Today's News: August 28, 2018

World News

Reacting to U.S. Sanctions, Iran Boasts of Ability to Control Persian Gulf
The New American – Reacting to President Trump’s announcement of sanctions against Iran on August 7, the head of the navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Alireza Tangsiri, said on August 27 that Iran has full control of both the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz that leads into it. The veiled threat implied by Tangsiri’s statement is that if the sanctions reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero — as U.S. officials have said is their goal — then Iran might retaliate by blocking oil exports through the Gulf of other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia.

US Must End Support for War in Yemen After UN Probe Exposed Violations – Senator
Sputnik – The United States should end all support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen as a United Nations investigation indicates war crimes are being perpetrated with US-supplied weapons, Senator Chris Murphy said in a press release on Tuesday.
“The UN Panel of Experts on Yemen says it’s likely war crimes are being committed with US weapons and supervision, and yet Washington is taking zero actions in response,” Murphy said. “How can Congress continue to fund this war in the face of US-supported war crimes?”
Murphy was commenting on a report mandated by the United Nations that found that the conflict in Yemen was violating international law.

Illegal Migrants Must Be Transported Back to Africa – Hungarian PM
Sputnik – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday that Europe needed a new European Commission and Parliament that would stand up for the protection of borders and the stopping of migration.

Mattis Hints US May Resume Major Military Exercises on Korean Peninsula
Newsmax – The U.S. military has no plans yet to suspend any more major military exercises with South Korea, the defense secretary said on Tuesday, in the middle of a breakdown in diplomacy with North Korea over its nuclear weapons.
Defense Secretary James Mattis said at a Pentagon news conference that no decisions had been made about major exercises for next year, but noted that the suspension of drills last summer as a good-faith gesture to North Korea was not open-ended.

Russia to hold biggest war games since Cold War
Al Jazeera – NATO to monitor Russia’s September drill of 300,000 troops, 1,000 aircraft, two naval fleets and all its airborne units.

South Africa’s ruling ANC says land expropriation bill withdrawn for further reconsideration
RT – A bill allowing the South African government to seize private land without compensation has been withdrawn by the Portfolio Committee on Public Works pending further study, according to the ruling African National Congress.
In 2015, the ANC proposed a constitutional amendment allowing the government to seize and redistribute land without any compensation to its owners. The draft, which has not been adopted so far, evoked widespread international outrage and multiple media reports of alleged violence against white South African farmers, including murders.
The committee’s chairperson, Humphrey Mmemezi, said the bill was referred to parliament on procedural grounds, but they couldn’t duplicate a separate parliamentary process.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Trump: Google suppressing conservative voices, hiding ‘good’ news and information
The Hill – President Trump on Tuesday morning accused Google of “suppressing voices of conservatives” and rigging its search engine to amplify liberal media outlets.
“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media,” Trump wrote. “In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out.
“Illegal? 96% of results on ‘Trump News’ are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous,” he added. “Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!”
>> Related: White House investigating Google after Trump accuses it of bias

GOP rep touches off firestorm with claim FBI leaked info, used stories to get FISA warrants
Fox – A Republican congressman touched off a firestorm Tuesday after claiming on Twitter that his office had information suggesting the FBI leaked information to the press and used the resulting articles to help obtain surveillance warrants.
“We’ve learned NEW information suggesting our suspicions are true: FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press, and then used those same press stories as a separate source to justify FISA’s,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., tweeted overnight.
The claim stemmed in part from FBI intelligence analyst Jonathan Moffa’s Friday testimony behind closed doors before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. A source with knowledge of the testimony backed up Meadows, telling Fox News that Moffa said FBI personnel would use media reports based on information they leaked to justify applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.
The source told Fox News that Moffa, who worked with controversial former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, acknowledged this “had been a practice in the past.”

Ariz. officials knew of issues with voting machines a day before Tuesday’s primary\
The Hill – Arizona officials knew on Monday about issues plaguing voting machines at certain polling locations, a day before the state’s primary elections, according to the Associated Press.
Polling sites across the state have faced technical difficulties throughout the day, as voters pick nominees for U.S. House and Senate seats, as well as state and local offices.

