BofA Sees Customer Gas Spending Jump 16%, But Discretionary Spending Holds Up

South Korea Curbs Syringe Hoarding As Iran War Cripples Supply The downstream consequences from the Hormuz closure are popping up in the most unexpected places.  According to Bloomberg, South Korea’s health regulators are stepping in to curb syringe hoarding as supply chain disruptions tied to the Middle East conflict threaten the availability of essential medical supplies. While overall syringe production remains steady at about 4.5 million units a day - slightly above 2025 averages - hospitals report dwindling inventories, and online platforms show rising prices and empty virtual shelves, according to the...

Charts Show Middle East Shockwave Rippling Through Energy, Air Travel, And Freight Networks The Middle East conflict has triggered what the International Energy Agency earlier described as the largest oil supply disruption in global oil market history, as Iran continues to strike energy infrastructure across the Gulf. Against that deteriorating backdrop, Goldman analysts laid out how the shock is rippling through the global economy, disrupting oil flows, air travel, and freight markets. Analysts led by Patrick Creuset said oil and transport markets have taken the hardest hit from the near-freeze in...

New York Cannot Ban Federal Agents From Wearing Masks, Judge Rules Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times, A judge ruled on Aug. 3 that New York cannot ban federal agents from wearing masks or balaclavas, or require them to wear visible identification. Masked federal agents wait outside an immigration courtroom in New York on July 8, 2025. Olga Fedorova/AP U.S. District Judge Mae D'Agostino, for the Northern District of New York, wrote that New York state's perspective "is grounded in unavoidable observations of recent troubling events which loom darkly over the...