"Absurd Conspiracy": French Media Rushes To Quash Claims Macron, Merz, Starmer Hid Cocaine On Train

 French media are on the defensive after journalists unexpectedly entered a train carriage carrying French President Emmanuel Macron, along with the German and British Prime Ministers, en route to Kyiv on Friday, which sparked a firestorm on social media with allegations of cocaine use by the top leaders.

"They [social media users] cite videos that allegedly show Emmanuel Macron discreetly hiding a strange white bag on the table," the French daily newspaper Libération said, adding, "And according to these accounts, Friedrich Merz even had a straw to use to take drugs. These conspiracy accusations fit with the narrative that Western elites are depraved and approach war unconsciously." 

When reporters entered the room, Macron was meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a train ride from Poland to Ukraine. 

The video.

Libération rushed to the defense of Macron and the Western leaders:

Several internet users, sharing posts favorable to Vladimir Putin, have claimed that the three men had used cocaine together. "Coke will decide World War III," one of them feigned concern.

Libération even suggested:

High-quality photographs and videos, such as those taken by the AFP or AP news agencies , show that the mysterious bag of white powder is actually a handkerchief rolled into a ball that was placed on the table before Keir Starmer arrived and the cameras entered the booth, where Macron and Merz were already seated. The straw looks more like a stirrer or a toothpick, which the German chancellor is said to have been fiddling with. This explains why the two leaders do not want these objects immortalized in the images of the meeting.

Maybe Libération's defense of Macron and the other Western leaders is accurate — perhaps it really was just a 'handkerchief' and a 'toothpick.' But the real red flag is the leaders' abrupt and suspicious behavior as they scrambled to cover up whatever was on the table when journalists unexpectedly entered the train carriage. 

Cocaine allegations come as no surprise, considering the leaders were inbound to visit this guy... 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/absurd-conspiracy-french-media-rushes-quash-claims-macron-merz-starmer-caught-hiding

Souter’s shame

 

By George W. Shuster

A word of perspective needs to be added to the fawning chorus that has arisen upon the recent death of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Souter.

Souter’s legacy was severely compromised by his embrace of the outrageous Kelo decision of 2005.

Up until that time, it had been understood that the protections of the Fifth Amendment’s “takings clause” meant that a U.S. citizen’s property could only be seized by the government for a public purpose, such as a road or canal.

In Kelo, Souter joined the four other most liberal justices to hold that the homes of over seventy residents of New London, Connecticut, could be taken from them in order to give the land to a more-favored private party, in this case, the Pharma-Giant Pfizer.

Image by Matthew Hutchins of the Harvard Law Review. CC BY 2.0.

Souter did so over the vigorous dissent of the four most conservative justices on the Court. In addition to its violation of what had always been the essence of the “takings clause,” the Kelo majority decision was one of the most poorly reasoned decisions ever rendered by the Court.

The liberals gave two basic “reasons” for their 5-4 decision. They said it was justified because the government officials had written a report concluding that the seizures would be a good thing. As Justice O’Connor pointed out in dissent, however, such a report could always be written, even by a reasonably intelligent middle-school student.

The second “reason” was that supposedly no one knew who the private party beneficiary was going to be. Not only was that claim a bald-faced lie, but it was irrelevant even if true. If a thief broke into your home to steal your possessions, which would be better: a robber with a ski mask or one you could identify?

The Kelo decision was so outrageous that many states responded by passing laws and even state constitutional amendments clarifying that, whatever the five liberals may have declared acceptable in the Land of the Free, the state in question would never engage in such an outrage.

Sadly, in the end, Pfizer did not even use the property. The place where all the houses were razed at taxpayer expense was, for almost 20 years, an empty weed-strewn field, with a small plaque commemorating the bravery of Mrs. Kelo and her neighbors in resisting this governmental abuse of power.*

__________________

* In May 2022, there were reports that a private developer was building high-density apartments on the site.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/05/souter_s_shame.html

Talk therapy on the rise, psychiatric meds used less often

 More talk and fewer pills are being employed to help Americans maintain their mental health, a new study says.

