“On April 4, 2026, our partners at the Language of Liberty Institute (LLI) hosted a Liberty Chit-Chat in Butwal, Rupandehi, on a question that sits at the heart of every modern economy: where should the market end and the government begin? Held at K6 Pizza and Bar from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the three-and-a-half-hour discussion brought together twenty-nine participants from across Lumbini Province for an open, structured conversation on the role of state intervention in a free market economy.” (05/05/26)
“Actress and producer Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, her It Ends with Us director and co-star, have settled their lawsuit two weeks ahead of a scheduled federal jury trial. The settlement ends an 18-month legal battle that saw Lively accuse Baldoni of sexual harassment on the 2024 film’s set, then hiring a publicity team to tarnish her reputation online when she complained about it. Baldoni counter-sued Lively for defamation, but that lawsuit was quickly dismissed. The terms of their settlement were not disclosed.” (05/05/26)
“Two months after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, a tense standoff prevails. There is no active warfare, but no signs of a diplomatic breakthrough either. The war is a culmination of a 47-year trajectory which set the U.S. and Iran on this collision course. Mutual hostility was the norm since 1979, and even rare openings, such as the cooperation in a post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002, or a landmark nuclear pact in 2015, failed to change that path to a more functional relationship.” (05/05/26)
“Strictly speaking, there can be no such thing as a positive legal right to revolution — certainly not for citizens of the United States. Though there have been various insurrections against federal authority throughout our history, only one came close to succeeding: the Southern Rebellion of 1861–65. Even as states were seceding to join the revolutionary Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln insisted that their actions were constitutionally null and void. … But while revolution may never be strictly legal, as Lincoln acknowledged, it may be necessary in order to preserve liberty and even what we might call the ‘natural law.'” [editor’s note: The southern secession was unambiguously “legal” by both omission (the Articles of Confederation declared themselves perpetual, the Constitution didn’t) and inclusion (under the 10th Amendment the power to dissolve the “union” clearly remains with the states – TLK] (05/05/26)
“Thailand’s government on Tuesday terminated a 2001 Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia that was meant to provide a bilateral framework for resolving overlapping maritime territorial claims. Cambodia said it regretted the Thai Cabinet’s decision but would continue trying to resolve the issue. The two governments signed the agreement to peacefully pursue maritime boundary delimitation and provide a framework for jointly managing marine resources in accordance with international law. But they failed to make any progress after five rounds of talks over the past two decades.” (05/05/26)
“Abortion access has once again been called into question, jeopardizing the health of millions of American women in the process and creating chaos. This is the reality of what the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization did to our ability to access health care. On May 1, a federal appeals court in Louisiana temporarily halted the prescription of the abortifacient mifepristone via telehealth, effectively kneecapping abortion services nationwide. Then, on May 4, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated mail-order abortion services for a week while the justices considered the issue. This kind of confusion has been part of the goal all along.” (05/05/26)
