WORLD NEWS
J.D. Vance Finds ‘Impeachment Time Bomb’ Aimed at Trump in Ukraine Aid Bill
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) raised the alarm on Monday that the $95 billion Senate bill to fund the Ukraine War contains an “impeachment time bomb” aimed at former President Donald Trump if he wins reelection in November, and called on his Republican colleagues to vote against it.
“Buried in the bill’s text is an impeachment time bomb for the next Trump presidency if he tries to stop funding the war in Ukraine. We must vote against this disastrous bill,” Vance posted on X.
Elon Musk, CEO of X and Tesla, commented on X in response to Vance’s post: “This is insane.”
Earlier Monday, Vance sent a memo to his Republican colleagues highlighting that the bill would fund Ukraine through September 30, 2025, which would be nearly a year into the possible second presidential term for Trump if he is reelected.
Vance wrote in his memo:
The bill includes $1.6 billion for foreign military financing in Ukraine, and $13.7 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. These funds expire on September 30, 2025—nearly a year into the possible second term of President Trump.
He noted that those were the same accounts that then-President Trump was impeached for pausing in December 2019.
Then-Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his twin brother, then-Army Col. Eugene Vindman — who both worked in the National Security Council at the time — had claimed that Trump froze the aid to get dirt on then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine.
Vance noted that every single House Republican voted against Trump’s impeachment. He was later acquitted by the Senate.
Vance wrote in his memo:
The false argument put forward by Democrats was/is as follows: as President Trump had allegedly paused these funds because he wished to see the corrupt nexus between the Biden family and Ukraine investigated, President Trump had abused his power, with the aim of interfering with the U.S. presidential election.”
Vance also noted that Trump has pledged to settle the war in Ukraine in 24 hours — but could still be forced to send aid to Ukraine.
He warned:
If President Trump were to withdraw from or pause financial support for the war in Ukraine in order to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, ‘over the objections of career experts,’ it would amount to the same fake violation of budget law from the first impeachment, under markedly similar facts and circumstances.
“Partisan Democrats would seize on the opportunity to impeach him once again. The Washington Post has reported that tying President Trump’s hands on foreign policy is very much top of mind for Biden administration officials,” who, he noted, “are openly boasting about their plans,” mentioning that a U.S. official told the Post the hope was that the bill would “future-proof” aid for Ukraine in case Trump wins reelection.
Vance wrote in the conclusion of his memo:
The supplemental represents an attempt by the foreign policy blob/deep state to stop President Trump from pursuing his desired policy, and if he does so anyways, to provide grounds to impeach him and undermine his administration. All Republicans should oppose its passage.
Former Trump Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell posted on X:
Remove the impeachment time bomb from the Senate bill – or vote no. How ridiculous is this secret set of handcuffs!!?? WOW.
Vance wrote in his memo.
The Senate is due to vote on the bill on Monday, and it would require 60 votes to pass.
Speaker Mike Johnson Torches Foreign Aid Bill: Border Must Come First
The Senate is wasting its time passing tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid without border security measures, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested in a Monday night statement.
In a statement issued less than an hour before the Senate began a series of procedural votes to waive budgetary points of order and invoke cloture on the bill, Johnson dismissed the efforts, suggesting the House would not bring up the bill.
“In the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” Johnson said. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
Additional funding for Ukraine’s stalemate war against Russia has grown increasingly unpopular with the Republican base despite pro-endless funding Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) claiming on the Senate floor Monday, “The vote we will soon take to provide military weapons for Ukraine is the most important vote we will ever take as United States senators.”
Johnson made clear that Congress should make progress in addressing America’s southern border before even considering supplemental foreign aid.
“House Republicans were crystal clear from the very beginning of discussions that any so-called national security supplemental legislation must recognize that national security begins at our own border,” Johnson said. “The House acted ten months ago to help enact transformative policy change by passing the Secure Our Border Act, and since then, including today, the Senate has failed to meet the moment.”
The bill Johnson touts, often referred to as “H.R. 2” on Capitol Hill, is the standard demand for border hawks and House Republicans for Congressional action on the border.
Johnson continued attacking the Senate’s continued focus on passing foreign aid while the border crisis continues:
The Senate did the right thing last week by rejecting the Ukraine-Taiwan-Gaza-Israel- Immigration legislation due to its insufficient border provisions, and it should have gone back to the drawing board to amend the current bill to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe.
“Instead, the Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.”
Johnson’s statement sends a clear message to any on-the-fence Republican senators that a politically perilous vote in favor of the foreign aid package will be for naught. Yet the package appears set for passage.
Regardless, Johnson made clear that the House will continue advocating for H.R. 2 and other border efforts before considering more foreign aid.
“The mandate of national security supplemental legislation was to secure America’s own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world,” Johnson said. “It is what the American people demand and deserve.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Rejection of Presidential Immunity
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday, hoping to win a motion to dismiss one of the federal criminal cases against him on the basis of presidential immunity.
“Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the Presidency as we know it will cease to exist,” they argued.
