By John Vibes

This week, the European Parliament voted to offer Edward Snowden asylum and protection and drop all criminal charges against him. When at one time most of the world was bullied by the US government into pressing charges against Snowden and forcing him into exile, the entire European continent has now officially given him a pass.

Thursday’s 285 – 281 vote officially recognized Snowden as an “international human rights defender” and ensured that he would be free from arrest within European borders.

The final resolution mentioned that “too little has been done to safeguard citizens’ fundamental rights following revelations of electronic mass surveillance.” Snowden is currently living in asylum in Russia and is wanted in the United States for charges under the federal Espionage Act, but Russia has declined to extradite him. He has been unable to leave due to the fear of being kidnapped by the US military when he left the country, but now it may be possible for him to travel to Europe. Snowden posted on his Twitter page that this could be a good sign of a shift in attitude towards his cause. Earlier this year, it was reported that a federal appeals court ruled that the controversial NSA spy program which collects phone records is actually illegal.

Snowden recently joined Twitter, making himself more visible and approachable to the general population than ever before.

Within a day of opening his first social media account since leaking information about the NSA spy program, Snowden gained over one million followers. However, there was only one account that he decided to follow, the NSA. The whistleblower’s first tweet read, “Can you hear me now?”

Read more: http://www.activistpost.com/2015/10/bombshell-europe-drops-charges-against-edward-snowden-offers-asylum-and-protection.html?utm_source=Activist+Post+Subscribers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1fb1c0b7e5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_b0c7fb76bd-1fb1c0b7e5-386424498

By Derrick Broze

For the second time in a month, a health center run by Doctors Without Borders was bombed as part of the military effort led by Saudi Arabia. The hospital was operating in the northern province of Saada, an area which has been heavily bombed since the Saudi-led military effort against Houthi rebels began in April.

Doctors Without Borders said the center was bombed twice, forcing the evacuation of staff members and critically wounded patients and resulting in the collapse of the building. Hassan Boucenine, a Doctors Without Borders spokesman in Yemen, told the NY Times the organization had given the health center’s coordinates to the military coalition six months ago and reconfirmed the coordinates on a monthly basis.

In early October a hospital in northern Afghanistan operated by Doctors Without Borders also suffered an attack from U.S.-led coalition forces. Twenty-two people were killed in the bombing, including 12 hospital staffers. Three of the deaths have been reported as children in the intensive care unit.

The bombing, which took place at a hospital in the city of Kunduz, was reportedly requested by Afghan military officers who were under fire from Taliban forces. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the AP that the U.S. responded to the request by firing from an AC-130 gunship. However, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter would not confirm whether the gunship actually destroyed the hospital.

Most Americans remain unaware that the U.S. military is supporting Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians. In April journalist Ben Swann reported on the situation in Yemen: Hundreds of Yemeni civilians have found themselves in the crossfire of the Saudi-led bombing campaign that is in its second month, while Yemeni-Americans watch in desperation at the brutality taking place. The Saudi’s are bombing the largest cities in Yemen in an attempt to destroy gains made by Houthi rebels who are overthrowing the government of Yemen. The Saudis claim that the Houthis are a proxy force fighting on behalf of Iran, even though the Houthis are a native tribal group from Yemen.

Since March 26, 2015, more than 750 Yemenis have been killed by Saudi airstrikes, over 2,500 have been injured and more than 150,000 people have been displaced. None of that reflects the incredible destruction to the nation’s infrastructure as more than 12 million Yemen.

Read More: http://www.activistpost.com/2015/10/saudi-arabia-bombs-second-doctors-without-borders-hospital.html

October 13, 2015
by Jennifer Lea Reynolds

The Coca-Cola logo is commonplace and well-established; the slanted white lettering on a red background is recognized by virtually everyone around the globe. However, a Nicaraguan graphic designer by the name of Fabio Pantoja is changing things up, and not in ways that would please the soda giant.

In an effort to visually convey the health harms that Coca-Cola unleashes on the body, he created an unexpected twist on the otherwise simple, lighthearted logo.

His shocking infographic incorporates the various body parts that the soda destroys right in with the lettering; for example, there is an eyeball dangling from either end of the “C” and a heart makes up the second “A.”

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051540_Coca-Cola_organ_damage_soda.html#ixzz3puY6X9lz

October 02, 2015
by J. D. Heyes

A conference where invited guests and experts will attempt to explain several secretive, mysterious economic and extraterrestrial phenomena is set for launch in Austin, Texas, at the end of October.

Dubbed the “Secret Space Program Conference,” the two-day event (Oct. 31–Nov. 1), promised to “connect the dots” and explain “what’s going on.”

“The real authorities in the fields of advanced technology, the breakaway civilization, deep security state and the black budget will convene for a game-changing weekend that will leave you wondering who really controls our world,” says a description of the event posted online at SecretSpaceProgram.org.

