Category: News
Ukrainian Parliament Belatedly Explores Possible Presidential Vote Under Martial Law
Ukrainian Parliament Belatedly Explores Possible Presidential Vote Under Martial Law
Earlier this month Ukraine’s President Zelensky said for the first time he’s ready and willing to hold national elections, after previously canceling them while citing martial law and the ongoing war by Russia.
This week he’s actually taken a practical step, telling the Verkhovna Rada – the country’s parliament – to establish a formal working group to study whether elections can be held safely and fairly during a state of martial law and wartime.
Head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, issued the following statement on Monday: “According to a preliminary agreement, a working group is being formed in the Verkhovna Rada to quickly address the issue of holding a possible presidential election in Ukraine during martial law. The discussion will take place within the Rada’s relevant committee on state governance, local self-government, regional development, and urban planning.”
The Kremlin’s position is that after Ukraine canceled the 2024 election, Zelensky became illegitimate as a head of state, given that while Article 83 of the nation’s constitution allows for the extraordinary extension of the parliament’s powers during martial law, there is no specific clause for extending a presidential term.
President Putin himself has questioned Zelensky’s legal authority to ever sign a binding peace or ceasefire document. Interestingly, President Trump has lately ramped up pressure on Kiev to hold elections, saying that the country is backsliding in terms of the democratic process.
Ukraine is reaching “a point where it’s not a democracy any more,” Trump said in early December. According to more of the background of what led up to Zelensky finally conceding that elections should be considered:
Oleksandr Korniienko, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) and newly elected head of the Servant of the People party, said he may head a parliamentary working group on referendum and elections, the creation of which has been initiated by the head of the faction, Davyd Arakhamiia.
On 11 December, Oleksandr Korniienko said that at present there are no “drafts” or legislative initiatives in parliament regarding holding elections under martial law.
US President Donald Trump has said that he believes that “it’s time” for Ukraine to hold a presidential election. Zelenskyy responded that he is “always ready” for elections.
He also stated that international partners must ensure security during the elections. Zelenskyy himself is ready for changes in election legislation during martial law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed with representatives of the Verkhovna Rada the possibility of holding presidential elections in wartime Ukraine and is now waiting for MPs to “present their perspective”.
But critics have said that Zelensky is more simply trying to buy time amid Washington pressure, presenting to the public that he’s ‘doing something’ about elections while not actually planning to hold them.
“We will announce the date and time of the meeting soon. Media representatives will also be invited,” Arakhamia has additionally said of the parliamentary working group. This could merely drag on as an endless bureaucratic exercise.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/24/2025 – 04:15
Presidente de Ucrania: hay consenso en muchos puntos tras reuniones con EEUU, pero el territorio sigue sin resolverse
Associated Press
KIEV, Ucrania (AP) — Presidente de Ucrania: hay consenso en muchos puntos tras reuniones con EEUU, pero el territorio sigue sin resolverse.
Tres muertos en una explosión en la capital rusa
Associated Press
MOSCÚ (AP) — Tres personas, incluidos dos policías, murieron el miércoles en una explosión en Moscú, dijeron investigadores rusos, apenas unos días después de que una bomba en un auto matara a un general de alto rango no muy lejos de allí.
Los dos agentes de tráfico se acercaban a un “individuo sospechoso” cuando un artefacto explosivo detonó, afirmó la portavoz del Comité de Investigación, Svetlana Petrenko, en un comunicado. Los dos agentes, así como otra persona que se encontraba cerca, murieron a causa de sus heridas.
Petrenko señaló que investigadores y expertos forenses están trabajando en la escena.
El incidente tuvo lugar en la misma zona de la capital rusa donde el teniente general Fanil Sarvarov fue asesinado por una bomba en un auto el lunes por la mañana.
Sarvarov, jefe de la Dirección de Entrenamiento Operacional del Estado Mayor de las Fuerzas Armadas Rusas, murió cuando un artefacto explosivo detonó bajo su vehículo en el sur de Moscú.
Los investigadores dijeron que Ucrania podría estar detrás del ataque, que fue el tercer asesinato de un alto mando militar en poco más de un año.
