Today's News: October 18, 2018

World News

US-led Coalition Conducted Strike on Civilian Homes in Deir ez-Zor – Reports
Sputnik – Syrian state television has reported that strikes conducted by the US-led coalition on the settlement of as-Susah in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province have led to civilian casualties.

Lindsey Graham Blames Saudi Crown Prince for Missing Journalist
The New American – Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), speaking on Fox News’s Fox & Friends October 16, blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the disappearance of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi disappeared after being seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to get paperwork needed for his marriage. The senator said that he was “personally offended” by Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Speaking during the popular news program, Graham said that it was “up to the president” to decide how he would respond to Saudi Arabia.
Graham then added: “What I would do, I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia.”

Report: Khashoggi killed in interrogation ‘gone wrong’
WND – Saudi Arabia will admit in a statement that Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi citizen who disappeared while at the nation’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, earlier this month, died in an “interrogation gone wrong, according to CNN.
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the ruling class in Saudi Arabia, vanished Oct. 2 after he walked into the consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials claim they have proof the Saudis were responsible for his murder. President Trump said he talked with the Saudi king, who denied knowledge of the incident.
Two sources who spoke to CNN, however, said the Saudis are preparing a report admitting that they intended to abduct and bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, but that he was inadvertently killed in the process. CNN said the report is intended “to absolve the Saudi government of responsibility for the murder by claiming the operation was not cleared.”

Mattis meets with Chinese defense minister amid tensions
The Hill – Secretary of Defense James Mattis met with his Chinese counterpart on Thursday amid rising tensions between the two nations.
Mattis and Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe spoke for 85 minutes on the sidelines of an annually scheduled meeting between the U.S. and Asian defense ministers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The two discussed almost every major military issue between the two countries, officials at the meeting told the Journal.

Putin says former Soviet Republics regret end of USSR
AFP – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the citizens of many former Soviet Republics regretted the collapse of the USSR, which he described as a “great state”.
People in the former republics “interpret it in their own way, but all the same they believe that life in the Soviet Union was more secure, calmer, they felt surer of themselves,” he told a forum in the Russian city of Sochi.
“There were more opportunities in one great, united, powerful state,” he said.
Former republic Georgia fought a war with its former master Moscow in 2008 over breakaway regions, while the Baltic States have gone to lengths to remove traces of their Soviet past.

18 dead in explosion in Crimea
Washington Examiner – Eighteen people are confirmed dead and dozens more have been wounded by an explosion at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea, close to where a bridge was built to connect the peninsula with Russia after Russia annexed the region in 2014.
Although the blast was initially thought to be a gas explosion, Reuters now reports that officials have confirmed there was at least one attacker who set off a bomb in the cafeteria, then made his way through the building, shooting at random. Most of the victims were students.
The incident is being treated as a terrorist attack, according to law enforcement officials.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Trump Vows To Send Millitary, Close Southern Border To Block Migrants
ZeroHedge – As another “migrant caravan” has swelled to more than 4,000 hopeful “asylum seekers” marching toward the US’s southern border, recently prompting the Mexican government to dispatch 500 additional border guards to its border with Guatemala, President Trump threatened to send in the military and close the US’s southern border with Mexico in a tweet Thursday morning, after threatening to withhold aid from Honduras earlier in the week.
After bashing Democrats for pushing for “open borders” and Honduras and Guatemala for having “almost no control” over their populations, Trump demanded that Mexico “stop this onslaught” at the country’s border with the US. If they fail, Trump threatened to (“in addition to stopping all payments to those countries”) “call up the US Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”
The new caravan, which began in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula with 150 migrants, has swelled in size. It’s the second caravan from Honduras this year.

Nancy Pelosi Rejects Borders, Saying Trump Wants a Wall Due to a ‘Manhood Issue.’
G. Edward Griffin – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said in an interview that building a border wall is expensive, ineffective and “not something people do between countries.” She went on to state that Trump’s proposed border wall was a “manhood issue.” However, Nancy Pelosi lives in the prestigious Presidio Terrace neighborhood in San Francisco behind a guarded gate. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote the ‘Keep Families Together Act’ bill in June, which critics say is a bill for open borders. The bill provides that “[a]n agent or officer of a designated agency shall be prohibited from removing a child from his or her parent or legal guardian at or near the port of entry or within 100 miles of the border of the United States.”

