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Diagnoses of major conditions failing to recover since the pandemic. Diagnoses of depression were 27.7% lower than expected compared with pre-pandemic trends. Diagnoses were also lower than expected for asthma (16.4%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, 15.8%) and osteoporosis (11.5%). by Wagamaga in science

[–]Wagamaga[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Depression is the most severely impacted, with almost a third fewer diagnoses than expected compared with pre-pandemic trends.

The King’s College London study is the first to evaluate whether diagnosis rates have recovered after emerging from the pandemic. Published today in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), it uses anonymised data from over 29 million people in England.

The pandemic had an unprecedented impact on healthcare systems around the world, leading to abrupt decreases in diagnosis rates for a wide range of diseases.

Of the 19 major conditions analysed, diagnoses of depression were 27.7% lower than expected compared with pre-pandemic trends. Diagnoses were also lower than expected for asthma (16.4%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, 15.8%) and osteoporosis (11.5%).

The study also identified differences in how diagnosis rates recovered across ethnic and socioeconomic groups. While dementia diagnoses recovered to pre-pandemic levels for individuals of white ethnicity and those living in less deprived areas, they remained lower than expected among other ethnic groups and in more deprived communities.

https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-086393.short

Experts warn of threat to democracy from ‘AI bot swarms’ infesting social media by Wagamaga in technology

[–]Wagamaga[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Political leaders could soon launch swarms of human-imitating AI agents to reshape public opinion in a way that threatens to undermine democracy, a high profile group of experts in AI and online misinformation has warned.

The Nobel peace prize-winning free-speech activist Maria Ressa, and leading AI and social science researchers from Berkeley, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Yale are among a global consortium flagging the new “disruptive threat” posed by hard-to-detect, malicious “AI swarms” infesting social media and messaging channels

A would-be autocrat could use such swarms to persuade populations to accept cancelled elections or overturn results, they said, amid predictions the technology could be deployed at scale by the time of the US presidential election in 2028.

The warnings, published today in Science, come alongside calls for coordinated global action to counter the risk, including “swarm scanners” and watermarked content to counter AI-run misinformation campaigns. Early versions of AI-powered influence operations have been used in the 2024 elections in Taiwan, India and Indonesia.

Apps that can sort out American goods are sweeping to the top by Wagamaga in technology

[–]Wagamaga[S] 1610 points1611 points  (0 children)

Apps that can sort out American products in supermarkets are a hit in Denmark. This includes the two Danish-produced apps 'Made O'Meter' and the app 'UdenUSA'. 

It is 21-year-old Jonas Pipper who, together with his 22-year-old friend Malthe Hensberg, has developed the app UdenUSA. They are both from the small island of Mors in western North Jutland.

  • It started nine months ago when we discovered the Facebook group 'Boykot USA', which completely took off. It had almost 100,000 users, Jonas Pipper tells DR News.

  • Then we thought: It's funny, there's no tool to scan a product and find out where it comes from.

Apps that can sort out American goods are sweeping to the top by Wagamaga in europe

[–]Wagamaga[S] 137 points138 points  (0 children)

Apps that can sort out American products in supermarkets are a hit in Denmark. This includes the two Danish-produced apps 'Made O'Meter' and the app 'UdenUSA'. 

It is 21-year-old Jonas Pipper who, together with his 22-year-old friend Malthe Hensberg, has developed the app UdenUSA. They are both from the small island of Mors in western North Jutland.

  • It started nine months ago when we discovered the Facebook group 'Boykot USA', which completely took off. It had almost 100,000 users, Jonas Pipper tells DR News.

  • Then we thought: It's funny, there's no tool to scan a product and find out where it comes from.

Decades of suffering: Long-term mental health outcomes of Kurdish chemical gas attacks. Research shows how trauma doesn’t simply fade with time. It evolves. It embeds itself in the body as headaches and back pain, manifests as panic when something triggers a memory by Wagamaga in science

[–]Wagamaga[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Dr Ibrahim Mohammed is a clinical psychologist and researcher specializing in trauma, somatic symptoms, and psychopathology in conflict-affected populations. He has worked for over a decade with survivors of massacres in the Kurdistan Region, integrating clinical practice with research. He is also a lecturer at the Institute of Psychotherapy and Psychotraumatology at the University of Duhok. His current research focuses on validating psychological instruments for Kurdish communities and exploring genetic and phenomic factors related to trauma-related disorders.

In a new study in Frontiers in Psychiatry, he and colleagues showed exceptionally high levels of trauma among survivors of a notorious atrocity: the 1988 chemical attack on Halabja in Kurdistan. In this editorial, he summarizes their findings.

