June 18, 2026

05a Health

News Source
EXCERPT:

Although it was completely expected, it’s wonderful to hear that Mississippi pro-life Gov. Tate Reeves has signed House Bill 1613.

HB 1613 amends the state’s drug trafficking statutes to make it illegal “to create, sell, barter, transfer, manufacture, distribute, dispense or prescribe an ‘abortion-inducing drug.’”

HB 1613 passed both the House in February and the Senate in March by overwhelming margins

Penalties for those convicted of a crime include up to ten years in prison,” according to Bridget Sielicki. “Additionally, the legislation allows the Attorney General to bring a civil lawsuit against anyone accused of violating the law” but imposes “no penalties on the mother taking the abortion drug — only those involved in trafficking and distributing.”

News Source
EXCERPT:

Bread has long been a dietary cornerstone, sustaining societies for generations. It is deeply woven into everyday life. But with obesity rates continuing to climb, researchers are beginning to question whether this reliance on staple carbohydrates still makes sense in modern diets.

Obesity increases the risk of many lifestyle-related diseases, making prevention a major public health priority. Traditionally, research has focused on high fat consumption as the main driver of weight gain. This is why many animal studies rely on high fat diets.

However, carbohydrates such as bread, rice, and noodles are consumed daily around the world, yet their role in obesity and metabolism has not been explored as thoroughly. While many people believe that “bread makes you gain weight” or that “carbohydrates should be limited,” it has been unclear whether the issue lies in the foods themselves or in how people choose and consume them.

Iran war threatens to push 2.5 mn people in India into poverty: UNDP report | Economy & Policy News www.business-standard.com
News Source
EXCERPT:

The conflict and military escalation in West Asia threatens to push 2.5 million people in India into poverty and the country is projected to experience some loss in its human development progress, according to estimates and projections by the United Nations.

The United Nations Development Programme, in a report titled ‘Military Escalation In The Middle East: Human Development Impacts Across Asia And The Pacific’ noted that the conflict is “widening human development pressures across Asia and the Pacific through higher fuel, freight, and input costs, the shock is diminishing household purchasing power, raising food insecurity, straining public budgets, and weakening livelihoods.”

 The preliminary assessment, issued Tuesday, estimates that globally 8.8 million people are at risk of falling into poverty and the West Asia military escalation could cost Asia-Pacific up to $299 billion.

News Source
EXCERPT:

FRANKFURT, Germany – One of the major reasons for the creation of the European Union was to make Europeans wealthier. Along the way, however, something went seriously wrong.

Europeans are becoming poorer compared to Americans, who are becoming richer.

One in five Germans now faces the risk of imminent poverty in what has long been one of the world’s wealthiest nations.

In France, the poverty rate has hit a 30-year high.

Blurb:

Scientists at Stanford Medicine have identified a naturally occurring molecule that appears to mimic some of the weight loss effects of semaglutide, the drug widely known as Ozempic. In animal studies, the molecule reduced appetite and body weight while avoiding several common side effects such as nausea, constipation, and muscle loss.

The molecule, called BRP, works through a different but related biological pathway and activates distinct groups of neurons in the brain. This suggests it may offer a more precise way to control appetite and metabolism.

Blurb:

What influences how long we live, and how much of that is written in our genes? For many years, scientists believed genetics played only a modest role. Earlier estimates suggested that inherited factors explained about 20 to 25 percent of lifespan differences, and some large studies even placed the number below 10 percent.

A new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science, published in Science, challenges that long-standing view. The researchers report that genetics may account for roughly half of the variation in human lifespan, which is at least double previous estimates. The study was led by Ben Shenhar from the lab of Prof. Uri Alon in Weizmann’s Molecular Cell Biology Department.

Blurb:

A chilling new report is raising fresh alarm over how far elite-backed science may be willing to go, revealing that some researchers are openly discussing the possibility of growing “brainless” human body clones for future use by wealthy individuals who are aging or dying.

The idea sounds like dystopian fiction.

