Intel GOP find adversaries likely behind anomalous health incidents

 A report from Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee says they are “convinced” foreign adversaries are behind anomalous health incidents (AHI), faulting the intelligence community for stonewalling their efforts to investigate the mysterious ailments.

It’s an assertion that earned swift pushback from the intelligence community, who contested that conclusion and called accusations regarding their cooperation with Congress “unfounded.”

And Democrats, who participated in the investigation but were uninvolved in drafting the document, described it as sloppy work, saying Republicans “uncovered no new evidence to support the conclusion of adversary involvement or evidence of improper analytic process.”

The interim unclassified 10-page report is the latest in the saga over a series of reports made by State Department and intelligence agents abroad, first reporting symptoms in Havana, Cuba, that range from vertigo to head and ear pressure to nausea and cognitive difficulties.

Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), who led the investigation as chair of the subcommittee overseeing the CIA, said he disagreed with the intelligence community’s assessment that a foreign power is unlikely behind the attacks, saying there are “mountains of evidence that suggest otherwise.”

“I’m convinced that there is a foreign adversary responsible for these. … Now to be clear, it doesn’t mean all these incidents that have been reported are attributable to a foreign adversary. It just means that the evidence supports that in many cases,” Crawford told reporters Thursday.

“This is not speculation on my part. This is me telling you we have collected evidence that I can confidently say we can attribute many of these AHI attacks to foreign adversaries.”

Crawford said he couldn’t disclose many of the details behind their conclusions because they are classified. But the panel is still working on a classified report.

An intelligence report last year found “intelligence consistently points against the involvement of U.S. adversaries” and that there was no credible intelligence that any adversary had the capability to do so.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the panel, said the search for a cause behind the AHIs has been “frustratingly inconclusive” but that he’s never seen the intelligence community do “anything to impede” the GOP investigation.

“However, the Majority CIA Subcommittee’s Interim Report has uncovered no new evidence to support the conclusion of adversary involvement or evidence of improper analytic process,” Himes said.

“What’s more, I have served on the House Intelligence Committee throughout this period and across three Administrations, and I have seen no evidence that the U.S. government was not determined to find the root cause of these incidents and to protect the men and women who go to work around the world every day to safeguard our nation.” 

The GOP likewise faults the intelligence community for its report reaching the conclusion adversaries were not likely behind the attacks, saying the review “lacked analytic integrity and was highly irregular in its formulation.”

“Some of these problems may include a rush to convey a consensus amongst elements of the IC in an effort to control the narrative with the American public, policymakers, foreign partners and adversaries, and IC employees,” the committee report stated, using an acronym for the intelligence community.

The report lays bare the tension between House Republicans on the committee and the various agencies that compose the intelligence community.

Crawford said the panel frequently received highly redacted documents and in some cases had to use subpoena power to secure information.

“It is entirely unacceptable for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to make a request for documents and then be told we’re not cleared to see that document. We oversee those agencies,” he said.

But that was disputed by intelligence agencies, which noted the report points to four dozen interviews as well as 5,000 pages of documents it turned over.

“The IC has devoted significant effort to assessing potential causes of AHIs. Our investigation was among the most comprehensive in our history, bringing to bear the IC’s full operational, analytic, and technical capabilities and those of our partners,” a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement.

“Most IC agencies assess that it is very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for the reported AHIs, and the assertion that we are withholding information that contradicts this analysis or would otherwise illuminate this complex subject is unfounded.”

A CIA official also pushed back against the report.

“Over the last four years we have provided more than two dozen AHI-related briefings and thousands of pages of documents to HPSCI alone,” the official said, referring to the House Intelligence Committee.

“Any suggestion that we are withholding information that would shed new light on this complex and difficult issue could not be further from the truth.”

Various intelligence community assessments have cast doubt on the origins of AHIs, with a 2022 analysis suggesting “pulsed electromagnetic energy” could be a driver, a conclusion that aligned with a 2020 National Academy of Sciences report that determined that microwave “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy” to be the most likely cause.

What is clear is numerous government staffers have reported mysterious ailments, igniting a push within Congress to secure medical care for those affected.

Thursday’s report details that at least 334 people have qualified for AHI care in the Military Health System as of January.

Crawford said it was the medical issues themselves that motivated the investigation.

“This transcends administrations. We’re not looking for scalps. We’re not looking to pin blame. We’re trying to solve problems. I’m not trying to attribute this to individuals within the IC,” he said.

