Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has been released from prison after the country’s Constitutional Court overturned his 15-year prison sentence for a case linked to a globe-spanning corruption scandal involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Humala was serving his sentence at a special detention facility in eastern Lima that houses several of Peru’s jailed former leaders. The 64-year-old and his wife, Nadine Heredia, were found guilty last year of money laundering for receiving illegal contributions from Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, and the Venezuelan government in two presidential campaigns. … Humala, a former army officer who led the country from 2011 to 2016, was the first Peruvian ex-leader to face trial in the Odebrecht corruption scandal, which has also tainted three other former presidents.” (07/31/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/1/perus-ex-president-humala-released-after-conviction-overturned
Source: Freakonomics
“In the New Space Race, Who Makes the Rules?” (07/31/26)
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/in-the-new-space-race-who-makes-the-rules/
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Joshua Mawhorter
“It has often been observed that it is good for pilots to sit at the front of the plane, because if they make a catastrophic mistake, they will be the first to hit the mountain. While this certainly does not prevent all plane crashes, it simply illustrates a true point: when people personally, immediately, and directly bear the costs of their actions and decisions, it heavily incentivizes them to be circumspect regarding whether their beliefs are true or false.” (07/31/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/democracy-bureaucracy-idiocracy
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Is there no good idea a politician cannot spoil? Take what’s on next Tuesday’s Missouri ballot. ‘Amendment 4 was my idea, but I am voting against it,’ Ron Calzone wrote on Monday in The Missouri Times. Mr. Calzone had advanced what is called a Concurrent Majority Ratification process. It was introduced into the legislature by Representative Bill Kidd as HJR 132 in 2022. And then politicians started revising. Everyone agreed, says Calzone, that Missouri’s constitution “was too easy to amend,” considering ‘the fact that 50% + 1 of the vote can come from just the urban areas’ and thereby inflict upon less-populated rural regions a ‘Tyranny of the Majority.’ … The current Amendment 4, however, though promoted as a solution, really adds three humongous problems …” (07/31/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/31/put-it-out-of-their-missouri/
Source: SFGate
“Farmland across the Sacramento Valley sank rapidly as water was drained from underground aquifers during the historic 2020 drought, a new study found, a sign that the Central Valley’s water problems could be spreading north. Satellite observations over the Sacramento Valley detected ‘irreversible deformation’ from 2020 to 2022 due to increased groundwater pumping, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. The study found that land did not rebound following the extreme drought years. The rapid and extensive land subsidence in the region pointed to a loss of storage capacity in the aquifer system, which researchers said poses ‘a serious threat to California’s water resources and infrastructure.'” (08/02/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-farmland-study-22365713.php
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Federal Reserve: Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss.” (07/31/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1wxWjjNakbVJQ
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai
“Prohibition won’t stop gambling’s social harms. But regulations aimed at transparency could protect individual rights to informed contract, while limiting predatory platforms.” (07/31/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/a-libertarian-case-for-regulating-sports-betting/
Source: In These Times
by Danny Postel
“Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan is a national story, and not only because Michigan and Maine are likely to determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress come January. The race between public health official Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and four-term U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens is also a microcosm of the struggle for the future of the Democratic Party — the war of position between progressives and centrists that is playing out all over the country. Last week I went to Metro Detroit and spent a few days talking with a range of people about this pivotal race. I was especially curious to explore the political dynamics in Michigan’s Jewish and Black communities, two voting blocks that could prove crucial in this contest.” (07/31/26)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/abdul-el-sayed-haley-stevens-michigan-senate-primary-democratic-party
Source: CNN
“The Justice Department admitted Friday that President Donald Trump’s $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was ‘hasty and botched,’ and it is dropping the criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn that accused him of vandalizing the pool, according to a new court filing from DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro. … Three other people have been swept up in the administration’s push to blame the pool’s problems on alleged vandals — each pleading not guilty to lesser, misdemeanor charges. Federal prosecutors dropped the charges against at least one of those people as well Friday, according to DC court records.” (07/31/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/politics/doj-admits-reflecting-pool-renovation-flawed-drops-case-david-hearn
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews author and writer Ted Galen Carpenter about the Iran war, Israel’s tensions with Turkey, the Saudi Nuclear deal, North Korea and more.” (07/31/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/7-24-26-ted-galen-carpenter-on-the-remarkable-stupidity-of-the-iran-war/
