WORLD NEWS
Chinese Regime-Approved Social Media Users Say Trump Arrest Could Lead to U.S. ‘Civil War’
Chinese Communist Party censors allowed users on its state-controlled site Weibo to comment extensively on the arrest of American former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, resulting in many cheering on the decline of the United States and predicting a civil war.
Trump was arrested and arraigned in Manhattan on Tuesday, indicted on 34 charges of fabricating business documents. The charges stem from alleged money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. During remarks late Tuesday, Bragg claimed that the alleged fabrications were related to attempts to “cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.”
McCarthy: China Should Lose Most-Favored Trade Status and We’ll Move to Revoke It
During a portion of an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) stated that China’s most-favored nation trade status should be revoked and the House will move to do so.
Host Laura Ingraham asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:50] “[W]hy should China continue to enjoy most-favored nation status in trade with the United States? Why?”
Germany Moves to Fine Twitter for Not Censoring Enough Hate Speech
German regulators have launched a procedure to fine Twitter for alleged failures to remove “illegal” content on the platform, such as hate speech and insults.
On Tuesday, Berlin’s Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) announced that it has begun legal action against Twitter under the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), a 2018 law aimed at combatting so-called hate speech on the internet, which unlike in the United States, is illegal in Germany.
Japan is running out of space to bury chickens culled over bird flu
apan has lost so many chickens to bird flu, it’s now running out of land to bury them.
Japanese state broadcaster NHK reported Tuesday that 16 out of 26 prefectures in the country did not have enough land to dispose of culled birds properly. All 26 had reported experiencing avian flu outbreaks recently.
While local authorities and farms usually kill and bury the animals to prevent further spread of the virus, the land shortage has now held back those efforts, according to NHK.
Japan has been grappling with a record outbreak of avian flu in recent months, putting strain on the supply of poultry and sending the price of eggs soaring.
More than 17 million chickens have been culled this season, the highest number on record, NHK reported Tuesday.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Tuesday press release led some liberals to believe that former President Donald Trump had a child out of wedlock, though Bragg’s own documents have cast doubt on the claim.
Bragg’s press release on Trump’s indictment stated that American Media Inc. (AMI) — a media company that allegedly worked with Trump’s team to “catch and kill” negative stories before the 2016 election — “paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to have a story about a child TRUMP had out of wedlock.”
Liberal social media users jumped on the statement, with many taking the allegation as fact.
Legal Experts Break Down Flaws in Trump Indictment
Following the unsealing of the indictment against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, legal experts say the charges laid out—and left out—in the indictment are vague, duplicitous, disconnected, and meritless.
“There is no part of the case that is not weak,” Alan Dershowitz, an attorney who taught law at Harvard Law School for nearly 50 years and was part of Trump’s impeachment defense team in 2019, told The Epoch Times in an interview on Wednesday.
Trump was charged with 34 counts of felony-level falsifying business records, Chris Conry, a prosecutor at the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, revealed during Trump’s arraignment hearing on Tuesday.
Multiple dead after tornado wreaks havoc in Missouri: ‘It’s just heartbreaking’
Multiple people were killed after a large tornado ripped through southeastern Missouri on Wednesday morning — as the South braced for additional twisters.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed multiple fatalities and injuries after a tornado touched down right before dawn in Bollinger County, about 50 miles south of St. Louis.
“The damage is pretty widespread. It’s just heartbreaking to see it,” Highway Patrol Sgt. Clark Parrott said.
Parrott said multiple search and rescue operations were underway throughout the county, noting that crews are using chainsaws to cut back trees and brush to get to some homes.
Justin Gibbs, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Kentucky, noted that the storm that struck Missouri was a “significant tornado,” adding that the powerful twisters can be especially dangerous when they strike at dusk or dawn.
North Carolina Democrat Lawmaker Switches to Republicans, Delivers Veto-Proof Majority
North Carolina State Rep. Tricia Cotham (D), an EMILY’s List-endorsed lawmaker, has switched her party affiliation to Republican and delivered the GOP a veto-proof majority in the process.
Upcoming legislation on immigration, abortion, and voting will all now be directly impacted by Cotham’s move to the the House Republican caucus.
DC’s ‘Blue Beetle’ Director Tweets Then Deletes Post Wishing for Donald Trump Assassination
The Warner Bros. DC universe of comic book movies is about to welcome the opening of Blue Beetle but fans are not welcoming a tweet by the film’s director, Ángel Manuel Soto, who said he hopes Donald Trump is assassinated like President Abraham Lincoln.
