Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.
An armed Hamas resistance fighter stands guard as a Red Cross vehicle arrives to receive from Hamas fighters the corpses of slain captives, who had been held in Gaza, in Gaza City, on October 14, 2025. (Photo by Reuters)
Press TV
The head of the Higher Commission for Palestinian Tribes, the largest tribal assembly in Gaza, says the resistance movement Hamas has only been targeting Israeli-backed “gangs”, refuting Western media claims of a crackdown on innocent civilians.
“I challenge anyone, on your channel right now, to name a single innocent person who was attacked. Just one name,” Mukhtar Abu Salman al-Mughni said in an interview.
In response to claims from Western media that Hamas is executing innocent Palestinians, he stressed that the Gazan security forces didn’t harm innocents, “they went after the gangs.”
Al-Mughni noted that those gangs had armed posts in several areas across Gaza, including Rafah, Khan Younis, Shuja‘iyya, and the north, and refused to surrender to the authorities, killing a number of security forces.
“When the police moved to clean out those posts, the gangs fought back and killed police officers too.”
The official emphasized that the security campaign launched by Hamas after the halt of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza prevented the eruption of civil war.
“Had the police not intervened, people themselves would have taken revenge — and that would have become a civil war. The security forces prevented that.”
On Tuesday, the Deterrent Force, affiliated with the security forces in the strip, announced in a brief statement that its members had “seized bastions of armed militiamen, mopped up terrorists of various neighborhoods, and carried out operations aimed at hunting down elements involved in the shooting and killing of displaced persons.”
That came a day after Gaza’s security forces purportedly neutralized a leading member of an Israeli-backed gang associated with the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group, which has been responsible for contributing to Tel Aviv’s genocide in the coastal strip.
An unnamed security source speaking to Quds News Network on Monday identified the targeted individual as “A.T.,” whom the strip’s Resistance Security Apparatus successfully confronted as part of “a precise security ambush.”
A.T. had been recruiting militants for the gang run by Yasser Abu Shabab, the source said, adding that the Israeli regime began providing Abu Shabab’s clan with weapons and equipment earlier this year amid Tel Aviv’s war of genocide on Gaza, which had begun in October 2023.
The support further enabled the gang to wage deadly violence across Gaza, especially in the southern city of Rafah.
In June, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that the regime had been arming and supporting the Daesh-associated gang to “counter the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.”
Prior to his headship of the gang, Abu Shabab had spent time in prison in Gaza. He began running the gang in 2024, prompting the elders and leaders of the prominent Abu Shabab family to distance themselves from his clan.
Hamas’ mop-up operations come as a fragile ceasefire has taken effect in Gaza, after nearly 70,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s genocide.
Kirill Dmitriev has invited Elon Musk to join the project, saying his infrastructure firm could build the 70-mile route in under eight years
Russia and the US should build a direct rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to link the two countries, Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev has suggested.
In a post on X on Thursday, Dmitriev, who also serves as head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund (RDIF), said both nations would benefit from the route and invited billionaire Elon Musk to join through his Boring Company, which builds underground “Loop” transport systems.
“Elon Musk, imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel – a 70-mile link symbolizing unity,” Dmitriev wrote on X, saying the project would spur resource exploration, create jobs, and boost both economies. “Let’s build a future together… The time has come to connect Russia and the US.”
Dmitriev’s remarks followed Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna’s release of declassified Soviet files on the assassination of JFK, shared by Moscow this week. In addition to documents on the killing, the 350-page trove included a “Khrushchev-Kennedy Bridge” project to link the two nations.
Dmitriev reposted a drawing marked “Kennedy-Khrushchev World Peace Bridge could and should be built between Alaska and Russia at once,” calling the vision of a US-Russia link via the Bering Strait “enduring.”
Dmitriev said that while the tunnel project could cost over $65 billion, Boring Company technology could cut it by 90% to under $8 billion and finish it within eight years. He added that the RDIF, which helped build the first Russia-China rail bridge, was ready to take part.
Musk has yet to respond. Dmitriev previously invited the billionaire to join a US-Russia partnership for Mars exploration following Musk’s announcement of a 2026 mission to the Red Planet. Russian President Vladimir Putin also voiced support for cooperation with Musk, saying Russian companies could benefit from joint projects.
Dmitriev’s proposal comes amid a thaw in Moscow-Washington ties after years of tension over Ukraine. Since Donald Trump’s return to office in January, the sides have held several high-level meetings, including a Putin-Trump summit in Alaska in August.
The leaders signaled plans to expand economic cooperation and are expected to meet again in Hungary within two weeks for further talks.
A single underwater cable the size of a garden hose connected Tonga to the outside world—until a natural disaster struck. And it could happen to anyone.
It all started with an underwater volcanic eruption. Debris shot into the air, gathering force as it cascaded down the volcano’s flanks, plunged back into the ocean, and sliced Tonga’s only international internet cable in two places, like cutting out the middle of a submarine sandwich.
Now, Tonga was officially alone, with no physical or digital connection to the outside world and no way to call for help.
“I initially thought Tonga would be thrown back, to say, the 1980s, before it had broadband internet,” says Samanth Subramanian, who tells the full story in his new book, The Web Beneath the Waves, out this week.
“But it was more like they went back to the 1880s, around the time they first laid a telegraph line to Tonga, and they would only receive occasional visitors by ship.”
Thrown back in time, residents resorted to paper record-keeping for banking (no credit cards), traveled door-to-door to speak to each other, and grew their own food.
About the size of a garden hose, subsea cables snake along the seafloor, transporting 95% to 99% of internet traffic, depending on the estimate. They support nearly every aspect of our internet-connected world, making them increasingly critical.
“Over the past 10 years, the internet has grown so central to our lives,” Subramanian says. “If a cable were cut in 2002, it would be a lot easier to recover from it. But now, there are a lot of things in our lives that depend on it, and for the internet to be taken away would be a big disaster.”
The first few days after the eruption were the most challenging for Tonga’s roughly 100,000 residents. Without the ability to call or text anyone, they struggled to confirm the death toll.
“The first 48 hours were chaos,” Subramanian says, as residents walked door to door in the hot, humid weather to check on each other.
“The biggest anxiety was not whether the internet would work, it was whether everyone was alive. One government official had to choke back tears when telling me about this time.”
Credit cards no longer worked for purchasing food, and the cash on hand ran out, given the defunct ATMs. The government set up centralized food distribution sites on Tonga’s main street.
There, people would “buy” items on credit, with hand-written records of what they took. Those in rural areas continued to grow their own food, including those on Vava’u, an example of how those who were less reliant on central, modern systems were most resilient.
