WORLD NEWS
Russia: New Cold War is Over, We Are Now in ‘Hot Conflict With the United States’
The United States is “playing with fire” and engaged in a hot “hybrid war” with Russia, having already graduated from the Cold War stage, a Russian government minister has claimed, incredibly even going so far as to blame the U.S. for rising nuclear tensions.
The new Cold War is already over, a Kremlin spokesman has said, apparently looking past Russia’s own role in invading Ukraine and accusing the United States of “playing with fire” by pushing the world towards nuclear war that he insists Russians wish to avoid.
The Communist Party of China, through its Foreign Ministry and state propaganda outlets, threatened House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and America in general on Thursday with “strong and resolution measures” in response to McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
McCarthy and Tsai met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on Wednesday, a brief stop for Tsai on her way back to Taiwan from visits to allies in Central America. In comments before the press, McCarthy lauded Taiwan as a “successful democracy, a thriving economy, and a global leader in health and science.”
Philippines Seeks Indian Military Presence to Counter China
The Philippine government hinted on Tuesday that it would welcome a permanent defense attaché from India, a sign of growing military cooperation between the two countries against the common menace of Communist China.
According to a report at by the Philippine Star, Philippine Assistant Defense Secretary Pablo Lorenzo discussed the possibility of Indian permanent stationing a defense envoy in Manila while attending the fourth Philippines-India Joint Defense Cooperation Committee (JDCC) last Friday.
Russia Says China Has ‘Impressive Mediation Potential’ for Ukraine War
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday said that Russia’s partner China has “impressive potential for mediation” in the Ukraine war, as “eloquently demonstrated” by China’s recent brokering of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“But the situation with Ukraine is still difficult, so far there are no prospects for a peaceful settlement,” Peskov added, slightly tempering his enthusiasm.
4 Found Dead in Mexico’s Cancun Beach Resort Area
Four dead bodies were found outside a popular beachside hotel in Cancun, Mexico, according to authorities.
Police initially said three bodies were found in a lot along Kukulkan Boulevard, but after further investigation, a fourth body was also discovered in the undergrowth of the same lot, the Associated Press reported.
The nationalities and identities of the victims have not been released.
Ontario Party Pushes Law Banning Protests Near Drag Shows, With Fines Up to $25K
Legislation has been introduced in Ontario, Canada that would seek to enact “community safe zones” that would prohibit protests within 100 metres of a drag show or other 2SLGBTQI+ events with fines of up to $25,000.
The official opposition party in the Ontario Assembly, the Nouveau Parti démocratique de l’Ontario (NDP), introduced a private members bill that would empower the attorney general to temporarily designate specific areas as “safe zones” for 2SLGBTQI+ events such as drag shows.
Protesters set Macron’s favorite Paris restaurant on fire
It’s not the first time that the French president’s opponents tried to torch La Rotonde eatery
Demonstrators protesting against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform have set fire to the French president’s favorite Paris restaurant, La Rotonde.
Some 300 rioters clashed with police outside the posh eatery on the iconic Boulevard du Montparnasse in the capital at around 15:30 CET on Thursday, local media reported, citing authorities.
Stones, bottles and flares were tossed at the security forces, eventually leading to the branded red awnings on the front of La Rotonde catching fire. Firefighters, who were swift to arrive on the scene, did not allow the flames to spread further and extinguished the blaze, according to the media.
Macron chose La Rotonde to celebrate his victory in the presidential election in 2017. He has also visited the expensive restaurant on many other occasions, occasionally dining there with foreign leaders. The French president previously told reporters that he developed a fondness for the place during his student years.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
US lawmakers expelled over gun control protest
The Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives has ousted two Democrats after they staged a demonstration
The Tennessee House of Representatives voted on Thursday to expel two Democratic lawmakers, after they were accused of breaching rules of conduct by holding a gun-control protest on the floor of the chamber.
President Joe Biden was quick to criticize the move by the Republican-led legislature, describing it as “undemocratic.”
Representative Justin Jones was expelled by a vote of 72 to 25, while 69 lawmakers backed the removal of his colleague, Justin Pearson, who only assumed office on March 27. Fellow Democrat Gloria Johnson narrowly escaped the same fate as the resolution to oust her failed by a single vote.
There have only been a handful of such cases since the end of the American Civil War.
According to The Tennessean newspaper, protesters supporting the expelled lawmakers chanted “shame on you” and “fascists!” from the House gallery after the votes were counted. At least 20 people reportedly staged a demonstration described as a “die-in” outside the chamber doors.
