Le Journal

Some Bayern Munich players saw their market rate go up while others saw their market value go down. Usually, when the value of players go up and go up drastically, it is because their performances have either steadily improved or risen dramatically. When players’ values go down, it might be a combination of aging and poor performance or one of each. Lennart Karl, who very few outside of the Bayern Munich sphere had heard of before this season, now has a market value of €60 million per Transfermarkt via @MiaSanMia. It is remarkable that the youngster is worth so much money but his performances warrant such a price. Meanwhile, Dayot Upamecano’s value went up to €70 million, €10 million above that of Karl; his transfer saga goes on as he is in the middle of contract negotiations with Bayern. Aleksandar Pavlović, another youngster to emerge from Bayern Munich’s academy like Karl, but under a different manager in Thomas Tuchel, also saw his value go up to €60 million. Konrad Laimer, due to his hard work and diligence perhaps, has seen his value go up to €32 million while the new kid on the block, Tom Bischof, saw his value go up to €40 million. Even Wisdom Mike, courtesy of his inclusion in the Bayern Munich first team, saw his value go up to €5 million. Among players who saw their value go down is unsurprisingly Leon Goretzka, who has seen his position mostly usurped by Aleksandar Pavlović. Both the number nines at Bayern saw their market value go down too perhaps due to age (Harry Kane) and due to lack of minutes (Nicolas Jackson). Two other players who have mostly been on the bench also saw their values decrease in Raphaël Guerreiro and Sasha Boey while the vice captain of the club, Joshua Kimmich, also saw his value decrease. Serge Gnabry, despite increased minutes, and Kim Min-jae saw their market values go down too. The list of players whose value went down includes Jamal Musiala who has spent this entire season injured; he is still valued at a whopping €130 million, the same as that of Michael Olise.

The story was originally published in December 2021. I can’t think of anything more emblematic of Maine than a snow-dusted evergreen forest. We are the Pine Tree State, after all, and the beloved balsam fir is our most common tree. We celebrate them as part of our place by decorating them for Christmas, making wreaths, portraying them in paintings and bringing their pungent perfume into our homes by way of candles or potpourri, but it’s not very often I hear people talk about eating them. I hope this can change. Pine and fir should be as iconic a Maine food as blueberry pie. Our native evergreens have so much to offer our meals, and they’re standing right outside our doors. Heck, you might only have to go as far as your living room if you’ve already got your Christmas tree set up. This basic sugar cookie has an icing made with balsam fir needles, which provide the flavor of citrusy oils along to complement the sweet icing and buttery cookie. Credit: Courtesy of Jenna Rozelle Last year I trimmed a few small twigs from the back of my holiday tree — a balsam fir — stripped the needles off, amounting to a small handful, and ground them to a powder with a mortar and pestle. I mixed this with confectioner’s sugar in a very basic icing for a very basic sugar cookie, but the result was anything but basic. The citrusy oils from the needles married with the sweet icing and the buttery cookie, brightening up the classic combo in a way that kept me reaching for “just one more.” I’ll admit, a Christmas cookie, shaped like a Christmas tree, and tasting like a Christmas tree, was a little on the nose, but sometimes the holiday spirit gets the best of me, and I don’t regret it. It seems like most people are vaguely aware of pine needle tea as the way one would consume an evergreen tree, but it’s kept in the back pocket as more of a survival beverage for times of suffering than an everyday joy and pleasure. I happen to be sipping a mug of needle tea as we speak (just to reinforce that I practice what I preach), so I can tell you that there is joy here. From collecting the twigs, to snipping the needles, to the first waft of steam — it’s infinitely more pleasurable than waiting in the drive-thru for a Styrofoam cup of who knows what from who knows where. While pine needle tea is a solid home base — a hot water infusion is the best way to get a sense of a plant’s true flavor — let’s not stop there. White pine bark tea is actually my favorite beverage in the conifer world, maybe the whole world, and it’s made with a cold water infusion rather than your typical hot steep. The inner bark of pine is brimming with bright flavor but most importantly it contains more polyphenols like antioxidants, vitamin C and proanthocyanidins than almost any other member of the plant kingdom. That makes it an enormous ally to human health, especially in the depths of a Maine winter. This tea is made best as a cold brew, where you peel strips of young, green, bark from a fallen limb or a tree taken down by the wind. Fill one-third of your chosen vessel (I use a gallon jar) with those and fill the rest with cool water. Cover the jar loosely with a lid or cheesecloth and let sit at room temperature for 1-3 days, stirring occasionally. I like it best on the second day when fermentation begins and it’s bright and slightly effervescent. I drink it in place of water, or diluted with water, all winter long, sometimes adding accoutrements like slices of lemon and ginger or a splash of maple syrup. I use our native conifers like pine, fir, and spruce most often in the kitchen as an herb for their uplifting evergreen flavor. They pair best with familiar kitchen staples like citrus, ginger, rosemary, oregano, thyme and — may I emphatically suggest — our native sweetfern. With this arsenal, I infuse vinegar to dress salads and marinate meats, I enliven cream to pour over berries, whip, or ice, I soak in spirits for lively cocktails, simmer in stocks, lighten up buttery…

