Today’s Top 5:
Former President Donald Trump said on June 8 that his attorneys informed him that he had been indicted by special counsel Jack Smith in connection with an investigation into his handling of classified documents.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. He went on to point to the parallel investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Trump said that he has been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami at 3 p.m. on June 13.
The indictment is the conclusion of a yearslong saga that started when the president moved out of the White House following the 2020 election.
The federal inquiry has led to the raid on Trump’s personal residence at Mar-a-Lago. The following is the timeline of the events leading up to the indictment.
Congressional lawmakers are reacting to news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will indict President Donald Trump over alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Trump said on June 8 that his attorneys were informed of the indictment by DOJ special counsel Jack Smith in connection to the investigation into the handling of classified documents. Trump is the first former U.S. president in history to face criminal action at the federal level. The announcement followed a raid by the FBI last year of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that allegedly discovered several classified documents in the president’s possession.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. He went on to point to the parallel investigation of President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Lawmaker reactions to the news are splitting largely along party lines, with Republicans describing it as a “witch hunt” that poses a “profound danger” to American political norms, while Democrats say it shows that “nobody is above the law.”
There will be no respite from the thick, hazardous wildfire smoke that’s disrupting daily life for millions of people across the U.S. East Coast and Midwest anytime soon, a specialist meteorologist forecast Thursday.
AP reports the weather system that’s driving what’s now known colloquially as the great Canadian-American smoke out — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — “will probably be hanging around at least for the next few days,” U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey said.
ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its May 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 35,196 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 7 percent from a month ago and up 14 percent from a year ago.
“The recent increase in foreclosure filings nationwide indicates a trend that has been observed throughout the year, and what we have expected to occur,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “This upward trajectory suggests the possibility of continued heightened activity, and with foreclosure completions seeing the largest monthly increase this year, we will continue to monitor the potential impacts this may have on the housing market.”
WORLD NEWS
Didn’t Take Long: WHO Global Vaccine Passports Go Live In Europe
As borders in Europe are now controlled by the World Health Organization, anti-vaxxers and other nay-sayers will be banned from movement between countries. This will spread rapidly around the world. Expect other add-ons to the passport that may or may not relate to health, such as certain co-morbidities or carbon footprint. The universal ID will also dovetail to Internet access and use of Central Bank Digital Currencies.
Receding Polar Ice Cap Opens Arctic Trade Routes, Creating New Realm for Naval Conflict
Military competition in the Arctic has primarily been the province of submarines and air power for almost a century, but with a receding ice cap leaving this previously inaccessible ocean open to surface ships for longer spans, new trade routes are emerging.
These new sea lanes, which directly link three continents, promise to dramatically shorten shipping routes and boost global trade, similar to how the Suez and Panama canals did.
They also promise to be contested in a conflict, opening a new realm of warfare in a forbidding environment that Russia has long dominated by isolated proximity and through strategic investments in its Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command, which includes a standing fleet of 32 surface ships, 33 submarines, seven ports, numerous air stations, and two infantry bases directly on the Arctic Ocean.
France knife attack: Children in critical condition after stabbing in Annecy
Police say the suspect has refugee status in Sweden, and recently came to France leaving behind a wife and three-year-old daughter.
In an application last year for refugee status in France, he said he was a Syrian Christian.
During the incident, the attacker invoked the name of Jesus Christ.
John Kerry Despairs at Global Population Growth: 10 Billion ‘Unsustainable’
A world population nearing 10 billion people by the middle of this century is “unsustainable,” U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry declared Wednesday, before setting out his future plans for planet earth.
Since November, the global population has officially crossed eight billion, more than three times the figure in 1950.
U.N. projections say the figure will balloon to 9.7 billion in the middle of the century, AFP reports, and Kerry told the outlet of his fears for the future. He said:
I don’t think it’s sustainable personally.
We need to figure out how we’re going to deal with the issue of sustainability and the numbers of people we’re trying to take care of on the planet.
Feeding people in a sustainable way is the key, Kerry continued, using Africa as an example of unsustainable population growth and the pressure it puts on food supply chains.
Previous supporters of driving behavioural change to stem population growth have pushed eating less while embracing alternatives as a possible answer.
Hundreds of children rescued from Sudan orphanage
More than 70 children have died at the care home since fighting erupted on April 15, a humanitarian group has said
Humanitarian agencies in Sudan say they have evacuated hundreds of children trapped in an orphanage in the capital, Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement on Thursday that more than 280 children were evacuated from the Mygoma Orphanage, along with 70 caretakers, to a “safer location outside the capital.”
