Market participants are bracing for potential shifts in the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy, with some traders positioning for significant rate cuts in 2024. 

On Tuesday, a judge ordered that the Federal Bureau of Investigation hand over the laptop that belonged to Seth Rich, the 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10, 2016, while walking back to his Washington, DC home.

Judge Amos Mazzant, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that the FBI had to release the laptop, siding with Brian Huddleston, the man who filed a lawsuit against the FBI for failing to provide the material after he submitted a Freedom of Information Act request.

A16-year-old boy was savagely murdered at a French village’s annual winter ball earlier this month. According to witnesses, the gang of young men responsible for the boy’s death and the corresponding rampage on Nov. 18 made clear they were out to “stab white people.”
 

Perhaps all the cheer around record Black Friday online sales, fueled by 'Buy Now, Pay Later' options, may be unwarranted, as a new Bloomberg report suggests that this year's most important shopping day fell short of expectations for major retailers.

According to an analysis of Bloomberg Second Measure transaction data, the median decline in Black Friday sales was about 4% for a basket of 40 companies that have a higher percentage of year-to-date sales from the shopping holiday versus peers. The data showed that this year's drop was sharper than Black Friday 2022. 

In recent economic developments, the Eurozone finds itself navigating through a challenging period, marked by a hard landing. Two key indicators, household lending and retail sales, are sounding alarm bells, pointing to significant economic downturns across the region.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently put a stop to Florida’s “Protection of Children Act,” a law intended to prevent children from attending live performances featuring explicit content, including drag shows.

This ruling, following a federal district court’s support for an Orlando drag bar, Hamburger Mary’s, represents a notable setback in the efforts to protect minors from potentially harmful content.

SB 1438, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, criminalizes allowing children to witness sexually explicit live performances.

Preliminary estimates suggested that Iraq’s Eridu oil field holds between 7-10 billion barrels of reserves.

Senior Russian oil industry sources spoken to exclusively by OilPrice.com last week said the true figure may well be 50 percent more than the higher figure of that band. In either event, the Eridu field - part of Iraq’s Block 10 exploration and development region – is the biggest oil find in Iraq in the last 20 years, and Russia wants to control all of it, alongside its chief geopolitical ally, China.

Clinical pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole has said that DNA contamination in some COVID-19 vaccines may be related to an increase in cancers, micro-clotting, and autoimmune diseases.

“My big concern is the fact that billions of people across the earth have received a product that was overtly contaminated with something that should not have been in the product," Dr. Cole, an anatomic clinical pathologist with postgraduate Ph.D. training in immunology, recently told the "American Thought Leaders" program.

"If I went and bought some meat at the grocery store and they had heavy metal or pesticide toxins, they would pull those from the shelves immediately," he added.

Attorneys for the Justice Department have revealed documents connected to their search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, indicating that prosecutors collected a massive collection of data about the former President’s social media activity—including information on every account that liked, followed, or retweeted him.

In the wake of the anti-Israel protests that have been fracturing the Democrat base, the expected collapse of Democrat support for Israel is beginning.

As Ed wrote earlier today, the Biden Administration is signaling that its support for Israel is waning, although they insist that it isn’t. They have walked back their tweet that suggested Israel was committing atrocities and that a “permanent” cease-fire should be on the table.

Trump’s defense attorney argued that Deutsche Bank conducted its own due diligence and made their own decision to loan Trump money.

“The bank conducted its own due diligence. The bank had no problem with a $2 billion or a $3 billion difference,” Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise said.

Kise also argued that the German bank wasn’t harmed because it “didn’t change what it did based on what President Trump submitted.”

Kevin Wallace, a lawyer from Letitia James’s office hit back at the defense lawyer.

“I think the idea that you can’t lie to a bank is pretty well established,” Wallace said.

Judge Arthur Engoron sided with the attorney in Letitia James’ office and said, “that the mere fact that lenders were happy doesn’t mean that the statute wasn’t violated.”

A money laundering investigator for a bank raised serious concerns in 2017 about a $5 million loan that the Biden family received from the arm of a Chinese energy firm, flagging the transaction as "high risk" and possibly tied to efforts by the communist government to gain influence through Hunter Biden, according to an explosive new memo released by congressional investigators Wednesday.

The unnamed investigator specifically raised concerns that the loan had no paperwork, that a Biden family firm distributed large sums of the money to a Hunter Biden law firm and that the recipient firm inside the Biden family did not appear to have any investments in need of a loan, the memo released by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer stated.

Comer noted Wednesday that the complex $5 million trail of transactions also resulted in a $40,000 check landing in Joe Biden’s account.

Part II 

Focusses on  “Option C” of Israel’s “Secret” Intelligence Memorandum, which was endorsed by the Netanyahu government. Option C. defines Netanyahu’s criminal agenda directed against the People of Palestine: 

“It recommends a full population transfer as its preferred course of action. …” 

I should mention that the Intelligence Memorandum was leaked and made public. No doubt there are several classified military intelligence documents which are not intended for release. 

Option C defines the framework of the operation directed against the People of Palestine, with the full support of the U.S. and NATO.

It consists in “the evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza to Sinai.” 

Our thanks to Pelham, Mohammed Al Hajjar and The Middle East Eye.

There have been many questionable young person deaths attributed to “congenital” or “genetic” heart issues, since COVID-19 Vaccines rolled out. I provide some detailed examples. Coroners and cardiologists are concluding “deaths of natural causes” but it seems they are just covering up vaccine deaths.

With just minutes to go before a six-day ceasefire was set to expire, Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to continue the pause in an effort to free the remaining hostages. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that 'a short time ago, Israel was given a list of women and children in accordance with the terms of the agreement, and therefore the truce will continue.'

