WORLD NEWS
China Invades Philippine South China Sea, Ramming Ships in Their Own Waters
Philippine Coast Guard vessels clashed with Chinese naval forces on Monday on the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, which China illegally claims as its own, leaving four Filipino crewmen injured.
The incident occurred during a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded World War II US-made vessel that has served as an outpost of the Philippine Marine Corps since 1999. Manila uses the outpost to assert its sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, which China illicitly claims as its own.
Philippine officials stated that the Chinese vessels’ “dangerous maneuvers” led to two collisions, causing minor structural damage to the BRP Sindagan. The Chinese vessels used water cannons on the civilian Unaizah May 4, shattering the wooden boat’s windshield.
The incident prompted the Philippine government to summon China’s deputy chief of mission in Manilla on Tuesday for a formal diplomatic protest against the actions of the Chinese naval forces against the Philippine resupply vessel and its crew. Manila requested that all Chinese vessels immediately leave the area surrounding the shoal.
China blamed the incident on the Philippine ships, claiming that the Philippine vessels “intruded” into waters adjacent to the Second Thomas Shoal, which the Chinese government refers to as the “Ren’ai Reef.”
Safety watchdogs have ordered the recall of almost 2,000 electric buses over fears they can catch fire if left unattended. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has warned operators who use the Alexander Dennis Enviro200 and Enviro400 single and double decker buses of the critical safety issue. The buses are currently operational across the UK, with more than 600 in London and a further 100 in Manchester. All of the affected vehicles were manufactured between May 3, 2019 and February 6, 2024. They all contain batteries supplied by Chinese firm BYD.
Initial investigations suggest the fault may be in the air conditioning and heating system. The alert was issued following a scare on board one of the buses – which can cost up to £450,000 each – putting the value of the entire fleet at £800m.
At present, there is no permanent solution to prevent future fires. Instead, operators using the high-tech buses are warned to ‘switch off the Hipsacold HVAC system when the vehicle is left unattended’.
To remind drivers to isolate the power supply were they allowed to pay
Alexander Dennis told MailOnline they are working on the problem with regulators and their suppliers. They stressed the issue is not related to a string of recent fires involving ‘different vehicle types and technologies’.
In September 2021, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced that all new buses in London would be ‘zero emission’. As of March 31, 2023 – most recent figures available. London had a total of 476 of the buses subject to recall in their fleet.
A further 100 of the same bus type has been supplied to Manchester as part of their move to electric buses. Although, according to the DVSA there are almost 1,800 of the affected vehicle type on British streets. Certain routes in the capital are now entirely electric as part of Sadiq Khan’s commitment to reduce harmful emissions in the city. Cities such as Coventry, Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, Glasgow and Aberdeen also use the buses.
Tory MP Turns Whistle-blower on Curious Case of the Vanishing Government Migration Statistics
An informed debate on mass migration is being stifled because a wide range of official
statistics are being withheld by the government, a Member of Parliament complains.
A Conservative Member of Parliament is becoming a surprise emerging voice in the migration debate, taking a methodical approach to determining the true costs of different kinds of migration to Britain and sounding the alarm as yet more useful data is withdrawn, making a national “sensible discussion” on issues more difficult. The source of this dissent is all the more surprising given the source, Neil O’Brien MP, is otherwise close to the government and an ally to centrist figures like George Osborne and the now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Writing privately on his own Substack, O’Brien vented his frustration at the receding availability of quality immigration data from the government’s own departments, revealing data on the amount of paid per nationality of taxpayer in the country, and data on welfare claims by nationality had been “discontinued”. These joined other statistics, the Parliamentarian said, which had already been deleted, including arrests by nationality, the immigration status of prisoners, detailed data on current prisoners’ criminal histories, and even real fundamentals like the population of the UK by country of birth and nationality.
In 2022 it was reported the foreign-born population of Britain had soared to near-ten and a half million in a country of 67 million, and arrivals have only accelerated since then. In 2023 it was revealed net migration — the total increase once those who left the country in the same period are subtracted — was at 672,000 a year, a major blow for the credibility of the government.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s U.N. ambassador, was the former president’s last remaining Republican 2024 rival
Trump Scores Big Victories Across Super Tuesday States
- Trump won 13 states: Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Massachusetts, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, Minnesota, California, and Alaska.
