News ArticlesExcerpts of Key News Articles in Major Media
Note: Explore our full index to revealing excerpts of key major media news articles on dozens of engaging topics. And read excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.
If you don't want to know how easy it is for a canny individual - or a malicious state actor - to hack into the electronic voting technology used in the U.S., don't watch Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections. In this unnervingly persuasive HBO documentary, directors Simon Ardizzone, Russell Michaels and Sarah Teale marshal cyber-security experts, statisticians and lawmakers to expose cracks in the system that could easily allow hackers to affect voting results. The filmmakers' sources also include actual hackers, among them an individual who breached Alaska's voting system in 2016 just to see if he could. One of the central figures of Kill Chain is election-security expert Harri Hursti, who explains, with clarity, just how vulnerable American voting systems are. Although voting machines are supposed to be kept in secure facilities, Hursti found a widely used model for sale - on eBay. The vendor had hundreds of them. Hursti bought a few, using them to explain how easily their workings could be examined and breached. He also brought a selection of voting machines to Def Con, a three-day conference for hackers, and invited attendees to go at them; one expert quickly figured out how to shut down a machine remotely from a laptop. The U.S. voting system is, as several interviewees in Kill Chain put it, a bipartisan concern; still, as the documentary notes, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has blocked votes on the Secure Elections Act and four similar bipartisan bills.
Note: Hackers can easily breach electronic voting machines. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on elections corruption from reliable major media sources.
As China encourages people to return to work despite the coronavirus outbreak, it has begun a bold mass experiment in using data to regulate citizens’ lives — by requiring them to use software on their smartphones that dictates whether they should be quarantined or allowed into subways, malls and other public spaces. The system does more than decide in real time whether someone poses a contagion risk. It also appears to share information with the police, setting a template for new forms of automated social control that could persist long after the epidemic subsides. The Alipay Health Code, as China’s official news media has called the system, was first introduced in the eastern city of Hangzhou ... with the help of Ant Financial, a sister company of the e-commerce giant Alibaba. People in China sign up through Ant’s popular wallet app, Alipay, and are assigned a color code — green, yellow or red — that indicates their health status. The system is already in use in 200 cities and is being rolled out nationwide, Ant says. As soon as a user grants the software access to personal data, a piece of the program labeled “reportInfoAndLocationToPolice” sends the person’s location, city name and an identifying code number to a server. The software does not make clear to users its connection to the police. In the United States, it would be akin to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using apps from Amazon and Facebook to track the coronavirus, then quietly sharing user information with the local sheriff’s office.
Note: Learn in this revealing article how China is blacklisting certain citizens using this system and "banning them from any number of activities, including accessing financial markets or travelling by air or train, as the use of the government’s social credit system accelerates." Learn more about the serious risk of the Coronavirus increasing the surveillance state in this excellent article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on government corruption and the disappearance of privacy from reliable major media sources.
Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them. A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation. USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law. In a separate analysis, the Center for Public Integrity identified tens of thousands of bills with identical phrases, then traced the origins of that language. Model bills passed into law have ... limited access to abortion and restricted the rights of protesters. In all, these copycat bills amount to the nation’s largest, unreported special-interest campaign, driving agendas in every statehouse and touching nearly every area of public policy. USA TODAY found more than 4,000 bills benefiting industry were introduced nationwide during the eight years it reviewed. More than 80 of those bills limit the public's ability to sue corporations, including limiting class-action lawsuits, a plaintiff's ability to offer expert testimony, and cap punitive damages for corporate wrongdoing.
Note: For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.
