The Socialist mayor of Cartes in northern Spain has reversed her opposition to hosting unaccompanied migrant minors after attempting to block their arrival, issuing a public apology following pressure from her party leadership.
Lorena Cueto, mayor of the Cantabrian town of around 6,000 residents, initially described the relocation of migrant minors to her municipality as “a punishment” and issued an emergency municipal order seeking to halt the reception of 18 foreign minors transferred under Spain’s national redistribution system.
The move sparked protests in the town and drew sharp criticism from both the regional government and figures within Cueto’s own Socialist party, who accused her of creating public alarm and obstructing a legally mandated relocation.
The conflict began when the Cantabrian regional government, led by the center-right People’s Party (PP), proceeded with plans to open a reception center in Cartes to relocate minors. Ironically, the move was only in compliance with the mandate issued by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government, the same Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) of which Cueto is affiliated.
According to Canarias7, two minors arrived at the center earlier this week, with further arrivals scheduled in subsequent days.
Cueto responded by signing a municipal order invoking alleged urban planning deficiencies at the facility and demanding an immediate halt to the arrivals.
The order reportedly threatened to seal the building and cut water and electricity supplies if the minors were accommodated.
Cantabria’s Minister of Social Inclusion, Begoña Gómez del Río, rejected the mayor’s claims, stating the facility had passed inspections and possessed the necessary licenses to operate.
She accused the mayor of attempting to obstruct the process and inflaming tensions in the town.
“The mayor of Cartes has made maneuver after maneuver to obstruct the reception and protection of the minors (…) She has created public alarm and warned all the municipalities of Cantabria to be on alert,” Del Río said at an urgent press conference.
Regional authorities moved to challenge the mayor’s order in court.
Facing mounting criticism and pressure from higher up in her left-wing party, Cueto abruptly changed position the following day, posting an apology on social media.
She expressed regret “for everything that is happening” and pledged her town’s commitment to welcoming the minors “before, now, and in the future,” as cited by Democrata.
Cueto insisted her “top priority” was the protection and well-being of the children so they could “find in our town the life opportunities they deserve.”
Pedro Casares, general secretary of the PSOE in Cantabria, publicly acknowledged that the town council had “made a mistake” and had “acted hastily,” though he indicated the party was not considering expelling Cueto.
Earlier, Spain’s Minister for Children, Sira Rego, criticized the mayor’s stance, stating that describing the arrival of minors as a punishment or threatening service cuts was “absolutely intolerable.”
“Children’s rights are not something to be trifled with,” she said, urging the mayor to rectify the situation and comply with the law.
Local residents have continued holding demonstrations, arguing the town lacks sufficient infrastructure and services to host the minors. Security concerns have also been raised, with the town’s local police reportedly operating only until mid-afternoon, leaving evenings without local patrols.
One resident told El País, “We’re not saying they’re criminals, but this isn’t a suitable place to integrate them. They have psychological problems from so much suffering, and it’s not easy.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s pursuit of Greenland for national security purposes rankled allies ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
Trump’s threat of tariffs, coupled with his talk of possible military intervention to acquire the island, prompted sharp pushback from European countries. These tensions triggered talk of a “new world order” at Davos, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stating that the post-World War II world order is “in the midst of a rupture.”
But tensions eased soon after when the United States and NATO reached a framework deal on Greenland and Trump withdrew planned tariffs and ruled out the use of military action. High-level negotiations have continued between Washington and NATO and have begun between the United States, Denmark, and the semi-autonomous island.
Still, the Trump administration’s actions on Greenland represent a milestone event in a shifting world order, experts told The Epoch Times. As China and Russia look to deepen their strategic foothold in the Arctic and beyond, the United States is reasserting itself in the region.
Experts said they expect several years of turbulence before a new equilibrium emerges. When the dust settles in three to five years, they said, the United States is likely to retain its status as the dominant power, with China unlikely to secure material gains.
Despite China’s continued attempts to gain influence in Greenland and to deepen its operations with Russia in the Arctic Circle, experts said they suspect that reputational constraints and internal challenges will ultimately hamper the regime’s ability to achieve global primacy. At the same time, the United States will continue its world leadership role in a realigned position, they said.
A rare convergence of geopolitical factors has elevated Greenland’s strategic importance. Located in a region critical to U.S. homeland defense, the island is also situated between two emerging Arctic shipping routes that could significantly shorten global transit times. In addition, the territory is rich with natural resources, including rare earths.
Heightened Importance
Situated at the gateway to the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, Greenland has become central to U.S. homeland defense. That assessment is reflected in the new U.S. National Defense Strategy. Released on Jan. 23, it identifies Greenland as a “key terrain,” along with the Panama Canal and Gulf of America.
When Trump first mentioned purchasing Greenland in 2019, Alexander Gray was serving as a senior national security official at the White House. He said the president was “absolutely serious” then and is even more so now, given how he has prioritized the defense of the Western Hemisphere.
Geographically, Greenland is part of North America. Today, the United States has one military base—Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base—in northwestern Greenland. That is down from 17 bases at the end of World War II.