“Following on the heels of the successful 2014 event in San Mateo, this year’s 2-day Secret Space Program Conference will be held in Austin, Texas and will be even more power-packed with top speakers, innovative topics and livestream interaction,” the site reads.

In addition, the conference aims to answer a number of questions:

Is there a Secret Space Program being developed outside the public eye using funds allocated by congress for purposes of creating a completely separate economic system? Where are the missing budget trillions? What is the UFO phenomenon? Is it a series of military projects using this advanced technology developed in underground bases around the globe or does it represent something completely unknown and alien to human reality?

Attendees will be introduced to “shocking” new findings and evidence that show why, as space programs like NASA are strictly budgeted and built by a government heavily in debt, space development continues apace by “an untouchable, elite cabal unhindered by public accountability or congressional oversight,” the program description notes.

The conference will cover “financial, historical and cultural analysis of the ‘Breakaway Civilization,'” a very small, very elite group of people (“the 1% of the 1%”) who are seeing their already vast wealth explode even further. Experts will also talk about “the system of hidden finance” that has placed the U.S. intelligence community “in the role of international bankers,” the conference description says.

“Multi trillion dollar financial fraud and market manipulations are actually mechanisms for financing the black budget programs and the privatized, centralized governance necessitated by high-tech secrecy,” the description continues. “A financial mechanism to transfer wealth to a new Breakaway Civilization.”

The conference’s experts also plan to look into evidence that visits to Earth by extraterrestrials are real and that have been taking place for a very long time.

“Over the years, there have been many confirmed World Military encounters with UFOs,” says the conference description. “The energy and technology implications of these crafts and the probable political forces that are blocking changes to our energy paradigm are very much worth researching. Ever wondered how a breakaway civilization could operate with impunity?”

“Together we will discover what the corporate space interests, major media and secret military programs have been hiding from the public and why they must be exposed and their covert programs be made transparent,” it says. “Let’s connect the dots and find out the truth.”

Conference speakers include a who’s who in related subject matter (click here to see the full list) including longtime investigative journalist and former University of Texas professor Jim Marrs, who will discuss how military-trained psychic spies were able to view non-humans on Earth; Catherine Austin Fitts, who will discuss ways to navigate the opportunities and risks in the global financial system and political economy; and Dr. Paul LaViolette, Ph.D., who “will begin with views of the dwarf planet Ceres to examine possible evidence of colonization” and then move into a discussion of “the recent patenting of a superconductor thruster capable of delivering at least 1000 times more thrust per unit weight than the xenon ion thrusters used on the Dawn spacecraft, and requiring no power input,” says the event website.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051533_Secret_Space_Program_deep_state_globalists_black_budget.html#ixzz3puWMkILY

October 13, 2015 by: Ethan A. Huff

Children born in America today are subjected to at least 56 doses of 14 different vaccines before the age of 18, an incredible number compared to what children received back in the 1950s and 1960s. But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is gleefully awaiting the arrival of some 271 more vaccines which, when they become commercialized, will generate an additional $100 billion for vaccine companies by the year 2025.

Vaccines for allergies, autoimmune disease and even cancer are all making their way through the development pipeline, where they could one day end up on the “mandatory” vaccine schedule that children are required to receive, unless they opt for an exemption, before being allowed to attend school. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., warns parents about this in a new paper entitled Children at Risk — Vaccines, Government & Big Pharma’s Dirty Money.

It’s all about making money and serving special interests, Kennedy says about the vaccine agenda. And the CDC is in on the scam, as evidenced by at least four federal studies that paint the CDC as “a cesspool of corruption, mismanagement and dysfunction with alarming conflicts of interest suborning its research, regulatory and policymaking functions.”

Vaccine scam artists like Paul Offit allowed to serve on CDC advisory boards that approve vaccines
Kennedy also warns of Judas goats like Paul Offit from Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, who sneak their way onto CDC vaccine advisory boards in order to push their own vaccines, or the vaccines of their employers. In Offit’s case, this pediatric charlatan recommended that his own vaccine for rotavirus be added to the CDC vaccination schedule, which later earned him $182 million in profits after he sold the patent for his rotavirus vaccine to Merck & Co.

It’s a revolving door between industry and government, in other words, and it’s having devastating consequences on our children. Autism rates are already higher than they’ve ever been, with one in 68 children now diagnosed somewhere along the autism spectrum, according to the CDC. Chronic disease rates are also skyrocketing, which many attribute to the injection of neurodamaging toxins like mercury and aluminum, as added to many childhood vaccines. Natural News’s Health Ranger Mike Adams broke the story last year about mercury still being used in vaccines as a preservative.

“In a typical example, Offit in 1999 sat on the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee and voted to add the rotavirus vaccine to CDC’s schedule, paving the way for him to make a fortune on his own rotavirus vaccine,” writes Kennedy. “Offit told Newsweek, ‘It was like winning the lottery!'”

