“A car bombing at a police post in northwestern Pakistan followed by an ambush on police personnel rushing to the scene has killed at least 14 officers, police said on Sunday. Images from after the attack on Saturday showed the structure had been reduced to rubble, with bricks, charred wreckage and mangled vehicles scattered around the area. … A militant alliance known as the Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack.” (05/10/26)
“Philosopher Nick Bostrom recently posted a paper, where he postulated that a small chance of AI annihilating all humans might be worth the risk, because advanced AI might relieve humanity of ‘its universal death sentence.’ That upbeat gamble is quite a leap from his previous dark musings on AI, which made him a doomer godfather. … His more recent book, Deep Utopia, reflects a shift in his focus. Bostrom, who leads Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, dwells on the ‘solved world’ that comes if we get AI right.” (05/08/26)
“After the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, Democratic lawmakers in the commonwealth notified the court they intend to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Friday’s ruling by the state supreme court delivered another major setback to the party’s nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year’s midterm elections. Democrats, led by House Speaker Don Scott and Attorney General Jay Jones, filed a motion late Friday afternoon asking the state supreme court to pause its ruling from taking effect while they appeal for an emergency hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize mid-decade redistricting.” (05/08/26)
“When thinking about travel, I have always found [Nancy] Mitford’s distinction between the tourist and the visitor useful. ‘The tourist tours, he seldom spends a week in the same place,’ she writes. ‘The visitor stops in a town and leads the life of its inhabitants.’ In Mitford’s case, ‘visiting’ meant parking in Venice for a season and living simply in a small apartment. Under these conditions, she was able to focus on her writing and produce those wonderfully catty French court histories that remain among the most entertaining books of the genre. To say that she was leading the life of the city’s inhabitants is perhaps a bit precious — but she certainly seems to have gotten more out of Venice than the tourists gawking at Saint Mark’s Basilica or crowding into the garishly painted gondolas. I try to stay on the visitor side of Mitford’s distinction whenever I go somewhere new.” (05/08/26)
“Geopolitical tensions spilled over into the Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition, which opens its most chaotic and contested edition in memory Saturday with no Golden Lions after the jury quit in protest of Israel’s and Russia’s participation and loud protests outside their pavilions. … Ahead of the opening, protesters objecting to Israel’s participation clashed with police on Friday. Earlier in the week, feminist groups from Ukraine and Russia converged on the Russian Pavilion and Palestinians remembered artists killed in Gaza.” (05/09/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Ted Newson
“At its peak, Britain was known as the workshop of the world. Sheffield produced high-quality steel, Manchester still had a strong textiles sector and the West Midlands was world-renowned for its cars. Glasgow, Sunderland and Newcastle were shipbuilding hubs, Stoke-on-Trent produced ceramics. … In the pursuit of lowering carbon emissions, Britain has abandoned its manufacturing sector. As we have artificially inflated energy prices through policy costs and made employing people harder, our industries have shifted to countries with more business-friendly environments. While rising comparative wage rates naturally encourage industry to shift overseas, the British government has further pushed industry away through deliberate choices. This has created job losses and regional decline as former manufacturing towns lose historic businesses.” (05/08/26)
“Passengers have begun to disembark the cruise ship at the center of the hantavirus outbreak, Spain’s ministry of health said, in a carefully managed repatriation operation in Tenerife involving multiple nations. Since the vessel departed Argentina last month, the deaths of three people have been linked to hantavirus — a rare disease typically caused by exposure to infected rats’ urine or feces. It remains a low risk to the general public, according to the World Health Organization. The boat’s arrival had caused tensions in the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain, with the territory’s leader Fernando Clavijo saying earlier in the week that he was opposed to the ship docking.” (05/10/26)
“Is AOC’s room clean? :: Cop blocks woman from her driveway :: ‘We know you live here’ :: AI that self destructs so it can’t do damage :: Stores letting you steal until it hits a felony amount :: Project Mockingbird on the internet with streamers :: AOC to become God queen of the aliens after UFO file drop? :: Gov wants more ID to start in the US for getting a sim card :: Tracking private jets to avoid nukes :: Giant data center in Utah :: 2026-05-09 Hosts: Bonnie, Riley O’Bill, Angelo.” (05/09/26)
