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‘No known exposures’ after measles detected in Brookings county child, health department says
South Dakota health officials have flagged the state’s ninth case of measles this year, according to the state Health Department.
Denver Broncos roster review: OLB Dasan McCullough
While the entirety of the Denver linebacker room may be the weakest part of the defense, most of that blame can be directed to what’s happening on the interior as their outside linebackers have been one of the best parts about the defense and they come with a great amount of depth. The Broncos’ OLB […]
WellSpan Health strikes strategic partnership with Philips to deploy, co-develop new healthcare tech
Community health system WellSpan Health inked a seven-year strategic alliance with Philips to drive advanced imaging technology across its network and co-develop new AI and tech tools. | WellSpan Health inked a seven-year strategic alliance with Philips to drive advanced imaging technology across its network and co-develop new healthcare technology.
Browns sign new defensive end days after trading Myles Garrett
Cleveland needed to replenish its depth chart.
The World Cup vs. bugs, germs and heat: Here's the game plan
Despite a diminished federal presence, public health departments are preparing for common ailments that could afflict fans who gather for the event — and are keeping an eye on the Ebola outbreak, too.
Football regulator faces 'defining test' over potential Derby investment
English football's independent regulator faces a "defining test" as Saudi Arabian government official Turki Al-Sheikh attempts to invest in Derby County, says Amnesty International.
Meet the official quietly leading Trump's science and tech push
Energy Department undersecretary Darío Gil is taking a long-term view of science and technology.
Backed by Trump, Opposed by Putin, and Fighting for His Political Life
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia is seeking re-election as his country weighs questions of war and peace, of autocracy and democracy, and of subjugation and independence.
Improving access to mental healthcare takes growing together
The future of mental healthcare depends not only on adding more services, but on building stronger community partnerships.
Manchester City face Bayern Munich competition for Feyenoord’s Givairo Read
Man City looking to add depth to right-back options ahead of the 2026-27 seasonMatheus Nunes performed brilliantly last season but is a natural midfielderEnzo Maresca has held transfer talks with Man ...
Jamie Carragher sounds concern over Andoni Iraola adapting at Liverpool
The Reds have hired Andoni Iraola to replace Arne Slot after a disappointing campaign, with Carragher analysing one of the key challenges for the Basque at Anfield after a successful spell at Bournemouth
Rockies beat reporter Patrick Saunders to leave Denver Post
The long-time reporter announced his departure on X.
Milwaukee Health Department monitoring 3 for Ebola
MILWAUKEE (WKOW) -- The City of Milwaukee Health Department is monitoring three individuals considered to be at very low risk for Ebola as of June 4.
Milwaukee Health Dept. says they're monitoring 3 people for Ebola
The city of Milwaukee Health Department says they're monitoring three individuals for Ebola.
LAPD and feds conduct drug-busting operation in fentanyl hotspot MacArthur Park
The Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents are working on a joint operation targeting "illegal narcotics activity" in MarArthur Park, a hotspot for fentanyl sales and use, on Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
Cornyn's YOLO era? Primary loss opens possibility to more independence
After losing to a Trump-backed candidate in primary, Sen. John Cornyn faces fewer political risks by breaking with the president.
US announces science and AI partnership with Japan
The U.S. has announced a new partnership with Japan on science and artificial intelligence. Energy Department Undersecretary for Science Darío Gil told reporters Thursday that each country would in…
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 to have both Exynos and Snapdragon chips
Which one you get will depend on where you're located, apparently. We've already heard that Samsung would be using the Exynos 2600 SoC in the upcoming...
Health Department Announces Key Leadership Changes
The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH), under the leadership of Governor Mark Gordon and WDH Director Stefan Johansson recently named several key leadership appointments designed to strengthen the performance and services provided by the WDH.. Monique McBride Appointed as Chief Policy and Communications Officer Monique McBride joined WDH in January as the department’s Chief […]
More patrols coming to Houston entertainment districts as Texas ramps up summer security
If you’re heading to a concert, sporting event or entertainment district in Houston this summer, don’t be surprised if you notice more Texas Department of Public Safety troopers on patrol.
Jacksonville Jaguars: Sign Experienced Corner with 31 Regular-Season Starts
The Jacksonville Jaguars still needed to address their cornerback depth this offseason after losing Greg Newsome II to the New York Giants and failing to select one in the 2026 NFL Draft. Travis Hunter is recovering from a season-ending LCL tear and has been limited to individual drills off to the side during OTAs but […] The post Jacksonville Jaguars: Sign Experienced Corner with 31 Regular-Season Starts appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.
