“Turkish authorities detained 209 people in anti-terrorism operations on Tuesday, prosecutors said, a day after Ankara imposed restrictions on public gatherings ahead of next month’s NATO summit. Opposition groups said the raids were part of what they called a broader crackdown on democracy and civic freedoms in Turkey. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said arrest warrants had been issued for 241 suspects under investigations into several militant organisations, including Islamic State and the far-left DHKP-C, MLKP and TKP/ML groups. It said 209 suspects had been detained and efforts to locate the remaining suspects were underway. … The operations came a day after the Ankara Governor’s Office announced a 13-day ban on demonstrations, press conferences, and other public gatherings from June 28 to July 10, citing security concerns related to the July 7-8 NATO summit.” (06/23/26)
“Robby Soave delivers his radar on Elon Musk’s new trillions, and Democrats’ promises to both rein in his wealth and prosecute him once they return to power.” (06/23/26)
“If there is one thing we have learned since 2020 it is the power of confirmation bias. The public health establishment has presented a mass of data and analysis to show that it was right all along about the Covid-19 pandemic and saved millions of lives. This finding has been accepted at face value and incorporated into policy, but rests on shaky foundations. We need to look at the big picture. Apologists for vaccination generally use point-to-point comparisons – they pick an arbitrary date near the peak of the epidemic curve and compare it to a later date to show that an intervention is correlated with a reduction in infections or mortality. This is open to case-counting window bias and immortal time bias – another selection of dates could yield an entirely different result.” (06/23/26)
“No War Powers Resolution has ever successfully survived a presidential veto in U.S. history. The vote is therefore largely symbolic but politically potent as a sign of fracturing GOP unity. And for Massie, an outgoing congressman with nothing left to lose, it represents a final stand for the constitutional principle he spent his career defending. Massie’s resolution will almost certainly die in the Senate or fall to a presidential veto, not because the constitutional argument is weak but because the bipartisan addiction to executive war-making is stronger than any single congressman’s principles.” (06/23/26)
“California’s effort to shield the decisions of transgender students in public schools from the eyes of prying parents remains on hold this week after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found a state law designed to protect them was likely unconstitutional. … Passed in 2024, the California law known as Assembly Bill 1955 was intended to prevent school employees from notifying parents about a student’s gender expression without their consent. Boosters of the law [note that] it protects vulnerable students from ‘forced outing’ to families who may be hostile to their trans and nonbinary children. Opponents [pretend] it compels schools to ‘mislead’ parents about their children and leaves them ‘shut out’ of critical decisions.” (06/23/26)
“A new book shows how a phrase made its way from the crime pages to our political arguments—and picked up a passel of meanings along the way.” (06/23/26)
“Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė and her cabinet stepped down Tuesday after changes to the ruling coalition, setting the stage for the Baltic country’s third prime minister in two years and an incoming government that has pledged to pursue a more pragmatic relationship with China after years of strained ties. Ruginienė’s government collapsed after the center-left Social Democrats ended their coalition agreement earlier this month with the scandal-ridden populist Nemuno Aušra party as one of its former leaders faces allegations of antisemitic rhetoric.” (06/23/26)
“Gold and silver tumbled on Tuesday, as a global sell-off in tech stocks stoked by fears of higher interest rates spilled over into metals. Gold futures fell 1.5% on Tuesday to $4,142 an ounce, while silver futures tumbled over 5% to $61.80 an ounce, before paring some losses to settle around $62.25. Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran war on Feb. 28, gold’s reputation as a safe-haven asset in times of turmoil has come under pressure as some of the drivers behind its ascendance have been called into question. An unexpectedly hawkish Fed meeting chaired by Kevin Warsh last week boosted expectations for a year-end interest rate hike, further pressuring gold prices, as the prospect of higher interest rates tend to weigh on the non-yielding precious metal.” (06/23/26)
