Chinese Scientists Create System to Care For Embryos in Artificial Womb

Tony Tran – February 1, 2022

Parents of the future rejoice! Scientists in China have developed an AI nanny that they say could one day take care of human fetuses in a lab.

Researchers in Suzhou, China, claim to have created a system that can monitor and care for embryos as they grow into fetuses while growing inside an artificial womb, The South China Morning Post reports.

The robotic nanny is already reportedly caring for a number of animal embryos. Experimentation on human embryos, however, is still forbidden under international law, as the newspaper points out.

The team published their findings in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering last month. In the paper, they detail an “online monitoring system” designed for the “long-term culture of embryos.”

The system could theoretically allow parents to grow a baby in a lab, thereby eliminating the need for a human to carry a child. The researchers go as far as to say that this system would be safer than traditional childbearing.

Beyond those claims, though, it remains unclear whether the system could actually bring an embryo, mouse or otherwise, to term.

As it exists right now, the artificial womb is a container that grows a number of mouse embryos in a row of cubes filled with nutritious fluids, according to the paper.

The AI nanny is reportedly able to monitor the embryos, detect changes, and adjust their artificial environment accordingly. It can even alert a technician in case an embryo develops a defect or dies.

The technology is still very much in its nascent stages, but a looming population crisis in China is only serving to accelerate its development.

“I don’t think technology would be a problem,” one anonymous researcher at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics in Beijing, told the SCMP, adding that the tech could risk turning hospitals into factories that churn out babies — and no hospital “would want to bear this responsibility.”

https://futurism.com

Russia to Stage Massive Nuclear Drills Amid Ukraine Standoff

Newsmax – February 18, 2022

The Russian military on Friday announced massive drills of its strategic forces, a stark reminder of the country’s nuclear might amid Western fears that Moscow might be preparing to invade Ukraine.

The Defense Ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee Saturday’s exercise, which will involve multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

The ministry said it planned the maneuvers some time ago to check the readiness of Russia’s military command and personnel, as well as the reliability of its nuclear and conventional weapons.

The war games follow U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning on Thursday that Russia could invade Ukraine within days.

Western fears focus on an estimated 150,000 Russian troops — including about 60% of Russia’s overall ground forces — concentrated near Ukraine’s borders. The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade.

But Moscow has demanded that the U.S. and its allies keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, not deploy weapons in Ukraine and pull back NATO forces from Eastern Europe.

Washington and its allies bluntly rejected the Russian demands, and Moscow threatened to take unspecified “military-technical measures” if the West continued to stonewall.

Russia holds massive drills of its strategic nuclear forces on an annual basis, but the maneuvers planned for Saturday pointedly involve the Black Sea Fleet. The fleet is based on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

https://www.newsmax.com

PlatinuPlatinum Jubilee: Queen marks 70 years in power by firming up future of the monarchy for Charles and Camillam Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth marks 70 years as monarch

 

Katie Grant – February 6, 2022

The Queen has marked 70 years on the throne by renewing a promise to “always be devoted” to public service and expressing her “sincere wish” that the Duchess of Cornwall will eventually take the title Queen Consort.

In a message to the nation on Accession Day, the 95-year-old monarch conveyed her hope that when, “in the fullness of time”, her eldest son, Prince Charles, ascends the throne, the public will rally behind him and his wife Camilla.

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI, and of her ascension to the throne, Elizabeth II reflected on the past and paved the way for the future of the monarchy, pointedly paying tribute to Camilla’s “loyal service”.

Remarking on what the anniversary means to her, the Queen said: “It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, King George VI, as for the start of my reign.”

She continued: “As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service.”

The monarch, who is the first British sovereign in history to celebrate seven decades on the throne, also spoke of her “sense of hope and optimism” as the country prepares to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee this summer.

“I am reminded of how much we can be thankful for,” she said, pointing to the “extraordinary progress socially, technologically and culturally” that she has witnessed during a record-breaking reign.

She stressed how “fortunate” she felt to have enjoyed the “steadfast and loving support” of her family.

https://inews.co.uk

UK Issues Rare ‘Danger-To-Life’ Red Alert As It Faces Worst Storm In Decades

Melanie Wilcox – February 18, 2022

As storm Eunice picked up speed with winds as high as 122 miles per hour, the United Kingdom’s Met Office expanded its “danger-to-life” weather alert Friday to include the south of England and some areas of Wales, CNN reported.

In the southwestern London area of Surbiton, a CNN reporter saw a rooftop fly off a home and crush a parked car.

Apart from crushing cars and toppling fences, Storm Eunice has also sent planes skidding on airport runways, according to CNN.

