Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

SpaceX will move about 4,400 Starlink satellites to a lower orbit this year to better control risks and improve safety, the company announced Friday.

Michael Nicholls, vice president of Starlink engineering, posted the news on X, saying the adjustment would increase space safety in several ways.

Elon Musk’s Starlink system contributes more than 9,000 satellites to an increasingly crowded Earth orbit. Of those in the Starlink system, only two are not functioning, according to Nicholls.

Nicholls also noted that the atmospheric changes brought on by solar activity can affect satellite operations. An active sun causes a thicker atmosphere, which can bring spacecraft down faster.

Low solar activity, such as during the solar minimum after 2030, can have an opposite effect.

The number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations at the lower orbit—below 500 kilometers from Earth—is smaller, which reduces the likelihood of collision, Nicholls stated.

If a satellite does fail in orbit, Starlink wants to remove it as quickly as possible, improving the safety of the rest of the satellite constellation, Nicholls said.

Starlink also announced Thursday it had lost contact with one of its satellites and that it would work with NASA to monitor it.

“On December 17, Starlink experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, resulting in loss of communications with the vehicle at 418 km,” Starlink posted on X.

The satellite was largely intact, tumbling, and is expected to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere within weeks. It poses no risk to the orbiting Space Station or its crew, the company stated.

“As the world’s largest satellite constellation operator, we are deeply committed to space safety. We take these events seriously,” the post said.

Starlink has seen explosive growth in the past five years, expanding into a global internet provider with millions of subscribers and challenging traditional satellite and terrestrial broadband internet providers.

The company connected more than 4.6 million users, according to its 2024 year-end report.

In five years, SpaceX has activated internet for more than 2.8 billion people around the world, including in some of the most remote parts of the planet, according to the report.

The U.S. Air Force is also conducting research to consider integrating Starlink into its Ghostrider gunships or heavy-lift cargo planes. Air Force Special Operations Command published a notice Tuesday requesting information on Starlink and its military version, Starshield.

As December BGE bills arrive after a cold winter, many Harford County residents say soaring energy costs are leaving them frightened and overwhelmed, according to Fox Baltimore.

Jenny, who lives in a 1,000-square-foot home and keeps her thermostat in the mid-60s, is facing a bill of about $400 despite working full time and spending most of the day out of the house.

“The fear of being turned off, especially with it being you some mornings in the teens, the being fearful,” Jenny said. “Can I afford groceries this month, or do I pay this BGE bill and go to food pantries?”

“Nothing in my life has actually changed. I still work full time. I’m out of the house all day working, and I just think that these rates are outrageous,” she added.

Across town, Teresa Stepp received a bill exceeding $1,200.

“Everybody uses more gas and electric for heat in the winter that is not uncommon. It is the norm, so with that being said, still it seems excessive,” Stepp said.

BGE reports that for the 30-day period ending Dec. 21, 2025, electric heating customers used 11% more energy than last year, while gas customers used 13% more, driven by colder weather. Higher distribution rates, rising supply costs across the PJM region, state-driven fees, and limited in-state energy generation—Maryland now imports about 40% of its power—have also pushed bills higher.

“What do you pick and choose? I have to have car insurance. I have to get to work. It’s just a lot. It’s very stressful,” Jenny said.

Fox Baltimore writes that recent rate changes add further pressure. A new increase raises the average residential electric bill by $1.07 per month and gas by $2.65. Beginning in February, an additional PSC-approved increase adds 72 cents for electric customers and $1.95 for gas customers each month through 2027.

While lawmakers approved limited relief last year, residents say it falls short.

“And then they say, “Okay, well, we’re going to give you a bit of a rebate,”” Stepp said. “It was $40, so the impact is I have medical bills, and those are astronomical. My husband had a stroke last year. We’re still bailing out of that. The food bills have tripled. The cost of my car registration has tripled.”

“My message is, you’re forcing us to leave,” she added.