54-year-old fisherman [Ganeshbhai Devjibhai Varidum] was on a trawler off the coast of the western Indian state of Gujarat. They had mistakenly caught a whale shark, the largest fish in the world. Up to 40 feet in length ... the whale shark is as long as a city bus. Twenty-five years ago, the giant animal would have been killed. But Varidum did something extraordinary: He cut the net, which would have cost him upwards of $2,500, to free the shark. "Watching it go free gave me peace of mind." Found in tropical waters in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, whale sharks ... are known as the sea's gentle giants. Their interactions with humans are peaceful and curious, but they face a number of manmade threats. Until the late 1990s, the shores of Gujarat were ground zero for whale shark hunting. Their fins, oil and even meat were lucrative commodities. "400 to 500 of these gentle giants were being killed every year in India," [says Vivek Menon, co-founder of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)]. In response, the Trust started a conservation program in 2002, and their first breakthrough came about ... thanks to [Hindu spiritual leader Morari Bapu]. When the WTI team told him about whale sharks there, he began urging his listeners to protect the fish in his sermons. The whale shark went from being nameless in the local language to becoming the "vhali," or beloved one. "Bapu made me realize that the whale shark is the largest fish in the sea but it never harms anyone," Ratilal Bamaniya, an elected leader of a fisher village on the Gujarat coast, says. "So why should we harm it? The whale shark is like my daughter. If she hurts, I hurt." In 2006, the forest department introduced a compensation scheme to pay fishers for net repairs after whale sharks have been released unharmed – a simple but vital recognition of the role fishing communities play in protecting whale sharks. To document these releases for compensation, WTI has distributed over 1,500 waterproof cameras to fishers, helping establish a shared data repository. More than compensation ... it seems fishers have come to be motivated by the respect and public attention that each rescue elicits.
Note: Don't miss the incredible pictures of whale sharks and their rescuers at the link above. Explore more positive stories like this on marine mammals.
Jeffrey Epstein appears to have been googling himself regularly. We see Epstein shoot off emails to associates, complaining that his digital footprint includes factual information about his crimes. Epstein regularly directed his gripes at Al Seckel, a fixer type who appears over and over in Epstein files and promises to bury news articles and other content that mentions his abuse. SEO consultants, contacts in the sciences, and even unrelated acquaintances helped to obscure Epstein's past. In October 2010, Seckel laid out an overview of the group's plan of attack to defend Epstein's reputation online. The situation, as Seckel described it, was that a search surfaced "over 75+ pages of derogatory material," and that someone would be "very hard pressed to find any â€positive' references." To "balance the only one-sided negative opinion that has been spread over a wide birth on the Internet," Seckel said, the team would need to flood the zone with content they can control, specifically pointing to spinning up websites with original content related to Epstein's connections to science and charities. A "Phillipine Crew" ... would spread flattering links around the web, and other tasks. Part of how Google decides which pages to rank highly in search results is by looking at whether other sites link to a page; Epstein's camp appears to have been trying to push down negative search results by securing valuable links from outside entities.
Note: Another email shows Al Seckel reporting to Jeffrey Epstein that they have successfully manipulated Google search results to bury negative news articles about Epstein, making it difficult to find information about him, even when searching terms like "pedophile." Read our latest in-depth Epstein files investigation, titled "Beyond Sex Trafficking–Zorro Ranch and a Darker Scientific Agenda." For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's crime ring and Big Tech.
Jeffrey Collins has watched 14 men draw their final breaths. Over 25 years at the Associated Press, the South Carolina-based journalist has repeatedly served as an observer inside the state's execution chamber, watching from feet away as prison officials kill men who were sentenced to capital punishment. South Carolina has recently kept him unusually busy, with seven back-to-back executions in 14 months. The state revived the death penalty last September after a 13-year pause caused by the decision of pharmaceutical makers to stop selling lethal injection drugs to the state. Officials acquired pentobarbital, a sedative, only after legislators passed a law shielding the identities of suppliers. That secrecy surrounding the execution process means the role of observers has never been more vital. Executions aren't filmed, making journalists' accounts the only impartial record of state-sponsored killings, their words often cited by lawyers and courts. "I don't think executions should be publicly broadcast, but I think they need to be videotaped," [said Collins]. "We don't get to see everything. With lethal injections, there could be problems if the needle isn't put in the vein correctly or the drugs are bad, but we don't get any look into either of those things. With firing squads ... the target could get placed poorly. But when the curtain opens, the target has already been placed, so we don't get to witness that either. The secrecy prevents the entire story from being told."
Note: Wrongful convictions and official misconduct have led to at least 93 innocent defendants being sentenced to death. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption.