“They have had a difficult time in an area where conflict has raged for the past six weeks, and they have been deprived of adequate health care,” said Jean-Christophe Sandoz, head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan.
The children, between the ages of one month and 15 years, were transferred to Wad Medani, a city about 200km from Khartoum after their orphanage was damaged in heavy fighting.
Australia to introduce national ban on Nazi symbols
Displays of the symbols will be punishable by jail terms, amid a resurgence in far-right activity.
UK AI Task Force Advisor: 2 Years Left To Contain, Or Else
The U.K. prime minister’s AI task force adviser said large AI models would need regulation and control in the next two years to curb major existential risks.
The artificial intelligence (AI) task force adviser to the prime minister of the United Kingdom said humans have roughly two years to control and regulate AI before it becomes too powerful.
In an interview with a local U.K. media outlet, Matt Clifford, who also serves as the chair of the government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), stressed that current systems are getting “more and more capable at an ever-increasing rate.”
He continued to say that if officials don’t consider safety and regulations now, the systems will become “very powerful” in two years.
“We’ve got two years to get in place a framework that makes both controlling and regulating these very large models much more possible than it is today.”
Clifford warned that there are “a lot of different types of risks” when it comes to AI, both in the near term and long term, which he called “pretty scary.”
The Trilateral Commission Members Driving Censorship Campaigns
In Costa Rica and Latvia today, the Atlantic Council is hosting its 360/OS Summit at RightsCon Costa Rica and NATO’s Riga StratCom. Among other things, the influential think tank will be previewing its “Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web” report, which they hope will “lay the groundwork for stronger cross-sectoral ideation and action” and “facilitate collaboration now between the expanding community dedicated to understanding and protecting trust and safety.”
In human terms, conference attendees are discussing how best to stay on-brand by presenting the Censorship-Industrial Complex as a human rights initiative, and as #TwitterFiles documents show, they have the juice to pull it off.
Saudi Crown Prince threatened to damage US economy – media
Mohammed bin Salman privately pledged to retaliate in a row over oil production cuts, leaked documents reportedly show
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman privately threatened to harm the American economy after President Joe Biden warned Saudi Arabia of “consequences” for agreeing an oil production cut with Russia, the Washington Post reported, citing leaked material.
The Biden administration had said it would re-evaluate relations with the kingdom following a decision by Riyadh to slash crude production against the wishes of the US.
The Crown Prince, who is widely referred to as MBS, warned that he would not deal with the US administration anymore if Biden penalized Saudi Arabia. He also promised “major economic consequences for Washington,” the Post reported on Thursday.
The threat was contained in a classified document that was leaked on a Discord server, but it was not clear whether the remark was part of intercepted communications or a message sent privately to the US.
Biden made his dissatisfaction with Riyadh clear last October after the OPEC+ group of major oil producers including Russia agreed to cut production by two million barrels a day. Washington was working to punish Moscow with sanctions on its oil trade over the conflict in Ukraine.
“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” the US president said in an interview with CNN at the time, without specifying any possible measures.
On the campaign trail before his election, Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the Crown Prince’s alleged role in the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which Riyadh blamed on rogue agents.
This threat never materialized, with White House insiders indicating that the Biden administration had opted against jeopardizing bilateral relations. Under a decades-old arrangement, the US provides security to Saudi Arabia, and in exchange retains access to its oil, which the kingdom trades for dollars, propping it up as a global currency.
A number of top US officials recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. These relations contrast with the reportedly poor personal chemistry between Biden and MBS, who have not met since last July.
The 37-year-old Saudi Crown Prince, who is responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom in lieu of his father, King Salman, reportedly mocks Biden in private, making fun of his gaffes and mental lapses. Critics of the US president have accused him of caving in to Saudi pressure.
EU countries agree to major migration deal
The rules endorsed on Thursday stem from the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, a holistic proposal presented by the European Commission back in September 2020.
The pact’s most innovative element is a system of “mandatory solidarity” that will give member states three options in times of migratory pressure.
- Accept a number of relocated asylum-seekers.
- Pay for the return of rejected applicants to their country of origin.
- Finance operational support, such as infrastructure and personnel.
Governments will be allowed to freely choose the option they prefer and no one will be forced to relocate migrants, a key guarantee to secure the votes from Central and Eastern Europe.
This solidarity mechanism was one of the two pieces of legislation that were voted upon on Thursday, together with a new set of rules on fast-tracked border procedures to examine the requests of those who illegally cross the borders.
