WORLD NEWS
Rollout of a new malaria vaccine kicks off in Africa
A new, and touted as a highly effective malaria vaccine, was rolled out for the first time yesterday, as an immunization campaign for children kicked off in Cameroon — a day that global health officials say marked a historic step in the decades-long quest to protect people from one of the world’s deadliest infections.
The vaccine drive in Cameroon — the first launch of the vaccine outside of clinical trials and pilot programs — comes as some 20 African countries make plans for their own rollouts this year in the face of rising malaria cases and deaths.
Africa bears the brunt of malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, with 95% of fatal cases occurring on the continent. Nearly half a million children die from the disease in Africa each year. Overall, malaria has killed more than 600,000 people in each of the past few years, up from 576,000 in 2019.
The vaccine being delivered in Cameroon is known as RTS,S, or Mosquirix, and is made by GSK. Another malaria vaccine, called R21, was developed by University of Oxford researchers and is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Both of the multi-dose vaccines have won recommendations from the World Health Organization for children starting at 5 months old, and are in the process of being scaled up and readied for rollouts. They are the first vaccines against any parasite and are considered to be about equally effective.
In trials, the vaccines prevented about half of clinical malaria cases in the year after vaccination, and providing the shots seasonally reduced cases by about three-quarters, said Kate O’Brien, a top vaccines official at the WHO.
Having two safe and effective vaccines available “is expected to result in sufficient supply to meet the high demand,” O’Brien said.
The RTS,S vaccine will be available in 42 districts in Cameroon for any eligible child who comes to the clinic, said Aurélia Nguyen, the chief program officer at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which is helping coordinate vaccine shipments. In Cameroon, where malaria cases and deaths have been on the rise since 2017, nearly 30% of all hospital consultations are malaria related, she said.
Health officials also stressed that the availability of the new vaccines should not take away from other efforts to address malaria cases, including the use of bed nets and the spraying of insecticides. The success of the rollouts will depend not just on building up supply of the vaccines but also on local preparations and execution, health officials said. The WHO recommends that children receive four doses of the vaccine, so it will require parents to make repeat visits to clinics.
Mbianke Livancliff, the senior immunization officer at Value Health Africa, a nongovernmental organization based in Cameroon, said health workers had been meeting with communities about the vaccines and are ready to address misinformation about the immunizations that could contribute to reduced uptake.
Border Farce: UK Hires Private Boats for £36 Million to Bring Channel Migrants Ashore
The British government has reportedly hired a fleet of private boats to help the Border
Force bring illegal Channel migrants ashore at a cost to the taxpayer at least £36 million.
According to a report from The Times of London, the UK Home Office — the government body responsible for controlling immigration and protecting the country’s borders — has signed a contract worth £36 million for the hiring of a “charter of vessel(s) to support small boats operations in the Dover Straits”.
The contract, which is set to come into force in April and will last until at least the end of March next year, will mean that private vessels will assist the Border Force in picking up migrants in the English Channel and bringing them ashore in Britain.
The government was forced into seeking private assistance to deal with illegal migration because of further delays to plans to replace the ageing fleet of cutters currently used by the Border Force, some of which are over 20 years old and need frequent repairs to remain operable.
While the government set aside £224 million to begin procuring five new cutters and six coastal patrol vessels in April of 2022, the process of replacing the current Border Force fleet was first pushed back to April of 2024 and now is not expected to begin until March of 2026.
In addition to the £36 million earmarked for private boats, the government also shelled out £9 million on refurbishing the outdated Border Force vessels to hopefully keep them running for a further five years.
The revelations come as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is seeking to finally implement the long-awaited plan to send illegal boat migrants to Rwanda, which still needs approval from the House of Lords. The scheme, which was first floated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, still faces the potential of legal challenges from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and at home with British judges having a long history of siding with illegal migrants, foreign criminals, and even terrorists in deportation battles.
Sunak, like Johnson before him, has argued that sending illegals to Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed rather than putting them up in accommodations in Britain will not only save money but will also serve as a deterrent to more illegals crossing the English Channel in small boats operated by people smuggling networks on the French coast.
Others, including Brexit leader Nigel Farage and Reform UK leader Richard Tice, have argued that if the government actually wanted to deter illegal boat migration, it should adopt a send-back-the-boats approach like that adopted in Australia.
In 2013, the government of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott implemented Operation Sovereign Borders, in which migrant boats, mostly arriving from Indonesia, were immediately turned back to their country of origin or brought to off-shore asylum processing centres in third-party countries. The system effectively shut down the boat migrant routes that overwhelmed Australia prior to the policy’s implementation.
Conversely, rather than protecting Britain’s borders and sending illegals back to France, the UK Border Force has been accused of operating a “taxi service” for illegal migrants, picking them up in the middle of the Channel and ferrying them to the Port of Dover. The Border Force has even been reported to have traveled into French territorial waters to pick up migrants and bring them to British soil.
So far this year, over 600 illegal boat migrants have been brought ashore, following around 30,000 successful crossings last year.
Millions in the UK Are Being Urged to Get Vaccinations During a Surge in Measles Cases
U.K. health officials on Monday urged millions of parents to book their children in for missed measles, mumps and rubella shots amid a sharp increase in the number of measles cases and the lowest vaccination rates in a decade.
The National Health Service was launching a publicity campaign after figures showed there have been 216 confirmed measles cases and 103 probable cases in parts of England since October. Most cases were in children under 10 years old.
The combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine is offered in the U.K. in two doses to all children, first at 12 months old and then again at 3 years old. Vaccination rates have dropped down to about 85% nationally, and far lower in parts of London, according to U.K. Health Security Agency chief executive Jenny Harries.
That is “too low to maintain safe population coverage – we want that at about 95%,” as advised by the World Health Organization, she said.
Public health officials say that more than 3.4 million children under 16 years old are unprotected and at risk of catching the diseases.
Measles was declared eliminated in the U.K. in 2017, meaning the disease was no longer native to the country.
But cases have crept up since then, and officials said that outbreaks can take place anywhere where the vaccine coverage is below the 95% needed to achieve herd immunity.
WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in November that measles deaths globally spiked by more than 40% last year, and cases rose after vaccination levels dramatically dropped during the pandemic.
Measles is among the most infectious diseases known and spreads in the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It’s most common in children under 5. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and a distinctive rash.
Infection can lead to permanent physical damage such as deafness. Most deaths are due to complications like encephalitis, severe dehydration, serious breathing problems and pneumonia.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
A robocall that reportedly manipulated President Joe Biden’s (D) voice told recipients not
to vote in the fast-approaching presidential primary, according to NBC News.
