“In the early months following Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, Latin American leaders emerged as some of the world’s sharpest critics of the military campaign. Then-Colombian President Gustavo Petro was among the first world leaders to call Israel’s actions a ‘genocide.’ Chile and Honduras recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv, and Belize and Bolivia severed diplomatic ties with Israel. But just two years later, across the region, governments that had distanced themselves from Israel are now moving quickly to repair ties. Not surprisingly they are the same leaders who have rushed to ingratiate themselves with the Donald Trump administration in Washington.” (08/14/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Daniel Sánchez-Piñol
“It has become increasingly common, particularly among politicians on the far right, to describe episodes of large-scale unauthorized immigration as an ‘invasion.’ Few words carry more emotional weight in politics. An invasion evokes images of hostile armies, territorial conquest, and a nation’s fight for survival. It transforms a debate over immigration policy into a struggle against an existential enemy. The events in Ceuta show why that analogy collapses under scrutiny.” (08/14/26)
“In the good old days, dump trucks came in one discrete unit. Nowadays, they pull trailers with as much cubic space as themselves. Once upon a time, buses, too, were constituted in a fairly modest vehicle. Today, they are double their previous size. Half as many drivers are now required to pilot these roadway behemoths. This ’causes unemployment,’ in the view of many folks. … Such is the source of a widespread economic anxiety. Those struck by it suffer from the ‘lump of labor’ fallacy. In this view, there is only so much work to be done, and if machines take away a lump of labor, there will be just that much left for human beings to do. This is mistaken.” (08/14/26)
“A homeless man who was shot multiple times after breaking into a Portland granite and marble shop is now suing the business and its owner. … Voyles, who was homeless at the time, claims he was cold and sleep-deprived. He entered the closed business through a damaged portion of a garage bay door, seeking warmth and food. While inside, Voyles picked up a drill bag and admitted in the filing that he was a trespasser who intended to keep it. The encounter escalated when Grant emerged from a back room. The lawsuit claims Voyles apologized immediately, but Grant threw a coffee mug and heavy tiles at him as Voyles ran toward the garage door to escape. When Voyles picked up a pair of bolt cutters to shield himself and unsuccessfully tried to open the locked door, Grant allegedly left the room and returned with a gun.” (08/14/26)
“The real goal isn’t to promote accuracy, but to encourage agitated conservatives to complain about historical references that make them uncomfortable.” (08/14/26)
Yesterday, our web hosting service went down, completely and for many hours (and, I noticed, with enough multiple explanations to make it sound like more was going on than met the eye).
Naturally, that happened AFTER we’d entered a considerable amount of content for the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — content we couldn’t recover for an “email only” edition.
Improvise, adapt, overcome, etc. We switched over to just putting content in a text file for an email only edition AND hoped that the web site would come back up in time to get all that content entered for the web edition. Which didn’t happen until too late for that to be practical (I get up early in the morning to bring you RRND/FND, which means I also go to bed early after spending a little time with my family).
So, we’ve got 35 items in an “email only” edition, and 29 items in the web edition, with only two overlaps (the “top two” news stories, which get done first thing in the morning anyway).
The moral of the story: If you’re not subscribed to our email edition, you should be, even if you usually only read our content on the web:
“Nigel Farage has comfortably won a by-election that he triggered, meaning he will remain as a member of parliament after a contest that all the other major British parties boycotted, leaving his main opposition as a comedian dressed as a trash can. Farage, leader of the populist hard-right Reform UK party, was ultimately re-elected by a substantial margin, winning 22,239 votes – 1,000 more votes than he won in the 2024 general election. His main opponent, Count Binface – a self-described intergalactic space warrior – won a creditable 9,455 votes, indicating the presence of a considerable anti-Farage vote, even in one of the most right-leaning areas in Britain.” (08/14/26)
“Ukraine has proposed a deal with Russia for both sides to halt their attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea in an apparent attempt to reopen a crucial grain corridor, Reuters reports. Kyiv is said to have made the offer through a third party. Moscow has yet to respond, the news agency added. The busy waterway is a key export route for both Russia and Ukraine, used to transport grain and other vital foodstuffs worldwide. Since July Ukraine has effectively closed the route for commercial Russian shipping. Its drones have hit nearly 220 vessels in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, including oil tankers, grain cargo ships and passenger ferries. … During the same period, Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine’s southern ports, dealing a severe blow to the country’s agricultural sector.” (08/13/26)
