August 3rd, 2023 • 3h 4m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
TODAY
Starlink train last night
FedNow will kill all existing processing merchants
Trump Indictments
Trump script is coerce MAGA into protest/violence - label them and lock them up
Opinion | On Anti-Trumpers and the Modern Meritocracy - The New York Times
Armed with all kinds of economic, cultural and political power, we support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants aren’t likely to put downward pressure on our wages.
Like all elites, we use language and mores as tools to recognize one another and exclude others. Using words like problematic, cisgender, Latinx and intersectional is a sure sign that you’ve got cultural capital coming out of your ears. Meanwhile, members of the less-educated classes have to walk on eggshells, because they never know when we’ve changed the usage rules, so that something that was sayable five years ago now gets you fired.
Big Tech
Google AI power consumption BOTG
Meet with Meta about their server power consumption. Was told that AI is doubling their power consumption for their server farms in 1 year. Was told with out AI the power consumption would have been flat but AI increases power for their large server site by 2X.
Big Pharma
Cracking down on health misinformation: The ‘most common cause of death’ | BenefitsPRO
“I would describe this year as hand-to-hand combat. Really, every day,” he said at an academic conference at Stanford in April. It’s a sentiment the FDA commissioner has expressed often.
What’s been getting Califf’s goat? Misinformation, which gets part of the blame for Americans’ stagnating life expectancy. To Califf, the country that invents many of the most advanced drugs and devices is terrible at using those technologies well. And one reason for that is Americans’ misinformed choices, he has suggested. Many don’t use statins, vaccines, or COVID-19 therapies. Many choose to smoke cigarettes and eat the wrong food.
Califf and the FDA are fighting misinformation head-on. “The misinformation machine is really causing a lot of death,” he said, in an apparent ad-lib, this spring in a speech at Tufts University. The pandemic, he told KFF Health News, helped “crystallize” his need to tackle misinformation. It was a “blatant case,” in which multiple studies gave evidence about very effective therapeutics against COVID. “And a lot of people chose not to do it.” There were “large-scale purveyors of misinformation,” he said, poisoning the well.
Occasionally, though, Califf and the FDA have added to the cacophony of misinformation. And sometimes their misinformation is about misinformation.
Henrietta Lacks: Family of black woman whose cells were taken settle case - BBC News
The details of the settlement reached on Monday with Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc have not been made public.
Build a Wall
Elites / Epstein
Ukraine vs Russia
Africa
Boots on the Ground from South Africa - Julius, the EFF & Russia
Hello Adam
I am a long-time listener and complete douchebag. I hope to rectify this soon.
In my efforts to rectify my douchbaggery I wanted to give you a quick boots on the ground from South Africa (via a SA friend). I am South African, but moved to Australia in hopes of a safer life. That was a mistake 😅.
Anyway, I still have friends and family there, so I have gathered some intel for you. My friend is an educated and very politically aware, black South African. Here is what I found out via some whatsapp messaging:
Regarding Julius Malema (aka Juju) and the EFF. This guy is seen as a bit of a joke but he is an extremist and has dangerous, radical views. He knows how to get a crowd riled up. He often starts his rallies with ‘Kill the Boer’ or ‘Kill the Whites’. The DA [multi-race party, but often white led] is the true opposition party to the ANC (Nelson Mandela's Party). Here is what my friend says on Julius & the EFF:
“On Julius…Julius’s style of politics and delivery is akin to Adolf Hitler. I suspect he has studied him from an oratory perspective and being able to illicit emotion from crowds. On the ground though and when elections come around, the EFF struggles to break through the 10-15% vote gained. They are often teased as being the “Twitter Party” 😂😂 Great on the media and PR but haven’t quite yet won over the majority of black South Africans. EFF is too radical for our generation and older who are actually the ones who turn out to vote…and this group still tends to vote ANC (sentimental reasons and the scars of apartheid) or throw it to the opposition (DA, VF+, ATM, ACDP, Patriotic Alliance, Action SA etc) where you see coalitions forming. EFF constituents still see voting day as a day to party and drink and can’t be bothered with the long queues at voting stations, SA is not about to fall into the hands of Juju and Co.😂
The EFF fails dismally on an issue that is a burning one for South African’s- weak borders and the infiltration of immigrants- the ppl are not happy with the illegal immigrants and the issues they cause (drugs, trafficking and the perceived notion that they are taking their jobs away). EFF wants the borders wide open so this does not sit well with a large population of SA’ns
Also Julius is extremely inconsistent and goes where the wind blows. And an extremely important factor is that the private sector, which is white owned, is what’s keeping this country going at the moment. All state-owned enterprises have collapsed. However, Corporate SA endorses who holds the hearts of SA’ns and the media goes on overdrive with that person and party. Whilst I shudder at the thought of another 4yrs with Cyril and the ANC, Corporate SA is still behind them and my bet is that they will win the election either at 50% or just below, forcing SA into a national government. Thereafter, the ANC can either self-correct and regain their position again in 2028. It will take a long time before ppl really divorce the ANC in their hearts. DA’s problem is that they spend too much time criticising ANC. We know the ANC has failed but black ppl don’t want to hear other races tell us one of our own failed- it’s like being a parent and having another parent point out your child’s issues…we know and wish they wouldn’t use that as a political campaign tool 😂 They do great work in the Western Cape. If they could highlight that and possibly win Gauteng in 2024 (which I am praying for), this would put a kink in EFF’s appeal. DA just fails to win the trust of black people.
The race dynamics in SA are complicated and amplified by growing economic disparities. But what unites us is the dog show we are ALL in due to the collapsing infrastructure. Deep down, we really do want to get on and be a rainbow nation so no, no one is taking up any arms to go around butchering white ppl cause of Julius singing “Kill the Boer”….you’re not gonna hear and have SA’ns singing or saying that slogan just randomly either than at an EFF Rally…as unfortunate as it is that the Equality Court didnt find it as hate speech (I didnt really read the judgement but it was along the lines of it being a slogan used in context of apartheid and access to land 🤷🏾♀️). If ANC does not clean up its act post-2024, the DA make inroads outside of the Western Cape and opposition parties get their act together in the next 4-8yrs…yeah, we may have a Julius/EFF presidency but not really out of frustration with white ppl but because of a failed state through the ANC
South Africa’s relationship with Russia:
“Yes. There seems to be a power play for SA between the US and China/Russia. Thats why the ANC was in a big conundrum regarding Putin’s attendance at the Bric’s Summit. SA and in particular the ANC is aligned with Russia but can’t be seen to be so by the US and the rest of the world. Except friggin Cyril…I dont trust him…he’s selling the country to the highest bidder….another reason for the factions in the ANC.
But Putin is most respected here by peeps on the ground…black South Africans have warm sentiments towards Russia and Putin and largely support a break-away from the US/Dollar.
Regarding natural resources, I’ve heard rumours that there is big interest in the Oranje River by global powers….I’m still investigating 🤔 And another big rumour that of the ANC fails next year, there is some clause that can kick in that forces us under the US…one of our puppet leaders would be Thuli Madonsela. It could be a conspiracy theory but heck, the past couple of years have proven that where there’s smoke there is fire!”
Anyway, I hope this gives you some more context & new information. Let me know if you want me to ask any more questions.
Thanks for giving us the greatest podcast in the world. It has changed my life. So, it is to my eternal shame that I haven't donated yet. I will do so soon.
Kind regards
Boots on the Ground: Air Base 201 Niger
I am in the Iowa Air National Guard and serve as the Deputy Fire Chief. I was deployed to Agadez Niger in 2017-2018. We landed in Niamey Niger 4 Oct 2017 as the Tongo Tongo Ambush was happening. Pretty intense situation. The base was quickly flooded with QRF's (quick reaction force) / Special forces personnel for a rescue/recovery mission. Anyways, our mission at AB201 was to build a runway in the middle of Africa. Why were we building this base? We were told it was a mix of terrorism, human trafficking and to get a stronghold in the region before China could. FYI there were also uranium mines nearby (maybe that's it). This project was a giant waste of taxpayers money, a disaster! I could go on and on with stories about this place. One quick story: a couple rotations after we left there was a fire chief from a Wisconsin ANG unit there. He said they sent him and a couple others into the local village to buy goats because they weren't getting food shipments in! This base was a logistical nightmare. I've included some articles you might find interesting to shed some light on our involvement. I can send a redacted DD214 if you'd like to show the proof that I was there. Keep up the great work! Thank you!
Burkina Faso: Ukraine weapons
"Uncontrolled supplies of Western weapons to Kiev have a negative impact on security in Africa," said Ibrahim Traoré, the President of the Transitional Period of Burkina Faso, as reported by RIA Novosti. He emphasized that this weaponry eventually ends up in Africa, where terrorists acquire it, posing a significant danger.
Museveni pronunciation
Quick pronunciation note: Museveni = [moo-SEV'-ni] is how they pronunce it in Africa. It can easily sound like "Mussolini", so they go way out of their way to pronunce it differently.
Great Reset
TD Ameritrade Bartlett Warehouse Burns After Investigation Announcements - Franknez.com
The Bartlett Warehouse fire seems to be a records storage facility owned by TD Ameritrade Inc.
The retail community finds it incredibly suspicious since the incident occurred after the SEC announced 60 hedge funds were to undergo investigations for manipulative short selling.
Climate Change
Transmaoism
(U//FOUO) NVRIC Intelligence Bulletin 23-01: New Anarchist Violent Extremist Propaganda Promotes ”Tranarchism”
(U//FOUO) The Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center (NVRIC) is issuing the attached, (U//FOUO) NVRIC Intelligence Bulletin 23-01: New Anarchist Violent Extremist Propaganda Promotes ”Tranarchism”, dated August 2, 2023.
(U//LES) Summary: This product provides situational awareness regarding recent anarchist violent extremist (AVE) online propaganda promoting “tranarchism”, or the use of violence against entities perceived to discriminate against and threaten the existence of the LGBTQIA+ community. While the NVRIC has not identified any specific, credible threat to the region related to these posts at this time, some have been observed recirculating amongst AVE-affiliated groups who have a presence in the National Capital Region.
Alpha-Gal
Alpha-Gal BOTG 90's
ITM! SIR Nick knight of Abundance from Tucker Ga,
You can imagine my surprise, when having a disease that nobody has heard of not even my doctors called Alpha-Gal, all of the sudden blankets, every news channel and every single one of my friends sends me messages saying, “holy shit! you’re on TV you’re on TV!”
I was at summer camp back in the early 90s. I took off my shirt one day to shower up, and I had I fat tick feeding away on my life juices. We got rid of it, and about a day later a big red ring appeared around the bite area. I was treated for Rocky Mountain spotted fever and told that I would be fine. Immediately thereafter my food intake started to have obvious effects on my body; Hives, rashes intense vomiting.
Many years and MANY MANY inept doctors later I was basically walking death. 6’3 145 lbs. I ate 6000 calories a day and was about to die of hunger. What the television DOESNT tell you is that Alpha-GAL syndrome means your CANNOT EAT ANY MAMMALIAN MEAT.
Not just red meat. ANY mammal. No squirrel no raccoon no PORK no beef etc. you get my point. I eat chicken ALWAYS, and I am forced to take vitamin b12 injections 2 times a month seeing as I can’t get it in my diet. Life goes on, I’m a happy grown well adjusted human resource ATM.
Sorry note so long. No jingles, please 🙏 general life karma.
Sir Nick
Out There
David Grusch's closing statement we never got to hear in the Hearing.
Closing Statement It is with a heavy heart and a determined spirit that I stand, under oath, before you today, having made the decision based on the data I collected, and reported, to provide this information to the committee. I am driven in this duty by a conviction to expose what I viewed as a grave congressional oversight issue and a potential abuse of executive branch authorities. This endeavor was not born out of malice or dissatisfaction, but from an unwavering commitment to truth and transparency, an endeavor rooted in our inherent duty to uphold the United States Constitution, protect the American People, and seek insights into this matter that have the potential to redefine our understanding of the world. In an era, fraught with division and discord, our exploration into the UP subject seems to resonate with an urgency and fascination that transcends political, social, and geographical boundaries. A democratic process must be adhered to when evaluating the data and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that public involvement is encouraged and respected. Indeed, the future of our civilization and our comprehension of humanity's place on earth and in the cosmos depends on the success of this very process. It is my hope that the revelations we unearth through investigations of the Non-Human Reverse Engineering Programs I have reported will act as an ontological (earth-shattering) shock, a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities. As we move forward on this path, we might be poised to enable extraordinary technological progress in a future where our civilization surpasses the current state-of-the-art in propulsion, material science, energy production and storage. The knowledge we stand to gain should spur us toward a more enlightened and sustainable future, one where collective curiosity is ignited, and global cooperation becomes the norm, rather than the exception. Thank You
China
STORIES
Cracking down on health misinformation: The 'most common cause of death' | BenefitsPRO
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 15:26
''I would describe this year as hand-to-hand combat. Really, every day,'' he said at an academic conference at Stanford in April. It's a sentiment the FDA commissioner has expressed often.
What's been getting Califf's goat? Misinformation, which gets part of the blame for Americans' stagnating life expectancy. To Califf, the country that invents many of the most advanced drugs and devices is terrible at using those technologies well. And one reason for that is Americans' misinformed choices, he has suggested. Many don't use statins, vaccines, or COVID-19 therapies. Many choose to smoke cigarettes and eat the wrong food.
Califf and the FDA are fighting misinformation head-on. ''The misinformation machine is really causing a lot of death,'' he said, in an apparent ad-lib, this spring in a speech at Tufts University. The pandemic, he told KFF Health News, helped ''crystallize'' his need to tackle misinformation. It was a ''blatant case,'' in which multiple studies gave evidence about very effective therapeutics against COVID. ''And a lot of people chose not to do it.'' There were ''large-scale purveyors of misinformation,'' he said, poisoning the well.
Anaphylaxis after Zoster Vaccine: Implicating Alpha-Gal Allergy as a Possible Mechanism - PMC
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 15:24
Journal List HHS Author Manuscripts PMC5420485 As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. Inclusion in an NLM database does not imply endorsement of, or agreement with, the contents by NLM or the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more about our disclaimer. J Allergy Clin Immunol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2018 May 1.
Published in final edited form as:
PMCID: PMC5420485
NIHMSID: NIHMS836528
Cosby A. Stone, Jr., MD, MPH,
' Jonathan A. Hemler, MD,
' Scott P. Commins, MD, PhD,
§ Alexander J. Schuyler, BS, BA,
# Elizabeth J. Phillips, MD,
¥>+Ë R. Stokes Peebles, Jr., MD,
' * and
John M. Fahrenholz, MD
' *Cosby A. Stone, Jr.' Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Jonathan A. Hemler' Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Scott P. Commins§Division of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Alexander J. Schuyler#Asthma and Allergic Disease Center, Carter Immunology Center, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Elizabeth J. Phillips¥Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
>Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
+Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
ËInstitute for Immunology & Infectious Diseases, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150
R. Stokes Peebles, Jr.' Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
*Allergy and Immunology Section, Medical Service, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
John M. Fahrenholz' Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
*Allergy and Immunology Section, Medical Service, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
' Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
§Division of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
#Asthma and Allergic Disease Center, Carter Immunology Center, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
¥Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
*Allergy and Immunology Section, Medical Service, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
>Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
+Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
ËInstitute for Immunology & Infectious Diseases, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia 6150
Corresponding Author: Cosby A. Stone, Jr., Vanderbilt University, Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, 1161 21
st Avenue South T-1218, MCN, Nashville, TN 37232-2650, Phone: 615-322-3412, Fax: 615-343-1809,
ude.tlibrednav@enots.a.ybsocCapsule SummaryA patient with alpha-gal allergy presented with anaphylaxis after receiving zoster vaccine. Subsequent testing of selected vaccines revealed the presence of alpha-gal allergen in MMR and zoster vaccines, which have in common a higher content of gelatin and content of bovine calf serum.
Keywords: galactose-alpha-1, 3-galactose, alpha-gal, anaphylaxis, vaccine, zoster, gelatin, MMR
To the EditorIn the Southeastern United States, galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal) sensitivity has emerged as an etiology of red meat allergy that is causally linked to bites from the lone star tick.1 Alpha-gal sensitivity often presents with delayed anaphylaxis after consumption of red meat, with lesser degrees of reactivity to milk and gelatin. Gelatin and other non-primate mammalian derived products are common excipient ingredients in several vaccines,2, 3 and it has been postulated that alpha-gal allergic patients might react to these vaccines.4
A patient in our clinic with a documented history of red meat allergy since November 2008 required emergency department treatment and epinephrine administration upon receipt of live attenuated herpes zoster vaccine containing the Oka VZV strain in September 2014. Within minutes of vaccine administration in a local pharmacy she had a sensation of mental clouding progressing to lightheadedness, wheezing, and throat tightness and she self-administered 50 mg diphenhydramine five minutes after symptom onset. She sought emergency care 30 minutes after vaccine receipt at which point she was documented to be dyspneic, flushed, with facial, oral and uvular angioedema and bilateral conjunctival injections with stable vital signs and blood pressure of 149/83, without documented wheezing on pulmonary examination. She was placed on oxygen and administered an additional 25mg of diphenhydramine, 8mg of intramuscular dexamethasone, 20mg of famotidine, nebulized albuterol and 0.3mg of intramuscular epinephrine for her respiratory distress, angioedema, and cutaneous signs.5 Her symptoms resolved within 20''30 minutes and she was discharged uneventfully after 3 hours observation.
She originally presented to our clinic in 2009 at age 63 with a history of recurrent delayed anaphylaxis, occurring 4''6 hours after eating, and was evaluated for food allergies. At that time, laboratory evaluation in our clinic showed elevated blood specific IgE (sIgE) to beef = 10.5 kU/L, pork = 10.4kU/L, and cow's milk = 2.90kU/L (reference for all <0.35 kU/L). Other food IgEs were within normal limits, as was serum tryptase. She reported that eating any and all mammalian meat would trigger her symptoms. She also reported delayed abdominal symptoms, malaise, and diarrhea with consumption of dairy products. She lived in a rural area, and frequently found lone star ticks embedded in her skin.
One month after her episode of anaphylaxis following vaccination in 2014, she was tested for alpha- gal allergy, with galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose sIgE = 32.5 kU/L, beef sIgE = 23.1 kU/L, lamb/mutton sIgE = 12.2kU/L, and pork sIgE = 17.1 kU/L. She was subsequently tested in 2015 for allergy to gelatin, with porcine gelatin sIgE = 1.84kU/L, and bovine gelatin sIgE = 0.15kU/L (reference range for all sIgE tests <0.35kU/L).
We reviewed publicly available data from a searchable version of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database6 using search terms of severe adverse events occurring on the same day of vaccine administration of the Oka VZV strain. Out of 202 reported events, we encountered 14 cases of adverse reaction to zoster vaccine consistent with anaphylaxis. 5/14 (36%) of these potential cases of anaphylaxis had a known associated beef, pork, gelatin, or alpha-gal allergy, and 4 of those 5 cases were reported as taking place in the Southeast United States (Online Table).
We next proceeded to identification of five candidate vaccines that might contain alpha-gal antigen due to content of bovine or porcine derived products.2, 3 ( Table I )
Table IReported Gelatin or Mammal Derived Product Content of Selected Vaccines
VaccineReported Gelatin Content of VaccineReported Type of Gelatin or Animal Derived ProductZoster (Merck)15,580 μg per 0.65 mL dosePorcine Gelatin, Bovine Calf SerumMeasles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) (Merck)14,500 μg per 0.5 mL doseBovine Gelatin, Bovine Calf SerumYellow Fever (Sanofi Pasteur)7,500 μg per 0.5 mL doseGelatin, type not reportedTetanus, Diptheria and acellular Pertussis (TDaP) (GSK)NoneBovine Casein, Bovine ExtractTetanus, Diptheria and acellular Pertussis (TDaP) (Sanofi Pasteur)NoneBovine Casamino AcidsWe then evaluated if sera from alpha-gal allergic patients would interact with components of the candidate vaccines. To evaluate, we performed a direct biotinylation of each of the vaccines in full prescribed dose, after which protein concentration was determined and 5μg of biotinylated antigen was added to each streptavidin ImmunoCAP, in two identical trials. Forty microliters of undiluted serum from our index patient along with serum from three additional subjects with alpha-gal allergy was used in each sIgE assay to assess for IgE binding to the vaccines or gelatin (commercially available ImmunoCAP assay c74), similar to previously published methods.1,7 Serum from the same subjects was also pre-incubated with 50μL of bovine thyroglobulin (BT), a source of alpha-gal antigen, coupled to sepharose bead slurry to deplete alpha-gal sIgE. Assays for binding to biotinylated vaccines were then repeated in two trials to determine whether binding decreased following pre-incubation with bovine thyroglobulin, which suggests that any observed binding to vaccines was actually for alpha-gal. This was performed using previously published methods1.
The largest direct binding response that could be removed by the presence of bovine thyroglobulin was seen in the index patient to MMR and zoster vaccine (0.96''1.31 IU/ml, Table IIA ). There was also low positive binding (values were 0.27 '' 0.45IU/ml) for MMR and zoster vaccine in sera from the subjects A and B that could be removed by the presence of bovine thyroglobulin, though sera from subject C did not demonstrate binding to any of the candidate vaccines. The direct binding ''vaccine caps'' method suggests the presence of an epitope in MMR and zoster vaccine that is recognized by alpha-gal IgE in sera from both the index patient and alpha-gal allergic subjects A & B. ( Table IIA )
Table IISerologic Assays for Alpha-gal in Selected Vaccines
A: IgE binding (kU/ml) to biotinylated vaccines assayed with alpha-gal positive sera from three subjects, with and without bovine thyroglobulin (BT) to deplete alpha gal IgETDaP (Sanofi)TDaP (GSK)MMRYellow FeverZosterGelatin Immunocap c74Trial1Trial2Trial1Trial2Trial1Trial2Trial1Trial2Trial1Trial2BaselineIndex Patient<0.10.11<0.1<0.11.311.220.270.251.140.960.16w/BT Beads<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.10.13<0.1<0.1Subject A0.100.110.11<0.10.270.280.410.370.340.35<0.1w/BT Beads<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.10.390.40<0.1<0.1Subject B1.281.431.061.631.461.160.901.181.041.160.72w/BT Beads1.061.301.221.201.050.910.901.120.600.76Subject C<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1w/BT Beads<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1<0.1B: Serum alpha-gal IgE (kU/ml) levels at baseline and after overnight incubation with vaccines and gelatinsBaselineTDaP (Sanofi)TDaP (GSK)MMRYellow FeverZosterPorcine GelatinBovine GelatinIndex Patient58.355.957.831.256.933.154.756.6Subject A>100>100>1000.96>10091.4>100>100Subject B>100>100>10071.587.683.394.697.3Subject C84.472.686.960.775.75682.881We next measured the baseline alpha-gal IgE titers in sera from our index patient and the same three additional subjects. To ascertain the presence of vaccine epitopes that would bind/remove alpha-gal specific IgE in excess of that expected for gelatin alone, we incubated sera samples from the index patient and the three alpha-gal positive subjects overnight, separately, with 100μg from each of the five vaccines, bovine gelatin, and porcine gelatin and re-measured alpha-gal IgE titers. ( Table IIB ).
Incubation of the sera samples overnight showed partial depletion of the alpha-gal IgE response in sera from all four subjects when it was pre-incubated with zoster vaccine and MMR, greater than that for gelatin alone. There were also partial depletions observed in response to the yellow fever vaccine in subjects B and C. While we did note some expected variability in epitope binding to alpha-gal IgE, both MMR and zoster vaccines consistently removed a portion of alpha-gal sIgE response upon re-assay. We did not observe any evidence of epitope binding to alpha-gal IgE binding with either version of TDaP vaccine.
To our knowledge, this is the first report of vaccine induced anaphylaxis associated with alpha-gal allergy. We are somewhat limited in our claim of complete causality by the presence of low level IgE antibodies to porcine gelatin in our patient. Nevertheless, the presence of antigen binding directly to alpha-gal IgE found in patient sera and depletion of alpha-gal sIgE in overnight incubation with both MMR and zoster vaccine would suggest that either their increased gelatin content or some other shared element in the manufacturing process of these two vaccines increases the likelihood of alpha-gal contamination. Both MMR and zoster vaccine use bovine calf serum during their production, and hypothetically additional alpha-gal antigen could be acquired at this step. The lesser reactivity to yellow fever vaccine (which has a lower gelatin content), and absent reactivity to two different TDaP vaccines, which contain other bovine derived products but not gelatin, is also helpful, as patients with this allergy would be unlikely to react to these vaccines. There are other vaccines that contain mammalian products, but our findings would suggest that alpha-gal content is highest in MMR and zoster vaccine.
