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South Carolina Supreme Court rules fetal heartbeat law ‘unconstitutional’

Court found that banning abortion after six weeks’ pregnancy ‘is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy’

A South Carolina state law that would have restricted abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected was declared unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court.

In a 3-2 decision Thursday, the South Carolina Supreme Court said the Fetal Heartbeat Act illegally infringes on a woman’s right to privacy. The act was signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster in 2021 and prohibited abortion once a fetus’s heartbeat can be detected, which usually occurs around six weeks of pregnancy.

Writing for the majority, Justice Kaye Hearn said, “We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman’s right to privacy. While this right is not absolute and must be balanced against the State’s interest in protecting unborn life, this Act, which severely limits — and in many instances completely forecloses — abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy, and is therefore unconstitutional.”

Top Podcasts On Apple, Spotify Are About The Bible, Christianity

Some of the top podcasts in the United States so far in 2023 on streaming sites like Apple and Spotify discuss things like faith, the Bible, and Christianity, beating out ones from The New York Times, NBC, and more.

In a tweet on Wednesday from Ascension Press, it shared that the number one podcast on Apple is the Catholic media’s “The Catechism in a Year podcast” (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) [CIY].

“You people are crushing it with your CIY & BIY listens!” the outlet tweeted. “Nearly a WEEK at the top of the charts and still going strong!”

Major Energy Breakthrough: Milestone Achieved in US Fusion Experiment

The National Ignition Facility achieves ignition in a fusion reactor.

It was touted as a “major scientific breakthrough” and, it seems, the rumors were true: On Tuesday, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that they have, for the first time, achieved net energy gain in a controlled fusion experiment.

“We have taken the first tentative steps toward a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world,” Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said in a press conference Tuesday.

The triumph comes courtesy of the National Ignition Facility at LLNL in San Francisco. This facility has long tried to master nuclear fusion — a process that powers the sun and other stars — in an effort to harness the massive amounts of energy released during the reaction because, as Hruby points out, all that energy is “clean” energy.

Despite decades of effort, however, there had been a major kink in these fusion experiments: the amount of energy used to achieve fusion has far outweighed the energy coming out. As part of the NIF mission, scientists had long hoped to achieve “ignition,” where the energy output is “greater than or equal to laser drive energy.”

Some experts have remained skeptical that such a feat was even possible with fusion reactors currently in operation. But slowly, NIF pushed forward. In August last year, LLNL revealed it had come close to this threshold by generating around 1.3 megajoules (a measure of energy) against a laser drive using 1.9 megajoules.

Adding Cinnamon to Your Daily Diet May Help Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease

Cinnamon is the second most popular spice after black pepper in the United States, especially during fall and winter. People enjoy using cinnamon to elevate the taste of food. Did you know the cinnamon in your favorite gingerbread latte was once considered a rare, high-end, luxurious item only noble pharaohs could enjoy?

In ancient China, cinnamon was widely used for treating multiple diseases. Recent studies have found that cinnamon has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-tumor effects. It reduces the risk of diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

What’s Cinnamon?

Cinnamon is the dried bark of cinnamon trees. It belongs to Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Presl spruces. Cinnamon has been used worldwide for thousands of years. It was documented even in the Bible and ancient books of Egypt and China.

In Egypt, people would incorporate cinnamon for preservation and religious rituals. Among Europeans in the Middle Ages, having cinnamon showed off your societal status if you could afford it.

In ancient China, according to the book “The Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica” which is a most important classic in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), cinnamon carries a spicy, warm, nontoxic flavor. In TCM, cinnamon is a medicinal herb for warming the spleen, kidney, heart, and liver meridians and unblocking veins. Cinnamon is also a natural pain killer and is widely used for treating multiple diseases.

TCM has discovered that there are 12 “meridians” in the human body, including lung meridian, large intestine meridian, stomach meridian, spleen meridian, heart meridian, small intestine meridian, bladder meridian, kidney meridian, pericardium meridian, triple heater (san jiao) meridian, gallbladder meridian, liver meridian.

Read more at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/health/adding-cinnamon-to-your-daily-diet-can-prevent-alzheimers-disease_4847243.html

Biden Appears To Swipe At Trump Over Kanye West Comments, But Jewish Leaders Praise Trump’s Pro-Israel Record

President Joe Biden took an apparent shot at his predecessor while condemning Kanye West’s anti-Semitic statements Friday, but Biden has been silent on anti-Jewish bigotry from members of his own party while many Jewish leaders deem Trump a friend of Israel.