Ex-FBI Agent Sentenced 4 Years for Leaking
ABC – erry James Albury, a former FBI agent in Minnesota, was sentenced to four years in prison with an additional three years of supervised release on Thursday in U.S. District Court..
Albury admitted that he leaked documents to a reporter from The Intercept, an online news publication. He worked as an FBI Special Agent at the field office in Minneapolis at the time of the disclosure in 2016-2017. He was also working as a liaison with the Department of Customs and Border Protection at MSP International Airport during that same time period.

Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS pleads 5th on dossier
Fox – Glenn Simpson – the co-founder of the Fusion GPS research group that commissioned the unverified, Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier – on Tuesday invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee.
On Capitol Hill, Simpson declined to answer multiple shouted questions from Fox News about his refusal to testify as he arrived to the committee room.
But Simpson’s lawyer, Joshua Levy, on Tuesday took aim at Republican lawmakers for compelling him to appear.

Papadopoulos to spill details to House committees
WND – One of the foundations for the Russia collusion investigation is the claim that Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos informed an Australian ambassador that the Russians had dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Now, Papadopoulos will tell his story directly to Congress in a closed-door session on Oct. 25, CNN reported.
Justice Dept. investigating clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania: report
The Hill – The Justice Department has reportedly opened an investigation into the child sexual abuse scandal roiling the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that prosecutors have served subpoenas for dioceses across Pennsylvania and are seeking documents and testimony from church leaders. The report cited two people familiar with the investigation.
A Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August detailed hundreds of allegations of child sex abuse by priests in dioceses throughout the state.

FBI sat on Hillary emails for month, says Judicial Watch
WND – FBI agents knew there were hundreds of thousands of Hillary Clinton emails on a laptop belonging to the husband of top aide Huma Abedin weeks before they notified Congress, which was investigating the email scandal at the time, a new cache of documents obtained by Judicial Watch reveals.
The Washington watchdog said Wednesday it the new documents show the FBI “didn’t even bother to look at the emails, and then again only partially, for weeks.”
“The Clinton email scandal needs to be reviewed again and immediately by the Justice Department,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Honduras: Video Shows Women with Children Are Being Given Cash to Join the Caravan to Storm the US BorderEdward Griffin – The caravan from Honduras that seeks to storm the US border has tripled in size to more than 4,000 people in just two days, as throngs of women with children were filmed being paid to join the caravan. Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) questioned why the caravan was deployed just before the midterm election, as deportation and separating children from parents who cross into the US illegally is a hot-button issue that cannot be easily solved due to an Obama-era court ruling. Gaetz also suggested George Soros and NGOs funded the scheme. President Trump issued a stern warning to Honduran President Hernandez threatening to cut US aid immediately if the caravan was not stopped.

Students sick from KANGAROO meat in school chili
Sandhills Express – Some of the students at a western Nebraska high school and junior high may have fallen ill after consuming chili with kangaroo meat mixed with beef last week.
News Channel Nebraska first reported the mystery meat in chili served at Potter-Dix High School and Junior High was that of the marsupial.
The school’s head cook Kevin Frei said he added the kangaroo meat for its nutritional value and because it’s a lean cut.
While it’s unknown the extent of the illnesses and whether or not they were brought on by the meal, Potter-Dix Superintendent Mike Williams fielded several complaints from concerned parents.

