In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao explores the world’s most expensive real estate markets, using data as of December 2024. 

The rankings are based on the average price per square meter for a prime 100–200 m² (1,075-2,150 sq. ft) apartment, sourced from New World Wealth and Henley & Partners.

What Is “Prime” Real Estate?

“Prime” real estate refers to properties in the most desirable global locations—whether for lifestyle, investment, or prestige. These homes typically share four key characteristics:

• High-Value: Located in top-tier global cities or exclusive resort areas, with premium price tags per square meter.

• Luxury-Oriented: High-end properties boasting top-tier amenities, design, and finishes.

• Strategically Located: Found in stable, globally connected markets with strong lifestyle appeal.

• Investment-Linked: Often eligible for residence or citizenship-by-investment programs, offering benefits beyond ownership.

The Global Leaders in Price per Square Meter

At the top of the list is Monaco, where prime real estate prices dwarf those of other markets.

The small principality on the French Riviera is a haven for the ultra-wealthy, driven by its low taxes, exclusive lifestyle, and financial services sector. With limited land and soaring demand, Monaco continues to command the highest prices globally.

In second place is New York City, consistently ranked the world’s leading financial center. Home to billionaires, major investment firms, and iconic luxury developments, NYC remains a global magnet for capital and prestige real estate.

Hong Kong ranks third, reflecting its ongoing role as a global finance hub. With limited land supply, strong investor demand, and its strategic location in Asia, Hong Kong’s prime real estate market remains one of the most expensive on Earth.

If you enjoyed this map, be sure to check out The World’s Largest Economies, Including U.S. States.

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that it is drafting a plan to remove the caps on greenhouse gases from coal- and natural gas-fired power plants across the nation.

An EPA spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the agency has been reconsidering the Biden administration’s power plant emissions regulations, commonly referred to as “Clean Power Plan 2.0,” since March.

The Biden-era Clean Power Plan marks the third major attempt by the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. It follows the Obama administration’s original Clean Power Plan, which required power plants to shift toward lower-carbon sources of electricity.

“Many have voiced concerns that the last administration’s replacement for that rule is similarly overreaching and an attempt to shut down affordable and reliable electricity generation in the United States, raising prices for American families, and increasing the country’s reliance on foreign forms of energy,” the EPA spokesperson said. 

“As part of this reconsideration, EPA is developing a proposed rule.”

The spokesperson did not provide further details about the draft plan but said it will be released after an interagency review and once it is signed by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

“President [Donald] Trump promised to kill the Clean Power Plan in his first term, and we continue to build on that progress now,” the spokesperson quoted Zeldin as saying. 

“We are seeking to ensure that the agency follows the rule of law while providing all Americans with access to reliable and affordable energy.”

The first Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule formally rescinded and replaced the Obama-era regulation.

The ACE rule was struck down by the D.C. Circuit in January 2021, on the final full day of Trump’s first term. That ruling was itself overturned in 2022, when the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA lacked the authority under the Clean Air Act to implement the Obama Clean Power Plan as it was originally designed.

The Biden-era regulation that the Trump EPA now seeks to replace, formally known as Reg. 2060-AV09, was finalized in early 2024. It mandates that existing coal-fired power plants reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent if they plan to continue operating beyond 2039, while imposing even stricter limits on newly built natural gas-fired power plants.

The only currently known technology capable of achieving such reductions is carbon capture and sequestration, which has not yet been deployed at that scale.

The rule quickly came under legal challenge from a coalition of Republican-led states, utility companies, and coal industry stakeholders. Critics said that carbon capture is not economically viable or technologically mature enough to be used at the nation’s roughly 200 coal plants. They also pointed to logistical problems, such as the extensive infrastructure needed to pipe captured carbon dioxide into underground storage sites that are located hundreds of miles from the plants.

“By constructing a rule that offers power plant operators the choice of either employing technologies that do not yet exist on a commercial, affordable scale or shutting down, the EPA has wrested control of our nation’s energy policy with neither the legal authority nor expertise to do so, all at the exact time that electricity demand is forecast to double,” Rich Nolan, president and CEO of the National Mining Association, said at that time. “If this rule is allowed to stand the results for the American people and economy will be catastrophic.”