Bill Gates and his vaccine cronies test potentially deadly jabs on children in Third World
Depending on which source you look at, there could be as many as 395 new vaccines in the development pipeline, VacTruth.com reports. A 2010 News Medical article explains that vaccine industry scientists are busy testing all sorts of experimental vaccines on poor folks living in the Third World, with groups like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation leading this vaccine crusade.

This exploitation of largely children living in developing countries has been taking place since at least the 1970s, with the least among us serving as human guinea pigs in a global vaccine experiment that embodies the very definition of humans rights abuse. And in America, many of these same vaccines are being administered to children, with no legal recourse at their disposal should they be harmed by these chemical cocktails.

“Vaccine industry money has neutralized virtually all of the checks and balances that once stood between a rapacious pharmaceutical industry and our children,” Kennedy adds, noting that vaccine industry immunity from lawsuits means there’s no such thing as a safe vaccine.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051535_Vaccine_mandates_exemptions_CDC.html#ixzz3puTcnCQX

Plastic has infiltrated the ocean’s ecosystem, from plankton to whales.

There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic trash in the world’s oceans, and each year, 8 million tons of plastic are added to the count. That’s equivalent to one municipal garbage truck pulling up to the beach and dumping its contents every minute. Though the oceans seem vast enough to stomach a lot of plastic, the level of waste is starting to reach a crisis point: According to a new report by the Ocean Conservancy, in partnership with the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, by 2025, the ocean could contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of finfish.

All these floating bits of plastic–from micron-sized plastic pieces to those six-pack can rings–not only disrupt marine ecosystems, but they also poison the global supply of seafood. “It’s reaching crisis proportions,” says Andreas Merkl, CEO of the Ocean Conservancy. “Plastic breaks down into small pieces that look like plankton and is eaten by everyone from plankton to whales.” Plastic acts as a pollution sponge in the ocean, so when wildlife ingest pieces, the plastic might as well be a poison pill.

The new report calls for a focus on improving waste management systems in a handful of developing countries that are most responsible for the plastic leakage into the ocean. China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam contribute more than half of the oceans’ plastic since their waste infrastructure hasn’t kept up with rapid industrialization. “We can concentrate on the places where the plastic is hitting the ocean,” Merkl says. “Five countries would solve half the problem.”

On average, only about 40% of waste in these countries is actually picked up for disposal. But it’s not just uncollected waste floating around–though that is three-fourths of the problem. The other quarter of the oceans’ plastic came from post-collection activities. Even when a waste management company picks up waste to landfill it, poorly insulated landfills or illegal dumping mean that trash still ends up in the ocean.

Learn more: http://environment-today.org/report-plastic-pollution-in-the-ocean-is-reaching-crisis-levels/

September 17, 2015
by Jonathan Benson

(NaturalNews) A series of eye-opening emails exposing biotechnology industry corruption have finally gone public thanks to the rigorous work of the U.S. Right to Know organization, which is blowing the lid on widespread collusion between academia and the biotech industry.

The pro-labeling group recently exposed numerous university professors for accepting cash bribes and free vacations from Monsanto and other biotech companies in exchange for hawking their chemical wares, a major conflict of interest that calls into question the legitimacy of a whole slew of scientific research claiming benefits from the use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and their respective pesticides.

Kevin Folta from the University of Florida is one such industry shill who is now seeing his name plastered across media headlines, including, perhaps shockingly, at The New York Times, after public records requests revealed that he quietly partnered with Monsanto and its industry allies to promote GMOs through a so-called “biotechnology outreach” program.

Among Folta’s many escapades to this end was a trip to Hawaii that he took on Monsanto’s tab, during which he testified on behalf of the “safety and effectiveness” of GMOs and crop chemicals such as Roundup (glyphosate). Folta repeatedly claimed that he wasn’t financially compensated for this blatant consulting work, but we recently exposed him for accepting a $25,000 “grant” from Monsanto to be “used at [his] discretion” for “research and outreach projects.”

This is, of course, code language for Monsanto paying off Folta to use his academic clout to convince the masses that GMOs are safe and beneficial for humans. It wasn’t until Folta’s financial ties with Monsanto were made public by U.S. Right to Know that the true colors of this charlatan posing as an “independent” research scientist and academic were made plain.

Take a look at our PDF file showing the University of Florida Foundation, with which Folta is affiliated, as a top donor recipient of Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF, and Pioneer Hi-Bred, all companies that market GMOs and crop pesticides here.[PDF]

Monsanto’s “biofortified boys” pretended to offer independent support for GMOs while quietly accepting biotech bribes
Others on the financial dole of the biotech industry include Bruce M. Chassy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and David Shaw from Mississippi State University. Both of these men, along with Folta, were collectively referred to by Monsanto and its industry associates as the “biofortified boys” for their work in pushing the pro-GMO cause.

Monsanto approached Shaw in 2013 with a mission to manipulate the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) into endorsing approval for a new type of genetically-modified soybean and cottonseed owned by the company. The organic industry opposed this move, as did the USDA initially, but with enough financial grease, Shaw was able to grant Monsanto its wish.

