#economic-hardship

#economic-hardship

“If my art isn't in your budget right now, I'll accept the following as payment...” the viral posts read. The caption includes a list of items or services that the artist will trade the work for, ranging from handmade clothes, jewellery and tattoos to accommodation, meals and beauty services. Some simply say: make me an offer.

If it keeps going, it's not going to be good, Harrisburg resident Randy Fulp said. According to the Pennsylvania resident, his gas prices have shot up more than .40 cents in the last five days. In the state, the average gas price sits at $3.66, a jump from $3.13 at the same time last month.

There is no joy after we lost our family and loved ones, said Gaza City resident Fedaa Ayyad. Even if we try to cope with the situation, we can't truly feel it in our hearts I am one of those who cannot feel the atmosphere of Ramadan. Ramadan began on Wednesday in Gaza, typically a period when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset while embracing family gatherings, spiritual devotion, contemplation, and generosity. The reality in Gaza, however, is grim.

Christmas follows a routine: shopping, dinner, gifts, family celebrations that vary from humble to lavish, reflecting a country growing increasingly unequal, like Venezuela. The holiday season in Caracas in 2025 masks what is on the minds of many Venezuelans. Festivities are overshadowed by the greatest geopolitical tensions the country has faced in decades, amid the largest recent deployment of U.S. military assets a volatile threat hanging over Venezuela's Caribbean border.

It is a beautiful, late autumn morning as I sip a cup of coffee and watch the lingering, golden yellow leaves of a maple tree fall gently to the ground. The smell of banana bread completing its final minutes of baking wafts through the air. For this, I am thankful. This is the fifth consecutive year that I've been fortunate enough to publish this editorial here at Battery Power.

I don't mean the obvious. There is fascism rotting not just our nation but the world, fascism so bad that common folk have begun calling it what it is and not just the communists and anarchists I spend most of my time with. The government shutdown, an event engineered by one party alone, exists solely to squeeze to death the programs they couldn't cancel the funding for through legal means, permanently crippling only the social subsidies that they deem unfit.

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