WORLD NEWS
Putin Signs Decree Imposing Restrictions on ‘Unfriendly’ Countries
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on April 4 to place visa restrictions on countries that have taken “unfriendly actions” against the Kremlin in recent weeks.
The decree was mandated “in response to unfriendly actions of the European Union,” according to the text of the order, state-run media reported. Russian news outlets published a photo of Putin signing the measure.
It ordered the Russian foreign ministry and other bodies to decide on introducing personal entry restrictions on “foreign citizens and stateless people who commit unfriendly actions against Russia, its citizens or its legal entities.”
Last month, the Russian government approved a list of “unfriendly” countries, including the United States, Canada, the UK, EU states, and Ukraine, among others.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month that the decree was developed “in connection with the unfriendly actions of a number of foreign states.”
“This act will introduce a number of restrictions on entry to the territory of Russia.”
Sri Lanka: Cabinet Resigns en Masse After Food and Fuel Shortages, Protests
Almost all of the Sri Lankan government’s Cabinet — apart from the nation’s president and prime minister — resigned from their posts on Sunday amid Sri Lanka’s worsening economic crisis, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Monday.
“All 26 ministers in the Cabinet aside from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted letters of resignation at a late-night meeting,” Sri Lanka Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told reporters on April 3.
‘No Offensive Biologic Weapons’ in Ukrainian Biolabs: Pentagon
There are “no offensive biologic weapons” in the Ukrainian laboratories that the United States has been funding, a Pentagon official told Congress on April 1.
Deborah Rosenbaum, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs, told the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations on April 1 that there are “unequivocally … no offensive biologic weapons in the Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been involved with.”
The Pentagon funds labs in Ukraine through its Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a support agency within the Department of Defense for countering weapons of mass destruction, and U.S. and Ukrainian officials both say the labs seek to prevent bioweapons and pathogens.
According to a Pentagon fact sheet released in March (pdf), since 2005, the United States has “invested approximately $200 million in Ukraine … supporting 46 Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites.”
The Biological Threat Reduction Program has “improved Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and surveillance for both human and animal health,” according to the fact sheet.
However, Russia has, in recent months, accused the U.S.-funded laboratories in Ukraine of developing biological warfare weapons. Such allegations were being aired on Russian state-run media even before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a March 6 statement on Telegram accusing Ukraine of having destroyed disease-causing pathogens being studied at a lab in Ukraine that the ministry said is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
U.S. NEWS, POLITIC & GOVERNMENT
26-Year-Old Man Arrested in Connection With Sacramento Mass Shooting: Police
A 26-year-old suspect was arrested on April 4 in connection to a shooting on the morning of April 3 that left six people dead and more wounded in downtown Sacramento, California, according to police.
Dandre Martin, the suspect, was taken into custody on charges of assault with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester told KCRA 3 on April 4.
“Right now that’s really all we’re able to share about him,” Lester said. “As you know, this is a complex investigation, and we’re looking for multiple suspects, and so we’re currently working to identify what his role was the night of the shooting.”
In a statement from the police department, Martin is being classified as a “related suspect.”
“Investigators worked through the night into the early morning hours of April 4, 2022, processing the horrific K Street Shooting scene. During the preliminary processing of the scene, investigators located at least three buildings and three vehicles that had been struck by gunfire,” the statement reads.
The Sacramento Police Department SWAT and detectives searched three homes in connection to the case, recovering at least one handgun. They said that more than 100 shell casings were found at the scene of the crime near K Street and 10th Street.
“So we know that there were a lot of shots fired that night and hence the complexity of the investigation,” Lester said, noting that multiple alleged shooters are being sought.
Report: Kamala Harris Faces Another Staff Shakeup After Internal Friction
Vice President Kamala Harris is facing another staffing shakeup after internal friction has plagued her office for months.
Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Fuchs will abandon Vice President Kamala Harris in the coming weeks, according to Reuters. Fuchs’s departure marks the sixth departure of a top staffer in recent months.
Fuchs, a former staffer in former Presidents Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s administrations, worked with Harris on both international and domestic policies. He also coordinated staff and traveled with the vice president abroad.
