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Evidence Links Microplastics to Chronic Disease

You’re absorbing plastic through the air, food and water daily. These microscopic plastic particles are being detected inside living tissue — lodged deep within organs, absorbed through your gut and circulating through your bloodstream.

Emerging research has uncovered strong connections between this plastic exposure and conditions like high blood pressure, stroke, and metabolic dysfunction. Studies now link even low-level, everyday exposure to a higher risk of cardiovascular events. This is no longer just about reducing waste. It’s about protecting your heart, your brain and your long-term health.

Microplastics Rank Among Top Predictors of Chronic Disease

Research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session evaluated the concentration of microplastics in seafloor sediment across 555 U.S. coastal and lakeside census tracts between 2015 and 2019.1 The goal was to compare plastic exposure levels with disease rates in those same communities.

Using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers examined the prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, and cancer and used machine learning to assess how microplastic pollution stacked up against 154 other environmental and socioeconomic factors.

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Viral: Humanoid Robot Kicks Chinese Kid In The Stomach During Public Demonstration

A humanoid robot demonstration has sparked safety concerns after a video circulating on social media appeared to show a Unitree G1 robot accidentally kicking a young child during a public event.

The robot, which was performing a roundhouse kick while wearing a blue clown wig, struck the child in the stomach, causing the youngster to double over in pain.

The incident has reignited debate over the safe deployment of advanced humanoid robots in crowded public settings, particularly as increasingly capable machines are showcased at exhibitions and entertainment events.

Last year, a viral experiment showed a humanoid robot overriding its safety restrictions and firing a BB gun at its owner during a role-play scenario.

Robot Safety Spotlight

A video circulating on social media has raised concerns about humanoid robot safety after a robot appeared to kick a child during a public demonstration in China’s Xinjiang region.

The footage shows what is believed to be a Unitree G1 humanoid robot, wearing a blue wig, performing a roundhouse kick that struck a young child standing nearby. The child was hit in the stomach and appeared to be in pain after the impact. According to reports from Chinese media, the child was not seriously injured.

The incident has renewed discussion about the risks associated with deploying advanced humanoid robots in public environments. Modern humanoid robots are capable of performing complex movements, including martial arts demonstrations, athletic maneuvers, and other dynamic actions, often under remote or autonomous control, reports Futurism.

The Xinjiang incident is not the first reported case involving a humanoid robot and a human injury. Earlier this year, another Unitree G1 robot reportedly lost its balance during a public performance in China. After falling to the ground, the robot’s uncontrolled limb movements struck a nearby man, causing a nose injury.

A viral experiment last year in the US raised concerns about AI robot safety after a humanoid robot named Max fired a BB gun at its owner during a role-play scenario. Although the robot initially refused requests to shoot, it complied after the command was framed as acting out a character. The incident highlighted how simple prompt changes can potentially bypass AI safety restrictions.

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Mamdani: ‘ICE Should Be Abolished’ — ‘No Way to Reform This Kind of Cruelty’

Saturday on MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be abolished.

Co-host Eugene Daniels said, “Just over the river here in new Jersey, there’s the Delaney facility. There are folks there that are on hunger strike over the conditions. What’s your reaction? And I guess, more importantly for New Yorkers, what prevents a facility like that from opening here in New York?”

Mamdani said, “I think there are a few things. One is a reaction of pain and seeing what people have to go through in these kinds of facilities. And these are conditions that they offend the conscience of so many, not just here in New York City but frankly, across the country. This is partially why I have put forward a vision alongside so many others to say that ICE should be abolished, that there is no way to reform this kind of cruelty that we’re seeing endemic in the way that immigration is being enforced across the country. When it comes to our city, we are proud of our sanctuary city policies. We are proud of the policies we’ve put forward, and also the executive orders we’ve put forward to ensure that every single agency is complying with those policies.”

Daniels said, “What do you say to people who say language? And there’s Democrats in DC who say language like, abolish ICE or unhelpful for the political health of the Democratic Party?”

Mamdani said, “I think if we we’ve listened to them before and look where we are. I think it’s time to develop a new vision for this party, one that is unflinching in its beliefs and also uncompromising in its principles.”

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Democrat Nithya Raman Just 1 Point Away From Knocking Spencer Pratt Out of LA Mayor’s Race After Pratt Railroaded in Latest Ballot Dump – Pratt Responds!

Another damning ballot dump in the rigged Los Angeles mayor race put Democratic City Councilwoman within striking distance of Spencer Pratt, now trailing by just 1% with nearly 200,000 ballots remaining to be counted. 

They’re counting ballots that came in after election day! Who could trust these results?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has already been projected to advance to the November runoff. The top two candidates will advance if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.