Alpha-gal allergy is an increasingly prevalent hypersensitivity syndrome in the Southeast US, as well as other parts of the world. Clinicians who manage it should be made aware of a risk of anaphylaxis to higher content gelatin containing vaccines such as MMR and zoster vaccine, especially because of their parenteral delivery. While anaphylaxis from zoster vaccine appears to be a low probability event,8 it has significant public health implications, and there is a need to determine on a population level how often patients who have anaphylaxis to higher gelatin content vaccines such as MMR and Zoster vaccine have an underlying alpha-gal allergy.
AcknowledgmentsFunding Sources: Elizabeth and John Murray Endowment, Vanderbilt University Dr. Phillips receives funding related to this project from: National Institutes of Health (1P50GM115305-01, 1R01AI103348-01, 1P30AI110527-01A1), National Health and Medical Research Foundation of Australia and the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research.
Dr. Commins receives funding related to this project from: NIH R56AI113095
IRB: This study was done under IRB approved protocols from Vanderbilt University, the University of Virginia, and the University of North Carolina.
FootnotesPublisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Opinion | On Anti-Trumpers and the Modern Meritocracy - The New York Times
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 15:01
David Brooks
Credit... Evan Vucci/Associated Press Donald Trump seems to get indicted on a weekly basis. Yet he is utterly dominating his Republican rivals in the polls, and he is tied with Joe Biden in the general election surveys. Trump's poll numbers are stronger against Biden now than at any time in 2020.
What's going on here? Why is this guy still politically viable, after all he's done?
We anti-Trumpers often tell a story to explain that. It was encapsulated in a quote the University of North Carolina political scientist Marc Hetherington gave to my colleague Thomas B. Edsall recently: ''Republicans see a world changing around them uncomfortably fast, and they want it to slow down, maybe even take a step backward. But if you are a person of color, a woman who values gender equality or an L.G.B.T. person, would you want to go back to 1963? I doubt it.''
In this story we anti-Trumpers are the good guys, the forces of progress and enlightenment. The Trumpers are reactionary bigots and authoritarians. Many Republicans support Trump no matter what, according to this story, because at the end of the day he's still the bigot in chief, the embodiment of their resentments, and that's what matters to them most.
I partly agree with this story; but it's also a monument to elite self-satisfaction.
So let me try another story on you. I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, we're the bad guys.
This story begins in the 1960s, when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam, but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston, but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived.
The ideal that ''we're all in this together'' was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here, and everybody else is forced into a world down there. Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.
The most important of those systems is the modern meritocracy. We built an entire social order that sorts and excludes people on the basis of the quality that we possess most: academic achievement. Highly educated parents go to elite schools, marry each other, work at high-paying professional jobs and pour enormous resources into our children, who get into the same elite schools, marry each other and pass their exclusive class privileges down from generation to generation.
Daniel Markovits summarized years of research in his book ''The Meritocracy Trap'': ''Today, middle-class children lose out to the rich children at school, and middle-class adults lose out to elite graduates at work. Meritocracy blocks the middle class from opportunity. Then it blames those who lose a competition for income and status that, even when everyone plays by the rules, only the rich can win.''
The meritocracy isn't only a system of exclusion; it's an ethos. During his presidency Barack Obama used the word ''smart'' in the context of his policies over 900 times. The implication was that anybody who disagreed with his policies (and perhaps didn't go to Harvard Law) must be stupid.
Over the last decades we've taken over whole professions and locked everybody else out. When I began my journalism career in Chicago in the 1980s, there were still some old crusty working-class guys around the newsroom. Now we're not only a college-dominated profession, we're an elite-college-dominated profession. Only 0.8 percent of all college students graduate from the super elite 12 schools (the Ivy League colleges, plus Stanford, M.I.T., Duke and the University of Chicago). A 2018 study found that more than 50 percent of the staff writers at the beloved New York Times and The Wall Street Journal attended one of the 29 most elite universities in the nation.
Writing in Compact magazine, Michael Lind observes that the upper-middle-class job market looks like a candelabrum: ''Those who manage to squeeze through the stem of a few prestigious colleges and universities in their youth can then branch out to fill leadership positions in almost every vocation.''
Or, as Markovits puts it, ''Elite graduates monopolize the best jobs and at the same time invent new technologies that privilege superskilled workers, making the best jobs better and all other jobs worse.''
Members of our class also segregate ourselves into a few booming metro areas: San Francisco, D.C., Austin and so on. In 2020, Biden won only 500 or so counties, but together they are responsible for 71 percent of the American economy. Trump won over 2,500 counties, responsible for only 29 percent. Once we find our cliques, we don't get out much. In the book ''Social Class in the 21st Century,'' sociologist Mike Savage and his co-researchers found that the members of the highly educated class tend to be the most insular, measured by how often we have contact with those who have jobs unlike our own.
Image Credit... Mark Peterson/Redux, for The New York Times Armed with all kinds of economic, cultural and political power, we support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants aren't likely to put downward pressure on our wages.
Like all elites, we use language and mores as tools to recognize one another and exclude others. Using words like problematic, cisgender, Latinx and intersectional is a sure sign that you've got cultural capital coming out of your ears. Meanwhile, members of the less-educated classes have to walk on eggshells, because they never know when we've changed the usage rules, so that something that was sayable five years ago now gets you fired.
We also change the moral norms in ways that suit ourselves, never mind the cost to others. For example, there used to be a norm that discouraged people from having children outside of marriage, but that got washed away during our period of cultural dominance, as we eroded norms that seemed judgmental or that might inhibit individual freedom.
After this social norm was eroded, a funny thing happened. Members of our class still overwhelmingly married and then had children within wedlock. People without our resources, unsupported by social norms, were less able to do that. As Adrian Wooldridge points out in his magisterial 2021 book, ''The Aristocracy of Talent,'' ''Sixty percent of births to women with only a high school certificate occur out of wedlock, compared with only 10 percent to women with a university degree.'' That matters, Wooldridge continues, because ''The rate of single parenting is the most significant predictor of social immobility in the country.''
Does this mean that I think the people in my class are vicious and evil? No, most of us are earnest, kind and public spirited. But we take for granted and benefit from systems that have become oppressive. Elite institutions have become so politically progressive in part because the people in them want to feel good about themselves as they take part in systems that exclude and reject.
It's easy to understand why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and moral assault '-- and why they've rallied around Trump as their best warrior against the educated class. Trump understood that it's not the entrepreneurs who seem most threatening to workers; it's the professional class. Trump understood that there was great demand for a leader who would stick his thumb in our eyes on a daily basis and reject the whole epistemic regime that we rode in on.
If distrustful populism is your basic worldview, the Trump indictments seem as just another skirmish on the class war between the professionals and the workers, another assault by a bunch of coastal lawyers who want to take down the man who most aggressively stands up to them. Of course, the indictments don't cause Trump supporters to abandon him. They cause them to become more fiercely loyal. That's the polling story of the last six months.
Are Trump supporters right that the indictments are just a political witch hunt? Of course not. As a card-carrying member of my class, I still basically trust the legal system and the neutral arbiters of justice. Trump is a monster in the way we've all been saying for years and deserves to go to prison.
But there's a larger context here. As the sociologist E. Digby Baltzell wrote decades ago, ''History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership.'' That is the destiny our class is now flirting with. We can condemn the Trumpian populists all day until the cows come home, but the real question is when will we stop behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable.
David Brooks has been a columnist with The Times since 2003. He is the author of ''The Road to Character'' and, most recently, ''The Second Mountain.'' @ nytdavidbrooks
Extreme heat: A green backlash is sweeping across the U.S. and Europe
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 14:43
Demonstrators hold placards and chant slogans during a rally to protest against the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London, at Marble Arch, central London, on June 25, 2023.
Henry Nicholls | Afp | Getty Images
In the wake of a U.S. crusade against mission-driven investments, signs of a green political backlash in Europe appear to be gathering pace.
State laws restricting the use of environmental, social and governance factors have swept across the U.S. in recent months, fomenting uncertainty for an increasing range of businesses.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law in early May that barred state and local officials from investing public money to promote ESG goals and prohibited municipalities from selling ESG bonds. "We do not want them engaged on these ideological joyrides," DeSantis reportedly said at the time.
Analysts expect the outcome of next year's U.S. presidential election to determine whether the political backlash against ESG will have a deep and lasting effect.
A pushback against climate policies is not just a U.S. issue. In Europe, indications of a green backlash '-- or "greenlash" '-- have started surfacing as businesses and citizens feel the costs of the energy transition.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) signs a resolution passed by the House and Senate that aims to block a Biden administration rule encouraging retirement managers to consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions, during a bill signing at the U.S. Capitol March 9, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Nathalie Tocci, director of Istituto Affari Internazionali, an Italian international relations think tank, told CNBC that the weaponization of climate issues from traditionally skeptical political parties was nothing new.
"This is really a story of the last couple of years, but I think it is really picking up steam now," Tocci said.
Reprisals over climate policies come at a time of record-breaking extreme heat across the globe, with July poised to be the hottest month in human history.
It prompted U.N. chief Ant"nio Guterres to signal, "The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived."
'Reframe the issue'In the U.K., London mayor Sadiq Khan's push to expand a contentious Ultra Low Emission Zone policy across the entire city has sparked an economy vs. climate fight '-- as well as a green identity crisis among Britain's major political parties.
Dutch farmers have been staging protests over stringent limits on nitrogen emissions, with the BBB or BoerBurgerBeweging (Farmer-Citizen Movement) party lashing out at what it sees as a policy that symbolizes "everything that is not going right" in the country.
I think that in the case of Europe, if you have this 'greenlash' that persists '... the trick is going to be that of reframing this in terms of industrial policy.
Nathalie Tocci
Director of Istituto Affari Internazionali
In Poland, the conservative government recently filed four complaints against EU climate policies, calling them "authoritarian" and a potential threat to its energy security. Ruling party leader JarosÅaw KaczyÅski described the bloc's green policies as "madness" and akin to "green communism."
French President Emmanuel Macron and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo have also called for a "regulatory pause" of Europe's green legislation, saying that a period of "stability" is necessary to avoid losing momentum in the climate fight.
France's President Emmanuel Macron, Belgium's Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen gesture as they attend the North Sea summit in Ostend, on April 24, 2023.
Kenzo Tribouillard | Afp | Getty Images
Anti-green parties could look to latch onto a burgeoning European greenlash in a bid to surge in the polls, with the Netherlands, Poland, the U.K. and European Parliament all due to hold elections over the next 18 months.
"At the moment, it looks like green parties are not doing going fantastically well. I think the challenge is going to be for those, like myself, who really believe in this agenda to reframe the issue," Tocci said, citing U.S. President Joe Biden's landmark Inflation Reduction Act as one example.
The IRA, which was signed into law last year, will funnel billions of dollars into programs designed to accelerate the country's transition away from fossil fuels and battle the climate emergency.
"The IRA is called an IRA, it is not called a climate act because there's no way that you could get Democrats and Republicans to agree on something called climate," Tocci said.
"In the case of Europe, if you have this 'greenlash' that persists '... the trick is going to be that of reframing this in terms of industrial policy."
Dutch nitrogen crisisIn the case of the Netherlands, the BBB is seeking to capitalize on Prime Minister Mark Rutte's resignation by becoming one of country's largest parties in the 150-seat parliament.
The pro-farmer's party stunned Dutch politics in mid-March by winning provincial elections, shortly after more than 10,000 Dutch farmers rallied against government plans in The Hague.
The backlash follows a landmark court ruling in 2019, which said the Netherlands must reduce excess nitrogen levels. Some of the remedial measures include voluntary buy-out schemes and developing more sustainable farming methods.
Farmers gather at Zuider Park to protest against the government's farming policy on reduction of nitrogen emissions in The Hague, Netherlands on March 11, 2023.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Dutch farmers are up in arms over government plans, which they say will bring an end to many farms nationwide and hit food production.
The nitrogen crisis is "an example of what will happen with climate, because climate regulations and targets '... will have much more consequences for the farmers than nitrogen," Jan Willem Erisman, professor of environmental sustainability at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told CNBC by telephone.
"So, I think that solving the nitrogen problem is not enough, it is solving the climate problem '-- and nitrogen will be solved also," he added.
Poland's role as a 'veto player'Polish voters are expected to head to the ballot box in the fall. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has criticized the EU's "Fit for 55" climate law, saying Warsaw never supported the package and "one size does not fit all."
Michal Hetmanski, head of Instrat, a Warsaw-based independent think tank, told CNBC that Poland's government appeared to be determined to remain "a veto player" within the bloc on climate policies.
A spokesperson for Poland's ruling Law and Justice party did not reply to a CNBC request for comment.
At the European parliamentary level, meanwhile, lawmakers are not expected to scale back on climate action ahead of elections next spring.
An overwhelming majority of European citizens recognize the climate emergency is a serious problem, and most agree that adapting to the adverse impacts of the crisis can have a positive outcome.
"It's worth remembering that the EU has already committed to cut CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050," Arthur Carabia, director of ESG policy research at Morningstar Sustainalytics, told CNBC via email.
The EU's "Fit for 55" law is designed to help the 27-nation bloc achieve its target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and reach climate neutrality by 2050.
"While there is still a long way until May 2024, we don't expect that the results of the upcoming EU elections will cause to the EU to deviate from this objective," Carabia said.
Siestas in Germany? Doctors recommend mid-day break '' DW '' 07/18/2023
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 14:11
Doctors in Germany have called for the introduction of siestas, or midday naps, as a way to deal with rising temperatures that hamper productivity.
"We should orient ourselves to how people work in the heat in southern countries: get up early, work productively in the morning, and take a siesta at midday," the head of the Federal Association of Physicians of German Public Health Departments (BVGD), Johannes Niessen, told the RND media network in an interview published on Tuesday.
"It is a concept that we should adopt in the summer months," he added.
Why does Germany need a siesta?The doctors from the BVGD are calling for the more demanding parts of the workday to be shifted to the morning before workers get worn down by the intense heat.
"People are not as a productive as normal when it's very hot," Niessen said. "Bad sleep due to warm nights can lead to additional concentration problems."
Siesta is a Spanish term for the break many people will take, often including a nap or some kind of rest, during the hottest hours in the middle of the day. But it is a practice common throughout hotter parts of the world.
Truth or clich(C): What are Spaniards really like?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
The call to shift German work patterns to those more common in southern Europe as global temperatures rise comes as countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece are suffering from back-to-back heatwaves and extreme temperatures.
German employers 'neglecting' risks of extreme heatNiessen also called for "sufficient fans and lighter clothing, even if the attire rules for an office don't allow it."
Workers, and people in general, need to make sure they're drinking a lot more and eating in several smaller portions throughout the day, he added.
"A cold footbath under the desk would be another option to stay cool while working from home," the BVGD chief told RND.
Anja Piel, a board member of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), also told the media network that employers need to carry out regular risk assessments during the summer months to protect workers from extreme heat.
"Working in the heat is demanding on employees and in the worst case can endanger their health," Piel said.
She added that the failure to prepare for climate change and extremely hot summers was an act of "neglect" by German employers.
ab/sms (AFP, dpa)
Germany debates need for siesta and cold footbaths amid sizzling temperatures | Reuters
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 14:11
BERLIN, July 19 (Reuters) - Germany's government said on Wednesday that suggestions of how to adapt to summer heatwaves like a public health group's call for siestas should be taken "very seriously" given sharply rising temperatures.
While Germany has escaped the kind of temperatures that hit southern Europe this week, it has sweltered in the mid-30s Celsius, with Bavaria seeing the country's record high so far at 38.8 Celsius.
Johannes Niessen, the head of the BVOeGD public health officers association, had said Germans should follow the habits of people in the hotter climes of southern Europe in an interview published by the RND media network on Tuesday.
"Get up early, work productively in the morning, and take a siesta at midday," he said.
The World Meteorological Organization warned a heatwave in the northern hemisphere was set to intensify, increasing the risk of deaths linked to excessively high temperatures.
"People are not as efficient in strong heat as they are otherwise," Niessen said. "Moreover bad sleep in the absence of cooling in the night leads to concentration problems."
A government spokesperson on Wednesday said such initiatives had to be "taken very seriously" against the backdrop of a "massive change in the summer temperatures".
He noted some workplaces, including those outdoors, faced serious challenges as a result of the heat.
"I do see this as a serious topic which will concern us for the coming years."
German health minister Karl Lauterbach had said on Tuesday a siesta was "certainly no bad proposal" but employers and workers should negotiate this together.
On holiday in Italy, Lauterbach tweeted that high temperatures had stopped him going on a day trip to Rome.
"My daughter would rather stay in the pool while I will read. Next try tomorrow."
The BDA employers association said more flexible working hours could enable employees to take longer midday breaks if it suited both parties.
Niessen also called for "sufficient fans and lighter clothing, even if the attire rules for an office don't allow it."
"A cold footbath under the desk would be another option to stay cool while working from home," he said.
Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Additional Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Friederike Heine and Angus MacSwan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Chief correspondent covering political and general news in Germany with experience in Argentina and in Cuba leading Reuters' broader Caribbean coverage.
Biden Admin Ordered Facebook To Change Algos To Suppress Conservatives | ZeroHedge
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 14:10
Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,
In new memos recently released by Facebook, the social media giant was pressured by the Biden White House into altering its algorithms so that mainstream news sources would be elevated over conservative sites.
As Just The News reports, the documents over to the House Judiciary Committee following a subpoena detail a series of meetings between Facebook executives and White House Digital Director Rob Flaherty in the spring of 2021. The demands from the White House focused on posts related to the Chinese coronavirus and the efficiency of the COVID vaccines.
In one meeting on April 14th, 2021, Flaherty asked Facebook if it was possible to artificially promote outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, instead the Daily Wire and Fox News, particularly commentator Tomi Lahren.
''If you were to change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see NYT, WSJ, any authoritative news source over Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren, polarizing people,'' Flaherty asked.
''You wouldn't have a mechanism to check the material impact?''
''We have to explain to President, Ron [Klain], people, why there is misinfo on the internet, bigger problem than FB,'' said Flaherty, according to the typed notes from Facebook executives.
''Where issues are, what interventions are, how well they are working, for products, want to engage in things that you know to be effective. I don't even care about specific methodology, you have better, richer data than we'll ever have.''
Tomi Lahren, who boasted a large following on Facebook, had recently announced that she would refuse to get the COVID vaccine. Meanwhile, Daily Wire had filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration's mandate for private workplaces to force its employees to take the vaccine. The Supreme Court eventually struck down Biden's workplace mandate, while upholding his vaccine mandate for facilities that are funded by Medicare and Medicaid.
''What are the things driving hesitancy on your platform? What is it? How big is the problem? When you are intervening, how are you measuring success?'' Flaherty repeatedly grilled the Facebook executives in one meeting.
''Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House,'' said Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on Twitter.
Constitutional scholars have also raised the alarm over the revelations, with George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley saying that he has ''asked Congress to pass a law barring federal employees from engaging in censorship and targeting of citizens.''
''Agencies have a right to speak in their own voices,'' Turley added.
''Instead, the Biden Administration sought to engage in what I have called 'censorship through surrogate.' This is part of that pattern.''
Turley's take is reiterated by University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds told Just the News on Wednesday that the First Amendment issue is when the ''government is asking people to censor speech, their action is attributable to the government, so both they and the government can be sued.''x
''By working with the government, Facebook exposed themselves to liability,'' Reynolds said, noting that they do not ''share sovereign immunity'' with the government and will ''probably very much regret it.''
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What happens in Ukraine if President Zelensky is assassinated? - The Jerusalem Post
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:53
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had spoken out about Ukraine's protocol should he be assassinated, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Under Ukraine's constitution, the transition of power would default to the chairman of Ukraine, who would absorb the responsibilities of the role.
When the president is unable to fulfill his duties, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine [the Ukrainian parliament] takes over his responsibilities,'' said Mykola Knyazhytsky, an opposition lawmaker from the western city of Lviv, according to Politico. ''Therefore, there would be no power vacuum.''
However, the source reported that not all Ukrainians may be so supportive of such a backup plan as chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk has a trust rating of only 40% in opinion polls.
So, under the circumstances that Zelensky is assassinated, the Ukrainian government would likely be headed by Stefanchuk as a figurehead, the head of the president's office Andrii Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, western Japan, Sunday, May 21, 2023. (credit: Louise Delmotte/Pool via REUTERS) Assassination attempts against President ZelenskyAssassination attempts against Zelensky have increased rapidly over the course of the war, Zelensky's advisor Mikhail Podolyak said in March 2022, according to Politico. As The Jerusalem Post reported at the time, one week of March saw three attempts made against Zelensky's life by Wagner forces.
In March, after two Ukrainian-allied anti-Putin individuals invaded two Russian villages in the Bryansk oblast region, calls for the assassination of the Ukrainian president dramatically increased. Lawmaker Mikhail Delyagin said the ''only normal response'' to the incident is the ''immediate elimination of Zelensky,'' according to Politico.
''If I were thinking about it constantly, I would just shut myself down, very much like Putin now who doesn't leave his bunker,'' Zelensky said in an interview in July. ''Of course, my bodyguards should think about how to prevent this from happening, and this is their task. I don't think about it.''
Stock market today: Live updates
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:46
Stocks finish lower, Nasdaq logs worst day since FebruaryStocks hit selloff mode Wednesday, with the Nasdaq Composite notching its worst day since February.
The Nasdaq Composite index shed 2.17% to end at 13,973.45, while the S&P 500 pulled back 1.38% to close at 4,513.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 348.16 points, or about 0.98%, to finish at 35,282.52.
'-- Samantha Subin
A peek under the hood shows a broad-based selloff in S&P 500 The selloff in the S&P 500 Wednesday was broad based, with 413 stocks declining in the broader index. There were 87 advancers in the benchmark.
The biggest loser was backup power generator company Generac , which was last down by more than 23%. Paycom Software and SolarEdge Technologies dropped more than 18%.
The best-performing stock was Waters Corporation . That name was up by more than 7% in afternoon trading.
'-- Sarah Min
Semis and cloud stocks partially rebound from session lowsSemiconductors and cloud stocks managed to rise from their session lows Wednesday. Shares briefly reached their lowest levels in 2023 before partially recouping losses.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is down 3.8%, putting it on pace for back-to-back losses. If it closes down more than 3.54% for the day, Wednesday would mark its worst day since July 20. All components of the chips ETF are lower on the day.
Nonetheless, the chips fund is still up more than 52% year to date.
The First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) is down 4% for the day, on pace to break a three-day win streak. If losses increase beyond 3.99%, the cloud ETF would have its worst day since Feb. 3.
Paycom is the second-worst performer in the S&P 500 and the worst in SKYY Wednesday, on pace to break a seven-day win streak with its worst day on record, back to its IPO in April 2014.
Stock Chart IconStock chart iconSMH and SKY ETFs
'-- Hakyung Kim
CNBC Pro: Wall Street pros shrug off the impact of Fitch's downgrade on marketsThe Fitch downgrade of U.S.'² long-term rating Tuesday night mostly amounts to "noise" as far as the market is concerned '-- though it could help it digest its recent gains.
Fitch Ratings cut its long-term foreign currency issuer default rating for the U.S. to AA+ from AAA, saying it expects "fiscal deterioration over the next three years." The downgrade was immediately criticized by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others in Washington, who said the rating is based on outdated information.
However, Wall Street strategists mostly took the downgrade in stride. The S&P 500'²s 17% rally this year, and the Nasdaq Composite's 33% advance, had some traders worrying that equities have surged "too far, too fast."
"I think that it's just a short term glitch that will end up representing a good buying opportunity through the end of the year," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. Stovall's S&P 500 year-end target is at 4,575.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.
'-- Sarah Min
Baird says this little-known industrial stock can rally 35%Industrial manufacturer Oshkosh Corporation is showing significant growth potential, according to Baird.
