WORLD NEWS
The government of Canada will mandate that all new cars be zero-emission by 2035, with a government official claiming the move is to allow quicker access to electric vehicles, according to an anonymous official.
The new legislation, named the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, will allegedly shorten alleged wait times for EVs.
A senior government official spoke to the Toronto Star, but the outlet agreed not to name the official due to the policy not being made public yet.
“This is helping to solve one of the greatest barriers to EVs uptake: that wait times are too long,” the official claimed. “We are making sure that supply is going toward Canadian markets, because one of the issues with EVs is that we’re competing against other markets where the actual EVs are being shipped to,” the official added.
China Starts Buying Venezuelan Oil After Joe Biden Lifts Human Rights Sanctions
China’s state-owned Sinochem Corporation purchased a million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil for delivery in December — an unusual buy made possible when the Biden administration suspended human rights sanctions on Venezuelan oil in October.
Three traders familiar with the deal told Reuters on Tuesday that Sinochem received a discount of $11 per barrel for the Venezuelan heavy crude oil, which will be delivered to the Changyi refinery in Shandong province.
UK Wants to Build Mini-Nuke Plants in Ukraine
Ukraine can decentralise its power supply network by building a series of “mini nuclear power plants”, British engineering giant Rolls Royce believes.
Rolls Royce is exploring rolling out its proposed Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to Ukraine, using the technology to convert former coal-fired power stations to nuclear. While the British SMR concept of cheaper, smaller reactors has yet to be proven in practice, Rolls Royce hopes to be also to roll out the power stations quickly and at a cheaper energy-unit cost than conventional, larger stations and is attempting to build SMRs for the British government as part of the rush to ‘net zero’.
China earthquake: death toll rises to 131 as freezing weather hinders rescue efforts
Temperatures are as low as -16C in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, where the magnitude-6.2 quake struck on Monday
The death toll from China’s earthquake has risen to 131, with almost 1,000 people injured, as rescuers dig through rubble in below freezing conditions.
The magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, in Jishishan county near the border of Gansu and Qinghai provinces, destroying or damaging more than 150,000 homes, according to state media. The quake, which was followed by several strong aftershocks, caused mud and landslides, and damaged power lines and other local infrastructure “to varying degrees”.
On Wednesday morning authorities said the official death toll had risen to 131 in Gansu with 782 injured, and 18 dead and 198 injured in Qinghai.
Amid a days-long cold wave sweeping across most of China, the high-altitude area in China’s north-west reported temperatures as low as -16C, hampering rescue efforts.
Responders, including 1,500 firefighters, 1,500 police officers, 1,000 PLA soldiers, and about 400 medics, continued to pull people from rubble and treat the injured. Authorities said 78 people had been rescued in Gansu but 20 people were still missing from two villages in Minhe county, where a mudslide swept through, half-burying many buildings in brown silt. Search and rescue operations and efforts to resettle residents continued as state media footage showed bulldozers removing thick mud.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Colorado Supreme Court Disqualifies Trump From Appearing on Primary Ballot
The issue will head to the U.S. Supreme Court next.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot.
The extraordinary 4-3 ruling makes Colorado the first and only state to disqualify President Trump from appearing on a state primary ballot. The decision revolved around an interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which bars certain individuals from public office if they have engaged in an “insurrection.”
President Trump has announced he will appeal the decision and denounced it as a partisan attempt to block his White House bid
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Facing Ethics Complaint Over Failure to Disclose Income
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is facing an ethics complaint over alleged failures to disclose details about her income. A conservative group filed the complaint, bringing these allegations to light.
Yet, the mainstream press has almost completely ignored the story even after a laser-like focus on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ alleged ethics violations.
Jackson’s complaint centers on her alleged failure to disclose her husband’s income.
The conservative Center for Renewing America expressed the complaint in a letter to the Judicial Conference. The complaint alleges that Jackson did not report some of her husband’s income for more than a decade. The letter urges the group to refer the matter to Attorney General Merrick Garland to begin an ethics investigation.
The letter claims that Jackson “repeatedly failed to disclose that her husband received income from medical malpractice consulting fees.”
“We know this by Justice Jackson’s own admission in her amended disclosure form for 2020, filed when she was nominated to the Supreme Court, that ‘some of my previously filed reports inadvertently omitted’ her husband’s income from ‘consulting on medical malpractice cases,’” it continues.
The letter says that Jackson gave “the vague statement that ‘some’ of those past disclosures contained material omissions.”
Trump Attorney Says ‘Lawfare’ Is Exposing Corruption to Voters
‘They’re using the court system …. to fund lawsuits that will tie him up, put him in jail, make him go to trial instead of on the campaign trail.’
