EU recommends that travelers from China be required to take a Covid test before entering Europe

European nations are looking at new travel requirements from China after Beijing lifted Covid restrictions.

China News Service | China News Service | Getty Images

European nations on Wednesday recommended imposing new restrictions on travelers from China amid fears of an increase in Covid cases.

Passengers departing from China will likely have to present a negative Covid test before leaving the country if heading toward one of the 27 EU countries. They will also likely be asked to wear facial masks during the flights and potentially be subjected to random testing on arrival.

“The Member States agreed on a coordinated precautionary approach in the light of Covid-19 developments in China,” said a statement issued Wednesday, following a meeting of EU officials that lasted several hours.

Health policy comes under the jurisdiction of individual governments. It is up to the various capitals to decide whether they will follow EU recommendations. Several EU nations have already stepped up their protection measures against potential new cases from China. Germany confirmed Thursday that it will ask for at least a rapid coronavirus test from visitors from China, according to Reuters.

Officials in China have criticized recently imposed testing requirements on travelers from the country and threatened to take reciprocal countermeasures. China currently requires foreign visitors to produce a negative Covid-19 test before entering the country, as well as to quarantine for eight days following their arrival. Beijing targets to scrap the confinement requirement this coming weekend, but will continue to demand proof of negative Covid-19 tests from visitors from abroad. In December, it also said it would restart issuing visas for residents to travel abroad.

The U.S., India, U.K., Japan and Australia have all announced tougher measures on travelers from China in a bid to prevent a surge in Covid cases.

Italy was among the first EU nations to take action in the aftermath of Beijing abruptly abandoning strict measures that were in place for much of the pandemic.

EU recommends pre-departure Covid tests for flights from China

Rome, one of the hardest hit in Europe by the pandemic, ordered compulsory testing last week. France and Spain had also taken similar stances.

The latest move by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, aims to coordinate rules across the region.

In late December, Chinese authorities said they would restart issuing visas for residents to travel abroad. They also said travelers arriving in China would no longer have to quarantine.

However, China has experienced a rise in Covid infections since November and there are concerns about the level of immunization among its population. The country has nine vaccines developed domestically, according to Reuters, but these have not been updated for the omicron variant, considered highly infectious.

European authorities offered to send vaccines to China, but Beijing has not yet responded, according to a spokesperson for the European Commission.

The commission spokesperson told CNBC that the EU had reached out via its delegation in Beijing “to offer solidarity and support, including through sharing of public health expertise and variant-adapted EU vaccine donations.”

Asked on Tuesday about the offer from Europe to provide Covid vaccines, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning replied, “China has established the world’s largest production lines of Covid vaccines with an annual production capacity of over 7 billion doses and an annual output of over 5.5 billion doses, which meet the needs of ensuring that all people eligible for vaccination have access to Covid vaccines.”

“China’s Covid situation is predictable and under control,” she added.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that European officials on Wednesday recommended pre-flight testing of travelers from China.

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The SEC files an objection to Binance.US’s $1 billion bid to buy Voyager Digital’s assets, as the regulator scrutinizes deal for the bankrupt crypto lender

Business Insider 

Binance

The SEC wants more information about the $1 billion purchase of busted crypto lender Voyager Digital’s assets by Binance.US. 
The SEC filed a limited objection to the bankruptcy court overseeing the potential takeover of the assets by Binance.US. 
The regulator questioned the exchange’s ability to “consummate a transaction of this magnitude”.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking more information about the pending purchase of Voyager Digital’s assets by the US arm of crypto exchange Binance, highlighting the regulator’s attention to the crypto space after a number of blow-ups. 

The SEC filed a limited objection to the $1.02 billion deal for Binance.US to take over the assets of the crypto lender, which sought bankruptcy protection last year following “prolonged volatility and contagion” in the crypto markets.

Binance.US’s ability to “consummate a transaction of this magnitude” was questioned by the SEC in its bankruptcy-court filing dated January 4. 

The regulator’s intervention also said there was a lack of sufficient detail about how the exchange plans to safeguard customer assets, and how Binance.US will rebalance its cryptocurrency portfolio. 

“The SEC staff has communicated its concerns to Debtors’ counsel, and has been advised that a revised Disclosure Statement will be filed prior to a hearing on the Motions,” the regulator said in the filing. 

