On Saturday, a fifth Democratic member of Congress called for embattled, enfeebled President Biden to quit the 2024 presidential race. Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig also became the first incumbent in a tight race to do so, saying, “I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.”

Coupled with reports that Senate intelligence committee chair Mark Warner is point man in a drive to organize Senate Democrats into a united front urging Biden to quit, the political pressure is clearly mounting. However, Biden is also under rapidly-rising pressure along a second front, as major Democratic donors are not only telling him to quit, but are closing their checkbooks — or creatively using them to pave the way for a new candidate. 

Right-wing conspiracy theories suddenly acknowledged as true:
— Biden is senile.
— Democrats engaged in a massive cover-up of this for months if not years.
— The Biden presidency is run by an oligarchy.
— Democrat mega donors, not primary voters, actually choose the nominee.

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) July 5, 2024

One of those deeply-disenchanted donors is Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who gave more than $20 million to boost Democratic candidates in recent years, including upwards of $1.5 million for Biden’s 2020 campaign. Last week, Hastings publicly called for Biden to quit. He reiterated that stance after watching Biden’s terrible Friday interview with George Stephanopoulos, telling ABC News. “Biden is unfortunately in denial about his mental state. He needs to step aside to let a vigorous Democratic leader beat Trump.”

Then there’s Kase Capital Management portfolio manager Whitney Tilson, who told ABC, “[Biden]’s not in [a] condition to handle the rigors of the presidency for another four years…All of us are standing by to see what happens here. Even the wealthiest people have limitations to money.” More bluntly, he took to Twitter to say, “Biden’s campaign is a ghost. It’s over.” 

Rather than simply moving to the sidelines, some mega-donors are engaging in creative political-financial engineering — such as former Inuit and Paypal CEO Bill Harris, who donated $620,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in 2020 and told ABC that, given his performance in the debate and the Stephanopoulos interview, most observers would see Biden’s departure as “inevitable.”

On Friday, Harris announced that his Democrats for the Next Generation PAC was committing to spend $2 million “to fund a series of debates among prominent candidates to become the Democratic nominee for president if Biden steps aside.” Some are referring to the concept as a “mini-primary” — and it’s seen by many as a mechanism for ensuring that Kamala Harris isn’t tapped merely by virtue of her title.  

Bill Harris waved off Democrats’ unease about a potentially messy and divisive process for picking a new candidate. “It’s not that we have to protect ourselves from chaos and drama,” Harris told the Washington Post. “We need drama and a little chaos. I think it can be refreshing and energizing.”

In addition to drama and chaos, there’s some major branding confusion in the mix, as another group of deep-pocketed Democrats — led by crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz and Hollywood moviemaker Andrew Jarecki — is launching a nearly-identically-named “Next Generation PAC”.

That group has even grander plans: raising up to $100 million for what might be characterized as a political escrow and incentive fund, designated to promote a successor 2024 Democratic standard-bearer. If Biden is on the November ballot, the fund would be redirected to promote down-ballot candidates — and not Biden.  

In the wake of Biden’s debate disaster, the first notes of alarm among major Democratic benefactors came via anonymous quotes. Now, they’re pouring out of the woodwork to publicly declare their convictions that Biden needs to step aside. A sampling: 

• Filmaker and heiress Abigail Disney said she’s withholding planned donations to a Biden-backing constellation of groups that included the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee, super PACs and nonprofits. “[They] will not receive another dime from me until they bite the bullet and replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” she told the Times. 
• Damon Lindelof, who created the “Lost” TV series, posted an opinion piece in Deadline calling for a donor “DEMbargo” targeting not only Biden but also other candidates — to be called off only if Biden quits.   
• Los Angeles real estate billionaire Rick Caruso tweeted, “In this vital election, stepping aside is the right and honorable thing for President Biden to do.” 
• Gideon Stein, chairman of AI advertising firm WriteLabel, is withholding $3.5 million in contributions pending Biden’s ouster. He told the Times that he and almost every other big donor he’s in contact with think “a new ticket is in the best interest of defeating Donald Trump.”

