Today's News: May 14, 2019

World News
As US pressures India to cut Iran oil import, Indians ask what Iranian FM can offer in rushed talks
RT – While the plane of the Iranian Foreign Minister was landing at the New Delhi airport for unexpected talks with his Indian counterpart, Indians have been wondering about the timing and purpose of this last-moment scheduled meeting.
Javad Zarif has come at a peculiar time, in the middle of India’s general elections. If he was to wait two more weeks, he could arrange talks with a new government, but the urgency of the meeting speaks volumes.
As US pressures India to cut Iran oil import, Indians ask what Iranian FM can offer in rushed talks
RT – While the plane of the Iranian Foreign Minister was landing at the New Delhi airport for unexpected talks with his Indian counterpart, Indians have been wondering about the timing and purpose of this last-moment scheduled meeting.
Javad Zarif has come at a peculiar time, in the middle of India’s general elections. If he was to wait two more weeks, he could arrange talks with a new government, but the urgency of the meeting speaks volumes.
US military probes oil tanker ‘sabotage attacks’ off UAE coast
Al Jazeera – The US military is investigating the alleged sabotage attacks on four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a US official has confirmed to Al Jazeera.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Armed patriots vow continued patrols as monthly border crossings reach 100,000
The New American – An armed group of citizen patriots patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico have vowed to continue operations to assist Border Patrol despite an eviction from their previous camp.
im Benvie, spokesman for the newly formed Guardian Patriots, told the Las Cruces Sun News numerous “volunteer patriots” continue to patrol sections of the New Mexico border and work in conjunction with Border Patrol officials, though they’ve moved to a new location on private property.
“Nobody who’s been on the border left. There’s been no breakup. Everyone is still here,” Benvie said, disputing media reports that the group had packed up after the arrest of Larry Mitchell Hopkins, the self-proclaimed “commander” of the United Constitutional Patriots New Mexico Border Ops.
Hopkins is currently held without bond in Albuquerque on federal weapons charges unrelated to the border activities, according to the news site.
Just a few days after the arrest in mid-April, Union Pacific evicted the group from their camp near a border fence that company officials claimed was on railroad property. The fallout followed allegations by the American Civil Liberties Union that the Constitutional Patriots were detaining migrants and children at gunpoint.
Benvie denies the allegations, but the controversy resulted in the crowd funding sites PayPal and GoFundMe closing online campaigns for the Constitutional Patriots, so the group relocated to private property and changed its name to Guardian Patriots.
But Benvie contends they’re not leaving any time soon.
“If we left here right now we’re letting America down,” said Benvie, who also disputed media reports about racist comments and intimidating behavior attributed to the group.
Benvie told the Sun News an Oklahoma man arrived in camp last month with an AR-15 and a handgun and he was eager to use the weapons, but the Guardian Patriots sent him on his way.
Barr assigns US attorney in Connecticut to look into government surveillance involving Trump campaign: source
Infowars – Two sources told Fox News earlier today that Barr was “serious” and had assigned DOJ personnel to the probe. Durham is known as a “hard-charging, bulldog” prosecutor, Fox News is told.
Attorney General William Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection efforts targeting the Trump campaign were “lawful and appropriate,” a person familiar with the situation told Fox News on Monday evening.
John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, will conduct the inquiry, the source said. The move comes as the Trump administration has pushed for answers on why federal authorities conducted the surveillance — as well as whether Democrats were the ones who improperly colluded with foreign actors.
First court test arrives in Trump-House showdown over probes
Reuters – A federal court for the first time on Tuesday will step into the intensifying clash between the U.S. House of Representatives and President Donald Trump, who is stonewalling multiple probes led by House Democrats of himself and his businesses.
Amazon re-training employees after mistakenly blocking religious ads
Fox – Amazon is retraining its staff after incorrectly blocking several Christian sellers from advertising online for crosses, Bibles, and religious symbols and statements.
After one person who has sold “Christian Fashion Gifts” on the platform for two years had an ad blocked, the seller asked Amazon why.
In an email, the company said the content of the ads — which included images of Christian apparel with biblical quotes on them — violated its new policy, adding that other sellers with similar language about religion would soon get taken down as well.
“The other sellers who are currently advertising religious related products are doing incorrect practice, which may lead to their account suspension,” Amazon’s rep told the seller in an email last week.
An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC the move was made in error. Amazon did not respond to inquiries from Fox News seeking comment.
Energy & Environment
Tsunami alert after 7.5-magnitude earthquake off Papua New Guinea – USGS
RT – A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea’s New Britain island on Tuesday, prompting fears of “hazardous” tsunami waves for coasts within 1,000 km of the quake’s epicenter.