Psychotherapy is assuming a larger role in mental health care, while medications prescribed without accompanying therapy are becoming less common, according to results published in early May in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

"After years of American mental health care moving towards greater use of psychiatric medications, the pendulum has started swinging back towards psychotherapy," lead researcher Dr. Mark Olfson said in a news release. He's a professor of epidemiology and psychiatry at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Of Americans relying on outpatient mental health care, the percentage relying on psychotherapy alone rose to 15% in 2021 from less than 12% in 2018, researchers found.

At the same time, those relying on medication alone to help their mental health dropped from 68% to 62%, results show. These drugs included antidepressants, antipsychotics and ADHD meds.

However, the percentage of patients receiving psychotherapy from psychiatrists declined from 41% to 34%, researchers said.

"Psychiatrists provided psychotherapy to a decreasing percentage of all psychotherapy patients, which may have increased the need for psychiatrists to refer patients to and collaborate with non-physician psychotherapists," Olfson said.

"At the same time, social workers and counselors, but not psychologists, assumed a larger role in providing psychotherapy and there was an increase in the average number psychotherapy visits per patient," he continued.

People also seemed more willing to stick with talk therapy, with more than 17% in 2021 saying they went to more than 20 sessions compared to less than 14% in 2018.

At the same time, the number of people who stopped therapy after one or two sessions declined from 34% in 2018 to 28% in 2021.

"Americans are becoming more willing to seek out and stick with psychotherapy," Olfson said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from four surveys of Americans, focusing on nearly 18,000 people who participated in mental health care visits.

More information: Mark Olfson et al, Psychotherapy Trends in the United States, American Journal of Psychiatry (2025). DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20240492

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-therapy-psychiatric-meds.html

'High Prevalence of Undiagnosed Liver Fibrosis in General Population'

 A significant number of people had asymptomatic liver disease, according to a large-scale European study.

The LIVERSCREENopens in a new tab or window study is assessing a feasible, non-invasive screening strategy for liver fibrosis detection in the general population, using serological tests and vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE).

In the study population of more than 30,000 people without known liver disease, the proportion of persons with a liver stiffness measurement (LSM) of ≥8 kilospascals (kPa) -- a cut-off suggesting clinically relevant liver fibrosis -- was 4.6%, reported Isabel Graupera, MD, PhD, of the Universidad de Barcelona in Spain.

At the cut-offs of ≥10kPa and ≥15kPa, the percentages were 2.5% and 0.8%, respectively, she stated in a presentation at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) opens in a new tab or windowannual meeting in Amsterdam.

Regarding specific metabolic risk factors, 10% of people with obesity (BMI ≥30) and 14.4% of those with type 2 diabetes (T2D) had LSM ≥8 kPa. In addition, 8.1% of individuals with current high-risk alcohol use (≥14 standard drink units weekly for women and 21 for men) had LSM ≥8 kPa. The prevalence of LSM ≥8 kPa increased with the number of risk factors, and hazardous alcohol consumption increased these percentages even more:

• One 2.2%; 7%
• Two: 5%; 9.7%
• Three: 9.6%; 15.5%
• Four: 20.5%; 36.1%

"In this large-scale European cohort, we found a high prevalence of undiagnosed liver fibrosis mainly related to steatotic liver disease driven by metabolic risk factors and/or high-risk alcohol consumption," Graupera said. "Efforts should be made to identify liver fibrosis early to apply specific therapies that could reverse liver fibrosis."

"Most patients with chronic liver disease [CLD] are diagnosed in advanced stage when they have already presented complications of cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma," explained Graupera. "Early detection -- before cirrhosis develops -- is critical, as fibrosis and liver damage is reversible with timely personalized intervention."

