“The sisterhood reigns on. Actresses America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel released a joint statement on Sunday, standing ‘in solidarity’ with their ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ co-star, Blake Lively, who is currently embattled in a lawsuit with actor Justin Baldoni, her costar and the director of her 2024 film, ‘It Ends with Us.’ ‘As Blake’s friends and sisters for over twenty years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,’ the women wrote. … Lively is suing Baldoni and his production company, WayFarer Studios (which produced ‘It Ends with Us’), as well as several individuals for a litany of things, including sexual harassment, negligence, interference with prospective economic advantage, intentional affliction of emotional distress, and more.” (12/23/24)
“Social media users in Vietnam on platforms including Facebook and TikTok will need to verify their identities as part of strict new internet regulations that critics say further undermine freedom of expression in the communist country. The law, which comes into force on Christmas Day, will compel tech giants operating in Vietnam to store user data, provide it to authorities on request, and remove content the government regards as ‘illegal’ within 24 hours. Decree 147, as it is known, builds on a 2018 cybersecurity law that was sharply criticised by the United States, European Union and internet freedom advocates who said it mimics China’s repressive censorship of the internet.” (12/23/24)
“A California Flat Earther admitted to a partial defeat after flying all the way to Antarctica to see a pillar of Flat Earth belief destroyed within the space of 24 hours. The trip was organized by Colorado pastor Will Duffy, who hoped to convince several prominent Flat Earth believers that the world is a sphere …. The trip had to take place at this time of year when the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing its summer. In Antarctica, that means approximately 24 hours of sunlight per day for a few weeks around the summer solstice. Flat Earthers stress that the 24-hour sun does not exist, as in a model where the Earth is flat, the sun must rise and set each day. ‘Sometimes you are wrong in life,’ [Jeran] Campanella said on a video streamed from the continent. ‘And I thought there was no 24-hour sun. In fact, I was pretty sure of it.'” (12/22/24)
“NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will make history during a flight around the Sun on Christmas Eve. ‘No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory,’ said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, in a statement. … Parker became in 2018 the first spacecraft to enter the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the star’s atmosphere that can be seen during a total solar eclipse.” (12/23/24)
Twenty-two years ago today, the first edition of Rational Review News Digest went up on the web and out to a handful of email subscribers.
Steve Trinward, Mary Lou Seymour, Brad Spangler, the late R. Lee Wrights, and I resolved to fill a gap left by the sudden shutdown (with zero notice) of the Henry Hazlitt Foundation, and its daily news and commentary roundup, Freedom News Daily, four days earlier.
Freedom News Daily (which dated back to the mid-1990s and had purchased/incorporated Libernet, founded in 1991) was later revived by Liberty International (then known as the International Society for Individual Liberty) … who later asked us to publish it as an alternate version of RRND, which we’ve done since 2004.
Which means we’re really closer to 35 years old than 22 years old — and that we’re the oldest / longest-running daily news and commentary roundup for libertarians on the Internet.
We don’t FEEL old, though. We’re happy to still be bringing you your daily dose of news, opinion, and (for the last decade or more) audio/video. We’re glad you’re still happy to have us, and wish all of you a happy, healthy, and prosperous holiday season!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
PS: We’ll be taking (western) Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off, and will probably run shorter than usual editions in between. The news cycle tends to slow a bit during that time, and many opinion outlets and podcasts take off entirely. But we’ll bring you what we have!
“Israel pounded Gaza overnight with deadly attacks targeting displaced people in two camps and a school, as it ordered the forced evacuation of one of the last hospitals barely operating in the enclave’s besieged north. The military launched a wave of attacks on the so-called ‘safe zone’ of al-Mawasi in the south, setting refugee tents ablaze in a drone attack that killed seven people, with further strikes on a civilian car and a vehicle carrying security personnel killing four others. In separate attacks, the military targeted a school housing displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one person. It also killed four people in an area north of the camp, according to Al Jazeera Arabic and Palestinian news agency Wafa.” (12/23/24)
“President Biden signed a three-month stopgap funding measure into law on Saturday after Congress acted at the last minute to avert a government funding lapse. Both chambers of Congress passed the measure in a flurry of activity late Friday and into Saturday morning, capping a chaotic week on Capitol Hill that demonstrated President-elect Trump’s influence over lawmakers.” (12/21/24)
“Russian forces captured two villages … one in Kharkiv region in the northeast [of Ukraine] and one in [the formerly Ukrainian] eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday. Donetsk region is where Moscow is concentrating most of its efforts to seize two cities. Russian forces, making steady progress across Donetsk region, are moving on the towns of Pokrovsk, a logistics centre and site of an important coking colliery, and appear to be closing in on Kurakhove, farther south.” (12/23/24)
“Asma al-Assad, the wife of deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, has filed for divorce in a Russian court and is seeking special permission to leave Moscow. Reports indicate that Asma is dissatisfied with her life in exile and is eager to return to London in the United Kingdom, where she holds dual citizenship. Bashar-al-Assad’s wife, Asma’s application for permission to leave is currently under evaluation by Russian authorities. Born in London to Syrian parents, Asma moved to Syria in 2000 at the age of 25 and married Bashar al-Assad shortly thereafter.” (12/23/24)
“The five-day strike against Starbucks reached nine states on Sunday, according to its union. The Starbucks Workers United said union workers in Missouri, New Jersey and New York began their strike Sunday after locations in Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania joined the strike Saturday. Workers United represents more than 10,000 workers at over 525 stores. A Starbucks Workers United spokesperson told CNN 30 stores nationwide were closed completely but it’s too early to know the total numbers for Sunday. The union has said the strike could reach ‘hundreds of stores’ by Tuesday, a small portion of Starbucks’ more than 10,000 company-operated stores with more than 200,000 employees.” (12/22/24)