Amish Farmer Challenges Constitutionality of Federal Firearms License
Amish dairy farmer Reuben King’s farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was raided on Jan. 12, 2022, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which charged King with dealing in firearms without a license and confiscated 615 guns.
An undercover ATF agent bought five guns from King between October 2019 and March 2020, court papers filed by the ATF say.
On June 11, 2020, the ATF served King with a cease-and-desist letter advising him to get a Federal Firearms License (FFL) before selling any more firearms. King told the ATF that he did not sell firearms as a business and only occasionally sold personal long arms for which he had no further use.
After that letter, King sold four firearms to undercover state troopers in November 2020, March 2021, and December 2021, prompting the charges.
But King doesn’t need an FFL, his attorney, Joshua Prince, told The Epoch Times. He will argue the FFL itself is unconstitutional.
Firearms sellers—those who sell occasionally from a private collection, and those who hold an FFL— have come under more scrutiny since June 2021 when President Joe Biden declared “zero tolerance for rogue gun dealers that willfully violate the law.”
As of Fiscal Year 2022, the ATF reports there are 136,563 active FFLs in the United States.
Since Biden took office, there has been an uptick in FFL revocations, Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told The Epoch Times. Anecdotally, attorneys defending clients facing FFL revocations, or warnings to get an FFL, say they have seen more cases in the last two years.
NY Judge Rules State’s ‘Red Flag’ Gun Law Is Unconstitutional
A judge in New York has ruled that the state’s extreme risk protection order law, which allows law enforcement to temporarily seize a person’s firearms, is unconstitutional.
Extreme risk protection order (ERPO) laws, often referred to as “Red Flag” laws, allow courts to order the seizure of a person’s firearms if a police officer, district attorney, family member, or school administrator files a petition indicating the targeted firearms owner poses a risk of harm to themselves or others. In a Tuesday decision, Orange County Judge Craig Stephen Brown determined that the wording of New York’s Red Flag application requirements fall short of an existing New York state law, which stipulates that a person’s liberties cannot be curtailed on the basis of a belief that they pose a threat to themselves or others unless a physician attests that the targeted person is suffering from a condition “likely to result in serious harm.”
Judge Brown was asked to consider the legalities of the state’s Red Flag law by attorneys for defendant Corey J Monroe. Monroe was subjected to a Red Flag firearms seizure order after he was alleged to have brandished and pointed a loaded shotgun at his neighbor during a verbal dispute. Monroe denied the allegations and called on the judge overseeing his case to throw out the Red Flag order against him, which was filed by a Middletown Police Department officer.
Brown agreed to vacate the Red Flag order against Monroe, and ruled that the law is unconstitutional.
“Under Mental Hygiene Law § 9.39, a person’s liberty rights cannot be curtailed unless a physician opines that the person is suffering from a condition ‘likely to result in serious harm.’ Further, in order to extend any such curtailment of liberty beyond 48 hours, a second doctor’s opinion must be obtained and such opinion must be consistent with the first doctor’s opinion,” Brown wrote in his judgment (pdf). “Absent from New York’s Red Flag Law is any provision whatsoever requiring even a single medical or mental health expert opinion providing a basis for the order to be issued. New York’s Red Flag Law, as currently written, lacks sufficient statutory guardrails to protect a citizen’s Second Amendment Constitutional right to bear arms.”
In addition to having the Red Flag gun confiscation order against him thrown out, Monroe also beat the allegations of pointing a firearm at his neighbor in a related criminal proceeding.
Rep. Jordan Subpoenas Former Manhattan Prosecutor Who Pushed for Trump Indictment
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has subpoenaed a former Manhattan prosecutor who pushed for an indictment against former President Donald Trump. The move came days after Trump pleaded not guilty to felony charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in a prosecution that has ignited outrage from Republicans.
Jordan on April 6 wrote (pdf) to former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, ordering him to appear before the House Judicial Committee to provide testimony.
Pomerantz, who authored a book titled “People vs. Donald Trump,” was a Manhattan prosecutor under District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg. Pomerantz earlier led an investigation into Trump’s finances but resigned in February 2022 because of Bragg’s initial unwillingness to pursue a criminal case.
The subpoena comes after Pomerantz rejected an offer to testify voluntarily. Pomerantz said he was instructed to refuse by the Manhattan DA’s office.
