Medieval Diseases Have Returned To Los Angeles

Medieval Diseases Have Returned To Los Angeles

TYLER DURDEN

In what can only be described as a stunning failure of state and local policy and leadership, Los Angeles County recorded its highest tally of flea-borne typhus cases in 2025, confirming 220 diagnoses, up from 187 the year before, according to the county's Department of Public Health. Almost nine in ten of those patients ended up hospitalized. Fleas that feed on infected rats, opossums, and other small mammals carry the bacteria behind the disease to humans, and Los Angeles has watched the case count climb for years. The 2025 total marks the sharpest jump yet.

Dr. Dean Winslow has practiced infectious disease medicine for fifty years. He taught at Stanford, ran COVID-19 testing programs for the federal government, and served as President Trump's 2017 nominee for assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. Asked whether a typhus outbreak in one of the wealthiest counties in America points to a broader failure in public health and sanitation, Winslow gave a one-word answer. "Absolutely," he told the Daily Signal.

"It's largely an issue of ... people living in just horrible conditions in close proximity to rats," Winslow said, naming rodents as the primary vector for the infection's spread.

The conditions track with the county's homelessness numbers. Homelessness in LA County rose 3.3% over the past year, and in the city of Los Angeles itself the figure climbed 7.9%, according to data from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Winslow said encampments put residents at heightened risk given their proximity to rats, though he cautioned the problem extends beyond encampments alone.

Asked what he would tell city officials, Winslow said the priority should be to "get a handle again on rat control issues."

That task has gotten harder since 2020, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1788 into law, restricting the use of four rodenticides over concerns about their effects on mountain lions and other wildlife. Winslow pointed to the restrictions as one likely culprit behind the county's swelling rat population, since pest-control operators have shifted toward traps and less potent methods in response. "Those may be two reasons why ... the rat population is out of control [in LA]," he said.

The county's own public health guidance seems to put the burden of prevention on residents, telling them to keep pets on flea-control products, avoid stray animals, clear yard debris, secure trash in tightly lidded containers, and report rodents or opossums to animal control. Mayor Karen Bass's office did not respond to the Daily Signal's request for comment.

"This is about plague rats that have returned," Rufo told Hugh Hewitt on the Salem News Channel. "So we did a story, we did FOIA, we got 1,000 pages of documents from the County Health Department in Los Angeles. And the picture that these documents painted was quite grim. You have a return of typhus, you have outbreaks of hantavirus, you have really a plethora of medieval diseases that are on the rise in LA."

Rufo laid out two forces behind the outbreak. "And there are a couple of causes for this. The first is that the homeless encampments that are scattered, not just in Skid Row, but throughout the city, are the perfect breeding ground for rats. And so now there are millions of rats breeding under the streets of Los Angeles. And the County Health Department admits in these internal documents that they're not ready for these outbreaks," he continued. "And at the same time, you have California Governor Gavin Newsom in two separate pieces of legislation in recent years banning all of the most effective rodenticides, so rat poisons that can keep that population at bay. And when you put those ingredients together, you get something that experts predicted in LA seems powerless to stop, which is typhus, including three deaths from typhus in recent years."

Three deaths and 220 hospitalization cases in a single year mark a policy failure in a county that absolutely has the resources to prevent it. Encampments stayed in place. Rodenticides came off the shelf. The health department knew what was coming and clearly could not (or would not) stop it. State and local officials built, permitted, and, in some cases, legislated the conditions that allowed the rat population to multiply beneath the streets of one of the wealthiest cities in America.

UN Security Council ‘Emergency’ Meetings Have Become Political Tool Against Israel, Danon Says

UN Security Council ‘Emergency’ Meetings Have Become Political Tool Against Israel, Danon Says

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called on Wednesday for changes to the U.N. Security Council’s process for convening emergency meetings, which he said has become a political tool used disproportionately against the Jewish state.