“You are forcing people that have been native to Maryland, that the people that have paid their way, paved the way as a part of the economy for years and years that you’re saying we can no longer afford to live here. I can’t.”

A BGE spokesperson said the company is working to balance affordability with the need to provide safe electric and gas service and noted customers can seek payment assistance at BGE.com/billhelp.

“Please make changes, the governor, BGE, whomever, please change this immediately, because it’s affecting all of us,” Jenny said. “It’s not okay,”

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of the Treasury issued guidance on Wednesday regarding the deduction for car loan interest payments made by taxpayers.

A statement from the IRS said that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, includes a provision regarding auto loan interest paid by car owners.

The provision allows owners who bought vehicles with final assembly in the United States to deduct up to $10,000 in car loan interest from their taxable income for 2025 through 2028.

The deduction applies to interest paid on vehicle loans incurred after Dec. 31, 2024, for the purchase of new, made-in-America vehicles, the IRS said. The tax benefits apply to taxpayers who take the standard deduction and to those who itemize deductions.

The newly issued guidance provides clarity on the eligibility criteria for such deductions, including qualifying loans, the amount of interest paid, and whether the vehicle is bought for personal use.

For instance, the guidance states that in addition to requiring the final assembly of vehicles to be in the United States, a vehicle must meet other conditions to be eligible for interest deductions, such as a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds, and that the original use of the vehicle must have commenced with the taxpayer.

For determining whether final assembly occurred in the United States, a buyer can check the vehicle identification number at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website.

As for the $10,000 max deduction limit, it only applies to federal tax returns, the guidance clarified. “If two taxpayers have a Federal income tax return filing status of married filing separately, the $10,000 limitation would apply separately to each taxpayer’s return.”

If the modified adjusted gross income of a taxpayer for a year exceeds $100,000, the deduction limit decreases by $200 for every $1,000 in extra income. For married taxpayers filing a joint return, the cuts in deductions start once income exceeds $200,000.

The guidance clarified that while eligibility for loan interest deduction requires that the vehicle be used for personal purposes, there is no insistence that a vehicle be purchased “exclusively” for personal use.

“Requiring taxpayers to make a determination regarding the exact amount of expected personal use and non-personal use is not administrable and may result in a considerable burden to taxpayers, ” the guidance said.

Regarding deceased owners, some estates, formed to hold a deceased owner’s property for their heirs, may purchase new vehicles. These estates qualify for the loan interest deduction, the guidance said, adding that certain trusts, like qualified funeral trusts, may never be eligible.

Tariffs and Vehicle Sales

In a July 15 post, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy had suggested that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s car loan interest deduction would not completely offset the higher auto prices triggered by the Trump administration’s tariffs on these items.

The administration had instituted 25 percent tariffs on auto imports in April, followed by 25 percent tariffs in May on the import of auto parts in a bid to protect American manufacturing and counter the unfair trade practices of its trading partners. The rates have been adjusted for certain nations based on trade negotiations.

“The deduction would offset only 36 to 43 percent of tariff-induced price increases for working-class families while buyers with higher incomes could see offsets ranging up to 85 percent,” the institute said.

“On a $40,000 vehicle, the net price increase would range from $201 to $879 for eligible claimants and would be $1,363 for car buyers ineligible for the deduction.”

However, recent estimates show no decline in car sales in the country despite the implementation of higher tariffs.

According to a Dec. 17 post by industry expert Cox Automotive, new vehicle sales are expected to close 2025 up 1.8 percent year-over-year per estimates from Kelly Blue Book. New vehicle sales for the year are estimated to be 16.3 million, making 2025 the “best sales year since 2019,” it said.

Despite a flurry of politically charged violence and a number of Islamic and left-wing motivated terror attacks, 2025 also experienced the largest single-year decline in homicides in US history.  The plunge brings official US homicide rates to near-record lows.

Based on a sampling of preliminary crime statistics from 550 U.S. law enforcement agencies, the year is expected to end with a roughly 20% decrease in homicides nationwide, Jeff Asher, a national crime analyst, told ABC News. 

