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Bolsonaro Indicted Over Falsification of Vaccination Status

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By MAURICIO SAVARESE

SAO PAULO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was formally accused Tuesday of falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination status, marking the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader, with more allegations potentially in store.

The federal police indictment released by the Supreme Court alleged that Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into a public health database to make it appear as though the then-president, his 12-year-old daughter and several others in his circle had received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Police detective Fábio Alvarez Shor, who signed the indictment, said in his report that Bolsonaro and his aides changed their vaccination records in order to “issue their respective (vaccination) certificates and use them to cheat current health restrictions.”

“The investigation found several false insertions between November 2021 and December 2022, and also many actions of using fraudulent documents,” Shor added.

The detective said in the indictment that Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp, Mauro Cid, told investigators the former president asked him to insert the false data into the system for both himself and his daughter. Cid also said he delivered the vaccination certificates to Bolsonaro personally.

Via https://apnews.com/article/bolsonaro-brazil-federal-police-indicted-covid-a0c1f1dba71553096d0de0f4f39d4caa

US Weighs Plea Deal For WikiLeaks Founder Assange

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Protesters stand with Julian Assange posters at the Royal Courts of Justice entrance in London, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. - Sputnik International, 1920, 21.03.2024

Svetlana Ekimento

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been engaged in a legal struggle in the UK against being extradited to the US, where he faces 17 counts of espionage and one charge of computer misuse, possibly resulting in a prison term of up to 175 years. However, there apparently may be a way to cut short this protracted London court case.

The US government, according to The Wall Street Journal, is exploring the option of offering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a plea deal.

The US government, according to The Wall Street Journal, is exploring the option of offering WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a plea deal. The Justice Department is contemplating the possibility of dropping the 17 current charges against him under the Espionage Act. This would be in exchange for Assange pleading guilty to a lesser offense of mishandling classified information, which is categorized as a misdemeanor.

Assange would be able to enter such a plea deal remotely from London’s HM Prison Belmarsh, where he has been incarcerated since April 2019. By accepting this plea bargain, the whistleblower would effectively end his prolonged legal battle against being extradited to the US on espionage charges. Additionally, the publication noted that since Assange has already spent five years in custody in the UK, it is likely that he would be released shortly after the deal is finalized.

In response to the report, one of Assange’s defense attorneys, Barry Pollack, said in a statement:

“It is inappropriate for Mr. Assange’s lawyers to comment while his case is before the UK High Court other than to say we have been given no indication that the Department of Justice intends to resolve the case and the United States is continuing with as much determination as ever to seek his extradition on all 18 charges, exposing him to 175 years in prison.”

Back in January 2021, a British judge ruled it would be ‘oppressive’ to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the US.

“The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man, who is genuinely fearful about his future. I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,” judge Vanessa Baraitser had concluded.

Should Julian Assange exhaust all of his legal options in the UK, his wife, Stella, said earlier that they would apply to the European Court of Human Rights for an order under Rule 39 to stop the extradition while it considers his case.

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20240321/us-weighs-plea-deal-for-wikileaks-founder-assange-with-espionage-charges-dropped—report-1117465035.html

Suppressed Research Into Childhood Vaccines

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Childhood Vaccines: Why Your Child Needs Them
 Dr. Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • Comparing vaccination rates in 34 developed nations revealed a significant correlation between infant mortality rates and the number of vaccine doses infants receive. The U.S. requires the most vaccines and has the highest infant mortality
  • Research shows the more vaccines an infant receives simultaneously, the greater their risk of being hospitalized or dying compared to those receiving fewer vaccines
  • The earlier in infancy a child is vaccinated, the greater their risk of being hospitalized or dying compared to children receiving the same vaccines at a later time

Vaccines: Are they safe? Are they effective? To help answer those questions is Neil Z. Miller,1 a medical research journalist and director of the Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute.

Miller has investigated vaccines for three decades and written several books on the subject, including “Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective?,” “Vaccine Safety Manual for Concerned Families and Health Practitioners” and “Miller’s Review of Critical Vaccine Studies: 400 Important Scientific Papers Summarized for Parents and Researchers.”

“Miller’s Review,” published in 2016, is a magnificent piece of work. In it, he reviews the concern about vaccine safety and efficacy raised by 400 peer-reviewed published studies. The book doesn’t review studies that support vaccination (almost all of which are funded by the industry and the government, by the way) as those studies are available on the CDC website.

[…]

Don’t Believe the ‘There’s No Evidence’ Argument

“Miller’s Review” was created in response to the common refrain that “there are no studies showing vaccines are unsafe or ineffective.”

“I hear this often,” Miller says. “Parents come to me all the time, saying, ‘My doctor told me that vaccines are safe and there are no studies that prove [otherwise].’ I’ve been doing the research for 30 years. I know of literally thousands of studies that document [concerns]. My books all document [those] studies.”

