These Are The 10 Fastest-Developing Cities On Earth
Out of the world’s top 15 growth hubs, 14 are forecast to be located in Asia, according to the Growth Hub Index 2024 by British real estate service Savills.
These cities have been identified as set to develop particularly quickly by 2033, based on indicators measuring rising wealth, expanding economies and the potential for new development and business expansion.
As the following chart, via Statista;’s Anna Fleck, shows, four Indian cities feature in the top 10, with Bengaluru in the top position. It is followed by Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and India’s Delhi.
Several reasons are cited for the anticipated rise in Asia, including how many parts of the region have embraced tech-driven growth, while at the same time continuing to benefit from a strong traditional manufacturing sector. Many Asian cities are also forecast to see a growing middle class as personal wealth rises across the region, while at the same time they have strategies to improve connectivity and to invest in infrastructure.
Savills analysts note that innovation hubs can attract new businesses, which in turn increases demand for office space, manufacturing spaces and housing and that if rapid urbanization is managed well, then it can lead to better health outcomes of populations and improved employment prospects and education.
If poorly managed, however, rapid urban growth can exacerbate poverty, crime and health issues.
The Growth Hub Index is based on economic, population and wealth indicators across 230 cities, each with a GDP of at least $50 billion in 2023, to identify the fastest-growing cities. The economic indicators included the city GDP in 2033 and future credit rating as well as the percentage increase in city GDP growth between 2023–2033. The personal wealth indicators measured the percentage increase in city GDP per capita and the percentage increase in the number of households earning more than $70,000 over the 10 years analyzed. Meanwhile, the population indicators focused on the percentage increase in city population and migration between 2023–2033 and the future ratio of dependents to the working-age population in 2033. Only cities with a GDP of $50 billion and up in 2023 were included in the index.
Drug studies sponsored by drug manufacturers tend to report higher drug efficacy than studies not sponsored by the drug company, a new report published in the Journal of Political Economy on Oct. 7 finds.
The report found a “sponsorship effect” that tends to bias sponsored studies toward reporting higher drug efficacies. The author could not find differences in study design between those funded by drug companies and those not.
“Removing the sponsorship effect would reduce the difference in efficacy … by about 50%,” Tamar Oostrom, an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University, said in her paper.
“This effect was larger than I expected,” Oostrom told The Epoch Times over email. “My results suggest that sponsored arms of trials should be discounted substantially.”
She said that the difference in results between sponsored and unsponsored trials may be that “manufacturers are running multiple trials and selectively publishing those that are more favorable towards their drug.”
Even a small effect of bias by funding could affect the use of a drug, she noted.
“If some of the results from a clinical trial are biased, patients may be taking a less effective drug for them, or they may be taking a drug when alternate treatment might be more beneficial,” Oostrom said.
Her research analyzed the published papers of 509 trials and 1,215 treatment arms (groups of participants). Most of the trials were published after the drug gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). About three-quarters of them examined were for antidepressants, with the remaining quarter for antipsychotic medications.
“My paper is the first to examine the effect of financial sponsorship on outcomes by directly comparing a large set of trials in which the exact same arms are tested with differing financial interests,” Oostrom said.
Trials Comparing Drugs Vary by Funding
Oostrom examined two main types of drug trials: drugs that are compared to placebos and drugs that are compared to other drugs.
She found that the effect of drug company sponsorship was more pronounced in placebo trials.
There are multiple payoffs for results that favor a drug’s efficiency.
“Trials in which the manufacturer’s drug appears more effective are more likely to be published,” Oostrom said.
These published trials can be used in marketing to physicians. Prescriptions also tend to increase in response to favorable clinical trials.
Oostrom cited a 2023 study that found that when a clinical trial significantly favors a drug, “there is a large and immediate increase in demand.”
The trials Oostrom reviewed included an average of 100 participants, with a mean age of 42. Sex distribution was nearly equal, with 51 percent of participants being female.
Case Study: Effexor Versus Prozac
As an example of bias, Oostrom presented the case of Effexor, an antidepressant introduced by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 1993. Over the following 15 years, Wyeth funded 14 randomized controlled trials comparing Effexor’s effectiveness to its rival, Prozac. In 12 of these trials, funded solely by Wyeth, Effexor was found to be more effective.
However, when Effexor and Prozac were compared with alternative funding, only one out of three trials found Effexor to be more effective.
“Each of these trials is a double-blind RCT comparing the exact same two molecules and examining the same standard outcomes,” Oostrom wrote in her paper.
Expert Opinions on Research Bias
The study confirms that the funding of studies greatly influences their design and results, Dr. Chad Savage, an internal medicine specialist and founder of YourChoice Direct Care, told The Epoch Times.
“Multiple attempts have been made over the years to counter this effect, such as requiring financial disclosures from authors, but none have succeeded in fully eradicating the bias that can exist,” Savage said.
This bias often stems from the “self-preservation instincts of researchers, who are in a constant quest for funding” or possibly facing unemployment, he added.
“Solving this problem is challenging,” he said. “One potential solution is to return to the principle of reproducibility, a cornerstone of science. If a finding is valid, it should be replicable through multiple studies conducted by different researchers, with diverse funding sources, and published in different journals.”
According to Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche, professor of clinical research design and analysis at the University of Copenhagen, the bias in industry-sponsored trials is massive.
“In head-to-head trials where Prozac was the drug of interest, significantly more patients improved on Prozac than in trials where Prozac was the comparator drug,” Gøtzsche told The Epoch Times.
He cited a 2004 study that found systematic bias in rating the effectiveness of Prozac, one of the first antidepressants on the market. Prozac is the brand name for fluoxetine.
The Epoch Times reached out to Eli Lilly, Prozac’s manufacturer, and Pfizer, which now owns Effexor, for comments.
