WORLD NEWS
China finds big money in TikTok psyop as Bytedance profits soar 60%!
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of massively popular psyop against western teenagers TikTok, has achieved a massive 60 percent increase in profits for 2023, outpacing Chinese competitors like gaming giant Tencent.
Bloomberg reports that ByteDance’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) skyrocketed to more than $40 billion in 2023, a staggering 60 percent increase from the previous year’s $25 billion. The company’s revenue also saw substantial growth, reaching nearly $120 billion, up from $80 billion in 2022.
ByteDance’s success can be attributed to its ability to leverage its popular short-video platforms to expand into international e-commerce and maintain its global popularity. The company’s domestic app, Douyin, has evolved into an all-in-one platform, encroaching on the territories of rivals such as Tencent’s WeChat, Alibaba’s e-commerce, and Meituan’s food delivery services.
Overseas, the successful rollout of TikTok Shop in markets like the United States and Southeast Asia has unlocked new revenue sources beyond digital marketing. TikTok aims to grow its US e-commerce business tenfold this year, capitalizing on its 170 million users in the country.
However, ByteDance faces challenges in its most lucrative market, the United States. In March, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban TikTok unless ByteDance sells the app. The measure’s outcome in the Senate remains uncertain, and the upcoming presidential rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, along with Beijing’s response, could further complicate matters.
Despite these obstacles, ByteDance has started to streamline its operations by cutting jobs in its gaming development and enterprise software units, which had failed to meet expectations. The company is now focusing on catching up with the latest trend in generative AI by building its own chatbots and large language models.
Spill your guts on TikTok! China encourages young users to tell all!
A new trend on China’s TikTok called “Things I’m ashamed to admit” involves the platform’s young users engaging in an egregious amount of oversharing on social media under the guise of dispelling the notion that people are living perfect lives.
The growing TikTok trend is typically found attached to the hashtag “Social Media is Fake” or the phrase “social media is fake, here are things I’m ashamed to admit,” and is circulating on pretext of making people feel better about themselves on social media, according to a report by the Guardian.
Some of the issues TikTok users have been admitting under the hashtag — which has reportedly been used more than 26,000 times since March — are fears about financial security, never finding love, and progression in life.
Additionally, the soundtrack attached to the TikTok trend has been used in over 463,000 videos, which have acquired millions of views.
London-based psychiatrist Mark Silvert told the Guardian “There is a risk of oversimplifying complex psychological issues or inadvertently glamorizing unhealthy coping mechanisms.”
“By oversharing and getting into a routine of being privy to strangers’ situations, comparison is bound to creep in which can lead to unrealistic standards which then further diminish one’s self-worth,” Silvert added.
Others, meanwhile, have expressed different types of concerns regarding the level of information TikTok users allow the app to collect, especially given that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Judge orders witness names to remain secret in Trump classified documents case!
The federal judge overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump has ordered that the names of potential witnesses remain secret, marking a victory for special counsel Jack Smith.
In a 24-page ruling, Judge Aileen Cannon said potential government witnesses’ names will be redacted in the case involving President Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office in 2021, in line with Mr. Smith’s request, which had cited safety concerns.
However, he will still need to justify the redactions of every witness’s identity, the judge ruled.
“This evaluation contemplates the balancing of several relevant factors, including the safety of witnesses and third parties; a particular danger of perjury or witness intimidation; the protection of information vital to the national security; and the protection of business enterprises from economic reprisals,” the judge wrote.
Judge Cannon also ruled that significant parts of the substantive witness statements to investigators may still be made public, as they do not identify the witnesses or other third parties mentioned.
In her ruling, the judge—who was nominated to the bench by President Trump—took aim at Mr. Smith’s “wholesale request” for complete anonymity of the witnesses via full redactions, noting that redacting identifiable information would sufficiently address safety concerns.
The ruling resolves a month-long dispute between the special counsel and President Trump’s legal team, who in January attached information about the witnesses to a legal filing seeking information that they argued would help their client’s defense.
Witnesses for now will be referenced in court papers using pseudonyms, Judge Cannon said in her ruling.
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg sentenced to 5 months in jail!
Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Allen Weisselberg has been sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury in connection to former President Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial.
