Alarmed

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...

• China's AI industry is facing a talent drain as top researchers are lured by high salaries offered by US giants like Meta and OpenAI. • To counter this "talent war," Beijing has implemented travel curbs and restrictive measures to prevent domestic experts from migrating to American firms. • This struggle highlights the strategic importance of AI leadership and the growing geopolitical tension over intellectual property and technical expertise.

Conservation groups warn slashing Darwin Initiative will put species and habitats in jeopardy, and set back efforts to halt decline in natureOne of the UK’s longest-standing funds for global nature protection is being drastically cut back, the Guardian has learned.At least 89 countries will lose eligibility for funding for biodiversity projects under the Darwin Initiative, in a round of cuts that conservationists warned would put species and habitats in jeopardy, and set back global efforts to halt the precipitous decline in nature. Continue reading...

Scientists warn of ‘new reality’ of heat extremes that claim three times more lives than car crashes and 16 times as many as murderersMalcolm Mistry knew it was going to get “very warm, very quickly” on Monday morning but a slow start out of bed delayed his plans for an early game of cricket with his son. It was already 10am by the time the pair arrived at the sun-soaked nets of their local club in south-west London, and to the embarrassment of the 48-year-old scientist, who played cricket in his youth, his body was struggling after just half an hour of bowling.Had he continued for another hour, Mistry reckons he would have probably suffered from heatstroke. Had he and his son stayed until noon, they would have found themselves straining their bodies in direct sunlight while a nearby weather station logged the UK’s hottest May temperature since records began. Continue reading...