Today's News: April 13, 2022

WORLD NEWS

Putin Breaks Silence, Says Russia Will Triumph in Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said that Russia would triumph in its conflict with Ukraine, delivering his first remarks in several days about the weekslong war.

“That Blitzkrieg on which our foes were counting on did not work,” Putin claimed of the West’s crippling sanctions imposed after Putin’s Feb. 24 order to invade the country, according to state-run media outlet TASS. Putin made those comments alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally, at Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur region.

Russia’s economy is on track to contract by more than 10 percent in 2022, the biggest fall in gross domestic product since the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday, reported Reuters. Russia is facing soaring inflation and capital flight while grappling with a possible debt default following the sanctions.

Putin, who had been ubiquitous on Russian television in the early days of the war, had largely retreated from public view since Russia’s withdrawal from northern Ukraine this month.

The Russian leader, despite setbacks, claimed that the operation in Ukraine is going according to plan, saying that a collision with Ukraine was inevitable due to nationalist factions operating within the country.

U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

California Teacher Arrested for Allegedly Molesting 7 Students

A teacher in Richmond, California, has been arrested for allegedly molesting more than half a dozen students over the past year, authorities said.

Anessa Paige Gower, a 35-year-old biology teacher at Making Waves Academy in Richmond, is facing 29 individual criminal counts after allegedly engaging in “numerous acts of a sexual nature with minors” between 2021 and 2022, the Costa District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Gower was taken into custody on April 6 at Sacramento International Airport upon returning to California from Hawaii, police said. She is currently being held in Richmond.

Authorities confirmed the case involves seven minors, adding that due to the ages of the alleged victims, their identities won’t be disclosed.

“Investigators took statements from the victims and witnesses about a number of incidents involving sex acts with minors, inappropriate touching, and sharing sexually graphic photos over online platforms,” the statement explains.

Alton Nelson Jr., the CEO at Making Waves Academy, said Gower violated the school’s policy and was fired immediately after evidence of sexual misconduct emerged, KRON4 reported

Our Common Agenda: “Multilateralism With Teeth”

Awaiting us is the total digitalization of the world. This agenda goes hand in hand with the mantra “Build Back Better” which has spread like wildfire among world leaders.

Our Common Agenda contains a number of recommendations on how the UN can be reformed in order to meet the problems facing the world today. Guterres begins the report by describing the serious situation:

We are at an inflection point in history. In our biggest shared test since the Second World War, humanity faces a stark and urgent choice: a breakdown or a breakthrough. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is upending our world, threatening our health, destroying economies and livelihoods and deepening poverty and inequalities.

This is paired with other crises and problems such as climate change, water scarcity, poverty, violence and discrimination. The picture painted is a crisis of Biblical proportions. If nothing is done, exacerbated crises await in the future. The report also points to “problems” such as failure to reach consensus regarding facts, knowledge and science.

Facebook Silent on FBI Informants Using Platform to Push Whitmer Kidnap Plot

On Oct. 28, 2020, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in Congress about what he was doing to monitor online extremism, citing his company’s work with law enforcement to apprehend the men who had allegedly tried to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer weeks earlier.

“Over the last four years in particular, we’ve built closer partnerships with law enforcement and the intelligence community to be able to share those types of signals. We’re doing more of that, including in the case you mentioned before, around the attempted kidnapping of Governor Whitmer,” Zuckerberg told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“We identified that as a signal to the FBI about six months ago, when we started seeing some suspicious activity on our platform.”

However, it was revealed during the Whitmer kidnapping plot trial in March that at least some of that “suspicious activity” was conducted by FBI informants.

And in the wake of a Grand Rapids federal jury acquitting two of the accused plotters—agreeing with their defense that the FBI incited and entrapped them—Zuckerberg’s comments about the case are recirculating online, serving as the butt of numerous jokes about Facebook notifying the FBI of its own actors.

1,634 Noncitizens Under Investigation for Attempting to Register to Vote in Georgia

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has referred 1,634 cases of noncitizens attempting to register to vote for investigation and potential prosecution.

Attempting to register to vote while knowingly being ineligible is a violation of Georgia law.

A citizenship audit conducted by Raffensperger over the past few weeks, which he said was a first for the state, discovered attempts to register to vote by noncitizens in 88 of its 159 counties.

Raffensperger, who has served as secretary of state since 2018, said in a March 28 statement that the results indicated that Georgia’s existing voting security laws worked because none of the noncitizens managed to register to vote or cast a ballot.

According to an April 11 statement by the secretary of state’s office, 69 percent of the attempts to register were concentrated in just five counties: DeKalb (345), Fulton (275), Gwinnett (221), Cobb (143), and Clayton (141). Some of them occurred as far back as 1997 and others as recently as February.

Eighty percent, or 1,319, of the attempted registrations had occurred since 2016, according to the April 11 statement.

The people attempting to register were placed in pending citizenship status and are required to provide proof of citizenship before they can be added to the rolls and cast a ballot.

20 Federal ‘Assets’ Embedded at Capitol on Jan. 6, Court Filing Says

Oath Keepers motion seeks to dismiss seditious conspiracy, obstruction charges

At least 20 FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives “assets” were embedded around the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a defense attorney wrote in a court filing on April 12.

The disclosure was made in a motion seeking to dismiss seditious conspiracy and obstruction charges against 10 Oath Keepers defendants in one of the most prominent Jan. 6 criminal cases.