A new cybersecurity emergency directive has just been issued by the U.S. Federal Government, through their Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), warning that thousands of networks operated by the US government and Fortune 500 companies face an “imminent threat” of being breached by a nation-state hacking group.
Thousands of customers imperiled after nation-state ransacks F5’s network
Thousands of networks—many of them operated by the US government and Fortune 500 companies—face an “imminent threat” of being breached by a nation-state hacking group following the breach of a major maker of software, the federal government warned Wednesday.
F5, a Seattle-based maker of networking software, disclosed the breach on Wednesday. F5 said a “sophisticated” threat group working for an undisclosed nation-state government had surreptitiously and persistently dwelled in its network over a “long-term.” Security researchers who have responded to similar intrusions in the past took the language to mean the hackers were inside the F5 network for years.
Unprecedented
During that time, F5 said, the hackers took control of the network segment the company uses to create and distribute updates for BIG IP, a line of server appliances that F5 says is used by 48 of the world’s top 50 corporations.
Wednesday’s disclosure went on to say the threat group downloaded proprietary BIG-IP source code information about vulnerabilities that had been privately discovered but not yet patched. The hackers also obtained configuration settings that some customers used inside their networks.
Customers position BIG-IP at the very edge of their networks for use as load balancers and firewalls, and for inspection and encryption of data passing into and out of networks. Given BIG-IP’s network position and its role in managing traffic for web servers, previous compromises have allowed adversaries to expand their access to other parts of an infected network.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency has warned that federal agencies that rely on the appliance face an “imminent threat” from the thefts, which “pose an unacceptable risk.” The agency went on to direct federal agencies under its control to take “emergency action.” The UK’s National Cyber Security Center issued a similar directive.
CISA has ordered all federal agencies it oversees to immediately take inventory of all BIG-IP devices in networks they run or in networks that outside providers run on their behalf. The agency went on to direct agencies to install the updates and follow a threat-hunting guide that F5 has also issued. BIG-IP users in private industry should do the same. (Source.)
Here is some more information from PCMag and their coverage of this threat.
‘Imminent Threat’: Nation-State Hackers Hit Cybersecurity Provider F5
F5 warns that a ‘highly sophisticated nation-state threat actor’ was able to maintain long-term access to the company’s systems, and steal data, including details about undisclosed flaws.
Yikes. Cybersecurity provider F5 is warning that state-sponsored hackers breached its systems and stole data, including details about undisclosed flaws for its products.
Seattle-based F5, which supplies application and cloud security, revealed this morning that it discovered the hackers inside its systems on Aug. 9. Although F5 has contained the breach, the hackers achieved “long-term, persistent access to certain F5 systems,” including BIG-IP, which is used to securely deliver app services on behalf of clients to users.
“Through this access, certain files were exfiltrated, some of which contained certain portions of the Company’s BIG-IP source code and information about undisclosed vulnerabilities that it was working on in BIG-IP,” the company said in an SEC filing.
The breach prompted US cyber officials to issue an emergency directive over fears the hackers would move quickly to exploit F5’s products and software. The Seattle company has said it supports:
“over 23,000 enterprise customers in more than 170 countries, including the largest banks, auto manufacturers, and telecommunications providers in the world.”
Whether an attack on government and corporate networks is imminent or not, this is a REAL threat, and is not hyperbole. There are speculative reports that China is behind this, but China vehemently denies this.
Our current day use of technology where just a handful of American Big Tech companies control the flow of information through the Internet through their “cybersecurity” products, shows the extreme danger of consolidation in the tech sector, where the same “security” software products are used by most of the governments and corporations around the world, making them easy targets by well-funded hackers.
As the U.S. corporate media fixes their attention on potential “hot war” scenarios in places like Venezuela, Russia and Ukraine, and in Gaza and the rest of the Middle East, a major cyber attack like this could be far more catastrophic. A cyber attack that brings down the major networks needed to run this country and keep the lights on for everyone will be far more devastating and disastrous than bombs and bullets flying through the air.
Although DNA links to national origin have never been scientifically validated, 50 million people worldwide have submitted DNA samples to “trace their ancestry.” Turing over over $2 billion annually, the three main DNA testing companies are Ancestry.com, 23andMe and My Heritage.
All three companies base conclusions about a client’s national ancestry by comparing their DNA profiles to those in their database. The conclusions they offer are purely theoretical as there is minimal peer-reviewed research to support them.
The complete decoding of human DNA in 2000 made it possible to link a handful of genetic diseases to specific DNA codes. This inspired the Icelandic government to do DNA testing on 160,000 volunteers who voluntarily submitted health histories. Six years later a Silicon Valley startup launched 23andMe, the first private DNA testing company. The co-founder and CEO Anne Wojiski was married to Google’s co-founder, who used Google’s massive compilation of data to assist her.
In addition to submitting saliva DNA samples, clients completed a health questionnaire covering medical history and lifestyle factors. In 2008 her DNA test was awarded the Time magazine Invention of the Year.
In 2013, the FDA ordered 23andMe to stop offering testing for genetic disease risk after they issued several false reports on individuals who turned out to have rare genetic illnesses. The bad publicity forced them to drop their prices. They eventually sold testing kits at a lost and secured most of their revenue from selling the data they collected (much of it to pharmaceutical companies).
In 2019, 23andMe won the Big Brother Award, a mocking award recognizing “the government and private sector organizations doing the most to threaten personal privacy”.
After 23andMe launched a partnership with Glaxo Smith Kline in 2023, the value of their individual data sets dropped from $60 to $17.
In New Zealand current regulations allow insurance companies to require anyone with DNA testing to hand over the results to qualify for medical and life insurance. Women with the BRACA 1 gene are at 70% increased risk for breast cancer and 60% increased risk for ovarian. This means many of them can’t get private health insurance.
New Zealand is the last country in the world to allow this kind of “genomic” discrimination. At present Kiwis frequently shun “life saving” DNA tests for genetic illnesses because their afraid of losing their insurance.
The event that eventually bankrupted 23andMe was the hacking of 7 million users’ data, subsequently offered for sale onthe Dark Web. After paying $23 million in damages, the company filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. A non-profit organization led by Wojiski TTAM Research Institute ultimately bought it for $305 million.
IDF has already violated the terms of the ceasefire while the United States continues to misrepresent the actual history and current situation in occupied Palestine and the entire West Asia region
United States President Donald Trump in a press conference held in the Sharm El-Sheik resort area of Egypt claimed that he had settled the ongoing war in the West Asia region.
Yet, absent of an independent Palestine which is united with a contiguous land mass, there can be no lasting peace in the region.
