By Robert Wilson of UtilityDive

Commercial electricity consumption is likely to surpass residential use for the first time on record in 2027, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Tuesday in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.

The commercial sector, which includes hyperscalers, bitcoin miners and cloud computing, is expected to see electricity sales grow 2.2% to about 1,530 billion kWh in 2026 — roughly the same as the residential sector — followed by 5.3% growth the following year, EIA said.

Demand from the residential sector, which has historically accounted for the largest share of U.S. electricity use, will remain largely flat over the next two years, growing about 0.5% in 2026 and 2027. Total U.S. electricity consumption in 2026 will be almost 4,250 billion kWh, up 1.3% from 2025, and is expected to grow 3.1% in 2027.

Meanwhile, U.S. residential electricity prices will continue to rise amid growing demand, particularly from the commercial sector, which includes data centers, the EIA said.

Residential customers will pay an average of 18.2 cents/kWh this year, “a nearly 5% increase from 2025, which is similar to the increase in U.S. prices between 2024 and 2025,” EIA estimated. “We expect residential prices to grow at a slightly lower rate of 2% next year.”

“Residential prices have been growing in all regions of the United States, and we expect this trend to continue,” EIA said. Areas along the East coast will experience the largest increases in residential prices, with average annual growth as high as 7% for the next two years.

“Electric utilities in these regions are citing various factors for rising electricity rates, including higher fuel prices for generation and expenses for bolstering the transmission grid against extreme weather and to accommodate rising power demand,” the short-term outlook said.

Industrial sales, the smallest of the three segments, are also rising, according to EIA. “We forecast industrial electricity consumption will grow by 1.0% in 2026 and 4.0% in 2027 to reach a total of 1,095 [billion] kWh next year,” the monthly report said. “Increases in electricity demand for both the commercial and industrial sectors is strongest in the West South Central region, driven by data center and manufacturing growth in Texas.”

Today’s FOMC minutes, released at 2pm ET, will be closely watched for further details surrounding the increasingly hawkish split within the Committee following the April meeting, Jerome Powell’s last as Fed Chair. With three voters dissenting against retaining the easing bias – and Fedʼs Collins later suggesting she would have supported removing it too – markets will look to see how broad support was for removing the easing bias, particularly after Powell said more officials now view a hike just as likely as a cut, according to Newsquawk.

Discussions around inflation risks and the labor market will also be in focus given the current macro backdrop, with the jobs market viewed as stable while inflation remains above target and faces upside risks from the Middle East conflict. Traders will also watch for any early signs of debate surrounding future balance sheet policy with Warsh set to take over as Chair from Powell. 

The April FOMC statement and vote split leaned hawkish. While outgoing Governor Miranʼs dissent in favor of a 25bps rate cut was widely expected, three voting members (plotted below) dissented against retaining the easing bias in the statement (Hammack, Kashkari, Logan).

As a reminder:

• Hammack said the easing bias was no longer appropriate given broad-based inflation pressures, higher energy prices, resilient growth and a labour market near full employment.
• Kashkari said he wanted to signal growing rate hike risks, warning that a large price shock could unanchor inflation expectations and require tighter policy to defend the Fedʼs 2% target.
• Logan dissented because she believed the Fed should not imply easing given uncertainty around the outlook, stable employment and concern about getting inflation back to 2%.

Elsewhere, the statement shifted inflation language, replacing “somewhat elevated” with “elevated”, while also attributing the move to higher global energy prices. On the Middle East, the Fed dropped the prior “uncertain implications” wording, instead stating directly that developments are “contributing to a high level of uncertainty”. Growth and labor market language was otherwise largely unchanged, with activity continuing to expand at a “solid pace” and unemployment “little changed”. 

However, given energy prices have continued to rise in the wake of the meeting, and money markets are no longer pricing rate cuts this year (with markets currently discounting roughly a 60% probability of a hike by year-end), traders will look for evidence of how widespread inflation concerns were within the Committee and what conditions could push the Fed towards hikes. That said, the minutes reflect discussions held at the time of the meeting, meaning the recent hot CPI and PPI reports will not yet be incorporated. 

