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Results for " human " 3,384 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

Lion undergoes double cataract surgery

‘The surgery itself is almost identical to modern human cataract surgery.’

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Jun 21 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Why only humans sleepwalk

It's a trait evolution forgot to get rid of.

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Jun 21 • 8:01 AM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Why only humans sleepwalk

It's a trait evolution forgot to get rid of.

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Jun 21 • 8:01 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
WHO expects stronger focus on link between climate crisis and human health at COP31

'Health is one of the strongest and most tangible arguments for climate action because people experience climate change first through its impact on their lives, wellbeing, and communities,' WHO head of office in Türkiye tells Anadolu | Anadolu

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Jun 21 • 7:14 AM EDT • Health • aa.com.tr
White House puts RFK Jr. on road ahead of crucial midterms

The White House has put Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the road ahead of November’s midterm elections. Kennedy has been showing up in key battleground Hous…

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Jun 21 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • thehill.com
Major review finds vaping likely causes lung and oral cancer

Researchers have concluded that nicotine vapes are likely to cause lung and oral cancers, based on evidence ranging from human biomarkers to animal and laboratory studies. The findings challenge the idea that vaping is a harmless alternative to smoking and suggest health risks may be emerging much sooner than many expected.

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Jun 20 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Think human anatomy is finished? Scientists say think again

Despite centuries of study, scientists are still finding new details and even overlooked structures within the human body. As researchers explore anatomical differences between individuals, it’s becoming clear that the body is far more complex—and less fully understood—than textbooks suggest.

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Jun 20 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Human Evolution May Be Undergoing a Major Shift Right in Front of Our Eyes

Don't blink.

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Jun 20 • 6:42 PM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
What men should know about the US government’s latest move on testosterone therapy

The US Department of Health and Human Services is requesting revisions to the labels on testosterone replacement therapies for men after reviewing new data and evidence on their safety and benefits. These updates could pave the way for easier access to testosterone replacement therapy.

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Jun 20 • 12:00 PM EDT • Health • cnn.com
World Refugee Day 2026

Marking World Refugee Day 2026 and 75 years of the Refugee Convention, WHO calls for inclusive and resilient health systems that ensure refugees access to quality, continuous and culturally sensitive care. With 117.8 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, the organization emphasizes that protecting refugee health strengthens public health, preparedness and social cohesion. WHO highlights progress in integrating refugees into national health policies while urging greater investment, stronger data systems, emergency preparedness and meaningful participation of refugees in health planning and governance.

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Jun 20 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • who.int
Los Alamos Faith & Science Forum Presents ‘Saved By The Spirits: Did Religion Rescue Paleolithic Humans From Extinction?’ June 24

Dr. Nels Hoffman/Courtesy photo LAF&S FORUM NEWS RELEASE The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum 2026 Summer Series Presents ‘Saved by the Spirits: Did religion rescue paleolithic humans from ex…

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Jun 20 • 12:11 AM EDT • Science • losalamosreporter.com
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Hawai‘i set to receive nearly $25 million for Native Hawaiian health care

US Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) announced that the five Native Hawaiian Health Care Systems and Papa Ola Lōkahi, which coordinates health care programs and services for Native Hawaiians, will receive nearly $25 million in federal funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

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Jun 19 • 10:00 PM EDT • Health • mauinow.com
Border Report Live: New World screwworm adding to overburdened, under-funded US health system

Although the chance of New World screwworm infecting humans is extremely rare, Dr. Tyler Evans, CEO and co-founder of the Wellness and Equity Alliance tells Border Report Live that the threat is ad…

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Jun 19 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • wane.com
Iowa Health and Human Services director resigns after confirmation stalls in Senate

After his confirmation was denied in the Iowa Senate, Larry Johnson has resigned as the Iowa HHS director and will instead serve as the department's new principal deputy director.

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Jun 19 • 6:02 PM EDT • Health • kcci.com
Gov. Reynolds appoints Kraig Paulsen as Director of Health and Human Services

Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed Kraig Paulsen to lead the Iowa Health and Human Services (HHS).

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Jun 19 • 5:51 PM EDT • Health • kcrg.com
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Hope from Science and New Polling on America’s Creed

John West discussed the meaning of equality, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, when it’s obvious that individual humans are not all equally gifted.

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Jun 19 • 5:36 PM EDT • Science • scienceandculture.com
This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition - Jax Chamber outlines a playbook for business adoption

Kent Justice talks with Dr. Carlton Robinson, Chief Innovation Officer at the Jax Chamber, about how Jacksonville can stay competitive as AI shifts from buzzword to workplace reality. Robinson explains why the Chamber launched its new Center for Applied Infrastructure—framing “human-centered AI” as the next kind of public infrastructure—and why the goal is augmentation, not replacement: identifying what must remain human-led and using AI to remove friction in everyday work.

