Today's News: November 27, 2018

World News

The US Gives Israel a Green Light for Expansion
LewRockwell – Hardly anyone noticed. The Trump administration quietly changed America’s long-held position on Syria’s strategic Golan Heights while attention was focused on the raucous political carnival in Washington. Though barely noticed, the policy change had enormous importance and will lead the United States into a lot of future Mideast misery.
The Trump administration abruptly changed US Mideast policy. First, it announced the US Embassy would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, meaning that it rejected the idea of a Palestinian state with its capital in the old city of Jerusalem. Now, the White House has quietly accepted permanent Israeli control of Golan, though it violates international law and past US policy.
It’s clear that US Mideast policy is firmly under the control of the neocons aligned to Israel’s expansionist far right parties. In fact, it is impossible to see any difference between the policies of Israel’s hard rightwing leader, Benyamin Netanyahu, and President Donald Trump. They are joined at the hip. A coterie of pro-Israel lawyers and property developers from New York City have completely taken control of Mideast policy.
More important, what the change in US Golan policy means is that Trump & Co are giving a green light to further Israeli territorial expansion. Now that Washington, which decries Russia’s much more justified annexation of Crimea, has approved the illegal annexation of Golan, what could be next? Likely further chunks of southern Syria, an invasion of Lebanon and annexation of its water resources.
Saudi Arabia and its little ally, the United Arab Emirates, have already been given a green light by Washington to carve out strongholds in Yemen and along the strategic Red Sea coast. This is the Mideast ‘peace’ settlement that candidate Trump promised; an increasingly close alliance with the Mideast’s most reactionary states, notably the murderous Saudi regime. This bodes ill for the United States.

In the #MeToo era, theologians publish ‘Women’s Bible’
France 24 – Tired of seeing their holy texts used to justify the subjugation of women, a group of feminist theologians from across the Protestant-Catholic divide have joined forces to draft “A Women’s Bible”.
As the #MeToo movement continues to expose sexual abuse across cultures and industries, some scholars of Christianity are clamouring for a reckoning with biblical interpretations they say have entrenched negative images of women.
The women we know from translations and interpretations of Bible texts are servants, prostitutes or saints, seen dancing for a king or kneeling to kiss Jesus’ feet.
But while many feminists have called for The Bible, Christianity and religion altogether to be cast aside, an eclectic group of theologians instead insists that if interpreted properly, the Good Book can be a tool for promoting women’s emancipation.

Tensions Rise Between Russia and Ukraine Amid Kerch Strait Incident; Ukraine Navy Ship Shot and Seized
Activist Post – Tensions have risen between Russia and Ukraine as Moscow rammed and shot at Ukrainian Navy ships on Sunday allegedly for invading its territorial waters. Ukraine has declared martial law in response and NATO countries are convening for an emergency meeting, while Russia and the U.S. called for an emergency UN meeting.
The move comes a day after the Ukrainian Navy said Russia fired on some of its ships in the Kerch Strait near Crimea, hitting two vessels and injuring six crew members. Russia then seized both ships and a tugboat, Ukraine said.
A video shows a Russian vessel ramming a Ukrainian ship, while another picture shows unknown damage to a Russian RFCGS 354 ‘Izumrud’, a Rubin Class patrol ship, deployed at Kerch bridge.

Russia warns of escalation in Crimea over martial law in Ukraine
Al Jazeera – The warning comes after a court in Crimea said three captured Ukrainian sailor will be held in jail for two months.

Kushner pressured US officials to inflate Saudi arms deal: Report
Al Jazeera – Trump’s adviser and son-in-law sought to increase arms sales to ‘symbolically solidify’ US-Saudi ties, report says.

3 American service members killed in Afghanistan roadside bombing
USA Today – Three American service members died Tuesday when a roadside bomb exploded in central Afghanistan, the worst tragedy yet in a deadly month for U.S. forces in the war-torn country.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in the Shahbaz neighborhood just outside the Ghazni, a city of more than 250,000 in a region where Taliban militants have stepped up attacks in recent months.
Lt. Ubon Mendie, a spokesman for the U.S. forces, said in a statement that three other service members and one American civilian contractor were injured in the blast. The wounded were evacuated and were being provided medical care, Mendie said.