However, according to a new investigation, a billionaire-backed startup has been tied to discussions about creating non-sentient replacement bodies, human clones without functioning brains, that could one day serve as vessels for brain transplants.

Blurb:

Stanley Milgram’s 1961–62 Yale University experiment tested obedience, where participants believed they delivered painful electric shocks to others under authority.

In the early 1960s, a deceptively simple question took shape inside a laboratory at Yale University: how far would an ordinary person go if instructed by an authority figure to harm someone else? The answer, offered by psychologist Stanley Milgram, would become one of the most cited, and most contested, findings in modern psychology.Milgram’s obedience experiments, conducted between 1961 and 1962, did not begin as abstract inquiry. They were shaped by the aftermath of the Holocaust and, more specifically, by the trial of Adolf Eichmann, who defended his role in organising the logistics of the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps, a central part of the Nazi programme of systematic mass murder, by claiming he had been “just following orders.” In his 1974 book Obedience to Authority, Stanley Milgram framed the question directly: “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?”

Blurb:

Cornell University scientists have taken a major step toward developing a safe, reversible, long-acting and 100% effective nonhormonal male contraceptive, considered the holy grail of male contraception.

In a proof-of-principle study conducted in mice over six years, the team showed that interrupting a key step in meiosis, the process that produces sex cells, can temporarily halt sperm production without causing lasting harm.

The findings were published today (April 7) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Blurb:

“Even without therapy, many people around the world have experienced changes in their patterns of attraction and behavior.”

Dr. Paul Sullins, Senior Research Associate at the Ruth Institute, recently published “Sex Differences in Reported Effectiveness and Psychosocial Effects of Therapy-Assisted Sexual Orientation Change.”

His analysis shows:

  1. All the individuals in this sample had reduced their same sex behavior to “slight” or none.
  2. Although most sought out supportive therapy, 41% changed their same sex sexual behavior with no sexual reorientation therapy.
  3. Therapy affected men and women differently. Women were more likely to have strongly reduced same sex attraction than men, 88% v. 39%.
  4. Therapy to change sexual orientation sometimes brings relief from other psychologically troubling issues, most notably reductions in depression for women and reductions in self-harm for men.

Blurb:


Kansas lawmakers overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the CARE Act, protecting pregnancy resource centers from abortion mandates and preserving their freedom to offer life-affirming care to women and families.


The Kansas Legislature last week overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of House Bill 2635, which expands protections for pregnancy resource centers and limits certain forms of state regulation over their services.

 

Blurb:

As the global press grappled with a string of gut-wrenching, dystopian euthanasia stories – the latest of which is the killing of a young Spanish gang rape victim – the Canadian press is still publishing overtly eugenicist propaganda.

On March 25, CTV published a story on the impending death – now carried out – of John Maloney, who was suffering from partial blindness. The headline: “3 days before his medically assisted death, this Alberta man is reflecting on ‘his right to die.’”

The CTV suicide puff piece detailed John Maloney’s choice of music to serve as the soundtrack to his lethal injection; noted approvingly that Maloney, “[a]s a Christian,” was “preparing for his final moments” as “a practice in bodily autonomy,” and quotes Maloney as saying that although God forbids suicide, he thinks that God “gets it.” It is enough to make one shudder. (The press only quotes religiosity approvingly when it can be done in service of an anti-Christian agenda.)

Blurb:

I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on how good my life is right now. It’s been spring in Central Texas since February, and the program I teach at has had classes outside, like next to a turtle pond and a running creek.

I‘ve found myself thinking of how wonderful it is to see the fish swimming in the stream, to see the turtles sunning themselves on the rocks, to feel the sun and the breeze on my face, to smell the Texas Mountain Laurel bushes with flowers that smell like grape candy, to have a job where I help others, to have long-desired writing and speaking opportunities, to  work in an intellectually stimulating environment, to live in a lovely apartment with my sweet, cuddly cat, to have close friends and kind coworkers and to be able to share that happiness with my family.

