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Inside Caleb Williams' EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27 cover shoot

Bears content presenter Jasmine Baker gives fans an exclusive look at quarterback Caleb Williams' cover shoot for EA SPORTS Madden NFL 27 in Los Angeles.

Jun 3 • 8:28 AM EDT • Sports • chicagobears.com

Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in research

Croatia’s track-record on gender equality in science has been both questioned and lauded in recent months, following both bad and good news on the topic. On the one hand, a senior awards committee was announced without a single woman researcher included. On the other, the national science academy welcomed its first cohort of fellows with more women than men.Members of the committee, which gives national awards recognising scientific achievement, are proposed by the ministry of science and endorsed by the parliament. The current line-up does include a woman, but she is culture minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek rather than a researcher. Even then, she didn’t make it into the photograph released to announce the appointments on April 16. “The image speaks a thousand words,” says Tanja Rudež, a science journalist for Jutarnji List newspaper. “I am surprised that none of these men, all well-known scientists, saw a problem with the fact that there was not a single successful female scientist on the committee,” she told Science|Business.Ivan Đikić, a prominent Croatian biochemist based at Goethe University Medical School, commented on LinkedIn that the news illustrated a “sad truth” about the state of science in Croatia.“It [. . .] reveals a system where women, despite contributing a substantial share of high-quality, internationally competitive science, are systematically excluded from the very processes that determine recognition and influence,” he wrote. Some 60% of researchers in Croatia are women, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, and they perform well in international competitions. For example, of the 12 European Research Council (ERC) grants awarded to Croatian researchers, seven went to women.“So how is it possible that decision-making bodies are still dominated by men over 60, while not a single female ERC laureate is involved in the selection process?” asked Đikić. “This is not a marginal oversight; it is a structural failure.” The ministry of science did not reply to a request for comment. The awards committee is not unusual. For example, a scientific advisory body announced by the ministry of demographics in April comprises 35 men and five women. The board of the Croatian Science Foundation, newly appointed by the parliament, is a little better, with five men and two women, but still unequal. “This is especially significant because such bodies do not merely distribute prestige. They shape research priorities, funding allocation and long-term scientific development,” Marija Lugarić, chair of the parliament’s committee on gender equality, told Science|Business. “Representation here matters not only symbolically, but materially.”Referring to the awards committee and the board of the science foundation, Lugarić says that while both bodies were appointed by parliament, neither met the minimum 40% gender balance threshold that Croatian law and EU guidelines expressly recommend for public bodies.Đikić wants to see EU institutions put pressure on the government to ensure basic standards of fairness, transparency and democratic governance in science policy are met. “Meaningful change will not come without pressure,” he wrote. “It must intensify both within Croatia and at the level of European institutions. Anything less undermines the credibility of Europe’s commitment to excellence and inclusion in science.”Rudež also underlined the importance of talking and writing about this topic, “because public opinion in Croatia does influence changes in the status and visibility of women in science.”The European Commission has not yet responded to a request for comment.Good news from the academyA more positive story came from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts on 21 May, with the announcement of seven new women fellows and five men. This is the first time in the academy’s 165-year history that women have outnumbered men in a new intake.One of the new fellows, two-time ERC grantee Iva Tolić, credits the academy leadership with trying to be more modern and inclusive, representing the whole community better. “The academy is really aware that so far, before this election, there were very few women,” she told Science|Business. “So, they are actively trying to make this more equal.”Related articlesExplained: How the MSCA is close to achieving gender balanceCall for EU to leverage academic freedom in global talent raceRudež is more cautious, noting that despite the academy’s “breakthrough this year [. . .] it is still a predominantly male institution, with only 18% women.”This reflects a wider imbalance in Croatia’s research landscape. “The key levers of power in science are still in the hands of men,” she went on. “For example, all 14 rectors of private and public universities are men.”Similarly, Lugarić says a structural glass ceiling still exists in Croatian science, which is “most visible precisely where power is exercised.”She cites data from the Commission’s She Figures 2024 report, which shows that Croatia ranks second in the EU for gender equality in research and innovation overall, with an equality index of 79.6 out of 100. It is in the top five for women’s career advancement, participation in research; representation across all research sectors and for scientific publications.In stark contrast, it ranks second to last when it comes to women in decision-making positions in science. “This is not a coincidence,” Lugarić says. “It is a structural pattern.”Informal barriersThe persistent under-representation of women in the highest structures of Croatia’s academies, boards, award committees and leadership positions is not down to formal barriers, Lugarić says, but arises from more subtle obstacles such as “informal networks, persistent expectations regarding traditional gender roles and the unequal distribution of care responsibilities.”Tolić would like to see more support for young women in terms of affordable housing and child support, and higher salaries. Currently, she says, salaries in science stay low for the first 10-15 years, while housing and spaces in kindergarten are limited and expensive. “You have to work a lot, you get very little money, so it’s not great to have a family in this situation,” she says.But despite the challenges, Tolić is optimistic, saying that gender equality in research in Croatia is “definitely improving and going in the right direction.” The situation is particularly promising in biology, she adds, where most full professors, heads of department and deans of faculties are women. Lugarić, too, see the glass ceiling “very slowly, cracking,” and cites the academy election as an example that structural change is possible. Yet the situation in the national awards committee is a “stark reminder that without a conscious, systemic commitment to gender balance, progress will remain slow and uneven.”

