“The European Commission is telling capitals across the bloc to pause any national laws that restrict social media access to minors, as Brussels seeks an EU-wide set of rules. But Austria, the first country told to halt its legislation Thursday, lashed out at the order. ‘It is unacceptable for Brussels to block member states from enacting national laws without presenting a completed European solution of its own,’ Austrian State Secretary Alexander Pröll told POLITICO. The Commission and national capitals have been seeking age restrictions for social media over the past year, citing risks to young people’s mental health. But even after the EU proposed a unified law, different countries have continued pursuing different approaches and age limits.” (10/29/26)
Source: Niskanen Center
by Caitlin Rowley Gallamore & Marko Gajic
“More than 92 millions Americans live in a federally designated primary care shortage area. That’s about 1 in 4 patients whose demand for primary care exceeds the supply of physicians that can provide it. And this shortage will only get worse without significant changes to how primary care providers (PCPs) are paid. Thankfully, Congress now has a chance to address the poor payment incentives at the root of the primary care shortage.” (10/29/26)
“The anonymous chronicler of the Islamic State’s occupation talks to Pamela Paresky about growing up under Saddam, the 1941 Farhud, and why he believes antisemitism unites every jihadist movement.” (10/29/26)
“It’s weeks like this where I can’t help but think of the overquoted H. L. Mencken line that ‘democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.’ In America, we are nearly two years into getting ‘good and hard’ what voters chose in 2024 and are quite sick of it. Israel’s version of this predicament is almost comical. You’ll find no stronger defender than me of party-list proproportional representation—the system wherein the percent of seats in the legislature that a party gets is, with some technical caveats, one-to-one with the percent of votes they receive in the public election—but in Israel that system does frequently result in a failure to form a governing majority.” (10/29/26)
“Days before the United States’ pivotal midterm elections, a Texas group affiliated with the Republican Party has asked a federal judge to stop certification of the state’s upcoming election results. In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the Potter County Republican Party and its chairman, Daniel Rogers, claim potential election interference by artificial intelligence (AI) or ‘malicious actors’ that could compromise the results of next Tuesday’s elections in Texas. The plaintiffs, who are asking for a hand count of every ballot from every precinct in the state before election certification happens, allege voting machines have components inside made by China that would allow them to be manipulated.” (10/29/26)
“Someday the Lord will call Donald Trump home. At that happy hour, as Trump is welcomed to eternal life, there will be a great deal of uncertainty in American politics. What will happen next? My thesis is that there will be no return to normal because Trump has fundamentally changed the character and desires of a large group of American voters. This is the sort of idea that’s hard to quantify because you can’t come at it head-on. You have to look for oblique angles. The Public Religion Research Institute just gave us some interesting data points. I want to talk about them, and the Gospel, and the future of American politics. And empathy.” (10/29/26)