Harris’s office, which has been tossed to and fro by “disorder, bad press, and, at times, internal frictions” because of Harris’s reported “abusive environment,” where staffers have been “treated like shit,” has had a slew of resignations and departures in recent months during political “shitshow” resets.
Those who have left Harris include Kate Childs Graham, director of speechwriting for Harris; Senior Adviser Symone Sanders; Peter Velz, director of press operations; Vince Evans, deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs; and Communications Director Ashley Etienne.
Marijuana Legalization Linked to Addiction Dependency, Homelessness, and Youth Addiction: Rep. Good
The enactment of a proposal to legalize marijuana nationwide would lead to a rise in addiction dependency, homelessness, and youth addiction, as seen in states that have already decriminalized the substance, according to Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.).
The Virginia Republican stated in an April 2 interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report” that “the last thing we need is more people using addictive, behavior-altering recreational drugs,” added to the challenges the United States already faces, including “the rise in violent crime,” as well as fentanyl being illegally trafficked across the southern border resulting in “100,000 Americans dying of overdoses last year.”
The legislation also wouldn’t stop vendors from selling marijuana products such as candy-like edibles or vape merchandise to children, he said.
Disney Employees Say Fearful ‘Silent Majority’ in Favor of Parental Rights in Education Bill
For weeks, headlines and broadcasts have heralded the supposed dismay of Disney workers over Florida’s new Parental Right in Education law that takes effect July 1.
But some Disney employees say fear keeps those in favor of the law from speaking up, even though it’s likely the majority of workers.
Passions have flared across Twitter, in talk-show interviews, and at Hollywood events. Opponents of the new law suggest it whittles down the rights of Floridians identifying as LGBTQ, and that Disney’s escalating stand against it represents a fight to preserve those rights across the country and around the globe.
Democrats Blame GOP for Planned Title 42 Migrant Wave
Democrats are trying to blame the GOP for the flood of wage-cutting, rent-spiking migrants that are expected to cross the southern border once President Joe Biden’s deputies lift the Title 42 border barrier in May.
“The president sent an immigration plan to Congress on his first day in office. We’ve asked consistently for more resources,” Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, told ABC News on April 3. Many Democrats worry that the impending flood of migrants — perhaps 500,000 a month — will wash away their declining chance of victory in the November midterm elections.
Public “dissatisfaction with immigration [policy] has been driven by Republicans and they’re feeding this,” Democratic political consultant Cornell Belcher told NBC on April 3. He continued:
Not so long ago I remember when a guy named Barack Obama thought he had an immigration deal with the Gang of Eight. But it was in the Republicans’ benefit to not have a deal, comprehensive immigration reform, that included border security, that included a pathway. And by the way, most Americans think that you should pay a penalty, and there should be a pathway. And that’s not going to happen. You know why it’s not going to happen? Because Republicans in Congress don’t want it to happen.
“That’s just ludicrous,” responded Rosemary Jenks, the director of government relations for NumbersUSA, which seeks to curb the wealth-shifting inflow of legal and illegal immigrants. She continued:
There hasn’t been an immigration deal in decades — and we didn’t have a [migration] crisis at the beginning of January of 2021 but we did by the end of January 2021 … It’s incredibly transparent to most people — they know the Democrats are in charge, and if [President] Joe Biden wanted a secure border, we would have a secure border …
“It’s definitely damage-control,” she said, adding:
Democrats are doing their normal thing where they’re projecting their sins on someone else — Whenever they accuse Republicans of something, it’s usually because they’re doing it themselves. In this case, they know full well that they are the reason that the borders are open and that we have this crisis, and so they’re projecting their failures onto Republicans … [But] despite the lack of coverage in the mainstream media, the public is still very well aware of what’s going on.
She continued:
We don’t need to deal — we need solutions, we need to fix the border crisis. We need to enforce our laws. There’s no point in Congress passing more laws with some [new] deal if Mayorkas is going to pick and choose what law he’s going to enforce … [The Democratic Party] doesn’t care what the public wants. It wants what the party wants and the party wants a potential pool of new voters.