Weisselberg stood for his brief sentencing hearing Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court and was ultimately sentenced to five months in jail at Rikers Island after admitting to lying on more than one occasion, once during the May 12, 2023, deposition and again on October 10.
Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of perjury in connection with the suit. He admitted lying when he testified he had little knowledge of how Trump’s Manhattan penthouse came to be valued on his financial statements at nearly three times its actual size.
Weisselberg did not address the court on Wednesday, stating, “No, your honor” when asked if he wanted to address the court.
This is not the former Trump Organization CFO’s first stint in jail or Rikers Island, specifically, serving 100 days last year for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in company perks, including a rent-free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars.
While most Americans were dialed in on the solar eclipse, the FBI quietly released unclassified documents regarding Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran whom a Capitol Police officer killed on January 6th.
On April 8th, the FBI released a highly redacted 69-page file on details of Ashli Babbitt’s death, military background, and testimonies on Babbitt’s character.
On page three of the file, it was written, “BABBITT is deceased, and therefore, this case is not being nominated to TSDB.”
TSDB stands for “the terrorist screening data.
The TSDB “contains biographic and biometric identifying information (e.g., name, date of birth, photographs, iris scans, and/or fingerprints) of known and suspected terrorists.”
The file oddly made no mention of Capitol Police Officer Lt. Michael Byrd but instead generally stated Babbitt was “shot by police.”
The Gateway Pundit was the first publication to correctly identify Michael Byrd as Ashli Babbitt’s cold-blooded killer.
Later in the file, the FBI provides a brief overview of Babbitt’s personal information, such as her fingerprints, DMV records, and details regarding her military service.
Several pages were redacted that contained “anonymous tips” made by unnamed individuals through the FBI’s tip line.
One page of the file was an interview of an individual whose name was redacted.
The individual described Babbitt as a very outgoing and loving person who loved her family and country.
In the same interview, the person stated Ashli would “never go after someone physically.”
The Gateway Pundit previously reported Judicial Watch filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. government for the death of Babbitt.
California Congressman Ro Khanna calls on RFK Jr.’s running mate to leave the race!
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is calling on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate to step aside, telling her that he’s worried the independent candidate could lead to former President Donald Trump beating President Joe Biden in November’s presidential election race.
“While I completely respect third parties and the right for anyone to run for public office, I am deeply concerned that Robert F. Kennedy’s name on the ballot in swing states could tilt the election in Donald Trump’s favor,” Mr. Khanna wrote in a letter to Nichole Shanahan, Mr. Kennedy’s running mate.
Mr. Khanna pointed to recent polling that found President Trump was favored by more respondents if Mr. Kennedy and other outside candidates were included in the race. That includes a poll from Marquette Law School, which found that registered voters were evenly divided between President Biden and President Trump, but that, if the other candidates were included, President Trump had a 41 percent to 38 percent edge, with Mr. Kennedy coming in third with 14 percent.
Ms. Shanahan, a lawyer, said that she recently spoke to Mr. Khanna. He had congratulated her on being named Mr. Kennedy’s running mate and encouraged her to run, she said.
“Clearly, Ro has changed his stance based on pressure from the party. I hope he understands how anti-democratic it is to ask someone to step down from a race that empowers the American public to make their own decisions,” Ms. Shanahan wrote on the social media platform X. “I am very disappointed that he has been pressured into issuing this letter to me publicly. He could have called me privately. He has my direct line.”
Mr. Khanna responded to the criticism, writing, “No one is saying Nicole doesn’t have the right to run, but it is democratic to try to persuade her that she should support Biden instead given [the] stakes.”
FBI Director Wray again issues warnings on potential terrorist threats!
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday warned that foreign terrorist groups are again looking to attack the United States in an “increasingly concerning” way.
In a speech at the American Bar Association luncheon in Washington, the FBI director said the agency is attempting to prevent an attack on U.S. soil via terrorist groups such as ISIS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan.
“Foreign terrorists, including ISIS, al-Qaeda, and their adherents, have renewed calls for attacks against Jewish communities here in the United States and across the West in statements and propaganda,” Mr. Wray said at the event Tuesday. He then made reference to a terrorist attack claimed by ISIS in Moscow, Russia, that left more than 140 people dead.
