WORLD NEWS
Growing Fears Over Food Security and Price Hikes as Severe Droughts Hit Crop Production Around Globe
Across the globe, experts warn that prices will continue climbing on food commodities and brace for the possibility of empty shelves. This is due to the heavy toll extreme drought conditions are taking on agriculture in 18 countries, all of which are major food producers.
Forty-two U.S. states are experiencing moderate to severe dry weather. Moreover, record-breaking hot summer temperatures coupled with extended drought in most of Europe, the United Kingdom, China, India, parts of Latin America, and the African horn countries have amplified a growing instability within the supply chain.
“That will negatively impact the production of major commodity grains in those regions, which will likely lead to an increase in food prices and have a negative impact on food security,” Columbia University climate scientist Richard Seager told The Epoch Times.
And the harvest forecast for 2022 is already looking grim.
US Embassy Alerts All Americans Still in Ukraine to ‘Leave Immediately’
The U.S. State Department issued an alert Tuesday to Americans who remain in Ukraine to “leave immediately” in anticipation of expanded Russian strikes on the country.
Wednesday, Aug. 24, is the 31st anniversary that Ukraine split from the Soviet Union, celebrated as the country’s independence day. Some analysts and Ukrainian officials have said that Moscow would launch missiles and other attacks across the country.
The date also marks six months since the start of the conflict, which started on Feb. 24.
Vera Sharav: “Unless All Of Us Resist, ‘Never Again’ Is Now!”
I came to Nuremberg to provide historical context to the current global threat confronting our civilization. These past 2 1⁄2 years have been especially stressful— as painful memories were rekindled.
In 1941, I was 3 1⁄2 when my family was forced from our home in Romania & deported to Ukraine.
We were herded into a concentration camp – essentially left to starve. Death was ever-present. My father died of typhus when I was five.
In 1944, as the Final Solution was being aggressively implemented, Romania retreated from its alliance with Nazi Germany. The government permitted several hundred Jewish orphans under the age of 12 to return to Romania. I was not an orphan; my mother lied to save my life.
I boarded a cattle car train – the same train that continued to transport Jews to the death camps – even as Germany was losing the war.
Four years elapsed before I was reunited with my mother.
Energy Crisis: Europe Faces Total Chaos As Forced Energy Rationing Begins
A top Green Party official has caused controversy by suggesting Germans use washcloths instead of taking showers, as well as buying expensive eco-heating systems that are unaffordable for the average person.
The comments were made by Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann in response to the energy crisis, which will be exacerbated this winter as a result of gas shortages caused by the war in Ukraine.
“Even the washcloth is a useful invention,” the Green politician told Südwest-Presse.
Bragging about his own eco-credentials, Kretschmann boasted, “I have an electric car, I have a huge photovoltaic system on the roof.”
The pellet heating system Kretschmann uses in his home costs anything up to €21,000 euros and beyond, a figure completely unrealistic for Germans already struggling to pay their energy bills.
Remix News explained the actual environmental cost of Kretschmann’s so-called solution.
“Wired magazine reports that these devices rely primarily on wood pellets sourced from forests in the southeastern United States. They are then shipped halfway around the world to individuals like Kretschmann despite many scientists arguing that these pellets are just as polluting as coal.”
“Although they come from a renewable resource, forests are cut down across the U.S. to make this resource, and according to Greenpeace, the practice destroys biodiversity and ruins entire ecosystems. Scientists estimate it takes between 44 to over 100 years for these forests to grow back, and for those worried about climate change, they say this destruction of natural forests will cost the planet immeasurably.”
The reaction to Kretschmann’s advice probably wasn’t what the green politician anticipated, with the hashtag #Waschlappen hashtag (German for “washcloth”) trending on Twitter.
“Our country faces an energy crisis that threatens the prosperity of millions of people! And what is the answer of the green father Kretschmann? Don’t shower every day: ‘The #Waschlappen is also a useful invention.’ What kind of people actually govern Germany?” asked Gerhard Papke, the president of the German-Hungarian Society.
Energy Crisis: Thousands Of UK Firms Could Collapse And Disappear
The UK government needs to act decisively to help businesses with surging energy bills this winter as thousands of companies could collapse without further support, Britain’s biggest business group has warned.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) urged the government to freeze business rates for another year and take quick and targeted action to prevent otherwise viable businesses from going bust.
The CBI said the government needs to target support at the households and companies most in need.
It called for extra money to make its way to households through the current energy bill support scheme.
“While helping struggling consumers remains the number one priority, we can’t afford to lose sight of the fact that many viable businesses are under pressure and could easily tip into distress without action,” said Matthew Fell, the CBI’s chief policy director.
