The News

The 30% federal residential solar tax credit died at midnight on December 31, 2025. For twenty years, Section 25D let homeowners slash $9,000 off a typical $30,000 solar installation. The Inflation Reduction Act had extended it through 2032. Then Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' accelerated the sunset by seven years, sparking a desperate year-end rush as installers sold out months in advance and homeowners scrambled to beat the deadline.

Updated Jan 30

The four largest cloud providers—Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon—will spend over $470 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026, up from $350 billion in 2025. That's more than four times what the entire United States energy sector spends annually on drilling, extraction, and operations. On January 28-29, Microsoft and Meta reported quarterly earnings with starkly different investor reactions: Microsoft shares plunged 12%, erasing approximately $400 billion in market capitalization, after disclosing record quarterly capital expenditure of $37.5 billion. Meta's stock surged despite announcing 2026 capex guidance of $115-135 billion—reflecting that investors now judge these companies not on absolute spending levels but on execution and revenue conversion.

Updated 47 minutes ago

The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Arabian Sea on January 26 and is now operational within striking distance of Iran. The nuclear-powered carrier and three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers position Trump for potential action, but on January 29, regional allies including Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced they will not allow their airspace to be used for strikes—a significant constraint. The USS George H.W. Bush departed Norfolk on January 13 for the Mediterranean and could join the Abraham Lincoln in several weeks. A third carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, left San Diego on January 14. F-15E Strike Eagles from the 494th Fighter Squadron deployed to Jordan on January 18. On January 29, Trump announced a 25% tariff on any country doing business with Iran and appeared to call for Khamenei's removal for the first time, stating 'It's time to look for new leadership in Iran.'

Updated 2 hours ago

For the first time in American history, a government funding fight has erupted over federal agents killing citizens on domestic soil. The Senate voted 45-55 on January 29 to block a $1.2 trillion spending package after Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security's $64 billion budget following two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis within three weeks. With the January 30 midnight deadline hours away, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and White House officials are negotiating a deal to split DHS funding into a short-term continuing resolution while passing the other five bills, potentially averting a partial shutdown.

Updated 3 hours ago

Hugo Chávez nationalized Venezuela's oil sector in 2007, expropriating assets from ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and other foreign companies. Nineteen years later, three weeks after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's legislature gave initial approval to legislation that would reverse that policy—allowing private companies to independently operate oil fields, market crude, and settle disputes in international courts. The bill passed its first reading on January 23 and entered a mandatory public consultation phase.

Updated 4 hours ago

India surpassed Japan in mid-2025 to become the world's fourth-largest economy. Six months later, the government's annual Economic Survey argues the country can sustain 7.5% growth—if it fixes two long-standing bottlenecks: manufacturing capacity and land reform.

Updated 4 hours ago

Thirty bodies were found in a single shop. The victims—shopkeepers and customers at 'Dubai Crockery' on the mezzanine floor of Karachi's Gul Plaza—had pulled down the iron shutters to escape flames and stampeding crowds. Instead, they trapped themselves. The fire that swept through the 1,200-shop commercial complex on MA Jinnah Road on January 17, 2026, has now killed 79 people according to the final investigation report completed January 28. The nine-day search operation concluded January 26 with the building sealed and 42 victims identified—including 12 through geo-tagging technology that analyzed digital evidence from mobile devices. Police registered a criminal case January 23 citing 'negligence and carelessness,' and formed a five-member special investigation team January 26 to arrest those responsible.

Updated 5 hours ago

Vietnam's 14th Party Congress concluded January 23, 2026, unanimously re-electing Tô Lâm as General Secretary with all 180 Central Committee votes. The anticipated merger of party chief and state presidency—which would make Lâm Vietnam's most powerful leader since Hồ Chí Minh—was not finalized at the Congress. Instead, that decision now awaits the National Assembly's first session in April 2026, following legislative elections on March 15. The 19-member Politburo's composition "strongly suggests" Lâm will assume the presidency, but the delay preserves procedural legitimacy while maintaining suspense about whether Vietnam will abandon its four-pillar collective leadership model.

Updated 5 hours ago

For three decades, the Pentagon told defense contractors to consolidate. Now it's paying $1 billion to help one spin off. The Defense Department announced in January 2026 it will take an equity stake in L3Harris's solid rocket motor business, which will become a separate publicly traded company later this year. It's the first time the Pentagon has directly invested in a defense supplier rather than simply buying its products.

Updated 5 hours ago

Ajit Pawar served as Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister six times across three decades—longer than anyone in the state's history. On January 28, 2026, the 66-year-old was killed when his chartered Learjet crashed during landing at Baramati Airport, his political stronghold 254 kilometers from Mumbai. All five people aboard died.

Updated 6 hours ago

Johnson & Johnson spun off its consumer health division as Kenvue in May 2023, creating the world's largest pure-play consumer health company. Less than three years later, shareholders of both Kimberly-Clark and Kenvue have overwhelmingly approved a $48.7 billion acquisition that will absorb Kenvue into the Kleenex and Huggies maker—with 96% of Kimberly-Clark shares and 99% of Kenvue shares voting in favor.