David W. Fischer, attorney for Thomas E. Caldwell of Berryville, Virginia, filed a 41-page motion to dismiss four counts on behalf of all Oath Keepers case defendants before U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta in Washington, D.C.

Caldwell is charged in the indictment, but is not a member of the Oath Keepers, he told The Epoch Times in March.

Frank James, Suspect in New York Subway Shooting, Taken Into Custody

Suspect described a ‘mental health crisis’ and railed against mayor in videos

The suspect in the New York subway shooting was arrested on April 13 and charged with terrorism.

Frank James, 62, was stopped at 1:42 p.m. at the corner of St. Mark’s Place and First Avenue in Manhattan by New York police officers.

A tipster alerted police to James’s location, New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell told a briefing.

“My fellow New Yorkers, we got him,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said.

James was taken into custody without incident.

He has already been charged with violating a federal law that prohibits terrorist attacks and other violence against mass transportation systems, and he’ll face additional counts, according to Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

A man authorities say is James donned a gas mask on the morning of April 12 and opened two canisters that filled a Manhattan-bound “N” train with smoke before opening fire as a train pulled into the 36th Street Station in Brooklyn.

Shots can be heard in video footage taken by witnesses that also shows people fleeing the train.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Putin’s Price Hike? Fiscal, Monetary Expansion Root Causes of 8.5 Percent Inflation, Experts Say

The White House prepared the American people for “extraordinarily elevated” inflation ahead of the key March data, describing 40-year-high inflation as “Putin’s price hike.”

The U.S. annual inflation rate surged to 8.5 percent last month, topping the market estimate of 8.4 percent. The core inflation rate, which excludes the volatile energy and food sectors, advanced by 6.5 percent.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated inflationary pressures, particularly on food and energy, many market analysts believe the root causes of soaring prices have more to do with fiscal and monetary expansion in Washington than the conflict in Eastern Europe.

According to Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, inflation is at its highest level in four decades owing to “massive” government stimulus, and unusually accommodative monetary policy from the U.S. central bank, as well as COVID-19-induced spending on goods and supply chain problems.

“Inflation is incredibly challenging to predict,” he told The Epoch Times. “We have departed from any normal course that we’ve seen in history.”

Why the New World Order Wants Programmable Currency

The New World Order (NWO) intends to implement a programmable currency that would give the central banks unprecedented and previously unimaginable power over individual spending

The COVID pandemic has been used to justify the implementation of a global biosecurity strategy with increased tracking and surveillance, and war will put the final nail in the coffin of the global economy and supply chains. With all of this currently underway, our opportunity to change course is short

The NWO is a defined globalist project to establish a centralized global governance by an Anglo-Saxon elite

War is a favored NWO strategy. It’s a means to an end, as war provides economic stimulus and social change that can then be used to consolidate and centralize power

The environmental “green” movement is doomed to fail, as there simply aren’t enough mineral resources. To achieve the goal to make all vehicles in the U.K. alone electric by 2050 will require twice the total annual cobalt produced worldwide, nearly all of the neodymium produced globally, and three-quarters of the world’s lithium

The 90/10 Rule–Warren Buffett–#1 Money Savings Tip for Retirees

Personally, I’m picky when it comes to receiving advice. For example, even if you’re my best friend or family member who I respect, I wouldn’t turn to you if I needed a root canal or engine replacement. Of course, if you were a dentist or mechanic, that would be a different story.

The same is true when it comes to money. Why would I take financial advice from someone who lives above their mean, lost money on their investments, or doesn’t have a retirement plan?

However, there is one individual who I think we should all feel comfortable listening to when it comes to personal finance. And, that’s the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett. Specifically, when t comes to his number one money-saving tip for retirees, the 90/10 rule.

HEALTH

Study Links 2 Artificial Sweeteners as Dangerous to the Liver

Artificial sweeteners — specifically acesulfame potassium and sucralose — may interfere with your liver’s delicate detoxification process

Acesulfame potassium and sucralose — brand name Splenda — inhibited the activity of P-glycoprotein (PGP), a “defense protein” that’s important for protecting organisms against environmental toxins

The artificial sweeteners may bind to PGP, thereby inhibiting transport of compounds like xenobiotics, drugs and their metabolites, short-chain lipids and bile acids

The findings could therefore have significant implications for people who take antidepressants, antibiotics and blood pressure drugs, which use PGP as a primary detoxification transporter

PGP also plays a role in other body functions, including maintaining the blood-brain barrier, so the researchers stressed the need for further research to determine how artificial sweeteners may be affecting other organs beyond the liver

A separate study found that people who consumed higher levels of the artificial sweetener aspartame had an increased risk of cancer

A new investigation by CBC News Marketplace found potentially harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria in imported shrimp sold in various supermarkets in Canada

Investigative reporters purchased 51 packages of shrimp imported from Vietnam, Thailand, China, India and Ecuador

Investigators found 17% or 2 out of every 10 packages were contaminated with antibiotic resistant bacteria, also known as superbugs; of that 17%, 89% showed resistance to multiple antibiotics

Superbugs, one of the greatest threats to human health, may kill more people than cancer by 2050

The overuse of antibiotics in factory farm animals and the heavy spraying of pesticides on food crops is the No. 1 driver of deadly superbugs.

SURVEILLANCE STATE

Giant Robot Catches Unmasked Travelers At Dallas Airport

Technocrats are in their heyday as the implement new AI robots to actively control people. These new robots can harvest and analyze data, determine where you are “disobedient” and then take action to force you to comply. It can also report what it determines to be suspicious activity to authorities. ⁃ TN Editor