Israeli forces used small aircraft to cross the border and spray high concentrations of the herbicide glyphosate over farmland in southern Syria and Lebanon, a new report has revealed. According to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the spraying halted the growth of several crops

About time there was a crackdown on this …. At its worst this is preying on the vulnerable selling snake oil . These sorts of pressures from the desperate are a huge part of what medical training and ethics is about … you have to say no a lot. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Undercover reporter offered fenbendazole and ivermectin as cancer treatment

A terminally ill man was offered the drugs by a stair lift salesman claiming they could shrink tumours.

bbc.co.uk

My column on how capital becomes a death cult. Faced with a choice between profit and human life, the radical right chooses profit. Then it tries to persuade us that mass death is what we want. It's the new phase of climate denial: accept your fate, earthlings. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Murderous heat, an endangered food supply, decimated landscapes: embrace the Mediterranean life | George Monbiot

As climate disaster stares us in the face, the radical right says ‘Embrace the Mediterranean life’. Embrace death, more like it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

theguardian.com

Mpox cases in Mayotte increase to 43 including 23 locally transmitted cases Read more at: https://beaconbio.org/en/report/?reportid=e30ac3e8-97d3-4606-8df7-fe4340535717&eventid=da483ceb-ac55-4211-b646-5f8a496885a9&utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialpost

I've been following the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DRC closely Many of the same challenges, delayed detection, conflict, mistrust, and under-resourced public health systems continue to shape the course of epidemics. bktitanji.substack.com/p/weve-seen-...

We've Seen This Ebola Story Before, We Cannot Afford to Repeat It

How delayed detection, conflict, funding gaps, and fading global attention allowed the largest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's history to outpace the response

bktitanji.substack.com

Hope this💉works, but would have been more excited if this were 2015 and Health Canada was talking about a pan filovirus vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada (instead stalled a decade ago for lack of Canadian funding & political will). www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

Health Canada authorizes mRNA vaccine trial for Ebola virus causing huge outbreak in Congo | CBC News

Health Canada has given Moderna the green light to launch a clinical trial for a vaccine targeting the Bundibugyo form of the Ebola virus, which continues to surge throughout the Democratic Republic o...

cbc.ca

Adam R Houston@healthlawadamh.bsky.social · 2w ago

This report could've prioritized action on Cdn innovation over rehashed talking points. Remember the 2014 analysis that the Public Health Agency of Canada had the technology to make a pan filovirus vaccine ( #Marburg & all #Ebola species incl. #Bundibugyo), but lacked the money & political will?

Mai Taha and I wrote this article on sonic cartographies of internationalism, now up on @antipodeonline.bsky.social! It traces how radio broadcasting was central to liberation struggles around the world, asking how sound draws out different maps of solidarity onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

"Grokipedia...mentions genetics more frequently than Wikipedia and hallucinates or misrepresents human genetics research...it asserts that genes are causal factors underlying group-level measures such as...crime rates" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

From Wikipedia to AI: Measuring 25 years of synthesis of human genetics research in the public-facing information ecosystem

Genetics research frequently intersects with ethnicity, nationality, and race, making it uniquely vulnerable to misrepresentation. Yet, 25 years after the initial sequencing of the human genome, there...

biorxiv.org

In the Israeli press today: a report reveals the Israeli army’s military positions in southern Lebanon, its destruction operations, and its readiness to stay in Lebanon for a year, or for 500 years.

Here is my article, which caused Jesse Singal to have wild hallucinations about what happens in neurology clinics.

The Anti-Trans Obsessions of “Skeptic” Michael Shermer:  Hallucinating Imaginary Demons to Empower Actual Villains, Once Again.

I want to demonstrate to Michael Shermer that it’s possible for men like us to not talk about trans people constantly. If I can do it, so can he.

sciencebasedmedicine.org

robin wonsley 4 mayor (i'm not her)@teefofgod.bsky.social · yesterday

i got like, three paragraphs into this article to find the link and. my god he's such a fucking moron. mediocre white guys can build entire careers on obsessing over kids' genders and genitals, and then use their upset at being correctly identified as odious little freaks as fodder for said career.

“Weizman shows how Israel’s invasion of Gaza included an intentional, systematic plan of destroying the conditions for Palestinian life and rebuilding the land into something available for Israeli resettlement.” I review Eyal Weizman’s new book @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/04/g...

The Architecture of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

A new book describes the destruction of Palestinian life street by street.

foreignpolicy.com

This piece (from 2024) has sadly aged pretty well. Gulf Cash & Influence in Africa: www.africanistperspective.com/p/gulf-cash-...

Gulf Cash & Influence in African States

There is enormous potential for Africa-Gulf relations to propel economic prosperity on both sides of the Red Sea; but only if both sets of leaders can overcome their lack of strategic ambition.

africanistperspective.com

Via @aixbiobot.bsky.social A Structural Antibody Benchmark of AlphaFold3 reveals Hallucinated Epitopes and a Bias for Orderness www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A Structural Antibody Benchmark of AlphaFold3 reveals Hallucinated Epitopes and a Bias for Orderness

AlphaFold3 has shown promise as a tool for predicting antibody-antigen binding, yet its performance across large datasets has not been fully characterized. In this study, 3401 experimentally validated...

biorxiv.org

🎥 SALC's @atillakisla.bsky.social spoke to Newzroom Afrika about our case challenging South Africa's arms exports to the United States. He discusses the latest developments in the case, including what the notice to oppose means and what comes next in the legal process. youtu.be/MjnPMXjeF0s?...

