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.
For years, the late Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) published an annual report on government waste, appropriately titled "The Wastebook." Coburn and his staff catalogued billions of dollars in dubious spending, ranging from the ridiculous (like a $1 million grant to study romance novels) to the outrageous (like $65 million in hurricane relief that was spent on tourism advertisements). Last year ... the Government Accountability Office released a report revealing that 17 out of 24 federal agencies are utilizing less than 25 percent of their office space. Not one of the agencies used even half the office space it occupied, topping out at 49 percent. Federal agencies spend about $2 billion every year to operate and maintain these buildings, plus an additional $5 billion per year to lease office buildings. By selling underutilized properties and consolidating operations, the federal government could generate hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in revenue, in addition to reducing the expense of maintaining property and buildings that are barely being used. Between 2010 and 2023, the federal government saved an estimated $600 billion simply by implementing GAO recommendations, some of which are as simple and common-sense as improved documentation and monitoring to prevent overpayments. Another promising way of reducing federal spending would be to cut redundancy. Multiple federal agencies are concurrently working on the same issues – in some cases, literally dozens of federal agencies are all working independently on the same problem.
Note: GAO estimates that the federal government Federal Government loses an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion annually to fraud and waste. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government waste.
"If we broke up the big banks tomorrow, would that end racism? Would that end sexism?" This quote from one of [Hilary Clinton's] campaign rallies has an unusual durability. The Democratic Party's answer to Bernie Sanders's propagation of economic justice and economic issues was to smear him as somebody who ignored the plight of what they love to call – their new term – "marginalized groups," which is people of color, women, trans people, all matters dealing with sexuality. [Hilary Clinton's] victory over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary reshaped center-left politics for a decade and established identity politics as a standard tool in the Democratic Party belt. For basically a decade ... you couldn't even criticize [identity politics] without being smeared as a racist, a sexist, whatever term would work to instantly discredit any criticism while shutting down any critical thought of what that criticism represented. There's a huge rise in the number of black elected officials, mayors, congressmen, etc. [They] no longer have any reason to cater to working-class blacks because workers are politically disorganized. The political officials end up captured by the same corporate forces as the white politicians – but they get to have the corner on race talk. To deal with the quality of life and life chances of the vast majority of racial minorities, you have to go beyond disparities and look at the actual availability of social goods, not the current distribution of different races. Identity politics promotes strategies and policies that primarily address the interests of elites rather than the vast majority of working Americans. As long as the American political system is run on money, the basic direction of both parties is going to be set by big money. The way out is not by confining ourselves to increasing representation and combating discrimination, but rather by addressing the quality of the jobs and the availability of basic goods.
Note: Watch an excellent interview of journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon discussing how journalism has shifted from being a working class trade that held the powerful accountable to an elite industry that serves the upper class. She articulates that mainstream news has abandoned and divided the working class by creating a culture war around identity and race. Elites shaping the news industry benefit from this political polarization, which hides the tragic reality of income inequality that affect all races across political lines.
Is President Trump pushing gender-confused kids to commit suicide? This shocking claim hit mainstream and social media within minutes of the president's Jan. 28 executive order banning federal funding for child sex-change treatments. The way the argument goes, if kids can't get puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries, their mental health will deteriorate to the point of no return. But as I've seen while working with more than 1,000 such kids, there are deeper reasons why they're so unhappy – and giving them powerful experimental drugs and irreversible surgeries is more likely to worsen their condition. From 2018 to 2022, I worked as a case manager for the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital. As kids kept coming back for follow-up check-ins and treatment – almost every kid who begins puberty blockers goes on to receive cross-sex hormones – I realized something was very wrong. When my colleagues and I asked about their mental health, they usually reported that it was the same or better. But as soon as we dug deeper, it became clear that the real answer was no – that their mental anguish was worsening. We ignored or explained away co-morbidities like autism, depression and bipolar disorder while using every new development or difficulty in a kid's life to justify continuing down the sex-change road. In my experience, kids typically find the "treatment brings happiness" mantra of their doctors, nurses and case managers hard to see through. Some literally couldn't look themselves in the mirror, even if they physically looked the part of a boy-turned-girl or vice-versa. While activists insist that kids simply "know who they are," reality is more complicated.
