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Today's News: March 26, 2019

World News
MORE UK DEADLOCK
AP – With the date and terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union mired in uncertainty, Parliament has seized control of the political process so lawmakers can try to hammer out a way forward. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May still hopes to win approval for her twice-rejected divorce deal with the bloc.
Caracas shattered by ‘tsunami’ of violent looting
The Guardian – In the second city of Maracaibo, the crippling blackout sparked a terrifying rampage that police seemed unable to control.
Some liken the damage wrought on Venezuela’s second city to a natural disaster. Others suspect satanic intervention.
El demonio,” says Betty Méndez, a local shopkeeper, by way of explanation for the wave of looting and unrest that convulsed Maracaibo earlier this month.
Most, however, describe the mayhem in psychiatric terms: a collective breakdown that shocked this lakeside city to its core and offered a terrifying glimpse of Venezuela’s possible future as it sinks deeper into economic, political and social decline.
“Horror, fear, despair,” said María Villalobos, a 35-year-old journalist, weeping as she relived three days of violence that many here call la locura – “the madness”.
“I thought it was the start of a civil war.”
EU lawmakers approve controversial copyright reform… ‘Dark day for internet’
RT – The European Parliament has voted to adopt the highly controversial Article 13 provision which would govern the production and distribution of content online under the auspices of increasing copyright protections.
Tuesday’s move will update the EU’s 20-year-old copyright rules and will govern audiovisual content, much to the dismay of many social media users who have already begun outpouring their grief online.
However the parliament said in a statement that sharing memes and gifs has been protected “even more than it was before” and they will continue to be available and shareable on online platforms.
MEPs passed the legislation by 348 votes to 274 Tuesday. Opponents had hoped for last-minute amendments to be made but their efforts were in vain.
Israel strikes Hamas after Gaza rocket attack
AP – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned home from Washington on Tuesday, heading straight into military consultations and vowing further action after a night of heavy fire in which Israeli aircraft bombed Gaza targets and Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel.
Netanyahu rushed back to Israel to deal with the crisis after a meeting with President Donald Trump, canceling an address to the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby group and meetings with congressional leaders. Upon his return he told the AIPAC gathering via satellite that over the past 24 hours Israel had pounded militant sites in Gaza on a scale not seen since the 2014 war with Hamas.
“I can tell you, we are prepared to do a lot more,” he said. “We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state.”
Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan told reporters Tuesday that the militant group accepted a cease-fire plan with Israel, saying “we are committed to it” as long as Israel is. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Stolen Picasso unearthed by ‘Indiana Jones of art’
AFP – A Dutch art detective dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” has struck again, finding a Picasso painting worth 25 million euros stolen from a Saudi sheikh’s yacht on the French Riviera in 1999.
Arthur Brand said he had handed back the 1938 masterpiece entitled “Portrait of Dora Maar”, also known as “Buste de Femme (Dora Maar)” to an insurance company earlier this month.
The discovery of the rare portrait of Maar, one of Pablo Picasso’s most influential mistresses, is the culmination of a four-year investigation into the burglary on the luxury yacht Coral Island, as she lay anchored in Antibes.
Two decades after its theft and with no clues to its whereabouts, the French police were stumped — and the portrait, which once hung in the Spanish master’s home until his death in 1973, was feared lost forever.
But after a four-year trail which led through the Dutch criminal underworld, two intermediaries turned up on Brand’s Amsterdam doorstep 10 days ago with the missing picture.
“They had the Picasso, now valued at 25 million euros wrapped in a sheet and black rubbish bags with them,” Brand told AFP.
It was yet another success for Brand, who hit the headlines last year for returning a stolen 1,600-year-old mosaic to Cyprus.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
New York county declares state of emergency over measles outbreak
Fox – Rockland County will ban unvaccinated kids from public places as part of a state of emergency declared Tuesday to battle a measles outbreak, officials said.
The ban, which starts at midnight, will prohibit anyone who under the age of 18 from public places within the county, according to a statement.
This ban will last until the declaration expires in 30 days or until people are vaccinated.
It was not immediately clear how the ban will be enforced.
There are 151 confirmed reported cases of measles in the county, according to health officials.
“We continue to encourage everyone to be up-to-date with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine to help protect them in case of any future exposure to measles in Rockland,” Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert said.
“Measles is highly contagious, so anyone who is not protected against measles is at risk of getting the disease, and they may spread measles to people who cannot get vaccinated because they are too young or have specific health conditions.”