Brexit deal is doomed, senior Tory warns
BBC – The agreement must be improved, the ex-minister says, as the PM also comes under attack from the DUP.

US Department of Interior’s Plan to Destroy Public Records Is “Unacceptable”
Global Research – Today, Western Values Project (WVP) submitted a formal comment to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requesting that they not grant the US Interior Department’s request to delete public records. Interior’s request comes as the department and Secretary Zinke have dragged their feet responding to and in some cases simply failed to provide responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Today is the last day for the public to submit comments to NARA on Interior’s request.
Interior is seeking permission from NARA to permanently destroy a range of records relating to oil and gas leases sales, legal matters, mineral exploration permits, and fish and wildlife surveys, among other issues. WVP’s comment asserts that extensive record keeping is essential to holding Interior accountable by ensuring they are doing the public’s work properly and legally.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

George W. Bush Receiving Award From Lincoln Foundation
NBC – The annual award recognizes people for a lifetime of service in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.
Ray McCaskey, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors, says much of Lincoln’s legacy was defined by his leadership during the Civil War. McCaskey says Bush also faced great challenges and demonstrated “resolute leadership” after the Sept. 11 attacks.
In a statement, Bush says Lincoln was one of the nation’s greatest presidents and that he’s proud to accept the award bearing his name.

Plunge in Clinton Foundation donations fuels GOP scrutiny amid DOJ probe
Fox – Newly released tax documents showing a plunge in Clinton Foundation donations after Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential election defeat have fueled long-standing Republican allegations of possible “pay-to-play” transactions at the organization, amid a Justice Department probe covering foundation issues.
The tax filings, which were made public this month, show the Clinton Foundation pulled in $62.9 million in 2016, but only $26.6 million the following year, representing a nearly 58 percent drop. Tax documents for 2018 are not yet available.
A spokesman for the foundation told The New York Post, which first reported the figures, that they “anticipated a decline” in 2017 and said it was “largely attributable to the absence of sponsorship and membership contributions for CGI [Clinton Global Initiative].”
The final CGI meeting was held in 2016, and the wind-down was a likely factor in the donation drop. Representatives for the Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
But the filings further emboldened congressional Republicans concerned the foundation benefited first from Clinton’s position atop the State Department and later as a presidential candidate, by way of donors seeking political favors — only for that cash flow to dry up when it was clear Hillary Clinton was out of government.
“The remarkable significance of the drop in Clinton foundation donations raises grave concerns their operations were not above board as the American people have been led to believe,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said in a statement to Fox News. “Whenever we look at the possibility of ‘pay to play’ by government officials, current or former, it demands answers–and anyone who uses public office to sell access for their own financial benefit must be held accountable.”

Donald Trump: Robert Mueller Has ‘Gone Rogue’
Breitbart – President Donald Trump continued criticizing the ongoing Russia investigation on Tuesday, insisting that special counsel Robert Mueller has “gone rogue.”
“Wait until it comes out how horribly and viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue.”
Author Jerome Corsi rejected a plea deal that Mueller offered on Monday, accusing his team of “Gestapo” tactics.
“They want me to say I willfully lied. I’m not going to agree that I lied. I did not. I will not lie to save my life,” Corsi said. “I’d rather sit in prison and rot for as long as these thugs want me to.”
Trump ripped the media for holding Mueller up as a hero in the ongoing investigation despite the president’s criticism.
“The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint when in actuality he is the exact opposite,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other.”
Mueller’s team of investigators also accused Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, of lying to them on Monday, despite signing a plea agreement with the team.
Manafort’s legal team denied lying to Mueller’s investigators. He has already been found guilty on eight charges of tax and bank fraud but was cooperating with the Mueller investigation on additional charges.
Trump also criticized the cost of the ongoing investigation.
“The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and they’ve got nothing but ruined lives,” he wrote. “Let these terrible people go back to the Clinton Foundation and ‘Justice’ Department!”

