Epoch Times

Uncertainty in the American economy is beginning have an effect on the energy markets and gas prices. Oil prices have declined amid concerns among investors that rising interest rates will push the U.S. economy into a recession. Analysts have expressed concern that a recession will cause oil demand and pump prices in the world’s largest economy to tumble, with a...

After winning back territory in the fall and holding most of those gains through winter, the world awaits Ukraine’s much-anticipated spring offensive to drive Russian invaders out of the nation’s eastern provinces. Despite optimism, however, most European and United States analysts do not expect the offensive will deliver a decisive enough victory to end Vladimir Putin’s vision of “a 21st-century...

The U.S. Supreme Court is moving closer to deciding if it will issue an opinion in a high-profile case in which Republicans want the court to recognize state legislatures’ power to regulate federal elections without interference from state courts, which they say the U.S. Constitution requires. Many legal observers had speculated that the case was dead after a state supreme...

Commentary Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor, Philip Lowe, has fired a warning shot over the bow of the federal treasurer by raising official interest rates another quarter of a percent this week to 3.85 percent. The hard work on inflation has to be done by the government which has access to a large number of tools—fiscal and regulatory—to make...

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for June delivery fell 4 cents to $68.56 a barrel Thursday. Brent crude for July delivery rose 17 cents to $72.50 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline for June delivery rose 1 cent $2.33 a gallon. June heating oil rose 1 cent $2.24 a gallon. June natural gas fell 7 cents to $2.10 per 1,000 cubic feet. Gold...

Commentary The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election—health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel Notley promised that an NDP government would expand hours at medical clinics...

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at 3:30 p.m. ET on May 4. ...

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee holds a hearing on Preparing for the Next Public Health Emergency: Reauthorizing the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act at 1:00 p.m. ET on May 4. Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner  Robert Califf, assistant professor of medicine...

Commentary Charlie Munger, believed by some to be the real “brains” behind Berkshire-Hathaway, the multinational investment leviathon helmed by Warren Buffet, recently told The Financial Times, “We have a lot of troubled office buildings, a lot of troubled shopping centres, a lot of troubled other properties. There’s a lot of agony out there” in real estate. His comments are well-founded....

Three members of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, themselves veterans, have urged the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to investigate what they are calling troubling allegations that a neurologist at the Tomah VA Medical Center in Wisconsin may have failed over an 18-year period to provide hundreds of veterans with thorough and adequate compensation and pension (C&P) exams. Veterans’...

Commentary Many lament the collective decline of critical thought among young people, not just here in Australia but throughout the Western world. It seems to me that there are a variety of contributing factors to this very real crisis, not least of all social media, an agent which has significantly impaired the concentration of so many of our children, leaving...

For the first time in two years, high-priced California rentals have undergone a slight decline, while markets in the Midwest are experiencing an increase in monthly rentals. Realtor.com’s March rental report indicates 14 markets in California have seen year-over-year declines, including Riverside-San Bernardino at -5.3 percent, Sacramento at -2.1 percent, and San Francisco and Los Angeles both at -0.8 percent....

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said he will veto a proposed bill that would ban abortions after 12 weeks. According to House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, House and Senate Republicans came to a consensus on legislation that would enact the legislation. Currently, state law prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy with the exceptions...

Government organizations and publicly owned services will not be required to make payments to access Twitter’s Application Programming Interface (API), the social media network said in a recent announcement. Twitter’s API access will allow public service firms to send automated alerts. “One of the most important use cases for the Twitter API has always been public utility. Verified gov or...

News Analysis A storm is brewing in the U.S. commercial real estate market, says Charles Munger, vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway. During an interview, the 99-year-old legendary investor told the Financial Times that U.S. banks have plenty of “bad loans” and will be vulnerable when the “bad times come” and commercial property prices crater. “It’s not nearly as bad as...

Commentary We’ve crossed the three-year mark of the worst years for freedom in our lifetimes. What do we see? Something I’ve expected since the entire fiasco of lockdowns began. I wrongly assumed it would begin immediately. It waited three years but it is finally here; a full-on revolt against all the forces that broke the world. The patterns are all...

Financial officers from 27 states issued a letter to President Joe Biden protesting a new policy from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that increases mortgage fees for some higher-credit borrowers while lowering them for more risky borrowers. This policy, which critics say will penalize people with good credit and encourage risky borrowing, went into effect on May 1. It...

Lawsuit targets groups that aid government censorship and interference in the dissemination of free speech online A lawsuit by America First Legal (AFL) alleges that certain entities colluded with the American government to enforce censorship of issues like the 2020 election and COVID-19 on social media platforms. According to a May 2 press release, the federal class action lawsuit was filed...

Title 42, is a Trump-era public health order that gives the government power to automatically expel illegal immigrants, and is set to expire on 11 May, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It will be possibly replaced by an order called Title 8, which offers more severe punishments for crossing into the United States, illegally. Rep. Henry Cuellar...

Economist sees path to housing affordability by 2025, except for Vancouver and Toronto News Analysis Housing supply is not keeping up with a rapidly growing population and the problem is worsening in 2023, with a downturn in home building underway due largely to higher interest rates. The government’s higher immigration targets and record-breaking year for processing immigration applications are putting...