Voyager Digital was slated on Thursday to seek the bankruptcy court’s approval to enter into the asset purchase deal with Binance.US. 

In a separate move, the Texas State Securities Board and the Texas Department of Banking filed an objection to the Voyager Digital asset sale, according to a CoinDesk report. Those regulators claimed Voyager and Binance.US are not in compliance with Texas law and are not authorized to conduct business in the state. 

The crypto industry was rocked by a number of implosions in the space last year, including the bust of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD that led to the bankruptcy of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and eventually the failure of Voyager Digital. As well, the speculator crash of crypto exchange FTX resulted in founder Sam Bankman-Fried facing criminal and civil charges.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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House Speaker election coverage: McCarthy discusses concessions but no deal struck overnight

The House is headed into its third day without a Speaker, but Republicans say negotiations progressed overnight.

Despite the progress, however, there remains no deal between Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his GOP detractors, and some of his opponents are signaling they are dug in.

Negotiations are ongoing and the House is set to reconvene at noon for a historic seventh Speaker vote. McCarthy fell short on the first six, losing 20 Republicans in all three votes on Wednesday.

Follow along with live updates from The Hill below:


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‘Big Short’ Investor Burry Attacks Software Giant Salesforce

TheStreet 

The legendary investor says the stock market should have harshly punished the software group.

The software giant Salesforce’s recent revamp confirms the struggles in Silicon Valley and tech more broadly are widespread.

In a bid to cut costs, the specialist in customer-relationship-management systems  (CRM) – Get Free Report on Jan. 4 disclosed a vast restructuring plan. including massive job cuts, downsizing of its office space and exits from some property markets.

The details: Salesforce will close some offices and eliminate around 10% of its estimated 56,600 employees as it looks to reduce operating costs, widen operating margins and “continue advancing the company’s ongoing commitment to profitable growth.”

Salesforce said the job cuts, as well as the broader restructuring plans, will cost between $1.4 billion and $2.1 billion, with a hit of around $1 billion expected in its fiscal fourth quarter.

“The environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions,” Chief Executive Marc Benioff wrote in a letter to employees explaining the job cuts. 

“With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10 percent, mostly over the coming weeks.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment. As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that.”

‘CRM Should Have Been Down 25%’ — Burry

The announcements were welcomed by the company’s investors. Salesforce stock gained 3.6% to $139.59 in the Jan. 4 session. 

But there’s one investor who is neither convinced nor reassured. He says Salesforce should have been rolled following the announcements. 

This investor is none other than the legendary Michael Burry, known for his big bet on the collapse of the American real estate market, which led to the financial crisis of 2008.

This is what he has just made known via a vicious tweet:

“CRM should have been down 25% on those job cuts.”  

He went on to say that the job cuts are not a reason to add or hold Salesforce stock in your portfolio.

“Job cuts are so not the reason to own that,” he added without elaboration.

The investor, who runs the hedge fund Scion Asset Management, several months ago predicted a rout in the tech sector marked by waves of mass layoffs of white-collar workers. The news cycle has proved him correct since most tech groups are relying on job cuts to adapt to the economic downturn. 

For example, Meta Platforms  (META) – Get Free Report, parent of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, cut 11,000 jobs in November, a first since the group was created in 2004. Amazon  (AMZN) – Get Free Report has just said it would cut 18,000 jobs, much more than the initial estimate.

Burry’s criticism unsurprisingly spawned many comments on Twitter. Some commentators pointed out to him that cutting jobs is good for the software giant’s bottom line.

“They weren’t producing revenue —  goes straight to net income,” commented Monolith Technologies CEO John S. Boyd. “Stock should be up.”

“Bad bet Burry. Job cuts just creates more efficiency and more profits for shareholders. I do not own any CRM but you get what I’m saying,” added another Twitter user.

But other Twitter users agreed with Burry and questioned the effectiveness of the cost-saving measures on Salesforce’s future performance.

“CRM is on the way to years of decline. Competition is catch up, along with the market declining,” one Twitter user agreed.

“What’s stunning is that these big SV companies come bumbling in with massive layoffs that will have zero impact operationally. It’s quite stunning that they just woke up post C19 & all do it at the same time. Maybe so they won’t be seen as ‘mean?'” said another Twitter user.

Burry Has a Solid Track Record

Burry generally does not and here did not respond to comments.

