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Bees may soon be able to take some of the sting out of cancer by detecting it early and getting patients into treatment sooner. Honeybees are known for their exquisitely sensitive sense of smell. They don't have noses, but their feet, tongues and antennae are packed with olfactory glands. They can also be quickly trained to do their "waggle dance" when they associate a specific smell with a food source. Taking advantage of these facts, Portuguese scientist Susana Soares has invented a two-chambered glass dome that uses bees to snuff out cancer. "The glass objects have two enclosures: a smaller chamber that serves as the diagnostic space and a bigger chamber where previously trained bees are kept for the short period of time necessary for them to detect general health," Soares wrote on her website. "People exhale into the smaller chamber, and the bees rush into it if they detect on the breath the odor that they were trained to target." Soares said she could train bees in 10 minutes to identify cancer and other diseases, such as tuberculosis and diabetes in their early stages. By exposing the insects to the odor molecules produced by an illness and then feeding them sugar, they learn to associate the smell with a food reward. Soares said that her bee chamber was an inexpensive, sustainable and highly accurate diagnostic tool. And, she points out, bees, as well as wasps, are already used regularly to sniff out land mines and illegal drugs.
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The CIA's chief technology officer outlined the agency's endless appetite for data in a far-ranging speech. Ira "Gus" Hunt said that the world is increasingly awash in information from text messages, tweets, and videos - and that the agency wants all of it. "The value of any piece of information is only known when you can connect it with something else that arrives at a future point in time," Hunt said. "Since you can't connect dots you don't have, it drives us into a mode of, we fundamentally try to collect everything and hang on to it forever." Hunt's comments come two days after Federal Computer Week reported that the CIA has committed to a massive, $600 million, 10-year deal with Amazon for cloud computing services. "It is really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human generated information," Hunt said. After that mark is reached, Hunt said, the agency would also like to be able to save and analyze all of the digital breadcrumbs people don't even know they are creating. "You're already a walking sensor platform," he said, noting that mobiles, smartphones and iPads come with cameras, accelerometers, light detectors and geolocation capabilities. "Somebody can know where you are at all times, because you carry a mobile device, even if that mobile device is turned off," he said. Hunt also spoke of mobile apps that will be able to control pacemakers - even involuntarily - and joked about a "dystopian" future. Hunt's speech barely touched on privacy concerns.
Note: The Internet of Things makes mass surveillance even easier. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on intelligence agency corruption and the disappearance of privacy from reliable major media sources.
Atrazine, a weed killer widely used in the Midwestern United States and other agricultural areas of the world, can chemically "castrate" male frogs and turn some into females. New research suggests the herbicide may be a cause of amphibian declines around the globe, said biologists at the University of California-Berkeley. Researchers found that long-term exposure to low levels of atrazine - 2.5 parts per billion of water - emasculated three-quarters of laboratory frogs and turned one in 10 into females. Scientists believe the pesticide interferes with endocrine hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone. "The effects of atrazine in the long term have been shown to demasculinize or chemically castrate [frogs], combined with complete feminization of some animals," said lead researcher Tyrone B. Hayes, a biologist and herpetologist. Hayes found that 10 percent of the exposed genetic male frogs developed into functional females who copulated with unexposed males and produced viable eggs. The other 90 percent of the exposed male frogs expressed decreased libido, reduced sperm count and decreased fertility, among other findings. Tens of millions of pounds of atrazine are used each year in the United States. Syngenta estimates that 60 million pounds were used during 2008, most of it on corn. A 2006 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found atrazine in approximately 75 percent of stream water and about 40 percent of all groundwater samples from agricultural areas tested between 1992 and 2001.
Note: Don't forget that humans drink the water contaminated by these chemicals, too. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on food system corruption and health.
