Report: Recent years see a sharp rise in youth transgenderism



The number of American youth who identify as transgender has almost doubled in recent years.

A new report conducted by the UCLA Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy relied on government health surveys conducted from 2017 to 2020, and estimated that 1.4% percent of 13- to 17-year-olds and 1.3% of 18- to 24-year-olds identified as transgender whereas 0.5 percent of all adults identify as such.

The Williams Institute’s data concluded that 18% of all people who identify as transgender are between the ages of 13 and 17-years-old, and there are 1.6 million people aged 13 and up in the U.S. who identify as transgender.

There are roughly 700,000 people between the ages of 13- and 24-years-old who identify as transgender. In the American South, there are 102,200 transgender youth between the ages of 13- and 17- years old; in the Midwest, there are 54,500; in the North East, there are 61,700; and in the American West, including Alaska and Hawaii, there are 81,700.

The New York Times reported that this new data from the Williams Institute’s previous report in 2017 marks a significant rise specifically in youth transgenderism.

Experts on transgender youth believe that children now have the advanced language skills and capacity for social acceptance that emboldens them to explore their gender identities whereas older adults may feel more constrained.

Dr. Angela Geopferd, the self-identifying nonbinary medical director of the Gender Health Program at Children’s Minnesota hospital, indicated that exploring gender identity is merely an aspect of being a young person.

She said, “It’s developmentally appropriate for teenagers to explore all facets of their identity — that is what teenagers do. And, generationally, gender has become a part of someone’s identity that is more socially acceptable to explore.”

The nonbinary children’s physician said that young people exploring their gender identities is a phenomenon for which society must “make space.”

Geopferd said, “We as a culture just need to lean into the fact that there is gender diversity among us, and that it doesn’t mean that we need to treat it medically in all cases, but it does mean that we as a society need to make space for that.”

Data from the Williams Institute indicates that young people account for a disproportionately large share of the American transgender population while older adults had a “disproportionately small” share.

Only 10% of the transgender population consists of people over the age of 65.

Iran turned off cameras belonging to a UN nuclear watchdog in one of its uranium enrichment facilities



The Iranian government was exposed for turning off two surveillance cameras of a United Nations nuclear watchdog program that was monitoring one of the country’s atomic development sites.

The Independent reported that the development initially broke on Iranian state television. The report did not identify at which of the nuclear development sites the infraction occurred, but it did indicate that the interference was a likely a part of a new pressure technique being pushed by the Iranian government as it seeks to muscle its way out of an imminent censure from Western nations at an upcoming meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Iranian state television report described the two disabled cameras as monitoring “OLEM enrichment levels and flowmeters.” This refers to the IAEA’s Online Enrichment Monitors, which watch the enrichment of uranium gas through piping at enrichment facilities.

Reportedly, the Iranian government is enriching uranium gas at both its Fordo and Natanz underground nuclear sites.

In 2015, the Iranian government and various world powers agreed to a nuclear deal that would allow the Iranian leadership to drastically restrict the amount of uranium it could enrich in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

In 2018, former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the arrangement, subsequently raising tensions in various parts of the Middle East.

In the time since Trump’s withdrawal from the arrangement, Iran has broken every limit imposed on it by the 2015 deal and now enriches uranium at a 60% purity — weapons-grade enrichment is 90%. Despite the Iranian government’s disregard for the restrictions placed upon it, the IAEA has been allowed to continually visit the country’s enrichment facilities.

The Vienna-based IAEA did not immediately acknowledge the Iranian regime’s disabling of the surveillance cameras.

This past February, a senior official in the U.S. State Department said that Iran was “weeks, not months” away from being able to power an atomic.

The statement came after a series of indirect discussions with Iran and other world powers in Vienna.

After over a year of negotiations, the State Department confirmed that diplomatic talks with Iran and other nations about the future of the country’s nuclear capabilities would come to an end whether Iran accepts the deal offered to it by U.S. officials or not.

At the time, the Biden administration believed that Iran’s nuclear program had become so advanced that there would be no benefit to proposing a return to the 2015 arrangement that restricted Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities while gradually lifting economic sanctions on the country.

Overdose rates up 700% in Oregon after the state decriminalized the possession of hard drugs



Overdose rates in the state of Oregon rose by 700% after voters in the state approved a ballot measure to decriminalize all hard drugs.