Ex-State Department Official Who Blew Up ISIS’s Bank Reveals Roadmap For “Striking Iran”
Top Israeli officials, including senior ministers and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met on Thursday to outline a war strategy for Israel’s retaliation against Iran, according to the New York Times, citing two officials who requested anonymity due to the private nature of the discussions. The move comes in response to Iran’s bombardment of Israel early last week, which involved up to 200 ballistic and hypersonic missiles. This tit-for-tat escalation could spiral into a much larger and broadening conflict across the Middle East.
NYT cited Israeli officials, who have warned that coming retaliation for last week’s missile barrage “will be more severe.” President Biden this week spoke with Netanyahu, the first conversation in months, about Israel’s pending retaliation strike against Iran.
Last Thursday, Biden was asked by MSM reporters outside the White House if he would support Israel striking Iran’s critical oil export facilities. The president said, “We’re discussing that.”
President Biden was asked about Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities this morning. He said:
“We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little … anyway … Nothing will happen today.” pic.twitter.com/6AV2fxKHf4
Remember, on Sept. 27, Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly, “The curse of Oct. 7 began when Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza, but it didn’t end there. Israel was soon forced to defend itself on six more war fronts organized by Iran.”
We have detailed in multiple notes how the most likely high-value assets that IDF jets (F-35s) could hit first would be Iran’s ability to export crude and crude energy products:
Providing more color on what a potential IDF strike on Iran would look like is David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former US State Department official who has worked on counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East.
The strategy Israel has successfully implemented against Hezbollah must now be applied against Tehran directly. The regime is the puppeteer behind Oct. 7 and the multifront attacks against Israel.
He explained:
Israel’s most effective course of action would be to target key leadership, military support and financial infrastructure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Intelligence and Security Ministry. That would weaken the regime’s pillars while avoiding direct harm to civilians, which could otherwise foster sympathy for the regime. Combined with attacks on Iran’s external oil-export capacity to deprive the regime of its financial lifeblood, a top-down leadership-focused approach would pressure the regime without disrupting essential domestic services.
Israel should first neutralize the immediate missile threat posed by the regime. Striking Iran’s leadership and nuclear facilities without simultaneously addressing Iran’s offensive missile capabilities would allow the regime to retaliate aggressively. Iran knows this, which explains why its rulers are posting web images of their subterranean “missile cities.” Next, Israel must attack the regime’s headquarters, command facilities and military. No key Iranian leaders should be spared. The precision killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran apartment demonstrates that Israel can strike anyone, anytime and anywhere.
Then Iran’s military training camps on the Iraq border should be smoked. For decades, these camps have been used to train Iranian, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi special-group operatives for campaigns against Israel, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, and global antiterrorist operations. After that Iran’s central bank and oil export facilities should be destroyed.
Asher pointed out he was critical in counter-terrorism operations against ISIS’s central bank and cash distribution centers across Mosul, Iraq, in 2015-16.
He said the combination of kinetic warfare and economic warfare could be a winning strategy for Israel to dismantle Tehran’s financial apparatus, adding that only after “disrupting command, control, and financial and logistical infrastructure should Israel consider direct action against key Iranian nuclear facilities.”
The U.S. should provide direct and public support to Israel’s counterstrikes, not just sit on the sidelines. America should never forget the large number of Americans who have been murdered by Iran and its terrorist action network since Hezbollah attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut multiple times in the 1980s and obliterated U.S. barracks there in 1983, killing 241 Marines and sailors. These attacks were followed by the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 and numerous Iran-directed attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2012 that killed and wounded thousands.
The U.S. military has a blood grievance against Tehran’s regime. Yet there has been little retaliation beyond taking down Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Now is the time to join Israel in retribution at scale and scope.
Iran’s crude export loadings remained well below normal levels Oct. 10 as oil markets continued to brace for an expected retaliatory strike by Israel on Iran that could target the country’s oil infrastructure and disrupt Middle Eastern oil supplies.
Register Now Crude loadings from Iran averaged 816,244 b/d in the week to Oct. 9, according to preliminary observed and estimated tanker movements in S&P Global Commodities at Sea. A 2 million-barrel cargo of Iranian crude was seen leaving Iranian waters Oct. 9, the second VLCC crude cargo in four days after an apparent hiatus of VLCC liftings since Sept. 28, when the geopolitical conflict between Iran and Israel escalated.
Here’s a detailed map of oil assets across the Middle East:
Late last month, Goldman analyst Lindsay Matcham told clients a war risk premium in Brent crude prices was absent. If IDF forces target Iranian energy assets, especially knocking out Tehran’s ability to export crude to buyers in Singapore and China, then Brent prices would instantly reprice much, much higher.
Asher penned a note in March about a “Global oil shock could trigger a crisis ala 2007-2008″ if the Middle East spirals out of control.
The looming question is whether Israel will strike Iran before or after the US presidential election.
Nearly 3 million Americans have cast early ballots either in person or by mail with under four weeks to go until Election Day, an election tracking site shows.
As of 6:43 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2,877,590 people had cast ballots in states that report early voting data, according to an update from the University of Florida’s Election Lab website.
Of that figure, nearly 504,000 people had voted early in person, and more than 2.37 million had voted by mail, the tracking site found.
About 47.5 million mail-in ballots have been requested so far. In comparison, more than 92 million mail-in ballots were requested through the 2020 election, according to the university.
In the states reporting how people voted by party, 56.3 percent of people who had returned early ballots were Democrats, representing about 732,378 people. Another 27.4 percent were Republican, representing 356,797 voters, and 16.2 percent, or 210,980, were independent or members of a third party, according to the website.
By Age, Gender, Ethnicity
When broken down by age, nearly 60 percent of early voters were over 65, the tracking site found. Another 28 percent were age 41 to 65, while 9 percent were age 26 to 40, and only 3.2 percent were aged 18 to 25.
Slightly more than 54.4 percent of people who returned early ballots were female, and roughly 44.6 percent were male, the site found. The remaining 1.1 percent were marked “unknown,” according to the site.
Among early voters, about 72 percent were white, 8.6 percent were black, 2.2 percent were Hispanic, 2.4 percent were Asian, and 14.3 percent were marked “unknown,” the site stated.