During a nine month investigation, the BBC has uncovered the disturbing truth about the way authorities in New York City are conducting the fight against Aids. HIV positive children - some only a few months old - are enrolled in toxic experiments without the consent of guardians or relatives. In some cases where parents have refused to give children their medication, they have been placed in care. The city's Administration of Children's Services (ACS) does not even require a court order to place HIV kids with foster parents or in children's homes, where they can continue to give them experimental drugs. In 2002, the Incarnation Children's Center - a children's home in Harlem - was at the hub of controversy over secretive drugs trials. [Reporter Jamie Doran] speaks to a boy who spent most of his life at Incaranation. Medical records, obtained by the This World team, prove the boy had been enrolled in these trials. "I did not want to take my medication," said the boy, "but if you want to get out of there, you have to do what they say." He also conveys a horrifying account of what happened to the children at Incarnation who refused to obey the rules. "My friend Daniel didn't like to take his medicine and he got a tube in his stomach," he said. For months, the BBC tried to get information from the people responsible for the trials, but none would comment. The companies that supply drugs for the trials are among the world's largest, including Britain's own Glaxo SmithKline (GSK).
Note: Read a long list of examples of humans being treated as guinea pigs by corporate and governmental programs. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on corruption in government and in Big Pharma from reliable major media sources.
A British tribunal has ruled that a former member of the UN police force in Bosnia was unfairly fired after she reported to her superiors that colleagues in the police force used women and children as sex slaves in connivance with Balkan traffickers. It was at least the third scandal this year involving international aid workers and vulnerable local populations. The UN officially has not commented on the latest case, in which the whistleblower, Kathryn Bolkovac, an American citizen living in the Netherlands, charged she was fired in 2000 for sending e-mails to her employer, the U.S. recruitment agency DynCorp, stating that other UN police officers from several countries were linked with prostitution rings. Bolkovac was posted to Sarajevo in 1999 to investigate sex trafficking but soon began filing reports that UN officials and international aid workers themselves were involved in it. She said UN workers frequented bars where girls as young as 15 were forced to dance naked on tables and engage in sexual acts with clients. UN peacekeepers stood by while girls who refused to take part in sex acts were beaten and raped by pimps. One police officer paid $1,000 for a girl he kept captive in his apartment. Earlier this year, a joint report by Save the Children and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that about 70 workers from aid organizations and UN agencies were suspected of extorting sexual favors from children and young women among refugees in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in exchange for food.
Note: The case of this courageous whistleblower was turned into a movie. For lots more, see this article from the UK's Independent. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.
An Air Force veteran who agreed to testify before Congress about secret government UFO programs died just months before the hearings of an accidental drug overdose. Matthew James Sullivan, 39, died at his home in Falls Church, Va., on May 12, 2024 from a lethal mix of alcohol, alprazolam, cyclobenzaprine and imipramine, according to the Northern District Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The mysterious death is of "grave concern" to Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), who referred the matter for investigation to the FBI due to "implications for national security," according to a letter obtained by The Post. "Mr. Sullivan's death was a local Virginia medical examiner case, and the manner and circumstances of his of death raise substantial questions, as he was preparing to provide testimony to Congress," the April 16 letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel read. "The sudden and suspicious circumstances surrounding his death raise significant concerns about potential foul play and the safety of other individuals involved in this matter." The FBI indicated in a statement that Sullivan's death could be under investigation along with the dozen other missing or dead US scientists. Sullivan earned a Bronze Star for valor in Operation Enduring Freedom and later worked for the Air Force Intelligence Agency, National Air and Space Intelligence Center, and the National Security Agency.
Note: Don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang. 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.
Children regularly survive near-death experiences, or NDEs, just like anyone else. But a new study published in the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice notes that very few researchers actually speak with this critical age group, despite the special insights it offers for experts exploring human consciousness. In their review, the authors noticed that children reported some similar "core features," including tunnels, bright lights, and out-of-body sensations. They interviewed seven children who survived cardiac arrest in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) using arts- and play-based approaches, rather than the more direct questions used in most adult-based NDE interviews. Strikingly, however, the children's self-reported NDE experiences did not include every hallmark found in adult descriptions of NDEs. For example, there are no life reviews or messages from loved ones present in children's descriptions. Culture and religion also played little to no role in their responses, leading the authors to assert that a child's NDE may be more "raw" ... than adult NDEs, and should be considered extremely valuable data for future research. Unlocking the secrets of NDEs could help us understand consciousness, but scientists need more data. Thankfully, as resuscitation techniques become ever more advanced, it's likely that more and more people will experience these events instead of simply dying before they can share what happened to them.