“Miller’s Review” is unique in that it summarizes 400 studies in bullet points with direct quotes from the study — with one study per page — plus citations so that you can find and read the study in full should you decide to do so. All of the studies are published in peer-reviewed journals and indexed by the National Library of Medicine.

“These are valid studies by valid researchers in many journals that people have heard about — The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, all the mainstream journals (and some of the smaller journals, but they’re still valid peer-reviewed studies) that show there are problems with vaccines: There are safety problems, there are efficacy problems.

They’re all in one place so that people, like doctors, can get this information all in one convenient place. This book has been very effective with medical doctors. When medical doctors who are on the fence, or who are pro-vaccine, get this book and read it, I hear back from parents that their doctor is no longer pressuring them to get the vaccines.

Their doctor is now respecting their decisions to not vaccinate or to go to some sort of alternative vaccine schedule if that’s the choice these parents make …

I am all about having uncensored, unfettered access to all of the available information out there about vaccines. Not just what your medical doctor wants you to know. Not just what the pharmaceutical companies want you to know and not just what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is telling doctors to share with their patients.

I want [parents] to be absolutely free to make a decision whether or not they want to vaccinate their children … It’s really a human rights issue. It’s really about the mandatory aspect of vaccines. I think all vaccines are problematic. I think this not just based on my own feelings, but based on the evidence I’ve researched over the years.”

Uninformed Decision-Making Is Part of the Problem

Ultimately, every parent will make a decision about whether or not to vaccinate. The problem is, most of the time, it’s an uninformed decision. An issue brought up in some of his earlier books is that there’s been a deliberate misinformation campaign aimed at making you believe vaccines are far more effective than they actually are.

For example, disease incidence data is used to suggest vaccines have dramatically reduced the incidence of a given disease, when in fact the disease rate had already declined by 90%, or more in some cases, before a vaccine was ever available.

Measles has been problematic in developing nations, mostly because of malnutrition, vitamin A deficiency, lack of clean water, sanitation and quick access to medical care. As these measures are addressed, the mortality from measles declines on its own.

Vitamin A appears particularly important, and studies sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) have confirmed that high doses of vitamin A supplementation protect children against complications and death associated with the disease.

“By the time the measles vaccine was introduced in the United States in 1963, by the late 1950s, the mortality rate from measles had drastically dropped. This was due to the [fact] that the population had gained protection against the more dangerous ravages of the disease. This happens with a lot of different diseases.

In my book, I’ve got many different types of graphs and illustrations to help the reader understand the main points I’m making … [M]any of these graphs show that these diseases were declining significantly on their own, well before vaccines were introduced.

For example, scarlet fever. Where did scarlet fever go? Why don’t we see cases of scarlet fever when we didn’t have mass vaccinations with a scarlet fever vaccine? That’s an important point to be made.”

Many Childhood Diseases Are Protective Against Cancer

Another significant point is there are dozens of studies demonstrating that contracting certain childhood diseases actually protects you against various types of cancer later in life — everything from melanoma to leukemia.

It’s important to realize that when you have a naturally acquired infection, you’re really exercising your immune system quite profoundly, developing authentic, lifelong immunity in the process, which is radically different from the type of artificial and temporary immunity you get from a vaccine.

One of the reasons for this is because vaccines stimulate a completely different part of your immune system than does fighting off a naturally acquired infection. There’s even evidence suggesting childhood diseases help protect against future heart disease.

[…]

Vaccines Create Problematic Mutations

Another vaccine-related problem that many are completely unaware of is the fact that vaccines cause mutations in the disease-bearing microorganisms, much in the same way antibiotics cause bacteria to mutate. The diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTaP), for example, has caused the pertussis microorganism, Bordetella pertussis, to mutate and evade the vaccine. The same thing happened with the pneumococcal vaccine and the Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine.

[…]

Tragically, parents are being blamed and harassed for many of these vaccine failures. Parents are being told that if you don’t vaccinate your kids, you are responsible for spreading the disease. That’s the idea the CDC, the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry are promoting. However, if you actually read the studies, you’ll find what the scientists know — the real problem is evolutionary adaptation.

[…]

Studies Show Vaccinations Increase Infant Mortality

One of the tenets of conventional medicine is that if you vaccinate a population, everyone is going to be healthier. There will be less disease. But when you compare vaccination rates and health statistics, you find the converse is actually true. This is some of the most compelling information Miller shares in his book.

For example, when comparing vaccination rates in 34 developed nations, they found a significant correlation between infant mortality rates and the number of vaccine doses infants received. Developed nations like the United States that require the most vaccines tend to have the highest infant mortality. You can read this study here.2

[…]

The greatest, most serious problem we currently face is the concerted push to mandate vaccines and eliminate personal belief exemptions. For example, to go to school in California, you now have to be fully vaccinated. No exemptions are allowed, which is really a violation of human rights.