In the third quarter, Salesforce reported a Wall-Street-beating bottom line of $1.40 a share as demand for its workflow solutions remained solid. Revenue rose 14% year-over-year to $7.84 billion, essentially matching analysts’ estimates.

The company’s remaining performance obligation, a tally of its total deferred revenue and product backlog and a key industry metric, rose 11% to $20.9 billion.

The 2008 financial crisis, one of the biggest financial debacles in history, made Burry a legend. It made him one of the examples to follow in the defiance of standard practices in financial circles. 

The 2015 film “The Big Short” describes how the investor, who had no particular expertise in finance and real estate, came to understand that the sector had become a sand castle. Financiers and bankers created exotic products based on mortgages given to financially fragile households and borrowers with poor credit. 

He therefore decided to bet on the collapse of the subprime mortgage market — hence the name “Big Short.” History proved him right. Since then, Burry has become something of a Wall Street oracle. 

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[World] Iran closes French institute over Charlie Hebdo’s Khamenei cartoons

BBC News world 

Image source, Reuters

Image caption,

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a Shia Muslim cleric with the final say on all state matters

Iran says it has closed a Tehran-based French institute over “sacrilegious” cartoons of its supreme leader in a French satirical magazine.

Charlie Hebdo’s latest edition features caricatures mocking Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and fellow Shia Muslim clerics sent in by readers in support of the anti-government protests in Iran.

Some of them are sexually explicit.

Iran’s foreign ministry said shutting the French Institute for Research in Iran was its “first step” in response.

It threatened further action if France did not “hold to account the perpetrators and sponsors of such instances of spreading hatred”.

France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna had told LCI TV before the announcement that “freedom of the press exists [in France], contrary to what is happening in Iran” and blasphemy was not an offence under French law.

Charlie Hebdo published the caricatures of Ayatollah Khamenei in a special edition marking the eight anniversary of a attack on its Paris office by militant Sunni Islamists claiming to be avenging the magazine’s decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed. Twelve people were killed, including five of the magazine’s cartoonists.

The magazine said it had received more than 300 cartoons from readers and “thousands of threats” after launching a competition in order to “support the struggle of the Iranians who are fighting for their freedom, by ridiculing this religious leader from a bygone age”.

One of the more than 30 cartoons posted on Charlie Hebdo’s website depicts Ayatollah Khamenei clinging to a giant throne above raised fists of protesters. Another depicts a woman urinating on the supreme leader. The front cover is a cartoon of a line of clerics walking into a naked woman’s vagina.

The women-led protests against Iran’s clerical establishment erupted in September following the death in custody of a woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, “improperly”.

Authorities have portrayed the protests as foreign-backed “riots” and responded with lethal force.

So far, at least 516 protesters have been killed and 19,260 others arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists’ News Agency (HRANA). Two of those detained were executed last month after trials that human rights groups said were gross miscarriages of justice.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned in a tweet on Wednesday that the “insulting and offensive action” of publishing cartoons against his country’s “religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response”.

Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani meanwhile summoned France’s ambassador in Tehran to tell him that it did “not have the right to justify disrespect against the sanctities of other countries and Islamic nations under the pretext of freedom of speech”.

In a statement announcing the end of the French Institute of Research in Iran’s activities, the foreign ministry said it was also reviewing cultural ties with France and French cultural activities in Iran.

The institute was founded in 1983 and is affiliated with the French foreign ministry. It had been closed for many years before it was reopened during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, a moderate in office between 2013 and 2021.

 

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Speaker debacle puts U.S. security ‘at risk,’ GOP lawmakers warn

Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories 

The incoming Republican chairs of three top House committees delivered a fresh warning that the drawn-out fight over the speakership is damaging the chamber’s national security oversight.

Ahead of an expected seventh vote Thursday, the presumptive chairs of the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs panels issued a statement backing Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s embattled bid for speaker. They warned that the days-long drama risks delaying their committees’ work even further.

“The Biden administration is going unchecked and there is no oversight of the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, or the intelligence community,” Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said.

“We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk,” they said.

The trio’s shot at the 20 conservative holdouts preventing McCarthy from taking the gavel comes as concerns mount among security-oriented lawmakers that they can’t do their work until a speaker is elected. Those complaints in the opening days of the new Congress include not being able to access classified information and an inability to begin committee work.

