Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed telecommunications company AT&T for 13 years of phone records for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

The committee’s Democrat minority first revealed the subpoena in a memo between the minority members on Tuesday. Republican majority staff confirmed the AT&T subpoena in an email to NTD News on Wednesday.

The subpoena comes as Republican House investigators continue an impeachment inquiry into allegations President Biden facilitated influence peddling through his family’s various business dealings throughout his political career. Witnesses in their impeachment inquiry have alleged the elder Biden ended up on the phone during multiple business meetings involving his son.

Devon Archer, a businessman who worked with Hunter Biden on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, has also claimed company executives urged Mr. Biden to “call D.C.” at a time when the company was facing pressure from Ukrainian government investigations. Mr. Archer testified that Mr. Biden may have “called D.C.”—potentially alluding to then-Vice President Joe Biden—during a business trip to Dubai on or around Dec. 4, 2015. According to a Republican timeline, then-Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine just days after the Dec. 4 call and communicated a request that Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin be removed from office.

Mr. Comer noted Mr. Archer’s testimony in his March 6 subpoena cover letter to AT&T.

Mr. Comer’s records request may also cover a personal phone line that President Biden used during his time as the Vice President.

“The Oversight Committee has identified payments made by Hunter Biden for what appear to be bills associated with his own use, and a cellphone line for his father’s use,” Mr. Comer’s May 6 letter reads. “Based on records reviewed by the Committees, the total amount paid by Hunter Biden for his father’s use appears to be over $15,000, which was for a personal line Joe Biden utilized while Vice President.”

Mr. Comer said Eric Schwerin—whom he described as a “close confidant” of the president and his son—testified to cutting a check from President Biden to Mr. Biden to repay his son for the phone bill.

The subpoena calls on AT&T to turn over records since Jan. 1, 2011, of customer accounts in Hunter Biden’s name and in the names of three of his known business entities: Owasco P.C., Rosemont Seneca Paitners, LLC, and Rosemont Seneca Advisors, LLC. The subpoena gives the telecommunications company until March 20 to produce these records.

Democrats Say Subpoena ‘Outrageously Broad and Invasive’

Committee Democrats have routinely insisted their Republican counterparts have little to no evidence to support the ongoing investigation into the Biden family. The minority side reiterated those conclusions in their latest memo addressing the AT&T subpoena.

“Rather than acknowledging the collapse of their allegations and failure of this investigation, Chairman Comer has instead decided to issue a subpoena, in secret, to compel AT&T to produce over 15 years’ worth of “account information, communications, and payment history of all AT&T accounts affiliated with Robert Hunter Biden,” the March 12 minority memo states.

Committee Democrats continued to cast these latest Republican investigative steps as unduly intrusive and faulted the majority for citing Mr. Schwerin’s testimony in their subpoena despite not releasing the full transcript from Mr. Schwerin’s Jan. 30 congressional testimony.

“Chairman Comer’s justification for this outrageously broad and invasive subpoena is flimsy at best. In the cover letter accompanying his subpoena to AT&T, Chairman Comer points to testimony from Eric Schwerin,” the minority memo reads. “. . .Mr. Schwerin’s statements during his transcribed interview—a transcript that Chairman Comer has refused to release publicly—makes clear that this payment was pedestrian and innocuous.”

Democrats provided an excerpt of Mr. Schwerin’s transcribed interview in which he described the AT&T account Mr. Biden paid for as a multi-line “friends and family account” for which “Hunter would pay the full bill and his dad would reimburse him for his line.”

According to the testimony excerpt, Mr. Schwerin said the monthly phone bill was about $100 to $120, and President Biden reimbursed his son for a period of about six months. The apparent reimbursements Mr. Schwerin describes in this testimony excerpt do not add up to the “over $15,000” figure Mr. Comer alleged Mr. Biden paid in total over the years to cover his father’s phone bill. NTD News reached out to Republican staff for clarification on the apparent discrepancy in the phone payments but did not receive a response by press time.

Committee Republicans are pressing on with their investigation into the Biden family, despite the pushback coming from Democrats.

Last week, the Republican majority extended an invitation for Mr. Biden to testify again, this time in a public setting along with other past witnesses in the investigation. Mr. Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has since formally rejected the invitation.