Despite opposition, the Biden power plant rule was allowed to take effect after the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals declined to pause it while litigation proceeds. The U.S. Supreme Court also rejected emergency requests to block the rule, although Justice Clarence Thomas indicated he would have granted the stay.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote in a note that he believes the challengers “have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits as to at least some of their challenges.” However, he said, since the rule does require them to start compliance work until June 2025, they are unlikely to suffer irreparable harm before the D.C. Circuit issues a final decision.

“So this Court understandably denies the stay applications for now,” Kavanaugh wrote, adding that if the challengers lose at that level, they may again ask the Supreme Court for relief while appealing the case.

The D.C. Circuit has not yet issued a ruling on the merits of the case.

President Donald Trump announced just after 6pm on Sunday that the US will delay the implementation of a 50% tariff on European Union products to July 9 from June 1. 
Sunday’s decision to extend the tariff deadline was made after a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier in the day, and comes after Trump unexpectedly threatened duties of 50% on the EU on Friday morning. The move surprised European officials who thought they were making progress with his administration on talks to avert the 20% “reciprocal” tariffs Trump announced in April, and then paused for 90 days.

“I received a call today from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, requesting an extension on the June 1st deadline on the 50% Tariff with respect to Trade and the European Union,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I agreed to the extension—July 9, 2025—It was my privilege to do so. The Commission President said that talks will begin rapidly.”

Trump’s statement followed a post from von der Leyen on the social media platform X, in which she described her conversation with Trump as a “good call.”

Good call with @POTUS.

The EU and US share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship.

Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively.

To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 25, 2025

“The EU and US share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship. Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively. To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9,” she wrote.

Trump initially said on May 23 that the United States will impose a 50 percent tariff on the European Union starting June 1 after the president wrote on Truth Social that he felt talks with the EU were “going nowhere,” and cited a litany of his trade irritants, from the EU’s value-added taxes to fines and regulations on U.S. companies. The sides also have yet to agree on how to align their trade policies on China, though the EU has privately indicated it is willing to work with the U.S. to combat Beijing’s subsidies for key industries such as steel according to the WSJ.

Trump has long maligned the EU, which he says was formed to take advantage of the US, and decried the U.S.’s persistent trade deficit with the continent. The EU, meanwhile, has said it wouldn’t negotiate over certain Trump demands, such as value-added taxes. And some European ministers have made clear that they wouldn’t accept a deal that keeps Trump’s 10% baseline tariff in place—a concession the U.K. made in a pact signed early this month.

Trump’s statement on Sunday reverts the negotiations back to where they were before his Friday missive, giving the sides just over a month to come to an agreement.

The United States and EU share the largest bilateral economic relationship in the world. Yet, U.S. goods and services face persistent tariff and non-tariff barriers in the EU market, according to the latest Foreign Trade Barriers report issued by U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

Although the EU’s average Most Favored Nation tariff rate stands at a relatively low 5 percent, certain goods face disproportionately high levies, such as fish and seafood (up to 26 percent), trucks (22 percent), bicycles (14 percent), passenger vehicles (10 percent), and fertilizers and plastics (6.5 percent).

Many processed foods such as confectionary products and baked goods also face complex and burdensome tariffs under the EU’s Meursing Table system, which calculates duties based on product composition.

Under this system, the EU charges a tariff on each imported good based on the products’ content of milk fat, milk protein, starch, and sugar.  This system not only increases administrative burden but also creates uncertainty for U.S. food exporters, according to the USTR.

In addition, the EU does not administer its laws through a single customs administration, which presents another layer of complexity for U.S. exporters. Each EU member state enforces customs law independently, resulting in different interpretations and enforcement throughout the bloc.

The EU’s technical barriers to trade also remain a sticking point. For example, Europe’s adoption of regional standards for safety, quality, environmental protection, labeling, and packaging impede market access for U.S. products even if they meet international standards, according to the USTR.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A study published on Thursday found that people with higher vitamin D intake may be slowing a process linked to aging.

In a paper released by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on May 22, Mass General Brigham and the Medical College of Georgia researchers looked at results from a randomized controlled trial known as VITAL showing that taking vitamin D3 supplements can help support telomeres, which are protective ends on chromosomes.

“VITAL is the first large-scale and long-term randomized trial to show that vitamin D supplements protect telomeres and preserve telomere length,” co-author JoAnn Manson said in a statement issued by Mass General Brigham. “This is of particular interest because VITAL had also shown benefits of vitamin D in reducing inflammation and lowering risks of selected chronic diseases of aging, such as advanced cancer and autoimmune disease.”