The report noted the primary is on Tuesday, and following the apparent phone call a prominent New Hampshire Democrat is gearing up to file a complaint with the state attorney general.
The message reportedly says, “What a bunch of malarkey,” then tells the listener to save their vote for November, adding, “Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”
The outlet said the message shares a phone number to reach Kathy Sullivan, who is the leader of a super PAC backing the effort to get the state’s residents to write in Biden’s name in the primary.
Multiple people on Sunday alerted her to the phone calls, but it was not immediately known what type of voters received the message.
Although it is not yet known who is responsible for the calls, Sullivan claimed, “It’s obviously somebody who wants to hurt Joe Biden.”
It appears that Biden’s image and voice have been manipulated in the past due to developing technology that has many people concerned.
Biden signed an executive order in October regarding Artificial Intelligence and also commented on the danger of deepfakes, per the Independent.
He stated, “I’ve watched one of me. I said, ‘When the hell did I say that?’”
In regard to New Hampshire, Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), a former 2024 presidential candidate who is now supporting former President Donald Trump, recently told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday, “This race for the nomination for the Republican Party should be over after New Hampshire.”
He also noted, “The sooner we can get everybody consolidated … the sooner we can start turning the corner, because this country can’t take another four years [of] Joe Biden.”
On Sunday, Trump said he was “very honored” to have the endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) after the governor chose to suspend his presidential campaign, Breitbart News reported.
“I look forward to working together with him to beat Joe Biden, who is the worst and most corrupt president in the history of our country,” he stated.
Federal Judge Rules to Keep Trump on New Hampshire Ballot Ahead of Primary
A federal judge in New Hampshire has ruled against an effort to block former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballots, coming just before the state holds its Republican primary.
The ruling, posted by Republican lawyer and former California GOP Chairwoman Harmeet Dhillon, was handed down on Jan. 19 by U.S. District Judge Samantha D. Elliott against long shot Republican presidential candidate John Anthony Castro, a Texas resident who filed similarly rejected cases in other states.
The judge noted that Mr. Castro brought a claim in New Hampshire “nearly identical” to his petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging that the former president is ineligible to appear on the state’s ballots because of Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which bars candidates from running for office if they engaged in an “insurrection” or “rebellion” against the United States.
Mr. Castro alleged that because he is a presidential candidate in New Hampshire, President Trump’s inclusion on the ballot injures him in the form of a “diminution of votes and/or fundraising.”
In dismissing the case, Judge Elliott said that Mr. Castro “conceded” at an evidentiary hearing “that he would not win any delegates even if the secretary of state were prevented from counting votes in Trump’s favor” and that Mr. Castro has “not proven redressability,” a legal term that means a court will be able to make up for or correct an injury of the plaintiff.
His motion for a preliminary motion in New Hampshire was then denied by the judge and all other pending motions in the case were rendered moot before she dismissed his case.
After the order, Ms. Dhillon hailed the judge’s decision on social media, saying that it represents a win for President Trump: “Congrats to the election litigation team yet again!”
Kari Lake Breaks Silence on Trump VP Rumors
U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake responded to rumors and speculation that she might be picked as former President Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024.
Ms. Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial candidate who is now running for the state’s Senate seat in 2024, told GBNews that she is focused on winning her race.
The seat for which she is vying is held by independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who hasn’t formally announced that she is running for reelection.
“We have to have a Republican-led United States Senate because when President Trump gets back in office, and I do believe he will, he’s going to need to do his cabinet appointments through [it],” Ms. Lake, a former television news journalist, told the outlet.
Without GOP control of the Senate, it will be tough to get President Trump’s programs “passed” through Congress, Ms. Lake said. “His agenda is going to be to put America first, and I’m going to help in any way that I can,” the Republican added.
When asked about whether she is considering becoming his vice presidential nominee, Ms. Lake demurred by saying that she wants “to help him in the Senate. I really think that he’s going to need help in the Senate.”
“We have a chance to bring back that Senate majority. So I’m going to do whatever I can to help my country,” she continued.
“I have two children and I worry deeply about their future. They can’t even fathom living the American dream. And so we have to get that back.”
Since the conclusion of the 2022 midterms, a number of anonymously sourced articles have claimed that President Trump has considered her for the job, although the former president has not publicly commented on those rumors and speculation.
Judge Postpones Trump’s Defamation Trial Until New Hampshire Primary Day
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding over E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against former President Trump, postponed the trial on Monday, citing a juror’s coronavirus illness, until Tuesday, the day of the New Hampshire Republican primary.
The rescheduled trial on the day of the New Hampshire primary raises concerns the judge is interfering in the 2024 election.
“This is blatant election interference!” House Conference Chair and Trump ally Elise Stefanik posted on X. “Joe Biden and his Democrat cronies are the true threats to democracy!”
Judge Kaplan told the courtroom he would postpone the trial for at least one day after a juror reported feeling ill. “We will take the day off,” Kaplan said.
Trump was expected to testify Monday. Now he could appear in court on Tuesday, hundreds of miles away from New Hampshire.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, asked the judge to postpone the trial until Wednesday to avoid Trump’s absence in the Granite State. “I would need his testimony to be Wednesday,” Habba said.
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, told the judge the trial should continue Tuesday without further delay. “I’d like to get this trial over with,” she said.
The judge told the prosecution he would consider Habba’s request.
Supreme Court Allows Federal Government to Remove Texas Border Wire
The Supreme Court voted 5–4 vote to allow U.S. Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire that was set up along the U.S.–Mexico border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, while a legal challenge plays out.
In a brief order, the high court vacated a ruling issued in mid-December 2023 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh voted to deny the application to vacate that lower court injunction, which would have prevented Border Patrol agents from removing the barrier.
Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, sided with the Biden administration. No one provided an explanation for their vote.
The order represents a win for President Joe Biden’s administration, which has struggled to curb illegal immigration into the United States since he took office in 2021, amid an ongoing battle with Mr. Abbott, a Republican, over the border. The administration had filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court and argued that Texas was blocking federal agents from carrying out their duties.
In arguments to the high court, Biden administration lawyers claimed that the barrier prevented agents from reaching illegal immigrants who had already entered the United States. However, lawyers for the state of Texas have said that Washington has not been able to secure the border as Mr. Abbott’s administration set up razor wire fencing under the Operation Lone Star plan.
The Biden administration argued that the razor wire blocks agents from gaining the access necessary to do their jobs.
“Like other law-enforcement officers, Border Patrol agents operating under difficult circumstances at the border must make context-dependent, sometimes split-second decisions about how to enforce federal immigration laws while maintaining public safety,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote to the Supreme Court. “But the injunction prohibits agents from passing through or moving physical obstacles erected by the State that prevent access to the very border they are charged with patrolling and the individuals they are charged with apprehending and inspecting.”
