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California billionaire tax ‘economically disastrous’ expert warns

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California billionaire tax 'economically disastrous' expert warns

A proposed tax targeting California’s wealthiest residents is drawing strong support from likely voters, but critics warn it would discourage investment and trigger an exodus of high-income earners and businesses from the state.

I think it’s a really economically disastrous idea,” Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, told Fox News Digital. “It is both diagnosing the problem incorrectly and also won’t fix the problem that is being diagnosed.”

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The “2026 California Billionaire Tax Act” would impose a one-time tax equal to 5% on the net worth on individuals making above $1 billion, according to California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). Covered assets would include businesses, securities, art, collectibles and intellectual property.

The measure would not count real estate someone owns in their own name (or through a revocable trust), but real estate held through a company they own could still factor into the tax because it can raise the value of that business.

TAX FIGHT PUTS CALIFORNIA ON COLLISION COURSE AS BILLIONAIRES LEAVE FOR RED STATES

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An activist holds a sign during a “Rally to Say No to Tax Breaks for Billionaires and Corporations” at the Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill on April 10, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Supporters — including SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) — say the measure is an emergency response to save the state’s healthcare system from “collapse” due to potential federal cuts.

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According to the LAO analysis, “90 percent of the money would have to be spent on health care services for the public” while the remainder would go toward administrative costs, education and food assistance.

However, Michel says that wealth taxes don’t work in practice, arguing they weaken incentives to build businesses, create complicated administrative headaches and have generated disappointing revenue in countries that have tried them. 

He also says they rest on a flawed “fixed pie” view of the economy that assumes wealth can simply be redistributed through taxation, but in actuality results in slower growth and a worse outcome for everyone.

WASHINGTON POST ARGUES THERE’S ‘LITTLE TO GAIN BY RAISING TAXES ON THE RICH,’ RATES ALREADY HIGH ENOUGH

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Michel says a 5% wealth tax would siphon money from businesses, leaving owners with less to reinvest, expand, and hire. (iStock / iStock)

Michel also said a wealth tax differs from an income tax because it is assessed on accumulated assets rather than annual earnings and can translate to a much higher burden on business owners.

If a business earns anything less than a 5% return, every single dollar of profit is taxed, he explained, translating into an income-tax rate at or above 100%, leaving no incentive for an entrepreneur to grow and maintain that asset.

Michel noted the proposal has even drawn opposition from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“He’s very aware of the fact that this proposal will actually lead to an exodus of the California tax base,” he said.

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CALIFORNIA IS BROKE, BUT IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR THE REST OF US

Gavin Newsom California taxes

California Governor Gavin Newsom has come out against the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act. (Fred Greaves/Reuters / Reuters Photos)

Michel cautioned the damage wouldn’t be limited to the roughly 200 billionaires targeted by the initiative. Because most wealth is held in “productive assets” like stock in companies, real estate, and machinery, he warned the tax would penalize the investments that drive the broader economy.

“We will get less housing, we will get less investment in machinery and equipment, we’ll get less investment in new companies,” Michel said. “That ultimately makes everyone worse off.”

California already has the most progressive tax system in the industrialized world, according to the Fraser Institute.

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Wealth taxes have been tried around the world and failed, he pointed out, and only a few OECD countries still use them since their peak in the 1990s. In Spain, what was proposed as a temporary one-time levy eventually became a permanent tax on the wealthy. The same thing could happen in California, he warned.

“States like California have an insatiable hunger for taking other people’s money,” he told Fox News Digital. “And if they’re successful this time, there’s nothing stopping them from renewing this tax in future years.”

CALIFORNIA WILL REGRET BILLIONAIRE EXODUS, WASHINGTON POST WARNS

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A person holds a ‘Resist Billionaires’ sign as protesters demonstrate against Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiatives during a nationwide “Tesla Takedown” rally outside a Tesla dealership on March 29, 2025, in Pas (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Michel added that the threat alone of it returning would encourage high-income residents to leave the state.

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The bill’s sponsors at the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West say it is about making billionaires pay their “fair share.”

“California’s billionaires pay much lower tax rates than what working families pay out of every paycheck. And soon, massive federal healthcare funding cuts will collapse key parts of the California healthcare system,” Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff at SEIU-UHW, told Fox News Digital.

She warned “local hospitals and emergency rooms will shut their doors forever” unless voters approve the Billionaire Tax so “billionaires pay their fair share” through a “one-time emergency 5% tax.”