Mr. Lowell said his client has a court hearing in California the following day, but also said the scheduling conflict is the “least of the issues“ with the invite. Hunter Biden’s attorney went on to describe the Republican hearing invitation as an “obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended.”

From NTD News

Meet the WindRunner. At a jaw-dropping 365 feet long and 79 feet tall, it’s a cargo plane unlike anything the world has seen before — stretching 80 feet longer than the current champ, the Russian Antonov An-124. Also unlike other massive planes, this one is built to carry just one specific kind of cargo: The world’s largest wind turbine blades, which could be longer than a football field in coming years. 

Don’t look for the WindRunner in the sky just yet. For now, it’s merely a design, albeit one that’s already seven years in the making.

As first reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, the plane is the brainchild of MIT-educated aerospace engineer Mark Lundstrom, whose Boulder-headquartered startup, Radia, will need a few more years of design work and certification. If the plane comes to life, it could fundamentally change the economics of wind energy. 

Bigger blades are far more efficient than smaller ones, as they can capture more wind and are positioned higher, where winds blow more constantly. However, the size of onshore wind turbines are currently limited by the transportation limits imposed by ground infrastructure. Specifically, to turn corners and fit under highway overpasses, blades for onshore turbines can’t exceed 230 feet, according to Radia.

That means that, today, the largest blades can only be employed in offshore wind farms. There, however, the high cost of building towers in the ocean is prompting many utilities to sour on the concept. The bad financials on sea and land have contributed to a wave of both offshore and onshore project cancellations, slashing a planned 8.5 gigawatts of wind power. 

“Radia estimates the larger turbines could reduce the cost of energy by up to 35% and increase the consistency of power generation by 20% compared with today’s onshore turbines.” — WSJ

Avoiding public highways and roads altogether will require that each onshore project is outfitted with a custom-made, 6,000-foot, packed-dirt runway for WindRunner to land on.  

The larger blades will render far more of United States viable for potential wind projects, as depicted in these Radia graphics that compare standard onshore wind energy to “Gigawind” employing the much longer blades and far larger turbines: 

However, the scale of the envisioned giant turbines is certain to cause an uproar among people who live near proposed wind farms: The Journal describes them as “roughly as tall as the U.S. Capitol with the Washington Monument stacked on top.” 

You can read the Wall Street Journal’s full report here. 

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

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani may be forced to sell his homes in New York and Florida to raise cash for a massive defamation judgment against him as he works his way through bankruptcy proceedings, according to court statements by attorneys.

Mr. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2023, a day after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers who sued him for defamation while he was a lawyer for former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Giuliani listed liabilities of $100 million to $500 million and assets of as much as $10 million, according to a bankruptcy form that was filed on Dec. 21 at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Attorneys said during a March 13 status conference at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York that several of Mr. Giulani’s properties may be put up for sale to raise cash to pay off his nearly $153 million debt, the bulk of which is the $148 million defamation judgment, according to Bloomberg Law.

Heath Berger, of Berger Fischoff Shumer Wexler & Goodman LLP, who represents Mr. Giuliani, said in court on Wednesday that a draft listing agreement for Mr. Giuliani’s New York condo is being finalized, while Philip Dublin, of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, said that a committee representing Mr. Giuliani’s unsecured creditors is working on putting his Palm Beach, Florida, property up for sale, per the report.

Mr. Giuliani’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the development.

Defamation Judgment

While the values of some of Mr. Giuliani’s debts were listed as “unknown” in his bankruptcy filing, the biggest specified liability was the $148 million a federal jury ordered him to pay to Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, the two former Georgia election workers.

Other creditors listed in Mr. Giuliani’s bankruptcy filing include the New York State Department of Taxation and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with Mr. Giuliani’s total liabilities owed to the government totaling nearly $1 million.

In October 2023, the IRS put a federal tax lien of nearly $500,000 on Mr. Giuliani’s Palm Beach condo, which at the time was appraised at around $3 million.

At the time, the IRS said Mr. Giuliani owes them nearly $550,000 in unpaid income taxes for 2021, with his political advisor, Ted Goodman, telling media outlets that Mr. Giuliani had entered into a formal agreement with the IRS to pay off the liability.

