As Morale Hits Rock Bottom, UK Police Exodus Throws Planned Expansion Into Disarray
Britain’s Labour party’s ambitious plan to put 13,000 extra police officers on the streets is “unobtainable” – as officers are quitting in record numbers, The Telegraph reports.
According to Tiff Lynch, the acting chairwoman of the Police Federation, the situation is dire – with Home Office figures showing that voluntary resignations among police officers have hit an all-time high, with more than 5,000 quitting last year – 3.4% of the workforce, which is more than double the rate of just four years ago. What’s worse, a Federation survey found that 20% of officers are planning to leave within the next two years or sooner, adding up to nearly 29,000 officers ready to walk out.
“They have suffered an almost 20 per cent pay cut in real terms since 2010. How can this be fair?” said Lynch,” who notes that this year’s 4.75% pay rise was far below the 6% recommended by the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Further deepening resentment is the fact that millions of other public sector workers received more generous raises.
“The Government has made very clear its current policing priority is taking back our streets, through investment in extra neighbourhood police officers, to drive down the crimes blighting our local communities including antisocial behaviour and shocking levels of shoplifting,” said Lynch.
“In its own words, ‘victims are being let down’. The only way to achieve this is through a sustained recruitment and retention programme. But I am concerned with the current track record in attrition rates, it seems unattainable.“
The federation – which represents grassroots officers up to the rank of chief inspector, is demanding the reinstatement of collective pay bargaining, a system that allowed officers to negotiate pay directly with their employers. Instead, since 2014, the Police Remuneration Review Body has set pay levels with no means for officers to negotiate or even arbitrate when disputes arise. The Federation has boycotted this body since 2021. Lynch has warned that if the government doesn’t agree to reinstate collective bargaining, the Federation will ballot its 150,000 members on whether they want to seek the right to take industrial action.
The consequences of this pay dispute are already evident. In the year leading up to March 2024, 9,080 officers left the force – 6.2% of the workforce, and the second highest on record. While recruitment efforts have so far managed to offset some of these losses, with overall police numbers rising by 0.2% to 147,746, Lynch says that without a sustained recruitment-and-retention strategy, Labour’s target of 13,000 extra neighborhood police is simply unattainable.
According to the report, morale is at rock bottom.
A Home Office spokesman responded by saying that “This Government will work collaboratively with policing to address challenges and ensure officers have the right support, resources and recognition – and to improve standards.
“As part of our mission to deliver safer streets, we will restore neighbourhood policing and support forces to rebuild relationships with their local communities.”
But for many frontline officers, these promises feel like too little, too late. Unless real change comes soon, the exodus of officers will continue – and with it, the hopes of restoring neighborhood policing may slip further out of reach.
Berlin’s public schools are facing a budget freeze that has halted spending on key activities, including school trips, as the city contends with major financial challenges.
The freeze follows the Berlin House of Representatives’ decision to allocate an additional €1.3 billion for the accommodation of migrants, raising concerns about the city’s spending priorities.
In a letter issued on Wednesday, Education State Secretary Christina Henke (CDU) informed school administrators that they are no longer allowed to enter into “financially effective” contracts that extend into the next financial year. According to Tagesspiegel, this restriction includes school trips, where teachers’ travel expenses — typically reimbursed by the state — will no longer be covered.
Sven Zimmerschied, head of Friedensburg High School in Charlottenburg and board member of the Berlin Secondary School Heads’ Association, expressed his concerns over the sudden halt.
“On Monday I signed the leasing contract for a new copier,” he said, ahead of the ban.
The budget freeze, he explained, will disrupt many routine activities, though he noted that exceptions could be made in cases of “indispensability and urgency.”
The move comes as the city struggles to balance its budget following the House of Representatives’ decision in June to spend an additional €1.3 billion on the accommodation of asylum seekers. This includes expanding tent cities at former airports in Tegel and Tempelhof, renting more hotel space, and setting up 16 new locations for container housing.
During the summer, Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) warned that Berlin’s capacity to accommodate more refugees was nearing its limit.
“The pressure is increasing. We already have no places,” Wegner said.
The billions set aside have funded new emergency housing but at the cost of cuts to other areas, including education.
The budget freeze has drawn criticism, with many wondering why funds are available for migrant accommodation but not for school activities.
For now, schools must seek special approval for any expense through a written request to education authorities. Essential programs like school trips remain uncertain.
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) carries out widely-criticized responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, officials say the agency’s Disaster Recovery Fund is incapable of handling a third major storm. While some are circulating false accusations that disaster funds have been diverted to immigrants or poured into the proxy war in Ukraine, a review of the agency’s 2024 outlays reveals a different, ongoing drain on FEMA’s coffers: Long after the end of the declared Covid-19 emergency, FEMA is still pumping out billions of dollars to pay for pandemic expenses — including, believe it or not, up to $9,000 each for funerals.
