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It's a great time to be a candlemaker in Germany. "Candle demand is very strong right now," says Stefan Thomann, Technical Director of the European Candle Manufacturers Association. The candle boom began during the pandemic, after the government imposed lockdowns and Germans began spending a lot more time at home. The industry expected the boom to end once the nation opened back up, Thomann says. "But then the war (in Ukraine) started." Prior to Russia's invasion, Germany was getting more than half of its natural gas from Russia. It was Russia's biggest natural gas customer in the European Union, and...

Many parents will testify that it takes only a moment for a tragedy to occur. You can be watching over your kids exhaustively and within a moment and in the twinkling of an eye, they are gone. That is what happened on November 29, 2022, when Abigail, a 7-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister Cecilia vanished from their parent's home in Louisiana. The young girls' parents, Mary and Justin Bourg, tearfully said their Golden Retriever family dog named Artemis first ran into the woods to explore and the girls followed him.

In Canada, when a disabled Canadian military veteran complained to Veterans Affairs about a delay in installing a wheelchair lift in her home, they offered to euthanize her. Lawrence MacAulay. Minister of Veterans' Affairs, explained "a wheelchair lift is just an expensive temporary solution. Euthanasia is an inexpensive permanent solution to the pains of disability. I don't blame staff for trying to persuade this vet to make one more sacrifice for our country." In Los Angeles, District Attorney George Gascón has ordered his prosecutors to "refrain from filing criminal charges against illegal immigrants because charges endanger their chances of remaining...

A study conducted shows that anti-inflammatory drugs commonly taken by children may be associated with dental enamel defects (DEDs) currently seen in about 20% of children worldwide. The authors investigated the effects of celecoxib and indomethacin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), alongside paracetamol. Dentists have observed a sharp rise in the number of children seeking treatment for pain, white or yellow tooth spots, dental sensitivity and fragility. Dental decay in the form of carious lesions appears sooner and more frequently in these patients, whose restorations are less adhesive and tend to fail more. Studies have shown they may have to replace...

The email, which has not previously been made public, adds to the mounting evidence that the FBI had intelligence warnings that Jan. 6 was a major threat.

One of the big problems with Federal goverment and Federal Reserve monetary stimulus is … it wears out. Just look at M2 Money growth. US existing homes sales fell -7.70% in November to 4.09 million units SAAR. And since the same month last year, existing home sales are down -35.4% YoY. The good news? The median price of existing homes fell to 3.21% YoY. The bad news? The ark is really bad pointing to a bad December. Inventory for sale (orange line) remains below pre-Covid shutdown levels. Of course, will the Federal government and Federal Reserve come riding to the...

The one thing people are sick and tired of from Washington, D.C., is empty promises. Lying to the base is a red line for me, and that’s what five of my closest colleagues are doing when they claim a consensus House Speaker candidate will emerge as they oppose Kevin McCarthy.

On Jan. 3rd, Republicans will start the process of choosing the House Speaker. The Speaker will be second in line for the presidency and the most powerful elected Republican. The vote will take several ballots and possibly many days. After internal debate, Republicans will come together and pick the right leader for the role and that should not be Kevin McCarthy. The McCarthy camp is spinning that Kevin must be accepted because “we have to avoid chaos.” Chaos for who exactly? The special interests that are counting on a McCarthy as their lapdog? I’m worried about chaos in the lives...

The amount of income, deductions and taxes paid by or refunded to former President Donald Trump while serving in the White House was detailed in a new report released Tuesday night. The report reveals that Trump on his federal tax returns declared negative income in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020, and that he paid a total of $1,500 in income taxes for the years 2016 and 2017. On their 2020 income tax returns, Trump and his wife Melania paid no federal income taxes and claimed a refund of $5.47 million, according to the report by the staff of the Joint...

A day after publicly disclosing a safety stand-down for its entire fleet of B-2 Spirit bombers, the Air Force clarified that the nuclear-capable B-2 can still fly—if absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is investigating the Dec. 10 incident at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., involving a B-2 that sparked the safety stand-down in the first place. In a statement released Dec. 20, the 509th Bomb Wing, which operates the Air Force’s fleet of 20 B-2s, said the stealth strategic bombers ”can be flown if directed by the commander in chief to fulfill mission requirements.” Short of that, all...

