WORLD NEWS
2 US Navy SEALs Missing Off Somalia’s Coast Were Hunting for Iranian Weapons, Official Says
Two U.S. Navy SEALs went missing off the coast of Somalia last week while on a mission to board a ship suspected of carrying Iranian weapons for Houthi-controlled Yemen, according to a defense official.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Jan. 13 that search and rescue operations had been launched to locate two U.S. Navy sailors who went missing during operations on Jan. 11.
“For operational security purposes, we will not release additional information until the personnel recovery operation is complete,” CENTCOM stated in a press release.
During an interview with CBS News on Jan. 14, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the missing sailors were Navy SEALs on an interdiction mission to intercept the flow of weapons to Yemen.
Mr. Kirby said that the search is “still ongoing for those two sailors that are in the water” and they hoped to get updated information soon.
“But we’re obviously watching this very closely,” he told the news outlet.
A U.S. defense official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said that the SEALs were attempting to board a dhow when one of them fell into the rough seas. A second SEAL jumped in the water to attempt a rescue. Both have been reported missing since that incident.
The official said the crew on the dhow, which did not have a country flag, were planning to transfer components for medium-range Iranian ballistic missiles to another boat off the coast of Somalia.
The crew, who had no paperwork, have been taken into custody. The weapons were confiscated, and the boat was sunk, a routine procedure that usually involves blowing open holes in the hull.
Bail Denied a Second Time for ‘Coutts Four’ Member Chris Carbert
Chris Carbert, one of the four men charged in connection with the 2022 border blockade at Coutts, Alta., was denied bail at a hearing on Jan. 15. The four men have been in jail for 703 days under pre-trial detention.
It is the second time that Mr. Carbert’s request for bail has been denied, with the first request being denied back in May 2022. The reasons for the judge’s decisions are protected by a publication ban, but the Crown previously indicated it planned to try the four men together.
Mr. Carbert, Christopher Lysak, Jerry Morin, and Anthony Olienick are accused of conspiring to kill police officers and were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the Coutts border blockade formed in solidarity with the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and pandemic-related restrictions.
The four men were among 11 people arrested in February of that year after RCMP found firearms, ammunition, and body armor in three trailers located near Coutts. Mr. Olienick was also charged with making or possessing an explosive device.
Shortly after the RCMP’s arrest, peaceful convoy demonstrators abandoned the Coutts protest site, saying they wanted to ensure they didn’t get associated with the alleged perpetrators.
While a trial for the four men was set for June 2023, pre-trial applications by their lawyers delayed the proceedings until Dec. 11 in a bid to have the trial moved to a different venue. Mr. Olienick parted ways with his lawyer Tonni Roulston in December 2023, with his family confirming on Jan. 8 that he would represent himself in court.
The three other accused are set to stand trial from April 2 to April 19, 2024.
Some members of law enforcement and legal experts have raised concerns about the four men being denied bail, suggesting that the criminal case has been “politically influenced.” Donald Best, a former sergeant with the Toronto Police Service, told The Epoch Times that Canadians arrested for crimes like robbery and attempted murder are regularly given bail.
James Kitchen, chief litigator for Liberty Coalition Canada, told The Epoch Times that bail should not be denied for any longer than “absolutely necessary” as it is “one of the worst violations of liberty and it’s tyrannical to keep people for a long period of time without a really good reason.”
Under Canadian law, any person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until he or she is proven guilty of the crime, and the accused has the right to bail unless there is a compelling reason to keep them in custody.
According to the Criminal Code bail may be denied in cases where detention is necessary to ensure attendance in court or necessary for public safety, “considering any substantial likelihood of reoffending upon release;” or is necessary to maintain confidence in the administration of justice, considering the “apparent strength of the prosecution’s case, the gravity of the offense, the circumstances surrounding its commission, and the potential for a lengthy prison term.”
WEF, WHO & UN All Targeting Your Speech–and YOU!
The World Economic Forum has announced that “misinformation” is the NUMBER ONE threat to the world, but what they really mean is that truth is the top threat to their evil agenda, explains journalist Alex Newman on this episode of In Focus with OAN’s Alison Steinberg.
Along with its “strategic partners” at the United Nations and the World Health Organization, these globalist organizations are targeting free speech as well as control over your healthcare, Alex explains. The government’s dominance over healthcare is critical to controlling every other area of life.
