Source: CNN
“Moscow has inflicted another round of deadly strikes on Ukraine despite US President Donald Trump’s plea for Russian President Vladimir Putin to ‘STOP!’ attacking its neighbor. At least eight people were killed in drone strikes across the country, a night after Russia launched its deadliest bombardment of Ukraine since the middle of last year. A drone attack on the eastern city of Pavlohrad on Friday killed three people, including a 76-year-old woman and a child, and injured 10 others, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said. In southern Ukraine, two people were also killed in strikes on Kherson, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said, adding the strikes targeted critical infrastructure and residential buildings. … On Friday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to arrive in Moscow for further talks with Putin on reaching an agreement.” (04/25/25)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/25/europe/russia-strikes-ukraine-trump-vladimir-intl-hnk/index.html
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“130 executive orders in under 100 days. Sweeping powers claimed in the name of ‘security’ and ‘efficiency.’ One president acting as lawmaker, enforcer, and judge. No debate. No oversight. No limits. This is how the Constitution dies — not with a coup, but with a pen. The Unitary Executive Theory is no longer a theory — it’s the architecture of a dictatorship in motion.” (04/23/25)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/how_a_president_becomes_a_dictator_by_executive_order
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Trump’s War against the Fed.” (04/24/25)
https://www.fff.org/freedom-in-motion/video/libertarian-angle-trumps-war-against-the-fed/
Source: NBC News
“A judge on Thursday denied the government’s request to pause the transfer of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, who is fighting deportation after she co-wrote an essay about Israel and the war in Gaza, back to Vermont. U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions ruled that the federal government is now obligated to ensure that Öztürk, who is being held in Louisiana, is moved to Vermont by May 1. The Justice Department appealed Sessions’[s] previous order to transfer Öztürk to Vermont, where her habeas corpus petition challenging her [abduction] was filed. Federal officials had also asked Session to pause the order from taking effect while it was on appeal. … Homeland security agents grabbed Öztürk, a doctoral student in the United States on a student visa, off a Massachusetts street in late March. DHS accused her of engaging ‘in activities in support of Hamas.'” (04/24/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tufts-rumeysa-ozturk-vermont-deportation-rcna202902
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The problem [US Senator Mike] Lee’s trying to solve, if it really is a problem, is that individual US District Court judges can, and sometimes do, issue injunctions with nationwide effect. Lee’s proposal would require such actions to be heard by panels of three judges rather than by a single judge, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court selecting the judges. It would also require the Supreme Court to hear all appeals of injunctions issued by those panels. No problem, I guess. It seems well within Congress’s powers …. Federal judges doing what federal judges are, at the moment, authorized to do (issue injunctions) based on what they’re constitutionally bound to support (due process) doesn’t really seem very insurrectiony, though.” (04/24/25)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19514
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Tensions between India and Pakistan were high on Thursday as New Delhi mounted a diplomatic offensive against Islamabad, blaming it for a deadly attack that killed 26 people in Kashmir …. The Indian government did not publicly produce any evidence connecting the attack to its neighbour …. Pakistan denied any connection to the attack, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group that called itself the Kashmir Resistance. In a statement issued on Thursday, India’s foreign ministry said all visas issued to Pakistani nationals will be revoked with effect from Sunday. It also advised Indians citizens not to travel to Pakistan. Pakistan retaliated by cancelling visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian owned or Indian operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.” (04/24/25)
https://archive.is/qv8xR
Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Richard M Ebeling
“Nothing is as enticing as a free lunch. The idea of getting something for nothing surely is appealing to almost everyone. …. there is no end to the list of things we would all like to have with no cost attached, with nothing to have to give up to get what we want. Economists are usually considered the perennial party-poopers … reminding people that often nothing is as expensive as something that is said to be for ‘free.’ … What are we to think, then, when a Nobel Laureate economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz, and his coauthor, Mark Weisbrot, tell us that there is ‘A No-Brainer for Global Growth and U.S. Jobs’ (Project Syndicate, January 10, 2025) at almost no cost and all benefit to the world. All that is needed is for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to digitally print more of a version of paper money known as Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).” (04/24/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/04/the-illusion-of-inflationary-prosperity/
Source: Associated Press
“A judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are run, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form. The decision is a setback for President Donald Trump, who has argued the requirement is needed to restore public confidence in elections. But the judge allowed other parts of Trump’s sweeping executive order on U.S. elections to go forward for now, including a directive to tighten mail ballot deadlines around the country. … U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington sided with voting rights groups and Democrats, [noting] that the Constitution gives the power to regulate federal elections to states and Congress — not the president.” (04/24/25)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-elections-executive-order-citizenship-lawsuit-4b683fe2e1106316fdb05621be9b7d0e
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Lawrence W Reed
“Ships of Britain’s massive Royal Navy, the largest in the world, inflicted great damage on American ports, property, and vessels during the years of the Revolution (1775-1783). Perhaps none of those ships wreaked more havoc than HMS Phoenix, and it accomplished its devious work not with a cannon but with a printing press. … the Second Continental Congress authorized the printing of paper money …. What began with a modest batch of six million in continental dollars turned into a blizzard of several hundred million by the war’s end, yielding a steady depreciation and giving rise to the famous phrase ‘not worth a continental.’ With nothing to back the money but murky promises to redeem it in precious metal at a future date, Congress didn’t need any help to make it worthless, but the British were happy to assist, nonetheless.” (04/24/25)
https://fee.org/articles/paper-money-as-a-weapon-of-war/
Source: The Hill
“The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow President Trump to enforce his ban on transgender troops serving openly in the military. The emergency application asks the justices to lift a Seattle-based federal judge’s nationwide injunction blocking the policy. ‘The district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the Department’s professional military judgments are owed,’ Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the application. At minimum, Sauer told the high court it should limit the judge’s nationwide order so it only blocks enforcement of the policy against the eight transgender service members suing. Justice Elena Kagan, who received the request because she handles emergency requests arising from Washington state by default, ordered the service members’ legal team respond in writing by May 1.” (04/24/25)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5265347-doj-supreme-court-transgender-troops-ban
