“Judges at the International Criminal Court terminated proceedings against the former leader of an armed group in Darfur on Thursday after prosecutors withdrew the charges against Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain. The prosecution said the evidence against Banda, who had been charged with war crimes over a 2007 attack on African Union peacekeepers, had deteriorated in the time since the charges were confirmed over a decade ago in 2011. … The judges said the withdrawal of the charges and the termination of the case does not prevent prosecutors from bringing a similar case against Banda later.” (07/23/26)
“Keynes saw centralized economic direction as an improvement on market coordination. This provided cover to later corporatist authoritarians who wanted to control every aspect of life.” (07/23/26)
“According to President Donald Trump’s Justice Department, you may be a member of a criminal conspiracy if you have done any of the following: worn black to a demonstration, given face masks to protesters, joined a book club, distributed a zine. Recently, federal prosecutors have cited these actions as evidence that activists protesting Trump’s deportation machine are part of an organized criminal enterprise. Call it antifa, domestic terrorism, the radical left—in Trump’s eyes, dissent is never organic. It’s all just part of one big ‘conspiracy.’ … Trump has stoked this deep state paranoia to further his own agenda. His winks at Pizzagate and QAnon have grown into an outright embrace of the people promoting the conspiracy theories. And he’s scapegoated minorities by linking them to alleged plots perpetrated by powerful Democratic institutions: Thanks to the liberal elite, immigrants are eating your pets, and trans people in prison are taking your tax dollars.” (07/23/26)
“Uber has laid off 10 percent of its customer service team, and according to Bloomberg, the company cited AI as the reason for the job cuts. An Uber spokesperson told the publication that the cuts were done ‘to simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration and continue to embrace AI.’ The division affected by the layoffs is called Community Operations, Uber’s global customer support network across its different businesses and across languages. It has teams for specific regions and countries that work closely with local businesses and drivers. … Uber joins the growing list of companies that point to AI as the reason for layoffs. In June, Oracle cut 21,000 roles worldwide, citing the ‘adoption and deployment of AI technologies.'” (07/23/26)
“Robby Soave gives his radar on leftist commentator Hasan Piker putting up a framed newspaper article from the day after the 9/11 attacks on his wall.” (07/23/26)
“There is a strong case for saying that equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) imposes costs upon businesses that make them more expensive and less competitive than they could otherwise be. EDI functions rarely pay for themselves. Diversity officers, training programmes, consultants and reporting systems all carry direct costs. For a large firm this might be marginal. For a small or medium enterprise it can be a meaningful fixed cost that a foreign competitor without equivalent obligations does not bear. EDI involves time diverted from output because training sessions, unconscious bias workshops and committee meetings consume staff hours. Those hours are not spent on production, sales or innovation. The opportunity cost is real even where the direct financial outlay looks small.” (07/23/26)
“Last year, 36,640 Americans died in traffic crashes. That was the fewest since 2019, yet it still works out to more than 100 fatalities per day. The new generation of vehicles quietly accumulating mileage on our streets offers enormous promise to bring the number down even more and more each year. Over at Marginal Revolution, economist Alex Tabarrok reminds us that as of March, Waymo’s driverless vehicles had logged more than 220 million miles across five of its areas of operation. Compared with human drivers on the same roads over the same period, and counting every crash regardless of fault, the Waymo Driver was involved in 94 percent fewer crashes causing serious or fatal injury. … So, who is working to slow this happy development? Tabarrok points to trial lawyers.” (07/23/26)
“A group of non-governmental organizations shared with world leaders a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza with an estimated cost of $71.4 billion, according to a report released Thursday. Oxfam, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations, said in its report that the cost to rebuild Gaza is seven times the cost of every other reconstruction effort there over the past 20 years. … The U.N., EU and World Bank’s Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment for the Gaza Strip published in April estimates that the region has suffered about $57.9 billion in damage and economic losses. It will require $71.4 billion for recovery and reconstruction over the course of the next decade.” (07/23/26)