At the end of the meeting, Malmer Stenergard confirmed the one-off payment for each rejected applicant will be provisionally set at €20,000, which will then be channelled into a yet-to-defined common EU fund. …
The political agreement allows the EU Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament, which has a somewhat diverging position on the matter. The goal is to wrap up the legislation before next year’s EU elections.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Supreme Court Strikes Down Republican-Drawn Election Map for Alabama
The Supreme Court voted 5–4 on June 8 to strike down Alabama’s electoral map for congressional elections, ruling that it was racially discriminatory.
The court narrowly found that the map drafted by Alabama Republicans violated the provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA), which requires that states not racially gerrymander districts.
Most members of the state’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives are Republicans. The court’s ruling, which requires the adoption of a different map before the 2024 elections, may benefit Democrats.
The decision no doubt comes as a relief to left-leaning civil rights activists who were concerned about how the conservative-dominated Supreme Court would interpret Section 2 of the VRA, which “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership” in a large language minority group, according to a summary.
Alabama had asked the Supreme Court to weaken Section 2, arguing the U.S. Constitution required such remedial action.
Asa Hutchinson Calls on Trump to ‘End His Campaign’ After Indictment
Presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) is calling on former President Donald Trump to end his presidential campaign following the news of federal prosecutors indicting the former president.
“With the news that Donald Trump has been indicted for the second time, our country finds itself in a position that weakens our democracy,” Hutchinson said in a statement released by the Asa for American campaign, accusing Trump of disregarding the Constitution and disrespecting the rule of law.
Lawmakers Warn of New Cold War as China Reportedly Seeks Spy Base in Cuba
Spy base would allow the CCP to spy on Americans and pose a grave threat to national security, Sen. Rick Scott says
The Chinese regime’s reported plan to create a secret eavesdropping facility in Cuba should be cause for alarm for everyone in the United States, according to lawmakers.
In its latest challenge to the United States, China has reached a deal with Cuba to install an electronic spy base on the island, just about 100 miles from Florida, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials familiar with highly classified intelligence.
It would be close enough for Chinese intelligence services to garner electronic communications from the southeastern United States—home to many military bases—potentially including emails, phone calls, and satellite transmission data, the officials have said. They said Beijing agreed to pay Havana billions of dollars for the arrangement.
Revelation of the secret intelligence facility sparked wide concern in Washington.
“Any time there is surveillance so close to the United States, there ought to be alarm bells for us,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Epoch Times.
According to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a longtime China critic, the implications of Beijing’s plan are grim.
Tucker Carlson’s Lawyer Responds to Fox News Contract Breach Allegations
Some conservatives call for boycott of Fox News after reports surface
A lawyer for Tucker Carlson has issued a response after reports claimed that Fox News sent a letter accusing Carlson of violating his contract by launching his own Twitter show this week.
“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds. Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events,” Carlson’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a June 7 statement to Axios, appearing to confirm reports that Fox News notified Carlson’s lawyers about a possible contract violation.
A letter was sent by Fox News’ counsel, Bernard Gugar, to Carlson’s attorneys stating that he now “is in breach” of his contract with Fox News after he premiered the first episode of his new Twitter show, “Tucker on Twitter,” on June 6. The first installment has generated more than 100 million views on the social media platform.
“In connection with such breach and pursuant to the Agreement, Fox expressly reserves all rights and remedies which are available to it at law or equity,” the letter from Gugar reads, according to Axios.
The Epoch Times couldn’t verify the authenticity of the contents of the letter.
“This evening we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes … pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox,’” the letter reads, appearing to quote Carlson’s contract.
The letter further stipulated that Carlson’s contract states that he’s “prohibited from rendering services of any type whatsoever, whether ‘over the internet via streaming or similar distribution, or other digital distribution whether now known or hereafter devised.’”
WATCH: Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Show Surpassed 100 Million Views
Tucker Carlson aired his first episode of the Tucker Carlson Show on Twitter on Tuesday, and it has garnered more than 100 million views, according to Twitter analytics.
In the ten minute monologue, Carlson honed in on the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam, which is located in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region. The explosion of the dam released 150 tons of machine oil into the Dnieper River, according to Newsweek.
Superman actor Dean Cain has left his Malibu, California home due to its “terrible” policies, joining a string of other Hollywood actors fleeing the Golden State.
Cain, best known for his role as Superman/Clark Kent in ABC’s “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” which ran from 1993 to 1997, made the comments in an interview with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade on June 7.
While the actor revealed his love for California, calling it “the most beautiful state,” Cain explained that the “fiscal policies, the soft-on-crime policies, the homelessness policies” are just “terrible” and that he ultimately decided to leave.
