Iran’s IRGC Seizes Two ‘Fuel-Smuggling’ Vessels In Gulf Amid US Showdown Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy says it has seized two vessels near Farsi Island allegedly carrying large quantities of smuggled fuel, the country’s Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported Thursday – at a moment the nation’s military has its “finger on the trigger” amid threats from the Trump White House and Israel. More than one million […]

Gold’s Going To $10,000: Martin Armstrong Warns “Europe Is Desperate For War” Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com, Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong warned in late December to be ready for the “Perfect Storm for Debt, Economy, War, Gold & Silver.”  The rain and thunder started at the beginning of February, and the storm is just beginning.  Armstrong says, “This is where the […]

Initial Jobless Claims Jump As YTD Job Cuts Hit Highest Since 2009, AI Blamed Initial jobless claims rose more than expected last week to 231k (212k exp) from 209k prior. While a significant rise, it remains – for now – within the low range of the last four years… Source: Bloomberg Continuing claims also rose modestly, but less than expected. 1.844mm Americans are currently filing for jobless benefits (below the 1.85 million […]

EUR Flat As ECB Leaves Rates Unch; Cable Drops On BoE’s ‘Dovish Hold’ In a surprise to traders, The Bank of England came within a vote of cutting interest rates and predicted inflation will fall below its target, a closer-than-expected decision that revived hopes of a move next month. As Bloomberg reports, Governor Bailey was once again the swing voter in a 5-4 decision to leave rates unchanged at 3.75%, choosing to hold policy […]

Futures, Bitcoin, Gold All Tumble As Momentum Liquidations Accelerate Stock futures slide, hitting session lows just after 7am ET, after a two-day drop that saw an ETF tracking software stocks sink to its lowest since April. As of 8:00am ET, S&P 500 futures have slumped to session lows, down 0.7% following a sharp slide just after 7am ET; Nasdaq 100 futures are also sharply lower, dropping 0.8% after the index wiped out its […]

“Challenging External Environment”: Volvo Crashes Most On Record After Earnings Miss Shares in Volvo Cars crashed the most on record in Stockholm, with Bloomberg data going back to late 2021, after it reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst expectations. A toxic blend of higher US tariffs, cuts to EV subsidies, a stronger Swedish krona versus a weaker dollar, and an intensifying price war in China all squeezed […]

Memory Shortage Fears Spread, Raising Alarm At Qualcomm And Arm Consumers are about to learn that one of the most frustrating side effects of the AI boom will be the “great memory crunch.” Surging data center demand is siphoning high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply away from consumer devices, setting the stage for slower growth across the electronics industry this year. We have been vocal about this HBM crunch, even citing industry […]

What Goes Around: The EU’s Extralegal Sanctions Regime Submitted by Pascal Lottaz It has come as a shock to many of us in the alternative media sphere when, on December 15, the EU put the esteemed analyst, political commentator, and former Swiss Army colonel Jacques Baud, on its Russia-Sanctions list. He was one of several newly sanctioned individuals (alongside, for instance, the popular French journalist, Xavier Moreau). Baud is […]

These Are America’s Healthiest States “Blue Zones” are regions of the world where people live longer and healthier lives, supported by habits that boost longevity. Loma Linda, California is one of the few recognized Blue Zones, alongside Okinawa, Japan and Ikaria, Greece. Just as place can have a powerful influence on health outcomes, differences vary meaningfully across America. This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy […]

Dutch Government Refuses To Probe UK Travel Ban On Eva Vlaardingerbroek Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News, The Dutch government has refused to investigate or seek clarification from the United Kingdom after Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek had her permission to travel to Britain revoked, confirming it has not even asked London for an explanation over the decision. The position was set out in formal parliamentary […]

UBS: SpaceX-xAI Merger Signals Rise Of “Orbital AI” In September 2024, we penned a note that Elon Musk was on track to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027, driven by what we described as “space race bets.” That call looks increasingly correct following the merger of Musk’s SpaceX and xAI earlier this week, a transaction that has lifted his net worth to $850 billion. By contrast, former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, who once […]

EU Inc: Can Brussels’ Latest Corporate Reform Escape Bureaucracy’s Grip Submitted by Thomas Kolbe The European Commission is responding to mounting criticism of over-bureaucratization with the introduction of a new corporate legal form. “EU Inc” is intended to create a uniform legal structure that applies across the entire European Union economic area. A charming idea—but one that quickly sinks in the general bureaucratic […]

