SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " The Nation " 2,382 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Why the National Science Foundation is ripping monitoring instruments out of the ocean
A spokesperson for the National Science Foundation pointed to a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics report as justification for the 'descoping,' but a co-chair of that group said they never wanted to see the program disbanded.
NSF renews support for MIT-led AI and physics institute, expanding a new model for discovery
The MIT-led Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) has received renewed support from the National Science Foundation for an additional five years.
Inside the science behind America’s red light therapy boom
Start your morning with The National News Desk as Jan Jeffcoat sits down with the head of Medical Scientific Affairs at IMA Health, Dr. Ryan Cole.
2026 Tax Treaty Survey Highlights U.S. Business Priorities - National Foreign Trade Council
Washington D.C. – The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) today released results from its annual Tax Treaty Survey. The survey, which was answered by tax professionals from NFTC member companies, asked businesses to rate their tax treaty priorities around the world. “Tax treaties are essential for U.S. businesses, and we are thankful that Treasury is […]
Scientists will lose critical climate record as ocean observatory goes dark under Trump funding cuts
The National Science Foundation announced it would dismantle most of the ocean monitoring system, pulling instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland by 2027.
Ron DeSantis says Elon Musk took on The Swamp ... and The Swamp won
America's Governor is back in the Nation's Capital.
Hackensack Meridian Health Opens Nation’s First Health & Wellness Center In A Major Travel Hub
The Metropark Health & Wellness Center is the first comprehensive health and wellness facility in the nation to be located within a major transit hub.
Battles in the Nation’s Courts Impacting Small Business
The NFIB Small Business Legal Center issued briefs on several cases impacting small businesses, including lawsuit abuse, free speech regulations, and more.
The Miami Marlins have been the Nationals Kryptonite this season
The Nats have lost four straight against the Marlins, who really seem to have Blake Butera’s number this year
'Non-negotiable' for Carlisle to fight for title
New head coach Rob Elliot tells BBC Radio Cumbria Carlisle United must fight for the National League title in his first season in charge.
The Rabbit Hole of Everyday Questions with Emily Zhang
Emily Zhang has created dozens of YouTube videos, receiving over 300 million views on subjects from the physics of bowling to the invention of blue LED. This year she started Rabbit Hole, a channel that offers “extraordinary answers to everyday questions.” We spoke with Zhang — a 2025 winner of the National Academies’ Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications — about Rabbit Hole and her experiences with YouTube as a medium for science communication.
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.”
DC’s Audi Field to host the NWSL Championship once again
The premier championship match in the National Women’s Soccer League will once take place in the nation’s capital.
Nationals' James Wood is putting together an MVP-level season
Washington Nationals outfielder James Wood is doing everything he can to put himself in contention and possibly win the National League MVP award. Still, he'll likely lose out to Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani.
Keiko Fujimori: Peru's Biggest Political Loser Eyes Election Win
Peru's Keiko Fujimori is a perennial political loser. She has run for the nation's presidency three elections in a row -- and three times, she has lost.
Ocean sensors will go dark under Trump funding cuts
The Trump administration is dismantling a $386 million network of more than 900 ocean sensors funded by the National Science Foundation.
Scientists lose critical climate record as ocean observatory will go dark under Trump funding cuts
The Trump administration is dismantling a $386 million network of more than 900 ocean sensors funded by the National Science Foundation.
Triggering the 'symphonic biology' of exercise for better health
Physician-scientist R. Sanders Williams of Duke University has worked across academia and industry exploring key questions in exercise medicine. The National Academy of Medicine member will deliver the season’s final Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC on Thursday, June 4.
Obama judge clears left-wing group to fly ominous flag aimed at Trump on his own turf
Obama-appointed Judge Moss permits "86 47" flag near the National Mall, delivering a blow to the Trump administration in a free speech case.
Trump signs an executive order to vet top AI models for national security risks
The order establishes a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release.
'Not normal business': Judge orders Trump officials to explain tariff refund holdup
Tens of billions of dollars in tariff refunds have already gone out the door, but the Trump administration and the nation's top trade court are locked in a standoff over issues like the progress of the program and whether future payouts can be limited.
Here’s what electric customers should know about the Dominion Energy sale
lorida-based NextEra Energy’s proposed $66.8 billion purchase of Dominion Energy is likely a portent of the future as power companies seek ways to increase electricity generation capacity and access to the nation’s power grid, according to two experts at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
Live Results: New Mexico midterm primaries
The election takes place as the war in Iran continues to send gas prices soaring, creating an unanticipated windfall in the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state that the new governor will play a key role in managing.
Students Gather as Winners of World’s Largest K-12 Science Competition
This week, the national winners of the 34th annual ExploraVision program, the world’s largest K-12 science competition, will gather in Washington, D.C. to be...
Science and AI-enabled research platforms
In an Editorial, Vaughan C. Turekian, Executive Director of the Office of International Networks, Cooperation, and Security at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine argues that science is entering a new phase. In an era of vast computational power, automated experiments, and AI, science will increasingly be built around integrated platforms that link data, models, computing, and instrumentation at scale.
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)
UC researcher secures $3.3M grant to study microplastics’ impact on heart
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences awarded a $3.3M grant to University of Cincinnati researcher Hong‑Sheng Wang, PhD, to study how microplastics and nanoplastics affect cardiovascular health.
This GOP congressman is running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary. He’s been missing from Washington for nearly three months
GOP Rep. Tom Kean is running unopposed in his primary on Tuesday, seeking a third term in one of the nation’s most competitive seats.
