Lauren Leffer
@laurenleffer.bsky.social
Former Bug Scientist / Current Science Journalist/ Bylines at The Verge, SciAm, PopSci, NatGeo, Gizmodo, etc.../ All views my own
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
more than a year ago, the lancet put this out, now seemingly lost to the collective memory: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential
By June 19, 2024, 37 396 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the attack
by Hamas and the Israeli invasion in October, 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry,
as reported by the UN Offi...
www.thelancet.com
July 25, 2025 at 6:35 PM
more than a year ago, the lancet put this out, now seemingly lost to the collective memory: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
In 2023, @laurenleffer.bsky.social gave us one of those perfect man vs. nature New York City stories, trying to find answers regarding why a raccoon took up residence on her fire escape and, furthermore, why the raccoon would not stop masturbating. hellgatenyc.com/my-horny-rac...
My Horny Raccoon Roommate and Me - Hell Gate
Why did a raccoon take up residence on my fire escape, and then begin masturbating? I went to the experts for some answers.
hellgatenyc.com
July 24, 2025 at 3:48 PM
In 2023, @laurenleffer.bsky.social gave us one of those perfect man vs. nature New York City stories, trying to find answers regarding why a raccoon took up residence on her fire escape and, furthermore, why the raccoon would not stop masturbating. hellgatenyc.com/my-horny-rac...
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"
Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:
"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"
Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:
July 21, 2025 at 11:21 PM
A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"
Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:
"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"
Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
On Feb. 15, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas called his wife from inside a Texas immigration detention facility.
He asked her to record a message, “just in case something happens to me.”
Thread 👇
He asked her to record a message, “just in case something happens to me.”
Thread 👇
July 18, 2025 at 10:10 PM
On Feb. 15, José Manuel Ramos Bastidas called his wife from inside a Texas immigration detention facility.
He asked her to record a message, “just in case something happens to me.”
Thread 👇
He asked her to record a message, “just in case something happens to me.”
Thread 👇
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
In an essay for VF, Rümeysa Öztürk details what she witnessed in the six and a half weeks she spent being held in a South Louisiana ICE detention center: “Even God cannot hear us here,” said one woman.
“Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison
Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up about her 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility—and the generous and compassionate women she met.
www.vanityfair.com
July 17, 2025 at 1:21 PM
In an essay for VF, Rümeysa Öztürk details what she witnessed in the six and a half weeks she spent being held in a South Louisiana ICE detention center: “Even God cannot hear us here,” said one woman.
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, CA. Other workers, including US citizens, remain unaccounted for.
UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families.
Our full statement below. ⬇️
1/
UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families.
Our full statement below. ⬇️
1/
July 11, 2025 at 6:41 PM
The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, CA. Other workers, including US citizens, remain unaccounted for.
UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families.
Our full statement below. ⬇️
1/
UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families.
Our full statement below. ⬇️
1/
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
it's my favorite day of the year, when the entire U.S. "news" industry turns itself into a glorified blogspam affiliate for a single billionaire-owned retailer and nobody in any position of editorial authority thinks that's weird, tasteless, or unethical
July 7, 2025 at 3:07 PM
it's my favorite day of the year, when the entire U.S. "news" industry turns itself into a glorified blogspam affiliate for a single billionaire-owned retailer and nobody in any position of editorial authority thinks that's weird, tasteless, or unethical
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.
🚨🚨 NEW: House passes sprawling domestic policy bill, sending it to Trump's desk
Final House vote is 218-214, with TWO Rs voting no (Massie & Fitzpatrick).
Senate passed it 51-50.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
Final House vote is 218-214, with TWO Rs voting no (Massie & Fitzpatrick).
Senate passed it 51-50.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
House passes sprawling domestic policy bill, sending it to Trump's desk
The Republican package would slash taxes, boost spending on immigration and the military, and impose steep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and clean energy funding.
www.nbcnews.com
July 3, 2025 at 6:35 PM
With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
Huge sleeper issue is how states will (or won’t) be able to absorb huge SNAP cuts in BBB. www.inquirer.com/politics/pen...
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he’s not sure SNAP will be able to exist in Pa. under President Trump’s megabill
Pennsylvania won't be able afford the cost of federal food assistance if Trump's tax and spending plan becomes reality, Shapiro said.
www.inquirer.com
July 3, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Huge sleeper issue is how states will (or won’t) be able to absorb huge SNAP cuts in BBB. www.inquirer.com/politics/pen...
RFK Jr. is poised to use 'AI' to weaponize the CDC's critical vaccine incident reporting system, in yet another of his assaults on public health.
RFK Jr.’s plan to put ‘AI’ in everything is a disaster
RFK Jr.’s plan to put ‘AI’ in everything is a disaster
‘Stop trusting the experts.’
buff.ly
July 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM
RFK Jr. is poised to use 'AI' to weaponize the CDC's critical vaccine incident reporting system, in yet another of his assaults on public health.
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job."
