NATO member Lithuania is complaining about the latest aerial threat to its airspace: balloons. The government announced Monday that it is closing the border with Belarus after repeat incursions into Lithuanian and European Union airspace of highly menacing smuggler balloons out of Belarus.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė announced, “Lithuania plans to close its border with Belarus in response to repeated incursions by balloons carrying contraband, but certain exemptions will apply.”

“A government meeting will take place on Wednesday. We are already prepared to approve a decision to close the border with Belarus indefinitely,” Ruginienė told reporters.

Already Vilnius Airport has been deeply impacted by the balloon sightings and incursions, with a Sunday shutdown. Incidents of balloons entering the Lithuanian capital area stretch back to Oct.5th – and repeat instances last week reportedly disrupted over 170 flights, delaying some 20,000 passengers, local media indicates.

Two key border crossings with Belarus have also been closed by Lithuania – though these tensions with Belarus, which forms a ‘Union State’ with Russia, extend back to near the start of the Ukraine war.

Authorities in Lithuania accuse smugglers of using weather balloons to transport primarily cigarettes and other contraband from Belarus to circumvent sanctions as well as any EU entry fees.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been accused of provocations at the border, or at least looking the other way while the smuggling operations grow, in order to “pressure on Lithuania by testing our resilience.“

Prime Minister Ruginienė has warned further that the border closure “sends a clear signal to Belarus that no hybrid attack will be tolerated here, and we will take the strictest possible measures to stop such actions.”

She’s going so far as to threaten to shootdown these menacing balloons:

Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene has said Lithuania will start to shoot down smuggler balloons crossing from Belarus and also shut its border crossings with the neighboring country following repeated interruptions to its air traffic.

Lithuania spent much of last week battling balloons — literally.

– For 4 days over the last week, smuggling balloons from Belarus disrupted air traffic and shut down airports.
– Officials call it a “crisis” and “psychological operation” meant to test Lithuania’s resilience.
– In… pic.twitter.com/O8uoUFp2T5

— Linas Kojala (@LinasKojala) October 27, 2025

Additionally, Ruginienė may this week call for NATO Article 4 consultations with defense allies to discuss the airspace incursions, also coming on the heels of Estonia alleging Russian warplanes of a couple of significant violations of its skies.

In Western Europe, EU officials are talking about erecting a joint ‘drone wall’ especially in the east, to protect Europe’s skies from potential Russian aerial incursions and threats.

Today, Western and Central Europe stand as the most peaceful region in the world.

This comes at a time when global conflict deaths have reached a 25-year high, and 106 countries have become more militarized over the past two years—reversing two decades of decline. Meanwhile, the successful resolution of conflicts has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years.

The graphic below, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows how peaceful countries are in 2025, based on the IEP’s Global Peace Index 2025.

Methodology

For the analysis, the IEP used 23 equal-weighted indicators to assess the stability countries, including:

• Deaths from internal conflict

• Violent demonstrations

• Perceptions of criminality

• Terrorism impact

• Safety and security

Overall, 99.7% of the global population was covered across 163 countries and territories.

The Global Peace Index Rankings

Below, we show each country’s peacefulness rankings in 2025:

Ranking in first is Iceland, leading the global scoreboard for the last 17 consecutive years.

Overall, just 12 countries fell into the “Very High” category, with nine of these located in Western and Central Europe. Among the key outliers are New Zealand (#3), Singapore (#5), and Japan (#12).

By contrast, Russia ranks in last place, seeing one of the largest deteriorations in peace over the year. It is followed by Ukraine and Sudan, while Israel ranked 155th, and Palestine stood at 145th.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the state of democracy around the world.

Via Remix News,

A 15-year-old Irish girl, Kaiden McKenna, an active boxer in her hometown of Castleblayney, delivered a moving speech against mass immigration earlier this week. In the video, she describes her fear of taking public transportation and simply going for a jog in her hometown — all due to rising immigration and the presence of migration centers in her area.

“As a young person, especially a young girl, I feel more unsafe now than ever…After a few scary encounters, I can’t even walk alone to the bus anymore,” says McKenna,

“I’m here to give my perspective on the IPAS centers and the unvetted (migrants) moving into our town,” she says.

🇮🇪🔴Many European teenage girls now live in fear due to mass migration. There needs to be free debate on this issue — not repression.

A brave 15-year-old Irish girl, Kaiden McKenna, speaks out against local migrant centers in Castleblayney.

“As a young person, especially a… pic.twitter.com/0LDwFRtcUS

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 24, 2025

She directly blames IPAS centers, short for International Protection Accommodation Service, which are migrant accommodations sprouting up across Ireland. She also expresses her worries about future centers being built in her area.

“Every morning, either my mom just after a night shift or my dad dragging my brother out of bed, one of them has to walk me to the bus,” she stated.

McKenna also expresses her fears about going running in her own town.

“Going for a run with my mom meters behind me in the car because it’s not safe is unacceptable. It’s only going to get worse if there are more IPAS centers in Blaney,” she warns.

🇮🇪 “This has happened about three times in the last two weeks. It’s very, very intimidating.”