Alina Habba, attorney for former President Donald Trump, told NTD’s “Capitol Report” host Steve Lance that the former president should legally be protected from several of the cases he now faces due to presidential immunity.
“The president should be immune whenever he is acting in his capacity from the Oval Office, from the White House, on the front lawn, and he should have immunity for any basic act that’s within the scope of his employment,” Ms. Habba said in an interview that will air 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 19.
This is a defense President Trump has lodged in several of his cases, and had dismissed several times. But it is now up for review at the U.S. Supreme Court, tied to a case special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting against President Trump for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Economist Claims 2024 Will Bring ‘Biggest Crash of Our Lifetime’ in US
An economist who focuses on consumer spending issued a dire warning about the US economy in 2024.
An economist who focuses on consumer spending issued a dire warning about the U.S. economy in 2024.
“Since 2009, this has been 100 percent artificial, unprecedented money printing and deficits: $27 trillion over 15 years, to be exact,” Harry Dent told Fox Business on Tuesday. “This is off the charts, 100 percent artificial, which means we’re in a dangerous state. I think 2024 is going to be the biggest single crash year we’ll see in our lifetimes.”
He added that “we need to get back down to normal, and we need to send a message to central banks,” adding, “This should be a lesson I don’t think we’ll ever revisit. I don’t think we’ll ever see a bubble for any of our lifetimes again.”
Hunter Biden’s First Court Date Set for Tax Evasion Charges
His first appearance and arraignment is expected on this date early next year.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, is scheduled to make his initial court appearance and arraignment in California next month, according to a federal court calendar on Monday.
The court appearance is slated for Jan. 11, 2024, at the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California. It will see Mr. Biden, 53, facing serious felony and misdemeanor tax charges.
The charges stem from a nine-count indictment returned by a grand jury, accusing Mr. Biden of three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses. The charges follow an extensive criminal investigation into his financial dealings between 2016 and 2019, according to federal court documents.
Judge Questions Expert Witness Credibility, Rejects Trump’s Bid to Dismiss Civil Fraud Trial
The New York judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial rejected the latest bid to dismiss the case, questioning the credibility of a key defense witness and citing his nearly $900,000 fee.
In his order denying a motion for a directed verdict on Monday, Judge Arthur Engoron rejected certain aspects of the defense’s arguments, focusing on what he deemed “fatal flaws” in their bid to have the case tossed for lack of evidence.
The judge wrote that “the most glaring flaw” in the defense’s motion is the assumption by President Trump’s lawyers that the testimony of their experts “is true and accurate, or at least that the Court, as the trier of fact, will accept it as true and accurate.”
EXCLUSIVE: Emails Show Biden Admin Coordinating With Enviro Group That’s Suing Them
The Biden administration communicated about changes to a landmark environmental law with a major eco-group that is suing the federal government over the law in question, emails obtained by the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) and shared exclusively with the Daily Caller News Foundation show.
The emails, exchanged in May 2021, show that Kristen Boyles, a managing attorney for Earthjustice, contacted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to request information about the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) forthcoming rulemakings on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a decades-old environmental law. The communications occurred as Earthjustice was suing the Biden administration in an ongoing NEPA lawsuit and show that President Joe Biden’s CEQ was willing to provide at least some information.
Trump Demands Another Hearing for Federal Gag Order Appeal
The appeals court decision was meant to protect people from possible ‘harassment,’ which defense attorneys say is an improper use of a gag order.
On Dec. 18, attorneys for former President Donald Trump made another push to overturn a federal gag order at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Defense attorneys argue that the appeals panel was wrong on five counts and a rehearing is in order.
“The opinion holds that President Trump must be silenced to protect trial participants from possible threats or ‘harassment’ from unrelated third parties,” the petition reads.
On this point, the appeals court judges adopted the rationale of lower court judges in issuing two separate gag orders on President Trump.
“In doing so, the opinion conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and other Circuits, warranting en banc consideration both to secure uniformity of this Court’s decisions and because of the question’s exceptional importance,” they wrote, requesting a hearing before all of the judges in this court.
Judge orders release of over 150 names of people mentioned in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit documents
A federal judge has ordered the public disclosure of the identities of more than 150 people mentioned in a mountain of court documents related to the late-financier Jeffrey Epstein, saying that most of the names were already public and that many had not objected to the release.
The people whose names are to be disclosed, including sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, Epstein’s employees — and even some people with only a passing connection to the scandal — have until Jan. 1 to appeal the order, signed Monday by Judge Loretta A. Preska.
