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Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:45:00 +0000 Delivery Theft And Scams Are Reshaping Holiday Shopping Decisions In 2025
Delivery Theft And Scams Are Reshaping Holiday Shopping Decisions In 2025
Americans may be preparing for holiday sales and gift lists, but a new survey shows that growing anxiety over safety and scams i
Read more.....
Delivery Theft And Scams Are Reshaping Holiday Shopping Decisions In 2025
Americans may be preparing for holiday sales and gift lists, but a new survey shows that growing anxiety over safety and scams is shaping how they shop in 2025. Concerns about home security, crowded retail environments, and package theft are pushing changes in buying behavior, from delivery choices to how—and when—people visit stores, according to a study from Hanwah Vision . The key findings were:
62% of Americans are concerned about porch pirates this year.
59.5% would pay more for secure delivery options.
40.5% of Americans say that safety concerns influenced their decision to shop online or in-store this year. That share rises to 61% among Gen Z.
31% of Americans lack confidence that retailers provide adequate security during the holidays.
35.5% often avoid crowded stores or peak hours because of safety concerns.
40% of Gen Zers plan to do most of their holiday shopping online.
21% say they feel less safe in stores this year compared to last.
42% of men would buy from a website they’ve never heard of if it offered a big discount, compared to 32% of women.
Only 31% expect their overall holiday spending to rise.
The study found that fear of package theft remains one of the biggest concerns of the season. Sixty-two percent of shoppers worry about porch pirates, and nearly 60 percent say they are willing to pay extra for delivery options that promise greater protection. Those worries are driving homeowners to beef up security with cameras, motion-sensing lights, doorbell alerts and locked delivery boxes. Shoppers are no longer just hoping their gifts arrive—they want assurance that they will arrive safely.
Safety is also influencing where people shop. Forty-point-five percent of Americans say concerns about crime, scams or crowded stores played a role in whether they chose in-person shopping or online purchasing this year. Among Gen Z shoppers, that figure climbs to 61 percent, with 40 percent planning to do most of their holiday shopping online. Younger shoppers are especially wary of in-store risks, with one in five saying they feel less safe in shops this year than last. Their shift online might protect them from in-store theft or crowds, but it brings new vulnerabilities such as phishing scams and counterfeit retailers.
The study says that security doubts extend to brick-and-mortar stores. Nearly a third of shoppers say they don’t trust retailers to provide adequate protection during the holidays, and more than a third say they avoid crowded stores or peak hours because of safety concerns. For retailers already battling competition from e-commerce, a sense of insecurity could become another reason customers choose to shop elsewhere. Shoppers want visible signs that stores are investing in protection, whether through trained staff, monitoring systems or stronger cybersecurity for payment data.
Meanwhile, financial pressure is pushing many consumers to take risks they might normally avoid. Only 31 percent expect to spend more on gifts this year, suggesting that tight budgets are pushing shoppers toward steep discounts and unfamiliar online sellers. That desire for bargains has a cost: 42 percent of men and nearly a third of women say they would purchase from a site they’ve never heard of if the deal was compelling enough. Temptation fuels vulnerability, making scams and fraudulent sites more effective at a time when shoppers are more focused on savings than verification.
With budgets stretched and more consumers modifying their traditions, every purchase carries a little more weight. Losing a gift to theft, fraud or delivery issues isn’t just frustrating—it represents money carefully saved and spent. This year’s Holiday Security Sentiment Index suggests that the season has two priorities: what people buy, and how safe they feel buying it.
The findings are based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 adults conducted ahead of the 2025 holiday season. Participants were asked how worries about theft, scams and personal safety are influencing where they shop, how much they spend and what precautions they take at home and in stores. Responses were analyzed across age groups, gender and income to identify emerging trends that link security and spending behavior.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/12/2025 - 05:45 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000 The Trans-Siberian Railway Is Poised To Play A Pivotal Role In Joint Russian-US Projects
The Trans-Siberian Railway Is Poised To Play A Pivotal Role In Joint Russian-US Projects
The Trans-Siberian Railway Is Poised To Play A Pivotal Role In Joint Russian-US Projects
Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,
Unlocking this mutually profitable opportunity requires the US to first successfully manage the Turkish-Russian tensions in Central Asia that it’s responsible for exacerbating through TRIPP.