The quake struck 45km northeast of the New Britain capital, Kokopo, at 12.58 UTC, and was 10 km deep. The US National Weather Service’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has warned that “hazardous tsunami waves” are possible for coastal regions located within 1000km of the quake’s epicenter, limiting any potential waves to the PNG and Solomon Islands region.
This is the second earthquake to hit Papua New Guinea in just over a week. On May 6, a 7.2 quake rocked the region with shocks felt 250 km away from its epicentre in PNG’s capital, Port Moresby. This followed earthquakes in the region in February and March that measured 6.4 and 6.1-magnitude respectively.
Winter makes comeback in Northeast as storm brings late-season snowfall
Fox – Winter is coming. Again.
The National Weather Service said a low-pressure system that caused rain across the big Northeast cities on Monday is bringing late-season snow Tuesday to higher elevations of northern New England.
A Winter Weather Advisory was posted for northern New Hampshire and parts of Maine until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, with 1 to 2 inches of wet snow potentially falling in valley locations and 6 to 12 inches in areas above 1,500 feet.
Science & Technology
WhatsApp was hacked and attackers installed spyware on people’s phones – Business Insider
Business Insider – WhatsApp was hacked, and attackers installed sophisticated spyware on an unknown number of people’s smartphones.
The Facebook subsidiary, which has 1.5 billion users, said it discovered in early May that “an advanced cyber actor” infected an unknown number of devices with the malware.
The Financial Times, which first reported on the issue on Monday, said bad actors exploited a vulnerability in the app to install the surveillance technology by calling the target through WhatsApp, giving them access to information including location data and private messages. Even if the target didn’t pick up, the malware was able to infect the phone.
The FT reported that the spyware was developed by Israel’s NSO Group, whose Pegasus software is known to have targeted human-rights activists. In a statement to the FT, the firm denied any involvement in the WhatsApp hack.
TWITTER ‘accidentally’ shared user data with advertising partner.
NY Post – Twitter says it “inadvertently” collected iOS location data from some of its users and shared it with one of its “trusted” advertising partners — marking the fourth time in the past year that people’s private information has been made public.
“You trust us to be careful with your data, and because of that, we want to be open with you when we make a mistake,” said the social media giant in a blog post Monday.
“We have discovered that we were inadvertently collecting and sharing iOS location data with one of our trusted partners in certain circumstances. Specifically, if you used more than one account on Twitter for iOS and opted into using the precise location feature in one account, we may have accidentally collected location data when you were using any other account(s) on that same device for which you had not turned on the precise location feature. ”
The company claimed that the data leak had been caused by a “bug.”
“We have confirmed with our partner that the location data has not been retained and that it only existed in their systems for a short time, and was then deleted as part of their normal process,” it said. “We have fixed this problem and are working hard to make sure it does not happen again. We have also communicated with the people whose accounts were impacted to let them know the bug has been fixed.”
Twitter said it had “intended to remove location data from the fields sent to a trusted partner during an advertising process known as real-time bidding.”
Health
How Can You Benefit From Vitamin B12?
Mercola – Vitamin B12 is a B vitamin found in most animal-based products.
Vitamin B12 helps in the production of hemoglobin, improvement of nerve strength and regulation of homocysteine levels.
Read on to learn how you can improve your B12 levels through diet or supplementation
Oregon Becomes First State to Permit Dentists to Vaccinate Children
Health Impact News – Governor Kate Brown of Oregon signed a bill on May 6, 2019 that will allow dentists in that state to administer vaccinations.
House Bill 2220, which passed Oregon’s House of Representatives on Mar. 28, 2019 and Senate on Apr. 25, will make it possible for dentists to give vaccines, including MMR, HPV and annual flu shots, to their patients during dental checkups.1 2 3
“Dentists are highly trained medical practitioners who are well-positioned to provide this additional preventive care service. Increasing our scope of practice to the administration of vaccines will help further integrate oral health with physical and behavioral health, ultimately better serving our patients,” ODA president James McMahan, DMD said.3
HB 2220 requires dentists to take a continuing education training course on vaccination and comply with state vaccine storage and reporting regulations in order to be certified to become a vaccinator. Protocols and training rules will be developed by the Oregon Board of Dentistry, Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) and the Oregon Dental Association (ODA).1 2 3
One of the issues that will have to be addressed by the implementation protocols will be determining for dentists which vaccines their patients have already received.
“They won’t have all the vaccine history of a patient. They’ll have to communicate with the primary health care provider or have access to those records. So that’s one of those wrinkles we’ll have to be addressing in rules,” Board of Dentistry director Stephen Prisby said.4
Prisby says he believes the board will have protocols and training rules in place by Jan. 1. 2020.
BREAKING: Bayer Ordered to Pay $2 Billion in Damages in 3rd Roundup-Cancer Trial; Is Bankruptcy On the Horizon?
