Epoch Times

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken legal action against Amazon for allegedly enrolling customers in its Prime program without their consent and then devising an elaborate scheme to prevent them from unsubscribing. The consumer protection agency made the allegations in a lawsuit (pdf) filed on June 21 at the U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington. “Amazon used manipulative,...

Commentary In yet another sign of China’s economic and financial troubles, Beijing has dramatically diminished its financial presence in Southeast Asia. Once preeminent, China finds itself today eclipsed by others. If Xi Jinping and his colleagues in Beijing still dream of global dominance, it must look further away than ever as China retreats from its own backyard. A recent report...

“The upper bounds of damages against Pfizer would be $3.6 trillion dollars. And obviously, Pfizer’s not worth $3.6 trillion dollars. That company would have to be seized in bankruptcy, its assets distributed and sold off, and I think that’s an appropriate end for that company. So I’m doing everything I can to get there.” After witnessing fraud and abuse among...

Looking back on the 2023 legislative session, New York Democratic Sen. James Skoufis told The Epoch Times that he pushed several high-priority bills with statewide impacts through both houses. He also worked with Republican colleagues in the Assembly in passing local laws that allow a number of towns and villages in Orange County to levy hotel and motel taxes. This...

Twitter owner Elon Musk said the words “cisgender” and “cis” are now considered slurs on Twitter after a user said they were harassed online by transgender activists. The user wrote that he rejected the word “cis” and “cisgender,” which are often used by transgender individuals to describe heterosexual people. “Yesterday, after posting a Tweet saying that I reject the word ‘cis’...

New U.S. housing starts registered the biggest monthly increase in more than 30 years in May, but some experts raised doubts about whether the trend is sustainable. “Privately owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,631,000. This is 21.7 percent above the revised April estimate of 1,340,000,” according to a June 20 press release...

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed Senate Bill 1246 on Tuesday which aimed to extend a transit sales tax of half a cent that has funded transportation projects in the state’s largest county for almost 40 years. While Maricopa residents must vote to again approve the tax, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have failed to reach a consensus on spending the...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has launched an investigation into what he says is Amazon’s “disastrous safety record” and unfair treatment of workers who suffer injuries in its warehouses. Sanders, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter (pdf) to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy to inform him of the investigation on June 20. The letter claims that the...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law new legislation aimed at limiting children’s exposure to drag events or other sexual performances on public property or businesses across the state. Senate Bill 12 (pdf) restricts certain “sexually oriented performances” from taking place on public property, on the premises of a commercial enterprise, or in the presence of individuals under the age of 18....

U.S. industrial production unexpectedly slipped in May, after two months of gains. Factories in the mid-Atlantic region saw a decline in activity for the first time since 2021 in June, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Production fell 0.2 percent last month, as manufacturing struggled under the weight of higher interest rates, after a 0.5 percent rise in...

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said “over 50 percent” of a new form regarding allegations about President Joe Biden’s family business dealings and potential bribes was redacted. The FD-1023 form is a type of document used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recording allegations about potential criminal activity from the FBI’s confidential human sources. Evidence...

Commentary For years my mother has gone swimming several times per week at her local pool in Ottawa. The pool is a central part of her life, but recently her once-innocuous activity became unsafe. About two months ago, my mother finished her swim and went to the women’s change room to shower. Afterwards she wrapped herself in a towel and...

Tucked away inside Slide number 12 of the CDC’s recent presentation on vaccine efficacy is a truly startling datapoint. It showed that, in the most recent period of time, the efficacy of the vaccine actually turned negative (in terms of hospitalizations). Meaning: if 2 people contracted covid, and one of them was vaccinated, while the other was unvaccinated — the...

What do Americans think about the legal predicament of former president and leading 2024 GOP candidate Donald Trump? The polls say one thing and the press says another, but some of America’s top stars have a different take—Trump is for the people. When you rig the system against him, it’s just proof you’ve rigged against them, too. In this provocative...

Commentary I was given cause recently to reflect on the meaning of “community.” What is community? Most people would reflexively answer that it is where you live, your locality, and that would not be entirely incorrect. But, what is a community really? Must you have a home in your community? Can you be in more than one community at once?...

Social media site Reddit reported a hacking incident for which the ALPHV Russian ransomware group has now claimed to be the perpetrator. The group threatens to leak censorship and other sensitive, stolen information in relation to Reddit if the company does not pay $4.5 million. Reddit had reported the data breach on February after an employee fell victim to a...

In this episode, we sit down with Lee Benson, the author of “Value Creation Kid: The Healthy Struggles Your Children Need to Succeed.” Growing up in a low-income family, Benson went from pulling weeds for 25 cents an hour as a child to founding and selling multiple successful companies. What is the downside to protecting children from adversity? How do we create...

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban criticized popular podcast host Joe Rogan after he asked Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist, to debate 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time critic of childhood vaccines. “Trying to bully Dr. Hotez is ridiculous. You have producers that will prepare you and you get to control the conversation. @RobertKennedyJr also has...

While cancer is a disease that most commonly affects people over 50 years old, a joint U.S.-UK cancer funding review found that over the past 30 years, there has been a rise in cancer rates among people under 50 in multiple countries. “From our data, we observed something called the birth cohort effect,” Dr. Shuji Ogino, a Harvard professor and physician-scientist...

Commentary We’re constantly told that trans women pose no threat to biological women—this is simply not true. Women’s rights activists are regularly targeted and physically assaulted by aggressive trans activists. This fact isn’t lost on Reem Alsalem, a humanitarian who was appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls back in 2021. As I reported last month,...