National Academy of Inventors Convenes Global Leaders in Science, Technology, and Innovation for Landmark 15th Annual Conference in Los Angeles
The Premier Convening of Inventors, Researchers, and Technology Leaders Examining the Future of Innovation, Commercialization, and Economic Competitiveness LOS ANGELES, June 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) will convene its landmark 15th Annual Conference from June 1 through June 4, 2026, in Los Angeles at a defining moment for American innovation, economic competitiveness, and global technological leadership. As nations around the world rapidly accelerate inv
Fox News Poll: 'Resilient discontent' defines the US mood at 250th anniversary
Two-thirds of American voters describe the U.S. in negative terms, yet 81% still prefer living here as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.
Sand Bass Festival underway in Madill
The National Sand Bass Festival in Madill, Oklahoma, is a highlight event featuring food vendors, carnival rides, and family-friendly activities all week. The festival takes place in Marshall County on the Madill square, which is closed to regular traffic to accommodate the festivities.
Prediction: Venice (Fla.) falls in Open Division playoff
The 2026 high school football season will be getting underway in less than two months with official practices, which means it’s officially preview season. Rivals is breaking down the nation’s top teams from coast-to-coast, and today we make our way back down south to the Sunshine State to check on the 4-time state champion Venice Indians […]
Trump suggests canceling Great American State Fair music performances after most artists drop out
Bret Michaels and Martina McBride were among those who withdrew from the Freedom 250-planned event on the National Mall.
Champion for Science Education Begins Term as 2026–2027 President of the National Science Teaching Association
Donna L. Governor, PhD, became NSTA’s 2026–2027 President on June 1, bringing decades of science education leadership experience.
Champion for Science Education Begins Term as 2026–2027 President of the National Science Teaching Association
MCLEAN, Va., June 01, 2026--Donna L. Governor, PhD, became NSTA’s 2026–2027 President on June 1, bringing decades of science education leadership experience.
Amid Ebola outbreak, institute Fauci once ran seems to have no leader
It isn’t clear who’s running the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose research played an important role during past Ebola outbreaks.
Health benefits of daily 'exercise snacks'
A study from the National Institute of Health found that doing something physical was better than nothing at all, and that short bursts of exertion can add up to big health benefits over time.
Defender Cooper signs new Altrincham contract
Long-serving Altrincham centre-back Jake Cooper signs a new deal to keep him at the National League club for the 2026-27 season.
Transcript: Sen. Chris Murphy on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," May 31, 2026
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on May 31, 2026.
Proposed Indigenous medical school aims to boost Native physician numbers
As of 2024, 0.3% of practicing physicians in the nation were Native American. A proposed Indigenous School of Medicine in Rapid City could help change that.
Top U.S. science funder slows research grants to universities
It's not clear why the National Science Foundation may be limiting funding to certain U.S. universities
Gritty Socceroos aim to spoil co-hosts' World Cup party
Efforts to boost soccer in the United States rest heavily on the national team's success at the World Cup -- but their Group D opponents Australia have every intention of crashing the co-hosts' party.The United States are favorites to progress, while Australia -- traditionally stronger at several other sports, despite consistently qualifying for the World Cup -- have mostly flown under the radar.
Trump floats replacing 250th anniversary concert with massive MAGA rally after artists pull out
President Trump floats hosting a massive MAGA rally for the nation's 250th anniversary after several artists pulled out of planned Freedom 250 concert events.
Elite 11 Finals 2026: Live Updates from Day 2
Day two of the 2026 Elite 11 Finals, featuring 20 of the nation’s top quarterback recruits, is underway from Mira Costa High School in Greater Los Angeles. There are few higher honors for high school quarterbacks than being invited to the event, which will celebrate its 28th year in 2026. It brings together the country’s elite […]
Trump Names Himself Headliner for 250th Birthday Kickoff
After several musicians dropped out of the festivities on the National Mall, the president has put himself forward as the alternative act.
Political tensions run high as America 250 set to take over DC
Security preparations are underway across Washington ahead of a number of celebrations commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary this summer as the threat of political violence looms. The first …
The Social Sciences Are in Trouble
The National Science Foundation division the covers social, behavioral, and economic sciences is in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
HHS Unveils Sweeping Plan to Combat Lyme Disease and Advance Treatment
U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today announced a series of major initiatives to strengthen the nation’s response to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.
Martina McBride and Bret Michaels become latest music acts to drop out of the Great American State Fair
Most of the artists who were announced earlier this week by Freedom 250 as the "first wave" of performers at the fair on the National Mall have since withdrawn.
Research Funding Slows Again for Universities Targeted by White House
The National Science Foundation lifted a hold on some grants for Harvard and other universities this week after inquiries from media outlets, including The New York Times.
Over half of Great American State Fair performers drop out over politics, threats
Bret Michaels and Martina McBride are the latest artists to pull out of the Great American State Fair concert series organized by Freedom 250 on the National Mall this summer.
DAVID MARCUS: Liberal elites seethe over America's State Fair
Several musical acts withdraw from the America 250 State Fair on the National Mall, citing concerns about alleged political ties to the event.
KSU club sports teams build national success through leadership and competition
While balancing classes, jobs, and leadership roles, Kennesaw State University Club Sports participants spent the 2025-26 academic year competing on some of the nation’s biggest stages.
Nebraska triumphs over Arkansas on 10th-inning walk-off at WCWS
Ava Kuszak belted the game-winning home run to lift Nebraska over Arkansas on Thursday night in the opening round of the Women's College World Series as the Cornhuskers extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 27 victories.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Barrett-Jackson spotlighted as Arizona small business success story
The Trump administration is putting Barrett-Jackson in the national spotlight for small businesses.
Blistering report exposes how national K-12 group's DEI agenda is trickling down to local chapters
The National PTA faces scrutiny over DEI initiatives and left-wing political priorities allegedly trickling down to state and local school chapters and ultimately reaching students.
