March 29, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today's News: January 10, 2020

World News

Officials say Iranian missile ‘likely’ downed Ukrainian plane

CSM – US officials said Thursday it was “highly likely” that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile downed a Ukrainian jetliner late Tuesday, killing all 176 people on board. They suggested it could well have been a mistake.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose nation lost at least 63 people in the apparent shootdown, said much the same at a news conference in Toronto. He said the strike appeared to involve a surface-to-air missile and “may have been unintentional.”
The crash came just a few hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops amid a confrontation with Washington over the U.S. drone strike that killed an Islamic Revolutionary Guard general last week. Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said they had no certain knowledge of Iranian intent. But they said the airliner could have been mistaken for a threat.

NATO chief says there’s ‘no reason to disbelieve’ claims that Iran downed Ukrainian Boeing with missile over Tehran

RT – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has tentatively backed claims from the US and allies that Iran shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed on Wednesday, saying there is “no reason to doubt” the allegation.

‘Psychological warfare’: Iran dares Canada & others to show ‘intelligence’ they used to accuse Tehran of downing Ukrainian jet

RT – Tehran has dismissed claims that the crashed Ukrainian Boeing 737 was hit by an Iranian missile as “psychological warfare,” calling on countries that lost citizens in the crash to send representatives to join its probe.
“All these reports are a psychological warfare against Iran,” government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Thursday. “All those countries whose citizens were aboard the plane can send representatives and we urge Boeing to send its representative to join the process of investigating the black box.”
Foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has meanwhile called on Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to share the intelligence he has claimed to have from “multiple sources” that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.
We are calling on the Canadian Prime Minister and any other government that has information about the crash to hand it over to the investigation committee in Iran.

Authorities warn suicide bomber headed to U.S.

Breitbart – Authorities along the U.S. border are on alert after receiving a law enforcement intelligence warning about a possible suicide bomber heading north toward the U.S.-Mexico Border. Breitbart obtained an exclusive copy of the leaked official document from a source operating under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The official report was circulated to law enforcement partners along the U.S. border, the intelligence originated from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the report was circulated by Border Patrol Intelligence. Breitbart confirmed the authenticity of the document with multiple law enforcement sources; however, the details contained within the report have not been verified by Breitbart and the purpose of officials circulating the warning is to alert other authorities and to seek help in verifying the accuracy of the information.
The report being authentic does not verify that a suicide bomber is actually headed toward the U.S.-Mexico Border, but rather that such intelligence was received from a credible source or sources.

US Wants to Discuss Return to Strategic Partnership With Iraq Instead of Troop Withdrawal

Sputnik – Following the US airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian top general Soleimani and two leaders of the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Force, a move that was not authorised by the country’s government, Iraq’s parliament adopted a motion to expel all foreign military forces present in the country, including US troops.
The US State Department has announced that any new American delegation sent to Iraq would discuss matters of returning to a strategic partnership rather than troop withdrawal with the country’s government.
“There does, however, need to be a conversation between the US and Iraqi governments not just regarding security, but about our financial, economic, and diplomatic partnership”, the State Department said.
The press release further noted that Washington seeks to be “a friend and partner to a sovereign, prosperous, and stable Iraq”, while stating that the US military presence in the country will persist in order to fight Daesh* and protect Americans, Iraqis, and US-led coalition partners.
The State Department also announced that it would be discussing NATO’s involvement in Iraq with the alliance’s delegation during a meeting that will take place later on 10 January. It noted that the discussion is being held in line with US President Donald Trump’s earlier call for NATO to be more involved in Middle East issues.

European leaders hold emergency summit to save Iran deal

Al Jazeera  – The leaders of Europe are hoping to guide the United States and Iran away from confrontation, knowing that a miscalculation from either side could result in a devastating war and a serious nuclear proliferation crisis.
European Union foreign ministers are holding a rare emergency meeting on Friday afternoon, but will be wary about meting out any diplomatic punishment amid signs of de-escalation from Washington and Tehran following the US killing of an Iranian general in Baghdad, and Tehran’s retaliatory missile attack on two US bases in Iraq.
Their discussions will begin with the “evolving situation” in Libya, according to an EU briefing note, before moving on to the latest in Iraq.