Amid all the angst, some wealthy donors are turning on each other. Many are angry with Hollywood tycoon and top Biden fundraiser Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s seen as having perpetrated a sort of fraud by concealing Biden’s mental decline as he persuaded reluctant donors to give him their money. As one unnamed Hollywood figure and Democratic booster told the Financial Times: 

“[Katzenberg] would say, ‘He’s fine, I was just with him. He had this famous quote for everybody, which was ‘I’m happy to put you in a room with him and you’ll see for yourself.’ But nobody did it.”

Ironically, the Katzenberg angle and the entire “Biden-is-sharp-as-a-tack” scam have the makings of a great Hollywood movie…that is, if Hollywood would allow some frank introspection. 

Via SchiffGold.com,

In 2023, the U.S. spent 1.04 trillion dollars on Medicare, which is over $3,000 per citizen. For an inefficient, problem-ridden program, that number is difficult for Americans to stomach.

Medicare is a health insurance program for seniors and specific disabled individuals. It has provided coverage for millions since it originated in 1965. However, the benefits it offers are far outweighed by its inefficiency and inadequacy, which cost trillions.

Medicare spending has grown exponentially since its creation under Lyndon B. Johnson. As of 2023, Medicare expenditures comprised 17% of the federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare’s spending will rise to $1.6 trillion by 2032. The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which finances a large percentage of Medicare, is set to be depleted by 2028. This threat of insolvency has the potential to leave millions of seniors without adequate coverage.

The causes of these burgeoning costs have a common thread: government inefficiency. Medicare’s fee-for-service model incentivizes quantity over quality—the program awards medical professionals for unnecessary procedures and artificially inflated costs. The American Medical Association approximates that 25% of Medicare spending, about $250 billion annually, is wasted on overtreatment, care administration inefficiencies, and excessive managerial costs.

Much of these administrative costs are due to the difficulty of complying with Medicare. A 2016 study showed that physicians spend an average of 785 hours per physician per year on Medicare regulatory compliance, costing an annual total of $15.4 billion.

These administrative complexities are due to the program’s intricate rules and regulations which often need to be clarified for both beneficiaries and healthcare providers. This often results in significant delays in care and excessive unnecessary costs. Medicare’s bureaucracy creates numerous obstacles for both physicians and patients which prevent seniors from getting the adequate care that they need.

This inefficiency is also passed on to seniors in the form of taxes and fees. Despite the common belief that Medicare is “free,” it comes with numerous hidden costs. The 2021 standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B was $148.50, with recipients with higher incomes paying up to $504.90 every month. Since 2000, these premiums have increased by 226%, far outpacing inflation. Additionally, the Medicare payroll tax is set at 2.9%, with those earning over $200,000 facing an additional 0.9% tax.

The aging of the U.S. population is putting unprecedented strain on Medicare. As the baby boomer generation continues to reach retirement age, the number of Medicare beneficiaries is growing faster than the working-age population that supports the program through payroll taxes. In 2022, there were 65.0 million Medicare beneficiaries, with 57.1 million aged 65 and older. This number is projected to increase substantially in the coming years.

The Medicare Trustees Report projects that Medicare spending will grow from 3.8% of GDP in 2023 to approximately 6% by 2047. This rate of increase is unsustainable, and the increasing ratio of beneficiaries to workers means that either taxes must increase significantly, benefits must be cut, or both.

In addition, Medicare’s current structure limits beneficiary choice and stifles innovation in healthcare delivery. Telemedicine has shown promise in reducing healthcare costs, especially chronic disease management. However, Medicare hasn’t embraced these innovations due to stifling regulatory constraints. A market-based approach would allow for greater experimentation and adoption of cost-effective healthcare solutions, driving innovation and improving care quality for seniors.

The current trajectory of Medicare spending is unsustainable and threatens the fiscal stability of the United States. With projected expenditures reaching $1.04 trillion in 2023, the system requires bold action from Americans and politicians who want to preserve the country’s future.

