Excess deaths in 2023 continue to surge in the United States.

Life insurance executives and actuaries are alarmed.

Life insurers paid record levels of claims in 2021, the biggest one-year increase since 1918.

Younger adult death rate up 20% in 2023.

Hunter Biden sent monthly payments to his father out of a bank account he used to receive money from Chinese business associates, according to newly released bank records revealed by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who shared a Monday video on X detailing redacted bank transfers to Joe Biden from Hunter's Owasco P.C. bank account.

"Today, the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden. This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world," Comer says in the video, adding that the payments began in September 2018 - six months before Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 election.

"Payments from Hunter’s business entity to Joe Biden are now part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes."

The recent findings of DNA fragments in the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines has led many to question why the FDA, which is responsible for monitoring the quality and safety of the vaccines, has failed to sound the alarm.

For years, the FDA has known about the risk posed by residual DNA in vaccines. Its own guidance to industry states:

“Residual DNA might be a risk to your final product because of oncogenic and/or infectivity potential. There are several potential mechanisms by which residual DNA could be oncogenic, including the integration and expression of encoded oncogenes or insertional mutagenesis following DNA integration.”

Put simply, the FDA acknowledges the possibility that fragments of DNA left over by the manufacturing process can be incorporated into a patient’s own DNA, to potentially cause cancer.

Front-end Treasuries have rallied big in the past month, but labor market data will pose a key test for traders this week.

Yes, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell did reiterate on Friday that the central bank is prepared to tighten policy further, but was just jawboning against the recent loosening of financial conditions rather than a statement of real intent given the clear disinflationary momentum we have seen of late.

The two-year Treasury yield, which was hovering around 5% before softer-than-inflation readings for October, has since shed some 40 basis points. While the decline has made the maturity look rather rich on the curve, some optimism is justified by comments from Governor Christopher Waller who became the first Fed official to explicitly open the door to rate cuts.

It's such an open secret and so much of a 'given' assumption that it can just be casually written straight into the New York Times headline at this point...

Nuclear missile program you say? (What nuclear program—nothing to see here... or the country's worst kept secret.) Militant Rocket Hit Base Linked to Israeli Nuclear Missile Program...

"A rocket most likely fired by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 attack on Israel struck an Israeli military base where, experts say, many of the country’s nuclear-capable missiles are based, according to a visual analysis of the attack’s aftermath by The New York Times."

The report details the highly dangerous episode, noting that while no missiles or warheads were directly hit, a large fire was sparked and nearly spread to storage facilities that contained "sensitive weaponry" at the Sdot Micha military base in central Israel.

One weapons expert was cited as saying there may be up to 25 to 50 nuclear-capable Jericho missiles at the base where the fire raged. However, the nuclear warheads themselves are likely stored at a separate base, according to the analyst. But clearly the base in central Israel was directly targeted by Hamas, or also possibly Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) - which worked in concert.

Former President Donald Trump's lawyers argued in the Georgia election case that the charges should be thrown out because it's a violation of his "free speech" and also noted that if he wins the 2024 presidential election, the Fulton County trial cannot go through.

Former President Donald Trump prepares to testify during his trial in New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Nov. 6, 2023. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

During a roughly six-hour hearing in Fulton County on Dec. 1, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee asked Mr. Sadow what would happen if President Trump wins the 2024 election and if the trial hasn't occurred yet.

“Under the Supremacy Clause and its duty to the president of the United States, this trial would not take place at all until after he left his term of office,” the former president's attorney said in response, according to a live stream posted on the judge's YouTube page.

It means that the former president wins the 2024 election and Judge McAfee agreed that he shouldn't be tried until he leaves office, which would delay the trial date to at least January 20, 2029.

Israel has signaled it is prepared to take the war on Hamas far beyond the confines of Gaza and the West Bank. Fresh words by the country's defense minister have invoked "our Munich" in relation to planned efforts to hunt down notable Hamas operatives abroad. 

"The cabinet has set us a goal, in street talk, to eliminate Hamas. This is our Munich. We will do this everywhere, in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar," said Ronen Bar, who is the head of Israel's domestic security agency Shin Bet. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has scheduled a vote for Wednesday to advance President Biden’s massive $106 billion emergency spending request that includes military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as additional funding for the border, POLITICO reported.

The vote is not expected to pass as Republicans have said they would block Biden’s request if Democrats don’t make certain concessions on border policies. While the bill includes $13.6 billion for border security, the GOP is looking for asylum law changes that would make it more difficult for migrants to enter the country, but a deal hasn’t been reached.