Brexit bill allowing Britain to exit EU on 31 January passes Commons

Independent – The government bill paving the way for the UK’s exit from the European Union on 31 January has completed its passage through the House of Commons, amid warnings that it may lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom.
The EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill passed its third reading in the Commons by 330 votes to 231 – a government majority of 99.
The bill now goes to the House of Lords on Monday and is expected to reach the statute book in time for Boris Johnson to hit his target of delivering Brexit by the end of this month.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Trump: Dems would have leaked plans to target terrorist

Fox – Flush with campaign cash and facing down a possible Senate impeachment trial, President Trump headlined his first major rally of the election year Thursday in Ohio — and almost immediately, the president capitalized on his order to take out Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani after the military leader was said to have orchestrated an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.
In unequivocal terms, Trump slammed House Democrats’ nonbinding War Powers Resolution, which passed earlier in the day in a rebuke to the Soleimani strike. Trump went on to suggest that Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and “Liddle‘ pencil-neck” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., would have tipped off the media about the operation had they known about it.
“They’re saying, ‘You should get permission from Congress, you should come in and tell us what you want to do — you should come in and tell us, so that we can call up the fake news that’s back there, and we can leak it,'” Trump said. “Lot of corruption back there.”
The president added that it would have been impractical to alert Congress, given the “split-second” nature of the decision to kill Soleimani.

House Votes To Restrict Trump’s War Powers Against Iran

Essence – On Thursday, the House voted to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran, passing a war powers resolution by a 224-194 margin.
According to ABC News, the vote was mostly passed along party lines, although eight Democrats voted against the resolution and three Republicans and Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) voting in favor.
The resolution calls for the end of military hostilities against Iran within 30 days unless there is approval from Congress.
However, the resolution still has to go to the Senate, where it is not clear what its reception will be. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has introduced a similar measure, which could be voted on next week.
Of course, Trump is sure to veto any restriction to his power, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced intentions to advance what is known as a “concurrent resolution,” which are not submitted to the president.

These Republicans voted yes on the War Powers resolution

CNN – The House of Representatives on Thursday approved the Iran War Powers resolution — an effort to restrain President Donald Trump’s ability to use military action against Iran without congressional approval — with the support of three Republicans.
Republicans Reps. Matt Gaetz and Francis Rooney of Florida as well as Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky all crossed party lines to vote in favor of the resolution. On the Democratic side, Reps. Ben McAdams of Utah, Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, and Max Rose and Anthony Brindisi of New York all opposed it.

McConnell backs measure to change Senate rules, dismiss impeachment without articles

The Hill – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is backing a resolution to change the Senate’s rules to allow for lawmakers to dismiss articles of impeachment against President Trump before the House sends them over.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced on Thursday that McConnell has signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution, which he introduced earlier this week.
Spokesmen for McConnell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about his support.
Changing the rules would either require a two-thirds vote or for Republicans to deploy the “nuclear” option.
The resolution would give the House 25 days to send articles of impeachment over to the Senate. After that, a senator could offer a motion to dismiss “with prejudice for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles” with a simple majority vote, according to Hawley’s proposal.

Trump Scores a Win as Court Clears the Way for Border Wall Funding

Western Journal – While facing off against one of the country’s biggest enemies abroad, the White House just scored another tactical victory on the home front — and proved how crucial the president’s power to shape the judiciary system really is.
President Donald Trump on Thursday was celebrating a decision by a panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to lift a lower court order that blocked billions in military construction funds from being used to build up defenses on the southern border.
For Trump, who made controlling illegal immigration the centerpiece of his presidential campaign and has continued that stance throughout his administration, it was a moment of victory in a long-running legal fight — and he had a judge he appointed himself to thank for it.