“It shouldn’t be that you just send a fax or email and you have a session,” Danon told JNS, ahead of his remarks. “It should be not only one country, maybe three countries, and actually use it when it’s needed, not for political usage.”

Danon spoke to JNS in the Qatari lounge shortly before addressing the Security Council on Wednesday afternoon.

He proposed requiring the support of three council members to convene an emergency meeting, rather than allowing a single member to request one, and to establish clearer criteria for what constitutes an “emergency.”

The Security Council has held about 100 meetings about Israel over the past four years, including at least 17 “emergency” sessions, according to the envoy.

Iranian aggression, Houthi attacks on international shipping routes, Hamas’s holding of hostages and Turkey’s military entrenchment in Syria have rarely prompted emergency meetings, he told JNS.

“Today, the debate is more about procedure in the Security Council,” he said. “For a change, it’s not about us. I will focus my speech on the fact that the U.N. Council is not focusing on the right issues. They focus on Israel.”

Whenever council members want to criticize the Jewish state, they simply “call for an emergency session, but there is no emergency,” Danon said.

“The entire U.N. today—they focus their energy not in the right places,” he told JNS. “It’s more about the debate. It’s more about bashing Israel, less about concrete efforts, practical solutions and confronting the bad guys.”

He pointed to recent “emergency” meetings over Israel’s recognition of Somaliland and what he said was “so-called settler violence.” Those sessions came in addition to the council’s regular monthly discussions on Israel, he said.

“When we recognized Somaliland, we had to come to an emergency session, and they blamed us for wanting to expel the Palestinians, which is a joke,” he told JNS.

The emergency sessions, Danon added, take time away from what he sees as more pressing action against terrorist groups.

“They were not able to designate Hamas. They were not able to designate Hezbollah, the Houthis,” he told JNS. “So instead of doing those things, they are putting the time on us.”

In his formal remarks, Danon said that the council had become “very good at holding meetings but very bad at making a difference.”

“Instead of focusing its time on Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, it is repeatedly drawn into political theater,” he told the council.

“The Security Council was not created to hold fruitless meetings,” he said. “It was created to prevent wars. It is time to return to the mission for which it was established.”

An Emboldened Iran: What Is Driving The Regime’s Confidence And What Happens Next?

An Emboldened Iran: What Is Driving The Regime’s Confidence And What Happens Next?

Robert Gottselig

Iranian regime still appears emboldened. A few days ago, The Telegraph published this headline: “Iran tells Trump to ‘accept the reality of defeat’”

The report detailed:

Responding to the US president’s assertion that the Strait of Hormuz would soon be declared US territory, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said the vital oil-shipping route would remain under Iranian control.

“The strait will be closed and opened only under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Mr Gharibabadi wrote on X.

“Once and for all, accept the reality: Up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, and will remain Iranian.”

Iranian state media carried similar remarks made by Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the country’s judiciary chief, who called Mr Trump a “full[y] fledged loser in the hard arena of politics and military combat”, reiterating that the Strait of Hormuz remained “an inseparable part” of Iran.

“What multibillion-dollar aircraft carriers could not achieve will not be achieved with a few tweets and speeches,” he said.

Meanwhile, at a political rally in New York on Saturday, Mr Trump said: “After we finish defeating Iran … pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz strait a territory of the United States.”

He also suggested that Americans should be willing to endure higher petrol prices while the conflict with Iran continued. Paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” was worth it, he argued, to ensure that “a very evil country” could not have a nuclear weapon.

As we look at news developments in the Middle East, it seems that neither side is budging, and nobody knows for sure what is coming next.

The regime in Iran is entirely indifferent to its country’s economy and people. They would rather see a total implosion of their nation than wave the white flag of defeat.

This mentality stems from the regime’s eschatological position of Shiite Islam. They believe that their “Mahdi” will come at a time when the world is in utter chaos—and they revel in the idea that they can help usher in that chaos. How do you negotiate with people who hold to such a warped ideology? The simple answer is, you don’t. President Trump is learning that firsthand.

