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Maine among 19 states suing HHS over youth gender-affirming care

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and its inspector general over a declaration that could complicate access to gender-affirming care for young people.

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Dec 24, 2025 • 8:13 AM EST • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
RFK Jr. declares public health emergency for WA flooding

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared a public health emergency Wednesday over this month’s flooding in Washington state.

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Dec 24, 2025 • 7:00 AM EST • Health • washingtonstatestandard.com
Multiple Games Are Releasing For Xbox On Christmas Day, Including An All-Time Classic

Terrible idea, or secretly genius?

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Dec 24, 2025 • 6:40 AM EST • Technology • purexbox.com
More than a third of states sue HHS over a move that could curtail youth gender-affirming care

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its Secretary, Robert F.

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Dec 23, 2025 • 10:40 PM EST • Health • apnews.com
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Trump expected to make shipbuilding announcement amid tensions around Venezuela

President Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement about shipbuilding alongside his Pentagon chief and Navy secretary on Monday, according to a person familiar with the plans.

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Dec 22, 2025 • 12:29 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
INEOS has invested £2.5bn in sport. But why so little interest in backing women?

The Manchester United co-owner has made little secret of where its priorities lie when it comes to investing in sport

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Dec 22, 2025 • 12:12 AM EST • Sports • nytimes.com
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If not pet, why pet shape? Science says raccoons aren't quite there : Short Wave

Dogs are man’s best friend. And it’s no secret that we at Short Wave love cats (Regina has four)! Both of these iconic pets have been domesticated – evolved and adapted to live alongside humans – for millennia. And a recent study suggests that the common raccoon may be on its first steps towards joining them. So how do scientists look for signs of domestication and what do those signs mean? And could you have a litter box trained raccoon in your lifetime? We talk to the study’s lead author, Raffaela Lesch, to find out.Interested in more animal science stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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Dec 22, 2025 • 12:00 AM EST • Science • npr.org
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Strengthening U.S.-Nigerian Health Cooperation under the America First Global Health Strategy - U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Nigeria

Strengthening U.S.-Nigerian Health Cooperation under the America First Global Health Strategy The United States signed a five-year, $5.1 billion bilateral health cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Republic of Nigeria December 19 to advance the America First Global Health Strategy, supporting resilient, self-reliant, and durable health systems while promoting accountability and shared responsibility. Under the five-year MOU, the United States intends to commit nearly $2.1 billion in health assistance, with nearly $3.0 billion in new domestic health expenditures by the Government of Nigeria over the same five-year period. This represents the largest co-investment any country has made to date under the America First Global Health Strategy and underscore Nigeria’s commitment to greater national ownership of its health system. Under the MOU, the United States will continue to support surveillance and outbreak response, laboratory systems, health commodities; frontline healthcare workers, and data systems. Nigeria faces significant health challenges, including one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates globally and approximately30 percent of the global malaria burden. U.S. assistance under the MOU will expand access to affordable, preventive and curative services for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, polio, and maternal and child health, strengthening health outcomes across Nigeria. The MOU places a strong emphasis on Christian faith-based healthcare providers, recognizing their indispensable role in delivering care to communities in need. Nigeria’s more than 900 faith-based clinics and hospitals serve more than 30 percent of the country’s 230 million people, often in areas where healthcare facilities are limited or absent. The MOU provides approximately $200 million in dedicated support to strengthen and support these Christian facilities, enhance workforce capacity, and expand access to integrated HIV, TB, malaria, and maternal child health services. Investments in Christian faith-based health institutions are uniquely positioned to complement public-sector facilities and reinforce Nigeria’s overall health infrastructure. The MOU was negotiated in connection with reforms undertaken by the Government of Nigeria to prioritize the protection of Christian populations from extremist violence. As with all U.S. foreign assistance, the President and Secretary of State retain the right to pause or terminate programs that do not align with U.S. national interests, and the United States expects Nigeria to continue making measurable progress in combating religiously motivated violence against Christian communities. This five-year MOU is the latest of several health cooperation MOUs signed in Africa this month. The United States will continue to sign multi-year Bilateral Agreements on Global Health Cooperation with countries receiving U.S. health assistance to advance the America First Global Health Strategy.

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Dec 21, 2025 • 7:49 AM EST • Health • ng.usembassy.gov
Market-savvy Treasury chief Scott Bessent emerges as unlikely MAGA warrior

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s partisan comments are causing concern among investors and lawmakers, as he breaks with tradition and engages in combative rhetoric.