“Firms aren’t asking for a handout. But they do need autumn to be the moment that the government grips the energy cost crisis. Decisive action now will give firms headroom on cash flow and prevent a short-term crunch becoming a longer-term crisis.”
Nearly one in three businesses surveyed by the organisation said soaring gas prices are likely to stifle their investment in transitioning to net zero.
Meanwhile, 69% of firms said they expect energy bills to rise in the next three months, and nearly a third expect rises of more than 30%.
CBI also urged the government to give companies and the self-employed more time to pay their tax bills and provide easier access to pandemic-style loans to shore up their finances.
The CBI’s intervention comes just days before Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, is set to reveal the new energy price cap for the autumn period, which is widely expected to see average energy bills rise to around £3,500 from October, before then to potentially exceeding £4,600 from January.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
FBI Mar-a-Lago Warrant Had ‘No Legal Basis’: Constitutional Lawyers
Two constitutional lawyers who worked in the Bush and Reagan administrations say that the warrant used to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence had no legal basis.
A former president’s right under the Presidential Records Act supersedes the statutes the Department of Justice and FBI used to carry out the raid earlier this month, wrote David Rivkin Jr. and Lee Casey, who both served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
“The judge who issued the warrant for Mar-a-Lago has signaled that he is likely to release a redacted version of the affidavit supporting it. But the warrant itself suggests the answer is likely no—the FBI had no legally valid cause for the raid,” they wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart unsealed the warrant and property receipt, showing that it allowed FBI agents to obtain all “physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§793, 2071, or 1519.”
DeSantis Eliminates ESG From State Pension Investments
Ron DeSantis made good on his promise to take action against the environmental, social and corporate governance movement (ESG), which he called an “alarming trend” and a threat to the American economy.
On Aug. 23 the governor, along with trustees of the State Board of Administration (SBA), passed a resolution directing Florida’s fund managers to make investments that do not involve the ideological agenda of the ESG.
“Corporate power has increasingly been utilized to impose an ideological agenda on the American people through the perversion of financial investment priorities under the euphemistic banners of environmental, social, and corporate governance and diversity, inclusion, and equity,” said DeSantis said in a written statement.
“With the resolution, we passed today, the tax dollars and proxy votes of the people of Florida will no longer be commandeered by Wall Street financial firms and used to implement policies through the board room that Floridians reject at the ballot box.”
At a July 27 press conference in Tampa, the governor said that most Americans were not aware of what ESG was and what the goal is of “leveraging corporate power to impose an ideological agenda on society.” He promised to do something about it.
Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), an investment research firm in New York, described ESG as “investing as the consideration of environmental, social and governance factors alongside financial factors in the investment decision-making process.”
Judge Blocks Biden Admin’s Emergency Abortion Rule in Texas
A federal judge blocked the White House late Tuesday from enforcing guidance in Texas to require hospitals to provide emergency abortions regardless of state laws.
U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix in Lubbock agreed with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidance was unauthorized and went beyond the text of a related federal law.
The judge declined to enjoin the guidance nationwide and instead only barred HHS from enforcing it and its interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in Texas.
Hendrix specifically rule that the HHS guidance, which cites the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), was not authorized.
“That guidance goes well beyond EMTALA’s text, which protects both mothers and unborn children, is silent as to abortion, and preempts state law only when the two directly conflict,” he wrote in the ruling. “Since the statute is silent on the question, the Guidance cannot answer how doctors should weigh risks to both a mother and her unborn child. Nor can it, in doing so, create a conflict with state law where one does not exist.”
The HHS’s interpretation of the rule allows for a doctor to initially determine that if the “unborn child does not have an emergency medical condition, the doctor must then close his or her eyes to the unborn child’s health for the remainder of the treatment.”
Sen. McConnell Declines to Respond to Trump’s Criticism of Elaine Chao
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) curtly responded to reporters on Aug. 23 when asked about former President Donald Trump’s criticism of his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
Trump’s comment on Chao was part of his broad criticism of McConnell after the Kentucky lawmaker said that the GOP likely won’t retake the Senate, citing “candidate quality” as a factor. Some have argued that McConnell prefers to work with moderate Republicans instead of conservatives or MAGA supporters.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. “Senate races are just different, they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
After McConnell’s dim forecast of the Senate races, Trump took to his Truth Social account to criticize the Senate GOP leader.
“Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Aug. 21.
Trump added: “This is such an affront to honor and to leadership. He should spend more time (and money!) helping them get elected, and less time helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China!”