Veteran News

Facebook Deletes Disabled Vet’s Pages — After Taking $300,000 in Advertising
The New American – A disabled American veteran has become one of the victims of Facebook’s political purge ahead of the mid-term elections. The online social-media platform announced October 11 that it had suspended more than 800 pages and accounts for what it claimed was “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and spamming, with many of the accounts hosting politically conservative content supportive of President Trump.
One of the most high-profile of those impacted by the purge is disabled Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who runs a number of Facebook pages, including one for Right Wing News and another for Military Grade Coffee, which were both deleted by Facebook for supposedly including “mis-information” in their posts. At the time of its suspension, Right Wing News claimed more than three million Facebook followers.
Kolfage, who lost both legs and his right hand during deployment to Iraq in 2004, took to his website, fight4freespeech.com, to battle what he termed social-media censorship. “I’m not a ‘conservative,’ I’m not a ‘liberal,’” wrote Kolfage in explaining his battle against Facebook. “I’m an American, with deep beliefs in what our country stands for. I proved this by vowing to protect and fighting for America’s greatest tenet: free speech. Many Americans have fought for these political freedoms — freedom of speech — and every American has enjoyed those freedoms — UNTIL TODAY. On October 11, 2018, Facebook shut down thousands of Facebook accounts for their political opinions, saying in effect that they don’t have a ‘legitimate political argument.’”

Economy & Business

STARBUCKS selling stores, closing operations in Europe
AP – Starbucks is restructuring its European operations after several years of slowing sales.
The Seattle-based coffee chain is selling 83 company-owned stores in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to its longtime partner, Alsea. Alsea will also take over operations at 177 other Starbucks locations in those countries which are owned by franchisees.
Mexico City-based Alsea already operates more than 900 Starbucks stores in Mexico and South America.
The deal is similar to one Starbucks made in 2016, when it sold off its stores in Germany.
Starbucks also plans to close offices in Amsterdam and consolidate its European headquarters in London. The closure will impact 186 employees, who will be encouraged to apply to open jobs in London.

Facebook Shareholders Push to Remove CEO Zuckerberg
Activist Post – As Facebook grapples with a multitude of privacy scandals, the mass exodus of young people away from their mobile application, and new accusations of purging independent media organizations from its platform to stifle political debate, a fresh shock wave has just struck the company as four major public shareholders have proposed to remove CEO Mark Zuckerberg from his position
State treasurers from Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, co-filed the proposal on Wednesday alongside Trillium Asset Management, according to Reuters, as the shareholders seek to install an independent chair.

Energy & Environment

US Bans New Mining Claims on Public Land Near Yellowstone Park With Bipartisan Support
Good News Network – Earlier this week, U.S. Interior Secretary and former Montana congressman Ryan Zinke approved a 20-year ban on mineral mining in the public areas north of the historic park.
The ban was supported by a host of Montana businesses and organizations as a means of preserving the popular recreational areas, as well as protecting the pristine mountain landscape and the elk, bears, and wolves that frequent the area.

Science & Technology

Amazon Robotics Is Automating Everything
The New American – When Amazon, the largest Internet retailer in the world, purchased Kiva Systems in 2012, it paid almost a billion dollars for it; and it transformed, and continues to transform, the company. Amazon wanted the technology behind the Kiva robots that were previously being used by The Gap, Walgreens, Staples, Office Depot, Crate & Barrel, and Saks 5th Avenue. When the contracts with those companies ran out Amazon didn’t renew them.
It wanted Kiva’s technology for itself.
Today, in its more than 100 massive distribution or “fulfillment” centers, there are hundreds of thousands of Kiva robots doing the work humans used to do just a few years ago.
YouTube videos of the transformation from human “pickers” to robotic pickers include this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1HhPxKpyfw

“Covert” Facial Recognition Street Lights Coming to a Neighborhood Near You
Activist Post – A recent Reuters article reveals that ST Engineering has been awarded $5.5 million to install facial recognition street lights in Singapore.
ST’s smart street lights come equipped with sensors, LED screens and covert cameras already installed.
Incredibly, ST claims their spying street lights can bring “healthcare benefits to residents.”