West has been spouting anti-Semitic hate since an apparent dinner ambush of Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home two days before Thanksgiving. West, who brought a pair of uninvited guests known for their anti-Semitic views, followed up the dinner with interviews including a Thursday session with Alex Jones in which he lavished praise on Adolf Hitler. In condemning West’s comments, Biden appeared to accuse Trump of giving the spiraling rap and fashion mogul a forum, although he did not use his name.

“I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened,” Biden tweeted. “Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.”

Trump, whose daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, are Orthodox Jews, has said he only agreed to meet with West because they have known each other for years and West appears to be in the throes of a meltdown that some believe was brought on by mental illness.

Biden had no such rebuke last year for the far-Left Democrat lawmakers known as “The Squad” when they accused Israel of imposing “apartheid” and committing acts of “terrorism” against Palestinians, The Times Of Israel reported. Those claims from Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Cori Bush (D-MO) prompted four Jewish House Democrats to write Biden seeking his response. If he offered one, it was never made public.

Trump, on the other hand, made no secret of his pro-Israel agenda during his presidency. Rabbi Dov Fischer, in a November 30 article in The American Spectator, praised Trump for a host of pro-Israel actions.

‘We Are Living In A Dystopian Future:’ San Francisco Police Introduce Policy Granting Robots A License To Kill

San Francisco authorities proposed a new “dystopian” policy heading for approval next week that would license department robots to kill suspects who threaten the lives of citizens and police officers in the crime-ridden city.

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) drafted the blueprint for officers to use its military-style weapons, which includes 17 remote-controlled robots available in its inventory that are typically used for defusing bombs or surveilling areas too difficult for authorities to access.

“Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD,” the policy reads.

The proposal also authorizes authorities to use the robots for “training and simulations, criminal apprehensions, critical incidents, exigent circumstances, executing a warrant or during suspicious device assessments.”

SFPD Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya told The Verge the department has always had the ability to use lethal force when a suspect threatens the lives of officers or members of the public after all other force options are unavailable.

Pope Francis becomes first pope to visit Bahrain

Pope Francis landed in the Kingdom of Bahrain Thursday, becoming the first pope to visit the Muslim island nation located in the Persian Gulf.

On the flight from Rome Nov. 3, the pope told journalists aboard the papal plane it is “an interesting trip [that will] make us think about sharing good news.”

Read more at: www.catholicworldreport.com

Republicans in Congress push back on plan to pull forces from Japan

WASHINGTON — Four key Republicans on Capitol Hill are questioning the Air Force’s decision to replace two permanent F-15C Eagle fighter squadrons in Okinawa with rotational forces.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the lawmakers expressed concern about the plan and asked for a briefing on the decision to remove permanent forces from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan.

1,000-Page GOP Report Alleges Deep ‘Rot’ At Top Levels Of FBI, DOJ

House Republicans released an extensive report Friday on alleged FBI and Department of Justice abuses based on numerous press reports and interviews and accounts from whistleblowers.

The report is 1,050 pages long and claims there is “rot” at the top levels of the FBI, leading to a politicized law enforcement seemingly targeting conservative Americans. The report also claims that the bureau has failed to enforce laws on figures on the left, such as Hunter Biden.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken,” the report begins. The “rot” at the FBI “festers in and proceeds from Washington.”

‘There’s No Such Thing As A Woman’: Man Crowned Glamour Brazil’s ‘Woman Of The Year’

Glamour Magazine Brazil announced the winners of their Generation Glamour awards this week, and the roundup of honorees featured two biological men, including an influencer named Linn da Quebrada, who brought home “Woman of the Year.”

Quebrada does not identify as a woman the way many trans-identifying men do. “I’m not a woman, I’m a transvestite,” he told Globo Television Network presenter Pedro Bial, according to Reduxx. “Let’s be honest, there’s no such thing as ‘a woman.’”

The prize winner justified his stance by listing several Portuguese words that have ambiguous or subjective meanings, which he believes is also true of the word “woman.”

Quebrada identifies as a gay man or a transvestite, a commonly used term in Brazil to describe men who dress like women but do not identify as women, according to Reduxx. The influencer became famous after appearing on “Big Brother Brazil.”