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Lobbyists for the world's biggest meat companies have lauded a better than expected outcome at COP28, which they say left them "excited" and "enthusiastic" for their industry's prospects. U.S. livestock bosses reflected on the conference's implication for their sector on a virtual panel, fresh from "sharing U.S agriculture's story" at the climate summit last December. Campaigners and climate scientists had hoped the summit – which was billed as a "Food COP" due to its focus on farming – would see governments agree to ambitious action to transform food systems in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. But while more than 130 governments pledged to tackle agriculture's carbon footprint, a slew of announcements and initiatives failed to set binding targets, or to broach the question of reducing herds of ruminant livestock such as cattle and sheep, which are agriculture's largest driver of emissions. In the online discussion, which was hosted by the trade outlet FeedStuffs, meat lobbyists groups made it clear they saw COP28 as a win. The three representatives all said there had been widespread recognition at the Dubai summit that agriculture was a "solution" to climate change, despite livestock accounting for over 30 percent of anthropogenic methane emissions. Outcomes at the summit were characterised as "a far more positive outcome than we had anticipated" by Constance Cullman, the president of the Animal Feed Industry Association (AFIA) – a US lobby group whose members include some of the world's biggest meat and animal feed producers. She added that this was the first time she had "felt that optimistic" after a "large international gathering like this one". Cullman also praised the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’s Global Roadmap to tackle the climate crisis and end hunger, which she described as "music to our ears", stating that she particularly welcomed the report's emphasis on "production and efficiency" over "looking at reduced consumption of animal protein". Academics described the FAO report's failure to recommend cuts to meat-eating as "bewildering" in a March submission to the journal Nature Food. According to a March paper, which surveyed more than 200 environmental and agricultural scientists, meat and dairy production must be drastically reduced – and fast – to align with the Paris Agreement. The report concludes that global emissions from livestock production need to decline by 50 percent during the next six years, with "high-producing and consuming nations" taking the lead. The FAO told DeSmog in a statement that its roadmap took a "balanced" approach to animal agriculture, saying that its report had "acknowledged the importance of livestock for poor people in traditional agrifood systems" and referenced the need for dietary shifts. "We believe that some comments on the change in diets and the role of animal products in them are either misinformed because people have not properly read the Roadmap report, or deliberately disingenuous for the sake of feeding vested interests narratives,” it said. Another industry panellist, Eric Mittenthaler, had attended COP28 on behalf of lobby group the Meat Institute (formerly the North American Meat Institute, or NAMI). He stressed the importance of sharing the message that animal agriculture is necessary for nutrition and sustainability. The Meat Institute, which runs an initiative called the ProteinPACT, represents hundreds of corporations in the meat supply chain, including the meat sector's three largest companies, JBS, Cargill and Tyson, which together have emissions equal to oil majors Shell or BP. Sophie Nodzenski, a senior campaign strategist on food and agriculture at Greenpeace International, said it was "unsurprising" that industrial meat producers felt positively about COP28's outcomes "given that their interests essentially took the central stage there". The number of lobbyists for big meat and dairy companies tripled at COP28 as revealed by DeSmog and the Guardian, amid rising scrutiny of the food sector's climate impacts. Meanwhile, smallholders and family farmers at the summit saidthey felt "drowned out". "COP28 has rightly put the spotlight on the link between food production and the climate crisis, but the sheer number of Big Ag lobbyists present gave them an outsized influence,” Nodzenski said. Full article: https://www.desmog.com/2024/04/08/us-meat-lobby-celebrates-positive-outcome-cop28/

The Biden administration is poised to issue a proposal aimed at reducing or eliminating student loan balances for millions of borrowers, according to people familiar with the matter, marking President Biden's second attempt at large-scale loan forgiveness. The regulations, which are set to be issued as soon as next week, come after the Supreme Court last year overturned the administration's first debt cancellation plan, which would have wiped away up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year. Biden is planning to outline the broad strokes of the new proposal during a speech on Monday in Madison, Wis., where he is expected to tout his administration's wide-ranging efforts to chip away at the student debt burden facing more than 40 million Americans, the people said. A White House spokesman declined to comment. Administration officials expect that the final rule will be challenged in court, but they think they are on solid legal footing. The new approach, they argue, is more tailored because it outlines specific conditions for debt cancellation, a contrast with the more sweeping plan that was overturned by the Supreme Court. The administration used the Heroes Act to underpin Biden's first loan-forgiveness program. But the Supreme Court ruled that the administration had overstepped its authority by using the law, which allows the education secretary to modify student aid programs to respond to emergencies, to forgive loans for tens of millions of Americans. Source