Until a speaker is elected, lawmakers cannot be sworn in. Committees won’t form, new Republican chairs won’t be confirmed, new members won’t be appointed to panels and subcommittee chairs won’t be named.

The Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs panels — chaired by Turner, Rogers and McCaul, respectively — feature prominently in the GOP agenda. The lawmakers reiterated they “strongly support” McCarthy as the fight heads into a third day.

“McCarthy’s Commitment to America agenda outlines a stronger approach to countering China, a plan to investigate the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and how a Republican majority will hold this administration accountable,” they said.

It’s the most high profile warning so far as McCarthy and his allies look to break a logjam on the House floor. But Democrats and Republicans tasked with oversight of the Pentagon and intelligence community have been sounding the alarm throughout the week about the impact of a drawn-out fight.

House GOP military veterans aired their concerns at a press conference on Wednesday.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said he and fellow Armed Services member Don Bacon (R-Neb.) were scheduled to meet with Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley in secure House facilities on Wednesday to discuss security in the Indo-Pacific region, but were barred from doing so.

“I’m informed by House security that, technically, I don’t have a clearance,” Gallagher told reporters. “I’m a member of the Intel Committee, I’m on the Armed Services Committee, and I can’t meet in the SCIF to conduct essential business.

“My point is we have work to do that we can’t do right now,” he added.

Lawmakers aren’t required to obtain security clearances, but are permitted access to sensitive information through their positions.

Gallagher has also been tapped by McCarthy to chair a select committee to assess the wide array of security and economic threats posed by China. The panel is a major pillar of the House GOP national security agenda, but a resolution establishing the committee can’t be considered until the House elects a speaker and organizes.

Intelligence Committee member Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) also complained that members of his panel “don’t have access” to their secure facilities or classified information.

“The secure facility that we work in every day when we’re here, we can’t go in there right now,” Wenstrup said. “We would get daily briefs. We’re in there all the time. And right now, we can’t be in there at all.”

The concerns are bipartisan. Incoming Armed Services ranking Democrat Adam Smith of Washington said the chaos on the House floor is “a problem” for committee work.

“We’re going to be without any committees for potentially weeks,” Smith told POLITICO.

It’s unclear how long McCarthy can sustain his bid. Though he has the backing of the majority of the GOP conference, the California Republican has flipped no votes in his favor in six ballots.

McCarthy may have made progress overnight with a series of concessions to conservatives, however, including allowing a lower threshold for forcing a vote to oust the speaker and granting seats on the House Rules Committee to members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus.

His path to the speakership may include granting some coveted gavels to conservatives.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a top McCarthy opponent, is seeking an Armed Services subcommittee gavel, among other conservative lawmaker requests for committee spots. But Gaetz later said McCarthy solicited a list of committee assignments conservatives wanted and then leaked it to embarrass them. Gaetz has since said he will never back McCarthy.

But Rogers, the presumptive Armed Services chair, acted as an enforcer for McCarthy ahead of the floor battle. The Alabama Republican argued in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday before the speaker election that GOP members who vote against McCarthy should lose their committee assignments.

And Rogers dismissed the possibility of handing a subcommittee gavel to Gaetz on Wednesday, though the issue may now be moot.

“Everybody else has to go through the Steering Committee and make their case. … They want to skip all that,” Rogers told POLITICO. “And of course I’m going to tell one of my subcommittee chairs, ‘Yeah, I want you to step aside so I can reward Matt Gaetz with a chairmanship.'”

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An Incredibly Rare Mitsubishi Pajero Junior Flying Pug Is Offered For Sale In Florida

Carscoops 

This is the Mitsubishi Pajero Junior Flying Pug and chances are, you’ve never even heard of it.

Mitsubishi only ever sold the Flying Pug in Japan, based around the compact two-door Pajero Junior. It is said that the Japanese automaker was inspired to build the intriguing off-roader following a rise in the popularity of old British cars across the country in the 1990s. The result is a Mitsubishi Pajero that looks like it could have come out of an MG factory.

Original plans called for 1,000 units of the Pajero Junior Flying Pug to be produced but just 139 units are thought to have been manufactured. One of them is up for sale in Oldsmar, Florida.

This particular 1997 Pajero Junior Flying Pug has been listed on Facebook Marketplace with an asking price of $11,800. It has been driven 147,000 miles (~236,000 km) since new and was only imported into the United States in December 2022.

Read: Do Off-Roaders Get Any Cooler Than This Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution?