Powell said policy remains in a “good place” to wait and see, but acknowledged the Committee is moving closer to dropping its easing bias, with more officials now viewing hikes just as likely as cuts. While he stressed no one is actively calling for hikes at present, analysts noted that the threshold for future easing has risen, with the Fed wanting more confidence around tariffs and energy prices before considering cuts. Powell also warned that core inflation risks are “real”. He added that, beyond the three official dissenters, several non-voters also favored removing the easing bias but ultimately supported the decision to hold rates.

That dynamic may create challenges for incoming Chair Warsh, whose first meeting will be in June. While Warsh has advocated lower rates, he may find limited support for a more dovish stance within the current Committee. Bowman and Waller remain among the more dovish officials, though neither has backed immediate easing in the way Miran did. Note, the latest reports suggest Kevin Warsh will be sworn in as Fed Chair this Friday at a White House event. 

Additionally, Warsh has advocated for a tighter balance sheet policy. Last week, Fed Governor Barr argued that easing bank liquidity requirements to shrink the Fedʼs balance sheet would undermine financial stability and increase the Fedʼs market footprint. Barr said the 2023 banking stresses suggest liquidity requirements should rise, not fall. As such, traders will also watch the minutes for any discussion surrounding future balance sheet strategy alongside the debate over the easing bias.

Intuit, the company that owns TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp, is reportedly preparing to lay off a staggering 17% of its workforce according to Reuters, which cites an internal memo.

INTUIT TO LAY OFF 17% OF WORKFORCE: MEMO

Initial claims about to print new record low

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 20, 2026

Details are scant at the moment regarding the reason for the layoffs, but CEO Sasan Goodarzi sent an email to staff earlier in the day, saying that reducing complexity and simplifying the structure would help it deliver better ​products, to streamline operations and sharpen focus ​on its key bets including its AI efforts.

The company has signed multi-year deals with AI startups Anthropic and ​OpenAI to integrate their AI models into its software and add Intuit’s personalized tax, finance, ‌accounting and ⁠marketing capabilities into Claude and ChatGPT.

Bloomberg data shows Intuit’s total workforce was around 18,200 in mid-2025. If those figures are still accurate, the layoffs could affect upwards of 3,000 employees.

As of Tuesday’s close, Intuit shares were down nearly 40% on the year amid AI fears disrupting the software stocks.

Shares are down 2% in premarket trading.

Analysts are mostly bullish…

Related:

• Meta Axes 8,000 Workers As Zuckerberg Admits AI Is Watching, Replacing Labor

The last day for impacted staff at Intuit in the United States will be July 31 and they will receive 16 weeks of base pay and two extra weeks for every year at Intuit as part of ​the severance package, the ​memo on Wednesday ⁠showed.

Authored by Joseph Lord, Jeff Louderback, Troy Myers, and Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times,

Voters on Tuesday headed to the polls in states across the country for some of the most-anticipated battles of the 2026 midterm election season.

May 19 marks the largest day of primary elections yet, seeing ballots cast across six states: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

The night continued past trends showing that President Donald Trump retains a dominant influence over the Republican Party, as his chosen candidates sailed to victory in race after race—with one Republican incumbent in a major race being defeated.

Democrats, meanwhile, locked in their picks for several key congressional races, as the party works to reclaim the House and possibly the Senate.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the night.

Massie Unseated

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lost his Republican primary to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, concluding one of the most-watched (and most expensive) primary battles of the 2026 election cycle.

President Donald Trump had endorsed Gallrein as part of his effort to get Massie removed from Congress.

Trump was openly critical of Massie and urged people in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District to elect Gallrein.

Gallrein had tallied 54 percent of the votes compared to 45 percent for Massie when The Associated Press called the race at 7:54 p.m. ET.

Massie’s ousting is seen as underscoring Republican voters’ support for Trump.

The Kentucky lawmaker, who’s been at odds with Trump over several issues, joins Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and several Indiana state senators who were defeated by primary challengers backed by Trump in recent weeks.

Gallrein, in his victory speech, vowed to work closely with the president in Congress.

“We have a saying on the family farm that it’s a contact sport,” Gallrein said at an election night event in Covington, Kentucky. “I can tell you that campaigning is one as well, folks.”

Kentucky, Alabama Open Senate Primaries

In Kentucky and Alabama, voters went to the polls to cast ballots in open Senate primaries for seats being vacated by their incumbents.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) will face former Democratic state Rep. Charles Booker in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the U.S. Senate.

