California quietly dropped its lawsuit this week against the Trump administration over the federal government’s decision to pull $4 billion in funding for the state’s long-delayed high-speed rail project.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on Dec. 23 in the case with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The dismissal is without prejudice, meaning the lawsuit could be refiled in the future.

The dismissal came two weeks after Judge Dale Drozd rejected the Department of Justice’s argument that the authority should have filed its lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The U.S. Department of Transportation withdrew the funding in July from the bullet train project, which is supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles.

The Trump administration has said the authority had “no viable plan” to finish work on a large segment of the project in the state’s Central Valley. Both President Donald Trump and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy have criticized the delayed project as a “train to nowhere.”

As Matthew Vadum reports for The Epoch Times, California voters approved the project’s initial $10 billion bond in 2008. The project’s price tag was originally expected to be $33 billion, with a completion date in 2020. Costs have ballooned to between $89 billion and $128 billion, and the project is projected to be completed by 2033.

So far, 50 key structures—bridges, overpasses, underpasses, viaducts, and 70 miles of guideway—have been completed.

The authority sued in federal court on July 17 to reinstate the funds, calling the funding cut politically motivated and unlawful.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said at the time that the federal funding reduction was “a political stunt to punish California.”

The lawsuit argued that Trump’s actions are part of a long-running pattern of political retaliation, pointing to his first administration’s attempt to revoke high-speed rail funding the day after California sued to block his emergency declaration for a border wall.

The High-Speed Rail Authority said it has met every requirement under its agreements, pointing to multiple federal reviews—including one as recent as February—that found the project to be in compliance.

Last week, the authority said it would seek out other funding sources to finish the project.

The authority’s CEO, Ian Choudri, said that on Dec. 19, the authority had launched a procurement process that “formalizes efforts to partner with private investors and developers, with the shared goal of delivering California’s transformational program faster, smarter, and more economically.”

A spokesperson for the authority said the decision to withdraw the federal lawsuit reflects the state’s view that the federal government “is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high-speed rail in California.”

“Federal requirements have, at times, hindered project delivery by adding cost and delays without adding value—creating inefficiencies, constraining innovation, and slowing construction,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of Justice for comment but received no response.

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

China now drives short-term oil price moves as its opaque import patterns, refinery margins, and strategic stockpiling increasingly shape marginal demand and near-term price discovery.

OPEC’s influence has shifted to the medium term.

In times of genuine supply stress, pricing power returns to producers.

For most of the past decade, oil markets have treated decisions by OPEC as the primary signal for price direction. That hierarchy is being tested, but not overturned. What has changed is where traders look for short-term cues. Increasingly, those cues are coming from China, not because Beijing controls supply, but because its buying behavior now dominates marginal demand and near-term price discovery.

As reported by Reuters, China has overtaken OPEC as the most influential force in oil price formation, driven by the scale and timing of its crude purchases rather than any formal attempt to manage prices. The change shows us how oil markets have become increasingly demand-led, with China sitting right in the center.

China is the world’s largest crude importer, but its influence extends beyond just the volumes that make headlines. 

Refinitiv analysts recently noted that the traditional view of producers like OPEC+ as the primary oil price setters has been “challenged in 2025 by China,” explaining that Beijing’s use of strategic stockpiles to provide a crude price floor and ceiling effectively supplanted producer group direction this year. citeanalyst voices added, I can provide additional options.

Unlike OECD buyers, China’s oil system blends state-owned majors, independent refiners, and strategic stockpiling entities whose buying behavior is opaque and often poorly reflected in real-time data. Cargoes can move into commercial storage, strategic reserves, or floating storage with limited visibility. That uncertainty itself has become a market variable.

When Chinese buying accelerates, prices tend to firm even if global supply remains healthy. When imports slow, prices drop even with OPEC output restraint. Over the past two years, this pattern has repeated enough times that traders now treat Chinese import momentum as a more immediate price driver than OPEC production targets, many of which are either anticipated or only partially implemented.