Analyst Mircea Dobre upgraded shares to outperform from neutral and raised his price target to $137 from $89, suggesting a 35% upside from where the stock closed Tuesday.
Dobre highlighted Oshkosh's second-quarter results as a sign of operational improvement for the company after it dealt with supply chain issues and price-cost mismatches over the past 18 months.
The stock has advanced 15.2% year to date and gained more than 1% on Wednesday. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
'-- Pia Singh
Fitch rating downgrade 'doesn't really matter,' says JPMorgan's DimonJamie Dimon isn't too bothered by Fitch's downgrade of the United States' long-term credit rating.
"It doesn't really matter that much" because it is the market, and not rating agencies, that determine borrowing costs, the JPMorgan Chase CEO told CNBC's Leslie Picker on Wednesday. "They point out some issues which we all knew about."
Dimon called it "ridiculous" that other countries have higher rating than the U.S.
'-- Hugh Son, Samantha Subin
Intel leads Dow downwardIntel led the Dow down in Wednesday's session.
The semiconductor stock dropped 3.4%, making it the worst performer of the 30 stocks in the Dow. As a whole, the index is down 0.8%, with more than two-thirds of members trading below flat.
Stock Chart IconStock chart iconIntel shares slide on Wednesday
Disney , Boeing and Microsoft followed Intel, with each losing more than 2%.
On the other hand, Walgreens was able to buck the trend and was up more than 3% in the session.
'-- Alex Harring
UBS calls for a 'selective approach' to stock pickingUBS is continuing to recommend a more risk-averse approach to stock picking, especially after July's blowout rally.
"So, while the macroeconomic and policy outlook brightened over the course of the month, we continue to recommend a selective approach to equities, focusing on parts of the market that have so far lagged the 2023 rally," said UBS Global Wealth Management's Mark Haefele in a Wednesday note.
According to the chief investment officer, much of the good news has already been priced into equities, limiting the upside from here.
Given this setup, the firm is favoring fixed income as yields hover at attractive levels.
'-- Samantha Subin
Tinder recovery to drive Match Group share growth, says BTIGMatch Group shares are set to pop as Tinder recovers, according to BTIG.
The company posted an earnings and revenue beat for the second quarter Tuesday. Management's current-quarter guidance also came above analyst estimates. BTIG noted that Tinder is showing an improving trend in its daily new users numbers and reactivation trend.
"Tinder hit a wall last year," with growth slowing into 2023, analyst Jake Fuller said. But he noted that net add outlook is now improving, with accelerating growth and upward-moving estimates. Fuller upgraded Match Group to buy from neutral.
Shares rose slightly in afternoon trading.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the upgrade here.
'-- Hakyung Kim
AMD could be nearing the end of its rally, according to several Wall Street analystsThe semiconductor manufacturer's shares have surged 70% year to date amid the AI boom. However, despite the company's second-quarter earnings announcement on Monday topping analyst estimates, the global PC market slump has dampened the company's sales forecasts.
Following the earnings report, Bank of America reiterated its neutral rating on the stock while lifting its price target by just $2 to $132. The new price target implies 12.2% upside from where shares closed Tuesday.
"AI optionality [is] offset by growth deceleration," analyst Vivek Arya said in a Tuesday note.
The full story can be found here.
'-- Hakyung Kim
Stocks making the biggest midday movesHere are some of the names moving during midday trading:
SolarEdge Technologies '-- Shares dropped 19% after the solar company reported $991 million in revenue, missing analysts' estimates of $992 million, according to Refinitiv. SolarEdge also issued disappointing third-quarter revenue guidance.
CVS Health '-- The stock gained 3.4% during midday trading Wednesday after the retail pharmacy reported earnings of $2.21 per share on revenue of $88.9 billion. Wall Street analysts expected $2.11 per share on earnings of $86.5 billion, per Refinitiv.
Norwegian Cruise Line '-- Shares sank 3%, a day after the cruise liner gave weaker-than-expected guidance for the third quarter. However, its second-quarter earnings beat analysts' estimates. Shares were also downgraded by Susquehanna to neutral from positive.
To see more stocks making midday moves, read the full story here.
'-- Michelle Fox
Nasdaq Composite poised to see worst day since FebruaryThe Nasdaq Composite is on pace to end down around 2.2%, which would be the worst daily performance since February.
The technology-heavy index last closed with a bigger loss on Feb. 21, which it finished about 2.5% lower.
But if the Nasdaq takes another leg down and ends the session worse than 2.5% below flat, it would be the worst session of the year. The next marker to watch was met on Dec. 15, when the index dropped 3.3%.
'-- Alex Harring, Gina Francolla
Boeing supplier Spirit Aerosystems tumbles on production cutSpirit AeroSystems shares tumbled 20% after the key supplier to Boeing reported a wider-than-expected loss for the last quarter and lowered its shipment forecast for the year following a brief labor strike earlier this summer.
The strike at the Wichita, Kansas plant will reduce deliveries of 737s -- Boeing's best-selling plane -- to 370 to 390 this year, sharply lower than its estimate to ship between 390 and 420 of them this year, which "will negatively impact expected revenue, earnings and cash flow for 2023," Spirit said in a quarterly earnings report.
'-- Leslie Josephs
Communication services, information technology stocks lead declinesCommunication services and information technology stocks lagged during Wednesday's session, falling more than 2% each.
The communication services sector dropped 2.1%. Electronic Arts led the declines, last down nearly 7%. Take-Two Interactive and Meta Platforms dropped more than 3% each, while Alphabet , Walt Disney and Netflix all fell more than 2%.
Information technology names were among the worst-performing stocks, with the sector last down 2.5%. SolarEdge was the biggest laggard, cratering nearly 19% on disappointing guidance. First Solar dropped more than 6%.
Advanced Micro Devices tumbled more than 7% despite better-than-expected results. The downward move rippled across the semiconductor and software industries, with Nvidia and Micron Technology last down 5.8% and 4.6%, respectively. Palo Alto Networks edged 7% lower.
'-- Samantha Subin
Defensive S&P 500 sectors buck market downtrendRosenblatt disagrees with market in Pinterest upgradeInvestment firm Rosenblatt disagrees with investors who sold Pinterest following its earnings report.
Despite what analyst Barton Crockett called a "decent" second quarter report released Tuesday, shares were down around 3%. The company beat Wall Street expectations on revenue when comparing performance against the consensus estimate compiled by FactSet.
Crockett upgraded shares to buy from neutral. He cited margins rising, revenue ramps, the positive reaction to commerce and a deal to increase the advertising load in his decision.
"In a choppy ad market, with cost-pressures galore, Pinterest is making enticing progress, laying a foundation for revenue acceleration, margin expansion and rising relevancy that can bolster the shares," he said.
'-- Alex Harring
Credit sectors more appealing than equities in a high-yield environment, says JefferiesThe 10-year yield hit 4,102% Monday, marking its highest level since November 10, 2022. Jefferies' chief market strategist David Zevros believes that the equity market may start to see a bit of a crunch if the 10-year yield continues to push higher.
"If we start to really push 10-year yields up to the top of the range, [such as] 4.25% or higher, I think that's where you can get a little bit of an issue with with people. People thinking about valuation slightly differently," Zevros told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Wednesday.
The credit sectors of the market, particularly leveraged loans, may be easier than stocks to "skin the return" as yields remain higher for longer, Zevros added.
'-- Hakyung Kim
Freshworks shares jump more than 18%Canaccord Genuity upgraded Freshworks shares to buy from hold, citing several positive catalysts ahead for the software company.
"There was a lot to like in Freshworks' Q2 print, the second in a row that we'd describe in that light," Hynes said in a Tuesday note. The company is "bringing it all together '-- [Go-to-market (GTM)] enhancements, operating efficiency, AI products and more," Hynes added. The company posted its second-quarter results Tuesday.
Freshworks shares jumped more than 18% on Wednesday.
To read more about the upgrade, click here.
Stock Chart IconStock chart iconFreshworks stock
'-- Hakyung Kim
Chinese tech stocks fall after regulators float child smartphone rulesSolar ETF drops as SolarEdge earnings weigh on sectorA selloff in SolarEdge shares following its earnings report has dragged on solar stocks.
The Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) is down more than 4% in morning trading. That puts it on track to post its worst dance since April 26, when the fund finished 5.5% lower.
SolarEdge led the fund lower after missing revenue expectations for the quarter. The company reported $991 million, slightly under the $992 million consensus estimate of analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Shares have tumbled about 17.5%, putting the stock on pace for its worst session since Aug. 3, 2022, when it closed 19.1% down.
Shoals , SunRun , Enphase and SunPower also contributed to the ETF's drop, with each stock losing around 5%.
'-- Alex Harring, Gina Francolla
Stocks open lower after Fitch downgradeNorwegian Cruise Line shares fall nearly 3% premarketNorwegian Cruise Line 's stock has jumped more than 58% in 2023 '-- but the rally is weak compared with peers Royal Caribbean and Carnival , which have surged 117.3% and 123.2%, respectively.
Although the company's second-quarter earnings topped Wall Street's estimates, the stock on Tuesday subsequently dropped more than 12% on weaker-than-expected guidance for the third quarter.
"Despite a constructive mid-term guide from NCLH (e.g., >70% of sales over the last 90 days were for 2024 and 2025 sailings), it's clear the liner is still in the early-to-middle innings of its turnaround, with the return to pre-pandemic adjusted EBITDA margins going to take 'some time,'" analyst Christopher Stathoulopoulos said in a Wednesday note. The firm downgraded its rating on Norwegian Cruise Line shares to neutral from positive.
Shares fell more than 3% before the bell.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about his downgrade here.
Stock Chart IconStock chart iconNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings shares
'-- Hakyung Kim
Match jumps 10% as investors cheer strong earnings and outlookShares of online dating stock Match Group climbed more than 10% during premarket trading after beating Wall Street's expectations for earnings and offering strong guidance.
The Tinder and Hinge parent reported 48 cents earned per share on $830 million in revenue for the second quarter on Tuesday. Both figures were better than analysts had anticipated, with consensus estimates compiled by Refinitiv showing Wall Street forecasted 45 cents in earnings per share and revenue of $811 million.
Match also gave an upbeat outlook for the current quarter. The company said to expect revenue between $875 million and $885 million in the quarter, a range that's higher than the analyst consensus estimate of $864 million.
BTIG upgraded shares to buy from neutral following the report, citing a recovery in Tinder.
'-- Alex Harring
Stocks making the biggest premarket movesCheck out the companies making headlines before the bell on Wednesday:
SolarEdge Technologies '-- The solar stock plunged 14.6% after the company missed revenue expectations in its second quarter, reporting $991 million compared to the expected $992 million from analysts polled by Refinitiv.CVS Health '-- Shares of the retail pharmacy giant fell 2% premarket even after the company posted strong earnings and revenue for the second quarter. CVS reported earnings of $2.21 per share on revenue of $88.9 billion. Humana '-- The health insurer added 5.8% after reporting second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $8.94, topping the $8.76 anticipated by analysts, per StreetAccount.Read here to see which other companies are making moves before the open.
'-- Pia Singh
Private payrolls rise more than expected in July Private sector companies added more jobs than anticipated in July, according to a Wednesday report from ADP.
The payroll processing company said jobs gains totaled 324,000 in July, with 201,000 stemming from hospitality and leisure jobs. That came in well above the 175,000 additions Dow Jones economics expected.
It marks a decline from June's revised 455,000 number.
'-- Jeff Cox, Samantha Subin
SolarEdge plunges on mixed results, weak outlookSolarEdge Technologies shed more than 12% before the bell after reporting mixed quarterly results and sharing a third-quarter revenue outlook that fell short of expectations.
The solar company reported earnings of $2.62 a share, excluding items. That came in ahead of the $2.52 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. SolarEdge reported revenues of $991 million, slightly below the $992 million expected.
Along with the mixed results, SolarEdge issued weaker-than-expected revenue guidance for the third quarter. The company said it expects revenues to range between $880 million and $920 million. Wall Street analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected revenues of $1.05 billion.
'-- Samantha Subin
AMD gains on earningsShares of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices added more than 2% before the bell after posting better-than-expected second-quarter results.
Despite the top-and-bottom line beat, the company reported an 18% decline in revenue from a year ago and shared a slightly lighter-than-expected sales forecast for the third quarter.
AMD, a maker of graphics processing units playing an integral role in large language models and generative AI, has benefitted from the recent boost in related stocks, with shares up 81.6% year to date.
CEO Lisa Su said that the company made "strong progress" during the period to meet growing customer AI needs.
'-- Samantha Subin, Kif Leswing
CVS Health tops earnings expectationsCVS Health shares moved nearly 2% higher in the premarket after reporting second-quarter results that topped Wall Street's expectations on both the top and bottom lines as it trims costs and slashes jobs amid its push into healthcare.
The healthcare giant posted adjusted earnings per share of $2.21, versus the $2.11 expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Revenues came in at $88.9 billion, ahead of the $86.5 billion expected.
The company also kept its full-year adjusted guidance calling for earnings between $8.50 and $8.70 per share.
'-- Samantha Subin, Spencer Kimball
Yellen downplays Fitch debt downgradeTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that she disagreed with Fitch's decision to downgrade the U.S.' debt.
"The change by Fitch Ratings announced today is arbitrary and based on outdated data," Yellen said in a statement. "Fitch's quantitative ratings model declined markedly between 2018 and 2020 '' and yet Fitch is announcing its change now, despite the progress that we see in many of the indicators that Fitch relies on for its decision."
"Many of these measures, including those related to governance, have shown improvement over the course of this Administration, with the passage of bipartisan legislation to address the debt limit, invest in infrastructure, and make other investments in America's competitiveness," Yellen added.
'-- Fred Imbert
2-year Treasury yield falls as investors weigh economic outlookU.S. Treasury yields were mixed on Wednesday as investors considered the outlook for the economy after Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S.' long-term foreign currency issuer default rating on Tuesday.
At 4:13 a.m. ET, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was down by over one basis point to 4.0292% after hitting its highest level since early July on Tuesday. The 2-year Treasury yield was trading over four basis points lower at 4.8705%.
Meanwhile, the 30-year Treasury yield was up by less than a basis point to 4.1074%.
'-- Sophie Kiderlin
European equity markets open lowerEuropean stock markets opened lower Wednesday as investors navigate a busy week of earnings and global sentiment drags.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 1% in the first few minutes of trading, with all sectors and major bourses trading in negative territory. Media stocks were the biggest downward pressure on the index, with a drop of 1.6%, while financial services lost 1.5% and household goods were down 1.4%.
'-- Hannah Ward-Glenton
ASEAN manufacturing activity sees softest expansion in seven months Manufacturing activity across the ASEAN region expanded at the softest pace in seven months, with the headline purchasing managers index at 50.8. in July.
This marked a third straight month of decline and pointed to a mixed picture across the ASEAN region, with only four of the seven constituents registering an improvement in operating conditions.
Indonesia displaced Thailand at the top of the PMI rankings with a PMI reading of 53.3 for July, while Thailand recorded a PMI reading of 50.7.
The Philippines and Myanmar rounded off the list of countries with improving manufacturing sectors, with PMI readings of 51.9 and 51.1 respectively.
In contrast, the countries that reported a deterioration in July were Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.
'-- Lim Hui Jie
Country Garden Services surges 20% following plan to buy back sharesShares of Hong Kong property management services company Country Garden Services surged 20% after the company announced its intention to repurchase up to 337.31 million shares, representing 10% of its total issued shares as of May 25.
In a filing, the company said the shares have been trading at a price level which does not fully reflect its intrinsic value. The move is aimed at shoring up investor confidence.
However, the filing also cautioned that the share repurchase is subject to the sole discretion of the board "based on the market conditions and that no assurance can be given as to the timing, quantity or price of any repurchase."
Stock Chart IconStock chart icon'-- Lim Hui Jie
Currency check: Yen strengthens and Aussie dollar weakens after U.S. credit rating downgrade Asian currencies largely strengthened against the U.S. dollar after rating agency Fitch cut the U.S.' credit rating from AAA to AA+.
IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said this will spark risk aversion flows, which means lower equities in Asia, as well as safe haven buying of treasuries and currencies such as the Japanese yen and Swiss franc against riskier currencies, such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars.
The Japanese yen, long considered a safe haven currency, strengthened 0.16% to trade at 143.1 against the greenback.
In contrast, the Australian dollar weakened marginally to trade at 1.51 against the greenback and the New Zealand dollar slid 0.31% to trade at 1.63.
'-- Lim Hui Jie
South Korea's inflation rate hits 2.3% in JulySouth Korea's consumer price index rose 2.3% year-on-year in July, the lowest rate of growth since June 2021 and lower than the 2.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters.
The inflation print also marks its sixth straight month of decline. On a month on month basis, the country's consumer price index rose 0.1%.
On Monday, minutes from the Bank of Korea revealed that board members were in favor of the benchmark rate being held at 3.5%, but "while closely monitoring real economic indicators, such as the inflation rate and financial stability conditions," said one member.
'-- Lim Hui Jie
Tue, Aug 1 2023 6:23 PM EDT
Fitch downgrades U.S. long-term rating to AA+ from AAAFitch Ratings cut the United States' long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to AA+ from AAA on Tuesday, citing an erosion of governance and expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years.
In particular, the agency called out brinksmanship in Washington around debt ceiling negotiations earlier this year. President Joe Biden signed a debt limit deal on June 2, just days prior to the X-date of June 5 '' the expected date when the nation could default.
"The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management," Fitch said.
Read more here.
-Darla Mercado
Tue, Aug 1 2023 6:08 PM EDT
Stocks making the biggest moves after hoursCheck out the companies making headlines after hours.
SolarEdge Technologies '-- The solar stock dropped 11% in extended trading. SolarEdge missed revenue expectations in its second quarter, posting $991 million compared to the expected $992 million from analysts polled by Refinitiv. The company beat earnings estimates, posting an adjusted $2.62 per share, better than the $2.52 per-share estimate.Advanced Micro Devices '-- The chip stock jumped nearly 4% after Advanced Micro Devices reported better-than-expected quarterly results. AMD reported second-quarter adjusted earnings of 58 cents per share on revenue of $5.36 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected per-share earnings of 57 cents on revenue of $5.31 billion.Freshworks '-- Freshworks advanced nearly 14% after reporting second-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations on the top and bottom lines. The software company reported adjusted earnings of 7 cents per share on revenue of $145 million. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected per-share earnings of 2 cents on revenue of $141 million.Read the full list here.
'-- Sarah Min
Tue, Aug 1 2023 6:06 PM EDT
Stock futures open lowerU.S. stock futures were lower Tuesday night.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid by 179 points, or 0.5%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures dipped 0.62% and 0.79%, respectively.
'-- Sarah Min
Trump: The Real Victim of the Russiagate Hoax Wasn't Me but the American People
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:44
The report by Special Counsel John Durham makes clear beyond a shred of doubt that the Russia Hoax was the most atrocious weaponization of our government in American history. It was a crime like no other.
Seven years ago, I ran for office taking on all the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests in our nation's capital. My agenda was an existential threat to a Washington establishment that got rich and powerful bleeding America dry.
I vowed to stop mass illegal immigration, terminate globalist trade deals, end the sellout of our country to Communist China, stand up to the permanent bureaucracy and the corporate media, and break the neocon addiction to endless foreign wars.
In response, an unelected cabal in the senior ranks of our government, in concert with their chosen candidate, Hillary Clinton, and their allies in the media, launched the de-facto coup attempt known as the Russia Hoax.
Their goal was to prevent my election, and failing that, to throw me out of office or sabotage my presidency, undercut my agenda in Congress, block my domestic reforms, and interfere with my foreign policy.
For nearly three years, they carried out a massive disinformation campaign and lawless persecution based on the monstrous lie that I was a traitor to my country.
These Deep State plotters spied on my campaign. They forged false evidence to get illegal surveillance warrants and smear innocent people through leaks to the media. They offered $1 million for a fictitious dossier written by a foreign spy to try to frame me with treason. They shattered countless lives.
The Durham Report proves that the key figures involved knew from the start that the Russia Collusion conspiracy theory was a lie. The FBI launched their witch hunt without a scrap of legitimate evidence'--and when they came upon exonerating information time after time, they covered it up and kept the hoax going forward.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he enters the Erie Insurance Arena for a political rally while campaigning for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election on July 29, 2023 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Jeff Swensen/Getty ImagesThe sickness was driven from the very top. FBI Director James Comey constantly pressured agents for more surveillance and warrants, demanding to know over and over "Where is the FISA, where is the FISA?"
Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in on it, too. They were briefed in August 2016 on reports that Clinton planned to "vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian Security Services."
They knew the truth, yet they put our country through hell.
As savage and cruel as the Russia Hoax was for me, my family, my staff, and so many innocent bystanders, the real victims were the American People.
The destruction this hoax caused to America is almost incalculable. It subverted our democracy, it threatened our security, and it endangered our freedom.
At a critical moment when we should have been reducing tensions with Russia, the Russia Hoax stoked mass hysteria that helped drive Russia straight into the arms of China.
Instead of having a better relationship with Russia as I worked to build, we now have a proxy war with Russia, fueled in part by the lingering fumes of Russiagate delirium. Ukraine has been utterly devastated. Untold numbers of people have been killed. And we could very well end up in World War III.
As the Twitter Files have proven, the Radical Left establishment also used the Russia Hoax to attack freedom of speech. They built a sprawling domestic censorship regime under the guise of combatting so-called "Russian disinformation"'--which they quickly defined to include any content they did not like.
The intelligence community, the media, and the Silicon Valley tech companies then deployed this very pretext, "Russian disinformation," to censor the Biden corruption scandal in 2020'--censorship orchestrated, as we now know, by the Biden campaign.
In one poll last year, 79 percent of Americans following the story about Hunter Biden's sordid laptop said truthful coverage of that wrongly censored story would have changed the outcome of the election. Our country is now paying a very steep price.
Perhaps most dangerous of all, the Russia Hoax normalized the weaponization of law enforcement against the Left's political enemies. The Radical Democrats and their media partners now cheer as Biden's DOJ demands the FBI investigate parents at school board meetings, deploys heavily armed teams to arrest pro-life activists, and pursues an all-out persecution of Joe Biden's leading opponent for the presidency.
These corrupted agencies have interfered in every election since 2016'--and they are interfering in the 2024 election before our very eyes.
There must be a reckoning. Accountability now lies in the hands of the voters. The Durham Report has made the stakes abundantly clear, and now the choice is ours: either the Deep State destroys America, or we destroy the Deep State.
Donald J. Trump was the 45th President of the United States.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Most fires in Greece were started 'by human hand', government says | Greece | The Guardian
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 21:08
Most of the 667 fires that have erupted across Greece in recent weeks were started ''by human hand'', the country's senior climate crisis official has said.
As the Mediterranean country emerges from an unprecedented, 15-day period of heatwave-induced infernos, the scale of the destruction is finally being laid bare.
While weather conditions have been different from any other year '' with experts calling the first three weeks of July the hottest on record '' most of the fires could have been prevented, the government claimed on Friday.
Vassilis Kikilias, the Greek minister of climate crisis and civil protection, told reporters: ''During this time 667 fires erupted, that is more than 60 fires a day, almost all over the country. Unfortunately, the majority were ignited by human hand, either by criminal negligence or intent.
Kikilias said that, in certain places, blazes had broken out at numerous points in close proximity at the same time, suggesting the involvement of arsonists intent on spreading fires further.
He added: ''The difference with other years were the weather conditions. Climate change, which yielded a historic and unprecedented heatwave, is here. There were very few days where the extreme weather was not combined with strong winds.''
Meteorologists have never before registered such record-breaking temperatures over such a prolonged period of time in Greece. With the exception of islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas, 15-year highs were reached.
This week, the World Meteorological Organization and Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service described July as the hottest month in recorded history. The UN also said it was clear that no month had ever been so hot.
Ant"nio Guterres, the UN secretary general, called for bold and immediate measures to cut planet-heating emissions, adding: ''The evidence is everywhere. Humanity has unleashed destruction. This must not inspire despair, but action.''
The fires have killed three people and injured 74 others. On Wednesday, the Greek armed forces announced three days of mourning after two air force pilots were killed as they tried to extinguish flames in their water-bombing plane before it crashed over the island of Evia.