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Jun 19 • 3:55 PM EDT • Business • news4jax.com
Scientists discover a new species of 'walking' shark

A shark that can follow you onto land? Luckily, the “walking shark” poses no threat to humans at all. Now, scientists have discovered a new species of this type.

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Jun 19 • 11:24 AM EDT • Science • wyff4.com
The NTS Radio Player brings the best of internet radio to your hi-fi

To hell with algorithms, let a human DJ take the wheel.

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Jun 19 • 10:53 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
O'Shaughnessy Ventures Backs Writer Telling the Human Story of Science

/PRNewswire/ -- O'Shaughnessy Ventures LLC (OSV), an investment firm that empowers creators, has awarded an O'Shaughnessy Fellowship to Jolie Gan, a writer...

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Jun 19 • 8:41 AM EDT • Science • prnewswire.com
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In season 2 of Sugar, Colin Farrell’s quirky detective becomes much more human

The show’s star talks about keeping secrets, helping John Sugar grow, and why wearing jeans can be so odd.

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Jun 19 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • theverge.com
Catholic mental health leader calls for greater support for clergy and religious

We need “to make sure that we are always aware of the stressors that come up in their lives. While they’re called to ministry, they are human first,” he said.

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Jun 19 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • ewtnnews.com
OPINION: Politics, AI, and human dignity

Whether we are building technology, running campaigns, serving in government, or participating in our local political party, the measure of success is not simply whether we win. It is whether we remember that every person has dignity and value independent of their usefulness to our cause.

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Jun 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • cdapress.com
Senate Panel to Consider Mark Cruz for Indian Health Service Director Post

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will hold a nomination hearing on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, at 10 a.m. EDT to consider Mark Cruz, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, for the position of director of the Indian Health Service (IHS) within the Department of Health and Human Services. The White House announced on Monday, […]

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Jun 18 • 10:57 PM EDT • Health • nativenewsonline.net
Ebola's spread fueled by cuts in humanitarian aid | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Harvard Chan School's Phuong Pham shares how the shuttering of USAID and other foreign aid cuts have contributed to the current spread of Ebola—and what it might mean for global health security in the future.

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Jun 18 • 11:15 AM EDT • Health • hsph.harvard.edu
Cold water changes your cells, and science says it only takes one week - Futura-Sciences

A daily dip in cold water might do more than jolt you awake. A study from the University of Ottawa suggests that a week of cold-water immersion can shift how cells protect and repair themselves, switching on a kind of internal cleanup crew. It is a striking finding, but also...

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Jun 18 • 8:45 AM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com
Amazon's next warehouse automation target: deciding where humans work

Amazon is testing software to move warehouse workers more efficiently, aiming to save millions of labor hours a year, internal documents show.

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Jun 18 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Museum

Finalists: Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, The Contemporary Austin - Laguna Gloria, The Museum of Human Achievement, Harry Ransom Center “Free Tuesdays rock! I...

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Jun 18 • 1:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • calendar.austinchronicle.com
'Survivor' animated movie is in the works

'Survivor' animated movie in the works, host Jeff Probst announces: "But this time, the players aren't humans."

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Jun 17 • 11:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com
Jeff Bezos: AI could create a labor shortage, not mass unemployment

As fears mount that AI could erase jobs, the Amazon founder pushed back against the idea that AI would make humans redundant.

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Jun 17 • 5:36 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
When Health Results Raise Questions but Provide Few Answers

Older people are often treated as if their judgment is less valuable, creating the risk of a future where human intelligence is seen as something that depreciates with age.

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Jun 17 • 4:14 PM EDT • Health • usatoday.com
RFK Jr. announces $700M for mental health, addiction, homelessness

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the funds during a stop in Clinton Township in Macomb County.

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Jun 17 • 4:00 PM EDT • Health • freep.com
Science Will Meet Humanity in K Student's Mongolia Summer

When Anar Bayanmunkh ’28 returns, she’ll have quite a story to tell about her summer after an internship and a peace walk in Mongolia.

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Jun 17 • 3:22 PM EDT • Science • kzoo.edu
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HHS announces over $700 million to fund behavioral health, other initiatives

The Department of Health and Human Services June 17 announced it will provide more than $700 million in funding for initiatives on mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

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Jun 17 • 12:35 PM EDT • Health • aha.org
The Science Behind Lionel Messi’s Viral Moment of Tears

After watching the soccer icon tear up following a historic goal, we try to understand the science of why human beings wait until the moment of triumph to let it all out.

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Jun 17 • 11:04 AM EDT • Science • outsideonline.com
RFK Jr. pans processed food during visit to Charlotte's Country Mill

Secretary of Health and Human Services visited mid-Michigan on Tuesday, June 16, to tout Trump administration policies that require more fresh foods to be offered through food subsidy programs.