Note: Our Substack investigation, How Consciousness Research Can Help Heal a Divided World, features fascinating examples and credible, scientific investigations into past-life memories in children. Explore more positive stories like this on near-death experiences.
Some consider Henry Kissinger a master statesman who advanced American interests. Others argue that his achievements were exaggerated, preferring to highlight his violations of international law and his complicity in war crimes. Tom Wells' The Kissinger Tapes: Inside His Secretly Recorded Phone Conversations ... is a collection of selections from more than 15,000 of Kissinger's secretly recorded telephone conversations from his time as President Richard Nixon's national security adviser (1969–1974) and secretary of state (1973–1974). For Kissinger, lies weren't a strategic tool limited to selective uses in international statecraft. They appear to have been part of his personal makeup. Wells notes that he was "a habitual and easy liar." During the clandestine bombings of Cambodia in 1969 and Laos in 1970, for example, Kissinger and Nixon implemented a false-reporting system to hide the strikes from both the State Department and the public. Kissinger claimed to Secretary of State William P. Rogers that he was unaware of the Pentagon Papers, the classified government study, leaked in 1971, that revealed the U.S. government had systematically deceived the public about the Vietnam War; in fact, he knew of the study from the outset. Kissinger repeatedly denied knowledge of wiretaps on officials and journalists, but the FBI later noted that he instituted much of the surveillance himself. For Kissinger, issues of human rights and self-determination were secondary at best.
Note: Read more revealing details from Kissenger's history. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on corruption in government and in the intelligence community.
When Jamie Schuler teaches her Friday dance classes, some of her students stay seated. Most of the up to two dozen dancers have Parkinson's disease or other conditions that impact their mobility. A mashup of physical therapy and artistic expression developed by New York's Mark Morris Dance Group, Schuler's classes are designed to help participants manage aspects of their diseases, like coordination, balance and gait, while declaring dance an art form for everyone. Some of the dancers have even joined 3rd Law, the company that puts on the classes, in live, on-stage professional performances. Community-based workshops like this reflect a growing body of scholarship linking the arts to improved outcomes in physical and mental health. The research is fueling a push to make arts more accessible ... while hospitals, therapists and clinical researchers are increasingly bringing art and culture into environs for healing. Today, about half of U.S. hospitals have some kind of arts program. But UF Health has uniquely interwoven its arts program with its medical practice. Through the hospital's chart system, doctors and nurses make referrals to UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine, which includes a roster of in-house artists. In 2025, practitioners with the program had 13,000 arts engagements with the health system's patients, ranging from dance classes for expecting mothers in high-risk pregnancies, to painting or making mosaics with young patients.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on inspiring disabled persons and the power of art.
The CIA is known to have enjoyed a close relationship with the mainstream media during the Cold War and to have recruited dozens of journalists to help advance CIA propaganda. An article in the November 2024 issue of Diplomatic History (DH) shows that the symbiotic relationship between the CIA and media went even further than was previously thought. The editors of Time and Life magazines and The New York Times provided the CIA with access to dispatches by their foreign correspondents who functioned in effect as intelligence agents. Life Magazine opened its photographic archive to the CIA, providing between 300-500 photographs per month that the CIA could use for intelligence gathering purposes. The photographs included those of antiwar demonstrations in the 1960s that helped the CIA to spy on protesters and identify the ringleaders of the anti-war movement during the U.S. war on Vietnam. Time was originally founded and was financed by Henry P. Davison, a top executive with the J.P. Morgan Company whose brother Frederick served as the CIA's Director of Personnel. Time Inc.'s Vice President in the 1950s, Allen Grover worked with CIA operative Frank Wisner to establish a CIA front organization, The American Committee for the Liberation of the People of Russia, which organized Russian émigrés and provided the CIA with a conduit for the sponsorship of anti-Bolshevik propaganda.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and media manipulation.
