Italy “Eager” To Help Trump Solve Biden’s Egg Crisis
The Biden-Harris regime’s questionable handling of the nation’s food supply chain—which led to the culling of 150 million egg-laying chickens amid the avian flu crisis—forced the Trump administration to fix the mess by scouring the globe for eggs over the last several weeks. The latest reports indicate that Trump officials have reached out to Italian producers.
Gian Luca Bagnara, head of the Assoavi Italian Association of Egg Producers, told Bloomberg that a representative from the U.S. Embassy had inquired about commercial poultry farm export capacity over the next six months.
“I felt really proud and started making inquiries. This could be an opportunity for building new international relations and we are eager to help,” Bagnara said. He noted that only 10% of Italian egg production is exported.
Data from Unaitalia shows that Italy is Europe’s fourth-biggest producer, and a quarter of production comes from the northern Veneto region.
Over the past 30 days, the Trump administration has been scouring the globe for eggs—including in several European countries—while working diligently to cap out-of-control egg prices and drive them back down.
The latest USDA prices show egg prices have been more than halved since Trump unveiled his plan to combat sky-high prices produced under the Biden administration’s irresponsible culling policies:
Earlier this month, Elon Musk wrote on X, “It’s true. There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration.”
It’s true.
There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration. https://t.co/wCTZpuEAuH
Americans should be furious with the Biden-Harris regime, which nearly destroyed part of the food supply chain without any meaningful countermeasures to offset lost production.
If peace is on the way, why are they feverishly preparing for World War III? It appears to me that NATO countries are convinced that something really big is coming. Is there something that they know that they aren’t telling the rest of us? As I discussed yesterday, things in the Middle East are really heating up, and the conflict in Ukraine has reached a very dangerous stage. If negotiations with Russia fail, both sides are likely to significantly escalate matters in a desperate attempt to win the war, and the Russians could come to the conclusion that a final showdown with NATO has begun. We do not want the Russians to view the conflict in Ukraine in those terms, because they are already extremely paranoid and it wouldn’t take much to push them over the edge. Unfortunately, NATO countries continue to do things that will raise tensions instead of easing them.
The following are 7 actions that NATO countries are taking which indicate that something really big is coming…
#1 France is getting ready to distribute a 20 page survival manual that instructs citizens what to do if a full-blown war erupts…
France is the latest country set to issue an invasion survival how-to guide for its citizens.
The 20-page booklet will give advice to French civilians on how to defend the republic in the face of an invasion by signing up to reserve units or local defence efforts.
It will also have tips on how to create a survival kit with essentials including six litres of water, canned food, batteries, and basic medical supplies.
#2 The French government is also telling their citizens to leave Iran “immediately”…
French authorities on Thursday requested its citizens to immediately leave the territory of Iran.
The French Foreign Ministry has issued a warning to its citizens amid the release of one of its nationals who had been imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days.
#3 It is being reported that military planners in the UK have ordered special forces units to get ready to be sent to Ukraine…
Special Forces units were told to prepare for mobilisation to Ukraine by military planners tasked with readying forces by the Cabinet Office, according to two military sources with knowledge of the directive.
The command centre for UK military planning, the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), was sent directives last week to begin the process for the deployment of personnel and resources.
The orders, which also applied to Special Forces reservists, put personnel on standby in order to ensure military equipment is in working order before receiving a notice to mobilise to Ukraine.
#4 Turkey has announced that it would also be willing to deploy troops to Ukraine “if needed”…
Turkey would be ready to deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a broader peacekeeping mission if needed, a Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday.
“The issue of contributing to a mission … will be evaluated with all relevant parties if deemed necessary for the establishment of regional stability and peace,” the source said.
The Russians have already stated that they will never accept NATO troops on Ukrainian soil under any circumstances.
So why are these nations preparing to send troops anyway?
Warsaw is preparing to face down any invasion by Vladimir Putin by conscripting every adult male for military training.
But the Eastern European nation also wants nukes and President Andrzej Duda has now said the US could send some of its arsenal to his country.
#6 The Baltic states are jointly constructing a massive defense line that includes six hundred bunkers, tank ditches, dragon’s teeth and rocket systems…
The Baltics are building a joint defence line on their border with Russia that will have some six-hundred bunkers across each border.
