The Syrian regime of Al-Qaeda linked President Ahmed Sharaa continues its remarkable degree of cooperation with the so-called international community, this week affirming that it will give inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, immediate and unprecedented access to the country.

While not known for nuclear sites, it’s long been suspected that Damascus was overseeing a nascent program under the prior Assad government. This included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province, which was attacked by Israeli jets in a September 2007 raid. That operation had remained a secret for years after.

The IAEA previously described the reactor as being “not configured to produce electricity” – which raised suspicions in the West and in the region that Assad had been seeking nuclear weapons.

The UN watchdog’s aim is “to bring total clarity over certain activities that took place in the past that were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons,” IAEA director-general, Rafael Grossi, has said.

Grossi further said the new government run by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (which when it began fighting Assad years ago was an al-Qaeda affiliate) remains “committed to opening up to the world, to international cooperation.”

Interestingly, even the Jewish News Syndicate identifies the terror pedigree of the man now running things in Damascus:

The IAEA leader told the AP that al-Sharaa — a former al-Qaida member who has courted Western governments since seizing power in December — had shown a “very positive disposition to talk to us and to allow us to carry out the activities we need to.”

Now that Assad is out, and Sharaa (aka. Jolani) is in, delegations from Western capitals have rushed back to Damascus, and Washington has even lifted sanctions. 

Syria under Sharaa has gone so far as to signaled openness to normalizing relations with Israel, after the two had been in a permanent state of war for decades under the Assad family.

But after Syria fell to the Sunni jihadists, this meant Iran lost a crucial ally in a strategic location – the so-called ‘Shia crescent’ – that linked Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and Tehran.

READ this brilliant article by The Cradle’s Syria correspondent about the dubious role of Britain’s secret service in grooming Syria’s Al-Qaeda-rooted government.

READ: https://t.co/XcNIbz168p pic.twitter.com/PJbRUNHyXX

— Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) June 5, 2025

UN inspectors will likely eventually also want to inspect Syria’s chemical weapons sites, though Israel had long ago bombed many of them, yet there probably remains underground stockpiles.

The Supreme Court handed the Department of Government Efficiency – which may or may not exist for long after the recent spat between Musk and Trump – two big wins late on June 6 in its effort to reduce the size of the federal government.

The nation’s highest court issued the two unsigned rulings at the same time: the first order removed a block on DOGE staffers accessing data at the Social Security Administration. 

Granting an emergency request by the Trump administration, the justices lifted a lower court order that for now had barred DOGE employees or affiliates from accessing the agency’s systems and directed them to delete personal information they already had gathered.

“We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the court said in a brief unsigned order.

The court’s three liberal justices objected. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the majority shouldn’t have rushed to the administration’s aid before the courts have time to determine whether DOGE’s access is lawful. “Once again, this Court dons its emergency-responder gear, rushes to the scene, and uses its equitable power to fan the flames rather than extinguish them,” she wrote in dissent.

The second order, in U.S. DOGE Service v. CREW, formally blocked lower court orders requiring DOGE to respond to freedom of information requests in a pending lawsuit. That order came after Chief Justice John Roberts on May 23 issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking the lower court orders. The court’s three liberals again objected.

The Trump administration has said the data will help DOGE, created by a Jan. 20 executive order, streamline government and ferret out fraud. The executive order directed the entity to “implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

The injunction was issued by U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland, who said that DOGE failed to justify its need for sweeping access to the personal information of tens of millions of Americans, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status, medical information and disability status.

Hollander did allow DOGE team members access to some redacted or anonymized information, so long as they completed training and background checks comparable to those typically required for SSA employees.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by a group of labor unions, who allege data-sharing with DOGE violates the Privacy Act of 1974, which strictly regulates what information about American citizens can be stored by federal agencies, and who can access the data.

The Social Security Administration has been a significant target for Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO who launched DOGE. He has called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Musk has since stepped back from his involvement with DOGE.

Attorneys representing DOGE had argued that anonymizing the data would be too difficult and disrupt its efforts to root out fraud.

DOGE has had some success gathering data from federal agencies. In one recent decision, an appeals panel lifted an order that barred the Education Department, the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department from disclosing to DOGE the personal identifying information of roughly two million Americans.

The goal in life—and in markets—is simple: buy low, sell high.

In the firearms world, that rule applies just as much to ammunition. During the Covid panic between late 2020 and 2021, many buyers paid top dollar for 9mm and .223 rounds. 

