My colleague Barbara Pfeffer Billauer and I wrote in August about recent Supreme Court decisions that produced sweeping changes in how government regulation works in the United States— shifting power from regulatory agencies to the courts.

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The notion of human medical experimentation elicits visceral repulsion. Nevertheless, we allow such research for the betterment of society, but only with safeguards to protect the volunteers. These guardrails include an evaluation by an impartial ethics board that weighs the risks and benefits and full informed consent by the participants, governed by policy rubrics, applicable statutes, or international guidelines. Sometimes, however, there is research overreach, commingled with shoddy and/or obfuscatory study reporting. Only if something untoward happens does the public (sometimes) find out. So, volunteer, be warned.

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Recent Russian clandestine attempts to use "authentic" U.S. media and social media influencers to corrupt elections is hardly surprising, considering its commitment to "launder" propaganda and spread socially divisive messages. Moreover, they "are more sophisticated than in prior election cycles," according to an official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The U.S. has charged and sanctioned Russian state media executives and restricted Kremlin-linked broadcasters because of Moscow's widespread campaign to interfere with the presidential elections in 2016. That pattern continued in the 2020 election and the latest round of reports indicate it has increased during this election cycle.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) on August 14 sounded the alarm about an mpox virus outbreak, declaring it a global health emergency for the second time in two years. While the initial outbreak in 2022 primarily affected gay and bisexual men, the current crisis is unfolding in a different, more alarming way.

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Eric Schmidt, a commissioner on the federal National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology and formerly the CEO and Chairman of Google, wrote, "the next big game-changing revolution is in biology." He cited some milestones that were reached just last year: "The U.S. approved the production and sale of lab-grown meat for the first time; Google DeepMind's AI predicted structures of over 2 million new materials, which can potentially be used for chips and batteries; Casgevy became the first approved commercial gene-editing treatment using CRISPR."

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