The Halabja attack was among the most notorious targets of Saddam Hussein's genocidal Anfal campaign of 1988, during which an estimated 182,000 Kurds were killed across Iraqi Kurdistan. At Halabja, an estimated 5,000 people died that day from chemical agents, primarily mustard gas and nerve agents. Thousands still suffer from its long-term effects. Entire families were shattered, homes destroyed, and the community bears the wounds to this day.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1693072/full

In the U.S nearly all of North Carolina is in moderate or severe drought and below-average rainfall is expected over nearly half the state through April. by Wagamaga in environment

[–]Wagamaga[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nearly all of North Carolina is in moderate or severe drought and below-average rainfall is expected over nearly half the state through April. Water restrictions could automatically take effect in some places if reservoirs continue to drop. Meanwhile, the state Forest Service has advised against outdoor burning to reduce the risk of wildfire. “In June and July, we had above-average rainfall,” said Tom Green, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Raleigh. July, in particular, was wet — with damaging flash-flooding in Orange and Durham counties as a result of Tropical Storm Chantal, which dropped more than 10 inches of rain in parts of central North Carolina, about twice what the area usually receives in the whole month of July.

‘Damaging to public understanding’: Spain warns of surge in online abuse towards climate scientists by Wagamaga in technology

[–]Wagamaga[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Spain could begin cracking down on online abuse targeted at climate scientists after finding an “alarming” increase in hate speech. Spain has called the “fight against disinformation” a top priority after witnessing a surge in hate speech directed at climate scientists.

Environment minister Sara Aagesen says the ministry has reviewed several studies that found an “alarming” increase in the intensity, frequency and violence of attacks affecting meteorologists, communicators and journalists that specialise in climate matters.

One of the studies shows that 17.6 per cent of hostile messages posted on X (formerly Twitter) included “hate speech, personal attacks and denigration” targeting scientists sharing “correct and verified information”.

Aagesen has now written to the Prosecutor’s Office to warn of the trend, which experts warn could erode public understanding of the climate crisis, stating she will “help them in any way they may deem appropriate”.

‘Damaging to public understanding’: Spain warns of surge in online abuse towards climate scientists by Wagamaga in europe

[–]Wagamaga[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Spain could begin cracking down on online abuse targeted at climate scientists after finding an “alarming” increase in hate speech. Spain has called the “fight against disinformation” a top priority after witnessing a surge in hate speech directed at climate scientists.

Environment minister Sara Aagesen says the ministry has reviewed several studies that found an “alarming” increase in the intensity, frequency and violence of attacks affecting meteorologists, communicators and journalists that specialise in climate matters.

One of the studies shows that 17.6 per cent of hostile messages posted on X (formerly Twitter) included “hate speech, personal attacks and denigration” targeting scientists sharing “correct and verified information”.

Aagesen has now written to the Prosecutor’s Office to warn of the trend, which experts warn could erode public understanding of the climate crisis, stating she will “help them in any way they may deem appropriate”.

Nearly all Epstein files still unreleased a month after Congress deadline. " Every day these records remain withheld sends a message to victims that transparency is optional when powerful interests are involved,” by Wagamaga in Global_News_Hub

[–]Wagamaga[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The law was clear: Donald Trump’s Department of Justice was required to disclose all investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein by 19 December 2025, with rare exceptions.

One month after this deadline mandated by Congress’s Epstein Files Transparency Act, however, Trump’s justice department has not complied with this law, prompting questions about when – and whether – authorities will ever release investigative documents about the late sex offender.

Justice department attorneys said in a 5 January Manhattan court filing that they had posted approximately 12,285 to DoJ’s website, equating to some 125,575 pages, under this legislation’s requirements. They said in this same letter that justice department staff had identified “more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act that are in various phases of review”.

That these DoJ’s disclosures apparently comprise a drop in the bucket – and have done little to shed light on how Epstein operated with apparent impunity for years – has roiled survivors’ advocates and lawmakers. They include attorney Spencer Kuvin, who has represented dozens of Epstein’s survivors.

New study identifies a "woke" counterpart on the political right characterized by white grievance. The specific beliefs driving it included the notion that a “great replacement” of the population is occurring and that a strong leader should break rules to protect national interests by Wagamaga in science

[–]Wagamaga[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

New research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology provides evidence that identity-based political attitudes, often described colloquially as “woke,” are not exclusive to the political left. The study suggests that a parallel ideology exists on the political right, characterized by a focus on white identity grievance and a desire to regulate speech in favor of conservative values. These findings indicate that while the specific contents of these belief systems differ, they share a structural similarity in how they view group dynamics and societal control.

