World News
China Curbs Travel To Hong Kong As Projections Show 300,000 Might Already Be Infected
Top health officials share grim statistics
ZeroHedge – On Tuesday morning, China’s top health officials shared some grim statistics essentially confirming that the novel coronavirus believed to have emerged from a shady food market in Wuhan is on track to confirm some of the more dire projections shared by epidemiologists.
As we reported late yesterday, the death toll in China has soared past 100 while the number of confirmed cases doubled overnight. Health officials around the world have confirmed more than 4,500 cases, more than triple the number from Friday. All but a few of the deaths recorded so far have been in Wuhan or the surrounding Hubei province, per the SCMP.
Panic has swept across the region as border closures appear to be the overarching theme of Tuesday’s sessions. Even North Korea, which relies on China for 90% of its foreign trade, has closed the border with its patron. More than 50 million remain on lockdown in Hubei, and transit restrictions have been imposed by cities and regions around the country.
North Korea Cancels All Air China Flights to Pyongyang, Beefs Up Precautions Amid Coronavirus Fears
Sputnik – The newly identified deadly strain of coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, has been detected in over a dozen countries across Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America, and has infected over 4,500 people in China, North Korea’s neighbour to the north.
All North Korea-bound Air China flights have been canceled for the month of February, the Russian Embassy in North Korea has confirmed, citing a statement by the Chinese airline’s Pyongyang office.
The fate of flights by North Korean flag carrier Air Koryo is also in question, according to the Embassy, with only two Beijing-bound flights scheduled so for next month, and future flights contingent “on the development of the situation related to the spread of coronavirus.”
According to the Russian diplomatic mission, for the moment, twice weekly flights between Pyongyang and Russia’s Vladivostok will continue as planned.
North Korea closed its borders to foreign tourists last week amid fears related to 2019-nCoV, or the so-called ‘Wuhan coronavirus’, which has already claimed over 100 lives in neighbouring China, and affected some 4,515 people across the Asian country. Four cases of the virus have been reported in neighbouring South Korea, with cases also confirmed in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Taiwan, Australia, France, Germany, Canada and the United States.
City turned ghost town: Take a look inside sealed-off Wuhan amid coronavirus outbreak in China (VIDEO)
RT – Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, was the first in the country to be quarantined amid China’s growing efforts to curb the spread of the contagious illness, turning it into a ghost town.
Eerie timelapse footage recorded along the city’s roads shows once-packed highways sitting empty and appearing completely devoid of any signs of life. Not a single other vehicle can be seen in the clip, shared online by Dutch journalist Leen Vervaeke.
Since the outbreak began last month, the death toll has risen above 100. While the virus has spread to some 16 other countries and infected over 4,500 people worldwide, no deaths have been recorded from it outside China. On Tuesday, authorities in Japan and Germany confirmed their first cases of coronavirus in patients who had not personally traveled to Wuhan.
U.S. Issues Highest Travel Warning as Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs to 106, China Scrambles to Respond
Breitbart – The U.S. State Department has issued a Level 4 advisory for the locked down Chinese city of Wuhan, meaning “no American” should travel there “while this virus continues to have impact,” Vice President Mike Pence said Monday. He spoke as authorities at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak battle to control its spread.
This is the highest travel level available to government authorities and is only issued in cases of extreme risk and danger.
N95 Masks USELESS, Coronavirus Enters Body Through EYEBALLS, Warns Infected Doctor in Wuhan, China
NaturalNews – N95 masks are useless against coronavirus. These masks don’t create a full facial seal, and a doctor in China is now warning that he contracted coronavirus by failing to wear a full face mask. Importantly most health care professionals shown in the media are wearing only N95-style masks which are pointless and don’t stop the wearer from becoming infected.
Since the Wuhan coronavirus now has a documented 83% infection rate among those who are exposed, the fact that N95 masks are giving people a false sense of protection should be more than a little alarming.