Economy & Business

George Soros Sold Huge Amounts Of Facebook And Netflix Just Before Tech Stocks Crashed
The Economic Collapse Blog – George Soros avoided a loss of more than 17 million dollars by dumping shares of Facebook, Netflix and Goldman Sachs just before the big crash started happening. In other words, he made out like a bandit by selling at the peak of the market. Is he smarter than all the rest of us, did he have some inside information, or was he simply lucky? In recent months, tech stocks have lost approximately a trillion dollars in value, and many investors have been absolutely devastated. But not George Soros. According to the most recent filing with the SEC, Soros Fund Management was able to dump shares in Facebook and Netflix just in time…
Soros Fund Management, which Soros founded and chairs, exited social-network giant Facebook (FB) completely in the third quarter, while also slashing positions in Netflix stock (NFLX) and Goldman Sachs Group stock (GS). Those three stocks have tumbled in the fourth quarter so far, with Facebook and Goldman setting new lows Tuesday. They are down almost 20% and 15%, respectively, so far this quarter. Highflying streaming-content giant Netflix has tumbled almost 29% since the end of September.
Soros saved a chunk of cash by selling: Barron’s estimates that, had he maintained positions in those stocks, he would have unrealized losses of about $17.7 million so far in the fourth quarter.
Perhaps we will never know what prompted those moves, but with George Soros these strange “coincidences” have happened again and again throughout his career.

Science & Technology

Amnesty International drops scathing video critical of Google’s censored search engine
Mashable – Weeks after Google employees around the globe walked out of offices in protest of the company’s handling of claims of sexual misconduct, the Mountain View-based search giant is about to face yet another worldwide protest. This time, however, Amnesty International is coming for it. The planned demonstrations aim to highlight Google’s efforts, codenamed Dragonfly, to build a censored Chinese search engine.
It’s all set to go down on Nov. 27, reports The Intercept, and Amnesty International is not playing around. The NGO launched a petition calling on Google to cease its Dragonfly project, and a scathing satirical Google recruiting video.

U.K. govt. agency warning that coming massive space storms will wipe out modern society by killing all electronics
NaturalNews – he Met Office in the United Kingdom is warning that massive solar storms that occur on an average of about once every 100 years are coming and that, without adequate warning, they could wipe out most technology on earth, hurling much of the world back to the 18th century.
The country’s national weather service says Britain could be “crippled by huge electrical disturbances caused by storms in space unless a satellite network is built that can detect them coming,” The Sunday Times reported last week.
Naturally, the U.K. would not be the only country affected. Such massive solar storms would also wreak havoc on technology the world over, having the greatest negative impact on the most technologically advanced countries.
“We find that for a one-in-100-year event, with no space weather forecasting capability, the gross domestic product loss to the United Kingdom could be as high as £15.9bn (about $20.4 billion),” The Met Office study said. “With existing satellites nearing the end of their life, forecasting capability will decrease in coming years, so if no further investment takes place, critical infrastructure will become more vulnerable to space weather.”
According to NASA, the U.S. space agency utilizes its entire network of “Heliophysics missions” to study space weather, in part for the purposes of detecting and/or predicting solar storms. NASA also partners with additional U.S. agencies “to fulfill the space weather research or operational objectives of the nation,” the agency says on its website. Primarily, this is accomplished through an existing fleet of satellites mostly belonging to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency said.

Health

US Officials: It’s OK to eat Some Romaine, Look for Labels
Newsmax – It’s OK to eat some romaine lettuce again, U.S. health officials said. Just check the label.
The Food and Drug Administration narrowed its blanket warning from last week, when it said people shouldn’t eat any romaine because of an E. coli outbreak. The agency said Monday the romaine linked to the outbreak appears to be from the California’s Central Coast region. It said romaine from elsewhere should soon be labeled with harvest dates and regions, so people know it’s OK to eat.
People shouldn’t eat romaine that doesn’t have the label information, the FDA said. For romaine that doesn’t come in packaging, grocers and retailers are being asked to post the information by the register.

