WORLD NEWS
Zelenskyy says Ukrainian city of Bakhmut ‘only in our hearts’ after Russia claims seizure
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later walks back remark about city of Bakhmut at G-7 summit with Biden
The status of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was in question after Russia claimed it had gained control of it with the assistance of Wagner forces, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke solemnly of the city.
Speaking in Hiroshima, Japan Sunday during the G-7 Summit, Zelenskyy remarked that Bakhmut was “only in our hearts,” hours after Russia’s defense ministry claimed they had taken it.
“Mr. President, is Bakhmut still in Ukraine’s hands? The Russians say that they have taken Bakhmut,” a reporter asked Zelenskyy and President Biden at the summit.
“I think, no. But you have to transcend that there is nothing. They destroyed everything. There are no buildings,” Zelenskyy responded.
“It’s a pity, it’s tragedy but today Bakhmut is only in our hearts,” the Ukrainian president added. “There is nothing in this place. Just drones and a lot of dead Russians. But they came to us. So our defenders in Bakhmut, they did strong work. And of course, we appreciate them for their great job.”
Biden, later addressing reporters in Hiroshima, added: “Bakhmut is a discussion about whether or not it has been lost or whatever. And, well, the truth of the matter is the Russians have suffered over 100,000 casualties in Bakhmut. That’s hard to make up. That’s hard to make up. So, whether or not there are troops in Bakhmut occupying, there’s not many buildings left standing in Bakhmut. It’s a pretty devastated city. But they have been able to move in a direction that they’ve been able to lock down an awful lot of the Russian forces including the Wagner group.”
G-7 Leaders Announce New Sanctions Against Russia as Zelenskyy Invited to Hiroshima Summit
Ukrainian president is anticipated to make a trip to Japan to attend summit on Sunday
Russia says supplying F-16 jets to Ukraine would carry ‘colossal’ risks for West
Western countries will run “colossal risks” if they supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, TASS news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Saturday.
Grushko was responding to a question about the implications of providing the jets, which Ukraine has been requesting from NATO countries.
It has not yet won commitments for delivery of the planes, but U.S. President Joe Biden told G7 leaders on Friday that Washington supports joint allied training programs for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, senior U.S. officials said.
Biden at G-7: Most US Allies Clear ‘There Would Be a Response’ If China Takes Action Against Taiwan
At the G-7 summit, President Joe Biden told a reporter that most U.S. allies are “clear” that if China were to try to invade Taiwan, “there would be a response.”
Biden was asked by a reporter on Sunday how he would manage a diplomatic relationship with China, and how he would strengthen the U.S. alliance with other countries like Japan and South Korea in order to counter China.
In a part of his response, Biden noted that the United States will continue to maintain the Chinese Communist Party’s “One China” policy.
Beijing summons Japanese envoy over ‘anti-China’ G7 summit
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has summoned the Japanese ambassador to register protests over “hype around China-related issues” at the Group of Seven (G7) summit over the weekend, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The heads of the world’s richest countries who met in the Japanese city of Hiroshima expressed serious concerns about rising tensions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea as well as voicing concerns about the human rights situations in China, including in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Sun said Japan collaborated with the other countries at the G7 summit “in activities and joint declarations … to smear and attack China, grossly interfering in China’s internal affairs, violating the basic principles of international law and the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan”, referring to the China-Japan Joint Communique of 1972.
7.7-magnitude earthquake in South Pacific briefly sparks tsunami warning
The quake prompted NOAA to issue a warning stating that waves up to 10 feet could hit the island nation of Vanuatu.
Williams: W.H.O. Warns of 9 Million More Annual Deaths from Climate Change
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) warns in a report released Friday that rising temperatures could lead to more than nine million additional deaths each year by the end of the century.
The W.H.O., which has been criticized for its close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), declared in its annual World Health Statistics report that “climate change continues to degrade the environmental and social determinants of physical and mental health, posing enormous risks to us all.”
Weimar’s Legacy: Dresden Names Street After ‘World’s First Trans Woman’
The German city of Dresden has named a street after a person commonly referred to as the “world’s first trans woman”.
Progressive authorities in the city of Dresden have named a new connector street after Danish painter Einar Wegener, who they describe as being the “world’s first trans woman”.
London Transport Advertises Paid Position for People of ‘Non-White Heritage’
A paid position advertised for the Transport for London government department has sparked outrage over its requirement that candidates come from “non-white heritage”.
In an advert for an 11-month Stuart Ross Communications Internship at Transport for London (TfL), which comes with a salary of £21,824 , has been branded as “racist” for excluding native white British people from consideration.
Meta fined a record $1.3 billion over EU user data transfers to the U.S.
Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) by European privacy regulators over the transfer of EU user data to the U.S.
The decision links back to a case brought by Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems who argued that the framework for transferring EU citizen data to America did not protect Europeans from U.S. surveillance.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Pentagon Says Accounting Mistake Frees Up $3 Billion More for Ukraine
The Biden administration has been under bipartisan pressure to explain how it intended to continue sending weapons to Ukraine quickly without asking Congress for more money.
Pentagon officials realized their mistake almost two months ago, according to a senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss accounting processes.