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SEIU members protesting ICE on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.  (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post / Getty Images)

She rejected “sensationalized claims” from “a handful of billionaires and their highly-paid consultants” that there’s been an exodus from California before the Jan. 1, 2026, residency deadline. Citing “a lack of public reports or confirmations,” she says it “does not appear to be true,” and that “the overwhelming majority” of roughly 200 billionaires “appear to have opted to remain.”

Jimenez said nurses, healthcare workers, teachers, and firefighters “pay taxes on nearly every dollar they earn,” and argues that without the measure, “higher healthcare costs and higher taxes will be shifted onto millions of Californians” already facing “skyrocketing healthcare and prescription costs.”

She called the debate a “convenient distraction” while her union’s “120,000 healthcare workers” stay focused on keeping hospitals and ERs open for “California’s 40 million residents.”

“While these outlandish claims are a convenient distraction for a small number of billionaires, the 120,000 healthcare workers of our union remain focused on keeping California’s hospitals and ERs open for California’s 40 million residents who rely on them,” she added.

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Even though the proposal is still in the signature-gathering phase to qualify for the November ballot, it’s drawn strong support from likely voters, according to new polling. A February 2026 Nestpoint survey found 60% of likely voters back the wealth tax, even as a majority of those same respondents say the move would spark a business exodus and cost local jobs.

Fox News’ Kristen Altus contributed to this report.

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Mega raises $11.5M to replace marketing agencies with AI-powered growth engine for SMBs

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Mega raises $11.5M to replace marketing agencies with AI-powered growth engine for SMBs

AI marketing platform Mega has secured $11.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate the rollout of its AI-driven growth engine designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.

The Brooklyn-based company aims to replace traditional marketing agencies with a network of autonomous AI agents capable of managing digital growth channels end-to-end. These agents execute and optimise search engine optimisation (SEO), paid advertising, website management and emerging AI search channels, delivering what the company describes as predictable customer acquisition without the overhead and variability associated with agency services.

The funding round was led by Goodwater Capital, with additional participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Atreides Management, SignalFire and Kearny Jackson. The round also attracted a group of high-profile angel investors including WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum and Nneka Ogwumike.

Mega’s platform is designed to address what its founders see as a structural problem facing small businesses in the digital economy: the expectation that they compete across complex marketing channels typically optimised for large enterprises.

Most small businesses must manage search marketing, paid advertising, websites and emerging AI-driven discovery platforms simultaneously, yet often lack the budget, time or expertise to do so effectively. Traditional agencies can be expensive and inconsistent, while existing AI tools frequently require significant technical knowledge and manual input.

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Mega’s solution delivers marketing execution through software rather than dashboards or toolkits. Once a business signs up, the platform autonomously plans campaigns, executes tasks and continuously optimises performance.

From the customer’s perspective, the system functions like an outsourced growth team that operates automatically.

“We realised early that business owners do not want another AI chat tool that requires hours of prompting,” said Lucas Pellan, co-founder of Mega. “They want customers. So we built a system that actually does the work.”

Mega’s technology relies on a network of specialised AI agents that coordinate marketing activities across multiple digital channels.

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The platform currently focuses on four primary areas: SEO, paid advertising, website optimisation and what the company calls GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), which refers to optimising visibility within AI-driven search and discovery systems.

The system plans campaigns, launches them, tests variations and adjusts strategies based on performance data collected across its entire user base.

According to the company, around 55 per cent of the work performed by the system is fully automated, while 35 per cent is largely automated with human oversight. The remaining 10 per cent is completed manually by specialist operators to ensure quality control and strategic guidance.

This hybrid structure allows the company to scale marketing execution while maintaining reliability and performance standards.

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Every campaign executed through the system feeds data back into Mega’s platform, improving the algorithms that generate creative assets, refine targeting, manage bids and optimise conversions.

Mega’s creation emerged from an unexpected origin story.

The founding team was originally building a video game company during the Covid pandemic when the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT sparked a series of internal experiments with AI tools to accelerate their own marketing growth.

Using the tools they developed internally, the company’s organic search traffic increased 100-fold while paid customer acquisition costs fell by roughly 80 per cent.

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When the founders shared the tools with other entrepreneurs, demand quickly grew.

“We kept hearing the same question from founders: ‘Can we use this too?’,” Pellan said.

This demand prompted the team to pivot away from gaming and develop the platform into a standalone growth product for SMBs.

Mega’s early growth has been rapid. The company reports that it went from zero to $10 million in revenue within ten months of launching its platform.

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Customers span a wide range of industries, including home services companies, law firms, healthcare providers, e-commerce brands and software businesses.

In one example cited by the company, a Texas-based medical spa increased its search traffic by 174 times using the platform’s automated SEO tools. A personal injury law firm saw a 243-fold increase in search visibility and began ranking in the top three for key search terms.

