Los Angeles Dethrones Chicago As ‘Rattiest US City Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times, After holding the ominous title of “rattiest” U.S. city for more than 10 years, Chicago has been replaced by Los Angeles as the new top haven for the pesky, sharp-toothed rodents. Orkin’s Oct. 28 annual “Top 50 Rattiest Cities List” has bestowed this new designation upon the City of Angels, ranking cities by the highest […]

Fresh Israeli Strikes Again Test Trump-Brokered Gaza Deal The Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues hanging by a thread, now about two-and-a-half weeks in, but there are new reports of airstrikes in Gaza by Israeli warplanes. Israeli warplanes and tanks struck targets in eastern Gaza on Thursday, according to Palestinian residents and witnesses, cited in Reuters and other outlets. Over 100 Palestinians have died after on Tuesday Israel […]

Trump Jr.: 1789 Capital’s “Patriotic Capitalism” Will Unleash America First Prosperity After years of relentless lawfare and debankings, it would have seemed unthinkable for Donald Trump Jr. to emerge as a venture capitalist backing some of the world’s most innovative startups. And yet, here we are. At the onset of his father’s second term, Trump Jr. joined 1789 Capital as a partner. The firm, co-founded in 2022 by investment […]

We Are Drifting To A 2-G World, One US-centric, Another Chinese By Michael Every of Rabobank Think a 2-G, not a G-2 world The Fed briefly made the market headline this morning after doing what was expected – cutting 25bps to 4%; and what markets had wanted – stopping QT; but also what markets hadn’t expected and didn’t want – calling into question how much further rates will fall. As such, markets, who netted a […]

Oil, Gas, & “The End Of Climate Catastrophism” Oil stocks remain some of the cheapest relative to the broader market so we figured its time to discuss why. In last night’s ZH Debate, we pulled together top energy analysts representing three different views, hosted by friend of zerohedge and former energy trader Erik Townsend, a true expert in the field and the host of the Macro Voices podcast. In the bullish corner, Arjun […]

Rising Electricity Prices To Make Winter More Costly For Most US Households Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times, As the October-through-March winter “heating season” unfolds, a spate of forecasts indicates that the cost of electricity will double, if not triple, the projected 2–3 percent overall 2026 inflation rate and, regardless of fuel source, make it more expensive to stay warm this winter. The United States […]

‘Signatures As Soon As Next Week’: U.S.-China Deal Close, Bessent Unveils Major Victory For American Farmers Update (0850ET): Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined several new developments from the Trump-Xi trade discussions during an appearance on Fox News’ “Mornings with Maria” with Maria Bartiromo just moments ago. Bessent revealed that China will purchase at least 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans per year for the […]

Putin’s Offer To Extend The New START Is A Goodwill Gesture To Trump Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack, Putin offered in late September to extend the New START, which is the last arms control pact between Russia and the US, for another year following its expiry in early February. He then reaffirmed his proposal in early October, emphasizing that there’s still time to extend this crucial agreement if the US has the […]

EBay Shares Plunge Most Since 2005 As Soft Outlook Overshadows Solid Earnings EBay shares plunged as much as 16% on Thursday, the biggest intraday drop since January 2005, after the company issued disappointing fourth-quarter guidance. The outlook for adjusted earnings and operating margins came in below Bloomberg Consensus estimates, overshadowing what had been solid third-quarter earnings.  EBay delivered a strong third […]

Mystery Blast At Russian Artillery Ammo Plant Results In 23 Dead There was a massive explosion of unknown cause earlier this month at a military factory in central Russia’s Chelyabinsk region resulting in a high casualty rate. After many days of a search and rescue operation the death toll has risen to 23 at the Plastmass plant, Russian media has indicated in a fresh update on casualties. The plant produces explosives and […]

Trump’s Lawyers Seek Dismissal Of President’s Criminal Conviction Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, Lawyers for President Donald Trump asked an appeals court in New York state this week to throw out Trump’s criminal conviction for falsifying business records. Evidence in the case was insufficient to convict Trump, his lawyers told the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division in a brief. They also said the […]

OpenAI Reportedly Targets $1 Trillion Valuation As IPO Window Opens In 2027 Earlier this week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the topic of taking the chatbot maker public during a livestream. He said that while there are no concrete plans or set timeline, “it’s fair to say an IPO is the most likely path for us.”  After Altman’s comments, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the matter, that OpenAI is indeed […]

