More than 40 million borrowers are saddled with US federal student debt, and a record number—7.7 million—have defaulted on their loans. Some are making the drastic decision to leave the country and stop paying www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/b...

Make Science Great Again By Pedro Sánchez, Spain's PM

Prominent climate scientist resigns from NASA, citing Trump’s attack on science — Kate Marvel, a well-known author, joins an estimated 95,000 people who have left federal science agencies since he got the presidency again www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/c...

Welcome, American scientists: Europe, a haven for researchers struggling under Trump — Initiatives are multiplying in EU countries including France, Germany and Austria to attract the talent being driven away by the US policies english.elpais.com/science-tech...

US professors are changing what they teach, even far from Trump’s gaze — Rewritten syllabuses. Self-censored lectures. Stilted classroom discussions. Grant applications stripped of words that might infuriate MAGA censors , if they are submitted at all www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/u...

The Ig Nobel awards are moving to Europe after 35 years: ‘It has become unsafe for our guests to visit US’ — The satirical science prizes, rewarding the most surprising research of the year with the support of real Nobel laureates, will be held in Switzerland english.elpais.com/science-tech...

For Russia, the surge in oil prices after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran amounts to an economic windfall at a crucial moment. It's leaving the Kremlin well placed to emerge as one of the main beneficiaries of the conflict in the Middle East x.com/politicoeuro...

Though scholars today want their expertise and knowledge to be noticed by the public, many contemporary readers of academic books feel like the sages visiting Rabbi Jonathan ben Hyrkanos: “He lectured but they did not understand. He started pelting them with pebbles" www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

On the origin of our fascination with crystals — Enculturated chimpanzees can identify and distinguish crystals from other types of stones, transparency and geometric shape were the two attractors guiding chimpanzees and elicited exploratory behaviors www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

Researchers are responsible for raising their own funds through grants with success rates of 10%, an enormous short-term pressure to keep producing—to always have the next paper ready to publish. The optimized response is risk aversion open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

Door onze immigratiediensten laten doorlichten op Maga-sympathieën. Toegang eisen tot hun hele digitale hebben en houden, tot wel twintig jaar terug. Een like voor Trump & consorten is een enkeltje Rwanda.

Trump’s war on science: Europe should pick up talent fleeing US — To attract elite scientific talent, the approach must be twofold: •Appealing directly to scientists concerned with political interference in their research •Offering stable, ringfenced money www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

US citizens are leaving US in record numbers, replanting themselves and their families in countries they find more affordable and safe, voting with their feet to an unprecedented degree. A millions-strong diaspora is studying, telecommuting and retiring overseas www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

The growing number of US scientists moving to Spain: ‘My colleagues are having a very hard time’ — One in three recipients of the state-funded Atrae program comes from US english.elpais.com/science-tech...

Policing knowledge in University of Texas in Austin‬⁩—Scholarship that challenges white supremacy, colonialism, or state violence is labeled as divisive. Programs rooted in Indigenous, Latinx, and Black knowledge are consolidated, put under review, or dismantled www.texasobserver.org/ut-system-ne...

🌹💔 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/vide...

Palmerston, a cat who served as the “chief mouser” for Britain’s diplomatic service, has died in Bermuda. He was adopted in 2016 from a rescue center after he had spent a rough time on the streets, and tasked with mice in the Foreign Office’s headquarters www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/w...

Researchers are responsible for raising their own funds through grants with success rates of 10%, an enormous short-term pressure to keep producing—to always have the next paper ready to publish. The optimized response is risk aversion open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...

El miedo de los científicos en USA ha llevado a 'maquillar' proyectos para sobrevivir a la censura y los conflictos ideológicos. Investigadores extranjeros temen perder el estatus legal, no poder regresar al país tras estancias de campo, y deportaciones www.elperiodico.com/es/sociedad/...

Florida Universities partnered with ICE police, stoking anxiety among students. The agreements give university police departments, after training from ICE, authority to conduct immigration enforcement and access to databases to check immigration status www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/u...

What the US TikTok takeover is already revealing about new forms of censorship: It’s not what we can or cannot say that matters – rather, it’s whether what we say can get any visibility at all under the US-specific algorithm www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Human monogamy in mammalian context — How monogamous are humans? Somewhere between the European beaver and a meerkat royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

España logra atraer a una veintena de científicos punteros de Estados Unidos que huyen de la represión — Provienen de los laboratorios que están sufriendo la censura, los recortes y la represión del gobierno www.elperiodico.com/es/sociedad/...

“Do not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.” A Sumerian proverb, as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.

The warmongering & global destabilization - NATO, Greenland, Panama, Ukraine - aims to precipitate the suspension of law. Vance, Musk, Thiel et al see the advantages of an authoritarian regime as exemplified by China & think they can do it better. They imagine we'll be better for it. Trump agrees.