“So, even taking a conservative view, let’s say its 17% or 16%, you’re still looking at the largest one-year drop ever recorded in 2025,” said Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics and a former crime analyst for the CIA and the New Orleans Police Department.  

The drop comes after what many law enforcement analysts call the “Pandemic Surge”, the Biden era explosion in homicides and overall crime was considered endemic to Democrat controlled cities across the US.  Though, Democrat leaders claimed throughout Biden’s term that no such surge was taking place.  

The spike in murders was the largest since the early 1990s at the height of the gang violence era.  However, criminal data collection was incomplete during the Biden years due to a sudden change in the FBI’s Summary Reporting System (SRS).  Starting in 2021, the FBI began transitioning to a new method called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). 

This transition was officially slated to take up to five years to complete and during the changeover a large percentage of US cities were not required to submit complete crime stats.  Meaning, as bad as the pandemic surge was, the real crime rate was likely much higher than reported.  

By the end of 2024, crime data coverage returned to around 95% of the population.  This is rather convenient for Democrats given they had a convenient excuse to suppress true crime rates through lack of reporting; then, the reporting system went back to normal as soon as Donald Trump returned to office. 

If the stats are accurate for 2025, this means the Trump Administration has overseen the largest ever drop in homicides in the US in it’s first year without the benefit of incomplete FBI data.  This is impressive.

But there as some lingering concerns about the accuracy of blue city crime rates.  For example, Washington DC officials have been caught in the midst of active suppression of crime data, using intimidation of precinct commanders as a means to rig arrest records and downgrade offenses while progressive prosecutors and judges keep conviction rates low. 

The exposure of this fraud (due to law enforcement whistleblowers) led to the resignation of D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith and an ongoing congressional investigation.

The question is, how many other blue cities are involved in the same kind of crime stat suppression and is this the real cause of the drop in criminal activity.  Or, did Trump play a substantial role in cutting down homicides?  Perhaps the mass deportations along with National Guard deployments in place like DC and LA have had a meaningful effect on urban violence. 

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com,

Coal India Limited, the biggest coal producer in the world’s second-biggest coal user, opened this year its online coal supply auctions directly to buyers in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, as Indian coal supply has swelled amid weaker-than-expected demand in recent months. 

Amid an oversupply of coal and weaker demand, India and its top state coal producer are looking to optimize domestic supply and monetize exports to neighboring countries.
Until 2026, only middlemen could bid in Coal India’s online supply auctions. This has now changed with the new policy. 

“In a first, effective January 1, 2026, CIL has permitted coal consumers located in the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, who wish to import coal from India, to directly participate in the Single Window Mode Agnostic (SWMA) auctions conducted by the company,” Coal India said in a statement on Friday, as carried by The Economic Times.

“Opening SWMA e-auctions to foreign buyers reflects CIL’s calibrated approach to market expansion while fully safeguarding domestic coal requirements. This step enhances transparency, competition and global market integration,” a senior company official told the publication. 

Opening the e-auctions directly to buyers sent Coal India’s shares rallying by 7% on the local stock exchange at close on Friday. 

Coal-fired power generation and capacity installations in India continue to rise and coal remains a key pillar of India’s electricity mix with about 60% share of total power output.

Despite booming renewable capacity additions, India continues to rely on coal to meet most of its power demand as authorities also look to avoid blackouts in cases of severe heat waves.

Coal will still be a key part of India’s power system for the next two decades, Rajnath Ram, adviser for energy NITI Aayog, said in September. 

“We cannot be subjective about coal. The question is how sustainably we can use it,” the official noted.  

2026 started with a bang for proponents of the human right of armed self-defense, as a US appeals court on Friday ruled that California’s de facto statewide ban on openly carrying firearms violates the US Constitution. However, there’s reason to think it will flip the other way as the litigation proceeds to the next phase. For now, though, leftists are recoiling. California governor and likely 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom said “Republican activists on the Ninth Circuit” want to “return to the days of the Wild West.” 