Pfizer subsidiaries in multiple countries, including Italy and Russia, were accused by the SEC in 2012 of paying bribes over about a decade to foreign officials to secure regulatory and formulary approvals, boost sales, and increase prescriptions, [an] SEC complaint shows. In China, one subsidiary allegedly created "points programs" that let doctors earn gifts based on prescribing its medications, according to the SEC, while in Croatia, another offered a "bonus program" that reportedly rewarded doctors with cash, international travel, or free products. Pfizer and an indirect subsidiary agreed to pay more than $45 million in separate settlements, without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC reported. In a parallel action, Pfizer H.C.P., an indirect, wholly-owned healthcare-focused subsidiary, agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve its investigation of FCPA violations after admitting to improper payments to foreign government officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And in Greece, Poland, and Romania, Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries, employees, and agents were accused by regulators of using slush funds, sham contracts, and off-shore companies in the Isle of Man to reward doctors and administrators who ordered or prescribed its products, including surgical implants. The 2011 SEC complaint also accused the company of paying kickbacks in Iraq to obtain business.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Pharma profiteering.
A great deal of visual processing in the brain goes on well below our conscious awareness. Some studies have probed the unconscious depths of vision. One source of evidence comes from the neurological condition known as blindsight, which is caused by damage to areas of the brain involved in processing visual information. People with blindsight report that they are unable to see, either entirely or in a portion of their visual field. However, when asked to guess what is there, they can often do so with remarkable accuracy. The phenomenon of inattentional blindness seems to show you can see without the information crossing into your consciousness. Anyone can experience inattentional blindness. In this experiment, participants are shown a video of people playing basketball, and told to count the number of passes between the players wearing a white shirt. If you've never done this before, I urge to you stop reading now and watch the video. In many cases, people are so busy counting the passes that they completely miss a large gorilla walking across the middle of the scene and beating its chest, then walking off. The gorilla's right there, in the centre of your visual field. Light from the gorilla enters your eyes, and is processed in the visual system, but somehow you missed it, because you weren't paying attention to it. The question is: what makes some information conscious, rather than the information that stays unconscious?
Note: Meet the blind professional skateboarder who teaches blind people how to skateboard. Echolocation expert Daniel Kish is a blind man who has taught thousands of other blind people to "see" and navigate the world by interpreting echoes that activate the brain's visual centers. Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.
The House Committee on Agriculture passed the "Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026" on March 5. The 800-page document is being praised by Big Agriculture and industry groups. But public health advocates warn that the bill is set to further erode well-being and health in the U.S., further deepening the hypocrisy of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s repeated promise to "Make America Healthy Again." "Rather than address the economic crises facing America's family farmers, this Farm Bill is a thinly veiled gift bag for Big Ag and pesticide manufacturers. It's a massive slap in the face to people ... demanding a healthier food system," said [agriculture campaigner] Jason Davidson. Section 10205 blocks consumers and farmers harmed by pesticides from suing companies over inadequate safety labeling. Section 10206 would overturn all state and local laws that protect food safety. Section 10207 would repeal federal statutes created to protect people and animals from pesticides. Rep. Chellie Pingree ... introduced an amendment that would have stripped these sections from the bill, but the effort was rejected. "This Farm Bill is a gift to Big Chemical, plain and simple. It delivers exactly what giants like Bayer have spent years lobbying for: blanket immunity from lawsuits and the power to gut the state warning label laws that protect families, farmers, and children," said the congresswoman in a statement.
Note: Read our Substack investigation into what the pesticide crisis reveals about the dark side of science. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on food system corruption and toxic chemicals.
The Pentagon is building a new team of investment bankers steeped in private equity to invest $200 billion over three years in defense deals, aiming to counter China's rise, according to a document reviewed by Semafor. The Defense department is specifically going after Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Bank of America as prime recruiting targets for the 30-person team, the headhunter brief outlines, explaining that "this is not a career move, but a two-to-three-year secondment program." The document, prepared by search firm Heidrick & Struggles, pitches a chance to "serve your country" and deploy "more capital than most investors deploy in their entire careers" (and, ostensibly, an opportunity to sell a bunch of stock tax-deferred). Wall Street ... employs thousands of "coverage bankers" who stay close to companies in specific industries. Forming its own "Sponsor Coverage" unit inside the Pentagon would allow the defense department to have a team of its own bankers that service private-equity firms and pitch deals critical to national security, provide advice, and arrange loans. As part of the agency's pitch to lure more heavy hitters from Wall Street, it's deriding the "peak neoliberalism" of the 1990s that invited China into the global economic order, prioritized outsourcing, and, in the Pentagon's view, left the US vulnerable ... according to the document. "The mission: helping deter our largest adversary from gaining military superiority."
