State and county public health departments and nonprofit groups are reeling after the Trump administration announced abrupt cancellation and revocation of roughly $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding for grants linked to addiction, mental health and other programs.

"This is chopping things off in the middle while people are actually doing the work," said Keith Humphreys, an addiction policy researcher at Stanford University, who also volunteers doing harm reduction work with people in addiction. He warned the move could trigger layoffs and treatment disruptions.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services canceled around $12 billion in federal grants to states that were allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal department and state officials said on Wednesday.

The grants were being used to track, prevent and control infectious diseases, including measles and bird flu, as well as track mental health services and fund addiction treatment, said lawmakers and state governors, who sharply criticized the move.

Five Minnesota Senate Republicans are seeking to dub “Trump derangement syndrome” (TDS), a term coined to describe a form of criticism of President Donald Trump, as an official mental illness recognized under state statute.

Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, Justin D. Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, and Glenn H. Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe, are the five politicians who drafted the bill that would add the so-called “syndrome” to a lengthy list of definitions related to mental health care in Minnesota.

 For people fleeing the conflict in Myanmar, the injuries are often more than just physical.

Four years after a military coup that has morphed into a grinding civil war, experts say there is a growing mental health crisis in the Southeast Asian nation, made worse by the junta’s atrocities against civilians and a humanitarian disaster that has left more than 3 million people displaced.

They find some relief at the Mae Tao Clinic on the outskirts of Mae Sot, a border town in neighboring Thailand.

A former CIA operative has revealed the agency pursues people with a certain mental disorder as it makes them the best agents.

John Kiriakou, who had a 14-year career as a CIA officer, said the agency 'actively seeks to hire people who have sociopathic tendencies,' but avoids individuals with a full-blown disorder.

A 'sociopath' is someone who lacks empathy, disregards the feelings of others and may manipulate or harm people without remorse, often for their own personal gain.

Snapchat rolled out more safety measures designed to protect teenagers, making it harder for predators to target them for "sextortion" -- a scam that exploits victims sexually and financially.

On Tuesday, Snapchat announced the new features that it will be integrating in the app, including expanded warning pop-ups, which the user would receive the moment someone not on their contact list tries contacting them.

In a landmark announcement, the U.S. Surgeon General declared firearm violence a public health crisis in the U.S. on Tuesday.

Dr. Vivek Murthy warned in the advisory that gun violence poses a “serious threat to the health and well-being of our country,” that has not just a serious physical toll, but mental as well.

It marks the first time the government's leading public health body has honed in on guns.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared firearm violence a public health crisis, as gun deaths and injuries punctuate daily life in America.

On nearly every day of 2024 so far, a burst of gunfire has hit at least four people somewhere in the country. Some days, communities have endured four or five such shootings.

The United States surgeon general is declaring gun violence a national public health crisis. 

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on Tuesday stating that firearm-related violence and its immediate psychological ramifications on victims and bystanders has severely compromised public health.

"Today, for the first time in the history of our office, I am issuing a Surgeon General's Advisory on firearm violence," Murthy said in a video announcement. "It outlines the urgent threat firearm violence poses to the health and well-being of our country."

A man, clearly homeless, steps onto a New York subway train. He shakes, sways, and talks to himself, lurching around as the train moves, in the throes of a psychotic disorder. He’s someone in need of help — and for many people, though they’d never admit it publicly, a figure to fear.