Today's News: April 17, 2019

World News
US Army truck catches fire in Poland, 3 injured
RT – Three US service members were injured in yet another traffic incident in Poland, as Washington and Warsaw are reportedly nearing a deal on permanent US presence in the eastern European country.
Ecuador Has Been Hit by 40 Million Cyber Attacks Since Assange’s Arrest
Activist Post – The government of Ecuador claims that the country has come under a broad and concerted cyber attack, with approximately 40 million attempts to compromise web portals connected to public institutions ever since the controversial decision to allow UK police to forcibly remove WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from their London Embassy.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Patricio Real told reporters that the wave of attacks began shortly after last Thursday’s arrest of Assange by British authorities. Real said that the attacks “principally come from the United States, Brazil, Holland, Germany, Romania, France, Austria and the United Kingdom, and also from here, from our territory.”
On April 11, Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno revoked the diplomatic asylum extended to Assange by the South American nation in 2012. In a legally dubious move, Quito also revoked the Ecuadorian nationality granted to Assange in 2017.
Ecuador’s El Comercio reported that the telecommunications ministry’s undersecretary of electronic government, Javier Jara, claimed that following “threats received by these groups related to Julian Assange”–such as the shadowy network Anonymous–the country began suffering “volumetric attacks.”
Volumetric attacks are a type of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in which servers are flooded with requests in an attempt to overload them with traffic, thus preventing users from accessing the network.
According to AFP, the targets included the foreign ministry, central bank, tax authorities, the office of the president, and a number of other government agencies’ websites. None of the attacks succeeded in destroying or stealing data.
Trump Vetoes Resolution to End US Support for Saudi-Led Yemen War
Activist Post – On Tuesday, President Trump capped off months of effort in Congress to pass a War Powers Act challenge to the US involvement in the war in Yemen, vetoing the bill and claiming it was a “dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities.”
The bill, SJ Res 7, was a straightforward bill under the War Powers Act of 1973. The bill noted that Congress never authorized the US war in Yemen, and demanded an end to it. The US Constitution grants sole power to declare wars to the Congress, and by extension the power to order an end to illegal wars.
It is a mere accident of the way bills work that actions under the War Powers Act, designed explicitly as a check on presidential attempts to illegally seize war-making powers, can even be voted by the president. Yet SJ Res 7 won such a narrow victory in the Senate that it would be highly unlikely that an override of the veto will even be attempted.
This threatens to set a very dangerous precedent, as after decades of presidents claiming unilateral war-making powers, Yemen was the first real challenge under the War Powers Act to get any momentum. That it was wiped away with an easy veto, and little controversy, only adds to the appearance that the president has unilateral war-making powers, at least as a de facto matter, and Congressional oversight exists only on paper.
Satellites Reveal Possible Nuclear Bomb Fuel Production in North Korea
Breitbart – The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report on Tuesday that said satellite photos have uncovered possible uranium reprocessing at North Korea’s Yongbyon reactor. If such activity is indeed underway, it would suggest North Korea is preparing to create more nuclear warheads.
CSIS analyzed satellite photos taken last week and spotted “five specialized railcars near the Uranium Enrichment Facility and the Radiochemistry Laboratory.”
“In the past, these specialized railcars appear to have been associated with the movement of radioactive material or reprocessing campaigns. The current activity, along with their configurations, does not rule out their possible involvement in such activity, either before or after a reprocessing campaign,” the report inferred.
Corruption in Venezuela has created a cocaine superhighway to the US
CNN – Cocaine trafficking from Venezuela to the United States is soaring, even as the country collapses. And US and other regional officials say it’s Venezuela’s own military and political elite who are facilitating the passage of drugs in and out of the country on hundreds of tiny, unmarked planes.
A months-long CNN investigation traced the northward route of cocaine from the farmlands where much of it is grown in Colombia, and found that the number of suspected drug flights from Venezuela has risen from about two flights per week in 2017 to nearly daily in 2018, according to one US official. This year, the same official has seen as many as five nighttime flights in the sky at once.
Planes loaded with Colombian cocaine used to depart from Venezuela’s remote southern jungle regions. Now they take off from the country’s more developed northwest region to reduce their flying time, US and regional officials also said.