Chassy performed similar work on behalf of Monsanto when he convinced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon a proposal it issued regarding tightening the restrictions on pesticide use for insect-resistant seeds. Leaked emails from 2011 show that Monsanto awarded Chassy a “grant” to perform this and other work at the expense of the public interest.

“Is there a coordinated plan to maintain pressure and emphasis on EPA’s evolving regulations?” asked Monsanto global scientific affairs chief Eric Sachs in an associated email to Chassy, illustrating the type of corruption taking place behind closed doors. “Have you considered having a small group of scientists request a meeting with Lisa Jackson?” the email went on, referring to the EPA administrator at that time.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051206_Monsanto_shills_academic_corruption_biofortified_boys.html#ixzz3puNcENXP

September 17, 2015
by J. D. Heyes

Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, working with former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden, has uncovered bombshell after bombshell regarding the manner in which U.S. and Western intelligence services conduct business.

Now, he can reveal another bombshell that ought to forever change the way you view your government and the internet itself.

Writing for The Intercept, a site he co-founded, Greenwald says that one story that remains to be told from the archive of documents Snowden took from the National Security Agency is “how Western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.”

For weeks, Greenwald said he worked with NBC News to publish a series of stories about “dirty trick” tactics practiced by Britain’s NSA equivalent, the GCHQ, and the latter’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group).

“Online covert operations”
The stories, Greenwald says, were based on four classified GCHQ documents (which can be found here, here, here, and here) that were presented to the NSA and the other three “Five Eyes” partners – an English-speaking intelligence coalition whose members consist of the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

With that in mind, Greenwald’s latest piece centers around the publication of yet another document entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.” In publishing his latest series of stories one at a time, Greenwald said they highlighted some of the key, albeit discreet, revelations: Government intel monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the same kind of DDoS (denial of service) attacks agencies accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising themselves with sex) and destructive computer viruses.

With the latest piece, Greenwald said he wanted to “focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.”

Greenwald further writes:

Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.

“Discredit” targets, companies, with false flag and other techniques
In order to achieve those goals, agencies (according to one of the PowerPoint slides in the documents revealed by Snowden) use a host of techniques: “false flag operations” (the posting of material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else); phony victim blog posts (where an agent pretends to be a victim of an individual whose reputation they wish to destroy); and the posting of “negative information” on various blog forums.

On a slide entitled “Discredit a Target,” agents are encouraged to:

Set up a honey-trap
Change the target’s photos on networking sites
Write a victim blog
Email/text the target’s colleagues, friends, etc.

Similar tactics are called for when the target is a company, according to a separate slide.

“No matter your views on Anonymous, ‘hacktivists’ or garden-variety criminals,” writes Greenwald, “it is not difficult to see how dangerous it is to have secret government agencies being able to target any individuals they want – who have never been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crimes – with these sorts of online, deception-based tactics of reputation destruction and disruption.”

He makes a broader point that far beyond hacktivists, intelligence agencies have be vested with the authority to decide for themselves to ruin people’s lives and reputations, perhaps guided by political leaders, while disrupting their online political activity even though they’ve never been charged with any criminal activity and their actions have no bearing on or connection to terrorism or even national security threats.

The Obama administration is hardly innocent in any of this. As Greenwald pointed out, Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a highly controversial paper in 2008 in which he proposed the government “cognitively infiltrate” anti-government (or anti-administration) groups and web sites. This is something that Obama has done by using the IRS to thwart and besmirch Tea Party organizations).

Many Americans – and citizens of other Western nations – want to believe that their government is always on the up-and-up and that their motives are always good. It is difficult to imagine that your own government might want to target you simply because you might disagree with the stated goals and policies of the administration or Congress.

Now, however, these documents should prove otherwise quite convincingly.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051209_government_propaganda_smear_campaigns_Edward_Snowden.html#ixzz3puFwxbLV

September 17, 2015
by L.J. Devon

(NaturalNews) The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a charity that began in 1961, is on the verge of destroying everything it stands for. For decades, the charitable organization played an integral role in conserving important regions while working on behalf of animal welfare around the world. In the new millennia, however, the WWF has strayed from its roots. It has been watered down and infiltrated by the nature-destroying ideas of the biotech industry.

The WWF is not what they once were. In the recently published book, PandaLeaks: The Dark Side of the WWF, German author Wilfried Huismann exposes everything, from the charity’s outrageously high salaries to its recent partnership with agrochemical giant Monsanto.

Suppressed new book exposes dangerous relationship between WWF and Monsanto
When the book came out in 2012, the WWF legal team tried to censor it. They succeeded for several months, afraid of being exposed for promoting Monsanto’s genetically modified crops. In the fall of 2014, the book was re-released, shedding light on the funds the WWF took from Monsanto. The book endured several lawsuits and revealed the dark side of the WWF’s relationship with the multinational agrochemical seed engineer. The book reveals that the WWF collaborated with Monsanto to create a “Round Table on Responsible Soy.” This means WWF leaders discussed ways to unleash GMO soy around the world while convincing entire countries that GMOs and agrochemicals are the most environmentally-conscious method of farming.