As with other recent victories for gun rights, this one springs from the test prescribed by the impactful 2022 US Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. In that case, the court said firearm restrictions are only permissible if they are consistent with the country’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.” The three-judge panel ruled against the open-carry ban in a 2-1 ruling, overturning a lower-court judge’s interpretation. As Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote in the majority opinion: 

“The historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this nation’s history and tradition. It was clearly protected at the time of the founding and at the time of the adoption of the 14th Amendment. There is no record of any law restricting open carry at the Founding, let alone a distinctly similar historical regulation… for the first 162 years of its history open carry was a largely unremarkable part of daily life in California.”

California law forbids open carry in any county with a population of more than 200,000 people, a threshold that covers 95% of the population. In practice, however, it’s a 100% ban. Technically, Californians in sparsely-populated counties are allowed to apply for a license to carry openly in their home county, but, as noted in the 98-page ruling, “California admits that it has no record of even one open-carry license being issued, and one potential reason is that California has misled its citizens about how to apply for an open-carry license.” 

The opinion also points to the 19th century, which saw plenty of concealed carry restrictions but few on open carry (and those that did exist were usually struck down) pic.twitter.com/0yvJqiTU6B

— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) January 2, 2026

The sole judge in the minority, George W. Bush-appointed N. Randy Smith, said the ban passed constitutional muster because California lets residents carry concealed firearms, if they can get a permit. “A state may not prohibit the public carriage of firearms by eliminating both open and concealed carry, but a state can lawfully eliminate one manner of carry to protect and ensure the safety of its citizens, as long as they are able to carry in another manner,” he wrote in his dissent. 

The majority opinion skewered California’s strained attempt to find some tangential way to characterize the open-carry ban as consistent with the “historical tradition of firearm regulation,” and thus pass the Bruen test:   

“Open carry remains open carry, just as it was at the Founding. And concealed carry remains concealed carry, just as it was in 1791. To get around that reality, the analogical argument that California would have us adopt really boils down to the idea that today a state can ban all open carry because some other states regulated some other things at the Founding in some other ways. That is too sloppy a fit. Bruen requires a closer relationship between “how” and “why” a historical regulation burdened the right to bear arms and “how” and “why” a modern analogue burdens that right.”  

The victory will likely be short-lived, according to Kostas Moros, Director of Legal Research and Education for the Second Amendment Foundation. “With near certainty, it will be en banc’d and reversed,” Moros wrote in a thread on X in which he analyzed the ruling. Pointing to a previous, dubious ruling, he said, it’s “hard to see how the Ninth Circuit would ever let this ruling stand.” 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Undercover investigators with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are going to check whether stores are complying with new restrictions on food stamps, the department said in a new notice to state and regional officials.

The USDA’s Office of Retailer Operations and Compliance carries out federal oversight of retailers that accept funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as food stamps. The office “initiates and conducts undercover investigations to determine if a retailer is complying with program requirements,” the USDA said in the Dec. 30, 2025, notice.

Once new SNAP restrictions take effect in states, investigators “will incorporate attempts to purchase restricted items according to the state’s SNAP Food Restriction policy, beginning 90 days after the implementation date,” the notice states.

Retailers that are not in compliance will initially receive a warning letter advising corrective action. If retailers are found to be out of compliance again, then officials will revoke their authorization to keep accepting SNAP.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in 2025 approved requests from 18 states to diverge from normal SNAP operations and impose various restrictions on which items participants can buy.

The first five states—Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia—began restricting purchases on Jan. 1. The next restrictions take effect in Idaho, Louisiana, and Oklahoma in February. Restrictions in other states may not start until as late as Oct. 1.

Many of the states have targeted soda and other soft drinks. Some have barred SNAP funds from being used for energy drinks, candy, and prepared desserts.

Some 42 million Americans participate in SNAP. Eligibility is primarily based on household income.

