All Activity

🇬🇷 Pic to go! Photo: Christopher Ullman Longtime Axios reader Christopher Ullman of Alexandria, Va., snapped this sunrise pic while at a family wedding in Koufonisia, Greece, earlier this month.

Train your nose Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios Exercising your sense of smell may help preserve brain health as you age. Why it matters: Smell is arguably the least valued of the five senses. American students say they'd rather lose their sense of smell than their hair, phone or even a pinky toe. But researchers see this sense as both an early indicator of cognitive health and a potential way to keep the brain sharp, Richard Sima writes for The Washington Post (gift link). 👃 Zoom in: Losing your sense of smell is often one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, sometimes appearing a decade before other symptoms, Sima writes. But it's not just a sign. Training your nose can boost cognitive function by improving neuroplasticity, or how well the brain can change itself, according to early research in Neuropsychology Review. 🍋 How it works: Try sniffing a range of different scents for about 20 seconds at a time, once or twice a day. You can buy smell training kits, but you can also just take in all the wonderful smells you encounter every day. Common smell training scents are lemon, rose, eucalyptus and clove, Sima notes. But you could also pay closer attention to the smells of your morning cup of coffee, your lawn after a fresh mow or your favorite dessert in the oven. Grab blindfolds and turn smell training into a game to play with kids or grandkids. The bottom line: As Sima puts it, "stopping to smell the roses is good life advice."

Here is a good explanation of the issue..

Well, I try to make it easy for my sabbath school class. I tell them to look up this verse and if its not in their Bible, then it comes from a corrupt line.. Acts 8:37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

💥 Jeffries outnumbered House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries found himself in a rare position today: Voting with a minority of his own members against a measure to cut U.S. aid to Israel. Why it matters: The vote, in which 103 House Democrats supported the measure and 98 opposed it, signals just how much the party has evolved on Israel this year amid growing political pressure from the left. 🥊 What they're saying: Some liberal groups were quick to hit Democratic leadership for largely opposing the amendment. "Today's vote put Democratic leadership at odds with their own caucus, their own voters, and the growing consensus that Congress cannot continue writing blank checks for [Israeli leader Benjamin] Netanyahu's government," said Indivisible spokesperson Leila Miller. Unlike Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) — along with 102 other Democrats — voted for it. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP "yes" vote. Between the lines: Many Democrats felt political pressure to vote for the measure despite misgivings about its substance. 🗳️ Lawmakers noted that several incumbents have already been ousted this year by left-wing primary challengers who said they were insufficiently critical of Israel. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), a battleground-district moderate, said in a post on X that he expects "groups like AIPAC will not support me in my future elections and frankly, I don't want their support." Pressed on whether he would fully cut ties with AIPAC, Ryan wrote, "Yes, don't want their endorsement and returning the funds." It's a new low for the pro-Israel group, which has reached virtual pariah status with the Democratic primary electorate this year. 😡 Ahead of the vote, passions were running high among House Democrats over Netanyahu's conduct in Gaza — and the way he has explained his government's actions. "I think he has lied to our faces," Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said today at an Axios News Shapers event. Dean also said it was a "shame" that Netanyahu had "convinced the president to go to this reckless war of choice in Iran." — Andrew Solender and Hans Nichols

Maine protests after ICE fatally shoots a motorist, in photos Maine residents protest the fatal shooting of a Colombian man by an ICE officer in Biddeford on Monday. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since President Donald Trump launched his deportation crackdown. Read More. ICE should keep making traffic stops despite recent shootings, Trump says President Donald Trump wants Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to keep pulling over vehicles, signaling his opposition Wednesday to plans announced just a day earlier to suspend most traffic stops following another string of fatal shootings. Read More.

