WORLD NEWS
Full List: How Members of Congress Voted on $40 Billion for Ukraine
Both U.S. congressional chambers in May passed a bill allocating $40 billion for Ukraine.
See how each member voted
Great Reset: EU ‘Needs’ Lockdown-like Restrictions to Curb Russian Oil Use
Measures akin to a COVID lockdown are needed in order to curb the EU’s reliance on Russian oil, one member state has said.
Lockdown-like measures should be implemented across the European Union to curb the bloc’s reliance on Russian oil, Luxembourg’s energy minister has said.
The demand comes as the transnational bloc prepares to publish a plan aimed at weaning the EU off of fossil fuels supplied from Russia, with some nation-states such as Germany being badly addicted to the likes of natural gas provided by the state.
According to a report by Der Spiegel, Luxembourg believes that such a plan should include the introduction of an EU-wide mandatory speed limit, a bloc-wide work-from-home mandate for at least two days of the week, and for every major EU city to ban the use of cars on the weekends.
This, the minister argues, would curb the use of oil in Europe and, in turn, lower reliance on Russian fuel imports.
“What we need at EU level is an EU-wide coordinated speed limit and two days of home office per week,” said the Luxembourgish Energy Minister Claude Turmes.
“I urge the Commission not to miss the opportunity to set Europe on this path,” he continued.
None of these policy suggestions made by Luxembourg are particularly original, with each one having been by various academics and NGOs ostensibly interested in moving the west away from Russia.
One of these organisations, the International Energy Agency, has previously argued that lowering speed limits, banning car use in cities on Sunday and pushing for people to work from home could be used to curb reliance on Russian imports.
“Car-free Sundays were introduced in countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands and West Germany during the 1973 oil crisis,” a report by the World Economic Forum on the 10-point plan read. ” Cities in other countries have used them more recently to promote public health.”
The IEA report also argues that cars should be banned from certain roads on alternating days, and that the use of high-speed trains, as opposed to air travel, should be encouraged in the hopes of getting commuters to switch to more efficient methods of long-distance travel.
While the organisation argues that these recommendations should be implemented to help the West fight Russia, the group also admits that the Climate Change agenda also plays a role in the heavy focus on reducing oil usage.
“Looking further ahead, this report also suggests a path for countries to put oil demand into structural decline in the medium term, building on measures already included in economic recovery packages introduced to deal with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report reads.
“Adopting the immediate and longer-term recommendations would put the countries on track for a decline in oil demand consistent with what is required to reach net zero emissions by 2050,” it goes on to say.
Over a Million Italians Fined For Breaking Vaccine Mandate Rules
A total of 1.2 million Italians are set to receive a fine in the mail as Italy continues its policy of mandating Wuhan coronavirus vaccinations for all over the age of 50 until mid-June.
The 1.2 million people over the age of 50 are set to receive a fine of €100 (£84/$104) for remaining unvaccinated despite the mandate being rolled out by the Italian government in mid-February.
The president of the scientific foundation GIMBE, Nino Cartabellotta, has claimed that as many as 19.5 million Italians are either unvaccinated or have not completed their third or fourth dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.
Previously, an estimated 600,000 Italians had received fines for being vaccinated in March of this year prior to the government relaxing Wuhan coronavirus restrictions.
Among them was a woman named Maria Sedda from the Sardinian municipality of Lula who received a letter in March. The arrival of the letter announcing the fine was treated as odd by her family, however, who said Ms Sedda died 18 years ago.
The Italian Health Ministry has allegedly had difficulties in convincing people to either get their first vaccine doses or get their booster doses as the vaccination campaign has recently stagnated.
According to the ministry, only a small portion of those over the age of 80 and those with compromised immune systems have signed up to take a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine and the ministry has called on regions to do more and create more information campaigns to encourage more vaccinations.
A decrease in vaccinations may be related to the recent easing of coronavirus restrictions in Italy, particularly the end of the coronavirus health pass system known as the Green Pass, which ended on May 1st across the country.
Previously, the Green Pass, which required full vaccination, proof of recovery or a recent negative test, was needed to access everything from restaurants and bars to public transportation across the country.
Mayorkas Pulls 150,000 Cubans into U.S. Economy
President Joe Biden’s border chief has welcomed almost 150,000 poor Cubans into the United States, mostly to seek jobs and housing that would otherwise go to poor Americans.
The inflow is rising rapidly as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas exempts more Cubans from the Title 42 bar against migrants.
The Cuban-born Mayorkas allowed 36,628 Cubans to enter in April, up from 16,547 in February and 8,158 in December. The vast majority of Cubans are working-age adults and are allowed to get work permits by simply asking for asylum — even though they are economic migrants.
The Biden inflow is greater than the 125,000 Cubans who flooded into the United during the 1980 “Mariel Boatlift.”
The inflow is expected to rise after Biden’s deputies agreed to help Cubans in the U.S. to send more money back to their relatives stuck on the island.
The May 16 economic agreement is good news for the Biden administration and Cuba’s dictatorial government.
Cuba’s government will gain wealth from the economic remittances sent home by the exiled Cuban workers and will also export the young men and women who might otherwise stage uprisings against the government. The deal will also allow Cuban to send 20,000 more legal migrants to the United States, most of whom likely will be old to work productively.
The population-transfer deal will benefit U.S. business groups by exporting more migrant consumers and workers into the low-wage U.S. economy envisaged by Biden’s high-migration advocates.
The agreement also signals that Biden’s government will not pressure Cuba’s government to accept the return of Cuban migrants arrested at the U.S. border. Without a return process, the only way to exclude Cubans from the U.S. labor market is to have Mexico’s government bar their entry into Mexico, or else accept all Cubans into the little-used Remain in Mexico policy.
But the elite-negotiated population transfer adds more economic pressure to many millions of poor Americans — and to the population of at least 10 million Americans who have been pushed out of work.
The inflow of Cubans is just one part of the flood of 1.8 million people invited across the border since January 2021 by Biden and his deputies, despite the Title 42 rule.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
DHS Data: Biden Deporting Fewer Illegal Aliens Convicted of Murder, Kidnapping, Sexual Assault
President Joe Biden’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is deporting far fewer illegal aliens convicted of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, and other felonies, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data reveals.
In February 2021, Biden implemented a series of orders protecting most of the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens from arrest and deportation. The most expansive is Biden’s so-called “sanctuary country” orders that prevent ICE agents from arresting and deporting most illegal aliens — even those with criminal convictions.
In addition, Biden has given illegal aliens a number of “protected areas” where they can avoid arrest and deportation, is working to further crack down on ICE arrests, and has shielded illegal aliens from being arrested at most courthouses.
DHS data secured through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Center for Immigration Studies shows Biden has slashed deportations for illegal alien convicts.
For instance, deportations for illegal alien convicts dropped 62 percent in Fiscal Year 2021, with less than 40,000 being deported from the United States, compared to Fiscal Year 2020, when nearly 104,000 illegal alien convicts were deported.
Biden deported fewer illegal aliens convicted of murder, the data shows, in Fiscal Year 2021 than those who were deported in Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020. In fact, in every criminal conviction category — including kidnapping, sexual assault, drug crimes, weapons offenses, and human trafficking — Biden deported fewer illegal aliens than those who were deported in the two prior fiscal years.
Among illegal aliens convicted of aggravated felonies, deportations dropped 43 percent to about 5,200 in Biden’s first year compared with former President Donald Trump’s last full year when more than 9,100 illegal aliens convicted of aggravated felonies were deported.
Biden has dramatically slashed deportations since his “sanctuary country” orders were implemented. From February 2021 to September 2021, just 14,585 illegal aliens living in the U.S. interior have been deported.
Compare that figure to the last four months of the Trump administration, when nearly 17,000 illegal aliens were deported from the U.S. interior.
Overall, deportations from the U.S. interior fell by 50 percent to more than 31,500 in Fiscal Year 2021 compared to Fiscal Year 2020 when more than 62,700 were deported. Also, Biden deported more than 54,000 fewer illegal aliens from the U.S. interior than Trump did in Fiscal Year 2019.
FBI Lawyer Says He Briefed McCabe, Comey on Sketchy Trump–Russia Claims
Former FBI Director James Comey and his top deputy were briefed on claims against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump brought to the FBI by a lawyer working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the bureau’s former general counsel testified in court on May 19.
James Baker, who was the bureau’s top lawyer at the time, met with Michael Sussmann, the Clinton campaign lawyer, on Sept. 19, 2016.
During the meeting, which took place in Baker’s office, Sussmann handed over white papers and thumb drives that allegedly contained data proving a secret back channel between Trump’s business and a Russian bank—claims that were later deemed false by the FBI and CIA.
Baker, testifying during Sussmann’s trial on a charge of lying to the FBI, said Sussmann repeated what he had told his friend the night prior—that he was bringing the information on his own accord, not on behalf of any clients.
“It was part of his introduction to the meeting, ‘I’m not here on behalf of any particular client.’ I’m 100 percent confident that he said that,” Baker said.
Sussmann told Baker that media outlets were preparing to publish stories on the claims. Within minutes of getting the data, Baker picked up the phone and called Bill Priestap, a top FBI official.
“It involved Russia, and this bank had links to the Kremlin. That seemed to me, on its face, to be a potential national security threat,” Baker said, noting that the bureau was already investigating alleged connections between the Trump Organization and Russia. “It was a very high priority for me.”
