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China Expels Former Politburo Member Over Graft and Sex Charges
China expelled former Politburo member Ma Xingrui from the ruling Communist Party, accusing him of a wide range of offenses including corruption, abuse of power and trading political favors for sex.
Trump’s Cease-Fire Effectively Collapses as He Vows to Restart Blockade and Tolls
After several days of strikes, the president notified Congress that fighting had begun again and announced shipping fees that his administration previously deemed illegal.
SUNY Broome and SUNY New Paltz launch new business student transfer agreement
SUNY Broome announced a new transfer agreement for its business administration program with SUNY New Paltz.
Oregon, 14 other states sue Trump administration to block school mental health funding cuts
Fifteen states including Oregon and Washington sued the Trump administration to block funding cuts to a $1 billion program that helps school districts hire and train more mental health professionals.
Why Robert Irwin prefers deadly challenge over 'Dancing with the Stars'
NEW YORK – Robert Irwin is both a "Dancing with the Stars" champion and a wildlife conservationist. Faced with a "Would you rather?"
CBO is looking at how fighting health care fraud could help GOP boost defense spending - Live Updates
House GOP lawmakers are searching for savings to help fund their latest spending package, and want CBO to examine the Trump administration's fraud crackdown.
The Biggest Threat to Women's Sports Isn't Trans Athletes. It's the Trump Administration's Failure to Uphold Title IX's Promise of Equal Opportunity.
While the Trump administration performs protection and lets unresolved cases pile up, athletes and their lawyers are actually enforcing Title IX and expanding athletic opportunities for women and girls.
The Quintessential Trump-era Politician
In 2020, I wrote an article about collaboration and collaborators. The title was History Will Judge the Complicit, and it started with the story of two famous East Germans, Markus Wolf and Wolfgang Leonhard, who both landed in East Berlin just after the end of the war. Although they came from very similar backgrounds, the former stuck with the regime, eventually becoming its spy boss; the latter, horrified by the brutal reality of Soviet-style communism, escaped. By way of juxtaposition, I also wrote about Lyndsey Graham and Mitt Romney. These two men also made very different decisions when confronted by Donald Trump’s assault on the ideals that they had both grown up believing: A glance at their biographies would not have led many to predict what happened next. On paper, Graham would have seemed, in 2016, like the man with deeper ties to the military, to the rule of law, and to an old-fashioned idea of American patriotism and American responsibility in the world. Romney, by contrast, with his shifts between the center and the right, with his multiple careers in business and politics, would have seemed less deeply attached to those same old-fashioned patriotic ideals. Most of us register soldiers as loyal patriots, and management consultants as self-interested. We assume people from small towns in South Carolina are more likely to resist political pressure than people who have lived in many places. Intuitively, we think that loyalty to a particular place implies loyalty to a set of values. But in this case the clichés were wrong. It was Graham who made excuses for Trump’s abuse of power. It was Graham—a JAG Corps lawyer—who downplayed the evidence that the president had attempted to manipulate foreign courts and blackmail a foreign leader into launching a phony investigation into a political rival. It was Graham who abandoned his own stated support for bipartisanship and instead pushed for a hyperpartisan Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. It was Graham who played golf with Trump, who made excuses for him on television, who supported the president even as he slowly destroyed the American alliances—with Europeans, with the Kurds—that Graham had defended all his life. By contrast, it was Romney who, in February, became the only Republican senator to break ranks with his colleagues, voting to impeach the president. “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office,” he said, is “perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.” In the wake of Graham’s unexpected death on Saturday, I wrote about him again. He was, in many ways, the quintessential politician of Trump’s Washington, a man who shifted 180 degrees. Graham had been a fervent American patriot, proud reserve officer and military lawyer; he became one of the most important defenders of a president who believes soldiers are “suckers and losers” and shows no respect for law of any kind. As his politics changed, his language grew coarser and his behavior grew worse: He urged Israel to “level the place” in Gaza, and insulted the Danish prime minister in Munich, prompting a colleague, Senator Elissa Slotkin, to issue an apology. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which you can read in The Atlantic (gift link here) Like his close friend John McCain, Graham believed that America should stand at the center of a broad democratic alliance. The few times I met him were in that context, at the Munich Security Conference or at other European-American gatherings, which he once attended with great regularity. He also took seriously the practice of American democracy at home. In a 2014 conversation with The Atlantic, he described himself as a pragmatic politician who eschewed populist slogans. “I know Washington is broken, but what’s broken about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying to fix it,” he said. “I’m trying.” When Donald Trump first appeared in U.S. politics, Graham recognized him immediately for what he was: the spokesman for an alien ideology, one radically different from the idealistic patriotism that Graham had practiced and preached since childhood. Trump privately mocked the military that Graham loved as nothing but “suckers and losers.” He put falsehoods, cynicism, and personal greed at the center of his politics, while expressing disdain for transparency, accountability, and democracy itself. In 2015, Graham described Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who should “go to hell.” Also as a “nutjob.” When Trump won, Graham understood, as did so many others, that he would have to make some important choices. For a while, he went silent. In the spring of 2016, I saw him at one of those conferences in Europe. He seemed too depressed to speak. But then, like many other Republicans—and, more important, like many other people who have lived under political occupation or experienced radical regime change—he made the decision to abandon his previous ideals, to bury the patriotism that was once so important to him, and to become, instead, a loud, opportunistic collaborator. As I wrote in 2020, it’s very hard to look in to anyone’s heart and to understand their motivations from the outside. But it does seem that Graham had a deep need to be relevant, to be in the game, to be a player, at any cost. And that, rather than any particular achievement, is what he will be remembered for. Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc and check out the SNF Agora Institute chart) June 27 Trump diverted funds from more than 900 projects nationwide—including safety upgrades at national parks—to finance beautification projects around Washington, including $700,000 used to fix a White House walkway. June 28 After a years-long Department of Justice investigation into Abbott Laboratories over its management of a baby formula facility where potentially deadly bacteria turned up enough evidence to criminally charge the firm, top department officials instead opted for a financial penalty—illustrating the department’s move away from strict corporate enforcement under the Trump administration. June 29 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stacked the Defense Policy Board—which is charged with providing independent national security recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with Trump allies, including tech billionaire Marc Andreessen, who has invested in defense contractors like OpenAI and SpaceX, after purging the panel last year. Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Axon—which makes about 90% of US tasers—two weeks before ICE solicited bids for a $220 million taser contract. The White House unveiled limited-edition US passports for America’s 250th birthday, featuring a portrait of Trump overlaid on the Declaration of Independence. June 30 Trump made around $1.2 billion from his various crypto companies last year, including more than $500 million from World Liberty Financial and $600 million from sales of his meme coin. Trump is considering issuing 250 pardons to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. These are expected to be largely doled out through the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s informal network of intermediaries. White-collar defense attorneys say they can typically win pardons for clients for $2 million. Last year, Trump administration officials awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $500 million to Clark Construction for the White House ballroom—negotiations in which the president was directly involved. July 1 The Amazon MGM Studios documentary about Melania Trump earned the First Lady more than $10 million. Trump made hundreds of individual stock purchases worth as much as $12.8 million the day before his announcement pausing “Liberation Day” tariffs for 90 days sent the S&P 500 soaring nearly 10%—one of the largest single-day gains ever. Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral saw record surges in revenue during Trump’s first year in office, earning $77.5 million and $121.9 million respectively, compared to average annual revenues of $25 million and $75 million during Trump’s first term. Entities across the Persian Gulf paid more than $300 million to Trump’s businesses last year, including $263 million from the sale of half his stake in World Liberty Financial to a firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a top UAE royal and brother of the country’s president. Kash Patel failed to properly disclose his stock purchase of a Department of Justice contractor, MicroStrategy, worth up to $250,000 last year, despite laws requiring disclosure within 45 days of the trade. July 2 Trump has been directing administration officials to steer more government contracts—so far worth more than $2.4 billion—to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin aerospace firm, after Amazon gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, donated to the White House ballroom project, and reached a $40 million deal to license a Melania Trump documentary. Alongside the billions he made from cryptocurrency last year, Trump earned millions of dollars from real estate licensing fees, including $21 million from organizations in the UAE and $9.2 million in Saudi Arabia, along with smaller sums from merchandise sales, including $4.7 million from Trump Watches and $35,920 from 45 Guitar, a guitar brand endorsed by the president. House Democrats accused consultants tied to the Trump administration of financial fraud, alleging they gave prospective donors to America250—the bipartisan committee created by Congress to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial—the banking and routing numbers for Freedom 250, the White House’s fund for events like the UFC cage fight. Democrats also allege that Freedom 250’s CEO traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos to solicit donations from foreign government officials and business leaders. The Trump administration’s proposed rollback of gun regulations would lift the prohibition on mailing handguns to individuals, a significant win for GrabAGun—the direct-to-consumer firearm retailer on whose board Donald Trump Jr. sits and in which he holds a 1.1% ownership stake. GrabAGun currently must rely on a middleman to transfer firearms to customers. Trump’s financial disclosure revealed that he made more than 21,000 securities trades during his first year back in office, growing his investment account to at least $858 million across stakes in around 1,600 companies, compared to the 13 total trades Joe Biden made during his entire presidency. July 4 Nearly 1 million people who bought the president’s meme coin—Trump Coin—collectively lost $3.8 billion on the token, while he walked away with $636 million. July 6 Shares of Dell closed up 4.4% after Trump recommended people buy the firm’s computers during a speech announcing the launch of Trump investment accounts for children, boosting the more than $1 million worth of shares the president owns in the company. July 9 Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh named crypto investor and Trump ally Marc Andreessen to a task force aimed at modernizing the Federal Reserve, including rethinking its approach to inflation—a key factor keeping interest rates elevated. Palm Beach International Airport has officially changed its name to Trump International Airport—a move that will require Florida to pay royalties to the president’s family for licensing his name. I was there a few months ago, during a trip to Barcelona. The sculptures were a revelation, I’d never seen so many together before. Each one has its own personality. Enjoy the good weather, if you are lucky enough to have it. History Will Judge the Complicit The Quintessential Politician Autocracy Inc Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
US outbreak of parasite causing ‘watery diarrhea’ rises to more than 2,800 cases
Outbreak comes a year after Trump administration cut funding for state and local health departments
Delaware expands payer and provider HIE access under RHTP
With an eye toward prior auth and insurance verification, the First State is using some of its Rural Health Transformation funding to broaden access to the health information exchange, reduce administrative workloads and enhance data usability.
‘The end of American science as we know it.’ White House funding plan sparks alarm
A Trump administration proposal would vastly expand political oversight of federal grants. Critics say it threatens “science as we know it.”
The Ministry's "Great Purge" of Science: Can AI Help?
Publish or perish. Universities decide whether to renew researchers[1] contracts or promote them through the academic ranks largely on the...
Trump administration live updates: GOP scrambles to find replacement for Lindsey Graham
Get the latest news and live updates on the Trump administration as Republicans scramble to find replacement for Lindsey Graham and McConnell give his first statement since he was hospitalized a month ago.
As Trump Brands Them ‘Godless Communists,’ Democrats Divided on How to Respond
Some Democrats are making clear they believe in capitalism, as they fear Trump's attacks are working
Handover of Health Commodities
Joint Handover of Health Commodities Speech of Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner (…) Thank you for joining us. I am here today to demonstrate how U.S. foreign assistance under President Trump’s America First Global Health Strategy and our bilateral health MOU makes America safer and stronger while helping Madagascar build a more self-reliant health system. Through our bilateral Global Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in December 2025 with the Ministry of Public Health, our two governments outlined shared priorities and responsibilities, including a strong focus on infectious disease threats and Madagascar’s increasing ownership and co-investment in its own health system. The MOU outlines the structure and terms of U.S. support to Madagascar’s health sector from 2026 through 2030, with a total commitment of $134,305,000 from the U.S. government and $41,216,252 from the Government of Madagascar to work jointly to address malaria, maternal and child health, polio and global health security issues. Stronger health systems help prevent instability and reduce the risk that infectious diseases reach the United States, making both our countries safer. America First foreign assistance is clear and disciplined: It is a tool of strategic engagement, not global charity. Every U.S. taxpayer dollar must show measurable results, reduce long-term dependence on U.S. taxpayer resources, and support greater self-reliance in recipient countries. Support must be efficient and targeted, with zero tolerance for fraud, waste, or abuse. This year, through the U.S.-funded Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management project, we are distributing: 989,250 long-lasting insecticide-treated nets, worth $2,000,000 to 63 districts and 1,661 Community Health Centers across Madagascar, with the third and final delivery of these nets having arrived in late June. Through the U.S.-funded Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) project, we are funding: The full cost of Starlink internet connectivity equipment procurement, installation, and one-year subscription for 31 priority District and Regional Health Offices. Through the U.S.-funded Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems project, we are supplying: 908,523 pieces of critical medical equipment and a modernized digital surveillance system to the Ministry of Public Health. These materials will strengthen health systems, improve response capabilities, and help those most in need of protection from mosquito-borne diseases — particularly malaria, which continues to claim the lives of children and women at an unacceptable rate. Deployed effectively, they will contribute to reducing maternal and newborn mortality in rural and hard-to-reach communities where the need is greatest. In these same underserved areas, Starlink connectivity will play a critical role in enabling the rapid transmission of health data and information to central levels, ensuring that decision-makers receive timely, actionable intelligence and can mount swift, coordinated responses to protect populations. For Americans, this support delivers concrete benefits. Stronger health systems in Madagascar help detect and contain infectious diseases before they spread across borders, protecting American and Malagasy families. More stable, healthier countries can expand trade and economic cooperation with the United States. Our goal is not permanent support; it is temporary, targeted assistance that helps Madagascar save lives while achieving greater self-reliance and independence from foreign assistance. To the health workers and community health agents here that will use the products we’re delivering today: your dedication and skills save lives. Your work exemplifies the kind of local ownership that will enable Madagascar to reduce dependence on foreign assistance and manage the country’s health challenges. This targeted support delivers results today while helping Madagascar build toward a future where it can sustain and expand those health gains independently, ensuring that today’s U.S. support leads to Madagascar’s self-sufficiency. Thank you, Misaotra.
