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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.

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May 29 • 1:00 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Mark Zuckerberg’s $145 Billion AI Gamble Could Spawn Meta’s Next Monster Business

The artificial intelligence arms race has turned Silicon Valley into a spending contest. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into chips, servers, networking gear, and data centers in a scramble to dominate AI infrastructure. The question investors are wrestling with is simple: how much ... Mark Zuckerberg’s $145 Billion AI Gamble Could Spawn Meta’s Next Monster Business

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May 28 • 10:21 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Washington health insurance rates could rise 22.4% on average in 2027

Health insurance rates could increase next year for hundreds of thousands of Washington residents who buy coverage on the individual market.

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May 27 • 7:25 AM EDT • Health • kiro7.com
Western arms makers line up to test weapons on Ukraine's battlefields

Hundreds of companies have expressed interest in the "Test in Ukraine" program, and the number is growing, a top defense executive said.

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May 27 • 5:35 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Teen honors uncle with Down syndrome by raising $10K through sports card fundraiser

Cincinnati Country Day junior Ezra Cohen organized “Cards for Community” in Blue Ash, bringing together more than 40 vendors and hundreds of collectors to support the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati.

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May 26 • 11:48 PM EDT • Sports • wlwt.com
Holding the Veterans Affairs Secretary Accountable for the Severely Damaged Veterans’ Health Care System | American Postal Workers Union

In February 2025, representatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began working with the newly appointed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to identify alleged wasteful contracts and improve VA operations. DOGE cancelled hundreds of VA contracts and carried out thousands of staffing reductions, including the dismissal of probationary employees, under […]

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May 26 • 10:39 AM EDT • Health • apwu.org
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Hundreds of Marvel Rivals cheats named and shamed in "an immediate, targeted purge"

Played against someone in Marvel Rivals you think is cheating? Their name might be on this list.

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May 26 • 9:08 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Entertainment is Alive in Van Wert…Celebrating a Community Cornerstone

Since opening its doors in 2007, the Niswonger has welcomed hundreds of artists, performers, comedians, Broadway productions, symphonies, and community events to its stage

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May 26 • 8:06 AM EDT • Entertainment • mercercountyoutlook.net
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Minnesota organizations are trying to keep youth sports affordable

Organized leagues and competitive teams for which parents pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for a few months of adult-supervised games is the new reality.

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May 26 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • varsity.startribune.com
Area malls grapple with closures of former ‘anchors’

The shutdown this month of the Saks Fifth Avenue department store chain leaves a dozen retail landlords with hundreds of thousands of square feet to refill or repurpose, and has retail experts rethinking the traditional mall anchor store.

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May 25 • 8:29 PM EDT • Business • wtop.com
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Man arrested for posing as fire system inspector, targeted minority-owned businesses

Fire investigators say Wesley Shaw ran an unlicensed business called Tennessee Fire Specialty Systems, where he posed as a licensed fire inspector to business owners. He charged hundreds of dollars per inspection for inspections he wasn’t qualified to perform.

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May 25 • 5:40 PM EDT • Business • wsmv.com
Nearly 500 Marvel Rivals Cheaters Get Permabanned by NetEase, and Most of Them Couldn’t Even Climb Out of Bronze

NetEase has shut down rumours that Marvel Rivals players could bypass the anti-cheat and perma-banned hundreds of players caught cheating.

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May 25 • 2:14 PM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com
Scientists discover the oldest wooden tools ever used by humans

Scientists have uncovered the oldest known hand-held wooden tools ever used by humans — and they’re an astonishing 430,000 years old. Buried for hundreds of thousands of years at an ancient lakeside site in Greece, the carefully carved wooden objects reveal that early humans were far more skilled and resourceful than once believed.

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May 24 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
In 1908, something exploded in the sky over Siberia with hundreds of times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb, flattening more than 2,000 square kilometres of forest. When scientists finally reached the site years later, they found no crater at all

On the morning of 30 June 1908, an object from space exploded above the basin of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia. It flattened roughly 2,150 square kilometres of forest, an area larger than Greater London, and tens of millions of trees were knocked down in a pattern that radiated outward from a single […]

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May 23 • 12:57 PM EDT • Science • spacedaily.com
Bond breakout? Big effects of bad data. Immigration and thermostatic politics & dad-chat is coming for dad-books.

Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Anna Airy, A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 Bond breakout - John Authers Across the developed markets, bond markets are staging a slow-motion car wreck. Looking at the drastic moves in the US, Japan, the UK and France, Barclays’ Ajay Rajadhyaksha commented: “Last week, long bonds broke. Not in one country. In all of them. Simultaneously. Four countries. Four different political systems. Four different central banks. But the same trade — “get me out of duration!”” Each country has its own contributing political problems, but the uniformity of the shift out of long-term bonds with high duration makes clear that something broader is afoot. For Rajadhyaksha, it is “simple and uncomfortable.” The developed​ world “has too much debt, too little fiscal discipline, and no political appetite for fixing either.” If there’s a trigger, it has been the Iran war and the resulting shock to oil supply. Source: Bloomberg G7 countries are now borrowing at rates that were enjoyed by EM in the early 2020s For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Trade between China and Russia has grown in recent years For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Big effects of bad data A decade ago nearly nine in ten Americans, when approached, agreed to fill out the Current Population Survey, which is administered to about 60,000 households each month and asks about, among other things, employment. Fewer than seven in ten do so now (see chart 1). For the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tries to capture 3,700 households monthly, the response rate is down from 68% to 40%. … When the information becomes less reliable, investment decisions get more difficult to make. Some may be delayed, creating a potential drag on the economy. A new working paper by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Erica Groshen, former head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) now at Cornell University, and Duncan Hobbs and Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, hazards an estimate. Preserving trust in “the integrity and quality of official statistics”, the authors claim, generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the BLS, the agency with an annual budget of $700m that is responsible for many of these data. To arrive at their conclusion the quartet analysed an ignoble episode in the BLS’s recent history. On August 1st 2025 Donald Trump sacked Erika McEntarfer, appointed as the agency’s commissioner by his predecessor, Joe Biden. The president alleged, without evidence, that the BLS’s steep downward revision to recent jobs numbers had been “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”. In fact, it was the wanton dismissal that looked bad in the eyes of many observers. In the following seven days there was a 50% leap, relative to the week before, in the average value of the index of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU), which tracks the number of articles mentioning such uncertainty that are published daily in American newspapers. This was a discernible jump even when compared to the chaos caused by Mr Trump’s trade war in April 2025 and his real one in Iran in the past two months (see chart 2). Based on Mr Bloom’s earlier study with other colleagues of the EPU’s impact on business investment, industrial production and employment, the authors estimate that the jump reduced American GDP by over $100bn (0.3%) and non-farm payrolls by 168,000 (0.1%). Source: The Economist Immigration and thermostatic politics (Sarah O’Connor in the FT) A strange thing happened a year and a half ago. No sooner had Americans elected Donald Trump as president on an explicitly anti-immigration platform than US public opinion began to swing much more favourably towards immigration. … to political scientists who study “thermostatic” politics, this development is no surprise at all. Public opinion often moves against the prevailing party, especially if they are perceived to have gone “too far” in one direction. The phenomenon was first explored in the 1990s with reference to fiscal policy, but in recent years it has been particularly evident in the realm of immigration policy. While these swings in opinion polls can make it seem as if people don’t know their own minds, they can be a useful democratic check on governments by sending bright flashing warning lights when policies stray too far from the public’s comfort zone. The problem comes when politicians misinterpret those signals. When people tell pollsters they want less immigration, or think it is bad for the country overall (or the converse), they are often expressing an opinion about how things appear to be going in that moment relative to their preferences, rather than a deep shift in their underlying views. According to Alexander Kustov, a political scientist, most Americans’ views are quite stable and moderate: they support immigration that is controlled and in the national interest, and oppose flows that are disorderly or under-enforced. In the US, he argues the Trump administration over-interpreted dissatisfaction with high immigration under Joe Biden, and implemented policies that went too far for many voters. “People don’t necessarily change their idea about their ideal immigration policy, but they can react to what the government is currently doing,” he told me. “A lot of people are not happy with what the Trump administration are doing — right now we’re not talking about border enforcement, we’re talking about people not just getting harassed, but killed.” But similarly, he added, pro-immigration advocates would be making a mistake to interpret the recent, more favourable swing towards immigration as a deep-seated ideological shift in attitudes. The recent history of UK immigration policy offers another cautionary tale. After the 2016 Brexit referendum, public concern about immigration fell. This was partly because net migration statistics declined, but also because people felt a sense of catharsis and control, says Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think-tank. By 2019, the public ranked immigration as only the ninth biggest issue of concern, according to Ipsos polling. But when the Conservative government liberalised visa routes for students and care workers between 2019 and 2022, that helped net migration to surge. And so, too, did public concern. Today’s Labour government has implemented another sharply restrictive turn in immigration policy. As Kustov and researcher Caitlyn Yates argue, thermostatic public opinion should be a useful check on politicians. Instead it seems to have helped to magnify the pendulum swing in the UK. The government over-interprets and overreacts to a change in public opinion, which reacts in turn, prompting a sudden swing the other way. Source: Financial Times HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Anna Airy, Shop for Machining 15-Inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918 Racing for a vaccine … we have been here before! The deadly Ebola outbreak in two African countries driven by a virus species with no vaccine has triggered an urgent search for a potential jab, in a test of troubled global efforts to avert threats posed by emerging diseases. A World Health Organization advisory group is due to would meet on Tuesday to recommend candidate jabs to prioritise for clinical trials, the global health body said. It will assess data including an analysis by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), which was set up after failures in the international response to a previous Ebola crisis. The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has infected hundreds of people and killed more than 80, health authorities say. Cepi’s reaction will be a crucial indicator of its progress towards its wider goal of producing vaccines for pandemic threats in just 100 days, despite steep cuts to international health funding. “If there was ever a time that we could show the world why Cepi is needed and show the world why the 100-day mission is needed, it’s now,” Nicole Lurie, the organisation’s executive director for preparedness and response, told the FT. “We’re happy to accept that responsibility, but obviously we need help from partners — particularly financial help in the long run.” DR Congo and Uganda would make the final decision on whether to press ahead with any vaccine candidates endorsed for clinical trials by the WHO experts, the global health body said. “Other ethical and community acceptability issues will be considered,” said the WHO, which declared the latest outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. “This will be important to make sure that the trial, if it happens, will be adequately communicated to the population.” Lurie said Cepi had provided information from a survey of research teams and companies working on drugs that might be effective against the Bundibugyo virus behind the outbreak. The organisation hoped soon to announce partners in the quest for a jab, she added, although she declined to give a timescale for when one might be developed. Cepi’s Nicole Laurie said global health bodies were ‘getting some live-fire drills’ with hantavirus and the latest Ebola outbreak. The hunt for a vaccine should be helped by scientific advances including the use of artificial intelligence to find drugs active against viruses, Lurie said. Existing jabs against the Zaire Ebola virus responsible for many previous outbreaks might provide a basis for tackling the Bundibugyo species, she added. “We’ll see how far and how fast we can get,” Lurie said, adding that Cepi had done preliminary work recently on a possible jab for the rat-borne hantavirus responsible for a recent fatal outbreak on a cruise ship. “Both with hantavirus and now with Ebola, [we] are getting some live-fire drills.” Source: Michael Peel in the Financial Times Dad-chat is coming for dad-books. (By Pamela Paul and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the WSJ) They were the go-to gifts for Father’s Day: a book about some little-known chapter of World War II, the sweeping narrative of a shipwreck, perhaps the latest presidential biography. These days, dad books are a dying breed. Nonfiction book sales have been in decline for the past four years, and are now the most challenged segment of the print book market. Publishers say certain types of books still fare well—including celebrity memoirs and religious titles. But in recent years, print sales in such categories as biography, current affairs and business and economics—what publishers refer to as “serious nonfiction” and which tend to resonate especially with men—have fallen considerably. Sales of nonfiction print titles were down nearly 8% through May 9 this year, and sales of books about politics and current affairs were down 19%, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Publishing has long been subject to cyclical changes, with trends in format and genre taking over bookshelves in grand sweeps. (Remember the adult coloring-book craze? Or the stratospheric rise of romantasy?) But many in publishing believe the decline in serious nonfiction is more existential. “The trend couldn’t be clearer,” said Jonathan Karp, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster and publisher of the new Simon Six imprint. “This is a sea change and people should wake up and realize we’re living in a new world.” One culprit for the shift: a new media diet for fans of more serious nonfiction. … Sixty-two percent of men and 54% of women consumed a podcast in the prior month, according to a recent survey by Edison Research at SSRS, up from 46% and 39%, respectively, in 2023. “When we have internal meetings to talk about this problem, it always comes around to podcasts,” said Jonathan Burnham, president and publisher of the Harper Group at HarperCollins Publishers. “The man who wants to read American history is now tuning into one of the many good podcasts about history that lends the quiet attention to a serious subject he’s looking for. It makes the idea of sitting down with a 700-page Ron Chernow book less appealing. You’ve scratched that itch.” Source: Wall Street Journal Remarkable report by Novara from the nationalist rally in London in mid May. Anna Airy, Leopard Moth and Plums, 1915 If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe

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May 23 • 6:45 AM EDT • Politics • adamtooze.substack.com
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Customers say packages bound for Mexico are missing after shipping company closed in La Puente

Some customers say they paid hundreds to send packages to Mexico, but their mail never arrived, and the La Puente shipping business they used went on to close permanently.

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May 23 • 2:08 AM EDT • Business • abc7.com
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Trump admin now requiring green card seekers to leave US to apply, potentially impacting hundreds of thousands

The Trump administration will now require people seeking green cards to leave the United States during the application process — a sweeping change that could upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of people seeking the right to legally and permanently live and work in the US.

