News Burst 9 January 2024 – January 8, 2024

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• Health and lifestyle influence the risk of late-onset dementia. Is this true when disease begins before age 65? Yes, according to researchers led by Stevie Hendriks and Sebastian Köhler, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. In the December 26, 2023, JAMA Neurology, they enlist 15 risk factors, many of which are modifiable, as being associated with risk for young-onset dementia (YOD). They included cardiovascular ill health, diabetes, excessive drinking, social isolation, and having two APOE4 alleles. “This is a great step in identifying reversible risk factors of YOD that people can focus on to try to reduce their risk,” Dustin Hammers, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, told Alzforum.

• Fixed to the top of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander blasted off overnight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, then successfully separated from its launch vehicle around an hour later. But teams at ground control found they were unable to point the unmanned spacecraft correctly at the sun, necessary for its top-mounted solar panel to achieve maximum power generation for Peregrine’s systems. In its latest update, Astrobotic tweeted: “The team believes that the likely cause of the unstable sun-pointing is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the Moon.” The company added Peregrine is currently in an expected communication blackout, and it would provide further updates once contact is re-established.

• The Boeing jetliner that suffered an inflight blowout over Oregon was not being used for flights to Hawaii after a warning light that could have indicated a pressurization problem lit up on three different flights, a federal official said Sunday. Alaska Airlines decided to restrict the aircraft from long flights over water so the plane “could return very quickly to an airport” if the warning light reappeared, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. The warning light came on during three previous flights: on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 — the day before the door plug broke off. The NTSB said the lost door plug was found Sunday near Portland, Oregon, by a school teacher — for now, known only as Bob — who discovered it in his backyard and sent two photos to the safety board. Investigators will examine the plug, which is 26 by 48 inches (66 by 121 centimeters) and weighs 63 pounds (28.5 kilograms), for signs of how it broke free.

• The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has said he is running as an MEP in June’s European elections and will stand down if elected, sparking a race to replace him or risk the role reverting to Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán. The surprise decision means EU heads of government, who jointly appoint the council president, are under significant pressure to agree on a successor to Michel before 1 July, when Hungary is due to take over the rotating six-month council presidency.

• An eight-year-old American boy on a family holiday in Rome was forgotten on the bus. The driver took him back to his parents. The episode occurred on the morning of December 31st in Rome, when the city was in turmoil ahead of New Year’s Eve, with thousands of Romans and tourists ready to celebrate.

• Farmers’ protests in Germany. Farmers are protesting again: from Monday, tractor convoys and blocked motorway ramps are expected to cause disruptions. Police and authorities expect severe traffic disruptions nationwide due to road blockades and other actions with tractors and other agricultural equipment. The German Farmers’ Association (DBV) has stuck to its plans to demonstrate against the agricultural policy. Farmers’ anger was sparked by planned cuts in subsidies for the industry in the wake of the budget crisis.

• Freight costs from Asia to northern Europe have more than doubled in recent days as attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial vessels in the Red Sea force shipping companies to re-route cargo around the southern tip of Africa. The Iranian-backed militants have staged at least 24 attacks on commercial vessels since mid-November, according to the International Maritime Organization. The group, which has been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2014, claims to target Israeli-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, although several ships with no links to Israel have been attacked.

• A lawsuit launched by far-right fanatic and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik accusing the state of abusing his human rights has opened in Norway. Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in 2011, appeared in a court set up in the high-security jail in which he is serving his sentence on Monday. By accusing Norway’s Ministry of Justice of breaching his human rights, he hopes to force the authorities to end his years in isolation. The 44-year-old killer’s lawyer laid out an argument that the conditions of his detention violated his human rights. “He has been isolated for about 12 years,” Oeystein Storrvik told the hearing. “He is only in contact with professionals, not with other inmates.” In earlier court filings, Storrvik had argued the isolation had left Breivik suicidal and dependent on the anti-depression medication Prozac.

• In the shadowy corridors of Cold War espionage, where the United States and the Soviet Union vied for global supremacy, a lesser-known but equally intriguing battle was waged. This battle didn’t involve traditional weapons or soldiers but the human mind’s uncharted territories. Project 8200, a clandestine CIA initiative, epitomized this era’s peculiar mix of hard science and fringe exploration as it sought to employ psychic abilities to uncover alien bases purportedly hidden deep underground. This initiative, which would later evolve into Project 8200, recruited individuals with purported psychic abilities. These individuals were tasked with using their powers to spy on Soviet installations and, quite accidentally, stumbled upon something even more extraordinary — alien bases concealed within Earth’s remote landscapes.