OPEC (and particularly Saudi Arabia) still controls the bulk of global spare capacity. That capacity continues to anchor longer-term expectations. But spare capacity matters less when demand fluctuations dominate short-term pricing. In today’s market, the marginal barrel is shaped more by whether China is actively pulling crude from the market.

Chinese refinery margins have become an early indicator for price direction. When margins improve, especially among independent refiners, crude imports typically rise. When margins tighten, buying slows quickly. Because these refiners operate with short planning cycles and limited balance-sheet flexibility, their behavior introduces volatility that OPEC policy cannot easily smooth.

Geopolitics also throws itself in the mix here, with China increasing crude intake from Russia and other sanctioned suppliers under alternative pricing arrangements, weakening the link between OPEC decisions and spot prices by shifting trade into channels where supply discipline and benchmark signaling are less effective.

No, it doesn’t mean that OPEC is irrelevant. The cartel’s policy decisions still shape the medium-term balance and set boundaries for price expectations. But the market’s center of gravity has shifted, with traders now watching Chinese customs data, refinery runs, and policy cues with the same intensity once reserved for OPEC communiqués.

None of this means that China has replaced producers as the ultimate price setter. China’s influence operates at the margin and in the short term, not in moments of genuine supply stress. Strategic stockpiling and opaque buying can move prices when barrels are abundant, but they cannot cap prices during a true supply shock, nor defend a floor once inventories normalize and demand slows. 

When markets tighten, pricing power reverts quickly to those who control spare capacity. On that front, OPEC (and primarily, Saudi Arabia) still holds the decisive lever. China’s signals may be easy for traders to trade, but they remain conditional. If Beijing were truly setting prices, it would be able to sustain them. Whether it can do so will ultimately test the limits of this thesis.

In 2025, global births are expected to remain highly concentrated in a relatively small number of countries.

This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, shows where the world’s newest citizens are being born and highlights the regions driving global population growth.

The data for this visualization comes from the UN World Population Prospects 2024 via Our World in Data.

Asia Remains the Global Center of Births

Asia accounts for the largest share of births worldwide, driven primarily by populous countries with relatively young populations.

India leads by a wide margin, with more than 23 million births expected in 2025—nearly one in six births globally.

China follows with about 8.7 million births, despite decades of declining fertility. Other major contributors include Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, underscoring Asia’s continued demographic weight.

