“Two cargo ships have sunk near the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours after being struck by unknown projectiles in separate incidents – highlighting the heightened danger to shipping as Iran steps up attacks in an attempt to regain control over the critical waterway. The Singapore-registered container ship GFS Pride was struck on Tuesday while passing through the strait, catching fire and later sinking, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. All crew members were safely evacuated. …The merchant vessel Cape Dao, registered under Antigua and Barbuda, also sank, according to data from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Wednesday – after it was first hit by projectile on September 23. One Indian crew member was killed.” (10/15/26)
“In the same way that medieval kings seized any excuse to invade neighboring countries, today’s politicians perennially seek pretexts to further invade citizens’ lives. And there is never a shortage of intellectuals who, like the courtiers long ago, assure their masters that God — or at least social science — blesses their aggression. … Washington experts constitute a Greek chorus that bestows accolades on the Powers That Be. There are now more than 400 think tanks in the Washington area, some of which offer little more than an intellectual version of ‘rent-a-mobs’ of political protestors.” (10/14/26)
“The US Supreme Court again sided with Republicans on Wednesday in the latest clash over a new Federal Communications Commission policy that gives party committees access to discounted TV and radio advertising rates long available to political candidates. … The FCC, which currently has a 2-1 Republican majority, modified its so-called ‘lowest unit charge’ rule in March in a move seen as a boost to President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans. … The FCC policy at issue requires broadcasters to charge discounted rates for airing certain political advertisements within 60 days of a general election, a window that opened this year on September 4.” (10/14/26)
“Most people have been trained to automatically ask what government allows; what the rules say. They assume they don’t have liberty; otherwise they wouldn’t wait to see what someone says they are allowed to do. They assume someone else owns them and controls their choices. This isn’t healthy and is exactly backward. Everyone should assume their liberty is sacred and will be respected by all decent people everywhere. Assume everyone is decent unless they show you they aren’t by seeking to violate your liberty in some way. Break the mold and assume liberty. Assume you have rights and the freedom to exercise them fully, as America’s founders intended. Assume no one will stand in your way while you are doing what you have a right to do. If they do, it’s how you will recognize them as criminals.” (10/14/26)
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has ordered the resumption of strikes on Russian oil refineries, as the Kremlin’s forces continue to attack energy infrastructure in Ukraine. ‘The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,’ Zelenskyy said in interview with the Financial Times published Wednesday evening. Zelenskyy stopped striking Russian energy facilities for three days after U.S. President Donald Trump declared he had brokered an energy ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow. Trump repeatedly urged Ukraine to halt its attacks and blamed the country for rising fuel prices — while also calling for Zelenskyy to be replaced as president. Ukraine was eager to reach an ‘energy truce,’ Zelenskyy told the FT, but Russia has continued its strikes on Ukrainian plants and oil facilities, saying it never agreed to such a ceasefire.” (10/15/26)
“If a treatment can improve your health, does that give the government the right to force it onto you? Should the state compel people with diabetes to take insulin, patients with hypertension to take their medications, or people with obesity to lose weight? Most Americans would recoil at such proposals. Yet when it comes to people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, many people seem willing to make an exception. A physician who administers treatment to a competent adult against the patient’s will violates one of medicine’s most fundamental ethical principles: informed consent. Why should that principle carry less weight when the doctor is a psychiatrist? … A psychiatric diagnosis does not extinguish your right to control your body.” (10/14/26)
“Eight states sued OpenAI on Wednesday, accusing it of deceiving parents about the safety of ChatGPT. The coordinated lawsuits — filed individually in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana — target the AI giant for the harms its generative AI chatbot is alleged to have caused to children in those states. … The state lawsuits follow another proposed class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, which accuses OpenAI of unlawfully taking ‘vast amounts of highly sensitive and valuable data’ from millions of children who used ChatGPT.” (10/14/26)
“The New York Times tells us that tariffs on musical instruments are making prices so high that student musicians in many junior high school and high school bands and orchestras across the country can no longer afford instruments, nor can their budget-strapped schools afford to provide them. Tariffs on musical instruments are more than twice as high as they were in President Donald Trump’s first term, and some instruments now cost thousands of dollars. As a result, Times reporter Sydney Ember explains, ‘Proponents of musical education say the tariffs are endangering school music programs and threatening to push the extracurricular activity out of reach for many families.’ … How can we as a country possibly benefit from less music-making by young Americans?” (10/14/26)
“President Trump is breaking a more than two-decade-long tradition of welcoming a key group of international election observers to monitor the midterm contest, drawing criticism for discouraging democratic transparency. The U.S. has routinely invited election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to observe and report on midterm and presidential contests since 2002. Election observations are carried out by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Trump’s decision puts the U.S. in the same basket as the isolated, autocratic regimes of Belarus and Russia.” (10/14/26)