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Jun 17 • 6:13 AM EDT • Health • lansingstatejournal.com
Goats can find food by following a human voice, study finds

Experiments show 29 animals moved towards a treat-filled bucket 60% of the time when guided by a researcher

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Jun 17 • 12:00 AM EDT • Science • theguardian.com
WHO Step-by-Step programme recognized as a promising innovation for mental health in humanitarian settings

WHO, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme, showcased Step-by-Step at the World Bank Group’s biennial Fragility Forum in Washington, DC. The forum convened more than 1500 representatives from governments, international organizations and civil society to advance the development agenda in the world’s most fragile and crisis-affected communities. WHO was invited to demonstrate Step-by-Step – a digital self-help intervention for depression, alongside innovations presented by Stanford University and Google. The World Bank Group selected Step-by-Step from among more than 50 innovations that they reviewed in the lead up to the Forum.About Step-by-StepStep-by-Step is a free digital tool developed by WHO in collaboration with Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme and other partners, that helps people manage depression and anxiety on their own, with light guidance from a trained supporter. It uses a picture-based story to walk users through evidence-based techniques for managing common mental health conditions. Users complete five modules, with weekly contacts – of around 15 minutes each – from a trained non-specialist helper, such as a community health worker.Evidence-basedClinical trials in Lebanon involving nearly 1250 participants – including 680 Lebanese participants and 569 Syrian participants – showed that Step-by-Step significantly reduced depression, anxiety and stress, and improved daily functioning. By the end of the programme, a reduction in depressive symptoms of more than 50% was reported by almost half (46%) of Lebanese participants and more than one third (37%) of Syrian participants compared to approximately 14% of those who did not use the programme. Cost-effectiveness analyses further suggest that Step-by-Step may offer a cost-saving response to depression in humanitarian emergencies in low- and middle-income countries.Used globallyStep-by-Step is already in use nationwide in Lebanon and Thailand, as part of each country’s mental health system. In India, the NGO – Kaya Guides – has adapted Step-by-Step for delivery through a widely used messaging app. Together, these programmes have provided thousands of people with evidence-based support for depression. The content is freely available from the WHO website for any organization or country to adapt for their own context.A new implementation guideThe Fragility Forum coincided with the recent launch of WHO’s new practical guide: Psychological self-help interventions: delivering self-help for individuals, featuring Step-by-Step and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress (WHO, 2026). The guide is designed to help governments, health workers, organizations and planners bring evidence-based mental health support to more people, particularly in low-resource and crisis-affected settings.

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Jun 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int
Latvia pilots citizen engagement in research grant evaluations