Soto’s tweet from 2018 resurfaced on the eve of the release of the summer blockbuster he helmed. At the time, Soto wrote, “The only thing I hope Trump has similar to Lincoln’s presidency is the way it ended,” Bounding Into Comics noted. The tweet was discovered by comics commentator Lofti Pixels.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Announces 2024 Presidential Bid
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., best known for his positions on environmental law and vaccine safety, filed the paperwork to run in the 2024 race for president of the United States on April 5.
He filed as a Democrat, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing.
“America is enduring an apocalyptic tribal polarization more toxic and dangerous than any time since the Civil War,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times exclusively following the filing of the paperwork.
“And while Democrats battle Republicans, elites are strip-mining our middle class, poisoning our children, and commoditizing our landscapes.
“I will focus my campaign, not on the issues that divide us but the values we have in common.”
Kennedy is the second candidate to declare a run for the Democratic nomination, joining Marianne Williamson.
Kennedy’s father, the late Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-N.Y.), was assassinated when running for the presidency in 1968. His uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Texas in 1963.
Kennedy signaled earlier in March that he planned to run.
“If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilize enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race,” Kennedy wrote in a Twitter post dated March 10. “If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. Together we can restore America’s democracy.”
Currently, Kennedy has a campaign page soliciting donations from like-minded U.S. citizens.
‘Sad Old Drunk’: Nancy Pelosi Heckled at Event with Paul Krugman
Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) speaking event with economist Paul Krugman was interrupted by multiple hecklers who accused her of being a “war criminal” and a “sad old drunk.”
Pelosi and Krugman spoke at The City University of New York’s Graduate Center on Monday evening. However, Pelosi’s speech was interrupted by hecklers four times. The hecklers berated Pelosi, primarily over foreign policy and corruption.
Illinois Teenager Accused of Selling ‘Fentanyl-Laced’ Pills Disguised as Prescription Medications
An Illinois teenager has been arrested for allegedly selling “fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills that were intended to resemble legitimate prescription medications,” according to police.
The Village of Antioch Police announced they had Robert Julian, 19, on felony drug charges, describing the arrest “as part of its ongoing battle against the trafficking of deadly counterfeit pills.”
Police say Julian, a resident of the 1000 block of Victoria Street in Antioch, was arrested on suspicion of selling “fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills believed to have been connected to an overdose death of an Antioch resident” the year before.
After police obtained an arrest warrant, the post notes, Julian was taken into custody in the course of a traffic stop. Police allegedly also found a pistol, 80 fentanyl pills, over a gram of methamphetamine, and “several pieces of drug paraphernalia” in the vehicle.
Antioch Police Chief Geoffrey Guttschow is quoted in the department’s post as saying the drugs allegedly found in Julian’s vehicle have driven the “vast majority” of recent overdoses in the area, adding, “Antioch has no place in our hometown for criminals like this.”
“Although the department continues to use community outreach and education to save lives, such as our recent opioid awareness fair, and the distribution of Narcan, the Antioch Police Department remains 100% committed to bringing to justice those who decide to sell this poison in our community,” Guttschow is quoted as saying in the Antioch Police post. “The hard work of the members of our department not only took a drug dealer and drugs off the streets of our town, but it also took a handgun away from a criminal. Drugs and guns together can have deadly implications. It’s safe to say, our officers saved lives with this arrest.”
HEALTH
Three Studies: Turmeric as Effective as Drugs for Knee Osteoarthritis
Suffering from the pain and inflammation of knee osteoarthritis? NSAIDs, Tylenol and other pain relievers aren’t your only option. Research confirms herbal formulations, including turmeric, may work just as well, with fewer side effects
If you struggle with pain from knee osteoarthritis, natural herbal extracts, including turmeric, may work as well as common drug treatments.[i],[ii] Osteoarthritis is a common degenerative condition that leads to pain and stiffness in the joints, often the knees.
Among people aged 60 and over, up to 15% have some degree of osteoarthritis, and it’s estimated that by 2050, 130 million people will be affected by osteoarthritis worldwide, 40 million of them severely enough to become disabled.[iii]
Medications such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly offered to relieve the pain and inflammation of knee osteoarthritis, but they’re not the only options. Three studies highlight turmeric’s effectiveness for relieving knee osteoarthritis pain and inflammation as well as drugs, and in some cases even better.
