Free Republic

M&M's iconic characters — six different colored "lentils," each with their own personality — have gotten a modern makeover for a "more dynamic, progressive world," Mars said Thursday. The redesign is focused on creating a sense of belonging and community, as well as spotlighting the character's "personalities, rather than their gender." The most notable changes include the green M&M's redesign, which will exchange the white heeled go-go boots she was given in 1997 for "cool, laid-back sneakers to reflect her effortless confidence." Mars had received criticism for the green M&M's sexy characterization. The green M&M will also be "better represented...

While the Zimbabwe dollar has been allowed to gradually weaken from parity with the greenback in February 2019 to 112.80 to the dollar today, it trades at over 200 to the dollar on the black market, stoking inflation. The local currency slid 3.68% at the first auction of the year to 112.80 per U.S. dollar, according to data provided by the central bank. That’s the largest decline in two months.Source: BloombergThe black market ZimDollar trades at 240/USDAs Bloomberg reports, business has said it is at the receiving end of the currency rate disparity. It struggles to obtain the foreign currency...

The Army is offering enlistment bonuses of up to $50,000 for recruits with high skills signing up for six-year hitches, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. That’s because COVID has hampered recruitment in recent years, Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida told Fox News. “The recruiters haven’t had access to the schools because the schools have been shut down for the last couple of years, particularly in the major inner cities," Waltz, the first Green Bay elected to Congress, said Friday on "Fox & Friends." “They also tend to host big job fairs, these job fair-like events, they also haven’t been...

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A team of ocean wildlife officials removed about 2,000 feet of heavy gauge line from an adult humpback whale who was last tracked to be around Kauai on Wednesday, Jan. 19. A Kauai resident first spotted the entangled whale with gear trailing from it while he was flying his drone off Poipu on Sunday, Jan. 16. He then reported it to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). According to officials, the whale appeared to be “emaciated” and had patches of rust-colored whale lice, indicating it was in distress. While officials from NOAA and the Department of...

Mayor Eric Adams admitted Tuesday that even he doesn’t feel safe riding the city’s subways. “Day one, Jan. 1, when I took the train, I saw the homelessness, the yelling, the screaming early in the morning,” said Adams, who entered office at the start of the year, during a press conference. “Crimes right outside the platform. “We know we have a job to do, and we’re going to do both: We’re going to drive down crime, and we’re going to make sure New Yorkers feel safe in our subway system,” he said. “And they don’t feel that way now. I...

Unfortunate and very costly damage to a Ford Mustang Mach-E battery from a tow truck was recently reported on the MachEforum.com. While it's just an example case, it's worth noting so that we all can avoid similar problems. Electric cars are still new and relatively rare, which means that there are plenty of inexperienced technicians. In this story, a Mach-E driver on the route from Canada to Florida was forced to stop the car due to a "Pull over Safely" error message and lack of power. Through Ford Road Side Assistance, a tow truck was dispatched to take the car...

For nearly fifty years, from the end of World War II until 1992 millions of people in Eastern Europe endured the oppression and brutality of Communism, courtesy of the former Soviet Union. For decades Soviet Russia maintained control over Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Romania, the Baltic and Balkan countries, and all of the ‘Stans’ with an iron fist. Tolerating no dissent in those countries, and responding brutally if it occurred. Ask the Hungarians in 1956 and the Czechs in 1968. In 1956 the Soviet Union sent troops and tanks to crush the Hungarian popular uprising, killing and wounding...

Owners pay up to $26,000 for chartered flights as Covid rules limit commercial airline services Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/b6394fff-5169-410f-be19-3437b8e0da31 Hong Kongers leaving the increasingly isolated city are chartering private jets for their pets — the only way many can take their animals...

Weekly new jobless claims unexpectedly jumped last week by the most since October, with some renewed virus-related disruptions at least temporarily impeding the labor market's recovery. The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg: Initial jobless claims, week ended Jan. 15: 286,000**** vs. 225,000 expected and a revised 231,000 during prior week Continuing claims, week ended Jan. 8: 1.635 million vs. 1.563 million expected and a revised 1.551 million during prior week Initial unemployment claims rose for a...

Many Republicans are giddy over a Gallup poll released this week that found a 14-percentage point shift in the nation from majority Democratic support to majority Republican support during the past year. Understandably so; this marks the largest Republican advantage in over 25 years. The last time Republican support was this high was in 1995, after the Republicans, led by my father, Newt Gingrich, won the House of Representatives for the first time since 1952. But Gallup's findings don't mean that Republicans hold all the cards. The reality is that independents will have a massive impact on the elections' outcomes...