More than 200,000 people watched a live stream on YouTube of planes trying to land at London’s Heathrow Airport, battling wind gusts and skidding from side-to-side on the runway, according to CNN.

Presenter Jerry Dyer gave encouraging, entertaining words on the Big Jet’s TV channel, saying to the pilot, “Come on mate, you can do it!”

British Airways said that although “significant disruption” was to be expected, most flights would continue as scheduled. The airline said it would use larger aircraft to combat the weather.

https://dailycaller.com

A Highly Virulent Form Of The Bird Flu Is Starting To Spread Like Wildfire Across Several Eastern States

– February 15. 2022

I know that this isn’t exactly going to be welcome news to a lot of people, but bird flu appears to be spreading rapidly in several U.S. states.  Long before COVID ever came along, bird flu was one of the main threats that global health authorities were concerned about.  The good news is that human cases of the bird flu have been fairly rare in recent years, but just like COVID, bird flu has the ability to mutate rapidly.  And when humans do catch bird flu, the death rate can be over 50 percent.  For now, the outbreak in the United States is limited to birds.  It is hitting turkeys, it is hitting chickens, and authorities have informed us that “dozens of wild birds have tested positive along the East Coast in recent weeks”…

Avian flu has now been detected in flocks of birds in Virginia and Kentucky, just days after Indiana officials had to euthanize 29,000 turkeys due to the spread of the virus, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.

Dozens of wild birds have tested positive along the East Coast in recent weeks, including three in the Carolinas last month. Avian flu usually does not cause any symptoms in wild birds, but it can be deadly in domestic poultry.

What this tells us is that the outbreak is not contained.

It is already in multiple states, and authorities have no idea where it originally started.

On Monday, bird flu was detected “in a flock of commercial broiler chickens” in Kentucky…

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture announced Monday a confirmed case of high pathogenic avian influenza — deadly bird flu — in a flock of commercial broiler chickens in Fulton County, with a second suspected case in Webster County.

The fact that it is now affecting our food supply should definitely get our attention.

In neighboring Tennessee, there is a tremendous amount of anxiety about what is happening in Kentucky, because a widespread outbreak of the bird flu in Tennessee could have enormous implications for the entire globe.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

China’s Communist Government Is Reportedly Rewriting the Bible and Calling Jesus a ‘Sinner.’ But That’s Not All…

– Febuary 17, 2022

VOM recently shared a reimagined version of the Bible’s revered story centered on Jesus’ love and corrective compassion for a woman caught in adultery.

“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced plans to update the Bible to ‘keep pace with the times.’ The revisions will include adding ‘core socialist values’ and removing passages that do not reflect communist beliefs,” a VOM Facebook post read. “In a textbook for high school students released in September 2020, the authors included a passage from John 8, as revised in their new version.”

Before we explore the revised communist version, let’s look at John 8 as it stands in the genuine and authentic Bible.

As the famous forgiveness story goes, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery before them and challenged Jesus, proclaiming, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

The Bible notes that these Jewish leaders were “using this question as a trap” to accuse Jesus. Still, Christ started writing on the ground with his finger (it’s a mystery what he was writing) and then uttered some transformational words (verse 7): “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

After the people — clearly shaken by Jesus’ words — walked away, Christ and the woman were left standing together, and their exchange went as follows (NIV):

Christ: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

Woman: “No one, sir.”

Christ: “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

The Chinese Communist Party, though, reportedly has a different vision for how this interaction unfolded — an anti-biblical, faux account that flies in the face of scriptural truth.

In the Chinese government’s new version — purportedly observed in a textbook published in September 2020 — the crowd disperses, but then the text states, “When everyone went out, Jesus stoned the woman himself, and said, ‘I am also a sinner.’”

https://www.faithwire.com

Judge removes father’s custody rights to his children over refusal to get vaccinated

Ricky Scaparo – February 6, 2022

After refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a father has reportedly lost the right to see his kids in person, one of whom is immunocompromised. The Canadian Press reports a judge in New Brunswick, Justice Nathalie Godbout, wrote in her Jan. 31 decision the revoking of the father’s custody rights was done “with a heavy heart,” but he can still be in contact with his children by use of phone calls or video chats.

Godbout made her decision, she says, because the father’s insistence he remains unvaccinated posed too great a threat and risk to his 10-year-old immunocompromised daughter, who receives specialized care for non-cancerous tumors in her blood vessels.

According to CBC, Their mother asked the court for a change to the custody agreement ending the father’s in-person access. She applied to the court last year and the hearing took place on Jan. 24.

“As the parents who are caring for [the child] 50 percent of the time, in close quarters, unmasked and unvaccinated, they are well-positioned to transmit the virus to [the child] should they contract it, this despite their best efforts,” the ruling says.