Ultimately, these organizations and the shadowy forces behind them hope to silence truth and dissent, as they are terrified that Americans and humanity are waking up to their lies and evil. They may even unleash a pandemic “20 times more deadly” than COVID. However, they are in a race against time, as billions are waking up already.
Parents Who Refuse Children Gender Change Face Seven Years in Jail in Scotland
Parents who refuse to allow their children to change gender would face up to seven years in jail under SNP plans to ban ‘conversion therapy’. Proposals published on Tuesday state that actions designed to “change or suppress” another individual’s gender identity, causing them physical or psychological harm, would become illegal under the radical law.
SNP ministers acknowledged that so-called conversion practices often took place in a “family setting”, raising the prospect that parents could be criminalized if they refuse to go along with their child’s declaration that they are transgender.
Stopping someone from “dressing in a way that reflects their sexual orientation or gender identity” was put forward as an example of an action that would become illegal, even if a parent believed they were acting in a child’s best interests.
A consultation states that alongside new criminal sanctions, preemptive civil orders could be obtained against parents or religious leaders, even where conversion practices had not yet taken place.
The plans are the latest controversial measure put forward by the SNP. Critics argue the proposals would have a devastating impact on freedom of speech, privacy and family life in Scotland. …
Providers of services aimed at suppressing or changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender would be targeted, with taking someone out of Scotland to access “conversion” services also to become illegal.
A consultation stated that parents or religious leaders would not be criminalized for “expressing concerns”, “advising a child against medical interventions” or “not actively supporting” a child’s decision to dress as a member of the opposite sex.
However, it stated that when actions became “coercive” or “controlling” then the law would apply, even in cases where they were motivated by “a desire to help or protect the person”.
Those accused of conversion therapy would have a legal defense if they could show their actions were “reasonable”.
However, this would apply only in “a very small number of circumstances” such as to prevent a child “from engaging in illegal or dangerous behavior”.
Anyone breaching a civil order, which could be obtained by social workers or activist groups on behalf of alleged victims, could face two years behind bars.
The maximum penalty for those guilty of a criminal offense would be seven years in jail, an unlimited fine, or both.
The SNP has chosen to push ahead with the law despite the damage inflicted on the party by Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial gender self-ID law, which was blocked by the U.K. Government.
A planned conversion therapy ban in England has been shelved by Rishi Sunak amid internal disagreement over what would be covered.
The Scottish Equalities Minister behind the proposals, Emma Roddick is a 26 year-old woman who identifies as bisexual. That’s right, she was still at school in 2015. Exactly the person you’d want imposing her wacky Gen Z views on millions of people.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
We told you this would start happening … the have-nots will escalate!
NYC imposes curfew on migrants after residents complain about ‘invasion,’ door-to-door begging
New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams recently moved forward with a plan to impose a curfew on several migrant centers after local residents complained about door-to-door begging at all hours of the day and night, the New York Post reported.
Community members have referred to the increase in migrants as an “invasion,” pleading with city officials to do something about the rampant panhandling occurring in neighborhoods around the shelters. Migrants have been knocking on doors day and night asking for food, money, and clothing, according to residents.
New Yorkers living near larger tent cities, such as the Floyd Bennett Field shelter located in a remote area on the outskirts of Brooklyn, have especially reported a rise in panhandling. Residents called the migrant takeover “alarming” and stated many locals are “on edge,” the Post reported. Randall’s Island, another large tent city, was the scene of a fatal stabbing earlier this month.
Beginning on Tuesday, migrants sheltering at four respite centers — two in Queens, one in Brooklyn, and another in Manhattan — must check in each night by 11 p.m. The curfew lifts at 6 a.m. each morning. The restrictions are similar to those imposed on other homeless shelters in the city.
Migrants residing in the shelters who need to leave during curfew hours to go to work, school, and legal and medical appointments may do so by applying for a permit ahead of time, City Hall officials explained. Those who violate the restrictions three times within 30 days may be forced to leave the shelters.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola stated that the city’s decision to implement a curfew is “only the first step,” calling for an end to the city’s “right-to-shelter” status.
“I’m certainly glad to see these curfews finally being put into place, but they should have been mandated from the beginning,” Ariola stated. “While I applaud the city for coming to its senses on the curfew issue, I believe this is only the first step. We still need to end our status as a right-to-shelter city, stop the flow of asylum-seekers into the five boroughs, and finally get rid of the tent cities and [Humanitarian Emergency Response Relief Centers] that are draining our city’s coffers and gobbling up billions of taxpayer dollars.”
Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday the state’s 2025 fiscal year budget plan, totaling $233 billion, the Post reported. The plan adds $500 million to New York City’s migrant crisis funding. The new budget also allocates $40 million to address retail theft, $3.8 million for flood resiliency, $10 million to combat hate crimes, and $100 million to cover campaign financing.
A northern Virginia county acknowledged last week that roughly 4,000 votes in the 2020 presidential contest were misallocated.
The Prince William County Office of Elections announced last week that President Joe Biden was shorted 1,648 votes in the 2020 presidential contest, while former President Donald Trump’s “incorrectly received an extra 2,327 votes.”
The initial vote total said Biden received 142,863 votes while Trump received 81,222. But a new revision found that Biden actually received 144,511 votes while Trump received only 78,895.
In a statement, the county’s director of elections, Eric Olsen, spoke about the “errors” using passive language.
“The reporting errors were presumably a consequence of the results tapes not being programmed to a format that was compatible with state reporting requirements. Attempts to correct this issue appear to have created errors,” he said.
Olsen emphasized, however, that the errors “did not consistently favor one party or candidate but were likely due to a lack of proper planning, a difficult election environment, and human error.” Indeed, Biden won Virginia by more than 450,000 votes in 2020, meaning the revision makes no difference in the outcome of the contest.
Still, Olsen did not explain what “human error” helped contribute to the incorrect vote tabulations. Unfortunately, the presidential contest was not the only impacted race.
Both U.S. Senate candidates received too few votes, while Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) was shorted 293 votes. None of the errors made a difference in the outcome of the elections.
“Mistakes are unfortunate but require diligence and innovation to correct,” Olsen said. “They do not reflect a purposeful attempt to undermine the integrity of the electoral process and the investigation into this matter ended with that conclusion. We have worked to bring transparency to the reporting of an election that happened three years ago. This dedication remains and applies to all current and future elections.”
The miscalculations were discovered as part of the investigation into former Prince William County Registrar Michele White, who in 2022 was charged with corrupt conduct, making a false statement — both of which are felonies — and neglect of duty. Investigators released few details about the case but alleged that White altered the election results.
Last month, prosecutors dropped the felony charges against White. The third misdemeanor charge was dropped this month. The case fell apart, prosecutors said, after “several of the witnesses interviewed unexpectedly changed their statements.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
‘No one knew what to do’: Teslas abandoned and towed after heading to frozen charging station
Tesla drivers around Chicago waited hours to charge their cars in frigid temperatures, with some needing their vehicles towed due to a dead battery. Other drivers were led by their vehicles to a charging station that was completely inoperable.
Electric vehicles were lined up at a charging station in Evergreen Park, Illinois, where some of the charging stations weren’t working, while others reportedly took more than double the typical time for a charge.
“I’ve been here for over five hours at this point, and I still have not gotten to charge my car,” a Tesla driver told CBS News. “A charge that should take 45 minutes is taking two hours.”
The same driver said he saw at least 10 cars get towed from the .parking lot.
ABC 7 Chicago‘s Diane Pathieu reported from another Chicago-area Tesla charging station in Oak Brook, Illinois. Approximately 20 Teslas were dead and stranded at the station due to the chargers simply not working.
“We talked to a driver here in Oak Brook where we are, who tried to call Tesla for help, and nothing,” Pathieu stated, from the inside of a likely gas-powered vehicle.
“Yesterday I was here and there was just lines of cars, but there was only a couple charging, working, but they seemed very disorganized, like no one knew what to do,” explained Tesla owner John Baldys. Baldys also explained that the Teslas themselves directed drivers to the inoperable charging station.
“A lot of people were just led here by their cars. So they were abandoned, basically.”
Tesla has advised owners to maintain their battery charge levels above 20% during extreme cold weather. Chicago has hovered around 0 degrees Fahrenheit during a bitter storm, with wind chills making it feel as low as -18.
A Tesla support article also advised drivers to “precondition” their batteries before charging when the weather is around freezing temperatures.
“The intention of preconditioning is to raise the temperature of your Tesla’s battery to an appropriate temperature prior to charging,” the website noted. The process can take up to 30 minutes before charging and will also “consume electricity to warm the battery while not drawing current to charge the battery.”