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May 22 • 5:53 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Anti-immigrant protests flare up in South Africa

Authorities have removed hundreds of foreign nationals from a church centre in Durban after days of tension linked to anti‑migrant campaigns. The incident comes amid renewed episodes of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

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May 22 • 1:17 PM EDT • Politics • dw.com
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Mental Health Is Another Unfortunate ICE Casualty

Hundreds of immigrants, community members, and allies gathered in Washington DC on May 20 for a peaceful march from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) headquarters to the Capitol.

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May 22 • 8:32 AM EDT • Health • hrw.org
Containing the Ebola Outbreak in Central Africa | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

A rare virus with a high fatality rate has infected hundreds and killed at least 80 people. International and local health entities will have to work one case at a time to stop it.

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May 22 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • publichealth.jhu.edu
Guest post: How CMIP7 will shape the next wave of climate science

Hundreds of scientists in dozens of institutions are embarking on the next phase of the world’s largest coordinated climate-modelling effort.

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May 22 • 5:59 AM EDT • Science • carbonbrief.org
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.

politico.com logo
May 22 • 1:00 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Scientists discover hidden weakness shared by hundreds of cancer mutations

Scientists have unveiled a powerful new tool called PerturbFate that could change how researchers tackle diseases driven by huge numbers of genetic mutations, including cancer and Alzheimer’s. Instead of trying to target every faulty gene individually, the system tracks how different mutations reshape cells over time and identifies the hidden “control hubs” where those pathways converge.

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May 21 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
US is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

Hundreds of cases reported in the DRC after USAID has been dismantled and key scientific research canceled

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May 21 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • theguardian.com
Providence to end most health insurance plans, forcing hundreds of thousands in Oregon to switch

Providence Health Plan is Oregon’s third largest insurer, covering more than 421,000 Oregonians.

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May 20 • 6:32 PM EDT • Health • oregonlive.com
Providence Health Plan to end coverage, affecting hundreds of thousands of Oregon patients

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Providence Health announced Wednesday they will be leaving the insurance business and starting to phase out coverage at the end of the year. The company says they will…

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May 20 • 6:22 PM EDT • Health • koin.com
Mariners make everyone sad, lose to White Sox 2-1

A sad night at the ballpark despite the presence of hundreds of shirtless screaming fans

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May 20 • 1:49 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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UC faculty and staff rally for state investment in science

President Milliken joined Senator Scott Wiener, UAW President Shawn Fain and hundreds of UC employees in rallying for investment in research.

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Discord enables end-to-end encrypted voice and video calling for every user

Good news! Discord's hundreds of millions of users now have their communications scrambled, so not even Discord can see them.

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May 19 • 5:14 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Forza Horizon 6 is Already a Massive Success

Forza Horizon 6 racks up hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam on day one of its full release, far outperforming prior Forza Horizon games.

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May 19 • 12:50 PM EDT • Technology • thephrasemaker.com
These Memphis restaurants got perfect health inspection scores in April

Tennessee Health Department inspectors performed hundreds of health inspections in Shelby County in April. These 29 restaurants earned perfect scores.

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May 19 • 6:01 AM EDT • Health • commercialappeal.com
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The Toy Book’s Licensing & Entertainment Issue is Here!

Timed with Licensing Expo, this issue is packed with exclusive features and hundreds of new toys and games.

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May 19 • 12:23 AM EDT • Entertainment • toybook.com
Ebola outbreak in Africa spurs global health emergency declaration

With hundreds of suspected cases and dozens of deaths already reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) is sounding the alarm about an Ebola disease outbreak by declaring a global health emergency.

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May 17 • 4:38 PM EDT • Health • livenowfox.com
Bulgaria gives its Eurovision winner Dara a grand welcome upon her return home

Hundreds of cheering fans waving Bulgarian flags have welcomed Eurovision Song Contest winner Dara upon her return home | Newsradio 1140 WRVA

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May 17 • 1:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • audacy.com
Bulgaria gives its Eurovision winner Dara a grand welcome upon her return home

Hundreds of cheering fans waving Bulgarian flags have welcomed Eurovision Song Contest winner Dara upon her return home.

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May 17 • 1:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • clickorlando.com
Bulgaria gives its Eurovision winner Dara a grand welcome upon her return home

Hundreds of cheering fans waving Bulgarian flags have welcomed Eurovision Song Contest winner Dara upon her return home.

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May 17 • 1:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • wsls.com
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Care Out Loud launches in Jacksonville with mental health awareness event

A new mental health coalition in Onslow County held its first event in Jacksonville, connecting hundreds of residents with local mental health and substance abuse resources.

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May 16 • 8:25 PM EDT • Health • witn.com
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Hundreds show up to support Rehovot businesses fined for opening on Shabbat

Ice cream parlor Otello and cafe Nook are cited after operating on Saturdays for over a year, leading residents to complain about uneven enforcement of Shabbat policy

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May 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • timesofisrael.com
With high hopes, Yale continues to invest in Upper Science Hill

The University has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the development of Upper Science Hill, which University leaders say will significantly improve research opportunities at Yale. The first phase is set to be completed this fall.

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May 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • yaledailynews.com
Now What? With Carbon Pricing Eroded and Pipeline Politics Advancing, Here Are the Pathways for Climate Success

