Today's News: February 27, 2018

World News

‘I Am Scared For My Life’: Kim Jong-un’s Brother Foresaw Danger Long Before His Murder
Daily Caller – North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam confided in a friend that his life was in danger months before he was murdered in a Malaysian airport, according to Reuters. Kim, a critic of the North Korean regime living in exile abroad, was killed last February when two women attacked him with VX, a banned nerve agent recognized as a weapon of mass destruction, at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Six months before the incident, Kim Jong-nam told friend Tomie Yoshio his “life was in danger,” police investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz revealed Tuesday. “I am scared for my life,” Kim supposedly said before his death.

US cuts Cambodia aid over democracy concerns
BBC – The United States has announced it is suspending some assistance programmes to Cambodia over its concerns with “setbacks to democracy” in the country.
Last year the country’s main opposition party was dissolved and its leader was charged with treason. On Monday, the ruling party said it had won every seat in a Senate election.
The result has been questioned by international groups, and the European Union has already threatened economic sanctions in response.

UK Threatens Damascus With Airstrikes if There’s Proof of Chemical Weapons’ Use
Sputnik – Despite being repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons, Damascus has strongly denied having them; it destroyed its arsenal several years ago, and their complete destruction was subsequently confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has stated that the UK might support airstrikes against the Syrian government if there’s evidence of chemical weapons’ use.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Federal Court Quietly Rules ‘Assault Rifles’ Not Protected by 2nd Amendment
Free Thought Project – While Americans watched the 2018 Olympics and mainstream media put on scripted town hall meetings to demonize law-abiding citizens who own guns, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia handed down a blow to the Second Amendment.
In a 10-4 ruling, the federal court ruled that the state of Maryland’s ban on 45 different “assault” weapons and its 10-round limit for magazines was not a violation of the citizens’ constitutional rights. The ruling was not without harsh dissent, however.
“Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war,” Judge Robert King wrote for the court, adding that the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller explicitly excluded such coverage, according to NBC.

Nolte: Parkland Father Andrew Pollack Rips Media for Ignoring School Security
Breitbart – Andrew Pollack, one of too many grieving parents in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, shooting massacre, is the only person who has so far hit the nail squarely on the head about the media’s depraved indifference towards schools security. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Pollack summoned equal parts wisdom and common sense to chastise host Chris Wallace (and the media in general) for focusing on the polarizing issue of gun control while ignoring the fact that most of our schools are wide open.

Parkland Gun Control Activist David Hogg Lashes Out at Infowars
Infowars – Parkland school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg, who is being used by CNN as part of a lobbying effort to shut down the Alex Jones Channel on YouTube, lashed out at Infowars today during a Twitter tirade.
“Hey Alex Jones you seem to be really confused as to what I do/who I am I’d love to come on and clear some of this up because clearly as a shit journalist you can’t clearly,” Hogg tweeted earlier.
David, you are welcome to come on the show,” responded Alex Jones. “Are you aware that CNN is using you as part of a lobbying campaign to shut down Infowars? You are now a public figure & activist. You are not immune to criticism. We know your views on the 2nd amendment. Do you support the 1st?”

Sessions: DOJ Set to Ban Bump Stocks
Infowars – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Justice Department is preparing to announce new regulations that will ban bump stocks.
While speaking to the National Association of Attorneys General, Sessions asserted that despite previous legal opinions the DOJ believes it can use its lawyers to ban the firearms accessory.

House Speaker signals he isn’t supportive of proposals to impose new restrictions on gun purchases
CNN – House Speaker Paul Ryan signaled Tuesday he isn’t supportive of the proposals to impose new restrictions on gun purchases, telling reporters “we shouldn’t be banning guns for law abiding citizens.”

Report: More Than 100,000 Non-Citizens Are Registered Voters in Pennsylvania
Breitbart – More than 100,000 non-U.S. citizens are registered voters in Pennsylvania, according to testimony contained in a lawsuit demanding that the state admit its problems when it comes to non-citizen voting.

DRUDGE: Donald Trump Selects Brad Parscale as Campaign Manager for 2020
Breitbart – President Donald Trump has selected Brad Parscale as his campaign manager for 2020, according to an exclusive headline on the Drudge Report.
White House officials confirmed to Breitbart News that Trump was running for re-election but referred additional questions to the campaign. Parscale served as the no-drama digital media director for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, scoring one of the biggest political upsets in modern history with his digital Facebook-central political strategy.

Pentagon Just Pledged Millions to Pay Media Companies to Wage a Massive Information War
Free Thought Project – In 2016, using the cover of the holidays and distracted attention, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law — just two days before many Americans celebrated Christmas — likely due to the ominously Orwellian language it used that was meant to “counter propaganda and disinformation directed at the United States.”
Now, it appears that this counter-propaganda move will be taken a step further as the Department of the State announced a partnership with the Department of Defense this week to spend millions on “initiatives to counter propaganda and disinformation.” To counter what they perceive as “propaganda and disinformation from foreign nations,” the Pentagon plans on paying private companies to create content that will serve as weaponized media.

