dr Katarzyna Nowak

United States Completes WHO Withdrawal WASHINGTON —  January 22, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of State today announced the United States’ completion of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.

The United States has officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization.

This is a shameful move that puts both Americans and people all over the world at greater risk from disease outbreaks, which require international collaboration to contain.

Really hard to look at this and all the other examples of bravery and kindness from ordinary people in this moment not think also of the tremendous cowardice exhibited over the past year by some of the richest, most well-protected people in business, media and politics

Time Magazine, quoting two senior officials in #Iran's Ministry of Health, puts the death toll in Iran at 30,000. Security forces killed so many people on Jan 8 and 9 that the state ran out of body bags, semi-trailers replaced ambulances to store the victims:

time.com/nextgen-prev...

Adapt, shrink or die: the global crisis in humanitarian aid [FREE TO READ] On the road in Sudan with the UN’s outgoing High Commissioner for Refugees

Western countries are hitting refugees twice: they are making it harder to claim asylum *and* they are cutting aid to troubled regions.

I went to Sudan, the world's worst humanitarian situation, where the UN refugee agency has had to cut half its staff. Please have a read: as.ft.com/r/df593f1e-e...

Text messages and a moved SUV: How the government’s case against a Chicago woman shot by a Border Patrol agent fell apart | CNN A wide grin was plastered on Marimar Martinez’s face Thursday as she thanked her attorneys outside an Illinois courtroom and told reporters, “I’m just blessed. I’m happy.”

Marimar Martinez was the first US citizen shot by ICE.

They claimed she was a terrorist. Said she was brandishing a weapon.

They lied. Video footage exonerated her and showed the ICE agent shot her five times.

He bragged to other agents “five shots, 7 holes”.

A 🧵 of ICE abuse

Deaths mount as Trump immigration push intensifies Here is a closer look at the deaths from federal immigration enforcement.

www.reuters.com/world/us/dea...

Federal law enforcement agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 according to local police officials. DHS told Fox News that the man was “armed with a gun”. A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man before the first shot was fired. x.com/BillMelugin_...

Ultimately you're not supposed to believe it. It not mattering is the point. The bolder the lie, the greater the impunity. The ultimate victory for evil is not convincing you, it's the truth being irrelevant.

I don’t want to hear anything from an elected official unless it’s a plan to defund the DHS and impeach Noem, Bovino, etc. No texts. No emails. No talk about the economy. Step up or step off.

Alex Pretti identified as man fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis Pretti didn’t have a serious criminal record, was issued a nursing license in 2021 and lived in south Minneapolis.

A nurse. ICE shot and killed a nurse today.

www.startribune.com/alex-pretti-...

We have been told for nearly 30 years that America needed to tolerate mass shootings because the broad availability of guns would help us defend ourselves from an overreaching federal government. That day has come. The people who said this are supporting the federal agents. Many have joined them.

What we’ve seen in other countries is the violence of the state is directly proportional to the weakness and, often, illegitimacy of the regime in power.

in case you're curious about how angry Minnesota is about ICE, it was -20 today

Themed Issue - Call for Papers Editorial

Can conservation and ecological restoration affect human health outcomes? A call for multidisciplinary contributions to a special series of papers in #EnvironmentalConservation

Please check and share widely

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🌎 🌐 #research

Read the full transcript of Carney’s speech to World Economic Forum - National | Globalnews.ca Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a forceful speech in Davos, Switzerland, on the 'new world order' and how middle powers like Canada can benefit by working together.

“Collective investments in #resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses…The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls, or whether we can do something more ambitious…principled and pragmatic.” Canadian PM Mark Carney globalnews.ca/news/1162087...

Era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ is here, UN report says Overuse and pollution must end urgently as no one knows when whole system might collapse, says expert

"The overuse and pollution of water must be tackled urgently, the report’s lead author said, because no one knew when the whole system could collapse, with implications for peace and social cohesion."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Israel kills 3 journalists in Gaza, including CBS News contributor The journalists were killed Wednesday in a strike on their car in central Gaza. Israel’s military said it struck “several suspects” who were operating a drone.

Israel killed three Palestinian journalists in Gaza on Wednesday, including a freelance cameraman who contributed to CBS News. The network's president, Tom Cibrowski, let staff know at a meeting this morning, noting that Abdul Raouf Shaat had just been married. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

From me: Arizona tribal leaders urge members to carry ID as ICE actions spread

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

A brilliant speech by Canada's Mark Carney in Davos: "The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy...The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home & to act together."