___
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/tres-muertos-en-una-explosin-en-la-capital-rusa/
Ask Anna: The gift of coercion this holiday season
Dear Anna,
I’m a 32-year-old woman and my boyfriend (35) of two years is furious with me because I won’t buy him a $750 Christmas gift. Earlier this year, he paid for my daughter’s dental emergency (around $500) and bought me an expensive piece of jewelry for my birthday ($600). (I didn’t ask for it.) He makes significantly more money than I do and has always been generous. I’ve appreciated everything and reciprocated when I could, but we never discussed matching spending or keeping score. Now he’s saying I’m ungrateful and selfish for not wanting to spend so much money on him. He keeps bringing up everything he’s spent on me and says if I truly cared, I’d “find a way” to match it. When I told him that’s not in my budget, he expected me to charge it on my card. I’m not refusing to get him anything, I just can’t spend that kind of money. Now he’s saying I don’t appreciate him. Am I wrong here? I feel like generosity should not come with strings or guilt. — Not an ATM, Hmm
Dear NAH,
Ah, he’s giving the gift of coercion this holiday season! How magical. Let’s start with the obvious: You’re not wrong. Generosity isn’t transactional. And refusing to go into credit card debt for no reason, other than to satisfy his ego, isn’t selfish. It’s healthy, responsible and emotionally mature.
Real generosity doesn’t come with an invoice. When your boyfriend paid your daughter’s dental bill, that was either a gift from the heart or it was a strategic investment he’s now cashing in on. And based on his current behavior — demanding you go into debt to “prove” your love — I’m betting it was the latter. That’s not kindness. It’s manipulation.
Here’s what seems like is happening: He’s using money to try to control you. He makes far more than you, spends freely on you without your input, then weaponizes that spending to extract what he wants. The suggestion that you should charge $750 on your credit card when you can’t afford it? That’s him literally telling you to damage your financial stability to satisfy his ego.
And let’s talk about the audacity of calling you ungrateful. You didn’t ask for expensive jewelry. You didn’t demand he pay for your daughter’s emergency. He chose to do those things, presumably because he cared about you and wanted to help. Actual generous people don’t weaponize their kindness later. They don’t keep receipts. They don’t say, “I was nice to you, so now you owe me.”
Your instinct is absolutely correct, and this behavior reveals things about his character that are … well, not pleasant. So where do you go from here?
Have one more conversation about it. Something like, “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and my daughter, but I never agreed to match your spending, and I’m not going into debt to buy you a gift I can’t afford. If your generosity came with expectations I didn’t know about, that’s something we need to discuss. But I won’t be manipulated or called selfish for having financial boundaries.”
Watch his response carefully. If he doubles down, gets angrier, or continues to call you ungrateful, you have critical information. This man believes he can buy compliance and punish you when you don’t perform the way he wants you to.
You could also refuse his gifts going forward. And consider paying back the dental bill if you can — that can be his “Christmas gift.” If he wants to be petty about it, so can you! Also, if he has the money, why doesn’t he buy his own expensive gifts and leave you TF alone?
More to the point, think about what his pattern means for your future. If you stay together, will every act of kindness become ammunition later? Will he use money to control decisions about your life, your daughter, your choices? Financial abuse often starts exactly like this — generous gestures that morph into obligations and debt.
You deserve a partner who gives freely and doesn’t keep score. Someone who understands that love isn’t measured in dollar amounts and that different financial situations exist. Someone who would never dream of pressuring you like this for no good reason.
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But ultimately, this isn’t about the gift. It’s about power, control, and whether you’ll accept being treated like you owe him your financial security or peace of mind. (You don’t.)
(Anna Pulley is a syndicated Tribune Content Agency columnist answering reader questions about love, sex and dating. Send your questions via email (anonymity guaranteed) to redeyedating@gmail.com, sign up for her infrequent (yet amazing) newsletter or check out her books!)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/ask-anna-the-gift-of-coercion-this-holiday-season/
The UK’s Ministry Of Don’t Ask, Won’t Tell
The UK’s Ministry Of Don’t Ask, Won’t Tell
Authored by Clive Pinder via DailySceptic.org,
Immigration & Sexual Violence – Nothing to See Here!
Britain is now the sort of country where you can get an instant answer to ‘What is the carbon footprint of a sausage roll?’. Yet if you ask, ‘Are we importing risk to women along with importing people?’ our nation state stares at its shoes and starts muttering about ‘complexity’.
Let us begin with two official lines that any half-awake citizen can see are rising at the same time.
Line one, sexual violence.