“The foreign terrorist threat and the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, like the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago, is now increasingly concerning. Oct. 7 and the conflict that’s followed will feed a pipeline of radicalization and mobilization for years to come,” he stated.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Dollar Tree raises prices to $7 as inflationary pressure hits lower income families!
Discount retailer Dollar Tree announced it will raise its price cap to $7 on items at thousands of its stores across the nation as soaring prices continue to take their toll on the most economically vulnerable Americans.
Dollar Tree CEO Rick Dreiling told investors during a conference call on March 13: “This year, across 3,000 stores, we expect to expand our multi-price assortment by over 300 items at price points ranging from $1.50 to $7.00.”
The higher cost items will include food, pet, and personal care items, according to Mr. Dreiling.
“Over time, you will also see us fully integrate multi-price merchandise more into our stores so our shoppers will find $5 bags of dog food next to our traditional $1.25 pet treats and toys, and our $3 bags of candy will be found in the candy aisle,” Mr. Dreiling said.
The hike was meant to meet the needs of the brand’s new customer base, which is trending beyond the lower economic stratum and into the market of middle and higher-earning clientele.
“The fastest-growing demographic is north of $125,000 a year in income,” Mr. Dreiling said.
However, the Dollar Tree is only the most recent discount retailer confronting heavy pressure as a result of monetary inflation.
Last Friday, it was announced that hundreds of 99 Cents Only stores nationwide would be shuttering, citing elevated inflation as a contributing factor.
USPS approves raising the price of a first-class stamp by 7%+ to 73 cents (up from 68 cents)!
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has proposed a 7.8 percent price increase for stamps that would take effect in July to “achieve financial stability.”
A Tuesday press release from the service announced the filing of a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission to increase the prices of various stamps by up to ten cents.
A typical one-ounce letter first-class stamp will now cost 73 cents, instead of 68 cents. Domestic postcards went from 53 cents to 56 cents, and international postcards and letters have gone from $1.55 to $1.65.
The proposed increase, which the governors of the USPS have already approved, is set to occur on July 14 after being reviewed by the commission.
The federal mail service noted that the changes would “raise mailing services product prices [by] approximately 7.8 percent.”
Federal News Network reporter Jory Heckman took to X to point out that this would make for the USPS’s sixth price increase on mail products since 2020.
“The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for Special Services products, including Certified Mail and money order fees,” the agency added. “Notably, there will be no price increase for Post Office Box rental fees, and the Postal Service will apply a price reduction of 10 percent for postal insurance when mailing an item.”
The USPS claimed that “these price adjustments are needed to achieve the financial stability sought by the organization’s Delivering for America 10-year plan.”
The decade-long restructuring plan was announced in 2021, with hopes of eliminating the $160 billion in projected losses forecast to occur by 2030.
“USPS prices remain among the most affordable in the world,” the agency added in its recent press release.
In November 2023, the USPS reported a $6.5 billion net loss for the previous fiscal year, “as first-class mail fell to the lowest volume since 1968,” according to Newsmax.
The outlet added that the cost of stamps has risen by 50 percent over the last four years. In early 2019, stamps cost just 50 cents each.
HEALTH
US Imposes First National Drinking Water Limits on Toxic PFAS
The Biden administration Wednesday finalized strict limits on certain so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water that will require utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured.
Officials say this will reduce exposure for 100 million people and help prevent thousands of illnesses, including cancers.
The rule is the first national drinking water limit on toxic PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are widespread and long lasting in the environment.
Health advocates praised the Environmental Protection Agency for not backing away from tough limits the agency proposed last year. But water utilities took issue with the rule, saying treatment systems are expensive to install and that customers will end up paying more for water.
Water providers are entering a new era with significant additional health standards that the EPA says will make tap water safer for millions of consumers — a Biden administration priority. The agency has also proposed forcing utilities to remove dangerous lead pipes.
Utility groups warn the rules will cost tens of billions of dollars each and fall hardest on small communities with fewer resources. Legal challenges are sure to follow.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan says the rule is the most important action the EPA has ever taken on PFAS.
“The result is a comprehensive and life changing rule, one that will improve the health and vitality of so many communities across our country,” said Regan.