During a meeting with Priestap, Baker vouched for Sussmann, who he has described as a friend. The pair met while working in the same Department of Justice division.
Baker repeated Sussmann’s claim—which led to a criminal charge against Sussmann and the trial—that he wasn’t bringing the information on behalf of a client, but noted that Sussmann had represented the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.
Baker said he gave the data the next day to Peter Strzok, another top FBI official.
Blinken Announces $215 Million for Global Emergency Aid to Ease Food Shortages
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on May 18 that the United States would be offering $215 million in emergency assistance to ease worldwide food shortages, which have been worsened by the Ukraine war and resulting supply chain disruptions.
“Today, given the urgency of the crisis, we’re announcing another $215 million in new emergency food assistance. And we’ll do much more. We expect our Congress very soon to approve approximately $5.5 billion in additional funding for humanitarian assistance and food security,” Blinken said at the Food Security Ministerial in the United Nations headquarters.
The $5.5 billion is part of the $40 billion taxpayer-funded Ukraine aid bill passed in the House on May 10 and the Senate on May 16, and it’s currently on its way to Biden’s desk.
Blinken said governments and organizations around the world needed to combine their efforts in convincing Russia to allow for food and vital supplies to safely leave Ukraine.
“There are an estimated 22 million tons of grain sitting in silos in Ukraine right now, food that could immediately go toward helping those in need if it can simply get out of the country,” Blinken said.
Ukraine is one of the world’s top producers of agricultural commodities such as wheat, maize, rapeseed, sunflower seeds, and sunflower oil.
Blockage of ports has contributed to a global shortage of supplies and has exacerbated food prices, which rose at their fastest pace on record in March, based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, rising 13 percent over the month to 159.3 points.
New Jersey Sued for Illegally Concealing Election Records Policy
An election integrity group is suing New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way for allegedly violating the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by refusing to disclose documentation explaining how election officials resolve duplicate voter registrations.
The Indianapolis-based Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) says it needs to view the documents because recent studies show thousands of New Jersey residents possess duplicate, triplicate, or quadruplicate voter registrations.
“Americans have a fundamental right under federal law to see precisely how their voter rolls are maintained,” stated PILF President J. Christian Adams, a former civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice.
“We can’t let New Jersey set a trend for concealing standard operating procedures for data entry and hygiene as if they were state secrets—especially when we are seeing persons registered three, four, five, and even six times.”
PILF, a nonprofit, describes itself as “the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity.” It “exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections.” The group states that it has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
PILF isn’t the first to complain to Way about the state’s lack of transparency on voter registrations.
State Sen. Kristin Corrado, a Republican, has expressed her concerns in a series of letters to Way.
“Since September 2020, I have written several letters to New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way to request that the election process be made fully transparent while ensuring both County Clerks and the Board of Elections can deliver fair and accurate election results,” Corrado wrote in an October 2021 statement.
“I have heard from many constituents who are justifiably concerned about the numerous cases of voter fraud, ballot tampering, incorrect counting, and postal issues over the past year. We need to ensure the accuracy and fairness of the many crucial local, county, state, and federal elections so the rightful winners may represent the people of New Jersey.”
The case, PILF v. Way, court file 3:22-cv-2865, was filed on May 17 in U.S. District Court in New Jersey. Way, a Democrat, is the state’s chief election official.
Arizona’s Turncoat Attorney General Shredded All Hope For Election Integrity
In the most despicable display of political and legal malfeasance in recent memory, Arizona’s Republican Attorney General, Mark Brnovich, balked on pursuing criminal charges based on evidence surfaced during the exhaustive election audit following the 2020 presidential election of Joe Biden.
According to the Gateway Pundit,
The full forensic audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election discovered evidence of hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes. After seven long months of “investigating” the fraud, Brnovich released a report acknowledging “problematic system-wide issues” and confirming that over 100,000 ballots did not have chain of custody documentation.
During 2021, America watched Arizona try to bring election integrity back to the ballot box. Thanks to Brnovich, nothing has changed. America is still in the dark. The 2022 midterm elections are just as likely to be fraudulently mismanaged as the 2020 elections.
Now that the 2000 Mules movie has been released, new evidence (both video and forensic data analysis) is on the table showing that there were at least 200 “mules” operating in Maricopa County to stuff phony ballots into election boxes . Not a peep out of Brnovich. Not even a press release.
If anything, perpetrators are even more emboldened this time around because they know that nothing will happen to them.
Americans deserve to know what happened to the voter integrity movement that gave hope to millions across the nation. One man betrayed us all.
Disconnect: Trump-Endorsed Oz’ Deep Connections With World Economic Forum
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a GOP Senate candidate, was a member of the World Economic Forum, the head of WEF’s ‘Global Leaders of Tomorrow’ health initiative, and developed a ‘health manual’ for the WEF aimed at ‘millions’ of people who he said had ‘abdicated responsibility for their own well being and the overarching needs of society.’
Ahead of Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary election on Tuesday, posts circulating online have drawn attention to the fact that Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity physician and TV host vying for the GOP nomination, has connections to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF is a left-wing lobbying group known for hosting international government and business elites at annual summits in Davos, Switzerland. In 2020, the WEF notably launched its “Great Reset” program “to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies.”
The project, which counts the support of U.N. Secretary-General António Gutteres and Biden administration climate czar John Kerry, seeks to transform the global financial system according to the tenets of “stakeholder capitalism,” an economic framework condemned by critics as a form of socialism. Other focuses of the “Great Reset” include “digital identity,” “LGBTI inclusion,” “vaccination,” and “global governance,” according to the WEF’s website.
“Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed,” WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab said of the “Great Reset” in June 2020.
What about Dr. Oz?
Kathy Barnette, a fellow GOP Senate candidate, has slammed Oz in recent days over his links to the WEF, as have several posts on social media. Polling shows Oz in a statistical tie with Barnette, a pro-life, conservative commentator and businesswoman.
In an interview with Newsmax on Monday, Oz criticized Barnette’s claims about his involvement with the WEF as “distractions” and “ancient history.”
But he didn’t deny the accusations, and the record shows that Oz’s ties to the World Economic Forum run deep and go back decades.
Oz: World Economic Forum ‘Global Leader of Tomorrow’
Oz, a Muslim and son of Turkish immigrants, initially rose to fame as a celebrity heart surgeon known for merging Eastern spirituality with Western medical practices.
The World Economic Forum named him a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” in 1999, around the time he released his book Healing from the Heart, which details how he combines traditional medicine with “such Eastern techniques as acupuncture and chi-gong, as well as such controversial therapies as hypnosis, music, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, and energy healing.” Oz was as a WEF “Global Leader of Tomorrow” for five years, until 2004.
At the World Economic Forum in 2002, Oz presented what he called a “health manual for society” to “touch the millions” of people who he said had “abdicated responsibility for their own well being and the overarching needs of society.”
“While searching for a mythical operating theatre for society, I was invited to visit a group of influential decision makers at the World Economic Forum,” he explained in an ABC News article that referred to him as “a member of the World Economic Forum.”
Oz’s health model, called the “The Possible Human,” argued for treating health as “not just a right” but as “an economic resource” and urged “partnering the private and public sectors in addressing global — and local — health policy,” according to a news release from Columbia University, which Oz joined as a professor in 2001.
Oz served as head of the health initiative of the WEF’s Global Leaders of Tomorrow program, and his “The Possible Human” project emerged out of that role, according to the news release.
The article adds that Oz was chosen as a Global Leader of Tomorrow through previous meetings of the World Economic Forum that he attended.
“I originally participated in the World Economic Forum as a Columbia University faculty member, mainly because of my joint initiatives in mechanical heart support and integrative medicine,” Oz said. “But the bigger topic I have addressed is health care and technology, and specifically, the economics of this issue.”
“We now have advanced medical technology; the question we must ask is, which technology yields the greatest benefit for society?”
Oz continued his public involvement with the WEF for several years, attending the World Economic Forum summit in 2012 and writing articles for the organization. Sanford R. Climan, CEO of Oz’s company Oz Media, LLC, is also an adviser to the World Economic Forum and its Davos summit.
Lived A Good Life? Globalists Suggest Get Out Of The Way “For the Children”
In the height of hypocrisy of “for the children” the World Economic Forum is now complaining about overpopulation and/or suggesting that older people consider euthanasia “for the children”. In a video seen on Twitter full of geriatrics saying they’ve had a good life after explaining there’s too many humans on the planet. The video suggests that elderly folks who no longer are productive should opt for euthanasia. I’m certain children all over the world are thankful their grandparents will be suggested to off themselves for their benefit.
And while it is couched in “for the children” narrative, the truth of the matter is much more sinister. Christina Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund has been quoted as saying, “Old people live too long and this is a risk for the global community. What Christine is saying in effect is, unless you are a productive member of society your entire life, you don’t deserve to live.
Christine, with her white hair, manicured nails, and designer clothing probably never worked a manual job a day in her life. She would like to tell our senior citizens who defended this country, grew our food, built machines and trucks, mined coal, drilled oil, and worked on the railroad that now that they are no longer useful, they should just die. It is psychopathy to look at a person who has worked 30, 40, 50, and sometimes even 60 years, at the end of their life when they should be enjoying the twilight hours left for them and tell them they just need to die because they are a drain on the global community.