As reported by the media in Asia (originally in Mandarin Chinese):
(Translated) This person is Wang Guangfa, a physician at Peking University Hospital. He previously went to Wuhan to investigate the epidemic, and later emphasized to the public that the epidemic was “preventable and controllable.” Now he became a patient and caused a lot of outcry among netizens.
Wang Guangfa went on to point out that the second point of doubt was that he had visited fever clinics and temporary isolation wards in several hospitals 2 days before returning to Beijing. Some hospitals had crowded fever clinics, and patients with neocoronavirus pneumonia were likely to be present. Although they were also highly alert to enter with N95 masks, in retrospect, he suddenly realized that everyone was not equipped with protective glasses.
Therefore, it is suspected that the virus first entered the conjunctiva and then spread to the whole body. If this speculation is true, his protective blind spot is not worn. Protective glasses, Wang Guangfa’s inference caused a lot of discussion among netizens, everyone said, “It is terrible to pass through the conjunctiva!”, “Seeing patients on the video, only masks without goggles, I still feel at risk”, Important, don’t rub your eyes while wearing goggles, …Front-line medical staff should pay attention to eye protection.
Palestinians mobilize against Trump peace plan
AFP – Palestinians staged protests Tuesday against US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, hours before it was to be unveiled in Washington.
Thousands demonstrated in Gaza, burning pictures of Trump and the American flag, while further rallies were planned for the coming days.
Details of the initiative remained under wraps, but the Palestinians fear it will heavily favour Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to attend the White House unveiling.
Rightwing Israeli settlers, for their part, also raised concern, fearing the initiative would support the formation of a Palestinian state.
Israeli PM Netanyahu officially indicted over corruption charges after he withdraws immunity bid
RT – Israel’s attorney general has submitted an indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over three corruption cases after he withdrew his request to be granted immunity against prosecution.
The indictment was filed by Avichai Mandelblit to the Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday, paving the way for Netanyahu’s trial.
The move became possible after the PM officially stopped seeking parliamentary immunity from prosecution earlier that day. The parliament was due to convene on Tuesday to vote on the formation of a committee to discuss Netanyahu’s request.
The PM was in Washington for the release of US President Donald Trump’s long-awaited Israel-Palestine ‘peace plan’ on Tuesday when the charges were filed in court. It is the first time a criminal indictment has ever been filed against a serving Israeli PM.
Netanyahu, who denies all allegations of corruption, argued that he “was not given due process,” while the outcome of the upcoming vote on his possible immunity was “pre-dictated without proper discussion.”
The Israeli PM is charged with fraud, bribery and breach of trust in three cases usually dubbed in the media as Case 1000, Case 2000, and Case 4000.
U.N. Provides $19 Million to East Africa to Help Tame Desert Locusts
Breitbart – The United Nations has released $19 million in funding to East African nations to help the fight against a devastating desert locust outbreak, the body’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock announced this weekend.
Lowcock, who is the U.N’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, confirmed that the funding, which will be sourced from the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund, will go towards increasing the number of pesticide aerial spraying operations that have proven the only effective way of containing the outbreak.
Globalists Gone Wild
Politico – DAVOS, Switzerland — Among the legions of well-connected and well-to-do people who spent the week here at the World Economic Forum, there is a small corps of people whose week of networking is not even close to over.
These people—even more monied and more connected than the typical Davos devotee—will depart the Swiss Alps and fly, in most cases by private jet, directly to Washington, where Alfalfa weekend is about to begin. That’s an annual black-tie gathering where current and past players in the nation’s capital invite corporate titans to join them for a dinner and satirical roasts. Beyond the dinner, which George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are expected to attend, there is a full slate of ancillary events Friday evening through midday Sunday.
And perhaps these modern moguls do want that. But there is something they plainly want more: confidence that if other important people are gathering somewhere they will not be left out and missing potentially valuable action.
The Davos-Alfalfa pairing serves as a kind of unofficial launch of what is now a yearlong season of corporate and political networking among a certain set of the world’s most influential people. Davos is by far the largest and most celebrated of these conclaves. But there are others that are more intimate and more exclusive.