PFAS chemicals are hazardous because they don’t degrade in the environment and are linked to health issues such as low birth weight and kidney cancer. They’ve been used in everyday products including nonstick pans, firefighting foam and waterproof clothing. Although some of the most common types are phased out in the U.S., others remain. Water providers will now be forced to remove contamination put in the environment by other industries.
FDA panel members who voted on Abbott’s heart device had financial ties to the company!
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently convened a committee of independent advisors to review a cardiac device made by Abbott but failed to disclose that most of them had financial ties to the company.
According to the Open Payments database, 10 of the 14 voting members on the FDA’s advisory panel tasked with reviewing the clinical data for Abbott’s heart device and voting on information related to its premarket approval application received a total of roughly $650,000 between 2016 and 2022.
The panel, during its Feb. 13 meeting, voted almost unanimously, 13 to 1 that the benefits of Abbott’s TriClip G4 System used to treat tricuspid regurgitation outweigh the risks, The panel also voted 14 to zero that TriClip is safe for its intended use, and 12 to 2 that the device is effective, despite concerning clinical trial results provided to the panel in an FDA briefing document.
Yet Abbott announced on April 2 that its product had received full FDA approval following the panel’s recommendation.
The Open Payments database is a federal transparency program established in 2013 by the Department of Health and Human Services. It was established amid growing concern that financial relationships between physicians and the industry were unduly influencing healthcare decision-making and costs.
According to Open Payments data, voting member Dr. Paul Hauptman, dean and professor of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, has received nearly $200,000 in general payments from Abbott.
Dr. Paul Hauptman cast one vote in favor of TriClip’s safety, one vote against the device on effectiveness, and the only vote against the device on whether the benefits outweigh the risks.
This is not the first time the FDA has appointed people to its advisory committees with financial ties to the manufacturers of the products under review. For example, epidemiologist Dr. Arnold Monto, who previously consulted for Pfizer, chaired the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meetings, which led to the Emergency Use Authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
According to the Project on Government Oversight, Dr. Monto “curbed and corralled” the discussion on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, “cutting off questions, limiting debate, and forcing committee members to cast an up-or-down vote without giving them a chance to vote on any refinement to the authorization.”
In a 2018 analysis published by Science using Open Payments Data, researchers found that many FDA committee members received payments or other financial support from the drugmaker or its competitors for consulting, travel, lectures, or research during or leading up to the year of FDA advisory meetings.
Additionally, of 107 physicians who advised the FDA on 28 drugs approved from 2008 to 2014, a majority later received money for travel or consulting or received research subsidies from the manufacturers of the drugs they voted on or from competing firms.
Science found that the highest earners, and many others, received funds from the same companies during the year before their advisory service—payments disclosed in scholarly journals but not by the FDA.
Childhood Obesity May Do Lasting Damage To The Brain
Studies continue to show that childhood obesity puts kids at greater risk for developing diseases like Type 2 diabetes and hypertension. However, there’s a less talked about problem that excess weight at a young age could cause — poor brain health. Researchers working with the Radiological Society of North America found that children with a higher body mass index before reaching adolescence also displayed poorer cognitive functioning.
“We know being obese as an adult is associated with poor brain health,” says researcher Simone Kaltenhauser, a post-graduate research fellow in radiology and biomedical imaging at the Yale School of Medicine. “However, previous studies on children have often focused on small, specific study populations or single aspects of brain health.”
Kaltenhauser and the team used MRI data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study to reach their findings. This study included 11,878 children between nine and 10 years-old from 21 centers across the country in order to provide a diverse dataset that is representative of the greater population. The team excluded children with eating disorders, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diseases, and traumatic brain injuries. Ultimately, the research examined just over 5,100 children. According to BMI z-scores, which measure relative weight, adjusting for age, sex, and height, 21 percent and 17.6 percent were overweight or obese, respectively.
The team then evaluated brain health by examining information from structural MRI and resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) scans, which help capture changes in blood flow. Additionally, the team used diffusion tensor imaging to study the brain’s white matter.
After correcting for confounding factors like age, sex, race-ethnicity, left or right-handedness, and socioeconomic status, the researchers found that brain structure was altered in children of greater weight and BMI z-scores. Obese children also displayed impaired white matter integrity. Specifically, the white matter in the corpus callosum, which connects the two sides of our brains and allows them to communicate with each other, was damaged. Further, the team noted that the brain’s cortex, which is critical for overall cognitive function, was thinner.