As previously detailed here at Stark Realities, governments’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic was disastrous on many fronts. While the Pandora’s box of collateral damage included widespread harm to the physical and mental health of individuals, it also dealt a blow to the nation’s fiscal well-being, as the federal government recklessly showered trillions of dollars it didn’t have on people, businesses and state and local governments — with much of that money intended to offset the effects of government’s own tyrannical and counterproductive policies.
While all but the most diehard Branch Covidians have moved on from that dark chapter, the federal government has a distinct version of “long Covid.” Though it’s not clear where all the money is going, FEMA is paying up to $9,000 each to reimburse funeral expenses for those who die from Covid.
That’s an especially odd example of government picking winners and losers. As Stanford University School of Medicine professor and prominent Covid-regime critic Jay Bhattacharya said in a social media post that drew my attention to this giveaway program and its hyper-longevity, “There are apparently more and less worthy ways to die in the US.”
Indeed: Why is the family of someone who dies from Covid more deserving of a government-paid funeral than the family of someone who dies from cancer, cardiac arrest or a car accident? It bears emphasis that this question was every bit as relevant in 2020 as it is today.
The favoring of one cause of death over another isn’t the only winners-and-losers dimension of the funeral program: There’s no reimbursement for those who’d planned ahead via pre-paid funerals. Echoing the grievances of people who saved up to pay for college only to see their neighbor’s student loans forgiven by vote-buying politicians, some families say they feel like they’re being punished for having planned for the future.
This isn’t FEMA’s first funereal foray, but it’s the largest by orders of magnitude. In the 10 years before the pandemic, FEMA received about 6,000 applications for funeral assistance for various natural disasters. As of Jan. 1, 2024, FEMA had approved more than 300,000 for Covid-19, shelling out $3.15 billionto cover an expense that, whether caused by a pandemic or something else, is universally inevitable.
Of course, the magnitude of that inevitable expense isn’t fixed, and the mere presence of a government subsidy reliably results in higher costs. Knowing they can spend up to of $9,000 of other people’s money on their Covid-19 funeral, it’s safe to assume many affected families have made more expensive choices than they otherwise would — bolstering the profits of funeral homes, casket producers and other associated businesses.
Unsurprisingly, the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), a trade group and principal lobbyist for the industry, hailed the passage of the COVID 19 Relief Package/Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020. The legislation not only funded Covid funeral reimbursements, NFDA enthused, but also funeral payments “for any subsequent major disaster declared by the President,” an expansion the group had been lobbying for.
To qualify for reimbursement under the funeral assistance program, the death certificate must either indicate the death was caused by Covid-19 — or that it merely may have been caused by Covid-19 or “Covid-19-like symptoms.”
As is increasingly the case with government handouts, there’s no requirement of US citizenship, for either the decedent or the person paying the funeral expenses. A family’s ability to pay for the funeral is likewise irrelevant — there are no income or wealth criteria.
There’s more to the cost of this program than the reimbursements themselves — there’s also significant overhead. Pressed to implement the program as soon as possible, FEMA opted against creating a website to receive applications for reimbursement, choosing to instead require that all claims be submitted via 20-minute phone conversations, necessitating the creation of a huge call center operation staffed by 5,000 phone agents, all of whom would require training and support.
While you might think word-of-mouth would be sufficient to encourage widespread use of a handout program, still more money was spent on advertising. In a 2022 report lamenting that many eligible people hadn’t cashed in yet, NPR’s Blake Farmer — blissfully oblivious to the federal government’s relentless march to insolvency — cheerfully said “FEMA is launching an outreach campaign to promote the program, since there’s plenty of money left.”
Fittingly, NPR found the national leader in funeral reimbursement claims at the time was Washington DC, with applications amounting to 77% of Covid-19 fatalities.
Whether a government handout program takes the form of cash reimbursement, tax credit or subsidy, it inevitably has another cost dimension: so-called “improper payments,” a term encompassing both fraud and errors made by applicants and administrators.
On that score, FEMA’s Covid-19 funeral-funding program has come under repeated criticism from government watchdogs. In 2022, the General Accountability Office (GAO) identified “several gaps in FEMA’s internal controls meant to prevent improper or fraudulent payments” — such as double-payments when two different parties applied for reimbursement for the same funeral, or payments made to applicants who didn’t meet program requirements.
That same year, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) sent an “urgent” alert to FEMA, saying its audit found the agency “regularly reimburses applicants for expenses expressly excluded from funeral assistance” by the agency’s own policy guide that serves as its interpretation of regulations.
Reimbursable expenses include funeral services, cremation, caskets, urns burial plots, ceremony costs, headstones and clergy compensation. Among the unauthorized expenses are catering, gratuities, flowers and transportation. The OIG learned that, rather than directing claims processors to scrutinize claims to ferret out unauthorized expenses, FEMA told them to “accept for reimbursement all verifiable funeral expenses…listed on expense documents from a funeral home.” Thus, if flowers, for example, were listed on a funeral home bill, reimbursement was approved regardless of FEMA’s standing rule against covering that cost.
