WORLD NEWS
China Hikes 2023 Defense Budget to $225 Billion: Largest Increase Since Pre-Pandemic
Radio Free Asia (RFA) picked up some fairly belligerent vibes from Chinese officials about the military spending boost, which is even more significant in light of China’s slowing economy and modest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increase:
Outgoing premier Li Keqiang, in probably his final government work report, said that “external attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating.”
The army should “carry out military operations, boost combat preparedness and enhance military capabilities so as to accomplish the tasks entrusted to them by the Party and the people,” Li said.
…
“The increase in defense spending is needed for meeting the complex security challenges and for China to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country,” Wang Chao, a National People’s Congress spokesperson, told reporters in Beijing.
Li, a one-time contender for the top job, who was pushed out of the limelight as Xi amassed more power, will most likely be replaced as premier by a Xi loyalist after the NPC session concludes.
U.S. defense analysts told RFA that China’s increased military spending could be interpreted as a sign that “deterrence” against invading Taiwan or making wildly aggressive moves in the South China Sea is working. In short, China’s spending increase is big enough to keep its threats credible but not enough to overwhelm Taiwan’s defenses.
4 Americans Missing in Mexico After Being Held at Gunpoint, Kidnapped, FBI Says
Four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas are missing after being assaulted and kidnapped by unidentified gunmen, FBI officials said on March 5, noting that a Mexican national was killed in the same incident.
“Unknown assailants” in the northeastern Mexican city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas state “violently kidnapped at gunpoint four U.S. citizens in an incident in which an innocent Mexican citizen was tragically killed,” U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement.
Matamoros is located just across the U.S.–Mexico border from Brownsville, Texas.
“We have no greater priority than the safety of our citizens–this is the U.S. government’s most fundamental role,” Salazar said. “U.S. law enforcement officials from numerous agencies are working with Mexican authorities at all levels of government to secure the safe return of our compatriots.”
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for the return of the unidentified kidnap victims and for the arrest of those who were involved, according to a statement from the bureau’s San Antonio office.
The four Americans entered Matamoros in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. The vehicle came under fire soon after it entered Mexico, according to the bureau.
“All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the FBI San Antonio office stated.
Georgia Parliament, Surrounded by Protesters, Erupts in Fistfight over ‘Foreign Agent’ Law
The Parliament of Georgia endured hours of chaos, including a fistfight involving half a dozen lawmakers, on Monday as members debated potentially passing a law that would require certain international groups to register as foreign agents.
The law has elicited fierce opposition from anti-Russia Georgians and their representatives in the parliament, who say that the language of the law too closely resembles a similar Russian law used to smear pro-democracy groups by making them appear to be nefarious foreign actors. As members came to blows inside the parliament building, hundreds of protesters surrounded the headquarters with protest signs featuring Vladimir Putin and shouting anti-Russian slogans.
Video: Protest in Tbilisi against the bill on foreign agents
Omission of Children’s COVID-19 Vaccine Deaths In Australia Raises Concerns
Australia’s drug regulator was slow to update the country’s Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN) despite several deaths being attributed to the vaccine, including two children, aged 7 and 9.
The information came to light following a Freedom of Information request by an Australian doctor that found the delayed response from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
Senator Gerard Rennick said he would push for independent oversight of the TGA.
“A third independent medical party should examine the evidence as the TGA has a conflict of interest because they approved the vaccines and would therefore be held responsible for the deaths of these children due to poor regulatory oversight,” Rennick told The Epoch Times.
15-Minute Cities Are Technates In Disguise
The 15-minute city is a cover for a data collection bonanza for Technocrats who would design and operate them. Cities designed for maximum “efficiency” always reveal Technocrat thinking that efficiency itself is the goal, and that maximum surveillance allows for maximum control to achieve even more efficiency. At its very root. this mechanistic thinking is anti-human.
The rate of price growth in the country is higher than the central bank is prepared to tolerate, the regulator says
Inflation in Switzerland unexpectedly accelerated in February largely due to soaring airfares, rent and energy costs, figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed on Monday.
Consumer prices surged 3.4% last month year-on-year and were higher than the median estimate by Bloomberg, which predicted a slower rate of 3.1%. The February jump reflected rising prices for air transport, package holidays, rents and gasoline, indicating that the country’s central bank will have to tighten its monetary policy, the media outlet said.
