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Coming to XBOX Game Pass: Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, Beastro, Undisputed, and More

We’re just a few days away from the XBOX Games Showcase followed by the Gears of War: E-Day Direct – but while we’re waiting for the show, let’s get to what other games you can play first, or at least pre-install.

Jun 3 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • news.xbox.com

Texas Business Court is a powerhouse for resolving civil disputes

White & Case partner Sean Gorman published an article in Bloomberg Law detailing how the Texas Business Court is uniquely positioned to handle complex, high-value disputes.

Jun 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • whitecase.com

The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science

With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!

Jun 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • iai.tv

Numerous Man United youngsters receive international honours

Manchester United have numerous senior players who will be going to the World Cup this summer.Senior call-upsBruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot will represent Portugal while Casemiro and Matheus Cunha wi...

Jun 3 • 3:10 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

PlayStation Showcase Twitch Chat Spammed By Destiny 3 Fans

#wewantDestiny3 was a ceaseless battle cry on the Amazon-owned platform's livestream of the event

Jun 2 • 6:17 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com

These States Report the Most Whooping Cough Cases in 2026

More than 4,700 cases of whooping cough have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year. It’s on track to be fewer cases than last year when the CDC estimated more than 28,000 cases. But it’s still a significant number, especially for the states seeing the worst of it.

Jun 2 • 4:56 PM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Obama judge clears left-wing group to fly ominous flag aimed at Trump on his own turf

Obama-appointed Judge Moss permits "86 47" flag near the National Mall, delivering a blow to the Trump administration in a free speech case.

Jun 2 • 2:00 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

US CDC Flags Health Risks Linked to Travel-Related Cosmetic Procedures

June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Centers for ⁠Disease ⁠Control and Prevention said on ⁠Tuesday that many Americans suffered serious complications — including bacterial infections and, in some cases, death — after traveling within the country and ‌abroad for cosmetic procedures. The agency ‌cited a study ...

Jun 2 • 1:16 PM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Santos meet Cuca's targets, secure packed second-half schedule

Santos heads into the season break for the 2026 World Cup with a sense of mission accomplished.Under coach Cuca, the Vila Belmiro side managed to achieve, at least partially in some cases, the four ma...

Jun 2 • 10:34 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

PlayStation State of Play live report - all of today's news from Sony's 2026 summer showcase

What PlayStation surprises does Sony have for tonight's summer showcase? Let's find out.

Jun 2 • 10:21 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Uganda health ministry confirms six new cases of Ebola

Uganda has confirmed six ​more new cases ‌of Ebola, bringing the total confirmed ​in the ​country so far to ⁠15, the ​health ministry said on ​Tuesday.

Jun 2 • 7:30 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com

Temporary exhibition at Cedar Rapids Museum of Art explores artistic ‘conversation’ between father and son

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art has introduced a new, temporary exhibit that showcases a “conversation” between a father and son through their own unique, artistic visions.

Jun 2 • 7:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • thegazette.com

PlayStation First-Party Game Sales Have Declined Over the Past 5 Years, Although Ghost of Yotei Helped Reverse the Trend

On the eve of Sony’s crucial State of Play showcase, new data has revealed a steady decline in first-party PlayStation game sales over the past five years, although 2025's Ghost of Yotei helped reverse the trend.

Jun 2 • 6:21 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com

Health Alert: U.S. Embassy – June 2, 2026 – Thailand Enhanced Ebola Screening - U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Thailand

Health Alert: U.S. Embassy – June 2, 2026 – Thailand Enhanced Ebola Screening Ebola Screening Location: International Ports of Entry, Thailand Event: Thailand has implemented Ebola disease-related screening and quarantine measures for travelers who stayed in or transited through Ebola disease-affected countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. Effective May 27, 2026, travelers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, or other neighboring countries with cross-border transmission will be screened by communicable disease control officers at the international port of entry in Thailand and could be subject to mandatory quarantine or self-isolation for at least 21 days. Failure to comply with quarantine or isolation orders may result in fines, imprisonment, or both under Thai law. Thailand currently has no confirmed Ebola cases but has implemented these measures following the World Health Organization’s Public Health Emergency declaration. For more information, contact Thailand’s Department of Disease Control hotline at 1422. Actions to Take: Follow directions from Thai authorities. Review Consular Information for Americans Regarding the Ebola Outbreak Stay up to date with the latest CDC Travel Health Notices Review the CDC’s Ebola Disease: Current Situationand Ebola Disease Basics Prepare or update your personal emergency plan. Review the Traveler’s Checklist. If at risk for Ebola disease, alert your healthcare provider if you are experiencing symptoms consistent with Ebola disease to receive guidance prior to presenting for care. Continue to take malaria prophylaxis if recommended, as the symptoms of malaria can mimic symptoms of Ebola disease, leading to preventable health scares. Monitor your health for 21 days following travel if you traveled to an area experiencing an Ebola disease outbreak. If you are a U.S. citizen or national planning to travel to the United States, contact your airline to confirm your flight and route. Enroll and update your information in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). Follow the Department of State on Facebook and X . Visit state.gov and the U.S. Embassy in Thailand website. Assistance: U.S. Embassy Bangkok Phone: +66 02-205-4000 Email: ACSBKK@state.gov https://th.usembassy.gov/ State Department – Consular Affairs 888-407-4747 or 202-501-4444 Thailand Country Information Enroll in Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive security updates

Jun 1 • 9:29 PM EDT • Health • th.usembassy.gov

Congo Reopens Main Airport in Ebola Epicenter as Officials Brace for Long Outbreak

Congo reopened the main airport in the eastern province hardest hit by Ebola, after health officials reported tentative signs the outbreak may be slowing despite a continuing struggle to trace exposed contacts and investigate suspected cases.