The OIG found that 59% of approved applications included ineligible expenses. In one case, FEMA’s loose approach led to an improper reimbursement for $3,760 for transportation that included “two lead escort vehicles, a limousine, and a horse and carriage.”
FEMA admitted its lawyers hadn’t even reviewed its Covid operating procedures. Worse, FEMA resisted the OIG’s post-inquiry recommendations, exasperatingly arguing that if the agency started applying the rules correctly, it “would create inequalities to the detriment of future applicants, who would qualify for less assistance for fewer eligible expenses.” GAO rightly countered that FEMA was itself creating inequalities — by reimbursing funeral expenses that it hadn’t reimbursed for previous disasters and shouldn’t reimburse for future ones.
While it serves as a vivid illustration of irrational, wasteful and persistent spending that accompanies both bona fide and contrived crises, the funeral reimbursement program represents just a small share of ongoing Covid-related government outlays: In the fiscal year that ended September 30, FEMA tallied $15 billion in Covid-19 commitments, accounting for a startling 39% of all FEMA disaster relief obligations.
Not coincidentally, FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is repeatedly running on empty, prompting additional, multi-billion-dollar infusions from Congress. Seeking still more money Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this month told reporters that “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through [hurricane] season.”
His warning prompted a false narrative to erupt along the American right — specifically, that the Disaster Relief Fund has been depleted by $650 million spent on migrants in the 2024 fiscal year. While one can challenge the propriety and constitutionality of that spending, the $650 million didn’t come from the Disaster Relief Fund, but from a separate, congressionally-appropriated program and account.
Rather than parroting false narratives, conservatives should be asking why the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is still being hammered by Covid payouts to state, local and tribal governments, hospitals, non-profits and others. At least one federal legislator is already on the case — on Friday, Texas Rep. Chip Roy sent a letter to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, spotlighting the troubling state of affairs:
“The depletion of the DRF is of particular concern considering the sheer amount of funding that has gone to COVID-19 projects nearly a year and a half after the COVID-19 emergency – which should have been terminated much earlier – was terminated.
According to a FEMA document, as of October 4, 2024, nearly $4 billion – or 45% – of the DRF funding that was delayed … was for COVID-19 projects. About $1.2 billion of that COVID-19 funding would go to the state of California alone.”
In addition to requesting a full accounting of Covid and non-Covid spending, Roy asked Criswell to explain how her agency would prevent Covid-19 projects from continuing to “jeopardize FEMA’s ability to use the DRF in the future to respond to disasters, absent a massive increase in congressional appropriations.”
Barring an extension, FEMA will finally stop accepting Covid-funeral reimbursement applications on September 30, 2025. However, as of now, the agency plans on tapping its disaster fund for other Covid-19 outlays for four more years—to the tune of another $22.2 billion between now and September 2028.
That’s assuming FEMA’s estimate is accurate, but cost estimations are another recurring weakness of the organization. Indeed, FEMA originally estimated $17.6 billion in total Covid-19 outlays over the duration of the emergency. By March of this year, its estimate had soared to $171.6 billion.
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Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
Canada expelled six top Indian diplomats and consular officials on Monday, including India’s high commissioner, citing them as “persons of interest” in the murder of Sikh separatist figure, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In June 2023 Nijjar was assassinated by masked gunmen in Vancouver, British Columbia, after which three Indian nationals were arrested and charged for the crime. The investigation triggered a diplomatic spat in September when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that the Indian government was involved in the killing.
New Delhi denies the allegations. On Monday, Canadian law enforcement authorities accused the Indian government of running a wide-ranging criminal network to intimidate and target Canadian Sikh separatists.
India’s High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma was declared persona non grata by the Canadian government along with a number of other officials for their alleged roles in criminal activity, extortion and homicide.
“The decision to expel these individuals was made with great consideration and only after the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) gathered ample, clear and concrete evidence which identified six individuals as persons of interest in the Nijjar case,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The development marks a new low between India and Canada, with the potential to rupture ties between the two Commonwealth nations. The Indian government accused Trudeau of making the decision based on a “political agenda” and said it was pulling its diplomats out of Canada.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targeted diplomats and officials,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
On Monday New Delhi also announced that it, too, would be expelling six Canadian diplomats, including the Canadian embassy’s second-highest ranking diplomat, Stewart Wheeler, the charge d’affaires.
Canada’s law enforcement authorities have a “significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India in consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada,” the RCMP said in a statement.
The law enforcement agency said the government of India is linked to homicides and extortion and used organized crime to target the South Asian community in Canada and interfere in democratic processes.
