This new group, which is led by Harvard professor Avi Loeb, aims to advise the Trump administration and the U.S. intelligence community, as well as to publish its findings in peer-reviewed journals, reports Adam Kovac. archive.ph/PYULR www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

A teacher who spends much of his time touring schools in Surrey and Sussex talking about how to combat the impact of the "Mansophere", says parents contact him constantly worried about what their sons are looking at online. www.itv.com/news/meridia...

From diamond-shaped craft to intergalactic eggs, the Star reveals the UK's weirdest UFO sightings as experts demand the government open its alien files, reports Liam Randall. archive.ph/ZrG6g www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-n...

The nature of space, time and the evolution of life on Earth mean it’s unlikely extraterrestrial life has visited our home planet, writes Carol Oliver. theconversation.com/aliens-might...

The latest MAGA push against Pride Month isn't just aimed at LGBTQ+ people. Critics say “Nuclear Family Month” rhetoric casts judgment on most modern American families — straight and queer alike, wites Amanda Marcotte. www.salon.com/2026/06/29/n...

Dan Adler reports from the Disclosure Forum on Capitol Hill, where members of a sprawling community of national security experts and alien conspiracists gathered to celebrate how far they’ve come. archive.ph/3v5ZD www.vanityfair.com/story/disclo...

The short answer is that there’s nothing to disclose. But that doesn’t mean we won’t make contact with extraterrestrial life, writes Seth Shostak. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A Harvard University cosmologist who has suggested alien life forms could be sailing into the solar system disguised as meteors is leading Trump’s secretive new scientific advisory panel on security risks posed by UFOs, reports Richard Luscombe. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Tucker Carlson got explosive headlines after telling Canadian podcast “Can’t Be Censored” that “there’s no chance I would support the Republican Party” in the upcoming midterms. The former Fox New host envisions a more radical Republican Party, reports Amanda Marcotte. www.salon.com/2026/06/26/t...

The UK’s culture and media department will stop using X because the site “now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate”, Lisa Nandy has announced, reports Peter Walker. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

The Florida Republican questioned whether USAID was used to "further MKULTRA," while her colleagues fixated on Covid conspiracies, reports Anna Merlan. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Anti-vaxx Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stacked another federal advisory panel with allies, advancing his efforts to force the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its stance on a dozen popular but unproven injectable peptide drugs, reports Beth Mole. arstechnica.com/health/2026/...

A humanitarian crisis is developing in Venezuela after twin earthquakes killed and injured thousands. Meanwhile, social media posts have falsely pinned the events on the HAARP, based in part on an old video depicting laser beams that AFP determined is fabricated. factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com....

Formation talk could all be a massive waste of time - after some conspiracy theorists claimed the competition is scripted - with the winners already decided, reports Sian Hewitt. archive.ph/6VlK1

Research identifies four key challenges of being in a relationship with someone who holds conspiracy beliefs, writes Vinita Mehta. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/head...

A new book argues that many of the world’s oldest people aren’t so old after all, writes Dhruv Khullar. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Vance says Nixon was a deep-state victim. But it was courts, Congress and the press that did, him in writes Leonard Downie Jr. archive.ph/E9jnk www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

A little-known Maga loyalist with no intelligence background has been tasked with cutting the department built to prevent another 9/11, alarming experts, reports Michael Evans. archive.ph/Os6Bi www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

This week's net.wars, "International relations", sees the arrival of "Schrems III", when SCOTUS put US agencies under US president's control, plus a recap of talk this week at @cambskeptics.bsky.social, a rerun of April at @profchrisfrench.bsky.social : netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/07/03/i....

Hannah Murray claims the leader of what she describes as a "wellness cult" told her she was possessed by a demon, leading her to seek treatment that eventually landed her in a psychiatric ward, reports Angel Saunders. people.com/game-of-thro...

Michael Gove's famous claim that we've "had enough of experts" helped define the Brexit era, but was the man himself a credible authority on the subject? www.cambridgeskeptics.org.uk/post/left-wa...

I know we're all being nice about Penelope Keith, deservedly, as she seems to have been a hard working trooper, delighting her audiences (and I hope she found this amusing) but Russell Brand believing and repeating that she shot Kennedy when she was at the time on stage in Stratford....

Learn how to spot the strict separatism, censorship, anti-intellectualism, autocratic control, and co-dependency that fundamentalist religious cults mandate, reports Araya Baker. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beyo...

Michelle "Jamie" Zajko, an alleged Zizian cult follower, has been charged with murdering their parents, reports Kory Grow . www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

A young woman has told a court she was brainwashed to such an extent that she feared being "sent to hell" if she carried out her plan to escape from a cult in New South Wales, reports Grace Crivellaro. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06...

