WORLD NEWS
Brits Are Protesting 15-Minute Cities To Avoid Becoming Prisoners Of The State
Fifteen-minute cities are popping up everywhere, and the World Economic Forum is wildly enthusiastic about them. Last year it was announced that Paris, France, would become a 15-minute city, and now the British city of Oxford is next. However, outraged Brits are fighting back. As reported previously at RAIR Foundation USA, the city council has announced that it will divide Oxford into 15-minute neighborhoods or small 15-minute towns billed as “greener, cleaner and safer.” To further seize control of people’s lives, globalists are pushing the false idea that these “green” cities – which make services accessible to residents within 15 minutes of their homes – will “save the planet” and help all humanity.
Instead, they are nothing more than a way for them to restrict, coerce, fine, punish, surveil, and limit the fundamental right of freedom of movement for residents. For example, residents are not allowed to leave your 15-minute city by car more than the allotted times a year. Otherwise, you will be fined. In addition, the government will track and control your every movement through your smartphones & facial recognition technology.
‘A New System’: Inside DAVOS Summit 2023
The World Economic Forum’s annual meet-up kicks off tomorrow. Politicians, corporate giants, “philanthropists” and all manner of elite monstrosities gather for a weekend of telling each other how smart they are and making the world generally worse.
But what’s on the menu this year?
Well, here are the five main items up for discussion, according to the WEF’s website:
See if you can notice a pattern:
- Addressing the Current Energy and Food Crises in the context of a New System for Energy, Climate and Nature
- Addressing the Current High Inflation, Low Growth, High Debt Economy in the context of a New System for Investment, Trade and Infrastructure
- Addressing the Current Industry Headwinds in the context of a New System for Harnessing Frontier Technologies for Private Sector Innovation and Resilience
- Addressing the Current Social Vulnerabilities in the context of a New System for Work, Skills and Care
- Addressing the Current Geopolitical Risks in the context of a New System for Dialogue and Cooperation in a Multipolar World
Now, none of this is news. A “new system” for energy is a “green new deal”, a “new system” for international cooperation is some type of global governance, and a “new system” for investment and trade covers a lot of topics, including digital currency.
Like I said, nothing new, but it’s always refreshing to see it in print, with no effort to hide it.
Saudi Arabia ready to ditch dollar in trade – Finance Minister
Shift from US to Chinese currency has previously been discussed between Beijing and Riyadh
Saudi Arabia is ready to discuss trading in currencies other than the US dollar, according to the Kingdom’s finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, as cited by Bloomberg.
Al-Jadaan’s comments come a month after China’s President Xi Jinping said that Beijing is ready to make energy purchases in yuan instead of the US dollar in trade exchanges with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). China’s leader highlighted the necessity of the shift while speaking at a Chinese-Arab summit hosted by Saudi Arabia earlier this week.
“There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in US dollar, in euro or in Saudi riyal,” Al-Jadaan said on Tuesday during an interview with Bloomberg in Davos, Switzerland.
The oil-rich kingdom is seeking to deepen its ties with vital trade partners, including China. The readiness for talks on the issue expressed by Riyadh may signal that the world’s biggest oil exporter is open to diversifying away from the US dollar after decades of pricing crude exports in the US currency. The riyal, the Saudi national currency, has been pegged to the greenback, too.
Chinese Regime Hiding Real COVID Death Toll; Figure Far Higher Than Official Tally: Experts
The Chinese regime is still covering up the true COVID-19 death toll in China, experts said in response to Chinese authorities’ recent admission of tens of thousands of deaths in the latest wave. The true figure is likely exponentially higher, they say.
Studies and official statements revealing high infection numbers, as well as accounts from residents and mortuary workers, suggest the country is harboring a significant death count, according to analysts.
China’s top health regulator on Jan. 14 acknowledged nearly 60,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the first five weeks after the regime’s abrupt retreat from its zero-COVID policy in December 2022.
While the figure is an increase from the absurdly low official tallies—37 deaths—previously reported by Chinese officials that prompted widespread skepticism, experts remain unconvinced by the disclosure.
“The newly reported death figures are still suspicious,” said Song Guo-cheng, a researcher at National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations in Taiwan.
The rate of COVID-19 infection suggests a far higher death toll, according to Song.