The Indian government says that Canada has yet to provide any evidence of its investigation into Nijjar’s killing or India’s involvement in the assassination. “This latest step follows interactions that have again witnessed assertions without any facts. This leaves little doubt that on the pretext of an investigation, there is a deliberate strategy of smearing India for political gains,” India’s foreign ministry said on Monday.
Later on Monday Prime Minister Trudeau released a statement defending Canada’s actions, saying that India’s response to the allegations has been denial, obfuscation, and personal attacks. “[It] is obvious that the government of India made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil. “We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada accused the Indian government of homicide and extortion intended to silence critics of India living in Canada, escalating a bitter dispute that began last year with the assassination of a Sikh activist. https://t.co/AXyfmvJhiRpic.twitter.com/YjIgQ1Nkoi
Canada withdrew more than 40 diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence. Canada is host to one of the largest Indian diaspora communities in the world with a population of just under two million, with Sikhs dominating the community at 36 percent compared to Hindus as 32 percent of the diaspora. The majority of the diaspora is concentrated in Ontario and British Columbia.
Assassination plot in US
US prosecutors in New York in November charged an Indian national with a failed attempt to assassinate an American citizen on US soil, according to an indictment.
Authorities say that an unnamed Indian government official recruited 52-year-old Nikhil Gupta, who went on to contact someone he believed to be a hitman, to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Pannun is a prominent Sikh activist and New York-based lawyer for the Punjabi secessionist group, Sikhs for Justice.
The individual Gupta contacted was, however, not a hit man but an undercover officer working for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). According to Wednesday’s indictment, Gupta had brokered a deal in which the unnamed Indian government employee would pay the hitman $100,000 for the killing.
The indictment did not name Pannun as the victim. However, Biden administration officials later said that the target of the failed assassination was the Sikh activist.
“The dedicated law enforcement agents and prosecutors in this case foiled and exposed a dangerous plot to assassinate a US citizen on US soil,” assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will be relentless in using the full reach of our authorities to pursue accountability for lethal plotting emanating from overseas.”
The indictment said that the plot to assassinate Pannun took place in June, around the same time that Nijjar was assassinated. Gupta was arrested that same month while in the Czech Republic, which has a bilateral extradition treaty with the US. He faces charges that could land him a sentence of 10 years in jail.
Two hurricanes have barreled through the Southeast in just two weeks. Hurricane Helene thrashed North Carolina, while Hurricane Milton—the most destructive storm to hit the Tampa area in a century—left more than 3 million without power and at least 10 people dead in Florida.
“[We] were not expecting a one-in-1,000 event,” one resident told our photographer and editor Richard Moore amid the wreckage. Motel operator Sharon Parton said: “My son and his wife lost everything. My mother-in-law lost everything.”
Such major storms display nature’s unpredictable force, exposing how vulnerable our communities truly are.
“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ such events will occur,” Creek Stewart, an author of more than 40 books on survival, told The Epoch Times. Being ready to face adversity is a responsibility that each family must accept and embrace.
Prepping doesn’t have to be daunting. “Preparedness is very simple,” Stewart said, “but without a proper guide, you are going to become overwhelmed.”
In this guide, we streamline the process by outlining the essential items recommended by survival experts.
“Think of preparedness as an insurance policy,” preparedness expert Paul Martin told The Epoch Times. “None of us like paying insurance premiums, but we do it in order to transfer the risk of loss.”
A robust preparedness plan has three core elements: family communication, evacuation, and sheltering in place.
Family Communication
The cornerstone of any disaster plan is effective family communication. This involves establishing clear meeting points and alternative methods of staying in touch. “Know where to meet, how to get in touch, and how to get there … so that there’s no guessing,” Stewart said.
Establish an Out-of-Town Contact: Select a trusted friend or relative outside your immediate area whom all family members can contact.
Memorize Important Numbers: Ensure everyone knows key phone numbers in case cell phones are lost or not working.
Designate Meeting Places: Select one near your home, such as a neighbor’s front porch, and one outside the neighborhood, in case you can’t return home, such as a library or community center.
To create a comprehensive family plan, you can use online templates such as the Department of Homeland Security’s form.
Evacuation Plan
An evacuation plan involves deciding well ahead of time what to take with you and where you will go if evacuation becomes necessary. Identify and practice evacuation routes.
Having a well-stocked “bug-out bag” ready is crucial. Stewart suggests preparing for the possibility of returning to a home that’s no longer there. This means packing for at least 72 hours of self-sufficiency for your entire family. Essential items include shelter, water, fire-starting tools, food, first-aid supplies, and important documents.