House Republicans unveil a $95 billion plan for the Iran war, farm aid and elections House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a $95 billion legislative plan focused on boosting defense, aiding farmers and enacting stricter voter registration rules, a sequel to the massive tax and spending cut bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last year. Read More. ⚾️ Vance whiffs Vice President JD Vance's pitch to House Republicans this afternoon did little to ease concerns over Speaker Mike Johnson's $95 billion reconciliation package, leaving GOP leaders with work to do ahead of a planned floor vote next week. Why it matters: Johnson's conference members remain uneasy about the lack of spending offsets, and disagreements persist over the details of their signature election bill. Republicans hold a razor-thin majority, so a handful of defections could sink the measure. ☠️ "It's DOA," Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) told us. 🥪 "Five-dollar footlongs are $12. People know that a lot of this is the debt. The deficits cause big debt, and overall, this debases the money. This is part of what's driving the affordability crisis." "A no-offset plan is dead-on-arrival, because, frankly, three of us would kill it," Davidson added. 🚗 Driving the news: Vance spent roughly an hour with House Republicans pitching the legislation and taking questions, according to multiple members in the room. Asked afterward why the package lacks offsets, Vance told reporters: "Ultimately, we decided this legislation, for a whole host of procedural reasons, was not the place in order to codify some of the things that we're doing in the anti-fraud task force." 🖼️ Johnson has been framing the lack of pay-fors as necessary to maximize the package's chances of success in the Senate. "I don't know if I buy all of that," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said when asked about Johnson's argument. House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told Axios that "yes," he's confident the measure will get through his committee, where it's up for a vote tomorrow. But Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who sits on the panel, told us he's "undecided." "I think the stupidest thing to do would be to try to jam it through committee when we've got bigger problems on the House floor," Roy told reporters. "And I think that might be the current state of affairs." Another Budget Committee member, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), who has privately complained about being left out of last weekend's Camp David negotiations, also remains wary of the package. 💰 The lack of offsets isn't the only headache for Johnson. His proposed SAVE America Act provisions aren't going far enough for some conservatives, either. For them, a proposed grant program to incentivize states to pass voter ID laws is insufficient. "That's just free money for Florida," Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) said of the grant program. Blue states "will never take the grant money. I'm not a big fan of carrots. I like sticks." Yes, but: Senate Republicans have warned that including the full SAVE Act would likely fail to meet the parliamentary standard for reconciliation bills in the Senate known as the "Byrd bath." That isn't swaying some House conservatives. "I don't worship at the altar of Senate procedure," Fine said. Senate Republican leaders remain broadly skeptical of a third supplemental spending package, and rank-and-file senators are already signaling they want changes to the House bill. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who will replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham as chair of the Budget Committee, is warning that the Senate may insist on offsetting at least some of the spending. "I've got other members on the committee that also insist on offsets," he told Politico. "Offsets would be a desired goal," Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said. Others are pushing for a more ambitious package. "I think it should be bigger," Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said. Still, some Republicans say they want to give the House room to finish its work before drawing battle lines. "We're going to try and get her done," Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told us. "We thought they would have offsets in there. We're a little surprised they weren't." — Kate Santaliz and Hans Nichols

US Mint produces a $1 coin bearing Trump’s face to help celebrate America’s 250th birthday WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint has begun producing a new $1 coin bearing President Donald Trump’s face to help celebrate America’s 250th birthday, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/trump-gold-coin-treasury-us-mint-d4e8b5fb44bd899ea6dfa53f6744a2f0?

Sanctioned former President Michel Martelly returns to Haiti as some cheer Former Haitian President Michel Martelly returned to Haiti on Wednesday, making a rare visit to his homeland. Read More.

Donald Trump endorses 'Pillow Man' Mike Lindell for Minnesota governor President Donald Trump has endorsed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell for Minnesota governor, praising him as “one of America’s greatest and most hard working Patriots” and giving formal backing to a fellow election denier a day before the Republican president delivers a national address he says will focus on election security. Read More.

⚽️ More than a match Today's England vs. Argentina World Cup semifinal is the latest saga in a rivalry shaped by disputed goals, national humiliation and war, Axios' David Adkins writes. 🪖 Britain and Argentina fought the Falklands War in 1982 over islands that Argentina calls the Malvinas. 649 Argentines, 255 Brits and three islanders were killed in the conflict. ⚽️ Four years later, Diego Maradona delivered one of the World Cup's most extraordinary performances, scoring both the illegal "Hand of God" goal and the "Goal of the Century" in Argentina's 2-1 quarterfinal win. Maradona later described the victory as revenge: "More than defeating a football team, it was defeating a country." 🟥 Argentina again eliminated England in 1998 after David Beckham's infamous red card. Beckham answered with a game-winning penalty kick in 2002. How to watch.

🪙 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled new images of a proposed $1 gold-colored coin featuring President Trump to commemorate America's 250th anniversary. Go deeper. ps:Just absolutely pathetic!!!!! 🚔 President Trump said ICE should keep doing traffic stops, despite reports that his administration has mostly suspended them after two deadly shootings. Trump wrote on Truth Social: "I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job." Go deeper.