Let Her Off: DOJ Inquiry Into Hillary Clinton ‘Finds Nothing’

Information Liberation – You’ll be shocked to learn the Department of Justice’s “inquiry” into Hillary Clinton’s den of corruption reportedly “found nothing of consequence!”
Rather than “lock her up” they’ve decided to let her off.
From Washington Post, “Justice Dept. winds down Clinton-related inquiry once championed by Trump. It found nothing of consequence.”:
A Justice Department inquiry launched more than two years ago to mollify conservatives clamoring for more investigations of Hillary Clinton has effectively ended with no tangible results, and current and former law enforcement officials said they never expected the effort to produce much of anything.
John Huber, the U.S. attorney in Utah, was tapped in November 2017 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to look into concerns raised by President Trump and his allies in Congress that the FBI had not fully pursued cases of possible corruption at the Clinton Foundation and during Clinton’s time as secretary of state, when the U.S. government decided not to block the sale of a company called Uranium One.
As a part of his review, Huber examined documents and conferred with federal law enforcement officials in Little Rock who were handling a meandering probe into the Clinton Foundation, people familiar with the matter said. Current and former officials said that Huber has largely finished and found nothing worth pursuing — though the assignment has not formally ended and no official notice has been sent to the Justice Department or to lawmakers, these people said.
It’s just a coincidence their donations have plummeted since Hillary’s defeat in 2016!
There was absolutely no pay to play going on, folks!
The effective conclusion of his investigation, with no criminal charges or other known impacts, is likely to roil some in the GOP who had hoped the prosecutor would vindicate their long-held suspicions about a political rival. Trump, though, has largely shifted his focus to a different federal prosecutor tapped to do a separate, special investigation: U.S. attorney in Connecticut John Durham, who Attorney General William P. Barr assigned last year to explore the origins of the FBI’s 2016 probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
That FBI investigation was being supervised by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in late 2017, when Trump and his supporters were pressuring senior law enforcement officials to appoint a second special counsel to pursue Clinton.

Tom Steyer to Climate Change Refugees: Come to the US

Newsmax – Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer on Friday unveiled an immigration proposal seeking to make immigrants fleeing the effects of climate change eligible for legal entry into the United States.
Like a lot of his White House rivals, Steyer is promising to use executive action to reinstate Obama administration protections for people brought to the country illegally as children. He’d do the same to nullify President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban and end the separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The billionaire environmental activist from California also would seek to decriminalize illegal border crossings and work with Congress to approve a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the U.S. illegally.

California May Be 1st State to Sell Own Prescription Drugs

Newsmax – California could become the first state to make its own prescription drugs under a proposal announced Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who says it would “take the power out of the hands of greedy pharmaceutical companies.”
The Democratic governor wants the nation’s most populous state to contract with generic drug companies to make medications on its behalf so it could sell them to its nearly 40 million residents. The goal is to lower prices by increasing competition in the generic drug market, Newsom said.
His proposal also would create a single market for drug pricing in California, with companies having to bid to sell their medicine at a uniform price. One expert said that piece would have the bigger impact.
“Other countries control or negotiate the price of drugs, and if there is one state that could do it, it’s California, which is the size of a country,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation. “A drug company could walk away from Rhode Island. It’s much harder to walk away from California.”
Lawmakers would have to approve the proposal before they could become law. A legislative leader in charge of reviewing the plan gave a tentative endorsement Thursday.

BREAKING: Sharyl Attkisson Is Suing Rod Rosenstein and Other Deep State Dirty Cops for Illegally Spying on Her During Obama Years

Gateway Pundit – Former CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson announced yesterday that she is suing former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for illegally spying on her during the Obama year.  Rosenstein and other Deep State dirty cops are identified in her filing.
Also, this is not the first we heard of Rosenstein being involved in spying on Americans during his tenure in Baltimore.  An individual named Johnheretohelp popped up on Twitter and in early 2019 he claimed to have had information that Rod Rosenstein ran an operation out of Baltimore during the Obama years where he was spying on everyone.