Jun 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

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!

Jun 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • iai.tv

Rogers? Kroupi? Alvarez? Gunners weigh up incomings and sales

Mikel Arteta has been central to the club's planning for next season, with the Gunners targeting a central midfielder, forward and full-back in the transfer market. Given last season's £250m spend on new players, a number of player renewals and lucrative bonuses paid to players in lieu of their Premier League success, the club are mindful of ensuring finances are balanced during the close season. For the forward position, three players are known to be on the shortlist - Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers, Bournemouth's Eli Junior Kroupi and Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez.

Jun 3 • 2:57 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Google must give UK publishers choice to block AI search summaries, says competition watchdog

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Jun 3 • 2:28 AM EDT • Business • theguardian.com

Connection uncovered between liability protections and downsizing decisions—in nursing homes, at least

When nursing homes lose their fear of getting sued for substandard care quality, they tend to make do with fewer caregivers, a new study reveals.

Jun 2 • 10:11 PM EDT • Health • healthexec.com

Marvin Harrison Jr. gives concerning answer regarding Jacoby Brissett situation

GLENDALE – In his first chance to talk to the media this offseason, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. revealed plenty about the relationship, or lack there of, with quarterback Jacoby Brissett.

Jun 2 • 9:43 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Myles Garrett gives the Rams a better shot at winning the Super Bowl, but was he worth the cost?

The question isn't who the better player is between Garrett and Jared Verse -- it's whether the difference between them justifies everything Los Angeles gave up

Jun 2 • 4:21 PM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com

Recently released Brewers minor-leaguer to give college football a try

Jordyn Adams, an outfielder on the Brewers' Class AAA minor-league team and a former top football prospect, will give football a try at SMU.

Jun 2 • 3:34 PM EDT • Sports • jsonline.com

NJ sues Newark migrant jail owners over blocked health inspections

State officials are demanding that health inspectors be given full access to the jail they say they have been unlawfully barred from entering.

Jun 2 • 2:05 PM EDT • Health • newjerseymonitor.com

Plenty of entertainment on tap in Van Wert to kick off the summer season

Quincy Thompson from Van Wert LIVE is in to give us a preview of the great entertainment coming to Van Wert!

Jun 2 • 12:39 PM EDT • Entertainment • hometownstations.com

Jill Biden Gives Grim Update on Joe Biden's Health on 'The View'

The former first lady was on hand for Tuesday's live episode.

