Once Human

NASA's Artemis II mission is set to be the first crewed flight to the moon in more than 50 years, reviving lunar exploration that ended with Apollo in 1972. The long gap is being attributed to shifting political priorities, budget constraints, and the immense cost and technical difficulty of human deep-space travel. Commentators are weighing whether the Artemis program signals a lasting return or a brief repeat of history.

NASA has presented a strategy for establishing a moon base, with an estimated cost of $20 billion. The plan outlines what a sustained human presence on the lunar surface could look like, drawing attention from space watchers and policy observers following the agency's Artemis program ambitions.

Moderna has started a Phase 1 clinical trial of a vaccine targeting the Ebola strain behind the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The early-stage trial will test safety and immune response in humans. The news is drawing attention as health officials watch whether new vaccine platforms can speed up responses to Ebola outbreaks.

NASA's Artemis II mission, the crewed flight that will send astronauts around the Moon, is drawing attention ahead of launch. Coverage is focused on the four astronauts chosen for the flight, the mission's goals, and how viewers can watch the launch live. The mission is a key step in NASA's plan to return humans to the lunar surface under the Artemis program.

A debut novel that earned wide literary acclaim is now at the center of questions about whether it was actually written by artificial intelligence. The Wall Street Journal reports on the allegations, which have reignited debate over authorship, originality and how publishers can verify that work submitted by writers is genuinely their own.

Bicentennial Man, the 1999 Robin Williams film about a robot who spends two centuries striving to become human, is back in conversation thanks to a comedic retrospective arguing it was unfairly dismissed and deserves a second look. The film flopped with critics and at the box office on release despite its ambitious themes of identity and mortality, and the new take is prompting viewers to revisit or discover it.

Scientists report that molluscum contagiosum, a common skin virus, appears to have taken a human gene during infection and kept it in its own genome ever since. The finding suggests viruses can permanently acquire genes from their hosts, offering a rare glimpse into how viruses and humans have shaped each other over evolutionary time. Researchers say studying such stolen genes could clarify how poxviruses dodge the immune system and may inform future antiviral strategies.

California has approved a law prohibiting companies from dismissing employees based on decisions made exclusively by artificial intelligence, requiring human oversight in termination decisions. The story is gaining traction in Brazil, where it is being discussed alongside local labour cases, including a woman who won compensation after being fired while on maternity leave, keeping dismissal practices in the public debate.

NVIDIA has released OpenShell, an open-source project written in Rust described as a safe, private runtime for autonomous AI agents. The project is hosted on GitHub and is drawing attention from developers interested in secure execution environments for AI agents that act with minimal human oversight.

A reinforcement learning bot trained through self-play has beaten a strong human player at StarCraft: Brood War, a real-time strategy game long considered a major challenge for AI because of its speed, hidden information and enormous decision space. The result, shared in a video, is drawing comparisons to earlier milestones like AlphaGo and AlphaStar and renewed debate over how far game AI has come.

Rice University has announced that its experts are available to comment on human spaceflight, safety standards and space policy. The announcement offers journalists access to faculty specialists as space agencies and private companies face renewed scrutiny over crewed missions, safety practices and the regulatory framework governing commercial spaceflight.

The International Commission of Jurists reports that human rights defenders and lawyers from across the Africa region have put forward proposals to strengthen access to redress for victims of human rights atrocities. The initiative aims to improve remedies and justice mechanisms for those affected by serious abuses. Details of the specific proposals and responses to them remain limited.

Pope Leo XIV has spoken out against AI-generated art, voicing concern about the technology's impact on human creativity and artistic expression. The comments have drawn widespread attention online, with many debating whether artificial intelligence threatens or complements traditional art, and what the Vatican's stance could mean for the broader conversation around AI and culture.

A lawsuit alleges that Adam Kalkstein, a professor at the US Military Academy at West Point, was fired after he objected to department officials barring faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change. The case raises questions about academic freedom at the service academy and whether political pressure is shaping what instructors can teach about climate science.

A medical educator has released a short visual explainer on five dimorphic fungi that cause serious human disease: Talaromyces marneffei, Blastomyces, Sporothrix, Paracoccidioides and Coccidioides. The piece links their temperature-dependent morphology to virulence, offering clinicians and students a quick way to understand why these organisms thrive in human hosts.

A Human Rights Commission has adopted a resolution on protecting free speech while promoting community respect. The measure links the defense of expression with efforts to encourage civility and mutual understanding between communities. Details on the vote, the scope of the resolution, and how it will be implemented have not yet been made widely available, but the balancing of speech rights against community harmony is drawing attention.

Nature has published a commentary examining the gaps in agentic AI autonomy, arguing that current autonomous AI systems still lack key capabilities and safeguards needed to operate reliably on their own. The piece highlights unresolved questions around oversight, accountability and trust as AI agents are increasingly given tasks to perform with limited human supervision.

Ramón Tolentino and Rubén Uceta put human rights at the center of a heated national debate broadcast, with the exchange drawing wide attention under the phrase 'all on 29'. Their remarks on rights abuses have sparked discussion about accountability and the state of civil liberties in the country.

Amnesty International is calling on the African Union to convene an emergency session on Ethiopia as a new conflict expands in the country. The human rights organisation says regional bodies must act urgently to address the escalating violence and protect civilians, warning that the situation risks worsening without swift diplomatic intervention.

The United Nations human rights chief has called for no further execution attempts against Christa Pike, an American death row inmate. The appeal urges US authorities to stop pursuing capital punishment in her case, framing it as a human rights concern. The statement has drawn attention to her long-running case and to broader debate over the death penalty in the United States.