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Dec 21, 2025 • 6:00 AM EST • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Streeting says NHS ‘coping’ during resident doctors’ strike but faces difficult recovery over Christmas

Five-day industrial action is due to end tomorrow, and health secretary says talks will resume in new year

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Dec 21, 2025 • 4:15 AM EST • Politics • theguardian.com
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Derrick Henry explains the secret behind Mike Vrabel’s success

Who better than Derrick Henry to explain what makes Mike Vrabel as good as he is?

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Dec 21, 2025 • 4:04 AM EST • Sports • ravenswire.usatoday.com
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RAM is so expensive they’re selling “prebuilt” PCs without it.

It’s no secret that RAM prices are absolutely Out. Of. Control. Paradox Customs is taking an interesting approach, selling “prebuilt” PCs that skip memory entirely. The idea being, if you happen to have spare sticks lying around, you can save some money. Of course, it’s also an alarming sign of what the PC market has come to. [Link: System integrator starts offering prebuilt PCs without RAM | https://videocardz.com/newz/system-integrator-starts-offering-prebuilt-pcs-without-ram | VideoCardz]

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Dec 20, 2025 • 3:47 PM EST • Technology • theverge.com
Massive Japanese-Style Entertainment Center Officially Opens At Formers Sears In Houston

Round1 Bowling & Arcade has officially opened in the space at Willowbrook Mall in Houston formerly occupied by SEARS.

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Dec 20, 2025 • 11:18 AM EST • Entertainment • secrethouston.com
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Rare look inside the secret LEGO Museum reveals the system behind a toy giant's remarkable longevity
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Dec 20, 2025 • 11:16 AM EST • Technology • cbsnews.com
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The New York Times

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to make a seismic shift. He is expected to announce that American children should be immunized according to a different schedule with fewer vaccines,...

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Dec 19, 2025 • 9:12 PM EST • Health • facebook.com
West Midlands night-time businesses in call for support

Business Secretary Peter Kyle met with members of a West Midlands night-time economy group.

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Dec 19, 2025 • 10:49 AM EST • Business • bbc.com
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This Windows feature secretly eats up RAM and slows your PC over time

If you never take advantage of Delivery Optimization, it might be a good idea to turn it off.

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Dec 19, 2025 • 10:11 AM EST • Technology • pcworld.com
Business Networking That Pays Off Takes A Commitment

Trying to create business contacts cold can be done — but it's tough. Creating connections through business networking is the easier way.

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Dec 19, 2025 • 7:00 AM EST • Business • investors.com
I'm 87 and earn $12 an hour working two jobs. I wish I were retired, but I have no choice but to work.

Rebecca Reed, 87, is still working out of necessity. She earns $12 an hour as a church secretary and an editorial assistant in New Orleans.

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Dec 19, 2025 • 5:05 AM EST • Business • businessinsider.com
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Nevada launches Orion, a new business licensing platform

Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar announced that the state's new business licensing system is on track to replace an outdated platform next year.

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Dec 18, 2025 • 6:37 PM EST • Business • statescoop.com
Riot Has a Secret Plan to Remake Its ‘League of Legends’ Game

A refreshed version being called ‘League Next’ is planned for 2027

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Dec 18, 2025 • 5:06 PM EST • Technology • bloomberg.com
Kennedy, US health officials outline new rules, warnings to block transgender care for youth in the US

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other health officials said Thursday that the federal government will block hospitals and doctors from providing transgender care to children, saying, “this is not medicine, it is malpractice.”

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Dec 18, 2025 • 12:26 PM EST • Health • cnn.com
US Health Secretary Kennedy Proposes Rules to Cut Access to Gender-Affirming Care

WASHINGTON, Dec ‌18 (Reuters) - U.S. ‌Health Secretary Robert F. ‍Kennedy Jr. moved on Thursday ⁠to cut access to gender-affirming care ‌for children proposing rules that ‌would ‍bar hospitals that ⁠deliver such care from its Medicare and Medicaid programs and also bar Medicaid and children's ...

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Dec 18, 2025 • 11:31 AM EST • Health • usnews.com
Watch live: RFK Jr. gives remarks on updated guidance for youth health care

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will deliver remarks Thursday on new federal guidance related to health care for minors. The remarks come after Centers for Medicare …

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Dec 18, 2025 • 10:55 AM EST • Health • thehill.com
RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz to announce moves to ban gender-affirming care for young people

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce a package of measures that would together ban gender-affirming care for minors. A press conference is set for 11 a.m. Thursday.

