You cannot remember being a toddler primarily due to childhood amnesia, a phenomenon driven by rapid brain development and neurogenesis, where the hippocampus is too immature to store long-term memories. Although infants can form short-term memories, the high rate of new neuron creation in the hippocampus disrupts memory stability, acting as a “soft reset” that clears early experiences, usually lasting until about age seven.
Key Reasons for Childhood Amnesia:
Rapid Brain Growth & Neurogenesis: In the first years, the brain creates neurons at a high rate. While this fuels learning, it disrupts existing circuits in the hippocampus (responsible for forming long-term memories), causing early, fragile memories to be lost.
Immature Hippocampus: The brain region necessary for storing episodic memory (specific events) is underdeveloped in infants.
Language Development: Early memories are often stored as feelings or sensations rather than language-based narratives. As language skills develop around age 2–4, the way the brain encodes memories changes, making early pre-verbal memories inaccessible.
Synaptic Pruning:Around age 7, the brain begins to prune and reorganize connections to become more efficient, which further clears away early, unencoded memories.
Surprising Truths About Early Memory:
Memories Aren’t Gone, Just Inaccessible: Research suggests these early memories might still exist in the brain but are inaccessible to conscious recall.
Emotional Memory Remains: While you cannot recall the facts of early life (where you were, what happened), early memories are often stored as emotional, implicit memories in the amygdala, shaping attachment styles and stress responses.
Purposeful Forgetting:This “forgetting” is not a flaw, but a necessary process that allows the brain to restructure and build a more stable sense of self.
Data: J.P. Morgan Asset Management. (Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Oil operated as two legal entities before they were integrated in 2005.) Table: Kavya Beheraj/Axios
Only four of the top 10 biggest companies in America by market cap last year were on the list a decade before: Apple, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase.
Why it matters: Big tech, particularly the Magnificent Seven, might seem like an enduring force, but life comes at you fast. The biggest companies change over time, Axios Markets author Emily Peck writes.
Stunning stat:The top 10’s total market cap in 2025 was an astonishing $19.4 trillion.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to the Democratic National Convention in L.A. in 2000. Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights icon who spent his career fighting racial inequality and injustice, and who made two historic runs for the presidency, died today, his family said in a statement. He was 84. Jackson leaves behind an expansive legacy, starting with his time alongside Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to founding Operation Rainbow PUSH on the South Side of Chicago,Axios’ Justin Kaufmann, Delano Massey and Russell Contreras write.
“Part of what makes America great is the right to fight for your rights,” Jackson told Axios’ Justin Kaufmann on WGN Radio in 2015. “You can change America. It’s like putty. You can reshape it.”Jesse Jackson (left) with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966. Photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The civil rights pioneer grew up in Greenville, S.C., and after college joined King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Jackson ran for presidentin 1984 and 1988, becoming the first major Black candidate to mount a nationwide campaign, finishing second to Michael Dukakis in the 1988 Democratic primary.
Jackson also played a pivotal role in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008.
“The night when President Obama was declared the winner,” Jackson reflected in 2015, “I stood there and cried, in part because we’d won the big one, but also because it was the movement that made it possible.”Full obituary … Jackson’s life in photos.
President Trump had just won reelection and was basking in the parade of congratulatory pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago. On this day in November 2024, an old friend and a first-time visitor were meeting privately with Trump. They wanted something, and they brought something.
Charlie Kirk — a beloved Trump confidant who had just led a smashingly successful turnout drive among young voters — was shepherding TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. A law banning the Chinese-owned TikTok in the U.S. was scheduled to kick in the same week Trump was inaugurated. They wanted him to stall the ban and eventually kill it.
Knowing Trumpresponds best to visual stimuli, Kirk had coached the company to spin up four pages of infographics, “Trump on TikTok,” showing his campaign’s tens of billions of views on the now-threatened app.
A chart (shown above) on the first page jumped out at Trump, who had backed a TikTok ban in his first term. “I’m more popular than Taylor Swift,” he crowed. Many in Trumpworld heard he quickly called Barron, his youngest son, to savor the stat.On Day 1 of his second term, Trump signed an executive order to punt the TikTok ban.
Why it matters: The Mar-a-Lago meeting was a pivotal victory in a campaign by several Trump insiders to overcome furious opposition to TikTok from China hawks on the Hill and in his political orbit who had national-security concerns.
These insiders helped convince Trump’s campaign to launch a TikTok account in June 2024, when he was looking for ways around traditional media.
Then the insiders patiently engineered a complex deal, which closed last month, to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a joint venture controlled by American investors — the death of the ban.