For several years, Preska has reviewed documents sought by the Miami Herald from a civil case, filed by one of Epstein’s victims, that eventually was settled.
Many of the records related to that lawsuit were publicly released in past years, but on Monday the judge made determinations about some portions of the records that were initially withheld on potential privacy grounds and what can be made public about certain people mentioned in the records.
In many instances, she noted that individuals had given media interviews or that their names had previously emerged publicly in various ways, including at a trial two years ago of Epstein’s associate and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Armed home intruders pistol-whip 5-year-old girl in face — take off with a cell phone
Armed home intruders on Staten Island pistol-whipped a 5-year-old girl in the face early Monday morning — and took off from the premises with a cell phone.
What are the details?
Four suspects, three armed with guns, kicked in the front door of the home near Livingston Avenue and Queen Street around 12:45 a.m., WPIX-TV reported, citing New York City Police.
A 5-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy, a 33-year-old woman, and a 54-year-old resident were inside the home at the time of the break-in, the station said, citing police.
The NYPD released a video from surveillance cameras showing the robbers — wearing hoodies and masks — entering the home and searching the residence with a flashlight, the New York Daily News reported.
Records Show More Jan. 6 Arrests, Many Still Incarcerated Without a Trial
‘It’s way more than I would have thought,’ a Jan. 6 attorney said about the number of people in pretrial detention.
As of Dec. 14, there were still 34 people in a Washington jail awaiting trial on charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach nearly three years ago, The Epoch Times has learned
The District of Columbia Department of Corrections confirmed the number in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
“It’s way more than I would have thought,” said attorney Charles Burnham.
Mr. Burnham, a Washington-based attorney, has represented nine Jan. 6 defendants, although none of them have been detained pretrial.
“I was thinking to myself that they must be getting down to the last ones at this point,” he told The Epoch Times.
In March, Just Security reported there were 11 Jan. 6 pretrial detainees. This means at least 23 of the current pretrial detainees were charged in the months since, although it may be more, as any of the 11 detainees identified in March could have gone to trial or made a plea.
“My question would be: How many people are being held pretrial for the invasion of the Cannon Office Building?” Mr. Burnham said. “My suspicion is zero.”
Mr. Burnham was referring to an October incident in which hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protesters, organized by the progressive anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, stormed the Cannon House Office Building, took over the rotunda and disrupted the vote for the new House speaker.
Tucker Carlson Issues Major Warning on What the Establishment Has in Store for Trump
That next step appears to be taking Trump off the ballot altogether. But Tucker suggested something much more sinister is looming.
“They [the establishment] look at Trump as a vampire, and they put a stake in his heart, but they’re afraid that that stake could come out any time,” expressed military historian Victor Davis Hanson in a viral video in late November.
“They are terrified of him because they think he’s smarter this time, and he has just cause to really get angry because of what they did to him.”
Exclusive: Air Force Veteran Nick Kupper Who Fought DOD Vaccine Mandate Running for Arizona Office
Air Force Master Sgt. Nick Kupper became a leader for troops fighting President Joe Biden’s military vaccine mandate behind the scenes when he refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine due to religious reasons.
That experience has galvanized Kupper, who is now retired, to run for office in Arizona’s 25th legislative district for an open seat in 2024.
“The majority of our lawmakers have not only failed us — you know, those in the military — but they failed the entire country, and they failed themselves,” Kupper told Breitbart News in a recent exclusive interview.
“One of the things I noticed is, honestly, just how spineless so many of our supposed leaders are, and we don’t need spineless people leading this country,” he said. “We now have a lot of weak people running it. There’s the saying, ‘Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.’”
“That’s what’s going on right now. We have a lot of weak people who are creating a lot of problems for the entire country, to the point where they literally could tear the whole thing down,” he added.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are calling on President Joe Biden to block the sale of the United States Steel Corporation by Japan’s largest steelmaker.
As Breitbart News reported, executives with U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) announced the nearly $15 billion deal, which would have the iconic American steel giant sold off to the Japanese company.
In response, Vance, Hawley, and Rubio have written to Biden’s Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, — who chairs the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — to ask that she block the Japanese acquisition of U.S. Steel.