Note: This article was written by Jamie Reed, a queer woman married to a trans man. Many transgender medical care experiences can indeed be life-changing and even life-saving, yet not all experiences align with the mainstream narratives. Reed isn't the only whistleblower who's worked in the field of youth transgender medicine. Even advocates who publicly promote gender medicine for kids question its ethics behind closed doors. Watch our nuanced 25-minute Mindful News Brief on the controversy surrounding youth gender medicine. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on transgender medicine.
October 4th, 2018, was a busy news day. The only thing that did not make the news was an announcement by a little-known government body called the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board – FASAB – that essentially legalized secret national security spending. The new guidance, "SFFAS 56 – CLASSIFIED ACTIVITIES" permits government agencies to "modify" public financial statements and move expenditures from one line item to another. It also expressly allows federal agencies to refrain from telling taxpayers if and when public financial statements have been altered. To Michigan State professor Mark Skidmore, who's been studying discrepancies in defense expenditures for years, the new ruling ... was a shock. "From this point forward," he says, "the federal government will keep two sets of books, one modified book for the public and one true book that is hidden." I spent weeks trying to find a more harmless explanation for SFFAS 56, or at least one that did not amount to a rule that allows federal officials to fake public financial reports. I couldn't find one. This new accounting guideline really does mean what it appears to mean. Late last year ... we saw an incident in which two employees of the National Reconnaissance Office and the NSA were arrested for procurement fraud in Colorado in a case involving a classified signals intelligence program. In that instance, the site turned out to be owned by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Note: Learn more about unaccountable military spending in our comprehensive Military-Intelligence Corruption Information Center. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption.
Since their liberation from a dictatorship Dec. 8, Syrians have been in a cheering mood. People in the capital gave a hero's welcome to a grassroots rescue organization widely seen as the country's most selfless, trusted, and impartial group: the Syrian Civil Defense, otherwise known as The White Helmets. This band of some 3,000 unarmed and local volunteers, who wear white headgear, has saved more than 129,000 people during 13 years of civil war. They have rushed to bombed-out buildings to search for survivors – whether they be children, terrorists, or soldiers of the regime. After they served as first responders, they would then clear rubble, rebuild homes, and restore communities. Even though some 10% of them have been killed, the volunteers hold fast to their motto (a verse in the Quran): "Whoever saves one life, it is as if they have saved all of humanity." Its leader, Raed Al Saleh, says the group's neutrality and independence have been an important shield. "We existed before all these armed groups and we continue to exist based on the power of the people," he told Berkeley News in October. Now The White Helmets wants to help Syrians "shake off the dust of war," he said in a video on the social platform X. That effort includes their help in freeing political prisoners, clearing land mines, and preserving documents of the regime's abuses. "The Syria of peace and civilization will return to you," said Mr. Saleh.
Note: Check out our video on transforming the war machine, highlighting the stories of courageous individuals and groups who channel their skills into service and solidarity. Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive healing the war machine.
While praying for world peace and an end to national, ethnic, and religious conflicts is a good start, as Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby remind us in their recent book, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew, actions are more important than words. Getting involved with and supporting organizations that fight discrimination and promote peaceful dialogue can do more to change the world. The Carter Center in Atlanta is guided by the principles and its founders, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, and it has a commitment to human rights as well as preventing and resolving conflicts, enhancing freedom and democracy, and improving health. One of the ways, the Carter Center advances its mission is by observing elections (125 elections in 40 countries so far), and working in countries such as Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Haiti, and the Middle East. While The Carter Center is primarily focused outside the United States, during the recent polarized presidential election, it created a series of pro-democracy, sports-themed ads that were centered on the idea that we may not like the same teams, but we love the game and believe that everyone should adhere to its rules. The campaign sought to push the message of American unity into unexpected places where audiences might be more open to it, such as in Sports Illustrated, and professional baseball and football programs.
Note: Check out our video on transforming the war machine, highlighting the stories of courageous individuals and groups who channel their skills into service and solidarity. Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive healing the war machine.
