At a time when mainstream economists and FOMC policymakers are betting the farm on a "soft landing" for the US economy, an unexpectedly hard signal was just issued by none other than the Fed itself: for the first time in over a decade, the US central bank announced it would cut about 300 people from its payroll this year, a rare reduction in headcount for an organization that has grown steadily since 2010 - after all, it takes if not a village (with its own police force), then certainly thousands of workers to come up with catastrophically wrong economic forecasts and to keep the money printer primed and ready to pump out a few trillion at a moment's notice.

A Fed spokesperson said the cuts are focused on the staff of the Fed's 12 regional reserve banks and mainly hit information technology jobs, including some no longer needed because of the spread of cloud-based computer software, and positions connected to the Fed's various systems for processing payments, which are being consolidated. The staff cuts represented a combination of attrition, including retirements, and layoffs.

Hong Kong increased its gold imports from Russia by more than five times year-on-year to $746 million in July, and by 1.5 times month-on-month, according to data from Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department analyzed by Sputnik.

The data also showed that since the beginning of 2023, Hong Kong has purchased $2.6 billion worth of gold, which is 12 times higher than last year's figure of $218 million.

At the same time, exports of Russian platinum to Hong Kong companies in July doubled year-on-year to $1.5 billion.

Americans are worried about a looming credit crunch. That’s a big problem for an economy that runs on credit cards.

One of the reasons for economic optimism you’ll hear bandied about out there in the mainstream is “the American consumer is strong” and consumer spending is “holding up” despite price inflation. But nobody seems to ask an important question: how have Americans been able to continue spending?

The answer is credit cards.

So, what’s going to happen when consumers finally max out the plastic?

We may be getting close to that point, and many people are worried that they aren’t going to be able to borrow the money they need to keep spending.

As prices skyrocketed last year, Americans blew through their savings to make ends meet. Aggregate savings peaked at $2.1 trillion in August 2021. As of June, the San Francisco Fed estimated that aggregate savings had dropped to $190 billion.

In other words, Americans ate away $1.9 trillion in savings in just two years.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has given Russian forces plenty of experience to learn what works and what doesn’t when it comes to targeting NATO heavy tanks like the Abrams.

First, as far as strategy goes, the counteroffensive has shown that simply luring tanks into heavily mined territory can often be sufficient, with many Ukrainian armored thrusts foiled after running into minefields and dragon’s teeth defenses, and Kiev even reportedly pulling tanks like the Leopard 2 from the front and resorting to using infantry to advance on foot to avoid losing the armor.

Second, there’s the factor of Russia’s qualitative and quantitative superiority in artillery and airpower, with the latter enabling Russian forces to use Kamov Ka-52 and Mil Mi-28 attack helicopters to hunt for Ukrainian tanks with laser-guided missiles, and doing so at standoff ranges, often making it impossible for Ukraine’s air defenses to respond.

The third factor is Russia’s own armor, with upgraded T-72B, T-72B3M, T-80, and T-90M series tanks proving more than a match for Ukraine’s comparable Soviet-era armor and NATO MBTs, and Russia enjoying superiority in numbers, GPS jamming capabilities which frustrate enemy precision-guided munitions and combat drones, and superior range characteristics of its main guns on some models.

Fourth, there are the anti-armor capabilities of Russian infantry armed with man-portable anti-tank missile systems like the Kornet, designed specifically to target the latest generation of NATO’s main battle tanks, including the Abrams. Long before Ukraine’s counteroffensive began, Sputnik warned about the Kornets’ deadly effectiveness against Turkish Army Leopard 2A4s in Syria, US Army Abrams and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles in Iraq, and Israeli Merkava tanks in Lebanon. Western MBTs already deployed in Ukraine have now suffered a similar fate at the hands of Russian man-portable anti-tank systems, and Abrams will too, if they’re deployed close enough.

About twenty people have been arrested after widespread looting broke out in Philadelphia last night, with one woman who livestreamed the chaos.

Police in the city said that a large group of around 100 juveniles kept moving from store to store and looting them.