Core inflation in Switzerland excluding energy and food prices also accelerated for a third successive month and reached 2.4%, the data shows.
India poised to ditch dollar in trade with neighbor
India and Sri Lanka are discussing shifting away from the US dollar to settlements using the Indian rupee, as the two countries look to strengthen their partnership through trade and investments.
Rupee settlements are expected to derive benefits like shorter timelines, lower exchange costs and easier availability of trade credits for participating financial institutions. The initiative may also have a beneficial impact on the nations’ respective tourism and hospitality industries.
A discussion of the issue, arranged by the High Commission of India, was held in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo last week.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Second Amendment Call to Action by Allen West
Leaked documents reveal Homeland Security problems
DHS has a little-known domestic surveillance program as well as concerns over political abuse and retaliation
The Department of Homeland Security is operating a “virtually unknown” intelligence-gathering program within the US, Politico reported Monday, citing internal documents. Also among the revelations were concerns by many DHS staff that their work was inappropriate or illegal, and about the influence of politics on operations.
The “Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program” (OHIC) has been in existence since at least 2016, according to Politico, which did not disclose how it obtained the documents.
Run by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), OHIC is intended to gather information about threats such as organized crime and transnational drug trafficking. The program allows DHS officials to “seek interviews with just about anyone” in the US, including people held in local jails and federal prisons. Concerns that not having an attorney present for the interviews might violate people’s civil rights reportedly led to that particular “element” of OHIC being “paused” in 2022.
“While this questioning is purportedly voluntary, DHS’s policy ignores the coercive environment these individuals are held in. It fails to ensure that individuals have a lawyer present, and it does nothing to prevent the government from using a person’s words against them in court,” Patrick Toomey of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told Politico.
Carrie Bachner, a former DHS adviser and congressional liaison, called it “immoral” that the agency might be “interviewing folks that still have constitutional privileges, without their lawyer present.”
Missouri among Republican-led states leaving Electronic Registration Information Center
Three Republican-led states on Monday pulled out of a bipartisan effort among states to ensure accurate voter lists, undermining a system with a demonstrated record of combating voter fraud.
The moves, encouraged by former President Donald Trump, are the latest indication of how conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential outcome continue to ripple throughout the Republican Party and upend long-established traditions in how the country administers elections.
‘They Are Lying’: Tucker Carlson Reveals New Details From Exclusive Jan. 6 Video Footage
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that his show will air Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol footage this week and claimed it will show that federal and congressional officials “are lying” to Americans.
“The defenders of democracy are defending democracy again,” the Fox News host said last week. “They’re telling you it’s really, really dangerous. And anyone would get to see the thousands of hours of surveillance footage from January 6, which has been hidden from the public for two years as a tiny group of people gets to make up stories about what happened that day and change the country on the basis of those stories.”
“How does that work exactly?” he asked. “Well, it’s not democracy, of course. It’s building a bulwark against your lies being revealed. And they are lying. And we know that because we’ve been looking at the tape.”
In a March 3 follow-up post on Twitter, Carlson wrote that “the results of our investigation will air Monday and Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel,” referring to his timeslot. Carlson did not provide further details about what has been “hidden from the public.”
Watch: J6 Footage Released to FNC’s Carlson by McCarthy on Ofc. Sicknick, ‘QAnon Shaman’
On Monday, during the broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson aired and discussed some of the footage from the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that he received from House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
One portion of the footage from the Capitol that Carlson discussed touched on the timing of and cause of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s death. Carlson said the footage shows Sicknick was alive after he was allegedly killed by people at the Capitol and the footage was viewed by members of the January 6 Committee, who refused to release it to the public.
More Than 20 Charged With Domestic Terrorism After Fiery Police Site Attack
More than 20 people are charged with domestic terrorism following a violent Sunday attack on a DeKalb County, Georgia, police training center’s construction site, authorities announced.
At least 35 detentions were made in connection with the attack on police and construction equipment at the forest site of the planned $90 million training center unofficially dubbed “Cop City,” according to the Atlanta Police Department (APD), which shared footage of masked agitators throwing incendiary devices and machinery burning. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations subsequently charged 23 individuals with domestic terrorism, though the vast majority of them are from out of state
An attorney with the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that frequently lists mainstream conservatives alongside hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), has been charged with domestic terrorism after allegedly rioting with Antifa in Atlanta.
