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Maika Monroe, much more than 'Scream Queen,' returns to Cannes
After years spent fleeing serial killers and worse, Maika Monroe is on the offensive | KMBZ
Entertainment this week: Opening weekend on the Lake, The Heavy Heavy and more
Friday, May 22 Rick Hays Band – Bar of America, 10040 Donner Pass Rd.. Additional dates: 5/22, 5/23.For more information, visit https://www.barofamerica.com/calendar.html or call (530) 587-2626. Bob Log III – 8 p.m.-12 a.m., Alibi Ale...
Leaked ‘Virtua Fighter Crossroads’ developer diary appears online
A video of what seems to be a behind the scenes developer diary of the next Virtua Fighter game, titled Virtua Fighter Crossroads, was posted on a Bilibili user’s account today.
Liberty Science Center Genius Gala raises record $3.2M (photos)
Liberty Science Center raised a record $3.2 million at its Genius Gala in Jersey City to support STEM education and expansion plans.
Downtown Minneapolis leaders announcing this summer's lineup of entertainment events and festivals
Downtown Minneapolis leaders announcing this summer's lineup of entertainment events and festivals. Minneapolis Downtown Council CEO Adam Duininck says it includes plenty of fun intended to keep downtown workers in the area a bit longer Tuesdays through Thursdays - the busiest in-office days | 830 WCCO
Two Years. Two Deaths. Six Elections. Meet the Most Exhausted Voters in Texas.
Since Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee died, voters in her district have gone to the polls every few months to choose her replacement.
Steven Thrasher on Why We Must Think Past Skin-Deep Identity Politics
A conversation with the author of The Overseer Class about how people from marginalized groups can "mistake representation for liberation and confuse visibility with safety," as Kwaneta Harris put it.
Barney Frank, 86, left mark as trailblazer in politics
BOSTON — Former Congressman Barney Frank, the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out publicly as gay and a liberal bulldog who left his fingerprints on the nation’s banking regulations, died on Wednesday. He was 86. Frank announced in early May that he had begun hospice care at his home in Maine. “He has […]
Interstellar's most-discussed scene is treated as exotic science fiction, but the family-separation problem it dramatises is one of the more actively studied subjects in long-duration mission planning.
The scene that has stayed with most viewers of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is not the wave-planet, or the visualised black hole, or the climactic library of moments. It is the one in the middle of the film where Matthew McConaughey’s character, Cooper, watches twenty-three years of his children’s recorded video messages, having lost that span […]
Barney Frank, financial reformer and trailblazer for gay rights, dies at 86
The longtime Democratic congressman and leading liberal brought new visibility to gay rights and crafted the most significant reforms to the financial system in a generation. Frank was known for his acerbic wit, combative style and focus on marginalized communities. He was 86.
Barney Frank, a liberal congressman and trailblazer for gay rights, dies
He was the first lawmaker to come out as gay voluntarily
Barney Frank, liberal icon who regulated a ‘too big’ financial industry, dies at 86
Former Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, who represented Massachusetts in Congress for decades, has died. He was 86.
Barney Frank, liberal icon and gay-rights pioneer, dies at 86
The former congressman was politically engaged until the end.
EPA is sidelining its independent chemical referee – and that endangers public health
The move reshapes how future assessments of chemical dangers will be carried out, and if they’ll be ignored, delayed or understated to benefit industry.
Even while courting moderates on voter ID, GOP leaders still push debunked fraud narrative
Republicans call their voter ID ballot measure ‘common sense’ to appeal to moderate voters, while alienating liberals with election conspiracy theories
Inside the Texas Ranch Where Big-City Professionals Go to Get Dangerous
In an era of assassinations and political chaos, a rustic ranch an hour and a half southeast of Dallas offers a new way to prepare for disaster.
New ‘AI scientists’ are improving – but reveal their fundamental limits
More ‘natural’ collaboration between scientists and computers won’t necessarily be more effective.
Lightning in a Bottle festival brings big boost to Bakersfield businesses, owners say
For one weekend every year, thousands of people pour into Kern County for the Lightning in a Bottle festival, turning Buena Vista Lake into a temporary city of
Primary Care Making More Mental Health Diagnoses for Kids
Pediatric mental health visits in primary care surged over a 9-year period.
Sen. Gillibrand of New York Clashes With Sean Duffy Over Funding Freeze
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, criticized the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, for posting a video that bragged about withholding money from the state.
Faith-based disability home aid business opens in Liberty
It was a day filled with prayer, celebration, and emotion as a new faith-based disability home aid business officially opened its doors.
He Went With Ken!
After months of being noncommittal, President Donald Trump finally announced he’s endorsing Ken Paxton.
Plex announces borderline offensive Lifetime Pass price hike
Starting on July 1, newly purchased Lifetime Plex Pass subscriptions will cost $749.99, three times the current $249.99 rate.
Digital Media and Entertainment Executive Michael Lambert Joins Kaleidescape Board of Directors
Kaleidescape, provider of the world's only high-fidelity movie library, today announced that veteran media executive Michael Lambert has joined its board of directors.
Digital Media and Entertainment Executive Michael Lambert Joins Kaleidescape Board of Directors
/PRNewswire/ -- Kaleidescape, provider of the world's only high-fidelity movie library, today announced that veteran media executive Michael Lambert has joined...
UT Health San Antonio researcher awarded $2.1M award to study cellular structures - UT Health San Antonio
Like a busy restaurant kitchen, our cells depend on well-organized working spaces to assemble the “recipes” that keep the body healthy. When these spaces are disrupted, important functions like gene regulation and DNA repair can go awry, promoting diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. UT San Antonio scientist David Libich, PhD, associate professor in […]
Liberty Science Center honors AI pioneer, physician-innovator and de-extinction scientist at Genius Gala
The 14th Annual Genius Gala was held on Monday at the Jersey City center
Who moves away when climate change hits? The hidden household politics of migration
Decisions to migrate in response to climate stress are rarely personal choices and there’s such a huge diversity of household migration patterns.
Self-censorship, more stress, tougher recruiting – we asked US researchers how the Trump administration’s science policies have affected them
What do US researchers make of all the Trump administration science-related policy changes? A survey of 280 academic scientists asked them.
It’s the Most Hotly Contested Primary in America. Liberals Are Excited. They’re Getting It All Wrong.
The Epstein files, a MAGA civil war, and an alleged sex scandaled have turbocharged a House race.
Uncertainty makes science powerful — and incredibly vulnerable
Related Content Science fiction and the authoritarian imagination Thinking outside Schrödinger’s cat box: Reality as quantum Chatbots aren’t conscious, but it’s important to understand the science and philosophy of why In Silicon Valley, creationists and atheist post-libertarians have a lot in common Why thinking about aliens can help us better understand philosophy of science What […]
Women in Science: Dr Lauren Snyder - TIB-Blog
The blog series “Women in Science” introduces women from the TIB who give insights into their careers and personal experiences in science. Dr Lauren Snyder studied Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University and earned her PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. Now, she is the co-founder of the TIB Knowledge Loom, an Open Science digital library. In this interview, she talks about why having clear goals is just as important as being open to the unexpected, and why the people you work with play such an important role.
Hungary’s Magyar kicks off his first foreign trip as prime minister to ally Poland
Hungary's new prime minister, Péter Magyar, is visiting Poland, a traditional ally that can offer plenty of lessons on political transformation and restoring democratic norms | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
Trump administration plans to admit more white South Africans as refugees this year
The Trump administration plans to admit up to 10,000 more white South African refugees into the United States, citing discrimination against Afrikaners | K-DAWN
A key science publishing platform is cracking down on AI slop
AI infractions could result in a year-long ban from the arXiv system, which is an essential communication channel in many fields of research.