“It is striking that these changes were visible early on during childhood,” Kaltenhauser says in a media release. “We expected the decrease in cortical thickness among the higher weight and BMI z-score children, as this was found previously in smaller subsamples of the ABCD study.”
“However, we were surprised by the extent of white matter impairment.”
Senior author Sam Payabvash, M.D., a neuroradiologist and assistant professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the Yale School of Medicine, adds that the findings from this work help mechanistically explain other studies that link a high BMI in children with decreased cognition and academic performance. Dr. Payabvash suggests continuously following these children over six to 10 years to monitor brain changes as they grow.
Researchers presented these findings at a previous meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in 2022.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
22-million papers submitted by students last year were written by artificial intelligence!
Students submitted more than 22 million papers last year that were likely written by AI tools, according to new data published by Turnitin, a software service that checks papers for plagiarism.
Turnitin says its plagiarism detection tool found millions of papers that may include a significant amount of AI-generated content, according to a report by Wired.
Last year, the company launched an AI writing detection tool and trained it on a slew of papers written by high school and college students, as well as known AI-generated content. Turnitin says its detector tool now has a false positive rate of less than one percent when examining entire documents.
Turnitin noted that its detector tool has analyzed more than 200 million student-submitted papers and found that 11 percent of them appear to be at least 20 percent made up of AI-generated written language, with three percent of the papers being at least 80 percent written by AI.
These types of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have become a major problem in the world of academia, as students are increasingly using the tool as their go-to source for cheating.
As Breitbart News reported, a study published last year found that 17 percent of students at Stanford University admitted to using ChatGPT on their final exams. Students at an elite academic program at a Florida high school were accused of cheating by using ChatGPT to write their essays.
While educators want to hold students accountable for cheating, accurately detecting the use of AI in writing assignments can be difficult.
Notably, AI detection tools can pose a risk of false positives against English language learners.
As Breitbart News reported, a Stanford study found last year that AI detection tools are biased against non-native English speakers and falsely accuse them of cheating.
Turnitin claims it has trained its plagiarism detector on writing styles of both English language learners and native English speakers, and the software company has been listed as one of the most accurate AI language detectors, according to an October study, Wired reported.
Annie Chechitelli, Turnitin’s chief product officer, suggested the software be used as a way for teachers to start a conversation with their students abut the nuance in using generative AI, rather than as a means for passing or failing a student.
“People don’t really know where that line should be,” she said.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
House conservatives tank FISA bill, a blow to Speaker Mike Johnson!
House conservatives have tanked a procedural vote to advance a surveillance power reauthorization bill in protest against its lack of warrant requirements. The development is another blow to Speaker Mike Johnson who already faces an ouster threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. In a 193-226 vote, lawmakers voted not to advance Rep. Laurel Lee’s (R-Fla.) “Reforming Intelligence and Securing America” Act, which would extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA’s) controversial Section 702 for a period of five years. The warrantless surveillance power is due to lapse on April 19.
While such procedural votes normally advance along party lines, 19 Republicans joined all Democrats to block the bill, employing a tactic increasingly used by GOP factions to apply pressure on leadership.
Conservatives who voted against the bill’s advancement were Reps. Greene, Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Dan Bishop (R-N.C), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Bob Good (R-Va.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Chip Roy (R-Texas.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Clay Higgins (R-La.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Cory Mills (R-Fla.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Matt Rosendale (R-Md.), and Greg Steube (R-Fla.)
It’s yet another failure for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who in February had to pull a similar bill from the floor.
FISA Section 702 is one of several post 9/11 surveillance authorities that have come under scrutiny as some lawmakers from across the political aisle have raised alarm over its potential to violate the civil liberties of Americans.
Section 702, which was last authorized in 2018, was intended to permit warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals located outside the United States. However, in practice, it also sweeps up communications with U.S. citizens.
This vulnerability has allowed FBI agents to extensively misuse the tool in recent years, using it to search for the names of Black Lives Matter and Jan. 6 protesters.
The agency asserts that the program is vital to national security and that it has since undergone reform. Nevertheless, critics across the political spectrum have been apprehensive regarding the possibility of further constitutional infringements.