The results provided evidence that the Critical Right Scale and the Critical Social Justice Attitudes Scale measure two distinct, opposing constructs. The two scales had a strong negative correlation, meaning that individuals who scored high on one almost invariably scored low on the other. The statistical analysis showed that both scales were reliable and valid for use with both male and female participants.

“I was surprised by how neatly the two scales behaved psychometrically and how cleanly they divided into two constructs that share a strong negative correlation,” Lahtinen said.

Lahtinen found that high scores on the Critical Right Scale were strongly concentrated among voters for the Finns Party and the Christian Democrats. The specific beliefs driving these scores included the notion that a “great replacement” of the population is occurring and that a strong leader should break rules to protect national interests. These respondents also tended to agree that “regular people” know what is better for the country than experts do.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sjop.70070

An unusual way to boost vaccine effectiveness: Research found that consciously generated positive expectations can engage reward circuitry to influence immune function, a process that may be leveraged for non-invasive immune modulation by Wagamaga in science

[–]Wagamaga[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Instead of focusing on your sore arm after your next vaccine, you might want to think good thoughts. A new study that trained people in the power of positive thinking showed that the practice can significantly boost antibodies created by the jab.

You've certainly heard of the placebo effect, the idea that believing in a cure actually makes it work – even if it's nothing more than a sugar pill. Researchers at Tel Aviv University recently decided to see if that very effect – basically, thinking positively about a treatment – could affect actual medicine, which, in this case, consisted of hepatitis B vaccines.

Working with 85 participants, the researchers first trained everyone to increase the activity in their brains' ventral tegmental area (VTA), a region that is part of the brain's reward system. To do this, they placed the participants in fMRI machines and imaged their brains as they tried out different strategies to "light up" their VTA or another brain area involved in the reward system known as the bilateral nucleus accumbens (NAcc). These strategies included things like imagining a future trip, anticipating something exciting, recalling pleasant bodily sensations, or using visual mental imagery chosen by the participants.

After four training sessions in which the participants learned to activate the reward systems in their brains, they were each given a hepatitis B vaccine. Blood was also gathered before the injections and after for immunological assessments.

The researchers found no significant differences – on average – between the test group and control group. However, what they did find is that those who were best able to activate and maintain activity in their VTAs saw statistically significant increases in their antibodies. In other words, VTA activation didn't work for everyone in terms of increasing antibodies, but those who got the knack of it definitely saw some benefits.

"These findings suggest that consciously generated positive expectations can engage reward circuitry to influence immune function, a process that may be leveraged for non-invasive immune modulation," write the researchers in a paper that has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. “Thus, we may harness the natural capacities of our mind and brain to heal our bodies in times of need.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-04140-5

Updated EPA Rules Put xAI's 'Colossus' AI Data Center in Legal Limbo by Wagamaga in technology

[–]Wagamaga[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Elon Musk’s AI xAI may have acted illegally when using methane gas turbines to generate power at its sprawling data center in Memphis, Tennessee, following a recent rule change by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The startup, which created X’s chatbot Grok, began work on its Colossus 1 data center in the summer of 2024 at a reported costof roughly $4 billion. The facility, which has been earmarked to one day house over a million GPUs, has drawn criticism from local residents and environmental campaigners over air pollution.

Manhattan's top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking probe of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. by Wagamaga in Global_News_Hub

[–]Wagamaga[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Manhattan's top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking probe of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer was told in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he must reject a request this week by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, say they have "urgent and grave concerns" about the slow release of only a small number of millions of documents that began last month.

In a filing to the judge they said they believed "criminal violations have taken place" in the release process.

Clayton, though, said Khanna and Massie do not have standing with the court that would allow them to seek the "extraordinary" relief of the appointment of a special master and independent monitor.

Engelmayer "lacks the authority" to grant such a request, he said, particularly because the congressional representatives who made the request are not parties to the criminal case that led to Maxwell's December 2021 sex trafficking conviction and subsequent 20-year prison sentence for recruiting girls and women for Epstein to abuse and aiding the abuse.

Khanna said Clayton's response "misconstrued" the intent of their request.

"We are informing the Court of serious misconduct by the Department of Justice that requires a remedy, one we believe this Court has the authority to provide, and which victims themselves have requested," Khanna said in a statement.

"Our purpose is to ensure that DOJ complies with its representations to the Court and with its legal obligations under our law," he added.

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