The $148 million payout demanded by the judge stems from a lawsuit in which Mr. Giuliani was accused of defaming the two former election workers with false accusations that they committed voter fraud while counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election.

The two election workers claimed they were subjected to relentless abuse after they were identified in a video clip that became widely circulated after the 2020 general election. In the video, the election workers are seen allegedly mishandling ballots.

However, an investigation by the Georgia Elections Board cleared Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss of any wrongdoing.

‘Equivalent of a Death Penalty’

Mr. Giuliani’s attorney, Joseph Sibley, told the court after the $148 million judgment was issued that the multimillion-dollar payout would spell “the end” for his client and that it would be “the civil equivalent of a death penalty.”

The former New York mayor opted not to contest allegations that he made false statements in the defamation lawsuit brought by the two election workers, though his adviser said it was a legal tactic to allow the case to move forward.

Mr. Giuliani has defended his claims about the former election workers and told reporters on Dec. 11—the day the defamation damages trial began—that “everything I said about them is true.”

Mr. Giuliani, who served as former President Trump’s legal adviser in 2020, has faced other financial troubles.

In September 2023, Mr. Giuliani’s former lawyers sued him over allegations that he failed to pay roughly $1.36 million in legal fees. Mr. Giuliani has said he believes the amount being sought is too much.

Besides financial woes, Mr. Giuliani is also facing disbarment over a lawsuit he filed challenging the 2020 election results.

In July 2023, a District of Columbia disciplinary panel recommended that Mr. Giuliani be disbarred because he allegedly violated two legal ethics rules in what the panel described as a “frivolous” lawsuit.

In particular, the disciplinary panel found that Mr. Giuliani made sweeping claims of voter fraud that failed to adequately support with evidence.

In November 2023, Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers urged the disciplinary board to reject the panel’s recommendation that would strip him of his law license.

Why has the United States become the default retreat for migrants whenever a national crisis arises somewhere in the world? There are almost 200 countries on the planet yet only America is consistently called upon to take on the burden of other nation’s problems. The socialist argument for this is a typical one – America is “rich” and should pay a price for the wealth they enjoy. Yet, whenever America intervenes in a foreign problem the same people cry foul and make accusations of “colonialism.” The answer, it would seem, is to stay out of such matters completely and that includes cutting off mass migrations.

However, those who understand the bigger picture know that there is an agenda underway, not to help desperate migrants and refugees with the wealth of western civilization, but to use those people as a weapon to deconstruct western civilization.  

We are all aware of the continuing saga of the US southern border and the Biden Administration’s clear intent to leave it wide open for millions of illegal immigrants every year (the Democrat border legislation recently on the table was rejected widely by Republicans exactly because it allowed for the continuing tide of migrants at the rate of millions per year).  But, there are also more quiet attempts to ship in refugees from conflicts around the world, including the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the civil breakdown in Haiti.

Haiti in particular is being suggested as a potential hot spot that will lead to mass relocation to the US, specifically Florida.  Federal agencies and Biden officials are, of course, reticent to answer questions about the possibility of a migrant crisis from Haiti and refuse to make a definitive public statement on stopping such an event from unfolding.  

🚨HATIAN INVASION INCOMING:

DoD officials testify before the House Armed Services Committee that the Biden Administration is anticipating mass migration from Haiti into the US via Florida. pic.twitter.com/gCnidVeXgu

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 12, 2024

The majority of the people from these places would have ideologies that are completely incompatible with western values, and maybe that’s the point.  Maybe the goal is to drop these groups right into the middle of American communities as a way to wreak havoc?  It’s happened before; consider the Caribbean migrant crisis that started in 1980 under the Carter Administration.

Featuring a combination of hundreds of thousands of Cuban and Haitian migrants, the Mariel Boatlift was an incident that changed US crime trends for decades and left an indelible mark on popular culture. In 1978, Carter sought to reduce restrictions on Cuban travel to the US and lift the embargo on trade.  Haitian immigrants began to slip into the US using makeshift boats at this time and this triggered a Cuban movement to relocate as well.  Carter’s lax policy of accepting Cuban and Haitian refugees in the same manner had opened the gateway to a Caribbean migration explosion.  