But instead of placating Congress’s concerns, the revelation was met with frustration and anger, as some lawmakers criticized the Biden administration for what they said was an extremely troublesome error.
On the day Florida Governor Ron DeSantis returned to his home state after traveling to New Hampshire, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for those choosing to travel to the Sunshine state — citing laws that the organization said restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The NAACP Board of Directors issued the formal notice in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.
NY County’s Voters All Identified as Democrats on Voter IDs
All voters in Nassau County, New York, were identified as Democrats on their voter ID cards irrespective of political affiliation because of an error by a printing company, triggering accusations about “sabotaging elections” ahead of the upcoming primaries.
The primaries are scheduled for June. Voters in the county, who number nearly a million, began to receive their voter ID cards last week, with voters supporting Republicans, independents, or another political party surprised to see themselves identified as Democrats on the cards, according to NBC.
“We’re already starting to get phone calls from people, saying ‘I’m a registered Republican, I’m a registered conservative—how come I’m being identified as a Democrat? Who changed my registration?’ And they’re quite upset about it,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said.
“There’s a lot of confusion, there’s a lot of people emotionally upset about this,” he added. Blakeman, a Republican, is pinning the blame on Rochester-based Phoenix Graphics, the company hired by Nassau County’s Board of Elections to print the voter ID cards.
The printing company called it an “isolated event” that was the result of a human error.
PAC to ‘Draft’ Tucker Carlson for President in 2024 Launches
A new political action committee (PAC) was formed to try and convince Tucker Carlson to join the 2024 presidential race, saying only the former Fox News host can defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.
Former US Marine Charged in Death of Homeless Man Breaks Silence
Daniel Penny issues first public comments since deadly confrontation
In an interview with the New York Post, the 24-year-old Penny said the fatal altercation that took place on a subway train in NYC “had nothing to do with race.”
Neely, a 30-year-old black man, had a long history of mental illness and more than 40 prior arrests ranging from disorderly conduct to assault, and an active warrant out for his arrest from a felony assault.
“I judge a person based on their character,” Penny told the newspaper. “I’m not a white supremacist.
“Everybody who’s ever met me can tell you, I love all people, I love all cultures.”
When asked by the paper what he would say to the family of Neely, whose funeral was on May 19, Penny said, “I’m deeply saddened by the loss of life.
“It’s tragic what happened to him. Hopefully, we can change the system that’s so desperately failed us.”
Supreme Court Dismisses Republican States’ Title 42 Case as Moot
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a suit brought by a group of Republican attorneys general, who sought to keep in place the emergency Title 42 measure implemented by the Trump administration, which expired last week.
The high court’s Thursday ruling (pdf) ended Title 42, the emergency measure that the Trump administration implemented in March 2020 as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and concluded a legal saga between Republican states and the Biden administration that lasted months before the measure expired on May 11.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations used Title 42 to expel illegal immigrants.
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Michael Flynn is warning that the United States needs to address corruption within the highest levels of its government after recent allegations of politicization within the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the intelligence community.
On Monday, special counsel John Durham published his report into the origins of an FBI investigation into allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government. The investigation into the Trump campaign, known as “Crossfire Hurricane” involved the surveillance of at least four Trump campaign advisers, including Flynn himself.
Durham’s report (pdf) concluded that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion.” Furthermore, the report detailed an Aug. 3, 2016, White House meeting involving then-President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden (now the president), then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-CIA Director John Brennan, and then-FBI Director James Comey. According to notes he took from the meeting, Brennan briefed those in the room about an effort by then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign to undermine Trump by tying him to an election interference effort by Russian intelligence services.
“What people need to really stay focused on is this deep, deep level of corruption in our federal government, particularly starting in the White House,” Flynn told NTD’s “Capitol Report” host Steve Lance.
Poll: 4 in 10 Say Congress Should Begin Impeachment Proceedings on Biden
Four in ten likely voters believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings on President Joe Biden, a Rasmussen Reports survey revealed on Thursday.
The survey found 42 percent of likely voters indicating that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against Biden, while 45 percent said lawmakers should not. While most Republicans (70 percent) believe Congress should and most Democrats (71 percent) believe Congress should not, independents remain relatively divided. Forty percent of independents do not believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings on the 80-year-old president, compared to 39 percent who believe lawmakers should do so.
GUILTY: Texas Man Purchased Gun Used by Cartel for Kidnapping, Murder of U.S. Citizens in Mexico
A Texas man pleaded guilty to buying a gun for the Gulf Cartel used by gunmen in Mexico during a kidnapping where two U.S. citizens were murdered.
Roberto Lugardo Moreno, age 42, appeared before a federal judge in Brownsville, Texas, and pleaded guilty to a weapon smuggling charge. U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera is expected to sentence Lugardo in August during a hearing where the man could receive up to ten years in prison.
Pro-Life Activist Suspects Intimidation Tactic After FBI Agents Visit Her Parents’ Home
A pair of FBI agents visited the home of the parents of pro-life activist Elise Ketch last month in an incident that was caught on her mother’s Ring doorbell camera.
