Source: Common Dreams
by Connie Peck

“It is widely thought that the February 5 expiration of New START, the last arms control agreement capping US and Russian nuclear weapons, could usher in a dangerous and highly destabilizing new nuclear arms race. Since the Cold War peak of over 70,000 nuclear weapons in 1986, arms control treaties have reduced the number to approximately 12,200 today—still equivalent, however, to 145,000 Hiroshimas. Many of these decommissioned weapons remain in storage where they can be readily redeployed, making it possible to double Russian and US arsenals in one to two years. If a new nuclear arms race begins between the US and Russia, the US could ‘upload’ 800 bombs and cruise missiles stored at military bases back onto B-2 and B-52 bombers in a matter of weeks. ” (04/01/26)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/new-nuclear-arms-race-2676644499

Source: Semafor
by David Weigel

“It’s fair to see the [Iryna] Zarutska mural campaign as a response to the veneration of [George] Floyd, and the effort — joined by the Democratic Party, progressive infrastructure, and much of corporate America — to change the country in his honor. Political movements have always elevated martyrs, and Trump has spent a decade raising the profiles of victims of violent crime and their family members. … The backlash against the Zarutska mural campaign isn’t purely about partisanship. In Chicago, one of the only places where art honoring her has gone up around a sizable Ukrainian-American community, it has not changed hearts or minds. It’s been received as the unwelcome manipulation of a tragedy by people who don’t care much about Ukraine.” (04/01/26)

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/01/2026/the-musk-funded-mural-backlash-elevates-the-messy-politics-of-martyrdom

Source: Independent Institute
by Donald J Boudreaux

“The Declaration of Independence famously appeared on July 4th, 1776. But a less famous yet equally important text was published four months earlier — a text that eloquently explained the working of the economic institutions that created the modern world. That text is Adam Smith’s An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.” (04/01/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/01/adam-smith-1776/

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler

“On April 28 last year, a massive blackout plunged Spain and Portugal into darkness for over twelve hours. Flights were canceled, thousands of people were stranded on trains, and there were at least eight related deaths. The Spanish right seized on this freak event to attack what it called the Socialist-led government’s ‘climate fanaticism’ — but although renewable energy was generating about 70% of Spain’s power at the time, an in-depth investigation has found that it wasn’t the cause.” (04/01/26)

https://fee.org/articles/going-nuclear/

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe

“Last Saturday, the third so-called ‘No Kings’ protest took place in cities across the US. Left-leaning protestors again took to the streets to show everyone how much they oppose Trump. Going all the way back to 2017, the center-left and progressive opposition to Trump has always been, at best, highly flawed. Because it has rested on the idea that he represents a sharp and unique departure from the governmental status quo. Trump is characterized as a wannabe dictator corrupting what had been a sound democratic system that, while not perfect, was largely mobilizing the federal government to benefit the American people. That was never accurate. The American political system is not, and has never been, designed even with the intention of benefiting the American people.” (04/01/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/our-problem-isnt-kings-its-presidency