VITAL, they said, is a randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind trial of vitamin D3 and omega-3 supplementation involving U.S. females aged 55 and older and males aged 50 and older. Participants took 2,000 IU, or about 50 micrograms, of vitamin D3 per day and about 1 gram of omega-3 per day.

In their research, they found that when taking vitamin D3 supplements as compared with taking a placebo, it significantly reduced the shortening of telomeres over a four-year period and was able to prevent “the equivalent of nearly three years of aging,” the statement said.

The researchers said that while several smaller-scale studies have suggested that vitamin D or omega-4 fatty acid supplements could help maintain telomeres, the results haven’t been consistent.

The researchers also noted that taking omega-3 supplements did not have a significant effect on the length of telomeres. Omega-3 is also commonly found in fish oil supplements and is associated with several benefits to the heart, brain, and joints.

“Our findings suggest that targeted vitamin D supplementation may be a promising strategy to counter a biological aging process, although further research is warranted,” Haidong Zhu, an author of the study who works at Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia, said in a statement.

Separate research has suggested that shorter telomeres are associated with aging and a higher chance of developing certain diseases. According to a paper published by the National Institutes of Health, telomere length can potentially serve as a “biological clock” to determine how long a cell lives or how long an organism will live.

Telomeres, which are made of sequences of DNA, prevent the ends of chromosomes from merging with other chromosomes or deteriorating over time, the researchers noted.

Vitamin D can be obtained through sunlight or foods such as fatty fish, egg yolks, cheeses, orange juice, fortified cereals, and certain types of mushrooms.

According to research published by the Cleveland Clinic, supplementation of vitamin D is common, with around one-fifth of the U.S. population taking a vitamin D supplement daily.

How long you live depends a lot on where you’re born…

Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao illustrates this phenomenon in the above map, which uses 2025 life expectancy at birth projections from the UN World Population Prospects published last year.

Life expectancy at birth measures the average number of years that a newborn could expect to live, if they were subject to the age-specific mortality rates of a given period.

ℹ️ This number visualized is an average between men and women. For extra context, women have higher life expectancies than men in nearly every country in the world.

Ranked: Countries Where People Live the Longest

The micronation of Monaco has the highest average life expectancy in the world. A baby born in the country in 2025 can expect to live to 87 years old.

Note: Figures rounded.

Most of the top 10 countries are similarly small-sized territories or countries.

However, Japan (#4), South Korea (#5), and Australia (#10) are the three top-10 countries with the highest life expectancies (84+) when accounting for a population of more than 20 million people.

Regionally, Western European countries have the highest life expectancies at birth. Their counterparts in Eastern Europe are a shade lower.

And despite Japan and South Korea’s performance, most Asians have life expectancies between 70–80 years. Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Papua New Guinea are below the 70-year threshold.

However, several African countries have a below-60 life expectancy, a projected lifespan that is a full 20 years shorter than Western European residents.

Nigeria has the lowest average life expectancy at birth, at 55 years.

What Life Expectancy Numbers Mean for Individuals

Life expectancies are tricky things to fully comprehend: in that they change throughout a person’s lifespan and are measured for entire cohorts born in a year.

For example, in countries with lower projected expectancies, it doesn’t necessarily mean adults don’t live as long.

A high infant mortality rate for a particular cohort of babies born in a year could reduce the projected lifespan of the entire cohort. However once a baby from that year survives to adulthood, they may very well reach their 70s.

In fact, data shows that the biggest difference between life expectancies of Africa and high-income regions are for those before the age of 5 and after 60.

This is because both babies and older adults have a need for specific medical infrastructure which many Africans don’t have access to.

There is a strong correlation between wealth and longer lifespans. Check out Countries with the Highest GDP per Capita in 2024 to see similarities.

Authored by Bruce Davidson via The Brownstone Institute,

The manufacturer of the replicon mRNA Covid “vaccine” in Japan, Meiji Seika Pharma, has brought a lawsuit against a member of the Japanese parliament, Kazuhiro Haraguchi. Haraguchi had commented that the Covid injections are “akin to a biological weapon,” a statement which the Meiji Pharma president claimed was beyond the bounds of acceptable expression.

However, statements like Haraguchi’s about the dangers of the Covid mRNA injections are now commonplace in many nations, and drug companies do not seem to be suing people for making them, at least in the US. Instead, state attorneys general in Kansas and Texas have been suing Pfizer for misrepresenting its Covid injections.

