“Chinese President Xi Jinping brought up the significance of the friendship treaty between Beijing and Moscow on Wednesday in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Xi described relations with Russia as particularly ‘precious,’ calling for deeper cooperation and mutual support. He said both countries should strengthen coordination and defend shared interests, Chinese state media reported. The Russian foreign minister offered China Russia’s help in boosting energy supplies to offset disruptions caused by the Iran war, including constraints on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.” (04/15/26)
“For more than eight decades, Washington has rooted its regional strategy in the ‘myth of authoritarian stability’ — the belief that select autocratic states are the best guarantors of regional stability and US interests in the Middle East. … The United States has consistently sought to expand its authoritarian client network by acting against adversarial governments in the region with the objective of installing more compliant regimes. Since the end of World War II, Washington has pursued regime change in the Middle East on average once per decade. The governments residing within the US-led regional order also push the United States toward status quo policies to advance their own interests, echoing the same pro-authoritarian rationales used by Washington to justify continued American support. Freedom, therefore, was never the objective in Iran.” (04/15/26)
“Peruvian right-wing presidential hopeful Rafael Lopez Aliaga gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga, a fan of US President Donald Trump, is locked in a tight three-way race with a leftist candidate and a social democrat for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against conservative frontrunner Keiko Fujimori. ‘I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,’ said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. ‘If it is not declared null and void tomorrow, I will call for a nationwide protest.’ … Aliaga saw his lead over leftist ex-minister Roberto Sanchez and social democratic candidate Jorge Nieto shrink as the vote count continued.” (04/15/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Jonathan Newman
“Tax Freedom Day, calculated by the Tax Foundation, ‘represents how long Americans as a whole have to work in order to pay the nation’s tax burden.’ It appears that they stopped publishing this in 2019, but others have picked up where they left off. The idea is that the income earned by taxpayers over a certain proportion of the year goes to Uncle Sam. In 2025, that date was April 16th. But the burden of government is much larger than the amount we pay in taxes. The government spends much more than it collects in taxes, diverting valuable resources away from where they would be used in the private market economy, subject to the profit and loss test of the market. The difference is made up by new government debt.” (04/15/26)
“The European Union has unveiled an app to confirm users’ age online, setting the standard for verification technology as more countries consider laws banning young teenagers from social media. … The software was originally pitched as a way to prevent children from accessing obscene or harmful content online and comes as many EU members are debating restricting social media for minors. EU member states France and Greece have announced plans to pass measures banning younger teens from social media, pointing to studies on the sites’ addictiveness and harmful effects on minors.” (04/15/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jillian C York
“Even where laws do not explicitly authorize [Internet access] shutdowns, broadly worded provisions around national security or public order are routinely used to justify them. The result is a growing legal architecture that treats network disruptions not as extraordinary measures, but as standard tools for managing populations.” (04/15/26)
“Sometimes the news, hot off the press, turns out to be re-heated leftovers. But while some foods should not be re-cooked, the latest declassification appears worth a second feast.” (04/15/26)