Leaked Details Of Trump's Plan To Control Dangerous Virus Research Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle, A few days back I took several calls from officials working on President Trump’s policy to limit and track dangerous, gain-of-function pathogen research, the very studies that likely created the COVID virus, which most American believe leaked from a Wuhan lab. Trump signed an Executive Order on May 5 to stop risky gain-of-function scientific studies, leading to controversy and claims by media outlets politically aligned with virologists and the Democratic Party that it will harm science. “Executive order on gain-of-function experiments could chill research on infectious diseases,” reported Science Magazine. “Trump freezes ‘gain of function’ pathogen research ― threatening all US virology,” reported Nature Magazine. In one of the more bizarre, confusing articles to splash across social media, the Daily Caller falsely reported that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is somehow subverting the White House policy process, and that an NIH contractor is somehow creating a potential virus bioweapon, even though he doesn’t work in a lab. Yes. It’s that nutty out there, people. You’ve been warned. Last Wednesday, senior officials from several dozen agencies assembled at the White House to review the plan, and the State Department “blew up the meeting”, I was told by several people. For some of the senior officials who showed up, it was likely their first time reviewing the policy which had been handled by lower-level employees in prior meetings. This might have led to the problems at the Wednesday meeting. As I previously reported, employees from HHS, FDA, USDA, CDC, DOW, State Department, DNI, CIA, FBI, and branches of the military are among the dozens of officials putting the new policy together. Two employees at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), I am told, are actually holding the pen to write the strategy. The White House was expected to roll out the rules earlier this month, but the government shut down and several employee problems caused unexpected delays. Dr. Gerald Parker, for example, was considered a key appointment for the White House, but resigned this summer to deal with some personal health issues. However, I have learned that White House OSTP has decided Trump’s policy will take a “risk-based” approach to determine whether a particular pathogen study will be green lighted. Entities responsible will be penalized if they fail to heed the system. Four entities will provide multiple checks in the process: Scientist proposing the study; Institution where the scientist works; Funding agency (NIH, DOW, USDA, State Department, etc.); Independent Review Board (this does not yet exist and will scrutinize all studies across the government). Each entity will have different responsibilities and different penalties if they evade the new policy. For example, a researcher who submits a virus study to an agency for funding without running it through the system may be debarred from federal participation if one of the entities later finds the study is dangerous. That researcher’s institution could also be debarred as well, for not ensuring the scientist followed the new process. Submitting research proposals to the new Independent Review Board, however, will provide a safe harbor, protecting both scientist and institutions. Program officers at agencies funding research—NIH, State Department, DOW, USDA, for example—will also be forced to evaluate the studies they fund to ensure they follow the rules. It remains unclear what penalties might befall federal employees who try to evade the rules, and those details will likely be worked out by each separate agency. The Department of Energy, for example, funds millions of dollars in pathogen research each year. The Independent Review Board will review science study proposals from across the federal government, and might require a new…

Does It Get Any More Cringe Than This? Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, Just when you thought Gavin Newsom couldn’t get any more cringe, he drops a video with his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom wishing Californians a “joyful Kwanzaa” – a made-up holiday that’s about as authentic as his political posturing. In the awkward clip posted to his official X account, Newsom and his wife deliver a rehearsed message stating “As families come together to light the kinara, we wish you all a joyful Kwanzaa.” Newsom further referenced “the seven principles of Kwanzaa, in particular community, purpose, and unity, guide our way toward a better future.” As families come together to light the kinara, Jen and I wish all those celebrating a joyful Kwanzaa. May the seven principles of Kwanzaa, in particular community, purpose, and unity, guide our way toward a better future. Happy Kwanzaa, California! pic.twitter.com/317XOId1Ki — Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) December 27, 2025 Everything about this is focus-grouped and phony. It’s the kind of performative nonsense that turns stomachs and highlights how out-of-touch Democrat leaders remain, even after their electoral drubbing. Who exactly is Newsom trying to impress here? The video is a blatant pander to an almost nonexistent crowd. The tiny sliver of ultra-woke activists who still cling to outdated identity politics? In reality, most Americans – including the vast majority of African Americans – don’t celebrate Kwanzaa, given that it is an artificial construct rather than a genuine tradition. What the Hell Is Kwanzaa, Anyway? no, it isn’t some ancient African tradition passed down through generations. It was invented in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, a black separatist and activist, in the wake of the Watts riots. Karenga, whose real name was Ronald McKinley Everett, created it as a non-Christian alternative to Christmas, drawing loosely from various African harvest festivals. But here’s the kicker: Karenga was later convicted in 1971 of felony assault and false imprisonment for torturing two women in his organization. He served time in prison, yet his fabricated holiday lives on as a symbol of cultural separatism. Basically the only people actually celebrating this are east coat white ultra woke ‘progressives’ attempting to tick every diversity checkbox possible as they virtue signal their way through life. Newsom’s stunt reeks of desperation, especially as he eyes a 2028 presidential run. Under his watch, California grapples with skyrocketing homelessness, unchecked crime, and an exodus of residents fleeing his failed policies. Yet here he is, blathering about “unity” while his state fractures under open borders and economic mismanagement. It’s peak ideological capture: Newsom is so ensnared by leftist dogma that he can’t resist alienating the mainstream. This from the guy who just last month urged his party to dial back the cultural extremism. Instead of projecting normalcy, he’s amplifying fringe elements that repulse everyday voters. This disconnect only fuels the MAGA surge – Americans crave leaders who prioritise real issues like border security and economic freedom over contrived cultural gestures. The backlash on X was swift and savage, with users calling out the pandering and fakery. Reminder: Kwanzaa is a fake, subversive, degenerate “holiday” invented by a communist, pervert, and convicted criminal, Ronald McKinley Everett aka Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga. In other words, it’s the perfect “holiday” for the American Left. https://t.co/P4bRze239Y — William Wolfe ?? (@WilliamWolfe) December 26, 2025 A man who went to prison for kidnapping and assaulting women with extension cords made up your fake and gay holiday in the 60s. — The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) December 27, 2025 You shot your happy Kwanzaa video right after the Christmas take? ? Is anything genuine with you?https://t.co/NottKrM5OP — Freedom 2 Fart (@Freedom2Fart) December 27, 2025 Aw, c’mon, the wife change…