Author: Clarence Terry

America’s worst banking crisis since the collapse of Lehman Brothers is pushing the U.S. economy closer to a recession, a regional Federal Reserve president has warned. On Sunday, Minneapolis Fed boss Neel Kashkari predicted that the combination of depreciating long-dated securities held by banks—often Treasury and government agency bonds—as well as loans granted to the troubled office real estate market would likely trigger further losses in the financial sector. And yes, that has recession ramifications. Capital markets have been freezing the banking sector’s perceived weaker regional lenders out of the credit system, he argued, starving them of access to liquidity and increasing…

IT IS not farfetched to make the point that delivery systems capable of deploying nuclear weapons will lead to them carrying those very same weapons. Whatever the promises made by governments that such delivery systems will not carry such loads, stifling secrecy over such arrangements can only stir doubt. That is the problem facing the AUKUS alliance which makes Australia a central point of reference for Washington and its broader ambitions in curbing China. The alliance is increasingly being characterised by a nuclear tone. First came the promise to furnish Australia with nuclear powered submarines, absent nuclear weapons. Then came…

For the first time, the US authorities officially charged Russia with crimes against humanity. This was stated by US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Munich Security Conference. “The United States has officially established that Russia has committed crimes against humanity.” And I say to all those who committed these crimes, and their superiors involved in these crimes, you will be held accountable,” said the vice president. She said that the States have carefully examined the evidence of the crimes committed, and there is no doubt about their status. The Russian army is carrying out “widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population,” committing…

WASHINGTON D.C.: Amid tensions with Beijing over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, the US Navy and Marine Corps are holding joint exercises in the South China Sea. On February 12, the Japan-based 7th Fleet said that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been conducting “integrated expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea. The exercises, which were planned in advance, involved ships, ground forces and aircraft, it added. China, which claims most of the South China Sea as its territory, objects to military activity by other nations…

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As Republican infighting debilitates Washington, lawmakers at some U.S. statehouses have managed to launch sessions complicated by similar GOP partisan divides or razor-thin margins of party control with a host of creative — if yet untested — solutions. The approaches differ by state: a delicate working agreement here, a bipartisan truce there. “The commonality is the standing on the edge of the precipice,” said David Niven, an associate professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati. America’s fiercely divided politics are not limited to national government, where Republicans won a threadbare majority in the U.S.…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected House speaker on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot early Saturday, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks and floor tensions that boiled over after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern. “My father always told me, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” McCarthy told cheering fellow Republicans. Eager to confront President Joe Biden and the Democrats, he promised subpoenas and investigations. “Now the hard work begins,” the California Republican declared. He credited former President Donald Trump for standing with him and for making late calls…

Since the invasion in February, the U.S. has trained Ukrainians in Europe. The Pentagon is considering training the Ukrainian armed forces to operate the Patriot missile defense system at a military base in the United States, according to two Defense Department officials. Since Russia’s February invasion, the Ukrainian armed forces have completed training on a host of different NATO-provided weapons systems, including the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, in eastern Europe, Germany and the United Kingdom.But until this point, none of the training has been done in the United States. Although no final decision has been made, the news…