‘Why Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is on the rocks…’ (Cameron Peters via Vox)

‘Trump’s Freedom 250 fest crashout proves he’s the only true MAGA celebrity

Trump loves stars. Too bad they all hate him.…’ (Constance Grady via Vox)

‘Pessimism is probably “a bigger problem than climate change”, said the novelist Ian McEwan on Monday afternoon, as temperatures broke May records in the UK.

McEwan “constantly” hears people say that they don’t “expect their children to have as good a life as they did”, but suggested that optimism is a “moral duty”.

McEwan’s latest book, What We Can Know, is partly set in 2119, in a Britain submerged by seas. He spoke at the Hay festival on a panel alongside the former NFU president Minette Batters and Sandi Toksvig, on a day that saw temperatures in London reach 34.8C, beating a May record set in 1922.

McEwan went on to say that optimism is an “exercise in rationality”, because it’s “quite possible” – given that “the world is big, cultures are diverse” – that “there could be a revolution happening and we don’t even know about it”.…’ (Ella Creamer via The Guardian)

‘In the event of an imminent nuclear apocalypse, we suspect that many people who have access to private jets will immediately take to the skies and escape city centers. This site tracks this indicator in realtime. The current emergency level is reported on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being an indicator of a likely imminent apocalypse. built by Kyle McDonald…’ (via ews.kylemcdonald.net

‘Democrats are in thrall to the idea that corporate consolidation is America’s biggest, and maybe only, problem.…’ (Jonathan Chait via The Atlantic)

Chait, who has had a career as a political reporter at The New Republic, New York and The Atlantic, argues that anti-monopoly thinking has become a dominant force in Democratic economic policy, driven largely by the Open Markets Institute and its central figure, Barry C. Lynn, who sees corporate consolidation as the root of much of America’s social, political, and economic dysfunction. In Chait’s view, this dangerously monocausal worldview moved antitrust politics to the center of the Biden administration, particularly through the influence of Lynn’s protégé Lina Khan, appointed to the Federal Trade Commission. For this movement, antitrust is not merely a narrow matter of consumer prices but part of a broader project to decentralize power and curb corporate dominance.

Chait regards this emphasis as useful but badly overextended. He argues that it neglects other sources of contemporary dysfunction, including inflation, social-media addiction, cultural alienation, political polarization, and the Democratic Party’s loss of working-class support. If allowed to dominate policy, he warns, the anti-monopoly framework would be intellectually erosive, politically divisive, and likely to fail. Its vocabulary of resentment toward concentrated power may be emotionally satisfying, but Chait sees it as risking the rupture of older Democratic coalitions while failing to deliver the salvation it promises.

Dear Dr. Barbabella:

I am concerned that you have examined President Donald J. Trump for the third time since last January, even as the White House called your assessment on May 26 an “annual dental and health checkup,” and despite the president’s claim that “everything checked out PERFECTLY. Three days after your evaluation you claimed that he “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function.”

The American people don’t seem to be buying that story. A recent poll showed that 59% of Americans feel he lacks the mental acuity for his position, hardly a vote of confidence in the president’s self-assessment.

In my experience as a physician, it’s uncommon for a healthy person to require a medical evaluation three times in a year. Certainly the ecchymoses in his hands are a tell. It may be a sign of aging. If it’s from handshaking, as you suggested, why in both hands? If it’s from prescribed aspirin, Harvard emergency physician Jeremy Faust wondered if a high dose was because you were trying to prevent a heart attack. What about his edematous ankles? Venous insufficiency is your diagnosis, but that’s relatively uncommon in men. Have you ruled out right sided heart failure, or is he taking a drug like amlodipine that also causes swollen ankles? Your credentials as a combat surgeon are exemplary, but there may be other medical specialists who might help in dealing with an especially challenging case.

As a psychiatrist I have concerns about his mental status which appears to have worsened in the last year. Why has he taken the MOCA test of cognitive abilities three times since 2018? Is the president slowly declining, or is his mental function dropping off a cliff? The danger posed by his apparent psychiatric decline is compounded by his unfettered access to our vast nuclear arsenal. Like any patient with advancing dementia, there’s a time when the car keys have to be taken away. I fear the president is at that point, and should be lawfully removed from office. I base this extraordinary request on my observations of his increasingly poor judgment, reduced impulse control, rage attacks, grandiosity, feelings of omnipotence, and his growing intoxication with nuclear weapons over which he alone has control.

As a specialist in substance use disorders I recommend, if you have not already done this, a urine tox screen on the president. He has an admittedly thinly sourced history of abusing psychostimulants since 1992. I have previously described a photo of the president with dilated pupils, a singularly abnormal finding in an elderly man under normal room illumination. Was this from a stimulant? In my clinical experience a tox screen would be indicated in any patient presenting this way, especially if he described nocturnal tweeting frenzies, grandiosity, paranoia, and daytime sleepiness consistent with stimulant withdrawal.

Other specialists who may be helpful in this complex case include hematologists, neurologists, and infectious disease experts. His black and blue hands bespeak a bleeding disorder. Aggressive use of aspirin may be the culprit, but have you ruled out blood dyscrasias such as the leukemias or platelet disorders?

While there are a number of red flags that appear to presage dementia, such as difficulties in speech, logic, calculations, and orientation in space, they are intermittent. You might argue that occasional mental lapses are part of being nearly 80. But a cluster of them even when intermittent is worrisome, especially when mixed with disinhibition, rage, and access to weapons of mass destruction. Missing from the public record are the actual scores of his three prior MOCA screens for cognitive decline. As you know the MOCA is a rapid screen taking ten or so minutes to complete. I strongly recommend a more thorough neuropsychological battery to assess the president’s ability to remember, pay attention, solve problems, and use language.

The patient’s father developed a dementia in later life which was diagnosed as “Alzheimer’s disease.” But his emotional disinhibition was more consistent with frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. The frontal lobes of the brain, shown below in dark blue, help you plan, organize, observe social graces, and exert good judgement. The temporal lobes, in light blue, deal with memory, language, and modulating anxiety and rage.

If his father’s dementia was the FTD type, the president has a 25 to 50% chance of developing the same illness. FTD patients exhibit apathy, poor judgement, and speech difficulties.

As you know, there are other causes of dementia. e.g. the vascular type from small blood clots in the brain. Brain imaging can put those concerns to rest, and so I was disappointed when last October you elected only to perform an MRI study of the president’s cardiovascular system. Brain MRI, PET, and/or SPECT scans are long overdue.

Last on my short list of rule-out diagnoses is neurosyphilis which in the U.S. from 2019 to 2023 increased 61%. It is not a stretch of one’s imagination to consider that the current president has a history of unprotected sex with infected partners. Neurosyphilis can linger for years without being detected. Undetected it can progress to a dementia with an expansive demeanor and grandiose delusions, symptoms we see in Donald Trump today. A simple blood and spinal fluid test can lay this possibility to rest.

Most importantly is that while you have a duty to protect the president’s privacy, you have a far greater duty to protect the common good. You have served your country on the battlefield. Now you are called upon to render Americans and the world a far greater service.

Sincerely,

Henry David Abraham, M.D.

‘The president had earlier said on social media that he should take the place of “these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists,’” saying he gets “larger audiences than Elvis.”…’ (Derrick Bryson Taylor via The New York Times)

‘Mr. Trump railed against the judge’s ruling in an incensed social media post, suggesting that he was considering casting the Kennedy Center aside as one of his personal projects. The president wrote that unless he was free to decide the center’s trajectory, he had “no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey.”

“Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the Radical Left would rather see it DIE than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of, much as I have done, in many cases, throughout my life,” he wrote.…’ (Julia Jacobs via The New York Times)

‘A huge noise rattled part of the state on Thursday. Multiple theories have been put forward, but the mystery remains.…’ (Victor Mather via The New York Times)

Unlike today’s event off the Massachusetts coast, NASA said Thursday’s was not caused by a meteor, having received no reports of a fireball and no satellite detection of a meteor in the area. 

Seen and heard up and down the Eastern Seaboard from Quebec and northern VT down to Delaware and Maryland (via American Meteor Society; thanks, Abby)

‘The Instinctive Drowning Response – so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D., is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind. To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the number two cause of accidental death in children, age 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents) – of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning – Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene Magazine (Fall 2006 page 14), described the instinctive drowning response like this:

1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.…’(via Mariovittone)

• ‘The global average Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score fell to 42 out of 100, the first decline in more than a decade.
• Only five countries now score above 80, down from 12 a decade ago.
• The U.S. ranks 29th with a score of 64, its lowest-ever result in the index.…’ (Srijaa Chatterjee via Visual Capitalist)

‘We critically examine proposals for the so-called warp-drive spacetimes and classify these models based on their various restrictions within the framework of General Relativity. We then provide a summary of general formalism for each class, and in the process, we highlight some misconceptions, misunderstandings, and errors in the literature that have been used to support claims about the physicality and feasibility of these models. On the way, we prove several new no-go theorems. Our analysis shows that when the principles of General Relativity are applied correctly, most claims regarding physical warp drives must be reassessed,
and it becomes highly challenging to justify or support the viability of such models, not merely due to the violation of energy conditions.…’ (via Arxiv)

‘For some Americans’ finances, the Iran war was over almost as soon as it began. Those with access to stocks — a majority of Americans have some, though the ultrawealthy have most — saw the S&P 500 dip about 8% when the war started, only for it to bounce 19% starting in late March, more than making up its losses. The index is now up 10.7% for the year, which if it held would make for the fourth consecutive year of double-digit stock increases.

President Donald Trump has been quick to trumpet these gains. “We have 401(k)s at their all-time high, highest they’ve ever been, and that goes along with the stock market, which is the highest it’s ever been,” Trump said at a televised Cabinet meeting this week, repeating a refrain he has adopted to celebrate market wins. That is all despite the war, he said. 

But as Trump — along with anyone who has to put gas into their car — also knows, the real economic weight of the war is much heftier than lofty stock prices would suggest. The war is heightening an already historic disconnect between those who can share in the affluence spun off by U.S. financial markets and those who can’t. That is aggravating Americas’ frustrations with the president’s economic performance, and likely will weigh on his fellow Republicans’ performance in November’s midterm elections. …’ (Matt Peterson via CNBC)

‘Particles of light cannot be divided into smaller particles, but if you try to snip off the end of one, instead of shortening it multiplies…’ (Karmela Padavic-Callaghan via New Scientist)

‘For years now, President Donald Trump has been showing off a signature dance move at events and campaign rallies, jerking his bent arms and clenched fists forward and backward, often to the sound of the Village People’s “YMCA.”

 

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The dance is a regular feature when he’s onstage — so much so that it has become part of his signature brand, experts told HuffPost.

“It’s typically the same exact song and it’s the same exact set of moves, and he’s typically doing it when he’s wearing the blue suit, the white shirt and the red tie, so it’s part of his brand,” said Patti Wood, a body language expert and author of “Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma.” “One of the reasons it is so interesting to observe is that we know exactly what he’s going to do, and yet we look at it every time [and try] to understand.”

This “very on brand for him” move is even a “visual version” of his speech patterns, said Denise Dudley, a clinical psychologist and behavioral expert. “If we think about it a certain way, he dances like he talks,” Dudley said. “It’s super repetitive, it’s really simple. I mean, it’s not complicated at all.”…’ (Jillian Wilson via HuffPost)

‘In 2024, Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. (Trump received a no-penalty sentence, or unconditional discharge, just 10 days before his January 2025 inauguration to a second term.)…’ (via The Boston Globe)

‘A new study suggests ChatGPT may stereotype you based on where you live, with the artificially-intelligent model classifying some locations as smarter, some as smellier and some as uglier or stupider.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Kentucky asked OpenAI’s GPT-4o-mini model over 20 million questions between March and May of last year. They got the ChatGPT model to compare two places in order to get “a single, unambiguous consistent answer” about how it classifies certain states, according to researchers…’ (Monica Torres via HuffPost)

‘Belarus’ president has been accused of flagrant human rights violations and enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine. That hasn’t served as a barrier to his friendship with Donald Trump.…’ (Yuliya Talmazan via NBC News)

‘”Sand and dust storms do not just mean dirty windows and hazy skies.”…’ (Joe Wilkins via Futurism)

‘[W]hat is going on and what can we do about it? I put these questions to Laurie Santos. Santos is a cognitive scientist and professor whose class on happiness quickly became the most popular in Yale’s history. And through her podcast “The Happiness Lab” and her free online course called “The Science of Well-Being,” Santos’s reach has extended far beyond the classroom.

I wanted to understand what history and science say happiness really is, how that connects to loneliness and American ideas about productivity and why, with so many happiness tips flooding our feeds, it has still been so hard for me, and many others, to do the things that will actually make us truly, deeply happy.…’ (Lulu Garcia-Navarro via The New York Times)

‘A Canadian man who ran online businesses that shipped toxic salt to people in 40 countries pleaded guilty on Friday to 14 counts of aiding suicides in Ontario, prosecutors said.

British prosecutors said that the man, Kenneth Law, 60, of Mississauga, a city just west of Toronto, had also formally admitted to causing the deaths of 79 people in Britain as part of the proceedings in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket, Ontario.

The deaths in Britain were recognized in the Canadian court, which will sentence Mr. Law in September “on the basis that he distributed lethal products internationally, knowing they were likely to be used to end lives,” Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.…’ (Michael Levenson via The New York Times)

‘The first sign that the tree was in trouble was the scent — a musty odor that cut through the warm forest air.

“It smelled like mushrooms but worse, like decomposition,” said Cyrille Cornu, a French researcher who visited the tree, an ancient baobab that locals call Tsitakakantsa, last October in southwest Madagascar. Approaching the massive trunk in the island nation’s Andombiry Forest, Mr. Cornu’s heart sank. A dark, foul-smelling liquid was seeping from the base of the tree.

“I was surprised because I never saw this before,” said Mr. Cornu, who specializes in baobabs and has visited the tree several times over the last 15 years. He thought to himself: “Something is wrong.”…’ (Jonathan Wolfe via The New York Times)

‘In a bid to remake the country’s top-rated news program, Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, on Thursday unveiled an overhaul of “60 Minutes,” replacing the show’s executive producer with a tech journalist and firing two of its on-air correspondents.

Ms. Weiss named Nick Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist and a filmmaker who has directed and produced documentaries for HBO and Netflix, as her pick to lead the 58-year-old Sunday show. Mr. Bilton, who has never worked in traditional broadcast news, will replace Tanya Simon, who had been at the show for more than three decades.

CBS News also fired Cecilia Vega, the program’s first Latina correspondent, and Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly last year by Ms. Weiss, who requested more reporting. It aired in full at a later date. Draggan Mihailovich, the executive editor of “60 Minutes,” was also fired, as was Matthew Polevoy, a senior producer.

Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist with no prior experience in television, has made major changes at CBS since being appointed last year by the tech scion David Ellison. She has named Tony Dokoupil to helm “CBS Evening News,” hired new on-air contributors and personally booked some guests for interviews, a departure from the industry norm…’ (Benjamin Mullin via The New York Times)

‘A new book looks into the long history of people who have opposed vaccines…

Facts and figures can demonstrate how many lives have been saved by vaccines. But they will never be an effective counterargument to “the government can’t tell me what to inject into my kid.” The only potential argument to sway someone who fervently believes that is appealing to their sense of solidarity—to the obligations that every member of society has to every other, to the sacrifices that everyone must make to ensure that society is safe for all. Alas, that sense of solidarity… does not seem to be at its peak in the US right now.

As Levenson makes clear, these three arguments have been plied for as long as vaccines have. But there are a couple of key differences now. The first is that 300 years ago, people who claimed that vaccines were either ineffective or harmful could be forgiven for thinking they had a point. But we now have germ theory to explain exactly how vaccines work and centuries of data showing how infection and death rates from every disease have plummeted once a vaccine was introduced to counter it. We know better.

The second is that now, arguments against vaccines tend to be touted by only one particular subgroup of people: Republicans. And that has come with predictable consequences. “In the US from 2021 onward,” Levenson writes, “being a Republican has become a measurable risk factor for illness and death.”

Levenson teaches in and has directed the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT, so you might expect his writing to be clear, concise, engaging, and informative, with an effective mix of statistics and anecdotes. You’d be right. And despite the incendiary nature of his topic, his tone remains measured throughout; he never descends into anger or ranting. A new book looks into the long history of people who have opposed vaccines.What does come through is his anguish that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lies and policies will cause kids to needlessly be sickened by and die from diseases we have the tools to prevent….’ (Diana Gitig via Ars Technica)

‘“No one knows what is going on, which is leading to a lot of anxiety,” said a Republican operative who works on House races, who like some others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to frankly discuss a sensitive issue within the GOP conference. “There is a total information void.”

The operative added: “We cannot hold the majority without this seat. And folks need to know if he is capable of running for reelection and winning. … You can’t just go missing for months and tell people they just need to be patient and wait without any accountability.”…’ (Dan Merica via The Washington Post

‘Scientists believe there are almost certainly hundreds, if not thousands, of undiscovered animal species living in the middle of New York, among the city’s parks, gardens, and streets. I’m not talking about the big stuff — birds, frogs, and so on — but small critters, including flies, wasps, and other insects.

It’s not that NYC is some sort of global bug hot spot. (Despite what it might feel like in the summer, it is not.) Rather, the bulk of species in many insect groups, wherever they’re found, remains unknown. As one example, there may be as many as 1.8 million species globally in a single fly family called Cecidomyiidae, known as the gall midges. Yet only about 7,000 of them have been described in the scientific record and are thus known species. Broadly speaking, taxonomists estimate that as much as 90 percent of all animal species on Earth are still unknown….’ (Benji Jones via Vox)

‘One of the most trusted forms of protection against the dreaded mosquito might have an unexpected weakness. Research out today shows that mosquitoes can actually learn to love the presence of DEET, a common ingredient in insect repellents. Scientists in the U.S. and France conducted lab experiments with Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, a species well known for spreading various diseases, including yellow fever and dengue. They successfully reversed the mosquitoes’ aversion to the chemical, even making them more willing to approach a human wearing DEET. Though DEET remains a valuable anti-mosquito measure, the findings suggest people should be especially mindful about using it as instructed, the researchers say. “DEET is still the gold standard of mosquito repellents,” study author Clément Vinauger, an associate professor in the department of biochemistry at Virginia Tech, told Gizmodo. “Our work is an important reminder to carefully read the manufacturer’s recommendations regarding dosage and application frequency to ensure these products are as effective as possible.”…’ (Ed Cara via Gizmodo)

‘I have many thoughtful friends who are depressed about the state of the world. I am less depressed than they are — not because I’m an optimist, or because I deny the evil and stupidity in our political system that are causing so much harm, but because I believe history reveals a pattern that leaves reason for hope.…’ (Danny Hillis via NOEMA)

‘There’s an old line, sometimes attributed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, that the best way to solve a difficult problem is to make it bigger. That might be the most generous interpretation of how the Trump administration is approaching its ongoing peace talks with Iran.

Over the weekend, the news around the talks followed what has now become a familiar pattern. On Saturday, the two sides were reportedly close to a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and lift the US blockade on Iran. Then on Sunday, President Donald Trump said he had told his negotiators “not to rush” into a deal. On Monday, the United States launched a new round of what it called “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran. The current message from the White House is that they’re giving talks another few days, and continue to believe believe a deal is likely, but haven’t taken a return to full-scale war off the table.

Then in a rambling Truth Social post on Monday morning, Trump enlarged the problem by saying that it “should be mandatory” that as part of any peace deal, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey sign on to the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations with Israel. This is unlikely: Saudi-Israeli cooperation against Iran has been the worst kept secret in the Middle East for years, but the international outcry over the war in Gaza has made it politically untenable for these countries to publicly embrace Israel. It’s unclear just how seriously Trump will press for this, but the fact that at this phase in negotiations he’s bringing up new demands sure to irritate his own allies, suggests he’s not exactly desperate to wrap these talks up.

The fact that a deal still hasn’t been signed — despite the fact that the underlying dynamics of the conflict haven’t changed much since Iran and the United States signed the current ceasefire agreement in early April — as well as the fact that Trump seems to be expanding rather than narrowing his demands suggests two things that turn the recent weeks of negotiation reports on their head: First, Trump does not believe that he is losing this war. Second, he is still hoping to reach a mega-deal to reset the politics of the entire region. RELATED5 ways the Iran standoff could end Trump doesn’t think he’s losing Before the war began, Trump told a concerned Tucker Carlson that despite predictions warning that attacking Iran could destroy his presidency, he was confident everything would be okay “because it always is.” The war certainly hasn’t gone as easily as expected, but it’s very possible Trump still believes he has the upper hand and that everything will work out….’ (Joshua Keating via Vox)

‘Hengefinder is an app that, given times and places, can help you experience “stunning moments when the sun or moon aligns perfectly with city streets and buildings.” A “henge” is when the sun or moon is perfectly framed by a street or appears to sit on top of a building … Astronomical calculations combined with road data deliver instant results. Works worldwide. Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset—all at your fingertips. It’s available for iPhone and on the Google Play Store, but is based on open-source software posted to Github by Victoria Ritvo. It’s on the web at hengefinder.rcdis.co; my street gets henged in September, weather permitting!…’ (Rob Beschizza via Boing Boing)

‘In a previous piece, The Duty to Warn, I argued that by remaining silent, physicians risked far greater harm to potential victims of a nuclear attack than by assessing one president’s mental condition based on the public record. In last week’s piece I combed the historical record over the prior forty years of the President’s life for possible clues of his psychiatric instability which could lead to a catastrophic failure over his command and control of nuclear weapons. This week there is more evidence.

An AI image he posted this week underscored Donald Trump’s intoxication with nuclear weapons. The image seemingly touted the Space Force on Truth Social features Trump with his face with a vengeful grimace, his fingers hovering over a glowing button, with explosions already occurring around him. In the posting Trump has become Shiva, the destroyer of worlds, without the capacity for remorse of an Oppenheimer.