Jun 2 • 11:33 AM EDT • Health • tvinsider.com

How Science Works

The 2nd Weather and Climate Livestream is now underway. It is organized by a group of early-career researchers concerned about declining funding for the field and eager to demonstrate how weather and climate research makes a difference in our lives. Last year’s event was a great success, drawing terrific press coverage including a piece in the NY Times. This year features a strong lineup of talks aimed at a general audience — I highly recommend tuning in. Share I gave a talk yesterday about How Science Works in Three Steps. You can see the short presentation here (I’ve appended a transcript below): And please tune into the livestream here. It runs through tomorrow at 6 pm ET. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Cleaned up transcript: Thank you, and thanks to everyone tuning in. I want to talk about something I think a lot of people don’t really understand: how science actually works. Arguments over any scientific topic — climate change, vaccines, you name it — revolve around competing claims. For climate change, the claims are: Is the Earth warming? Are humans to blame? What will the impacts be? Over the last 150 years, the scientific community has developed a remarkably robust method for sorting out which claims are true and which aren’t. That method is what I want to walk through. So how does science generate knowledge? If you ask a high schooler, they’ll give you the version they learned in ninth grade: an individual scientist forms a hypothesis, runs an experiment, and draws a conclusion. That’s more or less what happens at the individual level, though in practice it’s more iterative — you design, test, and refine all at once, landing on a slightly different idea each time until you reach a conclusion about whatever hypothesis you’ve ended up with. But this isn’t science. It’s only step one. Any individual scientist can make mistakes — scientists are human. Maybe there’s a bug in the code, maybe there’s an error in the experiment. Just because someone ran an experiment and reached a conclusion doesn’t mean it’s right, and scientists don’t treat a single result as settled truth. Step two is peer review, the first layer of quality control. The scientist writes up what they did and submits it to a journal, which sends the paper to other experts in the field. Those experts judge whether the methods are sound, whether it properly references prior work, and whether the conclusions actually follow from the data. Ask any scientist and they’ll tell you peer review is miserable — the comments come back brutal, often harsh, and you have to revise and resubmit, sometimes multiple times, before an editor finally accepts the paper. Peer review catches an immense amount of bad science, but it can’t catch all of it. Reviewers get sloppy or overworked, they miss obvious mistakes, and they can’t catch hidden errors — a bug in the code, a misread instrument. So a peer-reviewed paper making it into a journal doesn’t mean the paper is right. Nobody treats a single paper as the final word. That’s where step three comes in: the crucible of science. Important results get retested by the broader community. If you publish something interesting, it gets dissected. Sometimes people try to reproduce your work directly but more often they test its implications. If someone claims X is true, and that implies that Y is also true, then scientists will go check Y. If a claim survives this gauntlet long enough, it becomes accepted. That’s how we generate knowledge. Let me give an example: the ozone hole. In 1985 — and I doubt many people watching were around then, but I remember it well — Joe Farman and his colleagues published observations from Antarctica showing that a huge chunk of ozone was disappearing every year. This was shocking because most atmospheric chemists had expected ozone loss to occur at mid-latitudes and high altitudes, not over the South Pole. When scientists see something they don’t understand, they rush to explain it, and several competing hypotheses quickly appeared in the peer-reviewed literature. One pointed to chlorine chemistry from chlorofluorocarbons. A second blamed nitrogen chemistry, possibly driven by solar proton events — meaning the sun was responsible. A third argued it wasn’t chemistry at all but dynamics: winds were carrying naturally low-ozone air from the lower atmosphere up into the stratosphere. Then the community went to work testing which theory could survive the crucible. Aircraft flew into the ozone hole and found no nitrogen, ruling out the nitrogen theory. Measurements showed the air in the polar vortex was descending, not rising — which would bring high-ozone air down, eliminating the dynamics theory. Meanwhile, those same flights measured enormous amounts of chlorine, strongly correlated with exactly the regions where ozone was being destroyed. That became known as the “smoking gun” paper, and it established that chlorine chemistry was the cause. Through this process, a consensus emerged. And it’s worth being clear that this consensus is organic. There’s no vote, no poll, no meeting where it gets decided. Scientists go to conferences, talk to one another, and independently arrived at the same answer. It’s the ultimate free market of ideas. After the consensus was established, the peer-reviewed literature doesn’t even mention the rival theories — it simply takes chlorine chemistry as given. That’s what a consensus looks like. It doesn’t mean every single scientist agrees, but it does mean there’s no longer any legitimate debate. So where can you see what scientists actually think? It’s all in the peer-reviewed literature, which contains the entire historical record of the argument: the discovery, the competing theories, the debate, the testing, and finally the community coalescing around one answer. But there’s a lot of room for misrepresentation. You can dig up an old paper claiming the ozone hole was caused by dynamics and wave it around as if there still was a debate about the cause of the ozone hole — without mentioning that the idea was disproven long ago and that even its own authors no longer believe it. There’s a bigger problem, though: the peer-reviewed literature is written in a language I call “nerd.” It’s extremely hard to read — honestly, some of it is hard for me to follow. It takes graduate students years to work through the literature in a single field, so we can’t expect policymakers or ordinary people to do it. This is where scientific assessments come in. The most famous is the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The job of an assessment is to read and summarize the peer-reviewed literature, synthesizing what’s settled, what’s been disproven, and what remains genuinely debated. To ensure the assessments accurately summarize the peer-reviewed literature, assessments are written by large teams, which are far less prone to bias than individuals and which dilute the influence of any one scientist with an axe to grind. The teams are deliberately assembled to avoid stacking the deck, and the reports themselves go through multiple rounds of peer review. That rigorous process is exactly why you can trust them and why people consider the IPCC to be the gold standard of what we know about the climate system. An assessment produced through a different process may well not be credible. You can even watch the consensus evolve across assessments. Take the attribution of warming. The 1990 IPCC report said the observed warming was broadly consistent with model predictions but also comparable to natural variability — in other words, we don’t know whether humans are responsible. By 1995, it concluded that the balance of evidence suggested a discernible human influence — a sentence only a committee could write, and one that barely commits to anything. By 2001, most of the warming over the previous 50 years was judged “likely” due to greenhouse gases; by 2007, “very likely”; by 2013, “extremely likely.” The 2023 report says essentially the same as 2013 — there’s not much stronger language available. So, to wrap up: science is our ultimate tool for deciphering the universe — the most successful method we’ve ever developed for determining what’s true and what isn’t. Our understanding is written into the peer-reviewed literature, so if you want to know what scientists think, that’s where to look. And for those of us who don’t speak nerd, scientific assessments are the Rosetta Stone — they translate nerd into English. Let me open the floor to questions. Thank you.