Jun 1 • 8:47 PM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com

Towards a responsive health system and equitable access to quality RMNCAH services

Indonesia’s vast geography and sociocultural diversity shape the delivery of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services in ways that are both enabling and challenging. Across provinces, significant variation has been observed in how services are planned, resourced, and delivered. These variations in service standards and quality are felt daily in the lives of women, newborns and adolescents. Despite these challenges, progress is visible. National estimates show a drop in maternal mortality ratio, from 331 to 140 per 100 000 live births since 2000, signaling improvements in care quality and access. Fertility has stabilised and contraceptive use has grown, yet unmet reproductive health needs persist, and adolescent pregnancies continue to reflect early marriage and limited access to youth-friendly services.To better understand how Indonesia’s health system has evolved under decentralisation, the Ministry of Health, supported by World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), IPAS and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), conducted a joint external review of RMNCAH programmes. This review draws on multiple sources of evidence, including existing literature, policy documents, national health system data, as well as field visits to six selected provinces to represent Indonesia’s geographic and administrative diversity. During the field visits, review teams observed service delivery in health facilities, spoke with health workers and local leaders and met mothers and families to understand how RMNCAH policies are operationalised. One of the challenges identified was the management of low birthweight (LBW) infants, a major contributor to neonatal deaths, under resource constraints. One midwife described a severe case of extremely LBW twins, one stillborn and the other died after three days of care. She recalled how the surviving infant struggled to swallow and may not have received breast milk, while simultaneous emergencies required the team’s attention, affecting the care provided to the infant.A subsequent review of the case by the district health office revealed insufficient antenatal care, fragmented maternal medical history due to population mobility, referral delays, limited provider capacity in neonatal intravenous access and a heavy workload that constrained proper newborn monitoring. These insights informed recommendations to strengthen both system-wide and service-level responses. Since the early 2000s, Indonesia’s decentralisation initiative has given much of the responsibility for funding, staffing and managing health services to regional governments. While the Ministry of Health sets national clinical standards, daily management of public health facilities falls under regional authorities through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. While this arrangement allows services to be tailored to local needs, it also depends heavily on local capacity for planning, budgeting and management. Health facilities and district health offices are better positioned to translate national priorities into local action when they have access to consistent technical support, helping health workers manage resource constraints and infrastructure gaps.The complexity of Indonesia’s health system governance is no easy feat to navigate. Understanding these dynamics is essential to strengthening policy, improving coordination and ensuring more equitable access to services across Indonesia. Under the leadership of Ministry of Health, recommendations from this exercise will be key in guiding the nation’s roadmap to an equitable and quality health system for RMNCAH.Written by Edit Oktavia Manuama, National Professional Officer (Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health), and Jessie Yunus, National Professional Officer (Gender, Rights, Equity, and Disability Inclusion)

Jun 1 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int

'All Systems Glow': Apple Teases WWDC 2026 With New Tagline, Playlist, Wallpapers

The tagline likely hints at an iOS 27 reveal, following leaks that showcased a Siri-focused update with glowing UI elements.

Jun 1 • 4:02 PM EDT • Technology • cnet.com

How aid cuts are hampering the front-line response to the Ebola crisis

Aid workers in Uganda are watching an Ebola crisis unfold in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. They're doing what they can to prepare for an uptick in cases, but foreign aid cuts aren't helping.

Jun 1 • 9:52 AM EDT • Health • opb.org

Ebola cases in Congo climb to 282 as WHO chief reports 5 recoveries

Health officials say the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 282.

Jun 1 • 9:35 AM EDT • Health • katu.com

How to Watch the XBOX Games Showcase and Gears of War: E-Day Direct on Sunday

This Sunday, June 7, our yearly double feature returns, offering you a look at what's next from XBOX and our incredible partners across the world – here's everything you need to know to tune in.

Jun 1 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • news.xbox.com

Caesars Entertainment's Pomeranian Gives Guide to Causing Trouble on Las Vegas Strip

Little Black Book, Directed by Dave Meyers, the Fellow Kids campaign showcases Caesars Entertainment and Lisa Vanderpump's first-ever hotel, The Vanderpump Hotel

Jun 1 • 8:22 AM EDT • Entertainment • lbbonline.com

Scientists discover inherited traits that break Mendel’s Laws of genetics

A major mouse study found that some inherited traits are passed down through epigenetic changes that break the classic rules of genetics. Researchers discovered hundreds of cases where these chemical DNA marks behaved unexpectedly, including some that seemed to emerge out of nowhere. They also identified the first known naturally occurring paramutation in a mammal, hinting that environmental influences may play a larger role in inheritance than scientists realized.

Jun 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Monday Rockpile: Making an All-Star case for Antonio Senzatela

Colorado Rockies news and links for Monday, June 1st, 2026

Jun 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ebola triggers fears over public health ahead of World Cup travel surge

A recent outbreak of Ebola cases in Africa is sparking fresh concern from public health officials in the United States about the spread of communicable diseases ahead of next month’s World Cup. The…

Jun 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • thehill.com

Xbox fan backlash to "PlayStation logos in the Showcase" isn't about gatekeeping

Everybody with a brain knows it takes five seconds to go online and find out whether a game is multiplatform. Microsoft's logo "transparency" simply has users doubting whether it's truly behind Xbox's long-term success.

Jun 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com

Marquinhos will be allowed to leave PSG

As was the case at the end of last season, Marquinhos (32) will be allowed to leave Paris Saint-Germain this summer, as per a report from L’Équipe.There was a feeling of a mission being completed ...

Jun 1 • 5:10 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Ebola recoveries bring signs of hope in DRC as suspected cases emerge outside Africa

Four nurses who were being treated for ‌Ebola caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus have been discharged from a hospital in Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after recovering from the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.

Jun 1 • 4:54 AM EDT • Health • cnn.com

Aurelian Tchouameni: Real Madrid’s stance comes to light

Manchester United’s hunt for Casemiro’s ideal replacement is not going according to plan.Manuel Ugarte has been a major disappointment and is set to leave, which leaves INEOS with a massive hole t...

Jun 1 • 1:10 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

At Ramapo DNA lab, genealogy meets science to solve cold cases

Dozens of times over four years, researchers have hit on matches that bring closure to families and free the wrongfully convicted

Jun 1 • 12:10 AM EDT • Science • njspotlightnews.org

Humans Are Still Evolving Right Before Our Eyes on The Tibetan Plateau

"This is a case of ongoing natural selection."