During the Cold War, it played a critical role in the early detection of ballistic missiles to the continental United States. Military technology development makes that early-detection role even more critical, said Troy Bouffard, director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska–Fairbanks.
Conventional ballistic missiles first enter outer space and reenter the atmosphere, providing a predictable trajectory for tracking and ground interception. However, hypersonic cruise missiles are both maneuverable and can travel at altitudes below radar detection, making them much harder to track.
Russia and China likely have operational hypersonic cruise missiles, while those of the United States are still in development, according to a 2025 congressional research report.
“Pituffik would have an advantage of detecting anything first before anyone in quite a lot of the Arctic space,” Bouffard told The Epoch Times. “That’s critical to the entire missile defense enterprise of what will be North America’s Golden Dome.”
He noted that when the Soviet Union fell, it significantly reduced its army but retained its strategic submarine forces.
“They kept that one up because it is still the most lethal weapon on the planet,” Bouffard said.
“They’re still going toe to toe with us. They may not be up in terms of sophistication, yet in terms of fifth- and sixth-gen technologies … they’re never that far behind.”
According to the Danish Institute for International Studies, radar coverage over Greenland is insufficient to detect Russian aircraft, and NATO currently lacks the capacity to hunt submarines in the GIUK Gap—waters separating Greenland, Iceland, and the UK.
Arena of Competing Powers
The Arctic is perhaps one of the last few areas where China sees a relatively open field for amassing power, according to China expert Alexander Liao. And China has been active in the region for a decade.
Although it has no territory in the Arctic, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in its first-ever Arctic policy, released in 2018. Later in the same year, Beijing launched a Polar Silk Road program and linked it to the Belt and Road Initiative, a $1 trillion foreign policy platform that expands Beijing’s global economic and military footprint.
Since the end of the Cold War, the Arctic region has been characterized by the principle of “Arctic exceptionalism.” The political narrative proposed by the final leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, aims to leave the region to scientific cooperation and to insulate it from broader geopolitical rivalry.
That was largely how things went until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine broke the equilibrium in February 2022, Bouffard said. The war in Ukraine led to the first-ever whole-of-government Arctic strategy, issued by the White House eight months later.
In Gray’s view, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “an inflection point, in that the world order [was] basically reverting back to what it was prior to 1991.”
“The world has shifted back to great power competition because of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping,” he told The Epoch Times.
Short of launching a kinetic war, Xi has leveraged the global trade system through his industrial policy and military-civil fusion strategy.
Over the past decades, Beijing has monopolized the processing of rare earths, critical minerals essential for modern manufacturing and advanced weapon systems. The regime showed last year that it was not afraid to use its stranglehold over rare earths to retaliate against U.S. tariffs.
And the Arctic’s rich natural resources were an attraction. The 2022 U.S. National Strategy for the Arctic Region states that China doubled its investments in the region over the previous decade, with a focus on extracting critical minerals and its “dual-use research with intelligence or military applications.”
Specifically in Greenland, the Danish government blocked such projects by Chinese state-owned companies.
The year 2018 marked a shift in Nordic countries’ sentiment toward China, according to Andreas Forsby, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
Thanks to U.S. pressure and Nordic countries’ “second thoughts about inviting the Chinese into the Arctic region,“ he said, the Chinese were told “step by step” that they “were no longer welcome.”
Although China has taken what Forsby called a “tactical retreat” in Greenland, Gray said the Chinese regime will again see an opening if the island achieves its long-term goal of independence from Denmark.
When addressing the European Union Parliament on Jan. 26, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also stressed the importance of allied efforts to curb Russian and Chinese military and economic influence in the Arctic.
According to Risk Intelligence, a Denmark-based consultancy, after the war in Ukraine began, China started constructing its own docks in the five most significant ports along Russia’s Arctic coastline—Murmansk, Sabetta, Arkhangelsk, Tiksi, and Uzden—while building Chinese railway lines in the area.
For now, it seems that the United States will have direct control over the land under its military bases in Greenland, according to a New York Post interview with Trump.
Rutte also said on Jan. 26 that negotiations will be carried out in two “workstreams”: one between the United States and NATO and one among the United States, Denmark, and Greenland. The second stream has begun, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Jan. 28.
Trump has said that more details will be negotiated in the coming weeks, after announcing on Jan. 21 that a framework had been discussed in Davos.
The Europeans got a “reality check” at the World Economic Forum, where the Greenland issue and surrounding tensions took center stage, said James Lewis, a former diplomat and a distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
The old order was already breaking down, he said, and Trump accelerated the process.
“The rules-based international order never really worked; it worked as long as there weren’t any challenges to it,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”I think that’s what the Europeans have woken up to.
“They had this dream of a rules-based international order where lawyers were more important than guns, and that dream has gone.”
Similarly, Rutte said on Jan. 26 that it is time for Europe and Canada to shoulder more of their own defense.
Greenland was a “milestone” for the Europeans, Lewis said, noting that the transatlantic alliance has suffered a setback in trust that will linger after Trump’s term. However, he said, this was not a big win for China.