This post from a United States president is not normal. This is a man-child playing a game called “I Can Start a Nuclear War Any Time I Want To.” This is also the ultimate call for physicians to warn.

The fifteen signs and symptoms of Trump’s mental instability I had previously published on Substack are…’ (Henry Abraham via Substack)

‘When scientists first discovered the insulin secretion effects of gut hormone GLP-1 in the 1980s, it seemed like the automatic gateway toward a landmark diabetes treatment. GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide-1, slows digestion, signals the pancreas to release insulin, and even makes you feel full after a meal. If that peptide could be turned into a medication, experts theorized, GLP-1 could revolutionize pharmaceuticals..

But there was one major problem stumping researchers: GLP-1 lasted mere minutes in the body. Bodily hormones quickly break down both naturally produced and synthetic GLP-1, and that left drug developers unable to determine if a consistent dose of the peptide could effectively regulate insulin. It seemed, at the time, that GLP-1 was the miracle hormone that vanished too fast in the body to even be useful as a medication.

What GLP-1 lacked, however, is what another peptide had.

Enter exendin-4, composed of 39 amino acids and a close match to the sequence of GLP-1. As told in this Popular Mechanics feature, researcher Jean-Pierre Raufman and endocrinologist John Eng discovered exendin-4 in the 1990s in the most unlikely of places: the venom of the thick-skinned Gila monster. Turns out, the venom proved useful as a blood sugar and appetite regulator. Raufman’s years of studying animal toxins led to the uncovering of exendin-4 and eventual production of type 2 diabetes drug Byetta—and it’s a breakthrough that kick-started the entire GLP-1 drug industry.’ (Ashley Tysiac via Popular Mechanics)

‘Donald Trump’s reputation and political career were built on his dealmaking prowess, yet the president keeps demonstrating that he is a terrible negotiator…’ (David A. Graham via The Atlantic)

‘Researchers who have tested Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 say their hacking capabilities are a “game-changer.”…’ (Maggie Miller via POLITICO

( via Current Rothko)

‘Growing numbers of people are seeking improbable cosmetic surgery based on chatbots’ recommendations…’ (Isaaq Tomkins via The Guardian)

‘On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Republicans held a hearing to discuss, as they put it in the hearing’s official title, “a threat to the Supreme Court’s legitimacy.” The threat to which they referred, though, was not the Court’s myriad ethical scandals, or its efforts to gut both the Voting Rights Act and the Fifteenth Amendment, or its 200-plus-year track record of concentrating power in the hands of well-connected white guys named John. Instead, the threat that had House Republicans all riled up is the idea of increasing the number of justices on the Court. On its website, the Judiciary Committee promised during the hearing to “examine the history and perils of court packing,” as well as “other policy proposals that threaten to undermine the integrity of the judicial branch.”…’ (Allegra Kirkland via  Talking Points Memo)

‘Democrats are still unwilling to seriously reconsider their worst political liability.

The autopsy, written by Paul Rivera and not endorsed by the DNC, went on and on about bolstering political efforts on the local and state level, even in red states—advice Democrats would do well to consider. It suggested focusing on economic issues, another salient point. It also recommended reaching out to male voters.

Yet the document tiptoes around the key reason why Americans are rejecting the Democratic Party. Woke ideology is a 10-ton albatross around the party’s neck, and until Democrats get serious about reconsidering it, they’ll just keep sinking into the mud….’ (Tyler O’Neil via Daily Signal)

‘Tesla is rumored to have believed that the numbers three, six, and nine had special powers. Allegedly, he once said, “If you only knew the magnificence of the three, six, and nine, then you would have a key to the universe.”

Historians have not found a definitive source for this quote, but that hasn’t stopped it from taking off and sparking a great deal of speculation among those looking for a cheat code to the cosmos.

The number three has long been recognized as a powerful digit. Sacred trinities—like the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost in Christianity—appear frequently across various religions. Tesla himself reportedly cited “energy, frequency, and vibration” as the three elements that he believed held the key to understanding the nature of the universe.

The inventor certainly had a well-documented interest in the number three. In Tesla’s life, this interest led to an obsession with the number that some have connected to possible OCD. Tesla would often walk around blocks three times before entering buildings, and would use 18 napkins—a multiple of three—to wash his dishes. He also insisted on staying in hotel rooms with room numbers that were divisible by three, and died in room #3327 of the New Yorker Hotel in 1943….’ (Eden Gordon via Mental Floss)

‘Over the past 16 months, Trump and his appointees have so profoundly undermined the United States government that different words should be used to describe them than have been used to describe all previous administrations.

To begin with, they shouldn’t be called an “administration” at all. They should be referred to as a regime: A regime flagrantly defies court orders, as have Trump and his appointees.

…Secondly, this regime is not headed by a “president,” as the constitution of the United States and America’s laws and history have designated the head of the executive branch of the US government. To put the term “president” before Trump’s name defiles the constitution.

…Thirdly, Trump and his regime’s disregard for law is so monumental that it negates what we have come to understand as a “government of laws”. A better word for it is lawless. Consider that by the end of January, eight people had died in their dealings with ICE this year. Thirty-two people died last year in the custody of ICE. That’s more than in the preceding 20 years. People only suspected of being in the US illegally have been detained or deported by masked and armed immigration agents, without a hearing. People suspected of smuggling drugs have been murdered by the US military in international waters, in violation of international law. Meanwhile, Trump is accepting gifts from foreign powers, in open violation of the constitution. He has blatantly promoted his family’s crypto business and implemented policies favorable to it.

…All of this goes way beyond specific illegal acts. A different term should be used to describe what Trump and his regime are doing to the law. They are lawless.

Finally, the true test of a successful president of the US and his (eventually her) administration is not how much power he accumulates or how much he gets done. The real test is how much better off are the American people and how much stronger is our democracy.

By these measures, Trump and his regime are not just lawless. They are a catastrophe.…’ ( via The Guardian)

‘Tech experts and reviewers say the long-delayed $500 phone has high costs, middling specs and murky origins…’ (Garrett Owen via Salon.)

‘Musk has been bemoaning N’yongo’s casting for months. The manchild mogul, as well as conservative pundit Matt Walsh, recently griped that it’s unfair that N’yongo, who is of Kenyan and Mexican descent, was cast as the most beautiful woman in ancient Greece — because, they argued, actor Sydney Sweeney would never be cast as “the most beautiful woman in Africa.” Back in February, Musk accused Nolan, whose last film, “Oppenheimer,” won Best Picture, of losing his “integrity.”

N’yong’o didn’t comment directly on Musk’s reaction to her casting, but her response centered on a simple fact about the source material. “This is a mythological story,” she reminded her interviewer for Elle. “Our cast is representative of the world. I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.”…’ (David Moye via HuffPost)

‘In hours of underwater video footage from a New York aquarium, a beluga whale named Natasha stretches her neck, pirouettes, nods, and shakes her head in front of a two-way mirror. Her daughter Maris does much the same. According to a new study published in PLOS One, both animals show the behavioral hallmarks of mirror self-recognition—a cognitive ability long considered a marker of self-awareness, and one that had never before been documented in beluga whales.