The announcement followed a last-minute standoff earlier Thursday, with Hamas saying Israel had rejected a proposed list that included seven living captives and the remains of three who the group said were killed in previous Israeli airstrikes.

'In light of the mediators' efforts to continue the process of releasing the abductees and subject to the terms of the agreement, the ceasefire will continue,' the IDF said.

As many as 1.3 million people are living in shelters in the Gaza Strip with limited access to basic needs and the looming risk of disease outbreaks due to poor living conditions and a lack of basic health care, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

Last week, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini said that over 1 million people were sheltering in UNRWA-run installations across the enclave.

"1.3 million people are currently living in shelters in Gaza," Tedros wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Russia is concerned over media reports saying that Israel may use chemical weapons in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), Permanent Envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Alexander Shulgin said.

Addressing the 28th Session of the Conference of the States Parties, Shulgin said Russia was "worried over media reports" and, in this light, he called on Israel to ratify the CWC as soon as possible.

Israel is one of four countries which are not parties to the CWC, alongside Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has accused his Greek counterpart of politicizing a longstanding dispute over Greek antiquities held in UK museums, saying the leader only sought to “grandstand” on the issue.

Speaking during a contentious Prime Minister's Questions in the UK Parliament on Wednesday, Sunak explained his decision to cancel a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis earlier this week, claiming he had agreed not to focus on the return of the 5th-century antiquities, known as the Elgin Marbles.

“When it was clear that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss substantive issues of the future but rather to grandstand and relitigate issues of the past, it was inappropriate,” he said.

Hamas, an Islamic movement that controls Gaza, is believed to have a network of tunnels that is 500 kilometers (310 miles) long. It features command rooms and training grounds, bunkers, and meeting rooms and is connected to a sophisticated ventilation system and a steady water and electricity supply.

It’s been more than 50 days since Israel launched its Swords of Iron operation aimed at eliminating Hamas, following the group’s deadly attack on the country’s southern communities, which has claimed the lives of more than 1,400 people and injured thousands of others.

Key locations, including Gaza’s parliament and the court and police headquarters, have already been captured by the IDF. The main, and the largest hospital of Gaza city – Shifaa – has also been taken. Israel believes the medical complex boasts a sophisticated tunnel system, with gathering rooms and bunkers, where some of the hostages might have been kept.

Shifaa is only one element of the puzzle, however, according to Israeli intelligence. Based on reports, the city has some 1,300 tunnels whose overall length stands at 500 kilometers – a hundred kilometers longer than the metro system of London. 

Americans could pay up to $451 billion to care for migrants who entered the US illegally, but have been released into the country or escaped from custody, according to a new report due out Monday from House Republicans and obtained exclusively by The Post.

“Every day, millions of American taxpayer dollars are spent on costs directly associated with illegal immigration and the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border sparked by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ policies,” the House Homeland Security Committee interim staff report states.

“Only a small fraction is ever recouped from the taxes paid by illegal aliens, with the rest falling on the shoulders of American citizens and lawful residents,” it adds.

A report quietly published by the UK Government department known as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shockingly reveals people aged 18 to 49 who have received four doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are up to 318% more likely to die of any cause than unvaccinated people aged 18 to 49.

A young fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, who was accused of wearing "blackface" after donning a Native American headdress and face paint at an NFL game, has been revealed to be of Native American descent.

In an article titled "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress," Carron J. Phillips of Deadspin accused the young child, Holden Rumanta, of engaging in racist behavior. However, it has now come to light that Holden is actually Native American and was simply showing support for his favorite team by wearing the team's colors of red and black, along with a headdress that resembled the Chiefs' logo from the 1960s and early '70s.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives (“HOR”) of the Republic of the Philippines passed a resolution to reject the World Health Organisation’s (“WHO’s”) amendments to the International Health Regulations (“IHR”) adopted by the World Health Assembly (“WHA”) on 27 May 2022.  Additionally, the resolution rejected proposed amendments that are “currently being negotiated in secret” by the WHA and due for adoption by member states in May 2024.

Immediately following the passing of this resolution, Representative S. Dan Fernandez, who submitted the resolution to the HOR and is also the Chairman of the Public Order and Safety Committee, notified WHO in writing that the Philippines House of Representatives rejects the IHR amendments adopted in 2022.

Residents of villages in Ireland have resorted to establishing barricades and road checkpoints around their communities to prevent the government from relocating asylum seekers to the area.

Locals of Dromahair in County Leitrim took the drastic measure to cordon off the village on Friday amid rumors the Department of Integration was planning to bus in dozens of foreign nationals without prior agreement by community leaders.

According to the Irish Examiner, three checkpoints were erected on roads around the village and members of the Dromahair Concerned Residents Association manned the roadblocks and checked cars as they sought to enter the area.

Protesters have expressed their discontent in recent days at the possibility of new arrivals to the town, citing security and the saturation of public services as their primary concerns.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken came a away from a NATO meeting of foreign ministers on Wednesday with the conclusion that the alliance is holding strong on supporting Ukraine, despite the avalanche of negative reports on how Ukrainian forces are fairing on the battlefield.

He told a press briefing there is "no sense of fatigue" among NATO allies and they are remaining firm. "We must and we will continue to support Ukraine," he said following the NATO meeting in Brussels. 

12 Members of the European Parliament (“MEPs”) wrote to the World Health Organisation demanding “conclusive and unambiguous evidence” that International Health Regulations (“IHR”) amendments “adopted” by the World Health Assembly in May 2022 were correctly executed by way of a majority vote.

Should Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus fail to send the required proof by 30 November, the MEPS declare that the IHR amendments “adopted” in May 2022 are null and void.