Tag: Politics

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) posed a series of questions to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeking clarity on the recent arrest of a Pakistani national regarding his attempts to assassinate high-ranking U.S. government officials, allegedly including former President Donald Trump, in light of the fact that he was flagged on a federal watchlist and recently granted immigration parole.

The alleged Pakistani plotter, Asif Raza Merchant, 46, was apprehended on July 12, 2024, when he attempted to leave the United States. Currently in federal custody in New York, Merchant’s plot was foiled when he allegedly conspired with undercover agents, who posed as assassins, to attempt to murder high-ranking U.S. citizens.

The alleged scheme was conducted as part of a larger Iranian ploy to retaliate against the killing of General Qasem Soleimani, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, according to an Aug. 6 Justice Department (DOJ) statement that revealed the incident. Soleimani was taken down in 2020 during the Trump administration for aiming to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

On Aug. 9, Grassley wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking him for more information regarding Merchant’s immigration parole status. Citing media reports, Grassley said that Merchant was interviewed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force upon his arrival in the United States on April 13 because he was flagged in the federal database as a “Lookout Qualified Person of Interest.”

Despite this, Merchant was granted Significant Public Benefit Parole on April 13 by the DHS, which he overstayed after it expired on May 11, Grassley said. He asked the DHS to provide answers to the following:

1. Did the DHS grant Merchant Significant Public Benefit Parole before or after his placement on the terrorist watchlist and being listed as a “Lookout Qualified Person of Interest”?
2. On what basis was Merchant granted Significant Public Benefit Parole?
3. Provide the entire Alien Registration File (A-File) for Asif Raza Merchant.
4. How many individuals on the Terrorist Screening Database have DHS granted parole and allowed entry into the United States?

Following Merchant’s arrest, Garland said, “The Justice Department will spare no resource to disrupt and hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against American citizens and will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to target American public officials and endanger America’s national security.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray said of the incident: “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s complaint allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook.

“A foreign-directed plot to kill a public official, or any U.S. citizen, is a threat to our national security and will be met with the full might and resources of the FBI.”

Assassination Attempts on Trump

The Pakistani national’s plan to assassinate Trump has not been confirmed by federal agencies. The Epoch Times reached out to the DHS and the DOJ for comment regarding the issue. The FBI declined to comment.

According to court documents, Merchant’s plot involved “three different criminal schemes: (1) stealing documents or USB drives from a target’s home; (2) planning a protest; and (3) killing a politician or government official.”

Merchant told the confidential source, an undercover agent, that “trusted” people would be needed to conduct the killing and perform protests after the incident as a distraction, and that they would need “a woman to do ‘reconnaissance.’”

Merchant paid the agent an advance sum of $5,000 to hire hitmen and told him that the final plans would be revealed after Merchant left the country.

He was subsequently arrested on July 12, a day before Trump was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“The failure of the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania, is even more outrageous in light of suspected Iranian-backed assassins targeting former Trump Administration officials, including President Trump himself. That day, the threat of sniper attacks was even higher than normal,” House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in a statement after the DOJ unsealed its charges against Merchant.

“I was previously briefed concerning the Iranian threat and the circumstances of Mr. Merchant’s arrest and questioned then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on whether she had reviewed the intelligence concerning the Iranian threat. She confirmed to me that she read the intelligence and was aware of this Iranian murder-for-hire plot.”

Authored by Cara Michelle Miller via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Erythritol is a popular choice for those looking to cut down on sugar without losing flavor, but its health effects are often debated. New Cleveland Clinic research reveals a concerning finding: Erythritol makes platelets—blood cells involved in clotting—more active, leading them to react more strongly and increasing the risk of blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.

Cleveland Clinic researchers say this discovery, part of a series exploring the physiological effects of common sugar substitutes, may prompt a reassessment of how we use this sweetener.