Originally published March 27, 2026 for our weekly Issue of Mindful Intelligence Advisor.  Subscribe to get weekly issues.

A. SCOTUS TARIFF RULING

In our March 6, 2026, MIA Weekly, Paul Gordon Collier did a bellwether deepdive on the Supreme Court decision affecting Trump’s tariffs issued under the IEEA Act.

In that analysis, Collier concluded, “At the SCOTUS level, I expect this court to side with the resistance, and wherever sophistry can remotely be applied to justify the denial of Trump’s policies (to defeat Hitler, in their minds), they will do so. However, there are limitations, even for this rogue court. Some degree of a semblance of Americanism must still be maintained, at least for now.

“For that reason, I expect SCOTUS to not fully shut down Trump’s tariff powers, but from here until the first District Court injunction, he has a limited time to act decisively using tariffs to target our enemies for economic warfare.

“What many do not realize is this, American pax is over and everyone knows it. There is a new real scramble for power that will leave the losers in destitute circumstances. The race to build the one AI machine to rule them all is on, and Trump recognizes this; THAT is why he chose to use tariffs in this unprecedented, but legal (unprecedented doesn’t equal illegal, Mr. Roberts) way, for he understood the stakes are high.

The world is resetting its power structure, and competition is fierce to not become a subservient to the greater power, and it’s a competition America can lose, especially with Progmerica still fighting to take over from within, aided as they are by quislings in our courts.”

With a divided house, life is uncertain. Building reserves to get you through potential upheavals in supply are as essential as they’ve been since the first Covid lockdowns were ordered. That fragile state has only continued, and we act on the assumption it is only going to get worse before it gets better (and we DO believe it will get better).

We believe most of you (hopefully us too) will not be touched at a catastrophic level, where you might be without resources for a period of time (perhaps two months), but some of you (and us) MIGHT be. We are already preparing for the potential interruption that might happen, fully expecting the lights to come back on in the end.

To make it through the dark valley, consider:

  1. ESSENTIAL NEEDS – What are your essential needs that, if you go without them for more than 2 months, could kill you? Medicines might be top on that list. Food might be easier to find than medicine. One of our spouses has medicine that is consistently not available right away due to the strain on the medical supply lines already.

Here is a list of vulnerable medicines. If your medicines are on the list, consider alternatives, or, where possible, stock up for two months in advance.

USP Vulnerable Medicines List

  1. TRANSPORTATION – Consider having electric bikes on hand for emergency travel. To go along with those e-bikes, consider portable solar panels to recharge the e-bikes if you lose power for any period of time.

POWOXI 12V Solar Car Battery Charger: 15W Solar Trickle Charger Maintainer with MPPT Controller for Car – RV Boat Marine Motorcycle – $50

SOLPERK Solar Panel Kit 20W 12V, Waterproof Solar Battery Trickle Charger Maintainer + Smart MPPT Controller + Adjustable Mount Bracket – $30

URLIFE 20″*3.0 Fat Tire Electric Bike for Adults, 28MPH 48V, 80-Mile, 7-Speed & Suspension, Adjustable Seat for Adults and Teens, UL 2849 – $380

Electric Bike for Adults,1500W Peak Motor Retro E Bike,30MPH Max Speed,60/110 Miles Range,Removable 48V 15Ah Battery,20″x4.0″Fat – $630

B. APOCALPYPSE IRAN: IRAN’S NEW ORDER AND THE PRICE THE WORLD IS ALREADY PAYING

In our March 13, 2026, issue, our military affairs correspondent, Michael Cessna, presented an analysis of the Iran War that focused on the looming secondary global threats emerging from this war. One of the most pressing challenges comes through the Strait of Hormuz. So long as Iran can continue to shut down, or even slow down, commercial trade through the strait, global economies and even food supplies face existential threats.