At the end of a whirlwind week of news on carbon pricing and electricity strategy, capping a madcap year of pretty much non-stop, dramatic change, the word across much of Canada’s climate and energy transition community is that climate policy in this country has been shredded. Eviscerated. Hit with a sledgehammer by policy rollbacks that have pushed the country’s 2050 net zero target “well out of reach”. That means it’s never been more important to look for the rays of hope and glimmers of possibility. To glimpse the seeds of the next set of strategies to get Canada’s climate pollution under control and the country into the accelerating global dash away from fossil fuels. And then, once we’ve spotted those possibilities, get on with the hard, day-to-day slog of trying to make them a reality. Nothing takes away from the frustration and the deep disappointment so many climate and energy hawks are expressing, the sense of betrayal by the author of Value(s) and the former UN special envoy for climate action and finance. But we knew two things as the week drew to a close. We’re looking at the world as it most definitely is. And we don’t get to give up finding the pathways to confront climate change and deliver faster, deeper carbon cuts that leave no one else behind. So really, the first question we all have to ask ourselves is: What’s next? Subscribe All the Oxygen in the Room The outpouring of anger and grief over the carbon pricing deal between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been absolutely understandable. So much of the climate community poured years, more than a decade, into dragging the current federal pricing regime across the finish line, then defending it from a deluge of three-syllable rhymes after the Trudeau government proved utterly incapable of delivering its own message. The policy foisted on us by neo-classical economists took up all the oxygen in the room, burned through years of climate response time that we won’t get back, while cornering climate hawks into the position that the best response to the crisis of our lifetimes is a new tax…in an era of historic anti-tax sentiment. I mean, really—what could possibly have gone wrong? Against that history, let’s appreciate columnist Max Fawcett’s point that even a modest carbon pricing agreement with a government as off-the-wall libertarian/conspiracist as Danielle Smith’s—those adjectives are mine, not Max’s—is a win worth savouring (as long as Smith keeps her promises for a change). But part of living in the world as it is (no, I’m not letting that go) is to be clear-headed about what we can and can’t control. And one thing we get to decide, after seeing this week’s carbon price festivities take up all the oxygen yet again, is whether we want to keep letting that happen. Particularly when success down that road depends on a factor that no one with a climate agenda can control or influence—a provincial carbon pricing mechanism that has been manipulated and eroded beyond its lowest possible denominator. Thankfully, that’s not the way it has to go. Not when we have so many other powerful, practical tools at our disposal, including the ones still available to us through this abominable Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and Alberta. Tools In Our Toolbox When I started roughing out this list, I didn’t expect it to grow to nearly a dozen bullet points. It’s probably still incomplete. Some of the greatest hits in today’s climate solutions toolbox include: • No Carbon Capture, No Pipeline: On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney explicitly stated that there’s been no change to the MOU provision that there will be no West Coast pipeline without an industry commitment to build its massive, $16.5-billion carbon capture and storage (CCUS) hub in Northern Alberta, and vice versa. The two megaprojects were joined at the hip when the MOU was signed Nov. 27, and the implementation agreement this week affirmed that they still are. A parade of independent analysts have spent years pointing to the economic and technical flaws in CCUS, while the industry kept postponing its investment decision until it could arm-twist the government for more “clarity” (by which it meant even more lavish taxpayer subsidies) on the project. Now the industry itself is running away from the CCUS hub and insisting the pipeline should proceed without it, but Carney doesn’t seem to be budging from a central tenet of the MOU to which Smith has signed on. • No Subsidies, No Investors: Climate analysts and advocates have quite rightly been hammering away at Carney and his team, insisting that any new capacity the industry wants to build must proceed without new subsidies. The government has responded with a growing collection of funding and financing mechanisms for the very wide menu of industrial development and nation-building projects they say they want to take on, and that menu always includes fossil fuel infrastructure. But it’s hard to see how even the combined fiscal clout of the federal and supportive provincial governments will deliver the financial backing private investors would need when the business case for new fossil fuel development is evaporating before their eyes. Particularly when… • No Market, No Demand, No Investors: As our friend Markham Hislop at Energi Media (our apparently sleepless friend, given the massive volume of great material he’s been churning out) points out this morning, the biggest vulnerability in any pipeline deal is the assumption that Asian buyers will want the oil or liquefied natural ga that our fossil industry is so keen to send them. Hislop writes in part: Ottawa and Alberta are effectively betting that countries like China and India will continue increasing oil imports for decades as their economies grow and energy consumption rises. That assumption underpins the entire economic rationale for expanding oil sands production and building billions of dollars in new export infrastructure. But Asian energy systems are changing rapidly… China, India, South Korea, and other major hydrocarbon importers are now investing hundreds of billions of dollars into electricity systems built around wind, solar, batteries, nuclear, hydro, and expanded transmission infrastructure. Domestic “energy sovereignty” is increasingly replacing the old energy-security model based on stable oil and gas imports. Those investments are expected to sharply slow oil demand growth and eventually reverse it, even as overall energy consumption continues rising. There are also refining constraints. Many Asian refineries and petrochemical complexes are already optimized to process discounted heavy crude from the Middle East and Latin America. That raises serious questions about how much additional Canadian bitumen Asian markets can absorb at profitable prices. Small wonder that there’s still no private sector investor for the project, despite Smith’s government desperately beating the bushes to put together a deal. For now, Alberta is acting as proponent and covering early start-up costs for a pitch to the federal Major Projects Office, which could actually turn into the next tough hurdle for Smith and her pipeline to jump. • Canada Day Looms: How ironic that Canada’s birthday this year could become a major chokepoint for the provincial premier who’s been working so diligently to tear the country apart! The July 1 target date for Alberta’s pipeline proposal is baked into the MOU, was reaffirmed by the implementation plan, but it hadn’t dawned on me that it cuts both ways. As one very smart colleague wrote in an email yesterday, “they’ve thrown the ball into Alberta’s court to get the project proposal on the table really quickly and to have to do a whole pile of work to put together a massive, complicated project that would typically take years to assemble, and they’ve given them weeks to do it.” That makes July 1 a looming deadline that Smith won’t be able to run away from politically, especially with the separatists in her party and her caucus breathing down her neck. (See previous ref to off-the-wall.) But if Alberta comes in with a sloppy, incomplete submission, even after Carney bent over backwards to simplify the application process and the rules that govern it, it may be harder for the province or the industry to blame Ottawa and insist on the faster process they claim their investors are demanding. (Oh, wait—which investors would those be??) • We’ll See You In Court (Then We’ll See You Again): If Carney did cave, that would be just one more reason for Indigenous and other affected communities to take the government and the process to court—Just as Alberta First Nations did, successfully, in response to Smith’s half-baked separation referendum. Veterans of the Harper era have been warning that a shoddy process around fossil fuel infrastructure or other major projects will be a recipe for the very delays that process seeks to avoid. And now more than ever, with renewable energy and energy storage eating fossil fuels’ lunch in import markets around the world, a delayed pipeline or LNG terminal may be as good as a cancelled one. • Charged Up, Ready to Go: With its goal of doubling Canada’s electricity supply to meet a doubling of demand by 2050, the national electricity strategy that Carney unveiled Thursday has a lot to like. With its explicit language about speeding the shift from fuels to more efficient and affordable electricity, global investment and deployment patterns that already favour that shift, an emerging bidirectional power grid, the role of front-line options like rooftop solar and heat pumps, the emergence of electric vehicles as behind-the-meter energy storage, and the domestic jobs and manufacturing to make it all happen, the document doubles down on the essential cornerstone of a faster shift off fossil fuels. The strategy envisions a more prominent role for gas and nuclear power. But some of those provisions were already in the Clean Electricity Regulations that climate hawks are now fighting so hard to