Whoa! Netflix is Sending Narnia Heading to Theaters...What This Means for the Future of Film
(Welcome to the “Most Important Story of the Week”, my bi-weekly strategy column analyzing the most important (but often not buzziest) news story of the last two weeks. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. Please subscribe.) Here’s a funny thing about the debate over whether streamers should release their movies in theaters first: Both sides think the other side represents the “conventional wisdom”. If you’ve been reading me for any amount of time, or even just scanned my front page, you know I think movies make more money by having a robust theatrical window compared to going straight-to-streaming. I’ve published thousands of words on this topic. And for years, I felt like I was standing up to a wave of opposition. See, while the “put your films in theaters to make money” take was obvious at any point before 2019, post-streaming revolution, most of the trendy thinkers took the opposite point of view. Big names argued that Netflix putting their film straight-to-streaming (“S-to-S” from here on out) actually made more money. Netflix was “disrupting” theaters, just as they disrupted Blockbuster Video, and since innovation is always good, this too was a great idea. This thinking then leaked into the mainstream business outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. I read many articles whose take boiled down to “Netflix makes tons of money from S-to-S releases” and “theaters were in structural decline” anyways. Covid-19 shutting down theaters and the 2023 strikes shutting down film production seemingly justified this point of view, as the box office struggled to return to 2017-2019 heights. Yet I’ve also read folks arguing the opposite point: the conventional wisdom says to put films in theaters! From some writers’ points of view, “everyone” actually agrees/agreed with my “send your films to theaters” take—especially the stodgy traditional studios—and folks still didn’t understand Netflix’s genius. I feel like, for the last two years, many people have argued this point as if it’s conventional wisdom. You know what? I may have been wrong. At this point, the “S-to-S strategy makes money” might be the minority viewpoint. Especially with the news this month that Netflix will put at least one film—Greta Gerwig’s Narnia film The Magician’s Nephew—in theaters in 2027 for a full 49-day run is big news. So that’s the story of the week, but I’ll also explain why they’re making this move now and why Netflix may not completely embrace theaters, along with other topics, like how I don’t buy Disney’s “super app” strategy, the latest good news out of the unions, my take on the latest attacks against free speech, and a whole lot more. Let’s get started. Subscribe Most Important Story of the Week - Netflix Goes to Theaters! Listen, I promise not to victory lap too hard today. As I just wrote, I’ve argued against sending films straight-to-streaming for—checks calendar—eight years now. Since 2018. Yikes. That’s a long time. And for years, others painted my thinking as “conventional” in that I was standing up for the status quo against trendy, cool disruption. And that’s not cool! But math is math, and I never could make the S-to-S numbers work. The only thing that ever enabled that model was Wall Street’s brief exuberance for it. It seems like the heads of Netflix now agree with me. (There were always rumors that former head of film for Netflix Scott Stuber argued internally for theatrical releases as well.) As they announced: “The Magician’s Nephew_—the first film in a Narnia series of films—will open on 12-Feb-2027, with a 49 day theatrical exclusive run.”_ I’m a little surprised at how little coverage this big change actually got. Credit to Bloomberg for leading with it and Matt Belloni’s The Town for highlighting it with the provocatively titled podcast “Hell Hath Frozen Over”. But after that? Instead of getting as much coverage as, say, the FCC’s latest egregious crackdown on free speech, this news story got crickets. But it’s massively more important for the future business of entertainment. So let’s start with the obvious question… Why Put Your Movies in Theaters? So…why should Netflix put (some!) of their movies in theaters? Well, I’ve already written that in a very, very, very long article from 2022: [ ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/the-data-is-in-theatrical-films-massively) [ The Data Is In: Theatrical Films Massively Outperform Straight-To-Streaming Films ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/the-data-is-in-theatrical-films-massively) Entertainment Strategy Guy · April 5, 2023 [ Read full story ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/the-data-is-in-theatrical-films-massively) To summarize, theatrical runs make much more money, especially blockbusters, because they earn more money per viewing,1 and that helps boost home entertainment sales. Theatrical films also perform as well or better than the streaming-only films. Now, partially this is driven by increased marketing for said films, but said marketing ultimately boosts the awareness of the movies and drives improved streaming and library performance as well. Again, I’ve made this case after reviewing the economic models and streaming data for years. Just last week, Emily Horgan also made the case for kids films! Yes, it is probably conventional wisdom, but that’s also because it’s true! I’d also argue we’ve seen a lot of data in the various studios’ behavior. As I’ve noted before, the more a studio needs to make money, the likelier they are to put films in theaters. As such, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount and Sony all send their major films to theaters. Even if they once made a big S-to-S push (*cough* Disney *cough*), they’ve since relented and returned to theaters. The tech companies don’t need to make money, per se, so it took them years to embrace theaters. Apple doesn’t need to make money because it doesn’t disclose their (likely) Quibi-sized losses each year. (They fear bad press more than losing money.) Amazon announced two years ago that they planned to make Amazon-MGM Studios/Prime Video profitable on its own, and guess what? Now they’re putting films in theaters. That leaves Netflix. They’re in between the “no need to make money at all” and the “desperately need to make money to offset linear TV declines”, so they had less pressure to put some films in theaters. Plus, for years, they were the sexy disruptor, and Wall Street rewarded them for that. (Honestly, they still do.) Yet, even Netflix likely saw the money they were leaving on the table (I’ve estimated it at an easy billion dollars before) so they changed their course. I heard one pundit argue that, because Netflix already makes so much money, they don’t need to make more money, which sort of goes against everything I’ve ever learned about business and economics. Again, to be super-nuanced, sending “films to theaters” does not mean EVERY film. TV movies have been a thing for decades. Lifetime films, Hallmark holiday films, Disney Channel Original Movies, and so on, don’t need theatrical runs. But films above a certain budget level (say $25 to 50 million) almost certainly need theaters to maximize their revenue. The Scenarios (with a Dose of Skepticism) Now time for some skepticism: it won’t surprise me at all if Netflix re-changes course. Specifically, Netflix announced that their Narnia film will go to theaters. And I’d bet anything we see KPop Demon Hunters 2: The Huntering2 also goes to theaters, cause it’s the surest hit outside of a Disney animated sequel right now. But how much does Netflix truly commit to theaters? They’ve already tried to emphasize that this is a one-off move. I see three broad scenarios:
Cannes standout 'Paper Tiger' reveals a new side to Miles Teller
One of only two American films competing for the Palme d'Or, James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” has been one of the standouts of this year’s Cannes | KMBZ
Yakima Symphony Orchestra launches summer chamber series
The Yakima Symphony Orchestra will take Beethoven beyond the concert hall this summer with a new chamber music series featuring performances at libraries, wineries and community spaces across the Yakima
New MatterChat Model Helps AI to ‘See’ the Language of Science