For a certain set of corporate globe-trotters, they can take their pick of a retreat or conference or other elite convergence every couple weeks or so. No one goes to them all, but most of these players go to many more than a few. For tech and finance executives like Dimon, Brad Smith at Microsoft, or Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook (all of whom were at this year’s Davos) playing the polished and articulate ambassador in these arenas is now an important part of the job description atop high-profile companies with global concerns.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
CDC investigating 110 more coronavirus cases in 26 states – only 5 confirmed cases in US so far
Daily Sheeple – As authorities in China scrambled to handle a coronavirus that has killed at least 81 people, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday described a surging potential crisis even as they pushed back on the latest thinking from Beijing about just how easily it spreads.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters that the number of confirmed cases stateside had reached five—and that there had been a total of 110 “persons under investigation” for the virus in 26 states over the past week.
Thirty-two of those people tested negative, and there had been no confirmed person-to-person transmissions inside the country, Messonnier said on Monday.
The confirmed cases in the U.S. include patients in Orange County, California; a man in his 30s in Washington state; a woman in her 60s in Chicago; a passenger who felt ill after flying into Los Angeles International Airport; and a student at Arizona State University who does not live in university housing, the CDC said on Sunday. All of the U.S. cases appeared to involve patients who had recently traveled from Wuhan, China—the epicenter of the deadly virus.
Seventy-three people were still being evaluated for the virus as of Monday.
Supreme Court gives Trump administration green-light to implement income-based restrictions on immigration
Daily Sheeple – In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to begin implementing rules that make it easier for the government to deny limited-income immigrants residency or admission to the U.S. because they use public-assistance programs or might use them in the future.
The court, in a written order Monday, granted the administration’s emergency request to start enforcing the rules for now, a move that nullifies an order by a federal appeals court that blocked the immigration restrictions while litigation was ongoing.
The vote split the justices along ideological lines, with conservatives in the majority. As is its custom when it issues emergency orders, the court didn’t explain its reasoning.
Announced last August by the Department of Homeland Security, the rules effectively expand the pool of people considered likely to become a “public charge” under U.S. immigration law. If an immigrant makes use of a public assistance program, such as housing assistance, food stamps or Medicaid—or an immigration officer estimates he or she might in the future—the person could be denied a green card or barred from the U.S. altogether.
The rules have the potential to reshape the type of immigrants who are allowed into the U.S. and significantly curb the number of people granted permanent residence each year.
Prosecutors Announce FBI Is Seeking Interview with Prince Andrew Regarding Epstein
Western Journal – If federal prosecutors have their way, they and the FBI will be asking Britain’s Prince Andrew some questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein, who was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls, was found hanged in his Manhattan cell in August. Although the New York City medical examiner’s office ruled it was a suicide, many doubts have been raised about the finding.
Prince Andrew, who was an associate of Epstein’s, has been named by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking victims, as a man with whom she had sex beginning at the age of 17. The prince has denied the accusation, but he withdrew from his royal duties in November.
In a news conference Monday outside Epstein’s New York mansion, Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the interview with Andrew would be part of prosecutors’ efforts to unearth potential co-conspirators of Epstein’s alleged trafficking ring.
Florida man, Wolfgang Halbig, arrested and accused of tormenting Sandy Hook families
Fox – A Florida man who has become infamous for peddling conspiracy theories about the shooting at Sandy Hook in 2012, has been arrested.
Wolfgang Halbig, 73, of Sorrento, FL, was charged with unlawful possession of personal identification of another person. The charge is a misdemeanor. The website for the Lake County Sheriffs Department mistakenly listed the crime as a felony . He was released on $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 24.
The complaint was filed by Leonard Pozner. Pozner’s six-year-old son,Noah, 6, died in the shooting. The arrest affidavit said that Halbig emailed Pozner’s Social Security number, date of birth and other information to different law enforcement agencies and news stations.
