News StoriesExcerpts of Key News Stories in Major Media
Note: This comprehensive list of news stories is usually updated once a week. Explore our full index to revealing excerpts of key major media news stories on several dozen engaging topics. And don't miss amazing excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.
Just days after a leak exposed members of Peter Thiel's secretive Dialog society, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)-retrieved Jeffrey Epstein files have revealed multiple connections between the disgraced financier and the exclusive network founded by the billionaire investor. Among the documents is a February 2016 email in which Epstein discussed Thiel's interest in what he described as a "secret society idea." "peter thiel LOVED the secret society idea," Epstein wrote in an email to former MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. "he has done alot of work on the concept. all failed so far." The email surfaced alongside another newly released record that references Dialog, the invitation-only organization Thiel launched in 2006 with entrepreneur Auren Hoffman. In a November 2012 email, renowned Harvard physicist Lisa Randall forwarded Epstein an invitation to attend Dialog 2014, an exclusive retreat held at Utah's Sundance Resort. Another email suggests the financier was receiving materials connected to the organization's retreats. In a September 2013 message, Boris Nikolic – the prominent biotechnology executive who later became one of Epstein's most well-known scientific associates – forwarded Epstein an email discussing a Dialog breakout session focused on bitcoin and foreign policy. "You should have someone print you various materials in links below," Nikolic wrote to Epstein.
Note: It appears that Jeffrey Epstein played a significant role in Peter Thiel's rise within some of the world's most powerful business and political networks. Read how Thiel worked with the CIA to influence the origins of Facebook, and how Palantir software helped the NSA spy on the entire planet. Watch a 7-min video with WTK Director Amber Yang and Joe Martino from Collective Evolution discussing the links between Thiel, Palantir, Jeffrey Epstein, the Rothschild banking family, and intelligence agency operations.
Dialog, the private network cofounded by Peter Thiel, grades its event attendees on a hidden scale, ranking them by wealth and fame, tracking their relationships, and using algorithms to help decide who they should meet, who they should sit with, and who no longer belongs. Founded in 2006 by Thiel and data broker Auren Hoffman, Dialog is a private club that convenes politicians, investors, entrepreneurs, military leaders, executives, academics, and journalists for invitation-only, off-the-record retreats. According to a Dialog document shared by a past participant, it has "over 1,000 paying members," and more than 2,500 people have attended its annual retreats. Dialog assigns people grades before they join. Of the 192 dossiers examined by WIRED, 130 are tagged as members. The rest are prospects with files bearing markings like "First Time Dialoger" or "Warm." Everyone–members and prospective invitees alike–is assigned a grade of A, B, or C. The "C" grade appears reserved for the most famous and influential; only one in seven received it. Most people–141 of 192–received a "B." The final tier, "A," appears primarily assigned to older, established members whom the graders consider less notable. The leak also points to a built-in matchmaking system that pairs members for both networking and dating. (Roughly 10 percent of respondents opted into a singles pool.) More than three-quarters already have a list of algorithm-suggested matches.
Note: Is this Dialog Society the Bohemian Grove of Big Tech? Read how Thiel worked with the CIA to influence the origins of Facebook, and how Palantir software helped the NSA spy on the entire planet.
Well, data leaked by the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew (who also brought us the justice department's no-fly list back in 2023) is shedding new light on Dialog, the private social club co-created by the former PayPal boss Peter Thiel and the angel investor Auren Hoffman. The network has been around since 2006, and regularly gathers politicians, entrepreneurs, foreign officials, academics, Silicon Valley founders and even Hollywood folks for invitation-only retreats. there are a few weird things we've discovered from this leak. Dialog grades its retreat attenders on a hidden scale, ranking them according to their wealth and fame. Everyone is assigned a grade of A, B or C, with the "C" grade being awarded to the most famous and influential. Lower-grade attenders are charged full-price roughly 70% of the time, while only about a quarter of VIPs have to shell out the bigger bucks. Planned events range from sessions like "Bring Back Nuclear" to others focused on "Disinformation and Deepfakes", "Contrarian AI Takes", "Democracy Under Surveillance" and "Money (Does?) Buy Happiness." The agenda also includes sessions on cult-building (moderated by the founder of the Christian site Pray.com, no less), one on "Navigating WWIII" and a session titled "How's Your Sex Life?" Dialog has a matchmaking system that pairs members for networking and dating. The data exposed in the leak includes home addresses, phone numbers, emails, dates of birth, and other bio-datas.
