CEO Times

California's governor toured early primary states hawking 'Gavin 2028' buttons, but even his own allies admit the Golden State's brand — the same one voters associate with runaway taxes and regulation — may be his biggest liability.

Newsom Draws Crowds of 150 in South Carolina as He Concedes 'California Derangement Syndrome' Ahead of 2028 Bid

Federal labor forecasts show utilities and healthcare surging on AI-driven electricity demand and an aging population, while office bureaucracy shrinks by 752,100 jobs — proof that capital, not mandates, is reallocating the American workforce.

Healthcare and AI Power Demand to Drive Over Half of All New U.S. Jobs Through 2035

The Trump administration hit Istanbul-based Golden Global Investment Bank for allegedly converting Iranian oil revenue from China into cash and gold, deepening 'Operation Economic Outcast' as energy prices climb ahead of the midterms.

Treasury Sanctions Turkish Bank in Iran Oil Scheme, One Day After Halkbank's $20 Billion Sanctions Case Ends

The new Arcade site turns border security and the $1,000-per-child Trump Accounts into pixelated gameplay, but the makers of Tetris say they never signed off on the knockoff.

White House Rolls Out Five Retro Arcade Games to Pitch Trump's Agenda, Draws Tetris Trademark Fight

The president backed Vance's claim that the six-month air campaign against Iran isn't a 'war,' even as Tehran struck U.S. ally Kuwait and the cost to American taxpayers climbed past $37.5 billion.

Trump Defends Iran Strikes as 'Small Potatoes' While Taxpayer Bill Hits $37.5 Billion, 18 Troops Dead

The unemployment rate held at 4.1% and job postings are set to climb into fall, but LinkedIn and Indeed data show hiring remains more than 20% below pre-pandemic levels and employers are in no hurry to bring workers on board.

August Payrolls Add 162,000, But Hiring Rate Barely Moves as 'September Surge' Hype Meets a Cautious Market

The proposed rule would end tax-exempt status for private schools and colleges that give students preferential treatment based on race, a benefit that has saved universities millions of dollars for more than a century.

Treasury Moves to Strip Tax Breaks From 18,000 Colleges Over Race-Based Preferences

A new government watchdog report shows the taxpayer-funded agency responsible for presidential protection failed to document why dozens of threats, including drone incursions, did not trigger policy changes ahead of the 2024 attempt on then-candidate Trump's life.

GAO Finds Secret Service Updated Policies After Only 25 of 83 Security Incidents Before Butler Attack on Candidate Trump

The administration's proposal would deny most federal employees a raise next year, and critics warn it could deepen a retention crunch already visible across agencies.

Trump's 2027 Budget Freezes Pay for Most Federal Workers as 271,000 Already Exit the Bureaucracy

Ottawa's retaliation for Washington's 50% tariff on Canadian goods lands squarely on toilet paper, paper towels and dairy — reviving 2020-style shortage fears just as midterms approach.

Canada's 25% Toilet Paper Tariff Puts Trump's Trade War Back on the American Kitchen Table

The U.S. Mint began producing the gold-finish coin to mark America's 250th birthday, and collectors can now buy in under a legal provision that lets the Treasury Secretary authorize special issues.

Trump's Face Debuts on New $1 Coin as U.S. Mint Opens Sales at $61 a Roll

A lopsided vote by the party's own San Francisco chapter exposes a widening rift among Democrats over Proposition 40, a 5% one-time levy on the state's roughly 200 billionaires — six of whom have already left the state ahead of the tax deadline.

San Francisco Democrats Vote 17-4 Against Billionaire Wealth Tax as Six Fortunes Already Fled California

The president is right that data centers are propping up growth — Epoch AI and the St. Louis Fed confirm it — but his own party is walking away from the fight, and the tax breaks luring the buildings are draining state treasuries by more than $100 million a year apiece.

Trump Says Data Center Foes Choose to Be 'Backwards and Poor' as AI Investment Passes Consumer Spending in GDP Growth

A trio of progressive lawmakers wants to hit AI companies with an automatic tax hike tied to the jobless rate, joining a wider Capitol Hill push — including a proposed 50% levy on OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI — that treats innovation as a problem to be taxed rather than a market to be freed.

House Democrats Unveil Bill to Tax AI Tokens at 2%, With Rates Set to Climb If Unemployment Rises

A San Francisco identity-verification startup finds that fake applicants are quietly bankrolling Kim Jong Un's weapons program while corporate HR departments and Washington's enforcement apparatus struggle to keep pace.

Nearly Half of Remote IT Job Applications Now Bear North Korean Fraud Fingerprints

With the trust fund set to run dry a quarter sooner than last year's forecast, nearly three-quarters of advisors say clients are rushing to claim benefits at 62 out of fear Congress will never fix the program.

Social Security's 2032 Cliff Drives Retirees to Claim Early, Locking In a 22% Pay Cut

Facing shrinking student pools, small private colleges are tapping donor-restricted funds meant to last forever — a short-term fix analysts liken to raiding a 401(k), with some schools closing anyway.

