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Economist Paul Collier once wrote that “war is development in reverse.” That conflict inevitably produces poverty and hunger is a theory that has been tested—and proven true—in every major clash across human history. It is believed, for example, that more people died of starvation and starvation-related disease than from combat during the Second World War.

But it is also true that hunger and food insecurity can lead to instability. There is a vicious feedback loop between conflict and hunger currently at play in dozens of countries around the world. War drives hunger and hunger drives war.

Globally, it is estimated that 87.5 % of angiosperms are pollinated by animals 79 [17]. Crops mainly belong to angiosperms and bees visit more than 90% of 80 the globally most important crop types [2,3]. The majority of these crops are 81 not only visited by bees but their pollination and hence their production 82 depends on them [2]. An estimated 5-8% of global crop production, 83 corresponding to 153 billion EUR annually, will be lost in a world without 84 pollinators [18,19]. This number does not consider the contribution of bees to 85 crop seed production or to the production of major forage crops like alfalfa, 86 clover and soybean for dairy and meat production, which is an urgent 87 research task of future investigation. 88

The loss of bee pollinators will likely change cropping patterns toward non89 pollinator dependent crop types with consequences for the producer and 90 consumer welfare [20]. The value of bees for wild plant pollination is likely to 91 exceed crop pollination but is much harder to predict [4]. 92

With fewer antibiotics available to treat resistant bacterial infections, the possibility of entering a pre-antibiotic era is looming ahead.

Alternative strategies are being explored and helper compounds are attracting attention. Helper compounds are non-antibiotic compounds with the capability of enhancing the efficacy of antibiotics.

The legalization of cannabis has not only stimulated economic growth but has also become a catalyst for the adoption of innovative technologies in various aspects of the industry.

Technology plays a key role in improving the cultivation, production, distribution, and consumption of cannabis.

Trademarks are a valuable form of IP businesses use to protect and build their brands. 136A trademark is a "word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others." 137Trademarks do not have a finite protection period, as they remain in effect as long as the owner uses the mark in association with goods and services. 138

Generally, there are two types of trademark protection that cannabis businesses should consider: federal trademark protection and state trademark protection. Cannabis businesses may also attempt to invoke common law trademark rights. 139 Each trademark form confers different rights and protections. Cannabis businesses should utilize all forms of trademarks as they offer unique brand protections that other forms of IP do not.

One of the primary purposes of protecting trademarks is to help consumers identify the goods and services they want to purchase and distinguish them from those they want to avoid.94 The importance of brand recognition is highlighted in Trans-High Corporation's ITU application for CANNABIS CUP in 2014.95 When the USPTO rejected the application, Trans-High responded with "strong policy reasons why the USPTO should be taking steps preparing for and favoring the potential for national trademark rights in the cannabis industry," including consumer exposure to "different entities . . . sell[ing] different marijuana strains with different strength or attributes in different states under the same trademark."96 Trans-High noted, "if and when marijuana is legal under federal law," federal trademark protection for cannabis-related goods and services will mitigate this risk, reducing the likelihood that consumers will be subject to "unpredictable purchasing and consuming experiences."97

Although restrictions on federal trademark eligibility create a risk of confusion resulting in consumers not getting what they want, there is also a risk that this confusion will have negative safety and quality control implications. In 2019, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb issued a statement discussing the risks to consumers from companies illegally selling cannabis products for medicinal purposes.98 Per Gottlieb, these companies often market and [*185] distribute "unapproved products with unsubstantiated therapeutic claims."99 Some examples of these unsubstantiated claims include assertions that CBD has stopped cancer cell mutations, slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease, and reduced withdrawal symptoms.100 These claims put patients and consumers at risk because "deceptive marketing of unproven treatments" may lead patients to choose these treatments over "appropriate, recognized therapies," thereby depriving them of legitimate treatment.101 Additionally, these products may contain harmful ingredients not yet disclosed or evaluated by the FDA.102 Federal trademark protection for cannabis and cannabis-related products can mitigate these risks because trademarks prevent consumer confusion about the source of goods and services.103

The bill, which some call “STATES Act 2.0,” removes marijuana as a substance covered by the federal Controlled Substances Act. This means marijuana will no longer be on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of controlled substances. While the Biden administration has been open to the idea of rescheduling marijuana, the STATES Act would de-schedule it, a move I have long advocated.

