Consumers Face Fiscal-Cliff As Tax-Refund Sugar-High Fades

Hormuz Chokepoint Claims Next Victim: World's Largest Aluminum Smelter Cuts Capacity The world's largest single-site aluminium smelter in the Middle East cut its output by about 20% on Sunday, marking yet another troubling development for the global economy. The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is no longer just an energy story - it's now spreading into industrial metals. These second- and third-order effects could soon disrupt global supply chains and tighten aluminium availability, thus pressuring prices higher.  Bloomberg reports that Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) began a controlled, safe shutdown of three...

Roblox Rolls Out Restricted Accounts For Under-16 Users Amid Lawsuit, Social Media Ban Authored by Rex Widerstrom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), While managing to avoid Australia’s under-16 social media ban, the global game creation platform Roblox has moved to introduce restricted accounts for children and teenagers. A 7-year-old teenage boy looks at a photo screen with Roblox, a social media networking app that will not be age-restricted in Sydney, Australia on Dec. 7, 2025. George Chan/Getty Images The move also comes in the wake of a lawsuit from Los Angeles County...

Space-Squatters Will Open The Final Frontier Authored by Rainer Zitelmann via American Greatness, When we talk about the future of mankind in space, we should learn from history. Squatters played a crucial role in the settlement and economic development of the American West. Long before government institutions were firmly established, settlers moved onto unclaimed land, built homes, cultivated farms, and created entire communities without initially possessing formal legal title to the land they occupied. In many cases, these settlers were the true pioneers of westward expansion. They established the foundations of economic life—farms,...