CNN's New Morning Show Garners Less Than 400,000 Viewers, Marking Latest Loss For Network's New Boss Chris Licht
Radar Online - 

Mega© Radar Online

CNN’s new morning show, CNN This Morning, tanked in the ratings during its debut earlier this week, garnering even less viewers than the average viewership of its predecessor, RadarOnline.com has learned.

In a surprising development to come as new CNN boss Chris Licht continues to shakeup the network’s on-air talent and program lineup, CNN This Morning – which premiered on Tuesday and saw Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins as its cohosts – debuted to abysmal numbers.


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That is the revelation found by Nielsen Media Research, whose data showed only 387,000 total viewers tuned in to watch the network’s new morning show between 6 AM and 9 AM.

Even more surprising is the data showing that, of the less than 400,000 viewers to tune in, only 71,000 were in the 25-54 age demographic – a key demographic for advertisers looking to buy into networks’ programs.

New Day, CNN This Morning’s predecessor, garnered a daily average of 404,000 viewers throughout the month of October – meaning Licht’s new program with Lemon, Harlow and Collins at the helm failed to beat even the show it replaced.

Other networks’ morning shows, such as Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends and MSNBC’s Morning Joe, essentially destroyed CNN This Morning in viewership.


Mega© Radar Online

Fox & Friends received a whopping 1.5 million viewers with 236,000 of those being in the 25-54 age demographic.

Morning Joe garnered a strong 793,000 viewers with 114,000 in the 25-54 age demographic.

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, CNN This Morning’s debut bomb is just the latest decision made by Licht to ultimately backfire in his face.

Chris Wallace’s new program, Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, scored an atrocious 44,000 viewers when it debuted in September, while Jake Tapper – who was moved to the network’s 9 PM primetime time slot ahead of the upcoming midterm elections – essentially proved to be dead on arrival.


Mega© Radar Online

Although Tapper’s new show, CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper, had President Joe Biden as its guest when it debuted in October, the show still managed to come in last place against its competitors on other major news networks.

CNN This Morning’s poor premiere also came amid reports the struggling network’s employees are becoming increasingly more irked with Licht and his abrupt changes, layoffs and budget cuts.

World ‘plunging towards societal collapse’ as era of cheap money ends

The global economy is on the path to hyperinflation and risks societal collapse if soaring prices are not brought under control, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds has warned.


rates rise recession© Provided by The Telegraph

Elliott Management, the hedge fund founded by Wall Street billionaire Paul Singer, hit out at central bank rate-setters in an apocalyptic warning to clients as rate-setters bring the era of ultra-cheap money to an abrupt end.

The world economy faces an “extremely challenging” outlook and hyperinflation could result in “global societal collapse and civil or international strife”, the letter to clients said, the Financial Times reported. It said central banks have been “dishonest” in deflecting blame for the price surge from their prolonged use of ultra-loose monetary policy.

Elliott is one of the most influential hedge funds in the world and is feared in corporate boardrooms for its approach to investor activism.

Central banks are being forced into rapid interest rate rises to tackle inflation with the rate of price growth hitting double digits and a four-decade high in the UK.

The US Federal Reserve voted for its fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point increase to its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday while the Bank of England followed with a 0.75 percentage point jump on Thursday, the eighth straight increase.

Stock markets have already suffered a tough year as the global economic outlook darkens and interest rates are pushed to levels last seen before the financial crisis. But Elliott believes that investors should brace for a “a seriously adverse unwind of the everything bubble” because of the number of “frightening and seriously negative possibilities”.


The “everything bubble” refers to the surge in a range of investments, including stocks, bonds and house prices, since the financial crisis after central banks left interest rates at rock bottom levels for years and cranked up the printing presses under quantitative easing.

Investors should not believe they have seen everything from previous financial crises, the letter warned. The sudden end to cheap money has “made possible a set of outcomes that would be at or beyond the boundaries of the entire post-WWII period”.

The S&P 500 – the benchmark US stock index – has plunged by 22pc this year and dropped a further 2.5pc on Wednesday after Fed chairman Jerome Powell signalled more rate increases are on the way. The FTSE 100 has been one of the world’s better performing stock indices but is still 5.6pc lower.