Okay, Jon Meacham, we're going to take up your invitation, and mock you, you shameless hack! On today's Morning Joe, discussing Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to D.C. today, Meacham said: "I think President Biden has led with immense skill throughout this crisis. It's reminiscent of the senior President Bush during the first Gulf War, and then back to the great World War II leadership. And I say that without, people can mock that, perhaps, but David [Ignatius] can check me on it. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Breitbart Texas reviewed a Monday directive to all Customs and Border Protection managers which gags them from releasing migrant apprehension statistics through social media accounts or directly to the public without the express approval of the Department of Homeland Security. The directive precludes Border Patrol managers from releasing any interim arrest statistics or stories as the decision over the potential end Title 42 enforcement now sits before the Supreme Court. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, says the message is intended to curb routine disclosures of migrant apprehensions near the southern border. These are generally provided by...

The new COVID-19 vaccine boosters barely provide any protection against infection, according to a new study. The boosters, from Pfizer and Moderna, were just 30 percent effective in preventing infection, researchers with the Cleveland Clinic found. The effectiveness falls below the 50 percent effectiveness required by the World Health Organization and originally recommended by the FDA. U.S. regulators have since stopped requiring any clinical efficacy at all. The researchers analyzed data from clinic employees since Sept. 12, shortly after the boosters were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention of COVID-19. Out of the nearly...

Comments Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made on Tuesday show why he has become the single biggest obstacle to GOP success. The Kentucky Republican claimed giving more money to Ukraine is “the No. 1 priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans.” The new $1.7 trillion Democrat spending bill he enthusiastically supports would give Ukraine another roughly $45 billion in assistance, bringing the total over the past eight months to more than $100 billion, a staggering figure even if it weren’t happening during a time of inflation, looming recession, and other serious domestic problems. The comment about...

Maybe she missed the mendacious White House memo that Biden has, in fact, visited the border "since he took office," which is what Karine Jean Pierre claimed a few weeks ago. It wasn't true, of course. Biden has never visited the US-Mexico border throughout his Vice Presidential and Presidential tenures -- combined. As I've noted before, the best spin Jean-Pierre's predecessor could concoct was to point out that Biden had once driven near the border as a candidate in 2008, nearly a decade-and-a-half ago. Arizona's newly-minted 'independent' US Senator told Fox's Rich Edson that she and some Republican colleagues are...

Researchers are learning more about ways to prevent serious side effects from chemotherapy used to treat breast cancer patients. The work led by Xi Wu, Ph.D. was recently published. Anthracyclines belong to a class of chemotherapy agents used to treat a variety of cancers and remain an important part of therapy for patients with high-risk breast cancer. While effective in improving cure rates, they can also cause serious heart damage, including heart failure, which is often irreversible. "This is of crucial clinical importance for breast cancer patients as there are no proven strategies for prevention or interventions for cardiotoxicity," said...

A horrifying video shows Austin tech entrepreneur Rajan 'Raj' Moonesinghe being shot dead by local police as he inspected the perimeter of his home for an intruder with a rifle in his hands. Moonesinghe, 33, a successful tech entrepreneur who had moved to the area about five years ago, was killed on the front porch of his home in a wealthy South Austin neighborhood on November 15. As he lay dying, he said the words: 'It wasn't me.' At around 12.30am, Moonesinghe told a neighbor that someone was in his house and he was going to call 911, the WSJ...

An owner of a Chick-fil-A in North Carolina was fined over $6,000 and required to pay a handful of employees in back wages after the Department of Labor found multiple child labor and minimum wage standards were violated. A report released by the DOL on Monday said the Chick-fil-A location in Hendersonville, N.C., which is owned by Good Name 22:1 LLC, allowed three workers under the age of 18 to operate, load or unload a trash compactor, which resulted in $6,450 in fines. Federal regulations surrounding child labor prohibit employed minors to perform hazardous jobs.

Slightly over a month ago, 37 out of 49 Senate Republicans re-elected Mitch McConnell as their leader. Yesterday, speaking on behalf of those Republicans, McConnell stated in the clearest terms possible what matters to the GOP: Ukraine. During a time of economic upheaval, border breakdown, soaring crime, and rising energy costs, it’s Ukraine that matters.This tweet catches the magic moment when McConnell turned his back on the American people and announced that Ukraine’s well-being was “the number one priority for the United States right now according to most Republicans”:McConnell: "Providing assistance for Ukrainians to defeat the Russians is the number...

The city of Buffalo, New York, has filed suit against Beretta, Glock, Remington, Smith & Wesson, and other gun and gun parts manufacturers seven months after an attacker with a Bushmaster AR-15 shot and killed ten innocents in a grocery store. The city is also suing Bushmaster, as well gun parts makers Arm or Ally and Polymer80. The suit was filed in the Erie County branch of New York’s Supreme Court, CNN reports.