Today, the market has swung in the opposite direction: Oversupply has pushed ammo prices back to early pandemic levels. However, the lingering question is: Will these low prices be sustained?

A geopolitical flare-up could send prices soaring, or manufacturers might scale back production, tightening supply and driving prices back up. Or trade war uncertainty on primers could spark a disruption.

55gr and 62gr .223 on tap this morning at the Milita Industrial Complex pic.twitter.com/hHU5ObT6z0

— Feni𝕏 Ammunition (@FenixAmmunition) June 5, 2025

There are many questions… But one thing is sure: prices for America’s most common rounds are near or at their bottoms. 

Here are the most common ammunition calibers in the U.S., along with current pricing data from Texas-based Black Basin Outdoors, a leading online retailer specializing in ammo and firearm accessories:

9mm Luger (9x19mm Parabellum)

The 9mm Luger is the most widely used handgun cartridge in the U.S., favored by law enforcement, military, and civilian shooters for its balance of power, manageable recoil, and affordability.

223 Remington / 5.56x45mm

NATO These cartridges are standard for AR-15-style rifles, making them the most popular rifle rounds in the country. They’re used for home defense, hunting, and sport shooting

.22 Long Rifle (LR)

Known for its low cost and minimal recoil, the .22 LR is a favorite for target shooting, small game hunting, and training new shooters. It’s widely available and used in both rifles and pistols.

12 Gauge Shotgun Shells

The 12-gauge is the most common shotgun caliber, used extensively for hunting, sport shooting, and home defense due to its versatility and effectiveness

308 Winchester / 7.62x51mm NATO

Popular among hunters and long-range shooters, the .308 Winchester offers excellent accuracy and stopping power, making it a staple for big game hunting and precision shooting

Keep in mind that as trade tensions escalate in a fracturing world that is being thrown into a bi-polar state, the U.S. remains heavily dependent on imported primers and critical raw materials for ammunition production. Between November 2023 and October 2024, the U.S. imported 5,371 primer shipments from 754 foreign exporters—led by Vietnam, China, and Chile. That heavy exposure creates an alarming vulnerability: If a foreign adversary wanted to disrupt the U.S. ammo supply chain, targeting the global primer market would be a low-cost, high-impact move.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) violates the beliefs of members of a Catholic association, a federal judge ruled on June 5.

The HHS rule requiring members of the Catholic Benefits Association to perform transgender procedures “violates their sincerely held religious beliefs without satisfying strict scrutiny,” U.S. District Judge Peter Welte said in a 19-page decision.

He permanently blocked HHS from enforcing the rule against the association and its current members.

The ruling also prevents the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from requiring the association and its members to provide insurance coverage for transgender procedures.

Spokespersons for the agencies declined to comment.

The association, which says it has more than 9,000 provider members, did not return an inquiry.

At issue is Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

That section of the Act bars discrimination on grounds outlined in other laws, including Title IX, which prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex.”

HHS in 2016 said that discrimination on the basis of sex included discrimination on the basis of “gender identity,” and that health providers could not refuse to offer transgender procedures if the provider offered similar services to others. One example offered was that a provider that removed uteruses to treat female health problems was also required to perform hysterectomies for women who believe they’re transgender and want the procedure.

The Catholic Benefits Association sued over the interpretation and won an injunction.

HHS in 2020 updated the rule, removing the part about gender identity.

That same year, the Supreme Court ruled that “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex,” prompting a court to rule that the HHS gender identity discrimination prohibition remained in effect.

Welte later ruled in favor of the Catholic Benefits Association, concluding that the rule infringed on the association members’ exercise of religion in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law allows the government to substantially burden the exercise of religion, but only if it shows it is using the least restrictive means available to achieve a compelling interest.

An appeals court overturned the decision because, judges said, the association failed to show standing since it did not identify specific members and their injuries.

The association brought a new suit identifying members and their injuries, resulting in Thursday’s ruling.

HHS had amended the rule again in 2024, reinstating the explicit prohibition on discrimination on the basis of gender identity. It also barred discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy or related conditions,” which officials said included abortion.

Government lawyers said that the latest version of the rule does not violate the Religious Freedom Act because of a new process that enables providers to seek religious exemptions to the requirements.

Welte disagreed.

“The case-by-case exemption procedure leaves religious organizations unable to predict their legal exposure without furthering any compelling antidiscrimination interests,” he said.