defend, inserted as a compromise in a futile attempt to mollify the industry and its political representatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan. But once again, gas will be a tougher sell when it’s more expensive and now so much more unpredictable than the clean alternatives. The new nuclear technologies are still speculative and deeply vulnerable to cost overruns. Increasingly, utilities, developers, and investors know it. Carney declared Thursday that “it doesn’t do us good to be sitting in court all the time with provinces. It doesn’t do us good to be talking past each other. What does do us good is to come together with specific projects.” There are no guarantees, but so much of the language and narrative-building in the electricity strategy suggests the lion’s share of those projects will be renewable. • The Party Has Already Started: The electricity strategy only rarely digs down to specific projects, but provinces representing three-quarters of Canada’s population are already embracing a faster transition. Hydro-Québec is working on a 10-year, $185-billion renewable energy and grid buildout by 2035. Ontario recently brought 10 provinces and territories together in a National Energy Corridor Agreement to boost interprovincial and -territorial transmission infrastructure. And the MOU implementation agreement commits Alberta to facilitate investment in renewable energy projects, a big step back from its continuing, punitive restrictions on renewables development. The electricity strategy envisions much of the financing and infrastructure that will be needed to pull those advances together into an integrated whole. • Delivering on Affordability: The MOU implementation plan has little or nothing to say about affordability (are you surprised?), but the electricity strategy does, with a top-line pledge to reduce home energy costs for seven out of 10 Canadian households by 2050, a total saving of $15 billion across the board. It’s just a start, but it puts affordability on the government’s narrative map. If they’re serious and deliberate about patching together a least-cost energy strategy, it’ll have little if any room for oil, gas, or nuclear—not with powerful evidence, for example, that electricity prices are higher when those prices are set by gas. • Smith Proves that Canada Works: By signing a deal that makes it harder to claim the federal government is blocking a new pipeline, Smith has helped prove Carney’s constant anti-separatist refrain that “Canada works”—incurring the rage, no doubt, of her own political base. Canada also needs to work for anyone who depends on a clean environment, healthy and thriving ecosystems, and safe, stable climate. But with Smith and her separatist constituents setting up as a fifth column for annexation by Donald Trump’s United States, let’s set aside any notion that 51st state status for Canada is a recipe for anything other than climate disaster (and so much else). Resisting and withstanding Trump (just 170 more sleeps until mid-term elections, which is a damn sight better than the 730 we started with) doesn’t mean a free pass for a pipeline, but we can still appreciate it that keeping Canada whole and sovereign is still Carney’s Job One. • The Words Not Spoken: Apart from a commitment to export a million barrels of “low-emission” Alberta bitumen per day (memo to Smith and Carney: You realize that that’s less than the industry is already exporting??), the MOU implementation plan says nothing about the international trade and economic sovereignty deals that Carney has been travelling the world to negotiate. It didn’t have to. Carney doesn’t need permission from Danielle Smith, her American enablers, or her separatist allies to continue building the alliances that will ratchet down our economic dependency on our unstable, unreliable neighbour to the south. But every connection he builds with countries outside North America helps align our economy and our future with a faster shift off fossil fuels. Little if any of this was on our bingo cards a year or two ago. But it’s the pathway that has opened up to us. And if it gives Canada any climate or energy gains at all in an era still dominated by Trump and his increasingly ridiculous tariffs, his loutish trade negotiations and his continuing annexation threats, we have to take the wins. Not least because they’ll be the point of departure for what we can achieve in 2027, 2029, and beyond, as Trump’s grip and this era begin to loosen and then fade. What is Carney Doing? If this line of thought is right—and it’s a possibility, not a prediction—it means that Carney’s actions and decisions are largely about buying time. Time for Trump’s power to wane. Time for Alberta’s separatist/conspiracist virus to spread, mutate, die out, or at least die back, with help from a vaccine of federal steadiness and calm (appropriate enough, for a movement populated largely by vaccine deniers) that no conspiracy theory can dismiss. And time for the government’s trade and investment agenda to deliver results—even knowing that some of those results will bring impacts that front-line communities will not and should not accept. In the immediate moment, none of this changes the way the wider climate community has to respond, from campaigners to investors to front-line practitioners. All of our voices are still essential. But those voices will be stronger and more confident if we have a clearer sense of the brutal game we’ve been pulled into, and a plausible path (or two it three) for playing it to the win we need. This conversation also underscores our biggest task for the remaining years of what was supposed to be the “decisive” decade for climate response: if we can shift the energy narrative in Canada, make it a mainstream view that the country’s preoccupation with oil and gas has us falling farther behind a changing world, we’ll see far better results in the 2030s and beyond. For many veteran climate advocates, taking on that part of the fight will begin with recognizing that most of our friends and family, neighbours and colleagues already understand that climate change is real and right in front of us: they’re looking away and staying silent because they don’t have what climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe calls “efficacy”. As Hayhoe recently pointed out in a feature interview with The Energy Mix, it amounts to science denial to keep hammering away at the dire news about global warming without also helping audiences understand what they can do about it, with multiple studies telling us why that won’t work. Far better to open those conversations with the dominant crises like energy security, food security, emergency preparedness and business continuity, affordability, and financial security that have knocked climate change far lower on the list of public priorities, and will likely keep it there. We Knew This Would Happen Climate hawks have always known this day would come. For decades, we warned that everyone had to pay attention to climate change right now, because it would be much tougher to respond once the crisis itself started affecting our daily lives. We were right, and here we are. But now, thanks to decades of hard work, communities and countries have an alternative to doubling down on fossil fuels. “In 10 years everyone will have ‘always known’ that solar and batteries were going to win,” Morgan Solar Executive Chair Mike Andrade writes on LinkedIn. With the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz roiling energy priorities around the world, Canada and the United States are among the shrinking number of countries that are still very keen on fossil fuel development. Understanding that gap is a first, essential step in spotting the opportunities ahead, and averting the deep economic as well as environmental and social risk we face if we don’t seize them. Thanks for reading The Energy Mix Weekender! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Mitchell Beer traces his background in renewable energy and energy efficiency back to 1977, in climate change to 1997. Now he and the rest of the Energy Mix team scan 1,200 news headlines a week to pull together The Energy Mix and The Energy Mix Weekender. Chart of the Week BYD Eyes 20 Dealership Locations After Canada Greenlights Chinese EV Imports ‘Sledgehammer’ Carbon Price Deal Boosts Emissions by 230Mt, Aims for Fall 2027 Pipeline Approval ‘Worse Than Harper’: Regulatory Rollback Would Stop Canada from Assessing Project Impacts, Critics Warn Electricity Strategy Aims for Doubling by 2050, Allows ‘Flexibility’ for Gas Power Plants Opposition Mounts as O’Leary’s Data Centre Approved in Drought-Stricken Utah Diluted Carbon Price Misses ‘Reality of the World We’re In’, Could Impede Diversified Trade: Climate Institute $200B in Clean Energy Investment Will Need On-Time Delivery, Reliable Policies, Trade Association Says ‘Sovereign Pipeline’: CEO Pitches to Keep Trans Mountain in Government Hands What a Supercharged El Niño Could Mean for Canada Canada’s future is electric, and here’s how a power grid superhighway would get us there (Toronto Star) The Perilous Waters of Hecate Strait (Globe and Mail) Saudi Aramco profits jump despite conflict in Middle East (The Guardian) Farmers confront rising cost of fertilizer and fuel as spring seeding under way (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Clarkson forecasts 24% decline in offshore oil, gas capital expenditures (Oil & Gas Journal) Pipe Dreams: How Oil and Gas Fail to Deliver Economic Development in Africa (Oil Change International) Developing countries must hold the pen to script the fossil fuel transition (Climate Home News) Iran war threatens the dream of a post-oil economy in the Gulf (Washington Post) U.S. Oil, Gas Work Force Hits Lowest Level Since 2022 (Rigzone) Why Polestar Is Doubling Down on Net Zero as Rivals Pull Back on EVs (Bloomberg) Why this Michigan utility plans to sell its hydro dams for $13 (E&E News/Politico) Levees can no longer save New Orleans (Vox)