20 Million Schoolchildren Have Been Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs Known to Cause Suicidal Thoughts
GreenMedInfo – A news article published in 2017 reported that, according to the latest data, a staggering 12.7 percent of all US citizens over the age of 12 were taking antidepressants. Thrive Global, who reported these figures, stated that:
For many, antidepressants have been a long-term course of medication: 68 percent of people in the most recent survey said they’d been taking them for two or more years, and 25 percent had been taking them for more than a decade.”
In reality, more children are being prescribed these drugs than the public are aware of. This fact was highlighted by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) in their film, Psychiatry: an Industry of Death. They stated that currently around 20 million school children are being prescribed stimulants and psychotropic drugs.
Worryingly, Brogan highlighted the fact that the majority of prescriptions being written for antidepressants were actually being written by general practitioners and not psychiatrists, as one would expect. She wrote that:
Seven percent of all visits to a primary care doctor end with an antidepressant and almost three-quarters of the prescriptions are written without a specific diagnosis. What’s more, when the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health did its own examination into the prevalence of mental disorders, it found that most people who take antidepressants never meet the medical criteria for a bona fide diagnosis of major depression, and many who are given antidepressants for things like OCD, panic disorder, social phobia, and anxiety also don’t qualify as actually having these conditions.” (Emphasis added)
In fact, according to Brogan, many individuals suffering with a physical condition can also display symptoms similar to those suffered by those patients with psychiatric disorders. If this is correct, then young children may be diagnosed with mental illness when they are not mentally ill but physically sick.
She stated that:
Many different physical conditions create psychiatric symptoms but aren’t themselves “psychiatric.” Two prime examples: dysfunctioning thyroid and blood sugar chaos. We think (because our doctors think) that we need to “cure” the brain, but in reality we need to look at the whole body’s ecosystem: intestinal health, hormonal interactions, the immune system and autoimmune disorders, blood sugar balance, and toxicant exposure.” (Emphasis added)
Brogan concluded that:
Depression is a message and an opportunity
It’s a sign for us to stop and figure out what’s causing our imbalance rather than just masking, suppressing, or rerouting the symptoms. It’s a chance to choose a new story, to engage in radical transformation, to say yes to a different life experience.”
If she is correct, then her paper is extremely worrying, as, according to research, children as young as one-year-old are being prescribed antidepressants.

Skin Age Reversed 13 Years In Just 9 Months By Doing This
GreenMedInfo – One simple lifestyle modification — the cessation of smoking — has been found to dramatically reverse biological skin age in a study of Italian women.
Dramatic reversal of skin aging has been seen in smokers who stopped for at least nine months. This does not mean, however, non-smokers will not also experience similar improvements by eliminating avoidable chemical exposures, detoxifying, as well as changing their diet to include longevity-promoting nutrients and phytocompounds, such as blueberry, zinc, and chocolate. In fact, a wide range of natural substances have been studied to contribute to restoring youthfulness, elasticity and health to the skin, as you shall soon see.
First, let’s take a closer look at what happens to your skin when you stop smoking….
Smoking Cessation Results In Dramatic Biological Skin Age Reversal
In a study published in the journal Skinmed in 2010, titled “”Quitting smoking rejuvenates the skin”: results of a pilot project on smoking cessation conducted in Milan, Italy,” researchers evaluated the benefits on the skin obtained by cessation of smoking in a sample of 64 Italian women who smoke, and who, over a period of 9 months, were followed by a team of dermatologists, psychologists and nutritionists.[i]
Each participant was given a clinical score to measure each of several criteria of skin health and appearance. Participants’ skin was assessed on the basis of presence of lines, vascular and pigmentation state, elasticity, brightness, and texture.
These measurements were then used to determine a biological age of the skin. At the beginning of the study the average biological age of participants was 9 years older than their chronologic age. Amazingly, after 9 months after cessation of smoking, the average reduction of the biological age of the patient’s skin was 13 years.
If simply stopping smoking is responsible for reversing the aging process by as much 13 years, can you imagine what removing fluoride, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, and thousands of other chemical exposures would do to your skin, and bodily health in general?
Natural Substances That Pack A Powerful, Age Defying Punch!
A number of clinical studies have been performed in order to ascertain the value of natural compounds in improving signs of aging, including the following:

Aloe: A 2009 study in women, published in the Annals of Dermatology, found that the daily ingestion of between 1.2 and 3.6 grams of aloe gel, taken daily for 90 days, significantly improved wrinkles and elasticity in photoaged skin in healthy female subjects over the age of 45.[ii]
Pine Bark: A 2012 study in women, published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging, found that oral administration of 40 mg or 100 mg of French maritime pine bark (pycnogenol), daily for 12 weeks,, improved clinical symptoms in photoaged facial skin. [iii]
Chocolate: A 2006 study in women, published in the Journal of Nutrition, found that long-term ingestion of high flavanol cocoa provides photoprotection against UV-induced redness (erythema) and improves skin condition.[iv]
Green Tea: A 2005 study in women, published in the journal Dermatologic Surgery, found that a combination of topical and oral green tea supplementation resulted in improvement in skin elasticity following exposure to ultraviolet light.[v]
Multi-Nutrient Mixtures: In 2004, a study published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment found that a multi-nutrient mixture of vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids, selenium, zinc, amino acids and glycosaminoglycans, blueberry extract and pycnogenol improved visible signs of aging in women 45-73 years of age after only 6 weeks of treatment.[vi] In 2005, a study published in the Journal of International Medical Research found that a multi-nutrient mixture of marine proteins, alpha-lipoic acid, pine bark extract, vitamins and minerals is safe and efficacious in the treatment of aging symptoms of the skin in women, after six months.[vii] Finally, a 2006 study, published in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that multi-nutrient mixture of soy extract, fish protein polysaccharides, extracts from white tea, grape seed and tomato, vitamins C and E as well as zinc and chamomile extract improves signs of skin aging in post-menopausal women, after six months.[viii]

$4 Billion and Growing: U.S. Payouts for Vaccine Injuries and Deaths Keep Climbing
Health Impact News – The Health Resources & Services Administration just released new dollar figures reflecting payouts from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The payouts for vaccine injuries just went past the whopping $4 billion mark.
Using the government’s own conclusion that only 1% of all vaccine injuries are reported, the $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg. Despite assurances from CDC and our Federal agencies that all vaccines are safe, the payouts say otherwise.
Vaccine injuries can and do happen—to previously healthy children and adults. Consumers deserve to know the facts about the full range of vaccine risks.
by the Children’s Health Defense Team
In most public health communications about vaccination, officials gloss over vaccine risks, dismissing any possible “side effects” as mild.
However, vaccination programs have always resulted in more serious vaccine injuries for some. In the 1970s and early 1980s, for example, the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine and its whole-cell pertussis component had chalked up so much vaccine damage that a television documentary likened receiving a DPT shot to playing “vaccine roulette.”
After the DPT debacle began attracting widespread attention, vaccine manufacturers started pressuring Congress for protection from vaccine injury lawsuits. Congress obliged. In 1986, President Reagan signed into existence a radical piece of legislation—the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA)—which launched what the Act described as an “alternative remedy to judicial action for specified vaccine-related injuries.”
A key component of the legislation involved creating the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), which was given responsibility for deciding (through the workings of a special “vaccine court”) whether specific injuries and individuals would be eligible for financial compensation.
Over the vaccine court’s 30-year history, individuals and families have filed over 20,000 petitions for vaccine injury compensation. This month, even as 12% of filed petitions remained unadjudicated, the payouts crossed over the $4 billion threshold.
This amount was awarded in response to barely a third (31% or 6,276) of the filed petitions. There is no telling how much more money the taxpayer-funded program might have shelled out if the court had not chosen to dismiss the remaining petitions (56%)—possibly doing so fraudulently in at least some cases.