Urban Rats Spread Deadly Bacteria As They Migrate

 June 23, 2025  0 Comments

By Eurasia Review

Urban rats spread a deadly type of bacteria as they migrate within cities that can be the source of a potentially life-threatening disease in humans, according to a six-year study by Tufts University researchers and their collaborators that also discovered a novel technique for testing rat kidneys.

Leptospirosis is a disease caused by a type of bacteria often found in rats. It’s spread through their urine into soil, water, or elsewhere in the environment, where it becomes a source of infection and contamination for humans, dogs, and other species. While it’s prevalent worldwide, it’s more common in tropical regions, though a changing climate means it could become more common in colder regions as they warm.

In Boston, leptospirosis persists in local rat populations, and different strains of the bacteria move around the city as groups of rats migrate, according to a new study by Marieke Rosenbaum, M.P.H., D.V.M., V14, assistant professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, along with co-authors at Northern Arizona University (NAU), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, their genetic analysis of a 2018 human leptospirosis case in Boston strongly suggests a link to rats as the source.

The paper, published recently in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, is the latest work conducted by Rosenbaum and collaborators as part of the Boston Urban Rat Study, a research group investigating whether rats in Boston carry pathogens that pose a risk to public health.

For this study, she joined forces with the City of Boston’s Inspectional Services Department and other groups throughout the city to track rats from 2016 to 2022 and test rats for leptospirosis. She and researchers then employed advanced molecular techniques to figure out exactly what type of leptospirosis was present. The researchers analyzed DNA from 328 rat kidney samples collected from 17 sites in Boston, and 59 rats representing 12 of 17 sites were positive for Leptospira bacteria.

“The primary way to get a full genomic sequence of a virus or bacteria is to culture it, which was a challenge in this case because Leptospira is considered a fastidious organism,” says Rosenbaum. “It has specific requirements for temperature, pH, and nutrients. But our USDA collaborators cultured the bacteria from not only fresh but also frozen rodent kidneys, which has never been reported in the literature before, to get isolates.”

From there, the Northern Arizona University collaborators at the Pathogen & Microbiome Institute (PMI) used targeted DNA capture and amplification to pick out and enhance leptospirosis DNA in the samples, which resulted in a lot of fine-scale genomic information about the isolates.

“The new genetic and tools that we developed and used in this study are real game changers for leptospirosis research, as we can now use the power of the whole genome to look for relatedness among samples, something that just wasn’t possible before,” said Dave Wagner, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and executive director of the PMI at NAU.

“Because we were able to do the culturing and the sequencing, we were able to look more closely at how the different strains of leptospirosis are related, which helps us understand how the bacteria are getting transmitted between rats and rat populations in the city,” Rosenbaum says.

The researchers hope their findings will help guide rat control and human leptospirosis mitigation efforts in urban settings.

“Because we were able to do the culturing and the sequencing, we were able to look more closely at how the different strains of leptospirosis are related, which helps us understand how the bacteria are getting transmitted between rats and rat populations.”

On Human Cases

For this paper, Rosenbaum and the other authors examined one human case of leptospirosis in collaboration with the CDC, which had an isolate obtained from a patient in a Boston hospital that was reported to the federal level. Researchers at Northern Arizona University used molecular tools to get a genomic sequence, which they found to be nearly identical to a sequence obtained in three different rats spanning multiple years from the same location in Boston.

“It’s very strong evidence that the source of that human case was a rat,” says Rosenbaum.

Rats are the most well-established source of leptospirosis infection in humans. But not all cases get diagnosed or reported. Some people may get infected, not develop any symptoms, and never know they were infected. Others might develop a mild fever or other nonspecific symptoms before their immune system clears the infection. However, a small percentage of people will go on to develop a more serious case of the disease, which can affect different organs and, ultimately, cause multi-organ failure and death.

“Human exposure to rats is not very common. But certain populations might be at higher risk, like unhoused people or people who engage in outdoor injection drug use, which are situations that lead to more direct contact with rats,” says Rosenbaum.

