When Forest Fire Isn’t an Accident: The Rise of Arson-Linked Wildfires

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forest fires started on purpose

Internetwork for Sustainability

Wildfires are usually blamed on drought, lightning, or human carelessness. But a string of recent, high-profile blazes in North America and Europe has investigators pointing to something more deliberate. From California’s scorched hillsides to the forests outside Paris, prosecutors and fire officials have been building arson cases against individuals accused of deliberately setting some of the most destructive fires in recent memory.

North America: Charges and Convictions

California has produced two of the most closely watched cases. The Park Fire, one of the largest wildfires in the state’s history, led to felony arson charges against Ronnie Dean Stout II; later reporting indicated he was ultimately convicted of starting the blaze.

The Palisades Fire, which became one of the deadliest and most destructive fires in Los Angeles history, has taken a more complicated legal path. Federal prosecutors accused Jonathan Rinderknecht of maliciously starting the fire’s original ignition point, and a later indictment added further arson-related felony counts. The case has not been straightforward, however — a federal trial reportedly ended in a mistrial.

Elsewhere in Northern California, the Thompson Fire destroyed homes and burned thousands of acres before investigators identified it as human-caused. Spencer Grant Anderson was later hit with multiple arson counts in connection with the blaze.

Canada has seen its own reckoning. During the historic 2023 wildfire season, Brian Paré pleaded guilty to 13 counts of arson after admitting to lighting more than a dozen fires, some of which forced evacuations. More recently, in Saskatchewan, two residents were charged with arson in 2025 for separate fires that broke out during an already active wildfire period.

Europe: Suspicion, Arrests, and a Continent on Edge

The pattern isn’t confined to North America — and France, in particular, has been at the center of it. In July 2026, a fire broke out in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris, in the former royal hunting preserve. Investigators grew suspicious after noticing several ignition points close together, and two people were arrested on suspicion of arson; police ultimately treated the blaze, which burned thousands of acres before being contained, as deliberately set. Visiting the scene, President Macron said the country had not faced this many fire outbreaks since the end of World War II and promised zero tolerance for arsonists.

Fontainebleau turned out to be one episode in a much larger, still-unfolding fire season. Earlier in July, several people were detained over suspected arson tied to fires in the Hérault region, part of a stretch that had already burned roughly 14,500 hectares by early July. By mid-July, national losses had climbed past 42,000 hectares — already outpacing the previous record pace set in 2022, the worst wildfire year in French history. The destruction continued into late July: a fast-moving wildfire broke out near Bordeaux on July 22 and forced more than 20,000 evacuations in the Gironde department, and two firefighters died battling a related blaze that spread from a brush fire near Bordeaux airport to a nearby building. Across the country, French authorities reported dozens of arrests for either accidentally or deliberately starting fires during the same heatwave stretch.

Spain endured an even larger surge the previous year. Over the course of the 2025 wildfire season, Spanish authorities investigated 110 suspected arson cases and made 22 arrests, with serious fires breaking out in Galicia, Oímbra, Puercas, Chandrexa, and Ávila.

England has also seen isolated but notable incidents. Fire officials flagged suspected arson at York’s Hob Moor Nature Reserve, while a separate, larger moorland fire near Dovestone in Greater Manchester led to an aggravated arson charge against a woman accused of starting it.

A Recognizable Pattern

Not every case here has resulted in a conviction, and the strength of the evidence varies widely. The clearest examples — Park Fire, Thompson Fire, and the Quebec fires — involve direct charges or guilty pleas. Others, particularly in France and Spain, are better described as suspected-arson clusters, where investigators see strong circumstantial evidence of deliberate ignition without every individual fire being proven in court.

Still, certain features recur across nearly all of these cases: multiple ignition points close together, fires breaking out at unusual times, witness accounts, and surveillance footage placing a suspect at the scene. Almost all of them also share one environmental thread — dry vegetation, high heat, and strong winds that turned a deliberately set spark into a fast-moving disaster.

Motive is harder to pin down, and the record so far points away from any shared ideology and toward more individual, even mundane, drivers. Federal prosecutors say Rinderknecht was personally distraught — upset over a failed relationship and a lonely New Year’s Eve — and had voiced resentment toward wealthy Angelenos before the Palisades Fire ignited. Several suspects, oddly, had a foot in fire response itself: Anderson had completed a firefighting course and earned a certificate the week before he threw a lit firework from his car, and one of the two Fontainebleau suspects turned out to be a 19-year-old volunteer firefighter who admitted using gasoline and a lighter, though investigators haven’t disclosed why. Paré told police he set his fires to test how dry the forest was, even as he separately posted online that the government was secretly starting fires to manufacture belief in climate change. Stout, for his part, was seen drinking heavily in the hours before the Park Fire ignited. For most of the recent European cases, authorities have yet to disclose a motive at all.

As wildfire seasons grow longer and more intense across both continents, investigators say that distinguishing accidental ignition from deliberate arson has become an increasingly urgent part of fire response — not just for prosecuting individual cases, but for understanding how much of the growing wildfire toll is preventable.

[…]

Via https://www.insnet.org/when-forest-fire-isnt-an-accident-but-arson/

US Reveals It Has Weapons in Space

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US reveals it has weapons in space
FILE PHOTO: A rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying two satellites on the classified US Space Force USSF-106 mission in 2025. ©  Manuel Mazzanti / NurPhoto via Getty Images

RT

15 Sep, 2026 

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the deployment was aimed at deterring America’s adversaries

The US has for the first time acknowledged that it has weapons in space amid ongoing tensions with Russia and China.

US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink revealed the deployment on Monday during the opening of the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference at National Harbor in Maryland.

“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenge of evolving threats wherever they exist,” Meink said in a keynote address.

