World
AI Summary
- US households are projected to see significant increases in heating costs for the upcoming winter, driven by rising gas and electricity prices nationwide.
- The tech sector is experiencing a period of intense transformation, evidenced by SAP's substantial share drop following underwhelming cloud performance and Amazon's significant workforce reductions as it reorients towards artificial intelligence.
- Global trade dynamics are shifting as the European Union now leads in trade disputes with China, prompting European companies to re-evaluate their supply chains amidst rising geopolitical tensions and opaque Chinese policies.
- The United States is grappling with widespread controversy and calls for reform regarding federal immigration enforcement, particularly after fatal incidents involving agents in Minneapolis that have sparked protests and political disputes over agency funding.
- International security concerns are heightening, as the EU considers designating Iran’s IRGC a terrorist organization, increasing the risk of US-Iran conflict, while Russia navigates its strategic interests and military presence in Syria.
ZeroHedge
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US Heating Bills Expected To Spike Nationwide As Gas, Electricity Costs Continue To March Higher
43 minutes ago
by Tyler Durden
US Heating Bills Expected To Spike Nationwide As Gas, Electricity Costs Continue To March Higher As Americans brave a brutal cold snap, households are facing higher heating bills this summer. According to a report released last week by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), heating prices are expected to rise by 9.2% in the 2025-2026 winter vs. one year ago. According to the NEADA analysis, electricity costs are expected to rise $12.2%, or $133 this winter, while gas prices are projected to rise 8.4% or $54. Heating oil costs are expected to remain flat, while propane should be down 1.4%, or $18 this winter. Several factors are at
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SAP Shares Plunge Most Since 2020 As Cloud Backlog Miss Amid AI Worries
an hour ago
by Tyler Durden
SAP Shares Plunge Most Since 2020 As Cloud Backlog Miss Amid AI Worries SAP SE shares in Europe plunged the most since late 2020, as Wall Street analysts told clients the enterprise software company's 2026 guidance appeared underwhelming relative to elevated expectations. The 25% growth in the current cloud backlog on a constant-currency basis was not enough to spark investor enthusiasm. As a result, shares in Frankfurt plunged 11% to 174.88 - the largest intraday decline since Oct. 26, 2020. Shares are now at their lowest level since mid-2024. Klein told investors during third-quarter earnings in October that 25% growth would be viewed as a
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Decline Rewritten: The Changing Face Of American Shopping Malls
2 hours ago
by Tyler Durden
Decline Rewritten: The Changing Face Of American Shopping Malls Authored by Panos Mourdoukoutas via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Shopping malls, long an economic and cultural fixture of American life, are facing sustained pressure but are not disappearing altogether. A sign at the Mall of America is pictured in Bloomington, Minn., on Feb. 2, 2006. Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images Instead, the sector is undergoing creative destruction, as traditional mall formats give way to new concepts that reflect shifting consumer behavior and market conditions, according to recent industry data. A research report by Capital One Shopping (COS) outlines the magnitude of the challenge facing the
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Slovak PM Fico Accuses Media Of Sabotaging Relations After Trump 'Psychologically Dangerous' Claim
2 hours ago
by Tyler Durden
Slovak PM Fico Accuses Media Of Sabotaging Relations After Trump 'Psychologically Dangerous' Claim Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico unloaded on Politico on Wednesday, accusing the outlet of peddling "lies" over its reporting on alleged private conversations he supposedly held with European leaders following his recent meeting with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Jan. 17. "I STRONGLY REJECT THE LIES OF THE HATEFUL, PRO-BRUSSELS LIBERAL PORTAL POLITICO," Fico wrote on X in caps. "It is a sad look at the liberal and progressive political and media world." The whole episode is strange, with Politico standing by its report filled with
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Inside Syria's Largest Oilfield After The Battle For Control
3 hours ago
by Tyler Durden
Inside Syria's Largest Oilfield After The Battle For Control Via Middle East Eye Abu Aicha patrols the desert in northeastern Syria by car and on foot, an armed man permanently at his side. Around him stretches an apocalyptic landscape: rusted pipelines, shredded buildings, scorched earth and the traces of explosions. “This is more important to protect than a bank. Oil is what brings money into a bank,” Abu Aicha tells Middle East Eye on 23 January. A former head of banking security in Deir Ezzor, Abu Aicha has been urgently reassigned to secure al-Omar, Syria’s largest oilfield – recently reclaimed by Syrian government forces after nearly a
The Guardian
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Planes hit by gunfire and blasts heard at airport in Niger capital – reports
2 hours ago
by Eromo Egbejule West Africa correspondent
Niger, Air transport, Africa, World newsSource says two aircraft on ground ‘destroyed’ although authorities yet to comment on situation Gunfire and loud blasts have been heard at the main airport in the Nigerien capital of Niamey, according to the Reuters news agency and an independent source. A witness told Reuters they heard explosions just after midnight. The airport is next to Base Aérienne 101, a military base previously used by American and then Russian troops. Continue reading...
