It’s in the name really. The United States of America began as a union of separate entities coming together.

And while the U.S. is seen as a single global economic and political hegemon today, many of its 50 states are major economies on their own.

To show just how big they are, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao mapped and ranked 30 of the world’s largest economies, including U.S. states, to see how they stack up against entire countries.

ℹ️ The U.S. is included as a reference point; removing it would make China the largest economy.

Figures are sourced from the Bureau of Economic Analysis(BEA) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), both for 2024.

Ranked: World’s Largest Economies, Including U.S. States

California is the largest U.S. state by GDP and would rank 4th in the world if it was its own country.

Its GDP ($4.1 trillion) is now larger than every other country, barring Germany, China, and of course the rest of the United States.

This comparison uses the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ newly released 2024 GDP data, which shows California’s economy is $900 billion larger than Japan’s 2024 print at $4.02 trillion.

Of course the IMF has released 2025 predictive GDP figures. Japan’s output is higher now ($4.19 trillion), but California’s comparative figures won’t be released for another year.

Another footnote: India has also leapfrogged Japan in 2025 by IMF estimates. Depending on how California performs this year, it could retain its spot or slip back down to fifth place.

In total, nine U.S. states feature in the world’s top 30 economies as measured by their 2024 GDP. These include financial capital (New York), shale-boom central (Texas), other tech hubs (Washington), as well as population clusters (Florida and Georgia).

Vermont, the smallest U.S. state by GDP, would rank 147th in the world.

Want a one-to-one comparison of which countries could replace U.S. states by their GDP? Check out: U.S. State Economies vs. Entire Countries for a quick overview.

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Russian-born scientist and research associate at Harvard University has been arrested and charged with allegedly attempting to smuggle clawed frog embryos and embryonic samples into the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced on May 14.

Kseniia Petrova, 31, was charged with one count of smuggling goods into the country.

If found guilty, she faces up to 20 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

The charges were announced just hours after a federal judge in Vermont heard arguments in a lawsuit Petrova filed against the Trump administration alleging she has been unlawfully detained at an immigration detention center in Louisiana for months.

She was transferred out of the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to a nearby Louisiana parish jail shortly after being charged.

An initial hearing in her criminal case has been set for May 15.

Petrova, a Russian national, was first taken into immigration custody on Feb. 16 after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston following a trip to Paris.

According to prosecutors, she was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents after her checked duffle bag was flagged for inspection, revealing biological items including a foam box containing clawed frog embryos in microcentrifuges, as well as embryonic samples in paraffin well stages and on mounted dyed slides.

Such biological products must be declared and require a permit to be brought into the country.

Prosecutors said that Petrova initially denied carrying such material in her baggage but acknowledged she had biological specimens when asked again.

She was then advised that she was ineligible for entry to the United States, at which point prosecutors say she agreed to willingly withdraw her application for admission, prosecutors said.

The Trump administration has indicated it plans to deport her back to Russia.

Lawyer Says Case Is ‘Meritless’

Petrova said she fled Russia after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to avoid conflict or possible political repression. She added that she fears she will be imprisoned if she returns because of her political views.

Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, called the case against his client “meritless” and questioned the timing of the charges being announced, noting she was transferred into criminal custody after the judge in her lawsuit set a May 28 bail hearing to consider releasing her.

“The charge, filed three months after the alleged customs violation, is clearly intended to make Kseniia look like a criminal to justify their efforts to deport her,” he said.

During an interview under oath, Petrova allegedly claimed to be unsure that she was required to declare biological material when entering the country, prosecutors said.

However, prosecutors said text messages on her phone from an individual identified as one of her colleagues informed her that she was required to declare the biological material.

They alleged that in response to one text message asking how she planned to get through customs with the biological samples, Petrova said: “No plan yet. I won’t be able to swallow them.”

Petrova’s case has drawn criticism from Democrats, including Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, who filed an amicus brief on May 12 opposing the government’s efforts to dismiss her petition for release.

The brief states that Petrova had been conducting critical research on degenerative diseases at Harvard under a valid J-1 visa prior to her detention 10 weeks ago.

“Ms. Petrova’s case is not an isolated incident—this is just the latest example of the Trump Administration’s reckless and cruel misuse of power to punish and terrorize non-citizen members of the academic community,” Campbell said. “I will continue to fight to defend the rights of our international students and faculty, who meaningfully contribute to the academic and economic success of our communities.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said Petrova was recently employed by the Institute of Genetic Biology in Moscow from 2023 to 2024 and previously served as a bioinformatician of genetic disorders at the Moscow Center for Genetics from 2016 to 2023.

Harvard University said in a statement that it “continues to monitor the situation.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Petrova’s attorney for further comment.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

By Eric Kulisch of FreightWaves

The Trump administration this week rolled back the duty for small-dollar shipments from China and Hong Kong as part of tariff deescalation with China, while a House committee advanced legislation to permanently end the duty-free “de minimis” exemption from all countries. 

President Donald Trump’s executive order lowering new 145% tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days represents a reprieve for popular Chinese shopping platforms and other e-tailers that ship parcels directly from the factory to individual shoppers. E-commerce orders and airfreight shipments plummeted after the U.S. government on May 2 rescinded duty-free treatment for low-value goods, subjecting them to the same duties imposed on all Chinese products.

Before then, U.S. trade law allowed an individual each day to import goods valued at $800 or less and use an informal entry process. The rule helped fuel cross-border shipping from Chinese shopping platforms direct to consumers. About two-thirds of all packages entering the country through the de minimis channel are from China. 