May 31 • 7:46 PM EDT • Science • sciencealert.com

The Missing Variable In Every AI Business Case: Your Customer

Leaders are running incomplete math on AI automation. Efficiency gains are real—but the erosion of customer trust may cost far more than the savings.

May 31 • 4:40 PM EDT • Business • forbes.com

Ysleta del Sur Pueblo to showcase small businesses, artisans during market

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Tigua Business Center of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo is hosting a Small Business Saturday Market. This family-friendly event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jun...

May 31 • 3:43 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com

Western Conference Finals Game 7 showcase Kentucky’s NBA dominance

Former Kentucky Wildcats showed out in the Western Conference Finals.

May 31 • 12:52 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Suspected Ebola case in Cagliari, patient taken to hospital

A person has been taken to a hospital in Cagliari over a suspected Ebola case. Authorities admitted the patient for tests. They are said to have recently returned from a trip abroad.

May 31 • 12:06 PM EDT • Health • euronews.com

Xbox will "adjust" its promotional materials after fans slam decision to use rival logos in its showcases

Xbox boss Asha Sharma has admitted that including competitor logos in Xbox teasers and showcase presentations is "a miss", confirming this will be "adjusted".

May 31 • 11:53 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Summer Game Fest Schedule: Your Guide To All 15+ Xbox-Related Events In June 2026

Xbox Showcase, SGF and so much more!

May 31 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • purexbox.com

Climate science without a notorious worst-case scenario

(The Center Square) – The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change threw out one of its most extreme emissions scenarios last week, a major development in climate science that will li...

May 31 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com

Climate science without a notorious worst-case scenario

(The Center Square) – The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change threw out one of its most extreme emissions scenarios last week, a major development in climate science that

May 31 • 10:00 AM EDT • Science • thecentersquare.com

Congo and Uganda report 263 confirmed Ebola cases with 43 deaths, Africa CDC says

As of May 30, 263 confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in the ​Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, the ‌director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya said.

May 31 • 9:39 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com

Phanteks’ new EX cases let users put ugly graphics cards in their own "shame box"

Phanteks has a new case series for users who want to build a clean PC (with GPU hidden) We have first footage from Computex thanks to Hardware Canucks who

May 31 • 8:00 AM EDT • Technology • videocardz.com

Makris Athens review: Michelin-starred restaurant is worth visiting

Makris Athens is a Michelin-starred restaurant with views of the Acropolis. The playful, imaginative dishes beautifully showcase Greek ingredients.

May 31 • 5:06 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Trump Wants Minerals, Health Data for Aid. African Nations Are Pushing Back.

Governments bridle at U.S. demands for private medical data and, in some cases, access to minerals.

May 30 • 10:00 PM EDT • Health • wsj.com

Rabid bat found on Fremont sidewalk prompts health warning

Alameda County is warning residents after a rabies-positive bat was found in Fremont, one of several rabies cases reported across the Bay Area this year.

May 30 • 9:28 PM EDT • Health • nbcbayarea.com

Congo Expands Ebola Testing as Outbreak’s Real Scale Eludes Officials

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has climbed to 260 as officials updated their estimates of the outbreak’s size and international health organizations warned of the risk of further spread.

May 30 • 9:26 PM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com

Kids show their businesses at Young Entrepreneurs Showcase in Springfield

Kids in Springfield got a taste of what it’s like to be a business owner on Saturday.

May 30 • 7:45 PM EDT • Business • ky3.com

Everybody Plays Adaptive Sports Field Day showcases sports opportunities for all

Lester Bennett II of Munhall feels like he was baptized as an adult while water skiing in the Allegheny River. “When I fell in that water and kept...

May 30 • 5:40 PM EDT • Sports • post-gazette.com

Brazil’s Health Authorities Investigating a Suspected Ebola Case

Brazilian health authorities are investigating a suspected case of the Ebola virus involving a 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of Congo who recently traveled to Africa.

May 30 • 3:18 PM EDT • Health • bloomberg.com

Confirmed Ebola cases nearly double in days as WHO chief visits DR Congo

WHO's Tedros calls for a community-led fight as a rare Ebola strain spreads rapidly through conflict-hit eastern DRC.

May 30 • 12:44 PM EDT • Health • aljazeera.com

Ali, Chamberlain Memorabilia Key to Sports Museum Case

Ownership of Muhammad Ali’s 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” World Boxing Council title belt and of a uniform worn by Wilt Chamberlain as a high school player in 1954 are among the 11 high-value memorabilia items at issue in a new federal lawsuit brought by Collectable Sports Assets LLC (CSA) against sports memorabilia museum Sports …

May 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

'It Was A Miss, And I Own It' - Xbox CEO Hints At Removing PS5 & Switch Logos From Showcases

She says they're going to adjust for the future

May 30 • 6:12 AM EDT • Technology • purexbox.com

35th annual Showcase for Commerce awards more than $137M in defense, business contracts

May 29 • 6:00 PM EDT • Business • wjactv.com

A recap of UNC's spring sports

From record-breaking performances to deep postseason runs, UNC once again showcased its strength across collegiate athletics during the spring season. Here’s a look back at how UNC’s spring sports teams fared this season.

May 29 • 4:58 PM EDT • Sports • dailytarheel.com

Suspected Ebola cases in Congo rise to 1,028, health minister says

Congolese ​authorities have ‌identified 1,028 suspected ​cases ​of Ebola, Health ⁠Minister Samuel ​Roger ​Kamba told reporters late Friday, ​up ​from 906 the ‌day ⁠before.

May 29 • 4:47 PM EDT • Health • reuters.com

Casey Webb

Juniper Advisory is pleased to announce the promotion of Casey Webb to Partner.

May 29 • 4:33 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com

Xbox games chief confirms Microsoft will show when its titles are coming to PS5 and other platforms at the Xbox Games Showcase — many fans aren't happy

Microsoft will broadcast multiplatform availability during the Xbox Games Showcase, frustrating fans.