Healthcare systems will continue to fail as long as the government continues to heavily interfere. A reformed system should prioritize consumer choice, encourage provider competition, and reward innovation in healthcare delivery. This approach would utilize market forces to drive down costs and improve quality while ensuring seniors have access to comprehensive health coverage.

The time for incremental changes has passed. Medicare has cost tens of trillions and is not adequately serving seniors’ needs. Only through bold, market-oriented reforms can we hope to achieve an efficient healthcare solution that benefits both seniors and the rest of the American people.

Authored by Stephen B. Young via RealClearPolitics,

Commentary

President Biden’s duty to the American people is to “faithfully execute” his office. As a public trustee, Biden took an oath to do what is right. He is a trustee of powers bestowed upon him by the Constitution in return for his promise to be dutiful.

Like every agent and trustee, Biden owes fiduciary duties to those who are served by his decisions. He owes them two duties: the duty of always acting with due care; and the duty of giving them his absolute loyalty, always putting their interests above his own.

A president’s failure to use due care or be loyal is ground for impeachment. Under our Constitution, impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” is not a criminal proceeding. Rather, it is a civil proceeding to discharge from office one who has failed in his or her trusteeship.

John Locke put it this way:

Who shall be judge, whether the prince or legislative act contrary to their trust? … To this I reply, The people shall be judge; for who shall be judge whether his trustee or deputy acts well, and according to the trust reposed in him, but he who deputes him, and must, by having deputed him, have still a power to discard him, when he fails in his trust? If this be reasonable in particular cases of private men, why should it be otherwise in that of the greatest moment, where the welfare of millions is concerned, and also where the evil, if not prevented, is greater, and the redress very difficult, dear, and dangerous?

More than 50 years ago, when the impeachment of Richard Nixon was under consideration in the House of Representatives, I researched the English parliamentary practice of impeaching high officers for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The lead special counsel in the impeachment proceeding, John Doar, incorporated my conclusions into the articles of impeachment of Richard Nixon in these words:

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

The same standard of abuse of fiduciary duties was later included in the articles of impeachment of Donald Trump:

In all of this, President Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

As we saw the Thursday before last, President Biden is no longer capable of acting with due care as steward of the best interest of the American people. He appeared physically and cognitively inept. His answers to simple questions were nonsensical. Even Nancy Pelosi wondered aloud, “Is this an episode or is this a condition?”

For Biden to remain in office, he will not be faithfully executing it. Rather, he will be using the powers of the office for self-serving ends, depriving the American people of a vigorous defender of our rights and privileges. If Biden does not resign immediately, he has committed an impeachable offense by causing “manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

Should Biden attempt to have his cake and eat it too, he might withdraw his candidacy for this year’s presidential election but not resign as president. If he affirms that he would not be qualified to execute the office of president in January 2025, then why is he qualified to serve in that office today? To withdraw from the presidential race but continue in office would be a violation of his duty of loyalty to the American people.

Joe Biden made a choice when he took the oath of office to serve as our president. If he can no longer be loyal or serve with due care, then he must resign his office or be impeached.

Stephen B. Young is global director of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism. He was an assistant dean at the Harvard Law School and later dean and professor of law at the Hamline University School of Law.

In the following graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao ranks and visualizes the least common American jobs by number of employees, as per the latest estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Annual surveys from business owners are used to model employment numbers and wage data for each year. Thus, these figures do not include the self-employed, owners of unincorporated firms, or household workers.

Ranked: America’s Least Common Jobs

The least commonly-held job in America is “wood patternmaker,” with only 260 employed by a business country-wide. According to the BLS, wood patternmakers “plan, lay out, and construct wooden unit or sectional patterns used in forming sand molds for castings.”

Technological advancements have caused job declines in the industry for the last decade. It is also likely that this occupation has more self-employed individuals, explaining their low numbers.

Clock and timer technicians (not watchmakers), farm labor contractors (460), and furnace and kiln repair technicians (540) are the next three least commonly employed American workers.

Ranked fifth, prosthodontists (570) are the second-highest paid occupation ($240,750) on the uncommon jobs list.

