Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“At least 37 people have died and several are still missing after a tourist boat capsized in Vietnam during bad weather. The incident took place in Ha Long Bay, a popular tourist destination in the north of the country. Most of the passengers were reportedly Vietnamese families visiting from the capital Hanoi. Heavy rain has been hindering the search for survivors, rescuers say, but so far 11 people have been pulled from the water alive. The vessel, named Wonder Seas, was carrying 53 people when it capsized after encountering a sudden storm, a statement from the Vietnamese Border Guards and navy said. An eyewitness told AFP news agency that the sky darkened around 14:00 local time on Saturday (07:00 GMT). There were ‘hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorm and lightning’, he said. At least one passenger was able to escape from an air pocket in the upturned vessel.” (07/19/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ypd6vr4e7o
Source: Liberal Currents
by Holly Berkley Fletcher
“Before its more famous 20th century iteration, the temperance movement demonstrated the value of mass persuasion over force as a tool of cultural change.” (07/19/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/what-todays-reformers-can-learn-from-the-temperance-movement/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Sometimes I think it’s astonishing how aggressively Israel’s supporters work to stomp out criticism of Israel. Then I remember that these people also support mass murdering children; trying to take away my speech rights is one of their less evil goals. It shouldn’t shock me. I saw someone talking online about how crazy it is that music groups who speak out against Israel’s atrocities are starting to form alliances with each other in an effort to counteract the campaign to silence them and destroy their careers, saying it shouldn’t be necessary to form an alliance in order to oppose an ongoing genocide. And that’s true, it shouldn’t be necessary. But it also shouldn’t surprise us that people who think bombing hospitals is fine would try to cancel musicians for criticizing Israel.” (07/18/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/07/18/if-youre-still-supporting-israel-in-2025-theres-something-wrong-with-you-as-a-person/
Source: Yasha Mounk
“Dan Williams on Misinformation.” (07/19/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/dan-williams
Source: Center for a Stateless Society
by Soma.r
“A group of PKK fighters symbolically disarmed on July 11, 2025, in Jasna Cave, located in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. The site carries deep historical and political significance: in 1923, it served as a refuge and command base during British colonial attacks. That same year, Jasna Cave became a clandestine printing site for Bangî Haq (‘Call of Truth’), the first revolutionary Kurdish newspaper, founded by the journalist Ahmad Khwaja. This act wove together anti-colonial resistance, political struggle, and underground journalism. A century later, the act of disarming here is not surrender—it is a political statement, echoing through layers of time. It draws a line between the past and the present, invoking memory as strategy.” (07/19/25)
https://c4ss.org/content/60552
Source: The Pamphleteer
by Jerod Ra’del Hollyfield
“From $9 billion budget cuts under debate in Congress to the Epstein brouhaha, the first full week after July 4th was stuffed to the brim with newsworthy items. But in pockets of the internet, large and small, the only real story was James Gunn’s new Superman movie. Some folks bristled at Gunn’s red carpet sound bite that Superman was obviously an immigrant. Others rolled their eyes at yet another reboot of a franchise long troubled by its central figure’s perfection. Regardless, the online world’s loudest influencers quickly reached consensus. For them, Gunn’s take ranked somewhere between ‘not good’ and terrible. Never mind that the movie won over most critics and has a nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes audience score while grossing more than $125 million its opening weekend. Only their opinions mattered.” (07/18/25)
https://pamphleteer.co/post/superman-isnt-the-problem/
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Investigators on Friday raided the headquarters of the Unification Church in South Korea as part of a widening corruption inquiry involving former first lady Kim Keon-hee, marking another setback for the controversial religious group following the assassination of Japan’s ex-leader Shinzo Abe in 2023. Armed with court-issued warrants, a special prosecutor’s team searched the church’s main compound in Gapyeong, northeast of Seoul, and its Seoul branch office. … Investigators seized documents, computer files and other suspected evidence related to allegations that the church bribed Kim shortly after her husband, Yoon Suk-yeol, was elected president in March 2022 on a platform of ‘fairness and common sense.’ Among the key accusations is that former senior church official Yoon Young-ho gave luxury items – including Chanel handbags and a diamond necklace – to a broker who promised to deliver them to Kim between April and August 2022.” (07/19/25)
https://archive.is/txDhD
Source: Aaron Ross Powell
“Liberalism’s Radical Future (w/ Andy Craig).” (07/18/25)
https://shows.acast.com/reimagining-liberty/episodes/687a41e8b93bd5454d1ccc82
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Anti‑immigration protests have taken place in dozens of towns and cities across Poland. Most demonstrations attracted several hundred people or fewer on Saturday — but police estimated that about 3,000 took part in the largest rally in the southern city of Katowice. The protests were organised by far-right political group Konfederacja, and another nationalist organisation. Politicians from Konfederacja and the opposition Law and Justice party have been warning about a flood of illegal migration in Poland — but official figures do not support their claims. ‘Without closing Poland to illegal immigration, without starting deportation campaigns, without abandoning political correctness … security will gradually deteriorate,’ Konfederacja co-chairman Krzysztof Bosak told the crowd in the eastern city of Bialystok. A minute’s silence was held at some gatherings in memory of a 24-year-old Polish woman murdered in the central city of Torun.” (07/19/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce37r27x27po
Source: The Weekly Dish
by Andrew Sullivan
“Well: not so much a miracle as proof that liberal democracy and pragmatism work.” (07/18/25)
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-crime-reduction-miracle-f3b