Jun 2 • 10:35 AM EDT • Science • theclimatebrink.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

Jun 2 • 10:13 AM EDT • Politics • clevelandprost.substack.com

‘Enough is enough’: Shaq does not hold back his opinion on Angel Reese

Over the years, Atlanta Dream superstar Angel Reese has become one of the most polarizing players in sports, thanks in large part to her high-profile rivalry with the face of the league, Caitlin Clark. Given her role as a sort of villain to Clark, Reese has received a disproportionate amount of criticism and negative attention…

Jun 2 • 9:16 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Caring for Two Generations: How CVS Health Supports Family Caregivers

For nearly 30 years, Nicole has cared for her father while raising a family. Discover how CVS Health helps her manage care and find moments of relief.

Jun 2 • 12:30 AM EDT • Health • cvshealth.com

A.J. Brown Gives Patriots Deserved Validity, Brings Swagger To Foxboro

A.J. Brown coming to New England is much bigger than it seems.

Jun 1 • 11:34 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Tigers Five Home Runs Give Them Just Enough For Win

Dillon Dingler’s two-homer night fueled a relentless power surge at Tropicana Field, as Detroit survived a late Tampa Bay rally to secure a thrilling 10-9 victory.

Jun 1 • 11:04 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Fireworks, entertainment, giveaways to mark Station Casinos’ 50th anniversary

Station Casinos Inc., the corporate entity that owns and operates 20 entertainment destinations throughout Southern Nevada, will celebrate its 50th anniversary

Jun 1 • 8:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • cdcgaming.com

Silicon Valley's new slogan: Let's get physical

Silicon Valley's AI boom is moving into robotics as OpenAI, Meta, Tesla, and startups race to give AI a body.

Jun 1 • 8:19 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.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)

Jun 1 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int

Fireworks, entertainment, giveaways to mark Station anniversary

Station Casinos will mark its 50th anniversary in July with fireworks and drone shows, special entertainment and branded swag giveaways to customers.

Jun 1 • 6:52 PM EDT • Entertainment • reviewjournal.com

Iowa Democrats hoping to flip a US Senate seat are torn over which of 2 hopefuls has the best shot

Iowa Democrats say they want to vote in Tuesday's U.S. Senate primary for the candidate who gives the party its best chance to flip a Republican-held seat in November.

Jun 1 • 6:34 PM EDT • Politics • kcci.com

A Changing World: Global Health Meets Modern Travel

As international travel surges, infectious diseases present a growing concern, especially given how quickly they can spread through modern air travel. We must prepare.

Jun 1 • 6:00 PM EDT • Health • forbes.com

New laws extend tax credits for business expansion, childcare contributions | The Sum and Substance

One bill offers tax credits for companies creating 20 new jobs. The other gives tax breaks to Coloradans donating to childcare providers.

Jun 1 • 2:17 PM EDT • Business • tsscolorado.com

My mom's stroke turned me into her full-time caregiver

Trisha Martin says becoming her 87-year-old mother's caregiver after a stroke changed both of their lives. She says it's the least she can do for her.

Jun 1 • 1:22 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Asus gives the ROX Xbox Ally the OLED screen it deserves

But the hardware refresh is tethered to a bundle with pricey AR glasses.

Jun 1 • 12:04 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

Xbox and PlayStation have a lot to prove

At SGF 2026, both Xbox and PlayStation will need good showings given the current state of game consoles.

Jun 1 • 10:00 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Adolfo Daniel Vallejo: Paraguayan player fined nearly £50,000 at French Open for 'unacceptable' comments about female umpire

Adolfo Daniel Vallejo has been given one of the biggest fines in tennis Grand Slam history after his comments about umpire Ana Carvalho; Vallejo stated after his defeat to French teenager Moise Kouame that his match should have been umpired by a man

Jun 1 • 9:55 AM EDT • Sports • skysports.com

Business Women’s Circle Gives Entrepreneurs Guidance

Organizations help business owners find guidance, accountability and community. For many an entrepreneurial woman trying to get her business

Jun 1 • 9:00 AM EDT • Business • lakeminnetonkamag.com

Caesars Entertainment's Pomeranian Gives Guide to Causing Trouble on Las Vegas Strip

Little Black Book, Directed by Dave Meyers, the Fellow Kids campaign showcases Caesars Entertainment and Lisa Vanderpump's first-ever hotel, The Vanderpump Hotel

Jun 1 • 8:22 AM EDT • Entertainment • lbbonline.com

Titans' Robert Saleh gives positive injury update on Nick Singleton

Tennessee Titans rookie running back Nick Singleton is returning to team drills following a foot injury from the NFL Draft.