The reality of the present situation is clearly related to the burgeoning solidarity movement with the people of Palestine. The State of Israel and its major backer, the U.S., have been isolated in world public opinion due to the genocide which has occurred in Palestine over the last two years.
At the United Nations General Assembly 80th Session held in New York City in late September, the overwhelming majority of diplomats and delegates got up and walked out of the venue when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was introduced to speak. This walk out was reflective of the sentiment across the globe which views Tel Aviv with opprobrium.
The ceasefire which came into being during October, arose in the aftermath of the symbolic recognition of a Palestinian state by more than 150 countries within the UNGA. These governments which voted to recognize Palestine as a state included imperialist countries which supply military, economic and diplomatic support to the occupation forces.
Nonetheless, these imperialist regimes which have ostensibly recognized Palestine, have not defined a clear delineation of what constitutes such a state. It is impossible to have two unequal states living side-by-side with one being racist and settler-colonialist while the other remains oppressed and dominated by zionism and their imperialist overlords.
Moreover, it is imperative that the Palestinians driven from their homes since the Nakba of 1948 and their descendants be allowed to return to their national homeland. The only real solution to the regional crisis is the creation of a genuinely independent unified Palestinian state which is open to all nationalities.
This independent Palestinian state would pursue friendly and equitable relation with all of its neighbors. With the imposition of the State of Israel since 1948, relations with regional states have been contentious. Several wars fought with Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Iran have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and representatives of these respective governments.
The most recent round of “peace agreements” does not address the role of Tel Aviv, Washington and their allies in maintaining the status quo. Palestinians are being told that they do not have a say over which political organizations will be allowed to exist in Gaza and other areas of the occupied territories. Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement, will ostensibly be denied a role in the political situation going forward. Such a position will be unacceptable to the Palestinians who have been struggling for nearly eight decades for national independence.
Palestinian Solidarity Will Continue to Grow Internationally
At a special meeting of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) on October 6 in Detroit, several organizations came together to assess the struggle to end the genocide and the formation of an independent Palestine. The organizations represented included the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Coalition Against Genocide, Engineers Against Apartheid, Nakba Survivors Association, etc.
All of the organizations agreed that the movement to end the genocide and to bring into existence an independent Palestinian state must go forward. They also agreed that the alliance of organizations which have sprung up in the Detroit metropolitan area and across the country and the world should continue and expand.
These organizations which participated in the October 6 roundtable discussion in Detroit have been holding weekly rallies and demonstrations at Eastern Market near downtown. Every Saturday morning hundreds have gathered to highlight the need to end the genocide and to liberate Palestine.
The demonstrations at Eastern Market illustrate the stark contrasts between the availability of food and water among some in the U.S. and the dire situation prevailing in Palestine. Every type of food is available at this marketplace as the people of Gaza are being systematically starved by the zionist regime and its allies.
One slogan advanced during the October 11 rally and march at Eastern Market said: “No Trump, No Blair, No Criminals Anywhere.” This slogan highlights the role of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his collaboration with the U.S. in the destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump and Blair have been designated by imperialism as the co-chairs of a purported “board of peace” which will oversee the latest ceasefire agreement involving Gaza. Undoubtedly, these personalities, Trump and Blair, have no history of supporting national independence and democratic transitions.
It will be up to the Palestinian people and others within the West Asia region to determine what the terms of a lasting peace will be. With the more than 67,000 officially reported deaths among Palestinians along with in-excess of 170,000 injured, some form of reparations is due to the families of those martyred and injured.
Everyone living in the Gaza Strip has been negatively impacted by the genocide taking place since October 2023. 2.3 million are displaced as almost all residents of the Gaza Strip have lost loved ones. Schools, universities, mosques, churches, hospitals and residential areas have been deliberately destroyed over the last two years.
The reconstruction of Gaza and the eventual unification and independence of Palestine is the only just resolution to the humanitarian and political crises. Trump in his statements in Egypt obviously does not support these aims and objectives.
Zionism is a by-product of world imperialism. Its origins parallel the rise of colonialism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The establishment of the State of Israel in the aftermath of the second imperialist war provided a base to further facilitate the dominance of U.S. imperialism in the West Asia and North Africa regions. The liberation of Palestine will set the stage for qualitative growth and development throughout North Africa and West Asia therefore weakening the imperialist grip on these important geopolitical regions.
Problems with the Ceasefire
Despite the proclamations of the Trump administration and its imperialist allies, the ceasefire agreement has already been violated by Tel Aviv. A leading Palestinian journalist, Saleh al-Jafarawi, was assassinated by a gang working at the aegis of the Israeli regime.
“As US President Donald Trump declared this Tuesday (Oct. 14), that Phase 2 of the ceasefire deal in Gaza is in effect, Israel was busy violating the deal before negotiations could even begin. As civilians continue to be killed by Israeli fire, American billionaires also eye seizing Gaza as a tax haven and casino playground, while also eying the continuation of Arab normalization deals. In another chapter of an overall confusing ceasefire saga, the mixed messaging coming from both Israeli and US officials has analysts lost for words, many of whom are falling back on partisan politics to explain what is happening.”
Rather than acknowledge the failure to adhere to the agreement, Tel Aviv and Washington are threatening to kill even more Palestinians. Events over the next few days and weeks will determine whether the imperialists and zionists want an actual pause in the war.
In the same above-quoted article it goes on to say:
“Since day one of the implementation of the ceasefire, Israel has been using three collaborator proxy gangs to carry out continuous ambushes and assassinations in the Gaza Strip. On the first day of the ceasefire, at least 35 Palestinians were killed and nearly 80 others were wounded, primarily by bullet fire. On the second day, reports indicated the murder of two more civilians.
For a few days, while Israeli forces, which currently remain inside 54-58 percent of the Gaza Strip’s overall territory, were still opening fire on civilians, they were explicitly ordered not to fire kill shots until the release of the remaining Israeli captives held by the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas and other factions.”
The Israeli regime claimed that all of the deceased captives held by the resistance had not been returned. However, with the level of destruction inside of Gaza, it will take a considerable amount of time to find the deceased killed as a result of Israeli Air Force strikes and shelling by other occupation units.
These problems created by Tel Aviv and Washington will not hamper the Palestine solidarity movement internationally along with the resistance inside of Gaza and other occupied territories. The imperialists and zionists cannot reverse the forward march towards the independence of Palestine and the sovereignty of the entire West Asia region.
A scientific review in World’s Poultry Science Journal highlights the adverse health effects on avian species from exposure to the widely used weedkiller glyphosate (Roundup) throughout the process of poultry production. The herbicide enters the poultry production system through residues in genetically engineered feed, Beyond Pesticides reported.