There are challenges to collecting data on leptospirosis cases, as well. Few clinicians would think to test a patient for leptospirosis without some knowledge that the person may have been exposed to it. And even if they do test for it, sometimes positive results are not reported to state or national systems that compile such data. In addition, leptospirosis is responsive to antibiotics, so if a physician prescribes antibiotics for a patient to treat a suspected infection, then the bacteria may not get picked up by a test anyway, Rosenbaum explains.

On Rat Migration

“Rats have a high degree of genetic structure, which means there are distinct rat populations throughout the city that are highly related to each other,” says Rosenbaum. “It doesn’t look like they’re intermingling with other populations a lot, and that’s contributing to a stable population over time, but when they do disperse, they can take leptospirosis with them. The actual genetic sequence of leptospirosis is also stable within a population of rats over time. Rats in Boston Common have a strain of leptospirosis that they maintain over years in that location, and it’s different from the strain we saw in another area that also was persisting over time.”

They found that a rat in Boston would have to travel over 600 meters, or just over a 1/3 of a mile, to encounter another genetic population of rats. They also found evidence that large, multi-lane roads disrupted all connectivity between populations of rats on either side of the road, and that rats used greenways and biological corridors for travel and intermingling. Construction is another well-known disruptor of rat burrows that forces rats to look for other places to persist, which can increase the spread of the bacteria.

When it comes to pest control, Rosenbaum says an important next step is to better understand how pest management interventions impact rat migrations and their population structure, as well as how they impact humans and the environment.

“Extermination is not realistic,” she says, “but I think better understanding of how the different pest control interventions are impacting rat migrations and transmission of pathogens amongst the rat population would be really helpful.”

Eurasia Review

Eurasia Review is an independent Journal that provides a venue for analysts and experts to disseminate content on a wide-range of subjects that are often overlooked or under-represented by Western dominated media.

 

 

Rule Of Law As Growth Catalyst: Legal Foundations For Economic Prosperity – OpEd

 June 23, 2025 By Simon Hutagalung

The fundamental connection between strong legal structures and sustained economic development has become unmistakable in 2025.

Market confidence, together with institutional credibility and cross-border investment, depends on the rule of law, which has evolved beyond its status as an ideal norm into an essential foundation for economic recovery from pandemic disruptions and geopolitical tensions, and technological advancements. The growth of GDP depends on a strong rule of law system that delivers impartial judgments with predictable regulations and accessible governance and justice to all citizens to achieve meaningful foreign direct investment and stable welfare improvements.

The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index ranked nations for the first half of 2025, with those achieving scores above 0.82 averaging 4.0 percent GDP growth while those below 0.45 achieved only 1.7 percent¹. The significant difference demonstrates how clear property rights drive development because countries with scores above 0.80 experienced a 12 percent increase in domestic investment and an 8 percentage point growth in credit‐to‐private‐sector ratios during 2024 and early 2025. States with weak judicial independence experienced their nonperforming loans rise higher than 14 percent of their total bank assets because of contractual uncertainty³.

The International Monetary Fund studied rule of law metrics in February 2025 to show that a one-point improvement leads to a 1.2 percent increase in per-capita GDP during a five-year period⁴. The judicial appointment reforms, together with digital case management systems implemented in Indonesia and Kenya during 2023–24, led to a 15 percent and 10 percent increase in FDI inflows during 2024 compared to a 5 percent regional average⁵. The numerical data demonstrates how implementing governance standards at a global level generates tangible economic results.

The path toward achieving a consolidated rule of law in 2025 faces multiple significant challenges. Public coffers lose an estimated USD 1.3 trillion each year to corruption, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2025, which shows that thirty percent of surveyed nations score below 40 out of 100⁶. Public graft in these environments imposes a 25 percent effective tax burden above official rates that creates unfair market competition and inefficient resource distribution⁷. Political elites who control law enforcement and judiciary budgets create risks for transactions through manipulation, which leads to higher interest rates and discourages investors from taking long-term loans.