Minister suggests Shabana Mahmood will use visa threats to deport Rochdale grooming gang leader to Pakistan
Cather Atkinson hinted that the Home Office may threaten to stop issuing visas to Pakistan unless it agrees to accept Shabir Ahmed
United States Delivers Life-Saving Health Supplies and equipment to Madagascar
United States Delivers Life-Saving Health Supplies and equipment to Madagascar U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner presided over a handover ceremony to the Government of Madagascar, represented by President of the Refoundation Col. Michaël Randrianirina, marking the delivery of nearly one million mosquito nets, over 900,000 pieces of critical laboratory equipment, and 33 internet connectivity systems. The assistance – valued at more than $2.2 million – is part of a broader U.S.-Madagascar health partnership, outlined in our bilateral Global Health Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in December 2025, totaling $134 million from the U.S. government from 2026 through 2030. “This assistance is clear and disciplined – it is a tool of strategic engagement, not global charity,” said Chargé d’Affaires Steve Bremner. “Every U.S. taxpayer dollar must show measurable results, reduce long-term dependence on U.S. resources, and support greater self-reliance. Stronger health systems in Madagascar help detect and contain infectious diseases before they spread across borders, protecting American and Malagasy families alike.” The assistance includes: 989,250 long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets - worth $2 million – will be distributed to 63 districts and 1,661 community health centers across Madagascar. Malaria remains one of the leading causes of death in the country, claiming the lives of children and women at an unacceptable rate. The third and final delivery of these nets arrived in late June and will be distributed starting this July until mid-October, ensuring that those most at risk of mosquito-borne disease now have access to this basic but life-saving protection. U.S.-funded Global Health Supply Chain Program – Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project will ensure the distribution. 908,523 pieces of critical medical and laboratory equipment – valued at $180,000 – including personal protective equipment, laboratory supplies, diagnostic tools, and cold chain equipment – along with a modernized digital surveillance system to Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health. This support through the STRIDES (Strengthening Infectious Disease Detection Systems) program bolsters Madagascar’s ability to detect and respond to outbreaks of diseases such as monkeypox, plague, rabies, polio, and Ebola before they become regional or global threats. Over $30,000 of funding for the full procurement, installation, and first year of service for 33 Starlink satellite internet systems at priority districts and regional health offices across the country. These systems will allow health workers in remote and underserved communities to transmit health data quickly to central decision-makers – enabling faster, better-coordinated responses when disease outbreaks occur. U.S.-funded Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL) will implement this project. As the country’s largest bilateral health donor, the United States remains committed to the principle that a stronger, healthier Madagascar makes for a stronger, safer world – and a stronger, safer America.
TSMC to add 2 advanced chip packaging plants in Chiayi, Taiwan minister says
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) will add two advanced chip packaging plants in the Chiayi Science Park, the island's science and technology minister said on Sunday.
DGIST secures four projects under the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Group Research Support Program, spanning basic science to cutting-edge deep tech
- DGIST secured one Science Research Center (SRC) project and three Basic Research Laboratory (BRL) projects, taking the lead in addressing national challenges in science and technology - DGIST reaffirms its world-class convergence research capabilities spanning AI, robotics, and advanced biotechnology
Fire being investigated as possible arson destroys beloved Sun Valley market
The owner's son said police showed the family video that appears to show the alleged arsonist behind the blaze. The family does not know who would want to target them.
Ukraine’s prime minister steps down as country ‘is changing its political strategy’
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stepped down on Sunday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reshapes his cabinet amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the eastern European country. In a…
New polling shows Talarico leads Paxton among Hispanic business owners
Among the reasons are the Trump administration’s increasingly unpopular deportation practices and the rising cost of living.
Zoey Deutch says working with Jennifer Aniston was ‘surreal’: ‘Every take was just so brilliant’
Zoey Deutch shared her awed reaction to working with Jennifer Aniston on ‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.’
Ukraine's prime minister resigns, as Zelenskyy says country "is changing its political strategy"
Nigel Farage is just one strand in the tangle of rightwing politicians and crypto investors
These financiers want to remodel the UK into a form that suits them – one that could threaten to erode the barriers between crime and business, says Guardian columnist John Harris
New Medicaid work requirements in Nebraska prompt ‘extreme mass confusion’
In the first state to implement the Trump administration mandate, Medicaid participants are anxious for information — and are struggling to get it.
An O.M.B. Plan to Defund Science—and Anything Trump Doesn’t Like
Under a new proposal, Administration officials could deny government grants to any group or project on the ground that it didn’t fit the President’s agenda.
Business People
Freeman Health System has appointed Kyle Bridges as interim chief administrative officer of Freeman Neosho Hospital in Missouri.
They're Building Half A Bridge to Save Science...
