Israel to approve 6,000+ new Zionist settlements in West Bank — watchdog

Israeli authorities are scheduled to approve or advance construction of thousands of new illegal settlement homes in occupied West Bank during meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, says Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog.



AP
July 3, 2024

Peace Now says 2023 was a record year for the promotion of building plans, with 12,349 units promoted in illegal settlements. / Photo: AP Archive

An anti-settlement watchdog group has said Israeli authorities are scheduled to approve or advance the construction of over 6,000 new illegal settlement homes in the occupied West Bank in the coming days.

Peace Now said on Tuesday the Higher Planning Committee, the Israeli body responsible for illegal settlement planning, is set to approve the construction at meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

A spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli body that oversees the committee, declined to comment.

According to Peace Now, the illegal settlements include over 1,000 units in the Gvaot settlement, which has about 60 units, and another one in the Yakir settlement.

Some 3,623 units are to be approved for depositing and 2,393 are to be validated, Peace Now said.

The watchdog noted that 2023 was a record year for the promotion of building plans, with 12,349 units promoted in illegal settlements.



Dismantling political solutions

Peace Now, which describes itself as the longest-standing public pressure movement for a two-state solution and ending the occupation, denounced the plan, saying such actions "diminish the hope for a better future."

"It is clear that the primary goal of the current government, from its decisions to its actions, is the dismantling of any possibility for a political solution between Israelis and Palestinians," Peace Now said in a statement.

The watchdog warned of disaster for Israel and the region if the construction is carried out amidst the war on besieged Gaza.

If the vote goes through, it could trigger new tensions with the United States at a time when relations between the two allies have been strained by the ongoing Israeli brutal carnage in besieged Gaza.

The United States and most of the international community consider Zionist settlements to be illegal or obstacles to peace, and past settlement announcements have drawn angry condemnations from the US.

Israel's extremist regime is dominated by occupied West Bank illegal settlers and their allies.

Over 500,000 Israeli Zionists live in illegal settlements in the West Bank, in addition to illegal 200,000 settlers in occupied East Jerusalem.

Expansion of illegal Zionist settlements was one of the reasons cited by Hamas resistance group behind its October 7 blitz on Israel as well as desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque, 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside occupied West Bank cities over the past year, and increasing attacks by settlers on innocent Palestinians.


SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES

SEAMLESS IMPERIALISM


Relearning lessons from the past: NATO and economic deterrence

There’s a growing need for the West to seamlessly integrate military deterrence with economic warfare once more.

NATO is a defensive alliance “committed to safeguarding the freedom and security of all Allies, against all threats, from all directions.” | Tobias Schwarz/Getty Images

OPINION
JULY 3, 2024
BY TOM KEATINGE
Tom Keatinge is the director of the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI.

POLITICO UK

In her Mansion House speech in April 2022, then U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss proposed “the G7 should act as an economic NATO, collectively defending our prosperity” and prepared to respond in unison, using its economic leverage if a partner faced economic threats from an aggressive regime.

She continued promoting this idea through her stunningly brief period as prime minister and beyond — and was widely derided for it. Isn’t that what the U.N. Security Council does? Since most NATO members are also a part of the EU, doesn’t such an alliance already exist? Isn’t the G7 another mechanism for this kind of coordination? Plus, a perfectly good alliance on sanctions against Russia has been formed without the need for NATO’s intervention anyway.

But all that is far from perfect.

Truth is the U.N. Security Council is broken. And with its permanent members polarized and likely to continue wielding their vetoes on contentious matters, consensus — and thus internationally binding resolutions — are often a distant possibility. Moreover, while it’s true that an alliance against Russia has been formed, it was only formed as tanks rolled across Ukraine’s border — a proper alliance would have been fully prepared and communicating credible deterrence long before then. And yes, most EU members are also in NATO, but even a charitable assessment of the bloc’s performance on Russia sanctions wouldn’t suggest it’s been particularly agile, forceful or prompt.

