West Lafayette, Indiana - President Donald Trump recently hosted a social media summit at the White House featuring a who’s-who of conservative influencers. The meeting comes as many Americans begin to sound alarms about the subversive potential of social media to censor or sway voters during the 2020 general election, similar to tactics deployed by partisans and foreign actors during the last presidential election cycle.

Washington, DC - If you’ve ever wondered what a paradigm shift looks like, you’re witnessing one today. The FTC’s $5 billion civil penalty against Facebook for violations of an earlier FTC order is record-breaking and history-making. In addition, the settlement requires Facebook to implement changes to its privacy practices, its corporate structure, and the role of CEO Mark Zuckerberg that are seismic in scope. Simply put, when it comes to the business of consumer privacy, it’s no longer business as usual at Facebook.

Gaithersburg, Maryland - This workshop will focus on the need for standards to support the burgeoning biotech and pharma industries developing clinical applications that target the human microbiome. Informed regulatory decision making requires an understanding of the analytical performance of the assays being used to verify the identity, purity, potency and stability of these biomanufactured Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBPs).  Additionally, clinical microbiome laboratory tests must be validated before being used for donor screening, monitoring engraftment or evaluating other changes that occur in a patient’s microbiome before, during and after therapeutic intervention.

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo: "... the United States is taking further action as part of our maximum economic pressure campaign against the Iranian regime by imposing sanctions on the Chinese firm Zhuhai Zhenrong Company Limited and its chief executive for knowingly purchasing or acquiring oil from Iran, contrary to U.S. sanctions. We said we would fully enforce our sanctions, and we are backing this up with real action. The announcement today will help deny the regime critical income to fund terror around the world, engage in foreign conflicts, and advance its ballistic missile development. The Iranian regime must cease these destabilizing activities.

Dallas, Texas - Former National Football League players were nearly 6 times more likely to have atrial fibrillation (AFib) compared to men of similar age who did not play professional football, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Pascagoula, Mississippi - The Navy's newest America-class amphibious assault ship, the future USS Tripoli (LHA 7), successfully completed Builder's Trials July 19. The ship returned to the Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)-Ingalls Shipbuilding Division's shipyard following four days underway in the Gulf of Mexico.