The latest New York Times/Siena College national poll brought bad tidings for Democrats. The results showed 48% for Trump over Biden, who pulled in 43% of respondents — a major and telling five point lead. “That’s the largest lead Mr. Trump has ever had in a Times/Siena national poll. In fact, it’s the largest lead Mr. Trump has held in a Times/Siena or Times/CBS poll since first running for president in 2015,” writes Nate Cohnat NYT. It’s a significant blow for Biden as voters question the president’s decisions on immigration and his handling of the Hamas-Israel War in Gaza. Moreover, Biden faces a lack of support from voters in his own party, with many expressing doubt over whether he should be the party’s presidential nominee at all this November. Recently during the Michigan Democratic primary, over 100,000 Democrats in the state opted to vote for nobody rather cast support for the president. Michigan is an essential swing state in the upcoming election that Biden won last time by less than 150,000 votes in 2020.

Did she lie?

Grindr currently has a market cap of $1.9 billion and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GRND. Simply Wall Street noted a few days ago that the stock is up 63% in the last year.

These transfers are classified as sales, but very few of them meet that definition in the conventional sense. The vast majority are funded through State Department grants. Biden made just two of these publicly funded sales to Israel public, and the only reason he did is because he had to. Section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) requires the president to notify Congress when a proposed arms sale exceeds a certain value. The notification threshold depends on the type of matériel (for “significant military equipment” it’s $14 million; for other military articles and services, $50 million; for military construction services, $200 million), but also the recipient. For NATO countries and South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Israel, the notification thresholds for these three categories are considerably higher ($25 million, $100 million, and $300 million, respectively). While Biden is loud and proud about arming Ukraine, he prefers to arm Israel in secret. The quantity of sales since October 7 is case in point. By spreading his military support for Israel across more than one hundred sales, Biden kept pretty much all of them “under threshold” per the AECA, thereby avoiding congressional and public scrutiny. Biden might have picked up this trick from his predecessor. Donald Trump exploited the same loophole to dodge oversight on arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose intense and indiscriminate bombing of Yemen at the time had created a direhumanitarian crisis. Keeping these transfers out of public view makes it easier for Biden to cast himself as Humanitarian of the Year in Gaza while going great lengths to help Israel destroy it. Biden’s series of food airdrops suggests he’s bravely trying to fix a catastrophe beyond his control. Administration officials perpetuate this narrative by insisting the president has no leverage over Israel. “There is a mistaken belief that the United States is able to dictate to other countries’ sovereign decisions,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller recently said. Full article: https://jacobin.com/2024/03/biden-weapons-israel-gaza-palestine

did y'all feel that omg?

Girl, 14, left in coma after attack by teenagers outside school in France | France | The Guardian

