Today's News: June 12, 2019

World News
France’s Le Pen to go on trial for tweeting gruesome ISIS images
France24 – French leader Marine Le Pen has been ordered to stand trial for tweeting pictures of Islamic State atrocities, a judicial source told AFP on Wednesday.
Le Pen shared the gruesome images in December 2015, a few weeks after IS jihadists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris.
A judge in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre ordered that the National Rally leader stand trial on charges of circulating “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity” and that can be viewed by a minor.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($85,000).
Last year, an investigative magistrate called for Le Pen to undergo psychiatric tests in connection with the IS tweets.
Hong Kong police fire rubber bullets as extradition bill protests turn to chaos
Reuters – Hong Kong police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators who threw plastic bottles on Wednesday as protests against an extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial descended into violent chaos.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
California desert town sees surge in migrants as border crisis worsens
LA Times – The scene that unfolded recently in this desert city about 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border exemplifies how the immigration crisis has spilled over into communities farther north.
With a historic flow of Central American families fleeing poverty and violence, federal officials earlier this spring began releasing migrants on their own recognizance from inundated detention centers in growing numbers. About 175,000 have left custody since Dec. 21.
Nonprofit and faith-based organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are among those that have stepped in to help the asylum seekers. But the mounting costs have raised doubts — among local officials and advocates alike — about how long they can keep doing so.
Many of the drop-offs have taken place in Blythe, a city of about 20,000 along the Colorado River across from Arizona. Since March, said Riverside County spokeswoman Brooke Federico, 2,600 migrants have arrived here.
California middle schools now teaching 10-year-olds how to put on condoms, engage in sodomy, and use sex toys
NaturalNews – Whereas children of this age would have been innocently romping around the playground, jumping rope, playing dodgeball, and climbing across the monkey bars 50 years ago, 10-year-olds today are reportedly now being taught at public school how to engage in sodomy, use condoms, and play with sex toys.
This, according to a former public school teacher-turned-whistleblower who says that the new “education standards” in the Golden State are so beyond the point of depraved that most parents, if they really knew the truth, would be marching on these indoctrination centers with pitchforks in hand.
“It’s shocking,” says Rebecca Friedrichs, founder of the group For Kids & Country, about the unspeakable evils taking place in California’s public middle schools.
“It is medically risky on multiple levels,” she says about curriculum that involves having 10-year-old girls put condoms on “prosthetic male erections” while 10-year-old boys watch, or having 10-year-olds of both sexes practice engaging in oral and anal sex.
“And when you read the curriculum,” she says further, “it’s written almost like a college fraternity wrote this curriculum in a very crass and a juvenile way.”
Jury can’t decide on charges against Arizona border activist
AP – A U.S. jury could not reach a verdict Tuesday against a border activist charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants in a trial that humanitarian aid groups said would have wide implications on their work.
Defense attorneys argued that Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was simply being kind by providing two migrants with water, food and lodging when he was arrested in early 2018. He faced up to 20 years in prison.
But prosecutors maintained the men were not in distress and Warren conspired to transport and harbor them at a property used for providing aid to migrants in an Arizona town near the U.S.-Mexico border.
American Medical Association: Let minors override parents’ vaccination refusal
Chicago Tribune – Members of the American Medical Association voted this week to support state policies that would allow minors to override their parent’s objections to vaccinations.
Moving forward, the AMA will encourage state lawmakers to institute comprehensive vaccine and minor consent policies, according to a news release. The policy recommendation came Monday during the group’s annual meeting in Chicago.
“The prevalence of unvaccinated pediatric patients is troubling to physicians,” AMA board member Dr. S. Bobby Mukkamala said in the release. “Many children go unvaccinated as anti-vaccine related messages and advertisements target parents with misinformation. Allowing mature minors to provide informed consent to vaccinations will ensure these patients can access this type of preventive care.”