The ONS crime bulletin for the year ending June 2025 reports 211,225 sexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales are up 9% from the previous year. It also reports 72,804 rape offences, up 6% year on year, with rape making up around 34% of all recorded sexual offences.
The ONS, to be fair, sticks in a big asterisk. Part of the rise is not a sudden outbreak of more predators. It is a change in the bookkeeping. That means some of what now shows up as an ‘increase’ is simply behaviour that was previously recorded differently, or not cleanly separated at all, now being captured under a new label. In short, not every uptick is more men doing worse things in dark alleys.
Fine. Caveat accepted. The numbers are still brutal.
Line two, immigration.
The ONS estimates long term immigration at 898,000 in the year ending June 2025. Of those, non-EU nationals accounted for 670,000, about 75% of the total. Net migration in that year is estimated at 204,000.
If you want proof mass migration has changed Britain, bin the pamphlets, the marches and the sermons. Just open the ONS, click twice, then stick the kettle on and watch the country redraw itself in numbers.
When you have done that, do not stop at the headline ‘flow’ figure, those who arrived this year. That is only the annual intake. The canary in the coal mine is the cumulative influx. The stock, who is here now, how large it has become, and what that does over time to social norms, policing demand, and risk. On that, the official trend is not subtle.
According to the ONS the foreign-born stock in England and Wales has risen almost 150% in 22 years. From 4.6 million residents born outside the UK in 2001, to 11.4 million in 2023. In that time the Commons Library, citing an ONS ad hoc estimate, shows the percentage has more than doubled from 8.9% to 19% of the population. That’s almost one in five. Of those roughly 8.0 million were born outside the EU, about 13% or one in eight.
That is not a marginal tweak, it is a demographic rewiring, delivered at motorway speed.
Even if net migration dips this year, the change does not politely stop at Passport Control. This is the ministerial dodge. Wave one year’s inflow figure, declare victory, move on. But if the mechanism is cumulative, a one-year wiggle tells you almost nothing about this year’s risk.
You can see the cumulative shift even in the baby name tables. Muhammad is now the top boys’ name in England and Wales, and it has been in the top ten since 2016.
More importantly, the engine is now domestic as well as imported. In 2023, 37.3% of live births in England and Wales were to parents where one or both were born outside the UK. On the mother only measure, births to non-UK born women rose from 31.8% in 2023 to 33.9% in 2024. That is the second-generation pipeline in plain numbers, large, growing, and largely indifferent to whatever headline flow figure ministers are waving around this week.
Put those lines next to the ONS crime line and you get a chart that reads like a warning label. The foreign-born share keeps rising. Recorded rape remains staggeringly high. And what once would have meant a ministerial resignation is now treated like a routine Tuesday briefing. Another awkward graph to be managed rather than a crisis to be answered.
That is correlation. It is not proof of causation, but it is not nothing either. If government wants the public to stop drawing conclusions, government needs to do the grown-up thing and test the hypothesis properly.
Instead, we get the dueling spreadsheets.
Here is the problem. We are arguing over scraps. Campaigners like Matt Goodwin point to FOI driven figures and claim foreign nationals, around 11% of the population, account for roughly 22% of rapes and 26% of sexual assaults. They ask why Britain will not publish this routinely. Meanwhile journalists like Fraser Nelson of The Times push back, arguing the ‘migrant crimewave’ story is overcooked, noting that violent crime is at multi decade lows, and even the headline MoJ claim that foreigners are convicted of up to 23% of sex crimes is disputed.
Which rather proves the point. When a country has to rely on complex FOI requests rather than publish one clear, repeatable annual bulletin, everyone ends up fighting with partial numbers and competing narratives. We have already seen where this ends with the grooming gangs’ scandal. Years of official denial and nervous statistical silence left unprotected and disbelieved girls to pay the price. It is exactly how we end up with pub verdicts and online lynch mobs.
We get endless official output on crime and immigration volumes. Charts, dashboards, glossy bulletins, the lot. Yet the moment you ask the state to connect them like adults. Who is offending? Where they were born? What their status was? How long they have been here etc? The information that actually matters to the public argument suddenly becomes curiously unavailable.
We can almost hear the civil service machine whirring.
If ministers published a clear annual table showing serious sexual offence charges and convictions by country of birth, nationality at time of offence, immigration status at time of offence, and time resident in the UK, one of two things would happen.
