Bankruptcy filings have recently reached levels on par with the 2008 Great Recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

apolloacademy.com/bankruptcies-rising/

His source appears to be this and it only refers to companies with over $50 million in liabilities.

So the y-axis is the number of companies filing for bankruptcy, so a peak of an average of about 8.5 a month.

Russia’s playgrounds are becoming parade grounds. At schools from the Pacific to the Black Sea, children in nursery grade don uniforms and take part in marching practice. Older kids are being taught how to dig trenches, throw grenades and shoot with real ammunition.

In schools across the country, service in the armed forces is being glorified, “voluntary companies” of teenagers are being formed and the national curriculum is being changed to emphasize defense of the motherland.

In short, Russia’s children are being prepared for war.

Webmaster addition: US kids know the correct gender pronouns!

The failure of Ukraine’s much-hyped counteroffensive – which began in June of this year and has stuttered for over three months – has by now become a universally recognized fact. It has been acknowledged not only by Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, but also by Western media and experts. However, the summer campaign has made the world reconsider not only the capabilities of Kiev's armed forces, but also the power of the country's main sponsor – the United States, when it comes to waging a large-scale war with a modern enemy.

Unexpected news? Not really. Various analytical reports have repeatedly stated that the US, despite a mind boggling annual financial outlay, may have trouble confronting a major power. A number of American experts, whose opinions will be mentioned below, have warned that Washington’s superiority in terms of precision weapons, intelligence, and targeting may not be enough, when facing a really large enemy – as opposed to a third world country or an insurgent formation.

Nevertheless, for a long time these warnings were ignored. Washington overestimated its own capabilities and underestimated those of the enemy (in this case, Russia) and as a result, its assistance to Ukraine turned out to be insufficient. Meanwhile, the US and its NATO allies are not ready to provide more aid, since this would greatly weaken their own military power. So how did Washington's military machine get into this situation?

Ukrainian officials are resisting calls from Kiev's Western backers to hold parliamentary and presidential elections, even as martial law prohibits such processes, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Several Western politicians, including Tiny Kox, head of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, and Democratic US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren, have urged Kiev to hold elections, the report says. Their efforts were also supported by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who described a ballot in Ukraine not only as “an act of defiance against the Russian invasion, but an embrace of democracy and freedom.”

However, according to officials in Ukraine and experts interviewed by the Post, holding elections in a country embroiled in a major conflict “is virtually impossible and also ill-advised.” The conundrum stems from the Russian military presence in regions that Ukraine claims as its own, as well as from the fact that millions have fled the country and tens of thousands of soldiers are deployed.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has alleged that unnamed figures in Washington obstructed his attempts to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, and the US government stopped me,” Carlson claimed in an interview with Swiss publication Die Weltwoche published on Thursday. He also explained that he felt let down by the lack of support for his situation that he says he received from US news media.

He said: “I don’t think there was anybody who said ‘wait a second. I may not like this guy but he has a right to interview anyone he wants, and we have a right to hear what Putin says’.” The 54-year-old added: “You’re not allowed to hear Putin’s voice. Because why? There was no vote on it. No one asked me.”

The often-controversial media personality didn’t elaborate on the circumstances under which he says there was government intrusion into his plans to interview Putin but it appeared to suggest that it was the current Biden administration which was behind the meddling. Carlson also didn’t mention when the interview with the Russian leader was supposed to take place.

Austrian economist and social media personality Gunther Fehlinger has called on NATO forces to “bomb Belgrade now,” after Kosovo security agents engaged in a deadly shootout with unidentified assailants near its border with Serbia.

Kosovo police said on Sunday that they’d killed three men and arrested six others during a gunfight at a monastery in the village of Banjska. The gunmen arrived in the village in the early hours of the morning, the police said, and blockaded a bridge with unmarked trucks, before shooting at least two officers, one of whom died of his wounds.

Fehlinger, who describes himself on social media as “Founder [of the] European Committee for NATO Enlargement for Kosovo, Ukraine, Armenia,  Austria, [and] Moldova” accused Belgrade and Moscow of orchestrating the incident.

A sleepy town in southern Spain is in shock after it emerged that AI-generated naked images of young local girls had been circulating on social media without their knowledge.

The pictures were created using photos of the targeted girls fully clothed, many of them taken from their own social media accounts.

These were then processed by an application that generates an imagined image of the person without clothes on.