The US’ management of Turkish-Russian tensions in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, which was proposed here as part of a larger NATO-Russian Non-Aggression Pact , could lead to the merger of its planned rare earth mineral (REM) investments in Central Asia and related post-Ukraine joint projects in Russia. Regarding the first, Trump clinched such deals with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan during the latest C5+1 Summit in DC, while the second were described by the Wall Street Journal in a recent report.
If Turkish-Russian tensions worsen in Central Asia and the Ukrainian Conflict continues raging, thus delaying the US’ joint REM projects in Russia, then the US will be fully dependent on Turkiye for importing its REMs from Central Asia. That’s because the Afghan and Iranian routes are unviable for security and political reasons, so the only realistic one is from Turkiye , the western anchor of the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity ” (TRIPP) across Armenia to Azerbaijan and Central Asia.
TRIPP will gradually replace Russia’s regional influence with Turkish-led Western influence, but this will also turbocharge Turkiye’s rise as a Eurasian Great Power, which might empower it to defy the US even more than it already does. The forms that this could take include cooperating more closely with China in Central Asia to break the US’ planned containment of the latter, funding more (possibly US terrorist-designated ) Muslim Brotherhood chapters, and weaponizing its pivotal role in TRIPP to blackmail the US.
These dark scenarios can be averted if the US manages Turkish-Russian tensions and brokers an end to the Ukrainian Conflict. In that event, the US could diversify from its dependence on TRIPP and therefore Turkiye for importing its REMs from Central Asia by relying on Russia’s nearby Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR), which can conveniently deliver these resources to Vladivostok from where they can then be shipped to the US’ Californian tech hub. This can then lead to the merger of its two REM investments.
Not only would joint REM projects with Russia be unlocked, but the same US companies investing in Central Asian ones could then more easily scale their regional operations northward, with resources from both projects being shipped to the Pacific via the TSR. The increased logistical and resource importance of Siberia and the Russian Far East for the US could then lay the basis for more joint projects there and in the neighboring Arctic, thus advancing Putin’s master development plan for these regions.
The US and others who invest in Mongolia’s mineral sector might also begin rerouting exports through the TSR instead of continuing to rely on the US’ systemic Chinese rival. The gradual result could be the creation of complex strategic interdependence between the US and Russia, which was non-existent prior to the special operation , for reducing the risk of another crisis. The US would also establish a strategic economic presence along China’s western and northern peripheries that could be flaunted for prestige.
Amidst the Sino-US rivalry, the US has an interest in obtaining access to Russian resources that ipso facto denies them to China, whose superpower trajectory would be turbocharged by unlimited access at bargain-basement prices like would otherwise be the case without robust US competition. This makes the proposed arrangement of grand strategic importance to the US, which is why it should broker an end to the Ukrainian Conflict and then manage Turkish-Russian tensions in Central Asia without delay.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/12/2025 - 05:00 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 09:15:00 +0000 Chinese Drone "Mothership" Capable Of Swarm Attack Takes Flight
Chinese Drone "Mothership" Capable Of Swarm Attack Takes Flight
Whether launched from shipping containers, robotic arms Read more.....
Chinese Drone "Mothership" Capable Of Swarm Attack Takes Flight
Whether launched from shipping containers, robotic arms , commercial box trucks , or delivered by heavyweight jet-powered mothership drones, the creativity of military technology developers in designing and deploying loitering-munition swarms has been remarkable to watch.
The latest piece of military hardware to hit our radar is China's Jiutian ("Nine Heavens") unmanned aerial mothership, capable of hauling up to six tons of guided bombs, air-to-air and anti-ship missiles, or entire racks of kamikaze drones.
Jiutian's internal bay can deploy up to 100 kamikaze drones for a saturation-swarm attack, flying in coordinated patterns to strike targets simultaneously and overwhelm defenses.
Jiutian was first revealed at the air show in Zhuhai, in China's southern Guangdong province near the border with Macau, last year. Now footage has surfaced of the mothership drone taking off for the first time .