How it happened: The campaign was born in early 2024, according to sources familiar with the internal deliberations. Tony Sayegh, a Treasury and White House official in Trump’s first term, became a key man in the TikTok triumph. Sayegh was on a ski vacation when he saw President Biden declare in March 2024 that he’d sign a TikTok ban if Congress passed one.
Sayegh — dubbed “TikTok’s Trump Whisperer” by a Wall Street Journal article shortly after Trump’s election — phoned a TikTok executive and suggested the very solution that eventually came to pass: If Trump won, he could sign an executive order thwarting the ban.
“Impossible,” the TikTok official said. “Can’t happen.”
But it did, thanks to an aggressive political and legal strategy, paired with some lucky breaks. Some TikTok executives were skittish about going all-in with Trump, but Sayegh often told the company’s D.C. team that Trump was the only person who could save TikTok in America. Chew warmed to the strategy.
Jason Miller— a senior adviser to Trump during the campaign, who remains in close touch with him — told me that Trump “always recognized the power of TikTok, because he saw the impact it had with younger voters.”
“He’d say all the time: ‘You guys are missing it! These young people, they love TikTok. They’re on it all day long.’ And he’d recount stories of Barron talking about it, and also younger people who work with him and for him.”
Behind the scenes: To counter fears among some top Republicans about China’s control of TikTok, Sayegh, Miller and others amped up outside allies — including Kirk, Tucker Carlson and Kellyanne Conway — to give Trump cover to take the plunge.
'They keep saying we sent an aircraft carrier towards Iran. Well, an aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous tool, but more dangerous than the aircraft carrier is the weapon that can send this warship to the bottom of the sea' pic.twitter.com/5p91KM1TfT
Prime Time RTE programme Monday and Tuesday last week Mental Health Prisons and community services
Thought for 48s
RTÉ Investigates: The Psychiatric Care Scandal. The RTÉ Prime Time episodes you referenced aired as a two-part investigative documentary series titled RTÉ Investigates: The Psychiatric Care Scandal on Monday, February 9, 2026, and Tuesday, February 10, 2026, at 9:35 PM on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. The series examined Ireland’s mental health system, focusing on the criminalization of mental illness, failures in prison-based care, and shortcomings in community services. It highlighted how, two decades after the 2006 government policy “A Vision for Change” promised a shift from institutional to community-based care, the system remains broken, leaving vulnerable individuals and families abandoned by the state.Monday Episode (February 9):
Focus on Mental Health in Prisons
This episode exposed a deepening crisis in psychiatric care within Irish prisons, where a lack of acute hospital beds has led to acutely mentally ill people—often charged with minor offenses—being detained in custody instead of receiving appropriate treatment. Key findings included:
A record-high waiting list for the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) in Portrane, reaching 38 people by the end of January 2026, with consistently high numbers (around 309) in late 2025—the highest since the old Dundrum hospital closed in 2022. rte.ie
In Cloverhill Prison, the medical unit (designed for 27) has housed over 55 actively psychotic individuals at once, a tenfold increase over the past decade and a tripling in the last four years.The National Forensic Mental Health Service’s in-reach team manages an average of 706 prisoners, including 340 psychiatric patients (a 40% rise in two years) and 50 awaiting assessment, representing about 14% of Cloverhill’s population amid severe overcrowding (e.g., over 50 men sleeping on floors in 2025). rte.ie
Patients often suffer from severe conditions like schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations, brain injuries, or dementia, rendering them unable to self-care. They end up in “life-threatening conditions” in prison due to insufficient hospital spaces, with experts like Professor Conor O’Neill stating, “These people need to be in hospital, not in prison.” rte.ie +1
Tragic outcomes, including multiple deaths in Cloverhill over five years and a 2024 incident where a prisoner was killed by his cellmate, were linked to absent risk assessments and diagnostic failures. Chief Inspector of Prisons Mark Kelly criticized the system for frequent violence and inadequate committal processes. rte.ie
The suspension of “Therapeutic Bail” (a 2006 workaround for minor offenders to access hospital treatment) following a January 2026 Judicial Review has worsened the crisis, causing a 20% waiting list spike in six weeks and increasing court pressures for fitness-to-plead hearings. rte.ie
Personal stories featured families sharing harrowing experiences, such as a schizophrenia patient’s ordeal, emphasizing systemic human rights issues and regulatory gaps.
limerickleader.ie The episode was based on court observations, inquests, frontline worker accounts, and reviews of investigation reports and post-mortems.
limerickleader.ie Tuesday Episode (February 10):Focus on Community Services and Systemic Failures
Building on Monday’s revelations, this episode questioned whether “A Vision for Change” has delivered on its promises, scrutinizing growing waiting lists and inadequate community supports for discharged patients. It highlighted ongoing institutionalization and the lack of modern, specialist services.