Crucially, at the heart of all these alternatives lie diplomacy and diplomats — not defense. And at a time of heightened international insecurity and growing global threat of conflict, we should indeed be considering whether keeping the tools of economic deterrence outside the orbit of those we trust to guard our national and collective security is wise — or whether a more clearly integrated economic and military deterrence strategy is much more appropriate for our times.

For one, NATO is a defensive alliance “committed to safeguarding the freedom and security of all Allies, against all threats, from all directions.” Deterrence is a core element of its overall strategy, and it isn’t much of a stretch to envision economics within this purview.

For one, NATO is a defensive alliance “committed to safeguarding the freedom and security of all Allies, against all threats, from all directions.” | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Furthermore, deterrence by denial, “persuading an adversary not to attack by convincing it that an attack will not achieve its intended objectives,” is central to its mission — something political leaders and policymakers singularly failed to achieve with their threat of sanctions against Russia in the months leading up to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

Plus, it isn’t merely in the deterrence phase that an organization like NATO has a role to play. When conflict occurs, targeting an adversary’s economic resources is important. I recall a senior U.S. Treasury official steeped in the experience of combating terrorist financing noting that in the fight against the so-called Islamic State, the best advice he could give his Pentagon counterparts was to drop more bombs on the oil infrastructure that helped sustain their finances.

At this point, it’s also worth recalling some history: The Coordination Committee for Multilateral Export Controls — or CoCom — was set up in 1949 by NATO members as a response to the growing threat from the Soviet Union. And its goal was to control the availability of military-grade technology to Warsaw Pact countries.

Of course, much has changed since the Cold War and the dissolution of CoCom, but with the reemergence of global insecurity, Western allies would do well to revisit that history and assess the extent to which the post-Cold War approach to economic warfare remains fit for today’s geopolitical and international security purposes.

Over the past 20 years, the use of sanctions has — for most Western allies — been a messaging tool used to support foreign policy objectives. Thus, responsibility for their use has resided in ministries of foreign affairs. Only with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have allies sought to use sanctions as, first, a tool of deterrence (which failed) and then a countermeasure to influence the course of the war and reduce Russia’s operational capacity to fight. These are two very different objectives, suited to two very different ways of thinking.

Connected to this shift in the desired outcome of sanctions use is the need for a fundamental attitude change in terms of the threat we face. Put simply, the West is at economic war with Russia. This isn’t an attempt to be alarmist — it’s a reality. For Russia, evading sanctions is an existential struggle. The country and its economy are on a war-footing and are responding to sanctions accordingly.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s allies continue to be tied up with more domestic concerns about the damage that sanctions and other economic measures might cause to their own economies. Their apparent lack of “war footing” when it comes to the application of sanctions has led to sluggish and delayed decision-making, leaving Russia to continue sourcing the critical components it needs for its military production.

As it celebrates three quarters of a century, our need for NATO and its doctrine of deterrence has never been more pressing. Yet, a key pillar of the West’s deterrence strategy remains in the hands of bureaucrats, and faced with the need to press harder on trade and economic restrictions, divisions are emerging across the EU.

It’s time for this to change. It’s time for NATO to relearn some lessons from the past, and to more seamlessly integrate military deterrence with economic warfare.

An American’s guide to the 2024 UK election

We can’t give you a felon and an old guy on July 4 — but we do have a gambling scandal. And Nigel Farage.

Despite the two bloodless technocrats we have running for high office, this is looking like a game-changing election that could sweep the Conservatives away after 14 years in power.

 | Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

JULY 3, 2024
BY MATT HONEYCOMBE-FOSTER
POLITICO UK


LONDON — Greetings America … from your favorite offshore missile base.

Here in Britain, your snaggle-toothed former overlords are having an election this week. And no, it doesn’t involve Princes William and Harry tussling over who takes the crown from King Charles.

And while we may not be able to offer you a memory-challenged octogenarian duking it out with a perma-tanned convicted felon, Britain’s big vote is still an important moment


Despite the two bloodless technocrats we have running for high office, this is looking like a game-changing election that could sweep the Conservatives away after 14 years in power and put the Labour Party back at the top.