Jun 1 • 6:08 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Alexander Volkanovski gives Ilia Topura vs. Justin Gaethje prediction

A lightweight championship unification bout between champion Ilia Topuria and interim titleholder Justin Gaethje headlines the UFC Freedom 250 fight card on June 14 at the White House. It will be Topuria's first title defense. Topuria is a heavy betting favorite two weeks out from the event, but ...

Jun 1 • 2:30 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Why Elliot Cadeau Anchors Michigan’s Title Defense

Elliot Cadeau gives Michigan basketball a proven starting point for its title defense. See what his return means for the Wolverines.

May 31 • 7:47 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Talks for Alajbegovic on standby, Gasperini wants more experienced players

Kerim Alajbegovic’s future is still unclear, but the Bayer Leverkusen winger is pushing for a move to Serie A. As confirmed by Fabrizio Romano, the 2007-born striker has given Italy a preferential p...

May 31 • 5:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Trump Hits the Stalemate Phase of His Interventions in Gaza, Ukraine and Now Iran

In Ukraine, Gaza and now Iran, President Trump’s early declarations of easy wins have given way to harsh reality.

May 31 • 4:07 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

"Thought I'd Give It Another Go" - Super Play Artist Wil Overton Reimagines The Debut Issue's Cover

"This might be a daft idea"

May 31 • 3:05 PM EDT • Technology • timeextension.com

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will 'give zero input' toward Thunder's offseason decisions

May 31 • 11:32 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Donald Trump gives tour of UFC White House event arena

With UFC Freedom 250 right around the corner, President Donald Trump is giving us a sneak peak at the arena being constructed for the event. Despite the UFC having done a ton of events over the years, this event will…

May 31 • 10:48 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Milan Superstar Bids Farewell: “I’ve Given Everything”

Rafael Leao is on the verge of leaving Milan after seven years, with the Portuguese winger bidding farewell to San Siro in his latest interview. Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Leao confirmed his am...

May 31 • 6:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Rapidly growing business given its first storefront in partnership with the Greenbrier

We're All In This Together

May 30 • 11:15 PM EDT • Business • wvnstv.com

Rapidly growing business given its first storefront in partnership with the Greenbrier

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV (WVNS) – The Greenbrier is partnering with rapidly growing House of MBR to give it its first ever storefront. The House of MBR was founded in 2023 and has utilized t…

May 30 • 10:46 PM EDT • Business • wvnstv.com

Brayden Watson Gives Michigan Its First 2027 LB

Brayden Watson gives Michigan its first 2027 linebacker pledge. See what the Wolverines' recruiting win means next for the class.

May 30 • 1:02 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Quantum light gives a 20-fold boost to ultrafast laser processes

Nonlinear interactions between light and matter are at the heart of some of the most powerful tools in modern optics, but pushing these processes to their limits has long been hampered by a fundamental ...

May 30 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • phys.org

Delta Communities Must Plan for the Future They Want

Everyone has a plan. The farmer decides months before the first warm day of spring which crops will go in the ground, how many acres each will take, and what inputs will be needed to give each row its best chance. The retailer studies last year’s numbers and plans which products to stock before the […]

May 30 • 12:44 PM EDT • Business • deltabusinessjournal.com

Nvidia Dropped a Cryptic Clue About Its Next Big Move Ahead of GTC Event

The post seemed to give credence to rumors that the company will make a chip for Windows PCs and announce it at the chipmaker’s GTC Taipei convention next week.

May 29 • 5:24 PM EDT • Technology • barrons.com

Google’s Gemini Spark is ready to run your digital errands while your phone is off

You can now give Gemini Spark a task, turn off everything, and it still gets the job done.

May 29 • 5:12 PM EDT • Technology • androidauthority.com

Louisiana passes new congressional map to eliminate majority-Black district, give GOP another seat

Approval of the new House map came a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current map as an illegal racial gerrymander, weakening the landmark 1965 federal Voting Rights Act.

May 29 • 3:03 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Lucky Strike permanently closes Wrigleyville location

The bowling alley and bar didn’t give a reason for the closure, but the CEO of its parent company recently acknowledged headwinds.

May 29 • 2:14 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com

White House moves to give political appointees more power over federal grants

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration on Friday moved to give political appointees more power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal agencies, a move scientists say puts critical research funding into the hands of partisans without relevant expertise.