In the application, she also rejected the idea that federal agents have done anything illegal or improper.
“Border Patrol agents’ exercise of discretion regarding the means of enabling the apprehension, inspection and processing of noncitizens in no way suggests that they cut wire for impermissible purposes,” the solicitor general wrote.
In court papers, the administration also asserts that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas’s efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
The application was submitted after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with Texas several weeks ago, saying that “the public interest supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control.”
Earlier this year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and multiple federal agencies and officials for destroying the razor wire. He and other state officials have argued that federal agents cut the wire to help groups crossing illegally through the river before taking them in for processing.
“Federal agents have developed and implemented a practice of destroying Texas’s concertina wire to encourage, induce, and assist thousands of aliens to illegally cross the Rio Grande and enter Texas,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement in October 2023. “Federal agents in some cases attempted to ease aliens’ ability to illegally climb up the riverbank into Texas by attaching ropes or cables to the back of pickup trucks. Federal agents regularly cut new openings in the wire fence, sometimes immediately after Texas officers have placed new wire to plug gaps in fencing barriers.”
Mr. Abbott has also authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges. The Biden administration is also challenging those actions in federal court. A federal appeals court last month forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire. Large numbers of migrants have crossed at Eagle Pass in recent months.
In a separate case, the U.S. 5th Court of Appeals in December 2023 ordered Texas to do away with a 1,000-foot-long buoy barrier in the Rio Grande, also designed to block illegal immigration. The court sided with the Biden administration, which argued that the barrier makes the Rio Grande difficult to navigate.
This month, Texas denied entry to Border Patrol agents around Shelby Park in Eagle Pass after Mr. Abbott said the state won’t allow agents “on that property anymore,” widening a dispute with the Biden administration.
“We said, ‘We’ve had it. We’re not going to let this happen anymore,’” the governor said earlier this month, referring to the dispute.
The partisan January 6 Committee deleted more than 100 encrypted files just days before Republicans resumed control of the House, Chair of the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) revealed Monday.
The missing files are significant because they might contain information reportedly used to prosecute former President Donald Trump in Fulton County, Georgia. Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, colluded with the committee to obtain information to prosecute Trump, Politico reported on January 10.
The partisan committee told lawmakers it lost or does not have much of the information they discovered during their January 6 hearings. Yet, if the Politico report is true, the committee gave Willis the information to prosecute Trump before deleting it.
Loudermilk’s forensics team identified 117 files that went missing on January 1, 2023. The forensics analysis suggests the committee either deleted or encrypted the files. Loudermilk demanded the passwords for the encrypted files, which could contain interviews and depositions that run contrary to the partisan committee’s narrative.
“It’s obvious that [the J6 committee] went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation,” Loudermilk told Fox News. “It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules.”
“Because the American people have a right to know what happened,” he continued. “My main goal is to get the truth out there and give the American people the ability to make their own determination on this with facts — not with preconceived ideas or pre-determined narratives — but just the facts of what happened.”
“We do know there was plenty of intelligence that there was going to be an attack on the Capitol. So Secret Service knew of it. The FBI knew of it. Department of Defense had intelligence. Homeland Security had intelligence,” he added. “That intelligence was sent to the Capitol Police Intelligence Division—but it never got passed on any further. The chief did not know about it.”
Some Republicans say the reported collusion between the committee and Wills was intended to obscure Willis’s discovery in the Trump case, keeping it out of public view. The collusion could upend Willis’s prosecution, Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak has reported, “because the evidence was concealed to keep it away from discovery requirements that would allow defense lawyers to see what was shared, and the extent of the collaboration.
Trump Lawyers Target Records Between White H
Former President Donald Trump filed court papers demanding records that may show coordination between prosecutors in Georgia and the Biden administration.
On Tuesday, his attorneys said they wish to see court records relating to a reported meeting between White House officials and top Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutor Nathan Wade, who was hired by Fulton County District Attorney in her case against the former president.
The request was part of a 68-page filing that also accused federal special prosecutor Jack Smith of concealing evidence about his collaboration with the Biden administration. His lawyers claimed that it obtained redacted documents through a Freedom of Information Act request that allegedly found that “politically motivated operatives in the Biden Administration and the National Archives and Records Administration” were coordinating with Mr. Smith.
But in a separate section of the court filing, his lawyers said that “communications between the Biden administration and prosecutors in Georgia regarding any of the pending prosecutions of President Trump are similarly supportive of President Trump’s political bias defense and must be disclosed.”
“Evidence demonstrating that parts of the Biden Administration coordinated with Georgia prosecutors to file additional politically motivated charges—while the same White House Counsel’s Office was coordinating with NARA during the investigation—supports President Trump’s defense that the Biden Administration was coordinating behind the scenes to try to eliminate President Biden’s leading political rival,” the court papers state. “The Special Counsel’s Office must produce any documents further reflecting this coordination.”
It claimed that Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade “helped coordinate with the Biden Administration in 2022” and that one of his “invoices indicates that he devoted eight hours to a ‘conf. with White House Counsel’ on May 23, 2022.” Later, another invoice showed that he spent eight hours at an “interview” in Washington, D.C., and the White House on Nov. 18, 2022, according to the court filing.
That November date is the same day that Attorney General Merrick Garland issued the order to appoint Mr. Smith as special counsel and “just after President Trump formally announced his candidacy in the 2024 election on Nov. 15, his lawyers said.
The filing was made to U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Mr. Smith’s case against President Trump, who is accused of illegally retaining classified information.
Mr. Wade has not issued any public comments about the recent allegations. The Epoch Times has contacted his law firm for comment about the recent court filings about the meetings in Washington.
Divorce Records for Special Trump Prosecutor Tapped by Fani Willis Unsealed
Records in a divorce case involving a special prosecutor investigating former President Donald Trump were unsealed on Jan. 22, showing the prosecutor was held in contempt for failing to comply with a court order.
Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor, is embroiled in divorce proceedings with Jocelyn Wade.
One of the unsealed records shows that Mr. Wade was found in contempt in August 2023 for failing to adequately provide discovery documents. An order that month said Mr. Wade could purge himself of contempt by delivering the documents.
In the months after the order, Mr. Wade failed to come into compliance with the court’s directives, according to Ms. Wade.
“Plaintiff has failed to provide, for example, personal financials and/or financials for his business(es) including but not limited to tax returns, bank accounts, and credit card accounts related to plaintiff’s business(es), and account statements for his individual bank and credit card accounts,” one filing on her behalf stated. That’s part of “a pervasive pattern of what can only be described as a willful and deliberate effort” to withhold relevant information, another said.