- Haley won Vermont.
- Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey advance in California’s Senate race.
Federal judge rules Florida can’t ban noncitizens from registering voters
A federal judge handed Latino and civil rights groups a victory when he struck down a provision in a Florida state law that would have barred noncitizens from registering voters in time for the 2024 election.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker determined Friday that a provision in Florida’s SB 7050 assessing a $50,000 fine for each noncitizen found to be “collecting or handling voter registration applications” violates constitutional equal protection rights. The ban covered people with legal permanent residency or green cards.
An estimated 1.3 million lawful permanent residents live in Florida, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Many of them often engage in civic activities such as help with voter registration or supporting campaigns as part of their journeys to become U.S. citizens or to learn about U.S. government.
An emergency injunction issued last year had blocked Florida from enforcing the state law, allowing organizations to retain field staff members who were noncitizens.
The injunction was an important win at the time considering that Latinos and communities of color in general are more likely to register to vote through nonpartisan groups than their white counterparts.
Voter registrations through third-party groups have been dropping since 2021 as Florida has been enacting voter restriction laws, according to the Hispanic Federation, a national Latino advocacy organization.
Walker’s decision Friday stems from a federal lawsuit filed last year by the Hispanic Federation and Poder Latinx, a progressive group aimed at registering and turning out Latino voters, along with three noncitizen plaintiffs. They were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and four other legal organizations.
Frankie Miranda, the president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, and Yadira Sánchez, the executive director of Poder Latinx, celebrated the judge’s decision in a joint statement Friday.
“This victory continues to allow legal residents and others who have called Florida home for decades to continue helping their U.S. citizen family, neighbors, and friends register to vote,” Miranda said.
Sánchez said, “We will continue to play a pivotal role in our communities, especially in mobilizing individuals to actively participate in our civic duties, thereby contributing significantly to our collective progress.”
In general, lawful permanent residents must wait five years before they are eligible to become U.S. citizens.
Following the judge’s decision Friday, the Florida secretary of state’s office will not be able to enforce provisions in state law barring noncitizens from participating in voter registration efforts.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Won’t Seek Reelection
Independent U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced on March 5 that she will not seek reelection for a second term, preventing a potential three-way race in November.
Ms. Sinema made her announcement on Super Tuesday after the Senate GOP blocked a bipartisan bill intended to fortify the southern border while delivering additional military aid to Israel and Ukraine.
In working to negotiate the bill, Ms. Sinema hoped to bridge the gap between two political parties that remain at odds during a contentious primary and general election season.
Ms. Sinema frustrated some on the left when she announced in December 2022 that she was leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent. However, she continued to caucus with Democrats and did not affect their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate.
FBI: Suspected Assassin Is Targeting US Officials
The FBI office in Miami, Florida, sent an alert on that it is “seeking information” on an Iranian intelligence officer who is wanted in connection to assassination plots against U.S. officials after the killing of former Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in early 2020.
Majid Dastjani Farahani, the officer, “is wanted for questioning in connection with the recruitment of individuals for various operations in the United States, to include lethal targeting of current and former United States Government officials as revenge for the killing of IRGC-QF Commander Qassem Soleimani,” the federal law enforcement agency said this week in a “most wanted“ notice.
The FBI added that Mr. Farahani has “reportedly recruited individuals for surveillance activities focused on religious sites, businesses, and other facilities in the United States,” adding that he has “acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.”
The bulletin did not say whether he is in the United States, but it noted that he “has ties” to or “may visit” Venezuela or Iran. It then advised that anyone with information about Mr. Farahani is advised to contact a local FBI office, a U.S. consulate, or a U.S. Embassy.
Some reports, citing anonymous officials, said this week that Mr. Farahani specifically is targeting former Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a special envoy, Brian Hook.
The Biden administration secretly flew 320,000 “inadmissible” illegal migrants into the United States last year, according to a Center for Immigration Studies Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the nonprofit think tank’s senior national security fellow, Todd Bensman said.
The lawsuit revealed that Customs and Border Protection approved flights that brought hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants to 43 airports in the United States from January through December 2023. All of the individuals were pre-approved on the CBP’s cellphone app, CBP One.
Citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador are eligible to apply for travel authorization through the mobile app from their home countries. The Biden administration rolled out the CBP One app as part of its “lawful pathways” strategy, reportedly designed to reduce the number of migrants illegally coming across the southern border.
Migrants who apply for travel authorization and temporary humanitarian release through the administration’s app are then flown into the U.S. and placed on a parole program that grants them two years of legal status and work authorization eligibility.
The administration initially refused to disclose the number of the 43 U.S. airports that received the illegal migrants, citing a “law enforcement exception,” according to Bensman’s report. However, CIS’ lawsuit revealed that the federal government is withholding the information over fears it could expose “vulnerabilities” caused by the program.
Russia Hawk Victoria Nuland Stepping Down as No. 3 at State Department
Russia hawk Victoria Nuland is stepping down from her role as under secretary of state for political affairs, the number three position at the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday.
Her retirement comes just two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and after she lost out for the deputy secretary of state position to another diplomat, Kurt Campbell. She had served in the position on an acting basis for seven months.
Blinken said he and President Joe Biden has asked John Bass — who served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan during Biden’s botched and deadly withdrawal — to fill Nuland’s role until her replacement is confirmed.
According to the New York Times, some analysts interpreted Campbell’s promotion over Nuland a sign that Biden and Blinken considered the U.S. relationship with China as a higher priority than Ukraine.
Nuland was reviled by the Russian government for her support of Ukraine becoming more pro-West and anti-Russia. Her hawkish views towards Russia also drew criticism of those skeptical of U.S. foreign interventionism.
In February 2023, Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk posted on X about the Ukraine War: “Nobody is pushing this war more than Nuland.”
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Tuesday attributed Nuland’s retirement to the “failure” of the Biden administration’s policy on Russia.
Witness Prepared to Testify That Georgia Trump Prosecutor Lied: Filing
A special prosecutor, who was tasked with prosecuting former President Donald Trump, is accused of lying about when his romantic relationship began with the official who hired him, according to a witness who is prepared to testify in a filing entered on March 4.
Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, has claimed he and Ms. Willis did not start the relationship until after he was hired in late 2021.
But the relationship actually began in 2019, after Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis met at a legal conference, according to Cindi Lee Yeager, a co- chief deputy district attorney for the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, the new filing states.
According to the filing from David Shafer, a co-defendant of President Trump, Ms. Yeager is prepared to testify about the conversations she had with Terence Bradley, who is a divorce attorney for Mr. Wade.
In the new filing, Mr. Shafer outlined what Ms. Yeager conveyed to his counsel and proposed having her testify. That would require the judge to reopen the proceedings.
Trump asks judge to cut the $83.3 million penalty in E. Jean Carroll case or grant him a new trial
In a longshot bid, former President Donald Trump is asking the judge overseeing E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him to significantly reduce the $83.3 million jury award or grant a new trial.
Trump argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan wrongly prohibited him from defending himself during his brief testimony and that warrants a new trial.
In court filings Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers said Kaplan erred when he stopped Trump from testifying about “his own state of mind” and when he gave an “erroneous jury instruction on the definition of common-law malice.” Trump’s lawyers said the jury should have been told they needed to find that it was Trump’s “sole, exclusive desire to harm” Carroll.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Tesla Germany halts work as Musk calls suspected arson ‘extremely dumb’
Tesla’s European Gigafactory near Berlin has halted work until further notice after what CEO Elon Musk called an “extremely dumb” suspected arson attack nearby left it without power on Tuesday. The attack southeast of the German capital set an electricity pylon close to the site ablaze, but the fire did not spread to the Tesla facility – the U.S. electric vehicle maker’s first manufacturing plant in Europe.
It has however, shuttered production at least until early next week, the company said.
The outage will cost Tesla estimated losses in the high hundred of millions of euros, with 1,000 vehicles left unfinished on Tuesday alone.
A company official was noncommittal on whether this would affect plans to double capacity at the site, but condemned what he saw as negative sentiment towards it.
Emergency services have extinguished the blaze, and power to the surrounding communities has mostly been restored. The economy minister of Brandenburg, the German state where Tesla’s plant is based, condemned the suspected attack as having “terrorist markings”, and hitting tens of thousands of people.