If the link is small or nonexistent, it would calm the debate and allow government to say, “Look, it is not that.”
If the link is meaningful in certain cohorts or settings, it would force government to do difficult things, such as tougher enforcement, tougher integration requirements and deportation where legally possible. All without hiding behind slogans.
Either way, proper measurement creates accountability. Shamefully, accountability is the one thing our politicians and the civil service we pay for avoids like an email from a Nigerian prince! (Before anyone faints, I can write that as I was born and raised there.)
This is not a statistical oversight. It is a political tradition. Inaugurated by Blair’s machine, refined by Campbell’s spin doctrine. Then inherited by every administration since like a family heirloom. Do not measure it properly. Do not publish it clearly and you can always claim the truth is ‘complex’.
Of course, the missing breakdown is not, by itself, proof of a criminal cover up. There are real problems. Patchy data, inconsistent force recording, privacy rules, shifting definitions, and plenty of scope for sloppy analysis. Fine. But a serious state fixes those problems. Our state uses them, year after year, as camouflage.
The outcome is clear. If you do not publish the table on immigration, demography and sexual violence, you cannot expect the public to trust your assurances. You create a vacuum and that vacuum fills with suspicion, anger, and increasingly nasty generalisations.
Meanwhile the same people who refused to publish the table hold a conference about ‘community cohesion’. It is like refusing to install smoke alarms and then complaining about the smell of smoke.
What a serious state would publish.
If the UK was run like a grown-up country, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice would stop faffing about with glossy platitudes and publish one annual bulletin. One. Not twenty PDFs. Not a ministerial tweet thread. Not a seminar on ‘complexity’. A single checkable set of numbers that addresses, clearly and reproducibly:
For rape and serious sexual offences, charges and convictions by offender country of birth and nationality, with proper population denominators.
The same by immigration status at time of offence, including asylum route categories where relevant, with proper denominators.
Rates adjusted for age and sex structure, because young men drive most violent and sexual offending everywhere.
Regional breakdowns, because patterns are never uniform.
Clear caveats on reporting and recording, including the impact of new offence codes and counting rules, so the public is not misled.
Then, and only then, can we have the argument that politicians keep demanding we do not have. A transparent and constructive debate based on facts instead of vibes.
Until that happens, the public will continue to do what humans do. They will take the ONS crime trend, take the ONS migration trend, notice that Britain has undergone an enormous non-European inflow, notice that recorded rape remains staggeringly high, and draw their own conclusions.
The state can either measure the relationship properly, or it can keep pretending that refusing to measure it is ‘responsible’. One of those choices builds trust. The other builds resentment.
And resentment, unlike spreadsheets, does not stay missing for long.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/24/2025 – 03:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/uks-ministry-dont-ask-wont-tell
Una iglesia siria celebra la Navidad y reafirma su fe meses después de un ataque mortal
Por ABDELRAHMAN SHAHEEN and ABBY SEWELL
DWEIL’A, Siria (AP) — En una iglesia en Siria donde un ataque suicida mató a 25 personas en junio, cientos de fieles se reunieron antes de Navidad para recordar a los que perdieron y reafirmar su fe.
Con un pequeño destacamento de fuerzas de seguridad vigilando afuera, los miembros de la iglesia Mar Elías celebraron una misa el martes por la noche y encendieron una imagen de un árbol de Navidad hecho de luces en la pared del patio exterior. El árbol estaba adornado con fotos de aquellos que murieron en el ataque.
Entre los fallecidos había tres hombres que la congregación considera héroes por enfrentarse al atacante, posiblemente evitando un número de muertos mucho mayor en el ataque del 22 de junio.
Un hombre abrió fuego y luego detonó un chaleco explosivo dentro de la iglesia ortodoxa griega en Dweil’a, en las afueras de Damasco, cuando estaba llena de personas rezando un domingo.
Antes de detonar el chaleco, los hermanos Boutros y Gergis Bechara y otro feligrés, Milad Haddad, se enfrentaron al tirador y lo empujaron fuera del centro de la iglesia, dijeron los congregantes.
“Si no fuera por los tres, tal vez no quedaría ni una persona de las 400”, dijo Imad Haddad, el hermano de Milad Haddad, quien asistió al encendido del árbol de Navidad el martes.