Other filings allege Mr. Wade has provided “nearly nothing” for “support and survival” to Ms. Wade despite him receiving nearly $700,000 from his employer since May 2022 and her being a stay-at-home mom for the past 26 years.
The only payments from Mr. Wade to his wife have been bi-weekly payments of $700, one filing stated. But those payments have been undercut by Mr. Wade allegedly using the account in question for his own expenses.
The unsealing occurred on the orders of a judge, who ruled in favor of media outlets that had asked for the unsealing.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appointed Mr. Wade as a special prosecutor. She has been accused of being in an improper relationship with Mr. Wade, with court documents showing Mr. Wade paid for her to fly with him to two different cities.
Mr. and Ms. Wade were married in 1997. They separated in 2021. Ms. Wade filed for divorce on Nov. 2, 2021. She said that the marriage was irretrievably broken.
Lawyers for Mr. Wade and Ms. Wade did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The documents had been sealed in 2022 due to “potential harm to the privacy of the parties” outweighing “the right of the public to access the records,” according to a court order.
Comer Statement on Transcribed Interview with Kevin Morris
WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued the following statement on today’s transcribed interview with Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer and Democrat donor:
“Kevin Morris’s massive financial support to Hunter Biden raises ethical and campaign finance concerns for President Joe Biden. Shortly after meeting Hunter Biden at a Joe Biden campaign event in 2019, Kevin Morris began paying Hunter Biden’s tax liability to insulate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden from political liability. Kevin Morris admitted he has ‘loaned’ the president’s son at least $5 million. These ‘loans’ don’t have to be repaid until after the next presidential election and the ‘loans’ may ultimately be forgiven. Since Kevin Morris has kept President Biden’s son financially afloat, he’s had access to the Biden White House and has spoken to President Biden. This follows a familiar pattern where Hunter Biden’s associates have access to Joe Biden himself. As we continue more interviews this month and the next, we will continue to follow the facts to understand the full scope of President Biden and his family’s corruption.”
Readout from Kevin Morris’s transcribed interview:
Shortly after meeting Hunter Biden at a Joe Biden campaign event in 2019, Kevin Morris began paying Hunter Biden’s tax liability.
- Lanette Phillips, a Hollywood producer, introduced Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer, and Hunter Biden at a campaign event for Joe Biden in the winter of 2019 at her home in Los Angeles, California. Joe Biden spoke and Kevin Morris donated money at the event.
- A week after the event, Lanette Phillips called Kevin Morris and they discussed Hunter Biden’s “entertainment” issue. Kevin Morris then went to Hunter Biden’s residence in Los Angeles.
- When Kevin Morris began giving money to Hunter Biden in January 2020, there was no written agreement. They prepared an agreement well after Kevin Morris gave Hunter Biden money.
- On February 7, 2020, approximately ten months before the presidential election, Morris emailedtax accountants and Hunter Biden’s advisors, saying “[w]e are under considerable risk personally and politically to get the returns in.”
Kevin Morris has loaned Hunter Biden at least $5 million to pay off Hunter Biden’s tax debt and pay for his personal expenses.
- Hunter Biden did not pay his tax liability for years; Kevin Morris paid them.
- Hunter Biden has sold roughly $1.5 million dollars of art, and half of it was purchased by Kevin Morris to reduce the money Hunter owed him. Kevin Morris also bought two art pieces from Hunter Biden before he had a gallerist.
- Kevin Morris’s financial support to Hunter Biden includes payments to his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and the mother of his child, Lunden Roberts.
- Kevin Morris admitted the “loans” he provided to Hunter Biden do not have to be repaid until 2025, after the next presidential election, and could be forgiven.
Kevin Morris obtained access to Biden White House after “lending” money to Hunter Biden. Despite donating $500,000 to $700,000 to Democrats, the only time Kevin Morris went to the White House occurred during the Biden Administration. Hunter Biden gave him a tour of the White House, attended a wedding at the White House, and went to the White House’s Fourth of July picnic.
Transgender Democrat Permitted to Run for Ohio Office Despite Hiding Former Name
A transgender candidate has been permitted to run for a seat in the Ohio House despite
hiding his original name on documents required by state elections law.
The Mercer County Board of Elections chose not to take up a vote on disqualifying transgender Democrat candidate Arienne Childrey, a biological male identifying as female, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Childrey underwent a name change in 2020 but said he would have provided his former name if he had known about the law.
“I would have filled out whatever was necessary because at the end of the day, while it would have been a hit to my pride, there is something much more important than my pride, and that’s fighting for this community,” Childrey said.
The Ohio law requires prospective political candidates who have changed their names within the last five years to put their former names on their candidate petitions, except for those who have changed their names due to marriage.
If Childrey wins the Democrat primary, the transgender candidate will likely go on to face Ohio State Rep. Angie King (R-Celina), who has sponsored anti-grooming legislation and voted to ban transgender-related medical procedures being performed on children.
Childrey is one of four transgender candidates vying for a seat in Ohio’s legislature, where they will likely seek to counter anti-grooming legislation enacted by Republicans in the state. All four transgender candidates have reportedly run into issues with the state’s name-change law.
As Breitbart News reported, Vanessa Joy — another biological male identifying as female who is running for a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives — recently said he was disqualified from the race for not using the name on his birth certificate.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Cyberattack on Mortgage Giant LoanDepot Exposes Sensitive Data of 16.6 Million Customers
LoanDepot, a leading provider in the loan and mortgage industry, has reported a
significant cybersecurity breach impacting approximately 16.6 million customers.
TechCrunch reports that LoanDepot, one of the largest loan and mortgage companies in the United States, recently disclosed in a filing to federal regulators that 16.6 million customers have had their sensitive personal information compromised in a cyberattack that took place on January 8. This incident, which has been identified as a ransomware attack, poses a significant risk to the affected customers.
The company has acknowledged the data breach but has not specified the nature of the sensitive and personal data that was stolen. Jonathan Fine, a spokesperson for LoanDepot, declined to provide specific details about the types of customer data that were compromised during the attack.
Frank Martell, the CEO of LoanDepot, said in a statement: “Unfortunately, we live in a world where these types of attacks are increasingly frequent and sophisticated, and our industry has not been spared. We sincerely regret any impact to our customers. The entire LoanDepot team has worked tirelessly throughout this incident to support our customers, our partners and each other. I am pleased by our progress in quickly bringing our systems back online and restoring normal business operations.”
Jeff Walsh, President of LDI Mortgage, commented: “Our customers are at the center of everything we do. I’m really proud of our team, and we’re glad to be back to doing what we do best: enabling our customers across the country to achieve their financial goals and dreams of homeownership.”
