Source: Washington Monthly
by Tamar Jacoby
“Can a fractious continent unite to win the war against Russia and secure democracy in Ukraine?” (05/07/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/07/trump-leaves-ukraines-future-to-europe/
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“An outbreak of hantavirus on board a cruise ship is not the start of a pandemic, the UN health agency has said. Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO), told a news briefing that it was not the same situation as six years ago with Covid-19, because hantavirus spreads through ‘close, intimate contact’. Health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius. On Thursday, the WHO said that overall, five of eight suspected cases of hantavirus had been confirmed. Three people have died, including a 69-year-old Dutch woman, who had the virus. Her Dutch husband and a German woman also died, and their cases are being investigated. Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents – but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.” (05/07/26)
Source: The Dispatch
“Congress Did Something!” (05/07/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/congress-did-something/
Source: Niskanen Center
by Alexander Mechanick
“Policy discourse in the United States today has a split personality. Many condemn how procedural rules thwart not only efforts to build — housing, energy, and more — but more generally keep presidents from achieving their policy ambitions and worsen our ‘vetocracy.’ Yet others lament how presidents are left too free to pursue their policy aims lawlessly or abusively. These concerns are often raised by the same commentators. Even though these discourses are largely about the same topic—the administrative procedures that constrain government action and govern judicial challenges to it — the two have proceeded almost entirely in parallel. The result is a bizarre discourse superposition, where the executive branch is simultaneously excessively and insufficiently constrained.” (05/07/26)
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander
“All discussion of aesthetics must in some sense be personal. So: young Scott was deeply disappointed to learn how restaurant critics worked. In his imagination, a critic’s assistant would deliver dishes to her house, so she wouldn’t know which restaurant it came from. Otherwise, the critic might let her preconceptions influence her judgment, and a restaurant’s reputation would become self-reinforcing. … Imagine how I felt when I actually read restaurant criticism. It was all stuff like ‘Oh, the ambience here is very nice; I had a great conversation with the chef who told me about how his childhood in Sardinia motivated new takes on traditional dishes.’ How can you be sure the chef’s personable manner isn’t influencing your impression of the food?! Haven’t you ever heard of the Pepsi Paradox in psychology? Aaargh!” (05/07/26)
Source: Investing.com
“In a recent release of economic data, U.S. initial jobless claims have shown a modest increase, signaling potential shifts in the labor market. The actual number of initial jobless claims filed was 200,000, according to the latest figures. This number is slightly above the forecasted figure of 205,000, indicating a tighter-than-expected labor market scenario. The initial jobless claims measure the number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time during the past week.” (05/07/26)
Source: The Fifth Column
“In Which the 1% Protests the 1%, Mamdani Builds a Grocery Store, California Searches for a Governor, and Iran Has Questions.” (05/07/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/masquerade-of-morons-episode-556
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Goldsmith
“Much ink has been spilled, much podcast time expended on the machinations of the elite globalist class who war against our autonomy, who strive to enslave us through control of our health and financial assets and to depopulate us. All true. But we commoners cannot control what they try to do, cannot temper their sociopathy. What we can do is look at ourselves in the mirror and recognize how we have been disempowering ourselves, allowing our autonomy to be up for grabs; how we have been surrendering that which differentiates us from other animals — free will.” (05/07/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/cruising-toward-enslavement/
Source: Serious Trouble
“Don’t Use the Public Chatbot Lawyer.” (05/07/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/dont-use-the-public-chatbot-lawyer
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“Back in 2018, during his first term as president, Donald Trump called for a curb on a federal requirement that publicly traded firms report their performance every three months. The idea is to nudge both investors and corporations toward longer-term perspectives and focus less on a fluctuating stock price. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled a plan that will allow such companies to provide reports every six months. In the intervening eight years, ever-faster algorithms have enabled warp-speed stock trading, inflating shareholder impatience and expectations of instantaneous information and returns. In 2021, a Cornell University study confirmed that ‘firms were actually becoming more short-term oriented across the market’ – a trend linked to the growing demand for more data and short-term projections for the investing public and markets.” (05/06/26)