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Sudan’s maternity wards reopen, bringing hope amid post-war struggles
Sudan’s maternity wards reopen, bringing hope and safe deliveries to mothers navigating post-war economic hardships.
Why every job description suddenly feels like a CVS receipt
AI has made job descriptions expand into never-ending, confusing lists of required and nice-to-have skills and qualifications.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married. What to know about the wedding
Singer Camila Cabello, actors Hugh Grant, Ethan Hawke and Jason Sudeikis, and models Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid were among the guests
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married. What to know about the wedding
Singer Camila Cabello, actors Hugh Grant, Ethan Hawke and Jason Sudeikis, and models Karlie Kloss and Gigi Hadid were among the guests
Neil Sudra joins First Fed at Edmonds Business Center
Neil Sudra has joined First Fed as vice president, commercial relationship manager. He will be based in First Fed’s Edmonds Business Center with the Cascade Commercial Banking Team. Sudra has […]
Timberwolves 'Ramp Up' Pursuit Of LeBron James
Another free agency suitor for LeBron James has suddenly emerged this weekend. According to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, the Minnesota Timberwolves are "ramping up" their push for James. They're hoping to pitch him on the idea of leading the franchise to its first NBA championship. It certainly ...
Democrats demand HHS reinstate cancelled teen pregnancy prevention grants
Democrats across both chambers of Congress are demanding the Trump administration reinstate tens of millions of dollars in teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) grants that were suddenly cancelled last w…
Sudden danger: the science and stakes of flash flood forecasting
Flash floods pose a major threat to lives and property. When it comes to researching them, understanding the rain as it falls is only half the battle. The next step is knowing how the water will move once it hits the ground.
Floodwaters, oil and health fears in South Sudan
Flooding has submerged oil wells in Unity State since 2021, fueling contamination fears among war-displaced communities, though scientific evidence remains limited.
Nintendo has suddenly announced a new Direct livestream for tomorrow
Whether you are a kid or a squid, you can tune in for more details on the single-player adventure game.
West Hartford Business Buzz: June 29, 2026 - We-Ha
A round-up of openings, closings, and other news about West Hartford businesses. Business Buzz is sponsored by NBT Bank, and we are very thankful for their support! By Ronni Newton I can't believe it's already June 29. It seems like it was just Memorial Day, and now suddenly we are finalizing
Why Atlanta Braves are Suddenly in Trouble in NL East
Will the Braves still win the NL East?
Trump Mobile Takes The T1 Phone Reservation Holders For A Ride, Opens Sales To The Public Without Clearing The Backlog
Those who paid Trump Mobile a $100 deposit to gain early access to the T1 Phone suddenly find themselves at the back of the proverbial queue.
Vance dismisses Watergate scandal, says ‘deep state’ went after Nixon
The vice president said he admired Nixon and drew parallels between the past president, who resigned amid pressure in 1974, and Trump today.
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
How the LaMelo Ball era in Charlotte came to its sudden end
Kurt Zellers departs as Minnesota Business Partnership CEO in latest business lobby shuffle
A sudden departure of Kurt Zellers at the Minnesota Business Partnership is just one of the changes ahead for business advocacy groups in the state.
Trump to meet House speaker in attempt to break legislative gridlock
Trump suddenly scrapped the signing of a pivotal bipartisan housing bill yesterday, demanding the Senate pass his voter ID bill
York County restaurants scrambling for bread after bakery's closure
Terranetti's Italian Bakery in the Mechanicsburg area closed suddenly after 54 years, leaving York County restaurants scrambling for bread.
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
UNM Project ECHO Works Closely with World Health Organization on Disease Outbreaks
When a major disease outbreak occurs, the World Health Organization (WHO) calls on Project ECHO at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to help support the transmission of accurate, timely health information to clinical health workers and...
Perks of the job: Save on entertainment and essentials with BenefitHub
State of Colorado employees have access to a wide-ranging corporate discount marketplace, and those eligible for benefits at Metropolitan State University of Denver can take advantage of them with their University email. The State of Colorado BenefitHub offers deals on thousands of products, ranging from vacation and event tickets to insurance and other essential services. […]
Trump suddenly refuses to sign landmark housing bill, citing his stalled elections legislation
Fresh closures hit city's hospitality businesses
The Cube Hotel shuts suddenly along with its Marco Pierre White restaurant and a Stirchley cafe.