“Based on your unique role as a special assistant district attorney leading the investigation into President Trump’s finances, you are uniquely situated to provide information that is relevant and necessary to inform the Committee’s oversight and potential legislative reforms,” Jordan wrote to Pomerantz.
Alan Dershowitz Issues Warning on Chances of a Trump Acquittal in Manhattan
Retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz warned Wednesday that former President Donald Trump may not get acquitted in New York City amidst Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against him.
“There’s no way he can get a fair trial,” he told Fox News. “I don’t care if Jesus, Muhammad, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thurgood Marshall defended Trump in New York, he wouldn’t win this case. Hung jury? Maybe. Acquittal? Never.”
Dershowitz, a famed defense attorney who helped represent O.J. Simpson and Jim Bakker, said that a potential Manhattan juror would not “want to walk around town and have people say, ‘That’s the juror who freed Donald Trump and allowed him to be president.’”
“It reminds me of when I was a civil rights person in the South … even if you didn’t spit on the sidewalk, if the sheriff said you spit on the sidewalk and charged you with it, there’s no chance you could get acquitted by an all-White Jim Crow jury,” he elaborated. “Everybody knew that. You were innocent, but everyone knew you were going to be convicted.”
Trump Indictment Paving the Way for His Comeback to Oval Office, Predicts Gingrich
The charges against former President Donald Trump are giving a major boost to his bid to return to the White House, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“They’re forcing Republicans to choose between corruption and Trump,” he told The Epoch Times, noting that even Trump’s Republican critics, such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush haven’t been impressed with the case.
“Trump is stronger today than he was a month ago,” said Gingrich, a contributor to The Epoch Times.
Recent poll data and political analysis largely lean in favor of Gingrich’s prediction.
SCOTUS Refuses to Reinstate West Virginia Law Keeping Males Off Female Sports Teams
The Supreme Court refused on April 6 to lift a federal appeals court order blocking West Virginia’s law preventing male athletes from playing on school sports teams designated for females.
Two conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, dissented from the court’s refusal to remove the injunction.
West Virginia enacted the Save Women’s Sports Act in 2021, which prevents students from competing in school sports other than under their birth sex.
West Virginia and other states have taken action to make sure women and girls continue to have access to school sports even as males who identify as females take spots on women’s sports teams. Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Arkansas, Florida, and other states have also passed legislation that keeps men from competing in women’s sports.
A lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 12-year-old who was born male but now identifies as female. Pepper-Jackson was prevented from joining a girls’ cross-country team. The ACLU argues that the statute violates the child’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and Title IX, a federal law that bans sex-based discrimination in education.
A federal district court temporarily blocked the state law in July 2021, and the state didn’t appeal that preliminary injunction for 1 1/2 years. The same court then changed course and ruled for the state and dissolved the injunction.
Then, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit entered an injunction, putting the state law on hold. The appeals court didn’t explain its decision.
This is apparently the first time the Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving restrictions on the participation of transgender athletes in collegiate sports, but it isn’t a ruling on the merits of the lawsuit itself, which remains pending before the 4th Circuit. The Supreme Court could revisit the matter in the future.
The emergency application in State of West Virginia v. B.P.J., court file 22A800, was docketed by the high court on March 13. The application, prepared by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, was referred to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees the 4th Circuit.
Roberts referred the application to the full court, which issued its new unsigned order late on April 6 without explaining why or issuing a formal opinion.
Alito faulted the 4th Circuit in his dissenting opinion (pdf), which was joined by Thomas.
Biden’s Pro-Trans Rule Imposes Virtual Ban on Single-Sex K-12 Sports
Single-sex K-12 school sports will be made unaffordable under a draft regulation released Thursday by President Joe Biden’s pro-transgender deputies.
The draft regulation released by the Department of Education allows schools to keep fair, single-sex sports– but only if the schools collect funds to pay lawyers and expert witnesses every time they exclude an opposite-sex “transgender” youth from a single-sex team.
Colorado Police Arrest Transgender Person Who Allegedly Planned to Shoot Up Schools
A 19-year-old transgender person who allegedly planned to shoot up schools in and around Colorado Springs, Colorado, was arrested March 31.
The news was reported April 6, by Reduxx.
The transgender person, William Whitworth, was born male but now calls himself “Lilly” or “Lily.”
‘This Is an Outrage’: Caitlyn Jenner Knocks Woke NIKE for Dylan Mulvaney Partnership
Caitlyn Jenner came out swinging against Woke NIKE for selecting fellow transgender Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador.
