Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

The US economy managed to drastically reduce its trade deficit in October of last year. Data delayed due to the government shutdown highlight structural shifts in the global trade landscape.

The latest iteration of the Democratic Party's color-revolution-style operation was on full display in recent days as tensions erupted following the fatal shooting of a left-wing activist by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a federal enforcement sweep in Minnesota. This incident demonstrates that the protest industrial complex, funded by left-wing billionaires, has been on standby, waiting for a catalyzing event to ignite mass mobilization.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

The UK’s Labour government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer has escalated its war on online expression, now openly threatening to ban Elon Musk’s X platform entirely. Using the pretext of Grok AI’s image generation capabilities, Starmer’s regime is pushing for total control over what Brits can see and say online, exposing the thin veil over their authoritarian impulses.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

The president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Moritz Schularick, makes no secret in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung that the signs are pointing toward a war economy. It is bizarre to witness how economists succumb to the intellectual mediocrity of central planning.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday repeated its long-standing objection to troops from NATO countries deploying to Ukrainian territory as part of a potential future peace deal, as Ukraine and its Western backers continue to push the idea.

Authored by Roger Bate via the Brownstone Institute,

The Trump administration has mulled sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders of up to $100,000 in exchange for their vote to secede from Denmark and join the United States, Reuters reports, citing four sources familiar with the matter.

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

U.S. economic growth prospects received a fresh boost this week as the Atlanta Federal Reserve nearly doubled its estimate for fourth-quarter output after a raft of strong data, while Fitch Ratings lifted its projections for full-year 2025 and 2026 growth after delayed government releases showed firmer economic momentum.

Upate (0710ET):

Shares of LoanDepot, Rocket Companies, and Opendoor Technologies surged in premarket trading after President Trump signaled plans to push Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to purchase $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities, a move aimed at driving down mortgage rates and improving affordability ahead of the midterm election cycle.

The foreign policy move to dismantle the so-called "dark fleet" of crude oil tankers moving Venezuela's oil around the world, through President Trump's gunboat diplomacy to secure the Western Hemisphere, was once again on full display on Friday morning.

Russia launched another massive overnight strike on Ukraine using its hypersonic Oreshnik missile as part of a large-scale assault said to be retaliation for the alleged Ukrainian attempt to drone strike Putin's residence last month.

Kiev was hit hard in the fresh missile and drone attack which set apartment buildings on fire and killed at least four people. Importantly, Ukrainian officials said a ballistic missile traveling at hypersonic speed hit an "infrastructure facility" near the far western city of Lviv.

Meta revealed this morning a slew of new agreements with key players in the nuclear power industry, in an urgent bid to provide clean energy for its rapidly expanding data center empire.

Ahead of today's jobs report, expectations were that the NFP number would show another rebound from the terrible Sept/Oct prints, but remain muted (or else spark fears about reheating and an end to the Fed's easing cycle). Well, that's precisely what we got moments ago when the BLS reported that in December the US gained 50K jobs, a modest miss to estimates of 50K, but smack in the middle of JPM's sweet spot range of 35K-75K (as previewed earlier) which would be best for the market.

Longtime Tulsi Gabbard supporters have wondered why she has seemed to be missing in action in terms of weighing in on Trump's militarily invading Venezuela to oust longtime socialist leader Nicolás Maduro, given that as a prior member of Congress before taking up the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) position, she had been quite vocal against any move on Venezuela. 

By all accounts, protests and unrest have been spreading rapidly in Iran, now over a week-and-a-half into economic and anti-government protests which have begun to grind the country to a halt. On Thursday the demonstrations have disrupted life in the capital in a big way, and there are reports of nationwide internet and cellular outages.

An Alaska Airlines pilot who was universally praised as a hero after safely landing a Boeing jet after a door plug panel flew off shortly after takeoff is suing the company because he says the plane maker wrongly tried to blame him and the rest of the crew.

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump is asking the state of Georgia to reimburse $6.26 million in attorney fees and costs he incurred defending against his now-dismissed election interference case in the state.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents shot two individuals in the sanctuary city of Portland on Thursday evening, according to local media. The incident comes one day after the ICE-involved shooting of an "ICE Watch" left-wing activist in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

First, Trump short-circuited the Fed's rate-cut process. Now he is going after QE by launching his own version of it. 

Update (1858):

The New York Post reports that Renee Nicole Good was an anti-ICE "warrior" and part of a network of left-wing activists who worked to "document and resist" ICE operations in Minnesota.