In the same vein, pediatric surgeons are the 10th least common occupation in America, with only around 1,100 in the entire country.

NPR reports that while pediatric programs have increased in the last 10 years, the number of trained MDs going into pediatric surgery has steadily decreased. Per STAT News, close to one-third pediatric residency programs did not fill their positions in 2024.

If you liked this kind of content, check out The 20 Fastest Growing Jobs in the Next Decade which identifies where new jobs will be created next.

Authored by Robin Seaton Jefferson via The Epoch Times,

In March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a revised draft guidance to help drug companies develop medication to treat cases of early Alzheimer’s disease that “occur before the onset of overt dementia.”

One theory about Alzheimer’s is that amyloid pathology can occur decades before symptoms appear, and to stop the disease, doctors may need to address this underlying pathology well before that happens. Some say that will label people as having a disease they may never develop; others say it’s the only way to stop it in those who will come to have it.

Treat Dementia Like Heart Disease

Rudolph E. Tanzi, who has a doctorate in neurology and is a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the director of its Genetics and Aging Research Unit, said that to stop dementia and Alzheimer’s, doctors must treat it the way they currently treat heart disease.

“Just like we keep track of cholesterol and alter lifestyle and take safe drugs to lower cholesterol levels in order to avoid heart disease, we will need to do the same for Alzheimer’s disease,” Mr. Tanzi told The Epoch Times. “The FDA guidance is a step in that direction.”

The American Heart Association reports that death due to heart disease has declined by 60 percent since 1950 and that the number of people in the United States dying of a heart attack each year has dropped from one in two in the 1950s to one in 8.5 today. Mr. Tanzi said that is because doctors now treat their patients proactively for a disease that could otherwise kill them many years in the future.

As a geneticist who co-discovered three of the first Alzheimer’s disease genes, Mr. Tanzi replicated the cascades of cellular changes in Alzheimer’s in a petri dish so scientists could conduct tests as the disease developed and test drug efficacy. He said the problem is now that doctors don’t diagnose Alzheimer’s disease until the brain has already deteriorated to the point of dysfunction. Patients “need safe and affordable drugs to intervene with amyloid deposition as early as possible,” he added.

Mr. Tanzi said that although the guidance is correct to advise treating early-stage Alzheimer’s patients, scientists will still someday need to prevent the buildup of abnormal amyloid deposits as soon as they begin in the brain before damage occurs.

“This would be most important for those with early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease gene mutations, those with Down syndrome, and carriers of the APOE epsilon variant that increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease, where you know amyloid deposition is guaranteed or highly likely beginning early in life,” Mr. Tanzi added.

Is Amyloid Positivity Enough to Redefine Alzheimer’s Disease?

But there is still no solid proof that any drugs, even if they reduce amyloid, will decrease dementia fates in the future, said Dr. Eric Widera, a professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California–San Fransisco. He also questions the risks of some drugs with serious side effects, such as brain bleeding and death.

There is a trend to redefine Alzheimer’s disease based on whether someone is amyloid positive on a test, “independent of whether an individual has any symptoms of cognitive impairment, or whether they will develop them in the future,” Dr. Widera said.

He explained that while scientists do have “pretty good evidence that in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia,” two drugs, donanemab and lecanemab, “have an exceptional ability to remove amyloid.” However, he argues that this ability has only a “subtle effect” on the rate of decline in cognition.

“This is pretty clear evidence that suggests amyloid is likely not the only factor that contributes to Alzheimer’s disease progression and that we have a lot yet to learn about how to stop or reverse the disease,” he said.

The changes proposed will have effects that are “far from subtle” and will be marketed as “a new Alzheimer’s epidemic,” said Dr. Widera.

An estimated 6 million Americans aged 65 and older live with Alzheimer’s and dementia, with the majority being over age 75. “The proposed changes will move what is a feared but far from universal disease of aging, Alzheimer’s dementia, to a largely silent, asymptomatic disease affecting a much larger population, as most people with positive amyloid biomarkers have no cognitive issues,” Dr. Widera wrote in his commentary, published in February in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

What Can Be Done?

