Free Republic

Both the Dutch military and society as a whole need to brace themselves for the possibility of a war with Russia, said Lieutenant-General Martin Wijnen, the departing Commander of the Royal Netherlands Army. "Our society should be preparing themselves for this," he told the Telegraaf in an interview published on Thursday. Wijnen said that the Netherlands should follow the examples set by countries like Sweden, Finland, the Baltic nations. Those countries which border Russia, or are close to it, are better prepared for the outbreak of war. "The Netherlands needs to learn that the entire society needs to be prepared...

For the past two weeks, I’ve been using a new camera to secretly snap photos and record videos of strangers in parks, on trains, inside stores and at restaurants. (I promise it was all in the name of journalism.) I wasn’t hiding the camera, but I was wearing it, and no one noticed. I was testing the recently released $300 Ray-Ban Meta glasses that Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking empire made in collaboration with the iconic eyewear maker. The high-tech glasses include a camera for shooting photos and videos, and an array of speakers and microphones for listening to music and...

More than two dozen high-value targets have been attacked in the last year alone as China seeks to inflict 'societal chaos' in the event of war Beijing is by-passing hi-tech firewalls by targeting ordinary employees It comes as tensions grow over Taiwan, with targets in Hawaii and Guam at the top of the Chinese hit list Chinese hackers are positioning themselves inside critical US infrastructure by targeting careless office workers in a bid to cause 'societal chaos' from within should war break out. Beijing's military have burrowed into more than 20 major suppliers in the last year alone including a...

Dec 4, 2023 1 in 10 New Yorkers struggle with hunger, and due to recent budget cuts, food pantries and other city funded nutrition programs may experience shortages. It is going to get very scary in NYC soon.

France joins Denmark and the Netherlands in reporting increased cases of pneumonia among kids Officials in France are reporting an increase in pediatric pneumonia cases, the third European country to report such an outbreak in recent days. It comes after China reported some of its children’s hospitals have been overwhelmed by pneumonia cases, causing global alarm. Europe 1, a French radio station, reported that there was a 36% increase in medical visits for pediatric pneumonia cases last week. Many of these infections have been tied to Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Increased attention has been placed on M. pneumoniae in recent weeks, after...

About 60 credit unions in the US are experiencing outages because of a ransomware attack on an IT provider the credit unions use, a federal agency said Friday. The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the agency that insures deposits at federally insured credit unions, said in a statement to CNN that it was “coordinating with affected credit unions” in the wake of the hack. The full extent of the outage and its impact on credit unions was unclear Friday evening. One of the affected credit unions, New York-based Mountain Valley Federal Credit Union, said that technicians from the hacked IT...

As part of his Bidenomics agenda to lower costs for American families, President Biden is announcing nearly 30 new actions to strengthen supply chains critical to America’s economic and national security. These actions will help Americans get the products they need when they need them, enable reliable deliveries for businesses, strengthen our agriculture and food systems, and support good-paying, union jobs here at home. President Biden will announce these actions alongside members of his Cabinet and other senior Administration officials at the inaugural meeting of the new White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience. The Council, which President Biden is...

An unauthorized vehicle attempted to enter the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) Thursday night, prompting gunshots and a lockdown before the driver backed away and left the base. Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, which is home to Stratcom, said the unknown vehicle tried to enter the main gate of the facility at 10 p.m. Offutt security forces activated a barrier system that prevented the vehicle from entering, forcing the individual to turn around. Security also fired shots at the vehicle before it fled the scene, according to the base, and a lockdown was initiated out of an abundance...

The London Metal Exchange (LME) won a legal battle with U.S. financial firms on Wednesday which brought a case demanding $472 million in compensation after the exchange cancelled billions of dollars in nickel trades last year following a surge in prices. Hedge fund Elliott Associates and market maker Jane Street Global Trading brought the case after the world's largest metals marketplace cancelled $12 billion in trades when prices shot to records above $100,000 a metric ton in a few hours of chaotic trade in March 2022. In its written ruling, London's High Court said the LME could cancel trades in...

An upper respiratory infection has been sickening dogs across the country, sometimes leading to acute pneumonia and death might now be at bit more understood. According to Dr. David Needle and colleagues at the University of New Hampshire College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, note a mysterious respiratory illness that has sickened at least hundreds and perhaps as many as thousands of dogs across the country could be caused by a new type of bacterial infection that may be very good at evading the canine immune system, as well at least some antibiotics. In a development that might help shed...