Tesla also encouraged the use of “Chill Mode,” which “moderately limits” the vehicle’s acceleration to preserve energy.
As well, according to the Tesla Model 3 owner’s manual online, the “charge port latch may freeze in place” in lower temperatures.
HEALTH
Please note: The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional.
Health Officials Warn of Possible Measles Exposure at 2 Major Airports
Health authorities in the District of Columbia and Virginia issued a warning about a possible measles exposure on Tuesday after a person with a “confirmed case” of the highly contagious virus traveled through two airports in the Washington metro area.
In a release issued on Tuesday, DC Health said that it “has been notified of a confirmed case of measles in a person who traveled through” area airports after returning from international travel. It said that the “threat of transmission is low” but the local health agency said it is notifying people who were at the airports about “their potential exposure.”
The exact exposure may have occurred at Dulles International Airport in the international arrivals area of the main terminal, between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Jan. 3 as well as at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s Terminal A between 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, Jan. 4, according to the health agency.
The Virginia Department of Health warned about the case in a separate news release over the weekend.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” the agency said it is “informing people who were at various locations, including Dulles International Airport on January 3, 2024, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 4, 2024, that they may have been exposed” to the virus.
Health authorities are now working to identify people who may have been exposed to measles, including working to contact possibly exposed passengers on several flights.
Neither statements from the Virginia and Washington health agencies listed the airlines or flights that the infected person used. It’s also not clear what country the person had been traveling to.
But both health departments said that people who may have been exposed and are at risk of developing measles should be on the lookout for measles symptoms until around Jan. 25. They said that people who have never received a vaccine for measles “may be at risk of developing measles.”
“If you notice symptoms of measles, immediately isolate yourself by staying home and away from others. Contact your healthcare provider right away,” DC Health said. “Call ahead before going to your healthcare provider’s office or the emergency room to notify them that you may have been exposed to measles and ask them to call the health department. This will help protect other patients and staff.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health authorities say that measles is a highly transmissible illness that spreads through the air when a person breathes, coughs, talks, or sneezes.
The virus generally shows up in two stages. In the first, most people develop a fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit, runny nose, watery red eyes, or a cough. These symptoms generally start seven to 14 days after being exposed.
Officials say the second stage of measles starts about two to three days after the initial symptoms. Some people develop what is known as Koplik spots—tiny white spots—inside the mouth, according to the CDC.
Three to five days after the first symptoms begin, the telltale measles rash starts to appear on the patient’s face near the hairline area before it spreads to the rest of the body, spreading downward, the CDC says.
“Small raised bumps may also appear on top of the flat red spots,” and the “spots may become joined together as they spread from the head to the rest of the body,” the agency says. “When the rash appears, a person’s fever may spike to more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, the rash can be “made up of large, flat blotches that often flow into one another.”
A person who has developed measles can potentially spread the virus to others from about four days before the rash appears until the rash has been present for approximately four days, the clinic says.
The cases near Washington are the latest possible outbreaks of the virus in the past month or so. Several days ago, officials in New Jersey said a resident of Camden County, located near Philadelphia, had a case of measles, and officials said they are investigating the source of the infection.
On Dec. 29, some 20 to 30 people were possibly exposed to measles at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware after a person visited the facility who was “not symptomatic but was infectious at the time of their visit,” said the Delaware Department of Health.
Notably, in 2019, or months before the COVID-19 pandemic started, health officials in New York’s Rockland County declared an emergency after more than 100 people were diagnosed with the virus in the county. That order banned minors who were not vaccinated for measles from appearing in public places, including shopping centers, schools, and restaurants.
This week, officials in the United Kingdom warned of more measles outbreaks across England after cases in the West Midlands area rose by more than 30 percent in a week, the BBC reported.
Revolutionizing Healing: The Benefits of Pulsed Electromagnetic Frequency Therapy
Today, conditions like chronic pain, inflammatory diseases, and mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, are on the rise.
In 2021, an estimated 20.9 percent of U.S. adults experienced chronic pain—representing a staggering 51.6 million people. An additional 6.9 percent, or 17.1 million people, experienced high-impact chronic pain, according to the statistics from the CDC. Nearly 125 million people in the U.S. are living with a chronic inflammatory disease, and depression now affects more than 18 million adults.