Elliott declined to comment.

Exclusive-Shell's flagship LNG trading made nearly $1 billion loss in Q3 -sources

By Ron Bousso, Marwa Rashad and Dmitry Zhdannikov - 


LONDON (Reuters) - Shell's liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading division recorded a loss of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter of the year, three industry sources told Reuters, after traders were caught out by a sharp rally in European gas prices when Russia halted supplies.

Shell, the world's top LNG trader, last week reported its second largest quarterly profit of $9.45 billion, but said it was impacted by weaker gas trading results.

Shell does not disclose its trading results and often uses general terms to describe trading conditions.

The pre-tax loss of around $900 million in its LNG trading offers rare insight into its trading operations that can also sharply boost the group's earnings.

The loss was a result of a wrong bet on the difference between benchmark Asian and European gas prices over the summer months, according to the three sources.

Shell declined to comment.

Shell's LNG trading performance contrasts with rivals BP and TotalEnergies which both reported strong earnings from their trading divisions in the quarter, without providing details.

European gas prices hit an all-time high of nearly $90 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) on Aug. 22 as the region scrambled to secure gas supplies after Russian halted pipeline gas deliveries.

Related video: Shell posts another bumper profit

Duration 1:06 View on Watch

The rally in European prices far outpaced Asian prices, leading to a collapse in the spread between the two benchmarks.

Asia has historically set the highest LNG prices in order to attract supplies during the summer months to allow countries like Japan and China to refill storages ahead of winter.

SEASONALITY

Traders also use paper derivatives to protect, or hedge, physical cargo trades from price fluctuations.

But the paper bets badly backfired in the third quarter.

Shell's Chief Financial Officer Sinead Gorman said last week that LNG trading was impacted by "seasonality and supply constraints, coupled with substantial differences between paper and physical realisation in a volatile and dislocated market."

"Our trading and optimization organization manages risk through hedging our physical volumes," Gorman told analysts on Oct. 27.

"Due to a breakdown in correlations, some hedges were less effective. LNG trading and optimization were also impacted by a combination of seasonality and supply constraints where the business is geared towards supplying the Northern Hemisphere during the winter."

Gorman added that for the first three quarters of 2022, LNG trading results were higher than the same period a year earlier.

Asian prices have been weakened by muted Chinese demand since the start of the year due to covid and slow economic growth.

LNG prices in Europe have been benchmarked against the TTF Dutch gas prices for years and the European Union is exploring alternative benchmark after the drop in Russian pipeline supplies.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso, Marwa Rashad, Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Veronica Brown and Elaine Hardcastle)

HIDING WEALTH OFFSHORE SHOULD BE A CRIME

Higgs sees no policy change over Irving 

offshore revelations

Jacques Poitras - CBC

Premier Blaine Higgs says he won't be making any policy changes after new details emerged about the Irving companies' use of offshore tax havens.

Higgs told reporters at the legislature that because the tax strategies used by the companies were legal, there are no grounds for banning them from receiving government grants, loans or other subsidies.

The premier said he'd cut off assistance for companies breaking the rules, "but I don't have any indication of that."

"I don't think we can criticize someone for following the rules."

Higgs was reacting to a year-long investigation by CBC News and Radio-Canada looking at the Irving presence in the offshore tax haven of Bermuda.

It revealed that J.D. Irving Ltd. used an insurance company on the island, F.M.A. Limited., to insure its marine vessels, paying premiums to the Bermuda entity, which then reinsured the vessels at a lower cost, allowing it to collect millions of dollars in profits tax-free.

University of Victoria tax law professor Geoffrey Loomer told CBC and Radio-Canada that the tax strategies were legal.


A year-long investigation by CBC News and Radio-Canada looked at the Irving presence in the offshore tax haven of Bermuda.© Mike Heenan/CBC

In the legislature Thursday, Green MLA Kevin Arseneau acknowledged that's true but called for a "moratorium" on subsidies to Irving companies.

He also said J.D. Irving Ltd. should be called to testify at a legislative committee that would examine how much revenue the province has lost because of the company's tax strategy.

