A federal judge in California awarded over $1 million to two child siblings who were held by Customs and Border Protection in 2019 even though they are U.S. citizens, court records show. Most of that amount went to the sister, then 9, who was held in custody for around 34 hours after she and her 14-year-old brother were stopped while they were using the San Ysidro border crossing from Mexico to California. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Friday awarded $1.1 million to the sister; $...

Here’s the latest news about a global outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that started in 2020, and recently spread among cattle in U.S. states and marine mammals across the world, which has health officials closely monitoring it and experts concerned the virus could mutate and eventually spread to humans, where it has proven rare but deadly. Finland said it plans to begin vaccinating vulnerable populations like farm workers against bird flu as early as next week using 10,000 vaccine series—...

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a $30 billion antitrust settlement under which Visa and Mastercard agreed to limit fees they charge merchants that accept their credit and debit cards. U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York Margo Brodie in Brooklyn said she was unlikely to grant final approval to the settlement and therefore denied the request for preliminary approval made by a group of merchants made up primarily of small businesses.

Last November, just weeks into the war in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a brash, 42-year-old Likud minister in the Israeli government, was called into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to brief lawmakers on what could be done about rising anti-war protests from young people across the United States, especially at elite universities. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now, that I think we should, especially in the United States, be on the offensive,” argued Chikli. Chikli has...

Since the founding of the Israeli state in 1948, “Haredi” (or “ultra-Orthodox”) men have been exempted from military service to study Torah instead. Haredi students and their families would be subsidized by the state. At Israel’s founding, Haredim made up less that 3 percent of the population. The military exemption was for just 400 exceptional students. In light of the devastation of centers of Jewish learning during the Holocaust, this was not an unreasonable proposition. Even by 1975,...

Bolivian President Luis Arce announced three new heads of the South American country's armed forces following an attempted coup in which military units used armored vehicles to ram into the doors of Bolivia's government palace before the army general allegedly responsible was arrested. The news of the new heads of the army, navy and air force came amid the roar of supporters. "The country is facing an attempted coup d’état. Here we are, firm in Casa Grande, to confront any coup...

The Biomedical State exists. Its players are part of a global public health regime. It is controlled by national governments, research institutes and domestic public health authorities but it will be publicly […]

by Jack Montgomery, The National Pulse: Illegal aliens and other “non-citizens” can receive voter registration forms without needing to show proof of citizenship in at least 49 states. They can use these forms to access welfare benefits and obtain driver’s licenses and mail-in ballots. Only Arizona has passed a law preventing this—but it applies only to state forms, not federal […]

Andrey Ivanov remembers 2011 and 2012 all too clearly. A drought had been declared across much of England. The spring of 2011 was named the driest in the country since 1893, followed by the region’s driest autumn since 1985.  This put a brief end to the usual complaints about the stereotypically rainy English weather. But for Ivanov, general manager of Wilkin & Sons, the farming operation known for producing the country’s most iconic fruit, this was bad news. Ivanov had a tough decision to make. With the farm’s reservoirs running low and no rain in sight, he decided to use the remaining water supply to irrigate half the farm’s signature strawberry and raspberry crops. The other half would be sacrificed, to give the irrigated crop the best chance of being fully harvestable. The alternative would be unthinkable: continue to irrigate all crops equally, then run out of water and lose everything. After a scary season of drought, “rainwater harvesting seemed like common sense,” Ivanov says. Courtesy of Wilkin and Sons Then, on April 12, 2012, “the heavens opened,” Ivanov recalls, the date clearly imprinted in his memory. The driest season on record turned into the wettest, saving all of the crop. But Ivanov didn’t want the farm to reach such a crisis point again, so he began looking for solutions — and realized the answer had been above his head, and on the farm, all along. Rainwater harvesting had been introduced at Wilkin & Sons on a small scale in the 1980s, by diverting rainwater traveling through the gutters from the farm’s buildings into newly built reservoirs to store it. Ivanov then expanded the process to include the roof space of all the farm’s greenhouses and polytunnels (smaller greenhouse-like structures) and built more reservoirs to increase the amount of rainwater the farm could store. Now, pipes are attached to all the gutters within the farm’s 50 acres of covered structures, so rainwater can travel to seven reservoirs across the 650 acre property, rather than being lost to the sea. Drip irrigation is used in the greenhouses, and any water runoff is captured and reused. Courtesy of Wilkin and Sons “After that scary moment we had to do something to become water resilient, and rainwater harvesting seemed like common sense,” Ivanov says. He also introduced a system for recovering and treating the water that is used to wash the harvested fruit, to be able to use it again for irrigation. Condensation from the greenhouses’ external walls is also captured and reused. Today, all seven reservoirs are full, holding 125 million liters of water, the equivalent of around 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It’s the first time Wilkin & Sons has been fully self-sufficient when it comes to water, with no need to divert water from nearby streams and ditches (although the farm still has a license to do so; this used to be its primary water source).  There are no nearby rivers or underground water sources. The irony of the original Wilkin family choosing 200 years ago to farm fruit in what is officially England’s driest county is not lost on Ivanov. But, he acknowledges, changes in farming have led to a greater need for regular, reliable water access. “The crops used to be outdoors, now they are undercover in greenhouses to protect them, so they don’t have direct access when it does rain,” says Ivanov. “Our footprint in terms of growing area is much more intensive, and our harvesting season is becoming much longer, so they [previously] didn’t need as much water then as they do now.” The transitions Ivanov describes began when Wilkin & Sons entered the fresh fruit market for the first time in 2002. It was one of the changes the Bulgarian expat introduced when he joined, not long out of his science and agricultural economics degree in his home capital, Sofia.  This saw Wilkin & Sons expand beyond its famous Tiptree jam, which it has been making since 1885. The jam has become a central part of afternoon tea served at the 10 Tiptree tea rooms and is also sold internationally.