Epoch Times

New data show that delinquency rates are rising across the U.S. marketplace as consumers contend with high inflation, real negative wage growth, and rising interest rates. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s (FRBNY) Household Debt and Credit Report, the overall flow into serious delinquency rate (90 days or more delinquent) rose to 1.08 percent in the first...

Commentary The New York Philharmonic’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony, brilliantly conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, lived up to the piece’s immense reputation. Written in 1909, it is the last gasp of the Old World wrecked by the Great War. It left the audience in tears of melancholy reflection. The ceremonial and traditional silence following the final movement was as...

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will meet on May 22 for in-person talks on resolving the debt ceiling crisis. Over the weekend, negotiations between representatives from each side stalled as both doubled down on their demands. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), the lead negotiator for Republicans, told reporters on May 19 that Biden’s negotiators were being “unreasonable.”...

Meta Platform Inc.’s Instagram was back up for most users, the company said on Sunday, after a technical issue that disrupted services to thousands of people had been resolved. “Earlier today, a technical issue caused some people to have trouble accessing Instagram. We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters....

LONDON—The dollar was steady against the euro and yen on Monday, as U.S. debt ceiling negotiations were set to resume and after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated he favours a meeting-by-meeting approach when it comes to future policy moves. The greenback was down 0.1 percent at 137.85 yen to start the week, having snapped a six-day winning streak on...

Commentary The AUKUS submarines have already performed their first stealth mission, inserting the question of nuclear power back into the national conversation—this time as a practical possibility. When he was defence minister, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was partly responsible for the decision to buy eight nuclear power submarines. Now in his speech-in-reply to the budget, he is suggesting nuclear as...

Commentary Dictatorships don’t make concessions unless they are forced to do so. They don’t make concessions as a unilateral goodwill gesture, only out of self-interest. Therefore one can safely assume that the lifting of the ban on Australian timber exports to China, which was so spuriously imposed by the communist dictatorship on “quarantine” grounds, is fully enveloped in self-interest. Australia...

Commentary We are an odd nation. We aspire to be many things, to be included in multilateral fora, to be noticed. We want to be seen as important, as “not Americans.” Maybe that is partly a consequence of having the United States next door and feelings of inadequacy/fear. As Prime Minister Trudeau—Pierre, not the current version—once put it: “Living next...

ORLANDO, Fla.—Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking that a federal judge be disqualified from the First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor and his appointees, claiming the jurist’s prior statements in other cases have raised questions about his impartiality on the state’s efforts to take over Disney World’s governing body. DeSantis’s attorney filed a motion in federal court...

An FBI whistleblower alleged that the bureau has created an “Orwellian atmosphere” that has silenced dissent and retaliated against individuals who came forward with claims about the law enforcement agency. During Thursday’s House “Weaponization of Government” panel hearing, FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle said the bureau engaged in a “smear campaign” against him, adding in a later interview with Fox News there...

President Joe Biden says he believes he can raise the debt ceiling unilaterally under the 14th Amendment even without GOP support. “I’m looking at the 14th Amendment as to whether or not we have the authority —I think we have the authority,” Biden said during a May 21 press conference at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan....

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) doubled down on the push to get an FBI document that linked Joe Biden to a pay-to-play bribery scheme while he was still vice president under President Barack Obama. “The FBI’s delay in producing a single, unclassified record is unacceptable,” Comer said in a May 19 statement. “The information provided...

Commentary The United States has, since the removal of President Richard Nixon in 1974, been moving along a strategic trajectory largely determined by its adversaries. Strategic success is associated with achieving identified goals and moving upon a trajectory determined by sovereign will rather than by an external force, especially the force of an adversary. So how, a half-century ago, was...

Biden is expected to call McCarthy on the way to Washington to resolve the debt ceiling standoff Hiroshima, JAPAN—President Joe Biden took aim at Republicans, claiming that he had done his part in debt ceiling negotiations and that it was now up to them to “move from their extreme positions.” During a press conference held after the Group of Seven...

News Analysis The Chinese-owned video-sharing platform TikTok has become increasingly scrutinized over reports of censoring anti-Beijing content, tracking users, and concerns that it hands user information to authorities in Beijing. A number of governments have escalated efforts to restrict access to the video app citing security concerns. Lawmakers in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom have passed...

Debt ceiling debate between White House and GOP heats up over weekend, with both sides trading criticism HIROSHIMA, Japan—President Joe Biden has asked his negotiators to coordinate a call with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for Sunday morning, U.S. time, after he concludes his G7 meetings on the last day of the summit in Japan. The White House has engaged in...

A small, loose-knit group of certified public accountants (CPAs) hope to convince states to apply the same techniques accountants use to assure integrity in business to elections and restore voter confidence. “What we want to do is make sure that eligible voters can find it very easy to vote, and people who are not eligible to vote can’t. And then...

The Chinese-owned TikTok’s proposal for remaining in the United States is no more than artful deception and hasn’t addressed its link to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the House Homeland Security Committee chairman. “The token steps TikTok has taken are all smoke and mirrors, and the risks to Americans’ privacy and data security remain,” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.)...

News Analysis SAN FRANCISCO—San Franciscans started to feel the impact of a massive exodus starting with the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing as crime skyrocketed more recently. Residents have found that there are not as many people walking the streets downtown now. Usually there are more tourists than office workers, even during lunch break. No more crowds of people line up waiting...

President Joe Biden will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the Hiroshima Summit, the White House said. The meeting will happen in the afternoon of May 21 local time. “We do expect that the president will have a bilateral meeting with President Zelenskyy … In that meeting, the president will continue to reiterate the United States’ firm and resolute...