Another client, a direct-to-consumer health brand, generated $120,000 in revenue through its website while surpassing its Amazon marketplace performance without increasing advertising spend.

Across its customer base, Mega claims the platform helps businesses grow around 20 per cent faster on average.

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For many clients, the appeal lies in removing the complexity of managing digital marketing tools and agencies.

Darin Chase, a home services business owner using the platform, said: “Since working with Mega we are finally getting a predictable lead flow. We are also able to divert our time away from Facebook marketing to other important projects because Mega manages everything.”

Mega is targeting the vast SMB marketing sector across North America, where tens of thousands of agencies serve millions of small businesses.

Despite the size of the market, many SMBs continue to struggle with inconsistent marketing performance, unpredictable customer acquisition costs and limited visibility into which strategies actually generate revenue.

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As digital advertising becomes increasingly competitive and search ecosystems shift toward AI-driven discovery, many smaller businesses are finding it harder to compete with enterprise-level marketing operations.

Investors believe Mega’s approach represents a major shift in how growth services can be delivered.

“Mega represents a fundamental shift in how SMBs should think about marketing, from paying for effort to paying for measurable, repeatable growth,” said Vivek Subramanian, partner and chief product officer at Goodwater Capital.

With the new funding secured, Mega plans to expand its platform beyond its current capabilities.

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Future development will include AI-driven management of email marketing, outbound sales campaigns, organic social media growth, lead qualification and sales operations.

The company’s long-term vision is to create a fully automated revenue-generation infrastructure that allows small and mid-sized businesses to access enterprise-level marketing capabilities without enterprise-level costs.

The platform could eventually act as a unified growth system that manages the entire customer acquisition pipeline for SMBs.

If successful, Mega believes its model could fundamentally reshape how smaller companies approach marketing in the AI era.

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By replacing manual marketing workflows with automated systems capable of continuous optimisation, the company aims to give smaller businesses the ability to compete with much larger organisations in increasingly competitive digital markets.


Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

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Chocolate made with cultured cocoa to launch this year

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Chocolate made with cultured cocoa to launch this year

Puratos is collaborating with California Cultured.

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Robinhood Ventures Fund I: Turning Retail Investors Into Venture Capitalists (NASDAQ:HOOD)

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Exploding blocks

This article was written by

The equity market is a powerful mechanism as daily fluctuations in price get aggregated to incredible wealth creation or destruction over the long term. Pacifica Yield aims to pursue long-term wealth creation with a focus on undervalued yet high-growth companies, high-dividend tickers, REITs, and green energy firms.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of HOOD either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

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Former psychiatric hospital site in Carmarthenshire transformed into health and wellbeing campus

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Former psychiatric hospital site in Carmarthenshire transformed into health and wellbeing campus

Parc Dewi Sant has attracted 60 new occupiers since being acquired from Carmarthenshire County Council two years ago

Parc Dewi Sant.

The site of a former psychiatric hospital in Carmarthenshire has been transformed into a health and wellbeing campus after being acquired two years ago.

Parc Dewi Sant in Carmarthen, which extends to 38 acres and which housed the former St David’s psychiatric hospital, is now home to 80 occupiers. Originally developed in the 19th century as a county asylum and later used for NHS mental health services until 2001, the estate has been repurposed into a modern campus focused on prevention, education and community wellbeing.

It brings together a diverse range of services in one location. These include GP provision alongside NHS services such as diabetic eye screening, antenatal clinics, weight management and smoking cessation programmes.

When acquired from Carmarthen County Council by Parc Dewi Sant Ltd, the site had 22 tenants. It had been put on the market with a £2.5m price tag.

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Demand for space across the main buildings has been strong, with the majority now occupied. Attention is now turning to two remaining buildings on the estate which require significant restoration and are expected to form the next phase of development. The site currently provides around 120,000 sq ft of office space.

Parc Dewi Sant Ltd, which are viewing the site as a long-term investment hold, are in discussions with organisations exploring how the buildings could be repurposed to support additional healthcare, rehabilitation and community services.

Parc Dewi Sant serves a strategic catchment of around 187,000 people across Carmarthenshire and is close to Glangwili Hospital, providing complementary services that support prevention, rehabilitation and community wellbeing.

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Mark Andrews owner of Parc Dewi Sant Ltd.

Mark Andrews, director, Parc Dewi San Ltd, said:“It has been a privilege to become custodians of such a historic and important estate in the heart of Carmarthen.

“From the outset we believed the site had enormous potential and it is incredibly rewarding to see such a vibrant community of organisations now operating here.