House fails to override Trump veto of his border emergency
AP – The Democratic-controlled House fell short Tuesday in its effort to override President Donald Trump’s first veto, handing him a victory in his effort to spend billions more for constructing barriers along the Southwest border than Congress has approved.
Lawmakers voted 248-181 in favor of overturning his veto, mostly along party lines, but that was 38 votes shy of the number needed for the required two-thirds majority.
The outcome, not a surprise, enabled Trump to move forward on an issue that was a hallmark of his 2016 presidential campaign and of his presidency. Yet the vote also gave Democrats a way to focus on policy differences with Trump, days after Attorney General William Barr gave the president a political boost by saying special counsel Robert Mueller had concluded that Trump had not colluded with Russia to influence his election.
Iowa town halts treating water with fluoride amid concerns
De Moines Register – A small town in northwestern Iowa has ended its decades-long practice of treating the city’s drinking water with fluoride.
The Ida Grove City Council narrowly voted this week to halt fluoride treatment in the city’s water supply, the Sioux City Journal reported. The move comes after city leaders and residents questioned whether the fluoride was effective at preventing tooth decay or presented health risks.
A recent survey distributed through utility bills found that most respondents didn’t support fluoridation in the small city 60 miles east of Sioux City, according to the clerk’s office.
Many cities use the mineral in drinking water to promote dental health. A Hawaii lawmaker in January introduced legislation to add fluoride into that state’s public water systems, while a city in central Ohio considered whether to implement the practice last year.
The mineral fluoride is in water and soil, and scientists more than 70 years ago discovered that people whose drinking water naturally had more fluoride also had fewer cavities. But the practice has been debated across the country, and some opponents have argued that its health effects aren’t completely understood or that adding it amounts to unwanted medication.
Ida Grove, a city of roughly 2,000 residents, began the practice in 1971.
Councilman Doug Clough voted against the motion to end fluoride treatment. Clough said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t identified any health risks associated with the mineral in water systems.
Local public health officials, including the town’s Horn Memorial Hospital, also urged the council to continue the fluoride treatment.
Jussie Smollet case: Chicago prosecutors drop all charges against ‘Empire’ actor
NBC – Smollett was indicted earlier this month on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for making a false report.
In a stunning reversal, Chicago prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett just weeks after he was indicted on 16 felony counts for allegedly filing a false police report.
Ex-CIA Director John Brennan admits he may have had ‘bad information’ regarding President Trump and Russia
Fox – Bad information.
That’s what former CIA Director John Brennan is blaming for his near-constant attacks on President Trump after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia ended up clearing the president.
Brennan, whose role in the Obama administration helped land him a job as an MSNBC contributor and lent his perspective on national security major gravitas, once warned that the Mueller probe showed “our Nation’s future is at stake.” But on Monday, a day after Attorney General William Barr released a summary of Mueller’s findings, showing there was no evidence Trump or anyone close to him colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, Brennan admitted he may have gotten it wrong.
“I don’t know if I received bad information, but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was,” Brennan told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Pentagon chief OKs $1 billion for 57 miles of wall
USA Today – A Pentagon decision to redirect up to $1 billion to build 57 miles of fencing along the Mexican border was slapped down Tuesday by a House panel that rejected the “reprogramming action.”
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Monday authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to plan and build the 18-foot-high fencing and to construct and upgrade roads and install lighting near the border in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas.
Shanahan said the $1 billion plan was in support of the national emergency declaration President Donald Trump issued last month after Congress refused to appropriate the $5.7 billion he wanted for construction of the wall.
“The committee denies this request,” U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a letter to the Defense Department comptroller. “The committee does not approve the proposed use of Department of Defense funds to construct physical barriers and roads or install lighting in the vicinity of the United State border.”
Some Republicans also were skeptical. Texas Rep. Mac Thornberry said he opposes using defense funding for other purposes but suggested Shanahan wa facing “a lot of criticism for decisions that you had nothing to do with.”
Shanahan said he understood the concerns but added that he was executing a “legal order from the commander in chief.”
U.S. cuts off funding for foreign groups in abortion industry
WND – When President Trump took office, he began acting on his commitment to a pro-life America immediately, reinstating the Mexico City Policy that pulled U.S. funding from the business profits of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced a plan to expand that ban on U.S. funding to other foreign abortion providers.
It’s a good move, said the leaders of March for Life.
Jeanne Mancini, the president of the group, said the organization “is grateful to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his announcement today that the department will more fully implement the Protecting Life in Global Health Policy.”
