Author: nick

[ad_1] President Donald Trump said he is moving closer to ordering a massive attack on Iran. He also said the US does not currently need Israel’s assistance to wage the war.  “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” the President told Axios on Thursday. Multiple outlets have recently reported that top military officials are presenting Trump with options for a significant escalation, and current US strikes on Iran are “shaping operations” aimed at creating conditions for Trump to order a major attack.  The President…

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[ad_1] The European Central Bank (ECB) left interest rates unchanged at its meeting Thursday, citing the effects of the Iran War on energy markets. The bank kept its benchmark deposit rate at 2.25 percent, with its main refinancing and marginal lending rates remaining at 2.40 percent and 2.65 percent, respectively. Subscribe Today Get daily emails in your inbox The ECB assessed that energy prices remain volatile and consistently elevated when compared to pre-war conditions, noting in a statement that “uncertainty remains high and the full inflationary impact of the energy shock has yet to play out.” The bank…

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[ad_1] Screwworms are back and spreading in Texas. The pests were successfully eradicated from the United States in 1966. How? Using the sterile insect technique whereby 20 billion irradiated screwworm flies were raised in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) labs and released over Texas, Arizona, and California via aircraft to breed with wild female flies. These sterile matings eventually eliminated the native populations. The flying vermin, however, remain endemic south of our border. Screwworm flies lay their eggs in the wounds and body openings of warm-blooded hosts including cows, goats, sheep, deer, and even humans. The larvae hatch and start…

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[ad_1] The New Yorker’s account of Biden administration officials’ dealings with Israel after Oct. 7, 2023, leaves one key “takeaway” — they lacked the guts or integrity to stop the Zionist terror machine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Oct. 12, 2023. (State Department, Chuck Kennedy, Public Domain) By Patrick LawrenceSpecial to Consortium News It didn’t have to come to this, but you knew it would. You just knew those doing Joe Biden’s thinking for him were eventually going to explain away how it was the Biden regime actively participated in…

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[ad_1] Metaplanet is taking its Bitcoin strategy beyond treasury accumulation, launching a study to explore tokenized, Bitcoin-backed credit products that could reshape Japan’s debt market. Metaplanet wants to turn its bitcoin pile into a credit market. On Friday, Japan’s largest corporate bitcoin holder said it has opened a joint study with three partners to build tokenized credit products backed by bitcoin, a step that pushes the company past simple treasury accumulation and toward the role of a financial platform. The study group brings together Metaplanet, the yen stablecoin issuer JPYC, the regulated security token platform Progmat, and Siiibo Securities, the…

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[ad_1] One of the most robust findings in economic research is that rent control doesn’t work. A policy often sold as a humane way to make housing more accessible and affordable instead constrains housing supply and makes market housing harder to access and more expensive.  Just about everywhere rent control, sometimes referred to as rent stabilization, has been tried, the same story plays out: Rent controls artificially freeze the price of housing, making many new developments, especially those aimed at more middle-income renters, financially untenable. Developers, in turn, shift their focus to building expensive, higher-margin luxury housing. The result is…

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[ad_1] When recently I learned that the Russian mercenaries who prop up the military regime in Mali had been driven out of the town of Kidal, I was very pleased, for defeat could not have been inflicted on people more deserving of it. The only fly in the ointment was that the victors were allies of the Islamists who are quite likely to overrun the Sahel and even some of the coastal countries of West Africa.   Of course, Mali will not mean much to most readers, even if they have heard of Timbuktu. But Mali has played a small part…

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[ad_1] Brent crude oil prices surged past $100 per barrel for the first time since May after the 12th consecutive night of American strikes on Iran, which retaliated with strikes against Jordan and Kuwait. Brent crude rose 7.4 percent to $101.01 a barrel Thursday. AAA reported the national average price of regular gas at $4.09. The rise in prices also follows the declaration of a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthis, who Wednesday claimed missile and drone attacks against two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. In a Truth Social post, President Donald Trump said that the…

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