Germany’s major banks need to increase their provisions for non-performing loans, as corporate insolvencies and credit risks mount, according to Bundesbank Vice-President Claudia Buch. Europe’s largest economy has been dubbed the “sick man of Europe” by some economists, after entering a technical recession earlier this year while economic activity faces further downward pressure from a collapse in construction. Lawmakers in Berlin are meanwhile scrambling for solutions to a developing budget crisis that could threaten the future of the country’s coalition government. Like the rest of the euro zone, the German economy is dealing with a rapid rise in interest rates,...

- Turkey's central bank delivered a larger-than-expected 500 basis point interest rate hike on Thursday, lifting its benchmark to 40% but also flagging that the pace of monetary tightening was set to slow down and the end of the cycle was in sight. LIAM PEACH, CAPITAL ECONOMICS, LONDON "(Turkey's central bank) suggested that it is very close to the end of the tightening cycle. A final 250bp hike in December now looks likely. For the central bank to have any chance of achieving single digit inflation this decade, rates will need to stay at this level for some time." "The...

Further, 17% of all owned homes are occupied by single or married seniors with two or more spare bedrooms. “The surge of spare bedrooms speaks to a mismatch in the housing market, at a time when so many feel there are too few options available,” Salviati said. Seniors aging in place are keeping a significant share of single-family homes unavailable to younger generations, according to Salviati. It’s why, in part, it’s hard for millennials to break into homeownership.

Three US banking giants have just had their ratings downgraded to “negative” by Moody’s. Moody’s Investor Service downgraded JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America to negative ratings after previously classifying them as stable, MarketWatch reports. Analyst Peter E. Nerby of Moody’s said that the worsening outlook on bank debt was due to “the potentially weaker capacity of the government of the United States of America (Aaa negative) to support the U.S.’s systemically important banks.” In particular, JPMorgan’s downgrade was partially because the bank runs a “complex” capital markets business that may post “substantial” risks to its creditors. A...

"There's no money. There's no money," Milei told local outlet Neura Media. "If we don't make a fiscal adjustment, we're headed for hyperinflation. We'll have hyperinflation and we are going to have 95% poverty and 70% or 80% homeless." Argentina, South America's second largest economy, is battling against inflation at 143% and net central bank reserves estimated at negative $10 billion. Over two-fifths of the population is in poverty and a recession in looming.

Amazon.com (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos is expected to offload more of his stake in the company on Tuesday after selling shares worth about $240 million last week, CNBC reported, citing a source. Bezos may sell as many as 8 million to 10 million shares, amounting to more than $1 billion, the report said. A representative for Bezos did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment and neither did Amazon, whose shares were trading 2.5% lower on Tuesday.

In a strategic pivot, the Providence-based banking giant will stop accepting new wholesale mortgage submissions. Citizens Bank will exit the wholesale channel beginning in December. The Providence, Rhode Island-based bank notified its mortgage partners that it would no longer be accepted after Dec. 6. However, it will continue servicing existing mortgages through the channel and its correspondent lending operations would not be affected by the decision. The bank cited ongoing industry challenges, as well as a broader strategic shift, as reasons behind its exit. Citizens Bank was the 10th-largest mortgage lender by loan count in 2022. Third-party originations at Citizens...

Around 150 protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip blocked the entrance to the Democratic National Committee headquarters Wednesday night, causing Capitol Police to help evacuate lawmakers from the building. The incident also shut down access to House office buildings. Capitol Police physically removed demonstrators who refused to leave, officers told CQ Roll Call. A video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Jewish Voice for Peace Action shows Capitol Police bike officers pushing protesters toward the sidewalk away from the building. The group said it was there with IfNotNow and Democratic Socialists of America to lay...

The record number of supertankers sailing toward the shores of the US is getting ever larger. There are 51 ships headed to the nation’s ports over the next three months. That’s the most in at least six years, climbing by three from the previous week’s record. About 80% of the vessels are empty, indicating that they intend to pick up cargoes in the US. The growing volume comes after US crude exports surged this year to a record. Overseas shipments have averaged 4.1 million barrels a day, based on the Energy Information Administration’s weekly data, up from 3.5 million in...

11/6/23 The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) has asked the FCC to address concerns of some of the association’s small rural wireless provider members regarding the agency’s rip & replace program. That program is designed to reimburse the providers for the cost of replacing equipment from Chinese manufacturers – primarily Huawei – whose equipment has been deemed to pose a security risk to U.S. communications infrastructure. One of the providers’ concerns is that funding allocated for the program is insufficient to cover replacement costs. According to a letter sent by CCA to the FCC, “There are significant consumer, competitive and national...