Over the weekend, far-left agitators allegedly threw Molotov cocktails and launched fireworks at an Atlanta police training facility that has been under construction. Among the 23 people arrested for what police called a “coordinated attack” is Thomas Jurgens, 28, a staff attorney at the SPLC. Following the arrest, Jurgens’ Linkedin page was deleted. Per the New York Post:
Of the 23 people slapped with domestic terrorism charges over the violent protest, Jurgens and only one other man, Jack Beaman, hail from the state of Georgia. Police said the majority of those arrested are from other parts of the US — as well as France and Canada.
The SPLC didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment in the wake of Jurgens’ arrest. In total, 35 “violent agitators” were nabbed after they attacked the future site of the $90 million police training facility, cops said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the remainder of those arrested will also be hit with domestic terrorism charges.
During the demonstration over the weekend, protesters allegedly threw Molotov cocktails, fireworks, rocks, and bricks at police officers. Atlanta Police Chief Schierbaum later described it as a “coordinated attack” and that multiple pieces of construction equipment were set on fire.
“This was a very violent attack, very violent attack,” Schierbaum said. “This wasn’t about a public safety training center. This was about anarchy… and we are addressing that quickly.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has given Texas a free pass on its electronic harassment law, which is so vague and overreaching as to make it illegal for a parent to repeatedly text a teen child about neglected chores. Individuals found guilty of violating the Texas statute can be punished by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine for a first offense.
In refusing to hear the case of Barton and Sanders v. Texas, the Supreme Court declined to confront the government’s ongoing attempts to criminalize protected speech. Rutherford Institute attorneys have repeatedly warned that laws criminalizing speech construed as annoying, embarrassing, or offensive could have a severe chilling effect on non-threatening speech which is protected under the First Amendment, including political speech criticizing government officials and elected representatives.
“The government must not be given the power to criminalize speech it deems distasteful or annoying,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “Nowhere in the First Amendment does it permit the government to limit speech in order to avoid causing offense or hurting someone’s feelings, protect government officials from criticism, discourage bullying, penalize hateful ideas, combat prejudice and intolerance, and the like.”
Under Texas’s electronic harassment statute—Texas Penal Code section 42.07(a)(7)—a person is guilty of a criminal offense simply for sending multiple electronic communications with an intent and in a manner likely to “harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another.” A violation of the statute is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine for a first offense, and one year in jail and a $4,000 fine for a subsequent offense. The Rutherford Institute had previously challenged this statute when it came to the defense of a man who was charged for emailing a sheriff’s office to criticize their alleged inattention to his requests for help.
>> Document: The amicus brief in Barton and Sanders v. Texas
Kentucky House Passes Bill Banning Child Sex Change Attempts
The Kentucky House of Representatives has passed a bill that would prohibit healthcare professionals from using medical interventions like puberty blockers or sex change operations on minors who identify as transgender.
The legislation, House Bill 470, would “require an investigation of any report of provision of gender transition services to a person under the age of 18 years” and also “require revocation of the provider’s license if confirmed and termination of public funding for a public employee.”
Taiwan Convinces Kevin McCarthy To Cancel Visit In Bid To Placate China
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet Taiwan’s premier in California, seemingly backtracking on plans to visit the self-governed island to avoid provoking China, the Financial Times reported.
GOP Rep. McCarthy of California promised in the summer he would travel to Taiwan if elected Speaker of the House, according to the FT. However, he and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen agreed to meet in California instead to avoid provoking a similar response from China when former speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taipei in August.
“We shared some intelligence about what the Chinese Communist party is recently up to and the kinds of threats they pose,” a senior Taiwanese official told the FT when asked about the intelligence Taiwan provided to McCarthy’s office.
NYPD Wants Businesses to Require Customers Remove Masks
The New York Police Department is advising businesses to ask patrons to take off their masks before entry in light of the high number of thefts and robberies across the city.
Removing masks should be made a “condition of entry,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press conference last week, noting that criminals have been taking advantage of masks to avoid detection on surveillance cameras.
