Think Tank Launches Ad Exposing NBC’s Censorship of Climate Debate

A free-market think tank in Washington launched an ad campaign on Jan. 22 aiming to expose the censorship of scientific debate on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” NBC refused to run a paid 30-second ad by the Competitive Enterprise Insititute (CEI), which criticizes “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd for openly banning scientific debate on the topic of global warming.

Todd told his audience in an hourlong special program aired on Dec. 30 that when it comes to climate change “the science is settled even if political opinion is not.” “We’re not going to debate climate change, the existence of it. The Earth is getting hotter, and human activity is a major cause. Period. We’re not going to give time to climate deniers,” Todd said.

The CEI ad points out that there is real debate among climate-change scientists about the extent of global warming its effects. “There has been some warming since the end of the Little Ice Age in the 19th century, but it is a big jump from there to claim global warming is a crisis demanding,” the print ad, which will appear in newspapers, states. “Millions of Americans agree that global warming is not a crisis that requires turning the economy and our lives upside down–but you’d never know that from watching Chuck Todd and ‘Meet the Press.'”

Virtually every major climate model put forth in the past decade has predicted a greater rise in temperatures than what was actually recorded, according to multiple scientific reviews. Instead of hearing from scientists, Todd interviewed politicians who align with climate-change alarmists. Outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown told Todd’s audience that the rise in global temperatures is a threat to Americans similar to that at the outset of World War II. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg said that the climate should take precedence over the economy. The Competitive Enterprise Institute has argued for years that aligning policymaking with an extreme view of climate change is dangerous.

Far-left politicians, including Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), are in full alignment with an extreme view of climate change pushed by alarmists. They are pushing for a package of drastic reforms titled the “Green New Deal,” which would see the U.S. economy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy in 12 years. But the “Green New Deal” would come with staggering economic costs, according to a study by the conservative Heritage Foundation. If implemented it would raise electricity costs by 36 percent for families and 60 percent for businesses, cut the annual income for an average family of four by $2,400, and result in a loss of 1 million jobs. “A renewable electricity standard is not a path to the new economy, but an example of the stale old thinking that will hobble the already damaged economy with job-killing cost increases,” the study concluded.

President Donald Trump does not align with climate change alarmists. He withdrew from the Paris climate accord and has lifted regulations on the energy industry. He frequently takes jabs at climate-change alarmists in Twitter messages. “Be careful and try staying in your house. Large parts of the Country are suffering from tremendous amounts of snow and near record-setting cold. Amazing how big this system is. Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Jan. 20.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/think-tank-launches-ad-exposing-nbcs-censorship-of-climate-debate_2774645.html

North Korea Smuggling Across Chinese Border Increases After Kim Visit to China

Revelations about North Korea’s smuggling activities at its border with China, and the existence of an undeclared missile base could complicate a second scheduled summit in late February between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. South Korea-based online news site Daily NK, reported on Jan. 17 that smuggling activities at the border between North Korea and China increased after Kim’s visit to China in early January, citing multiple unnamed sources in the Northern Korean province of Ryanggang. The January visit was Kim’s fourth visit to China since his first in March 2018. In all four meetings, Kim met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Copper and zinc—common materials used in manufacturing—produced at North Korea’s Hyesan Mine, located in Ryanggang, are being smuggled “en masse into China,” according to Daily NK, due to the fact that North Korean authorities “have relaxed a bit” in their crackdown on smuggling. Daily NK noted that the sales of North Korean minerals is a violation of international sanctions.

Several North Korean firms were named in connection with the mineral sales, including Kangsong Trading Company, Yonun Company, and Mirim Company—all of which had obtained the rights to export minerals on behalf of the North Korean regime, according to Daily NK. At the same time, people living near the Hyesan Mine are themselves selling excavated minerals in order to earn a living.