The executive order also proactively lowered fees for low-value shipments from China sent through the international postal system. Postal shipments under $800 are now subject to a 54% tariff instead of 120%. Carriers can opt instead to pay $100 per postal item containing goods. Monday’s order canceled a June 1 increase to $200 for the flat fee.

The revised fees still present a significant cost increase, but the pause provides retailers time to adjust operations.

Logistics professionals say shipping rates could rise as businesses rush to order goods before the next deadline. Trade publication Modern Retail reported that fast-fashion retailer Shein on Wednesday announced price reductions for U.S. customers following the relaxation of de minimis rules on Chinese imports. Shein had raised prices and cut U.S. advertising after the change in de minimis rules sharply increased delivery costs.

The publication also said that Temu had resumed selling nondomestic items to U.S. customers.

Momentum builds to turn off de minimis

Congress a decade ago increased the de minimis ceiling from $200 to $800 as a way of helping small businesses with an online presence take advantage of international trade. But attitudes began to change when huge Chinese sellers like Temu, Shein and Alibaba flooded the trade facilitation program to minimize costs, putting a strain on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ability to cross-check shipments for trade, consumer safety or security compliance. 

Critics say the exemption creates a conduit for criminals to smuggle goods with little scrutiny, gives overseas merchants an advantage over retailers that source domestic products and results in billions of dollars in uncollected tariff revenue. 

CBP last year processed an average of more than 4 million de minimis imports per day but says the minimal information supplied on the informal entry makes it difficult to identify and interdict illegal drugs such as fentanyl, as well as counterfeit products and other contraband. It also has found cases of importers misclassifying and undervaluing goods, and misdelivering goods before they are officially released from CBP custody.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in December recommended that Congress eliminate de minimis eligibility for imports sold through online marketplaces.

On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a massive tax bill, which includes Trump’s tax priorities and a provision that would permanently end de minimis for commercial shipments from all countries by July 1, 2027.

“As the bill makes its way through the legislative process, we strongly support a more aggressive timeline to implement a permanent ban on de minimis globally given its significant harm to manufacturers, retailers, and the fight against fentanyl and other illegal products. Express shippers have already transitioned to processing all Chinese imports through sophisticated logistics systems, demonstrating their ability to comply with the president’s executive orders and pivot quickly,” said Kim Glas, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, in a statement. 

 Meanwhile, other efforts are in progress to curb the use of de minimis entries.

Customs and Border Protection is developing a new rule, proposed in the waning days of the Biden administration, that would require certain shippers to electronically submit additional data elements on low-value consignments prior to arrival and would remove de minimis eligibility for imports subject to certain tariffs.

The White House has said it plans to use emergency powers to delete the de minimis exception once systems are in place to collect duties from millions of parcels per day, including ones sent through postal channels.

Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

LAKE VILLAGE, Ark.—On a breezy day, sun and shadow dance across Mencer farms, turning it into a patchwork of green in the fertile Arkansas Delta.

It is humid here in the deep South, where the clock seems to run slower and the temperature hotter than in other places.

Lake Village is a small town sitting along Lake Chicot, an abandoned channel of the Mississippi River. Over thousands of years, flooding deposited rich alluvial soil, making it ideal for crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, and corn.

As a child, William Mencer’s grandfather handed him a cowboy hat and a garden hoe to dig up the pigweeds growing between the crop rows.

The 31-year-old farmer remembers spending long, sweltering days alongside the farmworkers, his hands growing rough and calloused with the effort.

“So I learned, you know, what it was like for these workers,” he told The Epoch Times.

He vowed to escape the sweat and toil of the fields by going to law school and working in an office. But the family farm drew him back like a love song.

Now he is partnering with his father, Joe Mencer, to keep the farm afloat with temporary agriculture workers through the H-2A visa program.

The fourth-generation family farm, which costs $4 million per year to operate, includes 6,000 acres that they own and lease.

While some may claim agriculture needs illegal immigrants to pick crops and work the fields, Joe Mencer told The Epoch Times that they’ve never had an illegal immigrant come looking for work.

They can’t get anyone local to work either, meaning that if they didn’t have the guest farm workers, they couldn’t stay in business.

What Is the H-2A Visa?

It costs more to bring in temporary legal workers than it would if they could find enough people locally to work. But without temporary migrant workers, William Mencer said local farms would go bust, affecting the nation’s food security.

The process has become much more complex since the Mencers began using the guest worker program back in the 1980s.

So much so that the younger Mencer started a small law practice helping other farmers obtain the labor they sorely needed.

He also shares his knowledge with other farmers as a member of the Arkansas Farm Bureau.

The process of hiring workers through the program, sometimes called a guest worker program, starts early in the year for the Mencer family.

The paperwork needs to be filed 60 to 75 days before their start date, which is mid- to late-February, he said.

It costs as much as $5,000 to bring in several guest workers from Mexico to the United States, he said, noting that the cost doesn’t include the housing and transportation provided to the workers.

Most return home in mid-December, but they are eligible to stay for up to three years in certain situations when agricultural work is available.

The program requires the Mencers to advertise their farm jobs locally before they can be given to guest workers.

Joe Mencer, 65, noted that the rules call for him to fire any foreign worker he’s brought over if an American shows up and wants the job.

Tangled in Red Tape

The process to petition for workers with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is antiquated, with all communications taking place via mail, according to William Mencer.

