Today's News: April 23, 2019

World News
Another French Church Burns on Easter Sunday, Probable Arson
Breitbart – Police have confirmed that a fire in the French church of Notre-Dame de Grâce on Easter Sunday appears to have been intentionally set, making it the latest in a string of desecrations of Christian churches in the country.
The fire was started in a large, wooden confessional around 4:30pm and proceeded to consume a dais in the presbytery of the eighteenth-century church located in the southern French town of Eyguières, near Provence.
“Flames several meters high were coming out of the church,” said the mayor of Eyguières, Henri Pons, before a team of 30 firefighters with six vehicles arrived and managed to contain the blaze.
Two US border officials are disarmed by ‘five or six Mexican soldiers’ on American soil as Pentagon demands explanation
Daily Mail – Mexican troops disarmed two US soldiers on the American side of the border, it has been revealed.
According to the US Northern Command, ‘five or six’ armed Mexican soldiers questioned two American troops conducting operations near the border earlier this month.
Officials said the Mexicans were armed with rifles and raised their weapons when they saw the US soldiers, before stripping them of a pistol.
The U.S. soldiers were in an unmarked Customs and Border Protection [CBP] vehicle near the southwest border near Clint, Texas at the time of the incident.
Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK set for 3 JuneUS President Donald Trump will make a three-day state visit to the UK from 3 to 5 June, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump will be guests of the Queen and attend a ceremony in Portsmouth to mark 75 years since the D-Day landings.
He will also have official talks with the prime minister at Downing Street.
Mr Trump previously met the Queen at Windsor Castle when he came to the UK in July 2018 on a working visit.
The White House said the upcoming trip would reaffirm the “steadfast and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom”.
The president was promised a state visit by Prime Minister Theresa May after he was elected in 2016 – but no date was set.
Mrs May said June’s state visit was an “opportunity to strengthen our already close relationship in areas such as trade, investment, security and defence, and to discuss how we can build on these ties in the years ahead”.
China Exploits Fleet of U.S. Satellites to Strengthen Police and Military Power
WSJ – Beijing reaps benefits from the sensitive equipment, despite U.S. law, aided indirectly by private-equity giant Carlyle Group and Boeing Co.
NKorea leader Kim to visit Russia for summit with Putin
Reuters – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Thursday in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok to discuss the international standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, a Kremlin official said.
The visit is part of Kim’s effort to build foreign support after the breakdown of a second U.S.-North Korea summit in Vietnam in February meant no relief on sanctions for North Korea, analysts said.
The summit will be the first between Putin and the North Korean leader and the nuclear row, and how to resolve it, would be the main item on the agenda, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
Suicide Rate Doubles In France Among Police as Pressures Mount
The LIberty Beacon – The suicide rate among French police has been high relatively speaking for quite some time, and we recommend this DeutscheWelle (MSM warning) piece from December, 2018 titled Why French police officers keep committing suicide. See also a report we compiled titled We’re Also At Breaking Point Say French Police, which includes links to various other reports.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Militia leader allegedly told FBI they were training to assassinate Obama, Hillary Clinton
CBS – The leader of a militia group who’s been detaining migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border allegedly told the FBI his militia was training to assassinate former President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Democratic donor George Soros. Larry Hopkins, head of the United Constitutional Patriots, is charged with possession a firearm as a felon and could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Hopkins appeared before a federal judge Monday.
According to prosecutors, he has three felony convictions in Michigan and Oregon, including for impersonating a police officer, and nine guns were seized from his home back in 2017, reports CBS News’ Mireya Villarreal.
Videos from the group show militia members stopping migrants, sometimes at gunpoint, near the border in New Mexico. The United Constitutional Patriots said they are simply doing their part to enforce U.S. immigration laws. In 60 days, they claim they’ve captured about 5,600 migrants who illegally entered the country.