The FBI visit took place on April 18 and the video from the encounter was first published by the Daily Signal on Wednesday. Ketch, who works for the politically left-wing pro-life organization Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), told the Daily Signal that she still doesn’t know why the FBI agents went to her parents’ home, but she suspects it was an intimidation tactic.
In the April 18 doorbell video, a pair of female FBI agents who identified themselves as Ashley Roberts and Kathleen Brown asked to speak with Elise Ketch. Her mother, Tracy Ketch, told the FBI agents that her daughter no longer lived at that residence, and asked why they had come to visit.
Whistleblower Says FBI Has Created ‘Orwellian Atmosphere’ to Silence Dissent
An FBI whistleblower alleged that the bureau has created an “Orwellian atmosphere” that has silenced dissent and retaliated against individuals who came forward with claims about the law enforcement agency.
During Thursday’s House “Weaponization of Government” panel hearing, FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle said the bureau engaged in a “smear campaign” against him, adding in a later interview with Fox News there are many agents who support his allegations but are “too afraid” to speak out.
Rep. Jim Jordan Says Congress Must Target FBI’s Budget in Wake of Durham Report
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has called for Congress to target the budget of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the release of special counsel John Durham’s bombshell report, which revealed the bureau launched its “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign without evidence and due process.
Speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” on Monday night, the House Judiciary Committee chairman highlighted a pattern of behavior by Democrats, accusing them of creating false narratives amplified by legacy media outlets and Big Tech.
America Is in a National Identity Crisis: Vivek Ramaswamy
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the first millennial ever to run for U.S. President, believes that the country is experiencing a national identity crisis and aims to lead the nation out of it, drawing inspiration from Ronald Reagan’s leadership in 1980. His solution: present an alternative vision of America that counters the “woke agenda.”
A revival of civic pride, purpose, and significance among young individuals, according to Ramaswamy, constitutes a critical requirement for the country’s future.
“I am running to lead this country, as Reagan did in 1980, out of our last national identity crisis. That is what I aim to do in 2024,” he said in a recent interview on EpochTV’s American Thought Leaders.
“I don’t think we’re going to get to the next level by just pointing out the poison,” the 37-year-old Republican primary candidate said.
Vivek Ramaswamy Vows to Release Jeffrey Epstein’s Client List If Elected President
Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has vowed to publicize Jeffery Epstein’s “client list” if he becomes president.
“Jeffrey Epstein didn’t act alone. Where’s the client list?” Ramaswamy wrote Friday on Twitter in response to a news article about Deutsche Bank agreeing to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit filed by alleged sexual abuse victims of Epstein.
“Release it now. I’ll do it as President,” he wrote.
Bank of America Gave FBI Access to Jan. 6 Bank Records Without Customers’ Knowledge: Whistleblowers
Whistleblowers told Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee that Bank of America gave Jan. 6 connected bank records to the FBI without customers’ knowledge or consent.
In their testimony, whistleblowers claimed that the FBI had become “enveloped in politicization” and made several claims of “serious abuses” over an extended period of time.
Among those abuses, whistleblowers said that Bank of America (BOA) had transferred information to the FBI on transactions that took place in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Customers were not informed of this data transfer.
Indiana Adds ID Requirements to Mail-In Voting to Make Process ‘As Secure As’ Voting in Person
An Indiana law set to take effect on July 1 will ensure that mail-in voting is “as secure as voting in person,” according to the legislation’s author.
Voters in Indiana currently have to show photo identification if they vote in person but don’t need to present any such ID if they apply for an absentee by mail ballot.
The only requirement currently is that county clerks check whether the signature on the voters’ absentee application matches their signature on file.
The new law, House Bill 1334 (pdf), will require the voters who submit their absentee ballot application to include a form of ID, which can be the last four digits of their Social Security number, as well as either a driver’s license number, state ID number, or voter registration number, according to a release from the bill’s author, State Rep. Tim Wesco (R-Osceola).
New York City Loses Nearly a Half-Million Residents Since COVID-19
New York City has lost nearly a half-million residents in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of them flocking to southern states, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
The U.S. Census Bureau revealed on May 18 that more than 468,200 residents left the Big Apple between April 2020 and July 2022; that’s a 5.3 percent decrease. The most significant decline occurred between 2020 and 2021, with a loss of slightly over 281,000 individuals.
Only three U.S. cities surveyed during the same time frame suffered a worse population decline. San Francisco experienced a loss of 7.5 percent of its residents, while Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Revere, Massachusetts, lost 6.9 percent and 5.9 percent respectively.
New York City still remains America’s most populated city, with more than 8.3 million individuals calling it home. Previous census data released in March showed that Manhattan was the only borough to see a resurgence in its population in the past few years, with an increase of 17,472 residents in 2022.
New York Magazine Admits: Mass Immigration Is ‘Bad for Housing Prices’
New York Magazine admitted this week that mass immigration to the United States is, in fact, “bad for housing prices” for Americans looking for affordable single-family homes.
The admission from the left-wing publication comes as years of research has shown that the nation’s admission of more than a million legal immigrants annually, in addition to millions of illegal aliens, helps send housing prices surging for working- and middle-class Americans.