It will also include tank ditches, forests, dragon’s teeth, hedgehogs, and rocket systems.
Poland and the Baltics have also withdrawn an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines as they prepare to stop an advancing Russian army in its tracks.
#7 In a letter that was delivered to the Iranians, Donald Trump has given Iran only two months to reach a peace agreement…
President Donald Trump has given Iran a two-month deadline to reach a new nuclear agreement, according to a report by Axios.
A letter sent earlier this month to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of consequences if Tehran continued its nuclear program while also offering renewed talks. The message, described as uncompromising, made clear that prolonged negotiations were not an option.
According to Axios, it “isn’t clear whether the two-month clock begins from the time the letter was delivered or from when negotiations start”.
Since the Iranians have already said that there will be no negotiations, I would assume that the clock started when the letter was delivered.
So the good news is that the bombing of Iran will probably not happen next month.
But if Trump is serious, there is a very good chance that it could happen before the midpoint of this year.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainians just conducted an absolutely massive drone strike on a Russian strategic bomber airfield that is located hundreds of miles from the front lines…
Ukrainian forces backed by Western munitions and technology struck a major Russian strategic bomber airfield on Thursday with drones, 435 miles from the Ukrainian front lines.
The strike ignited a massive explosion and sent a huge blast of fire into the air at Engels-2 airbase in Russia.
Videos posted by Reuters showed a huge blast spreading out from the airfield and wrecking nearby cottages.
Russia reportedly called this the largest drone attack ever.
The Ukrainians keep trying to provoke the Russians into doing something really dramatic.
One of these days, the Ukrainians might just succeed.
The Russians are fed up with the government in Kyiv. If negotiations with Trump fail, I expect the Russians to bring down the hammer.
We really are right on the verge of an apocalyptic conflict with Russia, and we really are right on the verge of an apocalyptic conflict in the Middle East.
The final exit ramps for both of these conflicts are rapidly approaching, and so let us hope that global leaders make very wise decisions in the months ahead.
Houthis Say New US Airstrikes Obliterated Residential Neighborhood
At this point the Pentagon has engaged in over a week of ‘continuous’ operations in Yemen, and Monday has seen US airstrikes pound Houthi sites across the country once again. The Houthis are now reporting that American strikes have hit a residential neighborhood, resulting in casualties.
“The rebel-controlled SABA news agency reported, citing health officials, that the US-attributed strike on a residential neighborhood in western Sanaa killed one and injured 13, including three children,” says regional media.
The person killed was reportedly a senior Houthi official. Israeli media observes that “Footage released by the rebels showed the rubble of a collapsed building and pools of blood staining the gray dust covering the ground.”
“A building next to the collapsed structure still stood, suggesting American forces likely used a lower-yield warhead in the strike,” the report continues.
The prior day, Sunday, saw the Houthis launch another ballistic missile at Israel, with the Israel Defense Forces saying it intercepted the inbound projectile. However, the IDF said the threat still caused “millions” of Israeli citizens to have to take shelter as warning sirens sounded.
“Following the alerts that were activated a short time ago in several areas of the country, the Air Force intercepted one missile launched from Yemen. The missile was intercepted before it crossed into the country’s territory,” the IDF said in a Hebrew social media post.
Air traffic at Israel’s busy international Ben Gurion airport was briefly shut down due to the missile threat. This marked nearly a half-dozen Houthi missile attacks directly on Israel since the collapse of the ceasefire with Hamas.
A Saturday missile out of Yemen had disintegrated as it traveled over Saudi airspace. Such attacks could soon become daily, and the Houthis have vowed not to back down even amid the renewed American attacks.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz described in a Sunday media interview that 75% of US-flagged shipping has been forced to take the far-longer route around the southern coast of Africa due to the ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea area, as opposed to the normal Suez Canal route.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) has indicated on social media that its anti-Houthi operations are taking place “24/7″…
This has remained true of the majority of global shipping in general – and Egypt’s revenues from the Suez have continued to crater.
The situation will likely continue and even escalate, given that last week a Houthi military statement said: “We are confronting US aggression by targeting its aircraft carrier, warships, and naval vessels, with greater escalation options if it persists.”
