Until recently no Hollywood studio had ever released two movies with the same name at the same time. At most studios, such a strategy would be unthinkable. Audiences might accidentally buy tickets to the wrong film, and the PR fallout would be disastrous: snipes from trade-magazine writers; angry calls from investors questioning the studios’ business acumen; angrier calls from agents demanding to know why their clients’ images were being intentionally sabotaged. Netflix, however, is not most studios. On April Fools’ Day, 2022, the company released a Judd Apatow comedy titled The Bubble, which takes place on the set of a Hollywood dinosaur franchise that’s forced to quarantine in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Four weeks later, it released an animated film by Tetsurō Araki, director of the popular Japanese anime shows Death Note and Attack on Titan, about a postapocalyptic world in which the law of gravity ceases to exist. Araki’s film was called Bubble. There were no box office mix-ups, no snipes from the press, no angry calls. The few critics who bothered to write about it panned Apatow’s Bubble, an unfunny comedy that’s duller than the blockbuster franchises it makes fun of. Nobody had anything to say about Araki’s Bubble, a TV movie better suited to a graveyard slot on a children’s cable network. Like all Netflix movies, Bubble and The Bubble floated away as quickly as they appeared, becoming tiles in the company’s sprawling mosaic of content, destined to be autoplayed on laptops whose owners have fallen asleep.

A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted today, following years of campaigning by scientists who alleged the research contained major scientific flaws and may have breached ethics regulations. The paper was pulled because of ethical concerns and methodological problems, according to a retraction notice. The paper in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (IJAA), led by Philippe Gautret of the Hospital Institute of Marseille Mediterranean Infection (IHU), claimed that treatment with hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, reduced virus levels in samples from COVID-19 patients, and that the drug was even more effective if used alongside the antibiotic azithromycin. Then–IHU Director Didier Raoult, the paper’s senior author, enthused about the promise of the drug on social media and TV, leading to a wave of hype, including from then–U.S. President Donald Trump. But scientists immediately raised concerns about the paper, noting the sample size of only 36 patients and the unusually short peer-review time: The paper was submitted on 16 March 2020 and published 4 days later. On 24 March, scientific integrity consultant Elisabeth Bik noted on her blog that six patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine had been dropped from the study—one of whom had died, and three of whom had transferred to intensive care—which potentially skewed the results in the drug’s favor. Larger, more rigorous trials carried out later in 2020 showed hydroxychloroquine did not benefit COVID-19 patients.

Denmark released anti-whaling activist Paul Watson from detention on Tuesday and said it had rejected a Japanese request to extradite him over criminal charges dating back more than a decade.

When worshippers first prayed at St. Peter's Chapel 300 years ago, they probably thought about communing with Jesus as an expression of faith as opposed to a literal conversation. Three centuries on, at Switzerland's oldest church, in the city of Lucerne, worshippers can now talk to a computer-generated avatar of the Son of God.

Daniel Penny, who choked Jordan Neely to death on the subway, sat with Trump at the Army-Navy game. The right-wing celebrations of Penny echo a violent, racist past.

Hailed as a savior upon his arrival in Helena, Dr. Thomas C. Weiner became a favorite of patients and his hospital’s highest earner. As the myth surrounding the high-profile oncologist grew, so did the trail of patient harm and suspicious deaths... ...Early in 2021, Sasich was pulled aside by Shelly Harkins, the hospital’s chief medical officer. According to Sasich’s court testimony, she apologized for getting him caught up in this mess. She next confided a story that rendered him “physically ill.” Hospital administrators had for years harbored suspicion about one case, a 16-year-old girl who died suddenly under Weiner’s care. Sasich remembered Harkins providing few details but saying Weiner was frustrated that another physician was treating his patient. Once he regained control of her treatment, the girl didn’t live long. “She told me that he gave her two doses of propofol,” Sasich testified, “and she died.” Sasich hoped it was just a rumor, an exaggeration. But when he asked LaClair about it, the person who knew more than anyone about Weiner’s practice didn’t refute the story but for one correction. It wasn’t propofol. “No,” LaClair told Sasich. “He uses phenobarbital.”

Health insurers and hospitals increasingly treat patients less as humans in need of care than consumers who generate profit.

Hospitals across the country reported mothers to authorities after they tested positive for medications used routinely in millions of births.

Luigie Mangione, charged with murder of health insurance executive, evidently suffers from spondylolisthesis, which is painful and hard to treat.

A former OpenAI researcher who raised concerns about the company is dead at 26.

The Ohio state Senate passed a bill earlier this week that will allow patients to force hospitals to administer drugs for off-label use. The passage of the bill comes after a years-long effort by Republican lawmakers in the state to expand COVID-19 patients’ access to drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, according to reporting from the Ohio Capital Journal. Multiple high-profile conservatives — including President-elect Trump — touted both drugs as alternative treatments for COVID-19. However, research shows that the drugs are ineffective in treating the disease and preventing hospitalizations. Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug used to deworm animals, and hydroxychloroquine is a medication used to treat malaria.

Apple's new artificial intelligence features falsely made it seem the BBC reported Luigi Mangione had shot himself.

U.S. service members have long faced strict limits on abortions, even when used to resolve miscarriages. Under federal law, the military will only pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.

Trump will face new viral threats, but anti-vax forces are twisting words to suggest a targeted plot.

Victims of major public corruption cases in Pennsylvania and Illinois are angry that President Joe Biden granted clemency this week to the two convicted officials.

This battle has been looming since red states banned abortion and blue states passed shield laws, with many providers knowingly taking on the risk of becoming the test case. In February, John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, told the New York Times that they were waiting for the “right case.”

The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death. That campaign is just one front in the war that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, is waging against vaccines of all kinds. Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccine mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions. Much of Mr. Siri’s work — including the polio petition filed in 2022 — has been on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit whose founder is a close ally of Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Siri also represented Mr. Kennedy during his presidential campaign.

The Department of Justice had investigated McKinsey & Company for its consulting work with Purdue Pharma, the prescription opioid maker.

The company said the sale will allow it to depend less on human-created content in favor of "high-margin, tech-enabled revenue lines."

Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.