Today’s post is about science: what you can do now to protect it from unprecedented threats, and how your action is the first half of a long-term program that Congress must take up next. Let me start with describing the embryonic state of science advocacy. There are many well-meaning organizations: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Research!America, and subject-specific organizations such as the Society for Neuroscience and the American Physical Society. Their general approach is to emphasize the common good: the remarkable value that science and innovation have provided to all Americans. However, these organizations are offering an incomplete solution. Before I start, a preliminary: If you already know about the threat, go ahead and weigh in with OMB at this link. Ideas about what to say come from Research!America and the American Physical Society. You have until Monday, July 13 at 11:59pm Eastern. Then come back here and read the rest of this post. Finally, get in touch with whoever is likely to be your next member of Congress in 2027. The threat: An end to merit-based science… The onslaught of attacks on science is accelerating. It’s not just cuts to grants, which was the last battle. That battle is not done yet, but there is a new and worse threat. Now comes a proposed public rule from the Office of Management and Budget. The rule would take decision-making power over grants away from experts and put it into the hands of political appointees. Former NIH official Elizabeth Ginexi wrote an excellent summary of what OMB is trying to do, which is codify the executive branch’s ability to award or terminate grants, for arbitrary cause or no stated cause. Since World War II, a necessary step in scientific grant-making has been consideration of scientific merit. This approach has made America into a dominant scientific superpower, the envy of the world. Of course, political considerations do come into the mix. The proposed rule tilts the balance dramatically away from merit. …but why? Many people have difficulty comprehending why Russell Vought and OMB would want to damage science in this way. If you’re a working scientist, you are likely to be particularly uncomprehending. Who would hurt an activity so self-evidently good? The answer is: this is part of the program to replace the rule of law with a personalist regime. OMB Director Russell Vought, a Christian nationalist, would like to implement what legal scholars call a “unitary executive,” and what I would call a dictatorship. Or if you like, a personalist authoritarian regime. I am a working scientist. This rule will debilitate my research. It may chill the speech of scientists for speaking freely in the public sphere. It is a form of personalizing power and decision-making within the executive branch. In short, it sacrifices science in the service of tyranny. To Russell Vought, a decrease in the quality of science might be an acceptable cost. He might even consider it an added benefit to weaken a pillar of soft U.S. power based on knowledge and skepticism. The professional societies are building half a bridge The nonprofits are asking you to make public comment. Public comment is like building the first half of a bridge. Before implementation, OMB is compelled by law to have a period of public comment. Rules have to be consistent with the law and the Constitution. They express the federal government’s stance toward how those laws will be implemented. When a presidential administration works in good faith, these public comments are used to inform their eventual action, and sometimes mitigate it. The comment period reflects our First Amendment right to petition our government. The executive branch is then supposed to take those comments into account - completing the bridge between us, the people, and our government. Project 2025 seeks to take away the second half of the bridge. We have to replace it. The first half of the bridge Organizations like AAAS, Research!America, and SfN are partly right. You should certainly comment. Their core model is earnest: if enough of us make noise, then we will achieve change. This idealistic point of view is offered in good faith. That point of view is also currently bullshit. The fundamental reason is that the federal rulemaking process has two parts: There has to be a period of public comment. OMB makes the final rule…but is free to disregard public comment. Oops. That’s a loophole. However, not all is lost. Congress can complete the bridge Congress has enormous power. That power suggests a roadmap for how to proceed. This lawless administration is still going to issue that rule. Nonetheless, your comments still play an essential role. Here are two steps you can take. Step 1: Send your comment to your Representative and Senator. Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, many of them support science. Whatever you wrote as public comment in the Federal Register, also send it to your member of Congress. You can include information about jobs in your district or state by looking at Joshua Weitz’s ScienceMatters interactive map. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give your town, zip code, or state, then deliver your message. Step 2: Politicize the hell out of science. You heard me, politicize it as an issue. We hear a lot from the old scientific establishment about science being nonpartisan. This is obsolete, sentimental thinking. Under normal conditions, it was true. But we can no longer make that assumption. We can keep on pretending, but we’re putting science at risk. There is a way forward. Rules are subordinate to the law…and Congress makes laws. Therefore Congress can step in. In this fall’s election, it is likely that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives. That puts at least one chamber of Congress in the hands of Democrats. They are far more inclined than the current Congress to investigate and legislate. This opens a path to undoing the damage. It also creates a permission structure for pro-science Republicans to find a way back from the brink. We have to encourage them. In the House, every district is up every two years. In your district, contact both of the major party candidates. If your state has a Senate race, contact those candidates too. Specifically mention the proposed OMB rule. Ask for two things: For this year’s appropriations process in August and September, ask that amendments be added to stop the implementation of the new rule. Those amendments should support peer-reviewed science and stop political interference. Looking ahead to next year, ask the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator to work to hold hearings in 2027 on the importance and benefits of peer-reviewed science for health and prosperity. What hearings and amendments will accomplish Congress can use its investigatory power to summon heads of agencies and the director of the OMB. That will allow fact-finding regarding the consequences of this rule. Congress can override the rule through the appropriations process. They can write into statute a requirement to follow peer review and best scientific practices. In this way, Congress can stop the attacks on science. Postscript: Moving forward Now I have a request for you, to help me. As many of you know, I ran for Congress in order to save democracy and science. Although I did not win, that battle continues by other means. I met and heard from thousands of supporters both here in New Jersey and nationally. I learned that pro-science, pro-democracy activists have the potential to become a much greater force. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be building ways to harness that energy. I will be announcing those plans soon. In the meantime, an important step is to wind down the Congressional campaign, which has a few remaining bills to pay. Please help me retire that last debt.
Azerbaijan health officials deny mumps epidemic in Baku
The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan reports posts have been circulating on social networks about the widespread spread of epidemic mumps in Baku do not reflect the current epidemiological situation. Health officials say the epidemiological situation of mumps in the country is stable. The registered cases of infection consist of individual sporadic cases, no epidemics or mass spread have been recorded. The current situation is constantly under epidemiological surveillance by relevant medical institutions, and the necessary preventive and counter-epidemic measures are consistently implemented. Epidemic mumps is observed more often among unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated individuals. The disease is transmitted mainly by airborne droplets - during coughing, sneezing and close contact. The incubation period usually lasts 11–23 days. The main symptoms of the disease are fever, swelling and pain in the parotid salivary glands, discomfort when chewing and swallowing, general weakness, headache and loss of appetite. In most cases, mumps is mild and results in complete recovery. However, in rare cases, certain complications may develop in unvaccinated adolescents and adults. Therefore, timely vaccination is of particular importance in preventing the disease. Subscribe to Outbreak News TV on YouTube In accordance with the National Vaccination Schedule in Azerbaijan, the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is administered to children at 12 months of age, with a booster dose at 6 years of age. The MMR vaccine is the most reliable and effective means of protection against mumps. The Ministry of Health recommends that parents check their children’s vaccination status. If for any reason the vaccination has been delayed or missed, it is recommended to contact the medical facility in your area of residence and consult a doctor. To protect yourself from the disease, it is recommended to follow preventive measures such as avoiding close contact with sick people, following personal hygiene rules, washing hands regularly, and frequently ventilating closed spaces. If you experience symptoms of the disease, avoid self-medication, seek medical attention, and do not return to work until you are fully recovered. Citizens are asked to refer only to official sources and not to believe or share unverified information circulating on social networks. Outbreak News Today is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
When local journalism, advocacy, and politics collide
Newsrooms and journalists can't ask readers to trust them while ignoring fundamental conflicts of interest.