Denver Police Testing Idea Of Civilians Responding To 911 Calls
CBS – Denver police are developing a pilot program that would dispatch civilian teams to certain 911 calls. Instead of a police officer, a team of mental health workers and medics would respond.
Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen says when it comes to crisis calls that do not involve a weapon or threat to other community members police may not always be the best response.
“If we have a team of dedicated individuals with those types of backgrounds, we feel like we can have a positive impact on our most vulnerable population,” Chief Pazen said.
Denver would use a program already in use in Eugene, Oregon as a model. It is called Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets or CAHOOTS.
Denver Alliance for Street Health Response Director Vinnie Cervantes was among those in the community invited to Oregon to see how it works.
Kamala Harris: If elected, my DOJ would have ‘no choice’ but to prosecute Trump
Fox – 2020 candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has issued a stunning warning to President Trump that seems to echo controversial recent comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying her Justice Department would likely charge him with obstruction of justice if she wins the White House.
Harris, in a newly released interview, said she believes the only reason former Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not recommend prosecuting Trump was because of the Justice Department’s policy against indicting a sitting president. Once out of office, Trump would be subject to charges — and Harris was emphatic in saying the DOJ should pursue them.
“I believe that they would have no choice and that they should, yes,” Harris said on this week’s NPR Politics Podcast.
The former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney cited the importance of holding everyone accountable for their actions.
$9M to quarantine fruit flies? Anti-government waste group exposes billions in pork-barrel spending
Fox – An anti-government waste group has identified millions of taxpayer dollars allegedly frittered away on “absurd nature-related earmarks,” including $9 million to “quarantine fruit flies” and $13.8 million to “manage wild horses.”
Those revelations are inside the 2019 Congressional Pig Book released Wednesday by Citizens Against Government Waste. That report identifies what it describes as egregious examples of pork-barrel spending in Congress, drawn from fiscal 2019 appropriations bills. This year, the group said it identified $15.3 billion in earmarks, an increase of 4.1 percent from the $14.7 billion last year.
“Pushing pork does not drain the swamp and it won’t restore integrity to Washington,” Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, said in a statement.
Schatz wrote in an op-ed for Fox Business Network that “perhaps the most flagrant earmark” this year is $16.7 million for a research organization called the East-West Center, added by Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
“His earmark represents the center’s entire budget, keeping it alive even though its counterpart, the North-South Center, stopped receiving federal funding in 2001,” the group’s president said. “The East-West Center should be able to stand on its own without taxpayer support as well.”
The report identifies other pricey earmarks, including $65 million to help recover Pacific Coastal Salmon, $12 million to control aquatic plants, $7.9 million to purchase fish screens and $863,000 to eradicate brown tree snakes in Guam.
The fruit fly program apparently was resumed after a 10-year pause. Further, according to the report, the $9 million earmarked this year for the program represents an 1,819 percent increase over the roughly half-million dollars set aside for “fruit fly research, eradication, or quarantine” a decade ago.
“It is also the third-largest earmark ever for this purpose,” the report said.
Wisconsin city considering anti-bullying ordinance that would fine parents
Fox – A Wisconsin city is considering putting into place an anti-bullying ordinance that would fine parents if their children bully others.
Wisconsin Rapids’ Legislative Committee voted unanimously to recommend the ordinance to the Common Council. The body will consider it on June 18, the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune reported.
A draft of the ordinance, which prohibits bullying, harassment and retaliation, was proposed by Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools Superintendent, Craig Broeren, after a viral social media incident showing handwritten notes a local middle school girl had received from her peers urging her to kill herself.
The measure would hold parents and guardians responsible for such behavior of children younger than 18 years old.
Penalties for a first fineable offense would be $50, with additional costs bringing the total to $313, City Attorney Susan Schill said. But parents would receive a written warning first.
Planned Parenthood, ACLU sue Trump administration over ‘conscience protections’ rule
Washington Examiner – Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed separate lawsuits Tuesday suing the Trump administration over the “conscience protection” rule that protects workers from being forced to provide abortion, sterilization, or voluntary euthanasia if they have religious objections.
