Today's News: May 06, 2019

World News
German parents face fine for refusing measles vaccination
The Guardian – Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against measles in Germany could be punished with fines of up to €2,500 (£2,130), according to a draft law presented by the health minister, Jens Spahn.
The law, which is set to come into effect from 1 March 2022 if it passes through parliament before the end of this year, would make vaccination against measles mandatory for all children attending nurseries and schools, as well as teachers, educators and medical staff at hospitals and surgeries.
By July 2020, parents signing up their children for kindergartens or schools would need to either provide evidence that their children have been vaccinated or proof of a medical condition that prevents their offspring from getting the jab.
According to estimates by the health ministry, the law would also affect about 361,000 non-vaccinated children already attending a school or kindergarten, as well as about 220,000 adults.
Agents rescue 220 human-trafficking victims
WND – Hundreds of children from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Togo have been rescued from human trafficking – they were passed back and forth and eventually were forced into all-day market work, carrying heavy loads or even prostitution, authorities report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Some 220 victims, mostly ages 11-16, were rescued when 100 police officers in Benin and Nigeria fanned out to raid markets, carry out identity checks and investigate reports coming from Abuja and Cotonou.
The work was coordinated by the international police organization INTERPOL.
“Many of the rescued minors were moved around as ‘merchandise’ across the border, and made to work in markets all day and carry heavy loads,” the report said. Their work included literally carrying cargo between Benin and Nigeria.
‘India shelling’ kills two in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Al Jazeera – Pakistan’s army says at least 16 civilians have been killed by Indian gunfire across Line of Control this year.
Venezuela ‘ready’ for any US attack: FM Jorge Arreaza
Al Jazeera – Venezuela is ready to see off any attack from the United States, the country’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Monday in Moscow.
“We are ready for all scenarios. The first is diplomacy, dialogue, peace,” Arreaza told a press conference after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
But if Washington “opts for the military path, we have an armed force, a people, a national guard that will be able not just to resist and fight, but also to win,” he added.
The foreign minister’s comments come following a failed, US-backed bid by Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to spur a military uprising against President Nicolas Maduro last week.
Boeing admits knowing of 737 Max problem
BBC – Boeing has admitted that it knew about a problem with its 737 Max jets a year before the aircraft was involved in two fatal accidents, but took no action.
The firm said it had inadvertently made an alarm feature optional instead of standard, but insisted that this did not jeopardise flight safety.
All 737 Max planes were grounded in March after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed, killing 157 people.
Five months earlier, 189 people were killed in a Lion Air crash.
The worldwide fleet of 737 Max planes totalled 387 aircraft at the time of the grounding.
US Troops in Syria for the “Long Haul” Atop “A Lot of Oil Resources”: Pentagon Official
Global Research – A high level Pentagon official has admitted that US forces will be in Syria for “the long haul” and coupled his statement by declaring the territory contains “a lot of the oil resources and arable land.”
The unusually frank remarks were made this week by Michael Mulroy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, while addressing a conference at the D.C. based Center for a New American Security (CNAS), months after President Trump appeared to have caved to his advisers, reversing course earlier this year from his stated goal of a full and rapid US troop exit from Syria.
Mulroy said “we have a very capable partner” — in reference to the primarily Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — and quickly noted the US-trained SDF happens to occupy key regions in eastern Syria with “a lot of the oil resources and arable land,” and added that, “we are there with them”.
The Pentagon official further vouched for the think tank’s new feature policy recommendations on Syria which call among other things for continuing to “maintain a presence in over one-third of the country.”
Referencing the CNAS’ new policy report entitled “Solving the Syrian Rubik’s Cube,” regional Iraqi media outlet Kurdistan 24 reported.
US warships sail through disputed South China Sea as Trump prompts trade war escalation with Beijing
RT – Two US warships have sailed through the South China Sea, a move that has angered Beijing. The naval maneuver comes a day after Donald Trump threatened China with more tariffs as part of an ongoing trade war.
The US military has confirmed that two of its warships sailed near islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea on Monday. China says the waterway is part of its territorial waters, while Washington insists that the sea is open to international transit under the principle of “freedom of navigation.”
The US guided-missile destroyers ‘Preble’ and ‘Chung Hoon’ traveled within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands, Reuters reported.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Supreme Court Says No to NYC’s Second Amendment-Avoidance Scheme
Activist Post – On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to buy into New York City’s transparent scheme to avoid the Court’s review, and wisely denied the city’s request to indefinitely put a hold on NY State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York. It’s the Supreme Court’s first true Second Amendment case since 2010.