Underground methane gas leak leaves a dozen Owasso businesses displaced, stranded
A sudden environmental scare has left a popular Owasso shopping center wrapped in caution tape and at least 12 local family-owned businesses completely stranded
In post-DEI era, Trump admin turns to San Antonio for more veteran-owned businesses
As governments scrap their race- and gender-conscious preferences, there's suddenly more demand for veteran contractors than supply.
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X owner reports CPU failure with package bump while using early 2026 BIOS
A Ryzen 9 9900X owner has reported a sudden CPU failure on the MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk WiFi motherboard.
‘A child goes to bed and doesn’t wake up’: the families left in shock after the sudden death of their healthy children
Sudden cardiac arrest is statistically rare but among the leading causes of death for children and young people. And families often have no idea of the risk until it’s too late
Olivia Wilde reveals moment she realized Jason Sudeikis romance was over
Olivia Wilde can pinpoint the precise day she realized her relationship with Jason Sudeikis was over.
Olivia Wilde knew her relationship with Jason Sudeikis was over when he asked her this
Filmmaker and actress Olivia Wilde said that she knew her relationship with ex-fiancé Jason Sudeikis was over when he asked her this cutting question.
On Netflix’s World Cup Show, It’s Still Called Football
When Netflix approached Goalhanger co-founder Tony Pastor last year, he assumed the streamer was interested in picking up a version of his podcast network’s The Rest Is History. In their first meeting, executives discussed episodes from the show—then pivoted the conversation. “They suddenly said in the middle of the meeting—’but actually, that’s not what we want …
World Cup bringing "sudden shot of adrenaline" to Boston businesses
Businesses in Boston say they are thrilled with the increased foot traffic that has come with the World Cup.
The New Winners in 2026 Are Doing the One Thing Business Schools Warned Against
The biggest winners today are breaking a core rule of modern strategy. Here’s why owning more—not less—is suddenly the smartest move in business.
Gemini suddenly can’t make calls on Android and Android Auto for some
The transition to Gemini on Android Auto has been a bit rough for a number of reasons, but a current...
RFK Jr. demands journal explain removal of vaccine study used to support his childhood immunization changes
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding answers from a science journal on why a study regarding vaccination and sudden infant death was removed from the publication. …
49ers announce the tragic news of Aldon Smith passing away
The 49ers issued a statement of the sudden and tragic passing of Aldon Smith
Scientists discover a strange property in rice and turn it into a smart material
Scientists discovered that rice behaves in a highly unusual way: it weakens under rapid compression but stays stronger when pressure is applied slowly. Using this effect, they engineered a new material that reacts differently to gentle movements and sudden impacts. The material can adapt its stiffness automatically, opening the door to safer soft robots and protective equipment that responds instantly to collisions.
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the ‘unpardonable sin’
Without legal protections, the NCAA struggles to enforce rules, leaving the future of college sports governance uncertain.
Winston Marshall: UK politicians ‘won’t do anything’ to stop violence
WARNING: Graphic content — Grammy-winning musician Winston Marshall discusses a Sudanese migrant accused in the stabbing of a Belfast man in Northern Ireland on ‘The Will Cain Show.’
Farage suddenly returns to political stage – but dodges questions about £5m gift
Reform UK leader has been unusually quiet in recent weeks – at great cost to the party during a crucial byelection
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the 'unpardonable sin'
Those anxious to tease out worst-case scenarios that could come from gambling's growing stranglehold on sports couldn't have found a better place for one of those scenarios to land — in the middle of college football, a sport that for decades has proven uniquely unable to deal with its most-press...
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the 'unpardonable sin'
The controversy over gambling in college sports has intensified with Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's court victory.
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the 'unpardonable sin'
The controversy over gambling in college sports has intensified with Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's court victory
Sudden unexpected infant death and the "growing public health crisis" in Allegheny County
Some drugs 'fail' because of unrealistic testing conditions, scientists discover
A drug once dismissed as ineffective suddenly worked—when scientists tested it under more realistic conditions that mimic the human body. In this surprising new discovery, Northwestern University scientists ...
