WORLD NEWS
Italy’s Move to the Right Shakes Europe’s Political Elites as Giorgia Meloni Readies to Govern
Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party that won the most votes in Italy’s national election, was preparing to be the country’s first woman premier on Monday. The center-right coalition leader is bound for office declaring “We defend God, country, and family” built on opposition to gender ideology and the LGBT lobby alongside support for strong borders and an end to limitless mass migration.
Meloni sounded a moderate, unifying tone in a victory speech that noted Italians had finally been able to clearly determine who they wanted to govern and the direction they wished to go in defiance of establishment elites.
Mass Cancellation of Flights Across China; Reasons Unclear
Nearly 60 percent of flights across China were canceled Wednesday, according to state media.
Flight Master said 9,583 flights had been canceled nationwide as of 10:35 p.m. on Sept. 21, accounting for 59.66 percent of those total scheduled journeys of the day, reported China.com.
Based in Shenzhen, Flight Master provides information on flights and ticketing and travel services.
Some busy air transport hubs in China recorded over 50 percent cancelation rates, according to Flight Master:
- Beijing Capital International Airport canceled 622 flights, with a cancellation rate of 60 percent
- Shanghai Pudong International Airport had 652 cancelations of flights, with a cancellation rate of 54 percent
- Shenzhen Baoan Airport’s 542 flights were canceled, accounting for 51 percent of its total flights
A newly discovered email from 2013 discloses that the vice-director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Yuan Zhiming, is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official who was formally in charge of international cooperation and biosafety at the Institute. The Institute is suspected to be the origin of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The email is part of a large number of documents unearthed by transparency group U.S. Right to Know through ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation to uncover pandemic-related information held by U.S. institutions. Although the initial batch of documents was released in June, the email pertaining to Yuan, which was obtained from the Galveston National Laboratory, was only discovered now by former Senate investigator Paul D. Thacker.
While it is not a secret that every Chinese institution ultimately answers to the CCP, the discovery of Yuan’s true role as the CCP’s praetorian and biosafety minder at the Wuhan lab is highly significant.
Xi’s Absence From Public Eye Ahead of Third Term Bid Fuels Speculation
More than a week ago, Chinese leader Xi Jinping embarked on a three-day trip to Central Asia to mark his sphere of influence. He has since been out of the public eye, skipping a high-level military meeting and the annual United Nations General Assembly.
With China only weeks away from its 20th National Congress, during which Xi is set to pursue an unprecedented third term, his absence has gone on long enough to attract attention from keen political watchers, with some even speculating that he has been placed under house arrest.
By Sept. 24, Xi had become one of the top trending topics on Twitter. His name appeared on hashtags more than 42,000 times, and the term “China coup” circulated 9,300 rounds on the platform.
“New [rumor] to be checked out: Is Xi [Jinping] under house arrest in Beijing?” wrote Subramanian Swamy, a former Indian Cabinet minister and Parliament member.
Such speculation also comes as Chinese nationals noted mass flight cancellations across the country. Nearly 10,000 flights—almost two-thirds of those scheduled for the day—were called off on Sept. 24, the same day that a key conference on national defense and military reform was convened in Beijing.
Weibo, China’s top social media platform, swiftly censored discussions about the flight cancellations, declaring them to be “rumors.”
Technocrat Dictate: PayPal Outrageously Shuts Down Britain’s Free Speech Union
U.S. financial tech company PayPal has been accused of a “sinister form of cancel culture” after its decision to shut down the accounts of the Free Speech Union, a U.K. body that defends and supports members who are unfairly targeted or discriminated against by their employers for exercising their legal right to free speech.
The union announced via its social media platforms late on Tuesday evening that PayPal was blocking payments to the body through its platform for “alleged violations of the company’s acceptable use policy.”
Speaking to GB News’ Mark Dolan on Tuesday, Toby Young, the founder of the Free Speech Union, revealed he had received an email from PayPal explaining that his personal account had been frozen, with a £600 balance effectively confiscated with no method to withdraw it.
Shortly after, Young received notifications that two companies he founded, the Daily Sceptic and the Free Speech Union, had also had their accounts indefinitely suspended. Young told GB News that approximately a quarter of the Daily Sceptic’s donors used PayPal as a payment method and would now be unable to support the company, and approximately one-third of the 9,500 members of the Free Speech Union paid their recurring membership fees via the payment platform, seriously impeding the group’s ability to receive much-needed income.
“This is the new battlefront in the ongoing war against free speech… financial services being withdrawn from people,” Young told the news channel.
In a statement, the Free Speech Union claimed it had been “demonetized by the financial intermediary PayPal for daring to stand up for free speech,” and urged its members to submit complaints about UK PayPal’s actions to the company.
“Not only can you not express certain views, you can’t defend people’s right to express them,” Young later claimed in a tweet.
The union has received support from a number of high-profile politicians following PayPal’s decision to withdraw its services.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
FBI Conducts Dawn Raid on Home of Catholic Pro-Life Speaker
The FBI reportedly arrested Catholic pro-life activist and author Mark Houck in a raid on his rural home early Friday morning.
Houck, 48, of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania, is the latest target of a string of Department of Justice-sponsored SWAT raids and arrests, as at least two dozen federal agents swarmed his property in Bucks County with around 15 vehicles at 7:05 a.m. on Sept. 23, reported LifeSite News.
“The kids were all just screaming,” Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie, told the online news portal. “It was all just very scary and traumatic.”
The father of seven is also co-founder and president of The King’s Men, a nonprofit group that promotes healing for victims of pornography addiction. Houck drives two hours south to Philadelphia every Wednesday to sidewalk council for six to eight hours at two different abortion centers, according to his wife.
The wife described an incident in which her husband “shoved” a pro-abortion activist away from his 12-year-old son after the man kept hurling “crude… inappropriate and disgusting” comments at the Houcks and entered the son’s “personal space.” The man, who was not hurt, tried to sue Houck. Ryan-Marie told LifeSite that the violation charge was thrown out of the District Court in Philadelphia this summer, but was somehow picked up by the Justice Department.