Scientists just solved a decades-old mystery about the black hole in the middle of our galaxy
They captured an image 100 times deeper and 80 times sharper than previous maps of the region
RFK Jr.'s health department is seeking Americans' medical records. Here's what's going on
The Health and Human Services Department wants to access medical records, but it's not tied to reports of autism research, the department says.
US Small Business Hiring Plans Drop to Lowest Since May 2020
The share of US small businesses saying they’re planning new hires or are having trouble filling jobs fell in May to a six-year low, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.
Move Fast, Surveil Things
Meta has deployed facial recognition code to millions of their always-on surveillance glasses, according to new reporting by Wired. EFF’s Threat Lab was able to confirm that the facial recognition
Todd Blanche was ‘in charge’ of Epstein matter, Bondi told lawmakers, according to new transcript
Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, was responsible for overseeing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, former Attorney General Pam Bondi said during a closed-door interview with lawmakers last month.
Auditor General DeFoor Releases Tobacco Settlement Fund Audits for 24 Health Care Facilities in 16 Counties - Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General
HARRISBURG – Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor today announced the release of tobacco settlement fund audits for 24 healthcare facilities in Allegheny, Armstrong, Bradford, Bucks, Butler, Centre, Clinton, Columbia, Lancaster, McKean, Mifflin, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Susquehanna, Washington and Westmoreland counties. “Our audits ensure hospitals have documentation to support the receipt of tobacco settlement funds before receiving reimbursement for uncompensated care,” Auditor General DeFoor said. The Tobacco Master Settlement […]
Scientists have long said we can’t multitask. A new study says we can
‘This is unlocking a whole new set of questions,’ one researcher said
MDHHS Finalizes Specialty Behavioral Health Services Location Policy
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently finalized Medicaid Policy Bulletin MMP 26-17, effective July 1, 2026, which clarifies reimbursement requirements for specialty behavioral health services provided through Prepaid Inpatient Health Plans in home, community and residential settings.
Pentagon drops 180 faiths from military's recognized religions list
The Department of War officially removed 180 faiths from its recognized religions list, reducing over 200 faith codes to just 31 under a new memo.
You are witnessing an independent movement in Idaho politics
Because primary elections often nominate candidates who are either too extreme or unlikely to win, many voters are looking for a better option.
Atlético Seasonal Ratings: How injuries depleted a promising midfield
Into the Calderón rates Atleti’s midfield from the 2025/26 season.
Trump’s DOJ enlists partisans, conspiracy backers to probe president’s political foes
An FBI agent who wanted to investigate “Italygate,” the 84-year-old wife of a top Justice Department official and a Ken Paxton lawyer are all part of the effort.
Legislative staff getting extra days off for Independence Day
State leaders say staff deserves extra time off for the holiday following 3 Special Sessions.
Intermountain Health and Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games Announce New Partnership to Support Athlete Health and Community Wellness
CEDAR CITY – Intermountain Health and the Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games, an outreach department of Southern Utah University, today announced a new partnership that will position Intermountain as the Official Health Partner and Medical Provider of the Games, strengthening support for athletes while advancing health, wellness, and community ...
Lindsay Polega-Quigley launches HD 60 bid with Lindsay Cross’ endorsement
Cross' departure creates an open race in a competitive district.
Newcastle Announce Matt Targett News After 2025-26 Season
Newcastle United confirmed on Tuesday that defender Matt Targett will leave the club following the expiry of his contract at the end of June. The full-back was named on the club’s retained list for summer 2026, with Newcastle announcing that four more senior players will depart after Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth had already been […]
Autodesk for Small Business update: Making it more affordable to get started with Autodesk Flex
/PRNewswire/ -- Last month, Autodesk launched Autodesk for Small Business for the small teams, independent professionals, and entrepreneurs who depend on our...
Wisconsin Badgers pushing to complete another massive 2027 commitment flip
The Wisconsin Badgers’ staff has been on a tear in the recruiting department recently and another potential commitment could be coming. The staff has been working diligently this off-season to build a substantial 2027 class after stringing together limited success in the previous classes since hiring Head Coach Luke Fickell. A new college landscape and [...]
Meet DFP Spring Fellow, Emily Martinez, University of Wisconsin-Madison -
Emily R. Martinez is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in comparative politics with a regional focus on Western Europe. Her research sits at the [...]
Washington earns a B- in maternal mental health report
New moms are commonly screened for postpartum depression, but child care remains a major gap.
First US screwworm case in 60 years: Should America be worried?
The US Department of Agriculture says New World screwworm has been detected in a Texas calf.
New details revealed of Epstein assistant’s abuse allegations as GOP lawmakers call for DOJ investigation
House Oversight Chair James Comer and other Republican lawmakers are calling on the Justice Department to investigate allegations involving two men accused of sexually abusing Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant, according to a letter provided first to CNN.