The secret to becoming a sporting superpower - Live Updates
Norway’s minister responsible for sports reveals her country’s recipe for success.
ENTERTAINMENT: Mandolin legend set for Ozark Folk Center benefit
Mandolinist Sam Bush, a member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame and three-time Grammy Award winner, performs with his band as headliners of a 7 p.m. concert Saturday in the Ozark Highlands Theater.
Is the US trying to make scientists’ work so difficult that they simply give up?
New Trump administration rules would undermine longstanding research practices. It’s death by a thousand cuts
US, Canada strike deal to open bridge linking Detroit and Windsor after dispute delayed launch
The U.S. and Canada settled on favorable terms on how to administer tolls on the newly-constructed Gordie-Howe International Bridge. It will open on July 27.
Trump administration subpoenas Times journalists who reported security concerns around new Air Force One
Four New York Times journalists who reported on security concerns surrounding a Qatari-gifted jet serving as the new Air Force One have been subpoenaed by the Justice Department, the news outlet reported Friday.
‘Outrage’: Community and research allies blast Trump plan to politicize U.S. grants
The Office of Management and Budget has proposed a sprawling overhaul of a rule establishing the framework for federal financial assistance that would set up Trump and future presidents to politicize federal grantmaking, shifting grantmaking power to administration appointees and seizing broad latitude for the executive branch in the financial aid process. Wide-ranging opponents of the Trump administration proposal say it would tee up federal agencies to dismiss community needs and congressional intent on a partisan basis as they decide discretionary federal awards – with billions of dollars at stake.
A wave of young Miami Cubans disagrees with abuela about politics in the Trump era
As Donald Trump touts his Miami support, a surprisingly large number of younger Cubans and Cuban Americans recoil at the Trump administration’s tactics.
GOP calls them 'communists.' Here's what democratic socialists believe
Democratic socialists like AOC and Zohran Mamdani have made inroads in some cities. Republicans call them communists but the ideologies differ.
Mamdani administration aims to crack down on 'junk fees'
A second rule would make canceling subscriptions as easy as one click.
The EPA promised a MAHA agenda. It has yet to materialize, frustrating activists
After Make America Healthy Again activists drew up a petition to get him fired, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin pledged to release a formal agenda of MAHA priorities his agency would pursue. But eight months after its first mention, the so-called MAHA agenda is nowhere to be found.
CA joins lawsuit against Trump’s cutting school mental health services funding
Attorney General Rob Bonta opposes Trump administration’s attempt to cut $200 million in grant money from high-need schools.
15 states sue Trump administration to block school mental health funding cuts
Fifteen states on Friday sued the Trump administration to prevent millions of dollars in cuts to school-based mental health funding. The new lawsuit is part of an ongoing legal battle between Democratic-led states and the U.S. Department of Education over a mental health grant program that Congress established following the 2018 school shooting at Marjory […]
Blue Cross to return as the NC State Health Plan’s third-party administrator
Blue Cross will be back as the the N.C. State Employee Health Plan's third party administrator in 2028. Plan trustees had dumped Blue Cross for the current administrator, Aetna, in 2023.
Bipartisan senators announce agreement with Trump administration on Russia sanctions
Bipartisan senators announced an agreement with the Trump administration on Friday to move ahead with an updated Russia sanctions package, but it remains unclear if President Donald Trump will directly back the bill’s passage.
For NC State Health Plan members, Blue Cross NC is back in 2028
Blue Cross NC served as the State Health Plan's third party administrator for 40 years until then-Treasurer Dale Folwell sought a change. Beginning in 2028, Blue Cross will again have that role.
SCORE Welcomes Four New Board Members to Advance Small Business Success
/PRNewswire/ -- SCORE, the nation's largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration...
SCORE Welcomes Four New Board Members to Advance Small Business Success
SCORE, the nation's largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), is pleased to announce the appointment of four new members to its board of directors.
Trump Administration Taps Climate Science Critic to Oversee National Climate Assessment
Matthew M. Wielicki has criticized the scientific consensus on global warming as alarmist. Now he’ll oversee a major federal report on the topic.
Lee Zeldin pushes back on long-range climate predictions, 'science denier' label
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin argued climate projections should be viewed as a range of possible outcomes and said disagreeing with long-term forecasts should not be viewed as science denial. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital)
NC’s State Health Plan switching who administers its members’ benefits, again
The State Health Plan announced who won its health and pharmacy benefits contracts.
GLP-1 drugs linked to long-term benefits for PAD patients
PAD patients treated with GLP-1 receptor agonists lived longer, stayed out of the hospital more and experienced fewer amputations than those given metformin.
Trump ousts last members of election assistance panel
The administration forced out the three remaining members of a bipartisan commission that supports states in elections
Mamdani official's planned meeting with Iran envoy shut down by State Department
A Mamdani administration official planned to meet Iran's UN ambassador before the State Department intervened and canceled the diplomatic encounter.
Health Innovations for the Restaurant Industry
Explore how CBIZ helped a restaurant identify, design, implement, and administer a revised health and benefits strategy.