It was filed on Feb. 12, meeting a deadline an appeals court set that would have the court withhold its mandate, rather than returning the case to the district court.
In a 100-plus page filing, defense attorneys requested the Supreme Court issue a stay on the lower court decision, pending a review from the high court. Prosecutors have demanded that district court proceedings resume while President Trump pursues avenues of appeal.
“President Trump’s claim that Presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts presents a novel, complex, and momentous question that warrants careful consideration on appeal,” the appeal reads.
They asked that the stay be extended until the Supreme Court has reviewed the case, and also stayed in the event of a petition for a rehearing in the appeals court, something the appeals court expressly did not grant in its own order.
“This order departs from the D.C. Circuit’s ordinary procedures,” the attorneys added.
The lawyers make the case that the Supreme Court grant the appeal, and review the case, because it involves an important area of law not yet settled by the court.
“The public importance of Presidential immunity cannot be overstated,” the appeal reads.
President Trump’s attorneys argue that in 234 years of American history, no president has been criminally prosecuted, and for good reason. To set such a precedent would open the floodgates, they say.
“If the prosecution of a President is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination,” they argued.
“The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration … will hang like a millstone around every future President’s neck, distorting Presidential decision-making, undermining the President’s independence, and clouding the President’s ability ’to deal fearlessly and impartially with’ the duties of his office.’”
Last year, President Trump was charged with and pleaded not guilty to four counts of conspiracy and obstruction over his actions on Jan. 6, 2021. He has since filed four motions to dismiss the case, the first of which is based on presidential immunity.
Fani Willis Could Be Disqualified, Judge Says
Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee confirmed on Feb. 12 that the hearing about misconduct claims against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade “must occur” on Feb. 15 and could lead to disqualification.
Ms. Willis is presiding over the high-profile racketeering case that names former President Donald Trump and 14 others.
“I think it’s clear that disqualification can occur if evidence is produced presenting a conflict or the appearance of one, and the filings submitted on this issue so far have presented a conflict of interest that can’t be resolved as a matter of law,” Judge McAfee said.
Ms. Willis will be called as the first witness, the judge said after hearing some of the prosecutors’ arguments. “I don’t see how a quash can be imposed here,” he said, referring to the district attorney’s effort to dismiss the subpoenas.
On Feb. 12, the judge held a hearing regarding the district attorney’s motions to quash the nine subpoenas issued on Ms. Willis herself and her staffers, ahead of this week’s anticipated hearing where the district attorney will have to respond to allegations of an “improper” relationship.
On Jan. 8, defendant Michael Roman filed a lengthy motion that alleged Ms. Willis was in a personal relationship with Mr. Wade, an attorney with a private law firm whom she had contracted to take a lead position in the racketeering case. He alleged that Mr. Wade took Ms. Willis on “lavish” vacations including a cruise, and that she financially benefited from the situation.
He also made several other allegations including that Mr. Wade wasn’t qualified for the position and that Ms. Willis used funds improperly, which the judge indicated would not be the focus of the Jan. 15 evidentiary hearing. After the huge claims were made, several co-defendants filed their own motions to disqualify Ms. Willis based on “prejudicial” actions.
“Specifically looking at defendant Roman’s motion, it alleged a personal relationship that resulted in a financial benefit to the district attorney that is no longer a matter of speculation,” the judge said. “The state has admitted a relationship existed, and so what remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit, again if there even was one.”
Judge McAfee said the claims of prejudice were based on public statements—a speech Ms. Willis gave at an Atlanta church where she invoked God and said her critics were playing the “race card”—and did not warrant a hearing meant to produce evidence for the record. Other issues such as Mr. Wade’s resume also did not warrant an evidentiary hearing, the judge said.
The district attorney had filed a motion arguing that no evidentiary hearing was necessary because no conflict of interest had occurred, but the judge rejected the argument.
“Because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish a record on those core allegations,” Judge McAfee said.
He said the hearing will focus on “whether a relationship existed, whether that relationship was romantic or not in nature, when it formed, and whether it continues.”
“I think that’s only relevant because it’s in relation to the question of the extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of the relationship,” Judge McAfee said.
Mr. Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, alleged that the relationship began as early as 2019 and the couple cohabited at one point, and claimed in a court filing that she could produce witnesses to testify to these allegations.
Mr. Wade had submitted a sworn affidavit stating that he had met Ms. Willis in 2019 but a “personal relationship” began only in 2022, and that Ms. Willis split expenses with him so there was no financial benefit.
Anna Cross, another one of the prosecutors contracted by the district attorney for the case, said during the Feb. 12 hearing that none of the subpoenaed witnesses have anything to say that contradicts Mr. Wade’s affidavit.
Rep. Jordan Opens New Investigation, Says Biden DOJ Gave Trump Tax Leaker a ‘Sweetheart Deal’
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is opening a new investigation into how the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) handled its prosecution of an IRS contractor who was convicted of leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax records.
In September 2023, the DOJ filed a criminal information letter with the U.S. District Court for Washington, alleging that Charles Littlejohn gathered the tax records of thousands of wealthy U.S. citizens while working for Booz Allen Hamilton, a company contracted with the IRS.