Finance Minister Ernie Steeves responded that the government wanted "all citizens to take advantage of what opportunities are out there. If you're from New Brunswick, we want you to take advantage of what is available to you in savings."

Higgs repeated that to reporters, saying everyone uses tax deductions to lower their tax bills as much as they can.


Finance Minister Ernie Steeves said the government wanted 'all citizens to take advantage of what opportunities are out there. If you’re from New Brunswick, we want you to take advantage of what is available to you in savings.'© Ed Hunter/CBC

He said while large companies have "more capacity" to use specialized law firms and accountants skilled at using offshore tax havens, writing off a charitable donation on an individual tax return is "kind of the same process.

"Individuals will do it to the extent of the law, and companies will do the same thing to the extent of the law," he said.

Higgs, a former Irving Oil executive before getting into politics in 2010, said it was "extremely important to follow the regulations" when he worked at the company. His role was in operations, not accounting or taxation.

He and Steeves both pointed out that taxation of foreign assets is a federal responsibility. The premier said he was confident the Canada Revenue Agency would "monitor and measure and determine that the rules are being followed."

Steeves said two officials from his department are on a federal-provincial "tax avoidance working group," and Arseneau should work with the Liberals to lobby federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to make any changes to tax laws.

Asked in the House of Commons about the Irving revelations Thursday, National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier said the federal government has already made it "more and more difficult" to "hide" money overseas.



Liberal Leader Susan Holt avoided taking a clear position on whether Irving companies should lose access to public subsidies.© Ed Hunter/CBC

In Fredericton, provincial Liberal Leader Susan Holt endorsed Arseneau's call for a committee to examine the issue.

"We should be making sure that New Brunswickers are all paying their fair share of tax and we have a system that people are participating in equally, so if there are loopholes and opportunities to close that we can act on and close, I think we should."

But Holt avoided taking a clear position on whether Irving companies should lose access to public subsidies.

"Folks who are receiving public funds should be fully participating in our public taxation system," she said.

Asked if using legal tax strategies amounted to not fully participating, Holt repeated her comment that the issue needs to be looked at.

Holt was CEO of the New Brunswick Business Council from 2011 to 2015, acting as spokesperson for the organization representing many of the province's largest employers.

She told reporters Thursday that during her tenure, J.D. Irving Ltd.'s membership in the council was not renewed because the company wanted to take "individual positions" on issues in their own business interest.

Detectives use cutting-edge tech to identify long-dead 'vampire'

Metro Science Reporter

Detectives have turned to cutting-edge technology to try and discover the identity of a long-dead vampire.


Detectives have used technology to make a 3D scan of the vampire’s face (Credits: Parabon NanoLabs / SWNS)© Provided by Metro

The early 19th Century man was found buried with his arms in an X shape across his chest – a burial practice believed to prevent blood-suckers rising from the grave to feed upon the living.

The remains, discovered in 1990 in Griswold, Connecticut, were determined to be those of a middle-aged man named John Barber who suffered from tuberculosis.

The unpleasant symptoms of the affliction can include sweating, weight loss, swollen neck and coughing up blood – unexplained signs that may have led paranoid locals to suspect vampirism.

Now, cutting-edge laboratory and bioinformatics techniques have been used to reveal what he looked like and confirm who he was.


A forensic facial reconstruction of John Barber 

(Credits: Parabon NanoLabs / SWNS)© Provided by Metro

The recent International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI) conference in Washington, D.C., saw Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) unveil their results.

Parabon NanoLabs explain: ‘Tales of the undead consuming the blood of living beings have been around for centuries. Before scientific and clinical knowledge were used to explain infectious diseases and medical disorders, communities hit with epidemics turned to folklore for explanations.

‘They often blamed vampirism for the change in appearance, erratic behaviour and deaths of their friends and family who actually suffered from conditions such as porphyria, pellagra, rabies and tuberculosis (TB).

‘It is speculated that he (John Barber) was later disinterred and reburied because his limbs had been placed atop his chest in an X in a skull-and-crossbones configuration – a burial practice used to prevent purported vampires from rising from the grave to feed upon the living.’

