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Shares of Uranium miner and processor Uranium Energy Corp. ( UEC 3.26% ) rallied 13.6% this week through Thursday at 1 p.m. ET, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence . As is often the case with commodity companies, geopolitical tensions and negative events can actually be beneficial for certain stocks, making commodity plays somewhat of a hedge against global disasters and inflation. That was the case this week, as tensions with Russia led to concerns about uranium supply disruption to U.S. nuclear plants. Going nuclear has benefits and costs Due to the surging demand for electricity, especially for new artificial intelligence data centers, nuclear energy has been a hot topic again. However, the prospects for nuclear energy ran into a roadblock this week. Last Friday, Russia made a statement on Telegram that it would be limiting exports of enriched uranium to the United States. That's a big deal, as uranium is one of the few commodities the U.S. still purchases from Russia, which supplied about a quarter of the U.S.'s enriched uranium last year. Russia said the move was in response to a ban on Russia-enriched uranium signed by President Joe Biden back in May, which is supposed to take full effect in 2028. Additionally, the move nearly coincided with the Biden administration allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike inside Russia. That announcement was made just days later on Monday. Whatever the exact reason, Russia throttling the supply of enriched uranium benefited non-Russian sources of uranium, such as Uranium Energy Corp. UEC had smartly bought up a bunch of smaller uranium miners between 2017 and 2023, when uranium prices were low, and is now the largest U.S.-based uranium miner in terms of capacity. The company also has production assets in Canada and Paraguay. No revenue... yet It should be noted that UEC didn't actually make any revenue last year, as it is still committing capital to build its resource base and low-cost extraction capabilities. The company is also unhedged, making it a pure-play, leveraged bet on future uranium prices. But with demand for nuclear energy likely to be higher in the future and supply a bigger question mark now thanks to Russia's latest moves, that bet is paying off this week.

ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans plan to move quickly in their effort to overhaul the nation’s voting procedures, seeing an opportunity with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to push through long-sought changes that include voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements. They say the measures are needed to restore public confidence in elections, an erosion of trust that Democrats note has been fueled by false claims from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In the new year, Republicans will be under pressure to address Trump’s desires to change how elections are run in the U.S., something he continues to promote despite his win in November. The main legislation that Republicans expect to push will be versions of the American Confidence in Elections Act and the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, said GOP Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, chair of the Committee on House Administration, which handles election-related legislation. The proposals are known as the ACE and SAVE acts, respectively. “As we look to the new year with unified Republican government, we have a real opportunity to move these pieces of legislation not only out of committee, but across the House floor and into law,” Steil said in an interview. “We need to improve Americans’ confidence in elections.” Republicans are likely to face opposition from Democrats and have little wiggle room with their narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Steil said he expects there will be “some reforms and tweaks” to the original proposals and hopes Democrats will work with Republicans to refine and ultimately support them. New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said there was an opportunity for bipartisan agreement on some issues but said the two previous GOP bills go too far. “Our view and the Republicans’ view is very different on this point,” Morelle said. “They have spent most of the time in the last two years and beyond really restricting the rights of people to get to ballots – and that’s at the state level and the federal level. And the SAVE Act and the ACE Act both do that – make it harder for people to vote.” Morelle said he wants to see both parties support dedicated federal funding for election offices. He sees other bipartisan opportunities around limiting foreign money in U.S. elections and possibly imposing a voter ID requirement if certain safeguards are in place to protect voters. Democrats say some state laws are too restrictive in limiting the types of IDs that are acceptable for voting, making it harder for college students or those who lack a permanent address. Morelle said he was disappointed by the GOP’s claims in this year’s campaigns about widespread voting by noncitizens , which is extremely rare, and noted how those claims all but evaporated once Trump won. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and and can result in felony charges and deportation. “You haven’t heard a word about this since Election Day,” Morelle said. “It’s an Election Day miracle that suddenly the thing that they had spent an inordinate amount of time describing as a rampant problem, epidemic problem, didn’t exist at all.” Before the November election, House Republicans pushed the SAVE Act, which passed the House in July but stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. It requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and includes potential penalties for election officials who fail to confirm eligibility. Republicans say the current process relies on an what they call an honor system with loopholes that have allowed noncitizens to register and vote in past elections. While voting by noncitizens has occurred, research and reviews of state cases have shown it to be rare and typically a mistake rather than an intentional effort to sway an election. Under the current system, those seeking to register are asked to provide either a state driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. A few states require a full Social Security number. Republicans say the voter registration process is not tight enough because in many states people can be added to voter rolls even if they do not provide this information and that some noncitizens can receive Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. They believe the current requirement that anyone completing a voter registration form sign under oath that they are a U.S. citizen is not enough. They want to force states to reject any voter registration application for which proof of citizenship is not provided. Republicans say that could include a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, a passport or a birth certificate. In Georgia, a perennial presidential battleground state, election officials said they have not encountered any hiccups verifying the citizenship status of its nearly 7.3 million registered voters. They conducted an audit in 2022 that identified 1,634 people who had attempted to register but were not able to be verified as U.S. citizens by a federal database. A second audit this year used local court records to identify people who said they could not serve as a juror because they were not a U.S. citizen. Of the 20 people identified, six were investigated for illegal voting, though one of those cases was closed because the person had since died. “What we’ve done by doing those audits is give voters confidence that we do not have noncitizens voting here in Georgia,” said Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. “And when society is highly polarized, you have to look at building trust. Trust is the gold standard.” Raffensperger, a Republican who supports both voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements, credits the state’s early adoption of REAL ID and use of automatic voter registration for ensuring voter lists are accurate. The latter is something he hopes more Republicans will consider, as he argued it has allowed Georgia election officials to use the motor vehicle agency’s process to verify citizenship and track people moving in and around the state. “You have to get it right because you’re talking about people’s priceless franchise to vote,” Raffensperger said. If Congress does pass any changes, it would fall to election officials across the country to implement them. Raffensperger and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said it would be a mistake to move the country to a single day of voting, something Trump has said he would like to see happen, because it would eliminate early voting and limit access to mail ballots. Both methods are extremely popular among voters. In Georgia, 71% of voters in November cast their ballots in person before Election Day. Both said they hoped lawmakers would look to what is working in their states and build off those successes. “We’ve proven time and time again in our states that our elections are secure and are accurate,” Benson said.

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Stock market today: Wall Street drifts to a mixed close in thin trading following a holiday pauseIn Japanese society, prostitution is often framed as a necessary evil – a way to maintain social harmony by providing men with an outlet for their pent-up sexual desires. While there are a number of issues with this view – such as the implication that men are inherently unable to control their sexual impulses – it also has a critical flaw: It frames prostitution as something that only men want or need. In Japan, female sexuality is often seen through the narrow lens of heterosexual romance and motherhood. Rezu fuzoku upends this view. Rezu fuzoku , which roughly translates to “lesbian sexual entertainment,” refers to agencies where female sex workers provide sex to female clients. And in Japan, it’s entirely legal. I began investigating female-to-female commercial sex and escort services in 2023. After initially studying the phenomenon of female-to-male crossdressers offering nonsexual, romantic dates to female clients, I decided to expand the investigation to focus on clients seeking sex and romance. The names of the sex workers and clients I interviewed in my research have been changed in this article to protect their anonymity. Tapping into a niche market Unlike in many countries that historically criminalized homosexual acts, Japan only briefly outlawed them in the 1870s, during an era of rapid Western-inspired legal reforms. After that period, the country did not reintroduce laws criminalizing homosexual acts, allowing same-sex relationships to exist largely without legal interference – even if they remained frowned upon in Japanese society. Furthermore, homosexual prostitution has never been illegal. Japan did enact a strict anti-prostitution law in 1956 that bans the practice, which it exclusively defines as penetrative, paid sex between a man and a woman. As a result, any paid-for activity that falls outside of this definition – such as homosexual