The new findings build on the research team’s prior erythritol study. The previous study was limited because some of the participants had poor health, with over 70 percent having cardiovascular issues. The new study addresses these limitations by recruiting healthy adults.

“This research adds to increasing evidence that erythritol raises cardiovascular risk. In a small group of healthy volunteers, we show ingesting erythritol made platelets more hyper-responsive … which can raise the risk of blood clots,” senior and corresponding author Dr. Stanley Hazen, chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and co-section head of Preventive Cardiology, told The Epoch Times in an email.

Unlike Sugar, Erythritol Can Promote Excess Blood Clotting

Erythritol is a popular sugar substitute used in many “low-carb” and “keto” foods. It is about 70 percent as sweet as sugar and is produced by fermenting corn or wheat starch. Health and weight-loss professionals often recommend it as a safer alternative to sugar for individuals with high cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome.

Although erythritol is classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority and is naturally found in fruits and vegetables, recent studies by Hazen’s group indicate that consuming typical amounts of erythritol may pose an increased cardiovascular risk.

“This paper builds on our earlier studies with erythritol [published in 2023 in Nature Medicine],” said Hazen, in which large-scale clinical observation studies in the United States and Europe showed that cardiac patients with higher levels of erythritol in their blood were twice as likely to suffer a major cardiac event—such as heart attack, stroke, or death—within the next three years compared to those with lower levels. The study also showed that adding erythritol to blood or platelets increased clot formation. Preclinical studies confirmed these findings.

The previous study had some limitations. Dr. Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist and clinical director of the COVID-19 Task Force at Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta, told The Epoch Times that it was a clinical observation study, which means it could show correlations but not establish causation. Additionally, the study’s participants were in poor health; they were overweight, had high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking habits, and existing cardiovascular issues. So it was unknown if their elevated risks were due to their poor health or due to erythritol consumption.

The new human intervention study, published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, was designed to closely monitor how erythritol ingestion affects platelets at a dose typically contained “in commercial products,” such as an erythritol-sweetened soda or muffin, explained Hazen.

In 20 healthy volunteers—nonsmokers with no cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes—blood samples were taken after an overnight fast. Participants then consumed a solution with either 30 grams of glucose or erythritol. Blood samples taken 30 minutes later showed that erythritol levels increased over 1,000 times in those who ingested erythritol.

Results also “revealed participants showed a significant increase in the susceptibility for blood clot formation after consuming erythritol,” according to Hazen. “In stark contrast, no change was observed in participants after consuming a comparable amount of glucose. A significant new finding in these studies was the direct comparison of results with sugar (glucose), which did not have this effect.”

Hazen explained that erythritol makes platelets more responsive, meaning they become more reactive and prone to forming clots. Consequently, even a minor trigger can cause a more robust activation of platelets, increasing the likelihood of blood clots. This heightened responsiveness can lead to excessive clotting.

“This was seen [in the previous paper] in whole blood, with platelet rich plasma, with isolated platelets, in animal models of disease,” he added. “The results of these mechanistic studies are all aligned with the prior large scale clinical observation data showing higher erythritol levels track with higher risk of major adverse cardiac events.”

1 Serving of Erythritol May Trigger Clot Formation

“This research raises some concerns that a standard serving of an erythritol-sweetened food or beverage may acutely stimulate a direct clot-forming effect,” study co-author Dr. W. H. Wilson Tang, research director for Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, said in a press release. “Erythritol and other sugar alcohols that are commonly used as sugar substitutes should be evaluated for potential long-term health effects especially when such effects are not seen with glucose itself.”

He added that these findings are particularly significant because they follow a recent study by the same research group, which found that xylitol, another common sweetener, also increased blood levels and affected how blood cells clump together in healthy volunteers.

Like erythritol, Hazen noted in the email, “the investigations with xylitol also included large-scale clinical observation studies showing that elevation in plasma xylitol levels is associated with increased risk for heart attack, stroke or death over three years of follow-up.”