As a result, the actor sold his Malibu home in May for a reported $7.25 million and moved to Las Vegas with his family.
“The things that our leaders in California have been doing have driven out anybody who can really afford to get out. People are flocking out of there in droves,” he said. “And when I listed my house, I cannot tell you the number of people who contacted me and said: ‘Man, if I could get out of here right now, I would right now. Smart move.’”
Cain said he has been in Las Vegas, a low-tax state, for two weeks so far and firmly believes it was a smart decision.
Asked if the move would impact his career, Cain said that the acting industry had been pushed out of the state due to “astronomical” prices for filming, and many production companies have moved to states such as Louisiana, Nevada, and Texas instead, where costs are lower.
He said he has only shot one movie there in the last four or five years.
More Businesses Leaving California for Better Opportunities in Other States
Business companies are leaving California for better opportunities in other states, with the number of departing companies nearly doubling from 2012 to 2019.
A study commissioned by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce follows reports that California’s population has been shrinking since 2020.
“The Golden State’s luster appears tarnished in recent years,” said the study authored by economists and academics with the Inland Empire Economic Center. “A seemingly endless stream of firms is leaving the state, citing high taxation, heavy regulation, other business costs, and anything but a business-friendly environment.”
We live in an upside down society with completely upside down values. In this sort of an environment, literally anything that you say could get you into serious trouble. Theoretically, our Constitution is supposed to guarantee the right of free speech for us, but the truth is that free speech has been dead for quite some time now. Those that are in the process of fundamentally transforming our society have made policing speech one of their highest priorities, and their hordes of brainwashed minions are always ready to step in and crack down whenever a potential violation has been detected.
At this point, things have gotten so bad that even children singing the National Anthem is considered to be “offensive”…
An unbelievable case of censorship took place when the esteemed Rushingbrook Children’s Choir was silenced by Capitol Police in the middle of singing the National Anthem at
the United States Capitol. Despite having prior approval from Congress members, the police deemed their performance as a form of protest, sparking outrage and concern among citizens and lawmakers.
The Rushingbrook Children’s Choir had been granted permission to perform in Statuary Hall by South Carolina Representatives Russell Fry, Joe Wilson, and William Timmons, during their well-planned trip to Washington, D.C. The audience and the young singers were bewildered as their rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner was abruptly halted for seemingly baseless reasons. According to the police, singing the national anthem could be considered offensive or provoke conflict.
Are you kidding me?
We can’t have little children singing the National Anthem because it “could be considered offensive or provoke conflict”?
What in the world has happened to this country?
Emerald Robinson, the host of “Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson” at Frank Speech was able to obtain a copy of Tucker Carlson’s final monologue for his canceled show on FOX News.
Emerald posted the transcript from Tucker’s final monologue at Emerald.TV.
Tucker starts out by blasting Jen Psaki, a top Democrat and totalitarian who believes freedom of speech is a thing of the past.
Members of Congress aren’t allowed to talk like this. The Constitution of the United States prohibits it. American citizens have an inalienable right to critique and criticize their political leaders. Our politicians are not gods. They’re instruments of the public’s will. They serve the rest of us, not the other way around. For that obvious reason, politicians can never censor our speech or try to control what we think. That unchanging fact is the basis of our founding documents, of our political system and our personal freedoms. As a former government official who claims now to be a journalist, Jen Psaki should know this, and defend America’s foundational principle. She refuses. Instead, Psaki nods along like a fan as Sandy Cortez calls for law enforcement to shut down news programming. The White House Correspondents Association and various other self-described advocates of press freedom stay silent too. Apparently they agree with Ocasio-Cortes, or they’re too afraid to say otherwise.
Tucker then goes on to discuss how Congresswoman and open Marxist AOC wants his show canceled.
She’s demanding that our show be canceled because the things we’re saying are quote, “very clearly an incitement to violence.” Is this true? Even accounting for the fact that people tend to hear what they want to hear, it is not true. It’s a lie, as anyone who watches this show knows. We are opposed to violence, not just philosophically but in practical terms. We’re against violent crime — the strong oppressing the weak. We’re against the horrors of late-term abortion and state-encouraged euthanasia. And above all we’re passionately opposed to the violent and pointless cruelty of the war in Ukraine, which the Biden Administration could end at any moment, thus saving the lives of innocents, but is instead prolonging purely for ideological reasons. Those are the things we dislike the most — the acts of violence our leaders endorse. Ocasio-Cortes is one of those leaders. She supports every one of those indefensible things, from abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy to extending the carnage in Ukraine. Who, honestly, is on the side of violence?
