“A suicide bombing attack at a wedding in northwestern Pakistan has killed at least seven people, according to the police. The bombing tore through a building housing members of a peace committee during a wedding ceremony on Friday in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police official Muhammad Adnan said on Saturday. The committees are made up of residents and elders and supported by Islamabad as part of its efforts to counter fighters in the regions along the Afghan border.” (01/24/26)
“As President Donald Trump has shown reluctance to engage in a risky large-scale bombing campaign against Iran, hawkish voices are advocating for alternative courses of action in an apparent bid to keep Washington on a confrontational footing with Tehran. The proposals being put forward appear clearly designed to present Trump with what may look like risk-averse strategies but in fact are not. Two alternative courses of action in particular have emerged: the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and the partitioning of Iran along ethnic lines. Both these options could have dramatic negative repercussions that would far outweigh any supposed benefits.” (01/23/26)
“A Texas sheriff has been charged with fraud two months after President Donald Trump pardoned his brother, Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar – although the president later accused him of being disloyal. Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar Jr., 67, from Laredo, was accused by federal prosecutors of defrauding his office by misappropriating funds to run a for-profit disinfecting business during the Covid-19 pandemic. Last month, Cuellar’s brother and his brother’s wife, Imelda Cuellar, were pardoned by Trump in a federal bribery case. … Martin Cuellar, along with his assistant chief, Alejandro Gutierrez, 47, and a former assistant chief, Ricardo Rodriguez, 65, opened Disinfect Pro Master in April 2020 and used employees from the sheriff’s office to run the company’s day-to-day operations both on and off the clock with the county, prosecutors alleged.” (01/23/26)
“Mass deportation is often framed as a pro‑worker policy. Remove unauthorized immigrants, the argument goes, and native wages will rise as labor supply contracts. This logic is intuitive, politically potent, and economically incomplete. Mass deportation is a massive market intervention. When examined through the lens of labor markets, production complementarities, and historical evidence, mass deportation emerges not as a wage‑enhancing reform but as a broad negative shock — one that reduces output, raises prices, and ultimately leaves most American workers worse off.” (01/23/26)
It’s a “Hybrid Friday” at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — we’ve got a full 60-item email and social media edition going out, plus another 50 (maybe more by the time you read this) news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links here at our web edition. Enjoy!
Crass commercialism:
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“The toll in Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has reached at least 5,002 people killed, activists said Friday, warning many more were feared dead as the most comprehensive internet blackout in the country’s history crossed the two-week mark. The challenge in getting information out of Iran persists because of authorities cutting off access to the internet on Jan. 8, even as tensions rise between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East. U.S. President Donald Trump likened the carrier group to an ‘armada’ in comments to journalists late Thursday. Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though so far he’s avoided that despite repeated warnings to Tehran.” (01/23/22)
“Writ large, Canada’s move away from the US and toward China is just the latter part of Mike’s answer, in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises — ‘Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly’ — to the question of how he went bankrupt. Which, in turn, is just a waypoint in another transition. In Mike’s case, it was all downhill from the bankruptcy. In America’s case, who knows? It’s easy to just blame Trump for all this craziness, but it’s also a little bit lazy. Yes, Trump’s trade and economic policies seem purpose-built for the task of dismantling American prosperity at home and power (‘soft’ and ‘hard’) abroad. In reality, though, the American empire and the supposed global ‘rules-based order’ have been in continual decline pretty much since that happy accident 80 years ago, when World War 2 ended with most of the world’s industry wrecked, but America’s untouched.” (01/22/26)