Cessna explained, “The financial consequences were immediate and severe. Kuwait announced oil production cuts, and Iraq cut 1.5 million barrels per day as onshore storage filled. Brent crude logged its largest weekly gain in the history of the futures contract, surging by 28%.  By March 8, Brent had crossed $103 per barrel — the first time it had exceeded $100 in four years. U.S. retail gasoline prices jumped to a national average of $3.45 per gallon by March 9, up more than 51 cents in a single week.

“J.P. Morgan’s commodities research team warned that production cuts could exceed 4 million barrels per day by the end of the following week if the strait remained closed, and that prices could exceed $150 per barrel if Gulf infrastructure continued to be targeted — an outcome that Qatar’s Energy Minister described as capable of triggering the collapse of world economies.”

While seeming hyperbolic on the surface, the IEA convened an emergency meeting of its 30+ member states, which collectively hold 1.2 billion barrels in strategic reserve, to discuss a coordinated release.”

  1. EMERGENCY FOOD SUPPLY – If you haven’t started growing your own food already, starting now won’t help you deal with this immediate potential crisis. Stocking up on food is advised, and if you haven’t you definitely should.

The Best Emergency Food Supplies, With Insights From Disaster Relief Experts – Lee Cutlip

  1. FOOD BUYING CO-OPS – You still have time to join a local food buying co-op in your area, or maybe even start one yourself. Here are some resources to get you started:

Local Harvest Food Coops (mostly Northeast U.S.)

Neighborhood Buying Club: How to Start and Run One Safely – JoinSpark

Feeding America – Find Free Groceries

C. TRANSITIONS: PT. 2 – FROM JUDGES TO KINGS, HOW ISRAEL BECAME A KINGDOM OF MEN

In our March 20, 2026, issue of MIA, Paul Gordon Collier analyzed Israel’s transition from a nation of Judges to a nation of Kings. What he noted was this:

“The Kingdom still ostensibly claimed God as King, but their King would, more often than not, gain more praise from the people than God would. While God ordained it and allowed it to happen, it was not his desire. He knew the hearts of men. He knew one day his own people would call for a King even after they had one supernaturally deliver them from slavery.

“‘I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath.’- Hosea 13:11

“While they held on to the foundation of the Judges nation, what they built on top of it, kingship, would ultimately undermine the foundation that gave them legitimacy, which ultimately led to the death of the Kings nation and the eventual rise of the 2nd Temple province of many Empires (save for the era of the Maccabees).

“The differences between the two are, to me, radical enough to identify them as two civilizations (but one people). The second civilization sought to compromise with the civilizations around it. The kingdom sought the approval of neighboring Kings, not that of the King of Kings they once declared their sovereign.”

What the Kingdom drifted away from was a foundation in the Word of God. Our challenge this month to our readers is to read Psalm 119 every day for 30 days. In that reading, pray that the Holy Spirit moves in you to imprint the Hebrew alphabet in you.

Psalm 119 outlines the purpose of meditating on the Word daily, how to meditate on that Word, and what the fruit of meditating on the Word of God daily produces. Psalm 119 spells out why the Word of God should be the first and last plumbline of your actions, not the pleased voices of men, or the fear of their rejection.

For help in that meditation, here are three possibilities:

  1. Psalm 119 – Charles Bridges
  2. Faith in Exile: Psalm 119 and the Christian Life – David VanDrunen
  3. A Lamp Unto My Feet: A 12-Week Study through Psalm 117 – Stave Gallagher

For those of you affiliated with a church community, seek guidance from your leaders about study guides for Psalm 119.

D. JUDGEFARE VERSUS AMERICA

In this week’s issue, our monthly review for March 2026, our bellwether deepdive for the month was about the growing threat of Judgefare in America. In that deepdive, our staff wrote, “Recent rulings by what we would classify as progressive activist judges have only widened the divide between the conservative executive and the progressive judiciary.

“We believe the judiciary is mostly controlled by progressives, directly through progressive activist judges and indirectly through bar associations, law schools, and other judicial enforcement institutions.

