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[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.
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.
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.
“Kids don’t go on social media because they love social media per se,” the children’s author and National Year of Reading 2026 ambassador, Rob Biddulph says. “They go there looking for connection and for belonging – and for entertainment and inspiration.” The challenge, he says, is not to replace social media itself, it is to replace the things it provides. At the Scouts, Simon Carter says one of their biggest attractions is that they bring young people into contact with others outside their friendship circles. Film clubs, youth theatres and music projects offer similar opportunities: BFI film clubs bring young people together to make films in teams. Youth Music-supported projects include everything from DJing, podcasting and gaming to organising gigs. Libraries and bookshops can play a similar role: many now host gaming sessions, manga clubs, creative workshops, reading groups and book clubs. Youth organisations are not the only route to connection. Wilson recommends environmental activism for older children. John Glancy, of the National Trust, believes parents should start by asking their children why their favourite social media platform and video game appeals to them. “The answer might reveal they’re searching for a sense of identity, stimulation or a sense of achievement,” he says. “Once you know which it is, it becomes easier to find alternatives.” Joe Doherty, of Outward Bound ... recommends activities that offer rewards – be it novelty, progression or excitement.
Note: A 2025 study found that cutting social media use for just one week significantly reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia in young adults. Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining education and healing social division.
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.
A trove of internal records from a secret society for powerful figures in US politics, finance, and tech was left exposed online. The group, called Dialog, is a private, invitation-only organization cofounded in 2006 by the billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel. It convenes US officials, foreign government figures, and Silicon Valley executives at off-the-record annual retreats. Dialog has spent two decades declining to disclose its members. A directory in the website's code was first revealed by the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew. Known for exposing the US government’s No Fly List and breaching the surveillance-camera company Verkada, crimew tells WIRED the directory surfaced via an anonymous tip. The registration records list General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe and the head of US European Command, who took the post in July 2025 and is recorded on the leaked list as having attended Dialog gatherings since 2021. The website directory names sitting Trump administration officials, two US senators, six members of the Paypal Mafia, a former Middle East chief of intelligence, and a sitting ambassador to the United States, along with the founders and directors of many of the country's largest surveillance, data-broker, and advertising-data companies. What ties the roster together more than any title or office is a shared preoccupation with artificial intelligence, longevity, and the near future.
Note: Read how Thiel worked with the CIA to influence the origins of Facebook. 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. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech.
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.
The latest Pentagon release of UFO files contains several eyewitness accounts and video images that document the sighting of spherical objects or orbs, which is no surprise to whistleblower Jeremy Corbell and others who study “unidentified anomalous phenomena.” Floating orbs, sometimes exuding a glowing quality, have been regularly spotted “since the beginning of the UFO phenomenon,” [said] Corbell. And yet characteristics have emerged about these types of UAP over the years, Corbell notes. For instance, he said, orbs are thought to be made of plasma and harmful to humans. The plasma idea “aligns with the main theory of Ufology,” says Miguel Sancho, author of “Evidence of the Extraordinary.” Although spherical UAP appear to be round, there could be much more than meets the eye, Corbell said. “There is some understanding of the physics involved that it could be ‘cloaking’ a much larger craft and all you’re seeing is a pinpoint of light,” he said. One of the files unveiled Friday is July 2025 cellphone video of two red-colored orbs passing over a wooded area in the Northeastern U.S., where similar accounts emanated in recent years. Witnesses told investigators that one of the spheres contained a “white plasma ‘sun’ about the size of a basketball.” In a separate document from 2024, FBI agents operating in the same region recounted seeing UAP they described as pulsations of light. Agents took photographs, but the images reportedly were blurry.
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.
Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) whistleblower and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch accused intelligence agencies Tuesday of hiding billions of dollars in secret government spending from Congress. His investigation uncovered what he described as “slush funds” — pools of money allegedly operating outside normal congressional oversight channels — worth billions of dollars annually that were allegedly used to support activities operating outside normal oversight channels, Grusch said speaking at a Capitol Hill event alongside members of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. “This is also a real fraud, waste and abuse issue,” Grusch said. “During my investigation, I found slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities.” Asked what the government knows about nonhuman intelligence, Grusch claimed the government is aware of “several” different alien species. “It’s a continuum from corporeal bipedal type life to, you know, what I would consider is like sentient plasma life,” Grusch said. “But there are several that this government is aware of.” Federal investigators recently alleged that former CIA official David Rush used a fraudulent “special access program” as part of a scheme involving more than $40 million in gold bars and millions in government funds, drawing renewed attention to how highly restricted government programs can operate with limited outside visibility.
