“The supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows. The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found that even at the lowest range of estimates, Alito gained almost $400,000 from his oil and gas interests since being tapped for the high court by George W Bush in 2005. The findings come as the supreme court prepares to take up a case in which the oil companies Suncor Energy and Exxon asked the justices to find that federal law prevents subnational governments from filing lawsuits against fossil fuel producers for the climate-warming effects of their products. … Court Accountability and other groups have called for a Senate committee to investigate Alito, the sole supreme court justice with holdings in energy companies, and said he should recuse himself. He and the court rejected those calls.” (08/11/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“In a recent controversy over ideological indoctrination at the Smithsonian museum, one member of staff mockingly said, ‘I didn’t realize all my colleagues were Marxists.’ The implication is that their critics are using the label ‘Marxist’ to denote any historical interpretations with which they disagree. The museum’s staff insist that their only goal is to offer an ‘inclusive’ portrayal of history. Similarly, many who support diversity, equity, and inclusiveness do not necessarily see themselves as neo-Marxists, even though they promote the tenets of cultural Marxism.” (08/11/26)
“A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead. The sentences at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since the family’s five decades in power came to an end 20 months ago. … Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib, who was convicted of overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.” (08/11/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
“In his crusade to exorcise ‘wokeness’ from the military and imbue it with a new spirit of lethality, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is waging battles on the nation’s storied war colleges and service academies. But is he fighting the wrong war? … While no one who spoke to us believes there is a place for intrusive diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements or social engineering at these institutions, they agreed the attention should be on the schools’ broader inability to produce exceptional leaders who win wars—rather than ambitious yes-men with soft critical thinking skills who, despite losing records, collect stars, pensions, and lucrative post-service second careers with all the entitlement of entrenched bureaucrats.” (08/11/26)
“Russia has released an American military veteran who spent more than four years in prison, President Trump said Tuesday, days after a group advocating for his freedom said he was gravely ill. Mr. Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to release Robert Gilman on a ‘humanitarian basis’ and that ‘Russia asked for no one in return.’ … Gilman, a 32-year-old teacher from Lowell, Massachusetts, had been detained since 2022. He was initially handed a 3 1/2-year sentence in 2022 when he was convicted of beating a police officer after being taken off a train for causing a disturbance.” (08/11/26)
“In the run-up to the 2024 election, many people claimed that, in ‘Econ 101,’ GDP goes down when imports increase because the last part of the GDP equation is Net Exports (exports – imports). This demonstrates a failure to understand precisely what GDP measures and why net exports appear at the end of the equation. Gross Domestic Product is a measure of the economy’s total value added, and measuring value added is pretty complicated in a global economy where almost everything we buy has ‘value added’ somewhere other than the United States, and many things people in foreign countries buy reflect value that was added in the United States.” (08/11/26)
“Firefighters in western Libya fought Tuesday to extinguish the remnants of a massive fire caused by a drone strike on an oil facility, and a car bomb killed a senior military officer in the country’s east, in the latest attacks in the chaos-stricken North African nation. The drone hit a gasoline tank at the Zawiya oil refinery in the Mediterranean town of Zawiya on Monday, about 47 kilometers (about 30 miles) west of capital Tripoli, the state-run National Oil Corporation said. … Monday’s strikes were the latest in a series of drone attacks on oil infrastructure in Zawiya, which houses critical energy infrastructure including the country’s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant. … The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of western Libya and a warlord who controls the city of Zawiya.” (08/11/26)
