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Week 31 of Putin’s War, that projected 3-day romp through Ukraine is not starting off well. Just one day after annexing the Ukrainian oblasts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, Ukrainian forces routed Russian troops from a critical defensive position and overran the newly “Russian” city of Lyman. This may be the first time in history that a city has been annexed on Friday and conquered on Saturday.My last update was two weeks ago, Ukraine Update. The Tempo Slows and Ukraine and Russia Plot What Happens Next. Read it along with Putin’s War, Week 28. The Sitzkrieg Goes Blitzkrieg as...

The People's Bank of China has told major state-run banks to prepare to shed dollar holdings while snapping up offshore yuan, which has continued to fall despite prior interventions, sources told Reuters. The scale of this latest effort to prop up the yuan will be big and could provide a floor to the Chinese currency, according to the report. The amount of dollars to be sold hasn't been decided yet, but Reuters said it will primarily involve the state banks' currency reserves. Their offshore branches, including those based in Hong Kong, New York and London, were ordered to review offshore...

Texas-based commercial rocket company Firefly launched a rocket into space Friday morning, about a year after a previous attempt ended in an explosion. The Alpha rocket launched at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It was the company’s second unmanned launch ever from Vandenberg.

New York’s top health official is urging the public to get vaccinated against poliovirus if they haven’t yet done so. State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett declared polio "an imminent threat to public health" in New York State Wednesday, Sept. 28. The declaration will free up resources to help local health departments set up vaccination clinics and better focus their outreach efforts to unvaccinated or under-vaccinated New Yorkers, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said. Health officials are hoping to boost immunization rates particularly in areas that have been most affected by the virus and among children. “Thanks to long-established school immunization...

When Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday, the news revived a long-simmering debate about the propriety of his revelations of U.S. government secrets. At the same time, it prompted reiterations of a widely-embraced falsehood: that Snowden “fled to Russia.” That disinformation-trafficking wasn’t limited to random people on social media. Among others, The New York Times, The Guardian, ABC, Christian Science Monitor and Canada’s CBC all asserted in the past week that Snowden “fled to Russia” in 2013 after revealing that the United States government had created a mass surveillance regime targeting its own...

A new study by researchers found that lower initial cortisol levels may serve as a predictor for retention in treatment programs for substance use disorder. The prospective observational study examined the salivary cortisol, stress exposure, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and treatment retention of males enrolled in abstinence-based, residential alcohol and drug recovery programs. Cortisol levels reflect a physiological response to stress. In this case, researchers found that participants who remained in the treatment program less than 90 days had significantly higher initial cortisol levels than those who remained in the program longer than 90 days. Further, a Cox proportional hazards...

nflation in August was stronger than expected despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to bring down prices, according to data Friday that the central bank follows closely. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy rose 0.6% for the month after being flat in July. That was faster than the 0.5% Dow Jones estimate and another indication that inflation is broadening. On a year-over-year basis, core PCE increased 4.9%, more than the 4.7% estimate and up from 4.7% the previous month. Including gas and energy, headline PCE increased 0.3% in August, compared with a decline of 0.1% in July....

People who wear reusable contact lenses are nearly four times as likely as those wearing daily disposables to develop a rare sight-threatening eye infection. The case control study identifies multiple factors that increase the risk of Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK), including reusing lenses or wearing them overnight or in the shower. AK is one type of microbial keratitis (corneal infection)—a condition that results in inflammation of the cornea (the eye's clear protective outer layer). Sight loss resulting from microbial keratitis is uncommon but Acanthamoeba, although a rare cause, is one of the most severe and is responsible for about half of...

Putin Couldn't Believe What He saw! The Uprising is Growing in Donetsk! Welcome to the US Latest News channel. Watch the video to the end to find out the current and breaking news about the Russian war in Ukraine. In the light of the information we received in previous reports, it was determined that there were a total of 454 regions in Kharkiv and its surroundings that were liberated from the Russian invaders by the Ukrainian Defense Forces. In the liberated areas, the wreckage of the war was gradually removed and actions were taken to restore the people living in...

