Important Takeaways:
- A delegation of United States diplomats arrived in Moscow on Thursday morning for talks on agreeing a ceasefire in the Ukraine War, with a possible call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin to follow.
- America’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff flew into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Thursday morning, having travelled from Doha, Qatar by way of European airspace…
- To this point Russia has been relatively circumspect on the ceasefire, saying only after it was agreed in principle by the U.S. and Ukraine that they would wait for further details from Washington to study before commenting further. The two nations had agreed to work towards peace at talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, a decision that saw the Trump administration resume military and intelligence support to the Kyiv government.
- Who will be representing the Russian side in negotiations today has not been stated by the Kremlin but it has been briefed Witkoff and the American delegation may speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is also suggested, but not confirmed, that a telephone call between President Trump and President Putin may take place later today.
- Meanwhile, Russia states it continues to retake its own territory in the Kursk Oblast from Ukraine’s counter invasion, a bid to grasp a bargaining chip which appears to be falling apart at the very moment it is most needed. Western intelligence community-adjacent media has stated Ukrainian troops have withdrawn in large numbers to escape being totally encircled and massacred, and Russian state media asserts most of what Ukraine once held has now been recaptured.
- On Wednesday, the U.S. said on peace the ball is now in Russia’s court, and the White House urged Moscow to sign.
- Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “This is the closest we have been to peace in this war”. President Trump has warned there would be consequences for Russia if they refuse to go along with his plan, having stated: “That would be very bad for Russia… I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace”.
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Important Takeaways:
- During overflights on March 7 and 11, AVO measured significantly elevated volcanic gas emissions from Mount Spurr volcano. Newly reactivated fumaroles (gas vents) were also seen at the volcano’s Crater Peak vent. Elevated earthquake activity and ground deformation continue.
- The increase in gas emissions confirms that new magma has intruded into the Earth’s crust beneath the volcano and indicates that an eruption is likely, but not certain, to occur within the next few weeks or months.
- The most likely outcome of the current unrest is an explosive eruption (or eruptions) like those that occurred in 1953 and 1992. Those eruptions each lasted a few hours and produced ash clouds that were carried downwind for hundreds of miles and minor ashfall (up to about ¼ inch) on southcentral Alaska communities.
- We expect to see further increases in seismic activity, gas emissions, and surface heating prior to an eruption, if one were to occur. Such stronger unrest may provide days to weeks of additional warning.
- We cannot assign an exact timeframe for when an eruption will occur, if it does, but the increased gas emissions recorded on March 7 suggest that an eruption may occur in the next few weeks to months. We expect to see additional changes to monitoring data prior to an eruption, if one were to occur, as magma moves closer to the surface. This would include a change in the rate and character of earthquakes, onset of sustained seismic tremor, further increased gas emissions, changes in surface deformation, and melting of snow and ice. In 1992, such changes occurred about three weeks prior to the first eruption.
- Should earthquake activity or other monitoring data suggest that an eruption is likely within hours or days, AVO would raise Mount Spurr from its current Aviation Color Code Yellow and Alert Level Advisory to Aviation Color Code Orange or Red and Alert Level Watch or Warning. Alert level definitions can be found here: Alaska Volcano Observatory | Volcano Alert Levels.
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Important Takeaways:
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin has rolled out 31 groundbreaking actions to dismantle the suffocating web of radical environmental rules strangling America’s economy.
- These bold reforms advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders, promising to unleash American energy dominance, drastically lower living costs for American families, supercharge economic growth, and restore constitutional governance by empowering state authorities.
- “Today, I’m pleased to make the largest deregulatory announcement in U.S. history,” declared Administrator Zeldin in a fiery video statement.
- “The Environmental Protection Agency is initiating 31 historic actions to fulfill President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, revitalize our auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to the states.”
- Among the regulations being reconsidered are the following:
- UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY
- Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0)
- Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry (OOOO b/c)
- Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants (MATS)
- Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply (GHG Reporting Program)
- Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards (ELG) for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources (Steam Electric ELG)
- Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for coal power plants to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELG)
- Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe (Risk Management Program Rule)
- LOWERING THE COST OF LIVING FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES
- Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules)
- Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding (Endangerment Finding)
- Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule)
- Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS)
- Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs)
- Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families (Regional Haze)
- Overhauling Biden-Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon”
- Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers (Enforcement Discretion)
- Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI)
- ADVANCING COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM
- Ending so-called “Good Neighbor Plan” which the Biden-Harris Administration used to expand federal rules to more states and sectors beyond the program’s traditional focus and led to the rejection of nearly all State Implementation Plans
- Working with states and tribes to resolve massive backlog with State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans that the Biden-Harris Administration refused to resolve (SIPs/TIPs)
- Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans (Exceptional Events)
- Reconstituting Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC)
- Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations (CCR Rule)
- Utilizing enforcement discretion to further North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene
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Important Takeaways:
- A senior official at USAID instructed a number of the agency’s remaining staff to convene at the agency’s now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday for an “all day” group effort to destroy documents stored there, many of which contain sensitive information.
