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HHS to reexamine massive $89 billion contract awarded to California nonprofit: Report

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is reportedly reconsidering a massive contract the National Cancer Institute awarded to a California nonprofit in January to operate a cancer research lab in Maryland.

The $89 billion award was given to the Alliance for Advancing Biomedical Research on January 17, just three days before former President Joe Biden left office. The nonprofit is also considered untested because it has not received or spent a penny since its inception in 2022, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday.

The HHS notified the Government Accountability Office earlier this month that it is reevaluating all the original bids for the contract, which means it could give the money to another company.

The organization is also tied to the University of California system, which Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has accused of using 40% of its federal funding for administrative purposes, and criticized for allegedly being vulnerable to China.

“It’s outrageous Biden’s NIH shoved a nearly $90 billion contract out the door just days before President Trump returned to office,” Grassley told the Free Beacon. “Even worse, the money would have flowed to an organization that can’t clearly protect itself from adversaries like China. 

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Radio Liberty Let The Cat Out Of The Bag Regarding The EU’s Game Plan For Ukraine

Russia can expect nothing in return from the EU if Putin concedes to allow their troops and aircraft to deploy in and patrol over Western Ukraine…

Russia has long warned that any unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine of the 30-day sort that Zelensky has proposed could create an opening for NATO to expand its military influence in that country. Hitherto dismissed as a conspiracy theory by the West, Radio Liberty just let the cat out of the bag. The unnamed officials who they cited in their recent article confirmed that they envisage this “buy[ing] the Europeans time to assemble a ‘reassurance force’ in the Western part of Ukraine” and organize “air patrols” there.

Their reported game plan is “keeping the Americans onboard” the peace process, “sequencing” the conflict by clinching a ceasefire that’ll later lead to a lasting peace, and using the aforesaid interim period to carry out the abovementioned military moves for pressuring Russia into more concessions. 

What’s omitted from Radio Liberty’s article is that Russia has threatened to target Western troops in Ukraine, who Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth earlier said wouldn’t enjoy Article 5 guarantees from the US.

Even if Putin agrees to this concession that’s assessed to be among one of the five significant differences between him and Trump that prompted Trump’s angry post against Putin, Radio Liberty reported that this still wouldn’t lead to de jure European recognition of Russia’s territorial gains. 

The same goes for them lifting sanctions or returning any of its €200 billion of seized assets. More sanctions might even soon be imposed and the windfall profits from those assets will “bankroll Ukraine’s military needs”.

Given what Radio Liberty revealed, Russia can therefore expect nothing in return from the EU if Putin concedes to allow their troops and aircraft to deploy in and patrol over Western Ukraine. Any hopes of restoring Ukraine’s antebellum buffer state status would be crushed, and it can’t be ruled out that the EU’s zone of military activity could later expand to the Dnieper or beyond. One of the special operation’s goals was to prevent the West’s eastward military expansion so that would be another major concession.

Putin’s decades-long close friend and influential senior aide Nikolay Patrushev just told TASS earlier this week that “For the second year in a row, NATO is holding the largest exercises in decades near our borders, where it is practicing scenarios of offensive actions over a large area – from Vilnius to Odessa, the seizure of the Kaliningrad region, the blocking of shipping in the Baltic and Black Seas, and preventive strikes on the permanent bases of Russian nuclear deterrent forces.”

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Capitalism fuels ‘racism,’ is ‘difficult to survive’: Iowa State U. lecture

Capitalism is an “oppressive system” that is “incredibly difficult to survive,” a financial coach said during a recent lecture at Iowa State University.

The “Anti-Capitalism Personal Finance Lecture” featured Leo Aquino, a “non-binary Filipinx writer, journalist, and financial coach” known for “their commitment to uplifting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ stories,” according to the event description.

During the lecture, Aquino advocated for an “anti-capitalist” budgeting approach that encourages people to reframe their relationship with money to prioritize well-being over profit, mainly benefiting queer and trans-identifying individuals.

The speaker defined anti-capitalism as “the belief that financial systems do not need to adhere to capitalist values for us to survive.”

An anti-capitalist personal finance perspective supports workers’ abilities to control their labor and decide how profits are invested. It requires people to redefine their “definition of wealth,” Aquino said.

The speaker encouraged students to stop blaming themselves for their financial situations and start questioning the underlying system.

Aquino defined capitalism as “an economic system where workers are required to sell [their] labor for a wage in order to survive.”

The financial coach said this system prioritizes profits over people while causing burnout, depression, and anxiety. “[Capitalism] is an oppressive system profiting from our lack of financial literacy and interpersonal conflicts around money.”

Further, capitalism “necessitates racism, ableism, homophobia, colonialism, and other forms of oppression to perpetuate conflict.” It “has forced people from marginalized communities to do unrealistic things to survive in an oppressive system,” Aquino said.