As for the United States, they could have squashed the regime if their military, along with Israel, had kept up the airstrikes and pressure on Iran. Instead, the US removed the force in an attempt to negotiate a deal with lunatics—a decision which greatly emboldened the regime.

While Iran’s military and economy are certainly in shambles, the regime has continued to dig in its heels.

The question is: will President Trump order military strikes again? Nobody knows for sure; however, the President had this to say on Monday:

The Bible tells us that Iran (Persia) will survive, living another day to come against Israel, as we read in Ezekiel 38 and 39. As Christians who understand the authority of God’s Word, none of this should catch us by surprise.

More...

Russia Rains Fire on Danube Ports to Pull the Plug on Ukraine’s Last Western Arms Dock – Expert

Russia Rains Fire on Danube Ports to Pull the Plug on Ukraine’s Last Western Arms Dock – Expert

Sputnik

The Danube ports of Remi and Izmail are now the focus of all Western military deliveries from Romania feeding Ukraine’s war machine, retired Russian Navy Captain First Rank Vasily Dandykin tells Sputnik.

By pounding the ports, Russia is choking off Ukraine’s last major gateway for arriving weapons, ammunition, drones, UAV components and fuel - everything that barges haul up the Danube from Constanta, says the military analyst.
After being pushed out of the Black Sea, Ukraine's entire remaining naval arsenal - riverboats, drone fleets, and command hubs - is now packed into these river ports. 

The strikes also target transport carrying the missiles that Ukraine desperately scrapes from its NATO puppet masters, notes the expert.

Russia’s campaign is also targeting the wider logistics chain feeding these ports – bridges, like the ones at Mayaky and Zatoka in the Odessa region, warehouses, transport hubs and storage facilities.

The pundit underscores that Russian strikes have already paralyzed Ukraine’s Black Sea logistics by targeting the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.

All that remains is road and rail transport through Poland, but the volumes are incomparable.

That leaves Ukraine dependent on fragmented deliveries that are “a drop in the ocean compared with what they need to keep fighting.”

The heaviest blow will land on Ukraine's military in the Kherson and Zaporozhye axes, and the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration in the Donbass, where Russia is currently advancing, says the expert.

“The less supply they have, the faster Russia gains ground,” he adds.

More..

Russian Forces Cripple Ukrainian Supply Lines with Precision Port Strikes

China rejects US demand on Iran

China rejects US demand on Iran

RT

China has refused to join a US plan to “squash” Iran’s economy, rejecting Washington’s push to be part of the “toughest sanctions in history” against the Islamic Republic.

On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on American allies and other countries to choose sides and stop doing business with Iran, as Washington prepares what he touted as “the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.”

In an interview with CNBC, Bessent described the plan, expected to be unveiled on Monday, as “a one-two punch” combining a naval blockade with “the toughest sanctions in history.” He claimed it would “squash” the Iranian economy and “collapse this regime.”

Beijing, however, has rejected Washington’s call.

“Regarding the Iran issue, sanctions and pressure do not help resolve the problem,”Reuters quoted a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington as saying. “China calls on the relevant parties to take responsible actions and resolve the issue through political and diplomatic means.”

Bessent’s remarks followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of what he called an “economic D-Day” against Tehran, threatening “tremendous Economic Consequences”against countries providing Iran with “any type of lifeline.”

China has also rejected that threat. In response to a question by Bloomberg on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said “sanctions and pressure tactics are not the solution” and called for a “political and diplomatic approach.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has also dismissed the threat.

“Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat,” Araghchi wrote on X on Thursday. “US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide.”

China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, having purchased more than 80% of the country’s shipped crude in 2025, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters.

Bessent argued that Beijing has a strong interest in cooperating with US sanctions because of its reliance on energy supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming China gets “50% [of their] energy from inside the Gulf.”