Latvia has introduced an element of citizen engagement to the evaluation of nationally funded research grants. The aim is to both create more connections between science and society, and to improve the quality of its evaluations. The move comes as research funders across Europe are experimenting with ways to improve evaluation processes in the face of a sharpened focus on science’s impact on society. Evaluators of grant applications submitted to Latvia’s Fundamental and Applied Research Programme (FLPP), the country’s main research funder, will this year have the option of consulting citizen feedback on challenges the public thinks science should focus on to inform their decisions. “In recent years, both public discussions and policy-level debates in Latvia have highlighted the importance of demonstrating how publicly funded research contributes to society, the economy and the resolution of real-world challenges,” said a source at the Latvian Council of Science (LCS), which manages the FLPP. “At the same time, research institutions themselves expressed interest in improving the project evaluation framework while continuing to ensure that funding is awarded to the highest-quality projects,” the source added. The citizen input comes from a survey that was conducted between 25 February and 16 March 2025, to which 1,737 people responded. It gathered information on what the public views as problem areas for Latvia, and the role of science and technology in providing solutions to these problems. A summary of these responses has been included as an annex to the FLPP 2026 call for proposals that evaluators can refer to, purely in an advisory manner, when judging proposals. Results from the survey show that the main problem areas identified by the public were in healthcare and public health, followed by the development of new treatment methods and medicines, and then digital technology, data security and cyber security. At the bottom of the list was research aimed at acquiring new knowledge about the universe, matter and the laws of nature. Further analysis looked at the public view of the possible role of science in solving these problems. The survey charted 4,167 individual responses based on open-ended questions that were derived from the participants’ answers. The analysis again found that medical and health sciences topped the scoring, with 788 responses referring to the field. Humanities and the arts were bottom of the list, with 625. Digging further into the details, the survey suggests citizens are aware of and concerned about a number of research areas. This includes technologies and innovation to improve the environment or reduce pollution, the development of modern military technologies and cybersecurity tools, and the development and application of artificial intelligence, among others. “We hope this initiative will help strengthen public trust in science and create a more meaningful dialogue between researchers and society,” the LCS source said, adding that it offers benefits to researchers, evaluators and to the general public. More space for citizen engagement in evaluationsThere is a gradual but increasing use of citizen engagement in research evaluation processes around Europe, especially in healthcare, but it remains relatively rare, said Henry Sauermann, a professor at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin and an expert in citizen science.“Given that we are at a point where citizen involvement is extremely limited, there is presumably space for more, but it's not that we should do it just because we want to do it,” he told Science|Business. He said some research lends itself better to having citizen input, and this usually tends to be on the applied end of the science spectrum where the public can offer useful feedback based on their experiences. He added that advising scientists on certain topics to study is also a useful approach, in the way that Latvia is doing. “The public does fund a lot of science, there's a lot of tax money going into this. We of course do want to preserve academic freedom, but it's also not unreasonable to incorporate more feedback or input from citizens where possible,” he said. Related articlesCitizen science: where, when, and how to let the public contribute to researchHow can Europe cope with a flood of AI-assisted research grant proposals?Data Corner: Horizon Europe’s AI, digital and data call success rate is 5.2%There are several ways of involving citizens in science funding. The most minimal way is having a few representatives on a panel, such as members of a patient group or union. The most direct way is crowdsourcing funding for specific projects. There is an increasing number of online platforms that allow the public to chip in to support scientific proposals.Sauermann studied this in a recent paper and found that it can have its uses, but it still is not clear if there are benefits to it. There are various assumptions linked to citizen engagement, for example that it increases public trust in science, or that it provides a representative view of what the public thinks about science. These are not necessarily true, Sauermann found. People who participate in engagement activities tend to already be very trusting of science, and, on the whole, it is generally the well-off and well educated who contribute, giving a narrow view of public opinion. On whether citizen input can help manage the increasing number of proposals that are being submitted due to assistance from AI, Sauermann is more sceptical. “The obvious answer to the flood of AI-written proposals is AI-driven evaluation,” he said, adding that it doesn’t mean citizen engagement shouldn’t be a part of evaluations in a well thought-out manner. Southern Denmark’s successful approachOne successful example of citizen engagement in science evaluations was implemented in southern Denmark. Between 2019 and 2025, citizens in the region were invited to vote to fund one of five pre-selected projects in the field of healthcare. The project, called A Healthier Southern Denmark, was a collaboration between regional authorities, the University of Southern Denmark, and two media partners. Over the seven years, there were 75,000 votes and significant public engagement online and on social media. “It was a bit of a wild project, we’d never done something like that before and we were a bit nervous about what would be said in the media about it. But actually, people were very positive,” said Anne Kathrine Overgaard, one of the main organisers of the project from the University of Southern Denmark. The university and its researchers have learned a lot from the experience, particularly about engaging with society and shaping their research to match real-world needs. This is important with Europe’s increasing focus on competitiveness and bringing innovations to market faster, Overgaard said. She hopes to see more citizen engagement in evaluation processes and in science more broadly. “For many years, citizen engagement has been a bit of an add-on to proposals, just to check a box. But I think things are changing,” she said. It’s less about citizens just gathering data and more “about the dialogue between the public and the scientists,” she said. The initiative ended last year as the team wanted to regroup to find fresh momentum. The development of AI and AI-written proposals has made Overgaard reflect on how the project could be reworked to help evaluators. She hopes to bring it back in the future. “It could be a good idea to try this initiative again in a slightly re-worked format,” she said.

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Jun 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
Obama’s Nuclear Deal Looms Over Trump’s Iran Negotiations

President Trump is under pressure to significantly improve upon the Obama-era deal in order to justify the huge human and economic cost of taking the United States to war.

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Jun 16 • 7:15 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
HHSC, UT Southwestern Medical Center Celebrate Opening of New Psychiatric Hospital in Dallas | Texas Health and Human Services

HHSC and UT Southwestern Medical Center hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Texas Behavioral Health Center in Dallas.

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Jun 16 • 5:51 PM EDT • Health • hhs.texas.gov
Merchants of Doubt and the attacks on Extreme Event Attribution science