“This includes hospitals, homes for the elderly, where people may also be dependent on oxygen supply or similar, which is electricity-based,” he said at a briefing outside the factory.
The Tesla site, which employs around 12,500 people, was evacuated and most employees sent home. Tesla shares were down 3% at 3:22 GMT.
Local media published a letter purportedly from a far-left activist organization called the Volcano Group that claimed responsibility for the incident, in a 2,500-word attack on Tesla and its billionaire CEO Musk.
HEALTH
Can Magnesium Relieve Your Tinnitus?
Tinnitus affects nearly 15% of the population, and sufferers are getting younger. Although there is no cure, there are some treatments that may reduce your symptoms.
Power Mall Product of Recommendation; PurelyMin Magnesium Complex
- Nearly 15% of the U.S. suffers from tinnitus — the perception of sound when no external sound is present, as a result of exposure to loud noises, medications, infection or disease
- Although not curable, there are treatments that may reduce the severity of symptoms, including supplementation with magnesium, zinc or ginkgo biloba
- Preventive strategies reduce your risk of suffering tinnitus; symptom severity may also be affected by other nutrients and tinnitus retraining therapy
Studies have demonstrated an improvement in hearing when participants, who suffer from sensorineural or noise-induced hearing loss, are supplemented with magnesium.Magnesium intake in the U.S. is well below recommended levels, which may increase your potential risk of tinnitus. In the video above, I review the importance of choosing the right type of magnesium supplement.
To determine if using magnesium supplementation could reduce symptoms, participants with chronic tinnitus were asked to take a magnesium supplement for three months. The 26 individuals evaluated and recorded their symptoms daily, using the Tinnitus Distress Rating Scale.
Researchers also administered the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory before and after the intervention. Of the 26 participants who enrolled, 19 finished the study.
Participants who ranked their symptoms as “slight” or greater on either scale before the supplementation, experienced a significant decrease in the severity of their symptoms after the intervention was completed.
The researchers concluded that magnesium supplementation had a beneficial effect. Magnesium helps maintain normal nerve function, including the nerves that are involved in hearing. However, while magnesium may help reduce tinnitus and hearing loss, taking supplementation is not a reason to purposefully expose yourself to loud noises.
Magnesium is also a powerful glutamate inhibitor. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter produced by hair cells in your inner ear when they are affected by sound waves. If glutamate is unregulated by a deficiency in magnesium, it may affect the development of tinnitus.Magnesium also helps to relax blood vessels, which may improve blood flow to the cochlea in the inner ear.13 Improved blood flow may help transport protective antioxidants to the inner ear.
Sleep, as you probably know, is not something to take lightly. It plays a vital role in core systems throughout your body—everything from hormone regulation to immune health, heart health, and memory function is deeply tied back to the quality and duration of your sleep. That means that better sleep is likely far simpler than you realize. It’s just about removing the obstacles that you’ve put in the way of your body’s doing what it already knows how to do.
The 5 enemies of good sleep are:
- Not winding down at the end of the day;
- Bringing the phone to bed;
- Not getting enough sunlight;
- Being stressed and preoccupied; and
- A lack of physical and mental effort that day.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
‘Practice run for November?’ Facebook, related sites go dark on Super Tuesday
Facebook and several other related social media sites to which modern society has become addicted left users in the lurch on the Super Tuesday primary election day in the United States by going dark.
A report at Metro in the United Kingdom confirmed, “Facebook and Instagram have suffered massive outages, leaving potentially millions of users unable to access the popular social media platforms. The issue appears to be global.”
The report said Threads, Instagram’s rival platform to X, and Facebook Messenger were having issues and WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, appeared to sustain a “small outage.”
AI Wars: Anthropic Trys To Upstage OpenAI With Claude 3
Anthropic, a major player in generative artificial intelligence, announced new models to fuel its Claude chatbot, as ChatGPT faces more rivals. The company said three new AI models – called Claude 3 Opus, Sonnet and Haiku – were its most high-performing tools yet and were industry leading in terms of their ability to match human intelligence.