Giving Multiple Simultaneous Vaccines Is Extremely Risky, Study Shows

The second study3 Miller and Goldman published analyzed nearly 40,000 reports of infants who suffered adverse reactions after vaccines. Here, they found that infants given the most vaccines were significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die compared to those who received fewer vaccines.

It’s worth noting that this data was obtained from the vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) database, a passive reporting system, and that research has confirmed passive reporting systems underreport by 50 to 1.

What this means is that when you find one report in VAERS, you have to multiply that by 50 to get closer to reality because, on average, only 1 in 50 adverse events are ever reported. Doctors have a legal obligation to report side effects to VAERS, but they don’t, and there are no ramifications for failure to make a report. Parents can also make a report to the database, and I encourage all parents to do so, should your child experience a vaccine reaction.

At present, VAERS has over 500,000 reports of adverse reactions to vaccines, and every year, more than 30,000 new reports are added to it. Miller and Goldman downloaded this database and created a program to extract all the reports involving infants. In all, they extracted the reports of 38,000 infants who experienced an adverse reaction following the receipt of one or more vaccines.

They then created a program that was able to determine the number of vaccines each infant had received before suffering an adverse reaction, and stratified the reports by the number of vaccines (anywhere from one to eight) the infants had received simultaneously before the reaction took place. They specifically honed in on serious adverse reactions requiring hospitalization or that led to death. Here’s what they found:

  • Infants who received three vaccines simultaneously were statistically and significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die after receiving their vaccines than children who received two vaccines at the same time
  • Infants who received four vaccines simultaneously were statistically and significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die than children who received three or two vaccines, and so on all the way up to eight vaccines
  • Children who received eight vaccines simultaneously were “off-the-charts” statistically and significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die after receiving those vaccines
  • Children who received vaccines at an earlier age were significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die than children who receive those vaccines at a later age

[…]

Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/03/24/critical-vaccine-studies.aspx

FDA Will Stop Demonizing Ivermectin Under Lawsuit Settlement Agreement

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ivermectin and hand holding phone with fda logo

By  Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

The FDA, which denied any wrongdoing, said it will remove content warning people not to use ivermectin to treat COVID-19 within 21 days. Plaintiffs called the settlement a big win for patients and the patient-physician relationship.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to take down its website and social media posts warning people not to use ivermectin to treat COVID-19 under terms of a settlement reached Thursday in a lawsuit alleging the agency exceeded its authority when it directed health professionals and patients not to use the drug.

Within 21 days, the agency will remove the consumer update, “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19,” which pictures a doctor and a horse. The FDA posted the update on March 5, 2021.

The FDA webpage, still live, states repeatedly that the FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for treating COVID-19 and warns the drug can be “unsafe.” The page also includes language warning people not to use ivermectin “intended for livestock.”

The FDA will also delete social media posts from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram posted in 2021 and 2022 with messages such as “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

The posts suggest ivermectin is not “authorized” for treating COVID-19. The agency also will remove all posts that link to the webpage about the drug.

It has already taken down its Frequently Asked Questions page about ivermectin.

In exchange for removing the internet content, plaintiffs in the lawsuit — Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, Dr. Paul Marik and Dr. Robert Apter — will dismiss their claims against the FDA.

“This is a landmark case and one of the most important wins in the whole COVID era,” said Marik, chief scientific officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) and former chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Marik told The Defender:

“It goes beyond ivermectin. It goes to the authority of the FDA, what they can and they can’t do. It’s really about the patient-physician relationship, doctors being allowed to be doctors and prescribe medicine. And so hopefully going forward this will limit the interference by the regulatory agencies to control medicine.”

Bowden, a physician with 40-plus years of experience in emergency medicine, tweeted this:

Apter also celebrated the news. “This victory in Apter et al v. HHS is wonderful news and one more step towards putting the government back in its place from its COVID-era overreach,” he told The Defender.

“While this resolution is long in coming — the case was filed almost two years ago — it is one more building block in the edifice to stop future encroachments on the doctor-patient relationship, free expression and the FDA’s unlawful practice of medicine,” he added.

An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency “has chosen to resolve this lawsuit rather than continuing to litigate over statements that are between two and nearly four years old.”

“FDA has not admitted any violation of law or any wrongdoing, disagrees with the plaintiffs’ allegation that the agency exceeded its authority in issuing the statements challenged in the lawsuit, and stands by its authority to communicate with the public regarding the products it regulates,” the spokesperson said.

“FDA has not changed its position that currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19. The agency has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19.”

‘FDA has blood on its hands’

Ivermectin is an effective antiparasitic drug that’s been given to billions of people worldwide. It was discovered in the 1970s by Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Ōmura, Ph.D., and American parasitic biologist William C. Campbell, Ph.D., who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology for their discovery.

The FDA approved the drug in 1996 to treat several tropical diseases, including onchocerciasis, helminthiasis and scabies.