Early Voting Starts in Arizona
Early in-person voting started on Oct. 9 in Arizona, making it the earliest of this year’s presidential battleground states to enable residents to cast a ballot at a traditional polling place ahead of Election Day.
The start of in-person voting in the closely contested state is also drawing the presidential tickets, with both campaigns scheduling visits in the state this week.
The Oct. 9 start date for early voting overlaps with campaign stops by both vice presidential nominees, Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who are each holding events in Tucson, Arizona, on that day.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is scheduled to host a rally in Phoenix on Oct. 10, while former President Donald Trump will hold an event on Oct. 13 in Prescott Valley, north of Phoenix.
Early voting, particularly by mail, has long been popular in Arizona, where nearly 80 percent voted before Election Day in 2020, according to the secretary of state’s office. Each of Arizona’s 15 counties is required to open at least one site for in-person early voting, which runs until the Friday before the Nov. 5 general election. In Maricopa County, a dozen voting centers are scattered around the metro Phoenix area.
Early in-person voting has been underway in some states for several weeks now. It begins next week in four more swing states: Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Nevada.
Changes in North Carolina’s Election
Following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, the state’s election board this week approved an emergency measure that changes voting rules.
The rule changes apply to 13 counties that saw infrastructure, voting sites, and mail delivery impacted by Helene, which made landfall in late September.
One change approved by the board includes enhancing in-person early voting by allowing county boards to modify early voting sites, dates, and hours. It will also allow a county election board for one county to open a polling site in another county, depending on the circumstances, the state election board stated.
Voters in affected counties can now request an absentee ballot in person up until Nov. 4, the day before the general election, according to the election board. Completed ballots can be dropped off by Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at a polling location.
Voters who were displaced are also allowed to turn in ballots to another county’s elections board by the same deadline, the state said. Previously, voters could turn in absentee ballots to early voting sites only in their county or to their county elections board by Election Day.
Other Activities
South Carolina took action earlier this month to extend its voter registration deadline to Oct. 14, while Georgia elections officials have said they do not expect major disruptions from Helene.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order allowing election supervisors in 13 counties impacted by Helene to make voting-related changes. The state is bracing for a major hurricane, Milton, which is expected to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on the night of Oct. 9.
Body Of Top IRGC General Finally Recovered In Beirut After 2 Weeks
A high-ranking Iranian military officer who was considered a “key figure” that oversaw Tehran’s support to the ‘resistance axis’ abroad was slain in the Israeli airstrike which killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on September 27 in south Beirut.
Iran had soon after the Israeli attack confirmed the death the IRGC’s #2, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan. But his body had not been found even long after Nasrallah’s remains were recovered. Iran’s government had vowed that his killing “will not go unanswered.”
The IRGC deputy commander’s body was finally recovered on Friday by Lebanese search and rescue workers, regional media has announced, a full two weeks after the strike:
The Public Relations Department of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced that the body of IRGC Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan has been found.
On September 27, Nilforoushan was killed by Israeli strikes in Beirut. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was also killed in the attack.
The assassinations, along with the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, triggered Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel, in which it fired almost 200 ballistic missiles on October 1.
The fact that there was enough rubble to bury his remains to the point that the body took two weeks to recover speaks to the enormity of the bombs’ impact and destruction.
The strikes have been described as happening as a high-level meeting between Nasrallah and top Iranian officials was taking place. It’s believed that the meeting was being held in a bunker underneath office or apartment buildings.
Israel likely used heavy US-supplied ‘bunker busters’ to penetrate that far down. Hezbollah and Iranian officials attending the meeting were essentially buried under the massive layers of rubble.
Born in Isfahan in 1966, Nilforoushan began his military activities in the 1980s joining the Basij and later the IRGC, holding various positions including Deputy Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces for Operations.
Iranian media outlet Student News Network (SNN) described Nilforoushan as a “key figure” with extensive battlefield experience who played a crucial role in supporting the “Resistance Axis, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian resistance groups,” helping to strengthen their capabilities against Israel.
Following the assassination of IRGC General Mohammad Reza Zahedi in an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April, Nilforoushan “assumed command of the Lebanon front,” according to the Tehran-based Fararu website.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has confirmed the recovery of the body of Commander Abbas Nilforooshan, following tireless efforts by specialized teams. pic.twitter.com/9sJTKItakm
Hezbollah has since claimed to have reconstituted its command and communications structure, but it’s anything but clear who exactly leads the paramilitary organization at this point. Likely no specific name will be publicized anytime soon, given the person would immediately become a top target of Israel.
Whether it is turning food into fuel, building cells, repairing DNA, detoxifying, recycling nutrients, or defending against oxidative stress, niacin provides the energy to keep it all running smoothly. Without it, your cells would be like a phone stuck with a 1 percent battery: desperately low on power and struggling to keep up!
But niacin does more than energize your body. It also plays a vital role in specific functions, like supporting skin health—a finding that dates back to the discovery of this remarkable vitamin.
In the 1910s, Dr. Joseph Goldberger, a U.S. Public Health Service medical officer, was investigating the mystery of pellagra. This debilitating disease was sweeping South Carolina and other parts of the world, leaving a trail of severe symptoms: rough, scaly skin, digestive issues, and mental disturbances, with a fatality rate of 40 percent. Tens of thousands were affected, and the cause was a mystery. Most thought it was an infectious disease.
Goldberger suspected pellagra wasn’t caused by a germ but by something missing from people’s diets. By restricting corn and adding foods like fresh milk, buttermilk, eggs, beans, and peas to the diets of pellagra patients, Goldberger showed the symptoms could be reversed. But what was the magic ingredient in these foods?
Years later, a biochemist identified niacin as the specific factor behind this dietary solution. It turns out that niacin was the key to preventing pellagra and restoring health.
Special Talents
Niacin has many talents and roles, but a few main ones are highlighted below.