Mr. Littlejohn immediately entered into a plea agreement in which he admitted guilt to a single count of unauthorized disclosure of tax information; he was sentenced last month to a five-year prison term, along with a $5,000 fine.
In a Feb. 8 letter to acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, Mr. Jordan contends that the DOJ could have potentially charged Mr. Littlejohn for “thousands” of separate criminal acts in this case.
In a statement, Mr. Jordan called the plea agreement a “sweetheart deal.” In his letter, Mr. Jordan told Ms. Argentieri that the DOJ’s decisions in the case showed “unusual and questionable leniency towards Mr. Littlejohn” and raised his concerns that the DOJ’s decisions in the case “may be politically motivated.”
In his letter, Mr. Jordan states that Mr. Littlejohn stole and leaked tax information from more than 7,600 Americans, including those of President Trump when he was president, and tax records for Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“The scope and scale of Defendant’s unlawful disclosures appear to be unparalleled in the IRS’s history. There simply is no precedent for a case involving the disclosure of tax return and return information associated with ‘over a thousand’ individuals and entities … the human impact of Defendant’s crimes is enormous,” Mr. Jordan’s letter states, directly citing the DOJ’s sentencing memo against Mr. Littlejohn.
According to the DOJ’s sentencing memo, Mr. Littlejohn worked with Booz Allen Hamilton from 2008 to 2013. The DOJ sentencing memo further states that Mr. Littlejohn sought to return to the private contractor company in 2017 “with the hope and expectation of accessing and disclosing” tax records belonging to President Trump, whom Mr. Littlejohn regarded as “dangerous and a threat to democracy.”
Mr. Littlejohn admitted, in his plea agreement, that he was aware that the IRS has safeguards in place to catch people looking for specific information and managed to flout this safeguard by using more generalized search terms to find the tax records he was seeking. Mr. Littlejohn also admitted that he knew that the IRS also had methods to detect downloads of large batches of data and knew to avoid these detection methods by instead directly uploading these selected IRS files to a website he controlled.
Arizona lawmakers have agreed on a bipartisan bill supported by Gov. Katie Hobbs that will give more time for automatic vote recount.
House Bill 2785 is expected to be signed by Gov. Hobbs, who told NBC News, “While this legislation isn’t perfect, it’s the result of hard-fought compromises from everyone involved. Arizonans can rest assured that their voices will be heard and that our elections will run free of political interference.”
The bill was prompted by warnings that new automatic recount rules could prevent Arizona’s Electoral College votes from being counted by the deadline for the Jan. 6 count.
The bill’s purpose is to allow election workers to have more time to count ballots by moving the state’s primary from August to July while giving more time for overseas and military voters to cast their votes.
Senate President Warren Peterson, a Republican, told AZCentral that he’s “happy to say Arizona will deliver its electors on time.”
The Senate voted 24-2, while the House voted 56-2.
Ninety lawmakers voted “no,” with four of those being Republicans, AZCentral reported.
Republicans had to make several compromises, such as surrendering a proposal to allow for high schools to function as a polling place if requested by election officials, which would have involved teachers being present, a proposal Democrats were against.
Given allegations of voter fraud presented in the 2020 election, some Republicans called for and were granted policies to bolster confidence in the elections.
Houston Church Shooter Identified as Transgender With a Long Criminal History
“There are some discrepancies [regarding the individual’s gender],” he said. “We do have reports she used multiple aliases, including Jeffrey Escalante. So she utilized both male and female names.”
However, Mr. Hassig said the investigation indicates that “she has been identified this entire time as female.”
He noted that the gun used by the shooter had a sticker with the word “Palestine” on it.
At the Feb. 12 briefing, Mr. Hassig said two people were injured in the incident, including the child who accompanied the shooter.
The other person injured was a 57-year-old man, who was shot in the hip or leg.
Mr. Hassig said the 7-year-old child who accompanied Ms. Moreno was struck in the head in the exchange of gunfire and remains in critical condition.
He said Ms. Moreno pulled up to the church in a vehicle with the child inside and then entered the building with the little boy and, after entering, “she immediately starts firing inside of the hallway.”
The two officers returned fire.
“Multiple shots are exchanged by all three,” Mr. Hassig said. “She eventually falls to the ground; the 7-year-old child falls to the ground as well from gunfire. One gunshot wound to the head.”
A Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson was cited by the Houston Chronicle as saying on Feb. 12 that the 7-year-old was not expected to survive.
While it’s unclear who shot the child, Chief Finner blamed the shooter.
“That female, that suspect put that baby in danger,” he said during the Feb. 11 briefing. “I’m going to put that blame on her.”
Lakewood Church, which seats roughly 16,000 people, is led by pastor Joel Osteen.
Defense Secretary Austin to Resume His Duties Tuesday, Doctors Say
Doctors have cleared Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to return to his official duties on Tuesday after an emergency non-surgical bladder procedure, the Pentagon has said.