Officials involved in combating the deadly trade describe a ridiculously profitable courier system for the Venezuelan government. “Drug smugglers are more and more exploiting the complicity of Venezuelan authorities, and more recently the vacuum of power,” said one US official. Every shipment of cocaine from South America is so lucrative that the planes flown by traffickers are cheap in comparison; most are used only once and then discarded or set on fire upon arrival.
Just one in 50 people can see stars as Nature intended
Daily Mail – The wondrous sight of a starry sky at night is impossible for more than half of the UK because of light pollution in our towns and cities, a study found.
Only two per cent of the UK were able to gaze at ‘truly dark skies’ while 57 per cent struggled to count more than 120 stars, the research by Campaign to Protect Rural England found.
Many people in major cities – London, Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester – were unable to view a single star at all.
The findings come from a ‘star count’ supported by the British Astronomical Association.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Trump admin announces new restrictions on travel to Cuba
The Hill – The Trump administration is imposing new restrictions on travel to Cuba, national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday.
“The Department of the Treasury will implement further regulatory changes to restrict non-family travel to Cuba,” Bolton said at a speech in Miami to the Bay of Pigs veterans group on the 58th anniversary of the failed CIA-orchestrated invasion of the island in 1961.
“These new measures will help steer Americans dollars away from the Cuban regime.”
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Bolton also announced new limits on the amount of money Cuban Americans can send to relatives on the island at $1,000 per person.
The new restrictions come after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier in the day that the administration will allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign businesses using property seized during the 1959 Cuban revolution, escalating pressure against the communist island nation.
The U.S. government has already certified nearly 6,000 claims valued at more than $8 billion in total, including actual value and interest.
Taken together, these changes add up to a significant roll back of former President Obama’s normalization of relations with Cuba, which Bolton criticized.
Bolton also said Wednesday that the socialist governments of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Miguel Díaz-Canal in Cuba and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua are “beginning to crumble.”
US: Asylum seekers who show credible fear not eligible for bond
Al Jazeera – Rights group vows to fight Attorney General Barr’s decision that expands indefinite detention for many asylum seekers.
Detained asylum seekers in the United States who have shown they have a credible fear of returning to their country will no longer be able to ask a judge to grant them release using bond, according to a ruling by US Attorney General William Barr, who overturned decades-old policy on Tuesday.
Barr struck down a decision that had allowed some asylum seekers to ask for bond in front of an immigration judge, in a ruling that expands indefinite detention for some migrants who must wait months or years for their cases to be heard.
The first immigration court ruling from President Donald Trump‘s newly appointed attorney general is in keeping with the administration’s moves to clamp down on the asylum process as tens of thousands of mostly Central Americans cross into the United States asking for refuge. US immigration courts are overseen by the Justice Department and the attorney general can rule in cases to set a legal precedent.
Hundreds swarm NYC streets in censorship protest
NBC – Are you willing to strip bare to protest censorship on social media?
An artist has organized an event to challenge Facebook and Instagram’s “Community Guidelines” by organizing a large-scale nude photography shoot in New York City this June called #WeTheNipple.
Artist Spencer Tunick and the National Coalition Against Censorship are organizing to have hundreds of nude bodies “take a stance in the streets of New York City” against censorship of art on big social media platforms. The event is happening June 2, though specifics on the street location haven’t been released.
“I hope to make a new nude photographic artwork on the streets of New York City that challenges the censorship rules of Instagram and Facebook. A work that humanizes and decriminalizes the female nipple on social media and at the same time advocates freedom for male, female and transgender artists to share their art without consequence,” Tunick said in a statement.
Economy & Business
Rare look at West Point Mint’s massive gold vaults
Fox – About an hour and a half’s drive north from New York City lies a treasure — the gold kind. But it’s not one that you can go and find.
In fact, you can’t get anywhere near it. Because this treasure belongs to the United States Treasury.
Nearly a quarter of the U.S. government’s gold sits beneath a windowless building on the campus at West Point.
“We’ve got approximately 54 million ounces here that we store, which is about 22% of the nation’s gold,” Ellen McCollum says from her office.
