The Increasing Prevalence of Autism
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of autism among U.S. children has risen significantly in recent years.
As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, while 6.7 in 1,000 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 2000, that number had risen to 27.6 in 1,000 children by 2020.
This means that currently 1 in 36 children in the U.S. get diagnosed with ASD, up from 1 in 150 children 20 years ago.
The reasons for this increase in prevalence are not fully understood and likely complex.
Some possible factors that have been proposed include better awareness and screening for autism, changes in diagnostic criteria and environmental or genetic factors.
…ask RFK Jr what he thinks!
RFK Jr. on Joe Rogan’s podcast discussing aluminum in vaccines, other toxins, etc. and the link to autism.#Kennedy, #JRE, #1999 pic.twitter.com/L0XJzR5UYl
— OK To Question (@OkToQuestion) June 19, 2023
Regardless of the reasons, this rise in the number of children with autism highlights the importance of early identification and intervention to help children with ASD reach their full potential.
In recent years, major progress has been made in increasing awareness and acceptance of autism. Thanks to that progress, many people are now aware that autism spectrum disorders are a very diverse group of conditions, that go far beyond the often-stereotypical depictions of autism in film and television. According to the World Health Organization, autism spectrum disorders are “characterized by some degree of difficulty with social interaction and communication. Other characteristics are atypical patterns of activities and behaviours, such as difficulty with transition from one activity to another, a focus on details and unusual reactions to sensations.”
This year’s World Autism Awareness Day, celebrated today, April 2, gives autistic people from all around the world the chance to share their perspective on how different societies are dealing with autism spectrum disorder. “Moving from Surviving to Thriving: Autistic individuals share regional perspectives” is the motto of this year’s observance, organized by the United Nations Department of Global Communications in collaboration with the Institute of Neurodiversity (ION), an organization established and run by neurodivergent people for neurodivergent people and allies.
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Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee Says ‘The Time For Facial Recognition Technology Has Come’
Ireland’s government is using every opportunity to charge ahead with promoting facial recognition tech, despite civil liberties groups expressing serious concerns and asking some hard questions about the policy.
But the current Irish authorities don’t seem to be missing a beat making, however tenuous or even distasteful, links to push that policy.
Thanks to those in power there, Ireland’s long-lasting troubles keep casting ever longer shadows, some with brand-new, current overtones.
Namely, there is now controversy in the country, or at least among its most prominent media and politicians, over Irish Republican Army (IRA) member Pearse McAuley being laid to rest with his coffin draped in the nation’s flag, despite the fact he was found guilty of killing a police officer.
Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee saw this situation as a good opportunity to try to promote the agenda of using even more facial recognition. What better time to say this is needed to “investigate attacks against gardai” – McEntee no doubt thought.
The McAuley funeral “controversy” sort of spiraled out of control, at least as far as the “political panic” and messaging is concerned, reaching, figuratively and literally, some far-off places.
It went everywhere from Mcentee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris attending an event and making comments ranging from condemning the funeral arrangements for the former IRA to advocating for the police force to grow beyond what has been envisaged so far, to citing an extradition cooperation with the United Arab Emirates – to, more facial recognition.
The “tie” that binds together all these policy talking points heaped into one place seems to be – this is as good a chance as any to promote something otherwise very controversial.
“McEntee announced that the use of facial recognition technology (FRT) in investigating crimes was being expanded to include attacks against Garda members,” the Irish press said.
This, even though the Irish police clearly had no problem identifying McAuley as killing an officer – even though there was no mention that facial recognition played any role in this process back 20+ years ago.
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Heart Scarring Detected More Than a Year After Covid-19 Vaccination in Some Patients
When some people started experiencing myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after receiving COVID-19 vaccines, public health authorities and the media downplayed the severity of the problem and insisted that the protection offered by the vaccines was worth the risk. However, it is now emerging than the problem is more serious than vaccine supporters initially claimed.