These findings underscore the importance of further long-term clinical studies to reassess the safety of erythritol and other sugar substitutes, according to both researchers.

The Rise of Erythritol: A ‘Natural’ Alternative to Synthetic Sweeteners

Concerns about the long-term effects of synthetic sweeteners have led many to seek “natural” alternatives like erythritol, a widely used substitute for artificial sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet’N Low), and aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet).

While these artificial sweeteners were once favored for their calorie-free sweetness, they now face increasing scrutiny. For instance, aspartame has been linked to potential cancer risks, while saccharin has been associated with obesity and diabetes in animal studies.

In May 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised against using nonsugar sweeteners, citing evidence that they do not support long-term weight loss and come with other health risks. The recommendations apply to everyone except those with preexisting diabetes.

Erythritol, on the other hand, is often recommended for diabetics because it doesn’t raise blood sugar levels and reduces dental plaque and tooth decay.

Reconsidering Erythritol: What the Latest Research Means for Your Diet

Based on the evidence, Hazen said, “Choosing sugar-sweetened treats occasionally and in small amounts would be preferable to consuming drinks and foods sweetened with these sugar alcohols, especially for people at elevated risk of thrombosis such as those with heart disease, diabetes or metabolic syndrome.”

He added that future research will “explore how broadly the pro-thrombotic effect is in alternative sugar substitutes. Including both alternative sugar alcohols and common artificial sweeteners.”

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. gun maker Smith & Wesson asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 8 for “immediate review” of its appeal in Mexico’s ongoing $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. firearms companies.

The request was made after a lower court on Aug. 7 threw out the case against six out of eight gun companies in the lawsuit, which is pending in federal district court in Massachusetts. The decision left gun maker Smith & Wesson and gun wholesaler Interstate Arms remaining as defendants.

In the suit, Mexico is seeking $10 billion from U.S. gun companies for allegedly flooding that country with firearms. Mexico blames the companies for a violent crime wave, saying their actions benefited criminal cartels.

Although some gun control activists welcome Mexico’s lawsuit, gun rights advocates say it constitutes foreign interference in U.S. affairs and is aimed at crippling the U.S. firearms industry and weakening the Second Amendment protections enjoyed by Americans.

The gun companies say the suit is barred by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) of 2005, which was enacted to protect the industry from frivolous lawsuits.

The Supreme Court already is scheduled to consider on Sept. 30 whether to hear the appeal of the eight gun companies called Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

The appeal concerns the Jan. 22 decision of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that allowed the lawsuit to proceed.

Circuit Judge William Kayatta wrote that even though the PLCAA limits lawsuits that foreign governments may bring in U.S. courts for harm experienced outside the United States, Mexico could move forward because it made a plausible argument that the companies committed “knowing violations of statutes regulating the sale or marketing of firearms.”

Mexico claims that illegal gun trafficking into that country is driven largely by Mexican drug cartels’ demands for military-style weapons.

Kayatta wrote that a spike in gun violence in Mexico in recent years “correlates” with the boost in gun production in the United States that started when the U.S. assault weapon ban lapsed in 2004.

The First Circuit returned the case to U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor of Massachusetts, who had previously dismissed the lawsuit against all eight corporate defendants on Sept. 30, 2022.

Saylor found in 2022 that the PLCAA “unequivocally bars lawsuits seeking to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the acts of individuals using guns for their intended purpose.”

When Saylor revisited the case on Aug. 7, he ruled that Mexico had failed to present enough evidence to show that six of the companies were connected to gun crime in Mexico.

The six defendants Saylor dismissed from the suit are Sturm, Ruger & Co.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc.; Glock Inc.; Colt’s Manufacturing Co. LLC; Century International Arms Inc.; and Beretta U.S.A. Corp.

Mexico indicated it may appeal the dismissal decision.

In the meantime, this means that Smith & Wesson and Witmer Public Safety Group, which does business as Interstate Arms, are still named as defendants in the suit pending in Saylor’s court.