EU’s Von Der Leyen Announces Green Agenda Expansion at World Economic Forum
Ursula von der Leyen announced a fresh expansion of the EU’s green agenda during a speech to the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised globalist leaders for their work in lowering carbon emissions, before committing the European Union to even further industrial green agenda goals.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Ex-intel Officer Who Discredited Hunter Biden Laptop as ‘Disinformation’ Makes New Admission
A former CIA officer who signed an open letter attempting to discredit reports about Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 election admitted that most of what was discovered on the laptop is real.
Douglas Wise, a former CIA officer and Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director, signed an open letter in 2020 that the New York Post’s October 2020 report had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” About 50 other former U.S. intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, signed the document.
Over the past weekend, however, Wise conceded that most of what was found on the infamous laptop was real. Last year, the New York Times and Washington Post published articles making similar admissions.
“All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible,” Wise told The Australian newspaper on Sunday. But Wise told the paper that he doesn’t regret signing the letter and said it is “no surprise” the emails were real.
“The letter said it had the earmarks of Russian deceit and we should consider that as a possibility,” Wise said. “It did not say Hunter Biden was a good guy, it didn’t say what he did was right and it wasn’t exculpatory, it was just a cautionary letter.”
Wise, who has not responded to an Epoch Times request for comment, added that former New York Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani “had just been in Ukraine trying to dig up evidence on the Bidens and he met with a known Russian intelligence official. Russians or even ill-intended conservative elements could have planted stuff in there.”
In the Oct. 19, 2020, letter, the 51 former officials wrote that they “do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement.” Making an appeal to authority, they wrote that their “experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Joe Biden of trying to hide the public records of his tax returns after noting that some have disappeared from the president’s campaign website.
During Monday night’s episode of his primetime show, Carlson alleged that Biden has taken steps to hide where he gets his wealth from while pointing to how his tax returns from 2016 to 2018 are no longer available to view.
While links on JoeBiden.com to the president’s federal and Delaware tax returns from 2019 can still be viewed, the ones from 2016 to 2018 now redirect to a Democrat donations page.
How Medical Technocracy Made the Plandemic Possible
Technocracy is an economic ideology built around totalitarian rule by unelected leaders that got its start in the 1930s, when scientists and engineers got together to solve the nation’s economic problems
The word comes from the word “techn,” which means “skill,” and the god “Kratos,” which is the divine personification of power. A technocrat is someone who exercises power over you on the basis of their knowledge
Evidence of technocratic rule has also become evident during the pandemic. The censoring and manipulation of medical information is part and parcel of the social engineering part of this system
The medical technocracy has lied to us about several things, starting with the risk of death from COVID-19. Based on deaths per capita, the global average death rate for COVID-19 is 0.009%. The average person’s chance of surviving this disease is 99.991%
Evidence that the technocratic fear propaganda is working can be seen in a recent poll, which found Millennials believe 2% of their generation will die from COVID-19
DeSantis Seeks To Make Permanent Protections From Covid Mandates
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans Tuesday to permanently eliminate COVID-19 mandates in Florida during the upcoming legislative session.
The pending proposal will permanently ban mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccination requirements under state law. It also plans to ban vaccine passports and provide free speech protections for healthcare workers.
Details are few, as no legislation is yet filed. DeSantis, however, is championing the move as an effort to defend the livelihoods of Floridians.
“We look forward to making the protections we have enacted for Floridians against the biomedical security state permanent and want to ensure that no Floridians face discrimination based on vax status,” DeSantis said.
The new bill builds upon legislation the governor signed back in 2021, which temporarily banned mask and vaccine mandates in Florida through June 2023.
The new bill will make those bans permanent and further include free speech protections for healthcare workers.
Those protections, DeSantis says, will defend the right of medical staff to “disagree with the preferred narrative of the medical community.”
Also, he and others contend it will uphold the religious freedoms of medical workers who oppose COVID-19 vaccination.
“All medical professionals should be encouraged to engage in scientific discourse without fearing for their livelihoods or their careers,” said Florida General Joseph Ladapo at the Panama City press conference alongside DeSantis.
NYC Offering Free Abortion Pills
New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday the city is offering free abortion medication at four city-run health clinics, according to The Hill.
“For too long,” Adams says, speaking on his agenda to repair inequities for women in the city, “health and healthcare has been centered around men. If men had periods, pap smears and menopause, they would get a paid vacation. And if men could get pregnant, we wouldn’t see Congress trying to pass laws restricting abortion.”
“We have been standing on the sidelines of women’s health for too long, and I have personally seen firsthand how the health system is letting our women down,” the mayor added.
Starting Wednesday, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene clinic in the Bronx will be offering the medication. According to the governor’s office, three other locations offering the medication at the end of the year include clinics in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens.