Nearly 20,000 people '' primarily tourists '' were forced to flee hotels on Rhodes, the island worst affected by the fires, in a single day. The operation was described as the biggest evacuation ever carried out in Greece. A state of emergency was declared in some areas of the popular tourist destination earlier this week.
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While flames are still raging on Rhodes and the islands of Corfu and Evia, Friday was the first day that emergency services were not on a state of high alert, with the fire department saying the situation had finally begun to improve. Officials said a huge blaze that detonated an ammunition storage facility on Thursday north of a military airbase in Nea Anchialos, 20km (12 miles) outside the city of Volos, had been brought under control.
Prof Christos Zerefos, Greece's leading expert on atmospheric physics, warned that the situation would worsen every year. He said: ''All strategies will have to be reviewed (because of) the climate crisis.'' Zerefos has long maintained that annual mean temperatures across the Mediterranean will increase by up to 2C over the next 30 years.
He predicted that the climate crisis could cost Greece as much as '¬700bn (£600bn) , both in terms of preventive measures and adjusting to the new reality, and emphasised the importance to the country of rejuvenating devastated forest ecosystems.
Zerefos added: ''The mild winter has resulted in us losing half the water this year, reducing soil moisture and this creates a situation that favours the spread of forest fires. Forest ecosystems in Greece are among the most sensitive in the world. The forest ecosystem is essential. If we protect it there is hope it can regenerate.''
Leprosy Appears to Be on The Rise in Florida : ScienceAlert
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:57
A 54-year-old Florida man diagnosed with leprosy adds to a growing number of cases detected in the south-eastern United States, which appears to be a new hotspot for the disease.
It follows recent alerts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the first cases of locally-acquired malaria in the US in two decades; four of which were in Florida.
Leprosy incidence, or rates of new leprosy cases, has been increasing in southern parts of the US since 2000, with reported cases more than doubling in south-eastern states over the past decade. Central Florida now accounts for almost one-fifth of US cases.
Yet a shrinking proportion of US leprosy cases are diagnosed in people born outside the country, while a growing number of reported cases appear to lack any of the typical risk factors of the disease.
"Those trends," write the three dermatologists who alerted public health officials to the Florida man's diagnosis, "contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the south-eastern United States."
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae and the more recently discovered M. lepromatosis. It is a curable yet neglected tropical disease, which still occurs in more than 120 countries.
About 150 cases of leprosy are reported in the US each year. Unique strains of M. leprae have been detected in US patients, though most cases are people who have traveled from countries where leprosy is present or endemic.
Other risk factors include exposure to animals such as nine-banded armadillos, which are known to harbor M. leprae, and prolonged, close contact over months with someone who has untreated leprosy, which is spread via droplets from the nose and mouth.
But the 54-year-old man, a lifelong Florida resident, told contact tracers he had not been traveling, nor come into contact with someone known to have leprosy or any armadillos. He works as a landscaper though, spending much time outdoors.
The man presented to a dermatology clinic with a painful rash and skin lesions that first appeared on his feet and arms, but then progressed to his trunk and face.
Biopsies confirmed a diagnosis of leprosy, and public health officials were alerted, according to national protocols.
The man's case, like roughly one-third of new leprosy cases diagnosed in the US between 2015 and 2020, appears to have been locally acquired.
"Our case adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that central Florida represents an endemic location for leprosy," dermatologists Aashni Bhukhan, Charles Dunn, and Rajiv Nathoo write in their case report.
"By increasing local physician efforts to report incidence and supporting further research to assess routes of transmission, a congruent effort can be made to identify and reduce spread of the disease."
In particular, the absence of known risk factors in this and other recent cases of leprosy in Florida, in people spending time outdoors, has researchers wanting to investigate possible environmental reservoirs of the bacterial disease.
"The transmission of this disease is probably much more complicated than was thought before," write the authors of a recent systematic review, which analyzed global leprosy transmission data published between 1945 and 2019.
It supports an increasing role of anthroponotic (human-to-human) and zoonotic (animal-to-human) transmission of leprosy.
The second known causative agent of leprosy, M. lepromatosis, was only identified in 2008, 150 years after the disease was first attributed to M. leprae.
Researchers are trying to understand the prevalence of M. lepromatosis infections and from which animals it spills over into humans.
"It is perhaps remarkable that a new [bacterial] species causing an endemic disease of major public health impact has not prompted larger-scale studies to determine its true prevalence," researchers remark.
The Florida case report has been published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Successful management of poisoning with ivermectin (Mectizan) in the Obala health district (Centre Region, Cameroon): a case report | Journal of Medical Case Reports | Full Text
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:46
Journal of Medical Case Reports volume 17, Article number: 141 (2023 ) Cite this article
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AbstractBackgroundIvermectin (Mectizan) is an anthelmintic drug that plays a major role in the fight against two major filarial diseases, onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. Unlike previous drugs that had serious and sometimes fatal side effects, ivermectin has been considered to be safe and, therefore, is widely used. Data reporting the clinical presentation of poisoning with ivermectin are very scanty, even in experimental studies.
Case presentationIn this paper, we report the case of a 19-year-old Black African female student residing in Obala (Centre Region, Cameroon) who was admitted to a health facility in Central Cameroon for a neurological disorder after intoxication with about 400 tablets of ivermectin 3 mg (~100 times the standard doses). This neurological disorder was characterized by somnolence, kinetic ataxia, increase of tendon reflex, and central visual disturbance. Management of this intoxication consisted of symptomatic treatment and monitoring of hemodynamic parameters for 5 days, with a favorable course.
ConclusionsThis is the first report of a poisoning with'ivermectin at ~100 times the recommended dose. This case report confirms the safety and tolerability of ivermectin, even at exceptionally high dose.
Peer Review reports
BackgroundIvermectin is a macrocyclic lactone produced by the actinomycete Streptomyces avermitilis [1]. This drug was first used in veterinary medicine until clinical trials revealed a very potent microfilaricidal action in human onchocerciasis [2]. Ivermectin is considered a wonder drug that has transformed the lives of millions of people infected with onchocerciasis since its introduction in human medicine in 1987 [3, 4]. It is active at extremely low doses against a wide variety of parasitic nematodes and arthropods, through its action on the mediation of neurotransmission by gamma-aminobutyric acid [1]. Ivermectin is taken orally as tablets, and a single dosage of 150 µg/kg of body weight administered once a year is highly effective against onchocerciasis [5]. In Africa, onchocerciasis control currently relies on the Community-Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) strategy. Except serious adverse reactions that have been reported in Central Africa [6] among patients with Loa loa microfilaremia exceeding 30,000 microfilariae (mf) per ml of blood [7], ivermectin is considered as a safe medicine, especially in areas where loiasis is not endemic. Indeed, a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the safety of high-dose ivermectin confirmed the safety of ivermectin at doses up to 800 µg/kg; the severity of adverse events was mild or moderate for all the studies screened, and was comparable to standard doses (150''200 µg/kg) [8].
In this paper, we are reporting a case of ivermectin poisoning with'~15,000 µg/kg (~100 times the standard dose for onchocerciasis control) that occurred in the Centre Region of Cameroon and was managed by the Obala District Hospital staff with the guidance of the team of the Centre for Research on Filariasis and other Tropical Diseases (CRFilMT).
Case presentationA 19-year-old Black female student residing in Obala (Centre Region, Cameroon) in Central Africa, was admitted in the Obala District Hospital on December 12, 2018 with a mildly altered state of consciousness [Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) of 13/15], after consuming a large quantity of ivermectin 3 mg tablets. Indeed, after an argument with her father when returning from school 1 day before admission to the hospital, the patient voluntarily swallowed about 400 ivermectin 3 mg tablets with suicidal intention. She opened a sealed box of 500 tablets of ivermectin 3 mg and when she was found in an altered state of consciousness (GCS 13/15), less than 100 tablets were remaining. About 1''2 hours after ivermectin intake, the patient experienced several episodes of vomiting containing some tablets, asthenia, and a mild altered state of consciousness. The persistence of the symptoms prompted her family to take her to the hospital. On admission, the patient was conscious but presented with an altered general state (asthenia and anorexia), nausea, rotatory vertigo, headache, and visual problems. All her vital signs were normal, but her Glasgow Coma Score was 13/15. Physical examination revealed bilateral mydriasis and reactive pupils, regular heartbeat with a 2/10 functional murmur at the mitral focus, and marked abdominal tenderness at the right iliac fossa. Neurological examination showed a kinetic ataxia with a small increase of tendon reflex. Uncorrected visual acuity was 1/10 for both eyes. Paraclinical examinations consisted of an abdominopelvic ultrasound showing a dilatation of the digestive loops with hyperperistalsis in favor of a spasmodic disorder and epigastric sensitivity at the passage of the probe. An electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram were normal. As for biological assessment, her blood count was normal, uremia and creatinemia were normal, while serum electrolyte test revealed a decrease in potassium concentration at 3.37 Meq/L (3.5''5.4 Meq/L), likely associated with vomiting. The assessment of liver function [transaminase, bilirubin, and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT)], the fundus, and the eye scanner were normal. The post-ivermectin Loa loa microfilarial density, following a calibrated thick blood smear, was negative.
Of note, a notion of visual pathology was reported in her family, and she reported a visual disturbance prior to the intoxication that never required consultation. The patient also had a past medical history of unconfirmed asthma. She is the third of five siblings with two half-sisters, living with her father and mother-in-law, and had no known psychiatric pathology. She had no known allergy to any drug and had never swallowed ivermectin before this unfortunate event.
Management consisted of saline-based hyper-hydration, antiulcer (omeprazole 40 mg daily) for gastritis, paracetamol 1 g in case of headache, and monitoring of hemodynamic parameters. The evolution was satisfactory from day 2 to day 4 with a decrease of vertigo, asthenia, and ataxia, but a persistent decrease in visual acuity. She was discharged on day 4 despite slight asthenia and visual impairment. One month later, she was psychiatrically stable but presented with persistent visual disturbance. Six months after discharge, she passed the baccalaureate examination and was admitted at the university. She has been diagnosed with, and is currently treated for, myopia and hyperopia, likely present a while before the intoxication event.
Discussion and conclusionsData reporting ivermectin poisoning in humans are very scanty. It was previously demonstrated that ivermectin is well tolerated at doses up to ten times the highest Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved dose (200 µg/kg), with no evidence of associated toxicity, indicating that ivermectin accumulation is minimal [9]. Another study involving 12 healthy volunteers who each received a single oral dose of 12 mg of ivermectin confirmed this hypothesis [10]. In the present report, however, the hypothetical dose of ivermectin 3 mg ingested (~1200 mg) was approximately 100 times higher than the highest recommended dose. This high dose of ivermectin resulted in poisoning involving a central nervous system depression with dizziness, ataxia, headache, drowsiness, mydriasis, and a mildly altered state of consciousness (GCS, 13/15). A previous experimental study in rats revealed that gradually increased doses of ivermectin were associated with drowsiness at 10 mg/kg and depression of the central nervous system from 15 mg/kg [11], though these symptoms were reversible after a few days. Our patient presented with bilateral mydriasis, kinetic ataxia, and hyperreflexia. These signs could be due to ivermectin stimulation of the orthosympathetic nervous system, resulting in bilateral mydriasis, and the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to an exacerbation of tendon reflex. Indeed, an experimental study in calves has previously demonstrated that some clinical signs such as ataxia are due to the cholinergic function of ivermectin mediated by gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA). Similarly, mydriasis and ataxia were also observed in some dogs receiving up to 600 mg/kg of ivermectin administered subcutaneously [12]. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, doses were higher and/or more frequent than those currently approved for human treatment, and the primary safety endpoint was mydriasis, accurately quantified by pupillometry [9]. In another double-blind placebo-controlled trial, some patients treated with 800 µg/kg experienced a subjective dyschromatopsia or colored vision (yellow or red) [13]. Our patient experienced reduced visual acuity, but this should be taken with caution since the patient reported vision problems before ivermectin poisoning. Also, the inability of ivermectin to cross the aqueous humoral barrier was previously described, likely due to its high molecular size, as other macrocyclic lactones. The blood-eye barriers thus block the penetration of ivermectin into the ocular globe [14]. An MRI would have been necessary to better investigate the causes of this visual deficit. A blood test of ivermectin would also have been interesting to confirm the poisoning, as well as to monitor the elimination of the active principle.
This is the first report of a poisoning with ivermectin of'~100 times the recommended dose. This case report confirms the safety and tolerability of ivermectin, even at exceptionally high doses.
Availability of data and materialsAll data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.
AbbreviationsCDTI:Community-directed treatment with ivermectin
FDA:Food and Drug Administration
GABA:Gamma aminobutyric acid
IVM:Ivermectin
MRI:Magnetic resonance imaging
WHO:World Health Organization
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AcknowledgementsThe authors are thankful to the patient's family for collaboration and assistance in the patient's care.
FundingThe Centre for Research on Filariasis and other Tropical Diseases (CRFilMT) is supported by the Mectizan Donation Program. This funding body has no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.
Author informationAuthors and AffiliationsCentre for Research on Filariasis and other Tropical Diseases (CRFilMT), PO Box 5797, Yaound(C), Cameroon
Cyrille Donfo-Azafack, Hugues C. Nana-Djeunga, Guy Wafeu-Sadeu, Ra¯ssa Dongmo-Yemele & Joseph Kamgno
Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaound(C) I, Yaound(C), Cameroon
Joseph Kamgno
ContributionsCD followed-up the patient and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. HCND prepared the first draft of the manuscript. GWS participated in the follow-up of the patient and helped to draft the manuscript. RDY participated in the follow-up of the patient and helped to draft the manuscript. JK coordinated the study, followed-up the patient, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding authorCorrespondence to Joseph Kamgno.
Ethics declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThis study was carried out as part as the routine surveillance of severe adverse events occurring post-ivermectin treatments against onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. The follow-up of the patient was therefore approved by, and undertaken under the authority of the Ministry of Public Health. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. Data were presented anonymously.
Consent for publicationWritten informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.
Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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About this articleCite this articleDonfo-Azafack, C., Nana-Djeunga, H.C., Wafeu-Sadeu, G. et al. Successful management of poisoning with ivermectin (Mectizan) in the Obala health district (Centre Region, Cameroon): a case report. J Med Case Reports 17, 141 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13256-023-03891-4
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Received : 22 November 2021
Accepted : 15 March 2023
Published : 17 April 2023
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s13256-023-03891-4
Keywords Ivermectin Mectizan Poisoning Case report Obala district hospital Cameroon
Fenbendazole as a Potential Anticancer Drug - PMC
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:36
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Learn more about our disclaimer. Anticancer Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 Feb 1.
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PMCID: PMC3580766
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Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, U.S.A
Correspondence to: Sara Rockwell, Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208040, New Haven, CT 06520-8040, U.S.A.
ude.elay@llewkcor.aras' Present address: Department of Clinical Oncology, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei, 442000, China.
The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at
Anticancer ResAbstractBackground/AimsTo evaluate the anticancer activity of fenbendazole, a widely used antihelminth with mechanisms of action that overlap with those of the hypoxia-selective nitroheterocyclic cytotoxins/radiosensitizers and the taxanes.
Materials and MethodsWe used EMT6 mouse mammary tumor cells in cell culture and as solid tumors in mice to examine the cytotoxic and antitumor effects of fenbendazole as a single agent and in combination regimens.
ResultsIntensive treatments with fenbendazole were toxic to EMT6 cells in vitro; toxicity increased with incubation time and under conditions of severe hypoxia. Fenbendazole did not alter the dose-response curves for radiation or docetaxel; instead, the agents produced additive cytotoxicities. Febendazole in maximally-intensive regimens did not alter the growth of EMT6 tumors, or increase the antineoplastic effects of radiation.
ConclusionThese studies provided no evidence that fenbendazole would have value in cancer therapy, but suggested that this general class of compounds merits further investigation.
Keywords: Fenbendazole, benzamidazoles, tumor microenvironments, radiation therapy, hypoxia, EMT6 cells
Fenbendazole, [5-(phenylthio)-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl]carbamic acid methyl ester, is widely used to treat pinworms, other helminthes, and a variety of parasitic infections in laboratory animals, livestock, companion animals, and people (1''3). We became interested in fenbendazole when our university veterinarians recommended that all experimental rodents, including uninfected colonies such as ours, be treated with a fenbendazole-containing diet because of pinworm infections in some colonies. Our research uses tumors in rats and mice to evaluate the effects of new regimens for treating solid tumors with radiation and/or anticancer drugs (4''10). As we researched this proposed prophylactic treatment, we became concerned that the fenbendazole-containing chow might compromise our experiments, but also became intrigued by the possibility that this drug might have antineoplastic effects, by disrupting the tubulin microtubule equilibrium, or by altering the viability or radiosensitivity of cells in the hypoxic environments found in solid tumors.
Fenbendazole acts on helminthes primarily by binding to tubulin and disrupting the tubulin microtubule equilibrium; its utility as an antiparasitic drug results from differences in the structures of tubulin in mammalian cells and in lower organisms, which lead to its greater binding to tubulin, and therefore greater inhibition of polymerization, in the parasites (11''13). In addition, the limited absorption of fenbendazole from the intestine results in low levels of the drug and its active metabolites in tissue relative to the levels within the gut, to which the targeted parasites are exposed (1, 14, 15).
Several widely used anticancer drugs produce their antineoplastic effects by disrupting either microtubule formation (vincristine; vinblastine) or microtubule depolymerization (paclitaxel; docetaxel) (13, 16), suggesting that fenbendazole could have antitumor effects. Some data in the literature support this hypothesis (13). A Fenbendazole-containing diet combined with supplemental high dose of vitamins was reported by Gao et al. to inhibit growth of a human lymphoma xenografted into scid mice (17); it was unclear whether this reflected a direct effect of the drug on tumor cells or stimulation of host immune responses. Bai et al. reported that fenbendazole reduced the engraftment of brain tumors in nude mice (18). Chung et al. reported in a meeting presentation (19) that high doses of fenbendazole, albendazole and mebendazole inhibited the growth of paclitaxel-resistant tumors.
Solid tumors develop regions of severe hypoxia very early in their development, at diameters of less than 1 mm (5, 6). As tumors grow, they concomitantly elicit the development of their vascular beds through angiogenesis, neovascularization, and co-option of vessels from normal tissues. However, tumor vascular beds lack the organization and regulation found in the vasculature supporting healthy normal tissues. The vessels are tortuous and irregular, and lack the musculature that normally regulates blood flow. Blind ends and shunting are common, and vessels frequently have microscopic and macroscopic holes that permit plasma or blood to leak into surrounding tissue. In addition, the growing tumors often invade or compress blood and lymphatic vessels, further compromising perfusion. As a result, solid tumors contain regions, where temporary interruptions in blood flow through individual vessels or persistent regional deficiencies in perfusion produce transient and chronic hypoxia. Because molecular oxygen is a potent chemical radiosensitizer (4''6, 20), hypoxic tumor cells are resistant to radiation, can survive radiation regimens that would eradicate fully aerobic cell populations, and can cause tumors to recur after radiation therapy. Intensive efforts in our laboratory and many others, have therefore been devoted to improving the outcome of radiation therapy by combining radiation with drugs that improve tumor oxygenation, selectively sensitize hypoxic cells to radiation, or preferentially kill hypoxic cells (4''9, 16, 20, 21).
Several compounds related to fenbendazole have selective effects on hypoxic cells. Some nitroimidazoles and benzimidazoles act as hypoxic cell radiosensitizers, by replacing oxygen in the chemical reactions that lead to the production of DNA damage by ionizing radiation (4, 6, 20, 21). These drugs therefore increase the cytotoxic effects of ionizing radiation in hypoxia, while have no effect on the radiation response of aerobic cells (which are already maximally radiosensitive because of the oxygen levels in their environment). Several modified benzimidazoles synthesized by Gupta et al. were effective hypoxic cell radiosensitizers (21). Moreover, several series of substituted bis-benzimidazoles bind in the minor groove of DNA at specific DNA sequences, thereby inhibiting DNA helicase activity and cell proliferation (22, 23); some bis-benzimidazoles undergo bioreductive activation in hypoxic conditions (24), which could produce selective cytotoxicity toward hypoxic cells (5, 6, 24). Many benzimidazoles alter glucose uptake and carbohydrate metabolism (1, 3, 14), which could produce cytotoxic effects under the conditions of hypoxia, low pH, and nutritional inadequacy occurring in solid tumors.
Because of these considerations, we tested for two possible effects of the fenbendazole-containing therapeutic rodent chow on our primary tumor model system: i) alteration of tumor growth, through a cytotoxic effect of the drug on cells within these solid tumors, and ii) alteration of tumor radiosensitivity (10). We saw no evidence that either effect occurred when our mice were fed the fenbendazole-containing diet, supporting the idea that this prophylactic intervention would not compromise our studies. However, cell culture data from that project also showed that fenbendazole given continuously at doses above those expected in the tissues of rodents fed the therapeutic diet, dramatically inhibited the growth of EMT6 tumor cells in vitro. This prompted us to extend our previously published studies to examine the effects of higher doses of fenbendazole on EMT6 tumor cells in vitro and EMT6 tumors in vivo and to more rigorously define the interactions of this drug with radiation. These studies are reported here.
Materials and MethodsCellsAll experiments were performed using EMT6, a cloned, cell culture-adapted mouse mammary tumor cell line. The origin and characteristics of EMT6 cells in vitro and EMT6 tumors in vivo and the response of the cells and tumors to radiation and many anticancer drugs have been described in our previous publications (4''10).
Cell culture studiesEMT6 cells harvested from exponentially growing monolayers were plated into Petri dishes or glass culture flasks containing Waymouth's medium supplemented with 15% serum (FetalPlex') and antibiotics (all from Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) (8''10). Cultures were incubated at 37°C in a humid atmosphere of 95% air/5% CO2 for three days and were in the middle of exponential growth at the time of treatment. Cell viability was assayed by trypsinizing and suspending the cells at the end of the treatment, counting the cells with a Coulter counter, and assaying the abilities of the cells to form colonies in cell culture as described in detail previously (4, 7''9). Surviving fractions were calculated by comparing the clonogenicity of treated cells with those of untreated control cells plated on the same day. If the numbers of cells in treated and control cultures differed, cell viability was also assessed using yield-corrected surviving fractions, which consider both the difference in cell number and the difference in clonogenicity (9). Data shown on the graphs are geometric means±SEM from multiple independent experiments. Because some treatment agents used in these experiments are quite effective in killing tumor cells, the surviving fractions in these experiments spanned a wide range (from 1.0 to 0.02); the survival curves are therefore plotted using logarithmic Y axes to allow for rigorous comparison of the data over the full range of the observed survivals.
In experiments examining the effects of hypoxia on cytotoxicity, cultures were grown in glass culture bottles and were made hypoxic by sealing the bottles with rubber gaskets, inserting needles for the influx and efflux of gases, and gassing with a humidified mixture of 95% nitrogen/5% CO2, containing <1 ppm oxygen for 2 h before treatment. Fenbendazole (Sigma, St Louis, MO, USA) was then injected through the septum of the gasket, without breaking the hypoxia, and incubation under hypoxia was continued for 2 h (8, 9). In experiments examining the effects of fenbendazole on the radiation response of hypoxic cells, cultures were grown in permanox Petri dishes (MP Biomedicals, Solon, OH, USA), which allow for rapid outgassing of oxygen from the cultures (4, 8, 9). Immediately after addition of fenbendazole or vehicle, the cultures were placed in stainless steel pressure vessels and gassed with a humidified mixture of 95% nitrogen/5% CO2, containing <1 ppm oxygen for 1 h at 37°C to produce severe hypoxia, then sealed, transported to the irradiator and irradiated. Aerobic cultures were treated analogously, but were incubated under 95% air/5% CO2. Fenbendazole for cell culture studies was dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; Sigma), diluted in Waymouth's medium, and added to culture medium. Cell cultures were irradiated with 320 kV X-rays produced by an XRAD irradiator (Precision X-ray, Branford CT, USA) at 12.5 mA, 2 mm Al filtration, and a dose rate of 1.9 Gy/min (hypoxic cells) or 2.4 Gy/min (aerobic cells).
