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In the wake of a close victory for leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over President Jair Bolsonaro in the recent election, tens of thousands of Bolsonaro supporters have been marching in the streets protesting what they contend was a fraudulent outcome. In a bid to end the protests, Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the bank accounts of the leaders of these "anti-democratic protesters" frozen. Lula praised the Court for "helping save our democracy. Ultimately, seizing the assets from those who wrongly possess them is fundamental to our program to fully socialize Brazil. By targeting the enemies...

Call it the tale of two TikTok presidents. In familiar fashion, Donald Trump was originally ridiculed as president when he suggested the Chinese-owned TikTok social video app was a national security risk, only now to be validated two years later by the intelligence community.Meanwhile, Joe Biden vowed to always heed the intelligence community, only to stray by promoting TikTok during the midterms as a political strategy and allowing his administration to bring some TikTok workers to the United States on special immigrant visas.The extraordinary turnabout was solidified in the last few weeks when Democrat Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner...

Outgoing National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Republicans who “politicizing” him were “ridiculous.” Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: Since you’re retiring, do you think that will change what looked to be a really intense political firestorm aimed at you? There have been all these House Republican calls for investigations into the origins of COVID and saying they’re gonna bring you up to Capitol Hill. Do you think that wanes as you step down? FAUCI: Well, I don’t think it’s gonna wane for me because they’re already...

SHANGHAI (AP) — Protesters pushed to the brink by China’s strict COVID measures in Shanghai called for the removal of the country’s all-powerful leader and clashed with police Sunday as crowds took to the streets in several cities in an astounding challenge to the government. Police forcibly cleared the demonstrators in China’s financial capital who called for Xi Jinping’s resignation and the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s rule — but hours later people rallied again in the same spot, and social media reports indicated protests also spread to at least seven other cities, including the capital of Beijing, and...

More than 7,000 people were murdered over three months in South Africa, according to new police statistics, which showed a rise in violent crime from the same period last year. ***** Almost 1,000 women were among those murdered during the period in 2022. More than 13,000 women were also victims of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and 1,277 women were victims of attempted murder. “The rate at which women are abused, violated and some killed in South Africa remains worrying and unacceptable,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told a news conference. The figures also showed that kidnappings doubled...

Donald Trump has responded to the public controversy over rap superstar Kanye West attending a dinner with him in Mar-a-Lago and bringing along known anti-Semite and ‘groyper’ leader Nick Fuentes.According to West, after Ye asked Trump if he would run with him on the same ticket, the former president “started screaming” at him. Trump told Ye would lose if he ran for president.Ye met with Trump on Wednesday, saying in a tweet: “First time at Mar-a-Lago Rain and traffic Can’t believe I kept President Trump waiting And I had on jeans Yikes What you guys think his response was when...

One way to do that would be to restructure some food companies, distribution warehouses and retailers as a public utility, like how the energy grid, sewers and water delivery are managed. If some processing plants, distribution warehouses and retailers were owned by government, they could use subsidies to buy grains, legumes like beans and meat directly from farmers, and the resulting goods could be made available free to everyone. Programs could alternatively take the form of universal school meals and open-to-all cafeterias that serve meals throughout the day.

Mr. Bolton, who has long had a contentious relationship with Mr. Trump since leaving his position, said too many people have turned the former president “off in their brain.”“Even if they loved his style, loved his approach, loved his policies, loved everything about him, they don’t want to lose and the fear is, given the results on [Nov. 8], that if he got the nomination, not only would he lose the general election, but he would take an awful lot of Republican candidates down with him,” Mr. Bolton told The Guardian.Mr. Bolton has his own PAC and super PAC where...

The US has an inflation problem. Both headline and core inflation YoY remain high compared to the previous 40 years. And The Federal Reserve is resolute in trying to curb inflation to 2%. But as The Fed counterattacks inflation by raising their target rate, we are seeing a problem forming at the nation’s commercial banks. The growth in deposits YoY is now -0.6%. Commercial bank holdings of Treasuries and Agency MBS are declining as well. Agency MBS holdings are down -4.6% YoY and Treasuries and Agency holdings are down 0.0%. How about M2 Money growth and M2 velocity? M2 Money...

Russia's attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure amount to genocide, a top Ukrainian official says. Strikes on key facilities targeted "the full Ukrainian nation" and were an effort to force Kyiv to surrender, the prosecutor-general told the BBC. The term genocide refers to an effort to wipe out a group of people. Russia denies having any such aim. Millions of people across Ukraine are facing power cuts in freezing weather, following sustained Russian attacks. Efforts are ongoing to reconnect homes cut off from electricity. Officials say Kherson has now been fully resupplied, following the city's recapture by Ukrainian troops earlier this...