So far more than 20 girls, aged between 11 and 17, have come forward as victims of the app's use in or near Almendralejo, in the south-western province of Badajoz.

"One day my daughter came out of school and she said 'Mum there are photos circulating of me topless'," says María Blanco Rayo, the mother of a 14-year-old.

"I asked her if she had taken any photos of herself nude, and she said, 'No, Mum, these are fake photos of girls that are being created a lot right now and there are other girls in my class that this has happened to as well.'"

She says the parents of 28 girls affected have formed a support group in the town.

 Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel downplayed reports indicating a growing feud with the state of New Hampshire over the 2024 election cycle.

 Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn blasted President Joe Biden on Sunday for being “weak” on America’s adversaries. 

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blamed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for a sudden increase of illegal immigrants entering the U.S., claiming that his sanctions against the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela caused the surge.

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called on Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign after the 69-year-old lawmaker was indicted on federal corruption charges last week.

 Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) has hired the lawyer representing President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, after Menendez was indicted last week on federal corruption charges.

 Chicago’s Democratic mayor has announced a partnership with a far-left non-profit to advance his proposal of a government-owned grocery store, which he argues is needed for the sake of “racial justice.”

The defenders of open US borders like to sell the happy, optimistic narrative that asylum seekers are primarily innocent people looking to build a better life in the United States. The raw data, however, points to a much more complicated story.

It’s the rarest occurrence of all when politicians admit that they were wrong, but that’s what is (almost) happening in Democrat-ruled cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, which are being forced to absorb a continuous influx of migrants, together with a large slab of humble pie.

“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told a hushed audience in Manhattan as he called for federal assistance just days before the anniversary of 9/11. “This issue will destroy New York City.”

“We are past our breaking point,” Adams continued with his apocalyptic plot. “New Yorkers’ compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not.”

Back on the campaign trail in 2021, Adams' campaign posted on what was then Twitter: "We should protect our immigrants. Period. Yes, New York City will remain a sanctuary city under an Adams administration."

Washington is looking to set up a military base in the Guayana Esequiba area, which is contested by Venezuela and Guyana, the former's foreign minister has claimed.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Yvan Gil said the US considers itself “the sovereign” of Latin America, and is now intervening in the more than 200-year-old territorial dispute between Caracas and Georgetown.

“The US government seeks to appropriate our oil resources by using the company Exxon Mobil, which has incorporated the government of Guyana into its ranks,” he said.

Guayana Esequiba is rich in oil and gas, especially in offshore areas. In recent years, exploration in the disputed territory has been dominated by an Exxon-led consortium, which has received a drilling license from Georgetown. Last week, Guyana held another offshore oil bidding round, receiving applications from Exxon Mobil, TotalEnergies and other firms.

A NATO peacekeeping force deployed in Kosovo turned a blind eye to a police crackdown on local Serbs, President Aleksandar Vucic said in the wake of a deadly skirmish in the breakaway region early Sunday.

Speaking at a press conference later the same day, the Serbian leader addressed the chaos that erupted in the village of Banjska located in the northern part of Kosovo. According to Vucic, a group of Serbs erected a barricade in the settlement, with ensuing clashes with Kosovo police resulting in the death of one officer.

As the skirmish unfolded, a total of three local Serbs were killed and two others wounded, with another person feared dead, he said.

However, the Kosovo authorities claimed that around 30 heavily armed gunmen ambushed the local police, later fleeing to a nearby monastery. After a shootout that lasted for several hours, law enforcement managed to clear the church. It confirmed the death of three Serbs, adding that five others had been arrested.

A recent change in Ukrainian conscription rules has obliged female medics and pharmacists to show up to the nearest draft office to update their personal data for possible enlistment. There was reportedly a wave of resignations from drug stores ahead of the decree going into force.

“Owners of pharmacies are in a panic. People are resigning and moving to Europe before they could be stopped at the border,” Elena Prudnikova, the head of a Ukrainian pharmaceutical business association, told online news outlet Strana.ua last Friday.

“Who knows who would work, considering that the industry is already in a serious crisis,” she added.

Ukrainian law offers women of certain professions aged 18 to 60 the option to register with conscription authorities so that they can be drafted as needed.

The launches took place as part of the Finval-2023 naval drills that were held to train the military to protect communications across the Northern Sea Route.

For the first time in its modern history, Russia has conducted military exercises involving the simultaneous firing of sea-, air-, coast-, and submarine-launched missiles.