Adolescence: Netflix Series Demonizes Young White Men And The Manosphere
The progressive media is swooning over a new miniseries produced in Britain and distributed by Netflix called ‘Adolescence’, and after reviewing the story it’s easy to see why. British government officials are hailing the show as a wake up call and are using it to promote online censorship of the “Manosphere”. Leftist journalists are seeking to drum up artificial interest, calling it a “masterpiece” that exposes the toxic nature of masculinity.
At a time when the political left is losing the culture war on almost every front it’s not surprising that they would hyper-promote an otherwise forgettable series that panders to the woke demographic. Its depiction of a teen murder, driven by the terrible “evils” of conservative influencers who expose the irrational zealotry of feminism and DEI, is pure propaganda fodder. A desperate attempt to to double down on woke arguments that have been debunked for years.
The creators of Adolescence cite a recent string of knife attacks against girls in Britain as the inspiration for the series, but in typical progressive fashion the production ignores the fact that the vast majority of these crimes were committed by minority and migrant males. The teen killer in Adolescence is a white British boy, not a minority.
Britain has seen an 80% increase in knife attacks in the past ten years. Leftists claim this is because of a rising movement of anti-feminism, but something else has been happening in the UK over the past decade that offers a better explanation – Mass immigration, predominantly from third world countries and Muslim populations that have little regard for women’s rights.
Over 53% of all knife crime in Britain is committed by minorities and migrants representing only 18% of the total population according to data collected in 2022. In the vast majority of attacks on women and young girls the suspects are minorities, as was the case with Southport killer Axel Rudakubana who killed three girls and wounded multiple bystanders at a dance recital in July of 2024. The event was the last straw and led to British protests and riots.
In true Orwellian form, the Brits tried to blame the weapon and the seller of the weapon instead of the murderer. The British government and media went on a campaign to scapegoat online retailer Amazon for making it “so easy” for the killer to order a knife. And they did this because he is a second generation immigrant whose parents came from Rwanda in 2006.
The minority crime problem was becoming so pervasive that it was damaging the leftist government’s pro-immigration position, so they stopped reporting the ethnicity and migrant status of people arrested for such crimes. British police refrain from cataloging ethnicity in almost 40% of all cases in what the government argues is an effort to “stem racism”. If the perpetrator is white, their ethnicity is generally recorded.
Young white males have been the subject of an ongoing character assassination program stretching back to the height of the third-wave feminist takeover of media in 2015. Open demonization has become the norm and boys growing up in this period of cultural warfare in the west have been told for most of their lives that they are the cause of most of the world’s ills. Leftists claim that “toxic masculinity” is a social construct and that white males in particular need to be “reeducated” to embrace feminist values before they become “incels” (involuntary celibates) with the potential for mass murder.
This monstrous psy-op to feminize and brainwash young men has led to a predictable backlash, with men’s movements growing at a rapid pace and white Gen-Z males becoming the most conservative population segment in decades. In other words, the leftists created their own enemy. They don’t want to admit it, but the Manosphere only exists because of them.
The British government under Keir Starmer is scrambling to thwart the trend. Officials have demanded a screening of Adolescence in Parliament and are heralding the show as a rallying cry for greater online censorship of dangerous right wing ideas.
In a way, Adolescence is an indirect admission of what leftists truly fear – The rise of a new generation of men with conservative values, which threatens progressive power over future government. The creators of the show recently warned that such media projects are in danger of becoming extinct because of funding cuts to the BBC. The BBC noted in February that they could lose at least 8% (likely far more) of their funding due to cuts to US federal spending by the Trump Administration.
It’s all a bit circular, which is why leftists are so worried. The more young men go conservative, the more money the leftists lose and the less propaganda they can churn out to demonize young men. The culture war is over. The progressives lost. Shows like Adolescence are a pathetic last gasp of a dying woke movement.
Russia Initiates Drills Involving Yars Nuke-Capable ICBMs
The Russian defense ministry announced Monday its armed forces have begun planned exercises involving the deployment of Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles, RIA news agency is reporting.
