News ArticlesExcerpts of Key News Articles in Major Media
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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.
Twenty-five years ago, I co-founded Wikipedia, arguably the most important encyclopedia in human history. On Monday, I was indefinitely banned from the site. In early 2000, the internet was ... much freer. But it was also harder to use, and finding information took much longer. We needed a free, fair storehouse of knowledge: an encyclopedia built by, and open to, the public. It was exhilarating to build Wikipedia at that time. I watched in dismay as the site I'd created began to drift from its founding mission. Wikipedia has, over time, become decidedly globalist, academic, secular, and progressive. Important contributors have been blocked; facts censored in the name of "undue weight" and avoiding "fringe views"; and left-leaning outlets overwhelmingly favored. The Republican Party, for instance, is classified as being on the "right-wing to far-right" of the political spectrum. And the Democratic Party? "Center to center-left.". All this transpires with no mechanisms for real accountability. I was blocked from the site by one Wikipedia admin who declared that the consensus of the mob (the "community") favored my banning. Information is the most valuable currency in any society, and the ability of citizens to access, evaluate, and learn from a diversity of viewpoints is essential to a free civilization. Yet Wikipedia's yearslong shift away from that principle–toward ideological gatekeeping and narrative control–undermines the very purpose for which it was created. So, now that I am powerless to try to fix the platform from the inside, what should I do?
Note: Read how Wikipedia, one of the primary sources for AI chatbots and search summaries, is vulnerable to systematic manipulation by powerful PR firms, intelligence agencies, and billionaires seeking to suppress damaging information and shape public narratives. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on censorship and media manipulation.
The Supreme Court on Thursday restricted a massive wave of lawsuits claiming the chemical giant Monsanto had a duty to warn consumers of alleged cancer risks from the world's most popular weed killer, Roundup. The justices ruled that federal law preempts cancer victims from bringing lawsuits against Monsanto in state courts, where most such claims are filed. The justices [also] ruled Monsanto was not required to offer a warning because the Environmental Protection Agency holds that Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate, is not a cancer risk. "EPA has not required glyphosate-based pesticides like Roundup to include a cancer warning on their labels," Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote for the majority. "Therefore, as a matter of federal law, Monsanto legally must use a label without a cancer warning unless and until EPA approves or requires a change." Monsanto has marketed Roundup as safe to spray in a t-shirt and shorts. The EPA has repeatedly found that glyphosate, which was first marketed in the 1970s, does not cause cancer. Glyphosate is used on about 300 million acres of farmland in the United States. In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is associated with the United Nations and World Health Organization, found glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans." The agency found a likely link between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and glyphosate.
Note: Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Bayer/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.
Cory Kreft began working on a honey farm at 15 years old ... eventually buying the business from his former boss. But in 2021, his bees suddenly began dying. He lost 85 percent of his hives. The losses continued the next year, and the next. After extensive testing, he identified the culprit: a relatively new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, often shortened to neonics. Thanks in part to a federal regulatory loophole, the use of neonic-treated seed has quietly exploded in recent years, with little regulation or oversight. Almost all conventional corn and more than half of soy seed in the U.S. is now treated with neonics. When bees encounter neonic-contaminated pollen, the neurotoxin disrupts the neurological functions they rely on to navigate, forage, and survive. The hive then slowly declines and dies. "Over the last five years, we've seen between 60 to 85 percent hive mortality each year," said Kreft. "It's about a million dollars in losses for us annually." While the harm neonics inflict on pollinators is well documented, their effects on humans remain less certain. A recent study found that over 95 percent of pregnant women had neonics in their bodies. The chemicals have been linked to neurological, reproductive system, and developmental harms. Because neonics are now so widespread in food and water ... exposure has become nearly constant. "It's everywhere now," [researcher Jennifer Sass] said. "It's in breast milk, tap water, even in baby food."
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on toxic chemicals and mass animal deaths.
Federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are circulating reports with a new domestic target in mind: anti-technology extremists. More than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and fusion centers ... show a national shift taking place to surveil this new and worryingly broad category of people and activities. This new effort follows President Donald Trump's National Security Presidential Memo 7, which instructs the Department of Justice to target anyone holding "anti-American," "anti-Christian," and "anti-capitalism" beliefs. these Trump administration directives have commandeered the domestic surveillance apparatus to surveil and criminalize speech and assembly that challenges the ideology of the White House. A new focus on anti-technology extremism adds an unreported category to already public designations. A New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau report ... warns of widespread upheaval in response to AI adoption. Of particular note is a novel term for what the bureau purports to be an emerging extremism threat. "The chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent AI technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas," the report reads. The term "anti-tech violent extremism" does not appear in any publicly available DHS or FBI domestic extremism reports or guides
Note: Where does violent extremism really come from? A Human Rights Watch report found that the nearly all of the highest-profile domestic terrorism plots in the US since 9/11 featured the direct involvement of government agents or informants. Meanwhile, the term terrorism has expanded to include any activist group across the spectrum not in favor of the political establishment. For more, read our Substack, "A History of Militarized Policing in the US and the Suppression of Dissent Across the Political Spectrum."