Additionally, you should consider the items recommended by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a basic emergency kit:
Battery-powered or hand-crank radio and a NOAA weather radio with tone alerts
Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery
Flashlight
First-aid kit
Extra batteries
Whistle (to signal for help)
Dust mask (to help filter contaminated air)
Plastic sheeting, scissors, and duct tape (to shelter in place)
Moist towelettes, garbage bags, and plastic ties (for personal sanitation)
Wrench or pliers (to turn off utilities)
Manual can opener (for food)
Local maps
Shelter-in-Place Plan
The most likely scenario involves focusing on surviving comfortably at home. “Execute the basics well,” Martin said. This entails having a two-week supply of nonperishable food, ample water, and off-grid solutions for cooking and heating. This topic will be covered in-depth in the infographic below, providing you with detailed guidance on how to effectively shelter in place.
Data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey reveals that dog ownership varies greatly around the world.
Where as many as seven in ten respondents said they had a dog as a pet in Mexico in a survey conducted between July 2023 and June 2024, under three in ten said the same in Sweden.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or just autism, is a neurological and developmental condition that affects social interaction, communication, learning, and behavior. It encompasses a range of conditions related to brain development.
Globally, around 1 percent of children have autism. In the United States, however, one in 36 children and one in 45 adults have autism, with the condition affecting around 4 percent of boys and 1 percent of girls. The prevalence is up from one in 44 in 2020 and has almost tripled since 2000 when it was one in 150.
“On the spectrum” refers to individuals who share core characteristics of autism while recognizing that each person’s autistic experience is unique, complex, and can change over time.
Thinking about autism as on a linear spectrum can be misleading, as it suggests a person can have “more” or “less” autism, leading to oversimplified labels such as “higher” or “lower functioning.” Instead, autism is better understood as a range of diverse traits, strengths, and challenges that vary for each individual.
Early Signs
The first signs of autism typically appear in early childhood and can be detected through screening in children as young as 12 months old or as old as 24 months. However, the condition may be missed until much later.
6 to 12 months: Limited smiling, eye contact, or reciprocal social interactions; diminished babbling or gestures; and reduced response to name
9 to 12 months: Repetitive behaviors (e.g., spinning and lining up objects) and unusual play (intense focus on toys’ visual or tactile features)
12 to 18 months: Lack of single words, compensatory gestures (e.g., pointing), and pretend play; and limited joint attention (initiating and sharing interests)
15 to 24 months: Little to no spontaneous two-word phrases
Signs and Symptoms
The following are common behaviors observed in individuals with ASD. While not all autistic individuals exhibit every behavior, most will show several traits. Some of these behaviors can also occur in people without ASD.
Social interactions:
Minimal or inconsistent eye contact with others
Appearing disinterested or inattentive when others are speaking
Rarely sharing enthusiasm or feelings about objects or activities
Avoiding physical affection and preferring solitary play, often withdrawing into their own world
Not responding or taking a long time to respond when called by name
Limited or delayed speech or loss of previously acquired words
Struggling with the give-and-take aspect of conversations
Echoing words or phrases without grasping their meaning
Having trouble comprehending basic questions or instructions
Relying on memorized scripted speech instead of using spontaneous language
Using pronouns incorrectly, such as saying “you” instead of “I” or “me” when referring to themselves
Talking extensively about specific topics without recognizing others’ disinterest or allowing them to contribute
Using facial expressions and gestures that are inconsistent with their verbal messages
Exhibiting an unusual voice quality, such as a sing-song or monotone
Struggling to grasp others’ perspectives or anticipate their behavior
Showing little emotional expression and appearing unaware of others’ emotions or exhibiting abnormal expressions of empathy
Struggling to understand nonverbal cues such as body language or tone of voice
Not developing close personal relationships, especially outside the family
Lack of speech, in severe cases
Taking things very literally, such as not understanding sarcasm or expressions such as “it’s raining cats and dogs”
Restrictive or repetitive behaviors:
Stimming (self-stimulating behaviors), which involves repetitive body movements or the manipulation of objects. While common among autistic individuals, it is a behavior that nearly everyone exhibits in some form, such as nail biting. For autistic people, stimming can occasionally interfere with daily life or cause harm but often serves as a coping mechanism for managing sensory overload or stressful situations.
Establishing rigid routines or rituals and becoming upset with even minor changes.
Experiencing coordination issues or displaying unusual movement patterns, such as clumsiness, toe-walking, or exaggerated body language.
Displaying severe tantrums or emotional outbursts.
Fixating on a single topic or activity or maintaining a deep, enduring interest in particular subjects such as numbers or facts.
Showing limited attention span.
Picky eating, such as preferring only a few foods or avoiding certain textures.
Showing heightened or diminished sensitivity to sensory stimuli such as light, sound, clothing, or temperature.
Developing an intense attachment to specific inanimate objects.
Having highly specialized and sometimes unusual interests (e.g., intense fascination with vacuum cleaners).
People on the autism spectrum often have notable strengths, such as the ability to learn and retain detailed information, strong visual and auditory learning skills, and excellence in memory, math, science, music, or art. They may also notice subtle details, patterns, smells, or sounds that others may overlook.
