Republicans Target 2016 Toxic-Chemicals Reforms, Alarmed Advocates Warn of Higher Risks for Consumers and Workers
A new Republican-backed bill in the U.S. House would rewrite key parts of the country’s main chemical safety law in ways that public-health and environmental advocates say would sharply reduce protections for consumers, workers, and ecosystems. It’s described as an attempt to roll back major reforms Congress made in 2016 to the Toxic Substances Control […]
Senate Democrats Demand Answers after EPA Drops “Dollar Value” for Lives Saved by Pollution Rules
More than three dozen Democratic senators have opened an inquiry into a major policy change at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that could reshape how the government justifies (and potentially weakens) air-pollution rules. The senators say the agency’s new approach is “particularly troubling” because it abandons a long-standing practice of putting a monetary value on […]
EPA Ends the 2009 Legal Basis for Regulating Greenhouse Gases, Prompting Swift Backlash and Lawsuits
Donald Trump’s administration has revoked the EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” the scientific determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare and that underpinned federal climate rules for more than a decade. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials framed the move as a historic deregulatory step, while critics described it as a major rollback that will […]
Pentagon’s China “Military Support” Roster Pulled From Federal Register Minutes After Release, Raising Questions About Timing and Policy
The United States government abruptly pulled an updated Pentagon list of Chinese companies allegedly tied to China’s military shortly after it appeared online, in a move that surprised both markets and policy watchers. The update to the Defense Department’s so-called “1260H list” was posted to the Federal Register for public inspection and then replaced about […]
SpaceX Sends Crew-12 to the ISS on an Eight-Month Science Mission After Recent Staffing Disruption
SpaceX launched its 12th long-duration crew rotation for International Space Station early Friday, February 13, sending four astronauts on an extended research stay in orbit. The mission—known as Crew-12—lifted off at about 5:15 a.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, using a NASA webcast that showed the vehicle rising into the pre-dawn […]
A 1-gigawatt “AI Factory” in Indiana: Meta Accelerates its Race for Computing Power
Meta has begun construction on a massive new data center campus in Lebanon, Indiana, committing about $10 billion as the company races to secure the computing power needed for advanced artificial intelligence. The site is designed to deliver 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity once fully operational—an enormous scale that U.S. grid operators equate to roughly […]
Lower Mortgage Rates Improve Affordability, but Path to Deeper Cuts Still Looks Bumpy
A new rate snapshot from Bankrate shows U.S. mortgage borrowing costs edging down again, pushing the market to levels not seen since 2022. In the outlet’s weekly lender survey dated February 11, 2026, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.16%, down from 6.23% the prior week. The decline is modest, but meaningful: for […]
House Votes to Roll Back Trump’s Canada Tariffs in a Rare Bipartisan Break With the White House
In a rare show of defiance toward Donald Trump, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 219–211 to approve a resolution aimed at ending tariffs the president imposed on Canada. The measure would terminate the national emergency Trump invoked to justify punitive duties on Canadian goods, sending the resolution to the United States Senate. While the […]
Hiring Surprises on The Upside In January, Easing Fears of Sharper Labour Slowdown
The US labor market started 2026 on a firmer footing than many forecasters expected. The January employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed total nonfarm payrolls rising by 130,000—well above the roughly 70,000 increase economists were projecting. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3% from 4.4% in December, suggesting that joblessness is […]
Trump declares US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela and Maduro goes to court
President Donald Trump’s claim that the United States is “in charge” of Venezuela will be underscored Monday when the oil-rich nation’s deposed leader is hauled before a New York court, while his successor offers to cooperate. Leftist strongman Nicolas Maduro, 63, faces narcotrafficking charges along with his wife, who was also seized and taken out […]