The speaker contrasted traditional budgeting, defined as a monthly estimate of income and expenses, with anti-capitalist budgeting, described as a “neutral space for us to practice compassionate data analysis.”

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Two Israeli businessmen murdered hours apart in same LA neighborhood — with one held captive for hours and beaten to death

Two Israeli businessmen were found murdered hours apart in their homes in the same section of Los Angeles Saturday, with one tied up and beaten to death while the other was identified as the brother of a prison warden in the Jewish state, police said.

There is no apparent connection between the two killings, but they both occurred in the San Fernando Valley inside the victims’ homes.

The murder of Alexander Modebadze, 47, was particularly heinous, according to cops.

Three attackers broke into Modebadze’s home, held him captive for hours and savagely beat him to death, police said in a statement.

Police later arrested and charged three Georgian nationals for the murder: Pata Kochiashvili, Zaza Outarashvili and Basiki Kutsishvili.

They are being held on a $2 million bail.

Later that day, cops found another murdered Israeli businessman in the San Fernando Valley: Meni Hidhra, the brother of the warden of Israel’s Nitzan Prison, the Jewish Journal reported.

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Religion Is Not The Only Thing That Should Be Separated From The State

The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared that King Henry VIII (and his successors) was “the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England” and not the pope of Rome. The Treason Act of 1534 made it an act of treason, under punishment of death, to deny the Act of Supremacy. During the reign of Queen Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII, the Act of Supremacy was repealed, but was enacted by the English Parliament again in 1559 after Henry’s other daughter Elizabeth became the queen. The British monarch is to this very day still the head of the Church of England or Anglican Church, which is the established church in England. This is one of the main differences between the United States and Great Britain. Although the United States has a National Cathedral where some state funerals are held (most recently for Jimmy Carter), it is actually an Episcopal church (part of the worldwide Anglican Communion), not owned or controlled by the federal government. The “separation of church and state” is a hallmark of the American system of government.

The First Amendment

The Constitution was drafted in 1787, ratified in 1788, and took effect in 1789. It established the United States as a federal system of government where the states, through the Constitution, granted a limited number of powers to a central government. The Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution) was ratified by the states in 1791 in response to criticisms of the Constitution by the Anti-Federalists that the Constitution contained no explicit protection of speech, assembly, religion, or the right to bear arms.

The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” It was President Thomas Jefferson who, in an 1802 letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, equated the religion clauses in the First Amendment with the “separation of church and state”:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

That the “separation of church and state” applied to just the federal government is evident by the fact that some of the states still maintained established churches at the time the Constitution was adopted. The phrase was resurrected by Justice Hugo Black in the case of Everson v. Board of Education (1947). But as Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center has observed: “The federal government’s use of the First Amendment to prohibit religious displays in local parks, to force the removal of the Ten Commandments from public schools, or to ban prayers in public assemblies would horrify the founding generation.” Massachusetts was the last of the original states to fully disestablish its churches in 1833. The idea of the “separation of church and state” is now enshrined in all state constitutions.

But religion is not the only thing that should be separated from the state. Unfortunately, the very people who talk the loudest about the separation of church and state never call for the separation of anything else from the state.

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Texas House Committee Approves Senate-Passed Bill To Ban Cities From Decriminalizing Marijuana

A Texas House committee has approved a Senate-passed bill that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.

About a week after clearing the full Senate, members of the House State Affairs Committee advanced the legislation from Sen. Charles Perry (R) in a 9-6 vote on Wednesday. That same panel recently held a hearing on a House companion version that has not moved, indicating that lawmakers have opted to use the Senate bill as the vehicle to enact the ban on local cannabis reform.

Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.

The latest version of the legislation, as previously amended in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, would also specifically bar localities from putting initiatives on the ballot that would contravene the state’s consumable hemp laws.

It would also require the attorney general to create a form for people to report violations of the law. And it’d expedite legal proceedings to challenge any city, mandating that an appellate court “render its final order or judgment with the least possible delay,” a legislative analysis says.

Cities found to be in violation of the law by placing a decriminalization initiative—or any measure that conflicts with state or federal drug laws—would be subject to a $25,000 civil fine for a first offense and a $50,000 fine for any subsequent offense.

“In the last few years several local governments have adopted policies and ordinances that are designed to decriminalize controlled substances or instruct law enforcement or prosecutors not to enforce our state drug laws,” Perry said in a statement of intent.

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Researchers Announce They’ve Discovered A New Cannabinoid In Marijuana

Researchers have announced that they’ve successfully identified a new cannabinoid—cannabielsoxa—produced by the marijuana plant as well as a number of other compounds “reported for the first time from the flowers of C. sativa.”