In a statement released on Monday, doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said Mr. Austin underwent non-surgical procedures under general anesthesia to address his bladder issue and that a prolonged hospital stay is not anticipated.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks is currently acting in his stead.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Supreme Court Rules Person Can Sue U.S. Government Under Fair Credit Reporting Act
On February 8, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) affirmed in a unanimous 9 to 0 opinion delivered by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch in the case of Department of Agriculture Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz that a consumer may sue a federal agency for defying the terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
In the case of USDA v. Kirtz, a consumer who secured a loan from a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) later sued the agency for monetary damages under the FCRA, alleging that the USDA falsely told a credit reporting agency that his account was past due, thus damaging his credit score and his ability to secure loans.
According to the opinion, the USDA moved to dismiss the lawsuit, invoking sovereign immunity, and a District Court sided with the USDA. A Circuit Court reversed the decision, holding that the FCRA authorizes lawsuits for damages against “any person” who violates the FCRA and expressly defines “person” to include “any” government agency.
The Supreme Court agreed and held that a consumer may sue a federal agency for defying the FCRA’s terms. “The FCRA clearly waives sovereign immunity in cases like this one. The FCRA’s requirements apply to ‘person[s]’ who, like the federal government here, furnish information to consumer reporting agencies,” the opinion stated.
The Supreme Court explained in the opinion that the FCRA creates “a cause of action for money damages to consumers injured by ‘[a]ny person’ who willfully or negligently fails to comply with the statute’s directive” and “provides a definition of ‘person’ that includes ‘any… government… agency,’ and that applies to the entire Act.”
“The Executive Branch may question the wisdom of holding federal agencies accountable for their violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act… But Congress’s judgment commands our respect and the law it has adopted speaks clearly: A consumer may sue ‘any’ federal agency for defying the law’s terms,” the opinion concluded.
Enacted by the United States Congress in 1970, the FCRA 15 U.S.C. § 1681 allows consumers to sue lenders who willfully or negligently supply false information about them to entities that generate credit reports and protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) such as credit bureaus. To view a copy of the FCRA, click here.
ClearStar is a leading global Human Resources technology company that specializes in background checks, drug testing, and occupational health screening. ClearStar is a CRA that offers FCRA-compliant pre-employment screening solutions to help employers make informed hiring decisions while maintaining legal compliance.
Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: FANG) (“Diamondback” or the “Company”) and Endeavor Energy Resources, L.P. (“Endeavor”), today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Diamondback and Endeavor will merge in a transaction valued at approximately $26 billion, inclusive of Endeavor’s net debt. The combination will create a premier Permian independent operator.
The transaction consideration will consist of approximately 117.3 million shares of Diamondback common stock and $8 billion of cash, subject to customary adjustments. The cash portion of the consideration is expected to be funded through a combination of cash on hand, borrowings under the Company’s credit facility and/or proceeds from term loans and senior notes offerings. As result of the transaction, the Company’s existing stockholders are expected to own approximately 60.5% of the combined company and Endeavor’s equity holders are expected to own approximately 39.5% of the combined company.
The transaction was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of the Company and has all necessary Endeavor approvals.
HEALTH
More Items Added to FDA Recall Over Listeria-Contaminated Dairy Products
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has added new items to its growing list of recalled products over concerns that they contain dairy products from a California company linked to a deadly listeria outbreak.
On Feb. 5, Modesto, California-based Rizo-López Foods issued a nationwide voluntary recall of over 50 dairy products for potential listeria contamination. Since then, the FDA has expanded the recall to include even more products that are made with or contain the recalled foods.
The latest addition to the recalls are 768 units of chicken street taco kits that contain cheese ingredients in the crema cup supplied by Rizo-López Foods. Those taco kits were supplied by Fresh Creative Foods and available through all Stater Bros. Markets in California, with sell-by dates up to and including Feb. 10.
Also recalled are chicken street taco kits produced by Save Mart Companies and sold at Save Mart, Lucky, and Lucky California stores in California and Nevada. The affected taco kits are packaged in a plastic container with an approximate net weight of 17 ounces. The product label includes a universal product code beginning with the numbers 278230.
The FDA also included Mexican style street corn bites, produced by California’s Perfect Bite and distributed in Costco warehouses in California and Hawaii, with the lot number 2232321 and a best-before date of Feb. 21, 2025.
No illnesses have been linked to the most recently recalled products.
All eyes on fluoride: Landmark federal trial resumes
Fluoride in water has got to be one of the world’s longest-running and most widespread socio-medical experiments. The general public was led to believe that fluoride would help to strengthen the enamel on teeth, so government agencies “approved” of the effort to add this toxic substance to city drinking water for decades to supposedly help children maintain tooth health.
However, there has always been a huge concern that fluoride, especially at the levels f! Found in municipal water supplies, that fluoride is neurotoxic. In addition to neurotoxicity, excessive amounts of fluoride lead to fluorosis of the teeth and skeleton, creating a radiologically dense piece of skeletal tissue that is actually quite brittle. The potential for concern has led to a landmark trial from attorney Michael Connett to remove fluoridation from American water supplies.