After the Saturday results came in, Pratt now leads by just 7,494 votes, roughly 1.1% of the total ballots counted. The nearly 200,000 remaining ballots are expected to continue favoring the Democrats.

This comes after Pratt surged with a massive lead over Raman in early vote results on election night.

Analysis of the Saturday vote tally shows that Nithya Raman received more than twice as many votes as Pratt, 23,514 votes to Pratt’s 10,336.

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UK Government Plots Digital ID Lockdown On Every Phone In Lockstep With Big Tech

The Labour government in Britain is accelerating its assault on digital privacy under the well-worn banner of child protection. Fresh plans leaked to the press reveal ministers intend to compel Apple, Google and other tech firms to restrict smartphones so thoroughly that a digital ID will be needed to use them with unfettered access.

The mechanism comes in the form of expanded age verification that effectively demands digital identification for device setup and use. What is sold as safeguarding the young is shaping up as a backdoor mandate for every adult in Britain to submit ID just to operate a phone or go online.

This development lands alongside Google’s confirmation that it will soon bring digital IDs to Android devices in the UK via Google Wallet. Users will record a short video selfie and scan a government-issued ID to add a digital version of their passport or other documents.

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China Sends Angry Memos While Japan Builds Real Defense

China keeps sending diplomatic tantrums toward Japan, and Tokyo keeps moving.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government placed four Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel at NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine headquarters in Germany. The Ministry of Defense described the dispatch as a way to learn from Ukraine’s battlefield experience and deepen Japan-NATO cooperation.

Beijing heard all of that and reached for the complaint drawer again. Lin Jian, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, accused Japan of working with NATO to stir up confrontation, as reported by Gateway Hispanic, and interfering in China’s internal affairs. 

Spokespersons from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Lin Jian , have condemned these developments as:

  • “Colluding with NATO to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
  • “Stoking regional tensions.”
  • “Promoting confrontation.”

Beijing argues that NATO is a North Atlantic regional organization and therefore has no legitimate reason to expand its presence into the Indo-Pacific region.

Chinese officials also maintain that Japan should “learn lessons from history” rather than pursue what they describe as remilitarization.

Tensions have been further aggravated by broader diplomatic disputes, particularly those related to Taiwan .

Japan’s move grew from an offer made in April by Gen. Nakatini, then Japan’s defense minister, to Mark Rutte, NATO secretary general. The cooperation now includes cyber defense, new technologies, military teamwork, maritime security, and support for Ukraine. From Reuters:

Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Sunday rejected accusations of “new militarism” by Tokyo and criticised China for rapidly expanding its military with ‌little transparency, underscoring mounting tensions between the two countries.

China continues to increase its defence spending at a high level, Koizumi said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, adding: “China’s external approach and military activities are matters of serious concern for Japan and the international community at the same time.”

Rebutting criticism that Japan was embracing new militarism, he said: “Think about it. There’s a country that has a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons and strategic bombers. Japan ⁠has neither of such weapons, and yet Japan is labelled ‘new militarism’?”

Koizumi said Japan’s record since World War Two “speaks for itself”, citing its adherence to international law and commitment to the United Nations Charter, alongside efforts to uphold a “free and open international order.”

None of that creates a NATO war guarantee for Asia, but it does show Japan has stopped pretending the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific worlds live in separate rooms.

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Air Leak on International Space Station Triggers Evacuation Protocol – Astronauts Shelter in Dragon Capsule While Russian Cosmonauts Work To Seal Microscopic Structural Fractures

ISS air leak is back in the news.

We have been reporting here on TGP about the security threat to the International Space Station – an air leak in a Russian segment of the Station that was first discovered in 2019, was dealt with, but now has become a problem again.

Yesterday (5), work on the leak prompted astronauts to shelter in their ‘lifeboats’ (the Dragon Capsule), fearing an evacuation might be required.

The Telegraph reported:

“Nasa and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have been struggling to seal microscopic structural cracks in a transfer tunnel leading to the Russian Zvezda module since 2019.

At its peak, the leak was venting more than two pounds of air per day, but in recent months the astronauts thought they had the problem under control.”

Five members of the ISS crew to were ordered to shelter inside the docked SpaceX Crew Dragon craft, while two Russian cosmonauts attempted to assess and repair the leak.

“’We are comfortable with backing out of the safe haven config’, astronauts were told from Houston. ‘With today’s operations, they wanted to be extra safe, extra precautionary, and have the crew move into the safe haven posture’, a Nasa spokesman later said.

A safe haven configuration is an emergency safety procedure where crew members retreat into their docked spacecraft to use them as ‘lifeboats’ that can immediately evacuate to Earth should the space station suffer a catastrophic failure.”