However, she pointed out that studies indicate that undiagnosed liver fibrosis is quite common, but that these have mainly been small, single-country studies.

"Therefore, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of undiagnosed liver fibrosis using VCTE in a prospective...multi-national...cohort, and determine the association between liver fibrosis and metabolic risk factors and alcohol consumption," she said.

LIVERSCREEN included 30,541 persons from Spain, Denmark, Italy, Slovakia, Croatia, U.K., France, Netherlands, and Germany. Most participants were women (57%) and white (89%), with a mean age of 58. Overweight was present in 40% and obesity was seen in 26%, while 35% had arterial hypertension, 10% had T2D, and 53% dyslipidemia.

Regarding alcohol use, 40% were never or former drinkers, while the remaining were current consumers of alcohol, including 7% who were high-risk alcohol consumers.

Among all participants, 8% were referred for further evaluation based on meeting at least one criteria for referral, including LSM ≥8 kPa, and increasing values of alanine transaminase (ALT) and gamma-glutamyl transferase.

The diagnostic criteria to establish the presence of significant CLD was a liver biopsy indicating fibrosis stage ≥F1. If no biopsy was conducted, a person had to have radiological signs of CLD on abdominal ultrasound and/or LSM ≥10 kPa.

The authors reported that 32% of those referred for evaluation were diagnosed with CLD with liver fibrosis, representing 1.5% of the overall study population.

Tw0-thirds of the individuals diagnosed with CLD had both increased liver stiffness and ALT levels -- percentages that fell to 39% when individuals only had increased liver stiffness, and 13% when they only had increased ALT levels.

The main cause of CLD was steatotic liver disease, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (71%), metabolic dysfunction-associated alcohol-associated liver disease (14%), and alcohol-associated liver disease (5%).

In a 2024 press releaseopens in a new tab or window, LIVERSCREEN project coordinator Pere Ginès, MD, PhD, also of Universidad de Barcelona, stated that "our development and validation of the LiverRisk score represent a major breakthrough, offering both diagnostic accuracy and prognostic value in predicting long-term liver-related outcomes." Ultimately, the goal is to implement liver screening and the LiverRisk score into clinical settings, according to the release.

Disclosures

LIVERSCREEN is supported be EASL, Horizon-2020, and Horizon-Europe.

Graupera disclosed relationships with Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Primary Source

European Association for the Study of the Liver

Source Reference: opens in a new tab or windowGraupera I, et al "High prevalence of undiagnosed liver fibrosis in the adult European population driven by metabolic risk factors and alcohol consumption: Results from the prospective LIVERSCREEN cohort in 30,541 participants" EASL 2025; Abstract LB2553.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/easl/115532

Newark to limit flights after air traffic control outages

 Newark Liberty International Airport was mired in chaos again Sunday after another air traffic control equipment outage briefly grounded flights.

The incident at the New York City-area airport, one of America’s busiest, marked the third air traffic problem there in just two weeks, including an outage on Friday that left workers unable to talk to planes arriving and departing for 90 seconds.

Speaking to NBC Sunday, the US Transportation secretary said the “glitch” would soon be fixed, but added that Newark will see “reduced capacity” as a result.

Airline bosses have previously voiced concerns about Newark: United Airlines’ CEO last week told employees that the Federal Aviation Administration regularly approves more flights per hour than the airport can handle.

https://www.semafor.com/article/05/11/2025/newark-to-limit-flights-after-outages

UK Proposes Tightening Visa Rules to Reduce Legal Migration

 

The British government seeks to tighten visa requirements to curb the number of workers arriving through legal routes, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer attempts to address dissatisfaction over immigration that has led to growing support for the populist Reform UK party.

The measures — outlined in the Immigration White Paper that will be released Monday — propose new graduate level requirements for skilled visa applicants and limits on lower-skilled visas. Changes to deportation and removal rules will also be announced Monday to make it easier to remove foreign criminals committing crimes in the UK.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-10/uk-proposes-tightening-visa-rules-to-reduce-legal-migration

Hamas says it will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander

 Hamas claimed on Sunday that it would release American hostage Edan Alexander.