“It is no contest: the current science in the face of a highly contagious virus far outweighs Mr. F.’s layman wait-and-see approach.”  The parents and the children are not named in the 26-page court ruling.

They are only identified by initials. The new order allows the father “generous” visiting rights via Zoom but no in-person contact. If he gets vaccinated, he can return to court to ask for a change to the decision. While waiting for the hearing, the father also refused to consent to the children being vaccinated after they became eligible last November. Godbout ruled the mother could get that done without his agreement.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Percentage of LGBTQ adults in U.S. has doubled over past decade, Gallup finds

Jo Yurcaba – February 17, 2022

The percent of U.S. adults who identify as something other than heterosexual has doubled over the last 10 years, from 3.5 percent in 2012 to 7.1 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

Gallup found that the increase is due to ​​”high LGBT self-identification, particularly as bisexual, among Generation Z adults,” who are 18 to 25.

It asked more than 12,000 U.S. adults how they identify during telephone interviews last year. It found that younger U.S. adults are much more likely to identify as LGBTQ than older generations.

More than 1 in 5, or 21 percent, of Generation Z adults identify as LGBTQ, Gallup found. That’s almost double the proportion of millennials, who are 26 to 41, at 10.5 percent, and nearly five times the proportion of Generation X, who are 42 to 57, at 4.2 percent. Less than 3 percent of baby boomers, who are 58 to 76, identify as LGBTQ, compared to just 0.8 percent of traditionalists, who are 77 or older.

As the youngest Americans slowly outnumber and replace the oldest, Gallup predicts the number of LGBTQ-identifying adults will only increase — and likely at a much faster rate than past generations.

The poll found that the percent of Generation X, baby boomers and traditionalists who identify as queer has remained relatively the same over the years. More millennials have increasingly identified as LGBTQ, but only slightly, at 5.8 percent in 2012, 7.8 percent in 2017 and 10.5 percent now.

https://www.nbcnews.com

The Palestinian Authority’s Child Soldier Strategy

Itamar Marcus – February 9, 2022

If you want to know what is really at the heart of the Palestinian conflict with Israel, don’t ask the politicians or the diplomats. Go to the real experts: Palestinian children. Unlike the rest of the world, they’ve been paying close attention to what their leaders and educators have been teaching them — and they’re already signing their lessons in blood.

For years, children interviewed on state TV have been echoing the messages they’ve been taught by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah: that Israel has no right to exist, and that their goal — for which they are anxious to sacrifice their lives — is Israel’s destruction.

Twelve-year-old Abd, who lives in a refugee camp just outside the PA capital of Ramallah, explained his life goals on PA TV: “The Jews stole our land from us and I have been waiting 12 years already… and my grandfather has been waiting 70 years. … I hope to return to Lod, my city … I feel that tomorrow I will return and liberate Palestine. … Every day, every minute, and every year I imagine that I’m in Lod…” (PA TV, November 3, 2020 and May 23, 2021) Lod is an Israeli city not far from Tel Aviv. The child lives near Ramallah, but Lod, he says, is “my city.”

Surprising? Not if you’ve been following the PA education of its children.

Palestinian children are indoctrinated to believe that they are victims of Israel’s existence from birth (“I have been waiting 12 years already”). The PA Ministry of Education recently included a giant map of “Palestine” that erased all of Israel in an event at a PA school. The words on the poster were explicit: “Palestine — the entire land is ours, from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River.” (Facebook, PA Ministry of Education, November 16, 2021)

What about Israel’s right to exist? That is non-existent in the PA child’s world. Palestinian children are taught that Israelis are “foreigners who came from all ends of the earth, foreigners who did not know Palestine and did not live in it — neither them nor their fathers and forefathers.”

https://www.algemeiner.com

US Inflation Soared 7.5 Percent Over Past 12 Months, Biggest Spike Since 1982

Newsmax – February 10, 2022

Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering America’s consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy.

The Labor Department said Thursday that consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with 12 months earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982. Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid, ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation accelerating in the past year.

When measured from December to January, inflation was 0.6%, the same as the previous month and more than economists had expected. Prices had risen 0.7% from October to November and 0.9% from September to October.

Inflation to Continue

There are few signs that inflation will slow significantly anytime soon. Most of the factors that have forced up prices since last spring remain in place: Wages are rising at the fastest pace in at least 20 years. Ports and warehouses are overwhelmed, with hundreds of workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s busiest, out sick last month. Many products and parts remain in short supply as a result.

The steady surge in prices has left many Americans less able to afford food, gas, rent, child care and other necessities. More broadly, inflation has emerged as the biggest risk factor for the economy and as a serious threat to President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats as midterm elections loom later this year

https://www.newsmax.com