Founded in 2021, Anthropic was created by former employees of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and has been funded by Google and partnered with Amazon to develop new technology. The company has made its hallmark to release AI models that seek to impose stricter guardrails than those behind ChatGPT and other chatbot rivals.
But this approach has faced pushback after last month’s release of Google’s Gemini model that was criticized for gaffes such as generating images of ethnically diverse World War II Nazi troops.
Some industry observers are also complaining that chatbots have become less impressive as companies introduce tighter controls in response to controversies involving the technology going off the rails or giving incorrect answers.
Acknowledging that safeguards could go too far, Anthropic said the new models would avoid making “unnecessary refusals” that were a problem for its earlier releases.
“Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku are significantly less likely to refuse to answer prompts that border on the system’s guardrails than previous generations of models,” it said.
Anthropic said its model Opus was the most powerful of the three and could outperform its peers on key benchmarks, including mathematics.
Claude is considered one of the major AI chatbot makers and is closely allied to Amazon and its AWS cloud division, which provides the company’s intensive computing needs.
It has also received investments from Google and other Silicon Valley heavyweights.
Unlike its rivals, Anthropic’s Claude chatbot does not generate images and only allows users to use images as requests for analysis.
The competing tools from OpenAI and Google generate images on request but executives from Anthropic believe that customers are not clamoring for the feature.
Like other AI giants, Anthropic is facing lawsuits from content makers who accuse the company of pilfering copyrighted material to build its models. Universal and other music publishers last year sued Anthropic in a US court for using copyrighted lyrics to train its systems and in generating answers to user queries.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
LED technology has been controversial from the jump and for numerous reasons. Some experts insist that LED light bulbs aren’t necessarily more energy efficient that incandescent bulbs. Additionally, research has determined that Blue Light from LED lights is biologically and environmentally harmful
Nevertheless, in 2023, safer and more affordable incandescent light bulbs were banned in the U.S. More recently, an organization filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for not protecting Americans from LED products.
FDA Sued: Soft Lights Foundation Acts Against LED Health Risks
Mark Baker of Soft Lights filed a federal lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration for failing to protect the public from the harms of LED light.
Press Release: January 26, 2024
US Food and Drug Administration Sued for Failing to Regulate LED Lights
The Soft Lights Foundation announces that the Foundation’s President, Mark Baker, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Food and Drug Administration for failing to comply with 21 U.S.C. 360hh – 360ss and publish performance standards for Light Emitting Diode products to ensure the comfort, health, safety, and civil rights of the public which has caused irreparable harm for Mr. Baker and millions of others. (http://www.softlights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mark-Baker-vs.-FDA_filed.pdf).
The US FDA is the only federal agency that has the Congressional authority and mandate to regulate electromagnetic radiation from electronic products. Despite this mandate, the FDA has failed to publish performance standards for LED vehicle headlights, LED streetlights, LED light bulbs, LED flashing lights on emergency vehicles, LED lights on children’s shoes, and thousands of other products that use LEDs. The result of this failure is irreparable harm to millions of individuals and the environment.
Over 55,000 people have signed the petition to ban blinding LED headlights (https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and-save-lives). LED streetlights have greatly increased light pollution and risk of disease such as macular degeneration of the eyes, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and mood disorders. LED flashing lights on emergency vehicles are increasing the risk of injury and death for first responders and the public. LED visible radiation is causing seizures, migraines, anxiety and numerous other adverse neurological reactions.
This lawsuit aims to compel the FDA to comply with federal law and act to protect the public from the hazards of visible radiation emitted by Light Emitting Diode products.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Some of the Best Vegetables to Grow in Times of Crisis
During times of crisis, these are the top 6 types of food to grow – not only are they proven winners, they can be canned, fermented or pickled so you can eat them at your leisure.
Power Mall Product of Recommendation: Heaven’s Harvest HEIRLOOM VEGETABLE SEED KIT
COVID RELATED NEWS
CDC Recommends Older People Get Another COVID-19 Vaccine
People 65 and older should get another dose of the latest round of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The recommendation “allows older adults to receive an additional dose of this season’s COVID-19 vaccine to provide added protection,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, head of the CDC, said in a recent statement.
“Most COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people 65 years and older. An additional vaccine dose can provide added protection that may have decreased over time for those at highest risk,” she added.