This is the biggest trial of its kind, and it seeks to get the government to either agree to remove fluoride from municipal water supplies or provide concrete indications as to why it is important, despite modern science being nearly totally in disagreement.
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More babies are being born prematurely in the US. Doctors aren’t sure why.
The share of babies being born prematurely in the U.S. is on the rise.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the preterm birth rate went up 12 percent between 2014 and 2022.
Doctors are not entirely sure what is driving the increase, but multiple factors are likely playing a part, according to Dr. Manisha Gandhi, chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. She said factors impacting both pregnant people and their environments should be considered.
There are numerous risk factors for preterm delivery, or when a baby is born before 37 weeks of gestation, according to the National Institutes of Health.
These include having diabetes or high blood pressure or being underweight or obese before or during pregnancy.
“We are seeing more patients with obesity, higher risks for hypertension or preeclampsia … seeing more diabetes,” said Gandhi. “Potentially some of those risk factors that lead to earlier delivery could be playing a role.”
The CDC calculates that about 11 percent of the adult population of the U.S. — or roughly 38 million people — now has either type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
And the rate of gestational diabetes appears to be rising.
One 2022 study from the CDC found that the rate shot up by 30 percent between 2016 and 2020.
Just one monthly energy drink can wreak havoc on your sleep, scientists warn
Energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster emerged on the market not too long ago, followed by a wave of new options. These beverages have gained immense popularity, particularly among young adults and individuals seeking a quick energy boost.
However, a recent study published in the BMJ Open Journal sheds light on the concerning impact of consuming just one energy drink per month. It suggests that even a single can of Red Bull at the beginning of the month could significantly compromise the quality and duration of sleep for the subsequent 30 days.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Goodbye Reality: Simulacrum Ushered In By Apple Vision Pro
The reviews are in, and the tech press is lauding the Apple Vision Pro headset for delivering on the company’s promises. It’s well-designed, the video and sound are startlingly precise, the “Minority Report”-style gestural interface is future-tastic. Nobody’s exactly sure what it’s for, or whether even the Readiest Players One will spend $3,500 on it, but hey — that’s gadgets for you.
Still, this is a new gadget frontier. The Vision Pro, like the similarly kitted-out Quest 3 and Quest Pro headsets from Meta, uses what’s known as “passthrough” video — cameras and other sensors that capture imagery of the outside world and reproduce it inside the device. They feed you a synthetic environment made to look like the real one, with Apple apps and other non-real elements floating in front of it. Apple and Meta are hoping that this virtual world will be so compelling that you won’t just visit. They’re hoping you’ll live there.
That, unfortunately, could have some very weird and very messy consequences for the human brain. Researchers have found that widespread, long-term immersion in VR headsets could literally change the way we perceive the world — and each other. “We now have companies who are advocating that you spend many hours each day in them,” says Jeremy Bailenson, director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford. “You’ve got many, many people, and they’re wearing it for many, many hours. And everything magnifies at scale.”
Meaning: Our brains are about to undergo a massive, society-wide experiment that could rewire our sense of the world around us, and make it even harder to agree on what constitutes reality.
The short-term side effects of virtual reality are well established. People in synthetic environments tend to misjudge distance, both at a distance and close up. That’s no surprise: Even in the real, three-dimensional universe, our ability to determine how close or far away something is is subject to all kinds of external factors. Virtual environments, with their lower resolution and synthetic 3D, make all that worse — which is especially bad if you’re one of those users posting videos of yourself doing things like skateboarding and driving while wearing a mixed-reality headset. You think your hands are in one place, they’re actually in another, and pretty soon you’re driving your Honda Civic through a supermarket.
Objects in a headset can also get funhoused. That’s called object distortion — things get warped, and change size or shape or color, especially when you move your head. A video render can’t compete with the processing speed and fidelity of your eyes and brain.
These are all, as the IT people say, known issues. For a few minutes or an hour, long enough to play a game or watch a movie, they’re minor annoyances. But wear perception-shifting glasses for days at a time — as Bailenson’s team of researchers did — and the problems get worse. Way worse.
The team wore Vision Pros and Quests around college campuses for a couple of weeks, trying to do all the things they would have done without them (with a minder nearby in case they tripped or walked into a wall). They experienced “simulator sickness” — nausea, headaches, dizziness. That was weird, given how experienced they all were with headsets of all kinds. And they felt all the distance and distortion effects: thinking elevator buttons were farther from their fingers, or experiencing difficulty bringing food to their mouths. But as any of us would, they adapted — their brains and muscles learned to compensate for their new view of the world.
That seems like a solution, but it ain’t. When people adapt to a perceptual change for long enough, the real world starts to look wrong in the opposite direction. If you wore glasses that turned your vision upside down, let’s say, you’d have to adapt again when the glasses came off. The longer you’re inside a funhouse world, the longer the weird perceptual aftereffects last. So people who spend their workday inside a Vision Pro might go home at night with a miscalibrated targeting system and what feels like a shroom hangover.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
US north-east braces for heavy snow as powerful nor’easter approaches
The north-east of the US is bracing for possibly the largest nor’easter snow storm in two years, with New York City public schools closing in-person attendance on Tuesday amid forecasts of up to 8in of accumulation.