The government does not offer online services, email, or a phone number. If there’s a problem, then the farm’s labor source is jeopardized because of the lack of communication, he said.

“Sometimes things get lost in the mail. You know, literally,” he said.

One of his client’s petition paperwork didn’t arrive in the mail. So they filed a claim for the lost package and resubmitted the paperwork.

This time, the paperwork made it to the Dallas office, but the postal carrier found the original package and shipped it, too.

With both petitions filed with the government, it almost took an act of Congress to clear it up.

The younger Mencer sent a letter explaining what happened with the evidence to the government officials, just like he would in court, but the office didn’t respond.

He enlisted the help of his congressman to clear things up. By the time it was all done, his client was behind by a month in getting guest workers.

It makes him wonder if the difficulty and red tape is “by design.”

The workers are so important that the Mencers keep them busy even when the weather is bad, although it doesn’t help their bottom line.

When there’s no field work, they cut firewood for use in the winter months.

Joe Mencer said he realized a few years back that his son’s law degree would be helpful on the farm, especially given the increasing complexity of the H2A visa program.

Guest Worker Success

The Mencers said their farm couldn’t operate without H-2A visa workers, although the labor cost is higher than using local workers.

Farmers’ margins are already slim because of increased production costs for fertilizer, herbicides, seed, and fuel.

José Mondragon, who started as an H-2A visa worker, is now a green-card holder. He has worked for the Mencer family for nearly 30 years.

Others, such as Gabino Mondragon (no relation to José Mondragon) are H-2A visa holders who have only been working at the farm for a few years.

José Mondragon lives with his wife in a little house on the farm surrounded by flowers and trees. The 57-year-old has deep roots in the land, even serving as a pallbearer when Joe Mencer’s father passed away.

In late April, he operated a self-driving orange Case Magnum row crop tractor, which plowed the earth between the corn rows to improve irrigation.

José Mondragon said he’s seen American workers quit after two or three months, long before the crops are harvested in the fall. The lack of local workers can open the door for temporary visa workers, which is good for everyone, he said.

“The people [are] asking us if we have some opportunities to come with my boss, and we say we will ask him,” he said.

José Mondragon said some people come to the United States illegally because they get into trouble with the law back home or to escape the cartels. Others come to make more money to help support their families in their native countries.

Workers from Mexico make $14.83 per hour on the Mencer farm as legal workers, with the wage set by the government for each state.

José Mondragon said human smugglers, known as coyotes, charge people big money to cross the southern border illegally.

Gabino Mondragon has been working at the Mencer farm on a guest visa for two years. He is experienced at running a spreader for nitrogen fertilizer for corn. One truckload of fertilizer can cost $20,000, according to William Mencer, so having a skilled operator is critical.

Gabino Mondragon believes that more people in Mexico would like to apply for an H-2A visa. Still, if they are caught coming into America illegally, they won’t be eligible unless they get a waiver. It would depend on their record.

The Mencers brought Gabino Mondragon’s family over on an H-4 visa so they could live close by while he worked.

The H-4 nonimmigrant visa allows the spouse and unmarried children younger than 21 years of age to accompany the primary visa holder to the United States.

It’s also an excellent opportunity for Gabino Mondragon’s family because his children are going to school and learning English.

“If our people are happy, it just reinforces that it’s a good thing for everybody,” William Mencer said.

Hanging by a Thread

The high cost of labor, diesel, and chemicals is making it extremely difficult for family farms to stay in business, according to William Mencer.

“We’ve been in four or five really bad years now,” he said.

Some farmers are faced with losing their farms to foreclosure by banks over crop production loans, finding a different line of work, or selling out.

Read the rest here…

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) have exposed widespread federal waste and mismanagement that Congress long ignored. Despite the existence of oversight bodies like the Government Accountability Office, it took an executive order to uncover billions of dollars in egregious federal waste.

DOGE’s drive to cut waste and root out fraud in the bloated federal bureaucracy has already resulted in nearly 300,000 job cuts and an estimated $160 billion in savings. As detailed in our series of reports, DOGE’s actions are delivering tangible results—helping to reduce the nation’s overall funding requirements. 

The debt-fueled spending spree under the Biden-Harris regime placed the nation on a crash course to financial ruin—but recent corrective actions by the Trump administration and DOGE, for now, have helped steer the trajectory away from a financial crisis.

Readers may recall some of those tangible DOGE-related results:

• March Deficit Unexpectedly Tumbles To 5 Year Low As DOGE Cracks Down On Democrat Money-Laundering Schemes

• US Treasury Unexpectedly Reports Sharp Drop In Debt Borrowing Needs, Rates Slide

• US Treasury Shocks With Second Biggest Budget Surplus In History

• Jobless Claims Jumped Last Week As ‘DOGE Actions’ Spark Biggest YTD Layoffs Since 2020

• Is DOGE Starting To Work? ‘Deep TriState’ Jobless Claims Surged Last Week

Some progresshttps://t.co/hNCBVYB4YV

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 11, 2025

Everything outlined above points to a solid start for DOGE, which has already uncovered hundreds of billions in waste, fraud, and abuse. However, that progress could be undone unless Congress moves to lock in those spending cuts through the reconciliation bill.

DOGE has identified hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse, but unless Congress makes those spending cuts permanent through the reconciliation process, all that work will have been for nothing.@Paul_S_Mullen pic.twitter.com/7Y8j4T5ehJ

— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) May 5, 2025

Another measure of DOGE’s early success is the 20.5% reduction in non-defense federal obligations compared to 2024 levels—a decline that signals reduced future cash outlays as these obligations come due.