The Justice Department, meanwhile, accused Houck of having twice assaulted a reproductive health care clinic escort, identified in an indictment as “B.L.,” in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which makes it a federal crime to use force with the intent to injure, intimidate, and interfere with anyone because that person is a provider of reproductive health care.
If convicted of the offenses, Houck faces up to a maximum of 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $350,000, according to a Sept. 23 press release
FBI Denies Sending SWAT Team to Arrest Catholic Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck
The FBI has denied sending a swat team of 25-30 agents to arrest Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck for allegedly shoving an escort outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic last year.
Outrage ensued among conservatives throughout the weekend when it was reported that the FBI subjected Houck’s children to a fully armored SWAT raid last week under the order of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Mark Houck, the founder and president of The King’s Men — a group that helps men overcome pornography addiction — was arrested at his rural Pennsylvania home on Friday for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act during his regular sidewalk counseling outside of an abortion clinic in 2021. Speaking with LifeSiteNews, Houck’s wife, Ryan-Marie, said that around 25 to 30 fully armored FBI agents stormed their property early Friday morning, aiming their rifles as the children screamed in horror.
“They started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it,” Ryan-Marie said of the raid.
Prior to opening the door, Mark allegedly tried to reason with the agents to calm them down for the sake of his children. “Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are in the home. I have seven babies in the house,” Houck allegedly told the agents.
The FBI agents allegedly “just kept pounding and screaming,” according to Ryan-Marie.
“They had big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house,” Ryan-Marie said of the moment that her husband opened the door for the agents.
“Our staircase is open, so [the kids] were all at the top of the stairs which faces the front door, and I was on the stairs as well, coming down,” she said. “The kids were all just screaming. It was all just very scary and traumatic.”
In a statement to Fox News on Sunday, a spokesperson with the FBI Philadelphia field office denied that a SWAT Team had been used to apprehend Mark Houck.
“There are inaccurate claims being made regarding the arrest of Mark Houck. No SWAT Team or SWAT operators were involved. FBI agents knocked on Mr. Houck’s front door, identified themselves as FBI agents and asked him to exit the residence. He did so and was taken into custody without incident pursuant to an indictment,” the FBI said.
The FBI did not deny that up to 25-30 armored agents were on the scene or that Houck’s children witnessed the agents pointing rifles at their father and mother to arrest him for allegedly shoving someone in front of an abortion clinic.
An illegal alien accused of killing Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hartwick is one of nearly a million illegal aliens who have successfully entered the United States under President Joe Biden.
As Breitbart News reported, 32-year-old illegal alien Juan Ariel Molina-Salles from Honduras has been arrested and charged with killing Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hartwick in a hit-and-run crash as the deputy was working detail on a construction site.
Police allege that Molina-Salles was operating the large frontloader that hit and killed Hartwick. With many illegal aliens working on the construction site, Molina-Salles allegedly took off from the scene and gave his hard hat and vest to illegal alien Elieser Aurelio Gomez-Zelaya who proceeded to hide the articles of clothing.
Molina-Salles’s arrest took nearly 10 hours following the fatal hit-and-run partly because so many illegal aliens on the construction site were uncooperative with investigators, police said.
Hartwick, 51 years old, was the father of two adult sons and was just short of 20 years with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
‘Newsom Is Pushing Hideous New Extreme Abortion Bills’: Lawyer
The executive director of a law firm trying to stop a California bill that he says will enable infanticide has criticized billboards paid for by the campaign of California Gov. Gavin Newsom which promote abortion with Bible quotes.
Newsom, a Democrat, announced on Sept. 16 that he had launched the billboards in Texas, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and three more of what he called “the most restrictive anti-abortion states.”
The billboards encourage women to seek abortions in California, with some including a Bible verse from Mark 12:31, in which Jesus is quoted as saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
“To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: [California] will defend your right to make decisions about your own health,” Newsom wrote on Twitter alongside images of the designs of each billboard.
The move has been denounced by Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, a constitutional law firm urging Newsom not to sign an abortion bill, AB 2223, which has gone to his desk.
Texas Father Fears Custody Ruling Could Mean Chemical Castration for 10-Year-Old Son
Jeff Younger wants to block any attempt to move his son to California
A Texas father embroiled in a high-profile custody battle fears a court ruling this week could allow his ex-wife to move to California and medically transition his 10-year-old son to a girl.
Jeff Younger, who lives in the Dallas area, told The Epoch Times on Sept. 23 that he will fight the Sept. 21 ruling by Dallas District Judge Mary Brown, and vows he’ll continue to fight for his son, James.
The parents have been engaged in a custody battle over James for most of his life. The mother, Anne Georgulas, started questioning James’s gender when he was a toddler. She argues that from a young age James chose to identify as a female, wanted to wear dresses, and eventually wanted to be known as Luna.
She eventually socially transitioned the boy, and presented him at school as a girl. The school supported that after the couple separated.
Younger accused his ex-spouse of leading their young child to socially transition before he could understand the concept or its implications. He said James rejected being female and did not wear dresses when visiting his home after the parents separated in 2015.
US Intelligence Officials Resume National Security Risk Assessment of Documents Trump Kept at Home
U.S. intelligence officials have resumed a national security risk assessment of potential disclosure of documents former President Donald Trump kept at his home in Florida, a spokesperson with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has confirmed to The Epoch Times.
“In consultation with the Department of Justice, ODNI is resuming the classification review of relevant materials and assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents,” the spokesperson said via email.
The ODNI declined to say why the risk assessment was paused.
U.S. authorities have been battling with Trump in court after FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August and seized over 12,000 records, including approximately 100 with classified markings.
Trump asked for a special master to be inserted in the case and an order halting the ability of U.S. officials to analyze the records; U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, granted both requests
“The Court hereby authorizes the appointment of a special master to review the seized property for personal items and documents and potentially privileged material subject to claims of attorney-client and/or executive privilege. Furthermore, in natural conjunction with that appointment, and consistent with the value and sequence of special master procedures, the Court also temporarily enjoins the Government from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes pending completion of the special master’s review or further Court order,” she wrote in an order on Sept. 5.
