“A Tanzanian-flagged tanker was hijacked by suspected Somali pirates off Yemen’s coast, security sources and local officials familiar with the incident said Sunday. The commercial tanker has since been moved to waters off Somalia’s northeastern Bari region, according local officials. The MT ASANA, a general tanker, was seized on Friday after departing from Mukalla, Yemen, according to the sources. The vessel is now being held off the coast of Caluula in the semiautonomous state of Puntland’s Bari region.” (07/19/26)
“You would be forgiven, while walking down the street, for not stopping at every lamppost to read the hastily printed notices fastened to our street furniture. When you walk into a pub, restaurant, nail salon or shop, you would also be forgiven for completely ignoring the hastily printed letter from the council regarding planning application number 26/03570/FULL, for example. When erected on street furniture, the ink usually runs, and the notices collect dust, soot, cigarette stubs and chewing gum. Rather ugly indeed. What are these eminently ignorable wastes of fine British fir? They are planning notices. … There is no need for physical planning notices. They do not help anyone, and they make our public realm messier and uglier.” (07/18/26)
“‘Manosphere’ influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Florida Saturday in connection to rape and sex trafficking charges in the UK. … The Tates, who have both British and American citizenship, have faced legal troubles for years, and were nabbed because of a host of new sex crime charges handed down overseas. … The Tates’ attorney, Joe McBryde, disputed the charges and told The Post the arrest should not have occurred until their trials in Romania and a defamation case in Florida concluded. ‘This is like Keir Starmer’s last day in office; it’s obvious that this little petty bastard has nothing better to do than persecute these two guys he wishes he could act like, walk like and talk like,’ he said.” (07/19/26)
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai
“Visa holders founded half of today’s Fortune 500 companies and a majority of billion-dollar startups. Current restrictions damage that competitive advantage and choke off future growth.” (07/17/26)
“[G]ive Donald Trump credit. People deal with him as if he were a unique figure in American history and in some ways, of course, he couldn’t be more so. But not, it turns out, when it comes to American-style war. There, he seems almost boringly part of a story (now more than three-quarters of a century old) of how the seemingly greatest power on Planet Earth in the endless decades after World War II simply couldn’t — no, not ever! — win a war.” (07/17/26)
“Brazil’s top court on Saturday denied a request from former President Jair Bolsonaro to be visited by Argentinian President Javier Milei while under house arrest. The attempted visit by Milei, a political ally of the far-right Bolsonaro, was part of a campaign to drum up political support for the son of the former president, who is running against leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for a coup attempt but has been in his home in Brasilia since March due to his health condition. He was already barred from participating in national politics as part of his sentence. But Bolsonaro was placed under further restrictions on Friday for breaching conditions of his house arrest, after he wrote a political letter supporting his son’s candidature for president.” (07/18/26)
“President Trump delivered an address to the nation Thursday night alleging that hundreds of millions of American voters have had their data compromised by China.” (07/17/26)
“Hong Kong police have recently arrested book sellers for having copies of Emily Feng’s, Let Only Red Flowers Bloom. Freelance journalists and three others have been arrested related to the book and for the act of selling, ‘seditious material.’ … ‘Seditious Material,’ is the title that sounds less than harmful for many Westerners who may view China as a land known of having less freedoms, where independent thinking and writing, are prohibited or heavily guided. … time and time again we are told that Western values celebrates individual rights. Self ownership, which includes free speech. Transfer those two words, Seditious and Material and press it into those which may suddenly draw an ire of concern for a newly conditioned Western reader, one who may feel freedom of speech has conditions.” (07/17/26)
“One of Cuba’s most prominent dissidents has gone into exile in the US, after leaving Cuba where he had served a five-year prison sentence. Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, 38, is the leader of the San Isidro Movement (SIM), a group of artists, journalists and intellectuals who have campaigned for freedom of speech and democracy in the communist country. He was arrested in 2021 during Cuba’s largest anti-government protests in decades and spent five years in the maximum-security Guanajay prison near Havana. His whereabouts have been unclear in recent days as Cuban authorities held him in an unknown location while the US approved a parole request. Emerging from the airport in Miami, the 38-year-old was greeted by supporters who sang the Cuban national anthem as he held up his forefinger and thumb in the shape of the letter L to represent ‘Libertad – meaning freedom, a recognised anti-government symbol.” (07/19/26)