“Their values are unique to their people, and alien to Americans, for they rest on the assumption that the social usurps the individual and social status usurps American rule of law

“We call this part of the progressive revolutionary war machine, Judgefare, the use of judges and the judiciary to stifle dissent and complete the transition from “Progmerica” to the Progressive U.S., now free to openly practice progressive values and bury Americanist values once and for all.”

To protect yourself from potential lawfare and Judgefare, consider first whether your actions present challenges to progressive power. Do you own a business that has a lot of social signal power? If so, you might be at risk of future targeting should you not comply to a future offer too good to be true (usually offered by a “special interest” group like GLAAD).

If the course of your life does not in some way either invite power for progressives or challenge it, you need not worry too much about the threat of Judgefare or lawfare in your life. If the course of your life falls into either of those two categories, then consider our recommendations.

  1. LEGAL INSURANCE – One way to protect yourself against lawfare is to purchase legal insurance. There are a variety of options out there, so we suggest you start first by learning exactly what legal insurance is and whether it is right for you, and second, which legal insurance provider is the best one for you.

What is Legal Insurance – and Do You Need It? – The Penny Hoarder

5 Best Legal Insurance Options in 2026 – Benzinga

  1. LEARN LEGAL BASICS – We don’t recommend anyone ever represent themselves in a legal matter, but we do recommend people becoming as familiar with the law as resources will allow. The more familiar you are with at least the underlying principles of constitutional law, the better prepared you will be to be an advocate for your rights not just with the authorities but even with your own lawyer (especially if you have a court-appointed one).

These resources are geared towards both non-lawyers and lawyers, but even the resources for lawyers listed here can be very useful to anyone wanting to get a basic familiarity with U.S. constitutional law.

How to Learn law Without Going to Law School – Halt.org

Self-Study Map for Law (Complete Guide) – TME.NET

The Ultimate Guide to Free Law Study Materials for Students on a Budget – Lawyers Inventory

A study published in BMJ Open claims 14.2% of industry payments made to published authors were undisclosed in two major psychiatric journals. The findings put further doubt on the psychiatric industry’s integrity assurance standards. This finding follows a 2020 study that revealed 55.7% of U.S. psychiatrists have accepted pharmaceutical industry funding.

Blurb:

Undisclosed Industry Payments Found in Top Psychiatry Journals – madinamerica.com

Research has shown that financial conflicts of interest (COIs) are a common issue in medicine and psychiatry, with a 2020 paper finding that 55.7% of US psychiatrists accepted some form of industry payment. Studies have found that the pharmaceutical industry spends billions of dollars per year making payments to clinical trial authors, DSM panel members, and FDA committee members, creating COIs at every level of the drug approval process. A 2021 Mad in America investigation revealed that industry paid psychiatrists alone $340 million between 2014 to 2020. The same investigation also reported that financial COIs were present in the testing of every new psychotropic drug approved by the FDA between 2013 to 2017.

A new study published in BMJ Open examines undisclosed financial COIs for physician-authors in two major US academic journals, the American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP) and the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry (JAMA-PSY). The current work finds that 14.2% of industry payments ($645,135) made to authors published in these two journals between 2020 and 2022 were undisclosed. This research, led by Francis Gesel of the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, additionally finds that nearly all undisclosed payments (96.2%) were made to authors conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

The authors write:

“In our study, 14.2% of the total payments in AJP and JAMA- PSY, amounting to $645,135.70, were undisclosed. These undisclosed payments predominantly comprised research payments (82.6%), with a smaller proportion being general payments (12.6%). The high prevalence of undisclosed payments suggests that existing disclosure policies are insufficient to ensure full transparency. ”

Blurb:

Author Wynton Hall reveals in his new book Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI that the worship of artificial intelligence as a literal deity is not science fiction. It is already happening, complete with IRS-registered churches, robot priests, and AI confessionals.

CODE RED explains that a former Google AI engineer and self-driving car pioneer named Anthony Levandowski filed paperwork with the IRS in 2017 to register a new church called “Way of the Future.” Its stated doctrine was centered on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” In an interview with Wired, Levandowski described AI in blunt terms: “What is going to be created will effectively be a god. If there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

Blurb:

Whenever the weather changes suddenly, or the skyline becomes shrouded in a windy haze, Fernanda Camarillo braces herself for an asthma attack.