But Democrats are pushing their talking points as border chief Alejandro Mayorkas raises the inflow each month to about 70,000 accepted illegal migrants.
270 Migrants Found in Five Tractor-Trailer Rigs at Texas Checkpoints near Border
Border Patrol agents in South Texas apprehended more than 270 migrants packed in tractor-trailers at interior immigration checkpoints during the past week. The arrests took place in five separate smuggling incidents.
Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Carl E. Landrum tweeted a report that agents in his sector assigned to interior immigration checkpoints apprehended more than 270 migrants packed by human smugglers into the back of tractor-trailer rigs.
Border Patrol agents effectively utilized K-9 teams to detect the presence of migrants packed into the trailers of the commercial rigs. These five smuggling incidents took place at interior immigration checkpoints near the Texas border with Mexico. Some of those are located more than 80 miles inland.
Ending Title 42 a ‘Dereliction of Duty’: Texas Rep. Chip Roy
With illegal immigrant encounters at the U.S. southern border at the highest on record, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has said that ending Title 42 will cause even greater harm to Americans and those crossing illegally and that doing so is gross negligence by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“That is a complete dereliction of duty, it is endangering the American people,” Roy told Steve Lance, the host of NTD’s “Capitol Report.” “For the people that are looking at this for the first time and don’t know what Title 42 is, it’s literally the only thing that is standing between us and a completely wide-open border.”
The Title 42 public health clause is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s rule that permits Customs and Border Protection agents to turn away migrants at the border to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 1, the Biden administration announced that it plans to end the policy by the end of May.
Seattle Museum Hosting Sex-Themed ‘Drag’ Camp for Children
A Seattle museum is hosting a summer camp led by a cross-sex “drag artist” to train children aged 12 through 18 how to “create your own personas.”
“Led by local drag artist Joshua Hancock, ‘Summer Camp: the Art of Drag’ has run for the past two summers at the West Coast city’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP),” the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
The MoPOP’s website detailed the event, scheduled for August 8 through August 12 of this year.
“Calling all current and future kings and queens! Explore self-expression in MoPOP’s week-long, drag-tastic summer camp!” the site read:
Led by Seattle performer Joshua Hancock, you’ll investigate drag history and work together with local artists to create your own personas. You’ll choose your name, explore hair and makeup techniques, and develop your character’s stage presence. At the end of the week, celebrate your new drag personas with a private showcase!
In a social media post from July 2021, the museum advertised the camp and shared photos of the artists involved, one wearing green high heels and another with pink and white hair.
PROPAGANDA
New COVID-19 Variant XE Found, Possibly More Transmissible Than Omicron: WHO
A COVID-19 Omicron subvariant—known as XE—has been found in the United Kingdom, said the World Health Organization in a new update.
The U.N. health body said (pdf) that the subvariant is compromised of genetic material from the two Omicron strains of BA.1 and BA.2.
“The XE recombinant (BA.1-BA.2), was first detected in the United Kingdom” in January and at least 600 cases have been reported so far, according to WHO. “XE belongs to the Omicron variant until significant differences in transmission and disease characteristics, including severity, may be reported,” it clarified.
WHO noted that early estimates suggest a community growth rate of 10 percent more than BA.2, although further evidence is needed.
Further confirmation of XE and other variants is becoming more difficult, according to WHO, which said that there has been a “recent significant reduction in SARS-CoV-2 testing by several Member States.” SARS-CoV-2 is another name for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.
HOMESCHOOL NEWS
Homeschool Mom Sticks to a Tight Budget of $860 Each Month to Feed Her Family of 11
A mom of nine from Australia shares how she manages to feed her family for AU$3.60 (approx. US$2.60) per head a day.
Claire Louise Hooker, 35, has revealed how she sticks to a tight budget of AU$1,200 (approx. US$860) each month to feed her family of 11.
The stay-at-home mom, from rural Canberra, New South Wales, bulk buys food to feed her brood and has figured out how to make evening meals for as little as AU$20 (approx. US$14).
Hooker, a home-school teacher and blogger, and her husband, Mark, 39, a civil service worker, travel nearly 29 miles (47 km) each shopping trip, due to the lack of shops in the area.