“Persistent government-wide contract reviews for wasteful spend, consistent with the DOGE Cost Efficiency Executive Order, are bearing fruit,” DOGE’s official X account wrote. 

Adding to the visible signs of progress, Goldman chief economist Jan Hatzius, along with analysts Alec Phillips and others, noted Thursday that cash withdrawals from the Treasury General Account across several federal agencies continue to fall below 2023 and 2024 levels—yet another encouraging sign of success. 

Also, new monthly federal contract obligations have sharply slowed under DOGE after four years of large spikes under the Biden-Harris regime. 

“Notably, new federal contracts data has undershot trend in recent months and stood at $18.2bn in April (compared to $31.1bn in April 2024). Total government grant awards remain stagnated at Inauguration Day levels,” the analysts said. 

More color here. 

However, Hatzius and his team noted that year-to-date cash withdrawals from the Treasury General Account remain $123 billion above 2024 levels.

The early results of DOGE mark a shift in federal accountability. In just months, DOGE has uncovered hundreds of billions in waste, slashed nearly 300,000 federal jobs, and driven $160 billion in savings. Yet why did it take an executive order from the president to have a group take a deep dive into how federal agencies spend their money?

But this progress is not guaranteed. Without congressional action to lock in these cuts through reconciliation, the swamp remains open for the bureaucratic bloat to return. The message is clear: DOGE is working, but can only be sustained through political action.

Via Middle East Eye 

Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned the US against assassinating President Ahmed al-Sharaa before the new Syrian leader met with President Donald Trump, a US senator said on Thursday.

The remarkable statement by a US senator reveals the deep hostility toward Sharaa in some circles of the Trump administration. It reaffirms Trump’s own statements that he has been lobbied directly by foreign leaders to give Sharaa a chance, while his own advisors are skeptical. 

“I have been concerned by some rumors that I have heard in…some foreign policy circles of the administration that one option that’s been suggested is assassinating the new leader of the Syrian government, Ahmed al-Sharaa,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen said in a Senate hearing on Thursday.

According to Shaheen, Jordan’s King Abdullah II heard about the alleged discussions to assassinate Sharaa and warned against it.

“One of the things that was pointed out to us by King Abdullah was that a change in leadership of that kind would create an all-out civil war in Syria. That would not be good to take advantage of the opportunity we have to move that country forward,” Shaheen said.

Shaheen met with King Abdullah in Washington, DC, in May, suggesting that those discussions may have taken place just before Trump cancelled sanctions on Syria and met Sharaa. Shaheen made the remarks during her questioning of Joel Rayburn, Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of state for the Near East, the top Middle East position in the State Department.

The admission by Shaheen is remarkable, given the events of this week. Trump surprised his own senior officials and Israel by announcing he was lifting all sanctions on Syria. Trump then held a meeting with Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One after the meeting, Trump showered praise on Sharaa, saying he was a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter”.

Asked to comment on the assassination “option”, Rayburn replied, “I’m not familiar with efforts like that, but that’s clearly not in line with the president’s intention…or his description of Sharaa in the past couple of days.”

Blindsided

Trump’s decision to remove all US sanctions on Syria, going back to 1979, was met with thunderous applause in Riyadh, but has annoyed members of the US government. Some in the US State Department who have advocated for sanctions relief also felt sidelined.

It must have been a tense meeting yesterday in Damascus between HTS chief Jolani and the head of Iraqi intelligence. Especially for the Iraqi delegation a hard pill to swallow as Jolani before his time in Syria was in Iraq with Zarqawi blowing up Iraqis. pic.twitter.com/mojl2jTmEd

— Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) December 27, 2024

Just a few days before the announcement, the State Department’s Syrian advisors were briefing foreign counterparts that the Trump administration was set to keep sanctions on the new government in Damascus, one regional official told Middle East Eye.

Meanwhile, hardline members of Trump’s National Security Council have told counterparts privately that they would try to drag out the sanctions relief process to obtain concessions from Sharaa, one current and one former US official told MEE.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy warned on Thursday about members of Trump’s administration working to “undermine” his decision. Rayburn’s hearing was notable because he was seen as hard line on Syria when he served as envoy to the country during Trump’s first term in office.

“I support the President’s goals and his initiative as he laid out,” Rayburn said. “It offers a golden opportunity to turn the page…the president is taking a bold move…he has expectations.”

The White House says it wants Sharaa to expel Palestinian fighters and foreign fighters from Syria, and combat the Islamic State militant group. Trump also said he discussed Syria normalizing ties with Israel. “I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report.

Sharaa was the commander of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, an Islamist group which toppled the decades-long Assad dynasty in December 2024. Sharaa participated in the Iraq insurgency after the US’s 2003 invasion and served time in a US prison. He once pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda.

The Biden administration removed a $10m bounty on Sharaa’s head in early 2025, but he is still designated a “global terrorist”. That designation is likely to be removed now, given Trump’s order, experts say. 

Sharaa’s closest foreign ally is Turkey, but his country has also been moving towards the Gulf states. On Tuesday, Trump told the world he was asked to remove sanctions and had two advocates to credit, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

The UAE has been holding indirect talks between Israel and Syria to de-escalate tensions. Israel has been striking Syria for months and occupies a swath of southwestern Syria. The Trump administration lobbied Israel and Turkey to enter deconfliction talks in Syria earlier this year.