For years, residents of New York have been required to apply for a “premises license” to own a handgun. Worse, city officials place a number of restrictions on what a resident can do with a firearm possessed pursuant to such a license. Most egregiously, license-holders may not transport their handguns outside of city limits, even to another home owned by the resident or to a licensed shooting range or competition.
GOP warms to idea of a climate change policy
CS Monitor – Conservatives have spent years bashing the notion of global warming. So why are several Republicans suddenly calling for a GOP policy aimed at mitigating it?
On March 8, two members of the U.S. Senate joined in a statement calling for Congress to take action to address global warming. What was unusual is that one of them is a Republican and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, while the other is the top Democrat on that committee.
“There is no question that climate change is real or that human activities are driving much of it,” said Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., writing together in The Washington Post.
The call to action symbolizes a shift in both rhetoric and substance by conservatives on what’s widely seen as today’s central environmental issue. It’s an issue that Republican politicians in recent years have been more likely to dismiss than embrace.
Cory Booker Pushes National Gun License
Newsmax – Democrat presidential candidate Cory Booker is proposing that all gun owners be licensed by the federal government, a process that would include an interview and safety training.
National licensing is one of more than a dozen specific proposals in a sweeping gun control agenda the U.S. senator from New Jersey released on Monday. It’s his second policy rollout in three weeks as he tries to break through the crowded Democratic primary field .
Conn. Supreme Court Grants Gun Maker Remington’s Motion to Stay Sandy Hook Litigation
Law.com – Gun manufacturer Remington won a stay of litigation Thursday from the Connecticut Supreme Court in the litigation related to the Sandy Hook shootings. The gun maker is preparing to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Connecticut Supreme Court has granted Remington Arms Co. LLC a stay in litigation by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims, who filed a lawsuit against the gun maker over the December 2012 massacre at that school.
The gun manufacturer and its daughter company, Bushmaster Firearms International LLC, had requested the stay last month, as they prepare to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
In its one-page order issued Thursday, the state’s high court said the stay would be granted “until the expiration of the time to petition to the United States Supreme Court, if a petition is filed, until that court has taken action in this case, either by denial of the petition for certiorari, or if applicable, by a decision on the merits.”
It’s not clear when a petition with the nation’s highest court will be filed. Remington and Bushmaster attorneys James Vogts and Andrew Lothson did not respond to a request for comment Friday. Both attorneys are with Chicago’s Swanson, Martin & Bell.
Economy & Business
Caracas hopes to skirt US sanctions via financial cooperation with Russia & China
RT – Venezuela is seeking closer cooperation with Moscow and Beijing with a view to creating a new system of banking transactions to dodge US financial sanctions, according to the country’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza.
“We are looking for alternative ways of cooperating with Russia, China and other friendly nations in order to evade the American blockade,” Arreaza said during a press conference at the Venezuelan Embassy in Moscow.
The minister stressed that the Bolivarian Republic hopes to create new alternative routes for changing monetary assets to replace those under the control of Washington. He admitted that such methods of cooperation would not materialize overnight.
Trade talks with China collapse: “This has all the makings of a complete disaster that could lead the stock market to crater this week”
Economic Collapse Blog – Chaos has returned to global financial markets, and it does not appear that there will be an easy fix this time. For the first four months of 2019, the mainstream media told us over and over again that a great deal of progress was being made on a trade deal with China and that negotiations would soon reach a final conclusion, but now it has become clear that those news reports were fake news. For a variety of reasons, the Chinese have been slow playing negotiations all along. Once they got the Trump administration to suspend the implementation of any new tariffs while negotiations were ongoing, the Chinese no longer had any urgency to reach an agreement. In fact, if the Chinese could have run out the clock all the way to the 2020 election, they surely would have done so. They would very much prefer to negotiate with someone else, and I think that President Trump has finally figured out that he was being played. On Sunday, in a very angry two part tweet Trump announced that he is going to slap China with huge new tariffs…
For 10 months, China has been paying Tariffs to the USA of 25% on 50 Billion Dollars of High Tech, and 10% on 200 Billion Dollars of other goods. These payments are partially responsible for our great economic results. The 10% will go up to 25% on Friday. 325 Billions Dollars….
…of additional goods sent to us by China remain untaxed, but will be shortly, at a rate of 25%. The Tariffs paid to the USA have had little impact on product cost, mostly borne by China. The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!
In response to Trump’s angry tweets, the Chinese suggested that they may cancel this week’s negotiations…
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had planned to bring a large delegation to Washington on Wednesday to hash out a trade deal — and there’d been talk in recent days that something resembling a deal could result. Instead, two sources briefed on the talks said the Chinese side may back out of this week’s negotiations.