How have we allowed these people to get so far so fast to attack our most vulnerable? 40 plus years ago when they allowed abortion to kill the most innocent among us, many people said it would eventually end up to terminating the elderly as well. There were lots of handwaving and dismissal of that argument. However, 40 plus years on, we see that that is exactly what they are planning on doing. This, after a worldwide pandemic from a bioweapon produced by our own government within China which targeted specifically, it seems, the elderly and infirmed. They now want senior individuals who no longer “produce” enough to justify their life to opt for euthanasia.
Report: NBA Owners Have More than $10 Billion Invested in Red China
Not only does the NBA and its various owners have more than $10 billion invested in genocidal Red China, one NBA owner is even deep in bed with a company on the U.S. sanctions list, according to a review of the league’s interests published by ESPN.
In its May 19 article, ESPN notes that the NBA has finally been restored to Chinese television after a two-year hiatus as the communist nation’s leaders punished the league because one of its team managers voiced support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
A look at ESPN’s article shows precisely why the National Basketball League lost its collective mind when former Rockets manager Daryl Morey had the audacity to post a short tweet in October of 2019 that was supportive of the pro-democracy movement that China was brutally oppressing in Hong Kong.
With his support for a people longing to be free, Morey put in jeopardy the billions of dollars the NBA invested in the most inhuman and oppressive nation on earth.
That is why as soon as Morey tweeted, “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” the NBA erupted in fury that Moray would dare say something that could upset the league’s billions of dollars in deals with the red Chinese. And LeBron James was one of those who went into a rage over Moray’s support of freedom.
Early on, James spoke out against Moray and called him “uneducated” about the situation in Hong Kong. Though he never bothered to elucidate just what Moray was missing about China’s brutal crackdown on Hong Kong residents.
Morey was quickly forced to apologize for hoping to support a democratic movement and was almost fired and barred from the NBA for life because he endangered the NBA’s money.
With that history illuminated, ESPN tracked down some of the investments that NBA owners have in red China.
Heat Owner Micky Arison, for example, has more than $375 million invested in China with his collaboration with China State Shipbuilding Corp., a company that is working with Arison’s Carnival Cruise business and a co. that is deeply connected to the Chinese military.
In other words, Arison is deep in bed with a company that is building warships for the Chinese military, ships intended to destroy America’s navy, and ships that Chinese leaders intend to use to invade U.S. ally Taiwan. The Chinese company is also on a list of those sanctioned by the U.S. government.
A New York-based outsourcing firm, working with an India-based company, discriminated against qualified Americans for tech jobs in the United States, preferring to hire cheaper foreign visa workers, a Department of Justice (DOJ) settlement states.
Amtex Systems Inc., according to the settlement agreement, discriminated against qualified American workers during a number of stages through the recruitment and hiring process. The goal, the settlement states, was to fill U.S. jobs with foreign workers on Optional Practical Training (OPT) visas.
Foreign OPT visa workers are often preferred over Americans by employers because they are cheaper to hire. These workers come with a roughly 15 percent discount as employers are allowed to avoid paying FICA taxes, resulting in a net savings for them of about $20 billion to $30 billion over the years.
The investigation into Amtex was first initiated by DOJ prosecutors when an American citizen filed a discrimination complaint against the firm for preferring foreign OPT visa workers.
“Based on its investigation, the department concluded that Amtex used a company operating in India to identify and screen job applicants based on clients’ preferences for workers with particular citizenship or immigration statuses,” DOJ prosecutors wrote in a news release:
The investigation determined that the recruiters sent job advertisements with their clients’ unlawful citizenship or immigration status preferences, and also implemented those preferences when considering applicants. [Emphasis added]
The recruiters’ practices harmed U.S. workers by deterring them from applying, and not considering those who did apply. For example, the investigation revealed that Amtex did not consider at least three U.S. workers when they applied to a job posting that stated a preference for workers with temporary employment visas. [Emphasis added]
Under the terms of the settlement, Amtex must pay $15,000 in civil penalties to the federal government and revise its hiring practices. Amtex will also be subject to monitoring by the DOJ for the next three years.
Last year, Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) sponsored the Fairness for High-Skilled Americans Act, to end the OPT program and decrease foreign job competition for America’s working and middle class STEM graduates.
Despite corporations’ claims that there is a shortage of American workers to take coveted high-paying, white-collar jobs in the STEM fields, about four million young Americans enter the workforce each year. Many American workers have spoken out about how they were fired, replaced, and forced to train their foreign replacements.
Whistleblower: It was John Roberts who leaked Alito’s Roe v Wade opinion!
SOTN Editor’s Note: Please read the following narrative about the SCOTUS Roe v Wade opinion leak very, VERY carefully. Then read the article that follows to correctly understand the true status of the anticipated SCOTUS decision concerning that patently fraudulent 1973 ruling on abortion.
“The so-called SCOTUS leak was definitely a leak, but not by the expected and usual suspects. It was none other than Chief Justice John Roberts himself who leaked Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion on Roe v Wade. Roberts unlawfully authorized the leak in order to show the conservative justices how serious the [PERSONAL] consequences would be if they voted to overturn Roe v Wade. Then he ordered “special ops” to stage unruly protests against Justices Kavanaugh and Alito (hoping to intimidate them), as well as in front of his own home to escape suspicion. Roberts also arranged for the following: the pro-abortion organziation “Ruth Sent Us” announced it would be hosting a “walk-by” on May 11, outside the Virginia and Maryland homes of conservative Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Neil Gorsuch.) In this way, Roberts intended to compel each of those justices to reconsider their final vote on the most explosive case in SCOTUS history—Roe v Wade.”
— A Veteran Intel Analyst & Ex-US Military Whistleblower
To date, Chief Justice John Roberts has not identified anyone in connection with the wrongfully leaked opinion; nor will he, unless he puts forward a scapegoat to cover his own culpability. The NSA, CIA and FBI have all the necessary cybersecurity technology to zero in on the leak in 3 seconds flat. They knew who did the dirty deed before it was even done. Which means that another endless investigation will be conducted until everyone forgets about the crime.
May 17, 2022
Roe decision not included among latest Supreme Court rulings
Alito’s pro-life opinion reportedly remains the only one circulated in the case so far.
by Calvin Freiburger
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was not among the decisions released Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning America will have to wait longer to know whether Roe v. Wade is really being overturned.
Monday’s slate of newly-released decisions and orders included deportation, criminal sentencing, and campaign finance cases, but nothing about abortion. More than two dozen previously-argued cases still await resolution.
On May 2, Politico published a leaked draft of a majority opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito for Dobbs, which concerns Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. The draft declares that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and therefore it is “time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” In response, the Court announced the draft was authentic but “does not represent a final decision by the court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”
It remains unclear whether the draft represents a final decision to overturn Roe, is a tentative decision subject to change, was prepared in anticipation of a majority to overturn, or was written in hopes of persuading Alito’s colleagues to sign on. Regardless, the leak has sent shockwaves across the political spectrum, with pro-lifers tentatively rejoicing, pro-abortion politicians and activists lashing out in anger, and many speculating that the leak may have been intended to pressure judges to flip their votes, or to incite hatred and threats against them.
On May 11, Politico followed up its original leak with a report that Alito’s opinion “remains the court’s only circulated draft in the pending Mississippi abortion case.” If true, that would indicate the final decision is still several weeks away, as it will take time for the justices to digest and respond to one another’s concurring and dissenting opinions.
If Alito’s opinion does prove to be the Supreme Court’s final decision, its ramifications will be drastic. More than 20 states currently have laws on the books that would effectively ban abortion within their borders upon Roe’s fall, from pre-Roe abortion bans that went unenforced to “trigger laws” designed not to take effect until a ruling like today’s. In those states, abortion would become illegal as soon as the ruling is issued.
More than a dozen other states plus the District of Columbia have laws on the books legally protecting abortion, at least three of which explicitly codify the practice as a “right.” Abortion would remain legal in those jurisdictions, as well as the remaining states that have not spelled out abortion’s status one way or another, but without Roe state residents would have the power to vote on the issue for themselves, or lobby their elected representatives to change the law in either direction.
Pro-lifers in Congress could pursue a nationwide abortion ban as well, and many pro-lifers will no doubt urge them to do so, in order to prevent states like California from attempting to keep interstate abortions thriving.
School Board Member to Host ‘Queer Youth’ Event at Sex Shop for ‘All Ages’
A Washington state school board member is set to host a “Queer Youth Open Mic Night” at a sex store for children aged “0-18” on June 1.
Jenn Mason, who sits on the board of directors of Bellingham Public Schools, owns the sex shop WinkWink Boutique, according to the store’s website, which is set to host the event. The Queer Youth Open Mic Night Facebook page invites “queer youth” of all ages to share poetry, music, or a story, according to the event’s Facebook page.
“WinkWink offers a space for people—including queer folks—to ask questions and learn about sexuality in an accepting, safe, and shame-free environment. We receive extensive sexual health training and are a knowledgeable, inclusive community resource—something severely lacking around sexuality in our culture,” Mason told KTTH radio host Jason Rantz on Tuesday.
Mason added that the children would be “physically separated” from the store’s adult products.
The WinkWink Boutique describes itself as “woman-owned, inclusive not creepy,” and for “all ages” on its website. Alongside a variety of sex toys, the WinkWink Boutique offers “private sex coaching” with Mason, who states that she is a “certified sex coach and educator” on the site.
Mason was elected to the Bellingham Public School Board in November 2017, according to the district’s website. Mason has worked as a community educator and trauma counselor in schools across Whatcom County, Washington, the website states.