New Whistleblower Claims FBI Leaders Delayed Key Investigation: Sen. Johnson
Another FBI whistleblower came forward to say that the FBI delayed its investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive, according to a Senate Republican this week.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), one of the leading investigators into Biden, sent a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz Tuesday about the latest whistleblower claims.
“Whistleblowers have recently contacted my office to share serious concerns about the FBI’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Johnson wrote, adding that FBI leaders at the local level told employees that “you will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop” when it was discovered at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.
The new claims “allege that the FBI did not begin to examine the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop until after the 2020 presidential election—potentially a year after the FBI obtained the laptop in Dec. 2019,” Johnson said.
The whistleblower also allegedly said the leadership essentially said that employees are “not going to change the outcome of the election again,” possibly referring to former FBI Director James Comey’s 2016 letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s private email server that came just days before the 2016 General Election.
“It is clear to me based on numerous credible whistleblower disclosures that the FBI cannot be trusted with the handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Johnson wrote in the Aug. 23 letter. “I call on you to immediately investigate the FBI’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop and begin by obtaining the history of the investigative actions taken by the FBI on Hunter Biden’s laptop which should be available on the FBI’s case management system, Sentinel.”
Federal Court Blocks Biden Rule Forcing ER Doctors to Perform Abortions Against Their Faith
A federal judge in Texas blocked, for the time being, regulatory guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that sought to compel emergency room doctors to perform abortions even if doing so violates their conscience or religious faith.
In a 67-page decision, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division, enjoined HHS from enforcing guidance it issued in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that returned legal authority on abortion to state legislatures.
The HHS guidance, which was issued on July 11 along with a letter from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, said the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986 (EMTALA) requires emergency room doctors to perform abortions regardless of their religious views, even if doing so conflicts with a state law.
The HHS actions were challenged by three plaintiffs, the State of Texas and two private groups—the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations (CMDA). The plaintiffs are represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Arizona-based public interest law firm that specializes in First Amendment religious freedom issues.
But U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix said the HHS guidance and Becerra’s letter went far beyond the intent and letter of the 1986 law.
“That guidance goes well beyond EMTALA’s text, which protects both mothers and unborn children, is silent as to abortion, and preempts state law only when the two directly conflict,” Hendrix wrote.
“AAPLOG and CMDA’s members face a substantial threat of enforcement and severe penalties for their inevitable violation of the Guidance’s requirements with regards to abortion.”
The judge also agreed with the plaintiffs that the HHS actions injured Texas’ sovereign interests, saying “the court finds that Texas plausibly alleges an injury to its sovereign interest based on the differences between the guidance’s interpretation of EMTALA and Texas’s laws governing when abortions are permitted.
“Although the defendants dispute this, the language of the guidance and Texas’s laws are not identical, and the differences are material. This mismatch creates areas where the guidance claims to preempt state law—a type of sovereign injury.”
Hendrix further agreed that the HHS guidance was issued in violation of federal law, requiring a public notice period for citizens to comment on the proposal prior to its being issued and enforced.
As a result, Hendrix granted the plaintiffs’ motion and ordered that “the defendants may not enforce the guidance and letter’s interpretation that Texas abortion laws are preempted by EMTALA; and the defendants may not enforce the guidance and letter’s interpretation of EMTALA—both as to when an abortion is required and EMTALA’s effect on state laws governing abortion—within the State of Texas or against AAPLOG’s members and CMDA’s members.”
A spokesman for HHS couldn’t be reached for comment.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the court order demonstrates Hendrix’s conclusion that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail if the case is appealed by HHS.
“The Biden administration is needlessly, illegitimately, and illegally working to turn emergency rooms into walk-in abortion facilities. Doctors get into their line of work to save lives and care for people—and that’s exactly what they are ethically, morally, and legally required to do,” said ADF senior counsel Ryan Bangert, who argued before the court on behalf of the pro-life OB-GYNs.
“We’re pleased to see the court halt the administration’s attempt to flagrantly disregard the legislative and democratic process, and we’ll continue to defend those in the medical profession who wish to respect and save lives, not take them,” Bangert continued.
“Emergency room physicians can, and do, treat ectopic pregnancies and other life-threatening conditions. Elective abortion is not life-saving care—it ends the life of the unborn—and the government can’t force doctors to perform procedures that violate their conscience and religious beliefs,” ADF senior counsel Denise Harle said in a statement praising the decision. Harle is also director of the ADF Center for Life.
