Average Tax Refunds Jump By Nearly 11%, Early IRS Data Show Authored by Rob Sabo via The Epoch Times, The Internal Revenue Service is taking longer to process tax refunds than it did a year ago, but the average size of refund checks that have already been issued to taxpayers is up by nearly 11 percent from those received through the same period in 2025. Early individual taxpayer refunds are moving sluggishly because of the PATH […]

Rise Of Europe’s “War Unicorns” As Goldman Maps The Defense-Startup Ecosystem The “war unicorn” startup boom we pointed out the other week isn’t just an American story. It’s happening across the West, as defense startups built around dual-use technology could become the next hot bubble. Goldman analysts, led by Sam Burgess, told clients on Tuesday that European defense is seeing a “rise of the startups,” which could reshape an […]

German Public Broadcaster Ran Fake AI-Generated Clip Of ‘ICE Troops’ Arresting Migrant Family Via Remix News, The German public broadcaster ZDF has admitted to a significant editorial oversight after its flagship news program, Heute Journal, aired AI-generated images featuring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting an immigrant family. After uproar on social media over the fake news segment, which […]

Kremlin Mocks European ‘Illusions’ For Wanting Own Nuclear Umbrella Currently France and Britain are in talks to potentially extend their nuclear arsenals to protect Europe as a defense ‘umbrella’ – at a moment some officials have questioned the United States commitment to leading NATO. Politico wrote in the aftermath of the Munich Security Conference, “Multiple European countries are publicly backing talks on a homegrown nuclear […]

White House Voices Strong Support For Hungary’s Orban Ahead Of Elections Via The Libertarian Institute  Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced strong support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán is seeking a fifth term as leader in the April election. “I’m going to be very blunt with you. The prime minister and the President have a very, very close personal relationship and working relationship,” Rubio said in a […]

More “Secret Investments” By Adani Family Associates Revive Market Manipulation Allegations In early 2023, as scrutiny mounted around India’s Adani Group, two close associates of the Adani family acknowledged to their bankers that they controlled billions of dollars in the conglomerate’s shares through hedge funds. The admission — found in records reviewed by OCCRP, who called them “secret investments” in a new investigative […]

18 Ways To Reverse EU’s Immigration Crisis And Give Power Back To Member States Via Remix News, Due to years of uncontrolled mass migration, many Europeans are asking what concrete options there are to reverse course, with many feeling that the situation is hopeless and cannot be significantly reversed. However, a new report titled “Taking Back Control from Brussels: The Renationalization of the EU Migration and Asylum […]

EU Investigates Shein Over ‘Addictive Designs’ And Sales Of Childlike Sex Dolls Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The European Union has opened an in-depth investigation into online fashion retailer Shein over the sale of illegal items and what it calls the Chinese-owned platform’s “addictive design.” A Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore, on April 4, 2024. Edgar Su/Reuters The probe, announced […]

WEF Rocked As CEO Faces Investigation Over Ties To “Davos Concierge” Epstein The World Economic Forum (WEF) quietly launched an independent review earlier this month into its CEO, Børge Brende, over his past interactions with Jeffrey Epstein, Bloomberg reports. Files released by the Department of Justice show Epstein and Brende had three dinners in 2018 and 2019, and exchanged various text messages. One dinner occurred in […]

Google Warns Chinese And Russian Hackers Are Targeting US Defense Companies Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, An analysis released by Google this month showed that the U.S. defense industrial base—a network of public and private entities used to develop or maintain military weapons systems—has sustained cyberattacks from groups and criminal organizations from China, Russia, and North Korea in recent months. The […]

Kansas Woman Jailed For Fabricating Claims That Astronaut Hacked Her Bank Account From Space A Kansas woman has been sentenced to federal prison after admitting she fabricated claims that astronaut Anne McClain accessed her bank account from orbit, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Summer Heather Worden, 51, of Sedgwick County, Kansas, pleaded guilty on November 14, 2025, to making false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements to […]

Winter Storm Fern Proved Coal Is Still the Power Grid’s Reliable Backbone Authored by Emily Arthun via RealClearEnergy, When Winter Storm Fern swept across much of the United States in mid-January 2026—bringing snow, ice, and sustained sub-zero temperatures from Texas to New England—millions of Americans braced for power outages. In some areas, those fears were realized. Tennessee alone reported more than 245,000 customer […]

Stephen Colbert Throws Tantrum After CBS Blocks Interview Over Equal Time Concerns Stephen Colbert threw a tantrum Monday night after CBS lawyers pulled the plug on his planned interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, citing concerns about the FCC’s equal time mandate. The late-night host, who has built his late-night career on partisan snark, was not happy about it. Colbert told his audience that Talarico […]