The former director of national intelligence — and MAGA member — allegedly took orders on politics from her guru, reports Heather Digby Parton. www.salon.com/2026/06/25/t...

The Army, Navy, and Air Force are once again requiring basic trainees to get vaccinated against influenza after the virus quickly swept through an Air Force base in Texas, sickening at least 222 recruits and hospitalizing four, reports Beth Mole. arstechnica.com/health/2026/...

As a heat wave sweeps across Europe, claims are resurfacing online questioning whether sunscreen is safe or linked to skin cancer risk, reports Thomas Sparrow. www.dw.com/en/is-your-s...

An 'explosion of misinformation' is paving the way for the return of preventable and deadly childhood diseases, according to a top Liverpool academic Professor Louise Kenny, reports Jonathan Blackburn. www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

Night vision scopes and cage traps are ready to be deployed to catch an escaped exotic pet, reports Owen Sennitt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New research published in the British Journal of Psychology suggests that holding an exaggerated sense of superiority about one’s social class tends to foster belief in conspiracy theories regarding psychological help, reports Eric W. Dolan. www.psypost.org/social-class...

Millions of Americans are currently in the grip of extremism, writes cult expert Harrison Hill. But don't be complacent about cults in the UK. www.bigissue.com/culture/book...

After leaked excerpts, interviews and revelations, Trump unloads on Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's new book, reports CK Smith. www.salon.com/2026/06/28/t...

Inspiring confidence about their ability to manage new risks? Not a strong suit of Biden or Trump, writes Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. archive.ph/XOZMn www.wsj.com/opinion/gove...

Nixon’s offenses were not a deep-state invention. But in the age of Donald Trump, and in a fractured media environment, voters have become more inured to political scandal, writes Matthew Purdy. archive.ph/GEy3z www.nytimes.com/2026/06/27/u...

The vice president said that the scandal that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency would be “like a 12-hour news story” if it happened today and that the “deep state” had taken down Nixon, reports Emily Davies. archive.ph/K7If7 www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/u...

Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame, reports Sam Kean. archive.ph/SHae7 www.science.org/content/arti...

Official White House and Defense Department social media accounts are reportedly posting messages using QAnon slogans and imagery. Erin Burnett talks to Will Sommer, the reporter who broke the story. edition.cnn.com/2026/06/25/u...

Move for greater prominence on social media comes as ministers warn online misinformation risk becoming ‘existential for our democracy,’ reports Michael Savage. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

An outdated air-conditioning law, a viral health myth about sleeping with the fan on and the age-old climate change hoax allegation: DW checked what's spreading in Europe's heat wave. www.dw.com/en/fact-chec...

QAnon’s truest believers have turned on President Donald Trump over a week-long White House social media blitz stuffed with the conspiracy movement’s catchphrases, reports Will Neal. www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-faithf...

What really happened to Betty and Barney Hill, Travis Walton, and others who claimed alien abductions? Six of the most famous cases continue to blur the line between unexplained events and modern folklore, reports Courtney Linder. www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a714...

An extreme heatwave sweeping across Poland has triggered a wave of misinformation peddled by climate change deniers, including claims that shadowy global elites are controlling the weather, reports Maria Kamińska. tvpworld.com/94046120/mis...

The US fighter pilot rescued by commandos after he was shot down by Iran in April has described how Iranian drones swarmed him in what appeared to be a “jellyfish” formation before he ejected from his plane, reports James C. Reynolds. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/m...

Mental health misinformation is rampant online. Learn what increases the risk of harmful consequences and what supports discernment as you wade through the mess, writes Taylor Neff. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyc...

America’s penny press transformed journalism in the 1830s, using hoaxes, sensationalism, and mass circulation to create a blueprint for modern media, writes Alex Wright. bigthink.com/books/the-18...

The Trump administration launched a bizarre QAnon-themed social media campaign this week, using QAnon slogans like “trust the plan” and even a fake Q post to promote Trump executive orders on “quantum computing,” reports Will Sommer. www.thebulwark.com/p/even-qanon...

Vice President JD Vance expressed sympathy for former president Richard M. Nixon, suggesting he was wrongly forced out in 1974 and comparing his political travails decades ago to those facing President Donald Trump now, reports Dan Diamond. archive.ph/do0IU www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

As a new study reveals the true extent of conversation therapy in the UK today, LGBT+ minister Olivia Bailey reflects on the lifetime of abuse she has been subjected, and her hope this draws a line under it happening to future generations. archive.ph/W6pdN www.independent.co.uk/voices/conve...

The heatwave scorching western Europe is the most severe and widespread ever and is only possible due to the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning, scientists have said, reports Damian Carrington. www.theguardian.com/environment/...