1. Energizer
Niacin is the star player in your body’s grand energy production team. Fats, carbohydrates, and specific proteins are broken down into energy when you eat. Turning these foods into usable energy is where niacin truly shines. In the presence of oxygen, these nutrients travel through a series of pathways to transform the food you eat into energy, known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which powers nearly everything you do, from thinking to moving.
ATP is in constant demand but exists in only small, rapidly depleted amounts. To keep us alive, our cells must regenerate ATP continuously—and that’s where niacin steps in as a genuine “energizer.” Niacin, in the form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), acts as the critical energy carrier in the pathways that convert nutrients into ATP, ensuring that despite our limited ATP stores, we always have a fresh supply ready to fuel every heartbeat, every breath, and every thought.
Without niacin, the body’s energy production would cease, making this nutrient essential for sustaining life itself.
2. Nerve Protector
Niacin has shown exciting potential in protecting the nervous system and combating neurological diseases. Pre-clinical trials suggest it could be beneficial for conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and glioblastoma.
Niacin helps repair the myelin that protects your nerves and reduces inflammation in the brain. A 2004 prospective study found an association between higher niacin intake and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline. Niacin also speeds up the transformation of stem cells into nerve cells and helps those cells survive, even under oxidative stress.
3. Cancer Fighter
Niacin enhances DNA repair by maintaining cellular energy levels, preventing ATP depletion, and increasing excision repair, which is essential for reducing cancer risk. In clinical trials, niacin reduced the incidence of skin cancer. In patients with cancer, higher niacin intake increased the odds of survival. Niacin may also help prevent certain cancers, as niacin deficiency can impair DNA repair, thus leading to genomic instability and increased tumor development in rat models, including a higher risk of chemically induced leukemia.
Also, niacin has been shown to effectively reduce the incidence of premalignant actinic keratosis by 11 percent, squamous cell carcinoma by 30 percent, and basal cell carcinoma by 20 percent among cancer patients, compared to a placebo after a 12-month trial. Furthermore, if you have certain cancers, such as carcinoids, you may also need more niacin.
Niacin also helps in the production of reproductive and stress-related hormones, improves circulation, regulates the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and suppresses inflammation.
Fun Facts
Niacin is not technically an essential vitamin because your liver and certain microbes in your intestine can make it from tryptophan, the amino acid famous for making you sleepy after Thanksgiving turkey.
While some organizations discourage its use as a first-line therapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved niacin to treat high cholesterol and high triglycerides. Niacin was the first cholesterol-lowering drug before the discovery of statins.
Unlike some of the other B vitamins, niacin is stable when exposed to heat and light. It survives most cooking methods, so the niacin in your food is unlikely to be destroyed during preparation.
More than 400 enzymes depend on niacin, making it critical for proper body function.
There’s growing interest in niacin’s role in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite.
Favorite Hangouts
Niacin hangs out in liver and meat, including chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, salmon, tuna, shrimp, and sardines. Vegetarians can find niacin in unfortified nutritional yeast, mushrooms, asparagus, sweet potato, bell pepper, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, nuts, lentils, peas, and legumes. Niacin bioavailability is higher in meat compared to plants because it is mainly in the form of the coenzyme NAD.
Some of the foods rich in niacin are listed below. Their daily consumption quantities are calculated based on the Food and Nutrition Board’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for niacin, which is 16 milligrams per day for adult males and 14 milligrams per day for adult females.
Food portions and the percentage of the daily value they meet include the following:
Pan-fried beef liver (3 ounces): 93 percent
Grilled chicken breast (3 ounces): 64 percent
Marinara sauce (1 cup): 64 percent
Roasted turkey breast (3 ounces): 63 percent
Cooked sockeye salmon (3 ounces): 54 percent
Light canned tuna (3 ounces): 54 percent
Roasted pork tenderloin (3 ounces): 39 percent
Pan-browned ground beef (3 ounces): 36 percent
Cooked brown rice (1 cup): 33 percent
Dry-roasted peanuts (1 ounce): 26 percent
Recipe: Energizing Chicken Salad
Short on time? No worries! Grab an organic rotisserie chicken, and this meal will come together in under five minutes. It’s a quick and easy way to load up on niacin and its supporting cast, vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B1, iron, and tryptophan (covered later).
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked chicken breast
2 cups spinach
½ avocado
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Handful of sunflower seeds and sliced almonds
Directions:
Shred the cooked chicken breast and place it in a large bowl.
Add spinach and diced avocado.
Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
Sprinkle almonds on top.
Toss well and serve chilled for a refreshing, niacin-packed meal.
How to Optimize Absorption
Some of the niacin in foods like coffee, grains, and seeds is bound, so for it to be released, it requires special processing, like roasting, germinating, fermentation, or alkali treatment.
For coffee lovers, roasting is key; the more robust the roast, the more niacin available, while decaf contains less.
Grains are often marketed as a good source of niacin, but here’s the twist: This is only true if they’re germinated, fermented, alkali-treated, or fortified. About 70 percent of the niacin in whole grains in their natural state is bound up in a form our bodies can’t easily absorb.
Diets that relied heavily on grains like corn and sorghum were the culprit behind widespread pellagra outbreaks in South Africa, India, and Southern Europe in the 18th century and later in the United States after the Civil War. In the postwar South, diets were largely grain-based, relying on cereals like corn, wheat, and grits, which left them dangerously low in niacin. It wasn’t long before physicians, including Goldberger, connected the dots: Niacin deficiency was at the heart of these health crises, and eating niacin-rich foods could save countless lives.
Long before modern science understood the importance of niacin, many ancient cultures had already developed ways to make it more available in their diets. The Aztecs, for instance, boiled and soaked corn in an alkaline solution, such as water with lime or calcium hydroxide—a method known as nixtamalization. Other cultures added alkalizing substances like juniper ash or lye made from hardwood ash.
This alkalizing process freed the bound niacin, making it more bioavailable and likely protecting against pellagra in regions like South and Central America, where these techniques were practiced. Unfortunately, it is thought that when these traditional methods of processing corn were abandoned, niacin deficiency may have become more widespread, potentially contributing to pellagra outbreaks.