Aliens arrived on Earth thousands of years ago and may STILL be hiding in secret bases thousands of feet below the oceans' surface, according to a respected congressman. The amazing declaration by Rep. Tim Burchett was based on the extraordinary number of UFO sightings recorded by U.S. Navy personnel near "five or six" unspecified deep-water sites around the globe. Those sightings have prompted "a lot of questions" focusing on whether secret alien bases are hidden at sea, according to Burchett, who is a member of the House Oversight Committee investigating USO (unidentified submerged objects) reports. "We have naval personnel telling me that we have sightings," notes Burchett. The underwater crafts "they're chasing are doing hundreds of miles an hour, and the best we've got is something that does maybe just a little bit under 40 miles an hour," he said. His stunning comments are only the latest to raise the specter of aliens hiding on Earth. As far back as Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage to the New World, sailors – and pilots in more recent times – have reported seeing mysterious crafts dramatically emerge from the oceans and soar into space. U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexandro Wiggins testified during a September 9 congressional hearing on UFOs that he was aboard the USS Jackson off the coast of Southern California in 2023 when a "self-luminous Tic Tac-shaped object emerged from the ocean before linking up with three other similar objects" right in front of him. "The orb then disappeared simultaneously with a high, synchronized, near-instantaneous acceleration," Wiggins testified.
Note: Did you know that 80% of our oceans remain unmapped and unexplored? Congressman Tim Burchett has stated that US Navy admirals have reported encounters with unidentified submerged objects (USOs) as large as a football field moving at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour underwater. If accurate, such performance would far exceed the capabilities of any known human-made submarine, which are limited by drag, pressure, and propulsion constraints in water. Don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang.
In 2001, the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) published a paper declaring that the antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil) was "generally well tolerated and effective" for adolescent depression. That conclusion was false. The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), knew from its own data that the drug failed to outperform placebo and carried a serious risk of suicidal behaviour. Instead of telling the truth, GSK hired a public-relations firm to ghostwrite the paper, enlisted academic co-authors who never saw the raw data, and used the publication to promote Paxil to doctors treating children. It became known as Study 329 – one of the most infamous cases of scientific fraud in modern psychiatry. The paper remained in circulation – cited hundreds of times, shaping prescribing habits, and legitimising a lie that cost young lives. The paper listed 22 authors – two were GSK employees, and most had never reviewed the raw data or disclosed their financial ties to the company. Once the article appeared in print, GSK's sales force distributed it to thousands of doctors as "proof" that Paxil worked in teens. Within three years, the company made more than a billion dollars from what it called the "adolescent market." In 2003, the FDA concluded: "There is currently no evidence that Paxil is effective in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder." In 2012, GSK pleaded guilty and paid a $3 billion settlement to resolve criminal and civil charges.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Pharma profiteering and mental health.
While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth obsesses over the supposed "softening" and "weakening" of American troops, the Pentagon is concealing the scale of a real threat to the lives of his military's active-duty members: a suicide crisis killing hundreds of members of the U.S. Air Force. Data The Intercept obtained via the Freedom of Information Act shows that of the 2,278 active-duty Air Force deaths between 2010 and 2023, 926 – about 41 percent – were suicides, overdoses, or preventable deaths from high-risk behavior in a decade when combat deaths were minimal. This is the first published detailed breakdown of Air Force suicide data. In 2022, the National Defense Authorization Act mandated the Defense Department to report suicides by year, career field, and duty status, but neither the department nor the Air Force complied. Congress has done little to enforce thorough reporting. From 2010 to 2023, active-duty maintainers had a suicide rate of 27.4 per 100,000 personnel, nearly twice the 14.2 per 100,000 among U.S. civilians – a 1.93 times higher risk. FOIA records show the most common methods were self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head and hanging. Other methods included sodium nitrite ingestion, helium inhalation, and carbon monoxide poisoning. [The dataset] shows a troubling pattern of preventable deaths that leaders at the senior officer level or above minimized or ignored, often claiming that releasing detailed suicide information would pose a risk to national security. Current and former service members described a fear of bullying, hazing, and professional retaliation for seeking mental health treatment.
Note: Read about the tragic traumas and suicides connected to military drone operators. A recent Pentagon study concluded that US soldiers are nine times more likely to die by suicide than they are in combat. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on mental health and military corruption.