Videos shared on social media show officers attempting to grab thieves, some of whom are wearing Halloween masks, as they run riot through a Lululemon store.

One officer manages to hit one of the looters with a punch after managing to tackle them to the ground, in social media footage. 

The incident happened on Walnut Street in the heart of the city center and also involved a nearby Foot Locker and Apple store.

Police in the city said that they had so far made between 15 to 20 arrests and recovered two firearms from the scenes.

An Egyptian businessman accused of bribing New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez for legislative favors was arrested at New York's JFK International Tuesday morning.

The arrest, the 40-year-old's lawyer said, came after Wael Hana voluntarily flew to the city to face the federal charges - part of a sprawling, three-part indictment filed by the US attorney’s office.

In it, federal prosecutors allege the Egypt national was one of three New Jersey businessmen who collectively paid hundreds of thousands to Menendez, 69, over the course of several years, in the form of cash, gold, and even a Mercedes Benz.

The bribes, fed say, came in exchange for Menendez agreeing to use his power and influence to personally enrich Hana, and to benefit the Government of Egypt.

Hours after being cuffed in Queens, Hana pleaded not guilty to the allegations before a federal magistrate judge, who ordered him released on a $5million bond on the condition he surrender his travel documents. 

Nikki Haley is the best placed Republican candidate to beat President Joe Biden in next year's election, according to a new DailyMail.com poll that shows her crushing him with independent voters.

The former South Carolina governor leads Biden by two points in a hypothetical match-up.

It is the latest sign of a candidate who has surged in the polls since her strong performance in the first Republican debate, when she took on her opponents over foreign policy, abortion and climate change.

She will be hoping for a repeat in the second debate on Wednesday night. 

However, former President Donald Trump remains the clear frontrunner in the Republican primary race and is skipping the debate stage for the second time.

Several stores were looted in Center City Philadelphia Tuesday night: An Apple, Lululemon, a Footlocker and a Fine Wine & Good Spirits in Lawncrest Located in northeast Philly.

Looting in Philadelphia, screen image via WPVI-TV/YouTube, September 26, 2023.

Police believe the looters took advantage of an earlier protest over a judge dismissing charges on Tuesday in the deadly police shooting of knife-wielding man, Eddie Irizarry, that took place six months ago.

WCAU-TC reported the looting was done by “large crowds of juveniles” (excerpt):

Large crowds of juveniles looted multiple stores across Center City Philadelphia Tuesday night, police said.

Among the stores looted were the Footlocker and the Apple store near 15th and Chestnut and the Lululemon in Center City.

A police officer said over 100 juveniles looted the Lululemon.

The United States has provided substantial financial assistance to Ukraine in its ongoing struggle against a brutal Russian invasion.

However, this aid extends beyond the provision of armaments. In a recent report, "60 Minutes" revealed that the U.S. has been purchasing seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers, as well as covering the salaries of all 57,000 first responders in the country. Additionally, the U.S. is subsidizing small businesses in Ukraine.

The report has sparked a range of reactions, including from Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suggested that the U.S. should prioritize supporting farmers, small businesses, and first responders within its own borders. "Modest suggestion: Let’s support farmers, small businesses, and first responders in our own country instead," he tweeted.

Former President Donald Trump has pushed back against a Department of Justice (DOJ) request for a gag order in relation to his ongoing prosecution.

In a 25-page brief published by the Trump legal team, they condemned the DOJ's request, arguing for freedom of speech and the importance of transparency.

According to the brief, the prosecution's request to silence Trump comes at a time when his right to criticize the government is at its peak during a political campaign. The document states, "Above all else, the First Amendment means that the government cannot restrict expression based on its message, ideas, subject matter, or content."

The brief further asserts that the prosecution may not agree with Trump's valid criticisms, but neither the prosecution nor the court should act as a filter for what the public can hear.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is secretly pumping most organic produce in America with Bill Gates’ mRNA chemicals, according to a disturbing new report.

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH-USA) claims the USDA and other organic certifiers are allowing toxic mRNA and genetically engineered (GE) vaccines to infiltrate organic food production.