After many doctors across the country began prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19 early in the pandemic, the FDA launched a campaign against the drug, despite numerous studies — including studies posted on its own website — showing ivermectin could be effective as an early intervention against COVID-19, and the drug’s strong safety profile.

The drug was also administered widely in several countries, including India, Mexico and Argentina.

“The FDA demonized ivermectin, which is a highly effective drug for the early treatment of COVID. The consequences of this, and what has to be clear is that this led directly to the death of millions of people,” Marik said. “So the FDA has blood on its hands.”

Marik said if the drug had been widely used early in the course of the pandemic, it would have significantly reduced the risk of death. Instead, the FDA interfered with the practice of medicine, demonizing the drug, which led to doctors being prohibited from using it and pharmacists being prohibited from dispensing it.

In the U.S., it’s common and legal for doctors to prescribe drugs off-label, or for a different purpose than it is approved for. Marik said 40-60% of medications are used off-label.

“It’s standard of care,” he said, which is the benchmark that determines whether professional obligations to fully and effectively care for patients have been met.

“The FDA was actually caught out in a big lie,” he said, because the agency allows and promotes the use of off-label drugs “as long as it doesn’t interfere with their EUA [emergency use authorization].”

Drugs that were granted emergency use authorization for use during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Remdesivir, Paxlovid and the vaccines, were authorized on the basis that no other effective treatments were available.

Dr. Pierre Kory was one of the first doctors to make a public case for the effectiveness of ivermectin as an early intervention against COVID-19. He is co-author of a metanalysis concluding the drug is effective against the illness and author of “The War on Ivermectin: the Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic.”

In a statement, Kory said, “I couldn’t be prouder of Paul and our colleagues for taking a stand for all of us against a government health agency that overstepped its authority.”

“The FDA knew exactly what it was doing when it tweeted that ivermectin was for horses and that people should ‘stop it.’ I hope this case will serve as precedent the next time a federal health agency steps out of its authority and tries to practice medicine,” he added.

Earlier this week, Kory addressed the issue of censoring doctors who promoted ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients in a speech he gave during a rally, hosted by Children’s Health Defense, outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit

In their lawsuit, Drs. Bowden, Marik and Apter alleged the FDA acted outside of its authority by directing the public, including health professionals and patients, not to use ivermectin — even though the drug is fully approved by the FDA for human use.

They alleged the FDA was carrying out a “crusade” against ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 that “unlawfully interfered” with the doctors’ ability to practice medicine.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division, also named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Dr. Robert Califf, acting FDA commissioner.

The complaint alleged the FDA cannot ban off-label use of particular drugs or advise whether patients should take approved drugs. Doing so, they said, is intervening in the doctor-patient relationship.

The plaintiffs said their lawsuit wasn’t about whether ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID-19. It was about who determines the appropriate treatment for each unique patient and whether the FDA can interfere with that process.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed the case in 2022, ruling the FDA has “sovereign immunity” and granting it protection against most civil lawsuits. Brown also said the plaintiffs had not proven they were directly harmed by any FDA action.

But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned the dismissal in September 2023, ruling the agency did exceed its authority under federal law.

According to the ruling, the agency is “not a physician” and “FDA can inform, but has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine.”

The court’s finding that the FDA exceeded its regulatory authority, Marik said, “is a major win because it’s saying that the FDA can approve drugs, but they can’t interfere with the patient-physician relationship.”

“They can’t determine … what drugs physicians can and cannot prescribe,” he added.

Marik said Thursday’s settlement that followed this appellate court ruling was also important because in addition to the tweets, the FDA had communicated with state medical boards about ivermectin — and as a consequence, many doctors had lost their licenses for prescribing the drug.

“Patients didn’t get treatment and doctors lost their licenses … and pharmacies didn’t dispense ivermectin because of the FDA,” he added.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fda-ivermectin-covid-treatment-lawsuit-social-media/?utm_id=20240322

Media Blocked From Border Area Where Ilegals Overran National Guard

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Modernity

The Customs and Border Protection Agency has blocked the media from accessing the area where hordes of illegal immigrants overran the National Guard in El Paso earlier this week, leaving reporters asking how they are supposed to do their jobs.

Footage emerged Thursday of illegal immigrants literally tearing down barriers near El Paso, Texas and storming the border, braying to be let into the US.

Now, two days later, this sign has been put up instructing the media to basically stay away.

Can’t have anybody documenting the border crisis any further right?

[…]

If only there was some kind of freedom of the press law of some sort:

[…]

Via https://modernity.news/2024/03/23/media-blocked-from-border-area-where-ilegals-overran-national-guard/

Dangerous Levels of Toxins Found in General Mill Trix LOADED Cereal

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Dangerous Levels of Toxins Found in General Mills ‘LOADED’ Cereal: Report

(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

By Megan Redshaw

A new report is raising concerns over General Mills’ new cereal line after testing revealed that Trix LOADED cereal is literally loaded with high levels of heavy metals and agrochemicals.