That was pegged to Trump’s new threats, they said, which abandon a six-month truce after Beijing waffled on some previously discussed commitments.
And according to reporter Edward Lawrence, the negotiations have now officially been canceled.
Merck Profits Soar As MMR Measles Vaccine Increases 27% to $496 Million in 2019
Health Impact News – There is nothing like a good “measles outbreak” to boost sales when you have a monopoly on the only measles vaccine available, and corporate-funded mainstream media does almost all of your marketing for free, by singing the praises of the vaccine while never mentioning potential side effects or criminal cases currently in place over corruption surrounding the development of the vaccine.
Given the fact that U.S. law prevents anyone from suing Merck if a vaccine injury or death occurs from their vaccines, and that the U.S. Government via the CDC is the largest purchaser of vaccines to the tune of $5 billion per year, the vaccine industry has become perhaps the most lucrative market in the history of the world.
Merck & Co Inc. reported higher-than-expected first-quarter profits for 2019.
Sales of the MMR measles vaccine soared 27% to $496 million.
The company also saw strong sales growth overseas for its Gardasil vaccine, as sales rose 27 percent to $828 million, beating analyst expectations by about $25 million. (Source.)
A similar increase in sales of the MMR vaccine happened in 2015 when the corporate media pronounced a “measles crises” based out of Disneyland.
‘Dystopian approach’: SEC gives blessing to MasterCard’s idea of cutting off customers with right-wing views
NaturalNews – Blocking payments to individuals or groups by financial service firms impedes freedom of speech in a free society, journalist Ben Swann has told RT, following reports that MasterCard is allegedly on course to censor the far-right.
(Article republished from RT.com)
The New York-based firm is reportedly being forced by left-leaning liberal activists to set up an internal “human rights committee” that would monitor payments to “white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists.”
“The problem is that everyone has their own views and, in a free society, the idea of a free society is that you are free to have your belief systems, as long as you’re not harming anyone else physically,” Swann told RT America. “But your belief system belongs to you and you have the right be wrong. White supremacists have the right to be wrong.”
MasterCard is not the only holder of purse-strings that is mulling the selective banning of individuals from their services and funds. Patreon and PayPal have previously barred individuals from receiving payments using their platforms, due to their extreme views.
But unlike crowdfunding platforms, being cut off from one of the leading American multinational financial services corporations will, most likely, have a much greater impact on the financial stability of an individual or a group, especially after the US Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly blessed MasterCard’s undertaking. By doing this, Swann believes the government granted “big corporations the ability to control what voices are heard.”
The issue with such an approach, the investigative journalist argues, would lead to a wider crackdown on financial payments to anyone who the government would see as unfavorable.
“The fact that the SEC has given a green light to this essentially says the SEC supports the idea of censoring these groups in order to freeze out essentially anyone you don’t agree with,” the journalist said.
“It is such a dystopian 1984 world view and yet we’re living through it right now,” the journalist observed.
Energy & Environment
Switching off street lights saves energy and helps ecosystems
NaturalNews – When street lights are turned off for part of the night, they do not just save on the electricity bill. Researchers from the U.K. said that the energy-conserving practice also benefits moths and other nocturnal insects by helping to restore the animals’ original behavior before artificial light pollution intruded upon the night.
In a study published in the journal Ecosphere, the researchers reported that turning off the street lights for a few hours during the evening is enough to let moths regain their bearings. The insects will return to their proper and vital roles as nocturnal pollinators that supplement the work of their daylight counterparts.
Moths are nowhere as glamorous as butterflies or honeybees, but they are very important pollinators that work during the hours when their diurnal equivalents are asleep. They deliver pollen to a lot of plants, including important food crops like peas and soybean.
However, moths and other nocturnal pollinators are easily distracted by artificial lighting. They will abandon fields and hedgerows to fly toward street lights and other sources of light at night. Because they waste time around night-lights, they spend less time feeding on flowers, which reduces the chances of pollination. (Related: Evening bright light exposure can cause your blood sugar levels to spike.)
The bad effects of artificial light pollution can be minimized
However, a research team from Newcastle University said that moths can pollinate flowers in part-night lighting with the same rate of success as when they do so in the complete absence of artificial light. Team supervisor Dr. Darren Evans noted the timeliness of their study on the environmental benefits of part-night lighting, since turning off street lights is an increasingly common cost-cutting practice in the U.K.
Science & Technology
Facebook to Ban Users Who Share Infowars Content Unless It Is ‘Explicitly Condemning’ It
The Free Thought Project – In one of the most disturbing moves by Facebook we’ve ever seen, the platform banned Alex Jones and other controversial U.S. political personalities for violating the social media company’s policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.”