In analyzing the biochemical, toxicological and ecological impacts of glyphosate on poultry, particularly chickens, the authors find a wide body of evidence linking glyphosate and its metabolite (breakdown product) aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) to debilitating hazards that extend beyond mortality.
These sublethal effects include disruption of the gut microbiome and gastrointestinal disease; decreased productivity and diminished reproductive health; hepatic and kidney toxicity; growth and developmental impacts, including teratogenicity and embryotoxicity; endocrine disruption and oxidative stress; and impaired immune functions.
The effects of glyphosate, as have long been documented in the scientific literature, range from negative impacts on biodiversity and the environment to food safety risks and human health implications.
Glyphosate Box
Glyphosate Residue Free Certification for Food Brands – Click Here
Test Your Food and Water at Home for Glyphosate – Click Here
Test Your Hair for Glyphosate and other Pesticides – Click Here to Find Our Your Long-Term Exposure
Residues of both glyphosate and AMPA “have been detected in soil, crops, animal feed, poultry, and water sources, prompting scrutiny of their long-term effects,” the authors state.
They continue
“Studies indicate that glyphosate disrupts enzymatic pathways, particularly by inhibiting the cytochrome P450 system, leading to oxidative stress, endocrine disruption, and mitochondrial dysfunction.
“It has been linked to liver and kidney toxicity, gut microbiota alterations, reproductive harm, developmental defects, and possible carcinogenicity, though regulatory agencies remain divided on its classification as a carcinogen.”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a part of the World Health Organization, has classified glyphosate as having cancer-causing properties, as have independent peer-reviewed scientific studies.
The ubiquitous nature of glyphosate residues throughout the environment and within organisms is a result of the widespread application of this toxic chemical in forestry, agriculture, landscaping and gardening.
Over 750 herbicides contain glyphosate as the active ingredient, and it also plays a large role in the production of genetically modified (GM) crops, “with approximately 80% of GM crops bred specifically for GLP tolerance.”
Glyphosate-based herbicide formulations contain not only glyphosate but also other inert (undisclosed) ingredients, such as adjuvants that increase toxicity.
A common adjuvant in glyphosate-based herbicide products is polyethoxylated tallow amine (POEA), which researchers have found can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells.
Effects on poultry
Glyphosate residues in animal feed, as well as in water and through other exposure routes, pose risks to both animal and human health, as these residues can bioaccumulate and biomagnify throughout the food chain.
With a high reliance on corn and soybeans in the diets of poultry, GM crops are a significant source of exposure for these animals.
“The presence of GLP residues in poultry feed raises concerns about potential health effects on birds, including disruptions in gut microbiota, oxidative stress, and overall productivity,” the authors write.
They continue:
“Globally, approximately 57% of maize grain and 85% of soybean production are directed towards animal feed. Several studies have investigated the effects of feeding glyphosate-tolerant GM crops to various livestock species.
“Research has included dairy cows, cattle, and chickens, highlighting the potential impact of glyphosate residues on poultry growth performance, immune function, and reproductive health.”
Hepatic and kidney toxicity
Studies show that the kidney and liver are among the first organs to be affected by alimentary poisoning/foodborne illness. Additional research shows glyphosate residues in food can then impact various systems in animals, including the liver, intestine, kidney, and lung, as well as alter enzyme activity.
In a study of hatched chickens exposed to glyphosate alone and in Roundup shows “histopathological alterations in the kidneys and liver, along with imbalances in serum parameters and various biochemical changes in these organs, which could potentially impair their function.”
Oxidative stress
Exposure to glyphosate can induce oxidative stress and lipid, protein, and DNA damage. Previous research shows how glyphosate and AMPA are genotoxic and linked to oxidative damage.
One study shows that glyphosate increases the generation of reactive oxygen species in the liver and small intestine of chickens. Chronic exposure to products containing glyphosate in broiler breeders (stock chickens) weakens eggshells and delays embryo organ growth, with oxidative stress as the cause.
Gastrointestinal toxicity
Glyphosate diminishes the bioavailability of cytochrome (CYP) enzymes, which are crucial for metabolism, in the organs of chickens. One study shows that glyphosate specifically inhibits CYP P450 enzymes in chickens’ livers and small intestines.
Chicks exposed to glyphosate also have compromised liver function and altered lipid metabolism, further causing oxidative stress and deposits of fat in blood and liver tissues due to heightened expression of lipogenesis-related genes, as a result of its disruptive effect on cytochrome P450 enzymes.
Additional studies show disruption of the gut microbiome in livestock and poultry, where glyphosate reduces beneficial bacteria and enhances resistance in pathogenic strains.
These impacts can lead to the onset of chronic gastrointestinal diseases. In a study of the intestinal structure of chicks, glyphosate has been shown to impair the intestines, reduce antioxidant capacity, induce inflammation and cause the downregulation of genes in the small intestine.
Impact on reproduction
Previous research shows that chronic exposure to herbicides containing glyphosate can impact the survival, growth, activity and reproduction of organisms, including chickens.
A study of roosters with chronic, subtoxic exposure to glyphosate shows reduced plasma testosterone and a decline in their reproductive peak.
Another study finds “significant effect on the histopathological [diseased tissue] characteristics of the rooster testes as well as sperm motility, the key determinant of rooster sperm quality.”
Additional research shows altered sperm in roosters when fed a diet containing glyphosate that leads to “metabolic disorders in the offspring, most likely due to epigenetic effects.”
Glyphosate implications for productivity and performance
Several studies have classified glyphosate-based herbicide formulations as teratogenic, causing developmental abnormalities in a fetus or embryo, and embryotoxic, causing harm or death to embryos during development.
In a study of quails, glyphosate was found to accumulate inside the eggs, causing damage to lipids (fats) in the brains of the developing embryos. This study also reveals that residues of glyphosate in food also slow plumage development and linger in eggs, muscles and livers of the birds.
Another study of chickens shows “exposure to GLP led to a significant reduction in the expression of key productivity-related genes.”
Exposure directly in the eggs of chickens to glyphosate-based herbicides induces teratogenic effects with negative effects on embryonic growth and development, as well as embryo mortality.
Changes in blood parameters, adverse effects on digestive tract development and reduced body weight are noted in chickens exposed to glyphosate.
Reproductive and developmental impacts regarding eggshell quality and embryo development are also associated with levels of both glyphosate and AMPA within egg yolk.
Yet another study shows that a decline in hatchability is associated with higher levels of glyphosate residues in feed among broiler breeders.
Regulatory deficiencies and the organic solution
Despite mounting scientific evidence that continues to link glyphosate to adverse effects in a wide range of species, current regulations fail to protect health and the environment.
