This Lender Said Its Loans Would Help Tennesseans. It Has Sued More Than 110,000 of Them. The Flex Loan, a type of payday loan pioneered by Advance Financial, has burdened low-income borrowers while generating huge profits for lenders. Tennessee lawmakers declined to rein in the lending…

Advance Financial’s Flex Loan charges 279.5% interest, trapping thousands of borrowers in debts that end up in court, where the company has won over $200 million in judgments since 2015.

With @tennesseelookout.com

Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment

NYT: Doctors fixed a baby born with a life-threatening genetic disorder using a customized, gene-editing therapy.

"Researchers emphasized the role govt funding played in the development.

The work...began decades ago with federal funding for basic research on bacterial immune systems." Gift link!

The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram: Inside a Global Online Hate Network How a cadre of white supremacists used the loosely moderated social media platform Telegram to inspire lethal violence — until authorities took them down.

NEW: The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram w/ @frontlinepbs.bsky.social

We don't spend a penny on marketing. It's all word of mouth for @costplusdrugs.com

That's how we keep prices so low. Please spread the word !

'Highly unusual': White House halts FBI background checks for senior staff, shifts them to Pentagon: Sources.
That is very unusual. I’m worried.. a lot

There has been more successes in cancer treatments over the last few decades that owe EVERYTHING to NIH funding.

Cancers like this are/were an absolute death sentence and now? Holy wow! 18 years post stage 4 neuroblastoma.

Contribution of vaccination to improved survival and health: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization Since 1974 substantial gains in childhood survival have occurred in every global region. We estimate that EPI has provided the single greatest contribution to improved infant survival over the past 50...

Nothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world.

Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

🇩🇪 Germany: one nation, two societies.

🚨 NIH indirect cost cuts—what’s at stake?

A new executive order caps reimbursements at 15%—down from an average 52%.

Indirect costs fund lab upkeep, IT, and utilities—essential for research.

Fewer resources = fewer labs, jobs, and slower innovation.

#ResearchFunding #NIH #SciencePolicy

I think the biggest lie being told right now is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world cannot afford to invest in science, education, and the environment.

Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze NIH-related updates to the Federal Register, which are required for the scheduling of study sections and advisory councils, are on hold indefinitely, according to an email reviewed by <i>The Transmitt...

A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter.

By @avaskham.bsky.social

bit.ly/3X8ngz8

Russia's Demands USAID List and Peddles Another Conspiracy Russia’s Conspiracy Theory

#Russia Demands Congress Deliver #USAID lists. Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has demanded that the U.S. Congress disclose the names of individuals & groups that have received USAID funding in Russia—so that these lists can be handed over to the FSB.
open.substack.com/pub/olgalaut...

Putin would simply pardon the violent soldiers violating their own laws. Tyrants have no scruples.

Save NIH and NSF Research Funding ⭑ 5 Calls On February 7, the Trump administration moved to cut billions of dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science …

A useful tool and a great thing to do...

5calls.org/issue/nih-ns...

See also Just Security’s Litigation Tracker. www.justsecurity.org/107087/track...

Media literacy goes beyond news literacy or digital literacy. These are the umbrella critical thinking skills that help us analyze and scrutinize any media message — from billboards to texts.

Join the grassroots effort to protect kids from online exploitation and manipulation. With standards, funding & training, we can incorporate media literacy into every subject.

👋 Hi! We're busy driving the conversation for #MediaLiteracy education in K-12 schools so we won't be here all that often. Be sure to visit our website medialiteracynow.org to learn how you can join us in making sure our kids & teens can navigate our complex media landscape safely & confidently.

Imagine what this means. It means foreign enemies and exploitative criminals with this tool will be able to influence like never before, at speeds & levels of effectiveness never seen before via all types of media messaging. #medialiteracynow

Today, the russians attacked us again with drones; two elderly people were killed in the Kyiv region. This happens every night.
We don’t know how many people died at the front today, but they are also victims of the russians.

FDA bans Red 3 dye from food and drugs – a scientist explains the artificial color’s health risks and long history Over 35 years after the first study linking Red 3 to thyroid cancer in rats was published, the US is beginning to wean it out of foods and drugs.

FDA bans Red 3 dye from food and drugs – a scientist explains the artificial color’s health risks and long history

Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol, he shared in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday. In anticipation of the coming U.S. TikTok ban, which will go through on Sunday unless paused by the…

Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol

Notre Dame in Paris re-opens this wkd.
I'm a cathedral nerd. Here are some things that you might not notice about it – just from that one photo.
THREAD.

1. You can see straight down the nave to the apse. No medieval English cathedral has that.

Taiwan on high alert after China's military restricts airspace There has been speculation about the possibility of China launching military drills in response to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te's Pacific tour last week.

Taiwan said its military was on high alert Monday as it launched combat readiness drills after detecting Chinese warships and coast guard vessels in waters around the island.

Early this morning, three russian missiles struck Kharkiv. Now, hours later, russian troops are attacking the city with aerial bombs. Several explosions reported in my hometown💔

We live in amazing times.

Neurologic Manifestations of Long COVID Disproportionately Affect Young and Middle‐Age Adults Objective To investigate neurologic manifestations of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Neuro-PASC) in post-hospitalization Neuro-PASC (PNP) and non-hospitalized Neuro-PASC (NNP) patients...

Neurologic Manifestations of Long COVID Disproportionately Affect Young and Middle-Age Adults
(18–44 years).

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Hong Kong jails 45 democracy activists in landmark trial The ruling, which critics have said tarnishes Hong Kong's role as a global financial hub, comes as the city is hosting an international financial summit.

Hong Kong's High Court has sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years in a landmark national security trial that has damaged the city's once feisty democracy movement and drawn international condemnation.

When Qualified Women Resist the Leader Label Women who demonstrate leadership behaviors and traits are less likely than men to identify as leaders.

Although women often outperform men in leadership effectiveness, they are less likely to identify as leaders. This isn’t just about modesty or impostor syndrome; it’s an invisible misalignment between competence and identity that powerfully skews the leadership landscape. #leadership #leader#women