“India blocked access to Telegram messenger on Tuesday ahead of a retest of a nationwide medical college entrance examination, after a scandal last month over a question paper leak. The failure of the hugely competitive exam, along with a separate marking fiasco in high school tests, sparked outrage and fuelled youth protests demanding the education minister’s resignation. The Ministry of Electronics issued the order restricting access to Telegram until June 22, the day of the retest. Message-editing features, which allow users to alter existing posts, will remain restricted until June 30.” (06/16/26)
The Trump administration is boasting about pending plans to conclude its war with Iran, having achieved none of the original objectives laid out by President Donald Trump. … If the deal is signed on this week, it will mark a return to the status quo antebellum when the Strait of Hormuz was open and no nuclear deal with Iran was in place. Aside from killing top regime leaders, thousands of civilians — including more than 150, most of them children, on a strike on an elementary school — and damaging almost 149,000 civilian infrastructures, the United States has functionally achieved nothing. The same regime is in power and it maintains missile capabilities, still has a navy, and still supports regional proxies.” (06/15/26)
“ITt’s a curious time to be watching the far right. In days gone by, the far-right milieu produced intellectuals of the caliber of Carl Schmitt or Martin Heidegger. These intense critics of liberalism argued that the inauthentic nullity brought about by liberal metaphysics could only end in civilizational collapse. By contrast, the best that today’s far-right provocateurs seem to be able to muster is tirelessly repeating how casting black and gay people in Disney remakes can only end in civilizational collapse. Historically, the far right has been described as the ideological playground of the ‘lesser intelligentsia.’ Today’s far right seems determined to prove that their standards can be lower still—or even that their standards can be broken faster than they can be lowered.” (06/16/26)
“A Flagler County mother shot a man who deputies said forced his way into her home and threatened her and her two children. … Deputies said the homeowner called 911 around 1:50 p.m. and reported that she had shot a man who entered her home. When deputies arrived, they found blood at the scene, but the man and his vehicle were gone, according to the sheriff’s office. Detectives later identified the man as Michael McDonald, 33, of Palm Coast. According to deputies, McDonald knew the homeowner but showed up at the house uninvited and unexpected. The sheriff’s office said McDonald lifted open the garage door, left the garage, banged on a back window and then entered the home through the front door. … The woman repeatedly ordered McDonald to leave and warned him she would shoot, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies said McDonald kept advancing toward her. That’s when the woman fired one shot, hitting McDonald in the arm, investigators said.” (06/15/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley
“A California law requiring venture capital firms to report the race, gender, and sexual orientation of the companies they fund is being challenged in federal court, the California Globe reports. Attorneys for the Colorado-based 1517 Fund contend that the law is unconstitutional. Californians can make a case that the measure also violates the spirit of a state law the people approved in 1996.” (06/15/26)
