Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Foreign Secretary David Lammy has criticised Israeli authorities for denying two Labour MPs entry to the country and detaining them. He described the move as ‘unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning,’ adding that the foreign office had been in touch with both MPs to offer support. Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang were refused entry because they intended to spread ‘hateful rhetoric’ against Israel, the Israeli population and immigration authority said in a statement reported by Israeli media. Lammy said: ‘I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians.’ Ms Yang, MP for Earley and Woodley, and Ms Mohamed, MP for Sheffield Central, flew to the country from Luton airport on Saturday with two aides, according to reports.” (04/06/25)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn9133z2v30o
Source: Freakonomics
“Is Government the Problem, or the Solution?” (04/04/25)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/sludge-part-2-is-government-the-problem-or-the-solution/
Source: The Daily Economy
by Walter Donway
“If we’re seeking breakthroughs and innovation in biomedicine, why are we funding the same bureaucratic institutions?” (04/04/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/nih-the-47-billion-sacred-cow-is-scared/
Source: USA Today
“A SpaceX Dragon vehicle carrying four international astronauts on a commercial spaceflight around Earth’s poles has landed off the coast of California. The water landing brings to an end a four-day mission known as Fram2 in which the private spacefarers sought to become the first humans to fly in orbit over both the North and South poles. Cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang financed and led the pioneering mission, which launched late Monday from Florida on a southern trajectory. … Circling from pole to pole, the crew observed Earth’s polar regions from about 267 miles above the ground – an altitude that allowed the Dragon to fly from the North Pole to the South Pole in just more than 46 minutes. The Dragon traveled in a polar orbit at an inclination of 90 degrees, making it perpendicular to the equator.” (04/04/25)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/04/fram2-splashdown-california-spacex-dragon/82864374007/
Source: The New Republic
“‘Horrifying’: Trump’s Weird, Confused Rant to Media as Markets Tanked.” (04/04/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/193604/horrifying-trump-weird-confused-rant-media-markets-tanked
Source: Yascha Mounk
by Yascha Mounk
“The college essay is a deeply unfair way to select students for top colleges, one that is much more biased against the poor than standardized tests. The college essay wrongly encourages students to cast themselves as victims, to exaggerate the adversity they’ve faced, and to turn genuinely upsetting experiences into the focal point of their self-understanding. The college essay, dear reader, should be banned and banished and burned to the ground.” (04/04/25)
https://yaschamounk.substack.com/p/the-college-essay-is-everything-thats
Source: SFGate
“About 45 years have passed since a U.S. state last eliminated its income tax on wages and salaries. But with recent actions in Mississippi and Kentucky, two states now are on a path to do so, if their economies keep growing. The push to zero out the income tax is perhaps the most aggressive example of a tax-cutting trend that swept across states as they rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic with surging revenues and historic surpluses. But it comes during a time of greater uncertainty for states, as they wait to see whether President Donald Trump’s cost cutting and tariffs lead to a reduction in federal funding for states and a downturn in the overall economy.” [editor’s note: Just a reminder, but we (mostly libertarians) STOPPED this from even being an issue in the Volunteer State, 23 years ago] (04/05/25)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/no-state-has-ended-personal-income-taxes-since-20261153.php
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“Are We in for More War?” (04/04/25)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2627-are-we-in-for-more-war/
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“In less than one month, the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s death may be celebrated — unless President Javier Milei’s formal disclosure of the Argentine ‘ratline’ shows what a lot of people believe: that Hitler didn’t kill himself in that bunker. Ratlines are what the human smuggling routes of Nazis out of falling Germany in 1945 were called. And yes, Argentina was the chief receiver of Nazis. This is known. Confirmed. Not controversial. But did the South American country accept Nazis higher up than Dr. Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann? Well, the FBI was searching for Hitler in South America for decades, into the 1960s.” (04/04/225)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/04/04/ratline/
Source: In These Times
by Jessica Halliday Hardie & Ajantha Subramanian
“Near the end of March, Gary Wilder, a professor of anthropology at the City University of New York, sent an email about his decision to decline attending a conference at Columbia University, explaining he was doing so because Columbia is ’actively colluding with the U.S. government’s project to destroy higher education and criminalize dissent.’ ‘A boycott is one of the few instruments available to the academic community through which to censure Columbia,’ Wilder wrote to many of those involved in the gathering. Wilder is one of more than 1,800 academics and 50 organizations who have joined a quickly expanding boycott of Columbia, which has been at the center of U.S. state and political repression surrounding activism for Palestinian liberation.” (04/04/25)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/columbia-boycott-faculty-khalil-trump-ice