“This is why the Space Force now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” he said, without elaborating. “It’s important from a deterrence perspective,” he added.

During a question-and-answer session, Meink declined to go into detail, stressing that the phrasing of his remarks was “very well thought out.”

“It is critically important that we maintain our dominance, not only in the air but in space,” he said, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Washington Post quoted a US official as saying that the technology mentioned by Meink could include the ability to “take out” an enemy satellite if it were being used to target American troops or a US satellite.

There is no international ban on deploying weapons in space, provided they are not weapons of mass destruction.

US President Donald Trump established the Space Force in 2019 during his first term in office, describing space as “the world’s newest warfighting domain.” Last year, he unveiled plans for Golden Dome, a multilayered missile-defense system designed to protect the entire United States which includes space-based interceptors.

The project echoes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), dubbed Star Wars, launched by US President Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War in 1983. Reagan’s ambitious program was later scaled back and ultimately abandoned without its proposed space-based weapons being deployed.

In March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned what he described as “the militarization of space” and argued that the Golden Dome “poses a significant threat to strategic stability.”

Since the 2000s, the US, China, India and Russia have tested anti-satellite weapons. In November 2021, the Russian military successfully destroyed a decommissioned Soviet-era spy satellite. The Russian Foreign Ministry said at the time that the operation was conducted in strict accordance with international law and was not directed against any particular country.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/news/645740-us-weapons-space-force/

Leaked Data Show Israel Documented HUNDREDS of COVID Shot-Linked Deaths and Hospitalizations—But Public Never Told Full Story

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Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

From Israel to the FDA, major COVID-19 “vaccine” safety signals were documented internally while the public was never given the full picture.

Nearly half of all hospitalization reports involved myocarditis or pericarditis. Among people under 30, that figure surged to 151 of 211 (71.6%), including 48 patients under 18.

But the most important revelation was how early Israeli authorities had this information. By March 25, 2021, barely three months into the vaccine rollout, Israel had already reported to Pfizer 46 deaths, 157 hospitalizations, and 65 myocarditis/pericarditis cases. These were not retrospective estimates assembled years later; they came from an operational Ministry of Health pharmacovigilance dataset used to document serious events considered relevant enough to report directly to the manufacturer. The median reported interval from vaccination to death was just 3 days.

The Public Was Told a Different Story

Israel had already alerted the CDC and European Medicines Agency to approximately 40 myocarditis cases by the end of February 2021. By March 25, the internal records contained the 46 deaths, 157 hospitalizations, and 65 myocarditis/pericarditis reports described above. Yet the study reconstructs a delay of roughly three to four months before the myocarditis signal was meaningfully communicated to clinicians and the public.

When the risk was finally acknowledged, the public messaging emphasized that myocarditis was “rare,” “mild,” and transient and that vaccination benefits outweighed the risks. That characterization was fraudulent given their internal record containing hundreds of serious hospitalizations, severe cardiac injury, and deaths.

The U.S. Was Covering-Up Major Safety Signals at the Same Time

The Israeli records are even more significant when viewed alongside what a 2026 U.S. Senate investigation uncovered inside the FDA.

BREAKING: Senate Investigation Finds FDA Officials Covered-Up 25 COVID Shot Safety Signals

FDA senior medical officer Dr. Ana Szarfman and statistician Dr. William DuMouchel applied an upgraded data-mining method to VAERS in early 2021 that identified 49 examples of extreme masking and roughly 25 statistically significant safety signals that the agency’s standard method had missed. Those signals included sudden cardiac death, acute myocardial infarction, pulmonary infarction, thrombosis/embolism, Bell’s palsy, dementia, and “death and sudden death.”

The Senate report says Szarfman was circulating these findings to senior FDA officials in March, April, May, and July 2021. Internal communications cited in the investigation show that officials told her to “hold off” on generating and distributing further reports, described the work as a “major distraction,” and expressed concern that conflicting safety findings could feed into “anti-vaccination rhetoric.” She was ultimately ordered to “cease and desist.”

So in essentially the same early-2021 window, Israeli authorities were documenting deaths, hospitalizations, and a major myocarditis signal while FDA analysts in the United States were independently uncovering serious cardiac, thrombotic, neurological, and mortality signals.

Two Countries, the Same Pattern

In Israel, the Ministry of Health documented deaths, severe cardiac events, and hundreds of hospitalizations and reported them to Pfizer, while the eventual public messaging falsely claimed that myocarditis was rare and mild.

In the United States, an FDA analyst uncovered previously obscured signals involving sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction, thrombosis, and mortality—and senior officials then told her to cease and desist.

Taken together, this confirms that the most serious vaccine-safety information was known internally, tempered publicly, and withheld from the risk narrative presented to patients and physicians across the globe.

Via https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/breaking-leaked-data-show-israel

Rep. Thomas Massie Introduces Resolution To Impeach Pete Hegseth Over Iran War, Civilian Casualties

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth finishes the installation of a Department of War plaque at the River Entrance in front of the Pentagon, Washington, DC, November 13, 2025 (DoW photo by US Air Force Staff Sgt. Madelyn Keech)

By Dave DeCamp | September 15, 2026

The articles of impeachment also detail Hegseth’s role in the boat strikes, attack on Venezuela, the US bombing campaign in Yemen, and his efforts to chill speech.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Tuesday introduced a resolution to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, referred to by the Trump administration as the Secretary of War, for “high crimes and misdemeanors” over the war with Iran and other unauthorized conflicts, military operations, and large numbers of civilian casualties that he has overseen.

Massie unveiled eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, which he read on the House floor, and a vote is expected Thursday. Among the charges, Massie said that Hegseth is in violation of the 1973 War Powers Act by continuing the war with Iran without congressional authorization, which is outlined in the first three articles of impeachment.