A new study by Australian researchers revealed that one third of patients who suffered from myocarditis after getting a COVID-19 vaccine still had heart scarring more than a year later. This is according to cardiac imaging that showed persistent late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), which is typically an indicator of heart scarring.
In the study, the median time between the day the person received the vaccine and when they underwent follow-up imaging was 548 days; the longest interval among those studied was 603 days.
The researchers wrote: “We found that the incidence of persistent myocardial fibrosis is high, seen in almost a third of patients at >12 months post diagnosis, which could have implications for the management and prognosis of this predominantly young cohort.”
They cautioned that we do not yet know what the long-term clinical implications of this are. However, given the fact that LGE tends to indicate a worse prognosis in myocarditis that is not connected to COVID-19 vaccines, particularly when it persists longer than six months, there is plenty of reason to be concerned.
Most of the patients in the study had received the Pfizer vaccine, while some received jabs from Moderna or AstraZeneca.
According to the British Heart Foundation, heart scarring caused by myocarditis means the heart needs to work harder to pump blood and oxygen throughout the body, which can cause the heart muscle to grow bigger and weaker over time. If enough scar tissue forms there, it can cause congestive heart failure or dilated cardiomyopathy, the Texas Heart Institute notes.
Another recent study, this one out of Canada, found that half of the patients with post-vaccination myocarditis still had persistent LGE during follow up imaging. They noted that this “likely reflects replacement fibrosis”, or heart scarring. They also cited papers showing that patients who have persistent LGE tend to have a greater risk of negative outcomes.
Even mild myocarditis can cause fatal arrythmias
Myocarditis emerged soon after vaccine rollouts as one of the more immediately visible side effects of the jab, largely affecting teens and young adult males within the first week after getting an mRNA vaccine. Interestingly, most of the cases occurred in young men following their second dose of the vaccine. Doctors aren’t sure why it mostly affects men, but they believe that testosterone may play a role in vaccine-induced myocarditis. It is treatable in some cases, but there are multiple forms of myocarditis, and each has its own prognosis. Some people may have to limit their activities and take medication for the rest of their lives.
Research from Japan shows that even mild cases of myocarditis can lead to fatal arrythmias. A group of doctors, scientists and academic experts known as the Health Advisory and Recovery Team (HART) published an advisory about the study, noting: “The possibility that inflammation affecting just the conductive system might result in fatal arrhythmia is a concern we have previously raised in relation to the mRNA products.”
The group added that this type of vaccine damage cannot be detected in a standard autopsy and may have been missed in the post-mortems of some people who died suddenly following vaccination.
Last year, a 28-year-old Dominican basketball player whose career was damaged by vaccine-induced myocarditis died of a heart attack while undergoing a stress test at a health center.
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Somali Migrant Accused of Strangling Pregnant Girlfriend Because His Mother Wouldn’t Accept White, Non-Muslim Partner
A Somali migrant is due to stand trial in Sweden next week for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend he is suspected of strangling to death to hide from his family the fact he was in a relationship with a non-Muslim, non-Somali woman.
Mohamedamin Abdirisek Ibrahim, 21, was arrested in Örebro on May 2 last year after his girlfriend, 20-year-old Saga, was found dead in her apartment. She had died from asphyxiation and had been seven months pregnant with Ibrahim’s child.
“I believe the murder took place in the context of an honor killing because the man wanted to preserve or restore his honor and that of his family by killing the woman who was carrying his child,” said public prosecutor Elisabeth Anderson in a statement to journalists shortly after the arrest.
The suspect has been in pre-trial detention for 11 months while police officers conducted their investigations into the murder.
An examination of text messages on Ibrahim’s phone revealed the disgust his Somali mother, also living in Sweden, had toward the notion her son was in a relationship with a White woman.
“Take the bus or stay with your loved one. Don’t come home. I am no longer your mother. I am Muslim and Somali,” one message from his mother read after her car often used by Ibrahim was spotted outside Saga’s address.
“I am also Muslim and Somali, and I do not go home to a white person,” Ibrahim replied, denying the relationship with Saga, a Swedish woman of Thai origin.