Conventional medicine’s answer for many of these conditions is medication, surgery, or both. But what if there was a better way? A way to help your body heal naturally and avoid more invasive treatments?
Pulsed electromagnetic frequency (PEMF) is a therapy that has been around for more than a century and is increasingly being used in clinics and hospitals to treat a wide variety of ailments that include pain, inflammation, wound healing, and bone repair, as well as psychological conditions like depression—providing a potential option for those looking for an alternative to medications and surgery, or anyone who has not found relief with conventional treatments.PEMF is a non-invasive type of energy medicine that directs pulsed magnetic fields toward the body to optimize cellular function and stimulate the body’s innate healing capabilities.
PEMF is often used to improve immune system functioning, circulation, bone healing, and accelerate healing after an injury. It is also used to boost energy, improve sleep, and relieve stress.
The pulses used in PEMF therapy occur at very low frequencies that can penetrate the skin, getting deep into our tissues at the cellular level. This activates our cells and stimulates our body’s natural healing and repair mechanisms.PEMF was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1979 for use in healing non-union fractures—fractures that do not completely heal due to a variety of factors that include decreased blood flow. PEMF has since been approved for a variety of conditions, including reducing post-operative swelling and pain, as an adjunct to cervical fusion surgery, for treatment-resistant depression, and for treating certain types of cancer (specifically, recurrent glioblastoma and metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma).
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
AI Tools ‘Hallucinate’ False Legal Content Up to 88 Percent of the Time: Study
AI models generate fake legal content frequently, with such “hallucination rates” happening 69 to 88 percent of the time in popular models, according to a recent study by researchers from Stanford and Yale.
The preprint study, published in Arxiv on Jan. 2, investigated the propensity of Large Language Models (LLMs) to “hallucinate” when faced with legal queries.
LLMs are a type of AI that uses deep learning and large amounts of data to understand, summarize, and generate new content. In the legal field, hallucination is the tendency of AI models to generate content that is not based on actual legal facts or well-established legal principles and precedences.
Three AI models were studied—Google’s PaLM 2, Meta’s Llama 2, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5.
The study found that ChatGPT 3.5 hallucinated 69 percent of the time when faced with legal questions. With PaLM 2, the hallucination rate jumped to 72 percent, and with Llama 2, it increased to 88 percent.
The study comes as the use of AIs in the legal sector is becoming more prevalent, with many companies now offering such tools.
Various tasks include finding evidence from multiple documents, crafting case briefs, and creating litigation strategies. With increased use, apprehension about the effectiveness of such AI tools also has risen.
Researchers concluded that AI models “cannot always predict, or do not always know, when they are producing legal hallucinations.” As such, they “caution against the rapid and unsupervised integration of popular LLMs into legal tasks.”
“Even experienced lawyers must remain wary of legal hallucinations, and the risks are highest for those who stand to benefit from LLMs the most—pro se litigants [who represent themselves] or those without access to traditional legal resources.”
To assess the level of hallucinations, researchers tested the AI models against three types of legal research tasks—low, moderate, and high complexity.
Low-complexity tasks involve easily accessible information about a case: whether it was real, which court decided it, and who wrote the majority opinion.
Moderate tasks require the AI models to be knowledgeable about the legal opinions of the case. It asks questions like which case a quotation belongs to and the authority cited.
High-complexity tasks necessitate AI to have legal reasoning skills and require the models to “synthesize core legal information out of unstructured legal prose.” This involves questions about the factual background of a case, the core legal question in the lawsuit, and its procedural posture.
Researchers discovered that hallucinations vary based on six factors—the complexity of the task, the hierarchical level of the court, the jurisdictional location, the prominence of the case, the year the case was decided, and the LLM that is queried.
AI performance deteriorated as tasks got more complex. AI models “are not yet able to perform the kind of legal reasoning that attorneys perform when they assess the precedential relationship between cases—a core purpose of legal research,” the researchers stated.
The study comes as U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently warned against the impact of artificial intelligence on the legal field in a 2023 year-end report on the federal judiciary.
While acknowledging that AI tools can help those who cannot afford a lawyer to deal with basic legal issues, he stressed that “any use of AI requires caution and humility.”
He noted that some lawyers using AI submitted “briefs with citations to non-existent cases” last year.