The WinkWink Boutique, Mason, and Bellingham Public Schools did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
‘My Son Hunter’ Movie Producer Says Hunter Biden’s Attorney Infiltrated His Film Set
Phelim McAleer, a producer of the upcoming independent movie “My Son Hunter” exposing alleged corruption in the Biden family, said he hasn’t “recovered from the shock” after knowing that Hunter Biden’s attorney had infiltrated his movie set in Serbia.
“Hunter Biden’s lawyer was on the set of our movie, secretly recording and interviewing people under false pretenses over several days to find out what was going on,” McAleer said in a recent interview with EpochTV’s “China Insider” program.
The lawyer that he was referring to is Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris, who won a Tony award as a co-producer of the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon.” His law firm previously represented Hollywood celebrities including Chris Rock, Scarlett Johansson, and “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
According to McAleer, Morris and two of his associates flew to his movie set in Serbia on a private jet, claiming to be making a documentary with the aim to expose Hunter Biden’s corruption.
McAleer said he found their visit “unusual” but he didn’t question their intention during their short visit, since Morris did not conceal his name and he knows who Morris is.
However, what Morris did hide from McAleer is the fact that he was representing Hunter Biden, a revelation exposed by CBS News in early May. The outlet got confirmation from Morris’s office that he was putting together a legal and media strategy for the president’s son.
What’s more, Christopher Clark, Hunter Biden’s criminal attorney, also confirmed to the outlet that Morris is acting as an “attorney and trusted adviser” to the president’s son.
McAleer said he was stunned when he saw the CBS report.
“I did not believe it,” McAleer said. “I was thinking, like, this is a lawyer, you can’t do that as a lawyer, you can’t pretend you’re not representing your client and speak to a third party, and misrepresent that.”
He added, “There’s an actual part of the California Bar Association ethics rules that says, you’re not allowed to represent yourself as an independent person, to someone who does not have legal counsels.”
Looking back, McAleer said he had some assumptions about why Morris was at his set.
“They’re trying to get some words that they could smear and put together to discredit the movie and to discredit our project,” McAleer said.
He said “My Son Hunter,” a crowdfunded film now in post-production, will be “Austin Powers” meets “House of Cards.” The movie stars British actor and political activist Laurence Fox in the title role and “Dynasty” star John James as Joe Biden.
“It’s a great story and that’s what they’re afraid of, that the story will travel far and wide and that’s why I suppose they infiltrated our movie set, tried to spy on it,” he added.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Senate Democrats’ Letters Show FDA Knew About Baby Formula Issues, but Did Nothing
As the nation grapples with a shortage of infant formula, a pair of letters from three Democratic senators indicate that they were aware of the bacterial infections connected to the Abbott Laboratories formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan, as far back as February.
Yet the three senators, along with the Food and Drug Administration, apparently did nothing to prepare for a dearth in production of baby formula should the Michigan plant be shut down.
Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Patty Murray of Washington wrote to Dr. Robert Califf, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to demand that the FDA investigate the deaths of two babies and several infant hospitalizations.
In their letter dated Feb. 24, Casey and Murray wrote:
Last week, Abbott made public that contaminated powder infant formulas manufactured at its Sturgis, Michigan, plant have led to multiple infant hospitalizations and one death.
While the voluntary recall of three types of formula—Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare—is a critical step to ensuring additional children do not become sickened by these products, we are incredibly concerned that the company received complaints as early as September 2021, but only took public action last week.
The letter refers to a Politico report that the Minnesota Department of Health investigated the case of a baby who was sickened in September. After realizing that the baby had consumed formula from the Abbott facility in Sturgis, the state health department informed the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the same month.
The New Yorks Times reported that a month after the Minnesota Department of Health sent its findings to the FDA and CDC, a whistleblower from the Sturgis plant filed a complaint alleging that plant bosses hid information from the FDA about health and safety standards at the facility.
The Times also reported that the FDA went to the Abbott plant Jan. 31 and confirmed the existence of cronobacter bacteria near various sections of production lines for powdered baby formula.
An FDA inspection form indicates dryers, bolts, packaging fillers, and storage rooms all tested positive for cronobacter sakazaki bacteria, the same bacteria detected in the sickened infants.
Yet it wasn’t until Feb. 17 that the FDA and Abbott acted, a four-month gap between initial warnings and action by the federal agency.
A later letter signed by Casey and Brown asserts: “Earlier actions to issue a recall and provide information to consumers could have prevented the subsequent three known cases … reported in connection with the recalled products or limited the quantity of recalled product and resulting shortages.”
Americans Should Prepare for a ‘Very Serious Recession’ Later This Year: Venture Capitalist
The U.S. economy is heading for a “very serious” recession later this year that may be the “worst downturn” since the late 1990s, according to a venture capitalist.
Craft Ventures co-founder and general partner David Sacks said that “sentiment is so negative” right now “because the market has sort of collectively realized that the highs that we saw last year were artificial.”
“They were the result of the Fed and Congress and the administration pumping $10 trillion of liquidity into the marketplace,” he told Fox Business on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell again said he would commit to raising interest rates to combat inflation rates not seen in 40 years. However, analysts and CEOs have increasingly warned that such actions will spur a recession in the coming months.
“That resulted in inflation and now the Fed has to raise interest rates,” Sacks told Fox Business. “And so over the last six months, there has really been a collapse in valuation levels as people realize that we’re not going to be in this low-interest-rate environment forever.”
Meanwhile, workers’ wages “are not keeping up with inflation and so consumers do not feel as flush and you are starting to see that in quarterly reports,” Sacks added. “And I think this is what’s going to precipitate a slowdown, a recession in the real economy and I think that’s what’s coming next.”
His comments came a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,100 points after retailers, including Target, suggested the negative impact of inflation would hurt their profits. As of Thursday afternoon, the Dow saw a 200-point drop.
Rising inflation, the conflict in Ukraine, prolonged supply chain snarls, pandemic-related lockdowns carried out by the Chinese Communist Party due to the pursuit of its “zero COVID” policy, and prospects of aggressive policy tightening by central banks have weighed on the markets recently, stoking concerns about a global economic slowdown.
The S&P 500 is down 16.8 percent so far in 2022 and the Nasdaq has fallen more than 26 percent, hit by growth stocks. Valuations for stocks as measured by the forward price-to-earnings ratio have come down sharply in recent weeks and that has increased the appeal of shares for some investors.
Earlier this week, Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf said during a Wall Street Journal event that within the coming months, he believes the United States will enter into recession territory. However, unlike Sacks, Scharf said he believes the coming downturn will be “mild” and “short-lived.”
Breitbart Business Digest: Teetering on the Edge of a Bear Market
Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up To Me is the title of a 1966 novel by Richard Farina, who apparently borrowed it from a blues song titled “I’ll Turn Your Money Green.”
The song contains a promise:
If you follow me, baby
I’ll turn your money green
I show you more money
Rockefeller ever seen
Farina’s title is a pretty good description of the stock market lately. The major indexes were each down by less than one percent today, a respite from the recent steep sell off that almost seemed like an up day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average only lost 0.75 percent! The S&P was off by just 0.58 percent. The Nasdaq only lost around a quarter of a percentage point! Break out the champagne, boys! We stumbled but didn’t collapse today.
The truth is that stocks are pretty close to collapsing. The S&P 500 is down around 19 percent from its January close. That puts us just one percent away from the official marker of a “bear market.” To put that in context, the S&P collapse during the initial phase of the pandemic was 34 percent from peak to trough. Those who can still laugh are saying the market has turned their 401(k) into a 301(k).
The Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing survey certainly did not add any reason to be confident. Just as the New York Fed’s index did at the start of the week, the Philly Fed gauge unexpectedly plunged. The general conditions index came just shy of falling into negative territory, indicating that growth is near a standstill. Even worse, this month’s special questions indicated that inflation expectations have become unanchored and are moving quickly upward. Back in February, firms said they expected 5.5 percent inflation over the next year. In the most recent survey, they said they are expecting 6.5 percent. Expectations for annual inflation over the next ten years jumped from three percent to 3.5 percent.
This should be setting off alarm bells inside the Federal Reserve. In the Fed’s view, inflation expectations are themselves a powerful influence on actual inflation. Ever since the current bout of inflation took off, Fed officials have been trying to reassure the public that inflation will not become a long-term problem because inflation expectations remained anchored. The persistent inflation and the high price of gasoline—which has hit an all-time high every single day this week—appear to be finally moving expectations away from their former anchorage.
Rising home prices are usually a sign of economic strength, but they make a different impression in an inflationary environment. So, when the median price for a home sold in April hit an all-time high, that was generally seen as troubling news. It’s not that investors are expecting a housing crash; it’s just that the escalating prices of existing homes is another sign of an economy overheated by demand and starved for supply. The volume of sales fell all the way back to the lows last seen in June 2020, when much of the economy was on lockdown. And keep in mind that when a family sells their home for an outsized gain, they’re typically also buying a home at an inflated price.
Walter E. “Furry” Lewis, the Memphis bluesman who wrote “I’ll Turn Your Money Green,” included these words in his song:
If the river was whiskey
Baby, and I was a duck
I’d dive to the bottom
Lord, and I’d never come up
Sometimes that’s just how the market and the economy feel, and you wish someone would come along and turn the money green once more.
Netflix Shares Fall 7% amid More Bad Subscriber Data
Netflix shares fell more than seven percent on Wednesday as the streamer faced more bad news about its subscriber outlook, including a new study showing that long-term Netflix customers are abandoning it in significantly larger numbers.