What’s especially exciting about turmeric’s potential for this condition is that it offers synergistic support for human health. At our turmeric research database, you can find 904 diseases that turmeric may benefit, while also exploring its impressive 281 known pharmacological actions that influence health and well-being.
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Nasty Pesticide Broken Down by Probiotic Used In Culturing Food
Cultured food has a wide range of health benefits, but did you know that the microbes found within fermented food are capable of breaking down certain highly toxic chemicals in our gut?
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Plant Fungus Infects Human in First Reported Case of Its Kind
Silver leaf disease is a curse for a variety of botanicals, from pears to roses to rhododendron. Infecting their leaves and branches, the fungus Chondrostereum purpureum can be fatal for the plant if not quickly treated.
Aside from the risk of losing the occasional rose bush, the fungal disease has never been considered a problem for humans. Until now.
In what researchers suggest is the first reported case of its kind, a 61-year-old Indian mycologist appears to have contracted a rather serious case of silver leaf disease in his own throat, providing a rare example of a pathogen seemingly making an enormous leap across entire kingdoms in the tree of life.
A recently published case study describes a male patient in India’s eastern region presenting to a medical center with a cough and hoarse voice, fatigue, and difficulty swallowing. A CT X-ray scan of his neck revealed a pus-filled abscess next to his trachea.
Lab tests failed to find any bacteria of concern, but a special staining technique for fungi revealed the presence of long, root-like filaments called hyphae.
Fungal diseases aren’t exactly uncommon in humans, though of the millions of known species, only a few hundred are capable of causing us much harm. Ringworm, athlete’s foot, and thrush commonly make themselves at home in damp areas of our skin, much to our irritation.
Sometimes, especially in people with compromised immune systems, fungi that commonly feed on rotting vegetation, such as species of Aspergillus, can infect deeper parts of our body.
This particular infection didn’t look much like any of those, however, prompting the medical specialists to seek advice from a World Health Organization fungi reference and research center, who identified the unlikely suspect from its DNA.
Though a mycologist himself, the patient couldn’t recall having worked with this particular species recently. His field work had brought him into contact with decaying material and other plant fungi, potentially explaining the source of his infection.
For pathogens of any variety to nestle inside a host and start replicating, they need the right tools. Not only do they need a means of securing the right nutrients, they need a few tricks to cope with what is essentially a hostile environment bent on tearing them apart with all kinds of chemical weapons and killer agents.
That makes it extremely rare for a fungus adapted to threading its hyphae through leaves and stems to find success in doing the same inside our flesh.
The fact the patient in this case study appeared to have a fully functioning immune system, with no indication of being on immunosuppressant drugs, or having HIV, diabetes, or any kind of chronic illness, makes it even more perplexing. If not a touch concerning.
“Cross-kingdom human pathogens, and their potential plant reservoirs, have important implications for the emergence of infectious diseases,” the authors of the study write in their report.
While bacterial species of superbug and novel viruses emerging from animal populations regularly get our attention, we rarely give much thought to plant diseases in our midst.
Though extremely rare, the fact it clearly could happen makes it an area that deserves attention. Fungi especially pose a significant risk – similarities in fungal and animal biochemistry make the design of suitable vaccines and therapies that can prevent or manage infection a real challenge.
Fortunately in this case, regular drainage of the ulcer with two months on a common antifungal agent did the trick. After two years of check-ups, the patient was still fine with no signs of a repeat infection.
What is bioengineered food? An agriculture expert explains
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines bioengineered food as food that “contains detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques that cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.”
If that definition sounds familiar, it is because it is essentially how genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are defined – common vocabulary many people use and understand.
On Jan. 1, 2022, the USDA implemented a new U.S. bioengineered food disclosure standard. Shoppers are seeing labels on food products with the terms “bioengineered” or “derived from bioengineering” printed on a green seal with the sun shining down on cropland.
More than 90% of U.S.-grown corn, soybeans and sugar beets are genetically modified. This means that many processed foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, beet sugar or soy protein may fall under the new disclosure standard. Other whole foods on the USDA’s list of bioengineered foods, such as certain types of eggplant, potatoes and apples, may have to carry labels as well.