“People are coming up to our businesses, sometimes with masks, hoods and latex gloves, and they’re being buzzed in, they’re being allowed to enter into the store and then we have a robbery or some kind of property being stolen,” Maddrey said.
“We are asking the businesses to make this a condition of entry: That people, when they come in, they show their face, they should identify themselves,” he continued. “And if they feel like they want to put their mask on after they identify themselves for their safety, by all means, they should do so.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses in the city would block customers from entering the premises with masks on, according to the police chief. But taking in masked customers is now “a way of life.”
“Since the pandemic, this is a way of life for us, where people wear masks regularly,” he said. “But we’re seeing this being used too much as a ruse to enter into businesses and to victimize our businesses.”
“We need our businesses to be proactive and do their due diligence. We need to make sure people are identifying themselves,” Maddrey said.
Biden Enlists Potential Rivals to Help With Projected 2024 Run
President Joe Biden has not formally declared his candidacy to seek reelection in 2024, yet he is enlisting a team of high-profile Democratic figures who could emerge as rivals to travel across the country and promote what he deems as his accomplishments during his first term.
With an objective to unify the party, Biden has hand-picked a team of governors, senators, and other recognizable Democrats who will deliver speeches and appear in media interviews leading up to his expected announcement to pursue a second term.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is expected to serve as headquarters for Biden’s team, which will reportedly be introduced sometime in March.
Governors Wes Moore (D-Md.), Phil Murphy (D-N.J.), Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.), Josh Shapiro (D-Penn.), and Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), are among the 20 people who have joined the effort, according to The Washington Post.
IRS Warns of New Tax Scam That Tempts Innocent Taxpayers Into Becoming Criminals
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a warning to taxpayers to be on guard for a new scam that promises huge refunds if they misuse wage information or claim false credits on tax returns, potentially leading them to face criminal liability.
There are several variations of the scheme, but all involve misusing wage information on Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, in hopes of getting a massive refund—sometimes as much as five figures.
Scammers, who are pushing the new scheme on social media, encourage taxpayers to use tax software to manually fill out Form W-2 and then instruct them to include false income information with the promise of getting a big refund, according to the IRS alert.
In one scheme, scam artists encourage taxpayers to make up larg
Arizona Supreme Court Agrees to ‘Expedite’ Kari Lake Lawsuit
The Arizona Supreme Court agreed to expedite a hearing for Republican Arizona candidate Kari Lake’s election lawsuit after two lower state courts rejected it.
Lake had filed a “motion to expedite” the lawsuit and argued that such actions are needed “to resolve these issues is needed to safeguard Arizona voters’ right to free and equal elections.” On March 3, the state’s highest court wrote in an order “granting the motion for expedited consideration” and current Gov. Katie Hobbs, a former secretary of state, and the state agency need to respond by March 13.
“The Court anticipates considering the matter at an internal conference on March 21, 2023. At the conference, the Court will decide whether to accept review and schedule an oral argument,” the brief order said.
San Bernardino Residents Desperate After Heavy Snow
Residents in parts of California, especially the San Bernardino Mountains, are battling heavy storms, with roads blocked following large amounts of snow and people finding it difficult to secure food and medical supplies.
“A life and death situation is unfolding in San Bernardino Mountains after this week’s powerful storm,” ABC reporter David Gonzalez said in a March 5 Twitter post that was accompanied by a video of him exploring Crestline.
“Made it to Crestline, California. No Joke. I didn’t realize how bad it was up here. It’s like a warzone. I just interviewed a guy carrying MREs up a mountain because he has no food,” Gonzalez said in the video. MRE refers to individual rations used by the U.S. armed forces.
“There’s people writing ‘stop’ on the snow, saying ‘plough us’, ‘help us’ because the roads look like this,” he said while pointing to massive amounts of snow covering the region. “People, sadly, are probably dying up here, which is crazy to think about.”
In a video uploaded to Twitter on March 2, Michelle Calkins, a resident of Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains, said that communities in Crestline, Lake Arrowhead, and Running Springs are “screaming and begging for help from our state.”
According to Calkins, many mothers in the region are low on formula and have been calling the emergency hotline. “But no one is taking us serious [sic],” she said, adding that several people are also running low on medical supplies like insulin.