As Breitbart News reported this week, NIKE Women selected Dylan Mulvaney to sell women’s sports bras and leggings despite being a man.
US Agency Advances New Rule Targeting Portable Gas-Powered Generators
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously on April 5 to advance a proposal that would enable portable generators to emit less carbon monoxide and shut down the devices automatically if the odorless, potentially toxic gas reaches a certain level.
The rule would “protect unsuspecting consumers from carbon monoxide poisoning associated with portable generators,” noting that it is a “well-documented hazard, responsible for more than 1,300 deaths and 17,000 injuries over the past 18 years,” CPSC Commissioner Mary T. Boyle confirmed (pdf).
“By advancing this rulemaking process, we are taking action aimed squarely at preventing harm and saving lives,” she wrote. “The proposed rule before us sets clear, science-based expectations for manufacturers. It requires them to build safer generators with lower emissions and automatic shut-off mechanisms. The specifics in the rule match up with standards developed by industry-led organizations.”
On Twitter, CPSC Commissioner Rich Trumka Jr. pointed to data indicating that poisoning deaths caused by gas-powered generators’ carbon monoxide emissions are increasing. He also appeared to invoke mainstream narratives about climate change, writing that it is his “best guess” that the spikes in carbon monoxide poisonings are “due to the uptick in extreme weather events during which people rely on generators for power.” He did not provide evidence to back up his post.
The Portable Generator Manufacturers’ Association, an industry group, didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. The group told ProPublica that the CPSC has “no legal authority” to implement the rule and said that the industry already has safeguards in place.
“There is a voluntary consumer product safety standard that is effective at preventing deaths and injuries and will have substantial compliance by the industry,” Joseph Harding, the group’s technical director, said in a statement.
HEALTH
Spring into health with these 4 leafy greens
With the arrival of spring, shades of emerald, and lime green are finally beginning to creep back into our winter-browned landscapes. This welcome renewal of color can remind us that spring is a great time to access the healing power of green – or, more specifically, the healing power of leafy greens.
After all, dark green leafy vegetables have been shown to provide a wealth of health benefits, including promoting efficient circulation, enhancing detoxification, and supporting a healthy body weight. Plus, research has even highlighted the potential of compounds in leafy greens to target cancer cells. Let’s take a closer look at the many gifts to health offered by four different “super greens.”
- Isothiocyanates in leafy greens like kale may help ward off disease
- Leafy greens like tangy arugula can protect the heart
- Nutrient-packed watercress is no “fragile flower”
- Dandelion greens provide a “spring cleaning” for the liver
FDA Revokes Approval for Drug for Pregnant Women
U.S. drug regulators on April 6 said they’re withdrawing the approval of a drug aimed at reducing preterm birth in pregnant women.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is withdrawing approval for Makena, which the same agency approved in 2011.
The decision stems from the conclusion that there’s no evidence Makena actually reduces the risk of preterm birth.
“After thoroughly reviewing the record for this matter, we have determined that there is an insufficient demonstration of effectiveness to balance any level of risk,” they said.
AMAG Pharmaceuticals, the drug’s manufacturer, says on its website that the company voluntarily withdrew Makena from the market, but that until the FDA chose to withdraw the drug, it would still be available to patients and prescribers.
How Heart Rate Variability Might Indicate Your Well-Being
HRV measures the variations in time between your heartbeats — a function controlled by your autonomic nervous system (ANS)
HRV is typically analyzed using an electrocardiogram, or EKG, which can reveal that something’s off with your ANS
If you have low variation between heartbeats, it may signal that you’re stuck in fight-or-flight mode, whereas high variation between beats tends to signal a more relaxed state
HRV has been linked to heart health, obesity, diabetes, inflammation, psychiatric conditions, cognitive function and more
Lifestyle factors, including diet, exercise, sauna usage and controlled breathing, can benefit HRV
NEW research finds certain birth control pills increase risk of breast cancer by up to 30 percent
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly two-thirds of all American girls and women currently use contraception, and the second most common method of contraception is the birth control pill.
Of course, preventing unintended pregnancies isn’t the only reason women and girls are prescribed oral contraceptive pills. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) notes that birth control pills are often prescribed to treat heavy, painful, and/or irregular periods, manage endometriosis, and improve issues like hair loss, excess hair growth, acne, and severe symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). But recent research prompts an important question: are the benefits of birth control pills really worth the risk for some women?