Schumer’s reasoning for scheduling a vote that will likely fail is to instill a sense of urgency for the Senate to advance funding for the proxy war in Ukraine, Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, and the US military buildup in the Indo-Pacific aimed at China.

If one needs an indicator of just how terrible things are going for the Biden administration, former CNN host and Democrat darling, Chris Cuomo, says he'd be "open" to voting for Donald Trump over Biden.

In a recent podcast, Cuomo was asked about whether the United States would "survive" another term with President Trump, to which Cuomo replied: "We survived a Trump administration. Would we survive another? Yes."

"And for people who are now going to attack me and say, what are you talking about? Trump is like this crazy man. Well, look, you know, as Patrick says, the data is the data. Nobody was trying to kill us when Trump was president in a way that they’re not now," he told Patrick Bet-David, Adam Sosnik, Tom Ellsworth and Vincent Oshana.

"So you're open to a Trump vote?" asked one of the hosts.

"I am always open."

At the current price, silver is a real bargain.

Gold went on a run late last week, setting an all-time record high last Friday and breaking the $2,100 level for a brief time in overseas trading Sunday night. Silver also rallied but continues to lag behind gold.

In fact, silver looks significantly underpriced based on both its historical relationship with gold and the supply/demand dynamics.

Meteorologists are monitoring weather models that show a powerful storm might unleash thunderstorms, torrential rains, and snow across two dozen states in the central and eastern US this weekend. 

AccuWeather meteorologists say a storm in the central Rockies will move into the southern and central Plains, developing a new area of low pressure on Friday. At the same time, cold air from the Rockies and northern Plains will collide, and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico will spark powerful thunderstorms. 

The Pentagon failed its sixth audit in a row last month.

And “failed” is putting it generously. The department actually received a “disclaimer of opinion.” According to the Government Accountability Office, that means “auditors were unable to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion.” So the outcome is more like an “incomplete” than an abject failure.

But semantics aside, one major reason the Pentagon keeps failing audits is because it can’t keep track of its property. Last year, the Pentagon couldn’t properly account for a whopping 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets. That figure increased this year, with the department insufficiently documenting 63% of its now $3.8 trillion in assets. Military contractors possess many of these assets, but to an extent unbeknownst to the Pentagon.

The GAO has flagged this issue for the department since at least 1981. Yet the latest audit states that the Pentagon’s target to correct insufficient accounting department-wide is fiscal year 2031. In the meantime, contractors are producing weapon systems and spare parts that they may already possess — an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars.

The Chinese military said Monday that a US warship “illegally” entered waters near Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea that’s been the site of frequent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels.

“The United States has deliberately disrupted the South China Sea, seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, severely undermined regional peace and stability, and seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations,” China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command said in a statement.

“This fully illustrates that the US is the biggest threat to peace and stability in the South China Sea,” the command added.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has hit out at Americans who prefer a less interventionist foreign policy, smearing them as isolationists who want to see the US “retreat from responsibility.”

Austin, a former Raytheon board member, made the comments in a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on Saturday.

“You know, in every generation, some Americans prefer isolation to engagement—and they try to pull up the drawbridge. They try to kick loose the cornerstone of American leadership,” Austin said.

The Pentagon chief accused less interventionist Americans of trying to “undermine the security architecture that has produced decades of prosperity without great-power war.” However, most opponents of the US involvement in Ukraine are against the policy because it risks a direct clash with Russia.

Israel intensified airstrikes in southern Gaza on Monday and bombed areas where it told Palestinians to seek shelter, Reuters reported.

Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of the main southern city of Khan Younis, but residents said areas where they were told to flee were still coming under attack. The Israeli military posted a map on X with arrows pointing from Khan Younis, telling people to head toward the Mediterranean Sea and the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

But Rafah has continued to come under Israeli attack. The Reuters report reads: “Bombing at one site in Rafah overnight had torn a crater the size of a basketball court out of the earth. A dead toddler’s bare feet and black trousers poked out from under a pile of rubble. Men struggled with their bare hands to move a chunk of the concrete that had crushed the child.”

Biden referred to Israel’s initial bombing attack, prior to its ground invasion, as “indiscriminate,” and that was a phrase his people didn’t walk back. It’s always difficult to know whether to read more into Biden’s words since he so frequently doesn’t seem to know what he’s saying, but the comments from not only the President but others in the administration show that they are feeling the domestic pressure from their constituents and the international pressure from their allies to try to restrain Israel from such massive civilian casualties as it has created since October 7.

