Today's News: March 20, 2018

World News

Thousands of pills filled with powdered human baby flesh discovered by customs officials in South Korea
Daily Mail (from 3/7/18) – Thousands of pills filled with powdered human flesh have been discovered by customs officials in South Korea, it was revealed today.
The capsules are in demand because they are viewed as being a medicinal ‘cure-all’.
The grim trade is being run from China where corrupt medical staff are said to be tipping off medical companies when babies are aborted or delivered still-born.

Exclusive: Royal Burial in Ancient Canaan May Shed New Light on Biblical City
Natural Geographic – An undisturbed elite tomb discovered in ancient Armageddon is replete with gold offerings—and the promise of unlocking secrets with DNA analysis.
The extraordinary discovery of a magnificent and untouched 3,600-year-old burial chamber in the ancient Canaanite city-state of Megiddo has stunned archaeologists, not only for the array of wealth found in the tomb, but also for the potential insight it may provide into the royal dynasty that ruled this powerful center before its conquest by Egypt in the early 15th century B.C.

Syria’s besieged Ghouta: UN warns of ‘catastrophic’ crisis
Al Jazeera – The Syrian rescue group the White Helmets says weapons like white phosphorous, which is banned in civilian areas, have again been used.
The UN has called for urgent access to fleeing civilians and those trapped in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, which continues to face devastating bombardment by government forces.
It says many of the 50,000 people who have fled in recent days are suffering from potentially fatal illnesses.

Northern white rhino: Last male Sudan dies in Kenya
BBC – The world’s last surviving male northern white rhino has died after months of poor health, his carers say.
Sudan, who was 45, lived at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. He was put to sleep on Monday after age-related complications worsened significantly.
His death leaves only two females – his daughter and granddaughter – of the subspecies alive in the world.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Abortion Clinic Caught Selling Box Of Aborted Babies From Car
Infowars – A South Carolina abortion clinic has been caught on video illegally transporting and selling the bodies of aborted babies from a car to a waste management company.
Pro-life group Created Equal have uncovered illegal transactions of aborted baby parts between a Greenville, South Carolina abortion clinic and Stericycle, America’s biggest biological waste carrier.
The undercover video shows a representative of Greenville Women’s Clinic illegally transporting dead babies in an unmarked passenger car and transferring the aborted baby body parts to a Stericycle waste truck at a local gas station.
The footage caught the attention of the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, which issued violations notices to the Greenville Women’s Center and Stericycle.

College student reinstated after 18-day exile from Christianity class for gender speech
Fox News – Lake Ingle, a religious studies major at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, was kicked out of Christianity class earlier this month for saying there are only two genders. He is now allowed back in.
IUP President Michael Driscoll announced at a press conference Monday his decision to go against Professor Alison Downie’s controversial request to ban Ingle from class for “disruptive behavior.”
Ingle told Fox News he was booted out of Downie’s classroom for challenging the feminist theology professor on the biology of males and females and the gender wage gap during a Feb. 28 lecture in which she allegedly asked only women to speak following a TED Talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams. Williams discussed the “reality” of “mansplaining,” “sexism from men,” and “male privilege.”

Video: Can government make you advocate against your beliefs?
Fox News – California law forces pro-life organizations to push abortion. Judge Napolitano provides his legal expertise.

YouTuber Convicted For “Offensive” Joke Video, Faces Prison
Infowars – A YouTuber has been convicted by a UK court of being “grossly offensive” over a video in which he trained his pet dog to do a Nazi salute and now faces prison time.
Mark Meechan created a satirical video to annoy his girlfriend in which he trained his pug called Buddha to raise its paw when he said the words “Sieg Heil”.
This led to a long drawn out “hate crime trial” which came to a close today when Meechan was convicted of being “grossly offensive,” creating the chilling precedent that offensive humor is against the law.
Meechan was convicted despite the fact that not a single person complained about the video. He was also defended by David Baddiel, one of the UK’s top Jewish comedians.

