March 29, 2024

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Today's News: January 15, 2019

World News

Supreme Court rejects appeal over military burn pits

Fox – The Supreme Court is rejecting appeals from military veterans who claim they suffer health problems because of open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The justices on Monday left in place a federal appeals court ruling that more than 60 lawsuits over the burn pits could not go forward.

The lawsuits said military contractor KBR dumped tires, batteries, medical waste and other materials into open burn pits. The suits claimed the resulting smoke caused neurological problems, cancers and other health issues in more than 800 service members. The complaints said at least 12 service members died.

The appeals court said KBR was essentially under military control and had little discretion in deciding how to manage the waste. KBR’s attorney said the decision to use burn pits “was made by the military.”

KBR was formerly owned by Halliburton Corp.

‘Zero coordination’: Mexico’s war on fuel theft risks economic chaos

Reuters – Conceived as a bold plan to attack corruption, a crackdown by Mexico’s new president on rampant fuel theft has turned into a battle to prevent economic chaos after state governments, businesses and consumers were caught out by the decision.

Eager to purge a prominent stain on Mexico’s reputation, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Dec. 27 unveiled a plan to increase military protection of oil installations and began cutting supply from pipelines that have been bled for years by thieves.

So far, the result has been more than a week of severe fuel shortages, shuttered gas stations and lines of motorists snaking around city blocks waiting hours to fill their tanks.

Erdogan: Turkey to set up ‘security zone’ in Syria

Al Jazeera – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would set up a security zone in northern Syria as suggested by US President Donald Trump as both leaders sought to ease growing tensions.

Macron Hands a Billion Euros to Iraq as Paris Burns

Breitbart – French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says France is committing 1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to help Iraq rebuild after its war against the Islamic State group.

Le Drian, meeting with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on Monday, said the aid would go to rebuilding Iraq’s most devastated areas.

Iraq’s Planning Ministry has estimated the cost of reconstruction at $88 billion. Iraq was able to raise $30 billion at a donor conference in Kuwait last year.

New migrant caravan leaves Honduras for journey to US border – Fox News

Fox – A new caravan of at least 500 migrants late Monday began its perilous journey from a rain-soaked bus station in Honduras to the United States border, members of the group told Fox News.

The caravan left the northern city of San Pedro Sula earlier than expected. There was chatter on social media that the group would leave at 5 a.m. on Tuesday. It is unclear why the group left earlier, but rainy weather could have played a role.

French Police Deploy Rifles with Live Ammunition to Yellow Vest Protests

Breitbart – French riot police (CRS) are alleged to have begun deploying assault rifles with live ammunition for the first time during the ninth weekend of protest in a row by the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement.

French officers were caught on video brandishing what appeared to be Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles on the streets of the French capital near the Arc de Triomphe on Saturday, the Daily Mail reports.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

George Soros has massive wall around his home

WND – One of the world’s most influential advocates for open borders lives behind a large wall.

Noting that opponents of President Trump have insisted building a wall on the southern border is immoral, the Daily Caller has embarked on an investigative series it calls “Walls Across America.”

Laura Loomer Pitches Tent at Pelosi’s California House to Protest Illegal Immigration

Breitbart – Conservative activist Laura Loomer reportedly hopped the fence surrounding Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) house on Monday, pitching a tent to protest illegal immigration and advocate for a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Will Sommer, a reporter with the Daily Beast, tweeted several snapshots of Loomer and several activists in yellow-greenish vests pitching a white tent with the word “immorality” spray-painted in red.

Photos: Thousands of L.A. Teachers March on Strike

Breitbart – Educators and parents wearing ponchos and rain boots and carrying umbrellas gathered downtown to march from City Hall to district headquarters in the pouring rain, pressing for higher pay and smaller class sizes that the district says could bankrupt the school system with 640,000 students.

“Students, we are striking for you,” teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told a cheering crowd.

Teachers aim to build on the momentum of successful walkouts nationwide, which launched last year in conservative states and now have moved to the more union-friendly West Coast. But unlike those strikes that shut down many schools and forced parents to find other care for their kids, all 1,240 K-12 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were open.

Donald Trump: Why Is Nancy Pelosi Still Getting Paid During the Shutdown?

Breitbart – President Donald Trump asked Tuesday why members of Congress like Speaker Nancy Pelosi are still getting paid during the ongoing partial government shutdown.

“Why is Nancy Pelosi getting paid when people who are working are not?” he wrote on Twitter.

The president also warned a new migrant caravan from Honduras was traveling north.

“Stop playing political games and end the Shutdown!” the president wrote on Twitter as the partial shutdown entered its 25th day.

He argued that a wall or a steel barrier was needed to prevent migrants from crossing into the United States.

“Tell Nancy and Chuck that a drone flying around will not stop them,” he wrote. “Only a Wall will work. Only a Wall, or Steel Barrier, will keep our Country safe!”

The president said that Americans were realizing the border crisis and the levels of crime at the border.

Judicial Watch Sues DOJ for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Security Detail Costs

Judicial Watch – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of costs incurred by and logs maintained by the security detail for Special Counsel Robert Mueller (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-02537)).

