Author: nick

[ad_1] There’s a lot happening in today’s decision in Thakur v. Trump, by Ninth Circuit Judges Richard Paez, Morgan Christen, and Roopali Desai, but I thought I’d focus on the First Amendment analysis. To oversimplify, the Trump Administration canceled a wide range of academic grants “because of the recipients’ perceived expression of DEI, DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility], or environmental justice viewpoints.” The grant recipients sued, arguing that such viewpoint-based cancellations are unconstitutional. The law related to viewpoint-based conditions attached to government subsidies is complicated. On one hand, as the Court noted in Rust v. Sullivan (1991), “When Congress…

[ad_1] Before he became the Trump administration’s chief military planner, Elbridge Colby had a single-minded mission: to muster the resources of the United States in defense of Taiwan. “Taiwan would not be the end of Beijing’s ambitions. So the question is, how do we deter China from attacking Taiwan and not just in some distant future, but as early as the coming years?” he said in a 2023 debate, arguing that U.S. commitments in other parts of the world (such as Ukraine and the Middle East) were a dangerous waste of military resources. More than a year into Donald Trump’s…

[ad_1] Washington’s sanctions weapon is meeting a market too large to isolate – and a legal order Beijing now appears willing to enforce Originally published on The Cradle May 14, 2026. When US President Donald Trump visited Beijing on 14 May, flanked by top American industrialists, the optics told their own story. Washington came armed with tariffs, secondary sanctions, port fees, and threats over maritime chokepoints. But the executives at Trump’s side revealed the weakness behind the pressure campaign – the US cannot cut China out of the global economy without cutting into itself. That confrontation explains why Trump’s Beijing delegation mattered. The presence of…

[ad_1] From Eby v. Bd. of Curators, decided today by the Missouri Court of Appeals (Chief Judge John P. Torbitzky, joined by Judges Angela Turner Quigless and Thomas C. Clark II); the opinion doesn’t preclude a defamation lawsuit against the actual authors of the articles, though presumably they don’t have much money to compensate the plaintiff even if he prevails: St. Louis Public Radio (“KWMU”) is owned and operated by the University. KWMU hired Eby in 2009. He eventually became KWMU’s general manager. In September 2020, KWMU removed Eby as general manager after he was accused of racism. In the…

[ad_1] Legal challenges to mifepristone, the first of two pills used in medication abortions, have some Republican politicians questioning the drug’s safety. In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration stopped requiring doctors to dispense mifepristone in person, allowing it to be prescribed via telehealth appointments and delivered by mail. That remains the situation, even in states where abortion is banned — although that could change. Some states have filed legal challenges arguing mifepristone access undermines their abortion restrictions.  As the lawsuits move through the courts, Republican U.S. senators have exaggerated mifepristone’s health risks, sometimes saying 1 in 10 women experience…

[ad_1] If you’re planning on packing Zyn for your European summer vacation, you might want to reconsider. On Sunday, the New York Post reported that France had banned “a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches.” Those caught violating the measure could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $436,600. While other European countries have moved against nicotine pouches, France is the only Western country to criminalize their use. “It’s as if we would prohibit French baguettes or French wine in Sweden,” Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa told the Financial Times. He also called the…

[ad_1] America and China cannot dominate or exclude each other. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Trump’s Cuba strategy targets GAESA sanctions, Raul Castro’s indictment, and the LIBERTAD Act to confront the regime as a threat to American security. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] With air traffic controllers in high demand, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he was baffled to see a new federal hiring plan that would result in even fewer.  “We just saw, quietly, a Friday news dump out of the Department of Transportation at the end of last week saying that they were going to cut the target for air traffic control hiring, slash the air traffic control targets by about 2,000,” Buttigieg said May 17 on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Two days prior, the Federal Aviation Administration released its 2026-28 air traffic controller workforce plan that set…

[ad_1] This week, editors Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch are joined by The Gist’s Mike Pesca to discuss the ongoing Iran conflict, the unstable ceasefire negotiations, and whether anyone in Washington has a coherent explanation for what the United States is trying to accomplish. The panel examines President Donald Trump’s shifting rationale for the war, the growing pressure for regime change, and why so many of the same foreign policy debates from the Iraq era seem to be repeating themselves in real time. They also consider whether America’s political class has learned anything from the past two decades of interventionism. Next,…