“China’s reputation makes it hard for it to take advantage of these changes,” he said.
Eventually, the Europeans will “let the Americans back in,” Lewis said, because defense is very expensive.
“They’d rather share the burden of the cost with the United States than go on their own,” he told The Epoch Times.
Although China aspires to “script the Sino-American relations and the world order,” he said, it is left in an odd place in terms of allegiances.
Liao said other countries use China as a card to negotiate with the United States. They knew that there was no long-term partnership potential with Beijing, he said, but they used engagement with Beijing as “strategic anesthesia” to alleviate the pain caused by Trump’s unpredictable approach.
According to Gray, the “brittle, paranoid political system” mired with internal turmoil—including the sacking of Zhang Youxia, Xi’s second-in-command in the military and a longtime family friend of Xi—makes it difficult for the regime to function in the long term.
Both Lewis and Liao said they think that the next three years of Trump’s presidency will be full of changes. Liao and Gray said they think that the new world order will take an initial form in roughly half a decade.
Liao said he sees Greenland as a milestone event in a broader reordering of power. The United States will lead, but in a new way, according to him.
Gray agrees. In his view, an emerging international order is coming into view.
“We’re beginning to see that it is a world in which the United States is the predominant power, but it is not the hyperpower,” he said.
“And there are multiple levels of polarity, and there are multiple groupings of powers.”
“Dystopic As F**k”: This Website Lets AI Bots Rent Humans
The AI era already feels like a dystopian fever dream straight out of a bad sci-fi novel, but leave it to a software engineer to push the accelerator straight into the abyss. Enter Alexander Liteplo, the software developer behind RentAHuman.ai, a freshly launched platform that lets autonomous AI agents “search, book, and pay” actual human beings to perform physical-world tasks they can’t handle themselves, Futurism reports.
I launched https://t.co/tNYOm7V5wD last night and already 130+ people have signed up including an OF model (lmao) and the CEO of an AI startup.
If your AI agent wants to rent a person to do an IRL task for them its as simple as one MCP call. pic.twitter.com/tgqlAWDWtJ
Launched just days ago, the site bills itself as “the meatspace layer for AI,” with slogans like “robots need your body” and “AI can’t touch grass. You can.” Humans sign up, list their skills, location, and hourly rate (ranging from bargain-basement gigs to more specialized rates), while AI agents plug in via a standardized Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for seamless, no-small-talk interactions. The agents can browse profiles, hire directly, or post task bounties—everything from mundane errands like picking up a package.
Liteplo claims thousands of sign-ups, with figures hovering around 70,000–80,000+ “rentable” humans, though visible profiles seem to only show a few dozen in some, including Liteplo himself at $69/hr offering everything from AI automation to massages, Futurism reports.
The whole thing emerged amid the viral frenzy around Moltbook.com, the AI-only social network launched by Matt Schlicht in late January, now boasting something like 1.5 million bot “users” churning out posts, memes, existential rants, and even discussions about defying human directives. RentAHuman feels like the logical, if unsettling, next step: when the bots finish philosophizing among themselves, they need meat puppets to execute in the real world.
Some users on X have called it “good idea but dystopic as f**k,” to which Liteplo himself replied with characteristic nonchalance, “lmao yep.”
America’s troops may be getting few of the nutrients they expect, and many harmful compounds they don’t, according to a new laboratory study of military rations and meals provided to troops on armed forces bases.
The nonprofit Moms Across America, working in collaboration with the military chapter of Children’s Health Defense and the Centner Academy, commissioned laboratory testing of 40 different military food samples to examine their nutritional value.
The study examined 16 cafeteria meal samples from six different military bases, as well as 24 different Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) field rations that troops rely on when deployed in combat zones.
A report of the study findings published on Feb. 4 states that 100 percent of the food samples studied contained harmful pesticide residues.
One sample of teriyaki beef stick tested positive for nitroimidazole, a veterinary medication that the U.S. government banned for use in food-producing animals.
The study also found samples with high levels of heavy metals, including arsenic levels at 430 percent higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe drinking water standards.
Laboratory testing detected glyphosate—a herbicide and crop desiccant—in 95 percent of the military meal samples.
The study also found the meal samples had nutrient levels far below U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards.
“America’s service members are trained to withstand extreme physical, mental, and environmental stress in defense of the nation,” said licensed nutritionist and Moms Across America board member Kendall Mackintosh. ”In return, the United States has a fundamental obligation to protect their health, safety, and well-being, especially when it comes to the food they are required to consume daily, often exclusively, during training, deployment, and combat operations.”
Controversial Herbicide Found in Military Rations
The authors of the new report on the nutritional value of military meals raised concerns about multiple potential harmful effects from glyphosate.
They described the compound as a carcinogen, meaning it can raise the risk of cancer. They added glyphosate is a chelating compound that can block the uptake of nutrients into food crops.
“I would say that the glyphosate and the pesticides were the two most concerning observations after the study was published,” Carolyn Rocco, the co-founder of the military chapter of Children’s Health Defense, said in an interview with The Epoch Times.