For his part, Mr. Tanzi agrees that much more must be done. “We will need blood tests that tell us not only when amyloid is already doing its damage in the brain, but also tests that can tell us when to treat so as to prevent amyloid deposition in the brain in the first place.”

Mr. Tanzi said Alzheimer’s is only “beatable” when predicted early, based on family history and genetics; detected early, based on blood biomarkers and imaging; and intervened upon early, using safe and affordable drugs.

“The approved amyloid drugs, like Leqembi [lecanemab], are not approved for prevention, but only for treatment in the mildest cases of Alzheimer’s disease. That is good to do, but still too late.” He added that lecanemab “is too costly, at over $60,000 per year, including the necessary MRIs to detect brain swelling and hemorrhage.”

He said that is one of the focuses at the McCance Center for Brain Health, where he is currently fundraising for an Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial initiative to test combinations of repurposed safe and affordable drugs and natural products to lower amyloid levels in the brain, as a safer and more affordable alternative to amyloid immunotherapy like lecanemab.

“The hope is that combinations of safe and affordable repurposed drugs can someday be used in tens of millions of Americans to prevent Alzheimer’s disease,” he added.

What Will the Guidance Do?

As a draft, the document will “serve as a focus for continued discussions” for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease, the draft states. However, when finalized, the document “will represent FDA’s current thinking regarding the selection of subjects with early [Alzheimer’s disease] for enrollment in clinical trials and the selection of endpoints for clinical trials in this population.”

With its proposed guidelines, the FDA is focusing more on amyloid. It considers the reduction of brain amyloid, found by positron emission tomography (PET scans), to be a surrogate endpoint that is “reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit” and that clinical trials showing an effect on that surrogate endpoint can be the basis for accelerated approval, including for drugs intended to treat Alzheimer’s.

According to Fierce Biotech, a company that reports on the biotech industry, the FDA isn’t going as far as to say that amyloid reduction can be considered a primary endpoint—the main result measured at the end of a study to see whether a given treatment worked—in Alzheimer’s trials. However, the agency suggests that this biomarker can serve as a surrogate endpoint—an indicator that tells if a treatment works—to predict clinical benefit.

Alzheimer’s researchers currently use both cognitive and functional measures as co-primary endpoints, resulting in a two-year or less average clinical trial duration in the symptomatic stages of the condition. But it could take longer to establish clinically meaningful treatment effects among patients with early Alzheimer’s due to limited or nonexistent cognitive and functional deficits seen early on. Plus, tools often used to measure functional impairment in patients in the later stages of Alzheimer’s may not be able to identify subtle changes in early-stage disease.

For these reasons, the FDA is considering other approaches, including endpoints based on cognitive assessments or surrogate endpoints, which may allow for shorter trial durations in the earliest stages of disease, Fierce Biotech reported.

Possibility of Overdiagnosis

In a draft document published in October 2023, the Alzheimer’s Association Workgroup suggested expanding the criteria for Alzheimer’s diagnosis and basing diagnosis on core biomarkers such as amyloid rather than clinical syndromes.

The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) commented on the criteria expansion, expressing concerns that it would “place many older and multimorbid people at risk of overdiagnosis, which in turn could lead to initiation of treatments with as yet unproven clinical benefit, particularly in an asymptomatic population, and high potential for harm.”

The AGS said the document fails to pay sufficient attention to the potential impact of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis on patient identity or any social and fiscal consequences.

“The reality is that many biomarker-positive individuals never develop cognitive impairment … and most people diagnosed with dementia will die with, not of, dementia,” the AGS wrote.

“At this juncture, a cognitively normal 50-year-old would have a 1 in 10 chance of testing positive for amyloid … and then carry an [Alzheimer’s disease] diagnosis in their health records,” the organization wrote.

The AGS added that this “distracts from the broader aim of ensuring high quality health care for individuals who already have cognitive impairment or dementia.”

Citing the “potential influence of financial ties between key stakeholders who make decisions on definitions and diagnostic thresholds,” the AGS said transparency is critical, and any conflict of interest should be disclosed.