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on corruption in the financial industry and in the intelligence community.
Across the Twin Cities, immigration agents have identified legal observers by name and address, and, in some cases, led them back to their homes after they engaged in lawful monitoring of immigration activity. Legal observers say this pattern of behavior sends a clear and chilling message: The federal government knows who they are and where they live. These encounters are unfolding amid a rapid expansion of federal surveillance capabilities. Immigration authorities have significantly expanded their use of mobile biometric and surveillance tools in recent years. Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, for example, can use the smartphone app Mobile Fortify to photograph a person's face or capture fingerprints in the field and compare them against federal biometric databases. A 2022 report ... found ICE can access driver's license data covering roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults, including state photo databases that can be searched using face recognition technology. Civil liberties advocates say the growing web of identification tools has enabled federal agents to quickly identify anyone who monitors or protests their actions – chilling protected First Amendment activity and deterring the legal observation of law enforcement. While many encounters described by observers involve surveillance and intimidation, some have escalated into far more dangerous confrontations.
Note: Read our Substack, "A History of Militarized Policing in the US and the Suppression of Dissent Across the Political Spectrum." For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on immigration enforcement corruption and the disappearance of privacy.
Records unsealed this year by Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs have confirmed an eyewitness account from 1991, when military personnel and civilian researchers in Antarctica detected and then saw a large flying saucer over their base. Miguel Amaya, a retired Argentine Air Force non-commissioned officer, told UFO investigators in the early 2000s that he was stationed at General San MartĂn Base, a small scientific and military station on a tiny island in Antarctica in April of that year. At the start of the polar night, when the sun stays down for months, an alarm went off on the station's riometer, a machine that measures changes in the upper atmosphere. All of the needles began drawing the same pattern, which is scientifically impossible. According to Amaya, outpost personnel claimed that the strange readings could only have been caused by something producing the same energy as a nuclear aircraft carrier or a large city floating over Antarctica. Over 120 feet of paper was reportedly used during the four-and-a-half hour incident at General San MartĂn Base, with Amaya revealing that the needles were moving so violently they went off the paper multiple times. Hours later, another base member was walking outside during a snowstorm when they allegedly saw 'a huge circle of light.' 'He noticed a huge circle of light, very dim due to the cloud cover, passing above the base, but still visible, and moving very slowly and silently towards the sea,' Amaya claimed in his testimony. The 1991 incident has finally come to light after Amaya claimed he and the other members at General San MartĂn Base were told never to talk about what they had seen by their superiors. An Argentine civilian UFO research group known as CEFORA pushed for the records to be released under the nation's public information law. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the original paper rolls, which recorded the strange readings over Antarctica, still exist and have been stored at the Argentine Antarctic Institute.
Note: Don't miss our new video UFO Disclosure Explained: New Solutions for Humanity w/ Daniel Sheehan and Amber Yang. 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.
Laser guns are real now. Actual militaries are deploying actual lasers in actual combat. "This is a technology that has been under development for decades," [said] Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineer. "And it's only really now just really starting to enter the public view." The Army has outfitted trucks with anti-drone lasers, and the Air Force has added ground-based lasers to its arsenal. Russia, China, and the United Kingdom are all developing–and in some cases already deploying–laser weapons, and last year, Israel became the first country to use a laser in combat to destroy a drone. The very real lasers now being deployed on battlefields around the world have some notable differences from most of their science-fictional forebears. They're silent, for one thing–no pew pew sound effects–and the beam they produce is invisible. Real lasers have a number of other advantages. $13 a shot is pretty good compared with the Navy's standard missile interceptors, which cost $2 million apiece. Another advantage of lasers is that they just keep going. Last year, Chinese scientists successfully beamed a precision non-weapon laser all the way to the moon. But infinite range is also a drawback. If a laser missed a drone, Boyd said, the beam could continue for hundreds of miles and hit, say, a commercial airliner. Even if a laser beam did hit its target, Boyd said, its light could still scatter and cause all manner of collateral damage.