The judge did rule in favor of the government with regard to the requirements for covering “pregnancy or related conditions,” finding the Catholic association did not provide evidence that the requirement violates their members’ religious beliefs.

He also declined to extend the block on enforcement of the gender discrimination prohibition to future association members. That would “stray too far from the principle of party-specific relief,” he said.

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

The excuse that this regime is better than it was, or might otherwise have been, only lasts so long. 

Every transition government in history has deployed that trope. Think the Girondins in France, Kerensky in Russia, Weimar in Germany, the Second Spanish Republic, Chiang Kai-shek in China, and so on. In order, they were replaced by Robespierre then Napoleon, Lenin then Stalin, Hitler, Franco, and Mao. 

In each of these cases, the transitional government was caught between and ultimately smashed by pressures from both sides: industrial and intellectual partisans of the old regime with legacy control, on one side, and the radicalism of the populist movements that brought new people to power on the other. 

Threading this needle is not easy in revolutionary moments. Of such times, history teaches one lesson more than any other. The new regime must be brutally honest about the criminality of the old one and work with focus to dismantle it as fast as possible. Anything short of that leads to its own discrediting and eventual replacement. 

In every area of government today under the Trump administration, now entering its second phase, we witness these very historical forces at work. The grassroots movement that beat all odds to put the new people in power had high and even revolutionary expectations following the five most horrid years of our lives. 

Some of these hopes are being partially met in good ways but blocked and neglected in too many other ways that are unbearably conspicuous. This dynamic affects the budget disaster, the demand for transparency, and in the realm of public health. 

As a result, the wild optimism that greeted the inauguration of Trump has turned to something different, a mixture of incredulity from the grassroots combined with outrage and disgust from the legacy media and establishment that fought this revolution at every turn. 

This further raises the prospect about which we’ve repeatedly warned: the Trump administration could go down in history as a transitional regime like we’ve seen so many times in history, a four-year experiment in moderation bookended by different brands of totalitarianism on either side. 

This is a serious matter, not a parlor game. Nor is this a typical political battle. What happened over the last five years was for the ages. The world economy was smashed by nearly all states due to a lab leak for a product partially funded by the US government. The unannounced fallback plan, pushed in the name of science, was to universally distribute a new shot with a new gene-altering technology. 

The shot did not work. It was not effective. It was not safe. Nor were they properly vetted because they were imposed by military edict under the cover of emergency. Other therapeutics were disparaged and banned. The critics in all areas were censored and shut down. People who refused the injection were fired. Public health collapsed in the name of preserving it. 

Those harms have seen no justice. 

Meanwhile, to finance this calamity, debt-financed spending ballooned by $8-10 trillion, leaving the federal government’s budget $2 trillion higher than it otherwise would have been. The shots are still on the market despite undeniable and widely known harms. 

None of this is a secret, as it might have been in former times. Because of information technologies, people are well aware of every detail. The so-called “populist movement” has become a vast community of in-depth expertise, fully capable of running circles around legacy people and institutions. 

The new leaders – elected to change course on all the above and more, including the accompanying crime and migration chaos – began with tremendous bravado and sweeping edicts that seemed promising. Four months later, they are asking for patience while dealing with legacy barriers on all sides from media harassment to court blockages. 

The trouble is that public trust is completely gone.

The whole country, traumatized by years of lies, has become Missouri: show me. 

• First, no one believes that the “one big beautiful bill” is just a first step on the way to future draconian cuts. We’ve seen this too many times, which is why Elon Musk finally broke his silence and denounced the entire “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” as “a disgusting abomination.” That has set off a power struggle for the ages. 

• Second, in areas of government transparency, there have been some steps but not nearly enough to fulfill the promises. There are still no new Epstein files. The JFK files are a mess and incomplete. We know no more than already public information about the two shooters who tried to kill Trump. There are still many lingering questions about 9-11, the Covid disaster, and so much else. This is not the opening for which the people had hoped. 

• Third, let’s talk more at length about the public health area of policy where we’ve seen the most progress. We have a new and excellent Executive Order on science. Tax-funded Covid testing has ended. A contract of $750M for a Bird flu shot has been cancelled. There are new limits on gain-of-function research, and experiments on beagles and other animals are over. Many terrible contracts from NIH have been cancelled while parts of the CDC have been dismantled. 

As for the mRNA shots, the market has been narrowed from everyone to only vulnerable populations, leaving aside the known issue that vulnerable populations should not risk them either. 