The North Korean military units and government agencies are also involved in mineral sales with approval from Pyongyang—in flagrant violation of sanctions, according to Daily NK. For example, the 8th General Bureau of the North Korean military, and the South Korean Liaison Office, have set up stations at a mine in Hyesan City in Ryanggang, to export the minerals to China. About 70 percent of those minerals are zinc, copper, tungsten, molybdenum, magnesia clinker, gold, and silver, according to Daily NK. In return, North Korea has imported diesel, petroleum, flour, soybean oil, sugar, and car and motorcycle parts from China.

According to Daily NK, locals in the region call the trade state-sponsored smuggling, since at least 30 trading companies in Hyesan were involved in the trade. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2321 in 2016, prohibiting North Korea from exporting minerals, including copper, nickel, silver, and zinc. North Korea could also be violating UN Resolution 2397, stated Daily NK, which was passed in 2018 and limits North Korea’s imports of refined petroleum to 500,000 barrels per year.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/north-korea-smuggling-across-chinese-border-increases-after-kim-visit-to-china_2774942.html

EU Sanctions Russian Suspects Over Novichok Poisoning

The European Union has sanctioned the heads of Russia’s military intelligence and two of its agents in response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK last year. The EU has imposed travel bans and asset freezes on the men the UK has accused of being Russian intelligence officers, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Both men have denied being involved in the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury, United Kingdom, in March 2018.

Igor Olegovich Kostyukov and Vladimir Stepanovich Alexseyev, the head and deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, have also been sanctioned. “These designations include the two GRU officials, and the head and deputy head of the GRU responsible for possession, transport, and use in Salisbury of a toxic nerve agent on the weekend of March 4, 2018,” the EU said in a statement. Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a statement that the sanctions “deliver on our vow to take tough action against the reckless and irresponsible activities of the Russian military intelligence organization, the GRU, which put innocent British citizens in serious danger in Salisbury last year.” Britain’s Foreign Office said the sanctions “[underline] the responsibility of the GRU in this reckless use of a chemical weapon in Salisbury.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the decision. “They are suspected groundlessly,” he told reporters on a conference call. “We have still not heard any evidence.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/eu-sanctions-russian-suspects-over-novichok-poisoning_2774793.html

CERN Plans New Particle Accelerator 4 Times Larger Than Current One

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world’s largest particle physics laboratory established in 1954, are considering the possibility of building a new particle accelerator four times larger than the current Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Last week on Jan. 15, officials at CERN near Geneva in Switzerland released a concept paper for a Future Circular Collider (FCC) that has been five years in the making. They hoped to outline a future collider that could potentially succeed the LHC in the hopes that it could “significantly expand our knowledge of matter and the universe.” CERN officials say the FCC would be 100 kilometers (62 miles) in circumference, which is much larger than the 27 kilometers (17 miles) of the LHC. It would sit next to the LHC under the Swiss-French border near Geneva.

The FCC is purported to enable much more powerful particle collisions compared to what the current LHC can achieve, reaching up to 100 trillion electron volts (TeV) in energy, or seven times more than the current 14 TeV potential of the LHC. The proposed FCC project, which is yet to be approved, is the culmination of a large international collaboration involving 1,300 contributors from 150 universities, research institutes, and industrial partners. Officials hope for a decision by CERN’s 22 member states within the next few years. As CERN does not generate its own power and is run off the French electrical grid, it remains unclear how the huge energy requirements of the FCC will be met given France’s predicted shortfall in energy generation by 2025, when more than half of its nuclear power plants approach their end of life with plans to replace the plants with renewable sources of energy generation.

Phil Marshall, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford, said that the LHC already has a frightening energy demand. According to a 2011 article in Physics World, the LHC’s €10 million ($11.36 million) annual energy bill was as big as that of all households in the region around Geneva. In 2015, CERN’s website said that following upgrades, the LHC would require 20 percent more electricity to run.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/cern-plans-new-particle-accelerator-4-times-larger-than-current-one_2774414.html

Info France's Power Grid

https://www.lhc-closer.es/taking_a_closer_look_at_lhc/0.energy_consumption

The Higgs boson

https://home.cern/science/physics/higgs-boson