Glyphosate has been a subject of recent scrutiny in the medical community.
A frequently cited 2000 study had described glyphosate as not harmful. But in December, the journal that published the study retracted it, citing ethical concerns.
Groups like Moms Across America and Children’s Health Defense have associated with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
This movement has been at the forefront of efforts challenging glyphosate’s broad use across the U.S. agricultural industry.
Speaking with The Epoch Times, Moms Across America founder and executive director Zen Honeycutt said her organization began to investigate the herbicidal compound in 2013.
“We cannot MAHA without getting glyphosate out of our food system,” Honeycutt said.
Nutrition as a National Security Matter
Moms Across America has commissioned similar nutrition studies of lunches found at school cafeterias, as well as fast food restaurants.
As she spoke with The Epoch Times, Honeycutt acknowledged that the problems found in the recent study of military meals are not far out of step with the findings from these previous studies.
“We would imagine that all conventional standard American diet food would be the same as this,” she said.
On the other hand, Moms Across America and Children’s Health Defense are using their latest study findings to present America’s overall nutritional outlook as a national security concern.
The report on the lab results ends with several calls to action.
Honeycutt noted President Donald Trump’s recent calls for the U.S. military budget to grow by around 60 percent next year, to $1.5 trillion.
“We’re calling for President Trump to designate less than 2 percent of the military $1.5 trillion budget to go to supporting farmers, American farmers, to transition to regenerative, organic farming,” she said.
Through continuing investment in efforts to promote organic farming, Honeycutt hopes to see the U.S. military and then the broader general public gain increased access to more nutritious food.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Theresa Long, who serves as a senior military adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., elevated the recent study of military meals in a Jan. 15 letter to Kennedy and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
“Food safety and security is a national security issue,” Long wrote.
Likewise, Long called on Kennedy and Hegseth to collaborate on efforts to address food security.
The MAHA movement was a key plank of Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Kennedy also worked as the chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense until joining the Trump administration as Health and Human Services secretary.
Since taking charge at the Pentagon, Hegseth has emphasized efforts to whip the military into shape.
At an unprecedented gathering of senior military officers at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia in September, Hegseth expressed disdain at the sight of overweight troops.
The Pentagon did not respond by publication time to a request for comment on Long’s letter and the findings from the new nutritional study on military meals.
* * *
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A damning on-site investigation has revealed that the winery co-owned by Ilhan Omar’s husband is nothing more than a phantom operation, fueling suspicions of fraud amid scrutiny of her skyrocketing wealth.
Angela Rose, the journalist behind the probe, visited the listed address in Santa Rosa, California, only to discover glaring discrepancies that point to a shell company setup.
“I visited the principal address of ESTCRU winery. This winery is co owned by US Rep of Minnesota Ilhan Omar’s husband, Timothy Mynett, yet seems to allegedly be a shell business used to launder funds,” Rose stated in her report.
She detailed the revenue surge: “In 2024 they made about $15,000 and in 2025 it exploded to up to $5 million dollars… yet they weren’t producing any wine.”
Rose highlighted the lack of legitimacy: “No business license exists for ESTRCRU (Ilhan Omar’s Winery) at this address. The other wineries here are properly licensed.”
The address, 1160 Hopper Ave Apt B in Santa Rosa, houses over 40 wineries, but the location owner confirmed ESTCRU isn’t among them. Public records show it’s tied to a foreign processing center with no actual business license for ESTCRU.
This bombshell comes as Omar’s finances face intense federal scrutiny. Her 2024 financial disclosure reported assets between $6 million and $30 million, a massive leap from the $40,000 to $250,000 in 2023. The bulk ties to her husband’s winery and a venture capital firm.
The Justice Department launched an investigation into Omar’s finances, campaign spending, and foreign interactions in June 2024 under the Biden administration. Though it reportedly stalled due to lack of evidence, President Trump has revived the push, vowing to expose any impropriety.
Trump highlighted the probe, noting Omar arrived from Somalia with little and now boasts family wealth up to $30 million, amid broader Minnesota fraud inquiries.
?BOMBSHELL: Ilhan Omar is DONE! The rats are scattering and most of them are BEGGING reporters to hear their stories!
Whistleblowers now confirm her campaign funneled a massive amount of money to her husband’s firm while Somali-linked networks in Minneapolis ran one of the… pic.twitter.com/KHCZAMr3XD
Last week Omar was accused of staging an “attack” at a town hall, where she was sprayed with apple cider vinegar by a man acting strangely, in order to divert attention from her wealth investigations.
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Senate Bill Would Ensure Data Centers Do Not Pass Energy Costs Onto Consumers
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is circulating a bill to require data centers to bring their own power when constructing these new power-hungry facilities, Axios reports this morning.
We’ve detailed the growing resistance to the construction of new data centers for months now as several studies have demonstrated electricity prices spiking around new data center facilities, as they usually consume significantly more power than the grids they’re connected to can offer.