And Tucker Carlson then revisits the quandary of Ray Epps.
And where, we wonder, is Ocasio-Cortes on the question of Ray Epps? January 6th was a violent insurrection they tell us — and on the basis of that claim, they’ve turned the war on terror against America’s own citizens. We believe that is a false characterization. As we’ve said many times January 6th was not an insurrection, which is why no one has been charged for that crime. No guns were brought into the Capitol. No plans to overthrow the government have ever been found. It was not an insurrection. But there was violence. A Capitol police officer called Michael Byrd executed Ashli Babbit, an unarmed protestor, and was praised for doing it by politicians in both parties. Outside the building, a riot broke out. Windows were smashed; cops were assaulted. We were offended by this on the day it happened, and we said so. We still are. We’re against violence, whether it’s in Chicago, Ferguson, downtown Kenosha or on the west steps of the Capitol building in Washington. The main question from January 6th is, how did the violence start? Nearly two and a half years later, we still can’t say with certainty, but there are clues in the contemporaneous video tape. The night before the riot, for example, a man called Ray Epps was caught on camera encouraging protestors to breach the capitol.
The next day, as the violence began, Epps was filmed again doing the same.
You can read Tucker’s entire monologue here.
Homelessness and drug addiction are a growing problem in cities all over the country, but perhaps most visibly in the northwest, where progressive leaders have allowed the problem to flourish.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that the Democrat mayor in Seattle is proposing to give homeless drug addicts ‘gift cards’ they can use to access treatment services.
This is what passes for solution policy in blue America.
On Tuesday, the Seattle City Council rejected Council Bill 120586 in a 5-4 vote that sought to empower the City Attorney’s office with the authority to prosecute drug possession and public drug use.
Out-of-control teen Tesla driver fatally strikes man, 76, tries to flee, cops say
The 17-year-old driver of an out-of-control Tesla jumped a curb and fatally struck an elderly pedestrian — before injuring another man sitting on a bench in Brooklyn, cops said.
The teen driver was speeding north on Ocean Parkway around 10:20 p.m. Wednesday when he lost control and mounted the sidewalk at the intersection of Avenue M in Midwood, striking 76-year-old Milorad Rajacic, police said.
The motorist also rammed into a city Department of Transportation traffic signal pole at the same corner before he continued driving on the sidewalk, cops said.
Autonomous Waymo car runs over dog in San Francisco
One of Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous cars has killed a pet dog. TechCrunch spotted the public report of the incident, which says one of the Waymo Jaguar I-Pace cars ran over a dog in San Francisco while in autonomous mode with a safety driver behind the wheel
Trump Announces 2024 Proposal to Investigate Rising Autism Rates
Former President Donald Trump released a campaign video in which he vows to investigate the rising rates of autism and other chronic illnesses across the United States if he’s elected in 2024.
“In recent decades, there has been an unexplained and alarming growth in the prevalence of chronic illnesses and health problems, especially in children,” Trump said in the Agenda47 video on June 6, asserting that there has been a “stunning rise in autism, autoimmune disorders, obesity, infertility, serious allergies, and respiratory challenges.”
Trump then asked whether it has to do with food, environmental pollution, or “the over-prescription of certain medications,” noting that Americans spend billions of dollars simply trying to treat such health problems rather than investigating the cause.
Big corporations and pharmaceutical companies “don’t want to ask the tough questions” about the rise in autism and children’s health, he said.
“Too often, our public health establishment is too close to Big Pharma. They make a lot of money—big pharma, big corporations, and other special interests—and do not want to ask the tough questions about what is happening to our children’s health,” Trump said.
“This is a conversation that is long overdue, and it’s a conversation that American families deserve. They must have a leader, a president, who can do something about this problem. And I will do that.
“I will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.”
Bryan Cave partner on leave after arrest in undercover sting investigation
A partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner is on indefinite leave after his arrest on a charge of attempted dissemination of indecent materials to a minor in the first degree.
The partner, Daniel Waxman, 55, is accused of exchanging sexual text messages with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl. He was actually sexting an undercover investigator in an undercover probe by the Rockland County, New York, district attorney’s office, according to a June 1 press release.
“The defendant’s texts to the undercover investigator became increasingly more sexual, culminating in the defendant arranging to meet the minor to engage in sexual conduct,” the press release alleges.
Waxman was arrested with the help of the Ramapo Police Department in New York when he arrived at a Rockland County location, allegedly to meet the supposed girl.