Yars ICBM regiments in the Sverdlovsk and Altai regions are being deployed to field positions during command-staff exercises. The Yars can be transported on trucks or positioned in silos.
State media on Monday featured a photograph of one of the missiles being transported in its mobile form, but has given few other details on the drills or their scope.
Russia has over the course of the 3+ year long Ukraine war held several tactical nuclear exercises, while threats and counter-threats continue to fly amid growing Western involvement.
The current ICBM drills are a continued demonstration of Russia’s strategic capabilities, and muscle-flexing aimed at the Western allies.
It seems Moscow began increasing the readiness of its tactical forces especially last year. That’s when Biden issued the greenlight for Ukraine to conduct long-range strikes inside Russia using Western weapons. Putin at the time decried that this risks making Ukraine a ‘global war’.
For example, President Putin said last November, “The use of such weapons by the enemy cannot affect the course of the situation in the Special Military Operation zone.” He also said it was a big mistake for the US to pull out of the the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019.
🇷🇺 Routine inspections of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces have begun, with Yars mobile intercontinental ballistic missile regiments deploying to field positions during command-staff exercises, the Defense Ministry announced. pic.twitter.com/acU7EFhh9d
Putin has also long highlighted that Kiev is now in possession of US F-16s, and that of course NATO F-16s are capable of carry tactical nuclear weapons. Thus Russia has previously said it will have no choice but to assume each F-16 could be armed with nukes, highlighting how dangerous the situation is becoming.
While continuing to closely tie the recent US attacks on the Houthis in Yemen to Iran, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz confirmed that the Trump Administration is demanding“full dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, including its capacity to enrich uranium for civilian use.
Waltz made the comments on CBS’ Face the Nation, and when asked what full dismantlement meant and to clarify the distinction between it and the verification deal the US had with Iran before President Trump pulled out of it in 2018, he made it clear this is far broader, covering everything, including enrichment, “weaponization,” and strategic missile programs.
Iran’s enrichment program, which is under IAEA monitoring, has no military component in the first place. Enrichment was purely for making fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant along Iran’s coast and for making somewhat higher enriched fuel for its medical isotope reactor. Iran has a long history of having a substantial nuclear medicine program, and supplied its own isotopes for that.
The long-abandoned nuclear deal was meant to give Iran a design to produce isotopes without 20% enriched uranium through a heavy-water reactor. Like most of the promises to Iran under the deal this was never honored, and Iran is left with the old research reactor. Higher levels of enrichment were also done to try to encourage new negotiations, though Iran promised the IAEA that they would not go above 60% levels, and weapons-grade uranium is a minimum of 90%.
Waltz’ new demand is not that Iran goes back down to 20% or anything, it’s to stop enrichment entirely. It’s unclear in the context if Iran is even allowed to keep it’s power plant, though without the ability to enrich uranium to make their own fuel, it would be effectively useless in fairly short order.
Beyond that, Waltz demanded Iran scrap its “weaponization” program, which will be a challenge because Iran does not have one, and US intelligence assessments have repeatedly said Iran hasn’t decided to try to make such a weapon though such assessments never seem to inform the content of US demands.
He also demanded Iran get rid of its entire strategic missile program, which since they haven’t even attempted to create nuclear warheads would exclusively impact conventional weapons in Iran’s arsenal. Though presented as something to do with nuclear dismantlement, it is effectively unrelated in the case of these missiles.
Waltz confirmed that the US had received multiple responses from Iran regarding the demands, which were initially submitted through a letter. He declined to discuss what the responses were in any way, but said there was an ongoing “back and forth” and that “all options are on the table.” He further vowed Iran would face consequences if they didn’t submit to the demands.
The latest US demands are by far the furthest they’ve gone in demands for nuclear concessions from Iran, but they once again appear founded in the same false narrative that the program has a military component, even though US intelligence has consistently confirmed it does not.
The refusal to disclose what Iran’s response to the demands has been so far is likely based in part on avoiding talking about how Iran doubtless reiterated that they don’t have such a program to give up. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly responded in part, by rejecting the idea of direct talks with President Trump on the matter.
Khamanei has previously expressed openness to direct talks with the US, but since Trump was the one who tore up the previous nuclear deal, he has said that there is no value in talking with a party they can’t count on to fulfill their commitments.