The company’s online services have been severely disrupted, with some customer-facing systems remaining inaccessible into their second week following the data breach. The system failure has led to significant challenges for customers, including difficulties in making payments or accessing their online accounts.
FAA Instructs Boeing to ‘Visually Inspect’ Door Plugs of a 2nd Aircraft Model
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asked Boeing to inspect a second of its plane models for potential safety hazards just weeks after it grounded the 737-9 Max model because of a midflight incident.
“As an added layer of safety, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is recommending that operators of Boeing 737-900ER aircraft visually inspect mid-exit door plugs to ensure the door is properly secured,” the FAA said in a Jan. 21 statement.
The agency clarified that the Boeing 737-900ER “is not part of” the newer Boeing 737-9 Max that has already been grounded. However, both have the same door plug design.
On Jan. 5, a door plug of a Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft belonging to Alaska Airlines blew out while flying at 16,000 feet, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. Following the incident, the FAA grounded 171 planes because of safety concerns.“All 737-9 MAX aircraft with door plugs will remain grounded pending the FAA’s review and final approval of an inspection and maintenance process that satisfies all FAA safety requirements. Once the FAA approves an inspection and maintenance process, it will be required on every grounded 737-9 MAX prior to future operation.”
The FAA did not specify when the planes can be expected back in service. Instead, it said that the “safety of the flying public … will determine the timeline for returning these aircraft to service.”
The agency is also currently investigating Boeing’s subcontractor Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems. Spirit AeroSystems manufactured the fuselage of the plane that had to make an emergency landing on Jan. 5.
Alaska Airlines said in a Jan. 20 update that the grounding of their 737-9 Max planes continues to affect the airline’s operations. The airline is notifying passengers who had scheduled flights on these planes of cancellations.
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.
EXCLUSIVE: Chip Roy Condemns Proposed WHO Treaty in Letter to HHS Secretary
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is speaking out against the Biden administration’s effort to involve the United States in a treaty that would expand the power of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, Mr. Roy denounced the proposal, which he said would infringe on U.S. sovereignty in favor of the Chinese Communist Party-linked international organization.
In March 2021, a group of international leaders proposed a new treaty to handle future pandemic preparedness and foster cooperation between international bodies, according to its supporters, including HHS and the State Department.
A draft version of the treaty is available online.
Critics such as Mr. Roy aren’t buying it, however.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of State … should cease all efforts to further legitimize this corrupt body by crafting a new global pandemic treaty,” Mr. Roy wrote in his letter to Mr. Becerra.
Pointing to a series of “deeply problematic” provisions in the proposed treaty, he said the United States shouldn’t seek closer ties with the WHO.
For instance, one aspect of the treaty would mandate that members work together to “combat false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation.”
That provision and others, Mr. Roy wrote, “[stand] in opposition to our country’s founding principles” and would “stifle free speech.”
“Under no circumstances should we empower the bureaucrats in Geneva to govern the speech of American citizens,” he said.
Mr. Roy also noted an aspect of the treaty that would encourage member states to give away intellectual property and medical patents to developing nations—which would include China.
That provision “would disincentivize vital healthcare research and innovation,” he said.
Mr. Roy also cited the WHO’s links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as “disqualifying” it from U.S. support.
“The WHO’s inept handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, close ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and endorsement of divisive political ideologies disqualify it from the United States’ membership and taxpayer support,” he wrote.
The breadth of the agency’s ties to the CCP was put on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Mr. Roy.
He cited several instances.
In one case, he noted, the WHO intentionally ignored Taiwan’s early warnings that COVID-19 could spread from person to person, instead “[spreading] CCP propaganda that there was ‘no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.’”
In another, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the CCP for its openness and cooperation with the organization during COVID-19.
“To this day, the WHO has been reticent to fully and unbiasedly investigate the origins of COVID-19,” Mr. Roy said.
“The WHO’s disastrous response and lack of accountability for the CCP’s handling of COVID-19 solidifies why HHS and the State Department should not seek to further legitimize this failed organization.”
Cancer Cases Expected To Hit Record High In 2024, Experts Explain Potential Causes
While the risk of dying from cancer has declined, cancer incidence has been rising for six of the most common cancers: breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, kidney, and melanoma.
The new estimates represent a 2 percent increase from the ACS’s 2023 estimates.
“Overall cancer incidence is stable in men and increases slightly by 0.1 percent per year in women. The number of cancer cases increases each year mostly because of the aging and growth of the population,” Rebecca L. Siegel, lead author of the report, cancer epidemiologist, and senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, told The Epoch Times.
“Prostate cancer is the most rapidly increasing—by 3 percent per year—mostly due to advanced-stage disease diagnosis,” Ms. Siegel added.
The report found that cancers have also been increasing in younger people, specifically colorectal cancer in those under 55 and cervical cancer in women aged 30 to 44. Oral cancers associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV) and liver cancer in women have also increased.
ACS’s estimation was based on case numbers reported from 2006 to 2020 in all 50 states. There is currently no available data on real-life cancer cases past 2020.
“Modeled counts were then projected forward 4 years based on the most recent 4-year average annual percent change,” the authors wrote in the report.
This means that the new facts and figures on 2024 “do not have information on possible COVID virus- or vaccine-related effects on cancer incidence,” Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus in epidemiology at Yale University, with particular interests in cancer, told The Epoch Times.
Dr. Risch said that ACS’s estimations for 2024 may be reliable “as long as nothing much is happening in the population.”
But with COVID-19 and its mass vaccine rollouts coming out at the end of 2020, “relying on the older data to estimate recent incidence would not be reliable,” he said.
Though the projection included 2020 data, the report is modeled on 15 years of data, so 2020’s impact on the report’s trajectory would be “highly drowned out” and mostly insignificant, Dr. Risch suggested.
“It would be useful to examine the 2020 data separately,” he said. He has analyzed the 2020 publicly available surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) data, which are also included in the ACS’s report.
“There is a deficit for 2020 of about 11 percent, which likely reflects the March–May lockdown effects that the ACS discusses as to how they accounted for that,” he explained.
The ACS researchers acknowledged that their report currently does not reflect possible changes impacted by the pandemic.
“Researchers have not yet analyzed the potentially myriad ways in which the pandemic affected these cancer statistics,” the ACS wrote in their media report.
“When data is available, researchers expect that the public health crisis of COVID-19 will be found to have delayed diagnoses and led to worse outcomes and more deaths. But it will take many years to parse out those effects,” they concluded.
