Audemars Piguet x Swatch's Affordable Watch Launch Sparks Lines Across World

The Great Retreat: Beijing's Digital Currency Ambitions Are Faltering Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has positioned the digital yuan (e-CNY) as the ultimate weapon of financial totalitarianism. It was intended to be the crowning achievement of the surveillance state. With a programmable, traceable digital currency, Beijing thought it would finally break the back of private payment giants like Alipay and WeChat Pay. Signage of the Chinese digital currency is seen near a coffee store in the New Actuation Fintech Center...

U.S. Gasoline Prices Hit Politically Sensitive $4 Level As Trump Eyes Iran War Off-Ramp The overnight Wall Street Journal report that President Trump told aides he is willing to wind down the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted (and appeared to confirm this narrative in a social media post this morning) comes just as the national average gasoline price hit the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon threshold, underscoring the delicate balancing act the administration is facing in managing battlefield objectives and domestic fuel costs. The latest...

Buildings Collapse After 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Philippines; Tsunami Warnings Issued A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani province in Mindanao early Monday morning, triggering tsunami warnings and causing reported building collapses in the General Santos area. The quake hit at approximately 7:37 a.m. local time, with its epicenter located roughly 26 kilometers southwest of Kablalan in Sarangani Province. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the event at magnitude 7.8, while the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) initially reported a preliminary magnitude of 7.0. Tsunami Warning Issued Phivolcs immediately...