The couple, who are originally from Kent, England, are proud parents to nine children: Georgina, 13; Charlotte, 12; Franchesca, 10; Abigail, 9; twins Catherine and Elizabeth, 8; Rose, 7; Martina, 5; and Michael, 3.
“The budgets can go up and down when you consider birthdays, as they run from October to May, but for food, we always try and stick to $1,200 a month,” Hooker said.
“We have to bulk buy a lot of items like bread, and raw meats including chicken and beef, as we tend to stick to a fortnightly shopping trip, so everything gets stored in my two fridge freezers and two pantries.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Is the US Dollar Under Attack?
Can the new China-Russia alliance destabilize t
Potential efforts to assist Russia to sell its oil and dodge Western sanctions have prompted fears about the survival of the global economic order. Some wonder if China and Russia’s continuous de-dollarization drive will expand, putting the U.S. dollar’s hegemony in the global financial system in jeopardy.
For over a decade, China and Russia have been trying to diversify away from the U.S. dollar mainly to shield their economies from Western sanctions and claim global economic leadership.
The U.S. dollar has been the world’s primary reserve currency since World War II. The greenback accounted for 59 percent of worldwide central bank foreign exchange reserves in 2021, followed by the euro (21 percent) and Japanese yen (6 percent). The U.S. dollar is also the most extensively used currency for international trade and investments.
China has a large amount of dollar reserves and does not allow its currency, the yuan, to be freely traded on foreign exchange markets. This restricts the usage of the currency in cross-border transactions.
The yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), accounts for only 2.7 percent of global foreign exchange reserves.
While Beijing still relies substantially on the dollar, it has been trying to promote the yuan in its bilateral trade deals. China pushes for the usage of yuan in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive trade and infrastructure project that seeks to revive the ancient Silk Road. Many BRI countries have already accepted the yuan as an official currency for trade with China.
Beijing also introduced yuan-priced oil contracts in 2018 to make it possible for crude exporting countries like Saudi Arabia to sell their oil in the Chinese currency.
But the U.S. dollar’s dominance in the oil market is holding firm. Close to 80 percent of global oil sales are still priced in dollars.
“China theoretically has the ability to snap its fingers tomorrow and provide a solid counterweight to the U.S. dollar,” according to Christopher Balding, an expert on the Chinese economy and the author of “Sovereign Wealth Funds: The New Intersection of Money and Politics.”
But Beijing won’t allow that, and the reason is very simple, Balding says.
“To be a global currency, there has to be a global price,” he told The Epoch Times. “There has to be global flows of the currency. China will not let that happen. They will not allow a global price to be set with free flows of the RMB. So, until China takes that political decision to allow that, there’s really nothing to discuss.”
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Was Never Used Strategically
President Biden plans to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) for a million barrels a day for six months, describing this as “a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until production ramps up later this year.”
This is only the second time that the SPR has been used for the purpose Congress intended in 1975 – to counteract temporary spikes in the global price of oil due to cartel extortion or foreign wars. The first time was during the Gulf War, on January 16, 1991, when President George H.W. Bush announced the SPR would immediately begin selling up to 2.5 million barrels a day. On the following day, The Washington Post reported, “The price of crude oil plunged by one‐third today, falling a record $10.56 a barrel to levels not seen since last summer. The dramatic sell‐off to $21.44 shocked traders and led several oil companies to announce immediate price cuts.” With the price falling below $20 (where it remained for eight years), the SPR ended up selling much less than expected, about 17 million barrels.
The 1975 law establishing a strategic reserve proposed drawing down as much as necessary if “there is a significant reduction in supply which… [results in a] severe increase in the price of petroleum products… likely to cause a major adverse impact on the national economy.” Aside from 1991, however, the SPR has only been rarely and gingerly used for various other purposes unrelated to oil prices, such as hurricane assistance or raising funds for the recent infrastructure bill.
If the “Strategic” reserve had any strategy it appeared to be buying high (in 2007-08) and selling low (in 2020).
