Source: Niskanen Center
by Shriya Garg
“The one-year anniversary of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has renewed attention to the financial stability of rural hospitals. The sweeping legislation made significant changes to Medicaid funding and eligibility, effects of which are still coming into focus for rural facilities. But the OBBBA is only the latest chapter in a longer story. The structural forces most responsible for rural hospitals’ financial precarity predate the law by decades.” (04/22/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-the-medicare-wage-index-disadvantages-rural-areas
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“For the first time since World War II, Japanese combat troops are participating in live-fire, land-and-sea military exercises in an Asian country that was once under the harsh rule of imperial Japan. On Monday, some 1,400 Japanese soldiers joined with the forces of a few other democracies around the Pacific to practice mock battles for 19 days in the northern Philippines – not far from China and the islands it forcibly claims in the South China Sea. … For Japan, this overseas training under real-world conditions marks a historic turning point for its postwar pacifist tradition and its heavy reliance on the United States for external defense. Yet, on a larger scale, it puts on display a long-term effort by many Asian democracies and their Western partners to define the meaning of shared security, preferably the kind that cannot be seen as ganging up on China.” (04/21/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0421/Asia-s-expanding-circle-of-security
Source: Drop Site
“Two Iranian women remain in immigration detention, [abducted] earlier this month on accusations of being the niece and grandniece of Qasem Soleimani, despite no connection to the late Iranian military commander. Drop Site reviewed Iranian birth records, identification papers, a family will, and other personal documents and found no connection whatsoever to him or his extended family. One of the women is now seriously ill in a Texas facility, her chronic blood condition left effectively untreated. On March 8, right-wing activist Laura Loomer posted on X calling for the deportation of a woman she claimed was Soleimani’s niece. The commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Soleimani was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike, ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. … On April 3, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, Sarina Hosseiny, [abducted] by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at their home outside Los Angeles.” (04/22/26)
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iranian-women-ice-detention-not-related-qasem-soleimani-rubio-loomer
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump Blinks, But Hormuz Blockade Blocks Further Talks.” (04/22/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1AGRnazvMVvGl
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Lyle J Goldstein
“Rather than a clash, these titans are likely tempered by the Middle East war. The question, who now has the better advantage?” (04/22/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-xi-summit/
Source: Fox News
by Dr. Marc Siegel
“I have known cardiologist Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, for many years. I’ve interviewed him multiple times on my show, ‘Doctor Radio Reports’ on SiriusXM, and have also spent time around the dinner table with him and his family. … Dr. Oz spends a lot of time with President Donald Trump these days as they travel to and attend events together. He told me recently on my show that he is struck by how clever and funny the president is and how he doesn’t actually have a bad diet.” (04/22/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dr-marc-siegel-dr-oz-says-trumps-diet-may-surprise-harshest-critics
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US officials have announced fraud charges against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group that tracks extremist organisations and played a prominent role in confronting the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). In a news conference on Tuesday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche accused the non-profit of secretly funding the very groups that it says it opposes, through paying informants who infiltrated them — including within the KKK. An indictment charges the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The organisation’s president has said they would ‘vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.'” (04/22/26)
https://archive.is/1GOB4
Source: Bet On It
“A candid talk with the iconoclastic geneticist.” (04/22/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/the-caplan-khan-culture-convo
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“In February 2026, Indonesia and Australia signed the Treaty on Common Security (‘the Jakarta Treaty’), a commitment to developing joint training facilities in Indonesia, increased cooperation and information sharing, and consulting on security matters at ministerial level between the two countries. But in the last two months, this already important agreement gained greater significance, as it has expanded to include Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Japan. It seems that a new security paradigm and new trade partnerships are emerging in the Pacific.” (04/22/26)
https://fee.org/articles/new-partnerships-in-asia/
Source: Caitlin Johnston
by Caitlin Johnstone
“They understand that humans are storytelling animals whose inner lives are typically dominated by mental narratives about what’s happening, so if you can control those narratives, you can control the humans.” (04/22/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/04/22/manipulators-understand-that-narrative-control-is-everything/