From writing emails to generating computer code, much of the artificial intelligence prevalent in our daily lives has succeeded by mastering one domain: text. However, this leaves a major blind spot in the physical sciences, where models depend on the high-resolution, three-dimensional data of the physical world, like the intricate lattice of atoms in a crystal. Delivering on the promise of using AI for science requires teaching these data-driven text models to seamlessly “talk to” physics-based models. Now, a new AI framework from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), called MatterChat, solves this problem by creating a specialized “bridge.” It connects the conversational power of a Large Language Model (LLM) with a physics-based AI that models “interatomic potentials”: the complex physical forces between atoms. The resulting system already significantly outperforms general-purpose AI tools like GPT-4 at predicting material properties, and the team hopes it can accelerate scientific discovery by serving as a robust research partner that provides grounded insights and generates step-by-step instructions for synthesizing novel materials. A paper describing this work was recently published in Nature Machine Intelligence. “Traditional simulations can provide the physical rigor required for materials science, yet their computational cost remains prohibitive for high-throughput screening. Conversely, while LLMs excel at rapid knowledge synthesis, they inherently lack the ‘structural vision’ to interpret materials directly from their underlying atomic coordinates,” said Yingheng Tang, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Applied Math and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and lead author on the paper. “MatterChat was built to solve this dilemma, empowering LLMs with a structural ‘vision’ that allows researchers to leverage their full potential for solving complex, real-world materials challenges.” Empowering language models to solve complex challenges in materials science To build MatterChat, the Berkeley Lab team drew inspiration from technologies like Vision Question Answering (VQA) and Text-to-Image (T2I) generation. In these tasks, AI must translate high-level text concepts into visual images, or vice versa. Doing so requires developers to build tools that “bridge” two fundamentally different forms of data. The researchers adapted this concept to the physical sciences. With MatterChat, they created a “bridge model” that successfully connects an LLM’s general knowledge with the deep understanding of the atomic-scale world encoded in scientific interatomic potentials. Until now, researchers using LLMs to solve materials problems usually had to feed them raw data files as if they were just strings of text. It’s like asking an AI to understand a complex 3D engine based only on a parts list: the LLM can read the names, but it can’t “see” how the atoms fit together in space. MatterChat solves this by training a specialized AI bridge model, pre-trained on millions of crystal structures and an LLM, to align the LLM’s representation of the world with the interatomic potential’s representation of the world. The bridge model can translate physical insights into a format the LLM can actually understand. By giving the LLM these “scientific eyes”— a scientific “inductive bias” in the terminology of AI — the Berkeley Lab team has transformed it into a robust research tool capable of providing grounded scientific insights into complex materials challenges, such as predicting thermal stability or analyzing electronic band gaps. “We think of atoms as living in a physical space, but from a machine learning perspective, they are just vectors living in some very non-trivially structured manifold in a high-dimensional Euclidean space; and, of course, the same is true for the sentences and paragraphs that we use to express our ideas about those atoms,” said co-author Michael Mahoney, Berkeley Lab’s Scientific Data Division (SDD) AI Initiative Research Lead. “The bridge model basically gets those two structures to ‘talk with’ each other.” As a proof-of-concept of this general approach, the team trained their bridge model on a dataset curated by pairing nearly 143,000 stable atomic structures from the Materials Project with their corresponding physical properties. This training data was automatically assembled using the Materials Project’s API and deliberately enriched with properties fundamental to microelectronics design — like formation energy and bandgap — allowing MatterChat to learn the complex patterns connecting a material’s atomic blueprint to its functional performance. To validate their model, the researchers benchmarked MatterChat against a suite of other AI systems, from general-purpose LLMs to other specialized scientific AI methods. The results show that MatterChat consistently outperformed its competitors across a range of tasks. The model was more accurate in classifying material types and demonstrated superior precision in predicting numerical properties. For example, it excelled at predicting a material’s bandgap, a property critical for designing new electronics from high-capacity energy storage to next-generation computer chips. “Our design is significantly more efficient because we don’t have to build a massive AI model from the ground up,” said co-author Zhi (Jackie) Yao, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR. “Instead, we take two powerful, pre-trained models — a structural encoder for materials physics and an open-source LLM — and use them off-the-shelf. The only component we actually train is the lightweight ‘bridge model’ that translates between them. It’s the difference between building an entire car factory and simply designing a smart adapter that connects a world-class engine to a world-class navigation system. This approach is not only computationally efficient, but also makes the system modular, so we can easily upgrade components or adapt the bridge for other scientific domains in the future.” Crucially, this modular design highlights exactly how institutions like Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy are carving out a highly valuable niche in the booming AI landscape. Rather than competing with Silicon Valley tech giants to build ever-larger language models from scratch, the lab is focusing on the specialized connective tissue that makes commercial AI useful for hardcore science. Because the bridge model approach underlying MatterChat is forward-compatible, it is perfectly positioned to leverage these parallel tracks of innovation. As Mahoney pointed out, “We expect that industry will continue to develop improved LLMs, and we expect domain scientists and facilities will continue to generate new data. An important part of scientific machine learning is not simply to solve problems on today’s data, but instead to develop general methods that will be forward-compatible with orders of magnitude more data, whether from scientific domains or from LLMs.” According to Yao, the MatterChat project, which was initially developed and enhanced with funding from a Berkeley Lab Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) Program, will now expand its capabilities. In a collaboration with Fermilab, MatterChat is already contributing to a U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission project — called Accelerating eXtreme Environment Specs-to-Silicon (AXESS) — that aims to speed up the development of next-generation, high-speed, radiation-hardened detectors for challenging particle physics experiments by using advanced 3D integrated circuits (chiplets) and AI-driven data analysis. In addition to the LDRD support, the team also credits supercomputing resources at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), located at Berkeley Lab, with MatterChat’s success. “We are incredibly grateful to NERSC; this research simply would not have happened without access to the Perlmutter supercomputer through their AI for Science program,” said Tang. Wenbin Xu, a NERSC postdoctoral fellow at the time, was also a major co-author of the work, as was Benjamin Erichson, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab’s SDD, highlighting the benefits of AMCR-SDD collaboration on AI for science. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
Business News: Royal Pop Sales Resume After Launch Rush For Audemars Piguet X Swatch Collaboration Forced Store Closures
This weekend's Royal Pop launch ends in disappointment and frustration at more than a dozen Swatch boutiques globally.
MBA Roundup: 3 Harvard Business School Professors Top Harvard’s Highest-Paid List
Three women on the Harvard Business School faculty made a combined $4.8-million in 2024 ... but that's not the whole story.
Georgia Republicans scramble to pick a candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff
Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins is positioning himself as a strong supporter of Donald Trump in his bid to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff | 97.3 The Sky
Georgia Republicans scramble to pick a candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff
Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins is positioning himself as a strong supporter of Donald Trump in his bid to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff | WWJ Newsradio 950
Georgia Republicans scramble to pick a candidate to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff
Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins is positioning himself as a strong supporter of Donald Trump in his bid to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff | News-Talk 1380 WAOK
Supreme Court sends closely watched Native American voting rights decision back to lower court
The Supreme Court has acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes, saying a closely watched ruling needs to be reconsidered after the high court weakened the Civil Rights-era law | KNSS Radio
Supreme Court sends closely watched Native American voting rights decision back to lower court
The Supreme Court has acted in a Voting Rights Act case brought by Native American tribes, saying a closely watched ruling needs to be reconsidered after the high court weakened the Civil Rights-era law | News-Talk 1380 WAOK
Column: Jack up taxes on California's rich? Popular liberal mantra, but bad idea
Sticking it to the rich sounds nice, but doesn't fix the problem
How teaching the history of science can help equip students to face polarized times
If science teachers embrace history as a lens for teaching complex accounts of science, we open possibilities for more socially relevant classrooms.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Kentucky’s primaries
One of President Donald Trump’s most vocal critics within the Republican Party faces a tough primary challenge in Kentucky’s state primary | 97.3 The Sky
‘Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers’: how Alfred Tennyson drew science into his poetry
Robert P Crease reviews The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes
Scientists Discover Bizarre 100-Million-Year-Old Insect With Giant Claws
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of true bug that has claws.
