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Israelis are weighing the pros and cons of a hostage deal with Hamas that the government approved late Tuesday night, and which will go into effect at 10:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. EST) on Thursday morning. Under the deal, Hamas will release fifty female, child, and/or elderly hostages over the course of four days, during which time Israel will halt its military offensive in Gaza. Israel will also release 150 female and/or teenage Palestinian prisoners, and deliver additional food and fuel to the Gaza Strip.

As the Biden administration pushes the Department of Health and Human Services to make “gender-affirming health care” more widely available, HHS’s own National Institutes of Health is funding multiple studies premised upon how little research has been conducted on the long-term risks of taking cross-sex hormones and whether they improve mental health. The NIH research on transgender issues also emphasizes intersectionality and about half has been on HIV prevention. The NIH Reporter database, which lists active federally funded research projects, shows 74 with “transgender” in the title, totaling more than $26 million of taxpayers’ money annually. Several NIH-funded studies examine...

From day one of the war in Ukraine, the most powerful argument against unrestrained western intervention in the conflict has been the danger of catastrophic escalation into an all-out war between Nato and Russia.So far, western governments have shied away from a truly existential confrontation with Russia. But the threat remains that continuing western military aid to Ukraine will provoke Russian countermeasures that could turn Moscow’s proxy war with Nato into a direct military conflict.Western hawks have long argued the danger of escalation is illusory. In an op-ed for the New York Times, former British diplomat Nigel Gould-Davies claimed “Putin...

When a researcher begins with a conclusion, then looks for data to support that, “it’s a danger to all of science,” Dr. Paul Hruz, a St. Louis physician-scientist told a federal judge.Yet Hruz said he has seen this disturbing pattern recur in recent years, as he examined studies purporting to prove the benefits of hormones and surgeries as treatments for gender-conflicted youths.“It is erroneous to say that we identified an effective solution that maximizes benefits and minimizes risk,” Hruz testified Dec. 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.Assailing the poor quality of research about gender-transition medical...

While his friend and fellow Democrat Larry Fink used his latest annual letter to cheer for an accelerating transition to ESG while simultaneously warning about the fallout from “de-globalization” spurred by Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned Monday in his own annual letter to investors that the US economy faces “unprecedented” risks from the confluence of COVID pandemic, high inflation and, of course, the situation in Ukraine. “They present completely different circumstances than what we’ve experienced in the past – and their confluence may dramatically increase the risks ahead,” Dimon said. Dimon, who has repeatedly advocated for...

If you’re a parent of young children and are feeling pressure to get them vaccinated against COVID, I urge you to stand firm.Or move to Sweden.Health officials in Sweden have decided against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-12, arguing that the benefits don’t outweigh the risks.“With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don’t see any clear benefit with vaccinating them,” Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm said Thursday. Studies have shown that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are more likely to cause myocarditis in young men than natural infection from COVID.Kids...

Every day we hear health authorities claiming that the current crop of novel platform COVID vaccines are “safe and effective.” Last week we presented you with evidence that points to the increasing failure of the global mass vaccination program — at least in relation to its purported aim of stopping transmission and building herd immunity with a view to helping societies to exit the pandemic.In the light of this evidence, there is no scientific support for the “effective” claim which should be deemed scientific (or medical) misinformation. This week, we look closer at the other side of the coin, the...

Nearly a month after the Evergrande crisis went to 10, sending property sector bonds crashing to near record lows and sparking a sharp swoon in China's property sector, the country's central bank finally broke its silence on the crisis at Evergrande , saying risks to the financial system stemming from the developer’s struggles are “controllable” and unlikely to spread.Speaking at a news briefing on Friday, PBOC official Zou Lan - head of the financial market department. - said that authorities and local governments are resolving the situation based on “market-oriented and rule-of-law principles” Bloomberg reported. Additionally, the central bank has...

In 1981, doctors in New York and Los Angeles saw healthy young men sicken and die within months, their immune systems apparently destroyed.The deaths set off a frantic search for the culprit. By 1983 virologists had identified a novel pathogen they would call Human Immunodeficiency Virus.Over the next decade, scientists learned much more about HIV, which early on had a fatality rate close to 100 percent, worse even than Ebola or smallpox. Ultimately they tamed it - perhaps the greatest success for scientific and medical research in the late 20th century.But the political story of AIDS is much trickier. Scientists...