There are new standards for randomized controlled trials with placebos, but no assurance that these companies will do them in a timely way. RCTs for a five-year-old product with massive immune-altering effects can never cobble together a valid sample selection at this late date, nor is a continuation of this experiment in any form morally justified. 

In two tremendous victories, the shots have been removed from the routine childhood schedule, the first time this has ever happened to any product targeting a specific disease apart from eradication or replacement. In effect, the CDC/FDA are saying: it is better to get Covid than risk these products. Such a message will drive uptake to new lows approaching zero eventually. 

In addition, the outrageous advice from the CDC that expectant women should take them is gone, finally. The champion of that policy has fled the CDC. 

These are all welcome changes in policies that never should have existed in the first place. Even now, however, no one says the quiet part out loud: even if these shots had been safe and effective, which they are not, they were never necessary for the overwhelming number of people. Which raises the profound question of how and why all this came to be in the first place. 

There are other initiatives too concerning food nutrition, mental health, and other matters in the MAHA Commission report that are hugely welcome changes from what has existed before. 

The people in power in these agencies are pleading for patience. That is not unreasonable. Remember that these few appointees are confronting a beast larger, more entrenched, and better financed than any hegemon in human history. The pharma/media/tech/NGO/academia complex is larger and more powerful than the slave trade, the East India Company, Standard Oil, or even the munitions industry that started the Great War. 

It’s certain that such a Leviathan cannot be ended in three months, not even with the best people in charge. All the grassroots really need to see is evidence of progress plus a transparent reason for delays. If the shots cannot be pulled now, people need to know why. If Covid emergency powers cannot be ended, explain why. If the new Moderna shot was already in the works and could not be stopped, people need to know the reasons. 

Everyone who has watched all this unfold is of two minds, never mind the endlessly mutating factions within the dissident movements that have seen their leadership ascend to power. The people in the MAGA/MAHA/DOGE movements are as thrilled by the progress so far to the same extent that mainstream media and the legacy establishment are furious about all the changes. 

For my own part, having watched public affairs for decades, this is the first time I’ve witnessed some progress in at least one area of state operations. That is worthy of celebration. I don’t even need to dwell on the many ways in which improvement over the darkest times of our lives is perhaps not as great an achievement as it would be otherwise. 

That said, the release of yet another shot, implausibly called NexSpike, especially in light of all evidence and promises, is a tremendous shock for which no one was prepared. If they were in the works and the appointees could not stop them, we should be told that and the full explanation should be given to all. If President Trump himself is still attached to the foul spawn of Operation Warp Speed, and has forced them back onto the market despite vast public opposition, we should know that too. 

Above all else, what we really need is the blunt truth about the last five years. We need to know that the people in office, whether elected or appointed, still share the deep outrage that fueled the movement that put them in power. We need to hear frank talk about the harms, the mandates, the suffering, the deceptions, the payoffs, the graft, the abuses, the illegal vanquishing of freedom, science, and human rights. 

It is not enough to proclaim a new Golden Age and be done with it. This pertains to every aspect of public life. Press conferences by the new officeholders, with smiles and promises of better behavior in the future, don’t cut it given the mass loss of trust, rampant cynicism, and grassroots fury. There must be more straight talk, more decisive action that goes to the heart of what happened, and some degree of accountability. 

We hear daily rumors that all of this is coming. Great. In which case, the new leaders need to make that clear. The masses are not inherently unreasonable. But they are the people within whom the leadership must reason – not “message,” not presented with flim-flam, not entertained with digital Punch and Judy shows, and not sniffily dismissed as ignorant extremists and conspiracy theorists. 

Every new leadership in government that inherits that kind of disaster of the last five years is necessarily going to be squeezed between the legacy regime – including its vast bureaucracies and industrial interests – and the populist movements that put them in power. In these cases, the status quo usually proves irresistible but with disastrous consequences later. 

Now is the time to stop that unfolding disaster, one which can only compound the errors of the past. 

While the so-called Big Beautiful Bill may have killed the bromance between Elon Musk and President Trump, House Republicans released a bill on Friday that would rescind $9.4 billion in federal spending ahead of a floor vote next week – largely made up of waste, fraud and abuse found by DOGE. 

The seven-page bill would rescind $22 million from the US African Development foundation, $15 million from the US Institute for Peace, and billions of dollars in bilateral economic assistance. It would also codify some of the cuts identified by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

As the Epoch Times notes further, the White House sent the package to Congress last week under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.

