Today's News: January 24, 2018

World News

Pentagon: U.S. Kills 150 Islamic State Fighters in Syria Airstrike During Government Shutdown
Breitbart – The Pentagon announced that the U.S. killed 150 Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in an airstrike targeting eastern Syria during the federal government shutdown Saturday.
A statement from U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. troops in the Middle East, said that the airstrike hit one of the last areas under Islamic State control near the Syrian border with Iraq. The terror group surrendered control of 98 percent of its territory in the region and currently occupies only two percent of land near the Syrian city of Al-Shaafah, where the strike occurred. “[The American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)] assisted in target observation prior to the strikes,” according to a statement announcing the airstrike.

Irony Alert: A Thousand Private Jets Deliver Globalist Elite to Davos for Climate Change Summit
Breitbart – More than 1,000 private jet flights have been delivering globalist elites to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where attendees are discussing — among other topics — the ‘major threat’ of climate change. Airports around the Swiss ski resort will see the number of private jets spike 335 per cent during the annual meeting of world elites, according to Air Charter Service (ACS). Research commissioned by the jet hire company found an average 218 private jet movements a day during the weeklong forum, compared to the 65 daily flights Swiss airfields usually deal with. Andy Christie, group director for executive jets at ACS, said clients last year opted for expensive “heavy jets” to their lighter, more environmentally-friendly alternatives, with Gulfstream GVs and Global Expresses both being used more than 100 times each.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Sen. Ron Johnson: FBI Informant Says ‘Secret Society’ Held Secret Meetings Off-Site
An FBI informant has apparently informed Congress that a secret society at the FBI was holding secret meetings off-site after the election of Donald Trump. On Special Report with Bret Baier Tuesday evening, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) called it “corruption of the highest levels of the FBI.” “That secret society — we have an informant that’s talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site,” Johnson said. “There is so much smoke here.”
This comes after text messages between FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page, his paramour, revealed that a “secret society” of officials within the FBI met the day after the election of Donald J. Trump to plot against the president-elect.
Related: Deep State Plot Thickens: Two Top FBI Officials Discussed ‘Secret Society’ In Anti-Trump Texts

Soro-Funded Activists Surround Democrat Chuck Schumer’s Home To Demand ‘Immediate Amnesty For All 12 to 30 Million Illegals Inside The United States’
SHFTplan – Far-left open borders activists and illegal immigrants came together Tuesday to storm the home of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after the Democrat finally decided to put the American people ahead of illegal immigrants in voting to reopen the federal government without amnesty for millions of said illegals being included in the funding bill. The Soros-funded protesters shockingly claimed that DACA itself was no longer good enough and instead demanded amnesty for all of the 12 to 30 million illegal immigrants inside the country as well as those already locked up in detention centers for entering the country illegally. In other words, full on open borders with no restrictions. The group, “United We Dream” went as far as to block off streets in Brooklyn as they moved to surround Schumer’s home to demand what would amount to the end of the country as we know it, which just so happens to also be the goals of their benefactor, George Soros himself. The protesters called for a “new” Dream Act which they apparently hope will include all illegal aliens residing inside the country.

New York sues Big Pharma for deadly opioid epidemic
RT – New York City is suing eight companies that make or distribute prescription opioids for their role in the ongoing opioid crisis. The suits aim to recover $500 million for current and future costs combating the epidemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio said opioids killed more people in the city in recent years than car crashes and homicides. “Big Pharma helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions of Americans in exchange for profit,” Mayor de Blasio said in a statement about the suits filed in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday. “It’s time [to] hold the companies accountable for what they’ve done to our city, and help save more lives.”

Justice Dept Ramps Up Pressure on So-Called Sanctuary Cities
New York Times – The Justice Department ramped up pressure Wednesday on so-called sanctuary cities seeking public safety grant money, warning that they could be legally forced to prove they are cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The move prompted immediate backlash, with mayors from across the country announcing they would boycott a planned meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump on Wednesday afternoon. Officials sent letters to roughly two dozen jurisdictions threatening to issue subpoenas if they don’t willingly relinquish documents showing they aren’t withholding information about the citizenship or immigration status of people in custody. The department has repeatedly threatened to deny millions of dollars in important grant money to communities that refuse to comply with a federal statute requiring information-sharing with federal authorities, as part of the Trump administration’s promised crackdown on cities and states that refuse to help enforce U.S. immigration laws.

Poll: Voters want special prosecutor to investigate FBI
WND – The Democrats claim that Russia and the Trump campaign colluded to take the 2016 presidential election away from the scandal-ridden Hillary Clinton. Republicans say the Russia claims are trumped up to distract from corruption by Clinton and the Obama administration. The FBI has been at the center of both controversies. Now the voters say a special prosecutor is needed to figure out what really happened. “Voters suspect the FBI is hiding something and think a special prosecutor is needed to see if the nation’s top cops have been playing politics,” says a new report Wednesday from Rasmussen Reports. The group conducted a national telephone and online survey and discovered 49 percent of likely U.S. voters say a special prosecutor should be named to investigate “whether senior FBI officials handled the investigation of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a legal and unbiased fashion.” Thirty-one percent said don’t bother, and 19 percent were not sure.

