Winter Storm Triggers $15 Billion Power Surge On Key U.S. Grid A brutal January cold snap sent electricity prices soaring across the largest U.S. power grid, as operators scrambled to meet surging heating demand and prevent outages, according to Bloomberg. On the PJM Interconnection system — which supplies power to roughly one-fifth of Americans — wholesale electricity costs reached $15.38 billion for the month, more than […]

Judge Blocks California’s Law Mandating Federal Agents Remove Masks Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times, A federal district court judge partially blocked a California law barring law enforcement officers from wearing masks in a Feb. 9 ruling, finding the law discriminated against federal officers. District Court Judge Christina Snyder ruled in favor of the Trump administration, prohibiting the state from enforcing […]

Watch Live: Lutnick Testifies He ‘Barely Had Anything’ To Do With Epstein Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is currently testifying in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee on broadband deployment funding – however the conversation quickly veered into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.  Lutnick insisted he “barely had anything to do with that person,” referring to Epstein, though he admitted that he went to […]

Massie Exposes Les Wexner As Epstein Co-Conspirator, Opening Door To Criminal Charges Against Kash Patel Authored by blueapples, Although President Donald J. Trump has amplified his attacks against Kentucky representative Thomas Massie on the basis of deluded claims that he is a radical, un-American liberal who is hellbent on sabotaging his administration, it is the congressman’s continued crusade to expose the crimes of Jeffrey […]

Watch Live: House Committee Goes After America’s Dark-Money NGOs Watch Live: Full Committee Hearing on Foreign Influence in American Non-profits *   *   *  Update (1015ET):  Top takeaways and headlines from the hearing. The first witness to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee is Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland.  Sutherland tells the committee that nonprofits have been […]

US To Fund Free Speech Initiatives In Europe, Trump Official Reveals Authored by Kimberley Hayek via The Epoch Times, The Trump administration announced plans to direct funding toward promoting free speech in Western allied democracies, a senior State Department official said on Monday. The initiative bolsters efforts to counter European online regulations categorized by Washington as censorship. Under Secretary of State for […]

Macron Reopens Direct Channel With Putin As He Moves To Counter Trump The Kremlin has newly confirmed that France has restored “technical-level” contact and dialogue with Russia, after for years having stymied diplomacy related to the Ukraine war. “Yes, there have indeed been contacts, and we can confirm that,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “If there is the desire and the necessity, they could help fairly quickly […]

“Today, We Are Preparing For War”: French Defense Chief Says Europe Has Until 2030, Cites Russia As Biggest Threat Via Remix News, France and Europe have four years to prepare for war, said Fabien Mandon, chief of the defense staff of the French Armed Forces, who cited Russia as Europe’s biggest threat. His speech at a major naval conference outlined that France, as well as its allies, must take into account that this war will […]

Harley-Davidson Shares Plunge As Bike Demand Stalls Harley-Davidson shares plunged in premarket trading after the company reported an unexpected decline in motorcycle shipments and a far deeper-than-expected sales miss in the fourth quarter. The results suggest the company is still battling soft demand, with the brand having peaked with boomers and struggling to connect with younger riders. Global fourth-quarter bike deliveries […]

US Retail Sales Disappoint In December As Small Business Optimism Dips Today’s Retail Sales data is for December and so should be ‘clean’ from the perspective of the January storms which dramatically reduced consumers ability to spend year-to-date, as illustrated by BofA’s ‘rest of US’ spending indicator… After a big bounce in November, expectations were for a decent 0.4% MoM rise in retail sales to end the year (despite the […]

Futures Drop As Traders Brace For Flood Of Data And Earnings US equity futures are lower, reversing earlier gains and trading near session lows in a narrow, jitter overnight session as traders prepare for a heavy slate of earnings and readings of consumer sales and small-business due later. As of 8:15am ET, stock futures were muted, down 0.1% after earlier rising 0.2% and approaching last month’s record levels after an […]

BP Suspends Buybacks As Energy Major Pivots To “Rebuilding Trust” In Capital Allocation BP Plc shares fell nearly 6% in London trading after the oil and gas giant said its board has suspended share buybacks to allocate excess cash to strengthening the balance sheet and has withdrawn guidance to return 30% to 40% of operating cash flow to shareholders. In an earnings report released earlier, BP said it is suspending share buybacks, […]