The Associated Press called the Republican primary race for Barr at 7 p.m. ET, an hour after polls closed. Barr won with 60.5 percent of the vote to 30.8 percent for the next closest rival, former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

On the Democratic side, Booker—who previously served as Democrat’s nominee for the post in 2022—won with 46.8 percent of the vote. His closest rival, 2020 Democratic nominee Amy McGrath, trails with 35.8 percent of the vote. The race was called at 9:41 p.m. ET.

The primary marks the first time in 16 years that the state has seen a fully open race for a Kentucky Senate seat. The last such primary took place in 2010, when Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) won his first election to Congress.

McConnell, 84, was first elected to his seat in 1984. He had served as the leader of the Republican Senate conference since January 2007 before agreeing to step down at the start of the current Congress.

Meanwhile, Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.), Trump’s pick to replace outgoing Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), will advance to a runoff, as he fell short of the 50 percent needed to forgo the second election.

The Republican he’ll face is still being determined as votes are counted.

Trump has called Moore “a true America First Patriot who’s been with me from the very beginning.”

Georgia Republican Races Go to Runoff

Voters in the Peach State sent Republican candidates in Georgia’s gubernatorial and Senate elections to a runoff.

Trump-endorsed Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire businessman Rick Jackson will go to a runoff in Georgia’s gubernatorial primary contest.

Jones and Jackson received 37 percent and 34 percent of the vote, respectively, when the Associated Press called the runoff at 8:50 p.m. ET, as neither managed to garner more than 50 percent of the vote in what became a costly contest for the GOP field.

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger came in third with 14 percent of the vote.

Another competitive Georgia Republican contest is also on its way to a second round.

As of 9:50 p.m. ET on May 19, none of the major candidates in the state’s Senate GOP primary—Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.), and former football coach Derek Dooley—had claimed more than 50 percent of the vote in the Senate primary.

At 9:44 p.m. ET, the Associated Press declared that Collins will advance to the runoff. It later declared that Dooley will face him in that race.

As of 11:52 p.m., Collins had received 40.5 percent of the vote. Dooley followed with 30.1 percent, while Carter trailed in third with 25.2 percent.

The runoff was expected ahead of Election Day, as polling generally did not show any candidate with a majority.

Bernadette Breslin, the national press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told The Epoch Times in an exclusive statement that “Republicans are united behind defeating Ossoff and retiring his record of failure for Georgia.”

Trump has not given an endorsement in the Senate race.

The runoff elections are set for June 16.

Pennsylvania Democrats Make Picks in Key Swing Districts

While observers’ focus was largely centered on Republican races during this round of voting, Democratic candidates were also locked in for several key swing districts during the May 19 elections.

It’s unclear whether Democrats can overcome Republicans’ steep 53-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, and the party is instead focusing its major efforts this cycle on the House, where Democrats are widely expected to reclaim the majority by observers.

In Pennsylvania, three Democratic candidates endorsed by Gov. Josh Shapiro won their elections, including Janelle Stelson, Bob Harvie, and Bob Brooks.

The three candidates will take on Republican opponents in the November general election, in seats that include some of the party’s top targets.

Stelson will go up against Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Harvie against Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and Brooks against Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.).

Shapiro himself is seeking reelection this year, running for the gubernatorial nomination unopposed. Shapiro’s approach to politics has been viewed as moderate by voters in the state, propelling him to a sweeping double-digit victory in his 2022 election, giving his endorsement some weight in state politics.

Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, has summed up where things stand: “Since the ceasefire came into effect, both Washington and Tehran appear to be operating under the illusion that time is on their side,” he said. “Each seems to believe that the blockade and counter-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz impose greater costs on the other, while offering a breathing space to regroup for a possible resumption of hostilities,” Vaez told Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a fresh warning amid this ongoing standoff, warning that the Middle East war will extend beyond the region if the United States and Israel resume their attacks.

“If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you,” the IRGC say in the statement published to their website Sepah News.

The warring sides are no closer to getting back to the negotiating table, after President Trump has given just a few ‘days’ to comply on the nuclear issue, which so far Tehran has not budged on.

But in the meantime Iran still sees American guarantees as “insufficient” regarding a renewed war, Al Arabiya reports Wednesday. The Supreme Leader, who is still in hiding and believed to be recovering from serious injuries that resulted from prior airstrikes, has issued a fresh written message to the public:

Mojtaba Khamenei has commemorated the second anniversary of the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, saying the country is putting up a “unique historical resistance against two global terrorist armies” in Israel and the US, the Fars News Agency reports. 