May 29 • 4:13 PM EDT • Technology • windowscentral.com

Matt Booty Explains Why Xbox Won't Talk About Project Helix At June's Showcase

It's all about the games

May 29 • 2:15 PM EDT • Technology • purexbox.com

Xbox Will Show PS5 Logos at Showcase, But May Adjust Moving Forward as Execs Publicly Contradict Each Other

"It was a miss"

May 29 • 1:15 PM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com

Despite Uncertainty Over Exclusivity, Xbox Will Still Show PS5 Logos at Showcase

Look out for it

May 29 • 1:15 PM EDT • Technology • pushsquare.com

Gears of War E-Day, Fable, and Project Helix: What to Expect From Xbox's Games Showcase 2026

Every game, reveal, and surprise that we could see at Xbox's Games Showcase on June 7.

May 29 • 10:30 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com

Boston health officials to offer residents mpox vaccines at Pride event, amid uptick in cases

State and local officials are encouraging potentially at-risk individuals to take the mpox vaccine amid an uptick in cases nationwide and in Boston. The city will hold a vaccine clinic on June 1 during its Pride flag-raising event.

May 29 • 9:48 AM EDT • Health • wbur.org

Cooler Master and G.SKILL Partner to Bring Active Cooling Technology to DDR5 Memory

Cooler Master, a global leader in innovative thermal solutions and PC hardware, today announced a partnership with G.SKILL to introduce new MasterDimm AC DDR5 memory featuring active cooling technology from Cooler Master. MasterDimm AC will be showcased during Computex 2026 at Cooler Master's Taipei...

May 29 • 4:31 AM EDT • Technology • techpowerup.com

Heysel Memorial Day

On that tragic evening of 29 May, 1985, at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, thirty-nine Juventus fans lost their lives following the serious disorder that broke out in the stands. As is the case with e...

May 29 • 3:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Over 100 students showcase coding projects at Springfield Science Showcase

Springfield Public Schools recently hosted its annual Computer Science Showcase, celebrating student creativity, innovation and their work in the field.

May 28 • 10:20 PM EDT • Science • wwlp.com

MSI unveils world's first QD-OLED Triple-Mode monitor: 4K 360Hz / 2K 520Hz / FHD 680Hz

MSI shows 31.5-inch 4K 360Hz QD-OLED monitor with 680Hz mode MSI will use Computex 2026 to showcase a new 31.5-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor. The MPG OLED

May 28 • 8:00 PM EDT • Technology • videocardz.com

Quartet of firms guide $17.6bn Caesars Entertainment acquisition

Latham, Skadden, Freshfields and White & Case score roles in deal that will see casino giant's acquisition by conglomerate owned by billionaire Tilman Fertitta

May 28 • 8:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • globallegalpost.com

Bessent: Nothing 'untoward' about Trump appearing on $250 bill

The treasury secretary said his department has been preparing in case Congress approves legislation creating the $250 bills

May 28 • 4:31 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

The U.S. Is Proving the Case for the WHO

By responding to the Ebola outbreak independently, the U.S. is showing the limits of that approach.

May 28 • 3:04 PM EDT • Health • theatlantic.com

Waymo launches spacious Ojai robotaxi in major cities. We tested it.

Waymo introduced the Ojai robotaxi for spacious rides in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. We tested it out and brought our suitcases.

May 28 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Supreme Court rules for Mississippi death row inmate in jury bias case

By a 5-4 vote, the justices sided with Terry Pitchford, who was sentenced to death for his role in the killing of a grocery store owner

May 28 • 10:50 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Inside the Justice Department’s pursuit of Trump’s 2020 election fraud fixations

When President Donald Trump promised, seemingly out of the blue, in late January that prosecutions would “soon” be coming for 2020 election rigging, the Justice Department was already mobilizing an effort behind the scenes to build out a portfolio of cases that would boost the White House’s narrative.

May 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Polish scientists and students rally in campaign for 3% funding target