Report: Anne Frank-Impersonating Drag Queen Accused of Stabbing Father to Death
Michael “Norah” Horwitz, a drag queen and trans-identified male, was accused of murdering his father, a prominent Virginia dentist, last week.
Law enforcement officers were called to a house on the 1300 block of Wren Place just before 9 a.m. on June 3, where they found Dr. Abbey Horwitz, 68, suffering from multiple stab wounds, according to the Virginia Police Department. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police arrested Horwitz’s son, who they said is in the process of transitioning his sex, and identified him in a press release as a 34-year-old female named Michael “Norah” Horwitz, according to the New York Post, which used “she/her” pronouns throughout its report. Other media reports have also deviated from biological reality by identifying Michael Horwitz as a female.
Horwitz has been charged with second-degree murder and stabbing in the commission of a felony, according to police.
2ND AMENDMENT
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Significantly higher food prices are coming, because U.S. food production is going to be way below normal levels this year. That is really bad news, because food prices are already absurdly high. In some cases, people are paying as much for a full shopping cart full of food as they did for a used vehicle in the old days. I wish that I was exaggerating, but I am not. Unfortunately, food prices are only going to go higher because farmers and ranchers are being hit extremely hard from coast to coast. For example, it is being reported that wheat farmers in Kansas “will reap their smallest harvest in more than 60 years”…
IRS Sends Incorrect Payment Due Notices to Taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has sent out millions of letters demanding payment of taxes owed, with many of them featuring incorrect information.
The IRS said in a statement obtained by The Epoch Times that it had sent taxpayers a number of CP-14 letters—notices that they owe money on unpaid taxes.
But some of these notices have an incorrect payment date listed, the IRS acknowledged.
“The IRS apologizes to taxpayers and tax professionals for any confusion as we continue to review the situation,” the agency said in the statement.
The tax agency noted, however, that these letters include a special insert that features the correct payment deadline, which was extended under special tax relief to taxpayers in federally declared disaster zones.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Tesla to add General Motors to its charger standard next year
Tesla’s Supercharger network is about to get more crowded. On Thursday afternoon,
General Motors CEO Mary Barra joined Tesla CEO (and Twitter’s owner) Elon Musk to announce that GM is signing on to what Tesla calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) and will integrate those ports into its electric vehicles from 2025. The move follows a similar agreement between Tesla and Ford, announced two weeks ago.
“This collaboration is a key part of our strategy and an important next step in quickly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers. Not only will it help make the transition to electric vehicles more seamless for our customers, but it could help move the industry toward a single North American charging standard,” Barra said in a statement.
GM EVs will gain access to the Supercharger network of over 12,000 chargers starting in 2024. As with the Ford news, GM EVs will initially require an adapter to connect the NACS cable to their CCS1 charging ports.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
In a victory for transparency in police use of facial recognition, a New Jersey appellate court today ruled that state prosecutors—who charged a man for armed robbery after the technology showed he was a “possible match” for the suspect—must turn over to the defendant detailed information about the face scanning software used, including how it works, source code, and its error rate.
Calling facial recognition “a novel and untested technology,” the court in State of New Jersey v. Francisco Arteaga held that the defendant would be deprived of due process rights unless he could access the raw materials police used to identify him and test its reliability to build a defense. The inner workings of the facial recognition software is vital to impeach witnesses’ identification of him, challenge the state’s investigation, and create reasonable doubt, the court said.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said that he and 10 other House Republicans recently voted against debating a bill to prevent a ban on gas stoves in part owing to a threat related to the debt ceiling legislation.
“Last week during the debate, on passing the [debt ceiling] package that was sent to the Senate, one of our members was threatened,” Norman told EpochTV’s “Crossroads” programme. “And actually several [members] were threatened that if you voted against the bill, they’re going to take down specific rules.”
“The very important bill that leadership threatened to not put on the calendar is the pistol brace rule that [Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.)] had put forward,” he added.
“And it just wasn’t right, what they did. It was supposed to be on the calendar this week. They’ve since said they’re gonna put it back on the calendar, but just the thought of taking a bill off the calendar because somebody didn’t vote one way, it’s just not right.”
Clyde has also previously accused GOP leadership of putting pressure on him to vote for the debt ceiling bill when he was attempting to debate a bill that would block the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ pistol brace rule. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) on June 6 denied making such a threat.
The vote on June 6 to bring the bill to protect gas stoves to debate came in at 206–220, making it the first procedural vote to fail in nearly two decades.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Tips for responsibly and safely foraging and hunting for food
Before you step foot into the outdoors and expect to start blindly sampling any colorful fruit and berry you spot, you first need to know how to forage and hunt responsibly and safely.