New study from United Kingdom reveals 30% increased risk of breast cancer associated with birth control pill
A group of researchers at Oxford University in the United Kingdom recently published the results of their case-control study and meta-analysis, which looked at the effects of combined (estrogen-progesterone) and progesterone-only pills on a woman’s breast cancer risk.
Their study, published in March 2023 in PLOS Medicine, determined that women who use oral contraceptives have a 20 to 30 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared to women who don’t.
This 30% increased risk is relative. Fortunately, the absolute excess risk isn’t quite as alarming. By combining their data with research from prior studies, the authors found that the absolute excess risk of developing breast cancer over a 15-year period was 8 per 100,000 among women who used the pill between ages 16 to 20 (an incidence of 0.093% compared to 0.084% in non-pill users), and 265 per 100,000 among women who used the pill between ages 35 to 39 (an incidence of 2.2% compared to 2.0% in non-pill users).
Of course, even though the absolute risk appears to be small, this still means some women in this country will someday receive a breast cancer diagnosis likely because of their prior oral contraceptive use – a harsh reality for many families.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Claims for unemployment benefits hit 228,000 in the week that ended on April 1 and the previous week’s claims were revised up sharply, a sign that the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening may be beginning to soften demand for labor.
Last week’s claims would have been the highest of the year, except that the prior week’s claims were revised up from 198
Total Property Taxes On Single-Family Homes Up 4 Percent Across U.S. In 2022, To $340 Billion
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its 2022 property tax analysis for 87 million U.S. single family homes, which shows that $339.8 billion in property taxes were levied on single-family homes in 2022, up 3.6 percent from $328 billion in 2021. The increase was more than double the 1.6 percent growth in 2021, although smaller than the 5.4 percent increase the prior year.
The report also shows that the average tax on single-family homes in the U.S. increased 3 percent in 2022, to $3,901, after rising 1.8 percent the previous year.
IRS Report Announces Major Changes on Who It Targets for Audits
The IRS is planning to spend tens of billions of dollars to audit wealthy taxpayers and corporations, according to the agency’s strategic operating plan released on April 6.
“People who get W-2s or Social Security payments or have a small business should not be worried about a sudden new wave of IRS audits,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel told reporters on April 6 about the agency’s plans. “We’re taking that off the table. Our focus will be on other high dollar areas for quite some time because there’s a lot of work to do in those more complex areas of tax law that will take years to accomplish.”
Instead, tax agents will target “taxpayers with complex tax filings and high-dollar noncompliance,” according to the IRS operating plan (pdf), It will use more than half of the $80 billion that it received in new funding, or $47.4 billion, to enhance enforcement efforts.
Some Republicans have suggested that the money from the Democrats’ climate change and health care bill passed last year would help create a number of new armed auditors who would harass middle-class taxpayers. Werfel told The Associated Press that it won’t include spending for new agents with guns.
Republican House lawmakers voted to claw back some of the $80 billion after they retook the lower congressional chamber. However, that bill likely won’t prevail in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Hawaii Puts a Price on Paradise: Mulls Tax on Tourists to Aid ‘Environment’
Tourists who visit Hawaii in their millions every year are facing the prospect of paying a special visitors tax to protect the “environment” they travel from around the world to experience.
AP reports Hawaii lawmakers are considering legislation that would require tourists to pay for a yearlong license or pass to visit state parks and trails.
General Motors is buying out 5,000 salaried employees in the United States as the automaker looks to cut billions in costs with its move toward electric vehicles (EVs) which require far fewer manufacturing workers.
This week, GM executives announced that 5,000 salaried employees took a buyout offer from the automaker — more than expected. The buyout is set to save GM about $1 billion. The larger cost savings goal, executives have said, is to cut about $2 billion.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
ChatGPT falsely accuses law prof of sexual harassment; is libel suit possible?
A law professor was surprised to hear that he had been accused of sexual harassment during a class trip to Alaska sponsored by his law school, the Georgetown University Law Center.
But in reality, Jonathan Turley is a professor at the George Washington University Law School, he has never taken students on a class trip to Alaska or anywhere else, and he has never been accused of harassing a student. And the supposed article in the Washington Post reporting on the accusation doesn’t exist.
Turley’s accuser is ChatGPT, according to his story for USA Today and an article in the Washington Post.
“It was quite chilling,” Turley told the Washington Post. “An allegation of this kind is incredibly harmful.”
A spokesperson for ChatGPT creator OpenAI gave the Washington Post this statement: “When users sign up for ChatGPT, we strive to be as transparent as possible that it may not always generate accurate answers. Improving factual accuracy is a significant focus for us, and we are making progress.”