“By engaging in hostilities in Iran for more than 90 days without congressional authorization, Secretary Hegseth is breaking the law and must be held accountable,” Massie said in a press release on the impeachment effort.

“Secretary Hegseth’s constitutional violations extend beyond the illegal war in Iran. He is abusing the power of his office to ignore congressional war powers resolutions, to kidnap foreign leaders, and to intimidate critics of the Trump administration by retaliating against them for exercising free speech. If we are to remain true to our oath to ‘support and defend the Constitution of the United States,’ Congress must not turn a blind eye to Secretary Hegseth’s unconstitutional and illegal actions,” Massie added.

Article IV details how Hegseth has ignored US laws meant to minimize civilian casualties, and references the February 28 US strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, southern Iran, which killed at least 156 civilians, including 120 children.

“The elementary school was struck after Secretary Hegseth sought to repeal congressionally mandated civilian-protection requirements, dismantled the Department’s civilian-harm mitigation infrastructure, removed the senior-most Judge Advocates General responsible for independent legal oversight, stripped civilian protection from the National Defense Strategy, and publicly denigrated legal restraints on military force as obstacles to ‘maximum lethality,’” the resolution reads.

Article V, titled “Extrajudicial Killings,” details Hegseth’s role in overseeing the bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, which has killed more than 200 people since it began last year.

“By subjecting persons merely suspected of criminal conduct to lethal military force without judicial process, without Congressional authorization, and without establishing a lawful basis for treating such persons or vessels as military targets, Secretary Hegseth arrogated to himself and the Executive Branch the roles of judge, jury, and executioner and asserted a unilateral power to determine who may live and who may die,” the resolution reads.

Article VI addresses Hegseth’s efforts to chill the constitutionally protected speech of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who faced retaliation from Hegseth after releasing a video telling members of the US military that they can “refuse illegal orders.”

Article VII, titled “Kidnapping of a Sovereign Foreign Leader,” deals with the US attack on Venezuela to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The resolution describes the attack as “an act of war against a sovereign country executed under the guise of narcotics law enforcement, though in actuality intended to assert US control over Venezuela’s oil reserves.”

The final article addresses the US’s bombing campaign in Yemen that began on March 15, 2025, and concluded on May 6 of that year. The resolution states that the “unlawful war in Yemen” violated the Constitution and the War Powers Act since it wasn’t authorized by Congress, and there was no imminent threat facing the US or its forces, which was made clear by a leaked Signal chat that showed discussions between Hegseth and other senior US officials.

In the chat, Hegseth himself said that he could “easily pause” the plans to strike Yemen before the bombing campaign began. “Thus, Secretary Hegseth knew there was no imminent threat to the United States, its territories or possessions, or its Armed Forces,” the resolution states.

The article also notes the large number of civilian casualties, with at least 224 estimated to be killed. The bombing campaign included two large-scale massacres of civilians, including the bombing of the Ras Isa fuel port in Hodeidah, which killed 84 civilians, and strikes on a migrant detention facility that killed 68 African migrants.

“Wherefore, Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to civilians, the lawful conduct of United States military operations, the integrity and credibility of the United States Armed Forces, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law,” the resolution states. “Peter Brian Hegseth thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”

[…]

Va https://news.antiwar.com/2026/09/15/rep-thomas-massie-introduces-resolution-to-impeach-pete-hegseth-over-iran-war-civilian-casualties/

Measles Transmission by Vaccinated Documented in Medical Literature

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by Amber Baker

 

A new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the peer reviewed medical literature confirmed that people who have received measles-containing vaccines can become infected with measles and transmit the infection to others, contributing to measles outbreaks around the world. The study, which was published Aug. 14, 2026 in

Gray literature refers to information, which is unpublished or only available through specialized channels, such as public health agencies, private labs or other entities. Usually, gray literature has not been published in academic medical journals or other publications by commercial publishers.2

The researchers ultimately included 33 studies and reports related to cases of measles transmission in the review and analysis. Among the 890 vaccinated measles cases represented in the included studies, 70 (7.9 percent) transmitted measles to others, producing 237 direct secondary cases. Additionally, 22 of the 70 transmitters (31.4 percent) had received two or more doses of measles-containing vaccine (including some who had received three doses).3

One study that used measles case surveillance data in the Netherlands compared MMR vaccinated cases that transmitted measles compared to vaccinated cases that did not. Most of the cases of measles were transmitted by vaccinated individuals who had received only one dose of MMR vaccine. Vaccine effectiveness against “measles infectiousness” was found to be 10 percent for one dose of vaccine and 61 percent for at least two doses of MMR vaccine.

The finding is notable given that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says two doses should “protect people for life against measles” (see below)*  and that two doses are more effective against measles than one dose,4 adding that the second dose may provide more immunity for those who do not respond to the first dose. The CDC states on its website “Of those who do not respond to the first dose of the measles component of MMR or varicella vaccine, 97%–99% respond to a second dose.”5

Measles Transmission by MMR Vaccinated Individuals Documented in 18 Countries

Transmission of measles by people who had received MMR vaccine was documented in 18 countries, including countries where measles is considered to be endemic, but also in countries where public health officials considered transmission interrupted or declared measles transmission had been eliminated by high uptake of MMR vaccine. Measles transmission by vaccinated persons was found to have occurred in health care facilities, schools, and community settings, including some reported exposures involving brief encounters or no direct contact at all.6

“Transmissions occurred in healthcare facilities, schools, and various community settings, where children who are not vaccinated or immunocompromised individuals may be focused, potentially raising the risk of transmission,” the study states.

Measles transmissions from vaccinated cases, although relatively uncommon, must be considered in public health investigations, as such transmissions can contribute to outbreaks.7

Despite 35-Year High in Measles Cases, Measles Deaths Remain Rare in U.S.