“For the first time in [Russia’s] modern history, we carried out missile firings across four environments at once: from air, sea, shore, and below the water surface," representatives of the Pacific Fleet Information Support Department said upon the completion of the drills.

Russia is testing its cutting-edge laser weapons in Ukraine. What is known about these arms based on new physical principles?

While addressing the Eastern Economic Forum earlier this month Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia is working on "weapons based on new physical principles" that "will ensure the security of any country in the near historical perspective."

Even though the Russian president did not elaborate what models of innovative arms he meant, Russian military observers suggested Putin's remark is more likely a reference to lasers and other high-energy, physics-based weapons.

Indeed, on March 1, 2018, Putin mentioned Russia's laser weapon for air defense and anti-satellite warfare, the Peresvet, during his address to the Federal Assembly. The Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet, entered experimental combat duty in the Russian Armed Forces in December 2018. By February 2019, the Russian president announced the laser installations had confirmed their unique characteristics along with the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

 Former President Donald Trump called on all Senate Democrats to resign following the federal indictment against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) last week, claiming that they all knew about the alleged bribes he took.

 Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), whose district is on the U.S.-Mexico border, said in an interview over the weekend that the U.S. must put “repercussions” in place to disincentivize illegal aliens from entering the U.S.

President Joe Biden’s migrant inflow in August broke several records, including record inflows of all migrants, Mexicans, and non-working dependents.

The inflow is likely to break more records during September because Democrats and their business allies are inviting a vast number of migrants to take wages, housing, school slots, and government aid that would otherwise go to Americans — including millions of sick, alienated, or old Americans who have been discarded by employers and government officials.

The poverty-expanding migrant inflow is not caused by foreign disasters and poverty but by the U.S. government’s radical pro-business policy.

 Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) slammed President Joe Biden over the weekend for the worsening crisis on the U.S. southern border as tens of thousands of illegal aliens are flooding communities every few days in an unprecedented onslaught.

 House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) slammed President Joe Biden over the weekend for the renewed explosion of illegal immigration on the U.S. southern border, saying that Biden is “encouraging” this to happen by offering incentives to illegal aliens and effectively communicating that the border is open.

 Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who recently split with the Democratic Party, unloaded on her former colleagues over the persistent prosecutions of former President Donald Trump.

 New U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said during an interview that aired on Sunday that the Mexican drug cartels are flooding the U.S. border with illegal immigrants in part as a distraction so they can smuggle drugs, criminals, and weapons into the U.S.

The White House refused to answer questions Thursday about how much President Biden's potential billion-dollar climate work program unveiled this week will cost taxpayers.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a White House official only said the American Climate Corps (ACC), which Biden created via executive action Wednesday, would tap into existing streams of revenue. But the official declined to share the exact price tag of the program previously pegged by Democrats at between $10 billion and $30 billion.

"The American Climate Corps leverages existing programs and existing authorities across agencies, who will work together to implement the ACC," the White House official said.

Suspicions were raised about the operations of a Chinese-linked biolab in central California far earlier than previously known, according to a review of hundreds of internal emails, documents and photographs obtained by Fox News. 

Two California state agencies called on by the city of Fresno to intervene in the matter tell Fox they had no authority to get involved but the delay of local and state officials to take action in fall 2022 appears to have allowed lab workers to empty a warehouse full of dangerous biological agents, lab mice, chemicals and equipment. 

A trove of emails obtained through a public records request with the city of Fresno showed one official had been so concerned by Universal Meditech Inc.’s operations he filed urgent pleas with California’s environmental and toxic substance agencies for assistance in possibly shutting down the biolab before it could relocate. 

President Trump will deliver remarks on Monday to a sold-out crowd in Summerville, South Carolina.

The President continues to dominate in primary polls for the caucus states as Ron DeSantis, previously Trump’s closest competitor, continues to sink.

Fox Business reported on Wednesday:

Support for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is up 4 points while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is down 3 in the latest Fox Business survey of South Carolina Republican primary voters.  Former President Donald Trump maintains a large lead in the first in the south contest, despite the race narrowing.

Today, 46% of Republican primary voters back Trump, down a touch from 48% this summer. His nearest opponent is Haley with 18% support, up from 14% since July.

A Fox Business Poll on the Republican presidential primary. (Fox Business / Fox News)

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— Lara Logan (@laralogan) September 24, 2023