“Where is the science backing up the CDC’s claim that it is safe to give every American over age 65 a COVID shot twice in the same year? Once again, policy is preceding the science and Americans are left to wonder why they should trust government vaccine recommendations,” Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times in an email.
The CDC’s guidance came after its advisory panel advised it in an 11–1 vote to recommend another dose for seniors.
The advisory panel’s decision came after a lengthy discussion about whether to say older people “may” get the shots or if they “should” do so.
“Most people are coming in either wanting the vaccine or not,” said Dr. Jamie Loehr, a committee member and family doctor in Ithaca, New York. “I am trying to make it easier for providers to say, ‘Yes, we recommend this.’”
The LIABLE Act would end Pfizer’s and Moderna’s free pass
U.S. Congressman Chip Roy introduced legislation yesterday that would hold Pfizer and Moderna liable retroactively for vaccine injury and death.
The LIABLE Act would strip the COVID shot manufacturers of the indemnity they currently enjoy under both the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (because the CDC recommends them for children) and the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2005.
Ideally, the NCVIA and the PREP Act should be repealed entirely. The 1986 law shields manufacturers from nearly all liability except for willful misconduct and created an extremely limited vaccine injury compensation program.
Meanwhile, the PREP Act indemnifies any “countermeasure” during a declared public health emergency and limits damage payouts to an extremely cumbersome and narrow program called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. Only 11 people have been compensated under the CICP — an appallingly low number, especially considering the more than 1.6 million reports of injury to VAERS, including 37,100 deaths, 214,000 hospitalizations, and nearly 70,000 reports of permanent disability.
It’s highly likely that tens of millions of people are currently without recourse for compensation from a product that was fraudulently foisted upon the American people by these companies in collusion with the federal government. Knowing that, Roy’s bill comes as welcome relief.
Doritos Fires Trans Brand Ambassador After Tweet About 12-Year-Old Surfaces
Doritos, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, fired transgender artist Samantha Hudson as a brand ambassador for Spain on Monday after being alerted to a disturbing tweet involving a 12-year-old.
Over the weekend, Doritos Spain announced Hudson as a brand ambassador for its products and included Hudson in a 50-second promo called “Crunch Talks.” Hudson originally gained prominence through a YouTube channel that discussed beauty, travel, and lifestyle tips. On Monday, several X users alerted Doritos to past posts published in 2015 regarding a 12-year-old.
“I want to do thuggish things [to] a 12-year-old girl,” Hudson said in the original post translated from Spanish to English. Hudson, then 15 at the time of the post, said it was meant to be funny. According to the Daily Mail, Doritos fired Hudson as a brand ambassador after outcry on social media.
“Samantha Hudson, 24, appeared in a new partnership with Doritos Spain through a 50-second video called ‘Crunch Talks that has now been deleted from the brand’s Instagram,” it said.
“Doritos told Rolling Stone on Tuesday it would no longer work with Hudson, saying it had been unaware of her previous inappropriate posts,” it added.
The controversy comes after Bud Light took serious financial damage after it partnered with transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney in a marketing campaign last year.
University of Virginia Spends $20 Million On 235 DEI Employees, With Some Making $587,340 Per Year
The University of Virginia (UVA) has at least 235 employees under its “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” banner — including 82 students — whose total cost of employment is estimated at $20 million. That’s $15 million in cash compensation plus an additional 30-percent for the annual cost of their benefits.
In contrast, last Friday, the University of Florida dismissed its DEI bureaucracy, saving students and taxpayers $5 million per year. The university terminated 13 full-time DEI positions and 15 administrative faculty appointments. Those funds have been re-programmed into a “faculty recruitment fund” to attract better people who actually teach students.
No such luck for learning at Virginia’s flagship university – founded by Thomas Jefferson no less. UVA has a much deeper DEI infrastructure.
Reform or abolition must await this summer’s anticipated changes in the school’s Board of Visitors. At least until then, the very highly compensated, generally non-teaching, DEI staffers are safely embedded throughout the entire university – while costing students and taxpayers a fortune.
More Stories
Today’s News: April 26, 2024
Today’s News: April 25, 2024
Today’s News: April 24, 2024