Report: Transgender Clinic “Experiments” On Kids
Infowars – An Ohio pro-life group called out a Cincinnati hospital clinic for “experimenting” on transgender kids before knowing the effects of or approving many of the treatments it’s implementing.
“Stop experimenting on our children and start caring for them the way Cincinnati Children’s Hospital was designed to,” Citizens for Community Values (CCV) executive director Aaron Baer said at a news conference Monday. “We’re demanding they research this,” he added, according to Cincinnati.com.
“The drugs Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is giving children with gender dysphoria have not been approved for this usage, nor have their been any long-term studies on the impact these drugs have on the health and well-being of children,” Baer told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email Monday.

Economy & Business

Trump strikes deal with Boeing for new Air Force Ones
CNN – President Donald Trump and Boeing have struck a deal over the development of two new Air Force One planes at a price tag of $3.9 billion, the White House and Boeing said Tuesday, and the President has asked for the planes to be ready by 2021.

Federal Reserve chairman tells Congress US economy ‘remains strong’
Guardian – The US economy “remains strong”, the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, told Congress on Tuesday as he signaled the central bank is on course to carry on gradually increasing interest rates in the coming months.

Comcast offers $31 billion to buy pay-TV group Sky, challenges Murdoch
Reuters – U.S. cable giant Comcast (CMCSA.O) has offered $31 billion for Sky (SKYB.L), threatening a plan hatched by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and Bob Iger’s Walt Disney to seize control of Europe’s biggest pay-TV group.

Big Corn says ‘no deal’ after White House biofuels meeting
Reuters- A meeting between President Donald Trump and senators representing both the oil and corn industries failed to yield an agreement on how best to lower the cost of the United States’ biofuels policy to refiners. Trump had called the meeting amid rising concern in the White House over the current state of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law requiring refiners to mix biofuels such as corn-based ethanol into their fuel.

Energy & Environment

California Court Ruling Ends Decades of State Pesticide Spraying
EcoWatch – A judge has ordered the California Department of Food and Agriculture to stop using chemical pesticides in its statewide program until the agency complies with state environmental laws. The injunction, issued late last week, is a sweeping victory for 11 public-health, conservation, citizen and food-safety groups and the city of Berkeley. The coalition sued the state after unsuccessfully attempting for years to persuade the agency to shift to a sustainable approach to pest control that protects human health and the environment.

Science & Technology

US Air Force Chief Warns of Space War ‘in a Matter of Years’
Gizmodo – Speaking to an audience of active-duty airmen, US Air Force Chief of Staff General David L. Goldfein predicted it’ll only be a “matter of years” before American forces find themselves “fighting from space.” To prepare for this grim possibility, he said the Air Force needs new tools and a new approach to training leaders. Oh, and lots of money.

Ford and Miami to form test bed for self-driving cars
AP – Ford Motor Co. is making Miami-Dade County its new test bed for self-driving vehicles.
The automaker and its partners — Domino’s Pizza, ride-hailing company Lyft and delivery company Postmates — are starting pilot programs to see how consumers react to autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. Self-driving startup and Ford partner Argo AI already has a fleet of cars in the area making the highly detailed maps that are necessary for self-driving. Ford also will establish its first-ever autonomous vehicle terminal in Miami, where it will learn how to service and deploy its test fleet.

Moon to get 4G mobile network
BBC – Mobile giants Vodafone and Nokia have laid out plans to launch a 4G mobile network on the Moon in 2019. The network will be used by lunar rovers to stream data back to a base station.

Supreme Court wrestles with Microsoft data privacy fight
Reuters – Supreme Court justices on Tuesday wrestled with Microsoft Corp’s dispute with the U.S. Justice Department over whether prosecutors can force technology companies to hand over data stored overseas, with some signaling support for the government and others urging Congress to pass a law to resolve the issue.

Gardening, Farming & Homesteading

Norway Spending $12.7 Million Upgrading ‘Doomsday’ Seed Vault
Newsmax – Norway plans to spend $12.7 million upgrading its “doomsday” seed vault, which was built 10 years ago to protect the world’s crops and plants from being wiped out in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, such as nuclear war or global warming.

Health

Cancer link with ultra-processed foods revealed
Natural Health News – eople whose diets are high in “ultra-processed” foods may also have a higher risk of cancer, according to a large study from France. The findings are of concern in part because they come hot on the heels of a major European study which showed that unhealthy ultra-processed foods are making up more and more of the European diet. According to the authors of the latest study increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods “may drive an increasing burden of cancer in the next decades.”

Many cases of “dementia” are actually side effects of prescription drugs or vaccines, according to research
NaturalNews – The “quick facts” provided by the Alzheimer’s Association are pretty concerning: More than five million people in America are living with Alzheimer’s, and that number is projected to reach 16 million by the year 2050. As the sixth leading cause of death in our nation, it kills more Americans than prostate cancer and breast cancer combined. Someone in the U.S. develops Alzheimer’s every 66 seconds; will you be one of them?