Despite the car’s age and the fact that it has been driven a lot over the last 25 years, it looks to have been well-maintained and is in good condition. The exterior is clad primarily in a dark shade of burgundy while the wheel arches and rocker panels are painted black. The massive chrome front grille is without a doubt the most striking element of the vehicle’s design but the front and rear chrome bumpers also catch the eye.

The interior is relatively basic but a previous owner has fitted a new touchscreen head unit. Plenty of wooden accents are also found across the dashboard and around the shifter.

Powering this pint-sized off-roader is a 1,094 cc four-cylinder engine that produced 79 hp back in the day. It also features a 3-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel drive.

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'Do me a favor and don’t follow too close': New video shows traffic stop involving Idaho stabbings suspect

HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. (WXIN) – Police released new video Wednesday of a traffic stop involving a man charged in connection with a quadruple murder in Idaho.

A Hancock County sheriff’s deputy stopped Bryan Kohberger and his father for allegedly tailgating on I-70 eastbound through Indiana, saying their white Hyundai Elantra was following a van too closely.

Kohberger and his father were making the 2,500-mile drive from Washington state to Pennsylvania for the holidays. His father had flown to Washington in order to accompany his son on the drive, Kohberger’s attorney, Jason LaBar, said.

They were stopped twice by authorities while on the road.

The first stop happened around 10:41 a.m. on Dec. 15, according to body camera footage provided by the sheriff’s office.

The deputy asked for Kohberger’s driver’s license and informed him and his father that they were “right up on that van” and had been pulled over for tailgating.

Kohberger and his father told the deputy they were heading to Pennsylvania from Washington State University and had been driving “for hours.” They also referenced an incident in Pullman, Washington, in which a man died in a SWAT standoff.

The incident, unrelated to the Kohbergers or the Idaho slayings, happened on Dec. 14.

The exchange is cordial, with Kohberger telling the deputy he works for Washington State University and was pursuing his PhD.

“Do me a favor and don’t follow too close,” the deputy said before returning Kohberger’s driver’s license and sending the pair on their way with a warning. The two were stopped less than 10 minutes later, again for following too closely, according to Indiana State Police.

The responding state trooper in the second stop also released them with a verbal warning. The video of that stop was released Tuesday.

Police announced Kohberger’s arrest in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30. He’s accused of killing 21-year-olds Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, and 20-year-olds Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in Idaho on Nov. 13. He’s charged with four counts of first-degree murder and a count of felony burglary.

Kohberger agreed to waive extradition following his arrest and is being taken back to Idaho to face charges.

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office said it delayed releasing the video to make sure it didn’t jeopardize the criminal investigation into the Idaho killings.

“This afternoon, we learned releasing the video will not hinder the investigation in Idaho and are therefore releasing the video to the media,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

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The Longevity-Boosting Benefits of Following a (Mostly) Plant-Based Diet Are… Eye-Opening

Well+Good 

By now, we all know that diet fads are the absolute worst. Although social media and external factors might attempt to influence how we eat, we know better: that it really depends on the individual’s needs. This means listening to one’s body to determine the best way to achieve a well-balanced, healthy, and joyful lifestyle.

And while diets are toxic and questionable at best, research has shown that plant-based eating can offer several benefits. What’s key here is that this meal regime doesn’t necessarily involve cutting out any of your favorite foods, meat and dairy included—plant-based eating is, instead, all about adding more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and the like to your dishes. Think of a plant-forward diet as an antidote to diet culture: You can reap the short- and long-term benefits of consuming plants without imposing any restrictions upon yourself.

If you’re following Well+Good’s 2023 ReNew Year program, you already know that according to Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN, of Brooklyn-based Maya Feller Nutrition and cookbook author of Eating from Our Roots, eating more fruits and veggies can do wonders for your mind and body. To learn more, we spoke with registered dietitian Mia Syn, MS, RDN, and author of Mostly Plant-Based, who shared the long-term benefits of following a (mostly) plant-based diet. And let’s just say the pros are pretty convincing.

10 long-term benefits of a plant-based diet

1. You’ll eat more foods packed with a diverse array of nutritional benefits

According to Syn, one of the benefits of consuming a plant-forward diet is the vast array of foods packed with nutritional benefits you’ll consume more frequently. “When you incorporate mostly plant-based whole foods into your diet, you naturally get more of the ‘good stuff’ that supports overall health—namely fiber, essential vitamins and minerals, and phytonutrients—and less of the ‘not-so-good stuff’ that’s linked to elevated chronic disease risk—namely saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, and added sugar,” Syn says. As a result, she adds, eating more plants can 100 percent help you live longer.

