Utah has become the first US state to ban the use of fluoride in its public water, following concerns raised by HHS Secretary RFK Jr that the mineral poses potential health risks. read more
Chinese espionage in Taiwan has reached new levels, analysts and officials say, after three soldiers who were tasked with guarding the Taiwanese president's office were jailed for photographing and selling classified information. read more
US national Faye Hall (pictured below) was released by the Taliban after having been detained in Afghanistan in Feb 2025. Hall is the fourth American released from Afghanistan since Jan 2025. Hall, two Britons, and their Afghan translator were detained earlier this year. Hall may have been detained for using a drone without authorization. In Jan 2025 Ryan Corbett and William McKenty were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the US. George Glezmann was freed after more than two years of detention in a deal brokered by Qatar. The US had lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister, who also heads the powerful Haqqani Network (HQN) blamed for attacks against Afghanistan's former Western-backed government. read more
Five children have been reunited with their families and returned from Russian occupied Ukrainian territories thanks to Qatari mediation, the head of the Ukrainian President's office said. The children, aged between 11 and 16 years old, were returned from Russian-occupied Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, under the Bring Kids Back UA initiative in coordination with the Ukrainian Ombudsman's office: www.bringkidsback.org.ua read more
At least one student has tested positive for lead poisoning after exposure at Golda Meir School Lower Campus. Lead hazards were widespread in the building, found on the ground in the boy's bathroom, cafeteria, a hallway, the teacher's lounge, kitchen areas and multiple rooms. Three other students at Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies, Maryland Avenue Montessori and Albert E. Kagel Dual Language School may have been lead-poisoned due to lead hazards from chipping lead-based paint and lead dust. Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies became the first MPS building to close due to its high lead levels, followed by Starms Early Childhood Center, Fernwood Montessori, and Lafollette School. read more
RFK Jr is another Godzilla destroying America from within, to wit:
"Top US vaccine official Dr Peter Marks resigns over RFK Jr's 'misinformation and lies.' Dr Marks served as the FDA's top vaccine official and was seen as a guardrail against any future politicization of the FDA's approval of life-saving vaccines. Dr Marks had been lauded by Donald Trumpf during the US president's first term for his role in Operation Warp Speed, the initiative that developed, manufactured, and helped distribute the Covid-19 vaccines."
www.theguardian.com
"France offers US scientists a safe haven from Trumpf's war on woke: Aix-Marseille University rolls out welcome mat for American researchers facing funding cuts." www.theregister.com
This is the moment in 2014 when the Haqqani Network (HQN) returned US Army SGT Bergdahl Bowe to friendly forces. Note the USSOF personnel and HQN guerillas shake hands and wave: youtu.be
Historical note: A federal judge had vacated Bowe Bergdahl's dishonorable discharge from the US Army six years after the former soldier was convicted of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after abandoning his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009.
"The Pashtuns have a unique and defining tribal code called Pashtunwali or the way of the Pashtun' that distinguishes them from other ethnic groups. It is an unwritten set of values, customs and cultural codes that governs routine life. The code compels Pashtuns to defend their motherland, to grant asylum to fugitives irrespective of their creed or caste, and to offer protection even to his deadly enemy and to wipe out insult with insult": www.natstrat.org
"On January 20, the Trumpf White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease," Robert F. Kennedy Jr posted in social media: www.cnn.com
The US national security team looks and sounds like a room filled with heavily armed children: i.dailymail.co.uk
Kseniia Petrova is being detained in the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, 3843 Stagg Avenue, Basile, LA 70515.
Visitor Information: (318) 668-5900. Here is what this dangerous alien looks like: i.dailymail.co.uk
Good for Canadians. Methinks tourism to Germany slowed down to a trickle after 1933 (except for Fascists from Italy).
Only the GOP can turn a trusted ally, friend, and neighbor into an enemy within two months: www.citynews.ca
For people living in America, the oligarchs have exploited them and diminished their quality of life. People residing in the socialist democracies of Europe (like Germany or Norway) with strict gun control laws, inexpensive or free colleges, living wages, and universal healthcare have less chance of being murdered by a firearm or face a medical bankruptcy, enjoying a higher quality of life than most Americans. The US is ranked 24 on the World Happiness Report (2025 World Happiness Report).
On a personal note, I know an individual who enjoys the strict gun control laws of Canada and their socialist healthcare system (ranked 18), but he makes his fortune with a business in Texas. He also inherited a tidy sum of money from his wealthy parents. As a Libertarian he pushes for gun rights and tax reduction, continually bashing liberals in the US, but enjoys the socialism and safety of Canada. If you look up "hypocrite" in the dictionary, you would see his grinning face as the illustration.
If I ever choose to run into him again which I doubt, I will give him this: thumbs.dreamstime.com
The insidious nature of the American system has a tobacco farmer in South Carolina, prison guard in rural New York, truck driver in Kansas, firefighter in Missouri, or farmer in Iowa giving a damn about Iran. How does bombing Iran improve the lives of these aforementioned Americans? cdnph.upi.com