The blue line in the graph shows how the Strategic Petroleum Reserve kept adding to reserves by buying oil at rising prices during huge oil price spikes since 1979–82 and even while the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil often exceeded $100 a barrel from 2008 to 2014.
Musk Takes 9.2 Percent Stake in Twitter After Questioning Its Commitment to Free Speech
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, according to a regulatory filing, becoming the social media giant’s biggest individual shareholder just weeks after questioning the platform’s attitude toward free speech.
Musk bought 73.5 million shares of Twitter on March 14, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing released on April 4. Based on Twitter’s closing price on April 1, Musk’s stake was worth $2.89 billion.
News of the purchase sent Twitter shares soaring by more than 20 percent in pre-market trading on April 4, sharply boosting the value of Musk’s stake.
Musk posts regularly on the platform, where he has more than 80 million followers.
In a March 25 tweet, Musk wrote that “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy” and asked his followers whether they believe Twitter “rigorously adheres” to this principle.
In a follow-on tweet, Musk asked his followers to “vote carefully,” as the “consequences of this poll will be important.”
Over 2 million Twitter users weighed in, with 70.4 percent voting no.
A day later, sharing the results of the poll, Musk described Twitter as “the de facto public town square,” adding that “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” before asking, “What should be done?”
While Musk hasn’t commented publicly on his purchase of Twitter shares, and his filing didn’t reveal any plans he may have for the company, the purchase could signal an effort on his part to influence how the company is run.
While any stake of less than 10 percent is considered “passive,” some analysts have suggested that Musk may seek change at the company.
“We would expect this passive stake as just the start of broader conversations with the Twitter board/management that could ultimately lead to an active stake and a potential more aggressive ownership role of Twitter,” Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a client note on April 4.
Twitter has been repeatedly accused of censoring conservative viewpoints, claims the company denies.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Arizona is now offering digital copies of driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs on iPhones and Apple Watches. At least 11 other states are currently considering similar plans. As one professor of technology ethics pointed out, “Apple is now sort of trying to vertically integrate your whole life into its phone.”
The New York Times reports that Arizona has become the first state to offer residents digital copies of driver’s licenses and state identification cards available on their iPhones. The move is part of a partnership with Apple announced last year which is expected to expand to Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah, and the territory of Puerto Rico.
But the expansion is facing some pushback, with some worried about privacy issues and Apple’s growing influence. Currently, very few states will accept a digital driver’s license as valid and it has yet to be revealed whether the other states have agreed to join Arizona.
While the digital licenses will be considered valid ID in certain cases, Arizona residents will still need to hand over their official physical driver’s licenses and government ID if they’re pulled over by the police or carded at a bar. Digital licenses will currently only be accepted at select security screening checkpoints at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The Arizona Motor Vehicles Division estimated last week that 11,500 people have requested digital copies of their driver’s license or ID. Bill Lamoreaux, a spokesman for the Motor Vehicles Division in Arizona, said: “If they like technology and they want to be an early adopter for it, by all means. This is absolutely voluntary.”
However, many have worries about Apple’s continued creep into the essential services used by people on a daily basis. Elizabeth M. Renieris, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame, commented: “Apple is now sort of trying to vertically integrate your whole life into its phone.”
Renieris added: “They’re normalizing the presenting of identification and other credentials. This is also coming on the back of the conversation around digital vaccine passports.”
HEALTH
Brand-new research suggests high-fiber foods reduce dementia risk
With its disabling loss of cognition, judgment, and memory, dementia is a truly devastating condition. And it is becoming more widespread. Alzheimer’s disease – the most common cause of dementia among older adults – is currently affecting over 6.2 million Americans. Experts predict that the incidence will double by the year 2050.
Many scientists believe they are getting closer to unlocking the mystery of why dementia occurs – and what can be done to help prevent it. In a new Japanese study, researchers found that the risk of dementia may be lowered with a simple intervention (one that natural health experts have been advising all along!) – a high-fiber diet. Let’s look at some of the ways in which a plant-based, high-fiber diet may help promote healthy cognition and reduce the risk of dementia in aging adults.