Reasons for the Increase in Cancer Cases
While the rise in cancer cases could be partially due to overdiagnosis, the authors said that increased cancer screening is an unlikely cause.
Take colorectal cancer, for example.
“People born after the 1950s have higher risk for many cancers, most notably colorectal cancer. We know it is not more screening because the death rate for colorectal cancer is increasing in this population as well as the incidence rate,” Ms. Siegel said.
If the uptick is due to more screening, there should be a greater decline in the death rate.
The obesity epidemic likely contributes but does not fully explain the trend, she added.
“There is much research in this area, but some hypotheses include changes in diet like more processed food, changes in the gut microbiome, overuse of antibiotics, and microplastic exposure.”
Stress and changes in sexual behavior could also be a factor, according to Epoch Times columnist and infectious disease specialist Dr. Yuhong Dong. She highlighted the increase in cervical and oral cancers, which may be traced back to HPV.
“In recent decades, there is an emerging trend that people tend to be engaged in sexual activity at a young age and have multiple sexual partners, which can increase the likelihood of HPV infection,” she said.
“It is well-recognized that HPV is a carcinogenic virus. The role of HPV in causing cancer is primarily due to its cancer-inducing proteins. These proteins break down the body’s tumor-fighting mechanisms, leading to rapid and uncontrolled cell multiplication.”
Recently, more emerging evidence also suggests HPV is linked to both prostate and thyroid cancer.
COVID-19 and Vaccines
While the ACS data do not show any effects of COVID-19 and its vaccines, there are concerns that “frequent use of the COVID-19 vaccine could also be detrimental to our cellular genes and make them vulnerable to cancer,” Dr. Dong said.
The recent detection of the SV40 promoter/enhancer gene in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines has also led some cancer experts to express concerns about potential cancer interactions.
Dr. Wafik El-Deiry, the director of the cancer center at Brown University, wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that while “the SV40 promoter is not the potent cancer causing element T-antigen of the SV40 virus,” he is concerned that the spike proteins produced from the virus and the vaccine may exert effects on other common cancer-enhancing pathways.
Studies have suggested that the spike protein may be able to interact with a well-known protein responsible for preventing cancer in the body called p53. If the p53 gene and its proteins get suppressed, the body may be at a greater risk of cancer.
“As a p53 researcher I wanted to study the spike protein more and it’s [sic] effects on p53, proposed it in 2020 but did not have sufficient resources,” Dr. El-Deiry wrote.
Simple Butternut Squash Soup Recipe with an Anti-Inflammatory Quality
Cook up this simple butternut squash soup recipe for a tasty meal and as a way to potentially help manage inflammation.
Cool, autumn weather always stirs up soup making in our kitchen! Tonight was one of those nights when we turned to warming flavors, and aromas.
I gave it an anti-inflammatory “flavor” by adding ingredients commonly known to reduce inflammation; ingredients that also pair well with beta-carotene-rich butternut squash and carrots. It always needs to be delicious, too! (I asterisked and gave citations for all of the ingredients known to pack valuable, natural anti-inflammatory properties. Thank you, Mother Nature!)
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Technocracy: “Science of Social Engineering” Is Brainwashing
In 1937, The Technocrat magazine defined Technocracy as the “Science of Social Engineering” and then proceeded to define the outcome as a resource-based economic system with all decisions made by Technocrats. Rejected and ridiculed, they turned to deception and psychological warfare.
In Goudsmit’s book, Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier––Reality Is, chapter two is titled “The Art of Psychological Warfare.” Fast forward 100 years since the birth of Technocracy, their strategy hasn’t changed. No thinking person would give these crackpot Technocrats a second thought unless they were brainwashed into going along.
Think about it:
- There is an energy crisis even though there a abundant energy
- There is a food crisis even though there is abundant food to feed the world
- There is a water crisis even though about 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with it
- There is an air crisis where CO2 is declared anathema even though it is necessary for life to exist on earth
- There is a resource crisis even though there are abundant resources to support everyone.
These crises are shoved at you non-stop as “compelling” reasons to give them total control over everything, to micromanage you in a scientific dictatorship. Americans in the 1940s saw through this craziness and thoroughly rejected Technocracy. You must see through it now, or suffer the consequences. ⁃ TN Editor
Globalism is a replacement ideology that seeks to reorder the world into one singular, planetary Unistate, ruled by the globalist elite themselves. The globalist war on nation-states cannot succeed without collapsing the United States of America. The long-term strategic attack plan moves America incrementally from constitutional republic to socialism to globalism to feudalism. The tactical attack plan uses psychological, informational, asymmetric warfare to destabilize Americans and drive society out of objective reality into the madness of subjective reality. The primary target of the globalist predators is America’s children.
Parents must adopt a wartime mentality in order to understand and challenge the dangerous government policies affecting their children. Globalist strategists based their tactical and operational plans for their War on America on Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The differences between Sun Tzu’s strategies of the 6th century BC and 21st-century globalist psychological/informational warfare are the advances in science and technology available for implementing the weapons of mass social engineering and mass psychological destruction today.
Modern psychological warfare (PSYWAR) and psychological operations (PSYOPS) utilize the 21st-century digital environment and its integrated communications landscape to communicate and coordinate censorship, disinformation, and misinformation. The hearts and minds of unsuspecting viewers are being manipulated with websites, cloud servers, search engines, social media outlets, mobile apps, audio, video, podcasts, webinars, and even immersive digital environments using artificial, interactive, computer-generated scenes. Information wars are 21st-century propaganda wars, foundational to PSYWAR and PSYOPS because the information presented is socially engineered to produce a desired political effect.
Consider the following quotations from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and how COVID-19 was a medical PSYOP with real and lethal consequences.
Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment—that which they cannot anticipate.
Americans have always trusted their doctors, expecting them to honor the Hippocratic Oath that protects every patient. In late fall 2019 when the Wuhan virus first appeared, it was simply inconceivable to the American public that their trusted doctors, and the government medical institutions doctors rely upon for information, would deliberately participate in political medicine, which is not and never was about public health. The public expected honesty and protection.
As more and more information came out about the misinformation, disinformation, and wildly exaggerated projections of the dangers of COVID-19, Americans clung to the fiction that their doctors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and World Health Organization (WHO) were honest medical practitioners and agencies.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. That was the extraordinary moment when Americans, including then-President Donald J. Trump, were fooled into believing that political medicine was honest medical science. President Trump initiated Operation Warp Speed, and under the influence of Drs. Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, and Robert Redfield, Trump made the catastrophic decision to shut down America’s booming economy. Americans continued to believe political medicine’s biggest lie, that experimental mRNA jabs were actually vaccines that would provide immunity to COVID-19 and prevent transmission of the virus. Americans stood in line for jabs for themselves and their children, wore masks, stayed home, and remained convinced these policies were designed and essential for public health.
