Alarmed

• The US government is considering extending export controls to cloud services to prevent China from accessing advanced AI models and computing power. • This move follows a surge in Chinese AI capabilities and aims to close loopholes that allow Chinese firms to bypass hardware restrictions via third-party cloud providers. • Some experts warn that these regulations could inadvertently weaken US market dominance if data centers in Southeast Asia shift toward Chinese chips.

Many complained online that piercingly loud tone was ‘overreach’ while others lamented lack of action on decarbonisationOn Friday at 7pm, Thérèse Coffey was nine miles away from a nuclear power station when her phone made a loud, piercing and very worrying sound: it was a “severe” emergency alert. “Was expecting [a] much more specific alert, not a generic message on wildfires,” the former Tory cabinet minister said on X.She wasn’t alone in being alarmed by the alarm sent to phones in England and Wales. In the aftermath, thousands of social media users expressed their shock at alert. Some shared funny memes and others lamented what they viewed as lack of government action on decarbonisation. Academic John Ritzema called it a “massive overreach” and said the alert system should be “meant to be for ‘drop everything and prepare for something terrible’ situations”, something Coffey echoed, saying alerts should not become commonplace to avoid “Peter cries wolf situations”. Continue reading...

Residents in Ladera Ranch in Orange county voice concerns after six children diagnosed with Ewing sarcomaSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email Concerns are growing in southern California over a cluster of “exceptionally rare” cancer cases that has sickened multiple children in a suburban community.Families living in the Orange county neighborhood of Ladera Ranch, home to about 26,000 people, have reported that six children in the community were diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, Katrina Foley, the vice-chair of the county board of supervisors, said in a statement. Continue reading...

• Tuberculosis cases in the U.S. reached a 14-year high in 2024 and remain elevated in 2025, sparking alarm among public health experts. • The surge is attributed to critical gaps in screening and underfunded contact tracing, which leave vulnerable communities exposed to the disease. • Separately, psilocybin may receive FDA approval by late 2026 due to a Trump executive order and the use of priority review vouchers.

• The CDC is ending its federal measles diagnostic testing program, shifting the responsibility for these tests to state laboratories. • While state labs already handle the majority of measles testing, critics are alarmed that the loss of federal oversight could impact surveillance and response times. • This policy shift reflects a transition toward decentralized public health monitoring, though concerns remain regarding the consistency of testing capabilities across different states.

Administration claims website is resource for ‘new and expecting mothers’ but group of senators says it raises ‘profound’ health and safety concernsA group of 11 senators have sent a letter to Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy urging them to remove a federal website and “cease using federal resources to direct people to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers”.On Mother’s Day this year, the US Department of Health and Human Services launched Moms.gov, a resource they claim is for “new and expecting mothers” and “offers guidance and information to support the health and wellbeing of mothers and their families”. Continue reading...

With election denialists installed in key positions, officials using series of measures to change voting rulesThe Trump administration is waging war on voting rights using justice department lawsuits, FBI investigations, and an executive order to limit voting by mail, moves mirroring the US president’s false claims he lost the 2020 election due to voting fraud, say election experts and ex-officials.Since Donald Trump began his second term, numerous 2020 election denialists have been installed in key agencies such as the DoJ, the FBI and elsewhere to pursue widely discredited claims of fraud, which can intimidate election workers and voters in swing states that Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020. Continue reading...