Decades-long research on the effects of a high-fiber diet yields good news regarding dementia risk
In a study published last month in Nutritional Neuroscience, researchers asked over 3,500 participants aged 40 to 64 years to complete surveys that reflected their dietary intake going back 15 years. The participants were then followed up for an additional 20 years. This extensive but simple research technique revealed a clear-cut result: the scientists found that people who ate the highest amount of fiber had the lowest risk of dementia.
While the two types of dietary fiber – soluble and insoluble fiber – are both crucial to health, the team reported that soluble fiber from oats and legumes was more effective at lowering dementia risk. Researchers speculated that soluble fiber regulates gut bacteria, thereby helping to decrease the neuroinflammation that triggers dementia. High-fiber diets also may help decrease body weight, reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and improve blood sugar control. In addition to lowering risk factors for heart disease, these changes may cut dementia risk even further.
Additional research shows that high-fiber diets reduce production of inflammatory molecules
This new study is not the only research showing that a high-fiber diet can benefit the brain. Another recent study published in Frontiers in Immunology suggested that eating high-fiber foods might help delay brain aging by spurring butyrate production (a short-chain fatty acid shown in animal studies) to improve memory and reduce inflammation. Fiber-rich diets also appear to cut the expression of interleukin, an inflammatory cytokine produced in the body. In addition, fiber provides fuel for beneficial gut bacteria, which researchers say can strongly influence cognition and mood.
But, that isn’t all. A 2021 review published in Antioxidants showed that plant foods are associated with “significant beneficial effects on cognitive function.” The improvements occurred “across the board” in young and elderly participants alike – and benefited them regardless of cognitive status. In other words, those who were cognitively “normal,” those who had mild cognitive impairment, and those with severe dementia all received benefits from the plant-based diet – a very encouraging result.
Almost exactly two years ago, NaturalHealth365 along with other outlets reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was issuing an immediate recall of the drug ranitidine, best known by its brand name Zantac because it was found to be contaminated with a chemical that causes cancer.
But even though Zantac has been pulled off the market, Big Pharma is now facing several lawsuits related to the major carcinogenic gaff – a gaff that at least one attorney says drug companies knew about for decades.
Pfizer and other makers of popular heartburn drug knew it was contaminated with carcinogenic chemical for 40 years, still sold it to the masses
Brent Wisner is an award-winning attorney who recently sat down for an interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of the Children’s Health Defense. In the interview, Wisner describes how Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and other drug companies are now being slammed with class-action lawsuits from individuals who developed cancer after taking Zantac.
As Wisner explains, even though the FDA recall of Zantac only just happened in 2020, evidence shows that these drug companies knew for decades that the profitable heartburn drug was contaminated with a cancer-causing agent called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) … yet continued to sell the drug anyway.
Wisner describes NDMA as “a very, very potent human carcinogen.” Discovered in the 1930s during the development of rocket fuel, NDMA “literally has no purpose in our world, except for the fact that it causes cancer,” he says. “It’s actually used in laboratory experiments to induce cancer in animals.”
He adds, “[NDMA] is probably something that has caused an innumerable number of people’s cancers, because it was such a widely used product.” Cancers linked to Zantac use so far include bladder, liver, stomach, colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer.
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: Head to Toe Calcium Bentonite Clay
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Water contaminant linked to infant brain damage won’t be regulated by EPA
Upholding a Trump-era environmental policy, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will not regulate a drinking water contaminant that has been linked to brain damage in infants.
The agency said the Trump administration’s decision in 2020 not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water was made with the “best available peer reviewed science.” The chemical is used in rocket fuel and fireworks.
At the time, Trump’s EPA said perchlorate was not found widely enough in drinking water or “at levels of public health concern” to warrant federal regulation. The decision was one of many Trump-era rollbacks or eliminations of existing or pending public health and environmental protections. The Biden administration ordered a review of that decision at the start of his term.
EPA Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox said the agency was “applying the right tools to support public health protections.”
Environmental groups slammed the Biden administration’s decision.
“The Trump EPA gave perchlorate a pass; it was a bad decision then, and it’s a bad decision now,” said Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council advocacy group. “Tap water across America will remain contaminated by this toxic chemical.”