Source: Chinese front company hacked Hillary’s server
WND – The private email server through which Hillary Clinton transmitted classified information as secretary of state was hacked by a Chinese-owned company, according to sources briefed on the matter who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The private email server through which Hillary Clinton transmitted classified information as secretary of state was hacked by a Chinese-owned company, according to sources briefed on the matter who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The FBI failed to act when the Intelligence Community Inspector General warned of the problem, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said at a July 12 House Committee on the Judiciary hearing, as WND reported.
A former intelligence officer with expertise in cybersecurity who spoke to TheDCNF on condition of anonymity said two members of the ICIG, investigator Frank Rucker and attorney Janette McMillan, met repeatedly with FBI officials to warn them of the Chinese intrusion.
Among the officials who chose not to act was Peter Strzok, then the bureau’s top counterintelligence official. Strzok, who led both the Clinton and Russia investigations for the bureau and was a member of Robert Mueller’s special counsel team, was fired this month in the wake of his anti-Trump texts to his mistress and co-worker, and testimony before Congress.
The source said the Chinese state-owned firm linked to the hacking served was a “front group” for the Chinese government based in a Washington, D.C. suburb in Northern Virginia.
TheDCNF sought comment from Hillary Clinton’s team, which dismissed the claim.
“This is the most combed over subject in modern American political history,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. “The FBI spent thousands of hours investigating, and found nothing.

DNC changes superdelegate rules in presidential nomination process
CNN – Democrats on Saturday voted to chip away at the role party insiders play in choosing the party’s presidential nominee in one of the biggest changes to the process in decades.
The move to limit the influence of “superdelegates” at the party’s convention ahead of the 2020 presidential primaries ended an emotional and tumultuous two-year effort born out of the divisive 2016 contest between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who went on to become the Democratic nominee.

Missouri becomes first state to regulate use of the word ‘meat’
USA Today – On Tuesday, Missouri became the first state in the country to have a law on the books that prohibits food makers from using the word “meat” to refer to anything other than animal flesh.
This takes aim at manufacturers of what has been dubbed fake or nontraditional meat.
Clean meat – also known as lab-grown meat – is made of cultured animal tissue cells, while plant-based meat is generally from ingredients such as soy, tempeh and seitan.
The state law forbids “misrepresenting a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock or poultry.” Violators may be fined $1,000 and imprisoned for a year.
A similar argument is unfolding on the federal level.

Economy & Business

Is the U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement a Stealth NAFTA?
The New American – As President Trump opened his telephone conversation with Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto from the Oval Office on Monday morning, he said concerning the trade deal being discussed, “They used to call it NAFTA — we’re going to call it the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement, and we’ll get rid of the name NAFTA. It has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by NAFTA for many years. And now it’s a really good deal for both countries, and we look very much forward to it.”
But is this deal as “incredible” as Trump says it is? How different is it from NAFTA, the sovereignty-eroding agreement the new deal would replace? The details remain sketchy, as the final agreement isn’t expected to be revealed until Friday.

Energy & Environment

Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000 in Puerto Rico: study
Al Jazeera – Government-commissioned independent study finds that 2,975 deaths in the six months after Marie resulted from storm.

East Asia faces more flood threats
Al Jazeera – Summer rains in Japan and the Koreas have been significant and haven’t yet ceased.

Science & Technology

Experts Gather For UN-Hosted Meeting ON ‘KILLER ROBOTS’
SHFTPlan – Experts from numerous countries around the globe are gathering for a United Nations meeting to discuss “killer robots.” The weeklong event that opened Monday is the second at the U.N. offices in Geneva and will focus on lethal autonomous weapons systems.
Futuristic robots that can conduct war without human intervention is a big concern among official in the United Nations, according to a report by ABC News. The experts who have gathered for the meeting will discuss ways to define and “deal with” the problems that could arise from the creation of “killer robots.”
Although U.N. officials say that in theory, fully autonomous, computer-controlled weapons don’t exist yet, and the debate is still in its infancy, the discussion is all but mandatory as the experts and officials have often grappled with the very basic definitions. The United States has argued that it’s premature to establish a definition of such systems, much less regulate them, but the meeting will focus largely on those aspects.
Other experts and some of the top advocacy groups say governments and militaries should be prevented from developing such systems, which have sparked fears and led some critics to envision harrowing scenarios about their potential uses.