Black tradesman 'told he does not look like an electrician' during 'traumatic' Met Police search A black tradesman has claimed that Metropolitan Police officers told him he "does not look like an electrician" during a stop and search on his way home from work. Josh King, 23, and his colleagues were returning from a job in Guildford when they were stopped by officers in a police van parked by the side of the road as they drove through Clapham on September 13, 2023. This week, a video went viral on social media showing King and three coworkers, all in company uniforms, being forcibly removed from their vehicle and handcuffed by police during the tense search, leading to the arrest of one person for possessing an electrician's knife. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) later ruled that no further action should be taken against him. Mr King, from Peckham, claims he was racially profiled and that his colleague was arrested despite explaining the knife was a work tool. He added that officers appeared to dismiss his colleague's explanation that the tool had been inadvertently left in his cargo trousers. The electrician, who owns KK Electrical Contractor Limited, claims that his business lost a client as a result of the incident. He told the Standard: "We're going home from work in my person car as I don't have a van. I'm with the lads and we pass a police vehicle which is parked up in Clapham – I wasn't speeding, my car's insured – and I said 'why have we been stopped? What's the reason?’” "And immediately they dragged us out the car and started antagonising us. We were put in handcuffs for about 90 minutes on the side of the road and they told us we don't look like electricians. "It makes you think, what does an electrician even look like? What does a plumber look like? What does a doctor look like? "It was a very concerning thing to say but they didn't realise the severity of what they said until afterwards.” He added: "In that whole time period we were in handcuffs, they mistreated us. It was totally unnecessary…it wasn't professional at all. As somebody who has never previously been stopped by police in my life, it was quite a traumatic experience for me. Regarding the lost client, he said: "We were working on a project and the police emailed the client. I was offered that job and then lost it. We deal with quite high-end contracts so it's nothing we take lightly but it did happen. "Police asked them if we are who we say we are, which was unnecessary.” Mr King is planning to lodge an official complaint against the Met following the "traumatic" incident. He says his colleagues have been left shaken by the ordeal and that morale at his business is low. A Met spokesperson said: "The men were searched after a passenger in the car was seen attempting to hide a lock knife in a door compartment following a traffic stop. "Possession a lock knife is illegal and officers thought the man's attempt to hide it was suspicious. He was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of an offensive weapon. "The man claimed he was using the knife for work, however the group's other tools were found in the boot, rather than the passenger compartment. "Ultimately the Crown Prosecution Service decided the man should face no further action, but we regularly see the devastation knives cause and officers will do all they can to remove them from the streets of London.” Last month, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley criticised the "army of armchair commentators" who, in his view, record and scrutinise the actions of officers. The Met said the searches were carried out after "a passenger in the car was seen attempting to hide a lock knife in a door compartment following a traffic stop". Commander Claire Smart, from the Metropolitan Police, said: "The men were searched after a passenger in the car was seen attempting to hide a lock knife in a door compartment following a traffic stop. "Possession of a lock knife can be illegal and officers thought the man's attempt to hide it was suspicious. He was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of an offensive weapon. "Ultimately the Crown Prosecution Service decided the man should face no further action. "When done right, stop and search is an effective tool and officers take 4,000 dangerous weapons off our streets every year as a result of this tactic. "We know nonetheless stop and search has a significant impact on our communities which we are keen to better understand. "There has been no formal complaint about this incident, however I would welcome the opportunity to meet with the man to discuss this further and to hear his concerns."

Muslim leaders announced on Saturday that they are going national with an effort to dissuade voters from reelecting President Joe Biden in 2024 due to his failure to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. The #AbandonBiden campaign officially began earlier in December, led by Muslim leaders in swing states like Michigan, Minnesota and Arizona, who disapproved of Biden’s support for Israel’s counterattacks against Hamas. More than 22,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there. Now, the coalition intends to expand the pressure campaign to all 50 states. “We will save America from itself, by punishing Biden at the ballot box,” said lead organizer Jaylani Hussein in a statement. The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The coalition plans to endorse an independent presidential candidate, Hussein told CNBC. He added that the campaign does not support former President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, though it is aware of the risks of depleting Biden’s voter base. “There is a likelihood that our votes may weaken the Democrats that the Republicans may win,” Hussein said. “We’re not fools about that.” The #AbandonBiden campaign is willing to take that risk, he said: “We will risk an unknown four years of Trump.” Trump’s track record on protecting Muslim freedoms does not garner optimism though and the former president has been vocal about his plans to pick up where he left off. Should Trump win a second term, he said he wants to reintroduce and expand his Muslim ban, which prohibited U.S. entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries. Still, Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has been a blight to his reelection campaign so far, especially among key voter demographics that helped put him in office four years ago. Young voters sunk Biden’s approval rating to an all-time low in a November NBC poll, due centrally to his foreign policy actions in the war. And Muslim-Americans in battleground states, who helped win Biden his thin margin of victory in 2020, have said they would rather vote for a third-party candidate or not vote at all this time around. That is not exclusive to Muslim-Americans. An October Gallup poll found that a majority of voters are so dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic parties that they think an independent party candidate is needed. Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/30/muslim-leaders-expand-campaign-to-abandon-biden-over-israel-hamas-war.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/29/us-weapons-israel-gaza-war/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/30/israel-hamas-war-news-gaza-palestine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_homepage

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour-time-restricted-eating-linked-to-a-91-higher-risk-of-cardiovascular-death Hmmm, I wouldn't be surprised if this is caused by people eating heavy Americanized meals in a short time frame to get calories that is high in saturated fat. Not that it in itself is unhealthy.