Famously depicted in the 1983 film Scarface and the 1984 drama television series Miami Vice, the crime wave that erupted in the face of the migrant surge in Florida was not fictional, it was very real and it made a long lasting impression on American society.  Carter initially instituted migrant camps as a way to process refugees and determine if they were legitimate, but these efforts were half-hearted and eventually broke down.  

Fidel Castro had played his strategy beautifully, using America as a steam valve to get rid of thousands of hardened criminals and malcontents from Cuba.  The communists could no longer afford to keep such people in prison, so they simply let them out and sent them to the US.  Castro had plenty of help from the other side, though, as US bureaucrats accepted the majority of them without question.  

Mixed into the hordes of violent criminals were also communist agitators and spies, along with people who would quickly and efficiently establish organized syndicates and drug cartels.  Florida’s crime rate skyrocketed from 1980 through the 1990s as migrants poured into the state.  

To be sure, there were good people among the refugees.  Some of the most staunch anti-communists are Cubans who came to America in the 1980s.  Also, a percentage of the rise in crime could be attributed to the stagflationary crisis which was in full swing in the early 1980s, but data from the era shows a distinctly higher criminal arrest rate for migrants arriving in the US through Mariel.  It was a fact: Migrants were causing a considerable spike in violence and murders in Florida.

Keep in mind that the caliber of criminals coming from Haiti today would probably be even more dangerous than in the 1980s.  With eyewitness reports of mass murder and cannibalism ongoing in the region (which the corporate media and State Department have tried to dismiss), one wonders how many of these people would slip through the cracks and get into the US under Joe Biden?  It’s highly unlikely that Biden would even go as far as Jimmy Carter in establishing migrant camps and a rudimentary vetting process.  That would be considered by the political left to be “racially insensitive” or “fascist” and calls for unfiltered immigration would be constant.

It was Carter’s reckless handling of immigration and stagflation (sound familiar?) that led to his eventual election loss to Ronald Reagan, but the damage had already been done.   

The majority of countries in the world have strict migrant policies, seeking out only successful and productive people that add value to the national economy.  The US, on the other hand, is expected to do the opposite.  Why?  The only rational answer is that it serves the interests of the establishment to see American society undermined.  One can debate the end game of this plan, but the process in motion is obvious.           

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

Toronto Police have given advice to residents worried about the city’s spiraling auto theft problem – just let thieves steal your car by leaving them the keys.

Yes, really.

Authorities are literally telling people that to stop criminals attacking them inside their home, they should just leave the key fob for the car at the front door.

Canadian police are encouraging people to leave their car keys in the front to avoid conflict with thieves

This is what an unarmed society looks like

pic.twitter.com/MUnAcSe7kV

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 14, 2024

Toronto Police Service Constable Marco Ricciardi said, “To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your [key] fobs at your front door because they’re breaking into your home to steal your car. They don’t want anything else.”

And believe it or not, some people are actually taking the advice.

“Spoken or not, though, some Torontonians have evidently taken the advice to heart,” reports the Drive.

“Like one person who—after having their vehicle broken into three times—opted to leave their car unlocked (along with a big, handwritten note indicating this) so that would-be thieves don’t break the window again.”

Respondents on X expressed their anger at the idiocy.

“This is what an unarmed society looks like,” remarked one.

Welcome to @JustinTrudeau’s Canada.

Where guns are illegal. Except criminals have them, and you don’t.

And the police are imploring you to leave your keys at the front door so armed criminals can steal your cars, and hopefully spare your life.

It’s been a while since I’ve said… pic.twitter.com/I24IhC1LNF

— Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) March 14, 2024

“Where guns are illegal. Except criminals have them, and you don’t,” commented lawyer Viva Frei.

“And the police are imploring you to leave your keys at the front door so armed criminals can steal your cars, and hopefully spare your life. It’s been a while since I’ve said it, but FUCK YOU Justin Trudeau!”

One car is stolen in Canada every six seconds.

Toronto has experienced such a massive epidemic of car thefts that people are having to go to extraordinary lengths to try to combat it given the police seem completely disinterested.

“One Toronto resident, Dennis Wilson, told the Times that he has to set aside an extra 15 minutes in his commutes to account for his many security measures, which include two car alarms, a tracking device, four Apple AirTags, motion-sensitive floodlights and a key fob kept in a hack-proof Faraday bag,” reports blogTo.