A team of researchers has found that resistance-breathing training can lower blood pressure as much as some medicines and/or exercises. Hypertension, also known as chronic high blood pressure, can lead to a wide variety of health problems, from loss of vision to strokes and heart attacks. For that reason, doctors take it seriously. Typically, patients are directed to modify their diet and to exercise more. If that does not fix the problem, medications are prescribed. In this new effort, the researchers looked into a new type of therapy to reduce blood pressure levels—resistance-breathing training. Resistance-breathing training involves breathing in and...

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) called for new House Democratic leadership after a vote to ban congressional lawmakers from trading stocks was stalled indefinitely in the lower chamber. On Tuesday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Combatting Financial Conflicts of Interest in Government Act prohibiting senior government officials and their family members from trading stocks after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) directed her to craft the legislation in February. However, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) indicated that the bill would not be voted on before the midterms. “Probably no vote this week,” Hoyer told CNN on Friday, as congressional members...

Hurricane Ian quickly fell apart after landfall Friday as it moved inland. On the outside, it looked like a typical weakening tropical system. On the inside, it was undergoing a major remodeling during the hours that followed its destruction along the coast. Shortly before midnight Friday, snow and sleet suddenly started mixing with the rain along the Virginia/Tennessee border. A few reports even came in from places like WhiteTop. Evan Fisher witnessed the occurrence in the High Country. According to records, a September snow there has only been observed one other time there, in 1967. The key to getting the...

A new model to predict the life expectancy of older people relies less on their specific disease diagnoses and more on factors such as the ability to grocery shop, the amount of certain small cholesterol particles circulating in their blood, and whether they never or only occasionally smoked. The findings provide a way to predict whether a person over the age of 70 is likely to live two, five or 10 years. "This study was designed to determine the proximal causes of longevity—the factors that portend whether someone is likely to live two more years or 10 more years," said...

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Severe brain injury that develops slowly after preterm births, causing cerebral palsy, may be treatable, new research from the University of Auckland finds. More than a third of cases of cerebral palsy are still linked to being born extremely prematurely. Clinical studies have shown that severe injury can appear many weeks after birth. "The current thinking is that this form of brain injury is so severe that there is no point trying to understand it, let alone treat it," says senior research fellow Dr. Christopher Lear, lead author on the new study. "Just the concept that it might be treatable...

This week talks of a "third way" when it comes to President Emmanuel Macron's controversial 'pension reform' plan. Instead of a head-on move this fall a delay until early next being talked about. On Thursday government spokesman Olivier Veran said the pension legislation is set to take effect the summer of 2023. In the end by 2027 the retirement age will be 64 and by 2031 it will be 65. President Macron, meanwhile, remains ready to use his special powers to push his pension plan through and promises to dissolve the National Assembly if they vote a motion of censure...

A pro poker player is alleging that his opponent 'clearly cheated' during a livestreamed game of poker after she returned her earnings to her opponent. Garrett Adelstein has suggested that his female opponent, Robbi Jade Lew, could have cheated by using a 'device hidden that simply vibrates to indicate you have the best hand.'(snip) Lew, 35, suddenly made a call to go all-in despite having a relatively poor hand, leaving Adelstein and observers agape. Those commentating on the game were in disbelief because the odds were stacked against her with online betting casino DraftKings calculating there were around 150 ways...

Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin's propaganda speech and "crazy rhetoric against the West."

On this date in 1822, French Lt. Col. Augustin Joseph Caron was shot at Strasbourg as a rebel. Little is known of his background, but Caron (English Wikipedia entry | French) enlisted in his army during the revolutionary year of 1791 and advanced into command positions under Napoleon. From his later conduct it’s apparent that these years shaped a political passion that would be starkly at odds with the post-Napoleon Bourbon restoration. As we have noted elsewhere on this site France’s Liberal (often Bonapartist) opposition during these years was urged by the persecution of the monarchist party into conspiracy as...

The U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be the digital or electronic form of the U.S. dollar issued by the Federal Reserve. This form of digital fiat money will be similar to cryptocurrencies, but the fundamental difference will be that a CBDC will be backed and regulated by the Federal Reserve and act as a legal tender. With a future U.S. CBDC, the public could use another form of central bank money besides physical cash and digital balances held in individual or corporate bank accounts. 1 The United States doesn’t currently have a CBDC, but with this option under...