An Irish woman is too afraid to leave her car to walk to work because hooded migrants are lurking outside her workplace and staring at her. pic.twitter.com/BCvSiPLJL3

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 23, 2025

She laments that her mother being forced to tail her is “embarrassing as a 15-year-old. I crave freedom.”

She closes by asking an open-ended question: “Who is looking out for me?”

McKenna’s warning comes after protests and violence broke out earlier this week following the arrest of an African migrant for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl in the massive migrant center at CityWest in Dublin.

Like McKenna, many women in Europe no longer feel they can no longer freely move about in public. Just like Ireland, other countries such as Germany and France have seen a dramatic increase in sexual assaults and violence against women associated with mass immigration.

The situation has left many European youths with a growing sense of hopelessness as the situation rapidly deteriorates.

🇩🇪🚨 “I can no longer go out alone. I need a bodyguard.”

A German woman is sexually harassed in Bad Dürrenberg.

“This happens to me so often. I have contact with people like that every day when I go out.”

“Really, there was a time when you could even go out at night.” pic.twitter.com/ahz4kAkQcn

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 21, 2025

The state of fear McKenna describes echoes similar stories across Europe, which are often fueled by high-profile cases, such as the rape and murder of 12-year-old Lola in Paris by an Algerian migrant, who was just convicted yesterday and sentenced to life in prison. The heinous crime may have even had ties to North African occult beliefs.

However, it is the day-to-day crime and harassment that typically burdens European women the most.

A number of similar accounts from young European teens have sparked a continent-wide discussion about mass immigration. Much like McKenna’s video, a recent video featured a teen German girl speaking out about how dramatically life has changed due to mass immigration.

“I can hardly recognize the Germany you tell me about today. And since then, I’ve been asking myself. What would it be like if you could go to the outdoor pool without fear?” she said.

🇩🇪🔴 A young German teen ponders what Germany would be like if Merkel had not welcomed over 1 million migrants.

She was only 4 when the former chancellor made her decision, but life has dramatically changed.

“I can hardly recognize the Germany you tell me about today. And since… pic.twitter.com/uHRFov08z1

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 3, 2025

A stream of videos has been posted on a daily basis of women being sexually harassed, assaulted, and stalked.

🇬🇧‼️ “I f*ck women and I kill men.”

A Somalian migrant is confronted for harassing women in Britain. pic.twitter.com/lbKwMKFvlQ

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 4, 2025

Even women going for a walk with their babies in strollers cannot escape this new reality.

🇩🇪🚨 “Your ass. Boom. I saw it and I just had to speak to you. Let’s have a date, your man doesn’t have to know. Just one kiss.”

🗣️ “No, I am with my children. Can you please leave me alone?”

This is what women have to put up with in the new Germany. pic.twitter.com/t22G5eI2jD

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 30, 2025

Many European parks are no longer safe, with women not only being sexually harassed, as seen in the video below, but also increasingly victims of sex crimes — often in headline-grabbing nightmare stories. In some cases, these crimes do not just involve rape, but also murder.

🇩🇪 “If I don’t have sex, as a man, I feel unwell.”

Shocking footage of a migrant in Germany harassing a woman walking through Eschenheimer Anlage in Frankfurt.

He refuses to take ‘No’ for an answer when he demands sex, and a passerby steps in and calls the police. pic.twitter.com/wilfwVNKHX

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 26, 2025

There have always been sexual predators in every society, but statistics from every country that has embraced mass immigration in the West tell the same story: Sexual violence is growing worse and worse. While some may find McKenna’s worries about going for a jog overblown, going for a jog for many women in certain areas can mean harassment. In many cases, it has ended in disaster, as seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

🇫🇷🚨 Female joggers in France face wave of rape and knife attacks in recent months.

A 44-year-old woman was stabbed several times in her back and neck while she was jogging in Gard. The suspect is still on the run.

In Nantes, a Somali migrant tackled a 58-year-old woman in the… pic.twitter.com/sU1pNUuMjj

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 14, 2025

Just earlier this week, Swedish 17-year-old girl Meya Åberg spoke about her rape at the hands of an Eritrean migrant when she was 16, while on her way home from work at McDonald’s. Her case sparked outrage on social media after it was revealed that the migrant would not be deported, because, among other factors, the rape’s “duration” was not long enough, according to a Swedish appeals court.

🇸🇪🔴”I still feel sick when I think about it.”

A Swedish court is under fire after an African migrant raped 16-year-old Meya Åberg, with the court ruling the migrant could not be deported because the rape did not last long enough.

The victim is now speaking out.

“During the… pic.twitter.com/QR8XEc2WYD

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 23, 2025

She is just one of many horror stories out of Sweden, including the heartbreaking case of Luna, who still remains in a coma after being nearly strangled to death by an African migrant who attended her own school and has a history of violence and watching pornographic strangulation videos on school computers.

These are not just “isolated” instances, but instead, there are broad trend lines and statistics showcasing the rising threat across Europe. Approximately 75 percent of gang rapes in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia are by those who are foreign or who have a migrant background, and at least half of gang rapes on a national level are committed by foreigners. Sexual violence is also increasingly common in German swimming pools, with young girls the most likely to be victimized. Again, foreigners are vastly statistically overrepresented.