In another written statement, Khamenei said the war was making the burden on officials “heavier than before”, adding that he was grateful for the “unity of the nation”.

In the Strait of Hormuz, there’s been a continued trickle of tankers making it through, reportedly after Beijing asked:

Two Chinese tankers laden with oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, shipping data showed, brightening hopes that the US-Israeli conflict with Iran may soon be ​resolved after positive comments from the US president and his deputy.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the war would be over “very quickly” while Vice President JD Vance talked up progress in talks with Tehran about an agreement to end hostilities.

🚨 Two Chinese VLCCs carrying 4 mb of Iraqi oil have crossed the Strait of Hormuz and are now heading straight for the US blockade. If they’re allowed to pass, it means Trump and Xi have quietly agreed to let it happen.

Meanwhile, 4 LNG carriers are on their way to China to… pic.twitter.com/FA2KFEniuZ

— Anas Alhajji (@anasalhajji) May 20, 2026

And reports of a South Korean tanker safely traversing at this point:

A South Korean oil tanker is currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the country’s top diplomat said on Wednesday, in a report from AFP.

“At this very moment, our oil tanker is passing through the Strait of Hormuz,” Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul.

Ship-tracking site MarineTraffic showed the South Korea-flagged tanker Universal Winner on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz near the entrance to the Gulf of Oman, bound for the southeastern South Korean city of Ulsan after departing Kuwait’s Mina Al-Ahmadi port.

As a reminder of prior Trump threats this week, and the typically vague timetable, the president on Tuesday renewed warnings that he could imminently resume bombing Iran, declaring the country will face a “big hit” if it refuses to accept US demands for a deal within days.

Netanyahu and Trump held what Israel’s N12 News described as a “lengthy and dramatic” phone call overnight, amid growing speculation over a possible new strike on Iran.
Netanyahu will skip both the opening of the Knesset session and a key vote on dissolving parliament today

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) May 20, 2026

“Well, I mean, I’m saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can’t let them have a new nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters. Trump had the day prior said he was “holding off” on striking Iran on after requests from Gulf Arab states. Then he followed by claiming the attack was moments away from being launched. “We were all set to go… It would have been happening right now.”

*  *  *

More latest developments via Newsquawk:

• US intelligence assessment recently showed that US forces identified at least 10 mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to CBS citing US officials.
• US Senate voted 50-47 to advance war powers resolution that would end US strikes on Iran unless approved by Congress.
• Iran’s IRGC said that if the attack on Iran occurs again, the war will extend beyond the region, Fars News reported.
• Iranian Deputy to the President Banah said Tehran is open to negotiations within national interests, Al Mayadeen reported.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said months after the start of the war on Iran, US Congress acknowledged the loss of dozens of aircraft worth billions, and Iran’s powerful Armed Forces are confirmed as the first to strike down a touted F-35, while he added that with lessons learned and the knowledge they gained, a return to war will feature many more surprises.
• Iran-Pakistan cooperation had declined/stopped over the past two weeks, Al Arabiya and Al Hadath reported citing a senior diplomatic source. A diplomatic source says Iran and Pakistan held conflicting positions on negotiation channels and the venue for talks, and says mistrust was affecting coordination between Iran and Pakistan.
• Pakistan’s Interior Minister Naqvi is on route to Tehran, according to Journalist Mallick.
• “On the verge of a decision: Trump and Netanyahu held a phone conversation last night that was described as “lengthy and dramatic,” according to journalist Segal.
• Two Chinese supertankers, carrying 4mln barrels of oil, exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to tracking data. It was later reported that India was preparing to send oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz following prior reports regarding the Chinese tankers.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has formally begun its review of the construction permit application for an advanced microreactor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

✅ #NRCNews: We’ve kicked off the formal review of the @UofIllinois application for an advanced microreactor. https://t.co/0gMFCuDv5u

— NRC (@NRCgov) May 19, 2026

The announcement marks the transition from the agency’s acceptance review to the substantive technical evaluation of NANO Nuclear’s KRONOS design.