Experiments examining the interactions of fenbendazole and docetaxel (taxotere) were performed using exponentially-growing cultures in Petri dishes. Docetaxel was dissolved in DMSO (both from Sigma, St Louis, MO, USA), diluted in sterile phosphate buffered saline, and added to the culture medium in volumes giving the desired concentrations. 10 μM fenbendazole was added to the appropriate cultures either a few seconds before or 22 h before docetaxel treatment. To allow ready visual comparison of the survival curves for docetaxel alone and in combination with 10 μM fenbendazole, the data are shown as relative surviving fractions, which were calculated using the clonogenicity of either the untreated control cultures (for docetaxel-alone) or the corresponding fenbendazole-treated cultures from the same experiments (for fenbendazole plus docetaxel).
Tumor studiesProtocols for in vivo experiments were reviewed and approved by the Yale Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee; studies were performed in compliance the policies of Yale University, the National Institutes of Health, and the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, and with the principles outlined in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (25). Tumors were produced by inoculating 2105 EMT6 tumor cells, suspended in 0.05 ml of culture medium, intradermally into the skin of the shaved right flank of female BALB/cRw mice, 2.5''3 months of age, which had been bred in our specific-pathogen-free production colony (8''10). The three orthogonal dimensions of the tumors were measured three times a week using vernier calipers and tumor volumes were calculated using the formula for a hemiellipsoid, the geometrical form, best approximating their shape (8''10). When tumors reached an average volume of 100 mm3, approximately two weeks after injection, mice were stratified by tumor volume into treatment and control groups, and treated.
Fenbendazole was dissolved in sterile, pyrogen-free physiologic saline and injected i.p.. Mice to be irradiated were anesthetized using 100 mg/kg of ketamine plus 10 mg/kg xylazine and tumors were irradiated locally with 10 Gy of 250 kV x-rays from a Siemens Stabilipan (Malvern, PA, USA) delivered at 15 mA, 2 mm Al filtration and a dose rate of 6.4 Gy per minute, as described previously (8''10). The bodies and limbs of the mice were shielded so that the dose to critical normal tissues was less than 0.5 Gy and did not cause significant injury.
Each tumor was measured three times per week until it reached a volume of 1000 mm3. Tumor growth was compared by calculating the time needed for each tumor to grow from the volume at randomization to four-times that volume, and comparing these times for groups receiving different treatments (8''10, 26). Because the tumors were measured over a range of volumes from ~1 mm3 to ~1000 mm3, the growth curves on the figure are plotted using a logarithmic Y axis, to allow rigorous comparisons of volumes in the different groups over the full range of tumor growth; points are geometric means±SEM of the volumes of the individual tumors within the group.
At each measurement, mice were also weighed and examined for appearance (e.g. fur condition, appearance of eyes) and behavior (e.g. changes in grooming, spontaneous movement, or response to handling, or breathing rate and pattern) to detect any signs of toxicity from the drug, the radiation treatment or the growing tumors; animals were euthanized if pre-specified toxicity levels (10) occurred. After euthanasia, mice were necropsied to assess local infiltration and metastatic spread by the tumor. The lungs (the most common site of metastases for this tumor line) were removed, fixed in Bouin's solution, washed in 95% ethanol and stored in ethanol. Tumors on the lung surfaces were counted under a dissecting microscope by a blinded observer.
ResultsEffects of fenbendazole on the survival of EMT6 cells in cultureThe effect of 2 and 24 h treatments with fenbendazole on the viability of EMT6 cells are shown on Figure 1 . The 2-h incubation with fenbendazole was not toxic to aerobic EMT6 cells and produced no changes in the numbers of cells in the monolayer cultures, even at doses approaching the limit of solubility of the drug. The 24-h treatment with fenbendazole resulted in significant decreases in both the numbers of cells in the cultures at the end of treatment and the clonogenicity of those cells. As a result, the yield-corrected surviving fractions were lower than the surviving fractions ( Figure 1 ). Severe hypoxia during treatment increased the toxicity of 2-h treatments with fenbendazole ( Figure 1 ); cell numbers in cultures treated in hypoxia were not significantly different from those in control cultures or cultures treated in air. All survival curves had a similar shape, characterized by a steep decrease in viability at low drug doses, followed by a plateau on which cell viability remained relatively constant as the concentration increased to approach the limit of solubility.
Effect of graded doses of fenbendazole on the viability of exponentially growing EMT6 cells in cell culture. A: Survival of cells treated with fenbendazole for 2 or 24 h, then assayed for cell survival using a colony formation assay. Survivals are shown both as surviving fractions and as yield-corrected surviving fractions (YCSF), which are corrected for differences in cell number in treated and control cultures at the end of treatment. B: Effect of severe hypoxia on the survival of cells treated for 2 h with fenbendazole. Points are geometric means±SEM of data from three independent experiments.
Effects of fenbendazole on cellular radiosensitivityBecause the chemical structure of fenbendazole resembles those of compounds known to act as radiosensitizers, we examined the effect of treatment with 10 μM fenbendazole before and during irradiation on the radiation dose-response curves for hypoxic and aerobic cells ( Figure 2 ). Fenbendazole did not alter the radiation response of either aerobic or hypoxic EMT6 cells.
Effect of treatment with 10 μM fenbendazole on the radiation response of EMT6 cells in vitro. Cultures were treated with graded doses of radiation under aerobic or hypoxic conditions and assayed for cell survival using a colony formation assay. Points are geometric means±SEM of data from three independent experiments.
Experiments with tumors in vivoThe experiments shown in Figure 3 compared the growth of untreated EMT6 tumors with that of tumors treated with three daily i.p. injections of fenbendazole, 10 Gy of x-rays, or fenbendazole plus x-rays. The growth of the tumors treated with fenbendazole-alone was indistinguishable from that of control tumors ( Figure 3 ). As expected, irradiation of the tumors with 10 Gy produced a significant inhibition of tumor growth. The growth curve for irradiated tumors was not altered by three fenbendazole treatments given one day before, 2 h before, and one day after irradiation ( Figure 3 ).
Effect of three i.p. injections of Fenbendazole on the growth and radiation response of EMT6 tumors in BALB/cRw mice. Tumor-bearing mice were randomized at a mean tumor volume of 100 mm3 to serve as untreated controls, to receive three daily i.p. injections with 50/mg/kg/day fenbendazole at the times shown by the three dark arrows, to receive 10 Gy of x-rays given at the time indicated by the large open arrow, or to receive Fenbendazole plus x-rays. Points are geometric means±SEM; 7''8 mice/group. Further analyses of these data are shown in Table I .
When each tumor reached a volume of 1000 mm3, the mouse was euthanized and necropsied. Neither local invasion of the body wall nor lymph node metastases were observed in any mice. There were no significant differences in the numbers of lung metastases in Fenbendazole-treated and non-drug-treated mice, either for unirradiated mice (unpaired t-test, p=0.54) or for mice which had received local tumor irradiation (p=0.44).
Tumor growth after different treatments was rigorously compared by calculating the time necessary for each tumor to grow from its volume at the time of randomization for treatment to four times that volume and comparing these times for different groups ( Table I ). These analyses confirmed that fenbendazole did not alter the growth of unirradiated or irradiated tumors. The Table also includes data from a second experiment examining the effect of the same three-injection fenbendazole regimen on the growth of unirradiated tumors, which confirms the finding from the first experiment (growth curve not shown) and also the time to four-fold volume data from our previous study (10), examining the effect of continuous treatment with a fenbendazole-containing therapeutic diet on the growth of unirradiated and irradiated EMT6 tumors. None of these experiments revealed any significant effect of fenbendazole on the growth or radiation response of EMT6 tumors.
Table IEffects of fenbendazole on the growth of EMT6 tumors in BALB/c mice. Tumors in these three experiments were injected i.d.; tumor volume was measured three times per week from the time each tumor became palpable until it reached a volume of 1000 mm3. When tumors reached a mean volume of ~100 mm3, mice were stratified by tumor volume into groups and treated. The time needed for each tumor to grow from its volume at stratification to four-times that volume was calculated. Fenbendazole, whether given in the diet or as three daily i.p. injections, did not alter tumor growth in either unirradiated or irradiated tumors. In addition, fenbendazole did not alter the health of the animals and did not alter the number of spontaneous lung metastases seen on necropsy in any of these experiments.
TreatmentDays to four-fold volume (mean±SD)ControlFenbendazole10 GyFenbendazole + 10 GyFenbendazole given as three daily injections, 50 mg/kg/day, i.p.10.4±3.012.4±2.618.3±5.117.5±7.5Growth curves shown in Figure 3 Fenbendazole given as three daily injections 50 mg/kg/day, i.p.11.4±3.011.5±1.0NDNDGrowth curves not shownFenbendazole in diet, 150 ppm, continually during tumor growth12.7±0.112.1±1.217.5±3.720.4±2.4Growth curves published in ref. 10The appearance, behavior, and weights of the mice were monitored at each tumor measurement throughout the course of the experiment shown in Figure 3 . There were no differences in the appearance or behavior of the mice in the fenbendazole-treated and non-drug treated groups. ANOVA analyses did not show significant differences between the weights of the mice in the four groups over the course of the experiment. Similar findings were obtained in the other experiments shown on the Table .
Combination of fenbendazole with docetaxelBecause of the overlap in the mechanisms of action of fenbendazole and the taxanes, we examined the effect of 10 μM fenbendazole, added to the cultures either a few seconds before or 22 h before docetaxel, on the survival curves for cells treated with graded doses of docetaxel for 2 h in vitro ( Figure 4 ). To allow for ready visual comparison of the survival curves for cells treated with docetaxel-alone and docetaxel in combination with 10 μM fenbendazole, the relative surviving fractions shown on Figure 3 were calculated using the clonogenicity of either the untreated control cultures (for docetaxel-alone) or the corresponding fenbendazole-treated cultures from the same experiments (for fenbendazole plus docetaxel). In agreement with the data shown in Figure 1 , the 2-h treatment with fenbendazole had no significant cytotoxicity in these experiments, while the 24-h treatment with fenbendazole reduced the surviving fraction to 0.18±0.02 relative to the untreated control. Fenbendazole did not alter the shape of the dose-response curve for docetaxel. Instead, the survival curves with and without fenbendazole were superimposed when the survivals were normalized to account for the toxicity of fenbendazole-alone. These findings show that the 2 drugs produced additive toxicities, with no evidence for significant interactions between the two agents. Additivity was confirmed by isobologram analyses (27).
Effect of 10 μM fenbendazole on the response of EMT6 cells to graded doses of docetaxel. Fenbendazole was added to the cultures either a few seconds or 22 h before the start of a 2-h treatment with graded doses of docetaxel. Relative surviving fractions were calculated using either the untreated control cultures (for docetaxel alone) or the corresponding Fenbendazole-treated cultures (for fenbendazole + docetaxel) from the same experiments. Points are geometric means±SEM from three independent experiments.
DiscussionStudies by others (17''19) have shown that fenbendazole can alter the growth of some tumors in mice. Because of this, previous studies in our laboratory examined the effects of a standard commercial therapeutic diet, commonly used to prevent or treat pinworms in experimental rodent colonies on the growth and radiation response of EMT6 tumors, to ascertain whether use of the diet would compromise our experimental cancer therapy studies (10). We saw no evidence that the therapeutic diet altered the growth or radiation response of EMT6 tumors. During that project, limited cell growth studies were performed to ascertain whether EMT6 cultures were sensitive to this drug when given in continuous incubations. Fenbendazole did not produce significant changes in the growth of EMT6 cells in vitro at concentrations of 0.11 and 0.33 μM, but produced striking growth inhibition at doses of 1 and 3 μM. At these higher doses, we also noted changes in the appearance of the cultures: cells in treated cultures were rounder than the control cells and less firmly attached to growth surface, in keeping with effects expected from disruption of the tubulin microtubule equilibrium. The limited data available on the pharmacokinetics of fenbendazole in rodents (1, 14, 15) suggested that the experimental diet used in our previous studies should produce maximal tissue levels of ~0.1 μM or lower. Thus, our cell culture data were in agreement with tumor data for mice fed the fenbendazole-containing antihelminthic diet. However, the in vitro data also showed that higher drug concentrations did have very significant effects on the growth of these tumor cells in culture.
The studies presented here extended this previous work to examine the effects of higher doses of fenbendazole on the viability of EMT6 cells in vitro, using a rigorous colony formation assay to measure for cell survival. These data showed that 24-h incubation with high doses of fenbendazole reduced the clonogenicity of EMT6 cells, as well as reducing the number of cells in the cultures. Fenbendazole, therefore had cytotoxic, as well as cytostatic, effects on these tumor cells when used at high concentrations and with long incubations.
The cytotoxicity of 2-h treatments with fenbendazole increased when tumor cells were treated under severe hypoxia. However, the preferential toxicity of fenbendazole towards hypoxic cells was relatively modest, and the small difference suggests that fenbendazole is unlikely to be of therapeutic utility as a hypoxia-selective anticancer drug.
We also examined the effect of fenbendazole on the radiation response of aerobic and hypoxic EMT6 cells in vitro, using a protocol that we have extensively used in our laboratory to identify and characterize radiosensitizing compounds (5, 6, 8, 9). Fenbendazole did not alter the radiation response of EMT6 cells under either aerobic or hypoxic conditions.
To ensure that the predictions of our cell culture studies translated to tumors in vivo, we tested the effect of fenbendazole on the growth and radiation response of EMT6 tumors, using three daily i.p. injections of fenbendazole at the maximal concentration allowed by the solubility of the drug. This regimen was designed to produce maximal levels of fenbendazole in tumors at the time of irradiation, therefore maximizing the effects of any preferential cytotoxicity to hypoxic tumor cells or any radiosensitization. Because the uptake of oral fenbendazole is very limited (1, 14, 15), we were concerned that the lack of effect seen in our previous studies could have been a false-negative, resulting from poor absorption of the ingested drug rather than from a true lack of antitumor activity. However, the studies reported here showed that i.p. administration of fenbendazole in a maximally intensive three-day regimen also did not alter the growth or radiation response of EMT6 tumors. Overall, our data provide no evidence to support further examination of fenbendazole as a potential agent for the treatment of solid tumors, either alone or in combination with radiation.
The effects of Fenbendazole on the tubulin microtubule equilibrium could synergize with, or antagonize the effects of anticancer drugs having a mechanism of action involving stabilization or disruption of microtubules, such as paclitaxel, docetaxel, vincristine, vinblastine, colchicine or podo-phyllotoxin. Such synergism has been reported for the related benzimidazole, flubendazole (13). To examine this possibility, we examined the effect of treatments with fenbendazole for 2 h (which did not produce significant cytotoxicity) and 24 h (which produced pronounced cytotoxicity), on the survival curves for EMT6 cells treated with graded doses of docetaxel for 2 h. Our data provided no evidence for interactions between these two agents; the toxicities of docetaxel and fenbendazole were strictly additive.
In conclusion, despite the overlap of the mechanisms of action of fenbendazole with those of the hypoxia-selective nitroheterocyclic cytotoxins and radiosensitizers, the taxanes, and the vinca alkaloids, our studies provided no evidence that fenbendazole warrants further testing as a potential agent for use in cancer therapy. However, it is very possible that related compounds could be valuable anticancer drugs. Given the current interest by the US Food and Drug Administration in examining the possibility of 'repurposing' previously approved drugs with well-defined characteristics and good toxicology data for new uses, it could be worth exploring other antihelminths developed in the past to ascertain whether this class of agents includes compounds that might be valuable in cancer therapy, either because of significant differential effects on hypoxic cells or through their effects on the tubulin microtubule equilibrium. It is very possible that agents that were not pursued for use as antiparasitic, agents because of greater absorption from the intestines (and therefore greater host toxicity), might provide new anticancer agents or new lead compounds of value in developing novel anticancer drugs.
AcknowledgmentsWe thank Jacqueline Mendes for her assistance with the experiments. This research was supported by grants P01 CA129186 and CA129186-03S2 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Core facilities supported by the Yale Cancer Center and NCI center grant 16359 were used in the performance of the studies.
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Facial analyst claims humans are 'becoming LESS attractive' with every new generation - thanks to modern diets and evolving sleeping patterns | Daily Mail Online
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:21
A facial analyst has detailed a theory as to why people are 'becoming less attractive.'
Shafee Hassan, who founded Sydney's facial aesthetics consultancy firm QOVES, sought to answer this question in a recently posted YouTube Short.
The video was sparked by a follower's question asking why an old high-school yearbook 'contained [so] many attractive people... was it something in the water?'
In the clip's caption, that was also posted on TikTok, Hassan explained: 'The average person's face is becoming increasingly disadvantaged by modern diets, sleeping patterns, pollutants and orofacial habits creating a greater inequality in "the attractives" vs "the unattractives."'
A facial analyst has offered up a theory as to why it seems people are becoming 'less attractive,' sparked by a follower's question about it
He said there were multiple theories, but the 'most intuitive' to him was known as the functional matrix hypothesis, which theorizes the 'development of the face is dependent on the forces you put on it'
Beginning the video, he asks if anyone has wondered why teenagers or high schoolers in the 1950s look 'so much older' than they do now.
Pulling up an example of a young man, the facial analyst points out the student's 'defined' gonion (the apex of the lower jaw) and his 'projected' zygoma (the cheekbone).
'There are multiple theories about why this is the case, but the one that makes the most intuitive sense at least to me is presented in Contemporary Orthodontics by [US orthodontist William] Proffit and colleagues using what's know as the functional matrix hypothesis,' Hassan says.
He further explains that that it theorizes the 'development of the face is dependent on the forces you put on it, for the upper and lower jaw,' which are the two features that help someone look 'handsome or attractive.'
Hassan says the tongue or 'other forces' may impact on the development of the jaw, 'pushing it downwards or outwards' before new bone grows in.
He claims in the video that a little girl's sinus infection impacted on the growth of her lower jaw, showing photo examples.
In the clip, he said she was constantly breathing through her mouth and it wasn't closed often enough for that part of body to 'develop properly.'
Concluding the video, the creator added: 'With 70 per cent of the Western world, having some kind of malocclusion or recession, much like this, it's a very good explanation for why faces are becoming less and less attractive as time goes on.'
Pictured left is the functional matrix hypothesis laid out above in Contemporary Orthodontics. Right is a graphic showing jaw movement
He claims in the video that a little girl's sinus infection impacted on the growth of her lower jaw, showing photo examples
Malocclusion is the term used to described when your teeth don't align perfectly, while recession happens when your gums pull away from your teeth.
About 22 per cent of people across the world had an overbite, Colgate reported, citing a global study published by the Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics.
The video has been viewed more than 2.3 million times on YouTube, and on TikTok, where it posted back in 2022, it has more than 3.2 million views.
And it proved to be a divisive one, with many people weighing in with their opinions on the topic.
'Worth noting that everyone looks better on a film camera compared to an iPhone, it brings out the features and makes a face look more defined,' one person said.
'People are definitely not getting uglier. You haven't seen enough old pictures if you believe this,' another wrote, with one YouTube user responding: 'Exactly lol I actually think it's the opposite.'
The video has proved to be a divisive one, with many people weighing in with their opinions on the topic
A third person offered an alternative theory: 'Beauty bias, the pictures of ugly people are less likely to be seen/publicized compared to their more attractive counterparts.'
'They don't look older, they legit have children's faces but they got a grown ass adult hair cut,' someone else added.
'They look older because they have styles that we associate with grandparents, so they automatically look more mature,' one comment read.
Another person wrote: 'One thing people don't think about in regards to this is diet. Your jaw gets a lot stronger if your diet consists of whole meat, whole vegetables, whole fruit, etc. Things you have to chew with force. Lots of people have replaced good home cooking with softer, processed foods and snacks and it takes its toll.'
As unvaxxed man denied organ transplant dies, his wife is asked to donate his organs
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 20:21
As unvaxxed man denied organ transplant dies, his wife is asked to donate his organs
''It makes me sick to my stomach.''
Mike CampbellJuly 27, 2023
After being denied an organ transplant due to his COVID unvaccinated status, an Ontario man passed away '-- but not before healthcare professionals asked if they could harvest his organs.
As unvaxxed man denied organ transplant dies, his wife is asked to donate his organsGarnet Harper, 35, died in May 2023, after being diagnosed with stage five kidney disease in February 2022. He died of a bleeding stroke during his sleep.
As reported by independent journalist Monique Leal, two of Harper's brothers were willing to donate their kidneys, but hospitals wouldn't even consider it given the fact Harper wouldn't reveal his vaccination status to them.
During Harper's last moments alive, while on life support, his wife Meghan Harper was told by nurses at the hospital to expect a call from Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) '-- an organ donation agency.
Healthcare professionals are advised to contact Trillium when they believe a dying patient is a suitable candidate.
''They call you while you're sitting next to your dying loved one and they ask you if they can have his organs,'' Harper's wife told Leal.
''Meanwhile, he wasn't good enough to receive organs from them'... I can't describe the feeling.''
''It makes me sick to my stomach,'' she said.
Meghan Harper, a mother of five, said that the woman from TGLN had no idea that one of the reasons her husband was on his deathbed was because he was denied an organ transplant because he was unvaccinated.
''She was surprised, and obviously had no idea,'' Harper said.
''I tried to offer her some education about what is going on in our country and I told her that things need to change, and by the end of the call, she agreed with me, she said 'I had no idea' and she would pass her comments on to her higher-ups.''
Meghan Harper also told Leal that her late husband ''firmly believed that coercion is not a choice.''
Alberta woman Sheila Annette Lewis was also refused an organ transplant because of her vaccination status. Following lengthy legal battles, Lewis reached a settlement that is subject to strict confidentiality provisions.
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Henrietta Lacks: Family of black woman whose cells were taken settle case - BBC News
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 19:54
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Henrietta Lacks' family have reached a settlement after her cells were taken without her consent
The family of a black woman whose cervical cells were harvested in 1951 without her knowledge and replicated infinitely ever since have reached a settlement with a biotech company.
Henrietta Lacks' cells enabled huge advances in medical science, and the cell line is still being used in research institutes worldwide.
But they were taken without consent.
Ms Lacks' family never received any compensation, and have fought for years to get justice for the "stolen" cells.
The details of the settlement reached on Monday with Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc have not been made public.
Ms Lacks, a 31-year-old mother from Baltimore, Maryland, began experiencing pain in her abdomen and abnormal bleeding in 1951. She was examined by gynaecologists at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who discovered a large mass on her cervix.
Without informing her or asking for permission, doctors sent a sample of her tumour to a lab for medical research before treating her for aggressive cervical cancer.
But, while nearly all cell cultures died quickly in the lab, cells taken from Ms Lacks continued to multiply and didn't age, making them "immortal".
The cell line, called "HeLa" after Ms Lacks' first and last name, was sent to research labs around the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), HeLa cells have led to the creation of the polio vaccine and advancements in HIV, cancer and infertility research.
But the same properties that made the cells a scientific miracle, also made them lethal. Months after her diagnosis, she died from cancer at just 31 and was buried in an unmarked grave.
It was not until decades later that the Lacks family discovered what had become of her cells.
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represented the family in the negotiations with Thermo Fisher, said the procedure done by doctors left her in pain at the end of her life.
He said the mistreatment she received is similar to experiences suffered by other black Americans who have sought help from US doctors.
"The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by black people throughout history," according to the lawsuit that led to Monday's settlement.
"Too often, the history of medical experimentation in the United States has been the history of medical racism."
At a press conference on Tuesday - on what would have been Ms Lacks' 103rd birthday, Mr Crump said both sides were "pleased" with the settlement.
"I can think of no better present... than to give her family some measure of respect for Henrietta Lacks, some measure of dignity for Henrietta Lacks, and most of all some measure of justice for Henrietta Lacks," Mr Crump said.
Thermo Fisher tried several times to have the case dismissed due to a statute of limitation expiration.
But lawyers for the Lacks family said that the limitation had not been reached because the cells are still being replicated.
"We believe that every time they regenerate or profit off of Henrietta Lacks' genetic materials [that it] starts the statute of limitations to accrue again," Mr Crump had argued.
"Not only were the HeLa cells derived from Henrietta Lacks, the HeLa cells are Henrietta Lacks," he said.
In 2021, the WHO held a ceremony to commemorate the many scientific breakthroughs made possible by Ms Lacks.
"What happened to Henrietta was wrong," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a special ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
"Henrietta Lacks was exploited. She is one of many women of colour whose bodies have been misused by science," he said.
