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As a former commercial pilot and aviation CEO, I'm not inherently drawn to political explanations for industrial disruptions. However the nature of the nation's airline meltdown that continues from the recent holiday period may cause one to pause and consider how this may stem, at least in part, from government interests and policy. It is important to appreciate the extent of intentions and objectives that flow from extremist White House ideology, directed at industrial operations believed to be causal to global warming. This includes aspects of food production (fertilizer, for example), all fossil fuel consumption, and general human mobility (much...

Prince Harry has demanded the Royal Family apologise to Meghan Markle after he made a series of explosive claims in his new book, claiming his family were treating him as if he were 'delusional and paranoid'. The prince said: 'You know what you did, and I now know why you did it. And you've been caught out, so just come clean.' It is not clear what Harry wants his family to apologise to his wife for but he claimed he was fighting the 'good fight' by siding with Meghan. He claimed that 'if people had listened' to his concerns earlier,...

I was surprised to learn something recently about the topic of this thread.A friend of mine reported that he tried some locally bought (at a smoke shop) delta 8 gummies. Though delta 8 is a supposedly milder form with delta 9 being the regular, stronger stuff, my friend reported to me that, after 1 gummie (100mg), he was too stoned to drive (he was at home though). This guy also said he hasn't smoked a joint in many years and never takes even over-the-counter drugs unless his doctor insists. He said he ate this gummie more as a lark than...

A Pittsburgh children's hospital is under fire after its gender program navigator advocated for helping transgender women get pregnant by giving reproductive organs to them from live donors. In a presentation on "Fertility in the LGBTQIA+ community" last May that went viral this week, the community navigator for a youth gender program at the University of Pittsburgh Children's Hospital discussed the criteria the medical community uses for gender transition in adolescents, as well as a 2018 study on uterine transplants for transgender patients. "One area that had not been looked at before in any serious way was could the donors...

Since the inflation debate began raising toward the “end” of the pandemic, I have made the case that inflation, as the Federal Reserve first suggested, would be transitory. Transitory never was intended to suggest that a burst of inflation would last only a couple months. Historically, notwithstanding the 1970s and ’80s, post war/pandemic inflations lasted a couple years before turning substantially lower and sometimes careening back into a bout of deflation. There is a gathering amount of data to support that position despite the Fed, and many other economists, persistently worrying about an emergent wage/price spiral instead. The data, to...

SNIP... I make no bones about it: I have a guttural revulsion to one-world-government types who seek to rule the world by turning domestic populations against themselves. "Divide and conquer" is the only strategy they know, and oppression disguised as altruism is the only outcome they bring. They speak obsessively about racism not because they seek racial peace, but rather because the exploitation of such petty, ancient hatreds distracts people from the real problems those with power continue to create. They preach about "climate change" not because they fear that our planet is coming to an end, but because scaring...

NARA (Kyodo) -- A man was indicted on charges of murder and violating the firearms control law for fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign speech in July, prosecutors said Friday after months of a psychiatric evaluation. The prosecutors concluded that Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, is competent to stand trial following mental examinations undertaken since late July. His detention period for the examination expired on Tuesday. Yamagami has told investigators that he held a grudge against the Unification Church and targeted Abe because he was a grandson of former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who helped the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held wide-ranging talks at the White House on Friday as Japan looks to build security cooperation with allies in a time of provocative Chinese and North Korean military action. [snip] The leaders discussed Japan's push to step up defense spending and coordination that comes as concerns grow that China could take military action to seize Taiwan and that North Korea's spike in missile testing could augur the isolated nation's achieving its nuclear ambitions. Biden and Kishida also discussed intrusions by China's military vessels into Japanese territorial waters around...

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A planned discharge of treated water from the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture into the sea will start around this spring or summer, some two years after a decision on its release was made, the Japanese government said Friday. A revised policy on the disposal of the treated water containing low-level concentrations of tritium as well as financial support for affected fishing communities was endorsed during a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers on Friday. "We would like to thoroughly explain these measures to fishing communities and other relevant parties while listening to their concerns," Chief...

A GRADUATED theater student's headshots were used for advertisements she never knew about. "Thinking about that one time, I didn't read the fine print on my headshots contract, and my photographer sold my pics to stock photo sites," she expressed. Christian moved her head to reveal a screenshot she took of her headshot being used for an R-rated book called "His Big, Childhood Sweetheart" by Samantha Drake. A girl Christian knew spotted her photo at a news stand first. A little while after, another photo of Christian was used on a billboard for breast reduction. And that same photo was...