McCollum is the Superintendent of the West Point Mint; a facility built the same year as Fort Knox and originally housed the nation’s silver.
Most of that silver was sold off and now, the latest treasury department numbers show West Point is second only to Fort Knox in the amount of government gold in its vaults.
It’s stored as bullion: big, heavy bricks of solid gold and silver.
FOX 5 NY was granted rare access — supervised of course — to one of their highly secure vaults.
Officials had to cut a numbered seal to open it.
We weren’t allowed to shoot any video of the security process at West Point.
But let’s just say, it was robust — and for good reason.
In that one vault, there are 2,600 bars of gold bullion. At today’s market value, each bar is worth about $500,000. That means that in that one vault, there is about $1.3 billion worth of gold, and that’s not counting the silver.
“All the security that’s required is here to secure these assets,” McCullom says. “Trust me, I’ve been here a very long time and we haven’t lost anything.”
CHASE Bank shuts down ‘alt-right’ accounts
WND – Chase Bank is shutting down accounts of people and organizations with controversial political views, according to an undercover investigation by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.
O’Keefe’s latest probe found that Chase, without explanation, abruptly closed the account of a political activist that had existed for 15 years in good standing.
Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys activist group and owner of a website that sells provocative political merchandise, spoke to Chase representatives who could not explain why his business account was about to be terminated.
Tarrio recorded the calls and provided them to Project Veritas.
Chase banker Marcel Smith told Tarrio: “I see nothing that indicates any reason why the account should be closed. I don’t see any outstanding transactions or anything ridiculous.”
Smith noted that his bank typically gives its customers a reason for account closures.
“I’ve never seen them not give a response to someone whose account they had closed,” the Chase employee said.
But Project Veritas followed up and spoke with an employee working in Chase Corporate Global Media Relations who acknowledged the bank makes political judgments about its customers.
Science & Technology
Scientists Bring Pig’s Brain, Dead 4 Hours, Back to ‘Cellular Activity’
Health Day – he death of brain cells may not be as sudden, or as irreversible, as previously believed.
Four hours after a pig’s death, Yale scientists restored circulation and revived cellular activity within the dead animal’s brain.
The cells of the brain remained viable six hours later, compared with other brains not preserved using the newly developed process, the researchers reported.
It might sound like Frankenstein, but it isn’t, the scientists insist.
Although its cells were kept alive, the brain itself never displayed the sort of organized electrical activity associated with consciousness, said senior researcher Dr. Nenad Sestan. He’s a professor of neuroscience at the Yale School of Medicine.
“This is not a living brain, but it is a cellularly active brain,” Sestan explained.
So what’s the point?
The finding challenges long-held assumptions that brain cells swiftly and irreversibly die off once their blood supply has been cut, the researchers said.
“By doing this, we can possibly come up with better therapies for stroke and other disorders that cause cells in the brain to die,” Sestan said.
The same process that preserved the pig’s brain also might be used to preserve other organs harvested for donation, added co-researcher Stephen Latham, director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.
“It is safe to assume that if this works for preservation of brain cells, it would also work after some tinkering with less sensitive organs in terms of keeping them preserved and keeping their function intact,” Latham said.
Scientists use genetic fingerprints to collar cancer culprits
Breaking News – A new library of DNA “fingerprints” could help detective scientists close in on the environmental culprits behind cancer.
UK experts have created a database of the mutation markers, which include those left by tobacco chemicals in lung-cancer tumours.
In total the scientists identified the “prints” of 41 environmental agents linked to cancer, such as tobacco smoke, sunlight, and air pollution from road vehicles.
“Mutational signatures are the fingerprints that carcinogens leave behind on our DNA, and just like fingerprints, each one is unique”
Each of the chemicals triggers a specific change in the molecular structure of DNA that can lead to cancer.
Dr Serena Nik-Zainal, from the Medical Research Council Cancer Unit at Cambridge University, who co-led the research, said: “Mutational signatures are the fingerprints that carcinogens leave behind on our DNA, and just like fingerprints, each one is unique.