Health

Produce ALERT: New EXPERIMENTAL Monsanto Franken-Fruits hit the produce racks soon – watch out for genetically mutated mushrooms, tomatoes, bananas and strawberries
NaturalNews – Monsanto, the most evil corporation on planet Earth, is now branding their latest fruit and vegetable science monsters that grow from “Crispr” gene editing during laboratory experimentation as “cutting-edge technology,” even though past GMO experiments (like with BT corn and Roundup Ready crops) have completely backfired, causing cancer, anxiety, depression, and kidney failure in tested lab animals.
New versions of old fruits will be “planted” in the produce aisles conspicuously to trick consumers who avoid GM crops at all costs. If GMOs are so great for the environment, farm animals and humans, why doesn’t Monsanto put a bright sticker on everything GMO – bragging about it and announcing all food that’s gene edited? Why do they fight so hard to keep labels off genetically modified food if it’s supposedly going to save the world from starvation, drought, bugs, and weeds? The answer is simple. It’s all experimental and dangerous, using chemicals in laboratories to alter the genetic makeup of Mother Nature’s pure food, while their rogue scientists claim it’s all safe, sustainable, and “cutting edge” technology.

Pomegranate juice has DRAMATIC effects in slowing the development of prostate cancer
NaturalNews – If you are one of the 2.9 million men in the U.S. with prostate cancer, you might feel powerless about your situation. As the second leading cause of cancer deaths in America, it’s quite understandable to be worried. However, too much stress can hurt your chances of survival, so why not focus your energy on activities that can help you win the battle against this disease? For example, there is one simple thing you can start doing every day that could make a surprisingly big difference: Drink pomegranate juice.
Prostate cancer is assessed using the PSA rate. This is a measurement of how long it takes a person’s level of prostate specific androgen (PSA) to double. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Cancer Research, scientists found a safe and effective way to slow PSA growth – and by extension, the development of the disease – in the form of pomegranate juice.
The researchers found that men who drank just 8 ounces of pomegranate juice per day were able to dramatically slow the growth of their prostate cancer cells. Their mean PSA rates took a remarkable 54 months to double after this treatment; this is a significant rise from the 15 months noted at baseline. They also enjoyed a 12 percent drop in cell proliferation and a 17 percent rise in the death of cancer cells, or apoptosis. These promising findings prompted the researchers to call for further studies into the benefits of pomegranates for prostate cancer.

Use honey to treat diabetic foot ulcers
NaturalNews – Untreated infections often cause diabetic foot ulcers, which can result in the amputation of the patient’s feet and legs. In most cases, infections are polymicrobial and multidrug-resistant. But according to one study published in the journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, the topical application of honey can help treat diabetic foot ulcers and prevent amputation.

Here Are the Best Foods You Can Eat to Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Good news Network – There are a number of foods which seem to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep and improve overall sleep quality.
So which foods are they? Notepads out, ladies and gentlemen.
Our brains produce a hormone called melatonin (also known as the sleep hormone) which is suppressed when we are awake during the daytime and becomes more active when the sun goes down as part of our circadian rhythms. Melatonin production seems to be closely correlated to the intake of an essential amino-acid called tryptophan which can only be acquired through dietary sources.
A team of Japanese researchers demonstrated that the combination of a breakfast consisting of tryptophan rich foods, followed by exposure to bright light during the day time, resulted in much higher concentrations of melatonin in the saliva and urine during the nighttime.
Tryptophan is present in protein-rich food sources such as red meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. Fish is an especially good choice due to the presence of essential B vitamins that increase tryptophan in your body, while fish with bones, such as mackerel, sardines, and anchovies are even better for attaining good quality sleep due to the magnesium content.
There is also hope for our vegetarian and vegan readers since there is tryptophan and B vitamins that are also present in beans, lentils, and tofu. Nuts and seeds, such as cashews, almonds, flaxseeds, pistachios, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, and especially pumpkin seeds are also notoriously high in tryptophan.
Finally, if you find yourself starting to feel less peckish, chamomile tea (though not technically a food) has been shown to improve sleep quality and help people fall asleep 15 minutes faster than non-tea drinkers.
And remember, the time that it takes for tryptophan to work its magic on your melatonin is a lengthy process that takes a little over an hour; so try and plan out a meal for at least an hour before your bedtime.
But if you’re a busy bee and you’ve left it late, cheese, partly-skimmed milk, or a small banana are all good options if you find yourself hungry just before bedtime.