Federal law says SNAP’s main purpose is to “safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s population by raising levels of nutrition among low-income households.”

The waivers “further that purpose, as part of broader state and federal government efforts to fight the obesity epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” Patrick Penn, a USDA official, told state and regional officials in the new notice.

Each waiver has definitions of restricted items. Due to the varying definitions and implementation dates, close coordination between state agencies and retailers is needed, Penn said. Retailers have to take steps such as updating equipment and training employees.

Penn also said that the USDA plans to approve additional waivers in the future.

The Food Industry Association, whose members include retailers, said in a statement it appreciated that USDA clarified there is a 90-day grace period before the agency will enforce the new restrictions, and guidance from federal and state officials.

“While receiving this guidance and assurance of a 90-day grace period is critical, our members have additional questions and need assurance that ‘involuntary withdrawal’ following a second offense mentioned in the guidance will be limited to retailers knowingly and intentionally not following the restriction, not an accidental error on one of 21,000 or more products that must be coded as restricted in each state,” Jennifer Hatcher, an association officer, said.

The National Grocers Association, a trade group representing independent supermarkets, said in a statement on Dec. 22, 2025, that the waivers present challenges because they mean that SNAP funds can no longer be spent on tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of items.

That will force grocers to reprogram systems, track items, retrain workers, and talk to customers, the group said.

“These regulatory burdens have the potential to disrupt store operations and slow checkout lines as retailers work in good faith to implement and enforce the new rules,” the association said. “For SNAP reforms to Make America Healthy Again, policymakers must provide clear, consistent definitions and a realistic implementation timeline. Independent grocers are proud economic drivers, creating local jobs and generating tax revenue, but they need certainty and common sense, not more costly red tape handed down by bureaucrats.”

In what can only be described as the financial industry’s most brazen act of self-dealing since the last crisis, private equity giants are now openly selling assets to themselves at record pace, propping up their crumbling empire with a tactic that reeks of pure Ponzi desperation.

According to the Financial Times, roughly one-fifth of all private equity exits this year involved firms raising fresh cash from new suckers investors to buy portfolio companies from their own aging funds.

That’s a sharp jump from the 12-13% seen in prior years, with Raymond James’ Sunaina Sinha Haldea predicting a staggering $107 billion in these incestuous transactions for 2025, blowing past last year’s $70 billion.

These so-called “continuation vehicles” let PE barons hand money back to restless limited partners in older funds while keeping control of the assets – and, crucially, resetting the clock on lucrative management fees and carried interest.

It’s the ultimate have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too scam: cash out the old money, lock in the new money, and keep milking the same cow indefinitely.

“This year is set to break all records,” Sinha Haldea crowed, calling it a “popular and effective win-win-win liquidity solution” in a market where real exits remain frozen.

Translation: when you can’t find a greater fool outside your own circle, just invent a new fund and pass the hot potato internally.

Jefferies’ Skip Fahrholz chimed in that global volume will hit close to $100 billion, confirming the feeding frenzy.

The FT reports the roster of perpetrators reads like a who’s-who of the buyout racket: PAI Partners flipped part of its stake in ice cream giant Froneri (think Häagen-Dazs) to a continuation vehicle for the second time in a €15 billion-valued deal. Vista Equity, New Mountain Capital, and Inflexion all deployed multibillion-dollar continuation funds to cling to their crown-jewel investments rather than face the harsh light of public markets or genuine third-party buyers.

Even EQT’s CEO Per Franzén, who hasn’t yet dipped into this particular trough, recently admitted he wants in – purely to generate extra fees on existing holdings, naturally.

But beneath the sanitized industry spin lie the glaring conflicts: the same PE firm sits on both sides of the trade, deciding the price at which assets move from one of its pockets to another.

Pension funds and other LPs are rightly furious, fearing managers low-ball valuations to screw departing investors while setting themselves up for fat future carry on the “new” fund.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council just sued U.S. firm Energy & Minerals Group over exactly this alleged grift: EMG tried to undervalue gas driller Ascent Resources in a self-sale that would have boosted its ownership and restarted fee collection.

