Newsom Folds: California Ends Lawsuit Against Trump Admin Over High-Speed Rail Funding California quietly dropped its lawsuit this week against the Trump administration over the federal government’s decision to pull $4 billion in funding for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project. The California High-Speed Rail Authority filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on Dec. 23 in the case with the U.S. District Court for the […]

Why China Is Driving Short-Term Oil Prices But OPEC Still Holds The Lever Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com, China now drives short-term oil price moves as its opaque import patterns, refinery margins, and strategic stockpiling increasingly shape marginal demand and near-term price discovery. OPEC’s influence has shifted to the medium term. In times of genuine supply stress, pricing power returns to […]

All Of The World’s Births In 2025 In One Giant Chart In 2025, global births are expected to remain highly concentrated in a relatively small number of countries. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows where the world’s newest citizens are being born and highlights the regions driving global population growth. The data for this visualization comes from the UN World Population Prospects 2024 via Our […]

EX-MI6 Spy Sounds Alarm: Hundreds Of Islamist Sleeper Agents In UK Poised For New 9/11 Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, A chilling revelation from a former MI6 operative exposes the ticking time bomb of Islamist sleeper agents embedded across the UK, ready to unleash devastation rivaling 9/11 or 7/7—all fueled by disastrous open borders policies that prioritize radicals over citizens’ safety. Aimen Dean, who […]

Visualizing The World’s Rare Earth Reserves Rare earth elements (REEs) are the backbone of modern technology, from EV motors and wind turbines to smartphones and precision-guided systems. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, breaks down where the world’s known rare earth reserves are located in 2025, highlighting how concentrated they are across a handful of countries. The distribution is highly uneven. China […]

Poland Is Expanding Its Influence Over The Baltics Through The “Via Baltica” Highway Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, Polish President Karol Nawrocki inaugurated the latest section of the “Via Baltica” highway between Poland and the Baltic States in late October in an event with his Lithuanian counterpart, with both highlighting the dual military purpose of this megaproject in an allusion to the “military […]

Pharmakeia: America’s Seniors Are Being Overmedicated Into Oblivion Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, So many seniors that were once so full of life are now just shadows of their former selves.  It can be really easy to assume that they are “just getting old” and that nothing unusual is happening to them.   But the truth is that in so many cases the reason why America’s seniors are shutting down […]

These Are The Best Countries At Reading Every three years, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluates how well 15-year-olds can apply reading skills to real-world situations. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, ranks the top-performing countries based on their average reading scores. The data for this visualization comes from the OECD’s PISA 2022 results. PISA […]

Syrian Mass Anti-Government Protests Result In Several Alawites Gunned Down Via The Cradle Syrian citizens of the Alawite minority sect took to the streets on Sunday to protest against government violence and sectarian persecution, in line with a call made by the community’s religious leader a day earlier.  Members of the minority sect protested in the Alawite neighborhoods of the central governorate of Homs, and in several […]

Prediction Consensus: What The Experts See Coming In 2026 For the seventh straight year, Visual Capitalist sifted through the forecast landscape to bring you the Prediction Consensus, a synthesis of what analysts, thought leaders, and industry experts expect for the year ahead. This year, Nick Routley analyzed over 2,000 individual predictions from a wide variety of sources including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, the IMF, The […]

The Good News Is People Are Realizing We’re On Our Own Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog, We no longer care who’s behind the curtain because we’re in charge of our own lives now. The Good News is people are realizing We’re On Our Own and starting to take action accordingly. This article describes how people in one low-income county are localizing self-reliance rather than remain dependent on government […]

New Orleans Has The Highest Homicide Rate Among Major US Cities Across the United States, there were 22,830 homicides in 2023, averaging 6.8 deaths per 100,000 people. Homicide rates vary widely across American cities, influenced by factors such as poverty, inequality, gun laws, and local policing strategies. This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows the top 40 U.S. cities by their homicide rate per 100,000 […]

Rewind Your Age Naturally: The Secret Lies In 6 Superfoods Authored by JoJo Novaes & Arthur Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Can you imagine rewinding your biological clock by more than two years in just eight weeks, simply by adjusting your diet and lifestyle? It might be possible. Illustration by The Epoch Times/Shutterstock A study published in Aging found that foods rich in methylated adaptogens significantly […]

