“A large outbreak of hysteria occurred in the media over the past week, regarding a small Nipah virus outbreak in eastern India. ‘Hysteria’ is the correct word in terms of proportionality. It is not, unfortunately, the right word in terms of intent. Ten years ago this episode of Nipah virus disease would barely have rated a mention internationally, and certainly not stimulated airport screening and travel warnings – there have been many larger outbreaks of Nipah virus than this one, which did not. The change over recent years is not that people have lost their minds. It relates to the adoption of the fear-panic-profit model that has entrenched itself in international public health.” (02/03/26)
“Former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, will testify in a congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a staffer said on Monday. The House’s Republican-led oversight committee recommended last week that the Clintons be held in contempt for refusing to testify about their relationship with Epstein, with several Democrats on the panel agreeing. The Clintons had offered to co-operate with the panel but had refused to appear in person, saying the investigation was a partisan exercise aimed at protecting Republican President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives had later this week planned to hold the two prominent Democrats in contempt, a finding that potentially could lead to criminal charges.” (02/03/26)
“I recently ate a pig that’s alive and well at a sanctuary in upstate New York. Her name is Dawn, and she donated a bit of fat, which a company called Mission Barns grows in bioreactors, then blends with plant-based ingredients to create pork products (like the meatballs above) that taste darn near like the real thing. … In his new book Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food — and Our Future, Bruce Friedrich, founder and president of the Good Food Institute, catalogs the extraordinary costs of conventional meat production and the vast potential for alternative culinary technologies. Grist sat down with Friedrich to talk about the progress, challenges, and potential of the fledgling industry. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.” (02/03/26)
“It’s like Lenin said, ‘When it is not immediately apparent which political or social groups, forces or alignments advocate certain proposals, measures, etc., one should always ask: ‘Who stands to gain?” So who stands to gain from ICE’s immigration crackdown? As Adam Tooze points out in his newsletter Chartbook this morning, ‘The MAGA immigration crackdown in the US is a bonanza for politically connected, small and mid-caps.’ … While there are several publicly traded and venture capital-funded firms, the biggest recipients show a striking pattern: they are all regional, dynastic family businesses and major GOP donors. In addition, they have engaged in legally questionable practices.” (02/03/26)
“Pope Leo XIV is facing his first major crisis with traditionalist Catholics, after a breakaway group attached to the traditional Latin Mass announced plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent in a threatened revival of schism. The Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X … has been a thorn in the side of the Holy See for four decades, opposed to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. In 1988, the group’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent, arguing that it was necessary for the survival of the church’s tradition. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops …. But in the decades since that original break with Rome, the group has continued to grow, with branches of priests, nuns and lay Catholics who are attached to the pre-Vatican II traditional Latin Mass.” (02/03/26)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Alejandro A Tagliavini
“[T]he US Army — specifically the Army Corps of Engineers — built and maintained the canals and walls protecting New Orleans. Unfortunately, they knew that they would fail to withstand storms of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, leaving the city devastated. Insurance and reinsurance companies could easily have erected adequate defense infrastructure if state regulations had allowed it. Swiss Re estimated global insurers’ contributions for natural disasters in 2024 at over $135 billion, but total economic losses from disasters were higher, exceeding $318 billion, leaving a significant protection gap because states interfere by discouraging — if not outright prohibiting — coverage in many cases.” (02/03/26)
“Sudan’s military says it has broken through a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group of the South Kordofan capital of Kadugli, marking its second major advance in less than a week. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of the country, visited Sudan’s public television station in the city of Omdurman on Tuesday to assert that his forces had opened a supply route to the capital. … Al-Burhan insisted that the military government of Sudan supports peace efforts but will not agree to a truce with the RSF, with which it has been fighting a vicious civil war since April 2023, while cities are under siege.” (02/03/26)
