Global Pulse

标签： North America

北美洲

  • Trump threatens ‘tremendous economic consequences’ on any country helping Iran

    Trump threatens ‘tremendous economic consequences’ on any country helping Iran

    U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated his administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran, warning that any nation facilitating financial or commercial activity with Tehran will face severe, unprecedented economic retaliation. The announcement, posted Wednesday evening to his Truth Social platform in all-capital lettering, frames the new initiative as an “economic D-Day” targeting Iran’s global economic lifelines, following the Islamic Republic’s refusal to reach a negotiated agreement with the U.S.

    Trump did not provide specific details on the scope of penalties, nor did he name any specific countries that could be targeted. He did, however, issue a broad warning that any state allowing its financial institutions, private businesses, airports or government bodies to maintain ties with Iran would “itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.” He called for an immediate end to all activities that sustain Iran’s economy, including oil smuggling, currency exchange operations, cross-border cash transfers, front company activity and fraudulent ship registration, adding “You know who you are” to the post.

    The latest escalation comes just one day after the 60-day U.S.-Iran ceasefire brokered in mid-April expired on Monday, with no breakthrough toward either a diplomatic resolution or a de-escalation of military tensions. The conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran first erupted in late February, and this new move extends the Trump administration’s Operation Economic Fury, launched in April to penalize foreign banks and corporations that conduct business with Tehran.

    Wednesday’s announcement also comes one day after the United Arab Emirates, a longstanding U.S. ally in the Gulf region, announced it would cut all financial and economic ties with Iran. The UAE’s decision followed a reported missile launch from Iranian territory targeting regional maritime traffic; the UAE defense ministry confirmed two ballistic missiles were detected, both of which landed in open water. For decades, Iranian entities have leveraged Dubai’s robust open financial system to move funds via unregulated exchange houses and shell companies, making the UAE’s cut a major blow to Iran’s access to global finance.

    Hours after the UAE’s announcement, Iran’s armed forces issued a stark warning to neighboring Gulf states, cautioning that any provision of support to U.S. military operations would be treated as direct collusion against the Islamic Republic. The new warning follows a string of escalating tensions across the region that have persisted since the outbreak of open conflict six months ago.

    Trump’s latest escalation aligns with comments made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent roughly one week ago, when he promised the U.S. would impose a level of economic isolation on Iran “like the world has never seen before.” The BBC has reached out to the White House and the U.S. Department of the Treasury for additional context and clarification on the new policy, but has not yet received a response.

    Earlier this week, additional details emerged of separate threats Trump made during a phone interview with a Fox News reporter: the president reportedly warned Oman, another U.S. ally in the Gulf, that he would order military bombing strikes if the country “gets in the way” of the administration’s bilateral talks with Tehran. Oman and the U.S. have been holding separate negotiations with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint for global energy trade that has been largely closed to commercial traffic for nearly six months since the outbreak of conflict.

    The prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already had widespread global economic impacts. Approximately 20% of the world’s total crude oil and liquified natural gas supplies transit through the waterway on a normal basis, and the ongoing disruption has pushed global energy prices sharply higher in recent months. Heading into November’s U.S. midterm elections, President Trump faces growing domestic political pressure over the consumer costs of the conflict and its toll on U.S. military personnel deployed to the region.

  • Watch: What to know about Trump’s trusted aide Natalie Harp

    Watch: What to know about Trump’s trusted aide Natalie Harp

    In recent political discourse surrounding the composition of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest advisory circle, one name has increasingly drawn public attention: Natalie Harp, a trusted aide whose rapid ascent to prominence has raised questions about her background, influence, and path to power. Veteran BBC journalist Bernd Debusmann has broken down the key details surrounding Harp, tracing her journey from relatively unknown public commentator to a key figure with direct access to one of the most polarizing political leaders in modern American history.