“They allow us to treat tumours as a crime scene and, like forensic scientists, allow us to identify the culprit, and their accomplices, responsible for the tumour.”
At the start of the study the scientists exposed skin-derived stem cells to 79 known or suspected environmental carcinogens, or cancer triggers.
The cells had been reprogrammed back to an embyronic-like “pluripotent” state, giving them the potential to become any type of cell in the body.
The researchers then looked at the patterns of changes caused by the chemical “suspects”.
They found that 41 left a characteristic, unique, fingerprint on the stem cells’ DNA.
Among them were mutations known to occur in the lung tumours of smokers, allowing scientists for the first time to identify the tobacco chemicals responsible.
Other “fingerprints” were left by common chemotherapy drugs, some dietary chemicals, and chemicals present in diesel exhaust fumes.
The research demonstrates just how vulnerable human DNA is to chemical agents that pervade the world we live in, say the scientists whose findings are reported in the journal Cell.
Dr Nik-Zainal said: “Our reference library will allow doctors in future to identify those culprits responsible for causing cancer.
Good Smells Could Prevent Tobacco Cravings
Newsmax – Could quitting tobacco involve something as simple as a pleasant scent?
New research suggests it’s possible.
U.S. smoking rates have fallen over the past 50 years, but about 40 million Americans still smoke, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least half of adult smokers report trying to quit in the past year, but half of those who try to quit relapse within two weeks.
“Even with nicotine replacement, relapse is common,” said the study’s lead author, Michael Sayette, of the University of Pittsburgh. “New interventions are urgently needed to help the millions who wish to quit but are unable.”
The study included 232 smokers, aged 18 to 55, who were not trying to quit and were not using any nicotine replacement, such as gum or vaping. In a series of experiments, the researchers found that the smokers’ cigarette cravings declined after they smelled pleasant aromas, such as chocolate, apple, peppermint, lemon, or vanilla.
“Despite disappointing relapse rates, there have been few new approaches to smoking cessation, in general, and to craving relief in particular,” Sayette said in a news release from the American Psychological Association.
“Using pleasant odors to disrupt smoking routines would offer a distinct and novel method for reducing cravings, and our results to this end are promising,” he added.
Pleasant aromas may work by distracting smokers from thoughts of their nicotine craving to memories linked with the aromas, Sayette said. For example, peppermint reminded some smokers of childhood Christmas holidays spent at a grandparent’s home.
However, more research would need to be done to confirm this theory, Sayette noted.
Health
NYC Sends “Disease Detectives” In Jewish Neighborhoods Looking for Unvaccinated – Attorneys Prepare Lawsuits
Health Impact News – A day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency over measles outbreaks in Jewish communities of Brooklyn, and ordered forced vaccinations of everyone not yet vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, the Washington Post is reporting that the Health Department has sent “disease detectives” into the community to force compliance.
On Wednesday, the city sent 15 to 20 “disease detectives” into the community, some with Yiddish interpreters, a day after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vow to quash the outbreak with $1,000 fines and misdemeanor charges for anyone in certain areas who refuses to be immunized.
The workers, wearing blue Health Department jackets, conducted interviews in the homes of people who may have been exposed to the dangerous, highly contagious virus and checked the immunization records of all those they may have had contact with. Others pored over records for the same information at a federally funded health clinic in the heart of the community.
There are 1,800 unvaccinated yeshiva, or Orthodox Jewish, students with religious exemptions in the four Zip codes targeted by the city, spokeswoman Marcy Miranda said. (Source.)
John Marshall, chairman of emergency medicine at Maimonides Medical Center, is reportedly threatening to call the police on parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.
Marshall said he threatened to call police on parents who were refusing to send a feverish child to the hospital in an ambulance for fear the authorities would learn all their children were unvaccinated.
“The ones who are so vehemently anti-vaccination, I don’t know how to convince them,” said Edward Chapnick, director of Maimonides’s infectious disease division. (Source.)
The Mayor and the Health Department are assuming that by declaring a state of emergency over recent measles “outbreaks,” that they have the legal authority to suspend certain laws in place protecting the rights of residents of NYC to opt out of vaccines due to religious beliefs, and HIPAA privacy laws which would prevent them from pulling up medical records of children to see if they have been vaccinated or not.