The Epoch Times contacted the FDA and the Alzheimer’s Association Workgroup but did not receive a reply.

While the entire world – or rather Democrats – are shocked to learn that Biden’s dementia is not a vast right wing conspiracy as they themselves had claimed prior to the catastrophic Trump-Biden debate, and that their eyes and ears had not in fact been deceiving them for the past three years, last week a Florida judge dropped a bombshell 150-page transcript related to a 2006 grand jury investigation of Jeffrey Epstein (readers may remember him if not his clients, none of whom it would appear are notable enough to be criminally charged), revealing that prosecutors were aware that Epstein sexually abused underage girls.

As Breanna Morello explains, the transcripts reveal that the deal between Epstein and prosecutors came two years after they learned that Epstein engaged in statutory rape of teenage girls, and resulted in minimal punishments for the billionaire human trafficker. In the end, Epstein was charged with only one count of solicitation of prostitution from a minor, despite evidence of multiple rapes and a pattern of behavior. Thanks to this slap on the wrist which meant he would be free shortly after, Epstein went on to sexually exploit children until his “suicide” in 2019 and made hundreds of millions from child trafficking with countless billionaires and political oligarchs, ferrying them back and forth on his Lolita Express to Epstein island, where countless underage girls were raped by the true ruling class which to this day remains immune from the legal system.

“Details in the record will be outrageous to decent people,” Judge Luis Delgado wrote, adding that the transcript has (further) diminished public perception of the criminal justice system, which in recent months is best known for getting hijacked to serve Biden’s failed crusade to incarcerate Trump before the election. The filings were released after a 2024 Florida law made it legal to do so for transcripts related to Epstein.

As noted above, the 2008 charges boiled down to a count of solicitation of prostitution from a minor, despite investigators’ knowledge of Epstein’s pattern of behavior, including numerous incidents of rape. The charge was significantly less severe than the evidence warranted, especially since investigators had knowledge of Epstein’s pattern of behavior, including numerous incidents of rape. The limited charge ignored the full extent of Epstein’s criminal activities.

The filing, which itself further unveils prosecutorial missteps that enabled Epstein’s later conduct, came years after the lenient, and delayed, sentence was criticized.

“The story of how Jeffrey Epstein victimized some of Palm Beach County’s most vulnerable has been the subject of much anger and has at times diminished the public’s perception of the criminal justice system,” Delgado wrote.

Florida’s Southern District Attorney, Alex Acosta, who served for a period of time as Trump former Secretary of Labor, approved a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein in 2008, despite prosecutors’ knowledge of the rapes. Acosta eventually left the Trump administration in scandal after details emerged outlining his botched prosecution of the prolific trafficker.

Watch the full report below.

🚨JEFFREY EPSTEIN DOCUMENT DUMP🚨

I’ve just read through the entire 2008 Epstein grand jury transcripts.

The details are disturbing including the claims that Epstein raped a teenage girl a day before her 18th birthday.

Why did Alex Acosta cut Epstein this deal?

I discuss: pic.twitter.com/FRKnEoMWeC

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 3, 2024

Morello’s complete analysis of the transcripts can be read here, and as a post-script, here is Elon Musk once again asking the most obvious question amid this whole farce: how come there has not been “one – just one – even *attempted* prosecution of that Epstein (Bill Gates & Reid Hoffman come to mind) client list.”

When is there not one – just one – even *attempted* prosecution of that Epstein (Bill Gates & Reid Hoffman come to mind)
client list.

Either FBI does their duty or the case for an entire departmental reset or abolishment is strong. https://t.co/qLgWvyuysp

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2024

Authored by Monica O’Shea via The Epoch Times,

McDonald’s Australia has cut breakfast time in Australia by 90 minutes due to an egg shortage amid an outbreak of bird flu.

The decision follows after the highly pathogenic H7 influenza infected eight farms in Victoria,  two properties in New South Wales, and one in the Australian Capital Territory.

More than one million birds in the two states combined have been euthanised as part of the government’s response to bird flu, also known as avian influenza.

