What I learned today: August 10, 2026
Diseases, wars, fake news, lettuce
Grim milestones. This expression seems to be used more often than it used to. In this case, the article is about measles - a disease that had been declared “eliminated within US borders” in 2000. Fast forward to 2026 and we find that more measles cases have been reported to the CDC than in any year since 1991. Last year broke that record but this year, we broke the record in only seven months. Among contagious diseases, measles is typically the first to infect undervaccinated communities. People travel to countries that still have diseases we don’t see here in the US and these communities are at risk. In the last few months, people with measles arrived from Canada, Vietnam, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Australia, Guinea, the Netherlands, Somalia, Spain and Uganda. Polio is still circulating in 30 countries plus Israel and the UK. Diphtheria is on the rise in Western Europe. The one manufacturer that made Antitoxin, which is what is used to treat diphtheria, stopped making it. The US has a small emergency supply controlled by the CDC. In other words, we aren’t really prepared for a resurgence of these diseases. (Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/rfk-jr-vaccine-agenda-childhood-plagues and https://projects.propublica.org/measles-outbreak-analysis-utah-texas/)
Hamas laying down its weapons - not. Trump says his Board of Peace has accomplished something no one else has done before. They’ve supposedly negotiated a deal in which Hamas has agreed to disarm. But they forgot to read their history books, and the fine print of their own deal. The disarmament is contingent on Israel ending all forms of aggression and withdrawing its forces from Gaza. But, of course, Israel insists that they won’t withdraw until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed.” And so, it is another Middle East non-starter deal announced to make the US president look like a winner. Other presidents have at least made an effort to create a phased plan that had a chance. But in this case, Trump didn’t even try. Most presidents only have one failed Middle East deal under their belt. This is his second one. In 2020, he came up with the Peace to Prosperity Plan and claimed it was the deal of the century. The deal was developed with no input from Palestinian leadership. The Arab Center Washington DC said of that plan: “The Trump Administration is hawking the same solution suggested by the Israeli extreme right many years ago.” But Trump probably accomplished his goal, which has nothing to do with peace in the Middle East. He just needed a good headline and Fox was happy to oblige with this: “Hamas agrees to complete disarmament under ‘historic’ Gaza agreement: Trump” (Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yw4lpe0yeo and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_map_for_peace and https://www.cfr.org/backgrounders/middle-east-peace-plans-background and https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/deal-of-the-century-what-is-it-and-why-now/ and https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hamas-agrees-complete-disarmament-historic-gaza-agreement-trump)
Trump’s latest Ukraine con. I’ve talked about this before - that Trump is no friend to Ukraine despite what the news headlines often say. He’s lifted sanctions on Russia and he’s withheld critical weapons, specifically defensive weapons (the Patriot missile). The latest con is this idea that the US was granting Ukraine a license to make their own Patriots but still not sending any. So, Russia took advantage of their lack of defensive weapons and killed a whole lot of civilians recently. And now the jig is up on the licenses too. This is not to say that Ukraine is losing the war. They are making headway despite having to fight Putin and Trump. (Source: https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-197-anatomy-of-a-con and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/06/ukraine-nato-air-defences-missiles-russia-zelenskyy-patriot)
Too many talking faces. Maybe this is the reason young people prefer Instagram, the shots are creative. This, in contrast to SO many websites that show videos of people talking to the screen. The worst seems to be Democracy Now, which is too bad because they cover things that many media outlets don’t cover, but I can’t bear their website. Can’t we just have text with interesting graphics? Does everything require a talking head now?
More fake news sites created by Senate Republicans. The “primary dark money group” called OneNation is creating fake news sites as a way to spread Republican-boosting propaganda. Outlets include: Peach State Post, Alaska Navigator, Maine Policy Updates, Iowa Voice, Ohio Pulse, New Hampshire Daily. But I guess the AI bots are onto them. When I search “peach state post newspaper,” I get this AI Overview: “The ‘Peach State Post’ is a partisan digital media project identified as a pink-slime or fake local news network backed by dark money political groups to influence elections in Georgia.” A group called MetricMedia has been operating a similar pink-slime news business since 2020. They had 1200 fake news sites going as of 2021. The funding key to all these groups are 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) groups which collect money which donors do not have to report. Then the group funds “news” organizations where it is not considered a campaign donation. One such organization that Mother Jones called “the ATM of dark money” is the Koch-linked DonorsTrust. If you want some real local news, I recommend States Newsroom. According to Columbia Journalism review, it is left-leaning and offers genuine, high-quality, public interest journalism. (Sources: https://popular.info/p/senate-republicans-launch-network and https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/metric-media-lobbyists-funding.php and https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/how-a-network-of-pink-slime-news-sites-and-conservative-activists-went-after-campus-dei-hidden-camera-foia-flood-university-firings-heritage-foundation-project-2025.php and https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/states-newsroom-local-politics-policy-model.php and https://www.newsfromthestates.com/ and https://statesnewsroom.com/subscribe/)
Iran setting terms. The headlines say Oman and Iran are close to making a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz. But like all such deals, the sticky bit is who does what first. Iran says that the US must meet their conditions before the Strait opens regardless of the deal they are making with Oman. Those conditions are: the US paying for damages they’ve caused during the war, all aggression against Iran and its Lebanese, Palestinian, Yemeni and Iraqi allies must be stopped, the Gulf blockade must be lifted and Iran’s frozen assets must be released. Like I’ve said before, these are terms of surrender. Source:https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-ties-hormuz-reopening-us-concessions-several-demands-2026-08-09/)
Dangerous lettuces. So far, I’ve only seen a couple companies associated with the Cyclospora outbreak: Taylor Farms and Taco Bell because they got their lettuce from Taylor Farms. But it turns out there are several brands that use Taylor Farms in their lettuce kits or salad mixes including: Whole Foods 365, Earthbound Farm Organic, Walmart’s Marketside, Eat Smart, Green Giant Fresh, Kroger, Target’s Good & Gather. Taylor Farms actually owns Earthbound Farm Organic, which I find disappointing. And FYI, just cleaning the lettuce doesn’t kill the pathogen. But, if you buy actual lettuce instead of a kit or a mix, you should be in good shape. But I’d still skip iceberg lettuce. (Source: https://www.tastingtable.com/2230005/grocery-store-brand-lettuce-taylor-farms-producer/)