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Hundreds gather on Boston Common for mental health walk with NAMI Massachusetts
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May 16 • 6:20 PM EDT • Health • cbsnews.com
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NAMIWalks draws hundreds to Raleigh to raise awareness, fight mental health stigma

"You are not alone."

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May 16 • 2:12 PM EDT • Health • abc11.com
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NAMIWalks draws hundreds to Morrisville to raise awareness, fight mental health stigma

"You are not alone."

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May 16 • 2:12 PM EDT • Health • abc11.com
I've advised ultrawealthy families for decades: 4 ways they stay rich

The CEO of a wealth management software company said hundreds of good decisions over many years is what preserves riches.

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May 16 • 5:56 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Fuquay-Varina park plan faces pushback as demand grows for youth sports

Fuquay-Varina leaders are proposing the construction of four athletic fields at Hilltop Needmore Town Park to accommodate an increase in youth sports participation and prevent hundreds of children from being turned away.

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May 15 • 7:41 PM EDT • Sports • wral.com
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Hundreds of nurses at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital in Madison working to unionize

Hundreds of nurses at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital in Madison are working to unionize.

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May 15 • 6:23 PM EDT • Health • wpr.org
Fuquay-Varina's youth sports are at a 'breaking point': Building new fields is fueling debate

Fuquay-Varina leaders are proposing the construction of four athletic fields at Hilltop Needmore Town Park to accommodate an increase in youth sports participation and prevent hundreds of children from being turned away.

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May 15 • 6:12 PM EDT • Sports • wral.com
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US moves to end job protections for hundreds of health department workers

President Donald Trump's administration on ​Friday moved to strip U.S. ‌Department of Health and Human Services workers of civil service ​job protections, according to ​an email reviewed by Reuters.

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May 15 • 4:34 PM EDT • Health • reuters.com
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.

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May 15 • 1:00 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
NASA’s new AI space chip could let spacecraft think for themselves

NASA is testing a next-generation space computer chip that could give spacecraft the ability to operate far more independently in deep space. The radiation-hardened processor is showing performance levels hundreds of times beyond current spaceflight computers while surviving punishing tests designed to mimic the harsh conditions of space. The technology could enable AI-powered spacecraft, faster scientific discoveries, and smarter missions to the Moon and Mars.

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May 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Gov. Newsom to propose tax cut for new small businesses with May Revise budget

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to propose a 50% tax cut for hundreds of thousands of small businesses, as part of his revised budget presentation on Thursday. The proposal to benefit an estimated 250,000 new businesses each year is part of the updated look at Newsom's budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, known as the May Revise.

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May 13 • 7:12 PM EDT • Business • kcra.com
Allegheny County Board of Health to vote on paid parental leave

Hundreds of thousands of workers in Allegheny County may soon be eligible for paid parental leave — depending on a vote Wednesday evening at the...

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May 13 • 5:57 PM EDT • Health • post-gazette.com
Ancient teeth hint at canoodling between early human relatives

An analysis of ancient teeth is giving scientists a rare peek into interactions between human relatives hundreds of thousands of years ago.

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May 13 • 11:01 AM EDT • Science • seattletimes.com
Riverton business owner ‘shocked’ after woman steals hundreds in merchandise caught on camera

A Riverton small business owner said she is frustrated and shaken after a woman allegedly stole hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise right in front of her employee.

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May 12 • 6:51 PM EDT • Business • ksltv.com
Growing group of Sonoma County small businesses hit by website-based discrimination claims

One plaintiff is linked to hundreds of lawsuits against Bay Area companies claiming their websites discriminate against him as a visually impaired person. The cases filed on his behalf share in common a Southern California law firm behind…

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May 12 • 10:19 AM EDT • Business • pressdemocrat.com
The Best Over-the-Counter Products of 2026, According to U.S. News & World Report

Hundreds of pharmacists and dermatologists were surveyed to discover the top finds.

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May 12 • 8:18 AM EDT • Health • today.com
Kari Lake, Who Led Effort to Shutter Voice of America, Is Named Ambassador to Jamaica

Ms. Lake tried and failed to fire hundreds of Voice of America journalists and to cut funding for other federally funded news groups like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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May 11 • 9:06 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Caring Beyond the Bedside: Carolyn Glover's Story from Nurse to Educator to Volunteer

Carolyn Glover spent years in nursing before transitioning to nursing education at Gaston College, where she shaped the careers of hundreds of nurses. Now a CaroMont Health volunteer, Glover continues to give back to the community she has always called home.

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May 10 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • caromonthealth.org
Florida seniors face growing mental health crisis, Humana Foundation study finds

A new report from the Humana Foundation is shedding light on a silent crisis unfolding across Florida — one that affects hundreds of thousands of older residents and often goes unnoticed.

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May 10 • 4:36 PM EDT • Health • news4jax.com
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I Knew Shopping for a Wedding Dress Would Be Hard. I Didn’t Expect It to Go Like This.

I’ve seen hundreds of dresses that defy the laws of physics.

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May 10 • 10:00 AM EDT • Technology • slate.com
Iranian businesses said resorting to mass layoffs amid wartime economic struggles

According to New York Times, business leaders warn 3.5 million industrial jobs at risk, several tech firms shut down due to internet blackout, with others laying off hundreds

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May 10 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • timesofisrael.com
Science & Medicine: For veterans with traumatic brain injuries, AI offers a new weapon against post-traumatic headaches

Hundreds of thousands of veterans live with traumatic brain injuries that can trigger chronic headaches, often made worse by PTSD. A researcher at UT Health San Antonio is using AI to help predict and prevent the pain before it starts.

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May 10 • 2:00 AM EDT • Science • tpr.org
‘Climb for Air’ raises funds to support lung health

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Hundreds of firefighters, families and other local corporate teams flocked to Sahlen Field Saturday to climb for a good cause. “Climb for Air” returned for …

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May 9 • 6:24 PM EDT • Health • wivb.com
Northeast Arkansas jails to lose mental health services as provider will not renew contract

Hundreds of inmates across Northeast Arkansas jails will lose access to mental health services after Arisa Health announced it will not submit to a new contract.

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May 8 • 11:01 PM EDT • Health • kait8.com
California to provide hundreds of free diapers to all newborns

California will become the first state in the nation to provide free diapers to all newborns.

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May 8 • 1:35 PM EDT • Health • sfchronicle.com
Big weekend for baseball, basketball and volleyball across Twin Cities

Hundreds of teams at the AAU, club and high school level will compete in marquee events at various venues this weekend.

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May 8 • 1:29 PM EDT • Sports • varsity.startribune.com
Mozilla says Anthropic's Mythos found hundreds of flaws

Mozilla says Anthropic's unreleased Claude Mythos AI found security flaws that automated testing systems missed for years.

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May 8 • 1:05 PM EDT • Technology • businessinsider.com
College Sports Commission nears approval of $250 million in NIL deals for NCAA athletes

The College Sports Commission continues to clear money-making deals for NCAA student-athletes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars

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May 8 • 12:59 PM EDT • Sports • usatoday.com
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.

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May 8 • 4:36 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Verizon cuts hundreds of jobs in latest round of layoffs

Verizon cuts hundreds of jobs across the US, impacting less than 1% of its head count, as it continues to reduce costs beyond 2026.

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May 7 • 1:24 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Texas council says more resources needed to address complaints against behavioral health providers

The agency that oversees behavioral health and social work providers has about 1,000 "pending" complaints against providers — hundreds more than it has received in previous years. Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council leadership told lawmakers it may need support from the state to handle the volume.

