“Donald Trump hit [American buyers of goods from] dozens of US trading partners with tariffs while formalising recent deals with others, including the UK and EU, as he plunged the global economy into a new era of mercantile competition. [American buyers of goods from c]rucial exporters to the US such as Taiwan, the world’s most important semiconductor exporter, will incur steep new levies. Trump also raised tariffs on [American buyers of goods from] Canada, an ally and major trading partner, to 35 per cent. [American buyers of goods from] India [were] hit with a rate of 25 per cent and Switzerland with 39 per cent. The US president’s executive order on Thursday announcing the tariffs said they were designed to reduce America’s trade deficit with many countries, which it described as an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States.'” (07/31/25)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“As smart as some conservatives are, many of them just don’t get it when it comes the concept of open borders. They make two common mistakes. First, they are convinced that open borders means no borders. Second, they think that an immigration-control system that doesn’t work — that is, one where lots of people are successfully circumventing the border-control system — is ‘open borders.'” (07/31/25)
“El Salvador’s congress has approved constitutional reforms to abolish presidential term limits, allowing President Nayib Bukele to run an unlimited number of times. The reform, reviewed under an expedited procedure, will also extend term times to from five to six years, while the next election will be brought forward to 2027. … The reform was adopted by Bukele’s 57 supporters in the Legislative Assembly, and voted against by only three opposition members. Critics say the move will entrench one-party rule in the country. … Bukele, 44, won a second term last year despite a clear prohibition in the country’s constitution. El Salvador’s top court, which is filled with Bukele-backed judges, ruled in 2021 that it was the leader’s human right to run again.” (08/01/25)
“‘My bill,’ US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tweeted in June, ‘will require the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct a new census immediately upon enactment of the bill. In conducting the new census of the U.S. population, it shall require questions determining the citizenship of each individual, and count US citizens only.’ The money shot: ‘[T]he bill will direct states to immediately begin a redistricting of all U.S. House seats process using only the population of United States citizens.’ Naturally, US president Donald Trump supports the idea. So does Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Why? Because Republicans want to rig future elections by re-drawing — that is, re-gerrymandering — the American political map to benefit themselves. One problem with the idea: It’s wholly, completely, and unquestionably illegal.” (07/31/25)
“The 22-nation Arab League has signed onto a declaration that condemns Hamas’[s] Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and calls on Hamas to disarm. The league includes Qatar and Egypt, which have served as mediators in talks between Israel and Hamas during the subsequent war in Gaza. It also includes Turkey, which has adopted a stance of overt hostility toward Israel during the war. The league joined the entire European Union and 17 other countries in backing the declaration at a United Nations meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia and France. The meeting’s goal included discussion of a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an objective that not all Arab League states had previously endorsed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution and his government panned the UN confab as a form of appeasement. The United States also boycotted the meeting, held in New York.” (07/31/25)
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The government’s war on homelessness — much like its war on terrorism, its war on drugs, its war on illegal immigration, and its war on COVID-19 — is yet another Trojan Horse. … An Orwellian exercise in doublespeak, Trump’s executive order suggests that jailing the homeless, rather than providing them with affordable housing, is the ‘compassionate’ solution to homelessness. … Trump wants to see more use of civil commitments (forced detentions) for anyone who is perceived as posing a risk ‘to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves in appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time.’ Translation: the government wants to use homelessness as a pretext for indefinitely locking up anyone who might pose a threat to its chokehold on police state power.” (07/31/25)
“Myanmar’s ruling junta announced the formation of a 11-member commission led by military chief Min Aung Hlaing to hold an election in the war-torn country, state media reported on Thursday. The junta did not announce a date for the election and Min Aung Hlaing will continue to effectively remain in charge of the country, in his capacity as the interim president who will oversee the vote, MRTV reported.” (07/31/25)
“Long ago the economist Joan Robinson arguably pre-butted Trump’s argument for protectionism because, he claims, other nations are treating us unfairly: ‘The popular view that free trade is all very well so long as all nations are free-traders, but that when other nations erect tariffs we must erect tariffs too, is countered by the argument that it would be just as sensible to drop rocks into our harbours because other nations have rocky coasts.’ But it’s even worse when a president mines our harbors based on the false claim that other nations have rocky coasts — and the media declare that he’s winning.” [editor’s note: I’m so used to Krugman being wrong that it’s always an invigorating experience to notice he’s being right – TLK] (07/31/25)
“The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday approved a bill submitted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week that returned independence to key state anti-corruption agencies. Lawmakers in the judiciary committee had unanimously supported Zelenskyy’s new bill on Wednesday, after domestic protests – and a backlash from Brussels — helped shoot down a previous bill that would have kneecapped corruption watchdogs. The same MPs who voted for the law that brought the independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) under the oversight of the politically appointed prosecutor general of Ukraine ultimately U-turned on the decision in the new vote Thursday.” (07/31/25)