In the meantime, attorneys are saying that they will file a lawsuit challenging the emergency order by Friday.
Cell Tower Removed From Schoolyard Due to Cluster of Cancer Cases
Mercola – A cluster of cancer cases among young children at Weston Elementary School in Ripon, California, led to the shutdown and planned relocation of a Sprint cell tower.
The FCC revised its rules relating to the rollout of 5G technology in September 2018, limiting cities’ rights to control the placement of 5G antennas.
Los Angeles and other cities sued to overturn the FCC’s new rules, but January 10, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit sided with the FCC, which means citizens will not be able to prevent installation of 5G cell bases outside their homes.
5G technology relies primarily on the bandwidth of the millimeter wave (MMW), which is primarily between 30 gigahertz (GHz) and 300GHz, known to penetrate 1 to 2 millimeters of human skin tissue.
MMW has been linked to a number of potential health problems, including eye damage, impacted heart rate variability (an indicator of stress), arrhythmias, pain, suppressed immune function, and depressed growth and increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria
Shocking Study Finds Young Adults at Risk of Fatty Liver Disease
Care 2 – Before you dive into all the chocolate and candy promoted just about everywhere for the upcoming holiday weekend, you might want to think twice. That’s because a shocking new population-based study published in the United Kingdom found high levels of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among youth and young adults, driven by obesity.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an umbrella-name given to liver conditions that are not linked to alcohol consumption. The main issue in fatty liver disease is that too much fat becomes stored in liver cells, which can cause inflammation and a host of other health problems. At its worst, it can cause cirrhosis or liver failure. In the United States, it is the most common form of chronic liver condition and is believed to affect 80 to 100 million people.
Researchers from Bristol University studied over 4000 people as part of their research, calling it the Children of the 90s, following children born in 1991 and 1992 in Avon, England. At age 18, they were given ultrasounds which revealed that 2.5 percent had NAFLD. Five years later, another type of scan revealed that 20 percent of people had fatty deposits on the liver. Half of these people were classified as severe, with scarring on the liver. Severe liver scarring can cause cirrhosis of the liver. The findings were among primarily Caucasians with no symptoms of the disease other than being overweight. Sixty percent of the people with the largest number of fatty liver deposits were obese.
While the study excluded people who drank heavily, drinking alcoholic beverages is one of the main risk factors for fatty liver disease.
The evidence is undeniable: Green leafy vegetables take the prize when it comes to protecting eye health
NaturalNews – Glaucoma can cause vision loss or even blindness. Leafy greens like kale, lettuce, and spinach, on the other hand, are full of vitamins and minerals that prevent conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Here’s a question: Is there a link between eating leafy greens and improving glaucoma?
According to a study, there is. In fact, adding more green leafy vegetables to a person’s diet can also significantly lower his risk of developing glaucoma.
The study was published in the Journal of American Medical Association Ophthalmology, and it was conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Glaucoma is an eye disorder that can damage a person’s optic nerve. The most common type of glaucoma is primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), which has no signs or symptoms except gradual vision loss. At least three million Americans have glaucoma, with 120,000 people going blind because of it.
The condition is described as an imbalance in production and drainage of aqueous humor, a clear fluid that can accumulate in the eye’s anterior chamber. Aqueous humor builds pressure inside the eye, and when this pressure reaches critical levels in a person with glaucoma, they may suffer from irreversible nerve damage and vision loss.
Nitrates and the risk of glaucoma
The researchers posited that increasing the intake of leafy greens with dietary nitrate improved blood circulation, which then helped correct the restricted flow of blood to the optic nerve. This, they believed, was the reason why eating leafy greens helped lower the risk of blindness linked to glaucoma.
Pet News
20 of the Best Fruits and Veggies to Feed Your Dog
Care 2 – When those big puppy dog eyes demand a treat, what do you do? Although treats should only make up about 10 percent of an average dog’s diet, spoiling your dog with certain canine-friendly fruits and veggies can benefit them in several ways. Here are 20 fruits and vegetables that can be part of a dog’s healthy diet.