But what does any of this mean on the ground now that Israel has started up its military operation again? This is not clear. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told a television news program that the U.S. fully supported Israel resuming its operations but that it must do so only “after civilians have been accounted for, have the opportunity to be in safety, have access to humanitarian assistance and to be out of the way of any military operation that is conducted.”

The IDF is planning to pump seawater into the Hamas tunnel network in Gaza, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Five large pumps have been assembled north of the al-Shati refugee camp during the last month, with each one capable of pumping thousands of cubic meters of seawater into the tunnels.

Israel informed US officials that they were considering this option last month and needed to weigh feasibility and environmental factors against military necessity.

The recent surge in Bitcoin prices is echoing patterns seen during global blow-off tops, and the correlation with risk assets, including junk bonds, raises caution flags.

As the 2024 presidential election looms, President Joe Biden finds himself in a precarious position.

Recent polls indicate a significant dip in his approval ratings, with the leading Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, outperforming him in direct comparisons.

The situation appears to have worsened for Biden, as a new group has emerged, pledging to do everything in their power to ensure his defeat. Muslim American leaders from nine swing states have formed a coalition in response to Biden's handling of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, vowing to prevent his re-election.

President Joe Biden expressed optimism about the potential impact of united European action against Russia, stating, "Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he's been causing."

The Israeli government is putting pressure on the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz to line up in support of the government in its conduct of the war in Gaza.

The communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, has suggested financial penalties be applied to the paper accusing it of “lying, defeatist propaganda” and “sabotaging Israel in wartime”. The proposal aims to cancel state subscriptions to the paper and “forbid the publication of official notices”.

In response, the Israeli Journalists’ Union called the move a “populistic proposal devoid of any feasibility of logic”. Haaretz, which is an independent daily newspaper, has been publishing since 1919, and has frequently been the target of right-wing administrations.

An Israeli minister has said the country's security forces must continue to shoot to kill, despite domestic uproar over an off-duty soldier's killing of an Israeli man who intervened in an attack in Jerusalem last week.

"We must get to a point of dead checking, we must get to terrorists being killed and deterred," heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu, from the far-right Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party, told Israeli news outlet Ynet on Monday.

"When your life is in danger, you shoot to neutralise - those who served in the army know the rules."

More than 6,600 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7, the government’s media office says.

Thousands more are missing under the rubble amid relentless bombardment, it added.

On Friday, Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned that Gaza is once again “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child”, following the resumption of the war.

Russell said hundreds of children will die each day if violence returns to the scale and intensity seen before the seven-day pause in fighting that ended on Friday.

“It does not have to be this way. For seven days, there was a glimmer of hope for children amidst this horrific nightmare,” Russell said in a statement.

Webmaster addition: War is when adults take up weapons and fight each other. This is bombing children from the air, and someone has to have the courage to say "THIS IS WRONG!"

Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo issued a decree Monday dissolving the nation’s opposition-controlled parliament, less than six months after it was reconstituted following a similar move by the president in 2022.

Embalo cited last week’s shootout between troops loyal to him and forces controlled by the parliament, which he described as a failed coup.

“The date for holding the next legislative elections will be set in due time in accordance with the provisions of … the Constitution,” the decree stated. “This Presidential Decree comes into force immediately.”

Israeli demonstrators urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be removed on Saturday in a town where the premier has a private estate.

It came as thousands of people turned out in different parts of Israel to urge immediate freedom for the hostages kept by Hamas in Gaza. The primary demonstration occurred in Tel Aviv Museum's plaza, which the Haaretz newspaper said "has been named 'Hostages Square'".

Eran Litman, whose daughter was killed during Hamas's 7 October surprise attack, attended the protest in Caesarea, where Netanyahu's estate is.

"The hands of the Israeli government, and its leader, are covered in blood," he was quoted as saying by Haaretz.

"The prime minister insists on not taking any responsibility for this failure. Therefore, I can no longer remain silent."

In the past two months, Palestinian journalist Yara Eid has lost family members, friends, colleagues and her childhood home to relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

"I've lived through four aggressions in Gaza. I've seen people being killed in front of my eyes. But this aggression, this genocide, is something I've never ever imagined," she described, during an interview for Middle East Eye's Real Talk series. 

The 23-year-old grew up in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Her entire neighbourhood has been targeted by Israeli bombs since 7 October, and she does not know if her home is still standing. 

"I've lost everything. I've lost family. I've lost my home. I've lost my city. I've lost my best friend. I've lost my boss. My mentor. I've lost 60 members of my family," she said. 

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has thrown support behind the implementation of carbon consumption charges, a move that has sparked debates and concerns during COP28. While the intention is to address environmental concerns, the repercussions are already causing ripples.