Researchers employed the latest advanced laboratory and bioinformatic DNA analyses on the early 19th-century unidentified remains of a man, only known as JB55 because of the markings on his grave.


Skeletal remains of John Barber on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland (Credits: TSgt Robert Trujillo/USAF/SWNS)© Provided by Metro

In 2019, AFDIL performed a Y-STR chromosome analysis that suggested a possible surname of ‘Barber’.

A search of historical records led to an obituary for another individual buried in the same cemetery that mentioned a man named John Barber, but no other records were found for him.

A whole-genome targeting approach, also used in Parabon’s law enforcement casework for highly degraded samples, was determined to be the most cost effective method of identification.

Using machine learning models built on published variants, along with additional variants discovered by Parabon, JB55 was predicted to have fair skin, brown eyes, brown or black hair, and freckles.

Using the trait predictions and a digital 3D image of the skull, Thom Shaw, an IAI-certified forensic artist at Parabon, reconstructed JB55’s likely appearance.


The reconstruction started with a 3D scan of his skull 

(Credits: Parabon NanoLabs / SWNS)© Provided by Metro

The other individual in the cemetery was believed to be a relative of JB, so their DNA was analysed using whole-genome enrichment, sequencing, and low-coverage imputation. Results showed a third-degree, first cousin relationship to JB.

Tracing the family trees of the GEDmatch matches led to ancestors with the surname Barber living in New England in the 18th and 19th centuries, supporting the hypothesis that his identity was most likely John Barber. GEDmatch is an online service to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies.

Christian monastery possibly pre-dating Islam found in UAE

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press - TODAY

SINIYAH ISLAND, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced Thursday.


This March 14, 2022, handout photo from the Department of Archaeology and Tourism of Umm al-Quwain shows an ancient Christian monastery uncovered on Siniyah Island in Umm al-Quwain, United Arab Emirates. An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam rose across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. 

(Nasser Muhsen Bin Tooq/Department of Archaeology and Tourism of Umm al-Quwain via AP)

The monastery on Siniyah Island, part of the sand-dune sheikhdom of Umm al-Quwain, sheds new light on the history of early Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf. It marks the second such monastery found in the Emirates, dating back as many as 1,400 years — long before its desert expanses gave birth to a thriving oil industry that led to a unified nation home to the high-rise towers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The two monasteries became lost to history in the sands of time as scholars believe Christians slowly converted to Islam as that faith grew more prevalent in the region.

Today, Christians remain a minority across the wider Middle East, though Pope Francis was arriving in nearby Bahrain on Thursday to promote interfaith dialogue with Muslim leaders.

For Timothy Power, an associate professor of archaeology at the United Arab Emirates University who helped investigate the newly discovered monastery, the UAE today is a “melting pot of nations.”

“The fact that something similar was happening here a 1,000 years ago is really remarkable and this is a story that deserves to be told,” he said.

The monastery sits on Siniyah Island, which shields the Khor al-Beida marshlands in Umm al-Quwain, an emirate some 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Dubai along the coast of the Persian Gulf. The island has a series of sandbars coming off of it like crooked fingers. On one, to the island's northeast, archaeologists discovered the monastery.

Carbon dating of samples found in the monastery's foundation date between 534 and 656. Islam's Prophet Muhammad was born around 570 and died in 632 after conquering Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia.

Viewed from above, the monastery on Siniyah Island's floor plan suggests early Christian worshippers prayed within a single-aisle church at the monastery. Rooms within appear to hold a baptismal font, as well as an oven for baking bread or wafers for communion rites. A nave also likely held an altar and an installation for communion wine.

Next to the monastery sits a second building with four rooms, likely around a courtyard — possibly the home of an abbot or even a bishop in the early church.

Historians say early churches and monasteries spread along the Persian Gulf to the coasts of present-day Oman and all the way to India. Archaeologist have found other similar churches and monasteries in Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In the early 1990s, archaeologists discovered the first Christian monastery in the UAE, on Sir Bani Yas Island, today a nature preserve and site of luxury hotels off the coast of Abu Dhabi, near the Saudi border. It similarly dates back to the same period as the new find in Umm al-Quwain.

