Source: United Press International
“Family members of Israeli hostages demanding that the government make a deal to free them blocked a major freeway in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after Hamas signed onto a joint Egyptian-Qatari peace plan. Authorities broke up the women’s group demonstration on the Ayalon Highway after protestors, including some relatives of hostages who have been released or killed, blocked traffic and held up signs saying ‘Conquering Gaza = Sacrificing the hostages and soldiers’ and chanting ‘Their time is running out, a deal is on the table.’ The direct action came two days after a nationwide strike and demonstrations saw road blockages across the country in the largest protests so far demanding a cease-fire and a deal to release the 50 hostages still being held in Gaza, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive.” (08/19/25)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/08/19/protests-demanding-peace-deal/7301755603240/
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock
“With its misguided tariff wars, the second Trump administration is not only fragmenting seven decades of globalization. It is also contributing to a kind of geopolitical climate that set the stage for the rise of fascism in the 1930s. Times are different today, but like then, globalization is no longer at crossroads. It is unraveling. The White House has opted for an ominous path with a dark historical precedent.” (08/19/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/dan_steinbock/2025/08/18/dark-lessons-of-prewar-protectionism-from-tariff-wars-to-global-fragmentation/
Source: Reuters
“India and China agreed on Tuesday to resume direct flights and step up trade and investment flows as the neighbours rebuild ties damaged by a 2020 border clash. The Asian giants are cautiously strengthening ties against the backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy, staging a series of high-level bilateral visits. The latest statements came at the end of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s two-day visit to New Delhi for the 24th round of talks with Indian National Security (NSA) Advisor Ajit Doval to resolve their decades old border dispute.” (08/19/25)
https://archive.is/bcmKV
Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“The August 29 planned abolition of the de minimis customs exemption in the United States may come as a shock to those who believe that, as the physical universe is made of visible matter and dark matter, the political world is made of Democratic and Republican stuff, ‘the Left’ and ‘the Right.’ The restriction of de minimis was launched under Democratic rule and is pursued under Republican rule. … They want, as they say in collectivist circles, to ‘close the loophole.’ The abolition of the little freedom allowed by de minimis is more significant than one may think. For the government, the exception had the benefit of keeping ‘the people’ quiet by hiding some tariffs.” (08/19/25)
https://www.econlib.org/freedom-as-a-loophole/
Source: The Verge
“The United Kingdom will no longer force Apple to provide backdoor access to secure user data protected by the company’s iCloud encryption service, according to US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. … This announcement follows the UK issuing a secret order in January this year, demanding Apple provide it with backdoor access to encrypted files uploaded by users worldwide. In response, Apple pulled the ability for new users in the UK to sign up to its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) encrypted iCloud storage offering, and challenged the order, winning the right to publicly discuss the case in April. Earlier this year, US officials started examining whether the UK order had violated the bilateral CLOUD Act agreement, which bars the UK and US from issuing demands for each other’s data.” (08/19/25)
https://www.theverge.com/news/761240/uk-apple-us-encryption-back-door-demands-dropped
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux
“Among the few honorable politicians, in Mencken’s view, was Grover Cleveland, who he described as ‘a good man in a bad trade.’ A bad trade, of course, attracts a disproportionately large number of bad people. I can think of a tiny handful of successful politicians today for whom Mencken would likely have the same respect he had for Cleveland. But not many. Mencken’s suspicion of politicians wasn’t superficial; it was rooted deeply in his liberalism – a natural-rights liberalism that was closely akin to that which motivated the American founders. As Mencken said: ‘Every right that anyone has today is based on the doctrine that government is a creature of limited powers, and that the men constituting it become criminals if they venture to exceed those powers.'” (08/19/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/mencken-knew-politicians-merchants-of-delusion/
Source: CBS News
“Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro on Monday said he would deploy 4.5 million militia members in response to ‘outlandish threats’ by the United States after Washington raised the bounty for his arrest to $50 million and launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean. ‘This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory — militias that are prepared, activated and armed,’ Maduro announced on state television. Official figures say the Venezuelan militia, founded by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, contains about 5 million people — though the actual number is believed to be smaller. Venezuela’s total population is around 30 million. … Two sources briefed on the matter told the Reuters news agency that three U.S. destroyers will arrive off the coast of Venezuela soon.” (08/19/25)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-nicolas-maduro-deploying-militia-us-threats/
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“A cartel war is guaranteed to fail because the illicit drug trade is not something that can be fixed by military means. It is setting the U.S. military up for another mission that is doomed from the start. Most of the discussion of a possible cartel war has focused on Mexico, but it seems that Venezuela is more likely to be the first target. Perhaps the Trump administration thinks that it would be easier to sell launching attacks in Venezuela because the country is under severe U.S. sanctions and its government has been a target of Trump’s earlier regime change policy. Venezuela hawks in the administration, including Marco Rubio, probably see a cartel war as a way to get Trump on board with some form of military intervention in the country.” (08/19/25)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-cartel-war-is-about-to-start
Source: The New Republic
by Melissa Gira Grant
“It used to be far-right groups who flooded cities wearing masks and military gear, looking for a fight. Now it’s anonymous federal agents who are violently attacking people on the street.” (08/19/25)
https://archive.is/WRGUN
Source: Reuters
“U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday accused India of profiteering from its sharply increased purchases of Russian oil during the war in Ukraine, saying Washington viewed the situation as unacceptable. Bessent told CNBC in an interview that Russian oil now accounted for 42% of India’s total oil purchases, up from under 1% before the war, and contrasted that with longtime buyer China, whose Russian oil purchases had increased to 16% from 13%. … ‘India is just profiteering. They are reselling,’ Bessent said. ‘What I would call Indian arbitrage — buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product has just sprung up during the war — which is unacceptable,- he said.” [editor’s note: “Unacceptable” to whom? What business is it of DC’s where India buys and sells its oil? Presumably a different US official will be picked to whine about it each day (yesterday it was Peter Navarro – TLK] (08/19/25)
https://archive.is/ObQN9