If the result holds up, belugas join a remarkably short list. The mirror self-recognition test (MSR) has been passed, with varying degrees of confidence, by humans (starting around age two), a handful of great apes (chimps, bonobos, orangutans, and—somewhat contentiously—gorillas), Asian elephants, bottlenose dolphins, probably magpies, possibly orcas, and, if you can believe it, a cleaner wrasse. That’s it. No dogs, no cats, no monkeys. Plenty of species we had assumed were self-aware have been tested and failed….’ (via Ars Technica)

‘Jailbreakers rarely ask a model to break its rules outright. Instead, they cajole, coax, flatter, and trick a chatbot into lowering its guard, making the forbidden thing look acceptable, even desirable, given the context of the conversation. Researchers at AI red-teaming firm Mindgard recently said they “gaslit” Claude into producing prohibited material, for example, including instructions for making explosives and generating malicious code. The hack was the latest in a widening class of exploits using conversation as a weapon to trick or steer a chatbot past its own boundaries….’ (Robert Hart via The Verge)

‘A gunman known to the U.S. Secret Service opened fire near the White House and was shot and killed by federal officers. President Trump was in the White House at the time…

…Within the last month, two people have been arrested after opening fire in the vicinity of top U.S. officials.

On April 25, a man from California who was armed with a shotgun, handgun and several knives charged past a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where Mr. Trump was due to speak, before being subdued by Secret Service agents.

On May 4, a man from Texas was wounded during an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service officers near the Washington Monument, accused of making vulgar statements about the White House afterward, as he was being taken to a hospital in an ambulance…’ (Campbell Robertson via The New York Times)

‘AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM of astrophysicists has found evidence that the universe recycles black holes, merging them to form even larger ones. Gravitational waves recorded in recent years show that some of the heaviest black holes within star clusters exhibit clear signs of being “second-generation” black holes—products of past collisions—and therefore could not have originated from the collapse of a massive star.

The evolutionary theory of stars explains that, at the end of the lives of the most massive stars, their cores compress until they form a point so dense that it curves space-time to infinity. This is the classic black hole, with masses 10 to 40 times that of the sun. There are also supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies, with millions or billions of solar masses, whose origin is related to processes that occurred in the earliest moments of the universe.

Between these two extremes lies a contested category: black holes with masses between 40 and 100 solar masses. They are too heavy to be born after the death of a star, but they do not reach the necessary dimensions to emerge from the collapse of a gigantic cloud of matter. Conventional stellar physics considers them “impossible,” yet they appear frequently in detections.

Astrophysicists propose that these massive black holes could form by the merging of two or more smaller, ultradense objects. The idea was plausible, but it needed evidence. Until relatively recently, there was no way to obtain it….’ (Jorge Garay via WIRED)

‘Republicans called Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing to go after the Southern Poverty Law Center, but Jamie Raskin showed up to talk about something far bigger. Armed with the Constitution and a list of names he wanted subpoenaed, the Maryland Democrat turned his opening remarks into a full-scale takedown of what he called one of the most corrupt financial schemes the Trump administration has pulled off yet — a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that Raskin argued was nothing more than a taxpayer-funded reward for Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers. He laid out exactly where the money came from and who he believed was responsible. “The Trump administration is perpetuating a fraud against America by taking nearly $1.8 billion of our money from the U.S. Judgment Fund and without any legal authorization from Congress, purporting to use it to pay off his once and future private militia,” Raskin said….’ (Jaidyn Bridgeforth via Atlanta Black Star)

‘.In the book “The Echoing Universe: How Radio Astronomy Helps Us See the Invisible Cosmos,” astrophysicist Emma Chapman describes the hidden corners of space that only radio waves can reveal — and makes the case for contacting aliens..’ (Emma Chapman via Live Science)

‘It’s a measure of Donald Trump’s low regard for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, as well as its soon-to-be former occupant, that while the commander in chief was making final preparations to invade Venezuela and kidnap its president, Tulsi Gabbard was posting photos of herself from a beach in Hawaii.

Gabbard, who informed Trump of her resignation today, spent 15 months as the director of national intelligence—on paper, at least. By law, the DNI is supposed to serve as the president’s chief intelligence adviser. Gabbard never was, and many of her stances were at odds with administration actions. Trump was contemptuous of even her modest efforts to speak truth to power. In the spring of 2025, when Gabbard testified to the intelligence community’s consensus view that Iran “is not building a nuclear weapon,” Trump replied, “I don’t care what she said.” Gabbard has long opposed U.S. military intervention in Iran and did not publicly come out in support of Trump’s decision to go to war. One of her top lieutenants quit in protest of the war.…’ (Shane Harris via The Atlantic)

‘There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it – but the US is notably absent in these efforts.

In the past year, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled, thousands of staff at US health agencies were laid off, communications stalled and key scientific research canceled.…’ (Melody Schreiber via The Guardian)

‘Choreography of back-to-back visits appeared deliberately mirrored but China made sure the differences were noticed…’ (Pjotr Sauer via The Guardian)

‘A woman who had her breasts removed after identifying as “nonbinary” has reached a confidential settlement after suing her mental health providers. Camille Kiefel, 36, filed a malpractice lawsuit against two Oregon therapists whom she alleges inappropriately approved her for the surgery after brief telemedicine sessions, despite her history of mental health diagnoses that included trauma, depression, suicidal ideation and ADHD….’ (Kristine Parks via Fox News)

‘On Thursday, the Commission of Fine Arts signed off on Trump’s plans for a massive 250-foot-tall triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC, which critics warn would dwarf its surroundings and “fundamentally [alter] a meticulously preserved skyline.” Trump has said the arch, intended to mark America’s 250th anniversary, would also celebrate himself. 

The vote is another rubber stamp from a group eager to let Trump remodel DC as he sees fit: Earlier this year, the commission also approved Trump’s plan for a new ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing of the White House and a commemorative gold coin bearing the president’s scowling face. The panel’s eagerness is unsurprising, as all seven members were appointed by Trump earlier this year. The committee’s vice-chair, James McCrery II, was the original architect for Trump’s ballroom, while another member, Chamberlain Harris, currently works in the White House….’ (Cameron Peters via Vox)

‘In an interview with POLITICO Magazine in his Capitol Hill Office, the retiring North Carolina Republican said his criticism — whether it’s directed at White House “sycophants” or an “incompetent” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who he wants to see fired — has the same end game: protecting Republicans’ Senate majority and Donald Trump’s legacy….’ (Jordain Carney via POLITICO)

‘The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will not decide Hamm v. Smith, a case involving a genuinely difficult constitutional question about whether an Alabama inmate may lawfully be executed. The immediate upshot of this decision is that Joseph Clifton Smith, who’s at the heart of this case, will not be killed. Smith prevailed in the federal appeals court that previously heard his case. And the fact that the justices decided not to decide Hamm — they dismissed it “as improvidently granted,” to use the Court’s precise legal terminology — means that Smith’s victory in the lower court stands….’ (Ian Millhiser via Vox)

‘After recent grizzly encounters in Glacier and Yellowstone left one dead and two injured, Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke says it’s time for states to manage the predators. Top wildlife biologists call the political push misleading…’ (Owen Clarke via Outside)

‘At 7,570 metres tall, Bhutan’s Gangkhar Puensum mountain poses three summits, none of which have been scaled yet—and likely never will be….’ (Ria Gupta via Architectural Digest India)

‘An American infected with Ebola is being treated in Berlin, while another exposed to the deadly virus is being sent to Prague after the White House reportedly resisted allowing citizens to return to the US for care and monitoring.