Trump team to wrap up impeachment trial defense as Bolton controversy simmers
Reuters – Lawyers for President Donald Trump were set on Tuesday to wrap up their arguments urging acquittal in his U.S. Senate trial after making the case that explosive allegations by former national security adviser John Bolton – even if true – do not represent an impeachable offense.
The impeachment trial has been roiled by New York Times reporting about an unpublished book manuscript written by Bolton, who left his White House post last September.
Sen. Graham backs plan to make Bolton manuscript available to senators
Reuters – Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on Tuesday said he would support a plan making former national security adviser John Bolton’s book manuscript available for senators to review as they weigh President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
‘Inconceivable’: Dershowitz Dismantles Dems’ Impeachment Case; Says Bolton Book Claims Aren’t Impeachable, Either
PJ Media – Retired Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz gave what may be the most persuasive case against impeaching President Donald Trump while in the well of the U.S. Senate on Monday evening.
Speaking as a representative of Trump’s defense team, the lifelong liberal Democrat urged senators to not “let the feelings about one man, strong as they may be, cause irreparable damage” to the fate of other presidents. “Passion and fears of the moment must not blind us,” he pleaded.
Giving a clinic on the history of impeachment in a matter-of-fact and understandable way, Dershowitz explained the derivation of the idea of impeachment and explained that it was to have been the breaking of a defined, limited law and not an amorphous and generalized idea of bad conduct. “Dishonesty is a sin and not a crime,” he told the lawmakers.
Before Dershowitz took the lectern before the Senate, there was considerable debate about an obviously strategically-timed leak of information from former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s unpublished book.
Connecticut Dems Call For New Police Dept. To Investigate Far-Right Extremists
Infowars – State Senators in Connecticut have proposed creating a “new department at the Connecticut State Police which will specialize in investigating far-right extremist groups and individuals.”
Falling under the Democrats’ “A Just Connecticut” agenda, the proposed legislation would address “a 37% rise in anti-Semitic offenses and a 23% increase in overall religious-based crimes,” nationwide.
In Connecticut alone, 110 bias crime incidents were reported in 2017.
“Victims included individuals, businesses, government, and religious organizations,” with “race,
ethnicity, and ancestry” accounting for 62% of the bias motivations.
The state’s most common victims of religious bias are of the Jewish faith and vandalism is the most frequently reported bias crime.
Democrats lawmakers in the state claim they need the new law enforcement department because “the federal government is unwilling to protect different communities of Connecticut.”
Trump administration pushing to overturn rulings against Bayer, Monsanto for health damage caused by glyphosate (Roundup)
NaturalNews – California is leading the charge in holding Monsanto (now owned by Bayer AG) accountable for the widespread health damage caused by its cancer-causing herbicide Roundup (glyphosate). But the Trump administration is actively fighting against this justice-seeking endeavor by pushing to overturn a landmark court ruling that found Monsanto guilty of basically committing crimes against humanity.
It was August of 2018 when Monsanto lost its first major lawsuit involving glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in Roundup. Dewayne Johnson, a groundskeeper in California, successfully argued that Monsanto knowingly hid evidence linking Roundup exposure to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The jury in the case ultimately decided that Monsanto had acted with “malice,” and the company was consequently ordered to pay $289 million in damages. But if the Trump administration gets its way, then Monsanto will eventually be vindicated of this conviction – or as we call this type of situation here in the United States, just more crony capitalism as usual.
A Ninth Circuit court brief filed back in December reveals that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) both want to see this ruling against Monsanto overturned by a higher court. Immediately after this filing, Bayer, Monsanto’s new owner, saw its stock prices immediately soar, according to reports.
“This decision isn’t surprising seeing as [how] Trump ran his whole campaign on the economy, not environmental or health safety,” writes Phillip Schneider for Waking Times.
“According to a 2017 Associated Press analysis, almost half of Trump’s EPA appointees have previous industry ties, with about one-third previously working as lawyers or lobbyists for chemical or fossil fuel companies like Monsanto.”