Military and defense-related:
Remember one year ago when New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, speculated the mysterious drone sightings in the Northeast U.S. could be coming from an Iranian "mothership" ...
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/12/2025 - 04:15 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 08:30:00 +0000 Battle For Rare Earths And Recognition: Germany's Wadephul Arrives In China As A Supplicant
Battle For Rare Earths And Recognition: Germany's Wadephul Arrives In China As A Supplicant
Submitted by Thomas Kolbe
After German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was forced to cancel his October trip to China due
Read more.....
Battle For Rare Earths And Recognition: Germany's Wadephul Arrives In China As A Supplicant
Submitted by Thomas Kolbe
After German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was forced to cancel his October trip to China due to a lack of scheduled meetings, he has now finally met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. At the center of the talks was one issue with immense strategic weight for Germany and Europe: the future handling of critical raw materials—above all rare earths.
The relationship between Germany and the EU on the one hand and China’s political leadership on the other is clearly creaking. The growing trade tensions between both sides have become impossible to ignore.
In October, rising diplomatic friction culminated in China’s export halt on rare earth elements.
Rare earths, put simply, are a foundational pillar of modern industrial production and high-end technology. Without them, production stalls—and China’s sudden export freeze sent shockwaves through the executive floors of German industry, especially the automakers, prompting warnings of immediate production shutdowns.
Raw Materials and China’s Leverage in Ukraine
Pressure was therefore immense ahead of Wadephul’s visit. His originally planned trip had been scrapped after Beijing denied him meetings with the key ministers he needed—his counterpart Wang Yi and Commerce Minister Wang Wentao. It was a humiliation that exposed the real power imbalance between Berlin and Beijing.
Wadephul also witnessed firsthand that Beijing is deadly serious about using its geopolitical levers—partly as a way to counter U.S. tariffs and rising trade pressure.
Europe is trapped: on the one hand, it suffers from China’s dumping exports that hollow out European industry. On the other hand, it relies heavily on Chinese rare earths, 90% of which are refined and exported under Chinese licensing authority.
Second Attempt
Thus, on December 8 and 9, the German delegation attempted a second round of engagement with Beijing. Central to the agenda: access to rare earths, chips, raw materials—and China’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Wadephul described the exchanges as “open and intensive,” with progress on economic issues and some signs of de-escalation in the raw materials dispute. He insisted it had been wise to pause, regroup, and attempt talks once more—talks that should also help pave the way for the German Chancellor’s upcoming visit.
Berlin wants to stay engaged, possibly even through a broader European mission, in order to shore up supply security for its industrial base.
But a genuine thaw between Berlin, Brussels, and Beijing remains nowhere in sight. Wadephul’s vague assessment that Beijing, like Germany, was interested in “serious and concrete” dialogue remains noncommittal.
For now, Wadephul leaves with Beijing’s signal that export licenses for rare earths may be issued more readily. But he emphasized that much work remains before supply can be considered truly secure.
China and the U.S. Play Their Cards
Germany imports around two-thirds of its rare earths from China. For key magnet metals—like neodymium, praseodymium, and samarium—the dependence is nearly total. The EU’s strategy to reduce this dependency remains limited to recycling and attempts at building partnerships in South America—none of which have delivered meaningful results.
China’s licensing strategy mirrors Washington’s latest move in the chip war. The U.S. this week unveiled a model under which Nvidia’s H200 chips may be exported to China—provided Beijing pays a 25% levy.
Both superpowers are ruthlessly leveraging their strategic advantages to reorder global trade and secure long-term dominance.
Brussels, meanwhile, must bend, concede, and build new trade alliances. The EU’s failure—after years of talks—to finalize the Mercosur agreement shows Brussels’ inability to compromise, tripping over its own feet even in an area of existential importance.
Europe Caught Between Weakness and Geopolitical Pressure
Brussels and Berlin would have been wise to realign strategically with Washington, drop their resentment toward President Trump, accept U.S. frameworks, and leverage America’s geopolitical umbrella for their own advantage. Europe’s resource and energy dependency is fast becoming its Achilles heel in this global contest for power, markets, and influence.
This makes Wadephul’s largely fruitless visit all the more troubling—German industry is desperate for clarity on rare earth supply security.