Autism Signs in Females
Autism symptoms in women and girls may be different from those in males. According to the DSM-5-TR, autistic females may exhibit:
Enhanced reciprocal conversation skills
Improved understanding of verbal and nonverbal communication
Greater ability to adapt their behavior to different situations
Less noticeable repetitive behaviors
More socially accepted special interests (e.g., celebrities)
Research indicates that females are more likely to mask their autism symptoms to fit in than males. They may stay close to peers and move in and out of activities, regardless of engagement status.
What Causes Autism?
Research indicates autism arises from a combination of genetic and environmental factors, as well as abnormal brain development.
Genetics
Genetic factors are believed to contribute 40 percent to 80 percent of autism risk. Over 1,000 genes have been linked to ASD, although many associations remain unconfirmed. Common gene variations may increase ASD risk, but most have a small individual effect, and not everyone with these variations develops ASD.
In about 2 percent to 4 percent of cases, rare gene mutations or chromosomal abnormalities are a direct cause, as with ADNP syndrome, also known as Helsmoortel-Van der Aa syndrome (HVDAS). Some other genes whose rare mutations are associated with autism include ARID1B, ASH1L, CHD2, CHD8, DYRK1A, POGZ, SHANK3, and SYNGAP1. Many ASD-associated genes play roles in brain development or regulate other genes or proteins.
In some children, autism may be linked to a genetic condition such as fragile X syndrome or Down syndrome.
Brain Development
Research suggests that during brain development, individuals with ASD may have an excess of neurons and overgrowth in parts of the brain’s outer layer, the cortex. Additionally, there are irregular areas where the typical structure of the cortex is disrupted. The cortex normally has six layers, formed before birth, each with specialized neurons and connections. These abnormalities are seen in the frontal and temporal lobes, regions involved in emotions, social behavior, and language. These differences are believed to contribute to the social, communication, and cognitive challenges associated with autism.
Other parts of the autistic brain that exhibit abnormalities include the cerebellum and the amygdala. However, it is unclear whether these brain changes spur autism or vice versa.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors can range from infections and diseases to toxins and maternal health during pregnancy. They include:
Certain diseases: An ASD subtype called childhood disintegrative disorder is associated with certain diseases, especially if it is late-onset, including subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (a chronic brain infection caused by a measles virus form), tuberous sclerosis (a genetic disorder characterized by benign tumor formation in the brain and other organs), leukodystrophy (a condition involving maldevelopment of the myelin sheath, leading to the disintegration of white matter in the brain), and lipid storage diseases (disorders where excessive fat accumulates in the brain and nervous system, causing toxicity).
Prenatal infections: Examples include rubella and cytomegalovirus infections.
Maternal immune conditions: Maternal immune conditions increase autism risk in children. A 2020 study found that maternal asthma was the most frequently reported in mothers of children with ASD. Autistic boys were more likely to have mothers with a history of immune conditions than girls with ASD.
Prenatal exposure to air pollution: Exposure to PM2.5 (particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter) during the first two trimesters of pregnancy was linked to a higher risk of ASD in children, especially boys.
Exposure to toxins in the womb: Being exposed to toxins (e.g., heavy metals) or medications (e.g., antidepressants, valproic acid, and thalidomide) while in the womb or in early childhood could raise the risk of autism.
Lower levels of manganese and zinc.
Maternal diabetes and obesity: Maternal preexisting Type 2 diabetes, Type 1 diabetes, and gestational diabetes diagnosed by 26 weeks of pregnancy are linked to a higher risk of ASD in children. A 2016 study found that children born to obese women with diabetes are over three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism compared to children of mothers with a healthy weight and no diabetes.
Birth complications:Preterm birth may increase the risk of ASD, with a higher risk associated with greater levels of prematurity. Challenges during birth resulting in episodes of oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain can also increase the risk.
Assisted reproductive technology: A 2017 study suggested that the use of assisted reproductive technology (e.g., in vitro fertilization) may be associated with an increased risk of autism in children.
Paternal cannabis use: A 2019 study found that a gene linked to autism, DLGAP2, can change in the sperm of men who use cannabis. These changes in the gene’s DNA could be passed down to future children, possibly affecting their autism risk.
Childhood Vaccines
Although authoritative organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assure parents that there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism, some scientists call for further study.
US Threatens Israel With Arms Shipment Suspensions Over Spiraling Gaza Situation
The Biden administration is said to be threatening to withdraw key aspects of US military aid to Israel if it doesn’t reign in the devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Like with prior such ‘warnings’ (this isn’t the first), the message seems more timed for the November election. Kamala Harris has wedded herself to Biden’s policies on Israel and Gaza, alienating Arab-Americans in some key swing states like Michigan, where the ‘uncommitted’ movement is growing.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin this week issued a letter to the Israeli government telling it to take “urgent and sustained action” to reverse course on the spiraling humanitarian situation in Gaza or risking seeing select US military assistance cut off. The US has reportedly given Israel 30 days to demonstrate progress.