“What I’m trying to do, as I said, first and foremost, is protect our workforce, and in the process of our initial thrust to that goal, what we have found was an immense problem that can’t be ignored.” 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5025484-house-intelligence-report-anomalous-health-incidents/

Texas lieutenant governor launches initiative to ban THC

 Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced new legislation Thursday that would ban the sale of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) throughout the state. 

Senate Bill 3, if passed, will override a 2019 Texas law that permits the commercialization of hemp products with small doses of nonintoxicating Delta 9 THC to promote the state’s agriculture industry.

“Dangerously, retailers exploited the agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of THC to the public and made them easily accessible,” Patrick released in a statement. “These stores not only sold to adults, but they targeted Texas children and exposed them to dangerous levels of THC.”

“Since 2023, thousands of stores selling hazardous THC products have popped up in communities across the state, and many sell products, including beverages, that have three to four times the THC content which might be found in marijuana purchased from a drug dealer,” he added.

Marijuana, which is currently outlawed in the state for recreational use, typically contains 10 percent to 30 percent THC — the chemical ingredient most commonly associated with a buzz. The law does permit usage of low-THC cannabis products if preapproved for medical reasons.

Patrick said he believes standing laws allow for loopholes for retailers to sell more potent products. 

“We are not going to allow these retailers to circumvent the law and put Texans’ lives in danger,” he said in the statement.

“This bill will have broad bipartisan support in the Senate, and I trust the House will also see the danger of these products and pass this bill with overwhelming support so it can become law immediately,” the lieutenant governor added.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also made strides to crack down on THC usage in the Lone Star State by suing the city of Dallas for introducing a ballot measure that would prevent police from arresting or issuing citations for cannabis possession or considering the odor of marijuana as probable cause for search or seizure.

“Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow,” Paxton said in a statement last month. “The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them.”

“This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to constrain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office,” he added.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5024463-texas-dan-patrick-legislation-thc-marijuana-ban/

Biden proposes raising acceptable threshold for common agricultural pesticide

 The Biden administration is proposing to raise a key threshold determining how much of a pesticide that’s commonly used in the agriculture industry the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds concerning in the environment — spurring ire from some environmental advocates. 

The agency currently considers an average of just 3.4 micrograms per liter of the pesticide atrazine to be an acceptable level.

But a proposal released this week raises that level up to 9.7 micrograms — saying nearly three times as much of the substance is OK to be present in the environment. 

Under the draft plan, actions will need to be taken to mitigate potential impacts when levels in the environment exceed the 9.7 microgram level.

Lori Ann Burd, environmental health program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, slammed the proposal. 

“Atrazine is so toxic, even in microscopic amounts, and so extremely persistent, that effective mitigation is just impossible,” Burd said in a written statement. 

“But the EPA keeps bending over backward to accommodate growers who insist on drenching our nation’s food, fiber and fuel with atrazine at the expense of public health and the environment,” she added. 

Atrazine is used on many U.S. crops, including corn and sugarcane. It has been banned in the European Union and several other countries and has been found to disrupt the endocrine system. 

When the EPA previously signaled it would update the safety threshold for atrazine in July, the agency said it did so after examining 11 studies with its independent Scientific Advisory Panel and later reevaluating two additional studies. 

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5027367-biden-administration-proposal-atrazine-levels/

Ex-bodyguard of late UnitedHealthcare CEO calls fatal shooting ‘just baffling’

 A former bodyguard of the late UnitedHealthcare CEO was dumbfounded by the lack of security for Brian Thompson after he was killed in a fatal shooting, sparking a manhunt in New York City.

“It was baffling, to be honest with you. You know, you get at somebody in the No. 1 health care organization in the United States of America, who is a corporate executive, a high-ranking one, as a matter of fact, just sitting on the board of directors, and he has no protection around him, that is just baffling,” Philip Klein said during his Thursday night appearance on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live.” 

“I don’t understand it. We still don’t understand it,” he added. 

Thompson was killed right before 7 a.m. local time Wednesday outside of New York Hilton Midtown, where he was supposed to speak with investors at an annual meeting. 

The health care executive was shot in the right calf and in the back, New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. He was declared dead 30 minutes later in what law enforcement called a “targeted” shooting. 

Police are still looking for the suspect who is on the run as the manhunt reached its third day. The gunman’s photos have been released since the homicide took place. Police are testing for fingerprints and collected DNA on a protein bar wrapper and bottle found near the shooting site. 

Police believe the suspect left New York City on a bus.

Klein, who is the CEO of Klein Investigations, told CNN host Laura Coates that there could be two reasons why Thompson did not have security detail around him. 

“One, it could have been a personal choice. He may have not liked living in the bubble,” Klein said Thursday, adding that instead UnitedHealthcare may have chosen to not provide security for Thompson.