California, and the dangerous sudden resurgence of GOP voter fraud fever
Even Republicans who previously kept such voter-fraud claims at arm’s length are embracing theories that something is off in California, despite zero evidence.
Texas Politics Unscripted | Battleground Texas
From high-stakes Senate and gubernatorial showdowns to the sudden resignation of the state's chief election officer, Battleground Texas breaks down the fierce races reshaping the ultimate electoral battleground.
Simone Biles Reveals She ‘Almost Died’ In Terrifying Health Crisis
While her husband was away at NFL practice, the gymnastics star faced a sudden life-threatening situation alone.
Protecting Heart Health in an Era of Temperature Extremes
Extreme heat and cold are growing cardiovascular risks that can trigger heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and sudden cardiac death, according to a recent scientific statement by experts at Weill Cornell Medicine and other leading institutions.
High School Science Teacher Dies Suddenly from Aggressive Form of Leukemia: ‘Her Illness Came Without Warning’
Ohio science teacher Michelle Eynon is being remembered after her sudden death from acute leukemia at the age of 48. She is survived by her husband and two children.
High School Science Teacher Dies Suddenly from Aggressive Form of Leukemia: ‘Her Illness Came Without Warning’
Michelle Eynon is being remembered by colleagues and loved ones as a devoted teacher, wife and mother of two
Jimmy Fallon suddenly drops out of Madonna premiere interview for 'Confessions II'
Jimmy Fallon dropped out of a Madonna interview at the last minute, with Anderson Cooper filling in at the 'Confessions II' short film premiere in New York City.
Borussia Dortmund president expects Erling Haaland to join Real Madrid
As part of his Real Madrid presidency push, Enrique Riquelme claimed that he will bring Jurgen Klopp and Erling Haaland to the Bernabeu. However, the representatives of both have already dismissed the...
A tale of two debates
By Vince Bzdek Ballots go out Monday as the June 30 state primary elections bear down on us. As a result, it is suddenly the season of proliferating political debates, and there have been some doozies already. I had the chance to see two very different debates in the last week, and comparing and contrasting them speaks […]
A tale of two debates
By Vince Bzdek Ballots go out Monday as the June 30 state primary elections bear down on us. As a result, it is suddenly the season of proliferating political debates, and there have been some doozies already. I had the chance to see two very different debates in the last week, and comparing and contrasting them speaks […]
UTA scientists plan to study how the World Cup affects air quality
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington will use the World Cup in Dallas as a case study to measure how sudden surges in population affect air pollution patterns across the D-FW area.
Alaska Science Forum: Research team seeks answers from a changing river
A shifting climate is bringing big, sudden changes to the Kuskokwim River and the people who rely on it
Why Does the Sun Make You Sneeze? Scientists Reveal the Surprising Truth - Futura-Sciences
Why Do Some People Sneeze in Sunlight? Have you ever found yourself sneezing when you suddenly move from the shade to the bright outdoors, or even after switching on a powerful light? You might be part of the roughly one in four people who experience what’s called the photic sneeze...
Inside Trump’s suddenly softened new green card policy
Big business, including tech and AI companies, launched a quiet but extensive lobbying effort against the green card policy requiring applicants to apply from overseas.
So You Majored in Computer Science . . .
Suddenly, headlines about unemployed computer science majors are everywhere. Poor kids. Especially because—so it appears—many computer science majors did not choose the subject
Algal blooms explained: How scientists are helping spot them sooner
Algal blooms can seem to appear overnight. A stretch of ocean that looked clear days earlier can suddenly appear discolored and sometimes pose risks to ecosystems and human health. But scientists say ...
Jason Sudeikis calls dating 'daunting' following Olivia Wilde split in rare comment about personal life
Jason Sudeikis finds dating 'daunting,' he says, six years after he and Olivia Wilde ended their engagement.
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!
The science around GLP-1 drugs and cancer is suddenly getting a lot more interesting
Studies released in recent weeks are fueling optimism — and fresh questions — about GLP-1 drugs' potential role in cancer prevention and treatment.
