Trump Leads Harris in WSJ and Forbes Polls
Former US President Donald Trump is narrowly leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House, according to the latest polls by the Wall Street Journal and Forbes/HarrisX.
Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee last week after President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy and endorsed her. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released at the beginning of the week showed Harris leading Trump by two points. The surveys published afterwards show the opposite.
The WSJ poll released on Friday has Trump at 49% and Harris at 47%. The poll was conducted from July 23-25 and involved 1,000 registered voters.
The HarrisX/Forbes online poll of 3,013 registered voters, which was carried out from Monday to Wednesday, produced the same two-point gap, with Trump at 47% and Harris at 45%. The survey also revealed overwhelming support (81%) for Biden’s decision to quit the race.
“Vice President Harris has energized the Democratic base, growing the lead with suburban women and closing the gap with independents,” HarrisX CEO Dritan Nesho said. “She is still struggling with African American men, and Trump overall still has a more consolidated base of voters.”
Nesho argued that Biden’s decision to drop out has made the race competitive again.
Biden announced that he was ending his reelection campaign on July 21, after weeks of growing concerns among Democrats and party donors over his declining health and ability to defeat Trump in November. Initially defiant, Biden argued that the move was necessary given the high stakes of the election. “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition,” he said in an address from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
The Harris campaign has reported an influx of donations, receiving $81 million in contributions in the 24 hours since Biden’s endorsement. It is expected that the Democrats will officially nominate Harris at the party’s convention next month.
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Israel Says “All-Out War” Imminent After Hezbollah Rocket Slams Into Soccer Field, 30 Casualties
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz are holding emergency consultations with the country’s senior defense leadership following a devastating Hezbollah rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams in Israel’s north which resulted in 30 casualties, including at least ten killed.
Nine victims among the several dozen injured are said to be in critical condition, many of them children, some as young as ten. Foreign Minister Katz told a state broadcaster, “There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines.”
He warned that “We are facing an all-out war” and added, “I have no doubt that we’ll pay a cost” – but also said an even greater toll will surely be exacted on Hezbollah.
The top diplomat further claimed in the comments that Israel will have “full backing” from the US and Europe in waging a bigger anti-Hezbollah campaign in Lebanon. Katz explained to Axios:
The Hezbollah attack today crossed all red lines, and the response will be accordingly. We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon.
We will pay prices, but at the end of the war Nasrallah and Hezbollah will be destroyed and the state of Lebanon will be severely damaged and we will restore peace and security to the residents of the north.
Rockets reportedly scored direct impact on a soccer field in the Israeli Druze town in the northern Golan region. The IDF military is probing why Israel’s anti-air defenses didn’t work upon the missile being inbound.
While for months hundreds of Hezbollah missiles and drones have rained down on northern Israel, it is much rarer for a missile to strike in the heart of a town or city.
Widely circulating video which was verified by the Times of Israel shows a large fireball upon impact:
Footage purportedly shows the moment the Hezbollah rocket struck a soccer field in the northern Druze town of Majdal shams, causing numerous casualties. pic.twitter.com/awfFomVEJ2
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 27, 2024
Amid the rising death toll, Hezbollah has later in the day issued a surprising statement insisting it was not behind the attack:
Hezbollah in a statement denies it launched rockets at Majdal Shams, in an attack that killed and wounded civilians, including children.
The terror group says it “has no connection to the incident at all, and categorically denies all false allegations.”
Hezbollah said earlier it launched dozens of rockets at an army base in the Golan Heights, near Majdal Shams.
Israel is charging that not only Hezbollah was definitely behind it, but that this attack has just greatly escalated the conflict. Meanwhile, recent days have seen new reports of fires breaking out in southern Lebanon due to Israeli strikes there.
In Gaza, Al Jazeera has the following latest developments:
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 30 people have been killed after an Israeli bombing of Khadija School in Deir el-Balah. Israel claimed it targeted a “Hamas command and control centre”.
- The civil defence in Gaza says at least 170 people have been killed in Israel’s military incursion in Khan Younis since it began more than a week ago.
- The armed wing of Hamas says fierce battles are continuing in Gaza City and that its fighters struck an Israeli troop carrier surrounded by soldiers with an al-Yassin 105 rocket in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood.
- A rare Israeli air raid has taken place in the occupied West Bank, targeting the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. It killed a Palestinian man the army said was wanted.
? Galei Tzahal: 11 injured, including five critically (and six seriously), as a result of a Hezbollah drone crash in Majdal Shams.
— Israel News Pulse (@israelnewspulse) July 27, 2024
Very severe incident. A direct hit on a soccer field, likely by a drone (not yet fully confirmed), occurred during a children’s soccer game.
_ pic.twitter.com/mJw3sOEehi
Israel’s northern border has thus far since Oct.7 not slipped into all-out Israel-Hezbollah war, but this could mark the beginning of a broader conflict. The White House has long urged Israel to keep the fighting ‘limited’ and contained. The fear is that all of Lebanon could be engulfed if the IDF invades.