But she also made clear that her order did not apply to the risk assessment, which the ODNI announced in August.
“This Order shall not impede the classification review and/or intelligence assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,” Cannon said.
Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers argued after the ruling that the order, as structured, did affect the risk assessment, claiming that the process “cannot be readily segregated” from the DOJ and FBI activities in connection with their ongoing criminal investigation into Trump.
The lawyers added that “uncertainty regarding the bounds of the Court’s order and its implications for the activities of the FBI has caused the Intelligence Community, in consultation with DOJ, to pause temporarily this critically important work.”
One of the nation’s largest providers of abortion altered a webpage on pregnancy after the Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate claimed that a fetus does not have a heartbeat at six weeks.
“There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks,” Stacey Abrams, the Democrat, said during a Sept. 21 event in Atlanta while speaking against abortion restrictions. “It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body.”
A number of people responded online by pointing to the website of Planned Parenthood, which advocates for and performs abortions across the country.
“What happens during week 5–6?” the Planned Parenthood webpage on early pregnancy said. “A very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop.”
The page was altered after Abrams made her remarks, according to archived versions of the page.
It now says: “A part of the embryo starts to show cardiac activity. It sounds like a heartbeat on an ultrasound, but it’s not a fully-formed heart—it’s the earliest stage of the heart developing.”
Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who is running for reelection, signed a six-week abortion ban, known as a fetal heartbeat law, in 2019. The law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. The law says that “any natural person, including an unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat, shall be included in population based determinations” and that a detectable human heartbeat means “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the heart within the gestational sac.”
Abrams’s campaign website says she would veto any legislation “that would further restrict abortion rights” and that she’d try to repeal the abortion ban if she is elected.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine says that week five of fetal development includes the heart starting to develop, and in the next two weeks, the “baby’s heart continues to grow and now beats at a regular rhythm.”
“This can be seen by vaginal ultrasound,” the library says.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kans.), an obstetrics and gynecology doctor, said that Abrams’s claim was wrong.
“Babies have a real heartbeat at six weeks. Why do radical Dems hate unborn babies?” he wrote on Twitter.
“Let me be clear: Babies DO have a heartbeat at 6 weeks,” added Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood worker. “Stop looking for ways to attempt to deny their humanity.”
DeSantis Declares Emergency as Florida Braces for Hurricane
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 24 counties as the National Weather Service told Floridians to brace for the impacts of Tropical Storm Ian, which is expected to bring heavy rain, hurricane-force winds, and flooding.
DeSantis issued the order on Sept. 23, urging residents and local governments to prepare as the storm gathers strength over the Caribbean before potentially hitting Florida next week.
“This storm has the potential to strengthen into a major hurricane and we encourage all Floridians to make their preparations,” DeSantis said in a statement. “We are coordinating with all state and local government partners to track potential impacts of this storm.”
The governor encouraged Florida residents to ensure they have emergency supply kits ready and stocked with food, water, and medicine.
DeSantis’s emergency declaration applies to Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lee, Manatee, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Okeechobee, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, and St. Lucie counties.
Iowa Man Found Guilty on All Charges Related to Jan. 6 Capitol Breach
A 41-year-old Iowa man has been found guilty by a Washington jury late on Sept. 23 on all seven charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the Capitol building.
The seven counts that Douglas Jensen of Des Moines, Iowa, was found guilty of include five felonies. They are: obstruction of an official proceeding; assaulting, resisting, or impeding a law enforcement officer; obstructing a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon; and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon was a knife in Jensen’s pocket.
The other two counts the jury determined Jensen was guilty of are misdemeanor offenses: disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
He is due to be sentenced on Dec. 16.
Jensen was reportedly a member of the group that chased U.S. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman near the Senate Chamber.
He was first arrested in Des Moines on Jan. 8, 2021, and had pleaded not guilty to all counts related to the Jan. 6 breach.
Arizona Judge Vacates 1973 Injunction, Restores Outright Abortion Ban
An Arizona judge has lifted a 1973 injunction placed on the state’s abortion statute, restoring a law that effectively bans the practice outright.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson ruled on Sept. 23 that a judgment and injunction signed nearly 50 years ago against statute ARS 13-3603 “no longer has any prospective application” in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Under the restored statute, it’s now only legal to perform an abortion in Arizona if “it is necessary to save” the woman’s life. This statute goes back to about 1901 and was the law of the land until the Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who after the Supreme Court’s Roe ruling in June vowed to ask the court to vacate the injunction and restore the ban, hailed Johnson’s decision.
“We applaud the court for upholding the will of the legislature and providing clarity and uniformity on this important issue. I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans,” he wrote on Twitter.
In her ruling (pdf) on the case, Planned Parenthood v. Brnovich, Johnson said Planned Parenthood had agreed that significant change in the law had occurred since the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t confer a right to abortion, and also overturned Roe in a separate vote. But she noted that the abortion provider didn’t agree on the scope of the relief that should be granted to the government as a result.
Johnson ultimately sided with Brnovich, finding that the 1973 judgment should be entirely vacated because it was based solely on Roe, which has since been overturned.
A Twitter post by the U.S. House Jan. 6 Select Committee purporting to contain walkie-talkie traffic between Oath Keepers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 is actually “a recording of people watching TV,” a former Oath Keepers attorney contends.
Jonathon Moseley, who formerly represented Oath Keepers defendant Kelly Meggs, said the audio snippets released by the Jan. 6 Committee are part of a nearly 2.5-hour recording.
The committee’s Twitter post paired the audio clips with an unrelated video of the Oath Keepers to make it appear it was Oath Keepers speaking on radios at the Capitol, he said.
The Establishment’s Response to Trump’s Presidency
Commentary
In late July 2016, FBI Director James Comey notified certain members of the Obama White House, along with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about the FBI’s opening of the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
CIA Director John Brennan was already aware, since he was the one who had been providing the FBI with information regarding the Trump campaign.