Monsanto is infamous for “green washing” their products, making people think they are for the environment. The corporation calls their GMO soy a “responsible” choice for protecting the environment. This deceit ultimately infected the WWF, which went along with plans to unleash GMO soy in the Amazon. Now Brazil and Argentina are being turned into GMO plantations as the Amazon is cut down to make way for Monsanto’s GMO “save the planet” brainwashing.

The clever operatives at Monsanto have found a way to convince environmentally conscious charities such as the WWF to go along with their plans for agricultural control and world dominance. Every donation that is made to the WWF is now supporting the very ideas that destroy the natural environment. Monsanto’s agrochemicals have been linked to mass die-offs of honey bee and monarch butterfly populations. Without these key pollinators, many vegetables and herbs can’t reproduce. Monsanto’s agrochemicals pose a threat to ecosystems, all the way down to wiping out the good bacteria in the soil and the human gut. When the quality of the soil is ignored, the nutrition of the crop reduces over time, ultimately affecting people’s health.

Amazon rain forest being cut to pieces to make room for GMO plantations
The Amazon GMO soy boom is causing millions of acres of rain forest to be cleared. Between 2007 and 2008, nearly 3 million acres were destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon rain forest as logging, soy plantations and cattle ranching took over the region. The WWF has no interest in protecting these regions any more because they are infiltrated by the ideas of Monsanto, which is all for clearing out the rain forest and taking over the area’s agriculture.

Monsanto is not feeding the world. They are raping the natural diversity on this planet and controlling what farmers can grow to stay in business. Brazilian soy is now over 90 percent genetically modified. Much of the GM soy is used to sell animal feed back to farmers as their free range, biodiversity-rich farming practices are taken from them and replaced by fields of GMO soy.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051212_World_Wildlife_Fund_Monsanto_Amazon.html#ixzz3puDSz2hG

September 11, 2015
by J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) Most Americans have been conditioned to believe that the function of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is to reduce the manufacture, sale and trafficking of illegal drugs. However, one South American nation has thrown a huge wrench into that supposition.

The government of Bolivia recently booted U.S. DEA agents out of the country, and according to a report cited by AntiMedia.com, the Bolivian government has actually managed to reduce drug manufacturing and the criminal activity associated with it since the DEA left.

As reported by the Manquehue web site, dealing in drugs now represents less than 1 percent of the Andean country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in a “sustained reduction” after the ejection of the DEA.

The site further reported:

According to data from the United Nations, Bolivia achieved a reduction in the amount of coca fields — the plant which is used as a raw material for the elaboration of cocaine — approximately in an 11% since the year 2014, and in over a 30% since 2010, which amounts to four consecutive years of decline, from over 30 thousand to some 20 thousand hectares.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051134_Bolivia_cocaine_DEA.html#ixzz3pu8eQD4z

September 11, 2015
by J. D. Heyes

The word “terrorist” is a strong adjective used to describe someone or some group that uses violence and fear to pursue a political goal. It is not, however, normally used to describe someone who merely disagrees with a political position.

Nevertheless, Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton thought it was an appropriate descriptor for anyone who disagrees with her over the issue of abortion and the hideous nature of Planned Parenthood’s baby-parts-for-profit schemes that are currently being exposed in a series of videos by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a pro-life organization.

“Now, extreme views about women, we expect that from some of the terrorist groups,” the former secretary of state said recently at a rally in Ohio. “We expect that from people who don’t want to live in the modern world. But it’s a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States. Yet, they espouse out of date and out of touch policies. They are dead wrong for 21st-century America. We’re going forward. We’re not going back.”

One major pro-life organization, however, did not take the insult lying down. Marjorie Dannelfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, characterized Clinton’s comment as “outrageous,” noting that at least half of Americans identify as pro-life.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/051139_Hillary_Clinton_Planned_Parenthood_terrorists.html#ixzz3pu1EBYpz

(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday that federal regulators erred in allowing an insecticide developed by Dow AgroSciences onto the market, canceling its approval and giving environmentalists a major victory.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, is significant for commercial beekeepers and others who say a dramatic decline in bee colonies needed to pollinate key food crops is tied to widespread use of a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids. Critics say the Environmental Protection Agency is failing to evaluate the risks thoroughly.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the EPA by organizations representing the honey and honey beekeeping industry. The groups specifically challenged EPA approval of insecticides containing sulfoxaflor, saying studies have shown they are highly toxic to honey bees.

The court said in its ruling that sulfoxaflor is a neonicotinoid subclass.

Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical Co, first sought EPA approval for sulfoxaflor in 2010 for use in three products. Brand names include Transform and Closer.

“It’s a complete victory for the beekeepers we represent,” said Greg Loarie, an attorney who represents the American Honey Producers Association, the American Beekeeping Federation and other plaintiffs in the case. “The EPA has not been very vigilant.”