These institutional weaknesses produce additional problems in the system. According to a World Bank mid-2025 assessment, more than 60 low and middle-income countries dedicate less than 0.05 percent of their GDP to judicial funding, although high-income states allocate 0.20 percent of their GDP for this purpose⁸. Court backlogs reach an average of three years, while judges require specialized training in commercial law and intellectual property law, and environmental law, because underfunded courts lack sufficient resources. The judicial system experiences sequential delays in decision-making, combined with inconsistent judicial decisions, which forces parties to use alternative dispute resolution methods that circumvent judicial procedures. Businesses in economies with delayed contract enforcement periods exceeding one year must pay 35 percent higher interest rates for credit compared to those operating in countries with quick enforcement times⁹.

Political instability, together with violence, makes existing institutional weaknesses even more severe. Any legal system becomes irrelevant when civil unrest or organized crime takes over regions because the basic right to personal safety disappears. The United Nations reports that conflict-affected states in March 2025 generated 5 percent of worldwide GDP while requiring 25 percent of global humanitarian aid funding¹⁰. Instability generates economic expenses that surpass humanitarian needs because it destroys investor trust and breaks supply chains while leading to the departure of essential skilled personnel who fuel innovation.

A strategic sequence of design methods, along with context-specific approaches, is needed to address these complex challenges. The establishment of transparent merit-based appointment processes, together with ring-fenced funding, represents an optimal starting point to protect the judiciary. Estonia demonstrates judicial independence reforms through 2023 to reach its current state, where courts handle digital cases amounting to 85 percent of their workload and commercial disputes are resolved within 120 days, and public support reaches 80 percent in 2025. The benchmarks established by these reforms serve as models for nations attempting to replicate this transformation.

Anti-corruption initiatives need to implement both punitive measures together with preventive approaches as part of their strategy. Through its robust legal framework featuring independent agencies and protective whistleblower laws, and transparent procurement portals, Singapore has eliminated high-level bribery, which led to a Corruption Perceptions Index score of 92 in early 2025. The OECD’s most recent peer review demonstrates how open data standards combined with civil society monitoring function as an effective measure to prevent rent seeking from spreading. Blockchain technology, together with artificial intelligence anomaly detection tools, reduces the areas of opacity that lead to corruption.

Yet technology is no panacea. Internet accessibility remains limited throughout sub-Saharan Africa since only about 40 percent of citizens have dependable online connections, thus hindering the adoption of e-governance systems¹³. Public registries alongside case filing systems experience increased cybersecurity risks when governments implement digital transformation. According to the INTERPOL survey from 2025, ransomware attacks on courts and public registries have increased by 22 percent throughout the past year¹⁴. Rule of law reform initiatives need to implement digital innovation alongside robust data protection structures and cyber forensic training programs to ensure resilience.

The majority of successful outcomes depend on international cooperation between nations. The Global Judicial Integrity Network, established by the United Nations in 2022, has provided technical assistance to more than 50 countries, which led to World Bank-funded judicial modernization projects totaling $400 million by 2025¹⁵. Trade agreements between countries now include mandatory legal reform requirements, which serve as entry conditions for Western Balkan states to join the EU in 2025 through the accession accords¹⁶. External incentives help build domestic support for reforms, which link governance improvements to economic benefits.

The empirical findings of 2025 conclusively demonstrate that an enhanced rule of law serves as the fundamental framework for achieving economic development. Jurisdictions that support independent courts alongside transparent governance systems and anti-corruption measures outperform other nations in terms of GDP growth while attracting more foreign direct investment and creating wealth in a fair manner. Low rule of law environments demonstrate unpredictable growth patterns because they remain susceptible to political interference and lack the capacity to develop strong human capital. Nations pursuing prosperity need to position legal reforms as fundamental components of their development plans because stable and predictable, and inclusive legal institutions represent the only path to sustainable economic advancement.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own.

References

• O’Reilly, T. & Murphy, S. (2025). State Capacity and Growth Regimes. International Monetary Fund Working Paper WP/25/014, Washington, D.C.
• Mir, A. (2025, April 18). Deeds, Deals and Development: The Rule of Law Behind Markets. National Economic Forum.
• Transparency International. (2025, February 11). 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index. Transparency International Press Release.