Judicial Watch filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the agency failed to respond adequately to its March 19, 2018, FOIA request for:

  • All records reflecting expenses incurred by, and disbursements of funds for, the security detail for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
  • All logs maintained by the security detail assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The Special Counsel’s office reportedly has spent over $25 million so far.

Economy & Business

McDonald’s loses Big Mac trademark after legal battle with Irish chain

The Guardian – Supermac strips US food giant of trademark across Europe after landmark EU ruling.

Pat McDonagh earned the nickname Supermac as an Irish teenager after a barnstorming performance in a Gaelic football match in the late 1960s.

The centre half-back guided his school, Carmelite college of Moate, County Westmeath, to victory over St Gerald’s, a more fancied team.

On Tuesday, half a century later, McDonagh prevailed in a different arena when his fast-food chain, Supermac’s, won a landmark legal battle against McDonald’s over the use of trademarks.

The Galway-based firm persuaded the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to cancel McDonald’s use of the “Big Mac” trademark, opening the way for Supermac to expand across Britain and continental Europe.

McDonald’s can appeal against the ruling.

Energy & Environment

California storms bring fear of devastating mudslides

ABC – In Riverside County east of Los Angeles, mandatory evacuations were ordered Monday for a dozen areas around the Holy Fire, which swept through an enormous swath of the Cleveland National Forest and surrounding areas last August.

“People in these zones MUST GO NOW. Rainstorms carry the potential for dangerous debris flows that can send mud, boulders and trees crashing down hillsides” with little or no warning, a county statement said.

The evacuation was later downgraded to voluntary but authorities urged people to stay alert because of continuing rain forecasts.

In Santa Barbara County on the central coast, evacuation orders were set to take effect at 10 a.m. Tuesday for areas hit by the Sherpa, Whittier and Thomas fires.

Science & Technology

‘Land of censorship & home of the fake’ Facebook is getting into the local news business

RT – Facebook is investing $300 million in local newsrooms and training initiatives for regional journalists over the next three years. But can Mark Zuckerberg be trusted to keep the press free?

With print newspapers’ advertising revenues in freefall for almost two decades, and local newspapers conglomerating and laying off staff to survive, the industry will take any help it can get. Facebook – with its mountains of fake news, clickbait, and a tricky environment for digital publishers to make money in – has in no small way contributed to the precarious state of modern journalism, but the company now wants to give the fourth estate a booster shot.

The company decided to focus specifically on local news. Vice President of Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown said in a blog post that after examining what kind of news people want to see on Facebook, the company “heard one consistent answer: people want more local news, and local newsrooms are looking for more support.”

China’s Moon mission sees first seeds sprout

Seeds taken up to the Moon by China’s Chang’e-4 mission have sprouted, says China National Space Administration.

It marks the first time any biological matter has grown on the Moon, and is being seen as a significant step towards long-term space exploration.

The Chang’e 4 is the first mission to land on and explore the Moon’s far side, facing away from Earth.

It touched down on 3 January, carrying instruments to analyse the region’s geology.

Plants have been grown on the International Space Station before but never on the Moon.

The ability to grow plants on the Moon will be integral for long-term space missions, like a trip to Mars which would take about two-and-a-half years.

It would mean that astronauts could potentially harvest their own food in space, reducing the need to come back down to Earth to resupply.

Health

EU glyphosate approval was based on plagiarised Monsanto text, report finds

The Guardian – EU regulators based a decision to relicense the controversial weedkiller glyphosate on an assessment plagiarised from industry reports, according to a report for the European parliament.

A crossparty group of MEPs commissioned an investigation into claims, revealed by the Guardian, that Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) copy-and-pasted tracts from Monsanto studies.

The study’s findings have been released hours before a parliamentary vote on tightening independent scrutiny of the pesticides approvals process.

The authors said they found “clear evidence of BfR’s deliberate pretence of an independent assessment, whereas in reality the authority was only echoing the industry applicants’ assessment.”

Why Are Your Oranges Covered With Antibiotics?

Mercola – In December 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the “maximum level” of oxytetracycline for use in citrus fruits — just days after approving residues of the drug on fruit.

The drug acts as a pesticide and is intended to suppress, but not cure, citrus greening disease, a devastating plant condition.

The use of both oxytetracycline and streptomycin as pesticides on agricultural plants is banned in the European Union and Brazil, amid rising concerns over antibiotic resistance.

The state of Florida could end up using 36 times more streptomycin and four times more oxytetracycline on citrus trees than are used in Americans in a year

The Surprising Link Between Teflon and the Atomic Bomb

Mercola – The Teflon chemical PTFE is one of a large group of fluorinated chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl or perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFASs), which include PFOA and PFOS.

PTFE was a Manhattan project-funded discovery that came about quite by accident, at the hands of Roy Plunkett, a DuPont chemist working with Freon refrigerants in 1938.

The Manhattan Project gave momentum to the development and large-scale production of fluorocarbons, including PFASs, which were also taken up by 3M to make Scotchgard.

PFASs persist in the environment, are contaminating water supplies and have been linked to developmental problems, cancer, liver damage, immune effects, thyroid problems and more

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