“The transaction marks a turning point for an icon of American industry and has dire implications for the industrial base of the United States,” the Senators write:
The transaction was not entered into with U.S. national security in mind. When U.S. Steel announced its “review of strategic alternatives” in August, it pledged to adopt a “measured approach.” But the board’s fiduciary duty was to its shareholders, and U.S. Steel has admitted that the very reason for the sale was its desire to “maximiz[e] value for . . . stockholders.” The transaction was not the product of careful deliberation over stakeholder interests, but rather the result of an auction to maximize shareholder returns. The joint press release announcing the all cash transaction led off with a declaration about the transaction’s “certain and immediate value to U.S. Steel shareholders.” [Emphasis added]
Despite the absence of any security-focused deliberation on U.S. Steel’s part, domestic steel production is vital to U.S. national security. Democratic and Republican administrations have both acted decisively over the last forty years to bolster the industry. The endurance of President Trump’s Section 232 tariffs on steel imports demonstrates that the preservation of the domestic steel industry remains vital to our national security. Trade protections can and should induce foreign investment that expands domestic production and creates American jobs. This corporate takeover is out of step with those goals. Allowing foreign companies to buy out American companies and enjoy our trade protections subverts the very purpose for which those protections were put in place. [Emphasis added]
‘We Sold Over $100 Million of Gold During the Quarter’: Costco CFO
The blockbuster sale comes as gold prices hit an all-time intraday high this month and are expected to remain elevated next year.
Wholesale retailer Costco sold more than $100 million worth of gold in the most recent quarter, with gold bars seeing high demand from customers.
“You’ve probably read about the fact that we’re selling one-ounce gold bars. We sold over $100 million of gold during the quarter [that ended Sept. 30],” Richard Galanti, the chief financial officer of Costco, said during an earnings call on Dec. 14. This was the first quarter of fiscal 2024 at Costco.
The wholesale retailer started selling gold online in September. In an earnings call late that month, Mr. Galanti had alluded to massive demand for the product. “When we load [gold bars] on the site, they’re typically gone within a few hours.”
Study: Nearly 3-in-5 Illegal Alien Households Are on Taxpayer-Funded Welfare
Close to 60 percent of households headed by illegal aliens use at least one major form of welfare, an analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals.
The CIS analysis from Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler shows illegal aliens and legal immigrants, in general, use “significantly more” welfare than native-born American citizens.
For example, about 59 percent of households headed by illegal aliens use welfare and about 52 percent of households headed by legal immigrants use at least one form of welfare. At the same time, fewer than 4-in-10 households headed by native-born American citizens use welfare.
“… this is primarily because the American welfare system is designed in large part to help low-income families with children, which describes a large share of immigrants,” CIS researchers note.
Jeff Bezos’ rocket company launches experiments in first flight since 2022 crash
Jeff Bezos’ space company successfully launched a rocket carrying experiments on Tuesday, its first flight since engine trouble caused a crash more than a year ago.
The New Shepard rocket soared from West Texas, lifting a capsule full of tests, many of which were aboard the failed Blue Origin launch in September 2022. No one was aboard that flight or this latest one.
This time, the capsule made it to the fringes of space, exposing the experiments from NASA and others to a few minutes of weightlessness, before parachuting back down to the desert. The rocket landed first, after releasing the capsule. It reached an altitude of 66 miles (107 kilometers) during the 10-minute flight.
HEALTH
Are You Drinking GMO Yeast Milk?
It’s been heralded as a ‘carbon neutral’ alternative, yet it contains 92 mysterious compounds that have never before existed in the human diet.
Synthetic dairy products, including milk made from genetically engineered yeast, are being touted as environmentally friendly health foods that should replace real milk from cows and other animals
Along with missing important micronutrients that are abundant in real milk, fake milk contains compounds that have never before existed in the human diet
Ninety-two mysterious, unknown compounds were detected in the fake milk that don’t exist in real milk
None of these compounds have been tested for safety by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Tech oligarchs and venture capitalists are funding most fake food technologies, which gives globalists unprecedented power and control over human health
Juul Seeks Approval for Age-Restricted Menthol Pods
Juul Labs said on Tuesday it was seeking U.S. authorization for its new menthol-flavored pods, which require user age verification, to be used with its e-cigarette device that is under review by regulators.
Juul’s e-cigarettes were briefly banned in the U.S. in June 2022 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded the company had failed to show that the sale of its products would be appropriate for public health. Following an appeal, the health regulator put the ban on hold and agreed to an additional review of Juul’s marketing application. The company’s new menthol-flavored pods have a nicotine concentration of 18 mg/mL and are Juul’s latest premarket tobacco product application to the FDA.
This follows an application it made in July for a vaporizer with a unique Pod ID chip to prevent the use of counterfeit cartridges and restrict underage access. The July application included a proposal for tobacco-flavored pods.
FDA: Extremely High Lead Levels in Cinnamon at Plant
Cinnamon samples gathered at a facility in Ecuador linked to tainted applesauce pouches were found to contain levels of toxic lead that were 2,000 times higher than proposed standards, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors.