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Dec 18, 2025 • 7:24 AM EST • Health • npr.org
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HHS cuts millions in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics

The move marks an escalation in the agency’s clash with the medical group, which is suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.

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Dec 17, 2025 • 4:15 PM EST • Health • nbcnews.com
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Korea’s long-term strategy for 2D materials: fundamental science is the secret of success

An interview with Moon-Ho Jo, director of the IBS Center for Van der Waals Quantum Solids in Korea

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Dec 17, 2025 • 10:03 AM EST • Science • physicsworld.com
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RFK Jr., unconstrained by Congress, presses ahead to reshape health care

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., unconstrained by Congress, is pressing ahead in his mission to reshape health care.

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Dec 17, 2025 • 4:30 AM EST • Health • statnews.com
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DOE Office of Science to Keep Basic Fusion, Quantum Research

Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil said the new fusion and computing offices will focus on fostering industries for emerging technologies.

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Dec 16, 2025 • 4:38 PM EST • Science • aip.org
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Minister orders probe into foreign financial interference in UK politics

Communities Secretary Steve Reed says the country "must learn the lessons" from a recent court case.

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Dec 16, 2025 • 9:02 AM EST • Politics • bbc.com
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Holow Knight: Silksong - Sea of Sorrow DLC revealed

Holow Knight: Silksong has just revealed brand new DLC, which is known as Sea of Sorrow. Team Cherry is prepping it for a 2026 debut. Sea of Sorrow will feature new areas, bosses, tools, and more. Team Cherry teases: “Hornet’s adventures continue in our nautically themed expansion, coming free for all players next year. We’ll keep further details a secret...

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Dec 15, 2025 • 7:59 PM EST • Technology • nintendoeverything.com
West Virginia Secretary of State warns business owners about third-party annual report solicitations

West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner is warning business owners about third-party solicitations that resemble official government forms but are private advertisements. He urges businesses to file directly through Business4.WV.gov and notes the 2026 Annual Report filing period runs from January 1 to June 30, 2026.

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Dec 14, 2025 • 8:53 PM EST • Business • mybuckhannon.com
Scientists finally sequence the vampire squid's huge genome, revealing secrets of the 'living fossil'

The genetic link between squids and octopuses may just be found in the vampire squid genome.

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Dec 14, 2025 • 8:00 AM EST • Science • livescience.com
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Shabana Mahmood dismisses White House’s ‘civilisational erasure’ claims

Home secretary says UK has managed the challenges of multiculturalism ‘very well’

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Dec 14, 2025 • 7:02 AM EST • Politics • theguardian.com
Column | More money, more corruption requires more attention, nonprofit says

OpenSecrets, which started four decades ago, is renewing its drive to help voters follow the money between special interests and government officials.

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Dec 13, 2025 • 7:14 PM EST • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Fox News Entertainment Newsletter: Dick Van Dyke's secrets to a long life, Mila Kunis is head of her HOA

The Fox News Entertainment Newsletter brings you the latest Hollywood headlines, celebrity interviews and stories from Los Angeles and beyond.

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Dec 13, 2025 • 2:28 PM EST • Entertainment • foxnews.com
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BMA warns of flu 'scaremongering' ahead of doctor strikes

The health secretary should focus on offering a deal instead of "scaremongering the public", the BMA says.

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Dec 13, 2025 • 7:22 AM EST • Health • bbc.com
A Seized Oil Tanker Off Venezuela and the Big Business of Dark Fleet Smuggling

The U.S. seizure of a vessel off Venezuela is likely to squeeze the country’s government, but do little to counter the tankers that secretively move oil from sanctioned countries.

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Dec 12, 2025 • 10:08 AM EST • Business • nytimes.com
Innovation Requires Striking The Right Balance

Innovation takes time. It requires a sustained commitment to trying — and often failing — to forge breakthroughs.

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Dec 12, 2025 • 7:00 AM EST • Business • investors.com
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 Announced From Creative Assembly | The Game Awards 2025

Creative Assembly has finally confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in video games: Total War: Warhammer 40,000.