The move to offer free abortion pills at the city-funded clinics is intended to assist patients dealing with insurance and economic hurdles.
“No other city in the nation or in the world has a public health department that is providing medication abortion. We are the first,” Adams said. “It is long overdue that we break taboos and make New York City a model for the future of women’s healthcare. We are going to build a city that is here for all women and girls.”
The plans for the abortion medication were announced as part of Adams’s “New York City Women’s Health Agenda.” The agenda is set to contain plans for making the city and workplaces “more women’s healthcare friendly.” Such items are said to range from lactation rooms for nursing mothers to paid leave for cancer screenings.
Turley: Bill to Curb ‘White Supremacy’ Is ‘Flagrantly Unconstitutional’
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, introduced a bill in the House last week aimed at curbing “white supremacy” and hate crimes, but there is also concern it would violate the First Amendment.
The Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023 seeks to “prevent and prosecute white supremacy inspired hate crime and conspiracy to commit white supremacy inspired hate crime.”
People who use hate speech online could face criminal charges under the proposed legislation even if they don’t act on their threats.
According to George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley, “It is a criminal hate speech law that would violate core principles of the First Amendment.”
“It makes clear that the accused does not actually have to support or conspire in a crime,” Turley wrote in a Tuesday blog post. “This is so flagrantly unconstitutional on so many levels from free speech to vagueness that it is actually impressive.”
According to the bill’s text, a “conspiracy to engage in white supremacy inspired hate crime shall be determined to exist between two or more persons at least one of whom published material advancing white supremacy, white supremacist ideology, antagonism based on ‘replacement theory,’ or hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-White person or group.”
A posted message would satisfy the statute if it is “published on a social media platform or by other means of publication with the likelihood that it would be viewed by persons who are predisposed to engaging in any action in furtherance of a white supremacy inspired hate crime or who are susceptible to being encouraged to engage in actions in furtherance of a white supremacy inspired hate crime.”
“How would a reasonable person discern a predisposition to engage in White supremacy?” Turley asked in his blog post, comparing it to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 test for pornography, in which he could not provide a clear definition and instead said, “I know it when I see it.”
The bill also states that there has been a rise in “mass shootings and other hate crimes motivated by white supremacy.”
“These heinous and virulent crimes are inspired by conspiracy theories, blatant bigotry and mythical falsehoods such as ‘replacement theory,’” it reads. “All instances must be prevented and severe criminal penalties must be applied to their perpetrators.”
Pentagon Still Can’t Account For Roughly $220 Billion In Equipment, Gov’t Watchdog Says
The Department of Defense (DOD) has neglected to address its inability to keep track of at least $220 billion in equipment provided to government contractors, according to a Tuesday report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Auditors first reported the Pentagon’s failure to account for government-owned equipment or material offered up for use to contracting agencies, also called government furnished property, in 2001, according to the report. DOD has made little improvement since then, increasing the risk that the Pentagon could accidentally overlook errors in the books.
“This long-standing issue affects the accounting and reporting of GFP and is one of the reasons DOD is unable to produce auditable financial statements,” GAO said. Of all the major federal agencies GAO is obligated to review, DOD is the only one unable to receive an opinion on its financial statements.
Prosecutors Drop Case Against NYPD Officer Accused of Spying for China
Prosecutors for the Eastern District of New York on Friday dropped their charges against Baimadajie Angwang, an NYPD officer and former U.S. Marine accused of reporting to Chinese officials on the activities of fellow ethnic Tibetans living in the United States.
Angwang was working as a community affairs officer in Queens when he was arrested in September 2020 and charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. He was 33 years old at the time.
Angwang was born in Chinese-occupied Tibet, where he said he was arrested and beaten by Chinese authorities as a teenager for criticizing the occupation. He obtained political asylum in the United States, joined the Marines in 2009, and became an American citizen in 2010. His military service, which concluded with an honorable discharge in 2014, included seven months in Afghanistan. He obtained a secret-level security clearance from the Department of Defense during his time with the Marines, where he achieved the rank of sergeant and was decorated several times.
Kari Lake Responds to Reports She’ll Run for US Senate
Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake on Tuesday brushed aside speculation she might be running for Arizona’s Senate seat in 2024, following anonymously sourced reports that she might.
A CNN reporter, Kate Sullivan, wrote on Twitter Monday, “I’m told Kari Lake is considering running for the US Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema in 2024.” Sullivan did not divulge more information about where she got that information.