Scouting for food in the wild may seem easy at first, but foraging is more than just walking around in the woods and spotting delicious berries. Foraging requires a good knowledge of the environment and a little bit of practice in the wild.
Let’s look at some basic rules and guidelines and tips for a successful foraging experience.
Saving seeds from green beans is a perfect introduction to seed saving. Did you know that pinto beans, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, and other dried beans are simply seeds? If you grew beans last year and dried some for eating through the winter, you can use those very same beans to plant in the spring.
HEALTH
Starbucks is putting olive oil in coffee – is it a brilliant way to start the day or disgusting?
Coffee giant Starbucks is known for its unusual flavour combos. Some become hits; take its pumpkin spice latte, which sends fans into a frenzy each autumn.
Yet others, such as its latest offering, are more divisive. Glug of olive oil in your coffee, anyone?
Introduced in Italy earlier this year, and available from this month in the UK, Starbucks’ Oleato range (oliato means ‘oiled’ in Italian) combines arabica coffee with extra virgin olive oil.
Extra virgin olive oil, full of healthy fats, is one of the pillars of the Mediterranean diet, which has been shown to reduce the risk of developing various diseases.
And adding a splash of it to your morning brew creates a ‘velvety smooth texture, while the buttery flavours of the oil pair perfectly with the chocolatey notes of our arabica coffee beans,’ insists Alex Rayner, general manager at Starbucks UK.
Extra virgin olive oil is one of the best things you can eat for your cardiovascular health, a great source of monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants, which protect our red blood cells from damage. But registered nutritionist Mays Al-Ali warns that the addition of sweeteners and oat milk undermines the health benefits.
‘Oat milk is made by breaking down raw oats and mixing them with water. When oats are broken down, a sugar called maltose is formed. So putting 350ml of oat milk in your latte means adding almost a tablespoon of sugar to your drink.’
Instead, she suggests adding a shot of quality extra virgin olive oil to freshly brewed black coffee.
I give it a go and you know what? It’s not bad. I can taste both flavours and, weirdly, they make for an elegant pairing. Some experts claim adding oil to coffee helps slow down the absorption of caffeine, too, meaning those sensitive to it feel less jittery.
But I can think of more enjoyable ways to consume extra virgin olive oil, such as drizzled onto pasta or with steak — far tastier than adding it to your morning espresso.
30% of Americans Have Fatty Liver Disease
In the U.S., an estimated 30% of adults have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common chronic liver disease
In people with obesity, up to 90% have NAFLD, as do up to 75% of those who are overweight and 50% of people with diabetes
Even 10% of U.S. children are suffering from NAFLD
The high rates of NAFLD are likely related to the increased intake of toxic industrially processed seed oils and environmental pollutants like glyphosate and PFAS
Lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise play important roles in exacerbating, as well as reducing, your chances of developing NAFLD
The single most important step to protecting your liver health is lowering your seed oil content as much as possible. Please review the comprehensive article and video on LA I posted earlier this year. Limiting alcohol and environmental pollutants like glyphosate and PFAS are also important, but be sure to add in choline-rich foods like pastured egg yolks, which are known to support liver health.
Vitamin B12 and folic acid may also be protective and have been found to decrease the progression of NASH. Niacinamide, also known as nicotinamide (NAM), is another option. It’s a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), a vital signaling molecule that’s believed to play an important role in longevity. However, supplementation with NAM has also been found to decrease oxidative stress and prevent fatty liver.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a precursor needed for glutathione biosynthesis, is another liver-supportive agent to be aware of. NAC is used as an antidote for acetaminophen toxicity,31 which causes liver damage by depleting glutathione. Research published in Hepatitis Monthly has shown NAC supplementation helps improve liver function in patients with NAFLD.32 Adding 5 to 15 grams per day of the amino acid glycine would also be useful.
Another option is milk thistle, which contains silymarin and silybin, antioxidants that are known to help protect your liver from toxins and even help regenerate liver cells. Supplements should always be used in combination with living a healthy lifestyle, including eating right and exercising. If you’re overweight, losing 7% to 10% of your body weight can improve NAFLD, including lowering liver fat content, liver inflammation and fibrosis.
—> Power Mall Products of Interest:
LIVER HEALTH (From Global Healing Center) – Contains Organic Milk Thistle
California hospital staff call for halt of surgeries over bizarre particles
Hospital officials said the equipment is sterile, while staff questions safety.