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Dec 11, 2025 • 10:28 PM EST • Technology • ign.com
DOJ sues Colorado Secretary of State for refusing to release voter information

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold after she refused to provide the agency with voter information. Last week, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division asked Griswold’s office to provide unredacted voter data, including full names, dates of birth, residential addresses, and driver’s license numbers. Federal authorities […]

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Dec 11, 2025 • 4:23 PM EST • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Tiny tracker following monarch butterflies during California migration

When this monarch butterfly hits the sky it won't be traveling alone. In fact, an energetic team of researchers will be following along with a revolutionary technology that's already unlocking secrets that could help the entire species survive.

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Dec 11, 2025 • 1:16 AM EST • Science • abc7news.com
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The New WHO Pandemic Treaty and Global Health Governance: Incorporating Common but Differentiated Responsibilities into PABS  - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs

On May 20, 2025, the World Health Assembly unanimously adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, an international treaty designed to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. The product of three years of arduous negotiations, the treaty marks a new era of global cooperation in public health. However, core aspects of the agreement remain unresolved—notably the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System, which is intended to ensure equitable access to pandemic-related materials and benefits. To support the successful implementation of the WHO Pandemic Agreement, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be formally incorporated into the negotiating agenda of the PABS annex. Introduction For the first time, an international treaty has enshrined the principle of “One Health,” the compelling idea that the health of animals, humans, and the environment all contribute to pandemic risks. SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009–10), Ebola (2014–16), and COVID-19 all emerged through zoonotic spillover from animal hosts—respectively, civets, hogs, and bats. Together, they underscore the need for a coordinated, cross-sectoral approach. The Pandemic Agreement responds to this call, requiring state parties to acknowledge the ecological interplay and commit to a comprehensive “One Health” strategy. Specifically, Article 5 charges governments to address “the drivers of pandemics and the emergence and re-emergence of infectious disease at the human-animal-environment interface,” including wild animal markets, deforestation, and antibiotic overuse. Yet the effectiveness of this “One Health” vision depends equally on the free flow of scientific information and data among countries and institutions. Just as environmental and animal health factors have been neglected in past global frameworks, so too has data sharing been marginalized, despite its centrality to timely detection and response. The Pandemic Agreement takes an important step by requiring governments to enhance data collection and cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO). However, these provisions will remain aspirational without a robust Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex. The PABS system will determine whether countries and researchers can rapidly exchange pathogen samples and genetic data while ensuring equitable access to resulting research and development, including diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. Without such mechanisms, the treaty’s promise to operationalize “One Health” and strengthen global preparedness will risk becoming largely symbolic, echoing earlier failures to translate shared principles into coordinated action. Equity Concerns When the 2025 Health Assembly adopted the Pandemic Agreement, it left the difficult question of access to pathogens and the sharing of resulting benefits to be addressed in a separate agreement. Negotiations on this separate agreement, PABS, are now underway in Geneva. Yet governments remain divided over fundamental questions of equity between the countries that primarily contribute to the system and those that primarily draw from it—and consequently benefit. For example, wildlife in countries bordering the equator is likely to produce PABS materials, but companies in Europe are likely to use them to develop lucrative products. The most likely contributor countries are likely to be those biodiverse countries around the equator, such as Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia, where the number of human-mammalian viral host interactions is large. Conversely, countries most likely to benefit from this material are those with the technology, investors, and infrastructure to capitalize on genomic data, such as the United States, EU member states, and Japan. This imbalance reflects a broader pattern seen in prior international frameworks. Now, as in the past, the wealthiest countries in the world (a useful heuristic is membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)) disproportionately benefit from systems in which pathogens and genomic sequencing data are contributed to a common source. Under the International Agreement on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the “Plant Treaty” or “Seed Treaty”) and the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework, companies from Europe and North America disproportionately withdraw biological samples and data for development into lucrative medical products. Their governments and companies have both statutory and contractual claims to the products that those companies correspondingly produce. PABS appears poised to follow the same pattern. The text calls for strong language on access to pathogens and associated data, but the corresponding benefits that should flow to poorer countries are couched in equivocal or non-binding language. Common but Differentiated Responsibilities To address these inequities, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be formally incorporated into the negotiating agenda of the PABS annex. Common but differentiated responsibilities are often a feature of climate change negotiations. The basic principle is that, even though all countries should reduce carbon emissions, governments that became rich and powerful through massive carbon emissions (e.g., France, the