Public Policy
Regulation, trade, government and security, read for what they do to the businesses that have to live with them.
Public Policy is the vertical for the decisions made in capitals that land on companies. Regulation, trade and tariffs, elections and government, antitrust, and healthcare policy are the beats, and geopolitics and security appear when they change what a business can plan for. Three stories each weekday at 11, in our own words, linked to the publisher. We choose for the reader who has to model a policy risk rather than argue about it: the general counsel, the head of government affairs, the founder selling into a market whose rules are moving. Sources range from newspapers to think tanks and academic institutes, and we say which is which. The editor’s note beneath the day’s lead explains the choice and what to watch as the policy moves from proposal to enforcement.
Picture credit: By Touch Of Light - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=158822157
Every story we have kept in Public Policy, newest first. Headlines link to the publisher; the tags below narrow the list.
Thousands of Ancient Human Brains Refuse to Rot—and Scientists Finally Know Their Strange Secret
Researchers have identified why thousands of ancient human brains survived for millennia while other soft tissues decayed: low-oxygen environments altered protein chemistry, creating stable structures that resisted decomposition.
What Trump’s Executive Order Means for Childhood Vaccinations
Trump's executive order modifies childhood vaccination recommendations by reducing the total number of vaccines and splitting the combined measles, mumps, and rubella shot into separate administrations.
What’s behind this summer’s heat, and why 2027 could be worse
Europe experienced record-breaking heat in June and July. Climate change accelerated warming patterns. El Niño could intensify temperatures further in 2027 as its effects typically lag by several months.
Clinical trials need participants, are the rules about compensation helping or hurting?
Healthcare regulators debate whether allowing higher compensation for clinical trial participants could increase enrollment while maintaining ethical standards in taxpayer-funded research.