Filmmaker [Titus Kaphar] has many reasons to smile. The premiere for "Exhibiting Forgiveness" attracted attendees such as Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey. The visually sumptuous movie examines what it takes to pardon wrongdoing. Famously, Mr. Kaphar was in his mid-20s when he decided to become an artist. The spark? An art history class in junior college. Mr. Kaphar taught himself how to paint by visiting art museums. In 2001, he completed an MFA degree at Yale. He was awarded the "genius grant" in 2018. Yet for all the artist's success, he was secretly having panic-attack nightmares about his father. "The thing that was the revelation is that my father is not the villain of my narrative," says Mr. Kaphar, who'd left home to live with relatives in California after witnessing his father commit a "heinous" act. While completing the script, Mr. Kaphar started writing and thinking from the perspective of La'Ron, the father. Mr. Kaphar realized that there are very few true villains in this world. "I began to realize that my father is as much a victim as I was. My father suffered at the hands of his father and, in fact, did better than his father," he says. "That was difficult for me to accept initially. But by the time I got finished, it was just clear. It was absolutely clear. It meant that I have developed a new compassion and sympathy for my father." Like his proxy character in the movie, Mr. Kaphar has let go of resentment toward his father. It had a healing effect. "Since the film, I haven't had any more of those nightmares," says Mr. Kaphar. "I haven't had one for almost two years now."
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the power of art.
President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The executive order ... also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term. Speaking to reporters, Trump said, "everything will be revealed." Trump had promised during his reelection campaign to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. Trump has nominated Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be the health secretary in his new administration. Kennedy's father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 as he sought the Democratic presidential nomination. The younger Kennedy has said he isn't convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy, in 1963. The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to release the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually be released. Most researchers agree that roughly 3,000 records have not yet been released, either in whole or in part, and many of those originated with the CIA.
Note: Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the dark truths behind the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on political assassinations.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., will lead a new task force focused on the declassification of federal secrets – including records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other documents in the public interest. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., appointed Luna to chair the "Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets." Comer and Luna sent letters to the State Department, Department of Energy and the CIA for documents relating to the origins of COVID-19; the National Security Agency and CIA for records relating to JFK, MLK and RFK assassinations; the Department of Defense and the CIA for 9/11 files; and to the Justice Department for documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein. The creation of the task force comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order telling the director of national intelligence ... to present a plan for the full and complete release of all JFK assassination records within 15 days. He also ordered that officials immediately review the records relating to RFK and MLK assassinations and present a plan for their full and complete release within 45 days. "We have spent years seeking information on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Senator Kennedy, Reverend King, and other government secrets without success," Luna told Fox News Digital. "It is time to give Americans the answers they deserve."
Note: Read our comprehensive Substack investigations covering the dark truths behind the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and the connection between Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations.
Drugs were the elephant in the room during the failed U.S. war in Afghanistan. Because opium was such a large part of the poor and war-torn country's economy, the fighting between the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan republic often looked more like a turf war between rival narco gangs, with the U.S. military protecting some opium fields and bombing others. Afghan farmers were happy to take USAID's help while continuing to grow opium. For example, opium cultivation increased by 119 percent in the Kandahar Food Zone between 2013 and 2015, after USAID helped expand the irrigation systems there. A USAID-funded charity in Kenya allegedly covered up rampant sex abuse of children, and USAID funded a second charity in the Central African Republic a month after a major sex abuse scandal broke. The Children of God Relief Institute, which ran an orphanage for Kenyan children affected by AIDS and similar projects, received high praise from the U.S. government. From 2013 onward, USAID gave the institute $29.3 million. In 2021, a whistleblower told USAID that the charity was harboring a dark secret. USAID's inspector general soon determined that Children of God Relief Institute officials "knew or should have known of multiple incidents" of child sex abuse "but failed to take effective remedial measures to address the abuse." In some cases, the victims were forced to apologize for provoking their own abuse, The Washington Post reports.
Note: Watch our latest video on government waste, where we take a thoughtful look at the current political landscape and explore powerful solutions that have the potential to tackle wasteful spending and restore financial freedom. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on the war on drugs.