Updated 7 hours ago

For over two decades, the European Union resisted designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, wary of severing diplomatic ties with Tehran. On January 29, 2026, that resistance collapsed. All 27 EU foreign ministers voted unanimously to place the IRGC on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Islamic State—a designation that triggers automatic asset freezes and travel bans across the bloc.

Updated 7 hours ago

Every winter, China empties its cities. Some 9 billion passenger journeys—more than the total global population—occur over 40 days as hundreds of millions of migrant workers return to their home villages for Spring Festival. This is Chunyun, the largest annual human migration on Earth, and it transforms not just Chinese society but global supply chains that depend on Chinese manufacturing.

Updated 8 hours ago

The last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy federal troops in American cities was 1992, during the Los Angeles riots. President Trump has deployed over 10,000 National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to six cities since June 2025—without invoking that law. The Congressional Budget Office now reports the seven-month operation cost taxpayers $496 million, with ongoing deployments projected to add $93 million monthly.

Updated 14 hours ago

An ICE agent shot Renee Nicole Good through her car window on a Minneapolis street January 7, killing the 37-year-old mother instantly. Federal officials claimed self-defense, saying Good weaponized her Honda Pilot to ram agents. But video shows something different: a woman slowly backing up and pulling forward, trying to leave, before an officer fires three shots into her head. "Having seen the video myself, that is bullshit," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The shooter: Jonathan Ross, a 43-year-old deportation officer who was dragged 50 yards by a vehicle he tried to forcibly enter just six months earlier. Seventeen days later, on January 24, Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and legal gun owner. Video shows Pretti filming agents with his phone, getting pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground by six agents, then shot at least ten times. DHS claimed he was armed and violent. Video evidence again contradicts the official account. At least six federal prosecutors resigned in protest over how investigations were being handled—pressure to investigate victims' families rather than the shooters. On January 24, FBI agent Tracee Mergen, supervisor of the Public Corruption Squad in Minneapolis, resigned over pressure to "reclassify/discontinue the investigation" into Good's killing and focus instead on her widow Becca. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara noted that two of the city's three homicides in 2026 were committed by federal agents.

Updated Yesterday

After nearly four years of war, Ukraine's allies are racing to finalize security commitments strong enough to convince Kyiv to negotiate—and credible enough to deter Moscow from attacking again. In early January 2026, the Coalition of the Willing met in Paris where 35 countries produced a formal declaration committing to robust security guarantees, including a US-led ceasefire monitoring mechanism and multinational peacekeeping forces. UK and France signed a joint declaration with Zelenskyy pledging to deploy up to 15,000 troops combined and establish military hubs across Ukraine after a ceasefire. Two weeks later at Davos, Trump and Zelenskyy finalized the security guarantee terms, with US envoy Steve Witkoff declaring negotiations "down to one issue"—territory. On January 25, Zelenskyy announced the US security agreement is "100% ready" for signing, pending only a formal ceremony and ratification.

Updated Yesterday

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has governed continuously since 1955, interrupted only twice. After losing its longtime coalition partner Komeito in October 2025, the party now operates with a one-seat majority—and its first female leader has decided to gamble on an early election. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced January 19 that she will dissolve parliament on January 23, with voting set for February 8. The 16-day interval from dissolution to voting represents a postwar record for the shortest campaign period.

Updated Yesterday

On January 17, Uganda's Electoral Commission declared Yoweri Museveni the winner of his seventh term with 71.65% of votes to Bobi Wine's 24.72%, in an election the joint African Union-COMESA-IGAD (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa—Intergovernmental Authority on Development) observer mission said was 'conducted within a political context marked by electoral competition polarised along regional lines.' After security forces raided his home on January 16 in what his party called an abduction attempt, Wine escaped to an undisclosed location where he remained in hiding for 14 days, rejecting the results as fraudulent and presenting what he calls video evidence of electoral commission officials ticking ballots for Museveni. On the night of January 23-24, dozens of armed men in military uniform raided Wine's home again, demanding his whereabouts from his wife Barbara Kyagulanyi, whom they assaulted and strangled, leaving her hospitalized at Nsambya Hospital in Kampala for bruises and anxiety. Military chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba—Museveni's son and presumed successor—denied on January 26 that soldiers beat Kyagulanyi, saying 'We are looking for her cowardly husband not her,' while confirming the military manhunt. On January 27, Wine released a video from hiding showing him walking in a family graveyard in central Uganda, taunting Kainerugaba for failing to find him. Kainerugaba has banned Wine from 'any further participation in the electoral exercises of Uganda' citing national security, though the legal basis for a military chief to bar citizens from elections remains unclear.

Updated Yesterday

The Department of Energy has quietly rewritten its nuclear safety rules, removing over 750 pages of requirements—including the decades-old ALARA standard that kept radiation exposure 'as low as reasonably achievable.' The changes, shared only with regulated companies and not the public, aim to clear the path for experimental reactors to achieve criticality by July 4, 2026—a timeline nuclear experts call 'a pretty big understatement' in terms of its aggressiveness. In August 2025, Aalo Atomics broke ground on the nation's first experimental reactor under the new rules at Idaho National Laboratory, though DOE Secretary Chris Wright later acknowledged only one or two reactors might meet the July deadline.

Updated Yesterday