Source: Independent [UK]
“Russian strikes killed at least two people and wounded two others in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy after Moscow threatened escalation for Ukraine’s biggest assault so far. Another nine people, including four children, suffered injuries in Kharkiv, which was attacked with Russian guided aerial bombs. Ukraine on Friday morning claimed that a crew member of a Panama-flagged ship was killed in a Russian drone attack in the Black Sea waters. Oleksiy Kuleba said that another vessel under the Saint Kitts and Nevis flag was also hit. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov previously warned of ‘massive coordinated strikes on a regular basis’ in response to Ukraine’s attack on a Moscow oil refinery for the second time this week.” (06/19/26)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-live-putin-trump-zelensky-moscow-drone-attack-b2998879.html
Source: The Realist Review
by Martin Sieff
“It should be cold comfort indeed, but the successive inability of one US administration after another to control Israel and the extraordinary passion with which the leaders of Western Europe, Canada and NATO continue to defy the United States to risk thermonuclear world war with Russia at the whims of Ukrainian junta leader Volodymyr Zelensky are not unprecedented. For the dark, universally unacknowledged world history of the past 120 years is clear: Tails Wag Dogs. Global superpowers and great continent-spanning empires are brought into needless total conflict and utter mutually assured destruction by the machinations, betrayals and petty intrigues of tiny postage stamp states — usually with unacknowledged, disgusting and even genocidal recent political histories.” (06/18/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/tail-wags-dog
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Tyranny of a National Security State, Foreign Interventionism.” (06/18/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm2Zv89GagU
Source: New York Times
“Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester in northern England, won a seat in Parliament on Thursday, a pivotal step in his plans to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party and the country. Mr. Burnham easily defeated a field of more than a half-dozen candidates, winning 24,937 votes — a resounding majority of about 55 percent. … When Mr. Burnham might challenge the prime minister — and how Mr. Starmer will respond — remains unclear. The prime minister has said he will fight to stay in the office he won almost two years ago. But several Labour lawmakers have publicly said Mr. Starmer should step aside, for the good of the party and the country, if Mr. Burnham challenges him.” (06/19/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/06/19/world/makerfield-election-results-uk-burnham
Source: Cobden Centre
by Max Rangeley
“How to safeguard the human person in the time of artificial intelligence? It is hardly a surprise that Pope Leo XIV in answering that question in his first encyclical does not include money as part of the solution. More is the pity. The present unsound money regime has abetted vast malinvestment in the digital revolution now in its AI phase. Malinvestment takes various forms and is driven by mal signalling in capital markets caused by monetary inflation. Alongside the legal and constitutional backbone of the free-market economy falters. The build-up of the surveillance state is one consequence. All of this endangers ‘the human person.'” (06/18/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/06/sound-money-artificial-intelligence-and-the-pope/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Planned talks in Switzerland between the United States and Iran to discuss the technical terms of their ceasefire deal have been postponed. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed early on Friday that the talks, which were scheduled to take place in Burgenstock, would not go ahead. The postponement has raised fears that the ceasefire deal signed by the US and Iran earlier this week could unwind already. Reports suggest that Iran has delayed sending its delegation to discuss the technical issues linked to the ceasefire deal – digitally signed by the two countries on Wednesday – due to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. … Chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that any talks would remain bound by Tehran’s ‘red lines.’ A halt to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon was one of Tehran’s key demands in negotiations around the deal.” [editor’s note: Israel is not, so far as I know, a party to the deal – TLK] (06/19/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/19/us-iran-talks-postponed-as-israel-attacks-lebanon
Source: Liberalism.org
by Sarah Skwire
The other day, I texted my youngest a reminder to take out the trash. In response I received, ‘sit down theodore.’ I was, to say the least, confused. It turns out that ‘sit down theodore’ had evolved as a complicated joke with a friend about the word ‘noted.’ First it became ‘no ted.’ That transformed into ‘stop it, teddy’ then into ‘enough, teddy.’ That morphed into ‘sit teddy’ and finally ‘sit down theodore.’ The joke became so ingrained in their texting conversations that they set the autocorrect feature on their phones to transform the word ‘noted’ into ‘sit down theodore’ whenever they typed it. All of this explained the text I received, but it also got me thinking about one of the most important aspects of a liberal society — spontaneous order.” (06/18/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/sit-down-theodore-slang-and-spontaneous-order
Source: The Hill
“The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday the government can’t criminally prosecute a man for possessing a firearm simply because he regularly smoked marijuana, rejecting the government’s comparison to the disarmament [of] habitual drunkards in the founding era. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that it violates his right to keep arms under the conservative justices’ expanded Second Amendment test. It requires gun control measures be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. … At issue was the federal law making it a crime for someone ‘who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance’ to possess a firearm.” [editor’s note: Any supposed “historical tradition” is irrelevant. The court’s job is to enforce the Constitution, which says “shall not be infringed,” with a period immediately after – TLK] (06/18/26)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5929977-second-amendment-firearm-ruling/
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“An assault on your freedom to use your computer without having to ‘verify your age’ has migrated from states like California, Colorado, and New York to the United States Congress. This is the so-called Parents Decide Act, which would ‘require operating system providers to verify the age of any user of an operating system.’ … ‘Save the children’ is the familiar sales pitch, but if government is in charge of saving the children, our children are in trouble.” (06/18/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/06/18/mandatory-internet-ids/
Source: Santa Fe New Mexican
“A new kind of flu vaccine moved a step closer to the U.S. market Thursday as federal health advisers recommended approval of the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending [sic] the coronavirus pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating Moderna’s new shot, dubbed mFlusiva, for older Americans ahead of the winter flu season. Moderna is seeking full approval for the vaccine’s use in people ages 50 to 64 — along with authorization for use in those 65 and older while it conducts additional testing.” [editor’s note: The mRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” didn’t “end” the pandemic. They reduced some symptoms, but didn’t reduce transmission, actually INCREASING spread of the virus – TLK] (06/19/26)
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/ap/business/fda-panel-backs-first-of-its-kind-flu-vaccine-using-mrna-technology/article_c558b67c-7a73-5fa1-9146-b3331b1ae69c.html
