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◼︎ GOVERNMENT
Voters Rejected A.I. In the Midterms. Now Comes an Era of Scrutiny.
Voters on Tuesday slammed the brakes on data centers and swept in governors and legislators who have promised to protect individuals from threats posed by artificial intelligence. Despite record donations by tech executives to tech-friendly candidates, voters chose a new Democratic leadership raring to investigate the cozy ties between A.I. companies and the administration.
In 40 out of 41 local ballot initiatives across the country — more than half of them in Ohio — citizens voted to limit or prevent data center development. Governors and congressional candidates who ran on anti-tech platforms in Texas, Ohio, Georgia and other states prevailed. And senior Democrats immediately promised to swing a hammer on the industry.
“Expect a tsunami of new rules and oversight,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank.
EPA Watchdog Launches Audit of Agency’s AI Practices
The Christian Science Monitor reported:
The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general has launched a compliance audit to determine whether the department violated federal rules for developing, deploying, and assessing artificial intelligence products.
The inquiry follows a report by the Monitor, which found the EPA was moving to deploy custom AI products without sharing the details required by law and Trump administration regulations. That included AI tools designed to speed approvals for new applications of toxic chemicals and pesticides.
The inspector general’s office revealed the existence of the probe in an online disclosure dated Oct. 19. Kim Wheeler, the watchdog’s director of external relations, told the Monitor the audit “will assess the EPA’s compliance” with a directive from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. That directive requires federal agencies to take steps to ensure AI tools are effective and mitigate their potential harms.
USDA Fuels Healthy Futures With New Child Nutrition Funding
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) announced two major investments to strengthen the impact of school meals: more than $27 million in additional Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants and the availability of an additional $50 million in National School Lunch Program (NSLP) Equipment Assistance Grants.
Together, these investments will help schools procure more local foods, strengthen partnerships with farmers and producers, connect school children to nutrition and agricultural education, and modernize cafeteria infrastructure.
This announcement builds on USDA’s Harvest to Hallways initiative — the newest phase of the Trump Administration’s common-sense actions to improve school meals by expanding connections between American agriculture and America’s school children. In addition to funding, the initiative provides support and resources intended to help schools implement options to support USDA’s Pledge for Healthier School Meals.
◼︎ BIG CHEMICAL
Inside the Ultra-Processed Home: The Everyday Items Making It More Toxic Than You Think
These days, it feels impossible to avoid the term “forever chemicals” — a class of manmade chemical toxins known as PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — that have been used for decades in everything from non-stick cookware to waterproof clothing.
The dangers of PFAS have been discussed for months by experts, and now the government is finally launching a major study into the levels of ‘forever chemicals’ that we have in our blood — and what potential health risks can be. The UKHSA will will take blood and urine samples to establish baseline levels of PFAS, lead, arsenic, bisphenols, phthalates and flame retardants in the population.
PFAS are so common in Britain that they are now present in nearly everyone’s blood, to varying degrees. The problem is that new studies show they’re linked to serious health conditions, such as cancer, infertility and cardiovascular mortality. And they’re present in pretty much all of our homes.
Nail Salon Air Monitoring Reveals Chemical Spikes That Traditional Assessments May Miss
Nail salon workers in New York City face greater health risks on the job than previously understood, according to a new study published in the journal Risk Analysis. Researchers found that chemical concentrations spiked repeatedly throughout the workday, revealing short-term exposure peaks that traditional full-shift averages may overlook.
These peaks could have important implications for worker health.Researchers tracked air quality minute by minute for a week in five New York City nail salons and found that levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) varied widely. The study, led by A. Michael Ierardi, Ph.D., CIH, at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), combined continuous photoionization detector monitoring with chemical-specific sampling using thermal desorption tubes.
The VOC mixtures were largely composed of fast-evaporating solvents commonly used in nail products, with other potentially more hazardous compounds, like methacrylates and benzene, detected less frequently and at lower concentrations.