According to mainstream media reports, measles cases have climbed in the U.S. in recent years, reaching a 35-year high in 2026.8 The CDC states that one to three of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory or neurologic complications.9 However, the CDC’s own surveillance data shows a lower mortality rate among reported U.S. measles cases across all age groups in recent decades.10

According to the CDC, among 4,056 measles cases reported in the United States between 2001 and 2022, three deaths were reported, amounting to approximately 0.74 deaths per 1,000 reported measles cases across all age groups during the 22-year period.11 Twelve years passed between 2003 and 2015 without a single reported measles death. According to news reports, the adult woman who died with measles in 2015 had underlying health conditions and a suppressed immune system due to medications she was taking.12

There were no reported U.S. measles deaths between 2016 and 2024, followed by three reported deaths in 2025. As of Sept. 4, 2026, the CDC stated that the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) “does not currently have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause.13

CDC Measles Data Groups Unvaccinated Cases with Unknown Vaccination Status

Mainstream media outlets historically have blamed measles outbreaks on unvaccinated individuals. However, the CDC’s public reporting of measles cases and outbreaks combines cases reported as unvaccinated with cases for which “vaccination status is unknown.” An “unknown” vaccination status does not mean a person was unvaccinated.

Combining the “unvaccinated” and “unknown vaccination status” categories, therefore, does not confirm the number of measles cases occurring among unvaccinated people. Reporting of measles case information is misleading and skews public perception when the combined figure is repeated in the media without specifying what proportion of cases had an unknown vaccination history. Thus, the combined “unvaccinated or unknown” figure alone cannot reliably support claims that measles outbreaks are occurring exclusively among, or are exclusively attributable to, unvaccinated people.14

“Whenever the Public Health Empire gets worried that people are losing their fear of contagion, suddenly cases of an infectious disease pop up and we are told that unless everyone gets vaccinated, death is only a sneeze at the check-out counter or a plane ride away,” said National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) co-founder and president Barbara Loe Fisher, a longtime vaccine safety and informed consent advocate and co-author of the 1985 book DPT: A Shot in the Dark.15 She added:

There has been no constructive self-reflection by government health officials and their vaccine industry partners examining the possibility that the public, especially parents of young children, have rational reasons for being concerned. Instead, yet another knee- jerk ‘it’s the fault of the anti-vaxxers’ campaign has been trotted out.16

Vaccinated People Spreading Measles Experience Milder Symptoms, Raising Concerns About Underreporting

Reporting by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) on the newly published study that the vaccinated can spread measles and contribute to measles outbreaks noted that, “The most common symptoms among the 19 transmitters with symptom information were rash (16 people), fever (11) and cough (11). Most vaccinated people who spread measles experienced milder symptoms and a shorter illness than those who weren’t vaccinated. Most often, cough, breathing, or talking likely caused measles to spread.”17

The measles transmission study found that only seven of the 19 vaccinated transmitters (36.8 percent) for whom symptom information was available met the World Health Organization (WHO) clinical case definition for measles, while only one (5.3 percent) exhibited all five classic measles symptoms: cough, coryza (common cold), conjunctivitis, fever, and rash. The authors pointed out that vaccinated cases, particularly those experiencing secondary vaccine failure, often experience milder measles symptoms, and concluded that transmission from vaccinated cases “must be considered in public health investigations” because such transmission can contribute to outbreaks.18

*Ed. This is a blatant lie. More than 10 years of research reveals measles vaccine provides immunity against measles for 6-10 years. See https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/measles-vaccine-protection-wanes-after-decade-2025a1000wuq 

[…]

Via https://thevaccinereaction.org/2026/09/measles-transmission-by-vaccinated-people-documented-in-medical-literature/

CHD Petitions FDA to Ban Tylenol for Infants, Add Autism Warnings to Acetaminophen Products for Children Under 6

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FDA and tylenol

by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
August 13, 2026

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban over-the-counter Infants’ Tylenol from the market and require boxed warnings on acetaminophen products for children under 6.

CHD on Monday filed a Citizen Petition with the FDA, arguing that growing scientific evidence links Tylenol to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). CHD is urging the public to submit comments on the petition.

“To be blunt, for infants and young children, there is no safe dose of Tylenol products and, most particularly, there is no safe dose for neonates and infants under two,” the petition said.

Despite evidence of harm, “parents and doctors are not warned that Tylenol products pose a risk of ASD for infants and young children who take the drug even when administered in the recommended dosage,” the petition states.

The CHD petition outlines the science behind the claim that a significant portion of autism cases are the result of a chemically induced injury caused by exposure to acetaminophen in infancy and early childhood in children who are biologically susceptible because of genetic, metabolic or environmental factors affecting how they process the drug.

CHD is calling on the FDA to:

  • Ban over-the-counter Infants’ Tylenol and similar acetaminophen products containing acetaminophen.
  • Require boxed warnings on acetaminophen products intended for children younger than 6 warning of autism risk.
  • Require boxed warnings advising against acetaminophen use during labor and delivery.

“Boxed warnings” are the FDA’s most serious warning label, used to indicate that a drug is associated with a serious hazard, often including death or life-threatening reactions.

“The evidence regarding neurological damage done by perinatal and postnatal use of acetaminophen is very clear as is a strong relationship with autism incidence, especially when used following vaccine administration,” CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker, one of the petition’s signatories, said.

“Acetaminophen has never been appropriately tested for neurological harm in infants and small children and many of these individuals lack the capacity to appropriately detoxify this very widely used over-the-counter drug.”

A Citizen Petition is a formal request to the FDA to take regulatory action. Citizen Petitions, typically submitted by an organization, require extensive documentation of the issue and the legal basis for the claim.

Read the full petition and cover letter here.