“Our county declared a state of emergency but doesn’t seem to be taking it serious [sic]. People are trapped in their homes and have been for now more than five days because the streets are not ploughed. The snow has now accumulated up to about nine feet. On those streets, people cannot walk anymore.”
The Supreme Court Should End Home Equity Theft
Geraldine Tyler, age 94, owed Hennepin County $2,300 in unpaid property taxes on her Minnesota condominium. She eventually accrued another $12,700 in fees. Her local government then seized her condo and sold it to pay the taxes and fees. The condo sold for $40,000, and Tyler owed the county only $15,000. But the county didn’t return the excess $25,000 to Tyler. Instead, the county pocketed the excess equity in her home.
Tyler sued the county to get the $25,000 back, but she lost in the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which held that a Minnesota tax statute “abrogated” Tyler’s property right in her home equity. Effectively, the court held that the county had not taken any of Tyler’s “property” at all, because once the county seized her condo, a statute defined the home equity as no longer her property. Now the Supreme Court has taken Tyler’s case, and the Cato Institute has filed an amicus brief supporting her, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Minnesota, the National Association of Home Builders, and Owners’ Counsel of America.
Unfortunately, Tyler is not alone. This theft‐like tax policy of seizing surplus equity occurs in 14 states, and it largely impacts the elderly and the poor—particularly those who own homes but have little discretionary income to pay their taxes. This type of tax law affronts our American sensibilities. It is a basic principle, carried over from English Law and Magna Carta, that governments can take no more in taxes than they are owed.
>> CATO Institute Brief: Tyler v. Hennepin County
In the brief, we explain why Minnesota’s tax policy is not only unjust, but also unconstitutional.
HEALTH
World facing biggest cholera surge in 20 years – WHO
Factors including economic crises, climate change and the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic have led to the ideal circumstances for cholera to flourish in high-risk countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned after noting a sharp surge of the illness in at least 30 countries.
The scale of the various outbreaks rose sharply in 2022 after several years of decline, the WHO said. Between January and October of last year, 29 countries reported cases of the disease, compared to 23 the year before – with those numbers set to rise in 2023.
“The number of countries with these large outbreaks occurring at the same time, we have not seen it in at least 20 years,” Philippe Barboza, the head of the WHO’s cholera emergencies response unit, told The Telegraph.
“Most of the major outbreaks we are looking at are all driven by major, unusual climate events,” he added, adding that southern African countries are particularly at risk as they face a third straight year of heavy rain and cyclones brought on by the La Nina weather phenomenon.
12 Foods to Improve Your Gut Health Overnight
Simple changes to your diet can quickly impact your gut health—here’s how.
As someone interested in nutrition and health, you’ve likely heard of many of the beneficial vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants out there. There’s one family of compounds, though, that doesn’t get a ton of airtime, but has some serious benefits to offer. Flavonoids (also known as bioflavonoids) are found naturally in many plants and have the potential to prevent and treat a variety of health conditions. “Flavonoids are plant chemicals that give produce their color and provide antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties,” says Megen Erwine, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian for LetsGetChecked. There are a variety of flavonoids out there, but one of the most powerful is called hesperidin—and it turns out that now is the perfect time to increase the amount of this wonder compound in your diet.
What is hesperidin, and why is it good for you?
Hesperidin is a flavonoid that is found in high concentrations in certain fruits (more on that later). Flavonoids are largely responsible for the colors of fruits and vegetables, but they aren’t just for those vivid aesthetics. “Hesperidin has been shown in clinical studies to have antioxidant properties, which help protect your cells from oxidative damage that can lead to disease,” says Erwine. “Hesperidin may therefore play a role in heart, bone, brain, liver, and respiratory health and supports a healthy immune system.”
One study also showed that hesperidin has the potential to reduce atherosclerosis, which is the hardening of arteries due to plaque buildup—a potential precursor to heart attacks and strokes. Hesperidin has also been shown to be anti-inflammatory, which is pretty much the holy grail for improving everything from skin health to autoimmune disorders and—you guessed it—cardiovascular disease.