Green Med Info – A jury in Oakland, California awarded more than $2 billion to a couple who charged that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused their cancer. How will Bayer continue to sustain such punishment without filing bankruptcy?
According to a report on Bloomberg.com, this marks the largest jury award in the U.S. this year, and the eigth-largest ever in a product-defect claim. This also marks the third such ruling, after two other recent California trials over the herbicide causing cancer yielded combined damages against Bayer AG of $159 million.
The jury agreed that Alva and Alberta Pilliod’s use of the glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide was a “substantial factor” in causing them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. While both Pilliods have diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, Alva’s invaded his pelvis and spine and Alberta’s developed in her brain.
The Pilliod’s used the herbicide for residential landscaping, over a 30 year period, and believed, as the manufacturer long touted, that it was exceedingly safe. Their lawyer sought $55 million for the couple’s medical bills and pain and suffering, and requested an additional $1 billion to punish the company.
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science Confirm Health Benefits of Bone Broths
Health Impact News – In South America, it has been supposed that “Good broth can resurrect the dead.” In Greece, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, recommended steaming bowls of broth for his digestion-impaired patients, approximately 2,400 years ago. Maimonides extolled the ‘Excellence’ of broth as both a food and a medicine, causing the golden broth so commonly prepared by Jewish mothers to become colloquially known as “Jewish Penicillin.”
From ancient times, when bones were simmered over fires in turtle shells, to modern, fast paced cities, where it is sold by the cup out of high-end specialized restaurants, bone broth has been touted and accepted as both a medicine and a food by layman and physician alike.
What makes this elixir such an important addition to your daily health regimen?
Bone broth is packed with bio-available and easily absorbable minerals and nutrients, as well as amino acids that are used to build and repair muscle tissue and contribute to healthy bone density.
Minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and others, are in plentiful supply in bone broth, as well as transformative properties such as collagen/gelatin, proline, glycine and glutamine.
As a matter of fact, bone broth contains chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, which are both proven to reduce inflammation, arthritis and joint pain.
Chicken broth’s history of being used to support the immune system during sickness was challenged, in an attempt to separate fact from folk lore, in a Study out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2000.
The study sought to determine what, if any, effect chicken soup had on upper respiratory tract infections. It was determined that the chicken soup “significantly inhibited neutrophil migration.”
In other words, it exhibited an anti-inflammatory mechanism which reduced symptoms of the illness, affirming that chicken soup is good for more than just the soul.
Another of bone broth’s super powers is its ability to restore integrity to the digestive system. Because bone broth is easily digested, it can be consumed by even those who would otherwise have difficulty with digestion of food.
Collagen is also found in abundance in bone broth
In a 24-week study, done by the Department of Nutrition and Sports Nutrition for Athletics at Penn State University, participants used collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement, with the results showing a vast improvement in joint discomfort and factors which would negatively impact the athlete’s performance.
For those seeking to build or repair muscle, collagen contains all 9 essential amino acids – the ones that cannot be made by your body – as well as proline glycine, glutamine and arginine. These amino acids reduce inflammation and promote healing.
Collagen is also touted for its ability to strengthen hair, nails and skin and reduce the appearance of cellulite. This occurs through its ability to form elastin and other compounds in the skin and help maintain a healthy texture and skin tone.
In a double blind, placebo-controlled study which utilized specific collagen peptides, older participants of the study showed significantly higher skin elasticity, giving them a more youthful look. So, whether you are looking to improve your athletic abilities, roll back the clock on your appearance or just feel better in your body, collagen is your friend.
Believe it or not, bone broth is a powerful detoxifier, with its plentiful potassium and glycine, both of which support cellular and liver detoxification. It also contains glutathione, a phase two detoxifying agent, which lowers oxidative stress, eliminates fat soluble compounds (such as heavy metals like mercury and lead), and allows you to absorb more nutrients with its liver cleaning capabilities.
It’s little wonder that the humble pot of bones simmering over the fire has been so revered throughout centuries and over almost every culture across the globe.
Today the ancient wisdom is finding new roots in scientific confirmation, demonstrating what our ancestors had long known, that there are few traditions more nourishing or more fondly embraced as a bowl of good soup. And it just so happens that a really good soup always begins with a rich, wholesome and delicious broth or stock.
Antibiotics for 2 Months Increase Stroke and Heart Attack Risk
Mercola – Using antibiotics for an extended period of time during middle-age or later may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in women.
The finding comes from a study published in the European Heart Journal, which revealed women aged 60 and over who used antibiotics for two months or longer had significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, compared to women who did not.1
According to a press release2 by the researchers, the results held true even after adjusting for other related factors, like obesity, other chronic diseases and diet and lifestyle. Antibiotic exposure leads to long-lasting alterations in gut microbiota, which may influence risk of cardiovascular disease.