The US must know that when facing Iran, threats will never achieve anything.
Russia issued a statement on Friday which appears to reject the basis of the US demands, saying Iran has every right to have a peaceful nuclear program for civilian purposes. Western European nations have previously given lip-service to past US demands to restrict Iran, but it is unclear if even they will go along with the idea that Iran isn’t allowed to enrich uranium to civilian levels. Beyond Israel, the Trump Administration might be alone given the severity of this latest demand.
Recently during President Trump’s State of the Union, he declared: “As commander in chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland, all made in the USA.”
Also referred to as an “Iron Dome,” a Golden Dome is a pretty awesome rebranding of the current Israeli missile defense system and a new initiative to protect the US from missile and hypersonic attack. President Trump is right—we absolutely want one, and it is finally possible.
Ballistic missiles are the weapons of choice for our adversaries to strike the U.S. homeland from far away. Our most sophisticated adversaries are also developing the dreaded maneuvering hypersonic weapon which is capable of defeating today’s missile defenses.
A ballistic missile would arrive in minutes, be hard to see, and come in blisteringly fast. That’s because they are launched with rockets, the fasted delivery systems on earth, making this threat really tough to counter. Enter the missile defense interceptor.
If you want to stop a rocket, you use another rocket. An interceptor flies out at high velocity into the path of the incoming warhead, destroying it in midair. Its radar detects an incoming warhead and alerts your Battle Management System that aims and fires. All this only takes a few minutes. It’s like shooting clay pigeons. The interceptor is wicked fast, but so is the warhead, so we aim at a point in front of the target, so they arrive at that spot together.
The marquis example is THAAD, which I developed a few years ago. It utilizes a powerful radar and an interceptor that flies at twice the speed of a rifle bullet. The radar can also be tipped off by a SBIRS satellite, allowing it to focus and pick up the warhead earlier. THAAD is ideal for short range to medium range threats, but it can also handle ICBMs within a smaller area. It can operate above the atmosphere or closer in, where decoys will be stripped away. It’s a great underlay for systems designed to defend large swaths of the country from ICBMs and works well with its own underlay of systems like Patriot that defend against cruise missiles. Layering is vital.
Israel’s Iron Dome system is quite good, but there’s one big challenge when we look at the United States: geography. Israel is only 85 miles wide vs. America’s 2,600 miles. But don’t worry, it turns out that we already have the most capable missile defense technology in the world. We just need more of them… Plus one extra for the dreaded hypersonic.
The United States requires a three-layered defense:
An ICBM killer that takes a first shot and efficiently covers the entire country,
a sea-based system off our coasts, and
a regional defender providing an underlay for population centers.
It’s there for North Korean ICBMs. It also does an okay job with Iran. But it would do better if it were also deployed on that side of the country. This technology is being updated right now with Lockheed Martin’s Next Generation Interceptor (NGI). So for our US Iron Dome ICBM element, we just need to finish NGI and base them in Alaska, the Northeast, and perhaps the South.
We already have a highly capable sea-based missile defense system on Aegis Cruisers using the Standard Missile family.
Ships would be posted off both coasts and in the Gulf of America.
And, finally, a THAAD battery or two would provide the underlay for each US region.
Some would be located near major metropolitan areas providing a “point” defense against an ICBM “leaker”.
Boom! Done. A practical American Golden Dome could begin deployment right now.
What about maneuvering hypersonics? This is a unique physics challenge. That’s why China and Russia have been investing in it. Remember my earlier trap shooting analogy? This threat seeks to defeat an interceptor by waiting until after you “shoot” and then swerving out of your path.
We could kill it in terminal flight, just over its target. If it maneuvers then, it misses…. But we’d have to put a THAAD battery in every city, which would be impractical. There’s only one way to do this. We need an interceptor that travels at the speed of light, aka: Directed Energy (lasers).
The saying inside the community is that “directed energy is ALWAYS ten years away”. That was true for so long, that no one noticed when it wasn’t. I developed a practical system that killed rockets and drones over ten years ago using a commercial laser source. We can develop a system to be based on a constellation of satellites that would monitor large regions of the country and destroy hypersonic gliders in any part of their flight path from space. Having also developed hypersonics myself, I can tell you that they are fast, but not very sturdy.