“To have 80 occupiers on site, including 60 who have joined us in the past two years, is a fantastic milestone and a real testament to the vision for Parc Dewi Sant.

“As the main buildings reach capacity, our focus now turns to the remaining buildings and how they can be brought back into productive use.

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“We would welcome conversations with organisations that can bring complementary services and ideas to the site and help us continue building a campus that supports health, wellbeing and community life across Carmarthenshire.”

Meddygfa Parc is a NHS GP surgery on the campus, having relocated from the town centre last month. Jodi Bateman from the surgery said: “We feel incredibly fortunate to have moved to the beautiful surroundings of Parc Dewi Sant. This exciting new chapter allows us to continue providing high-quality care in a welcoming and modern environment.

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Faisal Islam: Oil price spiral may be slowed but not stopped by G7 emergency move

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Faisal Islam: Oil price spiral may be slowed but not stopped by G7 emergency move

A big intervention is being discussed in the oil markets, but as yet, we do not know how big the problem will be.

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People familiar confirm settlement reached between Live Nation and DOJ

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People familiar confirm settlement reached between Live Nation and DOJ

The Department of Justice and Live Nation have reached a settlement agreement in their antitrust case, multiple people familiar with the matter have confirmed.

Fox News Digital reached out to Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster, and the DOJ for comment on Monday morning.

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In 2024, the President Joe Biden-era DOJ and many state attorneys general targeted Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster LLC in an antitrust suit.

Attorney General Pam Bondi

US Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Oversight of the Department of Justice” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2026.  (ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” then-Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, according to a 2024 DOJ press release. 

“The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster,” Garland said, according to the 2024 release.

Politico reported that Live Nation arrived at the settlement with the DOJ less than a week after the trial started, according to three individuals familiar with the issue.

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The agreement requires Live Nation to shell out about $200 million of damages to participating states, the outlet reported.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated

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US reverses 5-year economic freedom decline with largest increase since 2001

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US reverses 5-year economic freedom decline with largest increase since 2001

The U.S. reversed a five-year decline in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom with its biggest annual increase in the index in over two decades, FOX Business can exclusively reveal.

America’s economic freedom score rose by 2.6 points from a year ago to 72.8, which ranks 22nd among the more than 176 countries that had completed scores in the index. The increase of 2.6 points was the largest annual increase since 2001 and is the second-largest jump the U.S. has had in its 32-year history in the index.

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Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom assesses 12 economic freedoms that fall into four categories including rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open markets – each of which has three subcategories. 

“The U.S.’s score improvements in monetary freedom, government spending, fiscal health, and investment freedom have outpaced the relatively lower score in trade freedom, reflecting the net positive impact of major regulatory and tax reforms on economic growth, investment, and business confidence,” Heritage’s Anthony Kim, the Jay Kingham Research Fellow in International Economic Affairs, editor of the Index of Economic Freedom and manager of global engagement at the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, told FOX Business.

BURGUM SAYS US-VENEZUELA TIES MOVING AT ‘TRUMP SPEED,’ WILL HELP KEEP ENERGY COSTS DOWN FOR AMERICANS

People outside the New York Stock Exchange.

Pedestrians walk past an American flag displayed outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Sept. 12, 2016. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Kim explained that the progress “is not accidental” and is reflective of the Trump administration’s initiatives that have “cut government jobs, slowed spending, and prioritized private-sector growth through proactive, bold deregulatory and tax reforms.”

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While the U.S. score of 72.8 came in at 22nd in the world rankings, it ranked 3rd in the Americas, trailing only Canada (75.6) and Chile (74.3), respectively. Mexico scored 59.8 and ranked 92nd in the world, and was in 19th place among the 32 countries in the Americas region.

In the rule of law category, the U.S. ranked highly with property rights, judicial effectiveness and government integrity all scoring well above the world average.

Government size was a relative weakness for the U.S., with a roughly average tax burden score of 75.3 compared to the global average of 78.4. Government spending scored 57.9 to the global average of 66.3, while fiscal health was a significant weak point – as the U.S. score of 18.5 was well below the global average of 65.9 due to high levels of public debt and large budget deficits.

US DEBT SET TO CRUSH WORLD WAR II RECORD AS ANNUAL DEFICITS EXPLODE TO $3T WITHIN DECADE

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The U.S. rating was boosted by the rule of law but was weighed down by a poor rating for fiscal health. (J. David Ake/Getty Images)

Aspects of regulatory efficiency assessed by the report included freedom for business, labor and monetary were all well above the Index’s global average.

In terms of open markets, the U.S. scored 67.6 in trade freedom, which was below the global average of 70.2. However, investment freedom and financial freedom each scored an 80 for the U.S., well above the global averages of 53.4 and 48.1, respectively.