Today, to help prevent such deficiencies, the FDA requires niacin to be added to flour and bread and labeled as “enriched.” That’s why added niacin is listed on many bread labels in the grocery store.
If you’re cooking at home and want to unlock more niacin from whole grains, try these tricks:
Germinate (or sprout) raw grains.
If whole-food forms of corn are a staple in your diet, consider preparing them in lime water.
When making bread, use yeast or baking soda to help it rise.
Combine three days of sprouting with an eight-hour sourdough fermentation.
Supporting Cast of Nutrients
The amino acid tryptophan is a dietary source of niacin because it can be converted into niacin by the liver and certain microbes in your intestine. Including tryptophan-rich foods like turkey, eggs, and cheese in your diet can help boost niacin levels.
However, the conversion process is inefficient, requiring about 60 parts tryptophan to make just one part niacin. This ratio is why niacin intakes are expressed as niacin equivalents (NE), with 1 milligram of NE equal to 1 milligram of niacin or 60 milligrams of tryptophan.
Therefore, niacin should be consumed with foods containing vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B1, and iron. These nutrients help convert tryptophan into niacin.
Pairing niacin with foods containing unsaturated fatty acids is also a good idea. Adding unsaturated fatty acids to your diet can help increase niacin synthesis from tryptophan. Avocados, olives, nuts, fatty fish, and dark chocolate are a few examples of these types of foods.
Deficiency
Niacin deficiencies are rare in industrialized nations, primarily because of adequate dietary intake and the addition of niacin to numerous foods and multivitamin supplements.
Recommended Dietary Allowance
The current RDA (16 milligrams daily for men, 14 milligrams daily for women) is based on preventing deficiency. Still, some experts suggest higher amounts may benefit those dealing with high levels of oxidative stress, such as athletes or people with chronic conditions.
Symptoms and Signs
Common niacin deficiency symptoms include the following:
Depression
Headache
Fatigue
Memory loss
Hallucinations
Indigestion
Canker sores
Vomiting
Poor circulation
Pellagra-related symptoms
Pellagra is often recognized by the “3 D’s”: dermatitis (inflammatory patches on the skin), dementia (cognitive decline), and diarrhea. In its most severe form, there is a fourth D: death. These symptoms typically appear in the late stages of niacin deficiency.
Pre-pellagra symptoms include:
Weakness and fatigue (often the earliest symptom)
Exercise intolerance
Hair loss
Tongue inflammation and mouth sores (vitamins B2 and B6 and iron deficiencies can all lead to this)
People with Parkinson’s disease who are taking medications like levodopa might face a higher risk of developing or worsening a niacin deficiency. Levodopa is commonly prescribed to Parkinson’s patients to help increase dopamine levels in the brain, easing motor symptoms. It’s often paired with carbidopa to prevent levodopa from breaking down in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. However, carbidopa can interfere with the body’s ability to make niacin naturally.
Parkinson’s patients often experience systemic inflammation, which can compromise niacin levels. Adding dopaminergic medications like carbidopa/levodopa may further reduce the body’s natural niacin production, worsening a potential deficiency. For this reason, Parkinson’s patients on these medications may need to monitor their niacin levels to avoid deficiency.
Toxicity
Niacin was commonly prescribed for high blood lipid levels until statins were discovered. At high doses (generally 1 to 6 grams per day), niacin can increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides. However, high doses can also lead to liver damage and failure, with a higher risk associated with the sustained-release form.
Niacin at 50 or more milligrams per dose can cause a “flush,” which increases blood flow to the skin. It typically starts at the top of your head, turning your face bright red before spreading down your body, and is often accompanied by a warm, tingling sensation. If you want to avoid the flush, niacinamide is an alternative form of niacin. While it is not as effective, it does not cause the flushing effect.
Timing also matters. To reduce the chance of niacin flushing, take supplements with food and start with a lower dose before working your way up.
Even higher doses of niacin (3,000 milligrams a day) may lead to jaundice, abdominal discomfort, blurred vision, worsening of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), and triggering of preexisting gout. Other risks are the formation of stomach ulcers and increased uric acid levels, which may increase the risk of gout.
Also, if you’re allergic to aspirin, you may be sensitive to tartrazine, which is found in some forms of niacin. Avoid taking niacin without consulting your health care provider if you have liver problems or an active peptic ulcer. If you are pregnant, avoid taking niacin supplements altogether.
Interactions
Niacin may reduce the effectiveness of certain medications, including those that lower cholesterol (bile-acid sequestrants) and treat gout, as well as the antibiotic tetracycline. Certain anti-seizure medications (e.g., phenytoin and valproic acid) and the tuberculosis medication isoniazid may cause niacin deficiency in some people.
Niacin supplements may increase the levels of carbamazepine and mysoline in the body. Niacin can also strengthen the effects of blood thinners and alpha-blockers (one type of blood pressure drug), thus increasing the risk of bleeding and low blood pressure, respectively.
Combining niacin with statins may slow down heart disease progression while increasing the risk of muscle inflammation or liver damage. Therefore, if you are taking any of the medications mentioned above or regularly consuming alcohol, it’s essential to consult your health care provider before starting niacin supplements. Additionally, using nicotine patches alongside niacin may increase the risk or severity of niacin flush.
Saudi Arabia has executed 213 people so far in 2024, more than it has in any other calendar year on record, as the kingdom competes for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).
According to the London-based rights group Reprieve, which documents the death penalty worldwide, the largest recorded figure prior to this year was 196 in 2022, followed by 184 in 2019. “As the world’s attention fixates on horror elsewhere in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is clearing death row with a bloodbath,” Reprieve’s deputy director, Harriet McCulloch, told MEE.
“The Kingdom smashed its own grim record for most people executed in a year in the first nine months of 2024,” she added. “With 213 executions and counting, death row prisoners are at greater risk than ever before, their families desperately awaiting news of their fate in the news.”
The executions are taking place under the government of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the kingdom’s prime minister and de facto leader, who pledged in a 2018 interview to minimize capital punishment.