Just like McKenna’s fear of taking the bus, there is also good reason for women to fear public transport in general. In Germany, foreigners commit 59 percent of all sexual violence on public transport. It has gotten to the point that in Berlin, the Green Party is calling for “women-only train cars.”

🇩🇪‼️ “Gold help me.”

A thief stole a young German woman’s phone and then tells her, “in a mixture of English and German, that he would only give it to me if I had sex with him.”

It all happened in Berlin’s famed Görlitzer Park, where migrants gang raped a woman last year. pic.twitter.com/wt0j674bji

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 24, 2024

That does not mean European men are not capable of committing sexual crimes, but the statistical over-representation of foreigners is incredible and undeniable. It is not just an issue of “young” men either, which the left often claims. When compared in the same age cohorts, foreign men are vastly overrepresented in serious crimes compared to German men of the same age. It is not even necessarily an issue of men, although men are much more likely to be involved in crime. However, shockingly, when German men are compared to certain foreign female groups, these females actually have higher rates of violent crime.

While there are many young women who either ignore this data, or have different life experiences or values that lead them to embrace open borders, many women are also turning to right-wing parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

🇩🇪🚨 “Germany needs the AfD”

Young women are increasingly promoting the AfD party on TikTok.

Many of them feel increasingly unsafe in Germany, and they believe AfD is the answer. pic.twitter.com/iXemPYBV0c

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 16, 2025

🇩🇪‼️ Young German woman explains why voters are turning to the AfD

“I’m afraid to travel by train, afraid to go into town, afraid to do anything in public. And they talk about people being afraid of the AfD. The AfD has done nothing to anyone, unlike other people.” pic.twitter.com/hYlQVKXb1Q

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 10, 2025

Meanwhile, in countries like France, women are even more anti-immigration than men in many surveys. One poll from 2024 conducted by CSA for Europe 1, CNews and the Journal du Dimanche showed that 53 percent of women want zero immigration, which means an end to all legal and illegal immigration. Other polls showed that the vast majority of French want to sharply restrict immigration (again, more women than men) and end birthright citizenship (65 percent of all French).

🇫🇷🔴 “it seems he is looking for prey.”

Serial groper, Tunisian migrant Nidhal O., sexually assaulted 3 different women in the Paris Metro — all on camera.

He was arrested in December 2023 and was finally sentenced to 11 years in prison on Sept. 26.

The footage only covers 3… pic.twitter.com/zFp9X1fXh6

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 30, 2025

Women across Europe are increasingly resorting to different methods to deal with the increasing sexual violence and harassment, whether it is avoiding certain areas at night, or simply avoiding going out entirely. Many are also using their smartphones as a method of self-defense.

🇳🇱🔥 A Dutch woman being harassed on the streets of Amsterdam by a Black male films herself for safety.

Then, her hero shows up. He pulls up his bike and holds her hand.

She’s now asking TikTok to help her find the unknown man who came to her aid. pic.twitter.com/ljFnjDI1Yi

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 2, 2025

Some are dressing differently when they enter public transport.

🇫🇷🔴 Many young women in France have a “subway shirt” for avoiding harassment on the train system.

It has become a “reflex” to put on more clothing before getting on public transport, even in summer.

“Sometimes I even take the trousers and sweatshirt and put them over my… pic.twitter.com/7MA206RtoI

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 1, 2025

Some are even resorting to self-defense training and other non-lethal defense tools, such as “smurf spray” in the Netherlands.

🇳🇱🇩🇪 Women in the Netherlands and Germany are now trying to defend themselves with “Smurf spray” after an asylum seeker raped and murdered 17-year-old Lisa.

“Since Lisa’s death, many of (self-defense) products have been sold out, including the Smurf spray.”

Pepper spray is… pic.twitter.com/CorZ9UKhbi

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 2, 2025

Regardless, the trend is clear. There will be more and more migration and, in turn, more and more suffering for Europeans.

As McKenna warns, “It’s only going to get worse.”

Read more here…

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

The US’ latest sanctions against Russia, the first under the second Trump Administration, are intended less as a weapon against the Russian economy and more as a means of weaponizing energy geopolitics in a bid to break apart BRICS, especially its Russia, India, China (RIC) core. This assessment is based on India and China’s close trade ties with the US in spite of its respective 50% and 55% tariffs on them, their continued rivalry despite their incipient rapprochement, and their triangulation with Russia.

In the order that they were shared, India’s and China’s trade with the US is much larger than their trade with Russia, but Russia importantly supplies a significant share of their energy.

While neither wants to pay more for oil, however, the overall costs of the US raising its tariffs on them as punishment for defying its latest sanctions as well as the secondary ones that could be leveled against those of their financial institutions that facilitate this trade might be even more. This could arguably compel them to reconsider.

As for the second point, being in better graces with the US than the other is with it serves their interests vis-à-vis one another since neither wants to risk the scenario of their rival teaming up with the US against them, which could have strategic implications. They might therefore calculate that they have more to lose by defying the US in pursuit of lower oil prices and retaining closer ties with Russia if the other doesn’t too so it’s better to comply. This amounts to a weaponization of the prisoner’s dilemma.