SALC challenges government over arms exports to the US

YouTube video by Newzroom Afrika

youtu.be

Violence is escalating across the occupied West Bank. The UN warned that attacks by Israeli settlers have reached their highest level since monitoring began in 2006.

Vigilante groups have been regularly targeting immigrant street traders, shops, salons, and also the local clinic in Yeoville. Read groundup.org.za/article/acti... by Kimberly Mutandiro

Activists go door-to-door to counter xenophobia in Yeoville

“Yeoville has become a hotspot for these xenophobes. They are instilling fear in immigrants”

groundup.org.za

On Jan. 11, Gregory Bovino watched as his Border Patrol agents dragged a man out of his car at a St. Paul Speedway, knelt on his back until he lost consciousness, and dragged his limp body into the back of a van. The man's name is Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano and this is his story.

Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano survived a violent arrest in St. Paul. It still haunts him. • Minnesota Reformer

The morning of Jan. 11 began for Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano with an ominous warning: The gas light on his Jeep Cherokee was glowing yellow on the dashboard. He didn’t want to go to work at the r...

minnesotareformer.com

Israeli settlers spit on and throw stones at Historic Armenian church in occupied Jerusalem

OVERLOOKED | Dr Hermann Reuter believes substance abuse is the country’s biggest health issue after HIV, but it's being ignored. Spotlight visited his NGO SAHARA in George to find out how he and his team are helping to change this. www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2026/08/03/d...

Dr Hermann Reuter says the biggest battle after HIV in SA is addiction - and it is being ignored

Dr Hermann Reuter did pioneering work treating HIV in the early 2000s in Cape Town and in the rural Eastern Cape. Today, his focus is substance abuse, which he believes is the country’s biggest health...

spotlightnsp.co.za

From Eko Atlantic to the Niger Delta, elite enclaves have become the defining spatial expression of Nigeria’s political order. africasacountry.com/2026/08/sove...

Sovereign rot

From Eko Atlantic to the Niger Delta, elite enclaves have become the defining spatial expression of Nigeria’s political order.

africasacountry.com

“They’re marketing labels. They’re about making more money for the chocolate companies,” she says. “They’re about tricking you into buying their product because you feel that it’s okay.” "All these problems are driven by greed and ignorance,” she says. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...

'Behind that treat is human suffering': The chocolate industry's 'dirty secret'

For decades, major chocolate companies have pledged to eradicate child labour. Four Corners discovered that in Ghana, the promises don't always match the reality.

abc.net.au

Africa’s Greater Horn region is facing a looming polycrisis fueled by conflict, prices, climate and disease theconversation.com/africas-grea...

Africa’s Greater Horn region is facing a looming polycrisis fueled by conflict, prices, climate and disease

The response to the many problems facing the region has been set back by cuts in humanitarian aid.

theconversation.com

@aljazeera.com reports that fighting has broken out in Western #Tigray: www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/... - what many of us have been fearing would happen...

Fighting breaks out in western Tigray as Ethiopia and TPLF trade blame

Clashes near Sheraro mark one of the most serious threats yet to the fragile 2022 Pretoria peace deal.

aljazeera.com

My job involves working out how to fund and organize progressive movements This book charts the evolution of and connections between far right figures. It illustrates how connected they are, how they fund each other, and how their beliefs have remained remarkably untouched since the 1930s

Some brief thoughts: 1. Discourse got polarised fast, not helped by some scientists (often not directly involved in response) speculating on how they'd run country 2. Media played role here – I gave up on interviews for some outlets, because would always start "is govt is getting everything wrong?"

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 4d ago

No need for anyone to agree with me - but some of the responses to this on here reminds me just how stifling and absolutist a period in our national discourse Covid was.

Remember when he called himself “a very stable genius”? Here’s a roller coaster recap of his insane war proclamations.

Mark Hamill@markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 3d ago

Hard to keep track of the number of times he's declared victory in his illegal war-of-choice. #86-47

A child is raped every 30 minutes in eastern DRC, accounting for up to 45% of survivors says @unicef.org. How many generations will pay the price? 📰➡️ healthpolicy-watch.news/sexual-viole... ✍️ @stefananderson.bsky.social @unfpa.org @hrw.org @msf.org @unocha.org @wfp.org @un-spexperts.bsky.social

Sexual Violence Surges In Eastern DRC As Conflict And Ebola Overwhelm Health System - Health Policy Watch

Panzi Hospital, a facility in South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo recorded an 85% increase in newly reported survivors of sexual violence in the first six months of 2026

healthpolicy-watch.news

Magical video by Mike Nulty (@nuttynulty on IG) of a whale shark (Rhincodon typus) off the coast of Baja, swimming through reflective plankton or debris that look like stars. Space whale-shark! 🦈✨ Let's talk about /actual/ glowing sharks, the lantern sharks of family Etmopteridae. (📷: Mike Nulty)

“Chevron just announced its highest quarterly earnings ever. Shell clocked its second-highest quarterly profits. And while ExxonMobil's profits came in beneath what Wall Street analysts had expected, it still managed to double its earnings compared with this time last year.“ Tax them into oblivion.🤬

Oil companies report sky-high profits thanks to wartime crude prices

Chevron reported its highest quarterly earnings ever. Shell had its second-biggest quarter, and ExxonMobil doubled its earnings compared with the same time last year.

npr.org

Riboseek is a fast RNA/DNA search. More sensitive than nhmmer at 250x speed. Structure-aware realignment produces MSAs approaching rMSA quality. Plus 1.7M precomputed RNA MSAs, and an API to search your own 📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 💾 github.com/steineggerla... 🌐 search.foldseek.com/riboseek