# September 12, 2026 — rumors and informal signals

Expanded the reporting policy across all ten existing topics to include clearly labeled rumors from Reddit, podcast/talk transcripts, side comments and other informal sources. No separate topic was added.

The [cover-page rules](../README.md#rumors-and-informal-signals), [watchlist](../WATCHLIST.md) and [topic template](../topics/_template.md) now distinguish unconfirmed claims, informal statements and inference from established findings. Original links, speakers, dates and timestamps should be recorded when available; inaccessible originals or secondhand sourcing should be explicit. Single-source rumors may be included without official confirmation.

Later checks should follow confirmation, contradiction, retraction and stale predictions, deduplicate reposts, and notify on noteworthy rumors or material status changes. Confirming trial results remain separate evidence events. The formal-human-development subject scope and Tuesday/Friday 9 a.m. Eastern cadence continue.

This was a reporting-policy update, not a medical research check. No rumors were researched or added in this pass, and no topic's successful-research timestamp was advanced.

Updated and read back the existing automation prompt with rumor discovery, attribution, status tracking and notification rules. Verified that its active status, schedule and destination were preserved, that the index still has ten categories, and that all existing research state and event history remained unchanged.