It would also federally decriminalize people using, selling, or transferring marijuana if it is legal in their state, territory, or tribal reservation and if they comply with state regulations. Moreover, it allows for interstate commerce in marijuana. The legislation states:

On Monday, both Helberg and Harburg warned the fractious relationship between the U.S. and China could become something more dangerous.

“Everyone is waiting for the shoe to drop in Asia,” Helberg warned.

The changes in China’s economic performance, which for decades seemed immune from the business cycles and growth constraints that apply to the rest of the world, have certainly been profound. From 1980 to 2019, China reported economic growth at a rate that was on average three times faster than the United States’. But since 2021, that outperformance has slowed. According to China’s official numbers, its growth rate barely surpassed that of the United States in 2022, at three percent to 2.1 percent. These numbers are suspect, however: the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on both consumption and investment, and the deep contraction of the property sector, mean that real economic growth in China was almost certainly negative in 2022. This year, growth in household consumption in China has been limited, investment has been flat, government spending has been limited by debt servicing costs, and net exports have contracted. Real economic growth in China in 2023 is likely below two percent, which is far short of the officially reported 5.2 percent in the first three quarters. Medium-term accounting forecasts now have China in the three percent range from the medium term onward, with the United States expected to achieve average growth of around two percent, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. China’s exchange rate is likely to depreciate because of persistent capital outflows, further reducing China’s share of the global economy in U.S. dollar terms. Since the U.S. economy is about $10 trillion larger than China’s at present, the United States will likely contribute more to global growth than China over the next two decades.

Over the past decade, hostility has built between Washington and Beijing on several issues including unfair trade, intellectual property theft, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Chinese support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is unsurprising, then, that leaders in Washington are beginning to ask how China’s current economic straits can be exploited to U.S. advantage. For instance, in August, responding to congressional testimony advocating a measured U.S. response to China’s current economic travails, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver joined the chorus of voices in Washington that are speculating how to “kick them [the Chinese leadership] while they’re down, if you will, to put pressure on them based on the experiences they are now having.”

China has recorded a quarterly deficit in foreign direct investment (FDI) for the first time, while property prices in over two-thirds of its 70 major cities continue to dip and manufacturing indices show a contraction for the month of October – highlighting the challenges facing Beijing in restoring economic growth.

Direct investment liabilities – a measure of FDI that includes companies’ retained earnings in China — hit a deficit of $11.8 billion for the July-September quarter, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). This is the first shortfall since SAFE began compiling quarterly data in 1998.

Capital flight from China is by no means a new phenomenon but in recent years the scale of these transfers has surged, according to both Chinese officials and analysts who track China’s international remittances.

“The levels of capital flight in the past three years have been quite alarming,” says one senior Chinese official, who declined to be identified and who says that a lot of billionaires and multimillionaires are trying to leave China and take their money with them.

According to Oklahoma law enforcement, 2,000 of the 3,000 licensed marijuana farms flagged for suspicious activity over the last year had a Chinese connection providing funding, labor, or both.

This illegal industry has grown up around China’s capital flight laws, which cap the amount of currency Chinese nationals are allowed to transfer abroad each year. This is the same driver behind Chinese money laundering organizations.

A world dominated by totalitarian states would be more incompetent, more war-prone, less cooperative, and more inhibitive of progress than one dominated by democratic states. Our current world is not particularly competent, peaceful, cooperative, or progressive—a totalitarian-dominated world would be worse. It would increase the risk of another collapse and extinction and could shape the future toward less desirable trajectories (Beckstead, 2013).

Totalitarian states are incompetent. They are bad at forecasting and dealing with disasters (Caplan, 2008).16 This can be seen most clearly in the great famines of Communist China and the USSR, in which millions died (Applebaum, 2017; Becker, 1996; Dikotter, 2010; Snyder, 2010). In comparison, functioning multiparty democracies rarely, if ever, experience famines (Sen, 2010). “Established autocracies” (or “personal”/“sultanist”) are particularly bad, as there are few checks or restraints on arbitrary rule and the whims and ideology of the single individual, even from other elites (Svolik, 2012). From the inside, the “inner circle” around Mao, Stalin, and Hitler seems incredibly chaotic, with elites strongly incentivized to conceal information and encouraged by the autocrat to squabble and feud—so they are divided (Conquest, 1992; Kershaw, 2008; Zhang & Halliday, 2006). If totalitarian states are worse at addressing social, environmental, and technological problems, then a world dominated by them would likely be worse at responding to risks of collapse and extinction.