It may also have been tactically unwise for Wadephul to press Beijing to use its influence on Moscow and bring Russia back to the negotiating table over Ukraine. Beijing surely noticed that it has been European governments, not China, who have opposed any negotiation track with maximalist rigidity.
In contrast to most assessments of this unimpressive trip, Reuters reported that China may offer priority access to rare earths for European manufacturers as part of a supply-chain stabilization effort. Diversion tactic—or a genuine first step toward rapprochement? The coming weeks will tell.
* * *
About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/12/2025 - 03:30 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:45:00 +0000 Who's Glued To The 'Telly'?
Who's Glued To The 'Telly'?
Who's Glued To The 'Telly'?
The United Kingdom has a particularly strong culture of television viewership .
As Statista's Anna Fleck reports, according to a survey by Statista Consumer Insights, almost a third of UK respondents watch at least 11 hours of television per week.
You will find more infographics at Statista
This is slightly higher than other European nations such as France at 29 percent, or Germany at 28 percent.
By contrast, China has a far lower share of heavy TV users, at just 16 percent.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/12/2025 - 02:45 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:00:00 +0000 Brussels Bureaucrats Push For Expanded Legal Migration Routes Into Europe To Help Those Who 'Dream Of A Better Life'
Brussels Bureaucrats Push For Expanded Legal Migration Routes Into Europe To Help Those Who 'Dream Of A Better Life'
Brussels Bureaucrats Push For Expanded Legal Migration Routes Into Europe To Help Those Who 'Dream Of A Better Life'
Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,
The European Union must expand legal migration channels and intensify pressure on the criminal networks behind illegal border crossings, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday at a global migration conference in Brussels.
Von der Leyen argued that creating structured, regulated routes into the EU is essential if the bloc wants to reduce reliance on smuggling networks.
“We must open more safe pathways, legal pathways to Europe,” she said, urging closer cooperation between Europe and partner countries, including the G7.
“We must make sure that people can find a job where their talent is needed … bring skills across our borders.”
The Commission president highlighted the EU’s new “talent partnerships” — arrangements that allow non-EU citizens to work legally in Europe — saying five countries have already joined and that Brussels hopes more will follow.
She said a newly established “talent pool” would match European employers with qualified workers from outside the bloc, with a pilot “gateway office” in India launching to help jobseekers access legal routes.
If successful, she said, it could become “a blueprint for partnership with other countries.”
She portrayed these initiatives as beneficial to both Europe and partner states through developing skills, creating opportunities, and keeping young people engaged. “By working in partnerships, we have found safe alternatives to the lethal criminal smuggling networks,” she added.
Alongside legal pathways, von der Leyen announced a significant escalation in the EU’s enforcement strategy. Brussels is preparing a new sanctions regime aimed directly at migrant smugglers and the financial channels that sustain them. “We need stronger legal tools to dismantle this criminal business,” she said. “This is why Europe is developing a stringent new sanctions regime against smugglers … Our goal is simple. We want to bankrupt their businesses through all means available.”
The Commission chief said the measures could include travel bans and asset seizures, developed in coordination with G7 partners. She argued that migrants who enter the EU illegally often fall prey to “networks of modern slavery,” and said that expanding legal migration routes was essential to cutting these groups out.
The president also called for a major expansion of the EU’s border agency, Frontex, which she said should be tripled to 30,000 staff as part of wider efforts to reinforce border management and combat illegal immigration. According to von der Leyen, irregular entries have fallen by 37 percent this year, with a 26 percent decline on the most frequently used routes.
Her remarks came amid continued controversy over the EU’s recently adopted Asylum and Migration Pact, which includes faster procedures for returning people without authorization to stay and a mandatory solidarity mechanism. Under the system, member states must accept relocated migrants or make a “solidarity payment” of €20,000 per person if they refuse. Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia have all declared their opposition, while countries such as Poland will receive temporary adjustments to their quotas due to the high number of Ukrainian refugees already hosted.
Von der Leyen acknowledged the political challenges but said the EU’s overarching principle must remain clear: “Europeans decide who crosses the borders and under what conditions, not the smugglers.”
“We all have one common goal,” she told delegates.