MAGA's attack on science is even worse than it looks
In my post on America’s 250-year anniversary, I argued that respect for the individual was the “secret sauce” in the U.S.’ long-lasting preeminence among nations. But it was certainly not the only factor. There were plenty of institutional innovations that helped the U.S. stay on top — economically, militarily, and in terms of the attractiveness of its society. One of these was American science. Today we take things like the modern research university, government grants for science, public-to-private research spinoffs, etc. for granted, but a lot of that infrastructure wasn’t there before World War 2. It was either invented or scaled up massively by the U.S. government in the postwar period, led by far-sighted scientist-bureaucrats like Vannevar Bush (pictured above). If you want to read about this history, a good place to start would be Jonathan Gruber and Simon Johnson’s excellent book Jump-Starting America. Those scientific institutions didn’t exist in a vacuum, however. They were backed by the U.S. government’s abiding faith in the power of science — and, even more fundamentally, by deep popular trust in the scientific enterprise. Science gave us radar and the atom bomb in wartime, and in peacetime it gave us plastics, vaccines, cheap food, and a thousand other things that made our lives easier. Science was also the driver behind American industry — chemicals, aerospace, telecommunications, computers, electronics, and so on. We owed science our jobs, our livelihoods, our comfortable living standards, and our greatness and power as a nation. It’s little wonder that both political parties, even as they fought viciously over other issues, were steadfast in their support of science. For a long time, the only people who distrusted science were a hippie fringe on the left who disliked modernity (or thought they did, anyway), who also disliked American industry and American power, and who subscribed to an early version of degrowth environmentalism. America’s scientific enterprise is still strong, especially compared to the systems in Europe, Japan, Korea, and other developed countries. It has lost a lot of ground to China in a relative sense, but a lot of that is because of China’s incredible growth; as China has poured untold amounts of money and talent into its research labs, spending and output have overtaken the U.S. by some measures. There are a few ways in which China’s rise creates problems for American science — for example, top scientists can choose to work in China instead of in the U.S. — and of course there’s the concern that China’s technological strength will help its military to reign supreme. But overall, China’s rise in science should be good for American science, since American scientists can use Chinese discoveries for free and build on them. The much bigger problem is that the scientific enterprise America built during and after World War 2 is now being threatened with absolute decline. The biggest problem, of course, is that much of the country — the Republican half — has basically lost faith in the scientific enterprise. To what degree this loss of faith is justified is an open question, and deserves to be discussed openly. But the larger point — that the system that powered American dominance is under threat — is true either way. Most Americans still trust science, but MAGA Republicans don’t There’s a myth, popular in right-wing circles, that scientists have lost the trust of regular Americans — either due to the increasingly left-wing composition of academic departments, or to misbehavior during Covid, or to DEI-related research taking over science, etc. This also fits with a wider narrative that Americans are losing trust in all of our institutions. But it just isn’t true. Poll after poll shows that on the whole, Americans still trust scientists and want to spend more on science. For example, here’s a Pew poll from late 2025 showing that although about a fifth of Republicans did lose confidence in science in 2020, two thirds still have at least “a fair amount” of confidence: That same poll found that scientists are among America’s most trusted groups — even better trusted than the military! In fact, Americans trust scientists more than people in most other countries do. Other polls show that although Republican trust in science has dropped somewhat, Republican support for spending more on science remains very strong: A Pew poll in 2023 found the exact same thing: So when MAGA types tell you about scientists losing their credibility, or a drop in trust in science, they’re only talking about themselves. Whatever left-wing politicization of science happened during the Biden administration — and there was definitely some of that — it was not enough to make most Republicans lose faith in the scientific enterprise, or favor research cuts in order to purge unwanted ideology from the system. That doesn’t mean I think progressives should continue down the path of politicizing scientific research. They should not, and Biden made real missteps in this area. Objectivity clearly matters for public trust of science in the long term. But as of right now, there’s no crisis of trust in science, except among the smallish minority of people who are running around screaming that there’s a crisis of trust in science. But despite science’s overwhelming popularity and public trust, Trump and his administration are launching an unprecedented and devastating attack on American science — cutting funding, and forcing science projects to undergo ideological review by government commissars. Trump’s comprehensive attack on science
OMB’s plan to increase political control of science faces stiff opposition on Capitol Hill
The Trump administration has a fight on its hands as it pushes forward with a plan to exert greater political control over government funding of science. To access this subscriber-only content please log in or subscribe.If your institution has a site license, log in with IP-login or register for a sponsored account.**Not all site licenses […]
Alaska governor vetoes new limits on political donations
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have reimposed limits on the amount of money that individual people can donate to political candidates. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Alaska’s prior limits in 2021, and the Dunleavy administration declined to appeal the decision. Alaska has been without limits on […]
Ann Widdecombe: strictly, politics and performance
Former Conservative minister turned Reform UK spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe has died aged 78.
Ximena Lincolao, Chilean Minister of Science Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation, visits ESO Headquarters
Ximena Lincolao, Chilean Minister of Science Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation, visits ESO Headquarters
EPA promised a Make America Healthy Again agenda. It has yet to materialize, frustrating activists
After Make America Healthy Again activists drew up a petition to get him fired, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin pledged to release a formal agenda of MAHA priorities his agency would pursue.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Germany: Bundestag passes controversial healthcare reform
The cost-cutting package passed Germany's lower house, with protests against it expected to take place. Elsewhere, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will meet his Slovenian counterpart in Berlin. Follow DW for more.
Germany: Bundestag to vote on health care savings
The cost-cutting package is expected to pass Germany's lower house. Elsewhere, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will meet Slovenian counterpart Tone Kajzer in Berlin. Follow DW for more.
Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe dies at 78
Ann Widdecombe became a dominant pro-Brexit voice later in her career.
Bombing Iran, Then a Tentative Accord Didn’t Work. Does Trump Have a Plan C?
The administration appears to be reverting to an all-stick, no-carrot approach. But it has yet to answer why it believes economic warfare and bombing will yield a different result this time.
Trump Terminates Election Assistance Commission Members
By Bo Erickson and Erin Banco WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday terminated the members of the Election Assistance Commission, the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide, according to one person familiar with ...
Gov. Whitmer announces Michigan ranked #6 in best states for doing business
LANSING – On Thursday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer celebrated Michigan’s No. 6 ranking from CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business, earning a Top 10 ranking for a fifth time under Governor Whitmer’s leadership and representing a massive leap from No. 24 at the start of her administration in 2019. “Michigan is a place where everyone can […]
USDA lowers beef export sales by 90% amid growing doubts over data
The U.S. Department of Agriculture dramatically lowered its reported beef export sales for late June on Thursday, sparking fresh concerns about the quality of the agency's data after staffing losses as part of the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government.
'Preaching as resistance': Dem minister behind Satanist wedding now linked to anti-Trump sermon guide
Sarah Trone Garriott authored a chapter in a 2018 "resistance preaching" guide that urged faith leaders to combat Trump and MAGA from the pulpit.
Resident Evil Wesker Actor Dropped From Con After Abuse Allegations
Craig Burnatowski played antagonist Albert Wesker in Resident Evil 4’s remake
Proposed rule could gut American science, Penn researcher warns
The Trump administration is seeking not only to cut research funding, but to give political appointees veto power over how and what kinds of scientific study are permissible.
Small Business Administration offers low-interest loans for wind, drought damage
Residents affected by the storms in Idaho County and Shoshone County are eligible for fixed-rate, low-interest loans from the SBA.