“The Departments of State and Defense must continually assess your government’s adherence to your March 2024 assurances that Israel would ‘facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance’ to and within Gaza,” the letter states.
It continues: “The Department of State will need to conduct a similar assessment under section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act in order to provide additional Foreign Military Financing assistance to Israel. We are now writing to underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory.”
The allegations come after several NGOs and rights groups have allege that Israel has blocked vital aid from getting into the Gaza Strip, including aid sent from the US.
“Blinken and Austin raise alarm in the letter that the amount of aid entering Gaza has dropped by 50 percent compared to assurances provided in March and April,” The Hill notes.
This also comes as Israel has begun to lose the NY Times. Its opinion editor wrote on Tuesday:
A recent opinion essay gathered first-hand testimonies from 65 U.S.-based health professionals who worked in Gaza over the past year, who shared more than 160 photographs and videos with Times Opinion to corroborate their detailed accounts of treating preteen children who were shot in the head or chest. Following publication, some readers questioned the accuracy of the accounts and the authenticity of three CT images shown. Those criticisms are unfounded.
…While our editors have photographs to corroborate the CT scan images, because of their graphic nature, we decided these photos — of children with gunshot wounds to the head or neck — were too horrific for publication.
Despite all of this, throughout the totality of the conflict and amid an avalanche of allegations of war crimes against Israel’s military (often involving use of American-supplied weapons), the Biden administration has merely paused one single shipment of bombs – it appears based on public reporting.
A new study from Brown documents the stunning amounts given to Israel over the last year by Biden/Harris to pay for Israel’s wars.
It’s $18b to Israel, plus another $5b from US military actions for Israel.
The reality is that Washington is unlikely to ever significantly block military aid to Israel, no matter what its actions are. This will remain true whether a Republication or Democratic administration is in the White House.
The next president will likely preside over one of the most consequential periods in the nation’s relations with communist China, an adversary that has the intention and capacity to displace the current U.S.-led world order.
Eight in 10 Americans view China unfavorably, according to a Pew Research Center report released in July.
Washington also has a consensus that the Chinese regime poses a threat as it closes the power gap with the United States in military, diplomatic, and technological domains.
The current approach to China began with former President Donald Trump. Identifying China as a “strategic competitor,” the Trump administration took a new approach to U.S.–China relations. It imposed broad tariffs on Chinese goods, controlled Chinese access to American semiconductor technology, and pivoted national security strategy from the Middle East to China and Russia.
The Biden administration continued many of the same policies, and Washington’s China policy will likely continue to be hawkish. However, the two candidates will also have distinct approaches, owing to their personal differences and depending on whom they appoint to key positions.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is broadly expected to resume his China policies in the first term.
Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris has indicated no sign of divergence from the Biden administration’s China policies.
Trade
The two candidates agree on controlling strategic goods and technologies, investing in innovation, re-shoring supply chains, and combating Beijing’s unfair trade practices.
The aim is to ensure “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century,” Harris has said repeatedly.
Last month, the Biden administration finalized its tariffs, retaining all Trump-era rates and sharply increasing them on selected critical technology and minerals.
During a speech on the economy in Pittsburgh on Sept. 25, the vice president vowed, “I will never hesitate to take swift and strong measures when China undermines the rules of the road at the expense of our workers, our communities, and our companies.”
Meanwhile, the Trump-centered Republican platform also pledges to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status, which grants it free trade benefits with the United States; phase out imports of essential goods that include electronics, steel, and pharmaceuticals; and stop China from buying American real estate and industries.
Trump hinted at reigniting the trade war, suggesting he may impose more than 60 percent tariffs on Chinese goods.
Dennis Wilder, a former national security and intelligence officer who held several senior roles in the Bush and Obama administrations, believes Trump’s threat of higher tariffs is merely a negotiation tool to achieve a trade deal similar to the phase one U.S.–China trade deal signed in 2020.
Stephen Ezell, a vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think tank, believes Trump will take the pledges in the Republican platform seriously, particularly revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations status, because Beijing has failed to comply with its commitments as a member of the World Trade Organization, he told The Epoch Times.
Beijing did not fulfill its pledge in the phase one deal to buy an additional $200 billion in U.S. products over two years. During a meeting with farmers in Pennsylvania’s Smithton, a city near Pittsburgh, on Sept. 23, Trump said, if reelected, his first call would be to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, asking him to honor the deal.
During the final months of his term, Trump raised the idea of separating the United States and Chinese economies, known as decoupling. His former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, a rumored candidate for the next secretary of the Treasury, advocates the same approach.
Harris and her Democratic Party have a different view; she believes in derisking, not decoupling.
James Lewis, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said decoupling is already happening.