Tests conducted at an Ecuadorean facility run by Austrofoods (maker of the recalled applesauce) found that cinnamon supplied to the plant by another company, Negasmart, contained “extremely high levels of lead contamination, 5110 parts per million (ppm) and 2270 ppm,” the FDA said in its latest update.
To put that into context, an international body charged with setting lead limits in bark-sourced spices such as cinnamon “is considering adopting a maximum level of 2.5 ppm for lead in bark spices,” the FDA said.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
DeepSouth: Human Brain-Scale Supercomputer Goes Online In 2024
The supercomputer, named DeepSouth, is being developed by Western Sydney University in Australia.
When it goes online next year, it will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second.
It could one day help create a cyborg brain vastly more powerful than our own.
Our brains are remarkably energy efficient.
Using just 20 watts of power, the human brain is capable of processing the equivalent of an exaflop — or a billion-billion mathematical operations per second.
Now, researchers in Australia are building what will be the world’s first supercomputer that can simulate networks at this scale.
The supercomputer, known as DeepSouth, is being developed by Western Sydney University.
When it goes online next year, it will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second, which rivals the estimated rate of operations in the human brain.
The hope is to better understand how brains can use such little power to process huge amounts of information.
If researchers can work this out, they could someday create a cyborg brain vastly more powerful than our own. The work could also revolutionize our understanding of how our brains work.
“Progress in our understanding of how brains compute using neurons is hampered by our inability to simulate brain-like networks at scale,” said André van Schaik, a director at Western Sydney University’s International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems.
“Simulating spiking neural networks on standard computers using Graphics Processing Units and multicore Central Processing Units is just too slow and power intensive,” he added. “Our system will change that.”
Peter Schweizer: Bill Gates’ ‘Genius’ Food Takeover Scheme About Making Money Not Saving Planet
While guest-hosting Monday’s “Sean Hannity Show,” Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute, a Senior Contributor to Breitbart News, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of “Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win” said that Bill Gates’ food plans aren’t really about saving the planet, but are really about Gates making money by replacing “real beef, which is not patented, with fake meat that he and his buddies have the patents for. So, he’s going to make money when we make this transition from pure natural beef to this lab meat that he’s making.”
Schweizer stated, “Well — and here’s the part, honestly, I have to say, that’s genius about what Bill Gates is doing — I think it’s a terrible idea. I think there’s so much hyping of the climate change issue — but…this is actually a scheme, not just to ‘save the planet,’ but for Bill Gates to actually make money, because he wants to replace real beef, which is not patented, with fake meat that he and his buddies have the patents for. So, he’s going to make money when we make this transition from pure natural beef to this lab meat that he’s making.”
Meta’s AI for Ray-Ban smart glasses can identify objects and translate languages
Saying “Hey Meta” while wearing the Ray-Ban smart glasses will summon a virtual assistant that sees and hears what’s happening around you.
Meta is finally going to let people try its splashiest AI features for the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, though in an early access test to start. Today, Meta announced that it’s going to start rolling out its multimodal AI features that can tell you about things Meta’s AI assistant can see and hear through the camera and microphones of the glasses.
Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated the update in an Instagram reel where he asked the glasses to suggest pants that would match a shirt he was holding.
It responded by describing the shirt and offering a couple of suggestions for pants that might complement it. He also had the glasses’ AI assistant translate text and show off a couple of image captions.
Zuckerberg revealed the multimodal AI features for Ray-Ban glasses like this in an interview with The Verge’s Alex Heath in a September Decoder interview. Zuckerberg said that people would talk to the Meta AI assistant “throughout the day about different questions you have,” suggesting that it could answer questions about what wearers are looking at or where they are.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Human breath fueling ‘climate change,’ warns new study
Humans are contributing to global warming by breathing, warns a new study.
British researchers looked at 328 breath samples from 104 participants and found concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide gasses, believed to be more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide (CO2). While humans expel CO2 as well, it is usually soaked up by plant life and thus has a negligible impact on the environment.
Among the participants, those who emitted the most methane through their breath were more likely to be female and over 30 years old, though the researchers are unsure why.
The study’s authors are also unsure what is causing these gasses to appear in the human body. They dismiss the suggestion that a vegetarian diet rather than a more carnivorous one would be impactful.
“The factors that affect human emissions of CH4 and N2O are not well understood and the impacts of an aging population and shifting diets is still relatively uncertain,” the researchers wrote. “Converting from high meat and protein content diets to higher fibre vegetarian options to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases from meat production potentially results in higher production of gases in the human gut, and an element of pollution swapping could occur.”
