Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“Civil forfeiture laws allow officers of the law to commit theft. Sometimes they have to return the money they stole. But they don’t get punished. Under civil forfeiture, authorities can grab cash or other possessions without proving criminal wrongdoing and without making an arrest. Since 2000, though, a federal law has made the federal government liable for reasonable attorney fees when a victim ‘substantially prevails’ in court. This law enabled Brian Moore, a rap artist, to eventually obtain compensation for thousands in legal costs after he sued to recover the $8,500 taken from him by federal drug agents. … It was like Mount Everest. The officers took Moore’s stuff because it was there.” (09/04/25)

Source: Foreign Policy
by Agathe Demarais

“No one knows what Russian President Vladimir Putin was hoping to achieve when he embarked on a nine-hour flight from Moscow to Alaska to meet U.S. President Donald Trump last month. But it’s a safe bet that he was looking to avoid the additional sanctions on the Russian economy that Trump had vaguely threatened a number of times — and perhaps get relief from existing sanctions or even some lucrative U.S. investment deals. Putin has every reason to seek a lifeline for the Russian economy. In recent weeks, a flurry of signs has shown Russia’s war-drained, sanctions-constrained economy to be at an inflection point. For the first time since the start of the war, nonmilitary economic activity has been contracting, bankers are making plans to weather a financial crisis, and energy firms are worrying about losing their largest customer for seaborne oil exports.” (09/04/25)

https://archive.is/loCNH

Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm

“The data are becoming impossible to ignore: American manufacturers desperately need relief from the very same tariffs that the Trump administration incoherently believes are helping American manufacturers. That conclusion is evident from both results of a new survey of manufacturing companies’ CEOs and new economic data showing that manufacturing activity has declined for six consecutive months — the sort of slide over two economic quarters that typically meets the definition of a sector-wide recession. In short, both words and actions point to something being very wrong with American manufacturing since February, which just so happens to be when Trump announced the first of what have become many rounds of new tariffs on imported goods and raw materials.” (09/04/25)

https://reason.com/2025/09/04/american-manufacturing-needs-relief-from-trumps-tariffs/

Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff

“Until last year, a country at the heart of the Middle East was known for enduring one of world’s largest population displacements. About half of Syria’s 23 million were forced to flee their homes during a 14-year civil war. Since the ouster of a dictator nine months ago, however, more than 2 million citizens have returned. Most go back to pick up old lives and recreate a democratic country. ‘When we were expelled, it felt as if our souls had been torn from our bodies,’ Mamdouh al-Sattouf, a former school principal, told Al Jazeera. ‘Now that we have returned, it feels as if we have regained our souls.’ The rising pace in the number of Syrian returnees is due in part to a new government’s efforts to hold elections this month, revive the economy with foreign help, and restore Syria’s former social harmony between diverse ethnic and religious groups.” (09/03/25)

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2025/0903/What-home-means-to-Syria-s-returnees