David Beckham and wife Victoria went through a ‘hell of a journey’ filming docuseries

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David Beckham is reminiscing on the time he and Victoria spent filming the Netflix “Beckham” docuseries.

On Wednesday night, the soccer star attended the David Beckham Fragrances Launch Party in New York City, where he shared it was “a huge honor” to team up with the streaming service and director Fisher Stevens for this project.

“It was a series that took me a while to come to terms with filming and talking about my life,” Beckham said, according to People magazine. “And ten years ago, when I retired from playing soccer, people asked me to do it. And I wasn’t really ready to look back and talk about my career and my life.” 

Beckham segued into how he waited for the perfect time to tell his story. After the athlete’s retirement from soccer in 2013, he said he “was ready to move on straight away” to other business ventures.

DAVID BECKHAM’S DOCUMENTARY WITH VICTORIA: TOP BOMBSHELLS FROM AFFAIR ALLEGATIONS TO KIDNAPPING THREATS

“But then, about two or three years before the tenth anniversary of my retirement, I thought, ‘OK, maybe this is the right time now to tell the story,’” Beckham said.

Once Beckham met the “perfect team,” which included Netflix and Stevens, the crew got right to work. He explained that the long process of crafting the docuseries was a “hell of a journey” for him and wife Victoria Beckham.

“It wasn’t easy, and it was an emotional rollercoaster over the last two and a half years, but I think we’ve produced something that my team can be very proud of,” he said. The crew spent 50 hours over the last several years to bring this project to life.

Fisher previously told People magazine David was “so open” during their conversations.

“He wasn’t what I expected at all,” the director added. “He was so open. He’s like, ‘I’m ready. I want to tell my story before someone else does.’ And then I started doing research, and I was like, ‘Jesus, this guy’s life is nuts. Nuts.’ I had no idea.”

Stevens is not surprised Beckham’s perfectionist nature and keen eye to detail has translated into his life after retirement.

“There’s a kind of warmth to him. He listens, and he’s warm. And he seems to [care] about people a lot,” Stevens told the outlet. “He has an incredible aesthetic. He’s not educated. He’s not an intellectual by any means, but there is an innate intelligence to him of how to read people and sort of how to read a room.”

DAVID BECKHAM’S WIFE VICTORIA ADMITS SHE ‘RESENTED’ SOCCER STAR DURING ‘CIRCUS’ THAT FOLLOWED AFFAIR RUMORS

“Beckham” had its fair share of bombshells. The legendary soccer player shares how he was first introduced to the sport, his romance with wife “Posh Spice” and how family is the most important thing to him.

The four-part series includes interviews with David, Victoria, David’s parents and past teammates. Stevens illustrates everything from how Beckham had an issue with saving his money to how he dealt with being accused of disgracing his country and being labeled the “new Charles and Diana.”

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A major moment in the series was when David and Victoria addressed “horrible stories” about them that rocked their marriage in 2003. At the time, tabloids alleged he was having an affair. 

David had moved to Spain to play for Real Madrid, and although the couple did not mention the woman by name in the docuseries, David’s former personal assistant, Rebecca Loos, previously came forward about an alleged four-month affair in 2003.

In the documentary, headlines are shown on screen, including claims of “secret sex,” “alleged affair,” and “marriage crisis.” “There was some horrible stories that were difficult to deal with,” Beckham said in the docuseries. 

Victoria added that it was “100 percent” the hardest time in their marriage. “It was the hardest period for us. Because it felt like the world was against us.”

David added, “When I first moved to Spain, it was difficult because I had been part of a club and a family [at Manchester United] for my whole career, from the age of 15 to when I was 27. I get sold overnight, the next minute I’m in a city, I don’t speak the language. More importantly, I didn’t have my family.”

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“Every time that we woke up we felt there was something else. … We both felt at the time that we were not losing each other but drowning,” he clarified. “I don’t know how we got through it, in all honesty.”

“Victoria is everything to me, to see her hurt was incredibly difficult, but we’re fighters and at that time we needed to fight for each other, we needed to fight for our family. And what we had was worth fighting for.”

 

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I’m a proud Democrat. My party has an antisemitism problem

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To me, it’s simple – if you cannot denounce terrorism in all its forms, there should be no place for you in the Democratic Party.

By that standard, several of my fellow Democrats lost their place in this party over the weekend after their horrific responses to the barbaric terrorist attacks Hamas unleashed on innocent Israelis Saturday morning.

In some ill-fated attempt to appease the completely nonexistent pro-terrorist Muslim community in suburban Detroit, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tweeted, “I have been in touch with communities impacted by what’s happening in the region. It is abhorrent. My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region.”