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Hundreds feared dead in attempt to cross Mediterranean during cyclone
3 days ago
by Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Italy, Malta, Migration, Water transport, Europe, World news, Tunisia, Libya, AfricaFifty killed in one incident as Italian authorities estimate 380 people may have drowned last week Up to 380 people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean last week as Cyclone Harry battered southern Italy and Malta, the Italian coastguard has said, as a shipwreck with the loss of 50 lives was confirmed by Maltese authorities. Just one person, who was hospitalised in Malta, survived the shipwreck, which happened on Friday. Continue reading...
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Crocodile warnings as floods devastate southern Africa
3 days ago
by Rachel Savage in Johannesburg
Africa, Flooding, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Environment, World news, Extreme weatherMore than 100 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe Devastating floods have killed more than 100 people in southern Africa since the beginning of the year and displaced hundreds of thousands, as authorities and aid workers warn of hunger, cholera and attacks by crocodiles that have spread with the waters. More than 70 people have died in Zimbabwe and 30 in South Africa, where hundreds of people were evacuated from Kruger national park earlier this month after a deluge of rain. Continue reading...
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‘It’s the sovereignty of the country’: Guinea-Bissau says US vaccine study suspended
6 days ago
by Melody Schreiber
Guinea-Bissau, Health, Africa, Vaccines and immunisation, World news, Society, Science, US healthcare, US news, Robert F Kennedy JrDespite US pushback, officials in west Africa say controversial hepatitis B study on pause amid ethics concerns US health officials insisted it was still on. African health leaders said it was cancelled. At the heart of the controversy is the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau – one of the poorest countries in the world and the proposed site of a hotly debated US-funded study on vaccines. The study on hepatitis B vaccination, to be led by Danish researchers, became a flashpoint after major changes to the US vaccination schedule and prompted questions about how research is conducted ethically in other countries. Continue reading...
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ActionAid to rethink child sponsorship as part of plan to ‘decolonise’ its work
7 days ago
by Kaamil Ahmed
Global development, Aid, Humanitarian response, Charities, Charitable giving, Society, Feminism, World news, Africa, Americas, Asia PacificDevelopment charity’s new co-chief executives signal shift from controversial sponsor a child scheme launched in 1972 to long-term grassroots funding Child sponsorship schemes that allow donors to handpick children to support in poor countries can carry racialised, paternalistic undertones and need to be transformed, the newly appointed co-chief executives of ActionAid UK said as they set out to “decolonise” the organisation’s work. ActionAid began in 1972 by finding sponsors for schoolchildren in India and Kenya, but Taahra Ghazi and Hannah Bond have launched their co-leadership this month with the goal of shifting narratives around aid from sympathy towards solidarity and partnership with
South China Morning Post
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Trump critic Klobuchar enters Minnesota governor race amid ICE crackdown, fraud scandals
an hour ago
by Associated Press
US Senator Amy Klobuchar said on Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on US President Donald Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government’s immigration crackdown. Klobuchar’s decision gives Democrats a high-profile candidate and proven statewide winner as their party tries to hold onto the office occupied by Governor Tim Walz. The 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Walz abandoned his campaign for a...