Polish scientists and students have been flooding social media with calls on the government to raise research and development spending as part of 3% for Science, 100% for Poland, a campaign born earlier this month out of frustration with chronic underfunding in the academic sector. On May 27, thousands took the slogan on to the streets.The EU has been trying to convince member states to raise their R&D expenditures to 3% of GDP for more than two decades, but the idea has never gained traction in capitals. Finance ministers were too busy plugging budget holes created in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, then the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and now the war in Iran.Critics say that countries missed or ignored the target because it is voluntary, but also because research communities have rarely raised their voice to put pressure on national governments. The European Commission hopes to make the target legally binding in the upcoming European Research Area Act, an EU-wide regulation that should be announced by the end of the year. Academia in Poland has been faced with a funding crisis for years, often leaving its members with no other choice but to work abroad in order to access better resources, or leave the sector altogether in the hope of earning a decent living. The risk, in the long-term, is that brain drain stifles local innovation capacity and technological competitiveness.In just a few weeks, the movement rallied nationwide support, including from major academic bodies and trade unions such as the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Its public petition collected more than 23,000 signatures. On May 27, it formed the first large protest for science in Poland, gathering thousands of people in front of the parliament building in Warsaw.Ilona Uryga-Bugajska, representative of the Marie Curie Alumni Association Poland Chapter, was there. “The protest was peaceful, with no incidents reported, and the entire event took place in a respectful and calm atmosphere,” she said. Banners she saw in the crowd carried slogans such as “A little longer and I’ll be teaching in a supermarket,” “National culture, starvation salary,” “Stop the destruction of science,” “Passion will not pay the rent,” “Without action, don’t expect a better future,” and “Pull science out of the hole.” She also observed a strong presence of young researchers, who are on the frontline of Poland’s academic crisis.“Academics are usually people who prefer discussion, analysis, dialogue and compromise. We are not a group that protests easily,” said Katarzyna Marzec, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University Medical College and AGH University of Krakow, who also took part. “But many of us feel that we have been pushed against the wall.”Aleksandra Rutkowska, translational neuroscientist and research group leader at the Medical University of Gdańsk, agreed. “Frustration in the scientific community is very high,” she said. “Science is often used politically as a symbol of innovation and modernity, but the everyday reality inside many institutions is much more difficult. There is a large gap between the public narrative and the actual condition of the sector.”Maria Wiktoria Górna, head of the structural biology group at the University of Warsaw and one of the organisers of the movement, told Science|Business that the campaign would continue without proven results. This might involve another strike in the autumn, she said. “Empty promises are not enough by now.”Campaign demandsAccording to Uryga-Bugajska, the organisers officially presented their demands and concerns to representatives of the government present at the event. These included Marek Gzik, deputy minister of science and higher education, and Karolina Zioło-Pużuk, secretary of state of that same ministry.The headline demand, for the government to increase national spending on R&D to 3% of GDP by 2030, should be within Poland’s economic capacity, Rutkowska said. “The real question is whether there is genuine long-term political commitment to treating science as a strategic priority rather than a slogan.”In 2024, R&D expenditure in Poland stood at 1.41% of GDP, which is slightly above the average for central and eastern Europe, with countries such as Czechia recording 1.82%, Hungary 1.31% and Romania 0.46%. However, it falls noticeably short of the EU average of 2.24%, which just a handful of countries exceed, including Germany, Belgium and Sweden.Campaigners are also asking for fair wages for scientific staff, including PhD stipends and junior academic salaries, which are widely considered uncompetitive. Starting doctoral scholarships amount to some €843 gross per month, when the statutory minimum wage stands at €1,135. By pushing early-career researchers out of Poland, growing precarity has caused a generational gap in the academic workforce, with just 25% of lecturers aged under 40. In this context, the movement fears that scientific careers could soon be accessible to a privileged minority only.Grzegorz Spólnik is a case in point. After 15 years working in mass spectrometry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, he decided to leave partly “to earn enough money to live a normal life,” he said. “At that time, my earnings were similar to those of people working in grocery shops, and the work-life balance is something that does not exist in science, or is very hard to achieve.”Now a senior field service engineer for Polish laboratory equipment supplier Bioanalytic, he would consider going back to research, “but never in the public sector, maybe some start-up or a big private company with ambitious R&D.”The campaigners want to see more support for basic research and have called for €236 million to be added to the budget of the National Science Centre (NCN) in 2027 so that the average grant application success rate does not fall below 25%.“At the protest, there was a banner I particularly liked: ‘NCN is not a lottery.’ Unfortunately, for many researchers, it increasingly feels exactly like one,” Marzec said. “Personally, I am one of the lucky ones. I work at two of the strongest institutions in the country, where the research standards are very high. I know that in many other institutions, the situation is much worse and obtaining funding for research at an early-career stage is becoming nearly impossible.”Rutkowska also considers herself fortunate. After studying abroad and holding a postdoctoral position, she returned to Poland, where her pay was supported through an NCN-funded project linked to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. “This also made me very aware that good research conditions in Poland often depend on external competitive funding rather than on stable support from the system itself,” she said.Long-term strategyBeyond the lack of funds for both salaries and grants, scientists believe that the issue is structural. “The biggest problem at the moment is the complete lack of a clear long-term strategy for the development of science and research from the current government,” Marzec said. “Everything ends with declarations and promises that are never truly followed by concrete actions or structural reforms.”Rutkowska agreed, citing a lack of infrastructure, continuity and long-term institutional support.“Running a research group in Poland often means functioning as an entire institution at once,” she said. “I am a principal investigator, a mentor, a recruiter, a project administrator and, when needed, still someone who returns to the lab bench to help with experiments,” she went on. “This creates a large hidden workload that takes time and energy away from actual science. At times, it feels as though scientists are no longer expecting extra help; we simply hope the system will stop creating additional obstacles that make research unnecessarily difficult.”Related articlesStrategic thinking: Germany funds joint research with Poland and FrancePoland to transfer €30M of regional funds to boost Horizon Europe participationPoland is funding fewer basic research grants as high inflation hitsIn short, “academics are expected to teach, publish papers, apply for grants and conduct high-quality research, while funding and salaries remain very limited,” said Uryga-Bugajska, who returned to her home country after 13 years in the UK.According to Marzec, another issue is the way that research institutions are evaluated. Previously, this took place every four years, with a clear differentiation between stronger and weaker institutions. “The current government, perhaps to avoid political backlash, effectively concluded that everyone is doing well, so in practice no meaningful evaluation took place,” she said.But in her view, “some form of serious assessment is necessary” to ensure the excellence and international competitiveness of Polish institutions, and to determine how to best use public resources and where institutional structures need reform. “Some institutions may need to rethink hiring practices in order to attract ambitious young researchers who are capable of obtaining competitive grants and building internationally visible research groups.” Rutkowska has already had to adapt. “When hiring PhD students, I often have to combine different funding sources creatively to make positions attractive enough for talented people to stay in science,” she said. “Many young researchers do not see a stable future in academia in Poland, and that is deeply worrying.”

May 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

White & Case advises Fertitta Entertainment on its agreement to acquire Caesars Entertainment

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Fertitta Entertainment, Inc., a leader in the hospitality and entertainment industries, on its agreement to acquire Caesars Entertainment, Inc.