Veteran News

Group Aimed at Respecting the Anthem, NFL Establishes Owner-Player Committee on Social Justice
Breitbart – The NFL has established a player-owner committee focusing on social and racial justice initiatives. The league also said Tuesday it is beginning a “Let’s Listen Together” campaign that includes digital content and commercials highlighting player-led work on equality issues. That platform will include social media support and letters from players and owners. Owners on the committee are Arizona’s Michael Bidwill, Atlanta’s Arthur Blank, Jacksonville’s Shahid Khan, Cleveland’s Jimmy Haslam and Miami’s Stephen Ross. Current players Josh McCown, Josh Norman, and Kelvin Beachum, Pro Football Hall of Famer Aeneas Williams and former player Anquan Boldin are on the committee. This season many players took knees during the national anthem to protest social and racial injustice, drawing rebukes from President Donald Trump. Boldin says the initiative should be “celebrated” because the NFL is the “first professional league or entity that has taken the concerns of its players and put resources behind it.”

Economy & Business

The Yuan Dynasty: China’s Bid to Replace the Dollar
Newsbud – Chinese government officials recently informed Washington of intentions to ‘slow’ or outright ‘halt’ state purchases of US Treasury bonds. The economic realities underlying Beijing’s report caused noticeable effects on the bond and stock markets. Wider geopolitical considerations were certainly felt among analysts, government officials and within industry. With the Trump Administration’s looming trade war against China sitting alongside threats posed to Chinese allies North Korea and Iran, China’s palpable concerns – and China’s perceived need for putting its largest trade partner on notice over said concerns – are hardly a secret to either side or to the rest of the world. China’s intended move to price energy resources and other commodities in its own currency is interrelated to potential bond dumping issues. In this episode of Money & Fear, we’ll review the underlying fiscal and political stakes, which make this latest Chinese announcement hard to ignore, and speak to rising risks of approaching conflict between the US and China.

Science & Technology

Eliminate Google From Your Life
Mercola – Google’s internet monopoly, which centers around personal information tracking and sharing, is just the beginning. Google, by far one of the greatest monopolies that ever existed, poses a unique threat to anyone concerned about health, supplements, food and your ability to obtain truthful information about these and other issues. And, while not the sole threat to privacy, Google is definitely one of the greatest. Over time, Google has positioned itself in such a way that it’s become deeply embedded and involved in your day-to-day life. It’s important to realize that Google catches every single thing you do online if you’re using a Google-based feature, and that the data is being used to build powerful personality profiles. How to Oust Google From Your Life – Alphabet, the rebranded parent company that houses Google and its various divisions, has turned into an octopus-like super entity with tentacles reaching into government, food production, health care, education, military applications and the creation of AIs that may run more or less independently. This year, vow to clamp down one of the greatest personal data leaks in your life by boycotting all things Google. Here’s a summary of action steps you can take right now, starting today. For more information, see Goopocalypse.com’s boycott Google page. Avoid any and all Google products. Stop using Google search engines. Try an alternative search engine like DuckDuckGo. Uninstall Google Chrome and use the Opera browser instead, available for all computers and mobile devices. From a security perspective, Opera is far superior to Chrome and offers a free VPN service (virtual private network) to further preserve your privacy. If you have a Gmail account, close it and open an account with a non-Google affiliated email service such as ProtonMail,22 and encrypted email service based in Switzerland. Stop using Google docs. Digital Trends has published an article suggesting a number of alternatives.

A.I. becoming a job threat to radiologists as research shows improved detection rates in X-rays
NaturalNews – A new study suggests that it may only be a matter of time until the radiology profession is rendered entirely obsolete. Not by lack of skills or certifications, but by the rise of highly-trained and incredibly accurate artificial intelligence machines. The paper, which was put together by Stanford University researchers and published under the title, “MURA Dataset: Towards Radiologist-Level Abnormality Detection in Musculoskeletal Radiographs,” looked at a large dataset that contained more than 40,000 images taken from almost 15,000 studies. The researchers put all of the images through a 169-layer densely connected convolutional network in order to train it to detect and localize abnormalities and in the end label each one as either normal or abnormal. According to the researchers, the availability of large and high-quality datasets have played a pivotal role in the ongoing progress of fields with deep learning methods. To that end, they have created one of the largest public radiographic image datasets ever, which is what they used to feed the densely connected convolutional network that they trained to detect abnormalities in images of patients.