This step carries more weight than the initial filing. Submitting an application demonstrates readiness on paper; the NRC’s decision to open a full review confirms the submission meets the threshold for detailed scrutiny. 

For a first-of-a-kind microreactor project, clearing that gate is a concrete regulatory advance.

We’ve tracked the Illinois project closely, including the construction permit application submission itself, described at the time as a defining moment for commercial microreactor deployment. Earlier coverage in October 2025 detailed the start of drilling and site preparation work with the university. 

We’ve also detailed other updates from the company including their recent MOU with Supermicro and progress with their high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) transportation package.

The KRONOS effort is also not occurring in isolation. Other advanced reactor programs have recorded measurable NRC milestones in recent months with TerraPower’s Natrium reactor in Wyoming receiving its construction permit and X-energy achieving a notable environmental clearance for its four-unit Xe-100 project at Dow’s Seadrift site in Texas.
 

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

The acting head of the U.S. Department of Justice said on May 19 that the agency added new terms favorable to President Donald Trump to the settlement of the president’s lawsuit over alleged IRS leaking of his tax returns.

In a one-page addendum to the settlement, Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on May 19 that the IRS would no longer pursue claims against Trump, members of his family, or his businesses over allegedly unpaid taxes.

The May 18 settlement, in which the president agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, provided that an almost $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund would be established to compensate alleged victims of the weaponization of law enforcement.

Trump, two of his sons, and the Trump family business, had sued in federal court in Florida in January, alleging that the IRS and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, had failed to prevent a former contractor from leaking Trump’s tax returns to the media.

The plaintiffs alleged the agencies failed to take mandatory precautions to prevent the former IRS contractor from unlawfully obtaining access to their confidential tax records and giving that information to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2019 and 2020.

As part of the settlement, the plaintiffs themselves will receive “a formal apology but no monetary payment or damages of any kind,” the DOJ said in a May 18 statement.

The plaintiffs agreed to drop their claims “in exchange for the creation of this fund,” and in addition they agreed to withdraw two administrative claims they filed for damages “resulting from the unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax.”

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said in the statement.

“As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress,” he said.

The May 19 release states that the federal government is “forever barred and precluded” from moving forward with “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related companies and trusts. The document covers “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement, which was May 18.

The settlement provides that the Anti-Weaponization Fund will be controlled by five individuals whose appointment will be announced by the attorney general within 30 days.

One of the fund’s members will be selected in consultation with congressional leadership.

The members are to serve until the fund is “concluded,” unless they resign or are removed by the president, who will be allowed to dismiss any member without providing a reason, according to the settlement.

The fund will establish its own rules for “submitting, receiving, processing, and granting or denying claims,” subject to procedures it may make public at its own discretion.

The settlement states that the fund will have the authority “to issue formal apologies, issue monetary relief owed to claimants as a result of their legal rights, grant claims in whole or in part, deny claims in whole or in part, defer review of claims, and receive and request evidence or other support for claims, including requesting information from, or consulting with, federal agencies.”

During congressional testimony on May 19, Blanche told lawmakers that those who experienced “weaponization” may receive payments. He declined to promise that the fund would refrain from making payments to Trump campaign donors or individuals involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, security breach at the U.S. Capitol.

Blanche said Trump did not set up the settlement fund and the members of the fund will act independently.

“The president did not direct me to do anything,” he said, adding that payments could go to members of any political party, and would not be limited to Jan. 6 defendants.

Critics in Congress moved swiftly to condemn the addendum. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, argued that the settlement clause runs afoul of a statute that makes it unlawful for executive branch officials to direct the IRS to open or close an audit targeting any individual taxpayer. Under the statute, coverage extends to the president and vice president, their respective office staffs, and cabinet-level officials — though the attorney general is specifically carved out of the definition. Wyden closed his statement with a direct warning, according to CNBC, saying neither the president nor his chosen legal counsel could place his relatives beyond legal accountability.

On the House side, Ways and Means ranking member Richard Neal posted to social media labeling the addendum outright “corruption,” charging that Trump had converted the executive branch into a shield for his own finances, according to CNN.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) was critical of the fledgling fund and how it will be administered.

“What we’re talking about is nothing short of the sitting president of the United States looting from the Treasury for his own gain,” she said.

“Do you seriously think this arrangement is appropriate?” Murray added.