Despite the new €250 million CMH in Portrane (opened in 2022 with capacity for 170 when fully operational, currently at 111 patients with 18 more beds phased in from 2025), the system struggles with unmet needs like assisted living and nursing care facilities that were never built. rte.ie +1
Major shortcomings in community psychiatric care for high-risk patients were uncovered, including failures in monitoring and support post-discharge, leading to repeated crises and family distress. rte.ie +1
A prominent story involved Stephen Loughnane, a brain-injured man held in uninterrupted seclusion for nearly five years across Limerick Prison, the old Dundrum CMH, and the new Portrane facility—conditions his mother, Jacinta Graham, described as “absolutely dreadful,” likening visits to “Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs” behind glass with speakers. This violates modern psychiatric standards, stemming from a lack of suitable residential settings. rte.ie +1
Families expressed anguish over releases without adequate supports, with one stating, “He killed our son three years ago and now he’s allowed out, what’s going on?” The episode criticized policy failures for breaking families and abandoning individuals. limerickleader.ie +1
Experts like Dr. Charles O’Mahony from the University of Galway pointed to disparities between Mental Health Commission standards and prison realities, while government officials (e.g., Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan) acknowledged collaborative efforts but faced calls for urgent reforms.
rte.ie The series was praised as exemplary public service journalism for its delicate handling of conflicting rights and exposure of incremental change’s limitations.
independent.ie Overall, the programs called for addressing overcrowding, access delays, and community gaps to prevent the criminalization of mental illness. For full viewing, episodes are available on RTÉ Player.
about.rte.ie If you’re seeking support, resources like the HSE’s mental health services or organizations such as Shine
Vision for Change. a synopsis. What has been achieved in 2026?
Thought for 1m 16s
Synopsis of “A Vision for Change”
“A Vision for Change: Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy” is a landmark Irish government policy document published in 2006. It outlines a comprehensive, person-centered framework for transforming mental health services in Ireland over a 7-10 year period, shifting from traditional institutional care to community-based, recovery-oriented models. The policy emphasizes promoting positive mental health across society, preventing mental illness where possible, and providing accessible, specialized services for those in need.
Key principles include a biopsychosocial approach (integrating biological, psychological, and social factors), user and family involvement in care, multidisciplinary teams, and equity in service provision. It proposes integrated care pathways, including primary care linkages, specialist teams for specific needs (e.g., child and adolescent, older adults, forensic), and a focus on early intervention, rehabilitation, and social inclusion.
The vision aims for every citizen to have access to high-standard, local mental health supports, fostering resilience and reducing stigma. gov.ie +2 While influential, the policy faced implementation challenges due to economic constraints and resource gaps in its early years.By 2020, it was succeeded by “Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone,”which builds directly on its foundations but adopts a broader, whole-of-society approach with 100 recommendations across promotion, prevention, acute care, and recovery. drugsandalcohol.ie +1 Achievements under the original vision have been carried forward and expanded under this successor policy.
Achievements by 2026.
By February 2026, significant progress has been made in realizing the goals of “A Vision for Change,” though full implementation remains ongoing amid challenges like waiting lists, regional disparities, and funding shortfalls relative to demand (mental health funding stands at about 5.6% of the overall health budget, below the 10% Sláintecare target).
mentalhealthreform.ie The transition to “Sharing the Vision” in 2020 has accelerated reforms, with record investments yielding tangible outcomes in service expansion, infrastructure, and outcomes monitoring.
Budget 2025 allocated €1.5 billion to mental health (a 44% increase since 2020 and 10.7% year-on-year rise), while Budget 2026 added further funding for clinical programs and bed capacity. gov.ie +1 Key achievements, organized thematically below, reflect a shift toward community-focused, integrated care as envisioned in 2006.
