“Donald Trump gets away with lying most of the time. But sometimes reality is so stark and serious that he can’t escape it. That’s what happened in his first term, when he pretended that COVID would quickly disappear. Now it’s happening in the Persian Gulf. Trump’s phony deal with Iran has dissolved. Missile and drone attacks have resumed. Ships are under fire in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil traffic has slowed. Gas prices are going back up. More American troops have been injured, and some have died. Trump is trying to fake his way through this fiasco. It’s not working.” (07/23/26)
“More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a wildfire raged Thursday near the coastal town of Lège Cap-Ferret, which is popular with tourists, on the Atlantic Ocean. Local authorities said the fire has spread over more than 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres), though no injuries have been reported. … Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.” (07/23/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“There is no doubt that people who identify as democratic socialists are making large gains in the Democratic Party. They control mayoral offices in major cities like New York and Seattle and are going to be a force in the next Congress, having seen enormous success in the Democratic Party congressional primaries. However, there is much disagreement over the extent of how far this current batch of socialists want to push social, political, and economic changes. Most claim that they just want to turn the US into Denmark or Sweden, and that they are democratic, not autocratic. Yet, despite their claims, there is good reason to believe that this latest movement of ‘democratic’ socialists is far from benign, and if they gain the kind of power they want, the US will be permanently changed—and not for the better.” (07/23/26)
“Normalising genocide was a way to normalise colonial expansion in Gaza. Only three weeks after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed plans for three Israeli settlements, the Nachala settler group organised a march last Sunday, in which settlers and ministers, including Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Economy Minister Nir Barakat and other Likud politicians, marched to a closed military zone, bypassing the Israeli military’s roadblocks to reach the border with Gaza. The call was for rebuilding the former settlements of Elei Sinai, Dugit and Nisanit which were evacuated in 2005 under the Disengagement Plan by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.” (07/23/26)
“A local mayor in central Mexico was shot dead in a town hall, authorities reported Wednesday, after the politician had survived a previous assassination attempt. The town of Temoac is located in the state of Morelos, a region close to Mexico City where several drug cartels are active. Mayor Valentin Lavin, who was allied to President Claudia Sheinbaum’s leftist party, had already survived an armed attack in January, according to local media reports. … Almost 100 mayors have been murdered in Mexico since 2006, when drug-related violence surged, official figures show. Since the current government took office in October 2024, 14 mayors have been murdered in Mexico, three in 2026, Uno TV reported this week. ” (07/22/26)
“Few political ideas have proven as durable as the complaint embedded in the Declaration of Independence that the British Crown was ‘imposing taxes on us without our consent.’ That grievance was not merely rhetorical flourish; it captured a central concern of the American colonists about the relationship between political authority and individual liberty. More than two centuries later, citizens continue to debate taxation, representation, and accountability, albeit within a vastly different institutional and economic landscape. The question, then, is not whether taxation remains contentious—it clearly does—but whether the underlying concern about consent still has meaningful relevance in contemporary governance.” (07/23/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Alina Khamatdinova & Matthew Blackburn
“In Western policymaking circles, the destruction of Russian infrastructure, the rise of fuel shortages, and the resultant public dissatisfaction lead many to conclude Russia is on the ropes. The strategy of expanding Ukraine’s deep strike capacities enjoys the support not only of major European NATO states but also of the White House, as recent comments from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio make clear. The Western pressure strategy rests on a simple calculation: raising the costs of continued fighting will increase discontent in Russian society to the point of forcing the Kremlin to the negotiating table via a ceasefire. For most Russians, who interpret the war as a struggle to secure concrete geopolitical goals, this calculation holds true; mounting costs erode support for war. Missing from this picture, however, is a vocal and intense minority who see the war in moral terms, as a zero-sum struggle over sacred values.” (07/23/26)
“The seizure of Max Blumenthal’s phones shows how the war on Iran and the border-security state can turn foreign conflict into domestic repression. Max Blumenthal returned from a reporting trip to Iran and left Washington Dulles International Airport without the two phones that contained much of his working life. According to a federal filing submitted on his behalf, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers questioned him about his journalism, funding, and travel plans and seized the devices after he declined to provide their passcodes. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the episode alarming. What happened at Dulles exposed how war abroad, exceptional border powers, and hostility toward dissenting media can converge in a single act of state pressure.” (07/23/26)