In the Aug. 8 filing, Smith & Wesson attorney Noel Francisco of Jones Day in Washington told the Supreme Court that “immediate review … is still needed” because Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms are “unaffected by” the Aug. 7 decision.

“As a result, Mexico is still pursuing ‘joint and several’ liability—to the tune of billions of dollars, plus far-reaching injunctive relief—against those two defendants,” Francisco wrote.

With joint and several liability, a plaintiff who secures a judgment against the defendants collectively may collect the full value of the judgment from any of the defendants.

“So just as before, leading members of the American firearms industry are facing years of litigation costs and the specter of business-crushing liability,” Francisco wrote.

“And just as before, this Court’s review is warranted now, because Congress made clear in PLCAA that this sort of lawfare against any law-abiding member of the firearms industry has no business in American courts, and must be promptly dismissed.”

Lawfare is the strategic use of legal proceedings to undermine or frustrate the efforts of an opponent.

Mexico argued in a brief that it filed with the Supreme Court on July 3 that the First Circuit’s decision was correct.

The lawsuit should be allowed to proceed because the companies “deliberately chose to engage in unlawful … conduct to profit off the criminal market for their products.”

According to the brief, the gun companies were wrong to argue that the prospect of them being held “liable for negligence and public nuisance” presents “an existential threat to the gun industry.”

Mexico’s attorney, Cate Stetson of Hogan Lovells in Washington, didn’t respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Stephen Katte contributed to this report.

Authored by Michael Washburn via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The dramatic rise in median home prices in New York City and other busy real estate markets from pre-pandemic levels, and the intense competition for desirable properties, has driven buyers throughout the country to pursue a range of innovative solutions they might never have considered four or five years ago, brokers and real estate lawyers have told The Epoch Times.

With the median home listing price in New York City at $825,000, and a median sale price of $776,100, according to realtor.com figures, the Big Apple stands out as one of the most expensive and competitive markets in the nation.

By comparison, the median price stood at $615,000 in January 2019.

But that does not mean that buyers elsewhere have it easy. Throughout the rest of the country, they are looking long and hard for affordable deals with average home prices poised at $412,300.

The pandemic was something of a turning point. In the period from the first quarter of 2020 to the end of 2024, for example, the average price rose nearly 50 percent, from $329,000 to $479,500, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Mark Scheier, cofounder of Acton, Massachusetts-based real estate law firm Scheier Katin & Epstein, said recent analyses that describe the current market as a buyer’s market—where inventory volume and a relatively low bar for access favor buyers over sellers—are mistaken.

“I’m not experiencing a buyer’s market at all, I’m still experiencing a seller’s market here,” he told The Epoch Times.

Until recently, about 10 percent of the deals Scheier brokered for clients were all-cash deals, while the rest involved some mixture of financing—typically, bank loans—and cash.

“Almost 40 percent of my deals are cash deals, which was never the case before. People are doing everything they can, breaking into their retirement money, pooling all their assets together, to try to make cash deals,” Scheier said.

With prices rising so rapidly, one factor is fear of missing out (FOMO)—an acute sense on the part of many buyers that if they don’t get in now, they will face an even more fiercely competitive market in the near future, he stated.

A corollary to this perception, he said, is the need to acquire properties whose value is increasing dramatically and take advantage of the price appreciation while they still can.

“I’ve been practicing for 51 years, and I’ve seen all the ups and downs, and right now, I think there’s a lot of FOMO going on,” said Scheier.

“The train is leaving without them and if they don’t rush to get on the train, they’re going to lose out on that appreciation. People are feeling that way, so they’re moving ahead, they’re jumping off the cliff.”

Many people in the market are coming to realize that mortgage rates are unlikely to fall back to 2.5 percent in the foreseeable future and that they will have to accept rates of 6.5–7.0 percent, which might have previously put them off trying to close a deal, Scheier noted.