Thousands of Boy Scout Leaders Face New Child Sex Allegations; Names Expected to Be Released Tuesday
NBC – Thousands of Boy Scouts of America leaders face new charges of sexual abuse, claims that are expected to be revealed in detail Tuesday in New York and New Jersey. Names of nearly 200 of the accused are also expected to be released.
The allegations came to light Monday night and a group of alleged victims was expected to testify about the widespread pattern abuse within the scouting organization later Tuesday.
The victims’ attorney, Jeff Anderson, called it a system of denial and cover-ups. He claims the Boy Scouts have files on child abusers within their ranks dating back to the 1940s.
“The lives of the survivors and their families have been shattered and destroyed in so many ways,” Anderson said. He says the new allegations accuse more than 7,000 leaders of abuse, with more than 100 in New York.
GEORGE CONWAY: Case for impeachment better than Nixon’s
The Hill – In a Tuesday morning tweetstorm, attorney George Conway, husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, said President TrumpDonald John Trump Trump calls Sri Lankan prime minister following church bombings Ex-Trump lawyer: Mueller knew Trump had to call investigation a ‘witch hunt’ for ‘political reasons’ The biggest challenge from the Mueller Report depends on the vigilance of everyone MORE engaged in misconduct “worse than the misconduct that led to Nixon’s resignation.”
Conway linked to a column by the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent that said alleged attempts by Trump to impede special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation “impeded the inquiry into not just his conduct, but also into the Russian attack on our political system.”
“Exactly right,” Conway, a frequent Trump critic, wrote Tuesday, citing the president’s oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
… in fact, it’s why Trump’s misconduct is worse than the misconduct that led to Nixon’s resignation:https://t.co/XUNHA5O0Gy pic.twitter.com/rj2YdCbvc4
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) April 23, 2019
“Trump violated that oath and put his own vanity and self-interest above that of the nation and people whose laws and Constitution he swore to faithfully execute and uphold,” Conway tweeted. “If that’s not impeachable, nothing is.”
This angle, Conway wrote, is “why Trump’s misconduct is worse than the misconduct that led to Nixon’s resignation.”
Economy & Business
Report Says Legal Opioids Doubled Economic Dropout Rates
Breitbart – Government-approved opioids almost doubled the number of young men who were pushed out of the workforce before the election of President Donald Trump, according to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
“Our estimates imply that prescription opioids can account for 44 percent of the realized national decrease in men’s labor force participation between 2001 and 2015,” said the report, which was written by Dionissi Aliprantis, Kyle Fee, and Mark Schweitzer.
Social Security Costs to Exceed Income in 2020, Trustees Say
Market Watch – The expense of running Social Security will exceed the revenue generated by the program next year, a new report released Monday showed, in a sign of the upcoming challenges to the key retirement program.
The Social Security Administration’s trustee report shows that, in 2018, income of $1.003 trillion only barely exceeded the costs of $1 trillion.
The program received $885 billion from the payroll tax, $83 billion in interest and $35 billion from taxing benefits, while it spent $988.6 billion on benefit payments, $6.7 billion on administrative expenses and $4.9 billion on railroad retirement expenses.
Costs haven’t exceeded expenses since 1982, but are projected to in 2020. Costs will then remain higher throughout the 75-year projection period, according to the forecast.The rising costs are a sign of the increase in the number of older Americans.
Trump vows to ‘reciprocate’ tariffs against EU after Harley reports 26.7% drop in profit
NBC – President Donald Trump appeared to reverse course on Harley Davidson on Tuesday, pledging to retaliate against “unfair” European Union tariffs that the company partially blamed for its nearly 27% drop in first-quarter profit.
Trump, who called for a boycott against the motorcycle company last year amid a spat over steel, said that the EU tariffs have forced Harley to move U.S. jobs overseas. “So unfair to U.S. We will Reciprocate!” he said in a tweet.