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Trump’s power politics is paving the way to a G2 world order with China
2 hours ago
by Richard Heydarian
At Davos, US President Donald Trump declared he had “always had a very good relationship with President Xi” Jinping, calling the Chinese leader “an incredible man”, “highly respected by everybody”. Trump also praised TikTok’s decision to transfer parts of its US business to a consortium of US investors, thanking Xi on social media. This broadly friendly rhetoric is likely to be a signal of Washington’s keen interest in finalising a trade deal with the world’s second-largest economy. Trump’s...
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EU overtakes US as China’s top source of trade disputes, new data shows
4 hours ago
by Mia Nurmamat
The European Union has surpassed the United States as the economy with the most serious trade disputes with China, driven by conflicts over semiconductor materials, rare earth magnets and other strategic sectors, according to a Chinese trade body. A monthly index released on Wednesday by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), a semi-official Beijing-based organisation, found that in November 2025 – the last month tracked – the EU ranked as China’s top source of trade...
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Why Trump’s Georgia election raid escalates his 2020 obsession into a warning for 2026
5 hours ago
by Associated Press
Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election in 2020. But for more than five years, he has been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying the election was marred by widespread fraud. Now that he is president again, Trump is pushing the federal government to back up those bogus claims. On Wednesday, the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. That follows...
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What ruptured globalisation means for international finance
6 hours ago
by Nicholas Spiro
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney does not mince his words. Writing for The Economist last November, Carney argued the post-Cold War had collapsed and said the world was “entering an era of ‘variable geometry’” involving “pragmatic coalitions, built around shared interests, and occasionally shared values, rather than shared institutions”. The essay, it turns out, was the prelude to a hard-hitting speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 20. Carney told attendees...
New York Times
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Shooting Aftermath Leaves Homeland Security Department in Turmoil
10 hours ago
by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz
Deportation, Police Brutality, Misconduct and Shootings, Illegal Immigration, Federal Actions in US Cities, Immigration and Emigration, Border Patrol (US), Customs and Border Protection (US), Homeland Security Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US), Minneapolis (Minn), Bovino, Gregory, Homan, Thomas D, Lewandowski, Corey (1975- ), Noem, Kristi, Pretti, Alex Jeffrey (1988-2026)As officials point fingers in the wake of Alex Pretti’s death at the hands of federal agents, concerns grow about the agency’s future.
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How Battlefield Tech Was Used in Minneapolis
2 hours ago
by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Leila Medina and Coleman Lowndes
United States Defense and Military Forces, Immigration and Emigration, Minneapolis (Minn)Our reporter Thomas Gibbons-Neff, who deployed twice to Afghanistan as a Marine and later was our Kabul bureau chief, looks at the battlefield technology used for an immigration arrest at a home in Minneapolis.
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Trump and Schumer Move Toward Possible Deal to Avert a Shutdown
3 hours ago
by Carl Hulse
United States Politics and Government, Law and Legislation, Federal Actions in US Cities, Federal Budget (US), Immigration and Emigration, Homeland Security Department, Trump, Donald J, Schumer, Charles E, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US)The president and the top Senate Democrat were discussing an agreement to split off homeland security funding from a broader spending package and negotiate new limits on immigration agents.
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For Minneapolis’s Native Americans, a New Fight Echoes a Bitter History
18 hours ago
by Matthew Purdy
Trump, Donald J, live-detached, Good, Renee Nicole (1988-2026), Kavanaugh, Brett M, Native Americans, Illegal Immigration, Immigration Detention, United States Politics and Government, American Indian Movement, Homeland Security Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US), Minneapolis (Minn)The crackdown on unauthorized immigrants is resonating deeply among the Dakota and other tribes, as residents confront what they call a federal occupation of their land.
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Democrats Demand Agents Take Off Their Masks, and Judge Says ICE Violated Nearly 100 Court Orders
3 hours ago
by Tracy Mumford, Will Jarvis and Ian Stewart
Illegal Immigration, United States Politics and Government, Democratic Party, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (US)Plus, Amazon’s big “Melania” push.