In fact, the researchers looked at the participants’ dietary habits and found that meat consumption had no bearing on methane and nitrous oxide levels expelled through breath.
Nevertheless, the authors recommend that researchers continue to study whether “rigid dietary regimes” might reduce the effect of emissions.
In the study’s conclusion they also caution against dismissing the impact of human breath on the environment as “negligible,” and add that this is exacerbated by human flatulence.
“[W]e would urge caution in the assumption that emissions from humans are negligible. We report only emissions in breath in this study, and flatus emissions are likely to increase these values significantly,” the researchers concluded.
Nolte: Study Blames Flight from Democrat-Run Cities on Climate Change
Far-left Axios is gushing over a new study that blames climate change for people fleeing Democrat-run cities like the “metro areas of Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. (specifically, Alexandria, Va.).”
“Climate migration is already taking place within American communities, new data finds, as people flee flood-prone areas, and create ‘climate abandonment’ zones,” writes an unquestioning Axios.
“The study constitutes the latest warning sign of the effects of climate change,” Axios continues without skepticism. “Population shifts, and a larger reckoning for real estate, are only expected to worsen as global average surface temperatures rise.”
But then the premise of the study undercuts itself in a big way with the admission that “Americans are leaving the Rust Belt in droves and heading to areas of greater climate risk in the South and Southwest[.]”
Thousands of Miles of Pipeline Trying to Push CO2 Underground
The ethanol industry is relying on miles of pipeline to transport a lethal asphyxiant through communities using billions in tax subsidies to increase oil production. Is this the new green plan?
Thousands of miles of pipeline are currently in use, and more are planned to transport highly acidic liquified carbon dioxide (CO2) from ethanol plants to deep well injection sites where CO2 is currently used to increase oil production
A 2020 leak in a CO2 pipeline in Biloxi, Mississippi, hospitalized 49 people, some of whom have permanent brain damage. The National Forest Service (NFS) proposed an amendment that would make it legal to run the pipelines through NFS land
Data show most capture facilities are over budget and ineffective with underperformance ranging from 36% to 50% in the U.S., Canada and Western Australia. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis calls the plan “wildly unrealistic”
Additionally, the oil industry is slated to receive $173 billion in taxpayer subsidies over the next 12 years for accepting delivery of CO2 deep well injection they use to extract more oil
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
How to Make Aerated Compost Tea: Which Method Works Best?
Can you really make microbially active aerated compost tea with a tiny aquarium air pump? What about using off-grid methods? We did the experimenting for you—here’s what we discovered!
2ND AMENDMENT
Michigan town establishes Second Amendment militia
Holton Township in Michigan’s Muskegon County last month passed a resolution protecting the Second Amendment against “red flag” laws and established a militia to defend gun rights.
Four of Holton’s five board members approved the resolution, which declared the 2,500-resident town to be a “Second Amendment Sanctuary.”
“The people of Holton Township, through their duly elected members of the Holton Township Board, hereby designate Holton Township as a Second Amendment Sanctuary in order to preserve for the people of, on and in Holton Township, the inalienable rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America,” the resolution read.
“[T]he Holton Township Board hereby declares its intent to oppose any infringement on the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms,” the document added. “We, the people of Holton Township, hereby declare our inalienable rights, our freedom and our Liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.”
COVID RELATED NEWS
Probiotics Help Prevent COVID-19 Symptoms
Probiotics might be able to help people dodge the worst effects of COVID-19, new clinical trial results show.
Unvaccinated people who took a lactobacillus-laced probiotic had reduced COVID symptoms and even delayed infection, researchers report in the January issue of the journal Clinical Nutrition.
The study suggests probiotics could be a simple and inexpensive way to treat folks who’ve been exposed to COVID, researchers said.
Probiotics are designed to boost the beneficial bacteria and yeasts that live inside the body, primarily the gastrointestinal tract.
“Prior to COVID, there was strong evidence that probiotics were protective against respiratory infections,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Paul Wischmeyer, associate vice chair for clinical research in Duke Health’s Department of Anesthesiology in Durham, N.C.
“Our study lends credence to the notion that our symbiotic microbes can be valuable partners in the fight against COVID-19 and potentially other future pandemic diseases,” Wischmeyer added in a Duke news release.
Researchers launched this investigation in March 2020, before COVID vaccines were widely available in the United States.
The team recruited 182 patients who were unvaccinated and had been exposed to someone with COVID, but had not yet developed any symptoms.
Half were randomly assigned to take a probiotic of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, a bacteria that is naturally found in people’s digestive system. The rest took a placebo.
Participants who took the probiotic were 60% less likely to develop COVID symptoms than those who got a placebo – 26% versus 43%.