Yet, Saudi Arabia remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners. At least 1,115 executions have been carried out under Mohammed bin Salman’s rule between 21 June 2017 and 9 October 2024, a spokesperson for Reprieve told Middle East Eye.
On Wednesday, the HRC is due to hold elections for its 2025-2027 term, and Saudi Arabia is amongst the 19 candidates. “Today, UN member states should vote no – no to Saudi Arabia securing a seat on the council, and no to rising executions carried out with impunity,” McCulloch said.
The HRC is the main intergovernmental body within the UN with the mandate to strengthen the protection and promotion of human rights around the world. Human rights activists have denounced Riyadh’s candidacy as contradicting the council’s raison d’etre.
The criteria for electing its member countries include a requirement for members to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and to “fully cooperate with the Council.”
UN Watch, an organization that monitors the UN’s performance against its own charter, has spearheaded calls for the reform of the HRC’s election system, which allows for states with a poor human rights record to become members. Two-thirds of the council’s members are non-democracies. On Tuesday, UN Watch said Saudi Arabia was “unqualified” for membership of the council.
Additionally, according to Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly lied to the UN about its use of the death penalty. On Wednesday, it told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that it only uses the death penalty for the most serious crimes, and that its juvenile law seeks to negate the death penalty for minors.
This contradicts the kingdom’s track record of issuing death penalties for those facing allegations of crimes committed under the age of 18.
Saudi Arabia is facing global backlash for setting a record number of executions in 2024, with 206 people executed so far, including minors and non-lethal offenders. Despite this, the Kingdom continues its attempts to improve its international image through sports sponsorships,… pic.twitter.com/CQZEng0Xdy
Three clients of Reprieve and the ESOHR, Abdullah al-Derazi, Youssef al-Manasif and Abdullah al-Howaiti, were convicted based on confessions made under torture over alleged crimes committed under the age of 18.
The official human rights authority in the kingdom, the Saudi Human Rights Commission, also falsely claimed that child defendant Mustafa al-Darwish, who was sentenced to death for protest-related offences, was over 19 at the time of the crimes. But Reprieve and ESOHR provided evidence that proved he was in fact under 18. Darwish was executed on 15 June 2021 despite the evidence.
Obesity is a major public health issue in the United States, affecting millions of Americans and placing a significant strain on the healthcare system.
This far exceeds the global average, making the U.S. a leader in obesity prevalence among developed nations. Obesity is linked to numerous health complications, including heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers, leading to higher mortality rates and increased healthcare costs.
However, obesity rates within the U.S. vary considerably between states.
According to CDC data, southern and midwestern states, such as Mississippi, West Virginia and Alabama, consistently rank among the highest in obesity prevalence, often exceeding 40 percent.
In contrast, states like Colorado and Hawaii have significantly lower obesity rates, with Colorado and DC the only states/districts with obesity rates below 25 percent.
These disparities may be influenced by factors such as income, education, access to healthcare, cultural attitudes toward diet and exercise and even geographical factors that affect lifestyle habits.
Economic inequality plays a major role, as people in lower-income areas often have limited access to healthy foods and safe spaces for physical activity.
Additionally, educational disparities can affect awareness of healthy lifestyles, with lower obesity rates typically seen in states with higher levels of educational attainment.
Climate and geography also contribute, with states that offer more opportunities for outdoor recreation, such as Colorado, generally reporting lower obesity rates than regions with harsher climates or fewer recreational options.
As should be evident by now, Donald Trump is about 90% bombast and 10% substance when it comes to policy matters. But every now and then one of his word bombs finds its mark, as this one did when he dissed the presumptuous little pissant who shuttled-in from Kiev last week to embark upon still another American treasure hunt. Referring to Zelensky, the Donald averred,
“…(he’s) the greatest salesman in history. Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with 60 billion dollars.”
My god, times are indeed desperate when the once and former Peace Party of America is represented by the likes of Kamala “lethal force” Harris and Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who saw fit to conduct a photo op ghoulishly signing artillery shells that are designed to blow to smithereens anyone in their glide path—man, woman, child or combatant. That is to say, we’ve reached the point, apparently, where the only hope to stop Washington’s vile War Machine is Donald J. Trump.
Still, we dare not be naive. Trump did not spend a lifetime delving deep into world history or thinking about how to promote a peaceful Taftian approach to an America First foreign policy in the world of 2024. The Donald’s sole preoccupation and expertise all along has been the promotion of The Donald.
Indeed, he actually had so little regard for the cause of world peace that he saw fit to populate his last administration with its sworn enemies—John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Mad Dog Mattis, Gina Haspel, Nikki Haley and Victoria Nuland, among a legion of other neocons and hawks. And when these warmongers brought him the transparently false flag “gas attack” on Douma in 2018 he didn’t hesitate to order “bombs away”.
Then again, what did the tiny god-forsaken hell-hole in Syria, with a GDP equal to 7.3 hours of annual US output and no blue water Navy or long range Air Force, have to do with the security of the US Homeland? Or with Making America Great Again?
Absolutely nothing, of course. The Douma bombing that Trump sanctioned was actually just another spasmodic strike of the War Machine attempting to enforce a US Imperium that is bankrupting America and making the world a far more dangerous place then it would otherwise be.
But this week’s contretemps at the Scranton munitions factory may be just what the doctor ordered to transform the Donald into the statesman who finally brought the Empire Home, and thereby at least slowed the nation’s headlong rush to fiscal Armageddon. That’s because for the Donald, policy positions are mainly a club to attack opponents and enemies.
So by coming to the ultra-swing state of Pennsylvania 40 days before what is likely to be the closest election in US history, Zelensky and his Deep State and military-industrial complex patrons have become the Donald’s mortal enemies. And about that we should know one thing by now without doubt.
To wit, the Donald is an angry, egomaniacal hot mess who gives the idea of holding a grudge a wholly new definition. So if elected, he will surely do all in his power to defenestrate Zelensky and cause the Deep State War Machine to suffer a humiliating defeat in Ukraine by flying to, say Budapest, and cutting a deal with Putin that does end the Ukraine proxy war very quickly indeed.