Alexander, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, has been held captive in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. 

"As part of the efforts made by the brotherly mediators to achieve a ceasefire, Hamas has been in contact with the U.S. administration in recent days," a statement, translated into English from Arabic, from the terror organization said.

"The movement has shown a high level of positivity, and the Israeli soldier with dual American citizenship, [Edan] Alexander, will be released as part of the steps being taken toward a ceasefire, the opening of border crossings, and the entry of aid and relief for our people in the Gaza Strip," the statement continued.

Edan Alexander, born in Tel Aviv and raised in New Jersey, is currently being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.  (Hostage Family Forum)

It's unclear when Alexander could be released.

Fox News learned that the United States had informed Israel of Hamas’s intention to release Alexander as "a gesture to Americans, without compensation or conditions."

The United States told Israel that this move is "expected to lead to negotiations for the release of hostages," according to the original framework, laid out by Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, which Israel has already accepted.

Donald Trump is seen posing with a photo of Edan Alexander on Oct. 7, 2024 in New York City.   (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

 Israel is preparing for the possibility that this move will be carried out.

According to Israeli policy, negotiations will take place under fire, with a commitment to achieving all the objectives of the war.

Khalil al-Hayya, who is Hamas’ political chief in Gaza, echoed the statement, reiterating "the movement has shown a high level of positivity" when speaking about the effort to free Alexander.  

"The Hamas movement affirms its readiness to immediately begin intensive negotiations and make serious efforts to reach a final agreement to end the war, exchange prisoners as mutually agreed upon, and manage the Gaza Strip by an independent, professional body, ensuring sustained calm and stability for many years, alongside reconstruction and ending the siege," al-Hayya shared in a statement. 

Raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, Alexander moved to Israel at 18 to volunteer for military service in the IDF’s Golani Brigade. He lived with his grandparents in Tel Aviv and at Kibbutz Hazor, where he was part of a group of lone soldiers.

He was kidnapped on the morning of October 7 — a Saturday, he wasn’t required to remain on base. His mother was visiting from abroad, and like many lone soldiers, he had the option to go home for the weekend. But he chose to stay, not wanting to leave his comrades short-staffed on guard duty.

There are 59 hostages still in Gaza, at least 24 of whom are assessed to be alive, including American-Israeli Alexander, now 21 years old after having spent two birthdays in Hamas captivity.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters also released a statement following the announcement of Alexander's potential release, saying that they "are embracing and supporting the Alexander family."

Yael Alexander, the mother of hostage Edan Alexander, speaks during The  ‘Run for Their Lives’ rally and run in Central Park on the 100th day since the October 7 attack by Hamas, on Jan. 14, 2024 in New York City.  (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

"Should this release be confirmed, the release of Edan Alexander must mark the beginning of a comprehensive agreement that will secure the freedom of all remaining hostages," the statement read. 

"President Trump, you've given the families of all the hostages hope. Please, complete your mission and bring them all home." 

Several days ago, President Trump marked his 100th day in office, and the families of the five Americans still held hostage urged him to reflect on his strategy and apply pressure on both Israel and Hamas, through both economic and diplomatic means, to secure the release of all 59 hostages.

While there is evident frustration among the families of the hostages, who have made clear the Israeli government has not offered anywhere near the same level of support or communication provided by both the Biden and Trump administrations, they said that, ultimately, the adversary is the terrorist organization that captured, in some instances, and continues to hold captive their loved ones. 

"Prime Minister Netanyahu must immediately fulfill the supreme moral obligation — and the demand of the vast majority of the Israeli public — to bring everyone back: the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial in our country," the organization said. "No one should be left behind."

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. 

https://www.foxnews.com/world/hamas-claims-release-american-hostage-edan-alexander