Babies have reduced ability to detoxify acetaminophen

Acetaminophen, the ingredient found in hundreds of prescription and over-the-counter medicines — including Tylenol products — is routinely recommended for fever reduction and the relief of mild to moderate pain.

Pregnant women commonly take it, and it is often given to young children.

Although it is often given to children under age 2, Tylenol doesn’t provide a recommended dosage, instead directing consumers to ask their doctor. “This sets up a dangerous scenario for potential overdosing since a prescription is not necessary for purchase,” the petition stated.

More than 600 prescription and over-the-counter medications contain acetaminophen, according to the FDA.

The drug has long been linked to liver toxicity, and several studies over the last decade — including one published last year by researchers at Harvard Medical School — have found that children exposed to the drug during pregnancy may be more likely to develop neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

The Citizen Petition to the FDA incorporated research by William Parker, Ph.D., who worked as a researcher at Duke University for decades and today heads the WPLab.

Parker has spent more than a decade studying the effect of acetaminophen combined with oxidative stress on neurodevelopment, and published that research in top journals. He is the author of “Tylenol and Autism: Evidence, Scientific Blunders, and Medicine Gone Wrong.”

Parker’s research has shown that newborns and young infants have immature metabolic pathways that reduce their ability to detoxify acetaminophen, potentially increasing production of a toxic liver byproduct known as NAPQI. This biological vulnerability is greatest shortly after birth and gradually decreases until about age 6.

The petition describes “31 lines of evidence,” which, taken together, support that conclusion.

The evidence includes studies of acetaminophen metabolism, animal experiments, epidemiologic research and clinical observations that CHD says collectively demonstrate a causal relationship between acetaminophen exposure and autism.

According to the petition, existing warnings focus primarily on liver toxicity while failing to inform parents and healthcare providers about what the petitioners describe as neurodevelopmental risks.

President Donald Trump warned last year that pregnant women should not take Tylenol, and the FDA announced that it will add safety warnings to labels on products containing acetaminophen. Those warnings have not been implemented.

The key difference in this petition is that it doesn’t focus on pregnancy. The petition argues for labeling that distinguishes between prenatal exposure and exposure after birth.

According to the petition, many studies report associations between frequent acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism. However, the greatest risk occurs after delivery, when newborns no longer benefit from maternal metabolism of the drug and have limited ability to process it themselves.

‘Scientific blunders’ obscured connection between Tylenol and autism

The authors also criticize several recent epidemiological studies that found little or no association between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and autism after statistical adjustment.

They argue those analyses improperly treated biological factors related to oxidative stress as confounding variables rather than part of the mechanism by which acetaminophen could contribute to autism risk.

Parker told The Defender the petition “deals very incisively with key scientific blunders responsible for obscuring the connection between acetaminophen and autism in the minds of many.”

Until now, a single line of evidence the petition calls “easily misconstrued” — one that concluded no risk between acetaminophen use in pregnancy and ASD — has dominated the discussion about the drug’s link to autism overall.

The petition provides an extensive analysis of errors in that line of thinking, and outlines countervailing evidence from many other studies that the petitioners argue provide sufficient evidence for concern.

CHD contends that waiting for definitive randomized clinical trials would be both impractical and unethical because, if the petition’s interpretation of the evidence is correct, intentionally exposing infants to the drug would pose unacceptable risks.

Instead, CHD urges regulators to apply the precautionary principle and act before definitive proof of causation becomes available.

The FDA will review the petition and determine whether regulatory action is warranted based on the available scientific evidence. It must typically respond within 150-180 days.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 31 U.S. children born in 2014 were diagnosed with ASD in 2022, and the numbers are rising dramatically.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/chd-petitions-fda-to-ban-tylenol-infants-add-autism-warnings-acetaminophen-products-children-under-6/?utm_id=20260816

How the Heroin Trade Explains the US-UK Failure in Afghanistan

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By Prof Alfred McCoy
9 January, 2018

Western intervention has resulted in Afghanistan becoming the world’s first true narco-state

After fighting the longest war in its history, the US stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan.

How could this be possible? How could the world’s sole superpower have battled continuously for more than 16 years – deploying more than 100,000 troops at the conflict’s peak, sacrificing the lives of nearly 2,300 soldiers, spending more than $1tn (£740bn) on its military operations, lavishing a record $100bn more on “nation-building”, helping fund and train an army of 350,000 Afghan allies – and still not be able to pacify one of the world’s most impoverished nations? So dismal is the prospect of stability in Afghanistan that, in 2016, the Obama White House cancelled a planned withdrawal of its forces, ordering more than 8,000 troops to remain in the country indefinitely.

In the American failure lies a paradox: Washington’s massive military juggernaut has been stopped in its steel tracks by a small pink flower – the opium poppy. Throughout its three decades in Afghanistan, Washington’s military operations have succeeded only when they fit reasonably comfortably into central Asia’s illicit traffic in opium – and suffered when they failed to complement it.

It was during the cold war that the US first intervened in Afghanistan, backing Muslim militants who were fighting to expel the Soviet Red Army. In December 1979, the Soviets occupied Kabul in order to shore up their failing client regime; Washington, still wounded by the fall of Saigon four years earlier, decided to give Moscow its “own Vietnam” by backing the Islamic resistance. For the next 10 years, the CIA would provide the mujahideen guerrillas with an estimated $3bn in arms. These funds, along with an expanding opium harvest, would sustain the Afghan resistance for the decade it would take to force a Soviet withdrawal. One reason the US strategy succeeded was that the surrogate war launched by the CIA did not disrupt the way its Afghan allies used the country’s swelling drug traffic to sustain their decade-long struggle.