Building upon the above, the last point is that each might have accordingly calculated that their rival won’t obtain better ties with Russia at their feared expense so long as both of them informally comply in part (key qualifier) with the US’ latest sanctions, which each might do in spite of publicly criticizing them. As it turns out, they were already decreasing purchases of Russian oil even before the sanctions, with India’s dropping 14% from August to September and China’s 8.1% in the first nine months of the year.

No matter how compelling these points might seem, nobody should assume that India and/or China will totally stop importing Russian energy, let alone right away. There simply isn’t enough supply on the market right now for them to do so. Even if others ramp up production, those two might still only gradually wean themselves off of Russian energy, which would then likely be sold at an even steeper discount to incentivize them to retain some purchases. Everything will therefore likely balance itself out.

Nevertheless, the US could still highlight India’s and China’s reduced imports under duress (the first’s confirmed by its top buyer and the second’s only reported) to debunk the BRICS myth of them all (especially RIC) working in harmony against the US, which Trump has complained about before. It doesn’t matter that such information warfare would have no tangible effect on global processes since all that’s important to Trump is the perception of the US having broken BRICS’ (and especially RIC’s) unity.

On that note, Russia’s special operation wouldn’t be curtailed even in the political fantasy that India and China soon dump its energy for good since the Kremlin has a big enough war chest to keep financing its side of the conflict for at least the next few years, though this might come with some opportunity costs. The takeaway is that the US is indeed weaponizing energy geopolitics in a bid to break apart BRICS, which it might succeed with in terms of optics, but this won’t make any substantive difference in reality.

Despite a US-backed ceasefire having officially been in place for over a year in Lebanon, Israel has been steadily ratcheting its aerial attacks in southern Lebanon, against what it says are Hezbollah and terror targets, resulting in scores of casualties.

The latest attack came on Monday, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) having confirmed an airstrike in the al-Biyad area of southern Lebanon, which killed two Hezbollah operatives.

One of the operatives has been named by the IDF and in regional media as Hussein Ibrahim Suleiman, a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. The IDF announced, “The terrorists were involved in advancing terror attacks toward the territory of the State of Israel and were eliminated while working to rebuild a terror infrastructure.”

“The actions of the terrorists constituted a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, and a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the military added.

Several days of reporting and documentation in Beirut-based outlet The Cradle has indicated Israel’s assaults have been happening for five consecutive days, also at a moment the United States has kept up steady pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. At least two Lebanese were also killed in attacks out of Israel on Sunday.

The total death toll is now at least 12 killed since last Thursday, with some of the attacks being drone strikes on single vehicles. Israel is apparently seeking to assassinate elite Hezbollah commanders in some cases.

There’s been an official status of ceasefire going back to November of 2024. But that’s been interrupted by intermittent Israel attacks, including a huge wave of airstrikes last June.

Prompted by military losses and shifting regional geopolitics, Hezbollah has reportedly been considering a major strategic shift that would see the group undertake a major disarmament, according to earlier reporting in Reuters.

Pursuant to the November ceasefire that ended its recent war with Israel, Hezbollah has turned over security responsibilities south of the Litani River to the Lebanese Armed Forces. Alongside that shift, the group has also handed over weapons depots in that part of the country.

The past several days has seen the IDF proclaim that various Hezbollah commanders have been taken out in ‘targeted strikes’:

🔴ELIMINATED: Abbas Hassan Karky, the logistics commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front headquarters, was struck & eliminated in the Nabatieh area of southern Lebanon.

Abbas led recent efforts to rebuild Hezbollah’s combat capabilities: Managing the transfer and storage of… pic.twitter.com/stBt9FFzZK

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 24, 2025

In September 2024, Israel unleashed a massive attack on Hezbollah members, detonating thousands of pagers that Israeli intelligence had loaded with the explosive PETN. Nearly 3,000 people were wounded and at least a dozen killed, including two children. That same month, an Israeli airstrike killed the group’s leader for 32 years, Hassan Nasrallah.   

Hezbollah’s position has also been weakened by the December fall of Syria’s Assad regime, as a years-long US-led regime-change effort finally culminated in the secular, Iran-friendly Bashar al-Assad being replaced by the former leader of Jabhat al-Nusra.

Authored by Brendon Fallon & Lynn Xu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

When Linda, 52, entered menopause, she expected hot flashes and sleep disturbances – but not persistent bloating, fatigue, and a sense that something deeper was off in her body. A gut microbiome analysis revealed one more issue: an overgrowth of harmful bacteria in her small intestine.

“This is something we’re seeing more and more,” said Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist and author of “Super Gut.” “As women age—especially during and after menopause—the microbiome often shifts in harmful ways. That shift can have profound implications for inflammation, hormone metabolism, and even cancer risk.”

The Gut Microbiome: A Hidden Ecosystem With a Big Role

The gut is home to trillions of microbes—bacteria, fungi, and other organisms—that play a central role in digestion, nutrient absorption, immune function, and maintaining a healthy gut barrier.

Over time, however, modern lifestyles chip away at this delicate ecosystem. Processed foods, preservatives, chlorinated water, emulsifiers, antibiotics, glyphosate, and stress can gradually erode microbial diversity.

One of the most notable shifts is the proliferation of Proteobacteria, organisms associated with fecal contamination and inflammation. “I call it ‘the fecalization of America,’” Davis said. “We’re seeing microbes that belong in the colon invade the small intestine, where they shouldn’t be.”