The longtime investigator stressed that he does not know the answer, but that the circumstances are “highly unusual.” 

“It is highly unusual for the CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation not to have people around him. It’s just — again, it’s baffling,” he said.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5027323-ex-bodyguard-of-late-unitedhealthcare-ceo-calls-fatal-shooting-just-baffling/

GOP senators inquiry into unpublished NIH study on puberty blockers for trans youth

 Six Republican senators in a letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli said they are “concerned about the transparency” of studies funded by the NIH, the federal agency responsible for conducting and supporting medical research.

Their public statement of concern follows an October New York Times report that a long-awaited study of puberty-blocking drugs had gone unpublished over fears that its findings would be “weaponized” by opponents of transition-related care for minors. 

The letter is signed by GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Ted Cruz (Texas), James Lankford (Okla.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) and Mike Lee (Utah).

The long-awaited study, led by Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, began in 2015 as part of a broader, multimillion-dollar effort to evaluate the long-term outcomes of medical treatment for transgender children and adolescents.  

Olson-Kennedy and her colleagues were tasked by the NIH with studying the effects of puberty blockers, which prevent physical changes, like the development of breasts or a deepening voice, on children in early puberty struggling with gender dysphoria, or distress that stems from a mismatch between a person’s gender identity and sex at birth.  

Nine years later, the data remains unpublished. In October, Olson-Kennedy told The New York Times that puberty blockers did not necessarily yield mental health improvements, which she said was likely because the children recruited for the study were already doing well when it began. 

Olson-Kennedy said she fears the conclusion will be distorted by those who oppose gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for transgender young people, a deeply polarizing and increasingly politically charged area of medicine.  

More than half the nation since 2021 has either heavily restricted or banned some transgender care for minors — and adults, in some cases. This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a landmark challenge to a Tennessee law prohibiting gender-affirming care for youth, drawing more than 1,000 demonstrators outside the court. 

“I do not want our work to be weaponized,” Olson-Kennedy said in October. “It has to be exactly on point, clear and concise. And that takes time.” 

In Thursday’s letter, Republican senators accused Olson-Kennedy of holding the study’s findings because they likely “do not support her political agenda.” They referenced an independent review in the U.K., known as the Cass Review, that found only “weak” evidence linking puberty blockers to improved mental health outcomes. 

The Cass Review’s findings, which led the British government to ban the use of puberty blockers for minors outside of clinical trials, are themselves controversial, and health experts and physicians who treat trans youth have spent much of the last eight months since the report’s publication debating whether it is accurate. 

One assessment, by Yale Law School’s Integrity Project, claims the Cass Review “obscures key findings, misrepresents its own data, and is rife with misapplications of the scientific method.” 

Other peer-reviewed studies in the U.S. have found that puberty blockers are associated with positive mental health outcomes in transgender youth, including reduced depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. 

Senators on Thursday requested Bertagnolli produce each annual progress report for Olson-Kennedy’s study, writing that doing so would “ensure transparency in medical research.”  

With the exception of Cassidy, each of the senators who signed the letter to the NIH has either introduced or co-sponsored federal legislation to ban gender-affirming care for minors. 

Cassidy, ranking member of the Senate Health Committee, is still a skeptic of transition-related care, and earlier this year he launched an investigation into medical organizations “promoting” the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors. 

Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, say gender-affirming health care for transgender adults and minors is medically necessary and can be lifesaving. They reject efforts by state and federal governments to restrict care. 

Republicans in Thursday’s letter conceded that the U.S. lacks federally funded research on trans health care “that could better inform doctors and parents” but stopped short of endorsing any further study. 

“To be clear, we oppose taxpayer funding going toward gender transition interventions for minors. While we recognize that this particular study is observational, we remain concerned that minors lack the ability to fully understand the lifelong outcomes of the interventions studied in this project and provide their consent,” the senators wrote. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, has similarly opposed gender-affirming care for minors, which health care experts say could threaten federal funding for future studies into the effects of treatment. 

https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/5027047-nih-study-puberty-blockers-letter/

NYPD Finds Backpack Matching Description Carried by CEO’s Killer

 

The New York Police Department found a gray backpack matching the description of one carried by the killer of health insurance executive Brian Thompson, according to people familiar with the matter.

The backpack was found in Central Park, the people said, declining to be identified as the information wasn’t public yet. After the killing on Wednesday, the suspect rode a bicycle through Central Park and exited at 77th Street with the bike, Joseph Kenny, the chief of NYPD detectives, said in an interview earlier.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-06/nypd-finds-backpack-matching-description-carried-by-ceo-s-killer

Data Centers Are Sending Global Electricity Demand Soaring

 by Felicity Bradstock via OilPrice.com,

• The rapid growth of data centers to support AI is significantly increasing global electricity demand.