Along the way we’ve had more twists and turns than a season of “The Crown” — and with a far uglier cast.

We’re even having the vote on July 4, in celebration of the day we finally shed the trappings of empire.

So here’s everything you need to know about the U.K. election … shorn of the kind of sophisticated British humor that would, of course, be lost on you guys.
When, where, who, how?

Polls open at 7 a.m. Thursday U.K. time and close at 10 p.m. Rather than directly electing a president, Brits pick 650 new members of parliament — known as MPs — to represent their local area, kind of like you do for the House of Representatives. The prime minister is the dude who can command a majority in the House of Commons, the U.K. parliament’s lower chamber, by getting the most MPs elected from the party they lead.

The first results are usually in by around 11:30 p.m. U.K. time, with a big rush of results between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m Friday morning. Around this point, the losing party leader usually concedes.


But but but … the winner doesn’t officially become PM until they’ve kissed hands with the king. Yes, really. Britain gonna Britain, right?

So the winner is expected to head to Buckingham Palace Friday morning to see King Charles and tell him they are confident they can form a new government. Then they’ll go on to No. 10 Downing Street, for decades the official residence of Britain’s premiers.

the winner doesn’t officially become PM until they’ve kissed hands with the king. 

| Aaron Chown/Getty Images

Which means that unlike in the States — where you have that whole post-election ‘transition’ thing — a defeated prime minister loses their home, as well as their job, overnight. There will literally be removal vans at the ready come Friday morning. Life sure is tough at the top.

Sorry — didn’t Britain just have like 12 elections?

Not quite … but boy have we cycled through prime ministers of late.

In short, the 2016 Brexit referendum kicked off a wild time in British politics. The governing Conservative Party, also known as the Tories, has not been able to stop knifing its leaders ever since, in the largely futile hopes of a better one eventually coming along.

Theresa May couldn’t get Brexit done and was swiftly shown the door. A botched handling of the Covid-19 pandemic — and a host of damaging scandals — did it in for Boris Johnson’s administration two years ago. He was followed by Tory grassroots favorite Liz Truss, whose tax-slashing, debt-fueled administration imploded within weeks and put Conservative poll ratings into freefall.

Her old rival, Rishi Sunak, stepped up to the plate in October 2022 and has been PM ever since, locked on a seemingly doomed quest to turn the Tory ship around and get the economy firing again. It’s not gone brilliantly, and pretty much everyone, including most of his own MPs, were shocked when he called a snap election.
Wait, what? Your leaders can call an election when they feel like it?

Yep. Well, kinda. There’s a five-year time limit on any administration.

But, within that period, a prime minister can call an election whenever they like — even just for fun! Or more aptly, at the exact moment it will most favor them and their party, and most screw up the opposition.

Again, they do this by having a chat with the king. That’s a very normal thing to do and monarchy is actually the best form of government. Your little American revolution was an act of folly.

God save the king! Tell me more about this Rishi Sunak guy.

That’s President Rashee Sanook to you.

Sunak, the 44-year-old incumbent prime minister, is quite short and very rich. He’s married to an Indian IT heiress, and the couple is, combined, wealthier than King Charles III

Sunak first rose to national prominence as top finance minister during the pandemic, when he sprung up a massive Covid-19 scheme to avert economic disaster by paying Brits’ wages while they sheltered at home. He quit Boris Johnson’s scandal-hit government in 2022, a move that dealt Johnson a mortal blow and triggered a Tory leadership race.

He lost that battle to Truss … but took over when she imploded after just a few weeks.

So who’s the Labour guy?

Keir Starmer. This guy has had the same haircut for about 30 years and never stops talking about his dad’s job as a toolmaker.

He’s 61 years old, is pretty buttoned-up, and used to be Britain’s top public prosecutor. He served under hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn, who took the party to its crushing 2019 defeat, but now insists he always knew the guy was a dud and that he’s changed Labour for good.

