This is a nonstop flow of dishonesty, elision, and language games. Conflates basic research with development work, says that private capital is somehow free of political bias, gets the history of drug development wrong. It just ain’t so. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

New by me —> Now we're getting AI fake news complaining about how AI fake news is the death of real news! How a fake news site splits its energy between (a) the imagined closure of real US newspapers and (b) Chinese-friendly takes on Taiwan www.niemanlab.org/2026/07/now-...

omfg lol

SEVEN HOURS AND FORTY-THREE MINUTES and 77,077 people in front of me, but I have secured tickets to see, in the British Museum, the Bayeux Tapestry, which I was forced to study as a blazer-wearing student in UK boarding school — twice, because it counted for history class AND needlework class.

The British Museum opened ticketing today for the visiting Bayeux Tapestry and is currently experiencing a Ticketmaster situation.

Big swings!

Change in Headline

Mpox is evolving: once rare & largely animal-borne, it’s now spreading globally w/ new transmission patterns. Modeling shows how outbreaks can jump beyond core networks & how targeted vaccines & rapid tracing could curb spread. Prevention & surveillance remain key. journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

My monthly update on next generation Covid vaccines is online now @plos.org — with a new streamlined structure I hope makes it easier & quicker to read. News on a major UK grant supporting a UK/US collaboration on a vax from Stanford Uni, plus ...1/2 absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2026/06/29/m...

I am enraged and sad at the sale of @sciam.bsky.social, which caused the layoffs of many excellent journalists including my editor @jfischman.bsky.social. Josh coached and shepherded me through multiple long SciAm features including two cover stories. He made my work so much better and I am bereft.

This spot-on prediction of the future of the reflecting pool was published one month ago.

#Ebola cases have surpassed 1,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where health workers are becoming infected before anyone realizes they’re treating the deadly virus www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

France is warning that the solstice weekend — longest days therefore least nighttime cooling — will bring a heatwave unrivaled since that of 2003, in which 15,000 people died. www.lemonde.fr/planete/live...

you guys, I think I might have figured out the problem. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...

Shift drink: Reflecting Pool 1oz rum 1oz mezcal .75oz lime .75oz honey barspoon matcha muddled mint

Fascinating thread.

<Sees a new Chotiner> <Cancels meetings, toggles Do Not Disturb, puts dog in back room, settles in> Oh. Oh my. What? What?? (Never disappoints.)

An important thing to remember is not just that Trump's deal with Iran is "worse than Obama's," but that Obama's negotiation of the JCPOA was explicitly good while Trump's surrender after starting and illegal undeclared war against Iran is explicitly bad.

The Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of the most sacred places in the Orthodox Christian world, is being consumed by flames right now after a Russian strike

It’s worth mentioning in every news story that this deal is substantially worse for the US, and far more lucrative for Iran, than the Obama nuclear deal Trump blew up almost a decade ago.

Russia has attacked Ukraine’s capital with a massive barrage of missiles and drones, damaging a 950-year-old cathedral and monastery, just hours after an hour-long phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. ft.trib.al/XuwFGHQ

Pointing out, for anyone who gardens conventionally, that Scott's Miracle-Gro is bannered across that railing.

1. Progressive Champions PAC, a super PAC created last month, says on its website that its mission is to “elect bold, progressive candidates up and down the ballot.” A Popular Information investigaiton reveals that it's a GOP front group. Following along for receipts. 🧵

Please make sure this photographer's name is attached to all your RTs of this moment. What a shot.

Meanwhile, almost half of Mainers can't make ends meet: truthout.org/articles/nea...

A Friday night news dump AND a watch party AND it's cocktail hour in DC: www.cnn.com/live-video-8

The new situation report on Ebola in the DRC records 676 confirmed cases including 136 deaths. That's 41 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, most of them from Ituri province and 12 from North Kivu. Worth noting that outbreak is still expanding into new health zones. 🧪 insp.cd/sitrep-n27-m...

The Trump admin claims recent screw-worm infestations are because Biden let migrants across the border. Screw worm flies live about 20 days. The larvae live about 7 days. Human infestation is rare. Biden left office 1.4 years ago. DOGE gutted #USAID which had a program for preventing #screwworm.

Because narrative moves people and policy mostly doesn't, journalists search endlessly for people whose personal stories embody issues. This story accomplishes that brilliantly: The most expensive house in the UK, and the quirky unhoused man on its porch. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Striking graphic in this latest Reuters piece, which finds that while President Trump and his family have profited by at least $2.3 billion since he retook the presidency, their more than a million investors have suffered $2.3 billion in net losses. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

New World screw worm has now crossed a state border from Texas to New Mexico. Five total identifications now. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/06/scre...

Still naive enough to be shocked when a national-level political leader admits he has no evidence to back up an assertion of catastrophic corruption. Even McCarthy pretended to have a list of communists somewhere.

“It is a certain kind of person who sees early and easy access to books as a bad thing.” And we can all be very clear what kind.

We are so used to the idea that antibiotics are there to protect us. But that protection is precarious and antibiotic resistance is a global problem. New @nature.com, @smjyoti.bsky.social explains how antibiotics developers are using #AI to design new weapons. 🦠🤖🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Oh. Well. USDA's own analysis: In the last TX outbreak (in 1976, crossing from Mexico, before coordinated action pushed the infection border down into Central America), the cost to the TX cattle economy was $329mm. That's $1.8 BILLION in current dollars. www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/defaul...

This is *insane*. How do you close down one of the busiest parts of one of the busiest cities in the world.

Incredible headline: No walking allowed in heart of Midtown for Monday's Knicks game

Bravo to @ryanlcooper.com and The American Prospect for this deep cut. DOGE was so destructive that it was almost impossible to keep track of everything they undermined. But one indicator of what they destroyed is when something like screwworm pops up because they nuked the prevention program.

Canada has suspended imports of Texas beef. And that was before the announcement today of TWO NEW cases of New World screwworm, doubling the total to four, in different parts of the state. farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/06/cana...

These are 200 miles apart.

I find it curious that Mike Lee is now taking the position that the government should not be weighing in on matters of religious doctrine, despite joining an amicus brief in the Fifth Circuit that urged the court to uphold the Ten Commandments in public schools, now that he's on the receiving end.

BREAKING: in May 2026, *every single one* of the 599 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 6,665 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November 2025), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

<rolls up sleeves> <settles glasses on nose> A successful claim of slander requires the statement to be false. <gathers notes, leaves>

This is bad. The parasitic New World screwworm has been found inside the United States, in a calf in Texas. Announced by the USDA one day after the USDA Secretary publicly rebuked a Texas state rep for saying the parasite had advanced close to the border. www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-...

I don’t have words for how despicable this is. Revolting and vile.

Shouting and honking just started so I guess PSG got that penalty kick?

The incidence and prevalence of #LongCovid worse than anticipated in the US, with 1 of 6 persons affected, and of these 89% had at least 1 chronic condition requiring management. From 58 hospitals, 4 regions, 457,950 patients. Prevalence increased thru mid 2024. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Every metropolitan area in the US has their own version of a horror movie gerund. In Atlanta, it's The Pollening. In Boston, it is Storrowing. (If you don't think that's horror material, you have never been on Storrow Drive when a too-tall truck getting stuck backs the road up for miles.)

wtf come on

I unironically love this intvw that @nymag.com did with designer Todd Snyder, about the genesis of the 2008 J.Crew suit that relaunched menswear for the 21st-century. This isn't just fashion, it's cultural history and iconography. Really worth it. nymag.com/strategist/a...