The regulatory processes, such as those utilized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also ignore factors that enhance the toxicity of these already harmful chemicals, such as synergy, mixtures and inert ingredients.
“Current safety evaluations mostly concentrate on glyphosate in isolation, overlooking the synergistic toxic effects of commercial formulations and their capacity for bioaccumulation in adipose tissues,” the authors point out.
They continue
“Furthermore, the heightened toxicity of commercial glyphosate formulations, influenced by co-formulants such as POEA, in conjunction with glyphosate’s interference with gut microbiota, cytochrome P450 enzymes, and endocrine functions, emphasises the necessity for cumulative risk assessments and long-term studies that account for species variability, bioaccumulation, and synergistic effects.”
These inadequacies in the regulation of petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers support the urgent need for the widespread adoption of safer alternatives.
When Donald Trump came down that escalator in 2016, just like The Simpsons foretold, I just kind of shrugged. A billionaire running for president. I’ve seen that movie before. But his rhetoric became increasingly radical, even revolutionary. He lashed out at immigration, bad trade deals, “globalists,” and the “senseless wars.”
I wasn’t really sure who Roger Stone was when he contacted me that year, telling me how much he loved my book Hidden History. Talk turned to his long time friend Trump, who’d just announced his candidacy. “He knows about all the conspiracies,” Stone assured me. “You’re going to love him.”
I don’t know that I ever loved him, but I did start paying more attention. Much of that rhetoric sounded pretty good to me. And long, long overdue. Trump blasted our Third World infrastructure, which has been largely untouched for more than sixty years. He talked about bringing the troops home from the over 150 countries around the world where they are still nonsensically stationed. He called out the corruption in Washington, D.C.; the “Deep State.” He vowed to “Drain the Swamp.” He especially focused on his villainous opponent, career criminal Hillary Clinton, dubbed her “Crooked,” and promised to prosecute her. He inspired millions, who loved it when he called out “Fake News.”
Naming Mike Pence as running mate was alarming, but JFK had been pressured into putting LBJ on the ticket, and it didn’t stop him from trying to reform things. Trump’s first Inaugural Address was stunning, the best since JFK’s. Among the guests he invited to watch the ceremony was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who first spread the word about the obvious links between vaccines and autism.
Wakefield had been smeared by the state controlled media. It took courage to invite him. The response to his election from the Deep State Trump was critiquing daily was unprecedented. Shrieking women lined the streets in “pussy hats,” screeching “Not my president!” All of Hollywood stood in unison against him. He received countless threats of physical harm, proudly posted publicly on social media. Grown college students were assigned “safe spaces” with crayons, because they couldn’t “deal” with Trump’s election.
But once he entered office, things began unraveling. At least for people like me, who had found it hard to accept the abrupt transformation from lifelong liberal playboy and trash talking reality TV star into a renegade crusader. Almost as soon as the White House door shut behind him, Trump was urging supporters to stop chanting “Lock her up!” in regards to Hillary Clinton. He declared that the Clintons were “good people.” And he didn’t do anything that he said he’d do “on my first day in office.”
No executive orders banning birthright citizenship or sanctuary cities. It quickly became clear that Trump was more about talking than doing. Weeks, and then months passed. No mass deportations. No grand infrastructure proposal. No troops called home. Trump’s first term became a mishmash of juvenile food fights online with vacuous celebrities, partisan impeachment efforts, and constant flip flopping. The COVID psyop didn’t help, but it can never be forgotten that Trump presided over it.
Trump’s maddening flip flops on COVID alone are thoroughly documented in my book Masking the Truth: How COVID-19 Destroyed Civil Liberties and Shut Down the World. It’s still the champion- the most shadow banned book in the world. Trump continues to brag about the diabolical “warp speed” vaccine which has in reality killed and maimed millions.
He seems to enjoy trolling his most loyal supporters, whom he obviously knows are strongly opposed to him on this issue. That is the essence of the Trumpenstein Project; an “outsider” who is viciously attacked by every corner of the establishment. Who feigns solidarity with dreaded conspiracy theorists and Thought Criminals. Who is always “considering” doing things which really might make this country better. Improve the lives of the People. But who ultimately, when push comes to shove, always sides with the Deep State. The undrained monsters in the Swamp.
We all know what happened in 2020. Cities burned, historical statues were torn down, and Trump did nothing. Except tweet like a blue collar worker in a trailer park. Yes, there was even more electoral fraud than usual in 2020. Trump stomped his feet and hired the worst lawyers he could find. Then threw the January 6 protesters under the bus, while too many of them were denied due process for four years.
To his credit, he did pardon almost all of them as he entered office for the second time. He also wrote some of the same executive orders he’d promised the first time. And he created DOGE, headed by another offbeat billionaire, Elon Musk. Eliminate government waste? Sounds good. But DOGE rapidly fizzled out, after some blockbuster exposures from USAID. Musk started feuding with Trump for unclear reasons. As has been the story throughout Trump’s time in office, no one was prosecuted for the fraud.
But something happened to Donald Trump a few months back. Suddenly, he became reluctant to release the files of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump’s FBI director, Kash Patel, and his top aide, former talk show host Dan Bongino, publicly stated that Epstein killed himself. Then they, along with aging Blonde bombshell Attorney General Pam Bondi, simply said that there was no Epstein file.
Never mind all the previous statements, and Trump’s own references to it. Then, Trump was asked about it at a press conference, and exploded in rage. “I can’t believe you’re asking me about Epstein!” It was the first time the public had seen this kind of anger from him. And ever since then, Trump’s character-which I have termed Trumpenstein-has taken a really dark turn and never been the same. No more broken promises about doing great things. Now it’s all frightening threats. Police state type of stuff. Basically, Trump started doing what his deluded TDS critics claimed he really wanted to do.
As it is with everything associated with Trump, it’s hard to tell exactly what he really has done, versus the nonstop loaded language, always full of contradictory twists and turns. He did send National Guard troops into the streets of Washington, D.C., much as Joe Biden had after the contested election of 2020.
It seemed like an oddly belated move, given that then President Trump did absolutely nothing when the cities were burning, people were dying, and property was being destroyed in the long, hot summer of 2020. He has talked about sending troops to Chicago, Los Angeles, and other “Blue” cities. That is obviously unconstitutional, but the Right seems to care as little about the Constitution as the “Woke” Left does. At around the same time that he went ballistic over the Epstein List, Trump bombed Iran. Clearly and unequivocally at Israel’s behest. It was the most overt cuckery on the part of a U.S. president ever, and every president has been an Israeli cuck since the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
These moves cost him an unknown number of supporters. The question of just how committed our nation is to supporting Israel right or wrong started being asked, by formerly mainstream figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. It still is unclear how many MAGA supporters were unquestioning Zionists. Because of Trump’s frequent references to “senseless wars” and his campaign slogan of “America First,” it seems logical to assume that most of them weren’t unquestioning Zionists.