The Left - who once described every single one of President Trump’s press conferences as ‘bizarre’ – apparently doesn’t know bizarre from a hole in the ground. Not a peep when presented with the actual most bizarre presidential press conference of all time. Give them a presser in which Joey Potatoes greenlights a ‘minor incursion’into Ukraine by Russia, claims that he brought gas prices down, that Inflation has nothing to do with him and his out-of-control federal spending, that his Veep is doing a “good job” on “voting rights” (it failed in the Senate last night), yet still maintains that...

Planning to import goods from Asia by ocean and sell them in America this summer? Better act fast. The trans-Pacific cargo move can now take over three months. According to multiple sources, average transit times have risen to double pre-COVID levels — and they’re still increasing.Methodologies and data sources differ, so time estimates vary. But each dataset shows the same trend: With every passing month, more vessels, container equipment and goods inventories are getting waylaid in the Pacific.FlexportFlexport launched its weekly Ocean Timeliness Indicator (OTI) in early December. The OTI uses data from Flexport’s freight forwarding customers back to March...

Great Britain, Czech Republic, and Israel Back Away From Vaccine PassportsGreat Britain, the Czech Republic, and Israel are backing away from COVID vaccine mandates amid increasing evidence that the leaky vaccines are making the pandemic worse.It is becoming harder to deny the glaringly obvious facts that COVID infection rates are increasing worldwide in proportion with the rate of vaccination, and that the injections have dreadful adverse side effects which may be contributing to a marked increase in all cause deaths. In light of growing awareness that the vaccines are failing, it should not be a surprise that Moderna and BioNTech...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is having trouble with the curve (yield curve, that is). It keeps inching up, meaning that Treasury’s cost of debt financing is inching up too. As Treasury yields keep rising, so does the problem of financing the massive Federal debt load. Here is a chart showing the interest outlays in the Federal budget against the cost of Federal funding at the 10-year and 2-year tenors. Now, The Fed is predicted to raise their target rate 4 times in 2022 (according to Fed Funds Futures data) and it looks like a whopping 100 basis points (or 1%)....

Last Thursday wasn't a good day for President Joe Biden. First, the Supreme Court shouted "LET'S GO BRANDON" by killing his prized private-employer vaccine mandate. Then Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema destroyed his dreams of banning voter ID to ensure one party rule in America. After hearing all that bad news, I'm guessing Biden put a lid on it and headed for the White House basement where his wife prepared baby food, fed him milk from a bottle and then tucked him in with his favorite blankie. But we can't afford to rest because of two short-lived...

Democrats aren't used to losing. Which is why they have been screaming into the air for the past six or so years (literally, if you recall the footage). Democrats are used their tricks and intimidation tactics working. They're used to being bailed out, especially by some compliant, fellow-traveling or retiring (or both) Republican. But nobody bailed them out this time. Not even the great and glorious Rob Portman. Not even Lisa Murkowski (Dianne Feinstein is now too old and feeble to corner her and convince her to help out). Not even the ever-conciliatory Mitt Romney. Not ONE of the retiring...

There is something that has been hanging over my mind over the last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Between all the measures installed by the government, be it lockdowns or even the current vaccine mandates coming up around the country, every action that the government has taken thus far has been rooted in the idea of preventing death. More so, it has been in reaction to the tremendous fear of the population to the idea of death. This concept has driven policy so much that even vaccinated people, who with two vaccine doses have practically zero chance of dying from...

Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from American Museum of Natural History A statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood in front of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan for more than 80 years was hauled away Wednesday, photos show. The bronze monument depicting the nation’s 26th president on a horse flanked by an African man and a Native American man — which has sparked protests for glorifying colonialism and racism — was yanked out with a crane just after midnight, leaving behind only its concrete pedestal.

Boris Johnson has been accused of behaving like a mafia boss in his attempt to silence Tory critics by threatening to withdraw government funding from their constituencies. Scottish Lib Dem Alistair Carmichael MP likened the Prime Minister's tactics to the intimidation of the mafia after Tory rebel William Wragg exposed the threats made by government whips. Wragg, one of the few Tory MPs to have spoken out against Johnson, said MPs had been told government funding for their areas would dry up and were being spun against in the press by Ministers and Downing Street staff.

The Ghost of Jim CrowProgressives are re-segregating American institutions under the guise of “racial equity.”Images from the Jim Crow era in America are seared into the minds of those who lived through it, and of anyone who attended an American history class after the victory of the civil rights movement: side-by-side drinking fountains with signs reading “white” and “colored”; parks and recreation facilities separated into racial enclaves; small-town main streets with whites-only theaters, restaurants, grocers, and amenities.Fortunately, all that ended by the mid-1960s—or so we had thought. In recent years, segregation has been resurrected, but this time under the guise...