Voters in the state of Oregon voted to decriminalize all hard drugs in the pursuit of encouraging those struggling with drug addiction to seek medical help. The measure, referred to as Ballot Measure 110, was the first of its kind in the U.S. and went into effect in February of 2021 after being approved by the public the year before.

Ballot Measure 110 made it so that it was no longer a felony or misdemeanor of any kind to possess drugs in the state of Oregon. At most, people carrying hard drugs are subject to a maximum fine of $100 which can be waived if the person receiving the citation calls a public hotline and receives a free health assessment.

If a person is found to be carrying a “personal amount” of drugs like heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine at most, they will receive a $100 fine.

Of the $300 million that was meant to be allocated to public health resources to fight addiction, only $40 million has been dispersed.

The Daily Mail reported that Ballot Measure 110 has largely had an inverse effect and has led not to more people seeking treatment but to more drug-related deaths and the proliferation of hard drug use throughout Oregonian communities.

Republican state official Lily Morgan said, “We have overdoses increasing at drastic rates.”

Morgan said, “In my community, [there has been] a 700% increase in overdoses and a 120% increase in deaths.”

Shemia Fagan, the Oregonian Secretary of State, said that Oregon residents approved Ballot Measure 110 to “improve the lives of people, to improve our communities.”

Fagan said, “When the voters of Oregon passed Measure 110, we did so because it was a change of policy in Oregon to improve the lives of people, to improve our communities, and in the years since, we haven’t seen that play out.”

She concluded, “Instead, in many communities in Oregon, we’ve seen the problem with drug addiction get worse.”

Steve Allen, Oregon’s behavioral health director, acknowledged that there has been a “dramatic” increase in overdoses and overdose deaths, but he attributed much of these to an influx of methamphetamine laced with fentanyl.

Allen indicated a belief that if public health resources received enough funding and support, then overdose deaths would decrease as the state’s drug problem begins to improve.

He said, “Getting these resources out to the community is incredibly important — not just the harm reduction resources, but people who can support folks who are at risk for overdose.”

An Inspector General is going to investigate the Biden administration's response to the baby formula shortage



An Inspector General from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will investigate the Biden administration’s response to the nationwide shortage of baby formula.

The ongoing formula shortage finds its roots in an Abbott Nutrition facility in Sturgis, Michigan. Last fall, the Food and Drug Administration zeroed in on the Michigan Abbott facility while tracking several bacterial infections in infants who had consumed formula manufactured by the company. The four cases being tracked by the FDA occurred between September 2021 and January 2022. Two of the infants being tracked died, and the others were hospitalized.

The FDA was scheduled to begin a series of inspections of the Sturgis-based facility, but according to Abbott, the investigation was postponed due to an outbreak of COVID-19 among the company’s employees.

Previously, Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, told CNN that the Biden administration was working around the clock to “tackle the issue from every angle possible,” and that the Biden administration was aware of the impending shortage since this past February.

Deese confirmed that the Biden administration became aware of the impending shortage “when the FDA had to take its action back in February.”

In response to the Biden administration’s delayed reaction to the crisis, having not responded to the shortage until several months after it first became aware of it, HHS is going to investigate whether the FDA appropriately handled a baby formula recall from Abbott that has left shelves empty.

According to a statement from the White House, President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to “ensure that manufacturers have the necessary ingredients to make safe, healthy infant formula here at home” and launched Operation Fly Formula to “speed up the import of infant formula and get more formula to stores as soon as possible.”

Axios reported that in a prepared statement the HHS’s Office of the Inspector General said, “We will determine whether the FDA followed the inspections and recall process for infant formula in accordance with Federal requirements.”

Reportedly, the investigation will specifically look at whether the FDA’s actions preceding the February recall of potentially tainted formula from the Abbott facility in Michigan followed the correct policies and procedures when conducting inspections at the manufacturing facility in question.

The FDA is still unable to reach a conclusion as to whether the infant infections were caused by products made in the Michigan Abbott facility.

China is helping Iran avoid sanctions through a multibillion-dollar oil-buying scheme



Several Chinese companies are helping Iran avoid sanctions by importing illicit Iranian crude oil.

