US Moving Parts of THAAD Missile Defense System from South Korea to Middle East

Core US Factory Orders Better Than Expected In December While sentiment is sagging to multi-year lows, 'hard' data is helping support growth forecasts (GDPNOW) and holding stocks at record highs. This morning we get a fresh glimpse at America's manufacturing segment - hard data - with Orders data (which is expected to drop MoM in December). After surging higher in November (+2.7% MoM), analysts expected US Factory Orders to drop 0.6% MoM in December but the actual print disappointed, dropping 0.7% MoM Source: Bloomberg Interestingly, Core Factory Orders rose 0.4% MoM - better than...

Private Sector Struggles In Major Chinese Industrial Base As Export Orders Shrink: Local Businessmen Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Amid China’s persistently sluggish economy, Zhejiang Province, a major production and industrial base in eastern China, is seeing a decline in trade orders as private enterprises struggle to stay afloat, according to industry professionals who spoke with The Epoch Times. Workers load goods for export into a container at a logistics hub in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, on April 29, 2025. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images As the “hollowing out” of...

From Blockchain To Ball-And-Chain: Are We Being Borg'd? Authored by Patti Johnson via The Burning Platform blog, Tokenized Tyranny: How Elites Are Digitizing Our World for Total Control I’ve followed investigative journalist Whitney Webb’s work for years, and her once-distant warnings now feel eerily prophetic as they unfold in real time. What she has consistently exposed, the systematic digitization and commodification of everything from natural ecosystems to human life itself, is no longer speculative theory. It’s happening before our eyes. When I first encountered Whitney’s reporting, I found it hard to believe. Could...