Ali al-Rifai, director of public relations in Syria’s information ministry, was asked by Kan News after Trump’s announcment about the prospect of his country joining the Abraham Accords, the agreement curated by Trump in 2020 that saw a number of Arab countries recognise Israel. “Peace with everyone, without exception,” he responded.

Authored by Emma Suttie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Bees are dying—and at an alarming rate.

Between 2023 and 2024, US beekeepers lost an estimated 55.1 percent of their colonies—the worst loss in more than a decade and nearly 15 percent higher than the previous 13-year average.

Bees pollinate three-quarters of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts we eat, and many of us rely on bee products for their nutrition and health-promoting gifts. If bees vanish, it’s scary to think of all we stand to lose. And some say that if the bees go, we go too.

Jeff Pettis, president of Apimondia—The International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations—sums up the health benefits that bees offer humans in one word: huge.

Although two-thirds of our diet comes from carbohydrates—crops like rice, wheat, and corn—which are pollinated by wind rather than insects, many other important foods require bees.

“So we’re not going to starve if we don’t have bees. But literally, everything you can think of that’s nutritious—fruits, nuts, and vegetables—all of those are, we’ll call it, animal-pollinated. The vast majority of those are pollinated by honey bees or other wild bees,” he told The Epoch Times.

Bees Pollinate

Ryan Burris is a third-generation beekeeper and the president of the California State Beekeepers Association. He points out that many people don’t realize how many fruits and vegetables we eat depend on bees for pollination.

“The biggest one, obviously, for beekeepers, is almonds. And then you have things like blueberries, watermelons, and stuff you don’t think about, like onions and carrots—all require pollination. There’s an estimated 100 crops that require pollination,” he told the Epoch Times.

Twenty thousand species of bees grace our planet, and 4000 species are native to the United States. Bees are some of our most well-known and beloved pollinators. One in every three bites of food you eat depends on pollinators to produce, and bees pollinate one in every four bites.

Beyond their critical role as pollinators, bees also gift us powerful products like honey, bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly—each packed with nutritional and medicinal benefits.

Honey

The Ancient Egyptians may have been the world’s first beekeepers. They crafted clay hives and transported them on rafts along the Nile, allowing bees to pollinate whatever flowers were in season. Bees were deeply revered, and honey was considered sacred.

Throughout history, honey has played many roles—it was used in religious rituals, medicine, currency, and offerings to the gods. When archaeologists uncovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb, they found a sealed jar of honey more than 2,000 years old. Because honey doesn’t spoil, it was still safe to eat.

Honey offers a treasure trove of healing properties. It soothes a cough, benefits digestion and oral health, treats constipation and diarrhea, protects the heart, and has anticancer properties—in addition to being antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and a powerful antioxidant.

Jana Schmidt is a board-certified naturopathic doctor and master herbalist who keeps bees. She says not all honey is created equal, and knowing where your honey comes from is crucial, as many store-bought varieties are synthetically made or artificial. If you want the good stuff, go for raw, local honey—ideally straight from a beekeeper.

“Darker varieties have higher antioxidants than the lighter varieties,” she noted, saying bees make the darker types in the winter months when it’s cold, and they need more nutrition—which is passed to us when we eat it.

She says that honey added to tea before bed can help you sleep—something she did for her children when they were little.

“It helps regulate your sleep, but it also protects the teeth from the bacteria that causes cavities, which seems crazy because it’s sweet. You think, oh, that’s going to cause cavities, but actually, it protects the teeth,” she told The Epoch Times.

Studies have found that honey’s antibacterial properties fight harmful bacteria, such as Salmonella and E. coli. In addition, honey has been studied for its potential benefits against cancer—including breast, liver, and colorectal cancers, where it has shown cytotoxic effects on cancer cells, the ability to inhibit cancer cell growth, and prevent the formation of new blood vessels that tumors need to grow.

Raw honey is a potential source of Clostridium botulinum spores, which can cause botulism—especially in babies. Therefore, it’s generally recommended that infants under one year of age should not be fed raw honey.

Bees are prolific producers of a diverse array of products with numerous potential health benefits, according to experts.

Bee Pollen

Honeybees collect pollen from flowers and mix it with their saliva, which contains special enzymes. They then store it in comb cells inside their hives. Once the pollen is stored and processed in the hive, it is called beebread, or ambrosia—a vital food for the bees—containing proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals they need. When beebread is stored, it undergoes a natural fermentation process, which preserves it and makes its nutrients easier to absorb.

“To me, it’s God’s perfect multivitamin because it has every vitamin and mineral known for human nutrition. It has approximately 96 different nutrients and bioavailable energy. It’s antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and the most digestible protein per ounce than anything else out there,” Schmidt said.

Bee pollen offers a source of sustained energy throughout the day and not a spike like you might get from sugar or caffeine, she said.

“I don’t drink coffee or anything like that. I just take my bee pollen in the morning, and I’m good to go,” she beamed.

There is growing scientific interest in bee pollen, particularly because of its antimicrobial properties, which can fight a wide variety of pathogens, including bacteria and fungi. This ability is notable because some bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Bee pollen (beebread) seems able to fight microbes without creating resistance, which some scientists believe is because it contains several different natural compounds that work synergistically. Bee pollen also supports the body’s good bacteria, benefiting healthy gut microbes—behaving like a prebiotic.

Schmidt adds that as a natural fertility specialist, bee pollen is her number one fertility supplement.