Note: Is this Dialog Society the Bohemian Grove of Big Tech? Read how Thiel worked with the CIA to influence the origins of Facebook, and how Palantir software helped the NSA spy on the entire planet.
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.
Former Meta employee Sarah Wynn-Williams [was] silenced by Meta's legal threats to bankrupt her if she spoke. Wynn-Williams has written a book, Careless People, about her time at Meta (then Facebook), where she was an early director of global public policy. But Meta does not like the book. It has done everything in its power to stop it, including seeking an emergency arbitration order that prevents Wynn-Williams from promoting the book, and threatening punitive damages. These serve both to punish Wynn-Williams for writing it, and to send a warning to any future critic. A certain kind of libertarian responds by saying that Meta is not "censoring" Wynn-Williams, because only governments can censor. A certain kind of lawyer may say she brought this on herself by signing a contract agreeing not to criticise Meta. Private censorship is real and, in the time we live in, often more impactful than the public kind. Not all contractual provisions are, or should be, enforceable. You cannot write an enforceable contract to sell a child, to bind someone never to marry or to give up other fundamental rights. Why should the right to speak critically be any different? A contract in which someone agrees never to criticise their employer should be void and unenforceable. That is why we need legislation that makes clear a simple principle: that the free-speech right to criticise your employer is important, fundamental and cannot be sold.
Note: Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams once told US senators that the company targeted teenage girls with beauty and weight-loss advertisements during moments of heightened vulnerability such as after deleting a selfie. According to her testimony, Meta could detect when users were feeling "worthless," "helpless," or like a "failure," and then make that information available to advertisers. For more along these lines, read about a new nonprofit called Psst, which is designed to make it safer for Big Tech whistleblowers to report wrongdoing without immediately exposing themselves to retaliation.
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.
Jeff Bezos' Washington Post is facing a scathing new class-action lawsuit accusing it of using surveillance pricing to gouge loyal readers – in a case that attorneys believe could rack up millions in damages. Since the mid-2010s, WaPo has "covertly harvested" subscriber data, using "deeply personal information" to determine how much they could squeeze out of each loyal reader, according to the suit, which was filed Thursday in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Readers largely expected their personal data would be used for "mutually beneficial purposes" like "relevant advertisements" – and did not consent to their personal information being used to hike prices on their subscriptions, the suit alleged. After billionaire Bezos bought WaPo in 2013 for $250 million, the paper started heavily investing in technology and digital subscriptions, the suit noted. "The more loyal a reader became, the more data The Post could gather to estimate how much more that person might tolerate paying at renewal," the complaint said. "Rather than rewarding loyalty, The Post's system converted subscribers' engagement into leverage against them." The suit also alleged WaPo might be collecting extra information from subscribers' use of "affiliates" – including Amazon, Bezos' e-commerce giant. Last year, the publication was forced to reveal it was engaging in surveillance pricing techniques because of a 2025 New York disclosure law.
Note: Read more about the rise of AI surveillance pricing. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and mass media.
The city of Andernach, Germany, planted 101 varieties of tomatoes in the town center and told everyone to pluck and take whatever they wanted. It was such a hit, the following year the city did the same with beans. The next year, it was onions. After that, the city planted fruit trees, lettuce, zucchini, berries and herbs. All were free to anyone who lived or happened to be in the town of 30,000 people. The town, which sits in the Rhine River Valley, has an unofficial motto: "Picking is encouraged – help yourself." It's one of a growing number of places across the globe known as edible cities. In the United States, there are public lands from Seattle to North Carolina where people are welcome to pick and take from fruiting trees and bushes. Since 2018, Andernach has been part of the Edible Cities Network, a group of about 150 cities around the world with fruit trees and vegetable gardens in public places for anyone to access free of charge. Several cities also receive funding for what Edible Cities calls "living labs" – green spaces where residents can hold community events and develop their own plans to help their urban gardens to thrive and produce bountiful harvests. Edible Cities is now supporting a community garden in Cuba, while cities in China, Tunisia, Togo and Uruguay are also developing plans for urban food forests. Edible Cities is trying to encourage people to get involved in their urban parks rather than only think of them as passive places.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.