sex – is not considered illegal. For my research, I interviewed a man named Obo, the founder of the Lesbian Girls Club, an agency with branches in Osaka and Tokyo providing female sex workers for female clients. Obo started out his career as a web developer but soon became burned out and disillusioned. “I wanted to start my own business, and since I was building websites for several adult entertainment shops, I decided to try something similar. It quickly became clear that while the market was flooded with services for men, there were almost none for women.” So Obo opened Lesbian Girls Club in 2007, an agency arranging meetups between sex workers and female clients in hotels, rather than at a brothel. Since then, it’s become an institution in Japan, with some of his original sex workers still working for Obo. A diverse clientele Initially a niche market, rezu fuzoku gained wider attention when the manga artist Nagata Kabi used Obo’s agency and later chronicled her experience in her work “My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness.” The award-winning manga, which was also released in the U.S. and Europe, introduced the service to many Japanese women who hadn’t previously known about it. Despite the term rezu – lesbian – in the name, Obo’s agency welcomes women of all sexual orientations. “Some of our clients are lesbians,” he told me. “But many are straight, also married. Most are between 26 and 35 years old, though we also have clients in their 60s and 70s.” Many Japanese women still find it difficult to explore their sexuality and express their sexual desires, even with their partners. This often leads to unsatisfactory sexual experiences, which can pave the way for sexless relationships– something which is increasingly commonplace in Japan and a situation that many users of rezu fuzoku services shared with me. As Yuriko, a 35-year-old heterosexual client of rezu fuzoku , explained, “For the very first time I really enjoyed sex! Rezu fuzoku gave me the chance to try new things and to feel good.” Sex is wellness In my interviews, the term iyashi often popped up. It means “healing” and refers to activities or services that provide relief from daily stress and negative feelings. Just as yoga classes or massages are seen as forms of iyashi , sex – especially commercial sex – is also branded this way in Japan. “Men do not understand women and their bodies,” Yuriko said. “But sexuality is a fundamental part of life, and ignoring it only leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. Sex is iyashi .” The use of this word shows how prostitution in Japan is not always viewed as something to be ashamed of but can also be seen as a form of self-care. For instance, the practice of dispatching a sex worker to a hotel where she meets the client is called in Japanese deriheru , or delivery health, stressing the connection with the iyashi realm. Also, a 90-minute session with a professional sex worker for women is often called “wellness course,” which ties sex to physical and psychological well-being. Sex workers themselves also emphasize the connection between their occupation and iyashi practices, often referring to themselves as “therapists” or “cast” and downplaying the sexual aspects of their work, instead highlighting the wellness-related ones. Aware of the positive impact their services have on women, many of them expressed pride in their work during our interviews. “It’s rewarding,” Moe, who has been in the industry for six years, told me. “When a customer tells me she was really struggling but now feels she can try a little harder because we met, I feel glad I chose this job.” Her colleague, Makiko, agreed. “I am proud of this job. It’s very important to me, and I believe it’s quite needed in society.” Despite the widespread stigma against sex workers in Japanese society, the legal status of rezu fuzoku services offers employees greater protection and ensures clear working conditions. And as a marker of how the industry has grown, Tokyo alone is currently home to over 10 rezu fuzoku agencies, according to my research. ‘A refuge for the heart’ Yet, despite the existence of services aimed at women’s sexual well-being, gender inequality remains rampant in Japan. Women still face significant social and economic barriers. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Report, Japan ranks 118th out of 146 countries for gender equality and holds the lowest position among G7 nations. By catering to women’s sexual desires outside of the traditional heterosexual framework, rezu fuzoku challenges conventional narratives about women’s sexuality. In a country that has been experiencing falling marriage and birth rates, listening to women and understanding their needs has become increasingly important. This legal form of sex work clearly fills a need, offering women a safe place to try new things and entrust their sexual pleasure to an expert – who happens to be another woman. One thing that stood out in my research was how popular the service was among women in heterosexual relationships who seemed eager to explore desires that may be difficult to share with a partner. But what female clients seek often goes beyond sex itself. Many women simply want intimacy – being hugged, cuddled and cared for in a way that is missing not only in the lives of single women but also in those of women in relationships. “I use this service for comfort and healing,” said Sachi, a 42-year-old woman who’s married to a man. “It is a kind of refuge for the heart offering emotional richness.” Marta Fanasca is a Marie Curie Global Fellow, Università di Bologna, Italy. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.