Brennan testified to Congress in May 2017, “I was aware of intelligence and information about contacts between Russian officials and U.S. persons that raised concerns in my mind about whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the Russians, either in a witting or unwitting fashion, and it served as the basis for the FBI investigation to determine whether such collusion—cooperation occurred.”
We also know that Brennan was in contact with UK Intelligence—at the very highest of levels. Robert Hannigan, the head of the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (also known as GCHQ), flew to the United States in the summer of 2016 to personally brief Brennan.
162 Researchers From Top US Nuclear Facility Now Working for China: Report
More than 150 scientists who worked in a top U.S. national security laboratory were hired by the Chinese regime to do research, according to a new report. Much of that research has directly advanced Chinese military technology, which now threatens U.S. national security.
The report (pdf), published by strategic intelligence firm Strider Technologies, claims that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) conducted a systemic effort to recruit leading scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to work on its military programs.
Located in New Mexico, LANL is a key part of U.S. defense and security research and is where nuclear weapons were first developed. It is one of the largest scientific and technological institutions in the world, and its scientists conduct research in the fields of national security, space exploration, nuclear fusion, nanotechnology, and supercomputing.
At least 162 LANL researchers have been hired by the CCP over the last 35 years, according to the report. Of those, many went on to conduct military research for China, at least one of which previously held Top Secret security clearance at the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Former Los Alamos scientists have made, and continue to make, considerable contributions to [China’s] hypersonic, missile, and submarine programs that present an array of security risks for the United States and the entire free world,” the report said.
“Better protection is needed for the institutions, research programs, and scientists advancing innovation in this era of strategic competition without harming open scientific collaboration.”
GOP to Immediately Repeal Hiring of 87,000 IRS Agents If Republicans Flip House: McCarthy
Republicans will immediately move to reverse the Biden administration’s hiring of 87,000 IRS agents if they flip the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections, the top Republican in the lower chamber said on Sept. 23.
“On that first day that we are sworn in, you will see that it all changes,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told a crowd in Pennsylvania. “Because in our very first bill, we are going to repeal 87,000 IRS agents.”
“Our job is to work for you, and not go after you,” he added.
The Inflation Reduction Act, approved by Democrats in both chambers and signed by President Joe Biden, included funding for 87,000 additional IRS workers.
“In all of my years in Congress, I have not had a phone call from anyone saying ‘Steve, please add more people to the IRS,’” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said at the Pennsylvania event, dubbed the “Commitment to America.”
“If there are 87,000 people needed in America, it’s at the border to secure America’s border. Not at the IRS to go after small businesses and hard-working families,” he added.
Senate Republicans introduced a bill earlier this month that would block the IRS from using the new funding to audit Americans making less than $400,000 annually.
Without support from the Senate, any House bill wouldn’t advance to Biden. Additionally, Republicans in both chambers would need to summon a veto-proof majority, which would likely mean getting Democrat support.
DeSantis Announces Actions to Confront CCP Influence in Florida
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Sept. 22 signed a new executive order and unveiled a package of legislative proposals to combat “malign foreign influence,” particularly from communist China.
“The number one source of that influence, not just in the United States but really around the world, is the Chinese Communist Party,” DeSantis said during an event at Miami Dade College on Thursday.
Standing behind a podium with a “Stop CCP Influence” sign, DeSantis said he signed an executive order to address the cybersecurity risks posed by foreign companies, especially those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“The last thing we want to see is the [CCP] getting their mitts onto people’s personal information,” DeSantis said.
The new executive order, he said, prohibits Florida’s government agencies from procuring or using technology products and services from companies connected to “foreign countries of concern.” He added that these counties include China, Iran, Russia, Cuba, and “other types of regimes hostile to American interests.”
“This will prevent the exposure of Floridians’ personal information and technology systems in Florida to foreign entities and bad actors,” he said.
“One of the things they [the CCP] like to do is use technology to advance themselves and that includes trying to get personal information of Americans,” DeSantis said. TikTok was popular among teens in the United States.
The governor singled out Chinese-owned TikTok, hugely popular among young Americans, as a concern.
“They are amassing a lot of data,” he said of the app. “I think it’s a huge national security risk.”
Oregon Student Test Scores Plummet After Pandemic Learning Loss
After two years of disruption caused by the pandemic, student test scores fell by nearly 10 percent in math, English, and science, according to data released on Sept. 22 by the Oregon Department of Education.
The first large-scale assessment of Oregon students since 2019 shows that as few as one-third of students statewide are reaching key benchmarks as they return to in-person learning.
According to the data for the 2021-22 school year, fewer than 44 percent of Oregon students in Grades 3–8 were proficient in English language arts. That’s down from 53 percent in 2019.
About 30 percent were proficient in math and just 29.5 percent in science, compared with 39 percent and 37 percent, respectively, in 2019.
Unlike most national findings about pandemic learning loss, school closures and education disruptions hit all demographic groups equally in Oregon.
In Grades 3–6, the number of white students, Latino students, and indigenous students who mastered English or math fell by 8 percent from 2019 to 2022, according to the report.
ODE says the testing further shows that students who were falling behind before the pandemic suffered the most learning loss.
Statewide assessment tests were not done in 2020 due to pandemic-related school closures. Oregon schools experienced some of the longest school closures in the nation.
The ODE had requested a waiver for the tests in 2021 as well, but U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona denied those blanket waivers. Instead, the state received a partial waiver, requiring English language, arts, math and science testing only for select grades.
ODE director Colt Gill explained that the state is taking a new perspective on how it looks at assessments. Instead of determining whether students are doing well or not individually, the assessments are a reflection of the system overall.
“This creates for us a post-pandemic baseline that the future assessments can help us measure whether we’re making progress and helping our students address that unfinished learning,” Gill said in a press conference.
“We have already seen assessment scores rising for students who have had more time back in onsite learning.”
ODE also said the assessment results should serve as a call to better fund schools and education institutions, as well as better support teachers and other staff.