Most of the individuals who’ve been unilaterally wiped off the face of the largest social media space in the world are far right activists like Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Paul Joseph Watson. However, in a seeming move to appease those on the right who advocate for equal censorship, Facebook also banned far left Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
While Facebook has previously banned Infowars from their platform, they allowed personal pages to stay up, but this was apparently too much for the platform to handle. Yes, some of the things Infowars and Alex Jones say are utter nonsense and borderlines on hysterical Islamaphobia. The Free Thought Project has — on more than one occasion — written entire pieces condemning some of the things said by Alex Jones and the other folks at Infowars.
Never, however, have we advocated for the silencing and banning of any group. But this time, Facebook reportedly went a step further than just banning Infowars content on their website. According to reports, they are promising to ban groups and individuals for merely sharing their content.
Health
Chronic Stress Raises Your Risk of Several Types of Cardiovascular Disease
Mercola – Recent research shows people with stress related disorders are 29% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease compared to a sibling without a stress disorder, and 37% more likely compared to the general population.
Within the first year of a stress diagnosis, the risk for cardiovascular disease is even greater — 64% greater than that of a sibling and 71% greater than the general population. The link is also particularly strong for those under the age of 50.
Previous research has demonstrated that stress increases your risk of heart attack and stroke by causing overactivity in your amygdala, your brain’s fear center.
As your stress level rises, so does your level of disease-promoting white blood cells, and this is yet another way by which stress can lead to atherosclerosis, plaque rupture and heart attack.
During moments of high stress your body also releases norepinephrine, which can disperse bacterial biofilms from the walls of your arteries, allowing plaque deposits to suddenly break loose, thereby triggering a heart attack
CDC warns America DO NOT WASH that disease-infested, superbug-infected chicken you’re about to eat
NaturalNews – Are you paranoid of germs? You should wash yourself well with hot, soapy water and take some Vitamin D. Are you paranoid of germs in your food? According to the CDC, never wash your raw meat or eggs before cooking, because those germs are very scary, and they can easily spread. So, you’ll want to cook those germs, including the bacteria and salmonella, very well first, and then eat them. Washing chicken in your kitchen could spread deadly germs onto utensils, cutting boards, and counter tops as well, so watch out for that. Thanks for the insight, you regulatory agency “watchdogs.” You never cease to amaze us.
Yes, that’s the CDC’s best advice for avoiding getting infected by bacteria that has bred inside the chicken at the confined animal feeding operation (CAFO – where most chickens in America are inhumanely bred and slaughtered), where the animal is shot up with mass amounts of antibiotics, because it’s living in horrendous quarters, sick from eating genetically modified food stuff, and full of carcinogens from hormone overdose.
In America, weeks (or even months) before the chicken dies, it suffers from sickness, sadness, and it hears and watches its cohorts being slaughtered. That meat is often contaminated with salmonella, clostridium perfringens bacteria, and campylobacter bacteria, among all the deadly parasites and pathogens. Are you thinking you’re safe because you eat less red meat now, and more chicken? Think again.
Clostridium perfringens are the cause of over a MILLION serious sicknesses every year. Why? Most people believe the CDC and the LIE that cooking the chicken kills all the bacteria. It doesn’t. Not entirely. Spores can still grow again and the bacteria can thrive, especially if you don’t refrigerate or freeze the cooked carcass properly.
Report: Alzheimer’s Rates Set to Surge As Baby Boomers Age
Newsmax – Aging baby boomers could push Alzheimer disease rates to new high levels, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that about 5.8 million Americans currently have the disease that’s the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
That number will climb to at least 13.8 million by 2050, a 138% rise, and as many as 1 in 3 people who live to be 85 in the United States will die with Alzheimer’s, the Free Press reported.
“We are really in an epidemic,” Dr. Eva Feldman, a University of Michigan neurologist, whose own mother suffers from Alzheimer’s, told the Free Press about a crisis that’s fueled by those born between 1946 and 1964 who are at or near an age when the disease most commonly manifests.
She said other risk factors include family history, type 2 diabetes and obesity, high blood pressure, previous brain trauma, and APOE-e4 status — “the first risk gene identified and remains the gene with strongest impact on risk.”
Women also are at greater risk, as are people of African American and Latino descent.
According to the Free Press, caring for people with the disease and other forms of dementia will cost $290 billion this year. By 2050, it’s expected to rise to $1.1 trillion annually.
The Alzheimer’s Association says it’s the most expensive disease in America.