NGA Convenes Governors Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute to Strengthen Healthcare Delivery and Sustainability in States
NEW ORLEANS – The National Governors Association (NGA) this week convened its annual Governors Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute in New Orleans. Leaders from 34 states and territories shared perspectives on issues including healthcare affordability, maintaining program integrity in Health and Human Services delivery systems and sustaining overdose prevention efforts. “Governors are on […]
Polish scientists and students rally in campaign for 3% funding target
Polish scientists and students have been flooding social media with calls on the government to raise research and development spending as part of 3% for Science, 100% for Poland, a campaign born earlier this month out of frustration with chronic underfunding in the academic sector. On May 27, thousands took the slogan on to the streets.The EU has been trying to convince member states to raise their R&D expenditures to 3% of GDP for more than two decades, but the idea has never gained traction in capitals. Finance ministers were too busy plugging budget holes created in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, then the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and now the war in Iran.Critics say that countries missed or ignored the target because it is voluntary, but also because research communities have rarely raised their voice to put pressure on national governments. The European Commission hopes to make the target legally binding in the upcoming European Research Area Act, an EU-wide regulation that should be announced by the end of the year. Academia in Poland has been faced with a funding crisis for years, often leaving its members with no other choice but to work abroad in order to access better resources, or leave the sector altogether in the hope of earning a decent living. The risk, in the long-term, is that brain drain stifles local innovation capacity and technological competitiveness.In just a few weeks, the movement rallied nationwide support, including from major academic bodies and trade unions such as the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Its public petition collected more than 23,000 signatures. On May 27, it formed the first large protest for science in Poland, gathering thousands of people in front of the parliament building in Warsaw.Ilona Uryga-Bugajska, representative of the Marie Curie Alumni Association Poland Chapter, was there. “The protest was peaceful, with no incidents reported, and the entire event took place in a respectful and calm atmosphere,” she said. Banners she saw in the crowd carried slogans such as “A little longer and I’ll be teaching in a supermarket,” “National culture, starvation salary,” “Stop the destruction of science,” “Passion will not pay the rent,” “Without action, don’t expect a better future,” and “Pull science out of the hole.” She also observed a strong presence of young researchers, who are on the frontline of Poland’s academic crisis.“Academics are usually people who prefer discussion, analysis, dialogue and compromise. We are not a group that protests easily,” said Katarzyna Marzec, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University Medical College and AGH University of Krakow, who also took part. “But many of us feel that we have been pushed against the wall.”Aleksandra Rutkowska, translational neuroscientist and research group leader at the Medical University of Gdańsk, agreed. “Frustration in the scientific community is very high,” she said. “Science is often used politically as a symbol of innovation and modernity, but the everyday reality inside many institutions is much more difficult. There is a large gap between the public narrative and the actual condition of the sector.”Maria Wiktoria Górna, head of the structural biology group at the University of Warsaw and one of the organisers of the movement, told Science|Business that the campaign would continue without proven results. This might involve another strike in the autumn, she said. “Empty promises are not enough by now.”Campaign demandsAccording to Uryga-Bugajska, the organisers officially presented their demands and concerns to representatives of the government present at the event. These included Marek Gzik, deputy minister of science and higher education, and Karolina Zioło-Pużuk, secretary of state of that same ministry.The headline demand, for the government to increase national spending on R&D to 3% of GDP by 2030, should be within Poland’s economic capacity, Rutkowska said. “The real question is whether there is genuine long-term political commitment to treating science as a strategic priority rather than a slogan.”In 2024, R&D expenditure in Poland stood at 1.41% of GDP, which is slightly above the average for central and eastern Europe, with countries such as Czechia recording 1.82%, Hungary 1.31% and Romania 0.46%. However, it falls noticeably short of the EU average of 2.24%, which just a handful of countries exceed, including Germany, Belgium and Sweden.Campaigners are also asking for fair wages for scientific staff, including PhD stipends and junior academic salaries, which are widely considered uncompetitive. Starting doctoral scholarships amount to some €843 gross per month, when the statutory minimum wage stands at €1,135. By pushing early-career researchers out of Poland, growing precarity has caused a generational gap in the academic workforce, with just 25% of lecturers aged under 40. In this context, the movement fears that scientific careers could soon be accessible to a privileged minority only.Grzegorz Spólnik is a case in point. After 15 years working in mass spectrometry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, he decided to leave partly “to earn enough money to live a normal life,” he said. “At that time, my earnings were similar to those of people working in grocery shops, and the work-life balance is something that does not exist in science, or is very hard to achieve.”Now a senior field service engineer for Polish laboratory equipment supplier Bioanalytic, he would consider going back to research, “but never in the public sector, maybe some start-up or a big private company with ambitious R&D.”The campaigners want to see more support for basic research and have called for €236 million to be added to the budget of the National Science Centre (NCN) in 2027 so that the average grant application success rate does not fall below 25%.“At the protest, there was a banner I particularly liked: ‘NCN is not a lottery.’ Unfortunately, for many researchers, it increasingly feels exactly like one,” Marzec said. “Personally, I am one of the lucky ones. I work at two of the strongest institutions in the country, where the research standards are very high. I know that in many other institutions, the situation is much worse and obtaining funding for research at an early-career stage is becoming nearly impossible.”Rutkowska also considers herself fortunate. After studying abroad and holding a postdoctoral position, she returned to Poland, where her pay was supported through an NCN-funded project linked to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. “This also made me very aware that good research conditions in Poland often depend on external competitive funding rather than on stable support from the system itself,” she said.Long-term strategyBeyond the lack of funds for both salaries and grants, scientists believe that the issue is structural. “The biggest problem at the moment is the complete lack of a clear long-term strategy for the development of science and research from the current government,” Marzec said. “Everything ends with declarations and promises that are never truly followed by concrete actions or structural reforms.”Rutkowska agreed, citing a lack of infrastructure, continuity and long-term institutional support.“Running a research group in Poland often means functioning as an entire institution at once,” she said. “I am a principal investigator, a mentor, a recruiter, a project administrator and, when needed, still someone who returns to the lab bench to help with experiments,” she went on. “This creates a large hidden workload that takes time and energy away from actual science. At times, it feels as though scientists are no longer expecting extra help; we simply hope the system will stop creating additional obstacles that make research unnecessarily difficult.”Related articlesStrategic thinking: Germany funds joint research with Poland and FrancePoland to transfer €30M of regional funds to boost Horizon Europe participationPoland is funding fewer basic research grants as high inflation hitsIn short, “academics are expected to teach, publish papers, apply for grants and conduct high-quality research, while funding and salaries remain very limited,” said Uryga-Bugajska, who returned to her home country after 13 years in the UK.According to Marzec, another issue is the way that research institutions are evaluated. Previously, this took place every four years, with a clear differentiation between stronger and weaker institutions. “The current government, perhaps to avoid political backlash, effectively concluded that everyone is doing well, so in practice no meaningful evaluation took place,” she said.But in her view, “some form of serious assessment is necessary” to ensure the excellence and international competitiveness of Polish institutions, and to determine how to best use public resources and where institutional structures need reform. “Some institutions may need to rethink hiring practices in order to attract ambitious young researchers who are capable of obtaining competitive grants and building internationally visible research groups.” Rutkowska has already had to adapt. “When hiring PhD students, I often have to combine different funding sources creatively to make positions attractive enough for talented people to stay in science,” she said. “Many young researchers do not see a stable future in academia in Poland, and that is deeply worrying.”
