Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai
“Visa holders founded half of today’s Fortune 500 companies and a majority of billion-dollar startups. Current restrictions damage that competitive advantage and choke off future growth.” (07/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/immigrants-build-americas-most-valuable-companies/
Source: Informed Comment
by Tom Engelhardt
“[G]ive Donald Trump credit. People deal with him as if he were a unique figure in American history and in some ways, of course, he couldn’t be more so. But not, it turns out, when it comes to American-style war. There, he seems almost boringly part of a story (now more than three-quarters of a century old) of how the seemingly greatest power on Planet Earth in the endless decades after World War II simply couldn’t — no, not ever! — win a war.” (07/17/26)
https://www.juancole.com/2026/07/americas-imperial-korea.html
Source: United Press International
“Brazil’s top court on Saturday denied a request from former President Jair Bolsonaro to be visited by Argentinian President Javier Milei while under house arrest. The attempted visit by Milei, a political ally of the far-right Bolsonaro, was part of a campaign to drum up political support for the son of the former president, who is running against leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for a coup attempt but has been in his home in Brasilia since March due to his health condition. He was already barred from participating in national politics as part of his sentence. But Bolsonaro was placed under further restrictions on Friday for breaching conditions of his house arrest, after he wrote a political letter supporting his son’s candidature for president.” (07/18/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/07/18/latam-bolsonaro-milei/7271784410855/
Source: The Hill
“President Trump delivered an address to the nation Thursday night alleging that hundreds of millions of American voters have had their data compromised by China.” (07/17/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Kym Robinson
“Hong Kong police have recently arrested book sellers for having copies of Emily Feng’s, Let Only Red Flowers Bloom. Freelance journalists and three others have been arrested related to the book and for the act of selling, ‘seditious material.’ … ‘Seditious Material,’ is the title that sounds less than harmful for many Westerners who may view China as a land known of having less freedoms, where independent thinking and writing, are prohibited or heavily guided. … time and time again we are told that Western values celebrates individual rights. Self ownership, which includes free speech. Transfer those two words, Seditious and Material and press it into those which may suddenly draw an ire of concern for a newly conditioned Western reader, one who may feel freedom of speech has conditions.” (07/17/26)
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“One of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents has gone into exile in the US, after leaving Cuba where he had served a five-year prison sentence. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, 38, is the leader of the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a group of artists, journalists and intellectuals who have campaigned for freedom of speech and democracy in the communist country. He was arrested in 2021 during Cuba’s largest anti-government protests in decades and spent five years in the maximum-security Guanajay prison near Havana. His whereabouts have been unclear in recent days as Cuban authorities held him in an unknown location while the US approved a parole request. Emerging from the airport in Miami, the 38-year-old was greeted by supporters who sang the Cuban national anthem as he held up his forefinger and thumb in the shape of the letter L to represent ‘Libertad – meaning freedom, a recognised anti-government symbol.” (07/19/26)
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“Campaigning for the White House in 2024, retired game show host Donald Trump insisted that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office—maybe before. He repeated that boast more than 50 times—it clearly was not a one-off remark. The war rages on, of course, and we have a pretty good idea of who is going to put a stop to that war: the Ukrainians. How are the great peacemaker’s other projects going?” (07/17/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/donald-trump-international-peacemaker/
Source: Show-Me Institute
by Cory Koedel
“Most schools embraced digital learning during and after the COVID pandemic, dramatically increasing students’ screen time during the school day. Combined with the long hours many children already spend on screens outside of school, the result has been an unprecedented amount of daily screen exposure. But people are starting to push back. More than half of states have policies that limit or fully ban cell phones in schools. And many states and school districts have also enacted, or are considering, policies that limit screen use for instruction.” (07/17/26)
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“France said Friday it was blocking access to the online prediction market Polymarket, as punters continued to make bets despite a ban already in place. The national gaming authority ANJ said Friday that Polymarket’s webpage would be blocked on French territory, which adds to a November 2024 ban on financial transactions to the site. Polymarket is one of a number of online prediction markets which allow people to bet on the outcome of future events.” (07/17/26)
Source: Reason
“Journalist Michael Tracey and professor Marcella Szablewicz debate the Epstein scandal and the public reaction to the files.” (07/17/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/17/are-the-epstein-files-a-moral-panic/