This ham-fisted attempt to avoid saying Israel, Hamas and terrorism in a statement addressing those three topics reminded me of Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s decontextualized 2019 remarks describing the 9/11 attacks as “some people did something.”

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER PUSHING TO CENSURE RASHIDA TLAIB OVER RESPONSE TO SLAUGHTER IN ISRAEL

Unlike Omar, Whitmer couldn’t claim to be taken out of context. That was the entirety of her tweet.

But Whitmer wasn’t the only Michigan Democrat to completely fumble their response to perhaps the worst terrorist attack around the globe since 2001.

Most notable was Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who, in a lengthy statement, called for”dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.” Later in the text, she said the United States must cut off Israel’s aid.

This response is pure victim blaming. Most Democrats, especially young Democrats, agree that the Israeli government’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is unjust and cruel, especially toward children, who comprise nearly half of the Palestinian population. 

But that injustice doesn’t give the pro-Palestinian Left license to explain away the mass killing, raping and kidnapping of Israeli citizens as justifiable “resistance” activities.

SPLC SILENT ON WHETHER BLM, DEM SOCIALISTS’ PRO-HAMAS ACTIVISM RAISES ‘HATE’ CONCERNS

As journalist Julia Ioffe put it, “If you’re against the collective punishment of Palestinians, you should also be against the collective punishment of Israelis.”

When the pro-Palestinian Left doesn’t voice total opposition to the massacre of Israeli citizens, even as they affirm the rights of Palestinians, they lose their moral standing and surrender the values of justice and human rights they claim are at the center of their movement.

One can point to the root causes of terrorism without condoning it. In Tlaib’s words, all “resistance” activities aren’t justified – the blood still on the streets of southern Israel bears witness to this reality. 

Thankfully, Tlaib isn’t in charge of the Democratic Party, and Joe Biden is. His joint statement with five world leaders on Monday night made it clear that this government stands against Hamas’ terrorists and with the people of Israel:

YES, BIDEN CALLS OUT HAMAS BUT HE’S ODDLY SILENT ON 4 MAJOR ISSUES HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

“All of us recognize the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and support equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike. But make no mistake: Hamas does not represent those aspirations and offers nothing for the Palestinian people other than more terror and bloodshed.” 

President Biden shows the way. You can support Palestinian freedom, distrust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and denounce Hamas’ terrorism. In fact, if you don’t do the latter, you hurt the overall cause for freedom.

Some Democrats were willing to chide their party colleagues for their nonsense publicly. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres each denounced a pro-Hamas Democratic Socialist of Americas (DSA) rally in Times Square that featured a young man holding up and showing off a Nazi flag image on his phone.

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The 35-year-old Torres’ remarks were particularly poignant. He called the rally “an antisemitic stain on the soul of America’s largest city” and accused the DSA of glorifying the terrorism of Hamas as “resistance.” He said that the lives of Israeli civilians and children murdered, wounded, abducted and terrorized by Hamas meant nothing to the DSA.

There’s a fight for the future of the Democratic Party already underway. And to me, it’s clear Torres’ way is the only way to go because a Democratic Party led by figures like Rashida Tlaib is a party rightly without a future in the United States.

 

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What’s behind Hamas’ atrocities against Israeli civilians?

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As a U.S. Army intelligence officer, I was trained to brief the commander on the most likely course of action and the most dangerous course of action. How might that disciplined way of thinking be applied to the conflict between Gaza’s Hamas terrorists and Israel?

In this case, the rationale – or lack of it – in Hamas’ video record of its orgy of torture, rape and murder. And its threat to publicly execute some of the hundreds of hostages it grabbed and are keeping in its underground labyrinth, may provide insight. 

Civilian casualties are often, but not always, collateral damage, meaning that civilian deaths aren’t necessarily the object of a war. 

During the medieval period, the end of a successful siege of a city would often see the descent into an orgy of killing, rape and plunder. Because the unnecessary destruction diminished the value of the seized city, it was eventually determined that appointing officers over the mass levies could prevent a slaughter and make it more likely to gain compliance from the conquered population. Thus, Hamas’ barbaric actions may signal a lack of command and control and discipline. 

YES, BIDEN CALLS OUT HAMAS BUT HE’S ODDLY SILENT ON 4 MAJOR ISSUES HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

But Hamas purports to be a governing entity. It won an election against the corrupt elements of Fatah in January 2006 and for the next year-and-a-half, Hamas proceeded to purge rival elements, sometimes throwing its domestic enemies to their deaths off of high-rises. Hamas receives billions in foreign aid, some official, some clandestine. And Hamas built an army. Thus, we can presume that the televised tortures, beheadings, immolations and hostage killing is intentional. 

If Hamas’ outrageous killings are intentional and for public consumption, the question that needs to be asked is why? What do they hope to accomplish by using tactics that serve to harden opinion of most the world against their cause?