A network of Chinese petrochemical refiners provided the Iranian regime with at least $22 billion in revenue since President Joe Biden took office, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

According to information obtained by United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), Chinese oil refiners known as teapots, which are semi-independent entities that are not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, are largely responsible for “funding this illicit and uniquely lucrative trade” with Iran. UANI is an advocacy group that is dedicated to exposing the people and entities responsible for helping Iran evade economic sanctions.

China’s use of teapots is a part of a coordinated effort to evade internationally supported sanctions on Iranian oil. Through this network, the Chinese government has been able to purchase Iranian crude oil well below the market price while keeping the oil’s point of origin under wraps.

By using teapots, China is able to protect its corporate, state-owned oil firms from sanctions.

The teapot network allows China to bypass the use of its state-controlled refineries and misrepresent the purchases as originating from countries other than Iran.

This scheme has allowed China to import at least $22 billion in Iranian crude oil since Biden entered office and relaxed sanctions on the Iranian regime as part of his administration’s strategy to secure favorable conditions with Iran as it moved to reinitiate its nuclear development program.

Before Biden took office, China was importing an average of 400,000 barrels of oil per day from Iran. After Biden become president, China has, on average, imported around 1,000,000 barrels per day, according to data gathered by UANI.

Documents obtained by UANI indicate that “the bulk of Iranian oil is indeed being imported by the teapots.” Records analyzed by UANI show at least 40 different shipments of Iranian oil to China dating back to 2019.

In a policy brief that outlined China’s teapot scheme, UANI said, “The fact that teapots — rather than major state actors — would import the bulk of Iranian oil makes sense from China's perspective. Since the U.S. has in fact sanctioned Chinese state-owned imports in the past, such as Zhuhai Zhenrong, the decision to import Iranian oil via dozens of small unaffiliated ‘non-state' firms helps obscure the Chinese government's role and protect its own big firms from scrutiny, accountability, and attendant sanctions."

The group said, “With their small size and limited business operations, teapots are both are to uncover and not exposed to the U.S. financial system.”

Congressional Republicans submit a bill to define what a woman is



Republicans in Congress have introduced a bill to define what a woman is.

Republican Representative Debbie Lesko from Arizona sponsored a “Women’s Bill of Rights” to provide additional legal protections to women under federal law, RedState reported.

Noting that establishing a standard for identifying people on the basis of their sex is crucial to societal stability, H. Res. 1136 states: “[T]here are important reasons to distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons, domestic violence shelters, restrooms, and other areas, particularly where biology, safety, and privacy are implicated.”

The proposed legislation states that “males and females possess unique and immutable biological difference that manifest prior to birth and increase as they age and experience puberty” and that “biological differences between the sexes can expose females to more harm than males from specific forms of violence, including sexual violence.”

It even defies current leftwing orthodoxy by declaring that only women are able to get pregnant. The bill states “biological difference between the sexes mean that only females may get pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed children.”

The bill also indicates that motherhood and fatherhood are reserved for women and men respectively. The bill states “for purposes of Federal law, the word ‘mother’ means a parent of the female sex and ‘father’ is defined as a parent of the male sex.”

Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana, Mary Miller of Illinois, Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee, Claudia Tenney of New York, Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, Doug Lambron of Kansas, Ronny Jackson of Texas, Doug LaMalfa, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Barry Moore of Alabama submitted the bill along side Lesko.

Banks, who also serves as the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, argued that this legislation is critical in order to protect the rights of women from leftist attacks.

He said, “The modern Democrat party has put the Left’s woke agenda before the rights of women. These days, Democrats refuse to even admit women exist or recognize them as unique beings, with unique abilities. While radical liberals strip away the progress and protections that generations of women fought to achieve. Republicans must fight back and acknowledge these basic biological truths. AS the father of three daughters, I’m proud to co-lead this resolution reaffirming the legal protections afforded to them under federal law.”

According to a press release from the Republican Study Committee, H. Res. 1136 is also supported by several outside women’s interest organizations such as the Independent Women’s Law Center, Concerned Women for America LAC, Women’s Liberation Front, and the Eagle Forum.

America's beef supply is expected to shrink as drought and rising production costs prevent ranchers from growing their herds



Beef prices are likely to continue rising as U.S. based cattle ranchers continue to shrink the size of their herds.