Dow said in a statement that it “respectfully disagrees” with ruling and will “work with EPA to implement the order and to promptly complete additional regulatory work to support the registration of the products.”

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-court-finds-epa-wrong-approve-dow-pesticide-184509403–finance.html

Doctors are sounding the alarm after noticing a disturbing trend happening in Waimea, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Over the past five years, the number of severe heart malformations has risen to more than ten times the national rate, according to an analysis by local physicians.

Pediatrician Carla Nelson, after seeing four of these defects in three years, is extremely concerned with the severe health anomalies manifesting in the local population.

Nelson, as well as a number of other local doctors, find themselves at the center of a growing controversy about whether the substantial increase in severe illness and birth defects in Waimea stem from the main cash crop on four of the six islands, genetically modified corn, which has been altered to resist pesticides.

Hawaii has historically been used as a testing ground for almost all GMO corn grown in the United States. Over 90% of GMO corn grown in the mainland U.S. was first developed in Hawaii, with the island of Kauai having the largest area used.

Read more: http://www.naturalblaze.com/2015/09/hawaii-sees-tenfold-increase-in-birth.html

In 2010, the UN released a report urging citizens to adopt a plant-based diet for health and environmental reasons. Who knew that earlier this year, the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee would outline similar recommendations for American citizens?

As was recently shared in the article, “8 Nations Going Vegetarian, Proving To The World Less Is More,”, a massive shift in health mentality is inspiring people everywhere to invest in their health.

The report, released earlier this year, includes recommendations by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on what Americans should be eating. This is the first time the committee has concluded a diet higher in plant-based foods and low in animal-based foods to not only be both healthier for the body, but better for the environment.

The report details their official recommendations for a “healthy dietary pattern,” which has vegetables, fruits, and whole grains at the very top of the list and red meat and processed meats at the very bottom.

“The overall body of evidence examined by the 2015 DGAC identifies that a healthy dietary pattern is higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or non-fat dairy, seafood, legumes, and nuts; moderate in alcohol (among adults); lower in red and processed meats; and low in sugar-sweetened foods and drinks and refined grains.”

The 571-page report gives an in-depth look at what Americans are presently eating. “The quality of the diets currently consumed by the U.S. population is suboptimal overall and has major adverse health consequences,” it states.

Most notable is the large gap between a healthy diet and the standard American diet: “On average, the U.S. diet is low in vegetables, fruit, and whole grains, and high in sodium, calories, saturated fat, refined grains, and added sugars.”

Earlier this year it was reported that only 9% of American adults manage to consume the recommended amount of daily fruits and vegetables. Despite the bounty of healthy living resources and information available, America’s greatest challenge, it seems, is overcoming the idea of ‘quick fixes’ and short-term solutions.

Read more: http://www.naturalblaze.com/2015/09/for-first-time-ever-us-federal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+naturalblaze+%28Natural+Blaze%29

Dive Brief:

• The Ocean Cleanup, an organization seeking to rid our waters of plastic waste, has ambitious plans to build a massive “barrier” in the ocean that would draw trash into a concentrated area to then be collected and disposed of properly. The organization plans to build the wall in the water between Hawaii and California by 2020.

• The barrier, which will appear as a large “V” shape in the water, will “take advantage of the natural movement of ocean currents,” drawing debris to the center of the barrier and allowing for 100,000 times the concentration of trash, according to HuffPost.

• The project is being executed based on data from the organization’s “mega exhibition,” in which crews from The Ocean Cleanup took nearly 30 ships into the waters to track volume and location of plastic. “[It was] the first time anyone’s ever quantified the large debris — things like crates, bottles, buoys and nets,” Founder Boyan Slat told HuffPost.

Dive Insight:

The project that The Ocean Cleanup is planning can vastly impact the future of our ecosystem. Currently, there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the world’s oceans and, in 10 years, the amount of plastic entering the water could double to an alarming 8 million tons. A recent analysis published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that nearly 90% of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs — a number that is expected to grow to 99% by 2025.

This issue is one that consumers need to be in-tune with in order for actions to change. “We hope to make millions of people aware of the problem itself, as well as making the problem visible,” Slat told The Huffington Post. “By showing there is a way, we can make it better.”

Read more: http://www.wastedive.com/news/the-ocean-cleanup-plans-to-build-62-mile-wall-in-pacific-to-collect-trash/405114/

(NaturalNews) Ecologists refer to bees and a few other select organisms as keystone species. This term is analogous to the keystone of an arch. Remove the wedge-shaped stone at the top, and the entire structure collapses.

Bees are a keystone species because they are the world’s primary pollinators and are therefore crucial to the environment. While Monsanto claims bees only pollinate about a third of the world’s crops, others estimate their contribution to be closer to 90%. But the startling decline of the bee population isn’t just threatening our crops, it is also threatening varied and diverse wild plants across the globe that provide food for countless animal species. If we lose the bees, the loss to our ecosystems will be catastrophic.
Disappearing Bees
Colony collapse disorder is a term for deserted hives. Adult bees vacate the hive, leaving behind the queen and immature bees. The adult bees simply vanish.