General Mills, Inc. on Feb. 1 launched “LOADED,” a new cereal line with “puffed-up larger-than-life squares” of General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Trix, and Cocoa Puffs cereals filled with artificially flavored vanilla creme. Trix LOADED boasts 17 grams of whole grain per serving and 12 vitamins and minerals. Yet testing by Moms Across America (MAA), an organization dedicated to educating and empowering others to create healthy communities, found the artificially flavored creme-filled breakfast food also contains measurable levels of aluminum, cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury, glyphosate, and pesticides shown to be harmful to humans.

In a statement to The Epoch Times, MAA director Zen Honeycutt said her organization tested two samples of General Mills’ Trix LOADED cereal because they were alarmed that the company, which had previously seemed very committed to supporting regenerative organic agriculture, launched a cereal “loaded with creme, food dyes, and highly-processed foods.”

Pesticides Found in General Mills’ Trix LOADED Cereal

In test results obtained by MAA, scientists found residues from eight different pesticides in both samples of Trix LOADED cereal.

The following six pesticide residues were found in trace amounts:

  • Imazalil-1
  • Metconazole-1
  • Pyraclostrobin-1
  • Pyrimethanil-1
  • Pyriproxyfen-1
  • Tebuconazole-1

Two pesticides, piperonyl butoxide-1 (PBO) and fluopyram-1, were detected in higher amounts. Fluopyram-1 is a broad-spectrum fungicide that can cause liver problems, endocrine disruption, and thyroid cancer.

Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) is a man-made pesticide synergist that enhances the potency of certain pesticides designed to kill insects. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies PBO as a “possible human carcinogen” as studies in rats show PBO can induce thyroid and liver cancers, as well as noncancerous tumors.

More recent animal model studies suggest PBO exposure can cause neurodevelopmental abnormalities in utero and liver cancer. A 2021 study published in Reproductive Toxicology found PBO may cause male infertility and reproductive toxicity.

According to the National Pesticide Information Center, PBO is found in over 2,500 pesticide products, including foggers and mosquito control programs. Yet PBO is exempt from the EPA’s maximum residue limits, which determine the amount of pesticides allowed to remain in food. This means PBO pesticide residue is freely permitted in cereals consumed daily by children and adolescents across the United States.

Heavy Metals Exceeded EPA Allowable Levels

According to test results obtained by The Epoch Times, scientists also detected measurable levels of aluminum, mercury, cadmium, lead, and arsenic in both samples of Trix LOADED cereal that in some cases far exceeded the EPA allowable levels in drinking water. The United States does not consistently regulate heavy metals in food or assess the long-term cumulative effects of heavy metal exposure in children, but it does regulate the amount of heavy metal contaminants allowed in water.

For example, the EPA sets the allowable level of arsenic in drinking water at 10 parts per billion (ppb). Trix LOADED cereal samples contained 21.5 and 23 ppb of lead—more than double the EPA’s allowable level. The samples contained cadmium levels 400 percent higher than the EPA’s allowable level.

The EPA allows 0.05 to 0.2 mg/L of aluminum in drinking water, equivalent to 50 to 200 ppb. Cereal samples 1 and 2 contained 2,930 ppb and 3,500 ppb of aluminum, respectively. These were 1,365 percent and 1,650 percent higher than the agency’s allowable level of aluminum in drinking water.

In 2008, the European Food Safety Authority established a “tolerable weekly intake” of 1 mg of aluminum per kg of body weight per week, based on combined evidence from animal studies that assessed dietary administration of aluminum compounds.

Using European Union standards, if a child eats a 40-gram serving of Trix LOADED cereal daily, the weekly consumption of aluminum would be 0.98 mg/week based on one sample and 0.82 mg/week based on the other. This is roughly equal to the EU’s limit without considering other sources of aluminum exposure, such as flour, baking soda, medications, processed foods, and aluminum pots and pans.

Trix LOADED Exposes Children to Toxic Glyphosate

Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, was found in both samples of Trix LOADED cereal at 15.83 ppb and 17.47 ppb. It is a key inactive ingredient in weedkiller products such as Roundup.

The EPA has not classified glyphosate as a human carcinogen, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as “probably” carcinogenic to humans.

Studies have confirmed a link between glyphosate and numerous health conditions, including cancers and nervous system disorders. Additionally, Monsanto, now Bayer, agreed to pay roughly $11 billion to settle claims filed by individuals who say Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma or other related cancers. As of March, there are 4,253 cancer lawsuits, out of the 4,800 claims originally filed, still pending in the California Roundup multi-district litigation.

In research published by the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, scientists found that childhood exposure to glyphosate is linked to liver inflammation and metabolic disorders in adulthood that could lead to liver cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases later in life. Researchers found high levels of glyphosate residue in the urine of children and adolescents and reported that diet was a key source of exposure—as levels were higher in those who consumed more cereals and carbohydrates.