US strikes on 5 Iranian provinces kill 14, injure 78: Health Ministry
Casualty figures come as fighting between US, Iran intensifies following collapse of ceasefire | Anadolu
Will federal changes to research funding promote ‘accountability’ or politicize science?
A retired Brown University professor says the Trump administration is weakening a system that relies on subject-matter experts to judge scientific merit.
Nominations open in the contest to be U.K. leader, with Andy Burnham likely the only candidate
Burnham is highly likely to be announced as the new Labour leader July 17, and to become prime minister after a meeting with King Charles III on July 20.
Trump to seek Supreme Court rehearing on birthright citizenship
President Donald Trump said he would ask the Supreme Court to rehear a case over birthright citizenship, a longshot bid to undo a ruling that went against his administration.
Trump Administration Removes, Then Restores, Ocean Science Instruments
PROVINCETOWN — After the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the “Saving the OOI Act” on June 17, the Trump administration backed off its plan to dismantle a $386-million ocean monitoring system […]
West Orange School Business Administrator on Paid Leave After $13.5M Deficit
The West Orange school business administrator has been placed on paid administrative leave, district officials confirmed in response to a public records request from Montclair Local.
New rule allows small businesses to double borrowing limit, access up to $10M in financing
Blossoming small businesses in the Beehive State and across the nation are set for a financing boost through a new rule from the U.S. Small Business Administration that went into effect July 4.
The 4 best science-fiction shows of 2026 so far
The first six months of 2026 have seen bright threads in sci- fi series including Fallout and Paradise. But for pure gold, advises TV columnist Bethan Ackerley, try Star City
WMass business leaders call for return of local SBA office
A coalition of local business groups sent a letter to Small Business Administration urging the re-opening of a Springfield branch office
Secretary Kennedy, Administrator Oz Launch ‘Make Hospital Food Healthier’ Pledge
HHS launched the Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge, a nationwide initiative inviting hospitals to serve healthier, more nutritious meals.
Buffalo’s finance commissioner will resign next month
Jessica Brown, the city's commissioner of administration and finance, has submitted her resignation, which will go into effect on August 4.
Hungary moves to overhaul university models banned from Horizon Europe
Hungary’s new government is aiming to overhaul the governance model of the institutions and universities that lost access to Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ funds “in a short timeframe,” according to Péter Horváth, the new state secretary for science policy and innovation. “As of today, the two non-university foundation-controlled institutions under my remit have been transformed,” he told Science|Business. “We hope the universities will follow and that this will be enough to satisfy the EU’s demands.”Under the previous government, led by Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, many academic and scientific institutions were restructured and made into special public trust foundations, with members strongly linked to the government given lifelong mandates and significant decision-making powers with little oversight. The European Commission deemed that this undermined academic freedom and transparency in the country, leading to a ban on 34 institutions in 2022, including 21 universities, which saw academics in Hungary lose access to Horizon Europe grants. The new Hungarian government, elected in May and led by Péter Magyar and his Tisza Party, has promised to dismantle this governance model and restore the institutions to EU programmes. As a result, the European Commission has promised to return access to the Erasmus+ education mobility programme, but so far no concrete agreement has been made on the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation. Hungary has already made legislative changes in June to allow the institutions to be reformed and set a timeline for the implementation.The non-university foundations, which are mainly cultural centres such as the Foundation for Hungarian Culture or the Makovecz Campus Foundation, will all be dissolved by August 31 this year, a date tied to EU-set milestones that Hungary must meet to unlock frozen funds, with control transferred to relevant ministries. Meanwhile, the universities will have until 31 August 2027. For each university foundation, the government will set the dissolution date and the body to take over operations. There is no final decision on a permanent new model for the universities, according to Hungarian MEP Eszter Lakos, who is shadow rapporteur for the Horizon Europe specific programme, a separate piece of legislation detailing implementation rules for the EU’s next research programme, due to start in 2028. “The aim of the transition year is to settle this with [the universities], not to impose a model, and not to put them under state control,” she told Science|Business. “The goal is to give academic independence back to universities.”There are three models that are most likely to be implemented. One would be a return to a traditional, state-run model. Another could be a newer, more self-standing public institution. A third option would be a reformed version of the foundation models that meet EU standards. According to Lakos, the dismantling of the system put in place by the Orbán government is well underway and if all goes according to plan, Hungary could regain access to EU research money by the start of the next academic year in 2027. “I believe that the Hungarian government is doing the necessary changes so the universities could return as beneficiaries to Horizon from the next school year,” she said. In the meantime, “the universities, institutes and cultural assets carry on under proper public stewardship rather than a handful of unaccountable trustees,” said Lakos. The laws passed in June impose new safeguards: board terms are capped at four years and renewable only once, appointments are made through open competitions and sitting politicians cannot join joining these boards.It remains unclear whether a domestic science funding programme set up as a back-up scheme by the former government following the EU funding ban, called HU-rizon, could be continued. “This programme should never have had to have been established in the first place, but it has proven to be quite popular,” he said. “I am considering continuing this programme with a refined focus on helping international collaborations.”Re-organising the research network One of the first priorities for Horváth and his cabinet is to resolve questions over the future of the Hungarian Research Network, Hun-Ren. The network of academic institutes was taken away from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2019 and turned into a quasi-private organisation, with similarities in its governance to the public trust foundations.Horváth and his team have consulted over 5,000 representatives from the network and the conclusion is broad unhappiness with the directors of all the institutes involved. “We have presented the results to the president and the chief executive of the network and this is currently being discussed,” Horváth said. The plan is to re-integrate the network back into the Academy of Sciences but in an improved way, “learning from mistakes of the past,” he added. The government also wants to reintegrate four humanities and social science research centres into the network that the previous government had transferred to Eötvös Loránd University. The transfer brought sharp criticism from the academic community, with a group of Hungarian research heads, including European Research Council grant recipients, sending an open letter to Orbán warning that the transfer would “cause historically significant harm to the entirety of Hungarian scientific life.” The transfer was “one of the biggest shames in Hungarian research in the past 20 years,” Horváth said. “We want to immediately re-integrate them back into the research network and to regain the trust of these institutions, because the way they were treated was really unfair.”Another pressing issue is the Élvonal Excellence Research and Talent Development Foundation, led by Nobel laureate Ferenc Krausz. The foundation signed a financing agreement with the former government earlier this year for a budget of over €730 million over the next five years. The goal is to create a world-class centre to attract top talent from abroad and to develop local researchers. But there was little transparency about this foundation, and news