3M Announces $7.4 Billion Settlement in ‘Forever Chemicals’ Injuries Case
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Materials maker 3M announced it has agreed to settle long-running litigation brought by thousands of people who claim they were hurt by the so-called forever chemicals known as PFAS.
The company will pay $7.35 billion over nine years to plaintiffs who have made personal-injury claims related to firefighting foam that contained PFAS. As many as 120,000 plaintiffs could participate in the settlement, 3M said. The agreement is the latest in a string of settlements related to the chemicals.
The company will take a pretax charge of $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2026, which it said represents the present value of the settlement. “This settlement is a significant milestone for 3M and substantially reduces litigation uncertainty,” said 3M Chief Executive Bill Brown.
Old, Polluting Jet Engines Are Being Scavenged to Power Data Centers
Across wide stretches of the sun-bleached Sonoran desert in Arizona, thousands of retired aircraft sit nose-to-tail in graveyards of metal known as boneyards. Many of their engines haven’t been fired up for years. But America’s soaring demand for electricity to power data centers is bringing them back to life.
Several companies are racing to strip the engines out of old aircraft to convert them into electrical generators. And data centers, desperate for power, are snapping them up.
“They’re getting creative,” said Bill Kleyman, chief executive of Apolo, an A.I. platform and infrastructure company. “Just a few years ago, a traditional data center would have been like, ‘Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous.’”
Epidemiologists Explore Links Between Forever Chemicals and Chronic Diseases
American Public Health Association reported:
Americans ingest a host of invisible toxic compounds that can linger in the body and environment for decades. At the Monday session “Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Diet and Public Drinking Water Supplies: Epidemiology, Environmental Monitoring and Policy,” researchers presented studies suggesting the human health costs of PFAS exposure and the ways people are commonly exposed.
PFAS, or forever chemicals, are a class of thousands of human-made chemicals used to create industrial products since the mid 20th century. The compounds appear in cosmetics, kitchen supplies, clothing, carpeting, upholstery, food wrapping, toilet paper and more. And unlike organic products, PFAS do not breakdown, remaining where they are potentially forever.
Though no consensus has been reached, some studies associate PFAS exposure with colon and liver cancer, low birth rate, developmental issues in children, maternal complications and metabolic issues. But more research is needed in this area.
◼︎ CHILDREN’S HEALTH
Omega-3 DHA Eases Autism Behaviors by Calming Inflammation
A preclinical study from Chongqing Medical University and Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center demonstrates that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a crucial omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, alleviates autism-like behavioral deficits in young rats exposed to early-life maternal separation stress.
Publishing in Pediatric Discovery, researchers revealed that daily DHA supplementation restored social interaction, curtailed repetitive self-grooming, and reduced anxiety.
Molecular and network pharmacology analyses showed that DHA directly targets and inhibits the pro-inflammatory c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway while activating NRF2 antioxidant defenses within the prefrontal cortex, offering mechanistic insights into nutritional neuroscience approaches for neurodevelopmental conditions.
Autism Diagnoses Rise Among Those With Adhd, Anxiety and Depression
New research suggests autism diagnoses in the UK are increasingly linked to pre-existing conditions such as ADHD, anxiety and depression. Researchers analysed data from the UK and Sweden, and wrote in the journal BMJ Mental Health that “autism diagnoses have risen consistently over time”.
In the UK, rates of new diagnoses increased from six per 100,000 people in 2010 to 64 per 100,000 in 2023; however, experts found a decline in people being diagnosed with autism who also had conditions such as epilepsy and intellectual disability. The rise was instead recorded among people who also suffered from things like stress, eating disorders, headaches and chronic fatigue.
They also found a rapid rise in autism diagnoses among 16- to 20-year-olds since 2010 in the UK, alongside a rise in women and white people, compared to other ethnicities.
◼︎ BIG FOOD
Blood Signatures May Explain Roughly Half of Ultra-Processed Diets’ Links to Heart Disease and Diabetes
Two distinct patterns of molecules in the blood linked to an ultra-processed diet and a minimally processed diet have been identified in a new study by UCL (University College London) and Imperial College London researchers.