This move is expected to further constrain U.S. beef production in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported. Data from the federal government confirms that rising costs for feed and other expenses are encouraging ranchers to sell to sell calves into feedlots around the country at a faster rate which leaves fewer cattle available for slaughter. It is expected that this will become more pronounced later this year and into 2023.

Persistent drought conditions throughout the Western U.S. have decimated grazing pastures which causes cattle farmers to spend more money on supplemental feed which presents another major problem for the beef industry.

By 2023, beef production is expected to decline by 7% and cattle prices are expected to increase to record highs. These increased costs and shrinking supply pose serious problems for meatpackers like Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA holdings Inc., Cargill Inc., and National Beef Packing Co. It is likely that the increased cost of beef production is already being passed onto consumers. The more expensive it is to raise and maintain cows, and as fewer cows are raised for slaughter, the more expensive beef products will eventually cost. Ground beef and chicken prices have already reached all-time highs.

Jeanie Alderson, a fourth-generation rancher in Birney, Montana, said that she sold about 75 aging mother cows from her heard of around 250 in recent months. Typically, Alderson would buy new cows in the spring to replace the ones she sold off but she said that it has been too expensive for her to take any more into her herd this year.

Alderson indicated that wildfires in the southeastern portion of Montana are burning up the pastures where her cattle typically feed and that some of her fellow Montana ranchers have had to spend more money on expensive livestock feeds. These additional expenses and hardships are causing ranchers to reduce the size of the herds.

Alderson said, “It’s really stressful. A lot of ranchers are in deep, deep debt and if they have to go more in debt, some people will go out of business in the next few years.”

Drought conditions and higher operating costs encouraged ranchers to rapidly cull beef cows in the first quarter of 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Iowa State University estimates that American cattle producers have lost money five of the past eight months.

Zelenskyy rejects the possibility of a Ukrainian ceasefire despite Putin's openness as grain supply issues threaten global food shortages



This weekend, the leaders of France and Germany pleaded with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine to no avail as Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy each refused to make concessions to their counterparts and end the fighting in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pleaded with Putin to begin “serious direct negotiations” with Zelenskyy to reach a “diplomatic solution to the conflict,” the New York Post reported.

In response, Putin said that the West is complicit in perpetuating the violence because of its “dangerous” efforts to supply Ukraine with munitions, military equipment, and financial support. Putin warned Macron and Scholz that the West’s continued support for Ukraine risks “aggravation of the humanitarian crisis.”

Scholz and Macron also sought the release of 2,500 prisoners of war captured by Russian forces and an end to the Russian blockade of the port of Odessa. Ending the blockade of this port is crucial to normalizing global agricultural supply chains as it normally handles millions of tons of grain each year.

Despite Putin’s insistence of “the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue” with Ukraine, the Russian president moved forward with efforts to expand the size of his military and signed new legislation that will eliminate the upper age limit of the men recruited by the Russian military.

The new law passed the Russian Duma on Wednesday and will allow Russian citizens over the age of 40 to enlist. It also removes restrictions that previously limited the Kremlin’s hiring of foreign mercenary fighters.

Zelenskyy, who spoke with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently, said that the ongoing invasion of Ukraine could cause a global food crisis.

Zelenskyy said, “We must work together to prevent a food crisis and unblock [Ukrainian] ports.”

Nearly 22 million tons of grains are stranded in Ukraine as Russian forces continue to blockade Odessa and other ports, Zelenskyy confirmed.

As fighting continues in the Donbas region of Ukraine, where Russia has claimed victory over Ukrainian cities and continues to advance forces throughout the region, Zelenskyy refused to accept any possible ceasefire that would forefit lands previsouly belonging to Ukraine. Echoing previous statements, Zelenskyy promised that Donbas would be “Ukrainian again.”

Zelenskyy said, “We have to increase our defense, increase our resistance, and Donbas will be Ukrainian again. Even if Russia will bring all suffering and ruination to Donbas, we will rebuild every town, every community. There’s no real alternative.”

Leaked audio from a top-secret meeting confirms the Chinese military is preparing to invade Taiwan



According to leaked audio from a top-secret meeting of Chinese military officials, China may soon launch an invasion of Taiwan.

The Times of India reported that an audio clip revealing dialogue between officials from China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), surfaced on YouTube marking the first time since the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 that a recording of a top-secret meeting of China’s military command has leaked.