2. Plant-based eating can help you have a healthier relationship with food

It’s no secret that when eating more plant-based foods, you’ll consume much more fiber, which can help balance your appetite and keep your energy levels stable throughout the day. “On a mostly plant-based diet, you consume foods that make you feel satisfied. These foods also help stabilize your blood sugar for steady energy,” Syn says.

This can further strengthen your relationship with food. “With this way of eating, you’ll stop thinking about food all the time, release any guilt or anxiety you have about food, and free up energy and brainpower for living life instead of dieting,” Syn says.

3. Your gut will thank you (less! constipation!)

According to Syn, one of the first things you’ll notice in a plant-forward diet is improvements in your digestion and gut health. That’s because of the diverse nutritional profile of plant-based foods that gastroenterologists love that helps support a healthier GI system. “A diet focused on mostly plant-based whole foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds is naturally rich in soluble and insoluble fiber, which is so good for your digestion, regularity, and gut health,” she says.

4. Your energy levels will increase

Feel sluggish after a big meal? Plant-forward foods can actually help keep the post-meal drowsies at bay and increase your energy levels throughout the day. “A mostly plant-based whole-food diet fuels your body with the bioavailable nutrition that it needs to thrive. Your body can efficiently break down whole foods, absorb the nutrition they provide, and utilize those nutrients. One of the first places you will notice a difference is in your energy levels,” Syn says.

5. You’ll likely see improvements in your overall well-being

While you might not see drastic improvements overnight (except for, hey, that whole regular-poop-schedule situation), the benefits of plant-based eating can absolutely improve your overall well-being over time. “Your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar will improve. Nearly all plant foods—with a few unique exceptions, like coconut and palm oil—are free of saturated fat, which is directly linked to elevated cholesterol levels. Additionally, replacing processed foods and refined carbohydrates with plant-based whole foods and high-quality animal products can significantly reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes,” Syn says.

6. You’ll broaden your palate

As you introduce more plants into your diet, your sense of taste will adapt. “Your taste buds will be rewired. When you follow a mostly plant-based whole-food diet, your taste buds will be ‘rewired.’ A study published in the journal Chemical Senses found that repeated exposure to nutritious, less hyper-palatable foods like broccoli and leafy greens can change proteins in saliva to calm the initial distaste for bitter and other flavors,” Syn says.

7. Your skin will glow

Ever heard the saying “true beauty comes from within?” Because, really, it does. According to Syn, eating more plant-based foods can make your skin glow from the inside out. “Whole plant foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds naturally contain polyphenols and antioxidants, which have a direct impact on lowering inflammation in the body and, therefore, the skin,” she says.

8. You’ll have a stronger immune system

TBH, with cold and flu season in full swing, lifestyle tips for staving away sickness are always welcome. “Plant foods like bell peppers and almonds are rich in nutrients like vitamin C and vitamin E, which play a role in supporting immune function,” Syn says.

And to further strengthen your immune system, Syn recommends a few non-plant-forward items to add to the menu, too. “Furthermore, when you choose high-quality animal products like low-mercury seafood, pasture-raised eggs, and grass-fed beef, you get additional immune-supporting nutrients like bioavailable zinc and vitamin D,” she says. She also suggests sticking to a diet rich in plant-based protein and low in sugar, salt, and processed meat, which in turn can promote healthy cellular aging and reduce cardiovascular and overall mortality risk.

9. You’ll likely cut food costs

According to Syn, plant-forward eating may actually help you save some cash. “Purchasing mostly plant-based whole-food ingredients like produce, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds while limiting animal products and eliminating processed foods is likely to save you money month after month, because meat can come with a hefty price tag—especially at restaurants,” she says.

10. You’ll decrease your carbon footprint

One of the biggest pros of adopting a plant-forward diet is the positive impact it can have on the environment. “You’ll lower your carbon footprint. Plant foods have a lesser environmental impact than animal foods in all areas—land use, water supply, and greenhouse gas emissions,” Syn says, which is a win-win on all fronts.

An herbalist shares the best herbs for managing stress and anxiety:

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