The deal collapsed amid the lawsuit, and now outside bidders are circling.

What was once a last-resort lifeboat for dogs nobody wanted has morphed into a preferred tool for hoarding winning assets, all while the broader exit environment remains a graveyard.

Bain & Co’s latest survey found nearly two-thirds of LPs still prefer old-fashioned exits—actual sales to outsiders or IPOs—over this circular money-shuffling charade.

Yet with no real buyers in sight, expect continuation vehicles to become the new normal: a glorified Ponzi mechanism dressed up in GP-LP alignment jargon, keeping the private equity bubble inflated just a little longer – until the music finally stops.

Authored by Michael Gauthier via carscoops.com,

• Chinese EV exports are booming and were up 87% last month.

• Mexico was the top export market in November with 19,344 units.

• Over 600,000 Chinese EVs have been exported to Europe in 2025.

Chinese cars were once the butt of jokes, but they’ve become a major threat to Western automakers. That’s clear today as data from China’s General Administration of Customs has revealed exports of electric vehicles soared 87 percent in November.

That’s a huge increase compared to last year and the most popular destination in November was Mexico. Chinese EV exports to the country soared 2,367 percent to total 19,344 units. While the numbers don’t reveal which vehicles were responsible for the boost, the BYD Dolphin Mini has been a hit south of the border.

The small EV measures just 148.8 inches (3,780 mm) long and features a front-mounted motor developing 74 hp (55 kW / 75 PS) and 100 lb-ft (135 Nm) of torque. Customers can also get 30.1 and 38.8 kWh battery packs, which provide a NEDC range of up to 236 miles (380 km).

Mexico was followed by Indonesia and Thailand as the top markets for Chinese exports last month. The former country imported 17,503 vehicles, while the latter took in 13,517.

Focusing on Europe, exports to the UK soared 113 percent last month to 9,096. This means 121,555 Chinese EVs have arrived since the beginning of the year and this is an increase of 24 percent .

That pales in comparison to Belgium, where 195,309 Chinese EVs have been imported in the first 11 months of the year. However, it’s worth noting this is a 15 percent drop compared to 2024.

Where Most Chinese EVs Are Going

Asia remained the biggest market for Chinese EVs as exports climbed 71 percent to 110,061 units in November. They were followed by Europe and Latin America (including the Caribbean).

While Asian countries have imported nearly 1 million Chinese EVs through November, the big story is Europe’s 604,105. That’s 12 percent more than 2024 and the number shows why European automakers and politicians are so worried.

High income households in America capture a large share of the nation’s earnings, and this gulf has widened over time.

In 2024, the top 20% – with an average household income of $316,100 – took home 52.2% of all national income, up 8.7 percentage points from 1974.

Meanwhile, the bottom 20% received just 3.1%, further shrinking over the period.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows U.S. household income distribution in 2024, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Trends in U.S. Income Distribution (2024 vs. 1974)

Below, we show how household income is divided across different income brackets:

In 2024, the bottom fifth of U.S. earners averaged $18,460 in household income. While small, their share of total national income has fallen sharply, declining by about 28% since 1974.

Moreover, this group includes workers earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, as well as the roughly 760,000 workers who earn below this level. In particular, younger workers make up a large portion of this bracket, with 43% of those earning minimum wage or less being 25 years old or younger.

As we can see, the middle fifth of earners received 13.9% of U.S. household income in 2024, down from 17% in 1974. With an average household income of $84,390, this bracket largely reflects median-wage workers, spanning occupations such as civil engineers, computer programmers, and clinical psychologists.

On the other hand, the top 5% of earners, averaging $560,000 in income has seen it share expand by 6.6 percentage points. Moreover, it is the only income bracket, along with the top 20%, to see its share of national income grow compared to 1974.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on real wage growth by state.