Tag: The Epoch Times

Meta Platforms’ Threads, which rivals Twitter, crossed 100 million sign-ups within five days of launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, dethroning ChatGPT as the fastest-growing online platform to hit the milestone. Threads has been setting records for user growth since its launch on Wednesday, with celebrities, politicians, and other newsmakers joining the platform. “That’s mostly organic demand, and we ...

The United States will move forward with its plan to transfer F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, the White House said on July 11, shortly after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan withdrew his objection to Sweden joining NATO. “President Biden has been clear and unequivocal for months that he supported the transfer of F-16s to Turkey,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told ...

The major U.S. banks are set to report the biggest jump in loan losses since the COVID-19 pandemic, as rising interest rates put mounting pressure on borrowers across the country. America’s top lenders are expected to release their second quarterly earnings reports this week, with JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and BlackRock releasing theirs on July 14. Bank of America and ...

Meta’s answer to Twitter, Threads, launched worldwide this week with the exception of EU member countries. The new Instagram-linked app, which is now available in 100 countries, so far has no plans to launch in the EU, likely due to privacy regulations in the bloc. There are obviously very strong concerns over the processing of data of EU citizens, as Meta ...

Tech giant Google has been ordered to hand over the IP address and details of a person accused of emailing defamatory allegations about a Labor election candidate in Australia. On Nov. 9 last year, during the Victorian state election, an individual sent an email (from the address: davidjonesaus18@gmail.com) about Nurul Khan to ministers and news organisations. Following this, Mr. Khan ...

LANSING, Mich.—Former Democratic state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. on Monday announced a campaign for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, one of the nation’s most competitive House districts. Mr. Hertel and another ex-state senator, Republican Tom Barrett, who launched his second run for the seat Sunday night, are the first to announce bids for the seat of U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). ...

Commentary “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.” This confronting statement emanates from the World Economic Forum (WEF), a non-governmental organisation established in 1971 by Klaus Schwab. By all appearances, the WEF is the most powerful organisation in the world. For decades, it has been at the centre of bringing together the world’s richest and most powerful in ...

NEW YORK—Stocks ticked higher on Wall Street Monday ahead of a week with updates on where inflation and corporate profits are heading. The S&P 500 rose 10.58, or 0.2 percent, to 4,409.53, coming off just its second losing week in the last eight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 209.52, or 0.6 percent, to 33,944.40, and the Nasdaq composite added ...

An Alabama law enforcement agency said on July 10 that it is not aware of any deaths linked to a TikTok challenge that encourages people to flip off the rear of a boat while moving at a high rate of speed, despite a slew of news reports quoting an Alabama official as saying otherwise. In a series of posts on ...

Commentary What is the impact on the global strategic balance of plans by the BRICS nations to create an economic framework or marketplace, possibly backed in the future by an independent currency regime? The BRICS bloc—Brazil, Russia, India, China (PRC), and South Africa—was originally an acronym conceived by New York investors in 2001, but assumed a separate life through agreements ...

Interest rates are likely to be raised a “couple” of more times this year as inflation is still far too high, says the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Despite price pressures slowing, San Francisco Fed Bank President Mary Daly believes the institution needs to continue raising interest rates, a policy decision that requires a balancing act ...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is once again speaking out against transgender politics, calling upon parents to “fight back” and protect their children from the ideology. “Time for parents to fight back!” the billionaire wrote on Twitter on July 9 in response to a TikTok video posted by an irate father. “I’m literally on fire right now,” said the dad, who ...

The attorneys general for Missouri and Louisiana have submitted a petition to oppose the Biden administration’s motion to stay an injunction against its efforts allowing it to contact social media firms about a range of online content, including its efforts to flag so-called misinformation. Over the weekend, the two states filed (pdf) a memorandum of opposition to the administration’s motion, ...

Republican Utah governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday that he’s preparing to sue social media companies for causing harm to young children in the state. During an interview with the CBS program “Face The Nation,” on July 9, Mr. Cox said that “when you look at the new research that’s coming out, there’s not just a correlation between social media ...

SINGAPORE/LONDON—The dollar regained ground on Monday, partly recovering from a knee-jerk reaction to Friday data showing U.S. job gains were the smallest in two-and-a-half years, while disappointing inflation figures in China weighed on the yuan and proxies. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of major peers, was up 0.15 percent at 102.44 having tumbled 0.87 percent ...

Victorian homeowners will be hit with the heaviest property tax in Australia from the 2023-2024 financial year onward as the state Labor government carries out its COVID-19 debt repayment plan. According to a new report by the Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office, Victorians will need to pay an estimated property tax (land transfer duty plus land tax) of $2,000 (US$1,336) per person ...

Roy Herron, a longtime Tennessee state lawmaker and former chairperson of the state Democratic Party, died Sunday from injuries sustained in a jet ski accident. He was 69. Herron died at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, according to a statement from his family. He had been hospitalized since a July 1 collision with another jet ski on Kentucky Lake, in ...

Commentary You have to wonder whether Australia’s federal and state Labor governments are trying to drive private landlords out of the residential market. It would be perverse behaviour when Australia has a housing rental and home ownership crisis, but the only alternative explanation is incompetence. In the first place, they’ve set the country up for housing failure. Net migration over ...

A Bank of England (BoE) digital pound will be a “complete restructure” of the current financial system and can give the government more control on how people use their money, a financial analyst warns. Some 130 countries are exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to the Atlantic Council. The Bank of England (BoE) and the Treasury are currently considering ...

WASHINGTON—Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Sunday he would take steps to revoke China’s permanent normal trade relations status if he won the 2024 White House race. “I favor doing that. I think we probably need Congress but I would take executive action as appropriate to be able to move us in that direction,” Mr. DeSantis ...