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

The Houthis on Thursday claimed to have successfully tested a hypersonic missile for the first time while touting that it could eventually be used against Israel, and would easily be able to reach the Jewish state. Missiles are dubbed hypersonic that can travel at a speed of Mach 5 or higher.

The Yemeni rebel group backed by Iran says the missile it tested can travel at eight times the speed of sound. “Missile forces of the movement have successfully tested a missile that can reach speeds of up to Mach 8 [6,200 miles per hour] and is powered by solid fuel,” a Houthis spokesman told Sputnik. Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency also initially reported the claim.

“Yemen plans to begin manufacturing it for use in attacks in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel,” the statement threatened. At those speeds, inbound missiles become much harder for conventional anti-air systems to defend against.

The Associated Press has speculated that the Houthis adding hypersonic missiles to their arsenal is the ‘surprise’ which was previewed by a spokesman last month:

In Yemen, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthi rebels’ secretive supreme leader, boasted about the rebels’ weapons efforts at the end of February, saying: “We have surprises that the enemies do not expect at all.”

A week ago, he similarly warned: “What is coming is greater.”

“The enemy … will see the level of achievements of strategic importance that place our country in its capabilities among the limited and numbered countries in this world,” al-Houthi said, without elaborating.

Already many dozens of vessels have come under attack, including attempted drone and missile attacks against US warships. The Western coalition’s sporadic offensive counterattacks have so far done nothing to blunt Houthi resolve.

As for whether the Houthis actually possess a hypersonic missile or not – it true then there’s a high likelihood they received it from Iran. Just last year, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – widely believed to be on the ground in Yemen currently – unveiled its hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile called the Fattah II. However, later in the afternoon Thursday the Pentagon rejected the claims:

PENTAGON SAYS REPORTS THAT THE HOUTHIS HAVE HYPERSONIC MISSILES ARE INACCURATE

Meanwhile, the US government is seeking to apprehend the “IRGC’s Man In Sanaa”…

Abdul Reza Shahla’i, the IRGC’s Man in Sana’a, is wanted for Justice ⚖️

The U.S. Department of State is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to Shahla’i or to the disruption of the IRGC’s financial mechanisms in Yemen and in the region. pic.twitter.com/cyiojVfPmL

— Rewards for Justice عربي (@Rewards4Justice) December 5, 2019

Clearly the Houthi arsenal is expanding, and Washington has long accused Tehran of being behind it, a charge which stretches back years. Their drone arsenal is also growing more sophisticated. 

Authored by Vance Voetberg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

For over half a century, Americans have been taught a simple explanation for the nation’s No. 1 killer: that saturated fat clogs our arteries, leading to heart failure.

This diet-heart hypothesis, first put forth in the 1960s by physiologist Ancel Keys, remains firmly lodged in popular consciousness. But unbeknownst to most, modern medical research now understands heart disease to be far more complex than a matter of meat and butter consumption alone.

Inflammatory Link Between Immune System and Heart Disease

Inflammation is a leading theory for explaining the root of heart disease, according to Dr. Barbara Roberts, director of the Women’s Cardiac Center at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

In a 2023 report published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, researchers made a scientific case for why inflammation may underlie heart disease, especially atherosclerotic heart disease—hardening of the arteries due to plaque buildup—which accounts for most cardiovascular events.

Just as the body mounts an immune response to infection or injury, a similar inflammatory reaction occurs in heart disease. The adaptive immune system has been shown to have an association with heart disease risk due to sustained chronic inflammation, according to the study.

“Although immune cells are integral key players of cardiac healing, an unbalanced or unresolved immune reaction after [myocardial infarction] aggravates tissue damage that triggers maladaptive remodeling and heart failure,” according to a 2021 European Heart Journal review.

In a 2022 Journal of Molecular Science report, researchers noted that atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease in which balancing inflammatory immune system agents determines disease progression or resolution.

LDL Quality–Not Just Quantity–Matters

Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) act as cholesterol transporters in the body, carrying it where needed to synthesize hormones. LDL also plays a supporting immune role, defending against pathogens and oxidative stress, according to research. However, poor lifestyle factors like diet, smoking, and inactivity can overwhelm the immune system, resulting in LDL oxidation.