This invasion, known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), is widespread. It’s linked to chronic, low-grade inflammation, and growing evidence suggests it can increase the risk of certain cancers.

How Gut Microbes Influence Cancer Risk

“Cancer risk isn’t just about genes,” Davis said. “It’s also about the microbes living inside us.”

The small intestine is designed for nutrient absorption. When fecal microbes overgrow in this region, they quickly die and release endotoxins into the bloodstream—a process called endotoxemia.

“Endotoxemia is like lighting a slow-burning fire inside the body,” Davis said. “It drives inflammation, accelerates aging, disrupts metabolism, and increases cancer risk.”

Research shows that women with breast cancer often have an overgrowth of fecal-type bacteria in the gut, higher levels of circulating endotoxins, and gut microbes that metabolize estrogen in harmful ways.

This combination of inflammation and altered hormone metabolism creates an internal environment that can encourage tumor growth. “These microbes can process estrogen into more carcinogenic forms,” Davis said. “That’s a real risk factor for breast cancer.” Estrogen can act as a growth stimulant because it attaches to receptors on cancer cells in the breast, causing them to multiply.

The Estrogen-Microbiome Connection

After menopause, while the body’s estrogen levels naturally drop, certain harmful gut microbes remain important because they produce an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, which reactivates estrogen so it can continue to stimulate cancer growth.

“A disrupted microbiome doesn’t just reflect your health—it actively shapes it,” Davis said. “When microbes deconjugate estrogen, they turn it into forms more likely to drive breast cancer.”

This is one reason breast cancer risk rises sharply after menopause. The challenge isn’t only lower hormone levels—it’s how the body metabolizes those hormones.

Although breast cancer is the clearest example, the connection between gut dysbiosis and cancer extends beyond the breast:

• Colorectal Cancer: Certain oral microbes, such as Fusobacterium nucleatum, can travel to the colon, where they promote tumor growth.
• Endometrial and Uterine Cancers: Disrupted estrogen metabolism can influence hormone-sensitive tissues.
• Systemic Inflammation: Endotoxemia can create an internal environment that supports tumor development in other organs.

Why Modern Life Damages the Gut

While advances in modern society offer comfort and convenience, they have inadvertently introduced dietary and environmental factors that promote harmful bacteria and disrupt gut health.

Processed Diets

Ultra-processed foods—cookies, chips, soft drinks, frozen dinners—often contain emulsifiers such as polysorbate 80 and carboxymethyl cellulose. These compounds thin the gut’s protective mucus layer and shift the microbiome toward harmful bacteria, according to Davis.

Many products also contain preservatives such as butylated hydroxytoluene or BHT, butylated hydroxyanisole or BHA, and sodium benzoate. These may keep food fresh, but they also act as antimicrobials in the gut, harming beneficial bacteria.

“Unfortunately, the American diet has gravitated toward ultra-processed foods,” Davis said. Between 2021 and 2023, Americans ate an estimated 55 percent of daily calories from ultra-processed foods, with even higher rates among youth.

Toxins and Pharmaceuticals

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals” found in nonstick cookware and waterproof products, persist in the body and disrupt hormonal balance.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup, acts as an antibiotic, killing beneficial bacteria while sparing harmful ones. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing shows that more than 80 percent of Americans have glyphosate residues in their urine.

Common stomach acid-blocking drugs, such as H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors, can allow oral bacteria to migrate downward, colonizing the stomach and small intestine. “The mouth is second only to the colon in its density of microbes,” Davis said.

Restoring Balance: A Gut-First Prevention Strategy

While conventional cancer prevention focuses on screening and treatment, Davis said that gut health is a powerful, underutilized tool for prevention.

1. Reintroduce Beneficial Bacteria

Beneficial microbes such as Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus gasseri are naturally found in the human gut but can also be replenished through specific foods, supplements, and probiotic formulations. These strains are often included in targeted probiotic capsules or powders, and small amounts can be found in fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and certain cultured dairy products.

These probiotics can colonize the small intestine and help suppress harmful bacteria. “When we bring these microbes back, we’re not just improving digestion,” Davis said. “We’re reducing inflammation and restoring healthy estrogen processing.”

2. Feed the Good Microbes

Prebiotic fibers like inulin, fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, and pectin nourish beneficial microbes and strengthen the gut barrier.

3. Reduce Microbiome Disruptors

Cutting out preservatives, emulsifiers, ultra-processed foods, and environmental toxins such as glyphosate can give the gut ecosystem room to recover. “These modern exposures have slowly dismantled our internal ecosystem,” Davis said. “Cleaning them up is a crucial step.”

 4. Strengthen the Gut Barrier

A healthy mucosal layer protects against endotoxemia. Hyaluronic acid—found in animal skin and organ meats, or taken as a supplement—can help restore this barrier, along with beneficial microbes such as Akkermansia muciniphila.