July 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Trump calls for deporting US citizens: "We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time ... many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that'll be the next job."
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
New #ACIP co-chair signals the new committee will reopen issues core to anti-vax concerns, including the notion that kids are getting too many vaccines. www.statnews.com/2025/06/25/c...
CDC vaccine advisory committee to review long-approved immunizations
A leader of the CDC's reconstituted vaccine advisory committee said the panel would start a review of long-approved shots.
www.statnews.com
June 25, 2025 at 3:42 PM
New #ACIP co-chair signals the new committee will reopen issues core to anti-vax concerns, including the notion that kids are getting too many vaccines. www.statnews.com/2025/06/25/c...
Antivaxxers have long branded their movement as about "choice" but soon, most may not have the choice to get lifesaving immunizations for their children or themselves.
Last November, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that, as secretary of health and human services, he would not “take away anybody’s vaccines.” If you believed him, you were duped.
Read more from @laurenleffer.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/health/68850...
Read more from @laurenleffer.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/health/68850...
June 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Antivaxxers have long branded their movement as about "choice" but soon, most may not have the choice to get lifesaving immunizations for their children or themselves.
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
Alleging Israel has committed ‘war crimes’ suggests a recognizable event: that there is a war happening and there are some crimes in it. Gaza is different.
Israel’s Crimes of the Century
Alleging Israel has committed ‘war crimes’ suggests a recognizable event: that there is a war happening and there are some crimes in it. Gaza is different.
nymag.com
June 16, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Alleging Israel has committed ‘war crimes’ suggests a recognizable event: that there is a war happening and there are some crimes in it. Gaza is different.
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
This is the kind of sweeping, truth-telling journalism we need more of. Good job, AP.
Deep cuts erode the foundations of US public health system, end progress, threaten worse to come
Americans are losing an array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy.
apnews.com
May 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM
This is the kind of sweeping, truth-telling journalism we need more of. Good job, AP.
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
New: Not only would Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” ban gender-affirming care via Medicaid, it would ban insurance under the Obamacare exchanges from covering it as an essential health benefit
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Trump’s ‘One, big, beautiful bill’ would transgender care on Medicaid and Obamacare
‘It's one more example of health care that they're trying to rip away,’ Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, tells The Independent
www.independent.co.uk
May 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
New: Not only would Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” ban gender-affirming care via Medicaid, it would ban insurance under the Obamacare exchanges from covering it as an essential health benefit
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Ashamed to hold a degree from an institution that responds this way to condemnation of genocide. Withholding an academic diploma for telling a basic truth is craven and absurd.
Here is the grad speech that NYU is now withholding the student's diploma for:
"As I search my heart today in addressing you all…the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine."
"As I search my heart today in addressing you all…the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine."
May 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Ashamed to hold a degree from an institution that responds this way to condemnation of genocide. Withholding an academic diploma for telling a basic truth is craven and absurd.
May 13, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
In only two years, ChatGPT and the surge of AI-generated cheating from college students it has created have unraveled the entire academic project.
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College
In only two years, ChatGPT and the surge of AI-generated cheating from college students it has created have unraveled the entire academic project.
nymag.com
May 7, 2025 at 9:10 AM
In only two years, ChatGPT and the surge of AI-generated cheating from college students it has created have unraveled the entire academic project.
Yikes.
After watching the AI video of the deceased victim, the judge told the family, "I loved that AI, thank you for that. As angry as you are, as justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness...I feel that that was genuine.”
I am speechless.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I am speechless.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
AI of dead Arizona road rage victim addresses killer in court
Clip of Chris Pelkey, who died in 2021, says: ‘I believe in forgiveness’ after his sister fed an AI model videos of him
www.theguardian.com
May 7, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Yikes.
I wrote this so you didn't have to!
Under RFK Jr., ‘Make America Healthy Again’ means junk science like ‘survival of the fittest.’
Read more from @laurenleffer.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/health/66136...
Read more from @laurenleffer.bsky.social: www.theverge.com/health/66136...
May 6, 2025 at 3:21 PM
I wrote this so you didn't have to!
Reposted by Lauren Leffer
I look at close to 100 stories a week and even more outside of work. I’ve done this ten years.
This is among the most horrific things I’ve ever read — testimony from dying children whose access to medicine has been cut off by the Trump administration.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
This is among the most horrific things I’ve ever read — testimony from dying children whose access to medicine has been cut off by the Trump administration.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
Haunted by hopelessness: 12 Zambians share their stories as HIV drugs run out
Mothers and children, husbands and wives, doctors, truck drivers and religious leaders are all grappling with the fallout from the sudden U.S. cuts in aid.
www.npr.org
April 17, 2025 at 1:58 AM
I look at close to 100 stories a week and even more outside of work. I’ve done this ten years.
This is among the most horrific things I’ve ever read — testimony from dying children whose access to medicine has been cut off by the Trump administration.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
This is among the most horrific things I’ve ever read — testimony from dying children whose access to medicine has been cut off by the Trump administration.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...