I like to picture how many of the MAGA faithful are now scratching their heads, having endured the ridiculous QAnon psyop, and the perpetual flop flopping and backtracking. I’ve seen those lists of the hundreds of great things Trump has supposedly done so far. Most of them amount to vague claims of anonymous sex traffickers being arrested, with some of them tried secretly at Guantanamo Bay, where the likes of Swamp Queen Hillary Clinton were also supposedly prosecuted.
DOGE is now AWOL. Or MIA. Either way, it’s as vanished as all those children, whose bikes were found somewhere, and whose sad faces wound up on milk cartons. What happened to that $5,000 DOGE refund Musk talked about? He said that would only be the beginning. With the kind of monumental fraud the U.S. government has been engaged in for decades, we should each be accorded a very nice windfall in return. Call it well deserved reparations.
Not only DOGE, but Musk himself seems to have pretty much disappeared. Call me sentimental, but I kind of miss him. I don’t think I’d miss Marco Rubio at all if he disappeared. Or Stephen Miller, who seems intent on converting the necessary repairs on our purposefully broken immigration system into a holy cause. A very Zionist Christian cause, that is. Old Testament. No swimming pools or movie stars. America First has become the American People Last.
I guess this sounds like a eulogy. In some ways, it is. MAGA coulda been somebody. Coulda been a contender. There is nothing “random” about any of this. It’s all part of the very real conspiracy that we are up against. If there was the slightest bit of randomness, then once in a while they’d make a mistake in our favor, as Truman’s Secretary of War James Forrestal said before they pushed him out of a window.
There is no “theory” here. By any definition, those who misrule us are conspirators. No tin foil hat jokes. No “wackos.” Donald Trump was inserted into our midst, to play the role of populist crusader. His rhetoric was often stirring. He let us down. Turned out to be just another example of controlled opposition. His character has taken a dark turn because that’s the way the script was written. Like any good actor, he has to follow the script. I don’t know where the production proceeds from here, but I do know that history tells us whatever happens won’t be good for the People.
Read the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, and then look around you, at the dilapidated infrastructure, the freak show on Capitol Hill, the “installed” puppets who sell the agenda, and the “journalists” who laughably claim to represent a free press. If you’re human, you’ll weep over what might have been, in contrast to the cold stark, reality. No statesmen. No stateswomen. No statesthey/thems.
A shrinking number of elitists stealing an increasing amount of wealth. The People always struggling. Always waiting for the pot at the end of the rainbow. The lottery. The promotion that never comes. Fearing the layoff that probably will. Having to choose between various hues of carnival barkers to “represent” them. Facing a decreasing life expectancy and the perpetual prospect of World War 3. Widespread family dysfunction, created by truly satanic cultural conditioning. That’s if you’re lucky enough to have a family. More and more people are facing this mess alone.
Were millions just stupid in falling for Trump? Was someone like me, a lifelong Thought Criminal and fan of Ambrose Bierce himself, incredibly naive to remain even a Trump Agnostic? The desire for reform, the “you have nothing to lose but your chains” spirit, is strong in the populace.
They may not show it outwardly, but they respond in great numbers to that populist message. Power to the People. Too much power concentrated anywhere corrupts. The rich are different. Workers aren’t getting a fair shake from their management, and really never have. When half of your population has less than a handful of plutocrats, and collectively own less than one percent of the wealth, then you know you have a problem. You can’t have such disparity of wealth, and maintain a First World economy. Huey Long knew it, nearly a century ago. That’s why they killed him. Listen to his speeches. They still resonate.
Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times, Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, Matthieu Delaty/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images, The Canadian Press/AP-Joshua A. Bickel
Zero Hedge
States are taking action to protect agriculture and waterways from harmful “forever chemicals” as they await federal regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Critics say this has resulted in inconsistent and inadequate regulations exposing much of the country’s soil, air, and water to contamination by the chemicals.
According to the EPA, it is working through a very complex problem concerning a huge category of chemicals.
“The agency is committed to working closely with our partners to take a fresh look at the risks and the tools available to support our rural and agricultural communities on this issue,” the EPA told The Epoch Times in a statement.
At issue are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals that have been used in stain- and water-repellent fabrics, nonstick cookware, food packaging, and firefighting foams since the 1940s because of their resistance to heat, oils, stains, grease, and water.
However, they do not degrade naturally and are almost impossible to destroy, earning them the “forever chemicals” appellation. According to the EPA, PFAS have been linked to cancer, reproductive issues, immune disorders, reduced vaccine response, hormonal issues, and weight gain.
In the early part of the 1970s, PFAS chemicals began to show up in soil to which biosolids had been applied.
Dredged as sludge from the bottom of wastewater treatment tanks and treated to reduce or eliminate harmful substances, biosolids have been sold or given to farmers as a low-cost fertilizer for more than 50 years.
An EPA draft assessment of two PFAS chemicals states that treated sewage sludge containing 1 part per billion of PFAS could pose a serious health risk.
An EPA statement reads, “The findings of the draft risk assessment underscore the importance of proactive federal and state policies to control and remove PFAS at their source.”
States face numerous challenges in dealing with PFAS, according to The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), a national nonprofit association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders.
These challenges include inadequate funding, a lack of technical expertise, and dependence on EPA commitments that appear to have been put on hold.
ECOS’s mission is to help state agencies protect health and the environment, according to its website.
State biosolids regulations vary. In Maine and Connecticut they are banned, while Alabama allows almost unfettered use.
Maine has taken one of the most aggressive postures toward PFAS chemicals in biosolids. A spokesman for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection declined to comment and directed The Epoch Times to the department website.
Maine’s biosolids battle began in 2016 when PFAS were found at a dairy in Arundel, about 81 miles south of the state capital, Augusta. State investigators determined that cattle grazing on land treated with biosolids consumed grass that had absorbed the chemicals from the treated soil. This resulted in the cattle producing contaminated milk.
They also determined that the chemicals had spread far beyond the dairy.
In 2022, Maine implemented Public Law 2021, banning the land application of biosolids. The law also mandates testing of all wastewater treatment plant effluent, farmland, drinking water, and any products or environmental matter that could be contaminated.
The law provides state assistance with cleanup and remediation to owners of contaminated land. It provides bottled water or filtration systems for those whose water is contaminated.