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May 7 • 9:21 AM EDT • Health • houstonpublicmedia.org
Science diplomacy lessons from a North Korean volcano

Mount Paektu, a mythic, active volcano on the border between North Korea and China, is almost the epitome of a scientific challenge that crosses political lines. In 946 CE, it erupted in one of the five biggest volcanic events of the past 10,000 years, kicking up huge quantities of ash and sending destructive mud flows down river channels for hundreds of kilometres. Should this happen again, the entire region, including easternmost Russia, South Korea and even Japan could be hit. “It’s definitely got the potential to be big,” said James Hammond, a professor of geophysics at Birkbeck, University of London. An eruption on the scale of 946 would have “huge regional impact.” For the past 15 years, Hammond has helped lead a groundbreaking collaboration with North Korean scientists to study the volcano, navigating scientific sanctions, tough export controls on scientific equipment and a long, pandemic-enforced exodus from the country. Although he seems more at home on far-flung research expeditions – before speaking to Science|Business, Hammond was camping out on a Greenland ice sheet – he has also advised the European Commission on its changing science diplomacy strategy. His long experience with North Korea has made Hammond sceptical of blanket bans on science collaboration, no matter the country.This is a live question in Europe, where in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, institutional ties with Russian universities were almost entirely severed, although some scientists fear this could undermine our understanding of climate change’s impact on the Arctic. Here, Hammond tells the story of the Mount Paektu mission and the policy lessons he takes from it. Ominous rumblingsThe genesis of Hammond’s collaboration came in 2002, when Mount Paektu began to rumble ominously. Earthquake activity picked up and the volcano began to emit unusual gases. North Korean scientists took notice. “People felt we need to know more about this volcano,” said Hammond. In 2011, North Korean vulcanologists put out a request for international expertise to help them learn more. At the time, Hammond and his collaborator, Clive Oppenheimer, were working on a vulcanology project in another sanctioned country, Eritrea, and so decided to answer the call. Within a month, they had flown into Pyongyang. “It was pretty incredible,” recalls Hammond (left). “We were made to feel like honoured guests, and invited to official celebrations.” The scientific opportunity was huge. Paektu is unusually positioned, a thousand kilometres from where tectonic plates rub against each other in the Pacific. “It was an incredibly interesting volcano, but not much research had been done, at least not in the international community,” he said. “There was so much we felt we could do. And we had these partners that were super keen to engage.”The mission received an unusual visitor in the form of volcano-obsessed filmmaker Werner Herzog, who accompanied Hammond and Oppenheimer while directing his 2016 film Into the Inferno about volcanos across the world. Four days into the trip, the German director delivered a long speech about reunification to his North Korean hosts, recalls Hammond. “He got to the heart of the Koreans and how they felt, and how they thought, in a way that I'm not sure I ever will,” he said. UN sanctionsHowever, Hammond realised he’d been “naïve” about how difficult it would be to collaborate with North Korea, which was sanctioned far more heavily than Eritrea. “We didn’t fully appreciate the all-encompassing nature of restrictions,” he said. In 2016, as tensions escalated over Pyongyang’s nuclear tests, a United Nations resolution banned all joint scientific work with North Korea. However, the UN sanctions did allow countries to request carve outs, and the UK successfully requested an exemption for Hammond’s work. Related articlesEU pushes for joint science diplomacy, but care needed to avoid gridlock, experts sayRussia severs its last ties with German scienceAnchor Greenlanders in Arctic climate research, experts tell EU ahead of policy updateExport controls have also delayed Hammond’s work. In one case, it took 18 months to get approval from the UK government to take seismometers, which measure earthquakes, to North Korea. “It was frustrating,” he said. “But they didn’t just say no.” However, one instrument, called an induction coil, used to measure how the earth conducts electricity, was blocked entirely because it can in theory be used to detect submarines. Karaoke bondingSince the collaboration started in 2011, Hammond has visited the country around 15 times, although the pandemic closed off North Korea for more than five years. A trip last November was Hammond’s first since the outbreak. Despite this lengthy interlude, Hammond has deep bonds in the country. The North Korean scientists Hammond works with are somewhat isolated, as they struggle to access the latest research papers and travel to international conferences. That said, they are “excellent geophysicists” and are “very well trained in the field,” he said. Over karaoke and chats about their families, “we’ve made friendships, for sure,” he said. The authorities have to sign-off things like the placement of seismometers, for example, but Hammond said these requests have been approved. “Everything that we've asked for within a scientific context has been delivered.”Scientific backchannels? These kind of personal links between scientists across political lines are one purported benefit of science diplomacy. During the Cold War, some historians argue, scientific contact between the US and Soviet Union laid a groundwork of trust for other cooperation, such as on arms control. Hammond agrees that backchannel contacts to North Korean geophysicists are hardly likely to defuse a military crisis on the Korean peninsula, but the simple fact of the scientific collaboration makes contacts between diplomats that little bit easier. “It creates opportunities to understand each other a little bit better,” he said. “When maybe you have those more difficult discussions as diplomats, it's coming from a slightly better place.” Cutting tiesDrawing lessons from the Mount Paektu mission for today’s links with Russian science isn’t simple. The analogy is far from exact, Hammond said, “because one is essentially a Cold War, versus a pretty hot war in the case of Russia.” But Hammond’s broader argument is that the challenges we face, such as climate change, pandemics, biodiversity loss, pollution and so on, have globalised in an unprecedented way, making blanket shutdowns in collaboration with any country unwise.He’s somewhat critical of the UN scientific sanctions imposed on North Korea in 2016, even though they did allow for exceptions. “I think a blanket halt to some of these things, when we face big global challenges [. . .] that’s quite a risky thing to do,” he said.Institutional endorsement?European academics are still by and large free to work individually with Russian counterparts. However, official, institutional partnerships have largely ended. Shortly following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian university rectors wrote a public letter endorsing the war, meaning European universities fear official collaboration could also be seen as a kind of endorsement. Hammond acknowledges there is a risk of legitimising regimes, and state-controlled universities, through scientific cooperation. “That’s the trade off you have to make,” he said. Strategic projectsWith Russia, instead of giving a green light to restart all Arctic science, a middle ground might be firing up a few carefully selected “strategic” projects, said Hammond. After all, European countries are still collaborating with Russia on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, an experimental nuclear fusion plant in the south of France. However, even if Europe did try to revive Arctic science with Russia, there’s no guarantee Russian scientists would play ball. A series of high-profile arrests of physicists in Russia accused of sharing their findings with the outside world has made collaboration fraught. Even before the invasion of 2022, “the Russian regime made it increasingly difficult, and this sort of discouraged people,” Dag Rune Olsen, rector of the Arctic University of Norway, told Science|Business last year.

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May 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
Shipping firms are being whipsawed by changing stances and risks as they wait for Hormuz to reopen

With hundreds of vessels still stuck in the Persian Gulf and costs piling up, shipping companies are being whipsawed by uncertainty over how and when the Strait of Hormuz might reopen more than two months into the Iran war.