In 2019 the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory committee of the USDA, decided to allow the use of mRNA vaccines produced through “excluded methods” or genetic modification in organic food production.

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According to OrganicEye, an industry watchdog, USDA-certified organic producers all across America are using mRNA and GE vaccines in their livestock even though it goes against the principles of organic farming.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hinted that he would support a measure to defund special counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing investigation into former President Donald Trump following two indictments.

In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Jordan was discussing the GOP-led House’s efforts to pass appropriations bills before the end of the month, when the government runs out of money when he brought up funding for Smith’s investigations:

Well, there’s been, there’s been a fight over the number. What level we’re actually going to fund at? Look, I want to reduce spending too. I know what the debt problem is. But in a divided government, there’s been a number that’s agreed on to fund the government.

And frankly, it’s less than the year before, which is, which is a huge step when you got divided when, when, when we control one-half of one-third of the government by five votes. And we’ve actually got to negotiate a number that’s less than Joe Biden and the Democrats spent last year. I think that’s a win. So let’s hold on to that number if we can. There’s some, there’s some debate within our conference, and I get that, let’s hold on to that number if we can. But let’s win the policies.

Former Fox News star Tucker Carlson made a startling admission in a newly published interview with a European weekly that he believes the global order established after World War II, with the United States as the dominant power, is “collapsing” in front of our eyes.

Carlson told Swiss outlet Die Weltwoche, a German-language weekly considered center-right politically, that he has “become convinced over the past several years — particularly since the war in Ukraine began — that the world is changing much more quickly than most Americans understand.”

The Western Journal notes further: “The interview, published Thursday, came as Carlson came back from an interview with the president of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed. It’s one of a number of eclectic interviews with social and political figures he’s done since relaunching his show, so to speak, on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. As most of the media world knows, Carlson was unceremoniously ousted by Fox News in April for reasons that have not — and, indeed, may never be — publicly explained. He’s still under contract with Fox, just not appearing on the network.”

However, now that he’s been freed from Fox, it’s not like he’s become a loose cannon, Carlson told the Swiss outlet: “If anything, I’ve expressed my views less,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that Senate Democrats and Republicans collaborated throughout the weekend to craft a stopgap bill. On Tuesday, they reached an agreement, which Schumer hailed as a “commendable, pragmatic, and bipartisan measure.”

In a speech delivered on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon, Schumer emphasized that this bipartisan Continuing Resolution (CR) is a temporary fix, designed to foster cooperation and steer clear of extreme measures. He stressed that it will enable them to continue working towards fully funding the federal government, sparing American families the turmoil of a shutdown.

“This bipartisan CR is a temporary solution, a bridge toward cooperation and away from extremism,” Schumer said during a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon. “It will allow us to keep working to fully fund the federal government and spare American families the pain of a shutdown.”

The House Oversight Committee shared with Fox News Digital that Hunter Biden received $250,000 in wire transfers from the CEO of BHR Partners CEO Johnathan Li.

The address listed on the transfer as the beneficiary address was the primary Delaware residence of Joe Biden.

“BREAKING: Hunter Biden received wires originating in Beijing for over $250,000 from Chinese business partners during the summer of 2019 that listed the Delaware home of Joe Biden as the beneficiary address”

A popular antiviral drug developed by a major World Economic Forum-linked pharmaceutical company to treat Covid has been found to mutate the virus and cause it to spread rapidly, a new study has revealed.

The drug, Molnupiravir, is produced by German Big Pharma giant Merck in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

Belén Garijo, the Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck, is one of the World Economic Forum’s most senior Agenda Contributors, Slay News reports.

On Monday, the Express reported that the researchers behind the new study examined a staggering 15 million Covid sequences to determine how it has mutated over time.

As more people see through the climate change façade and realize how their lives are being exploited by globalism, Bill Gates is suddenly changing his tune on the climate doom narrative.

During a live speaking event at the Times Center in New York, Gates made a sudden U-turn on his climate doom narrative.

He said, “No temperate country is going to become uninhabitable.”

