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Ralph welcomes back medical journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Jean Carper, to elaborate on her latest book, \u201c100 LIFE OR DEATH FOODS: A Scientific Guide to Which Foods Prolong Life or Kill You Prematurely.\u201d Plus, the latest news about Boeing and the UAW.

Jean Carper is a medical journalist, and wrote \u201cEatSmart\u201d (a popular weekly column on nutrition, every week for USA Weekend Magazine)\xa0 from 1994 until 2008; she is still a contributing editor, writing health and nutrition articles. Ms. Carper is also a former CNN medical correspondent and director of the documentary Monster in the Mind. She is the best-selling author of 25 books, mostly on nutrition and health. Her latest book is 100 LIFE OR DEATH FOODS: A Scientific Guide to Which Foods Prolong Life or Kill You Prematurely.

The reason I wrote the book was that I knew there is no other book like this. Nobody has taken a scientific look at all the studies that are being done on specific foods with conclusions as to how they are going to affect longevity. It is a totally new field. It really only started several years ago where scientists are getting interested in this. I thought of all the things that would be the most interesting about a food, and whether or not you wanted to eat it would be, \u201cOh, how long does it prolong my life? Or on the other hand, is it likely to shorten my life?\u201d

Jean Carper

Less-developed countries with their natural food from over the history of their cultures are very often far superior [in longevity studies] to the so-called corporatized Western diet.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The International Criminal Court at the Hague is preparing to hand down indictments to Israeli officials for committing war crimes. The Guardian reports the indicted are expected to include authoritarian Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, among others. These indictments will likely focus on Netanyahu\u2019s strategy of intentional starvation in Gaza. Yet, lest one think that the United States actually believes in the \u201crules based international order,\u201d they have touted so frequently, the Biden administration will not allow these indictments to be effectuated, baselessly claiming that the ICC does not have jurisdiction in Israel. Democracy Now! reports State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told the press \u201cSince this president has come into office, we have worked to reset our relationship with the ICC, and we are in contact with the court on a range of issues, including in connection to the court\u2019s important work on Darfur, on Ukraine, on Sudan, as well. But on this investigation, our position is clear: We continue to believe that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Palestinian situation.\u201d Former Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth \u2013 who has faced retribution for his past criticism of Israel \u2013 called this \u201cthe height of hypocrisy.\u201d

2. Even as the United States shields Israel from international legal consequences for its crimes, an internal state department memo indicates the American diplomatic corps is increasingly skeptical of the pariah state. Reuters reports \u201csenior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find \u2018credible or reliable\u2019 Israel's assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.\u201d This memo includes \u201ceight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials said raise "serious questions" about potential violations of international humanitarian law\u2026[including]\xa0 repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; "unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage"; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and "killing humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate."\u201d The State Department however will only release a \u201ccomplete assessment of credibility\u201d in its May 8th report to Congress.

3. On Tuesday, the Guardian reports, an army of NYPD officers \u2013 including hundreds of armed officers in riot gear and heavy vehicles such as police busses, MRAPs, and \u201cthe Bear,\u201d a ladder truck used to breach upper story windows \u2013 stormed the campus of Columbia University and carried out mass arrests at the college\u2019s Hamilton Hall \u2013 which had been non-violently occupied by students and renamed Hind\u2019s Hall after Hind Rajab, a six-year old Palestinian girl murdered by the IDF. Hamilton Hall was among the buildings occupied by anti-Vietnam War Protesters during the Columbia Uprising of 1968. Mayor Eric Adams used as a pretext for this militarized police action a claim that the student protest had been \u201cco-opted\u201d by \u201coutside agitators\u201d; there has been no evidence presented to support this claim. The NYPD also threatened to arrest student journalists, and the Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb, per Samantha Gross of the Boston Globe, and videos show the cops arresting legal observers and medics. Columbia University President, the Anglo-Egyptian Baroness Minouche Shafik, has requested that the NYPD continue to occupy the Morningside Heights campus until May 17th.

4. At the University of California Los Angeles, the New York Times reports \u201cU.C.L.A. asked for officers after a clash between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and counterprotesters grew heated overnight.\u201d This misleading report fails to clarify that, as Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law puts it \u201cthe police stood aside and let a pro Israeli lynch mob run wild at UCLA. They did nothing for two hours as violent Zionists assaulted students, launched fireworks into the encampment, and sprayed mace on students.\u201d The accompanying videos must be seen to be believed. This is yet another glaring example of media manipulation on behalf of Zionist aggression against non-violent student protesters.

5. In the nation\u2019s capital, a peaceful pro-Palestine encampment at the George Washington University continues to hold in the face of increasing pressure. The Washington Post reports that the university requested the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to clear the encampment last week, but the cops demurred. The Post article cites an unnamed D.C. official who \u201csaid they had flashbacks to June 2020, when images of mostly peaceful protesters being forcefully shoved out of Lafayette Square by U.S. Park Police officers with batons and chemical irritants made national news.\u201d The university has issued temporary suspensions and did attempt to clear the encampment over the weekend, but failed to do so. Now however, congressional Republicans are heaping pressure upon the university and District of Columbia Mayor Bowser. According to the GW Hatchet, \u201c[Representatives] Virginia Foxx and James Comer \u2014 who chair the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, respectively \u2014 wrote [in letter to Bowser and MPD Chief Pamela Smith] that they were \u201calarmed\u201d by the Metropolitan Police Department\u2019s reported refusal to clear the encampment.\u201d and threatened to take legislative action. Senator Tom Cotton, infamous for his New York Times op-ed calling for the deployment of the national guard to shut down Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, sent a letter to Bowser on Tuesday, writing \u201cWhether it is due to incompetence or sympathy for the cause of these Hamas supporters, you are failing to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens by letting a terrorist-supporting mob take over a large area of a university\u2026Your actions are a good reminder of why Washington, D.C. must never become a state.\u201d So far, the District\u2019s leadership has exercised a rare and commendable restraint. One can only hope that continues.