They also tended to stave off COVID infection longer, but the difference in COVID diagnosis rate – 9% in the probiotic group versus 15% in the placebo group – was not statistically significant because of the small study size.
Power Mall Recommended Product: Living Streams Multi-Blend Liquid Probiotic
Growing Number of GOP Candidates Pledge to Disavow COVID-19 Vaccine and Big Pharma
So far, 26 candidates and elected officials from 11 states have publicly signed on, stating that the vaccine shots must be pulled from the market.
COVID-19 and concerns over the influence of pharmaceutical companies on elected officials continue to be a hot-button issue for candidates vying for political office as a movement that began earlier this month on social media garners increasing support.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a practitioner in Texas and founder of Coalition of Health Freedom, has used her platform on X, to call on candidates in races across the country to make clear their position on whether the COVID-19 vaccine should be pulled off the market and to publicly pledge that they will not accept campaign donations from pharmaceutical interests.
“Want to help? It’s primary season. Let’s replace the politicians who aren’t protecting their constituents,” Dr. Bowden said in a Dec. 17 post on X. “Ask your representatives … publicly whether they stand with 17,000+ doctors to support pulling the Covid shots off the market.”
CANCEL CULTURE
A Michigan couple has sued their local school district after several district employees allegedly began treating the couple’s daughter as a boy and then “altered the girl’s official records” to conceal their actions.
Dan and Jennifer Mead live in Rockford, Michigan, a city of about 5,000 residents located 15 miles northeast of Grand Rapids. Their daughter, identified only as G.M., began attending Rockford Public Schools in kindergarten and continued attending until October 2022, the fall of her eighth-grade year.
For most of that time, the Meads believed that G.M. received a solid education from the district’s schools and teachers. So in January 2021, when G.M. was having trouble adjusting to East Rockford Middle School as a sixth-grader, Jennifer Mead started corresponding with ERMS counselor Erin Cole so that they could work together to get G.M. back on track.
Because of Cole’s ready willingness to meet with G.M. and keep an eye on her progress, Jennifer Mead began to trust Cole, and the women sent emails back and forth to each other for the better part of two years.
PET NEWS
VIDEO: Funny Video: Man Puts On a Bush Costume to Test His 3 Dogs—the Result Leaves His Wife Laughing
Tanyssa and Brad Moise love playing goofy games with their three dogs, and one hide-and-seek session was especially entertaining.
Disguising himself as a bush, Mr. Moise went and hid from German shepherds Jade, Jasper, and Jet in the garden. When the trio were let out, it was clear they could smell their owner but had no clue where he was.
“I went inside and opened up the door and let the dogs out,” Mrs. Moise said. “I told them to go find Daddy.”
A now-viral video, which has received over 16 million views, shows Jade, 7, Jasper, 4, and Jet, 2, racing around, intent on finding their beloved owner. Needless to say, when they locate him, they go crazy with delight.
Mrs. Moise is often referred to as Karen in the videos, while Mr. Moise goes by the name Kevin, and their three million followers love watching the family’s funny antics.
GOOD NEWS
AVirginia woman chanced upon a once-in-a-lifetime find at the Goodwill off Route 1 in Hanover County: a vase designed in the 1940s by the famous Italian architect and former Venini glassworks director Carlo Scarpa.
Although ready to pay over $10 for the 13.5 inch tall bottle, Jessica Vincent ultimately brought home the rare collectible for $3.99. Last week, the bottle sold for $107,100 at auction.
“It’s an amazing story, that this very sophisticated piece of glass finds its way to Virginia,” Richard Wright, the founder of the auction house where the vase was sold, told Artnet. “It was expensive, not mass-produced, and it falls through the cracks all the way down to the Goodwill. It’s not even chipped.”
The vase, which looks like a glorified wine bottle, belongs to the Pennellate series designed by Scarpa for the art glass company Venini in the late 1940s.
Judge halts toppling of Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery
Trump-nominated federal judge has halted the removal of the Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery, which the cemetery indicated Saturday would otherwise take place by week’s end. While the iconoclasts have been momentarily restrained, the fate of the historic monument, also called the Confederate Memorial, remains uncertain.
The group Defend Arlington, affiliated with Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a federal lawsuit last month in the District of Columbia accusing the Army, which oversees the cemetery, of violating regulations in an apparent effort to rush the process and get the monument down by January.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 requires that the Pentagon remove “all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate Sates of America (commonly referred to as the ‘Confederacy’) or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense.”‘
The deadline for such removals is Jan. 1, 2024.
Country singer Jelly Roll is helping make Christmas bright for needy children in Nashville, Tennessee.