🔥 Smoke season The HRRR model's near-surface smoke predictions through later this week. Image: NOAA Air quality across the Midwest and Northeast is plummeting as wildfire smoke from Minnesota and Canada is pushed eastward and falls to ground level. That's alongside a continuing "heat dome," causing a dangerous combination of high temperatures and poor air quality for millions. ☀️ Thick smoke could actually suppress temperatures by blocking sunlight. Yet smoky air brings its own health risks, especially for sensitive groups. 🚒 Dan Westervelt, associate professor at Columbia University's Climate School, tells AP that severe drought conditions combined with heat in Canada and the U.S. have created "a perfect storm for really dry conditions to provide a lot of fuel for these wildfires to burn." Researchers have found that climate change made past major wildfires both more intense and more likely. Go deeper.

Trump's CDC cut tracking of 'explosive diarrhea' parasite before 2026 outbreak FoodNet, a CDC-led federal collaboration, made tracking the cyclospora parasite optional in 2025. Claim: In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration cut surveillance of cyclospora, a parasite that causes an intestinal disease called cyclosporiasis, of which thousands of cases were reported across the country in 2026. Rating: True Context In 2025, FoodNet — a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and state health departments created in 1995 — made surveillance of cyclospora, the parasite that causes cyclosporiasis, optional. Snopes could not determine whether this directly led to the 2026 outbreak, and neither the CDC nor the Trump administration has responded for comment as of this writing. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cyclospora-parasite-trump-cuts/? ps:All he does is make decisions that benefit his billionaire friends! Nothing to benefit the people and those that voted him in!!

Stan, we are in a fourth turning. The last forth turning was the great depression in USA. There will be many changes taking place. I had an older friend back in Michigan. He told me about the time of the depression there was a popular movement towards socialism. He was a young man then. His opinion was that it almost succeeded. Way to close. I suspect that this experiment will continue. Let's hope people wake up before it's too late.

I have watched many videos on this event. In my opinion, the reason so many people died, was they were caught off guard. It was a slow moving disaster. The water slowly kept rising. They did not expect this. Many were drawn to the water out of curiosity.

Researchers have uncovered a hidden feature beneath the Pacific Ocean that helps explain why Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami became so destructive. The discovery also offers new clues that could improve forecasts of future megaquakes and tsunamis. A new study found that a thin layer of soft, clay-rich sediment beneath the Japan Trench played a critical role in the disaster. Located just below the seafloor, this unusually weak layer allowed the fault to rupture all the way to the trench during the 2011 "megathrust" earthquake. As a result, the seafloor shifted by an extraordinary 130 to 200 feet, helping generate the massive tsunami. "That's equivalent to the entire area between Los Angeles and San Francisco moving 130 to 200 feet in just six minutes," said Christine Regalla, an associate professor in Northern Arizona University's School of Earth and Sustainability and a co-author of the study. "We've never seen anything like that in the time we've been observing earthquakes. Based on what we understood, we didn't think that could happen." The research, led by Regalla and more than a dozen scientists from around the world, was published in Science. Hidden Clay Layer Beneath the Japan Trench Most large earthquakes begin much deeper below Earth's surface. Regalla explained that when tectonic plates shift, the rupture that produces an earthquake usually occurs far underground. For example, the rupture that caused the 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake in the Pacific Northwest in 2001 started about 32 miles beneath the seafloor. The 2011 Japan earthquake was very different. The rupture reached only about 15 miles below the seafloor, allowing the fault to break much closer to the ocean bottom. The resulting magnitude 9.1 earthquake triggered one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Japanese history, killing nearly 20,000 people and causing more than $200 billion in damage. To understand why this happened, researchers traveled to the western Pacific aboard the research vessel Chikyu. They drilled about 26,000 feet into the ocean floor, recovered sediment samples, and analyzed the material. Guinness World Records recognized the expedition as the deepest scientific ocean drilling project ever completed. The samples revealed a 100 foot thick layer of pelagic clay, an extremely soft, slippery sediment formed over millions of years as microscopic particles slowly settled to the seafloor. Sandwiched between much stronger rock layers, the clay acted like a natural "tear line" that concentrated the rupture along a narrow path. "At the Japan Trench, the geologic layering basically predetermines where the fault will form," said study co-author Patrick Fulton, an associate professor in Cornell University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "It becomes an extremely focused, extremely weak surface, which makes it easier for ruptures to propagate all the way to the seafloor." Why the Discovery Matters Because this pelagic clay layer stretches for hundreds of miles along the Japan Trench, researchers believe the region may be more vulnerable to shallow slip earthquakes than previously thought. Regalla said understanding where these weak layers exist could improve scientists' ability to identify areas capable of producing the largest earthquakes and tsunamis. "An earthquake and tsunami in Japan doesn't just impact people who live locally -- it also impacts people at the ports and people who live across the ocean," Regalla said. "Think about Hawaii: Their most devastating tsunamis come from Japan and Alaska. These are truly global events." Improving Earthquake and Tsunami Forecasts The researchers hope the findings will help scientists better understand where powerful earthquakes and tsunamis are most likely to occur. That knowledge could help policymakers strengthen building codes, improve earthquake resistant infrastructure, update evacuation plans, and better prepare communities for future disasters. "Japan is one of the world leaders in earthquake and tsunami preparation, but even they weren't prepared for what happened in 2011," Regalla said. "We all need to gain a better understanding of where these events might happen in the future. Only then can we make emergency plans that will keep everyone safe."