Meteorologists are predicting snowfall rates of 2in an hour from eastern Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, with the heaviest snowfall forecast to intersect with Tuesday morning’s rush hour. Higher rates of 2 to 3in an hour are possible across eastern Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, the Hudson Valley, and up through northern Connecticut and Rhode Island.
On Monday, 49 million people were already under winter alerts stretching from parts of the central Plains and midwest into the north-east and New England from a weather system moving up from Oklahoma and Missouri.
Severe thunderstorms were also reported across parts of the south and Gulf coast states, with a tornado watch that was in effect until 10am for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. About 17 million people were under flood alerts.
The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, said the city could see 5 to 8in of snow with locally higher amounts by the morning. “As a result, all [New York City public schools] will move to remote learning tomorrow,” he said on X.
City officials said 40mph winds are expected, and some thundersnow will be possible at about sunrise. If the city receives 6in or more, it will be the city’s largest snowstorm since January 2022.
Nor’easter is the term the National Weather Service uses for storms that carry heavy, wet snow. They either exit or move north along the US’s east coast, creating winds which blow from the north-east.
Southern California shaken by 13 earthquakes over 25 minutes
Parts of California were hit by more than a dozen earthquakes overnight, with 13 shaking the state during a span of just 25 minutes.
“Good morning Southern California! Did you feel the magnitude 4.8 earthquake about two miles north-west of El Centro at 12.36am? The #ShakeAlert system was activated,” the United States Geological Survey Shake Alert account posted on X.
El Centro is a city in the Imperial Valley in the southern California border region. The rattling continued until 1.01am, when the 13th quake of the series that began less than a half hour earlier was recorded.
“It has been a busy night to our east,” the National Weather Service’s San Diego office posted on X. “Several small earthquakes have occurred in El Centro in the past 15 minutes. A couple of them were felt at our office. As of 12.53am there have been 13!”
Officials said the USGS’s Shake Alert system estimated at least one of the earthquakes registered a magnitude above 5.0, triggering alerts to cell phones.
The rapid cluster of earthquakes came two days after a 4.6 magnitude earthquake hit several miles north-west of Malibu on Friday. Authorities said no major damage or injuries had been reported.
Dr Lucy Jones, a California quake expert known as “the Beyoncé of Earthquakes”, told the news station KTLA that there was a 5% chance of a larger earthquake in southern California soon after. But it would not be connected to a larger, 5.7 magnitude temblor that shook the Big Island of Hawaii hours earlier on Friday.
New looming EV disaster begins to emerge
‘Will only increase the probability of failure’
If all of the existing headaches for those pushing expensive electric vehicles on resisting American consumers could vanish, there’s still a big one that may have no ready solution.
Already, it appears the U.S. could end up dependent on unfriendly nations for materials for all those batteries. Then there’s the fact that the nation’s grid simply can’t support all that recharging – California already has been sending out advisories for owners not to charge. And then there’s the limited range, extended recharging times, both worsened by bad weather.
But now a report in the Washington Times explains that those batteries are heavy, and EVs can weight up to 50% more than internal combustion motor vehicles.
And that weight damages roads, bridges and parking garages, with those vehicles easily plowing through safety guardrails while posing a higher danger to other drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists traveling the same routes.
“The problems associated with EVs are poised to grow as more consumers purchase the cars under the Biden administration’s plan to eliminate gas-powered vehicles and the tailpipe emissions that come with them,” the report explained.
It explained engineers writing recently for Structure Magazine suggested construction companies, and building codes, need to make accommodation for the higher weight.
Parking garages, they said, should be redesigned to hold more weight.
That’s because some hold hundreds of vehicles, and just one EV. A Ford truck, weighs in at 8,240 pounds, nearly a ton more than the gas-powered version of the same pickup.
“Significantly increasing passenger vehicle weights combined with recently reduced structural design requirements will result in reduced factors of safety and increased maintenance and repair costs for parking structures,” the engineers wrote. “There are many cases of parking structure failures, and the growing demand for EVs will only increase the probability of failure.”
Then there are those guardrails, installed to minimize damage when traffic goes awry.
They are installed between lanes for traffic moving opposite directions, between lanes and edge drop-offs and more.
That concern comes out of a procedure at a test facility in Nebraska, where examiners took a 3.6-ton Rivian R1 and sent it into a metal guardrail at 62 mph, first headon, then at an angle.
Both times it “ripped through” the guardrail and continued into what would have been lanes for oncoming traffic, the report revealed.
