funding constraints.WHO is already taking forward actions called for in the resolution. An updated version of the ‘WHO health workforce support and safeguards list’, that guides ethical recruitment practices by identifying countries facing the most pressing health workforce challenges, will be published later in 2026. As recommended by the Expert Advisory Group, this will include additional flexibility enabling countries to indicate their willingness to allow active international recruitment, or for Member States not on the list to request tailored support and safeguards. This approach reflects a more nuanced, country-led framework that balances workforce mobility with the need to protect and strengthen health systems in vulnerable settings.“I thank the members of the Expert Advisory Group, the group of Member States who led the resolution, and all Member States for their constructive engagement,” added Dr Nakatani. “Let’s bring this spirit of collaboration to our collective efforts to implement the resolution, strengthen the health workforce and build resilient and equitable health systems.”

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May 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • who.int
Small business owners bend Murphy's ear on issues

U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy met with small business owners in Greenville this week to discuss health care costs, tax policies and challenges they are facing.

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May 29 • 3:30 AM EDT • Business • reflector.com
Downtime: Business coach Nhat Pham pulls off 55-minute plank on 55th birthday

Pham spent nearly an hour of his 55th birthday face-down on his elbows and toes, in a pushup-like position called a plank pose, for a physical challenge that doubled to promote Mental Health Awareness Month.

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May 29 • 2:01 AM EDT • Business • richmondbizsense.com
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Johnson Health Center bringing Mobile Healthcare to Brookneal

In Brookneal, access to healthcare can be a challenge, especially with limited medical and dental providers in the area.

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May 28 • 7:16 PM EDT • Health • wset.com
Bipartisan leaders gather to discuss challenges to American leadership at 2026 McCain Institute Sedona Forum

As global instability intensifies and political divisions deepen at home, the 2026 Sedona Forum convened some of the world’s most influential policymakers, military leaders, journalists and business voices to address a defining question: What will it take to sustain American leadership in a rapidly changing world?

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May 28 • 12:25 PM EDT • Politics • news.asu.edu
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How Large Businesses Can Manage Energy Risks and Price Volatility

Unpredictable energy market conditions are raising risks for large businesses. Explore how a managed approach supports long-term resilience.

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May 28 • 10:40 AM EDT • Business • nrg.com
Democrat infighting erupts as Colin Allred is slammed for defeating LGBTQ congresswoman

Democratic infighting eruped after Colin Allred's runoff win over Rep. Julie Johnson, with Equality Caucus co-chairs criticizing his primary challenge.

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May 28 • 10:36 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
How Asian American politics has changed, and where it stands today

A Good Chat with Janelle Wong challenges the misconceptions about Asian American political behavior.

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May 28 • 9:46 AM EDT • Politics • goodauthority.org
Small Business Creation Rose Post-Pandemic; Expansion Remains Key Challenge

Report finds small business disparities rooted in business size, industry, and location

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May 28 • 4:55 AM EDT • Business • urbanmilwaukee.com
Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by over 40%

1TB model now costs $949, up from $649, due to higher component costs and logistical challenges

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May 28 • 3:41 AM EDT • Technology • gamesindustry.biz
Indiana regulators OK Texas company's purchase of Indiana power plant

The $3.45 billion transaction, which includes two other power plants, still requires federal approval and faces a challenge related to market competition concerns.

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May 28 • 12:00 AM EDT • Business • ibj.com
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Iran’s forever war: Deal or no deal, Iran’s challenge to America will outlast Trump

Shortly after I landed in Baghdad for the first time in January 2004, US intelligence services intercepted a letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. The letter discussed the use of ruthless violence to establish an Islamic caliphate— first inside Iraq and ultimately across the broader Middle East.

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May 28 • 12:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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3 States Challenge Trump DOJ’s Schedule III Cannabis Rule

Nebraska, Indiana and Louisiana filed a petition for review in federal court, arguing that immediately rescheduling medical cannabis violates administrative procedures.