Lawmakers Investigating Twitter Whistleblower’s Explosive Claims
Congressional lawmakers are probing allegations made by Twitter’s former chief of security in an explosive whistleblower complaint that includes claims of deception related to data security and privacy and misleading tech entrepreneur Elon Musk about the number of bots on the platform.
Peiter Zatko, the whistleblower who served as Twitter’s head of security for about 14 months before being fired earlier this year, asserted in a disclosure obtained by The Epoch Times that Twitter’s security and privacy systems were grossly inadequate and that the company misled regulators, investors, and Musk about fake “spam” bots on the platform.
While Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has called Zatko’s claims a “false narrative,” U.S. lawmakers appear determined to make up their own minds and are investigating.
IRS Waiving $1.2 Billion in Taxpayer Penalties; Here’s Who Qualifies
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced on Aug. 24 that it will waive penalties levied against American taxpayers who failed to file their 2019 and 2020 returns in a timely manner during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agency will also issue over $1.2 billion in refunds or credits to taxpayers who received the fees.
According to the IRS, roughly 1.6 million taxpayers, including individuals and businesses, will automatically receive the billions in refunds or credits by the end of September. Spread across 1.6 million taxpayers evenly, that would amount to an average refund of $750 per taxpayer.
The penalty relief is automatic for people or businesses who qualify, meaning taxpayers won’t have to apply for it.
For those who haven’t yet paid fines, the penalties will be abated.
The agency previously extended the tax filing deadline in both 2020 and 2021 to give taxpaying individuals and businesses more time to pay what they owed amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Throughout the pandemic, the IRS has worked hard to support the nation and provide relief to people in many different ways,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “The penalty relief issued today is yet another way the agency is supporting people during this unprecedented time.”
The decision comes as the agency faces a huge backlog of tax returns and taxpayer correspondence prompted by the pandemic. The IRS said the move will help them to focus resources on addressing those backlogs and return to normal operations for the 2023 filing season.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Taxes, Regulations, and Small Business in California’s Marijuana Industry
Californians voted in 2016 to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. The voter initiative, Proposition 64, provided for taxes, licensing, and a county option on whether to allow marijuana businesses at all (much like the alcohol rules in my home state of Kentucky, where some counties are “dry” to this day). Libertarians applauded the advance for liberty, and mostly understood that some taxes and regulation were inevitable — what product isn’t taxed and regulated in modern America? — but warned that excessive taxes and regulations could keep much of the marijuana trade in the black market.
Well, guess what? As usual, policymakers should have listened to the libertarians.
NJ County Issuing $1,000 Stimulus Payments to Some Residents
Hundreds of people in Camden County, New Jersey, will get payments of $1,000, officials announced on Tuesday.
Those who will receive the stimulus payments are Camden County caregivers and will have to provide evidence of at least 500 hours of health care or day-to-day support to one or more elderly persons or children, or people with disabilities, according to a news release issued by the local government.
“This pandemic has had a severe impact on all of our lives and most industries throughout the nation. One of the hardest hit fields was caregiving as staff were on the front lines of keeping clients and loved ones safe seven days a week,” Commissioner Deputy Director Ed McDonnell said in a news release. “Our hope is that these funds will provide some relief and support for those working these incredibly important and difficult jobs.”
The news release did not say when the payments will be sent out. It did, however, say that applications can be submitted starting from Aug. 23.
The stimulus payment is part of a $55 million federal funding package that was provided to the county, according to the government release. The funding also provided some $25 million in “rental assistance, grants for nonprofit organizations, and small businesses,” it said.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Congressional Bill Says Threats to National Security From UFOs ‘Expanding Exponentially’
U.S. lawmakers have made references in an appropriations bill and accompanying Senate Intelligence Committee report that Congress believes some unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), commonly referred to as UFOs, might not be “man-made.”
Further, Congress notes that threats against the national security of the United States from these “cross-domain transmedium” objects have been exponentially increasing.
The noteworthy admissions are found in a bill (pdf), and a report included as an addendum, to authorize the 2023 fiscal year budget related to America’s Intelligence Community.
The bill seeks to modify Section 1683 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022 to establish an organization nestled inside the Department of Defense (DoD) tasked with an expanded scope of UFO investigation.
The legislation states that the DoD would have to establish the new office within 120 days after the bill is enacted into law.
The new office would replace the Pentagon’s Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, which was established in November 2021 and replaced the U.S. Navy’s UAP Task Force formed in June 2020.
To prompt the DoD into action, Congress has renamed the UAP Task Force to be the Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena Joint Program Office.
“At a time when cross-domain transmedium threats to United States national security are expanding exponentially, the Committee is disappointed with the slow pace of DoD-led efforts to establish the office to address those threats and to replace the former Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force,” lawmakers said in the report (pdf).