Justice Roberts drew a distinction between the judiciary and other fields to highlight why AI may not be the best fit for the legal system.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Poll: 65% of Americans Unlikely to Buy Electric Cars as They Strand Drivers in Winter Freeze
The overwhelming majority of Americans said on Tuesday they are unlikely to consider buying an electric vehicle (EV). The poll comes as EVs strand drivers at their homes and off the sides of roads amid a winter freeze sweeping the United States.
Rasmussen Reports released the poll, finding that 65 percent of American adults said they are not likely to consider buying an EV when purchasing their next car — including 37 percent who said they are “not at all likely” to buy an EV. Fewer than 3-in-10 Americans said they would consider buying an EV.
In particular, the poll shows how EVs remain a status fixture for the nation’s wealthy.
About 52 percent of those making at least $200,000 said they are likely to purchase an EV as their next car — including 33 percent who said they are very likely to do so.
Meanwhile, more than 7-in-10 working and lower-middle class Americans making $30,000 to $50,000 a year said they are not considering buying an EV, including 46 percent who said they are “not at all likely” to buy an EV.
The poll comes as a winter freeze blasts across the U.S., leaving EV drivers stranded at their homes and on the sides of roads. In the Chicago, Illinois area, for example, EVs have piled up at Tesla charging stations as the cars become immobile because of the temperature.
2ND AMENDMENT
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen urged the Supreme Court Tuesday to reverse a lower court ruling that found a New York official did not violate the First Amendment by pressuring banks and insurers not to do business with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed in 2020 the NRA’s First Amendment lawsuit against former superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services, Maria Vullo, finding it did not prove she “crossed the line between attempts to convince and attempts to coerce.” Knudsen, joined by 22 other states and the Arizona state legislature, told the Supreme Court in an amicus briefTuesday that allowing this ruling to stand means “government officials will likely employ similar tactics to stifle disfavored speakers.”
“The Second Circuit’s decision gives government officials license to financially cripple their political opponents, or otherwise stifle their protected speech—whether those rivals advocate for environmental protections, school choice, abortion rights, religious liberty, or anything else,” the brief argues.
Knudsen told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “free speech is one of the greatest privileges we have as Americans.”
“No organization should be financially impacted because of political disagreements with government officials,” he said. “Using mafia-style tactics, anti-gun government officials in New York have trampled on that right by threatening companies for doing business with organizations that defend our right to keep and bear arms. No official should have that power – it’s a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”
Knudsen led attorneys general from 17 other states in April in asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. The justices agreed to hear it in November.
The brief argues that the Supreme Court’s precedent, such as in its 1963 Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan ruling, clearly shows that “Vullo’s politically motivated campaign against the NRA crossed the line from persuasion to impermissible coercion.”
“Bantam Books rejected a myopic focus on whether officials expressly threaten adverse consequences, instead focusing on whether officials’ statements and conduct cross the line between permissible persuasion and impermissible coercion,” the brief states. “To do that, courts consider all relevant context, including the official’s actual (or apparent) regulatory authority, the specific language in the official’s statements, and whether the targeted individuals or entities reasonably perceive the statements as threats.”
COVID RELATED NEWS
The office of Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo issued a statement calling for the halt in the use of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, citing the recent discovery of DNA contaminants in the vaccine vials, saying that while there are also safety concerns with the COVID mRNA vaccines linking them to a multitude of adverse events, the recent discovery is ”beyond the pale.”
“DNA is a common contaminant of many biological products,” he told the show’s host, Jan Jekielek. “We can use DNA to produce different drugs like insulin, other biologics—and that’s a wonderful innovation, and normally, that DNA doesn’t pose a problem.”
Human cells are resistant to DNA entry, and this prevents harming the integrity of the cell’s DNA. However, since the mRNA vaccines use lipid nanoparticles, which deliver mRNA into the cells directly, DNA contaminants could also be able to enter the cells. Some scientists, like Dr. Ladapo, are concerned that the DNA from the vaccine may integrate with the human genome.
Prominent officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disagree.
Dr. Ladapo sent a letter to FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Califf and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director, Dr. Mandy Cohen.
In his letter, he asked if there have been risk assessments of the vaccine DNA integrating into human DNA, especially regarding the controversial SV40 promoter/enhancer region found in Pfizer’s vaccine.
Other questions included whether risk assessments have been done on DNA integration in reproductive cells and if the current levels of DNA residuals are acceptable under the FDA’s standards.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, replied to Dr. Ladapo on Dec. 14.