Health

Exercise is the most powerful lifestyle medicine that prevents the development of multiple chronic diseases
NaturalNews – A lot has been said about exercise. Studies have confirmed its many health benefits. One of the many aspects of exercise that needs constant emphasis is that it does more than just help build muscle; it also helps protect from various long-term degenerative conditions.
One of the best examples of conditions that exercise protects against is Alzheimer’s disease. This neurodegenerative condition is just one of several diseases that are collectively classified as dementia. Although its signs usually manifest as a person approaches the senior years, factors like one’s prior diet and physical activity can have an impact on the risks of developing the disease.
The ability of exercise to curb the risk of Alzheimer’s is well-documented. In one study, researchers followed up on 600 elderly women after six to eight years and found that those who walked the most had the least likelihood of experiencing cognitive decline.
Another large study on older women confirmed these findings, indicating that higher levels of long-term regular exercise can not only mitigate cognitive decline but also improve overall cognitive function. According to the researchers, those who exercise regularly are seemingly three years younger than their actual age.

STDs have rapid rise in U.S., set new record
NBC -Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in America, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were diagnosed in the U.S. in 2017, surpassing the record set in 2016 by more than 200,000, CDC scientists reported Tuesday.

Harvard quack spreads fear about coconut oil, claims it’s “pure poison” and recommends eating LARD instead
NaturalNews – The “science” regarding milk, eggs and other foods has swung like a seesaw over the years in much the same way, leaving health-conscious consumers totally unsure of what really is and is not the healthiest way to eat.
The latest victim of this “medical confusion” is the humble coconut. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor, Karin Michels, recently insisted at a talk delivered in Germany that coconut oil is “pure poison” and “one of the worst foods you can eat.” She claims that even lard – the unhealthy fat derived from the abdomens of pigs which was popular back in the 1950s – is a healthier choice than coconut oil.
Pure poison or medicinal magic?
The U.K.’s Daily Mail explains that coconut oil started gaining in popularity in the early 2000s, after two Columbia University studies found that the medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) in this oil burn fat more quickly than other types of fat. But, while the fat-burning properties of this oil are impressive, they are certainly not the only reason for its massive leap in popularity. Coconut oil is pure medicinal magic, as Natural News explained in an earlier article.
And, while the true causes of Alzheimer’s disease remain unclear, there is reliable evidence that coconut oil may reverse the course of this devastating illness. As reported by Natural News.
So, while there is little evidence that lard is anything but bad for one’s health, there is overwhelming evidence that increasing our consumption of coconut oil provides serious health benefits. It certainly cannot be described as “pure poison,” no matter what Dr. Michels may claim.

America’s Crisis: Starving Obese People
The Daily Sheeple – While Americans’ waistlines continue to expand, those who are gaining the most weight are also starving. They aren’t starving of calories, but of vital nutrients that help keep the body working in tip-top condition.
Everyone knows that vegetables are packed full of nutrients and vitamins that are good for the body, yet most Americans don’t meet their daily dose of vegetables in a week. Only 14% of adults even consume three servings of veggies per day, but the news is worse. Adolescents eat even fewer vegetables than their adult counterparts. So as Americans get bigger and consume more calories, they are wholly malnourished at the same time.
According to a well-worded article by Personal Liberty, all foods have calories, but only a very small amount of foods have nutrition. Unfortunately, this ignorance is capitalized upon by commercial “food” processors who produce millions of tons of empty foods that have calories without any actual nutrition.
The problem then quickly becomes worse. A full belly doesn’t know the difference between just calories and actual nutrition – that’s for the brain to figure out, yet most won’t take the time they need to look into what it is that they are actually consuming. Even though the results and outer manifestation of malnutrition is sickness, nobody equates the two. Neither the patients nor their doctors seem to realize that a whopping 85% of Americans are nutrient deficient, meaning they lack essential vitamins and minerals. This ignorance has caused a health crisis upon which commercial food processors and the medical establishment have raked in trillions of dollars.
>> Related: Teaching children to grow their own food greatly reduces obesity, study finds