YouTube video by Associated Press Davos LIVE: Canadian PM Mark Carney speaks at World Economic Forum

“This is not naive multilateralism… relying on diminished institutions. It is building the coalitions that work… with partners who share enough common ground to act together. Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE98...

Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology - BMC Biology Although variation in effect sizes and predicted values among studies of similar phenomena is inevitable, such variation far exceeds what might be produced by sampling error alone. One possible explan...

More research showing that different groups analyse the same data differently & come to different conclusions

I wonder if this is why some dominant research groups that promote certain narratives/hypotheses always report findings that support these narratives?
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Prime Minister of Belgium speaks:

New paper just dropped. I helped out a bit.

Polar bear visits to human infrastructure increase with sea ice loss, not poor body condition.

cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires Wildfires now destroy twice as much tree cover per year as two decades ago – a crisis fuelled by climate change

Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires

Inuit from Alaska and Canada stand with our relatives in Greenland 🇬🇱 Quyana @ayyu210.bsky.social for organizing this video

An image of a volleyball against a blue background. The text says: In my home state of Massachusetts, ICE is hunting a man who has an expired visa. They find the man’s car, but the driver is just the man’s son, a teen heading to volleyball practice. ICE arrests the teen.

A conversation between two people in speech bubbles: “Do you know why you’re under arrest?” “No.” “Because you’re illegal. You’re an immigrant.” “Ma’am, I was seven years old.” Then, text at the bottom says: The teen is put into a concrete cell with 35 men.

The community rallies behind him. There's an image of yard signs with the smiling face of the teen that say Free Marcelo. Some quotes from locals: “He’s one of our brothers. Without him, it just kind of feels like a dark, empty room.” -volleyball team captain. “This administration isn’t keeping us safe by putting 18-year-old honors students in prison.” -MA Rep. Moulton

In the cell, the teen helps translate for those who don’t speak English. Many are ill. After 6 days, he’s released. There's an image of a hand and arm, with a crinkly foil bracelet tied around the wrist. Wearing a bracelet that another detainee made him from one of the thin mylar blankets they were given, he says: “ I don’t want to cry. But I want to say...nobody should be in here.”

Something a little different. Some cartoonists put out a call for comics about local ICE experiences. This one happened a few months ago so it's a little older than current events, but it's a story that I never stopped thinking about. #ICEoutcomics

In this love-starved world, we dare to talk about love and author not with our names but with words for love in our native languages. Indebted to @jaredgonet.bsky.social for leading us in reflecting on love in #conservation & renewal of vows to the living Earth thenorthernreview.ca/index.php/nr...

Further datapoints for how Europeans can no longer trust American elites whether or not Trump is in power

The list of most relevant themes we identified is: 1. Rhetoric of inevitability and technological determinism: presenting the adoption and use of (generative) AI as a fait accompli. 2. Exaggerated narratives: overstating the general capabilities of the technology, or leaving out that certain seemingly impressive capabilities can only be achieved under very specific experimental conditions. 3. Spurious comparison to human intelligence or Anthropomorphism: presenting AI as if it thinks or reason like a human. 4. Ethics and critical washing: presenting AI as being ethically or critically examined but doing so only superficially and inconsequentially. 5. Wishful thinking and uncertain feasibility: assuming desired outcomes or functionality despite lacking realistic evidence they can be achieved. 6. GenAI is presented as indispensable: portraying AI as essential even when simpler or non-AI solutions are sufficient. 7. Unrealistic and ill-defined conditions: formulating requirements for adoption and use that are functionally impossible or too demanding to be met, psychologically implausible to follow, or set unclear boundaries for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, which could easily create inconsistencies. 8. Resources as propaganda: resources for students, faculty, and other stakeholders are made available but only for incentivizing different degrees of use of genAI. 9. AI Overkill: Substitution or replacement of tasks for which the technology was not designed; from tutoring to teaching to research, everything must be now with AI, even if it is not adequate. Due to space limitations, rather than discussing all of the themes superficially, this essay addresses only the first four, which, in our view, are the most critical and the most urgently in need of critical scrutiny. T

For all those involved in drafting so-called AI guidelines, but being overwhelmed with nonsense, this is a lifesaver. Great work by Dagmar and Ariel!

Resisting Enchantment and Determinism: How to critically engage with AI university guidelines. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...