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May 6 • 1:09 PM EDT • Politics • ksat.com
Seattle’s Waterfront Park releases summer events lineup

Waterfront Park, which will serve as one of the fan celebration zones during the World Cup, announced hundreds of free events to come this summer season.

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May 6 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • yakimaherald.com
Scientists stunned by 'sheer spectacle' as sea creatures flood beaches

Scientists still have much left to learn about the creatures, even as hundreds of thousands of them wash ashore.

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May 6 • 6:05 AM EDT • Science • usatoday.com
Camden County homeowners and business owners oppose plans for a new data center

Hundreds of people in Camden County publicly rejected a proposal to build a new data center near their communities. Opponents of the proposed data center said t

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May 5 • 6:07 PM EDT • Business • krcgtv.com
States Eye Aid To Prop Up Distressed Hospitals Amid Federal Medicaid Cuts

Hundreds of hospitals nationwide are bracing for Medicaid cuts as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Some state lawmakers are eyeing loans and other forms of financial aid to distressed hospitals in rural and urban areas, as healthcare providers warn of cuts to critical services and scramble for funding.

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May 5 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • kffhealthnews.org
Met Gala 2026 Livestream: Watch The Red Carpet Arrivals

Hundreds of the biggest names in entertainment and fashion are descending upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight for the annual Met Gala. The 2026 event is co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, V...

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May 4 • 6:51 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
San Antonio vendors affected by Painted Tree Boutiques closure face limited protections, expert says

Hundreds of small business owners are still trying to recover their inventory and their income after the sudden closure of Painted Tree Boutiques in April.

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May 4 • 5:09 PM EDT • Business • ksat.com
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Delta canceling flights: Memo shows crew, scheduling challenges

Delta is canceling hundreds of flights — far more than its rival airlines. An internal memo reveals crew and scheduling challenges.

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May 4 • 5:09 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
The Latest: Trump launches a new effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

U.S. forces have launched an effort to guide commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where hundreds have been stuck since the Iran war began.

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May 4 • 10:05 AM EDT • Politics • ksat.com
New Orleans youth sports group, facing funding cuts, could slash programs

A popular youth sports nonprofit may have to cut hundreds of kids from its rosters amid a loss of local and federal funding and a lack of facilities to accommodate growing demand.

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May 4 • 5:00 AM EDT • Sports • nola.com
Pols & Politics: Hundreds more layoffs announced by Massachusetts businesses

Hundreds of more layoffs are being announced by four Massachusetts companies as the Bay State has seen a flurry of outmigration by residents and businesses.

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May 3 • 4:26 AM EDT • Business • bostonherald.com
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Pols & Politics: Hundreds more layoffs announced by Massachusetts businesses

Hundreds of more layoffs are being announced by four Massachusetts companies as the Bay State has seen a flurry of outmigration by residents and businesses.

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May 3 • 4:26 AM EDT • Politics • bostonherald.com
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New York Road Runners Mindful 5K focuses on mental health awareness

Over 6,000 adult athletes and hundreds of youths are estimated to participate in today's New York Road Runners Mindful 5K.

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May 2 • 11:31 AM EDT • Health • abc7ny.com
Cesar Chavez Boulevard signs removed impacting local businesses a second time

A corridor in southeast Fresno is undergoing another name change, impacting local businesses as the city removes and replaces hundreds of Cesar Chavez street signs.

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May 2 • 2:18 AM EDT • Business • abc30.com
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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.

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May 1 • 1:00 AM EDT • Politics • politico.com
Should a California union dictate how clinics spend money? Employers sue to block ballot measure

California health clinics are suing to stop a union ballot measure that would dictate how they spend money — and they say it could force hundreds of clinics to close.

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Apr 30 • 8:35 PM EDT • Health • calmatters.org
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Senate Bans Prediction Markets for Its Members and Staff

Senators voted unanimously to prohibit betting practices in the chamber after some users made hundreds of thousands of dollars online by accurately predicting U.S. military actions.

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Apr 30 • 6:13 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
No immediate plan after Laurel Ridge cuts hundreds of beds in Bexar County

SAN ANTONIO - Growing concern is mounting in Bexar County as leaders and mental health experts warn that a major reduction in psychiatric beds could deepen what

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Apr 29 • 8:10 PM EDT • Health • news4sanantonio.com
Community leaders talk business at Lake to River meeting

It brought together hundreds of businesses, community leaders and elected officials from throughout the region.

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Apr 29 • 4:47 PM EDT • Business • wkbn.com
Rising premiums push younger workers to rethink employer health plans

Rising health insurance costs are prompting some younger, healthier workers to reconsider employer-sponsored coverage, creating new strains for workers and warning signs for employers, Bloomberg writes. As premiums climb and take-home pay tightens, some employees are opting for alternatives, such as medical cost-sharing plans, limited-benefit coverage or going uninsured altogether to save hundreds of dollars […]

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Apr 29 • 9:57 AM EDT • Health • businessreport.com
Supreme Court hears arguments over temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian migrants

The court’s decision could affect hundreds of thousands of people who benefit from Temporary Protected Status.

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Apr 29 • 9:13 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Mercedes inks deal with BNP to sell leasing business

Mercedes-Benz has signed a deal to sell its leasing subsidiary Athlon ​to France's BNP Paribas and is ‌expected to free up hundreds of millions of euros in liquidity, the German company's finance ​chief said on Wednesday.

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Apr 29 • 5:45 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Apple Vision Pro Used in World-First Cataract Surgery

Apple's Vision Pro has hit another medical-use milestone, with a New York ophthalmologist becoming the first surgeon to perform cataract surgery using the spatial computing headset. Dr. Eric Rosenberg of SightMD completed the initial procedure in October 2025 and has since performed hundreds of additional cases using ScopeXR, a surgical platform he co-developed for Apple's mixed reality device.

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Apr 28 • 10:51 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
UC STEM Fest to Inspire Kids with Science and Engineering

Hundreds of local schoolchildren will get hands-on exposure to science, technology, engineering and math at the 2026 UC STEM Fest, to be held Saturday, May 2 from 9 a.m. to noon at Rex & Margaret Fortune Early College High School in Elk Grove.

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Apr 27 • 6:19 PM EDT • Science • ucdavis.edu
Facebook Has a Health Scam Problem

A new report found hundreds of thousands of scam ads for medical products, some of which were illegal or had been deemed dangerous.

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Apr 27 • 1:32 PM EDT • Health • nytimes.com
Cellular Rejuvenation Has the Potential to Reverse Aging

A new therapy has the potential to cure hundreds of diseases — and even reverse aging.

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Apr 27 • 9:42 AM EDT • Science • nytimes.com
Fourth annual MI Healthy Climate Conference celebrates and inspires

EGLE’s Office of Climate and Energy welcomed hundreds to Detroit with an action-focused agenda.

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Apr 27 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • michigan.gov
$1 billion over 5 years: Director of NH’s new rural health program rolls out goals for federal funds

Donnalee Lozeau, director of GO-NORTH, said her philosophy in distributing the hundreds of millions of dollars the federal government is giving New Hampshire to spend on its struggling rural healthcare system will be about long-term investments, not short-term fixes.

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Apr 27 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • newhampshirebulletin.com