Emerging evidence indicates oxidized LDL—not total LDL—is key in heart disease. When oxidized, LDL carriers break down into smaller particles unable to attach to liver receptors. These particles then float freely in the blood, damaging arterial walls.

Contrary to logic, smaller oxidized particles present a higher risk than larger LDL. “Even if you have low LDL cholesterol with high LDL particle count, you can have a greater chance of heart disease than someone with cholesterol that is through the roof but has a low LDL particle count,” Jonny Bowden, who holds a doctorate in holistic nutrition and is a board-certified nutritionist and author, told The Epoch Times.

A 2020 study spanning eight years published in the Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis showed that individuals with the highest levels of small-dense LDL particles had over a five times greater risk of developing heart disease than those with the lowest levels.

High LDL particle count doubled the risk of peripheral arterial disease—where narrowed blood vessels reduce blood flow to the limbs—while LDL level had no association, according to a 2018 study of almost 28,000 women 45 years old or older published in Circulation.

“A higher amount of omega-6 in the LDL makes it more susceptible to oxidation,” James DiNicolantonio, a cardiovascular research scientist and doctor of pharmacy at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, told The Epoch Times. On the other hand, when LDL lacks antioxidants such as Coenzyme Q10 and carotenoids, and there is more inflammation in the body, LDL can also undergo oxidation, he added.

Insulin Resistance Emerges as Key Driver

Insulin facilitates glucose transportation and storage. Insulin resistance occurs when cells don’t respond to insulin and cannot easily store circulating glucose. While known as a Type 2 diabetes precursor, insulin resistance may also contribute to heart disease progression, indicates research.

A 2022 study of 110,000 adults published in Diabetes Care linked insulin resistance and heart disease risk. In prediabetic adults, only those with insulin resistance and obesity had higher cardiovascular risk versus those with normal glucose tolerance. In diabetic adults, cardiovascular risk persisted regardless of obesity.

A 2023 study in the Journal of International Medical Research explained that while the mechanisms connecting insulin resistance and heart disease remain unclear, the link has been established. Altered insulin responses result in cardiometabolic disorders like obesity, low-grade inflammation, and hypertension—all atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease precursors. Lifestyle changes like proper dieting and avoiding sedentary behavior are essential to manage insulin resistance and minimize cardiovascular risk, the authors noted.

A 2019 review in Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews also argued that insulin resistance is potentially the single most important cause of coronary artery disease.

Nutrient Deficiency

The introduction of processed foods such as refined sugar and seed oils is closely linked to worsened heart health. A lack of nutrients is also to blame for increased cardiovascular disease, according to Mr. DiNicolantonio. “A lack of any essential nutrient will speed/lead to the production of atherosclerosis,” he told The Epoch Times.

Key deficiencies closely tied to heart disease include magnesium and copper. Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, B6, and folate also support heart health.

Despite his certainty that nutrient deficiency contributes to heart disease, Mr. DiNicolantonio said no single cause explains heart disease. “There are too many mechanisms to try and guess what is the primary cause of heart disease,” he noted.

It starts with violations of his mantra, “Eat Well, Live Well, Think Well,” according to Dr. Jack Wolfson, a board-certified cardiologist. These violations prompt immune activation, inflammation, oxidative stress, nervous system dysfunction, and cell energy issues. “Ultimately, disease is the final outcome,” he added.

Triglycerides as an Independent Risk Factor

Triglycerides, the most abundant blood fat, have a well-documented role in heart disease. Elevated triglyceride levels from poor diet and inactivity disrupt lipid metabolism, increasing the risk of heart disease. High levels of circulating free fatty acids independently contribute to atherosclerosis.

A 2021 Journal of Lipid and Atherosclerosis study of over 1.8 million Korean adults reconfirmed triglycerides as an independent heart disease risk factor, reaffirming findings from studies beginning in the late 1980s showing triglycerides and associated lifestyle factors significantly contribute to heart disease development.

Following a devastating cyberattack on the nation’s largest health insurers that sparked chaos across the entire healthcare payments system, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group and other industry leaders met with White House officials on Tuesday. Simultaneously, the Department of Health and Human Services has opened up an investigation into the incident. 