Harley announced plans last year to move production of its motorcycles destined for the EU to overseas facilities from the U.S. to avoid EU tariffs imposed in retaliation against Trump’s duties on aluminum and steel imports. In response, Trump called for a boycott of the company and threatened higher taxes as retaliation.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Harley said Tuesday that falling demand, higher costs from U.S. tariffs on raw materials and European taxes on imports of its motorcycles hurt its earnings.
Toyota leads $1B investment in Uber’s self-driving tech
Ars Technica – On Thursday, news broke that Toyota, Denso, and the SoftBank Vision Fund are investing heavily in Uber’s autonomous driving operation. Together, the three companies will put $1 billion into Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group: $667 million from Toyota and Denso, with an additional $333 million coming from SoftBank.
“Leveraging the strengths of Uber ATG’s autonomous vehicle technology and service network and the Toyota Group’s vehicle control system technology, mass-production capability, and advanced safety support systems, such as Toyota Guardian™, will enable us to commercialize safer, lower cost automated ridesharing vehicles and services,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, Toyota executive vice president and president of Toyota’s in-house Connected Company, in a statement sent to Ars.
Energy & Environment
Powerful earthquake hits the Philippines just day after another killed 16
NBC – PORAC, Philippines — A new powerful earthquake hit the central Philippines on Tuesday, a day after a magnitude 6.1 quake rattled the country’s north and left at least 16 people dead.
The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of Tuesday’s quake at 6.4, while the local seismology agency said it was 6.5. The quake was centered near San Julian town in Eastern Samar province and prompted residents to dash out of houses and office workers to scamper to safety.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage from the new quake.
One million species risk extinction due to humans: draft UN report
AFP – Up to one million species face extinction due to human influence, according to a draft UN report obtained by AFP that painstakingly catalogues how humanity has undermined the natural resources upon which its very survival depends.
The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, CO2-absorbing forests, pollinating insects, protein-rich fish and storm-blocking mangroves — to name but a few of the dwindling services rendered by Nature — poses no less of a threat than climate change, says the report, set to be unveiled May 6.
Science & Technology
A teen is suing Apple for $1 billion and claims its facial recognition led to his false arrest – INSIDER
Business Insider -A New York teenager is suing Apple for $1 billion, claiming the company used facial recognition in its stores in a way that led to his wrongful arrest.
Ousmane Bah, 18, said he was arrested at his home in November and acccused of stealing from multiple Apple Stores.
Bah said he was attending his senior prom in New York City on the date a theft in Boston was said to have taken place and that he was wrongly implicated in other Apple Store thefts.
Bah’s suit says the teenager had lost a driver’s permit with his photo and that this may have been connected to his misidentification.
Pentagon Building Space Robots
Next Gov – The robots would service military, government and commercial spacecraft more than 22,000 miles above the Earth.
The Pentagon’s research office wants to send robots into space to inspect and repair the nation’s satellites.
Today the U.S. has more than 400 military, government and commercial satellites circling the globe in geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO, a celestial path about 22,000 miles above the ground. These high-altitude satellites are ideal for telecommunications, meteorology and certain military applications, but when they break down, it’s nearly impossible to fix something far out in the cosmos.
Enter space robots.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency believes space-based robots offer the best bet for inspecting and repairing high-altitude satellites, especially with the number of satellites set to skyrocket due to a budding Space Force and federal agencies and industry ramping up operations in outer space.
Under the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program, DARPA will partner with teams to build both robots that can maintain and upgrade satellites, as well as the spacecraft to move the bots through space. Once deployed, the tech would periodically check in on different satellites and service them as needed.
Health
UI study: Skipping breakfast associated with higher risk of cardiovascular death – Iowa Now
Iowa Now – Eating breakfast every day has always been considered an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but a new study from the University of Iowa shows just how important it is.
The study, by Wei Bao, assistant professor of epidemiology in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, finds that people who never ate breakfast had an 87 percent higher risk of death caused by cardiovascular disease than people who ate breakfast every day. Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, it supports the benefits of eating a daily breakfast in promoting heart health.