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May 27 • 5:05 PM EDT • Business • cannabisbusinesstimes.com
Beyond the Game: How Utah is Leading the Charge for Mental Health and Performance in MLS and NWSL

By Isabella Rubis Mental health in sports is an increasingly important topic, highlighting the psychological challenges athletes face both on and off the field as they strive for peak performance while navigating intense pressure and public scrutiny. Through the partnership with Intermountain Health, Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC

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May 27 • 1:26 PM EDT • Health • rsl.com
Meet a Health Hero: Katelynn Devinney of Pockets of Hope

The 2025 Health Hero Challenge winner sews and donates drainage tube-friendly sweatshirts to women recovering from mastectomy surgery.

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May 27 • 10:26 AM EDT • Health • phillymag.com
Analysis | Trump is liberating his Republican critics in Congress

President Donald Trump, by endorsing challengers of Republican incumbents, is creating lame-duck senators who owe him nothing.

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May 27 • 10:20 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
National Institutes of Health Nutrition Education Challenge

NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assists in the use of crowdsourcing across the federal government. CoECI’s NASA Tournament

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May 27 • 10:09 AM EDT • Health • nasa.gov
Could aliens ever visit Earth? An aerospace scientist unpacks the challenges of interstellar spaceflight.

The universe is vast and teeming with stars – but if intelligent life exists, it may not be able to visit Earth.

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May 27 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Ebola, chemical plants and health, hantavirus, common colds, heat and more

