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Now that Moscow has doubled down on its demands that its European “partners” pay for its oil and gas in rubles instead of euros (which, as the bloc already demonstrated, can be easily confiscated in the name of “sanctions”), the German government is digging in its heels as the payment dispute threatens to precipitate problematic energy shortages in Europe’s largest economy. The FT reported Wednesday that German Energy Minister Robert Habeck has activated the “early warning phase” of Germany’s gas emergency law, which was adopted to help ration supplies in the face of a severe shortage. Too bad President Biden...

Europe is to crack down on fast fashion through proposals to make the clothing made and worn there more durable, reusable, repairable and recyclable. The sustainable textiles strategy, due to be unveiled on Wednesday, will target clothes at every stage of use, including design, repair and recycling. The initiative aims to boost the market for sustainably made garments. Manufacturers will have to ensure their clothes are eco-friendly and hard-wearing. It's estimated that less than 1% of all clothing worldwide is recycled. According to the European Environment Agency, clothes use in Europe has on average the fourth highest impact on the...

Poland has taken in 2.37 million refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Polish Border Guard agency reported on Wednesday. "Since February 24, a total of 2,368,000 people have crossed into Poland from Ukraine," it said in a tweet. On Tuesday, 22,400 refugees from Ukraine arrived in the country, compared with around 21,000 a day earlier, according to the Polish Border Guard. While most of those crossing the border are Ukrainian nationals, there are also citizens of many other countries among the refugees, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported, citing the foreign ministry in Warsaw.

Anticipation about Federal Reserve rate hikes over the next 12 months are seeding mortgage rates soaring and mortgage refinancing applications plummeting. Mortgage applications decreased 6.8 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending March 25, 2022. The Refinance Index decreased 15 percent from the previous week and was 60 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent compared with the previous week and was 10 percent...

WASHINGTON, Saturday, March 29. FROM WARRENTON -- THE REBELS DRIVEN BEYOND THE RAPPAHANNOCK. Yesterday the enemy in large force were driven from the Warrenton Railroad Junction, by Gen. SUMNER. The TIMES' correspondent, writing from Warrenton Junction, says for two days past the rebels have been crowded steadily toward the Rappahannock. Four of the New-York Sixty-sixth, Col. PINCKNEY, were captured night before last, while on picket duty. Shots were exchanged constantly with the rebels during the day, yesterday. Two brigades of the rebels, under ELSEY, being closely pursued, retreated across the Rappahannock toward Gordonsville, and blew up the railroad bridge. The...

Extraterrestrial space archaeology is engaged with the search for relics of other technological civilizations. It resembles a survey for plastic bottles in the ocean as they keep accumulating over time. The senders may not be alive when we find the relics. These circumstances are different from those encountered by the famous Drake equation, which quantifies the likelihood of detecting radio signals from extraterrestrials. That case resembles a phone conversation in which the counterpart must be active when we listen. Not so in extraterrestrial archaeology. What would be the substitute to Drake’s equation for space archeology? If our instruments survey a...

Facebook pushes climate sceptics towards increasingly extreme disinformation and conspiracy groups, a human-rights body's research suggests. A report released Wednesday by Global Witness found Facebook's algorithm amplified doubts rather than nudging people towards reliable information. Facebook says its systems are "designed to reduce misinformation". Researchers created two users - climate sceptic "Jane" and "John" who followed established scientific bodies. They then tracked what Facebook's algorithm suggested to both accounts. Jane soon saw content denying man-made climate change, including pages calling it a "hoax" and attacking measures to mitigate its effects. Meanwhile, John's account began by liking the page of the...

The West did it before. Let's make sure we don't make the same mistake again. Article 231 may rightly deserve the notorious distinction as being the 20th century's single greatest miscalculation. Any miscalculation in the application and enforcement of the severe economic sanctions levied against Russia in response to its recent invasion of Ukraine may turn out to be the 21st century's single greatest. Article 231, also known as the War Guilt Clause, was part of the Treaty of Versailles, negotiated as conditions of peace for ending World War I. The resolution "placed all blame for inciting the war squarely...