Another study found that consumer interest in Netflix’s original content is lagging behind the competition.
Shares of the far left-wing Netflix dropped more than seven percent Wednesday and slid further in after-hours trading amid a widespread market sell-off that hammered other technology and entertainment stocks including Amazon and the Walt Disney Co.
Wednesday’s losses mean Netflix shares are off a staggering 70 percent for the year so far.
As Breitbart News reported, Netflix is seeing a sharp rise in the number of long-term customers cancelling their subscriptions, signaling a new threat to the left-wing streamer’s financial stability.
The data, from the research firm Antenna, showed that consumers who had been Netflix subscribers for more than three years accounted for just 5 percent of total cancelations at the start of 2022, but that figure jumped to 13 percent in the first quarter of 2022.
A separate study found waning consumer enthusiasm for original Netflix content.
As reported by Business Insider, Parrot Analytics said in its quarterly streaming report that global demand growth for Netflix’s original series plateaued over the last year as competitors upped their game.
“As demand for Netflix originals and the entire catalog continues to fall domestically and globally while demand for originals on other services grows, Netflix has to refocus its content strategy to extract the most value from every series ordered,” the Parrot Analytics report said.
Netflix is now facing a shareholder lawsuit accusing executives of misleading the public about the company’s subscriber growth.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Meet the Human Battery, a New Source of “Green” Energy
The concept of Human Battery puts the transhumanist slogan about the need to merge with machines — or be left behind in the evolution of the human species — in a sinister context
The World Economic Forum has an ambition to transform people into batteries to power electronic devices and urban development
“Parasitic harvesting” [sic] is a method of generating power from people’s normal activities
The prospect of making us all “useful” to the Davos crowd by turning us into energy sources reeks of digital feudalism
Microsoft has a patent for a method of transforming human behavior into cryptocurrency, which is done through an unspecified device coupled with a server that registers body activity and “mines” crypto
Scientists Power a Computer Using Only Algae and Daylight to Make the Electricity
Researchers have used a widespread species of blue-green algae to power a microprocessor continuously for a year—and counting—using nothing but ambient light and water.
Their system has potential as a reliable and renewable way to power small devices.
Comparable in size to an AA battery, the system contains a type of non-toxic algae called Synechocystis that naturally harvests energy from the sun through photosynthesis. The tiny electrical current this generates then interacts with an aluminium electrode and is used to power a microprocessor.
The system is made of common, inexpensive, and largely recyclable materials. This means it could easily be replicated hundreds of thousands of times to power large numbers of small devices as part of the Internet of Things.
The researchers say it is likely to be most useful in off-grid situations or remote locations, where small amounts of power can be very beneficial.
“The growing Internet of Things needs an increasing amount of power, and we think this will have to come from systems that can generate energy, rather than simply store it like batteries,” said Professor Christopher Howe in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Biochemistry, joint senior author of the paper.
He added, “Our photosynthetic device doesn’t run down the way a battery does because it’s continually using light as the energy source.”
HEALTH
WHO to hold emergency meeting on monkeypox on Friday
The World Health Organization is set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss monkeypox on Friday, according to sources close to the U.N. agency.
The committee due to meet is the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential (STAG-IH), which advises WHO on infection risks that could pose a threat to global health.
More than 100 cases of the viral infection, which spreads through close contact and is usually mild, have recently been reported outside the countries in Africa where it is endemic
Biden Admin Places $119 Million Order for Vaccines After Single Case of Monkeypox Reported in US
The Biden administration has placed an order for millions of doses of a vaccine intended to protect against smallpox and monkeypox, after the first case of monkeypox in the United States this year was confirmed in Massachusetts on May 18.
Monkeypox, a viral disease typically limited to Africa, has been reported in several countries with more than 25 confirmed cases since the beginning of May.
Denmark-based biotech group Bavarian Nordic announced the order on May 18, which prompts the company to convert its bulk liquid smallpox vaccine into freeze-dried versions, which have an improved shelf life. The bulk vaccine has already been manufactured and invoiced under previous contracts with the U.S. government, the Bavarian Nordic stated. The vaccine is approved under the name “JYNNEOS” in the United States.
The order represents $119 million worth of the Jynneos vaccines, which would be manufactured and invoiced in 2023 and 2024.
Under the contract, the Biden administration has the option to place another order worth $180 million. That would allow for about 13 million freeze-dried doses of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine to be manufactured by around 2024 and 2025. The majority of the bulk vaccine for those doses has already been manufactured and invoiced, according to the company.
Bavarian Nordic later announced on May 19 it will supply “an undisclosed European country” with its smallpox vaccine. It is approved under the name “IMVANEX” in Europe for smallpox, but has been previously given off-label for monkeypox, the company said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company’s Jynneos vaccine in September 2019 for the prevention of smallpox and monkeypox disease in people aged 18 and over. The vaccine would be “available for those determined to be at high risk of either smallpox or monkeypox infection.”
The FDA stated at the time, “This is the only currently FDA-approved vaccine for the prevention of monkeypox disease.”
Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said at the time that “the intentional release” of smallpox, a highly contagious virus, “could have a devastating effect.”
Eating Too Much of These Foods Raises Your Risk of Stroke and Heart Disease
Heart disease, which claims over 655,000 lives every year in the United States, is the number one killer in the nation and the leading cause of death worldwide. While multiple factors contribute to heart disease, natural health experts and forward-thinking dietitians have long suspected that heavy consumption of refined grains plays a role.
In other words: you might want to think twice before having that doughnut. A newly published study in the British Medical Journal revealed that a higher intake of refined grains is associated with a substantially higher risk of major cardiovascular events – such as heart attack and stroke – as well as a higher risk of death from any cause. Over the past few decades, dietary intake of refined grains and added sugar has soared in countries around the globe. The bombshell study helps to “connect the dots” – and illuminates the life-shortening effects of refined foods on people worldwide.
Shocking Study Finds 47 Percent Higher Stroke Risk With Refined Grains
The 16-year study, known as the Prospective Urban/Rural Epidemiology Study (PURE), involved over 137,000 participants in 21 different countries. The international team of researchers examined the diets of various populations in low-, middle- and high-income countries worldwide and categorized the daily consumption of refined grains by quantity.
The highest intake of refined grains was over 350 grams a day (about seven to ten servings), while the lowest category involved amounts under 50 grams a day.
More than seven servings a day raised the risk of stroke by a staggering 47 percent – and increased the risk of heart disease by 33 percent (compared to those in lower-consumption groups). Perhaps the most shocking finding was that more than seven servings of refined grains a day were associated with a 27 percent greater risk for early death. (Given the high proportion of refined grains in the standard American diet, it’s clear that many people in the United States meet this unhealthy mark daily!)
Unsurprisingly, refined grains were also associated with higher systolic blood pressure.
Warning: Refined, Processed Grains Are Stripped of Micronutrients and Fiber
The researchers classified the grains into three categories: refined grains, whole grains, and white rice.
Refined grains are wheat grain products in which the bran (or aleurone fiber layer) and the germ have been removed. Refined grains have lower levels of fiber, which helps protect against cancer, and lower levels of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and antioxidant plant compounds.
Refined grains are absorbed quickly from the small intestine and can lead to post-meal blood sugar spikes and increased insulin concentration. They can also stimulate appetite and food intake. (In other words, these inferior foods can actually make you hungrier). Examples of refined grains include white bread, crackers, pasta, noodles, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, and baked goods such as croissants, cookies, and pastries.
Whole grains in the study included steel cut oats, oatmeal, cracked wheat, corn, cornmeal, bulgur wheat, barley, and products made with stone-ground whole grain flours such as wheat, maize, millet, and buckwheat. (Dark bread, such as pumpernickel bread, also made the grade because the grain still contains its original fiber).
White rice is technically a refined grain, but researchers considered it separately because it is a staple food in Asia, where 60 percent of the study population resides. In addition, between you and me, no flour product – even if it’s “stone-ground” or “organic” should ever be considered a “whole grain” product … but, that’s what conventionally-trained researchers tend to think. (unfortunately!)
Researchers: Both Whole Grains and White Rice Were “In the Clear” When It Comes to Raising Heart Disease Risk
Natural health experts say that white, processed rice – in which the fiber, husk, and germ have been removed – is nutritionally inferior to brown and wild rice. In fact, brown and wild rice contain much higher levels of disease-fighting nutrients, including B-complex vitamins, antioxidant vitamin E, iron, and dietary fiber.
However, in this study, at least, white rice got a clean bill of health from the researchers regarding raising the risk of major cardiovascular disease and early death.
Somewhat less surprisingly, whole grains were also found to have no adverse association with heart disease or early death.
Even in Your 80s, Adopting a Healthier Lifestyle Can Add Years to Your Life
Adopting a healthier lifestyle can add years to your life—even in your 80s, according to new research from Japan.
Reducing drinking, not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and increasing sleep produce the biggest gains, say scientists.
They increased longevity by six years in healthy 40-year-olds. The benefits were even more prominent in those twice the age.
These gains applied also to individuals with life-threatening illnesses, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney disease.
The study from Osaka University shows it is never too late to give up bad habits and shed the pounds, from middle age onwards. It was based on almost 50,000 people in Japan who were tracked for up to 20 years.
“This is a particularly important finding given the prevalence of chronic disease has increased globally,” said Senior author Professor Hiroyasu Iso.