In a post on social media, McDonald’s explained breakfast would end at 10.30 a.m. instead of midday, due to egg supply issues.

“Like many retailers we are carefully managing supply of eggs due to the current industry challenges,” McDonald’s Australia posted to Instagram.

“To keep bringing you your breakie favourites with fresh Aussie eggs, we’ll be temporarily serving breakfast until 10.30 a.m. across Australia (usually available until midday).”

McDonald’s said it is working hard with Aussie farmers and suppliers to return  to normal “as soon as possible.”

Egg Supply Disruptions

Recently, the federal government warned egg supplies in Australia have been disrupted and consumers should not buy more eggs than required.

“The national layer hen flock has been impacted by these outbreaks which is resulting in some localised disruption to egg supplies to the retail, hospitality and manufacturing sectors,” the government said.

They warned consumers could expect to see some empty shelves in the short-term, but supply was being redirected.

“Some retailers have already imposed purchasing limits which may extend across retail chains and jurisdictions, including rural and regional areas,” the federal government continued.

Supermarket giant Coles imposed egg purchase limits on Australian customers in June.

Where Has Bird Flu Been Detected?

In Victoria, the H7N3 strain was detected at seven poultry farms in the Golden Plains Shire near Meredith. A case of the H7N9 strain avian flu has also been discovered.

Meanwhile, in NSW, two outbreaks of H7N8 poultry have been found in the Hawkesbury district in northwest Sydney. This is a separate strain to Victoria.

Further, in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), H7N8 bird flu was detected at a poultry farm on June 27. This farm is linked to one of the NSW properties.

The first human case of bird flu in Australia was also reported in Victoria in May, in a child who acquired the H5N1 strain overseas in India.

The current strains of avian influenza in Australia do not appear to “transmit easily between humans,” the Australian government said.

The government also reassured Australians that eggs and chicken meat are still safe to eat if cooked properly.

“They do not pose a risk and are safe to consume. Victoria has a secure supply chain including the importation of eggs from interstate, so the current outbreak has not significantly affected supplies,” said Agriculture Victoria.

Bird flu is caused by a “variety of influenza type A viruses” that usually infect birds, according to Murdoch University Professor of Viral Immunology Cassandra Berry.

“The difference lies in the number of basic amino acids at the cleave site of haemagglutinin (HA), a spike protein on the virus surface, which is cleaved by cellular proteases,” she said.

“This cleavage determination then allows the virus to infect cells of different tissues and organs in the body. So if the virus HA is more easily cleaved by proteases, it will be more pathogenic.”

Over 1.2 Million Birds Culled

The NSW government announced 240,000 birds would be culled in June after bird flu was discovered in the state.

The state activated an “emergency biosecurity incident plan” in a bid to contain the virus after bird flu was detected at the poultry egg farm.

“We started depopulating the farm, in a humane manner, following Australian Veterinary guidelines. This process will take up to 5-7 days to depopulate 240,000 birds,” Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty announced on June 20.

Later in the month, it was revealed a further 87,000 birds would be killed in NSW as part of a “depopulation process” after the second case in the state was found.

In ACT, birds have also been culled although the exact number is unclear at this stage.

More than one million birds had to be euthanised in south-western Victoria, according to Agriculture Minister Murray Watt in June.

Each year, the U.S. sends billions in foreign aid to promote global stability, national security, and its own economic interests.

To see where this money flows, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized the top 10 countries receiving U.S. foreign aid in fiscal year 2022 (FY2022). These numbers represent total disbursements, which are the actual amounts paid in cash or cash equivalents by federal agencies.

All figures were sourced from https://www.foreignassistance.gov, as of May 2024. At the time of writing, full reporting for FY2023 is not yet available.

Data and Highlights

All of the numbers we used to create this graphic are listed in the table below. Note that the U.S. fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 of the previous calendar year and ends on Sept. 30.

Ukraine was the largest recipient of foreign aid, with $11.2 billion disbursed throughout FY2022. This was a massive increase from the $419M sent in FY2021, due to the Russian invasion which began in February 2022.