We have all the tools for America’s Golden Dome. We can start deploying the first elements tomorrow. Congress just needs to act.
Exposing The Chinese “Rent-A-Womb” Industry In America
Federal officials are targeting a long-running underground birth tourism industry in California, where Chinese nationals pay baby brokers to ensure their children are born as U.S. citizens.
Authorities say pregnant women are often housed in upscale homes and apartments near Los Angeles—dubbed “baby farms” by locals. These illegal operations can charge over $100,000 per pregnancy, according to NewsNation.
“This was an industry,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. “These were criminal enterprises that operated here in the United States and also people in China who would recruit. The organizers… were responsible for the birth tourism of thousands of babies. They had a system in place.”
McNally estimates that roughly 30,000 babies were born through these schemes.
NewsNation reports that hotels and motels across the U.S. have reported an influx of pregnant Chinese women staying for months to give birth on American soil.
For wealthier couples, another route is surrogacy—paying American women to carry their child. These babies, born with U.S. citizenship, often return to China immediately after birth.
“Anytime somebody has a U.S. passport, it means they have access to the United States,” warned Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. He cited a case where a baby born in Irvine later joined the Chinese military while still holding a U.S. passport. “That provides a real national security asset to China. And a real problem to the United States,” he said.
While not illegal, McNally said the trend is deeply concerning.
Parham Zar, head of a Beverly Hills surrogacy agency, said at one point 90% of his clients were Chinese, with surrogacy packages costing around $200,000. He defended the practice: “It is a misnomer in this field that people are just coming here to be a U.S. citizen… I haven’t met anyone who had nefarious intentions of having a child.”
Still, the issue has drawn political scrutiny. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) called it “strange and dystopian,” adding: “We need to be having a national dialogue… whether we should be interpreting our own laws to be allowing the buying and selling of children essentially or the buying and selling of wombs.”
Though Dr. Mark Burhenne has been railing against water fluoridation on his social media accounts and his “Ask the Dentist” podcast, he never thought he’d see it banned from so many public water supplies in his lifetime.
A landmark ruling in September that directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to address the “unreasonable” risk fluoride in drinking water poses to lowering IQ in children has become a tipping point, Berhenne told The Epoch Times in an email. The decision has motivated large numbers of local and state governments to ban fluoride in their water supplies.
“Change like this isn’t going to happen overnight, but this was the kind of momentum we’ve been waiting for,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d see this kind of progress on fluoride in my lifetime, but now? I think it’s possible. It’ll take time—decades, maybe—but the wheels are turning.”
Utah is set to be the first state to ban fluoride in drinking water. At the same time, at least 50 communities nationwide have removed fluoride from water—representing about 4.5 million people—according to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Florida is considering legislation to prevent local governments from adding it to water supplies, and several states are considering reversals of fluoridation mandates.
The chain reaction on the local level is obscured by silence on the federal level, where decades of denials and obfuscation have clouded the contentious public health issue. It remains unresolved and unaddressed, even as new research confirms fluoride health risks. There may be legal loose ends as well. Three days before President Trump took office, EPA’s acting administrator Jane Nishida filed an appeal of the federal court decision under pressure from dental organizations.
Stakeholders Respond
The Epoch Times reached out to the EPA to ask whether it is pursuing the appeal or if it is pursuing action related to the court’s findings.
An agency spokesperson didn’t address specific questions but replied, “In keeping with a longstanding practice, EPA does not comment on pending litigation.”
U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco issued an 80-page ruling in September, which stated “the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA.”
Chen did not order a specific course of action. Currently, the government recommends a fluoride level of 0.7 milligrams per liter (mg/L) in drinking water for the prevention of tooth decay.
“Community water fluoridation is a practical, cost-effective, and equitable way for communities to improve oral health regardless of age, education, or income by preventing cavities. This results in less mouth pain, fewer fillings or teeth pulled, and fewer missed days of work and school,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by several nonprofits led by environmental advocacy organization Food & Water Watch. Chen paused the suit in 2020 to wait for a National Toxicology Program report that was in the works, which was published in August, showing a link between higher amounts of fluoride exposure and a lower IQ in children. The findings were based on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water or approximately 1.4 mg/L.