Tucker Carlson Debunks Claim There is an “Epidemic” of Transgenders Being Murdered

They’re actually safer than the general population.
Infowars – Tucker Carlson debunked the so-called transgender “murder epidemic” on his show last night, highlighting figures which prove transgenders are actually safer than the general population.
Carlson began the segment by playing a clip of presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren vowing to “read the names of transgender women, of people of color, who have been killed in the past year.”
He then quoted Democratic pressure group the Human Rights Campaign, which supported Warren, claiming that there is an “epidemic of violence against transgender people – especially trans women of color.”
Carlson then highlighted how this narrative is being amplified by the media, which has declared the issue to be a “crisis” and an “epidemic.”
“That means it’s time to see the numbers behind these claims, the ones Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren didn’t mention,” said the Fox News host, before citing figures published by the very same Human Rights Group responsible for much of the hysteria.
“According to the Human Rights Campaign, in 2018, a total of 26 transgendered Americans were murdered,” Carlson said. “That’s 26 too many of course. Every murder is a tragedy, very much including these. But does 26 constitute an epidemic? Let’s break it down. A few years ago, the Williams Institute estimated that 1.4 million American adults identify as transgender. If that figure is correct, then in 2018 the murder rate for transgendered people was 1.8 per 100,000. While granting that every murder is too many, relatively speaking, that is a very low rate.”
Carlson then noted that the murder rate for the general population is “4.9 murders per 100,000 people,” proving that transgenders are “safer than your typical American.”
The Fox News host ended the segment by suggesting that activists and political leaders should focus on the real murder epidemic which is happening in the “poorest parts of our major cities.”

Donald Trump Jr Bashes American College Students, Praises H-1Bs As World’s ‘Best And Brightest’

Information Liberation – n his new book “Triggered,” Donald Trump Jr “pushes the trope that American kids are all dumb and in debt” because they got PhDs in “basket weaving” but praises H-1B visa workers as the world’s “best and brightest,” Progressives for Immigration Reform reports.
This is the opposite of the America First policies Trump ran on.
Breitbart reported last month on how AT&T workers say “they are being laid off after being forced to train their H-1B foreign replacements.”
Claiming H-1Bs from India are better at their jobs than Americans is simply false.
A 2017 study found “95% of engineers in [India] are not fit to take up software development jobs” and “only 1.4% can write functionally correct and efficient code.”
It’s worth mentioning that Jared Kushner’s criminal father Charles appears to have bought Jared’s way into Harvard by pledging to give them a $2.5 million donation.
It’s also worth mentioning that Jared Kushner’s family used his position in the White House to shamelessly hawk notoriously corrupt EB-5 visas to rich Chinese foreigners in exchange for $500,000+ investments in his own businesses.

Economy & Business

Source: New Trump Sanctions on Iran Will Target Elites and Non-Oil Industries

An announcement is expected before the end of the week, VICE News has learned.
Vice – President Trump’s latest sanctions against Iran will target the country’s non-oil industries and ruling elites while the U.S. will ratchet up enforcement of existing sanctions, VICE News has learned.
The announcement of the new sanctions that Trump promised Wednesday is “imminent,” and they are expected to be implemented by the end of this week, according to a senior administration official.
But the sanctions’ pressure on Iran may be like the “Spinal Tap” joke about turning the volume up to 11: It’s already as high as it can go.
The Trump administration has already been running an official policy of “maximum pressure” — including severe sanctions on every key sector of Iran’s economy. It’s not clear much more can be done to hurt the country economically. Even if Trump’s team can find creative new ways to craft sanctions, experts uniformly doubt there’s any chance it would change Iran’s behavior.