RankCountryBirths in 2025 (Proj.)Continent
1🇮🇳 India23,073,268Asia
2🇨🇳 China8,709,352Asia
3🇳🇬 Nigeria7,640,590Africa
4🇵🇰 Pakistan6,909,545Asia
5🇨🇩 Congo (DRC)4,559,718Africa
6🇮🇩 Indonesia4,440,838Asia
7🇪🇹 Ethiopia4,176,742Africa
8🇺🇸 United States3,663,798North America
9🇧🇩 Bangladesh3,441,259Asia
10🇧🇷 Brazil2,528,724South America
11🇪🇬 Egypt2,450,027Africa
12🇹🇿 Tanzania2,419,272Africa
13🇲🇽 Mexico2,003,673North America
14🇵🇭 Philippines1,845,745Asia
15🇺🇬 Uganda1,734,565Africa
16🇸🇩 Sudan1,656,421Africa
17🇰🇪 Kenya1,540,813Africa
18🇦🇫 Afghanistan1,507,838Asia
19🇦🇴 Angola1,429,803Africa
20🇾🇪 Yemen1,401,358Asia
21🇻🇳 Vietnam1,328,422Asia
22🇲🇿 Mozambique1,304,409Africa
23🇷🇺 Russia1,241,824Europe
24🇮🇶 Iraq1,187,570Asia
25🇿🇦 South Africa1,175,749Africa
26🇳🇪 Niger1,138,168Africa
27🇮🇷 Iran1,125,230Asia
28🇹🇷 Türkiye1,053,303Asia
29🇲🇬 Madagascar1,023,320Africa
30🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire1,017,551Africa
31🇲🇱 Mali987,043Africa
32🇨🇲 Cameroon980,661Africa
33🇺🇿 Uzbekistan911,213Asia
34🇹🇩 Chad907,325Africa
35🇬🇭 Ghana897,874Africa
36🇲🇲 Myanmar888,309Asia
37🇩🇿 Algeria855,432Africa
38🇸🇴 Somalia822,215Africa
39🇯🇵 Japan748,163Asia
40🇧🇫 Burkina Faso741,692Africa
41🇿🇲 Zambia708,934Africa
42🇩🇪 Germany707,972Europe
43🇨🇴 Colombia692,792South America
44🇲🇼 Malawi685,330Africa
45🇬🇧 United Kingdom680,076Europe
46🇫🇷 France634,528Europe
47🇲🇦 Morocco619,057Africa
48🇸🇾 Syria601,433Asia
49🇹🇭 Thailand572,371Asia
50🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia564,878Asia
51🇳🇵 Nepal551,647Asia
52🇸🇳 Senegal547,717Africa
53🇵🇪 Peru535,695South America
54🇦🇷 Argentina508,067South America
55🇿🇼 Zimbabwe500,731Africa
56🇬🇳 Guinea494,546Africa
57🇧🇯 Benin489,564Africa
58🇧🇮 Burundi468,720Africa
59🇲🇾 Malaysia439,747Asia
60🇻🇪 Venezuela436,134South America
61🇷🇼 Rwanda404,109Africa
62🇰🇿 Kazakhstan395,033Asia
63🇮🇹 Italy382,523Europe
64🇬🇹 Guatemala380,110North America
65🇨🇦 Canada361,103North America
66🇸🇸 South Sudan357,711Africa
67🇰🇭 Cambodia354,622Asia
68🇰🇵 North Korea334,881Asia
69🇪🇸 Spain330,044Europe
70🇱🇰 Sri Lanka318,489Asia
71🇦🇺 Australia304,326Oceania
72🇵🇱 Poland297,389Europe
73🇹🇬 Togo296,051Africa
74🇪🇨 Ecuador267,665South America
75🇹🇯 Tajikistan264,517Asia
76🇧🇴 Bolivia261,486South America
77🇸🇱 Sierra Leone260,288Africa
78🇭🇹 Haiti257,433North America
79🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea256,974Oceania
80🇨🇫 Central African Republic250,088Africa
81🇰🇷 South Korea245,858Asia
82🇭🇳 Honduras234,594North America
83🇯🇴 Jordan232,046Asia
84🇺🇦 Ukraine220,203Europe
85🇩🇴 Dominican Republic199,014North America
86🇨🇬 Congo195,536Africa
87🇲🇷 Mauritania178,900Africa
88🇷🇴 Romania178,474Europe
89🇳🇱 Netherlands174,210Europe
90🇱🇷 Liberia173,467Africa
91🇮🇱 Israel171,390Asia
92🇨🇱 Chile170,383South America
93🇱🇦 Laos161,375Asia
94🇹🇳 Tunisia160,508Africa
95🇹🇲 Turkmenistan152,636Asia
96🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan149,483Asia
97🇵🇸 Palestine144,890Asia
98🇵🇾 Paraguay135,786South America
99🇳🇮 Nicaragua131,804North America
100🇹🇼 Taiwan125,322Asia
–🌏 Other Asia769,291Asia
–🌍 Other Africa806,706Africa
–🌎 Other North America402,575North America
–🌎 Other South America67,744South America
–🌍 Other Europe1,356,857Europe
–🌊 Other Oceania125,342Oceania
–🌍 World Total132,307,997–

Africa’s Rapid Population Growth

Africa is the fastest-growing region by births, reflecting high fertility rates and youthful populations across much of the continent. Nigeria stands out with an estimated 7.6 million births in 2025, more than all of Europe combined, which is projected to see about 6.3 million.

Several other African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Egypt, also rank among the global leaders.

Europe and East Asia Face Demographic Headwinds

In contrast, Europe and parts of East Asia show relatively low birth numbers due to aging populations and persistently low fertility rates.

Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy each record fewer than 750,000 births annually.