Judge Orders ICE Not To Re-Detain Abrego Garcia Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, A federal judge has blocked U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) from re-arresting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, one of the men at the center of the Trump administration’s deportation battles. The Salvadoran national’s case attracted attention across the country, including widespread protests, after the federal government […]

Steam Deck Handheld Gaming PC “May Be Out-Of-Stock” As Great Memory Crunch Deepens The high-bandwidth memory (HBM) crunch is finally being noticed by mainstream consumers. It’s not just soaring HBM prices; the availability of certain consumer electronics is now being affected. Valve’s popular handheld gaming PC is reportedly out of stock in some regions – an early warning that other consumer electronics may soon face similar […]

“Game On!”: High Schoolers To Be Tested On Nation’s Founding In National Competition Marking America’s 250th Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), High school students across the nation this month will test their knowledge of America’s founding in a contest that ultimately rewards the top three finishers with college scholarships. In 1783, Representative James Madison introduced a resolution to create a […]

US Military Blows Up 3 Alleged Drug Boats, Killing 11, After Lull Since January The Pentagon’s whole anti-narco boat operations fell relatively silent for the past more than a month in the wake of the January 3rd US military raid on Venezuela to overthrow the Maduro government. Surely there was still drug trafficking off Latin America, but with ‘mission accomplished’ in Caracas the public PR ‘anti-drug’ pretext was no longer needed, […]

Berkshire Dumps Most Of Its Amazon Shares, Sells More Apple And BofA; Buys Small New York Times Position In Warren Buffett’s last quarter as CEO of Berkshire, the Omaha conglomerate slashed several key positions, most notably Amazon which was reduced by over 77%, as well as core holdings Apple and Bank of America, while adding modestly to a handful of stakes such as Chevron and Chubb, and entering a tiny new position in the New York […]

Zelensky Slams Trump Pressure As ‘Not Fair’ – Says Ukrainian Public Won’t Let Him Cede Land Ukraine’s President Zelensky has over some four years of war with Russia made very clear his unbending stance that Ukraine will never cede territory for sake of achieving peace under his watch. Yet reaching a peace settlement precisely hinges on this, as Russia will also not give up the territory it has conquered in the Donbas, including the […]

2 More High-Profile Transgender Surgery Cases Head To Trial Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Two high-profile “detransitioner” cases involving young women whose bodies were irrevocably altered as teens by transgender surgery are expected to go to trial in early 2027. Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old woman who regrets surgically removing her breasts, holds testosterone medication used for […]

Trump Threatens Iraq With Crippling Sanctions If Maliki Elected To 3rd Term As PM Via The Cradle Washington has delivered a direct warning to Iraq’s Coordination Framework (CF) that Baghdad could face sweeping sanctions if former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is elected to lead the country for a third term, according to a report in US-government funded Arabic-language Alhurra this week. An Iraqi government advisor, speaking […]

China’s Unprecedented Oil Stockpiling Sparks Questions If Beijing Is Preparing For War Almost four years ago we pointed out something striking: while the world was still busy recovering from the covid Pandemic and suffering under soaring inflation – as seemingly everything was suddenly in short supply and prices were soaring – China was busy stockpiling pretty much everything at an unprecedented pace. Quoting a JPM report from […]

Memory-Holed? Western Digital Dumps $3 Billion Sandisk Stock Stake Almost exactly a year after the spinoff officially closed on Feb. 24 last year, Western Digital is seeking to raise $3.09 billion from the sale of its remaining equity stake in Sandisk. While WDC has risen dramatically, SNDK has been on quite a tear since the spin-off… Chief Financial Officer Kris Sennesael said on Western Digital’s quarterly earnings call […]

Obama Says Aliens Exist But Are Not Kept In Area 51 Authored by Rachel Roberts via The Epoch Times, Former U.S. President Barack Obama said in a Feb. 14 podcast interview that aliens are real but that none are kept at the secretive Area 51 military base in the Nevada desert, later adding that he didn’t see any evidence indicating that extraterrestrials have contacted Earth during his presidency. In the interview, when asked, […]

Escalation: Iran, Russia, China To Hold Naval Drill In Flashpoint Strait Of Hormuz Are Russia and China finally standing up to America’s addiction to regime change wars in the Middle East? They appear to at least be flashing some muscle in this incredibly tense moment, as the US deploys no less than two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to the region. Russia, China, and Iran have deployed naval vessels to the Strait of Hormuz for […]