The number of tobacco users continues to decrease globally, going from 1.32 billion in 2015 to 1.30 billion last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday (Jan. 30, 2024).
That number is expected to continue to drop to 1.27 billion by 2025, according to WHO.
WHO Director--General Tedros Ghebreyesus said , "We still have a long way to go, and tobacco companies will continue to use every trick in the book to defend the gigantic profits they make from peddling their deadly wares."
President Joe Biden said today (Jan. 30, 2024) that he had made a decision on how to tack at a military base in Jordan that killed three Americans and wounded 25 others, the USA Today website reports.
Asked if he holds Iran responsible, Biden said : "I do hold them responsible in the sense that they're supplying the weapons to the people who did it."
The president's remarks follow a vow he made on the day of the attack to take swift action to deal with the attacks. "We shall respond," he said Jan. 28.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has approached Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with a proposal to donate or sell weapons to Ukraine in exchange for $200 million in U.S. aid, the Kathimerini website reports on Jan.28, 2024.
In his official letter, Blinken writes that the U.S. is interested in defense assets that Greece could transfer or sell to Ukraine.
"Should these capabilities be of interest to Ukraine, and pending a U.S. government review of their condition and associated value, we can explore opportunities for potential additional FMF funding of up to U.S. $200 million for Greece."
U.S. President Joe Biden on Jan. 27, 2024 marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, warning against what he called an alarming rise in antisemitism after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and efforts to minimize what happened that day, the Reuters website reports today (Jan. 28, 2024).
Biden, who launched the first U.S. national strategy to counter antisemitism in May 2023, said the need to remember the Holocaust and the "scourge of antisemitism" was more pressing than ever after the Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people , the biggest loss of life on a single day since Israel's founding in 1948.
"In the aftermath of Hamas's vicious massacre, we have witnessed an alarming rise of despicable antisemitism at home and abroad that has surfaced painful scars from millennia of hate and genocide of Jewish people. It is unacceptable," Biden said in a statement.
A huge chunk of student--loan borrowers siimply aren't paying their college loans back, the Yahoo News website reports today (Jan. 27, 2024).
The pandemic pause on payments may have ended in October, but about 40% of borrowers who had bills due that month sat on their wallets and didn't send a dime to the governmenrt.
Some experts estimate that even that figure is an undercount , because it likely doesn't include borrowers whose loans were paused because of servicer errors.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) called for a ceasefire and a "true solution" to the Israeli--Palestinian conflict in an emotional plea to the global health body's governing body yesterday where he described conditions in Gaza as "hellish," the Reuters website reports today (Jan. 26, 2024).
WHO Director--General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , who lived through war as a child and whose own children hid in a bunker during bombardments in Ethiopia 's 1998--2000 border war with Eritrea, became emotional describing conditions in the bombed--out Gaza enclave where more than 25,000 people have been killed.
"I'm a true believer because of my own experience that war doesn't bring solution, except more war, more hatred, more agony, more destruction. So let's choose peace and resolve this issue politically," Tedros told the WHO Executive Board in Geneva during a discussion about the Gaza health emergency.
Religiously unaffiliated people now make up 28% of U.S.adults, according to a new study from Pew Research, the NPR website reports today (Jan. 25, 2024).
That's a larger cohort than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).
Most Nones believe in God or another higher power, but very few attend any kind of religious service.
A supervisor at a Veterans Benefits Administration facility removed a "not today, Satan, not today" sign from her desk following a complaint from a nonprofit civil rights organization , the Christian Post website reports today (Jan. 24, 2024).
An honorably discharged Air Force veteran who adheres "to many non--theist teachings (including satanist )" alleged that the prominently placed anto--Satan sign on the supervisor's desk escalated a previously hostile situation at the undisclosed VAB facility, according to a Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).
An email from the unnamed client to MRFF described the display as a "grotesque Christian supremacist sign."
The Supreme Court on Jan. 22, 2024 allowed the Biden administration tp remove razor wire barriers that Texas erected along a 29=mile stretch of the Rio Grande meant to block migrants at the Southwest bordwer, the USA Today website reports today (Jan. 23, 2024).