How Fast Is The Asian Population Ageing? The latest revision of UN World Population Prospects reveals that demographic shift is no longer a distant projection but an accelerating reality across parts of Asia, with the share of people aged 65 and over rising fast in several countries. As Statista’s Tristan Gaudiaut reports, this trend poses a significant challenge in the region for labor markets, public finances and care systems […]

Netherlands To Tax Unrealized Gains: EU Wealth Grab And Global Implications Submitted by Thomas Kolbe A fiscal storm is brewing in the Netherlands. With the potential introduction of a tax on unrealized capital gains, The Hague is set to become a testing ground for the systematic transfer of wealth from the private sector to the state. Across all government levels, the European Union is increasingly transforming into an aggressive […]

Russia Offers To Remove All Enriched Uranium From Iran On potential upcoming US-Iran talks, the two sides can’t agree on scope – with Washington wanting to go beyond just the nuclear sphere and into the question of Tehran putting limits on its ballistic missile arsenal. The Iranians have given a firm no on this, and so the talks look doomed to fail. But Russia is now offering – or at least reiterating – a potentially huge overture. […]

Germany Faces Gas Shortage Crisis: Industry Demands Strategic Reserve Submitted by Thomas Kolbe Following the Federal Network Agency, the umbrella organization of the energy industry is now also calling for the establishment of a national strategic natural gas reserve. The coordinated push by the sector makes it clear that the decline in gas storage levels is far more severe than politics has so far admitted. Kerstin Andreae, […]

Brad Karp, Chairman Of Top Law Firm Paul Weiss, Resigns Over Epstein Ties The chairman of one of the nation’s top law firms suddenly resigned Wednesday evening after a series of embarrassing emails emerged between him and Jeffrey Epstein became public in recent days. Brad Karp, who has been at the helm of law firm Paul Weiss for 18 years, gave no explanation for his decision – aside form a statement that “Recent reporting has […]

“I Deeply Regret”: Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman Deny Epstein Malarkey, And Here’s Some Weird Sh*t As the latest Epstein Files release continues to provide premium toilet reading and no arrests, tech billionaires Bill Gates and Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman are in full damage control mode, while President Donald Trump – whose name is all over the files as well, is back to asking if we can just move on. Other notables mentioned in the […]

How Will Key Countries Respond To Washington’s Attempted Restoration Of Unipolarity? Authored by Andrew Korybko, The US’ new National Security and Defense Strategies, which collectively articulate the “Trump Doctrine”, make clear that the US’ grand strategic goal is to restore its predominant position (unipolarity) over the world. Unlike during the short-lived unipolar era that followed the end of the Old Cold War, this […]

Hong Kong Graduates Face Toughest Job Market In Five Years Hong Kong’s graduate job market reached its weakest level in five years in 2025, as hiring dropped sharply and wages showed almost no growth, according to SCMP. University data revealed that job openings fell by 55 per cent from the previous year, declining to just over 30,000 positions, even lower than during the pandemic period. This marked a major shift from earlier […]

Netanyahu Tells US Envoys Iran Cannot Be Trusted If Deal Is Reached Via The Libertarian Institute Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday that Iran cannot be trusted, as Witkoff prepares for potential talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. “Ahead of Envoy Witkoff’s departure to meet with a representative of Iran, the Prime Minister clarified his […]

Silver Crashes 20% As China Opens, Gold & Bitcoin Also Plunging On the heels of today’s momentum collapse in the US, Silver prices have puked almost 20% in a matter of hours after Asian markets opened… …erasing the rebound gains of the last three days… The overall decline from when Trump’s announcement of Warsh’s nomination as the next Fed Chair is now back up to 40%. “Sentiment seems to have turned soggy across […]

The US Might Make The Sahelian Alliance An Offer That It Can’t Refuse Authored by Andrews Korybko, Its members might be told by the Bureau of African Affairs’ chief to let the US replace or at least “balance” Russia’s role as their top security partner under implied pain of US-backed Nigerian military pressure on anti-terrorist pretexts, French-backed terrorist advances, and/or US anti-terrorist strikes. The US’ Bureau […]

Vance To Lead Sweeping Anti-Fraud Task Force Investigating California Vice President JD Vance is poised to chair a new White House task force aimed at rooting out potential fraud and abuse in government programs in California, according to CBS News. Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, is expected to serve as the task force’s vice chairman and handle day-to-day operations, CBS News reports. President Donald […]

Will The New Fed Chair Fix The Money? Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times, The choice of Kevin Warsh as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve has received mixed reviews, as can be expected. His professional connections lean establishment in every way, which is perhaps not what Trump’s base expected. More interesting is that Warsh is on record as an inflation hawk, a critic of zero-interest rate policies, and a […]