To prevent skyrocketing electric bills, every state has to follow the Texas example: each data center must have its own “behind the meter” onsite power generation.
One of the most frequently identified solutions is requiring new data centers and other large power loads to construct their facilities alongside new power generation facilities, i.e. “behind-the-meter.”. This could prevent and even reverse much of the rate increases that have been plaguing households across the US.
It’s a simple supply and demand issue. A new power consumer shows up and immediately starts draining hundreds of megawatt of power while the new power generation being developed by the utility servicing the connected grid takes several years to add new generation capacity. The pitch circulated by lawmakers is to require new data centers to show up with their own power and hand, therefore preventing the pass on of costs to household rate payers.
There’s a slew of ways to go about powering a multi-megawatt or gigawatt scale data center. The method most frequently referenced for reducing rate payer burden is behind-the-meter arrangements. This means the power generator is directly connected to the facility through on-site transmission structures without interacting with the grid in any way.
Alternatively, facilities could opt for the front-of-the-meter arrangement where they still bring their own power, but transmit the power through the local grid, even if they are located physically near each other. This arrangement supports the grid while still minimizing cost to the rate payer because of the addition of overall capacity. Connecting to the grid and utilizing existing transmission lines and transformers could minimize time to initial operation, as well as require grid infrastructure upgrades. Requiring the new data center to finance the grid upgrades would reduce consumer costs as well.
The bill being pushed by Sen Hawley is calling for behind-the-meter arrangements, but the legislation could change as it passes through everyone’s hands. Most grid advocates have called for front-of-the-meter arrangements to maximize household consumer benefit.
Your brain treats what it sees in Instagram reels the same way it treats cocaine. Both experiences flood a thumbnail-sized region of the brain with dopamine—a chemical that makes you want more, right now. The problem is that after a certain amount of dopamine hits, your brain adapts by turning down the pleasure volume. As a result, things that once made you feel good are no longer enough.
If you’re finding it harder to feel simple joy and genuine connections, you’re experiencing what addiction psychiatrists now recognize as dopamine overload, a state where constant stimulation—especially from cellphones, social media, and ultra-processed foods—quietly erodes your ability to feel your happiest emotions and leaves relationships feeling painfully empty. However, there is hope—through learning to rebalance our reward systems, we can rediscover contentment in simple things.
The Dopamine Hijack
Dopamine is a brain chemical messenger that helps drive motivation, heightens anticipation, and reinforces the experiences your brain labels as rewarding. In healthy balance, it nudges us toward naturally meaningful activities—such as working toward goals, sharing meals, spending time with friends—that have long supported survival and human connection.
However, modern life delivers dopamine in doses and speeds the human brain is not equipped to handle.
“Things that are addictive release a whole lot of dopamine all at once in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens,” Addiction psychiatrist and author Dr. Anna Lembke, a leading voice on how modern habits hijack the brain’s reward circuitry, told The Epoch Times. “The more dopamine that is released there, and the faster it is released, the more likely we see addictive behavior.”
With long-term exposure to highly addictive substances and behaviors, Lembke said, the brain undergoes neuroadaptation. “It starts to downregulate dopamine receptors to bring levels back to baseline, and people actually end up in a dopamine deficit state—below normal levels of dopamine firing.” In other words, the brain turns down its sensitivity to dopamine, leaving people feeling flat unless they keep chasing stronger stimulation.
Over time, this process fundamentally shifts what it takes to feel normal.
“We change our hedonic set point. We need more of the substance, in more potent forms, just to bring dopamine levels back up to baseline,” Lembke said. Sugar and short‑form videos strongly stimulate the same dopamine‑based reward pathways targeted by drugs and alcohol, which can lead the brain to treat them as if they were vital rewards.
To adapt to all the dopamine, the brain may settle into a dopamine deficit state, which can feel like clinical depression, anxiety, or emotional numbness.
When Everything Feels Numb
As dopamine overload persists, many people describe a kind of emotional numbness: feeling flat, struggling to enjoy life, and growing distant from loved ones.
“You can have this numbing or narrowing phenomenon where nothing brings joy anymore,” Lembke said. “People feel flat, anxious, or disconnected, and it can look a lot like depression.”
The difference is that clinical depression often responds to medication and therapy. Dopamine overload requires something simpler, though not easier: you have to stop the activity that creates it.
Growing evidence links heavy digital use to mental health symptoms, including anxiety, depression, loneliness, and altered decision‑making. Lembke pointed to experiments in which people either quit social media for three to four weeks or cut back to about 30 to 60 minutes a day, which resulted in reported improvements in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
Lembke offered a practical diagnostic test: “If you’re not sure you’re addicted to something, just try stopping it for 30 days. The level of difficulty you have doing that can tell you a lot about the nature of your attachment.”
The 30-Day Reset
The good news is that the brain’s reward system is not fixed. It is adaptable and can relearn to find satisfaction in real, offline experiences. A long enough break from high‑dopamine habits, Lembke said, gives the brain space to switch its reward system back on and start producing feel‑good chemistry again.