    Harp first entered the national political spotlight through her vocal advocacy for Trump’s policy agenda and sharp criticism of his political opponents, particularly on issues related to regulatory reform and healthcare policy. Early in her career, she built a reputation as a forceful conservative commentator, appearing on right-leaning media outlets to defend Trump’s agenda and push back against criticisms from Democrats and establishment Republicans. This consistent loyalty and sharp rhetorical skill caught the attention of Trump’s team, gradually earning her a spot in his inner circle of trusted advisors.

    Today, Harp holds a prominent role that places her at the center of strategic decision-making for Trump, as he remains the dominant figure in the Republican Party and pursues another presidential run. Debusmann’s analysis contextualizes how Harp’s rise reflects broader shifts within the Trump-aligned wing of the GOP, as the former president continues to elevate new voices that demonstrate unwavering loyalty to his movement and policy priorities. For political observers tracking the future direction of the Republican Party, understanding Harp’s background and role offers key insight into how Trump’s inner circle is evolving ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

  • What is postpartum psychosis and why is it central in the Lindsay Clancy trial?

    What is postpartum psychosis and why is it central in the Lindsay Clancy trial?

    A high-profile criminal trial unfolding in Massachusetts has thrust a little-understood severe maternal mental health condition into the national spotlight, as the defense for accused killer Lindsay Clancy builds its entire case around the devastating impacts of postpartum psychosis. In 2023, Clancy faces allegations that she took the lives of her three young children in a shocking act of violence that rocked the local community and drew national attention to gaps in maternal mental health care. What might have otherwise remained a straightforward homicide case has instead become a critical public conversation about postpartum psychiatric conditions, after Clancy’s legal team announced they would attribute the alleged acts to acute, untreated postpartum mental illness.

    Postpartum psychosis is a rare, extreme psychiatric emergency that typically emerges within the first weeks after childbirth, characterized by rapid onset of symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, extreme confusion, mania, and disrupted cognitive function. Unlike the more common and widely discussed “baby blues” or postpartum depression, which affect a far larger share of new mothers, postpartum psychosis is considered a life-threatening condition for both the parent and child, requiring immediate urgent psychiatric intervention. It impacts roughly 1 to 2 out of every 1,000 births globally, though many medical experts believe the condition is underdiagnosed and underreported due to limited screening protocols and stigma surrounding maternal mental illness.

    For Clancy’s defense, the condition is not just a background detail—it is the core of their argument to the jury. Legal representatives for the defendant contend that Clancy was experiencing a severe, unrecognized episode of postpartum psychosis at the time of the alleged killings, leaving her unable to form the criminal intent required for a first-degree murder conviction. The trial is expected to feature competing testimony from mental health experts, who will debate the link between Clancy’s reported symptoms and the violent acts, as well as the question of whether healthcare providers missed critical warning signs before the tragedy occurred. Beyond the courtroom, the case has reignited long-running debates about the need for more widespread screening for postpartum psychiatric conditions, better access to maternal mental health care, and greater public education about the risks and symptoms of severe postpartum illness, which many advocates say is still widely misunderstood by both the general public and many medical providers.

  • Who is Natalie Harp, Trump’s right-hand woman?

    Who is Natalie Harp, Trump’s right-hand woman?

    In the inner circle of U.S. President Donald Trump, few aides have maintained as constant a presence at his side over the past several years as 35-year-old Natalie Harp. One of Trump’s longest-tenured and most trusted staff members, Harp holds a roster of high-stakes responsibilities, including drafting and posting the president’s Truth Social updates. This week, she has been catapulted back into the national spotlight after Democratic Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff — a consistent critic of Trump — name-checked her in a speech that quickly went viral across social media platforms.

    Ossoff’s viral remarks targeted what he called Trump’s “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar”, a jab that referenced the new Air Force One aircraft as well as recent reporting that Harp was part of the small contingent that joined Trump when he secretly switched planes mid-departure from Turkey last month. Against this new swirl of attention, here is a full breakdown of the Trump aide that insiders have described both as a critical gatekeeper and the president’s personal “comfort blanket.”