The most likely course of action is that this is what Hamas has always done. That it expects to force Israel to negotiate to save more than 100 hostages by showing Israel that it is willing to murder them in the most horrific ways possible. That Israel should not commit the 300,000 reservists it mobilized to conquer Gaza. And to play for time while it expects the international community, led by the U.N., will urge a cease-fire. 

This most likely course of action for Hamas also poses a dangerous long-term threat for Israel, as it will leave Hamas in Gaza to lash out again at some time of its own choosing while tying down Israeli resources and international goodwill. 

The most dangerous course of action is truly chilling. 

ISRAEL VS. HAMAS: THERE’S ONLY ONE THING ISRAEL MUST DO NOW TO HAMAS

If Hamas’ brutality is calculated, what is it calculated to do? By torturing and killing Israelis and then posting gruesome images to social media for the world to see, Hamas may be trying to goad Israel into a costly and very bloody urban conflict in Gaza, home to about 2 million people. 

Gaza is a dense urban jungle with countless tunnels and underground bunkers. Fighting there in the age of drones will be more difficult than anything Israel has done in decades – likely going back 50 years to the Yom Kippur War when Israel suffered a surprise attack from Egypt in the south and Syria to the north with supporting forces from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and six other Arab nations, plus Cuba and North Korea. 

Why would Hamas willingly try to invite Israel to attack Gaza? 

To provide context, the city of Fallujah in Iraq has a population of about 275,000 – Gaza is more than seven times that. It took 10,500 American, 850 British, and some 2,000 Iraqi personnel more than six weeks to eliminate insurgent forces in the city. 

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By the time the operation was completed, 107 U.S. and coalition partners were dead and more than 600 were wounded as compared to 1,200 to 2,000 enemy dead. A full-scale attack on Gaza may well result in several times that toll.

Further, once the bulk of Israel’s attention is focused on Gaza, might that be cause for the militant Shiite terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon to strike Israel with some of the 100,000 missiles they’ve accumulated with Iran’s support? These missiles, many of which are dug into tunnels on the north slopes of mountains and hillsides near Israel, are very difficult to destroy – inviting a second, costly Israeli operation to clear out. 

And, gathering offshore in an attempt to deter Hezbollah, is a U.S. Navy strike group based around the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. Wouldn’t Hezbollah, its sponsor Iran, and its allies in Moscow and Beijing just love to have an excuse to try to damage an American nuclear-powered super carrier with some of the new weapons being used to great effect in Ukraine – or some other weaponry as yet unseen in the Middle East?

We cannot dismiss the possibility that the most dangerous course of action might be executed at the strategic direction of China in support of its own plans against Taiwan. 

The scale of Hamas’ attack and the outrageousness of their atrocities might be in the service of a larger purpose we don’t yet see.

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Faith-based Boy Scouts alternative tackles bullying epidemic at its roots: ‘Making a difference’

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October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and one faith-based leadership organization is blazing the trail to help curb the crisis riddling America’s school-aged kids by setting examples to transform boys into good men.

“Boys are struggling in our culture today. They’re twice as likely to be in special education, three times more likely to have ADHD. They’ve fallen behind girls in every single academic category,” Mark Hancock, CEO of Trail Life USA, told Fox News Digital.

“Although there’s no excuse for bullying and there should be consequences for bullying, we’ve got to recognize we’re putting boys in positions that make it really difficult in our culture today,” he continued.

“We believe that they’re largely unguided. One in four boys now doesn’t have a father in the household. Very few male mentors are stepping up to show boys how to be winning and focused men. And so the examples that they’re getting are leading them in, frankly, a horrible direction.”

CHICAGO PREP SCHOOL’S ‘NEGLIGENT BEHAVIOR’ TOWARD CYBERBULLYING LED TO STUDENT’S SUICIDE, PARENTS ALLEGE

Data from the Federal National Center for Education Statistics and Bureau of Justice and the CDC, compiled by StopBullying.gov, indicates that 20% of students aged 12-18 experienced bullying in the U.S.

Of those who reported being bullied, 56% said they believed the perpetrators had the ability to alter others’ perceptions of them. Fifty percent believed their bully “had more social influence.” Forty percent were seen as “physically stronger or larger” and 31% were seen as wealthier than their victims.

Cyberbullying is another concern, with the same data finding that 15% of students in the age range reported being bullied online or via text. 

Hancock believes there are two primary reasons boys resort to bullying in particular – a lack of positive role models and a lack of opportunities to channel emotions in positive ways.

The solution? Surrounding them with male mentors who set a good example in an environment that encourages adventure. Trail Life USA began nearly 10 years ago and is now focused out of 1,100 churches across the nation with over 50,000 members participating.