Beneath Andernach's medieval city walls, birds flit among apple, pear and peach trees. Strawberry plants and heads of lettuce sprout from the soil alongside patches of herbs and wildflowers. It's also home to the highest cold-water geyser in the world, a big tourist draw. But today, visitors have another reason to come to Andernach – its city gardens. "If you feel like picking something for dinner, feel free," said Anneli Karlsson, the project coordinator of the Edible Cities Network in Andernach. "That's our motto: Feel free to pick." Andernach, with a population of around 30,000 people, is known as an "edible city." Its public green spaces are used to grow food that anyone can harvest free of charge. The city's administration launched the project in 2010. The idea was to get locals more engaged in their community and raise awareness about how food is grown. No pesticides are used, so the produce is all organic. But Andernach's gardens aren't just about food. Karlsson said the project is unique because it hires unemployed people to maintain the plant beds, alongside a team of gardeners. "It has changed my life," said Jörn Schamari, a former truck driver. He suffered burnout and was out of work when he came across the edible city initiative several years ago. "This project helped me bounce back. And from next year, I've been promised a permanent position as a gardener here. The project has also changed my relationship to plants."
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing social division and reimagining the economy.
Mushrooms could be used to filter out harmful waste and sewage in rivers, after a trial showed a certain fungi can destroy a type of bacteria that is a risk to human health. The fungi, called turkey tail mushroom, was used in part of a river in Devon and managed to filter out 80% of E. coli bacteria during the trial. During the trial, bags of turkey tail mushrooms were stacked across a riverbed, filtering water through their roots, which are called mycelia. The mycelia acted like a sponge, catching the E. coli bacteria to prevent it going into the river. Water industry regulator Ofwat has given Anglian Water Ł1.5 million to use fungi to clean up rivers because the trial worked so well. In another trial in Lincolnshire, a similar barricade caught 83% of phosphorus and 35% of nitrogen from rainwater running off farmers' fields. Farmers spread these chemicals as fertilisers, but when they wash into watercourses they can cause thick algae to form, starving fish of oxygen. The mushroom barriers could be placed near sewage overflow pipes to remove pollutants released during storms. Mushrooms can be used as a packaging material. Mycelium has been used by ... companies for packaging, because [it] breaks down naturally within weeks of use. And fashion designer Stella McCartney came up with a really fun-gi idea a few years ago. She created the first ever clothing made of mushroom leather, using the mycelium. Mushroom leather, unlike other fake leathers, is entirely natural and biodegradable.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and technology for good.
Hemp – Cannabis sativa L. with a THC content low enough to avoid intoxication – has walked beside humanity for at least 10  millennia. The plant's renaissance is ... a practical answer to converging crises in climate, resources, and rural economies. Hemp can be spun into linen-soft cloth, mixed into concrete–like blocks, brewed into nutty milk, pressed into nutritious oil, and refined into graphene–grade carbon nanosheets. It grows fast, sequesters more carbon per hectare than most forests, and asks for little more than sunlight, moderate rainfall, and room to stretch. Because every single part of the stalk, seed, leaf, and root can be transformed into something of value, hemp stands apart as a champion of circular design. Early drafts of the Declaration of Independence were [written on] linen-hemp blends. Hemp's reputation suffered only when petro-synthetic fibers and anti-cannabis laws converged in the 1930s. Eighty years later, reforms from Canada to Australia to continental Europe have reopened fields once taken from the crop. Field trials in Ukraine and Italy show hemp's phytoremediation power: the plant can bind or volatilize heavy metals such as cadmium and nickel while leaving fiber fractions safe for non-food applications. The plant synthesizes over a hundred other phytocannabinoids. Chief among them, CBD modulates serotonin receptors, calms epileptic seizures in Dravet syndrome, and shows promise in anxiety, pain, and inflammation trials.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and technology for good.