ChatGPT had accused Turley after Eugene Volokh, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, asked it to make a list of law professors who had sexually harassed someone. Volokh is writing a law review article that considers whether the creators of ChatGPT could be sued for libel, he wrote in posts here and here for the Volokh Conspiracy.
The Washington Post considered the possibility of lawsuits. One issue is whether OpenAI could avoid liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online publishers from suits based on third-party content. Another issue is whether a plaintiff could show reputational damage from a false assertion.
In an article for the Wall Street Journal, cartoonist Ted Rall considered whether he could sue after ChatGPT falsely claimed that he had been accused of plagiarism by another cartoonist with whom he had a “contentious” and “complicated” relationship.
NASA Names Diverse Astronaut Crew for Artemis II Moon Mission
For the first time in more than half a century, NASA has named a crew of astronauts headed to the moon.
Humans have not ventured more than a few hundred miles off the planet since the return of Apollo 17, NASA’s last moon mission, in 1972. After Artemis’s experience on the moon, NASA hopes to chart a path to putting humans on Mars, while scientists expect to use what is found there to answer questions about how the solar system formed.
Astronauts in 2023 are much different from those when the United States was in a race to beat the Soviet Union to the moon. During the Apollo program, 24 astronauts flew to the moon, and 12 of them stepped on the surface. All of them were Americans. All of them were white men, many of whom were test pilots.
SpaceX launches Intelsat satellite with NASA air quality sensor
NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO, instrument is attached to the Intelsat 40e communications satellite.
The TEMPO instrument, about the size of a washing machine, will scan North America to measure pollutants in the atmosphere, collecting data for scientists to study how concentrations of chemicals produced from human activity and natural processes change throughout the day. Forecasters will also use the measurements to predict air quality in cities, which can have significant impacts on human health.
“TEMPO will be measuring pollution and air quality across greater North America on an hourly basis during the daytime, all the way from Puerto Rico up to the tar sands of Canada,” said Kevin Daugherty, TEMPO’s project manager at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
For the first time, scientists will receive air quality measurements multiple times per day once TEMPO begins observations after this year. There are similar instruments monitoring air pollution from satellites in low Earth orbit, but those missions provide just a single observation each day.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
New Medical Codes for COVID-19 Vaccination Status Used to Track People, CDC Confirms
Medical codes introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to show when people are unvaccinated or undervaccinated for COVID-19 are being used to track people, the top U.S. public health agency has confirmed.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made the confirmation in emails that The Epoch Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The CDC had said in documents and public statements that the goal of the new codes, in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system, was “to track people who are not immunized or only partially immunized.”
The CDC now says it does not have access to the data, but that health care systems do.
“The ICD codes were implemented in April 2022, however the CDC does not have any data on the codes and does not track this information,” CDC officials said in the emails.
“The codes were created to enable healthcare providers to track within their practices,” the officials added.
The emails were sent to news outlets. The CDC has not answered queries from The Epoch Times about the codes, which the CDC added to the U.S. ICD system in 2022.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Energy as a Vehicle of Control and the War on Carbon
According to the globalists, climate change is the No. 1 threat to humanity, necessitating radical quality of life sacrifices and the total relinquishing of privacy and freedom
Climate change is also being used to explain away food shortages, justify the need to move people from the countrysides and suburbs into smart cities, and promote the replacement of beef with insects. The COVID-19 pandemic was even blamed on it
Globalists want health (which includes both medicine and food, under the new “food is medicine” agenda), climate action and energy control to be addressed not as three separate issues but as one
One of the globalists’ fraudulent solutions to the purported climate crisis is Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing. A company’s ESG score is supposed to tell investors how socially conscious the company is, but recent scandals have revealed ESG is a scam
Carbon trade refers to the buying and selling of credits that allow a company to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide. By buying credits from nonpolluters, industry can continue to pollute. Basically, like ESG investing, the carbon trade is a globalist scam intended to lower the living standards of the poor and usher humanity into carbon slavery
>> Video: ESG Scam Suffers Huge Blow | Del Bigtree Highwire
Canadian Couple Escapes Their Tesla Moments Before It Bursts into Flames
Tesla and Transport Canada have begun investigating the possible causes of a recent incident where a Tesla Model X burst into flames in Sherbrooke, Quebec. The driver and his companion narrowly escaped the blaze, which began shortly after they began a drive. Incredibly, the driver has used his insurance payment to buy another Tesla.
