Tag: safety

Terror on freeway after Minnesota granted truckers’ license to Somali driver who couldn’t read ROAD SIGNS

Terrifying footage shared on social media showed the truck driving against traffic on US 61 near Troy, Missouri around 8am on Wednesday, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The truck nearly collided with several other cars before finally crossing the median on to the correct side of the road, when it was stopped by police.

The driver, whose name has not been released, had obtained a commercial driver’s license from Minnesota, NewsNation reported.

Police said the driver showed no signs of impairment or medical issues and determined the trucker was going the wrong way because they could not read the road signs.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed the ‘disturbing’ incident in a post on X.

‘We have learned that a truck driver with a Minnesota CDL who couldn’t read basic road signs spent MILES driving the wrong way in an 80 TON truck,’ Duffy wrote.

‘Thanks to Missouri law enforcement, this dangerous trucker is now out of service.’

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Countries, States, and Provinces where Glyphosate has been Banned or Restricted

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of countries, states, and provinces (or smaller jurisdictions) where glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) has been banned or significantly restricted as of now. This includes both national-level actions and subnational measures.

National-Level Bans or Major Restrictions

Countries that have fully banned or are phasing out glyphosate:

  • Sri Lanka
    • Introduced a nationwide ban in 2015; the ban was lifted and re-instituted at various points. As of now, use requires a permit.
  • Austria
    • Implemented a full ban in 2019.
  • Luxembourg
    • Enacted a full ban in 2020, though it was later challenged in court.
  • Vietnam
    • Banned glyphosate in 2019.
  • Mexico
    • Announced a phase-out with a target ban by January 31, 2024; some sources say it’s now officially banned.
  • Bhutan
    • Reported to have a full ban in place.
  • Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
    • Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates banned glyphosate starting around 2015–2016.
  • Bermuda
    • Blocked new imports in 2015 and banned concentrations above 2% in 2016.
  • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
    • Suspended imports of glyphosate-based herbicides.
  • Costa Rica
    • Banned glyphosate use in protected areas and government-owned land.
  • Malawi and Togo
    • Malawi suspended import permits (2019), and Togo prohibited import, marketing, and use.
  • France, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic
    • Enacted significant restrictions such as bans for amateur use, in public spaces, or as pre-harvest treatment. (Examples: France – banned in public green spaces; Belgium – banned for non-professional users; Czech Republic – tight restrictions; Denmark – banned post-emergent use; Italy – banned public area use and pre-harvest desiccation; Germany – set to fully ban by 2024).
  • Colombia
    • Ceased using glyphosate for aerial eradication of coca cultivation in 2015; later lifted.
  • Thailand
    • Initially decided to ban in 2019, but reversed the decision; instead, imposed restricted usage.
  • Canada
    • No national ban—but eight out of ten provinces have restrictions in public spaces; Quebec is attempting broader prohibitions; Vancouver banned glyphosate in public parks.

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LA County Sues Roblox Over False Child Safety Claims and Lack of Age Verification

Los Angeles County filed a lawsuit against Roblox, alleging the platform has built a system that leaves children exposed to grooming because it does not go far enough in checking user IDs to prove their age.

The suit names the company for public nuisance and violations of California’s false advertising law.

We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here.

The complaint is direct: “Roblox portrays its platform as a safe and appropriate place for children to play. In reality, and as Roblox well knows, the design of its platform makes children easy prey for pedophiles.”

If you weren’t aware of how big Roblox is and why this is important, Roblox serves roughly 144 million daily active users. That’s more than both Fortnite and the entire userbase of the Steam platform combined.

The platform also lets people create and play games, chat through customizable avatars, and spend real money on virtual currency.

LA County’s suit argues Roblox has consistently failed to moderate user-generated content, enforce its own age restrictions, or honestly disclose the risks predators pose to children using the service.

There is no doubt the platform’s moderation gaps have attracted scrutiny for years, and that the platform has had issues with grooming of minors, but the LA lawsuit is the latest in a pattern of governments and researchers documenting the same problem Roblox has repeatedly said it’s addressing, and the latest attempt to mandate digital ID checks.

Roblox rejected the suit’s allegations. A company spokesman said the platform was built “with safety at its core” and pointed to existing protections: “We have advanced safeguards that monitor our platform for harmful content and communications, and users cannot send or receive images via chat, avoiding one of the most prevalent opportunities for misuse seen elsewhere online.”

The company added that it takes action against rule violators and cooperates with law enforcement, closing with: “There is no finish line when it comes to protecting kids and, while no system can be perfect, our commitment to safety never ends.”