The doctor who developed the technology used in the majority of COVID shots warned that the US government is withholding information regarding the risks from coronavirus vaccines.Dr. Robert Malone, who invented the mRNA technology now being used in both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines, spoke with Fox News this week about the push to vaccinate young adults and even children.With the Centers for Disease Control finding a link between the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines and heart muscle inflammation among young people – particularly younger males – Dr. Malone said that a “risk-benefit” analysis must be made before children...

Without the Wuhan virus, the Democrats have no meaningful opposition to Trump. Not only have the Democrats weaponized the Wuhan virus to destroy the economies under their aegis, but they’ve also repeatedly claimed that Trump killed 161,000 Americans. However, new CDC data shows that, of those Americans who died in the past seven months, only 6% died from the virus alone. The other 94% had serious comorbidities that (sadly) put them at a higher risk of death from anything that came along – and certainly from having sick people funneled into their nursing homes. Bronson Stocking has broken down the CDC’s...

After months of being cooped up at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus, people have taken to the streets by the thousands over the past few weeks to protest against police killings of Black people and decades of systemic racism. The gatherings have some people worried about a spike in coronavirus infections—but they have also been defended by some public health experts, who argue that racial injustice is itself a major public health threat. The risk of transmitting coronavirus is likely lower outdoors, and many of the protesters have been wearing masks. But some experts note there is still...

With the advent of the so-called COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a number of medical practices that have little or no scientific support as regards reducing the spread of this infection. One of these measures is the wearing of facial masks, either a surgical-type mask, bandana or N95 respirator mask. When this pandemic began and we knew little about the virus itself or its epidemiologic behavior, it was assumed that it would behave, in terms of spread among communities, like other respiratory viruses. Little has presented itself after intense study of this virus and its behavior to change this perception....

Design-bid-build may still be the No. 1 project delivery method for U.S. construction, but other processes are rising that could challenge DBB’s stake in how some projects are carried out.One such arrangement, public-private partnerships (P3), is gaining steam with talks from Washington, D.C., about employing the method for President Donald Trump’s $1.3 trillion infrastructure spend. While more states and local entities are successfully turning to P3s to tackle major infrastructure overhauls and new projects, the method still runs up against a perception problem. Some elected officials are hesitant to employ P3s because they don’t want to let a private firm...

A 31-year-old man died after he reportedly ignored warnings about swimming after getting a new tattoo and contracted a flesh-eating bacteria infection in the Gulf of Mexico. The unidentified man, whose case was detailed in the British Medical Journal, had gotten a tattoo on his right calf five days prior to swimming, Metro reported. The man had chosen a crucifix and pair of praying hands for his latest ink, and began suffering from fever, chills and a rash close to the tattoo after swimming, the news outlet reported. He reportedly developed sepsis in his right calf, which had turned purple...

The surgeon general of the United States recently showed up on Sesame Street to try to convince kids to get vaccinated, and his spiel was pitched “at the appropriate intellectual level,” according to one prominent medical doctor. “It just puts the argument down on a juvenile plane and insults people’s intelligence,” said Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Because these little kids are not the people you need to be talking to. The people you need to be talking to are the parents who are making the decisions.” In the video released late...

Now that Republicans have made it clear they will do nothing to stop his amnesty for existing illegal immigrants, Obama is moving on to step two of his plan. He is planning to bring in more people who will constitute or public charge, or worse, represent a security risk. The LA Times is reporting that the administration will increase the number of refugees that are admitted from Syria: The U.S. government intends to dramatically accelerate efforts to resettle refugees from the Syrian civil war and is preparing for a "surge" of thousands in each of the next few years, State...

Afghanistan will release scores of prisoners considered by the US to be a security threat because there is insufficient evidence against them, President Hamid Karzai's office says. A statement said there was not enough evidence against 72 out of 88 prisoners previously held by the US. Correspondents say that the move will further strain relations with the US. The two countries are at loggerheads over President Karzai's refusal to sign a security deal with Washington. The US is strongly opposed to the releases because it says the prisoners have been involved in the wounding or killing of US and Nato...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronted with missteps in his own administration, President Barack Obama has frequently pleaded ignorance — suggesting he could not be at fault about things he did not know.</p> <p>It's an argument with clear benefits but also inherent risks for the White House. Used too often, the tactic emboldens critics who claim the president is incompetent, detached and not fully in control.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that the cuts in defense proposed by President Barack Obaama will create "risks" in America's "capability to respond" to threats. “The risks come with the fact that, you know, we will have a smaller force," Panetta said a t a Pentagon briefing. "As we said, it’s larger than we had prior to 9/11, but obviously it will be a smaller force, and when you have [a] smaller force there are risks associated with that in terms of our capability to respond.” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Panetta’s assessment, while pointing out that when the...