On this date three years ago, a man walked into Hubei Provincial Hospital in Wuhan, China, reporting flu-like symptoms. Within two weeks, there were 27 cases showing similar symptoms. Then, just four days before the end of the year, the head of the hospital’s respiratory department, Dr. Zhang Jixian, made a report to state health officials that the cases were caused by “a novel coronavirus.” At that point, the number of known infections was approaching 180.

Dec.

As Russia began positioning forces for an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine at the end of 2021, oil speculators did what oil speculators do in every potentially difficult situation: They drove oil future prices up. A week before the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, prices for West Texas crude had already been elevated by $20 a barrel to over $90.

UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 1, 2022 · 8:07:55 PM +00:00

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Mark Sumner

Christmas is coming. Don’t forget to set aside some cash for the guys who make life tolerable — and are more important to your day-to-day life than every athlete, celebrity, and social media influencer in existence.

City workers in frontline #Bakhmut continuing to collect garbage even under shelling. https://t.

In a Thursday-issued ruling, a three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated Judge Aileen Cannon’s baffling prior order blocking the federal government from using stolen government documents seized at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate while instead ordering a new “special master” to evaluate Trump’s alleged ownership claims to those documents.

The ongoing humanitarian crisis situation in Haiti is getting worse. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic, which shares the same island, continues to round up and deport people they believe to be undocumented Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. They then dump them across the border. Last week the untenable situation became even worse when the United States embassy in the Dominican Republic issued a warning to travelers from the U.S.

OnX is an app that’s intended to help hunters find public land so they can go after deer, elk, or whatever they happen to be hunting. At first glance, that may not seem like news, but users of that app get an invaluable view of just who owns the property around them, which is critical when trying to reach public lands where hunting is legal.

UPDATE: Wednesday, Nov 30, 2022 · 10:05:21 PM +00:00

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Mark Sumner

There are reports in the last few hours that Russia has managed to capture both Kurdyumivka and Ozarianivka south of Bakhmut. 

Bakhmut Area. Open in another tab for a closer look.

If confirmed, this would be a significant advance for Russia.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are staring down the double-barreled threat of multiple, critical deadlines and the knowledge that the House is going to be turned over to a raft of incompetent maniacs in a little more than one month’s time. The two leaders allowed their members to come back from the election on Nov. 8 and accomplish very little, then take the full Thanksgiving week—and the days book-ending it—off.

The Interior Department announced on Wednesday that three tribal communities will be relocated due to climate change-worsened erosion effectively making their homes uninhabitable. The Newtok Village and Native Village of Napakiak in Alaska will receive $25 million a piece from the agency for the move, as will the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington. Around $135 million will be spent in these efforts, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contributing $17.7 million.