Under it, the president sends rescission requests to Congress, which has 45 days to take action on them.

It is not subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.

Republicans have already expressed support for the package.

“Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the administration, and sent to Congress, House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on social media platform X.

“This is exactly what the American people deserve.”

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) wrote on X: “These packages will be a key step toward codifying President Trump’s agenda and delivering lasting spending reductions in government.

“With nearly $7 trillion in annual federal spending, we need to prioritize the ’must-haves’ over the ‘nice-to-haves,’ to address our enormous national debt.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told The Epoch Times: “I haven’t seen the USAID rescissions to know exactly where they are, because … I don’t know what’s in the package to know what they’re exactly implementing rescissions on.

“I have no concern with [NPR rescissions]. I understand from my staff, it’s only about 1 percent of their funding today. I haven’t heard a lot of people reporting that consistently. But if, in fact, that’s the case, it seems like they should be able to manage that.

“And if that’s the president’s priority, we should move forward with it.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller wrote on X why a rescission package was needed.

“DOGE cuts are to discretionary spending [for the federal bureaucracy]. Under Senate budget rules, you cannot cut discretionary spending in a reconciliation bill,” he said.

“So DOGE cuts would have to be done through what is known as a rescissions package or an appropriations bill.”

Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.

Via Middle East Eye

The US-led coalition in Syria has launched a formal investigation after “unapproved symbols or language” were observed on a US military vehicle in northeast Syria, the coalition said in a statement to Middle East Eye on Friday.

On Thursday, MEE reported that a US military vehicle patrolling near the city of Hasakah last weekend displayed the word “kafir” – infidel in Arabic – on its front next to a Christian cross. 

The term “kafir” gained global notoriety during the Syrian war, frequently used by the Islamic State (IS) and other extremist groups to justify violence against those deemed non-believers – including Muslims who did not share their ideology.

Local residents described the graffiti as “offensive” and a “provocation“, particularly as IS no longer has a presence in the region.

“Markings of this nature violate U.S. Department of Defense policy,” the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said in a written statement. “CJTF-OIR has initiated a formal inquiry and will implement appropriate disciplinary measures under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

“This incident does not reflect the professionalism of our personnel or our respect for the Syrian people. While fact-finding is underway, our mission remains unchanged, enabling the enduring defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.”

The CJTF-OIR began operations in October 2014 [ostensibly] as the US-led coalition to defeat IS in Syria and Iraq.

Earlier this week, the US special envoy to Syria announced that the United States would reduce its military presence in the country, scaling down from eight bases to three in Hasakah.

Speaking to MEE, Jihan, a 34-year-old Kurdish woman, said it was hard to discern the intended message behind the markings. “We have nothing to do with IS, we don’t consider Americans to be kuffar [plural of kafir], and even less so the Christians who have always lived in Syria,” she said.

Syria was one of the first places in the world to have a Christian community – the community is mentioned in the Book of Acts and St Paul’s famous conversion on the road to Damascus…

Christians are not foreign to Syrian land; they have not been imported; they are, in fact,… pic.twitter.com/zty0Plep2f

— Archaeo – Histories (@archeohistories) July 28, 2024

There are currently an estimated 2,000 American troops in Syria, with the number expected to be halved in the coming months.

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on June 6 to allow it to resume dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, following a lower court’s previous order halting the process.

A federal district court issued an injunction last month blocking the process, directing the government to rehire some of the departmental employees who had been laid off.

“Each day this preliminary injunction remains in effect subjects the Executive Branch to judicial micromanagement of its day-to-day operations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the new emergency application.

As Matthew Vadum reports for The Epoch Times, ​​President Donald Trump campaigned on shuttering the department.

On March 20, he signed Executive Order 14242, pledging to close the agency, which he said “has entrenched the education bureaucracy and sought to convince America that Federal control over education is beneficial.”

The department “does not educate anyone” and “maintains a public relations office that includes over 80 staffers at a cost of more than $10 million per year,” the executive order states.

In a May 22 order, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun of Massachusetts ordered the government to rehire about 1,400 laid-off employees and reverse other actions aimed at downsizing the department.

Joun said that for more than 150 years, “the federal government has played a crucial role in education.” Since it was created in 1979, the department’s “role in education across the nation cannot be understated,” he added.

The agency oversees the federal student loan system, performs research for states and schools, distributes federal funds, and enforces compliance with various federal laws.

Joan said it’s clear that the Trump administration’s “true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department” without first obtaining the required congressional approval.