MONTANA LEGISLATURE ADVANCES BILL ALLOWING KIDS TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST BULLIES IN SCHOOL: ‘AN INHERENT RIGHT’

“We give what you’d expect from an outdoor boys program. It’s handbooks and uniforms and hiking and camping and all sorts of outdoor activity,” Hancock explained. 

“A male-centric environment with background checked, approved, vetted male leaders are taking boys into the outdoors and showing them character, leadership and adventure principles that are making a difference.”

All with elements of faith embedded in each lesson, so boys not only grow into bold, courageous fathers and husbands, but also godly men.

In the meantime, the program gives boys an outlet to be who they are – adventurers, risk-takers, leaders. 

“A lot of folks are leaning towards saying boys and girls aren’t different. Well, they are. Boys and girls are different psychologically, developmentally, behaviorally… boys’ needs aren’t being met in the way they need to be met, so we’re putting them in situations where we’re treating them like defective girls or something, and they’re just not wired to sit still, be quiet, pay attention,” Hancock continued.

ELITE US BOARDING SCHOOL ADMITS FAILURE TO HALT BULLYING LED TO STUDENT SUICIDE

“So they sit through these kinds of situations on a regular basis and there’s pent-up emotions and drives and, they’re just not allowed to express themselves, and we’re giving them fewer and fewer opportunities for risk and adventure and outdoor activity. Because of that, we’re driving them towards the one expression of emotions that we seem to recognize and be OK with, and that’s anger. And that’s just wrong for boys.”

The program is open to kids in grades K-12, approximately ages five to 17, with many participants being homeschooled students. As soon as members turn 18, Hancock said they are eligible for an adult role. The program is also nondenominational, but with a Trinitarian statement of faith.

For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media.

 

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Our American-Israeli 21-year-old son was murdered in the Hamas attacks. This is what we want the world to know

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On Saturday, October 7, almost 1,500 Israelis were brutally massacred by the genocidal Hamas organization. They beheaded babies, burned people in their beds, raped and massacred peace festival partygoers, put children in cages and kidnapped the elderly and even Holocaust survivors.

Our son, Roey Weiser, only 21, and a dual American-Israeli citizen, is part of that unthinkable statistic.

Our son, like all Israeli youths, was conscripted into the army. On that fateful morning he was on his army base, guarding the Erez Crossing into Gaza. This is a place where food and other goods are regularly transported into Gaza, and where Gazans in the tens of thousands come and go to and from work in Israel or travel for medical care.

SENIOR HAMAS OFFICIAL ADMITS ISRAEL ATTACKS HAD BEEN PLANNED FOR YEARS UNDER GUISE OF GOVERNING GAZA

He wasn’t on guard at the time but heard the shooting and leapt into action. Roey saw that his soldiers were being pinned down by hordes of Hamas terrorists, so out of nowhere, he came up with an ingenious but daring maneuver to outflank the terrorists.

Roey said to his soldiers, I am no longer your sergeant, whoever wants to come with me can. 

He went around the terrorists and together with a small handful of others, he engaged them from behind and stopped their attack. Unfortunately, in the battle he was mortally wounded.

We heard about his amazing bravery from the many soldiers whose lives he saved. There are around 12 soldiers who are alive today because of his heroism. Theirs was the only base not taken by Hamas on that Saturday attack because of his actions.

Like many other Israelis, we have paid the ultimate price.

BLINKEN, IN ISRAEL, SAYS MORE AMERICANS KILLED, VOWS SOLIDARITY ‘ALWAYS’

The international community has now seen what Hamas is, eyes around the world have now been opened to a terrorist organization that has no goals except destruction, pain and bloodshed. 

Hamas is not interested in peace, neither in accommodation nor compromise.

Hamas leaders have openly admitted that they accepted many recent Israeli concessions and assistance to lull us into the feeling that if we give them a better life, they will not seek war and butchery.

We were all so wrong.

Their hate for us is too strong. Like ISIS, Hamas delights in death, misery and suffering.

So, now, unfortunately, we have to face this fight.

It was not a war of our choosing, but Israel must be allowed to decide when and how it ends.

We will soon send our young soldiers into Gaza to fight face to face, simply because we do not want to kill innocent civilians by simply bombing from the air.

US ARRANGING EVACUATION FLIGHTS FROM ISRAEL STARTING FRIDAY, KIRBY SAYS

Thankfully, like our son Roey, our soldiers are extremely motivated and highly trained.

The number of casualties will rise.

Our gruesome enemies, who bask in the deaths of our people, also delight in the deaths of their own people, because they will use them to gain international sympathy and to try and cast aspersions against the Jewish State.

I hope the international community will understand what we have to do to defend ourselves, remain supportive and encourage us to defeat Hamas.