Dodgers Could Lose Shutdown Brusdar Graterol For Rest of Season
Brusdar Graterol’s sudden back surgery following a rehab setback leaves a massive void in the Los Angeles Dodgers' depleted bullpen.
Former Orioles Outfielder Suddenly Retires To Play Division I Football
A veteran of three MLB seasons with the Orioles and Angels is headed to college to try his hand at football.
The Politics of Visibility - Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center
To say that Michigan is facing a housing crisis often comes with the language of urgency, as if something sudden has happened, as if instability has only recently emerged. But that framing depends on the assumption that there was ever a moment of stability equally accessible to everyone. The reality is less abrupt and more patterned as housing insecurity in Michigan is not a new condition.
Sky exits UAE news venture after genocide denial accusations
Sky News Arabia to retain its name in brand licensing deal after criticism of its coverage of the war in Sudan
Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Disease Screening – May 28, 2026 - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Italy
Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Disease Screening – May 28, 2026 Event: U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through designated airports for enhanced screening. Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan for the list of designated airports. The CDC and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at the designated airports in response to the Ebola disease outbreak. This requirement applies to all U.S. citizen and U.S. national passengers who were present in those countries. For travel information regarding non-U.S. citizens, including lawful permanent residents (LPRs), review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Read the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening. Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports – May 21, 2026. Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports – May 24, 2026. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak. If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: Phone: +1-888-407-4747 or +1-202-501-4444 Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Disease Screening – May 28, 2026 - U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic
Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Disease Screening – May 28, 2026 Event: U.S. citizens and U.S. nationals who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through designated airports for enhanced screening. Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan for the list of designated airports. The CDC and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at the designated airports in response to the Ebola disease outbreak. This requirement applies to all U.S. citizen and U.S. national passengers who were present in those countries. For travel information regarding non-U.S. citizens, including lawful permanent residents (LPRs), review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Read the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening. Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports – May 21, 2026. Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports – May 24, 2026. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak. If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: Phone: +1-888-407-4747 or +1-202-501-4444 Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Holly Holm wasn't surprised by Ronda Rousey returning
Ronda Rousey's dominating three-year reign atop the UFC women's bantamweight division was brought to a sudden halt by Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November 2015. Holm knocked out Rousey with a head kick early in the second round sending shockwaves throughout the combat sports world. Rousey returned to ...
Apple Developing iPhone Anti-Snatching Feature That Locks Stolen Phones Instantly
Apple is developing a new feature that will lock your iPhone if it's snatched from your hand by a thief, according to Apple code seen by 9to5Mac. The option will use the gyroscope, accelerometer, and other sensors to determine when an iPhone has been grabbed. It'll also rely on a paired Apple Watch to detect when the iPhone has suddenly moved away from the owner's wrist.
Ebola is ‘not a broad public health threat’ in Houston, says city health director
Bush Intercontinental Airport is among those designated to screen passengers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Uganda – the African countries at the center of a deadly Ebola outbreak. Congo's national soccer team will be based in Houston during the FIFA World Cup.
“Emily in Paris” star Pierre Deny dies at 69 after 'sudden' ALS battle
The veteran French actor starred as fashion boss Louis de Léon, the father of Paul Forman's Nicholas de Léon.
'Emily in Paris' star Pierre Deny dies at 69 after ‘sudden’ ALS battle
Pierre Deny, who starred on 'Emily in Paris' as fashion boss Louis de Léon and father to Nicholas de Léon, has died. He was 69.
Analysis | Why Texas suddenly has such a competitive Senate race
Ken Paxton makes a win possible for Democrats.
Craig Kimbrel’s Rays Debut Pushes Him Closer to MLB Record
Journeyman closer Craig Kimbrel suddenly finds himself close to an all-time record tied by Rich Hill in 2025.
STEP - Health Alert: Worldwide Caution - U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg
STEP – Health Alert: Worldwide Caution STEP Alert Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening – May 22, 2026 Event: U.S.-bound American citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through the following airports for enhanced screening: Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 21, 2026 Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 22, 2026 George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (IAH), Houston, for flights departing after 11:59 PM on May 26, 2026 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at IAD in response to the Ebola outbreak. This requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens and LPRs, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports Regarding Arrival Restrictions Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Read the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak. If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: Phone: +1-888-407-4747 or +1-202-501-4444 Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Lake Stevens dual-sports star was destined for college baseball. Then last fall happened
Lake Stevens' Blake Moser always expected to play baseball in college, but a big junior season as the Vikings' quarterback suddenly has college football coaches taking notice.