'SIR' Keir Starmer party certainly has a commanding lead in the polls, apparently putting it on course for a landslide win. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

His party certainly has a commanding lead in the polls, apparently putting it on course for a landslide win. He’s dragged Labour to the perceived center ground on a host of issues including immigration, economic competence and running public services. He even booted Corbyn out of the party to show he really means it.
How’s the campaign going?

It’s been … fun. We guess?

Neither party seems to be really addressing any of the big issues bedeviling Britain, including mounting debt, crumbling public services, and a stagnant economy.

Labour insists it’s got a big plan to turbo-charge growth by spending a bit of money and doing things a bit more competently. The Conservatives say massive Labour tax hikes are coming. It’s all a little vague, to say the least.

The campaign has been most notable so far, though, for some spectacular own goals from Sunak’s Conservatives.

UK NATIONAL PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS

Jul 01, 2024

Con21 %

Lab41 %

Lib Dems11 %

Greens5 %

SNP3 %

Reform16 %

Plaid1 %

For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.

Sunak managed to — and we’re promising we didn’t just make this up — offend the entire country by leaving a somber commemoration with World War II D-Day veterans early to … do a TV interview. He later apologized for insulting war heroes, so at least he’s got that over Donald Trump.

Never to be outdone in the drama stakes, Sunak’s own party then caused him a massive headache when it emerged that Conservative insiders had placed suspicious-looking bets on the timing of the election date just days before it was called.

Sorry, what?!

Yes. The Tories had to drop their backing for two of their own candidates after Britain’s gambling regulator started probing suspicious bets laid with bookmakers in the run-up to Sunak calling the vote. Sunak’s police bodyguard was suspended and arrested over the row, too.

By contrast, Labour has been dull to fault. A week-long row about left-wing candidates being replaced with young, centrist Starmer loyalists faded pretty quickly, and the trickiest moments for the Labour leader have come from repeated questioning over his tax plans and past backing for Corbyn.

There’s also a lingering sense that voters aren’t exactly sold on Starmer himself and are more interested in punishing the Tories after 14 years in power.

That’s a dynamic Nigel Farage hopes to seize on as he tries to eclipse the Tories on the right.

Him again?

Yep. Donald Trump’s mate — and arguably the most effective force in British politics for decades — ain’t going anywhere.

Farage has never been a member of parliament, instead leading highly effective campaigning forces from the outside that have made the Conservatives squirm on migration and Europe.

Nigel Farage has taken over the leadership of Reform UK, a right-wing challenger party which, in some polls, is outpacing the centuries-old Conservatives. 

| Peter Byrne/AFP via Getty Images

But this time he’s a central player. The Brexiteer rabble-rouser initially insisted he was going to sit this election out, but decided to go all-in with a headline grabbling U-turn that put rocket boosters under the whole campaign.

Farage is running for a seat in parliament, which he looks set to win. He has taken over the leadership of Reform UK, a right-wing challenger party which, in some polls, is outpacing the centuries-old Conservatives.
So could Britain wake up to prime minister Farage on July 5?

Nah. Reform currently has just one MP. Polls predict its number of MPs after the election will still be in the single figures or low teens.

But there is a chance Reform actually gets a higher national vote share than the Conservatives and costs it a host of seats across the country by splitting the vote on the right.

That will hand Starmer an even bigger majority and could have major repercussions for any post-election Tory leadership contest, assuming Sunak resigns — and could even put Farage on a path to becoming the leader of the opposition within a decade.

Anything else we need to know before we get back to our real country?

Yes! The two guys vying for office here are watching the U.S. election closely, too.

Starmer is a social democrat and will be cheering Biden on in November if Labour wins. But his party has been forging links with Donald Trump’s team and key Republicans just in case.

Even Starmer’s foreign policy chief, David Lammy — who once called Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath” — is sounding much warmer about the Republican firebrand now.

Brits cosying up to the Americans for influence? Surely not?

Look we just want to be you, OK? Is that a crime? Your teeth are better and you don’t put washing machines in the kitchen.