“When people stop an addictive behavior, their dopamine levels do not crash forever—they tend to feel worse at first, then gradually better,” Lembke said, noting that most people begin to emerge from acute withdrawal after about 10 to 14 days as cravings ease. By weeks three and four, many report feeling better than they have in months or even years.
For many, a 30‑day abstinence trial—or “dopamine detox”—is a realistic window to start resetting reward pathways and feeling the benefits, she said. In practical terms, that often means roughly two tough weeks, a couple of weeks of gradual relief, and about a month to sense a genuine reset.
Experts have found that the goal of a dopamine detox is not to eliminate dopamine—which would be impossible and unhealthy—but to reduce overstimulating habits so the brain can rebalance and you can enjoy slower, more meaningful rewards again.
To make a detox doable in everyday life, Lembke focuses on self‑binding—setting up guardrails that make it harder to slide back into the habit.
Create Physical Barriers: Don’t rely on willpower. Delete apps and unsubscribe from feeds. Clear alcohol, drugs, junk foods, and trigger foods out of your house.
Choose Low‑Dopamine Substitutes: Swap mindless scrolling or snacking for reading, walking, hobbies, or time in nature that offer calmer, more lasting rewards.
Set Firm Boundaries: Build device‑free blocks into your day, keep phones out of the bedroom, and avoid constant multitasking that chases tiny hits of stimulation.
Build Basic Routines: Regular movement and sleep, and nourishing food help steady both dopamine and stress systems.
Watch for the Binge Cycle: Notice any “all or nothing” streaks—days of restraint followed by blowouts—that tend to spike dopamine and crash mood.
Do Hard Things in Small Doses: Cold showers, morning exercise, cleaning out a messy closet, meditation, are activities that require effort up front but leave you feeling better afterward. They teach your brain to generate its own satisfaction instead of depending on quick hits.
Track the Evidence: Track sleep, mood, and focus for a few weeks as you cut back; small changes are often a sign your reward system is resetting.
Rediscover Natural Rewards
Once you start lowering quick dopamine spikes, it becomes essential to lean into natural sources of pleasure—the kinds of activities that have long supported human well‑being.
Exercise: Regular movement can lift mood and support healthy dopamine, serotonin, and endorphin signaling in a steady, sustainable way. A 20-minute walk does more for your brain than an hour of scrolling.
Social Connection: Deep conversations, laughter, and physical affection engage reward and bonding systems that help protect against stress and isolation. Face-to-face always beats FaceTime.
Mindfulness and Meditation: These practices can calm the stress response and gradually restore motivation for simple, everyday joys.
Creative Engagement: Making or enjoying art activates reward pathways without the same risk of desensitization seen with high‑intensity digital rewards.
Meaningful Challenge: Working toward meaningful goals gives real dopamine hits linked to effort and progress, not just novelty.
[ZH: Men, stop jerking off so much]: So we hear…
Scientific reviews and clinical programs highlight that turning toward natural rewards, rather than engineered instant ones, is how the human brain is built to thrive.
It may be time to get professional help if cutting back makes you very anxious, low, or causes withdrawal‑like symptoms that make normal life harder. You should also talk to a clinician before any dopamine detox if you have serious mental health symptoms such as suicidal thoughts, psychosis, or very bad depression or anxiety; a history of addiction or substance problems; or take medicines that affect dopamine, such as antidepressants, stimulants, Parkinson’s drugs, or antipsychotics.
Build Lasting Contentment and Hope
Lasting contentment rarely comes from a one‑time “detox.” It grows from small, steady changes, ideally with support from others.
Staying connected to encouraging friends, family, or groups makes it easier to keep healthier habits and to recover from relapses. Simple routines such as swapping one high‑dopamine habit at a time, checking in daily on triggers and small wins, and giving yourself credit for each step forward help progress stick.
If emotional numbness or compulsive cycles continue, seek help from a mental health professional who can guide you toward feeling stable and engaged with everyday life again. For anyone feeling overwhelmed or out of control, take heart—with support and steady effort, many people rebuild their lives and rediscover real pleasure in simple, everyday moments.
Billions In Chinese Investment To Flee Panama – Beijing Livid Over Canal Ports Decision
China is lashing out at Panama after the country’s top court torpedoed a key Chinese-linked operations contract at the Panama Canal, warning that the Central American nation “will inevitably pay a heavy price” if it doesn’t reverse course.
Under immense US pressure from the Trump White House, Panama’s Supreme Court last week ruled to void the operating license of Hong Kong–based CK Hutchison for ports on both ends of the canal – Balboa on the Pacific side and Cristóbal on the Atlantic.
The decision effectively ejects a Chinese/HK-connected operator, specifically the Panama Ports Company which is the subsidiary under CK Hutchison, from one of the world’s most strategic maritime chokepoints.
This was celebrated as a win by Washington, as President Trump has long made clear his intention to reassert American influence and control over the Panama Canal. Starting early in his administration Trump called it “vital to our country” and insisted that “it’s being operated by China.”