Gate’s latest comments are in stark contrast to the public comments he made just two years ago, when his book on climate doom was first published.

In a 2021 Fox News Sunday interview with Chris Wallace, Bill Gates said, “The migration that we saw out of Syria for their civil war, which was somewhat weather dependent, we’re going to have 10 times as much migration because the equatorial areas will become unlivable.”

Now he suddenly believes the opposite is true, and it’s easy to see why he is softening his stance.

A leading Arab American rights group is suing the US government and calling on a federal court to halt any further actions admitting Israel into the visa waiver programme (VWP), saying that Israel is not eligible for entry because it is discriminating against Palestinian Americans.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), accuses the US of failing to adhere to the law when it comes to the tenets of the VWP, namely by allowing Israel to discriminate against Americans entering Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The lawsuit, seen by Middle East Eye, states that the actions taken by the US to give Israel a pathway into the programme "have established discriminatory rules and procedures against United States citizens to participate in the program when traveling to Israel and thus violate the VWP rule of reciprocity and constitutional guarantees of equality".

Serbia’s president demanded Tuesday to have a NATO-led peacekeeping force take over for the national law enforcement agency in northern Kosovo after a daylong shootout between armed Serbs and Kosovar police left one officer and three gunmen dead.

In one of the worst confrontations since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, about 30 masked men opened fire on a police patrol near the village of Banjska early Sunday then broke down the gates of a Serbian Orthodox monastery and barricaded themselves with the priests and visiting pilgrims.

The violence further raised tensions in the Balkan region at a time when European Union and U.S. mediators have been pushing for a deal that would normalize ties between former wartime foes Serbia and Kosovo. A NATO bombing campaign on Serb positions in Kosovo led to the end of the 1998-99 war.

Beijing warned Manila on Tuesday not to "stir up trouble" after the Philippine Coast Guard said it removed a floating barrier at a disputed reef that was allegedly deployed by China to block Filipino fishermen from the area.

Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea has long been a source of tension between the countries. China seized the ring of reefs from the Philippines in 2012 and has since deployed patrol boats.

The latest spat was sparked by a 300-metre (328-yard) floating barrier that was found across the entrance of the shoal last week during a routine Philippine government resupply mission to fishermen plying the waters near the shoal.

The killing and arrest of hundreds of pro-democracy, anti-French protesters by the France-backed Chadian military government found no mention at the “High-Level Side Event on Chad,” held on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly on September 18.

Titled ‘The Journey towards constitutional order in Chad: Challenges & Perspectives,’ the event was co-hosted in New York by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Chad’s Foreign Minister Mahamat Saleh Annadif.

Annadif was appointed by the military junta less than a week before October 20, 2022, the original deadline for it to give up power to an elected civilian government. However, the election was not held, and the military rule was extended by another two years on October 1 by a political forum which was boycotted by the opposition.

Opposing the extension of military rule, protesters took to the streets on October 20, 2022 in the capital N’Djamena, and other towns and cities across the country, raising slogans against the military junta, and its backer, France.

The killing and arrest of hundreds of pro-democracy, anti-French protesters by the France-backed Chadian military government found no mention at the “High-Level Side Event on Chad,” held on the sidelines of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly on September 18.

Titled ‘The Journey towards constitutional order in Chad: Challenges & Perspectives,’ the event was co-hosted in New York by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Chad’s Foreign Minister Mahamat Saleh Annadif.

Annadif was appointed by the military junta less than a week before October 20, 2022, the original deadline for it to give up power to an elected civilian government. However, the election was not held, and the military rule was extended by another two years on October 1 by a political forum which was boycotted by the opposition.

Opposing the extension of military rule, protesters took to the streets on October 20, 2022 in the capital N’Djamena, and other towns and cities across the country, raising slogans against the military junta, and its backer, France.

“Today I’m putting congressional leadership and [President Joe Biden] on notice that I will oppose any effort to hold the federal government hostage for Ukraine funding,” wrote Paul on Twitter. “I will not consent to expedited passage of any spending measure that provides any more U.S. aid to Ukraine.”