    A native of California born into a conservative Christian household, Harp took an unconventional path into politics that aligned perfectly with Trump’s own unorthodox approach to the White House. She first rose to national prominence by crediting Trump with saving her life during his first presidential term. When Trump signed the Right to Try Act into law, the legislation expanded patient access to experimental medical treatments — a change that allowed Harp to access a novel therapy for her bone cancer after conventional chemotherapy failed.

    Harp shared her story widely with supporters in Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, rapidly building a following within the faction. By 2020, she had earned a seat on the advisory board for Trump’s re-election campaign, and delivered a high-profile address at that year’s Republican National Convention. “When I failed the chemotherapies that were on the market, no one wanted me in their clinical trials,” Harp told the crowd. “They didn’t give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr President. You did, and without you, I’d have died waiting for them to be approved.” In response, Trump publicly praised her, saying “She lit up the television screen like very few people I have ever seen do it.”

    After Trump lost his 2020 re-election bid, Harp took a job hosting a political program at One America News Network (OAN), a conservative media outlet. During her time at OAN, she established a reputation as one of Trump’s most fierce public defenders and a prominent voice repeating unsubstantiated claims of widespread 2020 election fraud. She departed the network in 2022 to join Trump’s third presidential campaign, and followed him back to the White House after his 2024 election victory.

    Little is known about Harp’s private life, with almost all public reporting on her relationship with Trump coming from anonymous sources cited in journalistic books by prominent Trump reporters including Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Michael Wolff. Today, her official White House title is executive assistant to the president — a role typically categorized as a junior administrative position focused on logistics, scheduling, communications coordination and routine but critical secretarial work.

    By all accounts from insiders, however, Harp has redefined the role, and her influence and public profile far outpace that of any previous person holding the position, including Madeleine Westerhout who served in the same role during Trump’s first term. White House reporters routinely spot Harp standing just feet from Trump in the Oval Office, and she joins him on almost all domestic and international trips, including aboard Air Force One. “She’s always around,” one anonymous source close to the White House told the BBC. “Literally, always.”

    Among White House staff and the press corps, Harp has earned the informal nickname “the human printer”, because she regularly carries a portable printer to produce physical hard copies of news articles and social media posts for Trump, who prefers reading print over digital content. This proximity gives Harp outsized influence over what information and updates reach the president, according to a second source familiar with White House operations. That influence has led multiple insiders to label her a “gatekeeper” to the president, as well as his personal “comfort blanket.”

    Beyond controlling information flow, Harp acts as Trump’s personal social media scribe, drafting and posting content to his Truth Social account at his direction. A photo that spread widely after Ossoff’s speech captured Harp typing a Truth Social post in Trump’s distinct rhetorical style, as the president dictated to her while watching a 2024 campaign speech by Vice President Kamala Harris.

    Amid the new public focus on Harp, the White House has publicly characterized her as a “trusted and valued” member of the president’s senior team, though Trump has rarely spoken about her on camera. Ossoff was not the only Trump critic to highlight Harp’s presence on the secret plane swap out of Turkey, which occurred after U.S. intelligence reportedly received information about a potential threat from Iran.

    Prominent Trump reporter Maggie Haberman, who has covered Trump’s presidencies extensively, addressed the question of why Trump brought Harp along on the flight during an appearance on MSNBC. “Because she is sort of his binky, for lack of a better way of putting it, a comfort blanket,” Haberman explained. Haberman and Swan also reported in a 2024 New York Times article that Harp once wrote in a personal note to Trump: “You are all that matters to me.”

    When CNN reporter Kristen Holmes asked Trump about Ossoff’s viral comments earlier this week, the White House responded with unusual fury on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, labeling Holmes “a disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession.” A follow-up post directed at Holmes added: “Someday, your children will come across your disgusting and inhumane question. They will be sickened and embarrassed to have a parent be so callous and vindictive.”