In general, Japan has been gradually evolving into a place where it is difficult to publicly express ideas unapproved by powerful business interests and officialdom. In addition to government and mainstream news media collusion to keep Covid medical realities from the Japanese public, the government passed a law to squelch nonconforming messaging online.

The intentions behind this measure are clear: Prominent government figures have openly declared their conviction that “misinformation” is a major problem in Japan. In December 2024, Prime Minister Ishiba stated that he was considering more regulations concerning Internet discourse that he considers problematic, and a prominent LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) politician named Noda commented recently that Japan was being influenced more and more by “fake” information.

In May 2024, Japan’s parliament passed a law to enable the quick elimination of defamatory posts from social media platforms like Facebook and X. By this law, such platforms would have to make explicit sites for taking requests to delete posts and also make clear their criteria for taking down posts. The new law went into effect on April 1, 2025.

Unsurprisingly, some Japanese YouTube vloggers are expressing concerns that, under the new set of regulations, their vlogs may soon be targeted as purveyors of “misinformation,” especially when they criticize government policy.

Only online media platforms are targeted in this development, even though Japanese print communications and TV programs have also often been guilty of spreading harmful disinformation. Ironically, in many instances, this is not because they are unregulated but precisely because they are under the thumb of government agencies.

For example, the Japanese National Police Agency has deliberately leaked information about people under investigation in order to pressure them into confessing to crimes. Since the Japanese public often naively believes that suspicion equals guilt, this tactic results in terrible consequences for the unjustly accused.

In 1996, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Aum Shinrikyo cult to assassinate three Japanese judges, police leaked to news media outlets some details of their investigation of Yoshiyuki Kono, an innocent man whose family was also severely injured in the attack.

Kono’s experience of being hounded by both the authorities and the mainstream news media mirrors that of Richard Jewell, the heroic security guard who became a suspect after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing. The FBI deliberately leaked details of their investigation to American mainstream news outlets, which proceeded to harass and condemn Jewell along with the investigating FBI agents, though the case eventually unraveled.

Even before the social media platform law, Japanese news media outlets were effectively controlled by the government. As a result, Japan was ranked lowest among all Group of Seven nations for freedom of the press in the World Press Freedom Index. Japan’s overall ranking dropped from 68th to 70th after the 2024 social media law was passed. 

The reasons for this are the press club system and the self-censorship of most Japanese reporters. Each government ministry has a press club consisting of representatives from prominent news media outlets, and they receive official briefings from government officials. However, these members of the press can be banned from these briefings if they do anything that reflects badly on the government.

Therefore, at such meetings, there is “no atmosphere that encourages deliberation of important issues because reporters know that if they ask difficult questions they can be punished,” in one Japanese reporter’s words. For instance, reporters at press briefings were afraid to ask questions about unclear statements to Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga, who sometimes harshly responded, “That question is beside the point!”

These developments are especially ominous in light of the fact that Japan already has a tainted history in regard to suppressing freedom of information and expression. In 1925, the Japanese government passed the Peace Preservation Law, which criminalized the expression of unapproved ideas.

In the years that followed, totalitarian control rapidly replaced democratic government and unrestricted public debate. This culminated in a war that brought great horrors to Japan and other nations. Freedom of expression is a matter much more significant than words.

An Israeli intelligence soldier who was taken prisoner by Hamas during the militant group’s Oct 7 2023 invasion of Israel says the greatest threat to her life during her 477 days in captivity came from the Israeli bombing campaign — and not the men who were holding her. In a speech at a Tel Aviv rally demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza as well as new elections, 20-year-old Naama Levy gave a visceral account of what it was like to live under constant Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) bombardment: 

“They come by surprise. First you hear a whistle, pray it doesn’t fall on you, and then — the booms, a noise loud enough to paralyze you. The earth shakes. I was convinced every single time that I was finished, and it’s also what put me in the greatest danger: one of the bombardments collapsed part of the house I was in. The wall I was leaning on didn’t collapse, and that’s what saved me.”

Adding her voice to the many in Israel that want an end to the obliteration of Gaza and the return of their fellow citizens held captive, Levy noted that the detainees continued to live the hellish existence she did:

“That was my reality, and now it’s their reality. At this very moment, there are hostages who hear those same whistles and booms, shaking with fear. They have nowhere to run, they can only pray and cling to the wall while feeling a horrible powerlessness.”

