“Cubans were in despair Wednesday after their cash-strapped communist country plunged into its fifth nationwide power blackout in a year. ‘A total disconnection of the SEN electricity system has occurred, which may be associated with an unexpected shutdown’ of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant, the energy ministry said on its X account. It added that it was investigating the outage, which happened at around 9:15am (13:15GMT). Cuba is already in the throes of its worst economic crisis in three decades. In recent years it has been plagued by hours-long daily blackouts, recurring electricity system breakdowns and an acute shortage of fuel to keep producing power.” (09/11/25)
“At the risk of saying something controversial in a very sensitive moment, I think extrajudicial killings and vigilantism and terrorism are bad and that the rule of law, due process, and other enlightenment liberal democratic norms are good. I think Charlie Kirk, God rest his soul, was a real shitbag. But I’d rather live in a world with him in it than one in which folks kill each other to get retribution or achieve political ends. I also don’t think that how we got here is some great mystery.” (09/10/25)
“It seems unlikely that the handful of Russian drones that entered Polish air space did so accidentally. There have been previous incidents, but they involved individual drones very close to the Ukrainian border. Yesterday there were over a dozen, according to reports, with debris landing in several cities, including hitting one house, after NATO was scrambled to shoot them down. It is appropriate therefore that under Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, NATO members consulted over this and responded. This was however not an ‘attack.’ None of the drones hit a significant target, or seem to have been intended to do so.” (09/10/25)
“Defenders of free speech often worry about the heckler’s veto. Some protestors believe that the First Amendment gives them the right to disrupt the speech of those they do not like. But this is a misunderstanding of the logic of free expression. For if hecklers had the right to disrupt any speech, they would quickly come to be in control of what can and cannot be said. While everyone must be free to peacefully protest forms of expression they do not like, they do not have the right to stop such speech from taking place. I share those concerns over the heckler’s veto. But the danger which now faces the American Republic is deeper still. As violence descends on the land, and the price of engaging in political speech grows and grows, we are increasingly faced with something even scarier, both for the individual and for our political culture: the assassin’s veto.” (09/10/25)
“A man at the center of a police manhunt tried fleeing into a nearby home, then was gunned down by the homeowner, Texas police say. The suspect, who police have not publicly identified, is accused of shooting a woman and a police officer on the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 10, kicking off an hours-long search, Austin Police Department Chief Lisa Davis said during a news briefing. … the accused shooter tried to escape by entering a house, Davis said. However, the homeowner was ‘prepared,’ and quickly opened fire on the intruder, shooting him in an arm and a leg, she said. The man was taken into custody, Davis said.” (09/10/25)