  • US long-term borrowing costs ease after government steps in

    US long-term borrowing costs ease after government steps in

    On Wednesday, long-term borrowing costs across the United States pulled back following a policy adjustment from the US Treasury Department, which announced a significant expansion of its debt buyback program. The intervention comes just one day after 30-year Treasury bond yields hit 5.34% – the highest recorded level in nearly two decades.

    Bond yields, which represent the effective long-term borrowing cost for both public and private sectors, have far-reaching ripple effects across the entire US economy. Beyond raising interest expenses for the federal government and large corporations, elevated yields directly push up consumer borrowing costs for critical products including 30-year fixed mortgages, auto loans, and credit card balances.

    Several interconnected factors have driven the recent sharp surge in long-term bond yields. Escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran have pushed global crude oil prices higher, stoking renewed investor anxiety over persistent inflation. Compounding these inflation concerns are market jitters over the expanding size of US government debt, as well as the massive capital outflows from private markets toward technology firms pouring billions into artificial intelligence research and development – a sector where the timeline and scale of projected returns remain highly uncertain.

    In a public statement, the Treasury clarified that its expanded buyback program is designed to deliver greater liquidity support to the long-term bond market. The department will double its monthly buyback operations from the previous $2 billion level to $4 billion, with the new policy taking effect from September 9 through November 4. Immediately following the announcement, 30-year bond yields retreated to 5.18%, marking a notable near-term easing of borrowing costs.

    John Canavan, lead analyst at Oxford Economics, framed the policy shift as a targeted effort to alleviate acute pressure on long-term borrowing markets, which have been squeezed by three key headwinds: rising energy prices, persistent inflation risk, and a glut of new debt issuance from both sovereign and corporate borrowers globally. However, Canavan struck a cautious note, arguing that the modest increase in buyback volumes is unlikely to deliver sustained long-term relief, given the massive total size of outstanding US Treasury debt.

    Rene Albrecht, senior analyst at German financial institution DZ Bank, noted that long-term yields sustained above 5% pose broad economic pain for both the public and private sectors, giving the US government strong incentive to intervene. Albrecht also pointed to the upcoming midterm elections, just three months away, as an unspoken political driver for the policy move.

    Unlike many other advanced economies such as the United Kingdom, the US mortgage market is dominated by long-term fixed-rate products. Current data from housing finance firm Freddie Mac puts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.67%. While this marks a notable rise from recent years, it remains below the 7.7% average recorded in 2023.

    Alongside the Treasury’s announcement, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its most recent monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, revealing that inflation concerns have deepened among central bank policymakers. The minutes noted that several meeting participants supported raising the benchmark interest rate at the last gathering. Despite this internal division, the Federal Reserve chose to hold its key policy rate steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range for the fifth consecutive policy meeting.

    Market analysts broadly expect the Federal Reserve to keep rates unchanged again at its September policy meeting, following recent economic data that showed a modest softening of inflation and an unexpected contraction in private sector payrolls during July.

  • Watch: Trump leads tour of White House helipad construction site

    Watch: Trump leads tour of White House helipad construction site

    In a move that underscores the high-stakes logistics of upcoming high-level diplomacy between the United States and China, former President Donald Trump has led an on-site tour of the ongoing construction work to upgrade the White House helipad. The project, which is already moving forward at an accelerated pace, is being fast-tracked to meet a critical deadline: the planned state visit to Washington by Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for late September.

    Diplomatic visits of this caliber require rigorous infrastructure planning and security preparations, and the upgrade to the White House helipad is a key component of these pre-visit arrangements. The expedited construction timeline reflects the significance that the U.S. administration has placed on hosting the high-level Chinese delegation, with logistics teams working to ensure all facilities meet the strict security and protocol standards required for a head-of-state visit. Trump’s personal presence at the construction site tour draws additional attention to the meticulous preparations underway ahead of what is expected to be one of the most high-profile international diplomatic engagements of the year.

  • Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal, but details remain murky

    Canada and US say they are finalising a trade deal, but details remain murky

    After days of intensive negotiations and a last-minute pause to threatened tariffs, Canada and the United States have reached a tentative framework for a new bilateral trade deal, hailed by leaders on both sides as a landmark win for North American economic ties. The breakthrough comes after the Trump administration suspended a planned wave of 50% tariffs on a broad swathe of Canadian goods that was scheduled to take effect Wednesday, pushing negotiations across the finish line just as the deadline loomed.

    US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have both publicly touted the tentative agreement as a success for their respective national economies. Trump told reporters the deal will deliver major benefits to American farmers and manufacturers, noting that Canada has agreed to eliminate tariffs on a range of US agricultural products — though he declined to name which specific sectors will gain access. When asked whether the US would reciprocate by rolling back some of its existing tariffs on Canadian imports, Trump confirmed the US would ease tariffs “by a little bit.”

    Carney, in a post on X Wednesday, congratulated negotiating teams led by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc for the “significant progress” they achieved after more than a week of marathon talks in Washington. The tentative deal will lock in “the best terms” for Canada’s most critical strategic sectors and bring much-needed certainty to the long-strained bilateral trading relationship, Carney added.

    Speaking to reporters shortly after a 45-minute negotiating session with LeBlanc, Greer said US officials are “very happy” with the outcome of the latest talks. He confirmed the agreement eliminates a number of longstanding trade frictions that have complicated US-Canada trade relations for years. “We feel confident that we’ve reached an agreement that will not only continue to protect American workers, American jobs, American supply chains, but really strengthen the North American economy,” Greer said, adding that he will brief Congress and US industry stakeholders on the full details of the deal in the near future.

    LeBlanc, whose team has been stationed in Washington for more than a week to rush a deal before the tariff deadline, moved to reassure domestic audiences that one of Canada’s most sensitive agricultural policies remains untouched. When asked whether the deal included major concessions on dairy access that would undermine Canada’s supply management system — which governs production quotas, fixed pricing, and import limits for dairy, eggs, and poultry — LeBlanc confirmed the program will remain “entirely intact.”

    The core sticking points that dominated negotiations align with longstanding priorities from both countries. Canada has pushed for the US to roll back or eliminate existing tariffs on its key exports including steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber. For its part, Washington has demanded several key concessions from Ottawa: the removal of Canada’s remaining retaliatory tariffs on American automobiles, expanded access to Canada’s dairy market for US cheese producers, and the elimination of the ban on US alcohol sales that most Canadian provinces implemented last year in retaliation for earlier Trump-era tariffs.

    Public opinion in Canada remains sharply divided over how far Ottawa should go to reach a deal. Recent polling from Leger shows 56% of Canadian respondents favor a hardline negotiating approach, and a majority would oppose the Carney government making significant concessions to the US to avoid new tariffs. However, business groups on both sides of the border have repeatedly pressured negotiators to reach a deal, warning that new tariffs would inflict broad economic harm on two of the world’s largest trading partners, who share more than $2 billion in daily bilateral trade.

    As of Wednesday, many key details of the tentative agreement remain undisclosed: the full scope of policy changes, the specific concessions each side has agreed to, and the remaining outstanding issues that still need to be resolved before the deal can be finalized have not been made public. The threatened 50% tariffs have only been paused until the weekend, giving negotiators a narrow window to iron out the final details of the agreement.

  • Trump nominates aide Heidi Overton to lead US Food and Drug Administration

    Trump nominates aide Heidi Overton to lead US Food and Drug Administration

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump has selected Dr. Heidi Overton, a senior domestic policy advisor serving in his White House, as his nominee to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If the U.S. Senate votes to confirm her appointment, Overton will step into the role vacated by former FDA commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned from the post in May following public disagreements with the White House over the public safety risks of flavored vaping products.