Authored by Rudy Blalock via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Certain ground beef products distributed to Whole Foods Market locations nationwide have been pulled from shelves due to potential E. coli contamination, according to a June 3 U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) notice.

The alert applies to 1-pound vacuum-packed packages of “ORGANIC RANCHER ORGANIC GROUND BEEF 85% LEAN 15% FAT,” marked with “Use or Freeze By 06-19-25” and “Use or Freeze By 06-20-25.”

The meat products, produced on May 22 and May 23, 2025, bear the establishment number “EST. 4027” inside the USDA mark of inspection, according to FSIS.

While a recall was not requested because the products are no longer available for purchase, FSIS urges consumers to check their refrigerators and freezers for the ground beef.

The product was initially shipped to distributor locations in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, and Maryland, where it was then distributed to Whole Foods Market stores across the United States, the agency said.

The potential contamination was discovered when the producer of the products alerted FSIS that ground beef shipped into commerce had tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.

At this time, there have been no confirmed reports of illness associated from consumption of the affected products. Regardless, FSIS advises anyone concerned about a possible illness to contact a health care provider.

E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially life-threatening bacterium that can cause symptoms such as dehydration, bloody diarrhea, or abdominal cramps two to eight days after exposure, with most cases occurring three to four days after ingestion.

Most individuals recover within a week, but some, especially children under five and the elderly, may develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a form of kidney failure.

FSIS notes that HUS is characterized by easy bruising, pallor, and decreased urine output, and urges anyone experiencing these symptoms to seek emergency medical care immediately.

FSIS is concerned that some consumers may still have the affected ground beef in their possession.

The agency advises, “Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.”

FSIS says that all consumers should safely prepare raw meat products and only eat ground beef that has been cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

For food safety questions, consumers can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 888-MPHotline (888-674-6854) or email MPHotline@usda.gov. Problems with meat, poultry, or egg products can also be reported online 24 hours a day via the Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System at https://foodcomplaint.fsis.usda.gov/eCCF/, according to the agency.

From NTD News

Last month we described how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was left humiliated and outraged after personally witnessing the May 21st botched launch of a new, 5,000-ton destroyer, after which he called it a “criminal act” and a “political issue directly related to the prestige of the state.”

North Korea now says Thursday it has successfully raised the capsized warship and moored it at a port in the country’s northeast for repair. KCNA reports that “after restoring the balance of the destroyer early in June, the team moored it at the pier” in the city of Chongjin.

South Korea’s military has cited recent commercial satellite images to assess that the 5,000-ton destroyer has indeed been finally restored to an upright position.

The failed side-launch of the ship reportedly resulted in damage to the hull, due to a transport cradle having detached prematurely, allowing the vessel to be wrongly aligned upon entering the water.

North Korean officials are vowing that the “perfect restoration of the destroyer will be completed without fail” before the deadline set by Kim, which is a major ruling party meeting later this month.

Al Jazeera cites KCNA to say, “Experts will now examine the warship’s hull for the next stage of restorations, to be carried out at Rajin Dockyard over the coming week to 10 days.”

According to further prior reporting in KCNA, the ship was left with holes torn into its hull, but the outlet didn’t report if there were any human casualties. Kim blamed the incident on “unscientific empiricism” and said it “lowered the dignity and self-respect” of the country – or essentially national humiliation.

North Korea confirmed its capsized warship was upright and stable, but a layer of intrigue lingers: Why the armada of massive balloons? https://t.co/paIp9rOXyD

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 6, 2025

He ominously promised that consequences would be revealed at the ruling Worker’s Party meeting in June, and had set the daunting deadline for the vessel to be repaired by the time of that same event. 

“No matter how good the state of the warship is, the fact that the accident is an unpardonable criminal act remains unchanged, and those responsible for it can never evade their responsibility for the crime,” said the Central Military Commission. The manager of the shipyard was immediately summoned by police as they set out to investigate the incident and detain potentially culpable individuals.  

KCNA blamed “inexperienced command and operational carelessness.” The outlet reported that the destroyer’s starboard hull was scratched, and water entered the stern section.

North Korea was excited to launch their new “Unsinkable” warship.. but it crashed and sank when they launched it pic.twitter.com/iWyc6cmYh4

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) June 4, 2025

While the official line is that the damage was “not serious,” outside observers have had major doubts. Given the entrance of water, “The propulsion systems and electronic components are likely beyond repair,” a naval construction expert told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.