Essentials

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has raised to $95.8 billion the estimated cost of fielding a new fleet of land-based nuclear missiles to replace the Minuteman 3 arsenal that has operated continuously for 50 years, officials said Monday.The estimate is up about $10 billion from four years ago.The weapons, known as intercontinental ballistic missiles, or…

The theorist of counter-majoritarianism was neither a Hegelian nor a Jacobin, despite the cries of the poorly educated.“By the death of Mr. Calhoun,” wrote Henry Clay, eulogizing his dead Senate colleague, “one of the brightest luminaries has been extinguished in the political firmament.” An even greater rival of John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster called him…

The Biden family has always capitalized on Joe’s influence. A pause during campaign season is par for the course, and it doesn’t mean anything has changed.Sep 29, 2015: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a meeting with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in New York. (By Drop of Light/Shutterstock)It was almost exactly one year ago…

Big Tech platforms are the public squares of our time. Anyone who says free speech there doesn’t matter is lying to himself.Twitter and Facebook are the censors the Founders feared when they wrote the First Amendment. None of those men could have envisioned a day when global tech corporations would overshadow the power of governments…

5.29pm EDT17:29 Summary Here’s a summary of today’s events: Trump attempts to save himself in battleground states as Covid cases surge. With little more than two weeks to reverse his dismal standing in the polls, and amid a coronavirus resurgence that could sink his pursuit of a second term, Donald Trump has embarked on a…

It’s important for clinicians to ask women whether they are experiencing symptoms of genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) before and after menopause, according to a new statement from the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Stephanie Faubion, MD, MBA, medical director of NAMS, presented the updated statement at the virtual North American Menopause Society (NAMS) 2020…

AURORA, Colo. — For both children and adults, mental health disorders can have damaging effects on all aspects of their lives. As scientists examine the causes of attention deficit hyperactivity syndrome (ADHD) and bipolar disorder, a new catalyst is emerging. Researchers from the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus say sugar intake may play a…

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football – Championship – Derby County v Watford – Pride Park, Derby, Britain – October 16, 2020 Derby County’s Wayne Rooney during the match Action Images/Jason Cairnduff (Reuters) – Wayne Rooney was “angry and disappointed” with a friend who had visited him despite being told to take a COVID-19 test and later…

Whether it is nature sounds, the whine of a hairdryer or the incessant hum of a ceiling fan, white noise apps have been downloaded by millions of people around the world in the hope of getting a better night’s sleep. However, research suggests there is no good evidence that they work, and may even be…

Denver kicker Brandon McManus had six field goals and linebacker Malik Reed came up with a big sack late to help the Broncos hold on for an 18-12 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday in a game twice delayed following positive coronavirus tests for both teams. Sunday’s game was originally scheduled for last…

Hitler was ‘exorcised’ by Pope Pius XII, new book reveals October 16, 2020 Barry Duke ITALIAN journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona has a new book out that reveals that Eugenio Pacelli who became Pope Pius XII – regarded by many as an anti-Semitic Nazi sympathiser – actually performed exorcisms ‘from a distance’ on Adolf Hitler. Images…

Airline crew members spotted a person in a jetpack flying at an altitude of 6,000 feet high near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Wednesday.This is the second such jetpack sighting near LAX in six weeks. The FBI is currently investigating both cases.Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: On Wednesday afternoon, crew members…

SINGAPORE — The scion of one of the world’s most privileged families, he wrapped himself in the trappings of royalty, wealth and a comfortable hideaway thousands of miles from his subjects.For Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, the cocoon has come undone with remarkable speed.Last week in Berlin, the German government faced questions in Parliament over the…

A superlative new biography of James Baker, Republican fixer and statesman, reveals how old friends grappled with the Trump years. The Man Who Ran Washington, the Life and Times of James A. Baker III, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Doubleday, 585 pages. Dick Cheney was angry. In February of 2016, Antonin Scalia, a legend of “movement” American…

Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty was intended to raise up black Americans. Instead it benefitted bureaucrats and big unions.President Johnson meets with four leaders of the civil rights movement, discussing the president’s war on poverty, and the effect of poverty on the African American population. Credit: Getty ImagesThe question of whether American taxpayers should make…

