Today's News: October 15, 2020

World News

Tougher virus restrictions on London from Saturday

BBC – Millions of people in London, Essex, York and other areas face tougher Tier 2 Covid measures from Saturday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
Under this “high” alert level, there is a ban on households mixing indoors, including in pubs and restaurants.
It comes as a final decision has yet to be made on whether Greater Manchester faces “very high” Tier 3 measures.
More than half of England’s population will now be living under high or very high-alert restrictions.
The areas to go into high alert restrictions this weekend are:

London
Essex
Elmbridge in Surrey
Barrow in Furness, Cumbria
York
North East Derbyshire
Chesterfield
Erewash, Derbyshire

Delivering a statement to the Commons, the health secretary said “things will get worse before they get better”.
“Now, I know that these measures are not easy but I also know that they are vital,” Mr Hancock told MPs.
“Responding to this unprecedented pandemic requires difficult choices, some of the most difficult choices any government has to make in peacetime.”

Papers Please: Macron Announces Curfews in Major French Metropolitan Areas

Breitbart – French President Emmanuel Macron has announced strict 9 pm curfews for several major metropolitan areas, with residents requiring permits to be on the streets at night.
The French leader announced 9 pm to 6 am curfews would be implemented in the Paris region, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Rouen, Toulouse, Montpellier, and Saint-Etienne starting on Saturday at midnight and will last at least four weeks.
“We will go to Parliament and extend it until December 1st,” Macron said according to Le Figaro, adding: “Six weeks is the time that we think is useful.”
President Macron said that the new curfew measures were a preferable alternative to reintroducing the restrictive lockdowns that the country saw earlier this year, arguing that it would be “disproportionate to confine the country”.
Those who do not obey the new curfew measures will be subjected to a €135 fine and those who violate it a second time can see a fine of up to €1,500. Macron added that those who return from work after 9 pm or those with health emergencies would be granted special permits. Otherwise, anyone found outside their home at night without a valid reason would face the force of the law.
Travel will not be restricted between the various French regions, however. “We have not decided to reduce travel between regions. It is not a question of infantilising but of holding accountable. We won’t prevent people from going on holiday, but we do ask that they follow the rules in the coming weeks and months,” Macron said.
France, along with many other European countries, has seen a fresh wave of coronavirus infections in recent weeks, with over 26,600 cases reported on October 11th alone — a daily record, according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics.
Coronavirus deaths, meanwhile, have remained much lower than earlier this year with a recent high of 150 deaths on September 26th compared to the record daily high of 2,003 deaths on April 4th.
During the last lockdown, France also saw widespread riots in vulnerable no-go neighbourhoods across the country and attacks against police.

Canadian government erecting a network of covid detainment camps and “isolation” sites to incarcerate those who don’t cooperate with medical tyranny

NaturalNews – Justin Trudeau and the Canadian government are creating Nazi Germany-like infrastructure to detain human beings en masse, and for years to come. A brave Ontario politician named Randy Hillier spoke out about the government’s nefarious detainment plan in a provincial question period in front of the government of Ontario. His microphone was cut off as soon as he started asking the tough questions.
The Canadian government is erecting a network of detainment camps and isolation sites to be used from coast to coast. These “Federal Quarantine/Isolation sites” are being built across the provinces and will be used to strip Canadians of their human rights and lock healthy people up using false imprisonment schemes. These sites could be used for forced medical testing and forced medical experimentation with covid-19 vaccines. If Canadians can be held down against their will over the fear that they may spread viruses, then these facilities could be used indefinitely and for whatever reason is deemed necessary to maintain an illusion of safety for the “greater good.”
Brave rep stands up and questions Canadian government’s nefarious plans
Randy Hillier, Independent Ontario MPP for Lanark, Frontenac and Kingston, stood up and questioned the government, asking how many people will be detained and how many concentration camps are scheduled for construction. He expressed concern about their current use — to control the spread of covid-19 — and pointed out in documentation that these sites could be used for “other requirements” in the future.
“So your government must be in negotiations and aware of these plans to potentially detain and isolate citizens and residents of our country and our province,” Hillier began. “So speaker, to the Premier, where will these camps be built, how many people will be detained, and for what reason, for what reasons can people be kept in these isolation camps, and I’d like to have the Premier assure the people of Ontario…,” Hillier’s microphone was cut off before he could finish.
Hillier reports that the government has dodged his questions since July. “The expansion of isolation/quarantine camps in Canada is something of concern and the Ontario government must know about it, so why won’t they tell the people of Ontario?” he asked.
Canadian government prepping for resistance to new detainment sites
According to a request for information, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is currently managing eleven quarantine isolation sites across Canada, which includes sites in Calgary, Vancouver, Kelowna, Winnipeg, Regina, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Fredericton, St. John’s (Newfoundland), and Whitehorse. Each site can be used to detain up to 1,600 travelers for up to fourteen days at a time. The sites can be “temporarily discontinued until needed again by the Government of Canada.” The facilities may be used for “other requirements” for the next two years, as deemed necessary to safeguard the public health.
The detainment plan doesn’t end there. In addition, the Canadian government lists each territory and province as a potential region for delivery of new “Federal Quarantine/Isolation sites.” PHAC listed the following territories and provinces as areas of concern that will host the new quarantine camps: Saskatoon, Windsor, Niagara, Ottawa, Winnipeg/Thunder Bay, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Iqaluit, and Yellowknife. The Canadian government is also looking for third party service providers to develop a strategy to manage the sites going forward. Government contracts are being set in motion to supply the sites with goods and services.
The government is preparing for resistance, too. One of the supply contracts includes a 36,000-canister order of tear gas, which is set to be delivered in the Spring of 2021 to the Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot in Dundurn, Saskatchewan. This is the general time frame when covid-19 vaccines become more widely available to the public. The World Health Organization has already primed the public to accept the detainment camps as “a public health measure” and has previously broadcast that “vaccine hesitancy” is a global public health threat.

