“France’s navy seized over four tons of cocaine from a ship in the south Pacific and also intercepted a boat trafficking cocaine in the Caribbean Sea, the country’s armed forces minister said on Thursday. Catherine Vautrin wrote on X that 4.24 tons of cocaine was seized in the Pacific and a boat carrying 678 kilograms of cocaine was intercepted in the Caribbean and handed over to the Barbadian authorities.” (02/05/26)
“Here we go again. President Donald Trump says he wants to make a deal with Iran and avoid war. And he’s sending negotiators to Oman for talks with Iranian diplomats on Friday. Sound familiar? Ahead of scheduled U.S.–Iranian talks in Oman last June, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, instigating a war that Trump later briefly joined with a bombing raid on Tehran’s main nuclear facilities. Not quite eight months later, the world anxiously waits to see if recent history will repeat itself, this time with America leading the charge. Israel, of course, is worried that Trump won’t attack. ‘It’s really the Israelis who want a strike,’ a U.S. official told Axios. ‘The president is just not there.’ If Trump strikes Iran rather than negotiating a deal, that will mean Israel got its way.” (02/05/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Adam Schartz
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have descended into utter lawlessness, most recently in Minnesota. The violence is shocking. So are the intrusions on digital rights and civil liberties. For example, immigration agents are routinely scanning faces of people they suspect of unlawful presence in the country – 100,000 times, according to the Wall Street Journal. The technology has already misidentified at least one person, according to 404 Media. Face recognition technology is so dangerous that government should not use it at all — least of all these out-of-control immigration agencies. To combat these abuses, EFF is proud to support the ‘ICE Out of My Face Act.'” (02/05/26)
“Since the US-Israeli takeover of TikTok, there have been endless complaints about censorship, banned content and banned content creators. Some are saying the platform isn’t even allowing viewers to type in the letters ‘ICE.’ Others have said that the word ‘Israel’ pops up in any search, regardless of the topic. And any search for the word ‘Epstein’ apparently may get your profile flagged for violating ‘community guidelines.’ It has been hemorrhaging members who are going to the new UpScrolled as an alternative. This all began when billionaires and American politicians were wringing their hands over the influence it was having regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Unsurprisingly, all of them claimed it was because of Chinese censorship, date collection and surveillance. But everyone, except the feckless, understood the real reason.” (02/05/26)
“A Moscow court sentenced Russian stand-up comedian Artemy Ostanin to five years and nine months in prison and a $4,000 fine after finding him guilty of telling jokes that incited hatred of Ukraine war veterans with life-changing injuries and insulted Christians’ faith. Ostanin was sentenced on Wednesday for on-stage routines alleged to have included gags featuring a ‘legless skateboarder’ in connection with the war in Ukraine and an imagined conversation with Jesus Christ in which Jesus relates a story that effectively states he was crucified for exposing the truth. The prosecution alleged the slurs, which were allegedly made during two shows in early 2025, were part of a systematic effort and that Ostanin had formed an “organized criminal group” for the express purpose of writing and performing the material.” (02/05/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mani Basharzad
“Few macroeconomists have been as influential over the past half century as Robert Lucas. He won the Nobel Prize in economics, and his famous Lucas critique reshaped macroeconomic thinking. In his Presidential Address to the American Economic Association, he declared that the ‘central problem of depression prevention has been solved.’ Five years later, the 2008 financial crisis struck. For a long time, many economists believed that double-digit inflation belonged to history. The Covid era proved them wrong. Recessions and high inflation remain real dangers, not relics of the past. That is precisely why Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee for the next Federal Reserve chair, is exactly what the Fed needs. He understands how the system works and, more importantly, what is fundamentally wrong with it.” (02/05/26)
“A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a fleeing detainee in 2020 must stand trial later this month, denying a defense request that sought to delay the civil rights trial because of the ‘current political climate’ following two recent fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis. Aaron Richard Russell is scheduled to go on trial beginning Feb. 17 in U.S. District Court in San Diego on charges related to the May 2020 shooting death of Nicholas Bils, who had escaped from custody, was unarmed and was running away from law enforcement outside the downtown Central Jail when Russell shot him at least four times.” (02/05/26)