Japan, once a major contributor to global births, is also projected to see fewer than 750,000 births in 2025, reflecting its long-running demographic decline. These patterns raise concerns about labor force growth and long-term economic sustainability in many advanced economies.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Where Immigrant Earnings Grow the Fastest on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A chilling revelation from a former MI6 operative exposes the ticking time bomb of Islamist sleeper agents embedded across the UK, ready to unleash devastation rivaling 9/11 or 7/7—all fueled by disastrous open borders policies that prioritize radicals over citizens’ safety.

Aimen Dean, who spent eight years infiltrating Al-Qaida for MI5 and MI6, knows the enemy inside out. As a former member of the terror group himself, he formed bonds with operatives and even served as a “kind of spiritual coach” to terrorists in London, gaining insider access to their plots.

His espionage thwarted attacks like a bid to bomb the New York Subway. But Dean pulls no punches on the current danger: there are “hundreds” of sleeper agents lurking in the shadows, primed to strike.

A new 9/11 is coming any day from the hundreds of al Qaida sleeper agents ready to unleash carnage in the UK, says ex-MI6 spy https://t.co/ppWAvJYPq3

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) December 27, 2025

“Unfortunately, I would love to tell you the world is an amazing place, but it’s not,” Dean told The Sun. “The problem is the new world order is now the new world nightmare. We have rogue nations such as Iran aspiring to become nuclear powers. And a threat like Iran needs to be countered because of the fact that they are a nation that has sponsored terrorism.”

Al-Qaida found safe harbor in Iran for 25 years, Dean revealed, allowing the regime to orchestrate attacks that killed British nationals in Saudi Arabia—orders straight from Tehran.

Dean claims this Iranian backing has supercharged the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the West, eroding trust in institutions while violent extremists wait for their cue.

“It’s not about if another 9/11 or 7/7 attack will happen; it’s about when,”Dean warns.

He slammed Europe’s fixation on Russia as a distraction from the real peril: “The biggest threat to the UK and Europe right now isn’t Russia but the spread of Iranian influence. We’re going to see many more lone-wolves acting for the regime. When it comes to sleeper agents in the UK, it’s impossible to tell how many there are but there are hundreds.”

“Islamic fundamentalism is much more sinister as it undermines from within,” Dean explained, adding “It pushes people to distrust institutions and in some ways is much more dangerous than violent extremism. The violence is just the tip of the iceberg.”

This dire assessment arrives amid Starmer’s latest blunder, where he gleefully welcomed Alaa Abd el-Fattah—a British-Egyptian extremist with a track record of Holocaust denial, praising Osama bin Laden, and calling for the killing of Zionists, police, and even declaring “I hate white people.”

Starmer boasted on X: “I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.” He dubbed it a “top priority,” ignoring Abd el-Fattah’s vile posts like “can we get back to killing zionists please?” and urging rioters to “hunt police fools.”

Critics like Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick blasted it as “an absolute disgrace,” demanding citizenship revocation for this “national security risk” who “hates Britain.”

Starmer’s virtue-signaling diplomacy rolls out the red carpet for radicals, while Dean’s intel screams that Iran’s proxies are already here, blending in thanks to porous borders.

Mass importation of unvetted migrants under globalist agendas has turned Britain into a powder keg, where fundamentalists erode society before detonating.

With mass migration flooding in threats under leftist governance, this warning couldn’t come at a worse time, as Keir Starmer’s regime celebrates importing extremists who spew hate and incite violence, leaving Brits vulnerable to the next wave of jihadist horror.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are the backbone of modern technology, from EV motors and wind turbines to smartphones and precision-guided systems.

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, breaks down where the world’s known rare earth reserves are located in 2025, highlighting how concentrated they are across a handful of countries.

The distribution is highly uneven. China alone holds nearly half of the global total, followed by Brazil’s sizable deposits. By contrast, many advanced economies have limited reserves.

The data for this visualization comes from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

A Heavily Concentrated Reserve Base

China leads with 44.0 million metric tons, about 48% of the world total of 91.9 million metric tons. Brazil is a clear second at 21.0 million tons (23%), reflecting large ionic clay and hard-rock deposits that are still early in development.