Regular exercise may benefit the heart in a way scientists are only beginning to understand. Beyond improving cardiovascular fitness, new research suggests that moderate aerobic exercise reshapes the nerves that regulate the heart. The findings could eventually help doctors develop more precise treatments for common heart conditions. Researchers from the University of Bristol (UK) found, for the first time, that regular aerobic training changes the heart's controlling nerves differently on the left and right sides of the body. The study, published in Autonomic Neuroscience, uncovered a striking left-right difference that may one day improve treatment strategies for irregular heartbeats, chest pain, angina, and stress-induced 'broken-heart' syndrome. Study lead author Dr. Augusto Coppi, Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Bristol, said: "The discovery points to a previously hidden left-right pattern in the body's 'autopilot' system that helps run the heart. "These nerve clusters act like the heart's dimmer switch and we've shown that regular, moderate exercise remodels that switch in a side-specific way. This could help explain why some treatments work better on one side than the other and, in future, help doctors target therapies more precisely and effectively." Exercise Alters Heart-Control Nerves The project was carried out in collaboration with University College London (UCL) in the UK, the University of São Paulo (USP), and the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in Brazil. Using advanced three-dimensional imaging techniques known as stereology, the team examined how exercise changed nerve clusters that help regulate heart function. After 10 weeks of training, rats that exercised had about four times as many neurons in the cardiovascular nerve cluster on the right side of the body compared with the left, relative to untrained animals. At the same time, neurons on the left side nearly doubled in size, while those on the right became slightly smaller. These findings suggest that exercise remodels the heart's nerve network in different ways on each side. Potential Benefits for Heart Treatments Dr. Coppi explained: "Irregular heart rhythms, known as arrhythmias, stress-induced 'broken-heart' syndrome, and certain types of chest pain are often treated by dialing down overactive stellate ganglia - the paired small nerve hubs in the lower neck/upper chest area that send 'go faster' signals to the heart. "By mapping how exercise changes these ganglia on each side, the study offers clues that could one day fine-tune procedures like nerve blocks or denervation to the side most likely to help. The findings are early-stage and in rats, so clinical studies would need to follow." Although the research is still in its early stages and was conducted in rats, the results raise the possibility that future therapies could be tailored to target one side of these nerve clusters more effectively than the other. That approach could improve treatments for arrhythmias, stress-induced 'broken-heart' syndrome, and difficult-to-treat angina. Next Steps for the Research The researchers now plan to investigate how these structural changes affect the heart's performance both during exercise and at rest. They also intend to determine whether the same left-right pattern appears in other animal models and in humans using non-invasive markers. Dr. Coppi added: "Understanding these left-right differences could help us personalize treatments for heart rhythm disorders and angina. Our next step is to test how these structural changes map onto function and whether similar patterns appear in larger animals and humans."