Fifth package bomb strikes Texas amid ‘serial-bomber’ fears
Al Jazeera – A package bomb exploded at a FedEx distribution centre lightly wounding one worker near San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday after a series of blasts in the state capital of Austin this month.

The Latest: Judge temporarily blocks 15-week abortion ban
ABC – A federal judge is temporarily blocking a new Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks, the most restrictive abortion law in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves on Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order requested by the state’s only abortion clinic. Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 1510 on Monday, and it became law immediately.

Good Guy with Gun Opened Fire on MD High School Shooter, Ended Threat
Breitbart – Reports indicate a resource officer at Maryland’s Great Mills High School “exchanged gunfire” with the attacker Tuesday morning to end the threat.

Nearly 200 Busted in $3.7-Million Food-Stamp Fraud Operation
Judicial Watch – More than a year after the Obama administration slammed American taxpayers with a record-high tab to provide an unprecedented number of people with food stamps, the fraud continues full-throttle in the bloated welfare program. Authorities in north Florida arrested nearly 200 people for operating a sophisticated ring in which millions of dollars in food stamps were fraudulently exchanged for cash and drugs. Keep in mind that food stamps—renamed by the Obama administration Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to eliminate stigma—are designed to help nourish the nation’s most needy.

Michigan Bans “Material Support or Resources” for Warrantless Federal Surveillance
Activist Post – Yesterday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill that bans “material support or resources” for warrantless federal surveillance programs. This is an essential step every state needs to take at a time when the federal government seems unlikely to ever end unconstitutional spying on its own.
Rep. Martin Howrylak (R-Troy) introduced House Bill 4430 (HB4430) last spring. The new law prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from assisting, participating with, or providing “material support or resources, to a federal agency to enable it to collect, or to facilitate in the collection or use of a person’s electronic data” unless one of five conditions apply.

Ben Carson Defends Purchase of $31,000 Dining Set at Congressional Hearing
New York Times – Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, told a House committee on Tuesday he failed to adhere to a $5,000 federal spending cap for the purchase of a $31,000 lavish mahogany dining room set for his office out of concern for safety — not for decorative purposes.
Mr. Carson, appearing before Congress for the first time since the purchase of the table, chairs and hutch was made public, appeared annoyed when a Democrat at the hearing suggested that he was guilty of “ethical lapses” and turning over key decisions to members of his family.

Economy & Business

Californians fleeing state in big numbers
Activist Post- Californians may still love the beautiful weather and beaches, but more and more they are fed up with the high housing costs and taxes and deciding to flee to lower-cost states such as Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

Dozens of Toy Suppliers Object to Toys ‘R’ Us Liquidation Plan
Newsmax – Toys ‘R’ Us heads to U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday to defend its liquidation plan against an onslaught of objections from creditors, particularly suppliers demanding payment for thousands of toys ranging from Poopeez to Bratz.
More than 50 suppliers, including Barbie maker Mattel and Lego, have objected in some form to the proceedings by the storied toy retailer to shutter up to 735 U.S. stores and 30,000 jobs.
On Tuesday, the company will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips in Richmond, Virginia to approve a March 26 deadline for bids followed by an auction on March 29.
It is also seeking approval for a series of U.S. liquidation procedures including a halt to more than $450 million in supplier payments as part of a plan that experts told Reuters could cause many small toy makers to disappear.

Science & Technology

First pedestrian fatality from self-driving vehicle raises more safety concerns
Christian Science Monitor – A fatal pedestrian crash involving a self-driving Uber SUV in a Phoenix suburb could have far-reaching consequences for the new technology as automakers and other companies race to be the first with cars that operate on their own.
The crash Sunday night in Tempe, Ariz., was the first death involving a fully autonomous test vehicle. The Volvo was in self-driving mode with a human backup driver at the wheel when it struck Elaine Herzberg as she was walking a bicycle outside the lines of a crosswalk in Tempe, police said.
Uber immediately suspended all road-testing of such autos in the Phoenix area, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Toronto. The ride-sharing company has been testing self-driving vehicles for months as it competes with other technology companies and automakers like Ford and General Motors.