Maine’s response to PFAS contamination in biosolids could be a model for other states, according to Mya Heard, a researcher in Northeastern University’s PFAS Project Lab.
Maine took a three-pronged approach of legislative, scientific, and public policy angles, Heard wrote in a Maine Policy Review article.
“Future case studies on state PFAS governance will offer comparative analyses and can strengthen the case for an interdisciplinary approach that leverages multiple scales of governance,” she wrote.
Although Maine and Connecticut ban biosolids, the treated sewage sludge is still commonly used on farm fields around the country.
The EPA reports that wastewater treatment plants produce an average of 3.76 million dry metric tons of biosolids each year. Approximately 56 percent of this is disposed of by land application.
According to a report from the National Biosolids Data Project, 53 percent of the biosolids produced in the United States are applied to almost 18 percent of all farmland. The bulk of that is used to grow livestock feed.
Similar numbers are reflected in Alabama. In response to health concerns, nuisance odor complaints, and complaints about biosolids imported from other states, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management set new biosolids regulations in 2020.
The new rules established nutrient management planning and property line setback requirements for land application of biosolids. The rules are meant to reduce odors, protect the environment, and address complaints from neighbors.
Regina Allcorn lives on a 68-acre property in Etowah County, Alabama. The centerpiece of her family’s land is a lake.
Allcorn said her family cannot eat fish from the lake because they are contaminated with PFAS from neighboring land treated with biosolids.
She said she believes that biosolids distributors force landowners who do not use the sludge to live with contaminated water, foul odors, health problems, and an uncertain future.
“It’s your home and you shouldn’t feel that way,” she told The Epoch Times.
Alabama Department of Environmental Management spokesperson Lynn Battle declined an interview request but stated in an email to The Epoch Times that Alabama regulations are based on the most current science.
“As appropriate and based on new or revised EPA regulations and requirements regarding activities that impact our air, water, or land resources, [Alabama Department of Environmental Management] has and will continue to implement measures to ensure its programs address the issues as noted in any Federal regulation,” Battle wrote.
In a white paper titled “Processes & Considerations for Setting State PFAS Standards,” ECOS presented information from survey responses it had received from 43 states.
According to the ECOS, Alabama is one of 14 states that has no enforceable guidelines, although the state tests for PFAS and publishes its data. The other states are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
ECOS stated that in April 2024, the EPA set enforceable drinking water standards for only five of the more than 14,000 known PFAS chemicals.
“At this time, the U.S. has no federally enforceable PFAS standards for other PFAS or for these PFAS in other environmental media, leaving individual states to navigate various avenues for addressing contamination,” the paper states.
“Some states have established legally enforceable values for certain PFAS in drinking water, groundwater, surface water, soil, or air. Other states and regulatory agencies have opted for non-enforceable values.”
According to ECOS, most state activity focuses on drinking water. Some states also test wastewater treatment plant influent and effluent and compare those data sets with EPA guidelines.
Some states have laws prohibiting them from setting regulations more stringent than those set by the EPA. These states, including Alabama, are waiting to use the expected EPA standard as a guide.
I have been writing since the fourth quarter of 2022 that digital technology, which began in the early 1980s with the introduction of “personal computers”, has reached its peak, and would eventually begin to decline into what I called a “Post-Technological Age.”
This doesn’t mean that the technology will go away, just that we will finally realize that there are limits to electronic technology, which will collapse our economy due to our over-spending and overuse of it. Eventually people will figure out that most of the modern claims for the technology, and especially transhumanism, are just lies fed to the public to keep the money flowing.
And in early 2023, many of the Big Tech banks, like Silicon Valley Bank, did fail. But the entire system has not collapsed yet, because of the massive amounts of cash they have held, much of it pumped into the economy during Trump’s first term during COVID, and the Cares Act.
But with the recent investments into data centers which are so vast that many projects are now actually being funded by debt, the day the whole system collapses is drawing closer.
However, there is now another threat to Big Tech’s vision for the future, and that threat is coming from the younger generations, the Millennials and the Gen Z generations, who are now starting to abandon the technology in increasing numbers, to find true value in life.
As I have been writing for years, Big Tech can NOT control you if you don’t use their products.
Investors on Wall Street are starting to wake up to this fact regarding the younger generations, especially Gen Z, regarding new movements to “unplug.”
This editorial was published on the Wall Street publication MarketWatch this week.
Gen Z is shutting off their screens — how this ‘great unplugging’ will charge your portfolio
Excerpts:
I’ve been around long enough to know that investment advice based on generational trends is like dating advice from a divorce lawyer — technically informed, but probably not what you want to hear. And yet here I am, about to tell you that young people might be on to something.
The thesis is simple: Americans, particularly the ones who grew up with smartphones surgically attached to their hands, are walking away from screens and rediscovering the physical world. Books. Churches. Other human beings. In person.
It’s like watching someone discover fire, except fire has been there the whole time and they’ve just stopped staring at TikTok long enough to notice.
For example, church attendance among young British men jumped to 21% in 2024 from 4% in 2018, according to the U.K.’s Religion Media Centre.
The American Booksellers Association reports its membership at 2,433 stores — nearly double the number in 2016, with 323 new independent bookstores opening in 2024 alone.
Participation in running clubs has increased 25% over five years, per Running USA, with the strongest growth among adults ages 20 to 29.
But here’s where it gets interesting: A Harris Poll found that 77% of Americans would choose a completely in-person social life over a digital alternative, while 81% of Gen Z respondents wish disconnecting from devices were easier. Book-club event listings jumped 31% in 2024, following a 24% rise in 2023, according to Eventbrite.
The portfolio implications become clearer when viewed alongside troubling evidence about the effects of digital life — the kind that makes even Mark Zuckerberg’s lawyers nervous.
Meta’s internal research documented that Instagram worsens teen girls’ body image, contributing to anxiety and depression.
Federal courts have ruled that TikTok must face trial over allegations of manipulating minors toward self-harm. When you’re in court defending accusations that your app encourages teenagers to hurt themselves, your business model might need a rethink.
But here’s the kicker: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data show that average cognitive processing ability peaked in the early 2010s — precisely when smartphones achieved ubiquity — and has declined since then.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently observed that Silicon Valley lacks prominent entrepreneurs under 30 for the first time since the 1970s. When the guy building artificial intelligence notices the next generation’s actual intelligence is missing in action, that’s what we call a clue.
Young people are looking for meaning in activities instead of apps. The Reformation took centuries. The digital Counter-Reformation might take a decade. (Full article.)
Charlie Garcia of MarketWatch is not the only one to write about this trend among young Americans to unplug.
Here are a couple of other articles publishing similar trends, for example.