Practical First Steps

There are several steps people can take to rebuild their microbiome and reinforce its protective barrier:

• Eat a diverse, fiber-rich diet with minimal processing.
• Include fermented foods or targeted probiotic strains. Lactobacillus gasseri has been shown to alleviate hot flashes and night sweats—common menopausal symptoms.
• Make “SIBO yogurt” at home with full-fat dairy or coconut milk to boost beneficial bacteria. Davis noted that in his clinical experience, daily use can resolve SIBO in up to 90 percent of cases within four weeks.
• Support the gut barrier with hyaluronic acid, collagen-rich foods such as bone broth, slow-cooked meats, bone marrow, or supplements.
• Maintain good oral health to prevent harmful bacteria from migrating to the gut.
• Avoid unnecessary antibiotics and microbiome-disrupting additives.

“These are practical, affordable steps anyone can take,” Davis said. “You don’t need a prescription to protect your microbiome.”

A New Lens on Cancer Prevention

Conventional oncology typically intervenes after cancer develops. Davis argued that addressing gut dysbiosis early can be a powerful form of prevention.

“If all we do is wait for cancer to show up and then treat it with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, we’ve already lost half the battle,” he said. “The microbiome is a missing piece in cancer prevention.”

He also emphasized the connection between oral health and cancer. Oral pathogens such as Fusobacterium can migrate to the gut and contribute to inflammation. “We need to stop thinking of the body in silos,” he added. “The mouth, the gut, hormones, and the immune system are all connected.”

For Linda, restoring her gut health was transformative. Her bloating eased, her energy returned, and her inflammatory markers improved.

“Your gut isn’t just about digestion,” Davis said. “It’s your first line of defense. When you nurture it, you may be protecting yourself against cancer, too.”

When Hollywood productions packed up and left Georgia, Trilith Studios — the sprawling, $2.6 billion complex built by Chick-fil-A chairman Dan Cathy — suddenly went quiet. Once the home of Black Panther, Captain America, and Spider-Man, its soundstages now sit largely empty as major studios shift overseas in search of cheaper labor and new incentives, according to Bloomberg.

Film spending in Georgia has dropped sharply, from a record $4.4 billion in 2022 to $2.6 billion last year. “The movie business is slow in Georgia right now,” said Atlanta attorney Tom Harrold, who helped craft the state’s film tax credits.

To adapt, Trilith is betting on a new kind of star. The studio plans to dedicate about 35% of its space and resources to influencers, YouTubers, and other digital creators. “We have to skate where the puck is,” said CEO Frank Patterson. “We have to wrap our arms around this next generation of storytellers.”

Bloomberg writes that the pivot began in August, when filmmaker and influencer Jeremy Garelick, whose American High videos have more than 10 billion social views, struck a deal to base his operations at Trilith. “Buildings don’t build an industry,” Garelick said. “People do. And ideas do.”

It’s a major shift for Cathy, Georgia’s richest man, who envisioned Trilith as an entertainment utopia — complete with luxury homes, restaurants, and training programs for writers and filmmakers. Backed by his family’s trust, Cathy continues to expand the campus, adding a $400 million performing-arts center and investing in media startups tied to the creator economy.

Executives say the move reflects a broader reality: the cultural center of gravity is shifting from Hollywood to online platforms, where creators like MrBeast and Dhar Mann command global audiences. As Patterson put it, the future of storytelling may not belong to movie studios at all — but to the people who built their own from scratch on social media.

Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

TEN SLEEP, Wyo.—The alfalfa weevil, scourge of Western ranchers, appears when the frost melts, skeletonizing leaves and profits. There are ways to limit its damage – early harvest, livestock grazing, and intercropping alfalfa with grass – but most growers opt for insecticides.

R.C. Carter, a third-generation rancher in Northern Wyoming, recalled a realization he had while using a 1.5-gallon container of concentrated pesticide to spray a 60-acre alfalfa pasture.

“I was pumping this chemical to kill these alfalfa weevils, and it says don’t get it on your skin. And somehow I got it under my armpit. And then on my eyelid. And this stuff burned, it burned for three days, and water didn’t help, you couldn’t wash it off,” he told The Epoch Times at his ranch.

Historically, alfalfa growers used arsenic-based insecticides, which have been mostly phased out, and DDT, now banned for its bio-accumulative and carcinogenic impacts.

In recent years, the pests’ resistance to newer generation chemicals has proven challenging for ranchers.

R.C. Carter’s wife, Annia, herself a fifth-generation Wyoming rancher, remembered the smell. “I thought, ‘this is going to make you sick when you’re older.’”

Soon after, they learned about health risks associated with glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the United States, which early studies found can persist in certain soil conditions for up to 22 years.

“That means even if it’s just put on the soil for the first year, there will still be residual,” Annia Carter said. “It leaches into everything. It doesn’t disappear.”

The experience was a turning point for the Carters, who have since pivoted to “regenerative” or holistic agricultural practices to cultivate pastureland where they graze more than 1,400 cattle, focusing on regrowing native grasses and building soil health without chemical pesticides, fertilizers, tilling, or monocropping.

R.C. Carter dips down into bright, tall grasses and alfalfa to reveal fat slugs and nubby worm castings.

This “bug life” is exciting to him; it signals progress, as do signs of water infiltration. The Carters routinely test the fields for organic matter and say they’re seeing increases where they’ve grazed cattle and then let the land rest and rebound.

Their 7,000-acre ranch near the tiny town of Ten Sleep—named, as legend goes, for being 10 “sleeps” or nights by horseback, a halfway point, between historic Sioux camps—is a speck in the verdant arterial valleys intersecting parched badlands at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains.

