Putin Rejects Open Letter By Zelensky Urging Meet: 'Pointless'

Conference Board Consumer Expectations Hit YTD Highs, Inflation Fears Dip In May With war (and rising gas prices) now fully embedded in respondents' minds (along with record high stock prices), it is perhaps not entirely surprising that The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence dipped in May (but was better than expected). The headline index dipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, down from an upwardly revised 93.8 in April. The Present Situation Index - based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions - retreated by 3.2 points to 121.2. The Expectations Index -...

Charitable Giving: How To Manage Donations With New Tax Laws Authored by Javier Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), When you donate to qualified charitable organizations under the IRS, you could get some tax benefits in the form of charitable deductions. The OBBBA introduces new limits and tax breaks for charitable giving starting in 2026. Fox_Ana/Shutterstock But tax laws are constantly changing, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has brought some major changes to charitable deductions beginning in tax year 2026. These shifts affect both itemizers and those who take...

Fico Threatens To Cut Ukraine's Emergency Power As Russian Oil Transit Fight Escalates Slovakia's populist Prime Minister and pro-Trump ally Robert Fico has drawn an unexpectedly hard line in his country's ongoing energy showdown with Ukraine: restore Russian oil flows, or else a key emergency electricity lifeline for Ukraine gets pulled. In a weekend post on X, Fico warned that unless Ukraine resumes pumping Russian crude to Slovakia by Monday, Bratislava will cut off its emergency power exports. This is an immense threat given current frigid subzero temperatures in war-ravaged Ukraine. "If...