The false advertising angle is what is most important to note. LA isn’t suing Roblox over what it collects or who can see it. The county is suing because the company told parents the platform was safe for kids while allegedly knowing otherwise.

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California to Finally Enforce English Tests for Truckers After Newsom Folds to Unlock Federal Funds

California has begun enforcing federal English-language requirements for commercial truck drivers after months of resistance from Governor Gavin Newsom.

The change was confirmed by Nick Chiappe of the California Trucking Association on Friday.

“California Highway Patrol has begun enforcing the English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements for all drivers of commercial motor vehicles,” he said in a statement.

The move clears the way for the U.S. Department of Transportation to release more than $40 million in funding that had been frozen.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that California had been the only state failing to enforce rules requiring truckers to demonstrate English proficiency.

“I shouldn’t have had to threaten to withhold millions in funding for California to come to their senses and enforce the law,” Duffy told The California Post.

“For those who said we’re playing politics—our efforts have gotten real results for the American people.”

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Trump Directs USDA to Make More Glyphosate, Signals Liability Protection for Pesticide Makers

President Donald Trump late Wednesday signed an executive order intended to boost domestic production of glyphosate.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in June 2018, is facing tens of thousands of lawsuits from people alleging Roundup caused them to develop cancer.

Trump’s order also grants legal immunity to domestic manufacturers of products containing glyphosate when manufacturers are ordered, under the Defense Production Act of 1950, to produce the products.

The Defense Production Act is used in national emergencies to compel the production of materials or supplies necessary for national security.

Bayer is the only company producing glyphosate in the U.S. However, U.S. farmers also import the chemical from China, Reuters reported.

The executive order also applies to elemental phosphorus, used in weapons production, electronics and batteries. Elemental phosphorus is also used to make glyphosate.

Trump said elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides are scarce materials critical to national defense, and that inadequate domestic production poses an imminent threat to military readiness and food security.

“Glyphosate-based herbicides are a cornerstone of this Nation’s agricultural productivity and rural economy,” he said.

The order directs U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to create rules for increasing the supply of phosphorus and glyphosate.

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Trump Admin Closes CDL Loophole That Let Illegal Immigrants Drive Big-Rigs

The Department of Transportation shut down a major safety vulnerability this past week that had allowed illegal immigrant drivers to operate commercial trucks on American highways despite having no verifiable driving history.

“For far too long, America has allowed dangerous foreign drivers to abuse our truck licensing systems – wreaking havoc on our roadways. This safety loophole ends today,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement.

“Moving forward, unqualified foreign drivers will be unable to get a license to operate an 80,000-pound big rig. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are putting the safety of the driving public first. From enforcing English language standards to holding fraudulent carriers accountable, we will continue to attack this crisis on our roads head on.”

The reform targets a gaping hole in how states issue commercial driver’s licenses to foreign nationals. While licensing agencies can screen U.S. drivers through national databases for past violations like DUIs or crash history, they cannot access records of foreigners and illegal immigrants. That loophole enabled at least 30 states to issue CDLs to drivers deemed ineligible.

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The Trump Administration Officially Kills DEI at the FAA

Last year’s deadly midair collision at Reagan National Airport, which killed all 67 people aboard an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army helicopter, was a wake-up call that many on the left refused to hear.

President Donald Trump, however, understood the problem and sought to fix it. He pointed directly at the Barack Obama and Joe Biden DEI policies that prioritized checkbox diversity over actual competence in air traffic control.

He was absolutely right.

Air traffic control whistleblowers confirmed that the FAA’s obsession with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives has led to a shortage of qualified personnel. These disastrous policies began under Obama, were reversed during Trump’s first term, and then roared back under Biden. The result? A staffing crisis filled with underqualified controllers who couldn’t handle the job.

The whistleblowers revealed that meeting diversity quotas became more important than actual ability. I’m sorry, but when you’re juggling planes full of passengers through the skies, “good enough for diversity” doesn’t cut it. The problems were so severe that near misses occurred multiple times a week. Reagan National wasn’t a random tragedy; it was an inevitable disaster created by DEI.

But those days are over. Last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the FAA issued a mandatory “Operations Specification” that forces every commercial airline to commit to merit-based hiring for pilots.

No more woke hiring practices and no more prioritizing race and sex over skill. If airlines don’t comply, they face federal investigation.

“When families board their aircraft, they should fly with confidence knowing the pilot behind the controls is the best of the best,” Duffy said. “The American people don’t care what their pilot looks like or their gender—they just care that they are most qualified man or woman for the job.”