Despite almost continuous combat since the invasion of October 2001, pacification efforts have failed to curtail the Taliban insurgency, largely because the US simply could not control the swelling surplus from the country’s heroin trade. Its opium production surged from around 180 tonnes in 2001 to more than 3,000 tonnes a year after the invasion, and to more than 8,000 by 2007. Every spring, the opium harvest fills the Taliban’s coffers once again, funding wages for a new crop of guerrilla fighters.

At each stage in its tragic, tumultuous history over the past 40 years – the covert war of the 1980s, the civil war of the 90s and its post-2001 occupation – opium has played a central role in shaping the country’s destiny. In one of history’s bitter ironies, Afghanistan’s unique ecology converged with American military technology to transform this remote, landlocked nation into the world’s first true narco-state – a country where illicit drugs dominate the economy, define political choices and determine the fate of foreign interventions.

During the 1980s, the CIA’s secret war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan helped transform the Afghani-Pakistani borderlands into a launchpad for the global heroin trade. “In the tribal area,” the US state department reported in 1986, “there is no police force. There are no courts. There is no taxation. No weapon is illegal … Hashish and opium are often on display.” By then, the process of guerrilla mobilisation to fight the Soviet occupation was long under way. Instead of forming its own coalition of resistance leaders, the CIA had relied on Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) and its Afghan clients, who soon became key players in the burgeoning cross-border opium traffic.

The CIA looked the other way while Afghanistan’s opium production grew from about 100 tonnes annually in the 1970s to 2,000 tonnes by 1991. In 1979 and 1980, just as the CIA effort was beginning to ramp up, a network of heroin laboratories opened along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. That region soon became the world’s largest heroin producer.

By 1984, it supplied a staggering 60% of the US market and 80% of the European.

Inside Pakistan, the number of heroin addicts surged from near zero (yes, zero) in 1979 to 5,000 in 1980, and 1.3 million by 1985 – a rate of addiction so high the UN termed it “particularly shocking”.

Click here to read the full article on The Guardian. (published in 2018)

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/heroin-trade-explains-us-uk-failure-afghanistan/5940045

American Empire Collapsing “At 250 Years Young” Under Trumpism

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By Helena Glass
September 14, 2026

What is going to happen to the American Empire when there are no cab drivers, no uber drivers, no laborers, no renters, no construction workers or warehouse workers, no data center laborers?

When people wake up and realize their hatred has caused US economic inflation to hit 150%? When Trump ships legal visa holders to a foreign country that isn’t theirs?

And the anger spills within America, across our borders, and across foreign borders? When hatred for Americans becomes a global phenomenon on par with Zionism? What do we do?

Snatching away approved visas is illegal.

Universities empty.

Infrastructure repairs come to a standstill.

Apartments are vacant.

Landlords declare bankruptcy.

Buildings taken over by the homeless that now number 3 million instead of 750,000. The first time I became aware of the ‘spillover effect’ was in the collapse of housing in the eighties and the domino effect was brutal! And fast!

Trump has ignored calls from Saudi Arabia’s bin Salman for help as a result of Houthis reciprocating the Saudi bombing of Yemen.

Qatar has already turned to the BRICS.

Bahrain and Kuwait are getting clobbered as US proxies acting on orders of Trump’s regime to take the hits. Little to no oil is getting out of the Middle East.

The Saudi pipeline was bombed and disabled. The Houthis control the Red Sea. And Trump is calling it a win-win. Just not for America.

Diesel is now $10 a gallon in California. Home of the highest gas prices – also home of agriculture truckers who are going to have to pass the 150% inflation onto consumers. That red pepper I now pay $2.69 for one will be $6 if any are available. And I am not in California.

Those beef, poultry and pork prices Trump touted a week ago were labor day specials.  I personally bought a $9.76 package of chicken tenderloins for $2.75. Reality returned and beef is back to $7 per lb, chicken and pork following. How can people actually still believe the MAGA lies while simultaneously crying because they can’t buy groceries? Our utility company has announced a near 9% increase effective October. Property taxes are now 2/3+ school fees. And Trump claims he has fulfilled every campaign promise? What is this bombast?

On Trump’s Truth Social version of Twitter – we are now privy to MAGA’s blocking persons, including me, for providing evidence of truth! Most recently, specifically, the fact that Buddha did not discriminate against women… The world is so spectacularly bizarre that truth needs to be blocked in order to invoke full totalitarian censorship; all while calling America and Trump the most transparent. Musk’s backing of this failed dictator will not be well received, which opens the conversation – how complicit is Musk in Trump’s nefarious Epstein conduct, and how does that impact Musk’s raising of his own children?

A fair question in the era of Ba’al and child sacrifice. Simultaneously opening the query – where are Chelsea Clinton’s children who have not been pictured for over 7-10 years? Where are Erika Kirk’s children?

In the land of illusion, ICE is physically harming civilians.

In 2025, 33 people died in ICE detention. As of September 26 an additional 26 have died in ICE detention. There is zero medical oversight of detention centers.  Some die by ‘suicide’ according to the bully-club wielding taser gloved ICE militias. Their cause not investigated, their bodies not examined by a coroner.  Their next of kin threatened from speaking.

America is thus being run as a mafia state of illegality and fraud beyond the conventional thugs of the 1920’s.

Today it is a corporate Peter Thiel extravaganza in which his tech partners vie for the absolute control of the DoD, Treasury and State Department. The Trilogy of Satanic Power. All other agencies worthless pawns allowed to squander and pillage without circumstance.

The $24 Polymarket in a $1.598 world. Will Iran win? The non-Persian countries of the Middle East have made a monumental strategic error. They did not support their brothers. Giving the appearance – that they are not truly Islam but are yet another faction of Israeli Zionism. An illusion. In this regard, Saudi Arabia and Bin Salman sit front and center. Is the house of Saud rooted in Judaism? According to the Jerusalem Post, the Saudi Royals are descendants of Jews.