But in a statement on Tuesday, Lake’s campaign disputed the report and noted that she is still challenging the midterm election results in court. Earlier this month, Arizona’s Court of Appeals agreed to expedite her challenge against Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County officials that argued there were enough Election Day problems that swung the race out of her favor on Nov. 8.
Her campaign told The Gateway Pundit that “Kari is hyper-focused on winning her court case as she is the duly-elected Governor and her Election Case proves that,” adding that “hundreds of thousands of invalid ballots were counted in Maricopa County alone” and there were “lines of 4 hours or more at some locations” on Election Day. Maricopa County officials on Nov. 8 confirmed there were ballot printing problems and told voters to place their ballots in separate drop-boxes for later counting.
“That is just a BIT of what went wrong in Arizona,” the statement said. “Kari Lake is fighting to protect the sacred vote of the People of Arizona.”
The statement noted that “dozens of people” have contacted Lake to suggest that she run for the seat currently held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), who recently changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent.
“There have been several polls showing she is the strongest candidate and could win,” it said. “The corruption in DC is as bad as it is in AZ and we need to root out that corruption, but Kari’s focus is on her election case and saving the good people of Arizona from [Hobbs].”
Pentagon Still Can’t Account For Roughly $220 Billion In Equipment, Gov’t Watchdog Says
The Department of Defense (DOD) has neglected to address its inability to keep track of at least $220 billion in equipment provided to government contractors, according to a Tuesday report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Auditors first reported the Pentagon’s failure to account for government-owned equipment or material offered up for use to contracting agencies, also called government furnished property, in 2001, according to the report. DOD has made little improvement since then, increasing the risk that the Pentagon could accidentally overlook errors in the books.
“This long-standing issue affects the accounting and reporting of GFP and is one of the reasons DOD is unable to produce auditable financial statements,” GAO said. Of all the major federal agencies GAO is obligated to review, DOD is the only one unable to receive an opinion on its financial statements.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
WSJ: Central Bank Digital Currencies Are Coming, Ready Or Not
The game-changing development could have a profound impact on the banking system. But few people still understand it.
“Central-bank digital currency” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But you might want to get used to saying it. These so-called CBDCs, or digital versions of dollars, yuan, euros, yen or any other currency, are coming, say those who study them. And depending on how they are designed and rolled out, their impact on the banking system could be profound.
One hundred and fourteen countries are exploring digital currencies, and their collective economies represent more than 95% of the world’s GDP, according to the Atlantic Council’s Central Bank Digital Currency tracker. Some countries, including China, India, Nigeria and the Bahamas, have already rolled out digital currencies. Others, like Sweden and Japan, are preparing for possible rollouts. The U.S. is studying the issue and has run trials of various technologies to enable a digital currency, although Fed chair Jerome Powell has indicated the U.S. central bank has no plans to create one, and won’t do so without direction from Congress.
Debates about the necessity, utility and potential pros and cons of digital currencies are often confusing, and confused, in part because every country rolling out a digital currency is doing it in its own way.
Generally, however, CBDCs can be roughly divided into two types: those designed for use by financial institutions and those designed for use by the general public.
West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore told Breitbart News on the first anniversary of his state divesting from BlackRock over its “net zero” policy push that the asset manager is “starting to hedge” and that the push against the policy movement is “having an effect.”
“It’s been really interesting. I couldn’t be happier with the direction that it is going. And you do see these financial institutions starting to hedge. BlackRock is starting to hedge. You see that happening, and it is having an effect,” Moore told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview.
The interview occurred on Tuesday, the first anniversary of West Virginia’s move to become the first state to pull investment funds from places like BlackRock that embrace “net zero” investment strategies, which would ultimately hurt the state’s fossil fuel industry. Since then, Republican state treasurers and other lawmakers have begun pushing back against the “net zero” initiatives, which are one of the main components of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policy movement.
Breitbart Business Digest: The Fight Against ESG Has Only Just Begun
It has been one year since Riley Moore, the Treasurer of West Virginia, announced that BlackRock would no longer be allowed to manage his state’s operating funds. This was the beginning of a tectonic shift against the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement that deployed the savings of Americans in pursuit of left-wing policy goals.