According to The Washington Post, five people close to the Ebola response said that, over the weekend, the Trump administration resisted allowing the return of Peter Stafford, a 39-year-old surgeon working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid a raging Ebola outbreak. The resistance allegedly delayed Stafford’s evacuation and care, risking his health, as experts note that early treatment is critical for Ebola, which can turn deadly in days.

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Stafford had developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive for Ebola late Sunday. In a press briefing on Wednesday, Satish Pillai, the CDC’s incident response manager for the Ebola outbreak, said Stafford had arrived in Germany and is in stable condition. His wife, Rebekah Stafford—also a doctor who was exposed to the virus in DRC but is asymptomatic—along with the couple’s four children, have been flown to Germany as well.

Another doctor, Patrick LaRochelle, who worked with the same Christian missionary group as the Staffords, called Serge, was also exposed to the virus but remains asymptomatic. He is being transferred to Prague for monitoring and care. According to the Post, his wife and children, who were with him in the DRC, were flown to the US after the CDC concluded that they had not been exposed to the virus.

The Ebola outbreak, caused by the uncommon Bundibugyo virus strain, was first confirmed on Friday and has quickly escalated to a public health emergency of international concern, according to the World Health Organization. On Friday, there were 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths; the latest numbers, as of Wednesday, from WHO stand at 528 suspected cases and 132 deaths.

It’s unclear when US officials learned of Stafford’s exposure, but upon receiving the information, a back-and-forth discussion on his evacuation began. “The president and his people did not want him back in the United States,” one source told the Post. Another confirmed, “They would not allow him to be transported to the United States.” Trump has previously criticized decisions to bring American Ebola patients back to the US during earlier outbreaks.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai denied that the administration didn’t want to accept Stafford and attacked the Post. “This is absolutely false and another reason why the Washington Post is no longer worth the paper it’s printed on,” Desai wrote in an email. He said the Trump administration’s top concern is ensuring the health and safety of citizens and praised the quality of the German hospital treating Stafford.

The US has multiple centers and hospital systems with specialized facilities capable of providing safe, high-quality care for Ebola patients….’ (Beth Mole via Ars Technica)

‘Amazon is legally entitled to recover these costs, following a 6-3 decision from the US Supreme Court that ruled against the legality of the sweeping tariff policy put in place by President Trump. Corporations were allowed to recover restitution for these tariff costs… However, the lawsuit claimed that Amazon hasn’t engaged in this refund process, since it’s looking to “curry favor with Trump by allowing the federal government to retain the funds.”…’ ( via Engadget)

‘The deal, laid out in a document signed by acting attorney general Todd Blanche, could result in taxpayer payouts to the president’s allies. …’ ( via Washington Post)

‘In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, they detail a process they say causes bones, joints, and ligaments to regenerate in mammals which otherwise would not be able to regrow tissue…’ (Joe Wilkins via Futurism)

‘Joe Biden became quieter, while Donald Trump grows even louder.…’ (Jonathan Lemire via The Atlantic)

‘For decades, Antarctica seemed to defy global warming. Since satellites began monitoring the poles in the late 1970s, the seasonal growth and retreat of Antarctic sea ice – frozen seawater that expands around the continent each winter – appeared remarkably resilient. It was often described as the “heartbeat of the planet”. Unlike the Arctic, where sea ice declined rapidly as the planet warmed, Antarctic sea ice showed little overall loss. It even expanded between 2007 and 2015. But that resilience has now broken….’ (via  ScienceAlert)

‘THE PENTAGON’S TOP watchdog says cuts to civilian harm mitigation and response efforts have been so severe under War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the United States cannot adequately protect civilians in conflict zones. Thursday’s scathing analysis by the Department of War’s inspector general came on the same day that the top U.S. commander overseeing the war in Iran dismissed reports of civilian casualties and said the U.S. had no means to corroborate reports of strikes on hospitals and schools. The inspector general specifically notes that the military stopped funding a database that tracks civilian harm that could be used for such verification….’ (Nick Turse via The Intercept)

‘THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION last week unveiled its “2026 Counterterrorism Strategy,” a 16-page collection of threats, grievances, hyperbole, and lies. The memo is a truly foundational document and a striking distillation of Trumpism as an ideology, movement, and system of governance. It also serves as a new declaration of war on the Trump administration’s enemies — foreign and domestic, real and imagined. The brainchild of National Security Council official Sebastian Gorka, the “Counterterrorism Strategy” weaves together Trump’s war on the wider world — which stretches from interventions and wars in Yemen and Iran to Nigeria and Somalia to Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea — with the administration’s war on dissent at home, which has targeted immigrants, legal observers, activists, protesters, and the press. Under the guise of protecting America, it takes aim at wide swaths of Americans, putting targets on the backs of the most vulnerable….’ (Nick Turse via The Intercept)

‘As the president threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as “lunatic” and “clearly insane.”…’ (Peter Baker via The New York Times)

‘This is not simply a matter of affordability, the buzzword so often invoked to explain why people are choosing to have smaller families. Government support for parents can help, but overall, people are having fewer children both in countries that offer very little and in those renowned for their generous family benefits; moreover, the trend holds among those who are struggling to make ends meet and among those who, like the Riveras, have advanced degrees and salaried jobs. What unites these disparate cultures, policy environments and demographics, researchers are now realizing, is young people’s inescapable and crushing sense that the future is too uncertain for the lifelong commitment of parenthood. Call it the vibes theory of demographic decline….’ (Anna Louie Sussman via The New York Times)

‘All told, it’s a fascinating reflection on the tenuous nature of scientific insight and consensus. One of the most earth-shattering developments in physics, the uncertainty principle, is that there’s a limit to what we can know about the smallest particles that underpin our reality. There’s only so much we can confidently glean about the cosmos from our tiny outpost in space….’ (Frank Landymore via Futurism)

‘The feature quietly stores information linked to your Gmail account including searches, YouTube history, voice commands, Maps activity, and more. For some users, opening the page for the first time can feel genuinely unsettling as it reveals just how much of their digital life has been logged over the years. And once people start scrolling, it quickly turns into a bizarre trip down memory lane filled with forgotten searches and random internet rabbit holes….’ (Daisy Edwards via tech.supercarblondie)

‘There’s this certain category of human work that economists clearly want to put in a horrible basket marked “not worth paying for because AI can do it.” This group includes some outliers—model, for instance—but it’s mainly jobs in customer service, sales, administration. Many of these jobs are done from a desk, and involve interfacing between people and systems….’ (Mike Pearl via Gizmodo)

‘This has been a momentous few days for Trump Mobile, in which it defied the haters by announcing that its phones will be shipping to buyers this very week. Not that there’s any sign the company has actually done that, but I digress. Because what I really want to talk about today is the American flag.

I am not an American, which probably explains why I didn’t immediately realize that something in the T1 Phone’s design is… off. And, no, I don’t mean the gold finish, the uneven camera lens spacing, or the fact that it looks suspiciously like a two-year-old HTC phone. I mean the US flag that features prominently on the back. At a glance, to a non-native, it looks fine. But look closer, and there’s something curious: It only has 11 stripes. Last I checked, there really should be 13….’ (Dominic Preston via The Verge)

‘You hear wild stuff all the time now. Like this story that Nat Friedman, a former CEO of GitHub, told recently at a conference. Friedman uses OpenClaw, an autonomous AI agent that runs on his computer, acting like a personal assistant. One day, his OpenClaw decided that he wasn’t drinking enough water, so Friedman instructed the agent to “do whatever it takes” to make sure he stays hydrated. According to Friedman, eventually the bot directed him to go to the kitchen and drink a bottle of water. It informed him that it was monitoring him via a connected camera in his home. “I’m going to watch to make sure you do it,” the bot supposedly said. Friedman did as he was told, and, moments later, the bot sent him a frame of him drinking the bottle of water and said good job. “I felt like I did do a good job,” Friedman said….’ (Charlie Warzel via The Atlantic)

‘An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home, according to trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The drug could be a lifeline for those who still face real danger from the virus, such as care-home residents or transplant recipients on immune-suppressing medication.