As people give up on the state, politics flow out of the system and into the streets.As the elections fall upon us, most people are focused on who wins, Republicans or Democrats. That is an important question, since a Democratic victory would bring a serious assault on freedom of thought and expression. What you see…

5.43pm EDT17:43 Summary Here’s a summary of the latest events: US records highest daily coronavirus case total since July. More than 68,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the US on Friday, the highest number in a single day since July, further confirmation the country is in the midst of a coronavirus resurgence. Trump…

BRISTOL, England (Reuters) – Ten years after climbing out of the Championship, Exeter Chiefs were crowned kings of Europe 90 miles from home on Saturday when they beat Racing 92 31-27 in a superb Champions Cup final in Bristol full of tries and amazing defensive intensity.Rugby Union – European Champions Cup Final – Exeter Chiefs…

By Feliz Solomon in Singapore and Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok Oct. 17, 2020 10:57 am ET Authorities in Thailand shut down almost all mass rail transit in the capital of Bangkok as thousands of antigovernment protesters took to the streets, defying a ban on large public gatherings for the third consecutive day. A mass demonstration…

With little dependence on any Gulf state, the African nation is uniquely positioned to maintain neutrality in Middle Eastern conflicts.Some analysts have recently pointed to a “cold war” between the Turkey-Qatar partnership and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-Saudi Arabia-Egypt bloc. Whether or not this term accurately describes the growing friction between the Middle East’s two…

He’s little more than a common gangster, and he comes not to uphold his nation’s traditions but to destroy them.Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening of the National People’s Congress at The Great Hall Of The People on May 22, 2020 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images)It’s happened again.I was reading through…

The Haunting of Bly Manor, the latest standalone instalment in Mike Flanagan’s series of ghost stories on Netflix, has a lot in common with its predecessor, The Haunting of Hill House. That series was loosely inspired by the Gothic works of Shirley Jackson, this one is similarly a mashup of the writings of Henry James.…

SENEKAL, South Africa (Reuters) – White South African farmers and Black protesters hurled abuse and threats at each other on Friday during a court hearing in a murder case that has exposed still simmering racial tensions 26 years after the end of apartheid.The killing of Brendan Horner, a white man whose body was found tied…

The U.S. never really recovered from 2008. In fact, we’re in the middle of a much bigger crisis than most people have realized.Living in the Long Emergency: Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward, by James Howard Kunstler, (BenBella Press: March 2020), 320 pages.Global…

7.32pm EDT19:32 Joe Kennedy III reports campaign finance violation Congressman Joe Kennedy III’s failed Senate campaign reported today that it improperly spent $1.5 million of donations intended for the general election during the primary against Senator Ed Markey, the Boston Globe has just reported. Victoria McGrane (@vgmac) 🚨 BREAKING🚨@joekennedy campaignhas self-reported a campaign finance violation…

WASHINGTON—The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to issue a subpoena on Tuesday to Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey after the social-media company blocked a pair of New York Post articles that made new allegations about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, which his campaign has denied. The subpoena would require the Twitter executive to testify on…

Alex Gibney’s new, four-hour documentary on election meddling does little to seek the facts, and descends into conspiracy.With the U.S. presidential election only several weeks away, the specter of Russian election interference has again become a mainstay media topic. Four years removed from the 2016 election, researchers and politicians are still trying to make sense…

Global liberalism has overreached, and Trump and others are merely predictable reactions.John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, one of the country’s leading scholars of international relations, recently received the prestigious James Madison Award, administered by the American Political Science Association. In accepting the honor Mearsheimer delivered a notable lecture entitled “Liberalism and Nationalism…

Blood type doesn’t affect much in our daily lives. In fact, most people don’t even know whether they’re Type A, B, AB, or O. But the seemingly-banal detail might be a factor in who comes under the thumb of 2020’s world-wide tyrant—that is, coronavirus.A new study in the journal Blood Advances backs up what researchers…

PARIS (Reuters) – French producers of foie gras are urging customers to eat the delicacy for Christmas to make up for a slump in demand from restaurants because of COVID-19 restrictions.FILE PHOTO: Duck livers, named Foie Gras, are pictured at the poultry pavilion in the Rungis International wholesale food market south of Paris, France, November…