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The U.S. finished the 2026 fiscal year with a budget deficit of nearly $2 trillion, the latest measurement to underscore the extent of the country’s financial stress. The $1.992 trillion figure was about 12% higher than the $1.775 trillion deficit in the prior fiscal year, the Treasury Department reported Friday. It’s the third-highest annual deficit in U.S. history, behind only 2020 and 2021, when the federal government was doling out trillions of dollars in financial stimulus amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2026 fiscal year saw record sums for both receipts and outlays, according to a Treasury Department official. With Friday’s...

New York plans to drop part of its statewide ban on Native American imagery for school sports logos. The Department of Education said Monday it will recommend that the Board of Regents, which adopted the 2023 mandate and issued a June 2025 deadline for rebranding, saying districts that didn't comply could lose state aid, now leave those decisions to local school districts. "Legal challenges brought by Long Island school boards against the Board of Regents' regulation addressing Indigenous mascots have been unsuccessful. Most recently, a federal appeals court dismissed Wantagh's challenge, finding that the district could not pursue its claims...

Republican Sen. Jon Husted leads Democrat Sherrod Brown by less than a point in Ohio’s 2026 U.S. Senate race, according to polls. The survey, published by ActiVote, put the appointed incumbent at 50.2 percent to the former senator’s 49.8 percent, a 0.4-point edge among 400 likely voters, well inside the poll’s 4.9-point margin of error. The firm conducted the poll between September 26 and October 18, with a median field date of October 7. ActiVote reported that the contest comes down to the middle of the electorate. “The race is decided in the center, where Husted leads by 56% to...

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are planning to use DNA evidence to try to prove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) committed immigration fraud, as part of the sprawling investigation into the congresswoman, sources told The Post. People familiar with the years-long criminal probe said the feds have made use of whistleblowers, government records and now obtained DNA in an effort to substantiate decade-old allegations that Omar — and possibly members of her family like her father — defrauded immigration authorities. One source said the DNA evidence was critical to proving an allegation that Omar married her brother when she wed Ahmed Nur...

Xi ‘Sinicizes’ China’s Catholic Church, with Vatican Approval China’s clerics are becoming propagandists for the government.The Vatican has been widely criticized for its 2018 provisional agreement with China. While the agreement’s contents are secret, the Holy See revealed that it gives Beijing a role, along with at least a papal right to veto, in appointing Catholic bishops in China. Due to President Xi Jinping’s “Sinicization” of religion campaign, eight years on, the agreement is even more disastrous than previously thought.Last month, the agreement saw 44-year-old parish priest Father Andrew Ding appointed archbishop of the megacity of Chongqing. His chief distinction...

Question 10 Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada? Option 1: Alberta should remain a province of Canada. Option 2: The Government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada. SNIP

Copenhagen is famed for its innovative gastronomy and elaborate dishes. But these days its hottest food is its most basic: just bread, butter and hard cheese. And Copenhagen’s top bakeries are in a dead heat to make the best one around. It’s called a bolle med ost (bun with cheese), shortened by many to BMO, an abbreviation that was entered into the biggest Danish dictionary this year. Often served open-faced, this sort-of-sandwich is all about the fundamentals — sparer than smorrebrod and a test of how sublime the simple can be. That’s a 180 from the best-known Danish cuisine, which...

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WCBD reports that a bone comb has been unearthed at Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site, which is located on the Ashley River, about 20 miles from the city of Charleston. The simple comb may have been discarded when too many of its tines had broken off. The village of Dorchester was founded in 1697 and abandoned before the Revolutionary War. A brick church bell tower, traces of the town's log wharf, and the remains of a fort made of oyster-shell concrete remain at the site. For more about the site, go to "Off the Grid: Dorchester, South Carolina."

At 40 meters long and 30 meters high, this recreation of the Galeón Espiritu Santo is one whopper of a museum exhibit... The original vessel was built in Cavite, south of Manila, in 1602 and was associated with the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade. Life-size reproduction of a 17th-century Spanish galleon goes on display in Manila | 5:10 AP Archive | 6.04M subscribers | 16,597 views | October 15, 2026

Delays in approving transfers from partner countries coincide with a worsening rupture between President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Trump administration has not approved the transfer of interceptor missiles to Ukraine that are needed to protect the country from Russian missile and drone attacks, officials said Monday, a delay that comes as President Donald Trump has embraced Russia and slammed Ukraine in recent weeks. At least some of the transfers of Patriot interceptor missiles are from countries friendly to Ukraine that require Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to approve the handoff, according to a U.S. official and three additional people...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg, PennsylvaniaNaval Support Activity Mechanicsburg is an 806 acres naval supply depot just outside of Mechanicsburg in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Largely industrial, and home to over 150 warehouses containing 8,800,000 square feet of storage space and other buildings, it is the headquarters of the Naval Supply Systems Command. It is also the parent installation of Naval Support Activity Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Navy Yard Annex, which share the same commanding officer.Presently NSA Mechanicsburg serves approximately 4,600 civilian, military and industry partners assigned to over 40 tenant activities or commands. Outside...