More than 70 staff members of a San Diego-area hospital are calling for a halt of all surgeries at the facility due to unidentified black, brown, and gray specks on surgical trays, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
The objecting staff have signed a petition to spur hospital officials to pause procedures until the issue is resolved. But officials at the facility, the Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center, have rejected the call, according to the Union-Tribune. A spokesperson for the facility did not respond to voicemails from Ars.
“Providing safe, quality, and timely care to our patients is our top priority, and we will continue to schedule surgeries at Zion that can be safely performed,” Kaiser told the Union-Tribune in a statement. “We have confirmed that all measures we are taking to clean, process and transport surgical equipment to our Zion Medical Center for use [are] safe and medically appropriate.”
The statement acknowledged that there was an “isolated issue” with equipment used to wash surgical instruments before they are sterilized. The problem resulted in “minute residual particles” from the hot water tank being left on the equipment.
“We are currently cleaning and flushing the lines of this equipment to remove all residual particulates,” Kaiser said. “In the meantime, surgical instruments used at Zion Medical Center are being safely cleaned and processed at our nearby San Diego Medical Center and an outside agency.”
COVID RELATED NEWS
Lies, Sweet Lies: What Stories Do We Believe?
In the words of the WEF, “story-based media can shift social norms, values and beliefs more effectively than traditional, fact-based messaging”
When a story is based on a lie, it takes a significant effort to maintain that lie, and the tyrants work day and night to keep their lies “alive”
The definition of “normal” came from math, and its contemporary meaning was shaped by the father of eugenics and Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton
Today, there is an effort on the part of the “human parasites” to induce the condition of “arrested development” on as many people as they can
No matter the circumstance, it’s on us to stand tall
PET NEWS
What’s Causing My Dog’s Eye ‘Goop?’
‘Eye boogers,’ or ocular discharge, can be puzzling to dog owners, simply because it can change appearance from one day to the next. So, do you just wipe it away or is it ever a reason for concern? Know the seven types of eye discharge, and the types you shouldn’t ignore.
Ocular discharge, otherwise known as “eye boogers,” is a normal occurrence due to tears accumulating in the inner corner of the eyes.
Tear stains are caused by a pigment in tears called porphyrin, which turns a reddish-brown color after exposure to air.
Yellow or green discharge is often a sign of an infected eye; the infection may be due to bacteria or an underlying condition, such as corneal wounds or dry eye.
Discharge that has a gummy texture and causes your dog’s eyelids to stick together may be due to dry eye.
If you notice your dog rubbing or pawing at his eyes, or he suddenly starts squinting, you should see a veterinarian to rule out infection or injury.
GOOD NEWS
Rhode Island city gets bus to help house its homeless population
One Rhode Island city has found a creative way to combat homelessness in the community.
Monday night, the Woonsocket city council approved the purchase of a 45-foot coach bus, which will be turned into a miniature shelter.
Magician Performs Tricks for Shelter Dogs So Their Enthusiastic Reactions get Them Adopted–Watch
John Stessel normally performs his A-list magic show to adoring fans and celebrities, but he has found another, equally enthusiastic audience for his tricks.
Stessel routinely performs now for shelter dogs at the St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in New Jersey, where their adorable reactions help to get them adopted.
Reactions to magic? Yeah, dogs are smart, and making treats and toys disappear before their eyes evidently leaves them flabergasted and determined to find out the secret.
“One of my small little superpowers is I can just help dogs show off in a way that they couldnt without me,” Stessel told Inside Edition. “Typically in the video the dogs just go nuts and they all have really different reactions.”
Stessel must take 4-5 antihistamines because, as it hapens, he’s frighteningly allergic to dogs. Hives are a common sight on set.
His work pays off, and most of the dogs in the video below have gone on to find permanent homes and loving families.
Firefighter who rescued toddler from burning building meets the boy’s son 23 years later
We don’t always get to see what happens after a heroic deed.
We all know that Upworthy loves a good hero story. Suddenly humanity seems a little less dark after hearing about students coming to their teacher’s rescue, moms taking on entire swarms of bees to keep their kids safe or entire bank heists being thwarted by a single hug.
However, we rarely get a glimpse of what happens after those feel-good stories take place. It’s not often that we get to witness firsthand the lasting impact made from one good deed. That’s what makes this story so special.
Xavier Dimples was only 2 years old when his house caught fire, leaving him trapped inside. Without a firefighter named Jeff Ohs bravely entering the burning building to pull the toddler out of the wreckage and resuscitating him, Dimples would have perished.
Twenty-three years after the incident, Dimples was able to reunite with Ohs, introducing him to his son who was the exact same age as Dimples when Ohs rescued him.
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