But Oregon schools are already flush with cash, even as enrollment has declined by 5 percent since the beginning of the pandemic.
‘I Believe So:’ Fauci Says School Closures Were Worth It
Dr. Anthony Fauci says shutting down schools during the COVID-19 pandemic was worthwhile.
“I believe so for a number of reasons,” Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a lockdown proponent, said on Sept. 22.
Fauci said that people who note that many children do not suffer severe cases of COVID-19 disregard that “we still lost 1,400 children.” As of Aug. 20, only 722 deaths among children were determined to have COVID-19 as the underlying cause, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER database.
Fauci also put forth the theory that COVID-19 vaccines can prevent multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, and so-called long COVID, or lingering effects that are sometimes attributed to COVID-19.
“So although you have to be aware and not deny that there are deleterious consequences for prolonged periods of time for keeping children out of school—remember, the safety of the children is also important,” Fauci said. “So it’s not black and white, it isn’t completely right or completely wrong. The people who have concern[s] about closing schools are perfectly appropriate in that concern. That’s the reason why I have said very, very often: we need to do everything we can to make sure the schools are open and safe.”
Whitehead: The Government’s Propaganda Of Fear, Mind Control & Brain Warfare
It is the function of mass agitation to exploit all the grievances, hopes, aspirations, prejudices, fears, and ideals of all the special groups that make up our society, social, religious, economic, racial, political. Stir them up. Set one against the other. Divide and conquer. That’s the way to soften up a democracy.”― J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit
The U.S. government has become a master of deceit.
It’s all documented, too.
This is a government that lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn; treats its citizens like faceless statistics and economic units to be bought, sold, bartered, traded, and tracked; and wages wars for profit, jails its own people for profit, and has no qualms about spreading its reign of terror abroad.
Worse, this is a government that has become almost indistinguishable from the evil it claims to be fighting, whether that evil takes the form of terrorism, torture, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, murder, violence, theft, pornography, scientific experimentations or some other diabolical means of inflicting pain, suffering and servitude on humanity.
With every passing day, it becomes painfully clear that this is not a government that can be trusted with your life, your loved ones, your livelihood or your freedoms.
Just recently, for example, the Pentagon was compelled to order a sweeping review of clandestine U.S. psychological warfare operations (psy ops) conducted through social media platforms. The investigation comes in response to reports suggesting that the U.S. military has been creating bogus personas with AI-generated profile pictures and fictitious media sites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to manipulate social media users.
Psychological warfare, as the U.S. Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group explained in a recruiting video released earlier this year, enables the government to pull the strings, turn everything they touch into a weapon, be everywhere, deceive, persuade, change, influence, and inspire.
Of the many weapons in the government’s vast arsenal, psychological warfare (or psy ops) can take many forms: mind control experiments, behavioral nudging, propaganda.
In the 1950s, MK-ULTRA, the mind control program developed under CIA director Allen Dulles as part of his brain warfare Cold War campaigns, subjected hundreds of unsuspecting American civilians and military personnel to doses of LSD, some having the hallucinogenic drug slipped into their drinks at the beach, in city bars, at restaurants. For Operation Midnight Climax, the CIA hired prostitutes to lure men into a bugged room, where they would be dosed with LSD and observed having sex
As Brianna Nofil explains, “MK-Ultra’s ‘mind control’ experiments generally centered around behavior modification via electro-shock therapy, hypnosis, polygraphs, radiation, and a variety of drugs, toxins, and chemicals.”
The CIA spent nearly $20 million on its MKULTRA program, reportedly as a means of programming people to carry out assassinations and, to a lesser degree, inducing anxieties and erasing memories, before it was supposedly shut down.
As one study reported, detainees held in CIA safe-houses abroad “were literally interrogated to death in experimental methods combining drugs, hypnosis and torture, to attempt to master brainwashing techniques and memory erasing.”
Similarly, the top-secret Montauk Project, the inspiration for the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, allegedly was working to develop mind-control techniques that would then be tested out on locals in a nearby village, triggering crime waves or causing teenagers to congregate.
As journalist Lorraine Boissoneault concludes, “Despite MK-ULTRA violating ethical norms for human experiments, the legacy of brainwashing experiments continued to live on in U.S. policy. The same methods that had once been used to train American soldiers ended up being used to extract information from terrorists in Abu Ghraib, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.”
Fast forward to the present day, and it’s clear that the government—aided and abetted by technological advances and scientific experimentation—has updated its psy ops warfare for a new era. For instance, the government has been empowered to use its ever-expanding arsenal of weapons and technologies to influence behaviors en masse and control the populace.
It’s a short hop, skip and a jump from a behavioral program that tries to influence how people respond to paperwork to a government program that tries to shape the public’s views about other, more consequential matters. Thus, increasingly, governments around the world—including in the United States—are relying on “nudge units” to steer citizens in the direction the powers-that-be want them to go, while preserving the appearance of free will.
Back in 2014, for example, a Fusion Center in Washington State (a Dept. of Homeland Security-linked data collection clearinghouse that shares information between state, local and federal agencies) inadvertently released records on remote mind control tactics (the use of “psycho-electronic” weapons to control people from a distance or subject them to varying degrees of pain).
Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic could easily be considered psychological warfare disguised as a pandemic threat. As science writer David Robson explains: “Fears of contagion lead us to become more conformist and tribalistic… Daily reminders of disease may even sway our political affiliations… Various experiments have shown that we become more conformist and respectful of convention when we feel the threat of a disease… the evocative images of a pandemic led [participants in an experiment] to value conformity and obedience over eccentricity or rebellion.”
This is how you persuade a populace to voluntarily march in lockstep with a police state and police themselves (and each other): by ratcheting up the fear-factor, meted out one carefully calibrated crisis at a time, and teaching them to distrust any who diverge from the norm.
This is not a new experiment in mind control.