Even our prime minister is in on the act.

The Tory leader has been fawning over U.S. tech execs in office, and already owns a swanky house in California — so don’t be surprised if he crops up in Silicon Valley after an election defeat. Lucky you!

 

Australian coal mine battles three-day blaze

By

 AFP

July 3,2024

A major Australian coal mine battled on Wednesday to extinguish an underground gas fire that has been burning for three days following a “combustion event”.

The blaze erupted on Saturday when gas ignited at Anglo American’s Grosvenor Mine in the eastern state of Queensland, forcing the evacuation of all workers and a halt to production.

“The fire is still going and we are still working to safely seal up the last of the ventilation shafts using a variety of methods,” a spokeswoman for Anglo American told AFP.

“But we are very close.”

Anglo American said it was working with state health and safety authorities on the next steps to ensure a “safe restart” to the mine, which employs about 1,400 people.

The re-opening is likely to take “several months as a result of the likely damage underground”, it said in an earlier update.

The group said air quality had not been impacted.

“External health specialists have reassured us that, based on current information they have, there is no impact to community health,” it said.

DANGEROUS COAL SEAM FIRE

The fire started when a “localised ignition” occurred at a site where coal is extracted in a long slice along a broad wall of the coal face, Anglo American said. 

This resulted in “an underground combustion event”.

The Grosvenor mine, near the town of Moranbah, had been expected to produce more than a fifth of Anglo American’s overall forecast of 15-17 million tonnes of steel-making coal in 2024, the company said.

Anglo American was already under pressure to execute a restructuring plan that involves selling the steel-making coal assets, said RBC Capital Markets’ London-based analyst Marina Calero.

“The downgrades to production will likely weigh on the stock and the potential sale of the division,” she said in a report.

London-headquartered Anglo American’s share price fell 4.3 percent in the first two trading days of the week to 2,392 pounds (US$3,034).

 

Japan’s top court to rule on forced sterilisations

By

 AFP

July 3, 2024

Japan’s top court will issue a ruling Wednesday on a defunct eugenics law under which the government forcibly sterilised around 16,500 people, causing decades of suffering for the victims.

The Supreme Court is hearing five appeal cases from victims seeking compensation and an apology after different decisions made by lower courts. Its ruling is due at 3 pm local time (0600 GMT).

Japan’s government acknowledges that around 16,500 people were forcibly sterilised under a eugenics law in place between 1948 and 1996.

The law allowed doctors to sterilise people with inheritable intellectual disabilities to “prevent the generation of poor quality descendants”.

Another 8,500 people were sterilised with their consent, according to authorities, although lawyers say even those cases were likely “de facto forced” because of the pressure individuals faced.

A 1953 government notice said physical restraint, anaesthesia and even “deception” could be used for the operations.

“I’ve spent an agonising 66 years because of the government surgery. I want my life back that I was robbed of,” said Saburo Kita, who uses a pseudonym.

Kita was convinced to undergo a vasectomy when he was 14 at a facility housing troubled children.

He couldn’t bring himself to tell his wife when he was married years later, only confiding in her shortly before she died in 2013.

“Only when the government faces up to what it did and takes responsibility will I be able to accept my life, even just a little,” Kita, now 81, told a news conference last year.

Apology –

The number of operations in Japan slowed to a trickle in the 1980s and 1990s before the law was scrapped in 1996.

That dark history was thrust back under the spotlight in 2018 when a woman in her 60s sued the government over a procedure she had undergone at age 15, opening the floodgates for similar lawsuits.

The government, for its part, “wholeheartedly” apologised after legislation was passed in 2019 stipulating a lump-sum payment of 3.2 million yen (around $20,000 today) per victim.

However, survivors say that is too little to match the severity of their suffering and have taken their fight to court. 

Apart from Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling, several other cases are at different stages in lower courts.

Regional courts have mostly agreed in recent years that the eugenics law constituted a violation of Japan’s constitution.