The team of government and university researchers out of South Korea also evaluated 11 compounds in cannabis for antitumor effects in neuroblastoma cells, finding that seven “revealed strong inhibitory activity.”

Authors said the findings represent “an initial step toward developing a product for the treatment of neuroblastoma,” a cancer they note “is the most common solid tumor in children and the most frequent malignancy in the first year of life.”

Published this month in the journal Pharmaceuticals, the paper says researchers used chromatographic techniques to isolate the compounds. They then examined their molecular structures and used a metabolic testing method to assess their toxicity to neuroblastoma cells.

“This study successfully isolated a new cannabinoid and six known cannabinoid compounds, along with a new chlorin-type compound and three additional chlorine-type compounds,” the study says, “which were reported for the first time from the flowers of C. sativa.”

Two of the compounds identified for the first time in cannabis—132-hydroxypheophorbide b ethyl ester and ligulariaphytin A—are described as “chlorin-type compounds.”

They, along with five other known cannabinoids—cannabidiol (CBD), cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), cannabidiolic acid methyl ester (CBDA-ME), delta-8 THC and cannabichromene (CBG)—”could be considered as the potential compounds for antitumor effects against neuroblastomas,” researchers found.

Results of the antitumor analyses “demonstrated that cannabinoid compounds had stronger inhibitory effects on neuroblastoma cells than chlorin-type compounds,” the paper notes.

The new cannbinoid, cannabielsoxa, was not among the compounds that researchers identified as potentially toxic to neuroblastoma cells, however.

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North Korea-linked gang ‘stole’ billions from Americans through romance scams, online schemes

A Cambodia-based gang with ties to North Korea has “stolen” billions of dollars from Americans through romance scams and other cyber-heists since August 2021, federal officials said Thursday in announcing a crackdown on the malign network.

For years, the online marketplace Huione Group has helped North Korea and other transnational criminal gangs rip people off by sending texts or direct messages on social media platforms and sites to bilk them for fake investments or “pig butchering.”

The cons, which also take place on dating or professional networking sites, have gotten US retirees and others to invest in crypto or other virtual currencies — before eventually defrauding them.

Between August 2021 and January 2025, Huione raked in at least $4 billion in proceeds from the romance and investment racket, with affiliates helping facilitate payments (Huione Pay PLC), provide fiat currencies (Huione Crypto), and furnish an online marketplace with illicit goods and services (Haowang Guarantee).

The US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shared the findings of its investigation into the Huione’s scam network exclusively with The Post, tallying up $37 million that went toward North Korean cyber heists and another $336 million in the romance and investments grift.

Now, the Treasury is taking action by proposing a federal rule to sever the Cambodian firm’s access to the US financial system.

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Judge rules Trump use of Alien Enemies Act for gangs is ‘unlawful’ 

A federal district judge ruled Thursday that the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) does not permit President Trump to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador, extending a block on the law being used against migrants detained in South Texas. 

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr., a Trump appointee, said the rarely used law can only be invoked when an “organized, armed force” is entering the United States, rejecting the president’s claims that he can use it against alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

The ruling from Rodriguez offered a historical deep dive into the rarely used statute — used just three times prior in U.S. history, and all during times of war — while parsing terms central to igniting the power. 

Rodriguez determined Trump’s efforts to use the law to deport alleged gang members strayed from the strict war powers, writing that Trump’s invocation “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.”

“The Proclamation makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation. Thus, the Proclamation’s language cannot be read as describing conduct that falls within the meaning of ‘invasion’ for purposes of the AEA,” he wrote. 

“While the Proclamation references that TdA members have harmed lives in the United States and engage in crime, the Proclamation does not suggest that they have done so through an organized armed attack, or that Venezuela has threatened or attempted such an attack through TdA members. As a result, the Proclamation also falls short of describing a ‘predatory incursion.’” 

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Tucker Carlson accuses Ukrainians of trying to kill Trump

Ukraine was involved in a plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump during his 2024 reelection campaign, American journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed.

In September 2024, pro-Ukraine activist Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after setting up a firing position with a rifle near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was spotted by Secret Service agents before he could open fire and was detained following a brief manhunt.

“It’s very obvious that the Ukrainians were involved in the attempted assassination on the golf course in Florida,” Carlson said on the Megyn Kelly Show on Tuesday.

“That guy definitely had some contact with Ukraine, for sure,” Kelly replied. “He was in Ukraine!” Carlson stressed.

Kelly said Routh was “asking them” for heavy weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenades. Carlson agreed and suggested that Kiev may have been involved in other assassination plots.

“I know for a fact there were others who were a target of assassination attempts by the Ukrainian government,” he claimed, without providing details.

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