Minister Heydon Secures €170m Boost for Ireland Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Sector for a Total of €2.3 billion Allocation

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, TD, has secured an additional €170 million in Budget 2026, bringing his Department’s overall allocation to €2.3 billion, a 9% year-on-year increase. The package includes €335 million in capital investment and €1.967 billion in current expenditure, aimed at strengthening the resilience, sustainability, and profitability of Ireland’s […]

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Oaktree With Over $200b AUM Shifts Strategy Toward AI Infrastructure, Avoids Vulnerable Sectors

Oaktree Capital Management, the distressed-debt giant overseeing about $200 billion in assets, is reshaping its investment strategy to capture opportunities from the rapid rise of artificial intelligence while steering clear of sectors most at risk of disruption. Focus on “Picks and Shovels” Rather than backing AI developers directly, Oaktree is concentrating on the infrastructure underpinning […]

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Bain Capital Closes $14 Billion Flagship Fund, One of Year’s Largest PE Mega-Funds

Boston, 7 October 2025 — Global investment firm Bain Capital has closed its 14th flagship private equity fund at $14 billion, marking one of the largest private equity mega-funds to reach final close this year. The raise represents a significant step up from its $11.8 billion predecessor and underscores continued investor confidence in Bain’s global […]

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More young adults are living with their parents than previous generations did

A potentially worrisome trend is emerging among young adults. Instead of landing a job and moving to the big city after graduation, many are moving back into their childhood homes instead. About 1.5 million more adults under 35 live with their parents today than a decade ago. That’s a 6.3% jump, more than double the […]

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Health insurance subsidy standoff pits affordable care for millions against federal budget constraints

As the federal government entered a shutdown on Oct. 1, 2025, competing narratives quickly emerged about the cause. Some Republican lawmakers objected to Democrats’ push to include an extension of the expanded Affordable Care Act premium subsidies in a short-term funding bill and cited concerns about long-term spending. Democratic leaders countered that the subsidies are […]

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President Trump scraps the nation’s most comprehensive food insecurity report − making it harder to know how many Americans struggle to get enough food

The Trump administration announced on Sept. 20, 2025, that it plans to stop releasing food insecurity data. The federal government has tracked and analyzed this data for the past three decades, but it plans to stop after publishing statistics pertaining to 2024 data. The Conversation U.S. asked Tracy Roof, a political scientist who has researched […]

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US economy is already on the edge – a prolonged government shutdown could send it tumbling over

The economic consequences of the current federal government shutdown hinge critically on how long it lasts. If it is resolved quickly, the costs will be small, but if it drags on, it could send the U.S. economy into a tailspin. That’s because the economy is already in a precarious state, with the labor market struggling, […]

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Why Major League Baseball keeps coming back to Japan

When Shohei Ohtani stepped onto the field at the Tokyo Dome in March 2025, he wasn’t just playing a game – he was carrying forward more than 100 years of baseball ties between the U.S. and Japan. That history was front and center when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs opened their 2025 regular […]

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EBRD and EU Back €45 Million Upgrade to Kazakhstan’s Aktau Port

Aktau, Kazakhstan, 30 September 2025 — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU) have announced a joint financial package of up to €45 million to expand and modernise the port of Aktau, Kazakhstan’s main maritime gateway on the Caspian Sea. The investment is designed to strengthen the Transcaspian Corridor, […]

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Even a government shutdown that ends quickly would hamper morale, raise costs and reduce long-term efficiency in the federal workforce

The U.S. government shutdown couldn’t come at a worse time for federal workers. With a government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed – sent home without pay until funding resumes. And ahead of the shutdown, President Donald Trump suggested that a prolonged lapse in funding could open the door to “irreversible” […]

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