Thus, upending the entirety of the Muslim Middle East. Bearing examination in the aftermath of WWI wherein the Middle East was created.

And extending such a supposition to make sense in the alliances of today as well as the 9-11 theories vs illusions of the dancing Israelis.

Bin Salman chose Trump as his Israeli aligned allegiance. Amidst promises and pretenses and pinky swears. Money was the leverage, wealth imaginable and uninterrupted peace.

That changed. Bin Salman was ‘left behind’. A reckoning. Why neither King Salman or Prince Salman saw the deception will be the fodder of history in future centuries to come. Because they are instrumental. And not in a good way.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/american-empire-collapsing-250-years-young-under-trumpism/5940353

Gold, silver prices crash up to 2% on MCX: Why bullion is falling and what traders should watch

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Gold, silver prices crash up to 2% on MCX: Why bullion is falling and what traders should watch

By Shweta Birendra Shukla

Gold and silver prices fall sharply on MCX as hotter US inflation, rising crude oil prices and the upcoming Fed policy meeting weigh on bullion.

Gold and silver prices fall sharply on MCX ahead of the US Fed policy meeting amid rising inflation and crude oil prices.

Gold Price Today: Gold and silver prices came under sharp selling pressure on Monday, September 14, as weak global cues, rising crude oil prices and growing uncertainty ahead of key central bank meetings weighed on bullion.

MCX gold October futures fell 1.19 per cent to Rs 1,50,973 per 10 grams, while MCX silver December contracts declined 1.70 per cent to Rs 2,31,000 per kg around 5:15 pm. The domestic commodity market had remained closed during the first half of the session due to Ganesh Chaturthi.

The weakness was not limited to Indian markets. International gold prices also declined as investors assessed the outlook for US interest rates following hotter-than-expected inflation data.

Why are gold and silver prices falling?

A key trigger for the sell-off is the US inflation picture.

US gold futures for December delivery fell more than 2 per cent over two consecutive sessions, touching $4,317.95 per troy ounce, after US consumer price inflation came in above expectations.

US CPI rose 3.4 per cent year-on-year in August and increased 0.3 per cent month-on-month. The numbers have raised concerns that the US Federal Reserve could maintain a tighter monetary stance to contain inflation.

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, also remains well above its 2 per cent long-term target. PCE inflation increased 3.7 per cent year-on-year in July and has remained above the Fed’s target for 65 consecutive months.

For bullion investors, higher interest rates can make gold less attractive because the precious metal does not pay interest. Higher US rates can also support the dollar and bond yields, creating additional pressure on gold and silver.

Crude oil adds another worry

Rising crude oil prices have added to concerns about inflation.

Brent crude jumped nearly 4 per cent to trade above $108 a barrel after fresh geopolitical developments, including Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and Iranian attacks on ships in the Gulf.

Higher oil prices can push up inflation because crude is an important input for transportation, manufacturing and several other parts of the economy. If inflation stays high, investors may expect central banks to be less aggressive in cutting interest rates.

This combination of crude price volatility, the dollar and interest-rate expectations is likely to keep precious metals volatile.

Fed, BOJ meetings in focus

Commodity traders will now closely track the US Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting and the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy meeting later this week.

According to Manoj Kumar Jain, Director and Head of Commodity Research at Prithvi Finmart Pvt Ltd, movements in crude oil, the dollar index and the upcoming Fed and BOJ meetings could determine the direction of gold and silver.

[…]

Via https://www.zeebiz.com/markets/commodities/news-gold-silver-prices-crash-up-to-2-on-mcx-why-bullion-is-falling-and-what-traders-should-watch-402177

The West is watching the wrong Ukrainian collapse

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The West is watching the wrong Ukrainian collapse
©  Niall Carson / PA Images via Getty Images

 

By Sergey Poletaev

Last weekend, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and then Kiev. This was the first such visit in a long time, since all trilateral contacts between Russia, the US, and Ukraine were practically halted following the start of the conflict in Iran this February.

Following the visit, leaks regarding the talks emerged from Kiev; reportedly, the US envoys presented the Ukrainian side with a 28-point Russian peace plan that had been agreed upon a year earlier. Jared Kushner indirectly confirmed this on Saturday, stating that the territorial issue was the only point of the peace plan that remained unresolved.

Is it true that Ukraine accepted all the other fundamental demands of the Russian side – such as the points concerning the Russian language and the status of the Orthodox Church, the renunciation of military cooperation with NATO, the recognition of territorial changes, the reduction of the army, and so on? (Spoiler: no, it didn’t.)

Is Ukraine really losing the war, as many recent statements and publications suggest? Spoiler: yes, but not in the way you’d think.

Let’s take a look at what this means.

Shuttle diplomacy

The peace talks involving Steve Witkoff began in February-March 2025, shortly after a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump that signaled a fundamental shift in US policy toward Russia and the Ukraine conflict.

Trump’s top priority was to avoid direct involvement, positioning America – as far as possible – at an equal distance from the parties. Of course, to truly achieve this, the conflict would have to be frozen; this would allow the US to restore relations with Russia, counterbalancing China.

Naturally, freezing the conflict (or, in Trump’s words, ending the war in one day) proved impossible; consequently, the US made the most out of the situation as the war dragged on: it shifted the entire burden onto Europe and stepped aside. This strategy allowed the US to maintain working contacts with Russia, reap maximum benefits from the ongoing fighting, and insulate itself from the risks of Ukraine’s potential defeat while still keeping the door open to capitalize on Ukraine’s hypothetical victory over Russia.

In short, Trump decided to sit on the sidelines and watch who would emerge victorious.