"She placed her trust in the health system so she could receive treatment. But the system took something from her without her knowledge or consent."
Last week, Maryland's delegation to the US Senate introduced a bill to posthumously award Ms Lacks the Congressional Gold Medal.
"Henrietta Lacks changed the course of modern medicine," Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.
"It is long past time that we recognise her life-saving contributions to the world."
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Bol.com biedt medewerkers 33 weken betaald gendertransitieverlof: 'Dit land wordt KNETTERGEK'
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 19:12
Foto: Unsplash
Bol.com biedt medewerkers die in gendertransitie zijn of de wens hebben om in transitie te gaan 33 weken betaald verlof met behoud van salaris. Daarnaast bevat het nieuwe beleid praktische tips voor collega's en managers om de juiste ondersteuning te kunnen bieden.
Bol.com wil zich naar eigen zeggen inzetten voor een diverse en inclusieve maatschappij.
Naast het transitieverlof maakt bol.com bijvoorbeeld gebruik van recruitmentbureaus die gespecialiseerd zijn in 'bi-cultureel talent', wordt er in de gaten gehouden dat er geen gender-pay gap kan ontstaan en is er oog voor neurodiversiteit.
Is bol gehackt of zijn ze echt zo gestoord?Het bericht doet het nodige stof opwaaien. ''Is bol gehackt of zijn ze echt zo gestoord? Laat maar, retorische vraag,'' zegt oud-Statenlid Danil Osseweijer.
''Dit land wordt KNETTERGEK,'' vindt PVV-leider Geert Wilders.
Nog een schepje bovenopRechtsfilosoof Raisa Blommestijn stelt vast: ''Dat de wereld compleet gek geworden is en de waanzin regeert '' dat wisten we al. Maar net als je denkt dat het (C)cht niet gekker kan, doet bol.com er nog een schepje bovenop.''
''Maar liefst 33 weken betaald verlof! Schiet mij maar lek. Volledig kierewiet, waar eindigt deze gekte?'' twittert columnist Remco van Velzen.'...
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FBI Investigates Spying Tool, Discovers FBI Use.
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 19:07
An inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into a government contractor using Israeli spy software to monitor U.S. citizens has discovered it was doing so on behalf of the FBI itself.
Reporters discovered that Landmark spy software developed by Israel's NSO Group, blacklisted by the Joe Biden government as a national security threat in 2021, had been purchased and deployed by government contractor Riva Networks later the same year.
It now transpires that one of Riva Networks' clients was the FBI.
Like the White House, the FBI claims it had no clue the contractor was using Landmark to geolocate U.S. citizens in Mexico without their consent, and Director Christopher Wray has cancelled the contract. Yet reporters seeking more information about the secretive nature of the bureau's dealings with Riva Networks are now being stonewalled.
Government lawyers responding to efforts by The New York Times to sue to the FBI for ''documents related to the bureau's purchase of NSO tools and'... documents about the bureau's relationship with Riva Networks'' have told the courts the FBI's relationship with the contractor should be protected from scrutiny, because they ''either already do, or may in the future, offer other products'... used for investigative purposes.''
Thousands of non-suspecting people are falling for fake, artificial intelligence (AI)-generated girls posting provocative photos online, with many 'virtual influencers' amassing hundreds of thousands of followers and subscribers.
One ''girl'' called Milla Sofia claims to be a ''virtual influencer and fashion model'' from Finland and is followed by over 50,000 people on Instagram, 100,000 people on TikTok, and just under 15,000 people on Twitter. Her profile states, ''whether it's the catwalk or the digital landscape, my passion lies in showcasing the latest trends and pushing the boundaries in the ever-evolving fashion industry.''
Embracing the beauty of summer in my homeland, Finland! '¸ð¸#ExploreFinland #NatureBeauty #TravelGoals #MemoriesMade #Finland #Suomi pic.twitter.com/OFNNuWYAHI
'-- Milla Sofia (@AiModelMilla) July 12, 2023
The profile does not hide the fact she is an ''AI creation'' but appears so lifelike that most people following her across various social media platforms are yet to realize that she doesn't exist. Comments on her post from men regularly read: ''You are so irresistible whatever colour that you are wearing Divine Millia Sofia,'' or ''You look marvellous, amazing pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, stunning and breathtaking.''
The rise of virtual influencers serves as a ''puzzling new turn in the road to AI content,'' states Victor Tangermann from Futurism, adding, ''If we follow human influencers for a parasocial taste of a glamorous lifestyle, why would we follow a bot instead?''
AI is developing an increasingly dominant grip on society despite its recent introduction. The technology is being used, among other things, to lure Russian soldiers into giving strategic information to the Ukrainian army and comedians who admit to being ''out of ideas.''
show less Thousands of non-suspecting people are falling for fake, artificial intelligence (AI)-generated girls posting provocative photos online, with many 'virtual influencers' amassing hundreds of thousands of followers and subscribers. show more
MSNBC is using the death of Beau Biden, Joe Biden's eldest son, to excuse the President's participation in his son Hunter's business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs and other foreigners. The far-left cable network suggests the senior Biden wasn't thinking straight because he was ''sad'' about the death of his firstborn child. Biden himself has used Beau's death a number of times, even going so far as to suggest he was killed in Iraq. In reality, though sad, Beau died from a glioblastoma.
''As far as Hunter Biden goes, there's no doubt, I mean, it's pretty clear, even those close to the Biden family suggest that some of his behavior was pretty unseemly '' that doesn't make it illegal,'' said MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire.
Lemire, who also works for POLITICO, added: '''...we don't know the role that then-Vice President Biden may have played [in Hunter's business]''. He then conceded: '''...maybe he's guilty of turning a blind eye to some of his son's behavior.''
''We should put this in context: This is a time when Beau Biden, the President's other son, was ill and then dying and then passed away, so perhaps he was not as attentive to what he should have been here,'' he added.
Washington Post associate editor Eugene Robinson was wheeled out to echo this sentiment: ''You could certainly argue that at some point, if Hunter Biden put President Biden on the speakerphone like 20 times, you could certainly ask whether at some point President Biden might have said 'Hey, quit putting me on speakerphone, you know, are you having a business meeting, like, what is that about?' '' but the context is that this was a sort of very fraught and sad time for the Biden family, and we know how important family is to the President.''
Whether this is a truly accurate description of President Biden is an open question, however, given his history of pointedly refusing to acknowledge the existence of his seventh grandchild , Hunter's stripper lovechild, Navy, who was denied the right to bear the Biden surname in a lengthy court battle.
Morning Joe defends Biden & Hunter's working relationship:@Lemire: "We should put this in context; this is the time when Beau Biden, the president's other son, was ill & dying & then passed away. So perhaps he wasn't as attentive to what he should have been"@Eugene_Robinson:'... pic.twitter.com/N47jSklbrC
'-- Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 1, 2023
show less MSNBC is using the death of Beau Biden, Joe Biden's eldest son, to excuse the President's
participation in his son Hunter's business dealings with Ukrainian oligarchs and other foreigners. The far-left cable network suggests the senior Biden wasn't thinking straight because he was "sad" about the death of his firstborn child. Biden himself has used Beau's death a number of times, even going so far as to
suggest he was killed in Iraq. In reality, though sad, Beau died from a glioblastoma.
show more
Justin Trudeau And Wife Separating After 18 Years | The Daily Caller
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 18:59
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, are separating after 18 years of marriage.
The prime minister made the announcement in an Instagram post Wednesday.
''Hi everyone, Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate,'' Trudeau wrote. ''As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect to each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build. For the well-being of our children, we ask that you respect our and their privacy. Thank you.''
The couple married in May 2005 and have three children. (RELATED: Justin Trudeau Says Canada Will Retaliate Against US Over Trump's Steel Tariffs)
Ticks May Cause Allergic Reaction to Red Meat, Shingles Vaccine | American Council on Science and Health
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 18:19
Perhaps the strangest medical phenomenon discovered in recent years is a link between the lone star tick and an allergy to red meat.
The bite of a lone star tick exposes a person to a small carbohydrate called alpha-gal. In a handful of people, this exposure elicits an abnormal immune response that produces a type of antibody called IgE, which causes allergies. Because red meat also contains alpha-gal, people who have been sensitized to the carbohydrate from a tick bite can develop life-threatening anaphylaxis if they consume pork or beef.
Source: S. Wolver et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2013 Feb; 28(2): 322''325.
Now, researchers report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology the case of a 68-year-old woman who developed anaphylaxis within minutes of receiving a shingles vaccine in 2014.
The team had encountered this woman previously. Since late 2008, she was known to suffer from red meat allergies and frequent bites from lone star ticks. Tests indicated that she had very high levels of alpha-gal-specific IgE antibodies in her blood. As it so happens, many vaccines potentially contain alpha-gal, since animal products (such as porcine gelatin and calf serum) are commonly used in vaccines. Connecting the dots, the team hypothesized that tick bites were linked to anaphylactic reactions to both red meat and vaccines.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers examined blood samples from four patients with red meat allergies (including that of the 68-year-old woman) to determine if their IgE antibodies reacted to five different vaccines: Shingles, MMR, yellow fever, and two versions of TDaP. Their results suggested that, indeed, alpha-gal is present in MMR and shingles vaccines. Thus, these vaccines could trigger anaphylaxis in patients who have red meat allergies.
The lone star tick is found throughout the eastern United States, most notably in the South. Though incredibly rare, the bizarre medical phenomena that these ticks can trigger in a small, unlucky group of people should be kept in mind by clinicians. For scientists, they serve as an insight into the peculiarities of immunogenetics.
Source: Cosby A. Stone, Jr. et al. "Anaphylaxis after Zoster Vaccine: Implicating Alpha-Gal Allergy as a Possible Mechanism." J Allergy Clin Immunol. Article in press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2016.10.037
Covid Fraud 2.0 -Check Out The New Fraud Money Grab '' Frank on Fraud
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:13
We're still bleary-eyed from the hangover of massive pandemic fraud, and here comes COVID Fraud 2.0.
The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) '' sometimes called the Employee Retention Tax Credit, is a tax credit for businesses that were impacted by COVID shutdowns.
But the program is also becoming a big money grab by fraudsters and scammers.
Welcome to COVID Fraud 2.0. ð¤...
The ERC program, much like the PPP and EIDL programs did, has spawned a cottage industry of accounting and tax firms that are trying to help Americans get some of that government money.
And some of those firms have been accused of fraud. In February of this year, COS Accounting and Tax was accused of submitting more than 1,000 fraudulent tax returns on behalf of businesses trying to claim pandemic-era stimulus funds.
The company allegedly solicited single member LLCs, including independent contractors, rideshare drivers, sole proprietors, and other Form 1099 workers to convert their businesses into LLCs taxed as S corporations in order to claim the ERC.
The owners then instructed and trained their employees on how to prepare the tax forms to increase the number of credits received for businesses. They would increase the number of employees, the paid wages, the sick leave wages and other factors to fraudulently boost the checks of the companies.
In some case, they would forge the signatures. All told they were able to get $11 million in ERC credits as part of the scheme.
If you are like me, you're probably getting lots of robocalls these days '' many of which are from scammers claiming to help you get $26,000 per employee.
A Linkedin Post by CPA Aaron Shleifstein caught my eye this week and shows just how ubiquitous these scams are.
In his post he highlights that many of his clients are receiving completely bogus claims from companies trying to get their money. The notices are cleverly disguised to look like they come from government agencies and they make outlandish claims.
Ads about the ERC have exploded across all media formats with advertisers claiming businesses can receive $26,000 per employee.
The way these companies are making money however is by charging large upfront fees, or for taking a percentage of the refund that they are able to get the victim.
What the victims don't understand however is that even if they get the money, they could be on the hook later to repay it, along with penalties and interest if it is deemed to be fraud.
They could also be in hot water for double dipping if they took a PPP loan.
But the problem doesn't appear to be limited to just scammers. Telegram is lit up with advertisements and methods to tap into this goldmine of money.
ERC Methods, ERC Sauce and even comparisons to how the ERC is paying ''fast and easy'' just like PPP.
The IRS has no idea how much fraud is happening and how many fraudulent returns have been filed, but it's a lot, and they say businesses are unknowingly double-dipping if they have already received PPP loans from the government.
The IRS says fraud is ''rampant'' and that ''taxpayers waiting for their amended returns will experience a longer than usual delay in processing.''
The I.R.S. said it had already paid out $152 billion in refunds associated with the tax credit and had a backlog of about 800,000 applications that it was trying to process.
The IRS issued a warning last month that ''tax professionals continue to see a barrage of aggressive broadcast advertising, direct mail solicitations and online promotions involving the Employee Retention Credit. While the credit is real, aggressive promoters are wildly misrepresenting and exaggerating who can qualify for the credits.''
The IRS has stepped up audit and criminal investigation work involving these claims. Businesses, tax-exempt organizations and others considering applying for this credit need to carefully review the official requirements for this limited program before applying. Those who improperly claim the credit face follow-up action from the IRS.
Bristol's low-traffic scheme stalls as row over Ulez spreads from London | Low-traffic neighbourhoods | The Guardian
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:36
On Bristol's Church Road, in the east of the city, cars, buses and lorries rumble past African-Caribbean hairstylists, eastern European bakeries, and cafes and restaurants selling a selection of Middle Eastern, Somali and Jamaican cuisine. Women talk on phones tucked into their hijabs, while a halal butcher takes a delivery of freshly cut beef.
Behind the high street bustle, however, tensions are growing about a delayed trial for a ''livable neighbourhood'' '' a low-traffic initiative intended to provide ''an opportunity to work with local communities to co-design residential streets that are better balanced for all road users, including pedestrians and cyclists'', according to Bristol councillor Don Alexander, who is responsible for transport in the city.
Low-traffic schemes have proved increasingly controversial across the UK, with Bristol no exception. In Jesmond, Newcastle, the council conducted an internal review after opposition to its introduction of a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN), while Oxfordshire county council has said its decision to introduce an LTN has created divisions.
The recent byelection in Uxbridge and South Ruislip was seen by many as a referendum on the ultra low- emission zone (Ulez) introduced by London's Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Anti-Ulez protests have even found their way to Bristol, despite the policy not affecting the city. A recent public meeting on livable neighbourhoods was organised with the help of London-based anti-Ulez group the Together Declaration. Speaking to a Bristol audience, co-founder Alan Miller encouraged attenders to pose with ''No 2 Ulez'' signs.
Among those who support the livable neighbourhoods scheme is documentary film-maker Alex Blogg, pictured with his son Arden in Barton Hill, Bristol. Photograph: Karen Robinson/The ObserverIt was a stunt that troubled documentary film-maker Alex Blogg, who has lived in east Bristol for eight years. ''Ulez is a London issue,'' he said. ''People in Bristol are talking about their lives and livelihoods. It's not appropriate for this neighbourhood.''
Bristol has a clean air zone where drivers pay a daily charge if their vehicle doesn't meet the zone's emission standards. However, the debate over clean air zones - introduced last year - is separate to that of livable neighbourhoods.
''I cycle around the area with my toddler son,'' he said. ''There are roads where you can feel the pressure from cars behind you when you are on the bike.''
Local media reports inaccurately claimed that a second trial of a livable neighbourhood in south Bristol had been paused, with Alexander confirming to the Observer that this was not the case.
''It was always intended that the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood scheme would be a pilot to inform future schemes,'' he said.
The city's Labour mayor, Marvin Rees, had recently said the council ''will focus on this trial before moving on to a second one''.
Beyond east Bristol, and in Whitehall, there is a growing political backlash against low-traffic initiatives. Downing Street is reportedly considering a ban on councils introducing new LTNs (although government sources described this as ''speculation''), as well as denying local authorities access to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database, making the zones unenforceable.
This follows an announcement earlier this year that LTNs would no longer be able to be created using government money. For cash-strapped councils already struggling to make ends meet, the decision may lead to them scrapping their plans altogether. This has prompted questions as to whether we are seeing the end of LTNs nationally.
Back in Bristol, Abdi Bunail, the proprietor of the Waamo cafe on Lawrence Hill, was keen to express his reservations about the proposed trial.
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''The whole neighbourhood is against the livable neighbourhoods,'' he said. ''Many people here have large families. They have lots of children who go to different schools, elderly people requiring care '' it won't be easy to access places. For us who live here, it is going to affect us.''
Bunail's views are familiar to Chris Johnson, the man behind Keep Bristol Moving, which campaigns against the livable neighbourhood trials.
''We don't feel people were properly consulted,'' Johnson said. ''I spoke to local businesses who knew nothing about the plans. We are concerned this will harm businesses and risk people's lives if emergency services can't access streets easily. The elderly and disabled are overlooked by the scheme.''
Blogg is sympathetic to his neighbours such as Bunail. ''I am really aware that I work from home, I cycle, I don't rely on a car,'' he said. ''There are people in the area where that's not the case '' care workers and taxi drivers who need to use their cars, and families who need to get from their house to the supermarket. A lot of people don't feel listened to.''
But campaigners are concerned that politicians may be dissuaded from taking action on the emissions and air pollution caused by high volumes of traffic.
''With all the news that we now see every day about the impact of climate change around the world, and the effect of polluted air on health, this should be the time to accelerate plans to encourage more walking, cycling and the use of public transport,'' said a spokesperson for the Bristol Cycling Campaign, which is supporting the trials. ''Rolling out and enabling livable neighbourhoods is essential to make our air cleaner.''
US officials search for hidden Chinese malware that could affect military operations | CNN Politics
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:26
CNN '--
US officials are searching for Chinese malware hidden in various defense systems that could disrupt military communications and resupply operations, The New York Times reported Saturday.
The administration believes malicious computer code has been hidden inside ''networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases,'' officials told the Times. The discovery has heightened concerns that hackers could ''disrupt US military operations in the event of a conflict,'' according to the Times. The two nations have been increasingly at odds over Taiwan as well as over China's actions in the Indo-Pacific.
One congressional official told the newspaper that the malware was ''a ticking time bomb'' that could allow China to cut off power, water and communications to military bases, slowing deployments and resupply operations. Because military bases often share the same supply infrastructure as civilian homes and businesses, many other Americans could also be affected, officials told the Times.
The malware revelations echo a pattern of recent breaches by China-based hackers previously reported by CNN.
Last week, the email account of US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was hacked, three US officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
Earlier this month, Microsoft and the White House confirmed that China-based hackers breached email accounts at two dozen organizations, including some federal agencies. The Biden administration believes the hacking operation '' which Microsoft said was launched in mid-May '' gave the Chinese government insights about US thinking heading into Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Beijing in June.
Among the agencies targeted were the State Department and the Department of Commerce, which has sanctioned Chinese telecom firms. US officials and Microsoft analysts initially had trouble identifying how the hackers got into the email accounts, which made clear that they were dealing with a sophisticated hacking team, a US official told CNN.
US officials have consistently labeled China as the most advanced of US adversaries in cyberspace, a domain that has repeatedly been a source of bilateral tension in recent years. The FBI has said Beijing has a larger hacking program than all other governments combined.
Blinken raised the hacking incidents in a meeting with a top Chinese diplomat in Indonesia earlier this month, a senior State Department official told CNN, but the official would not ''get into the specifics'' of the extent to which the hack was raised.
''We have consistently made clear that any action that targets US government, US companies, American citizens, is a deep concern to us and that we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable and the secretary made that clear again,'' the official said.
12ft | Niger coup backers wave Russian flags and attack French embassy as Wagner mercenary boss offers support | World News | Sky News
Zelensky Pushes Medical Cannabis Legalization To Aid Ukrainians Suffering 'Trauma of War' | High Times
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 19:20
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called on lawmakers to legalize medical cannabis, saying the treatment could provide relief to those in the country suffering from the ''trauma of war.''
Zelensky made the comments in an address before his country's parliament.
''We must finally fairly legalize cannabis-based medicines for all those who need them, with appropriate scientific research and controlled Ukrainian production,'' Zelensky said, as quoted by UPI.
''All the world's best practices, all the most effective policies, all the solutions, no matter how difficult or unusual they may seem to us, must be applied to Ukraine so that Ukrainians, all our citizens, do not have to endure the pain, stress and trauma of war,'' he added, according to the news organization.
Russia invaded and subsequently occupied parts of Ukraine last year, marking a bloody and costly escalation of the hostilities between the two countries. In April, Reuters, citing a ''trove of purported U.S. intelligence documents'' that had been published online, estimated that as many as ''354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war.''
As UPI noted, ''Zelensky's support for medical cannabis legalization also remains consistent as evidenced in 2019, during his presidential campaign, when he said it would be 'normal' to allow people to access cannabis 'droplets.'''
Zelensky's comments on Wednesday also echo what his cabinet has said recently.
Earlier this month, Ukraine's Health Minister Viktor Liashko said in a Facebook post that the government had put forward legislation to legalize medical cannabis treatment. In the post, Liashko invoked the ongoing war with Russia as a reason to make the treatment available.
''We understand the negative consequences of the war on the mental health camp,'' Liashko wrote in the Facebook post. ''We understand the number of people who will require medical treatment in the last breath.''
''Cannabis drugs are not 'competitors' to drugs, and measures to regulate their circulation are completely different. Medical cannabis contains cannabidiol, which has no pronounced psychoactive effect, so it's not suitable for recreational use,'' Liashko continued. ''To that, at the same time, we were prepared by the legislator for the preparation of a new cycle of production of preparations based on cannabis in Ukraine: from the development of that processing to full production.''
In the first month of Russia's invasion last year, a number of cannabis companies in the United States stepped up to provide financial support to Ukraine.
MediThrive CEO Misha Breyburg donated proceeds from weed sales to a charity providing aid to Ukrainians. Breyburg also had the MediThrive dispensary in San Francisco's Mission District painted in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.
''The Russian invasion of Ukraine hits home for the founders of MediThrive. CEO Misha Breyburg and his colleagues are Ukrainian Jewish refugees who immigrated from Odessa, Ukraine to the United States as children in the 1970s,'' the company said in a statement at the time. ''MediThrive believes that everyone should have access to medicine and quality health care. The Medi in our name tells of our humble beginning as a medical cannabis dispensary that filled the cannabis prescriptions of cancer and AIDS patients. In the 1990s, the dispensary opened its doors to patients under the United State's Compassionate Care Act. We are the oldest cannabis dispensary and delivery service location in San Francisco. Today, we are more than just a medical and recreational cannabis provider; our roots run deep in our community.''
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Niger Suspends Uranium & Gold Exports Amid Rumors Of Imminent French Military Intervention | ZeroHedge
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 16:04
Last week's coup in Niger is already fast becoming an internationalized conflict situation, as the West African nation's former colonial ruler France has denounced and condemned the junta'--while urging that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum be immediately reinstated. Coup supporters are now attacking diplomatic locations and French interests, including the French embassy in the capital of Niamey.
Bazoum is reportedly in good health following the harrowing events days ago when he was taken captive by his own presidential guard. Interestingly, the very rationale of those who overthrew his democratically elected government (merely two years in) centers on geopolitical matters: growing jihadi violence has become a major issue and he's been severely criticized for failing to secure the nation and the safety of the population. But others say that's just a pretext for what was an internal power struggle and military machinations. Currently, there are emerging reports in Mideast-Africa regional sources that Niger (under the junta) has suspended all exports of uranium and gold to France. FT is confirming:
The junta has continued to step up anti-French rhetoric. It announced it was suspending the export of uranium to France with immediate effect. Niger is the world's seventh-largest producer of Uranium and France, which relies on nuclear energy for 75 per cent of its power, is a significant importer.
Leaders of Niger junta, including General Abdourahmane Tiani, via Reuters.There are already widespread allegations of direct French military intervention being imminent, after on Friday the head of the presidential guards unit Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani declared himself Niger's new ruler of the country.
France has asserted it will only recognize the only legitimate authority as Bazoum, whose precise whereabouts remain unknown '--though he has just met with the leader of Chad, who is reportedly trying to mediate.
Via Al Jazeera: coup supporters have been widely flying Russian flags as an assertion against European colonialism and the West.France and the now-ruling military have exchanged threats and warnings, amid claims that the now ousted government has been encouraging French strikes against the presidential palace and coup leaders.
Colonel Amadou Abdramane, who is among the coup leaders and a spokesman, has alleged that Niger's foreign minister had signed a legal order which authorizes external French military intervention to restore political stability. There are even allegations of French forces preparing a missile attack on the presidential palace. France has neither confirmed nor denied that the exiled Bazoum government requested this, however.
