Source: ABC News [Australian state media]
“Former FBI director James Comey has been charged over a social media photo of seashells that officials say constituted a threat against US President Donald Trump. The photo, which was uploaded nearly a year ago, showed seashells arranged on a beach to spell out the numbers 8-6-4-7, which critics have interpreted as a threat to kill Mr Trump. The two-count indictment charges Mr Comey with knowingly and wilfully making a threat to ‘take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon’ Mr Trump, and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.Mr Comey deleted the photo soon after it was uploaded, saying he did not realise some would [pretend it was] a call for violence.” (04/29/26)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-29/former-fbi-director-james-comey-indicted/106619156
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“‘Gun control’ had chance after chance after chance to prove it could thwart Allen’s plans. And. It. Didn’t. Whoa … violent criminals don’t obey ‘gun control’ laws and private venue gun rules any more than they obey other kinds of laws and rules? Whodathunkit? It’s not that the laws and rules aren’t adequately enforced. The only way to reliably prevent Allen from traveling from LA to DC with guns would have been to force him to travel on foot and buck naked … after which he’d have almost certainly been able to buy a gun on the street if he wanted one.” (04/28/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20558
Source: Cato Institute
“Congress Is AWOL in America’s Iran War.” (04/28/26)
https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-podcast/congress-awol-americas-iran-war
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“The United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s major oil producers, will leave the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC/OPEC+) effective May 1, state news agency WAM said Tuesday morning. … The stunning move from Abu Dhabi is likely to deeply shake the oil alliance, which derives much of its power from a strong consensus and its ability to drive global oil prices through the production power of its members.” (04/28/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/united-arab-emirates-to-leave-opec-in-may-dealing-blow-to-oil-bloc-130449643.html
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“Supreme Court rulings are significant not only for their decision on who wins, but also for their reasoning. A victory for common sense may sometimes be pyrrhic if it benefits the party who wins the dispute but relies on reasoning that erodes individual liberty in the longer term. In that context, while the outcome in the recent case of Chiles v. Salazar, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (decided March 31, 2026) was welcomed, the emphasis it placed on ‘viewpoint discrimination’ is unfortunate. It is one more step down the road to conceptualizing free speech as an application of the non-discrimination principle, rather than as an emanation of individual liberty.” (04/28/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/free-speech-about-individual-liberty-not-viewpoint-discrimination
Source: CoinDesk
“Bitcoin is trading in a tight range just below $77,000 despite surging oil prices and geopolitical tensions over a potential extended U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. … The Fed announces its rate decision later on Wednesday, the ECB follows Thursday, and the U.S. equity market sold off Tuesday on growing skepticism about the payoff from artificial intelligence capital expenditure, with Nasdaq 100 futures clawing back 0.4% in Asian hours.” (04/29/26)
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/04/29/bitcoin-rises-to-usd77-000-ahead-of-fed-decision-as-trump-preps-for-lengthy-hormuz-block
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Wendy McElroy
“When an entire country is called racist, the accusation has at least two parts: one, racism is built into the foundational structure or institutions of the nation, and, two, it is a defining belief of the population.” (04/28/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/is-america-a-racist-nation/
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A superyacht linked to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key allies has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ongoing blockade of the critical shipping channel. The 142m-long (465 ft) multi-deck luxury boat, named Nord, is linked to sanctioned Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov. It travelled from Dubai to Muscat, Oman, over the weekend – one of few private vessels to transit through the strait in recent months. Iran held high-level talks with Russia this week as its standoff with the US over the strait’s re-opening continues. Approximately one-fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies normally pass through the waterway. Mordashov, who has close ties to Putin, is not listed as the formal owner of the Russian-flagged boat. However, Nord’s records indicate it was registered to a firm owned by his wife in 2022.” (04/28/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2pn8zdxdjo
Source: The Daily Economy
by Romina Boccia
“The Republican Party’s victory lap over no tax on tips and no tax on overtime rings hollow, considering persistent public frustration with the cost of living. It doesn’t help that Trump’s tariff war and the war in Iran are further fueling rising prices. And voter frustration isn’t just about recent price changes. It’s also about the lasting damage from the inflation surge of 2021–2022, which pushed the overall price level permanently higher. There’s one cure, however, that Washington continues to miss. Inflation is increasingly driven by unsustainable budget policy, and politicians on both sides of the aisle keep pouring gasoline on the fiscal fire.” (04/28/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/congress-keeps-choosing-inflation/
Source: Politico
“A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to lock up the majority of people it is seeking to deport without an opportunity for release on bond — even if they have no criminal records and have resided in the country for decades. In a 3-0 ruling, a panel of the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals found that ICE’s policy was based on a flawed, implausible and unprecedented interpretation of decades-old laws. But more fundamentally, the panel said the Trump administration’s position would raise acute constitutional concerns by instituting ‘the broadest mass detention-without-bond mandate in our Nation’s history for millions of noncitizens.'” (04/28/26)
https://archive.is/IzTY4
