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The Japanese government plans to criminalize sex with children under age 16 by raising the legal age of consent from 13, part of the country's Penal Code reforms, which critics say are long overdue and urgently needed to protect vulnerable minors from sexual offenses. The recommendations the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council submitted to Justice Minister Ken Saito on Friday include making the secret filming of someone's genitals or underwear and sharing such images an offense punishable under the Penal Code. Makoto Ida (R), chairman of the Legislative Council, submits proposed revisions to the Penal Code to Justice Minister Ken Saito...

DEFENCE AND SECURITY, ECONOMY, MEDIA, POLITICS, WORLD Ukraine: Is it almost over? By Scott Burchill Mar 1, 2023 Joint press conference President Biden and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy December 21, 2022 Despite celebrating 12 months of surviving the Russian onslaught, promises of more money and military equipment (including tanks) from the West, and a chorus of support for the courage and resilience of the people, the war appears almost over for Ukraine. There are four reasons for thinking this. First, as the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal explains, public rhetoric [about Ukraine’s heroic resistance] masks deepening private doubts among politicians in the...

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the COVID-19 pandemic was likely caused by a lab leak in Wuhan, China. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News in an interview that aired Tuesday. "Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab." "I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work...

The family of a Saskatchewan man who suffered a stroke in Arizona says he racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills after his insurance company denied coverage. According to his granddaughter Rebecca Fee, Louis Lamothe had a "massive stroke" on Feb. 3 in Yuma, Arizona where he spends winters with his wife. The stroke left him paralyzed on one side, and unable to speak and swallow. While Lamothe had taken out travel insurance, Fee said her family was devastated to learn he wouldn't be covered. "We had no words we just sat in the hallway and cried,"...

Snow drifting all the way to the top of the powerlines, haven't seen this since I was a kid.

The Chinese government — which has defied efforts by international inspectors to​ examine labs in the country or share detailed information about COVID-19 — still claimed on Tuesday that it has been “open and transparent” in the search to determine how the global pandemic originated. ​​ China had “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research,” Foreign Ministry spokes​woman Mao Ning Mao ​told reporters after the US Energy Department assessed the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan. M​ao went on to demand the US answer...

Pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin calls for DeSantis to be denied Communion for supporting death penaltyThe dissident priest made his comments after a man convicted of murders in two separate incidents was put to death in Florida last week. Heretical pro-LGBT Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin has called for conservative Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is Catholic, to be denied Communion because he supports the death penalty.Last week, the Republican governor signed the death warrant for a convict on charges of a second murder committed after the man escaped from a life sentence imposed for his first murder.In response to the...

An engineer who designed a bridge that collapsed hours after opening in rural Saskatchewan in 2018 is prohibited from practicing for now. The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan’s (APEGS) discipline committee panel sent Scott O. Gullacher an interim order outlining the stipulations on Jan. 24, 2023. Gullacher was found guilty on three counts of professional misconduct, with one count relating to a formal complaint on the Dyck Memorial Bridge in the R.M. of Clayton, Sask. which collapsed hours after opening on Sept. 14, 2018. He was found to not have practiced in a careful and diligent manner...

Is fasting the future?The concept of intermittent fasting may seem scary at first. Going many hours without food? Not even a snack to tide you over? Whether you refer to it as time-restricted eating or IF, the practice of going for a block of time without sustenance — and doing that on a consistent basis for at least a few weeks — has inspired numerous researchers to investigate one big question: Does it really improve your health? According to a number of studies, the answer seems to be yes. Although more research is needed to pin down all the physiological...

Adidas could be forced to burn Yeezy sneakers worth around half-a-billion dollars after rapper and fashion designer Kanye West's anti-Semitic outbursts. The sportswear brand is struggling over what to do with its massive stockpile of the shoes, which retail for between $200 and $600 Analysts now say Adidas, which has already said the debacle hit revenues by $1.3bn, could be forced to burn the stock - because it risks a PR nightmare if they are still sold at a discount. The company's decision to drop West capped the rapper's fall from grace after a pattern of increasingly erratic behavior and...