Simon Hutagalung

Simon Hutagalung is a retired diplomat from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry and received his master's degree in political science and comparative politics from the City University of New York. The opinions expressed in his articles are his own.

 

Protect science, save democracy – researchers publish anti-autocracy handbook

University of Potsdam

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“Our Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, to collectively defend democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of rising authoritarianism,” says editor Stephan Lewandowsky. “Free research and scientific diversity of opinion—academic principles that stand in opposition to authoritarian control—often make science one of the first targets of autocrats.”

In the handbook, Lewandowsky's team reveals how autocracies follow a common script based on the so-called “three Ps”: populism, polarization, and post-truth. Autocratic leaders present themselves as voices “of the people” against “corrupt elites,” deepening social divisions and undermining facts to evade responsibility. This leads to a number of dangers for science: censorship, restrictions on funding and research cooperation, and even violence. The Trump administration is a current example of this, as its policies restrict international scientific cooperation, cut research funding, and suppress studies on topics such as public health, climate change, and socially disadvantaged groups.

To help researchers defend themselves against authoritarian developments, the handbook uses examples from history and the present day to show how scientists, their institutional environment, and their research can be restricted. Building on this, it helps researchers assess their own risk and take appropriate targeted measures. “To this end, we propose a whole range of tools to improve digital security and emphasize the importance of continuous documentation, securing vulnerable data, and setting up distributed archives as protection against deletion,” explains co-author Dr. Christoph Abels from the University of Potsdam. In addition, scientists are encouraged to share personal stories – publicly or anonymously – to raise awareness, affirm shared values, and document repression. “To accompany the handbook, we have set up a wiki that continuously records new developments and reports on global efforts by researchers to resist authoritarianism and protect the democratic foundations that enable free science,” says Lewandowsky.

The Anti-Autocracy Handbook online: Lewandowsky et al. (2025). The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: The Scholars’ Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding. DOI: https://zenodo.org/records/15696097  

 

Contact:
Dr. Christoph M. Abels, Faculty of Human Sciences
E-Mail: christoph.maximilian.abels@uni-potsdam.de

---

DOI

10.5281/zenodo.15510834 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

 

Robert Reich: The Dogs Of War – OpEd

Robert Reich

 June 23, 2025  

By Robert Reich

The United States is now at war with Iran. 

A single person — Donald J. Trump — has released the dogs of war on one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and done it without the consent of Congress or our allies, or even a clear explanation to the American people. 

Anyone who has doubted Trump’s intention to replace American democracy with a dictatorship should now be fully disabused. 

I share your despair, sadness, and fear. Even if our president was a wise and judicious man, surrounded by thoughtful advisers with impeccable integrity and wisdom, this would be a highly dangerous move. 

Last night I spoke with a number of people experienced and knowledgeable about American foreign policy and politics. Here, in brief, is what I asked and what I learned. 

1. Why is Trump taking us into war with Iran?

It’s possible that he believes the attacks give him more bargaining leverage with Iran. But a more likely explanation is that the attacks fit perfectly with Trump’s desire to divert attention from his multiple failures at home: the on-again-off-again tariffs that have spooked financial markets while eliciting no meaningful concessions from other nations (especially China). An immigration crackdown that’s been stymied by federal judges. The so-called “big beautiful bill” that’s in deep trouble in the Senate. Trump’s embarrassing tiff with Musk. His failures to achieve peace in either Ukraine or Gaza. And last weekend’s record-breaking “No Kings” demonstrations as compared to his scrawny military parade. 

Besides, there’s nothing like a war to help a wannabe dictator like Trump justify more “emergency” powers. 

2. Is (or was) Iran building a nuclear weapon?

No one knows for sure. In March, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, testified before Congress that the intelligence community [IC] “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader [Ali] Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.” 

Iran’s growing stockpile of enriched uranium could allow it to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. Experts differ in how long Iran would need to make a usable nuclear weapon out of the fissile material. 