Anyone who has ever watched Joe Biden has probably had at least some concern that he’s not all there. It’s a scary proposition to have a sitting president whose mental health is questioned by a majority of the voters, but alas, that’s the situation we’re in. According to a new survey by McLaughlin & Associates, Americans not only want Biden to take a cognitive test, but sadly, there’s very little confidence in the competence of the leaders further down the line of succession. “58% of the voters think that President Biden should take a cognitive health test and release it,”...

Amidst all the other gaffes, this reveal has barely been noticed, except, of course, by the war planners in Moscow. I can’t think of another week or so in which a president has sown so much confusion and seemed to reveal so many surprising new policies with off the cuff remarks. Statements that so alarmed his staff that they had to issue “clarifications” and deny the obvious meaning of what he said. There’s senile old Joe telling the world that sanctions don’t work, have never worked, when sanctions were the announced policy. There's Joe saying that the US would respond...

The court ruled, If medical workers want to avoid harm from the Covid vaccines, “they are free to resign.”Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of the Alternative for Germany, slammed the Federal Constitutional Court for denying an emergency appeal to end the mandatory vaccination for Medical care workers. The Federal court “no longer protects our basic rights,” exclaimed the leader.Despite the court admitting in their ruling that the vaccines can cause “serious side effects,” even “death,” they refused to lift the mandate for medical workers, stated Von Storch.The court stated, If they want to avoid harm from the potentially “fatal”...

There is a trucker shortage... and it's worse every year. This is not news; this national driver shortage is no shock to businessmen or policymakers. Our driver shortage contributes to empty store shelves, idled assembly lines, retail price inflation, a reduced Gross Domestic Product, and the global supply chain crisis. This is not just one industry’s problem; it’s everybody’s problem. What is odd, however, is that so many people believe the trucker shortage is caused entirely by not enough people choosing the profession of truck driving as a career. While that is certainly a part of it, it's not our...

A monthslong dispute over masks in a Chester County school district culminated Tuesday in a judge ordering all five Democrats on the school board to be immediately removed from office.

The demands that Justice Thomas recuse himself from a case involving the January 6 incident because of his wife’s activities are silly. Similar demands for recusal of a prominent member of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because of his wife’s related activities were dismissed out of hand, to the approval of the media, the legal establishment, and academia. See Salon, December 2, 2010: An attempt to oust a liberal judge from hearing a landmark gay marriage case in California ended Thursday almost as quickly as it began. Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied...

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Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) dropped by Jesse Watters Primetime to discuss President Joe Biden’s recent string of gaffes while stumbling through Europe. Paul has concerns that Joe’s gaffes pose a serious security risk. “A lot of times when you’re around somebody who’s in cognitive decline, you find yourself trying to help them with a sentence, trying to help them complete it… but we shouldn’t have to do that for the commander-in-chief,” Paul says. “And, it is actually a national security risk because he’s sending signals that no one in their right mind would want to send to Russia at this...

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The campaign manager for former congressman James B. “Jim” Renacci told The Star News Network that the March 28-conducted Harris poll of 1,342 Ohio Republican voters showed Renacci leading Gov. R. Michael DeWine with 46 percent support compared to the governor’s 30 percent, just over a month before the May 3 GOP primary. “That recent Harris poll actually corroborates some massive internal data that we’ve collected over the last week or so with our phone banking operations,” said Tom Weyand, who is helming the former congressman’s campaign. “We brought in 165,000 in-person responses, and we’re actually polling a little bit...

This is the moment disgraced Prince Andrew shocked the world by seizing the limelight at a memorial service for his late father Prince Philip - as insiders say he 'insisted' on playing a leading role. Footage shows the Duke of York appearing to refuse to hand over the Queen to the Dean of Westminster as they entered Westminster Abbey. Instead, the Royal clung to his 95-year-old mother and continued to escort her towards her seat in full view of the guests and media. The Dean was forced to awkwardly lead the pair across the great chamber despite Andrew being expected...

Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle blasted the legacy media for its collective dismissal of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election. In a piece published on Saturday, McArdle began by noting what a friend coined was a "growing 'epistemic closure' on the right" that filters out what is reported in the distrusted liberal media. "This frets the mainstream media. It is our job to provide information, so naturally we worry when so many customers aren’t buying… In fact, we in the mainstream have been so busy denouncing ‘fake news’ that we failed to notice we’re developing a...