Funding and Systemic Reforms
Record Budget Increases: Cumulative funding rose by €601 million from 2012 to 2024, with €352 million for priority enhancements. By 2026, dedicated mental health research funding has tripled since 2022 to €3 million annually, supporting evidence-based innovations. gov.ie +1
Legislative Advances:The Mental Health Bill 2024, which reforms the 2001 Act to align with human rights standards (e.g., UNCRPD), passed the Dáil in 2025 and is advancing through the Seanad, expanding oversight roles for the Mental Health Commission and introducing person-centered safeguards. mentalhealthreform.ie +1
Capital Investments:€31 million invested in 2025 for infrastructure transformation, including a 10-year mental health capital plan.The National Mental Health Capital Planning Group (est. 2024) has mapped facilities and prioritized retrofits for trauma-informed designs. mentalhealthreform.ie +1 A new state-of-the-art National Forensic Mental Health Service opened in Portrane in 2023. drugsandalcohol.ie
Governance and Monitoring: 20 of “Sharing the Vision’s” 100 recommendations transitioned to business-as-usual by 2025, with an outcomes framework rolled out to track service user experiences and population indicators. HSE regionalization into six Health Regions promotes equity via population-based resourcing. drugsandalcohol.ie +1
Promotion, Prevention, and Community Supports
National Promotion Plan: “Pathways to Wellbeing,” Ireland’s first cross-government mental health promotion plan (launched December 2024), integrates workplace guidelines, community programs, and targeted interventions for priority groups (e.g., Travellers, migrants, older people). Social prescribing expanded to all counties by 2023, serving 5,589 users and addressing isolation via GP referrals. drugsandalcohol.ie +1
Digital and Talk Therapies:Online guided CBT programs scaled to benefit up to 10,000 people annually. Counselling in Primary Care enhanced with €2 million in 2025 for targeted access (e.g., for men), alongside e-learning modules and referral tools. drugsandalcohol.ie +1
School and Youth Initiatives: Two-thirds of schools completed wellbeing self-evaluations by 2025; pilots for primary school counselling ongoing. The HSE’s Child and Youth Mental Health Office (est. 2024) published a three-year action plan in February 2025, including Single Point of Access systems and collaborations with voluntary sectors like Jigsaw. drugsandalcohol.ie +1
Older Adults and Inclusion: Model of Care for older people’s mental health (launched 2019) implemented with liaison teams in nursing homes. Commission on Care for Older People (est. 2024) delivered its first report in 2025, incorporating mental health indicators; age limits for services under review (from 65 to 70). drugsandalcohol.ie
Specialist and Crisis Services
The following table summarizes expansions in National Clinical Programmes, a core legacy of “A Vision for Change,” with teams operational or in development by 2026 (funded at €5.7 million in 2025):
Program
Achievements
Operational Status
Eating Disorders
Model of Care revised; adult and child/adolescent teams expanded.
6/8 adult teams; 5/8 CAMHS teams.
ADHD in Adults
Integrated stepped care evaluated (report 2025); clinical lead appointed 2024.
5 full-time, 2 half-time teams; 8th in development.
Dual Diagnosis
Model of Care launched 2023; training analysis completed; national action plan drafting.
2/12 adult teams; 2/4 adolescent hubs.
Early Intervention in Psychosis
Process evaluation (2022) confirmed effectiveness; annual audits.
5/25 adult teams; youth team developing; 3 more funded 2025.
Perinatal Mental Health
Hub-and-spoke model; patient surveys piloted; inpatient unit negotiations.
6 hubs, 13 spokes.
Mental Health Intellectual Disability
Models rolled out (2020 adults, 2022 CAMHS); core team members mandated.
18/31 adult teams; 4/16 CAMHS teams.
Crisis Resolution: New services like Crisis Response Teams and Solace Cafés rolled out (model published 2023); five demonstration sites resourced. Emergency Department audits show 70% compliance with standards; Suicide Crisis Assessment Nurses expanded. drugsandalcohol.ie +1 Pilots like Limerick’s CAST team diverted 35 ED visits in H1 2025. mentalhealthreform.ie
Forensic and Complex Needs: Tiered prison models scoped; Intensive Care Rehabilitation Units developed. National Placement Oversight Team completed over 50 assessments by 2024. drugsandalcohol.ie
Social Inclusion and Lived Experience
Housing and Employment: Joint protocols for housing transitions disseminated; five additional tenancy support posts funded from 2025. Sustainable funding for 45 Individual Placement Support posts for employment; day centers evaluated. drugsandalcohol.ie
Peer Involvement: HSE’s Mental Health Engagement and Recovery Plan (2023-2026) embedded lived experience in governance, including a National Volunteer Panel. drugsandalcohol.ie
Priority Groups: €365,000 for Traveller initiatives; €693,000 for suicide reduction (including LGBTQI+ supports). Cultural competence training and multilingual resources developed. gov.ie +1
Despite these gains, challenges persist: CAMHS waiting lists grew 15.5% to 4,437 children by 2025, with 713 young people waiting over 12 months (45% increase). Prevalence of mental health issues remains high, with 42.5% of adults affected and youth suicide above EU averages.
mentalhealthreform.ie Advocacy groups call for €200 million more in 2026 to close gaps and fully realize the community-based vision.
mentalhealthreform.ie Overall, by 2026, Ireland’s mental health system is more integrated and resourced than in 2006, with “Sharing the Vision’s” 2025-2027 plan targeting full equity and responsiveness.
Data: J.P. Morgan Asset Management. (Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Oil operated as two legal entities before they were integrated in 2005.) Table: Kavya Beheraj/Axios
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to the Democratic National Convention in L.A. in 2000. Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images
Jesse Jackson (left) with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966. Photo: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Obtained by Axios