[Taylor] Little is among more than 1,800 plaintiffs suing major social-media companies, including Instagram and its parent company Meta, in a massive multidistrict litigation in Northern California. The plaintiffs allege these companies have been "recklessly ignoring the impact of their products on children's mental and physical health," and that they are "direct victims of intentional product design choices made by each defendant." Little's own complaint seeks to hold Instagram accountable for "knowingly unleashing onto the public a defectively designed product that is addictive, harmful, and at times fatal to children." They allege the platform fed them a persistent stream of self-harm content that altered their brain and perpetuated constant thoughts of death. "The fact that I was obsessively suicidal at the age I was, that was not just my brain chemistry. That was my brain chemistry being altered by the platform I was on," Little tells TIME. "Social media shaped my brain." On Instagram, depression was "romanticized," Little says. The self-harm content "was kind of comforting"–it felt like a twisted validation of their depression in a way. By the time Little turned 12, [Little's] Instagram feed was filled with images of girls falling off buildings, videos of blades cutting into unscarred flesh, and soft music framing stylized photos of hanging bodies. Teen suicides increased more than 57% between 2007 and 2018. Another 2019 study ... found that 38% of teens who used social media for an average of more than five hours per day showed signs of clinically relevant depression. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan found that kids who were more addicted to social media were at two to three times higher risk of suicidal behavior.
Note: Former Facebook executive Tim Kendall told Congress that the company intentionally made its product as addictive as cigarettes. Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams told US senators that the company targeted teenage girls with beauty and weight-loss advertisements during moments of heightened vulnerability such as after deleting a selfie. According to her testimony, Meta could detect when users were feeling "worthless," "helpless," or like a "failure," and then make that information available to advertisers. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and mental health.
Having been a dental nurse for more than a decade, Nikola Brindley ... was asked to have AstraZeneca's Covid jab in July 2021. She agreed without hesitation. But within hours, Brindley was in A&E fighting for her life as an allergic reaction began to shut down multiple organ systems. "I genuinely thought that it was just going to be another vaccine," she says. "Take it, get on with things. Instead, my life has been reduced to trying to manage symptoms every single day." Others ... experienced various autoimmune reactions that damaged different systems in the body. Patrick Stacey, 59, from Derby, developed a form of Guillain-BarrĂ© syndrome – a rare autoimmune condition which attacks the nerves, causing muscle weakness and numbness – after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021. There are no official statistics on how many people were impacted in this way. However, data from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) indicates that the numbers are not insignificant. In the UK, as of February 24, there had been: 194,403 serious reports linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine (and 1,532 with a fatal outcome); 126,535 serious reports linked to the Pfizer vaccine (and 920 with a fatal outcome); 31,339 serious reports associated with the Moderna vaccine (and 102 with a fatal outcome). The plight of people who suffered Covid vaccine injuries has been handled markedly differently around the world. [In the UK], 98 per cent of claims relating to Covid vaccine harm have been rejected. With few available avenues for seeking help, [a vaccine injury support charity] charity said that 73 per cent of their members have admitted to feeling suicidal, with two people subsequently dying by suicide.
Note: This article is also available here. In our latest Substack, COVID Revisited: A Complete Guide to Pandemic Propaganda and the Search for Truth in a Divided World, we examine how government officials, public health institutions, and major media outlets failed to acknowledge or investigate the growing number of reports of serious injuries and deaths following COVID vaccination. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on COVID vaccine harms.
John Stevens, whose late wife Rebecca Stevens was wheelchair-bound and largely incapacitated after receiving the AstraZeneca jab in April 2021, said the Government's compensation system was "not fit for purpose". Mr Stevens told The Telegraph that the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) – which awards a flat fee of Ł120,000 to people seriously injured after having vaccinations – needed to be "brought up to date with modern costs". He criticised the arbitrary level of 60 per cent "disablement" that patients must reach in order to qualify for a payout. Mrs Stevens – known as Bec – received a payment under the VDPS, which Mr Stevens described as wholly inadequate given the level of care she required and the impact her disability had on her capacity to work. She died in October last year at the age of 48. Her death was attributed to natural causes and "a complication which arose following administration of the AstraZeneca vaccination". Mr Stevens said that his wife, the mother of two grown-up sons, had gone from being a highly eloquent lawyer to having very limited speech and being unable to wash, dress or feed herself. His wife was one of dozens of claimants who began legal action against AstraZeneca over its "defective" Covid vaccination. The pharma giant is defending the claim, which the Government is indemnifying, meaning taxpayers could ultimately be liable for some costs.
Note: This article is also available here. In our latest Substack, COVID Revisited: A Complete Guide to Pandemic Propaganda and the Search for Truth in a Divided World, we examine how government officials, public health institutions, and major media outlets failed to acknowledge or investigate the growing number of reports of serious injuries and deaths following COVID vaccination. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on COVID vaccine harms.