Gov’t Considers Allowing Utilities to Use “Smart” Meters to Remotely Turn Off Central Heating, etc. without Warning (U.K.)

Activist Post – People worldwide DO NOT WANT utility “Smart” Meters – electric, gas, and water. Tens of millions have been installed and millions more are planned despite all their problems – fires, explosions, higher bills, serious cybersecurity risks (see 1, 2), and more.
UK “Smart” Meter complaints and utility shenanigans continue to be published by Telegraph U.K. (see 1, 2) and other sources.
From This is Money.co.UK:
Government mulls emergency measures that would enable networks to SWITCH OFF your electricity without warning or compensation

Ofgem reviewing plans to give energy networks the ability to shut down domestic electricity supplies
A new sort of smart meter would need to be installed in every home in the UK
Would have the ability to switch off high usage devices such as electric vehicle chargers and central heating systems
Sources close to discussions told us that government is ‘open’ to proposing legislation to support these powers

The Government is considering giving energy networks the power to switch off a household’s energy supply without warning or compensation for those affected.
A series of ‘modifications’ to the Smart Energy Code have been proposed by officials and look set to pass into law by next spring.
These include giving networks the right to decide when they consider the grid to be in a state of ’emergency’ and the power to switch off high usage electrical devices such as electric vehicle chargers and central heating systems in British homes.
Under the plans all homes would need to have a third generation smart meter installed, to include a function that allows meters in the home to receive and carry out orders made by the energy networks.
This would dramatically alter the role of smart meters, which are currently capable only of sending data on energy use to energy networks.
If passed unchallenged, these ‘modifications’ to the law would mean that electric vehicle owners could plug in at the end of the day and wake up without sufficient charge to travel the next morning.
Similarly, central heating systems could be turned off in homes across a whole area if too many electric vehicles are plugged in to charge at once, for example.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Emails: Hunter Biden Strives for ‘Lasting and Lucrative Arrangement’ with Chinese Nationals