Former California ‘Teacher of the Year’ Accused of Sex with 16-Year-Old
An educator once dubbed “Teacher of the Year” is accused of having sex with a teenage student in Yucaipa, California.
Thirty-eight-year-old Tracy Vanderhulst is a math teacher at Yucaipa High School who is now facing charges of statutory rape, the New York Post reported Saturday.
Sanctuary County: Illegal Alien Accused of Raping Teen Girl, Woman on Hiking Trail
An illegal alien is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl and a woman in two separate instances in the sanctuary county of Montgomery County, Maryland.
Jose Roberto Hernandez Espinal, a 20-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, has been arrested and charged with first-degree rape, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, armed robbery, and kidnapping for allegedly raping a teenage girl and a woman at a hiking trail this month.
2ND AMENDMENT
20 State Attorneys General Oppose Mexican Lawsuit Against Gun Industry
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is leading a coalition of 20 states’ attorneys general to defend the Second Amendment and the U.S. firearms industry against a lawsuit by the Mexican government that seeks to hold the gunmakers liable for gun crime south of the U.S. border.
The Mexican government is seeking $10 billion filed in a civil lawsuit against several major U.S. firearms manufacturers, saying these companies are responsible for the violence in their country.
In an amicus brief filed on May 19 (pdf), Knudsen said the AGs seek to protect the law-abiding firearms manufacturers within their borders and to uphold the rights of their citizens to keep and bear arms.
Minnesota Governor Signs Same Gun Controls Failing in California
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed legislation Friday containing a red flag law and universal background checks, both of which are already in place in California and are failing to stop mass shootings.
KARE 11 reported that Walz made a statement as he signed the gun control:
I understand our rights as Americans… but I refuse to allow extremists to define what responsible gun ownership looks like and to make this about the 2nd Amendment. This is not about the 2nd Amendment, this is about the safety of our children and our community.
On May 17, 2023, Breitbart News reported that Minnesota Democrats had passed the gun controls that were already failing in California.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Biden Says He Has Authority to Invoke 14th Amendment as Debt-Ceiling Negotiations Stumble
President Joe Biden told reporters at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan that he has the authority to invoke the 14th Amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling, his strongest comments to date on the subject.
Biden, who is returning to the United States Sunday to resume debt-ceiling negotiations that have faltered, has previously said he is considering invoking Section 4, which reads “The validity of the public debt of the United States…shall not be questioned.” However, many constitutional scholars have condemned the idea the president has unilateral power to borrow, with Stanford Law professor Michael McConnell calling it “dangerous nonsense.”
Debt Ceiling Talks: Another Downside of the 14th Amendment Opinion
Besides the brazen abuse of authority it would represent, the politics could also backfire badly on the administration, as Ezra Klein points out:
If testing the question wouldn’t cost anything, there would be no harm in trying. But I don’t think it would have no cost. The strength of the Biden administration’s political position is that it stands for normalcy. The debt ceiling has always been raised before, and it must be raised now. But if the administration declares the debt ceiling unconstitutional, only to have the Supreme Court declare the maneuver unconstitutional, then Biden owns the market chaos that would follow. Who will voters blame in that scenario? Republicans, who say they just wanted to negotiate over the budget, as is tradition? Or Biden, who did something no other president had done and failed?
Biden declares himself ‘blameless’ if US defaults on debt: ‘I’ve done my part’az
Biden blamed ‘MAGA Republicans’ in Congress for derailing debt talks
Supreme Court Rules IRS Can Secretly Grab Bank Records of Outside Parties
The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in a delinquent taxpayer case that it’s lawful for the IRS to secretly obtain the bank records of third parties when collecting on taxes owed.
In other words, the nation’s highest court recognized that the IRS isn’t required to notify third parties who aren’t under investigation when seeking a summons for banking records thought to be relevant to the tax delinquency of another person.
One lawyer who briefed the Supreme Court said the new ruling gives the IRS “startlingly broad authority to pry into the financial records of people who may be only remotely connected to a delinquent taxpayer.”
New York City Loses Nearly a Half-Million Residents Since COVID-19
New York City has lost nearly a half-million residents in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with most of them flocking to southern states, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
The U.S. Census Bureau revealed on May 18 that more than 468,200 residents left the Big Apple between April 2020 and July 2022; that’s a 5.3 percent decrease. The most significant decline occurred between 2020 and 2021, with a loss of slightly over 281,000 individuals.
Only three U.S. cities surveyed during the same time frame suffered a worse population decline. San Francisco experienced a loss of 7.5 percent of its residents, while Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Revere, Massachusetts, lost 6.9 percent and 5.9 percent respectively.
Anheuser Busch continues its desperate attempt to recover from the controversial promotion with influencer Dylan Mulvaney, with the company now set to buy back unsold, expired cases as sales continue to dip.
Mulvaney, 26, posted herself drinking Bud Light at the start of April 2023 using the hashtag #budlightpartner. She posted the content to coincide with the NCAA March Madness tournament before joking she didn’t know what sport she was promoting.