The US has recovered four distinct species of extraterrestrial life from crashed UFOs. Dr. Hal Puthoff, former Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program advisor and CIA-funded researcher, made the claim alongside "Age of Disclosure" director Dan Farrah. "People who have been involved in recoveries have said there are at least four types. Four separate types," the 89-year-old said. "Now I have not had direct access to that but I believe the people who I talked to – four separate types of life." The Stanford-trained quantum physicist did not detail the supposed alien species – but his longtime collaborator and former AAWSAP colleague Dr. Eric Davis claimed last year that Grays, Nordics, Insectoids, and Reptilians are the names of the biological lifeforms pulled from the wreckage of downed or crashed UFOs. Each alien species has two arms and legs and a humanoid appearance, Davis claimed, citing intelligence reports. Nordics are a race of highly-human-like creatures who, despite being from a far-flung planet, closely resemble people of northern Europe. Reptilians are scaley skinned lizard-like creatures with human limbs, long tails, who walk upright. Grays are small, massive-eyed, hairless creatures. Insectoids are bug-like humanoids. Former Air Force Intelligence officer and UAP Task Force member David Grusch testified under oath in Congress in 2023 that the US was in possession of "non-human biologics" recovered from dozens of crashed UFOs.
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.
The Pentagon has announced that they employ specialized energy weapons for defense. The Department of War's Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael announced this development in an X post. The post ... included a pic of said weaponry firing a laser beam and a soldier holding his head in pain. Dubbed directed energy weapons or DEWs, these advanced instruments of war use focused rays to disable electronic weapons such as drones and incapacitate – or even kill – enemy soldiers. According to the X post, these beams are comprised of "concentrated electromagnetic energy or atomic or subatomic particles." With this announcement, the Department of War seemingly confirmed years of so-called rumors that claimed that the government was developing this science fiction-esque weapon. Perhaps one of the most notable figures sounding the alarm was deceased scientist Amy Eskridge, 34, who was involved in extensive research into anti-gravity technology, UFOs, and extraterrestrial life. The researcher, who allegedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2022, had claimed she was hit by a DEW attack in her own home in Huntsville, Alabama not too long before her death. Her theory was seconded by retired British intelligence officer Franc Milburn, whom she had enlisted to investigate harassment she received after she threatened to disclose information about the subjects of her research.
Note: Read more about the mysterious ailments said to be caused by directed energy weapons. Is there a connection to other missing or dead scientists? For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on non-lethal weapons and UFO disclosure.
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.
The 72nd meeting of the Bilderberg group, the elite and secretive policy conference that is the longtime subject of endless conspiracy theories, was held at the weekend in Washington DC. A security cordon went up around the opulent Salamander hotel for the notoriously media-shy summit, which was packed as ever with prime ministers, military leaders, tech billionaires and the heads of giant investment companies. Bilderberg, which since the 1950s has been the intellectual engine room of Nato, took place this year at a time of immense crisis and uncertainty. Away from Trump's bluster, and for all his rhetoric about abandoning Nato, there were no signs that the Americans are withdrawing from Bilderberg. Far from it – the Americans were there in force. Wall Street titans, including the CEOs of KKR and Lazard, and the heads of huge corporations like Pfizer, met behind closed doors with a delegation of senior politicians close to the president. Big business lobbying in private is Bilderberg's speciality, and this secretive mix of the private and public sectors fits perfectly with Trump's brand of crony-capitalism. This year's conference had a wartime flavour: with the "Future of Warfare" on the agenda, and a participant list including the four-star admiral Samuel Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command. From the private sector there was a healthy contingent of military contractors and drone manufacturers.
Note: Is this Dialog Society the Bohemian Grove of Big Tech? Read more about the shadowy history of the Bilderberg secret society.
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.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is failing to put warnings on pesticides linked to cancer – even when the agency itself determined a product's ingredients are carcinogenic, according to two new analyses of federal data. The EPA has put cancer warnings on 1.4% – 69 of 4,919 – of pesticide labels for products that contain an active ingredient that the agency itself has designated "probable" or "likely" to cause cancer, the analyses found. In addition, just 1.1% – 242 of 22,147 – of pesticide labels that contain ingredients with "possible" or "suggestive" links to cancer have cancer warnings from the EPA. The analyses ... come as one of the world's top pesticide manufacturers, Bayer, seeks to rid itself of costly litigation over whether its glyphosate-based herbicides cause cancer. The company is pushing the US Supreme Court to rule the EPA should have sole authority over pesticide cancer labels – a ruling that would have far-reaching implications for pesticide labeling. For years Bayer, alongside more than a hundred other agricultural organizations, has also been lobbying for state laws that bar people from suing pesticide manufacturers for failing to warn them of health risks, as long as the product labels are approved by the EPA. Two states – Georgia and North Dakota – passed such laws. The 2026 Farm Bill ... would force uniform pesticide labels across the country, which preempts state or local governments from mandating stricter labels.
Note: Read our Substack investigation into the pesticide crisis and how it reveals the dark side of science. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and toxic chemicals.
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.
Last week, I published a book called The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control. It describes how, as technology has advanced, American politics and government have been transformed by the shift in societal power from visible laws and institutions to opaque forms of digital and informational control. One of the consequences of this shift has been the ability of the government-tech alliance–what I call "the information state"–to carry out mass censorship online. This point was noted in a generally positive review of the book that ran on March 24 in a left-wing magazine called The Baffler. So I could only savor the irony when, less than a day later, the magazine purged the review from its website. In place of the purged piece is an editor's note informing visitors that the magazine removed the review "after determining that it does not meet The Baffler's fact-checking standards." If a magazine publishes something that generates significant controversy ... the liberal thing to do is to publish a counterargument. To cite a "factchecking" error without elaborating what it is leaves the public even less informed than before. The book [describes how] smart and often decent people wound up being puppeteered by a vast technocratic apparatus for managing public opinion that had disastrous consequences. To them, the real censors are not the paragovernmental information regulators, but the authors whose books they disagree with.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on censorship.
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.