The American Dental Association (ADA) and other organizations wrote a letter to Nishida requesting the appeal one week before it was filed, noting that the CDC hailed water fluoridation as a top public health achievement, reducing cavities by 25 percent.
“It would be regrettable to compromise nearly 80 years of public health success due to challenges in effectively communicating the science, which often extends beyond the simplicity of a sound bite,” the organizations wrote.
The ADA did not reply to The Epoch Times for an interview request.
Burhenne countered that the EPA’s appeal was surprising in light of overwhelming data.
“It’s hard to see it as anything but a stall tactic. Honestly, it feels like ego is driving their actions at this point, and it’s frustrating,” he said.
The lawsuit findings are sufficient to end water fluoridation, according to Stuart Cooper, executive director of FAN, which was a plaintiff in the suit. The EPA has two years to devise a tactic for protecting the vulnerable from fluoride risks. The neurotoxic effects of fluoride are more prevalent in formula-fed infants, African Americans, and undernourished people.
Cooper said new EPA rules could be designed either to ban municipalities from buying fluoride—which is a manmade chemical form of the mineral—or somehow inform every pregnant woman of the risks to fetal and child development from drinking fluoridated water. The latter seems so out of reach that Cooper doesn’t conceive any option outside of ceasing the practice.
Other federal agencies could also step in and take action, Cooper told The Epoch Times, including the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which sets fluoride limits in drinking water and is headed by long-time fluoride opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We expect to see CDC and HHS to change their stance in the coming months,” Cooper said. “In the meantime, HHS is currently promoting water fluoridation, they are providing grants to communities for the infrastructure so they can initiate fluoridation, and they spend tax dollars on PR campaigns in favor of fluoridation.”
He added that nothing would prevent HHS or the CDC from updating recommendations on the optimal upper limit of fluoride to zero, much like HHS and the EPA did when they lowered the upper limit of fluoride from 1.2 mg/L to 0.7 mg/L in 2011.
The Epoch Times reached out to several federal agencies to ask whether the new administration plans to issue advisories or launch new studies on fluoride. Agencies that responded referred questions to the EPA.
Cooper said neither a pending appeal nor the EPA’s legal directive prevents other agencies from stepping in to take action. Also, he pointed out that the new administration isn’t beholden to following through on the appeal.
“The CDC and HHS can act unilaterally outside of that. They can put out an advisory and end the promotion of water fluoridation tomorrow,” he said. “I imagine they’re busy right now. It hasn’t been very long, but it’s going to happen. You’re already watching water fluoridation unravel in real-time.”
RFK Jr: Fluoride Friend or Foe?
Adding to the confusion is a post Kennedy made on X that Trump would “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water” on his first day as President, leaving followers questioning the silence in the weeks since.
Neither Kennedy nor the White House responded to The Epoch Times about why that recommendation wasn’t made.
“Public policy takes time,” Cooper said. “You have to be patient and determined and put your head down and just keep advocating if you believe in something. Eventually I think integrity and truth wins out.”
Burhenne said the nature of Kennedy’s announcement was disappointing and hasn’t helped forge awareness or cooperation.
“It shifted the focus back to polarizing, sensationalized rhetoric—the kind of ‘conspiracy theory’ framing we’ve been trying to avoid. That made things a bit harder, but I don’t think it derailed the progress entirely,” Burhenne said.
New Fluoride Evidence
Another study showing fluoride exposure in children was tied to lowered cognitive abilities was published earlier this month in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Researchers followed 500 women and their children in rural Bangladesh who were exposed to naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water at levels similar to those in the United States. Fluoride exposure was measured through urine, accounting for not only water but also exposure to fluoride in food and dental products, which aren’t considered a significant exposure since they aren’t intended to be ingested.
Fluoride concentrations in children at more than 0.72 mg/L were associated with lower cognitive abilities—including being able to hear or read and then follow instructions—and being able to process and interpret information with their senses. Of note, the associations were only statistically significant when children were 10 years of age and not 5 years of age—although a negative effect was also seen at 5 years.