Disclosure debates
Food manufacturers have historically opposed labeling. They argue that it misleads consumers into thinking that bioengineered foods are unsafe. Countless studies, the USDA and the World Health Organization have concluded that eating genetically modified foods does not pose health risks.
However, many consumers have demanded labels that let them know whether foods contain genetically modified material. In 2014, Vermont enacted a strict law mandating GMO food labeling. Fearing a checkerboard of state laws and regulations, food manufacturers lobbied successfully for a federal disclosure law to preempt other states from doing the same. Now, the U.S. joins 64 countries that require some sort of labeling.
Consumer and right-to-know advocates are not happy with the new federal disclosure standard. The Center for Food Safety, the lead organization representing a coalition of food labeling nonprofits and retailers, has filed suit against the USDA, arguing that the standard not only fails to use common language but is deceptive and discriminatory.
According to this view, the standard is deceptive because loopholes exclude many bioengineered foods from mandatory disclosure, which critics say is inconsistent with consumer expectations. If the genetic material is undetectable or less than 5% of the finished product, no disclosure is required. As a result, many highly refined products – for example, sugar or oil made from a bioengineered crop – may be excluded from labeling requirements.
Bioengineered foods served in restaurants, cafeterias and transport systems, including food trucks, are also excluded. And the standard excludes meat, poultry and eggs, as well as products that list those foods as either their first ingredient or their second ingredient after water, stock or both. It takes a 43-minute USDA webinar to explain what’s in and what’s out under this new disclosure standard.
Advocates say the standard is discriminatory because it gives food manufacturers disclosure options that can substitute for the green bioengineered seal. They include listing a phone number to call or text for information or a QR code. But critics point out that many people in the U.S. lack access to smartphones, particularly those over 65 and those earning less than $30,000 annually.
In my view, consumers who want to avoid bioengineered foods may best be served by buying products that are certified organic, which prohibits genetically modified ingredients. Or they can search for the voluntary Non-GMO Project Verified label, which features a butterfly. It was launched in 2010 and appears on tens of thousands of grocery items. Both labels indicate that a third-party inspector verified that the non-GMO standard has been met.
The new federal labeling standard came to market with little fanfare – probably because neither side in the battle over genetic modification and food sees it as a win.
Health Officials Delayed Report Linking Fluoride to Brain Harm
The release of the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) systematic review of fluoride’s neurotoxicity was blocked by government officials and concealed from the public since May 2022
Fluoride Action Network’s lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the deliberate addition of fluoridating chemicals to U.S. drinking water has been on hold waiting for the release of the NTP report
Prior to the NTP report’s scheduled release in May 2022, it was shared with members of dental groups like the American Dental Association, which urged officials to alter the report
After a court order, the NTP report was released, showing that out of 55 studies included, 52 found that increased fluoride exposure was associated with decreases in child IQ
The meta-analysis noted that no safe exposure level could be confirmed, including exposure to fluoride levels found in artificially fluoridated water
New Idaho Law Criminalizes Transgender Surgeries, Medications for Children
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill that makes it a crime for doctors to provide children with “gender-affirming” surgeries or medications, including puberty blockers.
Under the new law, dubbed the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act,” health professionals could be charged with a felony and punished with up to 10 years in prison if they knowingly perform surgeries or provide medications to a child in order to help “affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex.”
The law specifically bans a host of surgeries involving sterilization and genital mutilation from being performed on people under 18. Among those irreversible procedures is mastectomy (the removal of breasts) as well as phalloplasty and vaginoplasty, the surgical construction of flesh structures resembling male and female genitalia, respectively.
It also bans administering or supplying a child with puberty blockers or other medications that induce “profound morphologic changes” or “transient or permanent infertility” in the child.
The finalized version of the bill is amended with an exception for children born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development, such as those who don’t have the normal sex chromosome structure or sex steroid hormone production.
Before advancing to the Republican governor’s desk, the bill passed the state Senate in a vote of 22–12, with all but five Republicans voting in favor of it. The state House in February approved the bill in a 58–12 vote, with all 11 Democrats and one Republican voting in opposition to it.
“In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies,” Little wrote in a letter to Idaho’s House speaker. “However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.”
6 Teaspoons of Sugar Daily Increases the Risk of 45 Different Health Problems
Limiting added sugar to just six teaspoons a day and sticking with one sugary drink a week could improve your health immensely, a new study reveals. Moreover, researchers in China say consuming too much added sugar each day raises the risk of developing 45 different health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and depression.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested that added sugars should not make up more than 10 percent of daily energy intake. An international team has now carried out an umbrella review to find out the quality of evidence, potential biases, and validity of all available studies on dietary sugar consumption and health outcomes.