The 5--4 ruling was a temporary victory for the Biden administration, giving the federal government t upper hand in its fight with Texas while the underlying lawsuit continues.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. a Republican. authorized the installation of the razor wire as part of a broader effort to deter migrants from crossing the Mexico border. That included a 29--mile stretch of the riverbank in Eagle Pass, much of which is private land.
Pope Francis on Sunday (Jan.21,2024) celebrated Mass dedicated to the Word of God, urging believers to go beyond the "barrage" of words in the social media era and to allow themselves to be transformed by God through scripture, the Crux website reports today (Jan. 22, 2024).
The pope installed 11 people in the ministries, of either lector, meaning someone who reads the word of God, or catechist, meaning someone who teaches the faith, and of t hose 11, eight were women.
Speaking at the Word of God service in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis voiced hope that the occasion would allow believers to return with joy to the sources of our faith, which is born of listening to Jesus , the living Word of God.
The administration of Joe Biden is being skewered by a federal watchdog for failing to track the foreign ownership of U.S. farmlands . from which the nation's population is fed, the WND website reports today (Jan. 21, 2024).
In fact. a new report said Biden doesn't even appear to have plans to monitor those developments that are significant to the nation's security.
A message from Fox News warns Biden "doesn't appear to have a plan to begin" monitoring that issue.
The brave and the pious celebrate the Greek Orthodox Christian feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 19 by submerging themselves in icy water, the Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty website reports today (Jan. 20, 2024).
The event symbolizes the baptism of Christ and the cleansing of the soul at the start of a new year. Swimmers also dive into the water to retrieve a cross thrown in the water by an Orthodox priest, which is believed to bring good luck to the diver who retrieves it for a year.
Many Orhtodox Christians around the world have been marking the Epiphany one of the faith's three biggest celebrations. The Epiphany is often marked by a dip in water to symbolize Christ's baptism in the Jordan River.
The U.S. has been looking for other Israeli leaders to implement its vision of the "day after" the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. the NBC News website reported on Jan. 17, 2024.
American officials told NBC News that the Biden admiinistration was frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to accept its proposal to have the Palestinian Authority (PA) rule Gaza after the war. According to the report, "three senior officials"said that Washington is now "looking past Netanyahu to try to achieve its goals in the region."
While formally saying that the current Palestinian Authority must first be "revitalized" by changing out at least part of the old guard that is seen as inherently weak and corrupt, President Biden wants to implement the "two-state solution"after Hamas is thrown out if not destroyed, with the country of "Palestine" running both the Gaza Strip and its territory in Judea and Samaria, as well as eastern Jerusalem.
Nations and businesses must work together to promote ethically sound models of globalization, Pope Francis told world business and government leaders this week, the Catholic News website reports today (Jan. 18, 2024).
"How is it possible that in today's world people are still dying of hunger, being exploited, condemned to illiteracy, lacking basic medical care, and left without shelter?" he asked in a message sent to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"The process of globalization, which has by now clearly demonstrated the interdependence of the world's nations and peoples, thus has a fundamentally moral dimension, which must make itself felt in economic, cultural, political, and religious discussions that aim to shape the future of the international community," he wrote.
The Taliban's notorious religious police have detained scores of Afghan women and girls in recent weeks for violating the extremist group's Islamic dress code, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reports today (Jan. 17, 2024).
Among them was Zahra's younger sister, who was detained in the capital, Kabul, in early January for allegedly failing to cover herself from head to toe in public.
"My sister was humiliated and tortured while in Taliban custody, Zahra, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "They told her that she was an infidel because she wore tight clothes." She also said her family was forced to pay Taliban officials nearly $12,000 in bribes to secure her release.
"The United States fails to meet that burden. Thus, I dismiss the charge because it violates the plaintiff's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms," the judge declared in the case, the New American website reports today (Jan. 16, 2024).
The charge was brought against postal worker Emmanuel Ayala when he wore his backpack containing a handgun into the post office where he worked in Tampa, Florida. He was charged under a federal law that declares " whoever knowingly possesses a firearm in a federal facility shall be fined or imprisoned not more than one year, or both."