A very white outdoor culture... that white supremacy “obstructs access to nature.”

Update from Ukraine | Big drama in Bakhmut. Ukrainian Soldiers still hold the city But for how long? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIDc3eKuniw Follow on Instagram up to date uploads. https://www.instagram.com/denys_pilot/ ****SUMMARY Military MAPS & COMMENTS here: NEW- New Marine Brigade is being formed - February 25, 2023 https://militaryland.net/news/new-marine-brigade-is-being-formed/ The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 28th February 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-370-summary/

Matt Pobereyko was a baseball pitcher and a prospect in the New York Mets minor league system, who then began playing ball in Mexico in the Mexican Pacific Winter League. He died on Friday of a heart attack while in his Chicago-area apartment. His brother, Daniel Pobereyko, confirmed his passing in a statement to NBC News: “He just dropped, and that’s all we know,. We don’t know. There’s nothing outstanding on the autopsy. But from what I understand, he would have gotten a clean bill of health if he had a pulse.” Continuing, Daniel said “For what we know now,...

In 2019, I bought a three-bedroom, 1,400-square-feet house in Atlanta, Georgia for $196,000. I figured I could earn extra income by renting out the spare rooms on Airbnb, especially since I traveled a lot for work and was rarely home. Unfortunately, the bookings dried up in 2020. No one wanted to share a house with a stranger in the early days of the pandemic. My work travels also stopped, so I was living alone in a house that felt too big. But that May, as I stared out the kitchen window into my huge backyard, something clicked: I could use...

Not counting the 5 dollar bid for a three legged pedestal, there are a host of items that are going for less than pennies on the original purchase dollar price. Better hurry though, the auction expires today, 28 February 2023, unless extended! Amazing how fear and panic contribute to very poor decision-making, right? Here’s a snap shot of some of the items on offer, expiring 7 pm tonight EST:

San Francisco police said Tuesday they do not have information that would suggest foul play is a factor in the disappearance of Wild 94.9 radio station host Jeffrey Vandergrift, widely known as "JV." Police said there were no other updates in the case. Vandergrift, 54, has been missing since Thursday night, according to the radio station and police. He was last seen at his home on the 200 block of King Street. In an update shared Monday, the radio station said there hasn't been any trackable activity on Vandergrift's cellphone or credit cards since he disappeared. Vandergrift is 6 feet...

FIRST ON FOX: Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush's campaign doled out $60,000 in private security payments last year to Cortney Merritts, who she quietly married earlier this month. Merritts, however, pocketed the security payments despite not having a St. Louis private security license, which is needed to perform security functions in the area, Fox News Digital has discovered. Merritts also received the campaign's cash as it simultaneously paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a St. Louis security firm and another individual for personal protection. Fox News Digital filed a public records request with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department...

Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes is citing her recently born child as another reason she should be allowed to delay the start of a more than 11-year prison sentence while her lawyers appeal her conviction for duping investors about the capabilities of her failed company's blood-testing technology. The birth of Holmes' second child was confirmed in court documents filed last week in advance of a March 17 hearing about her bid to remain free during an appeals process that could take years to complete. The filing didn't disclose the date of the birth or the child's gender, but the news...

The official story is that the waters around East Palestine, Ohio, and surrounding areas are perfectly fine. But as is often the case, the official story is only in place for the plebeian class. The powers-that-be know the truth and one of them admitted it today. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan visited East Palestine and took some questions. The answer to a question posed by independent journalist Nick Sortor prompted an honest and scary answer from Regan. Watch:[video at link]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/oregon-puts-gas-generator-into-governors-mansion-despite-transition-away-from-fossil-fuels-in-homes_5087490.html *snip* The project comes to light as the debate over banning natural gas in homes and buildings heats up across the nation, and just weeks after Eugene became the first Oregon city to ban natural gas hookups in all new construction. Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis applauded the Feb. 6 city council vote, saying that “burning fossil fuels in homes pose an imminent threat to our health and climate.” “It’s clear we cannot let this source of pollution grow unchecked,” she added. Vinis also expressed her support for the governor’s leadership on the state’s housing shortage while denouncing the use...