On Saturday he drove a tractor-trailer stuffed with toys to a charity called the Last Minute Toy Store that will distribute the presents to families in need, Fox 17 reported.
The organization has partnered with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to bless community members, and Jelly Roll also wanted to participate.
Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall wrote in a social media post Saturday that he had met Jelly Roll over a year ago at the facility where he “was once housed,” and noted that now the singer wants to “give back.”
“Today a truck loaded with toys showed up at the The Last Minute Toy Store. You are changing music and lives. Thank you!” he continued.
ocial media users praised the singer for his help, one person writing, “Thank you Jelly Roll. My grandchildren benefitted from your kindness.”
“So glad his music has allowed him to put the spotlight on the huge heart he has!! Such a great person! Thank you Jelly Roll,” another person commented, while someone else said, “He’s an amazing soul. Always has been.”
The Last Minute Toy Store said this year it has broken records by making Christmas a dream come true for more than 6,900 children. The feat was accomplished with the help of more than 1,000 volunteers.
“If your family has come upon hard times in 2023 due to unemployment, family crisis/trauma, debilitating illness or not being able to provide Christmas and pay the bills, then LMtS is here to help!” the charity’s site reads.
22-Year-Old Quits Her Job for ‘Tradwife’ Lifestyle, Embraces 1940s—Has Words for Couples Today
Millennial Aria Lewis is infatuated with the 1940s—and has been since she was 15 years old, growing up in a somewhat “vintage” family in North Carolina.
Mrs. Lewis, now 22, has embraced the role of a “tradwife” (traditional wife), a neo-retro lifestyle trend adopted by some conservative newlywed women that has garnered a following on social media. She and her husband, Andrew Lewis, 28, embrace this choice, living together on a farm they purchased in Missouri.
Both Christians, they chose to glorify God in how they manifested their marriage, both leading biblical lives.
“I quit my job as a photographer,” she said. “I felt like I didn’t need to be as professional and modern and super relatable to clients because I didn’t need to do that anymore.”
Instead, she dove back into her roots.
“My purpose in life is to honor and glorify God,” she said. “I don’t see very much of that in modern society.
“I just like historical things—I always have. And I feel comfortable with it.”
One thing the Lewises shared was a desire for a farm, which helped in their decision to buy a fixer-upper house on a single acre.
They were married for a couple of years prior to being able to buy a house, while she was still working as a wedding photographer. By the time Mrs. Lewis quit, she’d saved money for an entire year for the downpayment.
It’s been really great, she said. Farm life has bestowed self-sufficiency on them. She keeps a garden now but later hopes to move to a bigger lot with room for chickens.
Living the Tradwife Dream
Mrs. Lewis said that, unlike today, in the past men’s and women’s roles were clear.
“Embracing who God made me to be as a woman is like embracing my femininity,” she said. “The very specific roles of men and women in older times, when our grandparents or great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents were alive, were defined.”
She laments how the media today tells us we can be anything with no consequences. But that’s not true.
Being a homemaker in 2023 is less common, and even shamed. Many feminists jockey against men for positions in the workplace, intent on shattering glass ceilings.
Mrs. Lewis and the tradwife trend defiantly and deliberately turn the feminist revolution on its head.
“[Tradwifery] is hard to explain to people who just don’t get it,” she said. “The world has changed so much in the last 100 to 150 years. I just see it as almost completely opposite of what has been normal for thousands of years.”
That’s not to say there weren’t periods in history when society was rough, and women were persecuted. Yet today things have reached the other extreme, she thinks.
The role of the traditional wife means just that: filling the role of wife as it has long been defined. For Mrs. Lewis that means following the Bible.
It also means having particular standards in how you dress, what you say, and how you treat other people. And it might mean sacrifice, accepting what you don’t have while embracing what you do.
“I think we’re headed for even harder times,” she said. “I think we need to bring back a lot of these more frugal skills like I do.”
ICYMI
Celine Dion’s Sister Gives Update on Singer’s Heath: ‘Doesn’t Have Control Over Her Muscles’
Celine Dion’s sister provided an update on the Canadian singer’s health, saying that “she doesn’t have control over her muscles” now.
“What breaks my heart is that she’s always been disciplined. She’s always worked hard,” said sister Claudette Dion in an interview with French outlet 7 Jours.
She noted, “It’s true that in both our dreams and hers, the goal is to return to the stage. In what capacity? I don’t know.” She continued to say that “the vocal cords are muscles, and the heart is also a muscle,” according to a translation
More Stories
Today’s News: May 10, 2024
Today’s News: May 09, 2024
Today’s News: May 07, 2024