Planned Parenthood claims in a press release that this rule allows for “discrimination” against women by their employers. Planned Parenthood Dr. Leana Wen says in the release that while everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, no one has the right to “use those beliefs” to harm women. The press release also includes a statement from Democracy Forward Executive Director Anne Harkavy, who claims “widespread opposition” to the rule and explains that the rule would “further undermine the rights of people of color, LGBTQ people and women.”
In the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood, the group claims that imposing the need to accommodate employer’s objections “violates the Establishment Clause” in the First Amendment. The suit goes on to explain that any law that “imposes on employers and employees an absolute duty to conform their business practices to the particular religious practices of the employee constitutes an impermissible religious preference.”
Economy & Business
This is the Best Temperature for Productivity
Care2 – There are lots of ways you can boost your productivity. You can consume caffeine or adaptogens. You can take a cat nap. You can take a break and go for a walk outside. But did you know that the temperature of the room you’re working in can have a massive impact on your productivity levels, too?
Working in a space that is too cold or too warm can really hijack your ability to focus and be productive. Think about it: Has the air conditioner ever been blasting so hard in a room that you’re barely able to focus on anything—besides the fact that your forgot to bring your extra sweater into the office? Or maybe it’s been so humid and sweaty that your brain feels like mush and you get nothing done?
Temperature matters for good work to happen, but some of us suffer from the interior climate more that others. There is actually a major discrepancy between men and women in their ideal working temperature for productivity and clear thinking.
Studies have shown that the thermostats in modern offices tend to be set to appease men’s preference for chillier temperatures. Women, who tend to have slower metabolisms and generally prefer warmer temperatures than men, actually suffer a major dip in productivity in cooler workspaces. It’s not a recipe for female success.
Raising the temperature even just a few degrees makes a massive difference. With each degree increase in room temperature in the study, women correspondingly performed better on the given math and language tests.
Men, on the other hand, performed better at cooler temperatures. However, their productivity at warm temperatures didn’t suffer as much as women’s did at cooler temperatures. So, it pays off for everyone when offices set the thermostat a little warmer than usual.
So what’s the best office temperature?
Studies have suggested that anywhere between 71F and 77F (22C to 25C) is ideal. So tell your workplace to warm it up a little.
Men will manage fine, women will become more productive and happier, and it’s more environmentally sustainable (and money saving!). Tell your workplace to get ready for a much more productive team—and a much cheaper electricity bill this summer!
Energy & Environment
Forest twice size of UK destroyed in decade for big consumer brands – report
The Guardian – An area twice the size of the UK has been destroyed for products such as palm oil and soy over the last decade, according to analysis by Greenpeace International.
In 2010, members of the Consumer Goods Forum, including some of the world’s biggest consumer brands, pledged to eliminate deforestation by 2020, through the sustainable sourcing of four commodities most linked to forest destruction: soya, palm oil, paper and pulp, and cattle.
But analysis by Greenpeace International suggests that by the start of 2020, an estimated 50m hectares (123m acres) of forest are likely to have been destroyed in the growing demand for and consumption of agricultural products, in the 10 years since those promises were made. Its report, Countdown to Extinction, said that since 2010, the area planted with soya in Brazil has increased by 45% and palm oil production in Indonesia has risen by 75%.
The environmental group accused major brands of failing to meet their commitments and warned that the current situation was “bleak”, advising them to evolve in order to “prevent climate and ecological breakdown”
San Fran shatters record high amid scorching heatwave
Accuweather – Record high temperatures have been shattered in the West to start this week, and more records will fall along portions of the Pacific coast into the middle of this week.
San Francisco was among the cities to shatter a record high the past couple of days as the temperature throttled to 92 F on Sunday, up to the triple-digit mark Monday and 98 F on Tuesday.