A large chunk of the world's plant diversity lies safely tucked away underground for future generations. By the numbers, the Millennium Seed Bank holds over 2 billion seeds from over 40,000 species, collected by scientists and volunteers from 279 organizations spanning over 100 countries. It's likely the largest seed vault on Earth, with the other contender being located on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Located at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew facility in Wakehurst, seeds from all over the world are carefully cleaned, dried, and stored in walk-in freezers at -20°C, or about -4°F. For 25 years, the work has been carried out by experts who have developed the skills not only to store the seeds, but also to wake them up again, often using bespoke protocols for seed germination. "Within species there is incredible genetic diversity, which protects against disease, climate change and other threats," Dale Sanders, biologist and former director of the John Innes Centre in Norwich, told AP. "Maintaining that diversity is essential if we want to preserve the diversity of life itself." For all the archiving and record keeping and preservation, the MSB is hardly just a storehouse. To the contrary, it's always growing something: funds for ecosystem restoration or botanical research, young scientists looking to begin a career in plant conservation, or plans to restore existing ecosystems by leveraging the vault's vast reserves.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth.
When Mount Saint Helens in southwestern Washington erupted on the morning of May 18, 1980, the stratovolcano spewed a plume of debris high into the earth's atmosphere and spread ash to at least eleven nearby states. But despite the appearance of a mountain-side extinction event, life was already regenerating. Just 10 days after the eruption, the geomorphologist Fredrick Swanson surveyed one of the lahars with colleagues and noticed something intriguing. In the rubble, fine, filament-like threads had attached themselves to some of the smaller pebbles and stones cast out of the volcano's center. What Swanson was witnessing was the phenomenon of "phoenicoid fungi," aptly named in a nod to the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes. Fungal organisms such as these are often the first responders to blast zones and wildfire burn areas where the decomposing landscape serves as a smorgasbord for their biological needs. The fungi used for environmental clean-up come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Oyster mushrooms ... can break down petroleum and hydrocarbons, putting them top of the list when it comes to cleaning up deadly oil spills. A 2023 study conducted in Massachusetts, commissioned by MassDOT, found that there could be benefits to integrating mycelium into the state's pre-existing stormwater management infrastructure to serve as a filtration system to improve water quality.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this in on technology for good and healing the Earth.
Jeffrey Epstein was a very wealthy man, but exactly how wealthy and where that money came from remains shrouded in mystery. Newly unearthed emails last week shone light on Epstein's role as freelance client development officer, acting as a channel between political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence. Figures in Epstein's network of billionaires, politicians, celebrities, royalty and intellectuals were assembled into schemes of influence. The spheres of influence Epstein created, emails showed, relied simultaneously on access and gifts Between his collection of lavish homes in New York, Palm Beach and Paris, two private Caribbean islands, two jets and helicopter, Epstein held nearly $380m in cash and investments, according to his estate. That wealth arrived suddenly. Until the end of the 90s, Epstein was living in a two-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side close to the river. It was only when Maxwell arrived from London that his lifestyle was dramatically elevated. Epstein moved to a townhouse on 68th Street and later to a 28,000-sq-ft mansion on 71st Street, later transferred to him by Wexner in 2011. Steven Hoffenberg, a former business partner of Epstein convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, claimed that Maxwell's father, the disgraced press baron Robert Maxwell, introduced his daughter to Epstein in the late 1980s. A 2022 Miami Herald exposé showed complex Maxwell family transactions passing through companies in Jersey, the British Virgin Islands and Panama that it called "a decades-long modus operandi of financial deception".
Note: There is significant evidence suggesting that Robert Maxwell was a superspy for Mossad, Israel's intelligence and covert operations unit. US attorney Alexander Acosta was once told Epstein "belonged to intelligence, and to leave it alone." Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.
By law, the Central Intelligence Agency isn't allowed to operate domestically in the United States. But ... going back to its earliest years, the agency has, in fact, interfered in homeland affairs to combat dissident movements (historically, from the Left), to defend its institutional prerogatives – and, increasingly, to recruit assets among the financial elite. Two former CIA officers and one former intelligence official told me that the [CIA's National Resources Division] is conspicuously absent from the Epstein debate. This, even as the NR must have conducted interviews with the man going back decades. The NR should also have maintained records of those conversations, according to all three officials. Under Attorney General Guideline 12333, intelligence officers, including those serving in the NR, are required to report criminal wrongdoing to the Department of Justice during the course of their investigations. But over scotch and soda on the 50th floor, why would an officer ask, and an executive tell, anything other than what both parties want to hear? "It is inconceivable given Jeffrey Epstein's travel record and associations that he was not approached by the NR at some point before his death," one former CIA officer said. "It would have left the New York NR division in the lurch not to have contacted him." And if that's the case, there should be a paper trail. "Every walk-in, every contact, every handling, every meeting, every termination – you are supposed to document it."