High-level executives with the NFL's New Orleans Saints football team and the NBA's Pelicans basketball team had a deeper role than previously known in connection with a list of priests and deacons faced with credible allegations of child molestation. According to highly sensitive emails ... one top executive even described a conversation with the New Orleans district attorney at the time that allowed them to remove clergy names from the list. The initial allegations about the emails led to local and national media investigations, including by Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press, that highlighted a fierce closeness between the sports franchises and the Catholic church in New Orleans. [Senior vice president of communications for the Saints and Pelicans Greg] Bensel sought to convince media outlets to limit their scrutiny of a list that turned out to be so incomplete it eventually precipitated a joint federal and state law enforcement investigation into whether the archdiocese spent decades operating a child sex-trafficking ring whose crimes were illegally covered up. After first seeing the so-called Saints emails in 2019 through a subpoena, abuse survivors' attorneys alleged that the two franchises' top officials had a significant hand in trying to minimize what was then a public-relations nightmare for the city's archdiocese – but has since triggered a full-blown child sex-trafficking investigation aimed at the church by law enforcement. A [2019] newspaper article about a local deacon and alleged serial child molester thrust [New Orleans archbishop Gregory] Aymond into the center of the global Catholic church's clergy-abuse scandal. The article questioned how the deacon, George Brignac, had been allowed to keep reading scripture at masses ... after he'd been arrested multiple times on child molestation charges.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on sexual abuse scandals.
The Duke of York was in contact with the US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein longer than he had previously admitted, emails published in court documents appear to show. "Keep in close touch and we'll play some more soon!!!!" said an email sent to Epstein from a "member of the British Royal Family", believed to be Prince Andrew. The court documents, from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), show the email as being sent in February 2011. In his BBC Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew had said he had not seen or spoken to Epstein after going to his house in New York in December 2010. Prince Andrew is believed to have first met Epstein in 1999, through Epstein's friend Ghislaine Maxwell. The following year, in June 2000, Epstein and Maxwell were among guests at a party at Windsor Castle. Later that year, Prince Andrew held a birthday party for Maxwell at Sandringham, with Epstein in attendance. The relationship appeared to continue, with Epstein attending another Windsor Castle party in July 2006. Between those times, in 2008, Epstein was convicted in the US for procuring a minor for prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. After Epstein left prison, Prince Andrew met him in New York in 2010. Andrew said this meeting was to end their relationship. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on charges of the sex trafficking of minors. He died in prison. In November that year, Prince Andrew ... stepped down from royal duties.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking ring.
The Donald Trump administration has started sending flights of undocumented migrants in the United States to Guantanamo Bay. The US has ... previously used a Guantanamo Bay camp to detain certain migrants, but Trump's use is different, immigration experts have said. On January 29, Trump signed a memo directing the departments of defence and homeland security to expand the Migrant Operations Centre at Guantanamo Bay to "provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States". Historically, the US has used Guantanamo Bay to hold migrants stopped at sea. Now, Trump is sending people who were detained on US soil. Trump says he plans to detain 30,000 people. That many people haven't been detained at Guantanamo Bay since the 1990s. Migrants at Guantanamo Bay lack "access to basic human necessities, appropriate medical care, education, and potable water," the [International Refugee Assistance Project] said in [a] report. Migrants don't have access to unmonitored calls with lawyers and can't candidly speak about poor conditions at the naval base. "The US government intentionally uses Guantanamo in hopes of avoiding oversight and the public eye, which makes the facility ripe for abuse," [interim senior policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project Hannah] Flamm said.
Note: Explore our comprehensive news database on the dark history of Guantanamo Bay. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on immigration enforcement corruption.
I'm really annoyed, on behalf of the journalist Charles Piller, about the release date of his book "Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's." Piller ... presents copious evidence of severe fraud, negligence, and buck-passing in Alzheimer's research. From fabricated images published in major research journals (many of them still unretracted) to data manipulation conducted by pharmaceutical companies to complete negligence on the part of federal watchdogs, Piller's reporting demonstrates indisputably that the field of Alzheimer's research is in sorry shape. Journals ... have proved quite reluctant to retract papers that seem to plainly warrant it, while universities have frequently closed ranks around researchers credibly suspected of fraud rather than engage in prompt and thorough investigations. Journals and individual researchers not only are loath to correct or explain errors but are often unwilling to even respond to basic questions about their work. That's the problem with demanding that people "trust" science just because it calls itself science, or just because it's being conducted by an institution or an individual bearing impressive-seeming credentials. More deference is not the answer, because undue deference lies at the root of almost every major scandal in science. Why should you trust a journal that refuses to correct its errors or a university that protects a star researcher credibly accused of fraud?