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There is no alternative to victory over Hamas. Anything short of its destruction will merely pave the way for future wars and prolong the conflict, meaning more suffering and bloodshed on all sides.

We are extremely grateful for the support of the United States, from President Biden and from both sides of Congress and the American people.

We were both born in the U.S. and are dual American and Israeli citizens. While we live in Israel we travel frequently to the U.S. We know well how our people’s futures are intertwined. Our values are your values, our thirst for freedom and security matches yours. 

Those who hate Americans also hate Israelis, and vice versa.

Israel helped the U.S. and its allies defeat ISIS. I hope the U.S. will now return the favor.

Our future and existence are dependent on it. If Israel does not defeat Hamas, our other, far greater enemies in Tehran, Beirut and elsewhere, will perceive Israel as weak and could potentially launch an all-out war of annihilation.

Hezbollah is already itching to enter into the conflict.

The Ayatollahs in Iran are constantly predicting the date of the Jewish people’s demise and actively acquiring the means to ensure it.

If Israel is allowed to win, we can hope and pray that this is the last war, there can be peace and security, and people like Roey will not have to die defending his country and people in the future.

Naomi and Yisrael Weiser are dual American and Israeli citizens who reside in Israel. Their son, Roey, lost his life on October 7 while defending Israel against Hamas terrorists.

 

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Skeletons from 1918 flu pandemic reveal clues about those most likely to die, study finds

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The skeletons of people who were alive during the 1918 flu pandemic have revealed new clues about people who were more likely to die from the virus.

Known as the deadliest in history, the 1918 flu pandemic — also referred to as the Spanish flu — killed an estimated 50 million people, or one-fifth of the world’s population.

It’s long been assumed that the 1918 flu primarily affected young, healthy adults — but a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences seems to contradict that, suggesting that frail or unhealthy people were more vulnerable. 

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Researchers from McMaster University in Canada and the University of Colorado Boulder examined the skeletal remains of 369 individuals housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

All of these individuals died either soon before or during the 1918 pandemic, according to a press release from McMaster. The sample was divided into two groups: a control group who had died before the pandemic; and another group who died during the pandemic, according to the release.

They examined the bones for lesions that would have indicated stress or inflammation, which could have been caused by physical trauma, infection or malnutrition, the release stated.

“By comparing who had lesions, and whether these lesions were active or healing at the time of death, we get a picture of what we call frailty, or who is more likely to die,” said Sharon DeWitte, a biological anthropologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author on the study. 

“Our study shows that people with these active lesions are the most frail.”

FLU PREVENTION TIPS FROM FLORIDA’S SURGEON GENERAL: A ‘DAY-TO-DAY’ HEALTHY LIFESTYLE IS KEY

Lead study author Amanda Wissler, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University in Canada, said the study highlights how cultural, social and biological circumstances affect the likelihood of death. 

“Even in a novel pandemic — one to which no one is supposed to have prior immunity — certain people are at a greater risk of getting sick and dying, and this is often shaped by culture,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

The researcher noted that this same phenomenon was seen during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

“The news was full of reports about how people who had been minoritized, or [had] decreased access to social services, often had greater rates of getting very sick or dying,” she said.

The findings of the study were not surprising to the researchers, Wissler said.

“‘Healthy’ people are not supposed to die,” she said. “We have a term called ‘selective mortality,’ which says that certain people are more likely to die than others.”

COVID-19 PATIENTS FACE INCREASED HEALTH RISKS FOR UP TO 2 YEARS, STUDY FINDS

“Many studies have found that certain people are more likely to die in all kinds of contexts, including other pandemics like the Black Death, and also in natural disasters,” the researcher continued. 

“I would actually have been somewhat surprised if people who were healthy had a greater risk of death in 1918.”

One key limitation of the study, according to Wissler, is that the researchers only had information on people who died from the pandemic — but none on people who got infected but survived.

“We don’t know if being unhealthy or stressed may have caused a person to be more likely to [have been] infected with the 1918 flu,” she said. 

Additionally, the individuals who were studied all came from Cleveland, Ohio, Wissler noted.

“This study only provides a snapshot of a certain time and place of the experience of the 1918 flu,” she said. 

“We don’t know yet if what we found here can be generalized to every city.”

COVID-19, FLU AND RSV VACCINES ARE ALL AVAILABLE THIS FALL: SEE WHAT SOME DOCTORS RECOMMEND AND WHY

MarkAlain Déry, DO, an infectious disease physician in New Orleans, Louisiana, noted that the study raises some questions. He was not involved in the research.

Initially, Déry said he was “super excited” about the new research, which highlighted “that people who experience health inequities have higher rates of illness and mortality.”