The disastrous marketing bid has seen sales for the American flagship beer plummet 26 percent, despite Anheuser-Busch reporting first-quarter earnings of $1.65billion and with conservatives everywhere professing to boycott the company.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
TransHuman/Machine Fusion For Cyborg Soldier By 2050
Hiding in plain site on a military website is a 2019 report that was published by the US Army Combat capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center.
“Cyborg Soldier 2050: Human/Machine Fusion and the Implications for the Future of the DOD”
The abstract of this report lays out it objectives:
CYBORG SOLDIER 2050: HUMAN/MACHINE FUSION AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE DoD
ABSTRACT: The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (Alexandria, VA) established the DOD Biotechnologies for Health and Human Performance Council (BHPC) study group to continually assess research and development in biotechnology…
At the direction of the BHPC Executive Committee, the BHPC study group conducted a year-long assessment entitled “Cyborg Soldier 2050: Human/Machine Fusion and the Impact for the Future of the DOD”.
The primary objective of this effort was to forecast and evaluate the military implications of machines that are physically integrated with the human body to augment and enhance human performance over the next 30 years.
This report summarizes this assessment and findings;
identifies four potential military-use cases for new technologies in this area; and assesses their impact upon the DOD organizational structure, warfighter doctrine and tactics, and interoperability with U.S. allies and civil society.
Elon Musk has objected to an article by The Associated Press alleging that “false claims of a stolen election thrive unchecked on Twitter” even though Musk promised that tweets making such claims would be “corrected,” with the Twitter chief calling on the media outlet to back up its assertion with data or retract the piece.
The article, published by AP on May 18, cites an interview earlier in the week on CNBC in which Musk pledged that users making false claims of stolen elections on Twitter “will be corrected, 100 percent.”
Musk was responding to a question by the interviewer about claims made by Twitter users that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen,” and whether such claims would end up tagged with a community note or would face other actions.
“To be clear, I don’t think it was a stolen election,” Musk replied, before adding that he believes there was some election fraud in 2020.
“By the same token, if somebody is going to say that there is never any election fraud anywhere, this is obviously false. If 100 million people vote, the probability that the fraud is zero—is zero,” Musk added.
Musk went on to say that it’s important to strike a balance in discussions around election integrity by acknowledging that there’s going to be a non-zero amount of fraud without claiming that “the fraud was sufficient to change the outcome.”
The interviewer then pressed Musk whether “you are going to let people say that on Twitter,” referring to claims that the election was stolen.
“They will be corrected, 100 percent,” Musk said in the interview.
In its article, the Associated Press claimed that, since former President Donald Trump held a town hall on CNN in which he reiterated his claims that the election was rigged, many claims of a stolen election have proliferated on Twitter.
“Yet many such claims have thrived on Twitter in the week since former President Donald Trump spent much of a CNN town hall digging in on his lie that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ against him,” the AP article reads. “Twitter posts that amplified those false claims have thousands of shares with no visible enforcement, a review of posts on the platform shows.”
The article then said that an analysis by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs carried out on behalf of AP had identified the 10 most widely shared tweets promoting a “rigged election” narrative following Trump’s appearance on CNN.
“While Twitter has a system in place for users to add context to misleading tweets, the 10 posts, which collectively amassed more than 43,000 retweets, had no such notes attached,” the article stated, though it did not provide specific evidence, such as the tweets in question.
Musk reacted critically to the piece, demanding that AP provide the source data in support of its key claims or pull the article.
“Either back up your claims @AP with actual source data or retract your story,” Musk wrote in a tweet.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
FBI Improperly Used Surveillance Program to Spy on Jan. 6 Suspects
The FBI abused its surveillance powers while spying on suspects in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol and Black Lives Matter protesters, a federal court said in a newly unsealed ruling.
FBI agents violated standards the agency developed for the Section 702 program, which enables spying on Americans and others, more than 278,000 times, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in the 2022 ruling, which was made public for the first time on May 19.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act enables agencies like the FBI to collect information like emails without warrants from foreigners, even if they’re in the United States, and bars intentionally targeting Americans.
The FBI developed its own standard for Section 702 searches, stating that queries “must be reasonably likely to retrieve foreign intelligence information, as defined by FISA, or evidence of a crime, unless otherwise specifically excepted.”
Your DNA Can Now Be Pulled Out Of Thin Air
David Duffy, a wildlife geneticist at the University of Florida, just wanted a better way to track disease in sea turtles. Then he started finding human DNA everywhere he looked.
Over the last decade, wildlife researchers have refined techniques for recovering environmental DNA, or eDNA — trace amounts of genetic material that all living things leave behind. A powerful and inexpensive tool for ecologists, eDNA is all over — floating in the air, or lingering in water, snow, honey and even your cup of tea. Researchers have used the method to detect invasive species before they take over, to track vulnerable or secretive wildlife populations and even to rediscover species thought to be extinct. The eDNA technology is also used in wastewater surveillance systems to monitor Covid and other pathogens.
But all along, scientists using eDNA were quietly recovering gobs and gobs of human DNA. To them, it’s pollution, a sort of human genomic bycatch muddying their data. But what if someone set out to collect human eDNA on purpose?