The Department of Agriculture cites several possible causes for colony collapse that include parasites, viruses, predators, nutritional deficits, and pesticide poisoning. They hypothesize a probable combination of factors while reminding us that bee disappearances have been recorded as far back as the 1880s.

While we must recognize multiple factors are in play, there is no denying the fact that bees are very sensitive to pesticides, making them more susceptible to disease and interfering with their navigation. Even when exposed to sub-lethal doses of pesticides, many bees simply get lost. Unable to find their way back to the colony, they die, lost and alone. It’s not just pesticides sprayed on crops that are killing the bees, the pesticides built into genetically modified crops are killing kill them as well.

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050993_flying_ants_genetically_engineered_Monsanto.html

(NaturalNews) Scientists believe that a toxic algae bloom now stretching from California to Alaska could be responsible for poisoning marine mammals across the North American west coast. The bloom is growing in a giant mass of abnormally warm water that has come to be known as “the Blob” and has been positioned off the North American Pacific Coast for several months.

The algae bloom runs from Southern California to Alaska and possibly even to the Aleutian Islands. It is 40 miles wide and reaches 650 feet deep at some points.

“It’s been incredibly thick, almost all the same organism,” said ocean scientist Raphael Kudela of the University of California-Santa Cruz, noting that the bloom “looks like a layer of hay.”

“It’s definitely the largest bloom of this particular algae seen on the West Coast, possibly anywhere, ever.”

Fisheries collapsing
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the bloom is “laced with some toxic [phytoplankton] species that have had far-reaching consequences for sea life and regional and local economies.” These species, known as Pseudo-nitzschia, produce a highly toxic chemical known as domoic acid.

Toxic algae blooms of this variety, also known as red tides, are well known and relatively common. This particular red tide is not only enormous, but it has also been exceptionally long lasting and still shows no signs of dispersing.

“It’s the longest lasting, highest toxicity and densest bloom that we’ve ever seen,” said Vera Trainer, research oceanographer with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Washington state.

Clam, crab, anchovy and sardine fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington have all been closed due to population crashes caused by domoic acid poisoning.

“It’s really working its way into the food web and we’re definitely seeing the impacts of that,” Kudela said. He noted that sea lions and pelicans have been sickened from eating domoic acid-tainted prey.

Researchers are also investigating whether the bloom played any role in killing nine fin whales found dead near Kodiak Island, Alaska, in June. Reports of dead and dying whales, gulls and fish in the Aleutian Islands also have scientists worried that the bloom might have spread to that region.

The wide-reaching effects of the red tide led Grist.org to proclaim that the bloom is “basically eating the West Coast alive.”

Read more: (NaturalNews) Scientists believe that a toxic algae bloom now stretching from California to Alaska could be responsible for poisoning marine mammals across the North American west coast. The bloom is growing in a giant mass of abnormally warm water that has come to be known as “the Blob” and has been positioned off the North American Pacific Coast for several months.

The algae bloom runs from Southern California to Alaska and possibly even to the Aleutian Islands. It is 40 miles wide and reaches 650 feet deep at some points.

“It’s been incredibly thick, almost all the same organism,” said ocean scientist Raphael Kudela of the University of California-Santa Cruz, noting that the bloom “looks like a layer of hay.”

“It’s definitely the largest bloom of this particular algae seen on the West Coast, possibly anywhere, ever.”

Fisheries collapsing
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the bloom is “laced with some toxic [phytoplankton] species that have had far-reaching consequences for sea life and regional and local economies.” These species, known as Pseudo-nitzschia, produce a highly toxic chemical known as domoic acid.

Toxic algae blooms of this variety, also known as red tides, are well known and relatively common. This particular red tide is not only enormous, but it has also been exceptionally long lasting and still shows no signs of dispersing.

“It’s the longest lasting, highest toxicity and densest bloom that we’ve ever seen,” said Vera Trainer, research oceanographer with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Washington state.

Clam, crab, anchovy and sardine fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington have all been closed due to population crashes caused by domoic acid poisoning.

“It’s really working its way into the food web and we’re definitely seeing the impacts of that,” Kudela said. He noted that sea lions and pelicans have been sickened from eating domoic acid-tainted prey.

Researchers are also investigating whether the bloom played any role in killing nine fin whales found dead near Kodiak Island, Alaska, in June. Reports of dead and dying whales, gulls and fish in the Aleutian Islands also have scientists worried that the bloom might have spread to that region.

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050963_toxic_algae_bloom_Fukushima_Pacific_Ocean.html

(NaturalNews) Today’s emerging youth are far more interested in getting their news online rather than from the television or print media, new statistics reveal. A biannual report released by the Alliance for Audited Media shows that “total paid circulation” for 86 of the top 125 print magazines, or about 71 percent of them, experienced drops in circulation, while online news has now officially taken over TV news in terms of total viewership.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2015 states that some 43 percent of Americans now regard online news as their “main source of news,” compared to just 40 percent for TV news. This is a first, as TV news has long held the top spot for news consumption, only recently falling to second place as the Internet reaches all-time highs in popularity.