Umbrella reviews look at previous studies on a topic and offer an overall view of all the information available. The investigation included 73 studies from just over 8,600 articles, which covered 83 health outcomes in adults and children.
The studies showed that too much sugar can lead to diabetes, gout, obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke. They also revealed that a sugary diet can lead to seven cancer outcomes, including breast, prostate, and pancreatic tumors. What’s more, too much sugar can cause asthma, tooth decay, depression, and even death.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky has warned of a new form of attack on cryptocurrency firms, which it says is carried out with “surgical precision” by hackers using corrupted software.
Kaspersky’s research identified several crypto-focused companies as victims of the 3CX software supply-chain attack in the past week.
While it did not name the targeted firms, it did reveal they were based in “western Asia”.
The attack, which is believed to have been carried out on behalf of the North Korean government, involved corrupting the widely used VoIP application, 3CX, to push the hackers’ code onto victims’ machines.
Millennial CEO Accused Of Tricking JPMorgan Into $175 Million Purchase Charged With Fraud
The 30-year-old founder of a college financial planning website accused of fabricating nearly 4 million user accounts before selling it to JPMorgan for $175 million has been charged with fraud
Founded in 2016 by CEO Charlie Javice, the company, ‘Frank,’ offered software to help young Americans obtain financial aid in what Javice framed as “an Amazon for higher education,” and had the backing of billionaire Marc Rowan – the company’s lead investor. JPMorgan touted the Sept. 2021 deal as giving it the “fastest-growing college financial planning platform” used by over 5 million students at 6,000 institutions.
The 31-year-old Javice was charged by Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday with one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, and one count of bank fraud according to Bloomberg.
“As alleged, Javice engaged in a brazen scheme to defraud JPMC in the course of a $175 million acquisition deal. She lied directly to JPMC and fabricated data to support those lies—all in order to make over $45 million from the sale of her company,” said US Attorney Damian Williams in a Tuesday statement. “This arrest should warn entrepreneurs who lie to advance their businesses that their lies will catch up to them, and this Office will hold them accountable for putting their greed above the law.”
Javice says the bank rushed to buy Frank without doing proper due diligence, and was attempting to deflect attention from its violations of student privacy laws. She has countersued the bank in Delaware state court to force JPMorgan to cover her legal fees.
Javice said in a response to JPMorgan’s suit that that Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon pushed to acquire Frank out of fear that another bank was eyeing the company, that she was being scapegoated for the bank’s faulty due diligence and that it was JPMorgan that asked her to come up with “synthetic data” on Frank users. -Bloomberg
According to JPMorgan, however, the bank discovered the fabricated accounts after sending out emails to a batch of 400,000 Frank customers – with around 70% of them bouncing back, according to according to a lawsuit filed in December in US District Court in Delaware, CNBC reported in January.
The bank’s lawsuit claims that Javice pitched the bank on the “lie” that over 4 million users had signed up to use Frank to apply for federal aid. When the bank asked for proof during due diligence, Javice allegedly fabricated an enormous list of “fake customers – a list of names, addresses, dates of birth, and other personal information for 4.265 million ‘students’ who did not actually exist.”
In reality, Frank had less than 300,000 customer accounts at the time, according to the lawsuit.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
‘Potentially hazardous’ skyscraper-size asteroid will zip past Earth Thursday
A skyscraper-size asteroid cruising the cosmos at 35,000 mph (56,000 km/h) will make a relatively close approach to Earth Thursday (April 6), zooming past our planet at about 7.5 times the average distance between Earth and the moon, according to NASA
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. Fortunately, the meaty space rock will miss our planet by more than a million miles.
Astronomers estimate that the asteroid, named 2023 FM, measures somewhere between 393 and 853 feet (120 to 260 meters) in diameter, or roughly the height of a 40- to 80-story skyscraper. During its closest approach on Thursday afternoon, the asteroid will fly within roughly 1.8 million miles (2.9 million kilometers) of our planet, far beyond the orbit of the full moon.
The space rock’s formidable size, coupled with its uncomfortably close trajectory, earns it the title of a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA), meaning a space rock that could measure larger than 460 feet (140 m) in diameter and that could come within 4.65 million miles (7.48 million km) of Earth, according to NASA’s near-Earth-object classification system.