Polish scientists and students rally in campaign for better conditions
Polish scientists and students have been flooding social media with calls on the government to raise research and development spending as part of 3% for Science, 100% for Poland, a campaign born earlier this month out of frustration with chronic underfunding in the academic sector. On May 27, thousands took the slogan on to the streets.The EU has been trying to convince member states to raise their R&D expenditures to 3% of GDP for more than two decades, but the idea has never gained traction in capitals. Finance ministers were too busy plugging budget holes created in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, then the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and now the war in Iran.Critics say that countries missed or ignored the target because it is voluntary, but also because research communities have rarely raised their voice to put pressure on national governments. The European Commission hopes to make the target legally binding in the upcoming European Research Area Act, an EU-wide regulation that should be announced by the end of the year. Academia in Poland has been faced with a funding crisis for years, often leaving its members with no other choice but to work abroad in order to access better resources, or leave the sector altogether in the hope of earning a decent living. The risk, in the long-term, is that brain drain stifles local innovation capacity and technological competitiveness.In just a few weeks, the movement rallied nationwide support, including from major academic bodies and trade unions such as the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Its public petition collected more than 23,000 signatures. On May 27, it formed the first large protest for science in Poland, gathering thousands of people in front of the parliament building in Warsaw.Ilona Uryga-Bugajska, representative of the Marie Curie Alumni Association Poland Chapter, was there. “The protest was peaceful, with no incidents reported, and the entire event took place in a respectful and calm atmosphere,” she said. Banners she saw in the crowd carried slogans such as “A little longer and I’ll be teaching in a supermarket,” “National culture, starvation salary,” “Stop the destruction of science,” “Passion will not pay the rent,” “Without action, don’t expect a better future,” and “Pull science out of the hole.” She also observed a strong presence of young researchers, who are on the frontline of Poland’s academic crisis.“Academics are usually people who prefer discussion, analysis, dialogue and compromise. We are not a group that protests easily,” said Katarzyna Marzec, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University Medical College and AGH University of Krakow, who also took part. “But many of us feel that we have been pushed against the wall.”Aleksandra Rutkowska, translational neuroscientist and research group leader at the Medical University of Gdańsk, agreed. “Frustration in the scientific community is very high,” she said. “Science is often used politically as a symbol of innovation and modernity, but the everyday reality inside many institutions is much more difficult. There is a large gap between the public narrative and the actual condition of the sector.”Maria Wiktoria Górna, head of the structural biology group at the University of Warsaw and one of the organisers of the movement, told Science|Business that the campaign would continue without proven results. This might involve another strike in the autumn, she said. “Empty promises are not enough by now.”Campaign demandsAccording to Uryga-Bugajska, the organisers officially presented their demands and concerns to representatives of the government present at the event. These included Marek Gzik, deputy minister of science and higher education, and Karolina Zioło-Pużuk, secretary of state of that same ministry.The headline demand, for the government to increase national spending on R&D to 3% of GDP by 2030, should be within Poland’s economic capacity, Rutkowska said. “The real question is whether there is genuine long-term political commitment to treating science as a strategic priority rather than a slogan.”In 2024, R&D expenditure in Poland stood at 1.41% of GDP, which is slightly above the average for central and eastern Europe, with countries such as Czechia recording 1.82%, Hungary 1.31% and Romania 0.46%. However, it falls noticeably short of the EU average of 2.24%, which just a handful of countries exceed, including Germany, Belgium and Sweden.Campaigners are also asking for fair wages for scientific staff, including PhD stipends and junior academic salaries, which are widely considered uncompetitive. Starting doctoral scholarships amount to some €843 gross per month, when the statutory minimum wage stands at €1,135. By pushing early-career researchers out of Poland, growing precarity has caused a generational gap in the academic workforce, with just 25% of lecturers aged under 40. In this context, the movement fears that scientific careers could soon be accessible to a privileged minority only.Grzegorz Spólnik is a case in point. After 15 years working in mass spectrometry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, he decided to leave partly “to earn enough money to live a normal life,” he said. “At that time, my earnings were similar to those of people working in grocery shops, and the work-life balance is something that does not exist in science, or is very hard to achieve.”Now a senior field service engineer for Polish laboratory equipment supplier Bioanalytic, he would consider going back to research, “but never in the public sector, maybe some start-up or a big private company with ambitious R&D.”The campaigners want to see more support for basic research and have called for €236 million to be added to the budget of the National Science Centre (NCN) in 2027 so that the average grant application success rate does not fall below 25%.“At the protest, there was a banner I particularly liked: ‘NCN is not a lottery.’ Unfortunately, for many researchers, it increasingly feels exactly like one,” Marzec said. “Personally, I am one of the lucky ones. I work at two of the strongest institutions in the country, where the research standards are very high. I know that in many other institutions, the situation is much worse and obtaining funding for research at an early-career stage is becoming nearly impossible.”Rutkowska also considers herself fortunate. After studying abroad and holding a postdoctoral position, she returned to Poland, where her pay was supported through an NCN-funded project linked to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. “This also made me very aware that good research conditions in Poland often depend on external competitive funding rather than on stable support from the system itself,” she said.Long-term strategyBeyond the lack of funds for both salaries and grants, scientists believe that the issue is structural. “The biggest problem at the moment is the complete lack of a clear long-term strategy for the development of science and research from the current government,” Marzec said. “Everything ends with declarations and promises that are never truly followed by concrete actions or structural reforms.”Rutkowska agreed, citing a lack of infrastructure, continuity and long-term institutional support.“Running a research group in Poland often means functioning as an entire institution at once,” she said. “I am a principal investigator, a mentor, a recruiter, a project administrator and, when needed, still someone who returns to the lab bench to help with experiments,” she went on. “This creates a large hidden workload that takes time and energy away from actual science. At times, it feels as though scientists are no longer expecting extra help; we simply hope the system will stop creating additional obstacles that make research unnecessarily difficult.”Related articlesStrategic thinking: Germany funds joint research with Poland and FrancePoland to transfer €30M of regional funds to boost Horizon Europe participationPoland is funding fewer basic research grants as high inflation hitsIn short, “academics are expected to teach, publish papers, apply for grants and conduct high-quality research, while funding and salaries remain very limited,” said Uryga-Bugajska, who returned to her home country after 13 years in the UK.According to Marzec, another issue is the way that research institutions are evaluated. Previously, this took place every four years, with a clear differentiation between stronger and weaker institutions. “The current government, perhaps to avoid political backlash, effectively concluded that everyone is doing well, so in practice no meaningful evaluation took place,” she said.But in her view, “some form of serious assessment is necessary” to ensure the excellence and international competitiveness of Polish institutions, and to determine how to best use public resources and where institutional structures need reform. “Some institutions may need to rethink hiring practices in order to attract ambitious young researchers who are capable of obtaining competitive grants and building internationally visible research groups.” Rutkowska has already had to adapt. “When hiring PhD students, I often have to combine different funding sources creatively to make positions attractive enough for talented people to stay in science,” she said. “Many young researchers do not see a stable future in academia in Poland, and that is deeply worrying.”
Medicaid’s Vital Role in Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Care
Mental Health Awareness Month is an opportunity to recognize Medicaid’s essential role in helping people access mental health care and treatment for substance use disorder. As the nation’s largest payer for mental health and substance use disorder care, Medicaid covers approximately twenty two million non-elderly Americans with these conditions who rely on the program’s essential […]
What to know about James Talarico’s record and his past comments (no, he’s not vegan)
James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, is back in the national spotlight after Republicans picked their standard-bearer for the race on Tuesday.
Consumer Finance Monitor podcast ranks among the top business and financial services podcasts in the nation and number one in Pennsylvania
We are proud to announce that podcast database service Million Podcasts has ranked Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor podcast among the top business
MIT president: Why so many optimistic scientists are losing heart
“This erosion of our strength is a loss for the nation,” writes MIT President Sally Kornbluth.
ESPN earns 10 Sports Emmy Awards led by College GameDay, NFL Live and E60
ESPN earned 10 Sports Emmys as the National Academy of Television and Sciences honored the best in sports media during the 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards ceremony Tuesday night in New York City. The winners included honors across storytelling and journalism, along with wins for several of the company’s marquee studio shows.
NSF deploys $250 million to restart Small Business Innovation Research & Small Business Tech Transfer programs, including a new $40 million pilot emphasis on next-generation scientific instrumentation
The U.S. National Science Foundation today relaunched its Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer programs with $250 million for the nation's startups and small...
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.
Southeastern Earns National Recognition for Preparing Future Elementary Teachers in Science of Reading | Southeastern Oklahoma State University
DURANT, Okla. – The undergraduate elementary teacher preparation program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University has earned an A from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) for how well they prepare future teachers to teach reading to elementary students. The recognition comes as part
So, Trump fired the National Science Board. But what is the National Science Board?
Trump fired all 24 members of the National Science Board at the end of April. In this bite we explore what this means for the NSF, science funding, and, more broadly, the American government, with a perspective from Dr. Keivan Stassun, an astrophysicist at Vanderbilt and a recent NSB member.
Cotiviti Pledges Support to CMS Digital Health Ecosystem
SALT LAKE CITY, May 26, 2026--Cotiviti has pledged its support to the CMS Digital Health Ecosystem to support efforts to modernize the nation's digital health infrastructure.
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.