NASA Is Either Covering Up UFOs Or Feeding The ‘Alien Hysteria’
SHFTplan – The International Space Station’s live feed caught a UFO on its video, and soon after, NASA cut the feed. This has led many to believe that the government-run space agency is either covering up the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence or feeding the “alien hysteria.”
Joe Joseph of The Daily Sheeple feels that NASA could just enjoy “screwing with people.” Which may be the case, but either way, the space agency is being disingenuous. “It’s tin foil hat time, folks!” says Joseph. “There’s another situation where a mysterious object comes onto camera from the International Space Station and instantly *boop* live feed cut. How many times have we seen this? Over and over again. And let me tell ya, NASA, if there’s nothing to hide, why are you doing this cuz it’s only feeding “hysteria” and tin foil hattery.” Joseph declared. Scott Brando, a UFO hoax investigator who runs ufoointerest.org, told Express.co.uk: “I think this is a reflection of sunlight through clouds.” If that’s the case, why bother cutting the live feed?

US Senate seeks to end impasse on self-driving car bill
The Christian Science Monitor – The chairman of the US Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday said he is pursuing different strategies to win approval this year of landmark self-driving car legislation that could make it easier for automakers to get thousands of cars on the road without human controls. Self-driving cars could reduce the 37,000 annual US road deaths and provide mobility to the disabled and blind, said Sen. John Thune (R) of South Dakota who chairs the Commerce Committee. “We could save a lot of lives,” Senator Thune said, noting government findings that 94 percent of car crashes are caused by human error. “It is cutting-edge technology, transformational in terms of the economy.”

Microsoft boss: World needs more computing power
BBC – The world is rapidly “running out of computing capacity”, the head of tech giant Microsoft has warned. Satya Nadella said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that superfast quantum computers were needed to solve some of the most difficult problems. Mr Nadella cited the quest to create a catalyst that can absorb carbon, in order to help tackle climate change.
This, he cautioned, would likely not be achieved without an increase in computer processing power.

Gardening, Farming & Homesteading

Natural first-aid treatments of old can help you survive off-grid emergencies
NaturalNews – While you’re in civilization, modern medicine is always within arm’s reach thanks to pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals. But if you’re trapped in the wilderness for a couple of days or longer, you’re going to need more than a simple first aid kit. In other parts of the world, certain tribes and cultures still rely on “local Shamans or healers” when they are in need of medical help. A lot of the herbal cures used are just as effective as any drug you can buy at the pharmacy. Most of the modern cures that we use without a second thought even owe their discovery to various plants found in the rain forests. Always keep these natural first-aid treatments in mind because they can spell the difference between survival and death when you’re in the great outdoors.

After herbicide scandals, Monsanto faces rising competition for soybeans
The Christian Science Monitor – Monsanto Company’s Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybean seeds are paired with a powerful herbicide called dicamba, which has caused millions of dollars in damage to US farms. In the wake of this scandal, two other soybean companies are releasing their own products. Monsanto Co. is facing major threats to its historic dominance of seed and herbicide technology for the $40 billion United States soybean market. Rivals BASF and DowDuPont are preparing to push their own varieties of genetically modified soybeans. At stake is control over seed supply for the next generation of farmers producing the most valuable US agricultural export. The market has opened up as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready line of seeds – engineered to tolerate the weed killer glyphosate – has lost effectiveness as weeds develop their own tolerance to the chemical. Compounding the firm’s troubles is a national scandal over crop damage linked to its new soybean and herbicide pairing – Roundup Ready 2 Xtend seeds, engineered to resist the chemical dicamba. The newly competitive sector has sown confusion across the US farm belt, particularly among smaller firms that produce and sell seeds with technology licensed from the agrochemical giants.

Health

Do you clean your dishwasher? Research reveals deadly bacteria linked to food poisoning and heart infections can build up and contaminate your dishes
NaturalNews – A new study shows that dishwashers may not be as clean as you think. There could be bits of food, soap, and grease in it that could build up and potentially be an ideal breeding ground for microorganisms. According to researchers from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, deadly bacteria linked to food poisoning and heart infections are hiding in dirty dishwashers. The scientists arrived at a conclusion after examining 24 rubber seals in dishwashers in privately-owned homes, as well as looking at the water that the dishwashers use. The research team found that a lot of dishwashers contain bacteria like Escherichia (which includes strains such as E. coli) that lead to acute food poisoning in humans. These pathogens could spread into homes through the hot air produced in a dishwasher cycle, according to researchers. They also advised owners to open their dishwashers only after it has cooled down. In addition, wiping the rubber seal surrounding the dishwasher doors after every cycle will prevent bacteria from accumulating and protects against the hot and humid air inside the dishwasher. While these bacteria do not impose much harm on healthy people, they can be fatal to those with a weakened immune system, such as those undergoing chemotherapy or organ transplants. (Related: Your dishwasher could be harboring dangerous ‘super’ fungi, says report.)
Five do’s and don’ts in the kitchen to ensure food safety
Food safety is essential to reduce food-borne illnesses which are a burden on public health. Listed below are five tips to ensure food safety in the kitchen.