Glyphosate is routinely used on genetically modified crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, legumes, and produce.

Moms Across America Contacts General Mills

In an email to General Mills provided to The Epoch Times, MAA called on the company to source suppliers who use safe, nontoxic ingredients, despite the lack of laws and regulations that would otherwise require them to do so.

MAA requested General Mills do the following:

  • Require that suppliers of ingredients avoid using glyphosate or other agrochemicals as a drying agent or preharvest weedkiller.
  • Transition away from using glyphosate as a weedkiller within one to two years.
  • Perform quality testing on fertilizers for heavy metal contaminants and direct the safest possible fertilizer to be used.
  • Support and promote regenerative organic farming practices.

“We hope consumers will learn the truth about the contents of ‘loaded cereal’ and make choices to support their family’s health,” Ms. Honeycutt told The Epoch Times. “We also hope they [consumers] will alert their elected officials that these types of foods, with high heavy metals and agrochemicals, have no place in the American food supply.”

Ms. Honeycutt said she believes consumers should know the truth about what’s in their cereal so that they can make choices to support their family’s health, and hopes policymakers will “exercise the political will needed to clean up the food supply.”

[…]

Via https://peckford42.wordpress.com/2024/03/23/dangerous-levels-of-toxins-found-in-general-mills-loaded-cereal-report/

Trump Invites Chinese to Build US Auto Plants

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Then-US President Donald Trump visits Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2017. Photo: Roman Pilipey / EPA

David P Goldman

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on March 18 invited Chinese automakers to build plants in the United States, offering China the same deal that Ronald Reagan extended to Japan in the 1980s.

The former president vowed to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese car imports either directly from the mainland or from intermediaries like Mexico. But he added, “If they want to build a plant in Michigan, in Ohio, in South Carolina, they can, using American workers, they can. They can’t send Chinese workers over here, which they sometimes do. But if they want to do that, we’re welcome, right?”

Addressing Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump said, “You and I are friends.”

Trump’s offer to China went unreported in virtually all media. Mainstream US media attacked the former president for using the term “bloodbath” to describe the impact of prospective Chinese imports on the American auto industry, implying that he had threatened actual violence if he was not elected. But the transcript of his remarks at a Dayton, Ohio, rally makes clear that he was referring to industry conditions.

Trump told the Dayton audience:

Let me tell you something to China, if you’re listening, President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal, those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get that, you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us. Now, we’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars, if I get elected…. And I’ll tell them if they want to build a plant in Michigan, in Ohio, in South Carolina, they can, using American workers, they can. They can’t send Chinese workers over here, which they sometimes do. But if they want to do that, we’re welcome, right? But they’re not going to build them in Mexico and they’re not going to do that.

Industrial automation is accelerating in China and lagging in the United States. According to Zhang Weiwei, a professor at Fudan University, China already has 10,000 applications of 5G to the industrial Internet. Compare that with fewer than ten in the United States, by my informal count.

China now installs more industrial robots and graduates more engineers than the rest of the world combined. In 2023 it became the world’s largest auto exporter. Electric vehicles priced as low as $9,700 for the well-reviewed BYD Seagull subcompact – comparable to the 1908 Ford Model T in its affordabililty and wide appeal – are creating new markets for autos in the Global South.

China meanwhile has extended its lead in 5G broadband. Zhang reported that China now has 3.37 million 5G base stations out of a global total of 4 million – 85% of installed capacity.

The United States may never be able to match China’s combination of skilled personnel, infrastructure and giant economies of scale. It’s easier to let Chinese companies bring industrial automation to the United States than to try to catch up after the fact. That’s the path of least resistance, and one that Trump has opened up.

Donald Trump’s approach to China has never been ideological.  In an interview on October 6, 2023, Trump hinted at the possibility of striking a deal with the world’s second-largest economy, leaving the door ajar for future negotiations. When asked by interviewer John Solomon about a strategy for decoupling from China, Trump’s response reflected a pragmatic stance:

At least partial decoupling – we’ll see. They may very well turn out to be fine. It’s very popular politically – “We’re going to decouple!” – but I think I had a very good relationship with China.

However, the notion of decoupling remains elusive. Given that the US now imports more capital goods than it manufactures domestically, any attempt at decoupling would necessitate importing even more capital goods to facilitate increased domestic production. Trump himself acknowledged the political allure of decoupling while highlighting its practical implausibility.