- The materials earmarked for destruction include contents of the agency’s “classified safes and personnel documents” at the Ronald Reagan Building, said an email sent by USAID’s acting executive director, Erica Carr, and obtained by POLITICO.
- “Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break,” the email said. Carr instructed staff to label the burn bags with the words “SECRET” and “USAID/B/IO/” (agency shorthand for “bureau or independent office”) in dark Sharpie.
- The email didn’t provide any reason for the document destruction. The building is being emptied out after mass layoffs, which may have disrupted routine document destruction timetables. Customs and Border Protection is planning to move into the USAID facility, having rented 390,000 square feet of office space in the building last month.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week that more than 80 percent of USAID’s programs have been canceled, and the remaining ones will be administered by the State Department.
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Important Takeaways:
- Kennedy has pledged to tackle chronic illnesses by overhauling the U.S. diet and food dye elimination is part of his plan for reform.
- He has encouraged fast-food chains to switch to beef tallow instead of seed oils for French fries, and pushed for bans on additives like food colors, as Breitbart News reported.
- At a closed-door Washington gathering, which included the CEOs of Kellogg’s, Smucker’s and General Mills, Kennedy said it is a top priority of the Trump administration to rid America’s food of the artificial dyes, wrote Melissa Hockstad, president and CEO of the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group, who penned a memo seen by ABC News.
- According to the YouGov poll almost eight in 10 American adults said they support requiring nutrition education in federally funded medical schools, while 74 percent support banning certain additives, including dyes, from the nation’s food supply.
- Banning food additives has widespread support across the political spectrum, the poll found, with 74 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of Republicans supporting such a plan.
- Likewise, 66 percent of Americans — including 71 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans — want the federal government to increase restrictions on the use of pesticides in agricultural products.
- In August last year, while endorsing Trump for president, Kennedy laid out a vision for the government’s regulating bodies where none are controlled “by giant for-profit corporations” that have allowed the U.S. food supply, medicines, and environment to be compromised by toxic chemicals and additives, leading to a rising chronic illness epidemic.
- “Two-thirds of American adults and children suffer from chronic health issues,” Kennedy said.
- “Fifty years ago, that number was less than one percent. We’ve gone from one percent to 66 percent.”
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Important Takeaways:
- A breakthrough for biomedical research promises new insight into immunotherapy development and disease modeling. Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have created a humanized mouse model with a human immune system and a human-like gut microbiome that is capable of mounting specific antibody responses.
- The aim of the multi-year project, which appears in the August 2024 issue of Nature Immunology, was to overcome limitations of currently available in vivo human models by creating a humanized mouse with a fully developed and functional human immune system.
- Mice are widely used in biological and biomedical research because they are small, easy to handle, share many immune elements and biological properties with humans and are easily genetically modified. Many of the more than 1,600 immune response mouse genes, however, are incongruent with their human equivalents, resulting in divergencies or deficiencies of mice as predictors of human immune responses. This made availability of a “humanized” mouse model that faithfully reproduces human immune responses a high priority.
- The first humanized mice were created in the 1980s to model human HIV infection and the human immune response to HIV.
- Casali’s team began with injecting immunodeficient NSG W41 mutant mice intracardiacally (left ventricle) with human stem cells they purified from umbilical cord blood. After a few weeks, once the graft has been established, the mice are hormonally conditioned with 17b-estradiol (E2), the most potent and abundant form of estrogen in the body. Hormonal conditioning by estrogen was prompted by previous research by Casali and others suggesting that estrogen boosts the survival of human stem cells, boosts B lymphocyte differentiation and production of antibodies to viruses and bacteria.
- The resulting humanized mice, called TruHuX (for truly human, or THX), possess a fully developed and fully functional human immune system, including lymph nodes, germinal centers, thymus human epithelial cells, human T and B lymphocytes, memory B lymphocytes, and plasma cells making highly specific antibody and autoantibodies identical to those of humans.
- “By critically leveraging estrogen activity to support human stem cell and human immune cell differentiation and antibody responses, THX mice provide a platform for human immune system studies, development of human vaccines and testing of therapeutics,” Casali said.
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Important Takeaways:
- According to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, these scientists have created solar-powered tissues that could revolutionize the production of lab-grown meat and organs.
- The cells driving the tissue are a plant-animal hybrid that can gain energy from sunlight in the same way that plants do, the researchers explain in the study. Both animals and plants derive energy using different methods. Plants use photosynthesis, while animals rely on mitochondria.
- Researchers hoped that they would be able to take plant cells and combine them with animal cells—in this case, cells taken from hamsters. The goal here was to isolate chloroplasts from plants and then cultivate them with the hamster cells so that they would become hybrid cells and hopefully grow into solar-powered tissue.
- The researchers believe this could help increase the potential growth of new organs and lab-grown meat, something scientists have been desperately trying to figure out for several years now.