Insurance companies using aerial imagery to spy on houses seeking to cancel coverage!
Insurance companies across the country are using satellites, drones, manned airplanes and even high-altitude balloons to spy on properties they cover with homeowners policies — and using the findings to drop customers, often without giving any opportunity to address alleged shortcomings.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase across the country in reports from consumers who’ve been dropped by their insurers on the basis of an aerial image,” United Policyholders executive director Amy Bach tell the Wall Street Journal. Reasons can range from shoddy roofing to yard clutter and undeclared trampolines.
Much of this surveillance is done via the Geospatial Insurance Consortium, which boasts of its coverage of 99% of the US population.
In pitching its ability to provide high-resolution “imagery and insights” for property reviews, GIC says insurers can use the service to “review risk and exposure on a building such as proximity of vegetation to the structure, whether a roof needs updating, and verify the exact location for a policy.”
“If your roof is 20 years old and one hailstorm is going to take it off, you should pay more than somebody with a brand new roof,” Allstate CEO Tom Willson told the Journal, unapologetically and ominously adding that, where the company’s use of digital imagery is concerned, “there’s even more to come.”
Wilson framed aerial spying as a pricing issue, but many consumers are finding that companies are using it to suddenly drop their coverage altogether.
The Journal describes the experience of northern California resident Cindy Picos, who was dropped by CSAA Insurance last month, with the company saying aerial imagery revealed that her roof had aged beyond its life expectancy. She paid for an inspection of her own, which found the roof was good for another decade. CSAA wasn’t impressed, and said its decision was final. The firm also refused to share its photos, though it now says it’s changed that policy and will let customers see them — if they ask.
Another Californian, CJ Sveen, was dropped by AAA Homeowners Insurance after their reconnaissance discovered “clutter” in his yard. An indignant Sveen told ABC7 that he uses his yard as a workshop “Apparently they have some pictures and they noticed clutter. I find that offensive. How dare you judge me because of my stuff!”
In AAA’s defense, clutter isn’t just about aesthetics. It could present a fire hazard, attract rodents that harm the structure, present a physical danger to visitors, and obstruct firefighters’ ability to quickly contain a fire at the premises.
Another California couple had their policy torn up by AAA after overhead photography found their swimming pool had been drained. The aging pair said they emptied it because their grandchildren had grown up and they no longer used it. Empty pools are prone to cracking for lack of counter-pressure from water; they can also “float” up from the earth, creating hazardous conditions.
Former Michigan Farmers Insurance agent Nichole Brink told the Journal she quit the company last year over her concern that it was aggressively using aerial imagery to chase off customers, and even using shots that were two or three years old. “It’s like they’re using anything as an excuse to get people off their books,” she said. Farmers says it gives policyholders at least 60 days to challenge the company’s findings or remedy shortcomings.
It’s probably no coincidence that Californians are frequently targeted for non-renewal via overhead spy technology. Insurers are aggressively paring back their business in the state, as the state’s thicket of regulations has blocked insurers’ ability to adequately charge for coverage in a state cursed by wildfires and earthquakes.
Last year, for example, State Farm said it would no longer issue new homeowners policies in the Golden State. The, in March, the company took the more draconian step of opting not to renew 72,000 property and commercial apartment policies. AIG bailed on the state in 2022.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
When Al Gore (a member of the Trilateral Commission) pandered in 2006 that the seas would certainly rise because the polar ice caps were melting, it was an ingenious “eyes-wide-open” scam of global proportions. Indeed, not one prediction ever made about global warming has come true, and none will ever come true because it was a fraud from the start.
What was the true purpose of global warming (now climate change) in the first place? It was to trick the nations of the world and their people to cough up all their natural resources to the global elite.
An amount of land equivalent to the Isle of Wight has been added to the shorelines of 13,000 islands around the world in just the last 20 years. This fascinating fact of a 369.67 square kilometer increase has recently been discovered by a group of Chinese scientists analyzing both surface and satellite records. Overall, land was lost during the 1990s, but the scientists found that in the study period of three decades to 2020 there was a net increase of 157.21 km2.