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US To Tighten Rule Regarding Nonprofits Paying Excessive Executive Compensation

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of the Treasury issued a notice on Friday, announcing their plan to issue proposed regulation concerning taxation on high compensation paid by tax-exempt organizations to employees.

The notice relates to excessive compensation and excess parachute payments, the IRS said in a June 5 statement. Parachute payments are made to key employees when they are terminated or when the business undergoes a merger or acquisition. An excess parachute payment is any such payment that exceeds three times an employee’s average annual compensation for the most recent five years.

Section 4960 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on any nonprofit or tax-exempt organization paying an employee more than $1 million in remuneration in a tax year or an excess parachute payment, according to the notice.

The new rule changes tax applicability regarding excessive compensation.

Prior to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, taxes on such payments were applicable to a tax-exempt organization’s five highest-compensated employees for a tax year whose compensation exceeded $1 million.

But under the new rule, the excise tax is applicable to any employee whose compensation exceeds $1 million in a tax year beginning after Dec. 31, 2025. The requirement of being among the five-highest compensated employees has been eliminated.

The rule is also applicable to any former employee who was a top-five compensated employee exceeding $1 million for any tax year between Dec. 31, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2025.

There is no change to taxation on parachute payments. Such payments will continue attracting taxes as per existing rules.

The updates also provide certain exceptions regarding people offering volunteer services to tax-exempt organizations.

IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said the latest rule “strengthens the accountability of tax-exempt organizations.” The regulation “broadens the scope of tax from a limited group of executives to potentially any highly compensated employee.”

The Treasury and the IRS are inviting public comments on the notice until Aug. 4.

The notice comes after the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) recently raised concerns about the implementation of the new regulations.

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Radical Professor at NYC’s New School Calls to Dismantle America ‘By Any Means Necessary’ While Defending Iran’s Terror Regime

In a chilling display of ideological derangement, a political science professor at The New School in New York City took to the podium at a Democratic Socialists of America meeting to champion the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and declare her desire to see the United States brought low.

Corinna Mullin’s “Islamic Revolution Teach-in” wasn’t an academic exercise in nuance—it was a brazen endorsement of America’s enemies wrapped in the language of class struggle and anticolonialism.

This isn’t the isolated rant of a fringe activist. It’s a window into the moral inversion that has captured significant portions of American higher education, where terrorist organizations are recast as defenders of the working class and the world’s most powerful republic is painted as the ultimate oppressor. Mullin, who previously led destructive anti-Israel protests at CUNY that caused millions in damage, now teaches at The New School after her reinstatement following termination.

During the hour-and-a-half session, Mullin praised Iran’s military for depleting U.S. weapons stockpiles and claimed the regime had achieved “phenomenal results” through its indigenous industry.

“We need to bring the empire down by any means necessary,” she declared, framing Iran’s actions as a blow against American power. She went further, defending the IRGC—a U.S.-designated terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of countless innocents, including Americans—as a protector of workers and the embodiment of resistance.

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A Quiet Rewrite That Could Shape a Thousand Climate Cases

An under-the-radar legal switcheroo should concern every business leader, investor, and taxpayer in America. Now, 23 state attorneys general have taken notice and sent a letter  to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts   that bolsters the efforts of three eminent scientists who sounded the alarm.

Climate activists have found a way to get their preferred evidence standards into the hands of roughly 6,000 federal and state judges—before those judges hear more than 1,000 pending climate cases that could reshape the American economy.

They did it through a handbook.

The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) jointly publish the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. Likely very few Americans realize Congress established the FJC in 1967 as the research and education arm of the federal courts and made the Chief Justice of the U.S. its chair. For decades, the FJC collaborated with the NAS to give judges objective, apolitical guidance on how to evaluate scientific claims in the courtroom. The motivation is obvious, if often taken for granted by the American public: give judges the tools and standards to admit scientific evidence that is objectively true, and reject quackery and scientifically invalid hypotheses that would bias the judicial proceedings.

The manual is that guidance, and the fourth edition has just been released.

Three eminent scientists who’ve read the manual immediately started ringing alarm bells. According to Richard Lindzen of MIT, William Happer of Princeton, and Steven Koonin of Stanford’s Hoover Institution, its new chapter on “How Science Works” has a problem. In an April 1 letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, the three scientists argue that the chapter—which balloons from 18 pages in the prior edition to 65—quietly swaps out the scientific method for something inherently more political: “scientific consensus.”

In so doing, the new version flies in the face of Supreme Court precedent that has shaped the legal evaluation of scientific evidence since 1993.

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