May 29 • 1:48 PM EDT • Politics • wral.com

White House Moves to Give Political Appointees More Power Over Federal Grants

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration on Friday moved to give political appointees more power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal agencies, a move scientists say puts critical research funding into the hands of partisans without relevant expertise. In what ...

May 29 • 1:44 PM EDT • Politics • usnews.com

NFIB Thanks LA Legislature for Passing Landmark Small Business Workforce Bill

The bill gives employers a new tool to train workers.

May 29 • 1:34 PM EDT • Business • nfib.com

‘Destiny 2’ Reveals Its Last Update Will Be Its Best In Years

Destiny 2 is putting out one final update before it ceases development, and its bittersweet, given how good it will be.

May 29 • 9:15 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com

Pam Bondi will face a closed-door questioning from House lawmakers over the Epstein files

The transcribed Bondi interview will give lawmakers a chance to dig for information on the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence of Epstein's former girlfriend and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell.

May 29 • 8:53 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

WWP Supporting the Mental Health of Veteran Caregivers

Caregivers are critical to today's generation of wounded veterans, yet many warriors and their caregivers still lack the support they need. A Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) survey found 1 in 4...

May 29 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org

Bone Density Measures Give Insight Into Overall Health Risk in Older Women

An observational study suggests that bone mineral density may serve as a marker of systemic health.

May 28 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • medscape.com

Key things to know ahead of Pam Bondi’s interview with House committee about her handling of the Epstein files

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to give a closed-door interview Friday over her handling of the federal government’s investigation into the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

May 28 • 6:31 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

San Antonio Spurs star “Wemby” is rocking the NBA playoffs. Science can help explain why

Wemby’s height gives him an advantage in blocking and rebounding, but how does the tallest player in the NBA keep hitting all those threes?

May 28 • 1:00 PM EDT • Science • scientificamerican.com

Emma Heming Willis Opens Up About Caregiving and Brain Health: ‘Ask for Help’

The mom of two shares how she prioritizes her own health and needs as a caregiver to husband Bruce Willis as he battles frontotemporal dementia.

May 28 • 12:02 PM EDT • Health • today.com

Spurs Game 6 entertainment, giveaways announced for game vs Thunder

The Spurs announced live performances, giveaways, and in-game entertainment for tonights Game 6 against the Thunder at Frost Bank Center.

May 28 • 10:04 AM EDT • Entertainment • expressnews.com

A Deeper Look Inside Planet Zoo 2’s Announce Trailer

Planet Zoo 2's Game Director breaks down its announcement trailer to give us a taste of what to expect in this upcoming sequel.

May 28 • 10:00 AM EDT • Technology • news.xbox.com

Launder Your Bottom Line with Money Fronts Bonuses

Give tourists and locals a bird’s-eye view of the Southern San Andreas scenery while taking your money laundering business to new heights with the Higgins Helitours front — available for Hands On Car Wash owners to claim for free at Maze Bank...

May 28 • 9:56 AM EDT • Technology • rockstargames.com

St. Louis business leaders seek to shake up the data center narrative

Data centers are the topic that just won’t go away, and given the public acrimony surrounding them, local business leaders and other supporters are keen on reframing the conversation. Case-in-point was the panel convened yesterday by the regional business association Greater St. Louis Inc. featuring representatives from the data center industry, labor unions, building trades, […]

May 28 • 6:15 AM EDT • Business • stlmag.com

Bungie details Marathon Season 2 and the new Sentinel class, with a free-to-play week and special sale planned, too

Ahead of Marathon Season 2's kickoff next week, Bungie has given us an extensive look at all the seasonal content planned, and announced a F2P week.

May 28 • 5:21 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

SBTi validation of FLSmidth’s updated science-based targets

PRESS RELEASEFLSmidth & Co. A/S28 May 2026Copenhagen, Denmark FLSmidth is pleased to share that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) recently validated its updated climate targets. This validation gives us a clear, science-based roadmap aligned with the 1.5 ºC pathway and strengthen our focus on delivering measurable emissions reductions across our operations and value chain. Together with our customer and suppliers, these updated targets underline that decarbonisation is a shared journey

May 28 • 4:00 AM EDT • Science • finance.yahoo.com

BSN wins award for top live production

ATLANTA – For the first time, the Bearkat Sports Network has been given one of the industry's top honors, winning a College Sports Media Award at the Annual ...

May 28 • 2:33 AM EDT • Sports • gobearkats.com

Michigan’s smartest economic investment? Babies.

Michigan's Rx Kids program gives cash to new moms, proving that investing in babies strengthens the local economy.