The U.S. has funded over 120 biolabs in 30-plus countries, according to declassified documents released by outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. "Many of these U.S. government-funded biolabs are currently or have previously engaged in research using hazardous and highly contagious pathogens, in some cases to include dangerous Gain-of-Function research, with very little visibility or oversight," Gabbard's office said in a statement. About a third of the biolabs are located in Ukraine and are "vulnerable to longstanding threats of Russian attack, seizure, or damage," Gabbard stated. Gain-of-function research, which increases the transmissibility or virulence of viruses, has been linked to the development of COVID-19. Gabbard targeted Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom she said "lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs." The document release drew the ire of virologists linked to Fauci and gain-of-function research, including Peter Daszak, Ph.D., former president of the Bill Gates-funded EcoHealth Alliance. Stephanie Weidle, executive director of Feds for Freedom, said the release "represents the first time a U.S. official has formally acknowledged the existence of the labs and the threat posed by the scientific work being conducted." Gabbard said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will work to identify the labs and to "end dangerous Gain-of-Function research."
Note:The lab-leak hypothesis was censored on social media and labeled a conspiracy theory for years. Today, the evidence is overwhelming that the pandemic was manmade. Leaked emails, grant proposals, NIH records, congressional subpoenas, whistleblower testimony, criminal indictments and even emerging discoveries into Dr. Anthony Fauci's biodefense legacy all indicate that COVID was likely the outcome of risky bioweapons research intentionally operating outside of congressional oversight.
Parkinson's is the second most common neurological disease in the United States. For decades, Parkinson's research has focused on genetics. Today, published research on the genetics behind Parkinson's outnumbers all other potential causes six to one. But Parkinson's rates in the US have doubled in the past 30 years. And studies suggest they will climb another 15 to 35 percent in each coming decade. This is not how an inherited genetic disease is supposed to behave. In a study of half a million Britons, Oxford researchers determined that lifestyle and the environment is 10 times more likely to explain early death than genetics. "I think [the industrial solvent] TCE is the most important cause of Parkinson's in the US," says [Parkinson's expert] Ray Dorsey. Parkinson's is a growing pandemic, and up to 90 percent of cases are caused by chemicals in our environment. Cut exposures like TCE and pesticides, and we can "end Parkinson's" as we know it. Since the 1990s, the number of Americans with chronic disease has ballooned to more than 75 percent of adults, per the CDC. Only 1 percent of the roughly 350,000 chemicals in use in the United States have ever been tested for safety. In its 55-year history, the EPA has banned or restricted about a dozen (by contrast, the EU has banned more than 2,000). Paraquat, the pesticide that appears to cause Parkinson's in farmworkers, has been banned in Europe and China but remains available in the US.
Note: The 1982 neurotoxic contaminant MPTP case was a turning point in showing how a single toxin could instantly trigger Parkinson's by destroying a specific part of the brain. Scientists later discovered that paraquat – a widely used US pesticide banned in over 70 countries – attacks the brain in much the same way. As rates of Parkinson's have tragically surged especially among the farming community, neurologists now say the disease is largely environmentally caused, driven by long-term exposure to chemicals like paraquat. A 2024 Politico article put it bluntly: "Parkinson's is a man-made disease." Read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.
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.
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.
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.
Ever since our Paleolithic ancestors began painting caves, carving figurines, dancing and singing, engaging in the arts has been interwoven with health and healing. Look through the early writings of every major medical tradition around the world and you find the arts. What is much newer – and rapidly accelerating over the past two decades – is a blossoming scientific evidence-base identifying and quantifying exactly what the health benefits of the arts are. Randomised trials on the mental health benefits of the arts now number in triple figures, with regular singing, dancing, reading, crafts, and cultural pursuits shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress for people of all ages. Some studies suggest that combining creative arts therapies such as music therapy with antidepressants and counselling can nearly double the improvements in depressive symptoms compared with standard treatments alone. But the arts can also be beneficial preventatively. People who regularly go to the theatre, live music events, museums, galleries and the cinema have nearly half the risk of developing depression. People who are regularly engaged in cultural activities perform better on cognitive tests as they age, showing slower rates of decline in ability and a lower risk of developing dementia, and they are on average older if and when they do get that diagnosis than people who aren't engaged in the arts.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the power of art.
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