As they say, bugs have ears. Public health has had a relentless May. Chemical plant (near) explosions, Ebola, hantavirus, and that's before you even get to the usual suspects: common colds, heat, and ticks. Here’s an attempt to keep you up to speed and, more importantly, what it means for you and your community. But first, an announcement: World Cup The World Cup starts in 15 days (not like anyone is counting down), and we are hanging TVs in the Health Security Operations Center. It’s going to be a gorgeous, chaotic celebration of basically every culture on earth. And it’s going to take a team effort—from communities to individuals, from public health to health care—to keep people healthy. That’s where you come in. If you’re going to the games or live within 30 miles of a stadium, we would love to hear from you. Sign up for a weekly survey here. Thanks to the more than 1,280 people who have already signed up…you will be hearing from us soon!! Global disease “weather report” Hantavirus: Two more cases The global count of cruise ship passengers with hantavirus has now increased to 13 cases (11 confirmed), with three deaths. The two new cases are overseas and among people who were already quarantining: A crew member in the Netherlands. A Spanish national passenger who was quarantining at home tested positive through daily monitoring. They are now in a biocontainment unit. In the U.S., everyone remains negative. There may be more cases, given that the incubation period of hantavirus (the time from exposure to infection) is 45 days. But this week, we will reach a major milestone: the median incubation window is 18 days, and that will pass on May 29. What this means for you: Your risk from this cruise ship outbreak remains essentially nil at this point. Ebola rages on in Central Africa Big thanks to Dr. Craig Spencer, a humanitarian physician who has treated and survived Ebola, for jumping in to provide the YLE community with an update. Craig, take it from here… The combined confirmed and suspected Ebola cases in DRC are now more than 1,000. All signs are pointing to a very long and catastrophic outbreak in Central Africa: This is a vast undercount. We know this because the test positivity rate is hovering around 50%, only 20% of contacts are being traced (and in some areas, no contacts at all), and more cases keep popping up with no known connection. This all points to widespread and undetected community transmission. This is in only a week of detection. Compared to previous outbreaks, the growth is very fast, as the huge West Africa outbreak in 2016 was first detected at 49 cases and rose to 208 cases a month later. It took four months for that outbreak to reach the size of the current one in the DR Congo. The cases are spread out across 16 health zones. There are now multiple epicenters, making containment very difficult. Next door in Uganda, the case count is seven. While this number is low compared to DRC, a concerning development is that two health care workers recently tested positive with uncertain exposure histories. If they weren’t treating known Ebola cases, this means it’s spreading undetected in Uganda as well. On the ground, backlash, including the burning of health centers, has emerged, a pattern seen in nearly every outbreak and rooted in deep community distrust. It often stems from outside actors working in communities without fully understanding or addressing local priorities. Affected populations may recognize the severity of Ebola while still holding other concerns as more pressing, such as where their loved ones are buried. Community trust is essential to an effective response, but difficult to build during an active emergency. It is best established long before a crisis begins. U.S. priorities are made clear, and may backfire. The U.S. Administration has shown that its first priority is keeping Ebola out, with helping end the outbreak in the DRC a secondary concern. That's meant travel restrictions broader than anything we've imposed before — covering travelers from across the region, and reportedly some green card holders and permanent residents as well. For example, just these past two days, news broke that high-risk American travelers will be subject to a mandatory quarantine in Kenya before they are allowed to return. If an American is infected, the U.S. government plans to send them to a hospital it is standing up from scratch in Kenya. (Currently, Americans who were in the area are allowed to return but are diverted to three airports—Houston, Atlanta, and DC—for further screening.) Past administrations have used travel notices and stepped-up screening; this goes much further. At first blush, these strict precautions may sound prudent. But this approach could backfire in three ways: Restrictions this blunt give people every reason to hide where they’ve been and whom they’ve been near — making the people we most need to find harder to track, not easier. They also breed a false sense that this is someone else’s problem. But diseases are humbling. They find the small cracks in even the most impenetrable-seeming defenses. Lives lost. There is no treatment for this Ebola strain, which means survival depends heavily on the quality of the health system. We have that system in the States, but we are choosing not to use it for infected Americans. This is unbelievable and infuriating. (See a deeper dive from me here.) The only real way to lower the risk to Americans — and everyone else — is to end the outbreak in the DRC and across the region. What this means for you: If you have travel plans to this region, it’s time to cancel them. This is a high-risk situation in Central Africa, and CDC released a Level 4 Travel Advisory. There is also great uncertainty if and when the Administration will let you back in. To the general public in the U.S., your risk remains very, very low right now. U.S. disease “weather report” Ticks: past peak season? Good news, especially for people in the Northeast and Midwest: tick numbers continue to decline. Though we are at the peak of the season, this unusually early year is trending favorably. Heat-related illnesses in the North Heat risk is certainly not blanketing the entire country yet, but this week it will be moderate in the Midwest and the Southeast. What this means for you: Be sure to check the CDC HeatRisk tool. A red day isn’t the best day for that soccer game for a kid with asthma, and a stretch of orange days is a great time to check on your elderly neighbor. Common colds surging As far as respiratory viruses go, the only thing really going around right now is the common cold. It is higher this year than last year, but should peak very soon before returning this fall. Spotlight: Chemical plants Over the weekend, YLE California covered the serious situation that unfolded around a chemical plant in Orange County, California. Thankfully, the worst-case scenario (a chemical explosion) was mitigated, but only through luck. The health implications in a densely populated area could have been catastrophic. As the situation was winding down, another chemical explosion struck Washington State. This one was fatal. Health officials say the risk to surrounding residents from chemicals in the air and ground remains low, though the community deserves far greater clarity. Clean air and clean water consistently rank as Americans’ top public health concerns — yet when chemical disasters strike, communities are too often met with reassurances rather than transparency and accountability. Residents near the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, for example, are still waiting to understand the long-term impact on their health, with few clear answers. What this means for you: Many are wondering if facilities processing potentially dangerous materials are in their neighborhoods. This interactive map allows you to enter your ZIP code and see all facilities monitored by the EPA, including any violations. Good news Ebola vaccines and treatment for the Bundibugyo species are in development. Two vaccine platforms are being explored, at least one of which may be deployable in as little as 2 months. One vaccine is being developed by Oxford, and the other uses the same biotechnology as the FDA-approved Zaire species of Ebola. (It may provide cross-protection, but it’s unclear at this point.) On the treatment side, two promising monoclonal antibody cocktails are likely to be deployed, though doses are limited and logistical hurdles remain significant challenges. Anni over at The Biotech Tea had a great explainer about the Ebola vaccine gap, if you want to read more. [ The Biotech Tea The Ebola vaccine gap, reading vessel damage, & the Makary exit 🗝️ Paid subscribers get the Biotech Term of the Week at $30/year (~$2.50/month). I try to keep it intentionally accessible, but if cost is ever a barrier, send me a message. A few people asked about expensing your subscription, so I put together a short email template… Read more 6 days ago · 10 likes · Annicka Evans, PhD ](https://www.thebiotechtea.com/p/the-ebola-vaccine-gap-reading-vessel?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been officially renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), following more than a decade of debate and input from roughly 22,000 clinicians, researchers, and patients worldwide. This is good because the old name was medically misleading, leading to patients without visible cysts being dismissed or overlooked entirely. The WHO estimates that 70% of people with the condition remain undiagnosed. A more accurate name should improve recognition, reduce stigma, and ultimately help the millions of people living with this condition get diagnosed and treated sooner. Poll Loading... Bottom line Public health situations are everywhere right now. Staying healthy takes public health professionals and systems working tirelessly behind the scenes and each of us showing up for our neighbors and communities. Love, YLE Big thanks to Ed Nirenberg for staying on top of the Ebola vaccines, Hannah Totte for all the figures, Dr. Craig Spencer for the Ebola insight, and Dr. Matt Willis for covering the chemical situation in CA. Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) comprises a team of experts, ranging from physicians to immunologists to epidemiologists to nutritionists, working together with one goal: to “Translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. YLE suite of newsletters reaches over 475,000 people across more than 132 countries. 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