NASA tracks thousands of PHAs, as even a slight, unexpected tweak to an asteroid’s orbit could send it on a deadly crash course with Earth. Astronomers are constantly monitoring and recalculating these orbits — and thankfully, no collisions with PHAs are likely for at least the next 100 years.
In March, astronomers detected an Olympic swimming pool-size asteroid named 2023 DW, which initially appeared to have a 1-in-600 chance of colliding with Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046 — a much higher risk level than average. However, researchers with the European Space Agency have since recalculated the risk of impact to be 1 in 1,584, meaning the asteroid is almost guaranteed to miss and scientists are no longer worried about it.
If a large asteroid ever appears on course for a direct impact with Earth, humans may be ready to deal with it. In September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, significantly altering the space rock’s trajectory. While Dimorphos never posed a threat to Earth, the mission proved that redirecting asteroids with rocket impacts is a viable means of planetary defense — so long as astronomers have several years (or preferably decades) to plan for the impact, NASA said.
Italy blocks ChatGPT over privacy concerns
Regulators in Italy issued a temporary ban on ChatGPT Friday, effective immediately, due to privacy concerns and said they had opened an investigation into how OpenAI, the US company behind the popular chatbot, uses data.
Italy’s data protection agency said users lacked information about the collection of their data and that a breach at ChatGPT had been reported on March 20.
“There appears to be no legal basis underpinning the massive collection and processing of personal data in order to ‘train’ the algorithms on which the platform relies,” the agency said.
Bill Gates Opposes Pausing AI Development, Reveals Different Plan
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has issued his first public remarks in response to a proposal endorsed by Elon Musk and scores of artificial intelligence experts who demanded an urgent pause to the development of advanced forms of AI due to “profound risks to society and humanity.”
Gates told Reuters in an interview that calls to pause the development of AI won’t “solve the challenges” ahead, that a stoppage would be hard to implement globally, and that the rationale for doing so isn’t clear.
Last week, Musk added his signature to a letter issued by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute that warned that AI labs are currently locked in an “out-of-control race” to develop and put to use “ever more powerful digital minds” that cannot be fully understood, much less reliably controlled.
Musk and what is, at last count, over 10,000 signatories—including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and engineers from Meta and Google—called on all AI labs to “immediately pause” training of systems more powerful than Chat GPT-4 for at least six months.
The letter doesn’t call for a halt to AI development in general, just the most advanced systems in what the experts described as an act of “merely a stepping back from the dangerous race to ever-larger unpredictable black-box models with emergent capabilities.”
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
A Toxic Time Bomb Is Ticking in the Arctic
Thousands of contaminated sites are sitting on permafrost that’ll soon thaw, a looming disaster that could spread beyond the region.
Once the ground is no longer frozen enough to form a barrier, those contaminants will seep into rivers and ponds, corrupting highly sensitive ecosystems.“This, we think, could also be a dangerous situation for people living up in the high north,” says Langer, as the contaminants mix with drinking water.
An alarming new paper in the journal Nature Communications estimates that between 13,000 and 20,000 contaminated sites are splayed across Arctic permafrost regions, with 3,500 to 5,200 in areas that’ll be affected by thawing soils before the end of the century.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
I honestly did not know that things were this bad. Severe drought is crippling winter wheat production in the middle of the country, agricultural production in many areas of California is being hit extremely hard by unprecedented flooding, and orange production in Florida is down more than 60 percent from last season due to a combination of factors. Of course this comes at a time when the entire world is dealing with a major food crisis. As I discussed in a previous article, even CNN is admitting that we are currently in the midst of “the worst food crisis in modern history”. So this is a year when we need U.S. food production to be very strong, and that simply is not happening.
No state produces more winter wheat than Kansas does, and right now less than 20 percent of the winter wheat in the state “is in good to excellent condition”…
Less than 20 percent of Kansas winter wheat is in good to excellent condition. The U.S. Drought Monitor says only 15 percent of Kansas’ acres are not experiencing any level of drought stress. More than 36 percent of the state reported D4 exceptional drought compared to just a little over one percent last year. D3 extreme drought conditions are hurting 16 percent of the state, with D2 severe drought hitting 13 percent of Kansas.