Breitbart – Hunter Biden canvassed possible business involvement with a major Chinese firm as he sought deals that would be “interesting for me and my family,” according to a new batch of emails released by the New York Post on Thursday.
The son of the Democratic presidential nominee corresponded with China’s largest private energy provider, CEFC, messages unearthed by the Post from what is alleged to be Hunter’s personal laptop show.
In one missive sent to Hunter in May 2017 titled “Expectations,” details of “remuneration packages” for six people in a business venture were discussed.
He was identified as the “chair/vice chair depending on agreement with CEFC,” an apparent reference to the now bankrupt Shanghai conglomerate China Energy Co.
Hunter’s pay was “850” and the correspondence also outlined he “has some office expectations he will elaborate.”
The email revelations come barely 24-hours after the Post published other emails that showed Joe Biden lied when he said he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” as Breitbart News reported.
Gas company Burisma’ adviser Vadym Pozharskyi thanked Hunter for “an opportunity to meet your father” in an email sent in 2015, according to the trove of data given to the Post by Rudy Giuliani.
Coronavirus Infects Biden Campaign: Kamala Harris Suspends Travel After Staffer Test Positive
Breitbart – Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is suspending all campaign travel through the weekend after two individuals involved with the campaign, including Harris’s communications director, tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus.
The Biden campaign made the announcement on Thursday morning. Those who tested positive for the virus include a “non-staff flight crew member,” as well as Harris’s communications director Liz Allen. The campaign said in a statement:
Senator Harris was not in close contact, as defined by the CDC, with either of these individuals during the two days prior to their positive tests; as such, there is no requirement for quarantine.
Regardless, out of an abundance of caution and in line with our campaign’s commitment to the highest levels of precaution, we are canceling Senator Haris’s travel through Sunday, October 18,” the campaign said, adding that the vice presidential hopeful will “keep a robust and aggressive schedule of virtual campaign activities to reach voters all across the country during this time.
Joe Biden (D) was also not in contact with the individuals in the 48-hours prior to their positive test results, per the campaign. However, the campaign added both individuals were on a flight with Harris on October 8. During the flight, Harris wore an N95 mask, “as did both individuals.”
“She was not within six feet for more than 15 minutes with either of them. As such, she does not meet the CDC definition of ‘close contact’ for exposure. In addition, both before and after the flight both individuals tested negative,” the campaign said.
Harris is expected to return to the campaign trail Monday, October 19.

Biden campaign claims Joe never met with top Burisma executive, despite smoking gun email evidence saying he did

NatrualNews – The New York Post, as you may have seen, published a bombshell report this week exposing Joe and Hunter Biden as deep state swamp creatures who conspired with foreign interests to sell American influence, and later lied about it. And the Biden campaign is now in vehement denial, insisting that because certain key meetings were not on Joe’s official schedule that they never occurred.
The report, which quickly went viral on social media before Facebook and Twitter launched a campaign to stop its spread, reveals that Joe knew full well what his son Hunter was doing in the Ukraine with top executives from Burisma. Joe, then the vice president under Barack Obama, also used his own political influence to grease the wheels for Hunter’s success in the criminal operation, making him complicit.
Whenever he has been pressed about the issue – a rarity – Joe either gets angry and lashes out at reporters or tries to deflect attention back to President Trump, whom he says is the real problem in our country. Joe has, however, publicly denied any knowledge of Hunter’s activities in the Ukraine, which we now know to be a bald-faced lie.
In one of the leaked emails obtained by the Post, Vadim Pozharskyi, believed to be the No. 3 executive at Burisma, petitioned Hunter and his then-business partner Devon Archer to “use [their] influence” to protect Burisma from “blackmailing” by the “new authorities in power” at the time.
Again, the Biden campaign claims that none of this actually happened, despite the email evidence, because there are supposedly no official entries in Joe’s schedule showing that he was in any way involved with his son’s illicit dealings. But other emails also published by the Post show that Hunter did, in fact, introduce his father Joe to a top executive at Burisma right around the time when Joe publicly bragged that he had supposedly leveraged $1 billion in U.S. financial aid to force former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Viktor Shokin, the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

Peaceful Protestors Forcibly Removed from AT&T 5G Installation Site by Berkeley, CA Police

Activist Post – California residents have not been quiet about their opposition to cell towers being installed throughout their communities. Unfortunately. a recent protest did not end peacefully.
From 5G Crisis:
Peaceful Protestors Forcefully Removed from AT&T 5G Installation Site by Berkeley Police
On October 5, a group of ten WiRED “pole watchers” (including some “camping out” in a tent pitched on the sidewalk next to the disputed pole on Gilman were reportedly “man-handled” by a contingent of BPD officers who physically assaulted the activists. Two frightened activists named Wanda and Vivian were reportedly grabbed and “shaken like little rag dolls.” Sorgen (a veteran of many protests) said her treatment “wasn’t excessive” though “there’s a sore spot on one forearm” from being dragged down the street “because I went limp.”
According to witnesses, at least 20 police showed up. One officer announced: “If you don’t want to get arrested, get out of the way” but that was immediately followed with the order: “Every officer grab a person!”
“It was really brutal and bad,” according to Juty Blue, who was standing vigil at the Gilman pole. “It was 3:30 morning and there were only eight of us, which made it easier for police to rough us up. They grabbed and pulled and pushed people. They were rude and horrible.”
Sierra Murphree, who was occupying a tent on the sidewalk, was dragged away from the pole while still inside the tent.
At the same time, a smaller contingent of protesters was confronted by police at the construction site near the Monterey Market. A 61-year-old protestor named Jason Winnett suffered a pulled muscle after being roughed-up by the officers. Meaveen O’Connor was left with bruises on her body and CodePink campaigner Cynthia Papermaster said the police were so aggressive she feared “they were going to break my arm.”
Read the full story here.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to protect Americans by regulating the telecom industry. They have failed miserably at this for decades and have become more dangerous since Trump was elected.