The Times reported that the video containing the meeting’s conversation, along with English translations of what is being discussed, “appears authentic.”

Exclusive: Top-classified PLA meeting audio held on 14/5/2022 has been obtained youtu.be

Reportedly, “allies” within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the PLA recorded the audio. There is now an ongoing manhunt to uncover the source of the leak.

According to the audio, during the operation against Taiwan the Chinese military will have to safeguard the Pearl River Delta area in the Guangdong province. The Guangdong province is a densely populated part of China and home to much of China’s domestic industry.

The Guangdong province is often credited as being the heartbeat of Chinese industry. It includes the world class trading hub and hi-tech capital, Shenzhen, where digital behemoths Huawei and Tencent Industries are headquartered. It also includes Hong Kong, Macau, and the furniture capital Dongguan.

It’s reasonable to conclude that the protection of the Pearl River Delta is crucial to the CCP preserving stability of the Guangdong region and China in general. Should these areas be compromised by China’s enemies, large swaths of the Chinese economy will become extremely vulnerable.

Some of the leaked audio from the top-secret meeting confirmed that the invasion would be a massive operation.

A speaker at the meeting said, “First, the mobilization tasks issued to our province by the eastern and southern war zones totaling 20 categories and 293 items, mainly 1,358 detachments of various types with a total of 140,000 personnel, 953 ships of various types, and 1653 units/sets of various unmanned equipment.”

The leaked audio also confirmed that companies involved in the manufacture of military technologies, telecommunication companies, and satellite service companies located in China will all play a crucial role in supplying the PLA throughout the invasion of Taiwan. Many of America’s largest defense contractors have extensive ties to the PLA and CCP.

The leaked audio confirms that the meeting was held to discuss pre-war preparation and that the meeting was held to discuss orderly transition from peace time to war and to discuss military mobilization and planning.

Stacey Abrams suggests there will be voter suppression in the Georgia gubernatorial race despite increased voter turnout



Despite the increasing presence of Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in culture and politics, she has yet to attain her state's governorship. Abrams believes, ostensibly, that this is due to Georgia Republicans working overtime to implement voter suppression schemes despite her state experiencing trends of increasing voter turnout.

Townhall reported that Abrams recently referred to the state of Georgia as one of the worst states in the U.S. to live in and is subsequently concocting an elaborate damage control scheme.

Reportedly, while on the radio, Abrams said, "I am tired of hearing how we're the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live."

The Democratic political icon continued, "Let me contextualize: When you're No. 48 for mental health, when you're No. 1 for maternal mortality, when you have an incarceration rate that's on the rise and wages that are on the decline, then you are not the No. 1 place to live."

Abrams also said that she believes the state is "capable of greatness" but that "we need greatness to be in our governor's office." She was, of course, referring to herself.

Referring to her potential for leadership, she said, "We need someone who actually believes in bringing all of us in here together."

Naturally, voters don't want to hear someone seeking their state's highest office bad-mouthing the state he or she is seeking to lead.

Despite Abrams' comments, Georgia is one of the many states in the South experiencing an upswing after receiving an influx of people moving to the state for assorted reasons, including economic opportunity.

According to MSNBC, early voter turnout in Georgia's recent primary election cycle increased by over 200%, but Abrams is still claiming voter suppression could keep her from attaining office.

Fox News reported that while she was speaking with Joy Reid on MSNBC's "The Reid Out," Abrams claimed that there was "no correlation" between record-high voter turnout and less voter suppression. Abrams argued that suggesting this was akin to saying "if more people are in the water there are fewer sharks."

Dismissing the theory that more voter turnout equaled less voter suppression, Abrams said, "There'sre's no correlation there. Voter suppression is about blocking or impeding certain types of voters from participating in elections."

Abrams said, "Right now, Republicans have the most competitive elections, but what we don't know is what is the mail-in ballot rejection rate? What are the difficulties people are having?"

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger stated that prior to the conclusion of the state's primary elections, the state set new records for in-person early voting.

Raffensberger's office announced via press release that 18,567,815 Georgians voted in person, marking a "189% increase from the same point in the early voting period in the 2018 primary election and a 153% increase in the same point in the early voting period in the 2020 primary election."