However, evidence of early life along the Khor al-Beida marshlands in Umm al-Quwain dates as far back as the Neolithic period — suggesting continuous human inhabitance in the area for at least 10,000 years, Power said.

Today, the area near the marshland is more known for the low-cost liquor store at the emirate’s Barracuda Beach Resort. In recent months, authorities have demolished a hulking, Soviet-era cargo plane linked to a Russian gunrunner known as the “Merchant of Death” as it builds a bridge to Siniyah Island for a $675 million real estate development.

Power said that development spurred the archaeological work that discovered the monastery. That site and others will be fenced off and protected, he said.

“It’s a really fascinating discovery because in some ways it’s hidden history — it’s not something that’s widely known,” Power said.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Sun Life profit beats estimates even as wealth business slumps with markets

By Divya Rajagopal - Yesterday 

The Sun Life Financial logo is seen at their corporate headquarters in Toronto 

TORONTO (Reuters) -Sun Life Financial Inc, Canada's second-biggest life insurer, on Wednesday posted third-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates, as higher insurance sales in the United States and Asia helped offset declining revenue from its wealth management business.

Underlying profit rose 5% from a year ago to C$949 million ($692.1 million) or C$1.62 per share in the three months ending Sept 30 versus consensus estimates to C$1.47.

"Overall insurance sales across our businesses were strong, reflecting the increased importance clients are placing on protection and health," Kevin Strain, Sun Life CEO and president, said in a statement.

Market volatility sparked by sharp rise in interest rates globally dented Sun Life's wealth business, resulting in a 19% drop in core profit from that operation. Total assets under management fell 8% to C$1.28 trillion from a year ago.

Reported profit, which captures market fluctuations, slumped 54% to C$466 million.

Sun Life has been expanding overseas to diversify its business mix and the latest quarter earnings benefited from recent deals, Strain added.

Core income from U.S. operations nearly doubled to C$216 million and Strain said the performance was boosted by the acquisition of DentaQuest, which Sun Life bought last year for $2.48 billion.

($1 = 1.3710 Canadian dollars)

Mars in Retrograde Will Be Seen Careening Backwards Across Night Sky

BY JESS THOMSON 

ON 11/1/22 AT 

What Happens When Mars Is In Retrograde?

Mars has just entered retrograde, suddenly reversing its course across the sky.

As of October 30, Mars stopped moving eastwards through the night sky and began crawling its way westwards through the constellation of Taurus. It will continue to move this direction until January 23, 2023, before reversing course once again and traveling towards the east.

Despite how it may look from Earth, Mars is not actually changing course at all, rather the relative positions of Earth and Mars in their orbits around the sun have led to this strange dance in the night sky.

Stock image of Mars (right) and an illustration of the view of Mars' 

retrograde motion in 2016 as seen from NASA Mission Control in Pasadena, 

Mars is our second-closest planetary neighbor, and orbits the sun once every 1.88 Earth years, or 687 days.

"The motion of the planets against the background stars, as we see it from Earth, is caused by the actual motion of those planets, but also by the motion of the Earth, since we're on it. It is therefore an effect of geometry of the planet orbits," Rok Nežič, an astronomer at the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium in Northern Ireland, told Newsweek.

According to Nežič, all the planets move around the sun in the counterclockwise direction, assuming a viewpoint from above the Earth's north pole, so they generally seem to move eastwards relative to the stars.



"Kepler's Laws of Motion tell us the planets closer to the sun move faster than the planets farther away. This is because the gravity of the sun gets weaker if you are further away," Nežič said.

"This means the Earth occasionally 'overtakes' the outer planets on its journey around the sun. As it does that, the position of Mars in this case, appears to stop against the background stars, then it starts moving westward relative to the background stars. Both planets are still moving counter-clockwise around the sun, but because Mars is slower and being overtaken by the Earth, it seems to move the other way against a distant background."

When the planets move further apart again, the "normal" apparent motion across the sky resumes, and Mars begins to move in its usual direction.

As the Earth overtakes Mars, we will approach our closest point to the Red Planet: on December 1, we will be a mere 0.545 astronomical units [51 million miles] apart, according to spaceweather.com. At our furthest point away from Mars, when Earth and Mars are on opposite sides of the sun, we are around 250 million miles away from the planet.