United Kingdom, the United States) should have a greater obligation to address the resulting crises. Applied to PABS, it would require that governments hosting and supporting companies developing lucrative products carry greater obligations toward the cost of running the PABS system; share benefits or final medical products; and transfer technology to help countries worldwide develop their own capacities to innovate and manufacture vaccines during an emergency. For example, an annex could mandate that any company based in an OECD country that withdraws PABS material would be obligated to donate the resulting diagnostics, therapeutics, or vaccines to the WHO during a public health emergency or pandemic. Questions remain about how robust those donations would be, but the principle is that they should deliver highly significant lifesaving benefits to be equitably shared. Theoretically, this approach mirrors the PIP Framework, in which companies withdrawing influenza samples are required to pay half of the operating costs. In practice, however, the framework has fallen short. The PIP Framework Secretariat has struggled to secure payments from companies, with companies often disagreeing over how much is owed. Additionally, without another pandemic influenza to test the strength of the agreement during a public health emergency, corporate compliance with sharing mechanisms remains unknown. Even if these limitations did not characterize the PIP Framework, partially paying for operating expenses does not address the inequity in access to genetic data and pathogen samples that left less developed countries last in line for COVID-19 vaccines (and, before them, H1N1). Common but differentiated responsibilities would go further, addressing governments’ legitimate grievances regarding information sharing. It would make withdrawals of PABS material and resulting products more transparent, building trust across the board. Enforcement and Enduring Success A key implication of this approach is that the governing mechanism of the PABS must have real enforcement authority. The WHO Pandemic Agreement delegates its core governance responsibilities to a Conference of the Parties (COP)—a governing body composed of one representative from each participating government, similar to those established under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement COP is charged with oversight functions but ultimately possesses no real authority to compel a government to take any action it does not wish to take. The text does not give the COP the ability to, for example, sanction a party that does not comply with either textual obligations or PABS provisions. In other words, there are no effective mechanisms in place to ensure compliance. Perhaps just as significant, establishing a meaningful enforcement mechanism within the PABS system would strengthen the WHO’s credibility and its ability to ensure compliance across global health governance. By setting a precedent for accountability, such a mechanism could enhance the organization’s authority not only within the Pandemic Agreement but also in enforcing the revised International Health Regulations and other frameworks for public health emergencies. Conclusion The PABS annex can—and should—be different. It should establish clear responsibilities for funding as well as for sharing the diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines that result from contributions to the system. The system, in turn, must include a dedicated body empowered to hold governments and the corporations they sponsor accountable for their responsibilities before, during, and after pandemics. Doing so would restore trust in the broader agreement, which was eroded as commitments were repeatedly diluted while parties scrambled to meet their own self-imposed deadlines during the Pandemic Agreement negotiations. A robust PABS Annex would cement a grand social bargain. Wealthier countries and their corporations would gain unimpeded access to scientific information essential for developing and manufacturing lifesaving medical products. As such, they would stand to gain considerable economic benefit. Yet that privilege must be matched with responsibility. The grand bargain must include not only the right to innovate, but also the duty to ensure that innovation serves all. As medical products are developed and produced through collective contributions, every person must have equal access. All human beings deserve an equitable chance to survive—to save their own life, the lives of their families, and the well-being of their communities. … Sam Halabi, JD, MPhil, is the Bette Jacobs Endowed Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Health and the Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law at Georgetown Law. He serves as the co-lead for the WHO’s Working Group on Regulatory Consideration on AI and Health’s training workstream. He earned his JD from Harvard, his MPhil from Oxford, and undergraduate degrees from Kansas State University. Lawrence Gostin, LLD (Hon.), JD, BA, is University Distinguished Professor and Founding Director and Timothy and Linda O’Neill Professor of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He is the author of Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future (Harvard University Press, 2021); Global Health Law (Harvard University Press, 2014); Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (University of California Press, 3rd ed., 2016); Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (University of California Press, 3rd ed., 2018); Law and the Health System (Foundation Press, 2014); Principles of Mental Health Law & Practice (Oxford University Press, 2010). He also directs the WHO Collaborating Center at Georgetown University. Image Credit: United States Mission Geneva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Dec 11, 2025 • 12:00 AM EST • Health • gjia.georgetown.edu
School District Hires New Business Administrator

Verona Public Schools is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. James Riley as the district’s new business administrator and board secretary. Dr. Riley brings to Verona an exceptional record of leadership, extensive experience across school finance and operations, and a uniquely rich background in both educational administration and the arts. Dr. Riley holds an […]

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Dec 10, 2025 • 8:00 AM EST • Business • myveronanj.com
Hegseth tells congressional leaders he is weighing release of boat strike video

Hegseth provided a classified briefing for congressional leaders alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top national security officials.