From 2021 through 2024, anti-gay bias in US rose by around 10%. Increases also appeared in bias toward Black, darker-skinned, older, disabled and overweight people, but not as starkly. These trends were distinctly robust among Americans under 25 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

Colleges and universities' enrollment in US hits 10-year high reaching 19.4 million. It has increased for the third straight year, fueled by community college growth — More Blacks, Asian, Hispanic US students, less US Whites, less foreigners www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

High-coverage genome from muscle tissue of a 14,400-year-old woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) that went extinct 14,000-years ago, found inside a permafrost-preserved wolf's stomach. No recent inbreeding despite their near-extinction then academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Poison in arrows from 60,000 years ago: Oldest evidence of its use in human weapons discovered. The oldest until now were 6,700 years old — The finding in South Africa identifies toxic alkaloids in these projectiles, used for hunting during the Paleolithic english.elpais.com/science-tech...

Human monogamy in mammalian context — How monogamous are humans? Somewhere between the European beaver and a meerkat royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

The Conservative overhaul of @utaustin.bsky.social is underway. The school has been brought to heel by conservative critics of higher education. It is part of a broader transformation at Texas' universities www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/u...

Trump’s pardons cover every conceivable form of corruption. He is doling them to crooks, cronies, campaign contributors, violent insurrectionists, child sex offenders, convicted drug dealers, and others open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

Cranial feathers of male golden (C. pictus) and Lady Amherst’s (C. amherstiae) pheasants significantly restrict their visual field relative to females and may impede their ability to gather information. In the vertical extent, the difference is 30° to 40° royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Hong Kong: How the Mecca of Chinese capitalism is attracting top Western scientists, courting international researchers with astronomical salaries and cutting-edge equipment english.elpais.com/science-tech...

Censorship and purges in US — A professor who showed a graphic labeling the MAGA slogan as covert white supremacy has been removed from teaching as ordered by a MAGA US senator under a new Indiana law meant to foster “intellectual diversity" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...

Charting the Decline in International Students to the U.S. — 19% globally, 12% less from China, 44% down from India www.nytimes.com/video/upshot...

Trump's corruption has felt like the dog that didn't bark for a while, politically speaking. But I wonder if looting the Treasury like he's Imelda Marcos could be the thing that finally gets people to pay attention

White House fails to entice top colleges to sign submission to MAGA policies in exchange of funds. The blackmail has been rejected by MIT, Brown, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Virginia, Dartmouth—Only @utaustin.bsky.social ‬⁩expressed "enthusiasm" www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Fossils found in Kenya shed light on the origin of human hands—Remains of ‘Paranthropus boisei’, who inhabited the earth 2.6 to 1.3 million years ago, reveal that they were capable of manipulating objects and food, climbing trees, perhaps making tools english.elpais.com/science-tech...

US government's foolish War on Basic Science — Cutting funding for gravitational wave studies won’t save taxpayers much but will jeopardize future scientific breakthroughs open.substack.com/pub/theunpop...

A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging — Unlike human cGAS, which inhibits DNA repair by homologous recombination in the nucleus, the naked mole rat enzyme has 4 amino acid changes that enhances DNA repair www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The University of Zurich said that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, known for their work in development economics, will move from the US to Switzerland, amid US government's attacks on universities www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/a...

M.I.T. is the first university to reject US government's blackmail to trade "favorable treatment" in exchange to cap international student enrollment, freeze tuition for 5 years, adhere to definitions of gender, prohibit anything to “belittle” conservative ideas www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Censorship and purges at US universities — ⁦‪Rutgers‬⁩ professor @mark-bray.bsky.social moving to Europe after threats from far-right groups accusing him of promoting antifa political violence www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’ I have been forced to move my classes online. If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

19% fewer international students traveled to US, the steepest decline since the pandemic. Nearly one in three U.S. international students are Indian. Their number started to decline last year. But this August, it dropped by an additional 44% www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

US government to mint $1 coins as legal tender in praise of #USdictatorInTheMaking with his face and words on both faces, allegedly in celebration of US 250th anniversary. That was declared illegal in a 1866 law, which enshrined an unbroken tradition www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/b...

What it takes for a working-class kid to get a college education— Sense of hopelessness is a primary driver of partisan hatred and inequality. For the past 40 years, US dropped higher education as a public good and privatized: $1.7 trillion in student debt www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

US government blackmails universities to get research funds, urging them to pledge support for Trump’s policies: to cap enrollment of international students, commit to strict definitions of gender, prohibit anything that would “belittle conservative ideas" www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

US government tackles science