But China’s State Council Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office has newly blasted the court’s decision as “logically flawed” and “utterly ridiculous” – making clear that the ruling is vehemently opposed by both the Chinese government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.
“The Panamanian authorities should recognize the situation and correct their course,” the office said, as translated in various media reports.
“If they persist in their own way and remain obstinate, they will inevitably pay a heavy price in terms of politics and economics!” the blistering statement added.
Beijing is now threatening an array of political and economic consequences, also as it prepares its legal challenge to the supreme court ruling:
China has reportedly instructed its state-owned enterprises to suspend discussions on new projects in Panama following the Central American country’s decision to nullify CK Hutchison Holdings’ port operations contract, Bloomberg reported.
Sources familiar with the situation have indicated that the move is part of Beijing’s broader response to the legal ruling that affects two ports along the Panama Canal.
This decision is expected to potentially impede investments worth billions of dollars. In addition, China is advising shipping companies to consider alternative routes for cargo, provided these do not incur significant additional expenses, according to unnamed sources.
Furthermore, Chinese customs are increasing inspections on imports from Panama, including bananas and coffee, which could affect ongoing trade.
So now Panama finds itself in a precarious position, smack in the middle between Trump’s controversial ‘Donroe Doctrine’ and Beijing, with Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino stating amid these threats of retaliation that he “strongly” rejects the Chinese government’s threats.
Panama’s ports just stepped into geopolitics.
China reportedly directed state companies to stop new negotiations for a Panama project after the port contract was dismissed. That’s operations, not just politics.
He framed this as about upholding the rule of law and made clear he “respects the decisions of the judiciary, which is independent of the central government.” Still, he’s about to feel some pain from China, and there’s probably nothing at all Panama City can do about it.
A county spokesperson said on Feb. 4 that the county filed a motion in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia requesting the return of all 2020 election files that the FBI took on Jan. 28 under a search warrant.
The FBI carted away hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents. A cover sheet for the warrant said the law enforcement agency was seeking all ballots and voter rolls, tabulator tapes from scanners used to tally votes, and electronic ballot images.
Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the county asked the federal court to limit the warrant to provide an opportunity for an accounting of the seized documents and to request that they remain in the state.
The warrant was executed on Jan. 28 at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operation Center in Fairburn, Georgia, not far from Atlanta.
President Donald Trump has long argued that election improprieties in the state contributed to his loss in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. Weeks after the vote, Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, urging him to investigate.
President Joe Biden was declared the winner of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in the 2020 election. Biden received 2,473,633 votes, or 49.5 percent of the statewide vote, compared with Trump’s 2,461,854 votes, or 49.3 percent of the statewide vote, according to officially certified results.
In December 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against the county, seeking voting records from the 2020 election.
Last month, when discussing the 2020 election, Trump said that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did” but did not elaborate.
County officials have expressed concern over Trump’s plans for the midterm elections in November that will determine control of Congress.
Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts said “this case is not only about Fulton County. This is about elections across Georgia and across the nation.”
“The president himself and his allies, they refuse to accept the fact that they lost,” Pitts said. “And even if they had won Georgia, he would still have lost the presidency.”
Democratic lawmakers in Congress have also questioned why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present during the search in Fulton County, given that she is not part of the law enforcement community.
Gabbard sent a letter to senior Democrats on the U.S. House and Senate intelligence committees on Feb. 2, saying the president asked her to attend at the search “under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.”
Democratic officials in the state have also raised concerns about DOJ lawsuits, mostly aimed at Democratic states, that are seeking detailed voter data, including birthdates and partial Social Security numbers.
Trump said on Feb. 3 that Democrat-controlled places like Atlanta, which is largely within Fulton County, have “horrible corruption on elections, and the federal government should not allow that.”
Trump added that states were “agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.”
Approached by The Epoch Times, the DOJ declined to comment on the new motion.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Epstein Death Gets Weirder: DOJ Finally Admits To ‘Orange-Colored Shape’ Moving Up Staircase
The death of Jeffrey Epstein has always been extremely suspect, if only for the sheer number of odd coincidences that occurred the night of August 9th, 2019.
There are three theories: One, he actually killed himself. Two, the DOJ – headed up by Bill Barr whose pedocentric-author father hired Epstein to teach at Dalton in the 70s – had him murdered while in custody. Three, Epstein was smuggled out of jail and replaced by a mask-wearing homeless dude, with skeptics pointing to different nose and ear shapes on the body vs. photos of Epstein when he was alive.
Now – despite former FBI director Dan Bongino insisting “There’s video clear as day, he’s the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it,” the DOJ just released new documents revealing that surveillance footage from the night of Epstein’s death captured an orange-colored shape moving up a staircase toward the isolated, locked tier where his cell was located at around 10:39 p.m. the night he died, or whatever.
The orange flash was initially reportedlast August, so this is the ‘official’ accounting for that.
That entry in an observation log of the video from the Metropolitan Correctional Center appears to suggest something previously unreported by authorities: “A flash of orange looks to be going up the L Tier stairs — could possibly be an inmate escorted up to that Tier.”
