“Epstein connected an Indian billionaire close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak ahead of the first ever trip by an Indian PM to Israel. Days later, that billionaire, Anil Ambani, told Epstein after a visit to Delhi that ‘Leadership’ wanted Epstein’s assistance for Ambani to meet ‘jared and Bannon asap,’ and requested his ‘assistance’ regarding Modi’s upcoming meeting with Trump.

In “The Coming War with Iran: Why This Escalation Path Is Structurally Plausible,” Elijah Magnier warns of an “Israeli alarmist narrative. … What is being revived is not new evidence, but an old pretext — one that has already been proven unfounded and is now being repurposed to manufacture consent for confrontation.”

“No Palestinians were included on the Board of Peace, though Trump did give a spot to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains under war crimes indictment and is subject to an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. The board, which critics say is an attempt to circumvent any meaningful U.N. oversight or even to position itself as a privatized alternative to the world body, envisions operating in an environment where it answers exclusively to Trump.”

“The U.S. military-led group supporting ‘stabilization efforts’ in Gaza has put forward plans for a housing block for Palestinians in Gaza in an area under full Israel military control. According to materials circulated by the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) and obtained by Drop Site News, the ‘planned community,’ if developed, would contain and control its residents through biometric surveillance, checkpoints, monitoring of purchases, and educational programs promoting normalization with Israel.”

Last week, the funding for thousands of programs offering mental health and substance use services was halted when the Trump administration suddenly cut $1.9 billion in funding to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Approximately 2,800 grantee organizations were impacted. But the Trump administration quickly reversed course, reinstating the funding just a day later.  For The Guardian, Melody Schreiber writes that these programs are now feeling “whiplash.”  MELODY SCHREIBER; [email protected]     Schreiber is a freelance health and science journalist.  Schreiber told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “When the [letter announcing cuts to SAMHSA] went out, there had been…

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, just condemned Israel bulldozing the headquarters of the relief group in Jerusalem as Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated: “A new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law, including of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, by the State of Israel.”

A controversial U.S.-funded study on hepatitis B vaccination of newborns in Guinea-Bissau has been cancelled. The $1.6 million project, funded under Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., drew outrage over its withholding of vaccines proven to prevent disease from hepatitis B. Guinea-Bissau has a high burden of disease from hepatitis B.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently released a new food pyramid for dietary guidelines  and commissioned a report justifying those guidelines. The report was reviewed by several individuals with financial ties to food companies as well as beef and milk industries’ trade groups, according to The Lever. “The updated guidelines put high-protein diets based on meat and milk atop the food pyramid, despite Americans already overconsuming those protein sources based on previous guidelines.”

Following up on his firing of all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) last year and replacing them with new anti-vaccine members, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed two more anti-vaccine committee members this week.

The Times of Israel reports this week: “The IDF has drawn up plans to launch renewed intensive military operations in Gaza in March, with an offensive targeting Gaza City aimed at pushing the Yellow Line ceasefire demarcation west toward the coast of the enclave, further expanding the IDF’s control of the territory, an Israeli official and an Arab diplomat told the Times of Israel.”