Further, Abdramane warned Monday that foreign governments must not attempt to free Bazoum or intervene on behalf of his officials, vowing that bloodshed and further chaos would follow.
Niger announced that it was suspending the export of uranium and gold to France with immediate effect: BBC
'-- CGTN Africa (@cgtnafrica) July 31, 2023Complicating matters, and adding to the geopolitical pressures and tensions, is the fact that Niger has long been a major operating hub for French special forces, with some 1,500 French troops in the country, who regularly conducted joint operations with the prior government.
Ousted Niger president Mohamed Bazoum, BBG/file imageThe 'anti-imperialist' nature of coup supporters in the streets has been demonstrated by their waving Russian flags. Alarmingly, while both French and American troops are in the region, the Russian mercenary group Wagner is just next door in Mali. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who days ago popped back up in Russia for the first time since the June 23 mutiny events, in a rare message positively celebrated the coup and blasted past French and Western colonialism in Africa:
In a long message posted to social media, Prigozhin blamed the situation in Niger on the legacy of colonialism and alleged, without evidence, that Western nations were sponsoring terrorist groups in the country. Niger was once a French colony and, before this week's putsch, it had been one of the few democracies in the region.
Meanwhile, Russian flag-bearing protesters have attacked the French embassy in Niamey...
French embassy in the Niger capital surrounded by supporters of the coupPeople chant "Long live Russia", "Long live Putin", "Down with France", "Down with Macron" pic.twitter.com/Jn3eQc3Wmq
'-- COMBATE |ðµð· (@upholdreality) July 30, 2023All of this has prompted a fresh response from President Emmanuel Macron, who said his government "will not tolerate any attack on France and its interests" in Niger. He blasted the coup d'(C)tat as "perfectly illegitimate" (ironic given this implies he believes he can bestow some coups with legitimacy but not others).
Tensions are also building along the borders, after coup leaders claimed neighboring allies of the West are plotting against them. West African leaders held an emergency meeting on Sunday in Nigeria over the coup and crisis.
French embassy being breached, via Reuters.The 15-nation regional bloc Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for Bazoum's immediate restoration to office, saying it will "all measures" to restore democratic government and the constitution. The biggest warning from ECOWAS was seen in the following statement:
"Such measures may include the use of force for this effect," it said in a statement.
Protesters laid siege to the French embassy in Niger over the weekend, via AFP.The White House in a weekend statement said it is "closely monitoring" the coup and events inside the country, while staying in communication with military leaders.
"We remain deeply concerned about the unfolding developments ... the United States condemns in the strongest terms, any effort to seize power by force," NSC spokesman John Kirby said. "A military takeover may cause the United States to cease security and other cooperation with the government of Niger, jeopardizing existing security and non security partnerships."
But as The Intercept highlights, this is yet another problem and change of government that's at least in part of Washington's own making... that is, another African coup leader who was trained by US special forces. According to The Intercept:
BRIG. GEN. MOUSSA SALAOU BARMOU, the chief of Niger's Special Operations Forces and one of the leaders of the unfolding coup in Niger, was trained by the U.S. military, The Intercept has confirmed. U.S.-trained military officers have taken part in 11 coups in West Africa since 2008.
''We have had a very long relationship with the United States,'' Barmou said in 2021. ''Being able to work together in this capacity is very good for Niger.'' Just last month, Barmou met with Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the head of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, at Air Base 201, a drone base in the Nigerian city of Agadez that serves as the lynchpin of an archipelago of U.S. outposts in West Africa.
On Wednesday, Barmou, who trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the National Defense University in Washington, joined a junta that ousted Mohamed Bazoum, Niger's democratically elected president, according to Nigerien sources and a U.S. government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The military regime in Niger has with immediate effect, banned the export of uranium to France. Over 50 per cent of the uranium ore extracted from Niger is used for fuelling French nuclear power plants. 24% of EU uranium imports, come from Niger, pic.twitter.com/exYLkFWcXt
'-- Africa Archives ' (@Africa_Archives) July 31, 2023But again, France has significantly more at stake concerning the chaotic political situation of its formal colony, given Niger provides 15% of France's total uranium needs.
Uranium stocks and nuclear power-related companies are sharply up, climbing on reports that the Niger junta has suspended exports of uranium and gold to France with immediate effect (as well as news that Southern Co.'s expanded Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia is delivering power to the grid after years of delays)...
It should be noted that about one-fifth of the European Union's uranium stock derives from Niger.
From the West's perspective, looming large in the background is expanding Russian influence in Africa. Already there are hyped headlines claiming Putin is now eyeing extending his influence to Niger and across West Africa.
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The Stock of Kidney Dialysis Firm, DaVita, Has Soared 2,500 Percent Since 1996; a New Book Reveals the Dangerous Cult Behind the Rise
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:02
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: July 31, 2023 ~
Tom Mueller, Author of ''How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death and Dollars in American Medicine''
The chart above compares the stock price performance of the kidney dialysis company, DaVita (ticker DVA), with the Standard and Poor's 500 Index since 1996. Right away, something looks very wrong. Why should a healthcare company delivering dialysis treatment to people with kidney failure make the kind of profits that would generate this outsized stock price return?
Investigative reporter and author, Tom Mueller, has dedicated his latest book to pulling back the curtain on the dirty underbelly of this industry. The book, How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death and Dollars in American Medicine, will be available for sale in bookstores tomorrow. If you have a loved one receiving kidney dialysis at centers run by either DaVita or Fresenius, we urge you to stop what you're doing, buy this book, and read it from cover to cover. The book presents nothing short of an indictment of rabid capitalism run amok, effectively turning what should be a life-saving branch of medicine into a criminal enterprise.
DaVita and Fresenius are a duopoly, controlling about 80 percent of the 6,900 dialysis centers across America, writes Mueller. According to an economist, Ryan McDevitt, who has extensively researched the results of this consolidation and spoke on the record with Mueller, this is what happens when an independent dialysis center is acquired by the duopoly:
''When DaVita and Fresenius acquire independent facilities, they start implementing their best practices, at least from their viewpoint, which means maximizing profits. So they're pumping patients full of drugs. They're cutting back staffing ratios. All the things that make a business really profitable and productive, they're doing. Unfortunately, we find this has severe consequences for patients. Death rates go up, hospitalization rates go up, transplant rates fall, and so on. Any measure that could get worse pretty much got worse, after the big chains acquired independent facilities.''
What is going on here is not a deep secret from the U.S. Department of Justice. Mueller explains that ''Between 2014 and 2018 alone, DaVita and its subsidiaries paid out more than $1.5 billion in legal settlements and damages. DaVita's founder, Kent Thiry, who ran a bizarre, cult-like atmosphere at the company '' which is brilliantly depicted by Mueller in ghastly detail '' stepped down in 2019 and was indicted two years later by a federal grand jury in Colorado. The Big Law firm, WilmerHale, brags on its website as to how it got both Thiry and DaVita acquitted at trial, writing:
''A WilmerHale team led by Partner John Walsh and former Counsel Daniel Crump, working closely with lawyers from Morgan Lewis Bockius, achieved a landmark, precedent-setting trial victory for our client DaVita, Inc in the first-ever trial of a criminal labor market allocation case brought by the US Department of Justice.
''On April 15, 2022, after a two-week trial and two days of deliberation, a federal jury in Denver acquitted both the company and its former chief executive officer Kent Thiry on all charges '-- three counts of criminal conspiracy to violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
''The stakes were extremely high. DaVita faced fines of up to $100 million per count while Thiry faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine per count.''
Morgan Lewis Bockius, the law firm mentioned above that worked with WilmerHale to achieve this acquittal, currently has its former partner, Kenneth Polite, sitting at the helm of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice '' despite a financial disclosure form that suggests he was never seriously vetted for the job.
WilmerHale is the 1,000-attorney firm that is currently defending JPMorgan Chase in federal court (a serially charged bank that has racked up five felony counts on other matters since 2014) over very credible claims that it ''actively engaged'' in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking of underage girls for more than a decade.
One of the most shocking revelations that Mueller shines a light on is that both Fresenius and DaVita provide ''shorter and higher-speed dialysis, which enables them to process more patients per day.'' Tragically, that speed comes at a cost to patient health. Mueller writes that ''In clinics where dialysis is slower and gentler '' in high-quality, nonprofit centers in the United States, for example, and in many parts of Europe '' patients live better and survive longer'...For good medical reasons, in fact, nephrologists [kidney doctors] in other developed countries typically avoid the kind of treatment [endured by patients] in clinics throughout America. Many condemn it as dangerous'....''
The death statistics also speak volumes. Mueller writes:
'' 'The survival rate in the United States, where around 22 percent of patients die every year, is the lowest in the industrialized world,' says Leonard Stern [a nephrologist]. 'The mortality in Japan is only 5 to 6 percent per year, and in Western Europe it's in the range of 9 to 12 percent per year'....' ''
In Mueller's last book in 2019, Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud, he made the formidable case that the United States has become a dystopian society where almost every government entity that a citizen would typically turn to for redress over a lawless act has been corrupted by greed, pay to play, revolving doors, political bribes, or self-dealing.
The fact that a new U.S. President took office in January of 2021 and yet he nominated, and the U.S. Senate confirmed, a former partner of a Big Law firm that defended against some of the worst criminal activities of corporate America, who is now sitting at the helm of the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice '' should tell you that the corruption crisis in America is metastasizing at an unprecedented rate and urgently requires a truly independent National Crime Taskforce.
Flesh-rotting tranq infects cocaine supply, takes aim at new, unsuspecting victims
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:58
The lab report left the prominent New York businessman stunned.
The 40-something-year-old from Massapequa Park, a tony suburban village on Long Island, had dabbled in cocaine now and again, but nothing harder.
But his toxicology report painted a far different picture: His blood was rife with fentanyl and xylazine '-- the animal sedative known as ''tranq,'' which is now not only infecting hardcore addicts but also recreational drug users by slithering into the cocaine supply.
The drug xylazine '-- also known as ''tranq'' '-- has been increasingly found in cocaine supplies in New York. Stephen Yang''He said the only drug he took was cocaine, as a fun thing to do with friends occasionally,'' Dr. Carol McKinney, a clinical social worker at Victory Recovery Partners in Massapequa Park, recently told The Post.
''He was shocked when we gave him the test results showing xylazine was in his system.''
Tranq is often associated with urban rot '-- with videos showing barely conscious addicts wandering mindlessly through drug-riddled neighborhoods in Philadelphia or Chicago, victims of a tranquilizer so powerful, it can put down a horse.
Now the ''zombie drug'' is lurking in mainstream party drugs such as cocaine, law enforcement officials and health care professionals say.
A rotting flesh wound on the back of a tranq user. Stephen Yang Dr. Carol McKinney saw 86 patients test positive for tranq in one week earlier this month at Victory Recovery Partners in Massapequa Park. Stephen Yang''We've seen an increase in street-level distribution of cocaine-xylazine mixture[s],'' Frank Tarentino, the special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Division, told The Post.
''It's widespread. And it's getting worse.''
The agency has found that about 15% of all drugs tested in its Northeast regional laboratory include xylazine, Tarentino said.
And more than 85% of the drugs with xylazine also contain fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid, Tarentino added.
What is tranq?Tranq is a powerful veterinary tranquilizer known in medical circles as xylazine.
Although never approved for human use, the drug has somehow found its way into the nation's illicit drug supply as a cutting agent, wreaking havoc on people suffering from addiction.
Tranq '' which is often found blended with fentanyl '' can cause flesh-eating lesions and psychosis. It also knocks its victims into a lumbering state of semi-consciousness, which can lead to robberies and other forms of street crime.
Tranq was at least partly responsible for about 10% to 20% of the city's 2,688 overdose deaths in 2021, according to a report from the city's special narcotics prosecutor's office. Stephen YangTranq's use is expanding quickly as it spreads from coast to coast.
In 2021, the rate of drug overdose deaths involving xylazine was 35 times higher than it was just three years earlier, according to a June report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
READ MORE
That means the cocaine, heroin, meth or fake painkillers that people buy on the street could easily be laced with a malevolent mixture that can kill with just a few grains.
The situation could increasingly blindside users who aren't expecting the flesh-rotting, psychosis-inducing tranq in their party drugs.
''Young people can innocently take a pill, not knowing it has fentanyl in it or that it has fentanyl and xylazine,'' Tarentino said.
A New York Post cover about the dangerous new cutting agent.''That's what people should be concerned about: Tranq can end up anywhere, at any time, and can kill anyone.''
That warning is supported by statistics, which show that overdose deaths involving xylazine rose 20-fold between 2015 and 2020 in all regions tested, according to a study published in the scientific journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence last year.
In the Big Apple, which in 2021 began testing deceased opioid overdose victims for tranq, about one in five such deaths involved xylazine, according to the New York state Department of Health.
Statewide, about one in 20 fatal opioid overdoses that year involved tranq, the department added.
McKinney buttressed Tarentino's worries when she told The Post that she's had reams of patients test positive for xylazine since Victory Recovery Partners '-- which operates a constellation of rehab centers throughout Long Island '-- began testing for it about eight months ago.
Earlier this month, 86 patients tested positive for the tranquilizer in the span of seven days, McKinney said.
''The patients don't even know,'' McKinney said. ''I say, 'Well, it's in your system.' And they say, 'There's no way, my dealer wouldn't do that!'
''I say, 'Guess what? Your dealer doesn't know.'''
According to the DEA, about 15% of all drugs tested in its Northeast regional laboratory include xylazine. Stephen YangFew know that better than Andrew Walsleben, a 27-year-old from Long Island who has been hooked on illicit drugs since age 14.
First it was pills, like Percocet and oxycodone. By 16, he was shooting heroin. In 2017, his drug habit landed him in federal prison, where he remained for more than four years.
After his 2021 release, Walsleben developed a $1,000-per-week cocaine habit that led to him to start shooting the drug in pursuit of a ''better high.''
That's when he first unwittingly encountered tranq, he said.
Soon, he was stricken with rotting flesh wounds that would not heal and the drug's trademark psychosis '-- which had him seeing shadow people.
''I thought people were putting spider eggs in my cocaine, and I saw spiders under my skin and under my toenails,'' Walsleben said. ''I saw big welts moving in my body when I looked in the mirror.''
Walsleben, who kicked the habit about two months ago, is convinced that tranq-laced cocaine is to blame.
see also''I have only used powdered cocaine this past year,'' he said. ''[But] I got the sores from xylazine.''
Doctors aren't clear why dealers have chosen to cut their narcotic supplies with tranq. The sedative doesn't quite match the mission of drugs such as cocaine, known for reshaping its users into wired, hyperactive messes.
''It makes a lot of sense with fentanyl or heroin,'' Dr. Steve Salvatore, chief medical officer at Victory Recovery Partners, told The Post. ''It doesn't make any sense in cocaine '... other than that maybe we're not dealing with biochemists.''
But the dangers are clear, Salvatore said.
Cocaine is toxic enough to a user's heart '-- it can cause coronary spasms in longtime addicts. But combining an upper and a downer '-- which effectively puts one foot on the gas and the other on the brake '-- is particularly dangerous, Salvatore said.
''The respiratory, central nervous and cardiovascular systems are put into a conflicting position about whether to slow down or speed up,'' he said.
''This can lead to dangerous side effects, including increased heart rate and blood pressure, nausea and vomiting, anxiety and paranoia, and death.''
Dr. Steve Salvatore, a board-certified emergency room physician and addiction specialist at Victory Recovery, told The Post that mixing the ''upper'' drug cocaine with the ''downer'' tranq is particularly dangerous. Stephen YangCops and doctors may encounter this more and more as the fentanyl-and-xylazine combo crawls into the wider drug supply '-- which it's likely to do because crooks have begun importing xylazine, a cheap cutting agent, by the kilogram, according to the DEA's Tarentino.
That could batter the Big Apple, which Tarentino called drug traffickers' Mecca.
''New York City is the hub,'' he said. ''It's a destination city for these large quantities of cocaine, heroin, meth, fentanyl and xylazine [that are] then further distributed out to the outlying cities and states.
''In the last two years, we've seen this increase [in tranq importation],'' he continued. ''And it continues to increase.''
Xylazine test strips can help users detect the tranquilizer in their illicit drugs. Stephen YangBridget Brennan, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor, believes tranq is being mixed with drugs like heroin and cocaine here in America '-- not overseas '-- where the synthetic cutting agent is often manufactured.
A legal sedative with legitimate veterinary uses, xylazine isn't classified as a controlled substance in the US.
As such, drug labs certified by the Empire State don't test for it when cops make a big drug seizure locally, though the DEA does at the federal level.
Brennan previously told The Post that she wants the drug named a controlled substance, which would help authorities regain some control of its distribution.
A deep wound near a female tranq user's shoulder. Stephen Yang''We should be able to come up with legislation which would allow us to both control it and to require those who distribute it '... to maintain control over it and verify who their customers are,'' Brennan said.
''The most effective way to prevent loss of life is to cut off the supply at the top of the chain,'' she added. ''You don't want to wait until it gets out on the street to try to scoop it up.''
It would also let labs start testing for it, which could lead to more accurate statistics.
Brennan said the city's crime labs do note the presence of xylazine in the chemists' notes but not in the lab report. In other words, authorities looking for evidence of tranq must go through a longer, more arduous process to find out whether it's there.
The DEA is pushing for tranq to be made a controlled substance. Stephen YangThe Suffolk County District Attorney's Office has been similarly frustrated.
''Our crime lab can't test for it, because it's not illegal in New York,'' a spokesperson said, referencing xylazine that might be present in drug seizures.
''We do find [tranq] in a few places '... but it's almost anecdotal because they don't test. So we don't know how widespread it is.''
Often, Suffolk County authorities only find xylazine in corpses because it shows up in the toxicology screening, the district attorney's office said.
The DEA also wants to have the drug made a controlled substance, which would give the agency the authority to arrest dealers of illicit tranq.
''We're taking it very seriously,'' Tarentino said.
Until then, drug users take note: There be dragons lurking in those little bags of bleached powder.
''We have so many people coming in who had xylazine in their cocaine,'' McKinney, of Victory Recovery, told The Post.
''The cocaine an actor or wealthy Manhattan businessman might do over drinks after work on a Friday night doesn't exist anymore.''
What NASA and the European Space Agency are admitting but the media are failing to report about our current heat wave (bumped) - American Thinker
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:14
'); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270282082-0'); }); document.write(''); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { if (event.slot.getSlotElementId() == "div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3029") { googletag.display("div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3029"); } }); }); } '); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609268089992-0'); }); document.write(''); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { if (event.slot.getSlotElementId() == "div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3028") { googletag.display("div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3028"); } }); }); }The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world's leading scientific organizations. It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year-and-a-half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have.
So, why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically? Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption last year that I '' probably along with you -- had never heard of. The mass media ignored it because it took place 490 feet underwater in the South Pacific. Don't take it from me, take it from NASA (and please do follow the link to see time lapse satellite imagery of the underwater eruption and subsequent plume of gasses and water injected into the atmosphere):
still from the time lapse photos
When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth's stratosphere '' enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth's global average temperature.
In the Name of Climate Change: Travel Restrictions and the Great Reset - American Thinker
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:14
July 30, 2023
If you experienced unprecedented delays during air travel this summer, the airlines likely blamed it on the weather. You might have been surprised, for bad weather wasn' t reported in the news. But here is what should surprise and shock you even more. The real reason '' a shortage of pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCs) '' is linked to the Great Reset, the agenda to control people and restrict freedom conceived by the global elite and being implemented through leftist groups and their sympathizers.
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It is now well known that Klaus Schwab, chief of the elitist World Economic Forum (WEF), set the Great Reset in motion during the pandemic, calling it an opportunity to '' reflect, reimagine, and reset the world.'' The COVID lockdown also connects to the story of the recent flight delays, because it was during the pandemic that travel restrictions were imposed worldwide and pilots and ATCs were laid off. At London's Heathrow, alone, for example, traffic plunged more than 75% '' from 80 million passengers daily to about one million. The ostensible reason for limiting travel was to curb contagion and virus mutation. But a sinister agenda was afoot.
The travel restrictions, quarantines, vaccine passports, social distancing, the lockdown itself, and other measures were not so much for disease control as for imposing the dystopian New World Order. COVID was a smokescreen. In the name of a recovery plan, radical steps were initiated to restructure the world economy and usher in an extreme environmentalist and statist framework of governance as the new norm.
As the lockdown progressed beyond a few months, proponents of the climate agenda and the Green New Deal claimed an intersection between the pandemic and a furtherance of their goals. These ' progressives' deployed a double-edged sword: they said decreased air and car travel was contributing to a healthier planet; simultaneously, they warned that global warming would contribute to health problems and even start more pandemics. So, the pandemic became a convenient excuse to justify far-reaching policy changes that would control and direct everything from the utilization of natural resources to the movement and monitoring of people.
'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270365559-0'); }); document.write(''); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { if (event.slot.getSlotElementId() == "div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3035") { googletag.display("div-hre-Americanthinker---New-3035"); } }); }); }The implementation of movement restriction measures called for in the Great Reset has already manifested in several ways. Air travel is being discouraged with the inconvenience of delay, cancellations, and staff shortage. Other movement is being checked by a policy thrust toward banning gas-powered cars, instituting congestion pricing, and developing the impractical idea of so-called 15-minute cities. These policies also call for car-free cities, limiting airline travel, and a 'global tax' on airlines; that is, the more you fly, the more you pay. In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the Air Resources Board to ban new gas-powered cars by 2035, linking heatwaves, wildfires, and droughts to '' climate change.'' Seventeen states that have vehicle emission standards tied to California rules are weighing similar mandates.
In 2022, the 193-member nation International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO), a U.N. agency, agreed to a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Ironically, the call to reduce the use of aviation fuel is accompanied by a boom in private air travel, as airline travel becomes more difficult. Private jets constitute 25% of U.S. flights and increased by 17% in the first half of 2022. Clearly, despite purported concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, the Great Reset does not restrict travel for the elite. The agenda obviously has more to do with politics and control than science.
This year, summer air travel was subjected to massive delays. More than 11,000 flights were delayed or cancelled on June 25; some 8,000 on June 26; and there were 35,000 flight delays and 7,000 cancellations on July 4. Candid airline employees confessed this had nothing to do with the weather, and that pilot and ATC understaffing was responsible for the chaos. In late June, I found myself stuck in New York for three days with no available flight options to the West Coast. I was also trapped in Reykjavik for four nights because of the cancellation of flights to Ilulissat, Greenland. An Icelandair captain revealed the reason: a tower at an adjacent airport, required for potential flight diversions, was unmanned because of an ATC shortage.
Despite the shortage of aviation personnel, Congress rejected an amendment to HR 3935, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, that would have required airlines to reinstate pilots who were fired or stepped down because of vaccine mandates. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who introduced the amendment, said, '' Hundreds of pilots were forced out of their livelihoods over the past several years for their refusal to get the COVID vaccine.'' Surprisingly, 83 Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues in voting against an amendment that would have ameliorated the pilot shortage.
The FAA has been criticized for lacking a plan to address the serious shortage of ATCs: 77% of critical air traffic control (ATC) facilities are staffed below the 85% threshold. Currently, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks to cover shortages. The shortage of about 3,000 ATCs has been responsible for large numbers of flight cancellations and delays. The fact that the FAA paused training in the wake of the COVID pandemic has added to the already serious problem, compounded by the diversity agenda.
Under the Obama administration, the FAA furthered diversity goals by screening applicants using biographical questionnaires that supplanted skills-based tests. Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson had then reported that applicants with lower aptitude in science were being preferred over those who scored high in science. Similarly, applicants who were unemployed for the previous three years got more points than licensed pilots. As Carlson rightly put it, the FAA was actively searching for unqualified ATCs, prioritizing identity politics before passenger safety and ultimately reducing the available pool of ATCs.
Transsexual Requests Euthanasia in Canada over Pain from Sex Surgery
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:09
A post-operation transsexual Canadian has requested that the socialised healthcare system provide an assisted suicide lethal injection in order to end long-term suffering and pain from a surgery to manufacture a ''neo-vagina''.