Nearly 200 Colleges Raid Restricted Endowments as Enrollment Craters

Fresh U.S.-Iran strikes in the Gulf sent Brent crude back above $90, even as President Trump announced a Venezuela oil deal he says expands American reserves without spending public money, and Wall Street kept grinding higher on earnings Wall Street itself admits it hasn't fully priced in.

Oil Tops $90 as Trump Trades Strikes With Iran and Touts 65-Billion-Barrel Venezuela Deal 'At No Cost to the Taxpayer'

After years of taxpayer-funded tablets and adaptive software, math and reading scores have tanked and a neuroscientist told the Senate that Gen Z now scores lower than the generation before it. States and one of the nation's largest school districts are pulling back.

Test Scores Sink as Classrooms Bet on Screens; 17 States Move to Rein In the Devices

Official data show the labor market tight enough for the Fed to pivot fully to fighting inflation, even as a shrinking labor supply — driven by immigration enforcement and retiring Boomers — keeps the headline number low. A competing measure from the Ludwig Institute claims nearly a quarter of the workforce is 'functionally unemployed.'

Jobless Rate Holds at 4.1% as Fed Declares Full Employment While a Rival Gauge Hits 24.9%

Las Américas

The World

Trump's Venezuela Deal Puts Pentagon in Control of 65 Billion Oil Barrels

The White House calls it the 'biggest oil deal in world history,' but energy analysts say the arrangement, funneled through a politically connected Venezuelan businessman, looks more like a state-brokered favor than a free market.

By Eleanor Fitch

Europa

The World

Kushner and Witkoff Land in Kyiv as Peace Talks Stall More Than 4½ Years Into Russia's War

The U.S. envoys arrived in Ukraine's capital a day after inconclusive talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where Russian officials said 'mutually beneficial' economic projects with Washington were discussed in considerable detail. Zelenskyy said Kyiv is ready for a 'constructive' conversation, but fighting along the 775-mile front line continued overnight.

By Eleanor Fitch

The far-left frontrunner wants France's central bank to simply cancel its debt holdings so Paris can spend more on social programs; investors are already pricing in the risk, with French yields nearing their widest gap to Germany's since the 2012 debt crisis.

Melenchon's Plan to Torch 18% of French Debt Pushes Bond Spreads Toward Crisis Levels

Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece agreed on a model to send rejected asylum seekers to facilities outside the bloc, a move EU lawmakers only authorized in June after years of legal and political resistance.

Denmark Leads Five EU States Toward Offshore Migrant 'Return Hubs' by 2027

Investors rewarded CEO Oliver Blume for pushing a hard restructuring past Germany's union-heavy board, a plan the same board had rejected just two months earlier.

Volkswagen Stock Jumps 6% After Board Finally Clears 50,000 Job Cuts and Four Plant Closures

While Russia retaliates against Germany by shuttering Goethe-Institut cultural centers, a Norwegian court moved to seize a Russian ship at Kyiv's request — proof that binding arbitration, not diplomatic theater, is what actually makes Moscow pay for seized property.

Norway Seizes Russian Vessel to Enforce $4.22 Billion Award as Moscow-Berlin Standoff Escalates

Venture funds, not Brussels mandates, are betting that AI can cut months of industrial quoting bureaucracy down to days — a bet already paying off for early customers.

Munich Startup Atira Raises $17.5 Million as Private Capital Tackles a $128 Billion Paperwork Bottleneck

Asia y China

The World

Only Two of ASEAN's 11 Nations Join Washington's AI Bloc as Beijing's Rival Draws 29

China's WAICO already counts 29 founding members while the U.S.-led Pax Silica has landed just Singapore and the Philippines, as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand hedge between rule-of-law partners and subsidized Chinese AI.

By Eleanor Fitch

From Cantonese to Bahasa Indonesia, entrepreneurs across Asia and the Middle East are proving that market-driven innovation, not government mandates, can free nations from dependence on a single AI supplier.

Hong Kong Startup Builds 'Sovereign AI' for $250,000, a Fraction of Big Tech's Billions

Tokyo's new request keeps spending roughly flat year over year but signals a deeper shift: state-run factories and AI command systems built to blunt China's regional ambitions.

Japan Requests $55.6 Billion Defense Budget, Turns to AI and Underwater Drones to Counter Beijing

Oriente Medio y África

The World

Iran's Rial Collapses to 2.2 Million Per Dollar as U.S. 'Economic D-Day' Tightens the Noose

Inflation above 80%, gas rationed to a two-month supply, and trade down as much as 35% — Tehran's own leadership now admits the sanctions regime is working, even as it braces for more unrest.

By Eleanor Fitch

Centcom vows an 'even higher economic cost' on the regime's oil network after Iran fired missiles at a Navy carrier and destroyer, a sharp escalation analysts say could reshape the conflict.

U.S. Strikes Three Iranian Tankers After Tehran Targets Navy Warships

Tehran's own president concedes inflation above 80% and a shrinking economy as Washington's naval blockade chokes trade and oil exports collapse — vindication for a pressure campaign critics said would fail.

Iran's Economy Craters as U.S. Blockade Sinks Crude Exports Over 80%, President Admits Missiles 'Are of No Use'