HEALTH
Are Medical Errors Still the Third Leading Cause of Death?
In 2013, Americans spent more on health care than Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia combined. At the time, the U.S. ranked last in terms of quality of care among industrialized nations. Little has changed since then. If anything, conventional medicine has only gotten more dangerous over time
In 2021, The Commonwealth Fund’s international health care performance report ranked the U.S. dead last out of 11 industrial nations yet again, despite spending more of its GDP (18% as of 2019) on health care than any other nation
A 2013 review of U.S. health care expenses revealed that 30 cents of every dollar spent on medical care was being wasted on unnecessary services, inefficient delivery of care, excess administrative costs, overinflated prices, prevention failures and fraud. A follow-up investigation in 2019 found the annual waste of health care funds had risen anywhere from $10 billion to $185 billion since 2013, and now accounts for one-quarter of all health care spending
In 1998, researchers concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. Since then, several investigations have concluded conventional medicine in general, and medical errors in particular, are among the top leading causes of death in the U.S.
In 2016, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts calculated that more than 250,000 patients died each year from medical errors, making it the third leading cause of death
Movement to Stop Mercury in Dentistry Gains Momentum
With its focused mission to abolish dental amalgam, Consumers for Dental Choice has engineered powerful coalitions that, step by step, are ridding the world of the dreadful 150-year mistake of putting mercury in the mouth
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns millions of Americans – children of any age, young women, those with kidney or neurological issues – not to get dental amalgam. No consumer should receive a dental amalgam and no dentist should implant them – the risk to you and the harm to the environment is too great! Do not go to a dentist who still uses mercury
Springboarding from the FDA warnings, Consumers for Dental Choice has created enormous momentum toward mercury-free dentistry: manufacturers exit the amalgam business, the Minamata Convention is amended to protect children from amalgam, and the pro-mercury opposition is starting to crumble
Consumers for Dental Choice needs your help to take on government dental programs that still put mercury in children, finish off the amalgam industry, and go for a total ban on amalgam use
Dr. Mercola will match every dollar you donate to Consumers for Dental Choice until Saturday night August 27, 2022 (up to $150,000). Here is your chance to help send dental amalgam to the hazardous waste bins of history!
Smell, Our Most Underestimated Sense
Humans are largely not aware of their olfactory powers, which serve many purposes; newborn babies have strong olfactory responses
Experts think when we shake hands with a new person, we use our sense of smell to size them up
Plants use odors to attract bees for pollination and to warn other plants about pests
Dogs have amazing olfactory abilities because of their large noses, which can even detect cancer
Most of what we think is taste actually comes from our sense of smell
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Energy Crisis: 20 Million US Homes Are Behind On Power Bills
At least 20 million households — or about 1 in 6 American homes — are behind on their power bills as soaring electricity prices spark what is said to be the worst-ever crisis in late utility payments, according to Bloomberg, citing data from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (Neada).
Neada said electricity prices had increased significantly since 2020 after a decade of stagnation. The steep rise has resulted in billions of dollars in overdue power bills.
Electricity inflation is being propelled by soaring costs of fossil fuels, such as natural gas, coal, and petroleum.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Jab Injuries, 50% Long COVID Cases Have This Type of Symptom—2 Ways to Reverse It
Many people experience “long COVID” symptoms after an acute attack of COVID-19 infection. Half of them are neuropsychiatric and show obvious symptoms. How do COVID-19 infections damage the brain and nerves?
Unusual Toxic Components Found in COVID Vaccines, ‘Without Exception’: German Scientists
A group of independent German scientists found toxic components—mostly metallic—in all the COVID vaccine samples they analyzed, “without exception” using modern medical and physical measuring techniques.
The Working Group for COVID Vaccine Analysis says that some of the toxic elements found inside the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccine vials were not listed in the ingredient lists from the manufacturers.
The following metallic elements were found in the vaccines:
- Alkali metals: caesium (Cs), potassium (K)
- Alkaline earth metals: calcium (Ca), barium (Ba)
- transition metals: cobalt (Co), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti)
- Rare earth metals: cerium (Ce), gadolinium (Gd)
- Mining group/metal: aluminum (Al)
- Carbon group: silicon (Si) (partly support material/slide)
- Oxygen group: sulphur (S)
These substances, furthermore, “are visible under the dark-field microscope as distinctive and complex structures of different sizes, can only partially be explained as a result of crystallization or decomposition processes, [and] cannot be explained as contamination from the manufacturing process,” the researchers found.