The best food sources of hesperidin
If you’re looking for natural food sources of hesperidin, turn to citrus fruits like lemons, oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and everyone’s favorite, Sumo Citrus. Best part? All of these happen to be in peak season during the winter months. “The majority of hesperidin is found in the most colorful parts of the fruit, such as the peel,” says Erwine. And good news: Freshly-squeezed orange juice is an excellent source as well. “100-percent citrus fruit juice that is commercially squeezed under high pressure is one of the best sources of hesperidin. The high-pressure juicing is able to excrete hesperidin from the peels.”
Studies show that hesperidin helps increase the bioavailability of vitamin C in citrus, helping to further boost your immune system and protect against disease. This perfect pairing is one example of why natural food sources are often the best way to consume vitamins and minerals.
Since the citrus peels are most concentrated with hesperidin, grab your zester and make use of that colorful and flavorful peel to boost your intake. Erwine recommends adding the zest of lemons, limes, and oranges to water or tea, or sprinkling into stir fries, smoothies, grain bowls, or over yogurt. You’d be surprised at how many different meals can benefit from the bright pop of hesperidin-rich zest, so feel free to experiment!
Another healthy option is to try baking your hesperidin-rich orange peels, which holistic health practitioner, herbalist, and Supernatural founder Rachelle Robinett says can also help boost digestion by getting your digestive enzymes flowing before you eat a meal. “It’s super simple [to make],” she told us. “Just chop up a fresh orange and peel off the peel. Pop it in your oven on the lowest temperature for however long it takes to turn it into chips.” Eat your baked orange peels straight as a snack, similar to dried fruit, or serve over vanilla yogurt (or ice cream). As an added benefit, you’ll also be cutting down on food waste. Talk about a win-win, right?
RECALL WARNING: FDA Notice: Eye Drops Recalled Over Contamination That Could ‘Result in Blindness’
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a notice that more eye drops are being recalled worldwide because of possible bacterial contamination.
Pharmedica USA LLC is voluntarily recalling two lots of its Purely Soothing, 15 percent MSM Drops due to a non-sterility problem, according to the warning notice posted by the FDA. Methylsulfonylmethane, or MSM, is found in a number of supplements and is touted as a treatment for a range of health issues
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Zuckerberg’s tech giant to sack thousands more people
Meta is expected, as soon as this week, to begin a second round of job cuts in four months
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is planning a new series of layoffs affecting thousands of employees as soon as this week,
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
In November, the social networking giant announced a major cost-cutting plan that included sacking nearly 11,000 people, or some 13% of its workforce. The upcoming dismissals would be in addition to those.
The staff reductions are being driven by the company’s financial targets, according to people familiar with the matter, as cited by the news agency.
Walgreens will not distribute abortion pill in 20 states
Walgreens on Friday said it will not distribute abortion medication in 20 states, bowing to pressure from anti-abortion lawmakers and lawsuits targeting the legality of medication abortion.
The company said it will not dispense mifepristone, the first of two drugs in the medication abortion process, in 20 states following a February 1 letter from GOP attorneys general in those states.
Retail pharmacies have been caught in the middle of abortion battles. Companies are loath to antagonize lawmakers in states where they may face politically motivated reprisals. GOP leaders have recently targeted businesses ranging from Disney to investment funds.
Biden’s EO 14067 Promoting CBDC Is Now One Year Old
This 10-page Executive Order sounds innocuous until you get to the definitions section, where “”digital assets” is defined as “including centralized and decentralized finance platforms, or through peer-to–peer technologies.” Centralized means that transaction data is transmitted to a central database for storage and analysis.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution states, “[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.” Biden’s EO usurps Congressional responsibility over currency and not one peep was heard from Congress
Under this new digital currency, any transfer of funds to family, friends, charities, or clients would be able to be tracked by the nation’s central bank that issued this virtual money. Big Brother will be in your wallet every hour or every day. You will not be able to buy a stick of gum without a Federal Reserve computer knowing where, when, and to whom you just put down a buck.
We should be rightfully concerned about inflation, energy independence, aggressor nations armed with nuclear weapons, and woke public policies that denigrate the very foundation of this great country. But these are jabs compared to the enormous destructive power of a digital currency “option” slipped into Executive Order 14067.
Criminal Website Releases 2 Million Credit Card Numbers Free for the Taking
A darkweb website known as “BidenCash” released more than 2 million credit and debit card numbers and details, security researchers have warned.