The team says taking ownership of your health is key to a pleasurable retirement.
“Idioms and proverbs about the importance of maintaining good health span the ages. Many emphasize how closely health is tied to happiness and the opportunity to live a fulfilling and enjoyable life.”
The study, published in Age and Aging, found that healthy behaviors adopted over time have a marked effect on lifespan.
The researchers found that adopting five or more healthy lifestyle behaviors increased life expectancy even for individuals over 80 years old, and importantly, including those with chronic conditions. They saw results that were dependent on socioeconomic status, policies such as assisted access to healthcare, and lifestyle factors.
30 years ago, participants in The Japan Collaborate Cohort (JACC) Study filled in surveys that included questions about diet and exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking status, sleep duration, and BMI (body mass index). They were also asked about any illnesses.
The aim was to increase knowledge about what factors contribute to death from cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Points were awarded for each healthy behavior and the impact of modifying them on projected lifespan was assessed.
The project continued until December 2009, by which time nearly 9,000 individuals had died.
It is one of the first studies to measure the impact of improvements to health behavior among older individuals in a country with a national life expectancy achieving almost 85 years.
“The finding that lifestyle improvements has a positive impact on health despite chronic health conditions and older age is an empowering one, especially given the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and longer life,” said lead author Dr. Ryoto Sakaniwa.
Two years ago a study found women can gain ten and men seven years of life free of cancer, heart problems, and type-2 diabetes from a healthy lifestyle. That research was based on 111,000 Americans tracked for more than 20 years.
Lead author Dr Frank Hu, of Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, described the findings as “a positive message for the public”.
“They gain not just more years of life but good years through improved lifestyle choices.”
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Blackouts possible this summer due to heat and extreme weather, officials warn
Extreme temperatures and ongoing drought could cause the power grid to buckle across vast areas of the country this summer, potentially leading to electricity shortages and blackouts, a US power grid regulator said Wednesday.
NERC, a regulating authority that oversees the health of the nation’s electrical infrastructure, says in its 2022 Summer Reliability Assessment that extreme temperatures and ongoing drought could cause the power grid to buckle. High temperatures, the agency warns, will cause the demand for electricity to rise. Meanwhile, drought conditions will lower the amount of power available to meet that demand.
“Industry prepares its equipment and operators for challenging summer conditions. Persistent, extreme drought and its accompanying weather patterns, however, are out of the ordinary and tend to create extra stresses on electricity supply and demand,” said Mark Olson, NERC’s manager of Reliability Assessments.
On Thursday, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center called for nearly the entire contiguous United States to experience above average temperatures this summer.
The power grid is extremely delicate and electricity supply must always meet electricity demand, experts warn. If not, capacity shortfalls can occur. A shortfall is when there is not enough power being generated to meet demand.
Forced power outages, also known as rolling blackouts, are initiated during these situations — which is what millions of Americans run the risk of seeing this summer — to prevent long term damage to the grid.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Government Scientists Secretly Paid Off While Hiding Data
According to government watchdog Open the Books, the National Institutes of Health and hundreds of individual scientists received an estimated $350 million in undisclosed royalties from third parties, primarily drug companies, in the decade between 2010 and 2020
Between 2010 and 2014, National Cancer Institute employees received nearly $113 million. The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and its leadership received more than $9.3 million
Federal agencies are increasingly refusing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests, thereby forcing legal action. This is an obnoxious waste of taxpayer money as, by law, they’re required to release the information
Forced FOIA disclosures have shown the NIH lied about not funding gain of function research in China, and allowed the EcoHealth Alliance — whom they’re supposed to regulate — to write its own reporting rules. NIH has also been caught redacting information under false pretenses
Members of U.S. Congress are calling for an investigation into the EcoHealth Alliance, to determine the true scope of its cover-up. House investigators have found EcoHealth hid more data than previously known, including a death rate of 75% in humanized mice infected with its gain of function coronavirus
COVID RELATED NEWS
US Regulators Reject Request to Clear Cheap Drug for Treatment of COVID-19
U.S. regulators have rejected a request to grant emergency authorization to a cheap drug for the treatment of COVID-19, drawing criticism from one of the doctors that asked for the clearance.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a 27-page memorandum explaining its decision, said that the benefit of fluvoxamine was “not persuasive when focusing on clinically meaningful outcomes such as proportion of patients experiencing hospitalizations or hospitalizations and deaths.”
A review of clinical trials that have examined fluvoxamine, a widely used antidepressant, against COVID-19 led to the conclusion that the data at this time are insufficient for emergency clearance, the FDA added.
Dr. David Boulware, who drew up the request because he believes more COVID-19 treatments are needed, said that the FDA erred because it used different criteria when analyzing fluvoxamine than when it analyzed drugs from major pharmaceutical companies, such as a pill from Pfizer called paxlovid.
Hospitalization was defined in the trials for those drugs as receiving over 24 hours of acute care, whether in a hospital or similar facility. But it analyzed hospitalization in the case of fluvoxamine only in hospitals, excluding similar facilities.
“FDA should evaluate clinical trials using the same endpoint definitions for generic drugs as for big pharma. The deliberate creation of two-tiered system is inappropriate,” Boulware, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, said in a letter to Dr. Peter Stein, who is the director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs.
Asked for a comment on Boulware’s letter, an FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency after its review “was unable to reasonably conclude that fluvoxamine may be effective for the treatment of outpatient adults with COVID-19 to prevent severe disease progression and/or hospitalization.”
A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated when a trial judge allowed an audio stream but not video access to the proceedings.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco vacated the gun conviction of defendant James David Allen II and remanded for a new trial. Allen had unsuccessfully requested video streaming for his suppression hearing and trial when the judge barred courtroom visitors because of COVID-19 concerns.
Allen’s lawyer had argued that “you miss all of that flavor” when only telephone access is allowed.
U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the Northern District of California denied the request, reasoning that a video stream via the internet should not be allowed because there was no way to prevent viewers from recording the trial. He also concluded that telephone access was appropriate because it is more widely available than internet access.
Allen was tried and convicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
The 9th Circuit agreed that there was an overriding interest in limiting transmission of COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic in 2020, when the trial took place. But Gilliam failed to narrowly tailor his decision when he completely barred video access to the suppression hearing and trial, the 9th Circuit said in its May 16 opinion.
Gilliam could have allowed a limited number of visitors in the courtroom or in a separate room where they could watch a livestreamed video, according to the opinion. Other federal courts when confronted with the same issue “consistently allowed some form of visual access to the trial,” the opinion said. State courts adopted similar measures.
Gilliam’s decision to provide only audio was “truly exceptional,” the appeals court said.
Judge Sandra S. Ikuta wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Lawrence VanDyke and Carlos F. Lucero, a judge on the 10th Circuit at Denver who was sitting by designation.
Hat tip to Law.com, which had coverage of the opinion.
Is SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Related to the Hepatitis in Children Outbreak? Here’s What We Know
Recently, healthy children in many countries have suddenly developed hepatitis of unknown origin, causing panic around the world. Among these child patients, 8 percent to 14 percent need liver transplants. The public are worried that this is related to the SARS-CoV-2 and/or COVID-19 vaccines. Let’s take a look at the actual situation.
Fatal Cases of ‘Hepatitis in Children of Unknown Origin’ Emerge Worldwide
In over four short months, more than 200 cases of acute hepatitis in children broke out in more than 20 countries around the world. And the causes have not yet been fully identified, making this a serious public health emergency. In April, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued separate notices to alert the public.
In addition, the WHO reported on May 4, 2022 that as of May 1, 228 children aged 1 month to 16 years old had developed acute hepatitis worldwide, and their conditions were generally severe, with 8 percent of them requiring liver transplantation, and one death.
On May 6, 2022, the CDC also reported 109 cases of hepatitis in children in the United States, of which
- 90 percent of the children were severely ill and required hospitalization;
- 14 percent required liver transplantation;
- five died
An investigation report, published on April 14, 2022 in Europe’s Journal on Infectious Disease Surveillance, provided some details. The report included 13 cases of children from Scotland with confirmed acute hepatitis. The median age of these children was four years old, split equally between males and females; they had no underlying disease in general and no history of immunodeficiency or immunosuppressive drug therapy.
All these children had severe hepatitis, with abnormally high levels of ALT (alanine transaminase), a marker of impaired hepatocyte functions.
Normal levels of ALT are less than 40 IU/L. Greater than 500 IU/L is a sign of severe disease, and most of these children had ALT levels above 2,000 IU/L.
Their common symptoms included vomiting, jaundice, diarrhea, and lethargy. And one of the 13 children had a liver transplant.
North Carolina Physicians Demand End to Hospital’s COVID-19 Vaccine Trial on Children
A group of North Carolina physicians is calling for a halt to a hospital system’s COVID-19 vaccine trial on young children.
The North Carolina Physicians for Freedom (NCPFF) is demanding that the Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, cease its Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine testing on children aged 6 months to under 5 years old.
Atrium Health announced its clinical trial study on May 9. It said it would “evaluate safety, tolerability, and immune response to the vaccine among this age group.”
“Not only is this completely unnecessary, but it’s also toxic,” NCPFF co-founder Dianna Lightfoot told The Epoch Times.
According to an NCPFF press release (pdf), healthy children, teenagers, and young adults are at minimal risk of severe complications or death from COVID-19.
Using data from 12 countries, NCPFF reported that 0- to 19-year-olds have a median infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.0013 percent, comparable to that of recent viruses with above-average severity.