Note: For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on warfare technologies.
The White House invokes the Defense Production Act to guarantee supplies of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. Regulators reapprove dicamba, a Bayer herbicide twice blocked by federal courts, and clear the way for new pesticides containing toxic, persistent PFAS "forever" chemicals. And the U.S. Justice Department urges the U.S. Supreme Court to erase billions of dollars of Bayer's liability for its glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer – placing the weight of the executive branch on the side of a foreign company against thousands of Americans who say Bayer's products caused their cancers. Over the past year, the administration under President Donald J. Trump has delivered a string of victories to Bayer, the German agrichemical and pharmaceutical giant that merged with Monsanto in 2018 to become the world's leading manufacturer of genetically modified seeds and pesticides. These favors to Bayer clash with Trump's promise to "Make America Healthy Again," which many supporters understood as a pledge to confront industries linked to chronic disease. Our review of Bayer's access in Washington found 22 key administration officials with ties to Bayer's lobbying or legal network. Bayer and its lobbyists have access to people in power at the White House, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and even those in high level positions closest to Trump.
Note: In addition to increasing cancer risk by 41%, glyphosate is linked to severe depression and cognitive decline. Our latest Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Monsanto's media propaganda machine and the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and toxic chemicals.
Set up in 2019, the Transfarmation Project works with farms across the US that want to ditch industrial animal agriculture, which is typically done as contract work on behalf of big meat companies, and move toward a sustainable, fully independent business model. They provide guidance on how to repurpose existing infrastructure for different crops, but also business advice on how to find the market, set up a website, establish a brand and sell directly to consumers. They also provide research and innovation grants that can help with the finances. The idea is to move beyond a form of intensive farming that has a hugely detrimental impact on the environment, but also to protect the farmers themselves, many of whom find that the concentrated animal-feeding operation (Cafo) model takes a toll on their mental health. "We used to have all these independent farms," [Iowa farmer Tanner] Faaborg says. "Our family used to have this homesteading lifestyle with some chickens and a big orchard." That changed for the Faaborgs about 30 years ago when someone from one of the big meat companies knocked on their door. "It became more: we have ... to collect this check, to pay the bills and pay back the loan." The Transfarmation Project [shows] that a different model is possible, closer to the autonomy of old. For the Faaborgs, the switch has made them feel excited about their work and its connection to nature. They want others to know that a different future is possible.
Note: After meeting an animal rights activist he once viewed as an enemy, a factory farmer took the extraordinary step of exposing the realities of industrial poultry production on his own farm in the New York Times–and now harvests mushrooms and herbs in the very buildings where hundreds of thousands of chickens once lived. Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and reimagining the economy.
The Department of Defense has quietly signed a $210 million deal to buy advanced cluster shells from one of Israel's state-owned arms companies, marking unusually large new commitments to a class of weapons and an Israeli defense establishment both widely condemned for their indiscriminate killing of civilians. The deal, signed in September and not previously reported, is the department's largest contract to purchase weapons from an Israeli company in available records. The shells are designed to replace decades-old and often defective cluster shells that left live explosives scattered across Vietnam, Laos, Iraq, and other nations. The terror of cluster weapons persists long after the guns that fired them have quieted, as civilians return to fields, forests, and settlements laced with bomblets that can explode years later without warning. "The footprint of the injuries of these weapons is so horrifying," said Alma TaslidĹľan, advocacy manager for the aid organization Humanity & Inclusion. The Cluster Munition Monitor has documented more than 24,800 cluster munition injuries and deaths since the 1960s, three-quarters from unexploded remnants. In 2024, cluster munitions killed at least 314 civilians, the majority of them in Ukraine. Major military powers – like Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and the United States – have never signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans its 112 member states from using or producing those weapons.
Note: American cluster bombs kill countless civilians in countries like Yemen while the world's biggest banks profit from the weapons trade. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on war and military 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.