No ha decorado para Navidad ni ha puesto un árbol en casa, pero reunirse en la iglesia fue “un mensaje de paz y amor” y un mensaje de que “somos creyentes y somos fuertes y estamos firmes a pesar de todo”, expresó.
Thana al-Masoud, la viuda de Boutros Bechara, recordó buscar frenéticamente a su esposo después de la explosión, pero nunca lo encontró, ni vivo ni muerto. Su cuerpo había sido destrozado por la explosión.
“No hay fiesta, ni este año, ni el próximo, ni el siguiente”, manifestó.
Encuentra consuelo en la creencia de que su esposo y los otros dos hombres que confrontaron al atacante son mártires por su fe.
“Nuestro Señor los eligió para ser santos y para difundir Su palabra a todo el mundo”, dijo. “Pero la separación es difícil”.
El ataque avivó los temores cristianos
El ataque a la iglesia fue el primero de su tipo en Siria en años y ocurrió mientras un nuevo gobierno en Damasco dominado por islamistas suníes buscaba ganar la confianza de las minorías religiosas tras la destitución del expresidente Bashar Assad.
El presidente interino Ahmad al-Sharaa ha tenido problemas para ejercer autoridad en todo el país, incluso entre las filas de grupos aliados. Ha habido varios brotes mortales de violencia religiosa en el país en el último año.
Aunque el nuevo gobierno ha condenado los ataques a minorías, muchos lo acusan de no actuar para controlar las facciones armadas que intenta absorber en el nuevo ejército estatal y las fuerzas de seguridad.
El ataque de junio fue atribuido a una célula del grupo Estado Islámico, que las autoridades dijeron también había planeado atacar un santuario chií. El grupo EI no se atribuyó la autoría, mientras que un grupo poco conocido llamado Saraya Ansar al-Sunna dijo que uno de sus miembros había llevado a cabo el ataque. El gobierno dijo que el grupo era una tapadera para EI.
Los cristianos constituían alrededor del 10% de los 23 millones de habitantes de Siria antes de que las protestas masivas contra el gobierno en 2011 fueran respondidas con una brutal represión gubernamental y derivaran en una brutal guerra civil de 14 años que vio el surgimiento de EI y otros grupos extremistas.
Cientos de miles de cristianos huyeron durante la guerra, durante la cual hubo ataques con motivaciones religiosas contra cristianos, incluyendo el secuestro de monjas y sacerdotes y la destrucción de iglesias. Ahora muchos vuelven a pensar en marcharse.
Una fe reforzada y búsqueda de paz
Desde que perdió a su esposo en el ataque a la iglesia, Juliette Alkashi se siente entumecida.
Eran novios desde antes de que ella dejara Siria con su madre y hermano para emigrar a Venezuela. En 2018, cuando Emile Bechara le pidió matrimonio, Alkashi regresó a Siria a pesar de que aún estaba en medio de una guerra civil.
“Lo que vaya a pasar, pasará, y me he rendido a ello”, dijo. “Si uno va a rezar y muere en la iglesia, lo que Dios haya escrito es lo que será”.
Lo único que importa ahora, dijo Alkashi, es que ella y su hijo de tres años permanezcan juntos.
Algunos feligreses dijeron que el ataque no hizo más que fortalecer su fe.
“Vi una columna de humo elevarse del suelo al techo, y escuché una voz que decía: ‘No te abandonaré y no te dejaré’”, dijo Hadi Kindarji, quien describió una intensa experiencia espiritual en el momento de la explosión.
Hoy cree que incluso la violencia aparentemente sin sentido era parte del plan de Dios.
“Nuestro Dios está presente, y Él estaba presente en la iglesia”, dijo.
Yohanna Shehadeh, el sacerdote de la iglesia Mar Elias, reconoció que muchos en la congregación tienen miedo de más violencia mortal.
“El miedo es un estado natural. No voy a decirte que no hay miedo, y no sólo hablo de los cristianos, sino de todo el pueblo sirio, de todas las religiones”, dijo Shehadeh.
A medida que se acerca la Navidad, dijo, están rezando por la paz.
___
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Ex-etiquette: Ex is bringing new girlfriend to New Year’s Eve party
Q: My ex and I just broke up. I know, great time of year. Obviously, it was a surprise to me. So, here’s what I am facing: I’ve been invited to a New Year’s Eve party and I’m sure he’ll be there with his new girlfriend. I want to go, but I already feel embarrassed and awkward, and I have no idea how to handle it. What’s good ex-etiquette?