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Dec 9, 2025 • 7:22 PM EST • Politics • pbs.org
🙂 Positive (35%)
Rubio Deletes Calibri as the State Department’s Official Typeface

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Biden-era move to the sans serif typeface “wasteful,” casting the return to Times New Roman as part of a push to stamp out diversity efforts.

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Dec 9, 2025 • 6:57 PM EST • Politics • nytimes.com
Congressional lawmakers hear from Navy admiral overseeing boat strikes

Lawmakers are threatening to withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if the Pentagon does not turn over unedited video

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Dec 9, 2025 • 2:53 PM EST • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Organizers submit enough signatures to block gerrymandered Missouri map

More than 300,000 signatures delivered to secretary of state to force referendum on Republican-drawn map

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Dec 9, 2025 • 1:01 PM EST • Politics • theguardian.com
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RFK Jr. succeeds in changing hepatitis B recommendation

A vaccine panel led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has voted to end the recommendation for hepatitis B shots for all newborns.

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Dec 9, 2025 • 9:19 AM EST • Health • usatoday.com
Your Google Play Points might be hiding a secret $200 Pixel 10 Pro discount

Some Google Play Points users have discovered a secret $200 discount offer on the Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL hiding in the Perks section.

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Dec 8, 2025 • 9:49 PM EST • Technology • androidauthority.com
Congress will vote on limiting Hegseth’s travel budget unless he releases unedited video of boat strikes

Tucked into Congress’ massive defense policy bill is a provision that would limit Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget unless he provides the House and Senate Armed Services committees with unedited video of US military strikes in the Caribbean.

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Dec 8, 2025 • 3:01 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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Woman with family ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt released from ICE custody

A woman with family ties to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is being released on bond from ICE custody after being arrested earlier this month near Boston, according to her lawyer.

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Dec 8, 2025 • 2:56 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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Raffensperger sues to scrap fundraising laws he says favor Jones in governor’s race

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is challenging Georgia election laws he says give his Republican rival an advantage as they campaign for governor.

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Dec 8, 2025 • 2:37 PM EST • Politics • ajc.com
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Historic search for 'huge missing piece' of the universe turns up negative — but reveals new secrets of particle physics

Scientists hunted dark matter and solar neutrinos with one of the largest experiments yet. While the neutrinos likely appeared, dark matter results couldn't be confirmed.

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Dec 8, 2025 • 12:29 PM EST • Science • livescience.com
‘This is a lawless Secretary of Defense’: Dem congressman pushes for Hegseth’s removal
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Dec 7, 2025 • 4:19 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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JIM CLOERN: The scientist and science I mourn

By Ariel Rubissow Okamoto A man died recently who was one of my heroes. Inside his big brain lay the secrets of San Francisco Bay. In one sentence he could explain the relationships between the tiny plants drifting aimlessly in the shallows, the muscular salmon leaping upstream, and the health of the planet. He had a warm smile, a curl to his hair, a ready chuckle. But I did not know this man well. For decades he ran a monthly data […]

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Dec 7, 2025 • 12:16 PM EST • Science • mavensnotebook.com
Flu cases likely to 'spike' in coming weeks, warns health secretary

Neil Gray says the rise in cases is a challenge and urges anyone able to get vaccinated to do so.

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Dec 7, 2025 • 7:23 AM EST • Health • bbc.com
WATCH: Hegseth delivers keynote address at Reagan National Defense Forum

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended strikes on alleged drug cartel boats during remarks Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, saying President Donald Trump has the power to take military action “as he sees fit” to defend the nation.

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Dec 6, 2025 • 6:28 PM EST • Politics • pbs.org
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Chicago small businesses seek redo after snow-plagued Small Business Saturday

It’s not a secret Chicagoans are a hardy bunch in the winter, but we also have our limits. One week ago, the winter storm all but cut Small Business Saturday off at the knees.

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Dec 6, 2025 • 6:23 PM EST • Business • wgntv.com
Hegseth defends action in the Caribbean amid mounting questions

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday defended the Trump administration’s military actions against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, saying it shows “the strength of American resolve.”

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Dec 6, 2025 • 5:31 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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Week in Politics: Defense Secretary Hegseth; gerrymandering; birthright citizenship

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under scrutiny over strikes in the Caribbean and Yemen, and the Supreme Court sided with Republicans in a case over gerrymandering in Texas.