Second, China’s illiberal campaign capitalizes on a disturbing global trend: As Freedom House reports, authoritarianism has spread during every year since 2006, while democracy has retreated. This “democratic recession” has given China a window of ideological opportunity to promote a vision of a hierarchical and harmonious society and a critique of a disorderly and decadent West. Around the world, public faith in democratic institutions has sunk to lows not seen since the 1930s. The political soil has grown ripe for authoritarianism to take root, and China, Russia, and other authoritarian states are fertilizing this antidemocratic plant with digital disinformation that their propagandists pump into the social-media feeds of billions worldwide.21

The third and most important factor supercharging China’s efforts is the ongoing digital revolution.22 The CCP possesses data-collection and messaging power to rival that of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter.23 By combining artificial intelligence (AI) and “big data” with cyber, biometric, and speech- and facial-recognition technologies, Beijing is pioneering a system that will allow dictators to know everything about their subjects—what people are saying and viewing, whom they hang out with, what they like and dislike, and where they are located at any given time—and to discipline citizens instantly by restricting their access to credit, education, employment, medical care, telecommunications, and travel if not to hunt them down for more medieval forms of punishment.

Over the past decade, Southeast Asia has become a major breeding ground for transnational criminal networks emanating from China. USIP assembled a senior study group to assess one of the most pernicious aspects of such criminality: rapidly spreading, industrial-scale scam compounds that rely on forced labor lured from around the world. The senior study group convened four meetings to share research and information on the trends, dimensions and character of the criminal networks operating the scam compounds and developed recommendations for countering their malign effects. In addition, USIP commissioned case studies that examine in detail the influence of the networks in countries across maritime and mainland Southeast Asia.

Organized crime is a significant driver of conflict globally. It preys on and corrupts weak governance and tears at the fabric of societies by empowering and enriching armed actors and fueling violent conflict. Following the COVID pandemic, a web of scam compounds spread across Southeast Asia and, increasingly, other parts of the world.

From California to Maine, Chinese organized crime has come to dominate much of the nation’s illicit marijuana trade, an investigation by ProPublica and The Frontier has found. Along with the explosive growth of this criminal industry, the gangsters have unleashed lawlessness: violence, drug trafficking, money laundering, gambling, bribery, document fraud, bank fraud, environmental damage and theft of water and electricity.

Chinese organized crime “has taken over marijuana in Oklahoma and the United States,” said Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, in an interview.

"Chinese organized criminal networks that are international by nature are behind some of the biggest black market marijuana trafficking organizations that we've seen to date," Donovan said.

In February, 50 U.S. lawmakers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding answers about China's role in illicit marijuana nationwide.

A trademark is "any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof" that is used "to identify and distinguish" an individual's or a business's product or service from those sold or provided by others, and "to indicate the source of the goods ... ." 84 [*485] Congress, acting pursuant to its Commerce Clause powers, 85 has granted the USPTO the authority to register federal trademarks through the Lanham Act. 86In order to receive federal trademark protection, one must make use of the trademark in U.S. commerce, 87but with one daunting caveat: "Commerce," for purposes of the Lanham Act, "means all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress." 88Hence, before the USPTO will issue a registration for a trademark, an applicant must show that the current or intended use of the trademark in commerce is or will be lawful. 89

[Footnote 89 Begins]

Cannabis is often refered to as a miracle plant, renowned for its recreational, medicinal and economic benefits. But its surprising ability to remove radioactive waste from soil is new. It turns out, that one of the best helpers for people of going through radioactive chemotherapy also combats the effects of radioactivity in the ground.

If the current news cycle has you in palpitations, don’t worry, humans may be able to survive nuclear war and even the nuclear winter afterwards with the cure-all panacea that is marijuana. It may sound far-fetched, but beyond the benefits of taking a few puffs to soften the blow of hellfire and apocalyptic horsemen raining down on us all, cannabis may also be able to leach up the nuclear fallout.

The United States is at war. This time, however, the opponent isn’t an international regime, and the nation isn’t even pretending to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. It’s the country’s native insect population that’s under siege, with experts describing declining populations of honeybees and butterflies as an apocalypse.

According to a study published in PLOS One, America’s agricultural landscape is becoming increasingly hostile to insects. In fact, it’s estimated that in the last quarter of a century, it has become almost fifty times more toxic than it once was. This means that it’s no wonder that populations of insects are declining.