Note: This article exposes the CIA's hidden entanglement with Wall Street, revealing that officers in its National Resources Division not only mingled with top bankers and hedge-fund managers but even authorized them to collect private paychecks while on the CIA payroll, blurring the line between national security and corporate profit and creating a secret web of influence that Epstein was almost certainly a part of. US attorney Alexander Acosta was once told Epstein "belonged to intelligence, and to leave it alone." Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.
Describing toxicity as "the most underrated threat facing humanity", a new report has warned that the "contamination of humans is endemic" and that the risks to planetary and human health are "widely underestimated", with the impact of pesticide use on cancer rates potentially rivalling that of smoking. More than 3,600 synthetic chemicals from food contact materials, such as packaging and pesticides, are present within human bodies globally, the report revealed, 80 of which are feared to be especially dangerous. Chemicals known as Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) were found in almost everyone tested, with 14 per cent of European teenagers having blood levels high enough to pose serious health risks. Among the shocking findings is the link between pesticide use and leukaemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and bladder, colon and liver cancer – including suggestions that prenatal pesticide exposure increases the odds of childhood leukaemia and lymphoma by more than 50 per cent. Evidence was also gathered showing that synthetic chemicals humans are exposed to have contributed to a global decline in sperm counts. The report outlines "strong" causal and correlational links between toxicity and a variety of severe human health conditions, including cancer, obesity, Alzheimer's, pregnancy complications, ADHD, fertility issues, heart conditions, and respiratory ailments.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.
They've been preparing every Tuesday for the past four months, learning to belt out favorites like "Singin' in the Rain" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Those attending their first Giving Voice concert may not know what to expect–it is a dementia-friendly choir, meaning many of the participants have some form of dementia and are joined onstage by caregivers and loved ones. Giving Voice, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people in all stages of memory loss, was founded in 2014 with an initial chorus of 35 members. There are now more than 70 "memory choirs" throughout the world that use Giving Voice's model as the foundation for their programs–and a slew of similar dementia-friendly choirs and bands, including Music Mends Minds, AlzheimHER's Chorus, and The Unforgettables Chorus. The premise of these memory choirs is simple but powerful: Making music is not just a feel-good community activity; it's also a powerful weapon to help preserve memories and enhance brain function. Over 55 million people worldwide are believed to be living with dementia. The success of memory choirs [raises] scientific questions about whether music therapy can rewire the brain in addition to improving mood and fostering community. Borna Bonakdarpour, a behavioral neurologist ... is on a quest to show that social singing can help address some of the underlying causes of the disease, such as decreased mental stimulation, isolation, and inactivity.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the power of art.
Matthew Brown, who claims the Pentagon has a secret program to collect footage of UFOs, is the first of several whistleblowers who will soon come forward to release new information about unexplained technology, podcaster and journalist Jeremy Corbell says. Brown, a former national security professional, appeared this week on Corbell and George Knapp's "Weaponized" podcast to say the Defense Department has covertly amassed an archive of UFO videos and pictures from military sources under a program called "Immaculate Constellation." Secure government servers purportedly contain UFO images and lengthy clips the public has not seen. Brown says the objects he saw in the videos aren't necessarily extraterrestrial or nonhuman, but he described them as "exotic and unexplainable" and beyond conventional technology. "We are talking thousands of videos and photos ... that the American public hasn't seen of these advanced craft we call UAP that are of unknown origin," Corbell said. Corbell said he hopes Brown will be allowed to testify before Congress about what he discovered. In the meantime, the podcaster said, he and Knapp have already interviewed several other whistleblowers who have new information about the craft. "We have already recorded with other firsthand whistleblowers that we have yet to release. So, I can promise you, people are coming forward, an army of people are coming forward," he said.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on UFOs. Then explore the comprehensive resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Andre Daigle, 27, went missing on June 9, 1987, after a night of drinks and pool with friends, following which, the New Orleans resident was never seen alive again. Four days later, Andre's sister Elise, who lived out in California, went to psychic Rosemarie Kerr of Cypress with her brother's photo, whose body and killers were found 13 days later thanks to the clairvoyant. In researching the validity of psychics in police work, Euro Weekly News came across a highly surprising and unexpected 5-page US DoJ report published in 1993 entitled "Psychics and Police Work." "The usefulness of psychics in police investigations is controversial, but psychics have long been and will undoubtedly continue to be involved in unsolved criminal investigations," it reads. The Department of Justice document compares the work of psychics and detectives, saying "both base their work on intuition to some extent, and then they specifically mention one psychic who they say helped police in thousands of cases." In an August 2000 CIA document entitled "Use of Psychics in Law Enforcement," the US intelligence agency acknowledged that psychics have been helpful to police in many cases and outlined some guidelines on when and how to deal with them. "Psychics have provided information that was helpful to law enforcement, contributing to the successful resolution of cases," the CIA confirms. "Using psychics can be legitimate when traditional methods fail."