Obamacare Premiums Set To Soar Ahead Of Open Enrollment Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, Premiums for people buying health insurance through Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces are soaring ahead of the start of the open enrollment period, new data show. Premiums for people who are buying insurance for 2026 in state-run marketplaces are rising 17 percent, the health nonprofit KFF said on Oct. 28. Premiums for […]

North Korea Flexes With Missile Test While Trump Tours Asia North Korea continues flexing its military might this week, but this time notably at a moment President Donald Trump is making stops in several Asian nations, including a visit to South Korea, where he’s set to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping. On Tuesday, North Korea declared a successful test of a sea-to-surface cruise missile. It marked the second such missile […]

Kremlin Walks Back ‘Nuclear Test’ Claims As Trump Orders US Atomic Weapons Testing Earlier we reported that the United States will begin conducting nuclear weapons testing again after decades of rejecting the practice, according to a fresh announcement by President Donald Trump Wednesday as he was on the tail end of his Asia tour. He seemed to be referencing Russia when he wrote on Truth Social, “Because of other countries’ […]

Google Executive Admits Company Made ‘Mistakes’ While Handling Complaints Of Election Fraud Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A Google executive said the company made “mistakes” while handling complaints of election fraud during a U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing held Oct. 29. Google’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Centers of Excellence head Markham […]

ECB Keeps Rate Unchanged As Expected As widely expected (and previewed), the ECB held rates unchanged (they key deposit rate remained at 2%, the refinancing rate was unch at 2.15%, and the marginal lending facility stayed at 2.4%) and also kept its guidance, unchanged as well. In what was a carbon copy of its previous statement, the ECB said it was not pre-committing to a particular policy path; said  inflation remained close to […]

Carvana Shares Plunge Nearly 10% Despite Strong Headline Earnings Carvana shares are down almost 10% this morning even as the online used-car retailer delivered another quarter of impressive looking headline results, highlighting growing skepticism that its financial rebound may be outpacing the realities of a shaky auto market. Revenue jumped to $5.65 billion from $3.66 billion a year earlier, powered by a 44% increase in retail […]

Senate GOP And Democrats Working On Shutdown ‘Off-Ramp’ For Next Week With the government shutdown firmly in its fourth week and SNAP beneficiaries threatening cannibalism (see below), Senate Republicans and Democrats are working behind the scenes on a proposal to reopen the government next week – with centrist Democrats arguing behind the scenes that their party has successfully highlighted soaring healthcare costs.  Senate […]

ECB Preview: A “Good Place” Leads To No Cut Courtesy of Newsquawk Summary ECB policy announcement due Thursday October 30th at 13:15GMT/09:15EDT Expectations are for the ECB to stand pat on the Deposit Rate at 2.0% The lack of material economic developments since September has set the meeting up as a non-event OVERVIEW: With the ECB viewing policy as being in a “good place” and a lack of material economic developments since the […]

Futures Drop As Trump-Xi Summit Underwhelms; Mag 7 Earnings Disappoint US equity futures drop as the Trump-Xi trade truce was in line with expectations and hasn’t provided impetus for stocks to move another leg higher, after Fed Chair Powell’s pushback on another rate cut in December being a lock, while Mag7 stocks are under pressure (META -7.8%, MSFT -3.2%) as we await AAPL and AMZN tonight. As of 8:00am ET, S&P futures […]

Chipotle Shares Plunge Most Since 2012 On Alarming “Consumer Slowdown” Materializing  Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill plunged in premarket trading after the company slashed its full-year sales outlook for the third time this year, now forecasting a low single-digit decline from the previous reporting year instead of flat growth. The downgrade reflects a clear pullback in discretionary dining behavior this fall, as working-class […]

Ukraine Won’t Be Able To Reclaim All Territories Seized By Russia, Italy Admits The top commander of a NATO-member army has finally spoken the quiet part out loud – something which leadership in Brussels won’t bring itself to admit – on a public level at least… Ukraine will not be able to retake all territories seized by Russia since 2014, even with the help of Western allies, said Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto – in […]

Trump Says SNAP Benefits Will Be Solved For Next Month Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), President Donald Trump said that he believes Republicans will solve how to fund food stamps, when he was asked about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the government shutdown. President Donald Trump speaks aboard Air Force One while traveling from Japan to South Korea on Oct. 29, 2025. Andrew […]

Foreign Terror Designation Could Boost US Efforts To Dismantle Antifa Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times, With the Trump administration intensifying investigations into the overseas operations and financial networks of far-left extremist group Antifa, debate has sharpened over whether the group should be designated a foreign terrorist organization. President Donald Trump designated Antifa as a domestic […]