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Study: Microplastics in the Brain Have Increased by 50% in the Last Eight Years
Levels of microplastics in the human brain have increased by 50% in the last eight years, according to a pioneering new study.
Researchers looked at autopsy samples taken in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2016 and 2024. They compared microplastic levels between different organs—the brain, liver and kidneys—and also compared levels in these organs over time.
The found that the brain samples contained significantly more microplastics than the kidney or liver samples. There noted a significantly larger amount of one plastic in particular, polyethylene, in the brain samples. Polyethylene is used in plastic bags, bottles and other containers.
Even more worryingly, the researchers noted that levels of microplastics increased over time. Concentrations in the brain samples rose by 50% in the last eight years.
The researchers believe the results may be explained by the fact that the liver and kidneys are “front line” organs for the removal of harmful substances from the body, so they are better equipped than the brain to dispose of microplastics.
Plastics are lipophilic—meaning they are attracted to fatty tissues—and the brain has the second highest lipid content of any organ in the body, besides adipose tissue itself, as well as a massive, extensive bloody supply to carry microplastics to it.
More than nine billion tons of plastic are estimated to have been produced between 1950 and 2017, with over half of that total having been produced since 2004. The vast majority of plastic ends up in the environment in one form or another, where it breaks down, through weathering, exposure to UV light and organisms of all kinds, into smaller and smaller pieces—microplastics and their even trickier brethren, nanoplastics. These are “secondary” microplastics, but there’s a whole class of “primary” microplastics which are small by design, like so-called “microbeads” used in cosmetics. Within our homes, microplastics are mainly produced when synthetic fibres from clothes, furnishings and carpets are shed. They accumulate in large quantities in dust and float around in the air, which we then inhale.
Microplastics have become a source of major health concern in recent years as the extent of human and animal exposure to them has become clearer. These minute pieces of plastic, often invisible to the naked eye, have been linked to virtually every major chronic disease of the modern age, from obesity and gut conditions like IBS, to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Microplastics have also been implicated in the worldwide fertility crisis that could see humans unable to reproduce by natural means as early as 2050. According to expert Professor Shanna Swan, by 2050 the median man will have a sperm count of zero, meaning one half of all men will produce no sperm whatsoever, and the other half will produce so few they might as well produce none.
If you want to know more about microplastics, and how you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the, read our longform primer on the subject.
US Tech Company Drops Olympics Ads after Opening Ceremony
A US tech company has pulled all advertising from the Paris Olympics after the opening ceremony featured a parody of the Last Supper involving drag queens, fat-positive influencers and dancers.
Within hours of the opening ceremony, which provoked outrage and derision, Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology company C Spire announced it had cut ties with the games.
“We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics,” the company posted on Twitter.
Company President and CEO Suzy Hays said in a statement: “C Spire is supportive of our athletes who have worked so hard to be a part of the Olympics. However, we will not be a part of the offensive and unacceptable mockery of the Last Supper, which is why we’re pulling our advertising from the Olympics.”
It’s not clear at this point what form the advertising would have taken or how much was paid for it.
C Spire received support from Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves on Twitter.
“I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi step up and put their foot down. God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line.”
The opening ceremony drew a chorus of disgust and anger, with many questioning what on earth it had to do with the sporting competition and others stating it was a sinister, even Satanic, ceremony.
French politician Marion Maréchal, niece of National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, took to Twitter to apologise to “all the Christians of the world” for the blasphemous display.
“To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation.”
Thomas Jolly, the “artistic director” of the ceremony, defended it during a press conference on Saturday morning.
“Our subject was not to be subversive. We never wanted to be subversive. We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together,” Jolly said.
“We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that. In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn’t have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey.”
Mexican Cartel Leaders Captured in Texas
The leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful and feared drug cartels, have been captured in El Paso, Texas.
Ismael Zambada Garcia, cofounder of the cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of its other cofounder, the notorious “El Chapo,” were arrested on Thursday, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The two men had been sought by federal authorities for years for their role in running Sinaloa’s drug-trafficking regime, including the manufacture and sale of fentanyl.
In February, Garcia was indicted in New York on charges relating to the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl. The Department of Justice alleged that he led the Sinaloa cartel between 1989 and 2024, and that he employed a network of hitmen to intimidate and kill his rivals. He was already subject to multiple previous indictments associated with his criminal enterprise, for money laundering, murder conspiracy and various drug-related crimes.
Guzman Lopez was also subject to multiple indictments in the US, along with 32 other members of the Sinaloa cartel.
Rewards of $15 million and $10 million were offered by the State Department for information leading to the arrest of Garcia and Guzman Lopez respectively.
Guzman Lopez’s father, “El Chapo,” is currently serving a life term in the federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado, after being convicted in 2019 on charges relating to drug, firearms, and money laundering.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable,” the DOJ said in response to the arrests.
Trump Vows To Ban WEF Rollout of CBDCs: “They Are a Threat to Our Liberty”
President Donald Trump has vowed to make the WEF’s CBDC system illegal in America if he wins the election this November. In a new speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville Trump made his […]
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