So far for FY2023 (incomplete reporting), foreign aid sent to Ukraine has reached $16.7 billion.

The second largest recipient is Israel, though unlike Ukraine, the $3.3 billion disbursed in FY2022 is consistent with previous years (around $3.3 billion every year since FY2019).

The vast majority (over 99%) of foreign aid to Israel is dedicated to “Conflict, Peace, and Security”, with disbursements being facilitated by the U.S. Department of Defense.

If you enjoy graphics like these, be sure to check out Charted: How Americans Feel About Federal Government Agencies.

Following months of back-and-forth as well as contradictory reports of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, which has proven elusive thus far, the two sides and their mediators could actually be getting closer this weekend.

CIA director Bill Burns is set to embark on yet another trip to Doha this coming week to rejoin negotiations focused on achieving a hostage exchange and broader ceasefire, Axios is reporting.

Axios previews that “Burns is expected to hold a joint meeting with the Prime Minister of Qatar, the director of the Israeli Mossad and the head of the Egyptian intelligence service in an effort to push forward the deal that could lead to the release of 120 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and end nine months of war.”

The below fresh report from The Times of Israel suggests Hamas may have just dropped a major demand which had previously thwarted any progress. From the start of negotiations, Hamas leaders have conditioned peace on an Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip:

Hamas has given initial approval for a US-backed proposal for a phased truce and hostage exchange deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel give an up-front commitment for a complete end to the war, a Hamas and an Egyptian official said Saturday.

At the same time, a key stumbling block appeared to be Hamas’s desire for “written guarantees” from mediators that Israel will continue to negotiate a permanent ceasefire deal once the first phase of a ceasefire goes into effect.

The Hamas representative told The Associated Press the group’s approval came after it received “verbal commitments and guarantees” from mediators that the war won’t be resumed and that negotiations will continue until a permanent ceasefire is reached.

The report stresses that “Hamas says it dropped demand Israel vow up-front to end war, but wants mediators’ guarantees.” If true this could prove a major opening, given PM Netanyahu had long focused on this specific demand as being a non-starter, making progress in talks impossible.

If a deal is achieved, it could result in the first full ceasefire of the conflict. According to diplomatic sources involved:

The Hamas and Egyptian officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations, said Washington’s phased deal will first include a “full and complete” six-week ceasefire that would see the release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During these 42 days, Israeli forces would also withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the pair said.

In the US, a deal would lessen intensifying pressure on the Biden White House, given it has been losing support especially among Progressives due precisely to the president’s Gaza policy.

Netanyahu is expected to travel to DC at the end of this month to address Congress, and so far media reports are saying it is ‘likely’ he will meet with President Biden. Any potential ceasefire deal would ease the pressure of such a visit, certainly from Washington’s point of view at least.

An “ongoing electric power issue” suspended train service in the Northeast Corridor between Boston and New York City on Saturday afternoon, Amtrak wrote in a press release. 

“Our crews are working hard to correct the issues,” Amtrak said but did not explain the cause of the service disruption.

Amtrak noted that “this service interruption” will be in place for the “remainder of the day.”  

Service Temporarily Disrupted Between New York and New Haven https://t.co/l7VYykHMHu

— Amtrak Northeast (@AmtrakNECAlerts) July 6, 2024

According to AP News, the disruption was caused by a malfunctioning circuit breaker, which sparked service disruption between Penn Station in New York and Union Station in New Haven, Connecticut. There was no official word if the circuit breaker problem was caused by scorching temperatures across the Northeast.

Besides the ongoing heat wave, this outage comes at the worst possible time when a record 71 million Americans are expected to be traveling this Fourth of July holiday weekend. 

Last month, Amtrak’s service in and out of New York City suffered a “malfunctioning circuit breaker” that sparked travel chaos for hours across the nation’s busiest transit hub.

With frustrations over unreliable train service in the Northeast mounting, it’s time for US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to actually stand up and be a leader and do something – just something. Come on ‘Mayor Pete’ – you got this.