A new machine learning system has flagged more than 250,000 cancer research papers that may be connected to so called "paper mills." The study, published in The BMJ, examined 2.6 million cancer research papers released between 1999 and 2024. It was led by QUT researcher Professor Adrian Barnett, from the School of Public Health and Social Work and Australian Centre for Health Services and Innovation (AusHSI), together with an international group of collaborators. The researchers found that more than 250,000 papers contained writing patterns similar to those seen in studies that had already been retracted over suspected fabrication. "Paper mills are companies that sell fake or low-quality scientific studies. They are producing 'research' on an industrial scale, and our findings suggest the problem in cancer research is far larger than most people realized," Professor Barnett said. How Paper Mills Produce Fake Research Paper mills sell authorship positions and, in some cases, complete ready made scientific papers. These studies may contain reused text, unusual or awkward language, and fabricated data or images. "Most likely, they're relying on boilerplate templates which can be detected by large language models that analyze patterns in texts," Professor Barnett said. To search for these patterns, Barnett and his colleagues trained a language model called BERT. The system was designed to identify subtle textual "fingerprints" that repeatedly appear in known paper mill products. When evaluated using verified examples, the model correctly detected suspicious papers 91 percent of the time. "We've essentially built a scientific spam filter," Professor Barnett said. "Just like your email system can spot unwanted messages, our tool flags papers that match the writing style and structure we see in retracted, fraudulent work." Suspicious Cancer Papers Have Surged The large scale analysis revealed several major trends: Flagged papers rose sharply over the past two decades, increasing from about 1 percent in the early 2000s to a peak of more than 16 percent in 2022. The suspected problem appears across thousands of journals published by major companies, including journals with strong reputations and high impact. Suspicious papers were especially common in areas such as molecular cancer biology and early stage laboratory research. Certain cancer types, including gastric, liver, bone and lung cancer, had particularly high rates of flagged studies. Journals Begin Testing the AI Tool Three scientific journals are already testing the system as part of their editorial review process. The goal is to help editors identify potentially fabricated manuscripts before they are sent to outside experts for peer review. The researchers also plan to adapt the tool for use in other scientific fields. They expect its accuracy to improve as more confirmed examples of paper mill activity become available. However, the team emphasized that papers identified by the system should not automatically be treated as fraudulent. The results are warning signals, not confirmed findings of misconduct, and each case still needs to be reviewed by human experts. Why Fake Research Can Harm Patients "Cancer research influences clinical trials, drug development and patient care," Professor Barnett said. "If fabricated studies make their way into the evidence base, they can mislead real scientists and ultimately slow progress for patients. That's why it's vital we get ahead of this problem."