The research is “more or less saying what we already know, which is that people in vulnerable communities and in lower socioeconomic statuses have a greater level of frailty and mortality as a result of the 1918 influenza outbreak,” Déry said.

The key issue, however, is that it’s not known whether the people who were examined died of influenza, he pointed out.

Also, the size of the study was relatively small, he said.

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Overall, the researchers noted that the project highlights the importance of studying the past. 

“Studying past pandemics and epidemics provides us with a time depth to our understanding of how these diseases affect humans and how we, in turn, affect diseases,” Wissler told Fox News Digital. 

“A lot of the time, we find that the risk factors for disease that we have today were the same in the past.”

To protect against today’s strains of influenza, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months and older get an annual vaccination.

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These seven U.S. regions will receive $7 billion in federal funding to produce hydrogen

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A 3d digital rendering of a metal hydrogen pipeline.
Phonlamaiphoto | Istock | Getty Images

President Joe Biden and Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Jennifer Granholm will announce on Friday seven regional “hydrogen hubs” which are collectively eligible for up to $7 billion in federal funding, according to senior White House administration officials.

The hydrogen hubs are being funded from money included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which President Biden signed into law in November of 2021.

Hydrogen is the simplest element and the most abundant on earth, but it seldom exists on its own, so generally has to be split from other atoms (as in the case of water, or H2O). This can be done with an electrolyzer powered by electricity. Hydrogen can also be produced from natural gas in a process called steam methane reforming.

Hydrogen is currently used to make fertilizer and in various industrial processes, particularly in the petrochemical industry. But because hydrogen emits no carbon dioxide when burned for fuel, it is part of the Biden administration’s strategy for reducing greenhouse gases in industries like long-haul trucking, maritime cargo shipping, and airplane travel. Hydrogen is also seen as a potential energy storage vehicle to balance out the intermittency inherent in renewable energy sources, like wind and solar.

That said, hydrogen is only a good tool for reducing CO2 emissions if it can be produced with minimal emissions itself — today, that often does not happen. The new hubs will be focused on that goal.

The seven hydrogen hubs stretch across 16 states and are organized according to geographic regions that have a particular strength when it comes to developing and growing the hydrogen industry in the United States. The hubs are not single facilities, but refer to a collection of linked assets that will work together to develop the domestic hydrogen economy in the United States.

The $7 billion in federal funding will catalyze an estimated $43 billion in private sector investment, according to comments made by senior White House administration officials on a call with reporters on Thursday afternoon.

The federal funding will be dispersed as the regional hubs meet incremental stage-gate milestones, senior White House administrators said. But the manufacturing hubs are all going to spur job creation, a theme Biden has repeatedly advertised as a co-benefit of developing the clean economy.

The seven selectees are as follows:

Appalachian Hydrogen Hub: The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub encompasses parts of West Virginia, Southeast Ohio, and southwest Pennsylvania and will use the large quantities of natural gas in the region. It’s located in the industrial heartland and will provide hydrogen for industrial applications across the United States. It’s also at a transportation crossroads, which will allow the hydrogen to be readily transported.

California Hydrogen Hub: The California Hydrogen Hub spans from Southern California to Northern California and encompasses three ports: Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland. Ports are very important because hydrogen is considered a prime candidate for decarbonizing the shipping industry. Also, hydrogen will be key in heavy-duty trucking and trucks transport goods from ports.

Gulf State Hydrogen Hub: The Gulf State Hydrogen Hub will be centered in Houston, Texas, and will cover most of the Gulf Coast and southeast Texas. Texas has large quantities of energy to use in producing hydrogen.

Heartland Hydrogen Hub: The Heartland Hydrogen Hub is hosted in Minnesota and includes a significant presence in North Dakota and South Dakota, and takes advantage of the uses the very inexpensive and abundant wind resources to make clean hydrogen. The hydrogen generated in the Heartland Hydrogen Hub will be at least partly used for agricultural purposes, as hydrogen is a key component in making fertilizer.

Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub: The Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub spans parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey and will take advantage of repurposed infrastructure along the Delaware River.

Midwest Hydrogen Hub: The Midwest Hydrogen Hub is in Illinois, northwestern Indiana and southwestern Michigan and will produce hydrogen from, among other sources, nuclear power. Also, the Midwest Hydrogen Hub is located at a transportation crossroads for the United States, which made it appealing.

Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub: The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub encompasses eastern Washington, northeastern Oregon and some parts of Montana and will produce hydrogen for making fertilizer. It will likely connect with the California Hydrogen Hub.

The hydrogen hubs that use natural gas to produce hydrogen will use carbon capture technology, senior administration officials said. The hydrogen hubs that use renewable clean energy will use a combination of new, clean energy sources and some will use existing sources of clean energy at the region.