Torrential rain floods Lake County homes and businesses amid worsening drought
A sudden downpour in Lake County brought much-needed rain to drought-stricken areas but caused flooding and visible damage to homes and businesses.
Adorable tiny blue octopus found nearly 6,000 feet beneath the Galápagos
A mysterious little blue octopus discovered nearly 6,000 feet beneath the waters of the Galápagos Islands has officially been identified as a brand-new species. About the size of a golf ball, the tiny creature stunned researchers during a deep-sea expedition when it suddenly appeared on camera, crawling across the ocean floor near an underwater mountain.
Worldwide Caution: Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening - U.S. Embassy in Madagascar
Worldwide Caution: Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening Event: U.S.-bound American citizens who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through the following airports for enhanced screening: Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 21, 2026 Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 22, 2026 George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (IAH), Houston, for flights departing after 11:59 PM on May 26, 2026 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at the above listed airports in response to the Ebola outbreak. This requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports Regarding Arrival Restrictions (opens in a new tab) Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Review the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening (opens in a new tab). Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak (opens in a new tab). If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: +1-888-407-4747 (opens in a new tab) or +1-202-501-4444 (opens in a new tab) Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Worldwide Caution: Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening - U.S. Embassy in Chile
Worldwide Caution: Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening Event: U.S.-bound American citizens who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through the following airports for enhanced screening: Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 21, 2026 Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 22, 2026 George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (IAH), Houston, for flights departing after 11:59 PM on May 26, 2026 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at the above listed airports in response to the Ebola outbreak. This requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports Regarding Arrival Restrictions (opens in a new tab) Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Review the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening (opens in a new tab). Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak (opens in a new tab). If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: +1-888-407-4747 (opens in a new tab) or +1-202-501-4444 (opens in a new tab) Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Scientists discover atoms suddenly spinning backward in quantum experiment
Scientists have directly watched angular momentum move through a crystal for the very first time — and discovered a bizarre twist along the way. Using ultra-powerful terahertz laser pulses, researchers triggered tiny atomic rotations inside a quantum material and found that the direction of rotation can unexpectedly flip as momentum is transferred. The strange reversal happens because of the crystal’s underlying symmetry, creating an almost impossible-sounding effect where two rotations combine into one spinning the opposite way.
Worldwide Caution: Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Germany
Worldwide Caution: Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening Event: U.S.-bound American citizens who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through the following airports for enhanced screening: Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 21, 2026 Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 22, 2026 George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (IAH), Houston, for flights departing after 11:59 PM on May 26, 2026 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at the above listed airports in response to the Ebola outbreak. This requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports Regarding Arrival Restrictions (opens in a new tab). Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Review the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening (opens in a new tab). Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak (opens in a new tab). If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: +1-888-407-4747 (opens in a new tab) or +1-202-501-4444 (opens in a new tab) Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Atlanta, Houston airports can receive passengers from 3 countries amid Ebola outbreak
Airline passengers traveling to the U.S. who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days will be able to land at international airports in Atlanta and Houston, as well as Dulles airport outside Washington, for health screenings.
Atlanta, Houston airports can receive passengers from 3 countries amid Ebola outbreak
Airline passengers traveling to the U.S. who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days will be able to land at international airports in Atlanta and Houston, as well as Dulles airport outside Washington, for health screenings.