Levy said she also endured another kind of pain being intentionally inflicted on every man, woman and child in Gaza — hunger and thirst:  

“There were entire days without food and little water. One day, I had nothing left, not even water. Fortunately, it started raining. My captors put a pot outside the house where I was held, and the rain filled it. I drank that rain water, which was enough for a pot of rice. That’s what kept me going.”

She enjoyed a weekly glimpse into what has happening back home in Israel: Her captors let her watch television every Saturday. She said the images of Israeli protesters pushing for the release of civilian hostages and prisoners of war buoyed her spirits. “I saw thousands standing here wrapped in flags, shouting, singing, holding pictures of the hostages, including mine. You made me feel that I was not forgotten,” she said. 

According to a new poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 12, 55% of Israelis think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top priority is staying in power. When asked why Netanyahu has not allowed another deal for the remaining captives, 53% say the reasons are political. “An eternal, politically-motivated war is preferable [to him] over the return of civilians kidnapped on his watch,” said Einav Zangauker before Saturday night’s rallies across the country; his son is among the Israelis still in Gaza.   

Netanyahu’s detractors attribute his continuation of the war in the face of rising global condemnation to various self-serving factors, including wanting to forestall a full inquiry into his government’s failure to prevent the Oct 7 attacks, and appeasing the more extreme members of his ruling coalition — such as finance minister Bezalel Smotrich — who want to ethnically cleanse most of Gaza.  

Saturday, Tel Aviv, the protest gets bigger. Nearly 1000 Israelis holding pictures of children killed in Gaza in a silent protest in city center. Many more asked to join pic.twitter.com/KVhK7ZwWCn

— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) May 24, 2025

Levy’s removal from an IDF outpost on Oct 7 was memorably caught on video. Amid a social media and propaganda frenzy that saw false and unsubstantiated claims go viral on social media and readily parroted by government officials, many observers insisted that dark stains on the seat of Levy’s sweatpants had to indicate she’d been sexually abused. However, Levy has never alleged that she was sexually assaulted on October 7 nor during her 15 months in Gaza. Nonetheless, Wikipedia continues to baselessly assert that “images from the footage [of Levy’s capture] demonstrated sexual and gender based violence against Israeli women during the attacks.” 

In a different misleading vein, many descriptions of Levy’s capture referred to it as a “kidnapping,” ignoring the fact that Levy was serving as an active-duty IDF soldier in a military compound. ABC News went so far as to describe Levy and her fellow intel soldiers as “five girls taken hostage.” 

Levy was one of five female surveillance soldiers released by Hamas in January 2025. While they were being held, peers in her surveillance role blew the whistle on their superiors: Soldiers of the IDF’s Combat Intelligence Corps said that, for at least three months before the attacks, they observed Hamas members conducting paramilitary training along the fenceline, digging holes, studying the area with maps, examining the ground surface and even placing and detonating explosives. They said their warnings went unheeded by IDF higher-ups. 

Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, narrowly approved by the House of Representatives on May 22, includes a tax break for Americans older than 65 in the form of a temporary deduction of $4,000.  

In lieu of President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, this deduction, called the “senior bonus,” would offer a smaller tax cut, targeted to benefit lower-income seniors. 

The House bill allows seniors, whether they take the standard deduction or itemize their returns, to deduct an additional $4,000 from their taxable income. It phases out for single filers earning more than $75,000, or $150,000 for taxpayers filing jointly. 

The deduction would last from 2025 through 2028. For those who qualify, it would amount to dollar savings of $480 for those in the 12 percent tax bracket, and $880 for those in the 22 percent tax bracket. The deduction reduces taxable income and is distinct from a tax credit, which would be a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes.

Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute focusing on budget, tax, and economic policy, told The Epoch Times that “Republicans converted the pledge of no taxes on Social Security benefits into the $4,000 additional senior deduction for two reasons.”

“First, because congressional rules forbid altering Social Security or its taxes in a reconciliation bill,” Riedl said. “Second, ending Social Security income taxes would overwhelmingly benefit wealthier seniors, because their benefits currently face higher taxes, and this deduction is instead targeted to lower-earning seniors.”