The flourishing of the anti-ESG movement at the state level was long-overdue. Ironically, the ESG movement claimed that its strategy produced “sustainable investments” when it was actually producing an energy shortage here and in Europe that was unsustainable, making the world vulnerable to the policies of Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the profit-seeking of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If the under-investment in fossil fuels had continued unabated, the results would have been economically ruinous and geopolitically catastrophic.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
How Medical Technocracy Made the Plandemic Possible
Technocracy is an economic ideology built around totalitarian rule by unelected leaders that got its start in the 1930s, when scientists and engineers got together to solve the nation’s economic problems
The word comes from the word “techn,” which means “skill,” and the god “Kratos,” which is the divine personification of power. A technocrat is someone who exercises power over you on the basis of their knowledge
Evidence of technocratic rule has also become evident during the pandemic. The censoring and manipulation of medical information is part and parcel of the social engineering part of this system
The medical technocracy has lied to us about several things, starting with the risk of death from COVID-19. Based on deaths per capita, the global average death rate for COVID-19 is 0.009%. The average person’s chance of surviving this disease is 99.991%
Evidence that the technocratic fear propaganda is working can be seen in a recent poll, which found Millennials believe 2% of their generation will die from COVID-19
>> Video: LEE MERRITT, M.D. – SARS-COV2 AND THE RISE OF MEDICAL TECHNOCRACY
A Tesla vehicle suddenly accelerated into a ferry ramp at the Horseshoe Bay terminal in West Vancouver, Canada, breaking the car in half. Various governmental agencies have investigated instances of Teslas reportedly “suddenly accelerating” in the past, an investigation of this incident is ongoing.
North Shore News reports that police in West Vancouver are investigating a recent incident in which a Tesla vehicle unexpectedly accelerated and collided with a ferry ramp at the Horseshoe Bay terminal, breaking the car in two. The driver and passenger are cooperating with the investigation and were both taken to the hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening.
Sorry, Elon!: Wyoming Legislators Draft Resolution to Ban Electric Vehicles by 2035
Legislators in the state of Wyoming have begun the process of introducing legislation that aims to phase out electric vehicles by 2035. State Sen. Jim Anderson explained, “if you don’t like our gasoline-powered cars, then we don’t like your electric cars.”
Cowboy State Daily reports that a resolution is currently being debated in the Wyoming Legislature designed to phase out the sale of new electric vehicles (EVs) in the state by 2035. Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, is the sponsor of the resolution, titled “Phasing Out New Electric Vehicle Sales By 2035,” and it is seen as a response to laws enacted by other states that aim to phase out gas-powered vehicles.
Texas Protects Teens: UT Austin Blocks Students from Accessing China’s TikTok via Campus Wi-Fi
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has blocked students from accessing the China-owned app TikTok on its Wi-Fi network. The move comes after Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) banned the Chinese app from use on government devices.
UT Austin told students in a Tuesday email obtained by the Hill that the school is barring the Chinese app to comply with Gov. Abbott’s December directive to “eliminate the cybersecurity risk posed by TikTok.”
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Jim Jordan Warns Against TSA Using China-Style Facial Recognition at Airports
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is warning against the rise of facial recognition used by the TSA at American airports, comparing it to systems used by Russia and China to track their citizens, amid growing scrutiny of the Biden Administration’s expansion of the technology.
“Countries like China and Russia use facial recognition technology to track their citizens,” wrote Rep. Jordan on Twitter. “Do you trust Joe Biden’s TSA to use it as well?”
The tweet from Jordan, the new chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, followed news that the TSA has significantly increased the level of facial recognition technology at airports, with 16 of the nation’s larges airports now using face scanning tech.
The expansion, which one opinion writer for Fox News described as “one of the largest efforts to collect advanced biometric data of law-abiding citizens in US history,” is the first step on the TSA’s plan to replace human verification with machine verification at airports.
Via Fox News:
TSA administrator David Pekoske says his agency has found that the facial recognition algorithm is more accurate than human TSA agents, and TSA claims that eventually facial recognition could be combined with government databases to eliminate the need for carrying an ID at the airport completely. But as convenient and effective the program could become, it poses substantial long-term threats to individual liberty that far outweigh its possible benefits.
The TSA says it will not keep the data associated with most travelers’ facial scans, although some will be retained to test the system’s effectiveness and for law enforcement. And the TSA further promises that under the current iteration of the program, it will allow travelers to opt out of the facial scans entirely. But there is no guarantee that these policies will remain permanently in place, and there are no federal laws that would prevent the TSA from storing biometric data in the future.
While most of the backlash has focused on privacy, Washington Post columnist Geoffrey Fowler’s “number one” concern, aired in an interview with PBS, was the possibility that facial recognition software used by TSA might be racist.
