“It seemed like a win-win: A proposal to let community colleges in Illinois award bachelor’s degrees in certain fields to rural residents and working adults who live beyond commuting distance of any four-year university. Backers, including Governor JB Pritzker, said the change would not only make things ‘easier and more affordable for students,’ but also increase the supply of workers with the skills employers need. But four-year universities lined up against the proposal. A political ally, flanked by several of their presidents, was blunt about why: It would cut into their business.” (07/23/26)
“European regulators have fined Google 890 million euros ($1 billion), alleging the company gives preferential treatment to its own services. The fine is Google’s first under the European Union’s sweeping Digital Markets Act (DMA) which aims to scrutinize Big Tech’s operating practices in Europe. Shares of Google-parent Alphabet were around 4% lower in premarket trading, but that primarily reflected investor unease over rising AI spending outlined in the company’s earnings report on Wednesday. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it found that Google gives preferential treatment to its own services, such as shopping and hotels, over those of third parties in search.” (07/23/26)
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen
“Since the end of the Cold War, Somalia has been a textbook case of the perils of foreign meddling. Once a pawn in superpower rivalry, it descended into state collapse, warlordism, and radical insurgency. Successive U.S. administrations, driven by shifting strategic obsessions—from anti-communism to counterterrorism—have repeatedly intervened, each time exacerbating the very problems they claimed to solve. The result? A fractured state, persistent extremism, and record U.S. bombings under the second Trump administration, which is on pace to shatter its own previously set record for strikes in a single year. Far from stabilizing the Horn of Africa, Washington’s actions have entrenched instability, empowered radicals, and imposed costs on both Somalis and American taxpayers.” (07/23/26)
Source: Independent Institute
by Christopher J Calton
“Socialism is the abolition of private property rights, with control of property absorbed by the state. Democracy, of course, is mob rule, with private decisions being socialized across the wider populace. Under democratic socialism, then, private property rights must be outsourced to the community, with the state acting as the enforcer of the collective will. In California, it has become common practice to involve the broader community in property rights questions, such as whether a developer should be permitted to build a two-story home on land it owns. … The consequence of this democratic socialism has been an unprecedented housing shortage in one of the country’s wealthiest states.” (07/23/26)
“Donald Trump gets away with lying most of the time. But sometimes reality is so stark and serious that he can’t escape it. That’s what happened in his first term, when he pretended that COVID would quickly disappear. Now it’s happening in the Persian Gulf. Trump’s phony deal with Iran has dissolved. Missile and drone attacks have resumed. Ships are under fire in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil traffic has slowed. Gas prices are going back up. More American troops have been injured, and some have died. Trump is trying to fake his way through this fiasco. It’s not working.” (07/23/26)
“More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a wildfire raged Thursday near the coastal town of Lège Cap-Ferret, which is popular with tourists, on the Atlantic Ocean. Local authorities said the fire has spread over more than 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres), though no injuries have been reported. … Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.” (07/23/26)