Four Health Sciences Library Faculty Members Receive Honors from the Medical Library Association
Four faculty members with The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center (HSLIC) recently received recognition from the Medical Library Association (MLA). Research Training Institute Fellows, Emily Roberts & Will...
New WHO tool supports countries to improve quality of child and youth mental health services
A new practical tool released by WHO/Europe aims to help countries strengthen the quality of mental health services for children and young people across the WHO European Region, addressing persistent gaps in access, consistency and accountability.
Nature is good for business – and we now have numbers to show it
A New Zealand-focused analysis finds businesses in areas with healthier ecosystems tend to generate higher sales and profits, revealing an overlooked green benefit.
Illinois Wesleyan University to launch first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary undergraduate Quantum Science, engineering program
BLOOMINGTON – Illinois Wesleyan University today announced the creation of the Fisher Center for Interdisciplinary Quantum Science & Engineering, a first-of-its-kind undergraduate program that brings together multiple areas of study to better prepare students for careers in this emerging field. The Fisher Quantum Center will make Illinois Wesleyan the first undergraduate liberal arts university in…
Barbra Streisand won't attend Cannes Palme d'Or ceremony after a knee injury
Barbra Streisand says she won’t attend the Cannes Film Festival ceremony where she was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or after sustaining a knee injury | Newsradio 1140 WRVA
Barbra Streisand won't attend Cannes Palme d'Or ceremony after a knee injury
Barbra Streisand says she won’t attend the Cannes Film Festival ceremony where she was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or after sustaining a knee injury | 104.1 FM KMOX
Barbra Streisand won't attend Cannes Palme d'Or ceremony after a knee injury
Barbra Streisand says she won’t attend the Cannes Film Festival ceremony where she was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or after sustaining a knee injury | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
Barbra Streisand won't attend Cannes Palme d'Or ceremony after a knee injury
Barbra Streisand says she won’t attend the Cannes Film Festival ceremony where she was to receive an honorary Palme d’Or after sustaining a knee injury | WWL
Cate Blanchett laments that the #MeToo movement 'got killed very quickly' in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett says that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in remarks at the Cannes Film Festival | Newsradio 1140 WRVA
Cate Blanchett laments that the #MeToo movement 'got killed very quickly' in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett says that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in remarks at the Cannes Film Festival | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
Cate Blanchett laments that the #MeToo movement 'got killed very quickly' in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett says that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in remarks at the Cannes Film Festival | Talk Radio 1210 WPHT
Cate Blanchett laments that the #MeToo movement 'got killed very quickly' in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett says that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in remarks at the Cannes Film Festival | KNSS Radio
Cate Blanchett laments that the #MeToo movement 'got killed very quickly' in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett says that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in remarks at the Cannes Film Festival | Talk 1370
Cate Blanchett laments that the #MeToo movement 'got killed very quickly' in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett says that the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” in remarks at the Cannes Film Festival | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
In Cannes standout 'Fatherland,’ Sandra Hüller stuns again
The full range of Sandra Hüller’s talent is on full display this year in four films that run from big to small | Talk 1370
In Cannes standout 'Fatherland,’ Sandra Hüller stuns again
The full range of Sandra Hüller’s talent is on full display this year in four films that run from big to small | WBEN
In Cannes standout 'Fatherland,’ Sandra Hüller stuns again
The full range of Sandra Hüller’s talent is on full display this year in four films that run from big to small | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Bulgaria gives its Eurovision winner Dara a grand welcome upon her return home
Hundreds of cheering fans waving Bulgarian flags have welcomed Eurovision Song Contest winner Dara upon her return home | Newsradio 1140 WRVA
Livingston 1-4 Kilmarnock: What Arfield said
Get ready for pre-season and the Cup competitions and hit the ground running to get the calibre of player through these doors to get the club back to the top division. If it is here, then obviously I'll do my best to get the club back up.
Butterflies 15 hosts mental health expo for women survivors
Butterflies 15 will host a mental health expo for victims of human trafficking at the Main Library on Tuesday. From 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., stop by the ...
Why We Can’t Cut Earth Science to Fund the Next Earthrise Shot
We love space, but not as an abstraction. For my twin sons, it is a tradition. Their birthday themes have evolved from “Two the Moon” for their second birthday, featured on NASA.gov, to “From Space to the Farm,” with the boys in those iconic orange astronaut suits, standing in a cornfield. In the ye...
10 Gems of Bluesky Today
Greetings everyone. I’m writing this from my phone, which is doable, but a little clunky. One problem is that I can’t see image attributions from the image library, so I apologise in advance that I…
Steven Soderbergh used AI in a documentary about John Lennon. And he wants to talk about it
The day John Lennon was shot in 1980, he and Yoko Ono gave an interview to a San Francisco radio crew from their home in New York’s Dakota Apartments | WWJ Newsradio 950
Steven Soderbergh used AI in a documentary about John Lennon. And he wants to talk about it
The day John Lennon was shot in 1980, he and Yoko Ono gave an interview to a San Francisco radio crew from their home in New York’s Dakota Apartments | Talk 1370
Steam Controller gains SDL support for games outside Steam
Steam Controller mappings are now part of SDL Simple DirectMedia Layer, better known as SDL, is a cross-platform software library used by games,
Spotlight: NWA Space and Science opens office space, public astronomy library and geology collection in Rogers
Inside a modest room nestled on the second floor of the Jones Community for Nonprofits in Rogers, the future of the Northwest Arkansas Space and Science Center is taking shape.
Spotlight: NWA Space and Science opens office space, public astronomy library and geology collection in Rogers
Inside a modest room nestled on the second floor of the Jones Community for Nonprofits in Rogers, the future of the Northwest Arkansas Space and Science Center is taking shape.