House Republicans Warn Ex-FBI Agent to Not Destroy Documents Related to Hunter Biden Investigation
Timothy Thibault, a former top FBI official who left the bureau last month, has been warned to not alter or destroy documents and communications in his possession, particularly those connected to his work on the Hunter Biden investigation.
The warning came from three Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee who sent a Sept. 23 letter to Thibault, asking the former FBI agent to “preserve all existing and future records and materials” in his possession.
“Whistleblowers have come to Congress alleging that you were part of a scheme to undermine and discredit allegations of criminal wrongdoing by members of the Biden family. Accordingly, we believe that you possess information relating to our investigation and we request your assistance with our inquiry,” the letter reads.
The letter was signed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the committee’s ranking Republican member; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.); and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Before leaving the FBI, Thibault was an assistant special agent in charge at the bureau’s Washington Field Office.
Thibault came under close scrutiny in late July after FBI whistleblowers told Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that the former FBI official “ordered closed” information that the bureau had obtained about Hunter Biden’s “criminal financial and related activity” in 2020.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Inflation Hits Middle-Income Americans the Hardest, Says Congressional Budget Office
Middle-class Americans were the hardest hit group by skyrocketing inflation in 2022, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says.
Inflation has cut into the finances of the middle class more than that of low- and high-income households, according to a CBO report from Sept. 22.
Annual U.S. inflation rates have hovered in around the low- to mid-8 percent range since the summer began, with the highest rates in roughly 40 years.
There have been massive price increases for the three key household expenditures this year—food, housing, and energy—much of it due to supply chain problems.
The CBO report analyzed the average purchase of goods and services in each fifth of U.S. households according to income distribution in 2019, before the pandemic hit normal spending rates.
Households in the second, middle, and fourth income brackets, which together make up the American middle class, have witnessed the value of their overall income decline in value over the past year.
Meanwhile, the average share of income relative to expenditures for Americans in the lowest and highest quintiles has been less skewed in 2022.
The report reflected that prices for middle-income households grew faster than their earnings this year.
Lower- and upper-class families have seen their incomes grow faster than prices.
The CBO report also saw that spending habits among income levels between 2019 and 2022 reversed. Lower-income households saw their share of income needed to make purchases in 2019 go up, while other income brackets saw a decline.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
First Spacecraft to Hit Asteroid in Attempt to Alter Its Trajectory
In the first-of-its kind, save-the-world experiment, NASA is about to clobber a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away.
A spacecraft named Dart will zero in on the asteroid Monday, intent on slamming it head-on at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). The impact should be just enough to nudge the asteroid into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion space rock—demonstrating that if a killer asteroid ever heads our way, we’d stand a fighting chance of diverting it.
“This is stuff of science-fiction books and really corny episodes of “StarTrek” from when I was a kid, and now it’s real,” NASA program scientist Tom Statler said Thursday.
Cameras and telescopes will watch the crash, but it will take days or even weeks to find out if it actually changed the orbit.
The $325 million planetary defense test began with Dart’s launch last fall.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
San Francisco Police Get Access To Private Security Cameras In Real Time
In a 7-4 vote on Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors agreed to test Mayor London Breed’s controversial plan to overhaul the city’s surveillance practices, which will allow police to access private security cameras in real time.
Supervisors Catherine Stefani, Aaron Peskin, Gordon Mar, Matt Dorsey, Myrna Melgar, Rafael Mandelman and Ahsha Safaí voted to approve the trial run, while Connie Chan, Dean Preston, Hillary Ronen and Shamann Walton voted in dissent.
“I know the thought process is, ‘Just trust us, just trust the police department.’ But the reality is people have been violating civil liberties since my ancestors were brought here from an entirely, completely different continent,” Walton — the board president and District 10 representative — said.
Under the new policy, police can access up to 24 hours of live video of outdoor footage from private surveillance cameras owned by individuals or businesses without a warrant as long as the camera’s owner allows it. Police must meet one of three outlined criteria to use their newfound power: they must be responding to a life-threatening emergency, deciding how to deploy officers in response to a large public event or conducting a criminal investigation that was approved in writing by a captain or higher-ranking police official.
The trial will last 15 months. If supervisors wish to extend or revise the policy, they must take a second vote.
Breed first proposed an overhaul of the city’s surveillance practices late last year as a way to crack down on retail theft, rioting, looting and drug-dealing. The plan initially received blowback from Peskin and others, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Bar Association of San Francisco, who feared the policy would be abused by police. Peskin, along with other members of the Board of Supervisors, introduced a competing proposal that, along with Breed’s, would have appeared on the June 7 primary ballot.
HEALTH
Honey Plus Coffee Beats Steroid For Treating Cough
One of modern medicine’s most celebrated ‘miracle drugs’ are steroids, but a double-blind, randomized clinical trial found that honey plus coffee outperformed prednisolone in treating symptoms of post-infectious, persistent cough.
A remarkable study looking at natural alternatives to medications found that compared to a systemic steroid, a combination of honey and coffee was superior in reducing symptoms associated with a post-infectious cough (PPC).
PPC is a cough that remains after a common cold or an upper respiratory tract infection for more than three weeks, and in some cases as long as several months. Conventional treatment may involve any number of powerful drugs, many of which have serious side effects, including codeine and dextromethorphan (so-called centrally acting antitussives), antihistamines, narcotics, and bronchodilators.
The study, published in Primary Care Respiratory Journal, was conducted by researchers at Baqiyatallah University Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2008 to 2011. 97 patients who had experienced PPC for more than three weeks were randomized in double-blinded fashion into three groups:
- A jam like paste was prepared which consisted of 20.8 grams of honey plus 2.9 grams of instant coffee for the first group (‘HC’).
- 13.3 mg of prednisolone for the second group (steroid, ‘S’).
- 25 mg of guaifenesin for the third group (control, ‘C’).
The researchers described the patient treatment protocol as follows:
“The participants were told to dissolve a specified amount of their product in warm water and to drink the solution every eight hours for one week. All the participants were evaluated before treatment and one week after completion of treatment to measure the severity of their cough. The main outcome measure was the mean cough frequency before and after one week’s treatment calculated by a validated visual analogue cough questionnaire score.”
