Lab-Grown-Meat Backlash Builds As More States Say ‘No’ To Bill Gates’ Fake-Food
Two states, Florida and Alabama, have banned lab-grown meat for consumption, while three others have proposed similar restrictions on the controversial 3D-printed meat. Additionally, ten states now mandate labeling of lab-grown meat. Meanwhile, the rest of the US has no regulations governing fake meat.
On Monday, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced a new legislative proposal to ban lab-grown meat from being produced in or sold in stores across the Cornhusker State.
“It’s important we get on the offense so that Nebraska farmers and ranchers are not undermined,” Pillen told reporters at a news conference.
Under Trump’s second term, we believe the backlash to lab-grown meat will only supercharge from here as a growing number of states will issue proposed legislation to ban the science experiment meat.
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned fake meat from supermarket shelves in early 2024, he said his state was “taking action to stop the World Economic Forum’s goal of forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects.”
DeSantis also said, “Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere,” adding, “We’re not doing that in the state of Florida.”
Recall that billionaires like Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum have pushed a dystopic nightmare across the world in their attempt to reset the global food supply, one where the world eats insects and highly processed fake food.
Under the guise of ‘climate change’ … Gates wants to “work towards artificial meat.”
“We need to change cows and work towards artificial meat” – Bill Gates
An alternative to this dystopic nightmare is real, clean food. Trump nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and has outlined plans for the most significant transformation of America’s food system—a sweeping effort known as “Make America Healthy Again.”
Say “No” to insects and fake food pushed by radical billionaires and WEF. Say “Yes” to real, clean food from small farms. It’s time to reclaim the food supply chain from mega-corporations and return control to mom-and-pop farmers.
President Donald Trump said on Jan. 20 that his administration would likely stop buying oil from Venezuela.
“It was a great country 20 years ago, and now it’s a mess,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, hours after his inauguration.
“We don’t have to buy their oil. We have plenty of oil for ourselves.”
Trump on Monday laid out a plan to maximize U.S. oil and gas production, including by declaring a national energy emergency. He also signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.
Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, with more than 300 billion barrels as of the end of 2023, according to OPEC.
U.S. crude oil imports from Venezuela slumped in 2019 when the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.
Expanded sanctions imposed by the first Trump administration in 2019 significantly restricted Venezuela’s oil industry. The Biden administration later eased some restrictions, maintaining company-specific licenses that allowed companies such as Chevron to operate under limited conditions in Venezuela.
The United States eased sanctions in November 2022 when The Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces economic and trade sanctions, granted waivers to Chevron.
In April 2024, the United States reimposed oil sanctions on Venezuela over election concerns.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Jan. 10 after a contentious election.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado called Maduro’s inauguration a “coup d’état” and a violation of the nation’s constitution.
The Chinese Communist Party has been a supporter of Maduro. In a July 2024 statement, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said, “China will, as always, firmly support Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard sovereignty, national dignity, and social stability.”
On Jan. 15, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), now secretary of state, said the United States should reconsider Chevron’s sanctions waiver that allows the oil company to operate.
“The Biden administration has allowed oil to flow. [Maduro] stole the election, completely violated what Biden told him he would do,” he said.
He said that Venezuela “sadly, is not governed by government.”
“It’s governed by a narco-trafficking organization that has empowered itself of a nation state. And we have seen, I believe, upwards of seven, eight, nine million Venezuelans have just left the country, more are expected to leave,” he said.
‘New President’s Unpredictability’
Tamas Varga, an oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, told the Epoch Times that OPEC, with its massive spare capacity, “could easily replace lost Venezuelan barrels.”
OPEC consists of 12 member countries: Venezuela, Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during the swearing-in ceremony at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 10, 2025. Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images
Varga said that sanctions on Venezuela must be viewed through the prism of the Biden administration’s sanction package on Russia’s shadow fleet, which impacts Venezuelan exports.
On Jan. 10 the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, many of which are in the so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers operated by non-Western companies.
“If reversed, Venezuelan oil will keep flowing, most likely to China and Iran,” he said.