[…]

Via https://asiatimes.com/2024/03/trump-invites-chinese-to-build-us-auto-plants/

Life Under Napoleon’s Empire

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Napoleon’s Divorce from Josephine

Episode 44 Living Under the Empire

Living the French Revolution and Age of Napoleon

Dr Suzanne M Desan

Film Review

In 1809, Napoleon divorced Josephine due to her inability to produce an heir, which he believed essential to ensure his legitimacy as emperor. As Napoleon had imprisoned him in France, Pope Pius VII was unavailable to annul his marriage.* Instead the French senate granted a civic annulment, which the emperor celebrated in an elaborate divorce ceremony at the imperial court. Josephine kept her title as empress, the palace at Malmaison and a sizeable pension.

In 1810 Napoleon married the Austrian princess and niece of Marie Antoinette Marie-Louise. A year later she gave birth to Napoleon François Joseph Charles.

By 1811 he had created 3,200 nobles, with one-fifth related to the old nobility. The titles Napoleon granted (duke, count, baron and chevalier of the empire) were rewards for exceptional services. Related mostly to valor on the battle field though some were awarded to technocrats, bureaucrats and industrialists. Each noble received a coat of arms and a plot of land in the new empire. By 1814 there were 25,000 men in Napoleon’s Legion of Honor. The titles weren’t hereditary and carried no exemption from taxes.

To reduce the risk of rebellion, the emperor created new jobs by investing heavily in public works. In Paris he had numerous monuments built (including the Arc de Triomphe) to celebrate his military victories. He expanded the Louvre** and renamed it the Napoleon Museum. He also built wine and grain warehouses, canals for drinking water and shipping, and two bridges over the Seine; expanded and upgraded public markets; and moved slaughterhouses and cemeteries outside city limits,

He believed the state should do everything it could to raise living standards by supporting industry and trade. He subsidized key industries, a well as laying the foundation for a national banking and supporting the education of engineers.

He also increased government surveillance, requiring citizens to carry passbooks and banning workers associations (leading workers to create them clandestinely(.

Because so many men were away at war, wages rose, and from 1806 on the economic blockade eliminated competition from cheap British goods. Producing misery in the coastal cities (from the decline in maritime trade), the blockade led to a big boom in textile production in Alsace and Normandy and ultimately shortages of coffee, sugar, dye and textiles and higher prices on most products.

Between 1805-1810, France conscripted 80,000 men a year. With military expenditures accounting for 80% of France’s economic output, by 1813, Napoleon was conscripting anyone who was 4 foot 8 inches or taller. In lycées youth joined junior military companies and wore war uniforms. As imperial propaganda and censorship increased, salons and cafes were subject to surveillance or shut.

By 1813 military expenditures accounted for 80% of France’s economic output, and there was widespread resistance to conscription. The wealthy could pay for a substitute or could get married. With women over 60 marrying 17-year-old conscripts, some couples never lived together. Some “professional wives” married two or three times. Sympathetic communities hid draft dodgers from conscription officers.

*Napoleon’s troops invaded Rome when Pope Pius VII refused to support his naval blockade against Britain. The pope, in turn, excommunicated him, leading Napoleon to annex the papal state, arrest Pius VII and imprison him in France.

**The National Assembly converted the royal palace to an art museum in 1793 to allow commoners access to great art.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/149323/149409

Why is Kushner eyeing ‘beachfront property’ in Gaza’s ruined landscape

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By Iqbal Jassat

Former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, who is known to be a close ally of both Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, let the cat slip out of the bag in a recent interview.

Speaking to Harvard’s Middle East Initiative faculty chair, Prof. Tarek Masoud, Kushner lauded the “very valuable” potential of the Gaza Strip’s “waterfront property” and suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the territory.

According to a report in the Guardian, the former real estate dealer, married to Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on March 8.

As if echoing Netanyahu’s grand plan of ethnic cleansing Gaza’s 2.3 million population, Kushner said “It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”

Without any hint of empathy for the suffering and devastation inflicted on the Palestinians which has outraged the world, Kushner advanced his idea that Israel should move civilians from Gaza to the Negev desert in southern occupied territories.

As the executioner of Trump’s much-hyped “normalization” project, his comments carried a tone of a cold calculated plot to eradicate the presence of Palestinians in their own territory.

As per the Guardian account of the interview, Kushner said that if he were in charge of Israel, his number one priority would be getting civilians out of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and that “with diplomacy” it could be possible to get them into Egypt.

“But in addition to that, I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” he said. “I think that’s a better option, so you can go in and finish the job.”

The report pointed out that Kushner’s suggestion drew a startled response from the interviewer, who was clearly taken aback by the former White House adviser’s proposal.

“Is that something that they’re talking about in Israel?” Masoud asked.

“I mean, that’s the first I’ve really heard of somebody, aside from President Sisi [Egypt’s leader], suggesting that Gazans trying to flee the fighting could take refuge in the Negev. Are people in Israel seriously talking about that possibility?”

In response to another question about whether Palestinians should have their own state, Kushner dismissed it as “a super bad idea” that “would essentially be rewarding an act of terror”.

Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor who compiled the report on Kushner’s interview, reminded us that as a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump’s presidency, Kushner was tasked with preparing a plan for the West Bank.