NCPFF said more recent studies show lower IFRs at 0.0005, or one per 2,000 infections, among ages 0 to 9.
Another analysis NCPFF cited reported an IFR of 0.000086, or 0.86 per 10,000 infections among children under the age of 5.
The vaccines have been associated with a much larger number of deaths and adverse reactions in one year than all other childhood vaccines combined in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the last 31 years, NCPFF said.
“Even this high number of deaths probably under-reports by a factor of 20 to 44, according to two analyses,” NCPFF said.
Among adverse reactions that have been reported are myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that causes the heart muscle to die, blood clots, and severe disability affecting the nervous system, NCPFF said.
NCPFF said the risk of heart complications from the vaccines among boys 12 to 15 years of age “is much higher than the risk they might have to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 itself.”
“Heart damage cannot be minimized as rare or mild. All forms of heart damage are serious and in children, the long-term consequences are not known and could be very serious if not fatal,” Dr. Peter McCullough, one of the world’s leading cardiologists, said in NCPFF’s press release.
There has also been an inadequate amount of time to determine long-term vaccine adverse events from the novel mRNA and viral DNA vector vaccines because the adverse events don’t show until several years after the introduction of the vaccine, NCPFF said.
NCPFF pointed to a CDC study that said 74.2 percent of children aged 0 to 11 already have natural immunity, which NCPFF said is demonstrated through over 150 studies to give “robust, long-lasting protection” against COVID-19.
“There is no rational argument or empirical data to justify administering these ‘warp-speed’ developed vaccines to young children who are at near-zero statistical risk for death or serious disease from the virus. To proceed with an experimental COVID vaccine to children is reckless and poses an unacceptable risk-to-benefit profile,” said Dr. Bose Ravenel, an NCPFF adviser board member with 37 years of experience as a pediatrician in private practice and 11 years as associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the UNC Department of Pediatrics from 1976 to 1987.
“Various hospital systems in North Carolina and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services have aggressively promoted vaccination against COVID-19 for minors and young adults, even though their risks associated with receiving the vaccine far exceed any potential benefit,” NCPFF said. “These vaccinations often have taken place without a legitimate informed consent process and occasionally without parental consent. Patients are often told that the vaccines are ‘safe and effective’ with no qualification.”
NCPFF also cited concerns over potential conflicts of interest regarding the entity funding the study, whether it be Pfizer itself or the federal governmen
CANCEL CULTURE
US Government Admits It Used Schools as Tool to Erase Culture, Seize Native American Land: Report
Erasing culture, pulling children away from their parents, and disregarding the emotional needs of children. These tactics could be pulled from today’s headlines, but they are the tried-and-true education policies the United States has admitted to using for 150 years as a tool to force the assimilation of Native Americans, and specifically to acquire Indian territorial land.
This month, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) released a 106-page report detailing how the U.S. federal government “applied systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies in the Federal Indian boarding school system to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children through education.”
The BIA says the government used the education of children to “replace the Indian’s culture with our own.” This, the report says, was considered “the cheapest and safest way of subduing the Indians, of providing a safe habitat for the country’s white inhabitants, of helping the whites acquire desirable land, and of changing the Indian’s economy so that he would be content with less land.”
The report was requested last year by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico. She is the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary.
Haaland asked for an investigation into the loss of lives and lasting consequences of the Federal Indian boarding school system.
“This report shows for the first time that between 1819 and 1969, the United States operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states [or then-territories], including 21 schools in Alaska and seven schools in Hawaii,” Bryan Newland, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs, wrote in a letter introducing the report.
Another report expanding the investigation is planned.
“The Federal Indian boarding school policy was intentionally targeted … at children to assimilate them and, consequently, take their territories,” Newland said.
The report makes recommendations for new funding and the revitalization of tribal languages and cultural practices—a move necessary, Newland said, to start the healing process.
Colorado Graphic Designer Fears for Her Life as Freedom of Speech Case Heads to Supreme Court
Lorie Smith left the corporate world in 2012 to form her own website design firm, 303 Creative, which soon flourished. But in 2016 she was asked to create a design conveying a same-sex marriage message that flatly violated her deeply held Christian faith.
Smith declined to do so and when it became clear a Colorado public accommodation law would be used to force her to create messages that she and other Coloradans did not support, or face harsh penalties, she decided she had to challenge the statute.
So she turned to the federal court system to uphold her First Amendment freedoms and six years later the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in her case later this year.
Now Smith fears for her life as she awaits the slow-turning of the wheels of justice—thanks to continuous terrifying harassment, including death threats, from activists seeking to suppress her Christian beliefs.
“I have received phone calls, I’ve had mail show up at my home, I have had people wish me really vile things, things that should not be repeated, threats of bodily harm, some really vile things,” Smith said in response to a question from The Epoch Times.
Asked if she feared for her life Smith quickly responded saying, “Of course. When you hear the things that I’ve heard it is terrifying. It definitely makes your skin crawl and the hair on your back stand up.”
Smith added that “my clients have been harassed, and I love all of them dearly. They’ve received threats, as well as ultimatums, which has been difficult.”
She said the ultimatums came from “the same groups of people who have been so hateful toward me, but they took it a step further. They figured out my clients’ contact information and harassed them as well.”
Smith’s comments came on May 18 during a discussion with reporters at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) headquarters in the nation’s capital. Smith is being represented by ADF, an Arizona-based public interest law firm that specializes in First Amendment and religious freedom cases. Her case is 303 Creative vs. Elenis.
Kristen Waggoner, ADF’s general counsel, told reporters that Smith had to appeal her case to the Supreme Court despite the multiple facts both sides of the litigation agreed on in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 10th Circuit ruled against Smith and in favor of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in a July 2021 decision in which the chief judge on the court dissented, calling the majority opinion “unprecedented” and “staggering” because the “Constitution protects Ms. Smith from the government telling her what to say …”
The chief judge also observed that, “Though I am loathe to reference [George] Orwell, the majority’s opinion endorses substantial government interference in matters of speech, religion, and conscience.
“Indeed, this case represents another chapter in the growing disconnect between the Constitution’s endorsement of pluralism of belief on the one hand and anti-discrimination laws’ restrictions of religious-based speech in the marketplace on the other.”
The judge was referring to Orwell’s famous quote that “if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” He added that quote to his dissent text.
The first of the essential facts in the case that both sides accepted, Waggoner explained, was “that Lorie’s religious beliefs are central to her identity and that she strives to glorify God in everything she does. The second is that Lorie works with people from all walks of life, including those who identify as LGBT.”
Waggoner said, “the 10th Circuit also agreed that Lorie, like every other artist, serves everyone. Lorie chooses whether to create websites based on their content, not based on the person that requests that content, and the 10th Circuit agreed with that fact as well. Lorie’s websites are protected speech under the First Amendment, and the 10th Circuit agreed with that.”
Even so, she said, “the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals held in a 2-1 decision that the government can actually compel Lorie’s speech, even though it admitted that her decisions hinge on what the message is in the speech and not the person who requests it.”
Waggoner described the decision as “absolutely unprecedented,” and said “our government’s duty is to protect freedom, not to take it away. So, if the government has the power to force Lorie to speak a message, then it can force any one of us to speak a message.”
The Supreme Court accepted Smith’s case in February. Waggoner said that law enforcement authorities will be contacted if Smith continues to receive harassment and threats.
Twitter Rolls Out New ‘Crisis Misinformation’ Policy
Twitter says it’s rolling out a new “crisis misinformation” policy that is intended to target false information during an international armed conflict or other crisis events.
“To determine whether claims are misleading, we require verification from multiple credible, publicly available sources, including evidence from conflict monitoring groups, humanitarian organizations, open-source investigators, journalists, and more,” the social media company stated in a post on May 19.
False material spread quickly on Twitter and other social networks during the early part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including information that was spread via official Ukrainian and Russian accounts. Misleading information and hoaxes also often spread during emergencies, including weather disasters, as users rush to share information that hasn’t been verified.
“Alongside our existing work to make reliable information more accessible during crisis events, this new approach will help to slow the spread by us of the most visible, misleading content, particularly that which could lead to severe harms,” the firm stated in a blog post.
The policy will first tackle information relating to the conflict in Ukraine, and will be expanded to other emergencies, according to the company.
“While this first iteration is focused on international armed conflict, starting with the war in Ukraine, we plan to update and expand the policy to include additional forms of crisis. The policy will supplement our existing work deployed during other global crises, such as in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and India,” according to the post.
The new warning notices will alert users that a tweet has violated Twitter’s rules, while still allowing people to view and comment. The platform won’t amplify or recommend such tweets and retweeting will also be disabled, and the company will prioritize adding labels to misleading tweets from high-profile accounts such as verified users or official government profiles. It also will prioritize content that could cause harm to people.
The update comes at a critical time for the social media firm, as Twitter’s board last month approved Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid to take the company private. Musk said that he would scale back some of the company’s content moderation policies, suggesting that they imperil free speech.
But in recent days, the deal has hit a snag as the Tesla CEO said he wants the company to provide more information about automated and bot (fake) accounts.
“How do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money?” Musk asked this week, in reference to an uncertain number of bots running Twitter accounts. “This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter.”
GOOD NEWS
Diving Heroes Find Woman’s 100-Year-old Wedding Ring After it Flew Off her Finger Into a River
A team of scuba diving heroes have reunited a grateful woman with her lost antique wedding ring after it flew off her finger—and into a river.
