“A suspect in a home break-in is in the hospital, News 5 has learned. He was shot by a homeowner after entering their home with an axe, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. MCSO officials said they were called to a home in the Eureka Landing community around 2:40 a.m. on June 3 for a report of a break-in. When deputies arrived, they said they found the homeowner, who said that he shot the suspect in the torso in self-defense. Deputies said they were able to find the suspect behind the home with a gunshot wound, and he was taken to a local hospital.” (06/03/25)
“New York and Hawaii have the highest rates [of homelessness], although elsewhere I read that California has the most homeless people actually living on the streets. Many homeless New Yorkers are in shelters. Mississippi is lowest in per capita terms. So here’s my question: If poverty actually did cause homelessness, then what are the odds that the lowest rate of homelessness would occur in America’s poorest state? Even if there were no correlation, the odds would be only 1 in 50. If there actually was a positive correlation between poverty rates in a state and homelessness, then it would be even more surprising to find Mississippi having the lowest homeless rate.” (06/03/25)
“The United States will double its tariffs on imported steel and aluminum starting Wednesday, according to the White House, as it published an order signed by President Donald Trump. The move marks a latest salvo in Trump’s trade wars, bringing levies on both metals from 25 percent to 50 percent. But tariffs on metal imports from the UK will remain at the 25 percent rate, while both sides work out duties and quotas in line with the terms of their earlier trade pact. … The European Union warned over the weekend that it was prepared to retaliate against levies.” (06/04/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Peter C Earle
“In 2020, government officials around the world locked down economies in the name of public health. Small businesses were shuttered, livelihoods wrecked, and personal freedoms suspended based on the belief that central planners knew better than individuals how to respond to risk. A small handful of libertarians rightly pushed back, warning not only of the specious basis for clamping down on commercial and social activity, but also that concentrated power and coercion would do more harm than good. Yet today, some of those same people are cheering for a different kind of lockdown: protectionist trade policies. The justifications may differ, but the structure remains the same — top-down economic intervention, paternalistic rhetoric, and a deep distrust of free people making voluntary decisions in open markets.” (06/03/25)
“The key Ukrainian city of Sumy is under threat as Russian troops advance along the northeastern frontline towards it, Ukrainian officials warned, after Kyiv hit a key bridge linking Russia to occupied Crimea. Vladimir Putin’s forces have taken around 9 miles of the frontline in the region, with Sumy’s surrounding farms and villages facing ‘constant shelling.’ … It comes as Ukrainian special forces blew up part of a 12-mile-long bridge linking Russia and Crimea in an underwater explosion on Tuesday. The Crimean Bridge, or Kerch Bridge, links Russia with the occupied peninsula which Russian troops annexed in 2014.” (06/04/25)
“[T]he US regime never has been, and is not now, in any position to ‘allow’ or ‘not allow’ the Iranian regime to enrich uranium. Nor could it put itself in any such position short of winning a major war against a much bigger and more powerful opponent than it faced — and lost to — in Afghanistan.” (06/03/25)
“Beijing hit back Wednesday at US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for saying that the world will ‘never forget’ the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, describing his remarks as an ‘attack’ on China. Chinese troops and tanks forcibly cleared peaceful protesters from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, after weeks-long demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms. The exact toll is unknown but hundreds died, with some estimates exceeding 1,000 people. China’s communist rulers have since sought to erase any public mention of the crackdown. … ‘The erroneous statements by the US side maliciously distort historical facts, deliberately attack China’s political system and developmental path, and seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs,’ [Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian] said.” (06/04/25)
“The memos presented by Ukraine and Russia at their direct talks in Istanbul on Monday make it absolutely clear that, absent a strong U.S. intervention based on a detailed U.S. peace plan, there will be no peace settlement in Ukraine. It is not just that several of the positions on both sides are completely mutually incompatible; they suggest that at present neither side is in fact interested in an early peace.” (06/03/25)
