Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“Throughout history, innovation has often provoked worry, and artificial intelligence has become the latest source of economic anxiety. Workers fear displacement, recent graduates worry that entry-level jobs may disappear, and politicians increasingly speak of the need to manage the transition. Across the world, governments are searching for ways to soften the disruptive effects of a technology that promises dramatic increases in productivity. The debate is often framed as a struggle between technological progress and employment. But that is not the real issue. The more important question is whether economic decisions will remain economic or become increasingly political. China’s response to artificial intelligence offers an early glimpse of this dilemma.” (06/10/26)
“Saudi Arabia is to allow the resumption of Lebanese exports to the kingdom, its official press agency reported on Wednesday, ending a years-long ban on the goods imposed amid concerns over the influence of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the resumption ‘in accordance with the positive steps taken by the Lebanese government,’ the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. … In April 2021, the kingdom suspended fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon, asserting shipments were being used for drug-smuggling and accusing Beirut of inaction.” (06/11/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“I had a post on the subject a few months ago; a recent online discussion started me thinking about it again and I have some new ideas. One was due to a poster whose list of ways government could reduce the birth rate included banning divorce. I suspected he had it backwards. The obvious reason to think that is that modern societies have both easy divorce and low birth rates. But correlation is not causation; there are other plausible reasons for low birth rates, some discussed in my earlier post. There are better reasons.” (06/10/26)
“On Tuesday, Anthropic released two new models — Claude Mythos 5 and Claude Fable 5. Under the hood, the two models are very similar. Both are variants of Claude Mythos Preview, the model Anthropic announced — but didn’t release publicly — two months ago. What differentiates them is how they’re being released. The new version of Mythos, like the original, will only be available to handpicked organizations under Project Glasswing. These trusted partners will have relatively unfettered access. Fable, in contrast, is available to the general public. But it comes with some significant restrictions.” (06/10/26)
“The U.S. has led the world in several innovations in recent decades: the iPhone, Facebook, and artificial intelligence. But when it comes to sunscreen, Americans have been living in the Dark Ages compared with Europe and Asia. That could be changing. This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added bemotrizinol (BEMT) to its list of permitted active sunscreen ingredients, updating the list for the first time since 1999, according to National Geographic.” (06/10/26)
“What does a typical day look like? An air raid alert goes off while we’re at work. Just like in any office, we have one designated ‘alarmist’ who monitors all the Telegram channels to figure out exactly which direction the attack is coming from and when it’s expected to reach us. The moment we know a Shahed drone is approaching our office, everyone scrambles toward the exit. We head down to the shelter, wait for the drones to pass, and then we go right back to our workstations. In other words, we’ve adapted to living in absolute chaos. When a specific situation arises — say a café gets bombed or something similar — people help out.” (06/10/26)