The study observed considerable natural variation in both erosion and accretion. Of course, the findings blow holes in the poster scare run by alarmists suggesting that rising sea levels caused by humans using hydrocarbons will condemn many islands to disappear shortly beneath rising sea levels. By means of such flimsy scare tactics, as we have seen in many other cases, desperate attempts are made to terrify global populations to accept the insanity of the Net Zero collectivisation.
A comprehensive re-examination of data on 30 Pacific and Indian Ocean atolls with 709 islands found that none of them had lost any land. Furthermore, the scientists added, there are data that indicate 47 reef islands expanded in size or remained stable over the last 50 years, “despite experiencing a rate of sea-level rise that exceeds the global average”.
The Maldives is also a poster scare for rising sea levels, with the attention-seeking activist Mark Lynas – he of the nonsense claim that 99.9% of scientists agree humans cause all or most climate change – organizing an underwater Cabinet meeting of the local Government in 2009. As it happens, the Maldives is one of a number of areas that have seen recent increases in land mass.
Of the 13,000 islands examined, the researchers found that only around 12% had experienced a significant shoreline shift, with almost equal numbers experiencing either landward (loss) or seaward (gain) movement.
The scientists identify many reasons why islands can grow in size despite the small annual rises in sea level seen in many parts of the world. It is noted that island shorelines are constantly changing due to factors such tides, winds, nearshore hydrodynamics and the transport of sediment. On inhabited islands, human action such as fish farming and land reclamation can be important.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Growing Sweet Potato Slips In Water
Learn how to root a sweet potato in water. Growing sweet potato slips in water is an easy and affordable way to get your sweet potatoes started for the season.
2ND AMENDMENT
New mandatory background check rules to be applied for gun shows and internet sales!
The sale of firearms on the internet and at gun shows in the US will in future be subject to mandatory background checks, the justice department said on Thursday as it announced a “historic” new action to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals.
The closing of the so-called gun show loophole, which exempts private transactions from restrictions that apply to licensed dealers, has long been a goal of the Biden administration, and is specifically targeted in the rule published in the federal register today.
“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” attorney general Merrick Garland told reporters on a press call announcing the measure.
Inter-family transfers of firearms, or occasional sales to enhance a collection, will not be presumed business transactions, a White House spokesperson said.
The new rule is the latest in a series of unilateral steps the Biden administration has taken to tighten gun laws, while at the same time highlighting the difficulty of getting legislation through Congress.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Immune cells are the most susceptible to COVID lung infections, Stanford study …
Immune cells meant to protect the lungs from viral and bacterial infections are actually the most susceptible to COVID-19 infections, a new Stanford University study found.
For decades, scientists have assumed that infections in the respiring lung cells drive respiratory infections.
However, the study authors found that compared to these cells that help with gas exchange, immune cells responsible for controlling and preventing infections were the most vulnerable and likely drivers of a severe COVID-19 infection.
“It was a straightforward experiment, and the questions we were asking were obvious,” co-senior author Dr. Mark Krasnow said in the study’s press release. “It was the answers we weren’t prepared for.”
When infected, these immune cells become something akin to viral factories, producing high levels of the virus while sending out inflammatory signals to recruit more immune cells to the infection site. This causes a profound inflammatory response in the lungs.
The researchers infected slices of donated lungs with the original COVID-19 Wuhan variant. They then harvested and sequenced the cells to see which cell types had the highest viral levels.
“Cells with high viral levels … were rare and restricted to six cell types,” the authors wrote. One type was the alveolar cells responsible for gas exchange, the primary predicted lung target of COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2. Other types included cells that formed tissues and several immune cells.
“Macrophages were the most prominent lung targets,” the authors found. These were, namely, alveolar and interstitial macrophages.
Macrophages are large immune cells that make up the first lines of defense. They routinely engulf protein and debris around them, surveying the body for foreign invaders.
Alveolar macrophages patrol inside the lungs’ air sacs and interact with external pathogens entering the body.
Interstitial macrophages occupy the thin tissues where air exchange occurs intermittently near the blood vessels. During a viral infection, they become compromised and help the virus replicate, enacting a more potent inflammatory response than that of the alveolar macrophages.
More Stories
Today’s News: April 29, 2024
Today’s News: April 26, 2024
Today’s News: April 25, 2024