The cyberattack against UnitedHealth and its subsidiary Change Healthcare was first detected on Feb. 21. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, this forced UnitedHealth to sever some of Change Healthcare’s digital payment networks from its clients. Another filing said the company is working to restore payment systems this week. 

Bloomberg said that “halting the normal flow of billions of dollars in payments between doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurers” triggered a “paralysis” across the industry as some healthcare clinics were thrown into “financial peril” in recent weeks. 

“I can’t believe we’re in this mess,” said Kathy Oubre, chief executive officer of Pontchartrain Cancer Center in southeast Louisiana, adding, “It’s going to take us months to dig out.”

The impact of a cyber attack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, is still being felt three weeks later.

Billions of dollars in payments have been stopped. Ike Swetlitz reports https://t.co/J91WWOo1vd pic.twitter.com/8OF0SwBfs0

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) March 13, 2024

The extent of the cyberattack is still unknown. However, UnitedHealth told Forbes it’s working with local and federal officials to figure that out. UnitedHealth has named BlackCat, also known as ALPHV and Noberus, as the ransomware group behind the attack. The group reportedly posted on the dark web, claiming it had accessed “more than 6 TB of highly selective data, ” including medical and dental records and payment information.

On Tuesday, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty and other industry leaders met with White House officials to discuss the ransomware attack. The magnitude of the attack is realized when understanding that Change Healthcare processes 33% of medical payments in the US, hence why the federal government is extremely worried. 

The US Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that it has launched an investigation into the attack:

“Given the unprecedented magnitude of this cyberattack, and in the best interest of patients and health care providers, OCR is initiating an investigation into this incident.” 

The statement continued:

“Ransomware and hacking are the primary cyber-threats in health care. Over the past five years, there has been a 256% increase in large breaches reported to OCR involving hacking and a 264% increase in ransomware… The large breaches reported in 2023 affected over 134 million individuals, a 141% increase from 2022.”

Dr. Celine Gounder, an editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, called the incident “the biggest ever cybersecurity attack on the American health care system ever.” 

“This is a system, Change Healthcare, that processes medical payments and touches one out of every three patients in this country. So the magnitude of the scope of this attack is really quite large,” Gounder said. 

UnitedHealth’s market capitalization has lost about 39 billion dollars since the attack was first reported late last month. Its current market cap stands at around 449 billion dollars. 

“We are committed to providing relief for people affected by this malicious attack on the US health system,” UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty said in the update.

Witty continued, “All of us at UnitedHealth Group feel a deep sense of responsibility for recovery and are working tirelessly to ensure that providers can care for their patients and run their practices, and that patients can get their medications. We’re determined to make this right as fast as possible.”

And according to Axios, cybersecurity experts say UnitedHealth’s merger and acquisition spree is the reason to blame for the security breach. 

Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Decades of animal research point to serious health risks from cellphone radiation exposure, but examining a possible link stops now.

The National Toxicology Program (NTP), tasked with studying potential toxins, recently announced it would no longer investigate evidence that cellphone radiation can harm animals or people. The move stunned scientists like Devra Davis, a former senior adviser to the assistant secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, who called the abrupt reversal scientifically unjustified.

There’s “no scientific explanation or justification for this sudden reversal,” Ms. Davis told The Epoch Times.

Unpublished NTP Research Undermines Decision to Halt Cellphone Radiation Studies

The NTP recently claimed that additional radiofrequency radiation (RFR) studies are not planned, stating the research was “technically challenging and more resource-intensive than expected.”

Ms. Davis criticized this decision, noting that technical challenges are not a reason to avoid studying something that appears to cause cancer in animals. “Everything that we know for sure causes cancer in people will produce it in animals when adequately studied,” she added.

Despite admitting to developing a novel small-scale RFR exposure system in 2019 to clarify earlier findings, the NTP canceled further investigations. This system only studied older 2G and 3G devices, not newer 4G or 5G technologies.

Ms. Davis, a former NTP advisor, said she helped recommend smaller test chambers. The agency takes years to plan studies, so scrapping this project is “beyond my comprehension at this point,” given millions of children’s daily exposure, she noted.

