Ray Blanco:

Kennedy's HHS Relaxes Enforcement on 6 Popular Wellness Peptides

Stopping short of a formal declaration allowing their use, Department of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cleared the way for the compounding of six popular wellness peptides.

The move, which comes after the same peptides won favor at an FDA advisory committee meeting this summer, is being hailed by some in the industry as offering a more accountable alternative to the gray market many peptide-seekers currently use, while others have charged that it undermines institutional FDA pushback on the drugs, which have become increasingly popular among fitness influencer circles and the MAHA crowd.

Under Kennedy's "enforcement discretion policy" issued Wednesday, HHS will not take enforcement action against pharmacies, physicians and federal facilities compounding six specific peptides, assuming those parties meet certain specific qualifications. The specific compounds included in the list are BPC-157, epitalon, KPV, MOTS-c, semax and TB-500.

However, advisory committee votes are recommendations, not binding decisions, and the peptides still haven't been added to the drug substances list in an official capacity.

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Ari Goldschmidt:

Bluesky Blocks Links to Leaked DHS Employee Data As Government Seeks Takedowns

Following a sizable leak of personnel data about employees who work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, social network Bluesky is now blocking its users from accessing a nonprofit's website that hosts the leaked dataset.

Users reported that the links to nonprofit transparency collective DDoSecrets were marked as "malicious" soon after news broke on Wednesday that Homeland Security had been hacked.

A hacker obtained over 40,000 user account records from Homeland Security's login system, including the names and contact information, such as work-issued phone numbers and email addresses, of employees and agents working for its various agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The data included information that was similar to that on an employee's business card. DDoSecrets, which publishes leaked datasets in the public interest, also made the hacked data publicly available.

A spokesperson for Homeland Security said Wednesday that it was "aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively."

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Chris Campbell:

Man Granted First-of-Its-Kind Religious Exemption Against Mandatory AI Use at Work

David Durman, a research administrator at the University of Kentucky, has successfully argued that using AI violates his beliefs as a humanist and has received Title VII religious accommodation from university officials not to use the technology.

According to the Religion News Service, Durman believes in "the human part of life," which includes making his own decisions. However, he says that when the UK asked its employees to use AI, he felt that doing so would mean outsourcing his thinking to tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, thus violating his deeply held beliefs.

The American Humanist Association assisted Durman with his request for the accommodation.

It should be noted that while anyone can request a Title VII exemption, it will only be granted if the applicant has a deep moral conviction that could count as an article of faith. Aside from that, the law also states that the request should not place an "undue hardship on the employer's business."

So, even though Durman is no longer personally required to use AI tools for his tasks, he is still expected to attend meetings and cooperate with colleagues who use AI or to submit materials to AI tools, as needed.

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