Unfortunately, the winter wheat in other crucial states is also greatly suffering due to seemingly endless drought conditions…
Colorado winter wheat was rated 27% good to excellent and 33% very poor to poor. Oklahoma’s and Texas’ crops were rated at 26% and 18% good to excellent, and 40% and 47% very poor to poor, respectively, he said.
This is really bad news.
Wheat prices just continue to escalate, and that is especially true for hard-red winter wheat…
The spread between hard-red winter wheat and soft-red winter wheat has blown out to a record high as drought threatens crop yields across the Midwest and other major farming regions.
Hard-red winter wheat’s premium over soft-red winter wheat is $1.72 a bushel in Chicago on Tuesday morning, surpassing the 2011 record.
Meanwhile, the outlook for spring wheat is not particularly promising, because U.S. farmers have planted the smallest amount of spring wheat since 1972.
Out on the west coast, too much water is the problem.
In fact, 78 trillion gallons of water has fallen on the state of California in recent months…
More than a dozen powerful storms later, 78 trillion gallons of water has been dumped on California, reversing a multi-year drought in a matter of months. Now the agricultural powerhouse state, producing about a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts, faces planting delays due to washed-out fields.
When it comes to fruit and vegetable production, no other state even comes close to California, and so we should be greatly alarmed that farms all over the state look like swamps at this moment.And this is just the beginning.
The mountains in California are absolutely teeming with unprecedented amounts of snow right now, and when it all starts melting all of that water is going to have to go somewhere…
California’s snowpack levels varied by region, with the Southern Sierra snowpack reaching 300% of its April 1 average and the Central Sierra reaching 237% of its April 1 average, officials said. And the critical Northern Sierra, home to the state’s largest surface water reservoirs, is at 192% of its April 1 average.
On the east coast, the big news is what has happened to Florida orange production.
At this point, it is down a whopping 60.7 percent from last year…
Orange production in Florida is down 60.7 percent from last season, one of the lowest figures since the 1930s, according to US Department of Agriculture estimates.
This drop in production has been caused by citrus greening disease and a very tough hurricane season.
Sadly, there are some farmers that have lost almost all of their oranges…
Vernon Hollingsworth grew up in Florida among his family’s orange trees, recently ravaged by a double whammy of disease and a hurricane that have sent juice prices spiraling and left farmers blinking in disbelief.
On a recent March morning, the fifth-generation farmer drove a pickup truck through the rows in his grove, pointing out the damage from Hurricane Ian last fall such as uprooted trees.
“I lost 95 to 97 percent of my crop,” the 62-year-old told AFP, adding “we’re going to have to rebuild, and we need help to do that.”
On top of everything else, the number of beef cows in the United States has dropped to the lowest level since 1962 because ranchers in the middle of the nation have had to cull their herds due to the historic drought.
U.S. food production has been hit by disasters in the past, but we have never had so many strike in such a short period of time.
And the weather just keeps getting crazier and crazier. In fact, as I write this approximately 70 million Americans are being warned that yet another “multi-state tornado outbreak” is on the way…
Nearly 70 million Americans are bracing for yet another round of powerful storms as a severe system makes its way across the US Tuesday, threatening states from Texas to Michigan.
Set to strike this afternoon, the severe weather will bring damaging winds and potentially tornadoes to states in the already storm-stricken South and Midwest, days after a deadly multi-state tornado outbreak crippled the regions.
Of course all of this is happening in a broader context.
Global food supplies just keep getting tighter and tighter, and the head of the UN World Food Program is warning that “we literally could have hell on earth if we’re not very careful”…
Beasley said WFP was just forced to cut rations by 50% to 4 million people in Afghanistan, and “these are people who are knocking on famine’s door now.”
“We don’t have enough money just to reach the most vulnerable people now,” he said. “So we are in a crisis over the cliff stage right now, where we literally could have hell on earth if we’re not very careful.”
Hopefully food supplies will be funneled to those that desperately need it in the months ahead.
But global hunger has been rising at a very rapid rate in recent years, and it is going to continue to rise.
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Video: American Farmers To Begin Injecting Livestock With mRNA Shots This Month
Homemade Wind Turbine Car Alternator
Turn a car alternator into alternative energy by building this cheap and easy homemade wind generator.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Eat Your Vaccines: mRNA Gene Therapy Is Coming to the Food Supply THIS MONTH
They’ve given up on a needle in every arm. Now they’re coming for what you eat.