In an emailed statement, the NTP confirmed that although work on the small-scale exposure system and accompanying research has been completed, the results will be publicly available and posted on the agency’s webpage only “when internal reviews are finished.” As of this writing, the 2019 research remains unpublished.

Court Finds FCC Illegally Ignored 5G Health Risks

The NTP published results in 2018 from two-year toxicology studies showing “clear evidence” of associations between 2G/3G cellphone radiation and tumors in male rats. Follow-up research in 2019 revealed DNA damage in the brains, livers, and blood cells of exposed rats and mice.

Despite originally requesting and overseeing these studies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has since dismissed the NTP’s findings, Ms. Davis said.

In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission affirmed outdated 1996 radiation exposure standards for new 5G technologies, which did not even exist then. To justify this, the FDA anonymously produced an unreviewed document in 2020. The Environmental Health Trust (EHT) sued the FCC.

In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled against the FCC. The court said the FCC acted improperly and illegally by keeping its 1996 wireless radiation exposure limits. The court found the FCC ignored evidence that radiation below its current limits can cause adverse health effects besides cancer, noting that the FCC also failed to respond to comments about the environmental harm caused by radiation.

The court ordered revised standards accounting for EHT’s records on risks to children and the environment.

FCC Let Carriers Abandon Landlines

Since 2019, France has mandated cellphones include warnings to keep such devices away from teens and pregnant women’s lower abdomens because of radiation risks. The European Union also funds extensive research on RFR hazards.

“So why are we ignoring animal study results showing harm?” Ms. Davis said. “There’s only one reason: because there’s so much money involved.”

Landlines offered an alternative to cellphones, but the FCC’s 2019 order let carriers abandon copper lines. Companies like Verizon have begun retiring landlines, leaving consumers with only wireless options.

People can still reduce RFR exposure by:

• Not carrying phones in pockets or bras
• Using speakerphone and holding phones away from the head/body
• Keeping devices away from reproductive organs
• Using wired over WiFi internet
• Not sleeping near phones

A lof of macro bad news… Softer-than-expected Retail Sales, hotter-than-expected Producer Prices, Jobless Claims up (from dramatically revised-down levels)… sending rate-cut expectations lower…

Source: Bloomberg

…and tomorrow’s big OpEx gamma unclenching left the ‘bad news is good news’ narrative in the dust, wiping the smiles off many faces…

Bond yields were higher – notably higher – with the long-end significantly underperforming on the day (30Y +10bps,  2Y +5bps)…

Source: Bloomberg

That left 10Y yields back up near their highs of the year…

Source: Bloomberg

And for the second day in a row – higher yields mattered for long-duration stocks…

Source: Bloomberg

Small Caps were monkeyhammered lower today (as were all the majors). Today was the biggest RTY underperformance relative to NQ in a month. A late-day panic-melt-up put some lipstick on an otherwise pg of a day…

Banks were buggered, erasing all the post-NYCB bailout gains…

Another down-day for NVDA!! That’s 4 straight days without a new record high…

Meme stocks and unprofitable tech were dumped…

Source: Bloomberg

‘Most Shorted’ stocks tumbled once again (with no squeeze attempt at all)…

Source: Bloomberg

VIX topped 15 again today…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks remain in a world of their own compared to Fed expectations…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar soared today – its best day in a month – retracing all the pre-payrolls slide…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was clubbed like a bay seal back below $70,000 (with no bounce yet)..

Source: Bloomberg

After another big ETF inflow day yesterday…

Source: Bloomberg

Once again, it was the perps that spanked crypto lower…

Ethereum was also hit hard today, back at two-week lows, below $3800 as the Dencun upgrade completed successfully…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar’s gains were gold’s losses…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices extended their gains to the highest since Nov 6th (WTI back above $81)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, as you’re re-mortgaging the house to pile into more levered bets on NVDA, one thing to bear in mind is that more companies have defaulted around the world since January than in any start to the year since the financial crisis, according to rating agency S&P Global.

This year’s tally of corporate defaults stands at 29, the highest year-to-date count since the 36 recorded during the same period in 2009, according to S&P. There have been 17 defaults in the US, with eight in Europe. The average number of defaults for the same period in the years 2010-23 was slightly more than 16, according to the S&P data.