Advancing high-threat pathogen preparedness in WHO South-East Asia Region: 2025 in review
Effective preparedness for high-threat pathogens demands more than technical tools — it requires a coherent strategy, sustained country engagement, and the institutional infrastructure to translate evidence into action. In 2025, the Pandemic and Epidemic Management (PEM) Unit advanced all three, working across the full spectrum of high threat pathogen (HTP) preparedness: from methodology development and evidence generation to country-level technical support, emergency response, and regional workforce strengthening.At the core of the PEM unit's work is building the regional evidence and policy architecture needed to prioritize and respond to HTPs systematically. A major milestone was the development of the HTP Prioritization Methodology — a structured, multi-criteria approach to ranking pathogens by epidemic potential, severity, and national context — and its national pilot in Bangladesh, where SARS-CoV-2, Nipah, dengue, and cholera emerged as the highest-priority threats, informing the PEM unit's contribution to 2026–27 biennium prioritization and workplan development (Access link here).Underpinning this work, the PEM unit advanced the peer-reviewed evidence base for HTP preparedness in the South-East Asia Region (SEAR), with three publications in international journals in 2025: Development of a zoonotic influenza distribution assessment and ranking system (ZIDAR): Technical application in Nepal to support cross-sectoral risk-based surveillance in One Health; Implications for influenza A virus surveillance in Southeast Asian Region countries: a scoping review of approaches for the surveillance of swine influenza viruses at human-swine interfaces in BMJ Public Health; and Operationalizing multisector partnerships: a Theory of Action and Reflection tool for zoonotic influenzas in Health Policy and Planning. Together, these contributions move the Region’s HTP preparedness agenda from practice to science — generating the transferable methodological foundations that will inform evidence-based capacity strengthening in Member States.Country-level engagement in 2025 reflected the breadth of contexts in which HTP preparedness must function. Technical support was provided for Mpox and cholera events across the Region, including coordination of cholera and acute watery diarrhea prevention and control in Myanmar in the wake of the March 2025 earthquake. In Myanmar, the PEM unit contributed technical leadership to the earthquake emergency response — one of the most complex humanitarian emergencies in the SEAR — as Health Operations and Technical Support lead within the Incident Management Support Team. This included strengthening emergency response planning, supporting operational and after-action reviews, and providing monitoring and evaluation support for both acute and protracted crisis response. The breadth of HTP support provided to emergency operations across the SEAR was documented in the PEM unit’s contribution to the regional report for the Health Security Interface Technical Advisory Group.In Sri Lanka, technical collaboration with the WHO Country Office and the Ministry of Health laid the groundwork for the National Steering Committee's 2026 annual meeting, development of Standard Operating Procedures for specialized emergency response, and a national training programme — all structured around evidence-based risk assessment for specialized hazards including HTPs.Across the SEAR, the unit contributed to strengthening the workforce architecture that underpins HTP response. Technical inputs shaped the WHO South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Workforce Strategy 2025–2030, and the PEM unit supported conceptual development of the health emergency workforce framework for the Pandemic Fund Round 3 proposal.Alongside this, the unit's sustained engagement on the meningitis agenda culminated in the launch of the Regional Implementation Framework to Defeat Meningitis in South-East Asia by 2030 at the Seventy-eighth Session of the Regional Committee, ensuring the Region's priorities were reflected in the Global Technical Task Force and expanding the unit's HTP engagement beyond outbreak-prone zoonotic pathogens (Regional Implementation Framework to Defeat Meningitis in South-East Asia by 2030).Taken together, 2025 demonstrated that meaningful HTP preparedness is built incrementally — through methodology, engagement, and the steady accumulation of institutional capacity across Member States.Bangladesh piloted the HTP Prioritization Methodology and identified the highest-priority pathogens in the country context (Photo credit: WHO Country Office, Bangladesh).
UCLA Baseball Earns No. 1 Overall Seed in NCAA Tournament
UCLA baseball went wire-to-wire this season as the No. 1 ranked baseball team in the nation. After winning both the Big Ten regular season title outright and the Big Ten Tournament title, the Bruins earned the No. 1 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The NCAA announced the tournament bracket on Monday. The tournament […] The post UCLA Baseball Earns No. 1 Overall Seed in NCAA Tournament appeared first on LA Sports Report.
Texas Leads the Nation in Cutting Red Tape for Businesses
At the Texas Association of Business (TAB), we’ve consistently advocated for pro-business policies that strengthen Texas’ competitive edge.
Three reasons Texas WILL win the National Championship this season
Texas is gearing up for a "title or bust" season, with multiple reasons they can win it. Manning's and Niblett's game-chaning ability top the list.
Cancer nearly left my kids without a mom. Funding cuts may halt the science that saved me.
The Trump administration proposes cutting $6 billion from the National Institutes of Health. Philanthropy cannot replicate the scale of government-backed research.
In ‘For All Mankind,’ America Wins by Losing
The current season of this space drama is set largely on Mars. The creators say this alternate world could have been possible if the nation had stayed focused on the stars.
Jewish Democrats grapple with a changing party and Israel’s entrenched leadership
Speakers at a conference blame Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu for alienating Democrats and say there’s room to criticize his government without turning on the nation.
Celebrating 30 years of National Safety Month
The National Safety Council designated June as National Safety Month in 1996 and began distributing free safety resources.
Minneapolis' A Bar of Their Own named Best Local Sports Bar by USA Today readers
A Twin Cities sports bar appeared on the national stage last week for all the right reasons.
‘Really strong foundation’: CBS analyst praises the Browns’ 2026 offseason
Another member of the national media commends Cleveland for what they’ve done in the offseason.
🚨 Official: Antonio Conte and Napoli, it's over!
Back on the national team bench?It had been in the works for several days, and it is now official: Antonio Conte is leaving Napoli at the end of the 2025-2026 season!The Italian coach and the club pre...
State unemployment numbers steady for April
North Carolina’s jobless rate was in line with the nation’s, which also remained unchanged for April, state officials said.
Trump Doctor Visit Renews Health Scrutiny as 80th Birthday Nears
President Donald Trump’s upcoming medical examination is intensifying health-related scrutiny that has surrounded him ever since his first campaign for the nation’s highest office more than a decade ago.
Democrats vow a redistricting counterpunch but are facing hurdles Republicans don't
Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House.
Democrats vow a redistricting counterpunch but are facing hurdles Republicans don't
Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House.
Democrats Vow a Redistricting Counterpunch but Are Facing Hurdles Republicans Don't
Democrats are poised to finish several seats behind Republicans in 2026 in the nationwide race to redraw maps for the U.S. House. They can catch up in 2028, but only if they overcome a series of redistricting hurdles that the GOP does not face. That's because Democrats, in many states, can draw ...