New DNA collecting techniques are “like catnip” for law enforcement officials, says Erin Murphy, a law professor at the New York University School of Law who specializes in the use of new technologies in the criminal legal system. The police have been quick to embrace unproven tools, like using DNA to create probability-based sketches of a suspect.
That could pose dilemmas for the preservation of privacy and civil liberties, especially as technological advancement allows more information to be gathered from ever smaller eDNA samples. Dr. Duffy and his colleagues used a readily available and affordable technology to see how much information they could glean from human DNA gathered from the environment in a variety of circumstances, such as from outdoor waterways and the air inside a building.
The results of their research, published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, demonstrate that scientists can recover medical and ancestry information from minute fragments of human DNA lingering in the environment.
Forensic ethicists and legal scholars say the Florida team’s findings increase the urgency for comprehensive genetic privacy regulations. For researchers, it also highlights an imbalance in rules around such techniques in the United States — that it’s easier for law enforcement officials to deploy a half-baked new technology than it is for scientific researchers to get approval for studies to confirm that the system even works.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Geoengineering Watch Global Alert News, May 20, 2023, #406
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Remembering Ronnie Cummins – Organic Consumers Association
Ronnie Cummins, who tragically passed away April 26, 2023, was the undisputed leader in the regenerative food and farming movement for over two decades. During that time, we turned the tide against chemical agriculture and forced more transparency in our food systems
HEALTH
Mad Cow Disease Case Detected in the US
An atypical case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also commonly known as mad cow disease, has been detected in South Carolina, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday.
The disease was found in an approximately 5-year-old or older beef cow at a slaughter plant in the Palmetto State.
“This animal never entered slaughter channels and at no time presented a risk to the food supply or to human health in the United States. Given the United States’ negligible risk status for BSE, we do not expect any trade impacts as a result of this finding,” the federal agency said in a statement.
The cow was from Tennessee and tested positive for atypical BSE, Clemson University stated.
You Probably Use Ibuprofen for These 5 Causes of Pain; Here Are the Best Alternatives
For 50 million Americans, the picture of life is tarnished by chronic pain. Chronic pain restricts what we aspire to accomplish, whether it’s a migraine, knee pain, or backaches.
Grandparents can attest to this. Middle-aged professionals realize it. Stay-at-home moms know this all too well. High school athletes are faced with it, too.
A Major Drawback of NSAIDs: They Inhibit Proper Healing
It’s important to know what causes pain to understand what inhibits it. Of course, causes vary, but we mainly experience pain while the body works to heal from an injury or sickness via signaling an inflammatory response.
“In most cases, the inflammation is the healing. It’s our body’s way of clearing out dead cells in the area and preventing infection,” Dr. Courtney Kahla, a chiropractic doctor, said in an email to The Epoch Times.
Ideally, the inflammatory response isn’t lengthy. But in many circumstances, the response is prolonged, thus stalling the healing process from effectuating. When inflammation is chronic, pain is chronic. This, in turn, leads individuals to use NSAIDs to block inflammation directly.
While the drugs provide immediate pain relief, “There’s actually a lot of evidence that shows blocking inflammation can make our pain last longer,” Kahla said.
One study found that NSAIDs inhibited proper bone and wound healing. Another study showed that people who used NSAIDs to treat lower back pain were likelier to end up with chronic pain.
However, there is good news: Nature has provided us with pain relievers that sometimes work as well or better than pharmaceuticals while also promoting healing. Depending on the chronic pain you or a loved one is experiencing, the list below aims to inform individuals how to manage pain without worrying about the potential side effects accompanying NSAIDs.
Natural Alternatives
Back/Neck Pain
Specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs): SPMs are a class of molecules that the body naturally generates. Specifically, they are lipid mediators converted from the essential fatty acids in our diet. When inflammation emerges due to injury or sickness, SPMs are signaled to the inflamed area and work to facilitate healing.
Migraines and Headaches
Magnesium: According to a significant body of scientific literature, migraines and headaches are often caused by a lack of magnesium.
Therefore, when individuals with chronic migraines supplement with magnesium, they often experience a total reprieve from pain, given that the root issue—nutrient deficiency—is being addressed.
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: Transderma Magnesium
Ginger and magnesium: In a double-blind study comparing the efficacy of ibuprofen versus ginger, researchers discovered that ginger was as effective as ibuprofen in managing menstruation pain.
Another systematic review found similar results, noting that the review “verified the possibility of ginger efficacy in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea (menstruation pain)” and that the use of ginger was “very useful and effective as NSAIDs.”
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: Collagen Power Plus
Knee Pain
Curcumin: Curcumin, the active anti-inflammatory agent of turmeric, has been used as a pain reducer for thousands of years. Moreover, curcumin has been demonstrated to be helpful to those who deal with chronic knee pain.
In a meta-analysis examining curcumin’s efficacy in treating pain caused by knee osteoarthritis, researchers found that curcumin is more effective than NSAIDs.
Because turmeric’s anti-inflammatory effects are well known, many individuals take turmeric supplements, hoping it will alleviate their pain.
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: CurcuminX4000
Sports-Related Injuries
Topical capsaicin cream and grounding: Capsaicin is a chemical derived from chili peppers, and depending on the athlete’s type of injury, it can be an effective way to reduce pain.