Entire county board arrested following citizens arrest by 2 military veterans
Ocala Post (November 9, 2014) – Sometimes citizens can be so frustrated with county board members they wish someone could just place them under arrest. Well, that is exactly what citizens in Clark County, Illinois did.
Illinois’ number one manufactured product is corruption. More than 95 percent of the Illinois legislature is safe in gerrymandered districts. The incumbent governor has three current federal investigations of his administration, but the Attorney General/state’s attorney class can’t find public vice anywhere.
Residents that voted in the recent election said they are hoping officials have learned from the past mistakes of others.
So what can a law-abiding citizen do? The answer is coming from some regular guys in southern Illinois who decided to hold public officials accountable. They call themselves the “Watchdogs.”
Kirk Allen and John Kraft — two military veterans — live in Edgar County, which just might be the most corrupt county in the country. For a couple of watchdogs, it’s a target-rich environment.
In an effort to take back their government from self-serving politicians and bureaucrats, Kraft and Allen established a group called the Edgar County Watchdogs. Through a combination of public pressure, Freedom of Information filings, lawsuits, and media exposure, they have created a system that deeply threatens Illinois’ corrupt, entrenched political establishment. They operate a blog called Illinois Leaks that exposes corruption at the state and local levels. The blog is so popular that it is trusted more than the local paper.
Considering the fact that, according to Forbes, their home county’s government has racked up over $79 million in debt all on its own while serving only 18,000 residents, Kraft and Allen have their work cut out for them.
By relentlessly pursuing justice for even the smallest infractions by bureaucrats and politicians, the Edgar County Watchdogs have driven 102 public officials to resign from their posts, including 33 officials in Edgar County alone. The pair busted the mayor of Redmond for attempting to hold office while living out of town. They represented themselves in court and beat Illinois Assistant Attorney General Emma Steimel in a lawsuit seeking access to state e-mails.
Officials who have resigned due to the Watchdogs’ efforts include a property tax assessor, the Edgar County board chairman, an entire airport board and its manager, the attorney for Kansas Township’s fire department, Shiloh’s superintendent of schools, and Effingham’s health department administrator, among others. After they exposed corrupt, illegal, and self-serving spending habits by the Ford-Iroquois County health department, the entire bureaucracy was dissolved. In some cases, federal agents have even stepped in to investigate and issue subpoenas to local officials after receiving tips from Kraft and Allen.
Public boards are used to facing angry crowds, but most have never encountered what happened at one recent meeting in central Illinois.
Economy & Business
Gold prices surge as global coronavirus fear shakes market confidence
RT – Gold is once again proving its reputation as the traditional safe haven during times of uncertainty. The price of the precious metal has been rising amid continuing worries over the spread of the coronavirus.
Bullion has gained $20 an ounce to reach a 7-year high of $1,585 this week, before easing to around $1,578 per ounce on Tuesday. It has led the rally of other metals, including silver and platinum.
Analysts say gold will continue to gain and could top $2,000 in the not-too-distant future. The safe-haven metal last hit an all-time high of just above $1,900 in 2011 in the midst of the European debt crisis.
Science & Technology
Fears mount that two old satellites will SMASH into each other above US this week
RT – Space debris tracking service LeoLabs has sounded the alarm after discovering that two defunct and decommissioned satellites are hurtling towards each other and may collide over the continental US this week.
The pair of satellites are expected to cross paths on January 29 at 23:39:35 UTC, at an altitude of around 560 miles (901 kilometers) above Pittsburgh, PA. At a relative velocity of 9.1 miles per second (14.7 kilometers per second), the machines are expected to come within 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) of each other. However, there is a one in a hundred chance they’ll hit each other and create a huge debris field in orbit.
Solar Orbiter will take first-ever direct images of Sun’s poles
Psys.org – Solar Orbiter will orbit our nearest star, the sun, observing it up close. It will take the first-ever direct images of its poles, while also studying the inner heliosphere—the bubble-like region around the sun created by the stream of energized, charged particles released in the solar wind.
