Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Angry Tirade over Gas Prices Backfires in Humiliating Self-Own.” (08/17/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/214393/trump-angry-tirade-gas-prices-backfires-humiliating-self-own
Source: The Realist Review
by Stephan Ossenkopf
“Western media coverage is full of horror stories about the alleged repressive treatment by the Chinese leadership of Muslim Uyghurs in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. It is rife with allegations, speculation, and accusations. But who really knows anything about the situation on the ground and is aware of where this slander originates, whether there are evidentiary sources for it, and what purpose it truly serves?” (08/17/26)
https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/china-and-the-uyghurs-truth-vs-tall
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Chinese researchers have engineered a probiotic that could make diabetes care as simple as drinking a cup of yogurt or swallowing a capsule. The ‘smart’ bacterium, designed to sense high blood sugar and automatically release a glucose-lowering hormone, performed on par with the blockbuster drug Ozempic in animal tests, according to a study published in Nature last week. The team at East China Normal University in Shanghai has already filed patents and is now scaling up production to meet pharmaceutical standards for the US and European markets.” (08/17/26)
Source: Heartland Institute
“The Climate Regulations Driving Up Costs Across America.” (08/17/26)
https://heartland.org/podcasts/the-climate-regulations-driving-up-costs-across-america-212/
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“In the coming weeks, a delegation of South Korean food safety officials will take an extensive tour of Brazilian meat processing plants, checking everything from chilling temperatures and drainage to the paper trail that charts the meat’s journey. The mission of officials was agreed at a presidential summit in July 2026 and is, in every sense that matters, the trade negotiation in action. Long stalled, the Korea–Mercosur trade talks have been revived as each nation adapts to the shifting sands of the international order; but the gap between political theater and technical progress is unusually wide between the two sides.” (08/17/26)
https://fee.org/articles/korea-and-brazil-at-the-negotiating-table/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ramzy Baroud
“It is now official: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has flatly rejected the core conditions of the Board of Peace framework, explicitly stating that Israel will neither adhere to a ceasefire nor withdraw its forces from Gaza. … Therefore, action is needed, and urgently so. Indeed, Israel’s official position leaves the international community with no choice but to take direct, coordinated action across five key fronts …” (08/17/26)
Source: Brookings Institution
“Building resilience in concentrated cyber ecosystems.” (08/17/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/building-resilience-in-concentrated-cyber-ecosystems
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“The pub has been dying for a generation, but the pace has quickened sharply. The British Beer and Pub Association recorded 161 closures in the first quarter of 2026 alone, up 26 per cent on the same period the year before. That is two pubs shutting every day. … The prep school has followed a similar arc, on a shorter timetable. Twenty per cent VAT landed on school fees in January 2025. Most schools also lost the charitable rates relief that had cut their bills by up to 80 per cent. By January 2026, 105 independent schools had closed or been folded into mergers, more than 25,000 pupils displaced. … The pattern in both cases is the same. Government does not set out to destroy an institution. It raises the cost of employing people, taxes an activity that used to be exempt, and withdraws a relief that had cushioned the blow.” (08/17/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-pub-and-the-prep-school-two-deaths-one-cause
Source: UnHerd
by Reuel Marc Gerecht
“It’s increasingly clear that the Gulfies, despite Saudi Arabia’s new defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey, and for all the chatter about a revitalized Sunni Gulf Arab alliance, are prepared to pay Iran to stop the war. To Trump’s great dismay, Riyadh even prevented the use of its bases and air space when Trump last seriously tried to open the Strait in May. This highlighted what had been clear about Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman since 2019, when Trump failed to respond to an Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities: he no longer views the President as a reliable guarantor of his kingdom’s security. MBS, then, has become like the cautious Saudis of yesteryear.” (08/17/26)
Source: US News & World Report
“Somalia’s federal troops and armed opposition groups clashed in heavy fighting in Baidoa city centre on Monday, a local resident and an army officer told Reuters. The administrative capital of South West state, Baidoa is home to international peacekeepers and humanitarian agencies. It is one of Somalia’s largest cities with a population of over a million people. Fresh fighting in the city could compound a dire humanitarian crisis in the area. Baidoa hosts hundreds of thousands of displaced people and one in four children at displacement sites there are severely malnourished, according to a July survey by Medecins Sans Frontieres.” (08/17/26)