Emma Lyon was watching a regatta from the banks of the River Great Ouse last Saturday when the 100-year-old jewelery flew into the water.
The gold wedding ring had belonged to her grandmother, and Emma was devastated when it quickly disappeared from sight.
She contacted Bedford Scuba Divers the following day after a friend suggested they could help, and couldn’t believe how quickly they responded to her plea.
By Monday evening, a team of divers had found the ring and handed it back to Emma.
She naturally took the whole crew out for a thank you drink at a local pub afterwards, saying, “The divers were absolutely amazing!
We Finally Rid An Island of 300,000 Rats – Now Everything is Blooming
One of the biggest conservation success stories in the 21st century has been exterminating invasive species from vulnerable islands.
Now, Lord Howe Island in Australia has finished eradicating the entirety of their invasive rat and mouse populations, and the recovery of the endemic-Australian ecosystem has been near-immediate.
A UNESCO-listed island in the East Tasman Sea, the island may have housed these mice as early as the mid-1800s, with the rats arriving later in 1918. As is so often the case with biodiversity Down Under, the native animals suffered.
Their absence, which took three years of eradication, is revealing a diverse landscape—with fruiting trees, returning numbers of land invertebrates, and one of Australia’s rarest birds, the flightless woodhen—whose population has doubled to 565 in the past three years.
“What is unfolding is an ecological renaissance, since the rodents have gone, the catchphrase is: ‘I’ve never seen that before’,” Hank Bower from the Lord Howe Island board told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“There’s a vine which we didn’t know what the fruit looked like, people are taking photos of insects and sending them to the Australian Museum who are saying we’ve only got three of those on record ever but we are seeing hundreds of them. Everything is blooming, all the plants are flowering and we are seeing a carpet of seedlings.”
Noteworthy among the returning characters on the island are four species of land snail, one of which hasn’t been seen alive for 20 years, the black-winged petrel, and crickets.
“We’ve been hearing crickets. We’d only hear crickets very rarely, now every night there’s a chime of crickets,” Bower said, this time to ABC News Australia.
To do the business, poison was placed inside 22,000 lockable traps around the island, while in inaccessible areas, pellets were distributed via helicopter. Just to be sure, rat-catching dogs scour the island every few weeks—but one hasn’t been seen since last August.
The Ministry of Environment of Australia said it was “an incredibly optimistic sign for the future of conservation.”
Globally, there have been more than 800 successful eradications of invasive mammals on 181 different islands since the year 2000—including the famous eradications of feral goats from the Galapagos Islands.
Toronto woman celebrates her 98th birthday by reuniting with her daughter after 80 years
Gerda Cole received the most special gift she could have asked for on her 98th birthday: a chance to reunite with her daughter for the first time in 80 years.
As a young Jewish refugee, Cole fled her home of Austria in 1939 for England at the start of World War II.
Several years later, Cole became a mother at the age of 18. But limited education and economic hardship left her with virtually no choice but to give her newborn daughter up for adoption.
Though she was never allowed to make contact with her child again, Cole went off to live a full life. She moved to Canada, earned multiple degrees and got to travel the world.
Meanwhile: Cole’s daughter, Sonya Grist, knew little about her birth mother, and believed her to be dead. As Grist’s son Stephen found out, that was most certainly not the case. He told The Toronto Sun:
“I discover that Gerda, my mother’s birth mother, has a stepson and I contact the stepson on Facebook and I say, ‘I’m missing one last piece of information. I just need Gerda’s death certificate …can you help me with that?’ And he said, ‘You’re not going to find her death certificate because she’s still alive and living in a nursing home in Canada.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God! My mother’s mother is still alive and is 97 turning 98 (Saturday)!”
Stephen and Sonya quickly whisked away from England to the long-term care home in Toronto where Cole resided. A video from CBC News shows the two sharing their long overdue hug.
They squealed, laughed, smiled, danced and ate cake. It really was a remarkable birthday full of moments to be cherished. Also on Mother’s Day weekend, no less.
Eighty years might have passed, but the bond between this mother and daughter was still strong. Grist recalled to CTV News that in their first email correspondence, Cole wrote “you have to understand this computer doesn’t like me.”
“It was exactly something I would say,” Grist joked. She might be tech challenged, but at least she comes by it honestly.
As for motherly advice, Cole did have some wisdom to bestow upon her daughter.
“Don’t wait until tomorrow before it is too late, if you want to live, live now, not tomorrow or the day after.”
In this case, it certainly wasn’t too late for a mother and daughter to share their love.
PET NEWS
Hilarious Moment Couple Wake Up to Find They’ve Been Snuggling Someone Else’s Dog
A Tennessee couple who woke in the middle of the night to find a strange dog in their bed during a storm have shared the hilarious anecdote on social media. Now, since reuniting the sweet pup with her rightful owners, they have secured her as a playmate for their own three dogs.
Julie and Jimmy Johnson, who are whitewater-rafting guides on the Ocoee River in Southeast Tennessee, are no strangers to adventure. But when a pit bull-Labrador mix, Nala, from their neighborhood snuck into their bed on May 1, they didn’t know what to make of it.
“I believe that when my husband let our dogs out to potty that night, before we went to bed, we didn’t shut the door all the way nor latch the door completely,” Julie, 42, told The Epoch Times. “It seems that a storm rolled in around 4 a.m. and we woke up to Nala in the bed with us.”
Sharing more about the encounter, Julie, who was sleeping facing the wall that was in the opposite direction to Nala, was asked by her husband about whose dog was in their bed.
Julie rolled over and locked eyes with her husband, equally shocked and confused. Wary that Nala may not be friendly, they both lay in silence for 10 to 15 seconds.
“A few moments later, my husband went to pull the blankets up, and Nala just snuggled in tighter,” said Julie. “She was very peaceful, warm and cozy, and had no desire to move!”
They surmised that Nala had run away from home, scared by the storm, and found refuge at their house after a “conversation” with their own normally very vocal dogs, Jupiter, Hollis, and Zeplin, on the porch.
After the initial shock of finding Nala in their bed, Julie noticed that she was in great condition, and felt reassured.
“She was clean, she was well-mannered, she did not have fleas or ticks, she was not skinny, she was not hungry,” said Julie. “She was someone’s baby. That’s when I took the quick pictures of us in bed with Nala and posted them to my Facebook page, shared them in a few ‘lost and found groups’ … and wow, it took off like wildfire.”
Around two hours later, Julie got a message from a woman, Felecia Johnson, claiming that Nala was her dog. Julie immediately responded by asking for proof of ownership and Felecia sent a plethora of family photos before setting off to pick up her runaway pup.
Meanwhile, Jimmy remained in bed with Nala to keep her calm. Upon Felecia’s arrival, she called for her dog from the Johnsons’ porch, but to no avail.
“This poor woman had to come in the house, into my bedroom where my husband was still in bed,” said Julie. “Nala was very happy to see her mom … but she did not want to get up. Her mom is tiny and Nala probably weighs more than her, but her mom picked her up, held her like a baby, and carried her out. It was absolutely hilarious and precious!”
Study shows your cat probably knows your name and those of their feline friends
Cats are often seen as being aloof or standoffish, even with their owners. Of course, that differs based on who that cat lives with and their lifetime of experience with humans. But when compared to man’s best friend, cats usually seem less interested in those around them, regardless of species.
However, a new study out of Japan has found that cats may be paying more attention to their fellow felines and human friends than most people thought. In fact, they could be listening to human conversations.
“What we discovered is astonishing,” Saho Takagi, a research fellow specializing in animal science at Azabu University in Kanagawa Prefecture, told The Asahi Shimbun. “I want people to know the truth. Felines do not appear to listen to people’s conversations, but as a matter of fact, they do.”
How do we know they’re listening? Because the study shows that household cats often know the names of their human and feline friends.
The researchers studied 48 cats that live with at least two other pets either in a family home or at a café. Each cat was played a recording of their owner calling the name of a cat they lived with that was accompanied by a feline photo. Sometimes the photos were of the correct cat, other times they were not. The household cats spent a longer time looking at photos of the incorrect cat—a common reaction when animals are surprised.
“These results indicate that only household cats anticipated a specific cat face upon hearing the cat’s name, suggesting that they matched the stimulus cat’s name and the specific individual,” the authors explained.
The researchers also tried the same experiment with their owner’s name being said alongside an accompanying photo that was either correct or incorrect.
The results show that some house cats stared longer at the monitor when the face didn’t match the name, suggesting they knew the human’s name. But they were more familiar with the names of the cats in the home. The study found that cats that lived in a larger human family “attended for longer to the monitor in the incongruent condition” as well as those who had lived with the family for a longer period of time.
Researchers hypothesize that the cats are more familiar with the names of their feline counterparts than their human families because there is competition for food. “A cat might receive food when the owner calls her name but not when she calls another cat’s name,” the researchers wrote.
Unfortunately, café cats that are used to interacting with a greater number of strangers aren’t as familiar with the names of their fellow felines or human friends.
“These results indicate that only household cats anticipated a specific cat face upon hearing the cat’s name, suggesting that they matched the stimulus cat’s name and the specific individual,” the study says.
The authors believe that household cats may learn the names of other cats and humans but they aren’t sure why and “could not identify the mechanism of learning.”
“It is still an open question how cats learn the other cats’ names and faces,” researchers note. Because, of course, a cat is never going to tell you everything.
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