Now What? With Carbon Pricing Eroded and Pipeline Politics Advancing, Here Are the Pathways for Climate Success
At the end of a whirlwind week of news on carbon pricing and electricity strategy, capping a madcap year of pretty much non-stop, dramatic change, the word across much of Canada’s climate and energy transition community is that climate policy in this country has been shredded. Eviscerated. Hit with a sledgehammer by policy rollbacks that have pushed the country’s 2050 net zero target “well out of reach”. That means it’s never been more important to look for the rays of hope and glimmers of possibility. To glimpse the seeds of the next set of strategies to get Canada’s climate pollution under control and the country into the accelerating global dash away from fossil fuels. And then, once we’ve spotted those possibilities, get on with the hard, day-to-day slog of trying to make them a reality. Nothing takes away from the frustration and the deep disappointment so many climate and energy hawks are expressing, the sense of betrayal by the author of Value(s) and the former UN special envoy for climate action and finance. But we knew two things as the week drew to a close. We’re looking at the world as it most definitely is. And we don’t get to give up finding the pathways to confront climate change and deliver faster, deeper carbon cuts that leave no one else behind. So really, the first question we all have to ask ourselves is: What’s next? Subscribe All the Oxygen in the Room The outpouring of anger and grief over the carbon pricing deal between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been absolutely understandable. So much of the climate community poured years, more than a decade, into dragging the current federal pricing regime across the finish line, then defending it from a deluge of three-syllable rhymes after the Trudeau government proved utterly incapable of delivering its own message. The policy foisted on us by neo-classical economists took up all the oxygen in the room, burned through years of climate response time that we won’t get back, while cornering climate hawks into the position that the best response to the crisis of our lifetimes is a new tax…in an era of historic anti-tax sentiment. I mean, really—what could possibly have gone wrong? Against that history, let’s appreciate columnist Max Fawcett’s point that even a modest carbon pricing agreement with a government as off-the-wall libertarian/conspiracist as Danielle Smith’s—those adjectives are mine, not Max’s—is a win worth savouring (as long as Smith keeps her promises for a change). But part of living in the world as it is (no, I’m not letting that go) is to be clear-headed about what we can and can’t control. And one thing we get to decide, after seeing this week’s carbon price festivities take up all the oxygen yet again, is whether we want to keep letting that happen. Particularly when success down that road depends on a factor that no one with a climate agenda can control or influence—a provincial carbon pricing mechanism that has been manipulated and eroded beyond its lowest possible denominator. Thankfully, that’s not the way it has to go. Not when we have so many other powerful, practical tools at our disposal, including the ones still available to us through this abominable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and Alberta. Tools In Our Toolbox When I started roughing out this list, I didn’t expect it to grow to nearly a dozen bullet points. It’s probably still incomplete. Some of the greatest hits in today’s climate solutions toolbox include: • No Carbon Capture, No Pipeline: On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly stated that there’s been no change to the MOU provision that there will be no West Coast pipeline without an industry commitment to build its massive, $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage (CCUS) hub in Northern Alberta, and vice versa. The two megaprojects were joined at the hip when the MOU was signed Nov. 27, and the implementation agreement this week affirmed that they still are. A parade of independent analysts have spent years pointing to the economic and technical flaws in CCUS, while the industry kept postponing its investment decision until it could arm-twist the government for more “clarity” (by which it meant even more lavish taxpayer subsidies) on the project. Now the industry itself is running away from the CCUS hub and insisting the pipeline should proceed without it, but Carney doesn’t seem to be budging from a central tenet of the MOU to which Smith has signed on. • No Subsidies, No Investors: Climate analysts and advocates have quite rightly been hammering away at Carney and his team, insisting that any new capacity the industry wants to build must proceed without new subsidies. The government has responded with a growing collection of funding and financing mechanisms for the very wide menu of industrial development and nation-building projects they say they want to take on, and that menu always includes fossil fuel infrastructure. But it’s hard to see how even the combined fiscal clout of the federal and supportive provincial governments will deliver the financial backing private investors would need when the business case for new fossil fuel development is evaporating before their eyes. Particularly when… • No Market, No Demand, No Investors: As our friend Markham Hislop at Energi Media (our apparently sleepless friend, given the massive volume of great material he’s been churning out) points out this morning, the biggest vulnerability in any pipeline deal is the assumption that Asian buyers will want the oil or liquefied natural ga that our fossil industry is so keen to send them. Hislop writes in part: Ottawa and Alberta are effectively betting that countries like China and India will continue increasing oil imports for decades as their economies grow and energy consumption rises. That assumption underpins the entire economic rationale for expanding oil sands production and building billions of dollars in new export infrastructure. But Asian energy systems are changing rapidly… China, India, South Korea, and other major hydrocarbon importers are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars into electricity systems built around wind, solar, batteries, nuclear, hydro, and expanded transmission infrastructure. Domestic “energy sovereignty” is increasingly replacing the old energy-security model based on stable oil and gas imports. Those investments are expected to sharply slow oil demand growth and eventually reverse it, even as overall energy consumption continues rising. There are also refining constraints. Many Asian refineries and petrochemical complexes are already optimized to process discounted heavy crude from the Middle East and Latin America. That raises serious questions about how much additional Canadian bitumen Asian markets can absorb at profitable prices. Small wonder that there’s still no private sector investor for the project, despite Smith’s government desperately beating the bushes to put together a deal. For now, Alberta is acting as proponent and covering early start-up costs for a pitch to the federal Major Projects Office, which could actually turn into the next tough hurdle for Smith and her pipeline to jump. • Canada Day Looms: How ironic that Canada’s birthday this year could become a major chokepoint for the provincial premier who’s been working so diligently to tear the country apart! The July 1 target date for Alberta’s pipeline proposal is baked into the MOU, was reaffirmed by the implementation plan, but it hadn’t dawned on me that it cuts both ways. As one very smart colleague wrote in an email yesterday, “they’ve thrown the ball into Alberta’s court to get the project proposal on the table really quickly and to have to do a whole pile of work to put together a massive, complicated project that would typically take years to assemble, and they’ve given them weeks to do it.” That makes July 1 a looming deadline that Smith won’t be able to run away from politically, especially with the separatists in her party and her caucus breathing down her neck. (See previous ref to off-the-wall.) But if Alberta comes in with a sloppy, incomplete submission, even after Carney bent over backwards to simplify the application process and the rules that govern it, it may be harder for the province or the industry to blame Ottawa and insist on the faster process they claim their investors are demanding. (Oh, wait—which investors would those be??) • We’ll See You In Court (Then We’ll See You Again): If Carney did cave, that would be just one more reason for Indigenous and other affected communities to take the government and the process to court—Just as Alberta First Nations did, successfully, in response to Smith’s half-baked separation referendum. Veterans of the Harper era have been warning that a shoddy process around fossil fuel infrastructure or other major projects will be a recipe for the very delays that process seeks to avoid. And now more than ever, with renewable energy and energy storage eating fossil fuels’ lunch in import markets around the world, a delayed pipeline or LNG terminal may be as good as a cancelled one. • Charged Up, Ready to Go: With its goal of doubling Canada’s electricity supply to meet a doubling of demand by 2050, the national electricity strategy that Carney unveiled Thursday has a lot to like. With its explicit language about speeding the shift from fuels to more efficient and affordable electricity, global investment and deployment patterns that already favour that shift, an emerging bidirectional power grid, the role of front-line options like rooftop solar and heat pumps, the emergence of electric vehicles as behind-the-meter energy storage, and the domestic jobs and manufacturing to make it all happen, the document doubles down on the essential cornerstone of a faster shift off fossil fuels. The strategy envisions a more prominent role for gas and nuclear power. But some of those provisions were already in the Clean Electricity Regulations that climate hawks are now fighting so hard to defend, inserted as a compromise in a futile attempt to mollify the industry and its political representatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But once again, gas will be a tougher sell when it’s more expensive and now so much more unpredictable than the clean alternatives. The new nuclear technologies are still speculative and deeply vulnerable to cost overruns. Increasingly, utilities, developers, and investors know it. Carney declared Thursday that “it doesn’t do us good to be sitting in court all the time with provinces. It doesn’t do us good to be talking past each other. What does do us good is to come together with specific projects.” There are no