According to what is called the 1974 Byrd Rule, changes to Social Security-related provisions cannot be included in budget reconciliation bills in the Senate and must be enacted through regular legislation, which is subject to a filibuster. No Democrat representatives voted in favor of the House bill, which passed 215-214.

According to a May 16 White House statement in support of the House budget bill, it “provides historic tax relief to Social Security recipients“ and ”slashes taxes on seniors’ Social Security benefits.” 

The bill now proceeds to the Senate, which will have the opportunity to approve or alter it. Trump has urged the Senate to pass the bill, which has also received support from senior citizens’ advocates. 

“It’s not perfect, but given the political realities of no bipartisan support, we urge Republicans to unite and pass ‘The One, Big Beautiful Bill,’” Saul Anuzis, president of the American Association of Senior Citizens, said in a statement.

The American Association of Retired Persons also endorsed the senior bonus, with its chief advocacy and engagement officer Nancy LeaMond stating in a May 5 letter that it was “a targeted and commonsense adjustment that reflects today’s economic realities.”

And calling the provision “a win for seniors across the country,” Jim Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association, stated that “the president and House Republicans are providing much needed tax relief to middle and low-income seniors.” 

The senior bonus provides significantly less tax relief than eliminating Social Security taxes altogether; however, it benefits the Social Security trust, which analysts, including those at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, project will be depleted in 2035, at which point benefits would be reduced by 17 percent.

“Ultimately, the $4,000 deduction is significantly cheaper than the original Social Security tax proposal—$20 billion annually versus $120 billion,” Riedl said. “It also does not divert money out of the Social Security trust fund like the original proposal would have.” 

The reduction in revenue from the senior bonus would come out of general revenue from federal income tax, rather than from the Social Security fund, as would have been the case if the Social Security tax were eliminated. 

Up to 85 percent of Social Security benefits are currently taxable for single filers earning more than $34,000 and for joint filers above $44,000, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Up to 50 percent of benefits are taxable for single filers earning $25,000–$34,000, and for joint filers earning $32,000–$44,000. 

There are troubling reports that the Ontario Food Terminal—the largest wholesale fruit and produce hub in Canada, moving 2 billion pounds annually—has been disrupted by far-left activists chanting “Free Palestine.”

“Masked protesters stage a blockade at the Ontario Food Terminal, preventing freight trucks from accessing Canada’s largest wholesale fruit and vegetable distribution center,” citizen journalist “CarymaRules” wrote on X early Sunday morning, adding, “The demonstration began shortly before 2:00AM, ahead of the day’s scheduled deliveries.”

Masked protesters stage a blockade at the Ontario Food Terminal, preventing freight trucks from accessing Canada’s largest wholesale fruit and vegetable distribution center.

The demonstration began shortly before 2:00AM, ahead of the day’s scheduled deliveries.#cdnpoli… pic.twitter.com/xdN9p2yPs8

— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) May 25, 2025

So what exactly are the “Free Palestine” protesters trying to achieve by targeting a critical agricultural chokepoint?

It’s less about Gaza and more about their true agenda rooted in parasitic Marxism, using Gaza as cover for a broader agenda aimed at collapsing capitalism.

More footage from the staged blockade of the critical chokepoint for ag products:

#BREAKING: These actions at the Ontario food terminal fit the very definition in the spirit of section 83.01 of the criminal code. This is the definition of terrorism.

Why are the Mark Carney liberals not arresting them and freezing their Bank accounts. @Canada @Cdn_Poli @IDF pic.twitter.com/KTUseaM6EU

— RC (@RealChange__) May 25, 2025

#BREAKING

Protesters are blocking entry to the Ontario Food Terminal, Canada’s largest wholesale fruit and produce distribution centre.

Dozens of trucks are backed up along the Queensway. #cdnpoli #Toronto #Palestine #Israel #Gaza #ProtestMania pic.twitter.com/CQ4Ex0kF8H

— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) May 25, 2025

#BREAKING Dozens of activists block the entrance of delivery trucks to the Ontario Food Terminal. This is the main produce artery for grocery stores & restaurants in Toronto.