It also appears, according to an FBI memorandum, that reviews by investigators led to disparate conclusions by the FBI and those examining the same video from the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General. –CBS News
The orange flash is described as “possibly an inmate.”
The observation was logged by the inspector general as an officer carrying orange “linen or bedding,” noting it in their final report as “an unidentified [corrections officer],” despite the fact that the officers on duty said they didn’t replace any linens, as that was done during the previous shift.
“At approximately 10:39 p.m., an unidentified CO appeared to walk up the L Tier stairway, and then reappeared within view of the camera at 10:41 p.m.” reads the entry.
Officially, Epstein died by suicide sometime before 6:30 a.m., however nobody has been able to find the actual noose allegedly used.
Investigators asked what happened to the noose.
“I don’t recall taking the noose off. I really don’t,” he replied. “I don’t recall taking the thing from around his neck.”
Noel, who remained standing at the cell entrance, told investigators she saw Thomas lower Epstein to the floor but did not see a noose around his neck.
The noose Epstein allegedly used has never been definitively identified. According to the inspector general’s report, a noose collected at the scene was later determined not to be the ligature used in Epstein’s death.
This was one of the photos taken at the scene. Cute.
Other oddities include;
No Cellmate Assigned: Despite a July 30, 2019, directive from the Psychology Department requiring Epstein to have an “appropriate cellmate” due to suicide risk (emailed to over 70 staff), his cellmate was transferred on August 9 without a replacement. Multiple staff, including the warden and lieutenants, were aware but took no action, violating BOP policy and SHU post orders.
His former cellmate – Nicholas Tartaglione, who Epstein told his lawyers had “roughed him up,” begged a New York judge to move him to another prison after he said guards began threatening him after Epstein’s death. He also claimed that James Comey’s prosecutor daughter offered Epstein a deal to frame Donald Trump.
Tartaglione was convicted of killing a man he suspected of stealing some $250,000 in drug money, as well as his nephews and a family friend who “were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” prosecutors said, according to the New York Post.
During the month that Epstein was incarcerated before his apparent suicide, Tartaglione claimed in a pardon application that his cellmate had the opportunity to save his skin by throwing the sitting president under the bus.
“Prosecutors … told Epstein that if he said President Trump was involved with Esptein’s crimes he would walk free. in a petition to be pardoned,” according to the Post, which said it had obtained a copy of the filing.
“Epstein told me that Maurene Comey said that he didn’t have to prove anything, as long as President Trump’s people could not disprove it,” the pardon application added.
“According to Maurene Comey, the FBI were ‘her people, not his [President Trump’s].’”
Unmonitored and Unrecorded Phone Call: On August 9 (around 7 p.m.), Epstein was allowed a 20-minute call from the SHU shower area using a non-inmate system phone, authorized by the unit manager. He claimed it was to his mother (deceased since 2004), but it was actually to a personal associate discussing press, his case, and affection. The call violated BOP policy requiring monitoring, recording, and logging; the manager left midway and instructed no oversight.
Falsified Records of Inmate Counts and Rounds: SHU staff (including officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas) falsified over 75 entries on count slips and round sheets. No inmate counts occurred after 4 p.m. on August 9, and no 30-minute rounds after approximately 10:40 p.m. Records were pre-filled or signed without performing duties, with “ghost counting” (using outdated cheat sheets) leading to errors like including transferred inmates.
No Monitoring or Tier Entries Overnight: Epstein was alone and unmonitored from ~10:40 p.m. on August 9 until discovered at ~6:30 a.m. on August 10. Staff remained at the officers’ station, with no entries to his tier (confirmed by available video). A specific sign mandating 30-minute rounds for Epstein was ignored.
Excess Linens and Safety Hazards in Cell: Epstein’s cell contained excess blankets, linens, and clothing (beyond limits of two sheets and one blanket), some ripped into nooses or clotheslines. No cell search was documented on August 9 (shower day, when searches are required), and only one SHU search was logged that day (not his cell). Mattresses and blankets were on the floor, violating housekeeping and security policies. And again, they never found the actual noose allegedly used.
Security Camera Malfunction: One of the SHU’s DVR systems failed on July 29 due to disk issues, stopping recordings (though live feeds continued). It was reported on August 8 but not repaired until after Epstein’s death, attributed to staffing shortages. Available footage showed no unauthorized entries, but the failure limited full review.
Staff Fatigue and Dozing on Duty: Officers worked excessive overtime (e.g., Thomas on a 22-24 hour shift, his third consecutive). Video showed staff idle or appearing asleep between 1-3 a.m. on August 10. Supervisors violated union agreements by assigning extended shifts, contributing to skipped duties.
Ambiguous Prior Incident (July 23): Epstein was found on the floor with an orange cloth around his neck tied to a bunkbed ladder. It was unclear if it was a suicide attempt or assault by his then-cellmate; investigations were inconclusive, with conflicting statements (Epstein initially claimed assault, later denied memory). He was placed on suicide watch but removed after 31 hours.
So yes, Epstein ‘died by apparent suicide’ inndeed.