Lois Cardinal, a self-described ''sterilized First Nations post-op transsexual'', has expressed immense regret over a 2009 surgery to create an imitation vagina out of an inverted penis, saying that euthanasia would be preferable to the constant pain from the novel operation. The aftermath of the surgery often leaves many in pain, with the resulting ''neo-vagina'' effectively being an open wound that needs to be dilated daily to prevent it from closing.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Cardinal said: ''I'm in constant discomfort and pain'... It's taking this psychological burden on me. If I'm not able to access proper medical care, I don't want to continue to do this.''
Cardinal applied for Canada's MAiD (medical assistance in dying) euthanasia programme, however, despite the progressive socialised healthcare system being one of the most liberal in providing assisted suicide, the 35-year-old Alberta resident has initially been rejected.
''Based on current clinical information and consultations [the patient] does not meet current MAiD criteria,'' the doctor wrote.
In medical documents released by Cardinal on social media, a doctor wrote that ''Based on current clinical information and consultations [the patient] does not meet current MAiD criteria.''
It is believed that the transsexual individual did not qualify for the euthanasia programme, which is open to those who are suffering from incurable diseases or disabilities, as there are options to mitigate the pain from the sex change surgery.
The case has, according to opponents, demonstrated the pitfalls of not only transgender surgery but of the 2021 liberalisation of the euthanasia laws in Canada, which has opened the way for an estimated record of 13,500 state-backed suicides last year, up from 10,064 in 2021. Campaigners have raised concerns that more people like Cardinal will apply for the programme rather than the traditionally terminally ill patients.
I requested my MAiD file. A human rights concern? pic.twitter.com/nqEVU2yv49
'-- Duchess Lois Of Alberta (@duchess_elle) July 26, 2023
Cardinal argued that euthanasia is the only option left, as the numbing cream prescribed did not ease the pain caused by the surgically constructed 'vagina'.
''I'm not getting any better and nor am I experiencing better medical care, or any medical care,'' Cardinal said. ''It's so captured by gender ideologies, that they care more about my pronouns.''
The post-op transsexual has become an active critic of the radical LGBT ideology and has warned that children and other vulnerable Canadians, including Cardinal's native community, are susceptible to ''falling prey to a trend that is medicalized.''
''I do not agree with the current rhetoric of the trans community,'' Cardinal said. ''A lot of the so-called trans hate is fuelled by the trans community because we aren't allowed to have honest and tough conversations.''
This month, researchers from the University of Florida and Brooks Rehabilitation released a study which claimed that four out of five (81 per cent) of people who have had sex change genital surgery over the past five years have experienced longstanding pain following the surgery. They also found that 57 per cent reported finding sexual intercourse a painful experience in the wake of their surgery.
Doomed UK Trans Kids Clinic Left 'Thousands of Damaged Children' In Its Wake https://t.co/xkxgQfFrj9
'-- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 30, 2022
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com
Mastodon, a social media platform used by leftist media ''reporters,'' has a serious PEDOPHILIA problem '' NaturalNews.com
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 14:03
Mastodon, a social media platform used by leftist media ''reporters,'' has a serious PEDOPHILIA problem
A social media platform for left-wing "reporters" known as Mastodon is a
haven for pedophiles who are spreading highly explicit child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a new study from
Stanford University's Internet Observatory has revealed.
Across 325,000 posts on Mastodon, Stanford researchers identified 112 instances of CSAM in just two days. The first instance took the researchers just five minutes to find, which shows just how common pedophiles are among left-wing reporters.
The Stanford team identified 713 uses of the 20 most prevalent CSAM hashtags containing video and / or audio media. There were also 1,217 text posts on Mastodon that linked to "off-site CSAM trading or grooming of minors."
"We found that on one of the largest Mastodon instances in the Fediverse [a group of federated social networking services], 11 of the top 20 most commonly used hashtags were related to pedophilia," the study explains.
David Thiel, one of the study researchers, also spoke directly to The Washington Post about the study, revealing that "we got more photo DNA hits in a two-day period than we've probably had in the entire history of our organization of doing any kind of social media analysis '' and it's not even close."
(Related: You know what else has a pedophilia problem? The Biden White House.)
Instagram also caught harboring "an enormous pedophile network"If you have never heard of Mastodon, it is probably because you are not a left-wing reporter and do not hang around on seedy social media platforms where child pornography and other gross perversions are traded.
Mastodon is branded as a "federated" social media platform, meaning people can join servers or "instances" that are "separate yet interconnected," to quote The National Pulse's Jake Welch.
"However, such platforms often have more permissive guidelines," Welch notes. "Mastodon, for example, employs one person to moderate content on the platform compared to sites like Meta, which have thousands of moderators."
Mastodon and other federated platforms are not the only cesspools where pedophiles love to congregate. It was also just revealed that Instagram, a Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media platform that exists under the umbrella of Meta, which also owns Facebook, is similarly guilty of hosting "an enormous pedophile network."
Not only are Instagram users disseminating child pornography without consequence, but they are also reportedly selling "commissions" for people who may be victims of child trafficking.
Stanford's Internet Observatory was involved in that investigation as well, along with investigators from The Wall Street Journal and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Together, they identified "thousands of posts dedicated to advertising sex content featuring children."
Not only is Instagram allowing such pedophile networks to exist on its platform, but it is also providing content-sharing and recommendation features to amplify their reach across the social media world.
According to Thiel, who formerly worked on the security team at Meta and now serves as the Stanford Internet Observatory's chief technologist, Instagram utterly failed to put up the proper "guardrails" to hinder pedophile networks from congregating there.
The Journal's report on the matter added that Instagram failed to even address "basic" issues with the platform that allow pedophiles to use their various hashtags to connect and trade with one another.
"Content moderation in this area appears to be lax, despite the platform's censorious approach over vaccines, right-wing politics, and LGBT+ expos(C)s," says The National Pulse's Jack Montgomery.
"Users not only find it difficult to report pro-pedophile content, but are even having it recommended to them by Instagram's algorithms."
Big Tech and social media platforms are magnets for pedophiles and child traffickers to do their dirty deeds. Learn more at Evil.news.
Sources for this article include:
TheNationalPulse.com 1
NewsTarget.com
TheNationalPulse.com 2
Cracking down on health misinformation: The 'most common cause of death' | BenefitsPRO
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 13:52
''I would describe this year as hand-to-hand combat. Really, every day,'' he said at an academic conference at Stanford in April. It's a sentiment the FDA commissioner has expressed often.
What's been getting Califf's goat? Misinformation, which gets part of the blame for Americans' stagnating life expectancy. To Califf, the country that invents many of the most advanced drugs and devices is terrible at using those technologies well. And one reason for that is Americans' misinformed choices, he has suggested. Many don't use statins, vaccines, or COVID-19 therapies. Many choose to smoke cigarettes and eat the wrong food.
Califf and the FDA are fighting misinformation head-on. ''The misinformation machine is really causing a lot of death,'' he said, in an apparent ad-lib, this spring in a speech at Tufts University. The pandemic, he told KFF Health News, helped ''crystallize'' his need to tackle misinformation. It was a ''blatant case,'' in which multiple studies gave evidence about very effective therapeutics against COVID. ''And a lot of people chose not to do it.'' There were ''large-scale purveyors of misinformation,'' he said, poisoning the well.
Occasionally, though, Califf and the FDA have added to the cacophony of misinformation. And sometimes their misinformation is about misinformation.
Califf hasn't been able to consistently estimate misinformation's public health toll. Last June, he said it was the ''leading cause of meaningful life-years lost.'' In the fall, he told a conference: ''I've been going around saying that misinformation is the most common cause of death in the United States.'' He continued, ''There is no way to prove that, but I do believe that it is.''
At other times, as in April, he has called the problem the nation's ''leading cause'' of premature death. ''I'll keep working on this to try and get it right,'' he said. Later, in May, he said, ''Many Americans die or experience serious illness every year due to bad choices driven by false or misleading information.''
Americans' health is indeed in dire straits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted the country's life expectancy has dropped two years in a row '-- it's at 76.1 years as of 2021 '-- a dismal capper to four decades of lagging gains. Countries such as Slovenia, Greece, and Costa Rica outrank the U.S. Their newborn citizens are expected to live more than 80 years, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Several factors are at the root of those differences. But Americans' choices, often informed by bad or misleading data, political jeremiads, or profit-seeking advertising, are among the causes. For instance, one 2023 paper estimated that undervaccination against COVID '-- caused in part by misinformation '-- costs as much as $300 million per day, accounting for both the costs of health care and economic costs, like missed work.
Outside experts are sympathetic. Misinformation is a ''huge problem for public health,'' said Joshua Sharfstein, a Johns Hopkins University public health professor and former FDA principal deputy commissioner. Having a strategy to combat it is crucial. But, he cautioned, ''That's the easiest part of this.''
Related: National Patient Safety Board: Could a NTSB-like agency really work in health care?The agency, which regulates products that consumers spend 20 cents of each dollar on per year, is putting more muscle behind the effort. It's begun mentioning the subject of misinformation in its procurement requests, like one discussing the need to monitor social media for misinformation related to cannabis.
The agency launched a ''Rumor Control'' page seeking to debunk persistent confusion. It also expects to get a report from the Reagan-Udall Foundation, a not-for-profit organization created by Congress to advise the FDA. Califf has said he thinks better regulation '-- and more authority for the agency '-- would help.
Califf has noted small victories. Ivermectin, once touted as a COVID wonder drug, ''eventually'' became one such win. But, then again, its use is ''not completely gone,'' he said. And, despite winning individual battles, his optimism is muted: ''I'd say right now the trend in the war is in a negative direction.''
Some of those battles have been quite small, even marginal.
And it's difficult to know what to take on or respond to, Califf said. ''I think we're just in the early days of being able to do that,'' he told KFF Health News. ''It's very hard to be scientific,'' he said.
Take the agency's experience last fall with ''NyQuil chicken'' '-- a purportedly viral cooking trend in which users roasted their birds in the over-the-counter cold medicine on social media platforms like TikTok.
Califf said his agency's ''skeleton crew'' '-- at least relative to Big Tech giants '-- had picked up on increasing chatter about the meme.
But independent analyses don't corroborate the claim. It seems much of the interest in it came only after the FDA called attention to it. The day before the agency's pronouncement, the TikTok app recorded only five searches on the topic, BuzzFeed News found in an analysis of TikTok data. That tally surged to 7,000 the week after the agency's declaration. Google Trends, which measures changes in the number of searches, shows a similar pattern: Interest peaked on the search engine in the week after the agency announcement.
Califf also claimed ''injuries'' occurred to participants ''directly'' due to the social media trend. Now, he said, ''the number of injuries is down,'' though he couldn't say whether the agency's intervention was the cause.
Again, his assertions have fuzzy underpinnings. It's not clear what, if any, actual damage the NyQuil chicken fad caused. Poison control centers don't keep that data, said Maggie Maloney, a spokesperson for America's Poison Centers. And, after multiple requests, agency spokespeople declined to provide the FDA's data reflecting increased social media traffic or injuries stemming from the meme.
In countering misinformation, the FDA also risks coming off as high-handed. In September 2021, the agency tweeted about purported myths and misinformation on mammograms. Among the myths? That they're painful. Instead, the agency explained that ''everyone's pain threshold is different'' and the breast cancer-screening procedure is more often described as ''temporary discomfort.''
Statements like these ''erode trust,'' said Lisa Fitzpatrick, an infectious diseases physician and currently the CEO of Grapevine Health, a startup trying to improve health literacy in underserved communities. Fitzpatrick has previously served as an official with the District of Columbia's Medicaid program and with the CDC.
''Who are you to judge what's painful?'' she asked, rhetorically. It's hard to brand subjective impressions as misinformation.
Califf acknowledged the point. Speaking to 340 million Americans is difficult. With mammograms, the average patient might not have a painful experience '-- but many might. ''Getting across that kind of nuance and public communication, I think, is in its early phases.''
Scrutiny over the agency's role regarding food and nutrition is also mounting. After independent journalist Helena Bottemiller Evich wrote an article criticizing the agency for relying on voluntary reporting standards for baby formula, Califf tweeted to correct a ''bit of misinformation,'' saying the agency did not have such authority.
An agency communications specialist made a similar intervention with New York University professor Marion Nestle, referring to a ''troubling pattern of articles with erroneous information that then get amplified.'' The agency was again seeking to rebut arguments that the agency had erred in not seeking mandatory reporting.
''As I see it, the 'troubling pattern' here is FDA's responses to advocates like me who want to support this agency's role in making sure food companies in general '-- and infant formula companies in particular '-- do not produce unsafe food,'' Nestle retorted. Notwithstanding the agency's protests to Evich and Nestle, the agency had only recently asked for such authority.
Efforts to respond to or regulate misinformation are becoming a political problem.
In July, a federal judge issued a sweeping, yet temporary, injunction '-- at the instigation of Republican attorneys general, multiple right-wing political groups, and prominent anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Children's Health Defense '-- barring federal health officials from contacting social media groups to correct information. A large section of the ruling detailed efforts by a CDC official to push back on suspected misinformation on social media networks.
An appeals court later issued its own temporary ruling '-- this time countering the original, sweeping order '-- nevertheless underscoring the extent of pushback on government pushback against misinformation. Califf has consistently played down the government's ability to solve the problem. ''One hundred percent of experts agree, government cannot solve this. We have too much distrust in fundamental institutions,'' he said last June.
It's a remarkable change from his previous tenure leading the agency during the Obama administration. ''I would describe the Obama years as genteel, intellectual, and a lot of fun,'' he has said. Now, however, Califf is bracing for more misinformation. ''It's just something that I think we have to come to grips with,'' he told KFF Health News.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF'--an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
Copyright 2023 KFF Health News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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VIDEO - Yellen Slams 'Entirely Unwarranted' Fitch US Downgrade - YouTube
VIDEO - Sunak Vows to Stop Housing Migrants in Hotels | NTD
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:45
Is the government placing channel migrants into inhumane conditions? This is a claim made by some human rights groups, as the first migrants are about to be transferred from hotels to the Bibby Stockholm barge. NTD spoke to a migration expert to find out more.
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VIDEO - Chinese Bio-Agent Lab in Calif. 'An Act of War': China Expert Gordon Chang | NTD
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:42
An unlicensed Chinese bio-agent laboratory in Fresno, California, was raided by the FBI recently. China expert and author of ''The Great U.S.-China Tech War,'' Gordon Chang, told NTD that the laboratory was ''part of China's plan to weaken the United States.''
Mr. Chang said authorities need to examine other Chinese-owned facilities in the United States. Gordon Chang's writings can be found at gordonchang.com.
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VIDEO - Open Forum, Part 1 | August 3, 2023 | C-SPAN.org
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:32
August 3, 2023 | Part Of Washington Journal 08/03/2023 Washington Journal2023-08-03T07:39:52-04:00 https://ximage.c-spanvideo.org/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwaWN0dXJlcy5jLXNwYW52aWRlby5vcmciLCJrZXkiOiJGaWxlc1wvOWUxXC8wMDFcLzE2OTEwNjMyMDBfMDAxLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciIsImhlaWdodCI6NTA2fX19 Viewers commented on former President Donald Trump's indictment over efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his arraignment in federal court.Viewers commented on former President Donald Trump's indictment over efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his arraignment in federal court.
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May 16, 2023 Open Forum, Part 1Viewers commented on the release of the Durham Report on the FBI's Trump-Russia probe.
April 4, 2023 Open Forum, Part 1Viewers commented on the arraignment of former President Trump.
May 5, 2021 Open Phones, Part 1Viewers responded to the question ''Should former President Trump be reinstated on Facebook?''
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VIDEO - TD Ameritrade Bartlett Warehouse Burns After Investigation Announcements - Franknez.com
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 21:51
Bartlett Warehouse Fire TD AmeritradeThe Bartlett Warehouse fire seems to be a records storage facility owned by TD Ameritrade Inc.
The retail community finds it incredibly suspicious since the incident occurred after the SEC announced 60 hedge funds were to undergo investigations for manipulative short selling.
The address of the Bartlett Warehouse fire can be traced through SEC reports below.
Welcome to Franknez.com '' today's news will leave you in deep thought. Be sure to leave a comment at the end of the article.
Let's get started!
Bartlett Warehouse Fire News Video
Massive fire destroys document warehouse in BartlettThe warehouse caught fire on Thursday morning, February 3rd.
Officials say the warehouse was stacked floor to ceiling with boxes of documents which further fueled the fire, via ABC7 Chicago.
The Bartlett Fire Chief anticipates the fire to be a multi-day event.
The cause of the fire is undetermined.
This news has retail investors baffled as the location of the building, 1200 Humbracht Circle matches an SEC filing tied to TD Ameritrade, the broker company.
Bartlett Warehouse Fire AddressBartlett Warehouse Fire Address, SEC REPORTNow, what makes the news rather interesting is that the storage company ''Access'', is not filed as the owner of the warehouse.
After doing some thorough research, the retail investor community found that the warehouse actually pertains to TD Ameritrade.
Here's the SEC report below.
Bartlett Warehouse Fire TD Ameritrade, SOURCEYou might be asking, well why is this even significant?
The SEC and DoJ have initiated an investigation on hedge funds in regard to illegal short selling activity.
Retail investors find it rather curious that a warehouse linked to the trading broker TD Ameritrade casually burned to the ground after the news of investigations surfaced.
According to Charles Gasparino, the Department of Justice is currently looking at 60 firms for illegal short selling practices.
Breaking '-- @TheJusticeDept investigation into alleged abuses of short sellers is focusing on as many as 60 firms w particular focus on activist short sellers, sources tell @FoxBusiness story developing
'-- Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) February 3, 2022This is a developing story.
Is there a connection between the two?Retail investors over at Reddit have many mixed opinions on the matter.
Bartlett Warehouse Fire RedditHedge funds have been under heavy scrutiny from retail investors.
More specifically from the AMC and GME community after the 'meme stock' frenzy early last year, 2021.
Hedge funds have been able to suppress the share price of both these stocks through predatorial short-selling strategies.
In a Bloomberg exclusive, Gary Gensler states 90%-95% or retail market trades do not go through the lit exchange, but rather through dark pools.
If you have not read the full article, you have to read it here.
Is something being covered here?
Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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VIDEO - FDA approves 2nd over-the-counter drug to treat opioid, fentanyl overdoses | Just The News
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:28
The Facts Inside Our Reporter's NotebookThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a second over-the-counter drug to combat opioid overdoses, including those caused by fentanyl.
RiVive, 3 milligram (mg) naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray was approved as the second over-the-counter (OTC), nonprescription nasal spray for the treatment of a known or suspected opioid overdose. When the drug will be available and its cost to consumers will be determined by its manufacturer, Harm Reduction Therapeutics.
''We know naloxone is a powerful tool to help quickly reverse the effects of opioids during an overdose. Ensuring naloxone is widely available, especially as an approved OTC product, makes a critical tool available to help protect public health,'' FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D., said in a statement. ''The agency has long prioritized access to naloxone products, and we welcome manufacturers of other naloxone products to discuss potential nonprescription development programs with the FDA.''
More than 105,000 fatal overdoses were reported from March 2022 to February 2023, the FDA reported, "which were primarily driven by synthetic opioids like illicit fentanyl.''
Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit pharmaceutical company, was founded in 2017 ''to save lives by making naloxone available over-the-counter for free or at the lowest possible cost. Free from a profit motive, with investors and partners committed to our life-saving mission, our goal is to launch an FDA-approved product as soon as possible,'' it states on its website.
The announcement comes after the FDA in March approved Narcan/Naloxone for over the counter use, the brand and generic versions of the medication that's been found to rapidly reverse the effects of opioid overdoses if administered quickly enough. Naloxone has become the standard treatment for opioid overdoses among law enforcement, emergency response technicians, addiction treatment and medical professionals.
Harm Reduction Therapeutics says that Naloxone has successfully reversed overdoses in 98.8% of cases evaluated by the CDC and that tens of thousands of lives have been saved by it.
Its application for RiVive nasal spray for nonprescription use was approved after data it submitted ''showed similar levels of RiVive reach the bloodstream as an approved prescription naloxone product,'' the FDA said. It also said the nonprofit demonstrated that the drug was safe and effective for use as described in its labeling and that consumers understood how to use it without a health-care professional.
The FDA also this month approved another new drug, sANDA, as the first generic nonprescription naloxone nasal spray product to be available on the market. The application was filed by Padagis US LLC, an Israeli pharmaceutical company, requesting approval to change its prescription marketing status to over the counter marketing status.
Fentanyl remains the No. 1 killer of Americans ages of 18 and 45. According to data analyzed by Families Against Fentanyl, children under 14 are dying at a faster rate from illicit fentanyl poisoning than any other age group.
Recognizing the lethality of the drug, all 50 states and the District of Columbia already have ''access laws or alternate arrangements in place that allow persons to obtain naloxone from a pharmacist without an individualized, in-person prescription,'' Narcan.com reports.
The majority of states and the District of Columbia also have Naloxone standing orders, which allow adults to purchase the drug from a licensed pharmacy without a prescription, Rehabs.org explains. Most rehab facilities and state health departments also have programs through which Americans can get Naloxone for free.
Here's how Americans can get it.
The OTC status gives consumers more options to purchase the drug including at convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations and online, the FDA said.
VIDEO - Devon Archer's testimony shows 'real quid pro quo' in Ukraine was Joe Biden, Comer says | Just The News
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:24
Devon Archer's explosive testimony to Congress could further unravel a narrative about Ukraine corruption that was first cemented during the impeachment case against former President Trump in 2019, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer tells Just the News.
Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, reportedly revealed in the closed-door testimony Monday that Hunter Biden was being pressured back in December 2015 to do something about Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.
In the same month, Hunter's father, Joe Biden, had helped get the Ukrainian prosecutor fired while Biden was serving as vice president. Archer also said Burisma would not have survived had it not been for the influence of the Biden family.
"It's just unbelievable," Comer said Monday, after Archer testified, on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV program.
"We've brought forward, a few weeks ago, an FBI document that alleges that Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme for this very scenario," he also said. "Now we know, despite Joe Biden saying he never had any knowledge of any of this, that he regularly spoke on the phone with the owners of these companies."
Comer also said: "When in American history has a vice president ever taken an active role, and demanded that a prosecutor be fired in a foreign country for simply investigating a business that was domiciled in that foreign country? Never. The evidence continues to mount that the real quid pro quo pertaining to Ukraine in Burisma was Joe Biden."
Comer argued that Biden helped get the prosecutor fired because "he was closing in on his son."
"I think that was basically what we learned today and, you know, more and more people are going to come forward now," he said.
Biden said on the campaign trail during the 2020 election that he never discussed foreign business dealings with son Hunter.
Archer testified that President Biden, the vice president in the Obama administration, was on the phone about 20 times with individuals that Hunter was doing business with at the time, according to a lawmaker in the room.
Democrats in Congress in 2019 argued that Trump had no basis to ask Ukraine's president to investigate Hunter Biden over his ties to Burisma and the firing of the prosecutor.
"President Trump, he was impeached over what the Bidens actually were doing," said Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington, while also appearing on "Just the News, No Noise."
"Just think of that: a perfect phone call and here we have 20 phone calls, at least, of Joe Biden being involved with, obviously, his son's business dealings because Hunter, by his own admission, had no business being on the board of Burisma."
Harrington predicted that Trump would eventually be "completely vindicated."
New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, who heard Archer's testimony, told reporters that Archer recalled Hunter speaking with his father "every day" on the phone.
"He approximated that about 20 times over the course of his 10-year business relationship that he had with Hunter Biden, which would be about twice a year, that Hunter would put his father on speakerphone with whomever was at dinner '' and there was no indication that he had any idea who was at dinner with them," according to Goldman's recount of Archer's testimony.
Comer argued that these phone conversations are evidence of "influence peddling."
"They were selling access to Joe and I think most people in America would have a problem with that," he said. "That's why we're investigating Joe Biden. We know his family has sold access to him for years. The problem is we could have a president that's compromised."
"It was also mentioned that Joe Biden met with that Russian oligarch," Comer also said. "I don't know that we knew that. And yet, that Russian oligarch was one of the few oligarchs, the only oligarch that didn't get sanctioned by Joe Biden.
"And then you look at the decision as vice president where he went on TV and admitted and bragged about firing the prosecutor. Those are two decisions Joe Biden made as president and vice president that was counter to the best interests of the American people, but where he put the Biden family first and American last."