As to whether a future Harris administration would differ from Biden’s approach, Lewis told The Epoch Times that he would watch the pace of decoupling and the measures adopted to reinforce it.
Security
Despite a growing consensus in Washington on the need to counter the Chinese regime’s aggressive actions, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, differences remain on how to avoid military conflicts.
Trump emphasizes maintaining peace by showing military strength. During his term, he focused on modernizing nuclear weapons and stopped the trend of cuts to the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
A 2018 nuclear policy document listed that one of the roles of nuclear weapons was for “hedging against an uncertain future.” The Biden administration dropped this language in its 2022 update.
President Joe Biden’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review also canceled the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile program for cost reasons. However, Congress continued funding the program, although it was not included in the Biden administration’s defense budget requests. According to its proponents, the program enhances the credibility of U.S. deterrence.
A YouGov survey in June found that Trump supporters are more likely than Biden supporters to say America is safer because of its nuclear arsenal.
During a debate on the defense funding bill in 2020, then-Sen. Harris (D-Calif.) supported cutting the budget and said, “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the defense budget and redirecting funding to communities in need.”
In May, Harris said the United States’s air and space supremacy is essential to ensuring global peace and security, and the Biden administration has kept defense spending steady.
Trump started the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, which Biden continued. Both parties agree that the Indo-Pacific region is the United States’s primary theater. However, Trump and Harris may differ on the balance between the imminent dangers in the Russia–Ukraine and Israel–Hamas regional wars and the tense South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
Ivan Kanapathy, a senior vice president at advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies and former senior national security official under the Trump administration, believes the European Union, which has a much larger economy than Russia, should handle the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war while the United States should focus more on China and North Korea.
Elbridge Colby, a former senior Pentagon official and a top contender for the national security adviser position in Trump’s second term, shares this view.
In late September, Harris reaffirmed the U.S. support for Ukraine as a way of “fulfilling our long-standing role of global leadership.” Earlier this year, in February, she touted having “ invested heavily in our alliances and partnerships and created new ones to ensure peace and security” in the Indo-Pacific during the past three and half years.
The Biden administration has maintained that the Indo-Pacific is the “priority theater” for the United States. However, military assistance to Ukraine and Israel has strained the defense industry and led to an arms sales backlog to Taiwan of about $20 billion, the same as the island’s annual defense budget.
Biden has said several times that the United States would defend Taiwan if Beijing tried to annex the island by force. However, his officials walked back those statements each time, saying U.S. policy is deliberately vague on what it would do.
In September 2022, Harris said the United States will “continue to oppose any unilateral change to the status quo” and “continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense, consistent with our long-standing policy.”
Trump has recently sparked controversy by saying Taiwan should pay the United States for its defense.
Trump is also credited with forging closer U.S.–Taiwan relations, starting with his unprecedented phone conversation in 2016—the first such official call since 1960—with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who congratulated the U.S. president-elect.
Trump signed into law the Taiwan Travel Act in 2018, which encouraged engagements between U.S. and Taiwan officials at all levels, and the Taiwan Assurance Act in 2020, which ensured alignment of Taiwan guidelines in the State Department. During his term, several current U.S. cabinet-level officials visited the island nation.
In Smithton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 23, Trump alluded to the possibility of getting into a war with China while speaking about protecting the U.S. steel industry.
On Monday, Israeli warplanes carried out an attack on a small apartment building in the northern Lebanese village of Aitou, in the Christian-majority Zgharta District. At least22 people have been killed in the attack, according to the Lebanese Red Cross, which also wounded at least eight.
There has been no official comment from the Israeli military on why they attacked the Christian-majority village. That’s not unusual when the Israeli strike doesn’t appear to have had any military target or purpose.
Speculation is that the attack was primarily a revenge attack against Lebanon in general after a Sunday drone strike by Hezbollah against a northern Israeli military base killed four soldiers and wounded scores of others.
There has been no official sign that was the case, nor indeed are those making such speculation offering any name of the potential Hezbollah figure being targeted.
22 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Maronite Christian village of Aitou, located ~ 100 kilometers northeast of Beirut in northern Lebanon. The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams are still evacuating the wounded and deceased, with the majority of those killed… pic.twitter.com/lqLRbbRfPr
This northern part of Lebanon has not been considered militarily significant throughout the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict, and there hadn’t been an Israeli attack anywhere near this area since the 2006 war.
Israeli attacks on explicitly Christian targets are not unheard of, at any rate. Just last week, Israel launched a missile strike against a Catholic Church in the southern area of Tyre.
They destroyed the church, killing eight people, and have still offered no military justification for doing so.
There are Orthodox as well as Maronite Catholic churches throughout the south of Lebanon, amid the war zone, and some have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes…
Already facing growing international pariah status over their attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip, the escalation of attacks in Lebanon seems like Israel is willing to risk even more backlash.