“If you think about it, it’s the fertility for the plants. Why wouldn’t it be fertility for us, too? So sometimes that’s all it takes. The couple start taking bee pollen, and bam, they’re fertile. So that’s been pretty fun to be a part of.”

Studies have found that bee pollen has other wide-ranging medicinal benefits to humans, including:

• Benefiting metabolic syndrome disorders
• Preventing obesity
• Combating liver disorders
• Cardioprotective effects
• Lowering uric acid
• Detoxifying (based on animal studies)
• Regulating ovarian functions
• Alleviating allergic reactions
• Improving digestion and absorption
• Stimulating the immune system
• Improving cognitive dysfunction

“It takes bees working eight hours a day, two to four weeks, to gather one teaspoon of pollen, Schmidt said. They work so hard. They visit over 2 million flowers to get one teaspoon of pollen. It’s pretty amazing.”

Propolis

Propolis, also known as “bee glue,” is a resinous substance bees gather from different types of plants. Bees use it as a type of construction material for the hive. It seals holes and cracks, improves structural integrity, smooths the inner surface of the hive, maintains a constant internal temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and protects the hive from the elements, predators, and pathogens. Once hardened, it helps create an antiseptic internal environment.

Schmidt offers a long list of propolis’s benefits, particularly to the brain. These include reducing inflammation in the brain and oxidative stress, helping reduce the toxic effects of methylmercury—a highly toxic form of mercury—and aluminum in the brain, increasing synaptic efficiency, and protecting against neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment.

She adds that it is a great prebiotic and excellent for gut health.

“Anytime there’s an infection, and you’re not quite sure what it is, I usually go to propolis—it just boosts your immune system like nothing else I’ve ever used,” she said.

Studies have revealed that this amazing substance has many applications for human health and has the following medicinal properties:

• Antioxidant
• Anti-inflammatory
• Antiulcer
• Anticancer
• Immunomodulatory
• Neuroprotective
• Anti-allergic
• Cardioprotective
• Antidiabetic

Studies in humans and animals have shown propolis to possess powerful healing properties beneficial in multiple acute and chronic diseases—from autoimmune diseases like Type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and COVID-19.

In a 2021 randomized, controlled clinical trial, 124 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were split into three groups. Two groups received Brazilian green propolis—400 or 800 milligrams daily—in addition to regular treatment—while the third group did not receive propolis.

The researchers found that patients who received propolis were released from the hospital five to six days sooner, and those who received 800 mg of daily propolis had less kidney damage associated with COVID-19. Thus, the study authors concluded that propolis is a safe and effective adjunct treatment for patients with COVID-19.

Royal Jelly

Humans have used royal jelly as a powerful medicine for millennia. It is extremely popular and highly regarded in Chinese medicine—in ancient times and today. Royal jelly is an overall tonic that promotes the robust development of bones, teeth, and the brain. It also helps boost fertility for women and soothe the symptoms of menopause.

Royal jelly is a white milky substance secreted by worker bees to feed the queen bee larvae. Worker bee larvae get a different type—called worker jelly that contains fewer nutrients. According to one study, the higher quality royal jelly fed to the queen allows her to live a long life (up to five years) and lay 2,500 eggs daily. In comparison, worker bees only live about 45 days and, although female, do not reproduce.

Rich in proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals, royal jelly is a vital food source for bees. Today, humans use it as a dietary supplement, medicine, and ingredient in cosmetic and skincare products.

Studies have shown royal jelly to have the following medicinal properties:

• Antioxidant
• Anti-lipidemic
• Antiproliferative
• Antimicrobial
• Neuroprotective
• Anti-inflammatory
• Immunomodulatory
• Antiaging
• Estrogenic activities

Despite its medicinal benefits, Schmidt says that she does not recommend royal jelly because of how it is harvested, as it hurts the bees and the hive only to collect a tiny amount.

“I just don’t like the practice overall … I feel like it takes it a step beyond what we should be doing to live well with the bees,” she said.

A 2023 study investigated the effect of royal jelly on liver enzymes and glycemic indices. The researchers found that royal jelly did not significantly affect adults’ glycemic profile or liver function. However, in trials with a longer duration of 8 or more weeks, and those conducted in “non-healthy” populations, there was a significant reduction in serum fasting blood glucose —a measurement of glucose in the blood after fasting. Higher fasting blood glucose levels are a characteristic sign of both prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.

Why Bees Are Dying

We have all heard about the alarming decline in bee numbers in recent years.

Pettis says the reasons that bees are dying is such huge numbers are multifaceted and complex.

The first, he says, is that bees are losing their natural habitat. A significant reason for this is the rise of monoculture—when farmers plant only one kind of crop in their fields. This lack of diversity limits the flowers available for bees, making it harder for them to get all the nutrients they need to stay healthy and thrive.

“Roundup Ready crops, like corn, soybeans, all these—they create very sterile fields so there are no weeds—and a lot of those weeds are really good for bees,” he said.

Pettis says the second reason is pesticide exposure and the third is pests and diseases affecting bees. He says they all combine in different ways to affect bees and reduce their numbers, making beekeeping more challenging.

“We’ve had a number of exotic things come into the U.S.—two parasitic mites, and then the beetle from Africa, and now we have some invasive hornets coming in from Asia. It’s just one thing after another,” he said.

“It’s really hard to survive when you have all these stressors lining up, one right behind the other.”

Some readers may be wondering about colony collapse disorder.