However, judges have been divided on whether claims are valid beyond a 20-year statute of limitations.

Some have said that applying such limitations is extremely cruel and unfair, ordering the state to pay damages. But others have dismissed cases, saying the window for pursuing damages had closed.

“If the Supreme Court decides that the statute of limitations isn’t applicable at all, then basically all plaintiffs in subsequent cases, and victims who haven’t sued yet or aren’t even aware of damage they had suffered, can benefit,” Kita’s lawyer, Naoto Sekiya, told AFP.

Critics say the eugenics law laid the foundation for discriminatory attitudes against people with disabilities that linger still.

“The ruling will hopefully pave the way for active steps to be taken by the government to eliminate the kind of eugenic mentality that it created,” Sekiya said.

 

Brazil requires Meta to stop taking user data to train AI

By

 AFP

July 3, 2024

Brazil on Tuesday demanded Meta cease taking users’ data to train its generative AI models, a move the US tech giant called “a setback.”

The decision was issued by Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority, which warned it would impose a daily fine of $50,000 Brazilian reais (about $8,800) as long as the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was out of compliance.

The agency cited the company’s new privacy policy, updated on June 26, which outlines terms regarding “the use of personal data for training purposes of generative AI systems,” according to a government statement announcing the move.

The authority called its ban a “preventative measure” that was made “due to the imminent risk of serious and irreparable or difficult to repair damage to the fundamental rights of the affected data subjects.”

A spokesperson for Meta said the company was disappointed in the decision.

“AI training is not something unique to our services and we are more transparent than many players in this industry who have used public content to train their models and products,” Meta said in a statement sent to AFP.

“This is a setback for innovation and competitiveness in AI development, and delays the arrival of AI benefits for people in Brazil,” it added.

Brazil has about 109 million active Facebook users and 113 million Instagram users, according to data firm Statista.

Recent advancements in generative AI have prompted warnings from some experts and academics who advocate for regulation of the emergent technology.

In June, Meta suspended its new AI-friendly privacy policy in the European Union after 11 countries complained.

UK

Child poverty: 'Schools are becoming the fourth emergency service for families in crisis' 

Alongside their day jobs in the classroom, more teachers across the UK are acting as welfare advisers, housing officers, and social workers, ITV News' Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker explains.

 IGNORE THE DENIERS 

Global shift toward green energy accelerating

Jul 2, 2024

A global shift in the way the world produces energy has started. According to the International Energy Agency, the world will spend twice as much on clean energy in 2024, including solar, wind and nuclear, as it will on fossil fuels. John Dickerson explains.

FDA Bans Brominated Vegetable Oil, Food Additive Used in Soda

By Marina Zhang
July 2, 2024

(Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock)

On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will ban brominated vegetable oil (BVO), a food additive.

The ban will take effect on Aug. 2, 2024.

BVO is a vegetable oil modified with bromine, a toxic gas.

In the late 1960s, the FDA authorized using BVO in small amounts (not exceeding 15 parts per million) in citrus-flavored sodas to keep the flavoring from floating to the top. Manufacturers also use it in other products.

“The agency concluded that the intended use of BVO in food is no longer considered safe after the results of studies conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found the potential for adverse health effects in humans,” the FDA wrote in its statement.

“The FDA no longer allows for the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in food,” a FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times, adding that it is part of the agency’s regulatory process to reassess “previously evaluated food ingredients and addressing safety concerns.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Global Branded Food Products Database lists over 600 products that may still contain BVO. The accuracy of these listings is uncertain since the USDA relies on manufacturers to update entries for their own products.

Public advocacy against BVO has led major soda brands to phase out its use.

However, Dr Pepper/Seven Up’s Sun Drop still uses the food additive. It is also present in generic citrus sodas like Dollar Tree’s Stars & Stripes orange soda, Mountain Lightning and Orangette from Walmart, and Clover Valley from Dollar General.

BVO is also used less commonly in sports drinks, fruit-flavored beverages, snacks, and baked goods.