Defending the clause to CNBC, a department spokeswoman framed it as routine legal practice. “As is customary in settlements, both sides have executed waivers of a variety of claims that were or could have been brought,” she wrote in an email, adding that the restriction applied only to audits already open at the time of signing and would not prevent future IRS scrutiny.

UK supermarkets are being urged by the government to limit food prices in return for easing regulations.

As first reported by The Financial Times, the price caps are ‘voluntary’ and would apply to key groceries – such as eggs, bread, and milk – according to retail industry sources with knowledge of the plans.

In return, the government has said it would offer “incentives” to the supermarkets, which the people said could include easing packaging policies and potentially delaying costly changes to rules around healthy food.

As one may well expect, supermarkets are understood to be strongly opposed to the plans.

The Treasury has declined to comment.

The proposals come as Sir Keir Starmer’s government is battling to address public concern over the cost of living.

Scottish retailers recently condemned a similar policy by the Scottish National Party as a “1970s-style” gimmick.

One person close to a supermarket said the Treasury’s initiative was “a rubbish, knee-jerk reaction to the SNP”.

UK food inflation rose to 3.7 per cent in April, and the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, has warned the world is “sleepwalking into a global food crisis”, with the Middle East war throttling supply chains.

And in line with the magical thinking, the Treasury has also told supermarkets that it would like guarantees that British farmers would not lose income from shop price caps.

Former Brexit minister Lord Frost weighed in on social media platform X, calling the proposal “remarkable (and remarkably bad) if true.

“There are certainly plenty of people in this govt whose understanding of economics is so poor that they might consider it a good idea.”

SNP leader John Swinney has defended his party’s approach, arguing he faces a “public health responsibility” to ensure affordable nutrition for people “struggling to afford a very basic shop.”

“It is a completely ill-thought-out, last-minute idea . . . The idea that the government can set price better than the market is for the birds,” one person familiar with the discussions told the FT.

Authored by Molly Kingsley via DailySceptic.org,

According to the UK’s Covid Inquiry, whose fourth report was published in April, there was “in principle, nothing unlawful or inappropriate in the government monitoring publicly available social media to identify potential trends in disinformation or misinformation” during the pandemic period.

The same report, in declining to criticise the censorious activities of the UK Government during the pandemic, noted that the UK government’s Counter Disinformation Unit was required to ensure that its actions were “lawful, necessary and proportionate”.

On a careful reading of this language, the inquiry stops (just) short of expressly endorsing the full scope and extent of the government’s censorship operation.  However, the relevant sections of the inquiry’s report create the distinct, and we can assume deliberate, impression that the CDU’s censorship operation was conducted in accordance with constitutional and democratic principles, and was not only justified but was necessary and proportionate. 

As someone who was on the receiving end of that censorship operation, with the receipts to evidence the very broad scope of commentary that was judged by the CDU to be wrongful or dangerous, this came as a serious disappointment, albeit not a great surprise.

Some would argue that in a national emergency scenario, some degree of information monitoring and intervention might be justified.

The trouble with that argument is that one very quickly then has to grapple with the fact that – as we saw during the pandemic period – it’s precisely in moments of national crisis – moments where critical decisions must be made in complex situations – that contrasting views are most valuable and essential.

As Jay Bhattacharya, Acting Director of the US Centres for Disease Control, has put it: “Dissent is the very essence of science.”

In my own case, the offending posts and articles caught by the CDU were typically either opinion pieces or comments quoted in mainstream news articles. They included such outlandish and outrageous statements as, “It would be unforgivable to close schools”, “Let children use playgrounds” and “It is indefensible that children’s lives are still not back to normal when the rest of society is”. Clearly, many would now agree with these viewpoints. However, even if some, or indeed many might not have agreed with those points of view at the time, the fact that they were valid, lawfully-expressed opinions cannot be disputed.

Perhaps the CDU’s hypersensitivity would not have mattered so much if, as according to the Covid Inquiry’s account, all that was happening during that period was “monitoring” of public sentiment by the government. The inquiry’s report notes that the CDU had ‘trusted flagger’ status with all of the major social media platforms, the effect of which was that CDU flags received special attention; but the same report is at pains to record that decisions about removing or suppressing content “remained exclusively a decision for each social media platform”.