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Dec 6, 2025 • 7:44 AM EST • Politics • npr.org
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Earth’s early oceans hid the secret rise of complex life

Scientists have discovered that complex life began evolving much earlier than traditional models suggested. Using an expanded molecular clock approach, the team showed that crucial cellular features emerged in ancient anoxic oceans long before oxygen became a major part of Earth’s atmosphere. Their results indicate that early complexity developed slowly over an unexpectedly long timescale.

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Dec 6, 2025 • 7:00 AM EST • Science • sciencedaily.com
The Memo: Hegseth sees political dangers wane on boat strikes

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got a key moment of respite late this week that could help him bat back a plethora of controversies. The moment came on Thursday, when Adm. Frank Bradley reportedly t…

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Dec 6, 2025 • 6:00 AM EST • Politics • thehill.com
Trump asks RFK Jr. to ‘fast track’ vaccine schedule review

The president weighed in after the health secretary’s vaccine advisers recommended a major change to the shots routinely given to children.

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Dec 5, 2025 • 9:07 PM EST • Health • politico.com
‘Choosing Pennsylvania’: Officials offer details on plan for agri-business in Muncy

New Jersey-based agri-business manufacturer has purchased a Muncy facility and anticipates 69 new full-time jobs with possible expansion of its staff to eventually create hundreds of jobs once the plant begins operation in a year. Officials with Farmplast LLC of Parsippany, Wednesday joined state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, Brent Vernon, senior Project, and Account Management […]

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Dec 5, 2025 • 7:00 PM EST • Business • sungazette.com
Continuing to Deliver on the America First Global Health Strategy with the Signing of the United States-Rwanda Bilateral Health Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding - United States Department of State

Today in Washington, Jeremy Lewin, Senior Official, Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom and Olivier Nduhungirehe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation signed the Department of State’s second bilateral health cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, between the United States and Rwanda. The five-year, $228 million arrangement outlines a comprehensive vision to […]

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Dec 5, 2025 • 4:03 PM EST • Health • state.gov
This week in HS Sports: The real secret to Saraland’s run to another title game

Jeff Kelly said Saraland's undersized and underrated offensive line has been an underpublicized key to his team's success.

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Dec 5, 2025 • 12:18 PM EST • Sports • al.com
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Doctor working on ‘brain health revolution’ with White House

ATLANTA – In his campaign to “Make America Healthy Again,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has drawn attention to what he says is the overmedication of c…

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Dec 5, 2025 • 10:45 AM EST • Health • thehill.com
Louisiana’s secret business negotiations need to stop, critics say

Louisiana leaders have touted new industrial projects that promise to create thousands of jobs, but critics say these secret business negotiations need to stop.

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Dec 4, 2025 • 7:02 PM EST • Business • lailluminator.com
I realise now that my view on mental health overdiagnosis was divisive. We all need better evidence

The surge in mental ill health is hugely distressing. That’s why I’ve commissioned a review to find out what’s driving it, says health secretary Wes Streeting

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Dec 4, 2025 • 12:34 PM EST • Health • theguardian.com
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Advancing the America First Global Health Strategy Through Landmark Bilateral Agreements on Global Health Cooperation - United States Department of State

In September, I outlined the Trump Administration’s America First Global Health Strategy, which aims to strengthen U.S. leadership and excellence in global health while eliminating dependency, ideology, inefficiency, and waste from our foreign assistance architecture. Today, I welcomed Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi to Washington to sign the first […]

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Dec 4, 2025 • 11:35 AM EST • Health • state.gov
Under Kennedy, America’s Health Department Is in the Business of Promoting Kennedy

Under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services increasingly uses its social media channels to promote Kennedy himself and his agenda. Interviews with over 20 former and current employees provide a look inside an agency where personality and politics steer communications with the public.

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Dec 4, 2025 • 5:00 AM EST • Health • kffhealthnews.org
Streeting orders review into mental health and ADHD diagnosis

The health secretary said the aim was to tackle a rising demand for services and the increased pressure on the NHS.

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Dec 3, 2025 • 10:51 PM EST • Health • bbc.co.uk
Streeting orders review into mental health and ADHD diagnosis

The health secretary said the aim was to tackle a rising demand for services and the increased pressure on the NHS.