“We used to participate in all the normal commodity agriculture. We didn’t know any better,” he said. “Then we were like, this is wrong. And we started looking for—what’s the off-ramp?”

Figuring that out has alienated them from their community, and caught them between critics on both ends of a roiling debate—ranchers who use conventional practices on one side, and conservationists who argue “regenerative” is a buzzy greenwashing of harmful practices.

All of that, the Carters say, stems from misunderstanding.

“What’s up, good looking?” R.C. Carter said as she sidled up for pets. A “bum,” rejected by her mother, the Carters and their three sons took turns bottle-feeding her for a summer while she lived at their ranch. A yard cow.

“That’s the spot!” he said, scratching hard on her hind quarters as she demurely lifted a back hoof in appreciation.

Critics on both sides of the debate who have accused them of overgrazing don’t understand the process or the vision, they said.

“People were calling the BLM, saying this is ruining the land, this should be illegal, it looks terrible,” R.C. Carter said. “But they just don’t understand the strategy, which is a long-term approach.”

Instead of grazing a smaller herd for a longer period on a piece of land, the Carters opt for high-intensity, low-duration grazing, meaning they sometimes move the animals every day or so, now with the help of virtual fencing.

The concept is based on a much older practice.

“We’re really just mimicking what the bison did, what was here before us, before the fences,” Annia Carter said.

Large ungulates such as bison and antelope have long populated the Great Plains; they grazed, fertilized, and trampled pastures, mixing soil and seed in the process.

Millions of bison and other herbivores roaming Western rangelands over millennia contributed to carbon-rich soil and diverse ecosystems—which ranchers such as the Carters hope to restore by building on the ancient blueprint.

“We need to create impact and mix the manure and plant the seeds with the cow’s feet,” R.C. Carter said.

Around Stacey’s neck, and those of her 700 or so brethren, is a collar with a solar panel charger, which pings to a satellite tower. An app on Carter’s phone shows exactly how many cows are in the field, and allows him to move the boundary with a swipe of an index finger.

It’s a shock collar, but not as bad as it sounds, Annia Carter said, explaining the animals may be zapped once when they reach the boundary, but are then quickly deterred by a warning.

“As the cow comes in and she gets close to the new imaginary boundary, she’ll feel a vibration. It’ll beep, and then you’ll see when the cows get close to it, they’re like, ‘Oh man!’ It’s like God’s speaking to ‘em. They’re like, ‘yeah, I’ve been struck down by lightning before!’” R.C. Carter said. “They respect it real quick.”

Controlling the collared animals via satellite has allowed the ranchers to “fine-tune” their footprint, directing them to mow down a whole pasture, devouring all the grass and alfalfa—and, potentially, invasive species—instead of grazing selectively.

“We’re using more cattle in less area—we’re really hitting it hard,” he said, “but we are resting longer. So we won’t come back to the same spot every year. You have to let that time for the land and the decomposition and all the lifecycles to happen for it to renew.”

The virtual fencing doesn’t eliminate property or fence lines, but the Carters say it gets them closer to those natural, historic migration patterns—and the model can be repeated on a smaller scale.

It’s also a lot easier on the ranchers. Running cattle on horseback and moving poly wire every day or so is a full-time job that takes the whole family. And if something or someone runs through it—more common than you might think, Annia Carter said—that’s another few days to fix it.

“There’s a lot of oil and gas development here, so the ‘weekend warriors’ would come out and be drinking and cruising through the fence, and you’re like, ‘Oh man, cows are out. All of them—again!’ It’s just days from hell where you ride until your hands are numb.”

‘Never Seen it Yet’

Conservationists say the claim that rotational grazing mimics migration patterns of native ungulates such as bison or antelope is an unproven anecdote at best—and at worst a harmful myth propagated by the cattle industry in an attempt to deflect from the damage livestock cause on public lands.

The problem, according to CBD and others, is that, at current levels, no form of beef production can be sustainable as Americans consume four times the global average of beef, according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist with the Western Watershed Project, says it simply comes down to scientific evidence.

“We would accept livestock grazing that was fully compatible with maintaining healthy, vibrant native ecosystems,” he told The Epoch Times.

“We’ve just never seen it yet.”

What’s needed for true regenerative grazing, Molvar said, “is not one of these gimmicky rotational schemes. It’s fundamentally reducing the number of livestock on the landscape to very low densities.”

Molvar said the study misrepresented how typical the results were. “They used that study to greenwash all public lands grazing,” he said.

It reported that “properly managed” grazing had no negative impacts, but could in fact benefit the species by reducing invasive grasses and building robust habitats.

Molvar does allow a cautious optimism about the “cutting-edge” virtual fencing technology used by the Carters.

Read the rest here…

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Also, our Rancher-Direct program uses regenerative farming techniques

Many Americans are cutting back on hotel stays, pushing the industry into one of its steepest declines since the pandemic. But the wealthy are still spending freely on luxury travel, buoyed by stock gains and rising home values, according to the Washington Post.

That divide mirrors the wider economy: the housing market has slowed, but million-dollar homes and high-end cars are selling briskly. Hotels show the contrast most sharply — while overall bookings and prices slump, luxury brands like the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis are up 2.9 percent this year, compared with a 3.1 percent drop for economy hotels.