The conclusion was simple: making vehicles much heavier means “a lot more force” is required to redirect the vehicle.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Local Resident Cindy Drill Leads Sustainable Gardening Efforts in Sarasota County
The ‘Meet a Master Gardener Volunteer’ blog series by the UF/IFAS Sarasota County Extension and Sustainability (Extension) office aims to share the experiences and work of its volunteers. These volunteers contribute to the Master Gardener Volunteer (MGV) program with their horticultural knowledge, community involvement, and sustainable practices. The series covers the various projects and motivations of these gardening enthusiasts. One of the committees formed by the MGVs at the Extension office is the Educational Outreach Demonstration Gardens (EOG).
Cindy Drill, a retired environmental professional from Ohio, leads the EOG project. She joined the Master Gardener Volunteer program in 2016 to learn about plant growth in Florida. She first joined the MGV Plant Sale Committee, assisting with plant propagation for the annual MGV Plant Sale and EdFest. Recognizing the need for a greenhouse, Cindy has been instrumental in realizing the MGVs’ long-standing vision of setting up demonstration gardens and a greenhouse.
Cindy has been a resident of Florida since 2015, having visited the Sarasota County area since 1997. Her interest in gardening and cooking, along with her desire to use home-grown produce and herbs in her meals, led her to gardening. She also enjoys trees and flowers. Her move to Florida and her interest in local plant growth led her to the MGV program.
Cindy’s first major MGV project was the installation of the Bioswale at Twin Lakes Park Extension Demonstration Gardens. She has served as MGV President and currently serves as the EOG Co-chair and is a member of the Fundraising committee. Cindy appreciates the learning opportunities and the sense of community among the MGVs. She values the environmental education provided by the MGV program, including topics like water, soil, invasive species, and environmental issues.
Cindy’s favorite MGV activity is plant propagation, which led her to the Plant Sale Committee. When the MGVs were set to lose their location at Suncoast Technical College, Cindy saw the need for a new propagation site, including a greenhouse. Her goal became to establish a greenhouse at Twin Lakes Park. Cindy also supports the MGVs’ goal of engaging the Sarasota community with demonstration gardens that highlight Florida-Friendly LandscapingTM (FFL) and native plants.
Drought-Prone California Is Still Watching Rainwater Wash out to Sea
A year after California Gov. Gavin Newsom made promises to store more water during the rainy season, some are questioning if enough has been done.
With recent record rainfall pouring down across California, power outages, floods, and mudslides are of primary concern for those in the path of storms, but also of impact is the abundance of rainwater that is running out to sea due to a lack of storage capacity.
“Throughout the state, we have lots of opportunities for storage, yet most of the water goes to the ocean,” state Sen. Brian Dahle told The Epoch Times Feb. 7. “Once it hits the salt water, it’s no good to us.”
Approximately 95 percent of all stormwater will make its way downstream and into the ocean, as estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last year, the most recent data available.
Trillions of gallons poured down across the state during recent storms, according to the governor’s office.
state broke rainfall records with the recent round of storms, as nearly 11 inches of rain fell within one week in the San Gabriel Canyon near Los Angeles.
Details about water captured and washed away this year will be available in the coming months, according to California’s Natural Resources Agency.
Efforts undertaken by state and local agencies—as outlined by the state’s Water Supply Strategy released in August 2022—will help preserve some of the water for use later during dry months, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
CANCEL CULTURE
Over 100 Chinese Websites Pose as Local News Outlets in 30 Countries: Report
At least 123 Chinese websites are disguised as local news outlets in 30 countries to disseminate pro-Beijing disinformation, according to a recent report from Citizen Lab, a digital watchdog at Canada’s University of Toronto.
“The campaign is an example of a sprawling influence operation serving both financial and political interests, and in alignment with Beijing’s political agenda,” Alberto Fittarelli, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, wrote in his Feb. 7 report.
He called the campaign “Paperwall,” which he defined as “a large, and fast growing, network of anonymous websites posing as local news outlets.” The United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia, the UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, and Italy were among the 30 countries allegedly targeted by the campaign.
To disguise themselves as legitimate local news outlets, Paperwall websites often used local references as part of their names, such as Eiffel Post and Provence Daily for two French-language websites. Other website names included British FT targeting the UK, Sendai Shimbum and Fujiyama Times for Japan, Daegu Journal and Busan Online for South Korea, and Roma Journal and Napoli Money for Italy.
The lone website targeting the U.S. audience was UpdateNews.Info, a domain name registered in July 2019 and the first Paperwall website to be registered, according to the report.
Citizen Lab researchers said the campaign’s effect has been “negligible so far,” given the “minimal traffic” toward the websites and the lack of social media amplification or visible mainstream media coverage.
However, the report warned that the campaign shouldn’t be considered harmless—it can “eventually pay enormous dividends once one of those fragments is eventually picked up and legitimized by mainstream press or political figures.”
Paperwall websites also “regularly republish content, verbatim, from legitimate online sources in the target country” to make their sites appear legitimate, according to the report. For example, the report includes a screengrab of the Eiffel Post website republishing an article from the French daily newspaper Le Parisien.
These websites also featured verbatim reposts of content from China’s state-run media, such as China Global Television Network, the global arm of state broadcaster China Central Television, according to the report.