These college kids are swearing off smartphones. It’s sparking a movement
Excerpts:
There was no way around it: Charlie Fisher was addicted to his smartphone. He scrolled on TikTok and Instagram first thing in the morning, picked it up to answer text messages between classes and relied on it as a crutch in social settings. It was a “never ending pattern.”
“It just basically created this pattern where I was anxious, and so I’d open my smartphone, and then I would hate myself for opening my smartphone, which made me more anxious,” Fisher says.
If you told him a few years ago that he wouldn’t be living with a smartphone, he would’ve been shocked, but the 20-year-old says his life is better because of it. He’s part of a movement of college students who are trading in their smartphones for what’s now considered trendy hardware: flip phones.
Growing up in a ‘social wasteland’
Fisher grew up playing with basketballs and nerf guns around his cul-de-sac with a group of neighborhood kids. But when they all downloaded Snapchat, it changed the way they interacted – they no longer had to knock on each other’s doors to ask to play and hangouts started to involve screens.
By the time he entered high school, everyone in his classroom had a phone.
He’s not alone. Nearly half of teens say they’re online constantly, according to 2024 data from the Pew Research Center. And 48% of teens aged 13 to 17 say social media has a negative effect on kids their age.
“It got to the point where I didn’t even know what being present was,” Fisher says. “Someone said flip phone. I was like, ‘Wait, you can do that?’”
He bought a $20 Nokia flip phone from Walmart with a $6 per month plan. For a year, he waffled between his smartphone and the flip phone until he pulled the trigger and fully ditched his smartphone in March.
Seán Killingsworth, 22, had long noticed that his peers’ interactions were impacted by the smartphones in their pockets. He coined the term a “social wasteland” to describe the “zombies” around him who were unavailable for social connection.
He got a flip phone his sophomore year of high school. Whenever a new friend asked for his Snapchat, the conversation would quickly come to an awkward halt after he explained he had a flip phone. When he tried to call people – texting on his flip phone’s keyboard was tedious – it was anxiety inducing or off-putting for his peers, who often stopped reaching out.
“I ran into a lot of barriers just trying to make a friend because of the mode of communication I’d chosen to use,” Killingsworth says.
When he enrolled in school at the University of Central Florida, he wanted things to be different, and started hosting casual get togethers with friends without phones. Eventually, the idea turned into the Reconnect Movement, which has clubs at Rollins College, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. Another chapter is on tap to launch at Simpson College in Iowa this fall.
The events involve activities like painting, playing outdoor sports or hosting lighthearted “goofy debates” where students argue over topics like mountains vs. the beach. Many times, though, the event at hand morphs into an afternoon where everyone just hangs out. (Full article.)
THE DIGITAL DETOX: WHY MORE YOUNG PEOPLE ARE CHOOSING THE OUTDOORS OVER SCREENS
Excerpts:
ARE YOUNG PEOPLE REALLY DETOXING FROM TECHNOLOGY?
In a world where technology is everywhere, young people are starting to push back. Gen Z and Millennials have grown up surrounded by screens, but now many are choosing to step away. Digital detoxing – the act of cutting back on technology use, is becoming a movement with more young people spending time outdoors, unplugging from their devices, and reconnecting with nature.
HOW MUCH SCREEN TIME ARE WE REALLY USING?
The average screen time for young people has skyrocketed in the past decade. Studies show that:
Teens spend an average of 7-9 hours per day on screens, including social media, gaming, and streaming (Common Sense Media, 2023).
Children aged 8-12 spend about 5 hours daily on screens (Common Sense Media, 2023).
60% of young people say they feel addicted to their phones (Pew Research, 2023).
A 2024 survey found that 95% of U.S. teenagers have access to smartphones, with 97% going online daily and 48% reporting being online “almost constantly”
With so much time spent online, the negative effects are becoming clearer: increased anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and lack of real-world social interactions. This has led many young people to look for healthier alternatives – and the outdoors is their answer.
THE RISE OF OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES AMONG YOUTH
Instead of scrolling through social media for hours, many young people are finding new ways to spend their time. The outdoor industry is seeing a massive increase in youth participation in activities such as:
Digital Detox Trends:
In 2024, searches for “digital detox” more than tripled compared to 2023, indicating a growing interest among individuals, including young people, in reducing screen time.
Hiking and Camping – National parks have reported a 15% increase in youth visitors in the last five years (National Park Service, 2023).
Surfing, Kayaking, and Water Sports – Outdoor water activities have grown by 20% among young people since 2020 (Outdoor Industry Association, 2023).
Cycling and Running – Bike sales increased 45% in 2020 and continue to be popular among Gen Z (Bicycle Retailer, 2023).
THE SCIENCE BEHIND NATURE AND WELL-BEING
Nature isn’t just fun – it has proven mental and physical health benefits:
Spending just 20 minutes outside can lower stress levels by 16% (University of Michigan, 2023).
Young people who spend time outdoors report feeling 30% happier than those who don’t (Nature & Mental Health Study, 2023).
The Latest Millennial Staple to Become Uncool? Being Online
Excerpts:
A string of viral social media posts—ironically, online—have made one thing clear: spending heaps of time on the internet, once the great escape of a generation, is no longer cool.
Oxford University Press hinted at a shift when it named “brain rot” its 2024 Word of the Year. The term, which describes the cognitive decay caused by excessive doomscrolling and online saturation, captures the growing disillusionment with social media felt among younger millennials and Gen Z.
For many, the ultimate social currency no longer appears to be how many followers you have, but how few social media platforms you use and if they are on private mode. More young people are deleting their accounts, adopting old-school flip phones, picking up analog hobbies and embracing digital minimalism. Film cameras, paperback books and even “dumbphones”—simpler mobile devices without addictive social features—are making a comeback.
Once seen as outdated, being offline is now perceived as a luxury in a world where everyone is perpetually plugged in. (Full article.)
This is a Non-Partisan Issue that Everyone Should Embrace to Stop the Big Tech Attempt to Imprison Us
Whitney Webb, herself a Millennial who is now raising her own children, was recently interviewed by the Right-Wing Zionist Mormon Glenn Beck, who has been quoted as saying that his purpose in life is to “serve Jews”, who obviously sees value in Whitney’s teaching about the dangers with Big Tech.
Beck stated the typical right-wing fear-mongering attitude that Big Tech is going to transform all of us into transhumans and take over the world, and then asked Whitney what the solution was.
Listen to her answer which is much more astute and truthful than the undeserved fear that so many on the Right have of the technology today of taking over our lives, and reflects the attitudes of her generation that are growing, as the articles above demonstrate.
The Most Revolutionary Act 