HEALTH
Early Research Finds Extracts from Sweet Wormwood Plant Can Inhibit the COVID-19 Virus
A team of researchers that includes Worcester Polytechnic Institute Biology Professor Pamela Weathers has found that extracts from the leaves of the Artemisia annua plant, a medicinal herb also known as sweet wormwood, inhibit the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and two of its recent variants.
The team, which included researchers from Columbia University in New York and the University of Washington at Seattle, also found that extracts of the plant were more effective against the virus when levels of a key therapeutic compound in the plant, artemisinin, were low. The in vitro findings led the researchers to suggest that one or more compounds in Artemisia annua, or A. annua, that have not yet been identified may point to a safe, low-cost therapeutic treatment for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The work was described in an article published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
“Artemisia annua has been studied extensively, and it has been used safely for more than 2,000 years in traditional medicine to treat a variety of fever-related ailments,” Weathers said. “A. annua could provide clues to new safe, cost-effective small molecule therapies or even be used as an antiviral nutraceutical.”
The researchers soaked dried leaves of A. annua, obtained from four continents in hot water and tested the solutions against SARS-CoV-2 and two variants originating from the United Kingdom and South Africa. Some leaf samples were 12 years old but still potent against the virus. Researchers also tested artemisinin alone against the viruses, but the plant extracts were more potent. Artemisinin is a compound naturally produced by the plant, but is usually extracted, chemically modified, and developed in combination with other drugs to treat malaria.
Results showed that the extracts of A. annua did not block the virus from entering cells but interfered with the virus’ ability to replicate, thus killing it. In addition, the anti-replication activity did not appear linked to artemisinin or flavonoids, which are natural substances in the plants.
“These findings add to evidence emerging from other labs around the world that this plant possesses compounds that could help patients who are infected with COVID-19,” Weathers said. “We also know that the plant possesses compounds that inhibit inflammation and the formation of scar-like tissues known as fibrosis, which also affect patients with COVID-19. Together, these characteristics point to a plant that bears a lot more study.”
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>> Related Study: Artemisia (Wormwood) and Artemisia-based products for COVID-19 management: current state and future perspective
Artemisia-based products have demonstrated a broad spectrum of biological ability including antiviral properties. Besides its antiviral activity, Artemisia annua have shown to contain appreciable amounts of minerals such as zinc, gallium and selenium among others.
Why You Must Supplement with Zinc Every Day
It’s a fact that zinc is highly involved in the health of your body. Of all the 59 Trace Elements, Zinc participates in every activity of the human body. Even though zinc is a trace mineral, meaning that the body only needs small amounts, it is required for almost 100 enzymes to carry out vital chemical reactions. Zinc also plays an essential role in making DNA, growth of cells, building proteins, wound healing, blood clotting, thyroid function, and supporting a healthy immune system. Since zinc is not stored in your body, you can see why you need a good source of zinc daily.
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Calcium Orotate: How It Compares to Other Calcium Supplements
Calcium orotate is the most highly absorbed calcium supplement. Extensive research by the late German doctor Hans A. Nieper, M.D. found that orotate molecules are the most efficient carriers of calcium, magnesium, lithium, and other ions in the body. Orotates can cross the cell membrane, delivering the mineral ion to the innermost layers of the cell, reaching the mitochondria and nucleus. Other calcium supplements, such as calcium carbonate, citrate, gluconate, lactate, malate, and phosphate, cannot penetrate into the membranes as orotates can, or are broken up in the digestive tract.
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Freshwater Fish Highly Polluted With ‘Forever Chemicals’ Linked to Health Problems: Study
Eating just one locally caught freshwater fish could be equivalent to drinking water that’s highly contaminated with “forever chemicals”—or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—for a month, a recent study has found.
PFAS are invisible man-made chemicals, high levels of which have been linked to health issues including various cancers, reproductive issues, and adverse effects on immune function.
Scientists from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a U.S.-based research and advocacy nonprofit, analyzed U.S. government data derived from 501 samples of fish fillets collected across the United States from 2013 to 2015 under two monitoring programs of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Their analysis, formally published on Jan. 17 in the journal Environmental Research, found the majority of fish from rivers and streams across the United States are “potentially a significant source” of exposure to PFAS.
The study found the median level of PFAS in freshwater fish were an astounding 278 times higher than the levels the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detected in commercially-sold fish in 2019–2022.
“People who consume freshwater fish, especially those who catch and eat fish regularly, are at risk of alarming levels of PFAS in their bodies,” David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG and one of the study’s lead authors, said in a statement. “Growing up, I went fishing every week and ate those fish. But now when I see fish, all I think about is PFAS contamination.”
