“The UK’s landmark Tobacco and Vapes Act, which became law in April this year (and has since been buried by a typically, and very modern, frenetic news cycle), was hailed as a triumph for public health. By permanently phasing out the legal sale of cigarettes to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, it promises to create the world’s first ‘smoke-free generation’. It’s difficult (though not impossible) to object to this from a medical perspective. … But it’s important to look beyond the medical perspective to what this legislation represents. It is, perhaps, the clearest expression yet of the creeping sanitisation of Britain that has been underway over the past two to three decades.” (07/01/26)
“Critics of the growing plant-based meat business say that unless a burger began with a heartbeat, it has no right to be called ‘meat.’ … More than a century ago, another incumbent industry tried to defend its turf by insisting that a new technology could imitate nature but never deserve nature’s name. The product was ice. America’s lucrative natural ice industry was being disrupted by a cheaper, cleaner, more reliable competitor: manufactured ice, or as its detractors insisted it be called, artificial ice. The incumbent industry fought back with a message that sounds remarkably familiar today: the new thing was an imitation, an artificial product masquerading as nature’s own.” (06/30/26)
“A new government report has shown that United States President Donald Trump made millions from cryptocurrency and settlements with media companies last year, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest. On Tuesday, the US Office of Government Ethics released annual financial disclosure forms for both Trump and his vice president, JD Vance. One 927-page document itemises all of Trump’s reported assets and income for 2025. They include more than $1.4bn from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures. Trump received more than $500m from World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture he and his sons co-founded. The president also reported another $635m from the sale of his $TRUMP meme coins.” (06/30/26)
“This should have been an easy case for the Supreme Court. When the Constitution was penned in 1787, the founders followed English law and determined that everyone born in the country was deemed a citizen. This was followed until the Supreme Court’s tragic 1857 decision in Dred Scott vs. Sandford, which held that enslaved individuals were property of their owners and that they were not U.S. citizens, even if they had been born in the country. The first sentence of the first section of the 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, was meant to expressly and unquestionably overrule this decision.” (06/30/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Christopher J Calton
“With the median sale price of a single-family home exceeding $400,000 since the pandemic, federal politicians have been champing at the bit to show voters they are working to lower housing costs. The recently passed bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is Congress’s attempt to expand the housing supply. It awaits the president’s signature. The problem is that there is little the federal government can do to solve a crisis that is primarily the byproduct of local regulations. The local nature of the housing shortage is apparent when comparing housing costs in San Francisco, where the median single-family home price has reached a staggering $2 million, and Houston, where the median home sells for only $371,000.” (06/30/26)
“The anti-school choice position is usually framed as a defense of public education. But at its core, what it really does is defend a particular way of assigning students to schools: where you live determines where your children go to school. The strongest opponents of school choice oppose vouchers, charter schools, and interdistrict open enrollment. In effect, they argue it is best if families have only one option: the public school assigned to them by their residential address. The problem with this argument is that it ignores a simple fact: many families already exercise school choice by choosing where to live.” (06/30/26)