“The common goal is to drive the smugglers out of business. To save the lives of thousands of people who dream of a better life.”
At no point in her speech did she mention the effect that illegal immigration has on European citizens. She did not refer to the disproportionate percentage of crimes committed by migrants across the bloc, nor the plummeting levels of security felt among citizens.
Instead, she told attendees, “We must create more bridges between our continents. We must make sure that people can find a job where their talent is needed, match the skills, and bring skills across our borders.”
Read more here...
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/12/2025 - 02:00 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 04:25:00 +0000 NYT Editorial Board Urges US To Prepare For Future War With China
NYT Editorial Board Urges US To Prepare For Future War With China
NYT Editorial Board Urges US To Prepare For Future War With China
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The New York Times editorial board released a video this week calling for the US to "prepare for the future of war" and urged the Pentagon to take drastic steps to be better prepared for a potential fight with China, a conflict that could quickly turn nuclear .
"US politicians often boast that America has the ‘Strongest and most powerful military in the history of the world’ but behind closed doors, they’re being told a different story," the editorial board said. "New York Times Opinion has learned that the Pentagon has been delivering a classified, comprehensive overview of US military power called the Overmatch brief. The report shows what could happen if a war were to break out between China and the United States . The results are alarming ."
The video said that a war with China might seem "purely hypothetical," but claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered the Chinese military to be ready to seize the island of Taiwan by 2027 . However, that timeline is based on claims from the CIA and has never been confirmed by Chinese officials. Xi reportedly told President Biden last year that there were "no such plans" to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.
US Navy image
The Times editorial board said that defending Taiwan “won’t be easy” and called on the US to invest more in new technologies, such as drones, rather than “symbols of might,” referring to large aircraft and warships.
“America must prepare for the future of war. This is the opinion of The New York Times editorial board. You might be thinking America should focus on peace, not war. But one of the most effective ways to prevent a war is to be strong enough to win it. That’s why it’s imperative that we change,” the board said.
The board suggested several steps for the US to take to prepare for war with China, including building “new autonomous weapons and leading the world in controlling them” and relaxing rules on purchasing weapons to “make bets on young companies.”
The video comes after Congress unveiled a $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that, when added to a supplemental spending bill passed earlier this year, will bring the official US military budget to over $1 trillion .
“It’s been nearly 10 years since the Overmatch brief was first delivered. Its warnings have been updated and delivered again to the new Trump administration. We’ve been warned about the urgent need for change. The question is whether we’ll change in time,” the video concluded.
For years now, the Pentagon has named China as the top “pacing threat” facing the US and has been openly preparing for war with China. President Trump’s War Department is expected to prioritize the Homeland and the Western Hemisphere in its coming National Defense Strategy, as outlined by the recently released National Security Strategy , but it will still be putting a focus on a military buildup in the Asia Pacific to get ready for a future clash with China, while stressing that US allies in the region should spend more on their militaries.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/11/2025 - 23:25 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0000 Gaming The System: Huge Proportion Of 'Elite' University Students Claiming Disabilities
Gaming The System: Huge Proportion Of 'Elite' University Students Claiming Disabilities
Just when you thought the ongoing cultivation of weakness in American youth couldn't get much worse, huge proportions of the student bod
Read more.....
Gaming The System: Huge Proportion Of 'Elite' University Students Claiming Disabilities
Just when you thought the ongoing cultivation of weakness in American youth couldn't get much worse, huge proportions of the student bodies at US universities are enrolling with official disability designations that bestow various accommodations upon the students who claim them. As you may have expected, the alarming trend is most pronounced at what are supposed to be the most "elite" institutions.
We're not talking about people in wheelchairs, but rather students snagging diagnoses for ADHD, anxiety and depression from indulgent doctors. "It’s rich kids getting extra time on tests," an un-tenured professor at a selective university told The Atlantic 's Rose Horowitch. Apparently fearing backlash, he requested anonymity.
The numbers are jarring. Harvard and Brown's undergraduate student body is 20% "disabled." Amherst has hit 34%, while Stanford's disability rate is a head-shaking 38% . At one unidentified law school, 45% of students have been awarded academic accommodations. In stark contrast, only 3 to 4% of students at public two-year colleges get disability accommodations.