James Comey Interview: 'Justice Can't Be a Political Force'
James Comey, the former FBI director recently indicted by Donald Trump's Justice Department, sits for an in-depth interview with Rolling Stone.
WVU Health System takes next step toward buying Independence Health
An acquisition of Independence would further expand West Virginia University Health System into southwestern Pennsylvania.
Federal Law Enforcement: DHS Could Improve Data Collection and Assessment of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Programs
Law enforcement officers at the Department of Homeland Security face stressors that can adversely affect their mental health and suicide risk. During...
Roof collapses during fire at Upstate business, firefighters say
The roof collapsed during a fire at a Spartanburg County business Thursday morning, according to the Una Fire Department.
Justice Department Eyes Alternative ‘Weaponization’ Payouts After Fund Pushback
Some Trump supporters are aiming to secure government settlements by suing under an 80-year-old law.
Crews respond to fire at Spartanburg County business
The Una Fire Department announced that crews responded to a fire at a business early Thursday morning.
Rural health network aims to strengthen independent hospitals
The North Shore Health Board received a presentation from Cibolo Rural Health Network on the benefits of the Headwaters Network, a high-value network made up of Minnesota’s rural independent health care providers. “I would say a relevant correlator to the high-value network is that of a farmers’ co-op,” Brittany Sachdeva, chief operating officer for Cibolo,...
Crews attack business fire in Spartanburg Co.
SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) — Crews are on the scene of a business fire early Thursday morning in Spartanburg. The Una Fire Department, along with other agencies, is at the scene of a wor…
World Cup 2026: Top 🔟 contenders for the title
With the 2026 World Cup set to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, excitement is already building around the biggest sporting occasion on earth.Recent form, squad depth, tournament ped...
Medically tailored meals cut costs and health emergencies, study finds
In the US, the first large statewide analysis of Medicaid Massachusetts data reveals that hospital patients with diabetes, heart disease, depression, and other conditions who received home-delivered, dietitian-designed meals experienced significantly fewer health emergencies and lower costs of care than those who did not. At least a dozen US states are rolling out medically tailored meals in pilot projects through the federal-state health insurance program, which serves 71 million citizens who qualify based on income or disability status. Massachusetts is the first to offer this to citizens with diet-related diseases.
Hojlund release clause revealed following Man United departure
Rasmus Hojlund has completed a permanent move to Napoli from Manchester United, and Italian sources report that an €85m release clause for the Dane will be available from next summer.Napoli confirme...
Code Puppy: Walmart's secret weapon against AI lock-in
Walmart's viral Code Puppy AI tool helps avoid vendor lock-in, cut costs, and reduce dependence on Claude Code and Codex.
Chelsea’s former record goalscorer Bobby Tambling dies aged 84
Tambling made his debut for the Stamford Bridge club as a 17-year-old in 1959
Zombie Blairites still have British politics in their grip – it’s time to break free
Tony Blair’s departure as PM should have prompted a fresh start for Labour. But Starmer’s sad, backward-looking government remains in his thrall, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
Trump says he will nominate acting AG Todd Blanche to permanently lead Justice Department
President Trump announces plans to nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to permanently lead the Department of Justice after Pam Bondi's firing.
President Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general
President Donald Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, tapping his former personal attorney who has aggressively pursued the Republican president’s agenda while leading the Justice Department in an acting role
Dallas mayor laments downtown business depatures | FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson had strong words at a recent city council meeting after multiple sports teams and businesses opted to leave their Downtown Dallas homes this week. FOX 4's David Sentendrey has more.
Jack Nicklaus Has A Point About The PGA Tour Schedule
Fan Anticipation Golf still depends on buildup, rhythm and weeks that feel special. Player Fatigue Is Part Of The Product Player fatigue is often discussed as a player issue. It is also a fan issue.
Rabies Makes Its Return to Wyoming - Wyoming Department of Health
As summer approaches and temperatures rise, the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) is warning residents about wild animals that may carry rabies. The most common carriers of rabies in our state are bats and skunks, but any mammal can be infected with rabies, including humans. The first confirmed case of rabies for 2026 occurred […]
Caleb Williams strikes jump-throw pose for Madden NFL 27 cover
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams has been announced as EA Sports’ cover athlete for Madden NFL 27. On the standard cover, Williams is depicted in a position similar to his
Dallas residents lament Downtown business exodus after Mavs, Stars plan suburban moves
Though centered around Dallas City Hall's future, the focus of public comment at today's Dallas City Council meeting was the exodus of businesses from downtown, with many residents taking time to lament the departure of sports franchises and companies alike.