Beyond Fluoride
Fluoride also highlights a larger problem, Burhenne said, about the state of municipal water supplies, which vary drastically and are filled with carcinogens and other toxins like microplastics, heavy metals, prescription drugs, and other chemicals.
The federal government should have stricter guidelines for water and require more frequent testing, he said. Governments have failed to provide access to safe, clean drinking water, he added, leaving the burden of filtering and purifying water up to homeowners.
Funds used for purchasing and maintaining fluoride systems could be redirected toward improving overall water quality, Burhenne suggested.
“Clean water is fundamental—after all, we’re mostly water ourselves—and the fact that this basic right to clean, uncontaminated water is being overlooked in favor of political and emotional debates is deeply concerning.”
South Korea’s Constitutional Court Nixes Impeachment Of Acting President Han
Monday brought a new twist in South Korea’s ongoing political discord, as the country’s Constitutional Court negated the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and immediately reinstated him as acting president. The country now awaits an even more consequential ruling about the propriety of the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Han’s hold on the presidency proved short-lived, however, as he too was impeached by the National Assembly less than two weeks after taking command. His ouster came after he blocked the appointment of three more justices to the Constitutional Court — a move intended to increase the chances of Yoon’s impeachment. (Justices serve renewable six-year terms, but must retire upon reaching age 70.) He was also accused of aiding and abetting Yoon’s martial law declaration.
Since then, the South Korean government has been led by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok. In a sign that the National Assembly’s impeachment fever is still in full force, opposition parties last week put forward a motion to impeach Choi too, as they have been angered by his frequent vetoes of legislation and his procrastination in appointing a new, left-leaning Constitutional Court justice who’s already been approved by the assembly.
That brings us to Monday, when the Constitutional Court decisively struck down Han’s impeachment in a 7-1 ruling. The reasoning differed among the justices, with somesaying Hans actions cited by the assembly weren’t illegal, others saying they were insufficiently serious to warrant impeachment, and some saying the impeachment motion itself didn’t reach requisite two-thirds majority.
While Han’s case has been resolved, tension is soaring as the country awaits the court’s ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. The court, which gets the final word on the National Assembly’s impeachments, hasn’t said when it will announce a decision. If Yoon’s impeachment is upheld, South Korea must elect a new president within 60 days. Otherwise, he will retake the presidency, which would surely cause even more national friction.
As anxiety over the pending Yoon decision increases, huge demonstrations have been organized in recent days by both supporters and opponents of Yoon. Saturday saw dueling protests in Seoul comprising tens of thousands split into two dueling, chanting masses separated by a makeshift barrier composed of police buses.
Polls in recent weeks showed that South Koreans preferred Mr. Yoon’s ouster to his reinstatement roughly three to two. But in a deeply divided nation, Parliament’s decision to impeach him has also galvanized the political right. — New York Times
In another visible sign of the perceived volatility of the situation, the Constitutional Court’s physical security has been enhanced, with razor wire now seen atop its walls. Rhetoric is running hot. “If President Yoon is not reinstated, there will be a civil war,” Pastor Jun Kwang-hoon, who has organized pro-Yoon demonstrations, told a crowd on Saturday. He says the drive to restore Yoon to office is a battle against “Communist reds.”
Despite Jun’s prediction, as is the case in the West, the likelihood of political violence might be higher if the left comes out on the losing end. As Sogang University political science professor Shang E. Ha told the Times:
“If [the Constitutional Court] endorses Yoon’s impeachment, there will be some commotion, but the political landscape will quickly shift toward a presidential election. But if he returns to office, even those who have been waiting patiently for a ruling will take to the streets. We will see riots.”
That’s not to say the South Korean right is thoroughly nonviolent. When a judge issued a warrant to arrest Yoon for insurrection in January, Yoon backers vandalized a courthouse. On another occasion, two Yoon partisans self-immolated to protest his impeachment.
Bracing for the Yoon ruling, South Korea is set to imposea range of extraordinary measures for the day of the announcement: Some 14,000 police will be on standby, schools will close, and authorities have called for trash bins, rocks, empty bottles and other potential makeshift weapons to be removed from the streets.