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Exclusive— Kevin McCarthy: Democrat ESG Energy Crisis ‘Just Wrong’; Republicans to Lower Gas Prices
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that the Democrat ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] energy agenda is “just wrong” and that a House Republican majority would bring down energy prices.
McCarthy spoke to Breitbart News ahead of the unveiling of the House Republican agenda, the Commitment to America. One of the core planks of the Commitment to America agenda is ensuring a strong economy.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Gardens Are Growing Due to Food Shortage
It’s estimated that more than 20 million Americans planted a vegetable garden for the first time during the pandemic
Gardening has taken on a sense of novelty as many view it as a hobby or leisure activity, but in relatively recent history — prior to industrialization — nearly all Americans grew food
Growing your own food is something I encourage virtually everyone to take part in, even if you have limited space
In addition to fresh produce from your garden, round out your preparatory food supply with nutritious shelf-stable foods and a clean supply of potable water
Gardening has also been treasured just as much for its nutritious harvests as for the solace and healing it provides
COVID RELATED NEWS
Peer-Reviewed Studies on Ivermectin Retracted ‘Without Explanation’: Dr. Pierre Kory
Both sides of the debate surrounding the controversial drug, ivermectin, agree it can kill SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But some groups have characterized the drug as a COVID-19 “cure,” while others have classed it as “dangerous.”
While many published studies advise against using ivermectin for COVID-19, studies that showed statistically-significant benefits for the treatment have been taken down and retracted “without explanation.”
That’s according to Dr. Pierre Kory, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist who is the president and co-founder of the Front Line Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC).
Kory and a number of other physicians who support ivermectin use in treating COVID-19, especially in early treatment, were among those whose papers on ivermectin were retracted by journals that Kory alleges are “beholden to Big Pharma.”
“We saw peer reviewed articles—articles that passed peer review by experts in their field, including my own—retracted without explanation,” Kory said on Sept. 10 at a “Reclaiming Medicine” conference hosted by the Australian Medical Professionals’ Society (AMPS) in Melbourne, Australia.
“I have numerous colleagues whose papers that were supportive of ivermectin in reasonably high impact journals—they were retracted. And then the only thing you’ll ever see published in high impact journal are supposedly negative studies,” he said.
“What I have noticed after having identified ivermectin, [and] publishing the first comprehensive review paper, is that we’ve had unrelenting media attacks on us as researchers.”
Did the COVID Unvaccinated Fare Better or Worse Than the Vaccinated? The Results Are In
After the fast spread of the pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from China to the Western world, several large pharmaceutical companies quickly invented and manufactured COVID-19 vaccines, which were then made available to the public through emergency use authorization (EUA). And in late 2020, people around the world started to receive these vaccines.
According to Our World in Data, to date, 67.9 percent of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. While only 22.5 percent of people in low-income countries have received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccination rates of developed countries are generally high—typically around 80 percent. For instance, the COVID-19 vaccination rates of the G7 countries are: 79.19 percent in the United States, 86.96 percent in Canada, 80.92 percent in France, 77.66 percent in Germany, 85.82 percent in Italy, 83.60 percent in Japan, and 79.97 percent in the UK.
However, in all countries and regions around the world, there are people who elect not to receive the COVID-19 vaccines for various reasons. They are a naturally occurring control group, as opposed to the vaccinated population (i.e. the experimental group). Indeed, the whole COVID-19 vaccine campaigns can be regarded as the unprecedented largest human clinical trials on vaccine safety, by design or not, as the vaccines’ long term safety data was not available when they were provided to people under EUA. Then, the unvaccinated population in different parts of the world are very unique large control groups in such a global clinical trial.
Due to the highly valuable health data of this unvaccinated population, between October 2021 and February 2022, a UK-based organization called Control Group Cooperative (CGC) independently collected their self-reported data on their health status, reasons for declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccines, whether they have been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the severity of their symptoms for the ones that did get infected, and whether they’ve been subject to discrimination or victimization.
These data have then been analyzed by a team of researchers, who are entirely independent of the CGC and have received no funding for interpreting the findings of the CGC survey. Their recent report on their findings has been published on the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research, which is a peer-reviewed scholarly open access journal.
Vaccine Mandate Ruled ‘Invalid’ for Police Association Members in New York
New York police officers have scored a big win in their fight against the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate that cost some their jobs, with a New York Supreme Court judge ruling that the mandate—as it applies to members of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA)—is “invalid” and that fired cops must be given back their jobs.
Judge Lyle Frank said in the Sept. 23 ruling (pdf) that PBA members who lost their jobs for refusing the jab must be “reinstated to the status they were as of the date of the wrongful action.”
While it’s unclear how many PBA members lost their jobs due to the mandate, a City Hall spokesperson told CBS News that more than 1,750 city employees have been fired for refusing to get the shot.
Frank said in the ruling that a key reason why the mandate was illegal is because the city didn’t collectively bargain with the PBA, which represents some 24,000 members of the New York Police Department.
While there were “a multitude of cases” where courts have ruled against challenges to vaccines being a condition of employment, in those instances, the city and the respective union “collectively bargained to include the vaccination mandate as a new condition of employment,” the judge said, adding that that was “not the case here.”
Supreme Court to Consider Case Against COVID Vaccine Mandate for New York City Employees
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 will consider a New York Police Department detective’s challenge to the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees. The decision came one day after New York Mayor Eric Adams said the city will drop the mandate for private employers, but not city workers.
This article was originally published by The Defender – Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 7 will consider a New York Police Department detective’s challenge to the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas granted the request by the detective, Anthony Marciano, after Justice Sonia Sotomayor initially rejected it, Politico confirmed Tuesday.
Marciano’s challenge seeks to strike down the mandate for the Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 vaccine for all city workers — including firefighters, police and teachers.
According to data from the mayor’s office, as of Aug. 30, 1,761 city workers have been fired for not getting the vaccine, Daily News reported Wednesday.