Note: Explore our resources on remote viewing programs. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on the mysterious nature of reality.
Recently declassified CIA documents revealed a strange and disturbing history of covert operations that veered into the surreal. One of the most unusual plans, dating back to the 1950s, involved airdropping extra-large condoms labelled "small" or "medium" over Soviet territories to intimidate enemy soldiers and lower morale. In another covert attempt at psychological warfare, the CIA in 2005 commissioned GI Joe creator Donald Levine to design an Osama Bin Laden action figure with a face that would peel off in sunlight to reveal a demonic visage. Only three prototypes were ever made. Among the most notorious CIA initiatives was Project MKUltra, launched in 1953, which aimed to explore mind control through 149 secret experiments. Some of these were conducted without subjects' consent. In one extreme case, a Kentucky patient was allegedly given LSD for 179 consecutive days. Another experiment involved hypnotising women to commit acts of violence, with no memory of the events afterwards. Most MKUltra files were destroyed in 1973, but the surviving records paint a grim picture of unethical and at times criminal behaviour. One of the CIA's most controversial programmes was Operation Paperclip, launched after World War II. It brought over 1,600 former Nazi scientists – including SS officers – into the United States. Figures like Wernher von Braun and Kurt Debus were instrumental in the US space programme, despite their Nazi affiliations.
Note: Learn more about the MKUltra Program in our comprehensive Military-Intelligence Corruption Information Center. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption.
Believing that a wallet will be returned if dropped in public is one of the most important indicators of well being and happiness. In fact, it's 7 times more impactful that doubling your income, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 just released this week. Jeffrey Sachs conceived of the report that would measure wellness in 2012 and Gallup began interviewing people in 150 countries, and compiling those comparisons every year. While analyzing the results for 2024, the researchers found that belief in the kindness of others is much more closely tied to peoples' happiness than previously thought. For instance, evidence across the world from the perceived–and actual–return of lost wallets shows that people are much too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities compared to the reality. The actual rates of wallet return are around twice as high as people expect. Believing that others are willing to return your lost wallet is shown to be a strong predictor of population happiness–and the Nordic nations once again top the ranking of the world's happiest countries. They also rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets. "Human happiness is driven by our relationships with others," said Lara Aknin, a professor of social psychology and one of the report's editors. "Investing in positive social connections and engaging in benevolent actions are both matched by greater happiness."
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division.
Five years ago, at the urging of federal officials, much of the United States locked down to stop the spread of COVID – a decision that, over time, polarized the country and changed the relationship between many Americans and their government. Now, two prominent political scientists are making the case that there's no clear evidence that those lockdowns saved lives and that it's time for a national reckoning about the decision-making that led to those lockdowns in the first place. Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee [wrote] about [it in] their new book "In COVID's Wake." The biggest theme that runs through the book [is that] truth-seeking institutions did not function as well as they should have during COVID. There was a premature policy consensus. And there was an intolerance of criticism and divergent points of view that emerged fairly quickly in the pandemic, and that hurt us, that hurt our policy responses, that hurt our ability to course correct over the course of the pandemic as we learned more and had greater reason to course correct. There wasn't enough public deliberation about these matters. Too much power was accorded to narrow experts in public health and epidemiology, in particular. There should have been a wider conversation simply involving many more people with broader expertise. But it also should have involved ordinary people in the public, who after all, were being the ones asked to make sacrifices.
Note: The full text of this article is available here. Watch our Mindful News Brief on the origins of COVID. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on COVID corruption.
Important Note: Explore our full index to revealing excerpts of key major media news articles on several dozen engaging topics. And don't miss amazing excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.