May 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • whitecase.com

Polish scientists and students rally in campaign for better conditions

Polish scientists and students have been flooding social media with calls on the government to raise research and development spending as part of 3% for Science, 100% for Poland, a campaign born earlier this month out of frustration with chronic underfunding in the academic sector. On May 27, thousands took the slogan on to the streets.The EU has been trying to convince member states to raise their R&D expenditures to 3% of GDP for more than two decades, but the idea has never gained traction in capitals. Finance ministers were too busy plugging budget holes created in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, then the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and now the war in Iran.Critics say that countries missed or ignored the target because it is voluntary, but also because research communities have rarely raised their voice to put pressure on national governments. The European Commission hopes to make the target legally binding in the upcoming European Research Area Act, an EU-wide regulation that should be announced by the end of the year. Academia in Poland has been faced with a funding crisis for years, often leaving its members with no other choice but to work abroad in order to access better resources, or leave the sector altogether in the hope of earning a decent living. The risk, in the long-term, is that brain drain stifles local innovation capacity and technological competitiveness.In just a few weeks, the movement rallied nationwide support, including from major academic bodies and trade unions such as the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland and the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Its public petition collected more than 23,000 signatures. On May 27, it formed the first large protest for science in Poland, gathering thousands of people in front of the parliament building in Warsaw.Ilona Uryga-Bugajska, representative of the Marie Curie Alumni Association Poland Chapter, was there. “The protest was peaceful, with no incidents reported, and the entire event took place in a respectful and calm atmosphere,” she said. Banners she saw in the crowd carried slogans such as “A little longer and I’ll be teaching in a supermarket,” “National culture, starvation salary,” “Stop the destruction of science,” “Passion will not pay the rent,” “Without action, don’t expect a better future,” and “Pull science out of the hole.” She also observed a strong presence of young researchers, who are on the frontline of Poland’s academic crisis.“Academics are usually people who prefer discussion, analysis, dialogue and compromise. We are not a group that protests easily,” said Katarzyna Marzec, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Jagiellonian University Medical College and AGH University of Krakow, who also took part. “But many of us feel that we have been pushed against the wall.”Aleksandra Rutkowska, translational neuroscientist and research group leader at the Medical University of Gdańsk, agreed. “Frustration in the scientific community is very high,” she said. “Science is often used politically as a symbol of innovation and modernity, but the everyday reality inside many institutions is much more difficult. There is a large gap between the public narrative and the actual condition of the sector.”Maria Wiktoria Górna, head of the structural biology group at the University of Warsaw and one of the organisers of the movement, told Science|Business that the campaign would continue without proven results. This might involve another strike in the autumn, she said. “Empty promises are not enough by now.”Campaign demandsAccording to Uryga-Bugajska, the organisers officially presented their demands and concerns to representatives of the government present at the event. These included Marek Gzik, deputy minister of science and higher education, and Karolina Zioło-Pużuk, secretary of state of that same ministry.The headline demand, for the government to increase national spending on R&D to 3% of GDP by 2030, should be within Poland’s economic capacity, Rutkowska said. “The real question is whether there is genuine long-term political commitment to treating science as a strategic priority rather than a slogan.”In 2024, R&D expenditure in Poland stood at 1.41% of GDP, which is slightly above the average for central and eastern Europe, with countries such as Czechia recording 1.82%, Hungary 1.31% and Romania 0.46%. However, it falls noticeably short of the EU average of 2.24%, which just a handful of countries exceed, including Germany, Belgium and Sweden.Campaigners are also asking for fair wages for scientific staff, including PhD stipends and junior academic salaries, which are widely considered uncompetitive. Starting doctoral scholarships amount to some €843 gross per month, when the statutory minimum wage stands at €1,135. By pushing early-career researchers out of Poland, growing precarity has caused a generational gap in the academic workforce, with just 25% of lecturers aged under 40. In this context, the movement fears that scientific careers could soon be accessible to a privileged minority only.Grzegorz Spólnik is a case in point. After 15 years working in mass spectrometry at the Polish Academy of Sciences, he decided to leave partly “to earn enough money to live a normal life,” he said. “At that time, my earnings were similar to those of people working in grocery shops, and the work-life balance is something that does not exist in science, or is very hard to achieve.”Now a senior field service engineer for Polish laboratory equipment supplier Bioanalytic, he would consider going back to research, “but never in the public sector, maybe some start-up or a big private company with ambitious R&D.”The campaigners want to see more support for basic research and have called for €236 million to be added to the budget of the National Science Centre (NCN) in 2027 so that the average grant application success rate does not fall below 25%.“At the protest, there was a banner I particularly liked: ‘NCN is not a lottery.’ Unfortunately, for many researchers, it increasingly feels exactly like one,” Marzec said. “Personally, I am one of the lucky ones. I work at two of the strongest institutions in the country, where the research standards are very high. I know that in many other institutions, the situation is much worse and obtaining funding for research at an early-career stage is becoming nearly impossible.”Rutkowska also considers herself fortunate. After studying abroad and holding a postdoctoral position, she returned to Poland, where her pay was supported through an NCN-funded project linked to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. “This also made me very aware that good research conditions in Poland often depend on external competitive funding rather than on stable support from the system itself,” she said.Long-term strategyBeyond the lack of funds for both salaries and grants, scientists believe that the issue is structural. “The biggest problem at the moment is the complete lack of a clear long-term strategy for the development of science and research from the current government,” Marzec said. “Everything ends with declarations and promises that are never truly followed by concrete actions or structural reforms.”Rutkowska agreed, citing a lack of infrastructure, continuity and long-term institutional support.“Running a research group in Poland often means functioning as an entire institution at once,” she said. “I am a principal investigator, a mentor, a recruiter, a project administrator and, when needed, still someone who returns to the lab bench to help with experiments,” she went on. “This creates a large hidden workload that takes time and energy away from actual science. At times, it feels as though scientists are no longer expecting extra help; we simply hope the system will stop creating additional obstacles that make research unnecessarily difficult.”Related articlesStrategic thinking: Germany funds joint research with Poland and FrancePoland to transfer €30M of regional funds to boost Horizon Europe participationPoland is funding fewer basic research grants as high inflation hitsIn short, “academics are expected to teach, publish papers, apply for grants and conduct high-quality research, while funding and salaries remain very limited,” said Uryga-Bugajska, who returned to her home country after 13 years in the UK.According to Marzec, another issue is the way that research institutions are evaluated. Previously, this took place every four years, with a clear differentiation between stronger and weaker institutions. “The current government, perhaps to avoid political backlash, effectively concluded that everyone is doing well, so in practice no meaningful evaluation took place,” she said.But in her view, “some form of serious assessment is necessary” to ensure the excellence and international competitiveness of Polish institutions, and to determine how to best use public resources and where institutional structures need reform. “Some institutions may need to rethink hiring practices in order to attract ambitious young researchers who are capable of obtaining competitive grants and building internationally visible research groups.” Rutkowska has already had to adapt. “When hiring PhD students, I often have to combine different funding sources creatively to make positions attractive enough for talented people to stay in science,” she said. “Many young researchers do not see a stable future in academia in Poland, and that is deeply worrying.”