May 27 • 7:00 PM EDT • Health • detroitnews.com

iOS 26.5 gave Messages app encrypted RCS, here’s how to check it’s working

Here’s how to check if end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging is enabled on your iPhone in iOS 26.5 and active in a given conversation.

May 27 • 11:18 AM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com

Emma Heming Willis on How to Prioritize Women’s Brain Health

Emma Heming Willis, author and co-creator of Make Time Wellness, along with Dr. Nicole Beurkens, psychologist and scientific advisor to her brand, join TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones to talk about the importance of prioritizing brain health for women. They break down their five pillars essential for taking action on brain health, talk about how they teamed up to launch the brand, and give tips for maintaining consistency.

May 27 • 10:42 AM EDT • Health • today.com

Emma Heming Willis on Bruce Willis, Brain Health, Caregiving

Emma Heming Willis, co-creator and chief impact officer of Make Time Wellness and caregiver to her husband Bruce Willis, joins TODAY with her brand’s scientific advisor, Nicole Beurkens, to share an update on Bruce and opens up about how her struggle with brain fog inspired her to educate women on prioritizing their brain health.

May 27 • 9:02 AM EDT • Health • today.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

May 27 • 7:43 AM EDT • Health • yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

What’s special about the Red Sox anymore? (*Besides Fenway Park)

I’ll give the Red Sox this: they can successfully sabotage everything else six ways to seven, but Fenway Park is beautiful until the end. Among MLB stadiums, it’s exactly as spiritually lovely as Wrigley Field, and if there’s anything at which these two environs have been the best to ever do it, it’s lulling the […]

May 27 • 6:59 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

'Are we just going to give up and die like every other generation?'

Inside the longevity conference that brings together founders, investors, biohackers, and the generally death-averse to discuss how to forestall — or even beat — our demise.

May 27 • 4:30 AM EDT • Business • statnews.com

Friends make snarky comments about my wealth. Hax readers give advice.

Is a mid-40s letter writer, getting snark from friends about wealth, “supposed to be embarrassed” about early career success?

May 27 • 12:00 AM EDT • Technology • washingtonpost.com

PSU graduate program focuses on mental health of infants and toddlers

The Infant/Toddler Mental Health graduate certificate is designed to help educators, social workers, counselors and other early childhood specialists foster strong connections between caregivers and their children during the earliest stages of life.

May 26 • 10:06 PM EDT • Health • opb.org

Delaware business students earn national titles and top finishes - State of Delaware News

Delaware middle and high school students earned outstanding results at the 2026 Business Professionals of America (BPA) National Leadership Conference in Nashville earlier this month. Supported by Delaware Department of Education staff, BPA gives students meaningful opportunities to apply technical knowledge, strengthen leadership skills, and engage in real-world, career-connected learning experiences that align directly with the goals of the Delaware Department of Education’s Strategic Plan.

May 26 • 1:32 PM EDT • Business • news.delaware.gov

Camel Country After Class: A Fresh Entertainment Guide for Campbell University Nights Out

Campbell University sits in Buies Creek, North Carolina, a small college community with a surprisingly wide entertainment orbit. The campus is rooted in Harnett County, yet it is close enough to Raleigh and Fayetteville to turn a simple evening drive into a full-scale live event plan. That location gives Campbell University Camels fans a rare mix of hometown calm and quick access to arena concerts, outdoor amphitheater shows, and touring Broadway productions. For students, alumni, and locals, the best part is that a weekend in this market can feel different every time, whether the mood calls for country, pop, rock, hip-hop, or musical theater. What follows is a tailored look at standout live entertainment options around where the Camels call home.

May 26 • 10:23 AM EDT • Entertainment • gocamels.com

Federal court blocks redistricting map created to help GOP in Alabama

A federal court put a hold on a congressional map that Alabama Republicans want to use this fall to give themselves an edge in every district in the state.

May 26 • 10:17 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

Betting On Herself: After 30 Years Of Service, Local Leader Launches Consulting Business To Help Teams Thrive

SOUTHERN MARYLAND — After 30 years in federal service, Mandy Miedzinski didn’t walk away with a perfectly mapped-out plan — she walked away with a feeling she couldn’t ignore: she still had more to give. What began as a simple conversation with a mentor quickly gained momentum. One introduction led to another. Ideas turned into […]

May 26 • 10:00 AM EDT • Business • thebaynet.com

Google’s Fitbit Air Gives Whoop Some Serious Competition

The Fitbit Air, a new $100 screenless wearable from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, represents a major evolution in what consumers can expect from fitness trackers as tech companies race into an era of personalized health and artificial intelligence-powered wellness insights.