“Temperatures in San Francisco reached 100 F on Monday, which was 3 degrees higher than the maximum temperature at Las Vegas and equaled the high at Sacramento, California,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski. Monday’s high beat the old daily record of 94 set back in 1994, and Tuesday’s high shattered the old daily record of 88 set in 1985.
Science & Technology
Pinterest shuts down pro-life org Live Action’s account for ‘misinformation’ — but not before listing it as a pornographic group
The Blaze – Pinterest reportedly banned pro-life advocacy group Live Action after listing it as a pornographic site and then claiming the group spreads misinformation.
She later added, “Pinterest received an appeal and doubled down, keeping ‘LiveAction.org’ on their pornography blocked list. It appears Live Action is the only pro-life group on this list, at this time.”
Sarah Taylor
Pinterest reportedly banned pro-life advocacy group Live Action after listing it as a pornographic site and then claiming the group spreads misinformation.
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What are the details?
On Tuesday, Alison Centofante, who is the group’s director of external affairs, announced that Pinterest banned the group from operating on the platform.
Centofante tweeted, “@Pinterest appears to have intentionally added ‘LiveAction.org’ to a list of blocked pornography sites.”
She later added, “Pinterest received an appeal and doubled down, keeping ‘LiveAction.org’ on their pornography blocked list. It appears Live Action is the only pro-life group on this list, at this time.”
Pinterest later sent a statement to the pro-life group that did not address pornography charges. Instead, the social media platform stated that Live Action had violated policies on misinformation. The statement said: “Your account was permanently suspended because its contents went against our policies on misinformation. We don’t allow harmful misinformation on Pinterest. That includes medical misinformation and conspiracies that turn individuals and facilities into targets for harassment or violence.”
Lila Rose, who is president of Live Action, said, “Pinterest has targeted Live Action, I believe because our message is so effective at educating millions about the humanity of the pre-born child and the injustice of abortion. Pinterest trying to secretly and dishonestly censor free expression is every Pinterester’s worst nightmare. We urge them to allow free expression on their platform and stop censoring Live Action’s pro-life message.”
She added, “UPDATE: @Pinterest has now permanently suspended @LiveAction’s account (my account remains suspended), claiming our pro-life content is ‘medically inaccurate information’ & ‘conspiracies’ that lead to ‘violence.’ #LifeCensored.”
Mike Cernovich: Google’s Internal Emails Will Reveal Hatred of Christians and Conservatives
Breitbart – Author, filmmaker, and lawyer Mike Cernovich said that a review of Google’s internal emails via the discovery process in an ongoing anti-discrimination lawsuit against the company will reveal its hatred of Christians and conservatives throughout its organization. He offered his remarks on Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
Marlow invited Cernovich’s comments on the latest developments in the aforementioned anti-discrimination class action lawsuit filed against Google.
“This is actually fantastic news and a huge legal development,” replied Cernovich. “Maybe a lot of people don’t realize what discovery is. Discovery is a process whereby a lawyer is allowed to go through every email that Google has sent and received internally.” Internal emails at Google, speculated Cernovich, will reveal how the company’s employees “talk about how they hate Christians and how they hate conservatives” and “how there are so many racists inside Google that you can’t even believe it.”
Cernovich said, “It’s very, very rare to get that kind of look under the hood at Google, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen in this case. I’m surprised that Google hasn’t offered to settle the case for a large amount, because I can only imagine the kind of emails that they’re sending internally when you look at what people say publicly. They confess publicly that they hate most people in America, that they hate people if they don’t subscribe to this very, very narrow and extreme far left-wing radicalism. This is all out in the public record. The kind of messages they’re sending internally I’m sure are completely hate-filled, completely bigoted, and it’s going to be really fascinating to see how it turns out.”
Discrimination against whites and Asians in personnel management violates California state law, said Cernovich. “They’re allowed to be a left-wing company. There’s other California law that some dispute whether or not the political viewpoints are protected, and that’s a much weaker argument than the well-established law which is that if you’re a tech company, you’re not allowed to hate white people, you’re not allowed to hate Asian people.”