Her condition has become more manageable, but the 27-year-old said it’s still scary when her chest tightens and she starts to wheeze. It was one of her first thoughts when she heard about plans to develop a massive data center next to her home in Imperial County, a farming community near the border of Mexico that struggles with poor air quality.

Blurb:

Baroness Monckton’s amendment (424) to overturn the extreme abortion up to birth clause 208 was rejected by Peers who voted 185 to 148 against it; and Baroness Stroud’s amendment (425) to reinstate in-person consultations with a medical professional prior to an abortion taking place at home was also rejected by Peers who voted 191 to 119 against it.

Amendment to overturn abortion up to birth clause rejected

Earlier this evening, Peers rejected amendment 424, which Baroness Monckton, along with other female Members of the House of Lords, tabled at Report Stage, that would have removed clause 208 from the Crime and Policing Bill.

Scotland’s version of legalized euthanasia has failed to pass their legislature after a 2-year push for its passage. The bill failed 69 to 57. The bill’s passage failure essentially tables the issue legislatively for a decade or more. The move is supported by the public, with a poll showing 7 in 10 fear it could be used to pressure people to commit suicide when they otherwise wouldn’t have.

Blurb:

Scotland Defeats Radical Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide – lifenews.com

Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide Bill has been defeated in a major victory for opponents of the Bill by 69 votes to 57, settling the issue in Scotland for a generation after a two-year national debate, and likely striking a mortal blow to the assisted suicide Bill in Westminster.

After two years of debate, and the most intense scrutiny that the question of assisted suicide has ever received in Scotland, Holyrood, widely regarded as one of the world’s most socially and politically progressive legislatures, has come to the conclusion that introducing assisted suicide is unsafe and dangerous.

Ahead of the vote, the Deputy Political Editor of The Scotsman, David Bol, described the final vote on the Bill at Stage 3 tonight as “potentially the biggest decision in the history of the Scottish Parliament”, and this was echoed by other prominent political commentators.

Blurb:

The Texas Medical Board has finally released rules for a law called the Life of the Mother Act (Senate Bill 31). This policy clarifies existing Pro-Life protections and makes sure doctors understand they can give life-saving care to a mother without breaking Texas’ Pro-Life laws. The law also requires ongoing education for physicians and their advising attorneys.

For years, the Texas Medical Board didn’t give clear guidance on Pro-Life laws, which is unusual for them, leaving doctors unsure how to handle complicated situations. The Life of the Mother Act fixes that.

Blurb:

For decades, the abortion industry has lied to America.

They’ve told us that abortion is healthcare, that abortion is about women’s rights, that the unborn are not human, and that abortion drugs are perfectly safe.

But consider the stories survivors of this deadly drug shared last week during a press conference on Capitol Hill hosted by Senator Josh Hawley:

“I was [in a] medically induced coma for a month… Eventually, the damage was so extensive that doctors had no choice but to perform a partial hysterectomy… I was scared and pressured by my boyfriend to end my child’s life. In that process, I almost lost my life as well.” -Shanyce Thomas

“As someone who’s been deceived by big abortion, I’m here to say that young people like me, young, scared moms and dads, deserve the truth. And the truth is, the abortion pill is not simple, and the abortion pill is not safe.” – Rebekah Hagan

Blurb:

The Trump administration is probing thirteen states that allegedly force insurance providers to cover abortion.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) sent letters Wednesday notifying states with abortion coverage mandates of the investigation and requesting information about how their policies are being implemented, according to an HHS official.

“We are concerned about this because it means that thousands of people and employers, including religious employers, churches, but also employers who may be private citizens, but who object to abortion and would prefer that their health plans not cover it, are also coerced into purchasing a plan that covers abortion are not free in the marketplace to purchase abortion-free coverage,” the official said.