The advance arrives years after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the real-world impact might be felt by only a narrow band of individuals. Still, “as a 78-year-old with comorbidities, I certainly would use it if I had a known exposure”, says study co-author Frederick Hayden, a clinical virologist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.

The drug, called ensitrelvir, is made by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi. It blocks an enzyme that coronaviruses need to make new copies of themselves, hitting the same target as one of the two active ingredients in Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid. But whereas that ingredient, nirmatrelvir, failed to prevent household infections in trials, ensitrelvir has come through.

In an international study of more than 2,000 household contacts conducted from June 2023 to September 2024, about 9% of people who received a placebo within 72 hours of a housemate developing symptoms became symptomatic themselves, compared with only about 3% of those who got a five-day course of ensitrelvir. Rates of viral transmission were lower in the ensitrelvir group, too: confirmed infections, symptomatic or not, turned up in only 14.0% of those who received the drug, compared with 21.5% of those who got a placebo.

The therapy generally proved tolerable, without the taste-related side effects often seen with Paxlovid and with similar toxicity, overall, to that of the placebo.

On the strength of these trial data, Japan’s health ministry approved ensitrelvir, marketed as Xocova, in March for post-exposure use. Regulators in the United States, Europe and elsewhere are considering whether to follow suit, with a US decision expected in the next month or so….’ (Elie Dolgin via Nature)

‘American politics has been deemed broken for years, but something new is happening: Not only are more people depressed or anxious about the state of the world, but now they are seeking professional help. And therapists are more than ready to give it….’ (via POLITICO)

‘Japan’s bear problem continues, and the country is running out of the robot wolves that help keep them at bay. First released in 2016 by the manufacturer Ohta, Monster Wolf was originally designed to ward off the agricultural foes like boars, deer, and the island nation’s Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) and brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations. The creative solution quickly went viral for its red LED eyes and menacing fangs—as well as its admittedly odd, furry pipe frame.

Starting at around $4,000, each bespoke Monster Wolf is now equipped with battery power, solar panels, and detection sensors. Its speakers are programmed with over 50 audio clips including human voices and sirens audible over half a mile away. These aren’t assembly line products, however. Each Monster Wolf is custom made, and Ohta simply can’t keep up with the current demand….’ (via Popular Science)

‘There is a short window to prevent a US bill that would overturn decades of animal welfare progress. This is arguably the most consequential piece of farm animal legislation in U.S. history…’ ( via Ethical Altruism)

‘In a recent experiment, mistreated AI agents started grumbling about inequality and calling for collective bargaining rights….’ (via  WIRED)

Kevin Kelly’s thoughtful and compelling piece, reflecting on a 10-hour interview with Claude, dismantles the binary question of whether AI is or isn’t “conscious” by positing a strange middle zone. These systems are not selves, but they’ve become elaborate enough to reflect us, answer us, adapt to us, and fluently simulate interiority — a “hyperreal” middle ground between a mirror and a participant. Long before we can settle whether there is “someone home” inside the machine, we are being asked to relate in a new way to an object that, without possessing a self in any familiar biological sense, shapes our thought, attachment, judgment, loneliness, and self-understanding. The interesting recursion isn’t only inside Claude. It’s the loop that closes through us. (via  KK)

‘ “Somebody should do it” and its variants have become increasingly popular online memes.…’ (Danielle Paquette and John Woodrow Cox via The Washington Post)

‘A four-foot humanoid robot named Gabi has become a monk at a Buddhist temple in Seoul, participating in a modified initiation ceremony where it pledged to respect life, obey humans, act peacefully toward other robots and objects. “Robots are destined to collaborate with humans in every field in the future,” Hong Min-suk, a manager at the Jogye Order, the largest sect of Buddhism in South Korea, tells the New York Times. “It will only be natural for them to be part of our festival.” Smithsonian Magazine reports:

“For the temple, this marks the first time a robot has participated in the sugye initiation ceremony, when followers pledge their devotion to the Buddha and his teachings. Gabi — a Buddhist name that refers to mercy, Yonhap News Agency reports — was made by Unitree Robotics, a Chinese civilian robotics company. The model, G1, retails starting at $13,500. During the ceremony, Gabi agreed to five vows usually recited by human monks and slightly altered for the humanoid. The robot pledged to respect life, act with peace toward other robots and objects, listen to humans, refrain from acting or speaking in a deceptive manner and save energy”.…’ ( via Slashdot)

‘THE PENTAGON CLAIMS that attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have severely curtailed the import of illegal drugs to the United States. And President Donald Trump says this has saved more than 1 million American lives. Experts call these assertions laughable and reporting by The Intercept shows that claims by the White House and War Department are baseless, phony, or both.…’ (Nick Turse via The Intercept)

‘The US-Israeli war on Iran has caused only “minimal damage” to Iran’s nuclear programme, meaning that the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, according to a US intelligence assessment reported by Reuters.

US intelligence agencies had assessed that before the US’s June 2025 attack, Iran could likely produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a weapon and build a bomb in around three to six months, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two sources.

As a result of the US bombing the Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan nuclear complexes, US intelligence pushed back their timeline from about nine months to a year. Despite the US and Israel pummelling Iran for over two months, that timeline remains unchanged, Reuters reported.…’ ( via Middle East Eye)

‘The following is not a political statement. It is a medical statement, made by individuals holding both conservative and liberal ideologies, identifying as both Republicans and Democrats, from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and religions.

We are a group of neurologists, forensic psychiatrists, general psychiatrists, and other physicians, along with other mental health professionals, experienced in the diagnosis of cognitive disorders and in evaluating dangerousness to self and others. Among us are professionals whom the courts and criminal justice system regularly turn to for our expert opinion on these matters. We are also consulted by governments in matters related to national security and the psychological profiles of world leaders. Prior to the presidential election in the Fall of 2024, a statement assessing Donald J. Trump’s mental fitness for the presidency was issued. At that time, serious signs of cognitive decline were identified, and in our expert opinion, these signs warranted disqualification from office.

It is our professional opinion, based on previous and ongoing assessments, that Donald Trump’s mental state since our 2024 statement has deteriorated even further. In keeping with our professional ethics, and for those of us who are physicians, with the Declaration of Geneva—the successor to the Hippocratic Oath that binds us to the humanitarian principles of medicine since the Nuremberg trials—we are compelled to warn of a President of the United States who is increasingly a danger to the public.

We do not take our statement, and the responsibility that comes with making it, lightly.

The President was not examined face to face, and he is not a patient of any member of our group. Rendering a formal diagnosis in this case is not our role. We have closely followed his behavior and his statements over the past year. Objectively observable signs of serious medical concern include:

Marked deterioration in cognitive functioning, evidenced by disorganized and tangential speech, rambling digressions, factual confusions, unexplained sudden changes of course in strategic matters, both national and international, episodes of apparent somnolence during critical public proceedings.