They declared the findings as preliminary.
Trump White House Pressured FDA to Reauthorize Hydroxychloroquine: Congressional Report
White House officials during the Trump administration pressured U.S. regulators to reauthorize a COVID-19 treatment and not impose certain guidance regarding emergency authorization requirements for COVID-19 vaccines, according to emails published by a House of Representatives panel on Aug. 24.
Officials sent a blitz of messages in 2020 to Dr. Stephen Hahn, the director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at the time, regarding hydroxychloroquine, including requests to reimplement emergency use authorization for the drug.
Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial, has shown some efficacy as a COVID-19 prophylactic and treatment, but other studies have found it has little or no effect.
Former President Donald Trump promoted the drug, citing a French study that found it was efficacious, and Dr. Deborah Birx, a top White House COVID-19 official, sent messages regarding the study to Hahn, the new report (pdf), from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, shows.
The same day Birx sent one of the emails—March 28, 2020—and told Hahn, “We should talk,” the FDA granted emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, for treating COVID-19.
The FDA on April 24, 2020, warned about using the drugs outside of hospitals and clinical trials and about two months later, revoked the authorization after several studies indicated the drug did not work against COVID-19.
After the decision, Peter Navarro, a White House trade and manufacturing official, and Dr. Steven Hatfill, a virologist who was helping the White House respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, launched an effort for hydroxychloroquine reauthorization that included drafting a public petition calling on the FDA to reauthorize it.
Navarro asked Hatfill to prepare an EUA request to the FDA, and Hatfill sent a draft of the request to Navarro on June 30, 2020, according to the select committee. Hatfill asked the Henry Ford Health System to submit the request, but to not mention the White House involvement. On July 1, 2020, the health system released a study that showed hydroxychloroquine worked against COVID-19. The system soon asked the FDA to reauthorize the drug for COVID-19 treatment.
CANCEL CULTURE
China Censors ‘Minions’ Ending; Expert Says Hollywood Under Pressure to ‘Kowtow’ to CCP
China’s vast censorship efforts are under scrutiny again, after it was revealed on social media that the Chinese version of the new children’s film “Minions: The Rise of Gru” featured an altered ending that supported the communist regime’s policies.
While the global version of the film ends with two anti-heroes riding into the sunset after a heist, the Chinese version ends with one character going to prison for 20 years and the other renouncing his evil ways. The latter then dedicates his life to raising three children, in an apparent reference to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping’s three-child policy.
During an interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, long-time Hollywood executive and “Feeding the Dragon” author Chris Fenton said that it was not clear if the censored ending was created by the film’s Chinese distributor or Universal Pictures.
In either event, Fenton said, Universal would likely have had little incentive to go against the wishes of the CCP.
“As far as Universal Studios is concerned, if they want to have that movie released [in China], they have no choice but to comply,” Fenton said.
Fenton said there were likely two overriding motivations driving Universal to comply with the censorship. The first is a desire for access to the Chinese box office. The second is its newly opened Universal Studios theme park in Beijing. NBCUniversal’s Universal Parks & Resorts holds a minority 30 percent stake in the park, while five state-run companies own the remaining 70 percent majority through the Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Company.
Despite the effort to turn the film into communist propaganda, Fenton said there was a silver lining to the incident insofar as the edits were only made to the Chinese release of the film and that the regime had not successfully encouraged such alterations to the global release.
“We’re noticing that some of these edits just to get a movie into China are basically just for China, which is a positive,” Fenton said. “I’m not feeling like Hollywood is necessarily censoring itself after a movie is made in order to please Chinese censors for the worldwide cut of the movies. It’s being done just for the domestic cut.”
“That said, there’s still a lot of premeditated censorship in Hollywood, in terms of sensitive items that they know China is going to have problems with and possibly blackball not only the studio, but all the individuals involved with the film to begin with.”
GOOD NEWS
An “angel” from Georgia descended onto Interstate 85, playing glorious chords on her harp to entertain weary travelers trapped on the road one evening in late June.
Stranded motorists bemoaned the mugginess as standstill traffic had cars backed up on the highway northeast of Atlanta because of a crash further up the road. Some stepped out of their vehicles to stretch stiff legs. Others set up chairs or broke open coolers to pass the time more comfortably.
Among them was a musician.
Hailey Ann Smith, a professional harpist from Pendergrass, Georgia, was returning from a wedding at the Atlanta Country Club. Still in her concert gown, she was in a good mood and got busy befriending waylaid strangers.
Seeing the somber faces of her fellow travelers, she saw a need and filled it.