India’s Modi Has The Highest Approval Rating Of World Leaders Heading Into 2026 Public approval of political leaders reflects a mix of economic conditions, policy decisions, and broader voter sentiment. As 2025 comes to a close, approval ratings offer a snapshot of how leaders around the world are perceived heading into 2026. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, ranks major global leaders by approval rating, […]

Silver Tops $83: “When Prices Move Like This, An Awful Lot Of Bad Things Become Possible…” The final week of the year begins with silver adding to a stunning month of gains, topping $83 for the first time… Platinum and gold are also catching an early bid, with Treasury futures lower.  Silver is now at its most expensive relative to gold since Feb 2013… Analyst and financial writer John Rubino has been warning of a […]

Watch: Russian Diplomat Shocked As FSB Nabs Him For Selling Secrets To US A former Russian diplomat has been sentenced to 12 years in a high-security penal colony after being convicted of passing state secrets to the United States, which allegedly happened during his stint as an assistant to Russia’s consulate general in Houston, where he worked between 2014 and 2017. The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Friday that […]

Ukraine “Is Ready For Peace”; Zelensky Thanks Trump After “Great Meeting” Update (1730ET): Following a call with Russian president Putin and meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at his Mar-a-Lago estate, President Trump said early Sunday that he made “a lot of progress” in talks with Ukraine and Russia, and that they were getting “closer” to settling the status of the disputed Donbas territory, but that […]

Doug Casey’s Top Prediction For 2026… What It Means For You And Your Money Via InternationalMan.com, International Man: What do you see as the single most important thing that people should prepare for in 2026? Doug Casey: Strauss and Howe asked that question in their book, The Fourth Turning. We’re at a major turning point in the U.S. I’ve felt for years that the U.S. was heading toward something like a civil war. It […]

Lone Wolves Eye NYC Times Square New Year’s Eve Special Events With New Year’s Eve just days away, a newly released U.S. government threat assessment cited by New York local outlet ABC 7 NY warns that lone wolves and small terror cells may seek to target special events in Times Square during the holiday celebrations. “Lone offenders remain a particular concern due to their frequent ability to avoid detection until operational,” […]

Education Department Has Rejected Over 300,000 Requests For Lower Student Loan Repayments Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Department of Education has so far denied requests from more than 300,000 existing student loan recipients seeking new repayment terms, according to documents filed in a federal court earlier this month. The Dec. 15 status report in the American Federation of Teachers’ ongoing […]

McDonald’s Locks Dining Room Doors In Uptown Minneapolis Amid Rising Crime Just another “normal” day in a Democratic paradise… A viral photo of a notice posted at a McDonald’s in Uptown Minneapolis has renewed attention on rising crime in the area, Fox News pointed out this week. The sign reads: “Attention guests, effective Friday, December 5th, our dining room doors will be locked and attended [to] during our normal business […]

Fed’s ‘Skinny’ Accounts End Operation Chokepoint 2.0 – Senator Lummis Authored by Vince Quill via CoinTelegraph.com, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, a pro-crypto United States lawmaker, said the recent proposal from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller to give crypto companies access to “skinny” master accounts would end debanking under Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Waller proposed the idea at the Payments Innovation […]

New York To Demand Warning Labels On Social Media Platforms New York is requiring warning labels on social media platforms about addictive features in a bid to address a youth mental health crisis. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law on Dec. 26, targeting infinite scrolling, auto-play videos, and algorithmic feeds that encourage prolonged use. The law, S4505/A5346, sponsored by Democrats state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and […]

Dave Collum’s 2025 Year In Review: From Precious Metals To Propaganda’s Golden Age Authored by David B. Collum, Betty R. Miller Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology – Cornell University (Email: [email protected], Twitter: @DavidBCollum), Every year, David Collum writes a detailed “Year in Review” synopsis (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018) full of keen perspective and plenty of wit. This year’s is no […]

As Trump Awaits Netanyahu’s War Pitch, Iranian President Says Israel, US Already Waging ‘Full-Scale War’ Two days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s is expected to pitch President Trump on a new round of war with Iran, Iran’s president says the United States, Israel and Europe are already waging “full-fledged war” on Iran, and that a return to kinetic warfare will result in a “more decisive response” than the […]