Yet a subsequent investigation by the Telegraph revealed that 90% of the posts referred to social media companies by the CDU were taken down. Indeed, evidence given to the inquiry by the former head of the CDU confirmed that when information was flagged by the CDU it “immediately goes to the top of the pile. Whoever it is in whatever company then acts on it. It is the same system they have across government for things like terrorist content.”

What makes this even worse is that the remit of the CDU went beyond anything that could reasonably be termed mis- or disinformation. In particular, we know in relation to Covid vaccine-related commentary – because a CDU official told a Parliamentary Select Committee in December 2020 – that each of the following categories of content was considered for flagging and removal as ‘anti-vaccine misinformation’:

• commentary about the speed of the development of the Covid vaccines: “It is not safe, those kinds of narratives”;

• commentary about side-effects from the Covid vaccines; and

• commentary about “monetary and big business and links to pharma”, which seems to indicate that criticism of the pharma industry and its financial influence were off limits.

All of this is in sharp contrast to events on the other side of the pond. In May 2024, a US Congressional report observed in the context of its examination of the Biden administration’s pandemic censorship operations:

“By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits. Instead, policymakers implemented a series of public health measures that proved to be disastrous for the country.”

Free debate is one of the key measures of the health of a democracy. Without it, we lose the ability to challenge and to stress test ideas. As we saw during the pandemic, it is often when speech is most controversial that the need to hear it is greatest.

In contrast with the US where a degree of candid investigation of core pandemic failings, especially concerning the suppression of speech and social media censorship, is now taking place, our own Covid Inquiry has completely side-stepped its duty to properly interrogate serious infringements of cornerstone rights and principles of public discourse. Given the investigations going on in the US and the fact that key reports have been public for close to two years, not only is this approach wilfully blind but it is an affront to the liberal democratic ideal of free speech. It sets an appalling precedent, whereby in future public health crisis (or potentially any crisis) we can now expect broad-in-scope monitoring and narrative control of lawful, and indeed essential, contrasting views to be the norm. And, it is disingenuous. At the same time that the inquiry has defended the patent overreach of the government’s censorship operation, it has completely ignored the flagrant, extensive and devastating mis- and disinformation propagated during that same period by pharmaceutical companies, government ministers and senior public health officials who were permitted and encouraged to make statements which were manifestly inflated, exaggerated, coercive or untrue.

Official statements overstating the safety and efficacy of the Covid vaccine programme, particularly when combined with coercive policies affecting children, are blatant examples of dangerous misinformation.

Each of the major vaccine manufacturers has now been found guilty by the UK regulator, many on repeated occasions, for the persistent overstating of benefit and understating of harm in relation to their Covid vaccine products. And yet the inquiry’s report is completely silent on this topic.

Unfortunately the end result, as predicted by many Daily Sceptic readers, is a shameful whitewash that will only further corrode trust in public health.

Four years of war in Ukraine have rewritten how warfare is fought, accelerating the urgent need for low-cost aerial unmanned systems and ground robots. It has also prompted Taiwan to emerge as a supplier of low-cost suicide drones.

Taiwan’s national news agency, the Central News Agency, reported that a Taichung-based Taiwanese drone manufacturer is now focused on producing a domestically made variant of Iran’s Shahed one-way attack drone.

CNA said Carbon-Based Technology’s main exports are “triangular-wing drones with a control range of over 90 km, and catapult-launched small attack drones.”

CNA noted that demand for these attack drones is soaring, with “plans to expand the factory three to five times.” The company is facing “production capacity” constraints due to surging orders.

“The payload can be adjusted according to mission requirements, conforming to the current global military ‘asymmetric warfare’ trend,” CNA stated, describing CBT’s suicide drones.

CNA noted, “The Russia-Ukraine war sparked a global surge in demand for “non-red” (non-Chinese) drones. This, combined with Taiwan government support, brought rapid overseas interest and orders from countries including Japan, India, and Southeast Asia.” 

The acceleration of suicide drone production also comes as the possibility of a Chinese invasion remains a very real threat, drawing heavily from lessons learned in Ukraine.

The broader takeaway is that Taiwan views drone manufacturing as both a national security capability and an industrial policy to supply Western militaries.

As we have outlined before, militaries around the world are entering a major procurement cycle to stockpile low-cost one-way attack drones, as lessons from Ukraine and the Gulf region rapidly reshape modern warfare.