A: A breakup during the holidays is emotionally loaded. Traditions shift, expectations change, and then, just when you’re trying to catch your breath, someone hands you an invitation to a party where your ex and their new partner will likely be present. That’s a lot for anyone. But believe it or not, there is a way to approach this with dignity, confidence, and good ex-etiquette.
First, check your motives. Do you want to go because you genuinely enjoy these friends, or do you feel pressure not to “lose” social ground? If attending feels like self-punishment — an emotional tightrope walk where you’ll be monitoring his every move — it may not be the healthiest choice. But if you want to go, and you believe you can be gracious even when it stings, then give yourself permission to attend. Healing doesn’t come from hiding. It comes from living.
Second, plan ahead. Good Ex-Etiquette Rule No. 3 is “Don’t badmouth.” That rule includes badmouthing yourself. Don’t walk in anticipating humiliation. Your value didn’t change because your ex moved on quickly, or at least appears to have. People rebound at different speeds, often for reasons that have nothing to do with compatibility. Your worth is not measured by who your ex brings to a party.
Third, have an emotional strategy. Before you walk through the door, decide what you will do if the moment becomes uncomfortable. Will you take a quick breather outside? Stick close to the friends who make you feel grounded? Step away from conversations that veer into “relationship history”? Knowing your escape routes doesn’t mean you’re fragile, it means you’re prepared.
Fourth, keep the interaction light and brief. If you do run into your ex, a simple, “Happy New Year. Good to see you,” is all that’s required. No explanations. No comparisons. No drama. Your calm composure will speak for itself. If you acknowledge the new partner, keep it equally simple: “Nice to meet you. Enjoy the party.” That’s it. You don’t need to over-smile or overcompensate. Neutral is classy.
Finally, remember this: showing up graciously is a form of closure. You’re demonstrating to yourself, your social circle, and yes, even your ex, that you can stand tall in the new chapter of your life. You’re also modeling something powerful: resilience. When co-parents manage adult interactions with dignity, children benefit in ways they won’t fully understand until they’re older.
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Good ex-etiquette isn’t about pretending you’re not hurt. It’s about behaving in ways that reflect your integrity, regardless of the circumstances. So, if you want to go to that party, hold your head high, take a deep breath, and step into the new year with confidence. You’re not behind. You’re beginning. That’s good ex-etiquette.
(Dr. Jann Blackstone is a child custody mediator and the author of “The Bonus Family Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Co-parenting and Creating Stronger Families. She can be reached at www.bonusfamilies.com or jann@bonusfamilies.com.)
Terry Savage: ‘Chicken money’ holders are going to be tested
Now, things are going to get tough for “chicken money” holders. Your self-discipline is about to be tested as short-term interest rates decline, while inflation remains steady. It’s easy to set money aside to earn interest when rates are high. But as rates drop, you will be tempted to take just a bit more risk to earn more. And if you can’t resist that temptation, it could be the downfall of your entire financial plan.
What is chicken money?
Simply put, chicken money is money set aside to let you sleep at night, no matter how the stock market fluctuates. It is not just something you need at a certain age or a certain level of wealth. No matter what your personal finances, everyone should have some chicken money.
In a recent column I discussed the impact that a bear market, which is defined as a 20% decline in the popular averages, can have on your retirement plans. But there have been several bear markets that saw declines of more than 40% — with no rebound for years. If you’re younger, that shouldn’t scare you. After all, we are near all-time highs as I write this. So every decline, in retrospect, was a buying opportunity. That’s how you’ve grown your money in your 401(k) plan.
Chicken money is money you don’t expose to the stock market or crypto or other risky investments. It can be money that you need soon — such as to cover college tuition for your high school junior. It can be the down payment for that home you want to buy. Or it can be money that you know you’ll need to live on during your retirement, which is fast approaching. It can be a smaller or larger percentage of your net worth, depending on your time horizon and on your overall financial picture.
The key factor in designating a portion of your money as chicken money is understanding what amount you simply can’t afford to lose. And the time to figure that out is before you become panicked over losses that are in progress.
Chicken money investments
Chicken money belongs in FDIC-insured bank money market accounts or short- term CDs with maturities of less than two years. It belongs in short-term U.S. Treasury bills. (See the article on how to buy T-bills at TerrySavage.com.) Money in government money market mutual funds at the major fund companies also qualifies as a safe, chicken money investment.