guarantees, but so much of the language and narrative-building in the electricity strategy suggests the lion’s share of those projects will be renewable. • The Party Has Already Started: The electricity strategy only rarely digs down to specific projects, but provinces representing three-quarters of Canada’s population are already embracing a faster transition. Hydro-Québec is working on a 10-year, $185-billion renewable energy and grid buildout by 2035. Ontario recently brought 10 provinces and territories together in a National Energy Corridor Agreement to boost interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure. And the MOU implementation agreement commits Alberta to facilitate investment in renewable energy projects, a big step back from its continuing, punitive restrictions on renewables development. The electricity strategy envisions much of the financing and infrastructure that will be needed to pull those advances together into an integrated whole. • Delivering on Affordability: The MOU implementation plan has little or nothing to say about affordability (are you surprised?), but the electricity strategy does, with a top-line pledge to reduce home energy costs for seven out of 10 Canadian households by 2050, a total saving of $15 billion across the board. It’s just a start, but it puts affordability on the government’s narrative map. If they’re serious and deliberate about patching together a least-cost energy strategy, it’ll have little if any room for oil, gas, or nuclear—not with powerful evidence, for example, that electricity prices are higher when those prices are set by gas. • Smith Proves that Canada Works: By signing a deal that makes it harder to claim the federal government is blocking a new pipeline, Smith has helped prove Carney’s constant anti-separatist refrain that “Canada works”—incurring the rage, no doubt, of her own political base. Canada also needs to work for anyone who depends on a clean environment, healthy and thriving ecosystems, and safe, stable climate. But with Smith and her separatist constituents setting up as a fifth column for annexation by Donald Trump’s United States, let’s set aside any notion that 51st state status for Canada is a recipe for anything other than climate disaster (and so much else). Resisting and withstanding Trump (just 170 more sleeps until mid-term elections, which is a damn sight better than the 730 we started with) doesn’t mean a free pass for a pipeline, but we can still appreciate it that keeping Canada whole and sovereign is still Carney’s Job One. • The Words Not Spoken: Apart from a commitment to export a million barrels of “low-emission” Alberta bitumen per day (memo to Smith and Carney: You realize that that’s less than the industry is already exporting??), the MOU implementation plan says nothing about the international trade and economic sovereignty deals that Carney has been travelling the world to negotiate. It didn’t have to. Carney doesn’t need permission from Danielle Smith, her American enablers, or her separatist allies to continue building the alliances that will ratchet down our economic dependency on our unstable, unreliable neighbour to the south. But every connection he builds with countries outside North America helps align our economy and our future with a faster shift off fossil fuels. Little if any of this was on our bingo cards a year or two ago. But it’s the pathway that has opened up to us. And if it gives Canada any climate or energy gains at all in an era still dominated by Trump and his increasingly ridiculous tariffs, his loutish trade negotiations and his continuing annexation threats, we have to take the wins. Not least because they’ll be the point of departure for what we can achieve in 2027, 2029, and beyond, as Trump’s grip and this era begin to loosen and then fade. What is Carney Doing? If this line of thought is right—and it’s a possibility, not a prediction—it means that Carney’s actions and decisions are largely about buying time. Time for Trump’s power to wane. Time for Alberta’s separatist/conspiracist virus to spread, mutate, die out, or at least die back, with help from a vaccine of federal steadiness and calm (appropriate enough, for a movement populated largely by vaccine deniers) that no conspiracy theory can dismiss. And time for the government’s trade and investment agenda to deliver results—even knowing that some of those results will bring impacts that front-line communities will not and should not accept. In the immediate moment, none of this changes the way the wider climate community has to respond, from campaigners to investors to front-line practitioners. All of our voices are still essential. But those voices will be stronger and more confident if we have a clearer sense of the brutal game we’ve been pulled into, and a plausible path (or two it three) for playing it to the win we need. This conversation also underscores our biggest task for the remaining years of what was supposed to be the “decisive” decade for climate response: if we can shift the energy narrative in Canada, make it a mainstream view that the country’s preoccupation with oil and gas has us falling farther behind a changing world, we’ll see far better results in the 2030s and beyond. For many veteran climate advocates, taking on that part of the fight will begin with recognizing that most of our friends and family, neighbours and colleagues already understand that climate change is real and right in front of us: they’re looking away and staying silent because they don’t have what climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe calls “efficacy”. As Hayhoe recently pointed out in a feature interview with The Energy Mix, it amounts to science denial to keep hammering away at the dire news about global warming without also helping audiences understand what they can do about it, with multiple studies telling us why that won’t work. Far better to open those conversations with the dominant crises like energy security, food security, emergency preparedness and business continuity, affordability, and financial security that have knocked climate change far lower on the list of public priorities, and will likely keep it there. We Knew This Would Happen Climate hawks have always known this day would come. For decades, we warned that everyone had to pay attention to climate change right now, because it would be much tougher to respond once the crisis itself started affecting our daily lives. We were right, and here we are. But now, thanks to decades of hard work, communities and countries have an alternative to doubling down on fossil fuels. “In 10 years everyone will have ‘always known’ that solar and batteries were going to win,” Morgan Solar Executive Chair Mike Andrade writes on LinkedIn. With the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz roiling energy priorities around the world, Canada and the United States are among the shrinking number of countries that are still very keen on fossil fuel development. Understanding that gap is a first, essential step in spotting the opportunities ahead, and averting the deep economic as well as environmental and social risk we face if we don’t seize them. Thanks for reading The Energy Mix Weekender! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix and The Energy Mix Weekender. Chart of the Week BYD Eyes 20 Dealership Locations After Canada Greenlights Chinese EV Imports ‘Sledgehammer’ Carbon Price Deal Boosts Emissions by 230Mt, Aims for Fall 2027 Pipeline Approval ‘Worse Than Harper’: Regulatory Rollback Would Stop Canada from Assessing Project Impacts, Critics Warn Electricity Strategy Aims for Doubling by 2050, Allows ‘Flexibility’ for Gas Power Plants Opposition Mounts as O’Leary’s Data Centre Approved in Drought-Stricken Utah Diluted Carbon Price Misses ‘Reality of the World We’re In’, Could Impede Diversified Trade: Climate Institute $200B in Clean Energy Investment Will Need On-Time Delivery, Reliable Policies, Trade Association Says ‘Sovereign Pipeline’: CEO Pitches to Keep Trans Mountain in Government Hands What a Supercharged El Niño Could Mean for Canada Canada’s future is electric, and here’s how a power grid superhighway would get us there (Toronto Star) The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait (Globe and Mail) Saudi Aramco profits jump despite conflict in Middle East (The Guardian) Farmers confront rising cost of fertilizer and fuel as spring seeding under way (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Clarkson forecasts 24% decline in offshore oil, gas capital expenditures (Oil & Gas Journal) Pipe Dreams: How Oil and Gas Fail to Deliver Economic Development in Africa (Oil Change International) Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition (Climate Home News) Iran war threatens the dream of a post-oil economy in the Gulf (Washington Post) U.S. Oil, Gas Work Force Hits Lowest Level Since 2022 (Rigzone) Why Polestar Is Doubling Down on Net Zero as Rivals Pull Back on EVs (Bloomberg) Why this Michigan utility plans to sell its hydro dams for $13 (E&E News/Politico) Levees can no longer save New Orleans (Vox)
The 10 best performances at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest
The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest final in Vienna has showcased acts from 25 countries | Talk 1370
Climate change is a health crisis – and fixing it is a health opportunity
Independent Commission of former heads of government, international bodies, ministers and civil society leaders delivers 17 recommendations for what WHO and countries should do next.
‘Ocean of Support’ event held after USF Marine Science fire
Some individuals have lost samples and “library collections that they have been building for decades.”…
Abilene Heritage Square opens with new library, science center
Abilene Heritage Square, a revitalized 1924 high school campus, opens Saturday, May 16, featuring a new library, science center and event spaces.
Spain's Eurovision boycott over Israeli participation leaves contest fans torn
Spain is boycotting this year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, after repeatedly expressing disapproval over Israel’s participation | Talk 1370
The ACM Awards are nearly here with first-time host Shania Twain. Megan Moroney leads the nominees
The 2026 Academy of Country Music Awards will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas | Talk 1370
Rooted in San Francisco: 10 Years of the Legacy Business Program
Opening reception at the San Francisco Public Library for the exhibit celebrating a decade of San Francisco’s Legacy Business Program, June 4 from 6:00-7:45 p.m., SFPL Main Library, 4th Floor
Schlittler shines as Yankees take Subway Series opener
Cam Schlittler continued his Cy Young-caliber start while the Yankees got to former closer Clay Holmes.