This molecule reduces inflammation by blocking a neurotransmitter that ignites pain. It’s most commonly used in high concentrations as a topical solution for individuals battling pain from tendinitis, muscle pain, or arthritis.
Some studies indicate capsaicin can accelerate tendon repair and mitigate muscular injuries.
Getting to the Root of Inflammation
Addressing the cause of pain is foundational if you wish to live pain-free. “Instead of saying, ‘I am in pain. I need a pill to feel better,’ we should ask ourselves, ‘What is my body trying to tell me?’” advised Kahla.
“If you have menstrual cramps, that could be your body’s way of saying your hormones aren’t balanced. If you have muscle pain, that’s your body’s way of saying, hey, don’t use this area of your body for a while.
“Our body is so good at telling us what it needs and sending messages to us. We just have to listen to it,” she added.
Gender Transition Surgery: Dreams Turned to Nightmares
Children are increasingly lured into “gender-affirming” hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgeries, are never given appropriate informed consent, and they have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Many adults even underestimate how difficult and painful it will be
A Surprising Reason Why You May Need More Carbs in Your Diet
A ketogenic diet can be very useful initially when transitioning people who are metabolically inflexible. However, continuing in ketosis long term can lead to problems, including stubborn weight gain or the inability to lose unwanted weight
The reason for this has to do with cortisol. Your body needs glucose, and when deprived for too long, your body will release cortisol to stimulate the production of glucose by your liver. Cortisol also promotes inflammation and central obesity, so you don’t want chronically elevated cortisol levels
Your metabolic rate is strongly affected by the type of sugar you consume. High fructose corn syrup promotes ill health while whole fruit, raw honey and pure organic cane sugar are readily metabolized without promoting weight gain
When adding in more carbs, you also need to reduce your fat intake to avoid elevating your triglycerides
Restricting dietary fat and/or blocking the oxidation of fat inside of the cell have strong therapeutic effects against cancer by forcing the cell out of its excessive fatty acid oxidation state
COVID RELATED NEWS
FDA Advisers Back Maternal RSV Vaccine as Pfizer Says Safety Concerns Can Be Studied Post-Approval
Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voiced support on May 18 for Pfizer’s maternal RSV vaccine even after several expressed concerns over premature births.
Outside experts on the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee unanimously said data from two trials run by Pfizer were sufficient to support the vaccine being effective at preventing RSV disease in infants. They also voted 10–4 in the affirmative when asked if the data from the trials were sufficient to demonstrate the safety of the vaccine.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday lamented what he calls an intrusion into civil liberties by pandemic emergency decrees since the start of COVID-19 as the high court dismissed a suit on Title 42 as moot.
“Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country,” Gorsuch, one of six conservative-leaning Supreme Court justices, said in an opinion accompanying the court’s decision (pdf) published on Thursday.
Gorsuch wrote that emergency decrees ordering vaccine mandates and lockdowns issued by federal and state executive agencies resulted in an accumulation of power in those agencies and accompanied this loss of liberties during the pandemic.
“The concentration of power in the hands of so few may be efficient and sometimes popular. But it does not tend toward sound government,” the justice wrote. “However wise one person or his advisors may be, that is no substitute for the wisdom of the whole of the American people that can be tapped in the legislative process.”
This view, some experts say, shines a light on the high court’s vision of restoring a balance of power in the federal government to that more aligned with America’s founders.
“My first reaction to reading Justice Gorsuch’s comments was that the Constitution is waking up,” attorney Jeff Childers told The Epoch Times in an interview on Friday. Childers fought—and won—against local governments in a mask mandate and another vaccine mandate case in Florida.
‘Millions of Lives Lost’ in Pandemic Mainly From Pharma-Government Nexus, Says Critical Care Expert
Dr. Pierre Kory, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist, is blaming the nexus between the pharma industry and the government along with corrupt medical journals for deceiving the public about COVID-19 and vaccines, which resulted in “millions of lives lost.”
“I always knew pharma was bad. I didn’t understand that they are literally a criminal syndicate, who have been committing crimes for decades. They pay fines, then move on and continue their standard operating business,” Kory said in an April 28 interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. “When it came to government, I wasn’t aware of how corporations have literally taken over almost all the agencies of government. The response to COVID was controlled and conducted by the pharmaceutical industry, with probably even bigger powers behind them.”
To understand how the pharma industry’s propaganda works, Kory claims to have looked at three years of every policy issued by government agencies.
“All you had to ask yourself was, ‘What would a pharmaceutical company want?’ Voila, there was your policy. Every single policy was in line with serving the interests of a pharmaceutical company,” he said.
“Guess what that brought us? It brought us multiple humanitarian catastrophes, millions of lives lost from the suppression of early treatment, millions of people dead around the world from the vaccines, and now epidemics of vaccine injury and long COVID with very little treatment.
“Ultimately, it was a war of information. All of the destruction was about information and how it was controlled. I was already transformed before the Twitter Files. The Twitter Files are just absolutely astonishing. Government intelligence agencies and health agencies were literally controlling Twitter, and what was showing up on Twitter,” he said.