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on corruption in science.
Logan Sowell's suicide in July 2021 is one of at least seven in the past five years involving the Marine Corps' stable of drill instructors, according to military casualty reports obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. In 2023, three occurred at Parris Island within less than three months. A study completed by the Marine Corps in 2019 found that during the previous decade, 29 drill instructors either ended their lives or openly acknowledged they had contemplated doing so – an aberration the study's authors characterized as startlingly high compared with the occurrence of suicidal ideation among Marines who had never held that job. Rates of addiction and divorce among drill instructors also were higher, researchers found. Critics and relatives of those who died accuse the Marine Corps of fostering an environment that contributed to their deaths. They describe routine 90-hour-plus workweeks, sleep deprivation and an always-on culture that frequently caused the job's requisite intensity to seep into their personal lives, igniting disputes with loved ones. Others detailed bouts of depression or alcohol dependency. The Marine Corps lacks adequate services for those who are struggling and need help, and tacitly condones a culture that stigmatizes those who seek it. "We put a drastic expectation on them to act perfect," said a Marine officer who has supervised dozens of drill instructors. This top-down pressure ... "causes this stress that trickles into their home life."
Note: Read about the tragic suicides and traumas of military drone operators. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption and mental health.
In January 2024, The GivingBlock, one of the largest crypto donation platforms, reported that crypto donations had reached more than $2 billion, projected to exceed $10 billion by 2032. Crypto donors, who are largely millennials, contribute on average 128 times more per donation than cash donors. By leveraging tax incentives like capital gain offsets to eliminate taxes on donations, crypto giving is as financially smart as it is impactful. But the benefits of crypto giving go far beyond the financial incentives. Social impact is embedded in the foundation of Web 3. This new economy is fueled by cutting out traditional middlemen, banks, and allowing transparent, secure, and borderless peer-to-peer payments. No ID or passport is needed. This allows people, especially the unbanked, to have full control of their assets with minimal fees. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has championed using memecoin momentum for good, saying, "I want to see quality fun projects that positively impact the ecosystem and the world." He donated nearly $2 million in memecoin winnings to charities, including $532,000 to the Effective Altruism Fund's Animal Welfare Fund and over $1 million to the United Humanitarian Front, an organization providing grants to humanitarian relief initiatives in Ukraine. New Story, a nonprofit building homes to alleviate homelessness worldwide, partnered with artist Brian Ku to release a limited edition series of NFTs where each sale provided a 3D house for a family in Latin America.
Note: Watch our latest video on the potential for blockchain to fix government waste and restore financial freedom. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.
Bitcoin usage in emerging markets is increasing rapidly. And while it's true that Bitcoin can be a better alternative for unbanked peoples who don't have the means, access, or even the basic proof of identity to open a bank account, it turns out its biggest benefit today for many people is that Bitcoin is censorship-resistant. In other words, government cannot throttle, control or monitor your behavior as they can in the legacy financial world. In 2020, protests against the government erupted in Lagos and across Nigeria because of the brutal and illegal actions of a unit in the police force. Within days, groups supporting the protesters had their bank accounts frozen. With no other option, they turned to Bitcoin, raising funds that sustained the movement. Peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions can be zero-fee, a big break from the much higher fees many in Africa are forced to pay for basic financial services, such as those for remittances, which are on average closer to 9%. Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation, has identified a number of other countries, including China, Russia, Belarus, and Myanmar, where the government uses the monetary and banking systems to silence dissidents. Recent deplatforming by big social media companies of certain groups and individuals ... has raised concerns about similar risks in financial services, where banks can limit access to bank accounts, credit cards, and so forth.
Note: Watch our latest video on the potential for blockchain to fix government waste and restore financial freedom. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.