• The majority of Americans oppose the decisions in Colorado and Maine to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. Other polls put the balance slightly in favor, but all polls show a deeply divided country on this effort. The Maine decision will now be reviewed by the Maine state courts, but the Colorado decision is scheduled for oral argument in a matter of weeks. A reversal of the Colorado decision is now supported by 27 states, which filed with the Supreme Court to oppose the underlying theory under the Fourteenth Amendment. It is relatively rare to see states opposing the expansion of their own authority vis-a-vis Congress. The brief reinforces the view of states like Colorado as outliers in the country in embracing this anti-democratic theory. ~ Jonathan Turley

• House Republicans on Monday introduced contempt resolutions against Hunter Biden, recommending that he be held in Contempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas and appear for testimony in front of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on Dec. 13. Hunter, who was handsomely compensated for doing nothing on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma (right before his father strong armed the Ukrainians into firing their chief prosecutor – who was investigating Burisma), skipped out on his closed-door deposition, and instead said he would only appear for public testimony – where questions would be far more limited. According to the committees, “Biden has violated federal law, and must be held in contempt of Congres.”

• TikTok Doctor says “It’s Okay To Be Fat” And Obesity Should Be “Normalized”. A doctor at Cedars-Sinai posted a TikTok video saying “it is okay to be fat,” and that being fat “needs to be normalized,” despite obesity-related diseases being the biggest killer in America. Yes, really. “Here’s my hot take as a doctor, I totally agree, it is okay to be fat, we don’t say that enough, but it needs to be normalized,” remarked Dr. Nicole Vangroningen. Vangroningen went on to claim that being fat is “typically not a problem that requires immediate solving.” Presumably, it only needs “solving” once an obese person has developed numerous fat-related diseases that greatly increase their risk of dying. Perhaps even more ludicrously, the doctor said “it is okay to not be healthy,” suggesting that people who suggest otherwise are engaging in “healthism,” adding “a good doctor will not judge you for being fat, they will not judge you for being unhealthy.” According to the CDC, “In the United States and worldwide, obesity is also associated with the leading causes of death, including deaths from diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.” ~ Paul Joseph Watson

• Over the past week, more than a dozen of the largest mainstream media outlets have published stories about the possibility of scandalous news emerging this week about the unsealing of documents in a federal court case involving child sex trafficker , Jeffrey Epstein. The real story that the mainstream media refuses to investigate is why federal judges in New York were allowed to hide in sealed documents the puzzle pieces of how Epstein’s network of powerful men was able to manage a two-decade sex trafficking ring with the “active participation” of the largest federally insured bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase; and right under the nose of its president, CEO and media darling, Jamie Dimon. This is the big story that has been left to wither on the ground by the likes of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and their colleagues. ~ Pam Martens and Russ Martens

• The New York Post, the newspaper that broke the “laptop from hell story,” has claimed Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko was in bed with Hunter Biden and Burisma Geothermal. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko is believed to be yet another Biden family business associate, as per Miranda Devine, author of “Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide,” and the Post’s Washington correspondent Steven Nelson. The two cite the infamous laptop’s emails and a mysterious “associate with direct knowledge” who spoke with the newspaper. According to the media, Klitschko was a “core shareholder” and active participant in a Hunter Biden-chaired subsidiary of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings – Burisma Geothermal. Hunter sat on the Burisma board at the time and was reportedly paid $83,333 per month beginning in April 2014 even though he had zero experience in energy or Ukraine affairs.

• The floating “magic islands” of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, may finally have a scientific explanation. Scientists believe they’re clumps of glacier-like snow shaped like honeycomb. The so-called islands were first spotted in 2014 by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft as it peered through the orange haze surrounding Titan, which is a moon that’s bigger than the planet Mercury. Appearing as shifting bright spots on the Saturnian moon above lakes of liquid methane and ethane, the islands left scientists struggling for an explanation. No one could figure out how these ephemeral blocks could appear, then simply disappear, from observation to observation. However, new research led by Xinting Yu, an assistant professor at the University of Texas San Antonio’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, suggests these magic islands are actually floating chunks of porous, frozen organic solids in shaped not unlike those of honeycomb or Swiss cheese. Presumably, the solids accumulate after snowing from the sky of Titan.

• A recent theory claims the 180-million-year age of the dinosaurs could have affected the human lifespan and aging process. While mammals, including humans, change in appearance as they age, many reptiles and amphibians age without noticeable effects until their deaths. A new theory, known as the ‘longevity bottleneck hypothesis,’ proposes that mammals faced strong selective pressure to evolve rapid reproduction when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Over 100 million years, this pressure likely caused the loss of genes which promote longevity, especially those crucial for DNA repair and body tissue rejuvenation, according to an article in the journal BioEssays.

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