Judge Kathryn Mizelle thwarted the government's attempt to defend that law, pointing out that "post offices have existed since the founding of the Republic, as have threats to the safety of postal workers and the public entering those locations. Yet the historical record yields no 'distinctly similar historical regulation addressing' those safety problems by regulating firearms in post offices."
U.S. Presisdent Joe Biden is growing frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's constant snubbing of Washington's requests, the RT website reports. "Netanyahu has given Biden the finger" repeatedly, one Democratic lawmaker said.
The two have not spoken since Dec. 23, when Biden unsuccessfully attempted to pressure the Israeli PM into releasing tax revenue withheld for the Palestinian Authority (PA).
"The situation sucks and we are stuck. The presaident's patience is running out," an anonymous U.S. official told the Axios website. "At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger," Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen added.
A street preacher in the United Kingdom has won a settlement of nearly $19,000 in compensation and costs after being arrested, wrongfully, by police in Scotland, the WND website reports today (Jan. 14, 2024).
Street preacher Angus Cameron has won 5,500 lbs in compensation and 9,400 lbs in costs in settlement.
On the hook for the damages are police in Scotland, who detained the pastor of Cumnock Baptist Church over a "hate crime" that did not exist.
More than 30 Palestinians, including young children, were killed in two Israeli airstrikes today (Jan. 13, 2024) in the Gaza Strip, officials said, as concerns continued to grow over a lack of fuel and supplies for overburdened hospitals, the EuroNews website reports.
Video provided by Gaza's Civil Defense Department showed rescue workers searching through the rubble of a home in a Gaza city by flashlight early today after it was hit by an Israeli attack.
Footage showed them carrying a young girl wrapped in blankets with injuries to her face, and at least two other children who appeared dead.
Greece's center-right government will soon submit legislation allowing same--sex civil marriages, despite reservations among its own lawmakers and the country's influential Orthodox Church, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this week , the AP website reports today (Jan. 12, 2024).
But he stressed that the proposed law would not extend the right to future parenthood through surrogate mothers to same--sex couples -- an issue that has divided Greek society. It would, however, recognize the status of existing offspring.
"What we are going to legislate is equality in marriage," Mitsotakis said."We will remove any discrimination concerning sexual orientation in the issue of marital relationship."
One person was killed and another was injured in an avalanche at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort on Jan.10, the LA Times website reports.
The avalanche occurred about 9:30 a.m. above the G.S. Gully area of the KT--22 peak, the Palisades Tahoe ski resort said in a statement.
No other people have been reported missing in the avalanche, whose debris field was 150 feet wide, 450 feet long, and 10 feet deep, authorities said.
A grim report released Jan. 9,2024 reveals that at least a third of the 136 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas are suffering from chronic illnesses, placing them in immediate danger of death, while others are facing "brutal sexual assault, mutilation, torrture, and enforced starvation," the WIN website reports.
The report by the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, which coincided with the three--month milestone since their capture, was released alongside a letter signed by eight Nobel Prize laureates calling on the UN Secretary General, President of the Red Cross,and Director of the World Health Organization to call for their release
and facilitate the transfer of medical aid to them.
The laureates also invited the three to visit Israel and the communities near Gaza to see the horrors firsthand and to meet with families of the hostages and survivors of captivity who were released.
The California Department of Transportation,teaming up with other state agencies, is asking technology companies by Jan. 25 to propose generative AI (artificial intelligence) that could help California reduce traffic and make roads safer, especially for pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders, the LA Times website reports today (Jan. 9, 2024).
Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, can quickly produce text, images, and other content, but the technology can also help workers brainstorm ideas.
The request shows how California is trying tp tap into AI to improve government services at a time when lawmakers seek to safeguard against the technology's potential risks.
Reacting to New York Attorney General Letitia James increasing to $370 million the fine she wants to be imposed to Donald Trump for financial fraud, "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough suggested it would ruin the former president because he likely doesn't have that kind of cash, the Raw Story website reports today (Jan. 8, 2024).