“Everyone was stressed out from the traffic, why not give them a smile?” she told The Epoch Times. “And it worked!”
Ex-Combat Veterans Travel US in Renovated Bus, ‘Roadschooling’ Their 7 Children Along the Way
After retiring from the U.S. military, two ex-combat personnel who met in Iraq swapped army duties for a life on the open road, converting a 200-square-foot school bus into a home on wheels for themselves and their seven children. Together, they have been exploring the United States since 2018, “roadschooling” as they go.
Texas natives JD, 37, and Britney Lott, 34, met on deployment in Iraq in 2008.
JD was on his second deployment to Forward Operating Base Warrior for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Britney was reassigned from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and was underprepared.
Britney’s chief lent her his XXL uniform, four sizes too big. She was also missing sunglasses and had to be led around for three days after suffering sun blindness in Qatar, but she still made a moving first impression on her future husband. JD remembers turning a corner after landing his C-130 to see “this beautiful girl sitting on top of some pallets full of gear.”
The two ended up seeing each other at the flight line pretty often. Eventually, Britney gave her number to JD; soon, one thing led to another, and they ended up chatting and spending all of their free time together.
JD was then deployed to Hawaii where he was stationed for 7 months. As soon as he returned home, Britney also returned home and the couple tied the knot.
The couple then moved to Lubbock, Texas, where JD planned to finish school at Texas Tech University.
Since then, they have welcomed six sons and a daughter: Gunner, 11; Kinsey, 9; Schofield, 7; Audie, 5; Swift, 3; Uriah, 2; and Aquila, 2 months.
‘Building an Ark: Our Bus’
JD claims he and Britney have always shared an adventurous spirit and knew they might live “outside the norm.” However, buying a bus in November 2017 coincided with a huge spiritual awakening for JD.
He told The Epoch Times: “I had grown up in the Christian tradition, but had really been living out an altered form of Christianity I call ‘cultural Christianity,’ more of social identity than submitting my life fully to Jesus … God led me through a significant period of spiritual growth for about eight months.
“One day, near the end of that time, God gave me a vision of building an ark: our bus. It was profound, so I went to share it with Britney.”
Meanwhile, Britney had already had a similar inspiration through teaching their kids about Noah’s Ark.
“I was sharing with them that Noah’s wife and kids supported Noah even though what he was doing sounded crazy,” she said. “Next thing you know, he came up to talk to me.”
Within a week, the couple bought a decommissioned school bus and prepared to downsize from their more-than-7,000-square-foot home. The renovation was a “steep learning curve,” said JD, but the couple had some basic experience from remodeling houses they’d lived in over the years.
Although JD watched some YouTube videos in the beginning and sought out advice from trusted professionals, he quickly understood that they needed to carefully engineer the bus and build it according to their own needs.
Britney said: “I got to be the designer, which was a bunch of fun. JD had to do all the hard work!”
When JD started working on the bus, he and Britney were still running a small business: a developmental program for kids. But when he had a major surgery on his vocal cords that rendered him voiceless for three months, the couple’s staff took over daily operations, with Britney as the manager. The bus then became JD’s full-time project.
They settled on an ergonomic layout for the bus, with a six-bed “bunkhouse” for their kids at the rear of the bus. Next came a bathroom with a composting toilet, a full shower, and a bathtub; an open-plan kitchen and livingroom space doubled as a master bedroom with a drop-down bed.
“We decided we needed a washer/dryer—a lifesaver—and plenty of clothes and food storage,” Britney added. “Thankfully, we had some cabinet makers we knew build all of our cabinets, and the couches JD designed with storage underneath.”
With their bus renovated and raring to go, the family left Lubbock in October 2018. But they weren’t just leaving their hometown behind; they were also leaving the school system, for good.
Roadschooling Journey
Both public-schooled, JD and Britney had enrolled their eldest child, Gunner, in a Christian private school in Lubbock. They were quickly disappointed by the school’s secular approach, and by politics that didn’t align with their own, so they tried a hybrid homeschool/university model instead. They were equally disappointed.
They then took their children’s education into their own hands. They chose a core, book-based curriculum including math, reading and writing, history, science, and the Bible, supplementing schoolwork with hands-on excursions that respected their kids’ very different learning styles.
Britney explained: “Roadschooling gives us the opportunity to learn about various topics right at the source. It’s an immersive educational experience.
“Our daily life is normal in a lot of ways. In the mornings … we put the bed up and start breakfast. We try to have family worship time right after breakfast. School is year-round for us; it’s nice to get that knocked out as soon as possible. Sometimes in the afternoon, we’ll try to do a hike, or visit a local site.”