If the sanctions stay, he said, the impact on the global oil balance will be minimal. Varga said that whether U.S. oil and gas production grows or not will be more of the “function of market economics than Trump.”
He added that if the dollar remains strong during Trump’s presidency, it will make oil more expensive in other currencies and consequently lower demand.
“When we draw a line here, we conclude that the current snapshot is unfavorable for oil prices and at the same time acknowledge that given the new president’s unpredictability, the picture could change swiftly,” Varga said.
A spokeswoman for Chevron told The Epoch Times that Chevron “conducts its business in Venezuela in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
“We have been a constructive presence in Venezuela for over a century, where we have dedicated investments and a large workforce,” she said. “We remain committed to the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families, the integrity of our joint venture assets, and the company’s social and humanitarian programs that continue to positively impact the lives of Venezuelans.”
President Donald Trump has begun delivering on a central promise of his historic 2024 campaign by removing officials who obstruct his America First agenda.
Numerous top officials have been fired at the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees the country’s immigration courts,NBC News reports. The firings, which occurred late Monday evening, include the following officials: chief immigration judge, Sheila McNulty; the acting director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, Mary Cheng; the office’s general counsel, Jill Anderson; and its head of policy, Lauren Alder Reid, the news outlet noted.
Reid told the outlet that she was ‘severely disappointed’ that nobody gave her a heads up.
“My career Senior Executive Service colleagues and I are shocked and severely disappointed in the decision to remove us from our positions without notice or cause,” she bitterly told NBC News. “We have dedicated our careers to upholding the rule of law, regardless of the administration. Our continued pursuit of justice will not be diminished.”
The terminated officials were all civil servants, not political appointees.
Additionally, some DOJ officials were reassigned to different roles within the agency, sources familiar with the developments told the Associated Press. Bruce Swartz, veteran head of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, has been shifted to another job – while George Toscas, a longtime deputy assistant attorney general in the National Security Division, was reassigned. Toscas played roles in both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information and Trump’s classified documents probe.
Nearly two dozen officials have been moved to new roles, AP said.
Trump, who recently faced twin (now closed) investigations from Biden-DOJ-appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith, vowed through his latest White House campaign to “demolish the ‘deep state.”
“We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” Trump pledged in Windham, New Hampshire in a 2023 speech.
Nonetheless, Trump’s efforts to improve the DOJ is already being met with resistance and chicanery from the Left.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Pam Bondi by one week due to an unnamed Democrat lawmaker. The hearing, originally planned to advance Bondi’s nomination for a full Senate vote, has been rescheduled for January 29th.
Bondi, who served as Florida’s first female Attorney General, has vowed to restore a “one tier of justice for all” if confirmed to lead the DOJ.
“My overriding objective will be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals, and that includes getting back to basics, gangs, drugs, terrorists, cartels, our border and our foreign adversaries,” she testified during her confirmation process. “I believe we are on the cusp of a new golden age where the Department of Justice can and will do better if I am confirmed.”
The Chinese regime’s cyberespionage campaign will likely become more sophisticated in targeting key adversaries in 2025, particularly the United States, experts have warned. The situation calls for collaborative counteroperations among Quad alliance partners—the United States, India, Japan, and Australia. These nations are targeted by Beijing, but several gaps currently impede their collective efforts, analysts said.
In the past several weeks, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hackers have been in the headlines.
The latest disclosure came on Jan. 8, as Japan linked more than 200 cyberattacks over the past five years to CCP hacking group MirrorFace. Japan detailed the group’s tactics and called on government agencies and businesses to reinforce preventive measures.
Those cyberattacks targeted Japan’s foreign and defense ministries and its space agency. Politicians, journalists, private companies, and think tanks were also attacked.
Early last month, CCP cyberattackers hacked into the U.S. Treasury Department’s workstations remotely and stole documents.
In the breach, described as a “major incident” by the Treasury Department, Chinese regime-backed hackers compromised a third-party software service provider, Beyond Trust, and accessed unclassified documents.
The December incident happened amid cybersecurity breaches by another Beijing-backed hacking group, Salt Typhoon, which has been involved in a cyberespionage campaign since 2022. These attacks have already affected nine telecom companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies.
Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, highlighted the geopolitical context of Beijing’s increasing cyberespionage in a Jan. 15 blog post titled “Strengthening America’s Resilience Against the PRC Cyber Threats.”
“A crisis in Asia, precipitated by an invasion of Taiwan or a blockade of the Taiwan Strait, could have very real consequences for the safety and security of American citizens here at home,” Easterly wrote.
Such an invasion, she wrote, could be followed by disruptive attacks against “everything, everywhere, all at once.” Those attacks could hit transportation nodes, telecommunications services, power grids, water facilities, “and likely much more,” she wrote.
According to Easterly, the CCP’s goal in such a campaign would be “inducing societal panic and deterring our ability to marshal military might and citizen will to expend American blood and treasure in defense of Taiwan.”
Neehar Pathare, CEO of 63SATS, a cybersecurity company that stated it has thwarted 20 million attacks on its platforms in the past two decades, told The Epoch Times that state-sponsored attackers often infiltrate systems stealthily, waiting for opportune moments to strike.
According to Pathare, Taiwanese government departments in 2024 faced 2.4 million cyberattacks daily, predominantly from the Chinese regime.
“China’s state-affiliated cyber operations focus on intellectual property theft and strategic espionage, aiming for long-term access,” Pathare said. “Increased investments in cyber ranges and critical infrastructure signal China’s readiness for future disruptions, posing risks to India, the U.S., and Europe.”
He cited the hacking group RedEcho, which was linked to CCP military intelligence and was responsible for targeting India’s power grid after 2020’s bloody Galwan conflict between Indian and Chinese regime troops.
Cyberthreats to Quad Nations
Microsoft’s 2024 Digital Defense Report highlights the need for the Quad nations to come up with robust joint counterespionage operations.
According to the report, “The United States is consistently among the countries most impacted by the nation-state cyber threat activity that Microsoft observes.”
In the Indo-Pacific, India is the third most targeted country, after Taiwan and South Korea. Australia is the sixth most targeted, while Japan is the eighth most targeted.
“This past year, nation-state affiliated threat actors once again demonstrated that cyber operations—whether for espionage, destruction, or influence—play a persistent supporting role in broader geopolitical conflicts,” the report states.
The United States continues to be one of the countries most affected by nation-affiliated cyberattacks.
Easterly wrote that Beijing’s “sophisticated and well-resourced cyber program” is a threat to the United States’ critical infrastructure, including power grids and gas pipelines.
According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the hackers target 16 critical infrastructure sectors linked with digital infrastructure.
Thirty-three percent of the overall CCP threat activity was aimed at the United States. East Asia and the Pacific received 39 percent of the onslaught, while South Asia received 4 percent, according to the Microsoft report.
Nishakant Ojha, a senior adviser to the Washington-based Global Policy Institute and an expert in cyberaerospace and national securities, told The Epoch Times that the Chinese regime’s Ministry of State Security plays a central role in orchestrating its cyberespionage campaign. It often hires contractors to conduct cyberintrusions.
“Looking ahead to 2025, China’s cyber capabilities are expected to become increasingly sophisticated,” Ojha said. “The integration of artificial intelligence into cyber operations is anticipated to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of cyber espionage activities.”
He said that innovation in Chinese cybertechnologies will likely create new targets and new startups for developing such technologies.
According to Ojha, the Chinese regime’s military goals for 2025 include enhancing military capabilities, heightening military exercises near Taiwan, cyberwarfare and cyberespionage, strategic military planning, and regional power projection. The aim is to gain military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific and challenge the United States and its partners in the region.
“These developments suggest that by 2025, [China’s military] will be better equipped and more assertive, potentially destabilizing regional security dynamics and increasing the likelihood of military confrontations,” Ojha said. Cyberespionage campaigns will be part and parcel of these confrontations.
Counteroperations by Quad
According to experts, the emerging and heightened geopolitical situation facing the Quad countries requires that they strengthen collective cyber counteroperations.
Pathare cited the Quad’s set of guiding principles aimed at enhancing the development of critical infrastructure cybersecurity, supply chain risk management, software security, and workforce development.