Perchlorate from runoff contaminates the drinking water of as many as 16 million Americans, the Obama administration said in 2011 when it announced the EPA would for the first time set maximum limits for the chemical compound. It has been used in the U.S. for decades, particularly by the military and defense industries, and is commonly found in munitions, fireworks, matches and signal flares.
Exposure to the compound can damage the development of fetuses and children and cause measurable drops in IQ in newborns, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in 2019, when it called for stringent federal limits. It damages human development by disrupting the functioning of the thyroid gland.
In its 2020 review, the EPA said state-level regulations and cleanup activities at contaminated sites had lowered the health risks posed by the compound. Massachusetts and California, for example, limit perchlorate in drinking water to 2 parts per billion and 6 parts per billion, respectively.
“But the problem is that for the rest of the country the states have not set standards,” said Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In the Southwest, perchlorate has been detected in groundwater that entered Lake Mead in Nevada. Manufacturing activities in Henderson, Nevada, were thought to be the source of the chemical. The EPA said cleanup activities at two industrial sites near Las Vegas between 2002 and 2006 resulted in reduced levels of perchlorate in samples provided since then by Nevada environmental and water agencies.
The EPA said Thursday it was considering other steps besides a federal drinking water limit, such as setting standards at open burning and detonation sites of waste explosives, where severe perchlorate contamination is known to exist.
But environmental advocates said such measures fall short of what’s needed.
“Simply put, toxic chemicals used in rocket fuel do not belong in our drinking water,” said John Rumpler, senior attorney with Environment America.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Counties With Highest Vaccination Rates See More COVID-19 Cases Than Least Vaccinated
Counties with the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 are currently experiencing more cases than those with the lowest vaccination rates, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The 500 counties where 62–95 percent of the population has been vaccinated detected more than 75 cases per 100,000 residents on average in the past week. The 500 counties where 11–40 percent of the population has been vaccinated detected about 58 cases per 100,000 residents on average in the past week.
The data is skewed by the fact that the CDC suppresses figures for counties with very low numbers of detected cases (1–9) for privacy purposes. The Epoch Times calculated the average case rates by assuming the counties with the suppressed numbers had 5 cases each on average.
The least vaccinated counties tended to be much smaller, averaging less than 20,000 in population. The most vaccinated counties had an average population of over 330,000. More populous counties, however, weren’t more likely to have higher case rates.
Biden Admin Cuts Off 14 More States From COVID-19 Treatment as BA.2 Variant Spreads
President Joe Biden’s administration has ordered 14 additional states to stop using a COVID-19 treatment made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on March 30 that it has paused shipments of the drug sotrovimab to the states, bringing the total number of states that are no longer receiving doses to 22.
The states are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin in the Midwest; Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington in the West; and Alaska and Hawaii.
Previously, eight states in the Northeast U.S. stopped receiving shipments of sotrovimab.
The U.S. government purchased millions of doses in 2021 and in January and distributed them weekly to states to provide to health care facilities.
Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, was granted emergency use authorization for treating patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are designated as at high risk for progressing to severe cases.
But emerging data suggest that the drug doesn’t work against BA.2, a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant, according to U.S. regulators.
The shipments were halted because of the ruling, which came from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Numerous Health Problems More Likely Due to COVID-19 Vaccines Than Coincidence: VAERS Data Analysis
Various health problems reported by people after receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccine shots are more likely caused by the vaccines than being merely coincidental, according to an analysis of data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
VAERS has been flooded with more than a million reports of various health problems and more than 21,000 death reports since the introduction of the vaccines in late 2020. Some experts and public officials have downplayed the significance of the reports, noting that just because a health problem occurs after getting the shot, it doesn’t mean it was caused by it.
A deeper analysis of the data, however, indicates that many of the adverse effects are more than just a coincidence, according to Jessica Rose, a computational biologist who’s been studying the data for at least nine months.
“The safety signals being thrown off in VAERS now are off the charts across the board,” she told The Epoch Times.