Last week, I attended a meeting at Columbia University on attribution science and climate law, hosted by the Sabin Center. It was a fantastic event, bringing together scientists and legal experts working at the intersection of extreme event attribution and climate law. Subscribe For those unfamiliar with it, extreme event attribution attempts to quantify the contribution of climate change to an extreme event. For example, several groups analyzed the impact of climate change on Hurricane Harvey’s enormous rainfall totals over Houston, Texas and they found that climate change increased rainfall by 15 to 38%. One thing that came up again and again was how terrified fossil-fuel interests are of extreme event attribution science. They are acutely aware that this research could land them in court. And losing those cases would leave them legally liable for billions of dollars in climate damages. Because the legal stakes are so high, the blowback has turned ugly. I spoke with several scientists at the meeting who are facing ongoing harassment over their work. This blowback is a coordinated campaign to make the entire field look suspect. The goal is to create the impression that attribution science is too uncertain, too political, or too conflicted to be useful in court or in public policy. The strategy is not based on actual science or evidence of misconduct, but on the generation of doubt. The new Merchants of Doubt We’ve seen this before. In fact, not that long ago: We only have to go back a year to the Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Working Group (CWG) report to see an example of using doubt as the tool to push back against well-established science. This strategy is laid out in an email from a member of the CWG, Dr. Roy Spencer, that was released during litigation over the Climate Working Group process. The key quote is: About all I can hope is that what we write will provide sufficient “reasonable scientific doubt” regarding the science claims in the 2009 TSD [technical support document], based upon almost 2 decades of new science, to call into question the original reasoning for the EPA Administrator’s decision that CO2 presents a threat to human health and welfare. This statement is strong evidence that at least some members of the committee were working to support a particular policy outcome: revoking the Endangerment Finding. The email also explains how they planned to do it: by attempting to generate “reasonable doubt”. This is going to be hard, Spencer implies. Despite falsely claiming that “2 decades of new science” weakens the case, Spencer explicitly acknowledges that the actual peer-reviewed science of climate change overwhelmingly rejects his position: But if the science argument is decided upon by a vote, or by the number of published citations, we lose the science argument. We can go back even further: This CWG email shares unmistakable DNA with the infamous 1969 tobacco memo that declared: “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.” The tobacco memo also acknowledges the limit of this strategy: Like the CWG, they knew the science was not on their side. Share The new new Merchants of Doubt The people attacking the IPCC chapter on extreme event attribution are the newest iteration of the Merchants of Doubt. Their goal, like all Merchants before them, is to introduce doubt into the process. Because the report is not even out yet, they cannot attack its conclusions. So they are attacking the authors instead. Here is a press release from the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee: In the letter, the Chairmen express concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving members of the Attribution Committee, stating that “publicly available information suggests a troubling pattern” in which committee members are affiliated with nonprofits that support climate accountability lawsuits, “raising the appearance of impropriety and member bias.” To be clear, this is just innuendo. There is no actual evidence of bias. And given the robust process that these reports go through, including multiple lines of peer review, it seems very unlikely that significant bias can survive into the report. When the report comes out, critics will have the opportunity to make legitimate criticisms of the report — if any exist. If none do, however, they’ll still make criticisms, but they’ll be bogus, simply designed to generate doubt. We’ll see. A note to the press: Fix your frame To any journalists reading this: The public debate over extreme event attribution science is not going away. The science is simply too dangerous to fossil-fuel interests for them to stop fighting it. You very well might be assigned to write an article about this area of research in the future. When you do, do not automatically adopt the framing that climate misinformers want you to use. They want you to frame the story around questions like: Are climate scientists trying to put their thumb on the scale to achieve a predetermined, politically motivated result? Are climate scientists improperly letting their politics invade the science of the IPCC? That frame is a trap. Instead, you need to view this through the historical lens of the Merchants of Doubt. How does the ecosystem of doubt operate? Who funds it? What methods do they use to misrepresent science and slime researchers? What scientific results are they trying to keep people from understanding are legitimate? Ultimately, you instead need to focus your article on the generation of doubt as a way to maintain the fossil fuel industry’s social and legal license to keep burning oil, gas, and coal. If you treat the misinformers’ frame as a legitimate, good-faith scientific critique, you are helping them produce doubt. Don’t do it. Don’t be a Merchant of Doubt. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe other stuff The Staying Curious Substack has an interesting post about the different flavors of climate sensitivity. This is crucial information if you want to understand how scientists think about how much warming the Earth will experience. I’d be grateful if you could hit the like button ❤️ below! It helps more people discover these ideas and lets me know what’s connecting with readers.

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Jun 16 • 4:55 PM EDT • Science • theclimatebrink.com
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RFK Jr. orders passenger from hantavirus-stricken cruise to remain in quarantine in Nebraska, despite CDC recommendation

A woman who was exposed to hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise has been ordered by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stay in federal quarantine, despite being cleared to return home to Florida by a federal health expert.

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Jun 16 • 4:52 PM EDT • Health • cnn.com
There aren’t enough cadavers to teach medical students. Surgical Science wants to help

The company makes surgical simulations that teach students how to operate on humans.

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Jun 16 • 2:51 PM EDT • Science • healthcare-brew.com
Trump moves oversight of special education, civil rights out of Education Dept.

The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education

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Jun 16 • 1:54 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Trump moves oversight of special education, civil rights out of Education Dept.

The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education

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Jun 16 • 1:54 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
NASA Webb, Hubble Reveal History of Relic of Milky Way’s Formation

Researchers using two of humanity’s most powerful observatories — NASA’s James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes — have definitively shown that Terzan 5 is not

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Jun 16 • 1:15 PM EDT • Science • science.nasa.gov
2026 Governors’ Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute

Health and human services policy advisors from states and territories across the country gathered in New Orleans for NGA’s annual HHS Policy Advisors Institute. Over one and a half days, advisors shared priorities, surfaced common challenges, and learned from peers on topics ranging from healthcare affordability to child welfare, SNAP administration, and the use of […]

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Jun 16 • 1:03 PM EDT • Health • nga.org
In 2018, Scientists Recorded An Orca Mimicking Human Speech For The First Time

Included in the repertoire are such human classics as "hello", "bye bye", and a long farting noise.