NASA not-to-scale illustration of Earth and Mars' orbits.

NASA / NASA MARS EXPLORATION PROGRAM

"This happens every two years or so, when Mars is high in the night sky around midnight. This is also when Mars is closest to Earth, and so is a good time to launch a spacecraft to Mars," Jason Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and the director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center, told Newsweek.

If we are far outside this launch window, the amount of fuel required to get a spacecraft to Mars will be a lot higher and therefore the launch will be much more expensive.

Additionally, the further apart the two planets are, the greater the delay in communications: light takes between five and 20 minutes to travel between Earth and Mars, depending on the distance.

Mars and it's moons, Phobos and Deimos, named for the Greek gods of fear and panic.

"What matters much more is when Mars and Earth are in solar conjunction, which means they're on opposite sides of the sun. That makes communicating with spacecraft much harder, so mission teams have to plan around conjunctions (which happen fairly regularly)," Paul Byrne, a planetary geology professor at North Carolina State University, told Newsweek.

This strange movement was a mystery to early humans, who initially believed that the Earth was the center of the universe.

"The ancient astronomers of Greece could not explain this motion as it did not adhere to their belief of a 'perfection of the Heavens' in which planets moved in perfect circles at constant speed as they orbited the Earth," Vahé Peroomian, a physicist at the University of Southern California, told Newsweek.

"They had to invent various devices, including circles upon circles they called 'epicycles' to account for this motion. Nicolas Copernicus was the first to correctly explain apparent retrograde motion. In his model of the Solar System, in which he placed the sun, and not the Earth, at the center, planets closer to the sun moved faster than planets farther out, catching up to and passing them."

COPERNICUS WAS ANOTHER CATHOLIC BLASPHEMER DEFENDED BY THE PROTESTANT MAGUS TO QE, AND HIMSELF A MONIST, DR. JOHN DEE.

Medical marijuana found effective in reducing chronic lower-back pain – Israeli study

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH - Monday

Israeli researchers have found that medical cannabis can significantly ease lower-back pain, but that not all types of marijuana do the job.

Seach medical cannabis farm© (photo credit: SEACH MEDICAL GROUP)

Four out of five people have lower back pain at some point in their lives, making it one of the most common reasons people visit their doctors. It usually gets better within a few weeks but may become chronic, with pain ranging from mild to severe, making it difficult or impossible to walk, work, sleep or carry out routine activities.

People over the age of 30 – especially those who are overweight or have jobs with a lot of lifting and bending, diseases like osteoarthritis or scoliosis and poor posture – are at high risk for such pain. Treatments include cortisone injections, manipulation, physical therapy and even surgery.

Dr. Dror Robinson and Dr. Mustafa Yassin of the Orthopedics Department of Hasharon Hospital of the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, and Sivan Ritter of the University of Haifa, published their new study in the Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal published online by the Rambam Health Care Campus under the title “Comparing Sublingual and Inhaled Cannabis Therapies for Low Back Pain: An Observational Open-Label Study.”

Driven by public demand, medical cannabis is growing as a common treatment in medicine, especially for pain relief, despite the lack of established scientific basis, they wrote.


A worker inspects marijuana leaves and care for plants at the Rak Jang farm, one of the first farms that has been given permission by the Thai government to grow cannabis and sell products to medical facilities, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand March 28, 2021. (credit: CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS)© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

Two types of cannabis treatment were given to chronic low-back-pain patients. The first was cannabidiol (CBD)-rich sublingual (under the tongue) extract treatment over a period of 10 months.

After a month of no treatment, the same group received Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-rich whole dried cannabis flowers that were smoked in the form of cannabis cigarettes for 12 months. Oral consumption in the form of edibles such as cookies is reserved for children and was not relevant to this group of adult patients.

The number of participants was small – 24 people, seven women and 17 men, whose MRI or CT scans of the spine showed disc herniation or spinal stenosis – but the results were convincing. The most commonly reported initial side effects were nausea, sore throat, drowsiness, dizziness and fatigue, all of which were transient and disappeared after dose tolerance was achieved. Most of these adverse effects were noted in female patients.