What to know about the mistrial in Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial
A New York has declared a mistrial in Harvey Weinstein’s rape case from the #MeToo-era that has gone to trial three times so far after a jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision | Talk 1370
New Wings exhibit traces Paul McCartney’s reinvention as husband, father and bandleader
A new exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland features the largest public display ever assembled of Paul McCartney’s personal artifacts | Talk 1370
Bam! Pow! Krakoom! The everlasting allure of the American comic book
They are ridiculous | Talk 1370
Florida city offers businesses year of free rent. How it works
Hialeah is offering businesses one year of free rent — if they're willing to move into a city-owned building.
Jane Schoenbrun's queer slasher movie 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' jolts Cannes
A bold, bloody queer slasher film starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson gave the Cannes Film Festival a gonzo jolt | Talk 1370
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to a Eurovision Song Contest that embraces linguistic diversity
English has long dominated pop music, but it no longer reigns supreme at the Eurovision Song Contest | Talk 1370
Secret Science Garden
Sunday, May 31 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Brookwood Public Library...
What's happening at the Waunakee Public Library
Circulation desk—608-849-4217 waupl@waupl.org
How a little-known virus on a cruise ship put the world’s health security framework to the test
When the United Kingdom notified WHO on 2 May 2026 of a cluster of severe respiratory illness cases aboard a Netherlands-flagged cruise ship in the Atlantic, passengers from 23 countries were on board. Within days, cases of hantavirus (Andes strain) had been confirmed in the Netherlands, South Africa and Switzerland. The ship was still at sea.
My unsung hero of science: Carolyn Wood Sherif, pioneer of feminist psychology who foresaw the risks of scientific bias
In 1979, Wood Sherif wrote my favourite psychological paper of all time.
Chartbook 449: Voldemort on Threadneedle street. The Bank of England and the "haunted house" of English politics.
Imagine the scene: In some Harry Potter version of 21st-century London, a group of deathless UK Treasury officials gathered from across the last century huddle over warm pints and glasses of Chardonnay. Around the table there are officials from the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1970s, 2022 and today. Inevitably, in May 2026, the subject of conversation is the disintegration of the current Labour government. Despite its huge majority in parliament, it has been reduced to tatters by catastrophic local election result. These exposed the fact that rather than having a government with a clear popular majority, the UK is like most other modern societies divided into 5 segments each of which commands between 26 and 16 percent of the vote. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the leadership at Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street - where the Prime Minister and the Chancellor (Treasury Secretary) work - seem paralyzed. They are caught between mounting discontent over unfairness and the cost of living, and tough fiscal strictures that push them into making unpopular spending decisions. In the London pub, the Treasury officials from across the ages, can barely hide their satisfaction at the latest display of democratic politics caught in the vice-grip of financial logic. “Remember the mur d’argent and the banker’s ramp?” “Just like yesterday!” There are smirks around the table. Then the representative of 2026 pipes up: “One thing you have to say about the current lot (referring to the latest hapless Labour government), you don’t have to teach them about the bond market!” There is a murmur of ascent from the Treasury Mandarins. The trauma of the fiscal crisis of September-October 2022 sits deep. Back then, in the final stages of Tory decay, a ‘mini budget’ that challenged fiscal orthodoxy led to a brief but fierce panic in one of the oldest government bond markets in the world (aka gilt market). Now all you have to do is to mention the “bond market” to hush debate. [ Paul Mason@paulmasonnews In the name of public service, and as ex-economics editor of BBC Newsnight, I offer to do a zoom call, tonight, with any Labour MP who wants to understand why bond markets do not "fall into line" with governments. 1/ 3:57 PM · May 12, 2026 · 466K Views 224 Replies · 674 Reposts · 3.93K Likes ](https://x.com/paulmasonnews/status/2054229532404519082?s=20) “And the funny thing is”, the young man in the huddle continues, “they don’t even want to talk about … ”. There is a sudden hush. Significant looks are exchanged around the table. About? One of the senior figures puts down his glass with a decisive “clink”. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has entered their thoughts. Meanwhile, a few miles away in a grubby pub in Bloomsbury, two conspirators from the camp of Critical Macrofinance huddle over cans of low-alcohol IPA. They look at each other and blurt out loud: “The Bank!” “Everyone in the bloody Labour party is talking about the bond market. But why aren’t they even mentioning … the Bank of England!?” “Why is no one talking about Voldemort?” In Paul Mason’s blogpost, after much chest-thumping about basic fiscal logic, the basic point about the Bank of England is buried in the fine print at #3 in his list of suggestions as to what a radical Labour government might actually be able to do! [ Conflict & Democracy Down with the bond market! Down with gravity! It may seem unfair to focus on Labour MP Paula Barker for her off-the-cuff assertion that the bond market would have to “fall in line” with Andy Burnham, should he replace Keir Starmer as prime minister. But Burnham himself told the New Statesman that Labour had to “get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets… Read more 2 days ago · 100 likes · 3 comments · Paul Mason ](https://htsf.substack.com/p/down-with-the-bond-market-down-with?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) Back in Bloomsbury they shake their heads and ask: “Didn’t we learn anything from the Eurozone crisis?” Meanwhile, as if summoned to the conversation by some higher force, the “pink pages” announce: “The days of ultra-cheap government borrowing have come to an end” and Martin “Whizzard” Wolf publishes the graph of the season Look at the UK in 2026, perilously positioned on the upper edge of the pack. No wonder no one in London needs any lessons about the “bond market”. But, look again. Imagine how they feel in Rome. What is London’s nightmare in 2026? The nightmare is that you end up like Italy in the early 2010s during the Eurozone crisis. Once comfortably situated in the middle of the pack, watching with horror as your ten-year yields explode to 7 percent and “spreads” become a national nightmare. One of the largest economies in Europe, a founding member of the euro, stigmatized. But the message of the Italian experience is ambiguous. After all, the stigma didn’t last. In 2026, Italy borrows at rates lower not only than the UK but the US. The US, which, as everyone knows, enjoys the “exorbitant privilege” of being the issuer of reserve, safe asets. What kind of magic is this? How did Italy, in the space of fifteen years, go from being good, to bad and back again? Which brings us back to our dissident friends in their Bloombury boozer and their memories of the Eurozone crisis. Italy never was Britain - with its ongoing fiscal deficits. Without interest payments, on primary balance, from 2000 to 2020 Italy ran a tight fiscal ship. Even in 2008 it barely went into deficit and when it was being put on the rack in the early 20210s its primary surplus matched that of austere Germany. So, what happened? How did it end up stigmatized? Of course Italian politics didn’t help. Berlusconi was at the helm and he had legal issues. But amongst friends in the Bloomsbury pub, Berlusconi is a sideshow, the name we whisper to each other is “Trichet”. From 2004 to 2011 the ECB was headed by Jean-Claude Trichet, ex of the French Treasury, more German than the Germans. After 2009 as the news of the Greek fiscal disaster broke, the European bond markets wento into panic mode and Trichet began a brutal game of cat and mouse. Between 2009 and 2011, Trichet intervened in the bond market to help, only when he thought he had compliance with austerity. When he thought they were uncooperative, he withdrew. In the summer of 2011, he even made direct suggestions to his Italian counterparts in Rome, as to how Italy should be governed. It was this cat and mouse game that drove the bond markets crazy and exposed Italy to a violent squeeze. When Mario Draghi took over the ECB at the end of 2011 and declared “whatever it takes”, the pressure on Italy, gradually eased. It is that starring role that has made Draghi into the towering figure in European politics that he remains today. So now you see why voices in London hush when it comes to the Bank of England. “The bond market” isn’t an irresistible objective force like the weather or an avalanche. It can appear like that. But that depends on the way it is being handled, or not handled by the central bank. Which is why the silence