But the historically high prices and the competition requires a diversification of strategy that brokers say they have rarely seen before.

Tough Times

Some real estate industry professionals hailed the $418 million settlement in March of a long-running lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR), Sitzer/Burnett v. NAR Commission.

The lawsuit took issue with agents’ use of the association’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and the practice of charging 6 percent commissions, often split evenly between sellers’ and buyers’ brokers, in property sales.

Michael Downer, a broker at Coldwell Banker Realty in Naples, Florida, said the settlement means that buyers’ brokers can no longer pretend to their clients that they are acting pro bono while in fact automatically getting half of the 6 percent commission paid to sellers’ brokers at closing.

Buy-side brokers will have to be more transparent about what they are actually doing and what compensation they should rightfully receive for their role in a deal.

At the same time, others criticized the outcome on the grounds that purchasers who cease finding a buy-side broker using the MLS will begin working directly with sellers’ brokers, which poses a conflict of interest given those brokers’ preexisting relationships with their own clients.

“From a legal perspective, I don’t know that there has been that significant of a change in laws. Obviously, there was the recent NAR settlement, but it’s just with respect to the use of the MLS,” Zachary Schorr, a real estate lawyer and partner of the Los Angeles-based firm Schorr Law, told The Epoch Times.

In this highly competitive environment, some buyers are even going so far as waive the loan and appraisal contingencies that many have relied upon in the past to guarantee that they can get their deposit back if the mortgage financing they seek doesn’t get approved, or if the appraisal turned up unexpected issues at the property, said Schorr.

It can be a big mistake to waive these things or skirt due diligence—which may lead to serious problems after a sale, and cases of buyer’s remorse. Yet some people these days are acutely conscious of the disadvantage they face with respect to other buyers who are able to present themselves to sellers as unencumbered by any need to secure financing.

“It’s a more strategic way to do it if you’re in the all-cash market, or you’ll be beaten out by all-cash,” said Schorr.

“This is a higher-end market, too. If you’re way above the median price, there are more all-cash buyers.”

Lara Mizrack, a broker at Brown Harris Stevens in New York City, described many buyers’ unease as largely a function of high interest rates, the upcoming election, and international uncertainty. Mizrack acknowledged the distinct advantage that cash buyers hold in the current market.

“An all-cash deal has a faster application process, easier closing, and a seller does not have concerns about bank rejections,” she said.

Creative Approaches

The key for buyers in the current market who are not super-wealthy is to show a high degree of flexibility both with regard to the types of properties they set out to acquire no less than the terms and structures of financing, said Cara Ameer, a broker with Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Finding prices in the range they can afford may sometimes require buyers to look beyond the area where they live and to consider, say, a townhouse or condo unit rather than a single-family home, Ameer told The Epoch Times.

Another option is to buy a property in order to rent it out and use the revenue from the rental to pay off the mortgage and increase their share in the equity of the property in question, she said.

“There are affordable opportunities in virtually every city and state, you just have to know where to look. Smaller towns near colleges and universities are often promising opportunities,” Ameer stated.

“Buyers should also work with a lender well versed in low- to no-downpayment loans, as well as first-time homebuyer programs and creative lending options that can help them access financing.”

Ameer noted that one Southern California lender she works with makes use of a program where buyers do not need to put any money down on a first mortgage and can take out a second mortgage using 3.5 percent in gift funds directly from the lender. The buyer must have funds to cover the closing costs.

The total paid at closing runs to around 3–4 percent of the purchase price, she said. Buyers who do not have the means even to cover that expense at closing can request a cost credit from the seller.

Ameer also pointed to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan programs that require 3.5 percent down, and conventional loan programs with low down payments that cover anywhere from 5 percent to 100 percent of the total purchase price.

Yet another option for buyers who do not have deep pockets is to seek out a property in a state of disrepair, whether that means something as serious as a missing roof or as cosmetic as broken air conditioning, and to apply for a renovation loan, Ameer said.

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