China’s TikTok Claims Another Life: 12-Year-Old Girl Dies After Trying ‘Choking Challenge’
A 12-year-old girl in Argentina has died after participating in the deadly “choking challenge” first popularized on the China-owned app TikTok.
The girl’s death was filmed in a video call with her classmates watching as she attempting the choking challenge, also known as the “blackout challenge,” prompted by TikTok, reports El Litoral.
The 12-year-old girl, Milagros Soto, was “encouraged” by her classmates to participate in the fatal TikTok challenge, which involved “recording herself and managing to hold her breath with an object tied to her neck until she fainted,” the report added.
Soto, who had lived in Capitán Bermúdez, Argentina, was found dead hanging in her room on Friday. Her relatives are now asking to “raise awareness” about the risks associated with viral TikTok challenges, so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Numerous Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Rendered Useless as Thieves Discover New Way to Cash In
Seattle electric vehicle users are experiencing yet another problem with EVs, and it is a problem you can bet will spread — in short order — to other big cities.
It seems as if not a week passes where we don’t see another new problem with electric vehicles, but at least this issue isn’t exactly the fault of the still shaky technology. Users in Seattle have discovered public charging stations broken open and missing copper wiring, which had been ripped out by metals thieves.
The issue has been ongoing for months, Media Relations Manager for Seattle City Light Jenn Strang said, according to KOMO-TV.
“Since March of 2022, we have seen an increase of activity where we’ve have had people coming and removing the charging cables from our public charging stations,” Strang told the outlet.
“They are taking the metal, and they are turning it in for monetary gain. Unfortunately, the amount of money they are [getting] is nominal. It’s about ten dollars,” Strang explained.
City officials indicated that eight charging stations have recently been vandalized by thieves.
The repair price is far more than a mere ten dollars, though. Strang said that the cables cost upwards of $2,000 each to replace, and that is on top of the $500 to have a technician install the replacements.
New Startup ‘Cult’ Releasing Chemtrails
Make Sunsets, a startup company with primary offices in Mexico, claims to have released two balloons with sulfur particles in April 2022, which they hope exploded and released the particles in the stratosphere
Without monitoring devices, the company is unsure of what happened to the balloons, but claims the sulfur they released will offset a substantial amount of warming in 2023
The idea was inspired by weather changes after major volcanic eruptions spewed ash into the atmosphere and the weather temporarily shifted; experts call the actions of Make Sunsets “wildly premature,” noting it isn’t possible to estimate the potential consequences that could unilaterally alter the climate
The CEO, Luke Iseman, didn’t appear to believe that transparency or governance is required when manipulating the environment, making a move he called provocative and geoengineering activism, without public engagement, scientific scrutiny or approval from government authorities or scientific agencies
Not all experts agree on the degree to which warming has changed Earth’s climate, but as we have learned in the last three years, without honest disagreement and debate, the science community cannot contribute to policies that govern how medicine or technology is implemented to protect humanity
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Indoor Garden – 12 Reasons to Grow Organic Food Indoors
If you are a frustrated gardener with no land with which to garden upon, there IS a solution that is not only fairly easy to implement but also so much fun you will be amazed. That solution does require utilization of some of those brain cells hanging around in your head (or the head of someone willing to help with the project). We are talking about having an indoor garden and raising not only healthy, organic fruits and vegetables, but raising enough of them to give your pocketbook a break. If you have a big enough indoor space, you might even be able to sell the fruits of your labor.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Dad says FEMA tried to bribe him after teen son’s post-vaccine death: He refused and went public
Ernest Ramirez says he wanted to do the right thing for his son, so he decided to have 16-year-old Ernesto take the COVID-19 vaccine.
After all, what was the harm? Ramirez was told the vaccine was 100 percent safe.
Five days later, on April 24, 2021, his son died from complications related to an enlarged heart, Ramirez told LifeSiteNews.
Soon after his son’s death, Ramirez says, he received a call from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to him, agency officials asked him to change the cause of death for his son to “COVID.”
Ramirez says they offered to help him financially in exchange for doing so.
On Friday, a video of Ramirez’s FEMA revelation made the rounds on Twitter, going viral with a whopping 1.3 million views. The speech was filmed in April at the “Defeat the Mandates Rally” in Los Angeles.