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Jun 16 • 12:10 PM EDT • Science • iflscience.com
Department of Health and Human Services Digital Stockpile & Manufacturing Response Network Challenge

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

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Jun 16 • 10:39 AM EDT • Health • nasa.gov
Q&A: What does science say about plants as medicine?

Plants have always played an integral role in traditional medicine and healing practices. In this Q&A, Kent Vrana, Elliot S. Vesell Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Center for Cannabis and Natural Product Pharmaceutics at Penn State College of Medicine, discussed the relationship is between plant science and human health and the growing role of plant-derived solutions in medicine.

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Jun 16 • 10:09 AM EDT • Science • psu.edu
Why knowing who studies social science and humanities matters

In an increasingly financially constrained higher education system social science and humanities disciplines find themselves under increasing pressure. Discussing the British Academy’s new Who studies SHAPE dashboard, Almendra Guzman Rivas shows how better understanding student demographics and regional variation in provision intersect is key to framing debates about the future of social science and humanities.

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Jun 16 • 6:04 AM EDT • Science • blogs.lse.ac.uk
Is a transparent fish the future of brain science? This center is betting on it

One of the world's leading brain research centers is shifting away from fruit flies and toward a tiny, transparent fish. The goal: to understand how brains control the behavior of an animal or human.

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Jun 16 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • npr.org
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Human Cell Atlas leader’s tie to 10x Genomics raises conflict-of-interest questions

As the Human Cell Atlas project marks its 10th anniversary, a leader's ties to a major single-cell RNA sequencing company raise conflict-of-interest questions.

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Jun 16 • 4:30 AM EDT • Science • statnews.com
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CSUMB launches public health degree

What has been a concentration in the collaborative health and human services program is now its own major.

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Jun 15 • 11:09 PM EDT • Health • csumb.edu
Rural Health Transformation Program Application

Massachusetts submitted an application to the Rural Health Transformation Program through the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS).

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Jun 15 • 10:54 PM EDT • Health • mass.gov
A 'Useless' Organ That Doctors Often Remove May Actually Fight Cancer

You may not even know you have one.

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Jun 15 • 8:36 PM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
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. …

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Jun 15 • 3:59 PM EDT • Health • thehill.com
Scientists Break Major Barrier: Are We Closer Than Ever to Real Invisibility? - Futura-Sciences

From H. G. Wells to Stealth Mode Invisibility has long been a topic that fires up our imagination. From the colorful camouflage suits designed to outsmart surveillance cameras, to military-grade technology meant to dodge radar, humanity’s efforts to disappear are almost as old as fiction itself. While we’re still far...

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Jun 15 • 3:00 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com
Gen Z thinks AI is killing their career prospects. This business school has other ideas.

The University of Miami’s business school is rebuilding its curriculum from the ground up—and betting that human intelligence is still the most valuable skill in the room

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Jun 15 • 11:59 AM EDT • Business • fastcompany.com
CMS, HHS request information for potential modifications to ACA Essential Health Benefits

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a request for information (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/15/2026-11994/request-for-information-comprehensive-review-of-the-essential-health-benefits-framework-and-typical) June 12 seeking input on CMS’ review of the Affordable Care Act’s Essential Health Benefits framework and the requirement that the scope of EHBs is equal to the scope of benefits provided under a standard employer plan.

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Jun 15 • 11:29 AM EDT • Health • aha.org
32.7% of Gen Z Business Owners Pick Email for Card Support

Small business owners have a message for the companies that issue business credit cards. They want digital tools, but keep a human nearby. The PYMNTS

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Jun 15 • 4:00 AM EDT • Business • pymnts.com
Mind, Body, Soul: Self-Care Is Health care Community Health Day

Ethan Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church invites residents throughout the Miami Valley and surrounding communities to attend its “Mind, Body, Soul: Self-Care Is Healthcare: Community Health Day” on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Ethan Temple SDA Church, 4000 Shiloh Springs Road, Clayton, Ohio 45315.The free community event is designed to promote holistic wellness by addressing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health while connecting individuals and families with valuable healthcare and community resources.The day opens with Morning Worship at 11:00 a.m., featuring guest speaker Alberta Scruggs, a licensed registered dietitian and nutritionist, who will share practical guidance on nutrition, self-care, and healthy living. Following the service, attendees will enjoy refreshments and a light lunch before taking part in the afternoon's health screenings, community resource fair, and wellness-focused activities.From 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., attendees will have access to free health screenings provided through a partnership with Premier Health, along with information and resources from local health and human service organizations.A Community Health Fair from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. will feature representatives from several organizations such as Black Women’s Health Initiative, CareSource, and many more.Recognizing the growing importance of emotional wellness, the event will also feature a Mental Health Panel Discussion from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. led by respected professionals in behavioral health and counseling. The panel will provide an opportunity for open conversation, education, and community engagement around mental health awareness, treatment, and support.In addition to health services and educational opportunities, attendees will receive complimentary lunch bags while supplies last, and school supplies will be distributed to students and families while supplies last.The Community Health Day is open to the public and free of charge. No registration is required.