The lies began to unravel early in 2021 but the public remained compliant. Honest doctors and scientists around the world tried to warn the people that the COVID-19 policies and protocols were political medicine, not honest medical science. They warned of the dangers of experimental mRNA jabs and were publicly disparaged, fired, and sometimes jailed. Eventually they were vindicated when it became clear the mRNA jabs were never legally vaccines because they neither provided immunity nor prevented transmission. In fact, the jabs were compromising the immune systems of the people they were promised to protect, but political medicine’s damage had already been done.
As the catastrophic effects of the jabs were slowly revealed, many people were understandably furious. Yet many more clung to the illusion that masking, social distancing, and more mRNA jabs would protect them. People were dying in hospitals after getting the jabs. Young, healthy athletes were dropping dead after getting the jabs. Still, people clung to subjective reality and the lies the CDC, NIH, NIAID, and their own doctors continued to spew. The COVID-19 propaganda war was very effective. It duped an entire nation.
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
The whole COVID-19 debacle, its restrictions, protocols, and relentless, coordinated fearmongering campaign, was psychological warfare designed to create public demand for a vaccine that was not a vaccine. The globalist strategists knew the public would never willingly allow themselves and their children to be jabbed with untested, experimental, gene-altering mRNA injections. The public needed to be forced into subjective reality, where they would stand quietly in line for the jabs they believed would protect themselves and their families from the dreaded coronavirus. And so it was that a terrorized civilian population was subdued without fighting.
The CDC approval of experimental mRNA jabs for babies and young children was the ultimate malfeasance of political medicine’s participation in globalism’s war on children. On July 5, 2022, Medicare.gov sent an email addressed to seniors saying, “Talk with your family about getting the little ones vaccinated. In case you missed it, CDC now recommends COVID-19 vaccines for everyone 6 months and older, and boosters for everyone 5 years and older. COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing children from getting seriously sick.” Medicare and the CDC knowingly and deliberately misrepresented the known facts and advised seniors to persuade their adult children to have their grandchildren jabbed!
The untested, lethal jabs continued to be endorsed, boosters were recommended, annual jabs were discussed, and then Sun Tzu’s that which they cannot anticipate happened. On October 21, 2022, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization (ACIP) voted unanimously to add the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 jabs to the bloated child and adolescent immunization schedules for children who attend public schools. This action effectively mandated COVID-19 jabs for every child in America who attends public school.
The primary responsibility of parents is to protect their children and ensure their survival. In the 21st century, parents must protect their children from the malevolence of deceitful globalists who would physically destroy them.
All warfare is based on deception.
The Biden regime is a globalist enemy of the State, seeking to shatter American sovereignty and replace our constitutional republic with globalism’s planetary managerial Unistate. The enemy within is always the most dangerous because much of the general public lives in subjective reality, unable or unwilling to believe that our own government is deliberately collapsing our American society.
The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent.
The public may be confused, but globalist strategists live in objective reality and are not confused. Globalism seeks to replace the current system of independent sovereign nations with a one-world Unistate and planetary governance. One-world government, often referred to as the Great Reset and the New World Order, is a totalitarian state that breaches every conceivable boundary. The singularity imagined by globalist technocrats fuses humanity into one nation, one race, one language, one culture, one religion, one digital currency, one digital ID, one educational curriculum, and even one gender.
Parents must fulfill their primary responsibility and protect their children from the grasping globalists. They must reject subjective reality and embrace objective reality in order to recognize globalism’s threat to their children. Grandparents must stand up proudly for freedom and ordered liberty in our constitutional republic. If parents and grandparents do not rigorously oppose the globalist takeover, our nation’s children will become 21st-century slaves in globalism’s planetary feudal order of rulers and ruled. Remember, the globalists live in objective reality, and in life, objective reality always prevails.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Federal Agency Issues Geomagnetic Storm Watch
An advisory for a geomagnetic storm was issued for Monday and Tuesday by a federal agency after an eruption on the surface of the sun was detected on Sunday morning.
The Space Weather Prediction Center, a subdivision of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), warned about the eruption—known as a coronal mass ejection—on Sunday.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, and on its website, the agency said that the “general public does not need to be concerned” about the solar flare, but it added that the northern lights, known as the aurora borealis, could be visible in a number of states.
The solar flare, it said, “was observed lifting off the sun … and is expected to cause up to G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storming” in the early part of this week. “Watches of this level are not uncommon,” it said.
A forecast map provided by Space Weather Prediction Center reveals that the northern lights may be seen in Alaska, some northern U.S. states like Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota on Monday. Much of Canada may see the atmospheric phenomenon, too.
“The aurora is not visible during daylight hours. The aurora does not need to be directly overhead but can be observed from as much as a [sic] 1,000 kilometers [600 miles] away when the aurora is bright and if conditions are right,” the agency said.
According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, a geomagnetic storm represents a disturbance in the Earth’s magnetosphere and takes place when the energy caused by solar wind impacts the area around the planet. Generally, they occur several days after an eruption on the surface of the sun.
The solar flare occurred as the sun was approaching the peak of its current cycle, which started several years ago, says NOAA’s website in a recent article.
“As we approach the peak of Solar Cycle 25, we should expect to see more sunspots, each of which is a region of intense magnetic activity capable of producing solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or CMEs,” NOAA says. “This period of elevated activity can last up to several years, with impactful space weather events possible in 2024.”
‘We’re pressing pause on’ EVs: City’s $5 million electric bus fleet breaks down
Asheville, North Carolina, is looking to reinvest in biodiesel-powered buses after investing millions of dollars in an electric fleet that is only partly operable, WLOS reported.
Cities across America are starting to regret their massive electric bus investments as they continue to pour funds into costly, time-consuming repairs.
Asheville purchased five Proterra electric buses in 2018 for $5 million. Since then, the city has spent more than $200,000 to build vehicle chargers. Additionally, Asheville spends $118,000 annually for the contract to lease the buses’ batteries and another $45,481 to charge the vehicles, according to Asheville’s interim transportation director, Jessica Morriss.
“[I]f you added that altogether, I think, probably $900,000 to $1 million is what each one cost. And, since then, we’ve had to invest additional money into maintaining them and fixing them,” she added.
Only two of the five EV buses are currently operating while the other three are out of service while awaiting repairs. The city reported that the faulty buses have had several software and mechanical issues since they were delivered. One of the buses has been parked since July because the city cannot obtain a manufacturer replacement for a broken door.