At its closest, Solar Orbiter will come within about 42 million km of the sun: closer than the scorched planet Mercury, just over a quarter of the average distance between Earth and the sun, and closer than any European spacecraft in history.
To get it into this unique orbit at the center of the solar system, edging close to the sun’s poles instead of orbiting in a ‘flat’ plane, like the planets, teams at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, have planned an intricate path.
Solar Orbiter is due to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an Atlas V 411 rocket supplied by NASA in early February. Once it has separated from the launch vehicle, a 22- minute automatic activation sequence takes place, after which point the control team takes over the reins for the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP).
They might be rare, but “superflares” could threaten Earth within the next 100 years or so, caution scientists
NaturalNews – Despite its age, our Sun still packs quite a punch. In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, an international team of astronomers found that the Sun is still capable of producing superflares, which are powerful bursts of radiation capable of frying communication lines and triggering large-scale blackouts. They can also cause widespread disruption and damage to electronic devices similar to electromagnetic pulses or EMPs.
Astronomer Yuta Notsu, a visiting researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said that while superflares are mainly observed in young, active stars, data collected by the Kepler Space Telescope revealed that even middle-aged stars like our Sun are still capable of throwing out “astoundingly powerful” flares.
Notsu, the study’s co-author, said he and his team came up with the conclusion after looking at data gathered by the Kepler Space Telescope over the past 10 years, and then comparing them with data taken from the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft and the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.
After looking at a sample of about 90,000 stars, the researchers identified 300 stars which, over the course of 500 days, were observed to have produced over 1,000 superflares. After adding data from the Gaia space telescope, the researchers whittled the group down to just 113 stars – all of them Sun-like in terms of size and temperature.
Notsu added that they were able to gauge the power emitted by these stars’ flares by taking note of how fast they spun, noting that younger stars, or those that rotated once every few days, had superflares 20 times more powerful than the ones emitted by slowly spinning stars like the Sun, which rotates about once every 25 days. (Related: NASA says the solar flare that caused a radio blackout last September was the biggest flare in a decade.)
Health
Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in drinking water throughout US
USA Today – A study released by an environmental watchdog group found heightened levels of potentially toxic chemicals in tap water supplies serving dozens of major American cities.
The report, published by the Environmental Working Group, found that 20 cities and regions nationwide – including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Miami and Louisville, Kentucky – contained PFAS levels of at least 10 parts per trillion. Forty-three areas, including New York City, Nashville, Las Vegas and Sacramento, had detectable PFAS at least 1 part per trillion.
Only one city, Meridian, Mississippi, which uses well water 700 feet below the surface, found no PFAS, while Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Seattle had levels lower than the 1 part per trillion limit advised by the EWG.
PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances also known as “forever chemicals,” have been linked to reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects, as well as high cholesterol and obesity.
EWG’s work expanded on data from an EPA program that ended in 2015, analyzing water samples using an EPA-approved independent laboratory for a larger set of PFAS compounds.
PFAS compounds remain in food packaging, cookware and other consumer products.
They are also still used in firefighting foam, though Wisconsin, New York, Washington, and Colorado are beginning to switch to non-PFAS foam, either due to action by state legislators or by self-regulation by individual fire departments. It must also be phased out in fire departments nationwide by 2024.
Roche Flu Medication Fraud Stole Billions
Mercola – A whistleblower lawsuit has been filed against drugmaker Roche over influenza medicine Tamiflu. The suit alleges the company made false claims and misrepresented studies, causing the U.S. government to stockpile $1.5 billion of the drug for use during potential pandemics.
The whistleblower lawsuit alleges that Roche knew Tamiflu was ineffective at fighting influenza pandemics but went ahead and “masterfully marketed this drug to fill Roche’s coffers at taxpayer expense”
The lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act by Dr. Thomas Jefferson, who has been questioning Tamiflu’s effectiveness since 2009.