In the face of such uncertainty, it’s useful to recall George W. Bush’s claims of Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” that proved bogus — at a cost of 4,431 American lives, 31,994 Americans wounded in action, and an estimated 295,000 Iraqi lives. 

3. Is Trump getting good information and advice?

Unlikely. He told reporters on Friday that Gabbard was “wrong” to say that Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon but he didn’t say where he was getting hisintelligence from. In May, Trump fired his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and dismissed half the professionals at the National Security Council (the Middle East section went from 10 staffers to five). 

Trump is being advised on Iran by a close-knit group of political advisers and ideologues, none of whom has deep knowledge of Iran or the Middle East. All are totally loyal to Trump. (They include JD Vance; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller; Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East who was formerly a luxury real estate developer; Lieutenant General Dan (Razin’) Caine, now serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; Erik (“The Gorilla”) Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM); John Ratcliffe, CIA director, who served in the first Trump administration and was previously a Texas congressman and a small-town mayor; and Steve Bannon.)

As a result, he’s probably getting decent advice about what’s good for Trump but not about what’s good for America or the world. It’s an inevitable consequence of purging from the government anyone more loyal to the United States than to him. Besides, Trump listens only to information he wants to hear. 

4. Will Iran now cave and agree to destroy its remaining stockpile of enriched uranium and allow inspectors to confirm that the stockpile is gone? 

No. Not one of the experts I spoke to thought this likely. Iran doesn’t trust the United States or Israel, and it doesn’t want to give up its potential nuclear capacities. 

5. Have the bombings wiped out Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons?

Unlikely. Trump claims that the facilities were “completely and totally obliterated,” but who trusts Trump to tell the truth, or to be told the truth? 

Iran has buried its uranium-enrichment facilities deep underground and distributed them to many locations. Iranian officials acknowledge that three sites were attacked but did not describe the extent of damage. 

In any event, America does not have good intelligence about how long it will take Iran to get the three targeted sites back to running order. 

6. What’s the worst Iran can now do to the United States in retaliation? 

It could wholly or partially close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which about a fifth of global oil must pass. While it was not completely closed during past conflicts, Iran possesses the capabilities to significantly disrupt or halt traffic with mines, anti-ship missiles, and air defense systems. This would cause oil prices to soar in the United States and Europe (helping Big Oil but not American consumers). 

Iran could also engage in a range of terrorist actions directed toward the United States. No one knows the extent of any “sleeper cells” in the U.S. or in Europe. The mere possibility could give Trump more license to restrict civil liberties. 

7. Will the American public “rally around the flag” and support Trump in this war?

Some Americans clearly will. But a drawn-out war in Iran will be deeply unpopular. A recent YouGov poll found that only 16 percent of Americans thought the U.S. military should get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran; 60 percent said it should not. 

Trump promised no foreign entanglements and lower consumer prices. But this war could prove to be the largest foreign entanglement in years, and the attacks will almost certainly raise oil and gas prices. 

8. Will he send in American ground troops? 

On balance, the experts I consulted with thought Trump eventually would send in troops if Iran retaliated and the conflict escalated. Last night he explicitly threatened more action against Iran if it did not return to diplomatic efforts: “If they do not [make peace], future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

More than anything else, Trump has an abiding need to save face, he hates to lose, and he likes nothing more than conflict. He was willing to send the active military into California to stop trumped-up protests. He’ll likely be willing to send them into Iran. 

The war will not be over quickly. Iran and its extensive networks in the Middle East could keep hostilities going for months or years, at a substantial cost of human life. 

9. What’s Congress likely to do now? 

I hope Democrats will use the War Powers Act to force a vote on the war, putting Republican lawmakers in the awkward position of voting for a war that’s immensely unpopular and can easily go very badly. 

10. Bonus question: Where does the phrase “dogs of war” come from?

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in which Mark Antony (in Act 3, Scene 1) says: “Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war” — signifying that war unleashes chaos and violence. 

Now that the bombing has begun, there’s no telling where this will end. 

Be strong. Be safe. Hug your loved ones.

• This article was published at Robert Reich’s Substack

Robert Reich

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, and writes at robertreich.substack.com. Reich served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.