India (6.9 million tons) and Australia (5.7 million tons) round out the top tier, while Russia (3.8 million tons) and Vietnam (3.5 million tons) are also ahead of the United States. Together, the top six countries account for roughly four-fifths of known reserves.

Advanced Economies: Small Shares, Big Demand

The United States holds just 1.9 million metric tons of rare earths (2%), underscoring its reliance on trade and midstream processing to secure supply. In recent months, the Trump administration has sought to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese materials by funding domestic mining projects, streamlining permits, and partnering with allies to diversify supply chains.

In October, President Trump and President Xi Jinping agreed to reduce tariffs in exchange for China maintaining the flow of rare earth exports.

Emerging Players

Canada (0.83 million tons) and the EU-adjacent Greenland (1.5 million tons) have meaningful but smaller bases.

Africa and the Arctic feature emerging sources: Tanzania (0.89 million tons) and South Africa (0.86 million tons) join Greenland as potential growth nodes if infrastructure and processing scale.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Why Rare Earths Are Critical to EV Motors on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

Polish President Karol Nawrocki inaugurated the latest section of the “Via Baltica” highway between Poland and the Baltic States in late October in an event with his Lithuanian counterpart, with both highlighting the dual military purpose of this megaproject in an allusion to the “military Schengen”.

“Via Baltica” is one of the “Three Seas Initiative’s” (3SI) flagships, many of which complement the newer “military Schengen” initiative of facilitating the flow of troops and equipment eastward towards Russia.

Poland envisages the 3SI accelerating the revival of its long-lost Great Power status that’ll then result in it leading Russia’s containment all across Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) once the Ukrainian Conflict ends. It’s the most populous formerly communist member of NATO with the bloc’s third-largest military, just became a $1 trillion economy with its sights now set on a G20 seat, and has a history of regional leadership during the Commonwealth/“Rzeczpospolita” era, so these ambitions aren’t delusional.

Building upon the last point, most casual observers don’t know that the Commonwealth stretched as far north as parts of Latvia, which remained under its control till the Third Partition in 1795. Prior to that, it even controlled around half of Estonia from 1561-1629, after which it was ceded to Sweden. Suffice to say, what’s nowadays the nation-state of Lithuania was also part of the “Republic of the Two Nations” as the Commonwealth was officially known, thus giving Poland a substantial footprint in Baltic history.

The insight shared in the preceding two paragraphs enables the reader to better understand what Nawrocki told Lithuanian media during his maiden trip as president to that country last September about how “We as Poles, and I as the President of Poland, are aware that we are responsible for entire regions of Central Europe, including the Baltic States and Lithuania. Thanks to this visit and our cooperation, we feel that we are also building our military potential in solidarity, supported across the ocean.”

“Via Baltica” and the complementary “Rail Baltica”, both of which are behind schedule (especially the latter), will serve as the means for Poland to fulfill this dimension of its Great Power vision as elucidated by Nawrocki. The US’ post-Ukraine “Pivot (back) to (East) Asia” for more muscularly containing China could result in it redeploying some troops from CEE to there, but Poland would then likely replace the US’ reduced role through its ongoing militarization and 3SI-driven military logistical access to the Baltics.

The “EU Defense Line” that’s being built, which refers to the combination of the “Baltic Defense Line” and Poland’s “East Shield” along NATO’s eastern border, might then be bolstered by Polish-led troop deployments seeing as how Poland would be integral to those three’s survival in any war with Russia. In that scenario, from Estonia down to the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian tripoint, Russia’s number one adversary wouldn’t necessarily be NATO as a whole but Poland. That would have important implications.

In brief, while Poland is closely allied with the Anglo-American Axis for reasons of shared anti-Russian goals, it’s not their puppet and might become even more strategically autonomous under Nawrocki. After all, he surprised many by recently saying that he’s ready to talk to Putin if Poland’s security depends on it, thus opening the door for a Polish-Russian modus vivendi in the future. Such an understanding might be the key to keeping the peace in CEE after the Ukrainian Conflict ends.