Because the False Claims Act mandates payment of triple damages along with civil penalties, Roche could face a judgment in excess of $4.5 billion
Americans Throw Out Nearly One Third of Food at Home
Newsmax – Before you throw any leftovers away, heed new research that suggests the choice could hit you right in your pocketbook.
It turns out that almost one-third of food in American households goes to waste, costing each household thousands of dollars a year, researchers report.
“Our findings are consistent with previous studies, which have shown that 30% to 40% of the total food supply in the United States goes uneaten — and that means that resources used to produce the uneaten food, including land, energy, water and labor, are wasted as well,” said study author Edward Jaenicke. He’s a professor of agricultural economics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Jaenicke and his team analyzed data from 4,000 households that participated in a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey and found that, on average, about one-third of the food they obtained was wasted.
Nationwide, the cost of wasted food could total $240 billion a year. Divided by the nearly 128.6 million households in the United States, that works out to about $1,866 for the average household.
“Based on our estimation, the average American household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires,” Jaenicke said in a university news release. “More than two-thirds of households in our study have food-waste estimates of between 20% and 50%. However, even the least wasteful household wastes 8.7% of the food it acquires.”
Households with higher income had more food waste, as did those with healthier diets that include more perishable fruits and vegetables, according to the study published recently in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Top Neurosurgeon Reveals the Secrets to Healthy Aging
Newsmax – Our current health system is broken. That’s the opinion of noted neurosurgeon and anti-aging expert Dr. Joseph Maroon, a sports medicine expert who served as the team neurosurgeon for the National Football League’s Pittsburgh Steelers for over 20 years. He tells Newsmax that Americans spend billions on gastric bypass surgeries each year but essentially pennies on how to teach people to eat better and have a healthier relationship with food to avoid obesity.
Maroon is the senior vice president for the American Academy of Anti-Aging and says the key to living a healthier and longer life is to avoid disease before it starts.
“Even my closest friends are often surprised when they ask me my age,” he says. “Despite my youthful appearance, I can tell you that the birth date posted on my driver’s license is correct. Although having a youthful appearance is not the only goal of adopting an anti-aging lifestyle, it is a great side benefit. Our skin, without makeup or other cosmetic enhances, provides a fairly accurate window into our overall health.”
Maroon explains that one of the reasons the skin provides so much information is that the skin, like other organs of the body, is affected by inflammation.
“Aging and inflammation go hand in hand,” he says.
Here are some ways you can reduce inflammation and promote healthy aging to remain younger on the inside and out:
- Diet. This is a major source of inflammation and subsequently, accelerated aging.
- Stay in motion. “The human body is designed to be in motion,” says Maroon, an elite athlete himself. “Exercising not only burns excess calories to help control weight and improve cardiovascular health, it can also release an anti-depressant-like hormone in the brain.
- Avoid the traps of modern society. We live in a toxic environment that’s designed to kill us, says Maroon. “We exist in a constant state of stress, are exposed to cheap fatty, sugary fast foods, our walks consist of going to our cars from our front doors, and our environment has never been more toxic,” he says. He points to the longevity and excellent health of people who live in the co-called Blue Zones such as Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, and Loma Linda, California, who have strong social connections, practice religion or meditation, follow primarily a Mediterranean diet, do hard physical work, and avoid environmental toxins.
- Practice better brain habits. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases both have inflammatory components. Since our brain cells contain up to 40% omega-3 fats, it makes sense to increase your intake of foods that contain this nutrient either from food or fish oil supplements.
- Strengthen your bones. Bones not only provide the structure of your body, they are an important reserve for minerals like calcium, copper, zinc, and others. “Hormone changes in both men and women due to aging alter bone density and reduce strength,” says Maroon.
- Don’t lose your senses. As we age, certain aspects of our vision will deteriorate and we may also develop conditions such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. Our hearing and sense of taste will also decline. Maroon advises avoiding exposure to UV radiation from the sun, which can cause the formation of cataracts, and avoid excessive noise to reduce hearing loss.
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