Also, the hydrogen tax credit included in the Inflation Reduction Act will be a key component to the economic viability of these hubs. The guidance on how that tax credit will be adjudicated is not yet out yet, but is expected by the end of the year.

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Republicans fume as party tanks latest speaker pick

Congress 

The House GOP has entered an angrier and more bewildered phase in its leadership crisis.

The fractious Republican conference has rejected a second speaker hopeful in eight days — this time, Kevin McCarthy’s longtime heir apparent, Steve Scalise. While Republicans appear to be turning next to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), some are already airing open doubts that Jordan can pull off what the majority leader couldn’t.

The lesson Republicans have learned in the frenetic week since McCarthy’s fall: They have no clear choice for leader who can unite their ranks — no matter how long this drags out and their chamber of Congress is paralyzed.

It’s not just GOP centrists sparring with the hard right. It’s not just McCarthy loyalists secretly fuming at Scalise or his allies. There’s mounting anger across the entire conference that no GOP speaker candidate, including Jordan, appears able to prevail under the current margins.

“We need to all recognize that this is much bigger than just one person or any single person’s petty feelings,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), who had voted for Jordan but publicly backed Scalise after he won the internal election.

It won’t be easy for any candidate to get past the internal spats that have only worsened as the GOP’s speaker fight drags on with no end in sight.

“Personally, I think it may end up being a compromise candidate,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) said. While Murphy said there was “no doubt” Jordan would run, he acknowledged that getting the needed 217 GOP votes is “going to be hard.”

Some Scalise backers are particularly incensed over how Jordan handled losing to the Louisianan after the internal election this week.

“Absolutely not,” Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), a Scalise ally, said when asked if she’d back Jordan. “Yesterday in conference, he gave the most disgraceful, ungracious — I can’t call it a concession speech — of all time. There were gasps in the room.”

Wagner then recalled another moment that lost Jordan her support. It took place during a private meeting between Scalise and Jordan, less than an hour after the majority leader won the House GOP’s internal speaker ballot. Wagner wasn’t in the room, but she remained outside in Scalise’s office and took in the immediate aftermath.

According to Wagner and other House Republicans briefed on the meeting, Jordan said to Scalise: “You get one ballot. And when you go down, you will nominate me.”

She said Scalise pushed back, arguing he had won by the conference rules, to which Jordan replied: “America wants me,” before storming out the door.

Russell Dye, Jordan’s spokesperson, denied that Wagner’s recollection was accurate and noted that she was not part of the conversation directly.

“This was an entirely cordial conversation and Mr. Scalise said he wanted to go to the floor right away, so Mr. Jordan offered to nominate him on the floor, and requested that if we had to go to the floor and Mr. Scalise didn’t have the votes — he nominate Mr. Jordan, the only other announced candidate for speaker,” Dye said in a statement.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) also said on Thursday night that he won’t support Jordan in a floor vote. Other Scalise allies described themselves similarly to POLITICO, largely on condition of anonymity, as opposed to the Ohioan. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) is among those signaling frustration and could also oppose Jordan.

“He doesn’t have the majority now. He had less votes than Steve Scalise — significantly less than Kevin McCarthy,” Rutherford told POLITICO leaving conference, adding that he is trying to get McCarthy back into the speaker’s chair.

“We’re going to have the same problem with Jordan that we had with Scalise,” said Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), even as he made clear that he supports the Ohioan. “I think it’s a math problem.”

Just as Scalise did, Jordan — who’s not yet officially announced a repeat bid for speaker — faces pockets of opposition from many sides of the House GOP. While Jordan is beloved by conservatives, he faces skepticism from senior and more establishment Republicans turned off by his rabble-rousing days as a Freedom Caucus founder. Some centrists in purple districts, too, are uneasy that an ultraconservative Speaker Jordan might sink their already fragile majority.

The conference is expected to meet Friday for yet another private gathering, where GOP lawmakers plan to discuss their leadership hole. Jordan is expected to formally announce his bid at that time. (His allies in the Freedom Caucus have not stopped pushing his name, even after his Wednesday secret-ballot loss to Scalise.)

“Steve Scalise is a great American. We’re gonna come together tomorrow as a conference and figure this all out,” Jordan told reporters. “Any type of announcement about what may or may not happen is best done tomorrow.”

Some centrists say they plan to oppose Jordan on a first ballot out of frustration with his core base in the Freedom Caucus, whose members first undercut McCarthy before taking down Scalise. In both cases, they went against the majority of the conference. And these Republicans do not want to reward them.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) signaled on Thursday night that he’s not yet sold on backing Jordan, saying he wants to “chew” on it, but warned against rewarding the Ohio Republican’s backers who refused to support Scalise.

“What bothers some of us is that we had some members who said they would only vote for him. They wouldn’t support the guy who won,” he said.