President Donald Trump warned Monday that Paris is on course to become a “Muslim city very soon,” blaming France’s escalating unrest on mass immigration and saying he had repeatedly urged French President Emmanuel Macron to close the country’s borders. “Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon, and that wasn’t the deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House as France grappled with days of violent riots, looting, and arson. Trump said he had warned Macron about the consequences of his immigration policies years before the latest unrest. “Emmanuel, he’s a friend of mine. I told him a...

U.S. president said he would be willing to discuss denuclearization with leaders of Russia and China WASHINGTON—President Trump said Monday that he would be open to meeting with the leaders of Russia and China to discuss denuclearization.Trump’s comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed that he, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet next month to talk about Ukraine in an attempt to negotiate an end to the four-year conflict that would favor Moscow.Trump told reporters that he would be willing to join such a trilateral meeting, “not so much for Ukraine,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Monday and raised concerns about President Donald Trump's decision to waive key sanctions on Russia, as members of Congress push back against the president's moves to ease economic pressure on Moscow.During the video call, Zelenskyy reported concerns over disruptions to U.S. intelligence sharing and the administration's decision to waive Russia sanctions. He also told lawmakers that critical Starlink services remained degraded, hindering Ukraine's ability to intercept drones from Moscow, according to a readout from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).Blumenthal and Tillis led the meeting, which...

Arab League chief pledges intensified political, diplomatic support for Lebanon. DUBAI: The Arab League fully supports Lebanon's negotiations with Israel and will intensify its political and diplomatic efforts in support of Beirut, Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy said on Monday. Speaking after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Fahmy said Lebanon was a priority for the Arab League, which would support the Lebanese state and its institutions politically, economically and socially. He also announced plans to visit southern Lebanon amid repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanese citizens and interests.

From the upper floors of Millbank Tower, a skyscraper overlooking the River Thames in London, the U.K. Houses of Parliament are just a few hundred yards away. For decades, the building housed the headquarters of Britain's Conservative Party, one of the world's oldest political parties. Today, it is home to Reform UK, the right-wing populist party led by Nigel Farage that is hoping to — and by some measures may already have — replace the Conservatives as the dominant force on the British right. The change of occupants reflects a wider political upheaval sweeping some of Europe's biggest democracies. In...

On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert “Bob” Gimlin captured just under a minute of shaky, grainy 16mm film footage of Bigfoot. Allegedly. Nearly 60 years later, the new documentary Capturing Bigfoot finally puts the issue to rest: it was a hoax. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Of course it was a hoax.” To many of us, the clip was an obvious ruse. That seven-foot-tall hirsute fella is a person in a suit. Bigfoot, like Nessie, the Abominable Snowman, the Jersey Devil, and El Chupacabra, does not exist. However, for many others, the myth has persisted. Those 59...

The transgender New York Times executive who was allegedly gunned down by his in-laws had previously threatened to hire a hitman to “get rid of” his mother-in-law, her defense attorney has claimed. Jonathan McKinsey was shot dead at Dublin Sports Grounds on Sept. 26, allegedly at the hands of his elderly in-laws, 77-year-old Shili Chen and 77-year-old Shouyong Zhang, who have been charged with murder. But their defense attorney has now revealed a potentially explosive twist in the case, claiming McKinsey previously said he was going to hire a gunman to take out Chen, according to KRON4. Curtis Briggs, who...

KIM Jong-un is in a coma after suffering a brain haemorrhage, according to wild internet claims. Social media users claim the North Korean tyrant was rushed to a Chinese hospital for urgent treatment following the severe bleed. It is said he was taken out of the country due to the poor medical facilities in Pyongyang. According to online speculation, Kim was taken to the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing where he underwent emergency treatment. He was last seen touring a defence museum at an undisclosed location in Pyongyang on October 11. North Korea analyst Benedict Rogers said he expected...