There are multiple ways to parse the data in order to flesh out whether or not the causal link between an adverse event and the vaccination is real or illusory. For example, the vaccines usually come in two doses. A random adverse event unrelated to the vaccine should be dose agnostic. A stroke randomly coinciding with a vaccination shouldn’t be picky about which dose it was. In the VAERS data, however, a number of the reported problems are dose-dependent. Myocarditis in teenagers, for example, is reported several times more often after the second dose than after the first one. Following a booster shot, in contrast, the frequency is significantly lower than after the first dose, Rose found.
Revealed: 7 in 10 ‘Vaccinated’ CDC Employees Got COVID
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data reveal 70% of vaccinated U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees got breakthrough COVID infections in August 2021
March 3, 2022, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky gave a presentation at Washington University, during which she admitted that she had learned about the Pfizer shot’s 95% effectiveness from CNN, which was based on a press release from Pfizer
Walensky claims she was unaware the shots might lose effectiveness over time. Yet scientists around the world have long known that coronaviruses are very prone to mutation, and mutations are known to affect a vaccine’s effectiveness
Walensky has also accused the public of believing that “science is black and white” when, in fact, “science is gray.” Meanwhile, anyone who has held an opinion that differs from the mainstream narrative has been censored to stifle scientific debate, and Walensky has never spoken out against this effort to prevent a “black and white” presentation of science
Walensky has also publicly discredited the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is coadministered by the FDA and the CDC. VAERS reveals the COVID jabs are the most dangerous vaccines ever created
Senators Strike Deal to Reallocate $10 Billion in Unspent COVID-19 Funds
Senate Republicans and Democrats on April 4 struck a deal for $10 billion in additional funding for the United States’ COVID-19 response, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced.
The funding will provide urgent COVID-19 needs and therapeutics by repurposing unspent COVID funds primarily from the Democrats’ American Rescue Plan.
The $10 billion will be allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services, of which $9.2 billion will go to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
At least $5 billion of the $9.2 billion funding has been earmarked to research, develop, manufacture and purchase, and administer COVID-19 therapeutics, and at least $750 million is being set aside for research and clinical trials into emerging variants of the virus and to expand vaccine manufacturing capacity if needed.
For example, the new bill will withdraw $500 million from a fund to support colleges and universities during COVID-19, $2,3 billion that was made available to the Department of Transportation, as well as nearly $1 billion from a fund for tribal governments.
The agreed funding is less than half the $22.5 billion that President Joe Biden proposed and does not include money to support the administration’s efforts to combat the virus around the world.
Schumer, who has been leading negotiations on the legislation for Democrats, said he was disappointed that the agreement does not include the $5 billion for global health funding.
NIH Working to Keep Taxpayers in the Dark by Stalling on Fauci Documents: Transparency Advocate
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is attempting to keep money spent on things like Dr. Anthony Fauci’s salary, the highest-paid U.S. government employee, hidden from members of the public, according to a transparency advocate.
“There is a multi-layered strategy, funded by taxpayers, to keep taxpayers in the dark about how NIH is spending taxpayer money,” Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of OpenTheBooks.com, told Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders.”
Andrzejewski’s watchdog group discovered how much Fauci was getting paid and that he received a permanent pay bump in the early 2000s in part to prevent him from leaving the government.
In an effort to learn more about the top doctor, the group filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Jan. 28, 2021, asking for Fauci’s job description, disclosure documents, and other papers.
The NIH produced 51 pages of records in response to the request but did not provide any additional documents, nor did the agency produce records in response to two more requests from the group about documents related to Fauci, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
“They’re not complying with open records law,” Andrzejewski said, triggering the suit and dozens of others from various groups.
The NIH said it did not violate the law. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, ordered the parties to try to work out a solution. The parties agreed to a production schedule of 300 pages a month but so far, the produced pages have amounted to “virtually nothing of any value,” Andrzejewski said, in part because some of the pages have been largely redacted.
Fauci has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. The institute, part of the NIH, did not respond to a request for comment.
Andrzejewski, who was removed as a Forbes contributor because of his reporting on Fauci, said he expects to see waivers for conflicts of interest, including a waiver regarding the doctor’s wife, Christine Grady, because she is the chief bioethics official at NIH.
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