“Taxpayer dollars should not fund abortion here or abroad, and respecting the inherent dignity of the unborn person goes hand in glove with our country’s foreign assistance and humanitarian work,” she said. “The secretary’s courageous leadership on the implementation of this policy will assure its proper oversight and help advance the protection and empowerment of human persons at all stages in our international global health assistance initiatives.”
The Mexico City Policy effectively prohibits using U.S. taxpayer monies for abortion businesses overseas.
Amazon Selling Child Sex Doll for Pedophiles
PJ Media – In a stunning discovery, Amazon has sex dolls that look like children for sale on their site. A company called DVKFP has sex dolls, that are clearly meant to target pedophiles and represent children, listed on Amazon including a promise for “hidden delivery.”
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to $270 million settlement with Oklahoma: source
NBC – Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, has settled with the Oklahoma attorney general for $270 million after it was accused of fueling the nation’s opioid epidemic, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The deal was reached roughly two months before the scheduled start date of a televised trial in Oklahoma, where charges that Purdue deceptively marketed OxyContin would be on full display in a state hit hard by the opioid crisis.
Purdue is still facing 1,600 lawsuits blaming it for promoting OxyContin while underplaying the drug’s addictive properties.
CHAOS:  Computer outage hits AMERICAN, JETBLUE passengers… Developing
USA Today – A widespread computer outage is affecting passengers on American, Alaska and JetBlue airlines Tuesday morning.
Several passengers are reporting issues with check in at the airport and online, and some say their planes can’t board or take off.
American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said the problem is related to the Sabre computer reservations system.
At 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, American said in a statement that the outage was a brief technical glitch and has been resolved.
“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American said.
Cell Tower Outside School Being Removed After Claims Caused Cancer
CBS – The cell phone tower that parents claim caused cancer in four elementary students is being removed.
Parents fought for years with the district after four children were diagnosed with some form of cancer.
The tower is located at Weston Elementary School in Ripon.
A child Weston Elementary was recently diagnosed with cancer. With it being the fourth child diagnosed with cancer in recent years at the school, many parents started raising concerns that the cell phone tower was possibly to blame.
The district has had several tests done saying the tower is safe and meets federal regulations.
Although there is no evidence the tower is linked to the children’s cancer, Sprint now says they will be removing it in the near future.
Economy & Business
50,000 warehouses to deploy robots
Robotics & Automation News – More than 4 million commercial robots will be installed in over 50,000 warehouses by 2025, according to a report by ABI Research.
The 50,000 figure represents a massive expansion of the market from the current situation in which an estimated 4,000 warehouses were found to be using robots in 2018.
ABI says the rapid rate of adoption will be driven by the need for flexible, efficient, and automated e-commerce fulfillment as same-day delivery becomes the norm.
Global adoption of warehouse robotics will also be spurred by the increasing affordability and return on investment of a growing variety of infrastructure-light robots as they are an attractive and versatile alternative to traditional fixed mechanical automation or manual operations.
Nick Finill, senior analyst at ABI Research, says: “Flexibility and efficiency have become primary differentiators in the e-commerce fulfillment market as retailers and third-party logistics companies struggle to cope with volatile product demand, seasonal peaks, and rising consumer delivery expectations.
“Robots enable warehouses to scale operations up or down as required while offering major efficiency gains and mitigating inherent challenges associated with labor and staffing.”
Science & Technology
NASA halts plans for all-female spacewalk because there aren’t enough suits to go around
NY Daily News – NASA was slated to make history with the first all-female spacewalk this week, but those plans are now on the back burner — and ill-fitting spacesuits are partly to blame.
The mission would have marked the first of its kind, as prior ones had either been all-male or male-female.
A wrench was thrown into the landmark plans Monday when NASA announced it would only be able to provide a correctly sized spacesuit top for one woman in time for Friday’s scheduled walk.
Of the two women who were meant to embark on the walk, one, Anne McClain, is having to forego her spot. A male astronaut will be going in her place.
After partaking in a spacewalk last week, McClain, who at first took no issue wearing a large suit, discovered the medium fit her better and would be the best option on her mission. As Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokeswoman, explained on Monday, “In this case, it’s easier (and faster!) to change space-walkers than reconfigure the spacesuit.”