A significant portion of these websites’ content originated from Times Newswire, according to Mr. Fittarelli.
“We found evidence that Times Newswire regularly seeds pro-Beijing political content, including ad hominem attacks, by concealing it within large amounts of seemingly benign commercial content,” the report reads.
Trump Says ‘No Way’ Taylor Swift Could Endorse President Biden
Former President Donald Trump has brushed off rumors of pop star Taylor Swift potentially endorsing President Joe Biden, pointing to a bill the former president signed that helped recording artists.
“I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists,” President Trump wrote in a Feb. 11 post on Truth Social. “Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will. There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.
“Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a Liberal, and probably can’t stand me!”
The Music Modernization Act was passed in 2018, updating many of the music industry licensing rules to ensure that songwriters, artists, and producers get a fair deal.
In 2020, Ms. Swift supported Joe Biden for the presidency, but the pop star hasn’t yet announced who she will back for this race, and it’s unclear whether she intends to endorse any candidate this time.
There was speculation that Ms. Swift may endorse President Biden during the Super Bowl on Sunday. However, the star did not make any political endorsements during the game.
The Sunday game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers featured Ms. Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce, who plays for the Chiefs. There had been speculation online that the game was rigged so the Chiefs would win and give more momentum to a potential endorsement.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told NBC’s “Meet the Press“ on Sunday that the online theories were ”ridiculous“ and that Ms. Swift is ”one of the great American success stories.”
“We should be celebrating her, not having all these crazy conspiracy theories,” he said. “But this is the kind of thing that Donald Trump brings about.”
Prior to the game, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told CNN that he wanted the 49ers to win to silence the “conspiracy theories” about Ms. Swift.
“Never in my life have I been motivated by anything other than football. But this time, I just, I think if the 49ers win, it’s perfect. It gets rid of all those conspiracy theories. But I think the Chiefs are probably going to win.”
In an interview with The Telegraph, Jonathan Shalit, chairman of InterTalent Rights Group, warned Ms. Swift against endorsing candidates in the current political climate, which he says is a “polarizing” time.
“My advice to any singer or entertainer would be to keep away from politics,” he said.
“For someone to endorse a politician at the moment, it’s very, very complex, probably more complex than it’s ever been. And the reason I say that is a reflection of how complicated global affairs are right now,” he said.
If Ms. Swift were to make a political endorsement, she risks falling afoul of some of her fans, Mr. Shalit said, warning that the pop star could also be physically at risk because “there are a lot of extremists out there” who may try and do “nasty, unpleasant things to her.”
Ms. Swift could be “vilified by a massive number of people in a way she’s never experienced,” he said.
John Mark Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, told the outlet that celebrity endorsements have “no discernible effect.”
“The only story you could tell about Taylor Swift is that it might sway a few younger voters who don’t have established partisan leanings yet but I wouldn’t want to bet much on that proposition,” he said.
In September last year, the pop star called on her fans to register to vote, triggering 35,000 registrations at Vote.org.
President Trump is leading President Biden in the polls. According to a Feb. 7 update from Morning Consult, 45 percent of likely voters said they would choose President Trump, a 5-percentage-point lead over President Biden who received 40 percent support.
The former president was also found to have an edge of 9 points in popularity ratings.
ICYMI
‘Lol hey guys’ – Biden joins TikTok despite security concerns
President Joe Biden’s campaign has joined TikTok, despite the app being banned on most US government devices over security concerns.
His campaign launched its account with the username “@bidenhq” during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
In a launch video, captioned “lol hey guys”, aides quizzed Mr Biden about his preferences for the big game.
The president signed legislation in 2022 blocking most federal government devices from using TikTok.
Several states have also adopted the measure. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called for the app – owned by Chinese company ByteDance – to be banned in the US over concerns the government in Beijing might be able to access user data.
Still, the site remains popular with young people in the US, a demographic that the White House is keen to energize for this November’s election.
Mr Biden’s TikTok account will not be run by the president himself, but by his campaign team, aides told US media.
Asked in the launch video if he was rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers, Mr Biden said the Philadelphia Eagles, because otherwise “I’d be sleeping alone” as “my wife’s a Philly girl”.
He was also asked about a Taylor Swift Super Bowl conspiracy theory that saw some claim the singer’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce was part of a plot to rig the NFL’s championship game and help get Mr Biden re-elected this November.
“I’d get in trouble if I told you ” about the conspiracy, Mr Biden joked.
Michael Starr Hopkins, a Democratic strategist who worked on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, said that many Democrats have been hesitant to use TikTok to connect with voters given the data security concerns.
But he said that candidates have to face the fact that it is a platform where they can reach people of all demographics.
“You’ve got to meet voters where they are. If they’re using it, they’re using it, and we can’t afford to be at a disadvantage if Republicans are utilizing it,” he said.
Mr Biden’s 2024 campaign is hoping to rekindle the record high turnout from young people that helped lift him to victory in the last election.
Around 50% of that bloc voted in 2020, according to Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. And some 65% of voters between the ages of 18 to 24 cast ballots for the Democratic president.
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