Fear Is Pfizer’s Financial Fertilizer
There’s a new COVID variant making the rounds, and it’s said to be “the most transmissible” variant to date. The new variant, XBB.1.5, was quickly dubbed the “Kraken,” which is a moniker referring to a legendary sea beast that could not be defeated
But there’s nothing particularly noteworthy, and certainly nothing scary, about this new variant. It’s more transmissible but causes milder disease than previous Omicron variants. Most experience only mild cold symptoms
Behavioral scientists have long known that fear of contagion makes people both intolerant toward others and compliant with authority. As such, fear is an indispensable social engineering tool, and we know The Great Reset pushers need the pandemic to keep chugging or else their plans will get seriously hampered. Big Pharma also need people to remain in fear in order to keep sales of their useless COVID shots going
A large Cleveland Clinic study found that, compared to the unvaccinated, workers who had received one COVID jab were 1.7 times more likely to test positive for COVID. Those with two doses were 2.63 times more likely to test positive, those with three doses had 3.1 times the risk, and those with four or more doses were 3.8 times more likely to get infected
In the same quarter that president Biden introduced COVID jab mandates to corporate America, excess mortality was 78% for the 25 to 34 age group and 100% for the 35 to 44 age group
>> Video: New COVID subvariant XBB.1.5 “most transmissible” detected yet: WHO
Moderna and regulatory agencies did not present clinical data on bivalent shots at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) committee meetings in June and September 2022, respectively.
Presentations to the FDA and CDC advisory committee excluded data from Moderna’s own clinical study that showed bivalent boosters may be no better at preventing infections than previous booster shots.
The data showed that among people who were never infected, 3.2 percent who took the bivalent booster got infected afterward, while 1.9 percent who took the monovalent booster were later infected.
Advisors to the FDA and CDC expressed concerns of lack of transparency.
Dr. William Schaffner from Vanderbilt University, a nonvoting member of the CDC advisory committee, said that he was disappointed that the data were not presented.
“I think in the interests of transparency, those data should have been presented,” Schaffner said, “though they were very limited, and early data.”
Pentagon ‘Not Currently Pursuing’ Back Pay for Troops Discharged over Vaccine Mandate
The Pentagon said Tuesday it is not pursuing back pay for service members who were discharged from the military for not complying with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for the military.
“Right now, we are not currently pursuing back-pay to service members who were dismissed for refusing to take the COVID vaccination,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said during a press briefing.
Ryder also claimed that the mandate was “lawful” — despite unanswered questions over whether Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ever sought and received a presidential waiver to mandate a vaccine that was approved by the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization, as the law requires.
CANCEL CULTURE
Biden Administration Opens Civil Rights Investigation into School Bans on Groomer Books
The Biden administration has opened an investigation into a Texas school district for banning sexually explicit books that promote gender theory.
President Joe Biden’s Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is seeking legal precedent saying the failure to represent “LGBTQ” characters in school content can constitute discrimination.
School districts across the country have been forced by parents to remove books deemed sexually explicit or racially divisive in the wake of public schools being exposed as left-wing indoctrination mills.
Many of the books describe, in detail, and glorify the completion of sexual acts between minors and even pedophilic interactions.
Granbury Independent School District in Texas is at the center of the probe, which will be based on an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) complaint from the summer. In 2022, Granbury removed 130 books from library shelves, about 75 percent of which were deemed to be too sexual and have “LGBTQ” characters. The Texas ACLU promptly filed a complaint.
INFOGRAPHIC: Key Revelations of the ‘Twitter Files’
Files reveal how the government pressured the social media giant into censoring a large number of accounts
Documents revealed by Twitter’s new owner, tech billionaire Elon Musk, show the social media company has been intertwined with a government–private censorship apparatus.
Twitter suppressed or removed content on various subjects, including irregularities in the 2020 elections, mail-in voting issues, and various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company was under government pressure to purge such content and its purveyors from the platform, though most of the time it was cooperating with the censorship requests willingly, the documents indicate.
ICYMI
Biden Says Americans Would ‘Need Some F-15s’ to Fight Government
The president vowed to ban ‘assault weapons’
President Joe Biden said on Monday that AR-15 rifles wouldn’t help Americans in an armed conflict with the federal government.
Biden made the comments during the National Action Network’s (NAN) annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast in Washington, where he vowed to ban what he called “assault weapons,” referring to semiautomatic sporting rifles in the style of an AR-15.
“I love my right-wing friends who talk about ‘the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots,’” he said. “If you need to worry about taking on the federal government, you need some F-15s. You don’t need an AR-15.”
Biden’s comment was a reference to a Thomas Jefferson quote.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” Jefferson wrote in a 1787 letter to William Stephens Smith, the son-in-law of John Adams.
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