Central Asia Is Escaping The ‘Backyard’ Label Authored by Ziaulhaq Tanin via RealClearWorld, Three decades after their independence, Central Asia is still often viewed through outdated geopolitical lenses – a region once called “Russia’s backyard” and more recently as an arena of competition among Russia, China, and the West. Yet this familiar narrative no longer captures the region’s strategic reality. Central Asian states are […]

Japan’s NEC Halts Quantum Computer Project After Decades Of Research NEC has ended its effort to develop a working quantum computer, reportedly deciding that the project would take too long to deliver an acceptable return on investment, according to a new report by Nikkei. The move represents a significant change in direction for a company that has been involved in quantum computing research for more than three decades. NEC was […]

China’s Provinces Show Evidence Of Financial Pressure And The Economy’s Imbalances Authored by Milton Ezrati via The Epoch Times, Some 28 provinces and separate jurisdictions increasingly have had to turn to Beijing for help closing budget gaps, according to China’s Ministry of Finance. People walk next to a screen with a stocks indicator in the Jing’an district in Shanghai, China, on April 7, 2025. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty […]

This Labor Day Take A Closer Look At America’s Deadliest Jobs, Ranked Labor Day is a time to recognize the contributions of American workers, but it also draws attention to the risks many face on the job. Logging was the most dangerous occupation in America in 2024, with 110.4 fatal work injuries per 100,000 full time equivalent workers, more than 33 times the national rate of 3.3, according to a new study by Moneygeek. Fishing […]

Court Rules Pentagon Can Fire Stars And Stripes Journalists Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, A district court denied a motion from three Stars and Stripes journalists that sought to block the Department of War from firing them. The Pentagon in Arlington, Va., in a file photo. Carolyn Kaster/AP While plaintiffs argue that the terminations “violate their First Amendment rights to communicate as citizens on matters […]

UBS Calls Brazil Election “Extremely Close” – Bolsonaro Win Would Cement LatAm’s Political Shift Socialist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s polling lead over right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has eroded in recent weeks, leaving both statistically tied in UBS’ latest runoff polling average.  Arend Kapteyn, UBS’ global head of economics and strategy research, described the upcoming election in early October as […]

Chinese Oil Demand Unexpectedly Soars, Sending Shanghai Crude Above $100, With Brent Prices Set To Follow One of the reasons why the price of oil failed to soar during the “actively kinetic” phase of the Iran war, when shipments through Hormuz were effectively halted and the world faced a shortage of about 10-15mm barrels of oil per day, is that Chinese oil demand suddenly evaporated. Whether due to a sharp slowdown in the economy […]

Hunter Biden To Launch Memecoin, Will Send To TRUMP Holders Authored by Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com, Hunter Biden will reportedly distribute 200 million of the LAPTOP token to his substack subscribers, members of a mailing list and investors in President Donald Trump’s memecoin. Hunter Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, announced that he plans to launch a memecoin based on the reports of his infamous laptop, […]

Unhinged Passenger Duct-Taped on Flight Is Identified, Fired From Job An American Airlines flight was forced into an emergency landing Thursday evening after an unhinged passenger was duct-taped to his seat after a racist, sexist meltdown, according to multiple reports. The raging flyer, identified as 67-year-old Arthur Layne Lundeen, allegedly hurled the N-word and anti-gay slurs at flight attendants and unloaded a series of “very […]

Canada’s Tariff Strategy Designed To Interfere With U.S. Midterm Elections Late last month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from a trade deal with the United States. According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Canada was “offered the best trade deal of any country on the globe,” but Carney abandoned the deal “at the last minute.” According to the White House, “the U.S. offered Canada the most preferential […]

Hackers Withdraw 320 Million In Bitcoin From Blockstream’s Liquid Network Federation Reserves Authored by Juan Galt via BitcoinMagazine.com, The Liquid Network said Sunday that purported white-hat hackers withdrew about 4,000 bitcoin, worth about $320 million, from the federation wallet that backs L-BTC. Bridge nodes were disabled, and the sidechain was paused. Other issued assets, including USDT, DePix and RWAs, were unaffected, […]

Iron Ore Bottom In? Prices Reclaim $100 On “Improving Downstream Conditions” Iron ore futures in Singapore surged above $100 a ton, the highest level since mid-July, as tightening Chinese coking coal supplies lifted steelmaking costs and early signs of improving seasonal demand supported prices across the steel supply chain. Rafael Barcellos, head of Latin American metals and mining, pulp and paper equity research at Bradesco BBI, […]

Lawmakers Press DHS On Forced-Labor Import Enforcement Authored by Arthur Zhang via The Epoch Times, A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to know whether enforcement is keeping pace after the Department of Homeland Security last month added 43 companies to its forced-labor Entity List – the largest single expansion since the list was created. Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, at a U.S.-backed Uyghur photo exhibit […]

