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The Russian advance is ongoing. It appears today will be a very troubling day for Ukraine.

The once revered Lancet medical journal warns in its latest issue that climate change threatens to roll back decades of advances in global health. The climate crisis is “increasing future health risks of injury, disease, and death, through more intense and frequent extreme weather disasters and more extreme heat,” the UK-based journal contends. The Lancet cites a “multiagency report” predicting that the number of medium-scale or large-scale disaster events is projected to reach 560 per year — or 1.5 each day — by 2030.

President Ronald Reagan rode a “Morning in America” message to a blowout re-election victory in 1984, based partly on warm feelings about his economic performance. Today’s economy is similar in many ways to Mr. Reagan’s as he entered that campaign, with one big difference: There is widespread voter angst over the incumbent’s economic stewardship. A New York Times/Siena College poll shows President Biden trailing his likely Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, in key battleground states. Poll respondents rate the economy poorly and say they trust Mr. Trump more to fix it. That’s true even though the economy grew...

In the Nov. 16-18 poll, 45 percent of voters surveyed said they disapprove of how Biden is handling his job, down from 47 percent in an Oct. 20-23 poll. Meanwhile, eleven percent of respondents to the most recent poll say they neither approve nor disapprove of Biden's performance, while 22 percent strongly approve and 35 percent strongly disapprove. On key issues facing the country, Biden's job approval tends to be low.

U.S. equity markets surged Monday as Wall Street rebounded from its worst week since the financial crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose over 1,294 points or 5 percent in what is the biggest point gain ever. Ditto for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq from a point gain of 136 and 384 points respectively.

Stocks rose on Thursday as sentiment was boosted by strong earnings from Walmart and Cisco Systems while banks climbed on higher rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 214.66 points higher at 25,862.68, led by Walmart and Cisco. The S&P 500 gained 0.9% to close at 2,876.32 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1% to 7,898.05. The major indexes also closed higher for the third straight day. Walmart shares rose 1.4% after the retailer posted first-quarter earnings for fiscal 2020 that topped analyst expectations. The company said it is in a “good position ” to meet its goals for 2019 despite...

Stocks are closing sharply lower on Wall Street, led by a swoon in technology companies. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased their gains for the year. High-flying companies like Netflix and Amazon took some of the biggest losses Wednesday. Netflix gave back 9.4 percent and Amazon dropped 5.9 percent. Several companies sustained heavy drops after reporting disappointing results. Texas Instruments, a major chipmaker, slumped 8.2 percent and AT&T fell 8.1 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite is now 12.3 percent below its August peak. The S&P 500 index fell 84 points, or 3.1 percent, to 2,656.

SDF commander Clara Raqqa announced that the greater proportion of the city is under their control. Since the start of Raqqa operation, SDF forces have liberated 14 of the 23 neighbourhoods from ISIS gangs, and control 65 percent of the city, SDF commander Clara Raqqa said. Within 90 days the 'Great Battle' campaign to capture Raqqa, 14 of the 23 neighbourhoods are liberated by SDF. There are 9 neighbourhoods under ISIS control. As the battles intensify in the neighbourhoods of al-Barid, Mirûr and Nehda, commander of the operation, Clara Raqqa, shared details on the current situation. THE BATTLE FOR RAQQA...

Investors reacted positively from President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night address to Congress, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average above 21,000 points Wednesday for the first time in its history. Banks, financial institutions, companies in the energy and materials sector saw huge gains as Trump reaffirmed during his speech his plans to cut taxes and push for other business-friendly policies. The Dow jumped 242 points, or 1.2 percent, to 21,055 as of 10:07 a.m. Eastern Time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 24 points, or 1 percent, to 2,387. The Nasdaq composite index added 59 points, or 1 percent, to...

Under no circumstances should anyone angered by the current alignment of back-stabbing republicans want to see Senator Marco Rubio taken down, NOT YET! Rubio is very useful tool to insure success of the vulgarian insurgency; ie. to insure Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination. Senator Rubio polling well in the presidential race -and allowing the establishment optimism- keeps the GOPe RINO-class following along happily. We benefit more from smiles amid their faces, at the crustless triangle sandwich parties, than for them to be developing alternate anti-vulgarian strategies.