6. Looking beyond individual campuses, the Appeal reports over 1,400 students and staff have been arrested at \u201cprotest encampments or\u2026sit-ins on more than 70 college campuses across 32 states during the past month.\u201d\xa0 This piece followed up on these arrests by contacting prosecutors and city attorneys\u2019 offices in every one of these jurisdictions \u2013 and found that \u201conly two offices said they would not charge people for peacefully protesting.\u201d These were \u201c Sam Bregman, the prosecutor for Bernalillo County, New Mexico, [which] includes the University of New Mexico\u2019s Albuquerque campus\u2026.[and] Matthew Van Houten, the prosecutor overseeing Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.\u201d Incredibly, this piece was published even before the recent mass arrests at Columbia and the City College of New York, which are estimated at nearly 300, per CNN.

7. Bringing the civil war within the Democratic Party on this issue into full view, the College Democrats of America \u2013 the official student outreach arm of the DNC \u2013 has issued a statement commending the \u201cheroic actions on the part of students...for an end to the war in Palestine\u2026[and] for an immediate permanent ceasefire.\u201d This statement goes on to say \u201cArresting, suspending, and evicting students without any due process is not only legally dubious but morally reprehensible,\u201d\xa0 and excoriates the White House for taking \u201cthe mistaken route of a bear hug strategy for Netanyahu and a cold shoulder strategy for its own base,\u201d noting that \u201cEach day that Democrats fail to stand united for a permanent ceasefire\u2026more and more youth find themselves disillusioned with the party.\u201d

8. Moving beyond Palestine, hard as that is, the American Prospect is out with a chilling new story on Boeing. This report documents how the late Boeing whistle-blower John \u201cSwampy\u201d Barnett \u2013 who died under deeply mysterious circumstances during his deposition against the aviation titan last month \u2013 was ignored, mocked, and harassed by his corporate overlords. When he tried to raise the alarm that Boeing\u2019s practices could be in violation of Section 38 of the United States Criminal code \u201cThe whole room\u2026burst out laughing.\u201d When he found planes riddled with defective and nonconforming parts and tried to report it, a supervisor emphatically declared \u201cWe\u2019re not going to report anything to the FAA.\u201d Yet even more than Boeing\u2019s rancid corporate culture, this piece takes aim and corporate criminal law \u2013 specifically the Y2K era AIR 21 law which \u201ceffectively immunizes airplane manufacturers\u2026from suffering any legal repercussions from the testimony of their own workers.\u201d Per this law, \u201cthe exclusive legal remedy available to aviation industry whistleblowers who suffer retaliation for reporting safety violations involves filing a complaint within 90 days of the first instance of alleged retaliation with a secret court administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that lacks subpoena power, takes five years or longer to rule in many cases, and rules against whistleblowers an astounding 97 percent of the time, according to the Government Accountability Project.\u201d No wonder Boeing acts as though they are above the law.

9. The United Auto Workers union continues to rack up victories. On Tuesday, More Perfect Union reported \u201c Mercedes-Benz has abruptly replaced its U.S. CEO in an effort to undercut the union drive at Mercedes's plant in Alabama\u2026In a video shown to workers\u2026new CEO Federico Kochlowski admits that \u2018many of you\u2019 want change and [promised] improvements.\u201d As Jonah Furman, Communications Director for UAW, notes \u201cMercedes workers have already:

-- killed two-tier wages

-- gotten their UAW pay bump

-- [and] fired their boss

and they haven't even voted yet!

If that's what you get for just *talking* union, imagine what you can win when you *join* the union.\u201d

Moreover, UAW President Shawn Fain issued a statement decrying the mass arrests of anti-war protesters, writing \u201cThe UAW will never support the...intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice\u2026This war is wrong, and this response against students and academic workers, many of them UAW members, is wrong\u2026if you can\u2019t take the outcry, stop supporting this war.\u201d

10. Finally, the New York Daily News\u2019s Chris Sommerfledt reports \u201c[New York City\u2019s] largest cop union [the Police Benevolent Association] is suing Police Commissioner Ed Caban and Mayor Adams for implementing a new \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy on NYPD officers using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.\u201d The fact that the PBA is suing this ardently pro-cop mayoral administration is alarming enough, but the fact that enough NYPD officers are using steroids to warrant this policy \u2013 and enough for the union to step in on their behalf \u2013 raises an even more alarming question: how many roid-rage fueled NYPD cops are terrorizing marginalized people on the streets of New York City? Perhaps this could explain some of the NYPD\u2019s outrageous, disproportionately violent behavior in recent years.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard.

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