REPORT:  WIKIPEDIA Editors Paid to Protect Political, Tech, Media Figures
Breitbart – A report in Huffington Post recently revealed the case of Wikipedia editor Ed Sussman, who was paid by media clients such as NBC and Axios to help diminish critical material. Paid editors operating in a similar manner to Sussman have worked on behalf of CNN contributor Hilary Rosen and the CEOs of Reddit and Intel, among other clients.
Other conduct by Sussman not covered by the Huffington Post shows him authoring fluff pieces for NBC executives and getting his proposed changes approved by another paid Wikipedia editor.
The report by Ashley Feinberg detailed former journalist Ed Sussman’s work as a paid Wikipedia fixer for clients such as Axios, NBC, and Facebook. Sussman did this work through the firm WhiteHatWiki, which he argues follows Wikipedia policies. Sussman disclosed his paid editing on Wikipedia and ostensibly worked within the rules by having other editors approve proposed changes.
Health
‘Technoference’ From Smartphones Making More Tired, Less Productive
Study Finds – Smartphones are draining the number of hours we sleep, making us less productive, and could even be making some people feel physically worse in general, according to the results of new Australian survey.
Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology say women especially are suffering from the effects of “technoference,” or the problems that arise from too much phone time. The survey was administered to 709 mobile phone users between ages 18 and 83 in 2018, with questions stemming from a similar survey by the group in 2005.
“When we talk about technoference we’re referring to the everyday intrusions and interruptions that people experience due to mobile phones and their usage,” says Dr. Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios, of QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, in a media release.
In comparison to the original survey, the authors found that 19.5 percent of women lose sleep from time spent on their phones, compared to 11.8 percent of men. Those numbers are notably higher from the original survey, when just 2.3 percent of women and 3.2 percent of men felt the same way.
Today, the research shows, 24 percent of women and 15 percent of men could now be classified as “problematic mobile phone users.” The youngest segment of the group was especially at risk. Researchers say about 41 percent of all people ages 18 to 24 fit the mold.
“This finding suggests that mobile phones are potentially increasingly affecting aspects of daytime functioning due to lack of sleep and increasing dereliction of responsibilities,” says Oviedo-Trespalacios.
Many participants agree they’re getting far less done each day than they did in 2005. The authors found that 12.6 percent of men felt they’re less productive, compared to 0 percent in the original survey. For women, 14 percent also felt a drop in productivity, versus 2.3 percent in 2005. In fact, 14 percent of women and 8.2 percent of men go as far as trying to hide the amount of time they’re staring at their phone screens, an admission up from 3 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.
Technoference affects more than just our mental state. Respondents were even feeling more aches and pains that they believe are a result of smartphone use. That was the case, at least, for 8.4 percent of women (up from 3 percent) and 7.9 percent of men (up from 1.6 percent).
What Happens to Your Body When You Eat Too Much Sugar?
Mercola – Today, an average American consumes about 17.4 teaspoons of sugar per day. What’s even more disturbing is that people are consuming excessive sugar in the form of fructose or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
The human body is not made to consume excessive amounts of sugar, especially fructose. It is actually a hepatotoxin and is metabolized directly into fat — factors that can cause a whole host of problems that can have far-reaching effects on your health.
One study found that fructose is readily used by cancer cells to increase their proliferation — it “feeds” the cancer cells, promoting cell division and speeding their growth, which allows the cancer to spread faster.
As a general recommendation, keep your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day, including that from whole fruit.
Red raspberry found to prevent head and neck cancers from developing and spreading
NatualNews – Berries are known to be one of the greatest superfoods available. Many studies suggest that these are rich in antioxidants and possess cancer-fighting properties. For example, red raspberry — a type of berry scientifically known as Rubus idaeus — can protect against a type of head and neck cancer called nasopharyngeal cancer, according to a study published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.
Nasopharyngeal cancer is a type of cancer that has a high incidence of spreading to a different part of the body, particularly in the neck lymph nodes. This leads to a poor prognosis and makes this cancer difficult to treat.
For the study, a team of researchers at Chung Shan Medical University in China looked at the ability of red raspberry extract to prevent nasopharyngeal cancer from developing and spreading in a lab trial. The research team used human nasopharyngeal cancer cells and treated these with red raspberry extract. Then, they analyzed the extract’s effects on the migration and invasion of tumor cells.
Based on the results of the study, the research team found that red raspberry extract inhibited the migration and invasion of nasopharyngeal cancer cells. From this finding, they concluded that red raspberry extract has the potential to prevent nasopharyngeal cancer from developing and spreading, and can, therefore, be used to treat and protect against this cancer.

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