Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Special services in Poland have discovered and removed bugging devices in a room where cabinet ministers were due to meet. The weekly cabinet meeting normally takes place in the prime minister’s office in Warsaw. But Tuesday’s session was relocated to the southern city of Katowice because several ministers, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk, were due to attend a major economic conference there. Poland has seen increased spying activity since it became an international hub for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion. In a separate case this week a judge has sought asylum in neighbouring Belarus, and Mr Tusk said on Tuesday he had access to confidential documents. ‘The State Protection Service, in co-operation with the Internal Security Agency, detected and dismantled devices that could be used for eavesdropping,’ wrote security services spokesman Jacek Dobrzynski on X.” (05/07/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4n15l9076xo
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Israel Begins Invasion of Rafah/” (05/07/24)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-589-israel-begins-invasion-of-rafah
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Kimberlee Josephson
“Apple’s competitive advantage in relation to product innovation and iOS integration is what propelled the iPhone’s popularity within the United States, but on a global scale Apple’s smartphones can’t seem to catch up with Android. At roughly 70 per cent market share, Android dominates the international smartphone space and, in India, Android holds an impressive 95 per cent. Apple also falls short as a favored smartphone choice in China where Vivo, Huawei, and Honor are preferred. Brands battling it out for attaining market share is to be expected but battling with bureaucrats is also now becoming commonplace. And, for Apple, political officials are targeting the firm’s core competitive strategies.” (05/07/24)
https://www.aier.org/article/apples-big-business-mises-is-right-sen-warren-is-wrong/
Source: US News & World Report
“Pakistan’s military said on Tuesday that a suicide bomb attack that killed five Chinese engineers was planned in neighbouring Afghanistan, and that the bomber was also an Afghan national. The suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a dam project in northwest Pakistan in March, killing six people. … Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kabul has previously said rising violence in Pakistan is a domestic issue for Islamabad and denied allowing the use of its territory by militants.” (05/07/24)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-05-07/pakistan-says-attack-that-killed-chinese-engineers-was-planned-in-afghanistan
Source: The Daily Beast
“The Moment a Republican Says This, Tune Them Out.” (05/07/24)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-moment-a-republican-says-this-tune-them-out
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Mark Episkopos
“The Biden administration’s Ukraine policy, though it lacks a coherent strategy, is at least centered on an explicit guiding principle: Russia must not be allowed to win in Ukraine. This sentiment is widely shared by U.S. allies across the Atlantic. ‘I have a clear strategic objective,’ said French President Emmanuel Macron in a recent interview. ‘Russia cannot win in Ukraine.’ But, even in this consensus position, there is a major fly in the ointment: there has not been enough serious consideration of what a Russian victory in Ukraine would look like. The discussion has, instead, centered on alarmist predictions that obfuscate more than they reveal about Russian intentions and capabilities.” (05/07/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-ukraine-war/
Source: SFGate
“A surprisingly stormy spring has pushed one of California’s largest reservoirs to capacity, state officials announced Monday. For the second straight year, Lake Oroville is full. ‘This is great news for ensuring adequate water supply for millions of Californians and environmental needs,’ the state Department of Water Resources wrote in a statement. Lake Oroville, California’s second-largest reservoir, is currently filled with 3.5 million acre-feet of water. An acre foot is the amount of water it takes to cover 1 acre in 1 foot of liquid, normally about 326,000 gallons. A family of four uses about 400 gallons of water daily, the EPA estimates. According to the Department of Water Resources database, Lake Oroville is at 128% of its historical average, which should reassure Californians with memories of the bone-dry lakebed. Just a few years ago, houseboats had to cluster in the middle of the lake as water levels dropped, exposing steep cliffs.” (05/07/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/huge-california-reservoir-hit-total-capacity-19442880.php
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“It’s my weekly visit with Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos. We talk about the downside of touchscreens, the economics of clinging to a clunker and the joy of keeping barnyard fowl.” (05/07/24)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-qs7aa-1606ed2
Source: Law & Liberty
by Richard Smith
“Admittedly, governments have reasons for guaranteeing long terms of copyright protection. It’s easy to argue, for example, that an author should control the product of his labor during his lifetime. And if an author pens the Great American Novel in his 20s, and lives to 100, then — good for him! US copyright law, however, adds a further 70 years of copyright protection beyond the life of the author. Again, the reasons are laudable — post-life extensions of this sort originated in France, and with the aim of providing for the livelihood of an author’s widow and children. But what if an author sells his copyright to a corporation?” ()5/07/24)
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-corporate-takeover-of-copyright/
Source: Common Dreams
by Eran Zelnik
“Earlier this week Israel marked the Holocaust in an official memorial day ceremony. Sirens blared for one minute across the country, as all Israelis were urged to drop everything, pull their cars to the sides of the road, and observe a minute devoted to ruminating about the Holocaust and its lessons. Growing up in Israel, as a youth whose grandmother and great grandmother survived Auschwitz, I felt the burden of that moment and concentrated deeply while two different commitments brewed within me. On the one had my commitment to my country, Israel, the safe haven of all Jews; on the other, my promise to myself to act as ‘chasidei umut ha’olam’ …. a special honor bestowed by the state of Israel upon those few non-Jews who during the Holocaust risked their lives and their families’ lives to help save Jews without any promise of recompense.” (05/07/24)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/2-lessons-holocaust-gaza
