“Calling it a ‘lab leak’ makes the story feel tidy, but the real scandal might be the system that makes lab-origin disasters plausible in the first place. We sit down with independent journalist Sam Husseini to unpack gain-of-function research, why ‘potentially pandemic pathogens’ are funded and defended, and how a small circle of incentives, prestige, and national security framing can turn high-risk virology into business as usual.” (07/20/26)
“Why are they so afraid? The Trump administration, pathologically obsessed about the exaggerated reach of the International Criminal Court, have decided to take to the barricades. In a July 13 media note released by a spokesperson for the US State Department, something akin to a declaration of war was made against the Hague-based tribunal. … The late Henry Kissinger, who argued most stridently against the establishment of such a criminal court, would no doubt have approved. He, more than most, would have feared some eventual accounting for his own egregious crimes against international humanitarian law while serving the White House.” (07/20/26)
Source: Law & Liberty
by Marc Wheat & Mitchell Bahnsen
“Several years ago, California brothers Arron and Arthur Benedetti inherited 267 acres of farmland from their father, a turkey farmer who spent his life working that land. They were not asking for a subsidy, tax break, or any government benefit. They simply wanted to build a home on property they had lawfully inherited. The government of Marin County, however, took it upon itself to say that the brothers could have their permit, but only if they signed a covenant permanently committing the land to commercial agricultural use, farming it themselves, or contracting it out in perpetuity. … Even though the brothers have a strong incentive to take good care of the land they own, building a home and living on what their father built is, apparently, not among the options Marin County is prepared to allow.” (07/20/26)
“With shoplifting a serious concern, and given the declining cost of security equipment, it’s no surprise that grocery stores in California are rolling out facial recognition technology to identify known thieves when they step through the door. Software-backed cameras that match people’s faces to their names are increasingly ubiquitous at airports, stores, and on the street, spelling the potential end to anonymity in public places. The end, that is, unless people take advantage of gear and tactics designed to confuse facial recognition tech.” (07/20/26)
“In the week leading up to the Iranian attack on Friday that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing in Jordan, Iran carried out three other strikes against U.S. forces in the country. Those attacks injured dozens of U.S. service members and damaged several helicopters, according to several U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted. … Central Command is not required to release information about injured service members, especially when they quickly return to duty, a U.S. military official said. Moreover, another U.S. military official added, why would the Pentagon divulge information that could help Iran zero in on its deadly ballistic missiles and drone attacks …. Central Command has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason, U.S. officials say.” (07/20/26)
“Robby Soave gives his radar on NYC DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo suggesting that government-run grocery stores may be a better alternative to small businesses.” (07/20/26)
“Plea deals, in which defendantsagrees to give up their right to a trial and other rights in exchange for a reduction in charges or a sentence, are the grease that keeps the wheels of justice turning in the American legal system. The American Bar Association’s Plea-Bargaining Task Force explains that ‘some jurisdictions have not had a criminal trial in many years.’ But it wasn’t always this way. The explosion of plea bargaining in this country has been facilitated by a series of Supreme Court decisions that have given prosecutors wide latitude to offer inducements and make threats to get defendants to waive their right to trial. This year, on June 18, the court took a step to curb one of the most serious injustices in the plea-bargaining system, while ignoring its everyday injustices and the damage it does.” (07/20/26)
“In an era of high prices for fuel, food, and housing, an extra $4,000 could make a life-saving difference for many families. But instead, that’s what the average household had to shell out for the Pentagon last year. That’s right: The average U.S. taxpayer in 2025 had over $4,000 taken out of their paychecks to fund the Pentagon, according to the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. In the coming years, that amount is set to rise as Congress considers a $1.5 trillion war budget for 2027. For the growing number of working poor in the United States, that money can mean the difference between making rent or falling behind, or between being able to afford an emergency trip to the doctor or going without care.” (07/20/26)
“Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, a move that opens a new front against the United States in its war on Iran and widens the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf. Iran had pressed the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the U.S. continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure. … The full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb strait would reduce global oil supply by 7% as it would leave most of Saudi oil exports unable to leave the region. The disruption would add to the massive cut to global oil flows from the war in the Gulf, which has already reduced shipments by 10% of global supply.” (07/20/26)
“Zhuangzi, sometimes referred as Zhuang Zhou, remains one of history’s most fundamentally subversive thinkers. As a writer in the chaotic period of Warring States of ancient China around the 4th century, Zhuangzi positioned himself not as a revolutionary for the improvement of government but as an opponent to the idea of such an entity altogether. Instead of giving his opinion on how the governing body could be improved, he tore apart the legitimacy of its authority by means of sarcastic criticism aimed primarily at Confucianism. He maintained that the desire to rule is the main evil of mankind, which destroys the whole hierarchy of power within the ruling elite. The other philosophers of his era attempted to offer advice to the kings on how to manage their states, but Zhuangzi considered the rulers themselves to be one of the major sources of chaos in the world.” (07/20/26)