In another row over the relationship, the suspect vowed to return to Somalia with his mother to make amends for upsetting her. “Whatever you decide, I follow, mom,” he wrote.
Following the indictment, Anderson said it was the prosecution’s case that the murder was an honor killing to save Ibrahim the ignominy of revealing the truth about Saga’s pregnancy to his family.
“He has tried to keep the relationship a secret. The suspect’s family did not accept that he was with a White girl and believed he had been exposed to strong emotional influence,” the prosecutor told Swedish media.
Further communications found between the suspect and his victim on the night before the murder revealed how Ibrahim had agreed to tell his family about the relationship.
“Feels like I can almost feel my heartbeat all the way down to my stomach walla,” he sent to Saga.
“Just take it easy, they’ll be fine babe,” she replied.
However, over the course of the evening, it is the prosecution’s case that the suspect changed his mind and visited his girlfriend’s apartment before strangling her to death.
In a composed message that was never sent, Ibrahim wrote, “Forgive me, I really feel sick from all this, sorry, but I can’t handle this, I can be there and help if something is needed, but I can’t tell my family.”
The suspect has denied the murder, and his mother told police officers she would have no issue with the ethnicity of her son’s girlfriend or future child.
Elisabeth Fritz, a lawyer for the relatives of the deceased, vowed to “work hard for a conviction, a life sentence, and compensation” for the “cruel murder.”
The trial begins on April 10.
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Cyprus Grapples With Record Number of Migrants
The government of Cyprus convened a special emergency meeting—involving the ministers of the interior, foreign affairs, justice and public order, defense, and other high-ranking officials—at the presidential palace on Tuesday to discuss migration. Speaking to reporters, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis described the meeting’s “exclusive topic” as “the discussion of the immigration flows of the last days.”
Like many other Mediterranean islands, Cyprus is hard hit by wave after wave of migrants. Since Sunday afternoon, 476 have arrived on Cypriot shores in ten boats, setting a new record.
Following a meeting with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Tuesday, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides called the higher influx of migrants of recent weeks “deeply concerning,” adding that while he fully understands the challenges Lebanon—where most of the migrant boats originate—is facing, “exporting migrants to Cyprus should not be the answer and cannot be accepted. To that end, the EU should also stand by Cyprus in tangible ways.”
Metsola sought to assure Christodoulides, saying that the EU had prepared a “big unprecedented legislative package that will hopefully go through the European Parliament.” With it, she added, they would “be able to answer both in the short and medium term, but also hopefully in the longer term, the individual national challenges that countries such as yours are facing with regards to migration.”
On March 22nd, EU commissioner Margaritis Schinas suggested that the EU could strike a deal with Lebanon to bring a halt to the flow of migrants, but added that this would require considerable preparation. A similar deal with Egypt has yet to prove its worth.
Nicosia is not waiting for Brussels to step up its efforts, however, as it is “already in contact with Lebanon,” according to Letymbiotis.
“New contacts will be made with the authorities of the country so that they can also stop these high migration flows that have been observed in the last few days,” he added.
With a population of just over one million, Cyprus is one of the smallest EU member states, with the current highest migrants-to-indigenous-population ratio.
According to Eurostat, within the EU, the island also has the highest proportion of asylum applications relative to its population.
The government representative told the Cyprus Times that, in recent months, Cyprus had “succeeded in reversing the migration data with deportations for the first time outnumbering arrivals” and that they wanted “to maintain this.”
However, he said, the situation in Lebanon “is difficult” and something the Cypriot government should be prepared for.
Lebanon, which is in a deep economic crisis, hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, which has been mired in a civil war since 2011. Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7th has pushed the entire region into even greater instability.
While vague on specifics, the spokesman added that “various measures” had been discussed, hinting at “various actions that the Republic of Cyprus can take, but also in cooperation with the EU and European partners.”
When asked whether Cyprus’ infrastructure is adequate for receiving such migrant flows, the spokesman admitted: “at the rate at which the flows are increasing in recent days we are at the limit and this is something we have communicated repeatedly.”