CTV News reports that when a Quebec man’s Tesla Model X mysteriously caught fire in Montreal, he narrowly avoided a potentially fatal accident. The driver, Sacha De Santis, reported that smoke started to billow out of the vents shortly after getting into the car.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Garden Planning: Considering Location
Keith Arkenberg of Arkenberg Farms walks you through how to make the most of a small garden by accounting for location. From considerations such as the presence of rocks to proper drainage, Keith covers how to avoid unnecessary issues and anticipate limitations. He describes how tree placement can both help and hinder, from southerly trees blocking significant amounts of sunlight to helpful treelines forming a windbreak, as well as how to consider and deal with weed pressures from old cropland or rhizome grasses. He also addresses concerns such as proximity to or availability of water and power
COVID RELATED NEWS
From Alexander COVID News-Dr. Paul Elias Alexander’s Newsletter
releasing a counterpart even years later to be killed at will – She calls this a Binary Poison (as it’s in two parts); we have never made it with this type of mRNA vaccine for this type of virus
Winning the War Against Therapeutic Nihilism
Dr. Peter McCullough, an internist, cardiologist and trained epidemiologist, is now a “hunted doctor” who’s been threatened with disciplinary actions, including suspension or revocation of his medical license, by the American Board of Internal Medicine for the “dissemination of misinformation”
He stepped forward during the COVID-19 pandemic because he saw something very wrong was going on very early in 2020, and he felt compelled to do something about it
A Toxicology Reports study found COVID-19 injections are deadlier, statistically, than COVID-19
COVID-19 genetic vaccines have an unfavorable safety profile and are not sufficiently effective, thus they cannot be supported in clinical practice at this time
The data are clear that a pivot away from mass injections to early treatment for COVID-19 could save lives, and McCullough and colleagues recommend that you demand early treatment if you have COVID-19, whether or not you’ve been vaccinated
Pfizer Hit With COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Infringement Lawsuit
Pfizer used technologies developed by another company in its COVID-19 vaccine, infringing on patents, according to a new lawsuit.
The Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine uses lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology that was developed and patented by Arbutus Biopharma, Arbutus alleges in the suit, filed on April 4 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
“When the world was thrust into a devastating pandemic and urgently needed LNP technologies to deliver an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine to cells in the body, the necessary LNP technologies had, fortunately, already been invented by Arbutus’s scientists years before and stood ready for use. Defendants could not have accomplished the feat of creating and manufacturing a vaccine at a speed unprecedented in the history of medicine but for their use of Plaintiffs’ existing and proven LNP technologies,” the suit reads.
CANCEL CULTURE
Backlash: Country Star Travis Tritt Dumping Anheuser-Busch from His Tour After Dylan Mulvaney Deal
Veteran country music star Travis Tritt announced Thursday he is no longer having Anheuser-Busch products on his touring hospitality rider. What’s more? Tritt says “I know many other artists who are doing the same.”
The move is his personal response to the brewer signing transgender activist, Joe Biden supporter, and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney to a lucrative endorsement deal that involved flogging its Bud Light beer.
For Democrats, ‘MAGA Republican’ Label Is Designed to Paralyze Opposition
ews Analysis
These days, it seems like every top Democrat has to work the term “MAGA Republican” into their messages. It’s no coincidence.
Their party first deployed the term in mid-2022 as part of a midterm strategy that aimed to activate voters outraged about the Supreme Court’s abortion decision, among other issues.
“The terms ‘MAGA Republicans’ and ‘Extreme MAGA Republicans’ were created by the Democrats along with some never Trump Republicans in an attempt to isolate Trump supporters as being outside the mainstream of the American political process,” said Richard Manning, president of the Republican-aligned Americans for Limited Government, in an April 3 email to The Epoch Times.
Others argue that the talk of “MAGA Republicans” is, in actuality, unifying and necessary.
“The term ‘MAGA Republicans’—as used by President [Joe] Biden, Chuck Schumer, and other prominent politicians—does not aim to divide the country as many critics claim,” said David Carlucci, a Democratic strategist, in an April 4 email to The Epoch Times.
“Instead, it is meant to rally all Americans regardless of party affiliation against an ideology that has sought to dismantle our democratic institutions.”
PET NEWS
15 Easy-to-Miss Signs of Anxiety in Dogs
Like humans, dogs can experience feelings of anxiety. But the way it manifests may be different than you’d expect. In some cases, your dog may hide, shake or howl — all fairly obvious signs that your dog is anxious. In others, it can be much more difficult to spot.
