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Without high-quality data, the policy reforms needed to address underserved and historically marginalised populations become harder to make. How can we create evidence-based policy with no evidence?
Flock is a $7.5 billion surveillance technology company, operating in over 5,000 communities across 49 states. Flock has a proven playbook to expand through securing local government contracts, often behind closed doors. Flock’s technology has been used to assist with everything from ICE investigations in Illinois to abortion investigations in Texas.
To some extent, the conflict was embedded in the very design of the panel. When those with sharply opposing views are brought together without agreement on the evidence base, gridlock is a likely result. Still, the impasse underlines the need for more independent, high-quality research on the effects of antidepressants during pregnancy – research that can inform not only regulators but also doctors and patients.
I’m a social work faculty member, grief researcher and the founder of the Young Widowhood Project, a research initiative aimed at expanding scholarship and public understanding of premature spousal loss.Above: Rain falls over a makeshift memorial for flood victims along the Guadalupe River on July 13, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas.
A journal purporting to be “cited by esteemed scholars and scientists all around the world” claims a false impact factor and attempts to charge authors a fee for withdrawing articles, Retraction Watch has learned. And the editor in chief publicly disavows any relationship with the title on his website.
Those of us used to writing on social policy matters are always cautioned against dating our work too quickly. This warning feels especially relevant when revisiting my two previous Transforming Society posts. In the first one, I welcomed the new ‘grown-up’ government and in the second, signalled cautious optimism for the first budget. However, writing today, defending the government’s actions is becoming increasingly untenable. To all intents and purposes, they are a continuation of the welfare cruelty I really hoped we’d see the back of. It is perhaps true that we project onto those with power our own hopes for what can and should change, even when they have stubbornly refused to suggest this is in their plans.