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Jun 15 • 2:59 AM EDT • Health • wyso.org
BUSINESS BRIEFS June 15, 2026: Business news in the Berkshires and beyond

Business news from The Foundry, Berkshire Humane Society, Q-MoB, Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative, Construct, and more.

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Jun 15 • 12:01 AM EDT • Business • theberkshireedge.com
Writing science that humans and machines can read

Large language models are now routinely used to search, summarize and synthesize the literature at scales impossible for any individual researcher—yet scientific publishing has not adapted to that reality.

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Jun 15 • 12:00 AM EDT • Science • thetransmitter.org
PETA Helps Drive Historic NIH Shift Toward Humane Science

The new office aims to advance reliable and human-relevant non-animal science.

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Jun 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • peta.org
Scientists Concerned Latest Gene Editing of Human Embryos Could “Open the Floodgates”

It's a "gateway to embryo editing to do enhancements."

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Jun 13 • 9:45 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
Lucy’s hunter revealed: Giant crocodile terrorized early human ancestors

A newly identified crocodile species nicknamed “Lucy’s hunter” prowled Ethiopia’s rivers when Lucy’s species walked the Earth more than 3 million years ago. The giant predator was likely the most dangerous animal in the ecosystem and may have regularly hunted early human relatives.

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Jun 13 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
AI leaders shift how they talk about AI job impact

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the focus on maintaining the "human" part of roles means the AI job wipeout some expected is going to happen.

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Jun 13 • 5:00 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe

In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Jun 13 • 4:15 AM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com
Online racism is significantly impacting mental health, First Nations people say: ‘It’s like carrying a bully in your pocket’

Australian Human Rights Commission has called for a digital duty of care to prevent social media algorithms from incentivising ‘racist’ content

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Jun 12 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • theguardian.com
From Ancient Rome to Modern Crowds: The Mystery Of Why Humans Naturally Prefer To Turn Left

The team has put forward several possible explanations – some wilder than others.

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Jun 12 • 10:31 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com
Stanford scientists regrow lost cartilage and reverse arthritis in major breakthrough

A new treatment that blocks an aging-related protein restored lost cartilage in old mice and helped prevent arthritis after knee injuries. Human cartilage samples showed similar signs of regeneration, raising hopes for a future drug that could repair joints instead of replacing them.

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Jun 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Overview of WHO Member State Interventions at WHA79 on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (WCAH)

WHA79 highlighted a critical turning point for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH) amid record declines in development assistance, growing humanitarian crises and ongoing reforms of the global health architecture. PMNCH advocated for WCAH to remain central to health system reform, emergency response and financing discussions, emphasizing that sustainable investments, country-led governance and protection of essential services are vital to prevent reversals in hard-won health gains and accelerate progress toward the SDGs.

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Jun 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • pmnch.who.int
Scientists Discover a Strange Global Pattern in The Way Humans Walk

We're not as random as we think.

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Jun 12 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
Scientists Discover a Strange Global Pattern in The Way Humans Walk

We're not as random as we think.

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Jun 12 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com
Art, not politics, explains the achievement of ‘Death of a Salesman’

Liberals say Arthur Miller’s classic, thriving on Broadway, indicts capitalism. No, it captures human pathos.

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Jun 12 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Emory University lands $15 million grant to study health risks linked to Brunswick Superfund sites

Emory University has received a five-year, $15 million grant from the National Institutes of Environmental Health to establish a center to research how contaminants from Georgia Superfund sites affect human health.

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Jun 12 • 6:50 AM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
Deep dive High-Signal Publisher
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Human chief of staff not worried by her startups new AI chief of staff

A chief of staff working alongside an AI chief of staff at a San Francisco startup shares how she balances human work and outsourcing to AI.

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Jun 12 • 5:11 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Is There Any Room for Politics in Judicial Impeachment? The Moliné O’Connor Case in the Inter-American System of Human Rights

--Emiliano Vitaliani, Fox Fellow, University of São Paulo; LL.M., Yale Law School The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ICtHR) is currently consid

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Jun 12 • 2:00 AM EDT • Politics • iconnectblog.com
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Ancient DNA shared with Neanderthals may explain human language

A tiny set of ancient genetic “switches” may have played a surprisingly large role in making human language possible. Researchers found that these DNA regions, which act like volume controls for genes involved in brain development, have an outsized influence on language ability despite making up less than 0.1% of the genome.