The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, involved data from more than 6,000 adults in the U.K. who had blood tests and filled out questionnaires about their diet and whose health was then tracked for up to 20 years.
The researchers looked at patterns of metabolites — tiny molecules the body makes as it processes food and carries out other chemical reactions. They measured 233 metabolites in the blood and used machine learning to identify the metabolites most strongly linked to each diet.
Junk Food May Be Giving US Brain Damage, From ‘Silent Strokes’ to Higher Dementia Risk
From hot dogs to soft drinks, white bread to sugar cereals, ultraprocessed foods have saturated the modern diet like grease through a paper takeout bag. We know these foods aren’t particularly nutritious, but a growing body of evidence suggests they may be damaging our brains. Studies have linked ultraprocessed foods with heightened dementia risk, diminished cognitive function and even what’s known as “silent strokes.”
“There are many, many studies now,” said Dr. Sonia Anand, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at McMaster University. In October, she and her team published a paper linking ultraprocessed food consumption with vascular brain injury. “There are huge population implications.”
People Who Cut Ultra-Processed Foods Had Lower Depression Scores, but One Detail Matters
Cutting ultra-processed foods was linked to lower depression and anxiety scores in a small clinical trial — but the more useful question for your next grocery trip may be what takes their place.
The JAMA Psychiatry pilot offers an encouraging signal, not an established treatment. Nutrition expert Laura Bosman, MSc Nutrition and Health, of the European Food Information Council, says replacing those foods can change fiber, vitamins, fats, and calories simultaneously. That makes the replacement food central to understanding the findings.
Twenty adults with depression enrolled; 19 completed the study. Each followed their usual diet and a low-ultra-processed-food diet for four weeks apiece, in randomly assigned order, according to UCSF.
◼︎ BIG BROTHER
Your Car’s AI Assistant Could Be a Privacy Nightmare
Your next car could know almost as much about your personal life as your spouse or best friend — thanks to new embedded AI assistants that promise to make driving easier and more convenient.
Why it matters: Automakers are racing to turn vehicles into intelligent personal assistants that can anticipate drivers’ needs, manage their schedules and eventually handle errands on their behalf.
The big picture: Those capabilities don’t work by magic — they require access to sensitive personal information, raising questions about who controls it, how it’s protected and what happens when AI makes a mistake.
Today’s connected cars already collect data about where we go and how we drive. Tomorrow’s AI-powered vehicles could know why we’re going somewhere, whom we’re meeting and what we’re planning to do when we arrive. And as AI assistants become more autonomous, they could make decisions or share information on our behalf — potentially without us realizing the implications.
DuckDuckGo Pitches Itself to Schools Amid Backlash Over Google’s AI Policy
DuckDuckGo is pitching itself to schools after Google created an opening for the alternative search engine. On Tuesday, Google told schools they could turn off Gemini, but it said shutting off its other AI features would cost schools Google Search, as well.
DuckDuckGo, a company that focuses on user privacy by limiting data collection, clearly sees this as a moment to make inroads in education, where Google has historically dominated.
According to figures Google has published in previous years, there are around 50 million Chromebooks in schools, used by students and educators, and its Google Classroom platform serves over 150 million users globally. On X, DuckDuckGo’s founder and CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, pointed to the company’s online documentation, explaining how schools can switch their default search engine to DuckDuckGo’s service instead, adding, “get in touch for help.”
Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo’s chief public affairs officer, Kamyl Bazbaz, issued a stronger statement, writing, “Forcing AI on school children: how a monopolist behaves when they think people are powerless. Prove Google wrong.”
York Voters Approve Ban on Flock License Plate Cameras
York, Maine — Voters in York passed a ban on automatic license plate readers like those sold by Flock Safety. Flock cameras use artificial intelligence to read license plates and track vehicles.
Following the vote, the town is required to remove or shut off all Flock cameras and end its contract with the company. The town select board put the question on the ballot in September after hearing from residents.
York police say the cameras have helped with criminal investigations and missing people cases, while residents have cited privacy concerns about data collected by the cameras.