about the Bank of England in London right now is so significant. If you think this all sounds a bit fishy, coming from a left-liberal Keynesian like myself, well, let me introduce you to Robin Brooks, who, to put it mildly, plays on a different quidditch team to me. Here, from the position of a fiscal hawk is Robin’s celebratory account of the Bank of England’s role since 2022; In October 2022, at the height of the bond market blow-up in the UK, something incredible happened. Governor Andrew Bailey told British pension funds the Bank of England would end its support program for the country’s fragile gilt market, drawing a line under how much help the central bank was willing to give to exposed pension funds and - implicitly - the government. By the end of that week, Kwasi Kwarteng - the finance minister - had resigned. Prime Minister Liz Truss would soon follow. This episode is so incredible because it contrasts with what happened in the Euro zone earlier that year. Bond markets in Spain and Italy were under pressure amid high inflation and rising interest rates. In the middle of this, Mario Draghi - Italy’s Prime Minister - resigned, compounding pressure on bond markets of high-debt countries on the Euro periphery. Unlike the Bank of England, the ECB caved. It bought Italian and Spanish government bonds in an effort to cap yields and introduced a new tool that signaled to markets it might do such caps more frequently going forward. Faced with pressure on bond markets, the ECB capitulated to political pressure from high-debt countries like Italy and Spain. The Bank of England stood its ground and toppled the Truss government. This kind of thing has long-lasting consequences. It means markets price a higher probability of yield caps in the Euro zone, which keeps Italian and Spanish yields artificially low, while markets feel free to push up UK yields without fear of central bank intervention. As I flagged in yesterday’s post, this means you really can’t compare UK yields to those of other high-debt countries. The UK looks worse, but only because its central bank isn’t interfering with markets. There’s more to this than just that 2022 episode. The Bank of England has also been much more aggressive in its quantitative tightening (QT) than other central banks. If one motivation for quantitative easing (QE) is to lower bond yields - especially longer-dated ones - then it stands to reason QT pushes yields up. The left chart above shows a four-quarter moving average of UK government debt issuance (black line) in percent of GDP and which sectors absorb this issuance, including the Bank of England (blue bars). The right chart above compares the Bank of England’s accumulation or run-off of government bonds (blue line) with that of other central banks, where this blue line is the same as the blue bars in the left chart. The Bank of England was quicker and more aggressive than other central banks in downsizing its bond holdings, so UK yields will have risen more than elsewhere also for this reason, not just because of Governor Andrew Bailey’s remarks in October 2022. Back in October 2025, after a conversation in New York with friends in British politics, my sense of dysphoria was such that I raised the issue of the Bank of England openly in the FT Since 2008, the UK has slid into a deep economic and political predicament. Growth has stagnated to a degree far worse even than in the 1970s. The Tory leadership’s wager on the Brexit referendum spectacularly backfired, leaving the UK isolated from Europe and at the mercy of its special relationship with the US, many of whose political class regard the UK as a basket case. After years of austerity, the Labour party lurched to the left and then back to the centre. The Tory party has been eclipsed by the populist nationalism of Reform. Any British government should be worrying first and foremost about how to restart growth. Instead, Keir Starmer is beset by shades of the gilt market panic triggered by the Liz Truss government in 2022. The debt level is higher than in recent years, but there is no cause for panic. UK debt is at far from critical levels and of long duration. Whether you want to “take back control” or launch progressive economic policy, a democracy dogged by fear of bond market vigilantes is unhealthy. In a country that is a monetary sovereign, this climate points to one thing: a disconnect between the government and the central bank. Since 1997, the independence of the Bank of England has become a sacred cow. But independence is what you make of it. And in the wake of the gilt market crisis of September 2022, relations between the Bank of England and the UK government need a reset. In normal times, there is no doubt that an inflation-targeting independent central bank can serve a country well. But since 2008, the UK and other advanced economies have not had the luxury of such simple problems. To their credit, central bankers around the world have not stood on orthodoxy. After 2008, the US Federal Reserve rescued the global banking system and, through quantitative easing, it stabilised the Treasury market in the face of huge deficits. In Europe, things were trickier. Both the Bank of England under Mervyn King and Jean-Claude Trichet’s European Central Bank played cat and mouse with national governments. This was a high stakes wager that between 2010 and 2012 escalated bond market tension and triggered a disastrous turn to austerity. Shaken by the impact of those shocks, their successors, Mark Carney and Mario Draghi adopted a more protective stance (assuming you were not the government of Greece). Recall that Draghi’s legendary slogan, “Whatever it takes”, was uttered to face down the City of London’s bond vigilantes. In 2015, Draghi launched QE — financial repression by another name. In 2016, Carney used the authority of the Bank of England to stabilise markets following the vote for Brexit, an exemplary demonstration of how central banks can underpin democratic choice, even when those choices are wrong headed. All these were independent central bankers steeped in the best practice of the 1990s, who recognised that historic crises demanded radical action. It was the price surge of 2021-2023 that poisoned the atmosphere. Though the shock came mainly from the supply side, central banks ended up in the dock. Nowhere more so than in the UK. The Bank of England reacted with aggressive normalisation. Faced with a cost of living crisis, the governor called for workers to accept real wage cuts. In early 2022, as gas prices were at record levels and Russia’s army was poised to invade Ukraine, the Bank adopted a stringent programme of quantitative tightening, elevating interest rates. When the Truss government got itself in trouble, the Bank took almost a week to come to the rescue. Rather than enacting a charade of normality, it is time to recognise that in 2025 the UK faces a period of historic transition. To meet this challenge, what is needed is a new concordat with the Bank. This should not ignore inflationary pressures or the long-run trajectory of debt, but should affirm the priority of reviving investment-led growth. One could follow Donald Trump in demanding interest rate cuts. The Bank could shadow the ECB in its commitment to capping Eurozone yields. But the top priority should be to lay the ghost of September 2022. The Bank’s slowing of QT last month was a concession. An immediate and complete end would send the right signal. Such a concordat will not by itself restore sanity to politics, solve the housing problem or rebuild the NHS. But it would help to lift the fear of bond market crisis, which is paralysing the effort by democratic politicians to answer the fundamental questions facing the nation. Now, that call for a new concordat between government and Bank of Englands seems more urgent than ever. The problem is that in October 2025, Starmer still had some authority. Today the government is in tatters. And when you are the “under the harrow” - to echo a phrase of Montagu Norman’s from the 1920s - it is the worst possible time to consider institutional change. To make general arguments at a time of crisis can only seem like special pleading rather than a general argument for long-term change. The same, unfortunately, is also true for the other basic institutional reform that Britain urgently needs i.e. the abolition of the out-dated first past the post electoral system and its replacement by a moderated form of proportional representation. And thirdly - whilst we are saying the quiet parts out loud - Britain needs to reopen the question of EU membership. What the local election results of 2026 show is that this remains a key issue. And what they also show is that there is a clear majority that would favor a return. Until these basic features of Britain’s political economy are addressed the country will carry on its politics as though in a haunted house, governed by governments that lack actual majorities, conjuring up false constraints whilst ignoring the real ones. This one is for DG and MI. I love writing the newsletter. If you enjoy it too and fancy buying me a coffee once a month, you know what to do. Click below! Subscribe
UWM gets $10 million gift to expand freshwater sciences research
Liberal philanthropist Lynde Uihlein gave $10 million to UWM to support the only graduate school of freshwater sciences in the country.