Source: The Daily Economy
by Kimberlee Josephson
“Businesses are increasingly judged by ethical scorecards. But when virtue becomes a target, firms learn to optimize the metric — crowding out what actually matters.” (08/19/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-corporate-virtue-trap/
Source: Law & Liberty
by Lee Trepanier
“This should be viewed as the single most important goal of formal education.” (08/19/26)
Source: Politico
“France will expel two Iranian diplomats after Tehran’s security services detained and interrogated two French Embassy staffers last month, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced Tuesday evening. The row dates back to July 19, when two French Embassy employees in Tehran — one of them the cultural attaché — were questioned for several hours and ‘beaten,’ according to Barrot. Paris accused Iranian security services of carrying out a ‘premeditated and deliberate’ act of intimidation in ‘flagrant violation’ of diplomatic protections, summoning Iran’s chargé d’affaires two days later. … Tehran disputes that account. Iran’s foreign ministry says the French diplomats violated the Vienna Convention through activities it considers interference in Iranian affairs and has since declared both persona non grata, barring them from returning to Iran after they left the country.” (08/19/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-expels-2-iranian-diplomats-in-escalating-row-with-tehran/
Source: Reason
“Can America Survive Its Political Divide?” (08/19/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/08/19/can-america-survive-its-political-divide/
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
“Global inequality of income has been falling this past forty and fifty years. No, it’s not all about China either. The poor countries have been growing faster than the rich countries – inequality is falling. As Branko Milanovic has proven, this is also true if we consider inequality directly between people, not just as national units. This is even true of capital – as Milanovic again has proven, capital incomes are becoming more equally distributed. Agreed, agreed, from a very high level but still, that direction of travel is there. So, we know how to do global inequality reduction. Exactly what we’ve been doing. The Washington Consensus stops poor country governments doing stupid things, globalisation distributes the work and the incomes and, Tadah! global inequality reduces. Great, get really neoliberal on that global economy and Bob’s your parent’s sibling of choice. The usual suspects are demanding that all of this stop of course.” (08/19/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Nayler
“Quality of life in Spain is among the highest in the world, but that isn’t enough to prevent young Spaniards from seeking careers abroad. The country has always struggled with high unemployment rates, especially among 15–25-year-olds, almost a quarter of whom are currently out of work. As a result, many young Spaniards, especially those with a university education, seek opportunities elsewhere: according to a 2023 survey, more than half of Spanish youth plan or would like to move to a different country. Those who do remain are often wildly overqualified for the jobs available to them.” (08/19/26)
https://fee.org/articles/spains-poor-job-market-is-causing-an-exodus/
Source: Common Dreams
“Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine political operative who has worked on right-wing campaigns across Latin America, was arrested in Bolivia this week in connection with the attempted murder of a woman with whom he reportedly had a romantic relationship. Cerimedo was arrested Tuesday morning at Viru Viru Airport after an attack on Bolivian lawyer and activist Nadia Beller. Video footage circulating online shows two people dressed as delivery workers approaching Beller outside of a hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and shooting her at close range. The 33-year-old was taken to a hospital and survived. Cerimedo has connections to Argentina’s President Javier Milei, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz. As Drop Site News pointed out, he is business partners with President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale, and The Economist has called him ‘MAGA’s man in LatAm’ for ‘forging close ties’ to the US leader’s right-wing movement.” (08/19/26)
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“The AI Safety Vibe Shift | Robert Wright & David Krueger.” (08/18/26)
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Doug Bandow
“Washington will have to get used to transformed international politics where it’s no longer the center of the universe.” (08/19/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-europe-independence/
Source: The American Prospect
by Katie Rose Quandt
“When Jerome Wright hears from people incarcerated in New York prisons, they describe a system in crisis. ‘I can tell you, unequivocally, from people in maximum, medium, every type of security they have in there, that the system has devolved into basically a lockdown,’ said Wright, co-director of the HALT Solitary Campaign, who spent more than seven years in solitary confinement in New York prisons. ‘It’s almost like the entire system is in solitary confinement … People are losing their minds, literally. Some people are committing suicide.’ … This should not be the case in New York, where lawmakers in 2021 passed the HALT Act, designed to limit which infractions can be punished with solitary confinement, cap stints in solitary to 15 days (after which people can be moved to special, non-isolation units), and ban certain vulnerable populations from solitary altogether.” (08/19/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/08/19/proponents-of-solitary-confinement-attempt-to-stifle-reform/