Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Sweden has dropped plans to imprison serious offenders as young as 13 due to a lack of parliamentary support. The country is currently grappling with children being recruited into violent gangs, with more than 50 children aged under 15 appearing in court last year on murder or attempted murder charges, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said. Sweden’s centre-right government will now draft legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 14 from its current limit of 15. … Currently, children under 15 who are convicted of violent crimes are sent to youth homes, which Strommer said led to more inmates later re-offending. The government will now seek to lower the age of criminal responsibility by just one year instead of two ahead of legislative elections, due to take place in September.” (06/14/26)
https://archive.is/l2f4a
Source: spiked
by Frank Furedi
“On 11 June 2026, we passed an important and disturbing milestone. This was the day that the war in Ukraine, at four years, three months and 15 days, surpassed the First World War in duration. Sometimes it can seem as if this conflict has turned into a genuine forever war. The seeming interminability of the war is not a surprise. As I argued in my 2022 book, The Road To Ukraine: How The West Lost Its Way, this was a conflict that neither side could afford to lose. And, as a result, it always threatened to become a typical frontier war that could last indefinitely.” (06/13/26)
https://archive.is/W3T3J
Source: Progressive Hub
by Robert Ellsberg
“This film presents a synthesis of my father’s book The Doomsday Machine. His book depicts the evil murderousness of nuclear war plans, and the particular dangers posed by intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, with their first strike capability, intended to be launched on warning. He believed that with these weapons both the US and the USSR, now Russia, had constructed Doomsday Machines, capable of destroying most life on Earth—machines that are particularly dangerous because neither side acknowledges this reality but continue to proceed as if there were some circumstances in which it was possible to win a nuclear war. The epigraph from Dad’s book is from Nietzsche: ‘Madness in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.'” (06/14/26)
https://progressivehub.net/the-new-documentary-an-ordinary-insanity/
Source: New York Times
“Mark Hill, a conservative lawyer who served on the local school board, won a divisive mayoral runoff on Saturday in Frisco, Texas, that turned into a referendum on the city’s diversity and a testing ground for the power of anti-Muslim messaging. Mr. Hill defeated Rod Vilhauer, a retired construction company owner who gained a following on the hard right with his promises to keep ‘terrorists’ from gaining a foothold in Frisco and to prevent Shariah, or Islamic religious codes, from taking precedence over local and federal law.” (06/13/26)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/us/frisco-texas-mayor-election-mark-hill.html
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“The Empire is Failing, the Police State is Intensifying w/ Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski.” (06/12/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/kkwiatkowski6-12-26/
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Sinead Murphy
“It has been reported that ‘healthy life expectancy’ in the UK has fallen during the past decade. Disparity between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in different regions of the UK has been described. A 20-year gap between the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Richmond and the ‘healthy life expectancy’ of those in Blackpool has been alleged. The concept of ‘healthy life expectancy’ has been bandied about as if we have used it always. Its precursor, ‘healthy lifestyle,’ is already ubiquitous. Its successor, surely to be ‘healthy lifespan.’ But the concept of ‘healthy life-anything’ should be unusable. It should say nothing. Like ‘unmarried bachelor.’ Or ‘free gift.’ Or ‘organic food.’” (06/12/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/forget-about-healthy-life/
Source: The Atlantic
by Elias Wachtel
“Most of the complaints inflate the costs of data centers and overlook the fact that, in some contexts at least, they can bring real benefits. If saying no is good politics, it isn’t always good policy.” (06/12/26)
https://archive.is/VEMRJ
Source: Fox News
“Mexican authorities discovered a decomposing corpse with ‘signs of violence’ near Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium, where the Iranian national soccer team is training during the World Cup, according to a New York Post report. Authorities responded to complaints about a bad smell wafting from a gray Toyota SUV with California plates parked in a grocery store parking lot near the stadium, the Post reported. ‘Upon inspecting the vehicle, they found a person wrapped in a black bag in the trunk, showing signs of violence,’ a spokesperson for the Tijuana prosecutor’s office told the Post.” (06/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexican-authorities-discover-body-trunk-near-iranian-soccer-teams-world-cup-training-grounds-report
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“In ‘The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State’ (1885), British liberal Auberon Herbert replied to those who objected to his call for complete individual liberty, that is, respect for the rights of all. For example, he took on big-government advocates who claimed that they also wanted to ‘diminish the use of force in the world.’ Herbert wasn’t buying it.” (06/12/26)
https://sheldonrichman.substack.com/p/tgif-force-direct-and-indirect
Source: Independent Institute
by Raymond J March
“Last week, the FDA approved bemotrizinol as a new active ingredient in over-the-counter sunscreens—the first such approval in more than twenty years. CBS News called it a milestone after ‘years of delay.’ The FDA itself touted it as proof the agency is ‘modernizing its processes.’ It is progress, to a point. But a closer look reveals the celebration is premature. The same regulatory culture that caused the delay remains firmly in charge.” (06/12/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/06/12/fda-new-sunscreen/