Screenshots of the BidenCash website, reviewed by The Epoch Times, show that “more than 2 million credit cards” are being released because of its one-year anniversary. The website, reportedly run by Russian-speaking cybercriminals, uses President Joe Biden’s name and likeness and, according to the screengrab, signed off in broken English: “Sincerely, yours Joe Biden.”
Threat research website Cyble wrote that “the data within the leak included Personally Identifiable Information such as names, emails, phone numbers, home addresses, and the main offering: payment card numbers, expiration dates, and CVV codes, with the expiration dates ranging from early 2023 up to 2052.”
“This leak contained at least 740,858 credit cards, 811,676 debit cards, and 293 charge cards,” according to a blog post dated March 1. “The inherent risk is higher for debit card holders than credit card holders, due to different fraud protection.”
The Boeing Company is outsourcing nearly 700 white-collar American finance and human relations jobs to Bengaluru, India while securing millions more in United States tax dollars through congressionally-approved spending packages to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Last month, reports confirmed that Boeing is laying off roughly 2,000 American employees doing financial and human resources (HR) work. Almost 700 of their jobs will be outsourced to India through the multinational corporation’s contract with Tata Consulting Services (TCS), an outsourcing firm based in India.
Tesla Shares Slide After Elon Musk’s Lackluster Investor Day Event
Tesla shares slid by six percent at the end of the week following Elon Musk’s recent investor day presentation which was largely panned by investors despite positive sentiment from analysts.
CNBC reports that following the company’s investor day event last week, shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla fell late in the week. Tesla’s stock dropped more than 5.8 percent on Thursday, despite some analysts responding favorably to CEO Elon Musk’s presentation and the company’s overall outlook.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
US Special Ops want to weaponize deep fakes
The Pentagon’s Special Operations Command is seeking technology to falsify images for propaganda campaigns, documents show
The Pentagon’s secret operations branch is seeking capabilities to deploy “next generation” deep fakes in information warfare and hack Internet of Things (IoT) items to track their impact, a procurement document has revealed. The Intercept reported on the initiative on Monday.
The document in question outlines a technology wish list for the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which is responsible for Washington’s clandestine military actions around the world. It was first published in 2020 and last updated in October 2022, adding tools that can falsify images of public figures to its desired inventory, according to the outlet.
The command’s Military Information Support Operations (MISO) is seeking a “next generation of ‘deep fake’ or other similar technology to generate messages and influence operations via non-traditional channels in relevant peer/near peer environments,” it states.
Deep-fake technology uses publicly available imagery to create a digital version of a person, which can then be used to fabricate footage, in which they appear to do and say what the creator wants. It is currently used mostly for entertainment, including the production of fake pornography featuring celebrities.
The moon could get its own time zone, but clocks work differently there – here’s why
Dozens of lunar missions are planned for the years ahead, with the need for time-keeping on the moon becoming essential for different space organizations to work together.
How Denmark’s Welfare State Became a Surveillance Nightmare
Once praised for its generous social safety net, the country now collects troves of data on welfare claimants.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Un-Civil Liberties: DHS’ Domestic-Intelligence Program
There apparently is no protection to safeguard the erosion of civil liberties when it comes to the government spying on its own citizens, and even more so when agencies are weaponized to cause harm to those same citizens. The Constitution has experienced ” death by a thousand cuts” over the last 50 years and is perilously close to final death.
Deep State Spy Powers Under Microscope in Congress
An expiring surveillance program known as the “crown jewel” for American intelligence agencies creates the opportunity for civil liberties advocates and deep state-skeptical Republicans to push for reform.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
How to Homestead – (Not Quite) Like Grandma Used to Do
Learn how to start a homestead from scratch, building the skills you need to live a more sustainable lifestyle. While the days of earning free land are long gone, we can still enjoy the benefits of homesteading skills.
COVID RELATED NEWS
China presses for Covid origins probe in US
The World Health Organization (WHO) should launch a new investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in the United States, China has said, rejecting charges by Washington that the deadly pathogen escaped from a high-security virology lab in Wuhan.
Asked about recent comments by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – who called on China and other nations to be “transparent in sharing data” regarding the genesis of the health crisis – Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning insisted Beijing has “shared more data and research findings than any other country and contributed the most on origins-tracing.”