CANCEL CULTURE
Google May Delete Your Gmail Account: Here’s How to Stop It
Tech giant Google announced that it will delete any accounts that have been inactive for at least two years—including Gmail and YouTube accounts.
Google’s policy of deleting accounts will start in December 2023, and it will include Google accounts including YouTube, Google Docs, Google Meet, Google Calendar, Google Photos, and Gmail. The company said it will send out several warning notices to users and will conduct the purge of inactive accounts in several phases.
“The policy only applies to personal Google Accounts, and will not affect accounts for organizations like schools or businesses. This update aligns our policy with industry standards around retention and account deletion and also limits the amount of time Google retains your unused personal information,” according to the post.
CNN Parent Company CEO Makes Surprise Comment After Trump Town Hall
The CEO of CNN’s parent company responded to recent criticism against his network by saying that it needs to “show both sides” in order to rebrand.
David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, told a media conference Thursday that CNN needs to shift from a “left-leaning” network to “show both sides of every issue” in what appears to be a response to critical comments from the political left about the channel hosting a townhall featuring former President Donald Trump.
“Our view is there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” Zaslav said, according to Mediaite. “CNN should be the place that people come for the best version of the truth and for journalism,” he added, echoing recent public statements made by CNN CEO Chris Licht.
Within the network, some of the CNN pundits, including media reporter Oliver Darcy, criticized the network publicly for hosting the Trump event. And now, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, a longtime critic of Trump, criticized the network’s management via Darcy in a report published Thursday.
“I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format,” the anchor said, according to Darcy’s article. “I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person,’ but then that’s me,” she said, referring to a term Trump used during the event earlier this month to describe anchor Kaitlan Collins during an exchange. She did not address why Trump may have used the term.
GOOD NEWS
‘Always Seen With a Smile’: Dad With No Arms or Legs Raises Two Girls After Their Mom Abandons Them
A Paraguayan father of two with no arms or legs found the strength and determination to raise both his girls, despite his limitations, when their mother abandoned them.
Pablo Acuña was born with a limb deformity, causing his arms and legs to not grow properly. Yet he’s a happy, grateful man who lives in the city of Son Pedro del Parana, Paraguay. At 63 years old, he’s a proud father of two daughters in their twenties, whom he has raised since they were babies with the help of his mother, Ignacia del Valle.
Great-Grandma Turns 90, Gets Birthday Wish to Ride a Harley Again—Thanks to Local UK Biker Gang
A bike-mad great-grandma with “nerves of steel” was granted her birthday wish to ride on the back of a Harley Davidson—as she turned 90.
Fearless Barbara Morris from the UK said she “felt 21 again” after hitching a ride on the powerful American chopper for almost 7 miles.
ICYMI
Supreme Court Rules Against Andy Warhol Foundation in Copyright Dispute
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of a photographer who claimed her intellectual property rights were violated by Andy Warhol’s eponymous foundation when it published multiple stylized prints he made based on her photo of the iconic musician Prince.
Dan Bongino Reveals the Real Reason He Departed Fox News
Former Fox News host Dan Bongino revealed why he departed the network amid rumors and speculation surrounding Tucker Carlson, who exited the network just days later.
Bongino confirmed that he was leaving Fox News in April but signaled at the time that the parting was mutual. However, after Carlson’s exit, there were also rumors about why Bongino may have left.
“I think a lot of people think this may be some kind of anti-Trump thing. I gotta say—that wasn’t my case,” Bongino told former Fox host Megyn Kelly on her podcast Friday. “I was not targeted. My show, they were dying to re-up—we negotiated for an entire year. So I can’t tell you like, ‘Oh, Fox got rid of me,’ because they didn’t,” he said.
“I negotiate my own deals. I don’t have an agent. I do my own business deals. I don’t need any, I do my own business,” he added, saying that Fox “wanted the show” but “I just had a different vision for my role at the network and that’s okay. I’m not the Saturday guy, Megyn, I’m sorry I can’t work six days a week.”
“I’ve got young kids and I’m not working six days a week,” he added. “And even though we recorded the show on Friday, you know, the inside baseball of Fox, what happens when there’s breaking news? Which with Trump out there is all the time—you gotta be on,” Bongino said.
EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Policy Exposes Fox News Stances on Woke Ideology
Fox News employees are allowed to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex, and permitted to dress in alignment with their preferred gender. They must also be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns in the workplace.
These are just a few of the policies outlined in the company handbook, dated January 2021, a copy of which was shared with The Daily Signal. Fox also offers to help employees come up with a “Workplace Transition Plan” to ease their gender transition at work.
The revelations comes amid conservative consternation at Fox Digital’s use of activist language like “gender affirming care” in stories on its website, as well as the site’s consistent use of female pronouns for biological males like TikTok celebrity Dylan Mulvaney and swimmer Lia Thomas (formerly known as Will Thomas).
Fox also drew strong backlash for a June 2022 on-air segment praising a child’s gender transition as an “inspiration to others.” That segment briefly depicted California state Sen. Scott Weiner, a far-left Democrat who led the move to soften sex offender registry requirements for sodomy with minors, and highlighted the activist claim that a child might commit suicide if he or she is not permitted to transition.
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