Health Risks

Though health concerns about BVO have circulated for over 50 years, research on BVO is limited, with most studies having been conducted on animals.

Several studies have suggested that BVO may harm the thyroid, liver, and heart and is linked to neurological problems.

Consuming BVO has been associated with an increased accumulation of bromine fatty acids. Excessive accumulation of these substances can result in bromine toxicity, which damages the central nervous system and causes headaches, nausea, memory loss, and poor coordination.

Only one case report identified the BVO in soda as a source of bromine toxicity. This type of toxicity is mainly caused by occupational exposure, particularly among agriculture and sanitation workers.

In 2022, the FDA tested BVO in rodents, feeding them amounts of BVO that would be found in real-world scenarios.

Both male and female rats were found to have increased bromide content in their blood and elevated levels of bromine fatty acids in the heart, lungs, and fat tissue. The rats’ thyroid hormone levels also changed.

Another report showed that bromine can replace up to 40 percent of iodine, a trace element needed to make thyroid hormones.
A Long Time Coming

BVO has been used in foods since the 1920s.

The FDA initially designated it as generally recognized as safe (GRAS), but it was later removed from the “GRAS list” after the FDA became aware of its safety concerns.

In the late 1960s, the agency limited the use of BVO as a flavoring oil stabilizer. In 1970, the FDA concluded that using BVO in food was not GRAS due to toxicity concerns under the conditions of use at that time. The agency began regulating it as a food additive while additional safety studies were conducted.

Between then and the 2020s, the FDA improved methods to measure BVO more accurately and identified new areas where additional information was needed to assess health effects.

On Nov. 2, 2023, the FDA entertained banning BVO, proposing a rule that, if finalized, would prohibit its use in food.

The FDA will officially revoke the regulation allowing the use of BVO in food on July 3, 2024, effectively banning the additive.

The ban will take effect on Aug. 2, 2024, and manufacturers of food containing BVO have one year from that date to comply with it.

VP Kamala Harris has a better chance of retaining White House than Joe Biden, says CNN poll

TAKE THAT RACIST MISOGYNISTS WHO HAVE DISMISSED HER

The approval rating of Biden, 81, has plummeted after his dismal debate performance in Atlanta last week against his predecessor Donald Trump

PTI Washington Published 03.07.24

Kamala HarrisFile Photo

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is of Indian and African heritage, has a better chance of retaining the White House in the November presidential polls than her boss President Joe Biden has, according to a latest CNN poll.

The approval rating of Biden, 81, has plummeted after his dismal debate performance in Atlanta last week against his predecessor Donald Trump.

Since the debate, there has been increasing voices in the ruling Democratic party for Biden to step down and let someone else run the race for the crucial November 5 presidential elections.

According to the CNN poll conducted by SRS, Trump is ahead of Biden by six points.

The poll also finds Harris within striking distance of Trump in a hypothetical matchup: 47 per cent of registered voters support Trump, 45 per cent Harris, a result within the margin of error that suggests there is no clear leader under such a scenario.

“Harris’ slightly stronger showing against Trump rests at least in part on broader support from women (50% of female voters back Harris over Trump vs. 44% for Biden against Trump) and independents (43% Harris vs. 34% Biden),” the polls said.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refrained to give a direct comment on the polls.

“I'm constrained to speaking directly to your poll and I get it and I hear the question. I got to be mindful, that is something for the campaign as you started saying, what the campaign has laid out their argument of the case. That is something for them to take up and that is something for them to answer,” she told reporters when asked about it.

“What I can speak to is the president's record. What I can speak to, what he's been able to accomplish and the things that he's been able to do and get done is actually in line with majority of Americans. And I think that's important too, to note. And again, I will say with age comes wisdom and experience and that's certainly something that the president brings,” she said.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama leads Trump by a whopping 11 points in an Ipsos poll—50 per cent to 39 per cent — though her office told NBC News in March she would not be running for president this year.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

Veteran Democrat calls for Biden to stand aside, as poll shows Harris now more popular


By Farrah Tomazin
July 3, 2024 —

Washington: The White House is resisting calls to release medical reports detailing President Joe Biden’s mental and physical health as the fallout over his devastating debate against Donald Trump continues.