Biden has requested that the spending bill include a provision giving Ukraine an additional $24 billion for security and humanitarian aid. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has even criticized the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for reaching a deal on a continuing resolution that didn’t include funding for Ukraine.

In an opinion piece written for The American Conservative and in a speech on the Senate floor, the Kentucky junior senator reiterated his desire to not provide additional taxpayer dollars to continue the conflict in Ukraine.

In his op-ed, he noted that the United States has already provided over $113 billion in aid to Ukraine, averaging around “$6.8 billion per month – or $223 million per day.” He noted that providing additional taxpayer-funded aid to Ukraine would be sending hard-earned American dollars to “another endless quagmire.” He further called attempts to include Ukraine aid in the continuing resolution a “clear dereliction of duty.”

The opinion piece also derided both Democrat and Republican Senate leaders for “trying to hold the federal government hostage” by demanding the insertion of Biden’s demand for $24 billion in additional taxpayer funding for Ukraine aid.

The Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $705 million contract to develop and test a high-speed air-to-ground weapon known as a stand-in attack weapon that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could wield to destroy enemy targets.

Northrop said Monday that its work on the second phase of the weapon, which is also referred to as SiAW, will take place over the next 36 months in Northridge, California, and the company’s missile integration facility at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory in West Virginia.

The work will include further development of the weapon, platform integration, and completing a flight test program so the SiAW can be rapidly prototyped and quickly sent to the field, the company said. A guided vehicle flight test will wrap up the first part of this second phase, and the second part will conclude with three more flight tests and the delivery prototype missiles and test assets.

23-year-old Xahra Saleem, who co-founded UK BLM group All Black Lives Bristol, pleaded guilty to stealing £30,000 of donations to the group on September 19th, The Times reports.

The group was founded in 2020 to organize a protest surrounding George Floyd, with the statue of 17th-century merchant and slave trader Edward Colston being toppled and rolled into the River Frome on June 7, 2020.

Saleem started a GoFundMe prior to the protest to “cover the costs of the demonstration and pay for PPE to be handed out to protesters amid the Covid-19 pandemic.”

She had initially agreed to give the remaining money from the fundraiser to Changing Your Mindset, a youth organization that planned to use the funds to send young underprivileged people on a trip to Africa.

“Stay tuned,” said Kari Lake today in a new video promoting a potential bid for Arizona’s US Senate seat in 2024.

This comes as Lake continues fighting her lawsuit against her stolen election for Governor, which she says “will continue to be pursued” if she decides to run.

As the Gateway Pundit reported, Lake was in court again on Monday, fighting Maricopa County to obtain public records and evidence related to her main lawsuit to overturn the 2022 election. Maricopa County refuses to provide the legally requested records because it will undoubtedly prove the election was stolen through mail-in voter fraud.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer on Tuesday revealed Hunter Biden received two bank wires from China and Joe Biden was listed as the beneficiary address for both wire transfers.

“The first wire sent to Hunter Biden, dated July 26, 2019, was for $10,000 from an individual named Ms. Wang Xin. There is a Ms. Wang Xin listed on the website for BHR Partners. It is unclear if the wire came from that Wang Xin,” according to Fox News.

“The second wire transfer sent to Hunter Biden, dated August 2, 2019, was for $250,000 from Li Xiang Sheng—also known as Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners—and Ms. Tan Ling. The committee is trying to identify Ling’s role,” Fox reported.

“I just subpoenaed and obtained two bank wires revealing Hunter Biden received payments originating from Beijing in 2019 when Joe Biden was running for President,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on X.

A rights group accused Tehran of negligence Tuesday after a man in his sixties held on fraud charges died in prison, while Washington denied reports he was a US citizen.

Faramarz Javidzad, who had been charged with illegal property deals and had been in Tehran's Evin prison for two months, died at the weekend, Iran's official IRNA news agency said, citing the prison authorities.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said Javidzad suffered from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and stomach bleeding, and alleged that "insufficient medical attention and a delay in his transfer to a hospital" had caused his death.