For Moscow, too, contacts with Washington are incredibly valuable. It proved impossible to decouple Russia-US relations from the Ukraine issue, and relations between the two countries have effectively remained frozen. Yet the fact that the US is disengaging from the Ukraine conflict – and, more broadly, from European affairs – deprives Europe of confidence in US backing and consequently strips it of strategic depth.

The flip side of this maneuver is that the US has effectively relinquished its decisive say regarding Ukraine. Putin and Trump could reach any agreement whatsoever, but Ukraine is now entirely dependent on Europe. This means that it is Europe that will ultimately determine the final terms. As a Russian saying goes, “He who pays for the girl’s dinner gets to dance with her.”

Surely, Trump could exert pressure on all sides, but why bother? He is essentially satisfied with the current situation and needs nothing more from Moscow. So he has simply let things run their course.

Kiev is well aware of this, which is why Ukrainian officials play along with US envoys. Though direct opposition is out of the question – after all, they still need American missile defense systems – they can avoid any action and buy time. And that’s precisely what Kiev is doing.

The fact that Zelensky visited Canada last week but not the US clearly shows that Kiev no longer sees Washington as the primary center of decision-making. Consequently, the negotiation track involving Witkoff and Kushner is seen by the Ukrainian side as little more than a mandatory part of the show.

Is Ukraine losing? Yes, but not in the way you might think

On September 8, British magazine The Spectator published an editorial titled ‘Ukraine is losing the war’. A week before, several prominent Ukrainian figures – including former Defense Minister Mikhail Fyodorov and the current head of Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov – had expressed similar sentiments.

At first glance, this may sound reasonable: the AFU’s deep-strike campaign against Russian infrastructure wasn’t successful, and the summer offensive on the southern front, which is crucial for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), has de facto failed.

Moreover, Ukraine was unprepared for retaliatory strikes targeting port facilities, logistics, energy infrastructure, and transport networks. This confirmed what experts had been saying for over a year: Ukraine’s air defense systems, which are entirely dependent on US supplies and severely depleted, could barely cope with the previous intensity of air raids; now they can shoot down one ballistic missile out of a dozen, at best. This has made it possible for the Russian Army to launch massive attacks on the Ukrainian rear.

Of course, massive raids by Ukrainian drones and, occasionally, cruise missiles also inflict damage on the Russian rear. This summer was marked by a gasoline shortage and long lines at gas stations. Dozens of warehouses in the European part of Russia are in flames, and other targets are under attack as well.

However, the scale of these attacks is incomparable: by various estimates, the AFU managed to disable up to 3% of Russia’s warehouse storage capacity, whereas Russia has disabled between 30% and 60% of Ukraine’s capacity. Ukrainian experts admit that the strikes on Odessa port have had a far greater impact on Ukraine’s fuel logistics than Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries.

For instance, the price of diesel fuel in Ukraine has topped 100 hryvnias, which is nearly three times the cost in Russia. For the first time since the start of the conflict, fuel rationing is being introduced for the AFU (no such measures have ever been implemented for the Russian Armed Forces).

Russian strikes have effectively halted Ukrainian grain exports by sea, depriving the national budget of a key revenue stream. Retail businesses are closing en masse, undermining what is arguably the economy’s last remaining civilian sector.

This looks like an obvious reason why Ukraine is losing the war. So does this mean that all those hysterical reports and articles are actually true?

Not quite. I would venture to say that all the above-mentioned factors are merely temporary difficulties to which Ukraine can adapt, and which have little impact on the situation at the front. It’s true that there is a gaping hole worth tens of billions of dollars in the Ukrainian budget; likewise, it’s true that the civilian population will face a harsh winter; and yes, what remains of the energy and industrial sectors is under constant attack.

But all this means that the additional financial burden will fall on Europe’s shoulders, while the civilian sector and the state’s capacity to fulfill social obligations will continue to deteriorate; the people will be left to their fate.

All this will affect not only ordinary citizens but entrepreneurs as well. Ukrainian businesses, which largely supported the Kiev regime and the war simply because there were no other options (given that their future was directly tied to that of the central government), are also being left to fend for themselves.

The central tension in Ukrainian society right now is the smoldering civil conflict between Territorial Centers of Recruitment (TCRs) and the men who are being conscripted by force. The destruction of the civilian economy is likely to spawn similar scenarios: bankrupt entrepreneurs, an impoverished middle class, and the unemployed will all see that the Ukrainian state is doing them more harm than good. As a result, the state itself, and not just state-controlled TCRs, will become the enemy.

One might argue that as opportunities and funds in the civilian sector decline, the military sector becomes more attractive. However, there are no new opportunities in military production and logistics (after all, Ukraine has no money), and fewer people are willing to die on the front lines.

All of this will lead to an even greater disconnect between the Ukrainian state and society. And a state severed from society is essentially a military organization. History offers us many such examples, the most recent being ISIS.

A military organization that lacks the support of civil society cannot hold the front line, especially one stretching 1,500 kilometers. There are no historical precedents for this.

A collapse of the front would mean the end of Ukraine in its current form. Kiev understands this perfectly well, which is why it undertakes superhuman efforts to hold the line – even at the cost of a smoldering civil war on the home front.

***

The detachment of the Ukrainian state from society did not begin yesterday. It started the moment the Ukrainian authorities placed the interests of their Western masters above those of their country.

As winter approaches, Ukraine again finds itself at a crossroads. And it appears to be once again choosing the path of war, a path that it’s being desperately pushed onto by Europe’s anti-Russia coalition.

That is precisely why Witkoff and Kushner left Kiev empty-handed, and why the war will continue – first until the Kiev regime is completely severed from Ukraine, and then until that regime is utterly destroyed.

If you need an example, just look at ISIS.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/russia/645729-west-is-watching-wrong-ukrainian-collapse/