    In a public post shared to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump lavished praise on his nominee, calling Overton a “rockstar” within his administration. He emphasized that she has built a reputation for tackling the nation’s most intractable policy challenges and delivering practical solutions aligned with the administration’s priorities for the country.

    Overton, who regularly briefs the president on domestic health policy matters, made headlines earlier this month during an Oval Office announcement focused on rolling back the number of mandatory childhood vaccinations. During that event, she delivered sharp criticism of so-called “blue states” led by Democratic governors and legislatures, urging these jurisdictions to adopt the White House’s new framework, which she described as the “gold standard” for vaccination policy.

    Should she secure confirmation, Overton will inherit a broad set of core responsibilities at the FDA, ranging from verifying the safety and effectiveness of all prescription medications sold in the U.S. to overseeing federal regulation of tobacco and nicotine products. Like most senior health officials in the second Trump administration, Overton is a staunch ally of the White House’s “Make America Healthy Again” policy movement.

    Before joining the administration, Overton served as chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative Washington D.C.-based think tank closely aligned with Trump’s policy agenda. A well-known opponent of abortion rights, she has previously labeled abortion “corrosive” to women’s health and has repeatedly called on the FDA to tighten restrictions and crack down on medication abortion access.

    Continuing his endorsement on Truth Social, Trump argued that Overton’s leadership is urgently needed at the agency to maintain the United States’ global position as a leader in scientific discovery and medical innovation. He added that Overton is “smart and respected by all” and that her tenure at the FDA would continue the administration’s commitment to putting “America First” and building a healthier nation.

    Industry and political sources familiar with the selection process have confirmed that Overton is Trump’s third pick for the FDA commissioner role, after the president’s first two choices — acting FDA head Kyle Diamantas and former Republican Congressman Brad Wenstrup — withdrew from consideration. Her nomination comes at a fraught moment for federal public health policy: the administration is already facing widespread criticism over its slow response to a national cyclospora parasite outbreak, and conservative activists are ramping up pressure on the FDA to restrict access to abortion medications.

    A native of the southwest, Overton earned her medical degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and went on to complete postgraduate public health training at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

  • Lindsay Clancy’s trial put postpartum psychosis in the spotlight. Experts want progress to follow

    Lindsay Clancy’s trial put postpartum psychosis in the spotlight. Experts want progress to follow

    As the high-profile trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy enters its fourth week, the horrific tragedy at the center of the case has dragged a little-discussed, life-threatening maternal mental health condition into the national spotlight: postpartum psychosis. The case, which has sparked urgent conversations about gaps in maternal mental health care, is renewing calls to formally classify the condition as a distinct disorder in American psychiatry’s official diagnostic handbook.

    Clancy, who admitted to killing her three young children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan — in January 2023, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder. Her legal team argues that she was incapacitated by severe postpartum psychosis triggered after the birth of her third child, a condition that left her grappling with debilitating hallucinations and delusions. One month before the killings, Clancy explicitly told her mother Paula Musgrove and then-husband Patrick Clancy that she was experiencing intrusive thoughts of harming her children. Musgrove testified this week that her daughter repeatedly insisted the disturbing thoughts were not her own, saying “This isn’t me, I’ve never been like this before” — a claim Musgrove confirmed aligned with Clancy’s prior behavior.

    Clinical and forensic psychologist Paul Zeizel testified Wednesday that Clancy’s condition left her unable to recognize the wrongfulness of her actions or adjust her behavior to comply with the law. Prosecutors, however, argue the killings were a premeditated, intentional act. What is not debated by medical experts is the dangerous nature of postpartum psychosis, which is classified as an urgent medical emergency. Symptoms of the condition include rapid-onset mania, depression, hallucinations, and fixed false delusions that pull patients completely out of touch with reality. Experts note the condition has a distinct “waxing and waning” pattern that can lull loved ones into a false sense of security: Patrick Clancy testified that on the day of the killings, his ex-wife appeared to be having one of her best days, playing outside with the children to build a snowman. Hours later, when he returned home from picking up dinner, he found his children dead and Clancy gravely injured from a suicide attempt.