And he can do just that because the election interference of the once and current clown of Ukraine was so blatant that even the neocon hawks who dominate GOP national security policy on Capitol Hill have had their water shut-off by the revulsion of their own rank and file. For instance, Senator Ted Cruz, who ordinarily sports a very blackish plume of hawkish feathers, had this to say:
“Who the hell is Zelensky to be trying to interfere in our election? the arrogance of this guy,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday in his “Verdict” podcast. “And the guy, I’ve got to say, is an absolute moron for coming to the U.S. six weeks before the election and attacking Trump and Vance.
“This is just dumb on his part, because if Trump wins, he’s got a huge problem that just got bigger,” Cruz added.
The underlined phrase tells you all you need to know. The vast GOP majority is bolting from the authorized neocon position, leaving perhaps the likes of Lindsay Graham all by his lonesome out on the bleeding edge of the war paint parade.
Still, it just keeps getting better. The Dems have slid so far into the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) tank that they are positioning themselves as bellicose, latter day McCarthyites. Yet these kinds of attacks by their presidential candidate are only sure to fire-up the GOP’s partisan juices, meaning there will be precious little Republican resistance to the Donald’s likely Inauguration Day actions to end the proxy war on Russia.
Harris in her remarks took a veiled swipe at Trump and Vance, saying “some in my country” would “force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory.”
“These proposals are the same of those of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” she said. “And let us be clear: They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”
Puleeese. There is nothing very “sovereign” about a tyrannical administrative unit put together by Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev that had no prior organic national history of its own among the Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Swedish, Austrian, Mongol and Turkish Empires that contested the Ukrainian steepes over the centuries before 1920. Nor would its partition today amount to anything remotely akin to “surrender”. In fact, quieting the guns, drones, tanks, artillery shells and warplanes along the line of contact in Ukraine would bring peace to the region, even as it spared what remains of the Ukrainian military age population and economic infrastructure from the senseless carnage now rampant all across the land.
Better still, the morning after the impending Trump-Putin territorial partition, which will likely carve away the Donbas and the Black Sea rim from a demilitarized, NATO-free rump of Ukraine, the dog that doesn’t bark will literally change the course of history. That is to say, the Baltics will not be invaded; Poland will not be occupied; the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin will not be entered by Russian troops; and the Benelux, France and England will slouch merrily onward toward socialist economic and moral decay without any assist from Vlad Putin, at all.
Stated differently, yet again no dominoes are destined to fall when the Washington War Party is forced once more to pack up the Empire and go home from the hideously misbegotten adventure in Ukraine. And by now it is deeply familiar with retreat, as in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and various lesser sites of previous imperial failure and humiliation.
Yet, hopefully, this time will be different. Perhaps this time a one-off defeat can be transformed into a history-making pivot away from Empire and the Warfare State to a renewal of America’s pre-1914 commitment to “no entangling alliances” and peaceful commerce with the rest of the world.
In that context, Donald Trump may become history’s paladin of salvation from the boot heels of the American Empire, but it will be up to the “Rescue the Republic” team led by Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard to ensure that the entire hegemonic framework of national security policy which spawned this calamity will be discredited, repudiated and abandoned in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy consistent with America’s Republican tradition and future economic health and survival.
Needless to say, the one and only place to start is by “starving the beast” on the Pentagon and Langley side of the Potomac. That is to say, only be exploring what it would take to cut the defense budget by 50% can the outlines of a 21st century Fortress America national security policy be appreciated.
Such a deep cut in the Pentagon’s current hideously bloated budget would still leave $450 billion per year to insure the security and liberty of the American homeland. Not only is that more than enough, but the number itself has an uncanny level of historical verisimilitude.
As it happens, that was the level of the defense budget in today’s dollars of purchasing power when Bobby Kennedy’s uncle gave his powerful American University speech in June 1963. This soaring oration was delivered at the height of the cold war when the Soviet Union was still at the peak of its industrial and military vigor and just months after the Cuban Missile Crisis when the world had looked into the abyss of nuclear Armageddon.
Needless to say, the conventional politicians of the time were in a mode of full-throated anti-Soviet belligerence, yet JFK saw fit to make the greatest peace speech ever delivered by an American president. He well understood that at the then current level of defense spending, America had more than enough military capacity and deterrence power to discourage any would be aggressor, but that an adequate defense capability was but a pre-condition for the true security of a peaceful de-militarized world:
I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
Since then there have been two huge changes in global geopolitics that have made the world far, far less threatening than the one JFK had faced months earlier during October 1962. To wit:
The massively militarized, economically autarkic Soviet Empire has disappeared into the dustbin of history.
The incipient militarized state in Red China under Mao failed five decades ago and was turned outward and transformed into a commercial export powerhouse by Deng Xiaoping after the early 1990s.
These epochal changes have profound significance for America’s homeland security. In the absence of a massively militarized autarkic state foe capable of global military power projection, the way is once again clear for a far more modest Fortress America national security posture.
To the point, today’s Russia is but a shadow of the Soviet Union with a GDP of just $2 trillion versus the $50 trillion of Europe and North America. And rather than absorbing upwards of one-third of GDP as in Soviet times, Russia’s paltry $60 billion defense budget prior to its special operation in Ukraine amounted to just 3.5% of GDP.
Even more importantly, Soviet Russia was a closed system with virtually no economic commerce with the world outside the communist bloc. Therefore it had nothing to lose economically in the event of an aggressive military assault on the west and the global conflagration which would have ensued.
To the contrary, China’s very economic modus operandi depends upon $3.5 trillion per year of exports to the outside world. The material prosperity in China that has given the ruling communist party an extended lease on life would collapse in a few months if Beijing even attempted a military assault on Western Europe or the United States. So PLA bombing of 4,000 Walmart stores in America will never happen. Nor will Chinese marines ever be landing on the California shores.