Since setting out, the family has visited almost every region except the north of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Utah, and Alaska. Their immersive tour of the United States has given their kids real-life examples of the subjects they study, be it historical, cultural, ecological, political, social, or industrial.
Britney recalls one example: learning about oysters in Rockport, Texas.
“We happened through there during oyster harvesting time,” she said. “We were able to talk with an oyster processor, watch the oyster boats at work, and talk to a crew out on a boat who was happy to answer all of our questions.”
One challenge they’ve found with their method of roadschooling is being able to resist the excitement of visiting new places so as to keep on top of work, errands, schooling, and finances. Other challenges include bus repairs, navigating sickness on the road, and the weather.
“If there are several rainy days in a row, it can get tough being cooped up together in our 217-square-foot RV!” said Britney, although the family’s memorable experiences at national parks make up for most of those days.
Sharing one special memory, Britney said that one afternoon at Glacier National Park, they watched a grizzly bear chase baby mountain goats up a hill to a sheer rock face while hiking the trail at Logan’s Pass.
“The goats kept just out of the grizzly’s reach. After reaching the end of the trail, we started heading back to the car. The grizzly came onto the path behind us and stood up about 100 yards away,” Britney regaled.
ICYMI
EXCLUSIVE: Vaccinated Making Up Higher Proportion of COVID-19 Metrics in US
Vaccinated people are more likely than the unvaccinated in recent months to be a COVID-19 case, hospitalization, or death in 25 states, according to an Epoch Times investigation.
In Kentucky in June, for example, 67 percent of the deaths were among the vaccinated, according to data obtained by The Epoch Times.
That same month, the vaccinated made up 65 percent of COVID-19 cases, 64 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations, and 66 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Wisconsin.
The numbers are a drastic change from 2021.
After the mass vaccination campaign in the United States gained momentum, virtually every state reported unvaccinated people making up the vast majority of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
The numbers began tilting while the Delta virus variant was dominant. They have tilted even more since the Omicron variant displaced Delta, according to the newly collated numbers.
The Epoch Times compiled the data from state health department websites and databases. Some were obtained through records requests and have never before been made public.
The statistics underline how vaccines have increasingly performed worse as newer virus variants emerged, according to some experts.
They are “clear evidence that the vaccines are not working to prevent disease and death,” Dr. Robert Malone, who helped invent the messenger RNA utilized in the two most widely-administered vaccines, told The Epoch Times.
Others argue the raw numbers don’t contribute to analyzing vaccine effectiveness because they must first be adjusted to account for factors such as age.
2020 Election Doubts: Extreme or Mainstream Opinion?
Nearly two years into the Biden presidency, allegations of fraud in the 2020 Presidential election continue to make headlines, and make powerful political ammunition for both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Allegations of voting fraud are not a fringe position held by a small minority. Polling shows that nearly half of American voters have serious doubts about Joe Biden’s election victory. According to a January Axios/Momentive poll, only a small majority (55 percent) accepts Biden as having legitimately won the 2020 election, down slightly from 58 percent a year earlier.
A Monmouth University poll in late 2021 provided similar findings: a third of the American public (32 percent) believes that Biden won the 2020 election only due to voter fraud—a percentage that has not changed across five different polls conducted by the university in 2021. Nearly 3 in 4 Republicans (73 percent) hold the same belief that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
And it isn’t just the general public expressing doubt. Dozens of Republican candidates for state and federal offices have made talking about 2020 election fraud a key part of their successful primary campaigns.
Federal Government Imposes First-of-Its-Kind Fee on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Hidden deep within the over 700 pages of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a brand-new provision intended to give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) power to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Specifically, the IRA establishes the “Methane Emission Reduction Program” under a new section in the Clean Air Act, allowing the EPA to impose a fee on certain “climate pollutions.”
Importantly, this is the first time the federal government has ever imposed a fee on any GHG emission and is part of Congress’ effort to bolster the EPA’s power to address the “climate crisis.”
Congress Sends a Message
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency that the EPA didn’t have the authority under the Clean Air Act or the Clean Power Plan to essentially force power plants to transition more towards wind and solar.
Moreover, SCOTUS determined that the interpretive question raised under the Clean Power Plan fell under the “major questions doctrine,” which states that Congress must make a “clear statement” if it wants to delegate authority “of this breadth to regulate a fundamental sector of the economy.”
Notably, the ruling expressly limited the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, which President Joe Biden called “devastating.”
Biden further added that he planned to “find ways that we can, under federal law, continue protecting Americans from harmful pollution, including pollution that causes climate change.”
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