Just three patients dropped out of extract therapy treatment but resumed study participation to receive THC-rich smoking therapy. After a minimum of two years, the sublingual extract treatment was not significant in reducing pain, but it was impressive when the cannabis flowers were smoked.

“Our findings indicate that inhaled THC-rich therapy is more effective than CBD-rich sublingual extract therapy for treating low back pain and that cannabis therapy is safe and effective for chronic low back pain," the team concluded.

A recent survey of over 1,000 North American adults who self-administered cannabis for chronic pain found that 58% of those surveyed used it to ease back pain, 36% used inhalation therapy, 45% used both inhalation and non-inhalation therapy, and 19% used non-inhalation therapy only.

Cannabis use in Israel

The differences in cannabis usage between Israel and North America, suggested the authors, may be attributed to the greater variety of legally available medical cannabis products in the US and Canada such as edibles and high-concentration THC, which are not permitted in Israel.

Currently, active medical cannabis licenses have been issued to 110,971 Israelis, and 56.6% of such licenses were prescribed to treat chronic neuropathic non-cancer pain.

“A major obstacle to the widespread legal use of medical cannabinoid-based (CB) therapy is the lack of sufficient evidence-based data. However, the naturally occurring variation among and between the phytoconstituents of different cannabis cultivars makes it difficult to quantitate and compare studies and subjects,” they wrote.

Treating pain with sublingually administered cannabis extracts is preferred by many doctors, as it may be regarded as easier to obtain from the pharmacy and to consume. Sublingual administration might also have the benefit of a more consistent dosing regimen while avoiding the adverse effects of smoking.

But the authors’ real-world clinical experience “indicates a relative lack of efficiency of sublingual extract treatments compared to smoking.” Most Israeli patients seem to prefer smoking cannabis to extract consumption for pain relief. The Health Ministry’s licenses granted to patients included just 10% for sublingual extracts and 90% for smoked cannabis flowers.

Lawyer for organizers tells inquiry Pat King, others, were using Freedom Convoy for own gains

“memorandum of understanding” that called to overthrow the federal government.

Ryan Tumilty , Christopher Nardi - Yesterday 

Pat King livestreaming from the Ottawa airport during the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. Screengrab from Facebook© Provided by National Post

OTTAWA – Many groups and individuals fought for control over the Freedom Convoy seeking its power, influence and the millions of dollars it fundraised online, said a lawyer for convoy organizers testifying at the Emergencies Act commission.

Keith Wilson, an Edmonton lawyer, came to represent many convoy organizers through the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms. He said he was asked to go to Ottawa shortly after the convoy arrived in the city and took a private plane, picking up other lawyers in different cities. Wilson said he was told the private plane was necessary because several of his fellow passengers were unvaccinated.

He said when he arrived he found several different groups who all wanted to claim credit for the convoy. He said some organizers saw the need for clearer goals and better coordination, but others were in it for their own reasons.

“Other groups seem to want to reshape the Freedom Convoy into their own event, branded theirs and I got the distinct impression from some others that they were trying to get their hands on what at that point was $10 million in donations,” he said.

Wilson still represents several of the convoy members. He told the commission he received a waiver from convoy members to be able to testify.

The commission is tasked with determining whether the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was justified.

In his witness statement, he said Pat King, who is set to testify later on Wednesday, in particular seemed to be using the convoy for his own gains.

“Pat King appeared to Wilson to be an attention seeker and a rabble rouser,” he said. “Wilson did not care to be in the same room with King and had no time for him.”

Wilson said he represented the convoy organizers during injunction hearings and with GoFundMe over the donations the convoy raised. GoFundMe ultimately refused to provide the donations, and the convoy turned to another website to raise funds.

Speaking to reporters after his testimony, Wilson said the Emergencies Act was a complete overreaction. He said police never offered an alternate place to protest. Wilson said despite the divisions in the convoy, he believes organizers could have brought all the truckers into a smaller footprint and reduced the impact of the protest.

“My simple answer to that is, look what happened on the Monday despite all the problems, the police admitted to blocking the movement of the trucks, over 100 vehicles were moved, most of which left downtown and only 23 went up to Wellington,” he said. “The plan that we started to implement was working until it was stopped by the police.”