Commonly used sweeteners can directly interfere with the growth of bacteria that help support a healthy gut, according to laboratory research from the University of Cambridge. The strongest effect appeared when researchers combined isosteviol, a sweetener used by the food and beverage industry, with the antidepressant duloxetine. Together, the two compounds sharply reduced the growth of two important bacterial species associated with digestive health, blood sugar regulation, and immune function. The scientists caution that the experiments were conducted in a laboratory rather than in people. More research will therefore be needed to determine whether the bacterial changes lead to meaningful health effects under real-world conditions. Sweeteners May Not Be Biologically Inactive Sweeteners are found in countless everyday products, including soft drinks, candy, desserts, breakfast cereals, snacks, and some medications. They are commonly promoted as alternatives that provide sweetness with less sugar or fewer calories. However, growing evidence has linked sweetener consumption with conditions including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cancer. These associations do not prove that sweeteners directly cause those diseases, and researchers are still working to understand the biological processes that might explain the connections. One possible factor is the gut microbiome, the enormous community of bacteria and other microorganisms living in the digestive system. These microbes help break down food, produce useful compounds, train the immune system, and influence metabolism. Changes in the number or balance of these organisms may affect health throughout the body. Despite the widespread use of sweeteners, relatively little research has examined whether they directly affect individual gut bacteria. Professor Kiran Patil from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge said: "Most of what we know about the potential impact of sweeteners on our health comes from animal research or from population studies. While these studies have indicated involvement of the microbiome in mediating the effect of sweeteners, it's difficult to know how sweeteners act in the body -- is it through direct interactions with our gut bacteria?" "Answering this is further complicated by the fact that we rarely ever take sweeteners by themselves -- we take them with drinks, in snacks, or even in medication to mask bitterness," added Dr. Sonja Blasche, a lead author of the study, also the MRC Toxicology Unit. Testing 39 Sweeteners Against Gut Bacteria For the study, published in Molecular Systems Biology, Dr. Blasche and her colleagues investigated how artificial and low-calorie sweeteners influence gut bacteria. They also examined whether those effects change when sweeteners are mixed with substances commonly encountered in foods, drinks, and medicines. The team grew 25 bacterial species separately in the laboratory. The selection included bacteria considered beneficial, neutral, or potentially harmful. Each species was then exposed to 39 commercially used sweeteners, including both natural and artificial varieties. The researchers monitored how quickly each bacterial culture multiplied and whether its growth slowed or stopped. About three-quarters of the sweeteners affected the growth of at least one bacterial species. Several reduced or completely halted the growth of bacteria associated with a healthy digestive system. These findings suggest that some sweeteners are not simply inactive substances that pass through the digestive tract without interacting with the organisms living there. More Than 100 Unexpected Interactions People rarely consume a sweetener in isolation. It may appear alongside caffeine in a beverage, flavoring in a dessert, or an active ingredient in a medication. To recreate some of that complexity, the researchers paired the sweeteners with substances including caffeine, vanillin (vanilla extract), advantame (an artificial sweetener), and eight commonly used drugs. The team identified more than 100 cases in which a sweetener's effect changed when another compound was present. The combined effects became stronger in 34 cases and weaker in 68 cases. This means that the impact of a particular sweetener may depend partly on what else is consumed at the same time. Antidepressant Combination Stood Out The most dramatic result involved isosteviol and duloxetine, an antidepressant prescribed to treat depression, anxiety, and certain types of chronic pain. When used together, the compounds strongly suppressed Roseburia intestinalis and Parabacteroides merdae. Both species are considered important members of the gut microbiome and have been linked to digestive health and metabolic regulation. Duloxetine is widely used. More than 4.2 million patients in the US received prescriptions for the drug in 2023. Studying bacteria one species at a time can reveal direct effects, but the human gut is a crowded ecosystem in which microbes constantly interact. To better reflect those conditions, the scientists constructed a simplified microbial community containing all 25 bacterial species. They allowed the community to develop and then exposed it to different combinations of sweeteners and drugs. The team tracked which species became more abundant, which declined, and whether the community retained its overall variety. Gut Microbial Diversity Declined The combination of isosteviol and duloxetine reduced microbial diversity within the synthetic community. Greater diversity is generally considered a feature of a resilient and healthy gut microbiome, although the ideal microbial composition can vary between individuals. The combination also changed the community's internal balance by allowing some bacterial species to flourish while others declined. Additional experiments suggested that these changes increased toxicity toward certain host cells. They also disrupted the activity of other cells involved in inflammation and immune responses. These results raise the possibility that interactions between sweeteners, medications, and microbes could influence more than digestion alone. However, the simplified laboratory system cannot fully reproduce the complexity of the human body. Dr. Blasche said: "Sweeteners are often marketed as metabolically neutral, but our study challenges this idea. We found that they can directly affect gut bacteria, particularly when mixed with other compounds such as medication and food additives. These common combinations could have unintended effects on our gut microbiome." Human Studies Are Still Needed The researchers emphasize that the findings should not be interpreted as proof that sweeteners or the tested combinations cause harm in people. The experiments involved bacteria and cell models under controlled laboratory conditions. In the human digestive system, sweeteners may be absorbed, chemically altered, diluted, or broken down before reaching particular microbes. Diet, genetics, medication use, and the existing composition of a person's microbiome could also change the outcome. Future studies will need to determine whether similar interactions occur in humans, what doses would be required, and whether any microbial changes produce measurable effects on health. Professor Patil, the study's senior author, added: "Our study suggests that artificial sweeteners don't just pass through the body passively -- they can interact with gut microbes, and these effects can be amplified or altered by other substances like medications. These findings can help guide new studies towards understanding how sweeteners might influence health in unexpected ways." The research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 program and the UK Medical Research Council. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260716023552.htm

There are rumors that he died in Ukraine. Rumors that the plant he visited was blown up by Russian rockets and the Hotel where many VIP's stay was also blown up.