Vikings Look Underrated
It’s not particularly unusual when the national media overlooks the Minnesota Vikings over the spring and summer months. It happens more often than not. After all, the Vikings are not among the largest media market teams and they haven’t been league darlings either, like the Packers often have been or the Lions in more recent […]
CICP, Google Partner to Support New IN AI Initiative
The CEOs of Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) announced an alliance with Google to support the IN AI initiative, aimed at making Indiana the most AI-ready state in the nation. …
Up for US top-10 awards: Lancaster doughnut shop, buffets, balloon rides, shopping center
Several Lancaster County businesses, from a doughnut shop to a hot-air balloon company to a shopping-and-dining "village" that's a tourist favorite, will be on the national radar as they compete
The 4th BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize Award Ceremony Concludes with Great Success
The 4th BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize Award Ceremony, organised by the Hong Kong Alliance of Technology and Innovation (HKATI) and title-sponsored by Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK), was concluded successfully. The Ceremony was officiated by distinguished guests including Mr Leung Chun-ying, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (NCCPPCC); Mr Zhang Yong, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central Peop
Bond breakout? Big effects of bad data. Immigration and thermostatic politics & dad-chat is coming for dad-books.
Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Anna Airy, A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 Bond breakout - John Authers Across the developed markets, bond markets are staging a slow-motion car wreck. Looking at the drastic moves in the US, Japan, the UK and France, Barclays’ Ajay Rajadhyaksha commented: “Last week, long bonds broke. Not in one country. In all of them. Simultaneously. Four countries. Four different political systems. Four different central banks. But the same trade — “get me out of duration!”” Each country has its own contributing political problems, but the uniformity of the shift out of long-term bonds with high duration makes clear that something broader is afoot. For Rajadhyaksha, it is “simple and uncomfortable.” The developed world “has too much debt, too little fiscal discipline, and no political appetite for fixing either.” If there’s a trigger, it has been the Iran war and the resulting shock to oil supply. Source: Bloomberg G7 countries are now borrowing at rates that were enjoyed by EM in the early 2020s For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Trade between China and Russia has grown in recent years For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Big effects of bad data A decade ago nearly nine in ten Americans, when approached, agreed to fill out the Current Population Survey, which is administered to about 60,000 households each month and asks about, among other things, employment. Fewer than seven in ten do so now (see chart 1). For the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tries to capture 3,700 households monthly, the response rate is down from 68% to 40%. … When the information becomes less reliable, investment decisions get more difficult to make. Some may be delayed, creating a potential drag on the economy. A new working paper by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Erica Groshen, former head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) now at Cornell University, and Duncan Hobbs and Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, hazards an estimate. Preserving trust in “the integrity and quality of official statistics”, the authors claim, generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the BLS, the agency with an annual budget of $700m that is responsible for many of these data. To arrive at their conclusion the quartet analysed an ignoble episode in the BLS’s recent history. On August 1st 2025 Donald Trump sacked Erika McEntarfer, appointed as the agency’s commissioner by his predecessor, Joe Biden. The president alleged, without evidence, that the BLS’s steep downward revision to recent jobs numbers had been “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”. In fact, it was the wanton dismissal that looked bad in the eyes of many observers. In the following seven days there was a 50% leap, relative to the week before, in the average value of the index of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU), which tracks the number of articles mentioning such uncertainty that are published daily in American newspapers. This was a discernible jump even when compared to the chaos caused by Mr Trump’s trade war in April 2025 and his real one in Iran in the past two months (see chart 2). Based on Mr Bloom’s earlier study with other colleagues of the EPU’s impact on business investment, industrial production and employment, the authors estimate that the jump reduced American GDP by over $100bn (0.3%) and non-farm payrolls by 168,000 (0.1%). Source: The Economist Immigration and thermostatic politics (Sarah O’Connor in the FT) A strange thing happened a year and a half ago. No sooner had Americans elected Donald Trump as president on an explicitly anti-immigration platform than US public opinion began to swing much more favourably towards immigration. … to political scientists who study “thermostatic” politics, this development is no surprise at all. Public opinion often moves against the prevailing party, especially if they are perceived to have gone “too far” in one direction. The phenomenon was first explored in the 1990s with reference to fiscal policy, but in recent years it has been particularly evident in the realm of immigration policy. While these swings in opinion polls can make it seem as if people don’t know their own minds, they can be a useful democratic check on governments by sending bright flashing warning lights when policies stray too far from the public’s comfort zone. The problem comes when politicians misinterpret those signals. When people tell pollsters they want less immigration, or think it is bad for the country overall (or the converse), they are often expressing an opinion about how things appear to be going in that moment relative to their preferences, rather than a deep shift in their underlying views. According to Alexander Kustov, a political scientist, most Americans’ views are quite stable and moderate: they support immigration that is controlled and in the national interest, and oppose flows that are disorderly or under-enforced. In the US, he argues the Trump administration over-interpreted dissatisfaction with high immigration under Joe Biden, and implemented policies that went too far for many voters. “People don’t necessarily change their idea about their ideal immigration policy, but they can react to what the government is currently doing,” he told me. “A lot of people are not happy with what the Trump administration are doing — right now we’re not talking about border enforcement, we’re talking about people not just getting harassed, but killed.” But similarly, he added, pro-immigration advocates would be making a mistake to interpret the recent, more favourable swing towards immigration as a deep-seated ideological shift in attitudes. The recent history of UK immigration policy offers another cautionary tale. After the 2016 Brexit referendum, public concern about immigration fell. This was partly because net migration statistics declined, but also because people felt a sense of catharsis and control, says Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think-tank. By 2019, the public ranked immigration as only the ninth biggest issue of concern, according to Ipsos polling. But when the Conservative government