After co-host Mike Brzezinski reported on the stunning change requested in Judge Arthur Engoron's courtroom, the two hosts shook their heads at the former president's prospects if Ergoron accedes to James' final rulinfg next month.
Trump is expected to appear in court on Jan. 11 to find out how much he has to pay for what he has already been found guilty of.
Pope Francis on the feast of the Epiphany lamented the sharp division among Catholics of different views, saying believers must imitate the three wise men in putting God at the center of their lives, rather than their own ideas of the faith, the Crux website reports today (Jan. 7, 2024).
Speaking to attendees of his Jan. 6 Mass in St. Peter's Basilica , the pope said that as members of the church , "instead of splitting into groups based on our own ideas, we are called to put God back at the center."
"We need to abandon ecclesial ideologies to find the meaning of holy mother church, the ecclesial attitude. . Ecclesial ideologies no, ecclesial vocation yes." he said , saying, "The Lord, not our own ideas or our own projects," must be the focus.
Israel announced today (Jan. 6, 2024) a more targeted approach in hunting down Hamas fighters in Gaza and set out plans for what happens after the war, the Reuters website reports.
Israel, which says it has killed 8,000 militants since the deaths of 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, has announced a more targeted approach under global pressure to limit civilian casualties.
But Gazans said Israeli planes and tanks had intensified attacks overnight on densely populated Al--Maghazi, Al--Bureij. and Nusseirat in the center of the coastal strip.
A 4.2 magnitude earthquake occurred near Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. in San Bernardino County this morning just before 11 a.m. , the CBS News website reports.
The quake was centered seven-tenths of a mile from Lyttle Creeek, Calif. and 11.9 miles from Rancho Cucamonga, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Its depth was just under six miles.
The tremblor was felt throughout the area , ranging from Burbank, West Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Diamond Bar to Orange and Anaheim and down to north San Diego County.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), now running in the Republican presidential primary, has said Americans should not describe illegal aliens as "'criminals," suggesting that doing so is "disrespectful," the Breitbart website reports .
In July 2015, a month after then-GOP presisdential candidate Donald Trump announced his candidacy with a speech centered on stemming illegal immigration, Haley joined a panel with the Aspen Institute moderated by then-CEO Walter Isaacson.
Isaacson, in his final question, asked Haley, "As a family of immigrants from India, how does that inform your thinking of the immigration debate and what do you feel about the tone of the immigration debate as it has recently turned?"
Haley, in response , said that while Americans are rightfully frustrated with illegal immigration at the United States--Mexico border, she urged the audience not to use language like "criminals" to describe illegal aliens because they're not."
Qassam Soleimani, a fsamous Iranian military general, was killed in 2020 by a drone strike launched by former President Trump. the USA Today website reports today (Jan.3, 2024).
Explosions at an event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates honoring the prominent Iranian general killed at least 103 people and wounded olver 140 others, state-run media in Iran reported on Jan. 3, 2024.
A senior official called the blasts a "terroristic" attack without elaborating of who could be behind them.
Israel's military says it is planning to pull thousands of soldiers from ground operations in the Gaza Strip, the first significant drawdown of its forces since Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack that launched the war, the USA Today website reports today (Jan. 2, 2024).
The military decision comes amid Israel's Supreme Court decision on Jan. 1 to strike down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious judicial overhaul, a decision that threatens to reopen fissures in Israeli society that preceded the war.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Jan. 1 that five brigades would be pulling out of Gaza in the coming weeks for training and rest, while fierce fighting continued in areas of Gaza. Military leaders say armed forces are planning to continue its mission of eradicating Hamas in the new year.
KGB, Gestapo, Stasi. Every totalitorian regime has its enforcement arm, its dreaded police apparatus, the New American website reports today (Jan. 1, 2024).
These evil outfits exist only to strike horror into the hearts of citizens,and to turn them into fearful ,compliant drones who won't challenge the regime's power.
In America, we,ve been uniquely blessed to not have a national police force that answers to t he despots in power -- and for the most part , we've been blessed to not hsve despots.. But America's uniqueness -- including its freedom from national police -- is changing.
Millions of Americans have awakened to the reality that our country is descending into madness, chaos,and widespread corruption.