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.
A market investor who studies unidentified anomalous phenomena says fossil fuel industries would become obsolete if governments disclose forms of “zero-point energy” they’ve been developing in secret. Matthew Tuttle of Tuttle Capital Management tells “Reality Check with Ross Coulthart” that he believes whistleblowers who say the U.S. government and contractors are reverse-engineering recovered alien tech. It’s likely the U.S. and rival nations for decades have been developing ZPE to harness energy from the quantum field. “It will be a game-changer unlike anything we could ever imagine. There are going to be massive winners, and there are going to be massive losers,” Tuttle says. Tuttle suggests the U.S. has kept the project under wraps to protect major corporations that rely on conventional technology and energy sources. He said it’s inevitable that someone, even another nation, spills the secret on ZPE, but it won’t necessarily be ruinous for companies that suddenly find themselves dinosaurs. “It’s going to take years to retool everything. My car is not going to use zero-point energy tomorrow. I’m going to be filling up my car with gas for a very, very long time,” Tuttle said. His firm, which manages several “exchange-traded funds,” recently launched a new “UFO Disclosure” ETF that presumes new information about UAPs will come to light and, in turn, benefit certain industries. The obvious beneficiaries are defense contractors and their suppliers.
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.
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.
AI is projected to generate nearly unfathomable amounts of revenue. Any mention of AI tends to be accompanied by warnings that deeper jobs cuts across many more industries are coming for us all. Jensen Huang, CEO of chip giant Nvidia, said in 2025: “Every job will be affected, and immediately. It is unquestionable. You’re not going to lose your job to an AI, but you’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI.” Increasingly, people young and old flock to a new gold rush in Silicon Valley to toil away on AI-fueled startups. If AI’s worst-case scenario for tech jobs plays out ... that’s still nowhere near the apocalyptic future of labor that many fear. “Is it, in fact, going to destroy all of the jobs?” Naidu asked. “I’m not convinced. Even take software. Software is only about 4 to 6% of GDP. So it’s a lot, but it’s not like the whole economy can be replaced by Claude Code.” Convincing people that AI will replace human workers in droves is a clever marketing tactic. Not only does it stoke rabid investor speculation, but it distracts from a more realistic application of AI: to surveil and micromanage employees to squeeze yet more productivity out of them, all the while pressuring them to feel grateful that they have any kind of work. Gig workers, the people who pick you up in Ubers and deliver your food on platforms like DoorDash, have already been the guinea pigs for this kind of algorithmic management, and labor experts predict it will spread.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on AI and media manipulation.
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.
For decades, Congress has tried and failed to give Americans control over their own personal data: the right to see it, correct it, and delete it at will. This inaction has left Americans with no recourse against misuse of their own data, while the data broker industry quietly continues to collect and sell the personal information of millions, operating in a largely unchecked gray market. Now, two new bills, the SECURE Data Act and the GUARD Financial Data Act, offer the latest test of whether Washington can step up and finally pull data brokers out of the shadows and into the reach of the law. Efforts to prevent the SECURE Data Act — or any federal protections — from being enacted are currently on full display. Exacerbating the situation and further endangering consumers, there is an entire category of companies that have deliberately avoided being classified as data brokers in an effort to skirt even the patchwork of state-level regulations. Unlike traditional data brokers, massive data aggregators don’t sell your name and address to the highest bidder. Instead, they operate quietly, harvesting your data from across the internet, then assembling it into risk scores, behavioral profiles, and assessments of your creditworthiness. These opaque calculations increasingly govern your real-world outcomes, including whether you’re approved for a mortgage, the interest rates on your auto loan, and what services or products are marketed to you.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and the disappearance of privacy.
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.