Bao says health care providers and dietary experts have known for years the importance of eating breakfast every day. The early-morning calories jumpstart the body’s metabolism and give people the energy and nutrients needed to start the day. But despite evidence that suggests skipping breakfast leads to increased risk of obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and other health complications, fewer people report they are making the meal a part of their daily routine.
Bao says the new study is the first to evaluate breakfast’s impact on the risk of cardiovascular death. Researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an annual survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers used data from 6,550 Americans age 40 to 75 years gathered between 1988 and 1994 who were asked how often they ate breakfast.
Among them, 5.1 percent reported never eating breakfast, 10.9 percent said they rarely ate breakfast, 25 percent said they ate breakfast some days, and 59 percent said they ate breakfast every day. Analysis found that those participants who never ate breakfast were 87 percent more likely to die from cardiovascular disease and stroke than those who ate breakfast every day, after accounting for demographic, socioeconomic, dietary, lifestyle, body mass index, and cardiovascular risk factors.
The Effectiveness of Ginger for Nausea, Vomiting and More
Mercola – Ginger was once considered a luxury, but now is easily found in your local grocery store; steep a couple of slices in hot water to make tea or grate it into your dinner dish to enjoy its benefits, which include relief from pain, nausea and vomiting related to pregnancy and chemotherapy, and protection against DNA damage.
The reduction in pain is believed to be related to inhibition of prostaglandin and leukotriene biosynthesis by gingerol, shogaol and other structurally-related substances in ginger.
In one study, researchers found ginger extract was able to break biofilm formed by fungi and had antifungal properties against opportunistic infections in the oral cavity triggered by Candida albicans and Candida krusei.
Migraines are the third most common disease worldwide; the economic burden is estimated at $36 billion annually. Scientific evidence now shows ginger is statistically comparable to the common pharmaceutical treatment for migraines without dangerous side effects.
Make This Non-Toxic Spray to Keep Ants Out of Your Kitchen
Care2 – A mixture of leftover citrus rinds and vinegar is an easy, food-safe way to cut ants off at the pass.
You really have to hand it to the ants. Somehow, against all odds, they find their way in. I live on the 4th floor of a building in Brooklyn, and even though my kitchen is crumb-free and (almost) spotless, every year I see a trial of them lining up to barge in. Four floors seems like a pretty long way to go for not much in return – they are persevering and tireless, that’s for sure.
It’s very simple, a mixture of citrus rinds and vinegar. It’s non-toxic, which is more than can be said for some commercial insect sprays that nobody should have in their kitchens, let alone their homes. And it’s a good way to use up some fruit peels.
In this formula, the d-limonene in the citrus mixed with the vinegar works the same way that cinnamon does – by disrupting the pheromone trail that the ants use to navigate along their little paths. Some suggest spraying it directly on the ants – shudder – which will kill them. I only use it along known paths and entry routes. Apparently, they get one whiff and hightail it out of there. And seriously, using it as a deterrent is much nicer than just dousing the poor things with it. What did they ever to do us? Well, aside from carrying entire cupcakes off crumb by crumb, but still.
Here’s how simple it is to make – this method comes from Apartment Therapy and is an improvement on how I’ve been making it.
CItrus Vinegar Spray

Add citrus rinds (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit) to a pot, then add white vinegar to cover.
Gently the mixture until it’s steaming, but not boiling. Turn off the stove and let the mix sit for several hours to overnight.
Strain the liquid and pour it into a spray bottle, then store it in the refrigerator.

(And your vinegar-soaked citrus peels can still be used for cleaning, by the way. In fact, the ant spray itself can be used for cleaning, too.)
As I noted in the cinnamon post, removing the lure of crumbs and sealing entry holes should be the first plan of attack. But if they’re still coming, this tangy citrus spray should hold them at bay. Extending the life of citrus peels and a bright smelling home are just the icing on the cake … but don’t tell the ants about that part.