News of the World

[kyonides]

Democrats Want to Transfer Missile Systems From Saudi Arabia to Ukraine as Punishment

A group of top congressional Democrats is aiming to punish Saudi Arabia after the OPEC+ announcement to cut oil production by taking back U.S. missile systems as well as other missiles and giving them to Ukraine instead.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced in a statement that “for several years, the U.S. military has deployed Patriot missile defense batteries to Saudi Arabia to help defend oil infrastructure against missile and drone attacks.”

Specifically, the Democrat wrote that the United States should reroute 280 missile systems and send them to Ukraine.

“If Saudi Arabia isn’t willing to take the side of Ukraine and U.S. over Russia, why should we keep these Patriots in Saudi Arabia when Ukraine and our NATO allies need them?” Murphy said. “We should remove these Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia and move them to either Ukraine, or NATO partners who have transferred weapons to Ukraine and need to backfill defense systems.”

Elaborating, Murphy wrote that the “Ukrainians are using (and need more) air-to-air AMRAAM missiles,” adding that they are “needed to defend against” Russian airstrikes. “The U.S. is scheduled to send 280 AMRAAMs to Saudi Arabia. These should be redirected to Ukraine,” he declared.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told the Guardian newspaper that “at the very least, the Patriot missiles will be suspended,” adding that “at a minimum, it is going to happen.”

Xi Says China Will Never Renounce Right to Use Force Over Taiwan as CCP Political Conference Opens

Held every five years, the CCP’s 20th Party congress kicked off in Beijing amid public frustration fueled by escalated COVID-19 restrictions at home and international criticism of the CCP aggression toward Taiwan.

During the weeklong meeting, the next round of the Party’s top leadership will be announced, while Xi, 69, is likely to secure a record third five-year term in office, cementing his place as the Party’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.
...
Reaffirming the Party’s hard stance, Xi said China would “never promise to renounce the use of force” on Taiwan, angering the self-ruled island, which vowed to defend its sovereignty and democracy.
...
During the speech, the words “security” and “safety” appeared more frequently than five years ago... While he mentioned food security and supply chain security, the emphasis was given to “national security.”

Popular Athletic Clothing Brands Have High Levels of Hormone Disrupting Chemical BPA: Watchdog Group

Sports bras and athletic shirts made by some of the major global sports brands were found to contain dangerous levels of the estrogen-mimicking chemical bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, posing a considerable risk to people’s health, according to legal notices sent by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH).

BPA—an endocrine disrupting chemical that upsets the body’s functioning through blocking or mimicking hormones—is linked to developmental and health problems mostly for young children. For adults, studies have found that high levels of the chemical results in heart problems, while experts have connected BPA to obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and other ailments, with more research pending for definitive conclusions.

The CEH has sent legal notices to Athleta, PINK, Asics, The North Face, Brooks, All in Motion, Nike, and FILA regarding sports bras, and The North Face, Brooks, Mizuno, Athleta, New Balance, and Reebok for its activewear shirt collection. Testing conducted on branded clothing showed that individual wearers were exposed to 22 times the safe limit as permitted under California law.

“Studies have shown that BPA can be absorbed through skin and end up in the bloodstream after handling receipt paper for seconds or a few minutes at a time. Sports bras and athletic shirts are worn for hours at a time, and you are meant to sweat in them, so it is concerning to be finding such high levels of BPA in our clothing,” said Kaya Allan Sugerman, director of the Illegal Toxic Threats Program at CEH.