Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russia’s Ministry of Defence says its forces have taken full control of the Luhansk region [which seceded in 2014 from Ukraine], suggesting they have wrested control of an area that had remained beyond their grasp since the beginning of their 2022 invasion. ‘Units of the ‘West’ military grouping have completed the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,’ the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, using Moscow’s preferred name for the [former] Ukrainian region. There was no immediate confirmation of the development from Ukraine.” (04/01/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/1/russia-claims-to-take-full-control-of-ukraines-luhansk-region
Source: Notablog
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
“A person of genuine self-esteem doesn’t boast about their successes at the expense of others’ losses. Truly confident people who achieve their goals don’t feel the need to diminish others for their alleged failures or the need to corral an audience to ‘listen’ to tall tales of their achievements. … But this way of thinking is anathema to Trump, who has always embraced a binary, dualistic view of the world, where there are winners and losers, where the ‘art of the deal’ takes place in the context of a zero-sum game, whether in trade or in war. In a cutthroat struggle to the top, rules need not be obeyed. The only rule is to win at all costs.” (04/01/26)
https://notablog.net/2026/03/31/winners-and-losers/
Source: mint [India]
“In a highly consequential case testing the limits of executive power, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (April 1) appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. The arguments were underscored by Trump’s rare personal appearance in the courtroom, marking the first time a sitting President has attended oral arguments at the nation’s highest court. Trump remained for just over an hour, listening as Solicitor General D. John Sauer defended the administration’s position before departing shortly after opposing counsel began presenting. Both conservative and liberal justices pressed the administration on the constitutional and logistical basis of the policy. The executive order seeks to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are either in the country unlawfully or temporarily.” (04/01/26)
https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/us-supreme-court-signals-skepticism-over-trump-s-birthright-citizenship-order-11775061417208.html
Source: Washington Post
by Sarah Harbison
“Ashley N’Dakpri grew up watching her aunt run Afro Touch, a New Orleans hair-braiding shop. She learned the craft as a child and eventually took over Afro Touch’s Gretna, Louisiana, location, building a thriving business as natural hair styling boomed. Then the state stepped in. The Louisiana Board of Cosmetology informed her that without an ‘alternative hair design’ permit — requiring 500 hours of government-mandated training — she was braiding hair illegally. Even though N’Dakpri had spent years perfecting her trade and helping her customers, she needed a government permission slip to keep working. … a bill moving through the 2026 Louisiana legislative session would actually increase the training requirement from 500 to 600 hours …. There’s a motive hiding in plain sight: 600 hours is precisely the federal threshold that unlocks Title IV student loan funds for vocational programs. More red tape, more debt, more cosmetology school revenue — and fewer braiders.” (04/01/26)
https://archive.is/lzSAl
Source: The Hill
“A federal judge is allowing a civil suit brought against President Trump for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 to proceed in court, a victory for Democratic lawmakers and Capitol Police officers who brought the litigation. The late Tuesday ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta found that Trump’s speech on the Ellipse that day was not covered by the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, determining it could not be considered a core presidential act. He also determined the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) asking him to ‘find’ more votes was clearly an effort ‘to alter the outcome of Georgia’s election.'” (04/01/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5811066-judge-allows-trump-jan6-suit/
Source: Reason
by Quade MacDonald
“If the pending Artemis II mission is successful, it will not just send Americans around the moon and back for the first time in more than half a century — it will send them further than any human being has traveled into space. If the rest of the Artemis program proceeds on schedule, astronauts will return to the lunar surface by the end of the decade. That’s been a long time coming. The government has been working to get Americans back on the moon since the Bush administration created the Constellation program in the mid-2000s. Wondering why it’s taking so long, given that the original moon mission required only seven years? The answer involves the familiar forces of government inefficiency and pork barrel congressional politics.” (04/01/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/01/nasas-artemis-program-is-a-monument-to-government-waste-it-can-only-go-up-from-here/
Source: The American Prospect
by Emma Janssen
“As the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran enters its second month, Iran has found a new way to hold leverage over the world economy: closing and opening the Strait of Hormuz at will. Iran’s ability to shut off one of the world’s major shipping routes, which transports one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas, allows it to dictate the cost of energy in the U.S. and everywhere else. Reporting suggests that Iran’s control over the strait won’t clear up whenever the war ends. … on Monday, the Iranian parliament passed a bill that would impose tolls on any ship passing through the strait, while banning U.S. and Israeli vessels from entering.” (04/01/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/04/01/iran-war-trump-strait-hormuz-fertilizer-fossil-fuels/
Source: United Press International
“The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Eli Lilly’s pill version of a GLP-1 medication for weight loss, making it the second company to offer a non-injectable version of the drug. The orforglipron medication, which will be sold under the brand name Foundayo, joins Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill as the only two oral GLP-1 medications to have FDA approval. Eli Lilly also manufactures the injectable Zepound and Mounjaro GLP-1 medications and Novo Nordisk makes Wegovy and Ozempic. Eli Lilly said Foundayo differs from the Wegovy pill in that there are no restrictions on when the pill can be taken. The Wegovy pill must be taken in the morning 30 minutes before eating or drinking.” (04/01/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/01/eli-lilly-glp-1-fda/6551775058931/
Source: Reason
“How Capitalism Lost the Working Class.” (04/01/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/01/how-capitalism-lost-the-working-class/
Source: Libertarian Institute
by William J Watkins Jr.
“Since the beginning of the war, President Donald Trump has touted dismantlement of the Iranian government as the American endgame. Even as U.S. officials negotiate with their Iranian counterparts to end the fighting and restore stability to world energy markets, Trump says he still wants to see a ‘very serious form of a regime change’ in the ultimate peace deal. This imperial hubris is unworthy of the president of a federal republic and would cause the Founding Fathers to cringe.” (04/01/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/an-empire-without-liberty