of its huge budget, which is nearly as much as Hungary’s entire research budget, caused a stir in the media following the recent elections. Another issue is that, as with the foundation boards of the institutes banned from Horizon Europe, there was little-to-no oversight of decisions led by Krausz. “It was an excellent idea but an unacceptable execution,” Horváth said of the foundation. “The fact that this is out of the Hungarian funding scheme, mostly concentrating on one person who decides on the budget is unacceptable for us.”The government plans to merge the centre with the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, the country’s R&D funding agency, with a reduced budget. Horváth is hopeful that Krausz will still be involved. The new government’s R&D goalsA phrase that crops up regularly during the discussion with Horváth is “democratic process.” The new state secretary is determined to involve Hungary’s research community in shaping future policies. This marks a departure from the previous government’s approach, and several people in Hungary’s research community have commented on the openness of the new government. In terms of concrete goals, Horváth and his team already have plans. He wants to create a new science fund in Hungary, based on the best practices of other European countries. The fund would not be tied to annual government budgets and would provide long-term, stable financing. “If we were to succeed in creating this fund, then I think it would be one of the biggest achievements for me in this period of government,” Horváth said. On the innovation side, he is looking into how best to bring in the private sector. “We want to make sure that we are working with the private sector to support innovation,” Horváth said. One of his big aims is to introduce entrepreneurship teaching into high schools. Hungary already has a reputable national academy offering research and innovation training in the field of natural sciences, and Horváth wants to expand this to all disciplines and across the whole country. “One of the main ways to elevate our innovative businesses is to teach our children to be innovative,” he said. “This will probably need ten years to pay off, but this is what we should do. Our aim is to make Hungary strong in our region, and this is what is needed.” Related articlesHungary’s Horizon Europe performance in numbersCommission unlocks Erasmus+ cash for Hungary, Horizon could be next‘Academic Huxit.’ Hungarian researchers speak out on impact of EU ban A more difficult task will be funding. The new government is aiming to increase research spending to 2% of the GDP by 2030, and then increase it to 3% in line with EU objectives. Currently, spending sits around 1.3%. But according to Horváth, the current budget, inherited from the previous government, is “heavily in the negative,” so any plans to increase research spending will have to start next year. Achieving 2% by 2030 already needs a big push, almost doubling the research budget. “This is something we’d definitely like to reach, and something I can see us achieving,” he said. “From the 2030s, I’d like to see an innovative generation growing up that can help us reach the 3% target.” Positivity in the new governmentDespite the many challenges facing Horváth and his team, the mood is positive. “It feels a bit like a start-up right now. Everyone is working 24/7, day and night, trying to do as much as they can. There is a lot of energy,” he said. It is a big change for the state secretary who, like many in his cabinet, is coming from a background in research or business, and not in politics. “Six weeks ago, I was sitting with my microscope and my research PhDs, so it’s been a big change for me,” said the computer scientist, who was previously the director of the Institute of Biochemistry at the Hun-Ren Biological Research Centre in Hungary and worked at the Institute for AI for Health at Helmholtz Munich. But he is relishing the task to transform the country’s R&D landscape. “We feel enormous support from the Hungarian people, but also from Europe,” he said. “We’ve received a lot of letters of support from around Europe. There is big trust there, and huge responsibility on our side. We want to get everything back on track, and there’s a lot to do.”
This 12-year-old created an AI receptionist to help small businesses
Mana Jampala is a Gen Alpha founder who is already building enterprise tools using ChatGPT and Claude Code.
Trump administration pursues more durable changes to science policy after setbacks in court
The White House has proposed sweeping changes to the bedrock regulation undergirding all federal contracts, empowering the executive branch to direct research, terminate grants, and external scientific reviews.
Reflecting Pool being drained – again – as Trump administration tries once more to fix landmark
Crews began draining the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Sunday, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.
How Trump Accounts Platform reshape small business finance
I understand the immense effort required to run a business—long hours, complex supply chains, and personal sacrifices for employees and children. That’s why the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is partnering with you to ensure your hard work leads to lasting stability, supporting our region’s families by providing immediate financial relief and long-term wealth building […]
Bottled water business owner appeals detention in Trinidad over alleged PM assassination plot
Business executive Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve filed an appeal on Tuesday against their detention over an alleged plot to assassinate top members of the Trinidadian government, including Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Bottled Water Business Owner Appeals Detention in Trinidad Over Alleged PM Assassination Plot
July 7 (Reuters) - Business executive Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve filed an appeal on Tuesday against their detention over an alleged plot to assassinate top members of the Trinidadian government, including Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Hadeed, who owns the Trinidad and ...
Trump weighed in on Cabinet squabble over ride for July Fourth flyover
The president encouraged acting attorney general Todd Blanche to fly on one of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s jets despite the FAA’s prior objection to the planes.
VA’s top health administrator departs post, temporary replacement named
Dr. Lee Payne, a retired Air Force major general and physician, will serve as acting under secretary, according to VA officials.
Trump admin reimposes oil sanctions after Iran strikes ships near Strait of Hormuz
The Trump administration is reimposing sanctions on Iranian oil sales in retaliation for a series of attacks on commercial ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
Rahm Emanuel to denounce Netanyahu during Tel Aviv speech as American politics shift against Israel
According to remarks obtained by The Associated Press, Emanuel on Wednesday will criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for leading Israel to a "dead end" and say unconditional U.S. support has been a mistake.
Trump's FIFA call opens a 'slippery slope,' says sports columnist Christine Brennan
NPR's A Martinez speaks with USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan about the World Cup match between the U.S. and Belgium and the lifted suspension of a U.S. star forward.
Rahm Emanuel to deliver bracing message in Tel Aviv as American politics shifting against Israel
Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a bracing message that the country's relationship with the United States is "at a crossroads."
The Politics of Provocation: The ECtHR’s Ruling in Miladze v Georgia
A recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights concerning a TikTok video published by a Georgian self-defined civil activist adds another layer to the Court’s increasingly messy Article 10 case law. The applicant repeatedly insulted public officials in crude and sexually explicit terms while broadcasting to a large online audience. Domestic courts imposed only a modest administrative fine, later reduced on appeal. The ECtHR did not find a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression – raising several questions about the limits of legitimate political speech online.
Burnham urged to ditch ‘dangerous’ UK-US NHS drug deal
Exclusive: health groups call on expected next prime minister to rip up agreement, which analysis suggests could lead to 229,000 excess deaths by 2036
Envisioning Federal Scientific Integrity as a Tool to Protect Democracy and Fight Corruption
How can we preserve scientific integrity policies in the next administration when they've proven to be subject to political whims?