Beyond those safe havens, there’s always a degree of risk. Other investments can be quite profitable. But they don’t qualify as chicken money. The key truth about these safe investments is that you won’t grow rich in them — but you won’t grow poor, either!
Historically, these safe investments have paid just a bit above the inflation rate. If you must pay taxes on the interest you earn, you might only break even with inflation. But always remember the mantra of the chicken money investor: I’m not so concerned about the return ON my money as I am about the return OF my money!
The challenge of falling rates
Interest rates on these short-term investments are highly influenced by the Federal Reserve, which sets the overnight lending rate for banks. And as you’ve seen in the headlines, the Fed has been cutting rates and is forecast to continue doing so.
Banks set rates to attract deposits. When market rates are rising, bank CD rates tend to lag. They know that most savers will automatically roll over their CDs at low rates. (You can search for the highest CD rates at Bankrate.com.)
But when interest rates are falling in the weekly T-bill auctions, banks cut their short-term CD rates quickly. And that’s just what’s been happening. Earlier this year, you could get 4.5% interest on 6-month T-bills, and almost as much (or more in some cases) on bank CDs. But in recent weeks, the 6-month T-bill rate has dropped to about 3.6%.
Many people who count on earning interest to supplement their other income will see their income drop significantly. And that’s where the temptation comes in. Short-term rates are now only slightly over the inflation rate. Shrinking income will make you vulnerable to pitches for other investment products.
But having chicken money on the sidelines offers two benefits. The first is you’ll sleep better at night when everyone else is worried about stock market losses. And the second is that you’ll have the cash to buy bargains when everyone else is selling.
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Perhaps that’s why famed investor Warren Buffett has amassed a $380 billion hoard of T-bills and chicken money. His funds now own more T-bills than even the Federal Reserve! Don’t you think you should have a bit more chicken money too? That’s The Savage Truth.
(Terry Savage is a registered investment adviser and the author of four best-selling books, including “The Savage Truth on Money.” Terry responds to questions on her blog at TerrySavage.com.)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/terry-savage-chicken-money-holders-are-going-to-be-tested/
The Kitchn: How to make a classic whiskey sour
A whiskey sour is yours for the making year-round. It’s refreshing enough to keep up with a spritz during the warm summer months, and so appropriate during the colder seasons of the year. Even if you’re not a whiskey fan (which breaks my heart), you might still find yourself swooning over a well-crafted whiskey sour. It’s that good! The secret is using fresh ingredients.
It’s such an easy cocktail to make at home, and perfect for entertaining guests. There’s nothing better than hearing that ooh! from your guest when you hand them a coupe glass filled with whiskey sour goodness.
To get started, you’ll need some bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and one small egg (optional, but more on this in a bit).
The best whiskey sour ingredients
Bourbon: Choosing a bourbon for this cocktail shouldn’t be difficult. I recommend a good value bottle, something in the price range of $15 to $25. Next time you’re at a cocktail bar you like, ask the bartender which specific bottles of any given spirit they have in their well bar. This is a great way to find out what’s good, both for your home bar and your budget.
Lemon juice: Next up, fresh-squeezed lemon juice. I’ll say it again because this is so important: fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Gone are the days of using cheap mixes. If you want the absolute best whiskey sour you ever did taste in your life, then you need the real-deal fresh juice. Simple as that!
Simple syrup: For the sweetener, use a simple syrup (sugar dissolved in water). There are several whiskey sour recipes out there that call for a heaping bar spoon of sugar. You’re free to go this route, but simple syrup combines so much better, so I prefer and recommend this.
To use egg white or not
Have you ever seen that amazing layer of foam resting gently at the top of a cocktail? Yeah, you can thank egg white for that. To some, using raw egg whites in a cocktail is a novel concept (although this has been a trick of bartenders for nearly a century).
Bartenders use egg whites in cocktails, like the whiskey sour, to give it a rich, creamy texture along with a smooth head of foam. To stay on the idea of fresh ingredients, use an organic, pasteurized egg white, as it will be consumed raw (most egg whites sold in the U.S. are pasteurized). If you’re curious about it altering the flavor, just know that egg white is flavorless. It also helps to reduce the acidity from the citrus and bind the flavors together. It enhances the presentation of your whiskey sour, too. Remember, we’re not settling for anything less than an ooh! from you and from your guest.