The Quad’s senior cybergroup also announced the continuation of the alliance’s “cyber challenge” in October 2024. The theme of the current challenge is “promoting cybersecurity education and building a strong workforce” in the Indo-Pacific. The challenge was launched last year to “promote responsible cyber habits across [Quad partners’] nations, regions, and beyond,” the State Department stated at the time.
Satoru Nagao, a nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times that cybersecurity comes under the aegis of national security cooperation. While the Quad is not a military alliance, its leaders have emphasized the military aspects of their partnership.
In some areas, military cooperation has also progressed, he said. This obviously has geopolitical undertones.
All four Quad countries are also involved in various military exercises involving each other. Thus, joint cyber counteroperations are feasible and attractive to them, according to the Tokyo-based expert.
“One of the purposes of the Quad is to cooperate with India,” Nagao said. “Because India is the main supplier of software, this area is an attractive area of cooperation for the other three countries with India.”
He said that cybercooperation has wider potential, including for software development, cyberdomain awareness, and cyberwarfare.
The joint statement of the Quad 2024 summit highlights the need for protecting critical infrastructure from increasing cyberthreats.
“We plan to coordinate joint efforts to identify vulnerabilities, protect national security networks, and critical infrastructure networks, and coordinate more closely including on policy responses to significant cyber security incidents affecting the QUAD’s shared priorities,” the joint statement reads.
Nagao said the statement highlights that cybersecurity cooperation is part of the wider matrix of cooperation between Quad nations.
According to Pathare, new rules mandate that attacks be immediately acknowledged and reported. This can help identify threats in a timely manner and enable swift countermeasures.
“Economic penalties and cyber countermeasures should be aligned to deter aggressive state actors effectively,” he said.
Ojha said that despite growing cooperation, several gaps hinder a joint effective counterespionage strategy. These gaps, he said, include a historical lack of trust in intelligence sharing and asymmetric cybercapabilities among the four nations. The United States leads in infrastructure development, while India is still working on its framework.
Other hindering factors include diverging legal and policy frameworks, gaps in resources and technology, and differences in strategic priorities.
“Addressing these bottlenecks requires building mutual trust, harmonizing legal frameworks, closing capability gaps through capacity-building initiatives, and fostering equitable technological collaboration,” Ojha said.
Massive New Fire Explodes North Of LA, Spreading Rapidly Along I-5
A massive new fire is spreading rapidly north of Los Angeles, threatening Interstate 5, one of California’s main transportation arteries.
The Hughes Fire started just before 11 a.m. local time and quickly spread to more than 5,000 acres, spurring evacuation orders around Castaic Lake in northern Los Angeles County.
All lane of the I-5 highway are now closed just north of SR-126 in the evacuation area and the critical link between northern and southern California is affected by heavy smoke.
BREAKING: All lanes of the northbound I-5 Freeway are being closed just north of SR-126 due to the Hughes Fire. https://t.co/WVCLv6PkQY
Cal Fire said there was “an immediate threat to life”, with many already speculating that the latest fire was not spontaneous but is the product of arson The reservoir is about 45 miles from Pacific Palisades, where a devastating fire killed 11 people, destroyed more than 6,380 structures and damaged another 867 since it ignited about two weeks ago.
In a post on X, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the county’s fire department is “deploying our aerial fleet to knock this out as quickly as possible.”
They will have their cut out for them: according to the National Weather Service, winds are gusting to 37 miles per hour just to the north of the fire. A red flag warning issued from the National Weather Service said wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph will be common over much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, ensuring a rapid spread.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) revoked on Jan. 21 a Biden-era regulation that restricted LNG exports, paving the way for capacity additions in the sector and strengthening America’s energy industry.
In January 2024, the federal government temporarily paused the approval of LNG exports to nations without a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. At the time, the administration cited issues such as the impact of LNG exports on greenhouse gas emissions and rising energy costs for Americans as reasons for the pause.
The DOE announced that effective Tuesday, it is ending the pause as part of restoring the “Trump energy dominance agenda.”