“We haven’t been able to get new doors,” Morriss explained. “There’s no third party that makes a door. We’d have to get custom-made doors.”
Morriss noted that maintenance costs, including replacing traction drive controls on all five buses, have cost the city an additional $251,000.
According to maintenance director John McDaniel, several EV buses have needed new power inverters, which cost $14,000 each.
Proterra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August after receiving $10 million in COVID relief loans from the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020, which were ultimately forgiven. The EV company, which President Biden has praised, also received other government incentives and support.
“Since June 2023, we have had numerous issues with vehicles out of service for weeks and months,” Morriss stated.
The two operating buses in Asheville’s EV fleet are not performing well in the colder winter months. McDaniel explained that the buses could travel only about 78 miles, equivalent to about three trips to the airport, before they must be charged for several hours.
With some of the buses broken down, the city is relying on its 32 biodiesel and hybrid buses to transport commuters. Asheville plans to spend another $550,000 each for two more biodiesel buses.
“There’s some lessons here for sure. We’re pressing pause on investing in any electric technology until we can assure the products we get are going to be able to work,” Morris remarked.
In September, all eight electric Proterra buses in Jackson, Wyoming, were out of commission, Blaze News previously reported. The town switched to its diesel-powered fleet to keep operations moving. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority invested in 25 Proterra buses, which it has not been able to use for over three years.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Pick Compatible Houseplants for Your Home
Glean some tips for growing plants indoors.
Portable Cattle Feed Trough Design
Get some ideas for pasture water systems for livestock with this cattle feed trough design.
PET NEWS
How to Keep Dogs Water From Freezing: And Other Pets Too
There are several ways to keep dogs water from freezing, along with your other pets and livestock. Read on to learn the best tricks we know.
This past week North Carolina, and really, much of the nation, experienced the coldest temperatures ever recorded. Mt. Mitchell, the tallest point east of the Mississippi, reported -28! While this temperature may be standard in the Midwest, we’re not used to it at all! My chickens and goats had ice for water each morning, so I had to do something quickly.
Heated Water Bowl
One of the best things you can do is to get a heated water bowl.
Keep Dogs Water From Freezing
One of the best things you can do is to get a heated water bowl.
Black Rubber Bowls
I have black rubber bowls that I use outside in frigid weather to keep dogs water from freezing. These won’t crack like regular plastic in extreme cold. Turn the ice out of them and replace it with fresh water. I get warm water from the house. Alternatively, you can pour warm or hot water on the ice to help thaw it out. Don’t use hot water directly with livestock if it’s very cold. I’ve heard horror stories about people with horses that thought they’d do them a favor by giving them hot water. The changes in temperature can cause heart rhythm failure. It’s better to use warm to cool water and be safe.
Use The Sun!
You can also try moving the water to a more sunny location. Sun in itself is a powerful heater.
Move Bowls Inside
Try placing the water bowl or bucket inside the barn or coop to keep dogs water from freezing. The body heat from the animals can help warm it up enough to be drinkable.
Keep It From Freezing Without Electricity
Some of these ideas rely on electricity. If you have a power source close to where your pets are, that’s great. But if not, you may need to try one of the other ideas. Remember that goats and other animals are chewers, and the cords inside the barn or coop need to be protected. Many people use PVC pipes to run the cords through to protect them.
GOOD NEWS
A dry spell turned into a line out the door for one restaurant owner after a customer posted a touching photo on social media, reaching thousands.
Scott Hosek and his wife have owned Spirals: Hot Dogs & More in Norman, Oklahoma, since the onset of the pandemic. In October 2023, Mr. Hosek suffered a stroke, and his medical bills began piling up. Additionally, a winter dry spell made matters worse.
“Our restaurant is far enough back off the main trail that if you don’t know we’re here, you kind of forget,” Mr. Hosek, who has since recovered, told The Epoch Times.
On a quiet December day, Mr. Hosek greeted and served two customers who were wearing military uniforms: Nick Chappell and his colleague from the Oklahoma Army National Guard. He then retreated to the front door to look out for new customers. Touched by what he witnessed, Mr. Chappell snapped a photo of the candid moment.
Mr. Hosek went back to them to ask if they were expecting any other friends, and they replied with a “no.”
Unbeknown to the restaurant owner, Mr. Chappell shared his photo on Facebook alongside a plea to the public to visit the eatery. “The food was amazing and the hospitality was off the charts,” he wrote.
The post went viral, and the next day, Mr. Hosek had a line outside the door waiting for him.From making as little as $200 on a slow day and up to $600 on a busy day, Spirals started making $2,000 to $3,000 daily with the influx of new customers and has been that way for the last three weeks.
“Every day I was buying more food in order to keep it going,” Mr. Hosek said. “My restaurant seats about 35 people. … We have people against every wall, up against the walls three deep, and a line going out the door.”
However, it took the restaurant owner a couple of days to realize that it was Mr. Chappell’s post that was bringing in new customers. Mr. Chappell later went back to Spirals to offer to take the post down, but Mr. Hosek refused.
“I had no idea what we were getting into!” he said, adding that Mr. Chappell has returned for several interviews and has been “very generous, very kind, very humble.”For Mr. Hosek, who has degrees in theology and a background in construction and cheffing, Spirals is the first eatery he has ever owned and operated. He believes the overnight turnaround was the result of divine intervention.
“These are things that we pray about every day,” he said. “My wife and I … because of the stroke and because of all the bills starting to pile up, [were] just like, ‘Listen, we may have to consider closing. We may have to consider getting out of this.’ And God says, ‘Okay, that’s an option, but I’ll show you what I can do.’ So yeah, I would call it divine intervention for sure.”
Mr. Hosek and his wife got Spirals up and running amid the pandemic, after buying the unit next to their thrift store, thanks to a $10,000 grant from the city of Norman. They decided to quickly give back to the local community, as people struggled to adjust to life after COVID, by placing a sign inviting customers to leave their troubles at the door and “just relax, enjoy yourself, and have a hot dog.”
The Hosek children thought their parents had stepped off the deep end when they opened the hot dog eatery. Mrs. Hosek then suggested naming the hot dogs after their kids, and the venture became a family affair.
According to Mr. Hosek, their most popular hotdog is the bassdog.
“It’s named after my daughter-in-law: her last name is Bassin, and she was also a bass player in a band,” he said. “It has cream cheese on the inside with the protein of your choice, and is topped with chili, white cheddar sauce, and then shredded cheese and crumbles.”
The Hoseks also have a new hot dog on the menu which includes cream cheese, jalapeños, and bacon called the Thunderbird, named after the Thunderbird Unit patch for the 45th Infantry to whom their knight in shining armor, Mr. Chappell, belongs.
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