Snowden: Facebook is a Surveillance Company Lying to the World About Being “Social Media”
Free Thought Project – NSA whistleblower and former CIA employee Edward Snowden slammed Facebook in a Saturday tweet following the suspension of Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) and its political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, over what Facebook says was improper use of collected data.
After making Cambridge Analytica promise to delete the data the app had gathered, Facebook received reports (from sources they would not identify) which claimed that not all the data had been deleted – which led the social media giant to delete Cambridge Analytica and parent company SCL’s accounts.
In response to the ban, Edward Snowden fired off two tweets on Saturday criticizing Facebook, and claimed social media companies were simply “surveillance companies” who engaged in a “successful deception” by rebranding themselves.
Snowden isn’t the first big name to call out Silicon Valley companies over their data collection and monitoring practices, or their notorious intersection with the U.S. Government.
>> Related: ‘Utterly horrifying’: ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine
Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower.
Sandy Parakilas, the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012, told the Guardian he warned senior executives at the company that its lax approach to data protection risked a major breach.

Health

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s World Mercury Project delivers vaccine safety details to Congress
Natural News – The organization said that 15 like-minded advocates joined Kennedy on Capitol Hill “to fulfill our promise to the community” in providing data they said would dramatically improve child vaccine safety.
“Federally elected officials can no longer ignore the chronic health conditions — tied in no small part to adverse vaccine reactions — that currently affect over half our nation’s children,” the statement said. “Not only are these officials now aware of the conflicts of interest and inadequate science upon which the vaccine program is built, but they have been given a common-sense plan for enacting desperately needed changes that puts children’s health first.”
America is in the midst of many childhood epidemics. Over 50% of our children are chronically ill. We owe it to our children to examine what is happening to their health and correct it as soon as possible,” the group said.

The Best & Worst Meat Substitutes for Your Health
Dr. Axe – There’s no doubt that protein is absolutely vital to overall health. Protein forms the foundation of your hair, skin, nails, bones, muscles and cartilage. Not only that, but your body uses protein for the growth and repair of tissue cells as well as the production of important hormones and enzymes.
Getting enough protein in your diet has also been associated with a number of potential health benefits.
Healthiest Meat Substitutes:

1. Tempeh
2. Jackfruit
3. Natto
4. Lentils
5. Mushrooms
6. Nuts and Seeds

Beans and Legumes

Worst Meat Substitutes:

Tofu
Seitan
Cheese
Ultra-Processed Foods

These Are The Best & Worst Foods For A Child’s Brain
Mind Body Green – Beyond the goji berry snacks, here’s a quick list of 10 nutrient-dense (and palatable) foods that will boost your child’s brain power:

Oats
Berries
Apples and plums
Sweet potatoes
Eggs
Yogurt
Fish
Greens
Avocado
Meat

These are the worst foods for the developing brain.
Aside from specific nutrients, of all the criteria to hold for food, the quality of the ingredients may well be the most important part. Look at the food around you, and you will notice that packaged, processed, and refined foods are replacing real food. If you want your baby to grow healthy and smart, be sure to avoid the following foods as much as possible:

Fast food, white sugar, white flour products (white bread, pasta, crackers, pies, cakes, and cookies)
Soda, processed meats (bologna, pastrami, most deli meats, frankfurters, etc.)
Processed cheese (American cheese, string mozzarella, etc.)

These foods are universally bad for you while also being high in calories yet offering little or no nutritional value.

Pet News

United Airlines Pauses Cargo-Hold Pet Transport After Missteps
Newsmax – United Airlines is halting the shipment of pets in airplane cargo holds while it studies improvements, the carrier said on Tuesday, after the death of a puppy and mistakes in handling other dogs last week sparked negative publicity.
United’s decision follows incidents last week in which dogs were mistakenly sent to incorrect destinations.
A German Shepherd that was meant to arrive at Kansas City International Airport was instead shipped to Tokyo, Japan. A Japan-bound Great Dane arrived instead at the Missouri airport. The two dogs were later returned home.