Source: SFGate
“Harvard University professor Alberto Ascherio’s research is literally frozen. Collected from millions of U.S. soldiers over two decades using millions of dollars from taxpayers, the epidemiology and nutrition scientist has blood samples stored in liquid nitrogen freezers within the university’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The samples are key to his award-winning research, which seeks a cure to multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases. But for months, Ascherio has been unable to work with the samples because he lost $7 million in federal research funding, a casualty of Harvard’s fight with the Trump administration. ‘It’s like we have been creating a state-of-the-art telescope to explore the universe, and now we don’t have money to launch it,’ said Ascherio. ‘We built everything and now we are ready to use it to make a new discovery that could impact millions of people in the world and then ‘Poof. You’re being cut off!”” (08/07/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/harvard-scientists-say-research-could-be-set-back-20806148.php
Source: We Are Libertarians
“Are We Playing God with Nature?” (08/07/25)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/tbns-are-we-playing-god-with-nature
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt
“Given the tumultuous events of the past several years, it is tempting to herald the emergence of a ‘new Middle East.’ But how many times have we heard that? The Six-Day War was thought by some to be a critical turning point — surely Israel’s Arab opponents would make peace now? — and it didn’t happen. Ditto the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the first Gulf War, the Oslo Accords, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the Arab Spring. And yet events like the Sept. 11 attacks, the Syrian civil war, the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the recurring destruction of Lebanon, the Houthis’ attacks on Red Sea shipping, and the recent airstrikes on Iran keep happening. We have seen extraordinary developments over the past decade—and especially since Oct. 7, 2023 — but the underlying conditions that have made the region so conflict-ridden for so long remain unchanged.” (08/07/25)
https://archive.is/3cWq5
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates
“Research for an earlier essay on this blog led to the conclusion that declining economic growth rates in high income countries are likely to cause an increasing proportion of the population of those countries to feel that their standard of living is worse than that of their parents at a comparable age, and therefore to experience lower average life satisfaction. In this essay I extend that analysis to consider the social attitudes of people in the USA, Britain and Australia who feel worse off than their parents.” (08/07/25)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2025/08/are-declining-economic-growth-rates.html
Source: CNBC
“The Bank of England voted by a fine margin to cut interest rates from 4.25% to 4% on Thursday as the central bank resumed what it describes as a ‘gradual and careful’ approach to monetary easing. The BOE was widely expected to trim rates by 25 basis points at its latest monetary policy meeting, but traders and economists were keen to see the breakdown of support for the decision among the bank’s policymakers. As it turned out on Thursday, the nine-member MPC voted by a majority of 5-4 to reduce the key interest rate, the ‘Bank Rate,’ by 25 basis points rather than keeping it on hold. The British pound rose 0.5% against the dollar after the decision, to $1.3424.” (08/07/25)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/07/bank-of-england-cuts-interest-rates-by-a-quarter-point-to-4percent.html
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Netanyahu to Take Full Control of Gaza Even If It Endangers Remaining Israeli Hostages.” (08/07/25)
https://rumble.com/v6x9n5c-netanyahu-to-take-full-control-of-gaza-even-if-it-endangers-remaining-israe.html
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“It would be nice if Wikipedia were suing to challenge the United Kingdom’s entire Online Safety Act, not just the provision that most directly targets Wikipedia. Better something than nothing, however. As Wikipedia describes it, the Act ‘creates a new duty of care for online platforms, requiring them to take action against illegal content, or legal content that could be ‘harmful’ to children where children are likely to access it. Platforms failing this duty would be liable to fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their annual turnover, whichever is higher.’ The Wikipedia Foundation objects to being classified as a category 1 service under the Act, a designation that imposes digital ID requirements on its contributors.” (08/07/25)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/08/07/uk-targets-wikipedia/
Source: New York Post
by John Lott
“Economists across the political spectrum predicted that President Trump’s trade negotiations would end in disaster. Now that his Aug. 1 deadline has passed without the sky falling — and with multiple advantageous deals completed — it’s time to seriously re-evaluate the flawed arguments the experts made against his strategy. Many, it turns out, made basic errors in economic reasoning. On the left, Nobel laureate and Columbia professor Joseph Stiglitz declared in January that Trump’s policy was ‘very bad for America and for the world,’ while University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers called it ‘impressively destructive.’ On the right, prominent free-market advocates like George Mason’s Donald Boudreaux also voiced strong opposition. Yet their arguments against tariffs revealed a fundamental misunderstanding: They decried tariffs as uniquely harmful, while ignoring that the same logic applies to all taxes.” (08/06/25)
https://nypost.com/2025/08/06/opinion/hey-experts-admit-how-you-got-trumps-tariffs-so-wrong/
Source: System Update
“The Pro-Israel Meltdown Over Mahmoud Khalil’s NYT Interview: When is Violence Inevitable?; Why is FIRE Suing Marco Rubio: With 1A Lawyer Conor Fitzpatrick.” (08/07/25)
https://rumble.com/v6xa7oq-system-update-show-499.html
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes
“Chesterfield, which is poised to be the largest city in St. Louis County, is attempting to get into the commercial real estate business. I mean that literally. The city is planning to purchase a commercial property building and operate it as a landlord. I can’t believe this has to be said, but municipalities have no business being in the commercial property business. I don’t think you have to be a libertarian extremist to believe that. The more extreme position is actually that owning and operating a commercial office building — or any business, really — is, in fact, the proper role of government.” (08/07/25)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/municipal-policy/municipalities-should-not-be-commercial-landlords-im-looking-at-you-chesterfield/