“A country like the Republic of Cyprus,” he continued, “cannot continue at this rate and it is for this reason that it was considered crucial to convene [the security meeting] … and, if necessary, to reconvene.”
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Nationally Funded Database Classifies Students For Life as a ‘Terrorist Group’
(LifeSiteNews) — A government-funded “radicalization” database has labeled Students for Life of America (SFLA) a “terrorist” group, prompting criticism from terrorism experts.
The College Fix reported on Monday that SFLA “appears under a ‘Terrorist Group’ label in the raw dataset” of the University of Maryland’s “Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States” (PIRUS).
The project, which is an initiative of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), tracks “ideologically motivated criminal activity” as well as “violent extremist groups,” which it defines as being led or founded by an individual who has been “indicted for an ideologically motivated violent offense.”
The PIRUS database lists two individuals associated with SFLA who match the description of student members who were arrested in 2020 for attempting to chalk “black pre-born lives matter” on a sidewalk outside of a Planned Parenthood center. The pro-lifers were arrested despite being told verbally by police that they would not be prevented from painting and having been instructed to use tempura paint.
Meanwhile, the city permitted its streets to be widely vandalized in permanent paint with Black Lives Matter messages just before the pro-lifers’ arrests.
National security expert Elizabeth Neumann, who joined the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2017, denounced START’s labeling of SFLA as a “terrorist” group in a conversation with the Fix.
“They made an error and they should correct it,” Neumann told the media outlet in a phone interview, adding that “vandalism” by college students would not be of concern to the DHS.
Neumann “tracked terrorist threats” as a member of President George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Council before developing “protocols for reporting suspicious activity” for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She went on to serve as the assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention for the DHS from 2018 to 2020.
In 2020, Neumann resigned from the Trump administration, claiming that the president’s words and actions were “racist” and fanning the flames of “white supremacy.”
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo also slammed START’s categorization of SFLA as a terrorist group in an email to the Fix.
“Researchers of course can create and apply any definition of ‘terrorism’ that they like. But if they want to be taken seriously, they should use something like the U.S. government’s definition,” said Yoo, a University of California-Berkeley law professor.
He pointed out that the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism is “violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences.”
“It seems obvious that writing messages in chalk on the sidewalk does not come close to fitting this definition,” Yoo wrote. “If so, we have many more terrorists roaming the streets of Berkeley than are known to the FBI.”
The University of Maryland has not responded to the Fix’s questions about the PIRUS data, which were sent to three different offices. The Fix asked why PIRUS has logged peaceful pro-life students cleared of charges but not crimes committed by Black Lives Matter supporters that same year.
The PIRUS database shows an overwhelming bias against “right wing” groups, with an under-reporting of crimes by those associated with left-wing movements. For example, 1,700 “far right” radical offenders are logged by PRIUS while only 537 “far left” offenders have been recorded.
An example of PIRUS’s remarkable bias — and data gaps — is its tracking of “anti-abortion” and “anti-LGBTQ” “radicals,” but not pro-abortion or pro-LGBTQ criminals, despite the fact that the U.S. has just seen an epidemic of criminal and violent activity motivated by leftist, and particularly pro-abortion, ideology.
For example, the report “Demonstrations & Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020 indicates that 88 percent of the 633 incidents classified as riots involve Black Lives Matter activists. This number rises to 95 percent for riots in which the perpetrators’ affiliation can be identified. Yet, the PIRUS database conspicuously lacks mention of BLM-affiliated violence and illegal activity.
A wave of pro-abortion violence also swept the country in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, prompting the FBI to open “nearly 10 times as many investigations into cases of abortion-related domestic terrorism as it had in 2021,” according to The Intercept.
START is now working to expand the PIRUS database with new funding from the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, the Biden DOJ’s markedly disproportionate prosecution of pro-life activists, versus pro-abortion and leftwing activists, seems to quell any hope that PIRUS will remedy its bias against conservatives.
World War III: The Big Advancement Of Potential Nuclear War That The MSM Won’t Talk About