“Newsstand sales, long seen as an indicator of the health of the industry, fell by 11.4 percent,” reports Media Life Magazine. “That comes after the 14.2 percent decrease magazines suffered at the newsstand during the second half of last year.”

Many magazines going digital in attempt to stay relevant
Hoping to curb these losses, many traditionally print-only magazines are now going digital, or at least bundling their online and offline content together in an attempt to retain readers. But what many of these media giants aren’t doing is changing their content and format to match what today’s savvy news consumers are looking for – truth and honesty in reporting.

This, of course, is what sets online media apart from traditional print and television media. Online media is largely decentralized, and it’s where the independent media thrives. Print and television media, on the other hand, are mostly controlled by one of six corporate entities that have a hand in about 90 percent of what Americans consume as “news.”

Failing to recognize that content is what sets online media apart from print and television, the establishment media is desperately trying to stay afloat amid a turning tide of consumer preference. People are tired of all the lies and manipulation coming from the TV talking heads and corporate “journalists,” who often just report what their sponsors (which in many cases are drug companies) tell them to report.

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050962_independent_media_online_news_television.html

(NaturalNews) In 2014, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition announced its plans to retract a study that had supposedly proven that genetically engineered (GE) “golden rice” provided as much vitamin A to children as a beta-carotene supplement. The first author of that paper, Guangwen Tang of Tufts University, immediately filed a lawsuit against the journal and sought an injunction to prevent the retraction.

On July 17, a Massachusetts judge denied the injunction. Twelve days later, the journal filed an online statement of retraction of the study. The retraction will also be published in the print version of the journal’s September 2015 issue.

The reason for the retraction was blatant ethical misconduct on the part of the researchers, who forged papers and did not inform parents that their children were being fed GE rice.

Court rules that researcher sought to suppress free speech
The study in question, which was originally published online in August 2012 and in print a month later, was the result of a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Health. The purpose was to determine whether “golden” rice genetically engineered to be high in beta-carotene was actually a good source of the nutrient when consumed by human beings.

The study was carried out in 2008 at an elementary school in China. Its findings — that the rice was a good source of vitamin A — gained widespread scientific attention. The article has been downloaded more than 30,000 times.

For part of the study, 25 children between the ages of six and eight were fed 60 grams of the GE rice. Investigations by the Chinese government later revealed that the parents of these children had not been given honest information about what their children were being fed.

When the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition announced plans to retract the study, Tang obtained a preliminary injunction against the journal’s publisher, the American Society for Nutrition. The injunction came as part of a lawsuit against the society and Tufts University, which had taken punitive measures against Tang for her violation of ethics rules.

The lawsuit, which is still pending, claims that the retraction and the measures taken against Tang by Tufts constitute defamation, breach of contract and interference with business relations. The lawsuit argues that retracting the study damages Tang’s professional reputation and thereby her career and income prospects.

On July 17, the court rejected Tang’s motion to bar the retraction of the study after hearing oral arguments. The court found that doing so would violate the defendant’s right to free speech not only by restraining their speech but also by compelling it.

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050966_GMOs_golden_rice_unethical_researchers.html

(NaturalNews) Home gardening is a deep-rooted (pun intended) American tradition. Since the nation’s beginnings, gardens have formed an integral part of the landscape, providing healthy, fresh food for millions of families.

Home gardens are a way to save money, increase self-sufficiency and make sure the food we eat is organically grown and free of pesticides and other chemicals.

Unfortunately, there has been a growing trend towards criminalizing home gardeners, but the good news is that more and more of them are successfully fighting back against government attempts to pronounce home gardening as an illegal activity.

A recent article published by GovtSlaves.info explored several cases in which citizens were told their home gardens violating the law. In all of these stories, the home gardeners decided to stand up for their rights and were generally successful in challenging the legal rulings against them as well as raising awareness and gaining support among the rest of the citizenry.

The first case tells the story of Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts, a Miami Shores Village, Florida, couple who have planted an organic garden in their front yard for the past 17 years.

In 2013, Miami Shores authorities ordered Carroll and Ricketts to uproot their garden or face fines of $50 per day on the grounds that it violated a recently amended zoning ordinance regarding “home aesthetics.”

Carroll and Ricketts decided to stand up for their rights. They lost the first battle against the Miami Shores Code Enforcement Board, which ruled against the couple. They were then forced to uproot the garden to avoid the fines.

However, Carroll and Ricketts continued to seek justice. They enlisted the the help of the Institute for Justice, an Arlington, Virginia-based public interest law firm that was getting ready to launch its National Food Freedom Initiative to “defend Americans’ food choices from arbitrary regulations.”

Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050938_gardeners_property_rights_citizen_resistance.html