Economy & Business

Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise to 898,000

Breitbart – The U.S. labor market stumbled in early October.
After spending several weeks in a rut, barely improving, U.S. jobless claims moved higher in the week ending October 10 to 898,000.
That is 53,000 claims above the prior week’s level. Economists had expected claims to decline to 830,000.
Hopes for an economic support package from Congress have been dashed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s determination not to do a deal with the Trump administration before election day.
Airlines have started laying off thousands of workers due to lack of demand for flights. A deal that had provided them with billions of funding in exchange for keeping workers on the payroll expired at the end of September.
Claims hit a record 6.87 million for the week of March 27. Until a month ago, each subsequent week had seen claims decline. But in late July, the labor market appeared to stall and claims hovered around one million throughout August, a level so high it was never recorded before the pandemic struck.
Now claims have begun rising again, setting off alarm bells that employers have begun to shed workers at a more rapid pace.
The 4-week moving average, which may be a more reliable measure of the health of the jobs market because it smoothes out week-to-week volatility, rose to 866,250, which is 8,000 above the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 1,250 from 858,250.
Continuing claims, which get reported with a week’s lag, came in at 10,018,000, a decrease of 1,165,000 from the previous week’s revised level.
The decline in continuing claims may be a silver lining in the report. It indicates that those who have lost their jobs are finding new work. It’s likely that the decline in the level of federal enhancement to unemployment benefits, from $600 per week to $300, has encouraged some workers to seek jobs.
The highest insured unemployment rates are in Hawaii, California, and Nevada.
Jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs and have been closely watched as a signal for how the pandemic is influencing the economy. Prior to the pandemic, weekly jobless claims had been running around 200,000.

Energy & Environment

‘Super’ material raises hope of energy revolution

BBC – Scientists have found the first material that displays a much sought-after property at room temperature.
It is superconducting, which means electrical current flows through it with perfect efficiency – with no energy wasted as heat.
At the moment, a lot of the energy we generate is lost because of electrical resistance, which is lost as heat.
So room temperature “superconducting” materials could revolutionise the electrical grid.
Until this point, achieving superconductivity has required cooling materials to very low temperatures. When the property was discovered in 1911, it was found only at close to the temperature known as absolute zero (-273.15C).
Since then, physicists have found materials that superconduct at higher – but still very cold – temperatures.
Study Confirms Plastics Threat To South Pacific Seabirds
NaturalBlaze – Plastic gathered from remote corners of the South Pacific Ocean, including nesting areas of New Zealand albatrosses, has confirmed the global threat of plastic pollution to seabirds.
Published on 12 October in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, the study looks for patterns in the plastics seabirds from around the South Pacific ingest.
It uses data gathered by Canterbury Museum Senior Curator Natural History Dr Paul Scofield and Wellington ornithologist Christopher Robertson in the late 1990s and 2000s.
“Plastic pollution is a major threat to seabird species, not just here in New Zealand but around the world,” says Dr Scofield. “Knowing more about how seabirds interact with plastic might help us solve this problem in the future. At the moment, it’s only getting worse.”
Christopher Robertson, co-author of the study says, “One of the interesting takeaways from this study is that it shows you just how far plastic can travel in the ocean. Some of the areas where we collected the plastic are very remote. To me, that shows that this is a global issue; it’s not something a single country can solve on its own.”
“The samples provided by our colleagues from New Zealand allowed us to assess the patterns of seabird-plastic interactions on a larger scale, across the entire South Pacific Ocean,” says the study’s lead author, Valeria Hidalgo-Ruz from the Chilean Millenium Nucleus Centre of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands.