Expert: Doctors Will Soon Prescribe Sex Robots to Patients
Futurism – Not only are sex robots on the horizon, but they might one day be covered by your health insurance, according to clinical psychologist and sex therapist Marianne Brandon.
During her presentation at the Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society’s Mental Health Symposium on June 4, Brandon argued that doctors might one day prescribe hyper-realistic sex robots to patients diagnosed as “sexually dysfunctional.”
And while that might sound like a harmless enough solution to a tragic problem, the impact on society could be devastating.
Health
Top Cancer Research Advisor Compares Wireless Radiation To Cigarettes
Collective Evolution – Scientists and doctors from dozens of countries are now coming together to warn their governments about what is going on. The only issue is that governments have been compromised by corporations, but awareness is still charging ahead. The initial 5G infrastructure in Ontario is set to begin in the Toronto to Montreal corridor. Without this implementation, daily human exposure to microwave radiation is already much higher than a trillion times higher than it was before cell phones.
Dr. Anthony Miller, Professor Emeritus with the University of Toronto, and adviser to the International Agency for Research on Cancer said: “Many scientists worldwide now believe that radiofrequency radiation should be elevated to a Class One human carcinogen, on the same list as Cigarettes, X-Rays, and Asbestos.”
The doctors advised the province that increased health care costs can be avoided if the government takes precautions to protect the public from exposure to wireless 5G technology.
In Brief:

The Facts:
Doctors treating patients from over-exposure to wireless radiation joined scientists at Queen’s Park to recommend the Ontario Government take steps to protect public health before the roll-out of 5G – the next generation of cell phone tech.
Reflect On:
How are technologies like this approved by federal health regulatory agencies without any appropriate safety testing?

Alzheimer’s disease: Researchers test vaccine they say could protect against disease
CBS – Researchers at University of New Mexico researchers are working on a vaccine they hope could prevent Alzheimer’s disease, reports CBS Albuquerque affiliate KRQE-TV. UNM’s Health and Sciences Department Associate Professor Kiran Bhaskar, who’s been passionate about studying the disease for the last decade, says the work started with an idea in 2013.
“I would say it took about five years or so to get from where the idea generated and get the fully functioning working vaccine,” he said.
Bhaskar and his team started to test the vaccine on mice. It has not yet been shown if it works in people.
Polyphenols in plum exhibit anticancer properties
NaturalNews – Researchers at Texas A&M University looked at the potential of plum (Prunus salicina L.) polyphenols in fighting cancer. They published their findings in the journal Nutrition Research.

The nutritional prevention of aberrant crypt foci, which are microscopic lesions in the lining of the colon and rectum, by polyphenols may be a crucial step to dietary cancer prevention.
In the study, the researchers examined the anti-inflammatory and antitumorigenic properties of plum polyphenols, such as chlorogenic acid and neochlorogenic acid, in azoxymethane-treated rats.
They hypothesized that plum polyphenols could suppress azoxymethane-induced aberrant crypt foci formation through alterations in the protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway and relative micro-RNA expressions.
To test this hypothesis, they treated rats with either plum beverage or a control beverage for 10 weeks and administered azoxymethane at the second and third week.
Results revealed that the consumption of the plum beverage decreased the number of dysplastic aberrant crypt foci by 48 percent and reduced the proliferation of mucosal cells by 24 percent.
The plum beverage also reduced the activity of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase in mucosal scrapings, as well as the superoxide dismutase activity in serum.
Proinflammatory enzymes were also reduced, as well as the expression of AKT and mTOR messenger RNA, phosphorylated AKT, mTOR, and hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha protein levels, and the ratio of the phosphorylated/total protein expression of mTOR.
The plum beverage also increased the expression of miR-143, which is involved in the regulation of AKT.

In sum, these results suggested that plum polyphenols may fight against colon cancer by targeting the AKT/mTOR pathway and miR-143.