With the reversal in policy, the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has been directed to resume the consideration of pending export applications. The agency’s decision follows the direction laid out by President Donald Trump in his “Unleashing American Energy” executive order signed on his first day in office.
The Biden administration’s moratorium on exports had negatively impacted several American LNG projects, including those in Texas and Louisiana. These projects are now in a better position to move forward, potentially adding another 100 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to U.S. export capacity.
The United States is already the world’s largest LNG exporter and shipped 88.3 million tonnes of superchilled gas in 2024. This year alone, three new plants should add nearly 50 MTPA to U.S. capacity.
Before the Biden administration halted new permit approvals, the government had already given the green light to projects that would increase U.S. LNG capacity to 200 MPTA from around 90 MTPA. Those projects were not affected by the moratorium.
New permits issued by the new government would likely increase export capacity from 2030 onward because it takes several years to build LNG plants.
LNG is used residentially for cooking, heating, and generating electricity. Commercially, it is used for manufacturing paints and fertilizers.
In July 2024, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that halted the LNG pause after 16 states, led by Louisiana, brought a lawsuit against the policy. The complaint argued that the DOE violated federal laws by taking such action.
Judge James Cain Jr. from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, who issued the injunction, observed that in Louisiana, the LNG market added $4.4 billion a year to the economy and accounted for 18,000 jobs.
If pending projects were canceled as a result of the LNG pause, Louisiana stood to suffer harm, the judge said, calling the DOE decision “completely without reason or logic.”
The Biden administration later challenged the ruling, filing an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Benefitting America
Gillian Giannetti, senior attorney at environmental advocacy Natural Resources Defense Council, criticized Trump’s decision to allow more LNG export approvals, calling the move “deeply misguided.”
“Expanding LNG production deepens our reliance on fossil fuels at a time when we urgently need to transition to clean energy,” Giannetti said. “LNG operations contribute to dangerous climate pollution, harm public health, and increase energy costs for American families—all while locking communities near those facilities into decades of environmental and economic risks.”
Trump’s decision was welcomed by Charlie Riedl, executive director of the Center for LNG, who said that LNG exports are a “vital geopolitical tool” that helps balance the country’s trade deficits.
The exports also reduce global emissions and ensure the energy security of America’s allies, he said.
“We will work with the Trump administration to counter the negative impacts of the pause and return to normal order,” he said.
Sempra Infrastructure’s computer rendition of the Port Arthur LNG facility in Southeast Texas. Courtesy of Sempra Infrastructure
Paul Everingham, CEO of the Asia Natural Gas & Energy Association, cited a study by Wood Mackenzie that states Asia’s LNG demand is expected to almost double by 2050 while the United States is forecast to account for a third of the global LNG supply by 2035.
Asia’s demand growth and America’s ability to meet it were “contingent” on the LNG pause being lifted and supply being available in the coming decades, Everingham said.
“Today’s issuing by President Trump of an order to resume processing of LNG export approvals will enable key projects to proceed and give decision and policy makers in Asia the certainty they require to make long-term decisions about energy,” he said. “Emerging economies in Asia seek to switch out high-emitting coal use for more gas-fired power as they pursue sensible and well-planned growth in renewable energy sources. The resumption of LNG export approvals in the US will help make this a reality.”
Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order stated that “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations” in recent years have negatively affected America’s ability to make use of its abundant energy and natural resources, inflicting higher costs on citizens, reducing job creation, and weakening national security.
“It is thus in the national interest to unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources. This will restore American prosperity,” the order stated.
Pentagon Reportedly Deploying 1,500 Active Duty Troops To US-Mexico Border
President Donald Trump’s extraordinary move to restore national security began on Monday with a series of executive orders on immigration. By Tuesday, Border Czar Tom Homan confirmed that large-scale raids targeting criminal illegal aliens were underway. Now, the Pentagon is reportedly preparing to deploy more than a thousand active-duty troops to secure the southern border in the coming days, following four years of a wide-open border facilitated by globalist Democrats in the Biden-Harris regime.
AP News, in typical fashion, citing anonymous US officials, reported that Acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses is preparing to sign a deployment order for 1,5000 active-duty troops. These troops would support border agents by assisting with logistics, transportation, and the construction of barriers.