May 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net

Health officials track Ebola cases in Africa amid warnings of deadliest strain

Family medicine physician Dr. Jessica Gray discusses the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, noting concerns that it's spreading faster than responders can contain.

May 28 • 6:20 AM EDT • Health • foxnews.com

St. Louis business leaders seek to shake up the data center narrative

Data centers are the topic that just won’t go away, and given the public acrimony surrounding them, local business leaders and other supporters are keen on reframing the conversation. Case-in-point was the panel convened yesterday by the regional business association Greater St. Louis Inc. featuring representatives from the data center industry, labor unions, building trades, […]

May 28 • 6:15 AM EDT • Business • stlmag.com

Bournemouth want to keep key trio

Eli Junior Kroupi, Rayan and Alex Scott – this summer. The Cherries will present a strong case that European football only enhances the platform on offer at Vitality Stadium, while significant player sales in recent seasons mean there is no financial pressure to sell. Scott, 23, is under contract until 2028, but Bournemouth accept he is deserving of a new deal.

May 28 • 3:10 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Uganda closes its border with Congo, where suspected cases of rare Ebola type are surging

The measure, which goes against the guidance by the World Health Organization, underscores growing fears of contagion in East Africa from Bundibugyo, a rare type of the Ebola virus that is behind this outbreak and that has no approved medicines or vaccines.

May 27 • 7:37 PM EDT • Health • pbs.org

Doctors push new blood tests for colon cancer as cases surge in younger adults

The American Cancer Society updated colorectal cancer screening guidelines, adding blood-based tests and reaffirming screening should begin at age 45.

May 27 • 5:51 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com

The business case for mental health: NC Chamber hosts summit highlighting importance of youth well-being

The summit gathered business, health care, and government leaders to discuss the impact of mental health on the state's young people.

May 27 • 5:30 PM EDT • Health • ednc.org

The business case for mental health: NC Chamber hosts summit highlighting importance of youth well-being

The summit gathered business, health care, and government leaders to discuss the impact of mental health on the state's young people.

May 27 • 5:30 PM EDT • Business • ednc.org

Wisconsin health officials report first mpox cases of 2026

Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported the first cases of mpox on Wednesday after identifying a cluster of cases in the state.

May 27 • 5:15 PM EDT • Health • wmtv15news.com

Insulet recalls 7M insulin delivery pods due to safety risk

A total of 24 adverse safety incidents—including cases of diabetic ketoacidosis—have been linked to this issue.

May 27 • 2:39 PM EDT • Business • cardiovascularbusiness.com

YouTube adds ‘custom feed’ to home page, just in case the search bar is too boring for you

YouTube isn’t exactly replacing the traditional search bar, but it is supplementing it with a way to watch a “custom...

May 27 • 1:45 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com

In Alabama Case, Supreme Court Faces First Major Test of Voting Rights Act Ruling

Republican leaders in the state have asked the justices to clear the way for a congressional map that a lower court found discriminated against Black voters.

May 27 • 12:35 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

First Cases for Apple's Foldable iPhone Surface Online

Accessory maker iFunSmart has begun listing the first protective cases for Apple's upcoming foldable iPhone, corroborating rumors about the device's design. Case makers routinely begin mass producing accessories ahead of a new iPhone announcement, working from dummy units or leaked CAD files to size their molds. Their designs are speculative, but they have historically proven accurate to the millimeter, since accessory makers cannot afford to be left without product on launch day.

May 27 • 10:43 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com

Spain police enter PM Sanchez’s Socialist Party HQ in corruption probe

Spanish police enter governing party's headquarters in Madrid as the corruption cases circle PM Sanchez's government.