As 2022 comes to a close, several audiobooks are all coming together around the same time. The latest is a little pamphlet written by Norman Thomas titled ""What is Industrial Democracy?Now why did I record this book? Norman Thomas is a socialist, not a progressive - and even, in this little work, he takes the time to swipe at the progressives. So what gives? Let's start with two things we all know and can easily prove in 15 seconds, and let's look at how those things are connected. First, nobody would dare call Theodore Roosevelt a socialist. But we have...

[Catholic Caucus] The US Bishops Promote a Protégé to the Rapist Theodore McCarrickRichmond Bishop Barry Knestout will head up of all things the bishops’ child protection committee.It is impossible to overstate the tone-deafness of America’s Catholic bishops in recent years. They seem determined to give the Catholic Church a black eye. The Theodore McCarrick scandal — he was a prominent cardinal in Washington, D.C., who preyed on boys, seminarians, and priests in plain sight for decades — marks one of the lowest points in the history of the Church. In light of that, wouldn’t the bishops want to avoid any...

A search is ongoing for an Arizona couple who disappeared while kayaking in Mexico on Thanksgiving, authorities said. Corey Allen and his wife Yeon-Su Kim of Flagstaff were kayaking with their teen daughter around 1 p.m. Thursday in Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point, Mexico, when winds began to pick up, family and friends have said. Allen helped their daughter back to shore and it is believed he went back for Kim before the couple went missing. Authorities in Mexico tweeted that a search for two Americans is ongoing, along with a photo of the couple. Allen is a...

Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, has pretended he has nothing to do with the deaths of Russian soldiers in the war he had waged, comparing losses on the front line to deaths from road accidents and alcohol. Source: video recording of Putin’s conversation with "soldiers’ mothers" Quote from Putin: "Of course, this is a huge tragedy [the death of a relative - ed.]. It is a void that cannot be filled with anything when a loved one is gone, especially a son. But you know what comes to my mind: in our country, about 30,000 people die...

Chinese protesters have turned to blank sheets of paper to express their anger over COVID-19 restrictions in a rare, widespread outpouring of public dissent that has gone beyond social media to some of China's streets and top universities. Images and videos circulated online showed students at universities in cities including Nanjing and Beijing holding up blank sheets of paper in silent protest, a tactic used in part to evade censorship or arrest. One widely shared video said to be from Saturday, which could not be independently verified, showed a lone woman standing on the steps of the Communication University of...

Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be awarding Oregon a total of $695,097 for sagebrush conservation efforts across the state. This funding will help support collaborative efforts by ranchers, growers, and agencies to improve habitat. “Restoring and conserving Oregon’s sagebrush ecosystems can help to address the damage and dangers invasive species bring to important rangelands and habitat to promote a healthy environment and a strong economy,” said Senator Merkley, who used his position as Chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to secure this funding in the infrastructure law.

Almost a full two weeks after first filing for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, the insolvent cryptocurrency exchange FTX finally held its first-day motion requests on Tuesday (Nov. 22). The hearing took place in Wilmington, Delaware, the traditional city where corporate bankruptcy cases are heard.Presided over by Judge John T. Dorsey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, the Tuesday session focused on what assets FTX has, to whom they are owed, and where the overall bankruptcy case for FTX and its affiliates should be held.The remaining “how” of the once-popular crypto exchange’s implosion has been widely covered;...

Vladimir Makei 'passed away suddenly', Belarusian state media reported today They gave no cause for Makei's death or any explanation of the circumstances Makei, 64, was due to meet Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov tomorrow He was then set to travel to Poland to meet a host of Western diplomats Some opposition figures in Russia and Belarus have posited the Belarusian security service could well have been involved in Makei's death Belarus's long-standing foreign minister has died suddenly, the state news agency Belta reported on Saturday, just days before he was due in Poland to meet key Western officials. 'Foreign Minister...

Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) side deal with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to enact permitting reform before the end of the year is on life support as Republicans look to deprive the lawmaker of a major victory that could aid his potential 2024 reelection. Manchin is in discussions with GOP colleagues about striking a deal on permitting reform in the lame-duck session, but Republicans say it faces an uphill path as they view his West Virginia Senate seat as a top pickup opportunity in the next election. “It’s a heavy lift but we’re still exchanging ideas,” said Sen. Shelley...

Elon Musk: SpaceX, Mars, Tesla Autopilot, Self-Driving, Robotics, and AI