“The upper end is doing okay, but the lower end is decidedly not,” said Jan Freitag of CoStar. “The industry is on a very uneven keel … but the high-end traveler is still traveling.”

Weaker demand and fewer foreign visitors — especially Canadians reacting to the Trump administration’s “America First” policies — have driven hotel revenue down for two straight quarters. “Overall the hotel industry is not doing well,” Freitag said. “Foreign travel is down, group bookings are decelerating, and lower- and middle-income travelers are struggling.”

WaPo writes that international visits to the U.S. are expected to fall more than 8 percent this year, costing $8.3 billion, while Canadian travel is down 25 percent. In cities like D.C., cancellations are mounting. “Things haven’t been this bad since covid,” said hotel manager Oksana Gyulnazaryan. “People are scared.”

For families like Jeremy Boutin’s near Boston, vacations are no longer possible. “All the money we have is going right to our bills,” he said.

Still, the broader economy is growing, and the top 10 percent of earners — those making $250,000 or more — now account for roughly half of all U.S. spending, up from 35 percent in the early 1990s.

Luxury resorts such as Rancho Valencia near San Diego, where rooms start at $1,000 a night, report strong bookings. “For us, 2025 has been a great year,” said general manager Milan Drager.

Hotel giants are following suit: Marriott plans nearly 300 new luxury properties, and Hilton will almost double its Waldorf-Astoria hotels.

Travelers like Michelle Tong of Dallas embody the trend. “I’m definitely splurging more,” she said. “I’m fortunate that I have disposable income … and the pandemic reminded me that life is short, so if I can afford to travel, I should go for it.”

Authored by Matthew Kandrach via RealClearEnergy,

President Trump is building an American economy designed to outpace our adversaries, shore up our national security, and put American workers first. To carry out that mission, he has prioritized U.S.-led innovation and unleashed American energy. As a result, states that are embracing President Trump’s energy dominance agenda are positioned to reap the economic benefits of the AI revolution and manufacturing renaissance while liberal states are being left behind.

The proliferation of data centers needed to support AI development, along with myriad announcements to onshore manufacturing supply chains, are leading to surging energy demand. When companies choose locations for these energy-intensive operations, they prioritize one thing above all: the availability of reliable, affordable power in the near term for the long term.

States aligning their energy policy with President Trump’s vision, particularly in the Southeast, are leveraging all-of-the-above energy solutions to capture the competitive advantage. They’re building new power plants, investing in both traditional sources like natural gas and advanced generation like nuclear, and strengthening critical grid infrastructure.

The value proposition of these projects is two-fold: they meet surging AI and manufacturing demand and strengthen U.S. technological leadership, while keeping power reliable and affordable for local customers. Power companies in these areas are able to attract private investment by working closely with their state regulators to plan years ahead, allowing them to build and connect new power plants much faster than in other parts of the country where the system is more fragmented. This integrated approach gives them a major advantage over utilities in deregulated markets where multiple companies handle different pieces of the electricity system, and over tech companies trying to build their own power generation.

The benefits of these new data centers and manufacturing facilities extend far beyond the projects themselves. Rural communities that once faced an uncertain future now find themselves at the epicenter of unprecedented opportunity with ripple effects throughout local economies—demand for suppliers, substantial tax revenue, and good-paying jobs. These communities are experiencing firsthand how policies that support America’s energy dominance translate into economic prosperity.

Meanwhile, liberal states that have prioritized climate policies over energy reliability face a starkly different reality. In their rush toward renewable-only strategies, these policymakers have sidelined traditional power sources that provide electricity when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. They’re simultaneously shuttering coal and natural gas plants and blocking critical infrastructure like pipelines—hampering the very sources of reliable, affordable power that AI infrastructure and advanced manufacturing demand, leaving customers to either face surging energy bills or lose out on economic development opportunities.

The consequences of the politically-driven march toward less reliable, intermittent energy sources are clear. California regularly asks residents to conserve electricity during heat waves to prevent grid overload. New England faces winter reliability warnings as natural gas constraints collide with declining baseload capacity. New York has struggled to bring major renewable projects online due to cost overruns and permitting delays, even as demand continues rising, and New Jersey’s Democratic machine may lose the governor’s mansion due to failed energy policies.

These liberal states now confront a troubling trifecta: the growing threat of rolling blackouts, soaring energy costs for families and businesses, and a grid increasingly unable to meet the demands of a modern economy. They should take a page out of the Southeast playbook and reverse course on their failed policies or see even more families and businesses vote with their feet – fleeing to states that are making investments, building infrastructure, and implementing plans to reliably and affordably meet growing demand. 

President Trump is taking action to ensure America’s energy landscape provides the definitive edge we need to win the AI race, reshore manufacturing, crush competition from China, and bolster our economic and national security over the long term. President Trump’s energy revolution isn’t just powering America’s technological future—it’s ensuring that future is driven by American innovation, powered by American energy, and built in the American heartland. The states that understand this reality today will be the ones leading the U.S. economy in the decades to come.

Matthew Kandrach is president and co-founder of CASE, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, a free-market oriented consumer organization.