Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie

“The Laffer Curve is a concept in economics that illustrates a theoretical relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. The basic idea is that there is a tax rate between 0% and 100% that maximizes government revenue. The case for the Laffer Curve rests on both logical reasoning and empirical observations, though there is, not surprisingly, significant debate about its policy implications. The case for it in theoretical logic rests on two things. Zero tax yields zero revenue. At a 0% tax rate, the government collects no revenue. This is self-evident. A 100% tax also yields zero revenue. If all income is taxed away, individuals and businesses have no incentive to work, invest, or earn income legally. Between no yield at 0% tax and no yield at 100% tax, there is a curve, and some tax rate must maximize revenue, hence the Laffer Curve.” (06/05/25)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-laffer-curve-is-a-fact-not-a-theory

Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
by Feras Kilani

“On the morning of 9 May, I was part of a BBC Arabic team which left the Syrian capital, Damascus, for the southern province of Deraa. From there we planned to go to the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. We wanted to get close to the Syrian territory that has been seized by the Israeli military since December …. We were a team of seven — myself (a British citizen), two Iraqi BBC staff, and four Syrians — three freelancers and one BBC cameraman. We were filming near one of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) observation posts, close to the town of al-Rafeed, when an official from the UN told us that the Israeli side had inquired about our identity and had been informed that we were a BBC crew.” (06/05/25)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4grldkeyv5o

Source: Brownstone Institute
by Bret Swanson

“Over the last two decades, exafloods of Internet content have educated and entertained beyond imagination. Exponentially-growing communications bandwidth and data transparency empowered regular people, elevated previously unknown geniuses, and helped expose deep dysfunction among many existing ‘experts.’ A tsunami of social media also generated psychedelic confusion, not least among the experts themselves, leading to, in Martin Gurri’s words, a ‘crisis of authority.’ Now, artificial intelligence is about to amplify this infowarp a million-fold, for good and ill, producing both unprecedented knowledge and wealth and new epistemic challenges. If you thought the battles over social media ‘misinformation’ were intense, just wait for the A.I. era.” (06/05/25)

https://brownstone.org/articles/to-outrun-the-complacent-class/

Source: Common Dreams
by Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies

“After 20 months of horror in Gaza, political rhetoric in Western countries is finally starting to shift — but will words translate into action? And what exactly can other countries do when the United States still shields Israel from efforts to enforce international law, as it did at the UN Security Council on June 5th? On May 30th, Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, accused Israel of committing a war crime by using starvation as a weapon against the people of Gaza. In a searing interview with the BBC, Fletcher explained how Israel’s policy of forced starvation fits into its larger strategy of ethnic cleansing. ‘We’re seeing food set on the borders and not being allowed in, when there is a population on the other side of the border that is starving,’ Fletcher said. ‘And we’re hearing Israeli ministers say that is to put pressure on the population of Gaza.'” (06/05/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/when-will-western-support-for-israeli-genocide-finally-crack