Accordingly, the United States today does not need a globalized, two-and-one-half war fighting capability that even JFK thought necessary in the early 1960s. Yet Washington continues to stand-up twice JFK’s military budget in real terms and maintain a global network of bases, power projection capabilities, alliances, commitments, interventions and occupations that were not even necessary in 1963.
As a practical matter, America’s ostensible “enemies” today have no offensive or invasionary capacity at all. Russia has only one aircraft carrier—a 1980s era vessel which has been in dry-dock for repairs since 2017 and is equipped with neither a phalanx of escort ships nor a suite of attack and fighter aircraft—and at the moment not even an active crew.
Likewise, China has just three aircraft carriers—two of which are refurbished rust buckets purchased from the remnants of the old Soviet Union, and which carriers do not even have modern catapults for launching their strike aircraft.
Indeed, invasion of the American homeland would require a massive conventional armada of land, air and sea-based forces many, many times larger than the military behemoth that is now funded by Washington’s $900 billion defense budget. The logistical infrastructure that would be needed to control the vast Atlantic and Pacific Ocean moats surrounding North America and to sustain an invasion and occupation force of the US mainland is so mind-mindbogglingly vast as to be scarcely imaginable.
For want of doubt, the graphic below compares Washington’s 11 carrier battle groups, which cost about $25 billion each including their escort ships, suites of aircraft and electronic and missile capabilities, with those of the other major powers. Self-evidently, none of the non-NATO countries shown in the red area of the graphic—China, India, Japan, Russia or Thailand—will be steaming their tiny 3, 2 and 1 carrier battle groups toward the shores of either California or New New Jersey any time soon. An invasionary force that had any chance at all of surviving a US fortress defense of cruise missiles, drones, jet fighters, attack submarines and electronics warfare would need to be 100X larger.
Yet there is no GDP in the world—$2 trillion for Russia, $3.5 trillion for India or $18 trillion for China—that is even remotely close in size to the $50 to $100 trillion GDP that would be needed to support such an invasionary force without capsizing the home economy.
At the same time, the 11 US carrier battle groups, which will cost upwards of $1.2 trillion over the next decade, would have no role in a continental Fortress America defense at all. They would be sitting ducks in the blue waters, and far less effective than aircraft and missile defenses based in the North American interior.
In short, these massively expensive forces have no purpose other than global power projection and the conduct of wars of invasion and occupation abroad. That is, they are white elephant military accoutrements of a day gone by, not even remotely relevant to a proper Fortress America defense in 2024.
In today’s world, in fact, the only theoretical military threat to America’s homeland security is the possibility of nuclear blackmail. That is to say, a First Strike capacity so overwhelming, lethal and effective that an enemy could simply call out checkmate and demand Washington’s surrender.
An absolutely invulnerable triad (air, sea and land-based) nuclear deterrent can be funded for just $75 billion per year, or barely 6% of the current national defense budget. Much of the rest has nothing to do with securing the American Homeland behind the great Atlantic and Pacific Ocean moats from conventional attack and, in fact, is useful mainly for power projection abroad and operating the now obsolete global network of cold war alliances and bases stretching across the globe.
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The amount of money the US government spends on foreign aid, wars, the so-called intelligence community, and other aspects of foreign policy is enormous and ever-growing. It’s an established trend in motion that is accelerating, and now approaching a breaking point. It could cause the most significant disaster since the 1930s. Most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent video with all the details. Click here to watch it now.
Coast Guard Rescues Man Floating On Cooler 30 Miles Off Florida Coast
30 Miles!!!!
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew on Thursday rescued a man spotted floating on a cooler in the sea, dozens of miles off Florida’s Gulf Coast after Hurricane Milton struck.
The Coast Guard said an Air Station Miami helicopter crew rescued the captain of a fishing vessel called “Capt. Dave” 30 miles off Longboat Key.
He was transferred to Tampa General Hospital to undergo further treatment, officials said in an Oct. 10 statement.
“This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” Dana Grady, the St. Petersburg command center chief of the U.S. Coast Guard, said.
The captain of the fishing vessel and a crew member first reported needing assistance about 20 miles off John’s Pass in Florida on Monday. A Coast Guard Station Sand Key rescue boat crew and an Air Station Clearwater rescue helicopter crew were deployed to the scene, according to the Coast Guard.
The captain and the crew members were rescued and brought back to Air Station Clearwater in “good condition.”
The boat was left adrift and “salvage arrangements were to be made,” the Coast Guard said.
On Wednesday, the owner of the fishing vessel informed the Coast Guard that the captain had returned to the boat at about 3 a.m. to make some repairs but had failed to check in.
“Watchstanders were able to make radio contact with the captain who reported the rudder was fouled with a line and became disabled during his transit back to port,” the Coast Guard said.
At the time of the rescue operation, the weather was “quickly deteriorating” as Hurricane Milton approached, with waves reaching six to eight feet and winds of around 30 mph, according to the Coast Guard.
Air Station Miami airplane crews fly over Florida’s west coast looking for people in distress and assessing damage, on Oct. 10, 2024. Courtesy of Mike O’Keefe/U.S. Coast Guard
The captain was instructed by the Coast Guard to put on a life jacket and “stay with the boat’s emergency position indicating a radio beacon.”
The Coast Guard lost communication with the captain at about 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday.
Search and rescue teams eventually spotted him adrift with the cooler at about 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The Coast Guard shared video footage of the rescue on social media platform X.
#Breaking An @USCG Air Station Miami 65 helicopter crew rescued a man clinging to a cooler approximately 30 mi. off Longboat Key.
The man was taken to Tampa General Hospital for medical care.
It shows the captain kneeling on the cooler as a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Miami approaches. A crew member is then lowered into the water before swimming toward the captain. The video ends before he is hoisted out of the sea.
The rescue came after Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on Wednesday evening as a powerful Category 3 storm, bringing with it powerful winds, deadly storm surges, and flooding.
At least 10 people are believed to have died in the storm. Search and rescue operations are continuing.