“Lift the siege let them breathe”

Organizers say they want Canada to act. pic.twitter.com/NlGBB1kmav

— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) May 25, 2025

Trucks backed up as Ontario Food Terminal is blocked. Gaza is starving. PM @MarkJCarney – words are not enough. Sanction Israel. Two way #ArmsEmbargoNow pic.twitter.com/kTtm4O9PYo

— hussan (@hussansk) May 25, 2025

The Raptor makes a brief appearance during the Ontario Food Terminal blockade, but it was apparently too early in the morning for cartwheels or backflips. #cdnpoli #Toronto #Palestine #Israel #Gaza #ProtestMania pic.twitter.com/zfrj1DrSpT

— Caryma Sa’d – Lawyer + Political Satirist (@CarymaRules) May 25, 2025

One year ago, pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted critical U.S. infrastructure—shutting down airport terminals, blocking bridges, causing major highway congestion, and targeting corporate distribution networks—we asked a very simple question back then:

• Are Pro-Palestinian Protests Being Hijacked By Marxists To “Destroy Capitalism, Freedom & Democracy”?

We also noted last year that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)—a Marxist-Leninist group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S.—has ties to destabilization efforts on U.S. college campuses.

According to the Director of National Intelligence, PFLP is a terrorist group based in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It unites Arab nationalism with Marxist-Leninist ideology. It promotes the destruction of “Israel as integral to the struggle to remove Western capitalism from the Middle East and ultimately establish a Communist Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” the DNI writes on its website.

PFLP has a public-facing arm called Samidoun that operates in the West. NGO Monitor notes that PFLP and Samidoun “had a strong presence at encampments, demonstrations, and riots on American college campuses. Students have been documented carrying PFLP posters, flying the PFLP flag, hosting PFLP-linked speakers, and reading PFLP publications.”

The point we’re making is that paralyzing critical infrastructure and chokepoints across North America has little to do with helping the poor Gazans. Instead, these parasitic Marxists hide behind the Gaza cause to advance their true agenda: collapsing the West. Remember, these same parasitic Marxists used BLM as cover to burn city streets and loot businesses.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in a statement on Thursday that its staff have completed a “major cleanup” of Social Security records after it was discovered that more than 12 million people aged 120 or older were in the system.

“After 11 weeks, Social Security has finished this major cleanup initiative,” DOGE wrote in a post on social media platform X, adding that some 12.3 million individuals listed as being aged 120 or older “have now been marked as deceased.”

But it added that “some complex cases remain, such as individuals with 2+ different birth dates on file,” which “will be investigated in a follow-up effort.”

DOGE also provided a portion of a screenshot that showed there were about 3.3 million people aged 120 to 129, 3.9 million aged 130 to 139, 3.5 million listed as age 140 to 149, 1.3 million listed as age 150 to 159, and around 124,000 listed as age 160 to 169, all of whom were marked as deceased in the Social Security system.

The update comes as new Social Security Administrator Frank Bisignano told Fox Business earlier this week that Social Security’s “records were not very good, and that’s the source of fraud.”

“The amount of people that were not alive that did not show on the system … was outstanding. Millions and millions. And that is a source of potential for fraud,” he told the news outlet, adding that the work that DOGE did in the agency “was 100 percent accurate” in a bid to locate anything that could lead to fraud.

That’s because, according to Bisignano, an active Social Security number that is “still alive in the system” presents the “opportunity for fraud.”

Established by President Donald Trump in January, DOGE is tasked with finding what officials say are fraud, waste, and abuse. But its efforts have been blocked in several court cases, namely in the Social Security Administration.

DOGE’s recent announcement on its Social Security record cleanup efforts comes as the Trump administration submitted an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month to allow access to Social Security data after lower courts blocked its access.

In March, U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander, who is based in Maryland, ruled that DOGE could not access Social Security systems because such a move could run afoul of the federal Privacy Act, also alleging that the task force’s mission to root out fraud, waste, and abuse is a “fishing expedition.” She also directed the DOGE team to delete any personally identifiable data that it may have in its possession.

“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack,” the judge wrote.

A month later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling to uphold Hollander’s order, prompting the Trump administration to file its appeal with the Supreme Court.

A court filing submitted by Solicitor General D. John Sauer on May 13 argued that Hollander effectively superseded the executive branch and “dictated … which government employees can access which data and even prescribed necessary training, background checks, and paperwork for data access.”

“When district courts attempt to transform themselves into the human resources department for the Executive Branch, the irreparable harm to the government is clear,” he wrote.

The task force has been effectively led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, a senior adviser to Trump and a special government employee, meaning he has 130 days to complete his work. Musk said in a Tesla earnings call last month that he would be stepping back from his government duties in May to focus on his company.