The former chief investigations counsel for the House Oversight Committee has been helping to prepare Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, to testify privately in the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation on Wednesday. Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the committee, formally requested in March that Mr. Gates appear before the committee for a transcribed interview. His request came after files released by the Justice Department showed that Mr. Gates met with Mr. Epstein, the convicted sex offender, multiple times and that his closest advisers were in frequent contact with the disgraced financier until 2019, the year of his death in prison. In preparing for the deposition, Mr. Gates has turned to Jake Greenberg, who until December was spearheading the oversight panel’s Epstein inquiry in his role as the committee’s top investigative official. Mr. Gates’s close relationship with Mr. Epstein has roiled his foundation, which has authorized an outside review of its ties to Mr. Epstein. Representative Suhas Subramanyam, Democrat of Virginia, said in an interview that he wanted to know what Mr. Gates “knew of Epstein’s crimes, and the nature and extent of their relationship.” He added, “Epstein was known for befriending and even blackmailing rich and powerful men, and I want to know if Gates was one of them.” Mr. Gates has sought out powerful inside players to help him weather the scrutiny. He hired John Moran, a former lawyer for the Justice Department, who helped him secure an agreement with the committee for him to appear off camera, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Note: Don't miss part one and part two of our investigations into the Epstein files so far. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and Jeffrey Epstein.
For decades, regulators viewed chlorpyrifos — a pesticide widely used in the U.S. and around the world — primarily as a neurotoxin that disrupts signaling in the brain and nervous system. Growing evidence suggests chlorpyrifos may damage the brain, hormones, liver, gut microbiome, muscles, reproductive organs, and bones. Studies also link the pesticide to DNA damage and lasting changes in gene activity that may increase the risk of chronic disease. Together, the findings portray chlorpyrifos as what the reviewers call a “multi-system toxicant” that poses a more significant threat to public health than previously understood. It suggests the pesticide acts on the body in ways far beyond disrupted nerve signaling or obvious poisoning. Pregnancy and early childhood are especially sensitive periods for chemical exposure. “What has genuinely evolved over time is our understanding that chlorpyrifos causes harm in ways that go beyond its effects on the nervous system including damage to DNA, changes in how genes are switched on or off, interference with hormones, and disruption of the healthy bacteria that live in the gut,” said Dr. Dana Boyd Barr. current regulatory systems may not fully capture the complexity of chlorpyrifos’ dangers to the body. Many occur at levels too low to be detected by current safety testing, which looks for the disruption of an enzyme involved in nerve cell communication.
Note: Did you know that chlorpyrifos was originally developed by Nazis during World War II for use as a nerve gas? Read more about the history and politics of chlorpyrifos, and how U.S. regulators relied on falsified data to allow its use for years.
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 £1.5 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.
When Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he claimed one of his goals was the country’s “denazification.” The Kremlin still uses this narrative as a cornerstone of its war propaganda. In their zeal to deconstruct Russian propaganda, Western elites created a propaganda myth of their own: there are no Nazis in Ukraine. This fiction required the whitewashing of Azov, a unit founded in 2014 by the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine under the leadership of Andriy Biletsky. Azov became notorious for extremist ideology, Nazi symbolism, and allegations of war crimes in the Donbas. In 2018, the U.S. Congress banned the group from receiving American weapons, funding, or training. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, that stigma vanished almost overnight. Kyiv repackaged Azov [as] the 3rd Assault Brigade. Western media rebranded and whitewashed it. Questioning this narrative became taboo and labeled as “Russian propaganda.” Neo-Nazi networks are deeply embedded in parts of Ukraine’s military structure. Some Ukrainian military units have incorporated Nazi-linked symbols into their official insignia. The Zelensky government — and President Volodymyr Zelensky himself as commander-in-chief — have made a political bargain with the far right. Since 2022, far-right activists and networks have flooded into the security and defense sector. In conditions of total war and chronic manpower shortages, this alliance ... is becoming entrenched. Ukraine’s Western partners ... tolerate extremists inside Ukraine’s armed forces as long as those extremists continue fighting.
Note: Our Substack, Working Together To End the War On Peace in Ukraine, investigates how US collaboration with extremist nationalist groups and neo-Nazis in Ukraine helped contribute to today's Russia-Ukraine war. We also provide evidence that US and NATO policies, covert intelligence agency operations, media censorship, and corporate profiteering have fueled the conflict while blocking genuine peace efforts. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on war and military corruption.
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