This shouldn’t be controversial. It’s just common sense. But under the Biden-Buttigieg regime, common sense got tossed out the window. The FAA spent years focused on renaming cockpits to “flight decks” and investigating racist roads and bridges while actual safety standards crumbled.

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Pesticide Industry Infiltrates MAHA to Derail Reforms

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House as the best chance to deliver his long-promised health revolution.

In the final weeks of the race, the former environmental attorney urged voters to back Trump in order to advance a reform agenda aimed at eliminating harmful substances from America’s agriculture and food supply, particularly the herbicides and insecticides sprayed on most fruits and vegetables.

“Don’t you want healthy children, and don’t you want the chemicals out of our food, and don’t you want the regulatory agencies to be free from corporate corruption?” Kennedy thundered at an October 2024 rally in Glendale, Arizona. Moments later, Trump promised to empower his ally to investigate the “toxins in our environment and pesticides in our food.”

“We’re going to ban the worst agricultural chemicals” and “remove conflicts of interest” from top farm and food safety agencies, Kennedy pledged days later.

Those promises have since fallen by the wayside.

The administration has reapproved the cancer-causing weedkiller dicamba, deleted references to pesticides from its “Make America Healthy Again” action plan, and delayed enforcement of limits on so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water. There has been no meaningful action on controversial pesticides Kennedy previously warned about, including neonicotinoid insecticides and glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup—which he once called “one of the likely culprits in America’s chronic disease epidemic.”

Meanwhile, representatives of pesticide and chemical companies have flooded into key regulatory roles. Former lobbyists Douglas Troutman, Nancy Beck, Lynn Ann Dekleva, Scott Hutchins, Kelsey Barnes and Kyle Kunkler now occupy senior positions overseeing agriculture and environmental policy.

What happened?

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Hims and Hers Stops Offering Semaglutide Drugs Following FDA Scrutiny

Telehealth business Hims and Hers will stop offering customers pills made of compounded semaglutide, which is used for weight loss and diabetes control, the company said in a Feb. 7 post on X.

Compounded drugs are medications created by licensed pharmacists or physicians by mixing and combining the various ingredients of a drug. These are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as a result of which their safety, quality, and effectiveness remain suspect. Semaglutide is the active ingredient of medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which are GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes and weight loss.

On Feb. 5, Hims and Hers announced it was offering compounded semaglutide to customers.

“This new option features a specialized formulation that is engineered to protect the active ingredient through digestion and support absorption,” it said.

The company offered introductory plans beginning at $49 from the first month, with a 5-month plan. Hims and Hers claimed it adhered to “all federal and state standards for compounding.” Moreover, all active pharmaceutical ingredients used in the compounded drugs are exclusively sourced from facilities registered with the FDA, according to the company.

In a Feb. 5 post on X, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency would take “swift action” against companies that mass-market copycat drugs with a claim that they are similar to FDA-approved products.

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U.S. Military Meals Contain Toxic Cocktail of Glyphosate, Veterinary Drugs and Heavy Metals

Independent laboratory testing commissioned by Moms Across America, with the support of Children’s Health Defense Military Chapter and Centner Academy, revealed Wednesday that U.S. military food, including Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs) and other rationed and cafeteria items are contaminated with a mixture of toxic pesticides, banned veterinary drugs, beta-agonists and steroids used widely in U.S. beef and pork production for growth promotion, heavy metals and glyphosate at levels that pose serious threats to human health.

Each year, more than 1.5 billion U.S. military meals and 37 million Meals, Ready-to-Eat (MREs) are served to active-duty service members, making the U.S. military one of the most powerful purchasers and influencers in both the U.S. and global food supply.

The health, readiness and security of U.S. troops depend on these meals to support physical performance, cognitive function and long-term well-being.

The U.S. military seems to be lagging behind in the area of clean and safe food, as in 2014, the Chinese army ordered all military supply stations to only allow the purchase of non-genetically modified organism (GMO) grain and food oil due to health safety concerns over GMOs and their associated pesticides, which have now been shown to be contaminating U.S. military food supplies.

“We applaud President Trump’s commitment to increasing the budget of the military to ensure Americans are safe and creating the most powerful military in the world,” said Zen Honeycutt, founding executive director of Moms Across America.

“As our nation’s Commander in Chief, we call on him to be a true hero by ensuring our global power by providing the safest and healthiest meals of any military in the world. We are calling for American troops to have American food — regeneratively raised, organic meat and non-toxic, organic and nutrient-dense produce,” Honeycutt concluded.

The independent laboratory testing included 40 samples in total, with 16 samples from six military base cafeterias and 24 MREs being tested for toxic chemicals and nutrients. The samples contained ingredients such as wheat, GMO corn, GMO soy and meat.

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