May 27 • 8:06 AM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com

Ebola, chemical plants and health, hantavirus, common colds, heat and more

As they say, bugs have ears. Public health has had a relentless May. Chemical plant (near) explosions, Ebola, hantavirus, and that's before you even get to the usual suspects: common colds, heat, and ticks. Here’s an attempt to keep you up to speed and, more importantly, what it means for you and your community. But first, an announcement: World Cup The World Cup starts in 15 days (not like anyone is counting down), and we are hanging TVs in the Health Security Operations Center. It’s going to be a gorgeous, chaotic celebration of basically every culture on earth. And it’s going to take a team effort—from communities to individuals, from public health to health care—to keep people healthy. That’s where you come in. If you’re going to the games or live within 30 miles of a stadium, we would love to hear from you. Sign up for a weekly survey here. Thanks to the more than 1,280 people who have already signed up…you will be hearing from us soon!! Global disease “weather report” Hantavirus: Two more cases The global count of cruise ship passengers with hantavirus has now increased to 13 cases (11 confirmed), with three deaths. The two new cases are overseas and among people who were already quarantining: A crew member in the Netherlands. A Spanish national passenger who was quarantining at home tested positive through daily monitoring. They are now in a biocontainment unit. In the U.S., everyone remains negative. There may be more cases, given that the incubation period of hantavirus (the time from exposure to infection) is 45 days. But this week, we will reach a major milestone: the median incubation window is 18 days, and that will pass on May 29. What this means for you: Your risk from this cruise ship outbreak remains essentially nil at this point. Ebola rages on in Central Africa Big thanks to Dr. Craig Spencer, a humanitarian physician who has treated and survived Ebola, for jumping in to provide the YLE community with an update. Craig, take it from here… The combined confirmed and suspected Ebola cases in DRC are now more than 1,000. All signs are pointing to a very long and catastrophic outbreak in Central Africa: This is a vast undercount. We know this because the test positivity rate is hovering around 50%, only 20% of contacts are being traced (and in some areas, no contacts at all), and more cases keep popping up with no known connection. This all points to widespread and undetected community transmission. This is in only a week of detection. Compared to previous outbreaks, the growth is very fast, as the huge West Africa outbreak in 2016 was first detected at 49 cases and rose to 208 cases a month later. It took four months for that outbreak to reach the size of the current one in the DR Congo. The cases are spread out across 16 health zones. There are now multiple epicenters, making containment very difficult. Next door in Uganda, the case count is seven. While this number is low compared to DRC, a concerning development is that two health care workers recently tested positive with uncertain exposure histories. If they weren’t treating known Ebola cases, this means it’s spreading undetected in Uganda as well. On the ground, backlash, including the burning of health centers, has emerged, a pattern seen in nearly every outbreak and rooted in deep community distrust. It often stems from outside actors working in communities without fully understanding or addressing local priorities. Affected populations may recognize the severity of Ebola while still holding other concerns as more pressing, such as where their loved ones are buried. Community trust is essential to an effective response, but difficult to build during an active emergency. It is best established long before a crisis begins. U.S. priorities are made clear, and may backfire. The U.S. Administration has shown that its first priority is keeping Ebola out, with helping end the outbreak in the DRC a secondary concern. That's meant travel restrictions broader than anything we've imposed before — covering travelers from across the region, and reportedly some green card holders and permanent residents as well. For example, just these past two days, news broke that high-risk American travelers will be subject to a mandatory quarantine in Kenya before they are allowed to return. If an American is infected, the U.S. government plans to send them to a hospital it is standing up from scratch in Kenya. (Currently, Americans who were in the area are allowed to return but are diverted to three airports—Houston, Atlanta, and DC—for further screening.) Past administrations have used travel notices and stepped-up screening; this goes much further. At first blush, these strict precautions may sound prudent. But this approach could backfire in three ways: Restrictions this blunt give people every reason to hide where they’ve been and whom they’ve been near — making the people we most need to find harder to track, not easier. They also breed a false sense that this is someone else’s problem. But diseases are humbling. They find the small cracks in even the most impenetrable-seeming defenses. Lives lost. There is no treatment for this Ebola strain, which means survival depends heavily on the quality of the health system. We have that system in the States, but we are choosing not to use it for infected Americans. This is unbelievable and infuriating. (See a deeper dive from me here.) The only real way to lower the risk to Americans — and everyone else — is to end the outbreak in the DRC and across the region. What this means for you: If you have travel plans to this region, it’s time to cancel them. This is a high-risk situation in Central Africa, and CDC released a Level 4 Travel Advisory. There is also great uncertainty if and when the Administration will let you back in. To the general public in the U.S., your risk remains very, very low right now. U.S. disease “weather report” Ticks: past peak season? Good news, especially for people in the Northeast and Midwest: tick numbers continue to decline. Though we are at the peak of the season, this unusually early year is trending favorably. Heat-related illnesses in the North Heat risk is certainly not blanketing the entire country yet, but this week it will be moderate in the Midwest and the Southeast. What this means for you: Be sure to check the CDC HeatRisk tool. A red day isn’t the best day for that soccer game for a kid with asthma, and a stretch of orange days is a great time to check on your elderly neighbor. Common colds surging As far as respiratory viruses go, the only thing really going around right now is the common cold. It is higher this year than last year, but should peak very soon before returning this fall. Spotlight: Chemical plants Over the weekend, YLE California covered the serious situation that unfolded around a chemical plant in Orange County, California. Thankfully, the worst-case scenario (a chemical explosion) was mitigated, but only through luck. The health implications in a densely populated area could have been catastrophic. As the situation was winding down, another chemical explosion struck Washington State. This one was fatal. Health officials say the risk to surrounding residents from chemicals in the air and ground remains low, though the community deserves far greater clarity. Clean air and clean water consistently rank as Americans’ top public health concerns — yet when chemical disasters strike, communities are too often met with reassurances rather than transparency and accountability. Residents near the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, for example, are still waiting to understand the long-term impact on their health, with few clear answers. What this means for you: Many are wondering if facilities processing potentially dangerous materials are in their neighborhoods. This interactive map allows you to enter your ZIP code and see all facilities monitored by the EPA, including any violations. Good news Ebola vaccines and treatment for the Bundibugyo species are in development. Two vaccine platforms are being explored, at least one of which may be deployable in as little as 2 months. One vaccine is being developed by Oxford, and the other uses the same biotechnology as the FDA-approved Zaire species of Ebola. (It may provide cross-protection, but it’s unclear at this point.) On the treatment side, two promising monoclonal antibody cocktails are likely to be deployed, though doses are limited and logistical hurdles remain significant challenges. Anni over at The Biotech Tea had a great explainer about the Ebola vaccine gap, if you want to read more. [ The Biotech Tea The Ebola vaccine gap, reading vessel damage, & the Makary exit 🗝️ Paid subscribers get the Biotech Term of the Week at $30/year (~$2.50/month). I try to keep it intentionally accessible, but if cost is ever a barrier, send me a message. A few people asked about expensing your subscription, so I put together a short email template… Read more 6 days ago · 10 likes · Annicka Evans, PhD ](https://www.thebiotechtea.com/p/the-ebola-vaccine-gap-reading-vessel?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been officially renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), following more than a decade of debate and input from roughly 22,000 clinicians, researchers, and patients worldwide. This is good because the old name was medically misleading, leading to patients without visible cysts being dismissed or overlooked entirely. The WHO estimates that 70% of people with the condition remain undiagnosed. A more accurate name should improve recognition, reduce stigma, and ultimately help the millions of people living with this condition get diagnosed and treated sooner. Poll Loading... Bottom line Public health situations are everywhere right now. Staying healthy takes public health professionals and systems working tirelessly behind the scenes and each of us showing up for our neighbors and communities. Love, YLE Big thanks to Ed Nirenberg for staying on top of the Ebola vaccines, Hannah Totte for all the figures, Dr. Craig Spencer for the Ebola insight, and Dr. Matt Willis for covering the chemical situation in CA. Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) comprises a team of experts, ranging from physicians to immunologists to epidemiologists to nutritionists, working together with one goal: to “Translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. YLE suite of newsletters reaches over 475,000 people across more than 132 countries. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe

May 27 • 7:43 AM EDT • Health • yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com