“Troops are prohibited by law from doing law enforcement duties, but that may change,” AP’s Pentagon reporter Tara Copp noted.
However, she said, “Trump has directed through executive order that the incoming secretary of defense and incoming homeland security chief report back within 90 days if they think an 1807 law called the Insurrection Act should be invoked. That would allow those troops to be used in civilian law enforcement on US soil.”
Active duty forces could begin deployment to the southern border by the end of the week. There are currently no active-duty troops there. The latest figures show about 2,500 National Guard and Reserve members are positioned along the southern border.
On Monday, Trump told the American people during his inaugural address, “I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came.”
The move to secure the border and protect the American people from the illegal alien invasion facilitated by open-border globalist Democrats has been widely expected.
Here’s a recap of Trump’s executive orders on immigration (courtesy of NBC News):
End birthright citizenship for future children born to mothers who are in the United States unlawfully or temporarily unless the child’s father is here legally and permanently
Direct federal agencies to identify countries that do not provide sufficient information on their nationals and to bar those nationals from entry to the US.
Send the military to the border by declaring a national emergency
Halt all refugee admissions into the United States until policy “aligns” with US interests
Designate cartels and migrant gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations
Restrict federal funds from sanctuary cities and potentially take legal action against them
Require immigrants unlawfully in the United States to register and be fingerprinted
End the CBP One program and the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans
Deny public benefits to unauthorized immigrants
Reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy
During Trump’s first term, more than 7,000 active-duty troops were stationed across the border in Texas, Arizona, and California. If the AP story is correct about the first tranche of 1,500 troops preparing for deployment, then there is the possibility that those numbers will be ramped up in the coming weeks, if not months.
The American people gave Trump a mandate: Restore national security.
Far-left Democrats are losing their minds on Trump’s massive immigration shift. With leftists corporate media primarily fixated on huge deportation costs.
So we ask these pro-open border folks: What price do you put on national security?
This illegal alien invasion had consequences: American lives were lost.
Every politician that defends open borders, sanctuary cities, and oppose deporting illegal aliens from Joe Biden on down are responsible for Laken Riley’s death.
Once the southern and northern borders are secured, the American people must hold accountable the politicians, non-profits, federal agencies, staffing companies, corporations, and others involved in facilitating the migration invasion that has undermined national security. The most effective way to ensure accountability is at the ballot box in the next election cycle.
As two major fires still burn in the greater Los Angeles region, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is asking potential victims to report price gouging in the rental and lodging markets to state or local authorities.
At least 27 people have died, more than 15,000 structures have been destroyed, and thousands have lost their homes due to wildfires in California in 2025.
Bonta also warned California landlords that rental bidding which causes unlawful price increases during a state of emergency is illegal under California’s price gouging statute.
“Reports of rental bidding wars are deeply concerning, especially because some landlords seem to be encouraging them. The bottom line is this: landlords cannot charge, or accept, rent that exceeds the 10 percent cap set by California’s price gouging statute, even if they find someone who is willing to pay it,” he said in a statement on Jan. 18.
Bonta is not the only one on the lookout for such activity.
Los Angelenos are already on high alert, as a crowd-sourced effort to gather data about rental price gouging is making the rounds on social media.
The project, a publicly-accessible submission portal, allows anyone to submit examples of price gouging.
Katherine Peoples, of Housing People Properly Cares, an organization that helps people find housing, said buyers are already approaching fire victims who didn’t have insurance to see if they’re interested in selling their properties for cheap.
“They’ve come with documents and a notary,” she told The Epoch Times.
“There are people that are hovering and waiting to pounce on certain opportunities to take advantage of folks.”
Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Jan. 7 after the first major fire broke out in the Los Angeles area and triggered the price gouging protections for lodging, as well as short- and long-term rental housing. The statute will be in effect until March 8, 2025. Newsom also issued an executive order on Jan. 17 prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants for allowing displaced people to stay in their homes in violation of their lease.
Violators of the price gouging law could face one year in county jail and a fine of up to $10,000.
They are also subject to civil enforcement actions, such as civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation, injunctive relief, and mandatory restitution.