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May 27 • 7:43 AM EDT • Health • yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com
Tapped: Worst winter in memory triggers cascading economic strain in Colorado mountain towns

Editor’s Note: The Denver metro region sits at the center of one of the American West’s most complex and consequential water challenges. This series examines the interconnected systems that determine how the region secures, stores, and conserves its water while navigating the competing demands of fast‑growing urban communities and the increasingly unpredictable mountain snowpack that […]

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May 27 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Business Groups Challenge ERISA Class Certification in Amicus Brief

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Benefits Council claim there was insufficient ‘rigorous analysis’ to justify class certification in a recent 401(k) plan lawsuit.

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May 27 • 6:28 AM EDT • Business • planadviser.com
Americans don’t like either political party. We asked them why.

The wide-ranging criticisms — that the parties are corrupt, subservient, "wishy washy" or unable to handle the president — signal major challenges for both sides.

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May 27 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
CVS sues Tennessee in latest challenge to state PBM laws

The same day that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that would force pharmacy benefit managers to divest from retail pharmacies, CVS Health filed a lawsuit to block its implementation.

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May 27 • 5:38 AM EDT • Health • healthexec.com
Nate Diaz breaks silence on Mike Perry loss

Nate Diaz returned to mixed martial arts for the first time in nearly four years on May 16 in the MVP MMA: Rousey vs. Carano co-main event. The former UFC title challenger took on Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship's "King of Violence" Mike Perry and suffered a largely one-sided TKO loss. Diaz ...

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May 27 • 2:16 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Redstone community welcomes long-awaited Food and Beverage Entertainment Center

Redstone’s new Food and Beverage Entertainment Center, the new home for the 324-seat Challenger Bingo and the Rocket Grill restaurant, officially opened Thursday.

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May 27 • 1:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • theredstonerocket.com
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Army veteran’s archery business named Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year

Army veteran Sam Westfall turned archery into a source of healing and community. Now, his business, Valor Archery Challenge, has been named Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year.

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May 26 • 11:57 PM EDT • Business • koaa.com
Texas Democrats pick lieutenant governor nominee to challenge GOP incumbent Dan Patrick

Texas voters selected a Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Tuesday's primary runoff to challenge Republican incumbent Dan Patrick in November.

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May 26 • 9:12 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
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UC Davis Researcher Explores How Brain Development Shapes Teen Mental Health

Amanda Guyer, professor in the Department of Human Ecology and a faculty researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain, is helping uncover how brain development influences the way children and adolescents respond to social and emotional challenges. She is this month’s guest on Face to Face With Chancellor May.

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May 26 • 3:15 PM EDT • Health • ucdavis.edu
Armenia signs strategic partnership deal with US as election approaches

PM Nikol Pashinyan, who deepened ties with US, faces challenge from pro-Russia parties in upcoming parliamentary polls.

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May 26 • 1:27 PM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com
Supreme Court Reverses Ruling in Immigration Judges’ Free Speech Lawsuit

A group of immigration judges in 2020 challenged work-related restrictions on their public speaking engagements, saying they violated their free speech rights.