In the months and years since the recession began in December 2007, foreign-born workers have experienced a net increase in employment, while native-born Americans have experienced a net loss. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released updated employment data Friday. The new BLS figures reveal that since the start of the recession in 2007 — which is said to have ended in June 2009 — the number of foreign workers employed in the United States rose by 1.7 million. In December 2007 the number of foreign-born workers was 22,810,000 by January 2009 the number has increased to 24,553,000. Meanwhile the number...

The prospect of higher investment tax rates (on capital gains and dividend income) is on every investors' mind lately. As it stands, Bush era tax cuts will expire by the end of the year sending the long-term capital gains tax to 25 percent from 15 percent and the dividend income tax to north of 39 percent. Conventional conservative wisdom suggests higher taxes would be bad for the economy. But the empirical evidence is less clear. Societe Generale writes about it in a note to clients today: In terms of the macro impact, the dollar amounts involved are small and will...

France is sliding into a grave economic crisis and risks a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates, the country’s business federation has warned. “The situation is very serious. Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF. “The pace of bankruptcies has accelerated over the summer. We are seeing a general loss of confidence by investors. Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It’s becoming really dramatic.” MEDEF, France’s equivalent of the CBI, said the threat has risen from “a storm warning to a hurricane warning”, adding that the Socialist...

Fellow Conservatives: I'm writing to give you a brief update on the U.S. Senate race in Ohio and the amazing progress made by our endorsed candidate, Josh Mandel (R-OH). Liberal incumbent U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is in deep trouble. According to a recent poll conducted by a Democratic polling firm, less than half the voters in the Buckeye State want to re-elect him even though he's almost universally known. The poll also shows growing momentum for Josh Mandel (40%) against an increasingly vulnerable Sherrod Brown (48%). Mandel has already closed this race down to a single-digit gap (-8%), which...

Would the Steiger amendment benefit chiefly the rich, as the President says? Not really. Undeniably, a cut in the capital gains tax below the present top rate of 49% would help mainly people in (or above) the 50% tax bracket, who are more likely to own stock and other assets. To be in that lofty bracket, one needs taxable income of about $40,000 or more. But a lot of "average" taxpayers leap into the higher brackets a few times in their lives—when they sell a house, a farm, or the stock that Aunt Tillie left them; or when they collect...

Rebels in the western Libyan town of Zliten were said to be low on ammunition and on the defensive on Sunday, as the regime said its forces had retaken the strategic southwest town of Bir Ghanam. Abdul Wahab Melitan, a rebel spokesman in the port city of Misrata near Zliten, said forces loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi had launched an assault on rebel positions in Zliten's Souk Telat area, killing three and wounding 15. "The rebels lack ammunition to advance and we do not want to risk losing any ground," Melitan said. Meanwhile, a rebel source at Al-Qusbat, around 90...

SACRAMENTO - In the Year of the Republicans, California is the great exception. Whatever force hit the rest of the country in November stopped at the California border. Democrats won every statewide office on the ballot. They increased their already hefty majority in the State Assembly and maintain a sizable majority in the Senate. Their congressional delegation remains intact, as well. For Democrats, that is cause for celebration, given the battering they took almost everywhere else. But it is also cause for sober reflection. Are they up to the task of governing?

Russia will abolish taxes on capital gains from long-term direct investments starting next year, seeking to lure funds to reduce the economy’s energy dependence and subdue speculative capital, President Dmitry Medvedev said. “Such investments are critically important for modernizing the national economy and we are ready to create institutions to facilitate such investments,” Medvedev said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today. His government will create an investment fund within a year to help draw “strategic investors” by raising 3 rubles of private capital for each 1 ruble of state money, the president said. The world’s largest energy exporter...

WASHINGTON – Republican leaders, ever more confident of their chances of winning control of the House and possibly even the Senate, have begun plotting a 2011 agenda topped by a push for more than $100 billion in spending cuts, tax reductions and attempts to undo key parts of President Barack Obama's health care and financial regulation laws. The question is how much of the GOP's government-shrinking, tax-cutting agenda to advance, and how fast. It's certain that Republicans want to capitalize quickly on tea party-fueled anger and the antiestablishment fervor that they believe will provide momentum to accomplish an activist to-do...

The only limit on Republican gains in the midterm elections is that the GOP may be aiming too low. There are dozens of additional House seats we may be able to win if we would just adjust our sights upward. An analysis of the published polling data on eighty House races indicates that there are 54 districts now represented by Democrats in which Republicans are now ahead and another 19 where they are within five points and where the Democratic incumbent is under 50% of the vote. That’s 73 likely wins. (The undecided vote always goes against the incumbent, so...