“We’ve gotten … lengthy responses that don’t answer the question,” Dr. Ladapo said.
In his response, Dr. Marks wrote that DNA integration “is quite implausible,” adding that animal studies show “no evidence indicative for genotoxicity.”
No tests were mentioned that would assess if DNA integration is occurring.
Dr. Ladapo believes it would be reckless not to test for DNA integration, a potential risk once DNA enters the cell.
“Their position is, oh, no, it’s fine. Everything’s fine; safe and effective. That’s not only not good enough, but it’s completely unacceptable,” Dr. Ladapo said. “And that’s why I made that determination, and it’s absolutely the correct call.”
COVID-19 May Lead to Persistent Brain Injury Undetected by Routine Tests
COVID-19 not only damages the lungs and respiratory system but can also cause severe harm to the heart, intestines, and nervous system (including the brain). A study in the UK has shown that the brain injury caused by COVID-19 may persist for months after infection.
The study published in the journal Nature Communications in December 2023 revealed that some recovering COVID-19 patients, while appearing healthy in routine blood inflammation tests, exhibited brain injury markers in their blood.
The study analyzed samples from more than 800 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in England and Wales, half of whom had developed new neurological conditions. The researchers measured markers of brain injury in these samples, including antibodies, serum inflammatory proteins (cytokines), and brain (neuroglial) injury proteins.
The results indicated that during the rapid onset of acute COVID-19 symptoms, the body produces various key inflammatory proteins and brain injury markers. Surprisingly, even months later, brain (neuroglial) injury biomarkers still persist in some COVID-19 patients.
These inflammatory markers are linked to abnormal immune responses during the acute phase of the disease. The researchers believe these markers may play a role in treating COVID-19 and other infections that lead to acute brain dysfunction.
Professor Benedict Michael, principal investigator and director of the University of Liverpool’s Infection Neuroscience Laboratory and honorary consultant neurologist at The Walton Centre, stated in a press release that during the COVID-19 pandemic, neurological complications became apparent in a “significant proportion of hospitalized patients,” including those with mild COVID-19 infections. While some neurological symptoms, such as headaches and muscle aches (myalgia), were often mild, he went on to say, the emergence of more severe and potentially life-altering neurological complications became evident. These complications include encephalitis (brain inflammation), seizures, and stroke.
Despite the resolution of inflammatory responses in the blood, markers of brain injury persisted in the blood several months after COVID-19 infection, particularly in patients who experienced brain complications such as inflammation and stroke, Mr. Micheal explained. This implies the possibility of ongoing inflammation and damage within the brain that are undetected by blood tests, he added.
Professor Leonie Taams, head of the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences mentioned that by combining neurology, immunology, and infection research, they were able to unveil some biomarkers associated with COVID-19-related neurological complications. This aids in laying the foundation for elucidating the potential mechanisms behind these complications, she said.
In 2022, researchers from the University of Oxford published a paper in the journal Nature, demonstrating that even mild cases of COVID-19 infection can lead to brain atrophy. After analyzing data from 785 patients, aged 51 to 81, in the UK database, they found a significant reduction in gray matter thickness in the parahippocampal gyrus and orbitofrontal cortex (located in the lower frontal lobe, a primary neural mechanism for human emotion). Additionally, the brain’s overall size also decreased, with an average shrinkage of 0.7 percent in brain regions associated with olfaction (smell).
Professor Gwenaëlle Douaud, the lead author of the study, stated in a press release: “Despite the infection being mild for 96% of our participants, we saw a greater loss of grey matter volume, and greater tissue damage in the infected participants, on average 4.5 months after infection. They also showed greater decline in their mental abilities to perform complex tasks, and this mental worsening was partly related to these brain abnormalities.”
According to the Johns Hopkins Encephalitis Center, encephalitis (brain inflammation) can lead to cerebral swelling, resulting in symptoms such as headaches, neck stiffness, sensitivity to light, mental confusion, and seizures. In the past decade alone, more than 250,000 patients in the United States have been diagnosed with encephalitis, and the condition is more prevalent in younger individuals.
Encephalitis can lead to various symptoms, including confusion, personality changes, memory loss, seizures, movement disorders, and alterations in vision or hearing.
Therefore, if an individual exhibits the aforementioned symptoms, seeking prompt medical attention is crucial to determine the presence of a severe brain condition. In such cases, they should follow medical advice and undergo active treatment
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