The arrest of Telegram's founder and the takedown of Simply Bitcoin's Youtube channel for violating Youtube's "harmful and dangerous" policy ... speaks to the power of corporations to mediate the reach of speech. French authorities have claimed that Durov was arrested, for among other things, providing "cryptology" tools. States couch their control of virtual space as an extension of their physical authority. Platforms and individuals are held to account for "crimes" being perpetuated on virtual space. One common thread is ... the idea of "misinformation." Another is to use the most heinous crimes in a witch hunt - child abuse sexual material for example. Another favorite is "terrorism." Networks like Bitcoin and Nostr are more needed than ever. They both give people geographic arbitrage, the ability to operate without corporate leadership, and a hedge against state repression. The network cannot be shut down or threatened to change its rules as quickly and as easily as arresting one CEO. Is the idea of "decentralization" possible in a world where states can arrest CEOs and founders? Nothing can prevent somebody from exchanging funds with one another using Bitcoin or expressing something on Nostr. Usage of these networks in a peer-to-peer manner with an array of self-custody wallets and clients shows a popular demand for privacy, encryption, and transmitting value without the prying eyes of the state.
Note: Watch our latest video on the potential for blockchain to fix government waste and restore financial freedom. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.
Cryptocurrencies represent the marriage of decentralized networks (what we commonly know as the internet today) and assets like money. [Cryptocurrency] uniquely enables new solutions to otherwise intractable technological and social problems. Users often lose control over their personal information online, either all at once through platform hacks or bit-by-bit in the opaque world of online advertising and data brokers. A major issue is that the business model of big tech firms is advertising, creating an incentive to aggregate data into a single database, creating a "honeypot" for hackers. Blockchains can enable a new form of digital identity document for the web. Using these credentials, users can authenticate for services without having to divulge as much personal information. Traditional payment systems are often slow, costly and inaccessible to many. Cryptocurrencies backed by real-world currencies, dubbed "stablecoins," provide an efficient alternative for global transactions. In 2023, stablecoins accounted for $4.5 trillion of crypto transaction volume on blockchain networks. Even digital payments giant PayPal announced the launch of its stablecoin earlier this year. Traditional humanitarian aid often suffers from inefficiency, lack of transparency and corruption, undermining its effectiveness and trustworthiness. Blockchain offers a solution by providing a transparent, traceable and secure system for humanitarian aid. A recent UN pilot [provided] aid directly to families affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine. The entertainment industry is famously concentrated, causing writers and actors to recently go on strike ... demanding better pay and new contract clauses. Blockchain technology enables more democratic digital economies through non-fungible token (NFTs) marketplaces like Zora, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) like CreatorDAO, allowing creators and artists to take advantage of online marketplaces and earn fair compensation for their contributions.
Note: Watch our latest video on the potential for blockchain to fix government waste and restore financial freedom. Explore more positive stories like this on technology for good.
The C.I.A. has said for years that it did not have enough information to conclude whether the Covid pandemic emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan, China, or from an accidental leak at a research lab there. But the agency issued a new assessment this week, with analysts saying they now favor the lab theory. There is no new intelligence behind the agency's shift, officials said. John Ratcliffe, the new director of the C.I.A., has long favored the lab leak hypothesis. He has said it is a critical piece of intelligence that needs to be understood and that it has consequences for U.S.-Chinese relations. The announcement of the shift came shortly after Mr. Ratcliffe told Breitbart News he no longer wanted the agency "on the sidelines" of the debate over the origins of the Covid pandemic. Mr. Ratcliffe has long said he believes that the virus most likely emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Even in the absence of hard intelligence, the lab leak hypothesis has been gaining ground inside spy agencies. But some analysts question the wisdom of shifting a position in absence of new information. Five agencies, including the National Intelligence Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed that natural exposure most likely caused the epidemic. But they said that they had only low-confidence in their assessment. Until now, two agencies, the F.B.I. and Department of Energy, thought a lab leak was more likely. But their theories are different.
Note: For years, the lab leak hypothesis was labeled as "racist," " thoroughly debunked," and "something out of a comic book." If intelligence agencies are just now admitting the lab leak is â€more likely,' does that mean they were ignoring or covering up evidence–or just waiting for the political winds to shift? Watch our Mindful News Brief on the strong evidence that bioweapons research created COVID-19.
Important Note: 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.