“I was actually very involved in colony collapse disorder, which is now 20 years old, and we never came up with a single definitive thing. It was just a combination of things that were killing managed honeybees,” Pettis said.

Mites, particularly the varroa mite—which is aptly named Varroa destructor—have become an enormous challenge for beekeepers.

“The varroa mite—Varroa destructor—is the main killer of honey bees because they feed on the bee as it’s growing,” Burris said.

These tiny parasitic mites feed on bee fat and blood, which bees need for energy and a healthy immune system. They also spread viruses, particularly the deformed wing virus, which causes bees to be born with shriveled wings that will never fly.

Burris adds that federal and state regulators do not want honeybees on public lands as they fear they may hurt native pollinators, though he notes they don’t have evidence to support those concerns.

He says they’re arguing about food supply and demand problems without considering that native pollinators and honey bees have different feeding habits.

“They’re not taking into account the size of the honeybee, the size of a native pollinator, the size of their tongues, and how they extract nectar—how they obtain pollen,” he said.

Pesticides, which include insecticides and herbicides, are also detrimental to bees.

“Roundup and other weed killers that contain glyphosate are incredibly harmful to our bodies, but also the bees,” Schmidt said.

A relatively recent class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics, are the world’s most widely used insecticides and possibly one of the most deadly. They work by making every part of the treated plant toxic while poisoning the soil, surrounding water, and wildlife. They affect the bees’ nervous system, interfering with their ability to learn, remember, and navigate, meaning many exposed bees can’t find their way back to the hive and eventually die.

Since their introduction in the last two decades, neonicotinoids’ widespread use has made U.S. agriculture increasingly destructive to insect life. Neonicotinoids are responsible for 92 percent of this increase in danger to insects.

These deadly insecticides don’t just kill bees. Neonics are linked to losses of birds and fish and birth defects in white-tailed deer. Increasing evidence has also shown that neonics affect human health, especially children. One study found neonics in the urine of half of children 3 to 5 years old, and a 2020 Swiss study found neonics in every sample of plasma and spinal fluid of children receiving treatment for leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

How We Can Help Bees

Thankfully, there are things we can all do to help bees and support these essential pollinators.

• Plant native flowers and trees, especially ones that bloom through summer, as bees need food from spring through fall.
• Buy local honey, and honey made 100 percent in the United States to support U.S. beekeepers.
• Avoid using insecticides or pesticides around your yard and use natural methods instead. Schmidt says using vinegar and water with a bit of salt kills weeds without harming anything else.
• Allow an area of your yard or garden to be overgrown or less cut back to provide food and nesting habitats for bees.
• Plant a bee garden with native flowers to attract bees and other pollinators.
• Create a bee watering station with filtered water using a deep plate with pebbles or marbles near flowering plants to give bees a safe place to drink.
• Create a bee house you can hang in your yard to give bees a place to live.
• Keep hives away from sources of wifi radiation and EMFs, which adversely affect bees.
• If you notice a swarm of bees on your property, contact a local beekeeping association, university agriculture department, or local beekeeper to collect them, not an exterminator.
• Encourage state legislators to support laws that support and protect bees.
• Spread awareness about bees and how we can support them.

Schmidt reveres the tiny pollinators that provide us with so much.

“You know, we use the term beekeeping, but I really feel like they keep us—like they know what to do, we just need to provide a nice habitat for them, and they do all the work—they just give and give.”

Bt Stuart Chirls of Freightwaves

Hapag-Lloyd saw container bookings from China to the United States jump by 50% following the break in the tariff battle between the trading partners. 

In comments during an earnings call, Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen explained that while recent bookings were down 20%-30%, there has been “a surge of over 50% in recent days,” though he noted the difficulty in predicting exact growth patterns.

“We expect capacity to return fairly swiftly. We have deployed smaller ships instead of doing blanks [canceled sailings], and we will reverse that soon. Within the next couple of weeks, we will deploy bigger ships again, and others may also increase capacity as the quarter progresses.”

The CEO also confirmed that upsizing vessels can be accomplished without significant disruption due to the simplified Gemini network with Maersk, and that it “won’t materially change overall costs,” with no current issues regarding mispositioning of containers.

Profit increased 45% to $469 million on revenue that was up 15% year over year to $5.3 billion in the first quarter, driven by a 9% increase in liner shipping volumes, marking the highest year-on-year growth in several years. 

Liner shipping saw revenues of $5.2 billion on volume of 3.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units and an average freight rate of $1,480 per TEU, both of which were 9% higher y/y on strong demand. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose by 18%, to $1.1 billion, and earnings before interest and taxes were up by 25%, to $472 million.

The successful launch of the Gemini network saw schedule reliability of 90%, a remarkable figure in an industry that is usually around 65%.

The carrier faced operational challenges during the quarter, including ongoing rerouting of ships away from the Red Sea and around the Cape of Good Hope, as well as disruptions at various ports. These challenges increased operational costs and impacted efficiency but were effectively managed to minimize adverse effects on overall performance.

The White House has denied a report that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is backing a proposal for a reality TV series that pits immigrants against each other for the grand prize: a fast-track to U.S. citizenship.

According to a 35-page pitch obtained by DailyMail.com, the Department of Homeland Security has been in contact with reality TV producer Rob Worsoff – known for Duck Dynasty and Millionaire Matchmaker – on a show called The American. The show would take a dozen pre-vetted immigrants on a cross-country journey aboard a train, competing in “cultural” challenges like assembling a Model T Ford in Detroit, rolling logs in Wisconsin, and digging clams in Maine.