• This surge in demand threatens to outpace the development of renewable energy sources.

• International regulations are needed to ensure tech companies use clean energy and minimize their impact on climate goals.

The global electricity demand is expected to grow exponentially in the coming decades, largely due to an increased demand from tech companies for new data centers to support the rollout of high-energy-consuming advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). As governments worldwide introduce new climate policies and pump billions into alternative energy sources and clean tech, these efforts may be quashed by the increased electricity demand from data centers unless greater international regulatory action is taken to ensure that tech companies invest in clean energy sources and do not use fossil fuels for power.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report in October entitled “What the data centre and AI boom could mean for the energy sector”. It showed that with investment in new data centers surging over the past two years, particularly in the U.S., the electricity demand is increasing rapidly – a trend that is set to continue. 

The report states that in the U.S., annual investment in data center construction has doubled in the past two years alone. China and the European Union are also seeing investment in data centers increase rapidly. In 2023, the overall capital investment by tech leaders Google, Microsoft, and Amazon was greater than that of the U.S. oil and gas industry, at approximately 0.5 percent of the U.S. GDP.

The tech sector expects to deploy AI technologies more widely in the coming decades as the technology is improved and becomes more ingrained in everyday life. This is just one of several advanced technologies expected to contribute to the rise in demand for power worldwide in the coming decades. 

Global aggregate electricity demand is set to increase by 6,750 terawatt-hours (TWh) by 2030, per the IEA’s Stated Policies Scenario. This is spurred by several factors including digitalization, economic growth, electric vehicles, air conditioners, and the rising importance of electricity-intensive manufacturing. In large economies such as the U.S., China, and the EU, data centers contribute around 2 to 4 percent of total electricity consumption at present. However, the sector has already surpassed 10 percent of electricity consumption in at least five U.S. states. Meanwhile, in Ireland, it contributes more than 20 percent of all electricity consumption.

While the speed and manner in which AI use will grow remains uncertain, and efficiency improvements are expected to be made, electricity demand from data centers, cryptocurrencies, and AI could reach as much as 1,000 Terawatt Hours (TWh) in 2026 – roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of Japan – compared to 460TWh today, the IEA predicts.

The organization calls for more public-private dialogue, with policymakers, the tech sector, and the energy industry coming together for discussions to manage both expectations and energy use. Greater international regulation of the tech sector is required to ensure that the growing electricity demand for data centers does not outweigh the green transition achievements currently being seen worldwide. 

There are growing fears that, if left unregulated, the electricity consumption of data centers could surpass the electricity demand of some U.S. cities or even states. Many data center developers are concerned about finding enough land to house new sites and enough clean power to run them. The facilities could increasingly require 1 GW of power or more, which is equivalent to around twice the 2023 residential electricity consumption of Pittsburgh. 

The president of Lancium, a company that secures land and power for data centers in Texas, Ali Fenn, explained that U.S. tech companies are in the “race of a lifetime to global dominance”. Fenn said, “They’re going to keep spending” because there’s no more profitable place to deploy capital. 

At the rate the advanced technologies are expanding, renewable energy sources will not be sufficient to meet the growing demands of the tech industry. Many tech companies are expected to use natural gas to power operations, particularly in the U.S. where the gas sector is set to continue expanding rapidly. 

Currently, many tech companies operate data centers with a capacity of around 40 MW. However, in the coming years, more firms are expected to invest in campuses of 250 MW or more. As a growing number of campuses of 500 MW or more emerge in the 2030s and 2040s, which is equivalent to the power needed for 350,000 homes, this could lead to a surge in demand for gas-generated electricity, following years of national investment in a green transition.  

While the U.S. is expected to see the greatest data center expansion in the coming decades, Europe's data center power consumption is expected to nearly triple by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, China has invested over $6.12 billion in a national project to develop data centers in recent years, according to a senior government official. 

A joined-up approach to regulating the energy usage of data centers is required to prevent the anticipated rise in electricity demand from challenging the progress of the global green transition. Governments worldwide must establish clear regulations and limits on the energy use of tech companies for advanced technologies, such as AI, if they hope to meet Paris Agreement climate pledges. This may include requiring tech companies to fulfill their energy needs through clean energy sources, such as renewables and nuclear power, as well as slowing the pace of deployment of these technologies.  

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/data-centers-are-sending-global-electricity-demand-soaring