Tom Marazzo, a former Canadian Forces Member, testified after Wilson. He said he lost his job at Georgian College after the institution brought in a vaccine mandate. He said he assumed medical professionals and lawyers would come forward to oppose the mandates and was disappointed when they were mostly silent.

He said he was inspired by the truckers’ protest and felt they could bring about real change.

“It was the truckers that gave me an opportunity to actually get into fighting for my kids’ rights.”

Marazzo said once he got to Ottawa, he met up with other organizers and worked on logistics for the convoy, including aiming to keep emergency lanes open among other tasks.

He said getting individual truckers to move was not easy and took time.

“I had no legitimate or legal authority to tell anyone to do anything and I wasn’t signing anyone’s paycheque,” he said. “This was a case where you had to use your soft skills to communicate and get people to buy in with what you’re trying to do collectively.”

Marazzo said he cautioned police, including after a raid on a logistic site for the convoy was not to push the protesters.

“My conversations with the Ottawa police the next day was,if you want to provoke a reaction from this organic movement from individual truckers, that’s the best way to go about it.”

Both Wilson and Marazzo spoke about a controversial memorandum of understanding, which some conoy organizers circulated and suggested the Senate, Governor General and a group of convoy participants could take over from the Trudeau government.

Both Wilson and Marazzo said they told other organizers the memorandum wasn’t based on any real legal theory and should be pulled back.

Convoy organizers also took in money through crypto currencies. Wilson’s witness statement said most of the crypto currency donations were controlled by organizer B.J. Dichter, but Wilson doesn’t know where that money is now.

“Wilson does not know where all of the cryptocurrency went. Dichter was removed from the board of directors of the Freedom Convoy non-profit after the protests in Ottawa.”

His testimony comes after another organizer, Christopher Barber, testified Tuesday that there was a real “power struggle” between various factions within the convoy even before it arrived in Ottawa starting Jan. 28.

He also pointed fingers at controversial figure Pat King, as well as another group called “Canada Unity” and their notorious “memorandum of understanding” that called to overthrow the federal government.

Freedom Convoy plagued with 'power struggles,' competing factions: organizer Chris Barber

Watch Tom Marazzo and Pat King’s full testimony:

Public inquiry hears about divisions within 'Freedom Convoy' leadership

OTTAWA — One of the main spokesmen for the "Freedom Convoy" says he did not agree with a proposed deal, struck between organizers and the city of Ottawa, that would have seen truckers move their vehicles out of residential areas.



Benjamin Dichter is on the stand Thursday at the Public Order Emergency Commission, the public inquiry that is tasked with investigating the federal government's use of the Emergencies Act in an effort to end the weeks-long occupation of downtown Ottawa last winter.

He said he came to the capital city in January at the invitation of Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the "Freedom Convoy," to be a spokesman for the protesters.

But he was not on the same page as Lich about striking a deal with the city.

On Feb. 12, Lich exchanged letters with then-Mayor Jim Watson, discussing an agreement that would see the truckers move their vehicles away from residential streets.

Related video: Convoy protest organizers testify at Emergencies Act inquiry
Duration 2:47 View on Watch

Dichter said he did not think the negotiations should be happening, because they were partially co-ordinated by Ontario Premier Doug Ford's former chief of staff.

"These are the sorts of things that were causing so much anxiety and division," Dichter said.

Dichter said he joined the protests with a goal of ending pandemic-related mandates and spreading a message of "peace, love, freedom and unity."   ROFLMAO

But he ended up in conflict with other organizers over messaging.

Two other protest organizers, Lich and James Bauder, are also scheduled to appear before the commission Thursday, which is holding public hearings until Nov. 25.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2022.

Laura Osman and David Fraser, The Canadian Press

FRANK ZAPPA

The Mothers of Invention - Were Only in it for the Money 1968 MFSL

We're Only in It for the Money is the third studio album by The Mothers of Invention. 

Released on March 4, 1968 on Verve Records. It was subsequently remixed and re-recorded by Frank Zappa and reissued independently by Rykodisc Records in 1986.