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Important Takeaways:
- U.S. reporter Pamela Geller cited reports of “nearly 17,000 dead and 15,000 missing” and said she is receiving “hundreds of emails from people in Syria begging for help.”
- We, the Alawites on the Syrian coast, are facing extermination. Ethnic and religious cleansing is unfolding before the world’s silent eyes. They are burning our homes, slaughtering our families, and torturing our children. They rip out the eyes of our young, tear out their hearts, and leave their lifeless bodies as warnings.
- Foreign fighters, coming from all regions, are hunting us down. They are invading our homes, destroying our existence, and soon, they will reach us all. The world watches in silence because we are a minority—because we are deemed expendable.
- This is not war. This is annihilation.
- I beg you—grant us asylum, grant us protection before it is too late. We are running out of time. We will do whatever is asked of us, just let us live.
- According to Syrian journalist and human rights activist Nizar Nayouf, 15,000 Alawites have been executed. Nayouf claims the massacre had been planned since February 24:
- Nayouf claims the Syrian “Ministry of Defense” and the terrorist militia “distributed detailed digital maps to their faction leaders, marking Alawite, Christian, and Ismaili neighborhoods and villages in Syria’s coastal region, as well as the primary and secondary roads leading to them”
- Religious clerics affiliated with President Al-Jolani “delivered lectures to some faction leaders, instructing them on how to distinguish Alawites from others in the coastal region. They warned that Alawite men are circumcised, just like Sunni Muslims, making them harder to identify—even by dialect in some areas.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Incoming heavy rain from an atmospheric river-fueled storm that slammed into the West Coast early Wednesday is threatening mudslides and debris flows in Southern California and has already prompted evacuations in the Los Angeles area.
- But that’s not all this storm is capable of — its reach and impacts will only get more extreme as the week continues.
- The cross-country storm will strengthen into an unusually intense March powerhouse by the end of the week and will put millions at risk of wildfires, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, powerful wind gusts and blizzard conditions.
- A level 2 of 4 risk of flooding rainfall is in place from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, including areas scorched by the Palisades and Eaton fires, according to the Weather Prediction Center. The storm’s relatively quick pace could help limit widespread flooding in California, but recently burned areas remain at a higher risk for flooding and debris flows.
- Evacuation warnings were issued for other parts of Los Angeles County Tuesday due to the risk of debris flows from the Palisades, Eaton, Franklin and Kenneth burn scars, according to the county’s emergency alert service.
- Places in the mountains could see half a foot or more of snow, with a few inches also falling at lower elevations and potentially in some valleys.
- By late afternoon, widespread strong winds will begin from Nevada and Arizona to the Rockies with wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph possible – especially in mountainous terrain – as the storm starts to strengthen. These wind gusts, combined with rain and snow, could create hazardous travel conditions.
- More than 800 miles of the central US, from western Texas through Nebraska, are under a level 2 of 3 fire weather risk, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Any spark could turn into a wind-driven blaze in these conditions.
- [By Friday] Strong winds that could disrupt travel and damage power lines will whip across the central US, turning from breezy in the morning to fierce by the day’s end.
- Widespread gusts of 40 to 50 mph are likely by late afternoon, with stronger gusts past 65 mph possible from New Mexico and Texas through Oklahoma and Kansas.
- The thunderstorms will become more ferocious and expand by the late evening to pound potentially more than 900 miles of the Mississippi Valley – from Louisiana to Minnesota – into the overnight hours.
- Saturday: Severe thunderstorms, blizzard conditions hit the eastern US
- The intense cross-country storm will expand into more of the eastern US with severe thunderstorms and blizzard conditions.
- Severe thunderstorms could be ongoing in the early morning, especially in parts of the Ohio Valley.
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Important Takeaways:
- The largest active volcano in Washington state has been rocked by a series of earthquakes, putting experts on high alert.
- Mount Adams is a 12,000-foot-tall stratovolcano located in south-central Washington, about 55 miles southwest of the city of Yakima.
- This volcano is considered a ‘high threat’ due to its ability to trigger landslides, debris avalanches and mudflow that can travel up to 50 miles per hour down the slope, which would put thousands of people at risk.
- Although this volcano hasn’t erupted for about 1,000 years, ‘it will assuredly erupt again,’ US Geological Survey (USGS) experts say.
- But it’s impossible to say exactly when it will blow, which is why scientists have established monitoring stations around Mount Adams to track its seismic activity.
- But the biggest threat to people living near this volcano isn’t an explosive eruption.
- It’s actually avalanches, landslides and lahars, or muddy flows of rock, ash and ice that ‘surge downstream like rapidly flowing concrete’ and can occur during eruptive or non-eruptive periods, according to the USGS.
- ‘The ice-capped summit conceals large volumes of hydrothermally weakened rock, and future landslides of this weakened rock could generate far-traveled lahars,’ USGS officials wrote.
- In light of the recent earthquakes, scientists have installed three additional monitoring stations around the volcano to keep a closer eye on it.
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