Kim noted that the “impact of restrictive tariffs on the global economy has been far more muted than feared, in light of increased investment in such critical sectors as energy and AI (among many others),” adding that the lack of tariff retaliation by countries other than China, Canada and the EU mitigated the potential impact of a trade war.

US WEIGHS ASKING CHINA TO CURB RUSSIAN, IRANIAN OIL PURCHASES

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Taipei's skyline

Taiwan ranked fifth in the world in terms of economic freedom. (I-Hwa Cheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Countries with the highest overall scores in Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom were Singapore (84.4), Switzerland (83.7%), Ireland (83.3), Australia (80.1) and Taiwan (79.8). 

The countries that scored the lowest were among the most repressed in the world, with North Korea (3.1) ranked last. Cuba (25.2), Venezuela (27.3), Sudan (32.5) and Zimbabwe (35.2) rounded out the bottom five countries in Heritage’s analysis.

Russia (50.3), China (48.3) and Iran (41.8) were also among the lowest scoring countries in the index due to their repressive political and economic systems.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST BUDGET DEFICITS IN US HISTORY?

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President Donald Trump greets President of Argentina Javier Milei at the White House

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has spearheaded economic reforms that boosted the country’s ranking. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Argentina’s economic freedom rating saw the largest increase from a year ago of all countries in Heritage’s index, climbing by 3.2 points relative to last year.

“October 2025’s decisive midterm election victory provided reform-minded President Javier Milei with concrete support and greater momentum for continuing to transform Argentina’s economy,” Kim said. 

Kim noted that several other countries, including Oman, The Philippines, Morocco and Paraguay, have “recorded sizable score improvements in their past two years despite challenging economic environments.”

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He added that Paraguay’s President Peña has been “unambiguously promoting economic freedom, combating corruption, and building alliances with democratic nations.”

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Biofrontera reports Phase 2b acne trial results for Ameluz PDT

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Biofrontera reports Phase 2b acne trial results for Ameluz PDT

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G7 reportedly considers emergency oil reserve release amid Iran war

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G7 reportedly considers emergency oil reserve release amid Iran war

G7 finance ministers are reportedly set to discuss a coordinated release of emergency oil reserves on Monday, as governments scramble to contain a sharp surge in crude prices triggered by the war in Iran.

Ministers will hold a call with International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol to assess the impact of the conflict and consider a joint release of petroleum from strategic reserves, according to the Financial Times.

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The outlet reported that three G7 countries, including the United States, have expressed support for tapping stockpiles, with some U.S. officials viewing a potential release of 300 million to 400 million barrels, roughly a quarter to a third of the IEA system’s public reserves, as appropriate.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

TRUMP IS REALIGNING WORLD ENERGY MARKETS AND THE IRAN STRIKES ARE ACTUALLY HELPING

Notices indicating fuel shortages hang on pumps at a Manila gas station as global oil markets spike due to conflict-related supply fears.

Signs reading “out of stock” are displayed at a gas station amid rising petrol prices in Manila on March 9, 2026. (Jam Sta Rosa/AFP via Getty / Getty Images)

President Donald Trump on Sunday said rising oil prices are a “very small price” for the United States and the world to pay for “safety and peace.”

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“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Oil prices on Monday morning were sharply higher in early trading, with benchmark crude posting double-digit percentage gains.

GOP SENATORS SAYS TRUMP’S STRIKES ‘SIGNIFICANTLY DEGRADED’ IRAN BUT EMPHASIZE ATTACKS NOT ‘FOREVER WARS’

West Texas Intermediate, the key U.S. oil benchmark, was trading at $103.80, up more than 14%, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, stood at $105.88, also up roughly 14%, according to OilPrice.com data.

Other key grades, including Murban and WTI Midland, were also solidly higher, and U.S. Mars crude showed an even steeper jump of nearly 24%.

The IEA says it was founded in 1974 in response to the 1973–1974 oil crisis, with a mandate to help countries coordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supply.

Thick smoke and flames rise from a burning oil depot in Tehran following reported airstrikes.

Smoke and flames rise at the site of airstrikes on an oil depot in Tehran on March 7, 2026. (Sasan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty / Getty Images)

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Since then, it has maintained a joint emergency response mechanism designed to stabilize global energy markets and protect the broader economy during periods of severe price volatility.

The agency has activated that system on five occasions, including during the First Gulf War in 1991, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, during the 2011 Libyan crisis, and twice following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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Campbell’s elevates Cassandra Green

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Campbell’s elevates Cassandra Green

Green elevated from head of supply to chief supply chain officer.

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