If you still feel like shaking up your cocktail with raw egg white is just too much to stomach, then feel free to leave it out!
Stirring vs shaking a cocktail
When it comes time to make the whiskey sour (which is the best part), you’ll want to shake it. A general rule of thumb is if a cocktail contains only spirits, then you want to stir. If a cocktail contains juice, dairy, or egg white, then you shake it.
Whiskey Sour
Makes 1 cocktail
2 ounces bourbon whiskey
1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 ounce simple syrup
1 pasteurized egg white from a small to medium egg
Ice
1 maraschino cherry
1. Build the cocktail. Place the bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and egg white in a cocktail shaker. Do not add ice yet.
2. Dry shake the cocktail. Seal the shaker and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. (This is referred to as a “dry shake.” It’s good for incorporating the egg white before adding ice to the shaker.)
3. Shake again with ice. Add ice, seal again, and shake for 7 to 10 seconds more to chill.
4. Strain the cocktail. Fit a Hawthorne strainer over the top of the shaker and pour the cocktail through a fine-mesh strainer into a rocks or coupe glass. This is referred to as a “double strain” and this method is used to catch any ice shards or pulp from the fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Add ice if desired.
5. Garnish and serve. Garnish with a speared maraschino cherry.
Recipe note
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Consuming raw egg whites will always come with some inherent risks. That’s why we recommend using pasteurized eggs, which are gently heated, to reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses. All egg products in the United States are pasteurized, as required by the USDA— so you’re good to go as long as you stick to eggs from the grocery store (don’t use ones that come straight from the farm).
(Elliott Clark is a contributor to TheKitchn.com, a nationally known blog for people who love food and home cooking. Submit any comments or questions to editorial@thekitchn.com.)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/24/the-kitchn-how-to-make-a-classic-whiskey-sour/
Italy Slaps Apple With $116 Million Fine Over Double-Consent Requirement On Apps
Italy Slaps Apple With $116 Million Fine Over Double-Consent Requirement On Apps
Italy’s version of the Federal Trade Commission fined Apple, Inc. nearly $116 million over what it says were overly-restrictive privacy rules that required third-party app developers to obtain user consent for data collection and tracking when it comes to delivering targeted advertising.
Italy’s watchdog authority – the AGCM, said on Monday that Apple and its subsidiaries abused its “super-dominant” market position by requiring said consumer protections.
The fine stems from a May 2023 joint investigation by the AGCM, European Commission, Italian Data Protection Authority (GPDP in Italian), and other national competition authorities into the restrictions from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
AGCM claims that in April 2021, Apple began requiring app developers to obtain user consent in addition to previously existing consent requirements that had been granted through Apple’s own consent prompt. This double-consent requirement violates article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
“Third-party app developers are required to obtain specific consent for the collection and linking of data for advertising purposes through Apple’s ATT prompt,” said the AGCM. “However, such prompt does not meet privacy legislation requirements, forcing developers to double the consent request for the same purpose.”
As the Epoch Times notes further, in an executive summary of the investigation’s findings, the Italian Competition Authority of Rome lauded Apple’s efforts to safeguard user privacy within its operating system.
However, the GPDP said, making developers obtain double user consent was “excessive” and “burdensome” and ultimately led to a reduction of opt-in rates by users for data tracking on third-party apps. That action, in turn, hampered app developers’ ability to compete with Apple and deliver targeted advertising, which resulted in higher commissions paid to Apple by developers, as well as additional revenue through a higher volume of targeted ads.
“Given that user data are a key input for personalized online advertising—since higher-quality and larger volumes of data improve the ability to identify users who may be genuinely interested in the advertised product, service or app—the restrictions imposed by the ATT policy on the collection, linking and use of such data are capable of harming developers whose business model relies on the sale of advertising space, as well as advertisers and advertising intermediation platforms,” the AGCM wrote.
The Epoch Times requested comment from Apple regarding the investigation’s finding and fine by the AGCM, but did not receive a response by publication time.
Earlier this year, Apple was fined 500 million euros ($588 million) by the European Union for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and not informing customers of potential alternatives outside of its App Store. Meta was also fined 200 million euros ($235 million) for breaching the DMA by failing to provide customers with options on how much of their data is used. Apple and Meta are appealing those fines, which were levied in April.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/24/2025 – 02:45