“Tracing the origins of the virus is a matter of science. This study should be and can only be conducted jointly by scientists around the world,” Mao told reporters on Monday, adding that
What’s Driving the Sudden Increase of Bell’s Palsy?
Bell’s palsy diagnoses increased 8.6% among those who had COVID-19, while the incidence of Bell’s palsy also rose 6.8% among those who received a COVID-19 shot
Bell’s palsy has previously been noted as a complication of meningococcal, hepatitis B, smallpox and influenza (seasonal and H1N1) vaccinations
During two phase 3 COVID-19 shot trials involving 73,898 people, eight cases of Bell’s palsy were detected — seven among the shot groups and one among the placebo groups
According to one analysis, the observed incidence of Bell’s palsy among those who received COVID-19 shots is between 3.5 times and seven times higher than would be expected in the general population
The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 shots are most commonly involved in Bell’s palsy cases; the time between receiving the shot and onset of facial weakness ranges from one to 48 days
Natural Immunity Is as Protective as COVID Jab
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis found natural immunity is “at least as high, if not higher” than that provided by two mRNA injections, and “provides strong, lasting protection against the most severe outcomes of the illness”
Overall, infection-acquired immunity decreased the risk of hospitalization and death from a COVID reinfection by 88% for a minimum of 10 months. For comparison, previous studies have shown the efficacy of two COVID shots wanes to BELOW zero by the sixth month, meaning the effectiveness becomes negative, making you more prone to infection than you were before
However, the study was funded by the Gates Foundation and appears to have been spun to facilitate the deployment of vaccine mandates
U.S. Medicare data show the COVID jab increases the all-cause mortality risk among the elderly rather than lowering it
Analysis of data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in the U.K. reveals the shots increase all-cause mortality for all age groups, and it’s only getting worse over time, all while doing nothing to reduce deaths from COVID specifically
New WHO Chief Scientist Made Crucial Change to Paper Claiming COVID-19 Didn’t Come From Lab
The World Health Organization’s new chief scientist made a crucial change to an influential 2020 paper that claimed it was “improbable” that COVID-19 came from a laboratory, a newly disclosed email shows.
Jeremy Farrar, the chief scientist, was credited in one message with helping guide the paper about the origin of COVID-19, according to one email released by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on March 5.
“Thanks for shepherding this paper. Rumors of bioweaponeering are now circulating in China,” Dr. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University professor, wrote to Farrar in the message.
“Yes I know and in US – why so keen to get out ASAP. I will push nature,” Farrar responded.
PET NEWS
Great Pyrenees as a Livestock Guardian
The Pyrenean Mountain Dog is called the Great Pyrenees in the United states. It is widely believed that the Pyrenees descended from mostly white colored Asian flock guardians brought to Europe between 1800 BC and 1000 BC.
The breed comes from the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains, and is closely related to the Pyrenean Mastiff. King Louie the XIV made them the Royal Dog of France during his reign.
They fall in the category of Livestock Guardians with others such as the Anatolian Shepherd, the Maremma Sheepdog, and the Kuvasz, to name a few, which we will cover in later articles.
GOOD NEWS
Ohio WWII Veteran Celebrates 100th Birthday, 79th Wedding Anniversary in March
A World War II veteran celebrated his 100th birthday in Ohio on Thursday.
Ned Ammons of Genoa, Ohio, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, turned 100 on Thursday, WTOL reported.
ICYMI
New Yorkers Charged $5 Million Every Day to House, Feed, Care for Migrants
New Yorkers are being charged millions every day to house, feed, and care for newly arrived border crossers bused from Texas.
Since the spring of last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and other governors have bused nearly 50,000 migrants to New York City — a sanctuary jurisdiction that has long prided itself on shielding illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.
A Florida senator filed a bill mandating that anyone blogging about DeSantis must register with the state.
S.B. 1316 mandates that bloggers must register within five days of their first post.
The proposed legislation has not been put to a vote yet, and it’s unclear if DeSantis supports it.
Guitarist Gary Rossington, Last Surviving Lynyrd Skynyrd Founding Member, Dies at 71.
Gary Rossington, legendary guitarist and the last surviving founding member of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has passed according to an announcement made on the group’s official Facebook page Sunday evening. Rossington was 71.
“It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today,” their statement said.
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