“I’ve got documents from the NIH – from 2002 – talking about integrating vaccines into foods,” announced attorney Tom Renz in an eye-opening interview with Dr. Naomi Wolf. “They’ve been working on integrating these [vaccines] into our food supply. They’ve been working on it for at least two decades.”
CANCEL CULTURE
Trans Activist Dylan Mulvaney Now Modeling NIKE Sports Bras and Leggings
NIKE has joined Anheuser-Busch in signing transgender activist, Joe Biden supporter, and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney to a new lucrative endorsement deal.
Oli London — whose life was turned upside down by transgenderism — posted Mulvaney’s recent video in which the latter reveals that he has entered into a deal to sell Nike’s women’s sports bra and leggings.
Angel Reese: LSU Rejected Jill Biden Locker Room Visit Before Championship Game
LSU basketball star Angel Reese says that the Lady Tigers turned down an opportunity to get a pre-game pep talk from First Lady Jill Biden before their national championship game against Iowa.
“Apparently she was supposed to come to our locker room before the game but we said ‘no,’” Reese said on I Am Athlete’s “Paper Route” show on Tuesday.
Texas Senate Advances Legislation Restricting Drag Performances
The Texas State Senate gave initial approval to a pair of bills that would seek to limit the exposure children have to drag performances.
One piece of legislation, SB12, which has not yet passed through the Senate, would ban “sexually oriented” drag performances in front of children.
ICYMI
Cash App Creator and Tech Executive Bob Lee Fatally Stabbed in San Francisco
Tributes have begun to pour in for Cash App founder Bob Lee after it was reported that he was stabbed to death in San Francisco, California. Police found him on Tuesday morning suffering from numerous stab wounds and transported him to a hospital where he died. No arrests have been made.
The New York Post reports that the developer of the mobile payment system Cash App, Bob Lee, was fatally stabbed on Tuesday morning in San Francisco. According to local police reports, the 43-year-old was attacked in the downtown neighborhood of Rincon Hill.
Officers arrived on the scene and discovered Lee suffering from numerous stab wounds. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he eventually passed away from his injuries. San Francisco police have not yet disclosed any suspect information or made any arrests.
‘M*A*S*H’ Star Judy Farrell Dead at 84 After Suffering Stroke
Actress Judy Farrell, who was perhaps best known for playing Nurse Able in the hit television series M*A*S*H, died on Sunday after suffering a stroke.
The actress’s son, Michael, told TMZ that Farrell passed away in a hospital nine days after she had a stroke.
Leonardo DiCaprio Says CCP-Linked Financier Planned to Donate $30 Million to Obama’s 2012 Campaign
Malaysian financier Jho Low planned to donate up to $30 million to help then-U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, according to actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
DiCaprio recounted a discussion he had with Low, whose given name is Low Taek Jho, while testifying during a federal trial in Washington.
“It was a casual conversation about what party he was in support of,” DiCaprio said, telling jurors that Low said he planned on giving “a significant donation” to the Democratic Party that was “somewhere to the tune of $20 to 30 million.”
“I basically said, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of money.’”
DiCaprio took the witness stand during the trial of Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees hip-hop group, who, according to an indictment, conspired with Low to funnel money from the foreigner to Obama’s 2012 campaign.
Prosecutors say Michel received $21 million from Low and funneled the money to political committees through a series of straw donors, including various companies and people associated with the musician.
Low and Michel enacted the conspiracy “to gain access to, and influence with” Obama, the U.S. Department of Justice stated. In one instance, an associate of Michel forwarded an email from Michel asking for financial contributions to Obama and told Low that funding would “guarantee you a maximum 15 minutes audience” with Obama.
Low’s father met and took pictures with Obama at an event in Washington but Low didn’t meet with the president, according to charging documents.
Michel also allegedly attempted to conceal the funding, which ran afoul of a U.S. law that makes it illegal for foreigners to donate directly or indirectly to U.S. campaigns, and he allegedly conspired with others to pressure the Trump administration to drop its probe of Low.
Chicago Trump Tower Locked Down over Rifle-Wielding Woman
Trump Tower in Chicago was placed on lockdown and saw a SWAT team respond after a woman wielding a rifle walked into the building on Wednesday morning.
The SWAT team reported to an apartment on the 27th floor, where the armed woman allegedly went after claiming she was “tired of being abused by her husband,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times
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