Black Friday sales at a mall in Columbia, Md., on Nov. 24, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times U.S. retail sales were unexpectedly flat in October, as consumers appeared reluctant to open their wallets ahead of the holiday season. Change in retail sales came in at zero percent, from a downwardly revised 0.1 percent increase in
Republican assembly member David Tangipa (C) speaks to reporters during a press conference announcing a federal lawsuit challenging Proposition 50 on Nov. 5, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo A federal district court in Los Angeles kicked off a multi-day hearing Dec. 15 over California’s new congressional map that state voters approved in
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) discusses affordability at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 10, 2025. Heather Diehl/Getty Images House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Dec. 12 threw his weight behind the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, one of several Republican proposals for lowering the
U.S. President Donald Trump, with a recently signed executive order classifying fentanyl as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’, during a ceremony for the presentation of the Mexican Border Defense Medal in the Oval Office of the White House on Dec. 15, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump awarded Mexican Border Defense Medals to 13
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith speaks during a news conference on President Donald Trump’s plan to place Washington police under federal control and deploy National Guard troops, in Washington on Aug. 11, 2025. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo WASHINGTON—A Congressional committee has accused the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of pressuring her staff
A still from footage of a boat strike targeting drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific on Dec. 15, 2025. @Southcom/X The United States on Monday carried out airstrikes on three boats allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking, killing eight people aboard the vessels. “On Dec. 15, at the direction of [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth, Joint
A marijuana grow site in California’s Mendocino County on Oct. 9, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times President Donald Trump said on Dec. 15 that he’s considering an executive order to reclassify marijuana out of Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), a category reserved for drugs deemed to have no medical value and a