    That seemingly sudden shift is a classic hallmark of the condition, explained Jennifer Payne, a reproductive psychiatry expert at the University of Virginia. “A woman can appear fine one minute and be really ill a little bit later,” Payne said. While the exact causes of postpartum psychosis remain under-researched, experts have linked it to dramatic hormonal shifts after childbirth and a history of prior mental health conditions. In rare severe cases, between 1% and 4% of experiences with the condition result in harm or death to children or the mother, according to existing research.

    The biggest barrier to better awareness, screening, and treatment, patients and providers agree, is that postpartum psychosis is not formally recognized as a distinct disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s *Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)* — the definitive reference guide used by clinicians, medical schools, and insurance providers across the U.S. Advocates like Veerle Bergink, professor of psychiatry and director of the Mount Sinai Women’s Mental Health Center, have spent years pushing for the condition’s inclusion, arguing that formal classification is the foundational step to advancing care.

    “You can only investigate and talk about the disease if you give the disease a name, and if it has criteria,” Bergink explained. Without formal listing in the DSM-5, the condition is often omitted from medical school curricula, fails to attract research funding, lacks a standard insurance billing code, and leaves patients without a clear pathway to care. For Meghan Cliffel, a postpartum psychosis survivor who experienced rapid-onset hallucinations and delusions eight months after giving birth to her second daughter in 2015, this lack of recognition feels like deliberate erasure.

    Clifel recalled that within 24 hours of her first symptoms, she was handcuffed to a gurney and admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she spent 12 days receiving treatment. She recovered with a multi-pronged care plan including therapy and lithium, and later safely had a third child by starting prophylactic lithium treatment immediately after birth. Even so, her road to recovery was marked by uncertainty: unlike common conditions such as breast cancer, which offer clear, step-by-step care pathways, postpartum psychosis leaves patients fumbling for support in the dark, she said.

    Calling the lack of DSM-5 classification “bananas”, Cliffel said the Clancy trial is a critical turning point for the maternal mental health community. “We cannot be surprised when tragedy happens, and instead, we can proactively build to care for mothers and families,” she said. Experts stress that postpartum psychosis is a highly treatable condition: common interventions include mood stabilizers like lithium, antipsychotic medications, electroconvulsive therapy, and inpatient psychiatric care, and most patients fully recover with timely, appropriate intervention. Advocates now hope the attention from the Clancy trial will accelerate efforts to formalize the condition’s recognition, building a standardized care system that catches symptoms early and prevents future tragedies.

  • Jellyfish mesmerise in their own museum in Florida

    Jellyfish mesmerise in their own museum in Florida

    Nestled in the coastal city of Pompano Beach, Florida, a one-of-a-kind cultural attraction has opened its doors, inviting visitors to dive into the captivating world of one of the ocean’s most fascinating creatures. The newly launched Jellyfish Museum stands as the first institution in the United States entirely devoted to showcasing these graceful, gelatinous marine predators that have drifted through the world’s oceans for hundreds of millions of years.

    Unlike traditional aquariums that spread jellyfish exhibits among dozens of other marine displays, this niche museum centers every inch of its space on highlighting the extraordinary diversity, beauty, and biological uniqueness of jellyfish species from across the globe. Curators and marine biologists worked together to design immersive habitats that let visitors watch these pulsating creatures drift through illuminated water, their translucent bodies creating a mesmerizing, almost otherworldly visual experience.

    Organizers behind the project say the museum fills a long-unmet niche for marine enthusiasts and casual tourists alike, combining recreational wonder with subtle educational outreach about jellyfish’s critical role in marine ecosystems. For visitors, the attraction offers a serene, visually striking escape that sets it apart from crowded coastal destinations, turning a simple visit into an unforgettable encounter with these ancient ocean dwellers.