That number now is likely higher after the New York City Department of Education this month fired another 850 teachers and other staff, bringing the total to nearly 2,000 school employees fired for failure to comply with the mandate, according to the New York Post.
Israeli Investigators Find COVID-19 Vaccines Cause Side Effects: Leaked Video
Israeli researchers found some side effects that occurred after COVID-19 vaccination were caused by Pfizer’s vaccine, according to a leaked video.
The Israeli Ministry of Health (MoH) commissioned researchers to analyze adverse event reports submitted by Israelis and the researchers presented findings from the new surveillance system in an internal June 2022 meeting, video of which was obtained by an Israeli journalist.
Researchers said that the phenomenon of rechallenge—when adverse events reoccur or worsen following additional vaccine doses—proved that some of the events were caused by the vaccine.
A positive rechallenge was reported in 10 percent of the women who complained of menstrual issues, according to the researchers, who also identified cases of rechallenge for other adverse events.
Rechallenge changes a causal link “from possible to definitive,” Dr. Mati Berkovitch, head of the research team and a pediatric specialist, said at the meeting.
Rechallenge “helps us to establish the causal relationship,” added Sasha Zhurat, the main presenter at the meeting. The advantage of the surveillance system and the analysis “is not only to identify the symptoms but also to link them to the vaccine,” she said.
CANCEL CULTURE
Culture War Erupts in Texas Town Over Drag Bingo Event Hosted by Christian Church
Antifa and Proud Boys clash as parents protested
Outside a drag bingo event hosted by a pro-LGBT church in Texas, a microcosm of America’s culture war played out with liberals and conservatives screaming at each other across a boulevard on Saturday.
About 300 Texas conservatives lined an entire block to protest the First Christian Church in Katy, which sponsored a sold-out family drag bingo event to raise money to benefit its “Transparent Closet.”
The clothing boutique was for “trans and exploring teens, youth and young adults,” according to the church’s website. Its parking lot was full of cars as the family drag bingo event started around 5 p.m. The adults-only portion of the drag show was scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
The conservative crowd dwarfed some 100 liberals who showed up to champion the church, which openly supports LGBT people. Protesters and counter-protesters alike were armed.
Extremist groups from both sides of the political spectrum showed up, including far-left Antifa members dressed in black from head to toe carrying umbrellas, few members of neo-Nazi groups, and the Proud Boys, a pro-Western fraternal organization who were wearing Buc-ee’s masks.
The Antifa and Proud Boys groups taunted each other as sheriff’s deputies donning helmets and riot gear straddled the boulevard to separate them.
At one point, the factions clashed with an Antifa member hitting a Proud Boy over the head with a flag pole. Other Proud Boys ran to confront the Antifa members, launching a pepper spray attack.
If life on a balmy island in the Mediterranean sounds enticing, the region of Sardinia is looking to lure new neighbors to come live there—and they’re paying you to move in.
To curtail a dwindling population, the second largest island in the Mediterranean, next to Sicily, has earmarked 45 million euros for people buying or renovating their very own abode in that particular Italian autonomous region.
Besides boasting 1,149 miles of idyllic coast, with white sand beaches, palm trees, and breathtaking shoreline vistas, the island is dotted with rustic towns as well as Bronze Age ruins dating back as early as 1,500 B.C.
Sardinia has seen its residency shrink significantly in recent decades as young people flock to larger metropolitan areas in seek of opportunities. Rural communities in particular now need people to keep their very existences from fading.
PET NEWS
This Study Says You Literally Can’t Hide From Your Cat
You know how cats lounge around, until suddenly — out of nowhere! — they dart away from you into another room? New research out of the University of Kyoto in Japan suggests that felines, long assumed to be aloof, may actually be keeping tabs on their people, even when they’re next to them. The study finds that cats can “mentally map” where their owner is, based on where their voice is coming from.
Dr. Saho Takagi, who led and co-authored the paper, told The Guardian: “This study shows that cats can mentally map their location based on their owner’s voice. [It suggests] that cats have the ability to picture the invisible in their minds. Cats [may] have a more profound mind than is thought.”
In the study, Dr. Takagi and team observed the reactions of domestic cats to the voices of their owners and of other people, all of whom were out of eyesight. The study focused on 50 cats, roughly half of whom live in homes; the other half live at cat cafés.
It’s an Instinct
In the study, each cat was placed alone in a room with one window and two doors. Researchers equipped the space with video cameras as well as three speakers, positioned outside the window and doors. Researchers gauged feline reactions by studying the captured footage. The biggest takeaway: Cats appeared visually confused only when their owners’ voices — played through the speakers — seemed to teleport too quickly from one location to another.
Feline purr-veillance has roots in survival instincts. It comes in handy for hunting without a clear visual on prey and helps size up competition from nearby cats. It also helps cats triangulate the location of the human, who regularly feeds and protects them. To that end, studies have already proven that cats can tell the difference between a familiar voice (ie. the one belonging to a food-giver) and that of a stranger.
Keep Up the Conversation
Other studies indicate that kittens and adult cats demonstrate about the same attachment rate to their owners as human infants do to their parents. Meaning: cats can be more affectionate than we’ve assumed. Even if they’re not fans of hugs. “Although there was clear individual variability in cat preference,” one paper reads, “social interaction with humans was the most-preferred stimulus category for the majority of cats, followed by food. This was true for cats in both the pet and shelter population.”
If you’re the type of person who talks even a little too much to their pet, keep talking — it is likely a comfort to them. “Cats spend most of their time sleeping, and people often think that it’s good that cats just sleep,” Dr. Takagi said to CNN. “But cats…may be thinking about many things.”
ICYMI
Colorado Man Convicted of Killing Woman with AK-47 over Dog Poop
A Colorado man was convicted by a jury for killing a woman with an AK-47 rifle and attempting to murder her boyfriend over a dispute regarding dog poop.
Michael Close, 38, was found guilty by a jury Thursday on all charges brought against him for the June 10, 2020, murder of Isabella Thallas, 21.
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