Bonta announced in a press conference last week the creation of a Disaster Relief Task Force and a website focused on prosecuting price gougers and others who engage in unlawful conduct.
This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom also deployed more than 130 fire engines, water tenders, and aircraft to Southern California, as well as personnel ahead of high winds and dry weather in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and throughout Southern California.
The When Issued yield on the 20Y auction ahead of today’s 19Y, 10M reopening was a whopping 24bps higher than December and an even more whopping 90bps from the September auction (when the Fed cut rates by 50bps), and it also happened to be the reason why demand for 20Y paper today was off the charts.
The high yield on today’s $13BN reopening of 20Y coupons was 4.900%, stopping through the WI 4.911% by 1.1bps, which was not only the first non-tailing 20Y auction since August, but the biggest stop through since June (when it was 2.8bps).
The Bid to cover was also notable: surging from 2.50 to 2.75 (vs a six-auction average of 2.53), this was the highest BTC since April and one of the highest on record.
The internals were also impressive, with Indirects spiking from 62.0% to 69.5%, the highest since August.
Overall, this was stellar auction, one of the strongest sales of 20Y paper since mid-2024, and one which was made possible by the recent dramatic selloff across the long end. Yet despite the huge demand, the reaction in the second market was muted, with the 10Y barely moving 1bp lower from session highs to 4.61%, roughly where it closed last week.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president’s resounding message seemed to be that Europe must stop relying on America, and yet his demands for peace alone would surely entail both U.S. involvement and also Russian compromise.
Zelensky said “a minimum of 200,000 European soldiers will be required to secure Ukraine after any peace deal is reached.”
“A minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” he said, emphasizing the need to keep Putin in check.
He also decried Russia’s demand to cut Ukraine’s army down to a fifth of its current size of 800,000 troops, saying that would leave the country defenseless.
Europe must work together to secure itself and cannot wait for Donald Trump, Ukraine’s leader declared. “Europe must establish itself as a strong, global player, as an indispensable player,” he said, one that can “take care of itself.”
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Europe to establish itself as a strong global player, saying it needed to be able to guarantee peace and security for itself and for others https://t.co/4gvQsGLdl2pic.twitter.com/7G1Psa4RZB
“Will President Trump even notice Europe? Does he see NATO as necessary? And will he respect EU institutions,” he posted on X.
Interestingly, Zelensky also reiterated his desire to join the U.S.-dominated NATO, saying it is the country’s best security guarantee, although Moscow has said it will not allow this under any circumstances. He even called President Trump’s expected defense spending ratio of 5 percent of GDP a legitimate requirement for increasing military investment.
According to the Ukrainian president, Europe is also making a big mistake by continuing its purchases of Russian gas and must free itself from its dependence on Russian energy.
Zelensky continued with his theme of making Europe stronger and less reliant on protection from America via multiple X threads, with one post seemingly contradicting his own push for stepping out from under its U.S. umbrella:
“It is impossible to keep buying gas from Moscow while expecting security guarantees, help and backup from the Americans.“ This came right after he declared that despite Trump promising more energy for Europe, the continent must “secure real energy independence.”
In another post, we read: “Europe must have a seat at the table when deals about war and peace are made. Not just for Ukraine—this must be the standard. Europe deserves to be more than just a bystander, with its leaders reduced to posting on X after an agreement has already been made. Europe needs to shape the terms of those deals.”
Europe must have a seat at the table when deals about war and peace are made. Not just for Ukraine—this must be the standard. Europe deserves to be more than just a bystander, with its leaders reduced to posting on X after an agreement has already been made. Europe needs to shape…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 21, 2025
Ironically, Zelensky then posted on X regarding his multiple meetings in Davos with leaders from Germany, Albania, Finland, Switzerland, and Vietnam, although it is unclear what purpose those served aside from photo ops.
He even ventured into Europe’s competitive edge in tech and innovation in another thread and returned to the topic of showing the U.S. that Europe is essential in yet another, “so that one day, in Washington, they’ll say – all eyes on Europe. Not because of war. But because of the opportunities in Europe.”