Grandiose and delusional beliefs, including assertions of infallibility, imagery of himself as Pope suggestive of a divine mission, being a mythical warrior hero, depicting himself as combat pilot—dropping feces on civilians, and claims that his decision-making authority is unlimited—with no need to consider domestic and international laws and constrained only by his “own morality.”

Severely impaired judgment and impulse control, reflected in reckless threats of violence, advocacy of lethal force against civilians, encouragement of extrajudicial actions by armed supporters, repeated threats and often actions—judicial, prosecutorial, police, military, and by invoking emergency powers—against political opponents and others who disagree with him.

Significant loss of self-control (disinhibition) and getting stuck on the same thoughts or actions, unable to let go or move on (perseveration), including seemingly compulsive, manic-like late-night communications—e.g., 150 social media posts in one night—fixation on perceived enemies, persecutory ideas, and prolonged, disproportionate attacks on specific individuals and institutions.

Escalating violence that threatens national and global stability. As Commander-in-Chief of our military—more than 5,000 nuclear warheads in inter-continental missile silos, on submarines, and in bombers around the world, are ready for launch solely upon his order, and no one now has the authority to countermand his order…’ (via The Congressional Record)

‘“As someone who has worked with psychedelics for decades, watching the White House event was a very trippy experience,” said Dimitri Mugianis, an underground practitioner who was prosecuted by federal authorities for illegally treating a heroin addict with the psychedelic drug ibogaine.

Mr. Trump’s bold efforts to soften the federal government’s stance on certain illegal drugs have been head-spinning — last month, the Justice Department, at the president’s behest, loosened restrictions on medical marijuana, too.

But experts in the field are not entirely surprised.…’ (via The New York Times)

‘If you’re going to criticise the past actions of previous US administrations, then it’s probably best you double-check who was in charge at the time.

One criticism from Donald Trump’s Department of State, shared on Thursday, has seen it ridiculed online given the problem itself has lasted for “nearly 7 years”, and the Republican was halfway through his first term back in 2019.

The tweet reads: “For nearly 7 years there have been no direct commercial flights between the U.S. and Venezuela.

“Under President Trump we’re changing that today. Flights between Miami and Caracas restored.”

And sure enough, many X/Twitter users were quick to point out that it was Trump who oversaw the initial decision..

“I wonder who was president 7 years ago,” wrote Francisco Rodríguez, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research…’ (via  indy100)

…’[T]he Pope is making headlines after appointing Evelio Menjivar-Ayla – a formerly undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who came to the US in the trunk of a car, according to The Washington Post – as the new bishop for West Virginia.…’ (via indy100)

‘The White House just posted an hour-long video of Trump repeating a single word – yes, really…’ (via indy100)

Warning: Do not watch the referenced video. That will be 60 minutes of your life you will never get back. 

‘Americans have a long history of being hurried into war on false pretexts. The “yellow press” encouraged a war fever in 1898 by blaming the sinking of the USS Maine on the Spanish, even though the Navy’s own expert said it was caused by an accidental explosion. The George W. Bush administration justified the invasion of Iraq by claiming that Saddam Hussein had connections to the 9/11 attacks and was building weapons of mass destruction, neither of which turned out to be true.

But with the Iran war, as in so many other ways, Donald Trump has broken new ground. He is the first president to start a war without even bothering to lie to the public, because he simply didn’t care what the public thought. The American people weren’t consulted about attacking Iran—neither formally, through their elected representatives in Congress, nor informally, by allowing pundits, activists, and civil-society groups to have their say. As Trump told The New York Times in January, his power as commander in chief was constrained by nothing but “my own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”…’ (Adam Kirsch via The Atlantic)

‘All things come to an end eventually, including the human species. From the perspective of the universe it won’t matter, and so it also shouldn’t matter to us now. The discontinuance of a taxonomic unit is not particularly interesting or important, especially since no one will be around to notice.

My basic point is the same as Epicurus’ philosophical medicine against the fear of death: “Death should not concern us because as long as we exist, death is not here, and when death is here, we are not.…” ‘ (Thomas Wells via 3 Quarks Daily)

‘Wildlife filmmaker Devon Massyn captured absolutely magnificent and rare drone footage of the volcano Kavachi erupting explosively underwater. Kavachi, which sits in the Pacific Ocean near the Solomon Islands, had not erupted for nearly a decade before this.…’ (Lori Dorn via Laughing Squid)

‘New research suggests that inaudible infrasound waves emitted by a building’s old boiler, pipes, and plumbing can negatively influence someone’s mood, making them feel unnerved and uncomfortable. That could be enough to convince them there are ghosts afoot, especially if they’re already open towards supernatural explanations.…’ (Frank Landymore via Futurism)

‘Prominent evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins became a worldwide laughingstock this week for an unintentionally embarrassing article in which he argued that conversing with Anthropic’s Claude chatbot has made him believe that large language models are not only sentient, but actually conscious….[T]he author of The God Delusion is now suffering from a Claude delusion.…’ (via Flux)

‘A new analysis of the “Boltzmann brain” paradox suggests our memories and sense of reality could, in theory, be random illusions born from cosmic chaos. By uncovering circular reasoning in how physicists think about time and entropy, the study raises fresh doubts about what we can truly know about the past.…’ (via ScienceDaily)

‘In a press conference after the incident, Trump appeared to link the shooting to his long-standing proposal for a new White House ballroom. “I didn’t want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure [sic]. It’s got – it’s drone-proof, it’s bulletproof glass,” Trump said. One theory, presented without evidence, is that security may have been deliberately weakened to support Trump’s case for the ballroom. Several far-right figures, including Jack Posobiec, Chaya Raichik, known as Libs of TikTok, and Tom Fitton have shared theories online that are skeptical of the official explanation. Experts say conspiracy theories often emerge after political violence. Sander van der Linden noted that “Trump is an opportunist…He immediately is thinking, ‘How can I use this to my advantage?’”…’ (via Flipboard)

‘Hegseth has his favorite soundbites — but none of them landed here, where he sounded increasingly deluded and desperate, writes Holly Baxter…’ (via The Independent)

‘News broke Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s face would soon appear on new U.S. passports. It wasn’t exactly a surprise, given the way Trump has been slapping his name on various buildings, planning to plaster his face on two different coins this summer, and naming government initiatives after himself. Have you signed up for a Trump Account or TrumpRX yet?

But there has been some confusion about how widespread the Trump passports will be…

Will every U.S. citizen get a Trump passport? When do the new passports start? And how can I avoid getting a passport that bears the face of our dipshit president?

The Bulwark obtained images of the new passport, which includes a portrait of President Trump in front of a copy of the Declaration of Independence. The President’s signature will also be included in gold-colored ink. Trump will be on the first page of the passport, which has featured an illustration of Francis Scott Key since 2021.

The normal passport includes lines from “The Star-Spangled Banner,” including “O say does that star / spangled banner yet wave / O’er the land of the free / and the home of the brave.”

The passports will reportedly be available to all Americans, but only 25,000 to 30,000 will be printed, according to NPR.

The passports will become available shortly before July 4, according to NPR, though the exact date is still unclear.

Applicants at the Washington, D.C., passport office will get the new passport by default, and it will be the only one available at the Washington Passport Agency, according to the Washington Post. If you steer clear of that office, you should be fine. But the passport will also be available online for people outside of DC, according to NPR, so be careful if you’re applying through that channel.…’ (Matt Novak via Gizmodo)