Five days since Biden’s confused and incoherent performance sparked fresh questions over his fitness for office, Democratic state governors were holding crisis talks, and party elders and officials were still scrambling to defend the president.


US President Joe Biden at the DC Emergency Operations in Washington on Tuesday.CREDIT:BLOOMBERG

A CNN poll conducted after the debate found most Americans believe the Democrats would have a better chance of beating Trump with someone else at the top of the ticket.

In another blow to America’s 81-year-old president, veteran Texas politician Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday became the first Democrat in the US Congress to publicly call for Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race


“My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved,” said Doggett, who is the second-highest ranking Democrat in the powerful House and Ways Committee.

“Recognising that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”

Five months out from the election, the Trump campaign is gaining momentum, emboldened not only by the debate but also this week by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, which has shielded the twice-impeached Republican from prosecution over acts he took as president.

The White House, on the other hand, has been in damage control and spent its first press briefing since the debate fielding questions about Biden’s ability to do his job, including whether he is senile or suffering from a degenerative condition.

“It’s a no, and I hope you’re asking the other guy the same question,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in reference to Trump, who is 78 and also one of the oldest candidates to run for office.

Similar comments were also made by former house speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told MSNBC it was legitimate to ask if Biden’s debate performance was “an episode” or “a condition”.


March 2022: Biden delivers his State of the Union address, as Vice President Kamala Harris (left) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applaud.CREDIT:AP

However, Pelosi, who is 84, added: “When people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate – of both candidates.”

Asked if the White House would be prepared to release more fulsome reports on Biden’s health, Jean-Pierre said the president had already released the results of his annual medical examinations.

The latest examination took place in February and in a five-page memo released at the time, Biden’s longstanding physician, Kevin O’Connor, declared that there were “no new concerns” since the president’s previous physical checkup in February 2023.

The medical team had assessed Biden’s stiff gait, sleep apnoea and a root canal, but overall, O’Connor said at the time: “President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”

Jean-Pierre insisted this assessment remained the case, and told reporters: “We’re not taking away from what you all saw, or what the American people saw. We understand it was a bad night.

“But it is not uncommon for incumbents to have a bad night on their first debate, and we are going to continue to do the work that we have been doing on behalf of the American people.”


Behind the scenes, however, Democrats remained in panic mode, particularly after various reports suggested Biden’s performance during the debate – in which he struggled to complete sentences, forgot details and at one point froze – was “not a one-off”.

“There have been 15, 20, occasions in the last year and a half when the president has appeared somewhat as he did in that horror show that we witnessed,” veteran Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday, citing unnamed sources who had witnessed this first hand.

Lloyd Doggett is the first Democrat congressman to publicly call on Biden to pull out of the presidential race.CREDIT:BLOOMBERG

A CNN poll taken after the debate and released on Tuesday provided some good news for the president, showing that the six-point lead Trump held over Biden two months ago had not changed despite last Thursday’s event.

The same poll, however, also showed that most Americans now believe that another candidate would have a better chance of beating Trump than Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris within striking distance of Trump (45 to 47 per cent).




California Governor Gavin Newsom has been raised as a potential presidential candidate over Biden.CREDIT:AP

Other contenders – such as California Governor Gavin Newsom, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer – trailed Trump by about 4 to 5 percentage points on a hypothetical match-up.

Biden, however, insists he is not going anywhere.

In a bid to counter concerns, he spent part of the day at the District of Columbia’s emergency operations centre to discuss the dangers of extreme heat and used his speech to take aim at Trump and “MAGA Republicans” for climate change denialism.


He later met with governors who had concerns (but were not calling for him to stand down).

The White House also announced he would hold a press conference at next week’s NATO summit in Washington and a first post-debate interview on Sunday with US ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

  Kamala Harris reacts to Trump immunity ruling, Biden debate performance

 

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