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May 26 • 12:49 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Three Monarchs Earn Prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships

By Robyn Sidersky Three recent Old Dominion University graduates are preparing to tackle some of society’s biggest scientific challenges, from developing sustainable pharmaceuticals to restoring wetlands and advancing regenerative medicine, with help from one of the nation’s most prestigious graduate fellowships.

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May 26 • 11:21 AM EDT • Science • odu.edu
PayPal’s online checkout empire is under siege as rivals squeeze its core business

PayPal helped invent online checkout. The iconic online payments company is facing its biggest challenge in nearly three decades of existence. Its core business of customers using the app to check out when shopping online is barely growing and new management has bluntly warned investors that “significant changes” will be needed to fix the company’s problems.

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May 26 • 10:11 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
PayPal’s Online Checkout Empire Is Under Siege as Rivals Squeeze Its Core Business

NEW YORK (AP) — PayPal helped invent online checkout. Nearly three decades later, it’s struggling to defend its turf. The iconic online payments company is facing its biggest challenge in nearly three decades of existence. Its core business of customers using the app to check out when shopping ...

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May 26 • 10:11 AM EDT • Business • usnews.com
Portland clinic helps Asian immigrants navigate life and mental health amid immigration enforcement fears

Founded in 1983, the Asian Health and Service Center in Southeast Portland provides mental health counseling and other support services, as providers say immigration crackdowns have heightened fear and worsened mental health challenges among some immigrant patients.

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May 26 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • opb.org
Small Business Month financial tips

May is Small Business Month, and for many entrepreneurs, the challenge isn’t just starting a business—it’s keeping it financially stable

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May 26 • 8:48 AM EDT • Business • wwltv.com
Rural health care infrastructure: Trends and considerations for the future

America's Rural Future symposium explores the challenges and policy shifts reshaping rural health care infrastructure, and what communities, states, and policymakers must consider to build lasting, locally responsive systems.

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May 26 • 8:30 AM EDT • Health • brookings.edu
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How can Colorado help kids facing mental health struggles? These teens have ideas for the next governor.

If the next administration does not hatch a plan to help kids in the thick of mental health challenges, “we will lose this generation,” one mental health expert said.

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May 26 • 5:57 AM EDT • Health • coloradosun.com
Cuts to science funding will create a flood of challenges in our coastal communities

Progress toward supporting safer, more affordable coastal communities in the face of climate change is at risk from a storm of cuts to U.S. scientific funding.

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May 26 • 5:01 AM EDT • Science • inquirer.com
Public Health Command Europe Hosts 71st International Military Veterinary Exchange

Public Health Command Europe recently hosted the 71st International Military Veterinary Exchange, bringing together nearly 100 veterinary leaders from 18 Allied and Partner nations to strengthen alliances, enhance global force protection, and address shared medical and agricultural challenges.

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May 26 • 4:15 AM EDT • Health • dvidshub.net
Optima Health Leads These 3 Undiscovered Gems in the United Kingdom

As the United Kingdom's major indices, including the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, face headwinds from weak global cues and faltering trade data from China, investors are increasingly looking beyond blue-chip stocks to uncover opportunities in smaller companies. In this climate of uncertainty, identifying undiscovered gems like Optima Health involves focusing on firms with strong fundamentals and growth potential that can weather broader market challenges.

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May 26 • 2:32 AM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com
Teladoc Health Faces Flat Sales And Weaker Revenue Per User Trends

Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC) is reporting flat sales over consecutive years, despite continued investment in its virtual care platform. Average revenue per user has been declining, pointing to weaker consumer monetization and softer engagement levels. Management has focused on broadening services, but this has not translated into stronger top line growth or higher earnings quality. The outlook for the next twelve months remains subdued, highlighting ongoing challenges for the...

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May 26 • 12:29 AM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com
Jorge Martinez latest Republican to challenge Darren Soto in redrawn CD 9

The Orlando business ran his own accounting firm in Central Florida for more than three decades.

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May 25 • 11:30 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
University of Sheffield planning to cut jobs in chemistry and ...

Around 20% of the chemistry and materials science faculty could lose their jobs as university address financial challenges

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May 25 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • chemistryworld.com