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Dec 3, 2025 • 10:51 PM EST • Health • bbc.com
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Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar

Health secretary has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’

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Dec 3, 2025 • 6:50 PM EST • Health • theguardian.com
Watchdog finds Hegseth risked endangering troops by sharing of sensitive war plans on Signal, sources say

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information, which could have endangered American troops and mission objectives, when he used Signal in March of this year to share highly-sensitive attack plans targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to four sources familiar with the contents of a classified Inspector General report that was sent to Congress Tuesday night.

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Dec 3, 2025 • 12:32 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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DealBook Summit 2025: Live Updates From Andrew Ross Sorkin's Interviews

Secretary Scott Bessent is first up. Andrew Ross Sorkin will speak to more than a dozen prominent figures from the worlds of business and politics. Follow along and watch live here.

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Dec 3, 2025 • 8:30 AM EST • Politics • nytimes.com
What scientists are learning from the strangest spider webs on Earth

Webs can be decorated with decoys, fine-tuned like guitars—and hold secrets about evolution.

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Dec 3, 2025 • 7:00 AM EST • Science • nationalgeographic.com
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Five of the best sports books of 2025

From the trauma and triumphs of Olympic cyclist Bradley Wiggins to the secret life of a match fixer

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Dec 3, 2025 • 6:00 AM EST • Sports • theguardian.com
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Health Secretary Neil Gray insists there are 'adequate stocks' of flu vaccine

Over a million adults and 400,000 children received the flu jab between September and November.

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Dec 3, 2025 • 4:17 AM EST • Health • bbc.com
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GOP senator: Hegseth is either lying about second boat strike or incompetent

Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of either lying in his public response to news reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug boat in September or being incompetent.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 4:30 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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Spanberger announces seasoned policy advisor as Virginia’s next health and human resources secretary

As Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger prepares to take the helm of the state of Virginia, she has announced her pick for the next secretary of health and human resources: Marvin Figueroa.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 4:10 PM EST • Health • wtop.com
Trump picks College Football Playoff? Rubio had to be joking

Secretary of state says Miami Hurricanes should be in or Donald Trump should take over the CFP selection process.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 3:18 PM EST • Sports • azcentral.com
The HPV vaccine is safe and cuts cervical cancer risk by 80%, 2 large reviews find

Hundreds of studies, including gold-standard clinical trials, challenge Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that the cancer vaccine is harmful.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 2:54 PM EST • Health • nbcnews.com
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'Good job,' Trump tells Hegseth amid criticism over boat strikes

President Donald Trump is backing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid escalating criticism from Congress over military strikes on alleged drug boats.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 2:01 PM EST • Politics • usatoday.com
Spanberger announces seasoned policy advisor as next health and human services secretary

As Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger prepares to take the helm of the state of Virginia, she has announced her pick for the next secretary of health and human services: Marvin Figueroa.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 12:00 PM EST • Health • virginiamercury.com
DHS recommends travel ban list include at least 10 more countries

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is recommending that the Trump administration’s travel ban list include between 30 to 32 countries, marking an increase from the current list of 19 countries, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 9:46 AM EST • Politics • cnn.com
White House distances Hegseth from second strike on alleged drug boat

Defence secretary gave order for strikes but did not say to ‘kill everybody’, according to White House spokesperson

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Dec 2, 2025 • 5:10 AM EST • Politics • theguardian.com
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Vaccine Committee May Make Significant Changes to Childhood Schedule

Comments by President Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some panelists suggest the committee is likely to delay hepatitis B shots and discuss revising the use of other vaccines.

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Dec 2, 2025 • 5:04 AM EST • Health • nytimes.com
Lammy to address ‘court emergency’ but expected to safeguard jury system

Justice secretary appears to have pulled back from plans to scrap juries for all but the most serious cases

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Dec 2, 2025 • 3:59 AM EST • Politics • theguardian.com
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Lawmakers demand audio and video of boat attack as follow-up strike raises concern on Capitol Hill

The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday said Secretary Pete Hegseth had confirmed to him there was a second US strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September — an attack that has drawn bipartisan scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

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Dec 1, 2025 • 8:18 PM EST • Politics • cnn.com
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Trump MRI results drop as White House confronts mounting questions over president’s health

President Donald Trump's October MRI scan found no cardiovascular abnormalities and confirmed excellent overall health, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced.

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Dec 1, 2025 • 2:05 PM EST • Health • foxnews.com
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Science must move from materialism to mystery

Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.

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Dec 1, 2025 • 7:00 AM EST • Science • iai.tv
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