Health department investigates tuberculosis case at Lloyd Memorial High School
The Northern Kentucky Health Department is investigating a case of active tuberculosis linked to a student at Lloyd Memorial High School, with contact tracing underway for those who had prolonged exposure.
Dynasty Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings: Oronde Gadsden and Dalton Kincaid could be great buy lows
Dynasty TE depth rises as Kincaid, Gadsden and buy-low targets gain value
Google wants to release 64 million bacteria-riddled mosquitoes across California and Florida. Here’s why scientists are enthusiastic.
Google has applied for an experimental mosquito release permit to deploy millions of non-biting southern house mosquitoes that it has infected with the bacterium Wolbachia pipientis, in an effort to reduce mosquito-borne diseases like West Nile virus.
Trump admin cracks down on Colorado school district that allegedly put up to 61 males on girls' sports teams
The U.S. Department of Education warns Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado over allegedly placing up to 61 male students on girls' sports teams.
Politics: What’s Life Like For The Government Employees Still Working?
More than 300,000 federal workers have left government service since the start of the second Trump administration.Some were laid off by the administration. Some took buyouts. Some walked out. The cuts hit every major agency — from the State Department to the Justice Department.That doesn’t mean things have been easy for those still working for the government. Last week, the Office of Personnel Management proposed requiring all federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements that would prevent them from sharing internal government information.We sit down to talk about how those cuts are affecting the workers who remained.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Cannon Ballers to Host July 4th Extravaganza at Atrium Health Ballpark
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. – The Kannapolis Cannon Ballers are excited to announce a fun-filled Independence Day Extravaganza at Atrium Health Ballpark, bringing together baseball, live entertainment, and highlighted by the largest and most spectacular fireworks display in the region, celebrating America’s 250th anniversary in unforgettable fashion. Fans can expect a breathtaking,
EPA's Science Independence Under Congressional Fire
Congress scrutinizes Trump administration's dismantling of EPA's independent science office. Hear testimony Thursday on federal environmental research impact.
UConn Health Minute: Trauma Season
As warmer weather brings more people outdoors, emergency departments see more injuries and heat-related illnesses. In this UConn Health Minute, Dr. David K ...
May's top PlayStation games by copies sold
Yesterday’s State of Play gave us an idea of where PlayStation’s heading next. But we’ve had our May estimates for a couple of days now (we always update our data daily for clients), so it’s time to look at what performed best on PlayStation last month. We’ve got a new IP at the top, two evergreens doing their evergreen thing, FC26 smashing it ahead of the World Cup Plus pivot, and a quiet but promising result for Lego Batman. Let’s have a look at the state of Play…Station’s top games for May. 007 takes #001 007 First Light sold 1M copies on PS5 in May, easily making it the month’s top PS5 game by copies sold. Over 80% of those May copies were digital, which is broadly in line with where PlayStation’s digital share has settled for new releases this year. To date, 007 First Light has sold through 2.2M copies across platforms (so no unsold retail copies in that figure). The platform split is 55.1% PS5, 33.1% Steam, and 11.8% Xbox (console, Windows, and cloud combined). In gross revenue terms, 007 First Light has generated $150M. Owing to regional pricing and audience composition differences, the consoles make up a higher share of revenue than they do copies. Of the $150M, 60.5% came via PlayStation, 27.6% via Steam, and 12.9% via Xbox. Part of this is because over two-thirds of 007 First Light‘s PlayStation audience is in North America (43.4%) or Western Europe (23.2%), where local currency means the game generates more revenue per player. On Steam, under half of First Light‘s audience is from those same regions (31.8% North America, 15.1% Western Europe). As we covered in last week’s 007 Steam piece, the Steam version is pulling in higher-than-expected numbers in China, which now accounts for 17.3% of First Light‘s Steam audience. 007 is the equivalent of $44 USD in China, which is roughly 37% cheaper than the US price and about 44% cheaper than Western Europe. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The crossover data backs up what we’ve seen all year about launch-window cohorts. 11% of PS5 players who played 007 First Light in May also played Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which launched just a few days before. Last month was a great month for Denmark! IO Interactive is Copenhagen-based, and Lego Group is headquartered in Billund (TT Games is UK-based but produces work under Lego Group licence and direction). Speaking of which… A very blocky #2 and #3 Minecraft sold another 788K copies on PlayStation consoles last month. Business as usual, since Minecraft hasn’t sold fewer than 760K copies in a single month all year. With over 350M copies sold across all platforms, Minecraft is the best-selling game in history and one of the strongest brands in the world. Every month, a new cohort of children reaches Minecraft age, which guarantees a constant volume of new sales regardless of what the broader market is up to. The demographic refresh rate is truly impressive, with the audience renewing itself faster than it’s churning. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight shifted 757K copies on PS5 last month, bringing its lifetime total on the platform to over 800K. Across all platforms, Legacy of the Dark Knight has now passed 1.5M sold through, so PlayStation accounts for over half of the game’s players. The May crossover data for Legacy of the Dark Knight on PS5 is also useful. 27% of those players also played Fortnite, 16% Roblox, 16% FC 26, and 14% NBA 2K. That’s the household-and-family cohort showing up, plus the launch-window cohort of core gamers who buy practically everything. FC 26 gets players through the door ahead of the World Cup FC 26 sold 411K copies on PlayStation last month (90% via PS5), the fewest copies FC 26 has sold all year and down heavily from April’s 700K. Part of this dropoff is because FC 26 has been available as a PlayStation Plus monthly game since 6 May, cannibalising premium sales. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The strategic logic is straightforward for EA, which is sacrificing premium unit sales in May to build up the player base ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off on 11 June. Obviously, a bigger player pool going into the tournament means a bigger pool of potential Ultimate Team spenders during the period when football attention is at its peak. The early returns are around what you’d expect, with 4.4M new players accessing FC 26 via PS Plus last month – a substantial new spender pool. Anecdotally, a few of my mates who were ‘’skipping FIFA and Ultimate Team this year’’, were drawn back in via PS Plus. Lo and behold, one of them is buying packs like it’s going out of fashion. Whether this is all a smart trade for EA depends entirely on the Ultimate Team conversion rate over the next six weeks. Either way, the short-term engagement impact on the game as a whole is evident. FC 26‘s MAUs hit a record 24M on PlayStation in May, up 30% from the previous record set in April. GTA V does what GTA V always does Rounding out the top five is another evergreen title. Grand Theft Auto V shifted another 387K copies on PlayStation last month. No matter what else is happening in the industry, GTA V keeps pulling players in. It’s sold another 1.8M copies on PS5 in the first half of this year alone, helping the franchise pass the 230M-sold milestone across all platforms. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe I have a theory that Minecraft and GTA V are doing the same thing at different demographic levels. Both are functioning as generational gateway games that the audience ages into faster than it ages out of. Minecraft captures kids around age 6-10, GTA V captures much of the same audience around age 12-15 (unofficially, of course). The crossover data suggests this: 40% of GTA V‘s monthly PlayStation players typically play Fortnite in any given month, while 30% play Roblox. Household accounts aside, that’s not the original GTA V audience from 2013. Of course, the under-12 audience would love to get their hands on GTA, too. It’s always been the way of things, and some parents are happy to oblige. Mine did too back in the day, and I turned out just fine. Right? Right!? Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
National Science Foundation
This program is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
GOP candidate Charles to work with Trump on fraud allegations
Late last year, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services referred one Portland-area social service provider to the attorney general’s office for investigation after finding “a credible allegation of fraud.”
Culpeper Police Department
Last Thursday, we attended a Health and Wellness Fair hosted by Encompass Community Supports at Culpeper Technical Education Center! We had great conversations and handed out wellness information and...
Microsoft and Mayo Clinic partner to build healthcare AI model
Mayo Clinic will own the model, which will be trained on de-identified patient data and initially deployed for use by its clinicians
Americans agree: Ultraprocessed foods pose major health hazard
Across partisan lines, Americans broadly believe ultraprocessed foods are addictive and harmful, and support policies that could strengthen safeguards and hold the food industry accountable.
Evoke Entertainment Secures $35 Million Production Financing Facility to Accelerate Expanding Film & Television Slate
Institutional capital partnership strengthens independent studio's ability to finance and produce content across film, television, and streaming platforms Stan Spry CEO Stan Spry, CEO Evoke Entertainment LOS ANGELES, June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evoke Entertainment has secured a senior secured production financing facility of up to $35 million backed by a leading institutional private credit fund with extensive experience in media, entertainment, and asset-based lending.The revolving produc
SFA business students gain global edge through immersive study abroad tour of Spain and Portugal
NACOGDOCHES, Texas –– Nearly 50 students from Stephen F. Austin State University’s Nelson Rusche College of Business participated in an intensive, faculty-led study abroad program in Spain and Portugal May 10-21.Led by Dr. Matthew Lindsey, chair of the Department of Management and Marketing, and Dr. Mikhail Kouliavtsev, chair of the Department of Economics and Finance, the experiential learning trip bridged classroom business theory with real-world international operations across the Iberian Peninsula.
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.”
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
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