Trump Says Trade Deal Might Be Signed Jan. 15 Or “Shortly Thereafter”

ZeroHedge – Uncertainty is increasing after President Trump said the Phase 1 trade deal might be signed on Jan. 15 but also said it could be signed after, report Reuters.
President Trump stated last month that a trade deal with China would be signed on Jan. 15, but on Thursday evening, he said the agreement might be signed “shortly thereafter.”
In an interview with ABC TV affiliate in Toledo, Ohio, the president said, “We’re going to be signing on Jan. 15 – I think it will be Jan. 15, but shortly thereafter, but I think Jan. 15 – a big deal with China.”
Some confusion is certainly seen with the president’s latest statement, considering China’s Vice Premier Liu He, the country’s top trade negotiator, will visit Washington on Jan. 13-15 to sign the Phase 1 traded deal.
The White House wasn’t open for questions as it appears the signing of the trade deal, announced by the president on Dec. 31 to be precisely on Jan. 15 is now in question. President Trump was hesitant to mention exact dates and was vague, considering several weeks ago, he was confident that a deal would be signed on Jan. 15.
The uncertainty around the timing could suggest trade negotiations could’ve hit a snag. As we’ve mentioned over the last week, Beijing won’t increase its annual import quotas for wheat, corn, and rice.
We’ve also detailed how China might not be able to live up to President Trump’s hard commitments on agriculture purchases.

A Fearful Fed Keeps Pouring Money Into the Repo Market

Mises – The Fed announced on Thursday it is adding another 83 billion in “in temporary liquidity to financial markets” And, in a development that will surprise no cynic anywhere, the Fed also noted it “may keep adding temporary money to markets for longer than policy makers had expected in September.”
Specifically, this was another move to shore up and bailout the repo market, which has required the Fed’s ongoing revival of quantitative easing (but don’t call it that!) which has been going on since September. Thursday’s move  adds even more to the Fed’s balance sheet. The Fed’s total assets had been falling since early 2015, But last September, the Federal Reserve again began buying assets in an effort to funnel money to the repo market. As Reuters reported at the time :
Cash available to banks for their short-term funding needs all but dried up earlier this week, and interest rates in U.S. money markets shot up to as high as 10% for some overnight loans …
That forced the Fed to make an emergency injection of more than $125 billion … its first major market intervention since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, to prevent borrowing costs from spiraling even higher.
According to Caitlin Long, this tremor in the repo market was likely triggered by the fact “Somebody — probably a big bank — need[ed] cash so badly that it [was] willing to pay a shockingly high cost to obtain it.”

Retail Apocalypse Surges Into 2020: No End In Sight

SHFTPlan – The retail apocalypse was particularly bad in 2019, and only days into 2020, Macy’s has announced it’ll begin closing stores, following a trend in the industry.  Macy’s will close a minimum of 28 stores, and one Bloomingdale’s as problems in retail continue.
With consumer spending so high, it’s hard to imagine a reason for store closures.  “We regularly review our store portfolio and will provide an update at our Investor Day on February 5th,” the company said in a statement sent to USA TODAY.
Clearance sales will begin this month and run for eight to 12 weeks, Macy’s Media Relations Manager Julianne Bartosz said in an email to TCPalm.com, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, about the Macy’s in the Indian River Mall in Vero Beach, Florida.  Most other locations to be shuttered have not yet been disclosed. Officials also steered clear of an exact number of closings, say there would be a “minimum of 28 stores” permanently closed.

Energy & Environment

A triple threat storm could bring tornadoes, snow and flooding to much of the US this weekend

CNN – A powerful storm system set to affect much of the country this weekend could pose a triple threat, with the possibility of severe storms and tornadoes, ice and snow, and flooding.
Millions of people in the eastern half of the United States — in the Southeast, Midwest, Great Lakes Region and the Northeast — could feel the effects, said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen. Another storm system will bring heavy snow to the West.
Tornadoes and damaging winds across the South
Severe weather, possibly including tornadoes, damaging wind and large hail, is predicted in much of the South on Friday and Saturday, Hennen said.
The risk of damaging wind gusts became even more apparent Thursday, prompting the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center to issue a moderate risk of severe weather — at level 4 of 5 — for parts of northwestern Louisiana and a stretch of eastern Texas.

