Source: AOL
“An explosion at a residential building in Monaco has left three people injured, including Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Yermolaiev, in an incident that the authorities say was almost certainly an attack targeting the tycoon. Mr Yermolaiev and his wife were fighting for their lives in critical condition after the explosion, according to reports, while a 13-year-old child was also badly injured. … Mr Yermolaiev is a major real estate developer in Dnipro. … He left Ukraine several years ago, renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 and became a citizen of Cyprus. In 2023, he was placed under Ukrainian sanctions by president Volodymyr Zelensky, who imposed a 10-year sanctions package over allegations tied to his alcohol business operations in Russia-occupied [sic] Crimea.” (06/30/26)
https://www.aol.com/articles/ukrainian-construction-tycoon-vadym-yermolaiev-063511000.html?guccounter=1
Source: Expression
by Carolyn Iodice & John Coleman
“For decades, Americans have enjoyed broad freedom to build tools to communicate with each other on the internet. From the smallest message board to the biggest social media platform, the First Amendment protects our right to freely design and use platforms to talk and share content with each other online. The government can go after wrongdoers that use online platforms for illegal activity, but it does not get to decide how a platform is designed and operated in the first place. The KIDS Act would fundamentally overturn this status quo by allowing the government to decide how platforms can be built and imposing restrictions that will censor the speech of adults and minors alike.” (06/29/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/the-kids-act-would-put-washington
Source: Reason
“Marjorie Taylor Greene discusses the future of the Republican Party, the resurgence of democratic socialism, and why the political establishment always wins.” (06/29/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/06/29/marjorie-taylor-greene-youre-not-being-represented/
Source: Independent [UK]
“US envoys are flying into Doha for high-level peace talks amid a renewed spate of strikes, despite claims from Tehran that no such talks have been arranged. Secretary of state Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to represent the US, a White House official said. ‘IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA,’ Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. However, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said no talks between Iran and the US were scheduled in the coming days.” (06/30/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-us-war-live-trump-qatar-peace-talks-hormuz-strikes-b3005529.html
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“Qualitative history lends itself to confirmation bias. Even when you have some quantitative measures of economic policy, it’s easy to put extra weight on the measures that deliver the answer you’re looking for. I’m not immune to motivated reasoning. I loathe and despise both socialism and Nazism, so it’s pleasant for me to equate them. I freely admit it. What to do? I could spend a year reading more about this topic. I could even spend a few years getting to the research frontier so I could credibly publish on the question, ‘How socialist was Germany under National Socialism?’ But while this is a fascinating issue, the opportunity cost of seriously deepening my understanding is just too high. Or to be more precise, the opportunity cost was too high. AI has drastically slashed the costs of quantification — and simultaneously drastically increased the credibility of quick quantification.” (06/29/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/uber-socialist-chatgpt-on-economic
Source: Engadget
“The US Supreme Court just issued a ruling that limits geofence searches by law enforcement agencies, which could have major ramifications for privacy rights across the country. For the uninitiated, this is a relatively recent law enforcement technique in which police tap into the databases of tech companies to see who was near the scene of a crime. In the 6-3 ruling, the country’s top court said that ‘an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell-phone location information.’ Justice Elena Kagan said that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches. Moving forward, law enforcement will have to obtain an actual search warrant to force a tech company into handing over geofence location data. Search warrants require probable cause, which geofence warrants do not.” (06/29/26)
https://www.engadget.com/2204298/the-us-supreme-court-restricts-use-of-geofence-warrants/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“Taiwan President Lai Ching-te (William Lai) appears to be missing signs from multiple sources that he lacks both international and domestic support for pursuing a more assertive policy regarding the island’s de facto independence. Taipei heavily depends on two protectors, Japan and the United States, for firm political support against Beijing’s periodic bullying tactics. In the event of a military crisis, Taiwan would be even more reliant on those two powers for armed defense. However, Tokyo and Washington seem to be moving in opposite directions with respect to their longstanding, albeit informal, security commitment to Taipei.” (06/29/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2026/06/28/is-taiwans-president-playing-with-political-fire/
Source: Oskaloosa Herald
“As Israeli troops and vehicles entered the town of Abdin in southern Syria, residents blocked the roads with rocks, and some young men and boys threw stones to push back the military patrol. Tensions in this part of the country created by a buffer zone occupied by Israeli forces have flared into violence in recent days, leaving residents anxious that more escalation is coming. Residents of Abdin, located near a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone now controlled by Israeli troops, tried to resist against a military incursion Sunday. Residents said Israeli troops fired warnings shots at walls and between the angry protesters, before firing artillery rounds at the village. … Israel seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria in December 2024, following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in an insurgent offensive.” (06/29/26)
https://www.oskaloosa.com/news/national_news/israeli-troops-face-resistance-from-residents-as-they-push-into-a-town-in-syria/article_7ca2b3aa-1694-5a9b-be30-32b80c2638e8.html
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Angelo Monaco
“I recently submitted an article to The Future of Freedom Foundation that predicted a recession at the end of 2026. It was rejected because FFF’s editor, Jacob Hornberger, said ‘One of my beefs with economists is that they love making predictions but most often the predictions don’t pan out.’ I should have been incensed with the fact that after my decades of education and training as an economist and careful research and review of historical and present-day data, my forecast could be so easily dismissed. However, I remained basically un-phased. I suppose the reason I did not get angry is because I knew that he was right. Economists’ predictions are often wrong and any of their predictions that involve a glimpse too far into the future are statistically very close to being always wrong.” (06/29/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-fallacy-of-economic-predicting/
Source: The Hill
“The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday tossed out two cases involving new redistricting ballot measures that would have favored Democrats. One ruling said the redistricting measure violated the state constitution’s ‘single subject’ requirement that calls for measures proposed by petition to focus on one issue for inclusion on the ballot. The Democratic aligned group, Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, were seeking ballot initiatives that approved mid-decade redistricting and new congressional district maps for the 2028 and 2030 election cycles.” (06/29/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5946166-democrats-redistricting-measures-rejected/