"Obviously, something is off here," observes Emma Camp at Reason . "The idea that some of the most elite, selective universities in America—schools that require 99th percentile SATs and sterling essays—would be educating large numbers of genuinely learning disabled students is clearly bogus."
Disabled students are often given time-and-a-half or double-time to finish a test, and the freedom to turn in papers well beyond the given due date. However, extra time isn't the only benefit. At Carnegie-Mellon, a social-anxiety disorder can ensure a student isn't called upon by a professor without advance notice.
Schools also let supposedly learning-disabled students take tests in "reduced distraction testing environments," as being in a room with 80 other people is apparently just too taxing for them. However, a University of Chicago professor told the Atlantic that a deluge of students taking tests in the "reduced distraction testing environments" means those rooms are pretty much as "distracting" as a conventional classroom supposedly is.
In what may be the most darkly amusing accommodation, a public college in California allowed a student to bring her mother to class -- which backfired when the mother went beyond whatever role she was expected to play and eagerly participated in the discussions, tuition-free.
Professor Paul Graham Fisher, who'd previously co-chaired Stanford's disability task force, told the Atlantic:
“I have had conversations with people in the Stanford administration. They’ve talked about at what point can we say no? What if it hits 50 or 60 percent? At what point do you just say ‘We can’t do this’?”
Plenty of these students are likely motivated by a cut-throat desire to gain advantage. However, equally bad, it's possible a majority of these students sincerely consider themselves disabled . "Over the past few years, there's been a rising push to see mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions as not just a medical fact, but an identity marker," writes Reason's Camp, who notes that social media and other factors foster a rush to attribute common human fallibilities as some kind of medical condition. "The result is a deeply distorted view of 'normal,'" says Camp. "If ever struggling to focus or experiencing boredom is a sign you have ADHD, the implication is that a 'normal,' nondisabled person has essentially no problems."
The disability rush isn't limited to elite college campuses. High school students are using disability designations to score extra time on SAT and ACT tests . "We are also well aware of fliers in the district circulating among parents of doctors in the area who are known to hand out ADHD diagnoses ," a high school teacher at an affluent public school told We Are Teachers . "In some cases, I think what’s happening is a pay-to-play situation.”
And the decline of the West proceeds apace...
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/11/2025 - 23:00 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 03:35:00 +0000 FDA Investigating Deaths Potentially Linked To COVID-19 Vaccines Across Age Ranges
FDA Investigating Deaths Potentially Linked To COVID-19 Vaccines Across Age Ranges
FDA Investigating Deaths Potentially Linked To COVID-19 Vaccines Across Age Ranges
Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is looking into the potential links between COVID-19 vaccination and deaths in various age groups, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
A nurse holds a COVID-19 vaccine in Miami, Fla., in this undated file photograph. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The FDA investigation is being carried out as part of a safety review, a HHS spokesperson said on Dec. 9.
The probe follows a Nov. 28 memo by Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), which revealed that COVID-19 vaccines were likely implicated in the deaths of at least 10 children.
The spokesperson did not provide details on which age groups will be covered or what criteria the FDA will use to determine which cases fall within the scope of the investigation.
Data published by the World Health Organization showed that more than 700 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States since December 2020.
The Epoch Times reached out to the HHS for further comment, but did not hear back by publication time.
Prasad said in the memo that the findings were based on a review of 96 death reports voluntarily submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between 2021 and 2024. The memo did not disclose the health conditions of the children or the vaccine manufacturers involved.
“If anything, this represents conservative coding, where vaccines are exculpated rather than indicted in cases of ambiguity. The real number is higher ,” he stated in the memo. “This is a profound revelation.”
Prasad, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, was one of the early opponents of keeping COVID-19 vaccines available for younger people. He has has supported COVID-19 vaccination for seniors and younger people with underlying conditions.
The investigation was spurred by concerns that the previous administration misled the public about harms COVID-19 vaccines can cause, including myocarditis, or heart inflammation, Prasad indicated in the memo.
The memo states that the FDA never required manufacturers to demonstrate—through randomized controlled trials—that vaccinating children reduced hospitalization or death. Available data, Prasad wrote, are deeply limited, rely on methods with notorious biases, and fail to establish whether the vaccine saved more children than it harmed.