Kering Erupts After Gucci Sales Beat Estimates, Igniting “Turnaround Hopes” French luxury group Kering jumped as much as 14% in Paris trading, the biggest intraday move in almost six years, after better-than-expected fourth-quarter sales at its Gucci unit. The UBS Luxury basket (UBXELUX) rose nearly 2%, driven largely by hopes of a turnaround at the luxury house. Fourth quarter sales showed revenue fell about 10%, slightly better […]

Breaking Down California’s Insane “Super Bowl Tax” Sam Darnold just WON the Super Bowl…and LOST $71k because it was in California Watch as Boomer Esiason explains why the players should block any future Super Bowls in California… 🚨 ABSOLUTELY INSANE: Sam Darnold just WON the Super Bowl.. and LOST $71k because it was in California California’s jock tax bills him $249K Boomer Esiason: The NFLPA should shut down ANY future […]

Ukraine Launching Arms Exports At Centers Across Europe Ukraine has another money-making idea – instead of begging for urgently needed funds from Western partners, it plans to start exporting weapons, instead of only buying them. But there is a big and unexpected catch to the whole scheme. Flush with external funding connected to the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced ambitious plans to open ten arms export […]

Struggling AI Startups Kept Afloat Despite Never Becoming Profitable Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), For years, artificial intelligence (AI) startups have been pitched as the vehicles of the next productivity boom. But as product delivery lags behind the hype, some AI companies are slipping into a quieter, more troubling category: startups that are functional but no longer viable. Illustration […]

Do People Trust The Media Or Government More? Trust in institutions shapes how societies function—from whether people follow public health guidance to whether they believe election results. Yet confidence in governments and the media has diverged sharply across countries. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows whether people trust the media or the government more, based on responses from nearly 34,000 […]

Mapping The Global Cost Of Living In 2026 How does the cost of living vary across countries in 2026? To find out, this graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, visualizes Numbeo’s Global Cost of Living Index, which measures the price of everyday expenses, including rent, relative to New York City (baseline of 100). If a country has an index score of 80, prices are 20% lower than in New York. Scores above 100 […]

Germany’s “Recovery” Is Just Debt-Fueled Military Orders Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Friedrich Merz finally has a positive headline. In December, industrial orders surged. But behind the costly statistical recovery lies nothing more than the buildup of a debt-financed defense sector. It took some lead time, but the Chancellor now finally has a success story. For December 2025, Germany’s Federal Statistics Office reported a 7.6% […]

France Has The Most Paid Vacation Days In Europe Europe is widely known for its generous work-life balance policies, and paid time off is a major part of that reputation. Across the continent, employees are legally entitled to a combination of paid vacation days and public holidays, with totals varying widely by country. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows the minimum total number of paid leave days in Europe […]

On Washington’s Reported Plans To Once Again Store Tactical Nukes In The UK Authored by Andrew Korybko, It’s possible that the US – whether under Trump 2.0 or whichever administration, including a possible Democrat one, comes afterwards – might agree to transfer its tactical nukes to Estonia in parallel with a possible British F-35A deployment to the latter’s base there. The Daily Mail cited Pentagon funding proposals […]

Israel Imposes ‘De Facto Annexation’ With Sweeping West Bank Policy Change Via Middle East Eye The Israeli government on Sunday approved sweeping changes to land registration and civil control in the occupied West Bank, a move Palestinians say breaches the Oslo Accords and advances de facto annexation. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the changes would “dramatically” alter West Bank […]

Record 9.5 Billion Passenger-Trips Expected During China’s Spring Festival A record 9.5 billion passenger trips are expected during this year’s Chinese New Year or Spring Festival travel surge, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. The 40 day period between February 2 and March 13 is expected to see record highs in terms of passenger volumes for both rail trips (exceeding 540 million passengers) and civil […]

The Man Who Always Has Proof Tomorrow: Adam Schiff Cries Election Fraud Again Authored by David Manney via PJ Media, The Warning That Never Changes Remember Adam Schiff? The California Democratic senator returned to familiar ground, while sounding another dire warning about President Donald Trump and the upcoming midterm elections. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky Schiff insists Trump plans on subverting the midterms by suppressing […]

Israel Spends By Far The Most Per Capita On Defense Global military spending is often measured in massive national budgets, where the United States and China dominate the conversation. But looking at defense spending on a per-person basis tells a very different story, one where smaller countries rise to the top. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, ranks major countries by how much they spent on defense […]