“The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Karim Khan, has been suspended after a disciplinary process triggered by sexual abuse allegations against him reached a conclusion. The ICC’s governing body announced the decision on Monday evening after its executive committee voted to refer the proceedings against Khan to a special session of the court’s member states for them to consider his future. According to a document seen by the Guardian, the committee of 21 of the court’s member states voted by qualified majority to determine that Khan had committed serious misconduct in connection to the sexual abuse claims. Khan, a prominent British lawyer, has repeatedly denied the allegations which first emerged in 2024 and threw his tenure leading the court’s prosecution department into disarray.” (06/08/26)
“New York’s health department released rules for the state’s controversial new doctor-assisted suicide law — as critics argue it’ll herald a ‘new and frightening era’ allowing government and corporations to view patients as expendable. The rules aim to set strict standards for how patients ‘self-administer’ suicide medications, including requiring two verbal requests and mandatory waiting period. … The law allows terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live to make a voluntary, informed decision to request medication to end their lives via suicide.” [editor’s note: No law should be required to “allow” people to make their own decisions about whether to continue their own lives, terminally ill or not – TLK] (06/08/26)
“I don’t think of America as a ‘white’ country. To me the best part of our system is that anyone can be an American overnight, provided he or she accepts a few minor guidelines, like agreeing to tolerate other religions and embrace free speech. As for the early academic weasel word ‘ethnocentrism,’ it’s so close in meaning to ‘chauvinism’ that it probably never needed to exist, but in the name of making work for Yale social scientists, we apparently must live with it. How chauvinistic should Americans be? I don’t know. Just enough? As much as any other citizen of any other place?” (06/08/26)
“Meta has said it is filing a federal US court contempt order against Israeli spyware firm NSO Group for violating a permanent injunction that barred it from ever targeting WhatsApp and its users. The company said on Monday that its WhatsApp messaging service disrupted new spear phishing attempts linked to NSO, an entity blacklisted by the United States government for engaging in activities that are contrary to national security or foreign policy interests. … Meta said WhatsApp took down test accounts and groups created by NSO on its platform. NSO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last year, a US court ordered NSO to stop targeting Meta’s WhatsApp, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business.” (06/08/26)
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the recent allegations surrounding Maine Democratic Senate Candidate Graham Platner, which have led to some reflecting on the #MeToo movement.” (06/08/26)
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others argue that tariffs and industrial policy can restore America’s strength. In reality, diversified supply chains and open markets provide greater resilience than economic nationalism.” (06/08/26)
“The United Nations’[s] mission in Afghanistan has expressed concern over what it says are arrests and detentions of women in western Afghanistan for allegedly not adhering to regulations governing how they should dress. The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on X late Sunday that the arrests and detentions in the city of Herat raise ‘serious human rights concerns.’ It did not provide details. Afghanistan’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice dismissed the reports of arrests as ‘rumors.’ … A human rights monitor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details to the media, said Monday that monitors had verified at least 16 arrests and detentions, including of a pregnant woman, in Herat since Friday over alleged non-compliance with dress requirements.” (06/08/26)
“We’re told that the national debt is about to murder the economy in its bed …. Given that taxation is already at historical highs as a level of everything more of that’s not going to work. The idea that there will ever be any significant cuts in spending is, aha, aha, one of those solutions not to be found in the possible space of political solutions. Sure, we’d be delighted to point to all the things government shouldn’t be doing to bring the bill down but we do agree that a Parliament that would do this is unlikely. Which leaves only the one other possible solution — change the denominator. Debt at 100/100 is a different thing from debt at 100/200. So, grow the economy.” (06/08/26)