Prasad criticized common assertions that COVID-19 infection posed a greater myocarditis risk than vaccination, saying that this claim is wrong, that existing studies use “a false denominator,” and fail to evaluate risk-benefit trade-offs for healthy adolescents and young adults.
“Finally, the FDA has failed to properly enforce many required post market commitments for COVID-19 vaccines, including for pregnant women and to document subclinical myocarditis ,” he wrote.
Prasad said that CBER will take swift action on the safety concerns and will no longer grant marketing authorization for vaccines in pregnant women based on “unproven” surrogate antibody endpoints.
He added that the agency will shift vaccine regulation toward evidence-based standards and revise its annual flu vaccine framework.
Tom Ozimek, Zachary Stieber and Reuters contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/11/2025 - 22:35 Close
Fri, 12 Dec 2025 03:10:00 +0000 Criminalizing Bible Verses? Canadian Lawmakers Target Religious Expression With Proposed 'Hate Speech' Amendment
Criminalizing Bible Verses? Canadian Lawmakers Target Religious Expression With Proposed 'Hate Speech' Amendment
In a move that should alarm anyone who is pro-free speech, members of Canada’s Liberal Party have capitulated to pressu
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Criminalizing Bible Verses? Canadian Lawmakers Target Religious Expression With Proposed 'Hate Speech' Amendment
In a move that should alarm anyone who is pro-free speech, members of Canada’s Liberal Party have capitulated to pressure from Quebec’s ultra-secular separatist party by voting to strip away a longstanding religious exemption from the country's hate-speech laws as part of the draconian Bill C-9, also known as the so-called Combating Hate Act.
Clergy stand outside of the Martyrs' Shrine in Ontario, Canada
Canada’s Criminal Code has long shielded good-faith religious expression with a clear exemption that speech is not hate propaganda “if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.”
On Tuesday evening, that protection was casually deleted at the Bloc Québécois insistence.
CBC has the details on what happened next:
Progress appeared to stall after an initial committee meeting to go over the bill was abruptly cancelled last week. Three sources speaking to CBC News said the bill was held up because Justice Minister Sean Fraser’s office brokered the deal with the Bloc without getting buy-in from the Prime Minister’s Office. Tuesday's meeting was scheduled last-minute after last week's cancellation. The Bloc has long sought to remove the religious exemption, saying religion could be used as a cover for promoting hate , such as homophobia and antisemitism . Blanchet said his party would not support the bill without the amendment.
Conservatives immediately sounded the alarm. Canadian Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre warned on X that the amendment would “criminalize sections of the Bible, Qur’an, Torah and other sacred texts.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Conservative MP Andrew Lawton accused the Liberals and Bloc of mounting “a full-scale assault on religious freedom.” When the amendment passed anyway, Conservative members filibustered, forcing an adjournment before clause-by-clause study could be completed.
Canada’s Justice Minister Fraser, scrambling to contain the fallout, claimed the change “will not criminalize faith” and “in no way, shape or form prevent a religious leader from reading their religious texts.” Freedom of religion remains a Charter right, Fraser said—as if repeating the obvious somehow negates the chilling effect of removing an explicit statutory shield.
Fraser went on to argue that the exemption is “redundant” and that the government knows of no case in which it has ever led to an acquittal. One struggles to recall the last time the Carney government boasted about making a law stricter because the existing one had never actually been needed as a defense.
Sheila Gunn Reid of Rebel News summed up her opposition to the bill perfectly.
"Never forget: during COVID, this same political establishment jailed pastors for the “crime” of holding worship services. If they were willing to imprison pastors for preaching, what do you think they’ll do with new Criminal Code powers aimed explicitly at “religiously motivated” speech? They’ve done it before. They’ll do it again," she wrote. "Bill C-9 is not a hate-speech bill. It is a power-seizing bill. It is a faith-targeting bill. It is a censorship bill. And it must be defeated. If you value free speech, free worship, free thought — now is the time to speak."
Bill C-9 isn't law yet as it still requires third reading in the House and passage through the Senate.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/11/2025 - 22:10 Close