liberalised visa routes for students and care workers between 2019 and 2022, that helped net migration to surge. And so, too, did public concern. Today’s Labour government has implemented another sharply restrictive turn in immigration policy. As Kustov and researcher Caitlyn Yates argue, thermostatic public opinion should be a useful check on politicians. Instead it seems to have helped to magnify the pendulum swing in the UK. The government over-interprets and overreacts to a change in public opinion, which reacts in turn, prompting a sudden swing the other way. Source: Financial Times HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Anna Airy, Shop for Machining 15-Inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918 Racing for a vaccine … we have been here before! The deadly Ebola outbreak in two African countries driven by a virus species with no vaccine has triggered an urgent search for a potential jab, in a test of troubled global efforts to avert threats posed by emerging diseases. A World Health Organization advisory group is due to would meet on Tuesday to recommend candidate jabs to prioritise for clinical trials, the global health body said. It will assess data including an analysis by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), which was set up after failures in the international response to a previous Ebola crisis. The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has infected hundreds of people and killed more than 80, health authorities say. Cepi’s reaction will be a crucial indicator of its progress towards its wider goal of producing vaccines for pandemic threats in just 100 days, despite steep cuts to international health funding. “If there was ever a time that we could show the world why Cepi is needed and show the world why the 100-day mission is needed, it’s now,” Nicole Lurie, the organisation’s executive director for preparedness and response, told the FT. “We’re happy to accept that responsibility, but obviously we need help from partners — particularly financial help in the long run.” DR Congo and Uganda would make the final decision on whether to press ahead with any vaccine candidates endorsed for clinical trials by the WHO experts, the global health body said. “Other ethical and community acceptability issues will be considered,” said the WHO, which declared the latest outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. “This will be important to make sure that the trial, if it happens, will be adequately communicated to the population.” Lurie said Cepi had provided information from a survey of research teams and companies working on drugs that might be effective against the Bundibugyo virus behind the outbreak. The organisation hoped soon to announce partners in the quest for a jab, she added, although she declined to give a timescale for when one might be developed. Cepi’s Nicole Laurie said global health bodies were ‘getting some live-fire drills’ with hantavirus and the latest Ebola outbreak. The hunt for a vaccine should be helped by scientific advances including the use of artificial intelligence to find drugs active against viruses, Lurie said. Existing jabs against the Zaire Ebola virus responsible for many previous outbreaks might provide a basis for tackling the Bundibugyo species, she added. “We’ll see how far and how fast we can get,” Lurie said, adding that Cepi had done preliminary work recently on a possible jab for the rat-borne hantavirus responsible for a recent fatal outbreak on a cruise ship. “Both with hantavirus and now with Ebola, [we] are getting some live-fire drills.” Source: Michael Peel in the Financial Times Dad-chat is coming for dad-books. (By Pamela Paul and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the WSJ) They were the go-to gifts for Father’s Day: a book about some little-known chapter of World War II, the sweeping narrative of a shipwreck, perhaps the latest presidential biography. These days, dad books are a dying breed. Nonfiction book sales have been in decline for the past four years, and are now the most challenged segment of the print book market. Publishers say certain types of books still fare well—including celebrity memoirs and religious titles. But in recent years, print sales in such categories as biography, current affairs and business and economics—what publishers refer to as “serious nonfiction” and which tend to resonate especially with men—have fallen considerably. Sales of nonfiction print titles were down nearly 8% through May 9 this year, and sales of books about politics and current affairs were down 19%, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Publishing has long been subject to cyclical changes, with trends in format and genre taking over bookshelves in grand sweeps. (Remember the adult coloring-book craze? Or the stratospheric rise of romantasy?) But many in publishing believe the decline in serious nonfiction is more existential. “The trend couldn’t be clearer,” said Jonathan Karp, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster and publisher of the new Simon Six imprint. “This is a sea change and people should wake up and realize we’re living in a new world.” One culprit for the shift: a new media diet for fans of more serious nonfiction. … Sixty-two percent of men and 54% of women consumed a podcast in the prior month, according to a recent survey by Edison Research at SSRS, up from 46% and 39%, respectively, in 2023. “When we have internal meetings to talk about this problem, it always comes around to podcasts,” said Jonathan Burnham, president and publisher of the Harper Group at HarperCollins Publishers. “The man who wants to read American history is now tuning into one of the many good podcasts about history that lends the quiet attention to a serious subject he’s looking for. It makes the idea of sitting down with a 700-page Ron Chernow book less appealing. You’ve scratched that itch.” Source: Wall Street Journal Remarkable report by Novara from the nationalist rally in London in mid May. Anna Airy, Leopard Moth and Plums, 1915 If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe
U-2 spy plane arrives at National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
Albuquerque visitors can now see a Cold War U-2 spy plane up close at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.
Nobody better represents Israeli politics today than Itamar Ben-Gvir
He may be the most brazen of the nation’s leaders, but his ideological spirit is found throughout its government, and beyond, says Ben Reiff, deputy editor of +972 magazine
WHO chief says Ebola outbreak in Congo is 'spreading rapidly' and upgrades risk assessment
The head of the World Health Organization said Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is “spreading rapidly” and now poses a “very high” risk at the national level.
Advanced Talent Development at the National Science Foundation | The Foundation for American Innovation
Today, I submitted written testimony to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Programs.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Report: NIH, NASA Restrict Co-Authoring With Foreign Scientists
The National Institutes of Health and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are targeting collaborations between U.S. scientists and foreign researchers, Science reports.
MIT affiliates elected to National Academy of Sciences for 2026
Sixteen MIT affiliates, including professors and alumni, have been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences for 2026. MIT faculty honorees include Bengt Holmström, Michale Fee, Gareth McKinley, Keith Nelson, Fan Wang, and Catherine Wolfram.
Collins pushes back on Trump’s plan to cut health research funding - Live Updates
The Maine Republican appropriator called a proposed cut of 10 percent to the National Institutes of Health’s budget “inexplicable.”