Science & Technology

Twitter and Facebook’s action over Joe Biden article reignites bias claims

BBC – The way Twitter communicated its handling of a controversial article about US presidential hopeful Joe Biden was “unacceptable”, its chief has said.
On Wednesday, Twitter prevented people from posting links to a New York Post story, warning those trying to click it that the link was “potentially unsafe”.
It only later explained it had limited sharing because the story contained “hacked materials”.
Facebook also took action, limiting the report’s distribution in its news feed.
It said it had done this as part of a “standard process” to give third-party fact-checkers time to review the content and decide if it should be treated as misinformation.
However, it is highly unusual for an article published by one of the mainstream popular newspapers to be treated in this way.
It is now less than three weeks until Mr Biden, the Democratic candidate, faces the Republican incumbent Donald Trump in the presidential election on 3 November.
The moves by Twitter and Facebook have renewed accusations of social media censorship and bias.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, acknowledged that it should have informed users as to why it had intervened sooner.
“Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL [website link] sharing via tweet or DM [direct message] with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable,” he tweeted.
The New York Post article contained screenshots of emails allegedly sent and received by Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son.
It also contained personal, intimate photos of Hunter Biden, allegedly taken from a laptop computer that was given to a repair shop.
Twitter said discussing the claims in the New York Post article was not against its rules, but it had imposed restrictions on the article because it exposed private information such as email addresses and exposed material obtained by “hacking”.

Cruz: Big Tech ‘Crossed a Line That Is Very Dangerous’ with Censorship on Biden-NY Post Story

Breitbart – During Thursday’s broadcast of “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned of the implications of Big Tech’s decision to attempt to limit the exposure of a story involving Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden alleging possible wrongdoing in his business dealings.
Cruz described it as serious and having “crossed a line that is very dangerous.”
Partial transcript as follows:
DOOCY: So the Biden camp says a meeting with that guy not on his official calendar but then again why would you ever put it on the official calendar? But they’re not really disputing the basic facts. They won’t say whether or not Joe ever met this guy. And yesterday, after it broke, it would have been a great time to have asked the former vice president some of these questions, but the campaign called a lid at 9:41 so nobody could talk to him.
CRUZ: Yes. Well, look, if this wasn’t true, it’d be very easy to get rid of it. They could just do a press conference with Joe Biden and Hunter Biden both there. Hunter’s around. There’s nothing to prevent him from answering questions. And he can answer questions. Is this his computer? Are these his e-mails? Is this real?
It’s amazing, though, how much of the press wants nothing to do with this. They don’t want to know if the vice president of the United States was selling favors from the White House. I mean, that — that’s what the allegation is, is that — is that for money, for — for millions of dollars to his family, that he was selling official policy, official aid of the United States of America to foreign countries.
If that’s true, that is serious, serious wrongdoing. And it’s stunning that much of the media wants to ignore it. And, as you know, not only that, Facebook and Twitter decided to do more than ignore it, to censor it and silence it to prevent people from even finding out the facts of the press story.
EARHARDT: Yes, we want to ask you about that because look at the front cover of The Post today. It says “censored” because Kayleigh McEnany, the spokesperson for the White House, as you know, she put on her personal e-mail — or Twitter account, she posted this story — yesterday’s story about Ukraine and then they wrote — they said — these were their words, Twitter’s words, she violated the Twitter rules, therefore, they took down — or they blocked her from being able to — to use her account.
Jack Dorsey then later in the day said, our communication was not great, blocking the URL sharing with zero context as to why we’re blocking is unacceptable.
But what do you — I mean, will the — will the mainstream media report the latest, which is they’re reporting that he basically did the same thing in China with his business partners. They’re reporting that Hunter Biden introduced his dad, who was vice president at the time, to his business partners in China. They flew over to China together on Air Force Two in December of 2013, according to these reports.
CRUZ: Look, the —
EARHARDT: What do you think about the censorship three weeks from the election?
CRUZ: I think the mainstream media’s entirely in bed with Joe Biden. I think their only priority is trying to elect Biden.
And big tech — look, big tech has been getting worse and worse and worse, but they really crossed a line here. They crossed a line that is very dangerous. For years I’ve been focusing on big tech censorship of conservatives, of conservative ideas, of shadow banning. I’ve chaired multiple hearings on it.
But the line they crossed here is The New York Post has the fourth highest circulation in America. They did two things on this. Number one, they blocked all of their users. If you wanted to share this story from The New York Post, you clicked on the link and you went up to a page that said blocked, this information is dangerous. Well, maybe it’s dangerous for Biden’s political fortunes, but that’s not really Twitter and Facebook’s call to make.
And then, secondly, the New York Post itself was sending out on Facebook and Twitter their own story, and they blocked The Post. They blocked The Post from sending it. I don’t know of any precedent of a major news outlet being blocked by Twitter and Facebook, of them deciding the following news outlets are not allowed to report major evidence of corruption from one of the two presidential candidates a couple weeks before the election. It is stunning.
And for everyone in the media who says, well, it’s unverified, you know that didn’t stop The New York Times from going on and on and on with what they say are the president’s tax returns and it certainly didn’t stop a whole lot of blue check-mark journalists from talking about the Steele dossier and the so-called “pee tape.” Now, that is unverified.
In this case, I don’t know if The New York Post story is right or not, but that’s actually what people should be debating. And — and Joe Biden ought to be answering those question right now.
KILMEADE: And they said there was some personal information, personal e-mails and contacts on there. That was it. So they do this thing called redaction. I think America’s gotten great at redaction.
CRUZ: Yes.
KILMEADE: We’re the best redactors in the world. We redact everything of substance. I think we could have adjusted that.
But the other thing to keep in mind, it’s working because not everybody gets The New York Post since New York and there’s a lot of people out there who aren’t watching us, even as astounding as that is. And the networks don’t cover it. The other channels don’t cover it. It’s not brought up by the Biden campaign. So it is working.
You guys do an investigation in November or December, fireworks, it’s a day story. It is working.