(Reuters) -A Russian foreign ministry official said on Friday that Belarus may enter the conflict in Ukraine if Kyiv decides to "invade" either country. Russia used Belarus as a springboard to invade Ukraine in February 2022, and since October has deployed troops in Belarus for joint military drills. Both countries have since agreed to intensify their military co-operation, raising fears Moscow could use its close ally to launch a new offensive on Ukraine from the north. In an interview with state media, foreign ministry official Aleksey Polishchuk said that Russia's joint drills with Belarus were designed to prevent escalation, but...

Former President Donald Trump denied a writer’s rape claim and called her a “whack job” -- among other insults -- during an October deposition taken as part of a defamation lawsuit, according to a transcript made public on Friday. “The woman, there’s something wrong with her in my opinion, okay. But it’s a false accusation. Never happened, never would happen,” Trump said of an allegation made by former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll. A federal judge in New York earlier Friday ordered unsealed portions of the transcript of the deposition that took place on Oct. 19 at the former president’s...

**SNIP** Craig Gering, an agent at the Creative Artists Agency, emailed Hunter a rough plan for the Penn Biden Center in April 2016. "The Biden Institute of Foreign Relations at the University of Pennsylvania," Gering's email read. "Focus on foreign policy. In addition to the institute at U of Penn, the school has an existing office in DC that will be expanded to house a DC office for VP Biden (and Mike, Hunter and Steve?). Operates like The Clinton Global Initiative without the money raise." "Yes," Hunter replied, "in theory that's the way I would like to see it shake...

A judge on Friday rejected as “absurd” Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit from the writer E Jean Carroll, who alleges he raped her in a department store changing room in New York in the mid-1990s. Carroll has sued Trump for defamation, for remarks while denying her allegation including that she was not his “type”. But the lawsuit which the New York judge, Lewis Kaplan, refused to dismiss on Friday was brought against the former president under the Adult Survivors Act, a new state law which gives adults a one-year window to sue alleged attackers even if statutes of...

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has approved the plan to support Ukraine with armoured vehicles, The Sun reported. It would mark the first time in the war that Britain has supplied Ukraine with military tanks and would significantly ramp up Western support. Providing additional tanks could assist Ukraine in taking back territory that Russia occupies and comes amid hope that Volodymyr Zelensky will be in a position to launch a decisive counter-offensive in the early spring.

WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation on Friday into the Justice Department's handling of improperly stored classified documents possessed by President Joe Biden, and questioned whether his son, Hunter, had access to any. In a Jan. 13 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said the Justice Department's appointment of Robert Hur as special counsel for the case this week raised "fundamental oversight questions." They demanded all relevant documents and communications between the department, the FBI, the White House and Biden's attorneys. The letter came...

The Biden administration has told Congress it is preparing the potential $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, sparking an immediate objection from a senior U.S. lawmaker who has long opposed the deal. The State Department sent the informal notice to Congress on Thursday, three sources said, informing committees overseeing arms sales in the Senate and House of Representatives of its intention to proceed with the proposed deal. NATO member Turkey requested in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for...

Carmakers plan to slash the number of electric vehicles they manufacture as the spiralling cost of battery-powered models makes them increasingly unaffordable for drivers, an industry body has warned. The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), a green energy group that sits between government and manufacturers, has slashed its estimate for UK EV production in 2025 by a quarter after just three months. The APC now expects the UK to make 280,000 electric vehicles in 2025, down from a recent estimate of 360,000. The organisation blamed the downgrade on “an uncertain economy [that] is expected to drive buyers towards cheaper models.” Manufacturers...

(Reuters) -Moderna Inc is considering pricing its COVID-19 shot at $110 to $130 per dose in the United States when it shifts from government contracting to commercial distribution of the shots, the company's Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. "I would think this type of pricing is consistent with the value," said Bancel, according to the WSJ report, adding the company was in discussions with hospital systems, pharmacies and pharmacy-benefit managers to line up distribution of its vaccine ahead of a potential fall booster shot campaign. Moderna had previously estimated the commercial price expectations...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is making a new push to ban members of Congress from private stock trading. It's an attempt to "demonstrate that lawmakers are focused on serving the interests of the American people -- not their own stock portfolios," Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, said in reintroducing the measure along with Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy. After failing to get a floor vote when last introduced in 2021, the "TRUST (Transparent Representation Upholding Service and Trust) in Congress Act," gained increasing support across the political spectrum in 2022 with 75 cosponsors, and its backers say that...