FINANCE

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Several large Chinese banks have announced plans to halt retail paper gold trading. Could this be a coordinated push by China to exert more influence and break the Western grip on gold pricing? Last month, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced...

(Money Metals News Service) In this episode of the Money Metals Midweek Memo, host Mike Maharrey argues that investors should look beyond daily headlines and recognize the long-term patterns reshaping financial markets. Drawing parallels between hockey goalies who rely on pattern recognition rather than reflexes, Maharrey contends that history...

(Headline USA) ESPN is undergoing a significant round of layoffs for the first time in three years after taking over NFL Network in April. Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a memo to employees Tuesday morning, obtained by The Associated Press, that most moves are the result of ESPN’s acquisition of...

(José Niño, Headline USA) Federal prosecutors are opening up a criminal investigation of Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., Fox News reported on Wednesday. A source familiar with the matter said the Justice Department inquiry stays active, though nobody has described its focus. MS NOW broke the story a day earlier, citing...

(Chris Wade, The Center Square) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is backing off threats to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the city in September for the U.N. General Assembly meeting.  In a video posted on social media Tuesday night, Mamdani said his administration considered every...

(Chris Wade, The Center Square) U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and over a dozen of his colleagues in the upper chamber have re-upped their calls to end the federal ban of marijuana. On Tuesday, Fetterman’s office sent out a press release announcing his support for the reintroduction of the Cannabis...

(zachery Schmidt, The Center Square) U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs defeated U.S. Rep. David Schweikert in the Arizona Republican primary for governor Tuesday. With 7% of Arizona precincts reporting, Biggs, R-Gilbert, received 71.5% of the votes, while Schweikert, R-Scottsdale, only got 16%. Biggs will now go up against Gov. Katie Hobbs, who...

(José Niño, Headline USA) Erika Kirk sat through five days of testimony in a Utah courtroom this month as prosecutors reconstructed her husband's killing, and people close to the family say she left carrying sadness rather than the rage she expected, according to the Daily Mail. The hearing placed her...

(Headline USA) A federal appeals court has rejected a request by Joe Biden to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of his interviews with a memoir ghostwriter before he was elected president. A divided three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...

(Headline USA) Bill Gates and the staff of his charitable foundation met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein more than two dozen times even as employees expressed concerns about the reputational risk of working with him, an external review commissioned by the Gates Foundation found. The conversations appeared to focus...

(Chris Wade, The Center Square) A man arrested by federal agents Monday for starting a large blaze outside a New York City immigration court was an "anti-government extremist" who told law enforcement officials he was willing to injure or kill people, authorities said. Andrew Arrabaca, 43, of Poughkeepsie, was taken...

(Sarah Roderick-Fitch, The Center Square) For a 10th consecutive night, the U.S. is carrying out strikes on Iran, targeting the Islamic Republic’s ability to attack commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Following the announcement of three U.S. service members killed in action resulting from Iranian strikes, President Donald Trump...