ENOUGH CENSORSHIP! It’s time for the DoJ to SEIZE Facebook and Twitter, arrest Zuckerberg and Dorsey over malicious blocking of bombshell NY Post article exposing the Biden crime family

NaturalNews – With Facebook and Twitter now deliberately blocking any sharing of a bombshell NY Post article that exposed the Biden crime family as corrupt, treasonous liars, the time has come to call for the DoJ to seize Facebook and Twitter, shut down their illegal operations, arrest their CEOs (Zuckerberg and Dorsey) and charge them with conspiracy to defraud the United States of America.
These tech giants are deliberately engaged in election rigging, selectively blocking links to timely, well-researched investigative articles that reveal the crimes of the Biden family, all as part of a coordinated Big Tech conspiracy to install a Democrat in the White House no matter what the cost.
This is the new mantra of Democrats: Lie, cheat, steal, commit fraud, censor, threaten, commit violence… do anything it takes to “win” because they are so filled with fabricated hatred toward President Trump, they cannot stand to live for another four years with him as America’s duly-elected president. And they certainly can’t stand to see the truth come out about Hunter and Joe Biden (nor Hillary, Obama, Comey or Brennan for that matter).

Health

The therapeutic effects of ginseng against Alzheimer’s disease

NaturalNews – Panax ginseng, commonly known as Asian ginseng or Korean ginseng, is one of the most widely used and extensively studied species of ginseng. Sometimes referred to as the “true ginseng,” Asian ginseng has been a staple herb in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and is still used today to boost immunity, increase strength and blood volume, lower blood sugar, promote life and appetite and treat anemia and impotence.
In a recent study, American and Chinese researchers screened, identified and evaluated the bioactive compounds present in Asian ginseng. Specifically, they looked at the herb’s neuroprotective effects, which have been reported by numerous studies but remain poorly understood. The researchers reported their findings in an article published in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.
Asian ginseng shows promise against Alzheimer’s disease
According to cell culture and animal studies, Asian ginseng exerts neuroprotective effects, but the specific bioactive compounds responsible for these effects and the mechanisms behind them still need to be investigated.
To screen, identify and evaluate the bioactive compounds present in this TCM herb, the researchers used affinity ultrafiltration (AUF), a combination of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) and molecular docking for their experiment.
AUF is a method often used to fish out molecules of interest from complex matrices. UPLC-QTOF-MS, on the other hand, is used to characterize and identify phytochemicals present in plant extracts. Molecular docking is a method frequently used to predict the three-dimensional structure and binding-conformation of ligands to their receptors.
The researchers selected three macromolecules, namely, acetylcholinesterase (AChE), monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) and the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, to be the target proteins for AUF-MS screening and found 16 potential neuroactive compounds present in Asian ginseng.
AChE is the enzyme responsible for breaking down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and is mainly found in muscles and nerves. MAO-B, on the other hand, is the enzyme that breaks down brain chemicals, including the neurotransmitter dopamine. Meanwhile, the NMDA receptor is the protein to which the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the human brain, glutamate, binds to. NMDA receptor dysfunction is linked to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
Upon evaluation of the bioactivities of Asian ginseng components by AChE-inhibitory test and DPPH (antioxidant activity) assay, the researchers found that all of them have significant neuroactivity. Molecular docking results also confirmed the AUF results, save for a few discrepancies.
Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that Asian ginseng exerts a therapeutic effect against Alzheimer’s disease through the interactions between its active components and its biological targets (molecules and pathways).