A Crisis of Civic Credibility (Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / Getty)   View in browser You know that conspiracy theories have gotten out of hand when even Donald Trump thinks so. Yesterday in the Oval Office, reporters asked the president about FBI Director Kash Patel’s statement that his agents were assisting in an investigation into Senator Lindsey Graham’s death. Trump said the matter was simple: Graham had fallen victim to a heart problem. “What happened is actually something that’s very hard to detect,” he said. “I don’t see a lot of evil there. I know there’s all sorts of conspiracy theories going along. And I don’t think the FBI—I think the FBI’s wasting their time if they’re doing that.” Despite Trump’s effort to tamp down rumors, speculation about Graham’s death continues to spread, especially among Republicans. The MAGA influencer and self-proclaimed McCarthyite Laura Loomer suspects that Graham was murdered, but Marc Thiessen, a Washington Post columnist and former George W. Bush speechwriter, has questions as well. Patel is a MAGA insider and veteran conspiracist, but John Cornyn—an establishment senator who lost Trump’s support and then a primary in May—also wants to see a toxicology report “to rule out any foul play.” At the same time, Mitch McConnell’s prolonged absence from the Senate is inspiring conspiracy theories as well. The senator’s office released a photograph Sunday night that was intended to quell rumors, and it even included a copy of that day’s Washington Post, like a proof-of-life picture of a hostage. The image was immediately dissected by would-be sleuths who wondered whether it was an AI-generated deepfake or some other kind of fabrication. (The Post acquired the original photo from McConnell’s office and says that metadata appear to show it was taken Sunday.) Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who has seldom met a wild hare he won’t chase, went on the right-wing channel Real America’s Voice and said, “I’ve just heard from some other sources that was an older photo. So I really don’t know.” One can hardly be surprised that so many MAGA-aligned voices are leaping to unproven theories. (I have seen members of the public and media on the left also casting doubt on McConnell’s status, but no comparable remarks by Democratic lawmakers.) A conspiratorial bent has long suffused the right, but Trump made it core to his appeal. His 2016 campaign centered on the ideas that foreign countries were sending criminals to the United States and that Hillary Clinton was engaged in an elaborate uranium scheme with Russia. More recently, his rallying cry is the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The president can scarcely complain about the FBI wasting its time when Patel espoused conspiracy theories before his appointment, and when agents have been reinvestigating (yet again) the 2020 election results in Georgia. Fringe ideas find fertile territory in Congress, where roughly two-thirds of House members have joined the chamber since Trump won in 2016. This MAGA tendency has exacerbated a broader trend toward low trust in American society, which both preceded and contributed to Trump’s rise. “When people in a society lose faith or trust in their institutions and in each other, the nation collapses,” my colleague David Brooks warned in a 2020 essay. “In periods of distrust, you get surges of populism; populism is the ideology of those who feel betrayed. Contempt for ‘insiders’ rises, as does suspicion toward anybody who holds authority. People are drawn to leaders who use the language of menace and threat, who tell group-versus-group power narratives. You also get a lot more political extremism.” In such an environment, many people are slow to believe official explanations, whether they take the form of medical examiner’s reports or photographs issued by senatorial offices. Distrust has been further exacerbated recently by the rise of artificial intelligence. Disinformation and misinformation experts who spent years telling the public to be on guard against deepfakes are now trying to convince the public that the McConnell image is real. They weren’t wrong to be concerned before, but it’s easy to see how years of warning, combined with a social-trust deficit, contribute to the proliferation of doubt. I see this even in people around me whom I’ve never known to be suspicious or susceptible to baseless rumors. I see it in myself at times. The situation reminds me of a famous old bit called “Of Course—But Maybe” by the comedian Louis C.K. “I have, like, the thing I believe—the good thing, that’s the thing I believe—and then there’s this thing and I don’t believe it but it is there.” That has become the modern American condition. Skepticism of authority is prudent; excessive skepticism is corrosive. But it’s hard to tell when you’ve crossed that barrier, especially when everyone around you is wrestling with the same question. Trump’s attempts to soothe suspicions about Graham’s death are unlikely to make much difference. One reason is that the atmosphere of distrust has broken containment. Trump may have risen by exploiting that feeling, but now he’s just another authority figure to be doubted. Meanwhile, he continues to feed the problem elsewhere. The president is scheduled to give a speech tomorrow night in which he’s expected to speak about supposed threats to election integrity. Trump’s claims about noncitizen voting and other fraud have all been nonsense. For those who believe what he says, these comments encourage distrust in election officials and democracy broadly; for those who reject what he says, they create reasons not to trust the government he leads. Believe it or not, we are condemned to distrust. Related: America is having a moral convulsion. A Department of Justice for an age of conspiracy theories

Defending champion Argentina reaches World Cup final by beating England 2-1 ATLANTA (AP) — No “Hand of God” this time. Argentina didn’t need it. https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-england-argentina-score-2ae6a218ae88248db6565ffd13f60d38?

France’s National Assembly gives final approval to assisted-dying bill after years of debate PARIS (AP) — France’s National Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care. https://apnews.com/article/france-medically-assisted-dying-euthanasia-vote-628a8191b3756ae1fb2cc0e429526b67?