Free Republic

Five months into the Gaza crisis, the results of the updated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment released today indicate the unfolding of the worst possible forecast for Gaza. Gaza is already facing famine, with 100% of people estimated to be acutely food insecure, according to the IPC. In Gaza's Northern Governorates, 70% of the population are facing imminent famine. In the centre and southern governorates, 50% of people face catastrophic food insecurity conditions. The situation is projected to deteriorate fast in the next weeks and months and famine is likely to also affect the South. This is unprecedented....

How can she conduct an impartial investigation of his Ponzi scheme? ... Sam Bankman-Fried, according to Victor Davis Hanson, “may have robbed perhaps a million investors, and along with them hundreds of large institutional investors.” He “protected from federal securities regulators, had drained off, lost, hidden, or spent billions of dollars of other people’s money.” Now his dear friend Maxine Waters (D-Incitement), who was caught on video blowing him a kiss in December 2021, will be leading an investigation into his sleazy FTX Ponzi scheme as Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Waters initially stepped on a rake when...

IMF chief Christine Lagarde goes on trial in France on Monday over a massive state payout to a flamboyant tycoon when she was finance minister in a case that risks tarnishing her stellar career. Lagarde denies the charges of negligence, arguing she was acting "in the state's interest" in making the payment to Bernard Tapie, the former owner of sportswear giant Adidas and Olympique Marseille football club. If found guilty, Lagarde could receive a one-year prison sentence and a 15,000 euro ($15,900) fine.

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan has cut short his holiday and is returning to his New York headquarters to oversee the UN's relief exercise for Indian Ocean tsunami victims. Mr Annan will meet tonight with the UN official directly responsible for coordinating the relief, Jan Egeland. Mr Annan's spokesman says that over the past two days, the UN boss has spoken by phone with leaders of countries hard hit by the disaster, not just to offer condolences but to find out what they need most urgently. The Red Cross has put the overall death toll at almost 78,000 people, and...