Contestants would be greeted in New York City at Ellis Island by “a famous, naturalized American who was also born in another country,” the pitch reads, with names like Sofia Vergara, Ryan Reynolds, and Mila Kunis floated as possible hosts. Each contestant would receive a personalized baseball glove before hitting the rails aboard “The Citizen Ship.”

“Along the way, we will be reminded what it means to be American – through the eyes of the people who want it most,” Worsoff’s pitch says.

There’d be elimination rounds, dramatic town halls, and viewer voting tallied by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff – yes, actual DHS employees, according to the proposal. The live finale would see the train stop in Washington, D.C., with the winner sworn in on Capitol Hill as Thunderbird jets roar overhead. “There won’t be a dry eye within 10 miles!” the pitch promises.

Game show prizes? Think red-white-and-blue Americana: 1 million American Airlines points, a $10,000 Starbucks gift card, or a lifetime supply of 76 gasoline.

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS’s top spokesperson, confirmed the department had a call with Worsoff last week. “I think it’s a good idea,” she said. Though she claimed Noem “is yet to be briefed,” DailyMail.com reports Noem supports the show and wants to move forward.

DHS Distances

That said, DHS on Friday confirmed that it had received the pitch – but a spokesperson denied the Mail‘s report that Noem was involved. In a statement to the Epoch Times, DHS Assistan Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the Mail‘s reporting “completely false,” and denied claims that Noem had either “backed” or “reviewed” the plan.

“The Department of Homeland Security receives hundreds of television show pitches a year, ranging from documentaries surrounding ICE and CBP border operation to white collar investigations by HSI,” she said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations.

TV show proposals undergo “a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval,” McLaughlin said, adding that the reality TV “show in question is in the very beginning stages of that vetting process and has not received approval or denial by staff.”

Separately, McLaughlin told news outlets that she had spoken with the producer of the proposed reality show. -Epoch Times

Worsoff, a Canadian-born producer, said, “I’m not affiliated with any political ideology. As an immigrant myself, I am merely trying to make a show that celebrates the immigration process.”

The proposal also includes themed challenges like mining for gold in San Francisco, launching rockets in Cape Canaveral, and rafting down the Arkansas River. “We’ll join in the laughter, tears, frustration, and joy – hearing their backstories – as we are reminded how amazing it is to be American,” the pitch reads.

Even the losers would have “a leg-up” in the naturalization process, the proposal notes.

For a secretary already accused of turning immigration enforcement into a branding exercise, The American is on-brand. Whether the public buys into her vision — or sees it as one more cringe photo op — remains to be seen.

Side note – the book ‘Running Man’ takes place in 2025…

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Drug overdose deaths in the United States dropped sharply in 2024, falling to their lowest level since before the pandemic, according to provisional data released on May 14 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report estimates that 80,391 people died of a drug overdose in 2024—a 26.9 percent decline from 110,037 in 2023, marking the largest one-year drop since the agency began collecting comparable data more than four decades ago.

It’s the second consecutive annual decrease after overdose deaths surged during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Social isolation, disruptions to treatment, and other factors helped push fatalities to a peak of nearly 115,000 in 2023.

All but two states—Nevada and South Dakota—recorded declines last year, with especially steep drops in hard-hit areas such as West Virginia, which reported a 43.5 percent decrease. While the final figures may shift slightly as data are finalized, the CDC data indicate an unmistakable downward trend.

The decline was driven almost entirely by a reduction in fentanyl-related deaths. The synthetic opioid—at least 50 times more potent than heroin—was linked to more than 76,000 deaths in 2023, but that number dropped to just over 48,000 in 2024.

Experts have cited several possible reasons for the downturn, including expanded access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone—sold as Narcan—which became available over the counter in 2023. It is now carried by most first responders. Increased use of addiction treatment medications and changes in drug supply patterns may also be factors.

Despite the improvement, the new data revealed troubling increases in deaths tied to stimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine.

Fatalities involving meth rose from 29,456 to 37,096, while cocaine-related deaths jumped by about 8,000, reaching 30,833. Since overdose statistics often overlap—many deaths involve multiple substances—it remains unclear how many of these fatalities involved stimulants alone.

The Trump administration has intensified efforts to choke off the international supply chain responsible for flooding the country with synthetic opioids.

While most fentanyl consumed in the United States is manufactured in Mexico, the raw chemicals used to make it overwhelmingly come from China. A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by Reuters last year exposed how Chinese chemical suppliers and Mexican cartels continue to enable the epidemic.

Reporters were able to legally purchase all the chemicals and equipment needed to produce $3 million worth of fentanyl for just $3,600—exploiting a since-closed customs loophole known as the “de minimis” rule. That exemption had allowed goods valued at or under $800 to be imported duty-free.

A recent report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) found that Beijing is not only failing to stop the export of fentanyl precursors but is actively encouraging it.

According to the report, the Chinese regime offers tax rebates and state subsidies to companies producing illegal synthetic opioid components, fueling what lawmakers call a deliberate assault on the United States.

“Through its actions, as our report has revealed, the Chinese Communist Party is telling us that it wants more fentanyl entering our country,” Select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said during an April 16, 2024, hearing. “It wants the chaos and devastation that has resulted from this epidemic. And yes, that means more dead Americans.”

In response, the Trump administration in February announced a new round of targeted tariffs on China’s synthetic drug supply chain, aiming to disrupt the production and export of fentanyl precursors.