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Jun 11 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Apple's Craig Federighi: Siri Won't Be Your AI Girlfriend

Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi and marketing chief Greg Joswiak sat down for an interview with Mostly Human after during WWDC, discussing the iOS 27 Siri changes, Apple's take on AI, new child safety protections, and more. Apple set out to deliver an AI utility, not an AI companion. When asked whether users could create an AI boyfriend or girlfriend with the new Siri, Federighi said absolutely not.

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Jun 11 • 6:26 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
We May Be Surrounded by Trillions of Conscious Beings, Research Suggests—And They Aren’t Human

We might need to reconsider our position in the consciousness hierarchy.

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Jun 11 • 5:00 PM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com
Rhode Island Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Charest to no longer retire

Rhode Island Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Charest will not be retiring.

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Jun 11 • 4:48 PM EDT • Health • turnto10.com
Seyb v. Labrador in a Global Context: Health Exceptions to Abortion Bans under International Human Rights and Comparative Law

The O’Neill Institute believes that the law is a fundamental tool for solving critical health problems.

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Jun 11 • 3:53 PM EDT • Health • oneill.law.georgetown.edu
Business group expands to address human trafficking in Iowa

A milestone was reached and expansion plans have begun for a state program designed to help Iowa businesses identify and respond to human trafficking.

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Jun 11 • 3:22 PM EDT • Business • thegazette.com
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. to visit Fort Carson, Colorado
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Jun 11 • 3:05 PM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
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Emory gets $15M to establish first center to research toxic Superfund sites' health effects

Emory University has received a five-year, $15 million grant from the National Institutes of Environmental Health to establish a center to research how contaminants from Georgia Superfund sites affect human health.

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Jun 11 • 2:53 PM EDT • Health • newsday.com
Somalia health centers close due to aid cuts as famine looms

Health centre closures across Somalia are cutting off life-saving care for millions, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis.

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Jun 11 • 2:01 PM EDT • Health • care.org
Exclusive | Waymo Readies First National Ads as Rivals and Critics Proliferate

Alphabet’s driverless car service seizes the World Cup stage to try to humanize its technology.

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Jun 11 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • wsj.com
More Americans Are Using AI for Health Questions

As more adults, including those 50-plus, turn to AI for advice, research highlights certain limits and concerns, reinforcing the need for human medical oversight.

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Jun 11 • 11:18 AM EDT • Health • aarp.org
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Scientists discover collagen, the human body's most abundant protein, is liquid-like inside cells

Collagen, the protein that builds skin, bones, tendons and organs, exists inside cells as a liquidlike droplet rather than the long, rigid rod seen in textbooks over the last half-century, according to ...

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Jun 11 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • phys.org
Still Under Attack: A Decade of Monitoring Attacks on Health Care after the Adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2286

Analysis in English on World about Protection and Human Rights; published on 11 Jun 2026 by Insecurity Insight

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Jun 11 • 9:39 AM EDT • Health • reliefweb.int
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AI-Generated Microdramas Are Real — and Thriving Under Our Noses

Vertical-first platforms are proving that human-assisted AI production is a commercially viable engine for mobile entertainment

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Jun 11 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • thewrap.com
AI-Generated Microdramas Are Real — and Thriving Under Our Noses

Vertical-first platforms are proving that human-assisted AI production is a commercially viable engine for mobile entertainment

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Jun 11 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
Scientists Explored an Island Cave and Found 1 Million-Year-Old Remnants of a Lost World

A New Zealand cave revealed million-year-old fossils of ancient birds and frogs, showing extinctions began long before humans arrived.

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Jun 11 • 8:11 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
Behavioral Health: HHS and DOJ Offer Grants to Help Human Trafficking Survivors

Given the trauma that survivors of human trafficking have experienced, they may need behavioral health services, such as therapy or substance use...

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Jun 11 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • gao.gov
Keck Medicine of USC earns LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader 2026 designation

LOS ANGELES — Keck Medicine of USC hospitals and USC Student Health, part of Keck Medicine, received the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader designation in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2026 Healthcare Equality Index (HEI).HEI is the industry standard benchmarking tool for LGBTQ+ inclusion and equity practices in the healthcare field,...

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Jun 11 • 7:30 AM EDT • Health • news.keckmedicine.org
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Medicare Advantage plans denied prior authorization requests at unusually high rates, HHS report finds

UnitedHealthcare, CVS Health and Humana had the highest denial rates for long-term care requests, according to a report from the agency’s inspector general.

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Jun 11 • 12:01 AM EDT • Health • nbcnews.com
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Person dies, another hospitalized for leptospirosis, public health officials say

The two people, who officials said were breeding rats in an RV, represent Berkeley's first known human cases of leptospirosis in a decade.

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Jun 10 • 9:55 PM EDT • Health • berkeleyside.org