Greta Thunberg: At Davos we will tell world leaders to abandon the fossil fuel economy

The Guardian – e have just entered a new decade, a decade where every month and every day will be absolutely crucial in deciding what the future will look like. Towards the end of January, chief executives, investors and policymakers will gather in Davos for the 50th anniversary of the World Economic Forum.
Young climate activists and school strikers from around the world will be present to put pressure on these leaders.

GMO Agriculture Causes Devastating Consequences on Amphibians – New Study

Sustainable Pulse – According the a new study, soybean production in South America now covers over 57 million hectares, more than on any other continent. The consequences for amphibians have been devastating, as is clear from the study highlights and abstract.
The authors conclude in their study: “Our work has triggered alarm about the detrimental impact of pesticides (insecticides and herbicides) on native amphibians inhabiting the shallow ponds of the richest agricultural lands of South America. We documented effects caused by pesticides on tadpoles which can compromise the viability of populations living in agricultural landscapes. The intensive agricultural model based on the GMO technological package currently applied in South America is expected to expand (and intensify) over the coming years. Therefore, it is also expected that native amphibian populations will continue being affected. We suggest that conservation priorities should be focused on developing a better policy legislation for pesticide use, including not only the protection of human settlements but also native terrestrial and wetland habitats.”

Science & Technology

Game-changing new stem cell treatment REVERSES aging in mouse brains

RT – In what could prove to be a game changer for us humans, scientists have discovered how to make old brains young and young brains stronger and more effective using targeted stem cell therapy on mice.
The team wanted to investigate if increasing the number of stem cells in the brain would help in recovering cognitive functions, like learning and memory, that had worsened or had been lost entirely during the aging process.
To do so, researchers from TU Dresden’s Center for Regenerative Therapies used a method to stimulate and increase the number of neural stem cells located in the brains of mice and thus increase the number of neurons they generate.
Much to their surprise, the newly generated neurons survived and formed new contacts in neighboring brain cells. To put these freshly minted neurons to the test, the boffins then tested the navigational abilities of the test subject mice.
Mice and humans develop strategies for navigation in much the same way: when both species are young, our brains build and remember cognitive maps of an environment. As we age, however, this ability fades significantly.
Older mammalian brains must instead learn the list of detailed navigational steps to reach a target destination within an environment with little to no access to the overall cognitive map. This means that, should the starting point change in the same environment, it would take far longer to navigate to the end destination.
By stimulating the neural stem cells in their brains, the old mice in the study successfully recovered their cognitive mapping ability, and remembered the layout of a given environment for far longer, effectively reversing the effects of the aging process on this particular skill.
“Age-related impairments can be rescued by hijacking the endogenous neurogenic potential of the brain, thus, rejuvenating its function,” explained Professor Federico Calegari, senior author of the study.

Disgraced Chinese Scientist Who Genetically Edited Human Babies is Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Sustainable Pulse –  He Jiankui shocked the scientific community when he announced in 2018 the birth of twins whose genes he claimed had been altered to confer immunity against HIV.
According to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, Dr. He was also issued with a fine of three million yuan (around £327,900 / $429,300).
The court in Shenzhen, China, sentenced Dr He for ‘illegally carrying out the human embryo gene-editing intended for reproduction’, Xinhua reported.
Two of Dr He’s fellow researchers were also sentenced.
Zhang Renli was handed a two-year jail term and was fined to the order of one million yuan (£109,200 / $143,100).
Meanwhile, his colleague Qin Jinzhou was given 18 months in jail, a two-year suspension and a fine of 500,000 yuan (£54,600 / $71,600).
The court determined that the trio had not obtained qualifications to work as doctors and had knowingly violated China’s regulations and ethical principles, Xinhua reported.
They had acted ‘in the pursuit of personal fame and gain’ and seriously ‘disrupted medical order’, the court had said in its verdict.
In addition, Xinhua have reported that a third gene-edited baby was born as a result of Dr He’s experiments — a fact that had not previously been confirmed.

