The Media Round Up

Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, Kevin Liverpool, published an article in The Star, highlighting how the growing “manosphere,” a web of online male-centric spaces rooted in misogyny and anti-feminist rhetoric, endangers both young men and democratic values. These communities, he explains, lure boys who seek to belong by offering simplistic narratives that blame women for personal and societal problems. Over time, this mindset can deepen hostility toward equality and pluralism, eroding respect for democratic institutions.  Read the article.

Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health, Agustin Ibanez and Carlos Coronel, are quoted in The Irish Times for their study that finds engaging in creative activities, such as music, dance, the visual arts and certain video games, can help slow the aging process in the brain and support healthier brain function. The research shows that people who had a sustained involvement in creative practices had “younger” brain ages, as measured by brain-clock models, and even short-term creative training yielded measurable benefits. Read the article.

Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, Sebastian Bock, is quoted in an article on APA via MSN which reports that Europe’s leading car lobby group, ACEA, is challenging the EU’s planned 2035 phase-out of combustion engine vehicles, arguing that the 2030 and 2035 emissions targets are no longer realistic. T&E Germany’s managing director, Sebastian Bock, criticized the industry for trying to “poke holes” in climate policy, saying that prioritizing short-term profits would ultimately harm Europe’s competitiveness. T&E’s analysis suggests ACEA’s proposals could cut the share of electric car sales by a quarter by 2035, undermining the EU’s transition toward cleaner mobility. Read the article on MSN.

Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in Southeast Asia, Jeremy Lim, featured as a panelist in the Channel NewsAsia program “Rethinking Longevity” that explored how living not just longer but better depends on more than years. It suggests health span, well-being and purpose are other important factors. Watch the panel discussion on CNA.

An Atlantic Fellow and senior team members of the Global Brain Health Institute, Claire McEvoy, Brian Lawlor and Iracema Leroi, with colleagues, published a paper in the scientific journal BMC Public Health that examines the awareness of people in the U.K. and Ireland about brain health. It also looks at possible factors that appear to help or hinder people from taking action to prevent dementia. Read the full research study.

Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Jorge Llibre Guerra, is quoted in an article published in the Brazilian online newspaper, Metrópoles. He discusses the remarkable case of a man who carries a genetic mutation (PSEN2) typically associated with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease but who shows no cognitive decline despite decades of risk. Read the article.

Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity,  Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, featured in The Guardian Nigeria. In the article, Dr Maymunah Yusuf Kadiri, a Nigerian neuro-psychiatrist and mental-health advocate,  marks a symbolic milestone by becoming the first African psychiatrist to strike the closing gong at the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) on World Mental Health Day. She used the moment to highlight that despite Nigeria’s reputation for resilience, the nation’s strength often masks widespread, untreated mental-health issues. Read the article.

Coverage says a short film by Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Zach Bandler, "Koko Suzanne" has been selected for the 28th SCAD Savannah Film Festival lineup. Read the full article on The Wrap.

Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Ignacio Illán Gala, with colleagues, published a paper in the scientific journal (with Nature) Molecular Psychiatry that investigates three genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) to determine how early brain changes can be detected. Using advanced diffusion MRI to measure cortical microstructure, researchers found that microstructural damage appeared earlier and more extensively than traditional signs of cortical thinning on brain scans. Read the full paper.

Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in Southeast Asia, Pamela Gloria Cajilig, co-authored an article with Vincenzo Bollettino on the Filipino news site Rappler that highlights an urgent need for the Philippines to develop a culture of scientific integrity and evidence-based decision-making in flood management. It follows stories about widespread corruption scandals in flood control projects in which billions of pesos were lost to fraudulent or substandard initiatives, leaving communities vulnerable to worsening floods caused by climate change, rapid urbanization and weak governance. Read the full article.

Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health, Boon Lead Tee, Agustín Ibañez, and Adolfo García, with colleagues, published a paper in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) following a study that examined whether interpretable speech and language features can detect Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in both English and Spanish speakers using automated speech and language analysis (ASLA). Read the full study.

Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity Global, Medha Makhlouf, is quoted in an article in Wisconsin Examiner that reports that around 1.4 million lawfully present immigrants in the U.S. could lose access to subsidized health care coverage under recent federal legislation. Medha Makhlouf, a law professor specialising in immigrants’ health care access, points out that while states have historically had some room to provide coverage for immigrants, the new law significantly reduces that leeway, making it much harder for them to do so. Read the article.

The American University in Cairo (AUC) has launched the African Brain Health Institute Fellowship Program, a one-year initiative hosted jointly by AUC and Aga Khan University in Kenya, aimed at training African researchers in brain and neuroscience health in a culturally-tailored way. The press release on Al Bawaba quoted Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, Mohamed Salama, the leading figure of the new program: its goal is to produce a cohort of African leaders who can address brain-health challenges specific to the continent, filling a major research gap in how aging and neurodegeneration affect African populations. Read the full press release on Al Bawaba.

Mohamed Salama also featured in an article on the Daily News Egypt. The article outlines his vision for advancing brain-health research in Egypt and Africa. It explains he is spearheading efforts to bridge laboratory research and clinical application by establishing Egypt’s first Translational Neuroscience Unit and co-founding the national Egyptian Network for Neurodegenerative Disorders. Read the article.

There is coverage of Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, receiving the Vaikom Award for Social Justice for 2025 from the Government of Tamil Nadu. Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a California-based writer and activist originally from Madurai, is the founder and executive director of the US-based civil rights organization, Equality Labs, and authored the award-winning book "The Trauma of Caste – A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing and Abolition." Read the article.