Health Alert: U.S. Embassy in Rwanda (May 23, 2026) - U.S. Embassy in Rwanda
Health Alert: U.S. Embassy in Rwanda (May 23, 2026) Health Alert: U.S. Embassy in Rwanda (May 23, 2026) Location: Rwanda, countrywide Event: Entry and Exit Requirements Due to the Ebola outbreak, Rwanda has implemented new entry and exit requirements. On May 22, 2026, the Ministry of Health of Rwanda announced that all foreign nationals who have traveled to, or transited through, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) within 30 days of their travel to Rwanda will be denied entry. Rwandan nationals and foreign residents with valid proof of residency in Rwanda can enter and are subject to mandatory quarantine procedures. Travel to the U.S. Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Actions to Take: Do not travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Monitor the Ministry of Health of Rwanda webpage for local updates. If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. Review the CDC webpage on the Ebola Current Situation. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak. Review the CBP webpage for information on entry restrictions Notify friends and family of your safety. Have a plan to depart in case of emergency. Have travel documents up to date and easily accessible. Review the CDC Travelers’ Health Page for Rwanda. Continue to take malaria prophylaxis as recommended, as the symptoms of malaria can mimic symptoms of Ebola, leading to preventable health scares. Monitor your health for 21 days following travel in an area with an Ebola outbreak. If at risk for Ebola, alert your healthcare provider if you are experiencing symptoms consistent with Ebola to receive guidance prior to presenting for care. Review the Department of State’s Rwanda Travel Advisory for general health information. Refer to the U.S. Embassy’s list of medical providers. Check with your travel insurance provider about medical evacuation options should you fall ill while overseas. Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates. Assistance: U.S. Embassy Kigali, Rwanda 30 KG 7 Avenue (Kacyiru) +250-252-596-400 ACSKigali@state.gov https://rw.usembassy.gov State Department – Consular Affairs 888-407-4747 or 202-501-4444 Rwanda Country Information Enroll in Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive security updates. Follow us on Facebook and X
Wegovy linked to rare “eye stroke” that can cause sudden blindness
A new analysis is raising concerns about Wegovy, the blockbuster weight-loss drug, after researchers found it may carry the highest risk of a rare “eye stroke” that can cause sudden vision loss. The study, based on millions of FDA side-effect reports, found the risk signal was nearly five times stronger for Wegovy than for Ozempic, despite both containing semaglutide.
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
JPL's management contract is suddenly up for grabs for the first time since the 1930s, and NASA's own language shows why this is more than a routine procurement fight
For the first time since the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s origins in the 1930s, Caltech’s hold on one of the most important institutions in American robotic space exploration is no longer automatic. NASA has announced that it will compete the next contract for managing and operating JPL, the federally funded research and development center in Southern […]
Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening – May 22, 2026 - U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Thailand
Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Updated Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening – May 22, 2026 Event: U.S.-bound American citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through the following airports for enhanced screening: Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 21, 2026 Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) for flights after 11:59 PM on May 22, 2026 George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (IAH), Houston, for flights departing after 11:59 PM on May 26, 2026 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at IAD in response to the Ebola outbreak. This requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens and LPRs, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Read the Modification of List of Designated Airports Regarding Arrival Restrictions Review the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on what travelers need to know about returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan. Read the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak. If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: Phone: +1-888-407-4747 or +1-202-501-4444 Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates. If you are a registered user, you can manage your subscriptions by clicking the link below. Guest subscribers cannot manage subscriptions but can create a Login.gov account to manage future subscriptions. Manage Your Subscriptions
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s health commissioner exits
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Budget conference: With Rays MOUs signed, $50M suddenly finds its way into state budget for Hillsborough College
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The Sudden Chumminess of Hunter Biden and Candace Owens
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Forget the 11-year solar cycle, a single space storm can send a shockwave through your local forecast
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South Sudan: Children face malnutrition as health services collapse
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Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening – May 21, 2026 - U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Thailand
Health Alert: Worldwide Caution – Public Health Arrival Restrictions and Enhanced Ebola Screening – May 21, 2026 Event: As of May 21, 2026, all U.S.-bound American citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who have been present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the United States must only enter through Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) for enhanced screening. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply enhanced public health screening at IAD in response to the Ebola outbreak. The Dulles requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens and LPRs, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations. Actions to take: Read the Department of Homeland Security Alert on Enhanced Ebola Screening. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak. If you are planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. You may also contact the State Department – Consular Affairs: Phone: +1-888-407-4747 or +1-202-501-4444 Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive safety and security updates.
Kyle Busch dead at 41: Reactions, tributes from around sports world after the NASCAR driver's sudden death
The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion passed away on Thursday evening at age 41.