May 26 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • bloomberg.com

Google’s Fitbit Air Gives Whoop Some Serious Competition

The Fitbit Air, a new $100 screenless wearable from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, represents a major evolution in what consumers can expect from fitness trackers as tech companies race into an era of personalized health and artificial intelligence-powered wellness insights.

May 26 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com

Should Mississippi voters choose their politicians, or politicians choose their voters?

Mississippi Today's politics team gives a rundown on a monumental week in the Magnolia State that saw thousands of people marching and rallying in Jackson over voting rights and the gerrymandering battle embroiling much of the nation.

May 26 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • mississippitoday.org

Tuj lub players want more Minnesotans to give the Hmong sport a whirl

Keller Regional Park in Maplewood recently hosted a weekend tuj lub tournament on renovated courts. Tuj lub, a time-honored sport in Hmong culture, dates back thousands of years.

May 26 • 5:00 AM EDT • Sports • mprnews.org

Is Sony Group (TSE:6758) Pricing In Recent Entertainment And Gaming Momentum?

If you are wondering whether Sony Group stock at ¥3,598 is giving you a fair deal or not, a clear look at its valuation can help you decide how it might fit into your portfolio. The share price return is flat over the past week at 0.1%, while the stock shows a 12.2% gain over 30 days, a decline of 11.8% year to date, a 1.6% return over 1 year, 45.0% over 3 years, and 80.6% over 5 years. Taken together, these figures give mixed signals about how the market has been reassessing the stock over...

May 25 • 7:11 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com

The Knicks may be beating up on a weak East, but they're more than qualified to face the Spurs or Thunder

The Knicks will be underdogs if they make the Finals, but they can certainly give the Thunder or Spurs a fight

May 25 • 1:35 PM EDT • Sports • cbssports.com

Exploring Travel Sports: Highs and Lows

Key takeaways:Travel sports present a unique mental health challenge for athletesParents and caregivers need to have an open and honest conversation with how their kids are doingTravel sports can teach resilience, teamwork and camaraderie, says Dr. Jessica Higgs

May 25 • 1:00 PM EDT • Health • newsroom.osfhealthcare.org

Exploring Travel Sports: Highs and Lows

Key takeaways:Travel sports present a unique mental health challenge for athletesParents and caregivers need to have an open and honest conversation with how their kids are doingTravel sports can teach resilience, teamwork and camaraderie, says Dr. Jessica Higgs

May 25 • 1:00 PM EDT • Sports • newsroom.osfhealthcare.org

GPA’s Gainesville Inland Port open for business

The Gainesville Inland Port is intended to give shippers an alternative to a 600-mile roundtrip truck route that will reduce trucks on Georgia’s highways and in the Atlanta region. At full build-out, the port will have an annual capacity of 200,000 containers.

May 25 • 10:05 AM EDT • Business • griceconnect.com

Common heart drug taken by millions found useless

A massive international study could upend 40 years of heart attack treatment. Researchers found that beta blockers—routinely prescribed after uncomplicated heart attacks—offered no real benefit for patients whose heart function remained normal, despite being given to millions worldwide. Even more surprising, women taking the drugs faced a higher risk of death, repeat heart attack, or hospitalization for heart failure compared to women who didn’t receive them.

May 25 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Ancient Eukaryote Fossils In Australia Add To Story Of How Complex Life Evolved Over A Billion Years Ago

“Studies like this give us an opportunity to understand these little guys as organisms […] we can picture where they were living, what they were doing and who they were.”

May 25 • 6:01 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

The International Dance League Wants to Be the ‘NBA of Dance’

The International Dance League wants to give dancers a career path and to create stars. “Commercialization is good,” said a founder of the league.

May 25 • 5:02 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com

Territory Days gives small business owners a chance to grow dreams into careers

Small business owners at Territory Days say the annual festival is about more than sales. Vendors from across Colorado Springs say the event gives them a chance to grow their businesses, connect with customers and pursue long-term dreams of owning storefronts while showcasing years of hard work to thousands of visitors.

May 25 • 12:17 AM EDT • Business • kktv.com

What grade did CBS Sports give the Vikings offseason?

CBS Sports gave Minnesota a modest offseason grade as Kyler Murray's arrival and major defensive departures create both upside and uncertainty entering 2026.

May 24 • 11:25 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

More than 70-year-old Cross City business gets a makeover

Dixie County residents came together to give one business storefront a makeover. The gathering today is just one way residents are celebrating Dixie’s 105th birthday and keeping the county clean.

May 24 • 11:12 PM EDT • Business • wcjb.com

Kings, popes and the power to impress in a political world

When a powerful leader won't give his elected counterparts from other nations their due, sometimes it pays to pull out the pageantry.

May 24 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • news-decoder.com