Health

Curcumin: Prevent liver disease and reduce liver fat with this amazing natural plant compound

NaturalNews – Fatty liver disease, also known as hepatic steatosis, is a life-threatening condition caused by an abnormal buildup of fat in the liver. While it is usually caused by excessive alcohol drinking, this disease can also stem from non-alcoholic means. This fat buildup could lead to inflammation in the liver, causing damage and creating scarring. Severe cases of fatty liver disease can even lead to liver failure. Reducing this abnormal buildup of liver fat often involves regular exercise and other healthful lifestyle changes like eating a balanced diet and reducing your sugar intake. Now, a recent research suggests that a well-known compound found in turmeric could make a big difference in improving liver health.
A study published in the journal Drug Research found that curcumin has liver health-boosting effects like improving liver blood flow and reducing liver fat.
Take curcumin to improve liver health
Over the years, the list of beneficial health effects of curcumin somehow gets longer and longer. Curcumin is considered the main active ingredient of turmeric (Curcuma longa), a perennial spice closely related to ginger. Turmeric has been used for thousands of years both as a spice and as a staple in Ayurvedic medicine for its powerful medicinal properties, including potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. (Related: Curcumin naturally fights cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and obesity.)
Curcumin is also found to increase a growth hormone called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Increasing this hormone could help delay or even reverse age-related cognition decline and plenty of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Higher levels of BDNF can also improve memory.
>> Power Mall Product of Interest: CurcuminX4000 – 180 Veggie Capsules

FDA Wants to Restrict Brain Health Supplements Which are a Threat to Big Pharma

Health Impact News – The FDA is complicit in turning another supplement into an expensive drug. Action Alert!
Earlier this year, the FDA fired off warning letters to seventeen companies that, in the agency’s view, were illegally marketing supplements to treat Alzheimer’s disease. One of the supplements targeted in the FDA’s action was piracetam, a derivative of GABA, continuing an FDA trend of attacking brain health supplements to protect drug industry profits.
Piracetam has been on the market as a supplement for years. It is approved as a drug in Europe and prescribed for cognitive impairment and dementia. Researchers think that piracetam helps the brain by boosting energy production in brain cells. As we age, our brain cells decline in their ability to generate energy; this decline in energy causes cellular “debris” to accumulate which can kill brain cells and eventually lead to senility.
The FDA’s treatment of piracetam highlights how broken our system is. This relates to the “new supplement” notification process we’ve discussed many times. Any supplement that came to the market after 1994 is considered a “new supplement.” Companies that want to sell new supplements must notify the FDA 75 days in advance of marketing the product. In implementing this provision of the law, though, the FDA has been trying to turn this notification process into a de facto pre-approval process. The agency has also adopted an expansive view of what constitutes a new supplement.
Additionally, if a compound is being investigated for use in a drug, and that process started before a “new supplement” notification was filed on that compound, then that substance cannot be sold as a supplement—even if the drug company abandons the research on that compound. This, remember, is what happened with pyridoxamine, a crucial form of vitamin B6. Additionally, L-glutamine and CBD have both been turned into drugs through this mechanism.

Excess Body Fat Can Age Your Brain Faster Than Muscle

Mercola – Increasing research shows that maintaining healthy levels of body fat and greater muscle mass has an effect on your brain health and may slow your rate of cognitive aging.
People with higher amounts of abdominal fat had worse fluid intelligence with age, while those with greater muscle mass were more protected against such declines.
Women who had greater muscle mass tended to have better scores in fluid intelligence during the study period.
Past research has linked midlife obesity with an increased risk of mild cognitive impairment, changes in short-term memory and executive functioning and dementia.
In addition to regular exercise to increase muscle mass, eating a ketogenic diet to maintain a healthy body weight and avoid obesity may support your brain health as you age

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