Other vulnerable members in tough Biden districts who have signaled discontent with the right flank of the conference are also viewed as potential “no” votes for Jordan. One prominent voice in that camp, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), declined to say on Thursday night if he would vote for the Ohio Republican.

But Jordan may not be the only contender to choose from by the time House Republicans vote again. Several, including those who have opposed the Ohio Republican from the start, have been floating alternatives. Centrists, in particular, noted that the idea of Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) as a consensus candidate is picking up steam.

McHenry has insisted in recent days that he wasn’t considering the top post. But speaking to reporters on Thursday night, he didn’t rule it out.

Others are curious if another member of leadership like Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who was running for majority leader before Scalise decided to abandon the speaker’s race, will step up to challenge Jordan. Other members of leadership, like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y), are also mum on what position they might seek.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who had refused to back Scalise, floated Jordan, Hern and House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) as possible picks, as well as a former member, Lee Zeldin.

Hern, however, said it’s Jordan’s turn to try to win over 217 votes — for now.

“We should give him an opportunity,” Hern said. “Let’s give him a chance and see if he can get 217.”

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Tennessee trans law is constitutional and necessary. The left can’t handle the truth

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The federal courts have spoken. Tennessee’s law protecting children from transgender treatments is constitutional, according to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals late September. As the primary author of Tennessee’s law, I’m glad to have the judiciary’s approval. But this isn’t just a legal issue. It’s a basic matter of truth. 

My colleagues and I championed this reform out of a profound conviction that Tennessee should enshrine the truth in law. Modern society tells us that everyone can have their own truth, and that your truth and my truth can not only differ, but directly contradict each other. That’s not how truth works. There are scientific and moral truths that are timeless and eternal. The earth is round. Stealing is wrong. Biology is real. 

Literally everyone understood this last truth until a few years ago. Since then, a small, yet-powerful group of activists have spread the opposite message in the media, in schools, and even in health care. Medical organizations have endorsed dangerous transgender treatments for children, even while admitting that the evidence supporting them is slim to non-existent.  

MISS UNIVERSE COMPETITION TO INCLUDE AT LEAST TWO TRANS CONTESTANTS AFTER NETHERLANDS, PORTUGAL CROWN VICTORS

And as the medical non-profit Do No Harm has shown, the most liberal countries in Europe are increasingly blocking these treatments based on the science. What does it say when hyper-liberal Europe has more respect for the truth than America? 

Drag entertainer DeeDee speaks during a news conference held by the Human Rights Campaign

Drag entertainer DeeDee speaks during a news conference held by the Human Rights Campaign to draw attention to anti-drag bills in the Tennessee legislature, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (John Amis/AP Images for Human Rights Campaign)

The good thing about truth is that it’s hard to hide. We know from research that children who believe they’re transgender struggle with mental illness at staggering rates. We also know that the overwhelming majority of these children – nearly 90% – ultimately stick with their biological gender as adults. Finally, we know that children’s brains are still developing, meaning they need guidance and guardrails to make the best decisions. 

Given all these truths, why on earth would we let children as young as 8 years old (if not younger) try to change their genders? Why on earth would we let teens and even pre-teens subject themselves to medical procedures that are usually irreversible and lead to other medical problems for the rest of their lives? 

You don’t have to think hard to realize how insane it is to let children go down this road. It’s little different from dealing with a daughter who struggles with anorexia, something I’ve seen in a close family friend. Imagine if her parents had encouraged her disorder, telling her that she’s overweight. Imagine if they went a step further, allowing her to get a gastric bypass surgery. 

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Those parents would be endangering her health, and even her life. Society would revolt if we let that happen. So why should we give in to activist demands to let a young boy or girl do something similar with their gender? 

The threat to mental and physical health could hardly be more clear. And we know for a fact that many children who’ve tried to change genders end up committing suicide. Once you cross the bridge of invasive and irreversible transgender treatments, you don’t cross back. Even if you regret your decision, you’re stuck. That’s what happens when the truth gives way to lies. It ruins your life. 

Tennessee’s law protects children and families from this unscientific agenda. The activists who oppose our law accuse us of enforcing some religious dogma. But this isn’t about religion, it’s about reality. Atheists, agnostic people, and a diversity of people from all walks of life recognize the truth about gender. 

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Besides, is it “religious dogma” to oppose that gastric bypass for an anorexic 16-year-old girl? Of course not. It’s common sense. It’s a medical necessity. It’s ultimately a fundamental respect for the truth. The same is true for ending transgender treatments for children. 

Tennessee will continue to defend this truth, now enshrined in law. We’ve already been vindicated in the courts. Now it’s time to consistently and clearly defend the truth in the public square, so that no more children are hurt by lies. 

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