You may not immediately make a connection between your dog’s diarrhea, yawning or destructive behaviors to feelings of nervousness or stress, but these are common signs of anxiety in dogs. Learning to recognize the symptoms — including the more subtle ones — is the first step to getting your dog the help she may need.
GOOD NEWS
British Retiree May Have Solved Decades-Old Geometry Problem: ‘A Really New Idea’
An amateur mathematician in the United Kingdom may have solved a 60-year-old problem in geometry, garnering the attention of researchers.
CNN reported David Smith, a retired printing technician, has discovered a shape known as an “einstein,” which can be tiled over a surface without the pattern repeating. The outlet noted mathematicians first began working on this problem in the 1960s.
Smith and three coauthors, Joseph Samuel Myers, Craig S. Kaplan, and Chaim Goodman-Strauss, published a paper explaining Smith’s finding.
Smith, who says he is “always looking for an interesting shape,” wrote a blog post to serve as a “scrapbook” of his experiments with non-repeating tiles in which he thanked his three coauthors for the “super human effort” they expended helping him make his work public.
Live Science reported that mathematicians have long debated whether such shapes could even exist and, if so, what form they might take:
For decades, mathematicians wondered if it was possible to find a single special shape that could perfectly tile a surface, without leaving any gaps or causing any overlaps, with the pattern never repeating. Of course, this is trivial to do with a pattern that repeats — just look at a bathroom or kitchen floor, which is probably made up of simple rectangular tiles. If you were to pick up your floor and move it (called a “translation” in mathematics), you could find a position where the floor looks exactly the same as before, proving that it’s a repeating pattern.
Stanford Professor Rafe Mazzeo observed that Smith’s finding could have applications in physics, chemistry, and other fields, per CNN.
Michigan family welcomes the first baby girl born on the dad’s side of the family since 1885
There are obviously families where all of the children are the same sex, no matter how many times they tried to get the opposite. It’s probably how the labels “boy mom” and “girl mom” came about. But one family in Michigan took the “boy mom” label to a different level because, for multiple generations, no one gave birth to a girl.
It sounds completely made up. So made up, in fact, that when Andrew Clark told his then-girlfriend Carolyn that his family didn’t have any girls, she didn’t believe him, even going as far as to confirm this story with his parents.
“I asked his parents to confirm that information and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, no, we haven’t had a girl in our direct line.’ He’s had uncles and cousins that have had girls but in his lineage, there has not been a girl,” Carolyn told “Good Morning America.”
Turns out Andrew wasn’t joking. No baby girls had been born in his direct line since 1885. Don’t stress the math, it’s 138 years. One. Hundred. Thirty. Eight. Years. That seems unreal and a little like maybe they should donate their DNA to science to figure out how exactly something that remarkable happened.
But that 138-year streak came to a beautiful end when Carolyn became pregnant with their daughter, Audrey, after the couple experienced a miscarriage in 2021. The family held a gender reveal party where cookies were filled with colored icing to reveal the baby’s sex. The family gathered around all likely expecting blue to be the color of the day, but the Clarks had a surprise.
“Everyone was just screaming and jumping in disbelief, honestly,” Carolyn told ABC 13 On Your Side.
The long-awaited sweet baby girl was born on March 17, 2023, and boy…or should I say girl, is her family lucky.
ICYMI
REMEMBER THE MOVIE, “SNAKES ON A PLANE”?
South African Pilot Conducts Emergency Landing with Venomous Cobra Beneath His Seat
A South African pilot kept his cool and successfully landed a plane after finding a venomous snake under his seat.
Rudolf Erasmus, a pilot from South Africa, was flying a private plane from the Western Cape of South Africa to Nelspruit when he felt a “little cold sensation” beneath his shirt, which turned out to be a cape Cobra, NPR reported.
GOOD COP, BAD COP
Michigan Teenager Accused of Posing as Police Officer, Pulling over Real Cop
A Michigan teenager is accused of posing as a Detriot Police officer and having been caught after allegedly attempting to pull over a real law enforcement officer.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office stated that Christian Katan Mansoor, 18, a resident of Maycomb County Township, allegedly posed as a Detroit Police officer and “was charged with a misdemeanor after attempting to make a traffic stop, only to find out the car he was trying to stop was being driven by an off-duty Waterford Township police officer.” The incident reportedly occurred at 11 p.m. on Monday Crooks Road in Rochester Hills.
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