“His remarks at Harvard gave a hint of the kind of Middle East policy that could be pursued in the event that Trump returns to the White House, including a search for a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel”.

Given his close association with the settler colonial regime, it is indisputable that Kushner has a vested interest in Netanyahu’s ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss revealed way back in 2016 that Kushner’s family foundations gave $325,860 to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, an influential pro-Israel lobby group in the US, during that period.

The Seryl and Charles Kushner Family Foundation gave the Zionist lobby group over $200,000 in the years 2010 and 2011. A second family foundation, the Charles Kushner Companies Foundation, also made gifts to the FIDF.

Not surprising at all given that Kushner serves on the board of the Zionist lobby group.

Haaretz and the Washington Post also reported back then that the Kushner Family Foundation had given nearly $60,000 to settlement organizations between 2011 and 2013.

What is apparent from his history of association with Israel’s illegal settlement projects as well as his funding of the Israeli occupation forces, Kushner’s intentions are known to all.

As Weiss pointed out, support for an occupying army that has committed genocidal crimes does not speak to Kushner’s impartiality.

Not that impartiality has ever been a criterion for US mediators or the US State Department, but this has been borne out for decades and is in sharp focus today with the hypocrisy and double standards of the Joe Biden Administration.

Most of the world is aware that Biden has thrice vetoed UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in the besieged Palestinian territory where nearly 32,000 Palestinians, 70 percent of them children and women, have been killed since October 7

Also known is the fact that an airbridge of unlimited supply of weapons from the US to Israel has been in operation in addition to financial aid running into billions of dollars.

Critics of both Trump and Biden have justifiably claimed that Washington is deeply vested in keeping its Zionist colony alive at all costs, including at the expense of the lives of Palestinians.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/03/21/722270/Why-is-Kushner-eyeing–beachfront-property–in-Gaza-s-ruined-landscape

 

A Message to Israeli, U.S. and NATO Soldiers and Pilots: It’s Genocide, “Disobey Unlawful Orders, Abandon the Battlefield”

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Prof Michel Chossuduvsky

It is not through “negotiations” with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden, both of whom are responsible for “crimes punishable under International Law” that we will be able to put an end to the genocidal attack against the People of Palestine.

What is required is a campaign which enables Israeli, U.S. and NATO combatants To Disobey Unlawful Orders” and “Abandon the Battlefield”.

Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter  defines the responsibility of combatants to refuse the orders of Government or a superior … “provided a moral choice [is] possible“.

What is required is to initiate a campaign in Israel and Worldwide to make that “moral choice” possible, to enable enlisted Israeli, American, and NATO service men and women to “Abandon the Battlefield”. 

See details below, with reference to legal documents.

[…]

Let us recall the Christmas Truce of 1914, 109 years ago this Christmas Eve:

“Something happened in the early months of the “War to End All Wars” that put a tiny little blip of hope in the historical timeline of the organized mass slaughter that is war. The event was regarded by the professional military officer class to be so profound and so important (and so disturbing) that strategies were immediately put in place that would ensure that such an event could never happen again.” (Dr. Gary G. Kohls)

“The ordinary soldiers developed more and more antipathy and even hatred toward their own officers. Simultaneously, they started to empathize and even sympathize for the men facing them on the far side of the no man’s land.

The authorities condemned and prohibited all forms of fraternization and “live-and-let-live” in general. The officers sometimes put snipers to work when they suspected that fraternizations “threatened” to take place.

The men learned in many ways that the official enemy was in fact not the real enemy, that the soldiers on the other side were human beings just like themselves.” (Dr. Jacques Pauwels, Excerpt from his book)

The Power of Peace in the Time of War (1914): Let It Happen Again (2024)

Today, we are “fraternizing” and acting in solidarity worldwide with the People of Palestine against the hegemonic agenda of the U.S. and it allies  which are waging an all-out war against humanity. 

Crimes Against the Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity

Both Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu as well as President Joe Biden are responsible for “war crimes”, “crimes against peace” and “crimes against humanity” as defined under Principle VI of the Nuremberg Charter:

The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

(a) Crimes against peace:

(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).

(b)  War crimes:

Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill- treatment or deportation to slave-labour or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, of persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.

(c)  Crimes against humanity:

Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds, when such acts are

Disobey Unlawful Orders, Abandon the Battlefield 

According to Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter:

“The fact that a person [e.g. Israeli, U.S.soldiers, pilots]  acted pursuant to order of his [her] Government or of a superior does not relieve him [her] from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him [her].”

Let us make that  “moral choice” possible, to enlisted Israeli, American, and NATO service men and women.

Let us call upon Israeli and American soldiers and pilots “to abandon the battlefield”, as an act of refusal to participate in a criminal undertaking against the People of Gaza.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/this-christmas-i-have-tears-in-my-eyes/5844151