Welcome To The World That Now Exists By Michael Every of Rabobank We ended last week with the Dutch thinktank acknowledgement that “The world as we knew it no longer exists.” We start this week knowing many are going to be profoundly uncomfortable with the new world that replaces it.  Not the weekend op-ed in the Financial Times asking, ‘Is Keynesianism dead?’ adding “When debt is the disease, fiscal medicine may be as […]

Six Nuclear Bills Clear House Committee Without A Single ‘No’ Vote The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced six nuclear-industry bills on September 2nd, all without a single opposing vote. The measures target fuel recycling, uranium enrichment, licensing delays, regulatory staffing and transparency. The vote to get it to the House floor is another testament to the lack of divide among the Republicans and Democrats regarding […]

DOJ Announces Deal With Mount Sinai Ending Pediatric Sex-Change Interventions Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times, The Justice Department announced Friday an agreement with Mount Sinai Health System that ends the New York hospital network’s provision of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures to minors. Mount Sinai West in New York City on Jan. 20, 2026. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Mount […]

Iran To Draw New “Restricted Zone” In Hormuz As Saudi Aramco Facility Hit Again, Oil Climbs At a moment US officials have been boasting of more and more oil tankers making it through the Strait of Hormuz under US naval protection and support, Iran has previewed a new ‘restricted zone’ in the Gulf, which it says will be announced in the coming days. The announcement is expected to include maps of the new shipping corridor through […]

Key Events This Holiday-Shortened Week: All Eyes On Friday’s CPI After Friday’s blowout jobs report, attention now turns to inflation. Economists expect headline CPI (Friday) to rise by +0.4% month-on-month in August, up from +0.07% previously, while core CPI is expected to print at +0.2% month-on-month, broadly unchanged from July’s +0.22%. Higher gasoline prices are likely to support the headline reading, while core inflation […]

Japan Sold Almost $90 Billion In Treasuries To Fund Record Yen Intervention At the end of July, the only question following Japan’s record $90 billion yen intervention (which worked for about two weeks before the effects faded and Bessent had to engage in more market intervention), was whether and how much Treasuries Japan had sold as part of the intervention.  The BOJ spent a record $90BN to briefly push the yen higher. Another […]

The Copper Chart Causing Alarm Copper futures in London continue to move higher, once again approaching record highs, as US buyers purchase record volumes from the seaborne market, with imports reaching 200,000 tons in July. A phased US tariff would keep that buying in motion for longer, further tightening the ex-US market and limiting any near-term price correction in London trading. Rafael Barcellos, head of Latin American […]

This Labor Day, A Look At Declining Role Of Unions In America Authored by Jeremy Lott via The Epoch Times, Labor Day, celebrated this year on Sept. 7, is a holiday in transition. It was created by American labor unions in the 1880s. The federal government recognizing it as a national holiday under President Grover Cleveland helped unions to gain prominence. Yet as unionization has declined, so too has the close association of […]

Zelensky Expects War To Continue Through Winter, As Witkoff-Kushner Deliver ‘Upbeat Assessment’ From Putin Meeting Despite Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner having delivered ‘upbeat assessments’ (per AFP) to Kiev after meeting with President Putin in Moscow over the weekend, Ukrainian President Zelensky has told his citizenry to prepare for a brutal winter, as the war is set to continue through this period. A senior […]

GOP Bets On Trumpapalooza To Defy Midterm History Authored by Carolina Lumetta via RealClearPolitics, Texas-based Republican strategist Rebecca Trahan is excited to see the first-ever GOP midterm convention come to Dallas next week. More specifically, she hopes it will bring yet more national attention and dollars to the Senate campaign for state Attorney General Ken Paxton. “I think [the convention] can be very motivating. I […]

Huawei Crashes Apple’s Big Launch Week With $3,000 Trifold Smartphone Two days before Apple’s big launch event on Wednesday, when the company is expected to debut its long-awaited foldable iPhone, Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi are unveiling their premium foldable smartphones. Huawei on Monday unveiled its Mate XT 2, a trifold smartphone that unfolds into a 10.2-inch tablet. The starting price is $2,980, representing a 10% increase […]

Futures Drop As Iran Hostilities Send Brent To 6 Week High Above $97 US stock futures slipped in cautious, low volume trading as the latest Middle East escalation pushed oil prices higher, lifting bond yields in Europe and Asia. As of 9:00am ET, S&P futures were down 0.2% with Nasdaq futures modestly in the red despite solid performance for tech stocks earlier in the session, which helped the Kospi surge more than 4.6% – its […]